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THE UNIVERSITY OF
BRITISH COLUMBIA

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WOODWARD HISTORICAL
COLLECTION

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LECTURES ON

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DELlVERIiD BY TMB

Late Dr. T. 6. MeGltiTR^

Wd are happy to offer to the public the
lectures of the late Dr. McGrath, the proceeds
of which will go towards the repairing of St.
Patrick's church.

The sun had s-.t while it was yet day.

. ■ ^ ■ ■*

These words are well adapted to the late Dr.
T.. Gr. Mcd-rath, whose brillant career was
suddenly brought to a close by the ruthless
Hand of death, when the future presented itself
to him under the most smiling aspect. He was
born on the 21st September, 184t, at Ne\y-Port,
a beautiful town, some twenty five miles from
Limerick, county Tipperary. In the same year,
his father, who was a civil engineer and
government surveyor, was sent, with several
others, to lay out some public works for the
benefit of the poor. In the course of these five

■:J-

y^irs that he was employed in these public
works, he became disgusted with the misery
and destitution which he witnessed,on all sides,
lind resolved to emigrate to this country, which
he did on the 24th August, 1853. Upper Canada
was to have been his destinatiq^i, but immedia-
tely on his arrival he was engaged by the
members of the Turnpike Trust to lay out
macademized roads around Quebec, he therefore
settled in Quebec and remained until 1858,
when he was sent to lay out the Sills {chemins
des Tfois-RivUres) for the North Shore here,
while surveying in the bush, he took cold which
ultimately settled on his lungs and carried him
off in 1859, leaving his family almost destitute.
A few months previous to his death, he placed
his young son in tlie model school, under the
care of Rev. Mr. Langevin, Principal of the
Laval Normal School. It does ♦not always
happen that the characteristic of the future man
can be traced in the impulse of the child, but
in the late Dr. McGrrath this was riot the case ;
from his very childhood, he showed a wonderful
aptitude for learning. When old enough, he
entered the Laval Normal School, where he
made a solid and brilliant course of studies,
under the watchful eye of his good protector, the
Principal, who is now Bishop of Rimouski. His
mother wished him to become a priest, but upon

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his being questioned by the Principal about hijs*
vocation, he answered that he did not think he
was called to the priesthood, his only ambition
was to study medicine. He therefore entered,
in 1864, the Laval University,' as a medical
student. It was here that his talents showed
in a remarkable manner, by carrying off, three
years successively, the firbt Morrin Prize from
such brilliant students us Grill and Larose. -On
the 20th May, 1867, he entered the Military
School and, in the incredible space of three
weeks, obtained the first class certificate after
undergoing a most honorable examination before
Lord John Bussell. He seemed to have had no
difficulty in studying, for he not only found
time to pursue his. own studies, but also to
give lessons , which he did, three times a week,
in the family of the Hon. Judge Caron — our
present Lieutenant Governor, and if he had any
leisure moments, he passed^them with his moth er
whom he tenderly loved. He w^as naturally of
an original, proud and independant disposition,
admirably mild and full of energy, he had
hardly begun the practice of medeciiie when
fortune smiled on him. In a very short time he
had an immense practice and probably,if he had
beeii spared, he would have been, in a few years,
the leading physician of the city. "Whilst a
student, though poor, he was never discouraged.

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From the first year of his University career, he
looked to the future with calm and without
uneasiness ; he seemed already to hold fortune
captive ,in his iron will and now, when his
numerous friends beheld him, with pleasure,
attain the first rank in his profession, deilth
suddenly put an end to his career on the
18th February, 1872, after five years practice
and this very lecture on Health, which we now
off*er to the public, was to have been delivered
by him on the 25th of the same month. The
events in connection with his death are too well
known to need recapitulation. Half past six
o'clock, on that memorable Sunday morning, he
accompanied his aged mother to church,and after
Mass, on his way home, he entered J. A. Burke's
druggist. On leaving there, he directed his steps
towards the Place d'Armes,but not feeling well,
he stopped at Mr. Bouchard's who was then
under his care ; he had hardly enterred when he
fell back on a chair exclaiming, " Oh ! My poor
mother ! " and instantly expired. Dr. Jackson
was ;.alled, in haste, who could scarcely realize
that the Doctor w^as dead. To him was assigned
the melancholy task of breaking the sad news
to Mrs. MeGrath. We can easily conceive the
grief and sorrow of this mother, on hearing that
her Only son and support, her beloved child,
whom sh6 had left one half hour before, full of

life aud energy, was ho more. Dr. Jackson ,in
these trying moments, showed himself a friend
by his truly christian and charitable conduct.
His many friends were thrown into a profound
melancholy at the news of^ his sudden d«ath,
they showed their respect and love by surround-
ing his regretted remains, during the days
previous to his interment, and many tears were
shed for his premature death. As a surgeon he
had his equals among his professors, but it
would be very difficult to find his superior in
the country. A short time before his death, he
operated with success on a case that two of our
best physicians considered almost impossible.
A grateful and devoted son, he employed his
income towards the support of his mother and
sisters. Warmhearted, he never forgot his kind
benefactors, among others, his Lordship, Bishop
Langevin,whom he always regarded as a second
father.

-«

wl^riij^f ii'ii B

LECTURE ON HEALTH.

Ladies and Gtentlemen,

Last winter I had the honor oi' addressing
yoii on the subject of children. I spoke to you
of the great mortality to be met with in our
large cities, among this interesting portion of
the population. I showed you the causes of
this mortality and I pointed out the means of
diminishing and preventing it.

I(ow, this evening, I intend to speak to you
of adult life, of yourselves, of each and every
one of you. I will try and show you that
if, as I proved in my last lecture, a great
many infants and young children perish each
year, throui>h the ignorance and neglect of
their parents, that also a great many adults a
great many parents, contract disease and perish
miserably through their own ignorance folly
and vice.

It is the law of nature, Ladies and Gren-
tlemen, that we all must die one day. It is also
the law of nature that we must suffer from
disease and sickness. No matter how well we
may conduct ourselves; what great care we
may take ; what wise laws we may follow,
still we are under the curse of poor humanity
suffering, disease and death.

We are cursed, we have the proofs of it each
day we rise ; the young, the strong and the
pale, drop off from around us. "We are cursed
from the begining ; we are also cursed in our
generation. The sins of the Father shall descend

on the children to the third and fourth genera-
tion. But we are also blest, for in that book,
where we find recorded the sentence passed on
our firdt transgression, we find the words,
'' That the days of one just man shall be long in
the land ;" that the days of the man who follows
nature's laws, thjit the days of the man who
lives according to what his reason, his intelli-
gence and not his passions teach him ; that the
days of the man who shuns vice, debauched
and intemperate pleasures, that his days shall
be long. Whilst, on the other hand, he who
gives Yeni to all his evil inclinations, who
follows the dictates of his diseased passions &.nCi
vices, that he shall sufier, shall be subject to
disease to pain and to sorrow and that hin
children's r^iildren shall, in after years; curse
him again in the feeble hollow tones of consump-
tion, scrofula and those other affections inherited
as the fruit of vice.

I am not here, this evening, Ladies and
Grentlemen, with the intention of preaching to
you. No. I should not be in my place if I
did, neither would the cloak of canting hypo-
cracy fit one well. I am here,in my true capacity,
as your Physician, obliged to tell the truth as a
Physician, to show you that although we
inherit, with our nature, the seeds, of disease,
that although we are exposed to epidemics, to
contagion and a host of other evils, still that
we can trace a great deal, if not the most of our
sickness, to our own fault, to our own ignorance,
to our own bad habits.

I know that human nature is human nature

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and that neither my lecturing nor the lecturing
of those who preceded me, nor of those who will
come after me, can change it, have changed it or
will ever be able to change it. The exi)erience
of centuries, of thousands of years, has not
improved it much. The teachings of the wisest
men, of the greatest scholars, have left it where
they found it. Christianity itsefr which has done
so much, which has ennobled and lifted man
from the level of the brute, has not been able to
do that. It is true, m^n's nature may be
elevated, it may be more learned, it may under-
stand the motion of the heavenly bodies, it may
have penetrated the bowels of the earth and
dug from it its secrets, it may have rendered the
powers of nature subservient to its will, but
after all, has it rendered man more wise in
what is true wisdom, the curbing of his passions,
the protection of his health ? I am sorry to say
no, and firmly believe it never will. It is a
poor thing to be obliged to admit that neither
the experience of ages nor the teaching of
science can make us understand what we owe
to ourselves and to those who come after us.

It is a proved thing which we are obliged to
admit that with all our boasted knowledge, with
all our discoveries, our improvements, that we
have not advanced one iota in the true road of
knowledge, the care of our health.

And is not the science of health, after that of
religion, the true the only knowledge ? Is there
anything on this earth of more importance ? Do
we work during life for anything else ? Are not
all our efforts in that direction ? Do we not grow

old seeking for it ? Are not all our wonderful
discoveries, our improvements in arts and
sciences, are they not all made use of to give us
health ? Of course they are. "We do not seek for
riches, for the gratification of being rich only for
the happiness it can purchase, for the pleasures
it can give. "We do not seek for position, ifor
honors, but that we believe by being honored,
by being in. a high position we shall be more
happy, and where will you find happiness
without health ? Are they ever separate ?

Ask the man who once had health and has
now lost it, and he will answer you : To regain
health he is willing to sacrifice all ; he is willing
to become poor once more, despicable ; he will
exchange places with the beggar at his door ; he
will sacrifice riches, honors, position, everything,
for one drop out of that golden goblet of health.

He will travel, he will consult, he will listen
to the voice of ignorance which on any other
occasion he would despise ; he will deprive
himself of all pleasures, he will follow the
strictest rules, and all with joy, to regain that
which he has lost and which he knows to be
more precious than anything else this world can
give.

And we know all that and we will throw it
away as if it were but dross ; we know its value
and we will take every means, both natural and
unnatural, to lose it ; we know its value and we
are ready to barter it for a few moments of
pleasure. It is inconceivable but it is too true,
and that is human nature. .

