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PR E FA C E.
For the fourth time I make my bow to a generous public. For the fourth time
I serve to my patrons a dish of what I term medical common sense. The book
entitled “Medical Common Sense" had its birth in 1858. It was a volume of about
800 pages and less than one hundred illustrations. When it first made its appear-
ance some of my prudent friends shook their grave heads, and predicted for the
author pecuniary failure and professional disgrace. Like those of many other
prophets, their predictions proved to be only croakings, and the expected martyr
soon found himself surrounded by hosts of new friends and swarms of new pa-
tients. While awaiting the popular verdict, after the first issue, one of the oldest
and most noted clergymen of New York called at my office for the express purpose
of assuring me how much he was pleased with the publication, and his apprecia-
tion possessed greater value to me because he had studied medicine in his youth-
ful days, with the view of fitting himself for practice. He pronounced “Medical
Common Sense” a refreshing contribution to medical literature, and expressed a
hope that it would obtain a large circulation. I breathed easier, for the splendid
physique, generous countenance, cultivated manner and commanding presence of
the first juror gave to his encouraging Words the color and impressiveness of
authority, and I almost felt as if the popular Verdict had already been rendered.
It is many years since this noted man passed to the “great beyond,” at the
ripe age of eighty-six. The New York Evangelist, in its obituary notice, said:
“So ends a long and distinguished public career. So passes away one of the great
men of a former generation. His name has been a household word for half a cen-
tury. In the Presbyterian Church he stood in the very front rank. * * * By his
great power he made his influence felt in every sphere in which he moved. * * *
His commanding presence, ready tact, and powerful utterance combined to make
him in deliberative and popular assemblies a leader of men.” These brief quota-
tions are made to show what manner of man this clergyman was who endorsed a
popular medical work which broke away from Orthodoxy in medicine and opened
up new paths for those who were groping in the Wilderness of doubt and uncer-
tainty, vainly looking for hope and relief from chronic physical ills. The youthful
author was barely twenty-nine years of age ; the clergyman in the “glory of his
ripe manhood.” It can be well imagined that any misgivings as to how the volume
would be received gave way to confident expectation ; nor was this feeling delu-
sive, for, as the book continued to circulate, letters came in daily, like the drop-
pings of the ballots on election-day, from intelligent men and women in all parts
of the country, thanking me for the information I had presented in language
which could be comprehended by the masses of the people. The appreciation of
the latter was attested by the fact that between 1858 and 1869 over two hundred
and fifty thousand copies were sold, a circulation which I venture to affirm had
been attained by no other medical work of like size at that time in the same lim-
ited period in this or any other country. Perhaps one of the most striking evi-
dences of its popularity is the fact that two or three other medical book-makers
imitated this taking title with just sufficient variation to evade the statutes pro-
- - - §
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iv. PREFACE.
My correspondence with the people often exceeded one hundred letters per
day, and the personal experiences and Observations confided to the author enabled
me to form some conception of the popular needs, and to supply still further that
physiological instruction so greatly demanded to make mankind healthy and
happy. Hence my second revision, made in 1870, with the title of “PLAIN HOME
TALK, EMBRACING MEDICAL COMMON SENSE,” a book containing nearly 1,000 pages,
and over 200 illustrations. In this revision it was my aim to answer, as nearly as
possible, all the questions that had been put to me in the intervening years, and to
recommend such measures for individual and social reform as I thought would
prove morally and physically beneficial. To fulfil my duties in these respects, I
could not make a volume suited for the centre-table, nor yet a work that should
find place on some obscure shelf. The medicine closet or family library seemed to
rme to be an appropriate place for the book. Time proved that this venture was
not without success. Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson, the noted philanthropist and
reformer of that time, called upon the author to express her pleasure on reading
the work, and purchased fifty copies to give to her friends. Meeting the well-
known veteran litterateur and traveller, the late Stephen Massett, at a banquet
in New York, he remarked : “I have met your remarkable work in every clime
I have visited—even in far-off South Africa.” Fully half a million copies have
been sold, and still it meets with public appreciation, as is evidenced by the fact
that the publishers print an edition of about fifteen or twenty thousand every year.
It has been translated into the German language, and has found thousands of
readers in the German Empire. The title of the German edition is “Offene Volks
Sprache.”
After the lapse of more than a quarter of a century, with a third and fourth
revision, this new book, printed on fresh electrotype plates, appears with three
hundred and thirty-one illustrations, many of them entirely new, eight additional
colored plates, a copious Indéac, and not less than five hundred pages of new
matter, which could not have found place in this already bulky volume, had
it not been put in smaller type. It is a remarkable fact that “Plain Home
Talk” was so far in advance of the times when published (some said fifty years)
that it is not now necessary to “write it up to date.” It has been like a per-
petual almanac from the moment it was first issued. A correspondent, a well-
known horticulturist of Michigan, recently wrote : “Is Dr. Foote, the One
who wrote ‘Plain Home Talk;” still living 2 Does he know that many of his
notions and sociological deductions have become popularized since 1857—since
1870 ?” Little that is new can be added ; but many of the reforms advocated in
the volume have been accomplished, and the essays devoted to them can be made
conformable to the changes which have taken place. It can be freshened up a
little with new dates and with Observations on Some of the remarkable advances
in the domain of hygiene and medicine. A step still in advance of the times can
be taken here and there, and it has been taken, as the reader will see.
There are portions of the Preface appearing in my first volume which I will re-
produce here with some slight alterations and additions. “Common sense,” I said,
nearly forty years ago, is quoted at a discount, especially by the medical profes-
Sion, which proverbially ignores everything that has not the mixed odor of incom-
prehensibility and antiquity. Medical works are generally a heterogeneous com-
pound of vague ideas and jaw-breaking words, in which the dead languages are
largely employed to treat of living subjects. Orthodoxy in medicine consists in
walking in the beaten paths of AEsculapian ancestors, and looking with grave con-
tempt on all who essay to cut out new paths for themselves. Progress is supposed
to be possible in everything except medicine ; but in this science, which all admit
has room for improvement, the epithet of “Quack” is applied to every medical
discoverer. I trust I may prove worthy of the denunciations of the bigoted. This
work is written for the amelioration of human suffering, and not for personal DOQUl-
PREFACE. V.
larity. To uproot error and do good should be the first and paramount aspiration of
every intelligent being. He who labors to promote the physical perfection of his
race ; he who strives to make mankind intelligent, healthful, and happy, cannot
fail to have reflected on his own soul the benign smiles of those whom he has been
the instrument of benefiting.
My object in preparing this work is to supply a desideratum which has long
existed, i.e., a medical work, reviewing first causes as well as facts and ultimate
effects, written in language strictly mundane, and comprehensible alike to the
lowly inmate of a basement and the exquisite student of an attic studio : and if
successful in fulfilling the promise of the title-page, I have too much confidence in
the intelligence of the masses and the erudition of the unprejudiced scholar to
believe that it will be received with unappreciation or indifference. Many of the
theories which these pages will advance are certainly new and antagonistic to
those popularly entertained, but it does not follow that they are incorrect or unt
worthy the consideration of the philosophical and physiological inquirer. They
are founded upon careful observation, experiment, and extensive medical practice,
and if the truth of the theories may be judged by the success of the latter, then
do they unmistakably possess soundness as well as originality, for living monu-
ments to the skill and success of the author have been and are being daily raised
from beds of sickness and debility in every part of the world. If these remarks
sound boastful, be not less ready to pardon the conceit of a successful physician
than that of a victorious soldier. The successful military chieftain is notoriously
conceited ; is it not as honorable and elevating to save life as to destroy it 2 If a
man may boast that he has slain hundreds, cannot his egotism be indulged if he
has saved the lives of thousands 2 I shall claim the soldier's prerogative, for When
medical charlatans of every street-corner are blowing their trumpets, it does not
behoove the successful physician to nurse his modesty. What I Write, however,
shall be written in candor, and with an honest intention of enlightening and ben-
efiting humanity.
How far the heads of families may be willing to allow it to circulate among
the younger members, it must be left for them to determine ; but, if intelligent
parents had had my experience they would place this book in the hands Of all
children who are capable of being interested in it. In other words, they would
take no pains to conceal it from children of any age, because only those who un-
derstand it will become interested, and all possessing this degree of comprehension
are liable to obtain erroneous and injurious information upon the same topics
through impure and corrupting channels, though much care be exercised to pre-
vent it. This is a fact which a large correspondence with young people has
impressed upon the mind of the author, and would command the earnest attention
of all parents and guardians, if they possessed the means of knowing what the
Writer does. I have received enough lamentations from the young of both sexes,
resulting from their indiscretions, to fill these pages, and many of their letters do
not hesitate to charge their parents with cruel neglect in keeping from them a
knowledge of such vital importance. If this work is adjudged unsuitable, may be
Other works can be found that will answer the purpose, although I doubt if there
is another book wherein the relations of all the organs of the system to each other,
and those of the moral nature to the physical body, are more faithfully traced.
For the adult this work contains information which no man or woman can afford
to do without, when it may be obtained at a price so comparatively trifling. If
the physiological deductions and social views of the author be not accepted the
valuable facts upon which they are based remain, and the reader is at liberty to
use them to sustain opinions and suggestions which he may adjudge more accept-
able to the popular mind. Anything, everything—that the human family may
grOW Wiser and happier. E. B. F.
coNTENTs.
THE READER IS RECOMMENDED TO CONSULT FREELY THE INDEX AT
THE END OF THE BOOK, WHICH HAS BEEN SO PREPARED
THAT HE CAN FIND ALMOST ANY SUBJECT
HE MAY BE IN SEARCH OF.
PART I.
DISEASE: ITS CAUSES, PREVENTION
AND CURE.
OPENING CHAPTER.
DISEASE AND ITS CAUSEs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................... 15
The Causes of Disease, 16; Nervous Telegraphy, 18; Mental Disturbances,
20; Blood Derangements, 23 ; The Germ. Theory, 26; A Prophetic Article,
27; Germs of Malaria, 31 ; Cheese and Butter-making Germs, etc., 32; Aré
Germs Producers or simply Bearers of Disease? 34.
CHAPTER II.
THE CAUSES OF NERVoUS DERANGEMENTS AND AFFECTIONS OF THE BLoop..... 37
Ignorance, 37; , Real Ignorance, 39; Air Brakes on the Car of Knowledge
42; False Modesty Leads to Hygienic Error, 42; Violating the Mora
Nature, 44: How it was viewed by a Noted Preacher, 46; No Great Names
On Fences, 48; The Food We Eat, 51 ; The Pork Parasite Causes Interna-
tional Controversy, 57 : A Hog would become Diseased by Eating Man, 59 ;
Hog and Hominy in Old Kentuck, 60 ; Plenty of More Wholesome Food,
62; Facts Regarding Vegetable Diet, 65 ; How the Killing is Done, 70;
Cannibalism. Within the Human Body, 72; Food for the Fat and food for
the Lean, 73 ; A Brief Word to the Lean, 75; Beware of Fads, 76; Good
Digestion the Main Thing, 82; A Few Danger Signals, 82; Winged Scaven-
gers, 84; The Liquids We Drink, 93; Tea and Coffee, 95; How Tea Should
be Prepared, 97; English Chicory, 98 ; Alcoholic Drinks, 99; Doctors Disa-
ee, 101 ; Uses and Abuses of Alcohol, 104 ; Drunkards are not Properly
reated, 106 ; Milk is the First Fluid, 107; An Ideal Stable for Cows, 108;
How to Purify Milk, 111; Milk Should not be Boiled, 114; Reliable Milk is
Coming, 115 ; Kumyss, Buttermilk, etc., 117 ; Nature's Beverage—Water,
119 ; Precautions to be Taken, 120; A Noted Writer in Error, 124;. The
True Value of Water, 126; The Atmosphere We Live In, 129; Electrical
Radiation, 132 ; Erroneous Philosophy Corrected, 135 ; Proper Management
in Cold Weather, 138; Importance of Careful Ventilation, 139; Our Meth-
ods of Heating, 141 ; The Clothes we Wear, 146; Not fobust Enough for
Bloomers, 149; Low-Neck Dresses, 153; About the Costumes of Men, 155 ;
Enit Suits, Rubber Garments, and Footgear, 155 ; Second-hand º;
and Shoddy, 159; Bad Habits of Children and Youth, 160; Bad Habits a
School, 162; Going “Barefoot,” 164 § Sleeping with Elder Persons, 165; A
CONTENTS.
vii
Destructive Habit, 167; Standing on the Head, 170; The Cigarette Habit,
170; Bad Habits of Manhood and Womanhood, 173; Poisonous Properties
of Tobacco, 175; Health Hints to Smokers, 179; Intemperance in the use
of Ardent Spirits, 180; Bad Habits in Dress, 181; A Natural Waist, 182;
The Drug Habit, 186; Human Night-Hawking, 189; Fast Eating, 191; Big
Dinners, 193; Social Magnetism versus Sexual Isolation, 195; Where the
Effects of Isolation may be Seen, 198; What Happens in Cities, 200; The
Secret of Sexual Attraction, 204; Prostitution, 205; How it Affects the
Innocent, 208; State Regulation of Prostitution, 212; Some of the Avoid-
able Causes of Prostitution, 218; Unhappy Marriage, 225; Impure Vacci-
nation, 228; Adulterated Medicines, 233; Adulterations of Mineral Medi-
cines, 235; Brutality and Inhumanity, 236; Man's Inhumanity to Man, 237;
The Death-Penalty Must GO, 239; Medical Societies Oppose the Death-
Penalty, 241; Is the Death-Penalty a Deterrent? 243; Wealth, 246; Failures
in Business, 249; Excessive Study, 251; Excessive Labor, 252; Worry, 254;
Melancholy, 257.
CHAPTER III. PAGE
PREVENTION OF JDISEASE s tº a tº e a g º ºs e º $ tº e º e º t t w is a 9 tº g º º e º g g tº * i ! 3 & 1 & 4 t t t iſ a a s a s a s s s
How to Have Healthy Babies, 262; Hints to Parents in Average Health,
264; The Secretions are Affected by Mental Conditions, 265; Advice to the
Pregnant, 265; Some General Hints, 267; How to Preserve the Health of
Children, 268; Their Little Leg's Need Clothing, 270; How Babies Should be
Red, 272; Bathing, Exercising, Dosing, etc., 273; The Education of an
Infant, 276; “Don’ts” for the Nursery, 276; Dietetics for Old and Young,
277; The Physiological Instruction of Children, 281; Mental and Physical
Recreation, 282; Bicycle Exercise, 290; “Shut Your Mouth,” 294; Sleep,
295; Cleanliness, 298; Pure Air, 300; Sunshine, 302; Good Temper, 306;
Reep the Fect Warm, 307; Other Suggestions, 311.
CHAPTER IV.
COMMON-SENSE REMEDIES s & s e º e º s e º t e º a e g º º t w & 4 tº e º t e º 'º * * * * * * * * * 4 & 5 tº 8 & $ 3 & # 4 a a s \ e º a
Vegetable Medicines, 313; Medicine in Ye Olden Time, 316; The Self-Cure
of Animals, 320; Revolution in the Practice of Medicine, 321; Will Vege-
table Medicines Drive Out Microbes? 323; Psychic Medicine, Christian
Science, Mental Science, etc., etc., 323; Humor Superstitions, 327; Thera-
peutic Electricity, 329; Are not, Nerve-Force and Electricity the Same?
332; The Therapeutic Value of Electricity, 335; Electricity, to be Effect-
ual, Must be Properly Applied, 337; Animal Magnetism, 343; The Begin-
ning of Mesmerism, 344; More Recent Investigations, 345; How are these
Mesmeric Cures Effected? 347; Water, 352; Medicated Inhalation, 356;
Conclusion, 357.
CHAPTER V.
DOCTORS... . . . . . . * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Doctors “Jacks at all Trades,” 361; Should we have Women Doctors?
363; Rapacious Doctors, 367; Doctors who Bank on the Reputations of
Others, 371; More Pretenders, 374.
PART II.
WITH A CLOSING CHAPTER
CONTAINING NUMEROUS PRESCRIPTIONS FOR COMMON AllMENTS, ANTIDOTES FOR
POISONS, WALUABLE SUGGESTIONS FOR EMERGENCIES, ETC,
OPENING CHAPTER.
PAGE
CHRONIC DISEASEs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .................................. 377
What is a Chronic Disease? 380; Various Kinds and Signs of Chronic
Disease, 383; The Personal Equation, 387'; Functional and Organic, 390.
312
358
CHRONIC DISEASES: THEIR CAUSES AND SUCCESSFUL TREATMENT,
viii CONTENTS.
CHAPTER II.
CHRONIC DISEASES OF THE BREATHING ORGANs. . . . . & 0 & & & 6 & a tº $ tº a tº e º e g º 'º & & 6 is a e s = 392
Chronic Catarrh of the Head, 395; Influenza-Catarrhs, 400; Hay Fever, 402;
Nasal Polypi, 403; Chronic Affections of the Throat, 403;, Chronic Bron-
Chitis, 408; Asthma, 411; Consumption, 413; Koch's Bacilli, 414: “Is Con-
sumption Hereditary?” 416; The Curability of Consumption, 420; Treat-
ment of Chronic Diseases of the Breathing Organs, 421; Koch's Serum and
other Remedies, 423; Climatic Influences Considered, 426; Artificial Infla-
tion of the Lungs. 428; Deep-Breathing and Chest Exercise, 428; Living
with One Lung, 433; The Main Thing to Affect a Cure, 435.
CHAPTER III.
DISEASES OF THE HEART AND BLOOD-VESSELS.................................. 436
Palpitation of the Heart, 440; The Tobacco Heart, 442; Angina Pectoris,
443; Diseases of Blood-Vessels, 444; Aneurism, 445; Apoplexy, 447; Wari-
cose Weins, 448.
CHAPTER IV.
CHRONIC DISEASES OF THE LIVER, STOMACH, AND BOWELS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449
Chronic Affections of the Liver, 451: Where Torpid Livers are Found, 452;
Why the Negro is more Enduring in the Tropics, 453; Liver-Torpor Com-
mon in New Countries, 454; Other Diseases may Result from Neglect of
the Liver, 457; Bilious Headache, 459; Gall-Stones, 461; Dyspepsia, 463;
The Horrors of Dyspepsia, 466; importance of Salivary Digestion, 467;
Intestinal Indigestion, 469; Good and Bad Ferments, 471: Suggestions for
Treatment, 472; Aids to Digestion, 473; Constipation, 477; The Treatment
of Constipation, 481; Injections and Purgatives, 485; Spring Disorders and
Loss of Appetite, 486; Chronic Diarrhoea, 488; Hemorrhoids, or Piles, 490;
Falling of the Rectum, 495; Stricture of the Rectum, 495; Fistula-in-Ano,
496; Fissure of the Anus, 497; Intestinal Parasites, 498; Hernia, or Rupture,
500; Inconvenience and Danger of, 504.
CHAPTER V.
CHRONIC AFFECTIONS OF THE URINARY ORGANS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506
Diseases of the Kidneys, 508; Bright's Disease, 508; Bicycles and Bright's
Disease, 513; The Curability of Bright's Disease, 513; Further on the
Hygiene of Bright's Disease, 516; Medical Treatment of Bright's Disease,
517; Kidney Colic, or Gravel, 518; Cystitis, 518; Enlarged Prostate, 520;
Incontinence of Urine, etc., 520; Urethritis, Gomorrhoea, Gleet, Stricture,
522; Treatment for Such Cases, 526.
CHAPTER VI.
PRIVATE WORDS FOR WOMEN... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . § 6 tº & tº tº t e º ſº & tº e tº t e e s s as e 530
Concerning Causes of Uterine Diseases, 534; Contagious Venereal Dis-
eases, 540; Diseases Resulting from Child-Bearing and . Abortion, 540;
Derangements of the Monthly Flow, 543; Irregular and Painful Menstrua-
tion, 545; Suppressed Menstruation, 547; Leucorrhoea, 548; Falling of the
Womb, 557; Ulceration of the Womb, 564; Polypus of the Womb, 564;
Dropsy, of the Womb, 565: Chronic Inflammation of the Womb, 566;
Waginal Affections, 566; Nymphomania. 567; , Amorous Dreams, 569;
Anthropophobia and Sexual Apathy, 571; Sexual Dyspepsia, 571; OVarian
Diseases, 573; Treatment of Diseases of Women, 573.
CHAPTER VII.
HINTS TO THE CHILDLESS... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . tº tº tº t e º 'º g º º s 576
The Causes of Barrenness, 581: Local Inadaptation, 581; Diseased Condition
of the Wife, 588; More Interesting Facts About the Ovaries, 593; Are the
Ovaries Essential for the Maintenance of Sexual Desire? 595; Diseased
