PART III.. Boyhood and Girlhood.

BOYHOOD AND GIRLHOOD.

Just at the age 'twixt boy and youth When thought is speech and speech is truth--SCOTT

'Tis with him e'en standing water. Between man and boy--SHAKESPEARE

Standing with reluctant feet, Where the brook and river meet, Womanhood and childhood fleet--LONGFELLOW

ABLUTION, ETC.

310. Have you any remarks to make on the ablution of boys and girls?

How is it that a mother thinks it absolutely necessary (which it really is) that her babe's whole body should, every morning, be washed; and yet who does not deem it needful that her girl or boy, of twelve years old, should go through the process of daily and thorough ablution? If the one case be necessary, sure I am that the other is equally if not more needful.

Thorough ablution of the body every morning at least is essential to health. I maintain that no one can be in the enjoyment of perfect health who does not keep his skin--the whole of his skin--clean. In the absence of cleanliness, a pellicle forms on the skin which engenders disease. Moreover, a person who does not keep his skin clean is more susceptible of contracting contagious disease, such as small-pox, typhus fever, cholera, diphtheria, scarlet fever, etc.

Thorough ablution of the body is a grand requisite of I maintain that no one can be perfectly healthy unless he thoroughly wash his body--the whole of his body; if filth accumulate which, if not washed off, it is sure to do, disease must, as a matter of course, follow. Besides, ablution is a delightful process; it makes one feel fresh and sweet, and young and healthy; it makes the young look handsome, and the old look young! Thorough ablution might truly be said both to renovate and to rejuvenise! A scrupulously clean skin is one of the grand distinctive characteristics both of a lady and of a gentleman,

Dirty people are not only a nuisance to themselves, but to all around; they are not only a nuisance but a danger, as their dirty bodies are apt to carry from place to place contagious diseases.

It is important that parts that are covered should be kept cleaner than parts exposed to the air, as dirt is more apt to fester in dark places; besides, parts exposed to the air have the advantage of the air's sweetening properties; air acts as a bath, and purifies the skin amazingly.

It is desirable to commence a complete system of washing early in life, as it then becomes a second nature, and cannot afterwards be dispensed with. One accustomed to the luxury of his morning ablution, if anything prevented him from taking it, would feel most uncomfortable; he would as soon think of dispensing with his breakfast as with his bath.

Every boy, every girl, and every adult, ought each to have either a room or a dressing-room to himself or to herself, in order that he or she might strip to the skin and thoroughly wash themselves; no one can wash properly and effectually without doing so.

Now, for the paraphernalia required for the process--(1.) A large nursery basin, one that will hold six or eight quarts of water (Wedgwood's make being considered the best); (2.) A piece of coarse flannel, a yard long and half a yard wide; (3.) A large sponge; (4.) A tablet either of the best yellow or of curd soap; (5.) Two towels-one being a diaper, and the other a Turkish rubber. Now, as to the manner of performing ablution. You ought to fill the basin three parts full with rain water, then, having well-soaped and cleansed your hands, re-soap them, dip your head and face into the water, then with the soaped hands well rub and wash your head, face, neck, chest, and armpits; having done which, take the wetted sponge, and go over all the parts previously travelled over by the soaped hands; then fold the flannel, as you would a neck-kerchief, and dip it in the water, then throw it, as you would a skipping-rope, over your shoulders and move it a few times from right to left and from left to right, and up and down, and then across the back and loins; having done which, dip the sponge in the water, and holding your head over the water, let the water stream from the sponge a time or two over your head, neck, and face. Dip your head and face in the water, then put your hands and arms (as far as they will go) into the water, holding them there while you can count thirty. Having reduced the quantity of water to a third of a basinful, place the basin on the floor, and sit (while you can count fifty) in the water; then put one foot at a time in the water, and quickly rub, with soaped hands, up and down your leg, over the foot, and pass your thumb between each toe (this latter procedure tends to keep away soft corns); then take the sponge, filled with water, and squeeze it over your leg and foot, from the knee downwards,--then serve your other leg and foot in the same way. By adopting the above plan, the whole of the body will, every morning, be thoroughly washed.

A little warm water might at first, and during the winter time, be added, to take off the chill; but the sooner quite cold water is used the better. The body ought to be quickly dried (taking care to wipe between each toe), first with the diaper, and then with the Turkish rubber. In drying your back and loins, you ought to throw as you would a skipping-rope, the Turkish rubber over your shoulders, and move it a few times front side to side, until the parts be dry.

Although the above description is necessarily prolix, the washing itself ought to be very expeditiously performed; there should be no dawdling over it, otherwise the body will become chilled, and harm instead of good will be the result. If due dispatch be used, the whole of the body might, according to the above method, be thoroughly washed and dried in the space of ten minutes.

A boy ought to wash his head, as above directed, every morning, a girl, who has much hair, once a week, with soap and water, with flannel and sponge. The hair, if not frequently washed, is very dirty, and nothing is more repulsive than a dirty head!

It might be said, "Why do you go into particulars? why dwell so much upon minutiae? Every one, without being told, knows how to wash himself!" I reply, "That very few people do know how to wash themselves properly; it is a misfortune that they do not--they would be healthier and happier and sweeter if they did!"

311. Have you any remarks to make on boys and girls learning to swim?

Let me strongly urge you to let your sons and daughters be early taught to swim. Swimming is a glorious exercise--one of the best that can be taken; it expands the chest; it promotes digestion; it develops the muscles, and brings into action some muscles that in any other form of exercise are but seldom brought into play; it strengthens and braces the whole frame, and thus makes the swimmer resist the liability of catching cold; it gives both boys and girls courage, energy, and self-reliance,--splendid qualities in this rough world of ours. Swimming is oftentimes the means of saving human life; this of itself would be a great recommendation of its value. It is a delightful amusement; to breast the waves is as exhilarating to the spirits as clearing on horse-back a five-barred gate.

The art of learning to swim is quite as necessary to be learned by a girl as by a boy; the former has similar muscles, lungs, and other organs to develop as the latter.

It is very desirable that in large towns swimming-baths for ladies should be instituted. Swimming ought, then, to be a part and parcel of the education of every boy and of every girl.

Swimming does not always agree. This sometimes arises from a person being quite cold before he plunges into the water. Many people have an idea that they ought to go into the water while their bodies are in a cool state. Now this is a mistaken notion, and is likely to produce dangerous consequences. The skin ought to be comfortably warm, neither very hot nor very cold, and then the bather will receive every advantage that cold bathing can produce, If he go into the bath whilst the body is cold, the blood becomes chilled, and is driven to internal parts, and thus mischief is frequently produced.

A boy, after using cold bathing, ought, if it agree with him, to experience a pleasing glow over the whole surface of his body, his spirits and appetite should be increased, and he ought to feel stronger; but if it disagree with him, a chilliness and coldness, a lassitude and a depression of spirits, will be the result; the face will be pale and the features will be pinched, and, in some instances, the lips and the nails will become blue; all these are signs that cold bathing is injurious, and, therefore, that it ought on no account to be persevered in, unless these symptoms have hitherto proceeded from his going into the bath whilst he was quite cold. He may, previously to entering the bath, warm himself by walking briskly for a few minutes. Where cold, sea water bathing does not agree, warm sea bathing should be substituted.

312. Which do you prefer--sea bathing or fresh water bathing?

Sea bathing. Sea bathing is incomparably superior to fresh water bathing; the salt water is far more refreshing and invigorating; the battling with the waves is more exciting; the sea breezes, blowing on the nude body, breathes (for the skin is a breathing apparatus) health and strength into the frame, and comeliness into the face; the sea water and the sea breezes are splendid cosmetics; the salt water is one of the finest applications, both for strengthening the roots and brightening the colour of the hair, provided grease and pomatum have not been previously used.

313. Have you any directions to give as to the time and the seasons, and the best mode of sea bathing?

Summer and autumn are the best seasons of the year for cold sea bathing--August and September being the best months. To prepare the skin for the cold sea bathing, it would be well, before taking a dip in the sea, to have on the previous day a warm salt water bath. It is injurious, and even dangerous, to bathe immediately after a full meal; the best time to bathe is about two hours after breakfast-that is to say, at about eleven or twelve o'clock in the forenoon. The bather as soon as he enters the water, ought instantly to wet his head; this may be done either by his jumping at once from the machine into the water, or, if he have not the courage to do so, by plunging his head without loss of time completely under the water. He should remain in the water about a quarter of an hour, but never longer than half an hour. Many bathers by remaining a long time in the water do themselves great injury. If sea bathing be found to be invigorating-- and how often to the delicate it has proved to be truly magical--a patient may bathe once every day, but on no account oftener. If he be not strong, he had better, at first, bathe only every other day, or even only twice a week. The bather, after leaving the machine, ought for half an hour to take a brisk walk in order to promote a reaction, and thus to cause a free circulation of the blood.

314. Do you think a tepid bath [Footnote: A tepid bath from 62 to 96 degrees of, Fahrenheit.] may be more safely used?

A tepid bath may be taken at almost any time, and a bather may remain longer in one, with safety, than in a cold bath.

315. Do you approve of warm bathing?

A warm, bath [Footnote: A warm bath from 97 to 100 degrees of Fahrenheit] may with advantage be occasionally used--say, once a week. A warm bath cleanses the skin more effectually than either a cold or a tepid bath; but, as it is more relaxing, ought not to be employed so often as either of them. A person should not continue longer than ten minutes in a warm bath. Once a week, as a rule is quite often enough for a warm bath; and it would be an excellent plan if every boy and girl and adult would make a practice of having one regularly every week, unless any special reason should arise to forbid its use.

316. But does not warm bathing, by relaxing the pores of the skin, cause a person to catch cold if he expose himself to the air immediately afterwards?

There is, on this point, a great deal of misconception and unnecessary fear. A person, immediately after using a warm bath, should take proper precautions--that is to say, he must not expose himself to draughts, neither ought he to wash himself in cold water, nor should he, immediately after taking one, drink cold water. But he may follow his usual exercise or employment, provided the weather be fine, and the wind be neither in the east nor the north-east.

Every house of any pretension ought to have a bathroom. Nothing would be more conducive to health than regular systematic bathing. A hot and cold bath, a sitz bath, and a shower bath--each and all in their turn--are grand requisites to preserve and procure health. If the house cannot boast of a bath-room, then the Corporation Baths (which nearly every large town possesses) ought to be liberally patronised.

MANAGEMENT OF THE HAIR

317. What is the best application for the hair?

A sponge and cold water, and two good hair-brushes. Avoid grease, pomatum, bandoline, and all abominations of that kind. There is a natural oil of the hair, which is far superior to either Rowland's Macassar Oil or any other oil! The best scent for the hair is an occasional dressing of soap and water; the best beautifier of the hair is a downright thorough good brushing with two good hair brushes! Again, I say, avoid grease of all kinds to the hair. "And as for woman's hair, don't plaster it with scented and sour grease, or with any grease; it has an oil of its own. And don't tie up your hair tight, and make it like a cap of iron over your skull. And why are your ears covered? You hear all the worse, and they are not the cleaner. Besides, the ear is beautiful in itself, and plays its own part in the concert of the features." [Footnote: Health. By John Brown, M.D.]

If the hair cannot, without some application, be kept tidy, then a little castor oil, scented, might, by means of an old tooth-brush, be used to smooth it; castor oil is, for the purpose, one of the most simple and harmless of dressings; but, as I said before, the hair's own natural oil cannot be equalled, far less surpassed!

If the hair fall off, the castor oil, scented with a few drops either of otto of roses or of essence of bergamot, is a good remedy to prevent its doing so; a little of it ought, night and morning, to be well rubbed into the roots of the hair. Cocoa-nut oil is another excellent application for the falling off of the hair, and can never do harm, which is more than can be said of many vaunted remedies for the Hair!

CLOTHING.

318. Do you approve of a boy wearing flannel next to the skin?

England is so variable a climate, and the changes from heat to cold, and from dryness to moisture of the atmosphere, are so sudden, that some means are required to guard against their effects. Flannel, as it is a bad conductor of heat, prevents the sudden changes from affecting the body, and thus is a great preservative against cold.

Flannel is as necessary in the summer as in the winter time; indeed, we are more likely both to sit and to stand in draughts in the summer than in the winter; and thus we are more liable to become chilled and to catch cold.

Woollen shirts are now much worn; they are very comfortable and beneficial to health. Moreover, they simplify the dress, as they supersede the necessity of wearing either both flannel and linen, or flannel and calico shirts.

319. Flannel sometimes produces great irritation of the skin: what ought to be done to prevent it?

Have a moderately fine flannel, and persevere in its use; the skin in a few days will bear it comfortably. The Angola and wove-silk waistcoats have been recommended as substitutes, but there is nothing equal to the old-fashioned Welsh flannel.

320. If a boy have delicate lungs, do you approve of his wearing a prepared hare-skin over the chest?

I do not: the chest may be kept too warm as well as too cold. The hare-skin heats the chest too much, and thereby promotes a violent perspiration; which, by his going into the cold air, may become suddenly checked, and may thus produce mischief. If the chest be delicate, there is nothing like flannel to ward off colds.

321. After an attack of Rheumatic Fever, what extra clothing do you advise?

In the case of a boy, or a girl, just recovering from a severe attack of Rheumatic Fever, flannel next the skin ought always, winter and summer, to be worn--flannel drawers as well as a flannel vest.

322. Have you any remarks to make on boys' waistcoats?

Fashion in this, as in most other instances, is at direct variance with common sense. It would seem that fashion was intended to make work for the doctor, and to swell the bills of mortality! It might be asked, What part of the chest, in particular, ought to be kept warm? The upper part needs it most. It is in the upper part of the lungs that tubercles (consumption) usually first make their appearance; and is it not preposterous to have such parts, in particular, kept cool?

Double-breasted waistcoats cannot be too strongly recommended for delicate youths, and for all men who have weak chests.

323. Have you any directions to give respecting the shoes and the stockings?

The shoes for winter should be moderately thick and waterproof. If boys and girls be delicate, they ought to have double soles to their shoes, with a piece of bladder between each sole, or the inner sole may be made of cork; either of the above plans will make the soles of boots and shoes completely water-proof. In wet or dirty weather India-rubber over-shoes are useful, as they keep the upper as well as the under leathers perfectly dry.

The socks, or stockings, for winter, ought to be either lambs-wool or worsted; it is absurd to wear cotton socks or stockings all the year round. I should advise a boy to wear socks not stockings, as he will then be able to dispense with garters. Garters, as I have remarked in a previous Conversation, are injurious--they not only interfere with the circulation of the blood, but also, by pressure, injure the bones, and thus the shape of the legs.

Boys and girls cannot be too particular in keeping their feet warm and dry, as cold wet feet are one of the most frequent exciting causes of bronchitis, of sore throats, and of consumption.

324. When should a girl begin to wear stays?

She ought never to wear them.