What constitutes the strenth of a nation ? Is
it its extent, its population ? No. Is it its

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riches, its fertility ? No. Is it' its domiiiiou
over surrounding peoples ? No, It is none of
these. What constitutes its strenth, what is
the foundation of its prosperity, the lever of its
power, what makes it prosperous and rich,
what gives it dominion and respect, virtue to
its daughters, strenth and wisdom to its sons ? it
is its health. When a nation is healthy, it is
riehi When a nation is healthy, it is wise.
Look at the history of all those powers which
have once ruled and are now forgotten. The
Egyptians under the Pharoahs. The Indes,
Persians and Assyrians* under G-ambyses, under
Cyrus. The Grreeks under Aristides, Themis-
tocles, Leonidas, Alexander. The Carthaginians
under the first days of its republic.

The Romans under their consuls who left the
plough to conquer the world, who returned to
it when their country was out of danger. Why
have they fallen from their high position ?

AVhy have they disappeared, leaving, some of
them, not even a stone to show where they once
stood ? Why ? Because they lost that health
which gave them wisdom, that health which
gave them strength.

Rome was great in those days, when its
youth would break the ice on the Tiber to take
their daily bath. When her statesmen lived on
the fruits of the earth which their own hands
had cultivated and she fell when she gave
birth to her LucuUus, when she gave birth t<>
those men who lived but for the gratification
of their most beastly appetites, when she gave
birth to those men who would leave the table

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to reject what they had taken so as to be able
to commence again.

Some of you may think that I exaggerate the
importance of health, but I really do not ; we
can be nothing without it ; we can be neither
virtuous, religious, wise nor useful without it.
What is the religion, the virtue, the wisdom of
the sickly man ? It may be of use to himself.
It may enable him to bear with fortitude the
evils under which he suffers ; but Will his
wisdom be of any use to the community to
which he belongs ? Can he import it ? Can he
make use of it for the good of his species ? His
religion, may save his soul but will it lead
others to follow his example ? Can that man
make a good citizen ? Can he add his share to
the common stock ? Can he become the father
of a family ? Yes, he can and give birth to a
race of miserable wretches who curse him, at
6very lengthing of the chain of their existence,
as the cause of all their evils, of all their
torments. He can, by spreading the poison of
his own rotteness through succeeding ages, by
sapping the foundation of that society to which
he belongs.

What constitutes society ? It is the family.
It is health. Can any family circle exist where
there is not health ? No, when sickness enters,
love and happiness fly out. It will bear up
against misfortune, against poverty ; but it
disappears as soon as sickness shows itself
What are the feelings of the father, the mother,
when they see their children dropping off each
year, one after the other ? when they behold

W" ■«•

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those who are still left with the marks of
gradual decay in every lineament of their
sickly features ?

What are the feelings of the father when he
iinds himself dying and leaving a helpless and
sickles family to the tender mercy of this
world's charity ? of one poor widow who
follows shortly to the same premature grave ?
And whose fault is it if they die young ? "Whose
fault is it if they cast on society the foulness of
their own nature in the persons of an idiotic
sickly, scrofulous and consumptive family ?
"Whose fault is it ? It is theirs and their own
curse, of their own crime.
^ "What ri jht has that consumptive wretch,
that ulcerated libertine, that confirmed drunk-
ard, what right has he to give children to
society ? What right has he to perpetuate in
his offspring the disease contracted through his
own imprudence or bequeathed to him as the
heritage of vice ? Oh ! truly the sins of the
father descend on the children to the third and
fourth generation.

Look at the sons, the daughters of that man
who has spent his youth, his strength, in the
pursuit of licentiousness, who has thrown on
every dunghill of debauchery the health, the
virtue that he once received as the most noble
heritage,the greatest boon,from virtuous parents.
See its fniits now. Behold the stupid, syphilitic
and consumptive family. Look at their blotched
and withered countenances, their feeble shrive-
led limbs. What are they fit for ? What can he
do with them ? Nothing. They are fit for nothing.

All that they possibly can do is to perpetuate,
through a few more generations, their inheri-
tence of vice and infamy. And is not that a
curse ? Must we look beyond the tomb for one
still greater ? Can there be on earth or Hell a
greater curse to that man, if he has any heart,
than to see himself the cause of so much misery.
Can there be a greater curse when he beholds
the friends and companions of his youth who
started in life no more favored by nature, or by
fortune than he, and who are now the proud
and contented fathers of a numerous and healthy
offspring, whilst the unhappy and miserable
outcast is buried unhonored and despised in
the premature and poor grave of the Libertine
and Drunkard.

The sickly family is to society what one
rotten branch is to the tree. Let it remain there
for some time audit will contaminate the whole
trunk ; if it be not cut off and destroyed the tree
falls. It is so with society, let sickness and
disease sap its foundation and it must perish.
Since health is so necessary to all men,
since without health we cannot know those
pure joys of the family circle, since without
health we cannot be a good father or a good citi-
zen, do you not believe that we should do all in-
cur power to preserve it, when we are blest in its
possession, that we should use every means to
regain it, if we have the misfortune to lose it ?
And is health such a very difficult jewel to
find ? Is it not within reach of each and every
one of us ? Does it require great efforts on our
part to preserve it ? No, it is within the grasp

' 9

of all men. Very seldom indeed, do y^e meet
with that outcast who cannot, with a little
trouble and patience, regain that health which
he has lost, but to do that he must strive.
Health will not come to him, he must go to it.
It will not be bought with gold. Doctors cannot
give it and neither can Quacks ; but still h« can
have it by doing one thing, and that is by
following naiture's laws. By following those
laws which nature tells him are right and avoi-
ding what she tells him are wrong.

Nature says, be regular in all* your habits;
be regular in your hours of work and in
your hours of repose. Nature says, be regular
and frugal in your meals, eat to nourish
your body and not to satisfy your diseased
appetites : Nature says, exercise your body as
well as yovir mind, so that they both shall work
in unison : Nature says, be chaste and temperate,
and to recompense you for whatever trouble it
may cost you, to recompense you for those false
pleasures of which you shall be deprived, you
shall have health and with it you shall have
happiness. Sacrifice for me that love of immo-
rality ; sacrifice forme that love of ease ; sacrifice
for me that love of intemperence and I will
give you strenth of body and sanity of mind ;
I will give you energy and vigor, fortune and
contentement.

And is it so very difficult to do what nature
says ? Is it so very difficult to do what is right
in preference to what is wrong ? Is it so very
difficult, with such a prize before our eyes, to
curb our paseions sufficiently to gain it? No,

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jadies and Gentlemen, it is not ; there is nothing
iasier, if we go the right way about it. It is
ill habit, whatever habits we get into, be they
•ood or bad, they are what we find easy to
follow.

What are the great evils of the day ? What are
I those causes of so much debility, so much
I suffering" among adult life ?

They are various, but the principal, the chief
are : Licentiousness, intemperance, want of
exercise and impure air.

It is impossible for me, in a lecture like the
present, and before a mixed audience, to touch
on all these subjects ; all I can possibly do is to
say a few words on some of them.

Intemperance ! ! It is said that laziness is the
parent of all vices. I dare say it is. But I
should think that we are by far too poor to be
much troubled with such a very aristocratic vice
as laziness ; but we certainly are not too poor
to be intemperate.

Intemperance, so far as I can see, is our great
failing; it is the first and pr^" icipal cause, of so
much sickness, of so many accidents, of so many
sudden deaths.

Of all vices to which poor human nature is
allied, intemperance is perhaps the worst. It is
the cause of more sorrow, of more trouble, of
more disease, of more crime, than any other evil
tacked on to this garment of flesh.

There are more dying,each year, either directly
or indirectly, through the effects of intemperance
than from any other cause.

AVhat is intemperance ? What constitutes

i=iii

intemperance in the medical sense ? For yon
must remember, Ladies and Gentlemen, that
what I say on this subject is as a Physician. I
ha*^'e not the least desire, the least ambition to
constitute myself an apostle of temperance. My
duty, »ince I have undertaken to lecture on this
subject of health, is to speak to you of the evil
effects the abuse of alcoholic stimulants has on
our constitution, aiid not what harm it may do
in a moral or social light. I say abuse, for tnere
is no harm whatsoever in the use of alcohol,
on the contrary, alcoholic liquors arc as , useful
and as necessary to man as any other gift of a
merciful Providence, audit is only when we
abuse it that it turns against us and that we
have reason to curse its existence.

Alcohol is a very respectable personage, none
can lay claim to greater antiquity ; thousands
and thousands of years have rolled over the
world since old father oats first gave it birth
and honored it with his friendship and protec-
tion. Empires have arisen and disappearexl.
"Worlds have been destroyed. Crusades have
been formed against it, societies have been
organised against it, preachers have spoken
against it, but alcohol has stood through all, both
time and persecution, and alcohol is stronger,
has more vitality, is sought after, more beloved,
than at any other period of this world's history.

It is all nonsense and moonshine, the idea of
ever being able to do away with alcoholic
stimulants, so long as man exists, so long shall
he have man's nature, so long shall alcohol be a
privileged favorite.

^^m^tm

All nations make use of stimulants, from the
most civilized to the most barbarous. The
Frenchman takes his wine, the Englishman his
beer, the Dutchman his gin, the Irishman his
poteen, and, to come nearer home, the Canadian,
— why he is not part^^ilar.

Alcohol has done a great deal of good and
alcohol has done a great deal of harm; and, in
that, it does not differ, in the least, from many
other gifts for which we ought to be thankful.

Many and many is the life alcohol has saved
from the jaws of death and many and many is
the one it has destroyed. Many and many
homes have been rendered happy by the proper
use of alcohol, and many and many are the
homes where it has brought poverty, wretched-
ness, sickness, crime and death.

Many and many are the fathers who have
been rendered childless through its abuse, and
many and many are ^e widows who owe to
its existence the loss 6f a husband, once kind
and affectionate. Many and many the orphan
who now lies hivering under the county rags
of christian charity who, were it not for its
existence, would not deplore, this day, the loss
of the parental roof.

Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, many and many
are the curses, many are the crimes all due to
this one thing alcohol. No ! not alcohol ; but
ourselves, our own passions, our own depravity
in abusing that which has been given to us
as a medicine and a help and not as a destroying,
noxious and maddening poison. Does the child
in health require stimulants ? Does the young

min"' i ' ' ^^'i^'^r^^mmif^^fm

man of twenty require stimulants ? Does the
strong and vigorous adult require stimulants ?
No, thy were never intended for them ; but let
sickness visit them, let that man lie on the bed
of fever, feeble, delirious, with the last breath of
exhausted life on his parched and livid lips, and
then it will stepin mercifully and enable him to
battle against the foe, to conquer his weakness,
to resist the enemy. When old age comes on,
when his body is bent under the load of time,
when his feeble limbs refuse to support him,
when his blood is cold and sluggish, then it
appears again and infuses new life inio that
shattered and exhausted frame.