Condition of the Husband, 596; Excessive Amativeness, 599; Tempera-
mental Inadaptation,601; How to Promote Child-bearing, 604; Importance
of Overcoming Local Inadaptation, 607; More Valuable Hints for Over-
coming Barrenness, 609; When Disease is the Cause of Sterility, 610; When
Unfruitfulness is Caused by Temperamental Inadaptation, 612; A Word to
Jealous Husbands, 613.
CONTENTS, ix
CHAPTER VIII.
PAGE
PRIVATE WoRDS FOR MEN. . . . . . . * * * * * * * * c e a e º a tº 6 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 616
The Penis and its Diseases, 617; Phimosis, 622; The Scrotum and its Dis-
eases. 625; The Testicles and their Diseases, 625; Enlargements of the
Testicular Glands, 629; Hydrocele, 630; Varicocele, 630; Seminal Weak-
ness, 632; My Views Endorsed, 636; Two Kinds of Spermatorrhoea, 638;
Complicated Spermatorrhoea, 639: The Treatment of Spermatorrhoea, 643;
Inflammation of the Prostate Gland and Seminal Vesicles, 644; Satyriasis,
646: Sexual Perverts and Degenerates, 649; “As the Twig is Bent, the
Tree Inclines,” 650; Dangers of School-Life, 651; Other Sources of Con-
tamination, 652.
CHAPTER IX.
IMPOTENCY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 655
May Affect Either Sex, 657; Mental as Well as Physical Causes, 659; Imag-
inary Impotency, 662; Physical Causes, 663.
CHAPTER X.
AFFECTIONS OF THE NERVES, BLOOD, AND SKIN. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 668
Affections of the Nerves, 669; Neurasthenia, 671; Burning the Candle at
Both Ends, 672; Hypochondria, 674; Hysteria, 674; Treatment of Neuras-
thenia, Hypochondria, and Hysteria, 675; Paralytic Affections, 679; Facial
Paralysis, 680; Shaking Palsy, 681; Locomotor Ataxy, 681; Epilepsy, 681;
The Question of Functional or Organic Disease, 684; Scrofula, 687; Symp-
toms and Treatment of Scrofula, 689; Aches and Pains. 691 : Nervous
Headaches, 692; Congestive Headache, 693; Neuralgia, 694; The Treat-
ment of Neuralgia, 696; Rheumatism, 697; Treatment of Rheumatism, 698;
Gout, 700; The Treatment of Gout, 700; Cancer, 701; The Treatment of
Cancer, 703; Syphilis, 705; Its Progress, 707: Its Treatment, 709; Skin Dis-
eases, 710; The Main Affections Described, 711; The Causes, 712; Urticaria.
—Hives, 713; Rosacea, 713; Pruritus—Itching, 714; Herpes, 714; Eczema—
Salt Rheum, 715; Other Scaly Skin Diseases, 716; Comedones, Black-heads,
Worms, 717; Acne, 718; Boils—Carbuncles, 718; Parasitic Skin Diseases,
719; Pediculi—Lice, 720; Tinea. Trichophytina—Ringworm, 720; Tinea,
Versicolor—Pityriasis, 721; How to Cultivate Beauty of Face, 721; Health
the Basis of Beauty, 724; Face Recipes, 727; Baldness, 727.
CHAPTER XI.
AFFECTIONS OF THE EYES AND EARS ........................................... 730
Nature's Photographic Camera, 730; How Qld Eyes can be Restored, 734;
Near-sight or Myopia, 736; Other Qptical Defects, 737; Diseases of the
Eyes, 738; Chronic Sore Eyes, 740; Cross Eyes, 743; Other Diseases of the
Eye, 744; Defective Hearing, 744.
CHAPTER XII.
TREATMENT OF DISEASE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 751
Everybody His Own Doctor, 752: Dietetics, 756; Clear Conscience Better
than a Petted Stomach, 757; Warranting Cures, 759; To Consultants, 760;
List of Questions, 761; Evidences of the Curability of Chronic Diseases,
763: Affidavits of the Drs. Foote, 765; Cases of Diseases of the Breathing
Organs, 766; Cases of Diseases of the Digestive Organs, 767; Cases of Ner-
vous Diseases, 768; Cases of Diseases of the Urinary Organs, 769; Another
Case of Bright's Disease, 770; Cases of Diseases of Men, 770; Cases of Dis-
eases of Women; 773; Cases of Barrenness, 775; Born by the Book, 775;
Miscellaneous Diseases, 777; Earlier Triumphs, 779; A Bedridden Case,
779; Concluding Remarks, 781.
CHAPTER xiii.
Two Hundred and Fifty Prescriptions for Common Ailments and
Suggestions for Emergencies. -
PRELIMINARY REMARKS.......................................................... 782
Antidotes for, Poisons, 799; Rules for Resuscitating the Drowned, 801;
ºat to do When the Patient Begins to Breathe, 804; The Care of Babies,
xi.
INDEX OF CHROMO PLATES
Printed in five colors by latest improved processes of the litho-
graphic art.
Appropriately picturing the anatomy and
Physiology of the human body and some of its diseases,
thus rendering the text of the book clear and easy to
comprehend,
PLATE
PLATE
PLATE
PLATE
PLATE
PLATE
PLATE
PLATE
PLATE
PLATE
PLATE
PLATE
PLATE
PLATE
IV.
VI.
VII,
VIII.
IX.
XI.
XII.
XIII.
XIV.
Has SIXTEEN VIEws of the BLOOD and its corpuscles
in health and disease ; also the microbes of malaria,
diphtheria, fevers, consumption, etc., showing how it
is possible to detect for sure the presence of certain
diseases, Page 14.
THE NERVOUs SYSTEM of man, the brain, spinal cord
and sympathetic nervous ganglia, and their relations
to the vital organs. Page 15.
A sort of X-RAY VIEW of the human body from be-
behind, showing how vital organs are placed in rela-
tion to each other, and the bony parts. Original and
helpful. Page 376.
FRONT WIEw of VITAL organs, showing plainly the
lungs, heart, liver, stomach and intestines. Page 377.
The intricate and beantiful blood-vessels of the womb
and ovaries; also the lymphatics and the net-work of
nerves of these parts, and of the rectum and bladder.
Page 529.
SIDE VIEW of the abdomen and pelvis, showing rela-
tive positions of rectum, womb and bladder, their
natural coverings, and the vital organs above. From
a French plate. Page 530.
VARICOCELE, truthfully and clearly pictured in con-
trast with the normal appearance of the blood-vessels
of the testes. Page 616.
SYPHILITIC ERUPTIONS,
tertiary. Page 617.
WACCINATION RESULTs and DISASTERS, three common
complications, and three showing similarity of vac-
cine and syphilitic sores. Page 710.
FACIAL ERUPTIONS-skin diseases—roseacea, herpes,
pimples and “black-heads.” Pages 711.
THROAT DISEASEs—eight sketches from actual cases
of catarrh, syphilis, tonsilitis, quincy, scrofula, diph.
theria and scarlet fever. Page 713.
CoMMON SKIN DISEASEs—eczema (saltrheum), hives
and psoriasis. Four views. Page 714.
THE EYE — A remarkably handsome picture of its
dissection, and also views of the bottom of the eye as
seen by the ophthalmoscope. Page 717.
PARASITIC SKIN D1slº Ases—including ringworm of
scalp and beard, and tinea. Page 718,
primary, secondary and
FIGU
1
3
14
ILs Lº (ISYTZT* HYIZICTOS-
YºF;
Capitol of the Nervous System
Professor Brain's Telegraph..
The Heart and Arteries. . . . . . .
Diagram of Blood Circulation
Capitol of the Wascular System
A Frog's Foot . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....
Bacteria. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
LaVeran's Gorms Of Malaria...
White and Red Corpuscles....
Trying to Lift Himself. . . . . . . .
The Creature of Accident. . . . .
Mother Grundy Blindfolds the
Mothers of the Race, and
the Children too. . . . . . . . . . . . .
A Man who has *g WOTn
Himself out in the Service
Of the Devil... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
One who bas Gained not only
Avoirdupois, but Intel li-
gence and GOOdness. . . . . . . . .
“Tho Reverse. Behold tho
Contrast ". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Goddess Of Justice. . . . . . . . . . .
“Plying Knife and Fork.... . . .
An International Pro V is ion
Store . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The USe Of Swine. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Trichinae, Cysts and Moat. . . .
Encysted Trichinae in Muscle.
The Unhealthy Pair. . . . . . . . . .
Infected Muscle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
#.º.º.º. to the Eyo
The Vegetarian Bicyclist......
The Vegetarian Podostrian. . .
Vegetable Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Animals we Slaughter ...
Somewhat Weighty. . . . . . . . . . .
Thin I TOO Thin' . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A Public Dining ROOm. . . . . . . .
A Little Death-'Trap...........
The House *}} * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The IHouse Fly's Foot Plas-
ters MicrobOS On Our FacCS
Common Fio 1 d Mushroom—
Edible. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Liquids we Drink. . . . . . . . .
Tea Plant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Man Who Drinks Modern
Liquors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Temperate Malu . . . . . . . . . .
Thiêutumn of a Temperate
PAGE
• * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * *
A Familial Scene On the Iſarm
First-class Palaco for tho Kine
The Old Oakcm Buckct,. . . . . . .
FIGURE
46
47
48
49
Nature's Beverage on a Frolic
Some Denizens of Pond. . . . . . .
Our Planet and its Atmosphere
Electricity of the Thunder
Storm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Electrical Radiation . . . . . . . . . .
Sweat Glands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
How We COme into the World.
Loose-fitting Garments Of Japs
Amelia Bloomer in her Orig-
inal Costume of 1851, Con-
trasted with 1890. . . . . . . . . . . .
The COStumes Of Uncle Sam's
Numerous Family. . . . . . . . . . .
Various Inventions f Or the
Feet... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Little Barefooted Candy-eater
Bad Position in Sitting. . . . . . . .
Smoking and Snuffing.........
First Lesson in Smoking......
I)efective Sticks . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Positions of the Diaphragm . .
A Contracted Waist. . . . . . . . . . .
A Natural Waist . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Fragment of Ancient Venus ..
The Salivary Glands . . . . . . . . . .
These are fit for a Feast . . . . . .
The Isolated Girl. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Social Magnetism. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Innocent Girl Changed by Vice
Night Scene in “Suicide Hall”
Treward Offered for Vico. . . . . .
Want and Threatened Starva-
tion Held Out to Virtuo. . . . .
Unhappy Marriage. . . . . . . . . . . .
Jenner W. his Child.
The Hand that does it. . . . . . . .
An Illustration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
General N. M. Curtis. . . . . . . . . .
The Electrocuting Chair......
Horn Of Plenty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Othello's Occupation Gone....
The Student at his Books.....
The Overworked Man. . . . . . . . .
A Worrying Woman. . . . . . . . . . .
The Melancholy Man. . . . . . . . . .
A Cure for Melancholy........
A Cluster of Babies... . . . . . . . . .
Triumphant Baby and Mother
Editor's Plan for Diverting the
Baby. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A Healthy Mother and Child..
Magnetic Exercise. . . . . . . . . . . .
Coming Ladies on Horseback
The Swimmer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A Group of CycleIS, , , , , , , , , , , ,
TPA
G! Fº
121
126
120
ILLUSTRATIONS. X111
FIGURE; PAGE FIGURI: PAG
96 All Asleep. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296 || 152 The Ethiopian. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454
97 Perspiratory Gland and Tube. 298 153 The Caucasjan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
98 This is how an Enclosod Ver- 154 "I"ho Undor Sido Of the Liver. . 456
anda Looks on the Outside... 304 155 J3ilious IIeadache... . . . . . . . . . . . 460
90 Warming Feet Magnetically... 310 156 Nerves of the Stomach. . . . . . . . 465
100 A Specimen of what Naturo 157 The Pancreas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471
Produces in her Laboratory. 314 158 Stomach Washing. . . . . . . . . . . . . 474
101 Botanic DOctor Of Ye Olden 159 Stomach Washing. . . . . . . . . . . 475
Time.... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 817 160 Dr. Tanner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476
102 Nature's Laboratory—G O Od 161 Showing how the Male Organs
Food and Medicine... . . . . . . . 320 are Affected by Constipation 478
103 One Corner Of Dr. Foote's Lab- 162 Showing how Female Organs
Oratory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 822 are Affected by Constipation 470
104 Mrs. Eddy, Founder of Chris- 163 A Delicious-Looking Medicine 482
tian Science. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 825 164 The Danse du Ventre. . . . . . . . . 484
105 Viewing the Moon over the 165 Tumorous and Varicose Piles. 491
Right Shoulder... . . . . . . . . . . . . 827 166 Rectum laid open with Piles. . 494
106 Electrical Radiation from the 167 Complete Fistula-in-Ano. . . . . . 497
1800 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * - - - - - - - - - 829 168 Surgical Examination. . . . . . . . . 497
107 Repellant, Electric Waves Of 169 Magnified Head of Tapeworm 499
the Hand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331 170 Where Hernias Occur. . . . . . . . . 502
108 Ordinary Electro-magnetic 71-176 Progressive Hernia. . . . . . . . 508
Machine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 836 176A Operation for Relief of Stran-
109 TJr. Foote's Office Battery..... 840 gulated Hernia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505
110 Magnetic Hands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342 177 The Human Water Works. . . . 507
111 Putting a Sensitive Subject to 178 The Kidney Cut Through. . . . . 509
Sleep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346 179 Kidney Casts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
112 Nerve Atmosphere. . . . . . . . . . . . 347 180 Smooth—B 1 a, d d e r Stones—
113 Japanese Manipulators . . . . . . . 350 Rough. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519
114 Japanese Manipulators........ 851 181 A Soft Catheter... . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521
115 Pries.Snitz's Medicine. . . . . . . . . . 353 182 Leucorrhoeal Matter . . . . . . . . . . 523
116 The “DOCtor'' in the BOW.... 850 183 Gonorrhoeal Matter... . . . . . . . . . 523
117 The Terrified Lady..... . . . . . . . ; 868 | 184 Strictures of the Urethra. . . . . . 527
118 The Abdominal Cavity Laid 185 Urinary Fistula R. e 8 ult in g
º & e º e º e s tº e & e º is a tº e < * * * * * * * * 876 from S tri (, turo following
119 Dr. Foote's Offices Since 1867. . 881 Gonorrhoea. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529
121 Bow-legged but Healthy...... 884 186 Organs of Woman (Diagram-
122 Seems Nervous... . . . . . . . . . . . . . 885 matic). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532
123 The Octopus of Evil Habits 187 Another Sketch True to Lifo. 533
and Victims of “High Life’. 889 188 Composite Photograph. . . . . . . . 535
124 Diagram matic Lung and 189 Room for Vital Organs. . . . . . . . 536
Structure ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 803 190 Vital Organs, Crowded. . . . . . . 537
125 Respiratory System of a Tree. 894 191 Wrong Position............... 538
126 Respiratory System of Man... 895 192 Right Position. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538
127 The Cavities in the Bones of 193 A Mis-shapon Form. . . . . . . . . . . 539
the Face Subject to Catarrh 396 194 Female Organs Exposed. . . . . . 55
128 Nostrils as Seen from Behind. 300 195 Family Syringe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557
129 Polypus Tumor... . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401 || 106 Vaginal Syringe............... 557
130 The Liseased Throat. . . . . . . . . . 403 197 Womb Falling Forward on
131 Nasal and Throat Air-passages 405 Bladder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558
182 Laryngoscope ................. 406 198 Womb Falling Backward on
138 Vocal Q9rds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407 Rectum.... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559
134 Wind Pipe or Bronchus and 109 Procidentia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560
Tubes... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409 200 Some of the Pessaries in Use... 562
135 Typical Case of Consumption 414 | 201 Dr. Pott's Spring-stem Pessary 564
186 Fungi, or the Bacilli of Con- 202 Abdominal Supporter. . . . . . . . . 565
Sumption.... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415 203 Woman as Formed by Nature 57
137 Taking in Tubercle Germs, ... 416 204 Woman as De for in ed by
188 The Air Sacs of the Lungs.... 418 Fashion.... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 578
189 The Out-door Cure. . . . . . . . . . . . 424 205 A Plain Home Talk Baby...... 578
140 Getting Fresh Air . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425 206 A Plain Home Talk Baby...... 580
141 Chest Exercises............... 431 207 Local Inadaptation. . . . . . . . . . . {582
142 Chest Exercises................ 431 208 Local Inadaptation . . . . . . . . . . . 583
148 Lungs and Heart. ............. 482 200 Diseased Ovary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500
144 The Heart. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487 210 The Ovary in Health. . . . . . . . . . 501
145 Enlarging his Heart. . . . . . . . . . . 4.38 211 The Ovary in Old Ago... . . . . . . 502
146 The Normal Heart............ 441 || 212 The Spermatozoa. . . . . . . . . . . . . 508
147 Heart in Valvular Disease. . . . 441 213 Temperamental Inadaptation 600
148 Disease of a Coronary Artery 441 214 Tomporamental Inadaptation 601
149 Various Forms of Aneurisms. 446 215-217 . Dr. Pallen's Operation on
150 Varicose Veins of the Log. ... 448 the Cervix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (;07
151 Digestive Machinery, , , , , , , , , . 450 | 218 The Prize Microscope , , , , .... 611
xiv. ILLUSTRATIONS.
FIG. PAGE | FIG. PAGE.
219 A Plain Home Talk Baby. . . . . 614 || 239 A Nest of Cancer Cells........ 703
220 Vertical Section of Male Or- 240 Gummy Tumors........ . . . . . . . 708
£8. Il S. . . . . • * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * . 617 | 241 A Magnified Cross-cut of Skin 711
??! Chanore......::::. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 619 242 Demodex Magnified 200 Times 718
223 Side view of Male Organs..... 620 243 Burrow, Itch-mite and Eggs. 719
224 Structure of the Testicle...... 626 || 244 Pediculus Pubis............... 721
225 Male Organs................... 627 | 245 Fair and Spotless . . . . . . . . . . . . . 722
226 French Method of Ligating 246 Nose made from Forehead. .. 723
Varicocele........... tº e - © e s e e -631 || 247 NOse made from the Arm..... 724
227 The Testes in Health and Dis- 248 Jo-Jo, the Dog-faced Boy..... 725
CaSé . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 632 || 249 Horn On Forehead. . . . . . . . . . . . 726
228 jº, etc. . . . . . . . . . . . . 640 250 Hair in its Follicle... . . . . . . . . . . 728
229 The Prostate and Sem in a 1 251 Hairy Naevus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 729
Vesicles...................... 645 252 Vertical Section of the Eye... 731
229A Rev. Rudolph Foith......... 652 253 An Eye with Proper Convexity 732
229B Oscar Wilde. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 653 254 TOO Great Convexity.......... 733
230 Womb, Ovaries, Fall opian 255 Cornea too Flat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 734
Tubes, etc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 657 || 256 Application of Fingers for
231 Front View of Penis. . . . . . . . . . 661 Near-sight... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 736
232 Cause of Impotency found.... 665 257 Examining with OphthalmO-
233 Neuron and Nerve-Bulbs...... 669 SCOPe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 739
234 Neuron........................ 685 258 Mechanism of the Eye........ 74.1
235 A Case Of ºy - - - - - - - 686 || 259 CrOSS Eyes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743
236 Charles Sprague, the Living 260 The Human Ear. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 746
Skeleton..................... 687 || 261 Rescuing the Drowned........ 802
237 Facial Nerves................. 694 262 Rescuing the Drowned........ 803
288 Rheumatism...... . . . . . . . . . . . . 697
EXPLANATORY NOTE.
If the reader find any references in this work to Parts III. or IV., or to pages
beyond 806, he will bear in mind that these are to be found in the companion
Volume to this, entitled,
DR. Foot'E's NEw PLAIN Hom E TALK,
a book of about the same size as this, containing Dr. Foote's last writings on the
subjects of love, marriage, parentage, or human social and marital relations in all
ages and countries. In the back of this book, beginning on page 1218, may be
found the Indea of the other book, there placed in order to show the scope and
contents of the companion volume, so far as it is made up of Dr. Foote's writings;
and on the next to the last advertising page of this book, is given a brief synopsis
of the further contents of the other book, the last half of which is “ Tocology for
Mothers ” by Dr. Westland, edited for America by E. B. Foote, Jr., M.D.
Those who want these other instructive and popularly written books should
order the One volume called, Dr. Foote's New Plain Home Talk, and Tocology
for Mothers, price $1.50. -
P.A.T.E I.
7. - -
P. H. T. PART I. CHAP. I. BLOOD Dise ASES.
MICROSCOPE VIEWS OF BLOOD AND SPUTUM, ENLARGED 350 ro 1,500 Times; mostly
stained by chemical dyes necessary to BRing our diagnostic points.
1. NORMAL BLOOD CORPUSCLES. 9, 10. PYAEMIA AND RELAPSING FEVER.
2. ABNORMAL, IN ANAEMIA. 11. NASAL CATARRH MUCUS.
3, 4. IN “PERNicious ANAEMIA.” 12. DIPHTHERIA MICROBEs.
5. WHITE CORPUSCLES, STAINED. 13, 14. BLOOD IN MALARIA.
-- --
6, 7, 8. IN LEUKEMA, 15. SPUTUM OF ASTHMA.
“THE white-Blood disease.” 16. SPUTUM OF PHTHISIS.