325. Do not stays strengthen the body?

No; on the contrary, they weaken it (1.) They, weaken the muscles. The pressure upon them causes them to waste; so that, in the end, a girl cannot do without them, as the stays are then obliged to perform the duty of the wasted muscles. (2.) They weaken the lungs by interfering with their functions. Every inspiration is accompanied by a movement of the ribs. If this movement be impeded, the functions of the lungs are impeded likewise, and, consequently, disease is likely to follow, and either difficulty of breathing, or cough, or consumption, may ensue. (3) They weaken the heart's action, and thus frequently produce palpitation, and, perhaps, eventually, organic or incurable disease of the heart (4) They weaken the digestion, by pushing down the stomach and the liver, and by compressing the latter, and thus induce indigestion, flatulence, and liver-disease. [Footnote: Several years ago, while prosecuting my anatomical studies in London University College Dissecting rooms, on opening a young women, I discovered an immense indentation of the liver large enough to admit a rolling pin, produced by tight lacing!] (5) They weaken the bowels, by impeding their proper peristaltic (spiral) motion, and thus might produce either constipation or a rupture. Is it not presumptuous to imagine that man can improve upon God's works, and that if more support had been required, the Almighty would not have given it?--

"God never made his work for man to mend"--Dryden.

326. Have you any remarks to make on female dress?

There is a perfect disregard of health in everything appertaining to fashion. Parts that ought to be kept warm, remain unclothed, the upper portion of the chest, most prone to tubercles (consumption), is completely exposed, the feet, great inlets to cold, are covered with thin stockings, and with shoes as thin as paper. Parts that should have full play are cramped and hampered, the chest is cribbed in with stays, the feet with tight shoes,--hence causing deformity, and preventing a free circulation of blood. The mind, that ought to be calm and unruffled, is kept in a constant state of excitement by balls, and concerts, and plays. Mind and body sympathise with each other, and disease is the consequence. Night is turned into day, and a delicate girl leaves the heated ball room, decked out in her airy finery, to breathe the damp and cold air of night. She goes to bed, but, for the first few hours, she is too much excited to sleep, towards morning, when the air is pure and invigorating, and, when to breathe it, would be to inhale health and life, she falls into a feverish slumber, and wakes not until noon-day. Oh, that a mother should be so blinded and so infatuated!

327. Have you any observations to make on a girl wearing a green dress?

It is injurious to wear a green dress, if the colour have been imparted to it by means of Scheele's green, which is arsenite of copper--a deadly poison. I have known the arsenic to fly off from a green dress in the form of powder, and to produce, in consequence, ill-health. Gas-light green is a lovely green, and free from all danger, and is fortunately superseding the Scheele's green both in dresses and in worsted work. I should advise my fair reader, when she selects green as her colour, always to choose the gas-light green, and to wear and to use for worsted work no other green besides, unless it be imperial green.

DIET.

328. Which is the more wholesome, coffee or tea, where milk does not agree, for a youth's breakfast?

Coffee, provided it be made properly, and provided the boy or the girl take a great deal of out-door exercise; if a youth be much confined within doors, black tea is preferable to coffee. The usual practice of making coffee is to boil it, to get out the strength! But the fact is, the process of boiling boils the strength away; it drives off that aromatic, grateful principle, so wholesome to the stomach, and so exhilarating to the spirits; and, in lieu of which, extracts its dregs and impurities, which are both heavy and difficult of digestion. The coffee ought, if practicable, to be freshly ground every morning, in order that you may be quite sure that it be perfectly genuine, and that none of the aroma of the coffee has flown off from long exposure to the atmosphere. If a youth's bowels be inclined to be costive, coffee is preferable to tea for breakfast, as coffee tends to keep the bowels regular. Fresh milk ought always to be added to the coffee in the proportion of half coffee and half new milk. If coffee does not agree, then black tea should be substituted, which ought to be taken with plenty of fresh milk in it. Milk may be frequently given in tea, when it otherwise would disagree.

When a youth is delicate, it is an excellent plan to give him, every morning before he leaves his bed, a tumblerful of new milk. The draught of milk, of course, is not in any way to interfere with his regular breakfast.

329. Do you approve of a boy eating meat with his breakfast?

This will depend upon the exercise he uses. If he have had a good walk or run before breakfast, or if he intend, after breakfast, to take plenty of athletic out-door exercise, meat, or a rasher or two of bacon, may, with advantage, be eaten; but not otherwise.

330. What is the best dinner for a youth?

Fresh mutton or beef, a variety of vegetables, and a farinaceous pudding. It is a bad practice to allow him to dine, exclusively, either on a fruit pudding, or on any other pudding, or on pastry. Unless he be ill, he must, if he is to be healthy, strong, and courageous, eat meat every day of his life. "All courageous animals are carnivorous, and greater courage is to be expected in a people, such as the English, whose food is strong and hearty, than in the half-starved commonalty of other countries."--Sir W. Temple.

Let him be debarred from rich soups and from high-seasoned dishes, which only disorder the stomach and inflame the blood. It is a mistake to give a boy or a girl broth or soup, in lieu of meat for dinner; the stomach takes such slops in a discontented way, and is not at all satisfied. It may be well, occasionally, to give a youth with his dinner, in addition to his meat, either good soup or good broth not highly seasoned, made of good meat stock. But after all that can be said on the subject, a plain joint of meat, either roast or boiled, is far superior for health and strength than either soup or broth, let it be ever so good or so well made.

He should be desired to take plenty of time over his dinner, so that he may be able to chew his food well, and thus that it may be reduced to an impalpable mass, and be well mixed with the saliva,--which the action of the jaws will cause to be secreted--before it passes into the stomach. If such were usually the case, the stomach would not have double duty to perform, and a boy would not so frequently lay the foundation of indigestion, etc., which may embitter, and even make miserable, his after-life. Meat, plain pudding, vegetables, bread, and hunger for sauce (which exercise will readily give), is the best, and, indeed, should be, as a rule, the only dinner he should have. A youth ought not to dine later than two o'clock.

331. Do you consider broths and soups wholesome?

The stomach can digest solid much more readily than it can liquid food; on which account the dinner, specified above, is far preferable to one either of broth or of soup. Fluids in large quantities too much dilute the gastric juice, and over-distend the stomach, and hence weaken it, and thus produce indigestion: indeed, it might truly be said that the stomach often takes broths and soups in a grumbling way!

332. Do you approve of a boy drinking beer with his dinner?

There is no objection to a little good, mild table-beer, but strong ale ought never to be allowed. It is, indeed, questionable whether a boy, unless he take unusual exercise, requires anything but water with his meals.

333. Do you approve of a youth, more especially if he be weakly, having a glass or two of wine after dinner?

I disapprove of it: his young blood does not require to be inflamed, and his sensitive nerves excited, with wine; and, if he he delicate, I should be sorry to endeavour to strengthen him by giving him such an inflammable fluid. If he be weakly, he is more predisposed to put on either fever or inflammation of some organ; and, being thus predisposed, wine would be likely to excite either the one or the other of them into action.

"Wine and youth are fire upon fire."--Fielding.

A parent ought on no account to allow a boy to touch spirits, however much diluted; they are, to the young, still more deadly in their effects than wine.

334. Have you any objection to a youth drinking tea?

Not at all, provided it be not green tea, that it be not made strong, and that it have plenty of milk in it. Green tea is apt to make people nervous, and boys and girls ought not even to know what it is to be nervous.

335. Do you object to supper for a youth?

Meat suppers are highly prejudicial. If he be hungry (and if he have been much in the open air, he is almost sure to be), a piece of bread and cheese, or of bread and butter, with a draught either of new milk or of table beer, will form the best supper he can have. He ought not to sup later than eight o'clock.

336. Do you approve of a boy having anything between meals?

I do not; let him have four meals a day, and he will require nothing in the intervals. It is a mistaken notion that "little and often is best," The stomach requires rest as much as, or perhaps more than (for it is frequently sadly over-worked) any other part of the body. I do not mean that he is to have "much and seldom:" moderation, in everything, is to be observed. Give him as much as a growing boy requires (and that is a great deal), but do not let him eat gluttonously, as many indulgent parents encourage their children to do. Intemperance in eating cannot be too strongly condemned.

337. Have you any objection to a boy having pocket money?

It is a bad practice to allow a boy much pocket money; if he be so allowed, he will be loading his stomach with sweets, fruit, and pastry, and thus his stomach will become cloyed and disordered, and the keen appetite, so characteristic of youth, will be blunted, and ill-health will ensue. "In a public education, boys early learn intemperance, and if the parents and friends would give them less money upon their usual visits, it would be much to their advantage, since it may justly be said that a great part of their disorders arise from surfeit, 'plus occidit gula quam gladius' (gluttony kills more than the sword)."--Goldsmith.

How true is the saying that "many people dig their graves with their teeth." You may depend upon it that more die from stuffing than from starvation! There would be little for doctors to do if there were not so much stuffing and imbibing of strong drinks going on in the world!

AIR AND EXERCISE.

338. Have you any remarks to make on fresh air and exercise for boys and girls?

Girls and boys, especially the former, are too much confined within doors. It is imperatively necessary, if you wish them to be strong and healthy, that they should have plenty of fresh air and exercise; remember, I mean fresh air--country air, not the close air of a town. By exercise, I mean the free unrestrained use of their limbs. Girls, in this respect, are unfortunately worse off than boys, although they have similar muscles to develop, similar lungs that require fresh air, and similar nerves to be braced and strengthened. It is not considered lady-like to be natural--all then: movements must be measured by rule and compass!

The reason why so many young girls of the present day are so sallow, under-sized, and ill-shaped, is for the want of air and exercise. After a time the want of air and exercise, by causing ill health, makes them slothful and indolent-it is a trouble for them to move from their chairs!

Respiration, digestion, and a proper action of the bowels, imperatively demand fresh air and exercise. Ill health will inevitably ensue if boys and girls are cooped up a great part of the day in a close room. A distinguished writer of the present day says: "The children of the very poor are always out and about. In this respect they are an example to those careful mammas who keep their children, the whole day long, in their chairs, reading, writing, ciphering, drawing, practising music lessons, doing crotchet work, or anything, in fact, except running about in spite of the sunshine always peeping in and inviting them out of doors; and who, in the due course of time, are surprised to find their children growing up with incurable heart, head, lung, or stomach complaints."

339. What is the lest exercise for a youth?

Walking or running: provided either of them be not carried to fatigue,--the slightest approach to it should warn a youth to desist from carrying it further. Walking exercise is not sufficiently insisted upon. A boy or a girl, to be in the enjoyment of good health, ought to walk at least ten miles every day. I do not mean ten miles at a stretch, but at different times of the day. Some young ladies think it an awfully long walk if they manage a couple of miles! How can they, with such exercise, expect to be well? How can their muscles be developed? How can their nerves be braced? How can their spines be strengthened and be straight? How can their blood course merrily through their blood-vessels? How can their chests expand and be strong? Why, it is impossible! Ill health must be the penalty of such indolence, for Nature will not be trifled with! Walking exercise, then, is the finest exercise that can be taken, and must be taken, and that without stint, if boys and girls are to be strong and well! The advantage of our climate is, that there is not a day in the whole year that walking exercise cannot be enjoyed. I use the term enjoyed advisedly. The roads may, of course, be dirty; but what of that A good thick pair of boots will be the remedy.

Do then, let me entreat you, insist upon your--girls and boys taking plenty of exercise; let them almost live in the open air! Do not coddle them; this is a rough; world of ours, and they must rough it; they must be knocked about a great deal, and the knocks will do them, good. Poor youths who are, as it were, tied to their mother's apron strings, are much to be pitied; they are usually puny and delicate, and effeminate, and utterly deficient of self-reliance.

340. Do you approve of--horse or pony exercise for boys and girls?

Most certainly I do; but still it ought not to supersede walking. Horse or pony exercise is very beneficial, and cannot be too strongly recommended. One great advantage for those living in towns, which it has over walking, is, that a person may go further into the country, and thus be enabled to breathe a purer and more healthy atmosphere. Again, it is a much more amusing exercise than walking, and this, for the young, is a great consideration indeed.

Horse exercise is for both boys and girls a splendid exercise; it improves the figure, it gives grace to the movements, it strengthens the chest, it braces the muscles, and gives to the character energy and courage. Both boys and girls ought to be early taught to ride. There is nothing that gives more pleasure to the young than riding either on a pony or on a horse, and for younger children, even on that despised, although useful animal, a donkey. Exercise, taken with pleasure, is doubly beneficial.

If girls were to ride more on horseback than they now do, we should hear less of crooked spines and of round shoulders, of chlorosis and of hysteria, and of other numerous diseases of that class, owing, generally, to debility and to mismanagement.

Those ladies who "affect the saddle" are usually much healthier, stronger, and straighter than those who either never or but seldom ride on horseback.

Siding on horseback is both an exercise and an amusement, and is peculiarly suitable for the fair sex, more especially as their modes of exercise are somewhat limited, ladies being excluded from following many games, such as cricket, and foot-ball, both of which are practised, with such zest and benefit, by the rougher sex.

341. Do you approve of carriage exercise?

There is no muscular exertion in carriage exercise; its principal advantage is, that it enables a person to have a change of air, which may be purer than the one he is in the habit of breathing. But, whether it be so or not, change of air frequently does good, even, if the air be not so pure. Carriage exercise, therefore, does only partial good, and ought never to supersede either walking or horse exercise.

342. What is the best time of the day, for the taking of exercise?

In the summer time, early in the morning and before breakfast, as "cool morning air exhilarates young blood like wine." If a boy cannot take exercise upon an empty stomach, let him have a slice of bread and a draught of milk. When he returns home he will be able to do justice to his breakfast. In fine weather he cannot take too much exercise, provided it be not carried to fatigue.

343. What is the best time for him to keep quiet?

He ought not to take exercise immediately after--say for half an hour after--a hearty meal, or it will be likely to interfere with his digestion.

AMUSEMENTS.

344. What amusements do you recommend for a boy as being most beneficial to health?

Manly games--such as rowing, skating, cricket, quoits, foot-ball, rackets, single-stick, bandy, bowls, skittles, and all gymnastic exercises. Such games bring the muscles into proper action, and thus cause them to be fully developed. They expand and strengthen the chest; they cause a due circulation of the blood, making it to bound merrily through the blood-vessels, and thus to diffuse health and happiness in its course. Another excellent amusement for boys, is the brandishing of clubs. They ought to be made in the form of a constable's staff, but should be much larger and heavier. The manner of handling them is so graphically described by Addison that I cannot do better than transcribe it--"When I was some years younger than I am at present, I used to employ myself in a more laborious diversion, which I learned from a Latin treatise of exercises that is written with great erudition; it is there called the [Greek: skiomachia] or the fighting with a man's own shadow, and consists in the brandishing of two short sticks grasped in each hand, and loaded with plugs of lead at either end. This opens the chest, exercises the limbs, and gives a man all the pleasure of boxing without the blows. I could wish that several learned men would lay out that time which they employ in controversies and disputes about nothing, in this method of fighting with their own shadows. It might conduce very much to evaporate the spleen which makes them uneasy to the public as well as to themselves."

Another capital, healthful game is single-stick, which makes a boy "to gain an upright and elastic carriage, and to learn the use of his limbs."--H. Kingsley. Single-stick may be taught by any drill-sergeant in the neighbourhood. Do everything to make a boy strong. Remember, "the glory of young men is their strength."

If games were more patronised in youth, so many miserable, nervous, useless creatures would not abound. Let a boy or girl, then, have plenty of play; let half of his or her time be spent in play.

There ought to be a gymnasium established in every town of the kingdom. The gymnasium, the cricket ground, and the swimming bath, are among our finest establishments, and should be patronised accordingly.