Those are its true, its real uses ; it is in those
cases that it acts as a blessing and a boon. But
unhappily those are not the only cases in which
it is used ; on the contrary, it is by the young and
the strong, by those'with a superabundance of
animal spirits, that the most of it is consumed,
arid it is to that class <n society, to the young
and the strong, that I wish to address what I
shall say on the abuse of alcoholic stimulants.

All nations, as I said a moment ago, make
use of alcohol, nearly all men <&ink. It
would seem as if it were natural for man to
make a fool of himself now^ and then. But
there are exceptions. There are some men who,
happily for themselves, are so constituted that
liquor has no temptation for them. They
cannot drink.

Others again there are who abstain from it
through principal ; they know its evil effects,
perhaps they have felt its maddening influence

in their own person or beheld it in that of others ;
these men are called, Teetotalers, a very hard-
working, "wordly, money-making class of indi-
viduals whom we cannot too much resi)ect.

Among those who make use of spirituous
liquors, and who certainly form the great
majority, some take it in moderation. They
drink like rational beings. They make use of
wine or ale at dinner, as they would any other
gift of Providence. They tafce it as a nutriment
and they have as much reason in what they
do, if not more, than those who abstain altoge-
ther from good wine, ale and even spirits, when
taken in small quantities, at or immediately
after meals, can do no harm and often do a gi*eat
deal of good. Men who lead a sedentary life,
whose occupations confine them much to the
house, who suffer from dyspepsia, impaired '
digestion, weak stomach, such as Clergymen,
Lawyers, Merchants, writers and all men who
have in door occupation, require more or less
stimulants to enable them to digest their food. It
is necessary for the maintenance of their health
and although these men are not what we call
Teetotalers, and although they do not form
part of any temperance society, nevertheless
they are as sober and as temperate as the most
sober, temperate man could possibly wish them.

Others again never touch liquor but at long
and distant intervals; they never think of it,
until the occasion presents itself, and then they
are as good as the best. These men are of a
jovial, sociable disposition with a little of the
Philosopher in them ; they are always willing

: I

r. ^

Pii

If I

. to look at the bright side of nature and are ever
ready, in the company of friendship, wit and
whisky, to make what is technically called ** a
night of it." They certainly do wrong, but that
wrong, in my opinion, is so very slight that I
would rather let others judge them than myself.

Hypocrates, the father of medicine, and whose
memory all true disciples of Esculapius honor
and respect, allowed his pupils to get drunk,
once a month, in consideration of their not
tippling. This excessive liberality, on his part,
may perhaps, hurt the feelings of some very
temperate individuals present here, this eve-
ning, his permission may even be considered
immoral, but you must remember. Ladies and
G-entlemen, he spoke as a Physician and a
Pagan and not as a moralist and Christian : ^
spoke as a man who saw full well the ev^i.
effects of tippling and also as a Philosopher
who perfectly well understood our depraved
nature and who sought by a lesser evil to
combat one still greater.

He who gets drunk now and then, at rare
intervals, will not injure his health, ho may
break his neck,it is true, but then there is an end
to his drinking.

It is not the man who makes a fool
of himself, now and then, who forgets, in a
moment of excitement, what he owes to society
and to himself, that is the real drunkard and
social criminal, in the true medical sense or any
other sense, but it is the tippler, the toper, the
muddler, it is the man of whom you can never
say he is drunk, but whom you can never call
sober.

^^•1

The world may think otherwise, the world
may call the toper a sober man, but the world
lies and it is not the first lie she has told. You
need not ask the tippler if he drinks, it is
written in indelible characters on his beastly,
sottish countenance ; it is expressed in every
action of his sponging propensities. The young
man, after months of sobriety and hard work,
may be seduced by the allurements of vice, by
the solicitation of bad company and fall ;let the
world see him in that fall, let it get the least
ilikling of his misfortune, and she will brand
him as an inebriate from the house tops, she
will proclaim him as a drunkard, as a man lost
to all sense of honor and for whom there is no
redemption, but she lies. Let the poor man,
after his week's labor, be foolish enough to forget
his poverty and his hardsliii)s iu a few glasses
of liquor, and what will the world say of him ?
that ne is a low, dnnken rascal.

That is how the world speaks, and the best
of it is, that the world, in these cases,are the very
topers themselves whom you would think
ought to have some charity, but no, they are
the first to be scandalised, the first to cry out,
the first to throw the stone.

Medicine and common sense speak quite
differently, although they abhor and detest
inebriation, no matter how practised, as a habit
or as an accident, although they do not excuse
it, in any respect, still they draw a wide
difference between the man who occasionaly
makes use of alcohol and the man continvially
under its influence.

iwmn

^nw!^^*

I' ':!!

The first, it is true, may injure his reputation ;
he may lose caste ; society may disown him ; but
the seconil loses and destroys, what is fal* more
precious than the good opinion of any number
of hypocrites, no matter how hypocritically
respectable they may be, and that is his health.
The first injures himself and himself only, the
second not only ruins his own constitution but
also the health of that society of which he is a
member.

The first we can know and avoid the second^
we are obliged to receive.

The faults of the first will disgust us and
serve as an example of what rational man can
be, when he abases himself beneath the level
of the brute, but the second we can not seize,
he is the leper of society, clothed if you will, in
this world's self respect, but poisoning and
corrupting everything with which he comes in
contact. Tippler, how insulting ought to be
such an epithet to any man if he has still
remaining the least self respect. Tippler, that
is the slinking, skulking, sponging drunkard,
the closet-drinker, the pocket-pistol-carrier the
back-gate-swiller. "What a nice perspective for
the neophyte, for the youth whom the devil,
under the garl> of friendship, has first led into
the tap-room. Tippler, the personification, as a
general rule, of bestiality, stupidity, meanness
and vice.

When a man tipples, that is to say, when a
man takes seven or eight glasses of strong
spirituous liquors,such as brandy,gin or whisky,
in the day, he is killing himself, and how many

^^^mm

are there who take double and even treble that
quantity ? When a man, ai distant intervals,
takes an overdose of alcohol and gets intoxicated,
it acts like an o rerdose of many other poisons
and effects its own cure, by sickening the
culrnt, but when it is taken continuallv as a
habit, the system gets accustomed to is use
and instead of rebelling against it, it on the
contrary, asks for more. Liquor, in this case,
acts as a slow poison, undermining the consti-
tution, it acts gradually,its evil influcice cannot
be appreciated until it is too late.

It is like the drop of water which, in time,
wears its way into the heart of the rock. The
man who tipples, who takes seven or eight
glasses in the day, not more than that quantity
will be quite sufficient, has but nineteen years
to live. He is committing suicide. He does
not put an end to his life in that shocking
manner of blowing out one's brains, or throat
cutting, those ways of dying are too low, he has
too much honor, too much self respect, too much
dignity to leave the world and his admirers in
such ungentlemanly ways as those, no, he has
recourse to tippling which will answer the
same end and which has the advantage of being
by far more riespectable.

Tippling will kill in nineteen years. It is
not I who say so, Ladies and Grentlemen, it is
experience which we all must believe. Stati-
stics have i)roved that the man who, say at
twenty, begins to tipi^le, will die at thirty-nine.
This seems incredible, but it is nevertheless but
too true. There are exceptions I know, there is

mm^^

Pflp'^'w^w'

&>*■■•■

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.;!■

Ukii

m i

ill

: i:

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•■■t

not one amongst yon but would be able to
cite some remarkable exception, but the ex]
ception is not the rule, and it proves nothin[
more than that, some men are by nature
strongly constituted that what would kill
the generality of men, has but a slight effecJ
upon them. And how does the tippler die ?|
He dies of the same death in the very same
manner as the old man of seventy or eighty, h(
dies of old age — of premature old age, attainec
at that period of life at which the sober man isi
in his full strength and vigor. The old manj
who lias reached the venerable age of seventy
or more, dies because the mechanism is woriil
out ; the principal organs of life, the heart]
liver and kidneys are no longer able to perfori
their functions. In the days of his youth an(
strength those organs were powerful and mus|
cular, but they have been gradually decaying,!
every year more and more of their substancel
has been disappearing and replaced by inferioi|
tissue which has no power to work and so it is
, going from year to year, and month to month,!
and day to day, until they < an work no longeTl
— until death. It is so with the tippler, it is not|
the natural process of time that produces thes(
changes in him, he forestalls time by the indulJ
gence of his beastly i>assion, and every glass h<3i
takes is a day less in his calendar of lifej
every glass he takes is one step nearer to
premature and dishonored grave.

How is it that we see so many deaths among!
young and middle-aged men, among those whomj
we naturally consider as the bone and sinew of
society the strong and healthv V

-"-■fl^^^fPppip!

w^^im

^mm

I How IS it thjat we cannot t^ke up que of <

m^ of Bomft y^^ man, tie ,4e^%of «?
lather of a family, \v%om we toc^pryr. 7<^?|^l<

How is it tha| we, cannot t^lce ]iyp pi^ie of our

'^ "" ".tftwi|jjfee

ly, wnom we mm- MW^^Y
ley we?e ija the pijy^ of he^^ ja^ v|ggrbus

EiO^efij^ osc cj^rrift^. 9ff by ^PfHticy illiim w#^n
bie sQp>er jm^n wqw(^ , ,haV^ c^jii^hatteii TOth

[gjjr js it that ;^e aee $gjii||any sunenna jrom

[uip^W^ r JteTOfttisift,: 691^ 8^5i, frp^,^avel
YMe those" af&c^ons. 4i^e to y^ l^lfSf^ 9^ ^be

e met

are

pimale»jhe on^ 1^ ^

I muDceirt i the daWe }g toplmg.. .^| ^,f , | . .
■JF^ strpj3ijj[ amj l^|ay mau, boni pf hf al^iy

no reaifon tpr (^^d.^jpidemics, cou^gian sh(mlr
nc^l q^e.^eajJUBj a»4 ispis tj^ecajie? Qufte^

th^^^afls: t^\1^9t|J |9? mor^al^^ ; m .onr jpi jie*.