PLATE II.
- T
NERVOUS SYSTEM. PLAIN HOME TALK.
BY PERMission of THE CHART or Life co,
BACK AND SIDE VIEW OF CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM, THE BRAIN and spinal
coRD, 3-owing also THE GANGLIonic of 8/MPATHETIC NERVous System, AND THE
Location of THE VITAL ORGANs, -
THE BMALL FIGURE, AT THE RIGHT, 18 a MICROSCOPIC VIEW OF A NERVE CELL and PROCESS
(a neuron), and Fiene with its sheath

PART I.
Disease: Its Calists, Prevention, and Cuſt.
opeNING CHAPTER.
DISEASE AND ITS CAUSES.
ſº
§ UR planet with each revolution carries a
sº huge load of human suffering, a large por-
& º tion of whiich arises from disease. We see
r^\\% NºS «[Nº Sº this enormy in the cradle, distorting the
§: • ºš }: features and bodimming the cycs of inno-
% % - cent babes. Too often it carries its little
gº ! º: victims to the burial-ground, bathed with
Kºś the tears of mothers. We see it in youth-
gº hood, arresting the physical development of young men
>% Mºš and young women ; consigning them to premature graves,
|WW or moving them like sickly shadows through years of hap-
42 less life. It rudely grasps people in the prime of life, and
hurries them away from fields of useful labor to wearisome
chambers, where the mind, which has been schooled to
activity, bocomes a dangerous ally to the enemy by Chafing and fretting
in its imprisonment. It lays violent hands on our gray-haired fathers
and mothers, who yesterday greeted us with the smile, animation,
and elasticity of youth, but who to-day go groping about with rounded
shoulders and trembling steps. At last, it arrests the physical func-
tions, the outer shell returns to its original dust, and the inner, living
body, enters the new life, where—may we hope—this fearful disturber
of our comfort and happiness is reſsed admission.

I6 DISEASE AND ITS CAUSES.
The Causes of Disease.
Disease of every character, except that which may be induced by
poison or by accident to body or limb, originates in a derangement of
the circulation of vital electricity, disturbance of the mind, or an
abnormal condition of the blood. Wherever it begins, unless speedily
checked, the whole system is soon convulsed in its grasp, because of the
close relationship existing between the various organs of the body.
Those who have neglected the study of Physiology, as well as all who
FIG. 1.
ſº % 3. .* * ". . N
// % iº ... ſ | \
M. • * |
º, . ſ
" . " | |
º . . . . £)
il) ‘... "ſil
º: #. | • "D); H
|K'ſ } . , Tºil ||
{i}| º º]||= E
ºl | # | III]]|#A ||
# # | 4||||||||\º ; # #// -
| tº º e * ºl # a [\
\. |||| * º *. - ..
\ º e gº º º
%
ſº a º //
ſ
\: . .
ſ \ tº
ū), b
Will *
º
* -º
* - - º
SSºtº
CAPITOL OF TEIE NERVO US SYSTEM.
The above represents a horizontal section of the brain and bones of the skull ;
a a, outer layer of ash-colored matter ; b b, the white or internal
substance of the brain ; c, the Corpus Callosum.
have merely scanned the pages of ancient and modern superficial
writings, will not readily comprehend the truth of these propositions.
The most illiterate men of the civilized world are aware that they have
a brain (however barren of idea), and that their bodies have nerves,
arteries, and veins. But few physicians, especially of the old prejudiced
school, know the real offices of them. Doctors who have brandished
scalpels in the dissecting-room can point out the exact locality of every
nerve, vein, muscle, tendon, etc., but the means by which each per-







