First of all, by an abundance of exercise and fresh air make your boys and girls strong, and then, in due time, they will be ready and be able to have their minds properly cultivated. Unfortunately, in this enlightened age, we commence at the wrong end--we put the cart before the horse--we begin by cultivating the mind, and we leave the body to be taken care of afterwards; the results are, broken health, precocious, stunted, crooked, and deformed youths, and premature decay.

One great advantage of gymnastic exercise is, it makes the chest expand, it fills the lungs with air, and by doing so strengthens them amazingly, and wards off many diseases. The lungs are not sufficiently exercised and expanded; boys and girls, girls especially, do not as a rule half fill their lungs with air; now air to the lungs is food to the lungs, and portions of the lungs have not half their proper food, and in consequence suffer.

It is very desirable that every boy and girl should, every day of his or her life, and for a quarter of an hour at least each time, go through a regular breathing exercise--that is to say, should be made to stand upright, throw back the shoulders, and the while alternately and regularly fully fill and fully empty the lungs of air. If this plan were daily followed, the chest and lungs would be wonderfully invigorated, and the whole body benefited.

345. Is playing the flute, blowing the bugle, or any other wind instrument, injurious to health?

Decidedly so: the lungs and the windpipe are brought into unnatural action by them. If a boy be of a consumptive habit, this will, of course, hold good with tenfold force. If a youth must be musical let him be taught singing, as that, provided the lungs be not diseased, will be beneficial.

346. What amusements do you recommend for a girl?

Archery, skipping, horse exercise, croquet, the hand-swing, the fly-pole, skating, and dancing, are among the best. Archery expands the chest, throws back the shoulders, thus improving the figure, and develops the muscles. Skipping is exceedingly good exercise for a girl, every part of the body being put into action by it Horse exercise is splendid for a girl; it improves the figure amazingly--it is most exhilarating and amusing; moreover, it gives her courage and makes her self-reliant Croquet develops and improves the muscles of the arms, beautifies the complexion, strengthens the back, and throws out the chest. Croquet is for girls and women what cricket is for boys and men--a glorious game. Croquet has improved both the health and the happiness of womankind more than any game ever before invented. Croquet, in the bright sunshine, with the winds of heaven blowing about the players, is not like a ball in a stifling hot ball-room, with gas-lights poisoning the air. Croquet is a more sensible amusement than dancing; it brings the intellect as well as the muscles into play. The man who invented croquet has deserved greater glory, and has done more good to his species, than many philosophers whose names are emblazoned in story. Hand-swing is a capital exercise for a girl, the whole of the body is thrown into action by it, and the spine, the shoulders, and the shoulder-blades, are especially benefited. The fly-pole, too, is good exercise for the whole of the muscles of the body, especially of the legs and the arms. Skating is for a girl excellent exercise, and is as exhilarating as a glass of champagne, but will do her far more good! Skating improves the figure, and makes a girl balance and carry herself upright and well; it is a most becoming exercise for her, and is much in every way to be commended. Moreover, skating gives a girl courage and self-reliance. Dancing, followed as a rational amusement, causes a free circulation of the blood, and provided it does not induce her to sit up late at night, is most beneficial.

347. If dancing be so beneficial why are balls such fruitful sources of coughs, of cold, and consumptions?

On many accounts. They induce young ladies to sit up late at night; they cause them to dress more lightly than they are accustomed to do; and thus thinly clad, they leave their homes while the weather is perhaps piercingly cold, to plunge into a suffocating, hot ballroom, made doubly injurious by the immense number of lights, which consume the oxygen intended for the due performance of the healthy functions of the lungs. Their partners, the brilliancy of the scene, and the music, excite their nerves to undue and thus to unnatural, action, and what is the consequence? Fatigue, weakness, hysterics, and extreme depression follow. They leave the heated ball-room when the morning has far advanced, to breathe the bitterly cold and frequently damp air of a winter's night, and what is the result? Hundreds die of consumption, who might otherwise have lived. Ought there not, then, to be a distinction between a ball at midnight and a dance in the evening?

348. But still, would you have a girl brought up to forego the pleasure of a ball?

If a parent prefer her so-called pleasures to her health, certainly not; to such a mother I do not address myself.

349. Have you any remarks to make on singing, or on reading aloud?

Before a mother allows her daughter to take lessons in singing, she should ascertain that there be no actual disease of the lungs, for if there be, it will probably excite it into action; but if no disease exist, singing or reading aloud is very conducive to health. Public singers are seldom known to die of consumption. Singing expands the chest, improves the pronunciation, enriches the voice for conversation, strengthens the lungs, and wards off many of their diseases.

350. Do you approve of corporal punishments in schools?

I do not. I consider it to be decidedly injurious both to body and mind. Is it not painful to witness the pale cheeks and the dejected looks of those boys who are often flogged? If their tempers are mild, their spirits are broken; if their dispositions are at all obstinate, they become hardened and wilful, and are made little better than brutes. [Footnote: "I would have given him, Captain Fleming, had he been my son," quoth old Pearson the elder, "such's good sound drubbing as he never would have forgotten--never!"

"Pooh! pooh! my good sir. Don't tell me. Never saw flogging in the navy do good. Kept down brutes; never made a man yet."--Dr Norman Macleod in Good Words, May 1861.] A boy who is often flogged loses that noble ingenuousness and fine sensibility so characteristic of youth. He looks upon his school as his prison, and his master as his gaoler, and as he grows up to manhood, hates and despises the man who has flogged him. Corporal punishment is revolting, disgusting, and demoralising to the boy; and is degrading to the schoolmaster as a man and as a Christian,

If schoolmasters must flog, let them flog their own sons. If they must ruin the tempers, the dispositions, and the constitution of boys, they have more right to practise upon their own than on other people's children! Oh! that parents would raise--and that without any uncertain sound--their voices against such abominations, and the detestable cane would soon be banished the school-room! "I am confident that no boy," says Addison, "who will not be allured by letters without blows, will never be brought to anything with them. A great or good mind must necessarily be the worse for such indignities; and it is a sad change to lose of its virtue for the improvement of its knowledge. No one has gone through what they call a great school, but must have remembered to have seen children of excellent and ingenuous natures (as have afterwards appeared in their manhood). I say, no man has passed through this way of education but must have seen an ingenuous creature expiring with shame, with pale looks, beseeching sorrow, and silent tears, throw up its honest sighs, and kneel on its tender knees to an inexorable blockhead, to be forgiven the false quantity of a word in making a Latin verse. The child is punished, and the next day he commits a like crime, and so a third, with the same consequence. I would fain ask any reasonable man whether this lad, in the simplicity of his native innocence, full of shame, and capable of any impression from that grace of soul, was not fitter for any purpose in this life than after that spark of virtue is extinguished in him, though he is able to write twenty verses in an evening?"

How often is corporal punishment resorted to at school because the master is in a passion, and he vents his rage upon the poor school-boy's unfortunate back!

Oh! the mistaken notion that flogging will make a bad-behaved boy a good boy; it has the contrary effect. "'I dunno how 'tis, sir,' said an old farm labourer, in reply to a question from his clergyman respecting the bad behaviour of his children, 'I dunno how 'tis; I beats 'em till they're black and blue, and when they won't kneel down to pray I knocks 'em down, and yet they ain't good.'"--The Birmingham Journal.

In an excellent article in Temple Bar(November 1864) on flogging in the army, the following sensible remarks occur:--"In nearly a quarter of a century's experience with soldiers, the writer has always, and without a single exception, found flogging makes a good man bad, and a bad man worse." With equal truth it may be said that, without a single exception, flogging makes a good boy bad, and a bad boy worse. How many men owe their ferocity to the canings they received when school-boys! The early floggings hardened and soured them, and blunted their sensibility.

Dr Arnold of Rugby, one of the best schoolmasters that England ever produced, seldom caned a boy--not more than once or twice during the half year; but when he did cane him, he charged for the use of the cane each time in the bill, in order that the parents might know how many times their son had been punished. At some of our public schools now-a-days, a boy is caned as many times in a morning as the worthy doctor would have caned him during the whole half year; but then, the doctor treated the boys as gentlemen, and trusted much to their honour; but now many schoolmasters trust much to fear, little to honour, and treat them as brute beasts.

It might be said that the discipline of a school cannot be maintained unless the boys be frequently caned, that it must be either caning or expulsion. I deny these assertions. Dr Arnold was able to conduct his school with honour to himself, and with immense benefit to the rising generation, without either frequent canings or expulsions. The humane plan, however, requires at first both trouble and patience; and trouble some schoolmasters do not like, and patience they do not possess; the use of the cane is quick, sharp, decisive, and at the time effective.

If caning be ever necessary, which it might occasionally be, for the telling of lies for instance, or for gross immorality, let the head master himself be the only one to perform the operation, but let him not be allowed to delegate it to others. A law ought in all public schools to be in force to that effect. High time that something were done to abate such disgraceful practices.

Never should a schoolmaster, or any one else, be allowed, on any pretence whatever, to strike a boy upon his head. Boxing of the ears has sometimes caused laceration of the drum of the ear, and consequent partial deafness for life. Boxing of the ears injures the brain, and therefore the intellect.

It might be said, that I am travelling out of my province in making remarks on corporal chastisement in schools? But, with deference, I reply that I am strictly in the path of duty. My office is to inform you of everything that is detrimental to your children's health and happiness; and corporal punishment is assuredly most injurious both to their health and happiness. It is the bounden duty of every man, and especially of every medical man, to lift up his voice against the abominable, disgusting, and degrading system of flogging, and to warn parents of the danger and the mischief of sending boys to those schools where flogging is, except in rare and flagrant cases, permitted.

351. Have you any observations to make on the selection, of a female boarding-school?

Home education, where it be practicable, is far preferable to sending a girl to school; as at home, her health, her morals, and her household duties, can be attended to much more effectually than from home. Moreover, it is a serious injury to a girl, in more ways than one, to separate her from her own brothers: they very much lose their affection for each other, and mutual companionship (so delightful and beneficial between brothers and sisters) is severed.

If home education be not practicable, great care must be taken in making choice of a school. Boarding school education requires great reformation. Accomplishments, superficial acquirements, and brain-work, are the order of the day; health is very little studied. You ought, in the education of your daughters, to remember that they, in a few years, will be the wives and the mothers of England; and, if they have not health and strength, and a proper knowledge of household duties to sustain their characters, what useless, listless wives and mothers they will make!

Remember, then, the body, and not the mind, ought, in early life, to be principally cultivated and strengthened, and that the growing brain will not bear, with impunity, much book learning. The brain of a school-girl is frequently injured by getting up voluminous questions by rote, that are not of the slightest use or benefit to her, or to any one else. Instead of this ridiculous system, educate a girl to be useful and self-reliant. "From babyhood they are given to understand that helplessness is feminine and beautiful; helpfulness, except in certain received forms of manifestation, unwomanly and ugly. The boys may do a thousand things which are 'not proper for little girls.'"--A Woman's Thoughts about Women.

From her twelfth to her seventeenth year, is the most important epoch of a girl's existence, as regards her future health, and consequently, in a great measure, her future happiness; and one, in which, more than at any other period of her life, she requires a plentiful supply of fresh air, exercise, recreation, a variety of innocent amusements, and an abundance of good nourishment--more especially of fresh meat; if therefore you have determined on sending your girl to school, you must ascertain that the pupils have as much plain wholesome nourishing food as they can eat, [Footnote: If a girl have an abundance of good nourishment, the schoolmistress must, of coarse, be remunerated for the necessary and costly expense; and how can this be done on the paltry sum charged at cheap boarding schools? It is utterly impossible! And what are we to expect from poor and insufficient nourishment to a fast-growing girl, and at the time of life, remember, when she requires an extra quantity of good sustaining, supporting food? A poor girl, from such treatment, becomes either consumptive or broken down in constitution, and from which she never recovers, but drags on a miserable existence.] that the school be situated in a healthy spot, that it be well-drained, that there be a large play-ground attached to it, that the young people are allowed plenty of exercise in the open air--indeed, that at least one-third of the day is spent there in croquet, skipping, archery, battle-dore and shuttlecock, gardening, walking, running, &c.

Take care that the school-rooms are well-ventilated, that they are not over-crowded, and that the pupils are allowed chairs to sit upon, and not those abominations--forms and stools. If you wish to try the effect of them upon yourselves, sit for a couple of hours without stirring upon a form or upon a stool, and, take my word for it, you will insist that forms and stools be banished for ever from the schoolroom.

Assure yourself that the pupils are compelled to rise early in the morning, and that they retire early to rest; that each young lady has a separate bed [Footnote: A horse-hair mattress should always be preferred to a feather-bed. It is not only better for the health, but it improves the figure] and that many are not allowed to sleep in the same room, and that the apartments are large and well-ventilated. In fine, their health and their morals ought to be preferred far above all their accomplishments.

352. They use, in some schools, straight-backed chairs to make a girl sit upright, and to give strength to her back: do you approve of them?

Certainly not: the natural and the graceful curve of the back is not the curve of a straight-backed chair. Straight-backed chairs are instruments of torture, and are more likely to make a girl crooked than to make her straight. Sir Astley Cooper ridiculed straight-backed chairs, and well he might. It is always well for a mother to try, for some considerable time, such ridiculous inventions upon herself before she experiments upon her unfortunate daughter. The position is most unnatural. I do not approve of a girl lounging and lolling on a sofa; but, if she be tired and wants to rest herself, let her, like any other reasonable being, sit upon a comfortable ordinary chair.

If you want her to be straight, let her be made strong; and if she is to be strong, she must use plenty of exercise and exertion, such as drilling, dancing, skipping, archery, croquet, hand-swinging, horse-exercise, swimming, bowls, etc. This is the plan to make her back straight and her muscles strong. Why should we bring up a girl differently from a boy? Muscular exercises, gymnastic performances, and health-giving exertion, are unladylike, forsooth!

HOUSEHOLD WORK FOR GIRLS.

353. Do you recommend household work as a means of health for my daughter?

Decidedly: whatever you do, do not make a fine lady of her, or she will become puny and delicate, listless, and miserable. A girl, let her station be what it might, ought, as soon as she be old enough, to make her own bed. There is no better exercise to expand the figure and to beautify the shape than is bed-making. Let her make tidy her own room. Let her use her hands and her arms. Let her, to a great extent, be self-reliant, and let her wait upon herself. There is nothing vulgar in her being useful. Let me ask, of what use are many girls of the present day? They are utterly useless. Are they happy? No, for the want of employment, they are miserable--I mean bodily employment, household work. Many girls, now-a-days, unfortunately, are made to look upon a pretty face, dress, and accomplishments, as the only things needed! And, when they do become women and wives--if ever they do become women and wives--what miserable lackadaisical wives, and what senseless, useless mothers they will make!

CHOICE OF PROFESSION OR TRADE.

354. What profession or trade would you recommend a boy of a delicate or of a consumptive habit to follow?

If a youth be delicate, it is a common practice among parents either to put him to some light in-door trade, or, if they can afford it, to one of the learned professions. Such a practice is absurd, and fraught with danger. The close confinement of an in-door trade is highly prejudicial to health. The hard reading requisite to fit a man to fill, for instance, the sacred office, only increases delicacy of constitution. The stooping at a desk, in an attorney's office, is most trying to the chest. The harass, the anxiety, the disturbed nights, the interrupted meals, and the intense study necessary to fit a man for the medical profession, is still more dangerous to health than either law, divinity, or any in-door trade. "Sir Walter Scott says of the country surgeon, that he is worse fed and harder wrought than any one else in the parish, except it be his fiorse."--Brown's Horoe Subsecivoe.

