I
p

 
 
PROSPECTUS.
  Doctor Fontaine, well known in the Eastern Slates, and more especially in Con-
necticut, as a medical writer and a skilful physician, has, at great expense, prepared
an original Medical work, which is now in press —the fruit of many hours of mid-
night labor and meditation. He now wishes to extend its publication on the strength
of a secured subscription, and the Titlepage, Plan of the  Work, Index, &c. will
chow the object of the same.

  This  Domestic Manual of Health and Golden Bible of Nature  contains with
'  The Practical  Key,' Sec. about six hundred pages, neatly printed, on good paper
and  type, and  substantially bound.  He has aiready  issued  a  few  copies, and
this volume will serve as asample for examination of the contents of the work, and
lor inspection of the material and workmanship.

  In this State, the price of the book  is  limited  to Three Dollars, payable on de-
livery, while in other Slates it will cost a little more, according to distance, and  to
defray the expenses of transportation.  The Doctor's aim being to realize only the
expenses of us publication, and thus to gratify his desire of doing good; to gain a
substantial merit, if any should be  derived  thereon ; and to add to his professional
attainments, experience, and labor, a token of public approbation.  Said w<>rk,lheii,
will  never be soid, but by a secured subscription, or by order.  Hence only copies
enough  to supply the demand will be issued.

  The inhabitants of New York,  Massachusetts, and Connecticut have honorably,
and with the kindest feelings, cooperated to promote the welfare of the Doctor, from
his very first arrival in New Haven, (1832,) and, to this very hour, he continues  to
cherish  their  uninterrupted esteem,  friendship,  and  patronage, which extends
throughout the  neighboring  States.  This encourages him to  present with confi-
dence to them and their friends, this Prospectus, and to solicit  their subscriptions —
a favor which will contribute to  his laudable ambition, while he hopes the work
itself will compensate their liberality.  With this view he presents to them his new
and  original  production on the Laws of Nature and Life, and on  Physiology and
Medicine.

  He firmly believes his numerous friends will assist in the  publication and dis-
semination of this useful Family  Physician, (which  will prove also ' The surest
Guide of Practice for the Profession,'') and with pleasure attach their signatures  to
insure themselves as many copies of this work as they and their friends may need.
On the confident expectation of their liberal support and recommendation, the sub-
scription book will be presented to them.

  Any philanthropic friend or bookseller, who feels anxious to extend the circulation
of this '  Book of Prudential Revelations,' and thus to wake up the sound sleepers
from their lethargy, emancipating them from ignorance, shame, crime, and disease,
and bestowing upon them knowledge, modesty, virtue, and health,— and who wishes
to extend the subscription and sale of this ' Golden Bible of Nature ' far and wide,
and those, who, with a similar object, intend to purchase a number of copies, are
hereby notified  that they may do so, and Dr. Fontaine will cheerfully make such
friend or bookseller a deduction from the established  price, equal to the per centage
generally allowed to agents or booksellers, by the most reputable publishers.   Ap-
plications will be made, and orders forwarded  to him, (post paid,) at Springfield,
Massachusetts.

  0» Payment for the work will not be required until it is delivered, and no copy
will ever be sold, but by an insured subscription or order.

  Nota Bene.  Each subscriber, on the delivery of this work, will receive, gratis,
an additional production of the Doctor, '  The Practical Key to the Confidential Doctor
at Home,' a highly interesting Guide for the sick and the afflicted. 
 
THE
   BOOK OF PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS:
                       OR TEE
GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE AND REASON,
                      AND THE
      CONFIDENTIAL DOCTOR ^T  HOME;
EXPOUNDING TO THE FAMILY CIRCLE THE LAWS OF HUMAN NATURE
 AND HEALTH, AND THE DOCTRINE, ORIGIN, AND PROGRESSION OF
   DISEASES, AND THEIR EFFECTUAL PHILANTHROPIC REMEDIES.
TBR PROPHETIC WARNINGS TO THE TRANSGBESSOBS ABE HEBE RECORDED, AS THET
    RESOUND FROM THE GULF OF OBLIVION AND CRIMES; SUFFERINGS AND
       SICKNESS ; DESPAIR AND DEATH ; ILLUSTRATED BT THE AWFUL
           DISCLOSURES OF THE MYSTERIES OF REAL LIFE.
THREE PARTS  IN ONE VOLUME.
■ Arcana revelata faetent.'
THE FOLLOWING DEDICATION — MARK-WELL TO PHYSICIANS — PLAN OF THIS WORK -
     AUTHOR'S REMARKS —SECOND TITLE-PAGE — INDEX — PREFACE —
        AND INTRODUCTION — ARE OF THE UTMOST IMPORTANCE.
      BY A.  DE  FONTAINE, M. D.


                BOSTON:
       PUBLISHED  BY  THE AUTHOR,
And sold on subscription by bis  agents, and by the booksellers generally
             throughout the United States.
                   1845. 
    Entered according to Act  of  Congress,  in  the  Year  1845, by
                     A. DE  FONTAINE,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
/ 
DEDICATION.
  This  Domestic Manual of Health, and  Golden Bible
of Nature and  Reason, is respectfully  dedicated to the
ladies and gentlemen of tender age, the sick, the afflicted,
and the desponding.  By its salutary influences may the
young branches of our  Fellow-Beings  bring forth the
primitive fruits  and beauties of an unsullied life; full of
truth and knowledge, vigor  and health, love and happi-
ness.  May the silent  enquirer  of these  well-digested
Prudential  Revelations  and Doctrines, and of the within
heartfelt disclosures,  profit  by them, and hold  fast that
which he finds to be good.
              TO   PHYSICIANS.

  This Philanthropic  Medical  Work, should be, to  the
professional  man, the  Forget-me-not ;  it will be, to  the
inexperienced  practitioner, or the' unskilful and less
learned, a Text-Book, and a Key to Medical Science,
through which,  at a glance, he  will be enabled to resolve
with accuracy the problems and  mysteries of many dis-
eases ;  determine with a correct judgment the disorganiz-
ed laws of life and nature; and apply the surest remedies
and antidotes to the restoration,  comfort,  and health, of
the sick and afflicted. 
fiolU
AUTHOR'S  REMARKS.
  In offering to the public these deeply interesting truths,
and these wholesome expositions of the Laws of Nature,
the author  does so in the full conviction that their  phy-
sical and moral  tendency will be found  not  only un-
exceptionable, but judicious and  healthy.   True, many
fearful  disclosures,  and  tales of horror,  passion,  and
guilt are intermixed; but it is hoped, that such is the
manner in which they  are  told; the  benefits  to  be de-
rived therefrom; the fidelity inculcated to God, to Nature,
and to  Life, in all the incidents ; and  their  perfect free-
dom from  every  thing which is vulgar, and which might
offend  the  most  virtuous taste; — that none,  who  read
throughout this indeed curious work,  will  be disposed
to condemn it, or to  exclude  it from  the  most  refined
society, nor withhold  it  from any one, but  cheerfully
recommend it to  all, and aid in the dissemination of the
salutary instructions therein  contained.  These explana-
tions of the natural laws ought to be  the ' Vade Mecum'
of every philanthropist.   Well would it be for our youth,
of both sexes, if these lessons should sink deep into their
hearts, for their aim is to show that
          The only amaranthine flower on earth
          Tr Vrp-rinr.  The onlv loRtinc treasure, Trttttt, 
A TRIBUTE OF GRATITUDE TO  DOCTOR FONTAINE.

     [SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN WRITTEN BY DOCTOR PERCIVAL.]

[The following Ode, written  to express the universal esteem in which
  Doctor  Fontaine is  held throughout the Union, is  taken from the
  Knickerbocker, and was from  that splendid periodical transferred to
  the Mirror, the  Ladies'  Magazine, besides other popular  periodicals
  throughout the country.  Originally it appeared in the Herald, published
  at New Haven, where the Doctor has resided with his family, since 1832.]

          Beware of Doctors—stealthily who tread,
          Like gloomy spectres, round the sick man's bed;
          With dangerous drugs, deceptive, quiet keep
          And cure their patients with eternal sleep;
          The impostor, too, not less the slave of gold,—
          As fully inexperienced, but as bold,—
          Who boasts his medicines, his drops, his  pills,
          And battens on the sufferer that he kills.
          Though fashion laud, and purchased printers praise,
          And penny poets frame eulogic lays,—
          Though bribed commenders lend a spurious fame,
          With cures fictitious as their worthless name;
          Still let the invalid, with prudent care,
          Know what bis wants, and what the nostrums are, —
          The inventor's skill, success, and science see,
          And what the effect upon himself may be.
          Behold the triumphs of the art divine!
          Nor longer let the hapless sick repine.
          Light shall again the faded eye relume,
          And rosy health the pallid cheek resume:
          The deaf shall hear, the trembling limb be strong,
          And groans of anguish mellow into song!
          The infant, moaning on its mother's breast,
          Shall fondly play, or smiling sink to rest:
          The drooping girl new vigor shall sustain—
          Bloom on the lip, and circle in the vein:
          The boy, that friendship scarcely hoped to save,
          Shall measure back bis footsteps from the grave:
          The sire, the matron, spared to those who love,
          Shall lift the grateful heart and eyes above; 
Vlii                 TRIBUTE OF  GRATITUDE.

         And thousands, rescued from disease and pain,
         Invoke the willing heaven  to bless Fontaine!
         Friend of mankind!  unsullied wreaths are thine,—
         Bright as a star thy lasting honors shine.
         In vain detraction shall thy name assail,
         Or poisoned arrows cumber every gale;
         Tried and approved, thy just renown shall spread,
         Till doctors starve and quackery is dead.
         And, as a pyramid its strength uprears,
         Bronzed by the storm, solidified by years,—
         Through  rolling ages destined to endure,
         And famous now, — of future fame secure,—
         Shall thy philanthropy arise sublime,
         And hold an equal race with coming time.
         Away, ye nostrum-mongers, knaves, or fools!
         What's all the boasted science of your schools
         Ye, who perceive but one disease alone,
         Cure with one recipe, (of course your own;)
         Appear most learned, when least understood,
         And rave  about impurity of blood! —
         Mistake the effect where ye should view the cause,
         Kebel at nature, and subvert her laws.
         If but one malady annoyed mankind,
         And heaven a general remedy designed,
         The hallowed draught, or universal pill,
         Must be administered  with studious skill:
         With constitutions or robust or frail,
         Too much may weaken, or  too little fail;
         And, were the senseless dogma safe or true,
         Would Providence entrust the boon to you 1
         *     *     *    *     #     # •    *
         Thine be,  Fontaine, the all-important  trust,
         To tread these bold impostors in the dust!
        Born in that glorious mart* where sages pour
         Their garnered wealth to brighten every shore,—
         Sprung from Italian sires, [Italia claims
        A constellation of refulgent  names:]
        Not least of these, thy  noble unclet shone,
        Beloved where'er the healing art is known.
* Paris.
t Felix Fontana. 
                 TRIBUTE OF GRATITUDE.                   IX

       Trained by his guardian hand, thy youth became '
       Tinged with his lore, and emulous of fame.
       In Gallic and Germanic schools to toil,
       Thy strength consuming with the midnight oil—-
       'T was thine to choose; and academic bays
       Announced thy genius, and confirmed thy praise.
       For twelve long years thy skilful practice grew,
       And both the noble and the peasant knew.
       But wealth, or science, or luxurious ease,
       When sacred freedom called, had ceased to please;
       And vainly struggling 'gainst a despot host,
       The  patriot fled * when liberty was lost 1
             *******
       To nations, oft indulgent heaven ordains,
       That what one loses proves another's gains.
       Escaping both the dungeon and the wave,
       Columbia welcome to the wanderer gave;
       And good men, smiling, deemed the tyrant mad,
       When yielding freedom all the worth he had.
       And thou, great necromancer of the mind!
       Admired and mourned alike  by all mankind, ■—
       Immortal Spurzheim 1 though untimely doom
       Consigned thy honors to a foreign tomb,
       Shall no sepulchral pomp be wanting here,
       The lofty eulogy or flowing tear ?
       But in our bosoms thy mausoleum rise,
       Till wisdom languishes and feeling dies.
       Pilgrim of soul! upon this western shore,
       The  wanderer greeting,  (not unknown  before,)
       Thou led'st him forth, thy ancient friend made known,
       And twined the name of Fontaine with thine own.
       Beloved physician, to thy labors, then,
       By heaven protected, and approved by men,
       A world invokes thy  counsels and thy art,
       Through rural villages  or crowded mart,
       Where freezing gales insidious ruin bear,
       Or dark savannas taint the burning air,—
       Through western climes where ague shivering broods,
       O'er wide lagoons and never-ending woods,

• Doctor Fontaine was compelled to leave his country for his liberal opinions.
                   2 
TRIBUTE OF GRATITUDE.
 To where the murmuring oceans on each hand,
 In distance heaving, terminate the land, —
 The good, the wise, thy noble skill revere,
 And bless the fortune that compelled thee here.
 What though ungenerous rivals mean thee wrong,
 Thy fame is scathless as thy soul is strong.
 Harmless to you their missives shall rebound,
 The assaulter piercing with relentless wound;
 Bleeding and sad, the threatening host retire, —
 Drink their own poisoned chalice, and expire!
 But, like some glorious messenger of light,
 Thy course as joyful and thy hopes as bright,
 Shalt thou unharmed pursue thy bold career,
Not lured by flattery, nor restrained by fear;
Or, as a bird, when vernal breezes play,
Pursue ' the even tenor of thy way ;*
But, when their treasured vengeance tempests pour,
Spring o'er the tumult, and exulting soar! 
I
                         PLAN
                              OF THIS

PHILANTHROPIC   MEDICAL   WORK.
  This book is intended for general use and benefit; but more especially
for  youth, to guide them in the path to  long life and unceasing happi-
ness.  In  a series of affecting scenes, Human Nature  is here vividly ex-
hibited; and the reader, in these awful disclosures of real life, possesses a
true reflecting mirror for his admonition.
  The unhallowed desires and piopensities of a corrupted heart; the ten-
dency of self-love;  the charms of the forbidden volitions ;  the enchanting
delusions of the excited  senses; the perils of illicit love, and of an abused
friendship; the practices of a private nature, and self-pollution;  and the
rebel and fierce instinct  in man, when not controlled; are here  exhibited
in formidable array, for the admonition of misguided  youth.
  In  these treatises will  be  explained  the  Symptoms,  Causes, and
Effects of prevailing Diseases, the 'Mode of Treatment, and Salutary
Remedies.   The New Theory is also largely  dwelt upon,  and the be±:
method to  be  pursued in curing all Chronic and  Organic Derangements,
Spinal, Nervous, and  Consumptive Diseases, Dyspepsia, Pulmonary and
Liver Affections, Scrofula, Rheumatism, &c; (see the Index,) and in
removing all those dangers and infirmities, incident either to a fashionable
or a voluptuous life.
  In a distinct treatise  will be found a minute description of the Female
Constitution, and the nature of the five progressive stages of life, to wit: —
from the immature condition  of Childhood to the Age of Puberty; from that
of virginal purity to  the Matrimonial State; from this blessed union to
Philoprogenitioeness; from  this state to the Maternal;  and, finally, to the
beginning of  the  Critical  Change  of Life and Nature, on  which period
depend the future health, and the comfort of the last stage of woman's
existence.
  We  shall notice, in our remarks, the  strange propensities which she
cherishes and indulges, until, unwilling to forsake them, she sinks  beneath
the mighty-influences and killing effects of her uncontrolled passions and
depraved  habits.   The  most  effectual means are here prescribed  to over-
come the fiery billows of an excited nature;  to subdue the kindling
sparks of a blinded love; to quench the devouring flames of an unsatiated
impulse; and effectually to tame the delirious furies of fashion  and guilt.
  A description is also given of her  numberless Infirmities and  Obstruc-
tions, their causes, and the surest preventives and antidotes, in the matrimo-
nial' state, and in her Critical Wants and Changes.   When  doubts
arise of her true condition, she will no longer remain in anxious suspense,
if she consult these doctrines, and adopt the hitherto unknown philanthropic
means  recommended.   This  never-failing test will at once decide, with
certainty, her real situation, and her evidence would be undoubted, even
during the very first days  of  her conception. 
 xii              plan of this mkdical  work.

   The disappointment encountered  by many  lovely  couples in their
 wishes to become parents, has frequently embittered the fountains  of
 happiness, and brought a mutual reproach, even upon  their conjugal
 couth, whereby gloom  and  sorrow often surround their domestic circle.
 Such  individuals  may rekindle their  hopes, as  there is yet a charm and
 a magic balm.  Here woman will find the golden  rules of the Power of
 Production, and the Moral, Philanthropic, and Potential means to secure the
 happiness and pride of becoming a mother; and in man, too, by following
 the instructions, will be revived the full, manly power and juvenile strength
 which rejoices in  the holydays  of the hymenial feast.  The causes  of
 sterility are spoken of, and  the  mode of removing them.  The certain
 means are pointed out, by which to impart to man and woman the gift of
 procreation, even if they have never felt the raptures of nature, or to restore
 this power when it has" been lost or impaired by an intemperate life,  by
 coolness of affection, by age, weakness, or disease; provided, however, the
 eccentricities of nature or the deformities of the individual do not coun-
 teract  the effects of the treatment recommended.  The whole is written
 with perfect  decorum, and in accordance with, an unprejudiced under-
 standing of the Supreme, Natural, and Domestic Laws.
   Frequent  allusion is made in  this work  to the states  of Celibacy and
 Wedlock.  The Matrimonial Laws, and those  of  a Chaste Continence,
 are here and  there, by turn, physiologically discussed, in view of Natural,
 Divine, Civil, and  Domestic Economy.  Explanations are  given of their
 operations upon the human race, and the true object of each of them.
 The best guide is pointed out to youth, for the choice of a suitable com-
 panion, and the most  approved precepts  are laid down, directing their
 future  path to happiness and bliss.
   In this  book, then, males and females will find an easy instructor, a
 comforter in  their estrangements,  and in  either their mutual woe and
 despair, or their happiness,  a Philanthropic Counsellor, the  most efficient
 antidotes  to their diseases, and a  Skilful  Physician,  who  points to the
 best prescriptions,  and the surest  remedies, and the  certain preventives
 of a second occurrence of their complaints.
   The unfortunate votaries of carnal pleasures, and the victims of licen-
 tiousness, are directed to that part of this work, (see the Index,) in which
 is  given  a Doctrinal Guide, and  the True Method, effectually  to
prevent corrupted inoculations and impure stains, secretly  to treat  their
 own Hidden Maladies.   A radical and speedy recovery from every infec-
 tion of a concealed or suspected taint, is warranted, and that, too, without
 exposure or the fear of detection, and  without the aid of physicians, but
 simply with harmless and agreeable Vegetable Medicines.
   This invaluable work will  be sustained by the assurance  that our Phi-
 losophy  of Practice is founded on the Laws of Nature and Life, for
 the development of body and  mind; oiu- Theory of Determining
 and Curing Diseases, is the Tlieory of Experience and Evidence; our
 Materia Medic a, the Boundless Forest;and our Aims, to  conquer Preju-
 dice. Imposition, Ignorance and Disease, and to do good unto all men.
   To this Manual of  Health is added a variety of interesting and very
 curious subjects, the instruction contained in which will contribute much
 to each individual's felicity and to the  interests of social life.  They will
 lead men  and women to a superior knowledge of themselves, to a sense
 of duty towards others, and to the pure enjoyment of a perfect, undivided
 sympathy, and  hence, to a melioration of the Economical, Physical, and
 Moral  Condition of our civilized race. 
                 plan of this medical work.              xiii

   By  adhering to  the  Method of Instruction, Mode of Life, and Medical
 Treatment, inculcated in this  Golden Bible of  Nature, the  human
 mind  and  body will be raised to the highest degree of  attainment.
 Health, a sound Physical and Economical Organization, and an improved
 intellect, accompanied by beauty, happiness, aud long life, will soon be the
 portion, the price, and the crown to their followers.   No better title could
 have been selected for this complex work, than ' The Book of Pruden-
 tial Revelations, or The Confidential Doctor at Home?   The scenes of
 real life are unfolded, the forbidden secrets of men's and women's hearts an;
 explored, and the most essential Laws of Life and Preservation, involving the
 Doctrines of Mind  and Body, Health and Disease,  Happiness and  Miseiy,
 are described and displayed.
   It is  confidently believed, that not a dissenting voice will rise  to con-
 demn  the laudable  motives of publishing this  Philanthropic Work  on
 Nature's Laws, nor form an  unfavorable opinion of the doctrines in which
 we, in  common with the majority of the Colleges and Faculty, sincerely
 believe, and with fearless  spirit advance; nor of the remedies we boldly
 advocate and recommend.
   The  father and  mother,  the guardians and  friends, may not, from
 feelings of false modesty, keep  the  youth in ignorance of  the most vital
 instructions it teaches; as nothing can be more important to their moral
 and  physical condition.  Yea, it is not too much to  say, that if nine tenths
 of our middle-aged population, especially of our cities, should have had
 the subjects and doctrines of this volume plainly presented  to them, with
 a good purpose, religious light, and an unprejudiced understanding, in the
 days of their youth, they would now have/been wise and  pure in mind,
 healthy and strong in constitution,  dominant over the fierce instincts and
 passions, and fathers of a promising and vigorous race.  But it is not  so
 with them; they are the victims of past transgressions.  The laws of God,
 of Nature and Life, and of  their preservation, had not been  revealed to
 them, but by the bitter experience of their violations.  Would  it not,
 then, be better, even in tender years, to possess a seeming premature but
 protective and saving knowledge of our existence, and of the natural laws,
 than to experience  a destruction of them from  early ignorance'(  Cer-
 tainly; and this maxim should be  ever impressed upon our youth, as the
result of our own sorrowful  experience.
  True, in the course of this work, it will be remarked, that many pas-
sages and explanations may  appear obnoxious to the charge of indelicacy,
but the apology for it is given elsewhere, and  the  answer, or, better to
express it, the reason for so doing is, that' to the pure, all things are pure;'
and the vicious or habitual sinner, and the profligate, at the  recital of the
awful consequences which await a degraded hfe, will be struck as by a
magic spell or enchantment, with conviction and shame.  They will learn
through this medium the effects of their transgressions, and of the violated
laws of life and nature, and those of God and social  man; their monstrosi-
ties and wretchedness are here depicted with the most impressive language,
 and they are vividly shown that their ways are short, deceitful their plea-
 sures, untimely their end, and their reproach and despair eternal.
  The  diversified style (which, at times, is also at variance.) used  in this
work, is of an intermixed syntax, derived from fifteen foreign languages,
 with which the author is somewhat  familiar, while  he does not possess
 a sufficient knowledge of English  Literature.  This will account for its
 oddness; yet he hopes it to be a sufficient guarantee for  him, that the
 opinion of the critic will be  liberal.  The whole, however, is written in a 
 xiv              tlan  of this medical work.

 clear, forcible, nervous style, with candor, and with as much conciseness
 and  precision as the subjects would admit, and  as the limited time of
 rest from his professional practice and the labor of midnight hours have
 allowed.
  It is expected, then, this Popular and Domestic Manual of Health will
 never suffer  opposition;  and notwithstanding the nice critic may point
 out defects, and the cautious one may hesitate to stamp some passages with
 his Imprimatur, and the bigotted, the ignorant, the jealous, and the envious
 may unjustly pronounce it uncalled for; yet  it is thought  that  none can
 deny its General Merit.
  Indeed, this work  is  of sublime import;  it is a Curious Boole, full of
 useful  knowledge and important precepts.   Its  pages should be daily
 consulted, as at all times will be revealed to the silent inquirer  some new
 practical truth respecting the laws of life, which knowledge is intimately
 connected with the preservation of health and happiness.  May it be  the
 Key-Stone and the Guide for our intelligent community, to better the
condition of men; and may both sexes become familiar with  it, as it is
admirably adapted to all classes and conditions; thus all,  in communion
with their domestic circle, will surely experience  by its instructions and
their submission, the benefit of progressive comfort and a long life.

                         Our  Motto.
      Read,  examine, and reflect; compare, reason, and judge. 
SECOND   TITLEPAGE.
The Book of Prudential Revelations, or, the Secrets of Men's
  and Women's Hearts Unfolded; vividly exhibiting  Aw-
  ful Disclosures of the Mysteries of Real Life, with the
  most salutary Hints to both Sexes on the Laws of un-
  defiled Chastity, pure Love, holy Marriage,  unsullied
  Nature, Morality, Health, and Comfort, illustrated by a
  Practical  Key to the Healing Art, on the Basis of
  Truth and Experience.
This Confidential Doctor at Home, or Medical  Compan-
  ion, points to the votaries of Fashion, and to the guile-
  ful and heedless youth, the thrilling incidents of  guilt
  and passion, the  dangers of a modern Hfe, of a carnal
  mind, and of the Epicurean doctrine.  To which is added
  a New Theory for determining the Symptoms, Causes,
  and Effects of ihe most prevailing Diseases, especially
  those of a chronic character and organic origin; Spinal
  and Nervous Complaints, Pulmonary and Liver Affec-
  tions, Dispepsia, Consumption, Scrofula, Rheumatism,
  and Delicate Diseases; and of the various Female In-
  firmities, Obstructions,  and  Derangements;  accompa-
  nied by  Remarks  upon the most approved mode of
  treatment, and the  true and most efficient Remedies.
By these Scientific Essays and Healing Balms, the  sick
  will be guided to health and happiness; our misguided
  sons and daughters will retrace their steps to Deity,
  duty, and virtue; and even careless physicians, thought-
  less guardians, tutors, and parents, and  the heralds of
  the gospel of peace and good will to man, will find in
  these  Physiological, Anatomical, and Pathological In-
  structions a powerful Lesson, of mighty influence.
By A. de Fontaine, M. D. 
 
INDEX.
                            PART  I.

Section 1.   Hints to the Youth of both Sexes, on the most essential Laws
  of Life  and Preservation; involving the Doctrine of Mind and Body,
  Health  and Disease, Happiness  and  Misery.   On  Chastity.   General
  Prescriptions, and Sure Remedies, to prevent or remove the Charms of
  Forbidden Volitions, and the Enchanting Delusions of the excited Senses,
  and to subdue the  Rebel Instinct, and to cure those Maladies  by these
  means contracted.   Of the  Moral Treatment.  Of the Physical Treat-
  ment.  General  Observations.  A few additional Hints to Youth on
  Human Nature, for their moral and physical Guidance.  Of  Puberty,
  and the Changes thereon.   Of Love.   Dangerous Restraint.  Unnatural
  Indulgence.  Absolute Continence. The Necessity of a settled State of
  Life, (of Matrimony.)  25-67.

Sect. 2.  A  Treatise on Nervous  Hysterics,, and Hypochondriacal Com-
  plaints, as Primary of Successive  Causes of Dispepsia, Liver Affections,
  &c.  Of a  Prevailing Disease, which is unwarrantably  supposed to be
  general Consumption.   Of Lowness of Spirits, &c.  Medical Advice to
  Persons affected with  Dispepsia,  Liver  Complaint,  Bilious  Affections,
  Nervous  Disorders,  Lowness of Spirits, &c.  Treatment  and Medicines
  to cure Nervous Diseases, &c.   Of Bilious Complaints, Inactivity of the
  Digestive  Organs,  Nausea,  Heartburn,  &c,  and the Method  of Cure.
  Spasmodic Affections, Languor, Fainting, &c.   Of the Gravel and Stone.
  Consumption of the Lungs.  Treatment of Consumption.  68-94.

Sect. 3.  A Treatise on Diseases affecting the Surface of the Body.  The
  Scurvy, and Scorbutic Affections.  Of the Leprosy.   Of the Scrofula, or
  King's Evil.  Of Lues Venerea.  Venereal Diseases.   Of  the Ery-
  sipelas, or St. Anthony's Fire.   Of the Piles.   Of Rheumatism.  Of the
  Gout.  96-113.

Sect. 4.   To the Female  Sex.  Treatise  on Female Complaints.  Weak-
  ness contracted before Marriage.  Furor  Uterinus, (Nymphomania.)  Of
  the  Menses. Immoderate flowing of the Menses.  Suppression  of the
  Menses.   Chlorosis, or  Green  Sickness.   Hysteria and  Hysterical
  Epilepsy considered as the Effects of Voluptuous Desires, more especially
  when they are not gratified.   Fluor Albus, or  Whites. For Married La-
  dies.  Of Generation.  Of Barrenness.  Of Pregnancy.  Signs  of Preg-
  nancv.  Of Diseases during Pregnancy.   Of Parturition.  First Period
  of Childbirth.  Second Period of Childbirth.  Third Period of Childbirth. 
XV ill                         INDEX.
  Fourth Period of Childbirth.  Fifth Period  of Childbirth.  Conclusion.
  Remarks  on bleeding Pregnant Women.  Abortion, and the Criminality
  of causing it.  The  Turn of Life.  Nursing and Dentition.  Of  Worms.
  Their^Causes, and the Method effectually to destroy them.   Explanations
  of  the  Plate.  Infallible  Symptoms  of Wonns.   Ill Consequences  of
  Worms, and dangerous  Treatment.   An effectual Cure  for  Worms.
  114-152.

Sect. 5.  A Doctrinal Guide, not only effectually to prevent Venereal Inoc-
  ulations and Impure Stains, but to enable Patients themselves to treat
  their own hidden Maladies and Corruptions, pointing  out the true and
  only Method which warrants a speedy, radical Recovery from every Infec-
  tion of a Concealed Taint, without Exposure, or the Aid of Physicians, but
  with the safest and most simple, harmless, and agreeable Vegetable Medi-
  cines.  This Treatise comprises  six  voluminous, subdivided Chapters.
  (See the Index  appended at its commencement.)  153-214.
                          PART   II.

An Anatomical Review, or Synopsis of the principal Parts of the Human
  Bodv, and its Constituents  Preliminary Observations.  215.
The Solid Parts of the Body.  Of the Bones.  Of the Cartilages.   Of the
  Muscles.  Of the Ligaments.  Of the  Nerves, and the Nervous  System.
  Of the Glands.  Of the Membranes.  Of the Periosteum.  Of the cellular,
  or  laminated Tissue.  Of the Tendons.   Of the Teguments.   Of the
  Marrow.  Of the Skin.   OftheNaiLs.   Of the Hair. 217-227.
Of Absorption and Secretion.  Exhalations.   Follicular Secretions.  Glan-
  dular Secretions. 228-236.
Of the Fluids in general.   Of the Nervous Fluids.   Of the Lymphatic Fhiid
  and Vessels.  Of the Blood, Arteries, and Veins. Of the Chyle.   Of
  the  Chyme.  Of the Bile.  Of the  Pancreatic Juice.  Of the  Gastric
  Juice. "Of the Saliva, (the Spittle.)   Of the Mucous Fluids. Of the Fat.
  Of the Milk.  Of the Sweat, or  Perspiration.  Of the Tears   Of the
  Urine.  Of the Semen.   Of the Menses.  Of the Liquor amnii. 237-255.
The Head, and its Parts.  Of the Head.  Of the Brain.   Of the Ears.   Of
  the  Eyes.  Of the Nose.  Of the Mouth. Of the Teeth.  Of the  Tongue.
  Of the Palate.  255-260.
Of the Spine.  260.'
Of the Os Sacrum. 261.
Of the Neck, and its Parts. Of the Neck. Of the Fauces. Of the Pharynx.
  Of the  (Esophagus.  Of the Larynx.    Of the Windpipe, or Trachea.
  262, 263.
Of the Chest, its Parts, and its Contents.  Of the Chest, or Thorax. Of the
  Ribs.  Of the Breasts.  Of the Thoracic Duct.  Of the Lungs.  Of the
  Pleura.  Of the Heart.   Of the Pericardium.  261-268.
Of the Abdomen, and its Contents.  Of the Abdomen. Of the Epigastric Re-
  gion.  Of the Diaphragma. Of the Peritoneum. Of the Omentum.  Of the
  Mcsenteiy.  Of the Stomach.  Of the Intestines. The Anus.  Of the Lacteal
  Vessels.  Of the Pancreas.  Of the Liver.  Of the  Gall Bladder.  Of the
  Suprarenal Glands.  Of the  Spleen.  Of  the Kidneys.  Of the Ureter.
  Of the Urinary Bladder.   Of the Urethra.  Of the Prostate Gland.  Of
  the Umbilical Cord.  Of the Pubes.  Of the Pelvis.  Of the Vesiculse Sem-
  inales.   Of the Penis.  Of the Testicles.   Of the Vagina.   Of the Clito-
  ris.  Of the Hymen:   Of the Nymphae.   Of the  Ovarium.   Of the
  Fallopian  Tube.  Of the Womb.   Of the Amnios.   Of the Placenta.

Of Hermaphrodism.  297. 
INDEX.
xix
An abridged Synopsis of the Animal Instinct.  A general  Description of,
  and Remarks upon our Sensations, and  on each of the  Five Senses.   Of
  the sense of Seeing.  Of the sense of Hearing.  Of the sense of Tasting.
  Of the sense of Smelling.  Of the sense of FeeBng, or Touching.  299-326.
                          PART  III.

A  Collection of interesting, social, physiological and  medical Subjects,
  attention to which will contribute much to individual Health, and to a
  happy, progressive state of Comfort and long life, leading Men and Women
  to a superior Knowledge of themselves and of their Wants, and to a sense
  of Dutv towards others, &c.  327.
The  Medical Art.  Hints to  Physicians.   Decay of  the  Human Frame.
  329-338.
Detached Sketches of Physiological and Medical Observations, containing a
  number of Metaphysical and Moral Precepts, inducing men to Knowledge,
  Health,  and Happiness, and unfolding a few most important Hints re-
  specting the Laws of Nature, into which  Judgment and Practice must
  breathe the breath of Life and  Truth.  338.
Moral Precepts  concerning the Domestic Relations.  Of the  Laws of Hu-
  man Nature.   Of Education.  338 - 343.
The  Author's Opinion  in regard to Phrenology.   Of our connected Exist-
  ence, Metaphysical Truths, and other Items.  343, 351.
Of the Electric Fluid, the Fluid of Animal  Magnetism, and the invisible
  Nervous Fluid,  which exist in the living Human System.  352.
An  abridged  Theory  of the  Work of Nature, in the  Formation  of
  Blood.  353.
The Doctrine of the Pulse, and the importance of a Physician understanding
  it by Assimilation and Comparison.  355.
Management of the Sick, and Classification of the Causes of Death.  First
  Class—Causes of Death derived from Physicians.  Second  Class —
  Causes of Death derived from the Conduct of sick People.  Third Class
  — Causes of Death which arise from the Conduct of the Nurses, At-
  tendants, and Visitors of the Sick.  357-365.
Directions respecting the Diet of the  Sick in general, and more especially
  of those laboring under organic or chronic Diseases.  The  Patient is
  allowed, &c.  The Patient is forbidden to use,  and must guard against,
  &c.   365-368.
How to improve Health.  A few general Rules, for those who are inquiring
  the way to Health, or are under Medical Treatment,  Continuation  of the
  same Subject, describing Causes and Effects, with Physiological Obser-
  vations calculated to implant good and prevent evil.   368-375.
Important Considerations on Health and Comfort.  Tight Lacing. 375 - 382.
Properties of Air.  Means of purifying Contagion.  Directions for using the
  Acid Vapors, to purify the Air.   382 - 388.
A Physiologic  Description of the  Impressions left upon the Countenance
  and  Demeanor, whenever any  of  the most  prominent Affections and
  Passions are roused  into Action, to wit:  Tranquillity.  Joy.  Delight
  Mirth.  Laughter.  Ecstasy.  Rapture.  Transport.  Love.  Pity.  Com-
  passion.   Hope.  Grief.  Remorse.  Surprise.   Wonder.   Amazement.
  Fear.  Caution. Terror.  Fright.  Horror.  Despair.  Devotion.  Ven-
  eration.  Attention.   Listening.  Admiration.   Astonishment.  Hatred.
  Aversion.  Anger.  Rage.   Fury. .  R,eproach.  Revenge.  Scorn.   Con-
  tempt.  Simple laughter.  Weeping.  Simple bodily Pain.  Acute Pain.
  A Pang.  389-388.
Remarks on Nature.  Remarks on Lon°; Life. 397-400.
Remarks on  Sleep, and Wakefulness.  Remarks on Sleep, continued.  Of 
XX
INDEX.
   Somnium, or a state between sleep and wakefulness.  Of the Sympto-
   matic Somnium.  Of the Ideopathic Somnium.  404-417.
 Remarks on Cleanliness.   Remarks on Exercise. Intemperance.  417-422.
   See also Appendix  on the subject of Intemperance, and Catechism on
   Rum, 503
 The Use and Abuse of Tobacco, by chewing, smoking, and taking snuff. 422.
 Means to improve Human Beauty.  426.
 Observations on  Bathing, and its Abuses, with some  Precautions, and
   salutary  Rules, to be observed  before and  after  Immersion, in cold,
   warm, or vapor Baths.  420.
 A Legislative Remonstrance,  which represents the Degeneration of certain
   American Ladies. 436.
 A romantic, interesting, amusing, and correct Description of the Experience
  of a Physician, whilst commencing business  in  a country village;  his
  hard lot.   Cannot flatter himself with success, unless he courts  the  es-
  teem, and subscribes to the opinions, of every granny and aunt in the
  neighborhood.  439.
Poems on the Art of Preserving Health.   Poem first, on Air.  Poem sec-
  ond, on Diet.  Poem third, on Exercise.  Poem fourth, the  Passions.
  445 - 502.
Appendix, on Intemperance.  503.
Catechism on Rum.  505. 
ADVERTISEMENT.
WRITTEN BY A FRIEND.
   It cannot be necessary, in issuing this interesting work, that the author
 should make an apology for supplying the demands of hundreds of sub-
 scribers and the numerous advocates of its doctrines.  The often repeated
 requests of his many friends, for its publication, were enough to show
 how much such an instructive book is needed, and how extensively useful
 its moral and physical effects promise to  be to the community at large.
   To the female sex, — liable, alas! to so many and such severe physical
 and mental derangements, to which  the other sex is not  subject, though
 often the cause, — this book  reveals their estrangments and infirmities,
 inspires confidence in the midst of their afflictions, revives their hopes, and
 points out to them the great oracle of health and truth.   To woman, the
 preserver and  counsellor, the source of man's felicity, this work  brings
 comfort, consolation, and fortitude, a calm to her rebel instinct, and a
 virtuous progression  in her intellectual  pursuits.  Here  she will find a
 sympathizing friend, a kind physician, a healing balm for her sufferings,
 and  a restoration of  her hopes of a final recovery.  In whatever delicate
 situation she may be placed, these pages will  reveal her condition, with-
 out  exposure, fear, or apprehension, administer to her wants, and thus
 prove to her the real guide to health, avoiding the outrage and humiliation
 to her feelings  too often produced by the unfounded suspicions of her
 neighborhood, and  by the rude scrutiny of treacherous friends or ignorant
 physicians, or the deceitful pretensions of  quackery, even among  those of
 her own sex, who impudently assume the honors and offices of an M. T).
 The  man,  whom  providence has  afflicted with a  train  of severe  and
 afflictive diseases, who has plunged into the excesses of licentious love, or
who  has cause to dread the fearful consequences of illicit intercourse, is, in
fact,  the victim of secret and horrible diseases; or if he has suffered from
the treatment of ignorant physicians and pretenders devoid of conscience,
— producing disorders worse, if possible, than those they pretend to cure,
— he will  learn from the following Manual, the cause, the consequence-*,
and  the cure of his  misfortunes.   They will  be  pointed  to the faithful
physician, and guided to the sure and unfailing source of relief. 
 XXli                    ADVERTISEMENT.

   A profound judgment, and a philanthropy founded upon truth, science,
 and experience, recommend that which is worthy of universal confidence
 and patronage.  There will be found in this work frequent allusion to
 the grandest discovery of  modem science,' the real Philanthropic Reme-
 dies.'  He who discovered a continent in the waste of unexplored waters,
 was thought meritorious of eternal fame; but what shall be his reward,
 who, in a waste of horrid  diseases, has found  the true origin of them, the
 theories of their  treatment and radical cure, universal in its  effects, un-
 failing in its success 1  To him, then, to his discoveries, to his  skill and
 medicines, are  the afflicted, the diseased, and  the sufferer referred, in the
 fullest confidence.  Satisfied with his triumphs in  one hemisphere, he
 is now making another the scene of his labors and his victories.  A natu-
 ralized citizen, and, for thirteen years, a resident of the United States,
 we claim  him as  our  own.  He has  been, during this  time, and is con-
 stantly engaged in the active  duties of his  profession, at  his  home  in
 Springfield, Mass., where the afflicted, even from the remotest States, call
 not in vain for his professional counsels, and many flock to him, regardless
 of the distance of hundreds of miles, sure to receive, under  Providence,
 from his  disinterested advice,  the means of  health and preservation.
 Long may he live  to see  the blessings his prescriptions and medicines
have conferred; long may  he enjoy the refined fehcity which  springs from
the benevolent desire to relieve the ills, of life and the misfortunes of his
fellow-beings.
  H2F" Allusion is here made by the writer of this Preface to Dr. Fontaine.
to whom, under the blessings of Providence, we give  our thanks and as-
surances of esteem. 
INTRODUCTION.
BY A REVIEWER.
  This treasure of observations and thoughts is intended for private in-
dividuals, old and young, of both sexes; the weak, the desponding, the sick,
and the afflicted.  Safe instructions and eminent medical advice are given
by one, who, during thirty years of unremitting labor, has built up a repu-
tation  upon the rock of Experience, Skill, and Success.   It is the Grand
Dksideuatum of the medical world, fur the  want of which so  many
millions  have perished.  ' The true origin of  diseases, the sure  mode
of treatment, and the most salutary antidotes,' are here pointed out; while
the virtues of the Philanthropic Remedies are set forth, and their merits
exemplified.
  An important observation should be made respecting what are termed
Family Medicines, and recorded prescriptions.   Unless then- operation be
safe, gentle, and efficacious, they sink at once into disrepute  and oblivion.
Yet it must be remembered, always, that  reason  and justice require, in
every instance, a fair and impartial  trial, and that time and patience are
often necessary, as well as a strict and earnest perseverance, to effect great
and  important  changes in  the system.  Frequently, weeks and months
may be required to root out chronic and organic diseases, and  restore to
a natural and healthful tone the long deranged and diseased functions of
the human system.   How could  the idea  ever  arise, that to extend the
knowledge of a useful medicine, or that of a physician's  skill, through the
medium of a newspaper, can ever be improper, much less disgraceful!  If
the remedy be efficacious, or the  doctor learned  and experienced, it is.
doubtless, a duty to the public to make it known, * and not  less so to the
medicine or physician.  To extend as widely as possible every benefit to
our fellow-men, should be a matter of pride, patriotism, and philanthropy.
  One admonition more.   Medicines are often taken incautiously; advice
is too often followed loosely; but those who would be benefited by the
specifics or medical aid recommended in these pages, must implicitly fol-
low the directions, and carefully pursue the advice, for  so nicely are the
springs of life adjusted, that the consequences from what may seem but a
slight inaccuracy, may be the reverse of what is intended.  Temperance,
exercise, calmness, repose, resignation, and confidence, facilitate the oper-
ation of the remedy, and are required by  the delicate combinations and
peculiar results at which it aims.  By a disregard of these hints, its bene-
fits may, very often, be weakened,  delayed, or utterly destroyed.  In vain
does science bring to her aid the productions of  beneficent nature to cure
diseases, which man, by his  inconsiderate carelessness, may place beyond
the reach of art.

  * He who, from prejudice, or induced by a jealous spirit, or by envy, withholds a
Bure remedy or a good physician from the sick and afflicted, is guilty of manslaugh-
ter, if not of murder 
 
PART   FIRST.
                      SECTION  FIRST.

Hints to the  Youth of both sexes, on the most essential laws of life
  and preservation;  involving the doctrine of mind and body, health
  and disease, happiness and misery.

                         ON  CHASTITY.

  Of love, the universal passion, the most powerful instinct of the
animal creation, it is not necessary to say any thing in explanation.
  The natural excitement of procreating  desires must be familiar
to all for whom these pages are designed, and whom they can ben-
efit.   In brutes, this passion is a fierce, and often a vicious instinct.
In mankind, when depraved and uncontrolled, it takes  command
of his reason, becomes the  tyrant  of his  system, urging  him to
excesses, which corrupt his  morals, destroy his health, and  sink
him fast  to a bed of sickness, hopeless despair, and, at  last, to the
<n-ave.  No propensity is so necessary; the proper exercise of none
more delightful and beneficial; while its excess, even in a state of
wedlock, depresses the spirits, relaxes the fibres, weakens and ex-
hausts the whole frame, and  this general decay of the system is
attended by  a train of   symptoms of the  most distressing char-
acter, ending in premature death.  If such be the effects of the
excessive legitimate  exercise of  these functions,  what  can be
expected when man gives himself up to the practices of a horrid
and unnatural vice, and insults and outrages nature by a continual
selfish self-pollution, at which a pure heart and reason itself revolts,
and at the consequences of which humanity must shudder ?
                  4 
 2o             PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

   The  object and the necessity of this treatise  will be found iu
 the course of its observations.  The rapidly increasing practices of
 masturbation, the  illicit intercourse and abuse of  nature so widely
 extended in America, and especially in the Northern States, with
 the miserable effects of the indiscriminate  and  excessive  amalga-
 mation of sexes  and colors at the South, have become so alarming
 as to threaten serious consequences to the nation  itself, and  demand
 a strong appeal in favor of virtue and chastity, as well as a remedy
 for the  diseases  produced by every violation  of natural laws.
 The commandments of God are trampled  upon by the licentious
 and profligate of both sexes, even  within the precincts of his tem-
 ple.   Moral and religious  obligations are disregarded;  secret vice
 dreads not the shame of observation; hence  nothing but the fear of
 the horrid consequences of vice, can restrain the victims of passion
 and the habit of self-indulgence.  And while the most profound
 physiologists have taught  that the greatest excess in natural enjoy-
 ment is less productive of evil'than solitary vice, something would
 have been effected in the cause of humanity,  if man should be
 persuaded to choose the lesser evil.
   No theological influence has been found  sufficient to check this
 vice;  no faith in religion; no exhortations  to virtue; no threaten-
 ing* of future retribution.  In  theological seminaries, in convents
 and monasteries, in nunneries,  and in  the bosom of the church, it
 has too often developed itself, and committed  its most horrid rav-
 ages.  It is our lot, the province of the physiologist and the physi-
 cian, to give with effect a scientific dissertation of the  train  of evils,
 which are produced by the various conditions of venereal excess.
 We shall do it to the best of our knowledge, and these will be fol-
lowed by a few prescriptions of medical treatment for the afflicted
of both sexes, who are the victims of these irregularities.
   No  accurate  observer of the human  system will deny that the
 excesses of sexual enjoyment, and the irregularities  of the sexual
functions, masturbation, &c, are the causes of almost  every disease
 to which the system is liable, and tend more than any other scourge
of mortality to send men and women to an untimely doom.   Awful
is the  state of depraved man; horrible the  condition  of those who
sink by an abuse of nature to hopeless despair.   A  life  of pain,
 haunted  by loathsome images, depressed by conscious guilt, and all 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.
27
the energies of the system exhausted, by a habit which clings  to
them with remorseless fangs, and  which the nicest science, (the
medical art,) and the most persevering moral energies  and  of
reason, collectively, or either them alone, can conquer.
   Among the alarming effects of the habit of masturbation, or self-
pollution, the following may be enumerated as most important: —
   First.  The superior intellectual nature of man, his God-like and
sublime  attributes of  thought, memory, and will, the three  great
powers of eternal origin  and excellence, become by this pernicious
practice  so impaired, that they may be  said no  longer to  exist in
him, upon whom the  habit of  masturbation or  lust has been con-
firmed.  No longer is there any energy of action, vigor of  concep-
tion, purity of thought,  or pleasing memories of the past.   The
very will seems controlled by lascivious desires.   All the ideas arc
obtuse and imperfect.  At first there is a slight  confusion of  mind.
which rapidly  and surely increases.  The  most brilliant natural
talents are no longer  useful.  There is  a constant sense of uneasi-
ness, and often a fearful  desponding anxiety;  vertigo ensues; hid-
eous appearances and delirium, ending in hopeless idiocy, or con-
firmed,  and too  often incurable insanity;  for  by such slow and
frightful degrees does the monster of, unnatural and worse than
brutal vice undermine the fair fabric of the human soul, and destroy
all the organs of its manifestation.
   Second. The destined and natural growth of the human body is
prevented in those who abandon  themselves to the solitary vice.
Each  unnatural enjoyment produces a shock  upon the  nervous
system, weakening the stomach and digestive organs, and the  whole
system of organic life, so as to destroy their tone  and action, thereby
preventing the nutriment of the system, as well  as abstracting from
it the  choicest portion of its essence.  Thus the powers of the body
decay; there comes over the subject, sometimes, a constant drowsi-
ness, often an utter inability to sleep.   In the general derangement
of the system there arise hysterical affections, hypochondria, a ten-
dency to fear and tremble at the slightest cause, and  the horrors or
the stupefaction of despair.  There are tremblings, faintness, suf-
focation, often a saliva of a sweetish, disagreeable taste, a chronic,
or convulsive hacking cough, spitting of blood,  indicating  a  giving
away  of the lungs, wandering  pains, especially in  the spine  and 
28
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
kidneys, marasmus and  consumption, or a general breaking up of
the physical system.
   I'hird. Violent pain  and intense agony, symptomatic  of acute
diseases, mark the struggle of nature with this horrid vice.  Many
are suddenly  seized with inflammatory fevers,  fever of the brain,
and other local inflammations.  Some are a continual prey to ner-
vous headaches, others are the victims of the most appalling epileptic
fits and convulsions.   Diseases of  the  chest  are common  results,
dyspepsia in its most incurable form is scarcely ever absent;  and
rheumatisms are not the least painful and distressing of the numer-
ous consequences of  this abuse of nature — this foulest of  all man's
wicked inventions.   The general  symptoms of an affection of the
spinal  marrow commonly  become apparent,  and these  seldom
appear, but to give warning of a quick progressive dissolution, that
the system cannot long survive its continued abuse.
   Fourth. Eruptions appear in various  parts of the body; sallow-
ness of the skin, especially of the face and  neck;  a flabby, pale,
lascivious  countenance,  a glassy eye,  and general softness of the
muscular fabric, and the consequent want of  that prime, bright
expression of health.   Soreness of the glands,  and ulcerations upon
different  parts of  the  body  not  uncommonly appear,  and  the
inflamed glands may even become  putrid, leaving the patient  in a
situation  to inspire every one with disgust and  horror, so that this
terrible curse is added to all the  pain, shame, and remorse of the
guilty sufferer.
   Fifth.  The organs of generation, being those most immediately
subject to an unnatural  and atrocious outrage, are by no means the
last to suffer.  The sight or thought  of the loveliest and purest
object  in  nature, produces an immediate excitement,  and a per-
petual erection, often accompanied with involuntary emissions, when
the slight animal gratification is immediately followed with the most
overwhelming agonies and shame.  Often this is caused by a slight
titillation or bodily motion.   The mind is full of obscene  thoughts,
which act and react  upon the  senses.   Sometimes, when  these are
most violent, there is not the power left to make an erection, or at
most, it is a very feeble one.   How many are thus affected with
symptoms resembling secret and loathsome diseases, with discharges
of foetid matter and  mucus, which destroy their vital powers  and 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.
29
constitutions ?   Others are tormented with powerful or continued
priapism, (erection of the  penis  in man, or stifihess of the clitoris
in woman,)  disuria,  stranguries, burning urine,  difficulty in dis-
charging it, and spasmodic attacks, which  are  most grievous and
insufferable.   Ulcers,  soreness, and  diseases of  a most  delicate
nature affect these organs, and the unhappy man or woman is ren-
dered forever incapable of enjoying the blessings of matrimonial
life.
   Sixth. A large  and distressing class of female infirmities attack
those of that sex, who are  so unfortunate as to become addicted to
this habit, from whatever cause.  Of these are the whites, painful
menstruations,  irregularities, green  sickness,  falling of the womb,
sinking of the spirits, general prostration, affections of the bowels
and the small of the back,  curvature of the  spine, bed-rid, internal
humors,  polypus,  cancer of the uterus and  ovaria, hemorrhoids,
and the general mental and moral affections heretofore described;
making,  in all,  such an awful train of diseases, pains, sufferings,
and  premature death, as is shocking to the imagination and truly
horrible in the  reality.  A timely remedy,  applied with skill  and
perseverance, can alone save the unhappy votary of this deplorable
and raging vice from misery, agony, and despair; and this, as it is
the consequence of a sin against nature,  is a just  punishment
assigned by Providence to this foul offence.
  Among all the evils of fife, there is not one to be more dreaded
than the habit  of masturbation or self-pollution.  It destroys the
strongest constitution,  it lays the finest intellect in ruins.   Yet in
spite of all this  havoc, of this terrible picture of these awful exam-
ples, how many of the youth of both sexes, and often those suppos-
ed by society to be  most pure, most  correct, most virtuous,  are
plunging  themselves  deeper and deeper into the vortex of this
secret sin ?  The habit commences, most unfortunately, before the
consequences can be known, in childhood and even in infancy ;  and
before the  subject awakes  to the consequences, or better judging
friends or physicians can perceive the cause, the disease is making
silent but deadly progress, and the pride and  hope of anxious pa-
rents is sunk in the  grave.  With bended body and feeble limbs,
languid, enervated, enfeebled, the blinded miserable slaves of habit
and  vice, totter on in  pain and shame and agony.  Every bright. 
30
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
vision  of the future fades—every  glowing hope of happiness is
gone, and forever darkness and despair are the concomitant encir-
cled visions.  Common misfortunes may be born with patience —
ihe plagues and  diseases  incident to climate and situation may be
endured with resignation, but who can endure the pangs of remorse
occasioned by the. reflection that his own excessive indulgence of
his vile and secret sin, has brought upon  himself  all the miseries
that he endures ?
   The age of childhood  should be most carefully guarded.   Very
often the disposition to sin springs  up in early infancy.  By the
example of others, or the evil  influences  of servants,  before the
parent imagines the possibility of such a tiling, the sense is devel-
oped, and the worst consequences ensue from the early practice of
the only mode in which  it can be exercised.   As youth advances,
and the state of  puberty is developed, when all the warm and ten-
der passions of the soul spring into active fife and energy, the mind
is filled  with  unchaste thoughts and  lewd images,  which, if not
gratified naturally, will scarcely fail to induce an improper gratifi-
cation.   Then the son  most needs the father's watchful  care, and
then the daughter requires the mother's  most tender  solicitude.
Religious feelings often may restrain, in some degree, the wild rush
of the passions, and shame may check the course of lascivious de*
sires; but the fires of youth and the irritation of the genital  organs,
produced by the rush of blood to the expanding parts is, alas!/ too
often sufficient to commence  the destructive vice, and form it into
a permanent and. growing habit.  Could youth foresee the misery,
which the first step in vice  might occasion, how much  anguish and
remorse they might be saved!   The appetite increases by the means
used to allay it — it grows by what it feeds on — and as passion too
often overpowers reason in the mind's healthiest state, what can we
expect when it has been sapped and  weakened by the  very vice
which we wish it to control?   The  first alarming  symptoms  may
make them pause; the danger terrifies them for a moment, but the
habit gathers force from a temporary cessation, and the fiend, with
renewed power, drags the soul  down to the  tortures  of temporal
hell.  Lust reigns in  all the thoughts, at  all times and in every
place it maintains its loathsome supremacy. 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.
31
  Procreation is  the law of universal  nature, but those of either
sex,  who  abuse their bodies by unnatural indulgence  or excess,
destroy and pervert the laws.   Their exhausted strength and broken
down system, and their self-delusions unfit them for the enjoyments
of a pure lawful  love, and  destroy their generative powers, thus
trampling upon the Divine will, the dictates of a rational conscience,
and  making  themselves  suicides  and murderers of the human
race.
  The most celebrated ancient physicians  have made this subject
one of deep research  and observation, and the works  they  have
left upon the effects of lascivious excesses cannot be read without
a strong impression of their fatal effects.   These effects seem to
pervade the whole system as does the transitory pleasure the  whole
mind.  As coition ends in a general convulsion of pleasure and ec-
stacy, so the  injury of excessive or unnatural indulgence reaches
to every part of the system, affecting not only the spinal marrow,
but  every tissue   and  fibre;  and extends its  electric  influence
throughout its nervous filaments, until nature sinks beneath and is
no longer able to support the  frequent  shocks and the constant
drain upon its vital fluids; and the patient  becomes the victim of
slow excruciating  and deplorable diseases, and dies the  death of a
miserable wretch in despair and torments. Lassitude,  weakness,
and  general  debility are but the first  and  mildest effects of self-
pollution.   It impedes nutrition; thus lessens the action of the heart,
and  impairs the quality of the blood;  the  mind is weakened, de-
pressed, and bewildered  in her lustful dreams; the memory is con-
fused and lost, and the will enslaved and nourished in the imagina-
ry scenes of carnal pleasures.  A cold sensation pervades the body,
and shivering and trembling  is felt in the chest and abdomen,  which
extends to the limbs.  The voice is coarse, observable especially in
females — the eyesight clouded and failing — sleep is disturbed by
disgusting dreams, and the whole human frame sinks into a confirm-
ed marasmus, decay, and incurable slow consumption.  All  these
consequences are greatly increased if venereal excesses  or unnat-
ural gratification  commence in  early  youth or  in childhood.  In
the spring of fife,  at the period when the mind is gradually strength-
ening, all the powers and functions of the  system approach their
perfect development, and with this growth  is connected the  never 
 32            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS,  AND

 ceasing increasing propensities of the unfolding organs of generation;
 hence an excess of sensibility.  If in this progress of the system to
 its destined perfection, youth yields to the temptations of lascivious-
 ness, and indulges in criminal enjoyments,  plucking the unripe
 fruit of pleasure with a hasty hand of uncontrolled passion, he, sure-
 ly, checks  the growth of all his faculties, destroys  the happiness,
 which their legitimate use  would bring him to encounter, and
 sacrifices all the joys of the future to a present odious,  heinous,
 worse  than brutal and unnatural gratification,  which inevitably
 shortens the period of his existence.
   When the constitution approaches its state  of perfect develop-
 ment, when the boy and girl, blossom into the full grown man and
 woman, if the social impulse, or amative propensity produce disor-
 der and defy control,  the effects are too important to be neglected,
 as they leave often the most vital influence upon the whole system;
 and upon their action, future happiness, health, and even existence
may depend.  The exquisite sensibility in the system united with
sufficient powers in the circulation, marking the nervo-sanguineous
temperament on the  one  hand, and the full and cold phlegmatic
constitution on the other, are the two  extremes, which require the
indulgence by coition, of moderate and  healthful venereal pleasure.
In the former it is required to diminish the irritation  and fullness
of habit, which if not reduced might cause frenzy,  fevers, inflam-
mation &c.; and the latter require the excitement to quicken the
action  of the vessels,  nerves, &c. to prevent obstructions, hypo-
chondria, and a  train  of disorders  incident to the lymphatic tem-
perament.  Thus natural enjoyment, in periodical  turns, within
proper bounds, at the mature  age, is  as necessary, as premature,
excessive, or unnatural gratification is  destructive, and the one is
as much commanded by the laws of God, Nature, and Man, as the
other is explicitly forbidden by the same laws, which we are all
bound to obey.
   Continued celibacy loads the glands, retards the circulation, and
occasions fullness  and  stagnation  of all the vessels.   Sinful  and
 ruinous as are the excesses, whose effects we  have  described, the
 entire abandonment of ^exual gratification  is  scarcely less so, and
 old maids and old bachelors, with their systems unexpanded, and
 their minds unwarmed by the fires of mutual  passion, of love and 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
33
enjoyment,  never experiencing a generous emotion or a glowing
rapture, become  morose,  gloomy, fidgety,  selfish, and contracted;
all their faculties are confined within the narrow bounds of ordina-
ry gratifications, and they become  devoted to parsimony, live the
contemptible life of  a miser, with no higher enjoyments,  or better
sensations, and with little  pleasure to themselves and less benefit to
their fellow-creatures; without fulfilling their destiny, they live in
a round of merely contemplative  amusement.
   Thus excess and abstinence are alike  unnatural and hurtful.
A temperate enjoyment is the only pledge of health, happiness, and
longevity.   Yet the  young, by a careful diet, exercise, and modera-
tion, should inure themselves to hardship and prevent the relaxation
and  lethargic effect of indolence; which produces effeminacy and
imbecility, by which the mind becomes as feeble and torpid as the
body.  It is not to be denied that a degree of indulgence, even  in
what is termed unlawful pleasures, may be practised with physical
impunity, and perhaps with benefit; but frequent scenes of dissipa-
tion  and shocks of debauchery overstrain the system,  exhaust the
powers, indurate the solids, dry up the juices, block up  the vital
channels,  and induce a premature approach of the  rigidity of old
age.
   The moderate enjoyment of sexual pleasure raises and cheers
the noblest faculties of the body and the soul.  Coition is the grand
act of nature in all her animate creation; a function important be-
cause there  is connected with it the strongest passions, and the high-
est degree of enjoyment;  and upon it alone rests the whole fabric of
society and  real happiness, and the continuance and preservation
of the human  race.  To  every  animal but man, nature has set
bounds to the exercise of the procreative functions, and prescribed
the periods of their desire; but to man, as a rational being, and the
noblest  work of creation,  she has given full  liberty to enjoy those
blissful pleasures continually, guided  only by reason and a proper
regard to the powers of his system.  While this liberty is used with
discretion, and this license does not degenerate into abuse, the ex-
ercise of this function is proper, honorable, virtuous, healthful, and
necessary.   It gives the highest pleasures^of which the senses are
capable,  and mingles with the sweetest affections of the human
heart.  The passion, that  liberal  herald of our manifestations, and 
34
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
 the bright shining emblem of a noble soul  and a tender  heart,
 adorned by a brilliant intellect, is also the theme of the novelist and
 inspires the poet and the artist.   Without it the  world is a blank,
 and society a chaos.   In  its enjoyment  all is order, delight,
 sunshine, mirth, and bliss;  deprived of it, all  is cold, dark, and mis-
 anthropic.  But when pleasure is perverted into debauchery and
 the blissful ecstacy is carried to a blind excess, man loses  the reins
 of reason and sinks below the level of the brute, and remorse, dis-
 ease, and  shame,  are the  result of the abuse of faculties, whose
 regular action should bring happiness and peace.
   Love is engrafted by nature in the human breast,  the mother-
 plant of every  virtue, the  source of every  bliss; and its  enjoy-
 ments are not less pleasing to  God than  useful to  mankind.   It is
 this which draws the sexes  to each other, makes each  other's hap-
 piness the highest earthly consideration, and produces feelings of
 rapture which  can only  be compared to heaven  itself, and which
 Mahommed, with a fine notion of the human  character and its pre-
 vailing passion, has made the  chief of its unending joys.  If this
 sentiment be pure, it brings  the greatest pleasure man  can wish
 for: but, O youth, beware !  Let this sentiment be refined  and gov-
 erned by affection and reason, lest it hurry thee into  the horrors
 of lust, and produce the  fruits of  debauchery and excess.  When
 this has once fastened upon thy mind and degraded thy body, fare-
 well to love and all its soft and pure delights; farewell to  peace of
 mind and  the  pride of conscious  rectitude — to all which  makes
 existence a blessing.
  ' Sacred instinct first kindles in man's and woman's heart  the
ethereal fire, and when that pair meet whose inclinations come in
 unison, they proclaim to each other, with palpitating endearments,
that there is a secret anxiety for becoming united into one.  If this
is not repugnant to the laws of chastity, and is agreeable to  the
laws of nations, there now remains nothing  but  the  embrace to
 complete the felicity agreeable to  the dictates of instinct.  If this
 be concluded, and the period arrives, nature  then prepares, and
 the ideas centre in this act  only; the  blood increases  in velocity,
 and, like the attractive power of the magnetic fluid, they cement
 as they join in the  voluptuous contact.' 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF  NATURE.
35
  Such are  the  pleasures of a natural exercise of the passions;
but how  different, how  deplorable  are  the results of unnatural
excess.   Excessive  venery  produces lassitude,  weakness, numb-
ness, a feeble gait, head-ache, convulsions, irregularity of all the
senses,  dimness of sight, dulness of hearing, insipidity of taste,
insensibility to odors, an idiot look, weakness  and derangement of
the digestive and nutritive functions, spinal disease, and general
effeminacy.  These  evils  are  increased  by the  perpetual itch for
gratification, to which the mind and body have become so much
accustomed, the one dwelling continually on lewd images, the other
with its erectile tissues in a state of constant irritation and tension,
making it so difficult to refrain, that absolute force is often required
to restrain the subject .of this deplorable habit.  Nor is even this
always  sufficient; for, in  the obscene dreams and waking fancies
of lasciviousness,  the life-giving fluid is lost, and,'after a time, is
ejected, with scarcely any pleasure, often with pain, and upon the
slightest irritation.
   Coition is  useful whenever it is solicited  by nature in a healthy
state of the system;  but at all  other  times it weakens the faculties.
When the seminal fluid has been too long retained in its vesicles, it
acquires such a thickness as to make difficult its  return into the
mass of the blood; then its natural discharge, in conjunction with
one of the opposite  sex, is  proper, and even indispensable  to a
state of health.  This  is the  commanding  law  of order.  But to
subject ourselves to lascivious  desires, is to make  the imagination
the exciting cause, and produce a lustful habit, which  grows  and
strengthens until all  the horrible consequences of vice are accumu-
lated upon the unfortunate victim of his desires.
   But the act of self-abuse,  the all-pervading vice of masturbation
is, of all the evils which affect the procreative functions, the  most
to be deplored.  Frequent repetition of this act has  been followed,
in  some  instances, by  a  spasmodic,  painful,  and bloody emission;
and those who practise it have almost universally a disordered sys-
tem.   They are afflicted with  a loss of appetite,  or a craving  one;
their nights  are  disturbed with dry coughs; their beds drenched
with profuse perspirations.  The  voice  is affected with an unnatu-
ral hoarseness.  Shortness of breath, and  violent palpitations are 
36
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
occasioned by the least fatigue, and a weak chest, stooping gait,
and unsteady feet mark a failing system.  A slight jaundice often
supervenes,  pimples appear  upon the face, especially about the
forehead, and upon the back; the flesh wastes off, and the slightest
changes of atmosphere produce violent rheumatic pains.
  Another cause why those who practise  self-pollution  are debili-
tated, besides the constant drain upon the  system in  the loss of
the seminal fluid,  is the nervous  energy expended in  frequent,
though it may be imperfect, erections and tensions.   The excite-
ment or pulling tension of any part, exhausts the powers, and with
the erection of these tissues, in the  organs of generation, in either
sex, are connected some of the most important organs of the system,
and, indirectly, every portion of that delicate and beautiful fabric,
the masterpiece of infinite wisdom, which human folly and  mad-
ness so often destroys in the prime  of its  existence.   The draft
upon the fluids of the system, to supply the constant excitements,
is so frequent, so constant indeed, that their dissipation must occa-
sion the greatest weakness; and other functions, where these juices
are wanting, must, of necessity, be imperfectly performed.
  The mind of the self-polluter revels in one idea, till that swallows
up  every thought; no matter how august the occasion, or how
sacred the place, he finds his thoughts absorbed  and occupied with
the lustful desire, and his only wish is for an opportunity to indulge
in his loathsome habit, — one at  which nature revolts, even in the
breasts of the most depraved; for while a  promiscuous  and even
excessive intercourse with the other sex  is  avowed without shame,
and is often, it would seem, a matter of glory, where is the man or
woman so base, so much a wretch, as to avow that he practices self-
pollution, or she indulges  in masturbation ?  Proof,  if  any were
needed, of the criminality of the deed !
   It is evident that the injury to the system in this way is infinitely
more  than  by excess of natural indulgence;  for  after  excessive
coition with a woman, if she is really beloved, a man is not so sen-
sible of lassitude.   The joy of the soul increases the strength of the
body, and all his powers  and faculties act in a beautiful  sympathy,
 and rally to recruit the exhausted organs.   There is no such action
 of the recuperative  forces with the self-polluter.  Every effort is 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
37
used to secrete and eject the wasted fluid, and the convulsions suf-
fered by the frame, are such as can rarely be remedied.
  And fatal and worst of all the terrible consequences of this vice,
is that it destroys the sentiment of love, — makes the patient fly
from the charms and endearments  of the  other  sex, and  utterly
takes away the disposition and the power to fulfil  the object of the
marriage state.  Man, sunk to a beast, loses the noblest of all feel-
ings,  his love for woman; and woman, victim of the same  foul
desires, is no more accessible  to the soft passion, which to her
should be a  source of such rapturous pleasure; neither longer feel
that 'beauty has  charms to  dilate our  breasts and multiply our
joys.'
  But the subjects of these unhappy disorders, and the victims of
this destructive habit, claim our sympathy and commiseration, rather
than our vengeance or contempt.  The powers of nature may yet
be  invoked.   Science not  only points out  the evils, but it finds a
cure.  Make no delay, O ye enslaved votaries of Venus, and vic-
tims of a blinded love of self-pollution.   Neglect not the offers of
your salvation, — no, not for one hour; do not reject the means by
which the fangs of vice  may be  unfastened, and  health restored,
and life preserved.
  To Dr. Fontaine was reserved the honor of discovering a medi-
cine, possessing those singular and extraordinary powers necessary
to recruit the system, weakened by torture and a  prey to accumu-
lating sorrows,  and for the cure  of this most truly distressing,
and what had  seemed, incurable disease.  Long has it puzzled
the medical faculty to find a  medicine  that  would at once allay
irritation, and at  the  same time give tone and  vigor, as well to
the general system as  to the  organs  concerned.  It  was often
given up in despair; but such a medicine,  happily for the sufferer,
is found in  the  Philanthropic  Remedy, which may be considered
the only general and efficacious antidote, suited to this complication
of disorders.  This will aid the moral resistance to vice, and restore
the failing energies of the  system.   This gives consolation to the
wretched, and hope to the most desperate.   Yet  there are  urgent
cases, in  which   prudence teaches  us to  consider  the awful
state of  a weak  and harassed mind before we  trust them  with 
38
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
remedies  of their choice.   Such an one, if within his power,
should not. neglect to apply to Dr. Fontaine, either  in person  or
through a friend;  and indeed, in all alarming cases of this nature,
every one may cherish the  privilege, and avail himself of at least
a correspondence, with that ever ready philanthropic Physician.*
General Prescriptions and Sure Remedies  to prevent or remove the
  charms of forbidden volitions, and the  enchanting delusions of the
  excited senses, and to subdue the rebel instinct, and to cure those
  maladies by these means contracted.

  The first step to be taken, and the first object to  be attained, is
the cessation of the  injurious practices.  No medicine or treatment
will avail,  unless this be  first  accomplished.   True, it  appears
a difficult  matter,  as  the very soul, mind, thoughts, and whole
being seem to be polluted with one pervading  idea.  Yet, when
the patient is once fully convinced of the  horrid  nature of his
practices, and is sincerely  determined to resist their power, the
irritability may be soon subdued, provided the following rules and
prescriptions  are carefully and earnestly heeded.  There  are two
modes of treatment to be followed, which  must  go  hand in hand,
each assisting the other, and both  persevered in until not only a
constitutional cure is  established, but the  moral faculties have
regained their lost energy and ascendancy over the vital powers
of  the  senses, and the  perverted  natural  instinct.   These  are
Moral Treatment and the use of Medical  Remedies.


                 OF THE MORAL TREATMENT

   How often are  the young and tender plants blasted by  the
gardener, who was intrusted  to rear them!  How  many delicate
youth of both sexes, have been destroyed by the ignorance  or care-
  » See in the Index of ' The Practical Key of the  Confidential Doctor at Home '
the Rules and Regulations of Dr. Fontaine, to secure his professional services 4c. 
HE  GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.
39
 lessness  of those to whom their  nurture was intrusted!  Fathers
 and mothers should study and reflect upon the causes  which tend
 to  the early development and unnatural  exercise of  debauched
 senses, and use the means which nature and reason point out to
 guard against the first approaches of secret vice, and the formation
 of  those habits  of licentiousness in either  sex, which bring with
 them such an awful train of miseries.   Often, by the carelessness
 and neglect, very often, by the influence and example of those to
 whom the care  of children is intrusted, are the first  impulses of
 vice  developed; and the severity of  religious creeds, with  their
 anathemas against fornication, have had a tendency to increase the
 prevalence  of the  secret sin of  self-pollution, so much   more
 destructive to morals and health.
  Youth, and even infancy, must be guarded with the most  scru-
 pulous watchfulness, in regard to the choice of their companions,
 the  servants  that  attend them, and  the tutors to  whom  their
 education is  intrusted.  The conduct and secret actions  of  your
 daughters should be carefully watched.   Look upon  your children,
 at home  and abroad, with an ever vigilant eye, to  know what is
 done in  their hours of privacy  and rest, in the school-room and
 private places, and even in the temples of God.  Never leave the
 youth alone, if there is  the least  suspicion of the existence  of an
 improper feeling of love, or an  irritation of impure propensities.
 Watch the young  of both sexes, when they seek to be alone, or
 resort to secret places in company, for it is there that these unseemly
 habits are taught and practised, and where thousands have received
 their first lessons in this detestable and destructive crime.
  Avoid  bad and lascivious companions.   Never converse upon
 such  subjects, except with such  well  disposed  persons  as  may
give you  salutary lessons upon the evil effects of licentious habits,
and give to the victim motives  and strength to overcome them.
 Shun the company of the vicious and abandoned, and every thing
that tends to  excite the sensibiUties, which are to be regulated and
 reduced.   Avoid  sedentary  habits and solitary places,  if  they
 engender impure imaginations; and above all, never read  obscene
books, or look upon exciting pictures.   Seek the company of the
wise and moral,  and above all, have constant and active  employ-
ment for  body and mind.  Never sleep alone, but with some moral 
 40             PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

 and estimable person, whose good opinion you so much value that
 you would fear in his presence to commit a  sin, however strongly
 tempted.  Let the  beauty and dignity of  true  virtue, and  the
 danger and odiousness  of vice — the true  end of your being and
 hopes of happiness — be constantly in your mind, and preserve
 you from evil thoughts and actions.   Such moral  means, with  the
 proper constitutional treatment, can  scarcely fail of effecting a
 radical and permanent cure.


                OF  THE PHYSICAL  TREATMENT.

   Avoid  all  stimulating, acrid, and  high-seasoned dishes; a poor,
 thin diet, so  much recommended  by the Stoic's disciples, is, how-
 ever, very improper, and will increase the symptoms of the disorder,
 by letting down the tone of the system.  The  food should be in
 proper quantity, and sufficiently  nutritive.  But as  the strength
 increases, so will the secretion of the seminal fluid; and  as  this is
 not all absorbed by  the lymphatics,  the remainder is  a  source of
 irritation to the generative organs.  To counteract this, exercise is
 to be used not only for pleasure, but so as  to induce  considerable
 fatigue.  Use, therefore, a  generous,  plain  diet, eating  little and
 often, and as  little sleep, upon a  hard bed-mattrass, as  will merely
 repair  the fatigues of the day's exercise or labor.   Too much sleep
 is as prejudicial as idleness or stimulating food.   Excess  of wine,
 spirits, or fermented  liquors, should be avoided, though a  moderate
 use of  dry old  wine is often of use, and may be  prescribed as a
 tonic, but pure cold water should be the common drink, or decoc-
 tions of tonic herbs.  Take daily exercise in the  open air at sunset,
 a supper on the lightest food, go to  bed early, and rise  betimes,
 sleep on a cool but comfortable  bed, avoid feather  beds, bathe
frequently, and wash the genitals with cold water every evening
 and  morning, and if convenient,  twice or thrice  during the day.
 Avoid too much covering,  and if the  genitals  become irritated, rise
 at once and  bathe them with cold water.
  All these prescriptions of  regimen  are but calculated to aid the
 use of the grand specific, which, more than all the  rest, will influence
a cure.  The French Philanthropic Remedy is a medicine which, 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
41
by its admirable virtues, restores the tone of the system, while  it
6ubdues the irritation of the affected and  disordered organs ; thus
producing, in the happiest manner,  the very effects indicated by
the most profound pathologic science;  and if its use b persevered
in with steadiness and reliance,  with  the rules prescribed, there
are none who may not hope for benefit; and  in most cases,  a few
weeks will produce a perfect cure,  even  in  those  who for years
have indulged in venereal excesses or the  vice of masturbation and
self-pollution; while those who, for moral or other reasons, desire a
life of celibacy, will find these  means more effectual than any
vows of chastity, however sacred  or sincere.
                   GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

  It is  time to conclude our remarks  upon this most important,
yet unpleasant theme.  What a  picture of human weakness, tur-
pitude and  misery, has  been unfolded!  Would youth only con-
sider that every act of  debauchery, and every secret  sin, strikes
at the root  of their constitutions, and tends surely to produce all
the terrible evils,  infirmities, and miseries they most  dread, how
would they abhor and detest their vile, Unmanly, and  abominable
vices I
  It is vain  and foolish  to  expect that  diseases, which  have  been
years in accumulating, and habits which have been forming per-
haps through  a whole life, thus far, can be  cured suddenly, or
without much effort and perseverance.  But  there is no case so
desperate that may not be remedied by time, perseverance,  and
the  discoveries of modern  science.   If  the advice  of Doctor
Fontaine be faithfully followed,  if his prescriptions are carefully
adhered  to,  and the medicines — the never-failing Philanthropic
Remedies — are perse veringly used, a cure may be prognosticated,
even in cases seemingly the most hopeless.  Of the successful expe-
rience, skill, and able practice of the  Doctor, and of his readi-
ness to  soothe the  ills of suffering  humanity, more will be said
anon.
  A word more to the  afflicted, and we close this subject.   An
inattentive patient  cannot  expect a cure.  Says Hippocrates:—
                  6 
42             PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

' The patient, assistants, and physician, ought equally to  do their
duty.   Let the patient have  courage, and conspire with the
physician against the  disorder; then the most  stubborn diseases
generally give way to  this  harmony.'  All experience proves the
truth of this  remark;  and the author can safely challenge the
whole faculty to produce a single instance, where the advice given,
and the remedies prescribed by Doctor Fontaine, (spoken of in this
work, and recorded in his additional production —' The  Practical
Key of the Confidential Doctor  at  Home,') for the several dis-
eases which they were intended  to  cure, have ever  failed, when
properly and  perseveringly used, of producing the  most  happy
and salutary effects, and that even in the worst and most desperate
cases.
  From all the miseries here described, from the pains of diseases
and the  tortures of guilt, misanthropy,  unhappiness,  and despair,
the blessed Philanthropic Remedies  of  Fontaine  hold out a sure
relief; but  their excellent powers can  only be realized by those
who take them as directed, steadily, and with  undeviating regularity.
A few additional Hints  to  Youth  on Human  Nature, for  their
                 moral and physical guidance.

         OF  PUBERTY, AND THE CHANGES  THEREON.

  Puberty is  that state of existence  into which both sexes, in the
progress of their youth, are gradually brought to a wonderful physi-
cal and moral change.  At its commencement, and through its fast
developing progression, is unfolded to them the  mysteries of their
being, and they begin to understand and feel the purposes of their
own existence, and the relative laws of nature and life.
  When puberty takes place with regularity, it  produces an uni-
versal  revolution in the system,  and implants  new  laws, and a
new government in the locomotive, vital,  and  mental organs, so
that new relations with nature and  society are  created; in short, 
               THE GOLDEN  BIBLE  OF NATURE.            43

the child ceases so to be, and its relation to the species is proclaimed
by characteristics which more and more tend to distinguish the sexes.
  Though puberty  universally takes place earlier in women than in
men, yet this  change  commences in  both in early life, and is
liable  to  modification  from  various external influences.  Pecu-
liar temperament, for instance, naturally produces, in each person,
some variations in  the period of  puberty.  A girl, for example,
of sanguine temperament, must be earlier  subject to a condition
characterized by a fulness of the  circulating  system and general
exeitement, than one in  whom the  lymphatic temperament pre-
dominates.  Of these influences, the most extensive in their opera-
tions are
  First.  The Temperature of  Climate.  As  heat increases the vital
energy in all  organized  bodies, and renders  their growth  more
rapid,  it must  necessarily hasten the period of puberty.  Warm
climates will increase the development of the system; hence the
reproductive organs in  both sexes beoome matured and stimulated
to action by exciting evoiic desires.
  Second.  The quantity and quality of Aliment:  Very nutritious
food, stimulating meats, and aromatics, the  habitual use of coffee,
wine, liquors, &c., greatly accelerate this period, while farinaceous
substances, vegetable diet, the habitual use of milk, cheese, &c.,
rather retard it.
  Third.  The  Moral Condition  will modify .the development of
puberty.  The reading of fashionable stories, lascivious novels, and
of love, voluptuous pictures, licentious theatrical scenes, conversa-
tions upon love, or even the reading of the natural laws concerning it,
the constant proximity of the sexes, exciting  dances, and many
other causes, some  of them of still  more  injurious  and  baneful
character, will result in earlier development than in the cases of
those who pass  their childhood and tender youth in the tranquillity
and simplicity of rural life.
  Puberty, when thus promoted, may occur in girls at about twelve
years of age, which would be  premature, as it  diminishes strength
of body and vigor of mind, deteriorates the moral qualities, and is
extensively fatal to life and its  permanent enjoyment.  Not so with
children brought up coolly, in the open air, and actively employed,
nourished with plain food; and when their manners are simple and 
44
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
natural, the  sexes are less  in contact, and  their presence has less
influence.   Thus educated, they will reach puberty at about the age
of eighteen.  An early development of the reproductive organs and
functions is by no means advantageous, and  the union of the sexes
at such an  early period, before the completion of growth,  will
diminish the stature of young people;  beauty fades away,  and
perishes at a tender age;  in their youth they will appear of old
age, and will be afflicted by a train of forlorn consequences and dis-
eases.  Those, on the contrary, who more slowly arrive at maturity
will obtain a well  developed body and mind; retain their strength
with an increasingly youthful aspect; and their powers will  be re-
productive to an advanced age.
  The general influence of puberal development  is at an early
period manifested in the organs of digestion, by the want of much
food and  a  deranged appetite.  The power  of the blood is aug-
mented, and its  circulation assumes an unwonted activity; the
chest increases, and respiration becomes free.  The system is re-
newed by a powerful excitement from the nerves, and receives an
impulse through  the heart and the vital organs,  communicating
warmth, color, fulness, and freshness to the whole body;  the glands
of  the neck,  breasts,  arm-pits,  and groins redouble their action,
swell, and sometimes become painful. This tendency necessarily and
especially extends  to the more subservient essential parts of the
reproductive organs.   The sensibilities of these organs increase in
both sexes,  and are awakened from their torpor, rapidly expanding
their powerful, almost uncontrollable activities and influence over
the whole of the economy.   In the male, the flow of blood towards
the genital  organs, accompanied by excessive sensibility, causes
priapism and secretion of the semen; a sensation of heaviness and
numbness affects  the loins  and the vicinity of  these parts, and a
confused tumult pervades the body; the beard begins to grow, and
the hair makes its appearance in the arm-pits, on the chest, pubes,
 &c, while the whole body becomes covered with a still softer down.
In the female, the ovaries, &c. secrete  a particular liquid, which
 concurs in furnishing elements for the embryo.  There is now felt
 a weight about the loins and a general supineness; the womb re-
 ceives an increased supply of fluids, and becomes a centre of pow-
 erful actions, extending their  vital powers  on the surrounding 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
45
 organs.   The passage into the vagina becomes capable of dilatation,
 and  acquires  an intense sensibility.  The glands and nymphae
 swell, redden, and become  highly sensitive, secreting their germi-
 nating liquor with rapturous emotions; the clitoris is  developed
 and the hymen is distended;  the external reproductive organs be-
 come larger and swell, giving an elastic  contraction to the vulva;
 the bones of the pelvis augment in size, width, and strength;  the
 breast increases in proportion, and the lacteal vessels of the lobes
 acquire  a state of erection.   They become globular, round-mould-
 ed, projected, and hard, with enlarged nipples, and acquire a lively,
 pleasing  sensibility.  A powerful excitement is communicated to
 the general tissue, which pervades all parts of the body, and which,
 being replete  with juices,  fills up  the interstices of the muscles,
 communicating to the  body a soft, elastic fulness, and renders it
 projecting, defines its outlines, and forms those fine and delicate
 contours which are constant objects of admiration.  At this period
 the catamcnia appears, which is monthly discharged.  The repro-
 ductive  organs in women now no  longer subsist in a subordinate
 condition, but, on the contrary, dominate over the whole  animal
 economy.
   It  happens to  very many young ladies that the natural devel-
 opment  of this wholesome  phenomena is  very defective; hence
 their locomotive, vital, and  mental  organs  and functions become
 much deranged  and  perverted.  In others, a state of general de-
 bility supervenes, accompanied by an absence of excitability in the
 organs of reproduction.  Many are seized with hypochondria and
 hysterics, having a disposition to a solitary life, devoid of pleasure,
 action, and comfort.  They suffer under  a complete subversion of
 the general economy, which  is evidenced  also in their extraordi-
 nary  tastes and depraved appetites.  Some will eagerly eat salt,
 plaster, chalk, hair, charcoal, and sealing-wax ; and drink vinegar,
 and a variety of other insipid  and innutritious substances with
 avidity.  Their digestive organs are more or less disordered; their
 flesh  becomes very soft, their complexion pale and sickly white,
 with a greenish hue; the eyes are sunken,  and extreme is the laxity
of the lower members, which swell,  and often the swelling extends
to the bowels aid throughout the body.  These maladies  will yield
in proportion as the  activity of the organs of reproduction is in- 
 46            TRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

 creased, and will partially be remedied as soon as the womb and
 other organs enter into  the regular order of their functions, and
 may suddenly be cured by marriage, and the exercise of its hyme-
 neal  privileges.  It  becomes dangerous to  increase the  young
 woman's desire  for inactivity or aversion  to society; in similar
 diseases she should devote herself to active exercise, and to cheer-
 ful, sensible amusements suited to her age. Wisely, and for a good
 purpose, we recommend for a time, (at least until the electric sparks
 of animated life rekindle the fire of youth and health,) the reading
 of works of imagination and love; to cultivate music, painting, and
 poetry; to frequent fashionable places of amusement, and take an
 active part in the  merriments of the day.   Thus passing in turn
 from  study to amusements, hence from  active work into cheerful
 company, the  maiden will soon  recover her  lost ambition, health,
 and  fife.   The  use of  the French Philanthropic Remedy  will
 be to her of great value, in these days of her afflictions and suf-
 ferings.
  If the retardation of puberty in the male be of long continuance
 he should likewise observe a strict regard  to the same rules and
 directions, and under these circumstances, stimulating and strength-
 ening food, as well as an active life, travelling, and manly exercises,
 tend to give tone to the organs;  and thus the youth will suddenly
 increase  several inches in stature; and if  the  growth be equal
 throughout the body, handsome individuals are formed.
   Soon as the puberty of woman is perfected, she becomes subject
 to a monthly sanguineous flow from the womb.  During pregnancy
 this flow is retained for the nourishment  of the foetus; and when
 suckling, she  can  afford  a vast secretion  of milk, while at  all
 other periods, this blood, becoming etherogeneous, furnishes the
 catamenial  flow.   Its precocious occurrence produces weakness,
 derangements, and a premature old age.   The first eruption of this
flow is almost always preceded by a general languor and faintness,
lassitude, and anxiety;  indefinite pains,  or  numbness of the loins,
arm-pits, pelvis, thighs, and  fundament.  Dizziness supervenes,
the head becomes heavy, heated, and painful; the respiration is diffi-
cult, and the pulse full, unsteady, and quickened; the breasts swell,
harden, and suffer a painful tension; the skin of the feet and else-
where is frequently inflamed and marked with slight efflorescences 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE,
47
and pustular blotches; the eyes are generally red, weak, and watery;
the eyelids, the lower one especially, assume a brownish tinge, and
bleeding at the nose and spitting of blood, are by no means uncom-
mon ; the external reproductive organs, for some time swollen, are
moistened by a lymphatic humor, at first of a light color, but in a few
days assuming the character of red and vermilion-colored  blood.
The vital excitement then  decreases, and a general loosening of the
whole economy takes place; the eyes lose their brilliancy, become
dull and sunken; and the lower eyelid is bounded by a livid circle.
These disturbances are followed, for some time, by a state of feeble-
ness and languor, until the womb, which had fallen a little, rises
and resumes its position; it is then, for the first time, fit to conceive ;
every thing is in order and ready; tranquillity is again established,
and the object of nature is fulfilled.
  Nearly  similar symptoms, though generally much less severe,
announce the return of the flow.  At first, it occurs at irregular
periods, and often  a  few months pass without a reappearance; but
it constantly tends more and more to assume  the  periodical char-
acter.  In  general, this  monthly flow is more considerable  in wo-
men of dark complexion, and of ardent temperament, than m those
of a fair and a milder character.  It is also more copious  in towns,
and among sedentary women, and those who  indulge in deficacies
and pleasures, and the prevailing fashions, than among country
women, who enjoy  a  pure  atmosphere  and activity, and those
whose lives are virtuous, laborious, simple, and free from sensualism.
   With these catamenial courses,  there  are amalgamated other
secretions, of a whitish fluid, proceeding from  small glands, situated
at the internal surface of the vagina, and in the external labia and
orifice.  These glands are perfectly analogous to those which in
female animals, during their oestrum, furnish a secretion so power-
fully odorous as to attract the other sex.
  During the whole of this  period, the exercise of this function is
indispensable to health; and if it be  irregular in its returns, or be
suppressed, beauty as well as health disappear, disorganizing the
whole functions of the locomotive, vital, and mental organs.  When
the menses finally cease, and  this happens within the age of from
forty to fifty years, women lose  the power of conceiving, and then
greater is the power obtained by the rest of the organization; the 
48             PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

mind increases in clearness, extent, and  vivacity; and when this
change of life is completed, she is  more under the influence  of
reflection  than  feeling; with  intellect, masculine  character is
assumed;  an additional quantity of hair makes its appearance  on
the face,  and the voice becomes rough.  After the time  of  the
critical age,  when this flow has entirely ceased, women may  expect
to live longer than men.
  The organs of reproduction, in both sexes, — by their multiplied
connections  with the nervous system, and their relations with those
of all the viscera of the abdomen, and through the means of the
great sympathetic  nerve,  which forms  among  these a  common
union, — are interested in almost all the affections;  and their great
sensibility, and  their  extensive  functions,  will  naturally react
with exciting power on  the nervous centres of life, on the brain,
and on all the highly sensible parts with which they are connected;
and this reaction, to a great degree, is  especially remarkable when
their functions commence.  Hence, at  the first period of nubility,
we perceive the effects which the reproductive organs have upon
the whole economy; in women, talents bursting forth suddenly
towards the age  of puberty, — a newly inspired desire of pleas-
ing, — emotions  of  jealousy, — not  only sexual  love, but that of
children, — and even strange and  wayward cerebral impressions,
— caprices of  affection, or antipathy, which submit not to her con-
trol.   Thus, all  the  passions,  whims, and  estrangements which
occur in the feelings and conduct of girls, at puberty and through
its progression, are  only the consequence of not  less remarkable
physical changes.  At this period, the sports of infancy no  longer
afford pleasure to girls; they  feel,  indeed,  a  void in the heart,
which they  strive in vain to fill.  Notwithstanding the innocence,
candor,  frankness, gayety of childhood continue for a while, ere
long, however, their frankness and gayety are checked; they become
timid, reserved,  absent, and  thoughtful; they  find  pleasure  in
silence, avoid observation, and hanker after solitude.
  Young women now imagine to unravel the seeming mysteries of
their condition;  but this increases their anxieties and troubles, and
adds to  their  embarrassment.   Thus, they are plunged into con-
tinued reveries.   They sigh without knowing its object,  and feel
relief in tears, which are quite unaccountable.  In the revolution 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.
49
of the catamenial periods,  the maiden  experiences  strange ine-
qualities of temper,  and unaccountable  caprices, and, by turn,
feelings of joy, sorrow, or anger, to which she readily yields ; and
even despondency supervenes,  and a desire of death, or contempla-
tion of suicide, even long before she experiences the disappoint-
ments of love.
   To this state of  excessive susceptibility, reproof  has been
observed to drive a girl to despair; and expressions of regard and
pity will more influence her passions.   The most  salutary remedy
in such an unhappy state, is marriage; and in  the want of a suitable
companion, every physical  or  moral  tendency, which might irri-
tate  or maintain this sensibility  should be carefully removed.  The
Philanthropic Remedy, if used  as prescribed  in the direction, will
positively give relief to  the sufferer,  and refresh and  calm  the
burning instinct.  Youth, at this period, are  observed not  merely
to manifest a preference, which draws one sex towards  the other,
(which is, however, restrained  in its course by shame and confu-
sion, and denied for fear  and reserve ;) but a great many, indeed,
an alarming number, perhaps  the majority of our youth, of both
sexes, give themselves to unhallowed vices.  Extravagant, lustful
friendships are formed, and secret lascivious devices are practis-
ed between individuals of the same  sex, and even self-pollutions,
masturbation, sodomy, &c. &c.
  This is the time when commences the first formation of the great-
er number of our romantic  ideas, and fancied illusions, and our
disposition  and character, be it of a sympathetic and benevolent
temper, or antipathetic and selfish.  Vague passions transport many
youth, and  thus they become equally callous, corrupted, unbending,
fiery, and desperate to control.  Even the gentler affections, which
lead the tender, unexperienced  maiden to love, when not well gov-
erned, will  surely bring her the  most awful consequences, and close
the scenes of her flattering  expectations in despair and insanity.
  This is that age at which we have the greatest number of sensa-
tions ; at which memory is so earnestly employed; at which imagi-
nation enjoys the greatest activity, and new talents are thus excited
At  this period the greater  number  of  ideas are collected,  and
perhaps those higher mental powers, which (as before stated,) af-
terwards distinguish the character,  are first developed and attempt- 
50             PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS,  AND

ed.   On the activity, then, or the languor  and disorder  of the
organs of reproduction,  would appear, in a great measure,  to
depend the  elevation of genius, the abundance of ideas, the high-
est  achievements of mind, or their utter debasement and eternal
absence.
  This  nervous excitement  of the locomotive, vital, and mental
organs, and of reproduction,  attending the development of puberty
and the first appearances of the periodical flow, is partially renew-
ed at each monthly occurrence, — sensibility becoming  more defi-
nite and vivid.  This observation may, also,  be extended to the
time of pregnancy.
  We  may add, in  conclusion, that while the physical powers are
thus in their progression, the mind of the young woman, when well
directed, will  receive more  accurate  notions  of a pure  affection
and true love, which should be the most interesting and principal
object of her inquiry, in the achievement of future  happiness and
a permanent state of blessed life.


                          OF LOVE.

  From  the physical state,  experienced at the time of puberty,
there results, in woman,  a superabundance of  sensibility, which, by
its  expansion, seeks to diffuse  and to communicate itself.  All is
then animated in woman.  Her eyes acquire  a  brilliancy and an
expression previously unknown, and  seem,  by a sort  of electric
spark, to enchant and to light up the amorous flame in every breast
formed to sympathy. Her figure displays all the charms and sim-
ple  graces which man is equally unable and unwilling  to resist.
Now, the sexes mutually feel within themselves a tender and vivid
interest in each other, and burst forth with  the most convincing
expressions and attitudes, their devotion and attachment.  As each
is the  sole object of the  other's desire, they at last  see in nature
nothing but  themselves;  extravagant imagination flings over both
all  possible  excellences;  they indulge in  intoxicating  dreams of
beauty and perfection; and each becomes, in the conviction of the
other, an absolute divinity.
  One  of the symptoms generally occurring to young people, 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE  OF NATURE.             51
which characterizes nascent love, and consumes a valuable portion
of life, and which leads to  derangements and disorders of every
kind, is an indolent and idle melancholy.  The early stage of a
lady's  attachment to a man, and vice versa, is  also characterized
by a conflicting desire, which is the cause of moral love — a desire
to five in  chastity — a  feeling  that enjoyment would  debase the
object  of  love.   Each,  then,  values  existence solely  for  the
beloved being, and would  cheerfully lose  even  liberty, nay life
itself, for the object of idolatry.  The  name of her, the  single
thought, makes his  heart beat; in her presence, a  torrent of fire
seems  to fly through his veins; the voice  and reason are nearly
extinct;  self-possession is totally lost.
  The maiden begins to have more rational ideas of the relations
of the  sexes, and no longer  deceives  herself as to the position in
which she must stand in regard to man.   This she is at last taught
by love.   She then delights to dwell upon the good  qualities with
which imagination has invested  her lover; he is ever in her mind;
to him  every thought is referred;  he is the hero of all her romances
of love, and his image is present in her dreams.
  It is a  natural  characteristic of  the sexes  that the  male  is'
bold, while the female  is bashful.  Modesty establishes an equilib-
rium between  the superiority of man and the delicacy of woman,
and  thereby enables the latter to insure for  herself a supporter
and  defender;  and while man thus barters his protection for love,
woman is a match for his power, and the weaker, to  a great extent,
governs the stronger.  In aid of  her  physical power she  employs
two moral qualities — coquetry and modesty, which, though opposed
in their first or  immediate  effects, contribute to one great end.
Natural coquetry, if the mere desire of pleasing and attracting by
innocent artifices may be so called, exists long before the period
when love modifies the character.  The look of the girl, the  sound
of her  voice, her  language, her  whole demeanor, seem to court the
affections.  With increasing opportunity, she learns what is passing
in the minds of men, and understands the meaning  of  every look,
word and  action.  Finally, she  detects indications of attention^
distinguishes the look  of affection,  &c.; invaluable information,
by nature   rendered necessary  to  conquer  and  subjugate the
stronner. bv the  charms of  beautv and  grace and by  the arrows 
  62              PRUDENTIAL  REVELATIONS,  AND

  of love.   The relations of coquetry to the constitution of women,
  are  regarded as the  purest  charms  of  the  happiest  affections.
  These are  illustrated  even  amongst  the  brutes.  For  instance:
  ' Step by step the dove  follows  her well  beloved, and flees  from
  him  with a peculiar  grace  as  he  returns.  If  he remain in-
  active, she arouses  him  with  gentle taps of her beak and wings ;
 if  he  withdraws, she  pursues him, and  when he  defends  him-
 self,  a light  flight of  six  steps  attracts  him  again.'  Thus the
 innocence of nature contrives these allurements, and shows this
 gentle resistance, with an attractive  art,  that the  most skilful
 coquetry can scarcely equal.   Defects  are  now concealed, charms
 are enhanced, and a strict attention is paid to dress and orna-
 ment, and to well  directed   movements  and  fascinating looks.
 Many follow the ruinous whims and freaks of fashion and wealth ;
 the precious stones and the splendid apparel, flowers and plumes,
 rich draperies, sumptuous means,  &c, are the last  resort, when
 the tacit  avowals of the outrages of time and the decay of beauty
 have  endangered or eclipsed both her success and natural charms.
 Being no longer  able to appear  beautiful  and attractive, women
 strive  to dazzle.
  Well managed coquetry is necessary  to  the  condition  and
 nature of woman.  She  thereby  insures  her future happiness,
 and attracts  and  conquers  that  frigid  or  unconscious heart
 which she so much adores, and which her  amorous sympathy
 is already in  possession of.  This  natural  art teaches her how,
 by strict  exertion, to insure success, and  she quickly learns to
 increase her attractions;  she studies to cultivate all  those  agree-
 able arts and graces which please and conquer.   Be it universally
 known and well  understood by our youth, that ' coquetry, a  well
 directed, virtuous coquetry, diffuses a general emulation to please,
 and inspires respect and love;  it gives to society a cheerful aspect,
 and contributes much to  the attractions of social life.  It should
 be ranked amongst  the noblest  gifts  of nature for the attain-
ment of our  social happiness and well  being.   This natural  and
useful  sentiment should  not, however,  be perverted.   It  is to be
condemned when  it degenerates into a desire to captivate all men,
without attaching  itself to  the affections of any  one — an  act hab-
itually practised by the wicked and treacherous.  It is also abused, 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
53
when combined with excessive vanity,  or supported by wealth.
Then it perverts sensibility, and stifles the affections and virtues.
  Modesty is not less peculiar to woman than coquetry.  Under
the influence of love, the young man exhibits bis feelings, even to
excess,  and often disgust;  not so  with woman.   The modesty of
the  girl conceals hers.   Modesty,  when it is  well controlled,
restrains the maiden from yielding precipitately to  tender feelings,
and compels her love to assume  that form by which nature has
taught her so universally to express it —i. e.,  to present  it  under
the  mask of  friendship,  veneration, esteem, gratitude, and  a
thousand other guises.  In relation to the lover, her first  affections
are  presented to him under the appearance of estrangements;
but the maiden, by her coquetry, flies, that she may be pursued by
him, and when his love assumes a virtuous moderation, she, by her
modesty, keeps it alive and burning.  Thus modesty is a means of
attraction with which nature inspires all females, and those who
declaim against this, know nothing of nature.
   If opposition or separation should occur to defeat virtuous court-
ship and love, or if every obstacle should be  brought in the way,
desire is only rendered more urgent, and nature will effect this ob-
iect on those endowed with fortitude and perseverance, sensibility
and locomotion.  It is the law of nature, and not of caprice, for man
to be led by the aid of the locomotive, nutritive, and thinking organs,
and of the reproductive functions, to the attraction of pleasure,
affection, and love; while woman, under the shield of the same
laws, will always conquer  and guard herself against every disap-
pointment and treachery.   She will be jealous, and surmount
every difficulty by her  well-directed coquetry,  and the  corres-
ponding share of her modesty and prudence,  and thus she supports
and maintains her noble position,  and laudable purposes.
   At puberty, life is superabundant, and this surplus is and must
be employed  by nature  in the reproduction  of itself through the
 engagement of the affections, passions, and will.   She should, how-
 ever, be reminded, that,  as the habits contracted at this age are very
 powerful, and  intimately  connected  with  health  and disease,
 they may be natural and virtuous, or vitiated and corrupted; hence
 the importance of useful guidance.  The languishing  of love most
 generally springs  up in soft repose, and if not  well guarded, 
54
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
increases  in  fury.   To  oppose its  ravages, and to subdue  these
fiery billows, male and female  should  avoid  its piercing darts by
flight,  by strong bodily  exercise, and  by  turning their  minds
towards intellectual pursuits, which extinguish these vicious  senti-
ments, and  the  violent erotic  pleasures, at  the same  time  that
they produce a revulsion to the other organs.
  When in young persons there are  unequivocal signs of excessive
sensibility, and  symptoms of erotic  desires of carnal excitement,
all enticing books of love and romance, obscene paintings, and music
of an impassioned and voluptuous nature, must be withheld; indeed
every occupation of the mind, and sensual temptatations likely to
produce  or  foster such  emotions, ought  to be proscribed.  To
discourage the passions, the intellectual faculties should be cultivated
by  the  study of history, geography, moral, domestic,  and  rural
economy,  and many of the arts of industry.  Boarding-schools are
hot-beds of vice  to  all who have reached puberty,  especially la-
dies ; and retirement  among  wise elderly female relations, of ex-
perienced habits, is then best.  Theatres, luxuriant parties,  fash-
ionable  circles, and every company and place where the softer
passions are  excited, and seductive music and dances,  should be
carefully avoided.
  Love,  certainly such as is  described  in the mischievous  trash
fashionably called novels,  or such as is presented by modern so-
ciety, and artificially practised by  our  belles  and  beaus,  is at
utter  variance  with  the  plan  of nature.   Such  love  and  such
practices  are fictitious,  treacherous, and ruinous  to  morality and
health;  and  they are obnoxious  to real  felicity.   Without such
obstacles,  and when free from debauchery,  lust,  and corruption,
love is pure  and productive of happiness  instead of misery; love
then is the embellisher, not  the occupier;  the counsellor and not
the arbiter of life;  the means  of health,  hope, and felicity,  and
not of sickness, despair, and death.
  It is foolish and dangerous to conceal from  young girls all knowl-
edge of the  results  of the position in which they are placed by
the circumstance of nubifity; for in spite of watchful vigilance
and every obstacle, they  are soon enabled, by natural instinct and
by secret  and unremitting observation, to instruct themselves in
those false notions, which are  most  likely  to be followed by fatal 
               THE  GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.             55

results.   On  the other hand it  is a duty, when  the  maiden  has
reached a certain age, to explain to her the  general nature of the
sexual relations to which she is destined, to put her upon her guard
against the disguises which passion  assumes and the insidious strata-
gems it employs; to place it, on the contrary, before  her in its true
position and in the character it must assume in marriage; to make
her aware of the modifications that its  possession produces in the
ardor of  mankind, and the certainty of its being eventually calm
and  moderate;  and  to  teach  her to  control  her affections until
they are  in accordance with those proprieties upon which the con-
duct of virtuous fife is made to depend.
  There are youths and maidens (though but few) whose tempera-
ments are of  an opposite disposition to the sanguine, though  they
are full of life.   With this class of cold, frigid hearts, consequendy,
means of a directly opposite character must be  employed to devel-
ope  their nature and  usefulness; all  those, in short,  which are
deprecated in those  of a different temper  and disposition;  that
is to say, a moderate and well directed indulgence of all which
is forbidden to an erotic, voluptuous temperament.


                   DANGEROUS RESTRAINT.

  Wise laws,  in accordance  with  nature, are  enacted  to prevent
too early unions, which  impose on  the maiden  the salubrious duty
of chastity before legal marriage;  but mothers, not satisfied, frame
the most austere injunctions in addition to  them, and  imprudent
are the restraints imposed upon their daughters, which, for awhile,
dominate over  youthful timidity.   She cannot advance a step,
utter a word, or cast a look, but at  the hazard of severe reproof or
malignant  comment.   Struggling  to  guard  against  herself she
must learn to stifle nature.  Here it may be added, that, mean time,
she is learned,  at this age of gayety and happiness, that she must
pass  fife  in a state of exhibition, among fashionable parties, in the
theatres  and balls.  She is taught, and we may say compelled, to
adorn herself in voluptuous  attire.  Her vestments  must be  fitted
to an open breast, or even more indecent forms, at the expense of 
 56             PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

 health  and life, constricting the chest, compressing respiration, im-
 peding the circulation and  the movements of the body and limbs,
 which produce'a mental tendency to false notions and vice, and
 the most frightful diseases of mind and body  must ensue.
   While the condition of a young woman is thus a state of violence
 against nature, and the fashions demand so vigilant a surveillance,
 it is not very wisely complained that girls are dissembling, nor very
 wonderful that  they  escape from this struggle, and that inactivity
 which society demands.  The most  fatal consequences, indeed,
 accrue from tins, both to  the physical  and moral state of woman;
 escape  is  frequent;  ruin inevitable.   An  author remarks  that
 'La morale des femmes est toute fondee sur des principes arbi-
 trage ;  leur  honneur n'est  pas le vrai honneur; leur  decence
 est une fausse decence ; et tout leur merite, toute la bienseance de
 leur etat,  consistent dans la dissimulation  et le travestissment des
 sentimens  naturels qu' un devoir chimerique leur  prescrit de
 vaincre, et qu'avec  tous leurs efforts, elles  ne sauraient andantir.'
   Notwithstanding, how ungenerous  it is, when the  worst conse-
 quences ensue from these  prevailing practices of fashion and mod-
 ern education, that  their victims alone are blamed!  Even philoso-
 phers have endeavored to show, that in such cases,  woman alone is
 criminal, because, as they assert, woman has no motive to err.  We
 beg leave to differ from them, and their unjust conclusion renders
 the discussion of this delicate subject indispensable.
   Woman  has a vital system larger than that of man, and she has
 also a larger reproductive system;  hence  her functions are  cor-
 respondingly more exciting,  and capable of greater pleasure than
 man.  It is with these vital and reproductive  organs and func-
 tions,  that the whole life of  woman is  associated  To  know,
 indeed,  the great  degree of  their importance to her,  and  the
 necessity of their frequent and enduring employment, it  is only
 necessary to observe  their  relatively greater development.  On
this ground alone, then, all that is connected with the passion of
love, is  by far more  essential to woman  than to  man.   But to
 advance in this argument   It is admitted that in reproduction, the
 organs of sense,  and the anterior part of  the brain, always  act in
 conjunction with  the vital system; and anatomy shows that these 
               THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.            5?

parts are relatively larger in woman than in man; hence it follows,
that, in her, sensibifity and its perceptions are greater.
  Again. — The cerebel, or  organ of the will, is small in woman,
and therefore, though the pleasures of love are  more intense, and
more essential to her  organization, yet they are less  determinate
than in man, and more easily suffer  suspense or renunciation.
Neglect of anatomy and physiology  has  made  all writers  mistake
on this subject, as is the case  in the following statement, not under-
stood  by the  writer,  and  explicable  only by the  anatomical
and physiological  fact stated in  the first sentence of this  para-
graph.  ' Women  constantly retard  enjoyment, or prevent it alto-
gether, solely by the influence of the will, acted  upon by the most
trifling motive.  They even do more.   They  sometimes sacrifice
it  without  a  murmur.'   These  truths  are  by  us considered in
harmony with the nature  of her most powerful desires, which
arise from the vital organs and those of locomotion acting most im-
periously upon the mental system, which desires are exercised in
conformity  With her larger  organs  of sense in the anterior part
of the brain, where there  exists  greater sensibility and capacity
for pleasure.  Yet  her smaller cerebel, or organ of will, restrains
her passions; and  hence she is less determinate in pleasure, and
is  enabled  to yield to  suspense or  renunciation, even at the
sacrifice  of happiness, health, and life, — a fact which is also in
perfect analogy with  the  whole  of the female character.  But,
to yield, is one thing — to forego, is another.   The first may be
a rational,  virtuous act,  while the other may be a rash, unnatu-
ral deed.   The necessity and the  capacity of pleasure are as clearly
established, as is^ the power  of yielding  to circumstances.   Then
be it  said,  to the  honor of the  female  sex, ' that man is unjust
(notwithstanding the injustice and wickedness of an opposite conclu-
sion, "that man is  not so unjust as  he is - accounted,") in requir-
ing from woman that  strict  fidelity, which, in particular circum-
stances, such as absences, he is unable to  exercise  himself,  while a
woman has every reason to be jealous and suspicious of hhn whom
she adores.'  Well  would  it be for her, if,  whenever an  occa-
sion approaches, she, on her own strength and  experience, and on
the revelation of his duplicity and ungovernable passions, should
entreat him, with adequate justice and a simplicity of heart, to be
                  8 
58
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
strictly faithful, and say to him with  anxious solicitude, do not pol-
lute our mutual love.
  As soon as puberty is accomplished, instinct leads the youth to
satisfy desire; and if no object is cast in the way, or if he or she
is  unchecked  by timidity or other considerations, as by religious
dread, morality, or reason, there will surely follow the horrors of


                    UNNATURAL INDULGENCE.

  Of this we have already spoken elsewhere, and we hope what
has been said may prove a  guide for persons whose duty it  is to
have  a  surveillance upon the tender branches of society, and to
exert a  protecting influence on youth from the fatal  consequences
of this vice.  We shall here make a  few additional remarks.
  Surprising artfulness is employed by  young  people,  in main-
taining  secresy respecting crimes of this description.  This vice
soon  renders  the youth  careless of his parents and  superiors,
as well  as indifferent  to  the sports of his equals; he falls into a
distaste  to every  thing, except the opportunity of indulgence;  all
his  thoughts are directed  to the  genital  parts  most subject to
irritation, and sensibility, while the  imagination  and passions are
highly inflamed;  the secretion of the reproductive fluid augment-
ing, withdraws a very precious portion from the  blood;  hence his
losses are great and are sensibly felt, which prove  destructive to
the locomotive, vital, and mental organs of life.
  The muscles of the youth, consequently, become soft;  he is  idle;
his body  becomes bent; his gait is sluggish; and  he  is scarcely
able to  support himself.  The circulation is  no longer free; the
youth sighs  often; the  complexion is livid;  and the skin, on the
forehead  especially,  is studded with roughness and pimples; the
corners of the mouth  are lengthened; the  nose becomes  sharp;
the sunken eyes, deprived of brilliancy and  inclosed in blue cir-
cles, are cast down; no look of gayety remains; the very aspect ia
criminal.  At the commencement of these baneful  practices, the
increase of stature is  arrested, and the growth of  all the organs,
and the development of all the functions is stopped.   The digestion
becomes enfeebled; the breath foetid; the intestines inactive; the 
               THE  GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.             59

excrements are hardened in the  rectum, producing additional irri-
tation of the seminal conduits in its vicinity;  involuntary loss of
the reproductive liquids at  last takes place, not only in sleep, but
during  the  daily motions;  and there  ensues a  total  exhaustion,
bringing on heaviness of the head, singing of the ears, and frequent
faintings, and a sensation as if ants were running from the head
down the back, accompanied with pains, convulsive tremblings, and
partial paralysis.  General  sensibility becomes excessive, producing
tears without cause;  perception  is weakened,  and memory almost
destroyed; the will is no longer under the control of reason; distrac-
tion, or absence of mind, renders the judgment unfit for any ope-
ration ;  the  imagination gives birth  only to  fantasies and fears,
without grounds; the slightest allusion  to the  predominating  pas-
sion produces motions of the muscles of the face, the flush of shame,
or a state of despair; the desires become capricious, and envy ran-
kles in the mind, or  there  ensues a total  disgust.  The wretehed
being finishes his folly by  shunning the face of man, and dread-
ing the  observation of woman; his character is entirely corrupted,
and his mind is totally stupefied
   Girls are, with but few exceptions,  equally abandoned  to this
loathsome vice, and  similar symptoms are produced.   In  general,
the victims of this secret depravity are  announced by their aspect.
The roses fade from  the cheek;  the face assumes an appearance of
faintness and  weakness; the  skin  becomes rough; the eyes lose
their brightness, and a livid circle surrounds them; the lips become
colorless, and all  the features  sink down  and become disordered.
If the baneful practice  be  not soon arrested, general  disease and
local  affections of the  organs of reproduction  ensue; acrid leu-
corrhcea (the whites) ; ulceration of the vulvo-uterine canal of the
vagina and orifice; falling  of the womb, and various diseases there-
in, are its concomitants;  abortions, and  oftentimes,  nymphoma-
nia and furor uterinus terminate life amidst the horrors of despair,
uncontrolled passions, delirium, and convulsions.  The tastes of an
unnatural love form  another aberration.  They abandon themselves
to a carnal  love  of  their  own sex, and voluptuous embraces and
enchanting songs and address; breathing their raptures, in the lan-
guor, delirium, ecstacy,  and convulsion of passions, not to a lover,
but to one of her female companions.   The victims of this awful 
60
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
depravity  demand the most active vigilance of mothers, to pre-
serve either the morals or the health of their daughters; and be
it remembered, that the  same practices are scarcely less injuri-
ous at a more  advanced age, even in a matrimonial  life, or wid-
owhood.   O, when shall we come to our senses, and cease to wor-
ship the carnal nature, and the voluptuous god of prevailing fashion !
  We shall now notice a matter of an entirely different  character,
that of


                    ABSOLUTE CONTINENCE.

  This consists in abstaining, (owing generally to religious notions,
or prejudiced education,) from the  indulgences of love, although the
individual feels the  strongest desire for  them, and where the natu-
ral  propensities of excitable organs are powerfully and  to  excess
developed.  An absolute and forced  continence, then, will  surely
be  attended  with the most  deplorable results.   Various are its
effects; but  generally, a  continual  priapism is felt;  inordinate
desires, taciturnity, moroseness or ferocity, determination of blood
to the head, nervous affections, numbness  and pains in the lower
abdomen and back, lassitude, and a disgust at every thing abstract-
ing the mind from the prevailing passions; incapability of averting
attention from voluptuous images, and stories of love and passion ;
a partial madness, bordering upon general insanity or despair, and
terminating in death.
   The. horrible examples  of all orders of monks  and nuns, and
of the Roman  Catholic clergy,  give ample evidence, with  hardly
an  individual exception, of the continual torments of celibacy, and
'he various sensations and  ideas experienced by all of them during
the frequent occurrence of voluptuous delirium.
   In Catholic  countries, especially, paternal  despotism, religious
prejudices, priestly influences,  superstitious habits,  Pythagorean
regimen, flagellation, fasting and macerations, are  often employed
to change, and stifle, or rather to mutilate nature, and to subvert
the divine laws.  Many promising boys and girls  are bound  in
their youth, at the age of twenty and upwards, by an accursed vow
 of clerical celibacv.   It is well known that this is the age when they 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.
61
feel the fierce instinct in all the intensity of nature, and the reac-
tion of the reproductive organs in a more lively manner.  Health
then becomes impaired, if the secluded youth do not burst asunder
the illegitimate ties of his captivity.  The furious instinct increases
as years advance, and this forced continence produces through all
the system a keen sensibility, or rather a vehemence, never before
felt, and exciting irritation.   The imagination will present to the
mind the other sex as illuminated subjects, charming and blinding
their senses with fire-like electric sparks; contractions  and violent
tensions  are  felt in all the  limbs, accompanied by frightful convul-
sive movements, and delirium.    The imagination  is by turns as-
sailed in quick succession,  with a host of obscene  images, thoughts
of romantic  love, chimeras of warlike adorers, martial  fury, amo-
rous feats, and like strange notions, suggested by the most powerful
desires of nature.  This state is often succeeded by an unconscious
sleep; and, on reason returning, the mind is afflicted, and, the pa-
tient recognizing the cause of these sufferings, without daring to
combat  it,  in humiliation, sorrow, and despair,  exclaims  with
Job, ' Cur data lux  misero t'  This  state is succeeded  by violent
paroxysms.
  We  will give  a  still  more vivid  picture of these torments and
reveries, drawn from the confessions of St. Jerome, the great father
of the Christian  church: ' 0, how  often have I,' says  he, 'when
settled in the desert, in that vast solitude, which, burned up by
solar heat, affords to mortals a horrid habitation — how often have
I imagined myself to be, for a moment,  in the midst of Roman de-
lights !   But  I sat alone, because I was filled with bitterness.  My
deformed members abhorred  the  sack  investing them;  and my
squalid skin  endured the  thirst  of Ethiopic  flesh.  Daily tears;
daily groans ;  and if at any time urgent sleep oppressed me, in spite
of repugnance, I slid my scarcely adhering bones down upon the
naked ground.  Of food and drink I will not speak. . .  ..I, there-
fore, — I, who, for fear of helL had condemned myself to such im-
prisonment, the  companion only of scorpions and wild  beasts, did
often, in  imagination, find  myself amidst the choirs of maidens!
Pallid was I with fastings, and, in a frigid body, my mind burned
with desires; the flesh being dead  before the man, the fires of lust
boiled up alone.' 
62
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
   The state of woman, under similar circumstances,  is  not less
 wretched.  If love acquire a determinate character, in one whose
 nervous system is at all excitable, the state of virginity would be
 hostile to it, as after puberty it is to the impulses and intentions of
 nature.   This state becomes one of great suffering, and produces
 mania and death.
   A strong feeling of duty, and the emotion of fear, may lead her,
 for a time, to withstand the powerful  impulses of nature; but that
 power is unceasingly operating; the imagination is constantly filled
 with pictures of the happiness for which she longs ; and desire at last
 bursts through the restraints of reason.  If she then redouble her
 efforts, and by unceasing attention and unrelaxing resolve, stifle the
 voice of nature, this struggle speedily plunges her into languor and
 melancholy, terminating in a morbid state.  Chloroses (green-sick-
 ness or the whites) makes its first appearance; the menses are
 frequently suppressed, or occur at irregular periods,  and accompa-
 nied by  painful symptoms; the reproductive  organs, by privation
 and  inactivity, become  diseased and irritable to  excess.   The
 stomach  is much  impaired; the pulsation of  the heart is power-
 fully affected, and the nervous system greatly excited.  The  poor
 victim falls  at last, into deep  despondency and despair.  She is
 seized with a horror of life, which leads her, finally, to utter ruin
 and death.  Marriage alone will put an  end to this awful state.
  In the extravagance of passion, suicide is often contemplated, and
 understandingly executed.   But most frequently occurs a general
perversion of sensibility,  and  all forms of hysterics, especially if
 there exist  a strong tendency to love, nurtured by high living,  an
easy, sedentary  life, the reading of  amorous novels, or exciting
conversations with the other  sex, &c.  Other affections, as cata-
lepsies, ecstacies, epilepsy, convulsions, &c. frequently depend upon
the reproductive organs.  These effects  are universally observed
also in the brute creation.   Look at canary birds; when separated
from their females, and they can see them without being able to
reach them, they sing continually, and never cease till their distress
is terminated by an attack of epilepsy.
  Be it, then, remembered that the period of the greatest reproduc-
tive  ardor, is that of the highest mental excitement, and that the 
               THE  GOLDEN BIBLE OF  NATURE.             63

dominant passions of  a burning  nature will  interfere with the
operations of the intellectual faculties;  so that many young women
become  insane, either from erotic  excitement, or  from the love,
even of  the beings of their own imagination; — for it is justly ob-
served, ' such are  the wants of the heart in woman, that  they are
caught by, and attach  themselves to chimeras,  when the reality is
wanting  to their sensibility.'  The worst disease resulting from this
cause  is  nymphomania,  or furor  uterinus.  Diseases also  of the
womb and breasts, occur chiefly amongst unmarried females.  Old
maids  are especially liable  to such  disorders, because their organs
have not fulfilled their functions.   Schirrous, indurations, and can-
cers are  often found  in these parts, especially at the final cessation
of the menses; hence we advocate,


       THE NECESSITY OF A SETTLED STATE OF LIFE,
                      (OF MATRIMONY.)