TJSE OF THE BRAIN. 17
forms its appropriate part, seldom awakens curiosity. Turn to a medi-
cal dictionary for a definition of the brain ; the learned physiological
lexicographer says: “The use of the brain is to give off nine pairs of
nerves and the spinal marrow, from which thirty-one pairs more pro-
ceed, through whose means the various senses are performed, and mus
cular motion excited.” This is all very well so far as it goes, but it will
not satisfy the mind of a thorough inquirer, nor illustrate the truthful-
ness of my first remark. The sublime powers and superior beauties of
the brain are undiscovered in such a superficial definition. The Object
of this chapter requires a better one. Let us have a name for the brain
which will convey a better understanding of its office. I propose to
call it the CAPITOL of THE NERVoUs SYSTEM. It stands in the same
relation to the human body that the Capitol at Washington does to the
United States. There are telegraphic wires proceeding from this Capitol
which connect with other wires leading to every part of the Republic,
and there are nerves proceeding from the brain which connect with
other nerves leading to every part of the human system. These nerves
are like telegraphic wires, and convey impressions to and from the brain
with the velocity of lightning. They permeate the skin so extensively
that a slight change in the atmosphere is quickly telegraphed to the
physiological capitol. Experiment has demonstrated the fact, that the
intelligence of an impression made upon the ends of the nerves in Com-
munication with the skin, is transmitted to the brain with a velocity of
about one hundred and ninety-five feet per second. Intelligence from
the great toe is received through the nervous telegraph at the physio-
logical capitol, called the brain, in only about one-thirtieth of a second
later than from the ear or face.
- The digestion of food, by which process blood is manufactured
depends upon the electric currents sent by the brain through the pneumo
gastric telegraph, or nerve, to the stomach. The correctness of thºg
hypothesis has been illustrated by experiments tried by a celebrated
physician in England. In these, a couple of rabbits were selected,
which had been fed with the same kind and quality of food. On one
of them he performed the operation of cutting the pneumo-gastric nerve
leading to the stomach. The latter being deprived of the nervous
stimulant, the animal soon died from the effects of a loaded stomach
coupled with suspended digestion. The other rabbit, which was not
operated on, was killed after an interval of almost twenty-six hours,
and on examination it was proved that the food in its stomach was
entirely digested, while in that of the former, the food remained almost
as crude and undigested as when it left the masticating organs. Another
experiment was made upon two more rabbits in the same manner, ex-
cept that after the nerves leading to the stomach were cut, galvanism
Was applied in such a way as to send the current through the discon-
18 DISEASE AND ITS CAUSES.
nected nerves to the seat of digestion. At the end of twenty-four hours
they were both killed, when it was found that the food in the stomach
of the one whose nerves had been severed, and put in connection with
the galvanic battery, was nearly as well digested as that in the other,
which had not been operated on. These experiments show that the
Stomach depends for the performance of its office on the electrical or
nervous stimulus which it receives from the brain. Similar experiments
to those just mentioned have been tried with reference to the heart and
other organs, in all of which they ceased to perform their functions
When the nerves were cut, and commenced again as soon as the galvanic
fluid was applied. It is not necessary for the purposes of this treatise, to
demonstrate that galvanism and this nervous element provided by the
brain are identical. It is evident that they are not ; but they are so
closely related that one will perform the office of the other, and this
fact is sufficient to show that the two forces or elements are similar in
their character, and that one is a modified form of the other. Animal
magnetism, electro-magnetism, galvanism and electricity, all differ a
little from each other, and in employing the term electricity, chiefly in
Speaking of the nervous forces, I do so because it is a term better under-
stood by the masses,
NERVOTOS TELEGRAPHY,
I have said that the brain is the capitol of the nervous system. It may
also be called the great receiving and distributing reservoir of nervo-
electricity. It is largely composed of two substances: one an ash-colored
matter, which, if spread out, would cover a surface of six hundred and
seventy square inches; the other, a fibrous matter, firm in texture, and
tubular. The ash-colored matter is the receiving, and the fibrous matter
the distributing reservoir. There are in other parts of the system
various smaller receiving and distributing reservoirs, composed of the
same substances, but all these are under the control of the superior one
located in the brain. These are called by physiologists nerve-centres,
and to carry out the analogy between our nervous system, and the tele-
graphic system of our country, the nerve-centres may be compared to
Our State capitols.
The spinal cord is the great nervous trunk, or the main telegraphic
wire leading from the brain, and from the brain and spinal cord proceed
the motor nerves, the nerves of sensation, and the nerves of special
sense. With the motor nerves the mind telegraphs to the limbs to
move, and they instantly obey, for the force they carry contracts one
set of muscles and expands another ; for electricity, whether animal or
mechanical, has the power to contract or expand any substance. By
the action of the motor nerves upon the muscular system, the phenomena
of animal motion are performed, Through the nerves of sensation the
ANIMO-VITAL ELECTRICITY. I9
brain is quickly informed by the telegraph, if a wound is being inflicted
upon any portion of the body, if disease is intruding itself upon any
organ, or if anything disagreeable or pleasurable is brought in contact
with any part of the body. Through the nerves of special sense, the
brain is informed by telegraph whether it be light, or dark—whether
there be silence, or noise, etc. So we see that the Great Artificer, and
not Professor Morse, was the inventor of telegraphy. To Morse belongs
the honor, and it is indeed a great one, of having adapted this same
system of intercommunication with the quickness of lightning between
villages, States, and nations; a discovery which will eventually unite all
mankind in common sympathy and brotherhood.
Most people know that telegraphic operators supply the electricity
which they send over the wires by galvanic batteries, prepared accord-
ing to the usual processes explained in our school-books of Philosophy.
But whence is this animo-vital electricity we have been speaking of
derived ? Well, I will tell you. The principal source is the stomach,
that ever-active laboratory. The dissolution of any substance sets free
the element commonly called electricity. The food you eat, if digesti-
ble, goes through a process of dissolution in your stomach, and as it
dissolves, the electricity evolved ascends through the nerves made for
the purpose, to the ash-colored matter of the brain. The vitalizing
property of air is mainly electricity, and, consequently, we receive this
element by the lungs and pores, from which it is taken up by the blood,
and carried to the great receiving reservoir of the brain, which, I may
add, accommodates more blood than the fibrous matter of the brain.
The blood on entering the ash-colored matter discharges its cargo of
electricity and nerve-nutriment, and returns to the body for another
load.
Large quantities of animal electricity are also generated by the
alkalies and acids of the animal organism. The mucous membranes, or
linings of the cavities, are continually excreting a semi-fluid called alkali,
and the serous membranes, or outer coverings of the same, an aqueous
or watery fluid, called acid, and according to the testimony of Dr. Bird,
if these fluids are so placed as to be connected by parietes of an animal
membrane, or a porous diaphragm, a current of electricity is evolved.
Hence, we find that not only are our stomachs generating electricity,
but we are inhaling it by our lungs, and our pores, and the external or
serous, and internal or mucous surfaces, united as they are by natural
parietes and porous diaphragms, are producing it in large quantities.
As it is produced, or enters the system, it is so modified as to be made
fit for the uses of the body.
The brain is as industriously distributing this vital electricity
through the system, as the heart is circulating the blood, and too much,
or too little, given to any particular organ, produces disease therein.
2O DISEASE AND ITS CAUSES.
The complete withdrawal of nervo-electricity from any part paralyzes
it, so that it has neither sense nor motion. If withdrawn from the
motor nerves only, sensation remains, while motion is lost; if from the
nerves of Sensation only, then motion continues, but sensation is de-
FIG. 2. stroyed. If withdrawn from the
nerves of special sense, the power
of hearing, seeing, smelling, and
tasting is lost; or it may be with-
drawn from only one set of the
nerves of special sense, producing
some of the foregoing difficulties,
without affecting the other senses.
Too little vital electricity given
to the liver, renders that organ
torpid—too much, causes nervous
Congestion and inflammation; too
little given to the stomach causes
nervous dyspepsia—too much
makes the appetite voracious,
and induces other derangements
to the digestive machinery; and
hence, we see that to all the
Organs a proper quantity must
be distributed, or disease results.
It is unnecessary to pursue this
explanation further to show that
the nervous system is a complex
piece of machinery, as delicate
almost as the spider's web which
is spread out over the meadow
grasses, and that many diseases
arise from a defective nervous
system. Those which do not
and which may not come under
the exceptions mentioned at the
PROFESSOR BRAIN's TELEGRAPH. opening Of this work, C8, Il be
traced to disturbances of the mind, or to an abnormal condition of the
blood.
MENTAL DISTURBANCES.
From what has already been said, it is apparent to any logical mind
that diseases often result from trouble or depression of mind. So
closely allied are the brain and the nervous or telegraphic system, it is
impossible for one to be disturbed without exciting the sympathy of the

MENTAL DISTURBANCES. 2 I
other. The brain, besides being the receiving and distributing reservoir
of animal electricity, is the residence of the mind, or the Ego which
controls its action. When, then, anything occurs to disturb the
equanimity of the mind, the brain at once telegraphs the melancholy
news over the wires, or nerves, to every organ of the body, and, like a
well-regulated and affectionate family, all join in sympathy for the
afflictions of the one which they regard as the head and provider. "In
some cases, when great grief or emotion is present, the brain works so
actively in producing intense thought, that it consumes all, or nearly all
the vital electricity of its reservoir, and when this bankruptcy takes place,
it even withdraws that which it has supplied to the vital organs. When
it reaches this crisis, death results. Emotions of the mind, it is well
known, greatly affect the organic secretions, and Dr. Trall does not
greatly magnify a fact, when he remarks “that they may be depraved or
vitiated as readily by excessive mental emotion, as by a drug poison taken
into the stomach.” He continues by saying, that “a paroxysm of anger
will render the bile as acrid and irritating as a full dose of calomel;
excessive fear will relax the bowels equal to a strong infusion of tobacco;
intense grief will arrest the secretions of the gastric juice as effectually
as belladonna; and violent rage will make the saliva as poisonous as
will a mercurial salivation.”
Says Combe : “The influence of the brain on the digestive organs
is so direct, that sickness and vomiting are among the earliest symptoms
of many affections of the head, and of wounds and injuries to the
brain, while violent emotions, intense grief, or sudden bad news, some-
times arrest at Once the process of digestion, and produce squeamishness,
or loathing of food, although an instant before the appetite was keen.
The influence of the mind and brain over the action of the heart and
lungs is familiar to every one. The sighing, palpitation, and fainting
SO often witnessed as consequences of emotions of the mind, are evi-
dences which nobody can resist. Death itself is not a rare result of such
excitement in delicately organized persons.”
A story related by the late English author, Eliot Warburton, is
interesting in this connection. “A Howadji, or sacred traveller (more
given to lectures tha., to prayers), met the plague coming out of Cairo,
and reproached that demon with his murderous work. ‘Nay,” said the
fiend, ‘I have slain but a few ; it is true that twenty thousand of the
faithful have died, but only one-tenth of them fell by my hand—the
rest were slain by my fellow-demon, FEAR.’”
In times of war, the influence of the mind on health has been many
times strikingly exhibited. During the great Civil War between the
North and South, all newspaper readers knew of the fatality attend-
ing the Federal “Army of the Potomac "in the Chickahominy Swamps.
Most people attributed the prevalence of sickness and death among the
22 DISEASE AND ITS CAUSES.
soldiers, at that time and place, simply to the unwholesome air of the
locality, but this was not all. It was a dark day in our country's his.
tory ; many of our bravest men felt disheartened ; and mental depres-
Sion, if not despair, rendered our country's noble defenders susceptible
to malarious influences, and they
became ready victims to the un-
wholesome vapors with which they
were enveloped.
FIG. 3.
The frightful mortality attending
the allied armies at the Crimea, was
no doubt more attributable to bad
management on the part of the com-
manding officers than to inclement
weather. The soldiers, having lost
confidence in their commanders, be-
came depressed in spirit; they were
filled with fearful forebodings; the
buoyancy of their nervous systems
was disturbed, and thereby digestion
impaired. Through these discour-
agements they were made susceptible
to disease, and would have been
liable to its attacks, however favor-
able the climate; while a slight
unfavorable change in a foreign
atmosphere, under such circum-
stances, would induce fatal results.
The English press attributed the
sudden death of Lord Raglan to the
Censures heaped upon him at home.
Many politicians in this country
ascribe the illness which ended the
career of one of America's greatest
statesmen, to disappointment in not
The Heart and ARTERres that carry receiving the Presidential nomina:
THE Good vitaL FLUID To ALL PARTs tion from a convention of his party.
OF THE BODY, AND VEINS THAT RE- Thus we see the influence of the
Tuits Titº cuRRENT To The HEART, mind on the body is generally
understood and admitted. But few stop to divine the means by which
it is effected. It is well, therefore, to understand that every organ is
notified on the telegraphic system, if any thing offends the seat of
consciousness of the human being, and these organs are often taxed or
compelled to give back part of the nervo-electricity with which they
are performing their offices. If, through any accident to the limbs,

BLOOD DERANGEMENTS. 23
contact with any powerful poison, or impurity of the blood, the har-
monious evolution and circulation of the nervo-electric fluid in any part
of the body are disturbed, the brain feels the effect, discovers the cause,
and faithfully informs all the mem- -
bers of the family, who contribute
vital healing forces with which they
endeavor to conciliate the difficulty,
and if they fail, the whole system
is thrown into discord.
FIG. 4.
IBLOOD DEIRANGEMENTS.
Next, I will speak of the blood,
for all diseases which do not arise
from the causes already named and
explained, have their birth in a
deranged condition of that almost
as mysterious fluid which circulates
through the entire system. In plain
language, the blood is fluid bone,
fluid cartilage, fluid muscle, fluid
nerve, and fluid everything that
goes to make up the human body.
Technically, it is mainly composed
of corpuscles floating in liquor
Sangwºn is. These corpuscles are
minute bodies, resembling, very
nearly, in shape, pieces of coin, as
represented in the illustration, Fig. 9.
They can only be seen by aid of the
microscope. There are two kinds
of corpuscles, the red and the white,
or colorless. In health, the red
predominates in the ratio of three or
four hundred to one of the white
Corpuscles. Hoffman estimates that pixes AM OF BILOOD CIRCULATION.
there are twenty-eight pounds of 1, 2, left heart : 3, 4, right heart ; 5,
blood in a man of average size. 6, lungs; 7, great arteries; 8, brain;
This fluid is circulated through the 9, great veins; 10, spleen ; 11, intes-
system by the heart, arteries, capil ºnes; 12 kidneys; 13, lower extrem-
laries, and veins. The heart may be ities ; 14, liver.
said to be the capitol of the vascular system, as the brain is the capitol
of the nervous system. It may also be called the receiving and dis-
tributing reservoir of the blood, as the brain is the receiving and dis-
tributing reservoir of the nervo-electrical forces, The heart is an inces-

24 DISEASE AND ITS CAUSES.
Sant worker and a good manager. It pumps vital or arterial blood
through the arteries and capillaries to every part of the system, and
pumps it back through the veins to itself again, and then pumps it into
the lungs, to become revitalized by the oxygen of the air we breathe,
from which it again receives it to send it on its recuperative mission. The
heart undergoes four thousand contractions per hour ; cach ventricle is
reckoned to contain about one ounce,
and, therefore, we are brought to the
astonishing realization that two hundred
and fifty pounds of blood pass through
it in that brief space of time. The
fleshy parts of the body are filled with
what are called capillaries. An Irish-
man once remarked, that a gun was a
hole with iron made around it; well, a
capillary is a hole with animal fibre
built around it, and there are so many
of them that the human system almost
resembles a sponge in vascularity. Pco-
ple who are continually drinking some-
thing when the thermometer gets into
the nineties, must readily comprehend
this statement. They are constantly
drinking, and the water is constantly
running out of them. Their clothing
becomes saturated with their perspira-
tion. Into the capillarics, the heart,
through the arterial system, pours the
life-giving blood, and after it has de-
FIG. 5.
CAPITOL OF TLIE VASCULAR SYSTEM.
1, The Superior vena cava; 2, the
inferior vena cava; 3, the right
auricle; 4, the right ventricle; 5,
the situation of the tricuspid
Valves; 6, the partition between
the two vontricles; 7, the pulmo-
nary artery; 8, the point where it
Separates and enters the right and
left pulmonary artcry for the cor-
responding lungs; 9, the four pul-
monary voins bringing the blood
into the loſt auricle; 10, the left
auricle; 11, left Ventricle; 12, loca-
tion of mitral valve; 13, location
of Sigmoid valves of the aorta;
14, the position of the sigmoid
valves of the pulmonary artery.
posited its vital atoms, and taken up the
worn-out ones, the hcart sucks it up
through the veins to be renewed.
The blood may be said to carry on a
coastwise trade with the various organs
and tissues of the body. It goes out
freighted with fresh living atoms, and
visits every part of the body, even the
bones and muscles, and gives that which will repair each part in return
for atoms which are no longer useful. These waste matters it carries
to the dumping-grounds, called the lungs, liver, kidneys, excretory
vessels and pores, and these organs cmpty them out through the channels
nature has provided. The heart is the shipper.
I have thus intruded these illustrations to present the Whole matter
clearly to the mind of the non-professional reader, and I trust I am fully
*

TXT, OOD IMPURITIES. 25
understood. Now then, let us suppose the blood becomes impure, SO
that the heart has no good arterial fluid to dispense to the various
organs. The latter are not only deprived of the nourishing properties
of good blood, but are left to counteract, as best they may, its corrupt
particles. The vital parts are placed in the position of a man with his
hands tied, who is called upon, not only to feed, but defend himself.
The result is, the human machinery becomes clogged with poisonous
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A FROG'S FOOT.
The Capillaries as seen in the Web of a Frog's foot, under the microscope.
1, 1, are the veins, and 2, 2, 2, the arteries.
humors. These may block up the liver so that it cannot perform its
functions properly, and thereby cause irritation, or inflammation, or
they may produce a tubercular affection of that organ. They may
attack the lungs, producing pulmonary disease. They may irritate or
inflame the lining of the stomach so as to impair digestion, and ulti-
mately induce obstinate dyspepsia. In short, no organ or fibre of the
body is safe when they are present. These impurities are more liable
to affect a person internally than externally. Many persons suppose
if there are no pimples, blotches, ulcers, or tumors on the surface, the
blood may be considered pure, no matter how much pain or suffering
may be experienced inside of the outer covering. This is an error; for
many of the most troublesome affections of the hidden portions of the
body are caused by blood impurities. Those who have them on the
surface are the most fortunate, for, as a general rule, when the blood
possesses strength enough to pitch these troublesome particles out on