A modern writer, speaking of the life of a medical man, observes, "There is no career which so rapidly wears away the powers of life, because there is no other which requires a greater activity of mind and body. He has to bear the changes of weather, continued fatigue, irregularity in his meals, and broken rest; to live in the midst of miasma and contagion. If in the country, he has to traverse considerable distances on horseback, exposed to wind and storm; to brave all dangers to go to the relief of suffering humanity. A fearful truth for medical men has been established by the table of mortality of Dr. Caspar, published in the British Review. Of 1000 members of the medical profession, 600 died before their sixty-second year; whilst of persons leading a quiet life--such as agriculturists or theologians--the mortality is only 347. If we take 100 individuals of each of these classes, 43 theologians, 40 agriculturists, 35 clerks, 32 soldiers, will reach their seventieth year; of 100 professors of the healing art, 24 only will reach that age. They are the sign-posts to health; they can show the road to old age, but rarely tread it themselves."

If a boy, therefore, be of a delicate or of a consumptive habit, an out-door calling should be advised, such as that of a farmer, of a tanner, or a land-surveyor; but, if he be of an inferior station of society, the trade of a butcher may be recommended. Tanners and butchers are seldom known to die of consumption.

I cannot refrain from reprobating the too common practice among parents of bringing up their boys to the professions. The anxieties and the heartaches which they undergo if they do not succeed (and how can many of them succeed when there is such a superabundance of candidates?) materially injure their health. "I very much wonder," says Addison, "at the humour of parents, who will not rather choose to place their sons in a way of life where an honest industry cannot but thrive, than in stations where the greatest probity, learning, and good sense, may miscarry. How many men are country curates, that might have made themselves aldermen of London by a right improvement of a smaller sum of money than what is usually laid out upon a learned education? A sober, frugal person, of slender parts and a slow apprehension, might have thrived in trade, though he starves upon physic; as a man would be well enough pleased to buy silks of one whom he could not venture to feel his pulse. Vagellius is careful, studious, and obliging, but withal a little thick-skulled; he has not a single client, but might have had abundance of customers. The misfortune is that parents take a liking to a particular profession, and therefore desire their sons may be of it; whereas, in so great an affair of life, they should consider the genius and abilities of their children more than their own inclinations. It is the great advantage of a trading nation, that there are very few in it so dull and heavy who may not be placed in stations of life which may give them an opportunity of making their fortunes. A well-regulated commerce is not, like law, physic, or divinity, to be overstocked with hands; but, on the contrary, flourishes by multitudes, and gives employment to all its professors. Fleets of merchantmen are so many squadrons of floating shops, that vend our wares and manufactures in all the markets of the world, and find out chapmen under both the tropics."

355. Then, do you recommend a delicate youth to be brought up either to a profession or to a trade?

Decidedly; there is nothing so injurious for a delicate boy, or for anyone else, as idleness. Work, in moderation, enlivens the spirits, braces the nerves, and gives tone to the muscles, and thus strengthens the constitution. Of all miserable people, the idle boy, or the idle man, is the most miserable! If you be poor, of course you will bring him up to some calling; but if you be rich, and your boy be delicate (if he be not actually in a consumption), you will, if you are wise, still bring him up to some trade or profession. You will, otherwise, be making a rod for your own as well as for your son's back. Oh, what a blessed thing is work!

356. Have you any remarks to make on the sleep of boys and girls?

Sleeping-rooms, are, generally, the smallest in the house, whereas, for health's sake, they ought to be the largest If it be impossible to have a large bedroom, I should advise a parent to have a dozen or twenty holes (each about the size of a florin) bored with a centre-bit in the upper part of the chamber door, and the same number of holes in the lower part of the door, so as constantly to admit a free current of air from the passages. If this cannot readily be done, then let the bedroom door be left ajar all night, a door chain being on the door to prevent intrusion; and, in the summer time, during the night, let the window-sash, to the extent of about two or three inches, be left open.

If there be a dressing-room next to the bedroom, it will be well to have the dressing-room window, instead of the bedroom window, open at night. The dressing-room door will regulate the quantity of air to be admitted into the bedroom, opening it either little or much, as the weather might be cold or otherwise.

Fresh air during deep is indispensable to health.--If a bedroom be close, the sleep, instead of being calm and refreshing, is broken and disturbed; and the boy, when he awakes in the morning, feels more fatigued than when he retired to rest.

If sleep is to be refreshing, the air, then, must be pure, and free from carbonic acid gas, which, is constantly being evolved from the lungs. If sleep is to be health-giving, the lungs ought to have their proper food--oxygen, and not to be cheated by giving them instead a poison--carbonic acid gas.

It would be well for each boy to have a separate room to himself, and each girl a separate room to herself. If two boys are obliged, from the smallness of the house, to sleep in one room, and if two girls, from the same cause, are compelled to occupy the same chamber, by all means let each one have a separate bed to himself and to herself, as it is so much more healthy and expedient for both boy and girl to sleep alone.

The roof of the bed should be left open--that is to say, the top of the bedstead ought not to be covered with bed furniture, but should be open to the ceiling, in order to encourage a free ventilation of air. A bed-curtain may be allowed on the side of the bed where there are windy currents of air; otherwise bed-curtains and valances ought on no account to be allowed. They prevent a free circulation of the air. A youth should sleep on a horse-hair mattress. Such mattresses greatly improve the figure and strengthen the frame. During the day time, provided it does not rain, the windows must be thrown wide open, and, directly after he has risen from bed, the clothes ought to be thrown entirely back, in order that they may become, before the bed be made, well ventilated and purified by the air--

"Do yon wish to be healthy?-- Then keep the home sweet, As soon as you're up Shake each blanket and sheet.

Leave the beds to get fresh On the close crowded floor Let the wind sweep right through-- Open window and door

The bad air will rush out As the good air comes in, Just as goodness is stronger And better than sin.

Do this, it's soon done, In the fresh morning air, It will lighten your labour And lessen your care

You are weary--no wonder, There's weight and there's gloom Hanging heavily round In each over full room.

Be sure all the trouble Is profit and gain For there's head ache and heart-ache, And fever and pain

Hovering round, settling down In the closeness and heat Let the wind sweep right through Till the air's fresh and sweet,

And more cheerful you'll feel Through the toil of the day, More refreshed you'll awake When the night's paved away" [Footnote: Household Verses on Health and Happiness London. Jarrold and Sons. Every mother should read these Verses.]

Plants and flowers ought not to be allowed to remain in a chamber at night. Experiments have proved that plants and flowers take up, in the day-time, carbonic acid gas (the refuse of respiration), and give off oxygen (a gas so necessary and beneficial to health), but give out, in the night season, a poisonous exhalation.

Early rising cannot be too strongly insisted upon; nothing is more conducive to health and thus to long life. A youth is frequently allowed to spend the early part of the morning in bed, breathing the impure atmosphere of a bedroom, when he should be up and about, inhaling the balmy and health-giving breezes of the morning:--

"Rise with the lark, and with the lark to bed: The breath of night's destructive to the hue Of ev'ry flower that blows. Go to the field, And ask the humble daisy why it sleeps Soon as the sun departs? Why close the eyes Of blossoms infinite long ere the moon Her oriental veil puts off? Think why, Nor let the sweetest blossom Nature boasts Be thus exposed to night's unkindly damp. Well may it droop, and all its freshness lose, Compell'd to taste the rank and pois'nous steam Of midnight theatre and morning ball Gire to repose the solemn hour she claims; And from the forehead of the morning steal The sweet occasion. Oh! there is a charm Which morning has, that gives the brow of age, a smack of youth, and makes the lip of youth Shed perfume exquisite. Expect it not Ye who till noon upon a down-bed lie, Indulging feverish sleep."--Hurdis.

If early rising be commenced in childhood it becomes a habit, and will then probably be continued through life. A boy ought on no account to be roused from his sleep; but, as soon as he be awake in the morning, he should be encouraged to rise. Dozing--that state between sleeping and waking--is injurious; it enervates both body and mind, and is as detrimental to health as dram drinking! But if he rise early he must go to bed betimes; it is a bad practice to keep him up until the family retire to rest. He ought, winter and summer, to seek his pillow by nine o'clock, and should rise as soon as he awake in the morning.

Let me urge upon a parent the great importance of not allowing the chimney of any bedroom, or of any room in the house, to be stopped, as many are in the habit of doing to prevent, as they call it, a draught, but to prevent, as I should call it, health.

357. How many hours of deep ought a boy to have?

This, of course, will depend upon the exercise he takes: but, on an average, he should have every night at least eight hours. It is a mistaken notion that a boy does better with little sleep. Infants, children, and youths require more than those who are further advanced in years; hence old people can frequently do with little sleep. This may in a measure be accounted for from the quantity of exercise the young take. Another reason may be, the young have neither racking pain, nor hidden sorrow, nor carking care, to keep them awake; while, on the contrary, the old have frequently, the one, the other, or all:--

"Care keeps his watch on every old man's eye, And where care lodges, sleep will never lie."--Shakspeare.

ON THE TEETH AND THE GUMS.

358. What are the beet means of keeping the teeth and the gums in a healthy state?

I would recommend the teeth and the gums to be well brushed with warm salt and water, in the proportion of one large tea-spoonful of, salt to a tumbler of water. I was induced to try the above plan by the recommendation of an American writer--Todd. The salt and water should be used every night.

The following is an excellent tooth-powder:--

Take of--Finely-powder Peruvian Bark; '' Prepared Coral; '' Prepared Chalk; '' Myrrh, of each half an ounce '' Orris root, a quarter of an ounce:

Mix them well together in a mortar, and preserve the powder in a wide mouthed stoppered bottle.

The teeth ought to be well brushed with the above tooth-powder every morning.

If the teeth be much decayed, and if, in consequence, the breath be offensive, two ounces of finely-powdered charcoal well mixed with the above ingredients will be found a valuable addition. Some persons clean their teeth every morning with soap; if soap be used it ought to be Castile soap; and if the teeth be not white and clean, Castile soap is an excellent cleanser of the teeth, and may be used in lieu of the tooth powder as before recommended.

There are few persons who brush their teeth properly. I will tell you the right way. First of all procure a tooth brush of the best make, and of rather hard bristles, to enable it to penetrate into all the nooks and corners of the teeth; then, having put a small quantity of warm water into your mouth, letting the principal of it escape into the basin, dip your brush in warm water, and if you are about using Castile soap, rub the brush on a cake of the soap, and then well brush your teeth, first upwards and then downwards, then from side to side--from right to left, and from left to right--then the backs of the teeth, then apply the brush to the tops of the crowns of the teeth both of the upper and of the lower jaw,--so that every part of each tooth, including the gums, may in turn be well cleansed and be well brushed. Be not afraid of using the brush; a good brushing and dressing will do the teeth and the gums an immensity of good; it will make the breath sweet, and will preserve the teeth sound and good. After using the brush the mouth must, of course, be well rinsed out with warm water.

The finest get of teeth I ever saw m my life belonged to a middle-aged gentleman; the teeth had neither spot nor blemish, they were like beautiful pearls. He never had toothache in his life, and did not know what toothache meant! He brushed his teeth, every morning, with soap and water, in the manner I have previously recommended. I can only say to you--go and do likewise!

Camphor ought never to be used as an ingredient of tooth-powder, it makes the teeth brittle. Camphor certainly has the effect of making the teeth, for a time, look very white; but it is an evanescent beauty.

Tartar is apt to accumulate between and around the teeth; it is better in such a case not to remove it by sealing instruments, but to adopt the plan recommended by Dr Richardson, namely, to well brush the teeth with pure vinegar and water.

PREVENTION OF DISEASE, ETC

359. If a boy or a girl show great precocity of intellect, is any organ likely to become affected?

A greater quantity of arterial blood is sent to the brain of those who are prematurely talented, and hence it becomes more than ordinarily developed. Such advantages are not unmixed with danger; this same arterial blood may exite and feed inflammation, and either convulsions, or water on the brain, or insanity, or, at last, idiocy may follow. How proud a mother is in having a precocious child! How little is she aware that precocity is frequently an indication of disease!

360. How can danger in such a case be warded off?

It behoves a parent, if her son be precocious, to restrain him--to send him to a quiet country place, free from the excitement of the town; and when he is sent to school, to give directions to the master that he is not on any account to tax his intellect (for a master is apt, if he have a clever boy, to urge him forward); and to keep him from those institutions where a spirit of rivalry is maintained, and where the brain is thus kept in a state of constant excitement. Medals and prizes are well enough for those who have moderate abilities, but dangerous, indeed, to those who have brilliant ones.

An over-worked precocious brain is apt to cause the death of the owner; and if it does not do so, it in too many instances injures the brain irreparably, and the possessor of such an organ, from being one of the most intellectual of children becomes one of the most commonplace of men.

Let me urge you, if you have a precocious child, to give, and that before it be too late, the subject in question your best consideration.

361. Are precocious boys in their general health usually strong or delicate?

Delicate: nature seems to have given a delicate body to compensate for the advantages of a talented mind. A precocious youth is predisposed to consumption, more so than to any other disease. The hard study which he frequently undergoes excites the disease into action. It is not desirable, therefore, to have a precocious child. A writer in "Eraser's Magazine" speaks very much to the purpose when he says, "Give us intellectual beef rather than intellectual veal."

362. What Habit of body is most predisposed to scrofula?

He or she who has a moist, cold, fair, delicate and almost transparent skin, large prominent blue eyes, protuberant forehead, light-brown or auburn hair, rosy cheeks, pouting lips, milk-white teeth, long neck, high shoulders, small, flat, and contracted chest, tumid bowels, large joints, thin limbs, and flabby muscles, is the person, most predisposed to scrofula. The disease is not entirely confined to the above; sometimes she or he who has black hair, dark eyes and complexion, is subject to it, but yet, far less frequently than the former. It is a remarkable fact that the most talented are the most prone to scrofula, and being thus clever their intellects are too often cultivated at the expense of their health. In infancy and childhood, either water on the brain or mesenteric disease; in youth, pulmonary consumption is frequently their doom: they are like shining meteors; their life is short, but brilliant.

363. How may scrofula be warded off?

Strict attention to the roles of health is the means to prevent scrofula. Books, unless as an amusement, ought to be discarded. The patient must almost live in the open air, and his residence should be a healthy country place, where the air is dry and bracing; if it be at a farm-house, in a salubrious neighbourhood, so much the better. In selecting a house for a patient predisposed to scrofula, good pure water should be an important requisite; indeed for every one who values his health. Early rising in such a case is most beneficial. Wine, spirits, and all fermented liquors ought to be avoided. Beef-steaks and mutton-chops in abundance, and plenty of milk and of farinaceous food--such as rice, sago, arrowroot, &c., should be his diet.

Scrofula, if the above rules be strictly and perseveringly followed, may be warded off; but there must be no half measures, no trying to serve two masters--to cultivate at the same time the health and the intellect. The brain, until the body becomes strong, must not be taxed. "You may prevent scrofula by care, but that some children are originally predisposed to the disease there cannot be the least doubt, and in such cases the education and the habits of youth should be so directed as to ward off a complaint, the effects of which are so frequently fatal."--Sir Astley Cooper on Scrofula.

