How to Use Water. Very little if any water should be taken at meal time, since the salivary glands furnish an abundance of watery fluid to assist in mastication. When these glands are aided with water to "wash down" the food, their functions become feeble and impaired. The gastric juice is diluted and digestion is weakened. Large draughts of cold water ought never to be indulged in, since they cause derangement of the stomach. When the body is overheated, the use of much water is injurious. It should only be taken in small quantities. Thirst may be partially allayed, without injury, by holding cold water in the mouth for a short time and then spitting it out, taking care to swallow but very little. Travelers frequently experience inconvenience from change of water. If the means are at hand, let them purify their drinking water, if not, they should drink as little as possible. Persons who visit the banks of the Ohio, Missouri, or Mississippi rivers and [pg 253]similar localities, almost invariably suffer from some form of gastric or intestinal disease. Water standing in close rooms soon becomes unfit to drink and should not be used. A drink of cold water taken on going to bed, and another on rising are conducive to health, especially in the case of persons troubled with constipation. "Drink water" said the celebrated Dubois to the young persons who consulted him, "drink water, I tell you!" Du Moulin, the great medical authority of his time, wrote, just previous to his death, "I leave two great physicians behind me—diet and water."

Tea and Coffee. These substances are almost universally used as beverages, and when properly employed, serve a four-fold purpose: they quench thirst, excite an agreeable exhilaration, repress the waste of the system, and supply nourishment. In consequence of being generally used at meal times, their stimulant properties are employed to promote digestion, and consequently they are not so objectionable as they might otherwise be. The liquids introduced into the stomach at meal times should not be cold. Tea and coffee are drunk warm, while water, except in a few instances, is always drunk cold, the effects of which have already been shown. That their inordinate use may be injurious no body can deny, but this is equally true of other beverages, even pure, cold water. Scientific investigators inform us that the use of these agents as beverages, when judiciously employed, is not injurious. It has been urged that they are poisonous, but if they are, they are very slow in their operation.

When properly prepared, they are very agreeable beverages, and as man will drink more or less at meals, they are allowable; for if their use were excluded, some other beverage would be sought after, and quite likely one of an alcoholic character employed, so of two evils, if this be an evil, let us choose the least. Unlike alcoholic stimulants, they exhilarate without a depressing reaction after their influence has passed off. But one cup should be drunk at a meal, and it should be of moderate strength. The use of large quantities of drink at meals retards digestion by diluting the digestive fluids. The excessive use of large quantities of strong tea or coffee stimulates the brain and causes wakefulness, and produces irritability [pg 254]of the nervous system. When they are productive of such effects, their use is injurious, and should be considerably moderated or wholly discontinued. No criterion can be given by which the amount the system will tolerate can be regulated. What one person may take with impunity, may be deleterious to an other. Individuals differ greatly in this respect. There are some who cannot tolerate them at all, either because of some peculiarity of constitution, or on account of disease. And sometimes when tea is agreeable and beneficial, coffee disagrees with the individual and vice versa. Persons of nervous habits whether natural or acquired, are apt to find their wakefulness and irritability increased by the use of tea, particularly if strong, while coffee will have a tranquilizing effect. Persons of a lymphatic or bilious temperament often find that coffee disagrees with them, aggravating their troubles and causing biliousness, constipation, and headache, while tea proves agreeable and beneficial. Whenever they disagree with the system, the best rule is to abandon their use. We find many persons who do not use either, and yet enjoy health, a fact which proves that they are not by any means indispensable, and, no doubt, were it customary to go without them, their absence would be but slightly missed.

Tea and coffee are adulterated to a very great extent, and persons using them will be greatly imposed upon. This is an evil we cannot remedy. If people make use of them, their experience in selecting them must be their guide; however, it is believed that the Black and Japan varieties of tea are the least apt to be adulterated, and coffee, to insure purity, should be purchased in the berry, and ground by the purchaser.

In preparing tea an infusion should be made by adding boiling water to the leaves, and permitting them to steep for a few minutes only, for a concentrated decoction, made by boiling for a long time, liberates the astringent and bitter principles and drives off the agreeable aroma which resides in a volatile oil.

Coffee should be prepared by adding cold water to the ground berry, and raising it slowly to the boiling point. Long-continued boiling liberates the astringent and bitter principles upon which its stimulant effects to a great extent depend, and [pg 255]drives off with the steam the aromatic oil from which the agreeable taste is derived.