  It is a  difficult and a very delicate  question to decide,  whether
there  are cases in  which  it is absolutely necessary  that  there
should be a union of the sexes at a very early age, for the  purpose of
arresting the evil effects of unnatural indulgences,  or of an over-
excited  instinct, and when predominant passions  are  so violent
and  precocious as  to suggest a premature  marriage.  Many may
suppose that  an imagination, constantly  agitated by thoughts and
fancies of love, and inflamed by the absorption of the reproductive
fluid, which presses and excites the generative organs, may still be
diverted  from sensual ideas, and the carnal stimulus, and  that the
effervescence of these natural phenomena may be directed to intel-
lectual pursuits, poetical compositions, music,  fashionable amuse-
ments, balls, parties,  and such like diversions.  Now every observer
is impressed  with  the  frequency and the fatal  effects  of unnatu-
ral  indulgences, and  with  the alarming and  excited  state of
many promising boys  and girls, who  had arrived  at the  age of
puberty perhaps in their fourteenth year.  It is  known also, that
the evils  of all marriages are  only those imposed by a false edu-
cation, an  artificial state of society, and the unequal distribution
of wealth.  And as  to  poetical compositions,  music,  fashionable 
«4
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
companies, theatres, &c. they would evidently be only adding fuel
to the flames.  When all the thoughts  of a youthful man begin to
be  occupied by  the desire of  pleasure,  in consequence of an
early development of  the reproductive organs, every hour that
passes adds  new fuel and fire to his longings; almost every indi-
vidual  of the opposite  sex seems fascinating to  him;  his  heart
palpitates, and at their approach  his whole  frame feels the electric
sparks  of an  ardent love, and  a  kindling  and devouring  flame
seems to pervade  him and to burn within  him, which he  cannot
quench, and the conflagration spreads with mighty fury throughout
all his members.   Even  during the night, the physical condition of
the external organs necessary to  reproduction annoys him, and his
6leep is often excited and destroyed or disturbed, by wandering
dreams of voluptuous thoughts and deeds.  This is a state in which
gratification or disease inevitably follows.
  Of the young  woman, notwithstanding  the  will modifies her
affections, the same is  true, and her  nature suffers and sinks be-
neath the rebel instinct of lust, passion, and love; the  effects of
this  burning volcano on her are still more dangerous;  it consumes
all hope of happiness, preventing  the attainment  of  that felicity
for which alone she exists.
  Marriage ought, then, to'succeed  the  celibacy  of  earlier life.
Marriage is man's  natural state  after puberty ; and to woman it is
an indispensable requisite.  She was  created of him and for him,
young and handsome, mature in age, strength, and  nature ;  and to
him she was given, adorned with  all those graces and charms which
remind him and her of the imperative laws of mutual delights and
those of procreation.   She is indued  with power to give and to
inherit a terrestrial  paradise, to multiply her species, to  become
matron, queen, and mother.  If she dare to resist the well-governed
impulses of nature in her youth, and thus  trample on and reject
these laws and commands, woe to her; either she  must bear the
early fruits of spring and nature, or wither and die, be sterile and
dried, cut off and cast away.  This is therefore the period, when
the female, pressed by a new want, and excited by a mysterious
impulse, should employ her faculties,  and renounce that inexperi-
ence in love, which was  becoming in her childhood state. 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.
65
   The early ripeness of this appetite proves it to be the intention
 of Providence that people  should  early settle in matrimony, and
 exercise those gifts which reproduce their equals.  In this state the
 appetite is sufficiently moderate, and is no obstruction to education.
 On the other hand, it developes the very faculties of the soul.  It
 never becomes  unruly, till one, forgetting the  matrimonial tie,
 wanders to  and fro, from  object  to object.  It is licentiousness,
 pride, and luxury, that  dictate late marriages, which never  were
 intended by  nature nor by our Maker.   A benign Providence and
 industry never will fail to afford the means of living comfortably,
 provided men confine  themselves,  without abuse, to the demands
 of nature and  to the laws of God. 'Multiply and replenish the
 earth, which  is given to you for your inheritance.'
   Late marriages are not eminently happy, and this is a truth too
 important to  be  neglected.   It is dangerous for a man and woman,
 when  friendships  have been  contracted on both  sides, and love
 burns within;  when sympathy  and attraction are  at  work, and
 nature is excited, to delay the matrimonial union to a  time  when
 opinions  are fixed, and habits  established; when  life has been
 planned into  method, and the  mind has long enjoyed the contem-
 plation of its own prospects.
   As to young women, it is  certain  that the happiest effects must
 result from early matrimony, and especially to those of a voluptu-
 ous, sanguine temperament, excited  by the prevailing fashions and
 luxury, by stimulants and inactivity, and by every thing that can
 allure desire.  When hysterics, epilepBy, or  other  distempers are
 caused by a  burning flame of unsatisfied love or restrained conti-
 nence, matrimony becomes  imperative; nay, in these  epileptic
 convulsions, or inordinate raptures, young  women,  widows, old
 maids, and neglected married ladies, should instantly embrace the
 dictates of a rational law, the law of nature.  Many grave authors
have not hesitated to recommend to them what is contrary to the
 common notions  of propriety and the laws of God.  And to those
who should object  to  these prescriptions, (in  regard  to physical
health,) others are ready to say, that  ' we ought not to do ill to pro-
duce  good.'  The same means have often cured uterine cholic,
and nervous  diseases, the origin of which  is  traced to absolute
                 9 
C6
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
continence; and the cure of nymphomania must consist in mar-
riage.
   The fact, that such derangements are the result of continence, is
nature's declaration, and 'that copulation  (in wedlock) is the sole
method of curing them;' and what can be  done by medical art,
which always looks at human nature independently of social insti-
tutions, if the immutable laws of fecundity and reproduction are
perverted ?
   When, therefore, a young maiden, or a widow, exhibits symptoms
of the approach of any of these  diseases, she should, quickly, if
possible, be united to the object of her affections.   Such symptoms
then speedily disappear; health and  happiness take  their  place,
and she will  become  a  valuable  ornament to her beloved, to the
domestic circle, and to society.  True, there are young girls suffi-
ciently artful to counterfeit hysteric epilepsy, and other affections,
for which they have heard marriage recommended as the only rem-
edy, in the hope of being inducted into that state.   But, if they
employ such a subterfuge, is it not a proof of  the intensity of their
desires, sufficient to give us cause to fear that, in yielding to the
transports of their passion, they may shortly experience in reality
the trouble  and disorder they have  counterfeited for the mo*
ment?
   Independently of morbid affections, which  marriage removes, it
augments the energies of the sanguineous system; the distended
arteries carry warmth and animation  throughout the  body; the
muscles become vigorous; the walk is  free; the voice firmer; the
demeanor unembarrassed; the sanguine temperament predominates.
In short, men and women improve in their health, strength, and
beauty, and much is added also to the attainment and development
of the mental faculties.
   It must not, however, be forgotten, that, manifest as may be the
impulses of nature, and great as may be the desire of complying
with her wishes, several causes  may oppose  these, and neglect of
them  may still  more surely prove fatal to the health or life of the
maiden.  Marriage would, in many instances, be deeply injurious,
before the young  woman is  in a state to perform its functions!
Many are ill adapted to  sustain the crisis of pregnancy, delivery,
and suckling.   Other insurmountable obstacles  to marriage should 
               THE  GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.             67

be considered, such as those choices which  foretell certain misciy
to the married couple, disease  or insanity in children, &c.  Wives
and husbands should be chosen, not in accordance with the state of
wealth and fashion, but in compliance with the salutary character-
istic laws of life and nature; we mean, of body and  mind; on the
principles of righteous judgment, and truths connected with physi-
ology, so that their union may be happy, and crowned with per-
petual bliss; their progeny healthy, vigorous, and endowed with
rich gifts in body and mind. 
SECTION  SECOND.
A Treatise on/Nervous Hysterics, and Hypochondriacal Complaints,
  as primary of successive Causes of Dyspepsia, Liver Affections,
  Src. ire

  OF A PREVAILING DISEASE, WHICH  IS  UNWARRANTABLY
          SUPPOSED TO BE GENERAL CONSUMPTION.

  Before entering into  the descriptive character of chronic dis-
eases, whose origin  is too often unjustly claimed to be a nervous
consumption, either of the liver, kidneys, spleen, spine, dropsy, and
of the lungs, &c, or a general consumption, vulgarly called ma-
rasmus,— a  wasting  away of the whole  system, — we thought it
best to give the history and explanation of a disease  which, par-
ticularly in  America and  the West  Indies,  is very prevalent,
This complaint  is, unfortunately, overlooked by the profession, and
but little is understood about it by the  American physician;  while
the people  are  entirely ignorant of the  possibility of  its  ex-
istence, — nay, even the sufferers are ready to ridicule the idea
of it  as absurd and entirely groundless.   We, on the other  hand,
are ready, not only to  give evidence of its  reality, but  to prove,
by positive facts, that this disease is the  primary and sole  cause
of many  such supposed consumptions.   Experience  has  repeat-
edly shown to us, that, when this cause has been removed or de-
stroyed, by  nature or art, which we have  always succeeded  in
doing, the patient has become, on a sudden, relieved and radically
cured; and thus mockery and laughter  would be  turned  upon
the ignorance of physicians and their worthless pretensions and
unjustifiable treatment
  As we have  stated, the cause of many  chronic diseases, which
we are apt  to  call consumptions of some particular  oro-an, or a
complicated one, is no more nor less, than the presence of a species
of worms, whose effects upon the system are such as to deceive and 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
69
baffle even the most skilful physician; and this is so, for the reason
that he cannot detect their  presence,  in living subjects, in any
case; nor is he able,  as  they  are beyond  the possibility of his
researches, to determine,  with  accuracy, the symptoms and their
location; indeed, he cannot ascertain their real existence.
  We might add, also, the remark, that if, by guess, any one should
form a conjectural opinion of their existence, and arrive  at a cer-
tain conclusion, and  if future events should confirm him of their
reality, the physician would, of course, think  of prescribing accord-
ingly ; yet, he soon, after a second thought, would find himself at
a loss for a remedy, as an effectual treatment will not reach the
case until  something more is known about these vermin by our
physicians.  We  are, however, gratified to  learn, that the faculty
of America have concurred with our assertions, that certain cura-
tive powers  for  this  disease are  admirably exempUfied in  our
discovery of the Philanthropic  Remedy.
  We will now attempt to describe, in few words, the character of
these worms, called Hydatids, and then point out the  best method
known for their effectual destruction, which, as above stated, would
give a sudden relief and a radical  cure  to the afflicted.
   In our treatise upon worms, we  have remarked that  there are
animals found in other parts of the body, which do not exist either
in  the  cavity of the  stomach,  nor in  those of the  digestive and
intestinal canal.  We shall now call into notice a species of them,
called the Hydatids.
   This is a very singular animal, and looks like a bladder.  It is
inclosed in a bag, distended  with an  aqueous  fluid.  They are
sometimes created in the  cavities of the body, as the chest,
abdomen, the ventricles of the brain, &c, but more frequently in
the liver, kidneys, spleen, lungs, &c, where  they produce diseased
actions of those viscera.  Very seldom, if  ever, are the  vires na-
turae medicatrices (the strength and  laws of benign nature) alone
sufficient to effect a cure.  The patient mostly falls a sacrifice to
their ravages, and this because their  existence is overlooked, or
because of the little knowledge of our physicians respecting  those
diseases, and their inefficiency  in treating them.
   There is no gland in the human body, in which hydatids are so
frequently found, as in the liver, except the kidneys, where they 
 70             PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

 are still more common.  Hydatids of the liver are usually found in
 a cyst, (bag,) which is frequently of considerable size, and is form-
 ed of very firm materials, so  as to give to  the  touch almost  the
 feeling of cartilage.  This cyst, when cut into, is obviously lami-
 nated, and is much thicker in one liver than another.  In some
 livers it is not  thicker than a small silver coin, and in others, it is
 near a quarter of an inch in  thickness.  The lamina? which com-
pose it are formed of a white  matter, and on the  inside there  is a
lining of a pulpy substance, like coagulated lymph.  The cavity
of the cyst is sometimes subdivided by a partition of this pulpy
substance.   In a cyst  may be found one  hydatid or a greater
number of them.  They lie  loose in the  cavity, swimming in  a
fluid, and some of  them are attached to  the sides  of the cyst.
They consist of a round bag, which is composed  of  a white,
semi-opaque, pulpy matter, and contain a fluid capable of coagula-
tion.  Although the common color of hydatids be white, yet, occa-
sionally, some  of them  are  seen  of a light, amber color.   The
bag  of the hydatid  consists of two lamina;, and possesses a good
deal of  contractile power.  In one  hydatid, the coat, or bag, is
much thicker and more  opaque than in another; and even in the
same  hydatid, different  parts of it will often differ in thickness.
On the inside of a hydatid's cyst, smaller ones are sometimes found,
which are commonly not larger than the heads of pins ; but some-
times they are even larger than a gooseberry.  These  are attached
to the larger hydatid, either at scattered irregular distances, or so
as to form small clusters; and they are also found floating  loose in
the liquor of the larger  hydatids.  There  have been found  in
human beings, hydatid's  bags, each large enough  to contain from
about half an ounce to one pound  and a half of  fluid.  Hydatids
of the liver are often found unconnected with  each other;  but
sometimes they inclose each other in a series, like  pill-boxes.   The
most common situation of hydatids  of the liver is in its substance,
and inclosed in a cyst; but they are occasionally attached to  the
outer surface of the liver, hanging from it, and occupying more or
less of the general cavity of the abdomen.   The origin and real
nature of  these hydatids are not fully ascertained; certain it is
however, that they are a sort of imperfect living animalculse; and
 we are inclined to believe the extreme probability of their origin 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.
71
from the outside secretion and evaporation of impure fluids, which
circulate in  those organs, and in  the inward parietal  regions,
where the worms are attached.   These fluids, when their  circula-
tion is vitiated, and they are  not quickly taken up by the absorb-
ents,  or  exhaled,  will clog therein,  undergo  decomposition,  be-
come acrid, ferment and corrupt; in which state, as with any inert
and dead animal matter, when it undergoes putrefaction, they will
almost invariably  generate  vermin.   This,  our opinion  of their
origin, we have adopted from cautious inquiry, our  own knowl-
edge, and practical observation; and our theory is  based on much
experience, not only  in  cases of quadrupeds, but human beings,
during dissections, in the large hospitals of Italy and France, before
the bodies are allowed to become cold  and rigid.
  This doctrine is equally applicable to the hydatids found in other
organs, as the brain, &c, or in the cavities of the chest,  abdomen,
or elsewhere.  Any one, though he  should not be a physician, or a
naturalist, might satisfy himself of their real existence on applying at
a slaughter-house and examining the vitals and inward parietal cavi-
ties of some of the beasts, more  especially of those which  happen
to be lean; and  this,  because,  perhaps, unknown  to the  owners,
they are  often infected by disease.
  In  sheep, especially, they have often been seen to move when
taken  out of the body  and put  into warm water;  and they
retain the power of motion for many hours after a sheep has been
killed.  The  analogy is great between the hydatids of a sheep and
those of the human subject.   In both, they are contained in strong
cysts, and, in  both, they consist of  the  same white, pulpy matter.
Perhaps there may be some difference between them, in the  sim-
plicity of organization.    Even the hydatids of  human subjects
have been found, in our experience, to possess life,  and to live and
move, when taken out of a  still warm body  and  put into  tepid
water.  The  reason wThy our American  anatomists  and physicians
cannot generally detect  them, is on account  of allowing the body
to remain for so  long  a  time after  death, before  it  is examined;
bo that the hydatids have already lost,  not only their living princi-
ple, but  their very organization, and, virtually, have undergone
decomposition.
  We have stated enough to satisfy  the  reader of the existence of 
1  72
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
such a disease.  Now let us examine and ascertain the awful conse-
quences of it, and its  prevalence  in  the  living.  In every large
city in Europe there exists a strict inspection upon every thing
which might affect the general health of the people.  For this pur-
pose a daily surveillance is given to the markets, public stores, and
resorts where fruits, vegetables, meats, &e. are sold; and it is precisely
this last place, and the slaughter-houses, that are most scrupulously
watched, lest some infected animal, to  superficial appearance per-
fectly healthy while living, should be  butchered and sold.  It has
also been ascertained, by strict inquiry, and by chemical processes,
and medical experiments, and from facts which have often come to
the notice  and knowledge of purchasers, and  from  the judgment
of physicians, that animals infected with  hydatids, in any part of
the body, are unfit for food, unwholesome and dangerous; and that
their flesh will soon undergo a change of  color, become black and
greenish, and that it putrifies the  quickest, and soon decomposes,
exhaling a sickish, foetid smell.  Hence  the  European Common-
wealth's Overseers condemn such meats to an immediate burial, and
the seller is dealt  with severely.
  Let our American physicians examine  these  facts, (as we have
had a thousand times the opportunity to do, in the dissecting col-
leges  and hospitals of health in France and Italy,  where a post-
mortem examination of  the  sick  takes place immediately  after
death.) Upon investigation they will be convinced of the very com-
mon existence of  hydatids.  They will  find them at times, indiscrim-
inately, in either the liver, the kidneys, the womb, ovaries, &c, in
the outward  surfaces of the stomach, of the lungs, and of the
intestines, _ &c, and in the  cavities of the body and of the head.
The examination  should be made immediately after death.  Should
it  be delayed but a  few hours, hardly a vestige  of them would
remain to give us evidence of their existence.  The cysts in such a
case would be found burst  asunder,  putrid, and in  a state of de-
composition, leaving rather the appearance of ulcerated sores, and
foetid mucus, than of vermin.
  If there exist after death, then, in the beasts of the field, as well
as in human beings, such causes of quick dissolution  and of putre-
faction, why should it be considered irrational to suppose that these
vermin are very dangerous in the  living ?  Certainly it could not 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
73
 be otherwise.   The patient must die a lingering death, if these cysts
 should increase in number or size and  not burst.  If, on the other
 hand, the cysts should  burst  and discharge their fluids from the
 system, such an occurrence would give immediate relief to the sick,
 recruit his strength, and he would be radically cured.  It has also
 been ascertained that these vermin cannot propagate, nor live long,
 if they are deprived of their  vital element, — the liquor contained
 in  the bags; hence, as soon  as this liquor has  discharged  and
 escaped, the broken cysts and  the vermin themselves will either be
 dislodged and  die, become  decomposed, and  converted  into  cor-
 rupted fluids, and then  discharged  through the same channel, or
 neutralized and  reconveyed  by the absorbents to  the secreting
 vessels, and thus be effectually removed from the system.
   We  will now speak of the most successful treatment to be adopt-
 ed in this disease, and point out  to  the physician  and the patient
 the most efficient remedies, which have stood the test of long ex-
 perience  without  a failure.   If  we should be positive of their
 existence in a location  easy of access  by a surgical operation,
 (which, by  the Avay, though considered an unwarrantable  experi-
 ment, has been performed with success,) we might remedy the evil
 and effect a cure.  These bbld attempts, however, are not common,
 and are  never practised in  America.  We  have spoken  of the
 origin  of these animalculae, and stated that they are to be found
 only in those parts where no local antidote could  be applied,  (ex-
 cept it should  be, as  above stated, by a surgical operation,) while
 to all other species of worms, the anthelmintics  or vermifuges are
 a powerful poison.  This remedy acts  by contact; the worms are
 chemically killed or expelled by its immediate influence, and their
 seeds destroyed and  dislodged  from the  stomach and  intestinal
 canal,  which is not the case with the hydatids.  They are closely
 shut up within a strong cartilaginous bag, of their own make, into
 which nothing can pass to destroy them ; besides, their residence is
 far off from any direct influence or reach of antidotes.  Hence
 their destruction  can only be caused by powerful remedies acting
 upon the primce vice, and on  the first cause of their generation and
development, that is : — on the fluids of  the system, and on the blood.
 Thus, by purifying these fluids and the blood, and  by restoring to
them their  natural vigor, and  a wholesome, free circulation, there
                  10 
74             PRUDENTIAL  REVELATIONS,  AND

must  and will  be imparted the powerful  properties and  virtues,
which  will cause, not  only a cessation of the  growth of  these
animals, but their certain death.  The absorbents and exhalent
vessels would  also be  full of activity in their office; a contractile
strangulation of the  cysts, and perhaps a sudden burst of them,
or,  at  least, their desication,  will ensue.   These  dead and  hete-
rogenous substances will then  be taken up, by the absorbents, and
conveyed through the ordinary secreting organs, out of the system.
This is the theory and the practice we have advocated, and by
which alone the patient can recover.
  In conclusion, let us  no longer be deluded by losing sight of this
disease.  This kind  of worms or animalculae, as we have stated,
is very common; and  if not  destroyed will always prove fatal to
human fife, perhaps without the physician  or  the patient being
aware of their existence.  Thousands of facts have  demonstrated
the correctness  of our judgment, and that our  mode of treatment is
a certain  cure.  How many unhappy sufferers,  victims of this
disease, would  have fallen to a premature  grave, having been
abandoned to their fate by physicians, who uniformly supposed and
gravely declared their sickness to be of a nervous nature, or caused
by some organic, chronic, innate cause, consumption, marasmus, liver
affection,  cramp, dropsy, inward tumors,  pains, fits, &c, if, under
Providence, Dr. Fontaine's prescription, the French Philanthropic
Remedy, had not succeeded, as it always will, in snatching them from
the voracious havoc of  these worms, and, on  a sudden, to the de-
light of parents, relations, and friends, restored  them  to  the  full
bloom of primitive health.
  This Philanthropic Remedy, if applied to the disease, according
to the directions, will always do good, and remove  the most obsti-
nate chronic and organic diseases, and especially where  there is
the presence of  such  animalculae, this medicine  will  effectually
destroy them.   Its virtues and properties are imparted to the blood
and fluids; it purifies  them, neutralizes their impurities, and is a
powerful antidote and  preventive of this disease. 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.
75
                OF LOWNESS OF SPIRITS,  ETC.

  Nervous  complaints,  attended  with dyspepsia,  and  bilious
affections are extremely prevalent in the United States, especially
in the Northern and Eastern portions, and are attended with such
a train of distressing symptoms as  to  claim our sympathy and
assistance, rather than the derision and  contempt with  which they
are too often treated.  For this reason  the  following treatise has
been prepared; containing, it is believed,  the  most  satisfactory
theory, and the best mode  of  treatment; conveyed in such plain
language, as can  easily be understood  by those not familiar with
the technicalities of medical science.
  Under the general  head of nervous disorders, are included sev-
eral organic and chronic maladies.   Many of them are so danger-
ous and  of  such various symptoms, that a large volume would
scarcely suffice for their complete explanation.   The most common
nervous symptoms are  weakness, flatulence, palpitations, timidity,
watchfulness, drowsiness after dinner, flush of heat and cold chills,
numbness and cramps in different parts, giddiness, pains in the
head, back, loins, and kidneys, difficult  respiration, anxiety, affec-
tions of the throat and lungs, indicated  by a nervous or spasmodic
cough, and other disagreeable and distressing'infirmities.
  One aspect of nervous complaints is distinguished  by no name;
it is difficult to describe, and it is impossible to  form any correct
conception of it.   At first,  there exist portentous indications, like
the brooding of a fearful storm;  then, violent paroxysms shake the
system, like  the throes of an earthquake, or some internal convul-
sion, while the whole nervous system feels its pervading influence,
and the heart is  wrung with inexpressible  anguish, accompanied
by the most dreadful sensatioms of  horror  and despair.   In the
paroxysms of this terrible disease, thousands, overwhelmed by the
jorrid fantasies of their excited imaginations, have committed self-
destruction.
  Hypochondriacal diseases seem to belong entirely to the nervous
system, and to be dependent upon its derangements, and they are
attended by  a train of symptoms extending to the disease of almost
every function of the human system, varying in  different persons, 
76
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
and in the same  patient at different times.  The patient seems to
be afflicted with almost every pain, symptom, and disease to which
the human system is liable; and so strongly are the body and mind
affected, and so powerfully does  every distressing feeling  sympa-
thize, one  with  another, that the  whole of  the  physical  and
moral existence  is overpowered  by nervous fantasies and furies.
The  patient is rendered weak,  peevish, melancholy, excessively
timid, &c.   This infirmity of mind, be  it remembered, is a conse-
quence of the  disease, and a part of its symptoms.
  Nervous disorders and dyspepsia usually attend a sedentary life.
Want  of   exercise  enervates  the constitution,  and the nervous
and mental system  becomes exceedingly  irritable and impaired.
Though men of genius, artists,  authors, &c, are most liable to ner-
vous diseases and dyspepsia, the  mercantile class is by no means
exempt, and the confinement of the counting room, combined with
the excitement of modern speculations, produces in the system
great  excitement and  derangement.  Mental  reveries  of future
speculations, or of past blasted hopes, throw the nerves into con-
vulsions, and a too  assiduous  attention to business may produce
numbness  and  paralysis.  Generally nervous diseases are attended
with palpitation of the heart, trembling of the limbs, and shortness
of breath, or phthisical affections, upon  the least violent exercise.
Joy and grief,  in violent  manifestations, appear without apparent
cause.  Temporary, yet severe pains are felt in the head, accom-
panied by an unceasing uneasiness and confusion of mind.   A dis-
turbed sleep ensues; and high-wrought dreams, and  strange and
frightful imaginations, are its common attendants.  As the disease
increases in violence, so does  each particular symptom, and each
assumes the name of a particular  disorder, perhaps because it was
thus denominated by some shallow practitioner, whose pretensions
to science  and  physic had ignorantly and presumptuously justified
prescribing a medicine for each one of them, separately and sinalv,
instead of prescribing for the general disease — a  practice very
common here in America — the practitioner treating the effects of
the disorder, rather than giving remedies to remove the cause.  Such
absurd proceedings lead the patient to overrate his complaint, to
excite his feelings, so that these very symptoms are aggravated by
the medicines  of physicians  and  attendants, and the notions and 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
77
fancies of  the  victim, which render  him doubly unhappy.   This
disease assumes a severe and virulent character, by whatever pas-
sion or affection it is  excited, be  it excessive grief or too much
mirthful pleasure; by strong mental excitement; by  habits of too
studious occupation, want of exercise, the horrid vice of self-pollu-
tion, or excessive sexual indulgence, even  in the  marriage state ;
by  the immoderate use of  narcotics, such as tea, coffee, tobacco,
opium, and intoxicating beverages;  by a long residence in unheal-
thy climates, and exposure to great extremes of temperature and
severe privation.
  Nervous  diseases, dyspepsia,  liver  affections,  &c,  impair the
memory,  and render  the mind easily accessible to depraved and
whimsical ideas.  Persons of weak nerves  are in  the habit  of
dreaming — a phenomenon  produced by a  portion  of the  brain
being in a restless  state.  Dull headaches, sleepiness, and melan-
choly, mark a reduced state  of the  nervous system, which, if con-
tinued, produces deplorable  effects,  and is attended in  its rallying
struggles with intense pain and violent disorders.
  The patient  must not be alarmed, but only cautioned, by the
discovery of the causes of these symptoms.  Under proper regimen
and medical treatment, the  recuperative energies  are sufficient to
warrant a cure, unless destroyed  by age, or prostrated by intem-
perance or abuse.  Ardent  spirits  and  other narcotic stimulants
give momentary relief, but are sure to increase the disease.
  Nervous patients are generally dull and inactive;  they muse  with-
out thinking, and exhibit a strange inattention.  The appetite  is
bad, the stomach weak, and troubled with flatulence;  the breathing
is difficult; and lowness of spirits, dimness of sight, vain suspicions,
melancholy imaginations, a  disgust  for  every exertion, supineness
and general stupidity, are common  to nervous complaints, and for
the most  part these are its peculiar  symptoms.
  Every thing that relaxes  or weakens the body, tends to destroy
the harmony of  the  nervous system; and the irregularity of one
spring of this fabric, in all  cases disposes  others  to diseases, and
often produces an entire derangement.
  A feeble state of the nerves  is indicated, and generally accom-
panied by lowness of spirits.  Every thing tending  to  debility
should therefore be carefully avoided; and the surest  preventive or 
78
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
cure of melancholy is to engage in  active pursuits.   Shortness of
sight is also an early and frequent symptom, as well as difficulty of
hearing, and fallacious perceptions of sound.   The progress of re-
finement, fashion, luxury and excess  in America, have caused  a
great prevalence of nervous  diseases; for it is certain, that in the
simple state of nature, and  with the homely manners of the early
settlers, such diseases were little known; and the prevalence of
these disorders among the rich, the fashionable, and luxurious, goes
far to equalize  their condition with that of those who are looked
upon as less fortunate  members  of society.   The richest man in
the world  would give his fortune for health—a blessing little prized,
and often lewdly or carelessly squandered   by those  who pos-
sess it
   The loss of a beloved husband, an idolized child, or a dear rela-
tion, often gives the nerves a shock from which it is difficult to re-
cover.  Grief  and disappointment, especially in affairs  of  the
heart, not unfrequently produce  the  most fatal nervous  diseases.
Intense study, the overtasking of any particular organ or  function
of the system, whatever weakens or destroys  the harmony of the
system, have a  tendency to produce and increase these prevalent
and distressing complaints.
   The most common indications of the existence of this class of
diseases, and the symptoms with which they commence, are, an ab-
surdity of behavior,  inactivity, dislike to motion,  anorexia, or a
want of appetite, without  loathing of food,  borborygmus, or the
rumbling  noise occasioned by flatus (wind) in the bowels, costive-
ness, flatulence  in the stomach, sighing, uneasiness  about the pre-
cordia, great dejection,  internal sinking, heaviness of the  stomach,
cramps, palpitation of  the heart, taciturnity,  wild, incoherent dis-
course, absurd  notions,  ridiculous fancies, monomania, &c.  These
symptoms are almost incessant, and  at times the patient is suddenly
seized with them, as by a sudden  shock, preceded  by the usual
symptoms of  indigestion.  The stomach  may be in  an  excited
state, craving food, or there  may be a loss of appetite difficult  to
overcome.  Food, when taken, turns  sour on the stomach, and the
patient is  troubled with acidity, and vomits a  clear  liquid, a viscid
phlegm, or black matter, like ground coffee, while there are excru-
ciating pains about the navel, a rumbling noise in the bowels, and 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
79
 other indications of a disordered system, frightful to the physiolo-
 gist, but too often neglected by the patient, or improperly treated
 by physicians.
   As the disease advances, pains in the most sensitive parts, and a
 partial  failing of some of the senses, with a general sympathy of
 the physical and mental faculties, mark the progress of the disorder.
 The urine is sometimes deficient in quantity, and at times very copi-
 ous and clear.   There is a great  and continued straitness of the
 breast, with difficulty of breathing, (amounting sometimes almost to
 suffocation,)  spasms, violent agitations, and hurried pulsations, and
 flashes of heat, alternating with a peculiar chilliness, as if water were
 turned  over the limbs.  Flying pains are felt in the different parts,
 like those caused by gravel; the pulse is extremely variable, chang-
 ing, by turns, from fast to slow.  The patient is troubled by yawning,
 hickups, frequent profound sighing, oppression, a sense of choking,
 as  if from some hard substance lodged  in the  larynx,  (throat,)
 alternate fits  of  crying and paroxysms of convulsive laughter, un-
 sound and  unrefreshing  sleep, haunted  by horrible,  fatiguing
 dreams.
   In many cases, nervous disorders are hereditary; in others, they
 are produced by a sedentary life, intense and trying mental appli-
 cation, prolonged diseases, and profuse and unnatural evacuations
 of the seminal fluid.  They are common with both sexes;  but  in
 females, on account of their greater  delicacy of constitution, and
 delicate manner of life, they are more frequent  and more violent
 than in  the other sex.  The female frame is subject to irregulari-
 ties, which are a fruitful source of these disorders, while men often
 bring them upon themselves by their vicious excesses.
  Immoderate and unnatural losses of the seminal fluid weaken
 the body, by draining  off  this precious fluid, which, by many
physiologists, is considered the very essence of life ; the convulsive
orgasm, with  which it is discharged, is extreme; violent are the
transports, and its ecstacies are  followed  by prostration and lan-
guor ; and, while each indulgence increases the  irritability of the
organs, it decreases  the  power of the system to  sustain these re-
peated shocks;  so that frequent  excitements, erections, and emis-
sions, though  often involuntary, break  down the  constitution, and
bring the youth  to a premature old  age, and thousands fall to an 
80
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
 untimely grave.  Hypochondria is a frequent attendant upon the
 practice of self-pollution, and this vice brings with it, as a conse-
 quence, a series of very alarming  diseases, and many of the  worst
 symptoms, already described, and some  even more fatal and ter-
 rible ;  delirious  fits,  frenzy, and the most  unmanageable epilepsy,
 are  not unfrequently produced by this  vile  practice, and  a still
 more deplorable state of idiocy often ensues.
   Eminent physicians have observed, that while nervous affections,
 dyspepsias, liver complaints, &c, are so similar in  their symptoms
 to other local affections, there is one peculiar symptom  of nervous
 diseases: — a  despair of ever recovering.   This  hopelessness and
 constant dread of a  fatal  termination  to these disorders, renders
 those afflicted  with  them  extremely impatient and apprehensive,
 and keeps them  changing from one physician  and medicine to an-
 other, so that no course of treatment, however judiciously prescrib-
 ed, has time to produce a proper effect.  Nothing but perseverance
 can bring about  the necessary salutary alteration and change in the
 system, necessary to  produce  a radical cure.
   Unquestionably many,  if  not  most, of the causes of nervous
 diseases, act first upon the stomach and alimentary canal, or the
 digestive system; for if the  improper  quantity or  quality of food
 relaxes the solids, or by its acrimony produces spasmodic  action;
or if any thing diminish the energy, or excite an irregular motion
 of the animal spirits, the tendency  is, directly or remotely, to  pro-
duce nervous disorders.
   The patient ought never to expect  an  immediate cure for this
class of diseases.  He may experience  immediate benefit, but the
cure is a work of time, resolution, and  skill.   Often  a  slow,  pro-
 gressive cure is preferable to  immediate  benefit, which  is but too
 apt to be fallacious.
   It is proper to remark, that Dr. Fontaine, so eminently success-
ful in this class of disorders, would never attend a patient without
a pledge from him to attend strictly and perseveringly, not only to
his medical  prescriptions,  but to  his  directions  respecting  diet,
exercise, and general regimen. 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
81
MEDICAL ADVICE" TO PERSONS  AFFECTED WITH DYSPEPSIA,
  LIVER  COMPLAINT, BILIOUS AFFECTIONS, NERVOUS  DISOR-
  DERS, LOWNESS OF SPIRITS, ETC

  Patients affected with these disorders  ought never to fast long.
Their food should  be  solid and nourishing, but easy of digestion;
and all excess must  be most carefully avoided.   Hot  meats  are
hurtful.  The meal should never overtask the powers of digestion;
but if the patient  feel weak  and faint, between meals, he should
eat a bit of coarse  bread or cracker, soaked in a little of the best
old wine.  Of the most efficient medicines which we prescribe for
similar  diseases, the  French  Philanthropic Remedy has always
proved  preferable, and it supersedes any other treatment, if the
directions are strictly  adhered to, and persevered in.  Heavy sup-
pers are to  be avoided.  Though  wine,  in excess,  enfeebles  the
body and destroys the mind, taken  in moderation,  it gives tone to
the stomach, and promotes digestion; but where  it is disagreeable,
or sours upon the stomach, a little brandy and  water is preferable.
All windy, indigestible, and innutritious or stimulating viands  are
to be avoided.  All weak and  warm liquids, as  tea, coffee, and
other vegetable  decoctions, do no  good.   There is no  doubt that
they often produce a temporary benefit, but, in the end, they never
fail of increasing the unfavorable symptoms.   Of all things, drams
must be avoided.   Whatever  temporary  ease  the patient ma)'
receive  from  spirits,  fermented liquors, and  narcotics,  they will
surely soon produce poisonous effects upon the  system, and they
should  never be taken without  the order of  a sober  and skilful
physician.   These cautions  are the more necessary, from  the
extreme prevalence of the common use of these injurious articles.
  It is difficult to  say whether exercise, in nervous disorders, be
not even more  important than  medicine.  Riding on  horseback
gives motion to  the whole body, without greatly fatiguing it; but
walking agrees better  with some patients.  Every one should use
that which he has found most useful and agreeable to himself.
Long sea voyages have produced the happiest  effects, and to those
who are possessed of sufficient resolution to undertake  them, and
                  11 
82
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
are so situated as to be able to leave their homes, they are to be
strongly recommended.  Change of scenes, diversions, and things
which occupy  or  interest the mind  agreeably, are  beneficial in  a
high degree ; but, with all these, that admirable medicine already
mentioned, the true Philanthropic  Remedy, should never be neg-
lected.
  The air should  be cool and dry, and such as is found most brac-
ing and invigorating.   Warm air,  especially that  rendered  so by
great fires  in small apartments, is always injurious; but when the
stomach and bowels are weak, the body should be  carefully guard-
ed against extreme cold, and sudden changes, stoppage of perspira-
tion, &c, by proper clothes and flannel next the skin.
  The nervous patient should rise early, avoiding the languor pro-
duced  by long sleep and indulgence in bed;  take exercise before
breakfast, and find constant and agreeable occupations and amuse-
ments ; avoiding all violent  passions or emotions, whether of love,
anger, fear, grief, or  anxiety.  For diseases of the lungs  the air
should be dry and warm; for nervous diseases, either cold or tem-
perate ; and this is a matter of no slight importance.
  Nature in all the animal creation, requires action, and regular
exercise is absolutely necessary to the healthy  performance of the
various functions  of the human system.   Exercise alone, with the
persevering use of the  Philanthropic Remedy, may be considered
the main spring  to the machinery of the system.   It assists  diges-
tion, stimulates the organs of digestion and  nutrition, promotes  a
healthy circulation, and gives new energies to the most  important
functions of organic life — from which result a purity and healthful
tone of the nervous fluids, producing a feeling of health, elasticity,
and happiness.
  Exercise is hurtful after a full meal; and in the morning, when
the stomach is  quite empty,  violent exercise is injurious.  But at
proper times, it relieves pains in the head, and rheumatic  affections,
and keeps the bowels open,  assists  the digestive powers,  and pro-
motes  all the  necessary exhalations of the skin,  preventino- that
stagnation of the  fluids  to which the sedentary are subject, and
which produces so many disorders.
  Dancing, to a moderate extent, is an  excellent kind of exercise,
combined as it is with the influence of exhilarating music and fes- 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.
83
tivity.   The agreeable society, the charms of beauty, and the com-
bination of pleasure,  in a ball-room, if not indulged to excess or
fatigue, produce the happiest effects upon the health and spirits.
  There are  two common errors in relation to exercise, which the
careful reader should guard against.  The first  is, that delicate
persons take violent exercise beyond their  strength, and which is
therefore injurious ; the other, is, persons of sedentary and luxuri-
ous habits, take  exercise occasionally, and then of the severest
kind, as a compensation for wholly neglecting  it at other times,
thinking that a ride or walk once a week will make up for the want
of exercise the  remainder of the time.   This is a very mistaken
notion, for the tendency of such practices is to break down the
nervous system, and  produce the very diseases against which the
patient should guard.
   Colds are  not unfrequently taken in a manner which seems
mysterious to people who take the  ordinary precautions.   It is  of
importance that  they should avoid  exposure to draughts, cold, or
damps.  Sudden changes of temperature easily affect the lungs,
and the bowels become disposed to weakness; hence the necessity
of wearing flannel next to the  skin  cannot be too strongly recom-
mended.   It will be  a  safeguard  and  a  preserver  against dis-
eases of the lungs, and it prevents rheumatisms, scorbutic affections,
scrofula, hypochondriacal complaints, dropsy, melancholy, &c.
   Too much sleep weakens the nerves, sours the temper, stagnates
the blood, and tends to apoplexy and palsy ; it  creates also an in-
dolent and lethargic disposition, disqualifies for active  exertion,
and blunts the energies of the intellectual as well as the corporeal
organs.  On the other hand, nothing can  be more prejudicial  than
the loss of sleep, and the want of due rest, which deranges the sys-
tem, exhausts the strength and makes terrible inroads upon the
nerves, disposing to nervous and frenetic fevers.
   Heavy suppers, reading, agitations, and strong excitement before
retiring to rest, hurt the constitution, by making the sleep unsound,
and disturbed by nightmare  or fearful  dreams, either altogether
depriving the patient of sleep, or rendering him restless.
   A good appetite is generally a sign of health ; but if the diges-
tion be bad, it is a false appetite —the fruit of an unnatural irritation.
The  best guarantee to preserve or obtain a healthy appetite  is 
84
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
great simplicity of diet.  We eat to support  strength  and life,
and not to pamper a  sensual, epicurian appetite.   Eating and
drinkin"- hot things is very injurious; still more  so, if they are high
seasoned and  exciting substances.  Such food,  in the process  of
fermentation, destroys the teeth, weakens the head and eyes, and
injures the whole nervous system.
  Pure cold water acts as a tonic or corroborant, internally on the
stomach, and externally on the skin.  It dilutes the saline parts of
the blood; corrects the gastric juice and biliary secretions.  But
water should be  pure  and soft, and  such  as  readily freezes ; snow
or rain water; or that of refined streams; the highest and  most
limpid, and which has neither taste, color,  nor smell; mingles easily
with soap;  and which does not effervesce or form a sediment,
with vinegar or spirit of sal  ammoniac.  The most certain mode
of purifying water  is by distillation, and the easiest,  by boiling;
either of  which will also destroy animalculae.


TREATMENT AND MEDICINES TO CURE NERVOUS DISEASES,  ETC.

  It is generally thought that nervous diseases  are seldom radical-
ly cured, but by medical agents their symptoms  are often  relieved,
and the patient rendered more comfortable than he  could have
been without them; and there has been too much ground for this
opinion;  but, be it said, to the consolation and  encouragement  of
the afflicted and the  hopeless, that, where strict adherence  has
been given to the advice and prescriptions of Dr. Fontaine, there
has been a multitude of cases, during his  twenty-eight  years prac-
tice, in this class of diseases, which were not only temporarily bene-
fited, reducing the symptoms of disease, but, under the blessing of
Divine Providence, the causes of the complaints were removed,
and,a thorough, effectual cure performed.  We venture to state,
that a perfect knowledge of the  universal laws of nature,  and of
the reliable action of her agents, united with a well regulated treat-
ment in regard to medicine and diet, will never fail to  be success-
fully effectual; and  we affirm, without hesitation, that if the method
recommended be pursued, a radical  cure  may be  safely prognosti-
cated in  every case. 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.
85
  In the first place, in his practice, a mild emetic of thoroughwort,
or of lobelia, is recommended, if the stomach can bear it.  This op-
eration  over, the  patient takes by  directions, the Philanthropic
Remedy. — Besides these prescriptions, an infusion of senna, rhu-
barb, calcined magnesia, and a few seeds of different  tonic herbs,
in brandy, are to be taken,  two or three  times a day; one to two
tea spoonfuls at a time.  Half a tea  spoonful of the Philanthropic
Remedy, will materially assist the cure.
  Patients afflicted with wind, cholic, and distress in the stomach,
will find the greatest benefit from this prescription;  for these med-
icines expel wind, strengthen the stomach, and promote digestion,
sleep, and regular  evacuations.
  It would be easy to mention many remedies useful  in these dis-
eases, but  the  one already noticed  is not only the  best, but so
admirably combined, and  so fitted to the  relief and cure  of these
disorders, and may be so safely relied upon, that it would be of no
service  to the patient to  multiply recipes. Yet, if some  invalids
should prefer other medicines, for a change, we refer them to ' the
Practical Key of the  Confidential Doctor at   Home,'  wherein is a
catalogue  of the most select Recipes, which will prove of great
service  and. relief at  a  small  expense; and when strict regard is
paid to the directions, and perseverance is practised, they may be
taken with confidence in the most desperate cases.


OF  BILIOUS COMPLAINTS,  INACTIVITY OF  THE   DIGESTIVE
  ORGANS, NAUSEA, HEARTBURN,  &C,  AND THE METHOD  OF
  CURE.

  Though the above complaints are of all others the most  distress-
ing, they are the most frequently neglected; yet, when it is consider-
ed that they are the primary effects of symptoms of such  diseases
as asthma, dropsy,  hypochondria, nervous  diseases, liver affections,
rheumatism, consumption, and scrofula, the importance of an early
and earnest attention  to them  is obvious, as  their  neglect ripens
them into these terrible diseases, and the patient falls a victim to a
painful  and lingering death.   The state of digestion  is governed 
86
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS) AND
 by the health of the general system, and .must be carefully watched
 and closely attended to.
   The predominant  acid in the stomach is to be discharged by a
 mild emetic, if the patient be not too weak to bear it  This emetic,
 (more particularly,  if lobelia should be used,) by  changing the
 action of the stomach, produces a favorable alterative effect.   Next,
 to strengthen and give tone  to  this organ,  the  Philanthropic
 Remedy is recommended, it being the only safe  and sure prepa-
 ration known  to  possess the  noble,  carminative,   nervine, ahd
 tonic properties, to the highest  degree.   The bowels, at the same
 time, will be kept free  by this  mild panacea, which  has the most
 beneficial effect upon  the whole line of  the alimentary canal.  A
 light, nourishing diet is of most service.   It is indispensable to ab-
 stain from fruits,  most vegetables, and all fermented liquors and
 spirits.  Animal food, lean and easily digestible, plainly prepared,
 without rich  condiments or grease, may be  eaten.  The occasion-
 al use of  a little best old wine and  sugared water, cold or warm,
 but not too hot, will prove highly advantageous, when the stomach
 is in a languid state.
  Pains, sickness, and  all ordinary bowel  complaints have been
 removed in a few hours, with a dose or two of the Philanthropic
 Remedy, administered as by the reeipe; and obstinate pains of th<
 side  and loins, even of many years standing, have yielded to thii
 salubrious treatment.
  It would be proper to propose the following questions to all per-
 sons who are supposed to be laboring under  chronic or organic
 complaints: — Have you  the heartburn ?   Any soreness or heat in
 the stomach ?  Does water ever rise in  your mouth in the morn-
 ing ?  Do you feel nausea then ?  Are you oppressed with wind in
 your bowels ?  Do you find ease by discharging it ?   Does it ever
 rise  up in your throat, or seem  to fly between your shoulders ?
 Have you any pain in your left side ?  Do you feel a peculiar
 lightness or pressure over your eyes ? Headache, dizziness, or con-
fusion ?   Have  you a sensation of unnatural fulness after eating,
or a fluttering  about the. heart ?  Is your tongue  high-coated ?
parched ?  or cracked, and festered with sores ?   Have you a swell-
ing at the pit of the stomach, a trembling, Or a gnawing: sensation,
and a hollow spot, which  no  food  or medicine appears to reach ? 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.
87
A pain  at the  right side. of it, or under the blade of your right
shoulder?  Do you feel a faintness?  Are  you costive?   Do you
ever evacuate worms or slime ?   Have you any difficulty of breath-
ing ?  An inclination to sigh ?   Wandering pains about you ? &c.
  If the patient answer yes to either of the above important and
necessary questions, and many  other  existing symptoms, it will
warrant the use of our prescriptions and recipes, in conformity to
the directions given in 'The Practical Key  of the Confidential
Doctor at Home,' but more especially of the Philanthropic Rem-
edy, which will regulate all  the  functions of the digestive system,
and  the  complicated and  beautiful machinery of life,  so as  to
relieve every pain and disorder indicated above; and by regulating
and purifying the currents of fife, give to the system a harmonious
and  healthy  action, which has been experienced in thousands of
cures, in Dr.  Fontaine's long and extensive practice.
     SPASMODIC AFFECTIONS, LANGUOR, FAINTING, ETC.

  Persons of weak nerves and delicate fibre are most liable to
these infirmities, which are seldom dangerous, and are easily cured,
if early and properly attended to, but which, by neglect, may lead
to the most deplorable results.
  The general causes of these disorders are, sudden changes from
heat to cold, breathing  confined and impure air, weakness, loss of
blood, long fasting, excess in drinking, eating, and of sensual plea-
sure, fear, grief, and other violent  affections of the^mind.
  In all such cases, also in recovering from acute diseases, epidemic
fevers, in general  debilities, weakness, nervous  and hysterical
affections, and  after great  fatigues and excitements, the  patient
must be supported by generous wines, and by the use of the Phi-
lanthropic Remedy, or  either of those tonic recipes mentioned in
' The Practical Key of  the Confidential Doctor at  Home.'   These
prescriptions will prove highly beneficial, and secure the happiest
effects.  By following them, health, and a perfect regulation of the
system, is the natural result. 
88
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
                 OF THE GRAVEL AND STONE.

   These diseases are the consequences of a peculiar disposition of
the fluids, and more particularly of the secretions of the kidneys.
These secretions create calculus, and concretious matter, which is
supposed to be owing to the presence of an  acid in these secretions,
called the lithic acid.  This disease  is accompanied  with coldness
and laxity of the parts generally.   When  small stones, like sand,
are lodged in the kidneys, in consequence of which the patient
suffers pains in the loins and back, and discharges  them  like sedi-
ment with the urine, we say the sufferer is afflicted with the gravel.
But when any of these stones lodge  in the  bladder  for some time,
they accumulate fresh matter, and thus increase until they are too
large to pass off with the urine; and when large stones are formed
within the kidneys, or in the waters, or pelvis, &c, such and similar
cases are called the stone disease.
   Causes. — Acts of lasciviousness,  self-pollution,  immoderate coi-
tion, and  even lascivious thoughts,  and every other cause which
produces stimulation, and frequent erections or contractions in the
urinary passage,  are often the origin of  the  gravel and stone.
These diseases  may  also be occasioned by  strictures, or other im-
pediments  within the urinary channel.   High living, the use of
astringent wines, drinking hard or unwholesome waters, a sedentary
life, lying in too hot  or soft beds, or too long a time on the back, or
carelessness in not  evacuating the  urine or stools at the slightest
wants of nature, have a tendency to produce these diseases.  They
may likewise proceed  from hereditary dispositions, or from a fall,
or hurts and contusions in the region of the spine, kidneys, and
bladder.   Persons who have been much afflicted with gout, rheuma-
tisms, and  those in  the decline of life, are sometimes subject to it
   Symptoms. — When there is a disposition to form  minute calculi,
or gravel, the following sensations are felt: — strange paroxysms,
pains in the back and  loins, shooting down through the pelvis to
the thighs; often  a numbness in one leg, and a retraction of either
testicle, arising from  the irritation of the calculi, or gravel, in pass-
ing through the urethra, and  as the calculi drop through, the sper- 
               THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.             89

matic cord, and the leading nerves, down to the lower extremities,
are affected by them.  As soon as these small stones have passed
through the urethra, the patient, having endured in the process
very acute pains, is then for a time apparently easy.  These small
calculi, or gravel,  when combined, result  in the  disease called
stone.   Gravel causes restlessness,  sickness, vomiting, inflammation,
contraction, retention of, and bloody urine.   When stones, like
sand, descend to the bladder, and are too large to pass with ease,
at the emission of the urine, all the above symptoms are increased,
the pains extend downwards, and all around becomes affected, be-
numbed, and the urine obstructed, which, when it is discharged, is
high-colored, thick, and bloody.  A stone in the bladder is known
by the excessive pain at the time, as well as before and after void-
ing water;  the frequent inclination to eject urine, which  with
extreme  effort, passes off, drop by drop, or from a full stream, it
stops suddenly.  After making water, great torture is felt in  the
gland of the penis,  which lasts from one to three minutes, and as
the passage is forced  through by violent  straining, the rectum
becomes  contracted, and expels the faeces,  or, if the intestine  be
empty, occasions a priapism, an involuntary emission of the semen,
a tenesmus, or  a prolapsus  ani, (a falling  out of the gut.)   The
stone is known to exist by a violent pain on the neck of the blad-
der upon motion, especially on horseback, or in a carriage, on a
rough  road;  or from a white, thick, copious,  viscous sediment in
the urine, and an inclination to go to stool during the discharge of
it;  the patient passes urine more easily  while lying than  when
in an erect position; there is  a sharp, very  acute pain in passing
the last drop of urine, which is caused by the gravel or stone being
drawn to the  mouth of the passage.
  An extraneous substance in the bladder  will soon form a kind
of supernatural mucilage, or mucus, resembling  pus,vwhich is fre-
quently dropping out,  as  a gleet, or gonorrhea, causing, by  its
acridity, scarifications, ulcers, and burnings.  When gravel or stones
are once formed in the pelvis, urethra, kidneys, bladder, &c, they
will continue  to increase in number, and the size is also increased,
by receiving on their surfaces new layers of uric acid; and this is
the cause of calculi being formed  of different layers.  The  stone
and gravel are diseases to which both sexes and all ages  are liable.
                 12 
90
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
Calculi have been sometimes found in the bladdefs of very young
Children, and even of infants only six  months old.   But, as above
stated, the principal sufferers are those devoted to sensual and las-
civious pleasures, and who imprudently give themselves up to acts
of intemperance, and to an epicurean and luxurious life.  Improper
and illicit self-abuse, and an immoderate or uncontrolled intercourse
with the stranger sex, cause many victims of these diseases.  Stones
are often to  be found in the gall-bladder, in the tubercles of the
liver, lungs, &c.
  Mode of Treatment. — Any one afflicted with the gravel or  stone
should avoid  all aliments of a  heating or  windy  nature, as salt
meats, sour fruits, &c.   They must use for diet such things as tend
to increase the quantity of urine ; the body should be kept  open,
and  the patient should  freely use  asparagus,  lettuce, parsley,
carrots, radishes, onions, leeks, garlic,  celery, &c.;  also mucilagin-
ous vegetables, as marsh-mallow, liquorice, linseeds, slippery-elm,
&c.;  and for drinks, whey, buttermilk, barley, &c.  The  French
Philanthropic  Remedy is one of absolute necessity.  Its benefits
are instantly felt.  In  a few weeks, by a proper  regimen, and a
persevering use of the Remedy, a perfect cure may be expected,
and the sufferer is seldom subject to a relapse.
  To prevent a return,  the  Philanthropic  Remedy must be  at
hand.  As  a beverage,  at meals and during the day, an  equal
quantity  of lime-water and butter-milk should be taken, a quart a
day.   Gentle and daily exercise is recommended.   When any one
is attacked with the gravel, let him take  the Philanthropic Reme-1
dy, as directed, and he  may add,  to good advantage, fifteen  to
twenty-five drops of pumpkin*seed oil, every three or four hours,
in some  mucilaginous drink, which will at Once relieve the  patient.
Be it remembered, that our great reliance is on the Philanthropic
Remedy.   When  severe pains  are  felt, poultices of onions and
garlic, bruised and slightly warmed, may  be applied  on  the lower
parts of the kidneys, &c, and wherever the distress is most acute;
a bag of  dried wood-ashes, as hot as the  patient  can bear  them,
applied on the bladder, is often found to  relieve the paroxysm.
Many hundreds are the remedies which have proved beneficial, in1
many cases, and are recommended in Europe as well as America
for these distressing  complaints;  but none  ever was found  so 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.
91
effectual and  universally advantageous as  the  highly  approved
Remedies, the  exhibition of which alone, when taken internally
and used externally as directed, and with perseverance, will posi-
tively, not only to a  high degree relieve, but cure, the most obsti-
nate cases of the gravel  and the stone.  Their virtue being  that
of neutralizing and dissolving the concretious matter, and expelling
through the urine the vicious fluids, correcting  the secretions of
the kidneys, urethra,  bladder, &c, and those of the gall, liver,
lungs, &c.; and it heals and  strengthens the whole  apparatus of
these organs and the adjoining sympathetic  vital parts of genera-
tion and life.
                CONSUMPTION OF THE LUNGS.

  Pulmonary consumption is generally caused by an ulceration of
the lungs, whereby respiration is impeded, the purification of the
blood prevented, and so the whole system becomes gradually wasted
and destroyed.  A  violent inflammation of the lungs is attended
with a rush of blood to the part, and this becoming stagnated soon
changes to purulent matter.   Consumption may be  produced by
nervous, bilious, asthmatic, and dropsical complaints, — is often
caused by excess of voluptuous indulgence, and excessive  venery,
or masturbation in  early youth; it has often resulted from too
severe  study, sedentary employments, or habits of intemperance,
&c,  Consumption has often followed other  diseases, and it has
been caused by the  use of mercury.  Improper treatment of other
diseases may result in consumption, and  it is the frequent result of
venereal diseases.   It may be  caused by sudden changes of cli-
mate—sudden  changes from  warm  to cold, or vice versa;  by
dampness, such  as  sleeping in damp  rooms  or  cellars;  violent
excesses, &c.   A mere weakness of the animal fibre,, composing the
airrvessels of the lungs  may produee  severe prostration, bleeding
from the lungs, and consumption-
   Those  of a consumptive habit  have,  most generally,  a long
neek,. contracted chest; depressed  scapula*  (the  sh«ulder-blade,>
and often a stoop in the shoulders.  Female infirmities, diseases of 
92
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
the stomach, dyspepsia, liver,  kidneys, spleen, &c, if neglected, or
improperly treated, surely end in consumption.
  The sure symptoms of an approaching or confirmed consumption
are a slight fever, increasing towards  evening;  heat  and uneasi-
ness ;  flying pains; hectic flushes; pain in the breast; the patient
lyino-  with  most ease on the affected side; a  long-continued,  dry
cough, causing  a disposition  to vomit  after eating, is one of the
most certain symptoms of approaching  consumption.  The patient
complains of unusual heat, pain,  and oppression  in the breast  and
side after motion; the spittle sometimes tastes sweet  and sickish, at
others, salt and  parched or bitter;  it  is, also, often mixed with
blood.   The patient is sad;  the  appetite bad, accompanied with
thirst.   There  is,  generally,  a  quick, keen,  soft,  minute pulse,
though, in some cases, the pulse is full and rather hard;  but this is
in full, sanguine temperaments.   These  are the  most common
symptoms of incipient consumption.
   Afterwards,  as the  disease progresses,  the patient  begins to
expectorate a  greenish, white,  or  bloody matter; the  body is
attenuated by hectic fever and colliquative sweats, which  succeed
each other night and morning.  The flesh wastes away, and pro-
fuse discharges  of urine, and from the bowels, are troublesome
symptoms,  and rapidly exhaust the  patient.  There is  a  burning
heat in the palms of the  hands;  the face is flushed after eating;
the fingers become frightfully small;  the nails grow thick and bend
inward, and the hair assumes a dead appearance, and falls off.   At
last, the swelling of the feet and legs; total loss of strength; sink-
ing of the eyes; difficulty of swallowing, and coldness  of  the
extremities, show the  approach  of  dissolution, which the patient
seldom thinks near.  Such is the fearful progress of this fatal  and
terrible disease, which,  if not properly checked in its early stages,
sets all  medical skill  and medicinal agents  at  defiance.   It  is a
remarkable fact, though as yet by very few known, that in cases
of consumption -of the  lungs, the teeth become of  a milky white-
ness, and, in a great degree, transparent.
   This awful disease  is a very common complaint in the United
 States; and when we consider that within the limits of the healthy
 city of New York alone, not less than  from  twenty-five to thirty
adulto, at least are every week, throughout the whole year, brought 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
93
to an untimely grave by this scourge, we shudder at such mortality,
and believe that much blame should be  attached to professional
men, who study the nature of this disease so little, and still less
the art of effectually relieving its victims.


                TREATMENT OF  CONSUMPTION.

  The same rules laid down respecting exercise  in nervous disor-
ders, must be observed in  consumptive cases.   New milk should
be taken for breakfast and supper, and it should be boiled, if too
laxative.  Milk taken fresh from the breast of a healthy woman is
best, but cow's milk will answer, though it  possesses less virtue.
Meat broths may be taken, as strong as  the stomach will  bear,
especially that made of fresh pork.  Animal jellies may be taken,
as often as possible, and, above all things, the patient  should ride
on horseback every morning, even if obliged to be supported  by
some one behind him.  The best drink, for common use, is butter-
milk ; and extraordinary cures are  attributed mainly to its use,
when combined with the  French Philanthropic Remedy.   Thr
proportion should  be a small tea-spoonful of the latter, in half a
teacup of the former, taken three or four times a day.   Certainly,
this is the best thing that can be advised, as it prevents those grip-
ing pains in the bowels which buttermilk is apt to occasion, and the
beneficial effects upon  the lungs are greatly increased by this
addition.
  A warm, clear, and dry air is so necessary, that where it cannot
be procured it should be  artificially produced.   Other excellent
drinks, which may alternate with buttermilk, are slippery-elm tea,
infusion  of flax-seeds, decoction of wheat-bran,  of ground root of
colts-foot, sweetened  with honey,  &c,  adding to them  a  very
small quantity of the excellent Philanthropic Remedy.
  In thousands of cases, which Dr. Fontaine has attended, he per-
sonally witnessed the success of this treatment.  He  allowed  his
patients  to eat shell-fish of all  kinds, and wild fowls,  as the best
diet, and good port wine with a  few drops  of the  Philanthropic
Remedy, which  he  found highly berieficial, strengthening the sys-
tem in  an extraordinary degree.  Three or four  ounces of the 
94
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS) AF1*
 conserve of red roses mixed in two table spoonfuls of this Remedy,
 and a tea spoonful taken occasionally, has  often pw>yed decidedly
 advantageous.
   Lemon juice is an excellent remedy; sweeten it well with honey,
 adding  rose  and lime water, and  a  little of the  Philanthropic
 Remedy.   These prescriptions have always been followed with the
 most salutary effects from the very commencement of a pulmonary
 disease; and when the first symptoms of amendment appear, the
 same course should be pursued with perseverance ; thp patient will
 recover strength, and the lungs will  soon heal.  This has been
 found by us to be the best possible method of regulating the bow-
 els,  purifying the blood, and  carrying off  the phlegm and bad
 humors,  which gather in this disorder, removing all pains in the
 chest side, &c.
   At our suggestion,  and even  entreaties, this course  has  been
 adopted by other physicians, in thousands of cases, with the most
 happy effects, and to their utter astonishment and  admiration
 When the cough exhausts the  patient, or  is obstinate,  Dr.  Fon:r
 taine has made use of the following prescription, with  remarkable
 results,  in seemingly  hopeless cases: —' Take  vinegar of squills,
 two ounces; lime water, half a pint;  honey, a quarter of a pound;
 the juice of two  large lemons; an ounce of laudanum; and one
bottle of the  French Philanthropic Remedy.  Put the whole  over
 a gentle fire, until it begins to  boil;  take off the scum and strain
through a cloth.  Of this preparation, take a tea spoonful, three
or four times a day.   If it produce sickness, decrease the quantity,
but increase  it again  as  the Btomach will  bear it.   There  is no
stage of the disorder in whieh this will not prove  a soothing  com-
fort to all, while hundreds have been radically cured by it.
   Such  is  the general treatment; and these are  among the best
remedies we can prescribe, though other additional  and not less
efficacious remedies may be found on a perusal of ■ The Practical
Key of the Confidential Doctor at Home.'  But  those, who are
able to  see Dr.  Fontaine, should by no means neglect doing so,
as there are often varieties and complications of disease, requiring
the highest skill to direct these treatments; yet  in all ordinary
eases, and even in the most critical, and when beyond tfis possibili-
ty of a journey or a personal  interview  with the  Doctor, the 
              THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.            9.5

above medicines may be taken, not only with safety, but with sure
relief and the happiest consequences, even when apparently be-
yond a recovery, and  the patient will soon experience its mighty
benefits.
  Doctor Fontaine may be consulted by correspondence, or per-
sonally, in accordance to Rules and Regulations.   See his card of
Address  in the Index  of * The Practical Key of the  Confidential
Doctor at Home.'
  8^°" Persons of both  sexes affected with pulmonary diseases, or
if any of the principal organs  of life are chronically impaired,
should consult the whole of this instructive book, wherein  they
will find much that is to be learned, which may tend to a final
recovery. 
SECTION  THIRD.
 A TREATISE  ON DISEASES  AFFECTING THE SURFACE OF THE
                             BODY.

   Doctor Fontaine has for  a long  time observed  with  much
 anxiety, that  scorbutic  affections, scrofula, king's evil, erysipelas,
 rheumatisms, piles,  abscesses, and other disorders of the skin, have
 very much  increased in America, of late years, notwithstanding
 the numerous remedies, which have been offered to the public for
 their cure,  with the  most  specious  pretensions to  infallibility.
 While he would not call in question the merits of these specifics,
 he could not fail to observe that the diseases for which they are so
 strongly recommended, were still increasing, and in a  manner be-
 coming constitutional  with the American people.   He therefore
 early turned his attention to these diseases, and after much labori-
 ous research and careful observation, developed a system of  treat-
 ment of his  own, entirely new in this country, without  the use of
 mercury or  other mineral  poisons,  so  dangerous in the hands of
 inexperienced practitioners,  even  if ever they  cure  a specified
 disease;  and  he confidently  recommends his  system  for the
 treatment of these disagreeable and often  distressing and danger-
 ous disorders.
  It  has been observed by  all physicians, that  chronic diseases
 abound chiefly in regions where frequent and sudden changes of
the weather affect  the sensitive membrane covering the human
body, and by closing the pores suddenly, clogging the insensible
perspiration, stagnating the blood, and collapsing the vessels,  occa-
sioning colds,  coughs,  catarrhs, asthma,  abscesses,  rheumatisms,
pains, scorbutic complaints, and those eruptive diseases of the  skin'
which are the distressing  and almost invariable harbingers of
 almost all organic,  acute, and chronic diseases.  Now there are
few places on  the  globe so subject  to these  sudden  and violent 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
97
change:* of temperature as the United States, especially the  north-
ern  portion.  The extremes of heat and  cold, rain,  snow, hail,
boisterous  wind,  calm and  sunshine, are often experienced in a
single day, and it hence becomes an object of national  importance
to find  out some decided and  unfailing cure for these diseases.
The closing of the pores of the  skin prevents the cleansing of the
blood; and by one of the great evacuations of the system, (insensi-
ble perspiration,) the fluids become impure and malignant; their
corruption gives rise to obstinate and dangerous disorders,  throw-
ing ou! eruptions upon the skin, and, according to the constitutional
habits of  the patient,  producing the disorders mentioned here-
after.  If recourse to some remedy be not had, which shall root
them from the system, they become habitual,  and  so permanently
fixed, that no medicines can effectually eradicate them.  Unfortu-
nately the use  of improper medicines, only  drives the humors
deeper into the system,  making  awful inroads for  other diseases,
thus accumulating unsurmountable  difficulties, and rendering them
incurable.
  In view of this deplorable ignorance, and consequent suffering,
Dr. Fontaine has consented to give to  society the  result of many
years' experience in the treatment of these diseases, and to furnish
to the world an unfailing antidote, and unrivalled cure—one which
will cleanse the  blood of all its  corruptions, counteract and neu-
tralize every morbid affection of the tissue, and restore emaciated
and enfeebled constitutions  to their pristine health and vigor — a
medicine, which, in justice to its effects, has received the name of
' The Philanthropic Remedy' — a most safe, salutary, and absolute
specific  for those deplorable, and  too  often incurable  diseases —
scorbutic  affections,  scrofula, king's evil,  leprosy,  erysipelas, St
Anthony's fire, salt rheum, biles,  pimples, and eruptions of the face,
neck, shoulders, &c,  piles, abscesses, rhumatism, gout, lues venerea.
&c.
  This Remedy is by no means new, nor is it confined to our prac-
tice only.   In Europe it is commonly used by all physicians,  under
various  denominations,  and here in America, it has received the
sanction of the most  skilful  and  scientific practitioners.  Long ex-
perience has tested its virtues, and well-settled principles of chem-
ical and pharmacuetical science,  were consulted in its preparation.
                           IS 
98
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
Indeed, it has neither rival nor  enemy,  for  it  gains  a victory
over all  diseases, and conquers the prejudice of its opponents.
At the end of this work will be found, ' The Practical Key to the
Confidential Doctor at Home,' to which the reader is referred for a
Treatise upon its extraordinary virtues.
  This Remedy, having been prescribed and personally administer-
ed by Dr. Fontaine, with invariable success, in an extensive practice
of over twelve years, to more than twenty thousand patients in this
country, who are  living witnesses of its efficacy, he has felt called
upon by a solemn sense of duty, to make it known to the public,
and accessible to the afflicted; hoping earnestly that  the libertine,
the  mercenary, and the  profligate, may never pervert his well-
meaning designs to criminal purposes.
   The Philanthropic  Remedy has been used with a success as yet
unparalleled in the history of the healing art; and in  the above-
named Treatise, will be found a fuller description of its remarkable
virtues, and the mode of using it.   It is accompanied  by distinct
and particular directions  for each individual case, through which is
secured  the happiest operation of its extraordinary powers.


          THE SCURVY  AND  SCORBUTIC AFFECTIONS.

   The scurvy is caused by  acrimony  of the blood,  which  un-
 cleanliness, a too free use of salted provisions at sea, and other
 acrid and  filthy  substances, renders muriatic or  briny, so that it
 does not contribute to the wholesome support of life,  but is very
 injurious to the  system,  which is  soon  impregnated  with  acrid
 matter; and hence the effects of the troublesome pains,  stiffness of
 the joints, and distressing chronic disorders common to mariners.
 But when salted  provisions, particularly such as have become par-
 tially  decayed by long keeping and  hot  climates, and when water
 putrid from stagnation  is used, an alkaline acrimony of the blood
 is produced, and the worst kind of scurvy, which by its putrid and
 malignant nature, rapidly destroys the human body,  and has re-
 duced the most powerful navies to the most terrible distress, carry-
 ing off their  crews by thousands.  Persons on  terra firma  are
 attacked by an acrimonious scurvy, produced by unwholesome food; 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE  OF NATURE.
99
 also by a too free  use of oats and  rye, and dishes prepared with
 meal and sour buttermilk; also  by sedentary or closely confined
 employment, watchfulness, cold  and moist air, damp rooms, beds,
 or clothing, or by any thing which depresses the nervous energy;
 us indolence, want  of exercise,  confinement,  uncleanliness, sup-
 pression of evacuations, excessive labor and fatigue in  confined
 places, bad  air, sadness, despondency,  &c.   Those who live in
 marshy, low, rich, and moist soils, near stagnant waters,  fresh or
 salt, are most likely to be affected with  this disease.  A sedentary
 life, especially in winter, promotes it, and those of a melancholic,
 hysteric, or  hypochondrical temperament are particularly subject
 to it.
   This disease is frequently mistaken for other complaints, and
 other affections are  erroneously considered scorbutic.  It does not
 always manifest itself outwardly, by blisters or spots upon the skin,
 but often lurks within, producing symptoms which the patient does
 not think of attributing to a scorbutic taint.  No two are affected
 alike, yet in all cases, in the early stages, it is  accompanied by
 some of the following symptoms: — an  unusual stupidity;  a  slug-
 gishness of body and mind; weariness gradually overpowers the
 system, and a heavy languor is felt  on  awaking  from sleep; the
 respiration becomes laborious; the  legs  and  ankles swell;  the
 skin becomes spotted;  the gums are diseased,  swelled; and  painful,
 and itch and  bleed upon every slight occasion; the teeth stand out
 naked, or uncovered by the gums, or become loose and surrounded
 by a coat of tartar; the mouth  has  a foetid smell, and wandering
 pains affect various parts of the  body.   As the disease  advances,
 the gums grow more inflamed, bloody, and putrid, and are inclined
 to gangrene;  the veins under the tongue become relaxed, knotted,
 and enlarged, and hemorrhages, often fatal, break out from the sores
of the skin, without apparent cause ;  blood will flow from the lips,
mouth, gums,  nose,  lungs,  and stomach.  Obstinate ulcers often
 appear, especially on the legs, not yielding to ordinary treatment,
 and disposed to gangrene.  Sores, scales,  and  scurf  appear on the
skin, and gnawing or darting pains shoot through  the parts, espe-
cially in the night, and black and blue discolorations  appear on the
surface of the body.
   Various fevers accompany this complaint; sometimes they are 
100
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS,  AND
hot and inflammatory, and malignant, chronic,  and  consumptive
To these terrible  symptoms, and  accomjianiments of  this frightfiil
disease, should be added vomiting, purging, and fluxes, dysenteries,
sharp stranguries, and scalding of the urine, fainting, fits, anxieties,
and  oppressions, that are sometimes  suddenly fatal; dropsy, con-
sumption, convulsions, palsies, contraction of the limbs, and dis-
charges of blood, by different evacuations, from the internal organs;
a wasting of the whole human frame,  and putrefaction.  This is  a
disease which spreads with alarming contagion.
  Dissections, in cases of scurvy, have always discovered the blood
to be in a greatly  decomposed  and watery  state.  The  thorax
usually  contains a  greater or less quantity of a  corrupted fluid,
which, in many cases, possesses so high a degree of acrimony, as
to excoriate the hands of the dissecter, by coming  in  contact with
it; the cavity of the abdomen contains the same kind of fluid; the
lungs are black and putrid, and the heart itself has been found in
a similar state, with its cavity  also  filled with this corrosive fluid.
In many instances, the epiphyses have been found separated from
the bones, and the  cartilages from the  ribs,  and several  of the
bones themselves dissolved by caries.  The brain seldom shows
any disease; but all other parts of the body are  more or less in  a
state of decomposition and corruption.
  What patient, suspecting a taint of a disease so horrible, will
rest till  he obtain the means of driving it from  his system ?  No
language can adequately describe the  fearful rapidity of this dis-
order, when once  established in  the system, nor the  manner in
which it prostrates all the powers of life to utter hopelessness and
despair.  Do not think even the slightest  symptom of this disease
of trifling consequence; for  though it may easily yield to proper
medicine, at first—if neglected, its progress is certain.  Nor should
the patient cease  the use  of effectual purifying  medicines, until
every vestige of the  disease is eradicated, and the system restored
to perfect health.
  The operation of the scurvy is such, that it penetrates every por-
tion  of  the system, affecting bones, cartilages, muscles, the cellular
tissue, and the skin, as well as the nerves, membranes, glands, and
internal organs; the  chyle, lymph, bile, the blood, and all the fluids.
Therefore the Remedies should not only be taken with oreat care 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
101
 and perseverance, but even continued after the external symptoms
 of disease -have  disappeared.  And  as  the grand efficacy of the
 Philanthropic Remedy consists in  its  power to cleanse the system
 of all impurities  and  infections, and  as, by its undoubted prope--
 ties, it neutralizes the corrupted,  vitiated  humors, so it should be
 used and taken, not only until beneficial effects have been experi-
 enced, in full, but the  patient should follow it  up until he is in full
 possession of health.
   The discovery and  introduction of the Philanthropic Remedy
 is a blessing to this age, and  more  especially to Americans and
 West Indians, and  also to such as have been the votaries of in-
 temperance,  lasoiviousness, and the vices  of wealth  and  luxury.
 These vices produce scorbutic affections, and diseases of  a kindred
 character, described in this Treatise;  and though  these vices  can-
 not  and  should not be defended, yet those  who have become,
 through  them, the victims of such  afflicting disorders, ought to be
kindly reclaimed and  guided to  the  means of saving their  lives,
and restoring the precious treasure of health — thus  aidino-  them
in regaining the natural vigor of their abused constitutions.
  Much  has been written on  the causes,  nature, and  modes of
 treatment of scorbutic  complaints;  but all  attempts to cure them,
 hitherto, have been deplorably inefficient, and  a few more obser-
 vations will not be unseasonable; for there is in this  disease, as
 there is,  indeed, in  almost  all diseases of a chronic nature, a fre-
 quent  tendency  to melancholy  and  hypochondria,  making  the
patient anxious to hear all opinions and prescriptions, and yet to
despair of a cure.   It  will gratify  this disposition, in an easy and
cheap manner, to read  this work  attentively; and if the  patient
be induced by it to a persevering use of the treatment recom-
mended therein, he may bless the hour in which he commenced its
perusal.
  Those  afflicted with  scurvy, should carefully attend to cleanli-
ness, and take frequent exercise in the pure, open air.   A vege-
table or  milk  diet is  best, with a free, though  prudent  use of
acidulous fruits, such as oranges, lemons, tamarinds, perfectly  ripe
fruits.  A little vinegar of wine, sour-crout, and farinaceous  sub-
stances, having undergone the acetous fermentation, have likewise
been used with much advantage;  also brisk  fermenting  liquors, as 
102            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

spruce-beer, cider, and the like; but care should be taken with all
these things, as they are not homogeneous  to many constitutions.
Mustard, horseradish,  garlic,  onions, and  such like  stimulating
articles, in some  cases, will prove advantageous.  Scurvy-grass,
water-cresses, and all kinds of salads are good.   The dandelion is
particularly recommended, and the patient must use a decoction of
the roots of water-dock, fresh and newly taken from  the ground.
Boil  a pound of the root in three  quarts of water, till  one third is
evaporated. Take a wine-glass full three times a  day, combined
with half a tea-spoonful of the clear French Philanthropic Remedy.
Follow this prescription with perseverance, even after  the disease,
to all appearance, has disappeared.  The diet should be somewhat
generous and  nourishing, but  antiphlogistic,  light,  and  easy of
digestion.   The flesh and broth of young animals may be used, but
no fish, unless  it be shell-fish, in  small quantities.  Crabs, lobsters,
and  such like,  being  difficult to digest, and all salt, smoked, and
dried meats,  should be  carefully avoided.  New bread, healthy
salads, and vegetables, and drinks of acidulated herbs,  mild  soups,
and a milky diet,  temperately taken, will prove the most beneficial.
The  use of the Philanthropic Remedy, however, as directed, should
never be omitted.  Without the regulation of diet, the Remedy
would be of much less  avail.  By strict adherence to the  direc-
tions, it will positively cure the scurvy within a short period, in any
of its early stages;  and it certainly will restore  the patient to
health, in the most desperate chronic cases, if  these our prescrip-
tions should be followed for several weeks or months.
  This unrivalled remedy of philanthropic origin, is uniform in its
action, promoting the neutralization and evacuation of all impuri-
ties of the blood and juices.  It is strengthening, and is an excellent
stomachic.  It operates without irritation, and mostly by insensible
perspiration, and  by the urinary passages, making in that evacua-
tion  a visible alteration in its color and nature.   It promotes, with-
out violence, all the natural secretions  of the fluids, necessary to
be thrown off  the system, so that a perseverance in its use is nec-
essary.   For this reason, its  good effects are often  not immedi-
ately perceptible, and, in some instances, it may even exagitate the
symptoms, so that, to appearance, and for a time, the patient feels
worse; but he  soon recovers, and in the end it will overpower all 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.            103
obstacles,  clear the  system, and  expel the disease,  and restore
health, vigor, and a  sound constitution to the sufferer, in the very
worst of cases.
  The following suggestions  in regard to diet are important, and,
being so, are here repeated.   They should  always be regarded in
this  and similar disorders.  The diet  ought to  be moderate, yet
generous  and nutritive;  fresh meat, plainly cooked,  should  be
eaten, and such as is  easy of  digestion.  The breakfast  must be
light; all rich sauces, spices, high-seasoned and salted dishes should
be avoided.   All  condiments are hurtful, also pickles, and unripe
fruits.   In all scorbutic,  rheumatic, or scrofulous diseases, fat of
every kind; oil, butter, cheese, and  fat meat, should  be carefully
avoided; as they interfere, in all cases, with  the effects of the med-
icine.  Beef, mutton, veal, lamb, poultry, rabbits, &c, are good.
Roasted meats are preferable to boiled, and the gravy of the meat
should be freely used, provided it is free from grease.   The supper
should be light and taken  early.   The patient should not live too
much on slops, such  as  tea, water-gruel, &c. Coffee, especially, is
injurious.  A proper proportion  of animal and vegetable food
seems best adapted to  the habits of this climate, and the  constitu-
tions of the people.  Spirituous and malt liquors must be avoided;
but good wine, mixed with water, may be taken daily at meals, and.
if necessary,  between  them.   Moderate  exercise, pure  air,  and
cheerfulness, are in the highest degree important.
                      OF THE LEPROSY.

  This disease, and others equally disgusting and distressing, which
are so prevalent in the West Indies and South America, do not pre-
vail in the United States.   The  symptoms of leprosy are perfectly
understood and distinguished where it prevails; hence a repugnant
and  unnecessary  dissertation is  gladly avoided.  Suffice it to say,
that the  regimen and diet  should  be precisely the same as in the
scurvy, or scorbutic affections, and the Philanthropic Remedy is to
be taken in  the  same manner, even for several months after the
symptoms utterly disappear.   In Trinidad,  (Spanish Main,) and
Barbadoes, where  Dr. Fontaine  resided  for  a time, to regain 
104            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

bis health,  he succeeded in radically curing several individuals,
afflicted with these loathsome diseases;  and his  success not  only
astonished the people in general, but physicians — as the opinion
prevails there that leprosy  and similar diseases are beyond tin-
reach of art.   We can  testify to the contrary, and frankly an r\
gladly assert  that our treatment, with the Philanthropic Remedy,
will prove successful in all cases, provided strict attention be paid
to the instructions, advice,  and prescriptions  contained  in thin
work.   The  Philanthropic Remedy was the chief medicine em-
ployed in these islands  by Dr. Fontaine; and subsequently he lias
learned, from his correspondents, that the same medicine had per-
formed cures in many other islands, upon thousands, who procured
it from his General Depot


             OF THE SCROFULA,  OR KING'S EVIL.

  This disease manifests itself by hard, schirrous, and often indo-
lent  tumors, in the glands of the neck, under the chin, arm-pits,
hams, arms, wrists, breast, bowels, &c, and  throughout the whole
glandular  system, but is most commonly seated in the neck, under
the ears, and in the breasts.   At first, little knots or lumps appear,
which gradually increase in size and  number, until they form  a
large elongated tumor.   Cold tumors, white swellings, fever sores,
&c., also appear en the joints and bones, and on the knees, elbows,
hips, hands, feet, and particularly on the fingers, breaking out with
pale  swellings.  As these increase,  they produce  a  slow fever,
which emaciates ~and  consumes  the whole  body.   These seeming
local  affections are both  external  and internal.   On the surface
they affect the ligaments and  tendons, so  that the joints  often
become entirely useless.
  Whatever  tends to relax the solids,  or vitiate the numors, may
produce or develope the scrofula;  such as venereal diseases, or
other complaints of a malignant character; eruptions, intemperance
of every description, especially lasciviousness, heats  and colds,  ex-
posure to dampness, unwholesome diet, &c.  Mal-treatment of any
disease may  produce the king's evil, but it generally arises from
hereditary taint, or what is termed a scrofulous diathesis. 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.            105
   This disease  has been  for  ages  considered so difficult of cure,
 that it has been believed, that if the tumors appeared in  the neck
 after the  age  of fourteen,  no medicine could eradicate it.  But
 this notion is totally false, since we have treated it successfully
 with the  Philanthropic Remedy;  and  Dr. Fontaine can  give
 references to several hundred cures, when the cases were despaired
 of by other physicians.
   The regimen, diet, and general course of life should be precisely
 as directed for the treatment of scorbutic affections.  The afflicted
 are  referred to the treatise on the  Philanthropic Remedy.  See
 ' The Practical Key of the Confidential Doctor at Home.'


          OF LUES VENEREA—VENEREAL  DISEASES.

   The author does not intend  to give a description  of this pesti-
 lence, as the fifth  section of the first part of the work is wholly
 devoted to the minutest inquiry respecting its origin and treatment
 We may here add, that no one afflicted with these complaints, need
 despair of  a radical cure, if he or she apply to the  never-failing
 Philanthropic Remedy, which is equally efficacious in old as well
 as in new cases.  This ever admired medicine is also an  antidote
 to, and a sure preventive of, inoculation, as by its contact it neu-
 tralizes the poisonous virus.
   It would be the height of folly, if not madness, in any person to
 doubt its good effects, when it bears the seal of public  approbation,
 and has received the approbation and support of  the  most distin-
guished physicians, both in the academies of Paris, Italy, Germany,
Edinburg,  and London, and the schools of  this Union.  Those
who may wish to learn  further particulars, can consult the Doctor
personally, or by correspondence, or place themselves under his
direct treatment.  In  common  cases, or those of an aggravated
nature, the prescriptions and recipes given in the treatise on this
complaint will surely effect a cure
                 14 
106
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
        OF  THE ERYSIPELAS, OR ST. ANTHONY'S FIRE.

   This is an eruptive fever, or an external inflammation, generally
breaking out on the face,  and sometimes on  the breast, or other
parts of the body, with intense redness, a little swelling,, and a vast
number of  small pustules, which, as the inflammation increases,
turn to small blisters.   The  disorder generally commences with a
violent pain in the back and head, a cold shivering, like the ague,
heat, vomiting, general prostration, &c, &c.   In  a few days, the
inflammation appears on the surface.  Nothing is more dangerous
than to check this eruption, or cause it to return to the inward
parts.
   The disease is most common  about the middle age  of life, and
persons of a sanguine or plethoric constitution, are most liable to
it  It  is generally produced  by obstructed perspiration when  the
blood has been overheated.
   The Philanthropic Remedy, by purifying the blood and carrying
off all  bad humors, is admirably adapted, and, perhaps, preferable
to any  other medicine, for the cure of this complaint
                          THE PILES.

  This disease, as it is  easily known  and extremely common, re-
quires no description of its symptoms,  though it is more obscure in
its origin  than any others.  It may be the effect of some acute
and  chronic  disease,  and, indeed, the  piles are a symptom or
attendant of  nearly every disease  mentioned in this  work.   A
removal of the principal  disease  or  cause, will,  in  such  cases,
destroy all single, symptomatic, or sympathetic ailments.
  We may notice, that hemorrhoids, (the piles,) are certain excres-
sences or tumors arising about the verge of the anus, or  the infe-
rior  part of the  intestinum rectum.  Where they discharge  blood,
particularly upon the patient's going to stool, the disease is known
by the name of bleeding piles; but when  there is no discharge,
it is called blind piles.   The lower intestine is  particularly subject 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.           107
to the piles, from its situation,  structure, and  use;  the  hemorrhoi-
dal veins are choked and clogged by the  large  excrements which
lodge in this intestine, and dilate its sides; and this resistance
forms  impediments to  the free  circulation  of blood,  which, of
course, becomes stagnated, and  causes the  formation of tumors,
often connected with  these veins; thence bursting, they form a
flux, which sometimes even proves fatal.
   Whatever, then, is capable of retarding the course of the blood
in  the hemorrhoidal veins may occasion this disease.  Thus, per-
sons who are generally costive, who are accustomed  to sit long at
stool, and strain hard j  pregnant women, or such  as  have had dif-
ficult labors; and  likewise persons  who have an obstruction in
the  liver,  are, for the most  part, afflicted  with  the  piles;  yet
every one  so situated  may not be attacked, the different causes
being not common to all, or, at least, not having in  all the same
effects.  When  hemorrhoids are  once formed, they seldom entire-
ly disappear.  A small pile, that  has been painful for  some days,
may cease  to be so, and dry up; but the skin does not afterwards
retain  its former firmness, being more  lax  and wrinkled, like  the
empty skin of a grape; and this may swell  and sink again several
times; they may happen,  indeed, never to  return  again,  if the
cause that  produced them is removed by competent remedies.  The
hemorrhoids are subject to many variations, and they may become
highly inflamed from the  difficult passing of the excrements.  It
is not  easy to remove them by art  In some  cases they termin-
ate in  an abscess, which arises in the middle of the  tumor,  and
often they  degenerate into fistulas.   These piles are very painful
till the abscess is formed.  In  others, the inflammation terminates
by  induration, which forms a schirrhous, which generally grows
large.  The piles sometimes ulcerate, and continually discharge a
sanies, which the patient perceives by stains  on the  shirt, and by
its occasioning a very troublesome itching about the verge of the
anus.   This kind of piles sometimes turns cancerous.  Many other
kinds of hemorrhoids affect the system; they are too numerous to
describe, yet it is essential for  the physician  to understand their
nature.  The flow of blood may proceed from two causes, namely,
from an excoriation produced  by the hardness of the excrements,
or  from  the  rupture  of the tumified  vessels, which  break by 
108
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
their too great distension, and by efforts in straining when at stool.
In  some of these cases,  the patient voids blood very freely and
often.  We sometimes meet with men who have a periodical bleed-
ino- by the piles, not unlike the menses in women.
  The piles are sometimes distended to such a degree as to fill the
rectum, so that, if the excrements are at  all hard, they cannot pass.
lu this case the excrements force the hemorrhoids out of the anus,
to procure a free passage, so that the internal coat of the gut itself
comes  out, the patient  experiencing much pain and many disa-
greeable sensations.  The treatment recommended for  this com-
plaint by our physicians^ varies  much, according  to circumstances.
Some endeavor to stop the blood with cold water and ice;  others
make use of astringents, alum, zinc, &c.   Most  generally' they
recommend a steady use of mild cathartics, as sulphur,  castor oil,
senna, &c.  Leeches are applied when there is much inflammation,
and an antiphlogistic regimen is adopted when they are accompa-
nied by fever.
  As before remarked, high living, inactivity, sedentary employ-
ments, inebriety, intemperance in eating, and a voluptuous  life,
violent passions of the mind, and a suppression of customary evacu-
ations, may bring on tliis complaint.  It is frequently hereditary,
and both sexes arc equally liable to it.
  The true mode of cure and the surest preventive  means, will
be  found  in the adoption and persevering  use of the French
Philanthropic Remedy, which will infallibly give instant, certain,
and permanent relief. See ' The Practical Key of the Confidential
Doctor at Home,' wherein may be found other  valuable recipes.


                      OF RHEUMATISM.

  Rheumatism is  a most painful,  and, if long continued, even a
frightful disorder.   Its seat  is perhaps in the membranes  of the
body ;  at least, some of them, we apprehend to be directly affect-
ed.   Rheumatism is sometimes mistaken  for  the gout.  It  may
occur at all times of the year, but is most common in spring and
fall, when there are great variations of the atmosphere  and tem-
perature, and sudden changes of the winds to different points of 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.
109
the compass.  It attacks  persons on suddenly being cooled, after
great heat; it may be caused by a current of air, through a  small
passage, as from a window or door half open;  by wearing wet
clothes; lying in damp linen or damp rooms, &c.  It is also brought
on by excesses of various kinds, or a cessation of customary bodily
exertions.  Rheumatism attacks persons of all ages, but very young
people are less subject to  it than adults.  Those who are much
afflicted  by this  complaint,  are very apt to be made sensible of
the approach of wet weather, by wandering pains about them at
such periods.
   Thousands of cases, improperly  called rheumatism,  and, of
course,  ineffectually treated as such, are only the effects and the
consequences of complaints  brought on by dangerous  medicines,
and especially by mineral or mercurial treatment of other disor-
ders.   Driving  into  the system any  disease, which is local or
cutaneous, may be the cause of pains  and symptoms resembling
rheumatism.  Nervous complaints often  produce  acute pains and
anguish,  which  inexperienced physicians take  for rheumatism.
Hence, various complaints, treated as rheumatism, when, in fact,
they are  not so, will  certainly increase  in character and  viru-
lence, and the poor sufferer must surely fall a victim and die the
death of a double tyrant — the  disease and the treatment.   The
Philanthropic Remedy, however, will equally relieve and cure the
patient, not only when suffering the tortures of rheumatism, but it
will  cure all primary  and secondary diseases, restoring harmony
throughout the whole organic influxes of the human  system, so
that health and a renovated and robust  constitution, full of  vigor
and  vitality,  will be theirs, free from the corroding germs of pain
and anguish.
   Rheumatic pains are exceedingly acute and almost  spasmodic,
making the patient dread  the  least motion.  These pains, in the
first stages, are wandering, and pass from one  side of the body to
the opposite, or from one  point to another.  If the  disease be
chronic, it occasions no swelling or fever; but if  of the inflamma-
tory kind, the parts affected are  inflamed with a white swelling,
and so distended that the patient cannot move  or limp without the
utmost pain.
   Rheumatisms have many denominations, according to their  char- 
110           PRUDENTIAL  REVELATIONS, AND

acter, or according  to the parts which  are  affected, as lumbago,
sciatica, arthrodynia, &c.   Physicians universally agree, that when
rheumatism affects the hips, it is most difficult to cure, and takes a
longer time to effect a cure  than when situated in any other part
of the body.   The  most violent  and obstinate pain is generally
felt in the part where the head of the thigh bone is received into
the acetabulum,  and this pain will sometimes extend itself to the
lower part of the loins, to the small of the  back, the spine, &c,
and down to the  thigh, leg, and even to the  extremity of the  foot,
while there is yet no external  indication of disease.   Sometimes
the pain  is  so intense, that the patient cannot stand  upright, or
bear the least motion, and all violent exercise  exasperates  the
complaint.
  In this disorder, a cool and diluting diet  is recommended; the
patient, if possible, should ride on horseback, use very strong fric-
tions and warm baths, wear flannel next his  skin, and avoid night
air and damp atmospheres, &c.   The external and internal use of
the French Philanthropic Remedy will soon radically remove the
disease.
  Even the chronic and ideopathic  rheumatisms are easily cured,
however difficult they have been supposed.  Dr. Fontaine's prac-
tice,  in these diseases, is entitled to the utmost confidence.  The
multitude of cases, which he has treated, always by means of the
Philanthropic  Remedy, or other recipes  prescribed in his Practi-
cal Key, &c, have been attended with uniform success.
   If the  disease is symptomatic, the cure depends upon the removal
of the primary disorder, which  will be  effected  by the treatment
recommended in the general directions of the Philanthropic Reme-
dy.  Bleeding and  blistering, most generally, have the effect to
protract the disease.
                       OF THE GOUT.

  The gout, like the rheumatism, attacks the patient most generally
in the spring  and fall.  Its chief seat is  in the  bones, ligaments,
and joints of the feet; the great toe is the most liable to attack.
The patient is  seized suddenly and without warning, with  acute 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
Ill
pains.   It is often preceded by crudities upon the stomach, indiges-
tion, flatulence, costiveness, and a sense of heaviness, torpor, &c.,
which increases  daily till  the fit comes  on.   The pain first seizes
the great toe, accompanied by powerful heat and itching; next the
edge of the heel,  where  it first  touches  the ground;  then the
hollow  of the foot;  and, last of all, the  ankles swell.  The pain
grows  more  intense, till it increases  to the  last pitch of agony,
sometimes  resembling a violent tension  or laceration of the liga-
ments, or the gnawing of a dog, and often the strong compression
of a vice.  So terrible is the agony at times, that the weight of a
single sheet, or the jar of a person near the bed, is insupportable.
Sometimes the pain  increases to such  a degree, that the miserable
patient thinks the limb must burst every moment.  When in this
state, the paroxysm will cease in about six hours, or about seventy-
four from  the commencement of the attack;  subsequently, the
parts begin to swell,  a gentle perspiration takes place, and the
patient obtains  rest.  In a few days, perhaps, another part is at-
tacked, and goes through a similar distressing process.  Not unfre-
quently, both feet are attacked at the same  time.
  The  paroxysms of the gout are  longer or shorter, according to
the age, strength, and constitutional habit of the patient.  Those
of a vigorous constitution sometimes  have attacks about  every
fifteen  days; others, once in two months.  The gout generally
commences in the fall or spring, and  often  continues  till the heat
of the  summer is past.  At its termination, the  patient recovers
his strength more or less rapidly, in proportion to the severity of
the attacks.
  If the gout be improperly treated, as is too  often, and most un-
fortunately the case,  and its course disturbed  by improper medi-
cines, it becomes  Very dangerous, and invades the whole system —
seizing  the hands, wrists, elbows, knees, and  other parts of  the
body — distorting the fingers, exfoliating the bones, and generating
chalky   concretions  about the ligaments of the joints.  The pains
are then continual, except for a short time in summer, producing a
general nervous derangement, leading to a complication  of  other
diseases.
  The  gout is produced by intense  study, high living, inactivity,
too great indulgence of the appetite, inebriety, (particularly drink- 
112
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
ing too freely and constantly of rich wines,)  excessive  venereal
pleasures, great exertions, a moist, cold air, contusions, and an acid
stomach, (indicated by sour sweats and eructations.)   Violent ex-
citements of passion have no little effect in producing it.  Persons
of a gross, full habit are most subject to it, and it is often produced
by allowing the feet to sweat in wet stockings, or by  sudden chills
in a state of perspiration.  It is said to be contagious; and there is
no doubt that in many instances it is hereditary.
  The only disorder for  which  the regular gout can possibly be
mistaken is  the  rheumatism, and cases  may occur wherein  there
may be a difficulty in making a just discrimination.  Its attacks are
much confined to the  male sex, particularly those of a corpulent
habit, and robust body; yet now and then we meet with it in robust
females.
  There are four species of gout: — 1st, the podagra regularis; 2d,
podagra atonica;  3d, podagra retrograda; 4th, podagra aberrans.
  First.  The Podagra Regularis is  a  paroxysm of regular gout,
which sometimes  comes  on  suddenly, and  without any  previous
warning; at other times,  it is preceded by an unusual coldness of
the feet and legs, a suppression of perspiration in them, and numb-
ness, or a sense of pricking along the whole of the lower extremi-
ties;  the appetite is diminished, the stomach is troubled with
flatulency and indigestion;  a degree of torpor and languor is  felt
over the whole body, the  patient is costive, and the urine becomes
pale.  The patient perhaps goes to bed in tolerable health, and on
a sudden is awakened by the severity of the pain, and a sensation
as if cold water was poured upon the part.  The pains increase in
intensity, febrile symptoms  are  manifest, and throbbing and in-
flammation ensue.  After a few hours  he falls asleep, and a gentle
sweat breaks out and terminates the paroxysm;  a number of which
constitute what is called a fit of the gout  These fits  vary in their
symptoms, according to various moral as well as physical causes.
  Second. Atonic gout is accompanied  by no inflammation; but
the stomach  becomes affected, producing indigestion, flatulency,
nausea, vomiting, and severe pains, &c; much depression of spirits,
and other hypochondriacal  symptoms deject  the patient-  he is
also attacked with pain in the head, and  giddiness, and sometimes
there is  a tendency to apoplexy; and, in many cases, the viscera 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE  OF NATURE.
113
of the thorax suffers from the disease, and palpitations, faintness,
and asthma ensue.
   Third. Retrocedent Gout. — When  the inflammation has occu-
pied a joint, and, instead of continuing the usual time and going off
gradually, ceases suddenly,  and is translated  to  some internal
part, the case is called one of retrocedent gout  When it falls on
the stomach, it occasions nausea, vomiting, anxiety, and great pain;
when it falls on the heart it brings on syncope;  when on the lungs,
it produces an affection resembling asthma; and when it occupies
the head it is apt to give rise to apoplexy or palsy.  If it fall upon
the liver, bowels, &c, the disorders of those organs are of the most
acute nature.
   Fourth. Podagra  Aberrans, or misplaced  gout,  is thus called
when the inflammation  is free from the joint, but is conveyed to
some internal part, and is accompanied by the same symptoms which
attend the inflammation of those parts  from other causes.  When
there is a similar transfer of the first, second, or third description
of gout, it is to be treated as an  attack of irregular gout.  These
attacks  are very dangerous and almost invariably  prove fatal,
unless the complaint is treated with extraordinary skill.
   The gout may invariably be cured, notwithstanding the severity
of the attack, provided  the  instructions for the treatment of rheu-
matism, scorbutic affections, and scrofula, and the general directions
for the use of the Philanthropic Remedy, are strictly attended to.
                  15 
SECTION FOURTH
                    To the Female Sex.


TREATISE  ON  FEMALE  COMPLAINTS.
         WEAKNESS  CONTRACTED BEFORE MARRIAGE.

  There are diseases of the female sex of so delicate a nature, and
the causes of which are  of such  a character, that both  are  too
often wholly concealed, though the consequences are indescribably
dreadful,  and generally  vividly  depicted  on  the countenance.
This fact alone is a sufficient excuse for a full and accurate treatise
on a class of derangements and disorders, unhappily too common,
which are produced  by ignorance, and the unnatural indulgence
of the passions.   There is no doubt that, in all civilized countries —
to a greater or less degree, and in this country, it is feared, beyond
most others — females at an early age indulge in that secret and un-
natural  vice — masturbation, or self-pollution.  No proof is required
of the truth of a fact so well established.    There can be no ques-
tion, in  the scientific  mind and with the best informed, of the con-
sequences of  this destructive vice ; hence no female can consider
a work prepared with purely philanthropic intentions, to be insult-
ing to  her sex, nor  can it be regarded in any other light  than as
a work  highly proper, necessary, and  even indispensable, to the
health and happiness of  those for whose especial use it was pre-
pared
  Nature has provided in a state of wedlock for the enjoyment of
the passion of love, upon which depends the continuance  of the
human species,  and she has given  to  that enjoyment,  the highest
degree of sensual pleasure.   While to both sexes nothing can be 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
115
more pleasing than the legitimate indulgence of .this  propensity,
in both, its abuse is attended by the most painful  and deplorable
results, being not only destructive to all the pleasures, and all the
blessings of the  connubial state, but ruinous to the constitution,
producing a train of the worst diseases, and inevitably shortening
existence.  This subject  has been  treated upon at  length in the
section * On Chastity,' wherein the  effects of this vice have been
pointed out, as well as the proper treatment of those terrible dis-
eases, which are produced by it.
   But  in the female  sex — more tender,  delicate,  and sensitive
than the  male, with a more excitable  temperament  and stronger
power of the imagination — there is an abuse of the passion of love,
involving no unchaste act, no immodest abuse of the organs, no fric-
tions  of onanism, or self-pollution, but which is still more destruc-
tive to the virginity of the soul and that purity which is required by
religion, and which is necessary to health, long fife, and happiness.
   Woman, more than man, feels the  strength and, power of the
tender passion.   Says  the poet:

                • Love, of man's life, is a thing apart;
                 'Tis woman's whole existence.'

   Her  passions are at the same time, to a  greater degree, under
the influence of her own consent and desire, and she has the power
of enjoying all the  enchantments of lasciviousness, and  venereal
pleasure, solely in imagination, without either contact with man,
or a self-polluting action.  They find a platonic love  impossible,
for, except with persons of a very different age, or a near relation,
the imagination  is expanded in carnal visions, and every attach-
ment  and affection has with them the power of sexual love, so that
often  they give way to these amorous impulses, even among their
own sex, and even by themselves,  so that  their own  vivid  and
strong sensibilities plunge them into a vortex of self-destruction.
  Ladies of refined  education  and  elegant pursuits, with  minds
highly cultivated, and  nerves of extreme sensibility, brought up in
luxury, with every thing around them ministering to the natural
impulses of an excitable temperament, are  the most likely of all
others to fall a prey and be the victims of this species of self-indul-
gence, and  to suffer from  it evils hardly  less awful than those 
116
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
which attend the act and habit of masturbation itself.  It relaxes
and enervates the mind and all the intellectual faculties, ruins the
complexion, makes the patient pale, swarthy,  and haggard, occa-
sions a loss of tone, and  exciting diseases of the organs of genera-
tion, and tends to a long train of hysterical and consumptive com-
plaints.  The sympathy of the system irritates and inflames the
parts within the pelvis, and produces shooting  pains in the lower
part of the body.  It drains  away the moisture of the skin and
muscles, and produces barrenness — that dread and woe of matrimo-
nial life — causes an indifference to natural and healthful enjoyment
of the pleasures of Venus, and in time a total inaptitude or inabili-
ty to perform the act of generation itself.   Virgins, who  indulge
thus eagerly in lascivious imaginations, will soon fall into the active
abuse of their own bodies, and destroy that badge or sign of chastity,
which should never  be  lost before  marriage, and which once lost
can never be recovered.
   How unhappy must those  maidens be, who hay^e thus deprived
themselves of this  badge of virginity — the loss of which was so
severely punished by the Jews ?   Under what continual apprehen-
sions must they live ? with what terror must they approach the
nuptial bed, which heaven, nature, and reason designed for the
highest sensual enjoyment, when they reflect that their virtue, up-
on the first encounter, is liable to such suspicions  as may never be
 removed. The moment  of  rapture  becomes  one of shame and
 reproach, and future life is rendered a constant scene of jealousy,
 contempt, and  misery, when it were  else  so  affectionate  and
 happy!
    The physiognomy — the faithful  mirror of the soul and body —
 gives the first indication of internal disorder.   A fine complexion,
 and a plump, well-rounded figure, which jointly confer a youthful
 look, and are the chief constituents of beauty, are the first to dis-
 appear.   A leanness succeeds; the skin becomes rough, and of an
 unhealthy color; the eyes lose their brilliancy, and by their dead
 languor, indicate disorder in the whole frame; the lips lose their
 hue of rich vermilion, the teeth their pearly whiteness, and the
 whole system is marked with signs of premature  decay;  the body
 becomes  distorted,  with  curvature of the spine, and other marks
  of a weak and failing constitution.  How often do we see females, 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.
117
who were well made and well proportioned at fourteen, fifteen, or
sixteen, and  even eighteen years of age, become  crooked by a
bending of the spine ?  That this is most generally the result of
voluptuous, secret indulgence, in thought or action, is well known
and established.
     t
  Nature has given to some women  a partial resemblance to men,
in the excessive size of a part which is generally very small,  (the
clitoris,) accompanied also with an extraordinary degree of mascu-
line character in  other particulars, such as the voice, beard, and
even the  general formation of the  body, and  the  temper of the
mind.  This has given rise to the chimera  of hermaphrodites; and
the abuse of  this  part, possessed by  all women in a small degree,
produces all  the evil  described above, notwithstanding this organ
should be of a very diminutive size.
  Women, and even young ladies, have often conceived  the most
violent passion for those of  their own sex, and  have been affected
with the strongest jealousy, when the subjects  of these unnatural
passions have been made love to by the other sex.  The statistics
of prostitution  in Paris,  London,  and many  other large cities,
show a multitude of such cases; and  they are frequently to be
found in every community  of America, among those  apparently
virtuous.
  Let  the  young reflect upon the miserable  effects of excessive
and unnatural indulgence — let them learn that the laws of purity
and chastity of mind, as well as person, are  founded on principles
of physiology.  Let them, when tempted  to sin,  reflect upon the
condition of the victims of sensual vice; and as relaxations, weak-
ness, and various diseases are the result of these and similar indul-
gences, and many,  alas! have  Unfortunately been led into them,
through ignorance, we have made these diseases our especial study ;
and, after an  assiduous experience of many years, have formed a
system of practice, which has proved eminently  serviceable, and
may be relied upon as the most certain means of obtaining relief. 
118
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS  AND
             FUROR UTERINUS — NYMPHOMANIA.

  This affection arises from great sensibility, irritability, or inflam-
mation of the pudenda, or the seat of the venereal stimulus, gener-
ally the clitoris and vagina — an acrimony  of the fluids of these
parts may produce it, but its real cause is generally the indulgence;
of amorous desires and obscene actions.   It is characterized by an
incessant, overpowering,  and even  furious  longing  for  venereal
indulgence.
  As in man, the loss of the fluids in women, in sexual pleasures,
weakens the  system, though  the effect is less, perhaps;  because
these fluids are less elaborate than the seminal fluid in man; but as
the nervous  systems of women are more delicate and  sensitive
than those  of men, so  do amorous thoughts and emotions weaken
and derange  them  more frequently;  producing involuntary and
powerful emissions of the fluids, causing  more violent  spasmodic
diseases than in the male sex.
  Were  this  frightful disease the  only consequence of lascivious
indulgences, it should be enough to induce parents to maintain the
most watchful care over their daughters' health and morals, to keep
them from the temptations of solitary hours, romantic and exciting
tales of love and passion; and in the company of young men, and
even of their  lovers, they should never be unattended by the proper
guardians of their honor and health. The influence of Venus can
only be avoided by sudden flight, or the presence of Minerva.
  The  worse  disease resulting from erotic,  excitement, and from
the love even of the beings of their own  imagination, is nympho-
mania.   There are,  however, many virtuous  and  modest women
subject to it  The women, whom celibacy renders most liable to it,
have been observed to  be of  small stature, and to have somewhat
bold features;  the skin is dark, the complexion ruddy, the mamma?
quickly developed, the  sensibility  great,  and the catamenia  con-
siderable.  At the very commencement  of puberty, and  in the
endeavors of a young widow  to observe  absolute continence, are
generally found causes which produce the  symptoms of this disease,
which symptoms soon develope themselves in the most aggravated
forms. 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
119
  In ladies suffering under this disease, there is often, at first, some
degree of  melancholy, with frequent sighings; the eyes  roll in
wanton glances, the cheeks are  flushed, the bosom heaves,  and
every gesture exhibits the lurking desire, and is enkindled by the
distressing  flame that burns  within.  The  disease is strikingly
marked by the movements of the limbs  and thighs, and the  sala-
cious appearance  of  the  countenance;  even the language  that
proceeds from the lips is most lascivious,  and the gestures are very
indecent,   They invite men without distinction, and  abuse them
if they repel their advances.
  May parents and guardians, and the sensible youth of the fair
sex, profit by these awful revelations of truth, and may the knowl-
edge and instructions herein given be faithfully considered.  When
any one  falls a prey and  a victim to this humiliating disease, to
restore health  and strength, subdue the rebel instinct and gain a
perfect ascendency over this over-excited passion and fury, the
French Philanthropic  Remedy will be the only sure  and never-
failing antidote and medicine.  This is the only salutary preventive,
and the  certain comforter to any one thus afflicted, to whom we
never have hesitated to warrant its infallibility, provided the moral
treatment, in connection with the directions for its use, is strictly
adhered to.

                       OF THE  MENSES.

  Physicians, of all  ages and  nations, have endeavored to investi-
gate the causes of this flux, which resembles  the ocean in its
ebbings and flowings at certain periods.   It is called the menstrual
discharge, or flux of the blood.   In  this country it usually begins
at about the age of thirteen to sixteen, and terminates at about
forty to fifty.  These two periods  are the most critical in the whole
fife  of a female, and the strictest care is  then necessary, as their
health and  happiness and even their  life may depend  upon their
conduct at these times.   At  the proper period  of menstruation
much depends  upon proper management.  A sedentary life, con-
straint, and confinement at that time, are unfavorable, while mod-
erate exercise, the open air, cheerful society, and pleasant recrea-
tions have the best effects.  Severe labor and exposure  to cold, or a 
120
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
damp, unhealthy atmosphere  are too dangerous  to  be hazarded,
even by the poorest people,  and those inured to exposure.  In
some females the menses are extremely irregular,  sometimes occur-
ring at  intervals of  twenty-seven to thirty days, and some  have
them twice a month, without injury to their health, while others do
not have them  once a month.  Their  duration,  from the  same
causes is also irregular, and the flux continues three, four, and  even
six days; but it generally terminates on the third or fourth.
          IMMODERATE FLOWING OF THE MENSES.

  A large flow of the menstrual fluid from the womb should never
be neglected, especially if attended, as it naturally will  be, with
loss of strength, lassitude, and debility, and their consequences —
loss of appetite, crudities of the stomach, occasioned by indigestion,
a feeling of weight in the region of the stomach, a bad complexion,
languid pulse, swelled feet, and disturbed  and unrefreshing sleep.
  When  this immoderate discharge is caused by an error in the
patient's regimen, an opposite  course to  that  which  induced the
disorder must be pursued.   The Philanthropic Remedy should be
taken internally, and used also as an  embrocation,  precisely as
directed.   This will counteract the morbid affections of the blood,
from whence it proceeds, and restrain the flux.  The patient should
be kept quiet and  easy in body  and mind.  If the  discharge  is
very violent, she ought to lie  in  bed, with the head low, and live
upon a slender diet, such as veal or chicken broths,  and bread.  A
weak and cold decoction  of Peruvian  bark is  beneficial, and a
pinch of alum, pulverized  and dissolved in  water, may be taken
two or three times a day.   But if the patient be a married woman
or a  widow, then  the Philanthropic Remedy must  be  used, as
directed,  to  procure pregnancy,  or  prevent abortion.   See the
directions  accompanying  the  medicine, for, if they  are strictly
followed, a cure cannot fail.   If a flux  appear during pregnancy,
then the only sure remedy is the Philanthropic Remedy, which at
once stops the flux, and prevents miscarriage.
  As an immoderate discharge  of the  menses is caused by a seden-
tary life,  and want  of  proper exercise, not less than by mental 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
121
excitement, it is common among the rich, but very seldom does it
affect the poor, who exercise  much, five  sparingly, and are free
from fashions, luxuries, and fancy wants.  It is also occasioned  by
the use  of  too much salt, high-seasoned food, spirituous liquors,
stimulating physical and moral causes, violent agitations  of  the
mind, losses, gains, fear, anger, grief, &c.  Too much exertion may
be as hurtful as too little, especially if the  flux is in consequence
of too frequent embraces, excessive love, or a miscarriage.


                SUPPRESSION  OF THE MENSES.

  As soon as the healthy female comes to her full growth, she gen-
erates more blood  than can be contained in the vessels — hence a
provision of nature, by which the superfluity is at certain seasons
carried off by the  uterine arteries, and this regular discharge is
called the menses.   Should this  necessary flux  be  suppressed,
except in case  of pregnancy or lactation — when  the  superabun-
dant fluids are used in gestation, or  for the infant's nourishment —
means must  be immediately  used  to  restore  it.  When females
have  arrived at the proper age for the appearance of the menses,
they should be  indulged with  free exercise, fresh air, and lively
company, instead of being confined to the house.  1£ with this regi-
men they should fail to appear, they must, without delay, resort to the
Philanthropic Remedy, or  Dr. Fontaine's well-known Female Med-
icines,  taking them  most  carefully, according  to  the  directions.
(See the index  of  ' The Practical Key of the Confidential  Doctor
;tt Home.')  Nature, assisted by these infallible remedies, will soon
perform her appropriate functions.
  The delicate constitution and fine texture of  the nerves  in
females, give  them a sensibility, a  promptitude of expression, soft-
ness of manners, refinement of ideas, and lively sensations of plea-
sure and grief,  superior to those of  the other sex.  But while they
are, by the possession of these  excellences, rendered objects of our
affection and esteem, the  peculiar  structure of their  frames sub-
jects them to painful and critical vicissitudes,  affecting  not only
their health, but their temper,  and entitling them to our  sympathy
and indulgence.
                       16 
122           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

  The first  appearance of the menses, in girls,  is generally pre-
ceded by a  sense of heat and weight, and a dull pain in the loins,
distension and hardness of the  breasts,  headache, loss of appetite,
lassitude, paleness of the  complexion, weariness of the legs, some-
times a  slight fever, and, during the flux, nausea and  faintness.
When these symptoms  are observed, at about the age when  the
menstrual discharge should  appear, every  thing calculated  to
obstruct this necessary evacuation should be carefully avoided, and
every proper means resorted to to promote it; such  as sitting fre-
quently over the steam of tansy,  summer-savory tea,  or camomile,
drinking these teas, and making use of the  Philanthropic Remedy,
or Dr. Fontaine's Female Medicines, by  which,  in a few days, the
patient will be restored to health and regularity.
  The diet,  at such times, should be  regarded  with peculiar care.
Every thing which is  cold, or which turns sour on the stomach,
should be avoided.   If any bad effects are perceptible from such
causes, either of these Medicines will give instantaneous relief.
  Cold  is peculiarly hurtful at this period.   More disorders, in
the sex, may be dated from taking  cold at  these periods, than are
produced by all  other causes.  They cannot, therefore, use too
great caution.  A degree of cold,  which  may be borne with safety
at any other time, may prove fatal  at this, and be sufficient to ruin
the health and constitution, — producing the incipient symptoms
of a  confirmed consumption.   The mind should be kept quiet,
easy, and cheerful, — free from all excitements, such as anger, fear,
grief, and other passions, which occasion obstructions, often incura-
ble,  and only yielding to the Philanthropic Remedy or the Female
Medicines recommended.
   When obstruction proceeds from a weak or relaxed state of the
solids, these  Female Medicines  alone  will give strength, promote
digestion, brace the fibres, and produce  the finest tone and most
perfect regularity.   Obstructions of the menses are often produced
by other maladies,  which females bring  upon  themselves, by the
imprudences sanctioned by fashion, the dissipation of the  age, and
the  indulgences  of vice.  But,  whatever the cause,  (and  con-
science  will whisper it  to  the guilty,)  these  Philanthropic and
Female  Remedies  are the only sure  and effectual medicines,  in
every case, and under every circumstance.  When habits of las- 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.
123
civipusness, in thought or deed, are cherished, justice must  over-
take the victim, but science and charity may yet bring relief to the
repentant sufferer.
  To instruct young ladies  very early in  life, in  the conduct and
management of themselves, at their critical periods, is the absolute
duty of mothers, and those intrusted with their education.   Igno-
rance of,  or inattention  to, what is hurtful or beneficial at such
times, may result in misfortunes and diseases, perhaps, during life,
which a few sensible lessons and moral instructions, from an  expe-
rienced matron, might have prevented.   This Book of Prudential
Revelations will supply  all  that is needed  for the youth's   moral
guidance and physical benefit, to render her virtuous and happy
to old age.
  Married ladies may also be benefited, when  their menses become
obstructed; but they are referred to a peculiar rule for ascertaining
their true situation, which can be found in  the very effects of said
Philanthropic  Remedy  or Female  Medicines, — more minutely
pointed out in the  Treatise and  Directions  accompanying  them.
See ' The Practical Key of the  Confidential Doctor at Home.'
  It is, however, greatly regretted by Dr. Fontaine and by the vir-
tuous part of  the community, that many females,  single and  marri-
ed, under the pretext of facilitating the menses,  resort to the Phi-
lanthropic Remedy or the  Female Medicine, for the purpose of
expelling nature's gift;  thus, without fear of detection,  disregarding
the laws  of God and man. Now, considering the great benefits
which Dr. Fontaine has conferred  on the human family, by pro-
mulgating his invaluable recipes and diffusing information, is he to
be blamed because  profligacy uses that as  an instrument for the
commission of crime, which he intrusted  to them as a glorious
palladium of safety ?  Certainly not!  The well known effective
use of these Medicines,  in such  criminal  proceedings, cannot alter
the question.   Those who condemn Dr. Fontaine  would  find fault
with science, chemistry,  and nature herself, for she often provides
for man  those  splendid bounties,  which may be converted into
deadly poisons. 
124
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
              CHLOROSIS, OR, GREEN SICKNESS.