364. But suppose the disease to be already formed, what must then be done?

The plan recommended above must still be pursued, not by fits and starts, but steadily and continuously, for it is a complaint that requires a vast deal of patience and great perseverance. Warm and cold sea-bathing in such a case are generally most beneficial. In a patient with confirmed scrofula it will of course be necessary to consult a skilful and experienced doctor.

But do not allow without a second opinion any plan to be adopted that will weaken the system, which is already too much depressed. No, rather build up the body by good nourishing diet (as previously recommended), by cod-liver oil, by a dry bracing atmosphere, such as, either Brighton, or Ramsgate, or Llandudno; or if the lungs be delicate, by a more sheltered coast, such as, either St Leonards or Torquay.

Let no active purging, no-mercurials, no violent, desperate remedies be allowed. If the patient cannot be cured without them, I am positive that he will not be cured with them.

But do not despair; many scrofulous patients are cured by time and by judicious treatment But if desperate remedies are to be used, the poor patient had better by jar be left to Nature: "Let me fall now into the hand of the Lord; for very great are his mercies; but let me not fall into the hand of man."--Chronicles.

365. Have you any remarks to make on a girl stooping?

A girl ought never to be allowed to stoop: stooping spoils the figure, weakens the chest, and interferes with the digestion. If she cannot help stooping, you may depend upon it that she is in bad health, and that a medical man ought to be consulted. As soon as her health is improved the dancing-master should be put in requisition, and calisthenic and gymnastic exercises should be resorted to. Horse exercise and swimming in such a case are very beneficial The girl should live well, on good nourishing diet, and not be too closely confined either to the house or to her lessons. She ought during the night to lie on a horsehair mattress, and during the day, for two or three hours, flat on, her back on a reclining board. Stooping, if neglected, is very likely to lead to consumption.

366. If a boy be round-shouldered and slouching in his gait, what ought to be done?

Let him be drilled; there is nothing more likely to benefit him than drilling. You never see a soldier round-shouldered nor slouching in his gait He walks every inch like a man. Look at the difference in appearance between a country bumpkin and a soldier! It is the drilling that makes the difference: "Oh, for a drill-sergeant to teach them to stand upright, and to turn out their toes, and to get rid of that slouching, hulking gait, which gives such a look of clumsiness and stupidity!" [Footnote: A. K, H. B., Fraser's Magazine, October 1861.]

367. My daughter has grown out of shape, she has grown on one ride, her spine is not straight, and her ribs bulge out more on the one side than on the other; what is the cause, and can anything be done to remedy the deformity?

The causes of this lateral curvature of the spine, and consequent bulging out of the ribs that you have just now described, arise either from delicacy of constitution, from the want of proper exercise, from too much learning, or from too little play, or from not sufficient or proper nourishment for a rapidly-growing body. I am happy to say that such a case, by judicious treatment, can generally be cured--namely, by gymnastic exercises, such as the hand-swing, the fly-pole, the patent parlour gymnasium, the chest-expander, the skipping rope, the swimming bath; all sorts of out-door games, such as croquet, archery, &c.; by plenty of good nourishment, by making her a child of Nature, by letting her almost live in the open air, and by throwing books to the winds. But let me strongly urge you not, unless ordered by an experienced surgeon, to allow any mechanical restraints or appliances to be used. If she be made strong, the muscles themselves will pull both the spine and the ribs into their proper places, more especially if judicious games and exercises (as I have before advised), and other treatment of a strengthening and bracing nature, which a medical man will indicate to you, be enjoined. Mechanical appliances will, if not judiciously applied, and in a proper case, waste away the muscles, and will thus increase the mischief; if they cause the ribs to be pushed in in one place, they will bulge them out in another, until, instead of being one, there will be a series of deformities. No, the giving of strength and the judicious exercising of the muscles are, for a lateral curvature of the spine and the consequent bulging out of one side of the ribs, the proper remedies, and, in the majority of cases, are most effectual, and quite sufficient for the purpose.

I think it well to strongly impress upon a mother's mind the great importance of early treatment. If the above advice be followed, every curvature in the beginning might be cured. Cases of several years' standing might, with judicious treatment, be wonderfully relieved.

Bear in mind, then, that if the girl is to be made straight, she is first of all to be made strong; the latter, together with the proper exercises of the muscles, will lead to the former; and the earlier a medical man takes it in hand, the more rapid, the more certain, and the more effectual will be the cure.

An inveterate, long-continued, and neglected case of curvature of the spine and bulging out of the ribs on one side might require mechanical appliances, but such a case can only be decided on by an experienced surgeon, who ought always, in the first place, to be consulted.

368. Is a slight spitting of blood to be looked upon as a dangerous symptom?

Spitting of blood is always to be looked upon with suspicion; even when a youth appears, in other respects, to be in good health, it is frequently the forerunner of consumption. It might be said that, by mentioning the fact, I am unnecessarily alarming a parent, but it would be a false kindness if I did not do so:--

"I most be cruel, only to be kind."--Shakspeare.

Let me ask, When is consumption to be cured? Is it at the onset, or is it when it is confirmed? If a mother had been more generally aware that spitting of blood was frequently the forerunner of consumption, she would, in the management of her offspring, have taken greater precautions; she would have, made everything give way to the preservation of their health; and, in many instances, she would have been amply repaid by having the lives of her children spared to her. We frequently hear of patients, in confirmed consumption, being sent to Mentone, to Madeira, and to other foreign parts. Can anything be more cruel or absurd? If there be any disease that requires the comforts of home--and truly may an Englishman's dwelling be called home!--and good nursing more than another, it is consumption.

369. What it the death-rate of consumption in England? At what age does consumption most frequently occur? Are girls more liable to it than boys? What are the symptoms of this disease?

It is asserted, on good authority, that there always are in England, 78,000 cases of consumption, and that the yearly death-rate of this fell disease alone is 39,000! Consumption more frequently shows itself between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one: after then, the liability to the disease gradually diminishes, until, at the age of forty-five, it becomes comparatively rare. Boys are more prone to this complaint than girls. Some of the most important symptoms of pulmonary consumption are indicated by the stethoscope; but, as I am addressing a mother, it would, of course, be quite out of place to treat of such signs in Conversations of this kind. The symptoms it might be well for a parent to recognise, in order that she may seek aid early, I will presently describe. It is perfectly hopeless to expect to cure consumption unless advice be sought at the onset, as the only effectual good in this disease is to be done at first.

It might be well to state that consumption creeps on insidiously. One of the earliest symptoms of this dreadful scourge is a slight, dry, short cough, attended with tickling and irritation at the top of the throat. This cough generally occurs in the morning; but, after some time, comes on at night, and gradually throughout the day and the night. Frequently during the early stage of the disease a slight spitting of blood occurs. Now, this is a most dangerous symptom; indeed, I may go so far as to say that, as a rule, it is almost a sure sign that the patient is in the first stage of a consumption.

There is usually hoarseness, not constant, but coming on if the patient be tired, or towards the evening; there is also a sense of lassitude and depression, shortness of breath, a feeling of being quickly wearied--more especially on the slightest exertion. The hair of a consumptive person usually falls off, and what little remains is weak and poor; the joints of the fingers become enlarged, or clubbed as it is sometimes called; the patient loses flesh, and, after some time, night sweats make their appearance: then we may know that hectic fever has commenced.

Hectic begins with chilliness, which is soon followed by flushings of the face, and by burning heat of the hands and the feet, especially of the palms and the soles. This is soon succeeded by perspirations. The patient has generally, during the day, two decided paroxysms of hectic fever--the one at noon, which lasts above five hours; the other in the evening, which is more severe, and ends in violent perspirations, which perspirations continue the whole night through. He may, during the day, have several attacks of hectic flushes of the face, especially after eating; at one moment he complains of being too hot, and rushes to the cool air; the next moment he is too cold, and almost scorches himself by sitting too near the fire. Whenever the circumscribed hectic flush is on the cheek, it looks as though the cheek had been painted with vermilion, then is the time when the palms of the hands are burning hot. Crabbe, in the following lines, graphically describes the hectic flush:--

"When his thin cheek assumed a deadly hue, And all the rose to one small spot withdrew: They call'd it hectic; 'twas a fiery flush, More fix'd and deeper than the maiden blush."

The expectoration at first is merely mucus, but after a time it assumes a characteristic appearance; it has a roundish, flocculent, woolly form, each portion of phlegm keeping, as it were, distinct; and if the expectoration be stirred in water, it has a milk-like appearance. The patient is commonly harassed by frequent bowel complaints, which rob him of what little strength he has left. The feet and ankles swell. The perspiration, as before remarked, comes on in the evening, continues all night--more especially towards morning, and while the patient is asleep; during the time he is awake, even at night, he seldom sweats much. The thrush generally shows itself towards the close of the disease, attacking the tongue, the tonsils, and the soft palate, and is a sure harbinger of approaching death. Emaciation rapidly sets in.

If we consider the immense engines of destruction at work-viz., the-colliquative (melting) sweats, the violent bowel complaints, the vital parts that are affected, the harassing cough, the profuse expectoration, the hectic fever, the distressing exertion of struggling to breathe--we cannot be surprised that "consumption had hung out her red flag of no surrender," and that death soon closes the scene. In girls, provided they have been previously regular, menstruation gradually declines, and then entirely disappears.

370. What are the causes of consumption?

The predisposing causes of consumption are the tuberculous habit of body, hereditary predisposition, narrow or contracted chest, deformed spine, delicacy of constitution, bad and scanty diet, or food containing but little nourishment, impure air, close in-door confinement in schools, in shops, and in factories, ill-ventilated apartments, dissipation, late hours, over-taxing with book-learning the growing brain, thus producing debility, want of proper out-door exercises and amusements, tight lacing; indeed, anything and everything, that either will debilitate the constitution, or will interfere with, or will impede, the proper action of the lungs, will be the predisposing causes of this fearful and lamentable disease.

An ill, poor, and insufficient diet is the mother of many diseases, and especially of consumption: "Whatsoever was the father of a disease, an ill diet was the mother."

The most common exciting causes of consumption are slighted colds, neglected inflammation of the chest, long continuance of influenza, sleeping in damp beds, allowing wet clothes to dry on the body, unhealthy employments--such as needle-grinding, pearl button making etc.

371. Supposing a youth to have spitting of blood, what precautions would you take to prevent it from ending in consumption?

Let his health be the first consideration; throw books to the winds; if he be at school, take him away; if he be in trade, cancel his indentures; if he be in the town, send him to a sheltered healthy spot in the country, or to the south coast; as, for instance, either to St Leonards-on-Sea, to Torquay, or to the Isle of Wight.

I should be particular in his clothing, taking especial care to keep his chest and feet warm. If he did not already wear flannel waistcoats, let it be winter or summer, I should recommend him immediately to do so: if it be winter, I should advise him also to take to flannel drawers. The feet must be carefully attended to; they ought to be kept both warm and dry, the slightest dampness of either shoes or stockings should cause them to be immediately changed. If a boy, he ought to wear double-breasted waistcoats; if a girl, high dresses.

The diet must be nutritious and generous; he should be encouraged to eat plentifully of beef and mutton. There is nothing better for breakfast, where it agree, than milk; indeed, it may be frequently made to agree by previously boiling it. Good home-brewed ale or sound porter ought, in moderation, to be taken. Wine and spirits must on no account be allowed. I caution parents in this particular, as many have an idea that wine, in such cases, is strengthening, and that rum and milk is a good thing either to cure or to prevent a cough!

If it be summer, let him be much in the open air, avoiding the evening and the night air. If it be winter, he should, unless the weather be mild for the season, keep within doors. Particular attention ought to be paid to the point the wind is in, as he should not be allowed to go out if it is either in the north, in the east, or in the north-east; the latter is more especially dangerous. If it be spring, and the weather be favourable, or summer or autumn, change of air, more especially to the south-coast--to the Isle of Wight, for instance-- would be desirable; indeed, in a case of spitting of blood, I know of no remedy so likely to ward off that formidable, and, generally, intractable complaint--consumption--as change of air. The beginning of the autumn is, of course, the beat season for visiting the coast. It would be advisable, at the commencement of October, to send him either to Italy, to the south of France--to Mentone [Footnote: See Winter and Spring on the Shores of the Mediterranean, By J. Henry Bennet, M.D., London: Churchill.]--or to the mild parts of England--more especially either to Hastings, or to Torquay, or to the Isle of Wight--to winter. But remember, if he be actually in a confirmed consumption, I would not on any account whatever let him leave his home; as then the comforts of home will far, very far, out-weigh any benefit of change of air.

372. Suppose a youth to be much predisposed to a sore throat, what precautions ought he to take to ward off future attacks?

He must use every morning thorough ablution of the body, beginning cautiously; that is to say, commencing with the neck one morning, then by degrees, morning after morning, sponging a larger surface, until the whole of the body be sponged. The chill at first must be taken off the water; gradually the temperature ought to be lowered until the water be quite cold, taking care to rub the body thoroughly dry with a coarse towel--a Turkish rubber being the best for the purpose.

He ought to bathe his throat externally every night and morning with luke-warm salt and water, the temperature of which must be gradually reduced until at length no warm water be added. He should gargle his throat either with barm, vinegar, and sage tea, [Footnote: A wine-glassful of barm, a wine-glassful of vinegar, and the remainder sage tea, to make a half-pint bottle of gargle.] or with salt and water--two tea-spoonfuls of table salt dissolved in a tumbler of water. He ought to harden himself by taking plenty of exercise in the open air. He must, as much as possible, avoid either sitting or standing in a draught, if he be in one, he should face it. He ought to keep his feet warm and dry. He should take as little aperient medicine as possible, avoiding especially both calomel and blue pill. As he grows up to manhood he ought to allow his beard to grow, as such would be a natural covering for his throat. I have known great benefit to arise from this simple plan. The fashion is now to wear the beard, not to use the razor at all, and a sensible fashion I consider it to be. The finest respirator in the world is the beard. The beard is not only good for sore throats, but for weak chests. The wearing of the beard is a splendid innovation, it saves no end of trouble, is very beneficial to health, and is a great improvement "to the human face divine."

373. Have you any remarks to make on the almost universal habit of boys and of very young men smoking?

I am not now called upon to give an opinion of the effects of tobacco smoking on the middle-aged and on the aged. I am addressing a mother as to the desirability of her sons, when boys, being allowed to smoke. I consider tobacco smoking one of the most injurious and deadly habits a boy or young man can indulge in. It contracts the chest and weakens the lungs, thus predisposing to consumption. It impairs the stomach, thus producing indigestion. It debilitates the brain and nervous system, thus inducing epileptic fits and nervous depression. It stunts the growth, and is one cause of the present race of pigmies. It makes the young lazy and disinclined for work. It is one of the greatest curses of the present day. The following cases prove, more than any argument can prove, the dangerous and deplorable effects of a boy smoking. I copy the first case from Public Opinion. "The France mentions the following fact as a proof of the evil consequences of smoking for boys--'A pupil in one of the colleges, only twelve years of age, was some tune since seized with epileptic fits, which became worse and worse in spite of all the remedies employed. At last it was discovered that the lad had been for two years past secretly indulging in the weed. Effectual means were adopted to prevent his obtaining tobacco, and he soon recovered.'"

The other case occurred about fifteen years ago in my own practice. The patient was a youth of nineteen. He was an inveterate smoker. From being a bright intelligent lad, he was becoming idiotic, and epileptic fits were supervening. I painted to him, in vivid colours, the horrors of his case, and assured him that if he still persisted in his bad practices, he would soon become a drivelling idiot! I at length, after some trouble and contention, prevailed upon him to desist from smoking altogether. He rapidly lost all epileptic symptoms, his face soon resumed its wonted intelligence, and his mind asserted its former power. He remains well to this day, and is now a married man with a family.