' Tt^ere is Iwdly an mqne^t h^iA tnia'O^ty,

hn^,|li^-caufie of;4ea9i m^y ]j)(^ said w t|pplipg.

Thi(t*|V^ili npi'be the y^rdict^. , x^ hfi»

die^ of appople^y, con^esticin otine'ljaiigs^ hut

^hat Urn m^ioihiB^m^ conges-

t^pn ? pjpplinj^ is the first ^n^^p^W^JY causf. It

I youi cotlJ^ijbjiiy coikceiye,.%adif4c^n|^ Qimrtlemen,

wha^ SF^^^ki cl^anges the; haj^itu^tj ithj^se of

mi^imm^^m^fiiimliim

• *h

ISI

".f

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you h&t)^ had reason to b^lieiTe wore in Erpunj
ieafth, Hifi^i iti Reality, <k the Terete df fke tool
iiito whiclk the most iiisigiiifi<^aiit (iause Vpmd
lirtdtritate tl^. ■ ;■■'', ' '■•'''!*''•;
' There h a tttlgar saying thai the livet of fhj
man Who linnki^ hard is hUtni. Althott^iho^
w&o maike nse o(f this ei^fi^iision do not Wo^
exactly HV'h^t they mean, nef^helei^, it^i
litei^iy true ; the tip{|^}er*'s liter iii liurni and isd
is hiA heat^, his kidiieyi^. When V^e exaihiii^
th^ iikside of the Healthy sbhet ttian; ii^^ fln^
those biMns so r^ry 'st^oiig diid re^istijb^^^^'^^^
it wotila redtiire gre# hrce, oh onr pjatt, ih hi
able to tear theni, mti^the tippler they criuhble
under the least t6nch,!1}ie least p]^e8firar£^f the
finger makes an ope^ih^ in tn^i^l Will ill
snrp^ce yon then, wh^n f t^ll yiA that tth^erl
the inmelnce of fioine bow^frfdl emdtioti; aJ
that 6f infer or jot; the tijjGf leW c^
dlet^i^btated and w^aikened heart mat t^iusig'to]
l^at knd that he :itill fall db'i^n deadf Ifffl it
snipHse yolA/ wh^n^I tefftoiili^a^ a jIMf pi,
anihsighifimit bl6\t, will be i^afficient % catuse
deith by the imptnre of one of th^ge bif^gans?
We are cojntinually inthe iifdldst 6'f d^Si;t^^^
do not kntnt the liaoment we msiy be ci).lled' b^J
but 6f all men, the tippler is the inan who Uksl
mdist reaton to dread it. It isfc^et^ ^t hiFl
side, it fisels with h|m in the mp^ing, it~ #s|
with Min ^t ta}>le; it hobnobs with hM at ' the
bar of his fardtite tavern, it reti^fe With 'fcm
at night, it is his companion, his be^ fellbW,. hjel
shiaudoW, eter watchml and vldlraiit, re«4^ to|
sti^ke at the moment when he least expects.

Death to the tippler shows no mercy. He

rill not send sickness, weakness and debility

lo warn him of his dissolution, to give him time

lo repent of his follies and his crimes, he will

lome on him treacherously, like the robber in

(he dead of night. Perhaps the poor miserable

victim is,at that moment, congratulating himself

^n his strength and health. Perhaps he is

[hinking of the loilg and happy days that are

ret to come, on the pleasures he shall enjoy.

ft may be in the bosom of his family, in the

lidst of his friends, at church, in the street or

[t may be, some where else, where he would

lot wish to be seen, that the final blow is struck,

le does not know, he cannot tell ; he is alive

LOW, the next moment he is dead and to morrow

le is forgotten.

That is the end of the tippler.

TT'

jili

m i-

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niwagiaiwwia stf^

m i\^mv'

MORTALITFir'

AMONG ■:.■..

CHILDREN OF OUR CITIES

Its CAue^ and tkb means to phevknt it.

\adies atid Gentlemen^

'tibe ^ortftUty ampng children pf this city, W

larffe^r tj^w^ it ought iQ be, when we take into

^nsiderfiWfit all those diseas^^ and affections,

whiph infahcy 4^d childhood 'ire exposed} and

so, wHatt reasoQS c^ we give to {tpcon;at for

? what means liiTe we at out di8];>osal to

iminish and prevent it ?

This, li^es and entj^eine^, is the subjiect I

3,f<e chosen to lecture oi;l this eveniq^. It isone

^t!he greatest iaoappitance as yon can easi^^ con-

!|iire,. the preservatioSL of life and health in the

iWt and young child. ,

I Without entering into particuiars and medi-

il dissertations, more adapted to a prpfessional

idience, I will try to show you, itta fewyrords

id in as cpncise a manner as ppsaible> that the

lortjftUty, amon^ iiuants aiid youug children,

really yery great and but of aU proportion

ith; that of our coxuitry )[>arisheB, iq|jd^lththat

loiig adults ; and also that Ihe cause, the only

rl4

■m

;!!•

■ill

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cause, I may say, of this, is the ignorant, preju-
diced and unscientific nursing of the childl
whilst in its in^fmcy. -, f: t > r^ f^'

What are those diseases which carry off so
many children every year ?

They are, Infantile Cholera or Diarrhoea,
Convulsiohs and diseases of the Biaimj OSfeasles,
Scarlatin, fever and inflammation of the lung.s|
and air passages.

Now, of all these, that which, without douhi,
commits the most havoc, which destroys the
greatest number, is Infantile Cholera or
Diarrhoea. That is the great scourge of this]
City, particularly during our summer months.
There are more chil|4reii ifiiej from this ;one|
disease, Diarrhoea, in bur Cl^ of Quebee, jtHaiJ
from all the other causes ^ut tog^iiet; and
what is the reason of this ? Ignoraiit nursing,!
spoonfeeding the young infant, a habit io bej
Ibund in all classes, and added to this, waiit oi
cleanliness and bad air.

The hejalthy infant, born of healthy parents, iiotl
tainted with any hereditary disease, and whpsej
physique is well formed, should uot be sitkl
That child should not suffer. 'Inhere sh6ili4l;^e|
no crossness nor peevishness,' no "^oraitingj|i6|
diarrhoea, no convulsions ; every brgah sho^ldl

act with Tegularity.' /^■^-•'r "^'/''^S^pT^y '■^^'^^^'r.^j
In fact, the child should exhMt' but' tWol
wants, that of sleep and that of npurisiitneilt[
He should drink well dUd with an appi^tite,
and ^lie should sleep pleity. The child, whoi
takes his food with a xjravSng, aUd who slebps
the placid sleep of infancy, is in health, if he dol

not, he is sick and there must be eomt reason
for it.

What can be the reason then,(always consider-
ing the children naturally healthy,) of so mtich
sickness among them, of so. many deaths '?
Because most mothers are ignorant t>f the care
the infant and young child require. BeciAUSe
they do not know, that when they spooinfeed
the youtig infant, when they drug it, an^ tear
it, in ill-vehtilated and crdwded apcdrtments,
that they are undermining its constitution ;
that they are laying the foundation^ where all
those diseases, I ha'\^e just mentioned, diarrhoea,
convulsions, ferer, &c., may the more eai^ily,
spring up and where they will have the surlest
hold.

Mothei's, and all you, to whom the young
infant looks for that protection and care which
he cannot give himself, how great is yotit res-
ponsability, how weighty the obligaiioti society
has imfwsed on you in the well brining up of
those children confided to yotur care. How
great your crime if, throug'h your ignorance or
neglect, you ruin their young constitution in
its bud and throw them on the world with the
seeds of affections which will be the cause of
continued suffering to them in after life.

Society demands a great deal of the christian
mother, m fact she is its prop and pillar, and
without her society could not exist. Not only
are the morals of a country but also its intellect,
its health all are in her hands. As she r6ars the
child so will be the man morally, mentally
arid physically, and as the man is, so will be
society.

What then are the duties of the mother
towards her child, so far as its bad health is
concerned ? They are these, few in number and
simple in execution. Feed it well, clothe it
well, and give it plenty of air and exercise.

The momer "^ho follows these simple rules
has healthy children, if they are not followed,
sickness and death will be the consequence,

The first condition is feed it well, ly hat should
be the ^t of the young infant ? There js but
one nourishment for the young child and that
is milk. That is its diet and that only.

Nature who does every thing right, when she
is i^oi balked or prevented, has provided for man
in his infancy, the best and most complete diet
containing in its greatest purity and in the most
perfect proportions, every thing necessary for the
support of life and preservation of health. As
you probably know, the diet of man must be
mixed and in certain proportions varying accord •
ing to health age and climate. Well, milk ans-
wers all theise purposes ; we have thje: cream or
pastey maiiter for the formation of animal heat,
the curds which form the lean or muscle, we
have sugar, water and salts, everything neces-
sary to constitute a nutritive and wholesome
diet and all joined together and elaborated hy
nature, in so perfect a manner, that .the science of
man will never be able even to imitate her.
Such then is the diet of nature, such is the
mother^s milk and such should be the infant's
only food.

But unhappily for the young infiint of th^
present day, particularly in large towns and

5:1:, '^'

cities, and unhappily for its parents, this, for
reasons not necessary for me to mention, cannot
be always had. Bad air, had nourishment,
crowding together in the lower classes, whilst
late hours, want of exercise and unnatural fash-
ions in the higher, have cut off that source of
health and comfort from many a young infant.
By what then, since this is so frequently the ease,
by what should it be replaced ? By the milk of
the cow and by that alone. Cow's milk, mixed
with a little water and sugar is the best, and
only substitute for that of the mother and
should constitute the child's only diet until he
has reched the age of, at least, iiye or six months.

G-o into our country parishes, where the fash-
ions of the day have as yet taken but little hold.
Where the good old custom of bringing up
children, according to the dictates of reason, has
not yet been abolished. Where the people enjoy
the good air and exercise so requisite for health.
Will you see there many deaths among infants?
You will see none. The only death you xtill
see is that of the old grandfather ^ of the old
grayheaded sire, who has run his course, from
infancy to extreme old age, never ailing, never
complaining, who sees in his sturdy sons himself
of former days, in his blooming daughters, the
faithful likeness of his venerable companion,
and their children, his grand children, with
sparkling eyes and healthy bodies, are they the
fruit do you think of spoon feeding in infancy,
of drugging, of bad air, of want of elercice ?