ALCOHOLIC LIQUORS.

These are divided into three classes: malted, fermented, and distilled. They all contain more or less alcohol, and their effects are, therefore, in some respects similar, and, in the words of Dr. B.W. Richardson, the great English authority on hygiene: "To say this man only drinks ale, that man only drinks wine, while a third drinks spirits, is merely to say, when the apology is unclothed, that all drink the same danger. * * Alcohol is a universal intoxicant, and in the higher orders of animals is capable of inducing the most systematic phenomena of disease. But it is reserved for man himself to exhibit these phenomena in their purest form, and to present, through them, in the morbid conditions belonging to his age, a distinct pathology. Bad as this is, it might be worse; for if the evils of alcohol were made to extend equally to animals lower than man, we should soon have, none that were tameable, none that were workable, and none that were eatable." Researches have shown that the proportion of half a drachm of alcohol to the pound weight of the body, is the quantity which usually produces intoxication, and that an increase of this amount to one drachm immediately endangers the life of the individual. The first symptom which attracts attention, when alcohol commences to take effect upon the body, is an increase in the number of the pulsations of the heart. Dr. Parkes and Count Wolowicz conducted a series of interesting experiments on young adult men. They counted the pulsations of the heart, at regular intervals, during periods when the subject drank only water; and then they counted the beats of the heart in the same individual during successive periods in which alcohol was drunk in increasing quantities.

The following details are taken from their report:

"The highest of the daily means of the pulse observed during the first or water period was 77.5; but on this day two observations were deficient. The next highest daily mean was 77 beats.

If instead of the mean of the eight days, or 73.57, we [pg 256]compare the mean of this one day, viz., 77 beats per minute, with the alcoholic days, so as to be sure not to over-estimate the action of the alcohol, we find:

On the ninth day, with one fluid ounce of alcohol,
the heart beat 430 times more.
On the tenth day, with two fluid ounces, 1,872 times more.
On the eleventh day, with four fluid ounces, 12,960 times more.
On the twelfth day, with six fluid ounces, 30,672 times more.
On the thirteenth day, with eight fluid ounces, 23,904 times more.
On the fourteenth day, with eight fluid ounces, 25,488 times more.

But as there was ephemeral fever on the twelfth day, it is right to make a deduction, and to estimate the number of beats in that day as midway between the twelfth and twenty-third days, or 18,432. Adopting this, the mean daily excess of beats during the alcoholic days was 14,492, or an increase of rather more than thirteen per cent.

The first day of alcohol gave an excess of one per cent., and the last of twenty-three per cent.; and the mean of these two gives almost the same percentage of excess as the mean of the six days.

Admitting that each beat of the heart was as strong during the alcoholic as in the water period (and it was really more powerful), the heart on the last two days of alcohol was doing one-fifth more work.

Adopting the lowest estimate which has been given of the daily work done by the heart, viz., as equal to 122 tons lifted one foot, the heart, during the alcoholic period, did daily work in excess equal to lifting 15.8 tons one foot, and in the last two days did extra work to the amount of twenty-four tons lifted as far.

The period of rest for the heart was shortened, though, perhaps, not to such an extent as would be inferred from the number of beats; for each contraction was sooner over. The beat on the fifth and sixth days after alcohol was left off, and apparently at the time when the last traces of alcohol were eliminated, showed, in the sphygmographic tracing, signs of unusual feebleness; and, perhaps, in consequence of this, when the brandy quickened the heart again, the tracing showed a more rapid contraction of the ventricles, but less power than [pg 257]in the alcoholic period. The brandy acted, in fact, on a heart whose nutrition had not been perfectly restored."

The flush often seen on the cheeks of those who are under the influence of alcoholic liquors, and which is produced by a relaxed and distended condition of the superficial blood vessels, is erroneously supposed by many to merely extend to the parts exposed to view. On this subject, Dr. Richardson says: "If the lungs could be seen, they, too, would be found with their vessels injected; if the brain and spinal cord could be laid open to view, they would be discovered in the same condition; if the stomach, the liver, the spleen, the kidneys, or any other vascular organs or parts could be laid open to the eye, the vascular engorgement would be equally manifest. In the lower animals I have been able to witness this extreme vascular condition in the lungs, and once I had the unusual, though unhappy opportunity of observing the same phenomenon in the brain of a man who, in a paroxysm of alcoholic delirium, cast himself under the wheels of a railway carriage. The brain, instantaneously thrown out from the skull by the crash, was before me within three minutes after the accident. It exhaled the odor of spirit most distinctly, and its membranes and minute structures were vascular in the extreme. It looked as if it had been recently injected with vermilion injection. The white matter of the cerebrum, studded with red points, could scarcely be distinguished when it was incised, it was so preternaturally red; and the pia mater, or internal vascular membrane covering the brain, resembled a delicate web of coagulated red blood, so tensely were its fine vessels engorged. This condition extended through both the larger and the smaller brain, cerebrum, and cerebellum, but was not so marked in the medulla, or commencing portion of the spinal cord, as in the other portions.