374. What are the best methods to restrain a violent bleeding from the nose?

Do not, unless it be violent, interfere with a bleeding from the nose. A bleeding from the nose is frequently an effort of Nature to relieve itself, and therefore, unless it be likely to weaken the patient, ought not to be restrained. If it be necessary to restrain the bleeding, press firmly, for a few minutes, the nose between the finger and the thumb; this alone will often stop the bleeding; if it should not, then try what bathing the nose and the forehead and the nape of the neck with water quite cold from the pump, will do. If that does not succeed, try the old-fashioned remedy of putting a cold large door-key down the back. If these plans fail, try the effects either of powdered alum or of powdered matico, used after the fashion of snuff--a pinch or two either of the one or of the other, or of both, should be sniffed up the bleeding nostril. If these should not answer the purpose, although they almost invariably will, apply a large lump of ice to the nape of the neck, and put a small piece of ice into the patient's mouth for him to suck.

If these methods do not succeed, plunge the hand and the fore-arm into cold water, keep them in for a few minutes, then take them out, and either hold, or let be held up, the arms and the hands high above the head: this plan has frequently succeeded when others have failed. Let the room he kept cool, throw open the windows, and do not have many in the room to crowd around the patient.

Doubtless Dr Richardson's local anaesthetic--the ether spray--playing for a few seconds to a minute on the nose and up the bleeding nostril, would act most beneficially in a severe case of this kind, and would, before resorting to the disagreeable operation of plugging the nose, deserve a trial. I respectfully submit this suggestion to my medical brethren. The ether--rectified ether--used for the spray ought to be perfectly pure, and of the specific gravity of 0.723.

If the above treatment does not soon succeed, send for a medical man, as more active means, such as plugging of the nostrils--which, is not done unless in extreme cases--might be necessary.

But before plugging of the nose is resorted to, it will be well to try the effects of a cold solution of alum:--

Take of--Powdered Alum, one drachm; Water, half a pint:

To make a Lotion.

A little of the lotion should be put into the palm of the hand and sniffed up the bleeding nostril; or, if that does not succeed, some of the lotion ought, by means of a syringe, to be syringed up the nose.

375. In case of a young lady fainting, what had better be done?

Lay her flat upon her back, taking care that the head be as low as, or lower than, the body; throw open the-windows, do not crowd around her, [Footnote: Shakspeare knew the great importance of not crowding around a patient who has fainted. He says--

"So play the foolish throngs with one that swoons; Come all to help him, and so stop the air By which he should revive."] unloosen her dress as quickly as possible; ascertain if she have been guilty of tight-lacing--for fainting is sometimes produced by that reprehensible practice. Apply smelling salts to her nostrils; if they be not at hand, burn a piece of rag under her nose; dash cold water upon her face; throw open the window; fan her; and do not, as is generally done, crowd round her, and thus prevent a free circulation of air. As soon as she can swallow, give her either a draught of cold water or a glass of wine, or a tea-spoonful of sal-volatile in a wine-glassful of water.

To prevent fainting for the future.--I would recommend early hours; country air and exercise; the stays, if worn at all, to be worn slack; attention to diet; avoidance of wine, beer, spirits, excitement, and fashionable amusements.

Sometimes the cause of a young lady fainting, is either a disordered stomach, or a constipated state of the bowels. If the fainting have been caused by disordered stomach, it may be necessary to stop the supplies, and give the stomach, for a day or two, but little to do; a fast will frequently prevent the necessity of giving medicine. Of course, if the stomach be much disordered, it will be desirable to consult a medical man.

If your daughter's fainting have originated from a costive state of the bowels (another frequent cause of fainting), I beg to refer you to a subsequent Conversation, in which I will give you a list of remedies for the prevention and the treatment of constipation.

A young lady's fainting occasionally arises from debility--from downright weakness of the constitution; then the best remedies will be, change of air to the coast, good nourishing diet, and the following strengthening mixture:

Take of--Tincture of Perchloride of Iron, two drachms; Tincture of Calumba, six drachms; Distilled Water, seven ounces:

Two table-spoonfuls of this mixture to be taken three times a day.

Or for a change, the following:--

Take of--Wine of Iron, one ounce and a half Distilled Water, six ounces and a half

To make a Mixture. Two table spoonfuls to be taken three times a day.

Iron medicines ought always to be taken after instead of before a meal. The best times of the day for taking either of the above mixtures will be eleven o'clock, four o'clock, and seven o'clock.

376. You had a great objection to a mother administering calomel either to an infant or to a child, have you the same objection to a boy or a girl taking it when he or she requires an aperient?

Equally as great. It is my firm belief that the frequent use, or rather the abuse, of calomel and of other preparations of mercury, is often a source of liver disease and an exciter of scrofula. It is a medicine of great value in some diseases, when given by a judicious medical man, but, at the same time, it is a drag of great danger when either given indiscriminately, or when too often prescribed. I will grant that in liver diseases it frequently gives temporary relief, but when a patient has once commenced the regular use of it, he cannot do without it, until, at length, the functional ends in organic disease of the liver. The use of calomel predisposes to cold, and thus frequently brings on either inflammation or consumption. Family aperient pills ought never to contain, in any form whatever, a particle of mercury.

377. Will you give me a list of remedies for the prevention and for the cure of constipation?

If you find it necessary to give your son or daughter an aperient, the mildest should be selected, for instance, an agreeable and effectual one, is an electuary composed of the following ingredients--

Take of--Beat Alexandria Senna, powdered, one ounce Best figs, two ounces, Best Raisins (stoned), two ounces,

All chopped very fine. The size of a nutmeg or two to be eaten, either early in the morning or at bedtime.

Or, one or two tea-spoonfuls of Compound Confection. of Senna (lenitive electuary) may occasionally, early in the morning, be taken. Or, for a change, a tea-spoonful of Henry's Magnesia, in half a tumblerful of warm water. If this should not be sufficiently active, a tea-spoonful of Epsom salts should be given with the magnesia. A Seidlitz Powder forms another safe and mild aperient, or one or two Compound Rhubarb Pills may be given at bed time. The following prescription for a pill, where an aperient is absolutely necessary, is a mild, gentle, and effective one for the purpose--

Take of--Extract of Socotrine Aloes, eight grains, Compound Extract of Colocynth, forty-eight grains, Hard Soap, twenty four grains, Treacle, a sufficient quantity

To make twenty four Pills. One or two to be taken at bedtime occasionally.

But, after all, the best opening medicines are--cold ablutions every morning of the whole body, attention to diet, variety of food, bran-bread, grapes, stewed prunes, French plums, Muscatel raisins, figs, fruit both cooked and raw--if it be ripe and sound, oatmeal porridge, lentil powder, in the form of Du Barry's Arabica Revalenta, vegetables of all kinds, especially spinach, exercise in the open air, early rising, daily visiting the water-closet at a certain hour--there is nothing keeps the bowels open so regularly and well as establishing the habit of visiting the water-closet at a certain hour every morning, and the other rules of health specified in these Conversations. If more attention were paid to these points, poor school boys and school girls would not be compelled to swallow such nauseous and disgusting messes as they usually do to their aversion and injury.

Should these plans not succeed (although in the majority of cases, with patience and perseverance, they will) I would advise an enema once or twice a week, either simply of warm water, or of one made of gruel, table-salt, and olive-oil, in the proportion of two table-spoonfuls of salt, two of oil, and a pint of warm gruel, which a boy may administer to himself, or a girl to herself, by means of a proper enema apparatus.

Hydropathy is oftentimes very serviceable in preventing and in curing costiveness; and as it will sometimes prevent the necessity of administering medicine, it is both a boon and a blessing. "Hydropathy also supplies us with various remedies for constipation. From the simple glass of cold water, taken early in the morning, to the various douches and sea-baths, a long list of useful appliances might be made out, among which we may mention the 'wet compresses' worn for three hours over the abdomen [bowels], with a gutta percha covering."

I have here a word or two to say to a mother who is always physicking her family. It is an unnatural thing to be constantly dosing either a child, or any one else, with medicine. One would suppose that some people were only sent into the world to be physicked! If more care were paid to the rules of health, very little medicine would be required! This is a hold assertion; but I am confident that it is a true one. It is a strange admission for a medical man to make, but, nevertheless, my convictions compel me to avow it.

378. What is the reason girls are so subject to costiveness?

The principal reason why girls suffer more from costiveness than boys, is that their habits are more sedentary; as the best opening medicines in the world are an abundance of exercise, of muscular exertion, and of fresh air. Unfortunately, poor girls in this enlightened age must be engaged, sitting all the while, several hours every day at fancy work, the piano, and other accomplishments; they, consequently, have little time for exercise of any kind. The bowels, as a matter of course, become constipated; they are, therefore, dosed with pills, with black draughts, with brimstone and treacle--Oh! the abomination! --and with medicines of that class, almost ad infinitum. What is the consequence? Opening medicines, by constant repetition, lose their effects, and, therefore, require to be made stronger and still stronger, until at length, the strongest will scarcely act at all, and the poor unfortunate girl, when she becomes a woman, if she ever does become one, is spiritless, heavy, doll, and listless, requiring daily doses of physic, until she almost lives on medicine!

All this misery and wretchedness proceed from Nature's laws having been set at defiance, from artificial means taking the place of natural ones--from a mother adopting as her rule and guide fashion and folly, rather than reason and common sense. When will a mother awake from her folly and stupidity? This is strong language to address to a lady, but it is not stronger than the subject demands.

Mothers of England do, let me entreat you, ponder well upon what I have said. Do rescue your girls from the bondage of fashion and of folly, which is worse than the bondage of the Egyptian task masters, for the Israelites did, in making bricks without straw, work m the open air--"So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead of straw," but your girls, many of them, at least, have no work, either in the house or in the open air--they have no exercise whatever. They are poor, drawling, dawdling, miserable nonentities, with muscles, for the want of proper exercise, like ribands, and with faces, for the lack of fresh air, as white as a sheet of paper. What a host of charming girls are yearly sacrificed at the shrine of fashion and of folly.

Another, and a frequent cause of costiveness, is the bad habit of disobeying the call of having the bowels opened. The moment there is the slightest inclination to relieve the bowels, instantly it ought to be attended to, or serious results will follow. Let me urge a mother to instil into her daughter's mind the importance of this advice.

379. Young people are subject to pimples on the face, what is the remedy?

These hard red pimples (acne--"the grub pimple") are a common and an obstinate affection of the skin, affecting the forehead, the temples, the nose, the chin, and the cheeks, occasionally attacking the neck, the shoulders, the back, and the chest; and as they more frequently affect the young, from the age of 15 to 35, and are disfiguring, they cause much annoyance. "These pimples are so well known by most persons as scarcely to need description; they are conical, red, and hard; after a while, they become white, and yellow at the point, then discharge a thick, yellow-coloured matter, mingled with a whitish substance, and become covered by a hard brown scab, and lastly, disappear very slowly, sometimes very imperfectly, and often leaving an ugly scar behind them. To these symptoms are not unfrequently added considerable pain, and always much unsightliness. When these little cones have the black head of a 'grub' at their point, they constitute the variety termed spotted acne. These latter often remain stationary for months, without increasing or becoming red; but when they inflame, they are in nowise different in their course from the common kind."--Wilson on Healthy Skin.

I find, in these cases, great benefit to be derived from bathing the face, night and morning, with strong salt and water--a table-spoonful of table-salt to a tea-cupful of water; by paying attention to the bowels; by living on plain, wholesome, nourishing food; and by taking a great of out-door exercise. Sea-bathing, in these cases, is often very beneficial. Grubs and worms have a mortal antipathy to salt.

380. What is the cause of a Gum-boil?

A decayed root of a tooth, which causes inflammation and abscess of the gum, which abscess breaks, and thus becomes a gum-boil.

381. What is the treatment of a Gum-boil?

Foment the outside of the face with a hot camomile and poppy head fomentation, [Footnote: Four poppy heads and four ounces of camomile blows to be boiled in four pints of water for half an hoar, and then to be strained to make the fomentation.] and apply to the gum-boil, between the cheek and the gum, a small white bread and milk poultice, [Footnote: Cut a piece of bread, about the size of the little finger-- without breaking it into crumb--pour boiling hot milk upon it, cover it over, and let it stand for five minutes, then apply the soaked bread over the gum-boil, letting it rest between the cheek and the gum.] which renew frequently.

As soon as the gum-boil has become quiet, by all means have the affected tooth extracted, or it might cause disease, and consequently serious injury of the jaw; and whenever the patient catches cold there will be a renewal of the inflammation, of the abscess, and of the gum-boil, and, as a matter of course, renewed pain, trouble, and annoyance. Moreover, decayed fangs of teeth often cause the breath to be offensive.

382. What is the best remedy for a Corn?

The best remedy for a hard corn is to remove it. The usual method of cutting, or of paring a corn away, is erroneous. The following is the right way--Cut with a sharp pair of pointed scissors around the circumference of the corn. Work gradually round and round and towards the centre. When you have for some considerable distance well loosened the edges, you can either with your fingers or with a pair of forceps generally remove the corn bodily, and that without pain and without the loss of any blood: this plan of treating a corn I can recommend to you as being most effectual.

If the corn be properly and wholly removed it will leave a small cavity or round hole in the centre, where the blood-vessels and the nerve of the corn--vulgarly called the root--really were, and which, in point of fact, constituted the very existence or the essence of the corn. Moreover, if the corn be entirely removed, you will, without giving yourself the slightest pain, be able to squeeze the part affected between your finger and thumb.

Hard corns on the sole of the foot and on the sides of the foot are best treated by filing--by filing them with a sharp cutting file (flat on one side and convex on the other) neither too coarse nor too fine in the cutting. The corn ought, once every day, to be filed, and should daily be continued until you experience a slight pain, which tells you that the end of the corn is approaching. Many cases of hard corn that have resisted every other plan of treatment, have been entirely cured by means of the file. One great advantage of the file is, it cannot possibly do any harm, and may be used by a timid person--by one who would not readily submit to any cutting instrument being applied to the corn.

The file, if properly used, is an effectual remedy for a hard corn on the sole of the foot. I myself have seen the value of it in several cases, particularly in one case, that of an old gentleman of ninety five, who had had a corn on the sole of his foot for upwards of half a century, and which had resisted numerous, indeed almost innumerable remedies, at length I recommended the file, and after a few applications entire relief was obtained, and the corn was completely eradicated.

The corns between the toes are called soft corns. A soft corn is quickly removed by the strong Acetic Acid--Acid. Acetic Fort--which ought to be applied to the corn every night by means of a camel's hair brush. The toes should be kept asunder for a few minutes, in order that the acid may soak in, then apply between the toes a small piece of cotton wool.

Galbanum Plaster spread either on wash leather, or on what is better, on an old white kid glove, has been, in one of our medical journals, strongly recommended as a corn plaster, it certainly is an admirable one, and when the corn is between the toes is sometimes most comfortable--affording immense relief.

Corns are like the little worries of life--very teazing and troublesome a good remedy for a corn--which the Galbanum Plaster undoubtedly is-is therefore worth knowing.