Compare these children with those of our
cities, of our suburban districts particularly.

i«

.'111!

See on, the oue side, weakness, emaciation, pale-
ness, precocious intellect, on the other, strength,
vigor and health both of body and mind.

I could never say too much, were I to speak
tor hours on the good effect milk diet has on
the young child, and per contra, of the evil
etiect of spoonfeeding in infancy. There is
more disease brought on by this abominable
habit than by any other cause. This spoonfeed-
ing, and drugging, are the two great curses of
infancy.

You will probably ask how this can be, how
boiled bread and milk or cracker and milk, how
coi*n starch or arrow-root, substances so very
nutritive and digestible, recommended, every
day, to sick persons and invalids, cai^ be
productive of so much harm, for the simple
reason that the stomach of the infant is not so
powerful as that of the grovsm child, of the
man, because to digest these substances the
stomach has to perform »'"'<^e times the work it
would have to perform to digcw^ "<> much milk
and being overworked, although it may accom-
modate itself for awhile to this over taxation
of its powers, it must ultimately give way, then,
follow vomiting perhaps convnlsions and diar-
rhoea.

The infant then, as I have just said, should, on
no account, before it has attained the age of, at
least, five months, receive any other food than
milk. If the milk diet be continued up to
seven inont)is, so much the better, about and
after this period will be the time for spoonXeed-
ing. Then the child's stomach is strong enough.

fA\:'hAt.

r accom-

to bear it, but before five months, ad an inva-
riiable rule, it should never be given.

What generally happens, when We spoonfeed a
child of only a few weeks or months did?
G-enerally, as I said a moment ago, the
stomach rebek, but sometimes, and very often,
quite the contrary happens ; the child seems* to
\fe thriving, it gets biffger,. the mother
ilatters herself that her child is «r^aily bet-
tei^ed by it. Perhaps her medical Aftendiint
warned her against such practice, t>ut she^'is
young and ihejq>erieinced and some kitid hefgh-
bout, -ivho has had a good Dlaiiiy of her oWH. and
who certainly must Imow something about it,
we, perhaps, the professional nurse, Whose phy-
sician is tne only one who knows anythihg or
the wise women of the district think otherwise.
What does the Doctor know about children ?
It is all very Well to binda br<A:e^. leg ^r Jjull
a tooth; but hbWto rear a child, nonsetasef And
the mother believes, as hei^ betters d6, qttaleker}^
ropery arid 'ignorance are always believed
before ricienoe, truth and honesty antd i^he^^ Conti-
nues the spo6nfe^ding when lo ! some ^ne
morniiig, convulsions i^how themselves, usher-
ed in by vbtriiting — the Doctor is sent for in a
gi'eat hurry. He come^. Htt -shows her now the
evil effects of her not Allowing Ms presbtiption.
He does what he* Can, but itiis to^o late; the child
dies'.-' ^--' ■ • ::!>■.'•' ;' ■'••■

What has killed it? It is SjKKxnfeeding ! Why
certikinly not; The mother itiid the old wise
heads of the neighborhbod hili.Ve decided that
the Doctor knew* nothing about the child's
disease and that it was he who killed it.

r' t

Hi i

Now that is what happens every day. Young
infants spoonfed from the moment of their
birth, brought up in crowded and ill-ventilated
apfii<rtmenta, take sick and die.

They will ixot believe this is due to their
ignorai^ce six^i n€|glecti it will not hikve the
e£^t pf iByajciug them act. better £or the future.
The next child is treated hi the saia^ manner
and so Srom one to another. If one or more have
tlu^ cJto^ce or misfortune to survive, do you think
tWy ^iU be ahle to resist all those diseases
incidQutal to childhpOid^ p^ojbaMy not; and
if they demand arrive at ma^hpiodi, still they will
never be so strong, never so healthy^ never so
intelligent as the child, equally gifted by nature,
but w:ho ha9 be^ft r^red mA nurtured accor-
ding to reaso;n and common s^^nse.

ii physician of this city met with a very
remarkable case, spiue few months a^o,th<^wing
clearly the servile e:^ects of spoonfeeding and the
good of mil^k diet, He was called to s^o a young
child of a week old. The nioth^r had several
children living. Then she had had six in suc-
cession all dying when ^utgix or eight weeks
old. And she expected this, the seventh , to die
also about that age. She wished to know if
there was anything wrpng about the, child, but
he opuld seeo^th^g^QUithe contrary, it; seemed
to be, in every respect,:v^ell formed and healthy.

Upon questioning her, she told him that she
\i2^ nursed thoae who were living, but th^t she
ha4 )(^t this poi^rer ;y^ii^ the birth pf the first of
the six. who ^ii^- ^He then had MK>ou,'(se to
ftpoonfeeding!^ giving: them plenty boikd bread

<=)tii

7 *■ ' "

-^':^i4^; ■;*

AwX milk, &om the moment of their birth. They
all appeared as strong axtd as healthy as this
one, but at about six or eight weeks they took
convulsious and died.

He told her that there was nothing to prerent
this ebildirom living, if she would eease giving
the bread and milk and i^plaee it by cow's
ms^ and water^ iu the proportion^ of 400 parts
of the former md one of the latter, sweetened
with a little white sugar.

This, with a few other simple prescriptions
about the clothing, &c., which heordercii, she
has followed to the letter, and to-day the child
is alive and strong, having passed that period
at which she lost the others by several months.

I am quite confidant that the convulsions
which carried off this woman's children were
due to nothing else but that irritation produced
on the sioma^. and bowela by the presence of
the indigestible and irritating diet which had
been given to them from the moment of their
birfch. Since death then haft beetlthe invariable
consequence of spoonfeeding iin this woman's
family may it not also be the same in yours ?

You may ansvrer* it is very true, that there
are a great many families who bring up their
children in this mannc^r, and that it Has not
killed them, on the contrary^ that they are
strong and healthy, stronger and heal thiei- than
thc«e of many of your acquaintettces who have
be>en reared entirely on na^k. So it is ; but
how do you know, but if yours had been reared
otiherT ' 3, that they . woiftld not have' been
stronger, even more healthy? Are you sure

'^mipii^^^t^^^^r^i;

•T.

i)' •'■

'.':t

that in some months or years from this, those!
spoonfed children will l>e able to resist diseasel
as well as they would have, had th«y been|
reared otherwise ? * '

Yon do not know, but I do, and I tell yon that|
they neTer will be as strong, as healthy, as intelli-
gent ; that they will not be able to resist the I
bainfal influence of those x^oisons and mi^mas
so common in all our large towns and cities,
and that, if they do struggle through And arrive
at manhood, they will be feeble and sickly,
both in mind and body, an ohject of pity to the
strong and intelligent, thei friiit of natural
nursing, and a waMng, living proof of the evil ]
effects of spoonfeeding.

Tak6 up one of our daily papers. Iiook at the
record of deaths. You wi 11 see there tiie name of |
a young man aged thirty of a young lady aged
eighteen, or twenty. You know 'them inti-
mately. You ask what they died of.— " Conges-
tittn of the lungs, '^ " inflamation, " "fever." No!
They did not' die of those diseases. They should
not die. We do not die at that age. They died
from the eflect» of '* ignorant nursing. " That
is what killed them. You hear, every day of
children dying of" convulsions'- of " water on
the brain. " No, they died from the effects of
spoonfeeding of drugging.

' ' Drugging " is another great scourge of
childhood and, I am sorry to say, but too general.

Where is the child that has not been drugged
more orles6 in its infancy? If the child be cross
and fidgety, he is drugged ; if he be restless^ if he
disturbs his nurse's slumbers, he is drugged ; if

^f^i■■<i, .■

16, tkosel
t diseasel
«y been!

•ij,.-. ...

you that
m intelli-

Bsiitt 'the
mkiBiBas
id cities,
d arrive
sickly,
ty to the
natural
f the evil

[>k at the
i name of I
ady aged
lem inti-
' Conges-
ver." No!
y should
•hey died
"That
y day of
water on
effects of

ourge of
3 general,
drugged
1 be cross
lessi it'he
igged ; if

he has lost his appetite or if he eats too much

land vomits in consequence, he is drugged; in

fact drugging is the great resource the only

I means by which we cure all evils and quiet all

woes.

A small bottle of " medicine for children,' '
say by Mrs. Winslow or the famous Dr. Picaud,
i of Montreal, or some other benefactor of infancy,
in the hands of an experienced nurse, of oiie
who perfectly understands what she is about,
I can do more good» relieve more pain, cure more
di»»e^^»* than all the Doctors and their prescrip-
ts »iii I. the country. There is nothing like Mrs.
I "VV lU&low, and the rest of her kind, when guided
I by a sure hand, to relieve the distress of families
where childhood is su^ring. We cannot thank
her too much, and all other quacks and rogues
like her, for the great boon they have conferred
on society ; and society can never be too
grateful can never express sufficiently the obli-
gation it is under to those mothers and nurses
for the seutdble, judicious habit they have of
dosing, <iu:c] ing children.

Soothi '!,:; sy ups, cough mixtures, powders for
Ichildren, a i universal panaceas, substa&ces that
[can cure ev vyibingif you but give enough,
[what are they ? Every day our daily papers
|tell you what they are. You will read under
the heading of " nurse's ready relief" or some
>ther engaging title of a medicine unkaown as
ret to the riiecUeal worlds extracted £rom the sim-
»lest oC herbs, containing nothing injurious
aid eve ^f Mng benefidali No opium, particu-
larly no i. ercury, poor mercury has got a very

ir*

bad name in public and is always expelled from
every respectable association, prepared in the
most careful manner and which in doses of sa
many drops will cure colds, coughs, vomiting,
diarrhoea, convulsions, water on the brain, fever,
corns and God knows what not besides, will
restore the appetite if it be lost, will diminish
it if too strong and anything and all for one
dollar.

Then follows a lo ^^^ ]ist of recommendations
by such and such a £. r and Mayor who have
used it or seen it useu with the very best
result — ^by Mr. so and so what feels bound to
recommend it to the public, having proved so
serviceable in his family. It is true you do not
know Mr. so and so nor the 'Doctor nor the
Mayor, but some body must, and then is it not
extracted entirely from nurses so the medicine
is bought and the child is quacked.