In course of time, in persons accustomed to alcohol, the vascular changes, temporary only in the novitiate, become confirmed and permanent. The bloom on the nose which characterizes the genial toper is the established sign of alcoholic action on the vascular structure.

Recently, physiological research has served to explain the reason why, under alcohol the heart at first beats so quickly, [pg 258]why the pulse rises, and why the minute blood-vessels become so strongly injected.

At one time it was imagined that alcohol acts immediately upon the heart by stimulating it to increased motion; and from this idea,—false idea, I should say,—of the primary action of alcohol, many erroneous conclusions have been drawn. We have now learned that there exist many chemical bodies which act in the same manner as alcohol, and that their effect is not to stimulate the heart, but to weaken the contractile force of the extreme and minute vessels which the heart fills with blood at each of its strokes. These bodies produce, in fact, a paralysis of the organic nervous supply of the vessels which constitute the minute vascular structures. The minute vessels when paralysed offer inefficient resistance to the force of the heart, and the pulsating organ thus liberated, like the main-spring of a clock from which the resistance has been removed, quickens in action, dilating the feebly resistant vessels, and giving evidence really not of increased, but of wasted power."

The continued use of alcoholic liquors in any considerable quantity produces irritation and inflammation of the stomach, and structural disease of the liver. Dr. Hammond has shown that alcohol has a special affinity for nervous matter, and is, therefore, found in greater quantity in the brain and spinal cord than elsewhere in the body. The gray matter of the brain undergoes, to a certain extent, a fatty degeneration, and there is a shrinking of the whole cerebrum, with impairment of the intellectual faculties, muscular tremor, and a shambling gait.

Large doses of alcohol cause a diminution of the temperature of the body, which in fevers is more marked than in the normal state.

In addition to the organic diseases enumerated above, and delirium tremens, the following diseases are frequently the result of the excessive use of alcoholic liquors: epilepsy, paralysis, insanity, diabetes, gravel, and diseases of the heart and blood-vessels.

The physiological deductions of Dr. Richardson are so much in accord with our own that we quote them in full:

"In the first place we gather from the physiological reading of the action of alcohol that the agent is narcotic. I have [pg 259]compared it throughout to chloroform, and the comparison is good in all respects save one, viz.: that alcohol is less fatal than chloroform as an instant destroyer. It kills certainly in its own way, but its method of killing is slow, indirect, and by disease.

The well-proven fact that alcohol, when it is taken into the body, reduces the animal temperature, is full of the most important suggestions. The fact shows that alcohol does not in any sense act as a supplier of vital heat as is commonly supposed, and that it does not prevent the loss of heat as those imagine 'who take just a drop to keep out the cold,' It shows, on the contrary, that cold and alcohol, in their effects on the body, run closely together, an opinion confirmed by the experience of those who live or travel in cold regions of the earth. The experiences of the Arctic voyagers, of the leaders of the great Napoleonic campaigns in Russia, of the good monks of St. Bernard, all testify that death from cold is accelerated by its ally alcohol. Experiments with alcohol in extreme cold tell the like story, while the chilliness of the body which succeeds upon even a moderate excess of alcoholic indulgence leads directly to the same indication of truth.

The conclusive evidence now in our possession that alcohol taken into the animal body sets free the heart, so as to cause the excess of motion of which the record has been given above, is proof that the heart, under the frequent influence of alcohol, must undergo deleterious change of structure. It may, indeed, be admitted in proper fairness, that when the heart is passing through these rapid movements it is working under less pressure than when its movements are slow and natural; and this allowance must needs be made, or the inference would be that the organ ought to stop at once, in function, by the excess of strain put upon it. At the same time the excess of motion is injurious to the heart and to the body at large; it subjects the heart to irregularity of supply of blood, it subjects the body in all its parts to the same injurious influence; it weakens, and, as a necessary sequence, degrades both the heart and the body.