26 DISEASE AND ITS CAUSES.
the surface, it also possesses the ability to protect the internal organs
from their corrupting influence.
What I have said in the foregoing relative to the blood, relates
rather to active, than latent impurities. The latter may be defined as
those foreign properties in the blood, which, under favoring circum-
stances, may induce disease. Ordinarily a person having them is un-
conscious of their presence. But let some poisonous gases or germs
infest the atmosphere, and they at once, like the secreted burglar, open
the doors of the system, coalesce with them, and induce fevers or
difficulties of some kind. I think fevers of all kinds, including scarlet
fever and measles, may be traced to latent impurities in the blood. A
person could hardly contract small-pox when exposed to it, except for
these insidious properties which render the system susceptible. As a
female germ cannot produce a child without the addition of a male
germ, so these latent impure particles in the blood cannot generate
disease without meeting their affinitive germ or poison. Seed cast on
ground not suited to it produces nothing, while simply the pollen
blown from Some distant field on to just the right quality of soil, seems
to meet something equivalent to the ovule, from which vegetation starts
up, as if by magic. It is a fact known to many scientific men, that in almost
any locality, soil taken from a depth of thirty or forty feet is soon cov-
ered with white clover. This can only be accounted for by attributing
to this soil germinal qualities, which, brought in contact with the pollen
of the clover carried perhaps miles on the wings of the wind, produce
this species of vegetation. *
THE GERM. T.FIEORY.
What is the germ theory 7 It is the doctrine that disease is com-
municated to the human system by minute animal organisms generally
known under the name of bacteria, which are found in great abund-
ance in both air and water. Bacillus, spirilla, micrococcus, strepto-
coccus, diplococcus, etc., are of the same genus, and have been respect-
ively named according to their varying forms or modes of growth. The
reader will be interested in what will be here presented on this subject,
and before this chapter is finished it will be perceived that the theory
of the cause of disease, as given in the beginning of this chapter, is not
the least affected by more recent discoveries. The theory of the causes
of disease, as given in the opening chapter, first made its appearance
in “MEDICAL COMMON SENSE * in 1857–58, and when that volume was
revised in 1869–70 it was repeated in “PLAIN Homſ. TALK, EMBRACING
MEDICAL CoMMON SENSE,” substantially as the reader finds it at this
time. Up to the present moment its correctness remains unchallenged.
It is not at all disproved by the part which bacterja plays in human ills.
GERM THEORY OF DISEASE. 27
Linnaeus, the great botanist, was probably the first scientist to
broach the germ theory, nearly 150 years ago, but it received no recog-
nition from the medical profession. From that time until about 1870
scientists who were experimenting to ascertain whether there Was any-
thing in the theory of spontaneous generation were continually running
against evidence of the correctness of the belief of Linnaeus. As late,
however, as 1876, “Appleton's American Cyclopædia” states (Vol. XVI.,
page 843) that “we are still ignorant of the different viruses, conta-
gions, poisons, miasmata, etc. * * * The most widely prevailing
doctrine of the present day respecting the origin and communication of
disease is that known as the germ theory. Special organic forms known
as mycrozymes, bacteria, bioplasts, etc., alleged by various pathologists
to be found in contagious fluids, have been the subject of much dis-
cussion, some contending that they are of a fungoid growth and enter
the body as parasites, others that they are germinal masses derived
from animal cells, and due to a series of changes in existing matter
under new circumstances; while a third class deny positively that any
such germs exist.” In “Appleton's Annual Cyclopaedia” for 1884, it is
stated that “the study of micro-organisms had long been regarded, even
by the medical profession, as barren of practical results,” but that
“it had assumed greater importance during the past year.”
A PROPHETIC ARTICLE.
In the issue of Dr. Foole's Health Monthly for June, 1876, may be
found the following contribution to the discussion, from the pen of the
author of this volume : “Pasteur first demonstrated, and the notion
is now generally received, that the atmosphere, no less than the water,
is filled with minute animal life which only the microscope can reveal.
We are in the habit of calling the minute living organisms in air and
water bacteria. Much is yet to be learned of these microscopic
creatures. But if they are at all like the higher orders among animal
life, there must be the bad as well as the good among them. Observe
for a moment mankind : We hāve the comparatively good people,
those who are tolerably decent, and the right down cruel and wanton.
There are all grades, from those who are aspiring to do good, to those
who contemplate only mischief, and glory in it.
“Among the wild beasts, we have species which are harmless and
disposed to ‘live and let live '; and those even in the same neighborhood
who delight in destroying the lives of their more peaceful companions.
Among the fishes, too, we find those which would live peaceably if they
could, subsisting on the nutritive matter they can gather up without
preying upon their fellows, and right among them are others, notably
the bluefish, which are so destructive of their good neighbors that they
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28
DISEASE AND ITS CAUSES,
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GERM THEORY OF DISEASE. 29
leave a track of crimson blood behind them, as they go through schools
of other fishes, in pursuit of food and bloodthirsty diversion.
of “When we look still further down into the vegetable world, and
behold the valuable vegetables upon which we so largely subsist, We
find they have to dispute their places and growth with the rank and
pestiferous weeds which grow side by side with them, unless rooted out
by the provident gardener.
“Would we not, then, reasoning by analogy, quickly suspect that
the bacteria of the air are yet to be classified into species as follows ; (1.)
The harmless and nutritive, for science recognizes air as one of the
necessary foods. (2.) Those which may possess neither useful nor
injurious qualities, unless some conditions arise in the higher animal to
invite their depredations; such, for instance, as wounds, or pathological
changes which depress the vital forces. (3.) Those which are absolutely
poisonous and depredative, seizing upon the comparatively healthy Sub-
ject, and prostrating him on a bed of disease, and possibly death, while
finding easy victims in those who are suffering from diseased conditions
of blood, or depressed states of the nervous System.
“It may be that we have a typhoid species of bacteria whose
undeveloped germs harmlessly float in the air until Some festering cor-
ruption or filth furnishes them a nest for incubation, whereupon they
develop by the millions, as all lower orders of animal life do, and then
carry disease in their path. If this be possibly true, then why not
the small-pox, diphtheria, measles, Scarlatina, and whooping-cough
varieties, all dependent upon certain peculiar conditions to afford them
nesting-place for the germs which may, if this theory have any founda-
tion in fact, be ever present in the atmosphere.”
That this article was prophetic of what science would eventually
reveal, was glaringly evidenced at the great Columbian Exposition in
In the illustration, page 28, copied from the Microscopic Journal, may be seen
many differing forms of bacteria, and to all of these have been given distinctive
names, many of them being rather formidable titles with which we meed not try
to become familiar. Nos. 1 and 2 are spherical bacteria; No. 2 represents that
found in vaccine lymph; No. 3 represents an agglomerated mass of such bacteria;
Nos. 4, 5, 6 and 7 are found respectively in urine, sour milk, mouldy vegetables and
spoiled eggs; Nos. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 are rod-like bacteria. With variations,
No. 10 being common to sour beer; Nos. 16, 17, 18 and 19 are sketches of the vibrio
varieties. Nos. 20, 21 and 22 are spirillae (or spiral) bacteria, shown as they appear
Separate or in swarms. All these figures were drawn by the expert microscopist,
Dr. Ferdinand Cohn, from what he has observed under a microscope magnifying
Six hundred and fifty diameters, or what some would call four hundred thousand
times. The Whole group as here reproduced is from an excellent monograph in
pamphlet form entitled “Bacteria; An Account of their Nature and Effects,
Together with a Systematic Description of the Species,” by T. J. Burrill, Ph.D.,
Professor of Botany and Horticulture, of the Illinois Industrial University,
3O DISEASE AND ITS CAUSES.
Chicago in 1893, where were exhibited the great variety of bacteria that
the scientists had corralled and confined, not in cages like the animals in
a Zoological garden, but in small vials, each labelled with the disease
of which they seemed to be the responsible carriers. These germs
were indeed classified. The alleged germs of consumption, typhoid
fever, erysipelas, diphtheria, cholera, measles, scarlet fever, and an
infinite variety of other contagious diseases, all bottled, securely corked
and labelled for the inspection of those who could use the microscope.
Facetiously rhyming on these germs, our able surgical contemporary,
Dr. Helmuth, thus speaks of one of the varieties:
“Oh I powerful bacillus,
With wonder how you fil) us
Every day !
While medical detectives
With powerful objectives
Watch your play : ”
Moreover, they have been given distinct names, according to their
nature and effects ; they have been pictured in a manner that shows
they are as numerous and varied as the photographs of the thieves,
pickpockets, and housebreakers in the Rogues’ Gallery at the Central
Police Station. Nor is this all. For, if the reader will be patient and
pursue this matter further, he will discover that the scientists have
found many useful bacteria which may be employed advantageously in
butter and cheese-making and various other useful economic processes,
as foreshadowed in the article quoted from the Health Monthly.
It is more than probable that the nauseating odors coming from any-
thing undergoing putrefaction are caused by the bacteria that are
attracted thereto. We shall see further on how butter is improved in
flavor and smell by the presence of the bacteria that are cultivated, for
the purpose, by dairymen, and the existence of bacteria of this sweet
smelling variety naturally suggests the possible existence of that of an
opposite nature. We may have microscopic skunks as well as those
which are visible to the naked eye. Will the scientists brave the
repulsive odors and approach the decomposing carcass with microscope
in hand on seashore or field to find out 7
Just after writing the above an article came into my hands by G.
Clarke Nuttall, in Knowledge, which tells us that the peculiar Smell of
fresh earth is caused by the presence therein of “myriads of tiniest
organisms,” which the writer thinks belong to the fungus family. It
was thought when they were first discovered that the minute organisms
that produce fever and ague, chills and fever, etc., were members of
the vegetable kingdom, and one physician called them the “ague plant;”
but they have since been relegated to the animal kingdom, as will soon
THE GERMS OF MALARIA. 31
be observed. If, therefore, the fresh ploughed ground owes its odor
to the presence of minute organisms, we already have this additional
suggestion that perhaps disagreeable smells arising from decomposing
substances may in all cases be due to bacteria. “It is a new revelation,”
says Mr. Nuttall, “to find that it is the outcome of their activity.”
The earth at certain seasons swarm with them.
It may not appear disagreeably egotistic in this place if I relate how
the views contained in the article from the Health Monthly were
regarded by a promising young scientist who had just graduated from
the College of Physicians and Surgeons in the City of New York, in the
spring of 1876. As he was fresh from college, and had doubtless heard
of all the latest discoveries relating to disease, I naturally regarded his
judgment as of some value in passing upon the speculations that were
exercising my brain. I verbally presented to him the substance of the
article herein copied on the subject of bacteria. He listened impatiently to
what I had to say, with a countenance which betrayed the greatest amount
of incredulity, and when I had finished, he exclaimed : “You cannot
prove your theory ! It has absolutely no value ! It is not supported by
anything Science has revealed !”
Many years have passed since this judgment was rendered, but the
same young scientist, now a middle-aged man of some prominence, if
he will look up bacteria in the Standard Dictionary (Funk & Wagnalls'
Co., 1895), he may see a great variety of these interesting microscopic
specimens illustrated, and yet many more have been discovered. The
dictionary presents only about a dozen of the most mischievous ones.
Fig. 7, on page 28, shows a choice lot of them, but if the reader
will turn to a medical dictionary he will find about two hundred or
more, all bearing a distinctive name.
GERMS OF MALARIA.
For a long time it has been thought that malarial fevers are attended
with the invasion of the blood by some low and minute form of plant or
animal organism, now called microbes. These can only be discovered
by high power microscopes and expert manipulation. It is now pretty
generally accepted that the animal parasites described by A. Laveran
are the cause of the aching and shaking of fever and ague. He has
described several forms, which may, however, be the same intruders
under different guises, or at different stages of development. Those
Which we have chosen to give of his illustrations are what he calls
“bodies No. 2,” which he found most abundantly in the blood of
malarial patients.
These are technically called the corpuscles of Laveran. The
first line represents the bodies themselves of various sizes, magnified
1,000 times, while in the second line they are seen in or upon
32 T) ISEASE AND ITS CAUSES.
the red corpuscles of the blood, which in course of time disappear,
seeming to be eaten up by the parasites. Some red corpuscles show
clear spots where the young invader has just begun to grow. The full
grown parasites sometimes show at their borders filaments, moving with
great rapidity. They are very long and slender, and can sometimes be
seen moving freely like eels among the red corpuscles with such
rapidity that it is difficult to keep track of them.
FIG. 8. - -
{} :
o "o &
LAVERAN's GERMS OF MALARIA.
CHEESE AND BUTTER-MAKING GERMS, ETC.
Under the head of “Cheese-making Bacteria,” in the Literary
Digest, of June 18, 1898, may be found the following : “The ‘ripen-
ing' of cheese, so as to produce the characteristic texture and flavor of
any desired variety, has been brought to a high degree of perfection by
Dr. Olav Johan Olson, of Norway. * * * Dr. Olson, it seems, has
investigated various cheeses, and has caught and cultivated their
microbes. Then he has reversed the process, and used his cultures to
produce the various cheeses from which he started. The kinds of
microbes are not many, but by their combinations in different propor-
tions, different results may be obtained. The milk is sterilized and
heated to 70°–75° C., and the store-room is kept guarded against foreign
microbes. Those that are desired are added in the requisite proportions,
and their vigorous growth is of itself enough to overcome the influence
of accidental strays. The production of the kinds of cheese is no longer
an affair of the laboratory; but Dr. Olson will take your order for
Gorgonzola, Stilton, or Camembert, and will furnish the precise descrip-
tion required at a cost satisfactory to your pocket and to his own.”
It is not necessary, however, to go to Norway or elsewhere to find
useful bacteria of a rare kind. While the World’s Fair was in full blast
in Chicago in 1893, a can of milk from Uruguay was received in appar-
ently damaged condition. It had been for weeks on the way, and when
opened it was found to have a peculiar bitter taste. It was submitted
to Professor Herbert W. Conn, of the Biological Laboratory of Brooklyn
Institute, at Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island. During the summer of .