Now, in reality, what are all these quack
medioinee, sold both for children and adults ?
Are they different from what we use ourselves ?
If we would but consider for a moment, we
would easily understand that they tire not, that
they inust be drawn from one or other of the
three kingdoms.

They must be extracted either from the animal,
vegetable or mineral kingdom ; well then, are
not apothecary's medicines drawn from the
same source ? Certainly they are: '

The medicine, the physicisn makes us€) of, the
pills and globtdes of the-m^se hoDkeopaihs, are
all the same hi substance; Now tlisny ia we
know that all tnedicinal agents are drawn from

-T?--

the same mother earthy I may tell you that they
ill have the power of curing when given in the
right time and place, and that they all have the
)ower of killing when this rulei& not followed.

A quack medicine will cure in certain eases^f
it be only the appxopriate one for its use^which
is the great thing to know. The learned Physi-
jian's prescription will always do good, f(» he
[uows what to give and when to give it The in-
telligent homeopath, if there be such a thing, his
Mh and globules will never do harm, for there
18 no harm in them. I would not say as much
though of ihe ignorant self-conMant individual
who takes to Homeopathy as a mode of picking
thoughtless, credulous, wonderseeking person's
)ockets, I would not like to see my recovery or
leath depending on his reasoning faculties.

All medicines, those used by Physicians as
[well as those used by. old womian, gifted men
Lomeopaths, &c., are the same. They have all
the same i)ower for good or evil ; the onlv diffe-
rence is to know when and. how to use them,
land it is this knowledge that constitutes the
IPhysician, the man worthy of that honorable
Ititle.

Medicine in the bauds of the learned in his
[profession, does a great amount of good, in the
Ihands of th« igiK>rant and unprincipled, it does
|a great amount of harm. > .

The more a medicine is powerful the more

^are must be taken in its administration. This,

then, is the reason why so much harm ensues,

levery day? fro^m the use of quack medicines, not

Ibecause the medicine itself is bad, but because

ifVi

■^i

M';,

1' it

it is made use of where it shduld not have been
givem.

This is the re&son why so mtioh injury is
done to the young, delicate crnistitution of the
infant, by the use and abuse of agents which
are not necessary, generally injurious and always
dangerous. A young child is cross, freti^l,
cannot sleep perhaps, all this depends on the
too tight bandaging of its little body, or what
we frequently see, perhaps it is due to the
agreeaLle tickling of the point of a pin inserted
underneath the skin or perhaps it is produced
by pains in the stomach and bowels due to the
irritation brought on by spoonfeeding.

Whatever may be the cause, one of these or
none of these, do you think it is generally
looked after so as to be removed ? Not at all ; it
is far easier to give a small dose of the soothing
syrup which will have the same eiFect and give
much less trouble ; perhaps it is only the follow-
ing day the pin will be notified; as for stopping
the spoondiet and having recourse to milk and
bandaging the child le«s tightly, these will
never be thought of.

The basis or active principle of all these
quack medicines for children is opium. Now
opium is certainly one of the best medicines
we have got, it is one of the greatest gifts to
us from Grod, but the more good it can do when
rightly used where it is required, the more
harm will be not wanting. Certainly in the
case I have »poken of, it is not a dose of opium
you would give. If you had a thom in your
finger, causing you great pain and suffering, you

would not think of relief by means of a dose of
opium, but you woi^ld go to your medical
atteiidant and get it taken out.

IHiat is to say ybu would remove the cause of
the pjsiin. Now when you ^ive Mrs. Winslow's
' ' soothing ayrup," the ".nurse's ready relief,"
to the child who is Buffering, you ate giving a
dose of opium, withotit removing the cause, you
are hiding the evil, you ate smothering, stiwug
nature, bxtt not curing. The cause of the suffer-
ing remains .hete stia, and when, in the end,
you send for the |j»hv.sioian, it is too late, the
evil is beyond remedy.

Dr. LaUue, IVofessor of Hygiene and Chemis-
try in the Laval University, made a post morlfem
examination, some few months ago, in one of
our country parishes, near this city, upon the
body of the chil4 Who had been poisoned by
poppies. The mother of this child had been in
the habit of giving to all her children, when any
thing was wrong with them, an infusion of
poppy heads — the active principle of the
poppy, is, as you probably know, opium. I'he
consequence was, that she killed one, and all the
others were rendered idiotic. The sudden death
of this child exposed the case; but how many
are killed slowly, every day, so as not to excite
suspicion in the parent's breast, how many are
rendered idiotic and stupid, how many where
Epilepsy or falling sickness are caused, Chorea or
St.Vitus* dance, paralysis and other nervous com-
plaint9 ate produced, solely by this bad habit of
quacking, of using powerftil agents whose action
we know nothing about and placing faith and

k*;

h]- n

^^1

credence in the word of ignorant and nnprin-
cipled scoundrels. .. . .j _,

I told you, in the begining of tlv^s, lecture, tj^at
the child born without any hereditary coniplaij^t,
well formed iii body and mind, whose
parents are healthy, should ^lot be sick, that he
should not suffer, that his only cravings should
be for sleep and food, consequently he i^^quires
no n^edicine and should get none, Ifsjfph a
child be restless or cross it is j^qi medicii^e he
wants, but to remove the cause of ijLi^resiJSeswpss,
of his crossness, which you will generally fiu^d
depends upon some error in diet. As*a rule,
which suffers very few exceptioi^i^, the chield
should nev^r get medicine; he does npt want it
and he cannot bear it.

Nature, Ladies and Grentlemejj, is a great
Doctor and, at all timei?, Wt pwrticularly with
childhood, all he asks is not to pe thwarted i^r
pushed, but guided gently, and if he is, he will
generally proye himself far superior to Mrs.
Winslow and the rest of her tribe.

There are some o>ther kinds of drugs besides
those to be found in J^pothecary shops^ A^rtich,
not entirely so bad, are nevertheless, well worthy
of honorable mention when we are pn the
subject of drugging ; I mean those retailea by
confectioners and designated undpr the^geijt^ral
and very attractive tiije of sweety.^ •r,r ly t [1 .

All kinds of sweetieSf and the most kinc^^ of
confeotionaryj particularly tl^>se containii^ cjif -
rants and raisins are unwhp^es^ine, a^d shpuld
never, or v«ry seldo^, be given to children.
They donot want them,and if there were no other

I*;

reason against their use than that they take

away and destroy the child's appetite, it ought

I to be sufficient, but there are other reasons ; they

impair digestion and are often the first and only

Inause of " remittant fever/'

This excessive love of confectionary and sweet
[things in the child, is not a natural craving, but
is due solely to the parents' foolish kind hearted-
ness, loving parents see no other means of
pleasing their children ; it is with them the
great motor power by which they foster and
encourage all good actions, by which they res-
train an evil propensities. Another reason
against their use, but certainly not the least, is
that this fictitious appetite in the child is very
often the cause of petty theft, and the young
child who is tempted to steal a copper to Duy a
sugar stick, may, when some strong passion of
manhood replaces that of the child, forge a note
to put off infamy.

If parents would eat none themselves nor
allow them on their table, their children would
soon follow their example and one great cause,
at least, of sickness in families would be remowed.

Clothing, — ^The clothing of the child should
be warm in winter, cool in summer. There
should be no bandaging, nothing tight nor
constrained about the infant.

Fbrmerly it was the fashion, as you are
perhaps aware, to roll the infant in flannels in
such a manner that he cotUd neither move hand
or foot. KoW I am hapijy to say this, in a great
measure is done ^9,y with, still we meet, now
and then with famines where, t-his barbarous
habit is still kept up.

^■'■•\ i

Clothing at all times should fit loosely, both in
man and woman, but if there be any time whero
tight clothing can do more harm than at an
otner, it is certainly in childhood.

The roasons moUiors give for this bandaging
of the infant is that its little body requires
support, but this is a false notion. Nature does
not ask the ai4 of bandages to make a well
formed man or woman ; what she requires is
liberty and free action.

This tight bandaging is frequently the caus
of rupture, of conto-rtions of the bones, of rickets.

In infancy the clothing should be warmer
than at any other period. The child is then
more easiley impressed by outward causes. The
least change of temperature is easily felt and, in
a t'ountry like Canada, where the changes of
temperature are so abrupt and extreme, it is
well to guard against them by wearing flannels.

Flannel being a bad conductor of heat, cools
less rai^idly than other textures, consequently
any part of the body protected by it is less
exposed to sudden arrest of the perspiration
which is always dangerous and must be guarded
against.

TVhen I recommend the wearing of flannel, I do
not mean that it should be worn next the skin.
No, flannel should not touch the skin. The body
is first covered with linen and then outside of
this the flanel is put on. As the child grows
older he must be taught to stand heat and cold
without reference to Tittle or much clothing, he
must be hardened to our extre;mes of tempera-
ture. There isi nothing more foolish and wtich

tends more to weaken and render susceptible to
outwai d influences than overclothing, muffling.

The next duty of the parentis is to give their
children pii^e air anil exercise. Without food,
without piire air we cannot live. Food supplies
the inatetlal, pure air gives that material its
vitality and renders it fit and citable to support
life and nourish the system. Food taken into
the stomach and bowels undergoes certfiin
changes. Still it is d^kd, loaded with Impu-
rities, But th«e moment it enters the Itings, it
cdines in contact witji the air we breathe,
immediately it is rarified it throws out all its
imputities ahd absorbs from the atmosphere, in
their istead; 'that which gives it life. You can
easily understand then, that in a crowded apart-
ment where |;h^e are several inhaling at every
insi>iratio]i thepure air p^the roo^ and at every
etpiraiion thrOti^ing oiit the bad air and impu-
rities coming froih th^' system^ thstt in a very
short time^ all the ^lireair of the aij)artment wiU
be absorbed and! repljiced by the fqiil air and
other imMrities of the blood.' If thiBti; roOm be
not Ventilated, i^ n6 pure air frbih the oiitside
be allowed in, theri the blood cannot beptiriiied
and the coiisequence Will be that suffocation
will eijisue, t^at ftea-ih will be produced. f_!' -'

'Ko# iinmeidiate'jiftp^iition, immediate c(eath
n^Veir hap|>eii uifleiss by accident, but slow
stttfocation, slow deaths take place. every day in
th^ tDity; There ai;e fbasei^.'bf slow suffocation,
of slow poispiiiftff, to be seen^^a any time, in our
suburbs, otit^idboiir City v^^alls. There you will
see families, infints, youths and adults all

if.;

i-!

huvidled together into one or two small apart-
ments, breathing the same vitiated atmospnere
and not for a day or for a week, but for n^^ths
and years. Look at their faces, pale and eoio-
ciated, their limbs feeble and trempling under
the sickly weigbt they carry, their mina^ idio-
tised and brutified, and you will nhderstand
the painful influence of bad air, the evil effects
of overcrowding. *.