Speaking honestly, I cannot, by any argument yet presented to me, admit the alcohols by any sign that should distinguish them from other chemical substances of the paralysing narcotic class. When it is physiologically understood that what is called [pg 260]stimulation or excitement is, in absolute fact, a relaxation, a partial paralysis, of one of the most important mechanisms in the animal body, the minute, resisting, compensating circulation, we grasp quickly the error in respect to the action of stimulants in which we have been educated, and obtain a clear solution of the well-known experience that all excitement, all passion, leaves, after its departure, lowness of heart, depression of mind, sadness of spirit. We learn, then, in respect to alcohol, that the temporary excitement it produces is at the expense of the animal force, and that the ideas of its being necessary to resort to it, that it may lift up the forces of the animal body into true and firm and even activity, or that it may add something useful to the living tissues, are errors as solemn as they are widely disseminated. In the scientific education of the people no fact is more deserving of special comment than this fact, that excitement is wasted force, the running down of the animal mechanism before it has served out its time of motion.

It will be said that alcohol cheers the weary, and that to take a little wine for the stomach's sake is one of the lessons that comes from the deep recesses of human nature. I am not so obstinate as to deny this argument, There are times in the life of man when the heart is oppressed, when the resistance to its motion is excessive, and when blood flows languidly to the centres of life, nervous and muscular. In these moments alcohol cheers. It lets loose the heart from its oppression; it lets flow a brisker current of blood into the failing organs; it aids nutritive changes, and altogether is of temporary service to man. So far, alcohol may be good, and if its use could be limited to this one action, this one purpose, it would be amongst the most excellent of the gifts of science to mankind. Unhappily, the border line between this use and the abuse of it, the temptation to extend beyond the use, the habit to apply the use when it is not wanted as readily as when it is wanted, overbalance, in the multitude of men, the temporary value that attaches truly to alcohol as a physiological agent. Hence alcohol becomes a dangerous instrument even in the hands of the strong and wise, a murderous instrument in the hands of the foolish and weak. Used too frequently, used too excessively, this agent, which in moderation cheers the failing body, relaxes its vessels too [pg 261]extremely; spoils vital organs; makes the force of the circulation slow, imperfect, irregular; suggests the call for more stimulation; tempts to renewal of the evil, and ruins the mechanism of the healthy animal before its hour for ruin, by natural decay, should be at all near.

It is assumed by most persons that alcohol gives strength, and we hear feeble persons saying daily that they are being 'kept up by stimulants.' This means actually that they are being kept down; but the sensation they derive from the immediate action of the stimulant deceives them and leads them to attribute passing good to what, in the large majority of cases, is persistent evil. The evidence is all-perfect that alcohol gives no potential power to brain or muscle. During the first stage of action it may enable a wearied or a feeble organism to do brisk work for a short time; it may make the mind briefly brilliant; it may excite muscle to quick action, but it does nothing substantially, and fills up nothing it has destroyed, as it leads to destruction. A fire makes a brilliant sight, but leaves a desolation. It is the same with alcohol.

On the muscular force the very slightest excess of alcoholic influence is injurious. I find by measuring the power of muscle for contraction in the natural state and under alcohol, that so soon as there is a distinct indication of muscular disturbance, there is also indication of muscular failure, and if I wished by scientific experiment to spoil for work the most perfect specimen of a working animal, say a horse, without inflicting mechanical injury, I could choose no better agent for the purpose of the experiment than alcohol. But alas! the readiness with which strong, well-built men slip into general paralysis under the continued influence of this false support, attests how unnecessary it would be to subject a lower animal to the experiment. The experiment is a custom, and man is the subject.

The true place of alcohol is clear; it is an agreeable temporary shroud. The savage, with the mansions of his soul unfurnished, buries his restless energy under its shadow. The civilized man overburdened with mental labor, or with engrossing care, seeks the same shade; but it is shade, after all, in which, in exact proportion as he seeks it, the seeker retires from perfect natural [pg 262]life. To search for force in alcohol is, to my mind, equivalent to the act of seeking for the sun in subterranean gloom until all is night.