Hard corns, then, on the sole and on the side of the foot are best treated by the file, hard corns on the toes by the scissors, and soft corns between the toes either by the strong Acetic Acid or by the Galbanum Plaster.

In the generality of cases the plans recommended above, if properly performed, will effect a cure, but if the corn, from pressure or from any other cause, should return, remove it again, and proceed as before directed. If the corn have been caused either by tight or by ill fitting shoes, the only way to prevent a recurrence is, of course, to have the shoes, properly made by a clever shoemaker--by one who thoroughly understands his business, and who will have a pair of lasts made purposely for the feet. [Footnote: As long as fashion instead of common sense is followed in the making of both boots and shoes, men and women will, as a matter of course, suffer from corns.

It has, often struck me as singular, when all the professions and trades are so overstocked, that there should be, as there is in every large town, such a want of chiropodists (corn-cutters)--of respectable chiropodists--of men who would charge a fixed sum for every visit the patient may make, for instance to every working man a shilling, and to every gentleman half-a-crown or five shillings for each sitting, and not for each corn (which latter system is a most unsatisfactory way of doing business). I am quite sure that of such a plan were adopted, every town of any size in the kingdom would employee regularly one chiropodist at least. However we might dislike some few of the American customs, we may copy them with advantage in this particular--namely, in having a regular staff of chiropodists both in civil and in military life.]

The German method of making boots and shoes is a capital one for the prevention of corns, as the boots and shoes are made, scientifically to fit a real and not an ideal foot.

One of the best preventatives of as well as of the best remedies for corns, especially of soft corns between the toes, is washing the feet every morning as recommended in a previous Conversation, [Footnote: Youth--Ablution, page 250.] taking especial care to wash with the thumb, and afterwards to wipe with the towel between each toe.

383. What are the best remedies to destroy a Wart?

Pure nitric acid, [Footnote: A very small quantity of Pure Nitric Acid--just a drain at the bottom of a stoppered bottle--is all that is needed, and which may be procured of a chemist.] carefully applied to the wart by means of a small stick of cedar wood--a camel's hair pencil-holder--every other day, will soon destroy it. Care must be taken that the acid does not touch the healthy skin, or it will act as a caustic to it. The nitric acid should be preserved in a stoppered bottle and must be put out of the reach of children.

Glacial Acetic Acid is another excellent destroyer of warts: it should, by means of a camel's hair brush, be applied to each wart, every night just before going to bed. The warts will, after a few applications, completely disappear.

384. What is the best remedy for tender feet, for sweaty feet, and for smelling feet?

Cold water: bathing the feet in cold water, beginning with tepid water; but gradually from day to day reducing the warm until the water be quite cold. A large nursery-basin one-third full of water, ought to be placed on the floor, and one foot at a time should be put in the water, washing the while with a sponge the foot, and with the thumb between each toe. Each foot should remain in the water about half a minute. The feet ought, after each washing, to be well dried, taking care to dry with the towel between each toe. The above process must be repeated at least once every day--every morning, and if the annoyance be great, every night as well. A clean pair of stockings ought in these cases to be put on daily, as perfect cleanliness is absolutely necessary both to afford relief and to effect a cure.

If the feet be tender, or if there be either bunions, or corns, the shoes and the boots made according to the German method (which are fashioned according to the actual shape of the foot) should alone be worn.

385. What are the causes of so many young ladies of the present day being weak, nervous, and unhappy?

The principal causes are--ignorance of the laws of health, Nature's laws being set at nought by fashion and by folly, by want of fresh air and exercise, by want of occupation, and by want of self-reliance. Weak, nervous, and unhappy! Well they might be! What have they to make them strong and happy? Have they work to do to brace the muscles? Have they occupation--useful, active occupation--to make them happy? No! they have neither the one nor the other!

386. What diseases are girls most subject to?

The diseases peculiar to girls are--Chlorosis--Green-sickness--and Hysterics.

387. What are the usual causes of Chlorosis? Chlorosis is caused by torpor and debility of the whole frame, especially of the womb. It is generally produced by scanty or by improper food, by the want of air and of exercise, and by too close application within doors. Here we have the same tale over again--close application within doors, and the want of fresh air and of exercise. When will the eyes of a mother he opened, to this important subject?--the most important that can engage her attention!

388. What is the usual age for Chlorosis to occur and what are the symptoms?

Chlorosis more frequently attacks girls from fifteen to twenty years of age; although unmarried women, much older, occasionally have it. I say unmarried, for, as a rule, it is a complaint of the single.

The patient, first of all, complains of being languid, tired, and out of spirits; she is fatigued with the slightest exertion; she has usually palpitation of the heart (so as to make her fancy that she has a disease of that organ, which, in all probability, she has not); she has shortness of breath, and a short dry cough; her face is flabby and pale; her complexion gradually assumes a yellowish or greenish hue--hence the name of chlorosis; there is a dark, livid circle around her eyes; her lips lose their colour, and become almost white; her tongue is generally white and pasty, her appetite is bad, and is frequently depraved--the patient often preferring chalk, slate pencil, cinder, and even dirt, to the daintiest food, indigestion frequently attends chlorosis, she has usually pains over the short-ribs, on the left side, she suffers greatly from "wind"--is frequently nearly choken by it, her bowels are generally costive, and the stools are unhealthy, she has pains in her hips, loins, and back, and her feet and ankles are oftentimes swollen. The menstrual discharge is either suspended or very partially performed, if the latter, it is usually almost colourless. Hysterical fits not unfrequently occur during an attack of chlorosis.

389. How may Chlorosis be prevented?

If health were more and fashion were less studied, chlorosis would not be such a frequent complaint. This disease generally takes its rise from mismanagement--from Nature's laws having been set at defiance. I have heard a silly mother express an opinion that it is not genteel for a girl to eat heartily! Such language is perfectly absurd and cruel. How often, too, a weak mother declares that a healthy, blooming girl looks like a milk maid! It would be well if she did! How true and sad it is, that "a pale, delicate face, and clear eyes, indicative of consumption, are the fashionable desiderata at present for complexion."--Dublin University Magazine.

A growing girl requires plenty of good nourishment--as much as her appetite demands, and if she have it not, she will become either chlorotic, or consumptive, or delicate. Besides, the greatest beautifier in the world is health, therefore, by a mother studying the health of her daughter, she will, at the same time, adorn her body with, beauty! I am sorry to say that too many parents think more of the beauty than of the health of their girls. Sad and lamentable infatuation! Nathaniel Hawthorne--a distinguished American--gives a graphic description of a delicate young lady. He says--"She is one of those delicate nervous young creatures not uncommon in New England, and whom I suppose to have become what we find them by the gradually refining away of the physical system among young women. Some philosophers choose to glorify this habit of body by terming it spiritual, but in my opinion, it is rather the effect of unwholesome food, bad air, lack of out-door exercise, and neglect of bathing, on the part of these damsels and their female progenitors, all resulting in a kind of hereditary dyspepsia."

Nathaniel Hawthorne was right. Such ladies, when he wrote, were not uncommon, but within the last two or three years, to their great credit be it spoken, "a change has come o'er the spirit of their dreams," and they are wonderfully improved in health, for, with all reverence be it spoken, "God helps them who help themselves," and they have helped themselves by attending to the rales of health--"The women of America are growing more and more handsome every year for just this reason. They are growing rounder of chest, fuller of limb, gaining, substance and development in every direction. Whatever may be urged to the contrary we believe this to be a demonstrable fact. When the rising generation of American girls once begin to wear thick shoes, to take much exercise in the open air, to skate, to play at croquet, and to affect the saddle, it not only begins to grow more wise but more healthful, and which must follow as the night the day--more beautiful"--The Round Table.

If a young girl had plenty-of wholesome meat, varied from day to day, either plain roast or boiled, and neither stewed, nor hashed, nor highly seasoned for the stomach, if she has had an abundance of fresh air for her lungs, if she had plenty of active exercise, such as skipping, dancing, running, riding, swimming, for her muscles, if her clothing were warm and loose, and adapted to the season, if her mind were more occupied with active useful occupation, such as household work, than at present, and if she were kept calm and untroubled from the hurly-burly and excitement of fashionable life--chlorosis would almost be an unknown disease. It is a complaint of rare occurrence with country girls, but of great frequency with fine city ladies.

390. What treatment should you advise?

The treatment which would prevent should be adopted when the complaint first makes its appearance. If the above means do not quickly remove it, the mother must then apply to a medical man, and he will give medicines which will soon have the desired effect. Chlorosis is very amenable to treatment. If the disease be allowed for any length of time to run on, it may produce either organic--incurable--disease of the heart, or consumption or indigestion, or confirmed ill-health.

391. At what period of life is a lady most prone in Hysterics, and what are the symptoms?

The time of life when hysterics occur is generally from the age of fifteen to fifty. Hysterics come on by paroxysms--hence they are called hysterical fits. A patient, just before an attack, is low-spirited; crying without a cause; she is "nervous," as it is called; she has flushings of the face; she is at other times very pale; she has shortness of breath and occasional palpitations of the heart; her appetite is usually bad; she passes quantities of colourless limpid urine, having the appearance of pump water; she is much troubled with flatulence in her bowels, and, in consequence, she feels bloated and uncomfortable. The "wind" at length rises upwards towards the stomach, and still upwards to the throat, giving her the sensation of a ball stopping her breathing, and producing a feeling of suffocation. The sensation of a ball in the throat (globus hystericus) is the commencement of the fit.

She now becomes partially insensible, although she seldom loses complete consciousness. Her face becomes flushed, her nostrils dilated, her head thrown back, and her stomach and bowels enormously distended with "wind." After a short time she throws her arms and her legs about convulsively, she beats her breast, tears her hair and clothes, laughs boisterously and screams violently; at other times she makes a peculiar noise; sometimes she sobs and her face is much distorted. At length she brings up enormous quantities of wind; after a time she bursts into a violent flood of tears, and then gradually comes to herself.

As soon as the fit is at an end she generally passes enormous quantities of colourless limpid urine. She might, in a short time, fall into another attack similar to the above. When she comes to herself she feels exhausted and tired, and usually complains of a slight headache, and of great soreness of the body and limbs. She seldom remembers what has occurred during the fit. Hysterics are sometimes frightful to witness, but, in themselves, are not at all dangerous.

Hysterics--an hysterical fit--is sometimes styled hysterical passion. Shakspeare, in one of his plays, calls it hysterica passio--

"Oh how this, mother, swells up toward my Heart! Hysterica passio!"

Sir Walter Scott graphically describes an attack--"The hysterical passion that impels tears is a terrible violence--a sort of throttling sensation--then succeeded by a state of dreaming stupidity"

392. What are the causes of Hysterics?

Delicate health, chlorosis, improper and not sufficiently nourishing food, grief, anxiety, excitement of the mind, closely confined rooms, want of exercise, indigestion, flatulence and tight-lacing, are the causes which usually produce hysterics. Hysterics are frequently feigned, indeed, oftener than any other complaint, and even a genuine case is usually much aggravated by a patient herself giving way to them.

393. What do you recommend an hysterical lady to do?

To improve her health by proper management, to rise early and to take a walk, that she may breathe pure and wholesome air,--indeed, she ought to live nearly half her time in the open air, exercising herself with walking, skipping, etc., to employ her mind with botany, croquet, archery, or with any out-door amusement, to confine herself to plain, wholesome, nourishing food, to avoid tight lacing; to eschew fashionable amusements; and, above all, not to give way to her feelings, but, if she feel an attack approaching, to rouse herself.

If the fit be upon her, the better plan is, to banish all the male sex from the room, and not even to have many women about her, and for those around to loosen her dress; to lay her in the centre of the room, flat upon the ground, with a pillow under her head, to remove combs and pins and brooches from her person; to dash cold water upon her face; to apply cloths, or a large sponge wetted in cold water, to her head; to throw open the window, and then to leave her to herself; or, at all events, to leave her with only one female friend or attendant. If such be done, she will soon come round; but what is the usual practice? If a girl be in hysterics, the whole house, and perhaps the neighbourhood, is roused; the room is crowded to suffocation; fears are openly expressed by those around that she is in a dangerous state; she hears what they say, and her hysterics are increased ten-fold.

394. Have you any remarks to make on a patient recovering from a severe illness?

There is something charming and delightful in the feelings of a patient recovering from a severe illness: it is like a new birth: it is almost worth the pain and anguish of having been ill to feel quite well again: everything around and about him wears a charming aspect--a roseate hue: the appetite for food returns with pristine vigour; the viands, be they ever so homely, never tasted before so deliciously sweet; and a draught of water from the spring has the flavour of ambrosial nectar: the convalescent treads the ground as though he were on the ambient air; and the earth to him for a while is Paradise: the very act of living is a joy and gladness:--

"See the wretch that long has tost On the thorny bed of pain Again repair his vigour lost And walk and run again.

The meanest flow'ret of the vale, The amplest note that swells the gale, The common air, the earth, the skies, To him are opening Paradise."--Grey

* * * * *

CONCLUDING REMARKS

If this book is to be of use to mothers and to the rising generation, as I humbly hope and trust that it has been, and that it will be still more abundantly, it ought not to be listlessly read, merely as a novel or as any other piece of fiction; but it must be thoughtfully and carefully studied, until its contents, in all its bearings, be completely mastered and understood.

* * * * *

In conclusion: I beg to thank you for the courtesy, confidence, and attention I have received at your hands; and to express a hope that my advice, through God's blessing, may not have been given in vain; but that it may be--one among many--an humble instrument for improving the race of our children--England's priceless treasures! O, that the time may come, and may not be far distant, "That our sons may grow up as the young plants, and that our daughters may be as the polished corners of the temple!"

INDEX.