This is not an example dragged to ligliit frpm
the lo^^est depths of poverfy. No, This is Wk^^
you will see, as the rule, among our laboring
classes, small shop kaep^rs and artisahs. There I
is no ventilation, they djo not undef $ianid the
necessity of it. When winter comes, wiiidofws
are closed and sealed henpa^ticaUy, doors shut
tightly and when sumniej: shows itself it is
still worse, the windows are opeiied, it is true,
but they look on a dirty, nafrow street, ,0^ a
filthy confined yard, with stagnant air' ajid fleftid
gases its permanent occupants, "V

This is the rule. There ^re very few houses
of the laboring man, of tbe bone a|^d sinew of
society, b<>tter ventilated than this, biit there arc
a great niany even still worse. I knoW of houses
rotting with dirt and old age, Of streets and
alleys of whole neighborhoods teeming with
sickly, broken downlifejipyhelte this is ah^aared
fold worse, where rotten filthy hpyels aiid still |
more rotten, more filthy barracks containing. ten
twelve and even more families, live 4rom year to I
year in dirt and filth, bteathiuff airformea <^f the
most fetid gases, loaded wHh pt^trefle^d cmd
decomposed vegetable and animal matter. W^hat

fleet will such an atmosphere have in their
miserable blood ? How pure it must render >t.
Is it to be wondered at that we should have
sickness. Is it surprising that young children
should die hy hundreds, and that those who
i^scape and grow up to manhood should fall
a prey, at an early date, to consumption, to
fever and all the other diseases so prevalent
among the poor and inferior classes of this City V

It is lucky for us that we are in a healthy
climate, in fact we Could not wish for one more
so ; and, if we have epidemics, if we have fever,
if we have cholora, if thousands die from con-
sumption, we must not say the climate wont
agree with us, that it has brought on consump-
tion that it is the cause of fever, of cholora. No.
Ths cause is our own neglect, neglect of simple
hygir 'c measures, which every man should
folk which every citizen should see carried
out.

The climate of Canada is neither too cold in
winter nor too warm in summer ; all that is
necessary to enable us to enjoy it, is to be w^ell
clad and well fed, if we are, we need not fear
disease. The inhabitants of our country parishes
see how healthy they are, what appetites they
have an how old they live. They are as strong
and as healthy as any race on the globe, and
i'ar healthier than a great many.

Quebec, although a city with a large influx ot
strangers, during our summer mouths, although
badly built and badly ventilated#as nevertheless,
a healthy city, thanks to its position and its
climate. But how much healthier would it not

III

be, how considerable would be the decreasa of
sickness and mortality, if a few simple rules of
ventilation were but followed. If houses w^ere
properly built, it streets were widened and
kept clean. If we had squares and parks, places
where the poor man of outside the walls,
and his family might lind "a little of that
rest and IVesh air so much wanting after their
hard day's toil. How much healthier would
it not be if the poor man*s house were better
built, if it were kept clean, if it were not over-
crowded, if Landlords w ould look rather to the
healthiness of their houses, than to the number
it can be made to accomodate, to shelter.

And what shelter, what accomodation some
of then do give ! Why, I know of localities, of
streets, of alleys in this city, where the accomo-
dation is not fit for the vilest of the brute
creation; and it is fit fo? man, for the poor
laborer, for his wife and children, a class, that
have so much to suffer from cold and hunger,
without poisoning them through the air they
breathe.

I would not like to be the proprietor of such
houses, the contented owner of such localities.
I would not like to receive the hard earned
money of dying, sickly wretches foi that bainful,
miserable protection I am giving them. But
Do you think we look at that part of their suf-
fering ? Do you think we are in the least affected
by it ? No. — ^I'ne disease, the wretchedness of
such localities ve far from us, we do not see
its effects, hear its sufferings, all we do see or
wish to see is, that the price of such protection
be duly paid, that we receive our rents.

And still we are not uncharitable, on the con-
trary, we are ver^' charitable. The praises of this
noble virtue of onrs are heard for and wide, we
are liberal, we found hospitals, hold bazaar»,
calico balls, subscribe with a free hand to all
acts of benevolence, we do all this and more;
But to build the house of the poor man more
confortably, to ventilate it, to see that he h'>-s
pure ait and enough of it, to keep it clean aad
in order, this we will not see the necessity of>
this we will not do.

If sickness, if fever show itself among them,
if they die by the score, why it is not our fault,
it cannot be helped, and there are plenty more
to replace them.

I will ask you which of these two is real well
placed charity, which benefits the receiver and
the giver?

To feed and clothe weak, sickly starving
wretches reared, lining and dying, in such hot-
beds of disease or to give them wholesome, well
ventilated, clean and not overcrowded habita-
tions, where they will not be in 4anffet of
losing their health, but where they will have
every chance of preserving it. That health so
necessary to all men, but particularly to the poor
laborer, the enjoyment of which will place him
above mendicity and enable him to earn his
bread honestly. A charity which embracer not
only those we are ministering to, but alsothosr
to com6, the children yet unborn.

Of what use to us are riches ? What need
we care if our city be richer than its neighbour ?
Of "what use to lis are railroads, manufacturies

■UiMlfl

flifMiiiiin

.t'i

■1

etc., if we have not health. Health to enjoy
those riches, to profit by those improvements ?
And we will caloul and dispute every day abo'it
such things, we will form companies, and vote
large- amounts of money to put them into execu-
tion ^nd we will not put by a few dollars for
the building of better houses, for the widjsn^^g
and cleaning of onr streets, for the construction
of a few squares and public gardens, l^o, let up
first be rich and we will think of h^ftjth fifter-
wardfl. ' ^

Quebec, s^- I said a few momQnt& ago, is
a healthy city and what it has to thank for this
is its climate, its position. If it be not so
healthy as these natural advantages woidd lead
us to expect, it is our own fault, it is because
we have neither squares nor gardens, reservoirs
of pure air, placep> where the child may d^spo^
himself, where tl^e Knaa of ofiice, the ha^rd work-
ing laborer and citizen generally, may go and
find that rest and enjoyment so necess^xy a|t^r
the confinement of office, the toil of the di^y.

The tJppei; Town is well enough, it i/s gene-
rally well built, its streets are cleaner and
according to its size, it has breathing places suf-
ficient. It bias the Terrace, the Battery, Gardens
and Bsptoader But,St» Roch's, St John*s and
St. Ix)uis\ suburbs, with their large population
what have they, got ? Search them tl^rough and
you will not find a single square a single
garden. If there be any part of the city which
requires them more particularly it is certainly
these places, not so well situated for natural
ventilation as the Upper Town, having a

'J« ■-•1

population denser and geneially formed of the
working anrf poorer classes. No class of society
re^nires better air than the working class of
large cities, their occupations necessarly demand
it. There were rumors sometime ago of knock'
ing down the old wall and enlarging the
Esf^laiiade, also of a park some distance outside
the city, as at Spencer-Wood. Very good impro-
vements certainly and against which I should
be sorry to say a word. But I should think and
and I believe you will be of the same opinion
that it would be far better to leave those impk>-
vements alone for some time, and in their stead
give a garden to St. Uoch's, give one also to our
suburbs.

If the cite of the old Cemetary opposite St.
Roch's Congregational Church were fenced
round, planted with trees and shrubs, if the
English cemetary of St. John's street were also
turned into a public garden, I believe our
citiziens would not loose by it, and whatever it
might Cost our city in pocket, it would surely
regain it in health.

If pure air be necessary for the grown man
and womiein, it is even more so for the infant,
young child and youth. At the dawning of life in
man vitality is geater than at any other period,
every function seems vying one with the other .
which shall do the most work and in the
shortest space of time, the formation of new tissue
and the destruction of old is done more rapidly.
He is also the more easily impressed by outward
causes, the least thing will leave its mark on his
young and tender constitution. If then he be

N'll

•r;!

reared ill ill ventilated apartments, in crowded
buildings, in cellars, where the air he breathes
is stagnant and loaded with obnoxious and
poisonous subtances, emanating from the decom-
position of animal and vegetable matter, if
every time he opes his little mouth to intrate
that vital air so necessary for life, if he draws
into his chest, into his blood along with that
air, those poisonous substances those obnoxious
gases, is it any wonder then that he should be
pale and sickly and a fit subject for vomiting,
convulsions, fever and cholera ?

Not only should the child have good air, but
he must also, as I have said, have exercise.
Exercise is absolutely necessary. The more exer-
cise we take, the better we are. The more
exercise the child gets, the better he is.

What effect has exercise on the animal eco-
nomy ? This body of ours, as you all know, is
continually changing. We are not the same to
day as we were yesterday ; we shall not hav ,
in a year from this, the same body as we have
now, it will be a new one bearing the ^ame
stamp. The work of creation and death is going
on continually within each of us, as well as
around us, every moment some portion of our
.system dies and is replaced by new tissue and
so from day to day ; we die and we come to
life until that moment when, we can revive no
longer — until death, poor exercise by its stimu-
lating effect on the different functions hastens
the casting out of this old and dead tissue and
hastens the formation of new.

Exercise then, when it is reasoned and proper-

•^

ded
athes

and
com-
r, if
trate
raws
that

'OUS

dbe
ting,

but

tioned to our strength and state of health, has the
most salutary eiFect on the constitution. It not
only increases the appetiie and activates diges-
tion, but it encourages every organ to act with
greater force and regularity. All the vital
functions are stimulated ana work with in-
creased ardor. The body gains in health and
strength, the muscles increase insize and consis-
tency, all superabundant fat disappears and not
only is the body thus benefitted but also the mind,
it becomes clearer and more susceptible of com-
prehention and retention. The individual who
takes ^uflBlcient out-door exercice is very seldom
sick, you will hardly ever see him suffering
from gravel never from gout. Nay iuvorite of
the pampered and idle. You will not hear him
complaining of hii5 \^eak stomach his dyspeptic
symptoms, his lassitude.