  This is an obstruction or  morbidness of the womb-vessels, by
which young ladies  especially  are  the sufferers, at  the  time of
their puberal development, or when their  courses begin  to  flow.
The most marked symptoms are felt in  a general heaviness of the
whole system, listlessness to motion, fatigue on  the least exercise,
palpitations of the heart, pains in the back, loins, and hips, flatulen-
cy,  acidities in the stomach  and bowels, sickness and nausea at the
sight of proper food; and a preternatural appetite for chalk, coals,
bricks, stones,  lime,  tobacco, sealing-wax, and  other  articles of a
hurtful and improper nature.  As  chlorosis advances in  its pro-
gress, the face becomes pale, and assumes a greenish  or yellowish
hue; the whole  body is flaccid and likewise sallow;  the feet are
affected with cedematous swellings;  the breathing is  difficult and
much hurried by any considerable exertion of the body; the  pulse
is quick, but  small;  various morbid affections  of the viscera are
often brought on; the ovaria  are in  a scirrhous, or dropsical state;
the  liver, spleen, and the mesenteric glands are often found in a
diseased  state.   The stoppage  of the  menses  is not always the
cause of the  distemper; for  they,  sometimes,  although not  very
often, flow regularly in the progress of the disease.  The suppres-
sion of the menses is rather the effect than  the  cause  of this  com-
plaint,  which we consider a species of hysterical affection, mani-
fested by discoloration and  paleness of the face and  whole body.
In  this  disease,  most generally, the flux,  instead of beino- of an
healthy vermilion, blood-like color,  is  pale, yellowish, black, curl-
ed,  and very offensive to the smell;  indeed, it is putrid and infec-
tious.   The complaint is indisputably  caused,  almost exclusively,
from stifling or suppressing  the calls of  nature at this vernal season
in woman's life, when the primary command of  God, '  increase and
multiply,' is not obeyed.
  Every fibre and vessel of the genital system is  now filled with a
procreative liquor, which excites  in the private  parts a powerful
and involuntary irritation, strongly soliciting  a  discharge of the
fluid by sensual embraces.   These being forbidden to the maiden, 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.
125
and often denied to married ladies, from prudential causes, or just
motives, better known to the parties concerned, the prolific liquor
is forced back  upon the stomach, and affects the whole  A-iscera,
vitiating the catamenia,  (the menses,) and choking and clogging the
perspirative vessels, whereby the  venal,  arterial,  and  nervous
fluids, the lymphatics, &c, become stagnant, and the leuco-phleg-
matic, or whites, and dropsical humors, pervade  the whole  body,
and quickly consign the unhappy patient  to a rapid  consumption,
which terminates  her sufferings in death.  In this manner, thou-
sands of our most beautiful women are hurled to the tomb, in the
very blossom of life, when female loveliness first commences an
exhibition of those radiant charms, which contribute so  much  to
the delight of mankind.  Better would it be for parents and guar-
dians, who have the charge of young  females  iKicted with this
disease, to suffer them, where no insurmountable objection can arise,
to join without delay in the marriage bonds with those they love,
as such a treatment will effect the most natural, rational,  and per-
manent cure, — the  causes of the  complaint being thus removed
altogether.
   Although the sex should be cautious in  listening to, or encour-
aging the addresses  of, those conceited and trifling persons, who,
from a volubility of temperament, or some other cause, rove about
from one lady to another, without possessing a spark of real affec-
tion for any female, but woo for entertainment, and substitute decep-
tion and flattery for the sincere effusions of the heart; yet, whenever
a  prospect  of happiness can  be  reasonably hoped for, the  bridal
ceremony should  not be delayed longer than necessary.  In a case
like this, no parent or guardian should be  so unwise and cruel as
not cheerfully  to sanction  the mutual transport of joy, love, and
marriage.
   The Doctor  would here beg the pardon of those skeptical par-
ents, or others, who feel disposed to condemn his advice, and look
upon him as an intruder into the social  and domestic circle.  What
he writes is the dictate of duty.   The law of nature  is the first
after God's, to be obeyed;  and to shun or delay its observance, by
having recourse to an insufficient treatment or remedy, is criminal.
If, however, matrimony be not convenient, or the patient has no
suitor, or the parent or guardian is regardless of the supreme law 
126           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
of nature,  and the  imperative  command of  the  Creator,  from
interested motives; then, as recourse must be had to the  'healing
art;  Dr. Fontaine  would  offer his never-failing  Philanthropic
Remedy  or  Female  Medicines, — recipes, which have  been for
years before the public, and received its most decided approval.
These  Remedies, the best ever known, are warranted to effect a
cure, even after the patient  has  entered upon  the  last  stages of
consumption, and totters on the brink of eternity.
  Either of these valuable  Medicines will  positively insure  an
almost magic change, even if nature has already been overtasked;
and no one need despair of a certain cure, if within  the  reach of
art,  who is so  wise  as to  adopt this wonderful medicine.   How
many thousands of young,  amiable, and virtuous females, of the
highest respectaofiity, have been  saved, not only in the New Eng-
land States and New York, but over the whole country, by these
truly efficacious Philanthropic Remedies, when, for many months
before, notwithstanding their applications to most  skilful practi-
tioners, and the use of their sanatives,  they were  still suffering,
and  viewed with compassion and pity, as certain  victims  of the
grave!  But now, how  different!  Doctor Fontaine's recipes and
prescriptions, under Providence, have been the means of  restoring
them to  health, and the enjoyment of all those  social  pleasures
which embellish life and render existence beautiful!   This Female
Medicine, or the Philanthropic Remedy, unclogs the genital  tubes;
purges and  cools  the uterine apparatus and vagina; immediately
promotes the menstrual discharge;  instantly removes painful men-
struations; cleanses the urinary passages; dissolves  viscid humors
in the  blood;  purifies the lymphatics;  sharpens  the   appetite;
stimulates the nerves, and exalts the spirits, which, in all  stages of
chlorosis, or the suppression of the menses, are fiable to be depress-
ed.  The directions for taking the Philanthropic Remedy and the
Female  Medicine are  explicitly  given  in  accordance  with  the
wants of the patient.   Be on your guard, however,  for imposition
may put you in possession of a spurious article.  The Doctor will
guarantee his  medicines as his own, genuine  and  unadulterated,
when they are received directly from his general depots or author-
ized agents.  The public press, especially of New York, will, from
time to time, announce the name and residence of every agent,
whenever appointed. 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
127
HYSTERIA AND HYSTERICAL EPILEPSY, CONSIDERED  AS THE
  EFFECTS  OF  VOLUPTUOUS  DESIRES ;   MORE  ESPECIALLY
  WHEN THEY  ARE  NOT  GRATIFIED.

  An attack of hysteria is generally  characterized by yawning,
stretching, a variable state of mind, or extravagant caprices;  tears
and laughter without cause ; fluttering and palpitation, with  flatu-
lence ;  rumbling in the belly; a flow of limpid urine ; a feeling as
if a ball (the globus hystericus) viere rolling about in the abdomen,
ascending to  the stomach and fauces, and there causing a  sense of
strangulation, as well as of  oppression about the chest, and difficul-
ty of respiration; fainting ; loss of sensation, motion,  and speech;
death-like  coldness of the extremities, or of the body generally; also
muscular rigidity, and convulsive movements — the patient twisting
the body, and striking herself upon the breast  and elsewhere ; and
this is followed by a degree of coma, stupor,  and apparent sleep,
consciousness by degrees returning, amidst sobs, sighs, and tears.
  Hysterical epilepsy may likewise  take place,, the  paroxysms of
which are  sometimes  preceded by  dimness of sight,  vertiginous
confusion, pain of the head, ringing in the ears, flatulence of the
stomach and  bowels,  palpitation of the heart, and occasionally of
the aura epileptica, or a feeling as if cold air, commencing in some
part of the extremities, directed its course up to the head.   Dur-
ing the fit, the patient falls upon the ground,  and rolls about; the
muscles of the face are distorted; the tongue is thrust out of the
mouth,and often bitten; the eyes turn in their orbits; she cries
or shrieks, emitting a foaming  saliva, and  struggles with  such
violence that several persons are  required to hold her.  The belly
is tense and grumbling;  there are frequent eructations; and the
excretions, particularly the urinary, are passed involuntarily.  Af-
ter a time, more or less considerable, the patient gradually recov-
ers, with yawning and a sense of lassitude, she scarcely answers,
and is ignorant of what has occurred to her.
  These kind of  diseases  will be  cured by  marriage and con-
nection ; yet these  natural means  may  not  always be at hand j
hence  to prevent the occurrence of similar distressing diseases or 
128           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

to palliate  and abate its virulence, and promote  health, there  is
no better remedy and antidote  than the French Philanthropic
Remedy, which has ever insured a perfect and permanent cure,
in cases already rendered chronic and most obstinate.


                 FLUOR ALBUS OR  WHITES,

  Consist in  an efflux of a whitish lymphatic, serous, or aqueous
humor,  from the matrix.   Its color is either white, pale, yellow,
green, or blackish.  The fluid is often sharp and corrosive, foul and
foetid, and  produces tenderness^1 excoriations, inflammations,  and
itching in the parts affected.  The face is discolored;  a pain is felt
in the small of the  back; strength is lost, and the eyes and feet
become  swelled.   The disease is caused most generally, by a debili-
ty of the body — proceeding chiefly from  indolence, excessive use
of tea and  coffee, or living upon a weak, watery diet.   Violent
passions, sudden  fear,  and  afflictions, will  bring  it on.   Many
females have a periodical flux, instead of the  menses — which is
attended by  a sensation of weight in the loins; cloudy  urine; a
loathing for some things,  and a longing  desire for  others.   Old
maids, barren women, and  those who are  most  liable to miscarry,
are chiefly troubled with the whites.  We may add  also,  those
females  who are enceinte.  The feet swell  by day, and the face by
night.   There is a difficulty in breathing, and a palpitation of the
heart.   The discharge is often so sharp as to  ulcerate  the parts,
which are however  soon healed by the use of the  French Philan-
thropic  Remedy.   The effects of this  disease are dropsy and  con-
sumption, if timely relief is not given.   The  patient feels acute
pains, and a burning sensation in the private parts,  especially  in
walking, and in emitting urine,  and there is often a  falling of the
womb, and the sufferer cannot endure conjugal  embraces. By la-
dies it is improperly called ' the gravel.'  It may be known from
the venereal disease — (with which  it is  often confounded, when
to distinguish between them is of great importance,) by the whites
ceasing at  the commencement of the menses,  and not  appearing
until they have ceased flowing.  But menstruation does not cause a
 cessation of the venereal discharge.   The disease of  which we are 
              THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.            129

 treating, attacks females of all conditions and in every stage of life.
 The Doctor would refer all married ladies and widows to the Trea-
 tise on the Philanthropic Remedy, where they will  find excellent
 advice;  and to  young  ladies   also,  he   would  prescribe  and
 recommend the same; indeed, we might  refer  all  females thus
 affected to a number of valuable recipes and substitutes, mentioned
 in ' The  Practical  Key of  the  Confidential Doctor  at  Home.'
 The patient should take  as much exercise as possible.  The best
 Port wine, (taken at meals,) lime water, strong broths, and milk
 diet, will be found very serviceable.   Herbs, acids, and fruits, must
 be avoided, and by no means should the  patient remain  long in
 bed.  Finally, in cold weather, we would recommend a  warm bath
 and frictions, which will be found  to possess singular virtue.


             FOR  MARRIED  LADIES.

                      OF GENERATION.

  Many ingenious hypotheses have been instituted by physiologists,
 to explain the mysteries of generation, but the whole of our knowl-
 edge concerning it appears to be built  upon the phenomena it af-
 fords.  This is a sexual action performed in different ways in most
 animals.   Many of them have different sexesfand require conjunc-
 tion — as the human species, quadrupeds, and others.
  In the human species, which engages our attention more partic-
 ularly, the phenomena are as follows :  man, in  the act of reproduc-
 tion, deposites the  semen  in the  vagina, near the orifice of the
 womb.   The  functions performed, and the peculiar odoriferous
fluid which the female  discharges, are much more  obscure and
 mysterious.  We  omit the enumeration of them, remarking onlv
that some feel, at this moment, inconceivable ecstatic  raptures, and
 very strong voluptuous sensations; others appear entirely insensi-
ble;  while  others, again,  experience a sensation which is very
painful.  Some  of them pour out a mucous fluid, of a  peculiarly
 fragrant  smell,  and in considerable  abundance, at the  instant of
the most vivid pleasure; while, in the greater  part, this  phenome-
non is entirely wanting.   In all  these respects there is perhaps no
                     17 
130
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
exact resemblance  between  any two  females.  These  different
phenomena are common  to the most frequent acts of copulation;
that is, to those which do not produce impregnation, as well as to
those which are effective.  Indeed, they are  also  observed  and
felt by many in lascivious excitements  and masturbation, without
coition.
  As the laws of generation  are to us  hypothetical, and even in
conflict  witih, and contrary to, the experiments of the most exact
observers, it is therefore necessary to consider as conjectural what
authors say about the general signs of fecundation.  At the instant
of conception most  women feel a universal tremor, continued for
some time, accompanied  by a voluptuous sensation; the features
are discomposed, the eyes lose  their  brilliancy, the pupils  are
dilated, the visage  is pale, &c.  No doubt impregnation is some-
times accompanied by these signs; but many mothers have never
felt them, nor the least rapture, and  yet they reach the fourth  and
even the sixth month of their pregnancy, without suspecting their
situation.

                      OF BARRENNESS.

  The Author  will not  investigate the causes and character of
barrenness.  The subject has already  been  ably  discussed  and
treated upon in this  work, and there are many medical treatises
on  the subject by scientific gentlemen.  He will only remark, that
there are sure  means to promote conception.   (See in the index
of ' The Practical Key of the Confidential Doctor at Home,' the
treatise on the French Philanthropic Remedy.')   We shall remark,
however, that sterility sometimes happens  from  a miscarriage, or
violent labor injuring some of the genital parts.  One of the most
frequent causes is the suppression  of the menstrual flux.   Many
causes arise from various  diseases incident to these parts,  by which
the womb or the ovaria may be rendered unfit to receive or retain
the male's seed.  It  often happens from universal debility and re-
laxation, or a local debility of the genital system, caused  by  las-
civiousness, or irritation, or disease, and  these  parts havino-  lost
their tone or contractile power, the semen is thrown off immediately
post coitum, &c.  For these and similar causes this Remedy will be
effectual. 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.
131
                       OF  PREGNANCY.

  Although pregnancy is a  state which  (with few exceptions) is
natural to all women, it is, in general, the source of many disagree-
able sensations, and is often  the cause  of diseases which might be
attended with the worst consequences, if  not properly treated.
Yet it is now universally acknowledged that those women who bear
children  usually enjoy more certain health, and are  much  less
liable to dangerous diseases, than those who are unmarried, or who
prove barren.

                    SIGNS OF PREGNANCY.

  The womb has a very extensive influence, by means of  its
nerves, on many other parts of the body.  Hence, the changes
which are produced on it by impregnation, must be productive of
changes on the state of the  general system. These constitute the
signs of pregnancy.
  During the first fourteen or fifteen weeks, the signs of pregnancy
are very ambiguous, and cannot be depended on; for, as they pro-
ceed from the irritation of the womb on  other parts, they may be
occasioned by every circumstance which can alter the natural state
of that organ.  The first circumstance which  renders  pregnancy
probable, is the  suppression  of the periodical evacuation, which is
generally accompanied with fulness in the breasts, headache, flush-
ing in  the face, heat in the palms  of the hands, nausea, stomach
sickness, &c.   These symptoms are commonly the consequences of
suppression, and, therefore, are to be regarded as signs  of preg-
nancy, in so far only as they depend on it  As, however, the sup-
pression of the menses  often happens from accidental exposure to
cold, or from the change of  life in consequence of marriage, or
from other irritability and disease, it can never be considered as
an infallible sign.
  The belly, some weeks after pregnancy,  becomes flat, from the
womb sinking, and hence drawing down the intestines along with
it;  but this cannot be looked upon as a  certain  sign of pregnancy, 
132
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
because an  enlargement of the womb  from any other cause, as
from  obstruction  of  the menstrual fluid, will produce the  same
effects.
  Many women, soon after they are pregnant, become very much
altered in their looks, and have peculiarly irritable feelings, induc-
ing a disposition  of mind, which renders their tempers  easily
ruffled, and inciting an irresistible propensity to actions and wants,
of which,  on  other occasions, they would  be ashamed.  In  such
cases, the  features acquire  a peculiar sharpness, the  eyes  appear
larger, and the mouth  wider than  usual; and  the woman has a
peculiar appearance, which cannot  be described, but with which
women are well acquainted.
  These breeding symptoms, as they are  called, originate from the
irritation  produced on  the womb by impregnation ;  and, as they
may proceed from any other circumstance, which can irritate that
organ, they cannot be depended upon when the woman is not
young, or  where there is not a  continued suppression, for at least
four periods.
  The irritation on the  parts contiguous  to the  womb  is equally
ambiguous; and, therefore, the signs of pregnancy, in the first four
months, are always to be considered as doubtful, unless all of those
above enumerated be distinctly and unequivocally present;  and,
even then, hypotheses and strong doubts may arise.
  From the fourth month, the signs of pregnancy are less ambigu-
ous, especially after the womb has ascended into the cavity of the
belly.  In general, about the fourth month, or a short time after,
the child becomes so much enlarged, that its  motions  begin to be
felt by the mother, and  hence a  sign is  furnished at that period,
called quickening.   Women very improperly consider this sign as
the most  unequivocal proof of pregnancy; for though, when it
occurs about the period described, preceded by the symptoms for-
merly enumerated, it may be looked upon as a sure indication that
the woman is with child, yet when there is an irregularity in the
preceding symptoms, the situation of the  woman  must be consider-
ed doubtful.   This fact will be  easily understood; for, as the sen-
sation of  the motion of the child cannot be accurately described
women may readily mistake other sensations for that of quicken-
ing.   Wind has often been pent up in the bowels, so as to increase 
TnE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.            133
 the  natural pulsation  of the great arteries, (a sensation exactly
 resembling that of the quickening of the foetus,) which has  fre-
 quently been mistaken for this feeling.
   After the fourth month, the womb rises gradually from the cavity
 of the pelvis, enlarges the belly, and pushes out the navel; hence
 the protrusion of the navel has been  considered one of the  most
 certain signs of pregnancy, in the latter months.   Every circum-
 stance, however, which increases the bulk of the belly, occasions
 this symptom; and therefore  it cannot be trusted to, unless other
 signs concur.
   The  progressive increase  of the belly,  along with suppression,
 after having been formerly regular, and the consequent symptoms,
 together with  the  sensation of quickening at the proper period,
 afford the  only true  marks of pregnancy.   These signs,  however,
 are not to be entirely depended upon; for the natural desire which
 every woman has to be a mother, will induce her to conceal, even
 from  herself,  every  symptom  which  may  render  her  situation
 doubtful, and  to  magnify every circumstance  which  can tend to
 prove that  she is pregnant.
   Besides quickening and the increase of bulk of the belly, another
 symptom appears  in  the  latter months, which, when preceded by
 the ordinary signs, renders pregnancy certain, beyond a doubt.  It
 is the presence of milk in the breasts.   When, however, there is
 any irregularity in the preceding  symptoms, this sign is no longer
 to be considered of any consequence.
   In conclusion, — as all'married women and their husbands,  and,
indeed,  any one who feels concerned for  their state of life, must
naturally wish to distinguish pregnancy from disease; we therefore
present to  them the French Philanthropic Remedy, as a sure
test, which is harmless in its nature, and positive in its determina-
tion,  even from the very beginning of conception.  See the Trea-
tise upon it, and follow the instructions contained in the directions.
   Nota Bene. — Any intelligent physician — a practical professional
observer — who has been  thoroughly instructed  in  the theory of
the arterial pulsation,  may become master and judge, through
practice and careful comparison, in determining, with undoubted
accuracy, not only by feeling the pulse, but by other symptoms,
whether a woman is  or is not  with child: provided, however, at 
 134              PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

 the time of examination, she should otherwise be free from mental
 excitement or fever.  Dr. Fontaine, from  the early years of his
 practice, when called for his professional opinion on  subjects of
 this nature, even within a few days after conception, never has been
 disappointed in  his opinion and judgment; and  we may venture
 to  say, in view of this his wonderful and peculiar attribute of
 judging with perfect accuracy, and without  hesitation, from only
 the feeling of the pulse, the various constitutions and temperaments,
 and of giving a correct  classification of diseases, nay, of the  very
 symptoms of them, that there are few or none superior, or equal to
 him; and, for this, his precious gift and faculty, he himself is at
 a loss to account, nor can he give to others  a doctrinal guide to
 obtain this qualification, or form a theory of its modus operandi.


              OF  DISEASES  DURING PREGNANCY.

  Pregnancy, though attended  by a variety  of complaints which
 require  great attention, has received but little aid from  medical
 men; indeed, in  its treatment, they have proved very deficient.
 In the complaints  now under consideration, we offer a recipe and
 recommend the  Philanthropic Remedy, which  possesses the  most
 extraordinary properties  and excels every thing which has as yet
 been offered by the faculty under  a medical form,  provided it is
judiciously used  and taken precisely according to the immediate
 wants of the patient.  This Remedy purifies  the whole system of
 all those heterogeneous humors, which produce nausea.  It is in
 consequence of the grossness  of the essences  at the  time  of con-
 ception, and from future  developments in embryo, and from the
jarring elements caused  by the disproportion  in  the  constituent
 parts of the male and female  seeds in their primary qualities, that
 vomiting, pains in the head and stomach, and fainting arise.   These
 symptoms  are not only attended by great debility  and depression
 in the whole nervous system,  but  they frequently produce heredi-
 tary diseases, and  dreadful consequences to  the  infant offspring.
 The Philanthropic Remedy is here  selected as the one specially
 adapted to invigorate the system, and assist  in expelling all viscid
 humors, it being a  compound, scientifically selected from the  most 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.
135
 mibtle, active, and generating essences of nature.  This medicine
 is fitted to the patient's elementary powers, and to  the vivifying
 influx, prepared from that living fire which causes the vital princi-
 ples to germinate  and quickens the  embryo in the womb, which
 principles are joined to an ethereal spirit, and which strengthen
 and assist the vis vitoz, by  attracting and uniting the four elements,
 or procreative faculties, into one harmonious  combination, without
 destroying their variety or distinct powers.   The wonderful pro-
 duction which results from the process, is of the same nature and
 property  as the animal spirit and electric fluid, which purifies the
 breath of life, first breathed into the nostrils of Adam by bis Cre-
 ator, and  communicated to  his race by the  mysterious magnetic
 sparks of nature and the action of the womb.
   The  known salutary and certain  effects  of the  Philanthropic
 Remedy,  render  it the very  best  medicine  which a woman can
 take, in a case of pregnancy.  It stimulates the procreative  laws
 and faculty in the formation of the foetus and the nourishment and
 development of the child, and it corrects and purifies the  male
 seed, in embryo, and  preserves it from  infection and disease.  It
 removes all  loathings, longings, and vomiting, and effectually pre-
 vents abortion.  This last beneficial effect of the medicine is fully
 discussed  in the Treatise on the Philanthropic Remedy.  Pregnant
 women are often afflicted  with the'heart-burn and vomiting; tooth-
 ache and  head-ache are produced sympathetically; all these can be
 effectually removed by the daily use of this Philanthropic Remedy.
 Several other complaints, incident  to  pregnancy, might be men-
 tioned, but all of them can be relieved  by a timely application of
 the  prescriptions and recipes, a list of which  is given in ' The
 Practical  Key of the  Confidential Doctor at Home.'
   This invaluable medicine has the mighty and absolute  power,
 also, of counteracting and preventing those unpleasant and degrad-
 ing diseases, which too often, with well-known virulence and  dan-
 ger, reappear in times of pregnancy, as  the result of former expo-
 sure, or of a mercurial or  imperfect cure;  thus infecting the newly
^onceived germ of life.   This medicine is the only known  anti-
 dote, and  if used according to the directions, it is positively effica-
 cious, not only in curing,  but  preventing, all syphilitic infections.
 In this medicine dwells the grand secret of preservation, on which 
136
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
depend  thousands of lives in the French capital; and  this, too,
where vice  is  arrayed in its  most fascinating habiliments, and
sexual indulgence is surrounded by the most enchanting and  irre-
sistible scenes, which can fire the blood and promote lasciviousness.
If the married lady, then, should be  so  unfortunate  as to fall a
victim to this malady, or to contract this disease by vicious coition,
or from  other causes, (for it may appear without connection,) she
may depend on this  Philanthropic medicine  as  a sure preventive
of the disorder, and a certain cure for  her offspring; and with  its
use, she may enjoy the caresses of mutual love  without  restraint,
banishing all fear or apprehension of danger.
   The Philanthropic Remedy will positively eradicate every taint,
which may be left of this  pestiferous malady, no matter  how long
it has tortured  the victim.  The  chronic form, even, disappears
before  its mighty presence.  Hence,  no one need despair of a
speedy cure, provided the directions are implicitly followed.  Medi-
cal science, with its grand  array  of  physiological learning,  and
chemical researches  into  the vegetable kingdom,  cannot produce-
a remedy more effective than the medicine here recommended.   A
great merit, which it possesses, is, that no  mercury, minerals, nar-
cotics, or deleterious substances are employed; nor does it debar
the patient from exercise; but, in a  safe and pleasant manner,
effects a lasting and radical cure.
                      OF PARTURITION.

  This is the natural, progressive expulsion of the  foetus from the
womb. After seven months of pregnancy, the foetus has all the con-
ditions of breathing and  exercising its digestion ;  hence it may
then be separated from its mother,  and change its mode of exist-
ence.  Childbirth rarely, however, happens at this period.  Most
frequently  the  foetus remains in the  uterus the full  period of its
gestation, and does  not pass out of this organ  till  after the revo-
lution of nine months.
  It has been asserted that children have been born after ten full
months or  more of gestation, or confinement  in the  womb.   We
credit these statements, substantiated as they are by the assertions 
               THE  GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.            137

of respectable mothers ; but these cases are very rare, and besides
it is very difficult to know exactly the period of conception.   Some
causes forever  occult, (except perhaps to the  mother,) must have
brouglit to light these rare phenomena; yet we will admit the pos-
sibility of the derangement or suspension, even for one or two
months of the general laws of life, preventing the development of
the embryo, and the  timely delivery of the child.  Nothing is more
curious than the mechanism by which the foetus is expelled.  In
a natural  labor, and where there is no derangement, every thing
happens with wonderful precision; all seems to have been foreseen,
and  calculated to favor its passage through  the pelvis, and the
genital parts.
  The physical causes which determine the exit of  the foetus, are,
the contraction of the womb, and that of the  abdominal muscles.
By their force the liquor amnii flows out (called ' the breaking  of
the1 waters ') ;  the head  of the foetus is at first  confined in the pel-
vis ;  but soon it goes through  it, and passing out by the valve, the
folds of which  by distension disappear.  These different phenom-
ena take place in successive order within a certain time ; they are
accompanied with pains,  more or  less severe, with swelling and
softening of the soft parts of the pelvis, and external genital parts,
and with an abundant mucous secretion in the  cavity of the vagina.
All these  circumstances, each in  its own  way, and with a sympa-
thetic and perfect harmony  and order, favor the  passage of the
foetus.  To facilitate  the understanding of this  complicated  action,
we shall divide  it into five periods.
               FIRST PERIOD  OF CHILDBIRTH.

  This period is indicated by precursory signs.  Two or three days
before  childbirth, a flow of mucus from the vagina takes place,
the external genital parts swell, and become softer, as  do also the
ligaments that unite the bones of the pelvis;  the neck of the womb
flattens, its opening is  enlarged, its edges become thinner;  slight
pains, known under the name of flying pains, are felt in the loins
and abdomen.
                   18 
138
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
               SECOND PERIOD OF CHILDBIRTH.

   Pains of a peculiar  kind come on.  They begin on the lumbar
 region, and seem to extend towards the neck of the womb or  the
 rectum.   They are renewed only after considerable intervals, of a
 quarter or  half an hour.   Each of them is accompanied with an
 evident contraction of the  body of the womb, with tension  of its
 neck, and dilatation of the opening.  The finger directed into the
 vagina  discovers that the envelopes of the  foetus  are  pushed out-
 ward, and that there is there a considerable tumor, which is called
 the waters.   The pains very soon become  stronger, and  the con-
 tractions of the womb more powerful;  the  membranes break, and
 a part of the liquid escapes; the womb contracts on itself, and is
 applied to the surface of the foetus.


               THIRD PERIOD OF CHILDBIRTH.

  The pains and contractions of the womb  increase considerably;
 they are  invariably accompanied  by the contraction of the ab-
 dominal muscles.   The woman, who is aware of their effect,  is in-
 clined to favor them, in making all the muscular efforts of which
 she is capable; her pulse then  becomes stronger, and more fre-
 quent ; her face is  animated, her eyes shine, her  whole body is in
 extreme agitation, perspiration  flows in  abundance; the head  of
 the child is then in the pelvis.  The occiput, placed at first above
the left acetabulum, is directed inward and  downward, and comes
below and behind the neck of the pubes.


              FOURTH PERIOD OF CHILDBIRTH.

  After some minutes of repose, the pains and expulsive contrac-
tions resume all their activity;  the head   presents itself at the
vulva, makes an effort to  pass, and succeeds when there happens
to be a contraction sufficiently strong to produce this effect.   The 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.
139
head  being once  disengaged, the remaining parts of the body
easily follow, on account of their smaller volume.   The section or
division of the umbilical  cord is then made,  and a figature is put
round it at a short distance from the umbilicus.
                FIFTH PERIOD OF  CHILDBIRTH.

   If the accoucheur has not proceeded immediately to the extrac-
 tion of the placenta, after the birth of the child, slight pains are
 felt  in  a short time;  the  womb contracts freely, but  with  force
 enough to throw off the afterbirth, and the membranes of the ovum.
 This expulsion bears the name of delivery.  During the twelve or
 fifteen days that follow childbirth, the womb contracts upon  itself
 by degrees;  there  is  abundant perspiration; the breasts are ex-
 tended by the milk that they secrete; a flow of matter, which  takes
 place  from  the  vagina,  called  lochia,  first sanguiferous,  then
 whitish, indicates that  the  conceptive organs resume, by degrees,
 the disposition that they had before conception.


                         CONCLUSION.

   Having detailed the process of a natural parturition, one which
 is free from any unpleasant retardation or derangement of its  laws,
 we would here mention, that few ladies, especially in large commu-
 nities, are so happily favored as to be exempt from the serious evils
and  alarming  consequences, which  too  often follow parturition.
 To prevent their  occurrence,  and rationally to  hope and in fact
expect, to go through the above natural process of delivery, without
the intervention of unfavorable  incidents, and  appeals  to physi-
cians, we would recommend to every pregnant woman to be very
careful in this state of life ; in the last weeks of pregnancy  keep
the bowels  open by means of a very sweet and  warm solution of
cream of tartar, taken  daily; have  recourse, from  time to  time,
to the French Philanthropic  Remedy; but more especially in the
last month before parturition take it daily, and even on  the  days
and  in the progression of delivery. 
140
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
   Women at this, or at any previous time, must avoid and reject
 that medicine,  which, here in America, physicians generally pre-
 scribe and administer in disguise, under the form of pills, powders,
 or  liquids, to facilitate parturition,  and quicken  delivery, or to
 cause  the  right pains, or an  increase of  them.  This  article is
 deleterious, and poisonous, to  such  a degree as to have caused on
 the continent of Europe, in various parts of Germany, Italy, and
 several French provinces, terrible and devastating epidemics, con-
 sternation, and  death.  Its name is  secale  cornutum, alias ergot,
 alias  spurred or diseased rye.   It grows with  common rye.  The
 infected grain, when mixed  with  wholesome rye and made  into
 bread, and eaten, will certainly cause, sooner or later, dry cancrene
 in the vitals and other organs, typhus fevers, and disorders of the
 nervous system, attended with convulsions and  titanus affections.
 True, this  article has, in many instances, produced the object in-
 tended by physicians, in cases of delivery, yet the irremediable
 evils  experienced by  thousands, some of  whom have,  at  first,
 received a momentary benefit from it, should be  a caution to
 women and  to  physicians against its use.  We admit the prop-
 erties of the spurred rye to be mighty in affecting the womb, and
 to powerfully contract this organ;  but should we not remember
 also, before its  administration, that while with it we force nature,
 we in fact impair, if  not destroy life itself?   This is the cause of so
 many mothers being  assailed by convulsions, puerperal fevers, and
 death; it produces still-born infants, or such as are sickly, or subject
throughout infancy to eruptions and fits.  From this cause mothers,
even after an apparently easy delivery, suffer for  months and many
for life, the effects through this means of a hurried labor, leaving
 the germ of acute  and chronic diseases, consumption, &c, and an
untimely end.
  In recommending the  French Philanthropic  Remedy, none of
these evils are to be apprehended, and certainly its effects are re-
markably healthy and beneficial.   This antidote  will promote
strength and health  in the embryo; an active and growing gesta-
tion, an easy  and speedy delivery, and a  quick recovery from the
mother's shock. 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.            141
         REMARKS ON BLEEDING PREGNANT WOMEN.

  Many diseases to which woman is subject during pregnancy, are
chiefly, if not entirely, owing to a deficiency of blood, and conse-
quently of heat.   This  no one  will dispute, who considers the
expense  to which the system is  subjected  for the support of the
foetus and its appurtenances.  We ask any  sensible person if any
blood should be drawn from one who is daily losing two ounces of
that vital fluid, for forty weeks successively, however healthy the
subject may  be?  Now women, when pregnant, actually afford
the foetus this amount of blood.   We leave to the reader to deter-
mine whether bleeding should be resorted to.
  This loss of blood accounts for the paleness of the patient's face,
and gives the reason why she is subjected to  various disorders,
during the time  of gestation.  Hippocrates says, and  a brilliant
professional host of others agree with him, that  blood-letting may
cause a miscarriage, and the larger the foetus the more subject is it
to abortion.   Experience has  stamped the  seal of truth on the
dictum of the sublime old man.  We have known hundreds of
ladies, and heard of  ten  thousand, who  have  miscarried  from
phlebotomy, while others, who rejected bleeding, were  safely de-
livered of blooming children, at their full time.  That all who are
bled do not miscarry  is true; but this should only cause  us to
wonder at the inexhaustible  resources  exhibited by  nature  in
recovering from the consequences of ill-timed evacuations.
  To let blood because the periodical visits disappear, is absurd and
puerile;  for no manly, still less a skilful  practitioner, will employ
this fact as an  argument for bleeding — a lavishment of a fluid
of which nature demonstrates her want, by the very care she shows
in preserving it.  Phlebotomy is  always  hazardous in pregnancy,
and is frequently followed by convulsions and  death.  This rash
and inconsiderate treatment causes  numbers of women,  even  after
a full-time delivery, to die in childbed; or, if that mournful catas-
trophe does  not  occur, they  in  many  cases  never regain  their
former strength;  and a train  of diseases, of  a chronic and organic
nature, will  bring them to suffering and a  premature  death; 
 142           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

 whereas they might otherwise have been  healthy and happy, sur-
 rounded by all the charms of prosperity and long life.


      ABORTION, AND THE CRIMINALITY OF CAUSING IT.

   The author thinks it best to omit a full description of the causes,
 effects, symptoms, and treatment in cases of abortion; yet we will
 give an abridged synopsis of them.
   Abortion, or miscarriage, means the expulsion of the foetus from
 the womb before the seventh month; after this period, to the ninth
 month, expulsion is caused by premature  labor.  Abortion gener-
 ally occurs between the eighth and eleventh weeks of pregnancy,
 though it may happen at any later period; and indeed  it could be
 procured by medical means at any determinate time  during preg-
 nancy, and it  may also be prevented.  In  early gestation, the
 ovum (egg) sometimes comes off  entire;  sometimes  the foetus  is
 first expelled, and the after-birth  soon follows. It  is  preceded by
 floodings, pains in the back, loins, and lower part of the abdomen,
 evacuation of the waters, shiverings, palpitation of  the heart, nau-
 sea, anxiety, syncope,  subsiding of the  breasts and belly, pain in
 the inside  of  the thighs, opening and moisture  of the os tinea?.
 The principal causes of  miscarriage are blows or falls, great exer-
 tions or fatigue, sudden  frights, and other  violent emotions of the
 mind, a diet too sparing or too nutritious, the abuse  of spirituous
 liquors, and stimulants of all kinds; other diseases, especially fevers
 and hemorrhages, excessive bleeding, profuse diarrhoeas or cholics,
 and particularly from costiveness,  immoderate venery, &c.  Abor-
tion  often  happens without  any  previously known or obvious
 cause; by sympathy, from some defect in the womb, or in the foetus
itself.   Oftentimes it will take place repeatedly in the  same female,
at a particular period of pregnancy.  Females who  apprehend a
misfortune so great as this, or are already laboring under these and
similar symptoms, should at once, by all means, apply the Philan-
thropic Remedy — first reading the  treatise on it, then the direc-
tions for its use, and with cheerfulness and  confidence closely
adhering to them.   (See the index of  ' The Practical Key of the
 Confidential Doctor at Home.')   When properly and philosophi- 
               THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.            143

 cally used,  it will  prove one of  the  greatest of blessings to the
 mother, enabling her to enjoy good health during pregnancy, and
 to present  to her  anxious and delighted husband the beautiful
 fruit of  their heaven-designed connection.  Woe to those females
 who seek destruction!   Dr. Fontaine  solemnly enters his  protest
 against the unnatural and sinful  conduct of  those females who
 have recourse  to this Philanthropic Remedy, or his Female Medi-
 cine, for the sole purpose of procuring a criminal abortion.   These
 medicines (we would here  mention, and it is also  distinctly stated
 in the directions,)  are  a  certain  specific, and  when combined
 with additional ingredients, will certainly expel the foetus from the
 womb, which might, at some future day, stand forth to the world,
 perhaps, a distinguished  man or a lovely woman.   And it is a re-
 markable fafct, which unhappily encourages the remorseless youth,
 and the unnatural parent, that the mother is as easily relieved of
 her  burden, by the  use of these compounds, at any time within her
 pregnancy,  as though she waited for the relief  afforded by nature
 at her own good and proper period.  Yet, if it should be absolutely
 and  imperatively necessary to save the mother's life (of which  a
 skilful physician should  be the only judge) from a death which
 must inevitably follow, in case  gestation is permitted to continue
 up to the full time,  no humane and skilful physician would object
 to the employment of such a resort, nor, in case of a well-founded
 prospect of  the  woman's not being delivered of a living child in
 proper :time, or of the foetus being  already dead, and that it would
 remain so in the womb, could she for a moment  delay the use of
 the  author's recipes, as they are at once  unique  and remarkably
 harmless, whatever may be the constitution of the patient, or the
 causes of her peculiar situation and disease.


                     THE  TURN OF LIFE.

  The menses generally cease to flow between the ages of forty or
 fifty  years,  so  that this climacteric of life may be  considered
 dangerous, as it lays the foundation for many fatal diseases.
  The sudden cessation of  the menses,  throwing the fluid into the
system, which hitherto relieved  itself  by discharges, is the sole 
144           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
cause of this danger.  The  more slowly and steadily this salutary
evacuation is diminished, the less  is the constitution disposed to
disorder on its final'determination.  It is always necessary then, to
take proper steps to prolong its continuance, and thereby guard
the system against an abrupt shock.  All women are, more or less,
sensible that  the change is  going on, and should have  an eye to
their safety accordingly.  When the  menses  are  about ceasing,
they are generally irregular, both in time and quantity,  occurring
in one, two,  three, four, five, or six weeks;  or two, three, or six
months.   Sometimes they flow very sparingly, and again in immo-
derate  quantities.  Owing to a want of care in the patient, when
they give  this warning of their final departure, many complaints,
as intimated above, ensue; among which may be enumerated colds
and chills, succeeded by violent flushings of the  face, and heat in
the extremities; restless nights,  troublesome dreams, and unequal
spirits; inflammation of the bowels, spasmodic affections, stiffness
of  the limbs, swelled ankles, sore legs, with pains and inflam-
mations, piles, and other indications of a morbid plenitude.
   All these evil effects  could be prevented by strict attention  to
proper regimen, and a persevering  recourse,  as  occasion  may
demand, to the  ever  efficacious Philanthropic Remedy.   When  a
female suspects that the menses are about to cease, let her use the
Philanthropic Antidote.  The dose should be a tea-spoonful, to be
taken  in a  wine-glassful  of a sweetened decotion,  of middle
strength,  made  of senna  and orange peel, of each half a pound.
This should be used in the  morning, for,one or two weeks, every
month.  When the seasons are changing, these prescriptions will
be found of rare  benefit   Occasionally, if circumstances require
it, let  her use the  celebrated Philanthropic Remedy, even exter-
nally,  according to the accompanying  directions.  In  case of an
over-abundant flux, this last prescription proves itself to possess
 the greatest virtue.  Let the diet be spare, but not too low.
   When the flowing is  small, and needs an increase, the medicines
 should be used in  accordance with those distinctions pointed out in
 the directions for all  cases, and it  will prove a certain remedy.
 Let the patient, daily, while using it, drink (but temperately) port
 wine, and eat fresh eggs.   By following a course  so judicious, the
 complaint will  gradually abate,  the  feverish symptoms will pass 
               THE  GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.            145

away, the back will be strengthened,  the  womb-vessels will  be
cleansed, and the patient will find herself wonderfully restored.
It must be evident to all, that Nature, in returning  the flux into
the habit intends to nourish and preserve, and not to destroy the
female system.  Until the  age  of puberty, the girl  requires  this
blood for the nourishment of her frame; when she emerges into
womanhood, her  constitution being formed  and perfectly  estab-
lished, this fluid  must be applied  to  the purposes  of gestation,
nourishing the foetus, and giving  milk  to the infant; when  child-
bearing ceases, this flux naturally goes to the support of the body.
Therefore,  if the female would carefully observe  a proper course
before this flux returns upon her, there is no better  method than
by following the advice above given.  By taking the  medicines re-
commended, at least every spring and fall, for two or three years
previous to the cessation, she may not only  escape the  perils  at-
tending this critical period of  life,  but lay the  foundation for fine
health, a sound constitution, and old age.
  When man considers the peculiar weaknesses and  complaints to
which woman — the lovely partner  of his existence — is subject, it
should be his duty, joy, and pride, to comfort her in distress, mourn
with her when  she is sorrowful, and always shed around her the
sunshine of tenderness and love.  He should  remember, that if
woman  is,
                           1 In her honrs of ease,
                  Uncertain, coy, and hard to please;'

Ye$ he can apostrophize her
                 ' But when affliction wrings the brow,
                 A ministering angel thou!'

Then let man protect and cherish, with the  deepest devotion, that
being who, vine-like, clings around  him, for she can,  and certainly
she will, soothe and embellish his own life in return.


                  NURSING AND DENTITION.

  The author would conclude this  treatise,  by presenting a few,
Dut sure, remedies, for the pains  to which females, when suckling,
                    19 
146           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

are subject; and by offering those recipies which should be given
to children, who, when teething, have spasms  and derangements
of the alimentary organs.
  We would recommend to  the mother, when her system  is de-
ranged by weakness, to apply immediately to the Philanthropic
Remedy.  This invaluable medicine not only relieves the mother,
but takes the suckling infant into its beneficial circle.
  If the breasts are affected with soreness and hardness, with
caked milk, or sore nipples, &c., an instant cure may be found in
the. Nipple Salve, or the Balm of Thousand Flowers, spoken of in
the ' Practical Key of The Confidential Doctor at Home.'
  A description  of these, and other valuable and  approved medi-
cines, may be found by referring to the index of the Practical Key.
Among  others, the Teething Syrup, which gives a sudden and
lasting relief in painful dentition of children.


OF WORMS — THEIR CAUSES, AND THE  METHOD EFFECTUALLY
                     TO  DESTROY THEM.

  There are several kinds of vermin which infest the human body.
Their usual division is into those which inhabit only the intestinal
canal, as the ascharides, &c,  and those which are found in other
parts, as hydatids, &c.   Such is the nature and office of the human
stomach and intestines, that insects and worms, or their ovula, may
not unfrequently be conveyed  into that canal with those  things
which are  continually taken as food and drink; but such animals,
or worms,  do not five long, and seldom, if ever, generate, in a situ-
ation so different from their natural one; though it is not uncom-
mon for them to develope and increase  to a very large, size, and
thus destroy health and even  life.  Besides these, there  are worms
that ai?e never found in any other situation than the human stom-
ach and intestines, and which  there generate  and produce their
species.  Thus it appears that the human  stomach and  intestines
are the seat for two kinds of animalculae; one is  translated from
its natural situation, and  the other kind germinates and lives in
no other location.
  First Class,   This contains those which are generated and nour- 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.
147
           ie human intestinal canal, and  which there propagate
           «.
   The Second Class comprehends  those insects or worms which
 accidentally enter the  human primoz via:, ab extra, and which
 never propagate their  species in that canal, but are soon eliminated
 from  the  body.   Such  are  several species of Scarabaii, the Lum-
 bricus terrestris, the Fasciola, the Gardius  intestinalis,  and  others.
 The second class belongs to the  province  of natural history, to
 which the reader is referred.  The  consideration of the first class
 belongs to the physician, which, from the variety it affords, we
 divide into different orders, genera, and species.

   Order 1st. — Round worms. Genus 1st.—Intestinal ascarides.
 Character. — Body round, head obtuse, and furnished with three
 vesicles.
   Species  1st.— Ascaries  lumbricoides, — the  long, round worm.
 Character. — It has three nipples   at  its  head, and a triangular
 mouth at its middle.  Its length is from four to twelve inches, and
 its thickness, when twelve  inches long, about that of a goose-quill.
 They are sometimes solitary, at other times very numerous.
   Species 2d. — Ascaris vermicularis, — the thread  or maw-worm.
 Character. — It is very small and slender, (called, also, pin-worm.)
 The  tail terminates in  a  fine point.   The whole  length of this
 worm does not exceed half  an  inch.   It most generally inhabits
 the rectum.
   Genus 2d. — Intestinal tricurides.   Character. — Body round ; tail
 three times the length of the body;  head without vesicles.
   Species. — Trichuris vulgaris, — the  trichuris, or long, thread-
 worm.  Character. — The head furnished with a proboscis.
   Order 2d. —The flat worm. Genus 1st. — Intestinal tape-worm.
 Character. — Body long, flat, and jointed.
   Species 1st. — Tenia  osculis marginalibus, — the long, tape-worm,
 (resembling a fillet, or tape.)  Character. — The oscula are  situated
upon the margin of the joints.
   Species 2d.—Teniae osculis superficialibus,—the broad tape-worm.
 Character. — The oscula are placed upon the flattened surface.
   These worms were all known to the ancients, the trichuris only
excepted, and are mentioned  in the writings of Hippocrates, Ga- 
148
PRUDENTIAL  REVELATIONS, AND
len, Celsus, Pliny, &c., and the  annexed cut,  with explanations,
will satisfy the inquirer of the correctness of the description of the
character of each individual worm.
EXPLANATIONS OF THE  PLATE.
A — The long  tape-worm, showing the appearance of the head, body,  and taif.
      They vary in length, from a few feet to over two  hundred and thirty feet,
      and  are more usually found afflicting persons of middle age, although  no
      age is exempt from them.
B — A section of the tape-worm, showing the lateral suckers.
C — A female, long, round worm.
D — A male, long, round worm.
E — Head and neck of a small tape-worm.
F — Male maw-worm, magnified.
G — Long, thread-worm.  Persons of all ages are subject to the above describ-
      ed worms.
H — Female maw-worm, magnified.
 I — Maw-worm, or pin-worm. 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.           149
              INFALLIBLE  SYMPTOMS OF WORMS.

   The existence or generation of worms, whether in the stomach
or the intestines, is easily detected  by the following  never failing
symptoms:—The sufferer experiences a variable appetite,  some-
times voracious, at other times craving for chalk, dirt, coal,  ashes,
or other unnatural diet; a bad taste in the  mouth, inclination to
swallow, foetid breath, nausea, and squeamishness; acrid eructation,
vomiting,  and a gnawing sensation, and pains and anguish in the
stomach;  difficult breathing, sighings, restlessness, and a general
dryness ;  thirst, a frequent and weak pulse, grinding of the teeth
during sleep, picking of the nose and frequent bleeding, paleness of
the countenance, and, at  times, a whiteness around the lips, with
red, scarleHike flushed cheeks; the eyes are either  heavy and
dull, with  the  pupils much  dilated, or very shiny,  with a  dark
circle under them; dizziness, slight chills, and shivering; headache,
drowsiness, stupor; a short, dry cough ; a sense of something  rising
in the throat;  choking, hiccups and confusion; delirium, disturbed
dreams, talking in  sleep, somnambulism, sudden starting  in  sleep,
with fright; screaming and a wild look, with trembling and power-
ful palpitations and cramps; tingling sensations in the ears, hesi-
tancy in the speech, irritable temper, numbness of the limbs, flying
pains, griping, more particularly about the navel; belly-ache, heat
and itching all over the  body, but more especially about the arms
and head; milky or turbid urine, bloated bowels, a frequent desire to
go to stool, and often slimy discharges, either mucus and undigested,
or bloody and very green or black and foetid, supervene, accompani-
ed by an universal emaciation of the body.   The skin possesses an
unnatural  feeling;  a palid hue prevails, and a slow fever with eve-
ning exacerbations, a deadly  anguish  and a general prostration
indicates the downfall of life; and  a premature, slow, but certain
death will  close the scene, if a timely, effective remedy is not  at
hand.  Many  (and they may be numbered by thousands)  more
unlucky sufferers terminate their existence very suddenly; and too
often we witness such occurrences at a time when no apprehension
is felt at their indisposition.  Even  when only one or two of the 
150
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS,  AND
 mildest of the above enumerated symptoms are present in children,
 there is no  wonder at their being seized, without the least warning,
 at any hour of the day or night, with the most powerful convulsions,
 severe epileptic fits, strangulation, and death.
   These are the most general and sure symptoms of the existence
 of worms;  yet  many other  symptoms, well known  to  the  keen,
 practical observer, might warrant the admission of their presence
 in the system, when none of the family or the attending physician
 suspected it.  Worms most frequently occur  at the age of ten years
 and downwards; yet males and females, from the tender infant at
 the breast to old age, are equally liable to suffer and die in conse-
quence of worms.


ILL CONSEQUENCES OF WORMS, AND DANGEROUS TREATMENT.

  Thousands  and tens of thousands  have lingered  and suffered
under disease their whole lives, and at last have been brought to
a premature grave, when a post-mortem examination has  shown
the fatal havoc of worms, to which they had fallen victims, when,
while living, no  one suspected  their presence, and the  attending
physicians pronounced  their death to have occurred either from
marasmus, emaciation, catarrh, mania, liver affections, dropsy, con-
sumption, &c.;  or epilepsy, fits,  convulsions,  cramps, St. Vitus's
dance, locked-jaw, apoplexy, palsy, pleurisy, dysentery, cholera,
bowel-complaints, and many other imaginary diseases, &c.
  May these monuments of humiliation to physicians, and of hor-
ror to the people, awaken the understanding of men and the sym-
pathetic heart of the friends of suffering  humanity, to use a better
influence and better remedies than the presumptive opinions and
prescriptions of  ignorant physicians, and never withhold  those
effectual means, which science approves,  and popularity has  estab-
lished on the basis of truth and experience.  On this  matter, may
they  shun all prejudices and unbelief,  and cling to sound judgment
and facts; may  they have recourse, as soon as any of the  above
described symptoms of worms appear, to some efficient antidote
and safe vermifuge.  May the mothers and  relations, the philan-
thropists  and guardians of the sick, particularly of the helpless 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF  NATURE.           151
babe, of the suffering children,  and of the dispirited boys and
girls, no longer overlook the doctrine  of worms, their possible
existence  in the system, the symptoms they produce, and  those
remedies which are harmless, yet most efficacious, for their expul-
sion and entire extermination.
  The germ of worms most generally exists and multiplies in all
children;  they are, however, often to be found  in grown persons
of a relaxed habit, be they  fleshy or lean, and  especially in those
whose digestive organs are disordered.  An excessive  use of vege •
table food, of fruits, of sugar, or  any other saccharine  substance, a
rich diet,  farinaceous victuals,  milk, grease, very strongly  favors
their creation, and rapidly increases their  number, development,
and size.  Many children and adults suffer  for weeks,  months, and
years from them, when no one ever suspected their presence, while
they have been treated  by  physicians and quacks for some con-
comitant  or imaginary complaint, without the  least  relief,  when
nothing ailed them but worms,  which fact was entirely overlooked,
and when the proper administration of an  antidote would quickly
have restored them to health.
  Numerous attempts have  heretofore been made by the naturalist,
the chemist, and the Faculty in Europe, as well as America, to find
a sure and safe specific for worms, but without success.   True, their
experiments have enabled them to imagine, from time to time, some
vermifuge virtues  in calomel, gamboge, groffea. inermis, tenacetum,
artemisia  santonica, olea  europea, ferrum, dolichos pruricos,  spige-
lian, turpentine, &c.   Indeed, in hundreds of the mineral, animal, and
vegetable  productions, they thought they were in possession of the
true specifics for worms,  which, however, has proved a disappoint-
ment and not  only a failure in the universal adoption of  them,
but they were in their administration unsafe and dangerous.  We
might admit that  the various  preparations of mercury may, and
often have, destroyed and expelled worms.   Let us, however, re-
member its secondary effects.  By their  administration health has
been injured, the  constitution destroyed, and human life rendered
miserable  and short. The simple use of calomel, notwithstanding
the most rigid precautions had been taken, nay, a single applica-
tion, or only one dose of these  mercurial potions, have  proved
fatal to tens of thousands, while tens of millions fall victims of slow 
152
THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.
and incurable diseases, under the periodical influence  of similar
remedies, prescribed by our  mercurial doctors, by  empiric  pre-
scriptions, or by the innumerable hosts of impostors, speculators,
and pretenders.  Every one of these mongers, will assure you that
their medicines are purely vegetable and harmless.  For your life's
sake, beware of their impositions!  Mercury, and mercury alone, is
their hidden specific, under the forms of lozenges, drops, powders,
and pills.

               EFFECTUAL  CURE  FOR WORMS.

  The laborious researches, investigations, and  successful experi-
ments, extensively tried for over twenty years in Europe, and the
few past years in the United States, by the faculty in general, and
by the community at large, has proved that Dr. Fontaine's Vege-
table Recipe for worms is really effectual, in all  cases, without  ex-
ception of age, stage, or clime—harmless, and sure to  expel  the
worms, and to destroy the last vestige of them.  Of the virtues and
sure efficacy of this  Anthelmintic Remedy, and  of its positive and
certain curative powers,  the  smallest doubt does not exist, as no
one has, or ever could have, pointed out or substantiated  a single
case of disappointment among the innumerable partakers of this
invaluable vermifuge.
  This medicine may be administered with perfect  safety to  the
most delicate infant, and in all cases it will prove effectual to every
one, and be a sudden relief to the sufferer, even in the absence of
worms.  This fact should induce every family to keep this precious
article in their possession for unforeseen emergencies.
  The discoverer  recommends it without hesitation;  and  be it
known to all, that he feels  amply rewarded from the satisfaction of
witnessing the benefits of health  and life imparted by it, under
Providence, to thousands who otherwise would have perished.  It is
his philanthropic ambition to do good, and he asks no other bounty
from man.  The needy, then,  and the sufferer, should not overlook
these beneficent purposes, but freely use this sure vermifuge.  See
the  Index appended to 'The Practical Key of the  Confidential
Doctor at Home.' 
SECTION  FIFTH.
        A  DOCTRINAL  GUIDE,

Not only effectually to prevent Venereal In-
  oculations and Impure Stains, but to enable
  Patients themselves to treat their own hid-
  den Maladies and Corruptions; pointing out
  the  true and only Method which warrants
  a speedy, radical Recovery, from every In-
  fection of a concealed Taint, without Ex-
  posure, or the Aid of Physicians, but with
  the safest and most simple,  harmless, and
  agreeable Vegetable Medicines.

     BY A. DE  FONTAINE, M. D.
20 
 
INDEX.
 Advice to  the Sick, upon the Difficulties of substituting, in Medicine,
   truth for  error.  A new Medical Treatment for  the  Venereal Dis-
   ease.  157.

 An  Easy Theory, and the Treatment, by which any one may obtain a
   Radical Cure of every  Venereal  Disease, in whatever stage or con-
   dition it  may be, solely with  the  Vegetable  Method of Dr. Fon-
   taine.  160.

                       CHAPTER  FIRST.

 History of the Syphilis,  (Venereal Disease.)  Dangers of the Syphilis.
   Description  of  this  Disease.  Genealogy of the Venereal  Disease.
   First Class.   Second Class.  Third Class.  Fourth Class.   Origin of
   the Syphilis.  Can the Syphilis  make its  appearance among  healthy
   people 1   Invasion in Europe.  Has this  Disease become less for-
   midable ?  160-170.

                     CHAPTER  SECOND.

Local Plienomena.  Inflammation of  the Mucous Membranes.  The
   Gonorrhea, or  the Clap.  Obstinate Claps,  or  Ancient  Gonorrhea.
   The Gleets.  The Whites, in Women.   Mode of Treatment.^  Inflam-
   mation of  the Testicles.   General  Instructions.  Mode of  Treatment
  of Gonorrhea, (the Clap) either slight, or of a malignant nature, as the
  obstinate Gleets, &c., &c.   176-182.

                      CHAPTER THIRD.

Inoculation  of the Syphilitic Virus, Phymosis, Chancres, and  Ulcers.
   Sodomy, or  Unnatural  Coition, Lascivious Embraces, and what is 
156
INDEX.
   termed, in French,' Pederastie.'  Syphilis  among Pregnant Women.
   Syphilis among Children.  Contagion.  Danger of Relapses.  Buboes
   and  Tumors.  Of Pustules.  Venereal Excrescences.  Osteocopus,
   Pains.  Venereal Exostosis.   Venereal Caries.   Syphilitic Headache.
   Sore Throat. Alopecia, or Fall of the Hair.  Tetters, and various
   other Symptoms.  Scrofula,  King's Evil, &c.  183-192.


                      CHAPTER FOURTH.

 Examination of the various Modes of treating Syphilis.   Parallel  be-
   tween the Nostrums of the day and the French Philanthropic Remedy.
   Opinion of the Profession and the Public in regard to Hunter's Red
   Drops, and similar Medicaments.  Danger of Mercury.  Origin of the
   Treatment without Mercury.   192-199.


                       CHAPTER FIFTH.

 Treatment of the Syphilis by the French Philanthropic Remedy.  Treat-
   ment of Chancres, and similar  Syphilitic  Symptoms.  To obtain a
   Radical Cure of the Old, Inveterate, or Obstinate Pox.   Dangers of
   Syphilis, when imperfectly cured.  Preservative  Means.  The French
   Philanthropic Remedy is the  only true Antidote and sure Preventive
   of Venereal Inoculations. 201 - 206.


                       CHAPTER  SIXTH

Mode of Treatment for  Strictures or  Contractions of the Urinary Pas-
   sage.  Danger of Cauterization.  Influence of Charlatanism.  Dangers
  of the Methods of Cure prescribed by persons  who are ignorant  of
  Medical Science.  209 - 211.

A Tribute of Gratitude to Dr. Fontaine, 214. 
SECTION FIFTH.
Advice to die Sick, upon the Difficulties of substituting, in Medicine,
  Truth for Error, and of extending a new Medical Treatment for
  the Venereal Diseases.

  Thanks to the impulse which physicians, especially those of the
school  of Paris,  have  long since given to science, the  evidence
shows  that wherever the  vegetable treatment is exactly and care-
fully applied, it will cause venereal affections to be more and more
slight; it will diminish the number and the gravity  of those symp-
toms, which often render the  disease so complicated; and the cure
will always be exempt from a relapse.   Those shameful and indeli-
ble  marks, injuring  the peace of so many families, poisoning the
existence of those who bear them, and transmitting to remotest pos-
terity its deadly consequences, will be forever banished.   It is the
inherent prerogative of the present age, to arrive at daily increas-
ing degrees of perfection,  in the arts as well  as the  sciences.   Too
long have  nations rivalled each other in ambition  for civil glory;
having a better knowledge of their rights, it is time  they attempted
to rival each other in their zeal for humanity.  Thanks to the pro-
gress of physiology, the submission of reason  to observation is the
characteristic of the modern practice of  medicine, and even Amer-
ica begins to enjoy the fulness of the mighty  benefits.  "What shall
we say, then, of certain French physicians, and of the majority of
American practitioners, otherwise highly esteemed,  who yet, blind-
ed by a false theory, and  by the delusion of  those  who are preju-
diced in favor of the efficacy of mercury, still attempt  to adminis-
ter it ?  We should endeavor to tolerate  the mystical notions of the
multitude, as also the chimerical projects of certain publicists who
would adapt the  reveries of a former age to the social order of the
present;  but to  be induced to tolerate  false  practices in medicine
will scarcely be permitted ; it is a moral outrage, it  is a murderous
deed ;  and too much haste cannot be made to  reveal the dangerous 
158           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

errors of the advocates of mercury;  and really, the culpable indif-
ference of those who prescribe  it is more to be wondered at than
the credulity of those who have recourse  to it, and  who take it
with mistrust.  It is only with  the  delusive hope  of effecting a
more radical cure, that the afflicted submit with resignation to this
destructive treatment; while despotic custom,the favor of the pre-
judiced, and the law of empiricism are all that  can be  offered in
favor of the practice.  Thanks  are  due to those  physicians who
have attached their names  to their  recipes and remedies; for the
honor and reputation of the inventors depend upon their efficacy,
and are the surest guaranties of their preparations, notwithstand-
ing the mighty efforts and the numerous obstacles which rise, on
their first  appearance, to overthrow the  truth.  History asserts
that  the most precious discoveries, within the circle of the sciences,
have, from their birth, always encountered opposition, especially in
medicine.
   The writer of this medical work  has always spoken with candor
and  truth; he has, through these pages, fearlessly and boldly un-
masked and demonstrated before the public, the false  systems, and
shown  the danger of the mercurial methods of treatment, and the
dangerous influence of charlatanism and deceit.  Thanks to expe-
rience and truth!  Many of the most distinguished physicians of
our largest cities of  America, since the introduction of  his vegeta-
ble method in  this country, have  sanctioned this sanative theory,
and  they now recommend exclusively the French Philanthropic
Remedy, it being purely vegetable.  Many,  at  first, were their
scrupulous researches  and  inquiries about it;  multiplied  were
their experiments and  testimonies; and not  till  after a correct
conception of facts were  they induced by justice to support and
recommend it.  They have at last come to the full conclusion that
this is the only vegetable compound yet known to possess not only
the  possibility, but the certainty  of curing and preventing  all
syphilitic infections, glandular diseases, and those  complaints more
fully enumerated in  the  Philanthropic Pamphlet.  But,  before
arriving at this end, how many obstacles have been encountered!
The success of this method has awakened the envy and kindled
the anger of rivalry; numerous attacks have been directed against
this  truly Philanthropic Remedy, and the Author's system; but all 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.           159
these chimeras, like an ignis fatuus, have fled before the light of
experience and  success.   Should we then be  astonished at the
jealousy of a few  skeptical; physicians,  or ignorant  apothecaries,
and above all, of criminal pretenders and impostors, who abound
by thousands, and  are to be found in almost every block of our
great cities  of America  ?   Certainly not!  It  was said amongst
the Remans: —' Invidia medicorum pessimal
  A writer of the  last century says, that the only method to  ac-
quire truth is to  separate  one's self from the road in which the
multitude are bewildered.  This truly  philosophical thought has
governed the Doctor's mind.   He knows that he cannot convince
all 5 for  many men, and more especially the pretenders and quacks,
are disposed to cry out, as Labruyere says: —' I listen to nothing;
what is  it to me whether  you are right or not?   Your logic proves
to be  a truth disadvantageous to  my interest, and I  therefore
stop my ears.'   Impressed  with the truth of this  axiom, he has
always addressed himself to a well-discerning and enlightened peo-
ple, and of good faith. He has had  the pleasure of being listened
to also in America, and  now he despises the suffrage of the igno-
rant, and of physicians guided by their  own interest, or who are
enrolled under the banner of empiricism; for, before judging his
works, they must be known.  Legite et judicate.  A stranger to all
systems, he has devoted all his study in search of a Practical The-
ory, based upon undisputed truth and experience.  For years, also,
in America, he has daily  been engaged in extensive consultations
on all diseases.  His  midnight hours have been and are spent in
professional meditations.   Numerous are bis researches, observa-
tions, and comparisons, on  the divers methods of curing diseases,
especially those of a complicated and organic character, and those
of a chronic nature,  and of the glandular system.  He has had
advantages seldom enjoyed by an American physician.   In regard
to syphilitic diseases, he will state that, previous to 1830,  he visited
for several months, the most noted  hospitals all  over Italy, Rome,
Milan, Naples, Palermo,  Genova, Turin, Venice, Trieste, &c, and '
those of London, Edinburgh, Geneva, &c.; and the greater the
distance he was from  home, the more rational did  this, his own
treatment of  syphilitic diseases appear to him; for in Greece, in
the Ionian Isles, and at Constantinople, where he visited  two years 
160
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
previous to his leaving Europe for  the  United States, he became
acquainted with several systems of medical  practice, to him  and
to the profession before unknown, and  which have  aided  him in
rendering his  mode  of treatment  still more and more worthy of
the confidence of  the public.  In the foreign countries in which
he has travelled and visited, and also here, in America, where for
years past he was  honored with the title of adoption, and admitted
to the rights of a citizen, he has met with the most amicable recep-
tion among physicians, and to them he is indebted for many valua-
ble instructions, and he takes this opportunity of rendering his
thanks to all those who have  aided  him with their counsels.  He
hopes that the people of America, and of all nations, will share
with him  the  mighty benefits of  these  new  and combined re-
searches.
An Easy Theory, and the Treatment by which any one may obtain a
  Radical Cure of every Venereal Disease, in whatever stage or con-
  dition it rnay be, with  only the Vegetable Method of Dr. Fontaine,
  is presented in the following pages:


                    CHAPTER FIRST.

     HISTORY OF  THE SYPHILIS — [VENEREAL DISEASE.]

  The syphilis is a contagious disease.  It may be communicated
by cohabitation with an infected person, or  even by the contact of
those parts covered with a  very thin cuticle, such as the lips and
the nipples; hence kisses applied to the eyes, the mouth, the breast,
&c, may give birth to  the most  critical acrimony of the venereal
symptoms, whether primitive, or in their second stage.  The infant
may be infected with it in the bosom of its mother, or at his birth
receive the  germ of it; he frequently becomes the  innocent vic-
tim of his nurse, and instead of the milk which should  nourish
him, he often sucks repeated draughts of the deadly poison.  This
infection may also be transmitted in a thousand ways; and it insin- 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
161
uates itself into all  ranks of social order.  A modern English
writer states that a  midwife in London, who was much employed
in her vocation amongst the nobility, at one time  had her second
finger slightly bruised.  While in attendance on  an unsuspected
baroness, who afterwards was ascertained  to  have been  infected
by her husband, the midwife was inoculated with  the  disease, and
an ulcer soon appeared; but before the real  nature of this acrid,
syphilitic  sore  was known, the poison had already communicated
the disease, while she was in the exercise of her profession, to more
than eighty ladies of rank and distinction.   Professor Richeraud
observes, that the Chevalier B. caught the disease by putting a pen
in his mouth, the feather of which his secretary, who was infected
with chancres on the tongue, had, from the same habit, impregnated
with saliva.  It is well known that the celebrated Callerier, princi-
pal physician of the  venereal  hospital  at Paris, lost an eye, by a
drop of pus, which spirted into it at the moment that a bubo was
being lanced.  Even  a  razor, or a barber's brush, not thoroughly
cleansed from this  taint, is sufficient to propagate  both tetters and
syphilis.

                 DANGERS  OF THE SYPHILIS.

   Of all the  complaints to  which mankind are subject, none more
than this claim the attention of physicians  and men of experience
on account of its frequency and fatal results.  This disease poisons
the pleasures  and withers   and destroys  the existence of man;
attacking  the human  kind  even at the source of life ; it has a con-
stant  tendency to degenerate humanity, and when abandoned to
itself, even in the slightest attacks, or when it has not been radical-
ly exterminated, it has an unlimited duration, the symptoms become
aggravated, the health is undermined, and infirmities, worse than
death, may be the  sad  consequences.   A young French poet,
doubtless the  victim of a poisoned love, in the  extremity of his an-
guish, expresses himself in these words:

           ' On y perd le bonheur d 'Stre £poux, d 'fetre pere ;
            Par li le genre humain tous les jours degenere,
            Et ce lieu qui du monde est 1 'antique berceau,
            Du monde tdt ou tard deviendra le tombeau.'
                      21 
162
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
                DESCRIPTION OF THIS DISEASE.

   The venereal disease has two classes of symptoms.   Those which
 are designated as primitive,  appear soon after  the  infection, and
 most  generally attack  the  parts  which have been exposed to  the
 dreadful contact; such as the gonorrhea, heats, the claps, runnings,
 chancres, buboes,  ulcerations of the delicate orifices, and the sur-
 rounding parts, &c.   The syphilitic  ulcers may also be innate.
 An experienced physician  gives an  account of a woman, the wife
 of a captain, who gave birth  to a son, afflicted with  a venereal ul-
 cer in the throat, precisely at the same spot where his father's was
 situated.
   The secondary symptoms constitute the old or constitutional pox,
 and are in general the result of the primitive symptoms becoming
 chronic or being neglected, or not well taken  care of; such as  the
 ulcers in the throat, the eyes, in the glands, the postules, and  acrid
 blotches  on the forehead, (corona veneris,)  warts, fistules, virulent
 and sudden gonorrheas; the gleets, strictures, chordee,  retentions,
 obstruction and contraction of the urinary passages, &c.  Often,
too, the  venereal virus exercises its terrible  influence upon the
bones; their exterior membrane and even the hardest part of their
 texture may be affected by  it.   Hence  arises  the  exostosis, the
 corroding ulcers of the bones of the nose, and the venereal caries.
 Gradually the  nails become impaired, the hair falls off, the  flesh
 becomes  flabby, the organs of the senses soon become  paralysed,
 the fluids of life disappear,  the whole body is emaciated and cor-
rupted ; the patient dies the death of his crime, insensible to every
thing  ibut pain.
  The following synopsis will point out all  the  evil  consequences
which result from syphilitic affections, when improperly, treated.

          GENEALOGY OF THE VENEREAL DISEASE.

  Synonymes. ■— Morbus gallicus,  lues venerea, venereal affections,
complaint of  Venus, syphilis, ice, besides many other  vulgar appel-
lations, which are  appropriated by each  individual nation,  lan-
guage, or custom. 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.
163
   These  diseases  maybe divided  into  two orders, to wit:   1st,
 Primitive Symptoms, and,  2d,  Consecutive Symptoms,  as general
 syphilis, the effects of a bad treatment, and when the virus attacks
 either the soft parts of the body, as the flesh, skin, glands, &c.;  or
 the hard parts, as the bones.
   Syphilis may  be divided also into four classes : to wit:

                         FIRST CLASS.

   Inflammations of the nervous membranes, which are simple  or
 complicated, exercise their ravages on:
   1. The passage of the  penis in man; where is felt a titillation
 and acute pains in the emission of the urine, a  white or yellow dis-
 charge, or a continual running without pain.  The effects of these
 discharges are, contractions of the urinary passage, great irritation
 and stiffness, involuntary emissions of  the  semen, engorgements
 and obstinate inflammatiqns, which  are very dangerous.
   2. The vagina or urethra in woman; there the discharge is great,
 without pain,  during two or three days; after  which follows very
 virulent,  corrosive discharges of corrupted pus, which,  under con-
 cealed modesty, she calls the whites.
   3. The prostate or the bladder; the urine leaves a  shiny sedi-
 ment, there is a sense of  weight low down in the  belly, the urine
 is red and muddy,  the retention of it is great and very  painful;
 a catarrhal affection of the  bladder, gravels, stones, and calculus,
 even to an alarming extent.
   4. The eyelashes and the eyes; there is a violent inflammation
 and abscesses in the  ball of  the eye ; the eyes become slightly red
 and discharge ; the eyelashes fall, catarrh ensues,  and  not  unfre-
quently malignant ulcers are a concomitant.
  5. The auditory  organic  passages;  there  is a roaring in, and
itching and running from  the  ears, hardness of hearing, caries of
the bones of the ears, deafness, periodical headaches, &c.
  6. The membranes of the fundament;  there  follows a chrystal-
line  humor, tumors,  and  hard, painful  swellings;  internal and _
external hemorrhoids, (the piles,) a stiffness and difficulty in sitting
down and rising, fistulas in the anus, &c.
   7. The testicles; a painful enlargement of one or both testicles, 
164
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
abscesses, swollen  veins, want of genital  power and vitality, drop-
sical testicles, (watery rupture,)  cancers,  complete castration or
partial operation of one or the other testicle.

                       SECOND  CLASS.

  The venereal poison, and the symptoms after the infection mani-
fest themselves by:
  1. Syphilitic  excoriations;  chancres  or ulcers seated on  the
glands, the prepuce (foreskin of the penis)  all around the skin
covering the  penis, and on the  testicles, underneath them and on
the anus, &c, on the tongue, the curtain of the palate, the throat,
nose,  &c.  In woman, in the outward and inward, small and large
lips of the vagina,  and on the neck of the matrix, (the womb,)  and
within six inches in depth of the vagina, &c, affecting other organs
of generation.
  2. Phimosis and paraphimosis; these  affections are the effects,
caused by a severe inflammation, from a forced confinement of the
gland which is covered by the prepuce (foreskin of the penis)  ; or
by the choking of the gland, when it has been  forced and violent-
ly uncovered.
  3. The  buboes,  tumors, &c; swelling of the glands situated in
the groins, with  difficulty  of walking, followed by red,  hard,  and
very  painful  tumors, or abscesses; they are  generally caused by
neglected chancres, or  those which  have been  treated, with caus-
tics, or irritating ointments,  or lotions  universally prescribed by
ignorant physicians and quacks.
  N.  B.  The above two classes embrace the first order, and the
remaining two following classes, embrace the second order.

                        THIRD CLASS.

  The progress of the  disease on the muscles, nerves, glands, skin,
&c, is manifested  by:
  1. Consecutive ulcers and chancres; they unfold themselves far
from the seat of the first infection, attacking the gland of the penis,
the prepuce,  (foreskin of the penis,) the gums, palate, nose,  and
eyes,  producing  fistulas, also in the anus, bladder, &c,  and the 
TnE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.            165
affected parts are corroded to such a degree as makes it necessary
to have recourse  to  artificial  palates, eyes,  nose, &c,  and to the
use of  probes, catheters, &c.
  2. Eruptions and postules of the skin;  which in  appearance are
farinaceous, flower-like  tetters, scabby pimples, abscesses  on the
legs, arms, and all about the  body, bluish black spots on the skin,
itching, blotches on the face and neck, crown of Venus, the vene-
real itch, &c.
  3. What in  French is called ' Les fissures, rhagades,' &c, which
appear at the fundament, on the hands, between the toes, prevent-
ing one from riding on  horseback, walking, or remaining seated
any length of  time, &c.
  4. Swelling of the glands of the neck,  and groins, of the tonsils,
of the  liver, spleen,  of the womb's neck, and producing dropsies,
complaints of  the lungs and vitals, venereal phthisic, consumption,
«rc.
  5. Vitiated  generation^;  as scrofulous  children, weak and full
of humors, lame, hump-backed, ricketty,  pale, bloated, &c.
  6. Venereal vegetation; such as cauliflowers, warts, and other
and similar disgusting excrescences, many of them so well named
and understood in the French tongue,  as  condylomes, crete  du coq,
verrues, champignons, framboises, &c.

                        FOURTH  CLASS.

  The ravages of this disease on the periosteum, the bones, their
marrows, on the nerves and tendons, and on the hair and teeth,
manifest themselves by:
  1. The inability to sleep,  and nocturnal  pains  in  the bones,
limbs,  and muscles; rheumatisms, sciatica,  gout, paralysis.  It is
seldom that these distressing effects are accompanied by apparent
inflammations,  but  they are  manifested  only by a spreading of a
vicious spongy surface, and a  disagreeable and singular appearance
and feeling, &c.
  2. Swelling of the bones, as the exostosis,  periosteum affinities,
gummy tumors of the peritonaeum, abscesses  in the marrow of the
bones, and their enlargement  or exfoliation, &c.   These complaints
show themselves, especially in the skull,  leg-;, breast, arms, &c. 
166
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
   3. Rottenness of the bones; which causes the loss of the smell,
 by caries in the bone of the nose ;  deafness, by the dryness or cor-
 ruption of the bones of the ear; exfoliation of the bones; fistulas,
 caused by the suppuration of the bones; loss of flesh, deadness and
 falling off of the  hair, eyebrows and eyelids; premature old age,
 marasmus,  difficulty of articulation, &c.

                         CONCLUSION.

   The  bewildered sufferer, under either of  the  characteristic
 forms or stages of syphilis,  as defined in the above classifications,
 but more especially if  laboring under those aggravating symptoms
 described in the third  and fourth class, would be also liable to be-
 come much  afflicted in his mental faculties.  His fast impairing
 memory, intellect, and will, soon will sink him beneath a rational
 man; and the  horrors, degradation, miseries, and hopelessness of his
 desponding heart, gradually increasing, he is soon brought to suf-
 fer the melancholy agonies of an untimely death.
   To those  who  are thus  depressed between  hope and despair,
 groaning with  bitter disconsolate tears, lamenting their past  trans-
gressions and present fate, abandoned by all, and weltering in this
 loathsome lazar-house  of corruption — is presented this faithful
guide to health, which  surely will soon rekindle your hopes, soothe
your pains, take away the pangs of your ills, nourish and  strengthen
your decayed  body and harassed mind; it will,  in one word, soon
accomplish  the restoration  of your former days of health, happi-
ness, and comfort.  In  the perusal of the following pages you will
find in Dr. Fontaine a sympathizing friend, a skilful  physician,
and to  your wants a healing  balm, the true French Philanthropic
Remedy.

                  ORIGIN  OF  THE  SYPHILIS.

  From whence comes the pox ?  Is it by the French physicians
considered a new disease in Europe ?  No; history says, and the
most instructed affirm, it is  a  degeneration of the leprosy,  which
covered all the Christian  countries  in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries; since,  under the reign of Louis VHL, in 1225  there 
              THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF  NATURE.           167

were, according to ancient writers, nineteen thousand hospitals de-
signed for the leprous.   There are still a great many who believe
that this  disease was imported from the West Indies, by the fleet
of Christopher Columbus.  However, we find among the Roman
authors *  evidence of the existence of contagious affections of the
genital organs, similar in  all respects to the syphilis of our own
day.  If we carry  our researches still farther back, towards the in-
fancy of the world, we see in the books  of Moses a frequent allu-
sion to  such and  similar  diseases, and  a very exact  description
of the virulent gonorrhea, which rendered those who were tainted
with it unclean, as also any person or thing that they should come
in contact with.   Vir qui patitur fluxum seminis, immundus  erit;
omne stratum in  quo  dormierit immundum  erit.]  Besides, the
venereal complaint was  known, from time immemorial, among the
Hindoos, the Egyptians, and the Africans also.  From the earliest
times, the Bramins possessed  a knowledge of curing it.  Why
might it not have received its birth in those  fruitful countries,
where all traditions agree in placing the  cradle of mankind ? and
why could it not have been spread,  as was the leprosy, to the four
corners of the earth, by the same people among whom we trace the
foundation of our worship and of our laws ?


CAN  THE SYPHILIS MAKE  ITS APPEARANCE AMONG  HEALTHY
                           PEOPLE ?

  A noted physician of Paris, and the public records, certify that
a young girl, only  twelve years of age, deserted her home one day,
and, as  she  feared her mother's threats, she went and concealed
herself  under the  protection of a woman in the neighborhood, who
kept a workmen's  boarding-house   One of them enticed her to his
chamber,  seduced her,  and did violence  to her.   He soon  made
known his base and brutal conduct  to his comrades, who, one by
one, did not fail  to profit by his hellish example; so that, in three
days, there were six who thus abused  this helpless victim.  At last
she was detected  by the lady of the house, who, through a friend,

  • Juvenal, sat. ii.; Martial, at the 7th and 9th volumes of his Epigrams
  t  Leviticus, the whole of chap. xv. 
168
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
 had hei conveyed to her  mother, under pretence of having found
 her in a convent, where, it was pretended, she was conveyed by
 the seductions of a priest.   She was immediately  confined  in  a
 small chamber, to which no  one had  access but her unsuspecting
 mother.   She complained, a few days  afterwards, that she suffered
 great pain in emitting water.   She was visited by a physician, who
 declared that she had an acute venereal gonorrhea, and, fourteen
 days afterwards, there appeared a  bubo on her right groin.   This
 new symptom was a convincing proof to her afflicted mother, and
 the unhappy girl was constrained to tell all that had passed since
 her flight.  A complaint was immediately entered against the men,
 who were visited by order  of the authority;  but  they were all
 found, as the report says, pure, healthy, and clean.
  Dr.  Weizemann,  physician of  Bucharest,  supported by the
 authority  of the oldest physicians, asserts that similar  infections
 very often break out spontaneously of their own accord; and that
 he has treated gonorrheas, ulcers, chancres, buboes, &c, &c., with
 the greatest  success, by using anti-venereal remedies,  when the
 diseases had resisted all other treatment, even when  they had been
 contracted during the first night of marriage, and when the youth-
ful health, virginity, and purity of both sexes were undoubted.*
  Among  animals the same causes  produce the  same effects.  An
avaricious farmer, wishing to make a  greater profit, by increasing
his stock of horses, made use of his stallions  several  times a day, •
which did  not fail to exhaust them.  He brutally undertook to re-
kindle  their fiery instinct by  means of stimulants, and the tincture
of Spanish flies; but soon  they were taken with malignant  ulcers,
and putrid discharges, which rendered them entirely powerless
  After the foregoing statements, it is easily seen how copulation,
between two healthy persons, may be followed by venereal symp-
toms.   It is not uncommon with ardent hearts, and in cases of too
frequent embraces of love, that inflammations arise, a runnino- dis-
charge takes  place, and ulcers appear,  of the most contao-ious
nature. Small ulcers will succeed to too often repeated lascivious
pleasures,  even when copulation  does not take place.  In the
 Oriental empires, the first enjoyments of wedlock  are  almost in-
variably followed by a train  of similar maladies.  The menses at
               * Journal Comp. des Seien. Med., page 376. 
               THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.           169

 certain periods,  often  contract  irritating,  acrid, and contagious
 properties.  It is also often the case, that women, otherwise in per-
 fect health, infect with  disease all  persons who have  connection
 with them, especially after lascivious excesses, intemperance at the
 table, and the excitement of stimulus.   It is also worthy of notice,
 that a person may be in the habit of cohabiting with a woman, and
 both parties may enjoy health, whilst if a stranger have intercourse
 with her, he contracts a violent disease: attamen nihil fit a nihilo.


                     INVASION IN EUROPE.

   The most  terrible period at  which this plague exercised its
 ravages,  was at the end of the fifteenth century.   It often termin-
 ated in death.  Not  considering it a  new complaint, the physicians
 of that time attributed its cause to the temperature of the season,
 to the overflowing of the rivers, and to debauchery, which was con-
 tinually increasing.  Others thought it to be a divine punishment.
 The astrologers of the day,  who were held in great veneration,
 found the cause of it in  a comet,  and the conjunction of certain
 constellations; without speaking of the rediculous opinion of those
 who attributed it to the most absurd notions.
   One shudders in thinking, that, at  that period, the council of the
 King of  Scotland, at Edinburgh, and the parliament of  Paris,
 decreed,  in 1497, that all persons who were  infected with  this de-
 structive  scourge, should be  banished  from those  capitals, within
 twenty-four hours, under pain of the  halter, or death.
  At that period it was taken even by inhaling the breath, by the
 air, and  by contact with the  outside garments of the infected.
 Hume relates, that Cardinal Wolsey, first minister to Henry VHT.,
was accused, in the parliament of England, of having whispered in
the king's ear, it being well  known that Wolsey was infected with
the venereal disease.
22 
170
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
       HAS THIS DISEASE  BECOME  LESS FORMIDABLE?

  For a long time, opprobrium and dishonor stigmatized the brow
of the victim of syphilis, and it was once  considered a disgraceful
disease; but since it has extended itself into all  classes of society,
we pity the sufferers, victims to  an unfortunate love, without ceas-
ing to esteem them, and reclaim their conduct.  Besides, where is
the innocent, or the virgin,  de facto,  and at heart, to be found ?
Who dares to throw the first stone ?  The virulence of the disease
has gradually abated.  It being transmitted successively through a
great number of individuals,  it has  become  less malignant in its
effects, like a torrent whose  rapid  course over its  narrow bed be-
comes suddenly slackened, as it spreads itself over  wide  fields, and
loses its violence in  proportion to the extent of its ravages.
  This opinion has a  great number of partisans.  More than a
century ago, Astruc  declared that this disease would be annihilated in
less than a hundred years; but his prophecy has  not been realized.
Fracastor  gave  a  much  more  philosophical  opinion   upon  its
strength  and duration.  'This affection,'  says he, 'may  one  day
disappear, and leave only a  slight  remembrance, like  the ideas we
entertain of the leprosy, and reappear, after a length of time;  yet,
aga:n to be plunged in  total  obscurity, to make its  appearance at a
distant period of ages, to terrify  mankind, who will look upon it as
a new disease, like  those great  political revolutions,  which alter-
nately derange and  overturn all  the  empires of the world.  How-
ever, in the opinion of the most learned physicians of  all countries,
the virus is always the same, but, like the effects of electricity, its
influence is felt, in a greater or less degree, as the bodies  are either
good or bad conductors; and if the same barbarous regulations, the
same prejudices, and the same mode  of treatment  existed, there is
no doubt that this  complaint would once more spread  terror  all
over the  world.  But,  happily for humanity, powerful  arms have
been discovered to  oppose this redoubtable enemy.   As varied as
the evil itself, are the remedies which follow it through  all its  dif-
ferent transformations.  They detect and seize it beneath the most
obscure disjjuises, and, following its devious windings, never fail to 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.
171
infuse the healing balm, to attack the deadly sting, subdue its viru-
lence, and finally to root it out from the system.  Hence the mild-
ness  of these diseases, in the most civilized countries, should be
attributed exclusively, not to the degeneration of the virus, but to
the prompt attention given to the sick, to the degree of perfection
to which the mode of treatment has, of late years, been carried, and,
above all, to the extension of those principles of humanity which
have happily succeeded to the barbarous superstitions of preceding
ages.  We  no longer  expose the unhappy patient in lazar-houses,
nor in desert places, far from the pitying eye of humanity; neither
do we leave them to die, as the Kalmucks do, with their brothers
and  children, when seized with  the  pox, without affording them
the least assistance.  Persons of both sexes, less slaves to prejudice
than  formerly, throw  themselves unreservedly under the care of
the most scientific physicians, and are cured with great ease, and
radically, under this new method of salutary vegetable treatment.
It is for this reason, that syphilitic diseases, although more extended,
are much less violent in the cities of Italy, in Paris, and  in London,
than in any other capital of Europe.  The case is very different in
nearly all other parts  of the world,  around  country villages, and
more particularly in the United States.  Here, even in our largest
cities, the greater part  of our most reputable and skilful  physicians,
nay,  we might truly assert, the whole faculty, pay little  or no
attention to  these diseases.   They  visit the  sick  with  reluctance,
contempt, indifference, and carelessness.  When called upon  to
prescribe  for the unhappy sufferers in malignant cases, they con-
sider  themselves authorized and  bound, instead of using soothing
language and comfort,  to cruelly aggravate their sorrows and tor-
ments, and  the  poor  unfortunate  victims of  licentiousness  and
deceit are thus unmercifully treated.  Alas ! many  physicians, justi-
fying themselves by a  false, uncharitable, and absurd popular in-
dignation  existing,  especially among the female  sex, and by the
barbarian feelings of friends and acquaintances, and of  the  super-
stitious Christian, the  hypocrite, and the bigoted minister of re
ligion, leave patients  to  their merciless  fate, to  suffer from the
dreadful effects  of  this loathsome disease, that,  by this conduct,
they might render themselves applauded as the chosen instruments
of the Most High, believing they were destined by  Heaven  to 
172           PRUDENTIAL'REVELATIONS,  AND

punish the unfortunate victims, rather than relieve the sufferings
of humanity.
  But the whole is not yet told.  The wretched patient discovers,
when too late, the effects and irreparable consequences of his licen-
tiousness and  debauchery, and  looks forward  to the silent tomb as
the only efficacious balm for a body exhausted by torments, and a
spirit excited by despair, with  the  gloomy retrospections of shame
and  sorrow.  Abandoned  by his friends and  the  profession, and a
prey of fast accumulating symptoms, which threaten dissolution and
death, he hastily, and  as an ultimate fatal resort,  applies and calls
for relief at  the portal of insidious flattery.  He is addressed in
circumventive cards and circulars, and in the daily papers, by the
imposter and pretender, the quack and hundreds of unprincipled
men, not less than by  the ignorant and  outcast physician  and
empiric.   An  alarming  number of these men,  so  dangerous to
society and to the moral laws, and so  pernicious to human life, pro-
claim, through  these  deceptive prints, peace, courage, antidotes,
and  health to the sick  and  the  afflicted.  To the  votaries  of a
voluptuous life, and to the victims of secret maladies, they address
themselves, as the  true benefactors; urging their flight  from the
wrath of charlatanism, and inviting them,  with the most pathetic
entreaties, to their pretended benevolent  care.  Thus adroitly they
insinuate themselves into confidence, allay  the fears and apprehen-
sion existing in the mind of the  sufferer, revive  his  hopes and
cheer his spirit,  and with the assumed  gravity of experienced
physicians, warrant to him a certain and  speedy cure, by  virtue of
their pretended valuable nostrums.   Entrapped in the fatal snare,
the deluded patient discovers, when too late, that he has  added to
his sins and reproaches the torments of new  diseases, and that he
has drank repeated draughts of poison, which never fail to destroy
the  bliss  and comfort of life, surviving for  a victim to the worm
which never dies, and is for years a prey of excruciating anguish,
until death puts an end to his miseries.
   One word more, for the sake of humanity.   What is represented
in ' The Awful Disclosures in Real Life ?'  See, in  the Index, ' A
Philanthropic Tour through the United States,'  in which a feeble
narrative, and an imperfect outline of facts and  truths are  given,
which are perfectly applicable to the above self-constituted M. D's. 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
173
There is not one among these traffickers in falsehood, these blood-
thirsty, avaricious, treacherous, and murderous mongers of human
flesh — no, not one — but has given a public exhibition  of their
evil  designs,  ignorance,,  and criminal practice.   Each of them is
guilty of manslaughter, if not of murder; and in Germany,  Italy,
or France, and even in many parts of England, their hard-hearted
temerity would bring  them to  condign punishment,  forfeit their
liberty,  and drag them to prison.  Not so  here.  Unchallenged, in
the open light of day, and under the wise laws of the land, intend-
ed  for  the suppression of such crimes, these unprincipled men
scatter their pestiferous  influence,  and their poisonous draughts
and the arrows of death, where even the  silent  recesses of virtue
and modesty seem to be protected.  Certainly, there is  not  to be
found a respectable and intelligent physician, but will assert, that
hundreds, nay, thousands, are the  double victims of lascivious love
and fornication, and many wives and  daughters are innocently led
into snares by the fatal security furnished  by these demons  in
human  shape, and the encouragement given by this cast of men.
They are the direct  instruments of corrupting the laws of nature,
of degrading the human species, and of degenerating the coming
offspring.   Thousands  there  are, who fall  hopeless victims  to an
imperfect cure, in consequence of having added to or substituted for
this concealed plague, a train of diseases and consequences,  worse
than the contagion itself.  It is ascertained and admitted, that nine
tenths of the professional visits to the sick, which are made by each
and every physician of our large cities of the Union, are in cases
of a chronic character, and  in consequence of former mercurial
or poisonous treatments, administered by the scores  of villainous
quacks, and pretenders of the day.   The Hunter's Red Drop  is one
of the most insinuating poisons ever invented by the exterminating
angel.   It is the most dangerous and  sure destroyer of the human
constitution, and rarely can be modified in its progressive influence ;
as, once introduced into the system, it is difficult entirely to remove
it.   Any one who is acquainted with the  effects of mercurial cor-
rosive sublimate, which is the only powerful  and active principle
contained in it, nay, the sole ingredient in a liquid form, will assert
this  truth ; and, for the satisfaction of the  ignorant, we refer them
to it.- unhappy partakers, or to the  learned Faculty and Boards of 
174
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
 Health.  So it is with  all such applauded medicines; and if we
 analyze the new preparations of the  day, which often is done, in
 all are to be found this empiric poison.  This is the principal dan-
 gerous mineral, though more than a  half dozen venoms, not less
 pernicious,  may  be  enumerated, which  constitute  the alpha and
 omega of every nostrum, and  is almost exclusively relied upon by
 our pox practitioners, who,  under the  conspicuous banners and
 signs of Celsus, Hippocrates, Galen, Colleges  of Health, &c, have
 established  their clandestine places  and  circuitous  offices, with
 their assumed  insignia, or names of the most noted Carpenter's,
 Clover's, Gregory's, Ralph's, Evans's, Hunterian Dispensaries, &c,
 with their hundreds  of coadjutors, whose injuries are deeply felt
 through the community, and  rapidly, daily increased in the  cities
 of New York,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore, Boston, and similar  large
 maritime places, and the surrounding country.  The mode of treat-
 ment pursued by them, and their medicines, may, we will not deny,
 quickly give an apparent relief,  and  even a superficial  cure, in
 ninety-nine  cases out of a hundred;  and in many of them, perhaps,
 no longer leave the  least suspicion, but a firm belief, of their radi-
 cal cure.  But, alas!  The infection, though soon dried up, is con-
 cealed in the system,  and the  syphilitic  virus is driven inwardly,
 and exerts its ravages at the very springs of life.  Soon it assumes
 a different character, and infects the fluids  and glands; the blood
 becomes  impure,  and all the membranes  and  nerves and the vital
 organs are  affected;  hence will follow  a  series of miseries and
 complaints;  rheumatisms  will soon ensue,, and the scrofula and
 consumption, or other malignant disease,  will  terminate existence.
 The  very medicaments which have been used, will surely bring
forth, independently of the venereal  disease,  a train of maladift
from which no mortal is exempt, and from which the  patient can
seldom fully  recover, though his sufferings may be palliated.
  Enough has  been said  to  show, to  a  demonstration, the utter
impossibility of  obtaining a radical cure of the venereal disease, or
even a lasting relief, with such  treatment and medicines, and the
dangers and certain evils  which are encountered.  These truths
are appalling, and much good  will  ensue from their  convincing
power.   The best educated  portion  of  the  community, and the
most skilful physicians will be  awakened  by the destructive influ- 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.
175
ence of quackery, to a sense of duty, and will cooperate in their
exertions, with the feelings of humanity and pity, for the redemp-
tion of those already condemned sufferers by venereal diseases, —
leading them out from  the  devices  and temptations of deceptive
men, and cheerfully relieving their pains and applying the healing
balm  to their wounds, and thus snatching them from the eager
grasp and influence of quackery and imposition.  The joint'efforts
of the faculty will surely be triumphant in this grand contest; and
the strength contributed to this end by  the  various  Boards of
Health will be a phalanx strong enough to check the evil, defeat the
impostor,  substitute truth for error, and virtually, and with effect,
overthrow the yet triumphant  abuses in medicines.  This would
be striking the mortal and final blow to imposition, and the radical
demolisher of crime, charlatanism, and deceit.   The  self-styled
venereal doctors, their clandestine traps, pictures, books, and false
treatises;  their mysterious empirical  dispensaries of poisons and
death; their mystical and mythological poetic  style of advertising,
and the  mighty influence of the  bribed press,  would no longer
foment a false credulity, nor have power to seduce  again a well-
discerning community.   The honest and the  worthy professional
man, the religious, and those of tender feelings, are here addressed
and invited to maintain  this doctrine with their patronage  and
support, and to recommend this new botanical method of practice
with the  French Philanthropic Remedy, — a good and successful
practice, which will afford full satisfaction.  As  to these  diseases,
there cannot be a better  and surer vegetable antidote.  It will be
a positive  and speedy remedy in all similar maladies, and also in
those  which  arise from  an  imperfect  treatment  or  deleterious
medicines. 
176           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
                    CHAPTER  SECOND.

     LOCAL PHENOMENA ;  INFLAMMATION OF THE MUCOUS
                         MEMBRANES.

                  The  Gonorrhea,  or, the Clap.

   This disease, also known under  the names of gonorrhea impura,
 maligna, and syphilitica, virulenta,  is distinguished by an  opaque
 mucous discharge, of a greenish yellow matter, from the passage of
 the  urethra.   The emission of urine is then  accompanied, to a
 greater or less degree, by a sensation of heat and burning.  What-
 ever may be the cause of this discharge, the dangers attending it
 are the same, since the discharge is  produced by ulcers existing in
 the aforementioned passage.  This  disease, called the fluor albus
 maUgnus, is not the pox, but may soon assume all the symptoms of
 it, unless proper means are  taken  to prevent  it; above all, care
 should be taken not to drive back, at first sight, the early symptoms
 of disease, by injections or astringent preparations, or the nostrums
 of the day, in which there is always combined, in a disguised form,
 acting mercury, or a similar  deleterious drug; for repentance will
 always follow such a course.  The  gonorrhea varies in its symp-
 toms ; sometimes it is so mild  that  the patient  is only aware of it
 by  a slight itching, or a hardly perceivable  jelly-like moisture
 proceeding from the penis, the orifice, or from the stains which the
 discharge makes upon  the linen.  But the most  general  indication
 is a violent titillation of the extremity of the penis, which  is very
 painful at the  emission of urine.   Soon, a slight, thin, watery dis-
 charge gives premonitory notice of  additional pain, and  causes
frequent erections, the number and  length of which  are increased
by being warm  in  bed, and often produces  involuntary emissions
of semen, which exhaust the system.   Then, sleep becomes disturb-
ed ; the groins  and testicles  assume  an inflammatory tenderness
and  soreness, which indicate a virulent gonorrhea,  accompanied
by what is, vulgarly called chordee.  By degrees, the  discharge 
               THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.           177

 changes its color; the pain slowly abates, and the inflammation
 disappears, provided  the directions for taking the Philanthropic
 Remedy are exactly followed.  See the Directions.


  OBSTINATE  CLAPS, OR ANCIENT GONORRHEA — THE  GLEETS.

   When  a palliative course of treatment has been pursued, the
 pains caused by the erections and in the emission of urine are very
 much abated; but the discharge continues.  In this state it is not
 always  contagious, but upon the  least excess  or  carelessness the
 disease  again assumes its most violent form, and often on the second
 appearance women  are wrongfully accused, who enjoy  perfect
 health.   The individual who is infected with it may easily be cured,
 if he will follow exactly the treatment  prescribed in the directions
 of the French Philanthropic Remedy, and not stop until he has
 used enough of this Vegetable Anti-Syphilitic Panacea  to insure
 him a perfect recovery; that is to  say, it should be continued till
 the discharge has entirely ceased for two or three weeks, and the
 symptoms disappear.  By this means a radical cure is  guarantied,
 since this treatment has arrived at  a degree  of mathematical cer-
 tainty.  But let not the patient flatter himself with imaginary hope,
 because he has only a slight discharge, for though he may try every
 palliative remedy, of his own prescription or of any venereal doc-
 tor, he will not be radically cured; and an  injection, or the  appli-
 cation of bougies will only serve  to hasten  the contraction with
 which the  passage of the penis is threatened;  for, although this
gleet is mild, or appears seldom, even only one day in a month, yet
it is. evidence of the existence of an ulcer, and indicates an inflamma-
tion which is not yet healed, and that the passage of the urethra is
infected.  Nothing but the Philanthropic Remedy will effect a
perfect cure.
23 
178           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
      THE WHITES IN WOMEN —MODE OF  TREATMENT.

  Ladies are often really  ignorant, yet many  too  frequently hide
from themselves the real cause of the whites.  The reason that the
greater part are in profound ignorance respecting the nature and
causes of this complaint is, that they will  not call to mind what
happened to them in their younger years.  If many of them would
thus seriously reflect, and call to mind the  impress received by im-
moral companions and exciting, lascivious feelings, their first self-
abuse, condescensions, and acts when at school, their indulgence in
immodest and impure  imaginary thoughts,  their imprudences com-
mitted at the period of their courses in their wedlock life, at their
hymenial duties, at the time of gestation,  or  at the  period of the
secretion of the milk, surely they would  soon trace out the causes
and real nature of their pretended whites, which in reality is a
complaint which  at  times may  be contracted by the man who
approaches them, and draw on them  marked and justly  merited
reproaches.   This disease, so common  in large  cities, is almost
unknown in the country;  hence it is not a law of nature.   It can-
not be too much enforced on the mind, that care should be taken not
to  be deceived  in the nature  of this affection.  When this dis-
charge, instead of being limpid and clear as water, is thick and of
a greenish yellow, then wretched will be her fate  who does not get
rid of it.  This affection is at first only rather inconvenient.  The
patient feels  a sense of  pulling and pains  in the  stomach;  the
complexion becomes  sallow, the appetite  is  gone, she  loses flesh,
her limbs are shrivelled or bloated;  dull, heavy  pains  are  felt
around the womb and the lower part  of the  belly and back, thus
realizing severe tortures.   It is well known  that the  whites may
terminate in  gonorrhea,  which requires corresponding treatment.
 If the whites are not cured before the change of life — the critical.
 age of  forty or fifty years—the fearful spectacle of an unhappy
 woman, without the  smallest chance of  hope, will be the conse-
 quence, and she will sink by degrees from the effects, perhaps, of an
 eating cancer, or ulcer at the matrix.  The Philanthropic Remedy
 is  still the only one that  should be used  in this alarming  disease. 
                THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.           179

 By unremitted use this remedy has and will effect the most extra-
 ordinary cures.   It has the merit of soothing pains as by enchant-
 ment ; it checks and prevents the discharge, and every inflamma-
 tory symptom of the external and internal secret parts.
   The fine, brilliant complexion, the vermilion tint of the skin, the
 air of freshness and health, all conspire to impose on persons not
 initiated in medical science and experience, when deciding whether
 a woman is healthy or infected  with  .syphilitic taint.  But these
 very appearances too often  are calculated to lead into error and
 deception.   Yes, such is the case  perhaps in that fresh and brilliant
 beauty, whose melodious voice captivates and enchants our senses;
 in those theatrical queens renowned for  grace  and agility; such is
 perhaps the case with that prude, whose  false and  pretended piety
 or modesty attracts the  electric fire of love and passion; of her who
 when  addressed,  with  downcast eye  betrays an affection, whose
 voice trembles  and whose cheeks  redden at the slightest  liberty,
 and shows  an  awkward  shame  at her  companions' address, and
 blushes at the introduction of a well-intended proposal.  Neverthe-
 less these identical ladies,  so charming and thus adorned, by nature
 or deceit, often,  and  most commonly,  carry in their bosoms the
 knowledge and sorrows of being the victims of the hidden germ of
 this disease, though one and  all may positively deny feeling the
 least inconvenience.  It is not then to be concealed  from ladies,
 that often nature hides, as a volcano, the poison from their  knowl-
 edge, not less than the  imminent dangers of a sudden  eruption.
 Apparent health inspires their confidence, and  instigates excessive
 boldness and indulgence.  Soon,  however, the scene  is  changed.
 They will surely be led by degrees  to  that state so fatal to their
 security.   Health will become impaired,  and their moral tranquil-
 lity forever lost.  An author has justly and poetically said: that
 the ' syphilitic serpent is generally concealed beneath  the  whites of
 the fair sex.'
  Such are but too often  the sad consequence of  unlawful indul-
 gence, self abuse, masturbation, pollution, and disobedience to the
 express commands of God!   Health,  beauty,  and the ardor of
 youth, all conspire to excite the passions.  Instead of subduing
their  impetuous  course and  keeping passions  within  bounds, in
their  proper channel, according  to  the  dictates of morality and 
180           FRUDENTIAL  REVELATIONS,  AND
religion, women suffer themselves to be hurried on in the flowery
paths of temptation, till they have gone too far to recede, and only
awake to the sense of  a fatal  error, when too late to restore the
virgin purity of former thoughts and affections.  Although in the
sight of the Almighty all are equally responsible for ' the deeds done
in° the body,' yet in the partial judgment of the world, a degree of
toleration is shown to man, which his free and open intercourse with
society seems to exact;  but 'when lovely woman  stoops  to folly,'
when she leaves the little sanctuary over which she presides, to follow
the impulses of a deceitful heart, the stain upon her honor is indeli-
ble, the unsullied purity of her mind has fled forever, and the foul
' plague spot' is making fearful inroads upon the constitution of the
frail and beautiful being, who  looks  around in vain for that in-
dulgence so readily extended  to  her equally guilty partner, and
finds no consolation, save in obedience to the will of Him who bid
her ' go and sin no more.'
  The mode of treatment for the whites is explained in the author's
Treatise on Female Complaints.   See the  index of the  Book of
Prudential Revelations.  As the discharges often partake of vicious
humors, ladies should  consult the treatises, and follow  the prescrip-
tions.  Surely they will soon  be strengthened and refreshed; their
whole systems will  be purified,  and health will be the  crown of
their efforts.
             INFLAMMATION OF THE TESTICLES.

  Every thing which tends to abate  the  gonorrhea, or running,
before the  germ of the  disease has been destroyed, is highly im-
proper, and will cause the disease to change, or partly remove its
locality back towards the groin,  and there terminate in buboes,
the pox,  pimples, and ulcers  around the penis, and  inflammatory
swellings of the testicles, which in a short time  increase to four or
five times  their natural size.  Fever sets in, the pains are  very
acute, accompanied by a heaviness of the reins, and pullings of the
spermatic  cord, corresponding with the  swelled testicle.   This
happens when unexperienced men and pretenders  have recourse
to strong purges, injections, mineral medicines, powerful ingredi- 
               THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.           181

ents, arsenious and mercurial preparations, and other violent and
not less mischievous remedies, invented by quacks and charlatans.
When the testicles are in such a state, relief may be obtained by
applying twenty to thirty leeches around them, and by freely
drinking a tea of pearl barley and dog-grass.  Afterwards apply the
7 th Receipt of the Directions of the French Philanthropic Remedy,
and poultices of linseed flour, and  when the pain is abated the
poultices are  to  be made with mill-mountain  or purging flax dust.
The Receipts 7th or 8th of the directions  laid down in the French
Philanthropic Remedy must be followed,  and  the patient kept
strictly confined in bed; and in a  few days all signs of the com-
plaint will vanish, provided the  instructions and directions of the
Philanthropic Remedy, in regard  to the internal  and external
treatment are strictly adhered to.


                   GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS.

  Regimen. — Soon as  the  patient suspects or perceives  the ap-
proach of gonorrhea, or any  of the first symptoms  of a syphilitic
nature, he must diminish his food, abstain from coffee, beer, ale,
cider,  wine, brandy, and all  spirituous or fermented liquors;  also
raw food, or such as has been preserved  by salt, vinegar, or spice.
In all  cases,  but more especially of the clap,  he should neither
dance, nor ride on  horseback,  and should avoid all excesses of
every kind.   This  mode of regimen  will  not prevent one from
attending to his daily vocation, provided care  be taken to avoid all
excesses of cold, heat, dampness, and fatigue.  This treatment may
be followed at all seasons and in every climate.  In  the directions
and pamphlet accompanying  the French Philanthropic Remedy,
the rules and prescriptions to  be  adhered to will be more fully
described.  In all cases, baths may be used, but the  patient should
always abstain from injections and  violent medicines and mercury,
which never will remedy or give lasting relief, but are  calculated
to destroy the sick person rather than his  disease. 
182           PRUDENTIAL  REVELATIONS,  AND
 MODE OF TREATMENT OF  GONORRHEA,  THE  CLAP,  EITHER
   SLIGHT OR  OF A  MALIGNANT NATURE, AS THE OBSTINATE
   GLEETS, ETC., ETC.

   At the first appearance of a discharge or gonorrhea, of whatever
 nature it may be it will  be prudent to wear a truss, and take the
 Philanthropic Remedy, in such doses and  at  such a time, as ex-
 plained in the  directions by which the medicine is accompanied.
 This  remedy is to be used also as a wash, all around the private
 parts, according to  Receipt 6th, Rule 3d; but  when the parts are
 very sore, follow Receipt 7th, prescribed in the directions.  These
 diseases are obstinate, and difficult to cure, only because they are
 generally  neglected,  and improperly treated.  If carefully and
 strictly attended to,  the duration of the complaint may be predicted
 with accuracy after the lapse of two or three days.
   There are no diseases more  inconvenient, more fatiguing,  or
 producing  more serious  consequences than these; since, from the
 ulcerated state of the  membranes of the  urine's passage, will pro-
 ceed internal vegetation, obstructions of the canal, retention of the
 water, &c. &c.  The patient should immediately commence the in-
 ternal and external use of the Philanthropic Remedy, which at
 once neutralizes the acrid virus, and,  by continuance in its use  in
 a short period,  the discharge will be  terminated, and the  system
 purified from all infections.  It must  be  continued till  the virus,
 running, or dropping  gleet, is radically and effectually destroyed,
 and the local  and constitutional strength is regained.
  But there  are so many prejudices to be  removed, and so many
 nostrums in use, that it is rare  that the patient fully submits to the
proper course of treatment, at the very beginning and first appear-
 ance of this disease, or at the very moment  there exists a suspicion
of having  been exposed to its contact  Though the  common
syphilitic symptoms  should  never appear, or their presence be re-
tarded for a week or two, one or six months, or even a year, yet,
in such cases, the disease  will surely, sooner or later, make  dread-
ful havoc,  even  upon  the external organization; while to the con-
stitution, and  the internal organs of life, this subtile and poisonous 
THE GOLDEN  BIISLE OF NATURE.
183
fluid (even in the mildest venereal infection) acts like a little cor-
roding worm, ravaging all around, and finally destroying the most
athletic tree.  This is often, nay, almost universally, the case with
youth and women, who, being temperate and sober in the general
pursuits of life,  repose, after exposure, unconcerned in this fatal
security.
  N. B. — Persons of very delicate constitutions, ladies,  and old
men, should use the French Philanthropic Remedy, the quantity
being  proportioned to age,  physical strength,  and temperance.
Children  attacked with syphilitic  affections  should be treated
accordingly, with perseverance and  care.
                     CHAPTER THIRD.

    INOCULATION OF THE SYPHILITIC VIRUS, PHYMOSIS,
                  CHANCRES, AND ULCERS.

  Chancres  and  venereal  ulcers are sores,  varying  in size  and
depth, which in men affect the prepuce, (the skin of the penis,) the
penis  itself, the testicles, the vicinity of the anus, the mouth, palate,
gums, tongue,  tonsils,  throat,  the cavity of  the  nose, &c, &c.; in
women  the  vagina, the inside  of the lips pudenda, the neck and
internal part of the womb,  six inches in  depth of the cavity of the
vagina,  the  ovaria, &c, also the nipples,  the  tongue, and other
parts, if the virus come in contact with them.  Ulcers and chancres
are often the origin of  buboes, and every other venereal symptom,
and are much more  dangerous than gonorrhea.  They are easily
cured at their first  appearance; but care should be taken,  and
strict  attention paid to  their nature and changes.
  A sore, a swelling,  or simply an itching, precede a  small red
speck, which whitens,  comes  to a head, and yields  a slight dis-
charge, of an  acrimonious yellow liquid.   The middle of the  sore
soon becomes hollow and white, whilst the edges are of a pale red
color, hard and full; the matter which runs from them changes in 
 184           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

 appearance,  becomes thick and viscid, and resembles a real pus.
 Chancres  are  generally  covered with  a whitish  skin, and, by
 degrees, they become larger and deeper, and are divided into pas-
 sive and inflammatory chancres.   The latter often cause phymosis,
 or inflamed  swelling of the prepuce,  in front of the gland, or a
 paraphymosis of the gland, (which is  the opposite of a phymosis,)
 and which takes place when the prepuce is drawn back, and for-
 cibly binds the  gland, by forming an inflamed and very painful red
 tumor.   The most distressing chancres  and venereal ulcers are
 those situated in the fraenum of the penis, upon the tongue, and in
 the throat.
   It is of the highest importance that venereal symptoms should be
 properly attended to, in due season, on their first appearance, for
 the fearful results which often  arise from the  carelessness  of the
 patient, or his unconsciousness of his condition, and the unskilful
 treatment of physicians, are terrible, if  not at present, at least in
 the future.  All the symptoms described by the celebrated Fracas-
tor may, and will, develop  themselves successively.   Directions for
the treatment of chancres will be found in course.
  SODOMY, OR UNNATURAL  COITION, LASCIVIOUS  EMBRACES,
      AND "WHAT IS TERMED IN FRENCH  ' PEDERASTIE.'

   The consequences of this shameful and brutal indulgence Or con-
nection, are very severe, especially with the self-infected,  or  those
corrupted by  syphilitic,  scrofulous evils, or equally  conta°ious
diseases, which cannot fail to bring forth the most serious ulcers
and running sores, which are the sure concomitants, and prove most
dangerous, from being more deeply seated.  The circumstances
which may cause their existence being unknown, give  them time
to make the most rapid progress towards the important organs of
life;  the bladder, the vagina, the womb, and the intestines become
cancerous, and similar deplorable effects may lay the foundation of
a new and ulcerous  passage,  bringing forth disgusting and  most
humiliating inconveniences, such  as fistulas, and  other  ulcerous
orifices, which cause involuntary discharges of the fceces, and  often
by unnatural ways.   Many ladies,  afflicted with these  diseases, dis-
charge the excrements from the vagina, &c. 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.            185
             SYPHILIS AMONG PREGNANT  WOMEN.

  A woman infected with this disease may still bear children, and
if she be already pregnant, is never free from the danger of infec-
tion.  It is important, then, to guard against the infection of the
conceived infant; but, especially, care should be taken in the use
of any  medicines, be they vegetable, animal,  or mineral,  which
have the properties of predisposing the system to absorb, not only
the poisonous virus, but those very dangerous ingredients  them-
selves.  For similar reasons, mercurial preparations should  be
avoided, which, as is well  known to the  medical chemist and the
scientific anatomist, are the strongest alteratives  to the disease and
constitution, the most active absorbents in the glandular system and
the lymphatic fluids, and the sure penetrating poison to the organs
of life, to  the blood, the nerves,  the  bones,  and  the whole system.
It is necessary, both for the mother and infant, that she should be
kept as much  as possible  in ignorance of the  real nature of her
disease, else other inconveniences will surely follow;  and the pru-
dent physician  or husband may easily do so.  With this exception,
the mode of treatment should be the same as at any period of her
life.  If the Philanthropic Remedy should prove, on account of her
situation, rather nauseous, its doses may be smaller,  and taken with
discretion, yet with perseverance, even to the end of her delivery.


                 SYPHILIS AMONG CHILDREN.

  This  disease is known  by the appearance of putrid white dis-
charges from the eyes, the vagina, the urinary passage, the funda-
ment, &c.; by red spots  and little sores on different parts of the
body, on the navel, the heels, and between  the toes; by swellings
around the anus, the neck, behind  the ears, and in  other places.
Certain death may be prevented by the use of the Philanthropic
Remedy.  If it be a new-born infant, the mother or wet nurse must
take the doses; and, after a while, it must  be given to the infant
itself.   Follow  this treatment, even  for two or three years, or
                    24 
 186           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

 more, in succession, in the spring, for  about three  months.  The
 dose must be limited, and reduced in conformity to the strength
 and general state of health of the patient.


                         CONTAGION.

   The smallest portion of syphilitic poison (as is also the case with
 the small-pox virus) is sufficient to  produce the most serious con-
 sequences in every part of the body; but a certain period is neces-
 sary for it to be developed; and the interval of time, between the
 infection and the appearance  of the disease, varies according to
 different temperaments and modes of life.   Generally, however,
 the longer the disease  remains concealed in the  system  before
 making its appearance, the more serious it will prove in its nature.
 The clap generally appears from  the third to the tenth day;  and
the chancres, from the tenth to the twentieth.  If the infection is
not very deep, the disease may be hidden for several months, or
even for years.   Swddeaur cites the example of one of his friends,
who sailed for the East Indies, apparently in good health;  but, on
approaching those warm climates,  after  a voyage of several months,
he  was  attacked, before  landing,  with a violent  blennorrhea
 (gonorrhea) and chancres, without having had any sexual inter-
course since his departure.
  The pox is not a simple affection, attacking a single organ, or
part of the body; it is considered as a collective disease, from an
assemblage of various symptoms, produced by the particular nature
of this virus.

                   DANGER OF RELAPSES.

  Chancres, either from bad treatment  or neglect, always produce
a general infection, in the same manner as when the running of a
real gonorrjiea is suddenly checked.   If the venereal poison, ap-
plied to another person, is capable of producing a similar  disease,
with how much more reason should  it be expected to exercise its
virulence upon the patient himself, since he  cannot have a gon-
orrhea without the preexistence of  a contagious principle ?  It is 
TnE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
187
dangerous, then, to suppress it, or to cauterize the chancres with
caustic, or any other external application, during the first three or
four days of its appearance.  On the contrary, the suppuration of
the chancres should be favored and promoted.
  1. Because this outward  suppression does not destroy the infec-
tion. '  On the other hand, all  repellant  medicines, as  mercury,
arsenic, &c, act as  so many grafts, which rapidly spread,  and
seize  upon  the  system to  the  very centre, which soon becomes
wholly corrupted.
  2. Because it is almost  universally followed by buboes in the
glands of the groins,  or by painful putrid ulcers in the throat.
  3. Because the immediate healing  which might ensue, leaves the
patient in a false security, which generally dissuades him from pre-
venting, by a proper mode of treatment, the general infection, the
consequences of which he has so much reason to dread.
                   BUBOES AND  TUMORS.