ABLUTION of a child

of an infant

of a youth

thorough, of boy and girl

Accidents of children

how to prevent

Acne, symptoms and treatment of

Advice to a mother if her infant be poorly

to Mr Pater familias

Ailments, the distinction between between serious and slight

of infants

Air and exercise for youth

the importance of good

the necessity of fresh, and changing the

Airing an infant's clothes

Alternately to each breast

American ladies

Amusements for a child

for a boy

for a girl

Ankles, weak

Antipathies of a child

Aperients for a child

for an infant

for a new-born babe

for a youth

danger of frequent

Appeal to mothers

Appetite, on a child losing his

Applications, hot

Apron, washing

Archery

Arnold, Dr, on corporal punishment

Arrow-root for an infant

Artificial food for an infant at breast

Asses' milk

BABES should kick on floor

Babe's clothing

Babe himself taking exercise

Babyhood, the language of

Baby daughter

Baked crumb of bread for an infant

flour for an infant

Bakers' and home made bread

Bathing after full meal

Baths, cold, tepid, and warm

warm, as a remedy for flatulence

Beard, best respirator

Bed, on placing child in

Beds, feather

purification of

Bed-rooms, the ventilation of

cool

large

a plan to ventilate

Bee, the sting of

Beef, salted or boiled

Beer, on giving child

Belladonna, poisoning by

Belly-band, best kind

when to discontinue

Beverage for a child

"Black-eye," remedies for

Bladder and bowels of an infant

Bleeding from navel, how to restrain

of nose

Blood, spitting of

Blows and bruises

Boarding schools for females

on cheap (note)

Boiled bread for infants' food

flour for infants' food

Boils, the treatment of

Boots and shoes

Bottles, the best nursing

Boulogne sore-throat

Bow-legs

Bowels, large, of children

looseness of

protrusion of lower

regulation of, by diet

Boys should be made strong

Brain, water on the

Bran to soften water

Bran Poultices

Breakfast of a child

of a youth

Breast on early putting an infant to

Breathing exercise

Brimstone and treacle

Brown and Polson's Corn Flour

Bronchitis, the treatment of

Broth for Infants

for a new born infant

and soup

Brothers and sisters

Bruises, remedies for

Bullying a child

Burns and scalds

Butter, wholesome

CADBURY'S Cocoa Essence

Calomel, the danger of a mother prescribing

the ill effects of

Camphor makes teeth brittle

Caning a boy

Caps, flannel

Care in preparation of food

Carpets in nurseries

Carriage exercise

Carron oil in burns

Castor oil to heal the bowels

Cat, bites and scratches of a

"Chafings" of infants, the treatment of

Chairs, straight backed

Change of air

linen in sickness

Chapped hands, legs, &c

lips

Chest, keeping warm the upper part of the

"Chicken breasted" and narrow breasted children

pox

Chilblains

Child should dine with parents

"Child-crowing"

the treatment of a paroxysm of

Children's hour

parties

Chimneys, on the stopping of

Chiropodists (note)

Chloralum as a disinfectant

Chlorosis and green sickness

not in rural districts

Choking, what to be done in a case of

Cholera infantum

Cisterns, best kind of

Clothes, on airing an infant's

the ill effects of tight

Clothing of children

of infants

during winter

of youths

Coffee as an aperient

and tea

Coin, on the swallowing of a

Cold bed-room healthy

Cold, a feverish

on child always catching

feet, method to warm

Concluding remarks on infancy

Conclusion

Constipation, prevention and cure of

Consumption attacks the upper part of the lungs

the age at which it usually appears

causes of

death rate

importance of early consulting a medical man in

spitting of blood in

symptoms of

Consumptive patient, the treatment of a

Convulsions of children

cause insensibility

from hooping-cough

no pain in

Cooked fruit for child

Corns

Corn plaster, an excellent

Coroners inquests on infants

Corporal punishment at schools

Costiveness of infants, the means to prevent

remedies for

the reason why so prevalent

in weak children

Cough, the danger of stopping a

Cow, the importance of having the milk from one

pox lymph direct from heifer

from healthy child

Cream and egg, 200

and water for babe

Crinoline and burning of ladles

Crib, covering head of

Croquet for girls

Crossness in a sick child

Croup

the treatment of

Cry of infant

Cure, artificial and natural

"Curious phenomenon" in scarlet fever

Cut finger, the application for

DANCING, and skipping

Danger of constantly giving physic

Delicate child, plan to strengthen a

Dentition

lancing of gums

second

painful

Diarrhoea of infants

treatment of

Diet of a child who has cut his teeth

of children

of a dry nursed child

of infants

on a mother being particular in attending to

variety of for child

of youth

Dietary in infants

Dieting a child

Dinner for a child

youth

Diphtheria symptoms, causes, and treatment of

Dirty child

Diseased nature and strange eruptions

Diseases of children

girls

infants

obscure

the prevention of

produced by tight lacing

symptoms of serious

Disinfectants in scarlet fever

Doctor on early calling in

Dog the bide of a

Doleful child

Don't

Dowle on The Foot and its Covering

Drainage

Dress, female

of a child while asleep

of a babe, child, and youth

Dresses, high for delicate child

Dressing babe for sleep

Dribbling bibs

Drinking fountains

Dropping child, danger of

Dry nursed children, the best food for

"Dusting powder" for infants

Dysentery, symptoms and treatment of

EAR, discharges from

removal of a pea or bead from

Ear-ache, treatment of

wig in ear

Early rising

Education of children

infant schools

home, the best for girls

Education, modern

for youth

Eggs for children

Electuary of figs

Emetic tarter dangerous for child

Eneme apparatus (note)

of warm water

Engravings in nurseries

Eruptions about the mouth

Excorations applications for

best remedy for

Exercise

best composing medicine

during teething

for children

in wet weather

on violently tossing infants

horse and pony

an infant himself taking

in very cold weather

in wet weather

for youth

Eve, substances in

FAECAL matter in pump-water

Fainting

from constipation

from debility

from disordered stomach

Falling-off of hair

Falls on the head

Farinaceous food give babes wind

Fash on dangerous effects of strictly attending to

the present, of dressing children

Fashionable desiderata for complexion

Favouritism

Feeding bottles

infants, proper times for at breast

new born babe with gruel

Feet smelling

sweating

tender

Female dress

Fire, on a child playing with

danger of back to

in night nursery

the manner of extinguishing, if clothes be on

guards

Fire-proof, making dresses

Flannel cap for babe

night-gowns

shifts for a delicate child

waistcoats

to wash child with

Flatulence, remedies for

Fleas, to drive away

Flute, bugle and other wind-instruments

Fly pole

Fog, on sending a child out in

Folly, of giving physic after vaccination

Food, artificial, during snacking

care in preparing infant's

for dry-nursed infants

for infants who are sucking

Formula, for milk, water, salt, and sugar

Friction after ablation

Frightening a child

Fruit as an aperient

during teething

GARTERS impede circulation

Gently speak to child

Gin or pepperment in infant's food

Giving joy to a child

Glass, a child swallowing broken

Gluttony

Glycerine

Goats' milk

Godfrey's Cordial

poisoning by treatment

Grazed skin

Green dresses poisonous

paper hangings for nurseries

peas as a vegetable

"Gripings" for infants

Groin rupture

"Gross superstition,"

"Grub-pimple"

Gums, the lancing of the

Gum-bod, cause and treatment

Gum-sticks, the best

Gymnasium, value of

HAIR, the best application for

falling off

making tidy

management of

Half-washed and half starved child

Hand-swing

Happiness to a child

Happy child

Hard's Farinaceous Food

Hardening of children's constitutions

of infants

Hartehorn, on swallowing

Hats for a child, the best kind

Hawthorn, Nathaniel, on American ladies

Head, fall upon

Heat, external application of

Hectic flush, description of

Hiccups of infants

Hints conducive to the well-doing of a child

Home of childhood--the nursery

Hooping-cough

obstinate

treatment of

Horse exercise for boys or girls

and pony exercise

Hot-water bag or bottle

Household work for girls

Hurdle on early rising

Hydrophobia

Hysterica passio

Hysterics

ICE, on the value of

Illness, recovery from

Importance of our subject

India-rubber hot-water bottle

Ingoldsby Legend on thumb-sucking

Infants should be encouraged to use exertion

Infant schools

Ipecacuantis wine, preservation of

JOYFUL to bed, on sending child

LADIES "affecting the saddle"

Laudanum, poisoning by

Laugh of a child

Law, physic, and divinity

Leaden cisterns

Learning without health

Leech bites, the way to restrain bleeding from

Lessons for child

Lice in head after illness

Light, best artificial, for nursery

the importance of, to health

Lightly clad child

Lime in the eye

to harden the bones

Lime-water and milk

"Looseness of the the bowels" the treatment

Love of children

Lucifer-matches the poisonous effects of

Luncheon for a child

Lungs, inflammation of

precautions to

symptoms of

treatment of

Lying lips of a child

MAD DOG, the bite of

description of

Magnesia to cool a child

Management of child's mother's question

Massacre of innocents

Mattresses, horse-hair, best for child

May, the month of

Meals, a child's

Measles

and scarlet fever

treatment of

Meat, daily, on giving

raw in long-standing diarrhoea

in exhaustive diseases

when a child should commence taking

Meddlesome treatment

Medical man, a mother's treatment towards

Medicine, the best way of administering

on giving new-born infants

on making palatable (note)

Menstruating female during suckling

Mercury, on the danger of parents giving

Milk, on the importance of having it from ONE cow

bad, very nasty

for babe indispensable

in every form

or meat, or both

a plan to make a child take

sugar of, and water

the value of, for children

unboiled

a way to prevent, turning sour

-crust

Mismanaged baby

Modified small-pox and chicken-pox

Mother fretting, injurious to infant

a foolish

of many diseases

Mother's and cow's milk, on mixing

health during suckling

influence

Motions, healthy, of babe

Mumps

NAAMAN, the Syrian

Napkins, when to dispense with

Nature's physic

Navel, management of the

rupture of

sore

-string separation of

Neaves' Farinaceous Food

Nervous and unhappy young ladies

Nettle-rash

New-born infants and aperients

when feeble

Night-commode

Night-terrors

Nose, removal of foreign substances from

bleeding from, means to restrain

Nurse, on the choice of a

a lazy

strong and active

young, not desirable

for the sick

Nursery-basin

of a sick child

a child's own domain

selection, warming, ventilation, arrangements of

on the light of a

must be airy

observations, further

windows to be often opened

Nursing-bottles, the best

OPIUM, a case of poisoning by

the danger of administering to infants

the treatment of poisoning by

Over-education

Over-lying a child

PAIN, convulsions, and death

Paint-boxes dangerous as toys

Parental baby-slaughter

Parritch, the halesome

Peevishness of a child, the plan to allay

Perambulators

Physicking a child, on the frequent

Pies and Puddings

Pimples on the face, treatment of

Pin, on a child swallowing

Pins, in dressing of babe

Play, a course of education in

Play-grounds for children

and play

Pleasant words to a child

Poisoning, accidental

by the breath

Poppy-syrup

Pork an improper meat for children

Position of a sleeping child

Potatoes for children

Poultice, a white-bread

Powder, "dusting"

Precocity of intellect

Precocious youths, the health of

Prescriptions for a child

Princess of Wales and her baby (note)

Professions and trades

Proper person to wash an Infant

Prunes, the best way of stewing

Profession or trade, choice of, for delicate youth

delicate youth should be brought up to

Puddings for children

Pals of child

Pye Chavasse's Fresh Air Treatment of scarlet fever

Milk Food

QUACK MEDICINES

Quacking an infant

Quick lime in eye

RAIN WATER

Recapitulation of ablution

Red gum

Respiration, products of poisonous

Rest, the best time for a child to retire to

Re-vaccination, Importance of

every seven years

recommended by Jenner

Revalenta Arabica

Rheumatic fever, flannel vest and drawers

Ribs, bulging out of

Rice, prepared as an infant's food

Rich children

Richardson, Dr, ether spray

Rickets

various degrees of

Roberton on child-crowing

Rocking-chairs, and rockers to cradle,

Rocking infants to sleep

Rooms ill effects, of dark

Round shoulders

Round worm

Running scall

Rupture

Rusks

SALLOWNESS, cause of in young girls

Salt water and fresh water

should be added to an infants food

bag of hot

necessary to human life

Salt-and water ablations for a delicate child

for teeth and gums

meats for children

Scalds and burns

of mouth

Scarlatina

Scarlet-fever

and diphtheria

the contagion of

the danger of giving aperients in

the dropsy of

Fresh Air Treatment of

hybrid

management of child after

and measles, the importance of distinguishing between

the principal danger of

purification of house after

treatment of

utter prostration in

Schools, female boarding

public

Screaming in sleep

Scrofula

prevention of

Scurfy head

Sea-bathing and fresh-water bathing

for a young child

Secrets, talking, before child

Senna as an aperient

Shivering fit, importance of attending to a

treatment of

Shoes, plan to waterproof

preferable to boots

sound and whole

and stockings for children and youths

the ill effects of tight

"Shortening" an infant

Shoulder-blades "growing out"

Sick child, the nursing of a

not to be staffed with food

Sick-room, management of,

Sickness of infants

Singing and reading aloud

beneficial to a child

Single-stick

Sitting with back to fire

Sitz-bath for protrusion of bowels

Skating for boys and girls

Skin, grazed

Sleep of children

Sleep, infant's

in middle of day beneficial

much, necessary for infants

temperature of an infant's bedroom during

right time of putting a child to

putting infants to

of youth

-walker

Sleeping on lap

-rooms, importance of well-ventilating

Sleepless child

Slippers, the best for sick-room (note)

Small-pox

a pest and disgrace

modified

when in neighborhood,

to prevent pitting of

Smoking, on a boy

Smothering of infants, the cause

Socks and Stockings for a child

Soda, ill effects of washing clothes with

Sounds, joyful

Soups and broths

Speak gently to a child

Spencer, a knitted worsted

Spines, distorted

Spine, injury to

curvature of

twisted

Spirits, deadly effects of, to the young

Spitting of blood

precautions

Spurious croup

Stammering, cause of

cure of

Stays, the ill effects of

Stillness of sick-room

Sting of bee or wasp

Stir-about and milk

Stockings and shoes

Stooping in a girl

Stopping of chimneys

Stoves in nursery

Strawberry-tongue

Stuffing a sick child with food

a babe

"Stuffing of the nose" of infants

Stunning of a child

"Stye," treatment of

Substitute for mother's milk

Sucking of thumb

Suckling, the proper times of

Suet pudding

Sugar for infants

confectionery

-of-milk

raw, as an aperient

Sun-stroke

Sunday

Supper for a child and for a youth

Surfeit water and saffron tea

Sweet things and sour digestion

Sweetmeats and cakes

Swimming, on boys and girls

Symptoms of serious diseases

TAPE-WORM

Taste for things refined

Tea, on giving a child

green, the ill effects of

Teeth, attention to, importance of

child should not have meat till he have cut several

the diet of a child who has cut all his

and gums

right way of brushing

appearance and number of first set of

second set of

second crop of

Teething

causing convulsions

eruptions from

frequent cause of sickness

fruitful source of disease

purging during

restlessness from

second

symptoms and treatment of painful

in town or country

Temperature and ventilation of a nursery

of a warm-bath

Thread-worm

Throats, sore, precautions to prevent

Thrush, cause, symptoms, prevention and cure of

Thumb best gum-stick

Tight bands, belts, and hats

Tight-lacing, the ill effects of

Times for suckling an infant

Tobacco-smoking for boys

cases illustrating the danger of

Toe-nails, the right way of cutting,

Tongue-tied, an infant

"Tooth-cough,"

Tooth-powder, an excellent

Top-crust of bread as infant's food

Tossing an infant

Tous-les-mois

Toys, children's

painted with arsenic

Trade or profession for delicate youth,

Treatment of a delicate child

of some urgent serious diseases

Troubles of child

Truth, the love of

Tub, commencement of washing infant in

Tubbing a child

Tumbling and rolling of a child

VACCINATION

appearance of scab

arm after

giving medicine after,

making babe poorly

Veal for a child

Vegetables for a child

Ventilation, and stopping of chimneys

and sleep

of a nursery

Violet-powder

WALKING, on the early, of infants

exercise, value

in his sleep, a child

Warm-bathe for children

external applications

Warts

Washing of boys and girls

Washing a child

an infant

a new-born infant's head with brandy

Washing a nursery floor

Wasp, the sting of a

Water, on the importance of good,

on the brain

closet, on going regularly to,

cold and warm for ablution,

hard for drinking

-fright

pure, essential to health

to whole of skin

Weaned child, the diet of a

Weaning, proper time and manner of

Weather, on a child almost living in the air in flue

on the sending a child out in wet

Weight of new-born infants (note)

Wet flannel application

Wet-nurse

diet of

for feeble babe

management of

"Wetting the bed" during sleep

Wheezing of a new-born infant

White lily leaf for bruises

"Wind," babe suffering from

Windows of a nursery

Wind pipe, foreign substance in

Wine and youth

Wine for children and youths

Winter clothing

Woolen garments

Worms

quick medicines for