It may be urged that men take alcohol, nevertheless, take it freely, and yet live; that the adult Swede drinks his average cup of twenty-five gallons of alcohol per year and remains on the face of the earth. I admit force even in this argument, for I know under the persistent use of alcohol there is a limited provision for the continuance of life. In the confirmed alcoholic the alcohol is, in a certain sense, so disposed of that it fits, as it were, the body for a long season, nay, becomes part of it; and yet it is silently doing its fatal work. The organs of the body may be slowly brought into a state of adaptation to receive it and to dispose of it. But in that very preparation they are themselves made to undergo physical changes tending to the destruction of their function, to perversion of their structure, and to all those varied modifications of organic parts which the dissector of the human subject learns to recognize,—almost without concern, and certainly without anything more than commonplace curiosity,—as the devastations incident to alcoholic indulgence."

The statistics collected from the census of the United States for 1860, and given by Dr. De Marmon, in the New York Medical Journal for December, 1870, must carry conviction to all minds of the correctness of the foregoing deductions:

"For the last ten years the use of spirits has, 1. Imposed on the nation a direct expense of 600,000,000 dollars. 2. Has caused an indirect expense of 600,000,000 dollars. 3. Has destroyed 300,000 lives. 4. Has sent 100,000 children to the poorhouses. 5. Has committed at least 150,000 people into prisons and workhouses. 6. Has made at least 1,000 insane. 7. Has determined at least 2,000 suicides. 8. Has caused the loss by fire or violence, of at least 10,000,000 dollars' worth of property. 9. Has made 200,000 widows and 1,000 orphans."

If these were the statistics twenty-four years ago, with our greatly increased population, what must they be to-day? We will let the reader draw his own conclusions.

Malted Liquors. Under this head are included all those liquors into the composition of which malt enters, such as [pg 263]beer, ale, and porter. The proportion of alcohol in these liquors varies greatly. In beer, it is from two to five per cent.; in Edinburgh ale, it amounts to six per cent.; in porter, it is usually from four to six per cent. In addition to alcohol and water, the malted liquors contain from five to fourteen per cent. of the extract of malt, and from 0.16 to 0.60 per cent. of carbonic acid. They possess, according to Pereira, three properties: they quench thirst; they stimulate, cheer, and, if taken in sufficient quantity, intoxicate; and they nourish or strengthen. The first of these qualities is due to the water entering into their composition; the second, to the alcohol; the third is attributed the nutritive principles of the malt.

Objections to their use as Beverages. These articles are either pure or adulterated. In their pure state the objection to their use for this purpose lies in the fact that they contain alcohol. This, as we have seen, is a poisonous substance, which the human system in a state of health does not need. Its use, when the body is in a normal condition, is uncalled for, and can only be deleterious. Beverages containing this poison are more or less deleterious to healthy persons, according to the amount of it which they contain.

These liquors are frequently adulterated, and this increases their injurious effects. The ingenuity of man has been taxed to increase their intoxicating properties; to heighten the color and flavor, to create pungency and thirst; and to revive old beer. To increase the intoxicating power, tobacco or the seeds of the Cocculus indicus are added; to heighten the color and flavor, burnt sugar, liquorice, or treacle, quassia, or strychnine, coriander, and caraway seeds are employed; to increase the pungency, cayenne pepper or common salt is added; to revive old beer, or ale, it is shaken up with green vitriol or sulphate of iron, or with alum and common salt.

Fermented Liquors. These are cider and wine. Cider contains alcohol to the amount of from five to ten per cent., saccharine matter, lactic acid, and other substances. New cider may be drunk in large quantities without inducing intoxication, but old cider is quite as intoxicating as ale or porter.

The composition of wine is very complex, the peculiar qualities which characterize the different varieties cannot be [pg 264]ascertained by chemical analysis. Wine is a solution of alcohol in water, combined with various constituents of the grape. The amount of alcohol in wines ranges from six to forty per cent. As beverages, these are open to the same objections as those manufactured from malt. As a medicine, wine is a useful remedy. Concerning its use in this capacity, Prof. Liebig says: "Wine is a restorative. As a means of refreshment when the powers of life are exhausted—as a means of compensation where a misappropriation occurs in nutrition, and as a means of protection against transient organic disturbances, it is surpassed by no product of nature or art." That an article is useful in medicine, however, is no reason why it should be used as a beverage by those in health. It is rather an argument against such a practice. For it is generally true that the drugs used to restore the diseased system to health, are pernicious or poisonous to it when in a normal condition.