  The bubo is a tumor formed by the swelling or clogging of the
gland of the groins and of the neck.  Buboes are generally pre-
ceded by chancres, which have been neglected, and require the
same  treatment.  The  application  of leeches, on their very first
appearance may be good, and the emollient poultices, made of lin-
seed flour, has generally proved successful.   If they have been ior
much neglected, a suppuration should be promoted by drawing poul-
tices, composed of equal parts of boiled sorel and linseed flour, and
use internally, as by direction, the Philanthropic Remedy, for several
weeks.  Poultices, made of equal parts of scraped  common soap
and wood ashes, thickened with molasses, is highly approved to
bring the swelling to a quick suppuration. At the first appearance of
a bubo, and until it breaks, besides the above poultices, the Receipt
7th of the  Directions is to be  applied  at the same time;  and, as
soon as it  has bursted, or is lanced, it should be dressed with the
Receipt 9th.   See the Directions.
   When the buboes are about to suppurate, let them, if  possible,
burst of themselves.   They should  then  be slightly pressed, to 
188           PRUDENTIAL  REVELATIONS,  AND

facilitate the discharge of the  pus.  Then fill  the opening, to pre-
vent its closing, with lint, soaked in cerate.  See Receipt 9th.
  The bubo, being already opened, should be dressed,  morning
and evening, and covered with a slight layer of the same cerate,
at the same time continuing the internal  use  of the Philanthropic
Remedy, and freely drink of  water  highly sweetened  with honey,
or syrup of capillary, or gum  arabic, or any of the drinks recom-
mended in the directions.
  If the glands, instead of becoming inflamed, continue hard and
clogged up, without being painful, under the influence of a few of
the  above-named poultices, and  of  Receipt 6th, then, besides  the
liniment, plasters of hemlock  and nightshade should be applied.


                        OF  PUSTULES.

  Pustules are very little tumors, having the appearance of pimples,
either dry or humid, with copper-colored spots, which indicate an
old infection.  They break out in the  same spots as the chancres,
all around the genitals, penis, thighs, and anus, and also between
the  shoulders, and, indeed, in every part of the body.  The mode
of treatment should be the same as recommended in the Directions
of the Philanthropic Remedy.


                 VENEREAL EXCRESCENCES.

  These are fleshy excrescences, which  grow  in  the throat, the
nose, the surface of the glands, and of the prepuce, or around the
fundament,  the  lower belly,  (pudenda,)  the vagina, &c.   From
their form and  size, they are  called  by professed charlatans under
different names.  These  affections only yield to proper treatment
and  the Philanthropic  Remedy, they being of an old venereal
nature.  They should likewise be dressed.  See Receipt 8th or 9th
of the Directions. 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.            189
                    OSTEOCOPUS — PAINS.

  These pains  are seated in the bones.  They are  shooting, and
very acute.   They return at intervals, and are particularly trouble-
some  at night, being augmented by  the  heat  of the bed.  They
may be felt in all parts of the body, but especially in the loins, the
small of the back, the articulating bones of  the throat, the bones
of the skull, and of the limbs.   By  internally taking the Philan-
thropic Remedy a cure will be effected.  There should be a gentle
friction on the insides of the thighs, on the back, and on the loins.
See Receipt 7th, in the Directions.
                    VENEREAL EXOSTOSIS.

  These are morbid enlargements, tumors, or inflammations of the
bony substance.   This disease  generally attacks those bones which
are covered with but a small portion of flesh, such as those of the
skull, the  under jaw, the breast  bone, and the  bones of the legs
and arms.   To effect a cure, the same internal and external treat-
ment  should be  adopted as for  the  buboes and excrescences,
rubbing the affected parts thoroughly several times a day.


                      VENEREAL CARIES.

  Caries are real ulcerations of the  bones, which become soft and
hollow, and yield a  purulent  matter, of a very putrid and foetid
smell.  If they break out in the  head, they may cause  deafness,
blindness, cancer of the nose or in the nasal cavities; also a failure
of the intellectual faculties, total insanity, and death.  It  is  well
known that the old method, by the use of mercury, always caused
a failure of memory  and of the mental faculties, especially when
often resorted to; and it was by impairing  the bony substance that
this medicine produced  such  fatal results.  The treatment for
caries is always protracted.  The Philanthropic  Remedy must be 
190
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
used with perseverance, also follow the Directions in Receipt 7th,
and if they are broken, dress them according to Receipt 9th.  See
Directions.

                   SYPHILITIC  HEADACHE.

  This is an obstinate and periodical complaint, which resembles
nervous headache.  It is a serious complaint, and is caused by bony
exfoliation, or excrescences on the inside of the skull bone, and on
the brain, which becomes impaired and inflamed.   To cure it will
require the internal use of the Philanthropic Remedy.  Several
weeks  will often elapse before  its  intensity and duration abate,
but at last it will be radically cured.
                         SORE THROAT.

   All relapses or repulsions of the clap, chancres, &c. may termi-
nate in ulcers of the throat.  For several days previous, a sense of
irritation is felt in the back part of the mouth.  The pain gradually
increases, and, upon examination, large ulcers will be found to
have caused a redness of  the tonsils, the fauces, and the whole
mouth, the roof and curtains of the palate, the root  of the tongue,
&c.  Then,  by their inward progress, they arrive at  the bones, be-
tween the nasal passage and the mouth, which become rotten, and
occasion their partial or total  loss.  Hence all the food passes into
the nose, and causes a great alteration of the voice.  The Philan-
thropic Remedy, with proper care against eventual  accidents, will
always, in time, effect the cure of these corroded parts.  This
Remedy is also to be used as a wash, or a gargle, as prescribed in
Receipt 6th.  But such are the sudden  progressive ravages of simi-
lar ulcers, that it is often necessary to have recourse  to an artificial
palate  or nose, of  gold, silver, or platina.   The color of these
ulcers is a dirty gray, with a darkish red circumference ;  the edges
are slightly inflamed and clogged.  Frequent gargles and  lotions
are recommended, with an  infusion of the leaves  of brambles, or
gold-thread, damask roses, and honey.  Often it requires the  ap-
plication of caustics, &c. 
               THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF  NATURE.            191

  In such critical cases, a scientific, well-experienced physician may
be of good service; and  here the author offers his services.   See
his Card and Regulations.
             ALOPECIA,  OR FALL  OF THE HAIR.

  The alopecia is a peculiar symptom of syphilis, which often man-
ifests itself in the fall of the hair, and causes perpetual baldness of
all the parts where the hair should grow; and, without strict care,
may result in  the loss of  the  eyebrows, eyelashes, beard, and all
the hairy parts of the body.  It is accompanied by a diseased state
of the nails and gums, and a  total loss of the teeth.  The general
state  of  the body is  changed, and  becomes sallow.   A repulsive,
sickly, feverish,  and  foetid  smell   is  emitted,  at the   slightest
perspiration or  sweat.   The Philanthropic Remedy should  be
taken  internally, and is of  the utmost importance;  and we  can
assure the afflicted, that, with perseverance  in this treatment, he
will slowly, but surelv, recover.


          TETTERS, AND  VARIOUS  OTHER SYMPTOMS.

  The syphilitic poison may also manifest itself by a catarrh in the
bladder, a redness of  the eyelashes, pain in the  stomach, and  the
appearance of ulcers and tetters, biles and pimples, wholly or par-
tially  covering the body.   Rheumatism, gout, and pains, and  a
thousand nervous symptoms, too numerous  to be  mentioned,  will
set  in; consumption will ensue; liver affection, dyspepsia, inactivity
and contraction of the stomach, derangement of either or all of the
vital organs, and death will terminate the sufferings.   Yet there is
a balm, when these affections arise from syphilitic causes; the Phi-
lanthropic Remedy will give relief,  and be followed  by  a certain
cure. 
192           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
                SCROFULA,  KING'S EVIL, ETC.

  It is known  that  scrofula, king's evil, fever sores, &c, among
children, are generally undoubted evidences of the bad health of
their parents.  The Philanthropic Remedy should be administered
through the spring months, during three or four years in succession.
It is the  same with the  rachitis, (spinal diseases, the rickets,) and
curvature of the bones;  for the degeneration of the syphilitic virus
generally produces it.  The scrofulous humors,  when  unbroken,
must be treated by the Receipt 7th, and if broken  they should be
dressed according to Receipt 9th of the Directions.
                   CHAPTER FOURTH.

    EXAMINATION OF THE VARIOUS MODES OF  TREATING
                          SYPHILIS.

  In examining the therapeutica of this disease, it will be seen
that a multitude of methods and medicines of various kinds have
succeeded, one  to  another, and been used by ignorant physicians,
pretenders, and quacks  of  all  descriptions, who, devoid of moral
and social duty, impose upon the suffering in the community, and
practice their pretended profession in society.  In the fluctuations
of the various opinions, which have existed and been overwhelmed
by the deluge of oblivion, mercury has still survived, and since the
days of Berenger de Carpi, has been considered ' the antidote, par
excellence, the empirical Balm of Gilead, the physician's buckler.'
No sufficient cause, however, has yet been assigned for its use and
advocacy, except it is the sudden and magic relief which gives to
the poor deluded patient a flattering expectation of an immediate
cure.  Thus  it is,  that  in  the enchanting and fatal repose of the
disease, the mercenary practitioner,  the monger of human life, and 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE  OF NATURE.            193
the cunning empiric, commence their speculations, and succeed for
a time, perhaps, in gaining  fame, and, through -this crafty means,
realize a handsome fortune by their efforts.  Bat, alas! on the very
verge of expected thanks, and acts of gratitude, on the part of the
deceived patient, the  volcanic  and concealed poison bursts out
afresh, with  redoubled fury, threatens and shakes bis frame, in
periodical  eruptions, and brings devastation  and  death.  Away
then from  these destroying angels! let us shun the empirics' nos-
trums, proscribe their deceitful doctrines, and condemn their wicked
practice.   Their deceptions and lies, and the  appeals  to  their
pretended  affidavits  and their false  testimonies, may never reach
your ears nor entice your hearts.   But be not deluded;  for  your
own sake, for the sake of your children, for the love of your neigh-
bor, hold in execration and contempt, those mercenaries, whoy for
gold, trifle  with human flesh and life, and, for the thirst of gain,
spill your very blood.
   Look at  the baneful results which mercury has produced f  The
most exterminating war has, perhaps, never been so disastrous. As
far back as  the  sixteenth  century, a celebrated physician,  Ulric
Utten, who had been  himself a victim, states that in the space of
nine years, he had been through eleven different courses of mer-
cury, without being radically cured.   He says, that, at that period,
there  was  scarcely one patient in a hundred  cured.*  Physicians
of better conscience and greater skill,  at all times, have thought to
substitute  for mercury remedies of a less dangerous nature, and
the effects  of which  might  be with more  certainty depended on.
By turn, muriate of gold has been tried, volatile alkali, nitric acid,
phosphoric medicines, pomatum of oxygen, preparations of arsenic,
&c.   But the time is not far distant, when  experience, rather than
custom,  will prevail,  and  mercurial  and mineral preparations,
for either internal or external use, will be forever proscribed, ban-
ished, and  obliterated, from  the Materia Medica.
   Daily experience  shows us, that  anti-venereal vegetables,  prop-
erly administered, always eradicate the most obstinate syphilitic
Bymptoms, without the auxiliary aid  of mercury.  M. Cullerier,
principal physician of  the venereal hospital of Paris, gives a cheer-

         * De Guajoci Med., cbsp. 4. I/ngneau, p. 805, 5th ed. 1813
                  25 
194           PRUDENTIAL  REVELATIONS, AND

ing account of the cures performed since the introduction of the
author's vegetable treatment, with the  'French  Philanthropic
Remedy,' which  in every case has proved effectual.  If it were
consistent with  propriety and  secrecy,  a voluminous  catalogue
might be brought forth to bear witness of extraordinary cures, to
the astonishment of thousands, and of the faculty.  In every case
which  has  come  under  Dr. Fontaine's immediate practice here in
America also, we assert,  that: the patient has in every one of them
recovered radically.  The wretched, and  the innocent, as well as
influential persons, have  been equally benefited  by his treatment.
Some of them were for years victims of improper treatment, others
were broken down under the corrosive  effects of mercurial courses,
and too far decayed  to be within the reach of any other profes-
sional  assistance, and yet every one  of them  have experienced
a lasting recovery and  health,  by means of  the  Philanthropic
Remedy.


PARALLEL BETWEEN THE NOSTRUMS  OF THE DAY AND THE
              FRENCH  PHILANTHROPIC  REMEDY.

  This Vegetable French Philanthropic  Remedy no longer needs
in Europe or America, an increase of its advocates, as its reputa-
tion is already widely established in both hemispheres.   Beyond
the expectation of the profession, it has  never failed in radically
removing the most malignant and obstinate gonorrheas, gleets, and
every symptom of syphilitic poison and their  concomitants, and in
the cure of diseases  caused  by mercury.  These are the happy
fruits of experience and of the progress of njodern improved med-
icines !  This  vegetable antidote  and purifying panacea,  should
not be confounded with  any of the palliatives of the day, nor with
the hundreds of self-styled  recipes of the  Clovers,  Carpenters,
Evanses, Gregories,  Ralphs,  and the thousands of other equally
mischievous compounds, which with deceptive language are palmed
upon  the people of New York, and  the other large  cities of the
United States, and caught up by the  morbid prejudices and delu-
sions of the many ignorant believers in  them.  Thanks, however,
to a beneficent  and overruling Providence!   Neither their prac- 
               THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.           155

dec, nor their enticing infirmaries and clandestine places of ren-
dezvous, nor their flattering invitations and appeals,  deceive men
of principle and  science, or the better instructed inquirers after
truth.  Their destructive  nostrums and antidotes, and their per-
fidious, treacherous, and dangerous insinuations, are condemned by
public opinion, the Faculty, and the Boards of Health.  The most
skilful physicians  and those best instructed  among us, no less than
the honest and upright of all classes, teach us the surest theories
to be followed, lead us to the fountain of comfort,  and  warn us
against concealed snares.   From the very origin and birth of these
and similar compounds the classes we  have mentioned have done
justice to these inventions- and their  inventors, who, ashamed to
appear before the public with their real names, assume a  fictitious
one.  These deceitful compounds have no other effect than directly
to undermine the system,  and entirely destroy the health and life
of their partakers, while not one afflicted with the syphilitic infec-
tion, has  ever received, or  will ever  receive from them the least
advantage ; and while thousands, and  tens of thousands of unhap-
py and helpless victims of these powerful  poisons are living wit-
nesses of their dreadful havoc.  And yet hundreds are still daily
duped by the devices and deceptive recommendations of the news-
papers, and fall a  daily prey  to their delusions.  The unhappy suf-
ferer partakes of the gold-prized Magic Phial, and thus enchanted,
he safely reposes,  until  too late, with all the confidence of a child,
on the faith  of what is stamped on its labels, and the falsehoods
of mercenary recommendations.  And here that execrable mix-
ture, the Red Drop, and its author, the self-styled HUNTER,
(Query. — Of human  flesh?)  should  not  be  forgotten.  Query:
Who are  the recommenders of these vaunted Drops ?  Where,
and who are their advocates ?   Who possesses the  catalogue of
astounding cures ?  Where are their references ?  And if a radical
cure has never been obtained, where is the individual, who, under
its influence, could testify even  to the smallest benefit derived
therefrom ?   But  not to multiply our inquiries; — to the conductors
of these lazar-houses of wretchedness and deceit, to their mercena-
ry and bribed advocates is  reserved  the  honor  of solving these
questions.   Their  answers  are readily  and boldly given by the
penny-poets and the press.  These  are the powerful engines em- 
196              prudential revelations, and

ployed to praise these mysterious nostrums, and with  fascinating
and enticing language to deceive the unwary sufferer.  These are
the melodious trumpets which sound the praises and mighty my-
thological achievements of these  and similar  dangerous mixtures
and pills.  Bribery  is the sole locomotive  power  to bring about
the result,  and the gold prodigally thrown into the coffers of the
editors and publishers of these daily papers, will bring forth  the
desired fruit.   Bribes and the prints then are the direct instruments
of these  fictitious praises; and  these publications are the  chief
recommenders and  supporters of this class of men and their nos-
trums.  These remarks may seem severe, but we  leave it to  the
judgment of  the intelligent reader to determine whether they  are
not just.


OPINION OF  THE  PROFESSION  AND  THE  PUBLIC IN REGARD
   TO hunter's RED DROPS, AND SIMILAR  MEDICAMENTS.

  Nothing could be added to what has already  been said in this
treatise, to show the evils, the utter  worthlessness and dangers of
mercurial preparations, amongst which  there  is not one perhaps,
more  powerful in  its dangerous  effects,  than these villainous
drops,  the  very pillar of charlatanism  and  deceit.  It  is  in vain
to attempt to  conceal their fearful consequences, and stop the ears
and soothe the cries of humanity.  The numerous fallen  victims
of these  murderous stings  should  daily reproach the inventor.
This  mixture is a compound consisting principally of a strong
solution of corrosive sublimate, disguised under an attractive color,
a pleasant taste, and an  agreeable  perfume.   The afflicted  are
assured of a  radical cure in one or two days.  The medicine is
represented as of a purely vegetable nature, thus leading the suf-
ferer to death; the  partakers are assured that under the operation
any extraordinary care  respecting  diet, labor,  or exposure to
dampness and to the unhealthy changes of the weather, &c, is
entirely unnecessary.  (See, to this  effect,  the many publications
through  the  daily  papers,  the  circulars,  pamphlets,  directions,
&c.)  This is the doubly shameful course in the traffic, and these
are the  unmasked facts.   All unprejudiced minds, therefore, may 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.
197
judge for themselves of these DROPS, and then flley will readily
admit the  opposite assertion, that,  even  with  the most  simple
medicines applied to good purpose, or with no  medicine at all,
the regimen and  diet thus  recommended  in syphilitic diseases,
rarely fail to be  fatal  to the infected,  even those possessing the
strongest constitutions;  hence the  Hunterian doctrine is consid-
ed  to  be criminal, absurd, and  dangerous.  It has been ascer-
tained by experience that  these mercurial drops are a compound
which cannot cure, but which materially aggravates the disease,
by drawing it into the system, and it will in all cases, seriously im-
pair the constitution and general health
  Since  the introduction of these Drops,  in  1835, Dr. Fontaine
lias had a great number of  patients, who have  consulted him after
having taken this deadly mixture for a long time, at intervals, with-
out success, but on the contrary creating new diseases; others by
these Drops have  been  strongly and deeply salivated;  many had
been left in a worse state than before; others again, who had ulcers
in the throat and  carious bones, became, under the effects of this
solution, absolutely incurable by the rapid progress of the disease
towards the base of the skull or  other vital parts.  Of those who
apply to him  personally and by  correspondence, in   inveterate
syphilitic cases, at least nine-tenths have unfortunately taken  this
mineral poison, or similar compounds.  The author will not enter
into farther  details to develope. all the dark intrigues,  and all the
falsehoods made  use of to get these Red Drops and similar  nos-
trums into notice.
  In view  of such indubitable facts as these and a  thousand others
which might be cited,  how has  any Speculator dared  to puff up
such a drug and sell it for its weight m gold — causing the ruin of
so many families and spreading devastation in the community, and
transmitting disease  to  posterity ?  Not so with the true French
Philanthropic Remedy,  which is  the only one that has stood the
test of experience and reason, on its own merits.   It deserves the
confidence  of the public,  inasmuch as it  is prepared  under the
immediate direction and  superintendence of the proprietor.   This
Philanthropic  Remedy is not brought forth for a speculation, to
enrich the dealer.  It comes before the United  States and the
world, by the solicitation  and philanthropy of the Faculties  and 
198
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
 the Boards of Health of both hemispheres, and  by their earnest
 wish, and  with their recommendation, Doctor Fontaine has con-
 sented to its publicity.  Please read the Philanthropic Pamphlet


                    DANGER  OF MERCURY.

   An observing physician knows that besides the immediate results
 of the use of mercury, such as nausea,  colics, salivation, &c, it
 always, sooner or later, produces pimples, tetters, a sponginess of
 the bones, and consumptive hectic fevers, &c.  The  English sur-
 geons  very properly call these phenomena mercurial  leprosy, as
 they are well described by Dr. Mullen.
   Mercury is one of the most violent poisons contained  in the min-
 eral kingdom.  By friction it produces  salivation,  soreness and
 sponginess of the  gums;  looseness, decays, and loss of the  teeth.
 In the form  of pills,  in the liquid of Van-Swieden and the Red
 Drops, it terminates in diarrhea and pulmonary consumption; and
 a powerful dose might produce death, of which there are recorded
' several awful  examples.   It is yet fresh in our memory, that when
 the French ship  Triumph was freighted with  mercury, which  ac-
 cidentally  leaked  into the hold, more than two hundred men be-
 longing to the ship were attacked with salivation,  ulcers in  the
 throat, eruptions, trembling, and partial  paralysis.   A few  years
 since,  Dr. Lefever,  and  lately,  several eminent physicians   of
 France, have  published some  curious observations,  which prove
 that in  many instances it is to mercury that we  should attribute
 many chronic infirmities, pains,  rheumatisms, dyspepsia, and  or-
 ganic diseases, pustules upon the skin, small tumors, and ulcerated
 sore throat.  Mercury destroys the vitality of the fluids and blood,
 impairs the muscular and glandular system, affects the bones and
 the nervous functions, subverts the whole constitution.  It possess-
 es the property of powerful  repulsion, alters the natural harmony
 of the  human machine and  the  organic actions of life • it is  an
 exceedingly dangerous  poison,  and in many cases it is very injuri-
 ous, though taken in the smallest doses ;  even persons in contact
 with it, or at a short distance from it, quickly absorb it into the
 whole frame,  where it exerts its dreadful  ravages. 
              THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.           199

  To give  a tone to  the organs, to revive them,  and extirpate
mercury from the system, the French Philanthropic Remedy is the
most powerful alterative and depurative, from its threefold action;
sudorific, diuretic, and laxative.


      ORIGIN OF THE TREATMENT WITHOUT MERCURY.

  The merit of the origin of the treatment of diseases without mer-
cury, is principally due to the English physicians, who had the
charge  of the large  military hospitals, where  the  possibility of
curing radically all kinds of venereal diseases without mercury has
been proved by actual demonstration.   William Ferguson, physi-
cian to  the  English army in  Portugal and Spain, was the  first to
induce  his countrymen attacked  with  the loathsome infection of
syphilis, to cease the use of mercury, he knowing the serious  con-
sequences which it produced, and which often lasted for life.  The
Portuguese  had already ceased its use and were  rapidly cured.
Four years after the observations of  Ferguson  were published,
they were followed by the English works of Rose,  Thompson,
Barthe, &c, which established the  efficacy of the  non-mercurial
treatment upon new grounds.   They examined  into its merits and
accordingly proceeded with the greatest circumspection to practice.
it, and  lastly they concluded to  adopt it exclusively, as did also
Doctors Murray, Evans, Brown, and many other eminent physi-
cians in France, who by its adoption did  not witness the appear-
ance of secondary symptoms,  perhaps  once in  twenty cases, and
these soon  yielded to the  same non-mercurial  treatment.  There
was  also a similar successful result at the York  Hospital, England,
under the direction of Doctors Gorden and Guthrie.  The latter
affirms, after a long experience, ' that all ulcers,  at the genital parts
or elsewhere, of whatever form or aspect, can invariably be cured
without mercury.'   This  he considers  as an established  fact,
deduced from more than twenty-five hundred  observations, either
underliis immediate attendance, or which have been communicated
to him  by individuals belonging to different regiments, who had
been cured  of venereal diseases, of  the very worst character, with
purely vegetable  medicines. 
200           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

  The Late  celebrated Dr. Thompson, of the Edinburgh Hospital,
in his last  years, also  banished mercury from  his practice, and
every case, he says, was radically cured, without  even leaving the
constitution affected.  In France, Dr. Richond has published some
interesting observations, which give  incontestable evidence of the
mighty benefits derived from the  anti-mercurial treatment upon
individuals who have submitted  to the common  mode of practice,
swallowing the mineral poison, without experiencing any beneficial
result from it,  while their constitutions were  to the highest degree
impaired from the  effects of mercury itself.  We are  well  aware,
that in Egypt, and all over the Arabian and Turkish dominions,
&c., syphilitic  affections^ of the  most malignant character, with all
their innumerable hosts of concomitant diseases, are very common,
and that many of the Catholic missionary monks, from  the begin-
ning of the Eastern and Egyptian Wars, and at the time of Napo-
leon,  invariably cured them, and are,  to the  present day, very
successful in speedily and perfectly eradicating from the system all
diseases of similar origin, by simply using a certain medicine, which
they secretly administer under some  holy, mysterious name.   This
trick  is practised  by them with  very imposing  ceremonies, of a
clandestine  nature, which  are calculated to impress  upon those
ignorant infidels an unlimited confidence and a sacred veneration
for the priests.  These extraordinary cures  are presented to their
uncultivated understandings as of Divine  origin, and  as evidence
of the truth of the  Christian faith,  and of the priests'  being the
direct heralds from  God, sent to preach  the Gospel's peace  and
good-will.  These  cunning monks  and Jesuits are thus believed,
and readily received by the deluded  infidels, as holy prophets  and
saints, endowed by the Supreme Being with the  gift and power of
healing the sick and restoring them to health and happiness.  The
patients, under their treatment, soon become perfectly  cured, and
are not subject to the least inconvenience, either with regard to
diet, or their  ordinary occupations.   Many  of the Asiatic  nations
look upon it with profound astonishment, and wonder  at it, as a
new miracle in favor of the Popish faith.  But what  is  mosf sur-
prising is,  that  the  medicme, exhibited and prescribed by  these
religious impostors, is  no other than a compound of the identical
vegetable  ingredients  contained in the  French Philanthropic 
              THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.           201

Remedy.  In Paris, of late years, a great quantity of this Philan-
thropic Remedy is yearly sold to the  missionaries, by the general
agent there established, and sent to 'Smyrna, Constantinople, Cairo,
Alexandria,  &c.    This  is  the  substance of  well-authenticated
facts, and these are a few of the  many deceptive  Popish exploits,
by which means  the  missionaries have effectually demolished, in
many instances and many places, the absurd doctrines of the Mo-
homedan Koran;  while in others, they have been weakened, ami
thousands are thus induced to the Christian embrace,  and added as
new trophies to the Romish Church.
  In 1820, Dr. Hennen  published some synoptical  tables, which
are highly esteemed, on account of their precision and authenticity,
upon a great variety  of venereal complaints, cured  by the same
vegetable method.  Professor Pinel has well said, that this disease
is cured by the efficacy of botanic medicines  alone;  and this and
similar complaints ought  to be  enrolled in the class of chronic
diseases,  and be  treated  as such, as- Van Swieten has proved by
the most remarkable  examples.   Is it not well known, says  he,
that galley convicts, infected with venereal diseases, are cured by
the simple use of  a vegetable  regimen, and by the  laborious exer-
cise of their daily task?
                     CHAPTER FIFTH.

       TREATMENT  OF THE SYPHILIS BY  THE  FRENCH
                  PHILANTHROPIC REMEDY.

   Thousands of cases have  been followed  by the  most happy
results, without a single exception, within the author's  own prac-
tice, with the use of this medicine alone ; and innumerable cases*
which have fallen under the  superintendence of a great number
of celebrated  physicians,  have  proved, that  the  Philanthropic
Remedy is  the only sure antidote, which will radically  cure vene-
rial diseases, either recent or of long standing.   Its valuable prop-
                 26 
202
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS,  AND
erties have obtained for it a universal reputation, the praises of the
most  honorable  newspapers and periodicals, and the unanimous
suffrage of the physicians who have used it, even in the most hope-
less cases, with unexpected success.   (See the Medical Journals of
our largest cities.)   This testimony proves, that there is no syphilis,
under whatever form or degree of malignity it presents itself, and
at whatever period the patient happens to be  attacked, which can
resist the effects  of this single portentous remedy, excepting only in
such cases as require surgical operations.  This medicine takes the
lead of all anti-venereals, and all other panaceas and syrups, set
forth with so much display by certain speculators, apothecaries, and
pretenders.  The greater part of these medicines tend not to cure,
but slowly to destroy human life..  Such is the result of the boasted
mystic sarsaparillas, vegetable extracts, &c, the empirical poisons
of which are detected in combinations of mercury, arsenic, iodine,
potasium, or other equally mischievous and deadly venoms.   All
these pretended  remedies only serve to conceal the disease,  and to
deceive, for a time, the attending physician  and the patient.   The
virus, together with the poisonous mixtures,  will be absorbed into
the system, affecting the very organs of life, when, sooner or later,
the patient relapses into a worse state of the disease,  accompanied
by new and aggravated symptoms, — the  effects of such improper
medicaments.  Many quacks and mongers offer their poisons under
pretence of curing, by means of vegetable sudorifics, purgatives,
or diuretic  medicines.  If these  pretended remedies were scien-
tifically combined, and  destitute  of injurious substances, we  are
very willing to admit the possibility of their overcoming a disease,
which, like  Proteus  in the fable, assumes  multiform shapes and
changes;  nay, more, we assert that no other method of cure could
ever  be  successful, but  by means of simple vegetable medicines,
free from narcotic, corrosive, or  similar properties.  We  present
to the patient the  French Philanthropic Remedy, which, besides
its purifying nature and healing properties, chemically and skilfully
combined, promotes, by its mild, harmless ingredients, those  altera-
tive, sudorific, diuretic, purgative, and  tonic symptoms  so much
needed for a radical recovery.
  The vegetable treatment, especially with  the French Philan-
thropic Remedy, has had  a fair trial, in numerous  cases, at the 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
20S
venereal hospitals of Europe, and it has received the sanction of
the learned lectures  of the professors  of the first school in the
world,  (France.)   Nothing remains to be well convinced, that in
order to contend successfully with  venereal affections, it is neces-
sary to destroy their vital principle  by the following methods:
   1st.  To oppose them, with such  medicines as will neutralize the
virus, which, it is well  known, is a contagious germ, (sui generis,)
which unites with the blood and the lymphatic humors of the body,
and which must be carried off  by the natural emunctories.
   2d.  To produce perspiration by means of sudorifics.
   3d.  To excite the urine by  the use of diuretics.
   4th.  To promote the secretions of the  intestinal canal by mild
purgatives.
   To embody these various  principles has been  the  author's aim,
and this Philanthropic Remedy was chemically prepared for, and
is perfectly  adapted to, all these purposes.   It is, for this very rea-
son, confidently and extlusively used in all the  hospitals in Paris,
universally sanctioned by the physicians there, and fully patronized
by the public, and generally adopted in all  the  principal cities of
Europe.  Its virtues being well known, and the directions for its
use being very simple and easily understood, this mode of treat-
ment may or  may not be  followed with the concurrence of  the
physician who possesses the confidence of the patient; provided,
however,  the  physician should not  be prejudiced  against it  by
rivalry, jealousy, or envy.                     (
   As a proof of the  superiority of  this vegetable method of treat-
ment, we  might have  published, instead of the practical observa-
tions collected by others, an  almost infinite number of letters,
which we are  continually receiving from different quarters of the
Union, from persons who have been cured by this Remedy.  But
the testimony of men, who are strangers to the science of medicine,
is not sufficient to  inspire an entire confidence in those who are
not personally acquainted with the  author; hence, we preferred to
give reference, for  this Philanthropic  Remedy, to our best and
most scientific physicians of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Bal-
timore, and  other principal cities of the Union, where this Reme-
dy,  by appointment, is sold.   They will  recommend it without
hesitation,  as  it is  already  patronized by  the faculties,  and the 
204           PRUDENTIAL  REVELATIONS, AND

community at large.  Those who wish to make farther inquiry, in
regard to the author's respectability, veracity,  skill, and  success,
may obtain the information from any individual of the  State  of
Connecticut,  and particularly of New Haven,  where  he resided
for thirteen  years, and until  recently, as he is  personally, or  by
reputation, well  known every where in the State, by rich and
poor, old and young, male and female.


    TREATMENT OF CHANCRES, AND  SIMILAR SYPHILITIC
                          SYMPTOMS-

  The recent -pox  comprehends chancres, ulcers, buboes, tumors
in the testicles, &c.  The  patient  must  follow  the regimen pre-
scribed in the direction of  the French  Philanthropic Remedy, as
by Recipe 9th, &c.  The  chancres should be  dressed,  and if there
be any inflammation, let the penis,  or the parts  affected, be often
bathed in marsh  mallow's water, or use Recipe 6th, of the Direc-
tions.   To  cure  these  sores,  the patient must  persevere  in this
philanthropic external  and internal treatment,  for several weeks,
and drink, during  the day, a decoction of sarsaparilla, burdock-
root, and bitter-sweet bark; an ounce of each  to be boiled in a
quart  of water, sweetened with honey, and the whole to be taken
in the course of two days, and thus continue  for three or four
weeks.  As this beverage is somewhat healing in its nature, there
may be substituted for the syrup named in the Directions, Recipe
2d.   Use, also, occasionally, the solution of gum Arabic, &c.  See
the  Diiections.  ~[f the disease has  already  been subjected to a
course of medicine, or is  of long  standing, this treatment must
likewise  be followed with precision, and continued until the dis-
ease is fully eradicated  from the system, which  often  requires two
or three  months.   The same must be  done in case of a recent
attack, especially if the infection has been violent.  Regard must
be strictly had to the aperient and purgative means, which carries
off such secretions as are detached from the blood and humors of
the body, which is a most favorable symptom. 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE  OF NATURE.
205
TO OBTAIN A RADICAL CURE  OF  THE OLD, INVETERATE,  OR
                       OBSTINATE POX.

   To cure old cases, even  if standing for  years, rarely requires
more than two or three months.   The action of this medicine is so
mild that it never injures the delicate organs of the stomach or the
intestines, and performs a perfect cure of all  excrescences, pustules,
fulness  or clogging of the testicles, caries,  tetters, and all other
consequences of venereal attacks, whatever  be the constitution or
the duration  of the complaint.  In such cases the Cerate, or the
Healing Ointment should also be used, as by Recipe  8th and 9th
of the Directions.  This Philanthropic Remedy likewise cures  all
obstructions and contractions of the passage of the urethra, without
the necessity of having recourse to a stranger, and without any bad
result, or the barbarous operation of cauterizing.


     DANGERS OF SYPHILIS WHEN  IMPERFECTLY CURED.

   When a patient has had symptoms of syphilis and been imperfect-
ly cured, or if he has been  apparently cured by other means than
a vegetable treatment, he must dread a  reappearance, or its future
consequences, as he has reason to fear it will terminate in an in-
voterate confirmed  lues, or  some  secondary disease,  as  pains,
rheumatisms, swelling,  scrofula, dyspepsia,  consumption, &c. &c.
To avoid these evil consequences he should  use the Philanthropic
Remedy exclusively and immediately.   This antidote is also recom-
mended to those persons who, wishing to enter the matrimonial state,
are not perfectly sure of their radical cure,  and who suspect their
blood and constitution are yet tainted and infected. Awful  would
be the consequences, not only  to him but to his family and his
posterity, should the disease  break out afresh with increased viru-
lence, as it will do, when it has been carelessly treated, or absorbed
into the system by means of mercury or other poisons, or some
vaunted  remedy under a high-sounding name, which promises to
cure in  a few days.   The unsuspecting youth will readily adopt 
 206           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

 the measures recommended by inexperienced practitioners, and as
 these remedies give him at  first a flattering satisfaction, he thinks
 himself soon cured  and safe, at  the  expense,  however, of always
 experiencing the most awful effects,  and his bitter future  regrets
 are too often followed by a train of humiliating consequences and
 accumulating sorrows and sufferings.   Beware, then, of the decep-
 tion and ignorance of these men!  shun the inexperienced physician,
 the quack, and the pretender; be on  your guard, and mistrust their
 bold presumptions,  their innovations and ready cures, — they are
 upon an unsound*basis — an error as dangerous in medicine as,it
 is in politics.   These  reformers, after having  thrown  a  new  light
 upon all former opinions, soon relapse into  insignificance and con-
 tempt.  Their operation upon the system may be compared to a
 volcanic  eruption,  whose gorgeous  splendor has  scarcely called
 forth  the admiration  of man, when it  totally disappears, leaving
 no traces of its ephemeral existence but its ravages, and the stones
 and lava which surround its base.    This fatal splendor resembles
 that of medicinal palliatives, and woe  to the imprudent patient, who,
 indifferent to the  future, makes use of them.  Sooner or later,
 even after the lapse of fifteen or  twenty years, the evil will surely
break out again with increased fury, and poison his whole system
and destroy his domestic happiness, infecting  even  his beloved
partner and children with this human scourge, and converting his
couch of affection and  pride into  a lazar house of misery and
reproach.  How many marriages, how many perfect  unions have
been  imbittered with this horrid poison, and how many have been
rendered unhappy and miserable by  the reappearance of this un-
extinguished disease.
                   PRESERVATIVE MEANS.

The  French Philanthropic  Remedy is the  only true Antidote and
            sure Preventive of Venereal Inoculations.

  From the earliest times  physicians have  thought to find some
permanent preventive for the venereal  disease, but until the pres-
ent day their researches have met with little or  no success.  The 
               THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.            207

licentious lover, the libertine, and the speculator, have had resort
to the most wonderful compositions, and the most  vaunted reme-
dies, such as chlorides, essential extracts, mercurial preparations,
invulnerable soaps, and the condom wrappers, &c. &c, but these
inventions have had their days  and followers,  though  all of them
have been  stranded  on the rock of experience.   Every  one of
these and similar preparations has proved to be so many wiles to
ensnare the credulous and deceive the innocent, and each one  who
has ever used them can testify that, sooner or later,  they have been
deluded and deceived.  Besides, in  making use of these prepara-
tions man becomes doubly depraved; his taste undergoes a change,
nature becomes benumbed and perverted, and in these  pretended
preventives are generally traced the first causes of the pains he is
doomed to suffer, and his punishment is just and in accordance to
all law, and derived from the same source of crime.  One should
then be cautious in putting  any confidence in remedies so highly
lauded by crafty inventors and  quacks, and which induce a blind
confidence.  Besides, who can ever dream of love, when surround-
ed by such precautions and fears ?   As well might one be led to
the opera and be forbidden the use of his eyes and ears.
  The only proper means, supported by reason and experience, to .
prevent inoculation, are an habitual and perfect cleanliness, a daily
application of partial  cold bath to the genitals, and above all to
make use of the French Philanthropic Remedy.  Its properties as
a preventive are undoubted, and have been proved to a  demon-
stration.  It destroys the virus and  prevents its being introduced
into the system.  It acts mechanically, per se, sui generis, as a pow-
erful  absorbent;  it  attracts the vicious humors,  neutralizes the
poison, and renders it ineffective.  Here, then, the long standing
and difficult problem of preventing  inoculation and contagion  is
solved.  Please to peruse the pamphlet accompanying this truly
Philanthropic Remedy, and we pledge ourselves you will be fully
convinced of the truth of its theory.   If then there exist reasonable
fears of an infection, with this philanthropic means all will be  well
and purity will prevail;  rest assured that the disease will not  and
cannot make its appearance; there can be  no inoculation where
this Remedy comes in direct contact with the virus, as it becomes
neutralized and inert.  As to the  boasted impervious  Wrappers, 
208           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
every one should know the danger of using them.  The indecency,
and the brutal, unnatural connection, is marked with infamy, and
is perhaps as bad as the Sodomites' crimes.  Besides, they break,
tear, and become impregnated with the poisonous virus, and though
the strictest caution may be observed, as  with the  smallpox, the
millesimal part of a single drop is enough  to bring forth the most
horrid consequences of this loathsome pestilence.  These wrappers,
then, will surely deceive, the poison  escaping unobserved;  and
therefore we venture to say, they are, without doubt, the most dan-
gerous preventive, nay, the very sure and true  means of infection.
A wife is seldom unfaithful, and  will not fall unless the  husband
indulges,  or  sets an  example.   Not so with men;  and  in truth
would it not be better for a heartless, undevoted husband to let the
wife  alone, than to approach her with the cold voluptuousness of a
love  armed by a formidable array of such deceptive wrappers ?  In
regard to infections, which may be  contracted with a mistress, it is
as difficult by her assurances to avoid the poison, as it is for a brave
man  to defend himself against an assassin.
   The French Philanthropic Remedy is then the sure antidote, as
before stated, and in each and every case of syphilis is the  sole
preventive of infections of  this  nature.   The author, however,
feels it to be a solemn duty to caution his  fellow-beings  against the
abuse of this Philanthropic Remedy, as an  antidote, or for prevent-
ing venereal  inoculation.  The rectitude of his intention, in pre-
senting and recommending this medicine, should  not be attacked
in consequence of the  uses to which  profligacy may degrade his
prescriptions.  It is not recommended, nor circulated, nor sold, to
aid the libertine in his  unhallowed desires, neither is it the aim of
the inventor to obtain a profit from a worthless compound; but he
simply recommends it as an infallible antidote for the benefit of the
virtuous portion of society—for the needy and the afflicted.  They
are here supplied with an article on which they may unhesitatingly
rely  in the worst of their exigences and  suspicions.  It will posi-
tively prove  of  incalculable good,  and the sure antagonist and
demolisher of man's deceit.  It is given to impart comfort and
health, to prevent the ills of nature, and to cherish the unbroken
lawful rights  of conjugal union, affection,  and  happiness, and  not
to be converted into  a pimp of  licentiousness and debauchery. 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.            209
May it always follow with a mark of infamy, shame, and disgrace,
those who have criminally resorted to it for this purpose.
  N. B.   Syphilis often  becomes permanent by successive infec-
tions with the same woman, whom the patient has in vain persuaded
himself Is  entirely cured, or has never been sick; hence, when a
wife has once been infected, either cure her or let her alone, but
never be the dupe of her certificates  of health, which physicians
may afford her.  The same may be suggested to the woman as a
caution against her deceitful husband.   The  French Philanthropic
Preventive may, in such instances, be invaluable.
                     CHAPTER SIXTH.

MODE  OF  TREATMENT  FOR STRICTURES OR  CONTRACTIONS
 OF  THE URINARY PASSAGE — DANGER OF CAUTERIZATION.

  A sea captain, of strong and robust constitution, arid about forty-
five years of age, had, at the age of twenty, a gonorrhea, which had
not been thoroughly cured.  For more  than six months  the edges
of the penis  were covered with a cheese-like matter every morning,
and  a running  discharge would soon have followed had it not
been prevented with the  highly improper aid of astringent injec-
tions and lotions, which apparently relieved him, and led him to
judge his disease perfectly cured.   At thirty-three he was married,
and about six months  afterward his wife  became  infected, and in
himself he perceived that the passage of the urine was impeded, so
that water was voided with small  forced and divided streams and
spiral jets, accompanied  by acute,  sudden  pains.   He  thus con-
tinued from  bad to  worse, for a year, until he  could  no longer
evacuate urine but by the unpleasant means of a silver catheter.
A physician, an advocate of cauterizing, applied the caustic to the
affected parts of the passage, — a highly improper practice, univer-
sally followed in France, Italy, and  England, but happily of late
years unanimously disused.  The caustic thus applied to a mem-
                      27 
210
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
 brane already inflamed,  only aggravated  the complaint.   The
 passage was soon entirely closed, and for more than thirty-six hours
 the patient remained in statu quo, between life and death.   Half a
 dozen more physicians were called in,  and the professional  coun-
 sellors decided on the immediate  application of forty leeches and
 poultices.  By these means a  general inflammation of the  bladder
 and lower belly was prevented and life  was saved; but the  urine
 burst through the  root  of the penis, forcing  two new passages,
 which had assumed the character of fistulas.   By degrees, however,
 both  fistulas  were  cured, and symptoms favorable to returning
 health had insured the  patient of a partial recovery;  but the
 waters were still discharged involuntarily, and the genital organs
 had lost all strength and vitality;  when  one of his youthful  friends,
 a former companion in illicit love, advised him, on his own experi-
 ence, to adopt exclusively the French Philanthropic Remedy.  He
 complied, and after  using it awhile, internally and externally, as by
 Directions, the urine was soon emitted at will, and in its  natural
 periodical turns.   He followed this treatment for four months, and
 was  radically cured.   He recovered  his  health, strength,  and
juvenile and virile power, and now he is the father of five  promis-
 ing and healthy children.  His wife, as above  stated, was infected
 by him with an obstinate gonorrhea, which became  more malignant
 and chronic, and never was radically cured until she submitted to
 the treatment of this medicine,  to  which treatment  she, being
prejudiced against it, would not at first submit, nor until her hus-
band began to feel  the mighty effects of this  truly Philanthropic
Remedy.
  This observation  shows clearly  the insufficiency of  injections,
buggies, and  caustics,  and the dangers arising  from them,  and
which have proved so fatal to  thousands.  In  too  many instances
death has  ensued as the consequence of a too free use of the caustic,
or its escaping from  the instrument while within the cavity of the
penis.
  This is but  one  of the innumerable cases which might be given
as an illustration  of the utter worthlessness and  sure  danger of
similar remedies  and  contrivances, while  it shows  the  mighty
merits of this  Philanthropic Remedy.  It has also  this  advantage,
that it subjects the invalid to no inconvenience; it cures old ulcers. 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.
211
be they external or internal; it  finally terminates those  chronic
runnings,  gleets, and discharges,  which have resisted many other
methods;  and radically destroys, with time and perseverance, those
callosities  which exist in the passage of the urethra.


                INFLUENCE  OF CHARLATANISM.

Dangers of the Methods of Cure prescribed  by persons  who  are
                  ignorant of Medical Science.

  For a long time the cure of the syphilitic  disease was left to
apothecaries, herb doctors, and empirics, it being considered be-
neath the  notice of medical men.   London, St. Petersburgh, and
many large cities of the European kingdoms,  are  infected  with
crowds of crafty quacks, who, without any knowledge of medicine,
or title to  the dignity of physicians, traffic upon the credulity of the
sufferer, the stranger, and the ignorant,  who purchase their drugs
or recipies for their weight  in gold, in the hope of being cured in
three or four days, in accordance with the assertions  of these im-
postors. But what shall we say  of the scores of fraudulent mongers,
pretenders, and quacks, and the almost  innumerable hosts of self-
styled M. D.'s, abounding  throughout the United States ?   And
what can we expect from  the  gross ignorance prevailing among
thousands  of eur fellow  physicians, who, with neither shame nor
self respect, array themselves with impostors, and post their names,
and  establish  their clandestine offices  with  these  charlatans,  in
almost every block of our large cities, prescribing and counselling
with all the assurance and gravity of skilful and experienced prac-
titioners ?   Who then can  wonder at their mischievous influence
upon the  community, and at  the evils which  we have  reason
to deplore,  when  we add  that their chief recommendations are
drawn from the bribed pen  and public press, which exalt their
horrid deeds,  and  highly extol these works  of abomination and
infamy ?   To  what extent  such criminal pursuits are  carried, the
well informed can determine  and the public may judge.
   The violence and the corroding power  of this pestilent  disease
upon the  existence  of man, upon society, and upon  posterity, is 
212
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
truly alarming, and of too serious a nature to be overlooked, with-
out endeavoring to obviate,  or  at least to  suppress  and check a
portion of its fatal results. When we consider that the evil is daily
increasing, from the encouragement given  to it by  the world of
fashion and licentiousness, by the ignorance of physicians, and their
false doctrines and  pernicious treatment, which have  rendered it
still more dangerous, propagating it on the unwary and  the inno-
cent, and  even on future posterity.  Impressed with these con-
siderations, the author of these pages has in Europe, and  also here,
in America, devoted his attention,  and directed his researches,
during his professional  career,, to improve  this, his  new,  never-
failing method of being  useful to suffering humanity.  With this
view, he  determined to indite this little treatise, it being the result of
a long and laborious experience ;  in which the theory of syphilitic
diseases,  their  source, progress, and effects, and the art  of  curing
them,  which have been  so mysteriously and carefully concealed
from an  inquiring  public, are set forth with equal  brevity and
clearness, and with  all the delicacy and  decency the subject would
admit
  Hitherto, no medical work  has  effected this object.   Writers, at
different periods, have taught dangerous precepts, which a physi-
cian alone  could expound, and which experience forbids the use
of.   Others, with scientific views, require a  profound knowledge
of medicine, in order to  enable  the  reader to understand  them;
while others, again, give directions for the composition of the med-
icine to be used, a practice which is, in the author's opinion,  a very
dangerous  one; for, to be well  assured of  the  radical cure  of
chronic,  and  organic, and  inveterate  diseases  generally,  and
especially of  syphilitic  and  other formidable complaints,  every
physician,  especially in  America, who is not in the  habit  of ad-
ministering remedies at  hazard  for all  delicate diseases,  should
make use of no composition or preparation of pharmacy, unless he
has seen  it carefully prepared, with fresh and perfectly good arti*
cles, by one whose knowledge, discernment, skill, and correctness,
are well known; otherwise the  best prescription* may  be of no
avail, and may often be  converted into dangerous poisons.  We
boldly testify, that  ninety-nine out of an hundred apothecaries of
the United States are unfit for their responsible profession.  They 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.            213
 have not studied  chemistry;  nor do  they possess the requisite
 acquirements in regard to botany, and mineralogy, nor the elementa-
 ry knowledge necessary to qualify them for the practice of pharmacy.
 They have not received  even a common collegiate education; they
 are ignorant of their duties, and their only skill consists, as  in the
 cases of a majority of our  Yankee pedlers, in keen intrigues and
 speculations; in selling and  purchasing, with the gravity  of thra-
 sonical ingenuity,  whatever  article  may suit their pecuniary in-
 terest, be it good  or  bad, healthful or  deadly, beneficial  or inju-
 rious.
   The  daily doubts  and  errors,  which annoy all physicians, in
 consequence of their  patronage of these and similar mischievous
 laboratories,  have rendered  our author scrupulously exact, and
 even severe,  on this point; and it is to this precaution  that he  is
 indebted for  his general  success in his method of cure, and  which
 has determined him  to  establish  general  depots  for his French
 Philanthropic Remedy, and all his medicines, which are prepared
 under his own  direction; for, having never made  a secret  of his
 method and treatment, he can answer in person for their  efficacy.
 Besides, it is his opinion, that a physician, who, in an open, legal,
 and honorable manner, professes superior skill in the art of healing,
 and  performs extraordinary  cures with new recipes of  his own
 invention, should never conceal the  name and character  of them
 from his professional  brethren,  if he wishes to  enjoy the  well-
 merited thanks of the  Faculty, and the deserved philanthropic
 confidence of the public.
  May  the  numerous victims  of this  ravaging pestilence  (the
 syphilis) be governed by the author's advice, and cease to  apply
for relief to  quacks and  self-styled doctors, and ignorant  medical
men ; and may they never have recourse to palliative, or mercu-
rial, or other  mineral or poisonous remedies,  which often, nay, uni-
versally, prove worse  than the  disease  itself. Then, and not till
then, will the author's  hopes be  realized, and his labors find their
ample recompense in  the benefits he shall  have conferred upon
mankind. 
•GRATITUDE.
        ADDRESSED TO A. DE FONTAINE, M. D.

     Fontaine ! thou art for skill renowned !
     Muses thy numerous cures resound.
     Thou heal'st the maladies of age,
     And stop'st Contagion's mortal rage.
     The young, the giddy, and the gay, —
     Who oft, by guile, are led astray, —
     May unto thee themselves resign,
     And find a friend, judicious and benign.
     Ye, then, by Bacchus or by Venus tried,
     No more your maladies presume to hide;
     But to the Doctor's glorious  portal haste,
     And stop Disease's dreadful, direful waste !
     Fontaine can soon your pangs relieve,
     And the sweet bloom of health retrieve.
     Thus, in a timely hour, I came,
     And gratitude must praise thy name ;
     Remembrance ever gladly greet
     The day we met in old ' State Street.'
     Reader! to him I recommend you ; —
     Do n't miss the number, ' seventy-two !'
New Haven, Conn., December 10<A, 1833. 
$»
PART   SECOND.
An Anatomical  Review or Synopsis of the Principal Parts of the
               Human Body, and its Constituents.

                        on anatomy.

  Anatomy of the human body is that science, through which
we  dissect  and  divide  the  organized  substances,  and expose
the structure, situation, and uses  of the parts.  We  shall give  a
general  idea, and much minute information, respecting the  most
essential parts of a dissected human body, in the following order:
1st. Of the solid parts of the body. 2d. Of the fluids  in general,
and separately.   3d.  Of the head,  neck, chest, abdomen, and  their
respective constituents, parts, organs, &c.


                PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.

  Before entering into the analysis and synthesis of the science of
Anatomy, the reader should be  reminded, that the sciences of
Anatomy and Physiology should be considered in relation to  their
respective attributes, as we intend to apply them, and as herein
explained.  The distinction between Anatomy and Physiology is
this: Anatomy  is the doctrine of the  structure of the  principal
organs of life; Physiology is the doctrine of the action and functions
of these organs.
  The organs and functions of the human body may  be divided
into three distinct classes  to wit: — 
 216            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS,  AND

   1st  The  locomotive organs  and  functions;  consisting of  the
 bones, ligaments, and muscles.  This apparatus gives and exercises
 a conspicuous motion, in which the limbs are the chief agents.
   2d. The vital or nutritive  organs  and functions; consisting of
 lacteals, lymphatics, fine tubular vessels, blood vessels, glands, &c.
 These tubes  and filters exercise only a minute peristaltic  or pul-
 sating motion, of which the trunk of the  body is  the  centre and
 principal seat.   The digestive, respiratory, and reproductive  organs,
 belong to this class, and are engaged in preparing, renovating, puri-
 fying, and propagating vital matter.
   3d. The mental, or thinking organs and functions; consisting of
 the organs of sense; the eye,  ear, &c, which, through  the  commu-
 nication of the nervous  system, (which also belongs to this class,)
 receive impressions from external bodies; the large brain, and the
 cerebel,  or little brain, both receiving  such impressions; and  after
 perceiving, comparing,  reflecting, willing, &c, its chief office  is to
 throw the locomotive organs and functions, part or all of them, into
 those actions which fulfil its purposes.  The subtile  motion of  these
 organs and functions is  invisible, but well understood by the physi-
 ologist.   They chiefly occupy the head.  By means of this appa-
 ratus, our senses and reason, our thoughts and impulses, are brought
 into action, and through their medium all connection with external
 objects takes place.   We will mention, also, to our  readers, that
 when, in the course of this work, we have made use  of the  term
 System, in  a  physical sense, we intend generally to  apply it to a
 collection of organs possessing  the same,  or a similar structure.
 And we  make the same remark in regard to the cases in which we
 speak of the  nervous system,  which consists of a great variety  of
 organs, differing in shape, size, and location, yet agreeing together
in having one common  structure.  The  same may be  said of the
muscular system; and  both  these systems  consist  of filaments,
which are the elementary animal solids, and  constitute fibres and
tissues.   Different tissues, so arranged as to  form a distinct piece
of animal mechanism, and perform a specific office, constitute an
organ;  several  of  which,  associated together,  to accomplish a
common  object, is called an apparatus.
  Let us now closely and carefully describe the principal parts of
 a dissected human body. 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.
217
              THE SOLID  PARTS OF THE BODY.

  There are twelve parts of the human body which are called
solid,  because their particles adhere to each other,  and will not
separate by their own weight  1. The bones, which are the hardest,
and constitute the skeleton.   2. The cartilages, which are whitish
in color, and are connected with the joints, to facilitate their move-
ments ;  or they are  added to the bones, to  prolong  them, as the
ribs;  or they are placed within the joints, to act as elastic cushions.
3. The muscles, or fleshy parts, extending from one  bone  to an-
other, and which are the acting agents of all movements.  4. The
ligaments, which are very tough, and, in the form of cords, seem to
connect the different parts.  5. The vessels, in  the form of canals,
through which the several fluids circulate.  6.  The nerves, which
are  cords connected with the brain, spinal marrow, the spleen; and
which are  the organs  of impressions,  and  of voluntary and in-
voluntary motions.  7.  The ganglions, or knots, formed by the in-
terlacing of the nervous filaments, &c.   8. The follicles, which are
secretory organs, and are  seated  in the substance of one of the
outer membranes, (the skin, or mucous surface,) and which follicles
secrete a fluid to lubricate the membranes.  9.  The glands, which
are also secretory  organs, differing,  however, from follicles, the
fluids secreted from them being of greater or less importance.  10.
The membranes, formed by the cellular tissue,  and spread out like
a web,  fining the cavities and  reservoirs,  and which form and
envelope all the organs.  There are two kinds of membranes: the
simple membranes,  comprehending the serous, constituting  all
the sacs, or shut cavities, as of the chest and abdomen; the mucous,
lining all the outlets,  as  the air passages, alimentary  canal, and
the fibres, and forming the tendons, ligaments,  &c, &c.  The com-
pound  membranes, which  are  subdivided into the fibro-serous,
as the pericardium, which covers the  heart; sero-mucous, as the
gall bladder at its lower part;  and the fibro-mucous, as the ureters,
conducting the surplus water to the bladder.   11. The cellular or
laminated tissue, which is  a spongy structure,  forming the frame-
work of the solids, filling up the spaces  between them, and serving
                         <?8 
 218           PRUDENTIAL  REVELATIONS, AND

•as  bonds of union or separation.   12.  The  viscous organs, in the
 splanchnic cavities, as the brain, thorax, abdomen, &c.


                         Of the Bones.

   On examining a skeleton, it is seen to consist of a great variety
 of bones, differing much in  their appearance.  They are all admi-
 rably connected, with perfect affinity, one to another, by appropri-
 ate joints or articulations,  well covered  with cartilages, &c., &c,
 which also prevent  friction.   Each joint is supplied by a deposit
 of an oily fluid,  called synovia, which serves a purpose similar to
 that  of  oil upon an  axletree, or any machinery, making it work
 smoothly and easily.  Physiologists are at variance in  regard to
 their formation ; but we hold  the opinion, which elsewhere  in  this
 work is fully tested, that bones are formed by a specific action of
 the blood, which deposites a .certain transparent jelly where bones
 are required to be  formed,  as may be  observed in the embryo.
 This jelly becomes gradually firmer, and is formed into an increas-
 ing cartilage, which vanishes as the process of ossification advances.
 The process of ossification  is  very rapid in  the womb, and its pro-
 gress slow after birth; and is not completed in the human body till
 about from the twentieth to the twenty-fifth year.  That bones are
 derived  and  formed from  the blood,  or its  substance, will  not
 be  doubted, when  we find that a deposit of this jelly-like  sub-
 stance is sometimes  made  where it should not be, and there be-
 comes ossified.  It  is often  found in the tendons and in the joints,
 in  the great arteries and  in the valves, in the flesh of the heart it-
 self, arid even in the soft and pulpy substance of the brain.  Bones,
 even the hardest of them, undergo a steady renovation and change
 during the life  of the  individual, so that, after a bone is perfectly
 formed, its older particles are continually being removed, and new
 ones are deposited in their  places.   The  uses of the bones are va-
 rious, as each one  possesses  its distinct office and laws.   The bonei,
 in conjunction with the muscles, fibres,  &c, &c, which act on them
 like the ropes of a vessel on the mast, give shape  to the body, sup-
 port and defend the vital viscera, and afford  an attachment even to
 the muscles, &c, &c.  The  number of  our  bones are two hundred 
               THE  GOLDEN BIBLE OF  NATURE.           219

and forty-eight, to wit: in the  skull, eight;  face, fourteen; teeth,
thirty-two;  tongue,  one;  ears, eight;  spine, twenty-six;  chest,
twenty-five,  pelvis,  two;  shoulders, arms,  and fore-arms,  ten;
hands, fifty-four;  thighs, legs, and feet, sixty; and eight  more are
occasionally found in the thumbs and great toes.


                       Of the  Cartilages.

  Cartilages are a white, elastic, glistening substance, growing  to
bones, and commonly  called gristle.  They  are divided into those
which cover the movable articulations of bones, and those situated
between the articulations.   Besides  these, there  are  others which
                l
unite one  hone with another.  The cartilages serve to facilitate the
motions of bones,  or to connect them together.


                        Of the Muscles.

  A muscle is a distinct portion of flesh, susceptible of contraction
and relaxation, by means of its fibres and intersected nervous fila-
ments.  Many muscles are influenced to action by the will, through
the nerves; others by sympathetic  motions;  while many owe their
power of contraction to their own muscular fibres.  Each  muscle is
surrounded by a very thin and delicate membrane, which, dipping
down into the substance of the  muscle, surrounds the most minute
fibres, connecting them to each other, and  lubricating them with
fat, which its cells contain, in a greater or less quantity, and serv-
ing as a support to the blood and lymphatic vessels and nerves,  so
plentifully distributed through the muscles.  The muscles owe their
red color to an infinite number of arteries, which are every where
minutely dispersed through the whole of their reticular substance.
The veins and lymphatic vessels are also numerous, as is seen from
the great proportion  of reticular substance, which is every where
found investing the muscular fibres.   The nerves are  so numerous,
that the muscles of the thumb alone possess a greater number of
them, and of their influence, than the larger  viscera, as  the liver,
&c, &c.   These various vessels and nerves enter the  generality of 
220           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

muscles by several trunks, the branches of which are so dispersed
through the cellular substance, that their number and  minuteness
soon dude the eye and knife of the anatomist.  Each of a pair of
muscles bears a similar name; and, as we are informed by a ma-
jority of anatomists, there are one hundred and ninety-eight pairs,
besides nine muscles, which  are individually named.  The fibres
that compose the  body of a  muscle are disposed in fasciculi, or
bundles, which are easily distinguishable  by the  naked eye;  and
each one of these  fasciculi are still divided into smaller ones, and
these,  again, are subdivided, perhaps, to  such  minuteness as to
elude the eye.  The muscular motions are of three kinds; volun-
tary,  involuntary,  and mixed.  When a  muscle acts, it becomes
shorter and thicker, and both its origin and insertion are drawn to-
wards its middle.  When a muscle is divided,  or wounded, or irri-
tated, it contracts.   Relaxation generally  succeeds  to contraction,
and vice versa.  When a muscle contracts,  it is often capable of
vibration, and of producing sounds; and it often becomes displaced.
The mind and will, the brain, and nervous system, have the great-
est influence upon the contraction and relaxation of the muscles.
The irritability of the muscles is often  of such force, influence, and
power, that, even after death, motions are often perceivable; an ex-
traordinary phenomenon, which the learned have failed to explain.


                       Of the Ligaments.

   A  ligament is a strong elastic  membrane, connecting the ex-
tremities of the movable bones.  Ligaments are  divided  into two
kinds:. capsular, which surround the joints, like a bag; and con-
necting ligaments.  The use of the former  is to connect the extrem-
ities of the movable bones, and prevent the escaping of synovia;
 and the external and internal connecting  ligaments strengthen the
 union  of  the extremities  of the movable bones.   The ligaments,
 then, prevent the  bones being put out  of joint; they serve as braces
 to the joints, and impart strength to their  firmness of position. 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.
221
              Of the Nerves and the Nervous System.

   In regard to the  doctrine of the nerves, the writer differs much
from medical  men  and anatomists generally.  In another part of
this work his views  are given, in a  philosophical dissertation, upon
his new medical system.   A nerve  is a collection of fibres, covered
with a strong  sheath, or nervous  coat; and each fibre is enclosed
in a similar very delicate  sheath or skin.   A nerve is, therefore, a
bundle of organs, instead of a single one, which branches in every
direction, as do the  arteries, veins, lymphatic vessels, &c, &c.   The
contents of these connected fibres we believe to be a fine  fluid,
called  nervous fluid;  and though invisible in its course, yet its
existence is certain.   This fluid is constantly secreted, and fit to
receive and transmit,  even more  readily than other fluids, all im-
pressions made upon them, in accordance with their characteristic
properties.  Nerves are of two kinds, and derive  and receive their
origin  from two distinct sources, (this is the writer's belief,) which
possess essentially  different properties  and uses in  the  animal
economy of man, and  are  of an entirely distinct application.  As
there  are two kinds  of  nerves,  the  nervous system should be
divided,  accordingly,  into two systems,  each  possessing  very
different  characters,  natures,  and uses,  from  the other.   One
kind of  nerves claims its origin  in the brain;  while the other
kind is seated in  the spleen.   If  this  be  so, and we believe it
beyond a doubt, as an  axiom  capable  of philosophical  demon-
stration,  the nervous fluids are also divided  from  one another,
and are  of a  different nature  and office.  Those nerves which
receive their existence, origin, and power from the brain — it be-
ing the seat,  the throne,  and the grand locomotive power of the
spiritual and mental faculties, and of all our sensibilities and will —
are supplied  with an  almost ethereal fluid, and this is that inter-
mediate substance of communication between the body and the
brain, by means of  which  the latter thinks,  perceives, and  moves,
and wills; hence, through this only apparatus, the body acts upon
the brain and mind, and the brain and mind upon the body.   But
the fluid  which circulates in those  nerves, the origin of which is 
222           rRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
traced to the spleen, is intended to impart involuntary motions;
therefore this class of nerves, and their fluid, are not, and cannot
be considered as connected with the nerves  of sensation, motion,
will, &c, &c.  The spleenian nerves (as we  shall venture  hence-
forth very appropriately to call them) answer the purpose, and the
sole  purpose, of governing the involuntary motions  of the heart,
lungs, diaphram, intestines, kidneys, stomach, pancreas, &c.;  and,
indeed, in every portion or part of the human system we find thesfl
and similar movements,  under some form or  other, which are not
at all governed,  and cannot be controlled, by the will,  This is,
then, undoubted evidence  of  the  existence of the  spleenian
nervous system, which is governed by very different laws, is  of a
different nature, and of a separate use and office, from the cerebral
nervous system.  The nerves of both classes branch out, spread,
and run through every portion and part  of the system.  They are
even intersected and identified with those very important organs,
the brain and the spleen, wherein we trace  their first origin in
embryo.  There is, however, a marked difference between them,
also,  in their color and  consistence,  The spleenian nerves  are
neither so white nor so dense, but of a dingy flocculent appearance.
Their knots  and ganglions are dissimilar, and many other material
differences exist, too  numerous to  be here  enumerated, but easily
traced by the careful anatomist and physiologist. Enough has been
said of their individualities.  A ganglion is a  natural knot, like an
enlargement of a nerve, by means of which the nerves receive, as
from a depot, a new supply of vigor  and strength, as the nervous
fluid is therein more abundantly deposited.   The nervous system
has a great influence  upon the motions of the  heart and the ciru-
lation of  the blood, i. e., in quickening or retarding it.  Indeed, in
every animal organ, and in the organs of life, and throughout the
whole nf the human system, they exert  an  inexplicable power.
The  nerves  are  the only medium  of communication  between the
mind and the various organs of the  body, the bones  and muscles,
informing us of their respective conditions, bestowing unity and in-
dividuality upon the whole, and enabling  the mental faculties to be,
at will, anywhere present in the body. 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.
223
                        Of the Glands.

   A gland is an organic part of the body, composed of blood-vessels,
nerves, and absorbents, and  destined for the secretion or altera-
tion of  some peculiar fluid.  They are  divided  into different
classes, according to their structure,  or the fluids they contain — as
mucous glands, sebaceous glands, lymphatic glands, salival glands,
lacrymal glands, &c, &c.   The simple glands are small, hollow fol-
licles,  covered with  a peculiar membrane, and  having a proper
secretory duct, through which they  evacuate the liquor contained
in their cavity.  Such are the mucous glands of  the nose, tongue,
fauces,  trachea, stomach,  intestines, and  urinary bladder.   The
sebaceous gla*ds  are situated about the anus and ears.   These
simple glands are either dispersed here and there, or are contiguous
to one another, forming a heap, in such a manner that they are not
covered by a common membrane, but each has its own excretory
duct, which is never joined to the excretory duct  of another gland.
The former are termed solitary simple glands;  the latter, aggre-
gate or congregate simple glands.  The compound glands consist of
many simple glands,  the excretory ducts of which  are joined in one
common excretory duct, as the sebaceous glands  of the face, lips,
palate, and various parts  of the skin, especially around the breasts
of women, and  about the  pubes.   Conglobulate,  called also  lym-
phatic glands, are those into which the lymphatic vessels enter, and
from which they go  out again, as  the mesenteric glands, lumbar
glands,  &c, &c, and  they have no  excretory duct, but are com-
posed of a texture of lymphatic vessels, collected together by cellu-
lar membranes.  These glands are the largest in the foetus.   Con-
glomerate* glands  are composed of  a congeries  of many simple
glands, the excretory ducts of which open into one common trunk,
as the parotid  gland,  thyroid gland, pancreas, and all the salival
glands.   Conglomerate glands differ  but little from the compound
glands; yet they are composed of  more simple  glands than the
compound.  The excretory duct of  a gland is that through which
the fluid of the gland is excreted. The various vessels and nerves
of glands always come from the neighboring parts, and the arteries 
224           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

appear to possess  a high degree of irritability.  The use  of the
glands is to separate a peculiar fiquor, or to change it; but the use
of the conglobulate glands is yet unknown.
                      Of the Membranes.

   A membrane is a thin expanded substance, composed of cellulat
texture, the elastic fibres of which are so arranged  and woven
together, as to allow  of  great  pliability.  The membranes of the
body are as various as those of the skin, peritoneum, pleura, dura
mater, &c.; indeed every organ, muscle, nerve, vessel,  &c, is cov-
ered with a membrane.   Many membranes exercise  some of the
most important functions in  the  vital economy of  man, as, for
example, the membrane  extending throughout the  cavity of the
body, which intersects the organs, thus dividing  them from one
another.  The most  solicitous inquiry should  be made,  and the
most serious attention  given on the part of the skilful physician, in
regard to similar  membranes,  as to their derangement will be
traced the  causes of many alarming and mortal diseases, hitherto
unexplored and mysterious.
                       Of the Periosteum.

  This is that membrane, which invests the external surface of all
the bones, adhering very closely, and covering all of them, except
the crowns of the teeth.  It is of a fibrous  texture, and well sup-
plied with arteries, veins, nerves, and absorbents.   Its use appears
to be to distribute the vessels on the external surfaces of bpnes, &c.
              Of the Cellular, or Laminated Tissue.

  The cellular membrane, or  tissue of  the body, is composed of
laminae and fibres,  variously joined together, which are the con-
necting medium of every part of the body.   It is by means of the
communication of the cells of this membrane, that butchers divide 
               THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.            225

 their meats.  It is divided into the reticular and adipose membrane.
 The  former  is dispersed  through the  whole body, except the sub-
 stance of the brain.  It makes  a bed  for the other solids of the
 body, covers them all, and unites  them one to another.  The adi-
 pose  membrane consists of the reticular substance, and a particular
 apparatus for the secretion of  oil, and is mostly found immediately
 under the skin of many parts, and about the kidneys.


                        Of the Tendons.

   A  tendon consists of a bundle of fibres, of the  same description
 as the fibres of the  muscles, or, to express it more intelligibly, it is
 the white and glistening extremity of a muscle.   Some are round,
 others flat, many three-cornered, while others  yet  are of different
 shapes, according to their office.  By them  the proportions of the
 whole body, and particularly those parts about the joints, &c. are
 beautifully preserved.  Tendons do not stretch and contract as do
 the muscles.  They  serve as ropes to  connect  certain muscles.
 Many of them run  over pullies; others have openings like button-
 holes, through which others pass, &c.   They are  easilv felt in the
 calf of the leg, the  arms, above the heels, &c.


                      Of the Teguments.

  In the term teguments, we comprehend the three layers of skin,
and the adipose membrane, which lies under them; the whole of
which cover every part of the  body, except the nails  and the hair.


                       Of the Marrow.

  Marrow is a fat substance, secreted by the small arteries of its
proper membrane, and contained in the medullary cavities of the
long cylindrical bones, and in the lattice-work of the spongy bones.
It is contained in the cells of  a delicate membraneous web.  The
white  or internal substance of the brain is also called marrow, and
                 29 
-2-2H            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

the spinal marrow is a  continuation of a similar substance, and in
descending down to the  spine  it gives origin to thirty pairs of
nerves, which branch out through  the whole system.  In  the adult
and in the aged, the marrow is found in greater quantity than in
the young; indeed, in children its place is occupied by a gelatinous
fluid.

                          Of the Skin.

   The skin consists of three  distinct layers or  membranes, which
are also called skins.  The first or outermost skin  is termed scarf-
skin, or cuticle; the second is called by anatomists, the  rete muco-
sum;  and the  third, or innermost, the  true skin.  The first is a
thin, pellucid, insensible membrane, that covers and defends the
true skin, with which it  is connected by the hairs, and the exhaling
and inhaling vessels.  The second skin consists of a mucous sub-
stance, deposited in a  net-like form, lying between the  first  and
third  skins, and gives the color to the surface of the human body.
This second skin is black in the negro, perhaps to enable him better
to withstand  the sun and heat of his original climate; while in
those races who had their origin in Europe, Asia, or America, this
substance is either white, brown or yellowish.   Both the scarf-skin
and the second skin send  innumerable  processes into the pores of
the true skin, which is white in all races of men.  The human skin
is every where intersected with capillary nerves, arteries, veins,
and ducts, to the sebaceous glands.   The exhaling pores and absor-
bent vessels are innumerable.  By this apparatus, we perceive that
the skin is given to man, not only as a shield to protect the muscles,
&c, but to  receive and impart the  feelings, particularly that of
iouch, in which  sense  he excels all  other animals.   This sense
resides principally in the  tips  of the  fingers.   This skin is given
also for exhaling, and thus through sensible or  insensible perspira-
tion, or sweat, to throw off the morbid effete matter, and impuri-
ties generated in the blood and fluids ; it is given, also, to receive,
and absorb,  and inhale, a pure  and healthy atmosphere, and  to
throw off from the system the  carbonic acid gas  therein formed ;
which gas, containing more or less volatile oily substances, evinces
the fact that every animal, man not excepted, has a peculiar smell, 
               THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF  NATURE.           227

which is well known.  Absorption and perspiration is more fully
manifested about the mouth, nose, palms of the hands, soles of the
feet, external ears, scalp, under the arms, on the region of the
spine, mons  veneris, or  the hairy parts of  the lower  bowels, and
around the nipples in women.   In regard to feeling, it is endowed
with intense sensibility,  and almost all the pain, in the different
operations of surgery, is past  when the  skin is divided.   Some
parts of the skin possess more feeling than others, as the lips, par-
ticularly when excited  voluntarily, or from  mental or physical
instinct, or affection, by a kiss, or an embrace; and the same may
be said of the nipples, gland clitoris, and gland penis, &c, when
excited with a similar intention or stimulus.  The simple and pure
skin of a middle-sized man  weighs  about four pounds and a half.
It is extremely distensible and  elastic; thick, or thin, as the pur-
poses of nature demand ; and it is, both in the African and Euro-
pean, perfectly white, when  purified from the mucous contents of
the second layer.


                         Of the Nails.

  These  are  horny laminae, situated  at the  extremities of the
finders and toes.  They  are composed of coagulated albumen and
a little phosphate of lime.


                         Of the Hair.

  The hair consists of small cylindrical, transparent, insensible, and
elastic filaments, which arise from the skin, and are fastened into it
by means  of small roots.   The human hair is composed of a spongy,
cellular texture, containing a colored liquid, and a proper covering.
Hair is divided into two  kinds: — Long, which arises on the  scalp,
cheek, chin, breasts of men, the  anterior parts of the arms and legs,
the arm pit, groins, and  pelvis, (mons veneris;) and short, which is
softer than the long, and  is present over the whole bod}-, except only
the palm of the hand and sole of the foot.   The hair originates in the
adipose  membrane, from an oblong membraneous  bulb, which has 
228
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS,  AND
vessels peculiar to it.   The hair is distinguished by different names in
certain parts:  as  capillus, on  the top of the head;  crinis, on  the
back of the head; circrinnus, on  the  temples;  cilium, on the eye-
lids;  super-cilium, on the  eyebrows;  vibrissa,  on  the nostrils;
barba, on the chin; pappus, on the middle of the chin; mistax, on
the upper lip;  pilus, on the body generally.   Black hair is composed
of nine different substances, namely:  1. an animal matter, which
constitutes the greatest part;  2. a white concrete oil, in small quan-
tity; 3. another oil  of a  grevish  green color; 4.  iron, the state of
which in the hair is uncertain ; 5. a few particles of oxide of man-
ganese; 6.  phosphate of lime; 7. carbonate of lime, in very small
quantity;   8. silex,  in conspicuous  quantity;   9.  a considerable
quantity of sulphur.   Red hair differs from  black only in contain-
ing a red, instead of  a blackish green oil; and white hair  differs
from both these only in the oil being  nearly colorless, and in con-
taining phosphate of magnesia, which is  not found either in black
or red hair.

               OF ABSORBTION  AND SECRETION.

  Before entering into an analysis of the  fluids, we will  give a
definition of these two natural actions of the human system, and
speak of the importance attachable to  them.
  Absorption is a function of an  animated body,  and signifies  the
taking up of substances applied to the mouths of absorbing vessels.
Thus the nutritious part of the food is absorbed from the intestinal
canal  by the  lacteals; mercury  is taken into  the  system by  the
lymphatics  of the skin, &c.  The  principle by which this function
takes place, is  a power inherent in the mouths of the absorbents, a
vis insita, dependent on the  degree of irritability of their internal
membranes, by which they contract and propel their contents for-
ward.  These  absorbents are  small,  delicate, transparent vessels,
and take up substances from the  surface of the body, or  from any
cavity within, and carry  it to  the blood.  They are denominated,
according to the liquids which they convey, lacteals and lymphatics.
  Secretion is a function by which a part of the blood escapes from
the organs  of circulation, and diffuses itself without or within;
either  preaerving its  chemical properties, or dispersing  after its 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.
229
elements have undergone another order of  combinations.  The
expulsion of those fluids or solids which have never partaken of
the properties of the blood, as  the  alvine foeces,  &c.  &c, may also
be  called  secretion.  The secretions are  generally divided into
three sorts: the exhalations, the follicular secretions,  and the glan-
dular secretions.

                        EXHALATIONS.

  Exhalations take place, as well within the body, as from the skin,
or the mucous membranes.  Hence their  division into internal and
external.
  Internal Exhalations.  Wherever large or small  surfaces are in
contact, an exhalation takes place.  Wherever fluids are accumu-
lated in a cavity without any apparent opening, they are deposited
there by exhalations.  The phenomenon of exhalation is also mani-
fested in almost every part of the animal  economy.  It exists in
the serous, the synovial, and the  mucous membranes; in the cellu-
lar tissue, the interior parts of vessels, the adipose cells, the interior
of the eye, of the ear, the parenchyma of many of the organs, such
as the thymus, thyroid  glands, the capsular supraranales, &c. &c.
It is  by exhalation that the watery humor, the vitreous humor,
and the liquid of  the labyrinth,  are  formed  and  renewed.  The
fluids exhaled in these different parts have not all been analyzed;
among those which have been analyzed, several approximate more
or less to the elements of the blood, and particularly to the serum;
such are the fluids of the serous membranes, of the cellular tissue,
of the chambers of the eye; others differ more  from it, as the
synovia, the fat, &c. &c.
  Serous Exhalation.  All the viscera of  the head, of the chest,  of
the abdomen,  are  covered with a serous membrane,  which also
lines the sides of these cavities, so  that the viscera are not in con-
tact with the  sides, or  with the adjoining viscera, except by the
intermediation of the same membrane; and as its  surface is very
6mooth, the viscera can easily change  their  relations  with each
other, and with the sides.  The principal circumstance, which
keeps up the polish of their surface, is the exhalation of which they
are  the  seat.  A very  thin fluid  constantly passes  out of  every 
230
PRUDENTIAL  REVELATIONS, AND
 point of the membrane, and mixing with that of the  adjoining
 parts, forms with it a humid layer, which favors the frictions of the
 organs.
   It appears that this facility of sliding  upon each other  is very
 favorable to the action  of the organs ;  for  as  soon as they are de-
 prived of it by any malady of the serous membrane, their functions
 are disordered, and they sometimes cease  entirely.
   In a state of health, the fluid secreted by  the serous membranes,
 appears to be the serum of the blood, a certain  quantity of albumen
 excepted.
   Serous  Exhalation of  the Cellular Tissue.  This  tissue, which
 is called cellular, is generally distributed  through animal bodies.
 It is useful at  once to separate and unite the different  organs,
 and their parts.   The  tissue is every where  formed  of a great
 number of small thin plates, which,  crossing in a thousand differ-
 ent  ways,  form a sort of felt.   The size and  arrangement of the
 plates vary according to the different parts of  the  body.   In  one
 place they are large, thick,  and constitute large cells;  in another
 they are very narrow and thin, and form extremely small cells. In
 some points the tissue is capable of extension;  in others it is not so
 susceptible of it, and presents considerable  resistance.  But what-
 ever is the disposition of the cellular tissue, its  plates, by their  two
 surfaces, exhale a fluid which has the greatest analogy with  that of
 the serous membranes, and which  appears to have the same uses.
 These are to render the frictions of the  plates easy upon  each oth-
 er, and therefore to favor the reciprocal motions of the organs, and
 even the relative changes of the different  parts of  which they are
 composed.
   Fatty Exhalations.  Independently of the serous fluid, another
 fluid is found in many parts of the cellular tissue, of a very differ-
 ent nature, which is the fat.   The  cellular tissue may  be divided
into three sorts:  that which contains fat  always, that which con-
tains it  sometimes, and that which  contains it  never.   The orbit,
the sole of the foot, the  pulp of the fingers, and of the toes, always
present fat; the subcutaneous cellular tissue, and that which covers
the heart, veins, &c. present it often; lastly, that of the scrotum,
 of the eyelids, and of the interior of the skull, never contain it.
   The fat is contained in distinct cells, which never- communicate 
                THE  GOLDEN BIBLE OF  NATURE.            231

 with  those  adjoining.   It has been supposed, from this  circum-
 stance, that the tissue, which contains and forms  the fat, was not
 the same as that by which  the serosity is formed;  but as these
 fatty  cells  have never  been shown, except when full of fat, this
 anatomical  distinction  seems doubtful.   The  size, the  form, the
 disposition of these cells, are not less variable than the quantity of
 fat which  they contain.  In some individuals, only  a few ounces
 exist;  while in others  there are several pounds, and in others
 still there are upwards of one hundred pounds.
   According to the latest experiments, the human fat is composed
 of two parts, — the one fluid, the other concrete; both are com-
 pounded, but in different proportions, of two new proximate prin-
 ciples.
   Synovial Exhalations.  Round the movable articulations, a thin
 membrane  is found, which has much analogy to the  serous mem-
 branes ; but  which, however, differs  from them by having small,
 reddish prolongations, that contain numerous blood-vessels.   These
 are called synovial fringes.  They are visible in  the great articula-
 tions of the limbs.
   Internal  Exhalation of the Eye.    The different humors  of the
 eye are also formed by  exhalation.   Each of  them is  separately
 enveloped in a  membrane, which appears  intended for exhalation
 and absorbtion.
   The humors of the eye are, the aqueous humor, the formation
 of which is at present attributed to the ciliary processes; the vitre-
 ous humor, secreted by the hyaloid; the crystalline, the black mat-
 ter of the choroid;  and  that of the posterior surface of the  iris.
   Bloody Exhalations.  In all the exhalations  of which  we  have
 spoken, it is only a  part of the principle of the  blood that  passes
 out of the vessels.   The blood itself  appears to  spread in several
 of the organs, and fill in them  the sort of cellular tissue,  which
 forms their parenchyma. Such  are  the  cavernous bodies of the
 penis, and of the clitoris, the urethra, and the glans, the spleen, the
 manrilla, &c.  The anatomical examination of these different issues,
 seems to show that they  are habitually filled with venous blood, the
 quantity of which is variable according to different  circumstances,
 particularly according to the state  of action or inaction  of  the
organs. 
 232            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

   Many other interior exhalations  exist, also, amongst  the cavities
 of the internal ear, of the parenchyma, of the thymus, and of the
 thyroid gland; also in the cavity of the capsuke suprarenales, &c.;
 but the nature of the fluids formed in  these different parts is little
 understood.  They have never been sufficiently analyzed, and their
 uses are unknown, or determined without certainty.
   External Exhalations.    These  are  composed  entirely of  the
 exhalations of the mucous membranes, and  those of  the skin,  or
 cutaneous transpiration.
   Exhalation of the  Mucous Membranes.   There are  two mucous
 membranes;  the one covers the  surface of the eye, the lachrymal
 ducts, the nasal cavities,  the sinuses, the  middle  ear, the mouth,
 all the intestinal canal, the excretory canals, which terminate  in
 it, and, lastly, the larynx,  the trachea, and  the bronchia.
   The other  mucous membrane covers the organs of generation,
 and the urinary apparatus.
   Cutaneous   Transpirations.   A transparent liquid,  of  an odor
 more  or less strong, salt, and acid, usually passes through the innu-
 merable openings of the epidermis.  This liquid is generally evapo-
 rated  as soon as it comes in contact with the air, and at other times
it flows upon the surface of the skin.  In the first case, it is imper-
ceptible,  and  bears  the  name of insensible  transpiration; in  the
second it is called sweat.
                   FOLLICULAR SECRETIONS.

   The follicles are small,  hollow organs, or glands, lodged in the
skin or mucous membranes, and which, on that account, are divided
into mucous and cutaneous.
   The follicles are, besides,  divided  into simple and compound.
The simple mucous follicles are seen upon nearly the whole extent
of the mucous membranes,  where they are more  or less abundant;
however, there are points  of considerable  extent of these mem-
branes where they are not seen.
  The bodies that bear the name of fungous papilla: of the tongue,
the amygdalae, the glands of the cardia, the  prostate, &c, are  con-
sidered  by anatomists as collections of simple follicles.  Perhaps
this opinion is not sufficiently  supported. 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.
233
   Of the fluid that they secrete but  little is  known.   It appears
 analogous to the mucous, and to have the same  uses.  In almost
 all the points of the skin, little openings exist, which are the orifi-
 ces  of  small, hollow organs, with membraneous sides, generally
 filled with an albuminous and fatty matter, — the consistence, color,
 and odor, and even the savor of  which are variable, according to
 the  different parts of the  body; it is continually spread upon the
 surface of the skin.
   These small organs are called the follicles of the skin; and one
 of them, at least, exists  at the base  of each  hair; and generally
 the hairs traverse the cavity of a follicle in their direction outwards.
   The  follicles form that  mucous and fatty matter,  which is seen
 upon the skin of the cranium,  and on that of the pavilion of the
 ear ; the follicles, also, secrete the cerumen, in the auditory canal.
 That whitish  matter, of considerable  consistence, that  is pressed
 out  of  the  skin of  the  face, in the form  of small worms, is  also
 contained in follicles.  It is the same  matter which, by its surface
 being in contact with the air, becomes black, and  produces the
 numerous spots that are seen upon some persons faces, particularly
 on the sides of the nose and cheeks.
   The follicles, also, appear to  secrete that odorous, whitish matter,
 which is always renewed  at the  external surface of the  genital
 parts.
   The matter from the follicles, which are  situated on the epider-
 mis,  at the roots of the hair, and upon  the  skin, supports the sup-
 pleness  and  elasticity of those parts,  and renders  their surfaces
 smooth  and polished, and  favors their frictions upon one another.
 On account of its unctuous nature, it renders them less penetrable
 by humidity, &c.

                   GLANDULAR  SECRETIONS.

   The name of gland is given to a secreting organ, which sheds the
 fluid that it  forms  upon the surface  of a mucous membrane, or
of the skin, by one or more excretory glands.
   The  number of  glands  is considerable ; the action  of which
bears the name of glandular secretion.  There are  six principal
secretions of this sort, — that of the tears, of the saliva, of the bile,
                    30 
234           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
 of the pancreatic fluid, of the urine, of the semen, and of the milk.
 We may add, the secretions of the mucous glands, and of the glands
 of Cowper.
   Secretion of Tears. — The gland that forms the tears is very small.
 It is situated in the orbit of the eye, above, and a little outward.  It
 is composed  of small grains, united by cellular tissues.   Its excre-
 tory canals, small and numerous, open behind the external angle of
 the upper  eyelid.  It receives a small artery, and a nerve.
   In a state of health, the tears are in small quantity; the  liquid
 that forms  them is limpid, without odor, of a salt savor.   What are
 called tears  are not, however, the fluid secreted entirely by the
 lachrymal gland; they are a mixture of this fluid with  the matter
 secreted by the conjunctiva, and probably with that of other glands.
   The tears  form a layer before the  conjunction of the  eye, and
 defend it from contact with  the air; they facilitate the friction of
 the eyelids upon the eye, favor the  expulsion of foreign bodies, and
 prevent  the  action of irritating bodies upon the conjunctiva.  In
 this case, the  quantity rapidly augments.  They are  also  a means
 of expressing the passions; the  tears flow from vexation,  pain,
joy, and pleasure.   The nervous system has, therefore, a particular
 influence upon  their secretion.  This  influence,  probably,  takes
 place by means of that nerve which  passes from the cerebrum to
 the lachrymal gland.
   Secretion of the  Saliva. — The salivary glands  are—first,  the
two parotids, situated before the ear, and behind the neok, and the
branch of the jaw ; second, the sub-maxillaries, situated below, and
on the front of the body of this bone :  third,  the sublinguals, placed
immediately below the tongue.  The  parotids and the sub-maxilla-
ries have but one excretory canal; the  sublinguals have  several.
All these glands are  formed by the union of the  granulations of
different forms and dimensions.  They receive a considerable num-
ber of arteries relatively to their mass.   Several  nerves are distri-
buted to them, which  proceed from the brain or  spinal  marrow.
The  saliva which  these  glands secrete, flows  constantly into  the
mouth, and occupies the lower part of it.  It is  at first placed
between the anterior and  lateral part of the tongue and the jaw;
and when the space is filled, it passes into the space  between  the
lower lip,  the cheek, and the external side of the jaw.   Being 
THE GOLDEN RIBLE  OF NATURE.
235
 thus deposited in the mouth, it mixes with the fluids  secreted by
 the membranes and the mucous follicles.
   Secretion of the Pancreatic Juice — The pancreas  is situated
 transversely in the abdomen, behind  the  stomach.  It has an ex-
 cretory canal, which opens into the duodenum, and another, which
 opens  in the liver.  The granulous  structure of the  gland has
 caused it to be considered a salivary  gland; but  it differs from a
 salivary gland on account of the smallness of  the arteries  that it
 receives, and on  account of the deficiency of any cerebral nerve.
 It is difficult to explain the  modus operandi, and every use of the
 pancreatic juice.
   Secretion  of the Bile. — The  liver is  the largest of all the glands.
 It is also distinguished by the singular circumstance among the
 secretory organs,  that it is constantly traversed  by  a great quantity
 of venous blood, besides  the arterial blood, which it  receives  in
 common with every other part.  Its parenchyma does not resemble,
 in any respect, that of the other glands, and the fluid formed by
 it, is not less  different  from  that of the other glandular fluids.
 The excretory canal of the liver  goes  to the duodenum.  Before
 entering it, it communicates with  a small membraneous bag, called
 vesicula fellis, because it is always filled with bile.
   Few fluids are  so much  compounded, and so different from the
 blood as the bile.   Its color is  greenish,  its taste very bitter;  it is
 viscous, thready, sometimes limpid, and sometimes muddy.  It  con-
 tains water, besides many chemical principles, which properties
belong to the bile contained in the gall bladder.  That which goes
out directly  from the fiver, called  hepatic bile, has never been ana-
 lyzed.   The formation of the bile appears to be constant.
  The  liver, receiving venous blood by the vena porta, and arterial
blood by the hepatic artery, at the same time, physiologists have
been very eager to know which of  the  two it is  that forms the bile.
Many favor the opinion that the blood of the vena porta, having
more carbon and hydrogen than that of the hepatic artery, is more
proper for furnishing the elements of the bile.   Others contest  this
hypothesis, on the ground that the quantity of the arterial blood
 which  arrives  at  the liver, is more in relation to the quantity of
bile formed, than  that of the venous blood, and have, for the sup-
port of this doctrine, many other seeming good arguments.   We 
236            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS,  AND

nowever shall add, that there  is nothing to prove that the venous
blood has more analogy with the bile than the arterial blood; and
nothing contradicts the idea that  both sorts of blood contribute to
the secretion, in combination with other fluids therein contained.
   The bile contributes very usefully in digestion, but the manner
is not fully  understood.  In our  present  infancy of  experience
relative to the causes of diseases, we often  attribute noxious prop-
erties to  the bile, which it is probably far from possessing.
   Secretion of the Urine. — This secretion is  different in several
respects from the preceding.  The liquid which results from it is
much more  abundant  than that of any other gland.  In place of
serving in any internal uses, it is expelled.   Its retention would be
attended with the most dangerous consequences.  We are adver-
tised of the necessity of its expulsion by a particular feeling, which,
like the  instinctive phenomena of this sort, becomes very painful
if not quickly attended to.
   In explaining the glandular secretions, physiologists have given
full scope to their imagination.   The glands have been successively
considered as sieves,  as  filters, and  as a focus of fermentation.
Many attribute their peculiar motion  and sensibility to their par-
ticles, by which they choose, in the blood which traverses them, the
particles that are fit to enter into the fluids that they secrete.  At-
mospheres and compartments have  been allotted to them.  They
have been supposed susceptible of erection, of sleep, &c.  Notwith-
standing the opinions of learned men, the truth is, that what passes
in a gland, when it  acts,  or how  its laws operate, is entirely un-
known.   Chemical phenomena necessarily take place.
   Several secreted fluids are acid, while  the  blood is  alkaline.
The most of  these fluids contain proximate principles, which do
not exist in the blood, and which are formed in the glands, but the
particular mode of  these combinations is unknown.  Perhaps we
may conjecture that very  weak electricity may have a  marked
influence upon the secretions, which could in our opinion be easily
illustrated by the modus operandi in the secretion of the seminal
fluid.  The works of physiologists contain  a great many ingenious
hypotheses intended to explain their functions. 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.
237
                OF THE FLUIDS IN GENERAL.

  The quantity of fluids  in  the human body, in proportion to the
solids, is very considerable;  the ratio,  in  the adult, being about
nine to one; so that a dead human body of 120 pounds, was found,
after  a few days  successive desiccation in a  warm  oven, to be
reduced to 12 pounds.  It is also found, on  examination, that the
bodies  buried for a long time in the burning sands of the Arabian
deserts, present an extraordinary diminution of weight.  These fluids
are sometimes contained in vessels, where they circulate with more
or less  rapidity;  sometimes in little  areola, or  spaces where they
seem to be kept  in reserve.  And at other times, they are placed
in the great cavities,  where they make  only  a  temporary stay.
Many  are  the fluids  of  the human body, of a number of which,
perhaps, we do not yet  know  the office.   We shall enumerate a
few, of the nature of which we  are most confident:  First, the
blood;  second, the lymph; third, the perspirable fluids, which com-
prise those of  cutaneous transpiration, the exhalation of  mucous
membranes, of the synovial, serous, and the cellular fluid, of the
adipose cells, those of the medullary membranes, and of the thyroid
and thymus glands, &c.; fourth, the follicular fluid, the sebaceous
or  suety  secretions of the  skin, the cerumen, the ropy matter
flowing from the  eyelids, the  mucus from the glands, and from
the follicles of that name,  and from the  tonsils,  those of  the car-
diac glands, and of the prostate and  nymph, and flowing from the
vicinity of the  anus, and some other  parts; fifth,  the  glandular
fluids, the tears, the saliva, the pancreatic fluid,  the bile, the urine,
and those of the Cowper's glands, the semen, the menstrual fluid,
the milk, and the liquid contained in the suprarenal capsules, that
of the testicles, and of  the mammae of new-born  infants; sixth,
the chyme, and the chyle.  The properties of fluids, both chemical
and physical, are exceedingly various.  Many have some  analogy
to each other, under these two relations, but none  exhibit a perfect
resemblance.  We will give a description of some of them, of their
use and properties, as follows: — 
238           PRUDENTIAL  REVELATIONS, AND
                    Of the. Nervous Fluids.

  The nervous fluids are two:  one is  situated in the cortical part
of the brain, and of the nerves themselves; whose softness, pulpi-
ness, and natural humid appearance is derived from the medullary
particles or atoms,  between  which  this fine fluid  is  constantly
secreted.  The other fluid circulates through  those nerves,  the
origin of which is traced in the spleen.  These two fluids are fitted
to receive and transmit, in accordance with their peculiar office, even
more readily than other fluids, all impressions which are made  on
them.   They exhale, as it appears, from the extremities of the
nerves.  The lassitude  and debility  of muscles,  from the great
exercise, and the dulness  of the sensorial organs from excessive
use, and the involuntary,  irregular, and even regular motions  of
the animal  organs, are evidences  of it.  These fluids have  no
smell, nor taste, nor color, and they are of so subtile a consistence
as never to have been  detected.   Their mobility is inconceivable,
for, in less than  an  instant, with the consent of  the mind, or even
through involuntary motions, they are conveyed  to the muscles, or
organs, like an electric power.  The nervous fluids are an element,
sui generis ; one fluid exists and is produced in the brain, and the
other fluid  exists and is  produced in the spleen, and its nerves
only; hence, like many elements, these fluids are only to be known
by their effects.  The nervous fluids are the only medium through
which the body acts upon  the  mind, and the mind upon the body;
thus the former thinks, perceives, and moves the  muscles, subser-
vient to the will, and the several sensorial organs transmit through
these fluids their impressions to the mind.  They are also the act-
ing powers and cause of involuntary motions.


             Of the Lymphatic  Fluids and  Vessels.

  The lymph is a transparent fluid, and exists  in great quantity
in the  human body, and  the  system  of its vessels forms no small
part of it  The use of the lymph is to return the superfluous nu- 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.
239
tritious jelly from every part of the human body, and to mix it with
the chyle in the thoracic duct, there to undergo a new process of
change, and be  converted into a nutritious, homogeneous medium
for the support and preservation  of nature.   The lymph makes its
way through the lymphatics,  which are absorbent and very minute
vessels.   In their texture they resemble  the veins, and have two
coats, one cellular and capable of extension, and the other or inner
coat forms valves, like those in the veins.   These vessels are innu-
merable and extend to almost every internal and external surface
and substance of the human  body, so that there is scarcely a parti-
cle of matter in the whole incorporated system which is not reach-
ed by them.   Myriads of them are to be found in the skin  and
mucous membranes, many of them lie immediately under the ex-
ternal skin, others are buried in the substance of the organs, and
others branch  along the internal  membranes.  In every part they
run into each other frequently,  in a net-like  manner; yet they
each perform,  nearly equally, their part  in the process of absorp-
tion.  These lymphatic vessels pass through  glands and ganglions
which are peculiar to themselves, and of an oval or circular shape,
of different sizes, varying from one twentieth of an inch, to an inch.
They are extremely vascular, and consist of inextricable  plexuses
of lymphatics, blood-vessels,  and  nerves.  These glands are situat-
ed in different parts of the  body, but they mostly abound in the
thorax and abdomen.  The termination of the  lymphatic vessels is
in the thoracic duct, where they deposit  their fluid.   Their office
is to absorb and  take up substances which are  applied to their in-
numerable orifices; thus  the vapors of circumscribed  cavities and
of the cells of the cellular membranes, are absorbed and  removed
to these lymphatics; and thus mercury and other substances, when
rubbed or applied  to the skin,  and even the atmospheric vapors
themselves are taken up by them into the system.  Hence the use
of these organs  is  of the utmost importance.   They convey the
lymph to the  thoracic duct, to be mixed with chyle and thus form
the blood;  they remove  the  superfluous  vapors of circumscribed
cavities, which otherwise would cause many  diseases;  they absorb
into the system the remedies externally applied; they inhale the
pure atmosphere, &c.  It is of the utmost importance, in the treat-
ment of all diseases, to study, investigate,  and understand the  doc- 
240            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

trine of the lymph and lymphatics.   Nearly  all physicians are
deficient in this knowledge.  Hence their want of success and skill
in their practice.

               Of the Blood, Arteries, and  Veins.

   The blood is a homogeneous fluid, of a saltish taste and some-
what vinous  smell  and glutinous consistence.  It is composed of
very small  globules or little balls, not  perceivable to the natural
eye.   The  quantity of blood  in a man of middle  size, is from
twenty-eignt to forty pounds, or from  twelve to  eighteen  quarts.
It circulates in the  cavities of the  heart, arteries, and veins.  Its
color, in the arteries, is of a florid hue ; in the veins, darker, but
through the pulmonary vessels its color is reversed.   The blood is
the most important fluid  of the body; the human  life is  in the
blood, i. e. the blood is the medium  through which life flows into
the system  and creates,  supports, and  defends the tout ensemble of
the physical man.  The whole body is  not only formed out of it, but
nourished and preserved, and the blood is the  source  from  which
every secretion is performed.  It  generates  and causes heat, and
excites the  vital actions.  The fine part of the blood is converted
into bone, the finer into muscles, and  the finest into  nerves.  The
blood receives its first germs, and its origin,  existence, nourishment,
and preservation, in its embryo, from the chyle,  which is a milky
fluid, separated by digestion from the  indigested mass of food that
passes from the stomach into the next intestines, where  the chyle is
prepared by the admixture of the  bile and other essential  fluids,
&c, hence passing through and being intermixed with the lymphat-
ics, absorbents, &c, where there is produced a  farther assimilation
by them, whence it is conveyed  to the thoracic  duct, and emptied
into peculiar  veins, to be propelled on its way to the heart.  The
whole of the  blood is constantly flowing through  the  veins  to the
heart, which propels it to the lungs, to be purified and changed in-
to arterial blood.  This  is done through the medium of the oxygen
atmospheric air we  inhale, which revivifies the blood, giving to it
the true essential vital  power of action and life.   The Omnipo-
tent ALL-MIGHTY MACHINIST OF NATURE  AND DESTINY has
manufactured  this ingenious apparatus, to separate the carbon from 
               THE  GOLDEN BIBLE OF  NATURE.           241

the venous blood  K this carbon  should not be separated by ex-
halation, it surely would cause instant death.  This blood, when
thus revivified in the lungs, is immediately returned back to the
heart, from whence,  with regular and successive  beats, it regurgi-
tates and is sent throughout the whole  of the  human system  by
means of the arteries,  which branch in every part of the body,
and which are almost innumerable, and so diminutive as to render
many of them invisible to the naked eye.  Each artery is connect-
ed as a branch  to a mighty tree, the trunk of which  is the aorta
which  arises from the heart, and through it the blood is carried in
every direction, giving a progressive origin, nutrition, preservation,
and increase of life, and from this  perpetual motion, and sui gene-
ris, properties,  is  traced the generation and  nutrition of all the
solids  and of the generative heat,  and the  causes of the formation
and secretion of the  different fluids, &c.
   In the heart is the origin of  another large canal, called the pul-
monary artery, and for a similar purpose  branches  its innumerable
ramifications throughout the lungs, to nourish and preserve them.
The termination  of the arteries is either in the veins, or in the
capillary exhaling vessels,  and in  many places they communicate
with one another.  Every vein  has its origin from the extremities
of arteries only by communication, or union; this is effected  by
what  are called the capillary vessels,  or the ends  of the vcrv
minute branches  of the  arterial  system,  terminating  in  similar
branches of the venous system, through which the  globules of blood
are absorbed  and pass through as if it were imperceptible sand.
The veins terminate in the heart, there to reconvey the blood, and
receive a renewed vitality and purification in conjunction with the
new blood formed by the chyle in the digestive organs.  All the
arteries, and  veins,  and the chambers of the heart, are furnished
with valves, like pumps, so that the blood can flow only one way.
The blood flows  slower in  the veins than in  the arteries.  The
vessels are strongly protected by muscles, which are furnished with
blood  by thousands of branches.   These  muscles contract upon
them, so as to propel the blood forward.  We may exemplify it by
letting blood from the arm: when the blood stops or flows slowly,
it is customary to cause the patient to take hold of something and
roll it in the hand.  The success  of this action  depends on the
                      81 
242           PRUDENTIAL  REVELATIONS, AND
 muscles of the arm compressing the interjacent vein by successive
 contractions.

                          Of the Chyle.

   This is a milky fluid, or liquor, to be seen in the lacteal vessels
 of the  mesentery,  and in the thoracic duct  It is separated, by
 digestion, from the chyme, and is that fluid to which the blood, and
 other fluids of our body, owe their elementary origin, and from
 which they are prepared, and from which fluids the solid parts of
 our whole  system are formed.  When the chyle is perfected in the
 small intestines, it passes through the threads of the lacteal  vessels,
 and traversing  the mesenteric glands, it arrives at the thoracic
 duct, and enters the subclavian vein, already converted into an im-
 pure blood, which is propelled to the heart, and from it to the lungs,
 to be purified.   After parturition, the chyle secrets, in  abundance,
 in the mother's breast, and is converted and formed into the most
 excellent of all aliments for the infant  The chyle somewhat res-
 trains the putrescent tendency of the already converted blood, by
 its intermixture; hence  there is, also, a similar operation  by the
 blood upon the other fluids  and solids, and it is the blood which
 prevents the thickening of the fluids, and thus renders  them fit for
 the various secretions and purifications.


                         Of the Chyme.

  Chyme is that juice  which is  made  by a compound of  an in-
 gested mass of fluids and food that  pass from the stomach into the
 duodenum, and from which the chyle is prepared, in the small in-
 testines, by the admixture of bile, pancreatic, and gastric juice, &c.


                          Of the Bile.

  The human bile is a bitter fluid, secreted  in the  glandular  sub-
 stance of the liver, and therein prepared from the blood.  Healthy
bile is of a yellow-green color, of a plastic consistence, like thin oil,
and, when very much agitated, it  froths like soap and  water.  Its 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
243
taste  is bitter.  The principal use of this fluid is to separate the
chyle from the chyme, and to give a due vitality and action to the
intestines,  thus  to  remove the  superabundance  of acidity and
mucus, and to prevent the creation of verminous saburra.


                    Of the Pancreatic Juice.

   The pancreatic juice resembles  saliva  (spittle) in its nature.
The pancreas, which  is a large  gland, situated in  the abdomen,
under the stomach, conveys this fluid into the intestines, to  be
mixed with the chyle in the duodenum.  Its use seems principally
to be, to dilute the  viscid cystic bile, to mitigate its acrimony, and
to mix it with the food. Like the rest of the  intestinal fluids, it
dilutes and resolves the mass of the aliments, it serves as a condi
ment, and makes them fit for further action  and nutriment, and it
performs every other office of the saliva.


                      Of the Gastric Juice.

   The gastric juice has its origin in, and  is  secreted from, the
inner coat of the stomach, and is there formed principally for the
uses and purposes of digestion.  This liquid is the result, and is de-
rived  from, the mixture of the mucous fluids of the mouth, pharynx,
oesophagus, and  the internal membranes of the stomach;  which
fluids  are combined with the saliva, and other similar fluids.  This
fluid, thus composed, serves for the performance of the function of
digestion, and acts  chemically on  the  alimentary substances, as a
medium of chylification. It also  becomes  united, throughout the
intestines, with the  intestinal juices, and, thus combined, gives the
power and main  support for a natural and  complete process of a
healthy circulation of their contents.


                  Of  the Saliva,  (the Spittle.)

   Saliva is a fluid  secreted in the mouth, by the salivary glands. 
 244           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

 The saliva becomes mixed with the mucus of the mouth, which ex-
 hales from the  labial and genal glands, and with the  roshid vapor
 exhafing from the whole surface of the cavity of the mouth.  The
 saliva is continually swallowed, with or without masticated  food.
 Its consistence  is rather plastic and spumous, which is caused by
 the atmospheric air.  The quantity of twelve pounds is  supposed
 to be secreted in twelve hours.   During mastication and speaking,
 the secretion is augmented from  the mechanical pressure of the
 muscles upon the salivary glands.  When any one is hungry, the
 saliva is secreted in great quantity at the  sight of agreeable  food.
 It assists  the  spirituous fermentation  of farinaceous  substances.
 Some barbarous  nations prepare  an intoxicating drink from the
 chewed roots of the patropha manihot and piper methisticum.  The
 use of the saliva is  to augment the taste, and  to render the food
 more agreeable, by the evolution of sapid matter.   During masti-
 cation, the saliva fixes upon, dissolves,  and resolves the food into
 its principles,  and  changes it into a poultaceous mass, fit to be
 swallowed.  Being thus  well impregnated, the food passes through,
 fully prepared for chymification, without which a serious deficiency
 and danger would be experienced  in digestion.   For this purpose,
 and to sustain the tone,  strength, and action of the stomach, it is
 also constantly swallowed without food.  The saliva moderates our
 thirst, by moistening the cavity of  the mouth and fauces;  without
 it we should  certainly  be  in  agony,  and suffer  under many
 diseases.

                    Of the Mucous Fluids.

  The mucus is one of the primary fluids of the human body. It
is transparent, glutinous, thready, and of a salt savor.  This fluid
forms a layer, of greater or less thickness, at the surface of the
mucous membranes, and  it is renewed with more or less rapidity.
The water it contains evaporates, under the name of mucous exhal-
ation.  The mucus  protects the membranes against undue action
from the  air, the  aliments,  the  different glandular fluids, &c, &c.
It is to these membranes, in fact, nearly what the epidermis (scarf
skin)  is to the true skin.  Many others are the uses of the  mucus,
according to the location of the membranes; thus the mucus of the 
               THE  GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.            245

nose is favorable to the  smell; that of the mouth gives facility to
the taste; that of the  stomach and intestines  assists in digestion;
that of the genitals  (private parts) and urinary ducts serves for
generation, the secretion of the urine, &c, &c.  A great part of the
mucus is  again absorbed by the membranes which  secrete it; a
part is  carried outwards, either alone, as in blowing the nose or in
spitting, or  mixed with the pulmonary transpiration, the  excre-
mental matter, or the urine, &c., &c.


                          Of .the Fat.

   The human fat is a concrete, oily matter, contained in the cellu-
lar membranes.  In  infancy, it is of a  white color, insipid, and not
very solid;  while in adults it is firm and  yellowish,  and  its color
increases as age advances.  The little which is known about this
matter  may be  briefly stated,  as  follows:  In  the animal econo-
my, it is  useful for  its physical  properties. It  makes an  elastic
cushion in the orbit, upon which the eye  moves  with facility. In
the soles of  the feet  and hips, it forms  a sort of layer, which ren-
ders the pressure exerted by the body upon the  skin and muscles
less severe.   Its presence beneath the  skin concurs in rounding the
outlines, in diminishing the bony and muscular projections,  and in
beautifying  the form.  It contributes to  the  preservation  of our
natural heat.   Fat is generally abundant in children, and rarely
so in young men; but the quantity increases much towards the
age of thirty to forty  years, particularly  if the nourishment be
succulent and the life sedentary.   The  abdomen then  projects;
the hips, and also the breasts in women, increase in size.


                          Of the Milk.

   We shall speak of the human milk only.   This is a fluid secreted
 by the peculiar glandular fabric of the breasts of women, and de-
 signed to feed and to nourish children in  their first stage of life.
 The secretory organs are constituted by glands, situated and envel-
 oped in the fat of both breasts above the musculus pectoralis major. 
246
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
From this union of glands,  arises many lactiferous  ducts, which
gradually converging, are terminated in the papilla? (nipples) of
the breasts.   The glands have perforations, being the excretory
ducts of lacteal glands, and upon  pressure, pour forth the nourish-
ing fluid.  Human milk, when fresh drawn, if in  a healthy state,
has a peculiar, animal,  fatuous,  and not disagreeable taste.  Its
color is white and opaque, and its gravity is greater than  water,
but it is lighter than blood; and, in consistence, it is oily and aque-
ous.  A sure test, to determine  the healthy or unhealthy state of
the milk, is as follows:  ' A drop put on the nail, flows slowly down,
if the milk, be good.'  The milk generally begins to be secreted in
the last month of pregnancy; but on the third day after delivery,
a serous milk is separated, and soon after pure  milk is  copiously
supplied to the breasts, so much that spontaneously, and  from its
own pressure, it drops from  the nipples.  Milk often continues to
be secreted, even for  many years, if it is daily promoted by suck-
ling an infant, and unless a fresh pregnancy supervene.   The ori-
gin of the milk is  derived from chyle, carried with the  blood of
the mammary  arteries  into the glandular  fabric  of  the breasts.
The longer children  nurse from an homogeneous  and healthy hu-
man milk, the stronger they become.   Soon  after delivery, the
serous milk should  not  be  rejected, for it relaxes the  new-born
infant's  bowels, which  ought to be open,  for  their  purification.
The best time for giving suck to the child, is between the  second
and fifth  hour after  meals, because, soon after eating, and  in the
beginning of digestion, the chyle is crude and the milk imperfect,
being less  assimilated;  but towards ten hours after eating, the
chyle is changed into blood, and  this alteration renders the milk
yellowish and nauseous, and is  spit out by the infant.  New-born
infants cannot retain the milk of a nurse who has  given suck for a
twelve month, as it possesses too  much spissitude.  The food and
medicines taken by a nurse have much to do  in the  alteration of
the milk.  If she eat garlic, onions, &c, the milk  becomes highly
impregnated with the odor, and is  disagreeable.  If she indulge too
freely in wine, beer, or  any fermented liquids or liquors, the infant
becomes  ill.  If a purging medicine or a stimulus be given to  a
nurse, the child will also be purged and affected.   Severe pains of
the bowels, which infants suffer, arising from acids, are often cured, 
               THE  GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.            247

and always  relieved, by giving to the nurse animal food.  The
affections of the mind, in a nurse, when not governed, prove very
detrimental  to the  suckling infant.   If she  be angry, irritable,
excited, &c, sickness, convulsions, fits, and death will be the effects
in the suckling infant.   Suckling infants, in a  short  time, pine
away,  if the nurse  is afflicted, or melancholic,  or passionate, or
seized with any powerful affection of the mind, and many infanta
after coition (connection) of the mother, or even if she menstruate,
are taken ill.
                   Of Sweat, or Perspiration.

  This is a fluid or vapor, which  is secreted by the extremities of
the arteries of the skin, in a sensible or insensible manner.   Insen-
sible perspiration is an invisible vapor.  The sensible is seen under
the form of very little  drops, adhering  to the surface of the skin.
The smell of sweat, in a very clean and healthy person, is fatuous
and animal; its taste is saltish, and ammoniacal, and its consistence
is vaporous or aqueous.   The color is generally somewhat yellow-
ish, as it participates of the subcutaneous  oil,  and the sebaceous
matter of  the glands in the skin; besides, it partakes of some car-
bonic acid gas,  the properties of which, in» each individual, are
peculiar and distinct, as is perceived from the knowledge of the
dog, who,  by the sense of smell alone, discovers and recognizes his
master,  and even traces him by the scent to a distance  of hundreds
of miles.   Certain parts of the body transpire  more copiously,
and sweat with more facility than others; as the hands, feet, arm-
pits, groins, brows, &c.  The sweat from every part does not pos-
sess the same composition and acidity, but it varies in  its odor and
affinities, according to the different parts of the body from which it
proceeds;  as, for example, from the arm-pits and  feet, it is much
stronger than from elsewhere.  The cutaneous transpiration keeps
up the suppleness of the scarf-skin, and thus favors the exercise of
the tact and the  touch.  By means of sweat and by the perspira-
tion of the lungs,  the  body is cooled, and maintains itself within
certain limits of  temperature.   Its expulsion is of the utmost im-
portance to the animal  economy, as  at any time, if it should be- 
248
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS,  AND
come diminished or suspended, derangements will surely follow, of
more or less importance;  and many diseases are only arrested after
a considerable quantity of sweat is expelled.  The uses, then, of
the insensible perspiration, are to liberate the  blood from the super-
fluous animal gas, azote, and water, and from the  noxious hetero-
geneous excrements; to moisten the external surface of the body,
lest the dryness of the  skin, from the atmospheric  air, should pre-
vent the  absorbents from performing their office and to  counter-
balance the suppressed pulmonary transpiration  of the lungs; as
when it  is  suppressed the  cutaneous transpiration is  increased;
hence the nature of both appear to be the' same.   The use of sensi-
ble, and even of profuse perspiration, is found to be very medicinal
and  important, in  instances of diseases of an acute, chronic, or
miasmatic character; while the superabundance of it, in a healthy
man, will prostrate him, and may be detrimental;  though, to some,
it may prove advantageous.
  Here we give  a few results of careful experiments:  1st. — A
healthy, moderately-sized man  willv have  from the greatest to the
least quantity of insensible perspiration, (including the exhalations
of the lungs,) from two pounds and eight  ounces to six and a half
pounds, in  twenty-four hours.   2d. — During digestion, there is
the least insensible perspiration; and  there  is the  greatest, imme-
diately after eating.  "3d. — About two thirds of the insensible per-
spiration is derived from the surface of the external skin, and about
one third from the lungs; but it should  be remembered, that  the
cutaneous, insensible perspiration alone  varies during and after
repasts.  4th. — Whatever quantity of food  is taken, or whatever
are  the  variations  of  the atmosphere, the  same  individual, after
having augmented  his weight by all the  food  that he  has  taken,
returns,  in  twenty-four  hours, to  nearly the same weight  as  the
day before,  provided he is not growing, or has not eaten to excess.
Respiration varies according to the atmospheric temperature, age,
sex, aliments, medicines, region of the  body, diseases, &c.; thus,
men will have a more copious, viscid, and highly colored  sweat, in
a warm climate, than in a colder one;  and in summer than in win-
ter ; and the young will  sweat  more profusely than the aged, who
scarcely sweat at  all during excessive heat.  In men, generally, the
sweat smells more acrid  than  in women; and  the sweat partakes 
               THE  GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.           249

often of certain food we eat; as from garlic, will be experienced an
alliaceous sweat; a leguminous, from peas; and acid, from acids;
a foetid,  from unmixed animal food; and a rancid, from fat food,
&c.  A long abstinence from drink  causes  an acrid and colored
sweat, and much drinking of cold water, in  summer, will produce
a limpid and thin sweat.   If musk is taken internally, or asafcetida,
sulphur, &c, by the  smell of the sweat their respective presence
will be detected.  In the head,'the sweat is greasy; on  the fore-
head, more  aqueous; under the arm-pits, very unguinous; and
very foetid between the toes.  In diseases, and in accordance with
their different characters and natures, we perceive that the sweat
changes  its  character.   We might notice  many more interesting
facts, on such and similar plienomena  of sensible and insensible
sweat, but our limits prevent it.


                         Of the Tears.

  The tears are a limpid fluid,  secreted by the  lachrymal, glands,
one of which is situated  above the external organ of the orbit,
which opens through six or eight ducts upon the internal surface of
the upper eyelids, flowing on  the surface  of  the eye.  The tears
are combined with an arterious roscid vapor,  which exhales from
the internal surface of the eyelids, and perhaps the aqueous humor
also transudes through  the pores therein placed.  A  certain part
of this aqueous fluid is dissipated through the  air, but the greatest
part is propelled under the eye-lids,  throughout the exterior orbit,
until the superabundance  is collected in  the internal angle.  From
this depot the tears are  absorbed by the orifices, and  propelled
through the  lachrymal canals into a sac, formed of longitudinal and
transverse muscular fibres with three orifices, and from thence they
flow through the duct of the nose into  the cavity  of the nostrils.
The tears have no smell, but a saltish taste, as people who cry per-
ceive.   Thev are  of a transparent color and aqueous consistence.
The quantity in the natural state is just  enough to moisten the
surface of the  eye and eyelids; but  sorrow or other mental affec-
tions, or any kind of stimulus applied to the surface of the eye, so
increases the secretion of tears, that they  run down  from the in-
                    32 
250           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
ternal angle of the eyelids in the form of large and  copious drops
upon the cheeks; they descend also in great quantity through the
lachrymal passages into the nostrils; hence those who cry have an
increased discharge through the nose.
  The use of this important fluid, is to moisten the eye and internal
surface  of the eyelids, and to prevent  the orbit from  becoming
injured by opacity, friction, dryness,  and concretion. It cleanses
the eye from  heterogeneous  substances, which might  otherwise
cause much injury;  and, besides, if abundant, by crying, it unloads
the head  of congestions, and sooths the  passions and affections of
the mind.