USEFUL BACTERIA. 33
1893 he was experimenting with the bacteria of milk at the Great
Exposition. The sample of milk which had travelled nearly half
around the globe was found to contain just what Professor Conn had been
looking after. He had already discovered some forty different bacilli in
milk, and this one he labelled Conn's B., No. 41, and this at once
became famous. It not only improved the keeping quality of butter,
but greatly added to its flavor ; so much so, that it found its way very
soon into three hundred and fifty creameries in a dozen or more States.
It would not make good butter of poor cream, but it made a delicious
Quality from good cream ; one which possessed an inviting aroma and a
nutty flavor. Butter made with this bacterium brought a higher price
in market than any other. So we can get the best quality of butter at
home if we must go to Norway for cheese, and this is due to bacteria of
the useful variety.
There are other economic uses to which the kinder species of
bacteria may be put which have been presented by Professor Marshall
Ward, in his presidential address, before the Botanical Section of the
British Association. He is said to have “dwelt at considerable length
on the many industrial processes which depend more or less for their
success on bacterial fermentations. As reported in Appleton's Popular
Science Monthly, he says: “The subject is yet young, but the little
that has been discovered makes it imperative that we should go on, for
the results are of immense importance to science, and open up vistas of
practical application which are already taken advantage of in commerce.
A bacillus has been discovered by Alvarez which converts a sterilized
decoction of indigo plant into indigo sugar and indigo white, the latter
then oxidizing to form the valuable blue dye, whereas the sterile decoc-
tion itself, even in the presence of oxygen, forms no iñdigo. Certain
stages in the preparation of tobacco-leaves and of tea depend on a
carefully regulated fermentation, which must be stopped at the right
moment, or the product is impaired or even ruined, while in flax and
hemp the best fibres are separated by steeping in water till the middle
lamella is destroyed. Not every water is suitable for the process, but
only that containing a particular bacillus, which destroys the pectin
compounds of the lamella and leaves the cellulose. A process depend-
ing on this fact has been patented in the United States. The steeping
of skins in water preparatory to tanning involves bacterial action for
removal of the hair and epidermal coverings; and the swelling of the
limed skins is a fermentation process. Hay and ensilage have to go
through fermentations involving bacterial action. The various flavors
of butter and cheese are each produced by special bacteria, and the
cultivation of them has become a considerable business, so that the pro-
duction of whatever flavor may be desired has become a matter of reason-
able certainty.” It has been found that clover and many other plants that
34 DISEASE AND ITS CAUSEs.
|
accumulate nitrogen from the soil, or, in other words, convert nitrogen
from the inorganic (mineral) world to the organic (vegetable) world do this
by the aid of bacteria on the roots of the plant. The Medical Press, in a
plea for microbes, says: “An American contemporary points out that
there are about a thousand species busily engaged in the destruction of
wood, and, were it not for their intervention, all the trees that ever
grew would be standing to-day, living, or it may be dead, but in any
case as Solid, as sound, and as firm as when they ceased to grow, and all
life must have been choked out ages since. * * * They are accused
of contaminating our water, but it is equally certain that were it not for
their ceaseless activity all the water in the world would be a concentrated
Solution of excrementitious and noxious products, the disintegration of
which is due to these little organisms. Our very digestion depends
upon them to a great extent, and if they were withdrawn from circu-
lation we should very shortly become painfully aware of the fact. No,
let there be no class distinctions; every community has its black sheep,
and these should very properly be branded with the mark of infamy.
The existence, however, of these misconducted atoms will not justify
extending the anathemas to the countless millions of their species in
whom, and with whom, we live and move and have our being.”
The capacity of bacteria for reproduction is evidenced by Conn,
who calculated “that a single bacterium, by growth and division under
favorable conditions, could fill the ocean in five days, multiplying,
as it does, in a geometrical ratio.” They are in and about everything, and
are far more numerous than any other species of living thing. They
are quite as busy as any of us in doing the world's work as well as in
perpetrating mischief. It is to be hoped that there is between the good
and bad bacteria as much destructive conflict as there is between the
different races and nations of mankind, and that this positive check to
over-production may continue in the bacterial world. Let us also hope
that the more highly civilized and useful bacteria may ultimately
extinguish the savage and barbarous hordes of their species.
ARE GERMS PIRODUCERS OR SIMPLY BEARERS OF DISEASE 2
Returning to the baser sort, the question is not yet settled whether
it is the bacterium itself or the poisonous source from which it emerges,
that conveys disease. Professor Jaccond asserts that “bacteria are only
bearers of infection, as a fly may become the carrier of small-pox."
Panum, Richardson, and others, according to “Appleton's Annual
Cyclopædia" (Vol. IV., page 444), have discovered “that the septiferous
fluid cannot be deprived of its virulent properties by either boiling,
evaporation, or combination with acids in the form of salts,” and adds,
“ that as no life could survive such operations, it must be inferred that
the toxic (poisonous) agent is not the Zoophytes themselves, but a
RELATION OF GERMS TO DISEASES. 35
specific poison produced by them by a process of fermentation in the
putrescent fluid.” If this view be correct, it is the poison with which
the bacteria are, so to speak, bathed, that does the mischief of conveying
disease, in which case the causes of disease as mentioned in the begin-
ning of the opening chapter, already embrace the newly discovered
agent, inasmuch as these authorities call it an indestructible poison.
But if it be finally determined that the bacterium itself has power to
produce a specific disease, I predict that it will also be found that the
mischievous germ can only find lodgement in those individuals who
possess some impurity or abnormal condition of blood, or a devitalized
nervous state which is capable of giving them nesting. Your hale,
hearty, vitalized, and mentally exuberant neighbor will go unscathed.
If otherwise—that is to say—if it be finally discovered that there are
some bacteria which can take hold of a perfectly healthy man and pros-
trate him on a bed of sickness, they will certainly be such microscopic
creatures as bear some analogy to visible poisonous specimens of animal
life, like the venomous reptile, the deadly insect, etc., and it can be
truly said that the victim of such bacteria has been laid low by poison,
the same as if he had been bitten by a rattle-snake. In this case we have
the bacterial variety indicated as the third class in the prophetic article
in my Health Monthly in 1876, as already reproduced in this essay.
It is found that bacteria are ever present in everything that is under-
going decomposition. They seem to be the necessary scavengers of air,
water, and of decaying substances upon the earth. As Dr. Ball puts it,
“without microbes to assist in effecting chemical changes, the earth
would reek with organic filth.” It would seem to be in the order of
nature to have these microscopic creatures enter into all lifeless bodies,
and assist in their disintegration. It may also be consistent with this
law that they should enter into all dying individuals, and help forward
the destructive process. The dying process may be said to have com-
menced when the first departure from a healthy condition takes place,
however slight that departure may be. If so, it is but natural to find
the blood of the very sick man teeming with these destructive little
Creatures. In all advanced stages of disease when the doctors look for
them, they are found more numerous than the fishes in the sea. There
is, therefore, nothing to retract or amend in the opening portion of this
chapter. -
There are abnormal conditions of blood which can hardly be called
impurities, active or latent. For instance, a person may have an insuffi-
cient quantity of blood, resulting from which he is weak, pale, and
cadaverous. There may be an excessive supply of the white corpuscle,
or an insufficient supply of the red corpuscle, producing paleness and
lassitude, but not necessarily leanness, as people so affected are often
fat. There may be an insufficient supply of the white, or a super-
36 DISEASE AND ITS CAUSES.
º
&
'.
abundance of the red, giving undue redness to the skin, and predis.
posing a person to inflammatory affections and congestions. In short,
the blood must possess very nearly that proportion of red and white
corpuscles which nature originally instituted, or disease will present
itself.
It now having been shown that a free circulation of vital or nervous
electricity, an unruffled mind, and good blood are essential to health,
PICTURES OF WEHITE AND RED CORPUSCLES.
Both the red and the white blood corpuscles show some variations in size and shape,
even in health, but some of the most marked variations from the normal
Or usual appearance are considered distinctive evidence of disease
and may aid the examiner to determine what diseases exist.
it requires only a moderate exercise of common sense to perceive that
all diseases, excepting simply those induced by poison or accident,
originate from a disturbance of these indispensable conditions. There
may exist hereditary organic weaknesses, but even those had their
origin in conception, or in foetal life, from the disturbed mind or vital
fountains of the parent, thus not allowing a single exception to my
theory.
The attention of the reader will next be directed to the principal
causes of nerve and blood derangements, or the primary causes of dis-
ease. But, before concluding, let me ask if the foregoing does not lead
to the irresistible conclusion, that the first duty of a physician to a
patient is to see that his nervous system is set right, his mind emanci-
pated from all depressing influences, and his blood restored to that
condition which enables it to impart the tint of health to the skin,
strength to the muscle, and rich and abundant juices to all the tissues 7

CHAPTER II.
THE CAUSES OF NERVOUS DERANGEMENTS AND
AFFECTIONS OF THE BLOOD.
HE subject of this chapter opens a boundless
field for the investigation of physiologists.
Indeed, should an attempt be made to trace
out all the influences, immediate and re-
mote, which tend to destroy the mental
and nervous equilibrium, and render the
blood a fountain of death rather than life,
- many volumes like this would be filled,
§§§ and then the task would be unfinished. I shall, therefore,
ſ limit myself to an explanation of the principal causes—
those over which we have the easiest control. Each shall
W. be treated under its appropriate head, with such variety
* of matter as may be necessary to make it entertaining as
well as instructive.
Ignorance.
This is the vehicle, loaded down like a
trolley-car, or an excursion steamboat, that
conveys into the system nearly all the nervous
derangements and affections of the blood
which afflict the human family. Plato long
ago said that “ignorance is the root of mis-
fortune.” A large proportion of all the evils
of which the essays in this chapter will com-
plain, really spring from one common root–
ignorance. Errors in eating, drinking, sleep-
ing, dressing, ventilation, sexual isolation,
Sexual association, medicating, etc., the bad
habits of childhood and of adult age, may be trying to LIFT himself over,
traced directly to ignorance. It casts a black THE FENCE BY THE STRAPs
shadow over every hearth-stone—it makes a on His Boots.
dark corner in every institution of learning—it clothes with bigotry and
intolerance thousands who claim to be the apostles of religion—and it


38 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
even revels in the halls of science, putting smoked glasses over the eyes
of those we are taught to revere as philosophers and sages. It makes the
peoples of all our planet play “blind-man's buff,” where, on every
side, there are moral and physical pit-holes ready to ingulf them. No
one sees his neighbor in his true character, and if he grasps for him,
only catches costumes or professions. We are like moles, with only
the rudiments of eyes, groping above the ground inhabited by those
burrowing beneath. Thanks to Good Old Mother Nature, we have
powers which those little quadrupeds have not, and if we will but
place ourselves openly to the light which is ready to shine upon us, if
We will be tolerant of each other's opinions, weigh all things, and hold
fast that which is good, our posterity, if not we, may behold the bright-
ness of the “good time coming.” -
There are two kinds of ignorance—real and wilful. The latter is
the outgrowth of the former. No sane person will voluntarily sacrifice
health through wilful ignorance, unless that wilful ignorance is plumply
backed by some of the genuine article. Like the “Jacobs,” “Original
Jacobs,” and “Real Original Jacobs,” they are all Jacobs after all. A
person may shut his eyes to a disagreeable truth—resolve within himself
that he will not see it, and impatiently trample it under his feet, and
yet, did he fully comprehend the consequences, he would desist from
his folly. A glutton may overload his stomach, with a full knowledge
that he is violating a physical law—knowing that this violation will
certainly render him physically uncomfortable. But were he suffi-
ciently informed to have presented clearly to his mind the latent as well
as active derangements one such violation engenders; could he but see
the innumerable ills which will remotely spring from a cause appar-
ently so slight, is it to be supposed he would sacrifice years of phys-
ical comfort for a momentary gratification of a morbid appetite 7 A
thoughtless young woman may dress imprudently to attend a fashion
able ball, covering but partially, or leaving completely exposed, por-
tions of her person which she habitually wraps in flannels or furs.
She is told of the danger, but laughingly retorts, “I know it, but I am
bound to have a good time.” This may be attributed to wilful ignor-
ance, but a stratum of real ignorance lies at the bottom of it. She has
an imperfect knowledge of how fearfully and wonderfully she is made,
and how one slight physical derangement may lay the foundation for
many diseases; to future years of mental and bodily wretchedness;
and finally, a premature grave. “A short life, and a merry one !” She
gaily ejaculates, without knowing that such a thing is a physical
impossibility; but it is, unless she ends her brief hours of frivolity by
cutting her throat, or otherwise abruptly terminating her existence in
one short moment, for all recklessness leads to mental and physical
suffering; and though life may be short under such circumstances, it
IGNORANCE. 39
is always long enough for nature to inflict her penalties; for a person
cannot die without disease, or physical infirmity, except by accident,
assassination, or suicide, and when a few days or weeks of reckless hi-
larity are followed by months of mental and physical distress, even
if death does come to the rescue, what becomes of the theory, of “a
short life, and a merry one 7”
Let the foregoing two instances suffice for an illustration of what
is generally called wilful ignorance. We see that this species has its
origin in real ignorance, and that a better understanding of the laws of
life and health would speedily put an end to recklessness entered upon
with but a partial knowledge of the consequences.
IREAL IGN ORAN CE.
Real ignorance is the fearful enemy of mankind. Let us commence
at the very beginning of the human being. How many know the
essential conditions to bring into the world a healthy child 7 A man
and woman love each other, or think they do, FIG. 11.
or they do not, but it is expedient to marry,
and they do marry. The next thing you hear
is, that the wife is pregnant. How did she
become so 7 Accidentally, probably, for
nearly all children are the accidents of grati- $4%
fied passion, instead of the products of will.
ing parents who premeditated and prepared
themselves for so important a work. Most
married people are ignorant of the fact that
their own physical conditions at the moment
each yields the germ, which is to start into
existence a human being, has an everlasting
influence upon that being. Many a child has THE CREATURE of AccIDENT.
been conceived when its father was lounging about home on account of
sickness, and to-day suffers physically, and perhaps mentally, from the
effects of that paternal illness. There are thousands of children to-day
with disordered nervous and vascular systems who are so because they
were conceived at the “making up " of quarrelsome progenitors. Many
a child is the offspring of a rape, perpetrated by a brutal husband
upon an unwilling wife, and this offspring goes through life with a
weakly nervous system as a consequence. ->
Men and women marry, ignorant of the laws of mental and physical
adaptation. This botchery of human procreating machinery goes
blindly at work turning out babies. The babies do not ask to be born.
Life and disease are both thrust upon them. Poor things | The doc-
tors will earn half their bread and butter from these wretched speci-
mens of humanity, if the unfortunates manage to live long enough to

4o CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTs.
earn anything. The ignorance of parents prior to, or at the moment
the embryo of a new being is created, brings forth only the first instal-
ment of disease with which it will have to contend. Here and there
a prudent woman may be found who knows to what extent the off-
spring within her womb is physically influenced by her habits of
thought and action. The majority do not. Few men, when treating
pregnant women with unkindness, are conscious of the injury they are
inflicting upon the miniature being in embryo. The period of utero-life
is one fraught with danger to the health of the defenseless little creature
which nestles as shrinkingly within the walls of the uterus before as it
does timidly to its mother's bosom after its birth.
The babe is born | What next } Not one mother in a thousand
knows how to rear a child in a way to promote health of nerve and
blood. She feeds and clothes it improperly during infancy and child-
hood ; she drugs it almost to death, or lets some doctor do it, for ills
proceeding from one or more of the causes already alluded to. Then
the child must be vaccinated. How few know the fact that scrofulous,
Syphilitic, and other impurities are taken from the arms of diseased
Children, and inoculated into the blood of those who are free from such
impurities The knife of the father, or the needle of the mother, or
the aid of a physician with whom the parents are entirely unacquainted,
is employed to perform this important operation, when only those com-
bining skill with the greatest integrity, should be trusted, if it be
deemed best to have it done at all. So that, from this source, a new
Clement to corrupt the blood is imparted to the infant. As the child
advances in years, a new and strange passion seizes it, often before the
proper age of puberty. Ignorant of the complexity and functions of the
procreative organs, it falls into bad habits in efforts to gratify a natural
passion, and further nervous and blood derangements ensue. If it be
a female, she arrives at the age when menstruation begins, untaught
regarding this function. She observes the blood issuing from her body,
and frightened at its appearance, attempts to stay the flow. I have
many times been consulted by pale women suffering from menstrual
irregularities, which were induced in childhood by attempting to arrest
the menstrual discharge, by applying cold water, ice, or snow to the
parts. Those who do know enough of the function to avoid this error,
do not know how necessary prudence is during its performance. In
rural districts, the out-houses are often built to project over streams, or
they stand on hill-sides, so that draughts of air are continually passing
up through them. The best of them in the country are poorly built for
the protection of health, and especially the health of women. Many
cases of menstrual irregularities, particularly in those who have but just
commenced the performance of the function, may be traced to expos-
ures in badly constructed places of this kind. Keeping the feet dry,
Itz "GHONVQION+)|I
on lit:(luſ ol stoulou ou Aoû Qūgī , o]}l poiliulu jo 10s] no out! spºn
uoljo (loſt|A SSoujddºu put unluou Jo Moo.IAA out Kutul O' oAus qušju
‘siołuśntºp put Suos Jo uoyssossod (II JI ‘qopu A oipol Aoux, ou, Jiudu,
plmous ous put ‘puuo Ion Jo ojJI soulloulu ou" on Aox oth splotl touloul
oul, , , ; Slova, Sly Jo ououſ ‘su Silo) ostroyu O Jo Kºoyoos uontonpºſ Ibiol\
ou.L AOU [unu'suoul out, Sullup uſ pošlmpuſ sº Osſo.IOxo “qonu oo)
‘ool. “Ngºng'IIHO HEII, CINW ‘Glow si llll, RO SłISIHLOW WIHL SCITOICINIT&I KGINſ)?If IHELLON
'gī ‘OIJI
suouno uſ pric opingſ oo, sosuo otuos uſ 'polooſłou uoljo ool suoſºntooid
ore ‘ssoup oarssooxo Áq osuosp on oſquidoosns put oap'ſsuos optuſ u09q
oaviſ Koun uoua ‘ounquioduo, Jo Soju bûo uolj oſts Suosoq on put