Distilled Liquors. These are whiskey, brandy, and the kindred productions of the still. Whiskey is a solution of alcohol in water, mixed with various other principles which impart to it peculiar physical properties. The amount of alcohol which it contains varies from forty-eight to fifty-six per cent. Old whiskey is more highly prized than the more recent product of the still, from the fact that when kept for some years certain volatile oils are generated which, impart to it a mellowness of flavor.

Brandy is a solution of alcohol in water, together with various other substances. It contains from fifty to fifty-six per cent. of alcohol. Pure brandy is distilled from wine, 1,000 gallons of wine yielding from 100 to 150 gallons of brandy, but a very large proportion of the brandy is made with little or no wine. It is made artificially from high wines by the addition of oil of Cognac, to give it flavor, burnt sugar to give it color, and logwood or catechu, to impart astringency and roughness of taste. The best brandy is obtained by distillation from the best quality of white wines, from the districts of Cognac and Armagnac in France.

THE CLOTHING.

There is no physical agent which exerts a more constant or more powerful influence upon health and life, than the [pg 265]atmosphere. The climate in these latitudes is exceedingly variable, ranging all the way from 110° Fahr. in summer to 40° below zero in the winter season. The body of every individual should be so protected from cold, that it can maintain a mean temperature of 98° Fahr.

When the body is warm there is a free and equal circulation of the blood throughout all the structures. When the surface is subjected to cold, the numerous capillaries and minute vessels carrying the blood, contract and diminish in size, increasing the amount of this fluid in the internal organs, thus causing congestion. The blood must go somewhere, and if driven from the surface, it retreats to the cavities within. Hence this repletion of the vital organs causes pain from pressure and fullness of the distended blood-vessels, and the organic functions are embarrassed. Besides, cold upon the surface shuts up the pores of the skin, which are among the most active and important excretory ducts of the system. It is evident, then, that we require suitable clothing, not only for comfort, but to maintain the temperature and functions essential to health and life.

The chief object to be attained by dress is the maintenance of a uniform temperature of the body. To attain this end, it is necessary that the exhalations of the system, which are continually escaping through the pores of the skin, should be absorbed or conducted away from the person. These exudations occur in the form of sensible or insensible perspiration, and the clothing, to be healthy, should be so porous as to allow them freely to escape into the air.

A substance should also be chosen which is known to be a poor conductor of heat. That generated by the system will thus be retained where it is needed, instead of being dispersed into the atmosphere.

We might add that the better the material for accomplishing these purposes, the less will be needed to be worn; for we do not wish to wear or carry about with us any more material than is necessary. It so happens that all of these qualities are found combined in flannel. The value of this article worn next to the skin cannot be over-rated, for while it affords protection from cold during the winter months, it is equally beneficial during the heat of summer, because it imbibes the perspiration, [pg 266]and being very porous, allows it to escape. The skin always feels soft, smooth, and pliable, when it is worn; but, when cotton takes its place, it soon becomes dry and harsh. Its natural adaptability to these purposes, shows that it is equally a comfort and a source of health. Where the skin is very delicate, flannel sometimes causes irritation. In such cases a thin fabric of linen, cotton, or silk, should be worn next the skin, with flannel immediately over it. Where there is a uniform and extreme degree of heat, cotton and linen are very conducive to comfort. But they are unsuitable in a climate or season liable to sudden fluctuations in temperature.

The value of furs, where people are exposed to extreme cold, cannot be overestimated. They are much warmer than wool, and are chiefly used as wraps on going outdoors. They are too cumbrous and expensive for ordinary wear in this latitude, but in places near the poles they constitute the chief clothing of the inhabitants.

The quantity of clothing worn is another important item. The least that is necessary to keep the body well protected and evenly tempered when employed is the rule of health. Some people, instead of wearing flannels next to the body, put on other material in greater abundance, thus confining the perspiration to the skin and making the body chilly. The amount of clothing is then increased, until they are so heavily clad that they cannot exercise. It is far better to wear one thickness of flannel next to the skin, and then cotton, or woolen, for outside garments, and be able to exercise, thus allowing the blood to circulate and to assist in the warming process.