                         Of the  Urine.

  Urine is a saline fluid, secreted in the  kidneys, and passing down
from them, drop by drop,  through the ureters,  into  the cavity of
the urinary bladder.  The urine of  a healthy  man is divided in
general into, 1st, crude, or that which is  emitted  one or two hours
after eating, and it is for the most part aqueous,  and often vitiated
by some kinds of food;  2d, coded, which is eliminated some hours
after  the  digestion of the food,  as that which is emitted in the
morning after sleeping.   This is generally in  smaller quantity,
thicker,  more colored and more acrid than at any  other time.
The smell of fresh, healthy urine  is not  disagreeable; the taste is
saltish and nauseous, and the consistence is somewhat thicker than
water.  Of all the fluids of the body, the urine  first putrefies, be-
coming  turbid and  sordidly  black,  decomposing,  and depositing
a copious sediment, and exhaling a fetor, like that of putrid can-
cers ;  it soon becomes cadaverous.  This fluid is excrementitious,
acting like lixurium, by  which  the  human body is not only lib-
erated from the superfluous  fluids and water, but also from  the
superfluous salts and corrosive substances and animal earth.  Thus
the system is preserved and defended from corruption. 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
251
                        Of the Semen.

  The human semen is the  seed  or  prolific fiquor secreted in the
testicles, and carried through the epididymis and vas defferens, into
the vesiculae seminales, to be injected, sub-coitu, into the female
vagina, and there, by its aura, to penetrate and impregnate the
ovulum (egg) in the ovarium.  In eunuchs, (castrated men,) the
vesiculae seminales are small and contracted; and a small quantity
of a kind of lymphatic liquor but  no semen is  found in them.
The semen is detained for some time in the vesiculae seminales, and
rendered thicker, from the continual absorption of  its very thin
part, by the oscula of the  lymphatic  vessels.  In lascivious men,
and especially in the young, the semen is sometimes propelled by
nocturnal pollution, and (be it  said with shame, horror, and dis-
grace of  the onanists) often by  wilful efforts, from  the  vesiculae
seminales, through  the ejaculatory  ducts, (which  arise from the
vesiculae seminales, perforating the urethra transversely, and open
themselves by narrow and very nervous mouths at the side of the
caput gallinaginis,) into the urethra, and from it to some distance.
But in chaste men, the greatest part is again absorbed from the
vesiculae  seminales,  through  the  lymphatic vessels,  and  imparts
strength to the body and mind, while  to  emit the semen by self-
pollution or disease causes  the most alarming and  most generally
irreparable derangements of body and mind.  The smell of semen
is specific, heavy, affecting the nostrils, yet not disagreeable, some-
what resembling the odor of a thin paste,  prepared with wheat
flour  and water.  The taste  of semen is fatuous, and  somewhat
acrid, and appears thin and diluted; but in the vesiculae seminales
it is found to be viscid, dense, and rather pellucid, and by veneris
and debility it is rendered thinner.  The color while in  the testi-
cles is somewhat yellow, and in the  vesicuhe seminales it  assumes
deeper hue.   That emitted by pollution or coition, becomes white
from its mixture with the whitish liquor of the prostate gland, and
by  convolution during its passage  through the urethra.   It has
somewhat the appearance  of diluted starch.  In certain diseases
the semen assumes a different color,  as yellow, black, &c. &c. 
252            PRUDENTIAL  REVELATIONS, AND

  In the semen, when examined with a magnifying glass,  are ob-
served a multitude of animalculae, with round heads and long tails,
and  which move  with considerable rapidity.  They seem to fly
from the light and to seek the  shade.  When the semen is emitted
into  the female  vagina, sub-coitu, it possesses  the  wonderful,
mysterious, and stupendous power of impregnating the  ovulum
(egg,) provided there  is the concurrence of indispensable circum-
stances and causes, as is fully demonstrated in another part of this
work.  As, in chaste  men, the  semen returning through the lym-
phatic vessels into the mass of the blood, gives strength to the body
and mind, so every one languishes under the abuse of coition, and
in nocturnal emission or self-pollution, and  hence spinal diseases,
derangement of the mind, and a train of infirmities  are the con-
comitants of onanism, lasciviousness, debauchery, and evil thoughts.
It is by the stimulus of the semen, absorbed  at the beginning of
puberty and  afterwards, into  the  mass of the humors, that the
beard and hair of the pubes are produced, and the weeping voice of
the  boy changed  into that of  a man.  The  auraseminis is that ex-
tremely .subtile and vivifying portion of the semen  virile, which
ascends through the fallopian  tubes to impregnate the ovum in the
ovarium.

                        Of the Menses.

  The menses are monthly discharges of a red  fluid,,  resembling
blood, from the uterus  of  women between the state  of puberty
and  old age.   It  is owing to  a periodical secretory action.  The
secretory organ is composed of the  arterial vessels situated in the
fundus of the  womb.  This  fluid differs very much  from pure
blood, and its use  is to render the womb fit  for the conception and
nutrition of the foetus;  (therefore females  rarely conceive before
the  menses appear,  that is, before puberty, and seldom after their
entire cessation, that is, after  the turn of  life, but very easily soon
after each monthly menstruation.)   By some derangement of the
6ystem, or some peculiar, morbid, or symptomatic  causes,  there
are  exceptions, and women sometimes, though seldom,  menstruate
during pregnancy.  Some menstruate while they continue to give
suck, others never menstruate,  and there  are  instances in which 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.           253
menstruation has appeared in  early infancy,  even at the age of
two or three years, and in other cases it has commenced in very
old age, even at sixty or seventy years.   Many most  astonishing
and sudden mental and physical changes are produced  in  girls  at
their first menstruation.   The complexion becomes improved, the
countenance more expressive and animated, their attitudes more
graceful, and  their conversation  more intelligent and agreeable.
They no longer cherish childish pursuits and amusements, but their
affections aim to higher attainments and to substantial happiness.
The tone of the voice is also changed,  and becomes more harmoni-
ous ; their whole frame,  especially the breasts, shoulders, hips, &c.
&c, are enlarged, and the pubes,  with a remarkable quickness, are
fully developed.   In regard to the nature of this menstruous fluid,
when secreted, it is supposed to have had in  past generations, as
even ribw in some cases it is admitted to have,  an influence, which
perhaps at times was, is, or may become, pernicious upon human-
ity, by its possession of some peculiar  malignant  properties, which
we do not  fully understand, nor  shall we venture to advance an
hypothesis in regard to them.
   Enough has been said on this subject, but we  may  add,  that it
appears from ancient writings, that the Jewish  Legislature  and the
Arabian physicians  entertained the opinion that  the  menstruous
blood possessed  some peculiar  and powerful malignant influence,
and this opinion is also credited and supported in almost all civil-
ized  nations at the present time.  The scrupulous and peculiar
performances, and  the severe  practices and  regulations to which
females were subject, in olden times, and which with many nations,
are enforced, even at the present day, upon the virgins, the widows,
and the wives, who were commanded and compelled to submit to
these laws at the time and after the menstrual discharges,  and the
fact that mothers too, after their parturition, were also compelled
to submit to these laws,  afford the most striking evidences of the
conviction of the best instructed.  The  community at large be-
lieved at that time, that much danger was incurred by the trans-
 gression of these regulations, and  that many deplorable physical,
 moral, and social evils were the consequence  of the infraction  of
 these laws.  That such laws existed is a well known and authenti-
cated fact, and to this day, among many  people, Jews and Chris- 
254            PRUDENTIAL  REVELATIONS,  AND

tians, Barbarians and  Pagans, may be traced the most striking
evidences of this truth in the ceremonies to which females of many
American Indian tribes are subjected.  See the severe but rational
regulations,  which have been enacted in some countries for the
conduct of husbands and  wives, and of women generally  at the
time of menstruation;  see the expressions used in  the  Book of
Genesis,  and  ancient  sacred  legislation generally.  See what is
said in Isaiah,  chap. 30, and in the book of Ezekiel.   See the dis-
posal made of  this bloody  fluid when discharged, or  of any thing
contaminated with it.   The complaints of women, attributed to its
retention, and the effects  enumerated by grave writers, indicate
the most dreadful  apprehensions of its baneful influence.  This
influence exists, perhaps, in greater or less degree, nevertheless at
the present day, in  this country, (the United States of America
and Canada,)  no malignity whatever is suspected, except it should
be  in those women themselves, who suffer by disease; the men-
struous  women mix  in society as  at all other times, and there
is not at  present existing, evidence or reason  for judging otherwise
than that this discharge is at the most of an inoffensive nature.


                      Of the Liquor Amnii.

   This is that fluid generally qalled the waters, contained in the
ovum, (egg>) called by. anatomists, amnios. It surrounds the fcetus
. in the womb;  and the foetus  is suspended in this  fluid by a soft
membrane.  The quantity of this  fluid is greater in early preg-
nancy, though it varies much, and  at the time of labor, in some
cases,  has amounted to four or six pints, and even more, while in
others it amounted  only to as many ounces.  It is generally more
abundant where the child has been  sometime dead, or is born in a
weakly state.   This fluid is generally transparent, often milky, and
sometimes of a yellow or light brown color, and very different in
consistence.   The  uses of this fluid are various.   It  serves for
 nourishment to the fcetus, and, like an atmospheric globe of peculiar
 attributes, it is therein preserved and increases.   It is guarded from
 harm, affording a soft bed and elasticity to the foetus, to which  it
 allows free motion, and prevents external injury during premiancy; 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.
255
and, enclosed in the membranes, it procures the most gentle, yet
efficacious dilatation of the os uteri and soft parts at the time  of
delivery.

                 THE HEAD  AND ITS  PARTS.

                         Of the  Head.

   The head is divided into two parts: the hairy part, and the face.
The former has five regions: the crown  of the head,  the fore and
hind parts of the head, and sides of the head.  Under the skull is
situated the  brain, and in front of the head we distinguish the re-
gion of the forehead, temples,  nose, eyes, mouth, cheeks, chin, and
ears.

                         Of the  Brain.

   The brain is a large round viscus, and the little brain is a small-
er one of the  same  consistence.  Both brains are  divided  into
several departments or organs, as is fully explained by phrenologists.
The brain is situated within the  cranium and  surrounded by dis-
tinct membranes,  each one performing an individual  important
office.  The brain is oonnected with nine pairs of nerves and with
the spinal marrow.  It is also the immediate medium of the intel-
lectual functions.   On this subject study the important science of
phrenology.

                          Of the Ears.

   The ear is divided into the  external and internal ear.  The ex-
 terior is  concave,  and so formed as to collect sounds, or rather
 those vibrations of air, which  strike upon  the tympanum or drum
 of the ear.   The tympanum is a  cavity which separates the exter-
 nal from the internal  ear, and has the appearance of a thin film,
 or membrane drawn  tightly across the passage into the ear, like a
 drum-head.  The cavity of the tympanum and all the canals which
 end  there  are covered  with a very slender nervous  membrane.
 This cavity is always full of air;  a sonorous body when it agitates 
256
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
the air, produces a vibration, which striking on the drum or tympa-
num, produces sound.  The opening into the ear is guarded by a
bitter substance called ear-wax.  It keeps  out insects from  the
drum, unless there is a hole through  it.  People should gently re-
move the superabundance  of this wax, and wash their ears often
with weak soap-suds to prevent partial deafness, and remove  ob-
structions, thus preventing also the entrance of insects, especially
the ear-wigs.  When the wax of the  ears appears dried, it may be
moistened with best sweet or almond oil, &c.
   The internal ear is the labyrinth and it may truly be called thus.
It is a perfect machine, wherein is to be seen several apartments or
rooms, furnished with many minute subdivisions,  channels, tubes,
conical cells, &c, all collectively uniting in one pipe, which opens
into the  drum-barrel; besides, in  another direction,  there is con-
nected the minute orifice of a cone-shaped pipe, that opens with a
trumpet-like  extremity in the mouth.  The entire anatomy of  the
ear, and of its apparatus, with the application and description of
its analysis, are very beautiful, instructive, and interesting; but we
could not  illustrate it, without  plates,  and  still less describe its
affinities or importance.
  Besides, to extend our remarks upon its doctrine, without plates,
would render the  subject  obscure;  and  adding the barbarous,
unintelligible names of all  the organs within the ear, given by the
anatomists, would render our attempt confused, incomprehensible,
and futile.  Let what has been said suffice, and may the reader ad-
mire  its  wonderful fabric,  as nothing is more philosophically con-
structed, than the eara and  the eyes.


                          Of the Eyes.

  The parts constituting the eye are divided  into external and in-
ternal.   Of the former we will mention a few: 1st,  the eyebrows, to
prevent  the sweat  falling into  the eyes and for moderating the
light above.   2d. The eyelashes, which keep external bodies out of
the eyes  and moderate the influx of light.   3d. The eyelids, to
cover and defend the eyes;  in their internal surface they secrete
an oily, or mucilaginous fluid, which  prevents the attrition of the 
              THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.           257

eyes and eyelids, and facilitates their motion.  4th. The lachrymal
rjlands, which are placed near the  corner of the  eye, from which
six or more canals issue and open on the internal  surface of the
upper eyelid.  There  are several other ducts and a membraneous
sack,  destined for the formation and secretion of tears.  5th.  A
nasal duct,  which passes  through the bony part  below, into the
cavity of the nose, and opens under the  spongy bone into the nos-
trils.  6th.  A white membrane, which lines the internal superfices of
the eyelids, and covers the whole fore part of the globe of the eye.
It is very vascular, as may be seen in inflammations.  The internal
parts of the bulb or globe of the eye is composed of eight coverings
or membranes, two chambers,  and three  fluids.  Four of these
membranes are placed on the hinder part of the bulb or globe, and
four on the anterior or fore part of it.  They are all well calculated,
each  performing  its respective office; the round opening in the
centre is called the pupil, which is contracted  or dilated by the
power of almost invisible muscular fibres.  The membrane  retina,
which is the innermost tunic on the hinder part of the globe,  is of
a white color, and similar to mucus, being an expansion of the optic
nerve, chiefly composed of its  medullary part.  The two chambers
are filled with an aqueous humor.
  The humors of the eye  are  three.  1st.  The aqueous  humor,
which fills both chambers.  2d.  The chrystalline lens, or humor,  a
pellucid body, about the size of a lentil, which is enclosed in an
exceedingly fine membrane  or capsulae, and lodged in a concave
depression of the vitreous  humor.   3d.  The vitreous humor is a
beautiful, pellucid, transparent  substance,  which fills the whole
bulb of the eye behind the crystalline lens.  Its external surface is
surrounded with a pellucid membrane, and in the anterior part is a
fovea or bed, for the chrystalline lens.  The connection of the bulb
is made anteriorly by  means of the conjunctive membrane, with the
inner surface of the eyelids, and posteriorly by the adhesion of six
muscles of the bulb and the optic nerve with the orbit.  The  orbit
nerve perforates two membranes and then constitutes the retina by
spreading itself on the whole  posterior part of the internal globe
of the eye.  Six muscles move the eye in its orbit.  It is surround-
ed by considerable fat and  fills up the cavities  in which the eyes
are seated.
                         S3 
 258           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

   There are also arteries in the eye.   The veins empty  into the
 jugulars.   The nerves are the optic and  several other branches.
 Externally, the globe of the eye and the  transparent  cornea are
 moistened  with a most limpid fluid, called tears, which  pellucid
 subtile fluid exactly fills  all the  pores of the transparent cornea.
 The coat of these, when deprived of this fluid, and exposed to the
 air, becomes dry, shrivelled, and cloudy, impeding the rays of light.
 To this organ of vision and its diseases, many anatomists and  phy-
 sicians have devoted years of study and investigation, leaving to
 us the most scientific volumes treating of its doctrines.


                         Of the  Nose.

   The formation of the nose is very curious.   It has  cavities to
 collect odors, as the ears to collect the vibration of air.  The organ
 of smell is a mucous membrane  which lines  the cavities of the
 nose.  The two nostrils  are composed  of fourteen bones, several
 muscles, nerves, arteries, veins, &c.  Through the nose is discharg-
 ed that mucus which is secreted within its  membranes and the ad-
 joining secretory organs.   The use of  the  nostrils is for smelling,
 respiration, and speech.


                        Of the  Mouth.

  The mouth is constituted by integuments, the lips, muscles, jaws,
palate, two alveolar arches, the gums, tongue, cheeks, and glands.
 The bones of the mouth are the lower jaw, two superior maxillary,
and two palatine bones,  and the teeth.   There are arteries, veins,
nerves, &c.  The  mouth  is for  mastication,  speech, respiration,
deglutition, secretion, and  taste.


                         Of the  Teeth.

  The rudiments of the teeth lie in the jaw-bone, like little lumps
 of jelly.  They are  surrounded  by a peculiar membrane, called 
                THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.           259

  gums, and a long socket, which shoots up from the upper and under
  jaws, as the teeth advance.  There  are three periods of dentition,
  or the breeding or cutting of teeth,  to wit:  in  infancy, in  youth,
  and in adult  age.  When  the first set of teeth has  answered its
  purpose, the roots and sockets are absorbed, and the teeth are shed.
  This change is wonderful, and shows us the nice adaptation of the
  different parts to the condition of the body.   The number of teeth
  varies in different subjects, but they  seldom exceed thirty-two, and
  very rarely are less than twenty-eight.  Each tooth from the point
  of the fang has an inner cavity, which is supplied with blood-vessels
  and nerves.   In old people this hole closes  and becomes ossified,
  rendering the tooth insensible.
   In regard to the  gums, they are exceedingly vascular and pos-
 sess a cartilaginous  hardness  and elasticity.   The  gums of infants
 before dentition, have a hard ridge, extending through their whole
 length, while this ridge is wanting in those who have lost their teeth.
 The teeth are divided into incisores,  canine, and molars.   The in-
 cisores are the four front teeth of each jaw, so called on account of
 their only cutting and dividing the food in the manner of a wedge.
 They  have two surfaces  which meet in a sharp edge.  The canine
 are the longest of all, and some resemble a dog's tusk.   Their use is
 intended not for dividing, or cutting, or grinding the food, but to
 lay hold of substances.   One of them lies on  each side of the in-
 cisores, so that there are  two in each jaw.  The  molars or grinders
 are ten in each jaw, and serve  to grind the food.  Should we treat
 upon the doctrine of the  teeth fully, our remarks would be extend-
 ed to too great a length.  The subject is very  interesting  to the
 philosopher, the naturalist, and the physician, yet  perhaps of but
 little value to the general reader, and as our remarks and instructions
 on anatomy are intended to be general and to  answer only as a sy-
 nopsis, we will not deviate from our purpose by farther remarks.


                        Of the Tongue.

  The tongue  is a soft, fleshy viscus, very flexible, and constituting
the organ of taste.  It  is composed of muscular fibres, covered by
a nervous membrane, on which are a great number of nervous 
  260            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

  papilla?.  The uses of this organ are for speaking, chewing, swal-
  lowing, sucking, and tasting.


                           Of the Palate.

    The palate, or roof of the mouth, is soft and spongy.  From the
  middle of it, over the root of the tongue, hangs down the uvola,
  which is composed of the common  membranes of the mouth, &c.
  The uvola, by the contraction of  the membranes, is raised  up.
  Within  the  exterior soft muscles of the palate, there are intersect-
  ed several nerves, bones, &c, which form  part of it.  The palate
  extends to the opening of the  fauces, and terminates with  the
  uvola, the glands called tonsils, &c.   The  whole apparatus  is in-
  tended for preparing the food, swallowing it, and thrusting it down
* to the fauces into the pharynx, &c.


                         OF THE SPINE.

    We thought  best to place here a description of the spine.  We
  trace its origin between  the head and  the neck.  The spine is a
  long column or pillar of bones, extending on the  posterior part of
  the head, from the great occipital foramen to the lower part of the
  back, called the sacrum.   It is  composed of twenty-four bones,
  called vertebras, which name is derived from the latin word verto,
  to turn.  The body moves and turns in every direction upon these
  bones.  They are  divided into three classes; five belong to the
  loins, twelve to the back, and seven, (called cervical vertebrae,) to
  the neck.   The spine is the foundation, or  chief mechanical sup-
  port of  the whole frame, and gives protection to the spinal marrow,
  which, in  one sense, is a  part or continuation of the brain itself,
  enclosed within, and running through  the whole  length of the
  spine.  These bones are joined and united together by fibres differ-
  ing  in  strength, and mucous substance,  compressible  like cork,
  which form  a kind of partition between  each of them, and facili-
  tates their motion and flexibility.   These intervertebral cartilages
  are subject to contraction and relaxation, and derangement or abuse 
               THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF  NATURE.           261

of them  causes various diseases, and occasions  old  men to  stoop
forwards.   This is also the reason of our being taller in the morn-
ing, after a good night's rest, than on the previous evening.   The
spine is likewise strengthened by strong surrounding internal and
external ligaments, throughout its whole length, and  by the numer-
ous nerves, muscles,  arteries, veins, &c,  which intersect it every
where.  The spine is like the mast of  a ship, and these ligaments,
muscles,  nerves, &c,  attached  to it,  serve for its  rigging,  the
office of which  seems to be to  watch  over the whole fabric, and
govern the internal organs — the heart, lungs, fiver, intestines, the
entire viscera, &c, in their embryo state, as well as in their further
development, perfection, and  preservation.  To  say  more  upon
the spine would perhaps be uninteresting to many;  but the physi-
cian  must  be thoroughly acquainted with  the  spinal system, and
its anatomical importance, and should  study  it with  unceasing
application, and acquire a perfect knowledge  of its nature and
influence, before advancing his opinion on diseases.


                     OF THE OS  SACRUM.

   This is that bone called the small of the back, or the  lowest bone,
commencing directly under the last vertebra, and terminating with
the fundament.   It is  called os sacrum,  a  name derived from  its
being offered in sacrifice by the ancients, and from  its supporting
the organs of generation, which they considered  sacred.   This
bone is so shaped  and  arranged  as to enable us to sit with ease.
We could not, in accordance with our purposes, devote our time
and pages to expounding the doctrine of the bones,  nor their indi-
vidual  nature, character, office, &c, and  even if something  should
be said here in  explanation,  much and most  important matters
would  be left behind,  unexplained and  untouched.  We shall, if
time  should allow, give, in another work,  a complete treatise on
this and other matters. 
262
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
                OF THE NECK AND ITS PARTS.

                         Of the Neck.

   The external parts of the neck are the common integuments, sev-
eral muscles, nerves, arteries, veins, and glands.  In the anterior
region there is an eminence, which is usually considerably larger
in men than in women, called pomum Adama, (Adam's apple.)  It
was so called from a  whimsical supposition  that part of the forbid-
den fruit, which Adam  ate, stuck in his throat.  The internal parts
of  the neck  are the  fauces, pharynx, oesophagus, larynx, and
thrachea, or windpipe.  The bones  of the neck  are the seven cer-
vical vertebrae, they being the beginning of the spine.


                        Of the Fauces.

  The fauces is a cavity beyond the  tongue, palatine arch, uvula,
and tonsils, from which  the pharynx and larynx proceed.


                      Of the Pharynx.

  The pharynx is a muscular bag situated at the back part of the
mouth.  It is shaped like a funnel, adheres to the fauces, behind
the larynx, and terminates in the oesophagus.   It receives the mas-
ticated food, and conveys it into the oesophagus, from whence it
passes into the stomach.


                      Of the (Esophagus.

  The CEsophagus is that membraneous and muscular tube attached
to the pharynx, and descending in the neck, terminates in  the
stomach.   It is composed of three tunics or membranes.   The
oesophagus is every where, under the internal or mucous membrane, 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
263
 supplied with glands that secrete and separate the mucus, in order
 that  the masticated mass may readily pass down into the stomach.


                         Of the Larynx.

   The larynx  is a large and short tube or cavity, situated behind
 the tongue, in the anterior  part of the fauces, and  lined with an
 exquisitely sensitive membrane.  The walls of the larynx are form-
 ed by various  cartilaginous  plates.  It is  composed of cartilages,
 minute glands, arteries, veins, and nerves,  so arranged as to form a
 perfect instrument.   The larynx constitutes the organ of voice,
 and serves for respiration.


                  Of the Windpipe, or Trachea.

   The windpipe, or  trachea, called also the bronchia, is a cartilagi-
 nous  and membraneous canal, through which the  air  passes into
 the lungs.  On the upper part, or superior extremity of the wind-
 pipe, or trachea, it is attached to the larynx, where, on its upper-
 most  part  is placed  the epiglottis, which lies at the root of the
 tongue, and the upper extremity of it is loose, and always elevated
 upwards by its own elasticity.  While the tongue is drawn back-
 wards in swallowing, the epiglottis is put  over the aperture of the
 larynx;  hence, on the  act of  deglutition, it shuts up the passage
 from the mouth into the larynx, which is connected with the wind-
 pipe.   The cartilages of the windpipe are like incomplete rings,
 and from the larynx  down to the lungs they  gradually diminish in .
 size, and branch  throughout the air-cells of both lungs.  The tra-
 chea,  or bronchia, in all  its  ramifications, is supplied with a great
 number of small glands, which are deposited in its cellular  sub-
 stance, and discharge  a mucous fluid on the inner surface of these
 tubes.  Throughout,  the windpipe is furnished with fleshy or mus-
 cular fibres.  Some pass through the whole extent, longitudinally,
 and others  are carried round it in a circular direction, so that, by
the contraction or relaxation  of these fibres, it is able to shorten or
lengthen itself, and likewise to dilate or contract the diameter of 
 264           PRUDENTIAL  REVELATIONS,  AND

 its passage.   The cartilages of the trachea afford a front passage to
 the air which we respire, and, by their contraction  and dilatation,
 enable us to receive and expel  it in greater or less quantity, and
 with greater or less velocity, as required in singing, speech, decla-
 mation,  &c.    There are  nerves,  arteries,  &c,  throughout the
 trachea,  and  the veins empty into the jugular.


          OF THE CHEST,  ITS PARTS, AND CONTENTS.

                    Of the Chest or Thorax.

   The chest, or thorax,  is  situated  between the neck and the ab-
domen.   Its  external parts  are,  the  common integuments, the
breasts in women, various muscles,  twenty-four ribs, and the ster-
num, (breast bone.)   Within the cavity of the chest are situated
the pleura and  its productions, the lungs, the heart, thymus gland,
oesophagus, thoracic duct, nerves, arteries, veins, part of the great
intercostal nerve, &c, &c.

                          Of the Ribs.

   The ribs are  long curved bones, placed in  an oblique direction
at the sides  of the  chest.   The seven upper ribs of each side are
attached  to the  breast bone, and from the first to the seventh they
increase  in length, by which  the  cavity of the chest is enlarged;
while the five  below them gradually diminish in  length, thus di-
minishing the cavity.  The direction of the ribs on  each side, from
the top to the twelfth downward, is oblique, forming, as it were a
bundle of hoops, playing on each other.  Each rib is connected be-
hind to  the  spinal column, and  is furnished  with ligaments and
strong cartilages, &c, which afford  the perpetual articulation and
motion, so much  needed for respiration, and  for the benefit, sup-
port, and preservation of the internal organs.   The ribs vary from
each other on each side  of the chest, to which they give form cover
and defend the  lungs, and help them inbreathing, &c. Much mi<rht
be said respecting their  arrangement and action, yet, to the reader
in general, this would  avail but little; while  the  anatomist and
the physician might consult other authors. 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.
265
                        Of the Breasts.

   The breasts, or mammae, are two globular projections, composed
of common integuments, adipose substance,  lacteal glands and
vessels, arteries, veins, and nerves.  They adhere to the anterior
and  lateral regions of the  thorax in females.  On the middle of
each breast is a projecting portion, termed the papilla or nipple, in
which  the excretory ducts of the glands terminate, arid around
which is a colored orb, or  disc, called the areola.  The use of the
breasts is  well known, without explanation.


                     Of the Thoracic Duct.

   The thoracic duct  is the trunk of the  absorbents.  Its form is
serpentine, and about the diameter  of a  crow quill.  It lies upon
the dorsal vertebra, between the  aorta and the vena azygos, and
extends from the posterior opening of the  diaphragm to the  angle
formed by the reunion of the left subclavian and jugular veins, into
which  it opens, and  evacuates  its contents.  In this course, the
thoracic duct receives the absorbent vessels from almost every part
of the body.

                        Of the Lungs.

   The lungs are two viscera, situated in the chest, and by means
of which we breathe.  The  one in the right cavity of the chest is
divided into three lobes, and that in the left cavity into two.  They
hang in the chest, attached  above, in the neck, to the trachea, and
are separated  by the mediastinum, which  is a membraneous sub-
stance, formed by the dupficature  of the plura, which divides  the
cavity of the chest into two parts, and is itself divided intp an an-
terior and posterior portion.   The  lungs  are  also attached to the
heart, by means  of  the pulmonary vessels.  The  substance of the
lungs is of four kinds: vesicular,  vascular, bronchial, and paren-
chymatous.  The vesicular  substance is composed of the air-cells ;
the vascular invests those  cells;  the bronchial is formed by  the
                      34 
266            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS,  AND

ramifications of the bronchia throughout the lungs, having the air
cells at their extremities;  and the spongy cellular substance,  or
tissue, that connects these  parts together, is  termed parenchyma.
The lungs are covered with a fine membrane, the reflection of the
pleura.  The internal surface of the air-cells is covered with a very
fine, delicate, and sensitive  membrane, which is continued from the
larynx,  through the trachea and bronchia.  The  arteries of the
lungs are, the bronchial, a branch of the aorta, which carries blood
to the lungs for their  nourishment;  and the pulmonary, which cir-
culates the blood through the air-cells, to undergo a certain change.
The pulmonary veins return the blood that has undergone this
change, by four trunks, into the left auricle of the heart.  The
bronchial veins terminate in the vena  azygos.  The nerves of the
lungs are many; and the absorbents are of two orders, the super-
ficial and the deep-seated.  The glands of these viscera are muci-
parous, and are called bronchial, as they are situated about the
bronchia.
  N. B. — If we  compare  the  lungs with a gland,  intended  to
secrete the  carbon of the blood, the bronchial tubes, bronchiae,
and trachea, may be compared with the ducts of a secretory gland.
Like all such ducts, it is lined throughout,  as  above stated, with a
mucous membrane ; but, unlike them, it is never closed, or collapsed,
when emptied of every thing but air, for it is surrounded, through-
out the whole length of the main canal  and its  branches, by a series
of cartilaginous arches, or rings, external to the membrane, which
holds it open at all times.

                        Of the Pleura.

  The pleura is a membrane which lines the internal surface of the
thorax, and covers its viscera.  It forms a great process, the medi-
astinum, which  divides the thorax  into two cavities, rendering it
moist, by the vapor it exhales.  The cavity of the thorax is every
where lined by this smooth  and  glistening membrane, which forms
two distinct portions,  or bags.  These bags, being applied to each
other laterally, form the partition called mediastinum, thus dividing
the cavity into two parts; and thus  the  mediastinum  is  attached,
posteriorly to the  spine,  and anteriorly  to the  sternum,  (breast 
               THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.            267

 bone.)   The two laminae, of which the mediastinum is formed, do
 not every where adhere to each other, but at the lower part of the
 thorax they are separated, to afford a lodgment to the heart, and,
 at  the upper part of the cavity, they receive between  them the
 thymus gland.   The pleura is plentifully supplied with  arteries and
 veins, but  its nerves are very inconsiderable.  The surface of the
 pleura, like those membranes lining cavities, is constantly bedewed
 with  a serous moisture, which prevents  adhesion  of  the  viscera.
 The mediastinum, by dividing the breast into two cavities, obviates
 many inconveniences to which we  should otherwise be liable.   It
 prevents the two lobes of the  lungs from  compressing  each other,
 when we lie on one side, and, consequently, contributes to the free-
 dom of respiration, which is disturbed by the least pressure on the
 lungs.  If  the point of a knife penetrates, between the ribs, into
 the cavity of the  thorax, the lung on that  side ceases to perform its
 office, because the air, being admitted through the wound, prevents
 the dilatation of that lobe, while the other lobe, which is  separated
 from it by the mediastinum, remains unhurt, and continues  to per-
 form its functions as usual.

                         Of the  Heart.

  The human heart has the  appearance of a double-heart, and is
 a hollow, muscular viscus, placed in the cavity of the pericardium,
 in an oblique situation, — its base standing on  the right of the
 bodies of the vertebrae, and its apex obliquely to  the sixth rib, on
 the left side.  Externally, it  has a base,  a  superior and inferior
 surface, and  an  anterior  and posterior margin.   Internally, it  is
 divided, by a large vertical  partition, into two halves, each con-
 taining two cavities or chambers, namely, a ventricle and an auri-
 cle.  The whole heart is intersected by fibres and  nerves, and the
four chambers of it are lined  with  extremely irritable membranes.
 From the heart, spring the roots of the arteries  and veins.  The
general  form of the heart is a cone, or  an irregularly reversed
 pyramid; its volume is about  equal to  the fist, and its substance, to
appearance, almost entirely  fleshy.   The heart  is  the  principal
locomotive engine, the beautiful machine, where the blood receives
the  periodic, electric, mysterious,  and ever-renovating starts  re- 
268           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

quired for the immediate support of fife.  The blood in the heart
moves  in  two circles;  one from  the heart  to  the  body, and
from the body back to the heart again; the  other  from the heart
to the lungs, and thence again to the heart  Thus the blood flows
constantly, through the medium of the veins, from  the  body on its
way to the heart, which propels it to the lungs, to be purified by
the air we inhale, and hence it is returned back again to the heart,
where, through the medium of the arteries, it takes a new start and
circulates  throughout the whole system, until it arrives  at  the end
of the capillary conduits of said arteries, where then, by a process
invisible, (though experience confirms  the fact,) it is absorbed by
similar capillary vessels, pertaining to the  veins, and through these
veins it is  again reconveyed to the heart, and passes from it into
the lungs,  to undergo a  renewed purification, arid thus be  recon-
verted into  arterial blood.  The  blood cannot retrograde in  its
passage; as the heart, arteries, and veins are furnished with valves,
which  open to receive it, and to give it  a free circulation, and
firmly  close to prevent a regurgitation of  it.   The  quantity of
blood thrown into the circulation, at  every pulsation of the heart,
is about an ounce and a half, (three table spoonfuls,) which, at the
rate of seventy-five pulsations  per minute, would average one hun-
dred and twelve and  a half ounces, or seven  pints;  that is, four
hundred and  twenty pints, or fifty gallons,  an  hour;  or  not less
than forty-two barrels, or ten and a half hogsheads, in a day.  The
diseases to which this  organ is  subject,  are always of the most
serious  nature, very dangerous, and generally terminating  in an-
guish, agony, and sudden death.


                      Of the  Pericardium.

  The pericardium  is  a  membraneous  bag, that surrounds  the
heart.   Its use is to secrete  a vapor  contained  in it, which lubri-
cates the  heart, and thus preserves it from concreting with  the
pericardium. 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.
269
            OF THE ABDOMEN AND  ITS CONTENTS.

                       Of the Abdomen.

  The abdomen, commonly called  the belly, is the largest cavity
in the body.  The diaphragm separates it from the chest, and it
terminates at the bones of the pubes.   On both sides of the abdo-
men lie the short  ribs; in front, the  abdominal muscles;  and be-
hind, the vertebrae of the loins and the back-bones.  Internally, it
is invested by a very important, smooth membrane, called the peri-
toneum, and externally by muscles and common integuments.   In
its cavity are contained the most  important visceral and vital or-
gans, to wit: in front and latterally, the stomach, omentum, mesen-
tery, intestines,  lacteal vessels,  pancreas, spleen,  liver, and  gall
Dladder.   Posteriorly  are  situated the  kidneys,  the  suprarenal
glands, the ureters, the  receptaculum chyle, the artery aorta,  and
the  vein called vena cava.  Inferiorly in the pelvis, and externally
the  urinary bladder, the  spermatic vessels, the rectum, &c,  and
the  organs of generation, with those distinctions partaining to each
of the sexes respectively.  The  navel is situated in the middle of
the  forepart of the belly, properly called the abdomen.  The  fol-
lowing are  some of the principal organs, situated within the  abdo-
men, or externally:

                    Of the Epigastric Region.

  The epigastric region is that part of the  abdomen that lies over
the  stomach.  It reaches from the pit  of the stomach to an imagi-
nary line across, above the navel, from the last false rib of the right
side to the left.   Its sides are called hypochondria, and are covered
by the false ribs, between which lies the epigastrium.


                      Of the Diaphragma.

  The diaphragm, or midriff, is  a  muscle that  divides  the thorax
from the abdomen.   It is composed  of  two muscles; one  arises 
 270           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

 from Jhe breastbone and from the ends of the last lower rib of
 each side;  the other has its origin  in  the spine, at the back of the
 loins, and both are joined together by tendons, so  that they make
 one muscular partition.  The diaphragm is covered by the pleura,
 on the upper side, and by the  peritoneum, on the  lower side.  It
 is pierced in the middle for the passage of the vena cava, and in its
 lower part for the oesophagus and the  nerves, which  extend to the
 upper orifice of the stomach; and  between the productions of the
 inferior muscle,  pass the aorta, the  thoracic duct, and the vena
 azygos.   The  diaphragm  has  branches of arteries, veins,  nerves,
 &c.  In its natural situation it is convex, on the upper side, towards
 the breast, and concave on its lower side, towards the belly; there-
 fore, when its fibres swell and contract, it becomes smooth on each
 side, and consequently the cavity of the breast  is  enlarged to give
 liberty to the lungs to  receive air in inspiration;  and the stomach
 and the intestines are  pressed  by it for the  distribution  of their
 contents; hence the use of this muscle is very  considerable.  It is
 the principal agent in respiration, and is indispensable in inspiration;
 for, when it is in action, the cavity of the thorax is enlarged, par-
 ticularly at the sides, where  the lungs  are chiefly situated; and as
 the lungs must always be contiguous to the inside of the thorax and
 upper side of the diaphragm, the air rushes into them  in order to
 fill up the increased space.  In expiration it is released and pushed
 up, by the pressure of  the abdominal  muscles upon the viscera of
 the abdomen; and at  the  same time  that they press it upwards,
 they pull  down  the ribs, by  which  the cavity of the thorax is
diminished, and the  air suddenly pushed out of  the lungs.


                      Of the Peritonaeum.

  This is a strong simple  membrane,  by which all the viscera  of
the abdomen are surrounded.   It has an exceedingly smooth, ex-
haling, and  moist internal surface.  Outwardly«it is everywhere
surrounded  by a cellular substance, which towards the kidneys is
very loose and very  fat, and it is very short at the lower tendon of
 the transverse muscles.   The  peritonaeum begins from the dia-
 phragm, which it completely lines, and  in a circuitous and serpen- 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.
271
 tine direction, extends all around the different organs, and it even
 dips down to the pelvis  and rectum, lining  and investing every
 distinct part of each organ, the viscera, intestines, &c.
   The cellular texture, which covers the peritonaeum on the  out-
 side, is continued into sheaths in very many places, one of which
 covers the testicles on each side ; another, the iliac vessels of the
 pelvis, &c.; others  ascend  to  the chest,  the  oesophagus, &c.  By
 these means there is a communication between the whole body and
 the peritonaeum, a fact which has been well authenticated, particu-
 larly on examining  dropsical people.  The shorter productions of
 this  membrane are  called ligaments, and are  formed by  a continu-
 ous reduplication of the  peritonaeum receding from its inner sur-
 face, enclosing cellular substance, and extending to  some viscus,
 where its  plates separate, and having diverged, embrace the viscus,
 while the  intermediate cellular substance always accompanies this
 membraneous  coat,  and connects it with the true substance of the
 viscus.  By these means the  tender substance of the organs and
 viscera is  defended  from injury by any motion or concussion, and
 their whole  mass is prevented  from being misplaced by  their own
 weight,  and from injuring  themselves, being securely connected
 with the firm sides of the peritonaeum.


                       Of the Omentum.

  The omentum, epiploon, or  caul, is an  adipose membraneous
 viscus of the abdomen, and is attached to the  stomach, and lies on
 the anterior surface of the  intestines.  It is thin and  easily torn,
 being formed of a dupficature of the peritonaeum, with  more or
 less of fat  interposed.  It is distinguished into the great and the
 little omentum, and between the right side of the liver there is a
foramen, into which, if air be blown, the duodenum, the  cavity of
the omentum and all its sacks  may be distended.  The  omentum
has lymphatic vessels, and numerous glands, and its office appears
to be the same as that of the peritonaeum. 
272
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
                      Of the Mesentery.

  This is a membrane in the cavity of the abdomen attached to the
vertebrae of the loins, and to  which the intestines adhere.  It is
formed of a dupficature of the  peritonaeum, and contains within it
adipose membrane, lacteals, lymphatics, lacteal glands,  arteries,
veins, nerves, &c.  Its use is the same as that of the peritonaeum.


                       Of the Stomach.

  The stomach is  the principal organ  concerned in  digestion.  It
is a large membraneous bag, or receptacle, somewhat oblong, and
round, resembling a bag-pipe.  It is situated in the epigastric region
obliquely across the lower part of the  chest, which receives the
food from the oesophagus.  It is largest on the left side, and gradu-
ally diminishes  towards  its lower  orifice, where it is smallest. It
has a great curvature, and extends downwards,  from one orifice to
the other, where the omentum  adheres to it; and it has also' a small
curvature, which  is between both  orifices, but superiorly and pos-
teriorly.  The stomach, like the  intestinal canal, is composed of
three coats or membranes.  1st. The outermost, which is very firm,
and originates from the peritonaeum.   2d. The muscular which is
very thick, and is composed of various muscular fibres.  3d. The
innermost, or villous coat, which is covered with exhaling and in-
haling vessels, and mucus.  These coats are connected together by
cellular membranes.
   The glands of the stomach which separate the mucus are situated
between the villous and  muscular coats in the  cellular structure.
In this organ there are also arteries  and veins, the latter termi-
nating in the vena portae.
   The nerves of the stomach are very numerous, and the lymphatic
vessels are distributed throughout the whole substance, terminating
in the thoracic  duct.  The use of the stomach is to  excite hunger
and thirst, to receive the masticated food, and by the motion of the
stomach, the admixture of various  fluids, and many other changes, 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.
273
to digest it, and  render it fit to pass down into the intestines, for
chylification and nutrition.  The chief agent concerned in digestion
is the gastric juice, which is secreted by the inner coat of the stom-
ach, and  acts  chemically  on the alimentary  substances.   The
stomach is an enlarged portion of the alimentary canal,  which is
continuous with the oesophagus, and which is the  seat of the most
remarkable  phenomena of digestion, that is, the transformation of
the aliments into chyme.


                       Of the Intestines.

  The  intestines are the convoluted membraneous tube  which is
attached to the stomach and extends to  the anus.  Many are the
offices of this organ.   It receives the  indigested food, retains it a
certain  time, where it incessantly undergoes new changes, and mix-
es with  the bile  and pancreatic juice; it propels the chyle into the
lacteals, &c, and dislodges  the faeces through the anus, &c.   The
intestines  are situated in the cavity of the abdomen, and are divid-
ed into  the small and large, and have, besides their size, other cir-
cumstances  of distinction.   A  knowledge  of the nature of the
intestines  is of the utmost importance to professional men, but of
little interest to the uninitiated, and does not  come within the lim-
its of our synopsis.
   The first  portion of the intestinal tube for  about the extent of
twelve fingers breadth is called the duodenum, and lies in the epi-
gastric region.   It makes three turnings,  and between the first and
second  flexure receives by a common opening, the pancreatic  duct,
and the ductus communis choledochus.   Chylification  is chiefly
performed  in this portion of the intestines.   The jejunum com-
mences where the duodenum ends; it is situated in the umbilical
 region, and is generally found empty.   It is every where covered
with red  vessels,  and, about  an  hour and a half after a meal, is
 covered with  distended lacteals; hence  follow the ileum, situated
 in the  hypogastric region and the pelvis, and is  of a more pallid
 color than the former.  It terminates by a transverse opening into
 the large intestines, called the valve of the ileum, where it is firmly
 tied down to the right iliac region, and for the extent of about four
                           35 
 274           PRUDENTIAL  REVELATIONS,  AND

 fingers' breadth  is called the coscum,  having,  adhering to it, a
 worm-like process.  The  great intestine then commences at that
 part called the colon ; it ascends towards the liver and passes across
 the abdomen, under the stomach, to the left side, where it is con-
 torted like the letter S, and descends  to the pelvis: hence it  is
 divided in its course into the ascending portion, the transverse arch,
 and the sigmoid flexure, and when it has reached  the pelvis it is
 called the rectum, from  whence it proceeds in a straight line to the
 anus.  That part of the  intestines called the colon, is generally
 found on dissection empty, and full 'of wind.
   The intestinal  canal is composed of three membranes, or coats;
 a common one derived from the peritonaeum, a muscular coat, and
 a villous coat, the villi  being  formed of the fine terminations of
 arteries and nerves, and the origins of lacteals and lymphatics.
 The intestines are connected with the body by the mesentery; the
 duodenum has also a peculiar collecting cellular substance and like-
 wise the colon and rectum, by means of which the former is firmly
 accreted to the back, the colon to the kidneys,  and the latter to the
 os coccygis, and, in women, to the vagina.   The  remaining portion
 of the tube is loose in the cavity of the abdomen ; yet the whole of
 the intestines are  also supported in their place by their own nature,
 and by the intersection of the glands,  muscles, ligaments,  mem-
 branes, nerves, arteries, veins, &c.  Many are the diseases which
 attack this organ,  and many the derangements which the intestines
 suffer.  Very few physicians understand these derangements and
 know their symptoms, or  can  trace their  causes even from their
 concomitant effects; still less do they know how to remove obstruc-
 tions,  or even relieve the afflicted, and  many sufferers  have fallen
 victims to  their ignorance,  under their daring  and unjustifiable
 experiments.

                          The Anus.

  This is called also the fundament, it being the lower extremity,
or the end, of the large  portion of the great intestine, terminating
with the rectum.  Its office is to form an outlet for the faeces, called
alvine excretions. The anus  is furnished with muscles, formed
with fibres of a broad  circular shape, which  are peculiar to it, in 
                THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.           275

 order to keep it habitually closed, and to dilate it, and draw it up
 again to its natural state, after each evacuation.  The anus and
 rectum are subject to various and peculiar diseases, as piles, ulcer-
 ations, abscesses, excrescences, prolapsus, &c, &c.   Many children
 are born without perforation of the anus, and then a surgical oper-
 ation is needed.

                     Of the Lacteal Vessels.

   These are  the absorbents of the mesentery, which originate in
 the  small  intestines, and convey the chyle from  thence to the
 thoracic duct.  These vessels are tender and transparent, possessed
 of an infinite number of valves, which, when  distended with chyle,
 give them a knotty appearance.   They arise from the internal sur-
 face of the villous  coat of the  small intestine, perforate the other
 coats,  and form  a  kind of net-work; while the greater number
 unite, one  with another, between the muscular and internal coats.
 From  thence  they proceed,  between  the laminae  of the  mesen-
 tery, to  the conglobate glands.   In their course,  they constitute
 the  greater part of the glands through which they pass, being
 distributed through them several times, and curled in various direc-
 tions.  The lacteals, having passed these glands, go to others, and,
 at length, seek those nearest the mesentery.   From these glands,
 which are only about four or five, the lacteals  pass out, and ascend
 with the mesenteric  artery, and  unite with the lymphatics of the
 lower extremities and  those of the abdominal viscera, and then
 form a common trunk, the thoracic duct, which, in some subjects,
 is dilated at its origin, forming the receptaculum chyly.


                       Of the Pancreas.

  This is a glandular viscus of the abdomen, of a form resembling
 a dog's tongue.  It is situated in the epigastric region, under the
stomach.   It is composed of  innumerable small glands, the excre-
 tory ducts of which unite, and form one duct, called the pancreatic
duct, which perforates the duodenum with the ductus  communis
choledochus, and conveys a fluid, in its nature perhaps  somewhat 
276
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
similar to saliva, into the intestines.  The use of the pancreas is to
secrete the pancreatic juice, which is  to  be  mixed with the chyle
in the duodenum.  See Pancreatic Juice.


                         Of the Liver.

  The liver is a large viscus — the largest gland of the body—of
a deep red color.   It is of great size and weight, divided into two
principal  lobes, and subdivided into smaller ones.  It is  situated
on, and firmly attached to, the diaphragm or midriff; the right
globe extends far down, on the right  side, and extends across the
middle of the body, towards the left side.  To describe this viscus
and its operations fully, several things are to be attended to, as its
ligaments,  surfaces,  margins,  tubercles, fissure, sinus,  the pori
biliary, &c.  An explanation of them is of the utmost importance
to the anatomist, to the medical man, and subtle inquirer; while
the analysis and minute description of this organ would avail but
little to the interest and profit of the general reader, for whom this
work is intended.  The fiver  is  intimately connected with  the
principal  organs of life, and, except  the heart  and lungs, is the
organ most essential to the nourishment of nature.  It is inter-
sected by veins, arteries, nerves, glands, absorbents,  vessels, biliary
channels, ducts, and pores.   The chief use of the liver is to create
and prepare the bile, thus converting the blood, and, perhaps, other
fluids, which therein flow, into this bitter fluid, to supply it to the
intestines, &c. It is of the  utmost  importance in chylification, &c.
  Diseases of the liver are of such a  nature, that but few, and,
we dare express the opinion, that none, of our most experienced,
scientific,  and skilful  medical  men have succeeded in fully illus-
trating their practice with a correct doctrinal theory upon the sub-
ject, and, still less, have they left us any rule by which to form, in
each individual  case, an accurate and sound judgment, or for  a
salutary general treatment of them.  We shall endeavor,  through
this work, in appropriate places, to present to the faculty, and to
the people in general, much theoretical light on this  subject, and to
give  some idea  of the means which  enable  us to  determine the
character of diseases by their own symptoms and effects. We shall 
               THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.           277           *

 also point out the most successful treatment, and the best remedies,
 in complaints of the liver and lungs, all of which will be illustrated
 with such doctrinal  rules as, when well examined and understood,
 must convince even the unlearned of their correctness, and lead
 the practitioner, and the inquirer for health, to the starting-point of
 attainment, based on truth, experience, and sure  success.


                      Of the Gall Bladder.

   This is an oblong,  membraneous receptaculum, situated  below
 the liver, to  which  it is  attached, under the right hypochondrium.
 It is composed of three membranes;  common, fibrous, and villous.
 Its use is to retain the bile, which regurgitates from the hepatic
 duct, there  to undergo a change, and become thicker, more  acrid,
 and bitter;  when fully prepared,  it  is conveyed, and passes from
 its neck  through  a small tube, the size of a crow-quill, into the
 duodenum, it being the first portion of the intestinal canal, situated
 immediately  below the pit of the stomach.


                   Of the Suprarenal Glands.

   These  are two  hollow bodies, like glands in fabric, and placed
 one on each side upon the kidney.  They are covered by a double
 tunic, and their cavities are  filled with a liquor of a brownish red
 color.  Their figure is triangular, and they are larger in the fcetus
 than the kidneys, while in adults they are smaller than the kidneys.
 The right is affixed to  the liver, and the  left  to the spleen and
 pancreas, and both  to the diaphragm and kidneys.  They  are
 intersected with arteries,  veins, nerves,  &c., and their lymphatic
 vessels go directly into the thoracic duct  The use of these glands
 is  not yet ascertained to the full satisfaction of the naturalist and
 physiologist, yet we believe they have a direct influence upon the
 system of the fluids, and perhaps  upon the brain and the nervous
 system, and also on the spleen, as  it is ascertained that in children
who  are  born without the cerebrum, these  glands are extremely
small, and sometimes wanting. 
278      .     PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
                         Of the Spleen.

   The spleen, or melt, is a spongy viscus, of a livid, dark red sub-
stance, and so variable in form, situation, and  magnitude, that it is
difficult to determine either.  Nevertheless, in a healthy person, it
is always placed on the left side, between the eleventh and twelfth
false ribs.  Its circumference is oblong  and  round, longer when
the stomach is empty than when full, convex towards the ribs, and
concave internally, and has an  excavation  wherein vessels are in-
serted.  It is connected,  first, with the stomach, by a ligament and
short vessels; second, with the omentum and the left kidney; third,
with the diaphragm, by a portion of the peritonaeum; fourth, with
the beginning  of the pancreas, by vessels;  and, fifth, with the
large intestine, by a ligament  The spleen is covered with one
simple, but firm membrane, arising from the  peritonaeum,  which
adheres to the spleen Very firmly by the intervention of cellular
structure.   The spleen has arteries  and veins, and  it is believed
by others, but not by us,  receives a larger  supply of blood than is
requisite for the mere nutrition of  it,  while no one has, as yet,
definitely been  able to account for  the  disposition  of this blood,
except as the result of conjecture.  We, however, have elsewhere
shown and demonstrated  the  necessary uses of this organ, and the
blood circulating therein.  Our theory has fully exhibited the har-
monious combination existing between every organ of life, of which
we consider the spleen to be one, and of as much importance as a
medium of life  and sense, as the brain itself.
   The spleen receives its support from many sources, and is inter-
sected with nerves and lymphatic vessels, creeping along ita surface.
The use of the spleen then, according to our theory, is to convey
throughout every organ  and viscera, even  to  the brain itself, and
indeed perhaps, from what we  know, in every part of the body,
certain ramifications, which we  have properly called a species of
nerves, originating from the spleen, and from this circumstance we
have denominated them the spleenian organic nervous system.  The
important office of this kind of  nerves is to  impart the involuntary
motions to every organ  throughout  the  system, precisely on the 
              THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.           279

same principle as the nerves of sensation  and will, whose origin is
traced in the brain, act upon that organ.


                        Of the Kidneys.

  These are an abdominal viscus, which secrete the urine.  They
are situated  in  each lumbar  region, near the first lumbar verte-
brae, behind the peritonaeum.   This organ is composed of three
substances;  a  cortical, which  is external, and very  vascular; a
tubulous, which consists of small tubes; and a papulous substance,
which is the innermost.  The  kidneys are generally surrounded
with more or less of an adipose membrane, and they have also a
proper  membrane, which is closely accreted to the cortical sub-
stance.   The  renal arteries, called also emulgents, proceed from
the arota, and the veins evacuate  their blood  in  the  vena cava.
The absorbents accompany the blood-vessels, and terminate in the
thoracic  duct  The nerves are numerous.  The excretory duct
of this viscus is  called the ureter.   At the middle of the kidney,
where  the  blood-vessels enter  it,  is a large, membraneous bag,
which diminishes like a tunnel, and forms a long canal, the ureter,
which conveys the urine from  the  kidney to the bladder, which it
perforates obliquely.


                        Of the Ureter.

  This is a membraneous canal, which conveys the urine from the
■tidney to the  urinary bladder.   At its superior part it is consider-
ably the largest,  occupying  the greatest portion of the bag of the
kidneys ; it then contracts to the size of a goose-quill, and descends
into the pelvis, ending in and perforating the urinary bladder very
obliquely.  Its internal surface is lubricated with mucus, to defend
it from the irritation of the urine in passing. 
280
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
                    Of the Urinary Bladder.

   This bladder is a membraneous pouch, capable of dilatation and
contraction, situated in the lower part of the abdomen, immediately
behind the  symphysis pubis, and opposite to the beginning of the
rectum.  Its figure is nearly that of a short oval.  It is broader at
the front and back part  than on the lateral parts;  more round
above  than below, when  empty; and broader  below than above,
when fulL  It is  divided  between the body, neck, and fundus, or
upper part.  The neck is  a portion of the lower part, which is
contracted by a sphincter muscle.   This  organ is made up of sev-
eral coats.  The upper, posterior, and lateral parts  are covered by
a reflection of the peritonaeum, which is connected by a cellular
substance to the muscular coat  This is composed of several strata
of fibres, the outermost of which are mostly longitudinal, the  inte-
rior becoming  gradually more transverse, and connected together
by a reticular membrane.  Under this is the cellular coat, which is
nearly  of the same structure with the tunica nervosa of the stom-
ach.  From the internal or villous coat is poured out continually a
mucous fluid, which  defends it from the  acrimony of the urine.
Sometimes the internal surface is found very irregular and full of
rugo, which appear to be occasioned merely by the strong contrac-
tion of the muscular fibres, and may be removed by distending it
The  sphincter does not seem to be a distinct muscle, but merely
formed by the transverse  fibres  being closely arranged about the
neck.  The  urine is  received from the ureters, which enter the
posterior  part of the bladder obfiquely, and when a certain degree
of distension has occurred, the muscular fibres are  voluntarily
exerted to expel it

                       Of the Urethra.

  This is a membraneous canal, running from the  neck of the
bladder through the inferior part of the penis, to the extremity of
the glans penis, in which it opens by a longitudinal  orifice. In its
course  it first passes through the  prostate gland; it then becomes 
               THE  GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.           281

much dilated, and in this part is situated a cutaneous eminence,
around  which are ten  or twelve orifices of the excretory ducts
of the prostate gland, and two  of the spermatic  vessels.  The  re-
maining part of the urethra contains a number of triangular mouths,
which are the openings of the excretory ducts of the mucous
glands of  the urethra.


                    Of the Prostate Gland.

  This is a very large, heart-like, firm gland, situated between  the
neck of the urinary bladder and the bulbous part of the urethra.   It
secretes a lacteal fluid, which is  emitted  into the  urethra by ten or
twelve ducts,  that open during coition, &c.   This gland is liable
to inflammation, and hence its fearful consequences.
  N. B.   Physicians should be particular in their judgment of such
and similar diseases.  They ought to study with special care and
attention,  not only the anatomy of the kidneys and their apparatus,
but the  adjoining ureters, the   urethra, prostate gland, &c. &c,
their nature, and the laws under which their mechanism is govern-
ed, the influences exerted, their a<lmirable connections,  the  origin
of causes,  and their effects, and  the  great number of diseases and
derangements, the origin of which is  traced to these organs.   There
are a great many phenomena, yet unexplained, which have much to
do, we think, in the development of a knowledge of their laws, and
in reference to their  nature and existence.


                    Of the  Umbilical  Cord.

  The umbilical cord, or navel-string, is a cord-like  substance, of
an intestical form, about half a yard in length; it proceeds from
the navel of the foetus to the  centre  of the placenta.  It is compos-
ed of  a cutaneous  sheath, cellular substance, one  umbilical vein,
and two arteries; the former conveys the blood to the child from
the placenta, and  the latter  returns it  from the child to the pla-
centa.
                    36 
282
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
                         Of the Pubes.

   The pubes are those external parts of the organs of generation
 of both sexes, which  after puberty are covered with hair, as the
 mons veneris, which is that triangular  portion of the lower bowels
 where hair grows, &c. &c.


                         Of the Pelvis.

   This is the cavity below the belly.   It contains the  rectum and
 urinary bladder, and  the internal organs of generation, and pos-
 sesses muscles  and bones.  The  bones of the  pelvis are four in
 number, united together and terminating like an oval ring, which
 parts the cavity of the pelvis from the cavity of the abdomen.  The
 circle of the brim supports  the impregnated womb,  keeps it up
 against  the  pressure of labor-pains;  and sometimes this line has
 been ' as sharp as a paper-folder, and has cut across the segment of
 the womb;'  and by separating the womb from the vagina, has ren-
 dered delivery impossible.  In such a case  the  child escapes into
 the abdomen, and the  mother dies.   The lower part of the pelvis
 is denominated the outlet, and is so constructed  with  its ligaments
 as to be wide and  dilatable, to permit the delivery of the child;
 but being sometimes too wide, it permits the child's head to press so
 suddenly, and with such violence upon the  soft parts, that the per-
 inaeum,  (which is the space between the anus and organs of gener-
 ation,) is torn.   The marks of the female skeleton are most con-
 spicuous in those parts which relate to that great function by which
 chiefly the sexes  are  distinguished;  for while the male pelvis is
large and strong, with a  small  cavity, narrow  openings, and bones
 of greater strength, the  female pelvis is very  shallow and wide,
 with a large  cavity and slender bones, and possesses every peculiar-
ity which mayi conduce  to  the easy  passage of the  child.   The
office of the pelvis is to give a steady bearing to the trunk, and to
connect it with the lower extremities; by a sure and firm joining
to form the centre of all  the great motions of the body; to contain 
THE GOLDEN  BrBLE OF NATURE.
2$3
the internal organs of generation, the urinary bladder, the rectum,
and occasionally part of the small intestines; and to give support
to the gravid womb.


                  Of the Vesicula: Seminales.

   These are  two membraneous receptacles, situated on the back
part of  the  bladder, above  its neck.  The secretory ducts are
called ejaculatory ducts.  They proceed to the urethra, into which
they open  by a peculiar orifice at the top of  the verumontanum.
They have vessels and nerves from the neighboring parts, and are
well supplied with absorbent vessels, which proceed to the lymphatic
glands  about the loins.  The use  of the vesiculae  seminales is to
receive  the semen brought into them by the vasa de  fercutia, to
retain it in a somewhat inspissate  state, and to eject it sub  coitu,
into the urethra, from whence it is  propelled into the vagina uteri.


                        Of the Penis.

   This  is the cylindrical part  that hangs down under the  mons
veneris, before the scrotum of males.   Anatomists divide it into the
root, the body, and the head, (called the glans penis.)   The penis
is composed of common integuments, two corpora cavernosa, the
corpus spongiosum, (which surrounds a canal,) and the urethra, (that
proceeds from the bladder to the apex of the penis, where it opens
and emits the urine.)   The fold of the skin that covers the  glans
penis, (the head,) is termed the prepuce.  The penis has arteries,
veins, and  nerves.  The absorbents of this organ are very numer-
ous,  and run under  the  common integuments in the  inguinal
glands ; absorbents are also found in great numbers in the urethra.
The glands of the penis are those called Cowper's glands, the pros-
tate, muciparous, and odoriferous glands.  These last are situated
around  the corona glaudis of the male, and under  the  skin of the
labia majora and  nymphae  of  feiriales, and secrete  a  sebaceous
matter, which emits  a peculiar odor.  The uses of the penis are
well known to  every male and female who has arrived at the age
of puberty ;  hence we omit a description. 
284
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
                       Of the Testicles.

  The testicles, or testes, are two little oval bodies, situated within
the common integuments, which form a bag, called the scrotum.
They are covered by a strong,  white, and dense coat,  named
tunica albuginea.  Each testicle is composed of small vessels bent
in a serpentine direction, arising from the  spermatic  artery,  and
convoluted into little heaps, separated from one another by  cellular
partitions.  In each partition there is a duct receiving semen  (the
seed) from the small vessels; and all the  ducts constitute a  net,
which is attached to  the tunica albuginea.  From this  net-work
twenty or more vessels arise, all of which  are variously contorted,
and, being reflected,  ascend to the posterior margin  of the testis,
where they unite into  a common duct, bent into serpentine wind-
ings, and forming a hard body, which has the appearance of a bag.
There are important  arteries,  veins, nerves, &c.  &c, connected
with the testicles.  The use of the testicles,  in conjunction with the
scrotum, (the bag,) is to prepare the  semen, (the seed,) to render it
fit and ripe for conception,  and  to secrete it.


                        Of the Vagina.

   This is the  canal which  leads from the  external orifice of the
female pudendum, to the womb.  It is somewhat of a conical form,
with the narrowest part downwards, and  is capable of being ex-
tended to from five to six inches, or  even  more, in length, and to
about two or three in a diametrical straight line.  The vagina is com-
posed of two coats, the first or innermost of which, is villous, inter-
spersed with  many  excretory ducts, and  contracted into small
transverse folds, particularly  at the  fore  and back part,  but, by
child-bearing, these are lessened or  obliterated.  The second coat
is composed of a firm membrane, and there exists in it a contractile
power,  fike that of a muscle.   This is surrounded by a  cellular
membrane, which connects it  with  the neighboring  parts.  The
peritonaeum covers a portion of the upper  and posterior part of the 
             THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.             285

vagina.   The  entrance of the vagina is constructed of muscular
fibres.   The upper part of the vagina  is connected with the cir-
cumference  of the mouth of  the  womb as follows: — It extends
itself beyond the womb, and,  in a circular and parallel form de-
scending, it is joined together at the neck of the womb, so that it is
reflected over  the mouth of  it, and thus, by this mode of union,
the womb is suspended with protuberant fips in the  vagina, and
permitted to change its position in  various  ways and directions.
When,  therefore, these  parts are distended and unfolded at the
time of labor, they are continued into each other, and there  is no
part which  can be  considered as the precise  beginning of the
uterus or termination of the vagina.   The  imperfections and dis-
eases of the vagina  are very  numerous.  We notice four or five.
1st.  Such an abbreviation and contraction  as renders it unfit for
the  use for which  it was designed,  so as to render coition im-
practicable.  2d. A cohesion of the sides in consequence  of pre-
ceding  ulcerations.   3d.  Cicatrices, after an ulceration of the  parts.
4th. Excrescences.  5th. Fluor albus, &c. &c.  These diseases, and
the proper mode of treatment, are  spoken of in  the appropriate
places.


                         Of the  Clitoris.

   This is a small, glandiform body, fike a penis in  miniature, and
like it,  is covered with a prepuce, or fore-skin.  It is situated  above
the  nymphae  and before the opening of the  urinary passage  of
women.  The  clitoris, fike the penis, is composed of a cavernous
substance, and of a  gland, which  has no perforation, but, fike that
of the penis, is exquisitely sensitive.   The clitoris  is the principal
seat of pleasure during  coition;  it is distended  with blood, and
after the venereal  ecstatic rapture, or  orgasm, and the exciting
paroxysms of the carnal sensuality are over, it becomes flaccid and
falls.  Instances have occurred in which the clitoris was so enlarg-
ed as to enable the female to have venereal commerce with others.
 To substantiate this fact, we  give an account of one of the most
remarkable cases of this description ever recorded  in physiological
 annals, and which fell under  the author's immediate  observation
 and professional attendance. 
 286           PRUDENTIAL  REVELATIONS,  AND

   In December, 1843, the Doctor was consulted, at his residence,
 in New Haven, by  a highly respectable  lady, in  regard to her
 daughter, twenty-two years of age, who was then suffering much
 anguish and humiliation in consequence of hysteric  attacks, and
 the most acute feelings of a delicate nature, arising from a certain
 excrescence, as the mother called it, which only four months previ-
 ous begun to manifest itself in the daughter's private parts.  From
 the mother's description of the symptoms, the Doctor soon imagined
 that the unhappy daughter was the victim of the severest effects of
 nymphomania, and subject to uncontrolled ecstatic orgasms  and
 venereal raptures, accompanied by the whole concomitant hysteric
 consequences of this awful malady.  Yet it would have been an
 unjustifiable course for him to have formed a conclusion in regard
 to her  situation, and prescribed accordingly, unless aided by an
 investigation of her  case, and  a full  knowledge  of its nature.
 Avoiding all hypotheses, and in order to become familiar with the
 symptoms, and through  them to  trace, also, the specific seat  and
 origin of the disease, which the mother, of course, could  not de-
 cide,  and to determine upon  a  rational and  effectual  course of
 treatment, it was agreed to have, on the following day, a profes-
 sional examination.
   The  Doctor, according to  appointment,  on entering the sick
 woman's chamber, for the first  time, was horror-struck, and shrunk
 back at the sight before  him.   The patient, a few moments previ-
 ous to his visit, had fallen into a paroxysm, and was then  in a tre-
 mor, and clinging to her mother's bosom.  A  wandering, wanton,
 and fainting look was depicted  on her countenance, and her tears
 were  intermingled  with the most violent  laughing  and  convul-
 sive cries and  anguish.  Her sobs and sighs were deep, affecting,
 and piteous, and piercing were her entreaties to her mother.   Her
 efforts to gratify her corrupted volitions were very violent and sav-
 age,— more so, undoubtedly, than were ever witnessed in any case
 of nymphomania, with all its characteristics of brutal and obscene1
 actions.    She attempted  to consummate  unnatural intercourse,
■which the broken-hearted mother violently, and with  more than
manly strength, repulsed and opposed.
  In their struggle, the appearance of the Doctor was by both  un-
noticed.  After a few minutes of perplexity he interposed, when 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE  OF NATURE.            287
 the terrified daughter, at the first sight of him, fell at once to the
 ground, in a cataleptic state, and helpless prostration.  She however
 soon recovered from her lethargy and languor, and in deep confu-
 sion and shame, and with  strong, confiding  simplicity and hope,
 earnestly  appealed to his profession  and  humane  feeling, and
 requested him to have compassion on her truly miserable condition
 and despairing state, and desired,  if he could not at  once relieve
 her overwhelming anguish,  degradation, and suffering, to take her
 life, — willing to drink any  potion and die under the accelerating
 power of a deadly poison, as the long wished-for  herald and means
 of her  deliverance,  rather  than endure  such a miserable, loath-
 some life of misery and torment.  The Doctor  succeeded in par-
 tially soothing her  grief and  relieving her desponding  state, and
 turning his  attention  to the  object  of his  professional  call, went
 into a full inquiry  and examination  in regard to her case, while,
 with virtuous reluctance, she submitted to this imperative duty.
    The deformity  was easily detected, and  manifested itself  in
 the clitoris,  the dimensions of  which,  in its then relapsed  state,
 measured three  inches in length, and more  than  two in circumfer-
 ence.   On voiding water, she was obliged to lift it up, as it covered
 the orifice of the urethra.   The  hymen was unbroken ;  hence she
 was pure and a virgin; and at  no period, to all  appearance, had
 the physical or moral influence  produced by the disease and its
 effects ever caused irritation in the surrounding parts, or affected,
 in the smallest degree, the   internal  cavity of the pelvis, nor the
 several organs contained in the vagina; nor were there  any symp-
 toms of inflammation, nor uterine  obstructions, nor obstruction of
 the ovaria, &c.   Her general health was-otherwise perfect, and she
 had a strong physical constitution.   Her intellect  was adorned by
 moral attainments, and  scrupulous modesty and  virtue.  She was
 a model to her sisters of the church,  of which, for years, she  had
 been a member.
   The form of the clitoris, though in a flaccid and falling state, was
peculiar, resembling a virile member, and  was surrounded  by a
large, movable,  and folded  fore-skin, in exact likeness to a well-
shaped prepuce.  At its head it had an orifice, but on the introduc-
tion o{ the probe, she could not  endure it.   A dense  and strong-
Bmelling vapor, but apparently not of an acrid nature,  and resemb- 
 288            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

 ling the fluid secreted from  the odoriferous glands, was  the only
 visible moisture discoverable.  It extended itself through the whole
 length of the external surface of this enlarged organ.   The sensa-
 tions felt after each paroxysm, were a languid  anguish, and  unea-
 siness, accompanied by cramp-like  and wandering pains  and con-
 tractions in the region of the loins, which affected the surrounding
 parts in straight and transverse lines,  up and down, towards the
 abdomen, and across  the  mons veneris, and downwards into the
 limbs.  In an unexpected moment, and without premonitory symp-
 toms, the paroxysms  would assail her, in  their most malignant
 form;  and quite as suddenly, in the very height of the most violent
 sensations and delirious  suffering,  and  without the least  previous
 abatement, she would become relieved and calm.
  When the disease first made its appearance, the paroxysms were
 neither so intense nor so aggravated ; but they occurred  in a mild
form, once every two or three weeks.  It was after this slow pro-
gression of four months that  she resorted to medical advice, in con-
sequence of the attacks having been renewed, during the  previous
fortnight, at  every hour, and daily, with an increased and over-
powering virulence.
 . When in her mother's company,  or of any female, or even in the
presence of her own father or  a male  relation, she was equally
afflicted, and without distinction, she would unexpectedly and vio-
lently assail their persons in  the most lewd manner, with  the  most
brutal  and shockingly obscene  contortions.   When left alone, she
 would shriek piteously and roll on the sofa, or bed, or floor, and in
raving anguish, fiercely strike her head on the walls, or any thing
 at hand.
  These were the symptoms of  her deplorable  state, as the  Doctor
had been informed at his first visit, and as afterwards confirmed by
his personal observation.  He  had purposely prolonged his profes-
 sional visit, at that time, in expectation of witnessing the symptoms
 at the very commencement of a  paroxysm.  Three full hours passed
 away, in  which time she had  unexpectedly been perfectly quiet,
 and  without the least  prospect  of the occurrence of a paroxysm;
 therefore, leaving directions for  the use of a  refrigerent wash  and
 a nervine mixture, he, with soothing language, encouragement,
 and  hope, assured her  of his  return towards  evening.  He had, 
               THE  GOLDEN BIBLE OF  NATURE.           283

however, hardly withdrawn from the chamber, when the noise and
shrieks of the young lady, and  the  calls for the doctor, by her
mother,  arrested  his  attention, and  he quickly reentered the
room.
  Another paroxysm had seized the  patient.   The most violent
and powerful efforts  accompanied the  erotic orgasms, and the rap-
tures were in exact resemblance to the hymeneal excitements ex-
perienced in actual coitions.  This time, she, with one hand, held
the enlarged clitoris,  while, with  the other, she  exerted  herself  to
subdue her mother to her depraved wish.  The doctor at once in-
terfered, exerting his whole strength.  This time, her unconscious-
ness of his presence lasted under the paroxysm, for ten minutes,
which  afforded the  opportunity for. a strict professional examina-
tion, and a correct  view of the clitoris.  He took hold of this
organ.   It measured six and a half inches in length, and three  in
circumference.   It was hard,  rigid, and  very tense, and exactly
resembled a penis in a state of priapism.  It could not be bent, nor
rendered in the least flexible, and it was extremely sensitive.   The
probe was again  introduced, without  obstruction, one inch and a
half,  when, upon pressure,  to force it farther, she aroused sud-
denly.   The paroxysm and the tensity of the clitoris had instantly,
as from an electric shock, subsided.  The  clitoris, shrinking  back,
had become flaccid;  while, as on former occasions, she fell breath-
less to the ground, by the  force of the  ravishing excitement.   For
about a week, and since the experimental introduction of the probe,
she had  been free from all excitements. The clitoris  remained,
however, in its monstrous  form, and without alteration, as large  as
when  in a relapsed  state.   The  repeated experiments  and medi-
cines of the doctor appeared to be of little or no avail, except the
introduction of the probe  at the time  of an actual paroxysm.   It
would instantly relieve her, and, for many successive  days, it re-
tarded the occurence  of  the  paroxysms.  The omission of this
operation  would increase  her attacks  to  an  hourly  renewal.
  After a few weeks' unsuccessful treatment, even by the use of
the most powerful medicines and applications, suggested  upon con-
sultations with many  eminent physicians, who were, to a  man, (the
doctor excepted,) in favor of an  amputation of the clitoris, he dis-
covered, on close examination, at the  time of a paroxysm, that iu
                       37 
290           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

the edo-e of its head, within its orifice, was  to be seen a certain
something,  which, with  care, he soon extracted, leaving a small
stain of bloody matter.   It proved to be a coarse, thread like hair,
with branched  roots, perhaps,  months past, detached  from the
mons veneris, (the private parts,) and therein  confined, which, in
the course  of time, had formed, by its acridity, an elongated in-
ternal sore  or ulcer, resembling a fistula.   Hence he accounted for
the existing orifice,  and treated it accordingly, with  unexpected
success, as, in a few days, it was perfectly closed and healed.  The
lady, from  the day of its abstraction,  had been free from parox-
ysms or any inconvenience.   The clitoris  had ceased to grow and
be excited, and, by degrees, had diminished in size.
  Women who naturally, or by mechanical means, or by intem-
perate indulgence, masturbation, or lasciviousness, become thus de-
formed, appear to partake, in their general  character, less of the
female character than usual, and partly assume the characteristics
of men, and are termed  hermaphrodites. Many ladies are, more or
less, deformed at this part.  In childhood it is always larger, in pro-
portion, than in full-grown women,  and often it projects, even one
inch, beyond the  external labia.


                         Of the Hymen.

  The hymen is a thin membrane, of a semilunar or circular form,
placed at the entrance of the vagina, which it partly closes.  It has
a very different appearance  in different women; and it is generally,
if not always, found in virgins, and  is, very properly, esteemed the
test of virginity, being, in almost all instances, ruptured in the first
act of coition.   The hymen  is not peculiar to the human species,
many of the brute creation, possessing  it.  There are two circum-
stances relating to the hymen which require medical assistance.  It
is sometimes of such a strong ligamentous texture, that  it cannot be
ruptured, and prevents the connection between  the sexes.  It is
also sometimes imperforated, wholly closing the entrance into the
vagina, and preventing any discharge from  the uterus; but both
these cases are very rare, yet they have occasionally fallen under
the observation of the writer.   If the hymen be of an  unnaturally 
TnE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.
231
 firm texture, but perforated, though, perhaps, with but a very small
 opening, the inconveniences thence arising will not be discovered
 before the time of marriage, when they may be removed by  a
 ■crucial incision made through it, taking  care  not to injure the'ad-
 joinmg parts.   When the hymen is not perforated, its inconveni-
 ences will be felt at the beginning of menstruation; for the men-
 struous fluid, being  secreted from  the womb at each period, and
 not evacuated, the patient suffers much pain from the distension of
 the parts.  Many strange symptoms and appearances are occasioned,
 and  suspicions  injurious to her reputation  are often entertained;
 but,  at  hist, diseases of  a most  serious character  are  its  cob-
 sequences, and if its retention should  not be soon remedied, by a
 surgical operation, death would be the certain result.  Similar ope-
 rations have frequently been performed, also, by the writer, with
 uniform success, giving instant  relief,  and causing a radical cure.
 Generally, it will be found, on  examination, when the menstruous
 fluid is there detained for months, by similar  causes, that a circum-
 scribed tumor of the womb is formed, sometimes reaching as low as
 the vagina, and oftentimes as high, or higher,  than the navel.   The
 external parts are stretched, by a round, soft substance, to be felt
 at the entrance of the vagina, so as to  resemble  the  appearance
 which exists  when the head of a child is passing them;  yet there is
 no entrance to the vagina.   By an incision carefully made through
 the hymen, which has generally, at this period, a fleshy appear-
 ance, and is much  thickened by its detention, the detained  fluid
 will immediately flow.  It is of  a dark tar-like consistence, and so
 corrupt, as to exhale a strong, foetid, putrefied effluvia.  By such
 an operation, many  pints of this fluid are often immediately  dis-
 charged, to the sudden relief of  the patient, and the immediate re-
 moval of the tumefaction of the abdomen.  To this operation an-
 other should succeed, it being the most important, to wit:  several
 stellated incisions should instantly be made, with care, through the
 already divided edge.   The  first incision  should be of considerable
 width, and great care should be taken to prevent a reunion of the
hymen, by occasionally introducing through it an elongated roll of
linen, well greased, which should be immediately withdrawn. This
should be done  often,  till  the  next period of menstruation,  and
monthly, for three or four months.  After the hymen is broken, by 
292           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

marriage or other causes,  in some instances the carunculce mysti-
formes, that is to say, the broken parts of the hymen, are very
troublesome, and excessively painful, so much so,  as  to  prevent
coition.

                       Of the Nymphce.

  These  are the  membraneous folds situated between the labia ma-
jora, on each side of the entrance of the vagina uteri.  From these,
and the surrounding parts, or from a preternatural irritability of
the womb,  of the pudenda, or of the  clitoris, or from an  unusual
acrimony of the  fluids secreted from these parts, is traced the im-
mediate cause of that humiliating, and truly affecting,  and awful
hysteric disease,  the nymphomania, the characteristics of which are
— an unceasing, acute, irritation ; an excessive stimulus of carnal,
lascivious excitement; and a violent,  uncontrolled desire for coition
in women.   For its description, see another part of this work.


                       Of the Ovarium.

   The ovaria are two flat oval bodies, about one inch in length
and rather more than half an inch in breadth and thickness.  They
are suspended in the broad ligaments, about the distance of one
inch from the womb, behind, and a little below the fallopian tubes.
The ovaria contain a number vescicles, or ova, (eggs,) to the amount
of twenty-two, of different sizes, joined  to  the internal surface of
the ovaria by cellular threads, or pedicles.  These eggs contain a
fluid, which has  the appearance of thin lymph.   They are, in fact,
to be seen  in every healthy young woman,  though they differ very
much in their number in different ovaria, but they seldom exceed
the number above stated.   The ovaria prepare whatever is needed
by females to be supplied towards the formation of the fcetus; and
if the ovaria should be taken from  a woman, as is often the case,
she could no longer conceive, and the stimulus of carnal pleasures
and her desire for coition would be forever extinguished.   The
outer coat of the ovaria, together with that of the womb, is given by
the peritonaeum; and whenever  an  ovum  (egg) is  passed into the 
              THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.           293

fallopian tube, a fissure is observed at the part through which it is
supposed to  havU  been transferred.  These fissures healing, have
small longitudinal cicatrices on the surface,  from which  the  anato-
mist is enabled to determine, whenever the ovarium is examined, the
number of times a woman has conceived.  The ovaria  are subject
to different diseases, as drops}', especially on the cessation of the
menses, and to inflammations after delivery, scirrhus and cancerous
affections  and enlargement.   The ovaria  often adhere  to some
adjoining parts, as the womb, rectum, bladder, &c, discharging the
corrupted matter from the vagina, by stools, by urine, or by exter-
nal  abscess of the integuments of the abdomen.


                    Of the Fallopian Tube.

  This is a canal included in two laminae of the peritonaeum, which
arises at each side  of the fundus, that is, the upper  part of the
womb,  and passes transversely, and  terminates with its extremity
turned downwards at the ovarium.   Its use is to grasp the ovum,
(egg)  and convey to it the prolific vapor which is issued, in the
act  of  coition, from the male, and then  to conduct the  fertilized
ovum into the cavity of the womb.


                        Of the Womb.

  This is a spongy receptacle, resembling a compressed pear, situ-
ated in the cavity of the pelvis, above the vagina, and between the
urinary bladder and the  rectum.  The womb,  when impregnated,
becomes more oval according to the degree of its distension, and
when it is not impregnated, it is about three inches in  length, two
in breadth at the upper part, and one on the lower part.   Yet the
length, breadth, and thickness of the womb varies much in different
women, independent of the states of virginity, marriage, or preg-
nancy.  The cavity of this organ corresponds with the external
form, and is corrugated  in a  beautiful manner ; but the rugae, or
wrinkles,  which are longitudinal, lessen as  they advance into the
womb, the upper part of which is smooth.  Between these wrinkles 
294            PRUDENTIAL  REVELATIONS, AND

are small orifices, like those in the vagina, which discharge a mucus",
serving, besides other important purposes, that of closing the orifice
or mouth of the womb very curiously and perfectly during  preg-
nancy.  The substance  of  the womb, which is very firm, is com-
posed uf arteries, veins, lymphatics, nerves, and muscular fibres,
curiously interwoven and connected together by cellular membrane.
The muscular fibres are of a pale color, and in their texture very
different from those in other parts of the body.   From the angles
at the upper part of the womb, two processes of an irregular round
form originate,  called the Fallopian tubes.  They are about three
inches in length, and, becoming smaller in their progress from  the
womb, have an uneven, fringed termination.  The canal  which
passes through  these tubes  is extremely small  at their origin,  but
gradually becomes  enlarged, and terminates  with  an orifice, of
about one third of an inch in diameter.  Through this canal  the
communication  between the wornb and the  ovaria  is preserved.
The womb is supported  by  several ligaments, which are subject to
many derangements. The womb and  its conjunctive organs have
many heretofore unexplained  constructions and connections,  be-
sides their mutual sympathetic power, with which however  every
practitioner should be familiar.*   Knowledge on this subject is of
the utmost importance, as upon  these unexplained  constructions
and connections depend the  existence and support of the  womb
itself.   The affinities and influences of these organs upon the ani-
mal economy of every female organ, and upon the system of life,
are very great; and when deranged, many arid alarming are  the
diseases to*which women fall victims, at every period of their exist-
ence,  in whatever state they may be, in consequence of the igno-
rance and inexperience of  medical men.  Many diseases, and of
similar character, even at the present day, baffle the investigations
and skill  of the  most  eminent American physicians, who  pride
themselves upon their  own judgment, rejecting the French  and
Italian doctrines and theories.  They meet -with disappointment,
however, in their treatment and expectations, and in their want of
success.
  The womb itself is liable to many diseases, the principal of which

            * See on this subject the ' Classic French Writers.' 
               THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.            295

 are retroversion and falling down, and hydatids.   The hydatid is a
 very singular ariimal, enclosed in a thick muscular bladder, dis-
 tended with an aqueous fluid.  It is also often found in the natural
 cavities of the body, in the liver, lungs, kidneys, brain, &c.  If the
 vires  naturce  medicatrices  are not sufficient to  effect a cure, the
 patient generally falls  a sacrifice to its ravages.  See in the index,
 under the head of ' Hydatids,' a description of  them, and the
 nature and treatment of the disease.  The womb is also subject to
 dropsy,  moles,  polypi, tumors,  ulcerations, cancers,  &c.  These
 diseases and those of the adjoining organs would be radically cured
 and prevented, if the treatment laid down in this work should be
 strictly adhered to.   The  use of  the  womb is for menstruation,
 conception, nutrition of the foetus, and parturition.


                        Of the Amnios.

  The amnios is that soft internal membrane which surrounds the
fcetus.  It is very thin and pellucid in the early stages of pregnancy,
but acquires  considerable  thickness  and  strength in  the  latter
months.   The amnios  contains a thin, watery fluid, in which the
foetus is suspended.  '(See Liguor Amnii.)


                       Of the Placenta.

  This resembles a cake, and is  vulgarly called  the  afterbirth;
it is the  already developed   and  combined  membranes of the
ovum, (egg,)  &c. The following  is the order of the membranes
of the ovum,  at  the full period of gestation : — First, there is the
outer, or  connecting membrane, which is  flocculent, spongy, and
extremely  vascular, completely  investing  the whole  ovum, and
lining the womb.  Second,  the middle  membrane, which is nearly
pellucid, with a very few small blood-vessels scattered over it, and
which forms a covering to the placenta  and funis, but does not pass
between  the  placenta  and womb.  Third, the inner membrane,
which is transparent, of a firmer texture than the others, and  lines
the whole ovum, making, like the middle membrane, a covering for 
296
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
the placenta and funis with the two last.  The ovum is clothed, when
it passes  from the ovarium into the uterus, where the first is pro-
vided for its reception.   These membranes, in the  advanced statu
of pregnancy, cohere slightly to each other, though, in some  ova,
there is  a considerable quantity of fluid collected between them,
which, being discharged when one of the outer membranes is bro-
ken, forms one of the circumstances which have been distinguished
by the name of false water.  The placenta is a circular, flat, vascu-
lar, and apparently fleshy substance, different in its  diameter  in
different subjects, but usually  extending about six inches or up-
wards, over  about one fourth part of  the outside of the ovum, in
pregnant  women.   It is  more than one inch in thickness in the
middle, and becomes gradually tliinner  towards the circumference,
from  which  the membranes are continued.  The  placenta is the
principal medium by which the communication between the parent
and child is preserved, yet we cannot with precision determine the
nature or the manner in which this office is executed.   The surface
of the placenta is attached to the womb by  the intervention of the
connecting membrane.   The placenta  is composed of  arteries and
veins, with a  mixture  of pulpy or cellular substance.  Of these
vessels there are two orders, very curiously interwoven with each
other.  The first is a continuation of those from the funis, (umbili-
cal cord,) which ramify on the  internal surface of the placenta —
the arteries running over the veins, which is a circumstance pecu-
liar to the placenta — and then, sinking into its substance, unite
and divide into innumerable small branches.   The second order
proceeds from the  womb, and  these ramify in a similar  manner
to  those  from the funis.   The  veins,  in  their  ramifications, ac-
company the arteries as in other  parts.  These two systems of ves-
sels in the placenta, one of which is called maternal and the other
foetal, are distinct.  The blood of the  foetus is, with  regard to  its
formation, increase, and circulation, unconnected with, and totally
independent  of, the parent, except that the matter by which the
blood of the  foetus  is formed, must be derived  from the parent.
We believe that the veins of the placenta perform the  office of the
absorbents, as neither in the placenta or funis are any of the lym-
phatic vessels to be found, nor are there any nerves in these parts,
so that the  only existing communication between  the parent and 
               THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.            297

child, is by the sanguineous system.   How this is proved, and also
the many existing  and connecting laws of the system of procrea-
tion, embryo, gestation,  nutrition, &c,  would be  difficult, in our
synopsis and  in our limited pages, to expound; yet the physiologist
and the inquirer may easily be informed, to their full satisfaction, by
a correct  investigation and analysis of the anatomical process and
its laws.

                     OF HERMAPHRODISM.

  It is hardly necessary to  say, that proper hermaphrodites, or
human  beings, having all  the genital organs of both sexes, and
capable of performing both kinds of reproductive functions, are
altogether fabulous.  True, the clitoris may be found very much
enlarged in women, from which fact, chiefly, it is erroneously con-
cluded that the individual  is of the neuter gender.   See Clitoris,
in the Index.
  We divide the reproductive apparatus into six different portions,
or segments,  (three on  a  side,) which, in several respects, are
independent of each other.  1st and  2d, the deep-seated  organs —
the testicles  and ovaries.  3d and 4th,  the  middle organs—the
matrix or prostate arid vesiculae seminales.  5th and  6th, the ex-
ternal organs — the penis and scrotum, clitoris, and vulva.
  When the  number of  these parts  is not changed,  and there  is
simply a modification in  their development, we have the  first class,
or hermaphrodism without  excess.  This again is  subdivided into
four orders.   1st  Male  hermaphrodism,  when  the  reproductive
apparatus, essentially male, presents,  in some one portion, the form
of a female organ, as a scrotal fissure, resembling, in some respects,
a vulva.   2d.  Female hermaphrodism, when the apparatus, though
essentially female,  presents, in  some one portion, the  form of a
male organ, as in  the  excessive development of the  clitoris.  3d.
Neutral hermaphrodism,  when the portions of the sexual appara-
tus  are  so mixed up  and so  ambiguous,  that it is impossible to
ascertain  to what  sex the individual  belongs.  4 th.  Mixed her-
maphrodism,  when  the  organs of the two   sexes   are actually
united and mixed  in the same individual.  Of the last, there are
several species.  It is called alternate when the deep organs belong
                  38 
 298           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

 to one sex, and the middle to the other, while the external present
 a mixture of both; lateral,  when  the  deep and middle organs,
 when viewed on one side of the median line, appear to belong to
 the male sex, while on the other they are female;  another species
 is, when the  external organs, as in the  former species, are partly
 male and partly female.
   The second class includes all anomalies with excess of parts, and
 is divided into three orders:  1st. Complex  male hermaphrodism,
 where we find, with an apparatus essentially male, some  supernu-
 merary female organ,  as a womb, &c.   2d.  Complex  female her-
 maphrodism, with the addition of a  male organ, as a  testicle, &c,
 to an apparatus essentially female.  3d. Bisexual hermaphrodism,
 where a male and female apparatus  exist in the same individual.
  In conclusion, we may add, as an established fact, that  at  least
 one  twentieth part of our white male  and female population  in
 North  America are undoubtedly subjects of some of the above-
 described freaks of nature, which generally are most manifest  at
 times of puberty,  when nature is  rapidly developing itself, and
 they may  be  detected, on close  inquiry, in  the living, and easily
 in an anatomical examination of the dead.
  Our laws, at present, admit the existence of only two sexes, and
 impose upon each adverse and opposite duties, and grant to  each
 rights inconsistent with those granted to the other.  But this clas-
 sification does not truly embrace the entire of the cases which  exist
 in nature, for there  are many, indeed a very great number of indi-
 viduals, who  have  really no sex; such as  neuter  hermaphrodites,
 and  hermaphrodites mixed by superposition; and, on the  other
hand, certain individuals — the bisexual  hermaphrodites — who
present the two sexes united to the same degree.  In view of such
evidence, then, it is time that our  legislatures  should  enact  new
laws, recognizing individuals who, in fact, belong to neither sex.
  We  here  give an account  of a bisexual hermaphrodite.   In
New York,  in  1832,  one of our Doctor's patients was examined
after death by many physicians and spectators.   The subject was
an aged one, about seventy, a widower, (?) who  died  of cholera.
Apparently, he (?) was a male; yet, on dissection, a womb, with its
ovaries, was found.  There was a perfect prostate gland; the testi-
cles,  vesiculae seminales, and  vasa defferentia were wanting; the 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
299
 penis had a well-formed glans and prepuce;  a vagina, about two
 inches long, .connected the womb with  the urethra;  the  external
 reproductive organs of the female were entirely  absent, but the
 general conformation (except a thick and soft beard) inclined to
 that sex.

      AN ABRIDGED SYNOPSIS OF THE ANIMAL  INSTINCT.

   Animals are not  abandoned by nature to themselves;  they are
 all employed in a series of actions, whence results  that marvellous
 whole which is seen among organized beings.   To  incline animals
 to the  punctual execution of those actions which are necessary for
 them, nature has provided them with instinct — that is, propensities,
 inclinations, and wants, by which  they are constantly excited and
 forced  to fulfil the intentions of nature.
   Instinct maybe excited in two different modes — with or without
 knowledge of the end.  The  first  is enlightened; the second is
 blind;  the former is particularly the gift of man ; the other belongs
 to animals.
   In examining carefully the numerous phenomena, which depend
 on instinct, we see that there  is a double design in every animal,
 to wit: the preservation of the individual, and the  preservation of
 the  species.  Every  animal  fulfils this end  in its own way, and
 according to its organization.   There are,  therefore,  as many dif-
 ferent instincts, as there are different species; and  as the organiza-
 tion  varies in individuals, instinct  presents  individual differences,
 sometimes strongly marked.
   We recognize two  sorts of instinct in man.   The one depends
 more evidently on his organization, and on his animal state; he
 presents it in whatever  state he is  found ; and  this  sort of instinct
 is  nearly the same as that of animals.  The  other kind of instinct
springs  from the social state, and, without doubt, depends on or-
ganization.  What vital phenomenon does not depend on it ?   But
it does not display itself except when man lives in civilized society,
 and when he enjoys all  the advantages of that state.
   To the first, which may be called animal instinct,  belong hunger,
thirst, the necessity of clothing and  a covering from the weather;
the desire of agreeable sensations; the fear of  pain and of death; 
 300            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

 the desire to injure others, if there is any danger to be feared from
 them; the venereal inclinations; the interest inspired by children ;
 inclination to imitation;  to live  in society, which leads man to pass
 through the different degrees of civilization, &c.   These different
 instinctive feelings incline him to concur in the established order
 of organized beings.   Man  is,  of all  the  animals, the one  whose
 natural  wants are most  numerous, and of the greatest  variety ;
 which is in proportion to  the extent of his  intelligence: if he had
 only these wants, he would always have a marked superiority over
 other animals.
   When man, living in society,  can easily provide  for all the  wants
 which we have mentioned, he has  then time and powers of action
 more than his original wants require: then new wants  arise, that
 may be called social wants, such as  that of a  lively perception of
 existence ; a want which, the more it is satisfied, the more difficult
 it becomes, because the sensations become blunted by habit.
   The want of a vivid existence, added to a continually increasing
 feebleness of the  sensations, causes a mechanical restlessness and
 vague desires, excited  by  the remembrances of vivid sensations for-
 merly felt.  In order  to  escape from, this state, man is continually
 forced to change his object, or to overstrain sensations of the same
 kind.  Thence arises  an inconstancy,  which  never  permits  our
 desires to rest, and a progression of desires, which, always annihilated
 by enjoyment, -and irritated by remembrance, proceed  forward
 without end ; thence arises ennui, by which the civilized idler is in-
cessantly tormented.
   The want of vivid  sensations is balanced by the love of repose
and idleness in the opulent classes of society.  These contradictory
feelings modify each other, and,  from their reciprocal  reaction, re-
sults the love of power, of consideration, of fortune, &c, which gives
us the means of  satisfying both.
   These two instinctive  sensations  are  not the only ones which
spring from'  the social state.   A crowd of others arise from it
equally  real,  though less  important.   Besides, the natural wants
become so changed, as  no longer to be known : hunger is often re-
placed by a  capricious taste,  the venereal desires by  a feeling of
quite another nature, &c.
   The natural wants have  a  considerable  influence  upon  those 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
301
  which arise from society.  These, in their turn, modify the former;
  and, if we add age, temperament, sex, &c, which tend to change
'  every sort of want, we shall have an idea of the difficulty which the
  study  of the instinct of  man presents.  This part of physiology is,
  also, scarcely begun.  We remark, however, that the social wants
  necessarily carry along with them the enlargement of the under-
  standing.  There is no comparison, in regard to the capacity of the
  mind, between a man  in the higher class of society, and a man
  whose physical powers  are  scarcely sufficient to provide for his
  natural wants.
    The instincts of man  are so harmoniously homogeneous  with the
  whole of  our  internal sensations, and  those of seeing,  hearing,
  tasting,  smelling, and feeling, that we deem it proper to  give  an
  abridged account, at least, of these external senses.


  A general Description of and Remarks upon our Sensations, and on
                      each of the Five Senses.

    Sensation, or feeling, is the  consciousness of  a  change taking
  place  in any part, from the contact of a foreign body with the ex-
  tremities of our nerves.   The seat of sensation is in the pulp of the
  nerves.
    The impression produced on any organ by the action  of an ex-
  ternal body, constitutes sensation.  This sensation, transmitted  by
  nerves to the brain, is perceived,  that is, felt, by the organ; the
  sensation then becomes perception; and  this first  modification im-
  plies,  as must be evident, the existence of a central organ, to which
  impressions produced on the senses are conveyed.   The  cerebral
  fibres  are acted on with greater or less force by the sensations pro-
  pagated by all  the  senses influenced at the same  time;  and we
  could  only acquire confused notions of all bodies that produce them,
  if one particular and stronger perception did not obliterate  the
  others, and  adapt  itself to our  attention.   In this concentrated
  state  of the mind on the  same subject, the brain is  somewhat
  affected, by several sensations, which leave no trace behind.  It is
  on this principle that, having read a book with great attention, we 
302            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

forget the different sensations  produced by the paper and typo-
graphical characteristics.
  When a sensation is of short duration, the knowledge we have
of it is so slight, that, soon afterwards, there does not remain any
knowledge of having experienced it  In proportion as a sensation,
or an idea, (which is only a sensation transformed or. perceived by
the cerebral organ,) has produced in  the fibres of this organ  a
stronger'or  weaker impression, the remembrance  of it becomes
more or loss lively and permanent.  Thus we have  a reminiscence
of it, that is, we call to  mind that we have already been affected in
the same manner; a memory, or a power of recalling the object of
the sensation, with some of its attributes, as color, volume, &c, &c.
  When the brain is easily excited, and, at the sam6 time, accu-
rately preserves impressions received, it possesses the power of re-
presenting to  itself ideas, with all their connections, and  all the
accessory circumstances by which they are  accompanied, of repro-
ducing them to a certain degree, and of recalling an entire  object;
while the memory only gives us an idea of  its qualities.  This cre-
ative  faculty is  called  imagination.  When two ideas are brought
together, compared, and their  analogy considered, we are  said to
form a judgment. Several judgments connected together constitute
reasoning.   Besides the  sensations which  are carried  from  the
organs of sense to the brain, there are others which are internal,
and which seem to be transmitted to it by a kind of sympathetic re-
action.  It is well known what  uneasiness the affection  of  certain
organs conveys to the mind; as, for instance, how much an habitual
obstruction  of the fiver, or  other vital  organ, is connected with  a
certain order of ideas.  These internal sensations are the origin of
our moral faculties, in the same manner as impressions which are
conveyed  by  the organs  of sense are  the source of intellectual
faculties.  We are  not, on that account,  to place the seat of the
passions of  the mind in the viscera.  It is, however, necessary to
remember, that the appetites, whence arise the passions, reside in
their  respective organs,  and are a phenomenon purely physical,
while passions consist only in the intellectual exertions.  Thus an
accumulation of semen in the cavities that are employed as a reser-
voir for it, excites the  appetite for venery, very distinct from the 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
303
passion  of  love, although it may frequently  be the determinate
cause of it.
  Sensibility is that action of the brain by which we receive im-
pressions, either from within or from without; hence what is said
of sensation generally, is applicable to sensibility.  For this reason,
we  only mention here that this faculty exerts itself in two very dif-
ferent ways.  In the first,  the  phenomena happen without our
knowledge; in the second, we are aware of it — we perceive the
sensation.   It is not enough that a body may  act upon one of our
senses, that a  nerve transmit to the brain the impression which is
produced — it is not enough that this organ receive the impression.
In order that there may be really a sensation, the brain  must per-
ceive the impression received.  An impression thus perceived, is
called, in ideology,  a perception, or an idea.
  These two modes of sensibility may be easily verified upon our-
selves.  For example, it is easy to see that a number  of bodies have
a continual action upon our  senses, without our being aware of it.
This depends, in a great measure, upon habit.
   Sensibility  is infinitely variable.  In certain persons it is very
obtuse; in others, it is very elevated.  Generally, a good organization
keeps between the two extremes.  Sensibility is vivid in infancy
 and youth; it  continues in a degree somewhat less marked until
 past the age of manhood; in old age, it suffers an evident dimin-
 ution ;  and very  old  persons appear  quite  insensible  to all  the
 ordinary causes of sensations.
   All parts possessed of a power  of producing a  change, so as to
produce a sensation, are called sensible; those which are  not pos-
sessed  of  this property, insensible.  To the  insensible parts  by
 nature belong all our fluids — the blood, the bile, saliva, &c, and
 many of the solids — the hair, epidermis, nails, &c.; but  the sen-
 sible parts are the  skin, eyes, tongue, ears, nose, muscles, stomach,
 intestines, &c.
   The senses  are, however, distinguished  into external  and  in-
 ternal.  The  external  senses are seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling,
 and feeling.  The  internal,  imagination, memory, judgment, atten-
 tion, and the  passions.
    We shall here speak only of the external senses, as follows: — 
804            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
                  OF  THE SENSE  OF SEEING.

   This is the function which enables us to perceive the magnitude,
figure, color, distance, &c. &c, of bodies.   The organs which com-
pose the apparatus of vision, act under the influence of a particular
excitant,  or stimulus, called light.  We perceive bodies, and take
cognizance of many of their properties, though they are often at a
great distance.   There must then be, between them and our eyes,
some intermediate agent.   This intermediate substance we denom-
inate light.   Light is an excessively subtile fluid, which emanates
from those bodies called luminous, as the sun, the fixed stars, bodies
in a state of ignition, phosphorescences, &c.   Light is composed of
atoms, which move  with a prodigious rapidity, since  they pass
through about eighty thousand leagues of space in a second.
   Satisfactorily to explain the  whole nature, causes, and effects of
vision  and  of fight,  and the  philosophy of their  properties, with
the discussion and exposition  of  their doctrine, would require a
volume.  We will therefore omit a dissertation,  and pass  on to
the
   Apparatus of Vision.  This we suppose to consist of three distinct
parts: the first, modifies the light; the second, receives the impres-
sion of it; the third, transmits this impression to the brain.
   The apparatus of vision is  of  an extremely delicate  texture,
capable of being deranged  by  the least accident.   Nature has also
placed before this apparatus a series of organs, the use of which is
to protect and maintain it in those conditions necessary to the per-
fect exercise of its  functions.  Those protecting parts  are the
eyebrows, the eyelids, and the  secreting and  excreting apparatus of
the tears.
   The eye is composed of parts which  have very different uses in
the production of vision.  They may be distinguished into refrac-
tive, and non-refractive.
   1. The transparent cornea is a convex and concave body, and in
its transparency, its form,  and its insertion, somewhat  resembles
the glass that is placed before the face of a watch.
   2. The aqueous humor fills the chambers of the eye. 
               THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.           305

  3. The crystalline humor, improperly compared with a lens, pos-
sesses different refractive powers, and  is surrounded by  a mem-
brane, which has a great effect upon vision, as experience teaches
us.   This lens, (so  called,) has  many peculiarities,  and possesses
powers which must  be  well understood by  our physicians  in tho
treatment of eye-diseases.
  4. The vitreous humor exists behind the crystalline, and resembles
melted glass.
  5. There is an exterior envelope of the  eye, a membrane of a
fibrous nature.  It  is thick and resisting, and its use is evidently
to protect the interior parts of the  organ; it serves,  besides,  as a
point of insertion for many muscles that move the eye.
  6. There is to be seen, also, a vascular and  nervous membrane
formed by two distinct plates; it is impregnated with  a  dark mat-
ter, which is very important to vision.
   7. The  Iris, which  is seen  behind the  transparent cornea, is
differently  colored  in different individuals; it is pierced in the
centre by an opening, called the pupil, which  dilates or contracts,
according to circumstances.
   8. There is also the retina, an innermost membrane, essentially
nervous and almost transparent; it presents a  slight  opacity; it is
composed  of  the threads which constitute  the optic nerve.  It is
the most essential organ  of vision.
   The eye receives a great  number of vessels, the ciliary arteries
and veins, and  many nerves,  most of  which come from the oph-
thalmic ganglion, while the  optic nerve preserves  the  communi-
cation between the brain and the eye.
  Mechanism of Vision.   In order the better to explain  the action
of light on the eye,  let us suppose a luminous cone commencing in
a point placed in the prolongation on the arterior-posterior axis of
the eye.  We see that only the  light which  falls  upon the  cornea
can be useful for vision;  that  which falls on the  white of the eye,
the eyelids, and  eyelashes,  contributes nothing;  it is reflected by
those parts differently, according to their color.  The cornea itself
does not receive the light in its  whole  extent, for it is generally
covered, in part, by the border of the eyelids.
  As soon as  the light  reaches the cornea, part of it is reflected,
contributing to the brilliancy of the eye,  and forms the  images
                 39 
306            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

which are seen  behind the cornea, acting as a convex mirror;  thus
also the intensity of the light is increased, by this apparatus, and
penetrates into  the anterior chamber.  The rays, in traversing the
cornea, pass from a more rare  to a denser medium ; consequently
they converge  towards  the  point of contact,  where, by entering
into the aqueous humor, they refract more than air, and their bril-
liancy becomes  more perfect and concentrated.
  Of all the light transmitted to the anterior  chamber, only that
which passes the pupil can be of use to vision.
  In traversing the posterior chamber the light undergoes no new
modification, as it proceeds always in the same medium, (the aque-
ous humor.)  It is in traversing the crystalline humor that light
undergoes  the  most  important modification.  The action of light
assembles all its rays with increased intensity upon a certain point
of the retina by an influence possessed in the pupil.
  The whole of the light which arrives  at the  anterior surface of
tho crystalline,  does not penetrate  iuto the  vitreous body;  it is
partly  reflected.   One  part of this reflected light  traverses  the
aqueous humor  and the cornea, and contributes to form the bril-
liancy of the eye; another falls upon the posterior surface of the
iris, and is absorbed by the dark matter found there.
  The vitreous  humor has a most essential use, which, besides other
properties, gives a large extent to the retina, and thus increases the
field of vision.
  The rays  of light on reaching the  retina, receive the impression
of light, when it is within certain limits of intensity.   A very feeble
light is not felt by the retina; too  strong a light injures  it and
renders it unfit for action.
  When the retina  receives too strong  a light, the impression is
called dazzling; t the retina is then incapable  for some time  of feel-
ing the presence of the light.   This  happens  when one looks at the
sun.   After having been long in the dark, even a very feeble light
produces dazzling.  When the light is exceedingly weak, and the
eye made to observe objects  narrowly, the retina becomes fatigued,
and there follows a painful feeling in the orbit, and also in the head.
  Light, though not very strong, acting for  a certain time upon a
determinate point of the retina, renders it insensible.  Thus as an
example of delusion, intensely looking at a white spot upon  a black 
               THE GOLDEN  BIBLE  OF NATURE.            307

ground, and afterwards carrying the eye  to  a white ground, we
seem to perceive a black spot.   This happens from the insensibility
of the retina, it having been fatigued by the white light.
  The same sort  of phenomena and  delusion happens when  we
have looked long at a red body, or  one of any other color, and af-
terwards look at white, or differently colored bodies.   We perceive
with facility the direction of the light  received by the retina.  We
believe instinctively that light proceeds in a right line, and that this
line is the prolongation of that according to which the light pene-
trated into the cornea.  Therefore, whenever the light has been
modified in its direction, before  reaching the  eye, the retina gives
us nothing certain.   Optical illusions proceed  principally from this
cause.  When the retina receives impressions in several points of
its extent, the result of  its sensations  are almost always incorrect
The central part of the retina appears to possess much more sen-
sibility than the rest of its extent; hence we make the image fall on
this part when  we wish to examine an object with attention.  From
the retina the impressions of  light  are  transmitted  in  an  instant
through the optic nerve to  the brain; but by what mechanism we
are entirely ignorant.
   It is fully established, notwithstanding the many elaborated opin-
ions to the contrary, that the two eyes concur at the same time in
the. production of  vision  and  the transmission of light;  and we
claim that there always exists  an imperfection of nature, however
universal it be, in these organs, in all those individuals who, in cer-
tain cases, find it more convenient to employ one eye; for instance,
when it is necessary to determine the exact direction of the light,
or the situation of any body relative to us.  Thus we shut one  eye
to take aim with a gun, or to place  a number of bodies upon a level
in a right line, &c. &c.  True, there  may  be  produced from one
object two impiessions, as in strabismus, or squinting, or by derang-
ing, at will, the harmony of the two eyes, but this is a perversion of
nature.
   Estimation of the Distance of Objects.  We have shown how  vis-
ion is, of necessity, produced by the action of light upon  the retina;
and yet we always consider  the  bodies, from which  light proceeds,
as being the cause  of it, though they are often  placed at a consid-
erable distance.  This result can be produced only by an intellect-
ual operation. 
308
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
   We judge differently of the distance of bodies, according to the
 degree of that distance; we judge correctly when  they are near
 us;  but it  is not the same when they are at a short distance ;  our
 judgment  is then  often incorrect;  but when they are at a great
 distance,  we  are  constantly deceived.   The united action of the
 two  eyes is absolutely necessary to determine exactly the distance,
 as the following experiments will prove.
   Suspend a ring by a thread, and fix a hook to the end of a long
 rod,  of a size that will easily pass  the ring; stand at a convenient
 distance, and try to  introduce the hook ;  in  using both  eyes, you
 may succeed with ease in every attempt you make; but if you shut
 one eye, and then  endeavor to pass the  hook through, you will  not
 succeed; the hook will go either too far  or else not far enough, and
 it will only be after trying  repeatedly, that it will  be put through.
 Those persons whose  eyes are very unequal  in their power,  are
 sure  to fail in this experiment, even when they  use them both.
  When a person loses an eye by  accident, it is sometimes a whole
 year before he can judge correctly of the distance of a body placed
 near him.   Those who have only one eye, determine distance,  for
 the most part, very incorrectly.  The size of the object, the inten-
 sity of* the light that proceeds from it, the presence of intermediate
bodies, &c,  have  a  great influence  upon  our  just  estimation of
 distance.
  We judge most correctly of  objects that are placed upon a level
 with  our bodies.  Thus, when we  look  from the top of a tower at
the objects below, they appear  much  less than they would if they
were placed at the same distance, on the same plane with ourselves.
 Hence the necessity of giving a considerable  volume to objects
that are intended to be placed on the tops of buildings, and which
are to be seen £rpm a distance.  The  smaller the dimensions  of an
object are, the nearer it ought to be to the eye, in order to be dis-
tinctly seen.  What is called the distinct point of view, is also very
variable.   A horse is seen  very distinctly at six yards, but  a bird
could not be distinctly seen at the same distance.   If we wish to
examine the hair or the feathers of those animals, the eye requires
to be much nearer.   However, the same  object may be seen dis-
tinctly at different  distances; for example, it is quite the same to
many persons whether they place the book they are reading at one 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.
309
or two  feet distance  from the eye.   The  intensity of the light
which illuminates an object, has a considerable effect upon the dis-
tance at which it can be distinctly seen.
  Estimation of the Size of Bodies.   The  manner in which we ar-
rive at a just determination respecting the size of bodies, depends
more upon knowledge and habit than upon the action of the appa-
ratus of vision.   We form our judgment relative to the dimensions
of bodies, from  the size of the image  which is  formed in the eye,
from the intensity of the light which proceeds from the object, from
the distance at which we think it is placed, and, above all, from the
habit of seeing  such objects.  We therefore judge with difficulty
of the size of a body that  we see for  the  first time, when  we can-
not appreciate  the  distance.  A mountain which we see  at a dis-
tance for the first time, appears  generally much less than  it really
is; we think it is near us when it is very far away.  Beyond a
distance somewhat considerable, we  are  so completely deceived
that judgment  is unable to correct  us.  Objects  appear to us infi-
nitely  less than they really are; and this is  the case with the
celestial bodies.
  Estimation of the Motion of Bodies.  We judge of the motion of
a body by that  of its image  upon the retina, by the variations of
the size of this image, or, which is the same thing, by the change
of the direction of the  light which arrives  at  the  eye.  In order
that we may be able to follow the motion of a body, it ought not
to be  displaced too rapidly, for we could not then perceive it
This happens with bodies projected by the force  of gunpowder,
particularly when  they pass near us.  When they move  at a dis-
tance from us, the light comes  from them  to the eye for a much
longer space of time, because the  field  of view is much greater,
and we can see them with  more facility.  We oughf to" be ourselves
at rest, in order to judge correctly of the motions of bodies.
  When bodies are at a considerable distance from us, we cannot
easily perceive their motions to or from us.  In this case we judge
of the motion of the body, only by the variation of the size of its
image.  Now this variation being infinitely small, because the body
is at a great distance, it is  very difficult, and frequently impossible,
for us to estimate  its motion.  Generally we perceive with great
difficulty, sometimes we cannot perceive at all, the motion of a body 
S10
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
which moves extremely slow;  this may be on account of the slow-
ness of its own motion, as in the case of the hand of a watch;  or it
may be the result of the slow motion of the  image, which happens
with the stars, and objects very far from us.
   Of Optical  Illusions.   After what we have just said, of the man-
ner in which we estimate the distance, the size, and the motion of
bodies, we may easily perceive that we are often deceived by sight.
These deceptions are known in physics and in physiology by the
name of optical illusions.  Generally we judge correctly of bodies
placed near us, but not always so when at a distance.  The illu-
sions of bodies near us, are the result of reflection  or refraction of
light before it reaches the eye; and sometimes of the law  that we
establish instinctively, namely, that  light proceeds always in right
lines.   To  this cause are referred  those illusions  occasioned by
mirrors, and glasses, or other reflective bodies.   We are constantly
deceived by objects at a distance, in a manner  that we cannot pre-
vent,  because those deceptions result from certain laws which
govern the animal  economy.  An object seems  near us in  propor-
tion as its  image occupies a greater  space  upon the  retina, or in
proportion to the intensity of the light which proceeds from it
   Of two  objects of a  different volume, equally illuminated and
placed at the same  distance, the greatest will appear the  nearest,
should circumstances be such as  to  admit  of the distance being
justly estimated.   Of two objects  of equal  volume, placed at an
equal distance from the eye, but unequally illuminated, the bright-
est will appear the nearest;  it would be the .same, if the objects
were  at unequal distances, as can easily be seen in looking at a
string of lamps; if there happen to be one of them brighter than
the rest, it will appear the nearest, while that which is really the
nearest will appear the farthest, if it is the least bright.   An object
seen without any intermedium, always appears nearer than when
there happens to be between it and the eye, some body that may
have an influence upon the estimation that we make of its distance.
When a bright object strikes the eye, while  all  the objects around
it are obscured, it appears much nearer ihan it really is; a li<dit in
the night produces this effect.  Objects always appear small in pro-
portion as they are  distant; thus the trees in a long  alley, appear
so much smaller, and so much nearer together, in  proportion as 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.
Sll
they are farther from us.  It is by observing these  illusions, and
the laws of the animal economy, upon which they are  founded, that
art has been enabled to imitate  them.   The art of painting, in cer-
tain eases, merely transfers to the canvass those optical errors into
which we most habitually fall.
   The construction of optical instruments is also founded  upon
these principles; some of them augment the  intensity of the light,
which  proceeds from  the objects  observed; others cause  it  to
diverge, or converge, in order to increase or diminish their  appa-
rent volume, &c.
   By the constant exercise of the sense of sight, we are enabled
to overcome many optical illusions.  As an example, in illustration,
we mention the case of a youth, born  blind.   Sight  was  partially
restored by a surgical operation upon one eye, and the manner in'
which  this sense was developed in  him was strictly observed.
' When he was shown the light,  for the  first time, he knew so little
how to judge of distances, that he  believed  the objects which he
saw, touched his eyes, (and this was his expression,)  as the things
which  he  felt, touched his skin.   The objects which  were most
pleasant to him were those, the  form of which was regular and
smooth, though he had no idea of their  form, nor could he tell why
they pleased him better than others.  During the time of his blind-
ness he had  an imperfect idea of colors, which  enabled him  to
distinguish them by a very strong light, but they had not left an
impression sufficient to enable him  again to recognize  them.  In-
deed, when he saw them, he  said the colors he then  saw  were not
the same as those he had seen formerly; he did not know the form
of any object, nor  could  he  distinguish one object from another,
however  different their figure or size might be.  When objects
were shown to  him, which he had  known formerly by the touch,
he looked at them with attention,  and observed them carefully, in
order to know  them  again; but  as he had  too  many objects  to
retain at once, he forgot the greater part of  them; and when he
first learned, as  he said, to see and to know objects, he forgot a
thousand for one that he recollected. It was two months before he
discovered that  pictures represented solid bodies.  Until that time
he had considered them as planes and  surfaces, differently colored,
and diversified by a variety of shades;  but when he began to con- 
912            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

ceive that these pictures represented solid bodies, in touching the
canvass of a picture with his hand, he expected  to find, in reality,
something solid upon it; and he was much astonished when, upon
touching those parts which  seemed round  and unequal, he found
them flat and smooth, like the rest.  He asked, which was the sense
that  deceived him, — the sight or the touch ?  There was shown to
him  a  little  portrait of his  father, which was in  the  case of his
mother's watch; he said that he knew very  well it was the remem-
brance of his father; but  he asked, with great astonishment, how
it was possible for so large a visage to be  kept in so small a space,
for that appeared to him as  impossible as that a bushel should be
contained in a pint.  He could not bear much light at first,  and
every  object seemed very  large to  him; but after he  had  seen
larger  things, he considered the first, smaller; he thought there
was nothing beyond the limits of his sight.   The  same operation
was performed on the other  eye, about a year after the first, and it
succeeded equally well.   At first he saw objects with  the second
eye much larger than with the other, but  not so large, however, as
he had seen  them with  the first eye;  and when he looked at  the
same object with both eyes at once, he said  that it appeared twice
as large as with the first eye; but he did not see  double, at least
it could not be ascertained that he saw objects double after he  had
got the sight of the second eye.
  This observation is not singular; there  exists a number of others,
and they have all given results nearly alike.  The conclusion that
may be drawn from it is, that the exact manner in which we deter-
mine the distance, size, and form of objects, is the result of habit,
or, which is the same thing, of the education of the sense of sight.