42 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
children knowledge which they, too often, do not themselves possess 7
From their own experience they might instruct their daughters in some
things, but they cannot draw from their personal fountain of knowl-
edge all needed instruction for their sons. In many important matters
Women are not encouraged to know much.
AIR-BIRAKES ON THE CAR OF KNOWLEDGE.
Dr. Alice Lee Moqué, writing the author from Washington about
her difficulties in gathering up all the useful knowledge she desires to
obtain, says: “I see it is claimed that our Medical Museum has the
finest specimens in the world, and that the Museum Library is one of the
best. Both of these are free to the public, but as the librarian refused
to let me have Havelock Ellis's book on the ‘Psychology of Sex,” I
guess I’ll have to don Jonathan's trousers if I am to be intrusted with
anything heavy, or along the line of sex. And yet, could you have
Seen the beardless boys who were given the freedom of the library, I
imagine you would have considered me quite as capable as they, of
understanding and digesting anything there. It seems rather ridiculous
that my boy, only sixteen, who has never read anything more technical
than his school-books in his life, can secure books that will be refused
to the mother who bore him, because, forsooth, she is a female, and not
supposed to know anything about sex, perverted or otherwise. It is
galling to a woman who has to endure the same thing in every direction
the very moment she desires to know anything or do anything outside the
beaten track.” This complaint is not without reason, and the same sickly
sentiment which forbids Mrs. Dr. Moqué to have such a work as she
sought from the library prevails so widely in Society, that most mothers
are willing to go groping through life ignorant of many essential truths,
and bring up a family of children no more equipped with knowledge
pertaining to the sexes than they themselves can gaſher up from some
clandestine and often misleading source. How, I again ask, can such
mothers give the greatly needed instruction in physiology and hygiene to
their children 7 Ignorance leads ignorance hand in hand, in congenital
blindness, to the abyss of disease and death.
FALSE MODESTY LEADS TO HYGIENIC ERROIR.
The coyness of young people of both sexes, but especially of young
women, in attending to the “calls of nature,” are fruitful sources of
nervous and blood derangements. Children are brought up to regard
the necessary attentions to the bladder and bowels as something So
indelicate as to require the greatest privacy, so much so, that if places
constructed for such purposes are not entirely shielded from observa-
tion, a young man, or a young woman, will go all day, or possibly for
several days, without attending to two very important functions with any
TALSE MODESTY. 43
degree of regularity. The results are, the blood becomes poisoned by
the retention and absorption of waste matters, the nervous energies of
the liver, bowels, kidneys, and bladder become paralyzed, and if the
victim be a female, the pressure of water in the bladder in front, of the
excrementitious matters of the bowels above and behind, displaces that
sensitive organ, the womb, and then follow all sorts of ills to make life
wretched. What kind of etiquette is this which teaches people to be
ashamed of the functions an All-wise Artificer has instituted to preserve
and keep active the most complex machinery ever made by His hand 7 Is
it indeed a disagreeable task, one we are to be ashamed of, to dispose of
the useless portions of the liquids and solids we have put into our
mouths 7 May we not better teach our children to be ashamed of
gluttony—of besmearing their mouths with vile tobacco, and loading
their breath with the vapors of unwholesome drinks 1 May we not
better place a gate at the door wherein so much that is injurious enters,
than to stop up the outlet from which many things purer depart
Especially when absent from home, among people they have never seen
before, and may never See again, are coyish young people—and Some old
ones—foolish in this particular ; and because appropriate places for
physical relief cannot be entered without observation, irregularities are
inaugurated which finally bring them to their beds,' and their doctors.
People in advanced life, unless Sorely afflicted with mock modesty, are
usually more sensible in regard to this matter, and still, they are not
sensible enough for their own good, nor have they a particle of sense,
in many instances, in giving right impressions to their children.
Grown-up children know too little of themselves to instruct those
who come after them. As before remarked, mothers who have the care
of children, and who should, consequently possess all attainable infor-
mation regarding the human system and its wants, often know the
least. Picture to your imagination women, well-informed on most sub-
jects, bearing in educated circles the reputation of being intelligent,
Calling on a physician, and trembling with anxiety on account of a
tumor they had discovered, from which they apprehended the most
painful consequences. An examination is made, and what they regard
as a tumor, is found to be simply the neck of the womb, in a perfectly
healthy condition, and in the place Nature assigned for it ! Such
instances have occurred in my practice. One young married woman,
of unquestionable popular intelligence, consulted me Concerning a sup- .
posed cancer. Her mind was terribly exercised about it, and she hoped
her case was not incurable. On examination, the cancer proved to be
simply the clitoris, although somewhat inflamed by her frequent manipu-
lations after she first discovered it. At the outset, it was only the
natural organ such as is found in all healthy women; but she could not
let it alone when she discovered it, thinking she “must do something
44 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
for it,” and the growing irritation resulting from her attentions to the
Supposed cancer, she attributed to the progress of the disease. Women
have consulted me who supposed leucorrhoea was simply a natural and
healthy discharge. With such ignorance on the part of mothers,
especially when they are so thoroughly saturated with fashionable social
nonsense, we can hope for little improvement in children. We must
look to schools, ultimately, for our physical redemption, and if proper
means will be adopted by those having charge of our institutions of
learning, great things may be effected in one generation. In the
chapter headed “The Prevention of Disease,” I shall make some sug-
gestions which should be pursued in all places where young people arc
taught. In a country like ours, so full of school-houses, ignorance in
reference to vital matters pertaining to physical life would be utterly
inexcusable if the right course were adopted by our boards of educa-
tion and school committees.
I will now conclude this part of the chapter with the remark that
much that will appear in subsequent pages might be embodied under
this head, for ignorance lies at the bottom of all bad habits and usages,
But under separate heads can be given greater prominence to many
things to which I wish to call especial attention.
Violating the Tioral Nature.
Many people have an idea that if they pay fair respect to what are
usually understood as physical laws, all will go well with them so far
as bodily health is concerned. But few seem to understand the sym-
pathy existing between the moral and physical man. If an individual,
to-day, has sufficient physical strength and endurance to suppress the .
voice of the inward monitor—the conscience—and retire at night with a
relish for sleep, after he has perpetrated some great moral wrong, he
imagines he will always be equally successful in crushing out his better
nature. But if no other cause intervenes to render his nervous system,
and hence his mind, wretchedly sensitive to all such violations, the
cffort required to put down conscience will, in time, do it, and all at
once he will find himself plunged into a mental hell from which, and
into the sulphurous one pictured by ancient theologians, would be a
grateful deliverance. We cannot persistently do those things which we
feel to be wrong, without wearing away (by slow degrees, perhaps, in
some cases), the nervous strength which, to-day, sustains us in viola-
tions of our moral sense. If, by a dishonorable course of life, a man
may have attained wealth, and that wealth has given him position, and
during all this time he has managed to preserve a fair degree of health
—possibly excellent health—the loss of property and of position attained
through it, brings him to his reflections, and the doctors have no easy
task to cure him of ills which almost surely overtake him. Then, if
WIOLATING THE MORAL NATURE. 45
not before, the voice of conscience, which has been contumaciously
suppressed, keeps him awake at night-time, for the lessons which
should have been received from day to day for years, are crowded
upon him in one moment, and hypnotics and anodynes are of no avail
in bringing sleep to his cyclids, and repose to his agitated nervous
system. Nor is it sufficient that the moral nature be simply preserved,
in order to make a man strong and noble. It must be built up. As
physical exercise develops the muscle, so exercise of the moral faculties
develops the moral strength of the man, and this moral strength makes
him mentally buoyant, courageous, and happy; and this condition of
mind promotes digestion, gives regular pulsa-
tion to the heart, action to the liver and kid-
neys, full and deep respiration, and muscular
life and elasticity.
FIG. 13.
It is not necessary that a man should do
as his conscientious neighbor, or as society dic-
tates. So long as mankind are not run in one
mould, there will be diversity of opinion, and
each man will form, from investigation and
reflection, a moral standard, considerably his
own, or at least modified by his individuality.
It is not what others say of us individually,
or what people of other nationalities say of
our nation, that will make us great, power- A MAN WHO HAs NEARLY
ful, and happy. It is what we can feel re. Wºº. 9" .. "
& © R tº e SERVICE OF THE DEVIL.
garding ourselves ; it is the self-respect which
a noble life creates; if our consciences can unequivocally pronounce
the verdict—RIGHT-we are at once invincible—we are happy—we are
healthy. The applause of others may tickle our vanity, at the moment
we think it misapplied ; but the applause of conscience sinks a shaft of
moral strength, an unfathomable pleasure, down into the very soul's
Centre.
It does not simply dwarf a man morally to devote his entire ener-
gies to the accumulation of wealth, or the attainment of some other
Selfish object. It changes his physiognomy, or at least prevents it from
acquiring a look of nobleness. An individual may not be legally dis-
honorable, while straining every nerve for the accomplishment of a
selfish purpose, but the simple neglect of his moral nature makes him
less a man, not only in a moral but in a physical sense. The ner-
vous stimulus, or life force, has been consumed for the realization of
the one object of his ambition, and the various organs of the body have
been cheated of that which belonged, in part, to them, so that a dwarfed
Soul looks out of a body which has not been healthfully developed.
He may not be a shrunken man physically, he may be fat—plump as an

46 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS
alderman ; if so, much of the vital forces he wastes in his aggrandize-
ment are needed to spiritualize this gross corporeity. Have you never
noticed how much difference there is in the physical appearance of a
good fat man, and a fat man who has neglected his moral development 7
From the former, the soul shines out like a light from a window ; the
latter has no more spiritual radiancy than the wax figure of a sixpenny
showman. So that sins of Omission, as well as of commission, against the
moral nature, affect the physical well-being. There is no one way, per-
haps, in which the moral man is more tortured than in the pursuit of
wealth and position. In fact, this part of man's nature is often sacri-
ficed entirely for the realization of these objects in our competitive world.
HOW IT WAS WIEWED BY A NOTED PREACHER.
FIG. 14. The late Henry Ward Beecher, in one
of his sermons, presented something
*º interesting in this connection. “Did
ts. º you ever,” he asks, “see men made in
this world? They had no great wisdom;
they had no great honor; they had
no great heroism ; they had no great
patience; they had no great meekness;
they had no great wealth of love; but
they had a certain muck wisdom ; they
knew how to thrust their hands in
where dirt was to be moulded ; they
knew how to amass property ; they
knew how to construct ships and
houses; they had a kind of ferreting
eye, a sort of weasel Sagacity ; they
were keen and sharp ; they were said
to be prosperous, thriving men ; they
were being built up according to the
estimation of men. Give a man five
“ons who has gained not only thousand dollars, and you have laid
Avoir DUPois, BUT INTELLIGENCE the foundation on which to build
AND GooDNESS.” him—you have got his feet built ; give
him ten thousand, and you have built him up to the knees; give him
twenty-five thousand and you have built him to the loins ; give him a hun-
dred thousand, and you have built him above the heart ; give him two
hundred thousand, and he is made all over. Two hundred thousand
dollars will build a man in this world; two hundred and fifty thousand
will make a good deal of a man ; five hundred thousand makes a splen-
did fellow, as the world goes. The great trouble, however, is that
although the materials may not be very costly, as God looks upon them,
*

* VIOLATING THE MORAL NATURE. 47
men find it difficult to build themselves in this way. Besides, they are
very easily unbuilt. Where a man is merely what he owns, it does not
take long to annihilate him. You can take a man's head off with a
hundred thousand dollars; you can cut him in two with two hundred
and fifty thousand; you can annihilate him with a kick of five hundred
thousand, so that there would be nothing left of him but smoke
“There are thousands of thousands
of men, of whom, if you take away -
their houses, and ships, and lands, and º
fiscal skill, and such other qualities (ſ/4 |
belonging to them as theft will not want º
in Heaven, and cannot carry to Heaven, s N.'
É.
FIG. 15.
there will not be enough left to rep-
resent them there of righteousness, and
godliness, and faith, and love, and
patience, and meekness, and such like
qualities. They have used all these
qualities up for fuel for their machine.
It has been their business in life to
sacrifice probity that they might be
rich ; that they might gain power and
influence ; that they might make their
hold on the world broader and
stronger; and if they cannot carry
forth these things which have been the
objects to the attainment of which they
had devoted all their energies, what is
left for them to go out of life with ?
You see not only single specimens, but
whole ranks of the dwarfed, insect. “
class of men, patting each other on
the shoulder, registering each other,
and speaking of each other as “our first l
y g y & * e
men, Our largest men, Our influ- ** TPIE REVERSE OF THE OPPOSITE IL- .
ential men,” ‘Our strong IOleIl ;’ and yet, LUSTRATION. B.EHOLD THE CON-
if you were to take away from them TRAST.”
that of which the grave will divest them, you could not find them even
with a microscope
“Do you not know just such men 2 If you were to think of those
belonging to your own circle of acquaintance, and ask, not what this
and that man are worth as factors in material things, but what they are
worth as God looks upon them, what they are worth when meas-
ured by their righteousness, and faith, and love, and patience,
and meekness, those things which are to make up our manhood