You will not see her teasing doctors with her
pain in the side, her weakness, her mysteria.

Thelnhabitantsof our country parishes, why
are they so strong, so healthy, so robust ? On
account of the good air they breathe their regu-
lar habits but principally because they take
plenty out-door exercise. •

The citizen, the inhabitant of towns and cities
cannot be expected to take as much out-door
exercise ; cannot be expected to have good
health as he of the country ; his occupations
generally being in-door, such as that of the
Lawyer, Merchant, Clerk and Tradesman.

But the evil of these in-door occupations
would be to a great degree mitigated, if, instead
of spending all our leisure hours at home, in

iv >ii:i.

m ■'

I i

: ■

our parlor or smoking room, if instead of passing
OUT evenings in clubs and social gatherings,
playing billiards or talking non-sense, we were
to give one hour or two, each day, to some
manly and healthy exercise.

Quebec of late has improved a good deal on
this head. It has, at present, gymnasiums,
snow-shoe and foot races, lacrosse clubs, Sec,
recreations which cannot be too much encmi-
raged.

But all citizens cannot take part in these ; it
is not expected of young ladies and old gentle-
men that they should form foot races and
lacrosse clubs, but what they can do, at least, is
to walk a few miles each day, there aVe none
but can find time enough for that, none weak
enough, none so busy mothers of families, men
of office, &c., none whose occupations will not
allow them to give one hour or two, each day,
to walking. When once we have seen the
necessity of this, when once we have felt its
good effects on our own person, then, but not till
then, shall we treat out children accordingly
and send them out.

The infant and young child cannot be expect-
ed, of course, to take active exercise ; it must
be passive.

He should bo carried out every day, for a few
hours! There should be no exercise ; when it
is the health of the child that is at stake we
should do all ' that is necessary. The state of
the weather should be very seldom a i retext
for keeping children housed in.

Here in Quebec, we have the two extremes,

m'lii'rfmi'

igly

11 the one hand the English element who send

heir children out in all weathers, be it ever so

old or stormy ; on the other hand, the French,

vho from early fall to late in spring, never send

heir children out. They arc both wrong* the

edium is what we showed follow. When the

hild has grown up, and is able to go out of

imself, and take part, in the amusements and

ames of other children, of his age, we should

lace no barrier in his way, on the contrary, we

hould encourage him by every means in our

ower, principmly by showing ourselves inte-

ested in his amusements. We should not be

fraid, but by playing and mixing with other

hildren, even if they should be unwashed and

agged, that he will soil his fine clothes,

orrupt his good morals. No ; the child is

Iways the child, let him be dressed in ctoth or

overed with rags, let him have a rich or poor

ther still he is the child, full of life and vigor,

cupied with nothing but his games, his amuse-

ents whose greatest pleasure is to roll and

mble without fear or constraint, /

The present " Napoleon " when a child and

siding in Holland, was one day inconsolable

is nur6e had tried every means which wealth

d affluence could procure to please him, but

was of HO use ; his playthings had no charm

r him.

Taken to a window, he espied a few young
utch sprouts rolling in the gutter ; irame-
ately he danced with joy, and called to his
use, with true childish glee depicted on his
untenance — " Laissez-moi aller jouer dans

''-.■■v^t?*ij,j;^<^i -'■•h%^-r'

i!i

■? if

fei

cette belle bouo." ■ ' Le me go and play in that
nice mud."

Those were the cravings of Napoleon the
Third in his infancy, of one of the greatest men
of this age or of any other, if there had been no
Sedan, " let me go and play in that nice mud."
Why, you would hardly expect worse from a
little raggimuffin of St. Sauveur, but such is
childhood, is it in after life to fill a throne or
carry a pack, at that age the gutter has al
peculiar attraction, and so much the better.

It is by rolling in the gutter and not oni
carpets that they will find health. It is by
allowing children to play and tumble that wej
shall have healthy, intelligent men and wel'
made handsome women.

There is no danger of the child getting cor
rupted by what he sees or hears from childre
of his own age, no matter what class of societ
they may belong to.

When a child always see& good example, a
home, from his father and mother there is ver
little danger of his being corrupted.

During childhood, the great duty of parents ii
to look to their physical education ; of cours
they must inculcate good moral principles, bot'
by precept and example, but after the men
which necessarily must rank first, their gre
duty is to give them a good physical educatio

It is at this age, it can be done ; when the
get'older, it will be too late. They will the
neither have the inclination nor the time for i
but at this age, there is nothing else to occup
them and it is the duty of all parents to see

it be

Those

hat thi

eir foi

ey bee

Jthy i

lives.

And

le healt

th wh

ome

icrescen

Itellecti

Public

y tryii

ly in t:

ard to

.59

in that |ully carried out. Their intellectual education
hould be very slight indeed. If the child of
on the len or eleven, the age at which boys and girls
jst men liay begin to go to school, if at this Age they
been no Ian read their catechism and spell a little, it is
5 mud." luite enough. It is rediculous and worse than
from aiediculous, it is criminal, wishing to make pro-
such isligies of young children, teaching boys of nine
[irone orlnd ten, Latin, arithmetic, geography, history
i: has alramming his young head with the knowledge of
tter. Banhood. Let mothers and fathers take more
not oniride in seeing their children strong and robust,
'.i is byliepts and lovers of all healthy and manly
that welames ; than iii having them the " wright boy
md well|f a schools," " top of his class," " winner of
1 prizes," all that will come at the right time
ting cor* it be in him.

childreul Those hot-bed prodigies never accomplish
)f society|hat their precocious intellects might have led
eir fond parents to believe, on the contrary,
^mple, aMey become stupid and dull at that age when
3 is ver^ijalthy intelligence begins to emancipate them-

llves.
>arent8 ilAnd what is the consequence ? Having lost
)f cours«e health of the body, having lost those talents
lies, botliith which nature had endowed them, they
e moralcome outcasts or in figurative language, the
ir greaMcrescences of society, neither fit for manual nor
ucationltellectual labor.

en thejPublic school' but principally college' life is

ill the«ry trying on the young constitution, particu-

e for i»ly in this country, where all pupils, without

occupjard to age or strength, are treated *in the

to see de manner. When tho child of ton was to

assioB

hich i

st, is

Ihose si

ever L

As in

tein

eans i

as ma<

And

follow the same rule as the maii of twenty, Thel^ .
same number of hours of sleep, the same numbeit^ r
of hours of study, the same quantity of recreaf ^y^
tion ; when such badruks as these are foUoweJ^j^ r^
in our public schools and colleges, we must b| j^^ ,
careful not to send them there too young, befor
their tender constitution is able to bear th
heavy strain that will be laid on it ; we musi
try and fortify them beforehand by a goo
physical education.

Of what use to a man will be all his honor
his learning, his profession, if upon leavinj
college and entering public life he has n
liealth ? If his constitution be broken dow
and undermined first by the ingnorant nursini
of childhood and secondly by the P^^^J^^^icelj^^V^^

and unscientific education given in our <^<^ll®&c4i8ure i
an education which aims only at stuffing tbl -»nr
young head with Greek and Latin and ^i^^l^cl 1 1 *
ing the health of the body. Can that Hialg^
follow with satisfaction to himself and to otheff .^
the sacred and laborious profession of the Prieslv
hood, the fatigueing calls of the medical profel jj,
sion can he stand,for any time, the confinement
the Lawyer's office of the merchant's desk ? Y<
need not ask, you have examples of the contra
every day before your eyes. Young men e
dowed by nature with the brightest talents, t
most robust health, who at the early age
twenty five or thirty,fall aprey to inflammatio
to fever and consumption.

Health, Ladies and Grentlenien, is a gre|
blessing ; we only know its value when we ha
lost it.

ie dicti
redbi
iience.

liet wh

|e had,
le cow
jfore it

px mon
id not

|y from

iity. The

5 numbei

of tecrea

Ebllowei

must b

ig, befori

bear th

^\e mus

f a gooi

s honors
I leavin
has n<

dowi

No matter how high our position in society,
10 matter how learned, how rich we may be, if
ve have not health we are not happy.

- ,, When we have health let us take care of it

. mnThf ^^ not throv^r it away foolishly.

I mns j^^ ^^ ^^^^ £^^ ^j^^ gratification of our diseased

tassions and inclinations, loose that health
v^hich is so very precious and which, when once
ost, is so very seldom regained. Let us follow
hose simple and easy laws of nature which will
lever lead us astray.

As individuals, let us be regular and tempe-
ate in our habits. As citizens, let us use every
eans which sound sense teaches, which science
. —as made clear, to render our city healthy.
Lt nursini ^^^ ^ parents, as the natural protectors of

^^^J^^^^Jhildhood, let us do all that is necessary to
r college Jjjg^y^ ^^^^ ^^^^^ henUh.

Man, unlike the brute, comes into the world
eble and helpless requiring the soothing,
nder care of the mother. Let not that motherly
re then, through ignorance, be turned against

^^ ''"^lis young life.

jal proie| j^^ mothers follow towards their children

e dictates of their own heart, guided and tem-

ed by their good sense and the teachings of

ience. Let them give to their children that

et which nature has provided, or if that cannot

had, then let them replace it by the milk of

e cow. Let them never spoonfeed the infant

fore it has attained the age of, at least, five or

X months. Let them rear it in well ventilated

d not overcrowded apartments. Let them

y from all roguery and quackery, no matter

uffing t
d negleci
that m
L to othe
he Prie
lal prof
nement
bsk? Y
e contra
men
ilents, t
*ly age
nmatio

i A

grei
we haf

under whyt guise it may present itself. By sol
doin^, by IblToAving those simple rules. wniGhl
I have laid down, they will have healthy
children. They will reap that great comfort,
so dear to every parent's heart, of seeing around
them, in their old age, a numerous family,
healthy and happy, moral and intelligent ; anl
honor to the parents who gave them birth and]
an honor to the society who receives them.

f. By sol
s, wniGhl
healthyl
comfort,
^ around
} family,
rent ; anl
►irth and!
liem.