                 OF THE SENSE OF HEARING.

  Hearing is a function,  intended to make  known to us the vi-
bratory motion of bodies.  Sound is  to the hearing, what light is
to the  sight  Impressions  of  sounds, most  generally,  reach  the
ears through the medium of the air.  There are three things  dis-
tinguished in sound, — intensity, tone, and timbre, 01  expression.
  The intensity of sound depends on the.  extend of the vibrations. 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.
313
  The tone  depends on  the  number of vibrations produced in a
given time, and, in this respect, sound is  distinguished into acute
and grave.   The grave arises from a small number of vibrations,
the acute from a great number.   The gravest  sound which the ear
is  capable of perceiving,  is formed  of thirty-two vibrations in a
second, and  the  most acute sound is formed of twelve thousand
vibrations in a second.  Between these two limits are  contained all.
the distinguishable sounds; that is, those  sounds of which the ear
can count the vibrations.   Noise differs from distinguishable sound,
inasmuch  as the ear cannot  distinguish the number of vibrations
of which it is composed.  When a sonorous body is put in motion
by percussion, there  is at first heard a sound very distinct, more or
less intense, more or less acute, &c, according as may happen.
This is the fundamental sound; but  with  a little attention  other
sounds can be perceived.  These are called harmonic sounds, and
they may  easily be perceived in touching the strings of an instru-
ment.
   The timbre or expression of sound, depends on the  nature of the
sonorous body.   Sound  is propagated through all elastic bodies.
Its rapidity  is great,  and  it is more  rapidly transmitted by water,
stone, wood, &c, and is  subject to  many modifications,  when in
contact with other  bodies.   All sorts of sounds are  propagated
with the same rapidity, without being confounded one with another.
Sounds will produce many phenomena,  as echo,  the mysterious
chamber,  &<\
   Apparatus of Hearing.  Several organs appear to concur in this
function, by their physical properties ; and behind them, is a nerve
for receiving  and  transmitting  impressions.  This  apparatus is
composed of the outer, middle, and  internal ear, and of the acous-
tic nerve.
   The auricle  collects the sonorous radiations, and directs them
towards the meatus externus or the  auditory passage, from whence
the sound is transmitted partly by the air it contains, and partly
by its parietes, until  it arrives at the membrane of the  tympanum.
The wax  and the hairs  are  intended to prevent the introduction
of foreign substances, and perhaps to produce a modification of the
circulating air.
   After the sound is thus received by the membrane of the tympa-
                    40 
314
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
 num, we cannot positively account for its mechanical progress, and
 all our knowledge is  merely conjectural.   We  know, however, as
 this membrane is dry and  elastic, it  ought  to transmit  the sound
 very well, both to the air contained  in the tympanum,  and to the
 chain of little bones.  The chorda tympani  cannot fail to partici-
 pate in the vibrations of the membrane, and transmit impressions
 to the brain.  The  contact of any foreign  body upon  the mem-
 brane is very painful, as is also a violent noise.   We likewise know
 the membrane of the  tympanum may be torn, or even  totally de-
 stroyed,  without deranging the hearing in  any sensible degree;
 hence the tympanum is  the principal organ, to  which is imparted
 the first perception of hearing.
   The Cavity of the Tympanum transmits the sounds from the ex-
 ternal to the internal ear.   This happens, 1st, through the chain of
 bones, which peculiarly act  upon  the membrane  of the fenestra
 ovalis ; 2d, by the air which fills it and acts upon the whole petrous
 portion, and more especially upon the membranum of the fenestra
 ovalis ; 3d, by its sides.
   The Eustachian Tube renews the air in the tympanum, and, when
 destroyed, it causes deafness.
   Sounds may arrive at the tympanum by another way than by the
 external ear.   The shocks  received by the bones of the head are
 directed towards the temples, and perceived by the ear.   It is well
 known that the movement of a watch is heard distinctly when it is
 placed in contact with the teeth.*

  * A Suggestion. —We have ascertained that nine-tenths  of the deaf and dumb
 may instantly obtain the use of the facuwy of hearing, and hence that of speech.
 Would it be inconsistent for the profession, and, more especially, for the directors
 of the deaf and dumb establishments o( our cities, or for any philanthropist of me-
 chanical genius, to inquire into the facts?  We assert that nine-tenths, or more, of
 the inmates of those asylums possess the full faculty of hearing, through the con-
 tact of a conductor to the teeth, or parietal apparatus of the mouth.   We are per-
 fectly convinced that such is the fact, and have satisfied ourselves, in  repeated in-
 stances, that if a musical box were placed in the mouth, or in contact with the teeth,
of a deaf and dumb person, he or she will hear distinctly and perfectly the variations
of sound and tone.  So it is with any musical instrument— a piano, violin, flute, or
 watch, or whatever transmits  a concussion ; and thus we  may assert confidently,
the possibility of transmitting our voices by them, distinctly  and perfectly, so as to
be heard, through a properly constructed pipe or rod.  We claim the first introduc-
 tion and the sole authorship of these successful experiments, which, twenty years
ago, were introduced by us in Germany ; and  we hope, henceforth, others will ira- 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.
315
     We know but little of the functions of the internal ear;  yet it is
  admitted by all,  that each internal organ has  a separate  office
  to aid in hearing.
     The impressions  are received and  transmitted to the brain by
r the acoustic nerue.  The brain perceives them with more or less
  facility and exactness in different individuals.   We cannot give an
  explanation  of the  action  of this  nerve, and  of  the brain, in
  hearing.
     In order to be heard, sounds must be within certain limits of in-
  tensity.  Too  loud  a  sound  hurts  us; while  one  too  low pro-
  duces no sensation.   We can perceive a great number of sounds at
  once.   The ear is impaired by very acute sofcids; also those which
  are very intense or very grave, excessively injure the membrane
  of the tympanum.  When  a sound  has been of  long duration,  we
  still think  we hear it, though  it may have been for some time dis-
  continued.
     We receive  two impressions, though we perceive  only one; and
  it is  erroneous to believe that we use only one  ear at  once in
  hearing.
     When the sound comes more directly to one ear, it is, in reality,
  distinguished with more facility by that one than by the other; there-
  fore,  in this case, we employ only one ear.-   And when we  listen
  with attention  to a sound which we  do  not hear perfectly, we place
  ourselves so that the rays may enter directly into the concha; but,
  when it is  necessary to determine the direction of the sound, that
  is, the point from whence it proceeds, we are obliged to employ
  both ears, for it is only by comparing the intensity of the  two im-
  pressions that we are capable of deciding from whence the sound
  proceeds.  Should we shut one ear perfectly close in a dark  place,
  and cause a slight noise to  be made, at a short distance, it would be
  utterly impossible to determine its  direction; in using both ears,
  this could be determined.  In  these cases the eye is of great use,
  prove upon these extraordinary  essays, for the  comfort and relief of the unhappy
  deaf and dumb, and to the saving of thousands and millions of dollars which  are
  expended in  these, once so necessary institutions, but which, by this method, of
  philanthropic origin, will soon be rendered entirely useless.  We believe that every
  deaf person,  through these means, provided the essential organs of the internal
  car be not affected, which is seldom if ever the case, can be restored to the use of
  the sense of hearing. 
 816  "         PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

 for, even using both ears, it is frequently impossible to tell in the
 dark from whence a sound comes.  By the sound, we may also es-
 timate the distance of the body  from which it proceeds; but, in
 order to judge exactly in this respect, we ought to be perfectly ac-
 quainted with the nature of the sound, for, without this condition, *
 the estimation is always erroneous.   The principle upon which we
judge is, that an intense sound proceeds from a body which is near,
 while a feeble sound proceeds from  a body at a distance.  If it
 happen that an intense sound comes from a distant body, while a
 feeble sound proceeds from  a  body  which is  near,  we fall  into
 acoustic errors.  We  are  generally very subject to deception with
 regard to the point whence a sound comes; sight and reason are of
great use in assisting our judgment.
  Speaking-trumpets  are  used  by those who do not hear well, in
order to modify the sonorous rays, as they enter into the ear, in
greater or  less number; and to diminish the intensity of sounds, a
soft and somewhat elastic body is placed in the external meatus.
                 OF  THE  SENSE  OF TASTING.

  Savors are only the impression of certain bodies upon the organ
of taste.  Bodies which produce it are called sapid.  The sapidity
appears to bear relation to the chemical natures of bodies, and to
the peculiar efforts which they produce upon the animal economy.
  Tastes are very numerous, and  very variable.  They cannot all
be  classified, though they  are  better understood than the odors;
thus we correctly judge of the taste, when bitter, acid, sour, sweet,
&c.  The distinction of tastes is also established — it being founded
on the organization — that of agreeable and disagreeable.  Animals
establish it instinctively, and this is a most important distinction;
for  those things which have an  agreeable taste are generally useful
for  nutrition, while those whose savor is disagreeable, are, for the
most part, hurtful.
  Apparatus of Taste.  The tongue is the principal organ of taste;
however, the lips, the internal surface of the cheeks, the palate, the
teeth,  the velum pendulum palati, pharynx, oesophagus, and even
the stomach, are susceptible of receiving impressions by the contact
of sapid bodies. 
               THE  GOLDEN BIBLE OF  NATURE.           317

  The salivary glands, and all  those connected  with  the above-
enumerated organs, and the fluids secreting from all other parts,
commencing at the lips, and down to the stomach, inclusive, have a
powerful effect in forming the taste; and all the nerves, with which
those parts are provided,  pertain to the apparatus of taste, they
being the very conductors and receivers of the impressions of sapid
bodies.
  The lingual nerve of the  fifth pair is the principal nerve of taste,
and when this becomes injured, by disease or otherwise, then taste
becomes perverted.
  Mechanism of Taste. For the full exercise of taste, the mucous
membrane which covers the organs of it must be perfectly unin-
jured; it must be covered with mucous fluid; the  safiva must flow
freely, and these fluids must not undergo change, for if the mucous,
or other liquids, become thick, yellow,  acid, decomposed, &c,  the
taste will be exerted but very imperfectly.  When the mouth be-
comes dry, the powers of taste cannot be excited.
  When a body comes in contact with the organs of taste, we  im-
mediately recognize  its savor; but if it be solid, it is necessary, in
most  cases, to dissolve it in the safiva in order to be  tasted;  but
such is not the case with liquids and gases.
  Different parts of the mouth appear  to possess different degrees
of sensibility to sapid bodies, for they act sometimes on  the tongue,
on the gums, and on the teeth;  at other times they have an  ex-
clusive  action on the  palate,  on the  pharynx, &c.  Some bodies
leave their taste a long time in the mouth, as aromatic bodies. This
after-taste is sometimes felt  in the whole mouth, sometimes only in
one part of it.  Bitter bodies, for example, leave an impression in
the  pharynx;  acids,  upon the  lips and teeth;  and peppermint
leaves an impression which  exists both in the mouth and pharynx.
  Tastes, to be completely known, must remain some time in  the
mouth;  if we  traverse them rapidly, they leave scarcely any  im-
pression.  This is the reason  we swallow disagreeable bodies
quickly, while we allow those that have an agreeable savor to re-
main a long time in the mouth.
  Strong  and pertinacious  tastes render insensible others  which
are  feeble.   We are capable of distinguishing a number of tastes at
the  same time, as also their different degrees of intensity.  The 
 318           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

 choice of food depends entirely on the taste, joined with smell.  It
 enables us  to  distinguish between substances that are hurtful and
 those which are useful.  It is this sense which gives us the  most
 correct knowledge of chemical bodies, &c, &c.


                 OF THE SENSE OF SMELLING.

   There escape from almost every body in nature  certain particles,
 of extreme tenuity, which are often carried by the air to a great
 distance.  These particles constitute odors, and there is one sense
 destined to perceive and appreciate them — this  is  the sense of
 smell, by which an important relation between animate  and inan-
 imate bodies is established.
   The difference between bodies is very  great in regard to the
 manner in which odors are developed. Some odors escape only when
 bodies are heated, others when they are rubbed; some, again, pro-
 duce very weak odors,  and others only those which are very power-
 ful.  Such is the extreme tenuity of odoriferous  particles, that a
 body may produce them for a very long time without losing weight
 in any sensible degree.
   Every odoriferous body has an odor  peculiar to itself, and each
one is distinguished into weak and strong, agreeable  and disagree-
able.   We can recognize odors which are musky, aromatic, foetid,
rancid, spermatic, pungent, muriatic, &c.  Some are volatile, others
tenacious.  There have been attributed  to odors properties which
are nourishing, medical,  and even  venomous; but we are rather
inclined to believe  that these influences are the effects of absorp-
tion of the very particles, rather  than of the odor of  them.  Thus
we ought to attribute to this cause the drunkenness of persons who
are exposed, (without  drinking,) for some  time, to the vapors  of
fermentation or of spirituous liquors.
  The air is the only vehicle  of  odors:  it transports them to a dis-
tance.  Odors are projected with  a certain force. They diverge and
converge through the air, like rays of light.  Odors  mix or com-
bine with liquids as well as  solids.  These  are, indeed, the means
employed to fix or preserve them.  Liquids, gases, vapors, as well
 as many solid bodies reduced to powders, possess the property  of
 acting on the organs of smelL 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE  OF NATURE.
319
   Apparatus for Smelling. The olfactory apparatus ought to be re-
 presented as a sort of sieve, placed in the passage of the air, as it'is
 introduced through the nose  into  the chest,  and intended to stop
 every foreign body that may be mixed with the  air, particularly
 the odorous.
   This apparatus is extremely simple; it differs essentially from
 that of the sight and of the hearing; since it presents no part an-
 terior to the nerve, destined  for the physical modification of the
 external impulse,  the nerve is to a certain degree exposed.   The
 apparatus is composed of the pituitary membrane, which covers
 the nasal cavities of that  membrane which clothes the sinuses, and
 the membrane of the olfactory nerve.
   The pituitary membrane covers the whole extent of the  nostrils,
 increases the thickness of the spongy bones very much, is continu-
 ed beyond their edges and their extremities, so that the air cannot
 traverse the  nostrils but  in a long narrow direction.  This  mem-
 brane is thick, and adheres strongly to the bones and cartilages that
 it covers.  Its surface  presents an  infinity of small projections
 which appear to be vascular.   These projections give to the  mem-
 brane an appearance  of  velvet.  The  pituitary is agreeable and
 soft to  the  touch,  and it receives a great  number of vessels and
 nerves.  The passages through which the air proceeds to arrive at
 the fauces, deserve attention.
   These are three in number.  They are distinguished, in anatomy,
 by the names of inferior, middle, and superior meatus.  The inferi-
 or is the broadest and the  longest, the least oblique  and least crook-
 ed ; the middle one is the  narrowest, almost as long, but of greater
 extent from  top to bottom; the superior  is much shorter,  more
 oblique, and narrower.   It is  necessary to add to these the interval
 which is very narrow, and which separates the partition of the ex-
 ternal side of the nostrils in its whole extent.  These  canals are so
 narrow, that the least swelling of the pituitary renders the  passage
of the air in the nostrils difficult, and  sometimes impossible.
  The two superior meatus communicate with certain cavities, of
dimensions more or less considerable, which are  hollowed out of
the bones of the head, and are called sinuses.  These sinuses are
the maxillary, the palatine, the sphenoid, the frontal; and  those
which are hollowed out of the ethmoid bone or cells.  The  sinuses 
 320            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

 communicate only with the two superior meatus.  The sinuses are
 coyered by other soft membranes, slightly adherent  to  the sides,
 and which appear to be of the mucous kind.  It secretes, more or
 less abundantly, a matter called natal mucus, which is continually
 spread over the pituitary, and seems very useful in smelling.
   The olfactory nerve springs,  by three  distinct roots, from the
 posterior, inferior, and internal parts of the anterior lobe of the
 brain.  Prismatic at first, it proceeds towards the perforated plate
 of the etheroid bone.   It  swells all at once, and  then divides itself
 into a great number of small threads, which spread themselves  up-
 on the pituitary membrane, principally on the superior part of it.
 The abridgment which we  must follow prevents our  giving a full
 description of said ramifications throughout other parts, and their
 modus operandi.
   The  nasal fossae  communicate outwardly  by  means of  the
 nostrils, the form and  size of which are very variable.  The nos-
 trils are covered with hair on the inside, and  are capable  of being
 increased in size by muscular  action.   The nasal  fossae open into
 the pharynx by the posterior nostrils.
   Mechanism of Smelling.  Smell is exerted essentially at the mo-
 ment when the air traverses the nasal fossae in proceeding towards
 the lungs.  We  very rarely perceive any  odor  when  the air pro-
 ceeds from the lungs; it happens sometimes, however,  particularly
 in organic diseases of the  lungs.
   The mechanism of smell is  extremely simple.  It is only neces-
 sary that the odoriferous particles should be  stopped  upon the
 pituitary membrane, particularly in the places  where it receives
 the threads of the olfactory nerves.
   As it is exactly in the superior part of the nasal fossa?, where the
 extremes are so narrow, that they are covered  with mucus, it is
 also natural that the particles should stop there.   This  mucus is of
 Buch importance to smell,  that by too great a discharge  of it,
or by derangement  by cold, disease, or other cause, the smell is
rendered imperfect, or  is totally lost
  It is evident  that the olfactory nerves by their distribution re-
ceive the odors that reach the upper part of the nasal cavities with
greater facility and acuteness; for this reason,  when  we wish to
feel with more acuteness  and with greater exactness,  the odor of 
               THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF  NATURE.            321

 anybody, we modify the air in such a manner that it may be direct-
 ed towards this point.   For the same reason, those who take snuff
 endeavor also to make it reach the upper  part of the nasal fossae.
 The  internal face of the ossa spongiosa  appears well situated to
 stop the odors at  the instant the air passes.   And, as there is an
 extreme  sensibility in this point, we are  inclined to  believe that
 here  the sense of smell isexerted.
   Physiologists have not yet determined respecting the use of the
 external  nose in  smelling.   It  appears intended to direct, like a
 chimney, the air charged with odors, towards the superior part of
 the nasal cavities.  Those persons who  have their noses deformed,
 particularly if broken, and  those  who have small nostrils, or such
 as are directed forward, have in general almost no sense of smell.
 The loss of the nose, either by sickness or accident, causes almost
 entirely the loss of this  faculty.  People thus situated recover the
 benefit of this sense by the  use of an artificial nose.
   Vapors and gases  appear to  act in the  same manner upon the
 pituitary membrane  as odors.  The mechanism of it ought, how-
 ever,  to be a little different.  Bodies reduced  to a coarse  powder
 have  a very strong action on this membrane; even  their first con-
 tact is painful; but habit changes the pain into  pleasure, as is seen
 in the case of taking  snuff.   In medicine, the property of the pitui-
 tary membrane is  employed for the purpose of exciting a sharp
 instantaneous pain.
  In  the philosophy of smell, the use of those hairs with which the
 nostrils and the nasal fossae are provided must not be forgotten.
 Perhaps they are  intended  to  prevent the entrance of  foreign
bodies along with  the air into  the nasal fossae.  In  this case they
would bear a strong  analogy to the eyelashes,  and  the hairs with
which the ear is provided.
  It is generally agreed that the olfactory nerve is especially and
principally employed in transmitting to the brain the  impressions
produced by odoriferous bodies.
41 
822            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
         OF THE SENSE OF  FEELING, OR TOUCHING.

  The sense of touch, is the general feeling or sensibility produced
by the skin, and which instructs us in regard to the general quali-
ties of bodies.  It resides also to some extent in mucous membranes,
as in the mouth,  throat, &c, although in an  imperfect degree.   For
example, we cannot feel the  pulse by placing the tongue over it
on  the wrist, as  any one can ascertain by trying the experiment.
  By touch we are enabled to know the properties of bodies;  and
as it is less  liable to deception than the other senses, enabling us in
certain cases to correct the errors into which the others have led us,
it has been considered the  first and the most excellent of all the
senses; but several  of the advantages which  have been attributed
to it by physiologists and metaphysicians  should be considered
as limited, and many of them doubtful.
  We ought to distinguish tact from touch.  Tact is, with some few
exceptions, generally diffused through all our organs, and  particu-
larly over the cutaneous and mucous surfaces.   It exists in all ani-
mals,  while touch is exerted  evidently only by  parts  that  are
intended particularly for this use ; it  does not exist in all animals;
it is nothing else  but tact united to  muscular contractions directed
by the will.
  In the exercise of tact,  we  may be considered as passive, while
we are essentially active in the exercise of  touch.
  Physical Properties of Bodies which employ the Action of Touch.
Almost all the physical properties  of bodies are capable of acting
upon the organs of  touch; form, dimensions, different degrees of
consistence, weight, temperature, locomotion, vibration, &c, are all
so many circumstances that are exactly appreciated by the touch.
  The organs of this sense do not alone  exercise this function;
so that in this respect the touch differs much from the other senses.
As  in most cases, it is the skin which receives the tactile impres-
sions produced by the bodies which surround us, it is  necessary to
Bay something of its structure.
  The skin forms the envelope of the body.   It is lost in the mucous
membranes at the entrance of all the cavities, but it is improper to
Bay that these membranes are a continuation of it 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
323
  The «kin is formed principally by the cutis vera, a fibrous layer
of various thicknesses, according to the part which it covers; it ad-
heres by a cellular tissue, more or less firm, and at other times by
fibrous attachments.   The cutis is almost always separated from the
6ubjacent parts by a layer of a greater or less thickness, which is
of use in the exercise of touch.
  The external side of tiie cutis vera  is covered by the epidermis,
a solid matter secreted by the skin.  We ought not to consider the
epidermis as a membrane; it is a homogeneous layer, adherent hy
its internal face to the chorion, and full  of a great number of holes,
of which the one sort is  for the passage of the hair, and the other
for that of cutaneous perspiration;  they serve at the same time for
the  absorption which takes  place by  the skin.   These last are
called the pores of the skin.
  It is necessary to  notice, in regard to the  epidermis, that  it is
void of  feeling;  that it possesses  none of the properties of life;
that it is not subject to  putrefaction; that it  wears and is renew-
ed continually; that its thickness augments or lessens  as  may be
necessary;  it is even said to be proof to the action of the digestive
organs.
   The  connection  of the epidermis with the cutis vera is  very
close; and  yet it cannot be doubted  that there  is  a  particular
layer between these two parts in which  certain  particular  phe-
nomena take place, which we know but little about.   The epider-
mis is pierced by little holes, through which small drops of sweat
are  seen to issue  when the skin is exposed  to an elevated tempera-
ture.  The skin  contains a  great  number of sebaceous follicles;
it receives a great number of vessels and nerves, particularly at the
points where the sense of touch is more immediately exercised.
   The exercise of tact and of touch is  facilitated by the  thinness
of  the  cutis vera, by a gentle  elevation of temperature, by an
abundant cutaneous perspiration, as well as by a certain thickness
and flexibility of the epidermis; and when  the contrary is the  case,
the  tact and the touch are always more  or less imperfect
   Mechanism of Tact. The mechanism  of tact is extremely simple;
it is sufficient that bodies be in contact with f«e skin  to furnish  us
with data, more  or less  exact, of their tactile properties.  By tact
we judge particularly of the temperature.   When bodies  deprive 
 324           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

 us of caloric, we call them cold;  when  they yield it to us, we say
 they are hot; and according to the quantity of caloric which they
 give or take, we determine their different degrees of  heat or cold.
 The notions that we  have of temperature are, nevertheless, far
 from being exactly in relation to the quantity of caloric that bodies
 yield to us, or take from us;  we  unconsciously institute a compari-
 son with the temperature of the atmospnene, in such a manner that
 a body colder than ours, but hotter than the atmosphere, appears
 hot, though it really deprive us of caloric when we touch it.  On
 this account, places which have  a uniform temperature, such as
 cellers and wells, appear cold in summer and hot in winter.   The
 capacity  of bodies for retaining caloric has a great influence upon
 us with regard to temperature; as an  example  of this,  we  have
 only to notice the great difference of sensation produced by iron
 and wood, though the temperature of both be the same.
  A body which is sufficiently hot  to cause a chemical decomposi-
 tion of our  organs produces  the sensation of burning.  A  body
 whose temperature is so low as to absorb quickly a great portion
 of the caloric of any part, produces a  sensation of the same sort
 nearly; this may be proved by touching frozen mercury.
  The bodies which have  a chemical action upon the epidermis,
those that dissolve it, as the caustic alkalies, and concentrated  acids,
produce  an impression which is easy to be  recognized, and by
 which these bodies may be known.
  Every part of the skin is not endowed with the same sensibility;
so that the same body applied to  different parts  of  the skin in suc-
cession, will produce  a series of different impressions.
  The mucous membranes possess great  delicacy of tact. Every
 one knows the great sensibility of the lips,  the  tongue, the penis,
 the nipples, the clitoris, the urethra, vagina, &c. &c.
  Mechanism of Touch.  In man, the hand is the principal organ of
touch; all the most suitable  circumstances  are  united in it.   The
 epidermis is thin, smooth, flexible; the  cutaneous  perspiration
 abundant, as well as  the oily secretion.  The vascular eminences
 are more numerous there than elsewhere.  The cutis  vera has but
 little thickness; it receives a great number of vessels and nerves;
 it adheres to the subjacent aponeuroses by  fibrous  adhesions; and
 it is sustained by a highly elastic cellular tissue.  The extremities 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.           S25
of the fingers possess all these properties in the highest degree; the
motions of the hand are very numerous, and performed with facili-
ty, and it may  be applied with ease to any body of whatsoever
form.
   As long as the hand remains immovable at the surface of a
body, it acts only  as an  organ of tact.  To exercise touch, it must
move, either  by  passing  over  the  surface,  to  examine  form,
dimensions, &c, or to press it for the purpose  of  determining its
consistence, elasticity, &c.
   We use the whole hand to touch a body of considerable dimen-
sions ;  if, on the contrary, a body is very small, we employ only the
points of  the fingers.   This delicacy  of touch  in  the fingers has
given man a great advantage over the animals.  His  touch is so
delicate, that it has been considered the source of his intelligence.
   From the remotest antiquity the touch  has been considered of
more importance than any of the other senses. It has been sup-
posed to be the cause of human reason.  This idea has continued
to our times, and we may attach  such  an importance to touch, that
one man may be said to have but little more ability than another,
but in so far as he  has been in the habit of making use of his hands.
Hence it  is of the greatest importance to allow children the free
use of their hands from the moment of their birth.
   The touch does not really possess any prerogative over  the other
senses; and if in certain cases it assists the eye or  the ear,  it re-
ceives aid from them in  return, and there is no reason to believe
that it excites ideas in the brain of a higher order than those which
are produced by the action of the other senses.
   Of Internal  Sensations.   All  the organs, as well as the  skin,
possess the faculty of transmitting impressions to the  brain,  when
they are touched by exterior bodies, or when they are compressed,
bruised, &c.  It may be said, that they generally possess tact.
There must be exceptions made ; the bones, the tendons, the  apon-
neuroses, the ligaments, &c, which in a healthy state are insensible,
may be cut, burned, or torn, without any sensation being produced
in the brain.
   All the  organs are capable of transmitting spontaneously a great
number of impressions to the brain, without the  intervention of
any external cause.  They  are of three sorts.  The first kind takes 
■*
326               PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS.

place when it is necessary for the organs  to act.  They are called,
wants — instinctive desires.  Such are  hunger, thirst, the necessity
of making water,  of respiration, the  venereal impulse, &c.  The
second sort takes place during the action of the organs; they are
frequently obscure, and sometimes very violent.   The impressions
which accompany the different excretions, as of the semen  and the
wine, are of this  number.  Such are  also the impressions which
inform us of our motions, and  of the periods of digestion.  Even
thought seems to belong to this kind of impression.  The  third kind
of internal sensations are developed when the organs have acted.
To this kind belongs the feeling of fatigue, which is variable in the
different sorts of  functions.  The impressions which are felt in
sickness ought to be added to these three sorts.  These  are much
more numerous than the  others.   The study of them is  absolutely
necessary to the physician.
  All those sensations which proceed from within, and which have
no dependence  upon the  action of  exterior bodies,  have  been
collectively denominated internal sensations, or feelings. 
PART  THIRD.
          A  COLLECTION

Of interesting, Social, Physiological, and Medi-
  cal Subjects, attention to which will contri-
  bute much to individual Health, and  to a
  happy, progressive, state of Comfort and long
  Life, leading Men and Women to a superior
  Knowledge of themselves and of their Wants,
  and  to  a sense  of  Duty  towards  others.
  Through these Instructions,  and by  their
  adoption, a pure Enjoyment of an undivided
  and  perfect Sympathy will  be  experienced;
  hence shall follow a Melioration of the Eco-
  nomical and Moral Condition of our civiliz-
  ed Race. 
 
PART   THIRD.
                     THE MEDICAL ART.

  It is a very common thing to hear persons in health talking
against physicians, and the use  of  medicine; but no sooner  are
they placed upon a bed of sorrow with real sickness, than a physi-
cian becomes the most welcome visitor.   As long as the pain and
languor of illness continue, the medicines which he prescribes are
taken without hesitation, and  the course of treatment recommend-
ed by him is implicitly followed.  But this docility of conduct, un-
fortunately, is not apt to  be  continued.   As  soon as the patient
begins to feel easy, and to gain a little strength, the doctor's  pre-
scriptions are too apt to be neglected.  Hence  a relapse very often
takes place, or the period of cure is greatly protracted.  This is a
serious difficulty that physicians have to contend with; and  they
are often unjustly charged with want of skill  and knowledge,
when all  the fault is with the patients, and the friends who attend
them.  Indeed, people are  constantly abusing  their  health by
neglect, exposure, and violent excitement of the various organs of
life; and the  continuance of health, under such severe trials, only
proves the strong efforts of nature  to carry on her functions in
spite of causes which tend to their speedy destruction.  The human
body is a complicated and delicate machine; and to understand its
structure  and numerous  functions, requires a great deal of study
and observation.   When the body becomes diseased, it is a sign
that the machine is out of order; that some internal derangement
has taken place, and  that some one or other of the organs is unable
to perform its appropriate duty.  To know from external appear-
ances, and the description of  the patient's feelings, which organ is
diseased, and the nature of the difficulty in which it is placed, can
                 42 
330
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
only belong  to those who have made the human frame their study,
and are well acquainted with it in all its parts — a science certainly
yet to be understood by Thompsonians, steam doctors, Indians,
and black practitioners—indeed, by all the numberless quacks and
pretenders  of our  land, even by hundreds of ladies, self-styled
M. D's.  If  a watch be out of order and require repairs, we do not
fake it to a butcher  or a stone cutter, but to an  artisan who is well
acquainted with the construction of watches, and is accustomed to
handling and analyzing them."  But with the body — a much more
delicate and important machine—people are not half so considerate.
When it is out of order, and stands in  need of  repair, they under-
take to set it right  themselves, without knowing any thing  about
the nature of their  complaint, or of the medicines they take; or
they adopt the suggestions of their friends, who, though possessing,
the kindest intentions, are equally ignorant with themselves.
  Again, — as the number of diseases to which the body is subject
is very numerous, so the number of active remedies used in medi-
cine is very great; and a mode of treatment which may be highly
proper  in one form of disease, may only serve to aggravate the
symptoms of another.   Even  the same disorder may require very
different modes of treatment under different circumstances; and
without a full and  scientific knowledge of the parts affected, and
the cause of the affection, no  one is competent to prescribe for it
  Physicians, then, that is, scientific physicians, are a class of men,
who are not only useful, but absolutely necessary, in every commu-
nity ; and, from what  has been said, it will be perceived that no
half-way qualifications are sufficient.  The physician must be thor-
oughly competent for the duties of hi3 office.   He should possess
an adequate knowledge of the human body, and of the causes by
which its parts are  fiable to become diseased, and the appropriate
course of treatment for each case. He should be able to distin-
guish with certainty the precise nature of the disease by its symp-
toms, and to  trace its various  changes.   The good  physician,
moreover, must be  temperate, cool, considerate, and attentive —
always watchful of the symptoms of the disorder, and full of intel-
ligence and judgment in  comprehending and controlling it.
  But the physician can  do no more  than his part in the cure of
diseases.  An  important duty is  incumbent upon the patient and 
               THE  GOLDEN BIBLE OF  NATURE.           331

his friends.  The doctor's directions must be implicitly followed;
It is not convenient in every case to  explain the reason for such
directions; some of them may be very necessary, and others less so.
It it is unsafe to neglect any of them — and this is the only way of
seconding the  intentions  of the physician  with efficiency.  Not
only should medicines be  taken exactly as  prescribed, but with
careful attention to diet and regimen.   Neglect in these particulars
is too common.   The friends of sick people  think  it a kindness to
urge them  to eat, but they may thus do  the greatest  injury; and
what is ignorantly meant for the good of the patient, may prove
most disastrous.   It is  often necessary to keep the  system low dur-
ing the action of disease; but  eating stimulates  the circulation,
and keeps up an excitement, which may entirely destroy the effect
of the medical remedies.
  When the efforts  of the skilful and discreet physician are thus
faithfully followed up, the value and utility of the medical art are
apparent.  It is then seen how profound knowledge and cool judg-
ment can  direct the energies  of nature, in such a manner as to
stay the  progress  of disease, and  to call out life and health  in
organs that have  become  torpid and  paralyzed, and almost unfit
for service.  It is then that true science triumphs; and  that the
physician's art appears, as it was formerly believed to be, of Divine
origin, or at least, honored by Divine favor.


                    HINTS TO PHYSICIANS.

  A physician is never without an object to contemplate, or which
commands  his  attention as an artist or a philosopher.   All nature
is an  open volume for his researches and inquiries: the silent and
unfathomed recesses  of the ocean and the earth; the  variations
and influences of the atmospheric elements; the hitherto almost
unexplored arcana of the animal, vegetable, and  mineral king-
doms of our country; the terra  incognita of the animal body and
human constitution, and its varying state, owing  to the numberless
influences  of  physical  and moral  causes, and  unexplained facts;
the present imperfect nomenclature of  nosology and the materia
mediea;  the insidious and perplexing character which certain dis- 
 332           PRUDENTIAL  REVELATIONS,  AND

 eases have assumed, within even our age;  and the incurable nature
 of others; all call loudly on physicians for laborious diligence, per-
 severing study, and patient investigation.  Nay, more, the imper-
 fect state of our art requires  that  we be permitted  to  penetrate
 and explore the cold bosom of death I that we may draw instruc-
 tion from these tabernacles of clay when they become insensible to
 pain, and before they are consigned to the silent tomb!
   It is to be regretted, that while the various objects of pleasure and
 profit, which have arrested the attention of man, have been pursued
 in this country, with an ardor equalled only by the spirit of enter-
 prise which  has actuated our countrymen,  the interests of the
 healing art have been, till  lately, almost wholly neglected.  The
 practice of physic has been prostituted here in the United States;
 it has been taken up by the  lazy,  the immoral, and the ignorant.
 It is pursued no longer as  the most noble science of nature, and a
 profession of humanity, but as a trade, and for deception.  Charla-
 tanical imposture has not  only been encouraged, but too often and
 shamefully followed  by the  very faculty, and  has kept pace with
 the credulity of the vulgar by the  perverseness and guilt of the
 profession.   The respectability of the business is vilely prostituted,
 so that the term profession, and the honorable title of M. D., as
 applied to medicine, in modern days, are  a burlesque  upon every
 calling that is decent or respectable.   We shall not pause to apol-
 ogize for  this plain statement of facts.  Persons of sense and dis-
 cernment know  that these observations are without the  least
 exaggeration.  But it is to be  hoped that the time is at hand, and
 ready to dawn on us, when men will  no longer be allowed to for-
 sake the plough  or the trade, and wield the lancet, and extort
 unmerited diplomas; and that for the future,  something more will
 be required to qualify  men for the  exercise of one of the  most
important callings,  than a common  school-boy education, with a
twelve or eighteen months' attendance upon superficial, theoretical,
medical lectures, and lounging away a few months in an apothe-
cary's shop, or in the solitary room of a solitary practitioner, too
often as profoundly ignorant as themselves.
  May our brethren—the physicians—the legitimate descendants
of -<Esculapius — be aroused from the lethargy and slumber which
has so long oppressed suffering humanity, and degraded our calling. 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.
333
   We must assert and maintain the  rank to which we are entitled
 by the assiduous and  never-ceasing study and exercise of one of
 the most necessary arts.  It is incumbent on us to support and
 defend the dignity and respectability naturally allied to our profes-
 sion, by our  knowledge, erudition,  liberality, and good conduct;
 and by  discountenancing, opposing, and  suppressing, as much as
 possible, the unprincipled presumption of the many ignorant phy-
 sicians and  daring imposters.  A reformation of the abuses in the
 stud}-, and especially in the practice of physic, is certainly practi-
 cable, and ought  to be  attempted, and prosecuted  with zeal and
 perseverance, lest posterity should charge us with having lived and
 enriched ourselves at  the expense of suffering humanity, spilling
 their very blood, and tinging our  garments with crime, and thus
 stigmatizing our names with charges of stupidity and crimination.
   The practice of physic requires a naturally philanthropic incli-
 nation, and a call to it entirely free from a mere mercenary object.
 It requires a strong  mind, sound judgment, and  a  natural  acute-
 ness.  A judicious and skilful physician considers himself  merely
 an assistant of nature; and when her force is sufficient, he leaves
 her to perform the cure.   But the majority of us, nay,  almost
 universally, we do not leave kind  nature to herself, but fall to
 work with the lancet and emetics, cathartics and blisters, tonics and
 sedatives, pills and powders, and hence never know the utility of
 any thing.   We seem  to forget, that the great art of this  profes-
 sion consists in a thorough knowledge of the human machine, —
 the laws of its well-combined engines, and the powerful  influences
 of the mental faculties upon  them.   We seem to forget that the
 great art of administering medicines, is in well-timing  them and
 regulating the dose, or quantity, in  accordance with the need of
 nature, so as.to have the desired effect
  Danger and death are to be apprehended from the hands of igno-
 rant, young, and inexperienced physicians, and from the mercenary
 and the  unprincipled  practitioner.  Many are  superficial in
knowledge  and judgment,  and  others are impudent enough to
place themselves above  embarrassment    There are some who
imagine they understand the nature of every disease, and have an
enthusiastic  notion of the powers  of their prescriptions, and  are
never disturbed with doubt, having an arcanum for  almost every 
 334            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

 disease, however incurable in its nature, — pretending to the power
 of taking a malignant disease out of nature's hands, and  restoring
 health to the patient  in  a surprising manner.  But mark,  reader,
 these are  the destroying angels and actual murderers of the hu-
 man race.   Some of them are forever  boasting  that they  have
 under their treatment very bad cases, — affecting a sorrow, a sym-
, pathy, and almost a despair, — telling how very sick their patients
 are, with black, typhus,  putrid, and bilious fevers, consumptions,
 &c. — very sick indeed, — the most so that were  ever seen, &c.;
 yet artfully  insinuating their strong hopes of a speedy recovery.
 In this latter class of physicians, we may number nine-tenths of
 the faculty.   True, their impositions are, from time  to  time, and
 often, to their deep confusion, detected, exposed, and condemned,
 by their equally cunning brethren, who,  jealous of the success of
 the former, detect these impositions, establishing their own  repute
 on the same shameful and deceitful principles.   The objects of
 each are to enhance  the  credit of their  own prescriptions, if the
 patient should recover,  and secure a  retreat from  blame, if he
 should die.
   Thus enough is said to indicate the great deficiencies of ithousands
 of our physicians, and their mean, illiberal, and deceitful conduct
 A wise physician will aim for the truth, and exercise that liberality
 and benevolence which ever command respect.  He will not cast
 reproach, in a single  instance,  on our profession, by adding to the
 calamities which have been  entailed upon  the community  by this
 dreadful species of quackery.
               DECAY  OF THE HUMAN FRAME.

  The following is an extract from  a synopsis of a lecture, which
was delivered by the author, during his early practice, on the laws
which appear to govern  the decay of the human  frame.  The lec-
turer, assuming the existence of the general fiat, 'Dust thou art,
and unto dust thou shalt return,' proceeds to consider the  manner
in which this principle is exerted,  and argues that the mortality
which belongs to our race is but the effect of this great  decree,
enrolled  in the chancery of heaven.  'Life,  of which  we are  so 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
335
tenacious, clings to the form in which it exists, to the last moment
of possibility, and to be shaken off" requires the effects of disease,
disorganization, and decay.  When violence is not committed upon
the human  frame, the process of mortality is carried  on by laws
peculiar to itself, and there is generally mercy even in  the manner
of the infliction.
  ' Not yielding to fate, like the followers of Mahomet and many
philosophers of these days, our  duty is  to arrest, if possible, the
process of declining  health, — induced to do so not  only by our
own self-love, but commanded,  by the same Being who has fixed
our destiny, to make use of the means, and leave the event to  His
overruling power.  The elements of created nature, the laws of
attraction, repulsion, and influence; those of the universal electric
fluids' magic and mysterious impulse, upon the moral and physical
man, are constantly making the most vivid impression on the vitali-
ty of the tout ensemble, for its destruction  or preservation;  while on
the other hand, the profession and the  learned inquirer, are daily
striving, by all the means  within their reach, to improve the hu-
man  understanding,  happiness,  and life, thus gradually removing
the  superstitions and absurdities of olden times, and the basis of,
bo called, mysterious fate.  The mineral and vegetable  kingdoms
are explored with ceaseless anxiety to discover the specifics sup-
posed to be there.   Almost every disorder has already, at some
time or other, been cured by them, and while there is  life there is
hope.   If no relief is  to be found, — if  the mortal hour approaches,
and no art can send back the shade upon the dial's face, then there
is yet consolation left  The pillow is made smooth to the throbbing
head,  and the benevolent hand administers his last remedies, which,
if properly applied and with resignation  taken, never  fail to sooth
the anguish of the sufferer he cannot save.
   ' There being such a multitude of human beings, equally doomed
to fall at last by the great and imperative command, a curious ques-
tion arises as to the mode in which it is to be accomplished.   While
our entrance upon  existence  is  to all   alike, our departure, or
rather the mode of our departure, is widely different, dependent
on climate, casualty, constitution, and other circumstances.
   1 Diseases have, in modern times, been very much investigated,
 and some degree of arrangement has been arrived  at  in regard to 
336
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
their various forms.  Still,  no two  cases are perfectly  alike,  and
the skill of the physician is  constantly exercised,  and almost as
constantly defeated, — he becoming discouraged, conquered,  and
sorely disappointed.  But, nevertheless, though medicine is yet in
its infancy, the charming effects of  its  operations are daily exem-
plified, and the science of universal anatomy and its affinities,  har-
monize with the new discoveries of the profound  and  inquisitive
physiologist, who, by his  skill, perseverance, and experience,  pro-
motes the progress of the medical art.
  ' It may be proper to arrange the causes of decay into four class-
es, namely:  1.  Natural decay.  2. Premature decay.  3. Rapid
decay, as by disease. 4. Rapid decay, as by unseen violence.
  ' First. — Natural  decay  is effected by the process of hardening
the structures of the vital  organs, to which there  is a  prevailing
tendency.  The deposit of  sand and gravel  in  the kidneys, is one
of the earliest tendencies in some constitutions; the formation of
biliary calculi takes place in others; bony  matter is sometimes dis-
covered in the roots of the  lungs; and  in  others, hardening of the
circulating apparatus goes on.  Local stiffness may  often occasion
but little difficulty, though frequently the ossific process attacks the
heart, whose constant action is essential to  fife.
  1 Second. — Some very interesting illustrations of premature de-
cay might be enumerated,  but we regret  we have no room to in-
sert them.  It is, however, a singular fact, that diseases of the heart
are on the increase all over Europe, and are spreading to an alarm-
ing extent  throughout the vast continent of America, even  to a
degree entirely  beyond  the  ratio of increase  of population.   In
Great Britain alone, sixteen  thousand  persons fall  victims  under
their fatal stroke every year.  The same  may be said  of France
and Italy, while in the United States the proportion is still greater.
Up to the age of twenty years, the miracle of growth is daily per-
forming in our  persons; after that, the  vessels rest quietly for
twenty years, unless they have predispositions to action; and, hav-
ing ceased to add to our stature and our natural growth, they  fall,
perhaps, into some mischief, and  hasten our end.   In those coun-
tries, and here in America, of every thousand deaths, two hundred
and twenty-five are occasioned by chronic, morbid diseases,  attend-
ing the advance of life. 
               THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.            337

  ' Of all the diseases attendant upon mankind,  consumption is
the most common and the  most fatal.   These remarks  are made
more especially in regard  to  the inhabitants of England and the
United States.   It attacks  all ages,  but more especially those who
aie in the meridian of fife — between fifteen and thirty years of
age.  Females  are  particularly its victims.   In Great Britain  and
north of our Middle States, out of  every thousand cases, it num-
bers an average of one hundred and eighty to two hundred; no
other cause of death equalling it in extent.   It is  ascertained that
climate alone is not a full protection against it, as many cases occur-
ring among  Europeans and Americans in hot as in cold climates;
and, what is curious, and almost ludicrous, by comparison, is, that
animals of the  feline and  simia races  are  equally exposed to its
attacks.  One half the deaths of those  animals in the Zoological
Gardens is owing to consumption; and yet there  is  not  found in
the medical art any remedy to be fully  depended upon in this  dis-
ease, unless  it be that one spoken of and  recommended in  this
Medical Manual of Health, which advocates, on the great basis of
experience, the universal efficacy of  the author's theory, treatment,
and antidotes.
  ' The third and fourth modes of decay, are by acute disease, or
unseen violence.  This is attributed to  miasms, or  morbid poisons
in the system, such as quickly destroy the frame,  like cholera, or
the plague;  or such as are  more gradual in their effects, as small-
pox and measles, or eruptive, remittent, and malignant fevers, and
such like; others are still slower, as syphilis, scrofula, erysipelas,
ague,  and  influenza.
  These miasms or poisons are  most commonly of animal origin.
proceeding from the animal body, in a  state of disease and putre-
faction ; or terrestrial, proceeding from  decomposition of vegetable
matter, and the state of the atmosphere. These correspond gen-
erally in their mode of action, and prevail in infancy and manhood
alike.   Too often their grafting power is traced even in  the very
act of coition.
  1 Under this head we might offer some very profound and learned
opinions, which, set forth to our readers in  a popular form, would
Occupy much more room than it is in our power to  bestow in this
synopsis.  Among other singular facts connected with this subject,
               43 
338
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
it is stated that one sixth of the deaths in England and the United
States, is owing to infantile convulsions, inflammation of the lungs,
and hydrocephalus.
  ' It also appears that decay in the male, is more rapid than in the
female sex.  This is attributed to the circumstance that their vital
powers are less tasked in middle life; their minds are in a calmer
and more healthy condition, and they endure, in all civilized coun-
tries, a less amount of toil and hardship. It is also observed that
the poor suffer  more than the rich from the attacks of  disease.
Though their labors are essential to the  well-being  of their coun-
try, and even to their immediate subsistence, their health  is most
exposed and most in danger;, and they, more than  others, must
lack the means of resisting and arresting attacks.  The heart melts
at the consideration of their exposed condition.
  ' The numerous improvements in medicine; the erection of hu-
mane institutions;  the  tendency to sympathy  and benevolence
which have characterized our times, from the  beginning of this
century, is justly attributed to  the effects of  a more liberal, social
life;  to religion, education, and philanthropy.'


DETACHED  SKETCHES  OF  PHYSIOLOGICAL AND MEDICAL OB-
  SERVATIONS,   CONTAINING  A NUMBER  OF METAPHYSICAL
  AND  MORAL  PRECEPTS,  INDUCING  MEN  TO  KNOWLEDGE,
  HEALTH,  AND HAPPINESS, AND UNFOLDING A  FEW MOST
  IMPORTANT HINTS RESPECTING THE LAWS OF NATURE, INTO
  WHICH  JUDGMENT  AND   PRACTICE  MUST  BREATHE  THE
  BREATH OF LIFE AND TRUTH.


        Moral Precepts concerning the Domestic Relations.

  Art thou a young man, seeking for a partner for life ?  Obey the
ordinance of God, and become a useful member of society.  But be
not in haste to marry, and let thy choice be directed by wisdom,
and not by a sensual instinct, nor a blinded passion, neither by the
fashions of the day.
  Is a woman<devoted to dress and amusement?  Is she delighted 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.
339
with her own praise, or an admirer of her own beauty ?  Is she
given to much talking and loud laughter ?  If her feet abide not at
home, and her eyes rove with boldness on the  faces of men, turn
thy feet from her, and suffer  not thy heart to be ensnared by thy
fancy.
  But when thou findest sensibility of heart, joined with softness
of  manners;  an accomplished  mind and religion, united with
sweetness of temper, modest deportment,  and  a love of domestic
life — Such is the woman who will divide the sorrows and double
the joys of thy life.  Take her to thyself;  she is worthy to be thy
nearest friend, thy companion, the wife of thy bosom.
  Art thou a young woman, wishing to know thy future destiny,?
Be  cautious in listening to the addresses of men.  Art thou pleased
with smiles and flattering words?   Remember  that  man  often
smiles and flatters most, when he would betray thee.
  Listen to no  soft persuasion,  till a long acquaintance,  and a
steady, respectful conduct, have given thee proof of the  pure at-
tachment and honorable views of thy lover.  Is thy suitor addicted
to low vices ?  Is he profane ?  Is he a gambler, a tippler, a spend-
thrift, a haunter of taverns, play-houses,  theatres ?  Has he lived
in idleness and pleasure ?  Has he acquired a contempt for thy sex
in vile company ?   And,  above  all, is he a scoffer at religion ?
Banish such a man from thy presence; his heart  is false, and his
hand would lead thee to wretchedness and ruin.
  Art thou a husband ?   Treat thy wife with  tenderness and  re-
spect ; reprove her with gentleness; be fathful to her in love; give
up  thy heart to her in confidence ; and alleviate her cares.
  Art thou a wife ?   Respect thy husband ; oppose him not un-
reasonably, but yield thy will to his, and thou shalt be blest with
peace and concord ; study to make him respectable, as well for thy
own sake as for his; hide liis  faults; be constant  to him  in thy
love; and devote thy  time to the care and education of the dear
pledges of thy love.
  Art thou a parent ?  Teach thy children obedience;  teach them
temperance, justice, and  diligence in useful occupations;  teach
them science; teach them the  social virtues, and fortify thy pre-
cepts by thine own example; above all,  teach them religion, and
the laws of nature, life, and health.   Science and virtue will make 
340            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

them respectable in this life — religion and piety alone can secure
to them happiness in the life to come.
  Art thou a brother or a sister ?   Honor thy character, by living
in the bonds  of affection with thy brethren.   Be kind; be conde-
scending.  Is thy brother in adversity ? Assist him.  If thy sister is
in distress, administer to her necessities, and alleviate her troubles.
  Art thou a son or a daughter ?  Be grateful to thy father, for he
gave thee life; and to thy mother, for she sustained thee.  Piety in
a child  is sweeter than the incense of Persia, yea, more delicious
than odors,  wafted, by western gales, from the field of Arabian
spices.   Hear the words of thy father, for they are spoken for  thy
good; give ear to the admonitions of thy mother, for they proceed
from her tenderest love. Honor their gray hairs, and support them
in the evening of life ;  and thine own children, in reverence of thy
example, shall repay thy piety with filial love and duty.


                Of the Laws of Human Nature.

  Nothing  is more worthy of our knowledge and study than  the
laws of human nature,  upon which depend the  health and'happi-
ness of our race.   That minors should be  suffered to grow up to
manhood, without  attending to this momentous subject,  is too in-
human for calm reflection.  Such ignorance is unworthy of rational
beings.   No apology is necessary for this intrusion into the domes-
tic circle, as the author's object is to do good unto all men, even to
the tender branches of our race, and to enlighten the understand-
ing of the less learned and the ignorant.
  The tendency of the study of human  nature, and its laws, is to
emancipate the mind from  an uncontrolled enthusiasm, and from
the darkness of delusion, prejudice, and error, and from the slavery
of gross ignorance, and abhorrence for virtue, into the light  and
liberty of rational humanity, and the love of knowledge and truth.
Its  application teaches  us the rules to obtain real happiness,  and
how death, to our material existence, is a necessary consequence of
life; while, as rational  beings, it points to us, in full array, the laws
of  righteousness,  on  the observance of which must depend our
future state of endless  weal or,woe.  Things have their circles and 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.            341
 centres; and, O! that we might have eyes to see, and ears to hear,
 and a well cultivated brain to understand, and  thus behold every
 thing that is manifested around  us, above us, beneath us, and with-
 in us.

                         Of  Education.

   Education is the principal ladder which we ought to ascend, and
 there  explore, view, and possess as much knowledge as our bound-
 less spiritual nature demands, and  is capable of receiving,  even
 that of the heavenly faculties, and of the uncreated nature. Hence
 education, in one sense, means the development and proper use of
 our physical and spiritual existence, and relates to the training and
 guardianship of youth, from  infancy to mature  age, and to the in-
 fluencing the character and prospects, not only of individuals, but of
 nations.  The highest powers  and noblest sentiments of our nature
 might remain forever  dormant,  were they not developed and
 matured by the wise and good.  In a still wider sense, it may  mean
 the whole training of the mind, memory, intellect,  and will; of the
' thoughts  and affections, by inward  reflection, and outward events
 and actions—by intercourse with men —' by the spirits of the just
 made  perfect'—by  instruction from the Word, and training the
 whole soul for life and immortality.  If so, no teachers, or parents,
 or guardians, can be too cautious of the influence exerted  upon
 their pupils and children ; for the principles apply to  both matter
 and spirit.
               1 Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined.'

   Since the thoughts are imperishable existences, creating within us
 our happiness or misery, we should be careful jn entertaining and
 cherishing any other than  such as we are willing to have for our
 companions  during  our eternal state of being, in the world  of
 spirits. Here, then, is something for all of us to attend to, and
 improve; unspeakable consequences are  depending on  the perform-
 ance of duty; and are we of the number of those who turn back in
 the day of battle ? or of those  who gird  on their armor, and do or
 die ?   Be it remembered,  that wherever education is neglected,
 depravity, and every kind  of action that degrades mankind, are 
342
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
 concomitant, and most frequent  On the other hand, education
 and duty sound sweetly to those who are in  love with, and under
 the  influence of, truth and goodness;  their path of righteousness
 does not lead through thorny places, and over cheerless wastes, but
 winds pleasantly amid green  meadows and  shady groves, to the
 tree of life and knowledge, truth and happiness.
   Let us look, for an illustration, amongst the many branches of
 our  education, tf the study of zoology,  (the doctrine or science of
 life,) and is it not a necessary element of education ?   Whose  curi-
 osity has not been excited by the innumerable living  beings and
 things with which we are surrounded ?  Is it not desirable  to scru-
 tinize their interiors, and see how they are made, and understand
 their various uses ?  Look  at a man, a fish, a spider, an oyster, a
plant, a stone, &c.; observe their differences in many respects, and
 their similarities in others; they all have essence, form, and use.
 By studying, then, the three kingdoms  of nature, the animal, vege-
 table, and mineral, we emancipate the human mind from the dark-
 ness and slavery of ignorance, into the  light and liberty of  rational
 humanity.  The objects of the animal kingdom live and move, from
 an interior power; those of the vegetable kingdom grow; and those
 of the mineral kingdom do not live nor  grow.   Animals and plants
 increase by nutrition; minerals by accretions.  In infancy we weigh
 but  a  few  pounds; while  in adult age we exceed one hundred
 pounds.  Whence, but from foreign substances, come the materials
 of which  our organs are composed ?   In sickness, extreme emaci-
 ation proves that our bodies may lose a portion of their bulk, and
give back to the world what was once its own;  thus, composition
and  decomposition,  constituting the  nutritive function of which
living bodies are the  centre, are revealed to us by evidences too
plain to  be misunderstood.  May we  have  power to appreciate
 them, being assured that all truths  are in perfect harmony with
 each other.   Animals and plants endure  for a  time, and under
specific forms, by making the external world a part of their  own
being, i. e., they have the power imparted to  them of self-nourish-
ment, and when this outward supply ceases, they die, havin" com-
pleted their term of duration;  hence death, to material existences,
is a  necessary consequence of life.   Not  so with minerals.  They
 exist so long as external forces do not  destroy them;  and  if they 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
343
increase, it is simply by the juxtaposition of other bodies;  and if
they diminish, it is by the action of a force or power from without
Has not every thing its circle ?  How interesting must be the his-
tory of all things, animate  and inanimate!


    THE AUTHOR'S OPINION IN REGARD TO  PHRENOLOGY.

   There is another branch of education, which, by its application
in  accordance with analysis and synthesis, would greatly improve
the  mind  of the  young   inquirer.   This  is Phrenology,  and is
that science which marks the existing connections between the
faculties and manifestations of the mind, and the relative conditions
of  matter, by the instrumentality and development of the  brain.
So that phrenology claims  to be a system of philosophy, illustrating
the fundamental principles of human nature, and which embraces
every thing pertaining to man as a physical, moral, and intellectual
being.
   The human brain, that (gordian) knot, which  has  puzzled the
sages of ancient and modern  times,  and which  they could only
untie by cutting, has, at last, for the first time, been completely un-
ravelled ; and its most wonderful beauty, its complication of struc-
ture, its position and its harmonious adaptation  to its  function, has
been laid  open, by the labors of* those  distinguished physicians
and philosophers, Gall and  Spurzheim, of immortal fame, the in-
timate schoolmates and friends of the author, under the tuition of
the great physician, Felix  Fontana, of Florence, (Italy.)*
   The brain is that organ  which the mind directly employs, and it
is the grand medium of her metaphysical agency upon the locomo-
tive power of the whole beautiful corporeal machine — the  human
body.   She reflects in it, as in  a mirror,  the image of  God, where,
while in this abode,  she  receives many ideas, and embodies the
sensorial affections ; and she harmoniously conveys and imparts to
it some of the noblest impressions of the divine and characteristic
attributes of her own  spiritual faculties, — memory, intellect, and
will, — with all their concomitant classifications.   Thus the body
   * The writer is the  only nephew of the late Felix and  Gregory Fontana.  Sea
English Biographical Dictionary. 
344
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
 and mind are mutually  exerting their faculties, and through the
 intermediate five senses, and the electro-vital and physical organi-
 zation, they manifest to each other  their own influence, and their
 impressions of material objects  and philosophical subjects, malting
 their rendezvous in the brain,  in  which a tribunal  is constantly
 sitting to disclose, examine into, debate, and judge of, all matters ;
 and, in accordance with  the dictates decreed by the will,  the mes-
 senger of their decisions and executions is sent  from matter  to
 spirit and from spirit to matter.
   This  science  teaches  the  rules  and the  mode  of ascertaining
 man's individual disposition, his peculiar nature, the innate talents
 he possesses, and the original powers of his  mind  and character,
 by reference to his cerebral  quantity, form,  and  organization,
 through  which  alone the  immortal soul,  while residing  in  this
 mortal clay, can manifest itself.  This  is a science already estab-
 lished, and  rests its claims for support solely  upon  an appeal  to
 facts, and upon actual demonstration and induction.  Animal Mag-
 netism also establishes its doctrine, and amongst the skeptics there
 is  not one but will admit, if not of its practicability to  improve
 man,  at least of  the undoubted theory of its existence and  classifi-
 cation.
   There  is  then something very sublime for us to  learn by educa-
tion, and may we thus  become perfected in this noble  knowledge
of the laws of our existence, wmch is justly claimed to be of divine
origin.


 Of our connected Existence, Metaphysical Truths, and other Items.

   In  the course of this  work we have already given a few out-
lines  of that part  of physiology which pertains to the science of
the active organization of life, as manifested* in the human bein"-;
that  is to say, the  developed phenomena  of the  living body, its
parts, and as a whole.  Let us now remember, that the body is one
tiling and the mind another; that the former should  always  be
subjected to the  latter, and  that  reason  ought never to be de-
 throned and enslaved by the corporeal senses and  animal  feeling.
 Body and mind can exist in connection,  or the  mind may exist 
THE  GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.             345
entirely independent of the body, in a spiritual state of being, while
the body is  dead matter, after  the  departure of the soul, spirit,
or real man.  May we profit by this our complex existence.
  Every thing in the  universe, both of mind and  matter, exists in
reference to certain fixed principles, called laws of order, originated
in the  Great Alpha  and Omega, and thence emanating through-
out all creation, animate and inanimate; and so long and so far as
these laws are obeyed, i.e. kept, we are shielded from all evils,
natural and spiritual.   Hence, if a man suffer, either  in mind or
body, from within  or  without,  the cause of the  suffering is an in-
fringement of the laws of life ; for God is as unwilling that his
creatures should suffer,  even corporally,' as  that any  should be
finally lost.   Such, then,  are our  constitutions, relations, and desti-
nies, that we cannot will, think, or act, without  obeying or violating
these laws of life.  Stop, then, my fellow-mortal, in thy mad career,
reflect upon and  tremble  at  thy past transgression, and quickly
retrace  thy  steps to  righteousness,  and  never cease  to wonder,
adore, and be submissive to the length, the breadth, the height and
the depth of the wisdom  and  love of God, as  manifested in
the  creation, redemption, and salvation of MAN, or else dread the
wrath of an insulted nature, and the curse of an avenging God!
   Spirit is never  decomposed.   Not so with matter.  The soul, as
 a spiritually organized existence, clothes itself for  a time with a
material body, in  accordance with the mysterious laws that connect
the two together.  All human beings, after existing a while, neces-
sarily separate from their combined nature, and the body becomes
decomposed and perishes from our natural sight, while the spirit
takes its flight to its eternal abode. Yet the species does not disap-
pear.   And here  another characteristic is manifested, — the faculty
of producing others like ourselves, i. e. the power of perpetuating
 the race.  Living bodies have their  predecessors and  successors;
 they arise from beings like themselves, as from  a parent, and are
 not separated till  their development is so far  advanced that they
 can maintain a comparatively independent existence.   This doc-
 trine refers to the kingdom of material nature, which is below us,
 i. e. mankind (the man, or spirit of man,)  has no lot in the animal
 kingdom, but sensualism has degraded man to rank with animals.
   The soul is the primary cause, the active power, or living interior
                44 
346              PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

agent, according to which, and for the use of which, the body was
formed as a medium or organ of the souFs operations in the natural
world.   Hence the whole of the  human body taken together is an
effigy or type, a mirror, and as  it were the clothing or vestment
of that soul, spirit, or mind, which ought to form the grand loco-
motive power of our righteousness, and thus lead us  to our tem-
poral and everlasting happiness.  In it  we see the ladder from
earth to mind, and from mind to heaven.   Let us cheerfully ascend
it and view the prospect.
  There are also ladders to knowledge, to intellect, to affection, to
heaven.  Let us ascend  them, and not stop short of palpable truth.
But truth not reduced .to practice, availeth not.  Error must be
eradicated, or truth cannot be received.   What is true can only be
received, in proportion as its opposite, error, is  removed.  Let us then
attain to perfection — righteousness — which is  the work of time
and labor, promoted by true feeling, and guided by correct thoughts.
Let the axe  of truth, and of principle, be laid at the root of every
tree that  does not bring forth  good  fruit.   Which do we  love
most — error or truth ?  Let our consciences answer.
  Oh !  the length, the breadth, the height, and the depth, of well-
directed thoughts!  They are high as heaven,  deep  as hell,  and
broad as the universe.   Nay, they enter  into the  heart of nature
and spirit; they are the attributes of our godlike nature; they  sur-
round  our Maker; they commune with  him.  Nay,  our under-
standing and will conform to their dictates, whenever they agree
with the righteousness of reason  and of God.
  Our thoughts are real existences, and are as indestructible as the
mind.   They may fade away, apparently, or for a time,  while in
this mortal frame; but  yet  they are stored  up in the interior re-
cesses of the soul.  Memory will retain them,  and afterwards they
will burst forth in perfectly distinct and individual resemblance.
  The human mind should be contemplated under two grand divis-
ions — will  and understanding.   The former is the receptacle of
our passions, emotions, affections, &c.;  the latter, of our thoughts;
and both, if  not corrupted, have  a direct and holy influence on our
pursuits,  character,  and happiness,  for time and eternity.  This
character is  attained by a wholesome, uncorrupted education.
  Besides the will and the understanding, we are in possession of 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.            347
 another great faculty.  We  have two memories, external and in-
 ternal ; the former for words, &c., and the latter for thought.  This,
 to some, may seem a singular doctrine,  while to others it may
 appear paradoxical; nevertheless we regard it as true.  To the ex-
 ternal memory belong  all languages, all the  objects of the senses,
 and  the  arts and sciences.  To the interior appertain  nearly all
 rational things, through the conceptions and ideas of which, thoughts
 themselves are  created.   Hence the inference is, that, in the
 material world, we are obliged to converse in  a language, and in
 signs suitable to our state, and which constitute  the clothing of the
 thoughts, which belong to the spirit, and  this is done through the
 means of the  exterior memory.
   On the other hand,  when we emerge from materiality,  into the
 mental or spiritual  world, (where mind  ever dwells, even  while
 connected with the body,) we shall see as we are seen, and  know as
 we are known, and be in possession of an  universal language, dis-
 tinguished into ideas; so that all nations, and people, can converse,
 instantaneously, with each other ; because they do it from the in-
 terior memory, appertaining to the spirit   In this memory are in-
 scribed all that the mind has thought, spoken,  or done, through the
 body. Is  not this the  book of life, which is hereafter to be
 opened ?   But this is a great, important, and practical subject, and
 would require a volume, to treat it satisfactorily.  Let man resolve
 to break  the trammels of prejudice,  error,  and bad habits, and
 exercise his own reason, taste, and judgment; let him dive into the
 depths of every  thing — understand all things for himself, and
 build on his own foundation.
   Notwithstanding ignorance  is the  source  of many evils, yet
 error will produce greater havoc.   It is almost as difficult to make
 one unlearn his errors, as his knowledge.  To  eradicate false ideas,
 is a more hopeless task than to engraft truth upon the uninformed;
 for error  is always  more  busy than ignorance.  Ignorance  is a
 blank-sheet, on which we may write; but error is a scribbled one,
 from  which we must first make erasures.   Ignorance is contented
 to stand still, with  her  back  to the  truth; but  error is more pre-
 sumptuous, and proceeds in the same direction.  Ignorance pos-
 sesses no light, but error follows a false one.   The consequence is
that error, when she  retraces her footsteps, has farther to go,  than
ignorance, before she can arrive at truth. 
348            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

   The correction of bad, and the formation of good habits, — that
is, to repress the former, and establish the latter, — may be accom-
plished  bj- the practice of analysis and synthesis.   Let the force
of truth and reason be felt and pierce the  very  hearts of those
who do not bring forth good fruits, and may these salutary weapons
cut  asunder all unrighteousness and vice.  The healing  balms of
virtue and knowledge which produce happiness, shall then be en-
grafted  into the sprigs which shall bear good fruit.
   Let us remember that every faculty of the  body corresponds to,
and  so signifies, a particular part, faculty, or principle, of the spirit
or mind;  and  all the  body, taken together, represents the  whole
mind.  How essential,  then, is it, that both mind and body should
be cultivated in accordance with the objects of their existence !   In
all physical and mental actions and thoughts, let us have the light
of the principles unfolded by nature.  IT we were pure-minded,
we should find the study of physiology to be the direct and natural
road to the mind, and to the presence of the Deity.  Let us then
yield an implicit obedience to all the rules and  principles founded
in nature  and science ; but rules may be dispensed with  when we
have become  divested of bad  habits, and  have  perfected our-
selves in good ones.   This  is a glorious art, but let us, however, not
destroy the scaffold  until we have  erected the building; nor erect
the superstructure  till we have dug deep into the fountains of,
knowledge and laid its  foundation stones upon the rock of truth.
  The defects of our education, in regard to our physical improve-
ment, are great and  dangerous.   We are generally ignorant of  our
bodies and minds, and we choose and wish to be so.  Thus, for
example, we impose upon ourselves, or are imposed upon, by the
tradesman, and  the merchant, by the mechanic and the artist, by
the politician and the economist; we are imposed  upon even by
our best friends  and relations, our parents and tutors, the apothe-
cary and  the doctor, by the wild religionist, and by almost every
body else; we are  a race of  abusers of one another, of our own
flesh and interest, of our own will and propensities.  The impulses
of our bad habits lead us to destruction; we are turned to and fro
by every wind of novelty, fashion, and deception.  A carnal mind
and  a voluptuous life are  our enemies.  O, when shall we be wise
and  understand the things that so nearly concern our true tempo- 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.           349
ral welfare and real happiness ?  Having eyes, we  see not aright;
having ears,  we hear imperfectly;  our feelings, taste, and smell
betray us, — and why ? because they are perverted, enslaved, cor-
rupted.  The enemy comes in upon us like a flood, and who will
lift  up a standard against him ?  Let our sensations be such as to
impress in our souls  the knowledge of truth and a  desire to follow
it, and lead us to shun all error and  unrighteousness.
  A sensation is  a perception of an impression made on some or-
gan.  By our sensations, we receive a knowledge of what is passing
within or without the body. They are divided into internal  and
external.  The former are produced by causes acting within  the
system, as hunger and thirst; but the latter are occasioned by  the
impression of a body, external to the part  impressed,  as sight,
hearing, smell, touch, and  taste.  No sensation can be perceived,
unless it is transmitted to the brain, through the ethereal power of
the  subtile, electrical, magnetic, and nervous fluids, which  might be
called the vital principles of life.  When ideas, which have been
called ' the images of sensible objects,' are reflected upon and com-
pared with each other, we  exert thought and judgment; and when
they are recalled, we are said to exert the memory.  Thus are  the
senses avenues to knowledge, though they  do not give rise, as  has
been  supposed, to our intellectual and moral powers.
  Here we perceive also the great contrast and difference between
man and the brute creation.  The  reason  why the latter cannot
speak is because they have no understanding, as men have; conse-
quently, no thoughts, and, of course, no articulating organs;  and
what  they do is done merely by the operation of the  lower affec-
tions, guided  and influenced only by  instinct, which  is  a power
necessary for their  natural preservation and continuance.  With
man it is not so.  He is the image  of God himself; that is to say,
lie has been  formed so perfect a machine as to reflect and repre-
sent,  as in a  mirror, and through a material body, some of  the
most  sublime  attributes of  his Creator, and  he has been endued
with the spirituality and sanctity of  a soul, the three Divine facul-
ties of which, memory, intellect, and  will, can, at his choice, render
him superior to all  the rest of  creation, and happy in  time and
eternity.  The rolling planets and the glorious sun, the animate
and inanimate creation, and all  the  created worlds, still  keep that 
350
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
 order, and obey those laws, with which they first began;  but alas!
 wretched man alone has gone astray — swerved from his nature
 and his God, he walks in another path!
   What sublime thoughts arise within us at the contemplation of
 our nature!  Let us take a retrospective glance at man, his physi-
 cal form, and its  respective  essentials; all of which constitute the
 external of what the ancients  called a microcosm, or  little world.
 Let us now look at a dissected human body.   At its first sight and
 in its tout ensemble, and when animated, we could not but admire
 it, and sympathize with it, as a perfect ivork of a perfect being ; but
 now it is associated, in the common mind, with death, and the grave,
 the loss of friends, and the terrors of the dark future.  The major-
 ity of men regard the  subject with abhorrence and disgust; but
 the real lover of truth and nature, who  rises above time, place, and
 matter, from effect to cause, and sees the beautiful symmetry and
 adaptation of all its parts to varied purposes, makes it an object of
 the most intense interest and study.   We are indeed ' fearfully and
 wonderfully made.'   Well may we exclaim, ' what a piece of work
 is man!'  The greatest study of mankind is man.  Such wonderful
 mechanism reveals the hand of a Divinity, and they who contem-
 plate  and understand its structure  and uses a right, who look
 through nature up to  nature's GOD, may be truly said to com-
 mune, not only with themselves, but with their Maker.
  Let us remember, however,  that our microcosm, or  little world,
 without a sun to impart to it life, light, and heat, availeth not   Of
 what use is the  body without a soul ? of what use the house without
the inhabitants ? and of what use are words, and actions, and good
 works, without thoughts of immortality and a retribution ?  and of
what use are all these, and the life itself, if they cannot be mani-
fested ?   The body, then, was  intended to be the  mind's  servant,
and the body should, therefore, depend on the rational care of the
mind, as the mind itself must obey the Father of Mind.  Body and
soul are best taken care of when they agree together.
  The following characteristics of man illustrate his physical per-
fection and godlike sublimity.   His position, and the structure  of
his body, are naturally upright.  He has the free use of his senses,
and of most of his organs.  He is the only tico-hanfled animal; the
prominence and the tout ensemble of his forehead are peculiar.  He 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.
351
is physically defenceless, having neither weapon of attack nor defence.
He possesses,  generally, the largest brain  of any animal.  He is
the only animal that sleeps on his back, and the only one that laughs
and weeps; the only one that has an articulate and well-directed
language, expressive of ideas ; and he is the only one endued with
reason and moral sense.   He has a  capacity for religion, devotion,
and happiness.  He is the only being capable of serving God.  He
is, or rather he ought to  be, in  his  progressive  life  and bliss, the
true image of Him, the living  Temple of Jehovah, the Throne of
Glory.  Look  at man's expression;  look at his head;  view the
arched shape  of the  cranium or skull; his impressive  eyes, the
mouth, the ears, the forehead; listen  to the overflowing oracles of
his mind, even while thus confined in this  limited,  although
splendid, dome or vault.   What  a stupendous cupola, fit for so glo-
rious and godlike a being.
   The mechanical construction of the chest is also admirable. See
the boundaries in front, the breastbone ; at the sides, the ribs ; be-
hind,  the spinal-column;  below, the diaphragm.  See how security
and protection are secured to every internal organ.   How free is
the motion of respiration, and  the  power of contraction.  What
flexibility in speaking and producing actions, so well conformed to
the movements of the body and mind. Think, now, of the dreadful
effects of intemperance, of all descriptions—in eating, drinking, and
amusements — of the vices and bad habits of the  prevailing fashions
and customs.  What fearful havoc is felt from them on our physical
and moral constitution ?
   The form of the body becomes much disfigured, and the action
of the chest much impaired,  in consequence of  tight lacing,  or
sitting or working in a bent or crooked posture.  Physiology and
experience teach us, that all unnatural compressions and contrac-
tions should be avoided.  Heavy hats on the head; tight cravats
and  stocks around the  neck;  tight lacing, of any  description,
around the waist, by corsets, cords, waistcoats, &c, will interfere
with the  circulation of the  blood and fluids, and with  the natural
actions of the body and mind.   They impede the free use of the
head  and chest and the breath becomes obstructed and suffocated.
These are the Seeds  of diseases  and consumption.  Whatever
a man soweth, of that shall he reap. 
352           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
OF THE  ELECTRIC FLUID, THE  FLUID  OF ANIMAL MAGNE-
   TISM, AND  THE INVISIBLE NERVOUS FLUID,  WHICH EXIST
   IN  THE  LIVING HUMAN  SYSTEM.

   As there are the gross, grosser, and grossest parts of matter, so
there are the fine, finer, and finest parts.  The most refined or sub-
limated parts of matter, are the three subtile principles of life, called
ELECTRICITY, ANIMAL MAGNETISM, and an INVISIBLE  INTER-
MEDIATE  nervous fluid.  These fluids  seem to be the mys-
terious links which connect the body  and spirit,  or rather those
upon  which spirit first operates.  Many call them  the vital fluids;
but they appear to be rather the kindling materials, with winch the
human soul divine comes in  contact in  animating certain forms  of
matter.  As all developments are from within, the soul receives her
life from Him who is the life, or LIFE  ITSELF, and communi-
cates it to  the body through  appropriate mediums,  which are these
three subtile, invisible fluids.  Life first kindles itself in the nervous
system, through  the  agency of what is improperly called spiritual
fluid, which seems to consist of certain mental influences, brought
forth, per se, and through the aforesaid  subtile fluids of the  nerves,
within the various sensorial organs, and all those parts of the body
which are  calculated to receive its impressions.
  N. B. — It was only of  late years that the existence,  in  the
human system, of the invisible fluid was discovered and ascer-
tained.  It is neither magnetic nor electric, but intermediate, oper-
ating  upon the nerves.   This fluid may be easily detected by the
ordinary galvanometer.  In regard  to its curative  purposes, we
think, and we know by experience,  that it is to us invaluable, and
essential to our  success; while we beg the  public, and especially
the profession, to investigate for  themselves  this  important dis-
covery.  We have ascertained that all the maladies  with which
mankind are afflicted,  are, in  some way or other,  connected with
the nervous sys!:< m; and nervove  diseases, though, at the present
day, they are generally treated with contempt, and ridiculed, yet,
when witnessed in ourselves  or friends, they are, oil all the ills of life,
perhaps the most  deplorable.  We  possess the .greatest regard for 
                THE  GOLDEN  BIBLE  OF NATURE.            353

 those afflicted with these diseases, and the most philanthropic feel-
 ings for the sufferers thereby.  Our practice and our medicines are
 based on the theory, that all diseases partake, in their progression,
 of the poisonous malignity and disorder of these fluids ;  thus disor-
 ganized, impure, and corrupted, oftentimes by the disease itself, it
 being the immediate cause of the subversion of  their laws.   We
 believe that every disease, in its incipient state, the origin of which
 is not traced to the derangement of these fluids, is  never dangerous,
 nor of long duration, and may be removed by the  most simple anti-
 dote, regulating the circulation of the blood, and by a strict attend-
 ance to the digestive and.alimentary organs ; but  when the disease
 is suffered to insinuate itself into these vital principles of life, (i. e.,
 these subtile fluids,)  then  a  complicated and  effective treatment
 must be adopted.  Our success  in  the healing art,  in every indi-
 vidual case, and the  good effects of our medicines, prescriptions,
 and recipies, are attributed to  the undeviating  application of this
theory, which, from the beginning of our practice, we have always
pursued  with  never-failing confidence,  full  effect, and  perfect
satisfaction.
  AN  ABRIDGED THEORY OF THE WORK OF  NATURE  IN THE
                    FORMATION OF  BLOOD.

  Our food passes through six changes or states before it becomes
arterial blood, fit to sustain the body:  1st.  It is masticated in the
mouth, where it is, or  should be, well mixed with  the saliva, and
where the first process of digestion  commences.  2d.  In  the stom-
ach the gastric juice changes  it into chyme.   3d. In the  intestines
it is converted into chyle, (except the useless part)   4.  It is then
taken up  by the absorbents, and, in passing into the lacteals and
lymphatic glands, the noxious parts are separated, and  a  farther
assimilation produced.   5. The absorbents convey  it to the tho-
racic duct, which empties it into the subclavian veins, and, before
and after, it reaches the  right  auricle of the heart, the blood (re-
turning from each part of the body) joins it, when another  change
takes place.   6. It then passes through the right ventricle into the
lungs, to receive its last change, by becoming arterialized; when it
                  45 
 354            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

 is  returned through  the left auricle into the ventricle,  and, after
 being assimilated, is sent, the messenger of health and  support, to
 every part of the.system.   Hence to have  perfect bones, muscles,
 and nerves, to possess a robust constitution of body and mind, and
 to  keep every member and all its parts in a state of health, the
 organs, whose business it is to convey nourishment to all those parts,
 should be in a healthy state, and have the best materials from which
 to  extract this nourishment  If we take improper food, or whole-
 some food at improper times, or in improper quantities, we cannot
 expect good blood to be formed, because the materials are unsuita-
 ble, or because the organs that make  the blood operate  only in an
 imperfect manner; and there  is so much sympathy and relation
 between the different parts of the body, that good habits and tem-
 perance in all things, are  essential to health.  The laws of physi-
 ology teach us to be regular in our habits, to be moderate in all our
 exercises, faithful in all our engagements, and to have a conscience
 void of offence.
  The blc^d consists of very small globules, or little  balls, unper-
 ceivable to the natural eye.   Let  them be  considered as laborers,
 of which there is an immense number; the  body is the world, con-
 taining a great many forests, farms, towns, and cities, — a commercial,
 mechanical, and farming world, — in which all kinds of business are
 carried on, especially that of building up and improving.  The
 food is the building material, which  passes through  a  variety of
 hands, and receives  its finishing touches  in  the lungs.   Each
 globule is a workman, which goes  from the heart to  the  lungs for
 his  load, and returns to the heart, and is thence sent in the arterial
 road to dispose of his burden where it  is needed, and, on his return
takes the venal road and gathers up all the rubbish that he is capa-
ble  of managing, taking with him also the new material (the chyle)
formed through the  process of digestion, and returns it  through
the  heart to the  lungs, where he disposes of it,  and then retraces
his  steps, and continues his labors.  This is  done in continual pro-
gression,  and  three  or four  minutes  is required for each routine.
The blood goes out in the arteries, passes into the capillaries, which
appropriate the nourishment to  every organ and outlet throughout
the  whole body, and hands the rest over to the veins.
  From these remarks we  may infer  that  the life is in  the blood, 
               THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.           355

i. e. the blood is the medium through which  life  from above flows
into the  body.  The fine parts of the blood become bone ; the
finer parts, muscles ;  and the finest, nerve.


THE  DOCTRINE  OF THE  PULSE,  AND  THE IMPORTANCE OF  A
  PHYSICIAN'S  UNDERSTANDING IT  BY  ASSIMILATION  AND
  COMPARISON.

  The pulse is the beating of the heart and  arteries.  It is gener-
ally felt at the wrist, (it being  the most convenient  part both for
the physician and the patient,)  by pressing the radical artery with
the fingers.  The action  depends upon the impulse  given to the
blood by the heart;  hence, physicians feel the pulse to ascertain the
quickness or tardiness of the blood's motion, the thickness and state
of this fluid,  the strength of  the heart, and the relations which
influence the nature, character, changes, &c,  of the sick man's con-
dition.   In regard to the pulsation of the heart, every time that its
ventricles contract, the whole of the  heart is rapidly carried for-
ward, and the  point of this organ strikes the left lateral side of the
chest, opposite the internal part of the sixth and seventh true ribs.
The number of its pulsations, in a healthy  individual, is generally
greater in proportion as the person is younger.
At birth it beats	from	130 to 140 times		a minute.
At one year,	11	120 to 130	a	u
At two years,	It	100 to 110	u	M
At three years,	[(	90 to 100	u	II
At seven years,	(I	85 to 90	ii	(I
At fourteen years,	(1	80 to 85	K	it
At adult age,	11	75 to 80	11	«(
At first old age,	((	65 to 75	It	K
At confirmed old age	a	60 to 65	11	(I
  But the number of pulsations vary according to an infinite vari-
ety of circumstances, sex, temperament, climate, individual  dispo-
sition, affections of the mind, diseases, &c.   These things should be
thoroughly investigated  and well understood  by the professional
man, before hazarding a judgment in any case.   The arterial pulsa-
tions, as above stated,  are the jerks of the blood, caused by the 
356            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, and

powerful contractions of the heart.  Generally, the number of pulsa-
tions in a healthy, well-organized man, corresponds with those  of
the heart, according to the above  calculations.  The quantity  of
blood which an individual possesses  is also known by the arterial
pulsations.  When the blood is  superabundant, the arteries  are
round, thick, and resisting.   If it is  in less quantity, the arteries
are small and easily flattened, and  the pulse has  a  correlative pe-
culiar vibration to the sense  of touch.  The quality of the blood,
and its  peculiar impurities, are also detected in the pulse.  The
doctrine of the formation, circulation, purification, and preservation
of the blood, in the human system, is admitted to be beyond contro-
versy,  under the laws of our understanding, and  hence capable
of being controlled, and subject to medical treatment.  Thus it is,
that through pulsation a skilful  and  experienced physician  may
know by assimilation  the changes in the blood, and  detect its mod-
ifications  by the  simple  feeling of the  pulse.   Thus  in  a most
sensible manner its retentions and intermissions, quickness, intensi-
ty, weakness, irregularities, &c, and whatever change may happen
to occur, are manifested to him.  The feeling of  the pulse is  the
means through  which,  in  connection  with other symptoms,  the
modifications and state of the heart, of the brain,  and the nervous
system, and its subtile fluids, and of the lymphatics and other fluids,
and of each principal vital organ of life, may always  be known.
   In view of what has been said, how small is the number of phy-
sicians, who have ever attained  such a degree of perfection as to
enable them to discriminate and judge, through  the feeling of the
pulse, the state of the patient, and  the symptoms  and  nature of
diseases, and their causes!  Generally they are unable to distinguish,
by the Variations  of the pulse, the  state of any organ  or system,
and hence they cannot apply efficient remedies, and the patient
dies by dangerous or unjustifiable treatment, suggested  at random.
We admit, that the perfection of this knowledge and skill is rather
a gift of nature, which can  never be obtained by science, but it
may be improved by  the perseverance in an experimental practice
which can be better understood by a practitioner, than expounded
by a philosopher.   Our remarks, it is hoped, will have their prop-
er influence, not only on the community at large, in their choice of
well-bred  and qualified  physicians, but  on the  practitioners and 
               THE GOLDEN  BIBLE  OF NATURE.            857

students of medicine.  We  may state that this  gift, improved by
practice and skill,  is eminently possessed  by the author,  and his
power of distinction, from feeling the pulse, has enabled him, with
keen scrutiny, assimilation, and a well-directed experience, to judge
with unparalleled certainty and correctness, the state of health of
his patients, and distinctly to classify each  individual constitution,
and  the  nature,  causes, and  effects of the disorganization of the
organs or system, and their complaints or diseases, and hence what
is to be effectually done.  To feeling the pulse,  and to this gift of
discrimination, and to the exercise of a never-failing judgment, he
attributes the sure success  which has attended  his practice  and
treatment.   May our physicians  equally  cultivate  this attainable
art, and we shall at once reap a substantial benefit from the medi-
cal science, and more safe will be the result of our experience and
success.

                 MANAGEMENT  OF  THE  SICK.

   There is always much scope for the exercise of discretion, in the
management of sick people.   This is better  understood and prac-
tised, in the largest cities, than in the country ; it is, however, not
sufficiently attended to, any  where.  When any one in a neighbor-
hood falls sick, he is sure to have many advisers.   One recommends
this thing,  another that;  a  third, a different thing still;  and all
with  the most confident assurances  of successful results.  And
why ?  because, forsooth, they have seen  these things used in ex-
actly similar cases, (as they  suppose,) with the most complete suc-
cess.  AVeak minded people! unwelcome intruders upon the sick !
Do you  know the real case  of  your sick  neighbor?  Are  you
acquainted with all  the meanderings of the organic  system, the
blood, lymph,  nerves,  and their harmonious combinations ?  Are
you perfectly acquainted with the springs  and  powers of human
life ?  Do you know the nature of diseases, and of the system ? the
causes and  their consequences ? Does your favorite remedy — teas,
drops, or pills — agree with all persons?   Even if it be admitted
to be the same complaint, do you suppose the same  remedy, and
the same treatment, will always be effectual to those of various
strength and different constitution ?   This is a mischievous practice, 
358            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

and especially where there is a regular attendant physician.  The
mode of treatment, by him prescribed, ought never to be inter-
fered with, lest the intruder, thrusting his  ignorance between the
fife of the  patient and every chance of his  recovery,  become in
fact,  the very instrument of his death.
  It  is exceedingly embarrassing for a sensible physician, seated by
a patient,.particularly if a female, to observe half a dozen imperti-
nently curious spectators,  who  take  no interest in the welfare of
the sick, but are present merely for the purpose, of collecting ma-
terials for their own empirical practice, or gossiping tattle, or who
are perhaps, (for  such there  are,) actuated by some  other more
censurable  motives.
  A mother, an aunt, or sister, or some attendant, capable of an-
swering inquiries,  and receiving directions, and especially able to
keep silence when  she has nothing to say, should be present, and
this is enough.   Too often is witnessed, a sick chamber, surround-
ed with wet eyes and gloomy faces, all directed to the sufferer, just   ,
as he or she is waking from a frightful sleep, or from the paroxysm
of a feverish state. The effect upon the timid  imagination of the
patient, is a conviction that  death  is about to close  the scene.
These intruders should be as carefully barred from the house of
sickness as should the  wild religionist
  It is possible that both of these classes may mean well; but, if so,
they are to be thanked for the' intention only, because  their
presence can do no good.  The one endangers the health of the body;
the other the sanity of the mind.   The former  character is the
reverse of an enlightened sympathetic friend, whose head knows
how to execute the dictates of his heart;  the latter is the  opposite
of an humane, sensible divine, who knows how to administer com-
fort and inspire hope,  as well as to convey instruction, and enjoin
obedience to the precepts of a sublime and rational religion.
  Let us now enumerate some of the causes of death from diseases
which might easily have been cured by proper management.   They
may be divided into three distinct classes:
  First, those which are derived from the physicians.
   Second,  those which arise from the conduct of sick people.
   Thirdly, those brought on by the  improper conduct  of their
attendants and visitors. 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.
359
    First Class. — Causes of Death  derived from Physicians.

  Under this class we shall mention;
  1. Ignorance  in physicians;  arising from  youth and  inexperi-
ence, or original incapacity, or want of proper instruction in medi-
cine.
  2. Negligence in physicians; it  extends to their delays in obey-
ing immediately the first call or  summons to a patient; to their  in-
attention to every symptom and circumstance of a disease; and to
the  time of the visit, it  not being accommodated  to those changes
which take place in a disease, at which times,  remedies  of a cer-
tain character  may be  applied  with  effect.   Negligence,  from the
first of  these causes, has occasioned the death of many patients.
  3. Physicians render curable diseases mortal, in  many  instances,
by connecting  the measure of their services to the sick with pecu-
niary considerations.   This is  one reason,  why mpre of the poor
than of the rich die of the same disease.  Extravagant charges for
medicinal advice and attendance  have produced such  delays in
sending for a physician, as have  given a curable  disease time to
advance to its incurable stage.
  4. Forgetfulness in a physician  to  visit his patients, or  to send
them medicines at regular and critical hours.
  5. A preference  of reputation to the life of a patient,  has often
led physicians  to permit a curable disease to  terminate  in death.
The death of a patient,  under the ill-directed operations of  nature,
or what are called lenient'and safe medicines, seldom injures the
reputation or business of a physician,  and for this reason,  many are
permitted to die, when  they might have  recovered by the use of
efficient remedies.
  6. A  sudden  indisposition attacking a physician, so as to prevent
his regular and habitual visits.
  7. Patients are sometimes lost in curable diseases, by fraud and
uncertainty in  the  composition and  doses of medicines,  by which
means they produce greater or less effects than were intended.
  8. The directions and  prescriptions of physicians, written in a
careless and illegible hand, have sometimes  produced  mistakes in 
360            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS. AND

the administration of  medicines, which have been the means of
destroying life in curable diseases.   Verbal prescrijrtions have been
followed by the same unfortunate result.

                                                     *
 Second Class. — Causes of Death derived from the Conduct of
                         Sick People.

   Among the causes of death derived from patients themselves,  wo
may enumerate:
   1. Ignorance.  Medicine has, unhappily for mankind, been made
so much of a mystery, that few patients are judges of the talents or
qualifications of physicians;  hence the  bold and artful are  often
preferred to the modest and skilful.
   2. Prejudice of patients in the choice of physicians.  This preju-
dice may be of a religious or political nature.   The  former leads
patients to prefer physicians of  their own sect;  the  latter, of their
own party, without any regard  to talents or knowledge.
   3. Fashion has a powerful influence  in determining sick people
in the choice of a physician ; and as the leaders in fashion are gen-
erally as  ignorant as those who follow them, of the true character
of physicians, men are  preferred who add by their ignorance to the
mortality of curable diseases.
   4. Many patients die of curable diseases, by neglecting to apply
in due time for medical aid.  Cancers and consumptions,  scrofula,
&c, have been called  incurable diseases.   This is  far from  being
true.  If the tumors  and swellings which precede  all cancers and
scrofula were  attended to immediately," at  their first appearance,
and if  the premonitory symptoms of consumption were  met by
proper  remedies, we should seldom hear of persons  dying of either
of those diseases.
   5. Neglect  in patients to comply with the prescriptions of their
physicians.  We sometimes  discover, after the  death of a patient,
medicine that  would  probably have saved him, upon the mantel-
piece, or in the drawer of a dressing-table.  Patients who recover,
sometimes humorously insult their physicians, by telling  them of
the improper use to which they have applied their medicines.  Sir
Richard Nash was once asked by his  physician if he had  followed 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF  NATURE.            361
his  prescriptions.  ' If I had,' said Sir Richard, ' I should certain-
ly have broken my neck, for I threw it out of my window.'
  6. The neglect of  patients to make use of the remedies of their
physicians at the  time and in the manner prescribed.   Not only
neglecting to use remedies at the time, but using them in a differ-
ent manner, is a frequent cause of death in curable diseases.
   7. The indulgence of the appetite, by sick people, for food and
drinks, improper in quality or quantity.
  8. Fear has often rendered diseases fatal.
  9. A dread of the expense of medical services has sometimes, by
preventing an  application to  a physician,  occasioned death from
diseases that might have been cured by a single dose of physic.
   10.  A  peculiar  irritability of  temper has  sometimes induced
death in diseases, which,  under other  circumstances, might have
been cured.
   11.  Improper exercise, or application  to  business  or study, espe-
cially while not dangerously sick,  or after a crisis of a fever, or
after a season of convalescence. Death has occurred by impatience,
and a premature desire, on the part of sick people,  to  enjoy the
benefits of exercise  and country air.
   12.  An excess of  delicacy, disposing  patients to conceal  the na-
ture and seat of their diseases, is sometimes the cause  of mortality.
   13.  Love,  debt,  and guilt, which are seldom acknowledged by
sick people, when united  with diseases of a mild nature, frequently
render them incurable.
   14.  A habit of drinking, which is often indulged in secretly, seri-
ous  disappointments, despondencies, and ungoverned passions may
bring the sick to a bed of  death.


Third Class. — Causes of Death which  arise from  the Conduct of
          the Nurses, Attendants, and Visitors of the Sick.

   1. We shall first mention the fatal effects of consultations between
physicians of opposite medical principles.   Consultations lessen re-
sponsibility, and by blending different  modes  of practice,  render
inert or  hurtful those which, if pursued separately, might have
been successful; for it is  a fact that there  are not only different
                  4G
• 
362
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
methods of curing the same disease, but the same  disease may be
cured by medicines of an entirely different nature.  Next, we shall
mention  the  conduct of nurses, as  a frequent cause of the fatal
issue of diseases.   Far be it from us to blame this class of people
indiscriminately.   Many of them deserve praise for their humanity,
and some for their skill  and usefulness in  the management of the
sick; but melancholy experience has taught us that death is often
the effect of negligence, fear, inactivity, ignorance, and wickedness,
which are discovered in the following ways:
   I. An apparent inability of swallowing often  proves fatal to
the patient, by reason  of the  nurse or attendant not  using the
proper means of  relieving them.    On the  appearance of those
symptoms, (more especially in  fevers,) which in general are sup-
posed to be  the harbingers of death,  the  despair and inactivity
produced in the minds of the  attendants, however  much  to be re-
gretted, can by no means be wondered at, the symptoms seeming
to show that death must soon put  an end  to the existence of the
unhappy sufferer.  So great a degree of despair, indeed,  possesses
the by-standcrs, in these  distressing cases, that frequently, when
the medical man sees considerable  ground for hope, they  will, in
the strongest terms, condemn all attempts for his recovery, as use-
less and cruel, since they imagine, by these supposed vain attempts,
his torments are increased, and their duration prolonged.   To the
frequency with which this idea is adopted, may be attributed the
death of  numbers; for it seldom happens, when this notion is en-
tertained, that the strongest  remonstrances of the physician  can
induce the least exertion on the part of the attendants, except, in-
deed, during the time he is present;  for immediately after  his de-
parture all exertion ceases.  Such conduct  cannot find a sufficient
excuse in misapplied tenderness, since the consequence  resulting
from so culpable an omission, may be the death of one who otherwise
might have been saved; for in all the long catalogue of diseases to
which  we are subject,  there  are none in  which  symptoms  of so
alarming an appearance are to be found, and  where so great a pos-
sibility of recovery may exist,  as in putrid,  nervous, and bilious
fevers.  Instances  of recovery from these diseases have been so
really wonderful, that so long as the patient breathes, his attendants 
               THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.            363

should not devote themselves to despair, but should persist in their
endeavors with unabated assiduity.
   It is a  circumstance that must have occurred  often to every
medical man, that having left a patient in one or the other of these
fevers, with the most earnest entreaties to his attendants to supply
him regularly with  medicines, and almost  constantly with drink
and nourishment, he is told, at his next visit, that they have not
been able to procure the swallowing of a  drop of either; when,
perhaps, if the physician  himself should make the trial, he would
experience very little difficulty in  getting the patient to swallow a
considerable quantity.
   To ascertain  the cause of this difference of success, in the dif-
ferent attempts of the  nurse and  the physician, and to point out
the proper course   to  be  adopted  in such cases, will  now be
attempted:
   In the advanced periods of these fevers, the brain and the whole
nervous system are  in so deranged a state, that a  slight  stimulus
seldom excites the corresponding ideas which it produced in health.
When,  therefore, a patient is in  this state, merely emptying a
spoonful of liquor into the mouth, is not sufficient to excite  those
muscles into action, by which the act of swallowing is performed.
The liquor, therefore, remains in the mouth, until it escapes at the
corners of the lips;  or else,  from a drop insinuating itself into the
windpipe, the whole quantity,  from the violence and suddenness
of the irritation, is thrown forcibly  out at the mouth and nostrils.
   Appearances, in  either of these  cases, seem, at first thought, to
warrant the conclusion, which is usually drawn from them, that the
vatient has totally lost the pov;er of swallowing.  But if the patient
be so much aroused from his delirious or  comatose  state,  as to be
apprized  of the  nature and intention of the  endeavors  that are
making, he will generally  be found  ready enough to assist himself.
After rousing him, by gently shaking him, speaking to him, raising
him in the bed, &c,  a spoon filled with the liquor that is intended
to be given him, should be  put into his  mouth, moving  it about
against the tongue, lips, and sides of the  mouth, until he has swal-
lowed the few drops that  have  fallen from the spoon.   It now ap-
pearing that the muscles serving for deglutition (swallowing) are
capable of performing their office, the whole quantity is to be pour- 
 364            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS,  AND

 ed into the mouth, and to be followed by as much more as may be
 thought necessary;  since, after having been thus roused into action,
 it will be some little time before the muscles relapse into their pre-
 vious state of insensibility.
   It is believed  that, by careful  attention  to these rules, the suf-
 ferings of the sick, in many instances, would be greatly mitigated,
 and that many lives might be saved.
   H.  The neglect  of attendants to  give  sick people medicines,
 drinks, and diet, at the  time and in the  manner in which they are
 prescribed.  Nurses too often neglect  also to change the body and
 bed linen of the  sick.   They keep  them too  hot or too cold, or
 they ventilate the room too little or too much.
   HI.  Nurses, by  their ignorance,  frequently assist diseases in
 destroying life.
   IV. Nurses, attendants, and  nightwatchers render curable dis-
 eases mortal, by forbidding  the  use or defrauding the  sick of those
 drinks or aliments that are  prescribed for them.  This vice is the
 parent of greater evils  than either negligence or ignorance.  It
 has been frequently noticed, that drinks, frequently of a spirituous
 nature, are very often drank by nurses, and the stupidity or intoxi-
 cation which is insensibly produced  in them, leads them  to treat
 sick people with carelessness, nay, even cruelty, and thus a mortal
 result is the consequence of a simple disease.
   V. Nurses often desist from giving  medicines to the sick, in the
 most critical stages of diseases, from despair of their doing any good,
 or from the fear of, producing unnecessary pain, in what they sup-
 pose to be the last moments of patients' lives.
   Of the visitors of sick people, who  contribute  to render cura-
 ble diseases fatal, we shall first mention physicians who  are  not
 sent for, and who obtrude their visits as friends.   It will be impos-
 sible for patients to avoid asking them  questions, and it will be dif-
 ficult for physicians to answer in such  a manner as not to interfere
 with, or defeat the plans  of cure of the regular medical attendant
  Visitors of another description from the neighborhood, or circle
 of consanguinity, help to render simple diseases  mortal, by their
 loud or long conversations; by their  tales of sickness and death
 from similar diseases; by urging the  patient, prematurely, or with-
out delicacy, to settle his affairs; by sapping the  confidence of 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
365
sick people in their physicians; by advising  heterogeneous  consul-
tations; by dissuading patients from the use  of painful or disagree-
able remedies, or by persuading them  to make use of such as are
pleasant, but feeble.


DIRECTIONS RESPECTING THE DIET OF THE SICK IN GENERALr
   AND MORE  ESPECIALLY OF  THOSE LABORING  UNDER  OR-
   GANIC  OR CHRONIC  DISEASES.

                    The Patient is. allowed: —

   Baked, roasted,  or boiled beef;  mutton, deer, rabbits, haresr
squirrels, and such like  domesticated or wild quadrupeds.
   Wild and domestic fowls; turkeys, doves,  pigeons, &c.
   Fresh fish, having scales;  and codfish, nearly free from salt; frogs,
fried, stewed, or boiled, in plain soup.
   A very little  good fresh butter; the different preparations of
milk;  fresh eggs, raw or soft boiled, or eggs in soups, (except in
cases of diarrhea;) meat  soups, broths, and jellies.  These soups
 and liquids  should  always  be made plain, with a little salt and
 pepper, but no other seasoning or spices.
   All kinds of bread and biscuits, (except bread made with the
 addition of unusual substances.)  It should  never be eaten warm,
 nor on the day  of its baking, but should, be at least twenty-four
 hours old; and it is preferable if it be dried and toasted.
   Puddings,,dumplings,  plain fried wheaten cakes;  Indian  rice,
 oat meal, and such fike  plain pastry.  Care should be taken that
 they be not too heavy.and fat, nor too much spiced.
   Plain cakes may be used in small quantity.
   Food prepared  in gruel form, with or without mdjk, and  with
 flour or meal, as Indian,  oat, barley, rice, and the like; arrowrcft,
 tapioca, sago, salep, &c.
   Wholesome vegetables  of :aU,kinds, and in small quantities, as
 potatoes, turnips,  carrots,  cabbages,  cauliflowers, or  any green
 herbs, boiled or crude, which are usually served at table.
   Fresh, boiled, roasted,  or dried fruits, provided they be perfectly
 ripe, and used in very small quantities.  The most wholesome are 
366
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS,  AND
prunes, apples, peaches,  strawberries, raspberries, mulberries, and
such like sweet berries, grapes, &c, (except in cases of diarrhea.)
   For beverage  at  breakfast and supper, we  recommend fresh
milk, or boiled fresh whey;  egg tea; decoctions  made  of fresh  or
roasted ground barley, acorns, malt, oats,  Indian corn, &c.; sage,
avensroot,  sarsaparilla, cocoa;  pure plain chocolate;  weak black
tea, &c.  At all other times of the day, and at dinner, pure cold
water is the best and most  wholesome  beverage.  It may or may
not be sweetened with sugar, currant or any other jelly.   Toast-
water is wholesome and nourishing.
   Wines, spirits, or other fermented liquids, and the many kinds
of family rootbeer, should never be taken, unless they are of prime
quality, and, even then, they should be used with great caution,
and upon professional consultation.
   N. B. —  Every article  of food or drink which disagrees with the
patient, should be avoided.   In  relation to all articles to which the
patient is so accustomed, that it is difficult for him to abstain from
their use, as well as with respect to many influences which he can-
not avoid, he should  confer with his physician.  In the physician's
absence, he should consult his friends, his reason, and  his feelings,
and  be very careful lest he should fall into corrupt habits, and
under the influence of perverted propensities.


    The Patient is forbidden to use, and must guard against: —

   All descriptions of flesh of animals not fully grown, as veal, lamb,
chickens, &c.
   Smoked, preserved, salted, high seasoned, and fat meats.
   Pork, geese, ducks, turtles, and terrapins, &c.
   All blood,  and food  prepared  with blood or animal fat;  all
kinds of sausages, or meats and soups highly seasoned, sauces, &c.
   Fish, not having scales, as catfish, eels, &c.; all kinds of shellfish,
as lobsters, crabs, clams, oysters, &c.; and soups  and pies prepared
from  them.
   All kinds of pastry and cakes, except those mentioned above.
   All kinds of nuts, almonds, kernels of peaches, or other  similar
fruits, are very injurious. 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE  OF NATURE.
367
  The use  of too great a quantity of sugar, confectionary, and all
sorts of drugs, spices, aromatics, seeds, &c.
  The use of all kinds  of liquors  and spirits, cordials and other
drinks, cold or warm,  prepared with spirituous liquors or spices,
is very hurtful, and should only be used in accordance with the
prescriptions of a medical attendant.
  All artificial and natural mineral waters, and other liquids, as
mead, spruce beer, soda beer, soda water, cider, porter, ale, &c,
are generally bad, and should be used with great precaution and
judgment,  and with consultation.   Wines, also, except there exist
a certainty that  they are wholly the produce  of the  grape,  free
from adulteration, should be avoided; and, even in the use of pure
wines, great care and discretion should be used, as before men-
tioned,  and they should always be diluted with a  tittle sugared
water.
  Coffee is injurious to the sick, even when they are recovering.
  Vinegars of all kinds, and acids of all descriptions, should be
avoided; hence fruits and vegetables,  preserved in  vinegar or
brine, are very injurious.
  The use  of tobacco, by chewing  or smoking, is very hurtful, and
hinders the cure of diseases; while taking snuff, with temperance,
may be highly beneficial.
  The thousand nostrums of the day, and all drugs and medicines,
even those so-called domestic remedies, (except those  recommended
in this volume,) be they either for external application, or to be
used  internally, and for whatever purpose intended,  unless  pre-
scribed by  some upright, honest, and skilful physician, of great ex-
perience, are strictly forbidden.
  Blood-letting,  by the lancet,  leaches,  cups, and  dry cupping,
blisters, and scarifications, seatons,  issues, &c, are prohibited, with-
out a special and imperative direction from a skilful physician.
  All perfumery, particularly musk, and  similar  smelling  sub-
stances ; flowers and plants kept for their smell, hartshorn,  cam-
phor, and  all aromatic waters  and  soaps,  pomatum,  oils, and  fike
cosmetics, must be avoided.
  In  all diseases, especially those  which are internal, the  use of
Btays  and corsets, tight lacing, bandages, suspenders, &c, impede
the cure, or render it extremely difficult. 
368           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

   The practice of rocking, in rocking chairs, retards or prevents
the cure of all diseases, but more especially those of the abdomen.
Females suffer from this cause more than males.
   An active life promotes, while a passive or sedentary life hinders,
the cure of diseases.   Labor which exercises the body, should be
■daily performed to such an extent as the strength will reasonably
permit.   All  fatigue  must be avoided.   All excitements, undue
exercises of  the mind, and reading and writing should also be
Avoided.
                 HOW TO  IMPROVE HEALTH.

   First study to acquire composure of mind and body.  Avoid
•agitation and hurry, especially just before  and just  after meals,
and whilst the process  of digestion is going on.
   To  this  end,  govern thy  temper;  endeavor to  look  at  the
bright side of tilings; repress, as much as possible, the unruly pas-
sions;  discard envy, hatred, and malice from thy heart; and lay
thy head upon thy pillow in love with all mankind.
   Let not thy wants outrun thy means.  Whatever difficulties thou
hast to encounter, be  not perplexed, but only think what is right
in the  sight of Him who seeth all  things, and knows thy thoughts ■
and bear the result  without repining.
   An unquiet mind, and disturbed meals, physiology teaches * make
ill digestions;' and  the contrary is the  consequence of a tranquil
spirit,  easy conversation, pleasant  prospects, welcome news, and a
lively companion.
   We advise wives not  unnecessarily to entertain their husbands
with domestic grievances, about children, servants, &c, nor to  ask
for money, nor  produce unpaid bills, but at suitable and proper
times,  and  never to propound unseasonable  or provoking ques-
tions;  and
   We advise husbands to  keep the  cares  and vexations  of  the
world to themselves, but to  be communicative of whatever is com-
fortable, and cheerful, and amusing. 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
363
A  FEW GENERAL RULES FOR THOSE WnO ARE INQUIRING THE
   WAY  TO HEALTH, OR ARE UNDER MEDICAL TREATMENT.

   Pure air, as stated in another place, is the first requisite to health.
Air  should be  clear, dry, and elastic.   It should equally surround
us.  It is highly improper to expose the person to a current of air,
through a small  opening in  a door or window.   The  evening air
should be avoided, but the morning atmosphere is salubrious.  The
apartments,  more  especially the bed-rooms,  should be ventilated
daily before sunset  During the hours of sleep,-the windows should
never be left open.  Delicate persons, who sleep with associates, or
are much in their company, by day or night, should choose from
among those who  are stronger than themselves,  and  they should
see that such associates are sound,  sweet, healthy,  and moral.   Pu-
rity  of mind, cleanliness of bod)-, sweetness in clothes, furniture,
and houses, will  contribute greatly to the preservation of  health.
We should take  our meals regularly, and never disregard this rule.
The  quantity of food  should  correspond with the power of diges-
tion.  It is better that-it should,  in all cases, be light.  Pickled,
smoked, and highly seasoned food  is unwholesome.   Nothing con-
duces  more to   health than temperance  in eating, drinking cold
water, and taking  due exercise.   Persons who take much mental
exercise, or who lead a sedentary life, should, on leaving the table,
feel able to take a  meal just as hearty as the one they have eaten;
that  is, they should be  exceedingly temperate.   Those who labor
in  the open air can indulge more, but still  they should have an eye
to temperance.   We would recommend hearty breakfasts, moderate
dinners, and spare suppers.
  Water is the most wholesome of  all drinks — quickening the ap-
petite,  and promoting digestion.   Spirituous  liquors are  certain
but slow poisons.   They do not prevent the mischief arising from
a surfeit; nor are  they  so effective in digestion as water.   Fer-
mented liquors — such as ale, beer, cider, et sui generis — are ex-
tremely hurtful  to persons of delicate constitutions.  Coffee and
strong  tea are also  injurious.  Very light suppers  should be  takea
                47 
370            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

by persons of weak habits, about two hours before going to bed.
They should also be regular in their  living,  retire at nine, and
rise  in  the summer at four or five, and in  the winter at about
six  o'clock.   A proper  degree of exercise is  also necessary to
health.  Walking in the open  air, in good weather, is also condu-
cive to the preservation of the human constitution.
  Any part of the body may be strengthened by exercise.   Thus
the lungs  may be invigorated by declamation, or  walking up an
easy ascent;  the digestion  and nerves, by riding;  and the  arms.
limbs, back, and chest, by strong daily frictions, and easy manual
labor.   The studious should walk some distance before dinner, and
before retiring to sleep.   The  head and hair  ought to  be well
washed  and  strongly rubbed daily, and  the beard  should be fre-
quently shaved.  The feet should be kept clean and warm.   Stand-
ing is the best position for studying.  Never lean the stomach on a
table or desk.
  Hardiness will not be impaired, but  improved, by wearing light
clothing.  Exercise should always  be  taken on an easy stomach,
and  never continued to weariness. Never  drink  when  you are
heated, or in a perspiration, as  there is  danger from  cold.  The
constitution is generally strengthened by daily friction over the
whole body, with a flesh brush.   Ablutions before dressing—using
a large  sponge and a pail of water — will also be found conducive
to health.   Begin with the upper portion of the  head, washing the
whole body, and then dress with celerity.  Cold bathing prevents
a variety of diseases, promotes perspiration, aids the circulation of
the blood, and wards off colds.  Delicate persons should first pour
water on their heads, and then walk immediately into the water.
Jumping in, head-foremost, gives too great a shock to nature,
  Costiveness is very injurious to health, and therefore should be
prompt!)' removed.   To  prevent its return, use a soft, cool, open
diet;  go to the privy, and make a daily effort, after breakfast, or at
other regular hours.
  Obstructed perspirations, (vulgarly called  catching  colds,) are
great sources of disease.  Gentle sweats  should  be  resorted  to on
the least manifestation of their existence.
  Female obstructions  should be immediately removed, as deliy 
               THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.          371

may cause a series of maladies, which, if not remedied, will surely
terminate in severe suffering and certain death.
  The passions affect the health much more than is generally sup-
posed.  Violent passions, such as grief, anger, hopeless love, despon-
dency, and lascivious desires'and habits, cause chronic diseases and
consumption.   No  medicine can  produce any benefit  until the
passions are allayed.
  As the love of God  is the surest preventive of all distresses  of
the mind, so will 'it, in a secondary manner, prevent those bodily
disorders, which flow from the passions, and riot in the brain, when
the Deity  is not properly  respected.   Let the passions, then, be
always controlled, and  the peace consequently pervading the soul,
will confer  health on the body —■ thus  having a  twofold  effect  on
him who was made in regard to spirituality but a little lower than
the angels,  yet, far superior  to  them in their  attributes,  affinities,
and claims ; he bearing in his corporeal form the real and perfect
image of the Most High.  The  possession  of the throne of grace
and glory is  not only  freely offered to him, but he is called to a
sublime election, to inherit  that eternal kingdom, as a right, and
in, justice awarded to  him  by  his Heavenly Father's love,  pro-
vided, however, man's faculties and holy gifts be  controlled  in
accordance with the divine precepts.  Let  him, then, who desires
happiness and long life remember this.


CONTINUATION OF THE  SAME  SUBJECT, DESCRIBING CAUSES
  AND  EFFECTS,  WITH  PHYSIOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS   CAL-
  CULATED  TO IMPLANT GOOD AND PREVENT  EVIL.

  Every one requires, to sustain life and promote the health of the
body, such an amount of pure atmospheric air as the lungs, when
expanded,  can  inhale ; consequently, if by compression,  by sitting
or working in a bent position, or by tight  lacing,  or even by neg-
lecting the  laws of nature, in speaking,  declamation, or singing, the
capacity of the lungs  be  diminished, in that  proportion will the
health be impaired and life shortened.  Therefore  we need  to
learn the laws of breathing, as elsewhere explained, which should
be  followed at all times, both in our exercises  and in repose.  By 
372            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

strict.attention and practice of its rules,  as  exemplified in the fol-
lowing sketches, we soon  shall  be guided aright, and enjoy tho
blessings attendant thereupon.
  Hoarseness, in speaking, reading, declamation, singing,  &c, is
generally produced by the emission of breath from the efforts only
of the throat and chest, (or lungs,) and  often causes  inflammation
and bronchitis, which is one of the prolific sources of consumption.
In speaking and breathing, in manual exercises and in resting, the
appropriate dorsal  muscles and those of the  abdomen should be put
in motion and exercise.  Observance of these directions will tend to
prevent,  as well as to cure, diseases of the throat, and the ills  con-
tracted  by bad practices, as dyspepsia, liver and lung  complaints,
&c.  One of the  great secrets of reading, speaking,  declaiming,
singing, and working, without injury to  the voice, and without, ex-
haustion  of strength, and with salutary effects to our health, con-
sists in the proper  management of breathing; not that there should
be any thing mechanical in it, but  every thing should be the result
of perfect freedom  and natural action.
  Position  of the Body.   The position,  when  standing, should be
erect, and  balanced  on the heel of the foot upon which you stand.
Then banish all care and anxiety of mind, and attend only to what
you are doing.  Let the forehead  be  perfectly smooth; the lungs
entirely  quiescent.  In your  bodily exertions, if they be mechan-
ical, and in  breathing and  speaking, make  every effort  from the
dorsal and  abdominal region.   The efforts to produce sounds, to
declaim,  sing, and work, and in breathing, must always be made
only from the lower muscles below the ribs.   Children also, and
animals, naturally act properly in this particular; but  man becomes
perverted during his primary education.  Children,  in an unper-
verted state, obey the laws of breathing, and hence produce sounds
naturally  They cry and halloo all day  and all night, without be-
coming hoarse or exhausted, while  often  the parents  have lost this
power, and suffer in consequence of violating or forgetting the lawa
of nature.  It would  not be too late a remedy for them to retrace
their steps and act in accordance with nature.
  Those  who examine the structure of the  body, see  the necessity
of standing upright on the left foot, with the right foot a few inches
from the left.  The right foot will naturally fall  into this position 
               THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.           373

when it  is raised up.  The heel of the right foot should point
towards the hollow of the left ; the shoulders should be thrown back
bo that the chest ma)- protrude; breathe deep, with the full exercise
of the dorsal and abdominal muscles, so  that the air jre inhale  and
exhale may have free access and recess to and from the air cells of
the lungs. In regard  to  carriage, the upper part of  the body
should always be  kept quiescent,  and  the mind  should be con-
centrated  on  these exercises until the efforts and actions become
voluntary. To speak and read naturally, that  is,  by the  exercise
of every  muscle intended to be used in these exercises; to sing  and
work by the  natural  exercise of the various  powers, contribute
very much to the development of nature and the preservation  and
promotion of health, by restoring the peristaltic action of the sys-
tem, aiding the  secretion  of the liver, and  invigorating the  pul-
monary apparatus for the reception and purification of the blood.
Through  this  natural mode  of breathing we may do something
towards securing a sound body for a sound mind.
   When shall we accustom ourselves to submit, on  all occasions,
even in the most trivial as well as the most important circumstances
in life, to a small present evil, to  obtain a greater  distant good ?
Such a course would give decision, tone, and energy, to the mind,
and sound health and strength,  and long life,  to the body, which,
when thus disciplined, will  often obtain a  real  victory from a
seeming  defeat;  honor from  a  repulse.  The  evils of a vitiated
nature, and bad habits and desires would then be banished forever.
Having  acquired this  invaluable hi■>■■%  of rational preference  and
just appreciation of the laws  of nature, by actual practice, let us
start for theorize that endureth forever.
   A good exercise,  to obtain muscular strength and acquire a
natural habit,  is to place the hands on  the hips, with the thumbs
on the small of the back, and the fingers on the abdominal muscles
in front;  grasp them lightly, i. e. try to press in the abdomen,  and
at the same time to burst off the hands by an internal effort in the
use of the muscles;  or, imagine you have a belt tied around  you
just above the hip bones, and make such an effort  with the breath,
and the assistance of the abdominal and dorsal muscles, as would be
required to burst it off. Persevere in this practice  and you  will
succeed. 
 374           THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.