One great fault in dress consists in neglecting to properly clothe the upper extremities. Some people do not reflect upon the necessity, while others are too proud to be directed by plain common sense. In the winter season, the feet should be covered with woolen stockings. The next matter of importance, is to get a thick, broad-soled shoe, so large that it will not prevent the free circulation of the blood. Then for walking, and especially for riding, when the earth is wet and cold, or when there is snow on the ground, wear a flannel-lined rubber or "Arctic" over-shoe. Be sure and keep the feet comfortable and warm at all times.

[pg 267]Our next advice is to keep the legs warm. We were called not long ago, to see a young lady who had contracted a severe cold. She had been to an entertainment where the apartments were nicely warmed, and from thence had walked home late in the evening. We inquired into the circumstances of the case, and ascertained that she wore flannel about her chest, and that she also wore rubbers over her shoes, but the other portions of the lower extremities were protected by cotton coverings. In short, her legs were not kept warm, and she took cold by going out from warm rooms into a chilly atmosphere. A good pair of woolen leggings might have saved her much suffering. The results of insufficient protection of the lower extremities are colds, coughs, consumption, headaches, pain in the side, menstrual derangements, uterine congestion and disorders, besides disablement for the ordinary and necessary duties of life. All these may be prevented by clothing the legs suitably, and wearing comfortable flannels.

Young people can bear a low temperature of the body better than old people, because they possess greater power of endurance. But that is no reason for unnecessary exposure.

The amount of clothing should be regulated according to the heat-generating power of the individual, and also according to the susceptibility to cold. No two persons are exactly alike in these respects. But it is never proper for young people to reject the counsels of experience, or treat lightly the advice to protect themselves thoroughly against the cold. Many a parent's heart has ached as he has followed the mortal remains of a darling child to the grave, knowing that if good advice had been heeded, in all human probability, the life would have been prolonged.

The most deleterious mechanical errors in clothing are those which affect the chest and body. Tight lacing still plays too important a part in dress. It interferes with the free and healthy movements of the body, and effects a pressure which is alike injurious to the organs of respiration, circulation, and digestion. The great muscle of respiration, the diaphragm, is impeded in its motion, and is, therefore, unable to act freely. The large blood-vessels are compressed, and when the pressure is excessive the heart and lungs are also subjected to restraint [pg 268]and thrown out of their proper positions. From the compression of the liver and stomach, the functions of digestion are impeded, a distaste for solid food, flatulency and pain after eating are the unmistakable proofs of the injury which is being inflicted.

The evil effects of such pressure are not confined to actual periods of time during which this pressure is applied. They continue after it has been removed and when the chest and trunk of the body have thus been subjected to long-continued pressure they become permanently deformed. These deformities necessarily entail great suffering in child-bearing.

The evil effects of mechanical pressure on other parts of the body are not uncommon. The leg is sometimes so indented by a tight garter that the returning flow of blood through the veins is prevented, and a varicose condition of these vessels is produced.

Irregular and excessive pressure on the foot by imperfectly fitting shoes or boots produce deformities of the feet and cause much suffering. The high heels which are so common on the shoes of women and children inflict more than a local injury. Every time the body comes down upon the raised heel with its full weight a slight shock or vibration is communicated throughout the entire extent of the spinal column, and the nervous mechanism is thereby injured. Furthermore, displacements of the pelvic organs frequently result from these unnatural and absurd articles of dress. Women of fashion are subjected to much annoyance from wearing long, flowing skirts suspended from their waists to trail uselessly on the floor and gather dust. It is impossible for the wearers of these ridiculous garments to exercise their limbs properly or to breathe naturally. Indigestion, palpitation, shortness of breath, and physical degeneracy are the inevitable consequences of their folly. The skirts should always be suspended from the shoulders and not from the hips. It is especially important that the clothing of children should not fit too tightly.

It is very important that the clothing should be kept clean. That which is worn for a long time becomes saturated with the excretions and exhalations of the body, which prevent free transpiration from the pores of the skin, and thereby induce mental inactivity and depression of the physical powers. Unclear clothing may be the means of conveying disease. Scarlet [pg 269]fever has been conveyed frequently by the clothing of a nurse into a healthy family. All of the contagious diseases have been communicated by clothing contaminated in laundries.

Certain dyes which are largely used in the coloring of wearing apparel are poisonous, and give rise to local disease of the skin, accompanied in some instances, with constitutional symptoms. The principal poisonous dyes are the red and yellow aniline. A case of poisoning from wearing stockings colored with aniline dyes, in which there were severe constitutional symptoms, came under our observation at the Invalids' Hotel recently.

[pg 270]