   To expand the chest, strike the palms of the hands  together,  in
 front; then  strike the backs of them behind, turning the  thwnbs
 outward ; do this with a united action of the whole body and mind,
 the centre of the exercise being the small of the back; be in earn-
 est, but husband your breath and strength; breathe  often and act
 perfectly free, easy, independent, and natural.  Let the individual
 impress on his mind the  absolute necessity, for awhile, of keeping
 his shoulders thrown back, so as to make the  breast as round and
 prominent as possible.  He surely will feel, after  a few days  or
 weeks at farthest, very  uncomfortable  while  sitting, standing,  or
 laboring in a bent position.
   In  breathing,  or any other mechanical action  of the body, the
 difference between expulsion and  explosion of breath, is, that the
 latter calls into use, principally, the  chest or lungs; that  is, the
 effort is made too  much  on  or above the pit of the stomach; the
 former requires the combined action of the muscles below the  mid-
 riff, (the bell).)   The one is favorable to health and strength; the
 other is deleterious, generally to both.  Many have injured their
 constitutions  by this unnatural process;  and others  have lost their
 health, and some their lives.  Beware of it!   In  our exercises  in
 breathing, speaking, declamation,  singing,  working,  &c, there
 should be no rising of the shoulders, nor heaving of the  bosom.
 Both tend to injure the health.   Beware of using the  lungs.  Let
 them act as they are acted upon by the lower muscles.
   AVhcn we sit at  ease and at rest, our breathing is slow and regu-
lar; and the more we work, speak, or sing, the  more frequently
must we inhale fresh air; because  the  expenditure is greater  at
such times; hence  the necessity of breathing with the full exercise
of the  dorsal and  abdominal muscles.  Many persons fall victims
to this neglect; and little is early education calculated to aid us  in
breathing naturally ; the result of errors, in this respect, is exceed-
ingly  bad habits, inducing impediments, diseases, and death.   O,
when shall we be wise, and  understand these  things !   How hard
it is to learn,  even  by experience !
   Labor or exercise, and the action of the ?/;/'//,  the voice, the mind,
the tongue, and the heart ought to be reciprocal. The former, when
not connected with the others, invariably makes mechanical work-
men, readers, or speakers, at the  expense of health and natural 
               THE GOLDEN  BIBLE  OF NATURE.            375

perfection, and most generally those  who disregard these thingi.
suffer much ; while, if labor and the exercise of the limbs are joined
with that of the other faculties, a contrary result is produced, and
happiness and  long life are promoted.  The one is the result of the
action of the head,— a stubborn, ill-directed head,— and the other of
the heart, and is the spontaneous  effusion of the whole combined
action of  Lody and mind,  and of well-governed thoughts and af-
fections.   The former spreads  a  veil -before the mind; the latter
takes it away.  The first is unnatural, while the  latter is suggested
1))- the laws of life.  Is it not so ?  Judge ye.
  Nature  knows a great deal more than art;  listen  to  her teach-
ings and her verdict.  Yet when  nature becomes vitiated, then, by
the  aid of art  and experience, retrace  your way,  as nature will
never fail to indicate her  wishes, and will, with  certainty, furnish
the  ability to attain your  object, which  ought  to be, happiness.
])<-alth, and long life.  In  view of these  truths, we  may well ex-
claim with the Apostle, ' How great a matter a little fire kindleth!'
The tongue, when moved by nature, is full of power, for weal or for
woe, according to the state of the heart that  impels it  to action.
What is there that  cannot  be  talked up or talked down by it ?  It
is full of  blessing or cursing, love  or hatred; and O! how it can
sting the soul, when it has been dipped in the gall and wormwood
of hell! and how lift it to  heaven, when fired with celestial love!
On the other hand, if art  alone makes it, then  it will be but an
artificial puppet, or & panorama, without life or merit.


  IMPORTANT  CONSIDERATIONS ON HEALTH AND  COMFORT.

  Why is it,  that  pulmonary diseases are so  frightfully on the
increase ?   Our country is  more healthy than it formerly was; yet
the  succeeding settlers  suffer vastly more with  consumption  and
dyspepsia  than  did  the pioneers.   Our unnatural mode  of living
and dressing has produced  the mournful change.  The fashions of
the day, the lusts of the flesh, intemperance in drinking and eating,
and in our daily exercises, bad education, and  the  crowning sin
of tight hieing, are driving  their thousands to a premature grave.
   i here is no doubt that the seeds of a large  number of di.-eases 
376           PRUDENTIAL  REVELATIONS, AND
are sown in childhood and youth, and especially in our progress in
obtaining what is called an education".  The bad habits of breath-
ing and our bad positions, in and out of school, and our unhealthy
mode of living, contribute very essentially to the promotion  of
various  diseases, — particularly dyspepsia, liver and lung  com-
plaints,  headaches,  rheumatisms, nervous affections,  &c.  Hence,
we cannot  be too watchful against sitting in  a crooked  position,
and breathing improperly, nor too cautious about eating, drinking,
sleep, clothing,  &c, and in subduing the violence of the passions.
Let us leave no stone unturned to  perform what is our  duty and
fulfil our destiny, both physically and mentally.
  Let us enumerate some of the causes of diseases,  especially dys-
pepsia,  bronchitis,  &c.   Many  persons  do  not chew  their food
like a man, but swallow it  whole,  like  a boa-constrictor.  They
neither take the trouble to dissect, nor the time  to masticate; and
many swill  down their food.   It is  not wonderful they lose  their
teeth, for  they rarely use them; their digestion is deranged, for
they cram into their stomachs all sorts of stuff,  without distinction,
as hogs and dogs do.  The saliva is expended on their carpets and
floors, instead of being swallowed as one of the most essential fluids
to be intermingled with their food, and to help digestion.  They load
their stomachs as a truckman loads his cart, — as full as it will hold,
and as fast  as they can pitch it in with a scoop-shovel, — and then
they drive off and complain that their loads are too heavy.
  Again, many individuals, of both sexes, often complain of a very
unpleasant  sensation at  the  pit of the  stomach.  Some  call it a
' death-like feeling;' others speak of it as if' the bottom had fallen
out.'  One  of its principal causes is a want of the proper action of
the breathing apparatus.  The  abdominal and  dorsal  muscles be-
come relaxed, by wrong positions, tight lacing, and want of appro-
priate exercise  and food.  Hence the  contents of the stomach re-
main crude, inactive, and undigested ;  the fluids have  no power to
impart their  virtues; and even the digestive  organs  fall by their
own weight,  and the diaphragm, and the  whole system, conse-
quently act in an unhealthful manner.  The remedy is — a returr,
to the laws of life and being, as here exhibited.
  Diseases  of the throat are connected particularly with those parts
of the body which are exercised in breathing, and as the influence of 
TnE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
377
breathing acts upon the understanding, or reasoning faculties of the
mind, thinking and breathing are inseparably connected together,
as are feeling and  acting.  From this we infer the predominance
of thought in the exercise  of the voice, or in any other kind of
action. If this doctrine be true, then, zeal without knowledge tends
directly to such perversions  of mind and body, as to  induce not
only diseases of the throat, bronchitis, &c, but even  pulmonary
diseases,  dyspepsia,  nervous complaints, &c.; in  a  word,  to  a
general overthrow of the laws of health and life.  If we ivill to be free
from such inconveniences, we  must retrace our steps to truth and
nature, for they will guide the obedient in the  right way.
  Colds and coughs often ensue from bad breathing, and from the
indulgence in perverted habits, regardless of the laws of nature
and of life.   Hence, when in this state of violation, we are subject
to similar diseases, particularly on any  sudden exposure  to a cold
atmosphere, by which the pores  of the skin (which is an exhalent
surface)  become constrained and obstructed.   These obstructions
are removed by restoring to the skin (which is the safety-valve of
the system) its usual offices.  When  one has  thus taken cold, the
mucous membrane of the lungs and air-passages  (which are also
exhalent) emit a new fluid,  to compensate  for the interruption in
the office of the surface of the  body; and, as this new secretion
consists of humors which can be of no further use to the system, it
excites a muscular  effort, called cough, by which it  is detached
from the surface of this inner skin, and expectorated.
  To breathe from the abdominal and dorsal  muscles, warm bath-
ing, friction,  light  vegetable  emetics,  &c, are very  useful and
essential in restoring the laws of nature.  When these diseases be-
come obstinate, we should have recourse to the certain efficacy of
the French  Philanthropic  Remedy, or to the medicines recom-
mended  in this work.   (See the Index)
  Be it remembered, then, that the preventives and curatives are to
be found only in the laws of nature and life, which are advocated
in the medical prescriptions recommended  in  these pages.   There
are  three modes  of operating  upon  disease: first,  through the
nervous  system,  by a direct effort of the mind,  as faith, perse-
verance  in the given  remedy,  resignation,  patience,  cheerfulness,
&c.; secondly, by diet, medicines, &c,  for it is necessary oftentimes
                     48 
378
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
  to take medicine, as herein recommended, though a very little will
  sui'lice, if properly taken; and, thirdly, by  frequent bathing  and
  friction, and such  applications  or exercises  as experience  has
  proved beneficial, and as are recommended in this Medical In-
  structor.
   Whatever restores the system to order, acts medicinally, whether
  it be the elements of heaven and earth, or of the mind, temperance,
  or exercise.
   Invalids  will find  the principles and  practice, set forth in  thi?
 philanthropic work,  of great service and sure  comfort  to them, if
 they possess the strength, and have the  resolution to adopt them
 with cheerfulness, faith, and perseverance.  The desponding and the
 incredulous, also, will surely derive  aid by attempting to do some-
 thing;  for the mind,  by a determination of the will, can  be brought
 to act upon the nervous system in such a way as to  start the flow
 of the  blood on its career of health and strength, and, before they
 are aware, they will be ready to mount up, as with the wings of an
 eagle, to the long-wished object.   Health will soon  be theirs, with
 the prospect of happiness and  long fife.  Let them try it, and they
 will see.  Persevere.


                       TIGHT LACING.

   The practice of tight lacing  originated in one of the basest pas-
 sions of the human heart, and is as dishonorable as  it is criminal.
 It is as  much at variance with  all true ideas of  beauty of form, as
 it is  with the laws of health and life.   It is much more to be dread-
 ed than  the hooks, with which the wretched inhabitants of Hin-
 dostan pierce their flesh, and suspend themselves and swing in the
 air — the victims  of a cruel superstition.   The suffering  and death
 produced in this way, are not to  be compared with the awful con-
 sequences of  this worse than heathen  abomination.  The poor
 sufferers by  thousands die  a slow and miserable death,  worn  out
 by anxiety and oppression, fainting, palpitations, suffocated breath-
ing,  quick and interrupted pulse,  hysteria, fits, horrors, &c.   If
 intemperance has  slain its thousands, tight lacing has slain its tens
of thousands. 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.            379
   A well developed  and naturally proportioned chest  possesses a
 great breadth and space for the lungs, with the  short or lower ribs
 thrown outwardly, affording ample room for  the free action of all
 the organs, particularly those most important to  sustain  life.   Such
 a model would live to a good old age; and no one can  enjoy good
 health while the thorax (chest) is habitually compressed.
   Tight lacing, and its concomitant, unnatural breathing, diminish
 the capacity and strength of the lungs for  receiving the air neces-
 sary to arterializc or  purify the  blood, and they prevent the proper
 action of the diaphragm.  Look at the alarming  condition of the
 chest and  stomach  when compressed by tight lacing—a practice
 which has hurried  its millions  to a premature  grave,  besides en-
 tailing upon their offspring an  accumulation of evils too dreadful
 to contemplate.  Yet, on  inquiry,  says one, 'I  do not lace too
 tight.'  But we rejoin:  If you  lace at all, you  most certainly do,
 and such indulgence  will sooner or  later  cause  you to  experience
 the  dreadful  consequences.   Observe your  short ribs, from the
 lower end of the breast bone; they are already unnaturally cramp-
 ed inwardly towards  the spine, from the use of  stays, corsets, and
 lacing; so that the liver,  stomach, and other digestive organs in
 that vicinity, are pressed into  such a small compass  that  their
 functions are greatly  interrupted, and all their vessels,  bones, and
 viscera, are more or less distorted and enfeebled.   As  the skin is
 the safety-valve of the system,  our clothing should never be so
 tight as to  prevent  the air coming between  it and the  body.  If
 the evils of wearing  stays  and corsets,  and of  tight-lacing and
 tight-dressing would  only stop  with the  guilty,  one consolation
 would still be left us.   But even this is denied to  us ; there is not
 even  one drop of joy to be cast into our cup  of bitterness; tho
draught is one of u'nmingled gall; the human form divine is sadly
deformed;  the fountain of innumerable evils  and diseases is open-
ed up by this abominable practice, and thousands of human beings
are yearly coming into life, cursed from head to  foot,  from body
to mind, with the  awful effects  of this  infernal passion, which
originated in the basest  of all  passions—carnal lust.  Oh! who
can measure the accumulating woe, which this accursed custom has
inflicted, and is entailing on the human  race.  Think, however,
of this palpable truth:   Our dominant  customs  and  passions are 
380
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
the plagues of wise men and virtuous women, on the one hand ; and
on the other, the idols of knaves, fornicators, and fools.
  Blessed betheyAvho are connected with the beau ideal of a natu-
ral male or female human figure — the dress of which is in accord-
ance  with  the  principles of physiology and the laws of life, for
without conformity to them no  one can  expect to  enjoy health,
happiness, and  long life.  Doubly blessed will those be,  who are
instrumental  in promoting  the  long-wished reform.  Look at a
modern belle, or  a boarding-school Miss,  remodelled by  stays,
corsets, tight  lacing, &c.   Here is as gross a perversion of nature,
and as great a destitution of grace as the eyes of man ever beheld.
If any girl thinks  to become  more acceptable to the other sex by
such a habit,  the writer would say that his experience and observa-
tion are by no means small, and yet he never heard a gentleman —
a free, sensible gentleman, who approved of this odious practice.
Be assured that the  practice is  baneful to health,  destructive to
intellect, subversive of morals, and suicidal in its effects.
  Probably the  lungs suffer more from this evil,  than any other part
of the body, being cooped up in a small cavity.   Hence, to return to
the  laws of nature, tight lacing, injudicious compression, &c, should
be forever abolished.  Let us endeavor to enlarge  the chest side-
wise ; let us  practice the  elevation of our elbows to a horizontal
plane, nearly  level with the  shoulders, and commence gently tap-
ping the  breast  between the shoulders, the ends of the fingers  of
both hands being nearly together, and  then, during the exercise,
gradually  strike back  from  the  sternum (breast bone)  towards
each shoulder, drawing the hands farther and father  apart,  till the
ends of the fingers reach  the arm-pits, and even out on the arm.
Try it, persevere in it, and you will see and know.
  There is no doubt that tight lacing, bad positions,  &c, will cause
round or humped  shoulders, and rickets, (which is  rarely if ever
natural,) yet the  habits which  occasion  this  deformity are very
often contracted in infancy and  childhood.  For instance, the in-
cautious  mother or nurse,  not understanding the principles of
physiology, lays an infant on a pillow of feathers, instead of a good
mattress, or straw bed, without pillows, thus elevating the head far
too much above the body; and this practice i<  continued in after
life, very much  to the detriment of health, and beauty of form.   If 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.
381
 necessary, raise the head-posts of the bed two or three inches, in-
 stead of using high pillows.  Children are  also held in the arms' in
 a bent  posture, and  boys and girls are taught, for the sake of
 fashion, things  which are subversive  of  the  laws  of  nature, and
 detrimental to health.
   In a passive or active state — standing or sitting — much of the
 health and comfort we enjoy depends  upon the state  of our mus-
 cles.  Beware of too much  stiffness, and too much  laxity;  be
 natural  and easy;  avoid  leaning either backward  or  forward, to
 the right or to the left.   Many young people have  caused a pro-
 jection of the shouhlers, and indeed  spinal affections,  and rickets,
 by lifting,  and improper  positions in working, &c., as well  as by
 wrong positions  in standing, sitting, and lying.
   Beware of every thing  that  is not natural.   From our  structure
 may be easily shown the importance of throwing the  shoulders
 back, and concentrating our efforts upon the dorsal  muscles in the
 small of the back,  where is our strong  point, if we make  the
 proper effort, or  our weak one, if we  act unnaturally.  Keep the
 muscles always in action,  except when lying down; 'gird up the
 loins of the mind,' whenever you have any thing to do, and all the
 muscles of the body combine  their energy.  Then you may labor
 to your heart's content,  and not injure yourself.  Remember there
 is only one right way of doing any thing.
   We are often  asked for a sample  or a description of a natural
 waist, and a healthy and beautiful human form.  To this  question
 we refer the inquirer to nature itself, divested of every  corruption.
 Look at the accurate outlines of our hardy pioneers — male and
 female, or of peasant women, or of a female Indian,  when not cor-
 rupted by a  lascivious or intemperate life.  To the unperverted
 eye, there is much in them of  real harmony and beauty.   Why is
 it that self-styled civilized society has  become so enamored with
 the unnatural, and why are we so fond of departing from truth ?
 This is the crying sin of the age, and the  cause of many of the
 evils under which we arc suffering.  We  violate the  laws of life
 and health, and then wonder we should be so much afflicted.  The
 truth is, wc depart from  the  Order of Heaven, and thereby throw
ourselves beyond its Preserving Power, and subject ourselves to
the abject slavery of our corrupted  will; that  is, we disobey the 
♦    382            TRUDENTrAL REVELATIONS, AND

     dictates of the laws of nature and reason; and, doing so, God can-
     not meet us in mercy, but in judgment; as the whole creation is
     arranged on the principle of cause and effect.  Many people seem
     to think that God can do  any thing;  whereas he  can  do nothing
     that is contrary to his Divine Order.   If then we would receive his
     protection, we must conform to his requirements; for the terms arc,
     obey and live, or disobey  and die.  If we  put our hands into the
     fire, we must expect to be burned; if we have been brought up, or
     if we dress or act,  contrary to the  laws of physiology,  we  must
     suffer for it.  O,  that  we were wise,  and understood those things
     belonging to our temporal as well as spiritual salvation !
      In  aiming at a compliance with the rules and principles  of nature
     here laid down, great care should  always be taken never to become
     enslaved to thoughts alone, or to mechanical actions; but  naturally
     yield  to feeling when  feeling is to predominate.   Let us then, as
     much as possible, act with the freedom and gracefulness of nature,
    externally, and internally; let us be free and rational human be-
    ings,  combining nature and  reason, in a true man.   From my
    soul I abhor  all affectation.  ' The  letter killeth;  the spirit giv-
    eth life.'  Be, then, naturally, rather than mechanically correct.
    The perfection of man, as a living  being, consists in the proper em-
    ployment of all the principles of his nature,  which correspond with
    every essential organ of the  human body.   The perfection of his
    deportment and actions consists in infusing  all the powers and fac-
    ulties of the human soul into the body.   Then shall  we possess the
    true knowledge of real life, which  is to be learned  only  from an
    unsullied nature and from the uncorrupted human  heart — the
    fountain and depository of truth.
  PROPERTIES OF AIR — MEANS  OF PURIFYING CONTAGION.

  Air is a colorless, transparent,  invisible, elastic, compressible,
and h.eavy fluid, which surrounds the earth.  It supports  animal
life, pervades all animate and inanimate matter, and coalesces with
a variety -of  substances.  It contains water, combines with salts,
and may be saturated with putrid exhalations.  Every square foot
of our bodies  sustains a quantity of air equal to two thousand six 
TnE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
383
hundred and sixty pounds;  and the difference of pressure which
we  sustain,  at  different times, is  very great.  When all foreign
ingredients are separated from the air, it still remains a compound
lioid, consisting of three different species: oxygen, (pure  air;)
azote, (mephitic, or impure air;)  and carbonic acid,  (fixed air.)
In one hundred parts of atmospheric air, there are seventy-two of
azote, twenty-seven of oxygen; and one of carbonic acid.
   Oxygen is respirable, supports life, gives the red color to the
blood, and promotes combustion.  A candle will burn longer in it,
and with greater heat, and a more brilliant flame, than in common
air.  Animals live  in it six or seven times as long as they do in
common atmospheric air. AU acids have  it for their basis.  It is
exhaled from vegetables when exposed to the sun.
   Azote is irrespirable,  destroys animal fife, extinguishes fire, and
greatly promotes the growth of vegetables. A candle will not burn
in it. It arises from every change which atmospheric air undergoes
in  combustion,  putrefaction,  and  respiration.  It accumulates in
apartments  filled with people, or containing articles newly painted
with oil colors, or in which fragrant flowers are kept, without hav-
ing access to fresh air.'   All such places are unhealthy.
   Carbonic Acid is  unfit for  respiration, animals cannot live in it,
nor does it  support vegetation.  It extinguishes fire, and has a suf-
focative power.  It arises from fermentation of vegetable  matter.
It exists in  combination with  chalk, limestone, and  alkalies.   It is
one ingredient in mineral waters, which, when  taken, give energy
 to the stomach.  Fermented  liquors  and  liquids contain a portion
of it, and receive  from it  a  pungency which  is agreeable to the
palate.   It has occasioned suffocation on opening tight cellars where
a large quantity of wine, cider, beer, ale, porter, &c, had been suf-
fered to ferment.
   Hydrogen, or inflammable  air,  is not a constituent part of the
 atmosphere.  It does not maintain combustion, but takes fire when
 in  contact with common air, by the application of a body already
 heated.  Combined with oxygen,  it forms  water.  It destroys
 animal life, by producing convulsions.  It is generated in mines,
 cemeteries, stagnant waters, and swamps, and in all places in  which
 vegetable or  animal  substances  are putrefying.  It has  caused
 sudden death, on opening  deep pits, descending deep wells, and
 similar confined places. 
384            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

  Carbonic acid is heavier than oxygen or azote, and the last two
are heavier than common air; hydrogen is the lightest of all.
  The mass of the atmosphere is corrupted by the respiration of
man and animals, by the dissolution and putrefaction of substances,
and it would at length become unfit for its original design, if nature
had not provided for its restoration, through the process of vegeta-
tion, the changes of the seasons, &c.
  Most plants correct bad air, when they are exposed to the light
of the sun, by exhaling oxygen; while the same plants will corrupt
the air during the night, or  in  the shade, by exhaling impure air.
One property of plants  is,  to retain in themselves,  through  the
night,  or when  they are deprived of light, the vast amount of
oxygen which is continually created  and produced within them;
and  there supervenes an active, powerful fermentation, and  the
exhalations  of azote and carbonic gases are thus promoted, and
escape.  It is evident, then, that light, and the influence of the sun,
are powerful absorbents of oxygen.  The cold of winter interrupts
the growth  of plants, and, also, effectually stops the progress of
putrefaction.
  Warm air relaxes and oppresses the nerves, and quickens  the
circulation;  but cold air renders the body more compact,  increases
the appetite, and strengthens the powers of  digestion.  Damp air
relaxes and  debilitates the constitution, occasions a tardiness  in the
circulation,  impedes perspiration,  and depresses both body and
mind.   Damp places are  unhealthy in cold weather, but more so in
warm.  Moisture impairs the  energy, and heat  increases the evil,
by opening  the  pores, through which  the moisture  penetrates the
body.  Dry  and cold air promotes serenity, both of body and mind.
Dry and hot air enervates the body.   Sudden transitions from cold
air to hot, 01 from hot to cold, are injurious, especially the  latter.
Exchange of bad air, for  that which is healthy, is safe at all times.
   Among the different winds, (which are strong commotions  of
air,) the north is comparatively the most wholesome throughout the
United States.  It purifies the atmosphere, renders the air dry and
serene, and  imparts vigor, activity, and a lively color to  the body.
The south wind relaxes  and weakens.  Too  dry weather is more
healthy than that which  is too moist.  Of the four seasons, autumn
is the most unhealthy.  Vegetation is then declining, and the air is 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.
385
filled with corrupted particles.  If the temperature of the air cor-
respond with the natural changes of the seasons, we  may expect
health; if the contrary be the case, we may expect disease.  All
strong-scented bodies, of whatever nature,  render the  air impure,
and are  often injurious  to delicate constitutions.  The local  con-
dition of the air depends, not  only on the exhalations of the soil.
but also on  the different vapors blended with it, by the wind, from
adjoining places.  A dry and sandy town, healthy of itself, may be
rendered very unhealthy, from the vicinity of marshes and stagnant
waters.   The  air of every  climate,  cold, temperate,  or hot,  may
be healthy, provided it be pure and clear, and occasionally agitated
by  the  winds; but a  gross  atmosphere, loaded  with animal  and
vegetable exhalations, is deleterious.  A country producing good
water, generally has salubrious air;  and as the best water is taste-
less, so the best air is without smell.
  It is of the utmost consequence that air should  be pure in dwell-
ing houses, apd this cannot  be expected where cleanliness  is not
observed.  Rooms, and especially bed-rooms, should be well aired,
by opening the windows  daily, in fair weather.   A free current of
air  should  pass  through  sleeping-rooms every  day, even in the
winter.   If the weather  be  good, the windows should be opened
early in the niorning, and be shut at sunset, or when the room  is
properly aired, or when  there is  more  danger to be apprehended
from  the external air than  the  internal.  It involves  no small
hazard to leave windows open during  the night in  the summer
time; perspiration may be checked, and disease  ensue.  In houses
which are surrounded with trees  and plants, it  will be proper to
shut the windows at sunset; and if the weather be hazy, they should
be shut before  sunset, and not opened before sunrise.   It is un-
healthy to sleep in a room where there are  green fruits, provisions,
or goods of any kind; they all render  the air impure.  Unclean
linen taints the air, and should never be suffered to remain in  a
sleeping-room.  Cleanliness  is a  Christian virtue, and no person
can be amiable without it.
  Every room is filled with three different strata of air: first, the
lowest and heaviest, is called carbonic acid gas; second, the middle,
is the lightest kind of atmospheric air ; and, third, the  uppermost,
is inflammable, and is  the lightest and  most  impure of the three,
                 49 
386            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

in consequence of respiration.  In lofty apartments, this upper-
most stratum is not  inspired, the second being  higher  than  the
height of a man, and is the most wholesome.  The burning of oil
and candles corrupts  the air, and. the vapor of charcoal  is very  un-
healthy,  especially in close  apartments,  producing  stupor  and
death.   Plants and flowers may be placed in rooms exposed to  the
sun, but they ought to be removed at sunset.  Large trees, with a
thick foliage,  should not be planted near windows.  They obstruct
the light and  fresh air, and thus tend to make the rooms damp, and
their exhalations in the night are  unhealthy.  Trees  planted eight
or nine yards from the house are useful, as they do not obstruct the
light and air, but afford a cooling shade in summer, emitting salub-
rious exhalations during the day.  Feather beds  have a tendency
to corrupt the  air, and should not be used in warm weather; if
used at all, they ought to be well aired every day.  We must avoid
sudden  transitions from hot  to cold  air, and endeavor to accom-
modate  our dress  to  the temperature of the air,  and not to  the
follies of fashion.
   Acid fumigations have always succeeded  in' disinfecting the  air,
preventing contagion, and arresting its  progress.  They have
checked infectious fevers, of the most alarming character; and as
they purify the impregnated atmosphere of all pestilential effluvia,
they are also a powerful and sure antidote to diseases.  These acid
vapors were  first introduced by Guyton Morocau, of France, in
1773; and since  that period the utility of  these fumigations  has
been tested.  The use of  them was  directed every where in  the
kingdom, and  the inventor was  rewarded  by the  government.
Since then,  this  method  has been  adopted all over Europe,  and
followed with the happiest results.
   Muriatic acid vapors have effectually purified, and  will always
disinfect, even the largest  hospitals, prisons, alms-houses, factories,
barracks, fortresses,  castles, populous mansions, merchant vessels,
ships of war,  and  such like.  Previous to its adoption, the inmates
of such  places were falling victims, by hundreds, to whatever hap-
pened to be the predominant pestilence — the yellow fever, the
prevailing easterly and southern miasma, the  putrefied and  cor-
rupted effluvia  of marshes and rivers, or of dead bodies; the malig-
nant typhus and spotted fevers, the small-pox, the Asiatic cholera, 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE  OF NATURE.
387
and every contagious disease.  Now, adhering strictly to this pro-
vidential invention of the muriatic acid vapors, and to this salutary
method of purification, mankind,  and the whole animal race, are
preserved from this source of diseases and death.


      Directions for using the Acid Vapors to purify the Air.

   The processes to correct bad air, for destroying contagious mias-
ma, and for guarding the body against its impression, are founded
on the same principles;  but the choice of agents, the doses, and the
manipulations ought to vary with circumstances and  depend upon
the object to be attained. Large fumigations in open vessels, are in-
dispensable to purify uninhabited  places, or those  evacuated only
for a short time, such as the rooms of lazarettoes,  infirmaries, hos-
pital  wards, prisons, ships,  stables, and places in  which it is con-
templated  to  effect  a complete purification in a few  hours, and
where the intensity and duration of the fumigations need not be
restrained by  any consideration, and  where more  is to be appre-
hended by doing too little than too much.
   Where the intention is  merely to support the  salubrity of the
air, in the chamber of a sick person, or to quicken  the vital energy
by a slight stimulant, or to  destroy the fcetid smell  of dejections, or
to secure  attendants  against all  deleterious effects, these results
may be produced by opening two  or three times every day a per-
manent apparatus, or a disinfecting flagon, if the apartment is not
large.
   The materials necessary for the production  of  the  oxygenated
acid gas, are, common salt,  the  black oxyde of manganese, pulver-
ized and passed through a hair sieve, and sulphuric acid.
   The proportions for their respective saturation, and, consequently,
for the greatest production of gas, are — of common salt, 5 parts
by weight; oxyde of manganese,  1 part; sulphuric acid, 4 parts.
   To determine the quantity necessary to be used, take, for exam-
ple, a room 19 by 40 feet;  for such room would be necessary — of
salt, 10 oz.; manganese, 2 oz.;  sulphuric acid, 8 oz.
   The salt and manganese  being mixed  without trituration, arc to
be put into a vessel of glass  or  hard pottery.  The vessel being 
 388            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS,  AND

 placed in the middle of the room, the acid should be poured on all
 at one time, in  a  smooth, uninterrupted stream, and  the operator
 should withdraw  to avoid  any inconvenience from the ascending
 vapor.
   After this, the doors and windows should be kept shut for seven
 or eight hours, when the  external air may be  admitted.  The
 apartment may now be entered without the least inconvenience.
   The manner of  fumigating extensively, by means of common
 muriatic acid, without the manganese, is the same; the proportion
 of the  ingredients being the same as above.  Their quantities are
 to be determined by the extent of the place to be  disinfected.
   In the apartments of the sick, the fumigations ought to be suffi-
 ciently strong to  purify the air, without  being  so powerful as to
 incommode them or their assistants.  A very advantageous method
 of equally  diffusing the  salutary gas, without the  least  incon-
 venience to the assistants, consists in  carrying the vessel containing
 the salt simply, or the salt and manganese, and pouring on it a
 few  drops of the  sulphuric acid, to be repeated only when  the
 vapors begin to cease.  An  assistant holds in  one hand a kind of
 shelf, on which  is  placed the cup, and in the other the bottle of
 acid, and thus at will moderates or augments the effects intended.
 Similar fumigations are also  made with the nitric acifl.
   Of all these different gases, that of the oxygenated muriatic acid
 is  the most prompt and powerful antiseptic. The old fumigations,
 with aromatic and  other substances, as woods, herbs, tar, resins, &c,
 possess  no power  to correct the infection of putrid air, and they
 only seemed to  do  so by weakening the  perception of its smell.
 All this was worse than  doing nothing, because it lessened the
 sense of danger, while, in reality, it existed in full force.
   These acid vapors neutralize and  radically destroy  atmospheric
contagion; a decomposition of the infectious air ensues, arid forma
new compounds. 
the Golden  bible of nature.
889
 A PHYSIOLOGIC DESCRIPTION OF THE IMPRESSIONS LEFT UPON
   THE COUNTENANCE AND DEMEANOR WHENEVER ANY OF THE
   MOST PROMINENT  AFFECTIONS AND PASSIONS ARE ROUSED
   INTO ACTION.

   The affections  are  derived from the existence of fundamental
 animal powers, and intellectual faculties.  The former are common
 to both man and  animals, as anger, fear, jealousy, envy, &c, while
 adoration, repentance, admiration, shame, &c, pertain to man alone,
 as an intellectual being.   Physicians and moralists must study the
 doctrine of  the  affections, on account  of  their influence on the
 vital functions, and on man's actions in society.  The same may be
 said in regard  to the  passions.  Passions,  however, are  not  the
 effects of fundamental powers, neither of the intellectual faculties,
 but an inordinate activity of the affections.
  The following are a few delineaments and manifestations of some
 of the  affections  and passions, which leave a marked impression
 upon the countenance — being the  result of  experience, and  of
 physiological inquiry:
  Tranquillity, fyc, appear by the open and composed countenance,
 and a general repose of the whole body.  The mouth is nearly closed;
 the eyebrows are a little  arched;  the  forehead is smooth;  the
 eyes pass with an easy motion from one object to another, dwelling
but a short time on any; there is an appearance of happiness, bor-
dering on cheerfulness; a desire to please and to be pleased;  when
the mouth opens a little — gayety, good humor, &c.
  Joy,  Delight, ire.  Either of these affections produces  a pleasing
elation of mind, on an actual or assured attainment of good, or a de-
livei-ance from evil.  When moderate, it lights up the countenance
•with smiles, and throws a sunshine of delectation over the whole
frame; when sudden, and  violent, it is manifested by clapping the  ,
hands, exultation and weeping, raising the eyes to heaven, and per-
haps suffusing them with tears.  It gives such a spring to the body
as to indtice attempts  to mount up,  as if it could fly; and when it
is extreme,  produces transports, rapture, and ecstasy;  the  voice
often rises  to very high*  exhilarating pitches; the  countenance 
390
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
 assumes a wildness of look; the gestures border on folly, madness,
 and sorrow; hence the expression, '■frantic with joy.'   Joy, mirth,
 &c, produce rousing, exciting, lively actions.
   Mirth,  Laughter,  fyc.  When delight arises from ludicrous  or
 fugitive amusements, in which others share  with us, it is called
 mirth, and causes laughter, or merriment.   It opens the  mouth hori-
 zontally, shrivels the nose, raises the cheeks  high, lessens  the ap-
 ertures of  the eyes, and fills them with tears.
   Ecstasy, Rapture,  Transport, &c, express an  extraordinary ele-
 vation of the spirits, and an excessive tension  of mind.  They rep-
 resent the  individual to be out of his mind, — carried away beyond
 himself. Ecstasy benumbs the faculties, takes away the power of
 speech, and sometimes of thought.   It is generally occasioned  by
 sudden  and unexpected events; but Rapture often invigorates the
 powers  and calls them into action.  The  former is common to  all
 persons of ardent feelings, especially young females, children, and
 the illiterate; the latter is common  to persons of superior  minds,
 and is exhibited upon the  occurrence of circumstances of peculiar
 importance.
   Love  gives a soft serenity to  the countenance, a languishing ap-
 pearance to the  eyes, a  sweetness to the voice, and a tenderness to
 the whole frame; the forehead is smooth and enlarged; eyebrows
 arched; mouth  a little open ; when entreating, it clasps the hands,
 with intermingled fingers, to the breast;  the eyes  are  languishing
 and partly shut, as if doting on the beloved object;  the  counte-
 nance assumes the eager  and wistful look of desire, but there is
 mixed with it an air of satisfaction and repose;  the  accents  are
 soft and winning; the voice persuasive, flattering, pathetic, various,
 musical, and rapturous, as if under the influence of  joy; when
 declaring his or  her love to the object of affection, the right hand
 is open, and  pressed forcibly on the  breast;  the  lover makes ap-
proaches with the greatest  delicacy, with  trembling, hesitancy, and
confusion;  if successful, the countenance is lighted up with smiles;
 if unsuccessful, an air of anxiety and melancholy  is assumed.   To
 the above  may be added a description of this  affection, given by a
 well-meaning youth  to  a  certain lady, who requested  him to tell
 what'tis to love.  'It is,'  said he,  'to be made  of phantasy;  all
made of passion, and all made of wishes;  all adoration, duty, and 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE  OF NATURE.
391
obedience; all humbleness, all patience and impatience;  all purity,
all trial, all observance.'
  Pity, Compassion, ice, imply benevolence to the afflicted, and are
a mixture of love for  an object which  suffers, whether human or
animal, and of grief that we are unable to remove those sufferings.
They are exhibited in  a compassionate tenderness of voice, and an
expression  of pain  in the countenance; the features are drawn
together; the eyebrows are drawn down; the  mouth is open, and
there is a gentle raising and  falling of the hands  and eyes,  as if
mourning over the unhappy object.
   Hope is   a  mixture of faith  and desire,  agitating  the  mind,
and anticipating  its  enjoyments;  it  always  affords  pleasure,
which is not always the case with wish or desire, as it may pro-
duce or be accompanied with pain and anxiety.  Hope brightens the
countenance, and opens the mouth, producing half a smile; arches
the eyebrows; gives the  eyes  an eager and wistful  look; spreads
the arms, with the hands open,  ready to receive the object  of its
wishes, towards  which it leans a little; the voice is somewhat plain-
tive, and the manner inclining  to eagerness, but indicating doubt
and anxiety; the breath is drawn inward more forcibly than usual,
in order to express our desires  more strongly, and our earnest
expectation of receiving the object of them.
    Grief and  Remorse are closely allied to  sorrow, or  a painful
 remembrance of criminal actions and  pursuits.  These affections
 cast down  the countenance, and  cloud it with  anxiety; the head
 hangs down, and is shaken with regret; the eyes  are raised as if
 to look  up, and suddenly cast  down again with sighs;  the right
 hand  sometimes beats the heart or  head,  and the whole  body
 writhes, as if in  self-aversion, or as if the individual could not control
 himself.   The voice has a harshness,  as in  hatred, and inclines to a
 low and reproachful tone.  These affections also cause the sufferer
 to weep often and stamp violently; and he is hurried  to and fro,
 becomes distracted, or faints.  In a violent paroxysm,  he grovels
 on the bed, the  ground, or any where else; tears his clothes,  hair,
 or flesh;  screams;  sometimes  torpid,  sullen  silence,  resembling
 total apathy, is  produced.
    Sorrow  and Sadness.   In sorrow,  when moderate,  the counte-
 nance is dejected;  the eyes are cast down;  the  arms hang lax; 
$92            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

sometimes they, are a little raised, suddenly to fall again;  the hand9
open; the fingers  spread;  the  voice  is plaintive, and frequently
interrupted  with  sigh?.   But sorrow, when immoderate, distorts
the countenance, as if in agony; raises the voice to the loudest
cpmplainjngs, and sometimes even to  cries and shrieks.   The pa-
tient wrings the hands, beats the head and breast, tears  the  hair,
and throws  himself on the ground.   Like some other passions, in
excess, sqrrow borders on frenzy.
  Surprise,  Wander, Amazement, ifc.   An uncommon object pro-
duces wonder; if it  appears suddenly, it begets surprise, which,
continued, produces  amazement; and if the  object of wonder
comes gently to the mind, and attracts the attention by its beauty
and grandeur, it excites admiration, which is a mixture of appro-
bation and wonder.  Wqnder or amazement opens  the  eyes and
makes them appear very prominent,   Sometimes  it raises them to
the skies,  but more frequently fixes them upon  the object, if it be
present, with a fearful look.   The moutfi  is open and  the  hands
are held up  nearly in the attitude of fear;  and if they hold any
thing, they drop it immediately and unconsciously.  The voice is
at first low, but emphatical;  every word is pronounced slowly and
with energy, though the first effect of this passion often stops  all
utterance.   When, by the discovery of something excellent in the
object of wonder, the emotion may be called admiration, the eyes
are raised, the hands lifted up, and clasped together,  and the voice
elevated with expressions of rapture.
  Fear, Caution, ifc.  Fear is a powerful emotion, excited by the
expectation  of some  evil, or the apprehension of impending dan-
ger.  It expresses less of apprehension than dread, and  dread ex-
presses less than terror or fright; fear excites us to provide for our
security ori the approach of evil; fear  sometimes  settles  into  deep
anxiety, or solicitude; it may be filial  in the  good, or slavish in the
wicked.  Its external  appearance is peculiar.  It participates much
also in the impressions of terror and fright.
  Terror or Fright, when violent or sudden,  opens the mouth very
wide, shortens the nose, draws down the eyebrows, gives the coun-
tenance an air of wildness, covers it  with deadly paleness, draws
back the elbows parallel  with the sides, lifts up  the open hands,
with the fingers spread to the  height of the breast, at some dis- 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.
393
 tance before it, so as  to shield  it from the dreadful object  One
 foot is drawn back behind the other, so that the body seems shrink-
 ing from the danger,  and putting itself in a posture for flight.  The
 heart beats violently, the breath is quick and short, and the whole
 body is thrown  into  a general tremor.   The  voice is  weak and
 trembling, the sentences short, and the meaning confused and inco-
 herent.  Imminent danger  produces violent shrieks,  without any
 articulate sounds; sometimes confuses  the  thoughts and produces
 faintness, which is sometimes followed by death.
   Horror is-an excessive degree of fear, or a painful emotion which
 makes a person tremble.  It is generally accompanied by fear,
 hatred, or disgust.  The recital of a bloody deed fills one with hor-
 ror ; there are the horrors of war, and the  horrors of famine, hor-
 rible places, and horrible dreams.  The ascension  seems to be as
 follows:  the  fearful and dreadful, (affecting the mind more than
 the body,)  the frightful, the tremendous,  terrible, and horrible.
 The fearful wave; the dreadful day; frightful convulsions; tre-
 mendous storms ; terrific glare of the eyes; a horrid murder.
   Despair is a powerful passion, and when operating upon  the
 mind of a condemned criminal, or upon one who has lost all hope
 of salvation, it bends the eyebrows downward, clouds the forehead,
 rolls the eyes around fretfully;  the eyeballs are red and inflamed,
 like those of a rabid dog; it opens the  mouth horizontally ; causes
 biting of the lips;  widens the nostrils, and causes gnashings of  the
 teeth ;  the head is pressed down upon  the breast; the heart is too
 hard to permit tears to flow ; the arms are sometimes bent at  the
elbows; the fists are  clenched  hard;  the veins and  muscles  are
swollen;  the skin is livid; the whole body is strained and violently
agitated; while groans of inward torture are more  frequently ut-
tered than words.  If any  words  are  spoken,  they are few, and
expressed with  a sullen, eager bitterness;  the tones of the voice
are often loud and furious, and sometimes in the same pitch for a
considerable time.  This state of human nature is too horrible,  too
frightful, to look  at or dwell  upon, and almost improper for repre-
sentation ;  for if death cannot be counterfeited  without too much
shocking humanity, despair, which exhibits a state ten thousand
times more terrible than death, ought to be viewed with a kind of
reverence to the great  Author of nature, who seems sometimes to
                  50 
394            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

permit this agony of mind, perhaps as a warning to others to avoid
that wickedness which  produces it  It can hardly be over-acted.
It is an awful foretaste of the torments of hell.
  Devotion and Veneration, to parents, teachers,  superiors, or per-
sons of eminent virtue and attainments, are  humble and respect-
ful acknowledgments of their excellence, and our own inferiority.
The head and body are inclined a little forward, and the hand,
with the palm downwards, is just raised to meet the inclination of
the body, and then allowed to fall again  with  apparent timidity
and diffidence; the eye is sometimes lifted up, and then immedi-
ately cast downward, as if unworthy to behold the object before it;
the eyebrows are  drawn  down  in the most respectful manner;
the features, and the whole  body and limbs, are all composed  to
profound gravity,  one  portion continuing  without much change.
When veneration  rises to adoration  of the Almighty Creator and
Redeemer, it is too sacred to be imitated, and seems to demand
that humble annihilation  of ourselves which must ever be the con-
sequence of a just  sense of the Divine Majesty, and our own un-
worthiness.   This feeling is always accompanied with more or less
of awe,  according to  the  object,  place, &c.  Respect is a less de-
gree of veneration, and is nearly allied to modesty.
  Attention, Listening, ifc, to an esteemed or superior  character,
has nearly the same aspect as inquiry, and requires silence.  The
eyes  are often  cast upon the ground, sometimes  they are fixed
upon  the face  of the speaker, but  not too pertly or familiarly;
when  looking at objects at a distance, and  listening to  sounds, its
manifestations  are different.  Inquiry into some difficult subject
fixes the body in nearly one position : the head is somewhat stoop-
ing, they eyes are  fixed intently, and the eyebrows contracted.
   Admiration is a mixed affection, consisting of wonder, mingled
 with pleasing emotions, as veneration, love,  esteem, &c.; it takes
 away  the familiar gesture and  expression  of simple love;  it is a
 compound passion, excited by something novel, rare, great, or ex-
 cellent, in persons or in their  works. Thus we view the solar
 system with admiration.   Admiration assumes a respectful look and
 attitude; the eyes are wide open, and now and then raised towards
 heaven; the mouth is  open;  the hands are lifted up; the tone of
 voice is  rapturous; the subject of this affection speaks copiously 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.            895
and in hyperboles.   Admiration looks at a thing attentively, and
with appreciation ; the admirer suspends his thoughts, not from the
vacancy, but from  the fulness of his mind;  he is riveted to an
object, which temporarily absorbs his  faculties.   Nothing but what
is  good and  great  excites  admiration, and  none but  cultivated
minds are very susceptible of it.   An  ignorant  person cannot  ad-
mire, because he does not appreciate the value  of the thing.  The
form and use must be seen to excite admiration.
   Astonishment, ifc,  implies confusion, arising from surprise, &c,
at an extraordinary or unexpected event.   Astonishment may be
awakened  by events which are unexpected and unaccountable.
Thus we are astonished to find a friend at our house, when we sup-
pose he was hundreds of miles distant;  or  to hear  that  a person
has travelled  a road, or crossed a  stream  that we thought im-
passable.
   Hatred, Aversion,  ire.  When by frequent reflections on a disa-
greeable object, our disapprobation of it is  attended with a strong
disinclination of  mind towards  it, it  is called  hatred; and when
accompanied with a painful sensation  upon  the apprehension of its
presence and approach, and there follows an inclination to avoid it,
it is called aversion.  Extreme hatred is  called abhorrence, or de-
testation.   Hatred or aversion, expressed to or of any person or
thing that is odious, draws back the body, to avoid the hated object;
the hands, at the same time, are thrown out  and spread, as if to
keep it  off; the face is turned  away  from  that side at which  the
hands are thrown out; the eyes  look  angry and are cast obliquely
or asquint, the same  way the hands are directed; the eyebrows  are
contracted; the upper lip is disdainfully drawn up; the teeth  are
set; the pitch  of the  voice is  loud,  surly, chiding, languid, and
vehement; the sentences are short and abrupt.
   Anger, Rage, Fury, ire, are passions which imply excitement or
violent  action.  When  hatred,  or  displeasure  rises  high, on a
sudden, on account of injury received,  and perturbation  of
mind is the consequence, it  is called  anger; and, rising to a very
high degree,  and extinguishing humanity, it becomes  rage and
fury.  Anger always renders the  muscles protuberant;  hence an
angry mind and protuberant muscles are considered as cause and
effect.  Violent anger or rage expresses itself with rapidity, noise, 
396
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
harshness, trepidation, and sometimes with interruption and hesita-
tion, as if unable  to utter itself with sufficient force.   It wrinkles
and clouds the brow, enlarges and heaves the nostrils; every vein
swells; the muscles are strained, the  subject nods or shakes the
head; the neck is stretched out; the fists are clenched; the breath-
ing is hard ; the  breast heaves; the teeth are seen gnashing; the
face is bloated, red, pale, or black; the eyes red, staring, rolling,
and  sparkling, with the  eyebrows drawn down over them;  he
stamps with  the  foot, and  gives  a violent  agitation  to the whole
body; the voice  assumes the highest  pitch  it can command, con-
sistently  with force  and loudness, though sometimes, to express
anger with uncommon energy, the voice assumes a low and forcible
tone.
  Reproach, i?c.   Reproach is  settled  anger, or  hatred, chastising
the object of dislike, by casting in its  teeth the concealed miscon-
duct  or  imperfection.   The brow is then contracted, the  lips
turned up with scorn, the head  is shaken, the voice is low, as if in
abhorrence, and the whole body is expressive of  aversion.
  Revenge is a propensity and an endeavor to injure the  offender;
it is dictated by malice, and is  attended with triumph and exulta-
tion, when the injury is inflicted or accomplished.   It exposes
itself like malice or spite,  but  more openly, loudly, and triumph-
antly ; sets the jaws and grates the teeth; sends blasting flashes
from  the eyes, and draws  the corners of the mouth towards the
ears; it clenches  both fists, and  holds the  elbow in a straining man-
ner] the tone of  voice and the  expression are similar to those of
anger, but the pitch of voice is  not so  high or loud.
  Scorn,  Contempt, ire.   Sneering is  ironical approbation ;  with a
voice and countenance of  mirth somewhat exaggerated, we cast
the severest censure; it is  hypocritical mirth  and  fictitious good
humor; it differs from the real, by the sly, arch, satirical tones of
voice, look, and  gesture, which accompany it;   the nose is some-
times turned up,  to manifest contempt, disdain, &c.
   Simple Laughter.  Raillery signifies bantering, or a prompting to
the use  of jesting language, good-humored pleasantry, or slight
satire, satirical merriment,  wit, irony, and burlesque.   It is very
difficult to mark the precise boundaries of the different passions, as
some of  them are so slightly  touched, and often  melt  into each 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.
397
other; but because we cannot present a  perfect delineation of
every shade of sound  and passion, is no reason why we should not
approximate it.
   Weeping is  the  expression or manifestation of sorrow, grief, an-
guish, or joy, by outcries, shedding tears, lamentation, wailing, &c.
We may weep at each other's woe, or weep tears of joy.   Crying
is an audible expression, accompanied or not accompanied with
tears;  but weeping always  indicates  the  shedding of tears.  Al-
though weeping  is a  physical  infirmity, yet when tears are called
forth, especially by the sorrows of others, it indicates a tenderness
of heart of which no man should be destitute.
   Simple  Bodily Pain.   Pain may  be  bodily, mental,  or  com-
plex, and is either  simple or acute.  Bodily pain is an uneasy sen-
sation in the body, from that which  is slight to extreme  torture.
It may proceed from pressure,  tension,  separation of parts by
violence,  or derangement of  the functions, &c.   Mental pain  is
uneasiness of mind, disquietude, anxiety, solicitude for the future,
grief or sorrow for the past, &c.   Thus, we suffer pain when we
fear or expect evil, and we feel pain at the loss of friends or  prop-
erty.   Pain produces  a pressure or straining of a part or the whole
of the muscular or nervous system.
   Acute Pain, bodily  or mental, signifies a  high  degree  of  pain,
which may appropriately be called agony, or anguish.  Agony is a
severe and permanent pain; anguish an overwhelming pain.
   A Pang is  a  sharp pain, and  generally  of  short continuance.
The pangs of conscience frequently trouble the person who  is not
hardened in heart or in guilt  The pangs of disappointed love are
among the severest to be borne.


                   REMARKS ON NATURE.

   Nature is the production of the will of the Omnipotent God,
and how its laws and  effects  are displayed!  Nature is harmonious
in the combination of matter,  as well as in its dissolution, and the
process is carried  on with  the  strictest  economy  through the
ages of time.   What a sublime thought! and what a lesson to  moral
beings for whom it was created!  Nothing is produced in  vain ; 
398
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
nothing is consumed without a cause.  The  destruction of forms
and figures is but a careful  decomposition, a metamorphosis of the
old substances into seeming new ones, while the former principle
yet exists in them.  All nature is united by indissoluble ties;  each
atom exists by the influence and cause of another, and  none can
exist per se.   Thus nature is a circular  chain of indefinite  links,
mysterious  to  mortals  in  regard  to individuality, and none  can
tell where  lie the first or last of them, the beginning or the end.
Nature is given to us as our surest guide ; she teaches the rule of
just economy,  and notwithstanding  man  is  but a speck of the
whole  of her great system, yet he is its only bitter enemy, the one
who attempts to break  its laws, and to subvert his own existence.
If the  human race should possess only the  instinct of nature and a
mortal spirit of life created  accordingly,  all would be  well with
man; he might  then,  like the  brutes, enjoy happiness  and be a
stranger to  sorrow.  But it is not so.   We are a superior and noble
class of beings.  Our existence  is of a combined nature.   We are
possessed of an ethereal, immortal soul, endowed with divine attri-
butes,  memory, intellect, and will,  which act  in harmony with the
corporeal sensitive faculties.  We  ought to understand their laws,
and respect them, and they must be followed, lest a breach of them
should pervert the course of nature and destroy our happiness
   Man should cultivate an acquaintance with  the laws of the great
system of nature, and with his own constitution;  he  ought to
choose the  good and  reject the evil, according to the dictates of
reason, ever observing nature's example, but never abusing her
treasures.  Men seldom  go far from right while they follow the
laws of their nature in regard to health.   A  deviation from these
laws,  though trifling, may be attended with danger, involving the
risk of life.  If man should keep himself in  rational obedience to
them,  he would  be perfect.   If he fly, unaccompanied by both
natures, to  the extreme of a self-spiritual will, or if he  yield to the
impulse of the sensual law, he will be equally  wrong in  both.   The
young are apt to be prodigal of nature's bounties, and  where their
morals are neglected,  they will dash headlong into vice, and thus
their  health  becomes  impaired,  and  their  lives are  shortened.
Many owe their broken constitutions and diseases to the examples
of their parents,  guardians,  and  teachers, tracing the  causes of 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.
399
these maladies to improper quantities and qualities of aliment con-
sumed, or to the early indulgence of vitiated appetites.  Men have
not observed the  laws  of nature, but have  followed their  own
bfind impulses, and, especially in populous towns, have degenerated
in strength, energy of mind, and will,  to resist the noxious agen-
cies of concupiscence and the mighty powers of the senses.  The
progressive cultivation of the mind, with the refinement  of habits
and manners is ever accompanied with a proportionate increase of
luxury, thus  forming a contrast with nature, which is contented
with  comparatively little.  In  proportion as  fashion  and  luxury
increase in a community, the number and  variety of diseases will
increase  also; and the  plainer  and more  simple the people  live,
especially in diet, regimen, and  course of life, the nearer they ap-
proach to a state of nature, and the less affected ,they will be by
disease.
   Every change  of wild  custom will  produce new diseases, and
will of course  require a change of medical treatment.  Intemper-
ance, debauchery, and idleness; sleeping in confined rooms; un-
cleanliness; stagnated, foul air; damp  clothing; transitions  from
hot to cold air; the uncontrollable passions of the mind — licentious-
ness, anger, love, hatred, &c. — tend to disease.  Temperance and
proper exercise; plain  and  wholesome food,  periodically  taken;
cleanliness, pure air, mirthfulness, and morality,  conduce  to health
and  to  its preservation.  Temperance  in all things, and  a  well
digested method of exercise of body and mind, are two most skilful
physicians and should be daily consulted.  Intemperance  disorders
the whole animal economy and brings  lethargy to the mind.  The
slave to appetite  is worse than a brute; he is a self-murderer, and
will ever  be a disgrace to  human nature.   The  epicure and the
drunkard are seldom reclaimed until their money or their  consti-
tution fails. Nature delights in plain,  simple food,  and in  springs
of wholesome water.  Every animal but man follows her dictates.
He riots  at large, and ransacks the world with the whole of his
power, in quest  of luxuries,  which too often minister to his own
destruction. 
400           PRUDENTIAL  REVELATION6, AND
                           REMARKS ON LONG LIFE.

           If the  various functions and  the several  motions, of the com-
         bined human nature, spiritual and material, are performed harmo-
         niously, and with  ease, without interruption, then  man  enjoys
         health and happiness;  otherwise he is diseased and unhappy.  In-
         specting the  human machine, the springs of life therein, their object,
         order, and laws, and the dangers to which man is exposed, it is
         surprising that he should remain  in health so long, and the wonder
         still increases when we reflect how often he escapes the fatal evils
         prepared by  his  own hand.  But parental nature — the mysterious
         organ of a Supreme destiny — often repairs the injuries in a man-
         ner unknown to us.  To be indifferent, and unconcerned, reposing
         in  security upon the mistaken notion of God's preordination in
         regard to his  precepts and the laws given to us to reject or  obey,
         at our option  ; to draw the inference  that if the majesty of heaven
         has from eternity willed  us to die at an appointed time, we certain-
         ly shall do so, even  while using the very means appointed by His
         law to prolong life ; and that if He has willed the contrary, we shall
         live, though we rush headlong into the very  path  of destruction,
i         and neglect and trample on those very means  for our subsistence ;
         is both unscriptural, absurd, and blasphemous.   Diseases are almost
         always the consequences of the moral, or rather immoral conduct
        of man, in deviating from a  line prescribed  by his Maker.  He
        would be, on submitting wholly to destiny and fate, regardless of all
        divine, natural, and domestic  laws, a moral and physical self-mur-
        derer,  sanctioning his own condemnation and dying by his own
        hand.
          The powers of life may be compared, though  imperfectly, to
        the  oil in a lamp.  In time they become exhausted.  They may be
        supported, or diminished.   When exhausted,  death invariably
        closes the drama.  To die of mere old age is compared to the  ex-
        tinction of the light when the oil  is all consumed; and death from
        disease, to the blowing  out of the light, or to say the least, when
        the  lamp is carelessly trimmed and becomes extinguished, thoucrh
        the oil is not yet consumed and might have burned longer.  There 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
401
are laws  in  nature, by  which man may arrive at maturity, at the
summit of health  and vigor,  and insure  a long life.   There are
also laws by which his powers of life  are  lessened, and finally ex-
hausted.   There are ' bounds which he cannot pass.'
  To extend the common  limits of life,  man must  return to the
primitive manners  and customs,  which  history informs us he
practised, and which were the immediate  causes of ancient hardi-
ness and longevity.   The people then enjoyed  an  uninterrupted
state of health, and they had little need to attend to it, as the seeds
of disease were but little scattered in their nature.  Their forefathers
did  not  plant  the germs  of disease, nor corrupt  nature's  laws.
Their living was vegetable, simple, and not injurious.   They cheer-
fully  submitted and  lived  according to the new laws  of nature,
and the provident  decrees impressed  on  the minds of our first
parents  when expelled  from Eden's garden.   But as soon as man
deviated from them, in that proportion his  transgressions increased;
so mankind have degenerated and brought also upon their children
 the penalties and effects of  a broken  law — diseases  and untimely
death.   We have deserted  from their path and from their simple
mode of life.  The  acquirements of mental  culture  sacrifice too
much of our bodily welfare.  We  no longer  consult what nature
requires with respect to the rules of life, &c, b*ut the fashions and
customs  of the day, and our own disordered and corrupted inclina-
tions, thus  rendering ourselves,  at the expense of health and life,
the slaves of our passions and sensualities.
   The desire of long life is inherent  in our nature, and the  possi-
bility of prolonging it was  never doubted by the orientals.   The
following are a few of the conditions which favor the attainment of
a long existence.
   1st. A descent from ancestors who lived to  a great age,  and a
certain well-combined bodily and mental disposition to longevity.
   2d. A gradual growth of the faculties, both of mind  and  body.
 Too  early  an  exertion of  either of their powers  is  destructive.
 The  path of nature should be  followed.  Avoid as of dangerous
 tendency, every thing  which hastens to  evolutions of the natural
 powers,  and all exertions of strength  disproportionate to the ability
 of the individual.   The age of man bears a certain proportion to
 the growth of his  various powers.  Nature  designed that man
                   51 
402
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
 should live  longer than most  of the lower animals; he of course
 needs a longer time  to develope and mature  his faculties, both of
 mind and body.  Nature feels  and resents every outrage on her
 treasures, and seldom fails to punish the transgressor with lingering
 disease or an early dissolution.
   3d. Inuring ourselves to the habits of supporting and resisting
 the  various impressions of external agents.   Man  is  capable of
 undergoing  the vicissitudes of the air, the weather, and the climate,
 and can digest almost any article of food,  when his duty or em-
 ployment renders it necessary, if his stomach has not been wanton-
 ly indulged, without attention to time and regularity.   But he who
 has been brought up tenderly, or who has been previously accustom-
 ed to a hardy mode of life, and  is seized with a whim of bestowing
 too much attention on his health, will suff'er from slight causes; and
 the smallest  change in nature, in his regimen, or in the elements,
 will cause derangements and disease.
  4th. Moderate exercise, both of body and  mind.   This adds to
 the powers of life, and will greatly promote the object in question.
 Equanimity, or calmness and resignation, and a state of mind which
 is not disturbed by other objects, or overcome by its own exertions,
 are conducive to long life.   An overwhelmed mind  is fatal to the
 body; deep  thoughts and abstruse applications exhaust  the  pow-
 ers of life and bring premature old age.
  5th. A steady and equal progress through life.  He who neither
 suffers changes,  nor is  corroded  by melancholy or grief, whose
 drama of life  is always even and methodical, and  uncheckered
 by  too sudden  vicissitudes,  may  expect a long  enjoyment  of a
 happy life.  Disappointments  and sorrows  destroy  digestion  and
 relax the system.   Fear and  anger derange  the animal functions
 and may produce immediate death.  All the passions, even those of
 the senses, the pleasures, and  love, if carried to excess, bring on
 formidable diseases.
  6th. Temperance in eating and drinking.   A regular diet, and a
 steady manner of living,  will bring man to an uncommon longevity.
 Everyone should study his own constitution, and regulate his mode
of living accordingly.  He should  make his own experience  and
establish his  guide in what he finds most suitable to his health.   An
unintermitted state  of healthy digestion favors the attainment of 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
403
advanced age, and complaints of frequent indigestion are the surest
symptoms of approaching dissolution.  Temperance in eating, and
wholesome food, will insure us a sound state of digestion.  Great
errors  are  often  committed  in regard to both  the quantity and
quality of food.  The epicureal life and the appetite's indulgences
are outrageous to our mental  and physical health.  To eat slowly
and moderate, and  for the only object of nourishing nature, will
insure a long life.  The sudden expansion of the  stomach is- inju-
rious ;  hence, he who eats slowly, is satisfied with a proper quantity,
and he who devours his food  too quickly, without  proper mastica-
tion, will experience a disagreeable sense of weight and pressure,
deranging the digestive organs, and preventing nutrition.  Plurali-
ty of dishes cannot be recommended; yet, at all events, eat first of
that dish which is most wholesome  and most agreeable to nature.
This is an important rule, which prevents the overloading of the
stomach.  Food should always be taken  with relish and at proper
intervals — early in  the morning, and at noon, but  never at a very
late hour at night.   The simplest food is the most salubrious, and
every person ought to attend  to the  effects which the various ali-
ments  produce,  and judge for  himself in their choice.  Animal
food, when too freely used, tends to produce a putrescent  state of
the fluids ;  and vegetable food is acescent, and will correct the pu-
trescent tendency of animal  food.   The proper portion is three-
fourths of-vegetable to one  of animal food.  By  observing these
proportions we may avoid those diseases arising  from a too free
use of either kind  of food.
   In regard to drink, nature  will be satisfied if it be taken in small
quantities.   Water is preferable to any other beverage.  A too free
use of liquids, as water, coffee, tea,  &c, is injurious, as it  distends
the  stomach, which soon becomes  deranged, and experiences a
sense of weight, fluctuation, &c.   Man, then, should direct himself
with judgment and  prudence, and use them as necessity demands,
in accordance to the changes of the season, state of the body, the
weather, the nature  of the food, and the amount of exercise taken.
   Thus, by inuring ourselves to the unavoidable difficulties of life,
by moderate exercise, both of body and-mind, and by observing a
steady and an equal progress, especially as it respects  the mind, to-
gether with a strict  adherence to temperance and  method, we may 
404
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS,  AND
support the powers of life until an advanced age.  But he who is
like the troubled ocean of time, following the fashions and customs,
regardless alike of a regular mode of life,  and the rules of tem-
perance, will reap the fruits of his own doings, be tormented by
numerous diseases,  and, in all probability, be cut down in  tho
flower of youth.

          REMARKS ON SLEEP  AND WAKEFULNESS.

  Sleep and wakefulness stand in nearly the same relation to each
other as exercise and rest.  They ought to be regulated according
to age, constitution, mode of life, and other circumstances.  Waking
always  presupposes a certain  degree  of activity.   All the natural
functions — digestion, the preparation  of the chyle and  blood, assi-
milation, secretion, and excretion — are then more vigorously per-
formed, and would soon exhaust their  powers, did not sleep restore
to them their beneficial and indispensable supplies.
  Sleep is, therefore, necessary to  existence and  health; and it is
improper  and fruitless to attempt to  deprive ourselves, by an ill
directed activity, of the requisite portion  of this refreshment,  for
nature will maintain her rights, in  spite of our efforts to subvert
them.   Both mind and body languish from excessive wakefulness.
  To be sleepless beyond  a proper time, wastes  the vital spirits,
disorganizes the nerves, and  produces many  uneasy  sensations.
In going to sleep, much time  must elapse  before our agitation is
abated.  The fluids become acrid, the flesh is consumed, and an in-
clination to vertigo arises, as'also violent headache, anxiety, actions
without connection or design,  and without consistency.  If we in-
dulge much in sleep, the liabilities of  very strong passions are  not
felt; while persons,  who sleep  too little, will contract an  irritable,
violent, and vindictive temper. Long continued wakefulness will
change  the  temper  and disposition of the most mild  and gentle
mind, and will soon effect a  complete alteration of the  features,
Occasion the most singular whims, and the  strangest deviations in
the power of imagination to conceive;  and will gradually  progress
until it sink the person into an absolute insanity.
  Excess  of sleep is not less  prejudicial.   The whole  frame falls
gradually into a complete state of torpor and  inaction; the  solids 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
405'
become relaxed; the blood thickens, assumes  a slow circulation,
and has a tendency to rush to  the  brain;  perspiration is  im-
peded ; the fluids are incrassated;  the nerves become relaxed; the
body assumes a clammy appearance,  and can  no longer be the
medium of mental exertion;  the  memory is enfeebled;  and the
unhappy sleeper falls into a  thoughtless, lethargic state, by which
his sensibilities are almost destroyed.
   Much injury  is  done by  sleeping  too long, especially in  the
mornin".  Indeed,  excess in sleeping is detrimental to the muscular
powers of every temperament — to the  hypochondriac  and  the hys-
teric, to the nervous, the bilious, and the lymphatic. It is injurious
especially to those  of the phlegmatic temperament, whose fluids will
thus soon be  extensively corrupted; and to those of the sanguine
temperament, who will thereby acquire a superabundance of blood.
The melancholic, whose blood circulates slowly, will suffer incon-
veniences in  their  secretions  and  excretions by this  indulgence;
and we generally find that long sleepers are afflicted with  costive-
ncss and obstructions.  Early rising, and timely going to bed,  will
render them healthy and vigorous.
   The proper amount of sleep  for youth and adults, and for the
laboring classes, the  merchant, the  professional man, and  the
student, is settled at from six to seven hours.  Yet, the differences
in th« individual constitution, and its wants, may admit a variation.
Weakness of body requires more sleep, provided it be refreshing.
When a man first awakes, if he be  in a state of perfect health, and
in a cheerful frame of mind, he finds  himself refreshed and com-
fortable.  This is*the most  certain  evidence that he  has slept
sufficiently.
   The natural wants of nature, however, ought not to be con-
founded with  a  blamable custom,  for many habitually indulge in
too much sleep.   This destructive  habit is  often acquired in
infancy.   Children must not  sleep in very soft  and heating beds,
nor be  encouraged to lie too long; for, by an injudicious indul-
gence in this custom, they will be prevented from attaining a solid
texture of body,  and  the foundation of many subsequent  diseases
will be laid.   The rickets, so very common %in the present age,  are
caused by this means, since the general  relaxation of the body, and
the tendency to profuse perspiration, is thus promoted  in an extra- 
*406
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
ordinary degree.   At the age of puberty, this effeminacy of the
body, and the inclination to sleep, together with the luxuriant and
pleasant sensation which  a soft and warm feather bed affords in a
waking state,  are the first  and most frequent causes of carnal
dreams, of self-pollution, idleness, and vices which might be effectu-
ally prevented by early rising.
  The custom of  sleeping long, if continued to the state of man-
hood, becomes so habitual, as hardly, with a  firm resolution and
great struggles, to be  relinquished.  Those destitute  of this  moral
firmness, instead of a good constitution and a long life, will acquire a
phlegmatic, relaxed, and cold temperament, and they will be irres-
olute, languid, and incapable of energetic efforts.   The mind, by
degrees, becomes as indifferent towards every object, as the body
is unfit for muscular exertion; and both, at last, will cease  to exist.
Hence, to listen to the voice of nature in this  respect, rather than
to our own sensualities,  will contribute  to our lasting happiness.
Yet, beware, never to shorten repose  by the many common, but
violent, means of excitement, when the body is in want of rest.
  To children, at a very early period of life, no limits of sleep can
be prescribed; but, after the seventh year, some regulations be-
come necessary to habituate them to a certain method.  The just
proportion of sleep can be ascertained only by their more or less
lively temperaments;  by their employments, exercises, and amuse-
ments through the day; and  according to the  more or less healthy
state of their bodies.  In pursuing this course, however, children
must not be awakened from their sleep, which too often is done, in
a hasty or violent manner.   Such a  practice is  extremely per-
nicious.
  In great disquietude of' mind, and after the exercise of violent
passions, sleep is most needed, as these agitate and exhaust the
frame far more than  the greatest bodily labor; hence, many per-
sons never sleep so sound as when they are afflicted with grief and
sorrow.  A fretful and peevish temper, as well as a fit of the hypo-
chondriasis, cannot be more  effectually relieved than by a  short
Bleep.   Frequently, after a few minutes of sleep only, we awake re-
freshed, and can  reflect  on  our difficulties with a  calm mind, and
again  become reconciled to the vicissitudes of life.   In such situa-
tions, though sleep cannot overpower the thoughts, yet, even a quiet 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.           407
posture of the body, with the eyes closed, will greatly relieve our
mind and system.
  Any misfortune, even of the greatest magnitude, will be relieved
or alleviated by sleep; while wakefulness would inevitably sink us
under its pressure, if this beneficent balm of nature did not support
us.  Nevertheless, and frequently too, uneasiness of mind,  by its
continual stimulus  on the censorium, prevents all sleep;  hence,
this is the cause of the unquiet repose, and sleepless nights, of those
whose  heads are filled with excessive cares  or important schemes.
As mental exertions exhaust our  strength more than manual labor,
literary men, who employ themselves in  long  and profound reflec-
tion, require more sleep than others.  Though some persons, whose
bodies and minds are equally indolent, have a greater inclination
to sleep than the lively and laborious, yet it is  not  so beneficial to
them, since they are destitute of the essential requisites to  health,
namely,  activity and vigor.                    .
   The most healthy, and  those who maintain the most regular
lives, are frequently subject to  an uneasy and very  short sleep.
They may also require less rest at one time than another. He who
digests easily, stands less in need of sleep.   After taking aliment
difficult  of  digestion, nature herself invites to  the  enjoyment of
rest and to  sleep, in proportion to the time required for the concoc-
tion and assimilation  of food.   Excessive  evacuations,  of what
ever kind, render additional  sleep  necessary.  In  winter  and
summer, we require somewhat  more time for sleep than in spring
and autumn, because the vital spirits  are less exhausted in the
latter seasons, and the mass of the blood and fluids circulates more
uniformly than  in the  cold of winter or in  the heat  of summer,
when it  is either too much retarded or accelerated.
   It is highly improper  to sit up  late  in  the long winter even-
ings, whether at the desk, in the study, or in the fashionable circle.
It is much more hurtful  than in the summer, because the want
of sleep  is greater.   Those who wish to  spend the winter in good
health, and performing useful labor, should retire  to  bed at nine
 o'clock in the evening, and rise at five o'clock in the morning.  A
 winter morning, indeed, is not very charming, but the evening is
 naturally still less so; and, there is  no doubt, that we  can perform
 every kind of  work with more  alacrity and  success in the early 
408
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
 part of the day than at night, and our eyes would likewise be bene-
 fited  by this regulation, after sleep has enabled them to undertake
 any task in the morning;  but they are fatigued at night, after the
 exertions of a whole day.
   Stimulus of any kind may interrupt sleep, or, at least, render it
 uneasy, and often occasions dreams, the cause of which is generally
 owing to irritation  of the mind,  in the stomach, or in the intes-
 tinal canal.   The dreaming state is, as  it were, a middle state be-
 tween sleeping and waking.   Dreams  generally indicate some de-
 fect in the body,  unless  they give  representations of what has
 originated in the occurrences of the preceding  day.
   An uneasy sleep is indicated by starting up or speaking, or by
 frequent changes of the posture in bed.   Dreams are never a good
 symptom, and are frequently a. forerunner, or the effect, of disease,
 and may be owing to the following causes: —
   1. Emotions of .the mind, and violent  passions, always disorder
 the vital spirits.  At one time they increase, at another diminish,
 and sometimes altogether check, their influence; the consequences
 of which  extend to  the whole circulation of the blood.  Sorrows
 and cares produce  similar effects.  Hence, the nocturnal couch is a
 very improper place to prosecute moral  researches, or to recollect
 what we have done, spoken, and thought during the day.  To read
 interesting letters,  or receive exciting  news, late in tho evening
 usually occasions an unquiet sleep.
   2. A bad state of digestion, and especially the use of hard, crude,
 or corrupted food,  on account of the connection of the brain with
 the stomach.
   3.  A checked perspiration  may occasion dreams and restless-
 ness.   They may also be produced  when we have not covered and
 sheltered ourselves comformably to our constitution, to the climate,
 season,  and weather.  In  this case a current of air is still more
hurtful than intense cold.
  4. An apartment or a bed to which we are not accustomed, may
 also occasion an  uncomfortable  sleep, as travellers frequently ex-
perience.  It is therefore an essential part of a good and healthful
education, to accustom children to  sleep alternately upon different
and harder or softer couches, in various  parts of the house, of high- 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.
409
er or lower temperature, which enables them to sleep comfortably
in a simple but clean bed, in whatever place or situation they may be.
   Debilitated persons injure themselves by sleeping during  the
day, and keeping  awake the  greater part of the night,  in opposi-
tion to the order of  nature.  Day light is best  adapted to active
employments, and the gloom  and stillness of the night  to repose
The evening air, which in the country is vitiated by the exhalations
of plants, and in the cities by the affluvia from unclean things, is
very deleterious to a delicate constitution.   The forced watchful-
ness of those  who in the night apply themselves to mental pursuits,
is exceedingly prejudicial.  A couple of hours sleep before mid-
night is, according to old experience, more refreshing than double
the quantity after that period.
   The question, whether to sleep after dinner be  advisable, must
be  decided by a variety  of concurrent  circumstances; such  as
custom, bodily constitution, age, climate, &c.
   For  a weak and slow state of digestion, after having eaten heart
ily of solid food,  we may indulge ourselves in a short sleep, rather
than after a meal consisting of  such nourishment as by its nature
is easily concocted.   But debilitated people, and especially  young
people, should not sleep  too  much, though their weakness incline
them to it; for the more  they indulge in it, the greater  will be
their subsequent languor and relaxation.
  Individuals of vigorous and quick digestion, may undertake
gentle  but not violent exercise, immediately after  meals,  if they
have eaten food  that is easily digestible, and which requires little
assistance in  the process but that of the stomach and  its fluids.
And even  such  persons, if they have made use of provisions diffi-
cult to  be digested,  ought to remain quiet after dinner, and may
occasionally allow themselves half an hour's sleep in order to assist
digestion.
  To rest a little after dinner,  is also useful to meagre and emaci-
ated persons, to the aged, and people of an irascible disposition;  to
those who have spent the preceding night uneasily and sleepless, or
have been otherwise fatigued; in order to restore regularity in the
insensible perspiration.  But in this  case the body must be well
covered,  that it may not be exposed to cold.  Such as are fond of
sleeping  at any  time of the  day,  are usually more indolent  and
                  52 
410            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

heavy after it than before.  Sleep after dinner ought never to ex-
ceed one hour; and it is also  much  better taken  in a sitting pos-
ture than when lying horizontally; for in the latter case,  we are
more subject to fluctuations  of the blood  towards the  head, and
consequently to headache.
  Much depends upon the manner of lying in  bed, and on the
posture to which we accustom ourselves.  To lie on the back, with
the arms over the  head,  prevents the  uniform circulation  of the
blood, and is not unfrequently productive of serious consequences.
It is equally pernicious to lie in a  crooked posture, or with the
breast very low and bent inwards; for  the  intestines are thereby
compressed and obstructed in their motions, and the blood does not
easily circulate downwards;  whence arises its stagnation, also gid-
diness and apoplexy.  Lying on the back is equally improper, and
produces frightful dreams, nightmare, &c, together  with  many
other complaints.  The reverse posture  is  equally pernicious, as
the stomach is thus violently  oppressed, the  respiration  much im-
peded,  and  the  whole circulation of the fluids in the  chest and
abdomen is checked, to the great injury of health.
  The most proper posture, is on one side, with the body straight,
and  the limbs slightly bent,  so that the body may lie  easily and
somewhat higher that the legs.  If the  head be laid high a sleep of
moderate length will be  more refreshing than a longer one Would
be if the head were laid low.   To healthy people it is a matter of
no consequence on which side they lie,  and they may safely, in this
respect, follow their own  choice.  Perhaps a good rule is, to lie on
the right in the evening, and  toward morning  to  turn to the left
6ide.  By lying on the right side in the evening, the food will more
readily  leave the stomach, and by  lying on the left side in the
morning the stomach will be  better protected by the liver.
  For supper we should eat light food only, and that sparingly, and
never lie down  till two  or  three  hours afterwards.   The  mind
ought to be kept quiet and cheerful, previous to going to rest; ban-
ish  all gloomy thoughts and those  which  require reflection and
exertion; avoid reading and  studying just before bed-time.
  Sleep without dreams, of whatever nature they may be, is more
healthful than when attended with these  fancies.   Yet dreams of
an agreeable kind often promote the free circulation of the blood, 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
411
the digestion of food, and a proper state of the function of perspira-
tion.  Unpleasant dreams  excite  anxiety, terror, grief, fear, and
the like, and are of themselves aggravated symptoms of irregularity
in the system, or of approaching or existing disorder.


              REMARKS ON SLEEP, CONTINUED.

   Sleep (somnus) is that state  of the body in  which the internal
and external senses and voluntary motions are not exercised.   The
end and design of sleep are to renew, during the silence and dark-
ness  of the night, the vital energy which  has been exhausted
through the day,  and to assist nutrition.
   When  the  time of being  awake  has  continued for  sixteen or
eighteen hours, we have a general feeling of fatigue and weakness,
our motions become more difficult, our senses lose their activity, the
mind becomes confused, receives  sensations indistinctly, and  gov-
erns muscular contraction with difficulty.  We  recognize, by these
signs the  necessity of sleep; we choose such a position as can be
preserved with  little effort; we seek obscurity and silence, and
sink into  the arms of oblivion.
   The man who slumbers loses successively the use of  the senses.
The sight first ceases  to act,  by the closing  of the eyelids; the
smell becomes dormant only after  the taste; the hearing  after the
smell;  and the touch after the  hearing.  The muscles of the limbs,
beinw relaxed, cease to act before  those that support the head, and
these before those of the spine.  In proportion  as these phenomena
proceed the respiration becomes slower and more deep; the circu-
lation diminishes; the blood proceeds in greater quantity to the
head;  animal heat  sinks;  the different secretions become less
abundant.  Man, although plunged  in the sopor, has  not, however,
lost the feeling of his existence.  He is conscious of most of the
changes  that happen  in him,  and  which  are not without  their
charms.  Ideas, more or less incoherent, succeed each other in his
mind;  he ceases,  finally, to be sensible of existence — he is asleep.
    During sleep, the circulation and  respiration are retarded, as well
 as the different secretions, and, in consequence, digestion becomes
 less rapid. 
412
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
  I know not the grounds upon which most authors assert that ab-
sorption alone acquires more energy during sleep.  Since the nu-
tritive functions continue in sleep, it is evident that the brain has
ceased to  act, only with regard to muscular contraction, and as a
transmitting or receiving organ of intelligence through the usual
senses; and that it continues to influence the muscles of respiration,
of the heart, of the arteries, of the secretions, and of nutrition.
  Sleep is profound when strong  excitants are necessary to arrest
it; it is light when it ceases easily.
  Sleep is perfect, when it results from the suspension of the action
of the relative organs of life, and from the diminution of the action
of the nutritive functions; but it  is not extraordinary for one or
more of the relative organs of life to preserve  their activity during
sleep.  This  happens when one  sleeps standing, &c.; it also fre-
quently happens that one or  more of the senses remains  awake,
and transmits the  impressions which it  receives to the brain; it is
still more  common for the brain to take cognizance of different in-
ternal sensations that are developed during sleep, as wants,  desires,
pain, &c.  The understanding itself may  be in exercise  in man
during sleep, either in an irregular and incoherent manner, as in
most dreams, or in a regular manner,  as is the case with some per-
sons  happily organized.
  The turn which the ideas  assume during  sleep, and the nature
of dreams, depend much on  the state of the  organs.  If the stom-
ach be  overcharged with undigested food,  or the respiration be
difficult on account of position, or other causes, dreams are  painful
and  fatiguing.  If hunger  be felt, the person  dreams of eating
agreeable  food; if the venereal appetite  be excited, the  dreams
are erotic, &c.  The character of dreams is  no less influenced by
habitual occupations of the mind.   The ambitious dream of success
or disappointment; the poet makes verses; the lover sees his mis-
tress, &c.  It is because the judgment is sometimes correctly exer-
cised in dreams, with regard to future  events, that in times of i<rno-
rance the  gift of divination was attributed to them.
  Nothing is more curious in the  study of sleep, than the  history
of sleep-walkers.   Those  individuals being profoundly asleep, rise,
dress themselves, see,  hear,  speak, employ their hands with ease,
perform certain exercises,  write,  compose,  and then go to bed. 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE,
413
When they awake, they have no recollection of what has happened.
What difference is  there, then, between  a sleep-walker, of this
kind, and a man awake ?  A very evident difference.  One is con-
scious of his existence, and the other is  not.  So it is with the ef-
fects of animal magnetism.
  Many hypotheses have been offered  on the proximate cause of
sleep, as the depression of the lamina? of the cerebrum, the afflux of
blood to the brain, &c.  Sleep, which is the immediate effect of the
laws of organization, cannot account for any thing of the kind.   Its
regular return is one of the circumstances which contributes most to
the preservation of health; its  suppression, even for a short time,
is often attended with serious inconvenience, and in no case can it
be carried beyond certain limits.
  The ordinary duration of sleep is variable; generally, it is from
six to eight hours.  Fatigue of the  muscular system, strong exer-
tions of the  mind, lively and multiplied sensations  prolong it, as
well as habits of idleness, the immoderate  use of wine, and of too
strong aliments.  Infancy  and youth  have need  of long repose.
Riper age, more frugal of time, and tortured with cares, devotes to
it but a small portion.  Very old people present two opposite modi-:
fixations,— either they are almost always slumbering, or their sleep
is very light; but the reason of this latter is not to be found in the
foresight they have of their approaching end.
  By uninterrupted,  peaceable  sleep,  restrained  within proper
limits, the powers are restored, and the organs recover their facility
of action; for if sleep is  troubled  by disagreeable  dreams, and
painful impressions, or even prolonged  beyond measure, very far
from repairing, it exhausts  the strength, fatigues the  organs, and
sometimes becomes the occasion of serious  diseases, as idiocy and
madness.


     Of Somnium, or a State between Sleep and Wakefulness.

  In this state persons perform acts of  which they are unconscious.
It includes all those  states of the  system in which persons, neither
perfectly asleep  nor entirely awake,  walk, talk, sing, dream, &c
The same phenomena are  observed in animal magnetism and in 
414           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
 peculiar diseases, affecting the nervous system, as catalepsy, coma,
 &c, which produce visions and acuteness of the senses, enchant-
 ment, charms, &c.  This state of somnium may be divided into
 Symptomatic and Idiopathic.


                 Of the  Symptomatic Somnium.

   Somnium is called symptomatic when it is produced from the
 following causes, or is attended with the following circumstances :
   1.  Somnium,  from indigestion,  dyspepsia, and when, from too
 much food, or too feeble a condition of the  stomach, there is a fer-
 mentation with acidity, eructations, and pain or uneasiness, followed
 by troublesome dreams.
   2.  Somnium from the nightmare, (ab incubo,) supposed to arise
 from some impediment to  the free  circulation of the blood through
 the heart and  lungs; always unpleasant and sometimes frightful.
 The memory here is active;  but  the will  is suspended, and the
 efforts to exert it fail.  Persons are supposed to have died in fits
 of incubus.
   3. Somnium from effusions of water in  the chest, (ab hydrotho-
 race,) believed to proceed from anxiety about the vital parts, caus-
 ed by lymph in  the  pericardium  or thorax.   Terrifying  dreams,
 rousing  the patient  suddenly, are the common  consequences of
 this order.   This and the  preceding are the oneirodynia  of nosolo-
gists.
  4. Somnium from a feverish state of the body, (a febre,) caused
by an undue and irregular excitement of the brain.  This is known
by the name of high delirium,  or sometimes furor.
  5. Somnium from debility, (cum debilitate,) where there is not
excitement enough to embody ideas in steady trains.   Memory
and imagination  act in a confused and irregular manner.  Low
delirium.
  6. Somnium from fainting, (cum asphyxia,) where, though  there
is an exhaustion of vital power, and  the individual appears  to be
dead,  there  is fife  enough in the body to  prevent putrefaction.
The animal functions do not seem to be  so much depressed as the 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.
415
vital; for, on  recovery, the individual  relates what he witnessed
during the trance in which he lay, while in the very lowest ebb of
life.
   7. Somnium from  fresh and vivid occurrences, (a recentibus,")
as when dreams can be traced to some conversation or occurrence
of the  day,  or to some actual condition  of the body.   Common
dreaming.
   8. Somnium from old and forgotten  occurrences, (ab obsoletis,)
when long lost images are renewed to the memory, and dead friends
are brought before us.
   9. Somnium from an overloaded brain, (a plethora,) with symp-
toms bordering on epilepsy, apoplexy, and catalepsy.  Sometimes
called typhomania.
   10.  Somnium  of a prospective character, (a  prophetia,) when
the dreamer is engaged in seeing funeral processions, and foretell-
ing events by  a sort of second  sight, as it is called.   This disease is
symptomatic of a peculiar state of body, running in families fike
gout, consumption, and insanity.
   11. Somnium from  vivid impressions  on the internal  organ of
sight, (a visione,) where visial images are  so strong that the dreamers
are called seers,  because  they see so much, and their  sights  are
termed visions, inasmuch as the eyes are so peculiarly concerned.
   12. Somnium from  the  conditions of other corporeal  organs, (a
sexu velpruritu,) causing dreams.
   13. Somnium, (a respiratione,)  from inhaling nitrous  oxide gas,
depriving the  person of consciousness and will, and inspiring de-
lightful sensations.
   14. Somnium, (a toxico,) from doses of opium, hyoseyamus datu-
ra, and other  narcotic plants, taken  into  the  stomach,  disturbing
the will, and exciting strange fancies.
   15. Somnium from drunkenness, (ab ebrietate,) caused by drink-
ing spirituous liquors,  overcoming consciousness and spontaneity.


                  Of the  Ideopathic Somnium

   Somnium is called ideopathic when it is produced from the fol-
lowing causes, or  is attended with the following circumstances: 
416
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
   1.  Somnium from abstraction, where the internal senses are  so
engaged that there is no knowledge, or an imperfect one, of pass-
ing events, constituting what is termed reverie, where fanciful trains
of thought are indulged at considerable length.
   2.  Somnium, with partial or universal  lunacy, (cum  insanitate,')
vitiating the mind with some fundamental  error, on a particular
subject or disturbing  and confounding  all  the  operations of the
mind. This characterizes some forms of  madness and melancholy.
   3.  Somnium, with talking, (cum sermone,} where  the ideas of
the mind  are  uttered in audible words,  as  in a wakeful state, —
•called, frequently, somniloquism, or  sleep-talking on ordinary sub-
jects.
  4.  Somnium, with walking, (cum ambulatione) where the person
rises  from bed, walks  about, frequently goes abroad, without the
smallest recollection that any volition had  been exerted  on the
occasion ;  the  whole affair is forgotten, and not a trace left in the
memory;  this  is called somnambulism.
   5.  Somnium, with  invention, (cum inventione,)  as  when un-
bidden ideas rise in the mind in a  methodical  series, and form a
poetical sonnet, different from any thing known before, and unat-
tainable by the waking powers.   These are  sometimes reduced  to
writing at the time and  found  afterwards, though the act of com-
mitting them to paper is generally forgotten.   On other occasions
the memory preserves the particulars of such dreams.
  6.  Somnium, (cum hallucinatione,) with mistaken impressions of
sight, and sometimes of hearing, so strong as to  enforce a convic-
tion of their  reality.   Many visions, conversations, and mistaken
representations gain currency  in this way.  The patients being
unwittingly deceived themselves, propagate their delusions with an
honest zeal, and labor  to gain  the assent of their friends and ac-
quaintances.
  7. Somnium with singing,  (cum musica,) wherein the person^
though unable to raise a note when awake, becomes capable, in the-
somnial condition, of uttering sounds in most melodious  accents.
  8. Somnium with ability to pray and preach, (cum religione,) or
to address the  Supreme Being and human auditors in an eloquent
and iastructive manner, without  any recollection of having been 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.            417
so employed, and with utter incompetency to perform such exer-
cises of devotion and instruction when awake.
   See these states of  somnium  illustrated by cases published in
New York, in 1815, under the title of 'Devotional Somnium,' &c.


                  REMARKS  ON CLEANLINESS.

   Nothing  contributes more to health and its preservation, than
cleanliness  of  person  and  apparel.  It is  an  highly important
virtue, beneficial to the possessor, and valuable to all.  Daily atten-
tion to it will assist in the preservation of health.   The perfection
of dress  consists in easy and clean garments.  The want of due
attention  to dress will  produce a variety of cutaneous diseases, as
eruptions, blotches, pimples,  itch,  &c.  If  uncleanliness is not
always the immediate cause and origin of pestilential fevers, it cer-
tainly increases their virulence, extends  their havoc, and prevents
recovery.  The  effluvia  of  dirty  cottages, dirty  keeping-rooms,
kitchens,  pantries, cellars,   &c,  are  more   or  less  contagious,
as is  also  the  effluvia  from  a filthy human body.  These effluvia
are of a like nature with pestilential vapors.   Penury is generally
associated .with  nastiness, and indolence is the source of  both.
Pestilential or malignant diseases generally break out amongst the
unclean, negligent, and poorer class of  citizens.  They lie together
in filth, and their rooms, furniture, and dress are  all in a wretched
state of fermentation, and the inmates are living  masses of pu-
trefaction.
  To preserve health, houses and apartments  must be kept clean,
and no offensive  matter should ever be  suffered to remain within
or around our dwellings.  Negligence in.this  respect may lead to
the dubious routine of physic.  Nastiness always  tends to  produce
sickness and distress.   In fact, the foul habitations of many people
are nurseries of pestilential diseases.  Uncleanliness is disagreeable
in its nature, yet, strange to say, thousands promote it, and har-
monize with its filth.  But there is a law in  the animal economy
which accommodates  the  mind of man to  all the natural evils to
which he, in the common order of things, is exposed.
  The body ought to be kept perfectly clean, by frequent changes
                 53 
418            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

of the linen and daily washing.  By these means, much  filth  and
perspirable matter, which  adhere to the skin, will be removed, and
the whole system will be refreshed and invigorated.  These wash-
ings may be  by immersion of the  whole body in water,  (warm or
cold, at pleasure,) or even by a single bowl of water, rubbing the
body all over with a sponge for a few minutes.   This practice will
preserve health and insure old age.


                   REMARKS  ON EXERCISE.

  Man  must earn his  bread by the sweat of his brow,  and by so
doing he  may  advance his own interest and  benefit his health.
No creature enjoys health without exercise, and  this seems to be
an  universal law  in  nature.   Inactivity produces  many  evils,
induces  relaxation  of  the  solids, and  exposes the  body to
many diseases,  such as  indigestion, glandular obstructions, &c.
Exercise braces the system, promotes digestion and perspiration,
and removes many diseases.

             ' Toil and be strong.  By toil the flaccid nerves
             Grow firm, and gain a more compacted lone.'

  Exercise gives strength to every fibre, and energy and spring to
all the vital powers.  In a word, man is rendered

               ' Robust with labor, and by custom steeled
                To every casualty of life.'

For strength is increased by being used, and lost by  being too
much hoarded.   The active  and laborious seldom complain of dis-
eases.  No;  these  evils are reserved for the sons  of  ease and
affluence.
  But we  need not expatiate  on the advantages derivable from
exercise to those who have  experienced them while engaged in
the labors by which their  families  are supported.   To those whose
habits are those of industry, some  few cautions against the exces-
sive and irregular indulgence of those habits will be more bene-
ficial.    Be  assured,  then,  that all  violent and  long-continued 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF  NATURE.
419
Ixertions, even in wonted labors, may not only prove of serious
injury to your health, but will also  lessen, rather than increase,
the weekly provision for your families.  Remember that the vital
powers — the powers by which life is continued — can only be urged
to a  certain point without injury.   If nature is robbed of repose
now,  she must repair the  loss  at  another time, or the fine  and sub-
tile spirits of nature will  be exhausted, and she will  sink and be
overcome.
               1 Pursued too closely, e'en the gentlest toil
                Is waste of health.'

   He who  from a grasping spirit, or in order  to enrich himself, or
from  a mistaken notion of economy, destroys his health, may truly
be said to be a slave.
   The all-wise Disposer of things has decreed the due exercise of
our powers to be an inexhaustible source of pleasure, so  that man
returns to his  daily toil with cheerful  alacrity.  But excessive ex-
ertions take away all zest for labor; and no wonder; for if even too
much pleasure will cloy, how much more must too much hard work ?
Be moderate in hard work, and then you will  go to it again with a
relish for it. But beware also of indolence.

         1 Behold the wretch who  flags his life away,
            Soon swallowed in disease's sad  abyss ;
          While he whom toil has braced, or  manly play,
            Has light as air each limb, each thought as clear as day.'

   Moderate and regular  labor coils up the main-spring of life, but
wild  and irregular sallies may break it  He  that is steady is ever
ready.  Regular exercise demands regular rest

                '-----------Weariness
                Can snore upon the flint, when restless sloth
                Finds the down pillow hard.'

   Watch the  steady pace of the sun.   Let  his rising lead you to
labor and his  setting to rest.  Take,  early in the morning, gentle
exercise, which cheers the spirits, creates an appetite, and is, in
every respect, very important to the well-being of the individual.
Exercise in the open air, light  suppers, and a cheerful mind,  pro- 
420            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

mote sound, refreshing sleep.  The studious  and sedentary ought
to take much exercise in the open air, and by so doing, obstructions
in the  liver, dyspepsia,  indigestion, obstructed  perspiration, &c,
will  be prevented.  Man is not formed  for  perpetual  study and
fatigue of mind;  it is wearisome and ruinous to the body, if a recess
be not taken, and if  repose and  exercise  be not intermingled with
it   The pleasures of this life consist in alternate rest and motion,
but they who neglect the latter  never enjoy the former.  Idleness
occasions many diseases; it renders men useless, a burden to them-
selves and to society; it leads to  the most execrable vices; in fact,
an active life is not only the best guardian of  virtue, but the great
est preservative of health, and we may add, of happiness and long
life.

                       INTEMPERANCE.

  When we take a view of mankind in general, we are struck with
astonishment to  see so  many citizens, who might  be useful to
themselves and to society — professional men, lawyers and doctors,
ministers and  rulers, men  of science and influence — degrading
themselves  by the cup, even  to sottish depravity.  Strange it is,
that  man, in point of dignity, while here on earth, but  little lower
than the angelic world, should thus debase himself, when nature,
experience, and reason continally say to him,' Man, do thyself no
harm.'
  Intemperance destroys more than the sword or pestilence.   War
has its  intervals  of  peace, and  the plague or  distemper  prevails
Only iri certain years and seasons; but intemperance gains a daily
strength, and is predominant ih  all seasons.  Few make their exit
directly by intoxication,  in comparison with  the number of those
who  fall victims to, and die of various diseases, the effects of intem-
perance.  Nausea and vomiting, indigestion,  liver affections, dys-
pepsia, languor, tremors,  bloatedness, delirium, pains, and  horrors,
Ore only some of the  minor children of intemperance.   There are
others, more formidable, such as  dropsy, consumption, epilepsy,
palsy, apoplexy, &c.  These often  end in death.
  ' Alcohol, like a bold invader,  seizes directly upon the vitals of
the constitution, which it sets on fir*.  The Author of  nature has 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.
421
furnished  man  with power to preserve himself from his natural
enemies; but, when he is attacked by this civil, fashionable foe, he
resembles a  company  of savages, armed with bows and arrows,
fighting against the deadly machinery of fire-arms.  Ardent spirits,
wines, and fermented liquors, are always pernicious;  and if arti-
ficial health is produced at times by them, it is transient, and the
intemperate use of them is followed by disease, misery, and death.'
   Sons  of intemperance ! hearken to advice before it is too late,
lest, by  your  indulgence, you shall be thrown into the cold arms of
death, unlamented. Flee instantly from the enemy, which threatens
destruction to  character, property,  constitution,  and life itself.
Remember that a man cannot flee from his vices  with too much
haste, and that  men never leave intemperance by degrees.   There
is no compounding in this case, no  excuses.  A resolution must be
formed, and perseverance in  that resolution will insure victory —
a glorious triumph over the disordered appetite.  Then health will
return,  and,  by  the assistance of industry, indigence will be a
stranger to the  sober, reformed drunkard.
   Enough is  said, in regard to the dangers to health and life which
6urround  the drunkard,  to convince  him, when  in his sober
thoughts,  to  flee from the intoxicating cup; yet one caution re-
mains to be given to the hardy laborer, and the moderate drinker.
Virtues may  have illegitimate sons, and thus industry may become
the mother of drunkenness; for nature, urged too far, pants and seeks
for comfort and rest, but her thoughtless driver spurs her on.  The
pernicious and poisonous dram is thought of, and is swallowed,
glass after glass, whenever the spirits flag.  But, beware!  This in-
dulgence will soon bring you to the house of misery  and disease.
Consider, my friends, how small  is your  gain by thus earning
double wages, when the retailer gets one half of your earnings, and
physic runs away with  the rest; besides that,  the succeeding days
are often lost in sickness and pain.
   Let us not pass unnoticed the good cheer the bar-room affords.
O!  What delightful  refreshment a glass of ale, wine,"or spirits
yields* when  a man is fatigued, when he feels weak and exhausted,
with  a parched  tongue, and an  almost unquenchable desire for
dririk!   Admitting this, for the sake of the argument, look, on the
other hand,  at the  mischiefs  arising  from mdulging,  now and 
 422           PRUDENTIAL  REVELATIONS, AND

 then, in what is called a little drop, of these intoxicating drinks.
 These indulgences will surely bring us to the drunkard's wretched-
 ness.  They have all, without exception, begun with this little drop.
 At first, they felt disgust; then, with caution, they drank the deadly
 draught; and  thus progressing, they at last plunged into hopeless
 ruin.
   Intemperance is a deceptive enemy.  Be on your guard, for he
 uses every trick of war.   Sometimes  he will steal upon you by
 slow and unheeded approaches — sometimes his attacks  are Open
 and violent; often he fights under false colors.   He  even reasons
 with St. Paul,  saying, ' Take a little wine, for the  stomach's sake;'
 and, whilst he  is received as a friend, he cruelly deprives those he
 has deluded of every comfort, and, at last, of life itself.   He who,
 being industrious, and engaged in labor, flies to strong drinks for a
spur, whenever nature droops from too great exertion — makes ter-
rible  havoc with  himself.  The  constitution,  though strong, is
 forced, stimulated,  and  strained,  by these unnatural efforts,  and
 will soon break down, and show the vast damage done to  the body,
 and the lamentable wretchedness  of  the mind.  Tremblings, sink-
 ing of the spirits, sleepless nights, and days  of dreadful listlessness,
 will be the  forerunners  of serious maladies, and  of confirmed in-
temperance.  Intemperance not only occasions many painful  dis-
 eases, and awful deaths,  but is  the parent of many of the vices of
the land.  It  destroys the reputation  of many families,  and  the
 peace of the  domestic  circle, and  overwhelms  its  victims  with
poverty and ruin.   Every inebriate is, to say the least, a candidate
for misery and indigence.   (See Appendix p. 503.)

 THE USE AND  ABUSE  OF TOBACCO, BY CHEWING, SMOKING,
                     AND TAKING  SNUFF.

   Tobacco is a slow, narcotic  poison.  Its character is understood
 by few,  while the pernicious practices of smoking  and chewing are
 adopted  by millions, without thought or reflection.  These prac-
 tices are uniformly deleterious and debilitating, though many con-
 tend that they produce no sensible injury;  and such  seems some-
 times to be the fact.  These appearances, however, when explained,
 do not militate against the truth of our assertion. 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
423
  Many poisonous substances, as opium, stramonium, lobelia, cicu-
ta, tartarized antimony, nitre, ardent spirits, &c, are occasionally
used as medicine, and  when  skilfully administered, by a judicious
physician, they claim a high rank in the Materia Medica; yet when
habitually taken, they cease to act  as evident poisons;  they are no
longer nauseous to the taste, nor disagreeable to the stomach.  This
arises from habit.  It is admitted,  however, that  this principle of
accommodation in the human system cannot change the nature of
narcotics to that of nutriment.
  If the body has  the  power of supporting, with  diminished pain,
the pressure of certain physical  evils, and the mind possesses the
ability to  become placid  under the  countenance of moral evils,
which at first seemed insupportable, it only proves the benevolence
of that Being who has thus fitted us to pass more  happily through
the present mode of  existence, while it can be no  impeachment of
His justice to believe that an  abuse  of His goodness cannot  be
indulged with impunity.
  If, then, it  be the invariable  tendency of smoking and chewing
tobacco, to injure health, as is  here asserted, and  if there be  such
a state as too great vigor of health, it then becomes one means of
curing this inconvenience; and the advocates for  the salutary
effects of  this practice will deserve praise by confining their re-
commendation of its  trial  to this state only, — if  any one of their
number can be found sagacious enough to ascertain its existence.
  True, the  use of tobacco, in  one form or another,  has  always
had its advocates, and  the plant, detestable as  it  is, its numerous
votaries; and however much they  may suffer  in  the  cause  they
espouse, they seem, nevertheless, as firmly attached to the object
of their devotion, as  the drunkard  is to  his cups, and the opium
eaters to their charming reveries.
  On those who plead the strength of habit, as  an  excuse for con-
tinuing in error, we can  hope to make  no  impression; but for
those who  have not yet  consented  to  imitate the  many examples
of this injurious custom, for  those  who are willing to be guided
by reason, and for those who are wise  and  resolute enough to sac-
rifice a transient and debasing propensity, to secure the important
blessing of health, — we should  be happy to contribute any thing to
assist them to discontinue the  practice of using tobacco in all its
forms. 
424
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
  Many individuals, with impaired constitutions, have, from habit,
become insensible to the hurtful effects of smoking and chewing, and
imagine these indulgences can harm no one ;  and accordingly they
recommend them to all  their associates.  It is  probable these de-
luded objects of our pity intend  no mischief, but their  error con-
sists in making  their own boasted health a standard for others, who
could not adopt these  practices without great injury.   It would not
be difficult, and it may be useful, to  point  out  some of  the  causes
which tend to keep the history of the actual effects of tobacco out
of sight.
  One of these causes is, that in many cases, where its  use is seri-
ously pernicious to some, its effects are so gradually produced as to
escape the notice  of the sufferer, while  all  his complaints are
ascribed to other causes.   Another is, an  ambition  to be thought
consistent in those who, sensible of its baneful  consequences, con-
tinue the use of tobacco from a subjection to habit.
  We would ask those who are still  hesitating  to take a stand, re-
specting smoking and  chewing, are they in their turn  willing to
become the father, who, with the cigar or a quid in his  mouth,
earnestly remonstrates with his sons against a practice to which he
confesses himself  a slave, — which  has already undermined his
health, and which he reluctantly permits to hurry him to  his grave ?
This is no fiction; there are thousands of examples.   Tobacco  is
a stinking, narcotic plant   When  first  used, it induces giddiness,
vertigo, nausea, and  vomiting.   It is  a matter of great  surprise
that a plant so injurious to the constitution should have so many
worshippers, either in the form  of chewing,  smoking, or snuffing.
Either of these is, at  best, a nasty practice.  Chewing or smoking
is very prejudicial to health.  It weakens the organs  of digestion,
and has a  tendency to produce emaciation, particularly in young
persons; it vitiates the breath, and turns the teeth yellow or black.
  Few need to smoke or chew tobacco  as a medicine.  Some per-
sons, subject to catarrhal  complaints, or those who are of a pletho-
ric or phlegmatic  constitution, may smoke or  chew, occasionally,
and, indeed, to such it may be advantageous, if used  with modera-
tion,  especially in  damp  and hazy weather.   But  such  persons
should never smoke immediately after eating, as the  saliva would
then be discharged.   Saliva  serves an  important purpose in pre- 
TnE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.
425
paring the food for  the stomach, assisting digestion, &c, and ought
not to be thrown off.  Smoking may relieve some asthmatics, and
snuffing tobacco may produce, in some persons, new  and clear per-
ceptions, help the memory, and calm the agitated passions.
  Those who find  chewing or smoking indispensable, for causes
above enumerated, should take frequent small draughts of water,
but never gratify the desire for ardent spirits or fermented liquors,
as it would be adding poison to poison.  For  those  who use this
narcotic, poisonous weed daily, and often through the day — be it
in the  form of smoking, chewing, or  snuffing—there is no reme-
dy, and to persuade them to temperance and moderation,  would be
as fruitless as an exhortation to the  sottish drunkard to be moder-
ate in  his indulgences.   It is  a common  thing to hear thoie who
use tobacco  complain, especially in  the spring, of faintness, pains
in the stomach, loss of  appetite, &c.   Inquire the  cause.   They
answer: ' Bilious, very bilious, thick blood, foul stomach,' &c.   So,
the poor, innocent bile, — that salutary fluid, without which there
can be no digestion nor assimilation, — has to bear the blame.  Let
them cease the use of smoking and chewing,  and all will be well
with them.    Snuffing stimulates  the  membranes  of the nostrils,
and obstructs respiration, and hence vitiates the organs of speech.
To say the least, a great snuff-taker  is guilty of a nasty, dirty, disa-
greeable practice.  Of the three  habits — smoking, chewing, and
snuffing — the last is the least dangerous and  the most beneficial,
and to many, its moderate use is almost indispensable.  Snuff may
be safely recommended to the advanced youth, to the middle-aged,
and the old, when their occupations require a constant  mental
application to professional or  intellectual pursuits. It  dcvclopcs
ideas; the intellect is improved by it;  it revives the  reflective
powers ; gives strength of mind; refreshes the memory, and cheers
up the whole soul and body; while no evil effects were ever known
to have been produced by it, when  its  use  has  been indulged in
with  temperance and moderation, and when there has been  an
occasional entire abstinence from it   Yet, on the whole, the use of
tobacco, in any form, unless good reasons can be given to the con-
trary, should be  totally  relinquished.  Those  who  regard  cleanli-
ness, will not accustom themselves, for a trifle, to these disagreea-
ble and very injurious practices; and it is  to be hoped,  that those
                  54 
456           PRUDENTIAL nil   AATI0NS,  A3TD
 who are already slaves to them, will forsake their indulgences, as
 soon as reason and reflection shall prevail over absurd custom and
 self-gratification.


            MEANS TO IMPROVE HUMAN  BEAUTY.

   To improve and  beautify the skin is an object worthy of atten-
 titln, and is productive of many useful consequences.  The face is
 the" index of*the body; and nature has so determined, that internal
 disease  is manifested in the countenance.   Cleanliness and flexi-
 bility of the skin are some of the principal requisites to the health
 arid comfort of the  individual.  Uncleanliness, sedentary employ-
 ments, the use of many articles of diet, intemperance, impure air,
 and warm liquids, contribute to render  the  skin unfit to discharge
 the impure fluids, which, if retained in the body, are liable to settle
 in it,  and produce eruptions.  Habitual  sore eyes, red noses, and
 pimpled faces, generally speak in a language not hard to be under-
 stood.  Eating unwholesome food,  drinking vinegar, or applying to
 the skin preparations of spirits, mercury, lead, or other minerals,
 chalk, acids, or any artificial quack cosmetic  whatever, with a view
to improve the skin, is not only unsafe, but very injurious, and fail
 of the object.   One single article is here recommended, ' Doctor
 Fontaine's celebrated Balm of Thousand Flowers,' which  is safe,
 and sure in its effects.  To those  who cannot procure this highly-
prized balm, we would recommend no other cosmetic  in  nature,
but water, which is easily  obtained" by all, and never fails to pro-
duce good effects.  Water ought to be used  freely and frequently;
but we may  as well undertake to bleach the  African, as  to remove
eruptions from  the  face without bestowing  due  attention  on the
state of the body.  Water should  be softened and medicated with
this precious balm, as herein directed, and more fully explained it
the circular.
   To improve the skin, three things are necessary: —
   1. Due attention to insensible perspiration, which is an import-
ant process,  by which nature expels the acrid humors, and the use-
less fluids.  It keeps the skin Soft  and pliant, animating it with the
 vigor of life.  The healthy individual throws off daily, by this pro- 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.
427
cess, about three pounds of impure fluid;  and no disease can be
cjured without the cooperation of the skin, it being the condvictor
of perspiration, and the organ which purifies the fluids.  Exercise
promotes free perspiration.  Bathing is  an excellent specific, as it
cleanses and enlivens the skin, and fits  it to perform its office!  re-
freshes the mind, and gives a sensation of ease, activity, and cheer-
fulness ; removes stagnated fluids in  the capillary vessels, and pro-
motes a uniform circulation of the blood;  preserves the solids soft
and flexible, and is a powerful means of preserving beauty. Avoid
uncleanliness, sudden changes from  heat to cold, and impure air,
all of which retard perspiration, and cause an acridity of the cu-
taneous fluids, from which eruptions and disease will inevitably
follow.
  2. Purity of the fluids.  This  depends on free perspiration, and
a sound state of digestion.  The  healthy stomach can only produce
healthy fluids; hence it ought never to  be overloaded with fat and
crude articles, or  inundated with large  quantities of warm tea and
coffee.  Animal food, when copiously used, disposes  the fluids to
an impure state, creates a bad breath, and renders men more bold
and sanguinary in  their tempers, all which is manifested  in  car-
nivorous animals.   Large quantities of tea .or coffee weaken the
powers  of digestion, especially  if .taken hot   If tea  is made too
weak, it,operates like warm water, and  relaxes the stomach; and,
if made too strong, it gives unnatural  heat, and produces tremblings.
The immoderate use of coffee is also injurious, leading to nervous
diseases,  and eruptions in the face.   .A nourishing diet, consisting
principally of farinaceous substances, and a small portion of animal
food, is best, and is one of the surest means  of preserving health,
and of attaining old age.  By bestowing proper  attention on this
matter, the face and complexion willl be  free from cutaneous im-
perfections, and will be beautifully  adorned with a  pure virginal
akin.
  3. Equal distribution of the fluids.  When the blood is profusely
thrown to the face, it produces unnatural redness and flushings.
The frequent use of every kind  of heating liquids, and fermented
liquors, as cider, porter, wine,  &c, but more especially the use of
ardent spirits, should be  avoided.  These beverages and liquid fires
destroy the equal distribution of the blood, render the fluids im- 
 428           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

 pure, parch the skin, remove the fair complexion, and  substitute a
 peculiar color, which has been figuratively called the morocco in
 the face.
   There is, however, scarcely one  instance in existence in which
 the noble impress of the Creator's image is not somewhat obscured
 by diseases, whLh conceal many of its beauties.   These diseases
 imprint upon  the ' human face  divine,' and about the forehead,
 checks, neck, &c, many disagreeable defects, such  as  pimples.
 spotted redness, scurf, freckles, tan, wrinkles, and a darkish yellow,
 dirty, and  indexible skin.  They are always attended with  some
 degree of suffering and humiliation, to ladies as well as gentlemen,
 and there is not one among cither sex but might be  induced, by
 a laudible motive  of regaining health, purity of complexion, and an
 unaffected natural ornament, to have  recourse to  the  science and
 skill within their reach, and to adopt a safe  and certain means of
 eradicating  these  cutaneous diseases and imperfections from the
 system.   They may  exchange  these blemishes  for a  complexion
 which shall assume the smooth and delicate appearance of tender
 years.  The refinement of this enlightened age renders it absolutely
 necessary to cultivate and adorn the mind in order to become an
 agreeable companion; and the  disposition to please,  inherent in
 our nature, renders it equally necessary to devote particular atten-
 tion to  the improvement of the personal appearance, and  thus
 render the body a fit receptacle for the mind.
  With this view, the author has deemed it of the utmost import-
 ance to present to the reader, and the public, an interesting notice
 to ladies  and  gentlemen,  relative to the  skin and  complexion.
 (See the Index of the ' Practical Key to the Confidential  Doctor
at Home.')  The  desire of the writer to benefit mankind, has in-
duced him  to expose the dangerous nature of the numerous  com-
pounds successfully palmed upon the public.  He deems it unneces-
sary to occupy time, by giving an exposition  of the merits of what
he recommends, as the discerning inquirer will be  fully convinced
of its usefulness and efficacy. 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
420
OBSERVATIONS ON BATniNG,  AND  ITS ABUSES, WITH  SOME
  PRECAUTIONS AND  SALUTARY  RULES,  TO  BE  OBSERVED
  BEFORE  AND  AFTER  IMMERSION,  IN  COLD,  WARM,  OR
  VAPOR BATHS.

  As a fashionable desire seems to pervade all ranks and classes to
visit watering-places, for  the  purpose of bathing, where they in-
dulge in  the luxury without due precaution, and thereby induce
spasms, cramps, and obstructed  viscera, some  rules seem  to  be
necessary.
  The practice  of immersion in cold water is certainly of very re-
mote origin; indeed, it is  more than probable that it is coeval with
the birth of man himself.   The necessity of cold bathing, for the
purpose of cleanliness, and the pleasure experienced by the body
from it, especially in hot countries, must, very early, have re om-
mended it to the human species.  Even the example of the inferior
animals was sufficient to give the hint to man.  But as our present
purpose is to point out the advantages of  bathing, ami, at the same
time to guard persons against the abuse  of it, we need  not enter
into any abstruse researches relative to its antiquity or origin.
  The cold bath is eminently useful in a variety of cases.  We re-
commend it to those who dwell in populous cities, and lead seden-
tary lives, while they too  often indulge in voluptuousness.  In  se-
dentary or voluptuous persons, the action of the solids is always too
weak, (which induces a languid circulation,) and they are afflicted
with crude, undigested masses of humors, and obstructions of  the
capillary vessels and glandular system.   Cold  water, owing to its
gravity and tonic power, is well adapted to the removing of these
ills.   It accelerates the action of the blood, promotes the different
secretions, and gives permanent vigor to the solids.  Sea bathing is
the  most effective  in producing these physical blessings; and salt
water ought to be preferred, not only on account of its superior
gravity, but for its greater power in stimulating the skin.  Stim-
ulation of the skin  promotes perspiration, and guards the patient
from cold.
  Nothing  has  as yet been discovered so beneficial as  the bath, 
430
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
provided  the water is judiciously used, in bracing the solids, in-
vigorating their  functions,  and accelerating  the motion  of  the
blood.  All diseases,  caused by a sizy or glutinous  state of the
blood, and a clogginess of the animal juices, if age or debauchery
has not worn out the elasticity of the vessels, will be relieved by
the cold bath, Among these diseases we would name rheumatisms,
of the most, obstinate kind, (though, in many instances, warm or
vapor baths are preferable,)  hypochondrical affections, and debility
arising from a life too inactive.  The bath also  removes the in-
conveniences  arising  from  obstructed  perspiration,  and from
humors thrown upon the surface,  and which cannot pass off,  but
ulcerate, blotch, and deform the skin; for immersion so shocks the
nervous system, that the very capillaries feel the influence, and the
minutest passages are forced open by the increased velocity of ,the
circulating fluids,  whereby the skin is cleansed, and, instead of rer
taining gross acrimonious humoif, it forces out the imperceptible
matter of perspiration. It is proper, however, to remark, that cold
bathing is more likely to prevent, than  to  remove, obstructions e
the glandular and  lymphatic system.   Indeed, when these obstruc-
tions have gone to a certain  point, they cannot be removed, except
it should  be by means of proper treatment, and warm or vapor
baths.  In such a  case, the  cold bath can only tend to laggravate
the symptoms, and lead the patient  to  an untimely grave.  It is,
therefore, of the  utmost importance to ascertain, previous to the
patient's entering upon thp use of the cold bath, whether he  labors
under obstinate obstructions  of the lungs or other  viscera.  Where
this is the case, cold bathing ought to be  strictly prohibited, until
the passages of these  organs are cleansed and opened, and every
symptom of inflammation  entirely removed, which process will be
promoted  by the use of warm or vapor baths.
   Very fat and corpulent persons should avoid the cold bath; for
their fibres are so  bolstered  up, as it were, .that there is no space
in which they can vibrate or contract with the sudden pressure of
the cold bath.  Thus, instead of enforcing their springs and shak-
ing off any unnecessary incumbrances,  they are strained and
weakened to no purpose; for it is well  known,that, wherever an
effort is made to remove any thing by an  elastic  body, if the first
exertion fail,, every impetus, given afterwards, weakons^the force of 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE  OF NATURE.
451
the spring.   We should recommend such persons to have  even
daily, recourse  for a few weeks to a warm or vapor  bath, and to
use some  exterior and interior stimulus  before plunging in cold
water, as hereafter recommended.
  In what is called a plethoric state, or a too great fulness of the
body, it is always dangerous to use the cold bath without  due per-
spiration, as  there is a liability of bursting a blood-vessel, or  occa-
sioning an inflammation of the brain or some of the viscera.
  This caution is more essentially necessary in  the cases of  those
patients  who live luxuriously, and  are of gross habit.  Yet it is
very remarkable that these are the persons, who resort to the sea-
side with  the greatest ardor  and plunge into the water  with the
least consideration.  No sanction can be given to such imprudence,
from the fact that some escape any evil effects, as many are carried
off immediately by cramps and apoplexy,  after  immersion.  In
view of this no person of the  habit described above should  bathe
until he is prepared by some active stimulus on the blood and bow-
els, and  throughout the surface of the body.
  The nervous are a class to whom the bracing qualities of a cold
bath will  prove of service.  This class includes a great number of
the males and  almost all the females  of great cities.  Yet  even
these should be cautious  in using the cold bath.  Nervous persons
often have weak bowels, and may also, as well as others, be sub-
ject to congestions and obstructions of the viscera.   The best plan,
therefore, for  them and all others  of delicate  constitutions, who
wish to bathe, is to accustom themselves to the water by gentle and
pleasing degrees, and use those antidotes which effectually prevent
all ill consecpiences.   They should  commence in the warmest sea-
son and gradually increase their depth into the waters, as the sen-
sation of  cold increasest   Nature revolts against all sudden transi-
tions, and those, who violate her  dictates, have very often cause to
repent their  temerity.
   To  young people, and particularly to children, cold bathing is
of the utmost  importance.  The laxity of their fibres renders its
tonic peculiarly proper.   It promotes their  growth, increases their
 strength, and  prevents a variety of diseases incident  to childhood
and youth.   The cold bath would seldom disagree with children if
they were early accustomed  to it,  and  we should see fewer in- 
432
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
stances  of the scrofula,  rickets, and other diseases,  which prove
fatal to many or render them miserable for life.
  We would caution young men against too frequently bathing in
damp or bad  seasons, as several instances of death are recorded*
where persons  indulged to excess, by visiting the  water too often
or at improper times, or remaining in too long.
  We would  particularly recommend the cold bath  to persons of
debilitated habit, or of relaxed fibre, and those who have a weakness
in the reins or loins, or are afflicted with swellings, eruptive  dis-
eases, relaxations of the joints, and nervous affections.
  The  same practice is  also recommended  to the  studious and
sedentary, as it will in  some measure supply the place of exercise
and give tone  and vigor to the  muscular system;  for there is not
perhaps in the whole range of the Materia Medica, a more power-
ful bracer  than the cold  bath.   Yet its  use ought to be adopted
with the  utmost precaution, and not  before the circulating mass
has undergone a salutary perspiration.   The morning  or at least
before dinner, is the most proper time for bathing, but we would
not condemn the practice of bathing one or  two hours before sun-
set.  The  best mode is that of sudden immersions.  As cold bathing
has a constant tendency to  propel the  blood  and other  humors
towards the head, the bather should always wet that part  first.   At
tention to this would no doubt often prevent the violent headache
and other complaints which frequently proceed from  cold bathing.
The cold bath, if too long continued, not only occasions an exces-
sive flux of humors towards the head, but chills the blood, cramps
the muscles,  relaxes the nerves, and wholly defeats  the salutary
effects  of judicious indulgence.
  By neglect in this particular, expert swimmers arc  often injured
and sometimes lose their lives before any assistance can be render-
ed them.   All  the  benefits of cold bathing arc attained by one
single immersion at a time; and the person ought to be rubbed dry,
the very moment he issues from the water, and should take exer-
cise for  some time after.
  Every physiologist, and every pretender to medical science even,
will admit, that the principal preparation  for sea-bathing, is to open
the veins, arteries, nerves, and  vessels, of the whole human frame,
or at least to free  them  from  any absolute obstruction.  The 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
433
action  of the water upon the  circulating  system is so great, that,
should any obstruction in the  vessels suddenly check their motion,
a vein bursts, cramp  ensues, or convulsive spasms seize the vital
parts, and sudden death or a dangerous disease is a natural conse-
quence.
  From the foregoing remarks the reader will learn the immense
benefits as well as the dangers  of cold bathing.  We would recom-
mend the use of the Philanthropic Remedy as the best  means to
prepare the organs to receive the benefits of immersion.   The
system  will thus  be enabled  to sustain  the  most violent shock.
Thousands who have had recourse to  the salutary power of cold
bathing will testify to its wonderful effects.  A small half teaspoon-
ful of the clear Philanthropic  Remedy should  be taken in a wine-
glass  full  of cold fresh  water,  (or generous  wine, if it  suit  the
stomach,)  a few minutes before  and after bathing,  and the  Balm
of Thousand Flowers should  be used  on  the surface of the body,
as by  Directions.  This treatment removes every obstruction  of
the vessels, strengthens  and cleanses the viscera, and  vital organs,
lubricates and gently opens the bowels and stimulates the lymphat-
ic, absorbent, and excretory vessels to action, producing that need-
ful insensible perspiration through the pores, so important for the
preservation  of health.  Through these means the  body will  be
in a state the most favorable for the reception of the  blessings  at
tendant upon  bathing.  What  we have  stated in regard to  the
efficacy of the  Philanthropic Remedy and the  Balm of. Thousand
Floioers, in cold bathing, apply also to warm or vapor baths.
  Nervous and weakly persons should bathe only every other day,
and in some cases but twice a  week.   Those who constantly use
the Balm of Thousand Flowers, (if they should object to the Phi-
lanthropic Remedy as needless in  the bathing-house,) will quickly
be convinced  of its efficacy and delightful effects;  they will wel-
come it as a luxury, the powers of which can  remedy any unfore-
seen accidents to which the body may be subjected, improving the
complexion, purifying the skin, removing its blemishes, and render-
ing it fair and soft.
  Never continue bathing when it occasions loss of appetite, list
lessness, pains  in the breast or bowels, prostration of strength, or
violent  headache.  Persons  in a  heated  state, and beginning to
                      55 
4S4            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

sweat, think il, necessary to wait on the edge of the bath, sea shore,
or bank  of the river, until  they are  perfectly  cooled, and  then,
plunging into  the water, feel a sudden  chill, that is alarming and
dangerous.  The  cause of this chill is generally imputed to going
into  the  water too  warm, whereas it  arises only from going  in too
cold.   In the early  stages of exercise, before perspiration has dissi-
pated the heat, and fatigue debilitated the living power, nothing is
bore safe than the cold bath.  AVe have frequently directed infirm
persons to use such a degree of exercise before immersion as may
produce  an increased  action in the vascular system, and some  in-
crease of heat; and thus secure a force of reaction under the shock
which  might not otherwise take place.  This direction has always
been attended with the best results.
   Enough has been said On cold immersions; we will now briefly re-
mark upon warm and vapor baths.  One or the other of these should
be used almost daily, especially in winter, and  at all times when
our nature  is frigid, or the skin is dried, or we are in want of a
refreshing respiration.  The precautions to be used  when  we in-
dulge  in  this delightful  luxury, must depend upon the state  of
the health and the object to be attained.  The rules to be followed
are many of them  different from, and some of them opposite to,
those to be observed in the use  of the cold  bath.
   A vapor  bath, or a warm immersion, is  a most grateful remedy
for many complaints.   It serves the treble purpose of keeping  the
skin clean, the  pores  open, and  of defending what are called  the
vital organs from disease by attracting its  remote cause to the  ex-
ternal surface of the body.
   If the Philanthropic Remedy, or the Balm of Thousand Flowers
be used in conjunction with the warm or vapor bath, the best evi-
dence of its  efficacy will soon be  apparent, as at this particular
time the body will  be In  a  state of wholesome excitement  from a
combined effort to restore the healthy functions of a deranged sys-
tem, and thoroughly to purify it from all imperfections.
   Some of the valuable properties of  these remedies, and more
particularly those of the Balm of Thousand Flowers, are shown in
both warm and  cold  bathing, in their  stimulating,  yet  soothino-
powers.   They promote a healthy equilibrium of the insensible
perspiration throughout the system,  whether diseased slightly or 
               THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.           435

 extensively;  and, through the absorbing pores, they penetrate into
 the  whole organization  of man, separating the morbid secretions,
 when present, and  expelling thein to the  surface; they insinuate
 their healing, tonic, and balsamic virtues to the lymphatics.  Hence,
 where the principles of life, of health, and of  disease exist, the
 BLOOD,  and all  the fluids  and juices, become  purified.   They
 heal external sores, scrofulous  humors, salt rheum, and eruptions
 pf the skin, even  if produced by poison or inoculation, as the itch,
 &c.  Sweeping off' the  whole catalogue  of cutaneous disorders,
 they restore  and preserve  a  primitive  virginal skin, free from
 blemishes and imperfections.   The Balm of Thousand Flowers might
 rightly be  termed the all-healing balm, for such  it  has proved in
 other and  similar  diseases.  Their first action is to neutralize  all
 humors, and remove and heal the visible imperfections; hence they
 never cease drawing till  the  skin  is free from any impure matter
 that may be lodged beneath the skin or in the  blood  or juices;  so
 that, once purified, the complexion will continue fair by a constant
 renewal of its surface.
  In conclusion, we advise  any  one,  who  takes a cold, warm, or
 vapor bath, never to omit the use and free application of the Balm
 qf Thousand  Flowers.   We refer the reader to the interesting
 notice in regard to the skin and complexion.  (See ' The Practical
 Key to the Confidential Doctor at Home.'   We have  thought best
 to quote  that part relating to  its  usefulness in bathing and in the
 nursery: —         m
  ' In Bathing, this sweet and  fragrant Balm will be a delightful
 accompaniment  It promotes  an admirable increase  of strength
 and health.   The waters, be  they cold or warm, hard or soft, will
 assume a delicious  feeling, becoming  highly perfumed, and as soft
 as oil.  It will impart its  healing properties to the whole body, and
 insure health and a purification of all those blemishes and diseases
 of the skin, which have hitherto resisted all medicines, and baffled
 the  skill of physicians.   The  greasy and  offensive efluvia will  be
 removed  from the  body and system; and  the skin  will assume a
 virginal appearance and be embalmed with the sweetest fragrance.
  ' Directions.  This Balm  ought to be applied  with a sponge  or
 cloth in its  clear state, and be rubbed all over the  body previous to
 immersion,  and then plunge into the water, or steam, and wash
freely. 
436
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
  ' For the Nursery there is not an article more suitable for suffer-
ing infants, to promote cleanliness and health, than this Balm of
Thousand Flowers, which is far preferable to spirits, lotions, Castile
soaps, and similar cosmetics.   It will strengthen  their  limbs and
refresh their constitutions, and prevent and  cure all eruptions, so
afflictive  to them.   The use of this article will prove to the infant
and youth a luxury, an antidote, and a cure of diseases;  and they
will  increase in  energy, and be full of elasticity, health, and
beauty, and be the mirror of admiration.
  ' Directions.  Apply the  Balm, reduced with a tittle soft water,
as Castile soap is used.  Wash the body daily, all  over, with the
hands, a sponge, or a cloth.'


  A LEGISLATIVE REMONSTRANCE, WHICH REPRESENTS THE
       DEGENERATION OF CERTAIN  AMERICAN LADIES.

To the Hon. the Legislature of the  State of New York, now in Session:
  Your memorialist,  a  citizen of Poughkeepsie,  and a constitu-
ent of the Dutchess  Delegation, would respectfully represent to
your honorable body,  that he has seen, through the medium of the
public prints, that a bill  ' To  punish  Seduction  and Adultery as
crimes, and for other purposes,' has been presented to the consid-
eration  and  approval of your  honorable body,  and  which  bill
appears to have been formed  in accordancenvith  the prayers 'on
your  loaded  table,' emanating  from a  'numerous, virtuous, and
estimable class of citizens,' a majority of whom are females.
  In  the details of said  bill, the attention of your  memorialist is
forcibly arrested by its one-sided and partial  character: Wherein
the male is proposed to be totally disarmed, and the female clothed
with an oppressive and dangerous power over him.  Severe penal-
tics are proposed to be inflicted  on the seducing male, whilst that
of the seducing female appears to have entirely escaped the vigi-
lant care of your honorable committee in forming the bill.  To this
partial feature of the bill, (without impugning the motives of any,)
your memorialist would beg leave to remonstrate.
  The crime complained of, if it be  a crime, must be committed by
both male and female, conjointly;  and both should be held equally
liable, and to stand confronted, that justice may ascertain between 
              THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.            437

the seducer and the seduced, or whether the seduction would prove
to be mutual.  The law of Moses would stone both to death.  Also,
the damsel taken to the marriage bed, who was found to have parted
from her chastity, which his  and our law would protect from vio-
lence, was to be  returned, — he being released from the conse-
quences of the  unfortunate  marriage, and she  to be  stoned.  It
should be remembered that we have sons as well as daughters.
   Your memorialist would solicit the attention of your honorable
body to the  consideration and  propriety of so amending said bill,
as to  embrace ' man,  male and female,' and  in transgression, to
place them on equal footing.   Your memorialist is  confident that
the propriety of this course will meet a ready response in the minds
of your honorable body.
   Have not the seductions of the female, from time  immemorial, in
all ages, been a just subject of complaint, both by ' fathers, hus-
bands, and brothers ?' And  do not the mothers, wives, sisters, and
daughters, need  your care  in the bill, equally with them ?  Is it
not notorious, that he, otherwise ' virtuous,' is equally exposed to
her seductive wiles.   A wise man hath said, that' a virtuous woman
is a crown to her husband,' and then exclaims, ' who can find a vir-
tuous woman ?'
   It is of prevalent belief, founded on ancient chronology, that the
first man was tempted,  seduced, and -betrayed from the  path of
rectitude by the first woman; and of consequence  entailed misery
that should  well deserve his  commiseration, and her reprobation.
   Your memorialist would beg to be permitted to call the  attention
of your honorable body to  a few  cases (among  the many that
might be adduced) of the mutability of woman.
   Two of Lot's daughters, by stratagem, committed seduction and
 incest with  their  father!
   Jacob, (called  Israel,) the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, had
 twelve sons, by four women of his  household,  and one of them, Ju-
 dah, a conspicuous prince in Israel, in an unsuspecting moment, by
 ambush, on the wayside, was beset, enticed, and seduced by Tamar,
 his daughter-in-law, — she disguising herself as a harlot.   She was
 brought forth anon to be stoned,  yet was saved by clemency and
 pardon.
   Another of Jacob's sons —the first-born of his favorite Rachel, 
438
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS,  AND
 and his favorite son —Joseph, after being traduced and treacherous-
 ly abducted by these, his  mixed brethren, and sold to Potiphar, in
 Esypt, was sorely beset by the wiles and seductions of his master's
 wife; and, for his resistance and fidelity, he was falsely accused
 of an attempt to  commit a crime, of which herself only was guilty,
 and he was sent to Pharaoh's ' State prison.'
  If the quotation, in  the  report of your honorable committee, is
 worthy of meditation and comment of ' one whose graphic pencil
 drfew human nature to the fife,' that

             1 Heaven halh no plague like love to hatred turned,
           Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned,'

 then we  have the key to Joseph's unjust punishment in  Pharaoh's
 ' State prison.'  And to the formidable power now granted  her by
 your laws, and to ' scorned love,' would you weigh gold or count
 dollars to ' pander' to the  avarice and cupidity of a ' hellish fury,'
 to bear testimony against the victim of her  selection, whose  crime,
 like that of Joseph's, might be virtue.   Would you not give him an
 equal chance for justice ?
  Can it be possible, that  such discrimination as the bill provides,
 is the prayer of virtuous women, who have so constantly ' loaded
 your table ?'  Has virtue lost its power ?  Then  let her appeal to
 the laws  you have already granted her, by which to select her vic-
 tim.  And would you prostrate him to her feet, there to beg that
 it may not be a Joseph ?  Is  there not  cause to apprehend  that
 this fearful power is now abused, not by the ' virtuous,' but  by the
 avarice and  cupidity of  the  ' furies of hell,'and  to require  the
 grave consideration of your honorable body for its amelioration ?
 Under such a law as the bill proposes, where  could be  found  the
safety of trembling man ?   Would she rule supreme over his deg-
 radation ?  Would your honorable body repel man, by fear, from
 the smiles of women, and  in  her anger place him a victim to  her
 power, and cast him over to the ' furies of hell ?'
  Are there none of courage to face the violent torrent,  and to
 repel the taunts  and  reproaches of zealous bigots, and  to ask for
 equal justice for the criminal, whether male or female, without fear,
 favor, or partiality ? 
<
               THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.           439

   Let our frail sons and daughters, equal in the sight of Grod, be
 taught the benign and lasting fruits of virtue — a shield that will
 defend and repel the most poisoned arrow — only to be obtained
 but by prudence, circumspection, and perseverance in the path of
 rectitude — yes, conscious rectitude !  ' A conscience void  of of-
 fence ' is a pearl of great price — a solace that none  can give nor
 take away — an ark of safety and pillar of hope.  Let them also
 be warned of the danger and peril to which they will expose  them-
 selves on the least departure  from this benign and vital  principle;
 for to rebel  against the convictions of light and  truth, is partaking
 of forbidden fruit, and ' a guilty conscience, who can bear ?'  We
 are naked in the  sight of Omnipotence, who, ' without respect of
 persons, judgeth according to every man's works.'
   Hence, your memorialist would solemnly and  firmly remonstrate
 against the  passage of the bill, as reported by your committee to
 your honorable body.
                                        Benjamin Arnold.
   February 17, 1845.


 A ROMANCE,  BEING AN  INTERESTING, AMUSING, AND CORRECT
   DESCRIPTION OF THE  EXPERIENCE OF A PHYSICIAN WHILST
   COMMENCING BUSINESS IN A COUNTRY VILLAGE — HIS HARD
   LOT — CANNOT  FLATTER HIMSELF WITH SUCCESS, UNLESS HE
   COURTS THE>ESTEEM, AND SUBSCRIBES TO  THE OPINIONS, OF
   EVERY GRANNY AND AUNT IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD.

   As we were travelling around the country, in pursuit of knowl-
edge, we made a temporary abode in several different towns and
villages, into which strangers had recently removed, with a view to
a permanent residence.  In multiplied instances of this kind, we
have been  not a little chagrined to  observe how the original in-
habitants have conducted themselves towards the new-comer.  If
One of the number happen to be a professional  man, who contem-
plates a settlement, with a design of acquiring  an honest subsist
ence, by a life of usefulness in society,  poor man ! he has to endure
a multitude of mortifications, and to run the gauntlet, for about two
years, amid a double regiment of inuendoes, dark insinuations, and 
 440           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

 falsehoods, and all  the train of ill-natured sarcasms, which minds,
 really ignorant of his character, under the influence of malice, self-
 ishness, and jealousy combined, can possibly invent, to wound his
 feelings  and discourage his enterprise.  If he be a lawyer, he is
 less likely than some others to meet with rebuffs; but if he be a
 physician, woe be to him for the first two years of his residence in
 the place.  If he possess any feeling, he requires to be doubly for-
 tified with patience, and even to become completely indifferent, for
 that period, or he will never prosper in succeeding years.
   Every woman, as soon as she becomes  a mother, by lawful wed'
 lock, feeling that she may,  and probably will, have need of medical
 assistance in her family, immediately lays claim to  exclusive juris-
 diction respecting medical men  and medical matters.  About seven-
 teen in every twenty of them, (should  this be thought stating  the
 thing too largely, let us say five out of eight, which will not be far
 from the truth,) in their own modest estimation, are perfectly taught
physicians, and are, without doubt, fully adequate  to pronouncing
 a decided opinion upon the physician's science and skill, by means
 of the knowledge which has been handed down to them from their
 mothers, and which  their mothers derived from somebody, who had
 it  from a ' steam doctor,'  ' the Indian,' ' the negro,' ' some  old
 squaw,' or some  ' cancer  doctor, that went and  lived among the
 Indians;' or from ' some old man, that came alone, and had a pack
 on his back ;' or from ' a root seller,' ' shaking Quaker,' or ' fortune-
 teller ;' and often from ' an old witch,' or from ' a^horrible  dream
and revelation,'  At some time or other, some such persons, by
some  such means,  had communicated some  such knowledge to
 somebody or other, which produced the most wonderful effects in
 the way of instruction.  The women who possess this knowledge
know, as  soon as tliey have heard the name of the disorder, ' what will
 certainly  cure it.'   They  can accurately determine, whether the
physician (who may, perhaps, have spent  his life in the acquisition
of medical knowledge) knows any thing  or  not.    They only want
 an  opportunity to inquire  of him, whether ' spearmint, fever-few,
tansy tea, or mayweed, &c, are  not good in this case ?'  If he is so
 unfortunate  as to differ from them,  and so  honest  as  to  speak
 his own  sentiments, and  to trust to his own judgment, rather
 than rely on an  old teapotful of herb  drink, in  compliance with 
               THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.           441

 their superior knowledge, they at once determine that he knows
 nothing at all. Under  these circumstances, his situation is nearly
 desperate.  But  should  he be  audacious  enough,  to differ and
 dissent from even one 'good  old nurse,' who knows how to mix an
 injection, direct how the pipe should be oiled, and how the dose
 should be administered, if he cannot immediately make his peace
 with her, he had  better  make his will without delay, or pack up liia
 trunks, and be off".  If he  but commence the contest, he has to
 learn,  by terrible experience, that 'from that war there is no dis-
 charge.'   O!  how  Ave  have pitied such young physicians, when
 called  to visit  the sick  during these  two years.  Often have we
 been present, (though undetected,) when such a one has made his
 debut.
   As he passed along to his professional visits, one or  more female
 faces might be seen at the window of every house.  As soon as he
 had entered, on goes the straw bonnet, and away goes  ' mother' or
 ' aunt Nabby,' or ' aunt Kezia,' from this door; ' Miss Biddy,' from
 this; and ' Miss Thankful,'from the  next; until the whole  street
 is  in motion, to see  how the sick one  does, and to hear what the
 doctor has to say.   Scarcely has he seated himself, before one door
 opens,  and in  comes 'aunt Tabby.'  She hitches up her petticoats,
 and tilts  down into a broken  cradle, in one corner of the  room.
 Immediately, another door opens, and ' aunt Molly'  hurries into
 another corner, dropping a half courtesy as she trotts  through the
 door.   And, but a very  few minutes elapse, before there is one of
 those  kind, knowing, modest,  benevolent, motherly  ladies,  who
 have the honor of being  aunt to a whole neighborhood, ensconced in
 each corner of the room; as well as several others, (who are grow-
 ing up  to become aunts, as soon as their medical science shall en-
 title them to the  appellation, and their predecessors  shall be re-
 moved  from office,)  standing in various parts of the room, all look-
 ing wise, and all watching.  We saw  one, who had  thrown a card-
 ing apron over her shoulders, as she crossed the street,  in her haste
 not to be behindhand, soon begin to whisper to her next friend, with
a significant, half-smothered smile, .and a consequential nod of the
 head.  This example was soon imitated, in a general way, by oxcry
good lady present, except one, who had turned the age of forty,
the time when they graduate, and become aunts  and doctrcsses;
                    56 
 442           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

 and that one stood, half bent over the sick person, biting her finger
 nails, and listening.  From this posture and employment of these
 good 'helpmates,' we concluded  that they had adopted the rule of
 wild turkeys, (and, for aught we knew, of tame geese) who, whilst
 the flock feed, set one to watch.  We  pitied the poor stranger, as
 we perceived that he was  to be  arraigned, as soon as the conclave
 could collect in another room, and  the lady watching should make
 her  report; and,  from what we had  often  seen before,  it  was
 evident that he was to be immolated.  We accordingly repaired,
 unperceived, into the room where they convened, and ' attended in
 the judgment hall.' But, lack-a-day ! what did we hear ?   In  five
 minutes, the poor  doctor had not  enough of a medical reputation
 left, to admit of saying, with propriety, that it was ragged.  It  was
 all  filched away in a  scramble.   We waited to  see whether  his
 reputation was all  that would be assailed, and we soon perceived
 that his personal appearance was the foundation of their judging.
 ' Did you not see  how he  looked,'  said one.  ' I am sure he can't
 know any thing.  I do n't  believe he knows what ails the child, for
 I never heard of the medicine before that he's ordered,' chimed in
 another.  ' Who knows any thing about  him ? where did he come
 from ?'  asked a third.  ' I believe he may as well  go  back again,
 for he '11 never get any custom here,' replied a fourth.   ' Did  you
 ever see  anybody  have hair  that was blue, before ?'  said a fifth.
 Here it became too much for our feelings to endure with patience,
 and as we did not like to  be disturbed from our tranquillity, or to
 suffer our passions to dishonor our maternal connections, we re-
 tired, and left the good ladies to unburden themselves.  This conso-
 lation, however, we carried with us, that these ingenious aunts had
pronounced judgment, without any real knowledge of either  the
 general or professional character of the physician; that he must,
 however worthy in  himself, pass this high court of female judicature,
 or ordeal, for the usual length of time, and then, with a pliant ver-
 satility of conduct, which can accommodate itself to any change of
 circumstances  which may be likely  to  ensue, at the  end of that
 time, they could unblushingly recommend him to others, and em-
 ploy him in their own families, ' as the best doctor in the world.'
  Our reflections on this subject closed with the recollection of the
 following couplet, which \try forcibly expresses  the ardent prayer 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
443
of a young physician, who  had suffered considerably in this way,
before he had attained the art of pleasing his judges, and insuring
their approbation.   After he had experimentally known the blessed
eff'ects of this charm, under the feeling remembrance of what he
had formerly suffered, by reason of his being honest and independ-
ent,  he passionately broke forth thus: —
                                             t
         ' Of all the mercies which kind Heaven can send,
          O! make each midwife, nurse, and aunt, my friend.'

  And here we will conclude our ' Book of Prudential Revelations,
and  Golden Bible  of Nature,' with the following poems, on  the art
of preserving health, written by one, the sublimity of whose genius
has rendered his name immortal. 
 
              POEMS
                  OK TUB

ART OF  PRESERVING  IiEALTII.
                  POE1I  I.

                    ON AIR.

 Daughter of Pa;on, queen of every joy,
 Ilygcia*;  whose indulgent siiiile sustains
 The various race luxuriant nature pours,
 And on th' immortal essences bestows
 Immortal youth ; auspicious, O descend!
 Thou cheerful guardian of the rolling year,
 Whether thou wanton'st on the western gale,
 Or shak'st the rigid pinions of the north,
 Dilluscst life and vigor through the tracts
 Of siir, through earth and ocean's deep domain.
 "When through the blue serenity of heaven
 Thy power approaches, all the wasteful host
 Of pain ami sickness, squalid and deformed,
 Confounded sink into the  loathsome gloom,
Where in deep Erebus involved, the  fiends
Grow more profane.  Whatever shapes of death,
Shook from the hideous chambers of  the globe,
Swarm through the shuddering air: whatever plagues
 • Hygrin, the goddess of lienlili, was, according to the genealogy "f tho heathen
deities, the daughter of .'Uaculuptus; who, us well as Apollo, was distinguished by
lius uuinc of 1'x-oit. 
446            PRUDENTIAL  REVELATIONS, AND

       Or meagre famine breeds, or with slow wings
       Rise from the putrid wat'ry element,
       The damp waste forest, motionless and rank,
       That smothers earth, and all the breathless winds,
       Or the vile carnage of th' inhuman field;
       Whatever baneful breathes the rotten south;
       Whatever ills th' extremes or sudden change
       Of cold and hot, or moist and dry produce ;
       They fly thy pure effulgence : they, and all
       The secret poisons of avenging heaven,
       Ajid all the pale tribes halting in the train
       Of vice and heedless pleasure:  or, if aught
       The comet's glare amid the burning sky,
       Mournful eclipse,  or planets ill-combined,
       Portend disastrous to the vital world;
       Thy salutary  power averts their rage,
       Averts the general bane: and but for thee
       Nature would sicken, nature soon would die.

        Without thy cheerful active energy
       No rapture swells the breast, no poet sings,
       No more the maids of Helicon delight.
       Come then with me, O  goddess, heavenly  gay I
       Begin the song; and let it sweetly flow,
       And let it wisely teach thy wholesome laws:
       ' How best the fickle fabric to support
       Of mortal man ; in healthful body how
       A healthful mind the longest to maintain.'
       'T is hard, in  such a strife of rules, to choose
       The best, and those of most extensive use ;
       Harder in clear and animated song
       Dry philosophic precepts to convey.
       Yet with thy aid the secret wilds I trace
       Of nature, and with daring, steps proceed
       Through paths the muses never trod before.

        Nor should I wander, doubtful of my way,
       Had I the lights of that sagacious mind 
        THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.           447

Which taught to check the pestilential fire,
And quell the deadly Python of the Nile.
0 thou, beloved by all the graceful arts,
Thou long the fav'rite of the healing powers,
Indulge, O Mead ! a well-designed essay,
Howe'er imperfect: and permit that I
My little knowledge with my country share,
Till you the rich Asclepian stores unlock,
And with new graces dignify the theme.

  Ye, who amid this feverish world would wear
A body free of  pain, of cares a mind;
Fly the rank city, shun its turbid air;
Breathe not the chaos of  eternal smoke
And volatile corruption, from the dead,
The dynig, sick'ning, and the living world
Exhaled, to sully  heaven's transparent dome
With  dim mortality.   It is not air
That from a thousand lungs reeks back to thine,
Sated with exhalations rank and fell,
The spoil of dunghills, and the putrid thaw
Of nature ;  when from shape and texture she
Relapses into fighting elements:
It is not air, but floats a nauseous mass
Of all obscene, corrupt, offensive things.
Much moisture  hurts; but here a sordid bath,
With  oily rancor  fraught, relaxes more
The solid frame than simple moisture can.
Besides, immured in many a sullen bay
That never felt the freshness of the breeze,
This slumb'ring deep remains, and ranker grows
With  sickly rest:  and (though the lungs abhor
To drink the dun  fuliginous abyss)
Did not the acid vigor of the mine,
Rolled from so many thundering chimneys, tame
The putrid steams that overswarm the sky ;
This caustic venom would perhaps corrode
Those tender cells that draw the vital air, 
448           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

      In vain with all the unctuous rills bedewed;
      Or by the drunken venous tubes, that yawn
      In countless pores o'er all the pervious skin
      Imbibed, would poison the balsamic blood,
      And rouse the heart to every fever's rage.
      While yet you breathe, away; the rural wilds
      Invite; the mountains call you, and the vales;
      The woods, the streams, and each ambrosial breeze
      That fans the ever undulating sky ;
      A kindly sky ! whose fast'ring power regales
      Man, beast, and all the vegetable reign.
      Find then some woodland scene  where nature smiles
      Benign, where all her honest children thrive.
      To us there wants not many a happy scat!
      Look round the smiling land, such numbers rise
      We hardly fix, bewildered in our choice.
      See where enthroned in  adamantine state,
      Proud of her  bards, imperial Windsor sits;
      Whore choose thy seat in some aspiring grove
      Fast by the slowly-winding Thames; or where
      Bronder she laves fair Richmond's green retreats,
      (Richmond that sees an hundred villas rise
      Rural or gay.)  O ! from the summer's rage
      0 !  wrap me in the friendly gloom that hides
      Umbrageous Ham! — But if the busy town
      Attract thee still to toil for power or gold,
      Sweetly thou may'st thy vacant hours possess
      In Ilanipstead, courted by the western wind;
      Or Greenwich, waring o'er the winding flood ;
      Or lose the wo: 11 amid the sylvan wilds
      Of Duhvich, yet by barbarous arts unspoiled.
      Green rise the Kentish hills in  cheerful air;
      But on the marshy plains that Lincoln spreads
      Build not, nor re.-t too long thy wandering feet.
      For on a rustic throne of dewy turf,
      With baneful fogs her aching temples bound,
      Quartana there presides;  a meagre fiend
      Begot by Eur us, when his brutal force 
        THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.           449

Compressed the slothful Naiad of the Fens.
From such a mixture sprung, this fitful pest
With feverish blasts subdues the sickening land:
Cold tremors come, with mighty love of rest,
Convulsive yawnings, lassitude, and pains
That sting the burdened brows, fatigue the loins,
And rack the joints, and every torpid limb;
Then parching heat succeeds, till copious sweats
Overflow:  a short  relief from former ills.
Beneath repeated shocks the wretches pine;
The vigor sinks, the habit melts away.:
The cheerful, pure, and aniinated bloom
Dies from the face, with squalid atrophy
Devoured, in sallow melancholy clad.
And oft the Sorceress, in her sated wrath,
Resigns them to the furies of her train:
The bloated Hydrops, and the yellow Fiend
Tinged with her own accumulated gall.

  In quest of sites, avoid the mournful plain
Where osiers thrive, and trees that love the lake ;
Where many lazy, muddy rivers flow:
Nor for the wealth that all the Indies roll
Fix near the marshy margin of the main.
For from the humid soil and wat'ry reign
Eternal vapors rise; the spongy air
Forever weeps: or, turgid with the weight
Of waters, pours a sounding deluge down.
Skies such as these'let every mortal shun
Who dreads the dropsy, palsy, or the gout,
Tertian, corrosive scurvy, or moist catarrh;
Or any other injury that grows
From raw-spun fibres idle and unstrung,
Skin ill-perspiring, and the purple flood
In languid eddies loitering into phlegm.

  Yet not alone from humid skies we pine ;
For air may be too dry.  The subtile  heaven,
            57 
450           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

      That winnows into dust the blasted downs,
      Bare and extended wide without a stream,
      Too fast imbibes th' attenuated lymph
      Which, by  the surface, from the blood exhales.
      The lungs grow rigid, and with toil essay
      Their flexible vibrations ! or inflamed,
      Their tender ever-moving structure thaws.
      Spoiled of  its limpid  vehicle, the blood
      A mass of lees remains, a drossy tide,
      That slow as Lethe wanders through the veins;
      Unactive in the services of life,
      Unfit to lead its pitchy current through
      The secret  mazy channels of the brain.
      The melancholic fiend (that worst despair
      Of physic,) hence the rust-complexioned man
      Pursues, whose blood is dry, whose fibres gain
      Too stretched a tone: and hence in climes adust
      So sudden tumults seize the trembling nerves,
      And burning fevers glow with double rage.

         Fly, if you can, these violent extremes
      Of air; the wholesome is nor moist nor dry.
      But as  the power of choosing is denied
      To half mankind, a further task ensues;
      How best to mitigate these fell extremes,
      How breathe unhurt  the withering element,
      Or hazy atmosphere:  though custom moulds
      To ev'ry clime the soft Promethean clay;
      And he who first the  fogs of Essex breathed
      (So kind is native air) may in the fens
      Of Essex from inveterate ills revive
      At pure Montpelier or Bermuda caught.
      But if  the raw and oozy heaven offend;
      Correct the soil and dry the sources up
      Of wat'ry exhalation : wide and deep
      Conduct your trenches through the quakino- boo- •
      Solicitous with all your winding arts,
      Betray th' unwilling lake into the stream; 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.
451
And weed the forest, and invoke the winds
To break the toils where strangled vapors lie;
Or through the thickets send the crackling flames.
Meantime, at home, with cheerful fires dispel
The humid air:  and let your table smoke
With solid roast or baked ; or what the herds
Of tamer breed supply ; or what the wilds
Yield to the toilsome pleasures of the chase.
Generous your wine, the boast of ripening years;
But  frugal be  your cups: the languid frame,
Vapid and sunk from yesterday's debauch,
Shrinks from the cold embrace of wat'ry heavens.
But neither  these, nor all Apollo's arts,
Disarm the dangers of the dropping sky,
Unless with  exercise and manly toil
You brace your nerves and spur the lagging blood.
The fat'ning clime let all the sons of ease
Avoid ; if indolence would wish to live,
Go,  yawn and loiter out the long slow year
In fairer skies.  If droughty regions parch
The skin and  lungs, and bake  the thickening blood;
Deep in the waving forest choose your seat.
Where fuming trees refresh the thirsty air;
And wake the fountains from their secret beds,
And into lakes dilate their rapid stream.
Here spread your gardens wide;  and  let the cool
The moist relaxing vegetable store
Prevail in each repast: your food supplied
By bleeding life, be gently wasted down,
By soft decoction and a mellowing heat,
To liquid balm; or, if the solid mass
You choose, tormented in the  boiling wave;
That through the thirsty channels of the blood
A smooth diluted chyle may ever flow.
The fragrant dairy from its cool recess
Its nectar acid or benign will pour
 To  drown your thirst; or let the mantling bowl
 Of keen sherbet the fickle taste relieve. 
452
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
 For with the viscous blood the simple stream
 Will hardly mingle ;  and fermented cups
 Oft dissipate more moisture than they give.
 Yet when pale seasons rise, or winter rolls
 His horrors o'er the world, thou may'st indulge
 In feasts more genial, and impatient broach
 The mellow cask.  Then too the scourging air
 Provokes to keener toils than sultry droughts
 Allow.  But rarely we such skies blaspheme.
 Steeped in continual rains, or with raw fogs
 Bedewed, our seasons droop: incumbent still
 A ponderous heaven o'erwhelms the sinking souL
 Laboring with storms in heapy mountains  rise
 Th' imbattled clouds, as if the Stygian shades
 Had left the dungeon of eternal night.
 Tin black with thunder all the south descends.
 Scarce in a showerless day the heavens indulge
 Our melting clime; except the baleful East
Withers the tender spring, and sourly checks
The fancy of the year.  Our fathers talk
 Of summers, balmy airs, and skies serene.
 Good heaven ! for what unexpiated crimes
This dismal change !  the brooding elements,
Do they, your powerful ministers of wrath,
Prepare some fierce exterminating plague  ?
Or is it fixed in the decrees above
That lofty Albion melt into the main ?
Indulgent Nature! O dissolve this gloom!
Bind in eternal adamant the winds
That drown or wither: give the genial West
To breathe, and in its turn the sprightly North:
And may once more the circling seasons rule
The year; not mix in every monstrous day.

  Meantime, the moist malignity to shun
Of burdened skies; mark where the dry champaign
Swells  into cheerful hills: where  marjoram
And thyme, the love  of bees, perfume the air; 
        THE GOLDEN  BIBLE  OF NATURE.            45S

And where the Cynorrhodon* with the rose
For fragrance vies ; for in the thirsty soil
Most fragrant breathe the aromatic tribes.
There bid thy roofs high on the basking steep
Ascend, there light thy hospitable fires.
And let them see the winter morn arise,
The  summer evening blushing in the west;
While with umbrageous oaks the ridge behind
O'erhung, defends you from the blustering North,
Andbleak affliction of the peevish East.
Oh ! when the growling winds contend, and all
The  sounding forest fluctuates in the storm;
To sink in warm repose, and hear the din
Howl o'er the steady battlements, delights
Above the luxury of vulgar sleep.
The  murmuring rivulet, and the hoarser strain
Of waters rushing o'er the slippery rocks,
Will nightly lull you to ambrosial rest.
To please the fancy is no trifling good,
Where health is studied; for whatever  moves
The mind with calm delight, promotes the just
And natural movements of th' harmonious frame.
Besides, the sportive brook forever shakes
The  trembling air ; that floats from hill to hill,
From vale to mountain, with incessant change
Of purest element, refreshing still
Your airy seat, and uninfected gods.
Chiefly for this I praise the man who builds
High on the breezy ridge, whose lofty sides
Th' ethereal deep with endless billows chafes.
His purer mansion nor contagious years
Shall reach, nor deadly putrid airs annoy.

 ' But may no fogs, from lake or-fenny plain,
Involve my  hill! and wheresoe'er you build,
Whether on sunburnt Epsom, or the plains
Washed by  the silent Lee; in Chelsea low,
» The wild rose, or that which grows on the common brior. 
454            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

      Or high Blackheath with wintry winds assailed;
      Dry be your house : but airy more than warm.
      Else every breath of ruder wind will strike
      Your tender body through with rapid pains;
      Fierce coughs  will tease you, hoarseness bind your voice,
      Or moist Gravedo load your aching brows.
      These to defy, and all the fates that dwell
      In cloistered air tainted with steaming life,
      Let lofty ceilings grace your ample rooms;
      And still at azure noontide may jour dome
      At every window drink the liquid sky.

        Need we the sunny  situation here,
      And theatres open to the South, commend ?
      Here, where the morning's misty breath infests
      More than the  torrid noon ?   How sickly grow,
      How pale, the  plants in those ill-fated vales,
      That, circled round with the gigantic heap
      Of mountains,  never felt, nor ever hope
      To feel, the genial vigor of the sun!
      While on the neighboring hill the rose inflames
      The verdant spring; in virgin beauty blows
      The tender lily, languishingly sweet;
      O'er every hedge the wanton woodbine roves,
      And autumn ripens in the summer's ray.
      Nor less the  warmer living tribes demand
      The fost'ring sun: whose energy divine
      Dwells not in mortal fire; whose gen'rous heat
      Glows through  the mass of grosser elements,
      And kindles into life the ponderous spheres.
      Cheered by thy kind, invigorating warmth,
      We court thy beams, great majesty of day 1
      If not the soul, the regent of this world,
      First-born of Heaven,  and only less than God! 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.           455
                 POEM  II.

                    ON  DIET.

Enough of Air.   A desert subject now,
Rougher and wilder, rises to my sight
A barren Avaste, where not a garland grows
To bind the muse's brow; not even a proud,
Stupendous solitude, frowns o'er the heath,
To rouse a noble horror in  the^ soul;
But rugged paths fatigue, and error leads
Through endless labyrinths the  devious feet
Farewell, ethereal fields! the humbler arts
Of life;  the Table and the homely gods
Demand my song.   Elysian gales, adieu !

   The blood, — the fountain whence  the spirits flow,
The generous stream, that waters every part,
And motion, vigor, and warm life conveys
To every particle that moves or lives; —
This vital fluid, through unnumbered  tubes
Poured by  the heart, and to the heart again
Refunded ; scourged forever round and round;
Enraged with heat and toil, at last  forgets
Its balmy nature ; virulent  and  thin
It grows ; and now, but that a thousand gates
Are open to its flight, it would destroy
The parts it cherished and repaired before.
Besides, the flexible and tender tubes
Melt in the mildest, most nectarious tide
That ripening nature rolls; as in the  stream
Its crumbling banks; but what the  vital force
Of plastic fluids hourly batters down,
That very force, those plastic  particles
Rebuild: so mutable the state of man.
For this the watchful appetite was given,
Daily with  fresh materials to repair 
4*6            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

       This unavoidable expense of life,
       This necessary waste of flesh and blood.
       Hence, the concoctive powers, with various art,
       Subdue the cruder elements to chyle —
       The chyle to blood — the foamy, purple tide
       To liquors, which, through finer arteries
       To different parts their winding course pursue J
       To try new changes, and new forms put on,
       Or for the public, or some private use.

         Nothing so foreign but th' athletic hind
       Can labor into blood.  The hungry meal
       Alone he  fears, or aliments too thin ;
       By violent powers too easily subdued,
       Too soon  expelled.  His daily labor thaws
       To friendly chyle, the most rebellious mass
       That salt  can harden, or the smoke of years ;
       Nor does his gorge the luscious bacon rue,
       Nor that which Cestria sends, tenacious paste
       Of solid milk.  But ye of softer clay,
       Infirm and delicate!  and ye  who waste,
       With pale and bloated sloth, the tedious day!
       Avoid the stubbbrn aliment, — avoid
       The full repast; and let sagacious age
       Grow wiser, lessoned by the  drooping teeth.

        Half subtilized to chyle, the liquid food
       Readiest obeys th' assimiliating powers;
       And soon  the tender, vegetable mass
      Relents; and soon the young of those that tread
       The steadfast earth, or cleave the green abyss,
       Or pathless sky.  And if the steer must fall,
      In youth and sanguine vigor  let him die ;
      Nor stay till rigid age, or heavy ails
       Absolve him, ill-requited, from the yoke.
       Some with high forage, and luxuriant ease,
      Indulge the veteran ox ; but wiser thou,
      From the  bald mountain or the barren downs, 
         THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.          457

Expect the flocks by frugal Nature fed;
A race of purer blood, with exercise
Refined,  and scanty fare ; for, old or young,
The stalled are  never healthy ; nor the crammed,
Not all the culinary arts can tame
To  wholesome food, the abominable growth
Of  rest and gluttony ; the prudent taste
Rejects, fike bane, such loathsome lusciousness.
The languid stomach curses even the pure,
Delicious fat, and all the race of oil:
For more the oily elements relax
Its feeble tone; and, with the eager lymph,
(Fond to incorporate with all it meets,)
Coyly they mix, and shun, with slippery  wiles,
The wooed embrace.   The irresoluble oil,
So gentle late, and blandishing, in floods
Of  rancid bile o'erflows; what tumults hence,
What horrors rise, were nauseous to relate.
Choose leaner viands, ye, whose jovial make
Too fast  the gummy nutriment imbibes:
Choose sober meals, and rouse to active life
Your cumbrous clay ; nor on th' enfeebling down,
Irresolute, protract the morning hours.
But let the man whose bones are thinly clad,
With cheerful ease and succulent repast,
Improve his habit, if he can; for each
Extreme departs from perfect sanity.

  I could relate what table this demands
Or  that complexion; what  the various powers
Of  various foods;  but fifty  years would roll,
And fifty more, before the tale were done.
Besides,  there often lurks some  nameless, strange,
Peculiar thing ;  nor on the skin displayed,
Felt in the pulse, nor in the habit seen ;
"Which finds a poison in the food, that most
The temperature aff'ects.  There are, whose blood
Impetuous rages through the  turgid veins,
            58 
458           PRUDENTIAL  REVELATIONS, AND

      Who better bear the fiery fruits of India
      Than the moist melon,  or pale cucumber.
      Of chilly nature others fly the board
      Supplied with slaughter, and the vernal powers
      For cooler, kinder sustenance implore.
      Some even the generous nutriment detest
      Which, in the shell, the sleeping embryo rears.
      Some, more unhappy still, repent the gifts
      Of Pales; soft, delicious, and benign :
      The balmy quintessence of every flower,
      And every grateful herb that decks the spring;
      Tfie fostering dew of tender sprouting life;
      The best refection of declining age ;
      The kind restorative of those who lie
      Half dead and panting, from the doubtful strife
      Of nature struggling in the grasp of death.
      Try all the bounties of  this fertile globe,
      There is not such a salutary food
      As suits with every stomach.  But (except,
      Amid the mingled mass of fish and fowl,
      And boiled and baked,  you hesitate by which
      You sunk oppressed, or whether not by all;)
      Taught by experience soon you may discern
      What pleases,  what offends.  Avoid the cates
      That lull the sickened  appetite too long;
      Or heave with feverish  flushings all the face,
      Burn in the palms, and parch the roughening tongue ;
      Or much diminish or too much increase
      The expense, which nature's wise economy,
      Without or waste or avarice, maintains.
      Such cates abjured, let  prowling hunger loose,
      And bid the curious palate roam at will;
      They scarce can err amid the various stores
      That burst the teeming entrails of the world.

        Led by sagacious taste, the ruthless king
      Of beasts on blood and slaughter only lives;
      The tiger, formed alike to cruel meals, 
        THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.           459

Would at the manger starve:  of milder seeds
The generous horse to herbage and to grain
Confines his wish;  though fabling Greece resound
The Thracian steeds with human carnage wild.
Prompted by instinct's never-erring power,
Each creature knows its proper aliment;
But man, the inhabitant of  every clime,
With all the commoners of nature feeds.
Directed, bounde'd, by this power within,
Their cravings are well-aimed : voluptuous man
Is by superior faculties misled ;
Misled from pleasure even in quest of joy.
Sated with nature's boons, what thousands seek,
With dishes tortured from their native taste,
And mad variety, to  spur beyond
Its wiser will the jaded appetite !
Is this for pleasure ?  Learn a juster taste;
And know that temperance  is  true luxury.
Or is it pride ?   Pursue some nobler aim.
Dismiss your parasites, who  praise for hire ;
And earn the fair esteem of honest men,
Whose praise is fame.  Formed of such clay as yours,
The sick, the needy, shiver at your gates.
Even modest want may bless your hand unseen,
Though hushed in patient wretchedness at home.
Is there no virgin, graced with every charm
But that which binds the mercenary vow ?
No youth of genius, whose neglected bloom
Unfostered sickens in the barren shade ?
No worthy man by fortune's random blows,
Or by a heart too generous and humane,
Constrained to leave his  happy natal seat,
And sigh for wants more bitter than his own ?
There are, while  human miseries abound,
A thousand ways to waste superfluous wealth,
Without one fool or flatterer at your board,
Without one hour of sickness  or disgust. 
460           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

         But other ills the ambiguous feast pursue,
      Besides provoking the lascivious taste.
      Such various foods, though harmless each  alone,
      Each other violate; and oft we see
      What strife is brewed, and what pernicious bane,
      From combinations of innoxious things.
      The unbounded taste I mean not to confine
      To hermit's diet needlessly severe.
      But would you long the sweets of health enjoy,
      Or husband pleasure ; at one impious meal
      Exhaust not half the bounties of the year,
      Of every realm.   It matters not meanwhile
      How much to-morrow differ from to-day;
      So far indulge : 't is fit, besides, that man,
      To change obnoxious, be to change inured.
      But stay the curious appetite, and taste
      With caution fruits you never tried before.
      For want of use the kindest aliment
      Sometimes offends; while custom tames the rage
      Of poison to mild amity  with life.

         So heaven has formed us to the general taste
      Of all its gifts; so custom has improved
      This bent of nature ; that few simple foods,
      Of all that earth, or air, or ocean yield,
      But by  excess offend.  Beyond the sense
      Of light refection, at the genial board
      Indulge not often ; nor protract the feast
      To dull satiety; till soft and slow
      A drowsy death creeps on, the expansive  soul
      Oppressed, and smothered the celestial fire.
      The stomach, urged beyond its active tone,
      Hardly to nutrimcntal chyle subdues
      The softest food :  unfinished and depraved,
      The chyle, in all its future wanderings, owns
      Its turbid fountain ; not by purer streams
       So to be cleared, but foulness will remain.
      To sparkling wine what ferment can exalt 
Text loss on p. 461-462 
•iN BIBLE OF  NATURE.
461
             i grape ?  Or what mechanic skill
           ude ore can spin the ductile gold ?

        riot treasures up a wealthy fund
       •tes : but more immedicable ills
      . the lean extreme.   For physic knows
     to disburden the too tumid veins,
Even how to ripen the half-labored blood:
But to unlock the elemental tubes,
Collapsed and shrunk with long inanity,
And with balsamic nutriment repair
The  dried and worn-out habit, were to bid
Old age grow green, and wear a second spring;
Or the tall ash, long ravished from the soil,
Through withered veins imbibe the vernal dew.
When hunger calls, obey; nor often wait
Till hunger sharpen to corrosive pain  :
For the keen appetite will feast beyond
What nature well can bear;  and one  extreme
Ne'er without danger meets its own reverse.
Too  greedily the exhausted veins absorb
The  recent chyle, and load enfeebled  powers
Oft to the extinction of the vital flame.
To the pale cities, by the firm-set siege
And famine humbled, may this verse be borne;
And hear* ye hardiest sons that Albion breeds,
Long tossed and famished on the  wintry main ;
The  war shook off, or hospitable shore
Attained, with temperance bear the shock of joy;
Nor  crown with festive rites the auspicious day:
Such feast might prove more fatal than the waves,
Than war or famine.  While the vital fire
Burns feebly, heap not the green fuel  on;
But prudently foment the wandering  spark
With what the soonest feeds its kindred touch:
Be frugal even  of that: a little give
At first; that kindled, add a little more ; 
462
PRUDENTIAL REVELATD.
Till, by deliberate nourishing, the flam
Revived, with all its wonted vigor glows

  But though the two (the full and the jejm
Extremes have each their vice; it much avai
Ever with gentle tide to ebb and flow       ,
From this to that: so nature learns to bear
Whatever chance or headlong appetite
May bring.  Besides, a meagre day subdues
The cruder clods by sloth or luxury
Collected, and unloads the wheels of life.
Sometimes a coy aversion to the feast
Comes on, while yet no blacker omen lowers;
Then is the time to  shun the tempting board,
Were it your natal or your nuptial day.
Perhaps a fast so seasonable starves
The latent seeds of  woe, which rooted once
Might cost you labor.  But the day returned
Of festal luxury, the wise indulge
Most in the tender vegetable breed :
Then chiefly when the summer beams inflame
The brazen heavens; or angry Sirius sheds
A feverish taint through the still gulf of air.
The moist cool viands then, and flowing cup
From the fresh dairy-virgin's liberal  hand,
Will save your head from harm, though round the world
The dreaded Causos* roll his wasteful fires.
Pale, humid winter loves the generous board,
The meal more copious, and a warmer fare;
And longs with old  wood and old wine to cheer
His quaking heart.   The seasons which divide
Th' empires of heat and cold; by neither claimed,
Influenced by both; a middle regimen
Impose.   Through autumn's languishing domain
Descending, Nature by degrees invites
To growing luxury. But from the depth

                 * The burning fever. 
        THE  GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.           468

Of winter when the invigorated year
Emerges; when Flavonius, flushed with love,
Toyful and young, in every breeze descends
More warm and wanton on his kindling bride;
Then, shepherds, then begin to spare your flocks;
And learn, with wise humanity to check
The lust of blood.  Now pregnant earth commits
A various offspring to the indulgent sky:
Now bounteous Nature feeds with lavish hand
The prone creation;  yields what once sufficed
Their dainty sovereign, when the world was young;
Ere yet the barbarous thirst of blood had seized
The human breast. — Each rolling month matures
The food that suits it most; so does each clime.

  Far in the horrid realms of winter, where
Th' established ocean heaps a monstrous waste
Of shining rocks and mountains to the pole,
There lives a hardy race, whose plainest wants
Relentless earth, their cruel step-mother,
Regards not.   On the waste of iron fields,
Untamed, intractable, no harvests wave :
Pomona hates them, and the clownish god
Who tends the garden.  In this frozen world
Such cooling gifts were vain: a fitter meal
Is earned with ease;  for here the fruitful spawn
Of ocean swarms, and heaps their genial board
With generous fare and luxury profuse.
These are their bread, the only bread they  know:
These, and their willing slave, the deer that crops
The  shrubby herbage on their meagre hills.
Girt by the burning zone, not thus the South
Her  swarthy  sons in  either Ind maintains:
Or thirsty Lybia;  from whose fervid loins
The  lion bursts, and every fiend that roams
Th' affrighted wilderness.  The mountain herd,
Adust and dry, no sweet repast affords ;
Nor does the tepid main such kinds  produce, 
4C4           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

       So perfect, so delicious,  as the shoals
       Of icy Zembla.   Rashly where the blood
       Brews feverish frays; where scarce the tubes sustain
       Its tumid fervor, and tempestuous course ;
       Kind Nature tempts not to such gifts as these.
       But here in livid ripeness melts the grape :
       Here, finished by invigorating suns,
       Through the green shade the golden orange glows:
       Spontaneous here the turgid melon yields
       A generous pulp:  the cocoa swells on high
       With milky riches; and in horril mail
       The crisp ananas wraps  its poignant sweets.
       Earth's vaunted  progeny: in ruder air
       Too coy to flourish, even too proud to live;
       Or, hardly raised by artificial fire
       To vapid life. Here with a  mother's smile
       Glad Amalthea pours her copious horn.
       Here buxom Ceres reigns: the autumnal sea
       In boundless billows fluctuates o'er their plains.
       What suits the climate best,  what suits the men,
       Nature profuses  most, and most the taste
       Demands.   The fountain, edged with racy wine
       Or acid fruit, bedews their thirsty souls.
       The breeze eternal breathing round their limbs
       Supports in else  intolerable air:
       "While the cool palm, the plaintain, and the grove
       That waves on gloomy Lebanon, assuage
       The torrid hell that beams upon their heads.

        Now come, ye Naiads, to the fountains lead;
       Now let me wander through your gelid reign.
       I burn to view th' enthusiastic wilds
       By mortal else untrod.  I hear the din
       Of waters thundering o'er the ruined cliffs.
       With holy reverence I approach the rocks
       Whence glide the streams renowned in ancient song.
       Here from the desert down the rumbling steep
       First springs the Nile ; here bursts the sounding Po 
        THE GOLDKN  BIBLE OF NATURE.           465

In angry waves; Euphrates hence devolves
A mighty flood to water half the East;
And there in Gothic solitude reclined,
The cheerless Tariais pours his hoary urn.
What solemn twilight!  what stupendous shades
Enwrap these infant floods!  through every nerve
A sacred horror thrills, a pleasing fear
Glides o'er my frame.   The  forest deepens round;
And more gigantic still th' impending trees
Stretch their extravagant arms athwart the gloom.
Are these the confines of some fairy world ?
A land of genii ?  Say, beyond these wilds
What unknown nations ?  If indeed beyond
Aught habitable lies.  And whither leads,
To what strange regions, or of bliss or pain,
That subterraneous way ! Propitious maids,
Conduct me, while with fearful steps I tread
This trembling ground.  The task remains to sing
Your gifts  (so Pa^on, so the powers of health
Command) to praise your crystal element:
The chief ingredient in heaven's various works :
Whose flexile genius sparkles in the gem,
Grows firm in oak, and fugitive in wine;
The vehicle, the source, of nutriment
And life, to all that vegetate or live.

   O comfortable streams! with eager lips  '
And trembling hand, the languid thirsty quaff
New life in you; fresh vigor fills their veins,
No warmer cups the rural ages knew;
None warmer sought the sires of human kind.
Happy in temperate peace!  their equal days
Felt not th' alternate fits of  feverish mirth,
And sick dejection.  Still serene and pleased
They knew no pains but what the tender soul
With pleasure yields to, and would ne'er forget
Blest with divine immunity from ails,
 Long centuries they lived; their only fate
             59 
466           PRUDENTIAL  REVELATIONS, AND

      Was ripe old age, and rather sleep than death.
      Oh! could those worthies from the world of gods
      Return to visit their degenerate sons,
      How would they scorn  the joys of modern  time,
      With all our art and toil improved to pain!
      Too happy they I but wealth brought luxury,
      And luxury on sloth begot disease.

        Learn temperance, friends; and hear without disdain
      The choice of water.  Thus the Coan sage*
      Opined, and thus the learned of every school.
      What least of foreign principles partakes
      Is best: the lightest then;  what bears the touch
      Of fire the least, and soonest mounts in air;
      The most insipid; the most void of smell.
      Such the rude mountain from his horrid sides
      Pours down ; such waters in the sandy vale
      Forever boil, alike of winter frosts
      And summer's heat secure.   The crystal stream,
      Through rocks resounding, or for many a mile
      O'er the chafed pebbles hurled, yields wholesome, pure
      And mellow draughts;  except when Winter thaws,
      And half the mountains melt into the tide.
      Though thirst were e'er so resolute, avoid
      The sordid lake, and all such drowsy floods
      As fill from Lethe Belgia's slow canals —
      (With  rest corrupt, with vegetation green ;
      Squalid with generation, and the birth
      Of  little monsters) — till the power of fire
      Has from profane embraces disengaged
      The violated lymph.  The virgin stream
      In boiling wastes its finer soul in air.

        Nothing like simple element dilutes
      The food, or gives the chyle so soon to flow.
      But where the stomach, indolent and cold,
* Hippocrates. 
         THE  GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.            467

 Toys with its duty, animate with wine
 The insipid stream; though golden  Ceres yields
 A more voluptuous, a more sprightly draught;
 Perhaps more active.  Wine unmixed, and all
 The gluey floods, that from the vexed abyss
 Of  fermentation spring, — with spirit fraught,
 And furious with intoxicating fire, —
 Retard concoction, and preserve unthawed
 The embodied mass.  You see  what countless years,
 Embalmed in fiery quintessence of  wine,
 The puny wonders of the reptile world,
 The tender rudiments of life, the slim
 Unravellings of minute anatomy,
 Maintain their texture, and unchanged remain.

   We curse not wine: the vile excess we blame ;
 More fruitful than the accumulated board
 Of pain and  misery.  For the  subtle draught
 Faster and surer swells the vital tide;
 And with more active poison than the floods
 Of grosser crudity convey, pervades
 The far remote meanders of our frame.
 Ah, sly deceiver 1 branded o'er and o'er,
 Yet still believed — exulting o'er the wreck
 Of sober vows.  But the Parnassian maids
* Another time, perhaps, shall sing the joys,
 The fatal charms, the many woe's of wine;
 Perhaps its various tribes, and  various powers.

   Meantime, I would not always dread the bowl,
 Nor every trespass shun.  The feverish strife,
 Roused by the rare debauch, subdues, expels
 The loitering crudities that burden life;
 And, like a torrent full and rapid, clears
 The obstructed tubes.  Besides, this restless world
 Is full of chances, which, by habit's power,
* See Book IV. 
463           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

      To learn to bear is easier than to shun.
      Ah, when ambition, meagre love of gold,
      Or sacred country calls, with mellowing wine
      To moisten well the thirsty suffrages;
      Say how, unseasoned to  the midnight frays
      Of Comus and his rout,  wilt thou contend
      With Centaurs long to hardy deeds inured ?
      Then learn to revel: but by slow degrees;
      By slow degrees the liberal arts are won,
      And Hercules grew strong. • But when you smooth
      The brows of care, indulge your festive vein
      In cups, by well-informed experience found
      The least your bane; and only with your friends.
      There are sweet follies;  frailties to be seen
      By friends alone,  and men of generous minds.

         0 ! seldom may the fated hours return,
      Of drinking deep!  I would not daily taste,
      Except when life  declines, even sober cups.
      Weak, withering  age no rigid law forbids,
      With frugal nectar, smooth and slow with balm,
      The sapless habit  daily to bedew,
      And give  the hesitating  wheels of fife
      Glibber to play.   But youth has better joys:
      And is it wise, when youth with pleasure flows,
      To squander the reliefs of age  and pain ?

         What dexterous thousands just within the goal
      Of wild debauch  direct  their nightly course!
      Perhaps no sickly qualms bedim their days, —
      No morning admonitions shock the head.
      But, ah, what woes remain ;  fife rolls apace,
      And that incurable disease, — old age, —
      In youthful bodies more severely felt,
      More sternly active, shakes their blasted prime;
      Except kind Nature, by some hasty blow,
      Prevent the fingering fates.  For know, whate'er
      Beyond its natural fervor hurries on 
THE GOLDEN LMBLE  OF NATURE.
469
        The sanguine tide ; whether the frequent bowl,
        High-seasoned fare, or exercise to toil
        Protracted, — spurs to its last stage tired life,
        And sows the temples with untimely snow.
        When life is new, the ductile fibres feel
        The heart's increasing force; and,  day by day,
        The growth advances, till the larger tubes,
        Acquiring (from their elemental veins,*
        Condensed to solid cords,) a firmer tone,
        Sustain, and just sustain, the impetuous blood.
        Here stops the growth.   With  overbearing pulse
        And pressure, still the great destroy the small;
        Still with the ruins of the small grow strong.
        Life glows, meantime, amid the grinding force
        Of viscous fluids and elastic tubes;
        Its various functions vigorously are plied
        By strong machinery ; arid in solid health
        The man confirmed long triumphs o'er disease.
        But the full ocean ebbs; there  is a point,
        By Nature fixed,  whence life must  downward tend.
        For still the beating tide consolidates
        The stubborn vessels, more reluctant still
        To the weak throbs of the  ill-supported heart.
        This languishing,  these strengthening by degrees
        To hard, unyielding, unelastic bone
        Through tedious channels the congealing flood
        Crawls lazily, and hardly wanders on ;
       It loiters still, and now it stirs no more.
       This is the period few attain; the death
        Of Nature; thus  (so heaven ordained it) life
       Destroys itself;  and could these laws have changed,

  * In the human body, as well as in those of other animals, the larger blood-
vessels are composed of smaller ones ; which, by the violent motion and pressure
of the fluids in the large vessels, lose their  cavities by degrees, and degenerate into
impervious cords or fibres.  In proportion as  these small vessels become solid,
the larger must, of course, grow less extensile, more rigid, and make  a stronger
resistance to the action of the heart, and force of the blood.  From this gradu&l con-
densation of the smaller vessels, and consequent rigidity of the larger one3, the
progress of the human body from infancy to old  age is accounted for, 
470           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS,  AND

      Nestor might now the fates of Troy relate,
      And Homer five, immortal as his song.

        What does not fade ? the tower that long had stood
      The crush of thunder and the warring winds,
      Shook by the slow, but sure destroyer, Time,
      Now hangs in doubtful ruins o'er its base.
      And flinty pyramids, and walls of brass
      Descend :  the Babylonian spires are sunk;
      Achaia, Rome, and Egypt moulder down.
      Time shakes the stable tyranny of thrones,
      And tottering empires crush by their own weight.
      This huge  rotundity we tread grows old;
      And all those worlds that roll around the sun,
      The sun himself, shall die;  and ancient Night
      Again involve the desolate abyss :
      'Till the Great Father, through the lifeless gloom,
      Extend his arm to light another world,
      And bid new planets roll by other laws.
      For, through the regions of unbounded space,
      Where, unconfmed, Omnipotence has room,
      Being, in various systems, fluctuates still
      Between creation and abhorred decay:
      It ever did, perhaps, and ever will.
      New worlds are still emerging from the  deep;
      The old descending, in their turns to rise.
                POEM  III.

                 ON EXERCISE.

Through various toils the adventurous muse has past;
But half the toil, and more than half, remains.
Rude is her theme, and hardly fit for song;
Plain, and of little ornament;  and I 
        TUE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE            4 71

But little practised in the Aonian arts.
Yet not in vain such labors have we tried,
If aught these lays the  fickle health confirm.
To you, ye delicate, I write ; for you
I tame my youth to philosophic cares,
And grow still paler by the midnight lamps.
Not to debilitate with timorous rules
A hardy frame:  nor heedlessly to brave
Inglorious dangers, proud of mortal strength,
Is all the lesson that in wholesome years
Concerns the strong.  His care were ill bestowed
Who would with warm effeminacy nurse
The  thriving oak, which on the mountain's brow
Bears all the blast that sweep the wint'ry heaven.

   Behold the laborer of the glebe, who toils
In dust, in  rain, in cold and sultry skies;
Save but the grain from mildews and the flood,
Nought anxious he what sickly stars ascend.
He knows no laws, by Esculapius given;
He studies none.   Yet him nor midnight fogs
Infest, nor  those envenomed shafts, that fly
When rabid Sirius fires th' autumnal noon.
His habit pure, with plain and temperate meals,
Robust with labor, and by custom steeled
To every casualty of varied life;
Serene he  bears the peevish Eastern blast,
And uninfected breathes the mortal South.

   Such the reward of rude and sober fife;
Of labor such.  By health the peasant's toil
Is well repaid; if exercise were pain              «
Indeed, and temperance pain.   By arts like these
Laconia nursed of old  her hardy sons;
And Rome's unconquered legions urged their way,
Unhurt, through every toil, in every clime.

   Toil, and be strong.   By toil the flaccid nerves 
472           TRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

      Grow firm, and gain a more compacted tone;
      The greener juices are by toil subdued,
      Mellowed and subtilized;  the vapid old
      Expelled, and all the rancor of the blood.
      Come, my companions, ye who feel the charms
      Of nature and the year;  come, let us stray
      Where chance or fancy leads our roving walk :
      Come, while the soft, voluptuous breezes fan
      The fleecy heavens, enwrap the limbs in balm,
      And shed a charming languor  o'er the soul.
      Nor when bright Winter sows  with prickly frost
      The vigorous ether, in unmanly warmth
      Indulge at home;  nor even when Eurus's blasts
      This way and that convolve the lab'ring woods.
      My liberal walks, save when the skies, in  rain
      Or fogs  relent, no season should confine
      Or to the cloistered gallery or arcade.
      Go, climb the mountain; from th' ethereal source
      Imbibe the recent gale.   The cheerful morn
      Beams o'er the hills ;  go, mount th' exulting steed.
      Already, see, the deep-mouthed beagles catch
      The tainted mazes ; and, on eager sport
      Intent, with emulous impatience try
      Each doubtful trace.  Or, if a nobler prey
      Delight  you more, go chase the desperate deer;
      And through its deepest solitudes, awake
      The vocal forest with*the jovial horn.

        But if the breathless chase, o'er hill and dale,
      Exceed  your strength, a sport  of less fatigue,
      Not less delightful, the prolific  stream
      Affords.  The crystal rivulet, that o'er
      A stony channel rolls its rapid maze,
      Swarms with the silver fry.  Such, through the bounds
      Of pastoral Stafford, runs the  brawling Trent;
      Such Eden, sprung from Cumbrian mountains; such
      The Esk, o'erhung with woods; and such the stream
      On whose Arcadian banks I first drew air, — 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF  NATURE.
473
Liddel; till now, except in Doric lays,
Tuned to her murmurs by her love-sick swains,
Unknown in song:  though not a purer stream,
Through meads more flowery, or more romantic groves,
Rolls toward the Western main.  Hail, sacred flood!
May still thy hospitable swains be blest
In rural innocence ; thy mountains still
Teem with the fleecy race; thy tuneful woods
Forever flourish; and thy vales look gay
With painted meadows, and the golden grain!
Oft, with thy blooming sons, when life was new,
Sportive  and petulant, and charmed with toys,
In thy transparent eddies have I laved:
Oft traced, with patient steps, thy fairy banks,
With the well-imitated fly, to hook
The eager trout, and with the slender fine
And yielding rod, solicit to the shore
The struggling, panting prey; while vernal clouds
And tepid gales obscured the ruffled pool,
And from the deeps called forth the wanton swarms.

  Formed on the Samian school, or those of Ind,
There are who think these pastimes scarce humane.
Yet in my mind (and not relentless I)
His life is pure that wears no fouler stains.
But if through genuine tenderness of heart,
Or secret want of relish for the game,
You shun the glories of the chase, nor care
To haunt the peopled stream ; the garden yields
A soft amusement, an humane delight.
To raise th' insipid nature of the ground;
Or tame its savage genius to the grace
Of careless sweet rusticity, that  seems
The amiable  result of happy chance,
Is to create;  and gives a godlike joy,
Which every year improves.  Nor thou disdain
To check the lawless riot of the trees,
To plant  the grove, or turn the barren mould.
          60 
474           prudentTal  revelations, and

      0, happy he !  whom, when his years decline,
      (His fortune and his fame by worthy means
      Attained, and  equal to his  moderate mind ;
      His life approved by all the wise and good,
      Even envied by the vain,)  the peaceful groves
      Of Epicurus, from this stormy world,
      Receive to rest; of all ungrateful cares
      Absolved, and  sacred from the selfish crowd.
      Happiest of men ! if the same soil invites
      A chosen few,  companions of his youth,
      Once fellow-rakes perhaps, now rural friends;
      With whom, in easy commerce  to pursue
      Nature's free charms, and vie for sylvan fame :
      A fair ambition; void of strife or guile,
      Or jealousy, or pain to be outdone.
      Who plans th'  enchanted garden, who directs
      The visto best,  and best conducts the stream:
      Whose  groves the fastest thicken and ascend;
      Whom  first the welcome Spring  salutes: who shows
      The earliest bloom, the sweetest, proudest charms
      Of Flora, who  gives Pomona's juice
      To match the sprightly genius of champagne.
      Thrice  happy days! in rural business past:
      Blest winter nights!  when as the genial fire
      Cheers  the wide hall, his cordial family
      With soft domestic arts the hours beguile,
      And pleasing talk that starts no timorous fame,
      With witless wantonness to hunt it down:
      Or through the fairy-land of tale or song
      Delighted wander, in fictitious fates
      Engaged, and all that strikes humanity:
      Till lost in fable, they the stealing hour
      Of timely rest forget.  Sometimes, at Cve
      His neighbors fift the latch, and bless unbid
      His festal roof;  while, o'er the light  repast,
      And sprightly cups, they mix in  social joy ;
      And, thro' the maze of conversation, trace
      Whate'er amuses or improves the mind. 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.
475
      Sometimes at eve, (for I delight to taste
      The native zest and flavor of the fruit,
      Where sense grows wild, and takes of no manure,)
      The decent, honest, cheerful husbandman
      Should drown his labor in my friendly bowl;
      And at my table find himself at home.

        Whate'er you study, in whate'er you sweat,
      Indulge your taste.  Some love the manly foils;
      The tennis some ; and some the graceful dance.
      Others, more hardy, range the purple heath,
      Or naked stubble ;  where, from field to field,
      The sounding coveys urge their laboring flight;
      Eager amid the rising cloud to pour
      The gun's unerring thunder; and there are
      Whom still the meed * of the green  archer charms.
      He chooses best, whose labor entertains
      His vacant fancy most: the toil you hate
      Fatigues you soon, and scarce improves your limbs.

        As beauty still has blemish, and the mind
      The most accomplished its imperfect side,
      Few bodies are there of that happy mould
      But some one part is weaker than the rest:
      The legs, perhaps, or arms refuse their load,
      Or the chest labors.  These assiduously,
      But gently, in their proper arts employed,
      Acquire a vigor and springy activity
      To which they were not born.  But weaker parts
      Abhor fatigue and violent discipline.

        Begin with gentle toils; and as your nerves
      Grow firm, to hardier  by just steps aspire.
      The prudent, even in every moderate walk,
      At first but saunter; and by slow degrees
      Increase their pace.  This doctrine  of the wise
  * This word is much  used by some of the old English poets, and signi
or prize. 
476           PRUDENTIAL  REVELATIONS, AND

      Well knows the master of the flying steed.
      First from the goal the  managed coursers play
      On bended reins: as yet the skilful youth
      Repress their foamy pride;  but every breath
      The race grows warmer, and the tempest swells;
      Till all the fiery mettle  has its way,
      And the thick thunder  hurries o'er the plain.
      When all at once from indolence to toil
      You spring,  the fibres by the hasty shock
      Are tired and cracked,  before their unctuous coats,
      Compressed, can pour the lubricating balm.
      Besides, collected in the passive veins,
      The purple mass a sudden torrent rolls,
      O'erpowers the heart, and deluges the lungs
      With dangerous inundation: oft the source
      Of fatal woes;  a cough  that  foams  with blood,
      Asthma and  feller peripneumony,*
      Or the slow minings of  the hectic fire.

        Th' athletic fool, to whom what heaven denied
      Of soul is well compensated in limbs,
      Oft from his rage, or brainless frolic, feels
      His vegetation and brute force decay.
      The men of better clay  and  finer mould
      Know nature, feel the human dignity;
      And scorn to vie with oxen  or with apes.
      Pursued prolixly, even the gentlest toil
      Is waste of health: repose by small fatigue
      Is earned : and (where  your habit is not prone
      To thaw) by the first moisture of the brows.
      The fine and subtile spirits cost too much
      To be profused, too much the roscid balm.
      But when the hard varieties of li£e
      You toil to learn, or try the  dusty chase,
      Or the warm deeds of some  important day :
      Hot from the field, indulge not yet your limbs
      In wished repose; nor court the fanning gale,
                  * The inflammation of the lungs. 
        THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF  NATURE.           4'7

Nor taste the spring.  O! by the sacred tears
Of widows, orphans, mothers, sisters, sires,
Forbear! no other pestilence has driven
Such myriads o'er the irremeable deep.
Why this so fatal, the sagacious muse
Through nature's cunning labyrinths could trace:
But there are secrets which who knows not now,
Must, ere he reach them, climb the heapy Alps
Of science;  and devote seven years to toil.
Besides, I Avould not stun your patient ears
With what it little boots you to attain.
He knows enough, the mariner, who knows
Where lurk the shelves, and where the whirlpools boil,
What signs portend the storm: to  subtler minds
He leaves to scan, from what mysterious cause
Charybdis rages in the Ionian wave;
Whence those impetuous currents in the main
Which neither oar nor sail can stem; and why
The roughening deep expects the  storm, as sure
As red Orion mounts the shrouded heaven.

   In ancient times, when Rome with Athens vied
For polished luxury and useful arts;
All hot and reeking from the Olympic strife,
And warm Palestra, in the tepid bath
The athletic youth relaxed their weary limbs.
Soft oils bedewed them, with the grateful powers
Of Nard and Cassia fraught, to soothe and heal
The cherished nerves.   Our less voluptuous clime
Not much invites us to such arts as these.
'T is not for those, whom gelid skies embrace,
And chilling fogs; whose perspiration feels
Such frequent bars from Eurus and the North;
'T is not for those to cultivate a skin
Too soft:  or teach the recremental fume
Too fast to  crowd through such precarious ways.
For through the small arterial mouths, that pierce
In endless millions the close-woven skin, 
478           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

      The baser fluids in a constant stream
      Escape, and viewless melt into the winds.
      While this eternal, this copious waste
      Of blood, degenerate into vapid brine,
      Maintains its wonted measure, all the powers
      Or health befriend you, all the wheels of fife
      With ease and pleasure move: but this restrained
      Or more or less, so more or less you feel
      The  functions labor:  from this' fatal source
      What woes descend is never to be sung.
      To take their numbers were to count the sands
      That ride in whirlwind the parched Libyan air;
      Or waves that, when  the blustering North embroils
      The  Baltic, thunder on the German shore.
      Subject not then, by  soft emollient arts,
      This  grand expense, on which your fates depend,
      To every caprice of the sky; nor thwart
      The genius of your clime: for from the blood
      Least fickle rise the recremental steams,
      And  least obnoxious to the styptic air,
      Which breathe through straiter and more callous pores.
      The tempered Scythian hence, half-naked treads
      His boundless snows, nor rues the inclement heaven;
      And  hence our painted ancestors defied
      The East: nor cursed, like us, their fickle sky.

        The body, moulded by the clime, endures
      The Equator heats or Hyperborean frost:
      Except by habits foreign to its turn,
      Unwise you counteract its forming power.
      Rude at the first, the  Winter shocks you less
      By long  acquaintance : study then your sky,
      Form to its manners your obsequious frame,    ,
      And  learn to suffer what  you cannot shun.
      Against the rigors of a damp cold heaven
      To fortify their bodies, some frequent
      The gelid cistern ; and, where nought forbids,
      I praise their dauntless heart: a frame so steeled 
        THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.           479

Dreads not the cough, nor those ungenial blasts
That breathe the tertian or fell rheumatism;
The nerves so tempered never quit their tone,
No chronic languors haunt such hardy breasts.
But all things have their bounds:  and he who makes
By daily use the kindest regimen
Essential to his health, should never mix
With human kind, nor art, nor trade pursue.
He not the safe vicissitudes of life
Without some shock endures ;  ill-fitted he
To want the known, or bear unusual things.
Besides, the powerful  remedies of pain
(Since pain, in spite of all our care, will come)
Should never with your prosperous days of health
Grow too familiar:  for, by frequent use,
The strongest medicines lose their healing power,
And even the surest poisons theirs to kill.

  Let those who from the frozen Arctos reach
Parched Mauritania, or the sultry West,
Or the wide flood that laves rich Indostan,
Plunge thrice a day, and in the tepid wave
Untwist their stubborn pores;  that full and free
Th' evaporation through the softened skin
May bear proportion to the swelling blood.
So  may they 'scape the fever's rapid flames;
So  feel untainted the hot breath of hell.
With us, the man of no complaint demands
The warm ablution, just enough to clear
The sluices of the skin, enough to keep
The body sacred from indecent soil.
Still to be pure, ev'n did it not conduce
(As much it does) to health, were greatly worth
Your daily pains.  'T is this adorns the rich;
The want of this is poverty's worst woe;
With this external virtue age maintains
A decent grace; without it youth and charms
Are loathsome.   This  the venal Graces know; 
480           PRUDENTIAL  REVELATIONS, AND

       So, doubtless, do your wives: for married sires,
       As well as lovers, still pretend to taste;
       Nor is it less (all prudent wives can tell)
       To lose a husband's than a lover's heart.

         But now the hours and seasons.when to toil
       From foreign themes recall my wandering song.
       Some labor fasting, or but slightly fed
       To lull the grinding stomach's hungry rage.
       Where nature feeds too corpulent a frame
       'Tis wisely done: for while the thirsty veins,
       Impatient of lean penury, devour
       The treasured oil, then is the happiest time
       To shake the lazy balsam from its cells.
       Now while the stomach, from the full repast
       Subsides, but ere returning hunger gnaws,
       Ye leaner habits, give an hour to toil:
       And ye, whom no luxuriancy of growth
       Oppresses yet, or threatens to oppress.
       But from the recent meal no labors please,
       Of limbs or  mind.   For now the cordial powers
       Claim all the wandering spirits to a work
       Of strong and subtle toil, and great event:
       A work of time: and you may rue  the day
      You hurried, with untimely exercise,
       A half-concocted chyle into the blood.
       The body overcharged with unctuous phlegm
      Much toil demands: the lean elastic less.
      While Winter chills the blood and binds the veins,
      No labors  are too hard: by those you 'scape
       The  slow diseases of the torpid year;
       Endless to name ;  to one of which alone,
       To that which tears the nerves, the toil of slaves
      Is pleasure.  Oh ! from such inhuman pains
      May all be free  who merit not the wheel!
       But from the burning lion, when the sun
       Pours down  his  sultry wrath; now while the blood
       Too much already maddens in the veins, 
        THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF  NATURE.           481

And all the finer fluids through the skin
Explore their flight;  me, near the cool cascade
Reclined, or sauntering in the lofty grove,
No needless, slight occasion should engage
To pant and sweat beneath the fiery noon.
Now the fresh morn alone and mellow eve
To shady walks and active rural sports
Invite.  But, while the chilling dews descend,
May nothing tempt you to the cold embrace
Of humid skies; though 't is no vulgar joy
To trace the horrors  of the solemn wood
While the soft evening saddens into night:
Though the  sweet poet of the vernal groves
Melts all the night in strains of am'rous woe.

   The shades descend, and midnight o'er the world
Expands her sable wings.   Great nature droops
Through all her works.   Now happy he, whose toil
Has o'er his languid powerless limbs diffused
A pleasing lassitude: he not in vain
Invokes the  gentle deity of dreams.
His powers the most  voluptuously dissolve
In soft repose: on him the balmy dews
Of sleep with double nutriment descend.
But would you sweetly waste the blank of night
In deep oblivion;  or on Fancy's wings
Visit the paradise of happy dreams,  ,
And waken  cheerful as the lively morn;
Oppress not nature, sinking down to rest,
With feasts  too late, too solid, or too full:
But be the first concoction half-matured
Ere you to mighty indolence resign
Your passive faculties.  He from the toils
And troubles of the day  to heavier toil
Retires, whom trembling from the tower that rockj
Amid the clouds, or Calpe's hideous height,
The busy demons hurl; or in the main
O'erwhelm; or bury struggling under ground. 
4i$2           PRUDENTIAL  REVELATIONS, AND

       Not all a monarch's luxury the woes
       Can counterpoise of that most wretched man,
       Whose nights are shaken with the frantic fits
       Of wild Orestes; whose delirious brain,
       Stung by  the furies, works with poisoned thought:
       While pale and monstrous painting shocks the soul,;
       And mangled consciousness bemoans itself
       Forever torn f and chaos floating round.
       What dreams presage, what dangers these or those
       Portend to sanity, through prudent seers
       Revealed  of old, and men of deathless fame,
       We would not to the superstitious mind
       Suggest new throbs, new vanities of fear.
       'T is ours to teach you from the peaceful night
       To banish omens and all restless woes.

         In study, some protract the silent hours,
       Which others consecrate to mirth and wine;
       And sleep till noon, and hardly live till night.
       But surely this redeems not from the shades
       One hour of life.  Nor does it nought avail
       What season you to drowsy Morpheus give
       Of th' ever-varying circle of the day;
       Or whether,  through the tedious winter gloom,
       You tempt the midnight or the morning damps.
       The bod)', fresh and vigorous from repose,
       Defies the early, fogs :  but, by the toils
       Of  wakeful day, exhausted and unstrung,
       Weakly resists the night's unwholesome breath.
       The grand discharge, th' effusion of the skin,
       Slowly impaired, the languid maladies
       Creep on, and through the sick'ning functions steal.
       As, when the chilling East invades the Spring,
       The delicate Narcissus pines away
       In hectic  languor, and a slow disease
       Taints all the family of flowers, condemned
       To  cruel  heavens.   But why, already prone
       To  fade, should beauty cherish its own bane?
* 
        fHE  GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.           483

0 shame!  O pity !  nipt with pale quadrille,
And midnight cares, the bloom of Albion dies!

  By toil subdued, the warrior and the hind
Sleep fast and deep: their active functions soon
With generous streams the subtle tubes supply;
And soon the tonic irritable nerves
Feel the fresh impulse and awake the SHul.
The sons of indolence, with  long repose,
Grow torpid; and with slowest Lethe drunk,
Feebly and ling'ringly return to life,
Blunt every sense and powerless every limb.
Ye, prone to sleep (whom sleeping most  annoys)
On  the hard mattress or elastic couch
Extend your limbs, and wean yourselves from sloth.
Nor grudge the lean projector, of dry brain
And springy nerves, the blandishments of down:
Nor envy while the buried Bacchanal
Exhales his surfeit in prolixer dreams.

  He without riot, in the balmy feast
Of life, the wants of Nature has supplied,
Who rises, cool, serene, and full of soul.
But pliant Nature more or less demands,
As custom forms  her;  and all sudden change
She hates of habit, even from bad to good.
IT faults in life, or new emergencies,
From habits urge you by long time  confirmed,
Slow may the change arrive, and stage by stage;
Slow a9 the shadow o'er the dial moves,
Slow to the stealing progress of-the year.

  Observe the circling year.  How unperceived
Her seasons change !  Behold! by  slow degrees,
Stern Winter tamed into a ruder Spring;
The ripened  Spring a milder Summer glows;
Departing Summer sheds Pomona's store;
And a°ed Autumn brews the winter storm. 
484           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

      Slow as they come, these changes come not void
      Of mortal shocks: the cold and torrid reigns,
      The  two great periods of the important year,
      Are  in their first approaches seldom safe ;
      Funeral Autumn all the sickly dread,
      And the black Fates deform the lovely Spring.
      He well advised who taught our wiser sires,
      Early to borrojp Muscovy's warm spoils,
      Ere the first frost has touched the tender blade;
      And late resign them, though the wanton Spring
      Should deck her charms with all her sister's rays.
      For while  the effluence of the skin maintains
      Its native measure, the pleuritic  Spring
      Glides harmless by; and Autumn, sick to death
      With sallow Quartans, no contagion breathes.

        I in prophetic numbers could unfold
      The omens of the year: what seasons teem
      With what diseases :  what the humid South
      Prepares, and what the demon of the East:
      But you, perhaps, refuse the tedious song.
      Besides, whatever plagues in heat, or cold,
      Or drought, or moisture dwell, they hurt not you,
      Skilled to correct the vices of the sky,
      And taught already how to each  extreme
      To bend your life. But should the public bane
      Infect you ; or some trespass of your own,
      Or flaw of Nature, hint mortality:
      Soon  as a not unpleasing horror glides
      Along the spine, through all your torpid limbs;
      When first the head throbs, or the stomach feela
      A sickly load, a weary pain the loins;
      Be Celsus called: the Fates come rushing on;
      The rapid Fates admit of no delay,
      While wilful you, and fatally secure,
      Expect to-morrow's more auspicious sun,
      The growing pest, whose infancy was weak
      And easy vanquished with triumphant sway 
        THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.            483

O'erpowers your life.   For want of timely care,
Millions have died of medicable wounds.

  Ah! in what perils is vain life engaged!
What slight neglects, what trivial faults destroy
The hardiest frame ! of indolence, of toil,
Wc die; of want, of superfluity:
The all-surrounding heaven, the vital air,
Is big with death.  And, though the putrid South
Be  shut;  though no convulsive  agony
Shake, from the deep foundations of the world,
The imprisoned plagues;  a secret venom oft
Corrupts the air, the water, and the land.
What livid deaths has sad Byzantium seen!
How oft has Cairo, with a mother's  woe,
Wept o'er her slaughtered sons and lonely streets!
Even Albion, girt with less malignant skies,
Albion the poison of the gods has drank,
And felt the sting of monstcrs..all her own.        ,

  Ere yet the fell Plantagcnets had spent
Their ancient rage, at Bosworth's purple field;
While, for which tyrant England should receive,
Her legions in incestuous murders mixed,
And daily horrors; till the Fates were drunk
With kindred blood by kindred hands profused:
Another plague of more gigantic arm
 Arose, a monster  never known before,
Reared from  Cocytus its portentous head.
This rapid  Fury not, like other pests,
Pursued a gradual course, but  in a day
Rushed as a storm o'er half the astonished isle,
 And strewed  with sudden carcases  the land.

    First through the shoulders, or whatever part
 Was seized the first, a fervid vapor sprung.
 With rash* combustion thence,  the quivering spark
 Shot to the heart, and kindled all within; 
486?           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, ANJJf

      And soon the surface caught the spreading fires.
      Through all the yielded pores, the melted blood
      Gushed out in smoky sweats; but nought assuaged
      The torrid heat-within, nor ought relieved
      The stomach's anguish.  With incessant toil,
      Desperate of ease, impatient of their pain,
      They tossed from side to side.  In vain the stream
      Ran full and clear, they burnt and thirsted still.
      The restless arteries with rapid blood
      Beat strong and frequent.   Thick and pantingly
     •The breath was fetched, and with huge lab'rings heaved.
      At last a heavy pain oppressed the head,
      A wild delirium came ; their weeping friends
      Were strangers now, and this no home of theirs.
      Harassed with toil on toil, the sinking powers
      Lay prostrate and o'erthrown ; a ponderous sleep
      Wrapt all the senses up:  they slept and died.

        In some,  a gentle horror crept at first
      O'er all the limbs;  the sluices of the skin
      Withheld their moisture, till by art provoked
      The sweats o'erflowed; but in a clammy tide:
      Now free and copious, now restrained and slow;
      Of tinctures various, as the temperature
      Had mixed the blood; and rank with fetid steams;
      As if the pent-up humors by delay
      Were grown more fell, more putrid, and malign.
      Here lay their hopes (though little hope remained)
      With full effusion of perpetual sweats
      To drive the venom out.   And here the Fates
      Were kind, that long they lingered not in pain.
      For who survived the sun's diurnal race
      Rose from the dreary gates of hell redeemed:
      Some the sixth hour oppressed, and some  the third.

        Of many thousands few untainted 'scaped;
      Of those infected fewer 'scaped alive;     •
      Of those who lived some felt a second blow; 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.           4#7
And whom the second spared a third destroyed.
Frantic with fear, they sought by flight to shun
The fierce contagion.   O'er the mournful land
The infected city poured her hurrying swarms:
Roused by the flames that fired her seats around,
The infected country rushed into the town.
Some, sad at home, and in the desert some,
Abjured the fatal commerce of mankind ;
In vain : where'er they fled, the Fates pursued.
Others with hopes more specious, crossed the main,.
To seek protection in far distant skies;
But none they found.   It seemed the general air,
From pole to pole, from Atlas to the East,
Was then at enmity with English blood.
For, but the race of England, all were safe
In foreign climes;  nor did this Fury taste
The foreign blood which England then contained.
Where should they fly ?  The circumambient heaven
Involved them still; and every breeze was bane.
Where find relief?  The salutary art
Was mute ; and startled at the new disease,
In fearful whispers hopeless omens gave.
To heaven with suppliant rites they sent their prayers;
Heaven heard them not.  Of every hope deprived,
Fatigued with vain resources, and subdued
With woes resistless, and enfeebling fear,
 Passive they sunk beneath the weighty blow.
Nothing but lamentable sounds were heard,
 Nor aught was seen but ghastly views of death.
 Infectious  horror ran  from face to face,
 And pale despair.  'T was all the business then
To tend the sick, and in their turns to die.
In  heaps they fell: and oft one bed, they say,
 The sickening, dying,  and the dead contained.

   Ye guardian gods, on whom the fates depend
 Of tottering Albion !  ye eternal fires
 That lead through heaven the wandering year! ye pbwera 
488           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
That o'er the encircling elements preside!
May nothing worse than what this age has seen
Arrive !  Enough abroad, enough at home
Has Albion bled.  Here a distempered heaven
Has thinned her cities; from those lofty cliffs
That awe proud Gaul, to Thule's wintry reign;
While in the West, beyond th' Atlantic foam,
Her bravest sons, keen for the fight, have died
The death of cowards and of common men:
Sunk void of wounds, and fallen without renown.

  But from these views the weeping Muses turn.
And other themes invite my wandering song.
                POEM  IV.

                 THE PASSIONS.

  The choice of aliment, the choice of air,
The use of toil and all external things,
Already sung; it now remains to trace
What good, what evil from ourselves proceed:
And how the subtle principle within
Inspires with health, or mines with strange decay
The passive body.  Ye poetic shades,
Who know the secrets of the world unseen,
Assist my song! for, in a doubtful theme
Engaged, I wander through mysterious ways.

There is, they say, (and  I believe there is,)
A spark within us of th' immortal fire,
That animates and moulds  the grosser frame;
And when the body sinks escapes to heaven,
Its native seat, and mixes with the gods.
Meanwhile this heavenly particle pervades 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.
489
The mortal elements; in every nerve
It thrills with pleasure, or grows mad with pain.
And, in its secret conclave, as it feels
The body's woes and joys, this ruling power
Wields at its will the dull material world,
And is the body's- health or malady.

   By its own toil the gross corporeal frame
Fatigues, extenuates, or destroys itself.
Nor less  the labors of the mind corrode
The solid fabric:  for by subtle parts
And viewless atoms, secret nature moves
The mighty wheels of this stupendous world.
By subtle fluids poured through subtle tubes
The natural, vital functions are performed.
By these the stubborn aliments are tamed;
The toiling heart distributes life and strength ;
These, the still-crumbling frame rebuild : and these
Are lost in thinking, and dissolve in air.

But't is  not thought (for still the soul's employed)
'T is painful thinking that corrodes our clay.
All day the vacant eye without fatigue
Strays o'er the heaven and earth ; but long intent
On microscropic  arts its vigor fails.
Just so the mind, with various thoughts  amused,
Nor aches itself, nor gives the body pain.
But anxious study, discontent, and care,
Love without hope, and hate without revenge*
And fear, and jealousy, fatigue the soul,
Engross the subtle  ministers of life,
And spoil the laboring functions of their share.
Hence the lean gloom that melancholy wears:
The lover's paleness; and  the sallow hue
Of envy, jealousy;  the meagre stare
Of sore revenge ; the carfkered body hence
Betrays each fretful motion of the mind.
            62 
490           PRUDENTIAL  REVELATIONS,  AND

         The strong-built pedant; who both night and day
      Feeds on the coarsest fare the schools bestow,
      And crudely fattens at gross Burman's  stall;
      O'erwhelmed with phlegm lies in a dropsy drowned,
      Or sinks in lethargy before his time.
      With useful studies you, and arts that please,
      Employ your mind, amuse but not fatigue.
      Peace to each drowsy metaphysic sage !
      And ever may all heavy systems rest I
      Yet some there are, even of elastic parts,
      Whom strong and obstinate ambition leads
      Through all the rugged roads of barren lore,
      And gives to relish what their generous taste
      Would else refuse.  But may not thirst of fame,
      Nor love of  knowledge, urge you to fatigue
      With constant drudgery the liberal soul.
      Toy with your books: and as the various fits
      Of humor seize you, from philosophy
      To fable shift: from serious Antonine
      To Rabelais' ravings, and from prose to song.

        While reading pleases, but no longer, read;
      And read aloud resounding Homer's strain,
      And wield the thunder of Demosthenes.
      The chest, so exercised, improves its strength;
      And quick vibrations through the bowels drive
      The restless  blood, which in unactive days
      Would loiter else through unelastic tubes.
      Deem it not trifling while I recommend
      What posture suits: to  stand and sit by turns,
      As nature prompts, is best.   But o'er your leaves
      To lean forever, cramps the vital parts,
      And robs the fine machinery of its play.

        'T is the great art of life to manage well
      The restless  mind.  Forever on pursuit
      Of knowledge bent, it starves the grosser powers:
      Quite unemployed, against its own repose 
        THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.           491

It turns its fatal edge, and sharper pangs
Than what the body knows embitter life.
Chiefly where Solitude, sad nurse of Care,
To sickly musing gives  the pensive mind,
There Madness enters; and the dim-eyed fiend,
Sour Melancholy, night and day provokes
Her own eternal wound.   The sun grows pale;
A mournful  visionary light o'erspreads
The cheerful face of nature: earth becomes
A dreary desert, and heaven frowns above.
Then various shapes of cursed illusion rise:
Whate'er the wretched fears, creating fear;
Forms out of nothing;  and with monsters teems
Unknown in hell.   The prostrate soul beneath
A load of huge imagination heaves;
And all the horrors that the murderer feels
With anxious flutterings wake the guiltless breast.

  Such phantoms, pride in solitary scenes,
Or fear, on  delicate self-love creates.
From other cares absolved, the busy mind
Finds in yourself a theme to pore upon ;
It finds you miserable,  or makes you so.
For while yourself you anxiously explore,
Timorous self-love, with sick'ning fancy's aid,
Presents the danger that you dread the most,
And  ever galls you in  your tender part.
Hence some for love, and some for jealousy,
For grim religion some, and some for pride,
Have lost their reason: some for fear of want
Want all their lives; and others every day
For fear of dying suffer worse than death.
Ah!  from your bosoms banish, if you can,
Those fatal  guests; and first the demon fear,
That trembles at impossible events;
Lest  aged Atlas should resign his load,
And  heaven's eternal battlements rush down.
Is there an  evil worse than fear itself? 
492
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
And what avails it that indulgent heaven
From mortal eyes has wrapt the woes to come,
If we, ingenious to torment ourselves,
Grow pale at hideous fictions of our own ?
Enjoy the present; or with needless cares,
Of what may spring from blind misfortune's womb,
Appal the surest hour that life bestows.
Serene, and master of yourself, prepare
For what may come; and leave the rest to heaven.

   Oft from the body, by long  ails mis-tuned,
These evils sprung; the most  important health,
That of the mind, destroy:  and when the mind
They first invade, the conscious body soon
In sympathetic languishment declines.
These chronic passions, while from real woes
They rise, and yet without the body's fault
Infest the soul, admit one only cure;
Diversion, hurry, and a restless life.
Vain are the consolations of the wise;
In vain youi friends would reason down your pain.
0 ye, whose souls  relentless love has  tamed
To soft distress, or friends untimely fallen !
Court not the luxury of tender thought;
Nor deem it impious to forget  those pains
That hurt the living, nought avail the dead.
Go, soft enthusiast! quit the cypress  groves,
Nor to the rivulet's lonely moanings tune
Your sad complaint.  Go, seek the cheerful haunts
Of men, and mingle with the bustling crowd;
Lay schemes for wealth, or power, or fame, the wish
Of nobler minds, and push them night and day.
Or join the caravan in quest of scenes
New to your eyes, and shifting every hour,
Beyond  the Alps, beyond the Apennines.
Or more adventurous, rush into the field
Where war grows hot; and, raging through the sky,
The lofty trumpet swells the maddening soul: 
        THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.           493

And in the hardy camp and toilsome march
Forget all softer and less manly cares.

   But most too passive, when the blood runs low,
Too weakly indolent to strive with pain,
And bravely by resisting conquer fate,
Try Circe's arts; and in the tempting bowl
Of poisoned nectar sweet oblivion swill.
Struck by the powerful charm, the gloom dissolves
In empty air: Elysium opens round,
A pleasing frenzy buoys the lightened soul,
And sanguine hopes dispel your fleeting care ;
And what was difficult, and what was dire,
Yields to your prowess  and superior stars:
The happiest you of all that e'er were  mad,
Or are, or shall be, could this folly last.
But soon your heaven is gone;  a heavier gloom
Shuts o'er your head: and as the thundering stream,
Swoln o'er its banks with sudden mountain rain,
Sinks from its tumult to a silent brook;
So, when the frantic raptures in your breast
Subside, you languish into mortal man;
You sleep, and waking find yourself undone.
For prodigal of life, in one rash night
You lavished more than might support three days.
A heavy morning comes; your cares return
With  tenfold rage.  An anxious stomach well
May be endured ; so may the throbbing head:
But such a dim delirium, such a dream, ■
Involves you; such a dastardly despair
Unmans your soul, as madd'ning Pentheus felt,
When, baited round Cythseron's cruel  sides
He saw two suns, and double Thebes ascend.
You curse the sluggish Port; you curse the wretch,
The felon, with unnatural mixture first
Who dared to violate the virgin  wine.
Or on the fugitive champagne you pour
A thousand curses;  for to heaven it wrapt 
494           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

      Your soul, to plunge you deeper in despair.
      Perhaps you rue even that divine gift,
      The gay, serene, good-natured Burgundy,
      Or the fresh fragrant vintage of the Rhine:
      And wish that heaven from mortals had withheld
      The grape, and all intoxicating bowls.

         Besides, it wounds you sore to recollect
      What follies in your loose unguarded hour
      Escaped.  For one irrevocable word,
      Perhaps that meant no harm, you lose a friend.
      Or in the  rage of wine your hasty hand
      Performs a deed to haunt you to the grave.
      Add that your means, your health, your parts decay;
      Your friends avoid you; brutishly transformed
      They hardly know you; or if one remains
      To wish you well, he wishes  you in heaven.
      Despised, unwept you fall; who might have left
      A sacred,  cherished, sadly-pleasing name ;
      A name still to  be uttered with a sigh.
      Your last ungraceful scene has quite effaced
      All sense and memory of your former worth.

         How  to live happiest; how avoid the pains,
      The disappointments, and disgusts of those
      Who would in pleasure all their hours employ;
      The precepts here of a divine old man
      I could recite.   Though old,  he still retained
      His manly sense, and energy of mind.         ,
      Virtuous and wise he was, but not severe;
      He still  remembered that he  once was young;
      His easy presence checked no decent joy.
      Him even the dissolute admired; for he
      A graceful looseness when he pleased put on,
      And laughing could instruct.  Much had he read,
      Much more had seen; he studied from the life,
      And in the original perused mankind. 
         THE GOLDEN BIBLE  OF NATURE.           496

   Versed in the woes and vanities of life,
 He pitied man:  and much he pitied those
 Whom falsely-smiling fate has cursed with means
 To dissipate their days in quest of joy.
 Our aim is  happiness;  't is yours, 't is mine,
 He said, 't is the pursuit of all that live :
 Yet few attain it, if 't was ere attained.
 But they the widest wander from the mark,
 Who through the flowery paths of saunt'ring joy
 Seek this coy goddess : that from stage to stage
 Invites us still, but shifts as we pursue.
 For, not to  name the pains that pleasure brings
 To counterpoise itself, relentless fate
 Forbids that wc through gay voluptuous wilds
 Should ever roam: and were the fates more kind,
 Our narrow luxuries would soon  grow stale.
 Were these exhaustless nature would grow sick,
 And, cloyed with pleasure, squeamishly complain
 That all is vanity, and life a dream.
 Let nature rest: be busy for yourself,
 And for your friend; be busy even in vain
 Rather than teaze her sated appetites.
 Who never  fasts, no banquet e'er enjoys;
 Who never  toils or watches, never sleeps.
 Let nature rest: and when the taste of joy
 Grows keen, indulge;  but shun satiety.

  'T is not for mortals always to be blest
But him the least the dull or painful hours
 Of  life oppress, whom sober sense conducts,
And virtue,  through this labyrinth we tread.
Virtue and sense I mean, not to disjoin ;
Virtue and sense are one: and, trust me, still
A faithless heart betrays the head unsound.
Virtue (for mere good-nature is a fool)
Is sense and spirit, with humanity:
'T is sometimes angry, and its frown confounds;
'T is even vindictive, but in vengeance just 
,    496
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
Knaves fain would laugh at it; some great ones.dare;
But at his heart the most undaunted son
Of fortune dreads its name and awful charms.
To noblest uses this determines wealth;
This is the solid pomp of prosperous days;
The peace and shelter of adversity.
And if you pant for glory, build your fame
On this foundation,  which the secret shock
Defies of envy and all-sapping time.
The gaudy gloss of fortune only strikes
The vulgar eye;  the suffrage of the wise
The praise that's worth ambition, is attained
By sense alone, and dignity of mind.

  Virtue, the strength and beauty of the soul,
Is the best gift of heaven: a happiness
That even above the smiles and frowns of fate
Exalts great nature's favorites ; a wealth
That ne'er encumbers, nor can be transferred.
Riches are oft by guilt and baseness earned;
Or dealt by chancej to. shield aiducky knave,
Or throw  a cruel sunshine on a fool.
But for one end, one much-neglected use,
Are riches worth your care; (for nature's wants
Are few, and without opulence supplied.)
This noble end is, to produce the soul;
To show the virtues in their fairest light;
To make humanity the minister
Of bounteous Providence; and teach the breast
That generous luxury the gods enjoy.

  Thus, in his graver vein, the friendly sage
Sometimes declaimed.  Of right and wrong he taught,
Truths as refined  as ever Athens heard;
And (strange to tell) he practised what he preached.
Skilled in the passions, how to check their sway
He knew, as far as reason can control
The lawless powers. — But other cares are mine : 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.
497
 Formed in the school of Paeon, I relate
 What passions hurt the body, what improve;
 Avoid them, or invite them, as you may.

   Know, then, whatever cheerful and serene
 Supports the mind, supports the body too.
 Hence, the most vital movement mortals feel,
 Is hope : the balm and life-blood of the soul.
 It pleases, and it lasts.   Indulgent heaven
 Sent down the kind delusion, through the paths
 Of rugged life to lead us patient on;
 And make our happiest state no tedious thing.
 Our greatest good, and what we least can spare,
 Is hope : the last of all our evils, fear.

   But there are passions grateful to the breast,
 And yet no friends to life :  perhaps they please
 Or to excess, and dissipate the soul;
 Or while they please, torment.  The stubborn clown,
 The ill-tamed ruffian, and pale usurer,
 (If love's omnipotence such hearts can mould,)
 May safely mellow into love; and grow
 Refined, humane, and generous, if they can.
 Love, in such bosoms, never to a fault
 Or pains or pleases.  But, ye finer soulsr
 Formed to soft luxury, and prompt to thrill
 With all the tumults, all the joys and pains,
 That beauty gives ; with caution and reserve
 Indulge the sweet destroyer of repose,
 Nor court too much the queen of charming cares.
For, while the cherished poison in your breast
Ferments and maddens ; sick with jealousy,
Absence, distrust, or evenVith anxious joy,
The wholesome appetites and powers of life
Dissolve in languor.  The coy stomach loathes
The genial board :  your cheerful days are gone;
The generous bloom that flushed your cheeks is fled.
To sighs devoted, and to tender pains,
             63 
498
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
Pensive you sit, or solitary stray,     m
And waste your youth in musing.  Musing first
Toyed into care your unsuspecting heart;
It found a liking there, a sportful sire,
And that fomented into serious love ;
Which musing daily strengthens and improves,
Through all the heights of  fondness and romance :
And you 're undone, the fatal shaft has sped,
If once you doubt whether you love, or no.
The body wastes away; the infected mind,
Dissolved in  female tenderness, forgets
Each manly  virtue, and grows dead to fame.
Sweet heaven, from  such intoxicating charms
Defend all worthy breasts !  Not that I deem
Love always dangerous, always to be shunned.
Love well repaid, and not too weakly sunk
In wanton and unmanly tenderness,
Adds bloom to health ; o'er every virtue sheds
A gay, humane, a sweet, and generous grace,
And brightens all the ornaments of man.
But fruitless, hopeless, disappointed, racked
With jealousy, fatigued with hope and fear,
Too serious, or too languishingly fond,
Unnerves the body, and unmans the soul.
And some have died for love;  and some run mad;
And some, with desperate hands, themselves have slain.

  Some to extinguish, others to prevent
A mad devotion to one dangerous fair,
Court all they meet;  in hopes to dissipate
The cares of love amongst  an hundred brides.
The event is doubtful; for  there are who find
A cure in this ; there are, who find it not.
'T is no relief, alas ! it rather galls
The wound, to those who are sincerely sick;
For while, from feverish and tumultuous joys,
The nerves grow languid, and the soul  subsides,
The tender fancy smarts with every sting, 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.
499
And what was love before is madness now.
Is health your care, or luxury your aim,
Be temperate still: when Nature bids, obey ;
Her wild, impatient sallies bear no curb :
But, when the prurient habit of delight,
Or  loose imagination, spurs you on
To deeds above your strength, impute it not
To Nature :  Nature all compulsion hates.
Ah ! let not luxury nor vain renown
Urge you to feats you well might sleep without;
To make what should be rapture a fatigue,
A tedious task; nor in the wanton arms
Of twining Lais melt your manhood down.
For, from the colliquation of soft joys,
How changed you rise ! the ghost of what you was,
Languid, and melancholy, and gaunt, and wan;
Your veins exhausted, and your nerves unstrung.
Spoiled of its balm and sprightly zest, the blood
Grows vapid phlegm ;  along the tender nerves,
(To each slight impulse tremblingly awake,)
A subtle fiend, that mimics all the plagues,
Rapid and restless, springs from part to part.
The blooming honors of your youth are fallen ;
Your vigor pines ; your vital powers decay ;
Diseases haunt you ; and untimely age
Creeps on;  unsocial, impotent, and lewd.
Infatuate, impious epicure! to waste
The stores of pleasure, cheerfulness, and health!
Infatuate all who make delight their trade,
And coy perdition every hour pursue.

  "Who pines with love, or in lascivious flames
Consumes, is with his own consent undone;
He chooses to be wretched, to be mad ;
And warned proceeds, and wilful, to his fate.
But there's  a passion, whose tempestuous sway
Tears up each virtue planted in the breast,
And shakes  to ruins proud philosophy. 
500
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
For pale and trembling anger rushes in,
With faltering speech, and eyes that wildly stare ;
Fierce as the tiger, madder than the seas,
Desperate, and armed with more than human strength.
How soon the calm, humane, and polished man
Forgets compunction, and starts up a fiend.
Who pines in love, or wastes with  silent cares,
Envy, or ignominy, or tender grief,
Slowly descends, and lingering, to the shades.
But he, whom anger stings, drops,  if he dies,
At once, and rushes apoplectic down ;
Or a fierce fever hurries him to hell.
For, as the body, through unnumbered strings,
Reverberates each vibration of the soul;
As is the passion, such is still the pain
The body feels: or chronic, or acute.
And oft a sudden storm at once o'erpowers
The life, or gives your reason to the winds.
Such fates attend  the rash alarm of fear,
And sudden grief, and rage, and sudden joy.

  There are, meantime, to whom the boisterous fit
Is health, and only fills the sails of fife.
For, where the mind a torpid winter leads,
Wrapt in a body corpulent and cold,
And each clogged function lazily moves on;
A generous sally spurns the incumbent load,
Unlocks the  breast, and gives a cordial glow.
But if your wrathful blood is apt to boil,
Or are your nerves too irritably strung,
Waive all dispute ; be cautious, if  you joke;
Keep Lent forever, and forswear the bowl.
For one rash moment sends* you to the shades,
Or shatters every hopeful scheme of fife,
And gives to horror all your days  to come.
Fate, armed with thunder, fire, and every plague,
That ruins, tortures, or distracts mankind,
And makes the happy wretched in an hour, 
THE GOLDEN  BIBLE OF NATURE.
501
O'erwhelms you not with woes so horrible
As your own wrath, nor gives more sudden blows.

  While choler works, good friend, you may be wrong;
Distrust yourself, and sleep before you fight
'T is not too late to-morrow to be brave;
If honor bids, to-morrow kill or die.
But calm advice against a raging fit
Avails too little ; and it braves the power
Of all that ever taught in prose or song,
To tame the fiend that  sleeps a gentle lamb,
And wakes a lion.   Unprovoked and calm,
You reason well; see as you ought to see,
And wonder at the madness of mankind :
Seized with the common rage, you soon forget
The speculations of your wiser hours.
Beset with furies of  all deadly shapes,
Fierce and insidious, violent arid slow:
With all that urge or lure us on to fate:
What refuge shall we seek ? what arms prepare ?
Where reason proves too weak, or void of wiles
To cope with subtle or impetuous powers,
I would invoke new passions to your aid:
With indignation would extinguish fear,
 With fear or generous pity vanquish rage,
 And love with pride;  and force to force oppose.

   There is a charm, a power, that sways the breast;
 Bids every passion revel or be still;
 Inspires with rage, or  all your cares  dissolves;
 Can soothe distraction, and almost despair.
 That power is music:  far beyond the stretch
 Of those unmeaning warblers on our stage;
 Those clumsy heroes, those  fat-headed gods,
 Who move no passion justly but contempt:
 Who, like our dancers, (light, indeed, and strong!)
  Do wond'rous feats, but never heard of grace.
  The fault is ours; we bear those monstrous arts; 
502
PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND
Good heaven! we praise them:  we, with loudest peals,.
Applaud the fool that highest lifts his heels;
And, with insipid show of rapture, die
Of idiot notes, impertinently long.
But he the Muse's laurel justly shares,
A poet he, and touched with heaven's own fire;
Who, with bold rage or solemn pomp of sounds,
Inflames, exalts, and ravishes the soul;
Now tender, plaintive, sweet almost to pain,
In love dissolves you; now. in sprightly  strains
Breathes a gay rapture through  your thrilling breast;
Or melts the heart with airs divinely sad;
Or wakes to horror the tremendous strings.
Such was the bard, whose heavenly strains of old
Appeased the fiend of melancholy Saul.
Such was, if old and heathen fame say true,
The man who bade the Theban  domes ascend,
And tamed the savage nations with his song ;
And such the Thracian, whose melodious lyre,
Tuned to soft woe, made all the  mountains weep;
Soothed even th' inexorable powers of hell,
And half redeemed his lost Eurydice.
Music exalts each joy, allays each grief,
Expels diseases, softens every pain,
Subdues the rage  of poison, and the plague;
And hence the wise of ancient days, adored
One power of physic, melody, and song. 
APPENDIX.
                   ON INTEMPERANCE.

  The subject of Intemperance is one of such  importance that we
have thought it advisable, in addition to the remarks we have made
(pp. 420-422) to offer something further upon  the subject.
  A moderate habitual drinker, though temperate in regard  to
quantity, is more exposed to be overtaken  by disease, in conse-
quence of indulgence in his. favorite custom, than he who revels
openly and unguardedly.  The former generally allows the eleva-
tion he has experienced from his first  dram to subside before he
takes his second, and that of the second  before he takes his third.
Thus gradually instilling the poison into  the system, he has not the
warning of intoxication to apprise him of his danger, and although
he  exultingly applauds  himself for his extraordinary self-denial
and soberness, the quantity he has  drunk exceeds that, which,
taken by his neighbor, with less  management,  has levelled him  to
the ground, and  rendered him the object of the cautious sippcr's
harsh  reproof.  The  more bold  and shameless drunkard finds a
monitor (though generally too little regarded)  in every  drunken
bout; the beastly situations in which he is placed by them,.and the
sufferings which succeed, are not entirely unnoticed;     «
             ' He sleeps ; and, waking, finds himself undone.!
              For, prodigal of life, in one rash night,
              He lavished more than might support three days.'

Loud, but  weak resolves are uttered, that such filthy excesses are
■never more to be committed.
             ' Ah, sly deceiver! branded o'er and o'er,
              Yet still believed! exulting o'er the wreck
              Of sober vows '.' 
504            PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

  Drunkenness, then, is that vice — or rather  let  us  say, that
crime — which engenders all other crimes, and is a baneful curse,
wherever it falls.   It degrades man below the meanest reptile, ren-
ders his sober hours  irksome, beyond endurance,  brings  on the
most dreadful diseases, and  at last places him on a death-bed, the
pillow of which  it has filled with thorns.   Awful is this picture,
and many of you must feel its truth.   But how, you ask, shall we
profit by it ?   How shall we rid ourselves of this dangerous foe ?
Not by trifling with him; not by gentle resistance; not by endea-
voring gradually to disengage yourself  from his horrid gripe.  No,
no; an enemy so formidable must be forcibly and strongly opposed.
Not an inch  must be yielded to him.  Consider, if you break not
his  neck he  will  break yours, and perhaps break  the  hearts of
those   who are  dearest  to  you.  Call  to your aid self-love,  as
well as regard and  compassion  for your family, who innocently
suffer  for your indiscretions.  Crave the support of reason  and
religion.
             ' Let godlike reason, from her sovereign throne,
              Speak the commanding word — I will — and it is done.'

  It must be  done quickly; total abstinence  from  all intoxicatim*
drinks is of vital importance.  There is not on record a single in-
stance in which a retrenching system,  or moderation, has ever re-
formed a hard-drinking man ; on the other hand, tens of thousands
of living witnesses have made  a solemn pause, and have been
redeemed, only by a sudden, a total, and an entire abstinence from
the use of ardent spirits of every name and nature, and from wine,
ale, beer, cider, and all fermented liquors.
  He who  becomes the subject of such a reformation, either from
shame, remorse of conscience, love of family, or fear of  death,
surveys first  the natural consequences, and, like a prudent man,
foreseeing the  evils,  he  then comes  forward and saves, himself
by a resolution, not of an ordinary nature, but a resolution guar-
anteed by a most  lively sense of honor and  manly  pride;  a  res-
olution in  which all  the faculties and energies  of his soul  are
engaged, that  he  will no more taste, handle, nor touch the cursed
stuff.   And, as is the  strength of this pledge, so, generally, is his
safety. 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF  NATURE.
505
  Do not be lulled into a false security, founded on the  fact that
a few incorrigible  drunkards  seem  to  enjoy health, for they own
not what they suffer.  But judge upon a larger  scale.   Look back
upon the latter days of all the votaries of Bacchus that come with-
in your recollection, and then you will discover that the wine-bib-
ber is generally doomed to  the torments of either the rheumatism,
the gout, or the graifel.   The  dram-drinker becomes bloated with
lymphatic dropsy, and the swiller of beer or cider suffers severely
from vital derangements, and is stained with jaundice —
the yellow fiend
                 Tinged with her own accumulated gall.'

  Be assured, O lovers of the cup, if you  but properly consider
what has been said, although you may accuse the writer of harsh-
ness, you  will not  regard a  drunken bout as a trifling matter.
Look back but to the last adventure of this kind, and strive to

              ----------recollect
What follies in your loose, unguarded hour
Escaped.  For one irrevocable word,
Perhaps, that meant no harm, you lose a friend ;■
Or, in the rage of wine, your hasty hand
Performs a deed that haunts you to the grave.
Add, that your means, youf health, your parts decay;
Your friends avoid you ; brulishly transformed,
They hardly know you ;  or if one remains
To wish you well, he wishes you in heaven.'
                      CATECHISM ON RUM.

   Question.  What is the chief end of rum, gin, and brandy ?
  Answer.  To make toddy, flip, and punch.
   Q.   What are the  comforts which tipplers receive from them ?
  A.   Toddy, flip, and punch  give to  their votaries ease of con-
science,  joy in  the comforter, increase thereto, and perseverance
therein to the end.
   Q.   "Wherein  consisteth the ease  of  conscience which tipplers
receive from intoxicating drinks ?
                   64 
 506           PRUDENTIAL REVELATIONS, AND

   A.  It consisteth  in  an agreeable forgetfulness of  the  past, a
 beastly  enjoyment  of the  present, and  an  indifference  to  the
 future.
   Q.  Into what state  would mankind be brought by the love of
 rum?
   A.  Into a forlorn and wretched state.
   Q.  What are the evils which do either accompany or flow from
 an indulgence in the use of rum ?
   A.  Sickness, shame,  poverty, and distress.
   Q.  When shall the end be ?
   A.  When the hard drinker shall have wasted his estate, ruined
 his constitution, and alienated the affection of his friends; when
 you  shall see his affairs  falling into ruin and decay, his children
 hungry and naked, his wife comfortless  and in tears; when these
 things  appear, then  the end is  nigh, even  at the door.  Loss  of
 appetite, a bloated visage, trembling hands, and feeble knees, de-
lirium  tremens, and  the' horrors, are but faint indications of the
suffering he feels within.  Beastly, sottish, debased in reason, and
vile in manners, he  sinks  from  the character of a man below the
grade of a brute.   The community despise him, he is neglected  b\
his friends, diseases  torment him, he is oppressed and seized  by
despair and sorrow, until  overcome by the continual injuries, na-
ture at length resigns her worthless charge, and he sinks unlament-
ed to the grave.   Surely it is an evil way, and the end thereof is
sorrow.
   0, ye who sacrifice to Bacchus — who make yourselves merry
with the jolly god, and in sparkling oblations quench life's transient
blaze, turn ye from the  enchanting cup, and go to the fountain of
real  comfort, where  springs  wholesome  and  refreshing  water.
Hearken unto wisdom, and let her voice be heard; bend thine ear
to understanding and be  wise.  Let industry employ thy hands;
at evening rest from thy cares, and in the morning awake to peace
and  the  sweet  enjoyment of domestic delights.   Then shalt thou
gladden  the heart of thy wife; thy children  shall rejoice, and
plenty  again shall crown thy board.   Thine olive shall yield its oil,
and thy fig-tree shall be  neither barren nor unfruitful.  Then shall
comfort spring  up by thee, and thy family shall rejoice.  Health 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE OF NATURE.            507
shall come once more  and make its abode  with thee; want shall
flee  away, and poverty shall not even dare to look in  at  thy
windows.  In thy neighbor's mouth thou shalt have a good report,
and  thy life  shall  be honorable; friends  shall multiply, and  thy
days shall be pleasant — yea, all the days of thy fife.   Religion
shall then be planted  in  thy heart,  and eternal glory will be  thy
crown. 
 
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