48 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS
in the eternal world, would you not find among them those of whom,
if their selfishness, their heartlessness, their grasping skill, their
Worldly wisdom were taken from them, there would be scarcely any
thing left 7”
NO GREAT NAMIES ON FENCES.
It often happens that such men—men who, instead of making great
names by pursuing some moral or beneficent object, simply write their
naries on checks, business receipts, carve them out on trees, pencil
them out on barns, on walls, and on the rude partitions of summer-
resorts—awaken to a consciousness of their moral impoverishment after
they become somewhat sated with wealth and petty enjoyments; and
then there is a summary precipitation; a break-down of energy, of pride,
of ambition, of appreciation of what they have attained, and so much
disappointment and mental wretchedness, that health fails, and oh, how
hard it is with hygiene, with tonics, with therapeutical electricity, with
every means Science and skill have discovered, to build up such men 1
They are the worst physical wrecks that enter a doctor's office; and
Although they say they would give all they possess for physical health
and mental quietude, they cling tenaciously to the gold they have so
long worshipped. How can they afford to part with it 7 All their
generosity, all their love of neighbor, all their love of humanity, and
every good quality they brought into the world with them, have been
molted into the glittering lump.
Although, as before remarked, there is a greater tendency to sacri.
fice the moral nature in the pursuit of wealth and position in this world
of pride and competition than in any other way, there is a manifest
carelessness in regard to the preservation and development of the Spark
of nobleness within us in every department of life. Few men and
women, comparatively, are fully truthful. Few treat their neighbors
with exact justice ; too many sacrifice peace of mind for momentary
pleasure; thousands are daily and hourly doing what they know to be
wrong. After all this violation of the moral sense come self-accusation,
remorse, wretchedness, loss of sleep, loss of nervous vivacity and
strength, and finally the whole system becomes more or less affected by
the committal of sins for which punishment is only looked for beyond
the present life, when it is hoped an escape may be effected through
“ the vicarious atonement.” Present chastisements are overlooked, or
attributed to other causes. People are often ill without knowing the
cause, when, if they would turn their eyes inward and examine them-
selves searchingly, they would find that their physical discomforts arose
from discords and inharmonies resulting from doing injustice to a
neighbor, for wantonly letting slip a glorious opportunity to make some
One happy. -
WIOLATING THE MORAL NATURE. 49
Nations, as well as individuals, suffer from wrong-doing. Govern- .
monts convulse and cripple their power, and shatter their constitutions
by acts of injustice. It seems to me that nothing can be surer to end
in discord, war, and bloodshed than despotism. Let any body of organ-
ized men prevent some other men from enjoying the privileges they
arrogate to themselves, what more natural than for those oppressed .
men to conspire for the assassination, or, at least, overthrow of their
oppressors ? What can be a more dangerous element in one people
than the existence among them of another people, who, for some reason
not founded upon justice, are denounced as not so good, not so intelli-
gent, not so capable in any sense, and for which they are denied privi-
leges in the pursuit of happiness which their more powerful neighbors
maintain for themselves 7 Can we reasonably hope to outlive con-
spiracy, war, and bloodshed, till we take our neighbor by the hand
rather than by the throat 7 Considering the prevalence of conceit in
this world, are any of you quite sure you are any better or more intelli-
gent than the man you are holding your foot upon 7 and if so, is it not
clearly your duty to take your foot off, give him a lielping hand, and
the widest opportunities and incentives for culture ? Would it not be
better to devote the money you are paying the soldier or policeman to
keep him in vassalage, to his education and elevation ? Some one has
said : “A conscience is needed for the age, as for the individual—a
power which shall reveal it to itself, and arouse and convict it.” If,
to-day, every ruler on our planet were making it the one great aim of
his life to give equal religious, political, and social rights to all people ;
if oppressions were lifted from the hearts and shoulders of all men, if
every individual would see his neighbor's rights as clearly as he dis-
cerns his own, the clash of arms on the battle-field between contending
nationalities, the voice of intolerance between differing religionists, dis-
putes in questions of law, the mutterings of men in petty strife, would
all be swallowed up in one grand millennium of happiness and kindly
feeling, which would go far toward promoting individual health and
national greatness. This, you may say, is an ideal picturé, and cannot
be realized, but self-improvement will do it. If each one of us will
bestow a portion of that labor and criticism upon ourselves which we
put forth professedly to improve our neighbors, the object aimed at
Will in time be accomplished. Nations are made up of individuals, and,
Consequently, it is only necessary that every person know how much
his own health and happiness depends upon those of his neigh-
bor, and set himself about making himself more just, more truthful,
;
more tolerant; to make Society, nation, and government what each
Should be. We are apt, too, to say, our neighbor will not adopt the
Golden Rule, and that, therefore, we will not. This is mainly the
reason why a better condition of things is not attained. Every one is
50 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
Waiting for another. Let every one who feels the first impulse toward
Self-reformation, inaugurate the work at once. If none of his neigh-
bors do, he will find a full compensation in the mental and physical
benefits that accrue to himself, and if he suffers from injustice from
others, he certainly does not suffer from injustice to himself. One
thousand such men scattered over the world in one generation, would
become ten thousand in the next, and might, in a few generations, be
Counted by millions. Why hesitate because such a work cannot be
accomplished in our life-time 7 Because of the disposition of men to
Wait for each other in undertaking the work of self-improvement, the
World is now filled with dishonorable retaliation. I will relate an
instance in point. Standing at the counter of a tradesman, while the
latter was telling a customer what a smart trick he had perpetrated
upon Some One who had cheated him, I was wit-
neSS to the narration of the dishonorable feat,
during the telling of which his eyessparkled with
revengeful delight. He concluded with the
triumphant interrogatory, “Didn't I serve him
right 7” This seemed as much directed to me
as to my fellow-customer, and I felt morally
bound to respond, when the following colloquy
ensued : .
“I don't think you did.”
TRADESMAN–“Well, I do, for he is the biggest
scoundrel in the city; and I always like to get
the start of such men. He is always looking
out for a smart game of grab.” -
“But of whom are dishonorable people to
learn lessons of honesty, if every one who is
defrauded by them, retaliates when opportunity
OfferS 7”
TRADESMAN.—“That is all very nice, but I am
not the man to let a good chance slip to get
even with the fellow who comes a big thing
GODIDESS OF JUSTICE. on me.”
FIG. 16.
“Well, then, you are only confirming the usual opinion of dishonor.
able men, that “all men are dishonest,’ and your retaliation on him will
lead him, when opportunity presents, to again retaliate on you, and so
on indefinately, till death ends the warfare. Perhaps if you had re-
minded him of the chance presented to “get even with him,” and
spurned it as something you could not stoop to, it would have aroused
the sleeping sense of honor within him ; but, if not, he could not just-
ify his course of rascality with the reflection that he was as good as
other men, for he would have, for once, at least, met, in a business way,

THE FOOD WE EAT. 51
one man who was above both petty revenge and dishonesty. In my
opinion, sir, you missed a golden opportunity to do a neighbor good.”
The colloquy ended with a muttering response, which was not
quite audible, but the tradesman, after all, was only practising a pretty
well-established commercial code. Even when money is not an object,
so dominant is the passion for revenge, business men often play finan-
cial tricks on their fellows, simply to “pay them off in their own coin”
for some previous transaction of a similar kind, in which they were the
victims. With this spirit of retaliation in the commercial world, where
is fraud to end ?
There is no one passion so dwarfing to man's moral growth, and,
consequently, to his perfect physical development, as revenge. It
whittles his soul right down to a pointed poisoned arrow, with which
he is ever ready to pierce his offending neighbor. It plants in his eye
an expression as fierce as the serpent’s tongue; it shrinks the muscles
of his face, and gives his lower jaw an unseemly protrusion ; it makes
him a stockholder in “hell upon earth,” and his neighbors unwilling
sharers in the dividends. A revengeful man has that within him which
destroys capability of self-happiness, and all comfort to those who are
compelled to come in contact with him.
Perhaps it is something that many have not thought of, but it will
be found on experiment that nothing pays better, physically, as well
as morally, than the cultivation of the moral nature. One gets his pay
as he goes along. As remarked before, he is recompensed in a happier
mind, and better physical health, and there are those coming after him
whose happiness should be considered as important as his own, and the
labor to promote which will make his soul larger, his nervous system
more harmonious, his blood richer, and his muscles stronger, for is it
not apparent in the light of this essay, that a peaceful, just, generous
mind, and a clear conscience, strengthen the whole animal organism 2
In the language of Pope :
“Let Joy or Ease, let Affluence or Content,
And the gay Conscience of a life well spent,
Calm ev’ry thought, inspirit ev'ry grace,
Glow in thy heart, and smile upon thy face.”
The Food We Eat.
Considering the fact that man by habit is omnivorous, and almost
as much so as the pig, and that he eats about eight hundred pounds of
food, exclusive of fluids, annually, it ought to surprise no one when I
say that many derangements of the blood arise from the use of improp-
er food. Look how directly the food is transformed into blood. It is
taken into the mouth and masticated, into the stomach and digested,
and then passes down into the lower stomach, where it meets the pan-
creatic fluids, and is sucked up into a duct, and carried directly into
52 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS
the blood at the angle formed by the great jugular vein on the left side
of the neck, and the principal vein of the left arm. Then see how
directly it goes to the manufacture of bone, muscle, nerve, etc. Oliver
Wendell Holmes, in the Worth American Review, has presented this
change very happily. “If,” he Says, “ the reader of this paper lives
another year, his self-conscious principle will have migrated from its
present tenement to another, the raw materials even of which are not
yet put together. A portion of that body of his which is to be, will
ripen in the corn of his next harvest. Another portion of his future
person he will purchase, or others will purchase for him, headed up in
the form of certain barrels of potatoes. A third fraction is yet to be
gathered in the Southern rice-field. The
limbs with which he is then to walk will be
clad with flesh borrowed from the tenants
of many stalls and pastures, now uncon-
scious of their doom. The very organ of
speech, with which he is to talk so wisely,
plead so eloquently, or speak so effectively,
must first serve his humble brethren to
bleat, to bellow, and for all the varied ut-
terance of bristled or feathered barn-yard
life. His bones themselves are, to a great
extent, in posse, and not in esse. A bag of
phosphate of lime which he has ordered
from Professor Mapes for his grounds, con-
tains a large part of that which is to be his skeleton, and more than all
this, by far the greater part of his body is nothing after all but water,
and the main substance of his scattered members is to be looked for in
the reservoir, in the running streams, at the bottom of the well, in the
clouds that float over his head, or diffused among them all.”
The rapidity with which the food of to-day is incorporated into &
the body of to-morrow, should make us prudent in what we eat, if we
would preserve our blood from impurity, and the atoms composing our
iodies from disease. How prudent the human family is, may be seen
by sitting at the tables of various peoples, civilized and barbarous.
At home we are treated to all sorts of mixed dishes, seasoned with con-
diments, and saturated with the oleaginous juices of swine. Few of us
stop to reflect that there may be as much antagonism in the stomach
between the various kinds of flesh taken into it, as exists in the living
world between the living bodies whose flesh we eat. A fashionable
dinner comprises about half a dozen courses of different animal food;
in some cases oysters on the half shell, turtle Soup, then fish of some
kind, then roast beef or turkey, with side dishes of mutton or lamb,
veal or pork, etc. It cannot, perhaps, be demonstrated, but is it not
FIG. 17.
“PLYING KNIFE AND FORK.”

THE FOOD WE EAT, 53
reasonable to suppose, that each one of these meats possesses a latent
magnetism, as individual in its character as when animated by life.
If so, the stomachs of some people have, every day, to conciliate and
make up a happy family of a great diversity of magnetic elements. TO
live fashionably is to live improperly.
FIG. 18.
£º
/ • ? -
% % *}/2" |
& f y % s
& % % Riº ſº ges;
/ % º -
J)
i
-
%
} - Z ſ
º
* /, Ž% == * § ſ %
* zºº, * -
|///? *WCŞ --ſ \
%| | - % % ~ º ſº i) sº Zººs §
Ž * %2 {{\* ...) S. º/” º lſ, \
{ º lº e % ſº w). §
º
t % w
§º
Å3; % |
\ E*:::::: l!
º
l
2%
A MARKET SUITED TO EVERY WARIETY OF TASTES.
Now let us step intrusively into the kitchens of our neighbors.
John Chinaman feasts his stomach on cats, dogs, wharf-rats, sea-slugs,
Sharks, bats, and caterpillar soup,
eat Snakes, kangaroo rats, mice, maggots, etc.
green peaches, apricots, and plums, to ripe ones, as an offset, I suppose,
Australians, and many other people,
The Japanese prefer



54 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
to our eating green cucumbers. A traveller among the Indians of the
Rocky Mountains, or a guest of the people of Zanzibar, will smack his
astonished lips over puppy stew, without knowing what it is made of.
One who visits Africa, may have a plate of tender young monkey;
While the people of the Arctics treat their visitors to a diet of putrid
Seal's flesh, putrid whale's tail, reindeer's chyle, train-oil, whale's skin,
and partially hatched eggs. The native of Surinam eats toads, and
the Hottentot considers roasted caterpillars to be savory as sugared
cream. Frogs are eaten by the French, by the Chinese, and by many
people in both Europe and America. The French long ago took to
eating snails, having found their flavor superior to that of frogs. One
hundred thousand are daily supplied to Paris by Burgundy and Cham-
pagne alone. “In the interior of Mindanao, one of the islands of the
Philippines,” says a newspaper writer, “the Manzayns know nothing
of the succulence of snails, but delight in fat grubs from the trunks
of trees, eaten as we eat oysters, alive and shrinking.” On the
Maguey plant in Mexico, a large yellow worm thrives, which the
native Indian eats, and calls the dish Maguey butter. A Tribune
Correspondent is responsible for the statement that the cultured but
ill-fated Emperor Maximilian was induced to try it. In brief, among
the many strange things used as food, not already mentioned, may be
named : Elephant, hippopotamus, giraffe, Zebra, antelope, wild ants,
leopard, lion, alligator, crocodile, eggs of reptiles, lizard, wild-cat,
panther, Wolf, Opossum, musk-rat, rat’s brains, porcupine, bird's nest, .
locust, grasshopper, spider and nearly every insect; and the Chinamen are
So given to domestic economy as to eat the chrysalis of the silk-worm after
the cocoon has been wound off. In New York, the testicles of young
animals are considered a dish for an epicure by many citizens. Charles
Louis Napoleon Achille Murat, son of the great French general, who
spent the closing years of his life in Florida, and who had tried all sorts
of eating, declared as follows:
“IHorse-flesh, good—dog, fox, and cat, only middling—skunk, toler-
ably good—hawk, first-rate—crow, second-rate—pigeon, jay-bird and
blackbird, tolerable, and, ” he added, “though I have no prepossession,
buzzard is not good.”
Now, nearly all the foregoing animals, insects, etc., contain the
true constituents of food, and many of them are not unwholesome.
Some, indeed, which seem revolting to an educated taste, are better and
purer for aliment than others which we regard as above criticism. To
sustain life, we simply need food which possesses saccharine, oleaginous,
albuminous, and gelatinous properties, combined with a proper ad-
mixture of salt, sulphur, iron, lime and phosphorus. But what we
should do is to avoid food which, possessing all the necessary alimen-
tary elements, is also tainted by disease.
THE FOOD WE EAT. 55
One of the most common causes of blood impurities is the indis-
criminate and reckless use of pork. It has been said that all things
were created for some wise purpose. This is undoubtedly true, but
hogs were never made to eat where a high state of civilization obtains.
FIG. 19.
o Ş W P §§ £
N §§N\\\\\\\".
Öº
jº
S. º.
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º #
És ń % ſº \ §§
jº º º
º% %, ’º % ºš
- º/%%22#. - fº Zºo. Sºssº
º º šá'íž, ſº, º S
&\, º . §º/ſ!" ſº S \\
—º º % . É • sº § º § &º N
tº. ſ º sº º º
=S$s. | º #º §§ſ...ºjº's
4. º § | §§§ sº Sºssº §
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TEIE USE OF SWINE.
“And when they were come out, they [the devils] went into the herd of Swine :
and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the
Sea, and perished in the waters.”—St. Matthew, viii. 32.
We read that Jesus of Nazareth used them to drown devils ; they
can never be appropriated to a more beneficent use. As an article of
diet, pork exerts a most pernicious influence on the blood, overloading
it with carbonic acid gas, and filling it with scrofula. The hog is not a
healthy animal. From its birth it is an inveterate gormandizer, and
to satisfy its eternal cravings for food, every thing in field or gutter,
however filthy, finds lodgement in its capacious stomach. . It eats filth
and wallows in its filth, and is itself but a living mass of filth. When,
therefore, it is remembered that all our limbs and organs have been
picked up from our plates—that our bodies are made up of the things we



























56 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
have eaten—what free pork-eater will felicitate himself with the reflec.
tion, that, according to physiological teachings, he is physically part
hog. “We have been served up at the table many times over. Every
individual is literally a mass of vivified viands; he is an epitome of
innumerable meals; he has dined upon himself, supped upon himself,
and in fact-paradoxical as it may appear—has again and again leaped
down his own throat.”
From the earliest history of swine, they have been regarded as
more subject to Scrofula than any other animal. This disease, so
peculiar to the hog, before it received a name, so far ante-dated the
Same disease in the human family, that when it did make its appear-
ance in the latter, it was named after the Greek name of swine, as best
expressing its character. There are various diseases peculiar to certain
animals. Cats are subject to fits; dogs, more than other animals, to
hydrophobia ; horses to glanders and heaves; the cow to consumption
and hollow-horn ; sheep to the rot; fowls to the gapes, swelled head,
and blindness; and scrofula is the prevailing disease among swine.
Many of the diseases common to animals, and which render them unfit
for food, are plain to be seen by the most ignorant butcher, and this is
true also of some of the grosser diseases of swine. There are parasitic
infections discoverable only by the careful observer with a microscope,
which, if present in flesh, make it dangerous as well as undesirable food,
but further, the quality or state of the tissues which is worthy of being
called scrofulous, may exist without being discoverable “on sight” of the
slaughtered carcass, or by microscopic study of bits taken from it.
Knowing, therefore, the constitution and habits of the porcine animal,
it is questionable whether any slaughtered product therefrom can ever
be considered wholesome and entirely free from the scrofulous quality,
except, perhaps, it be bacon that has been thoroughly smoked and dis-
infected before being bakcd to a crisp.
It is apparent, however, that when scrofula may be communi-
cated simply by habitual contact with a scrofulous person, the contact
of scrofulous food with the mouth and stomach must inevitably inoc-
ulate the system of the imprudent cater. One fact regarding pork is
well known to all physiologists. It is, with few exceptions, the most
indigestible food that can be taken into the stomach, unless it be in the
form of smoked bacon.
Again, pork is charged with being wormy. It killed a great many
persons in Germany, and not a few in other countries, including our
own. Many years ago a consul to Denmark wrote our Secretary of
State all about it, and scientists, on both sides of the Atlantic, got out their
microscopes, rubbed up their spectacles, and after examining the flesh of
the arraigned porker, found he possessed imps of probably the same
devils which were cast into his progenitors on the hill-side. The illustra-
THE FOOD WE EAT. 57
tions in Figs. 20 and 21, show how these fellows appear under the micro-
scope. They are called Trichinae, and the disease they produce in man
is denominated Trichinosis. The parasites are so minute that they can
make their way to any part of the system, and a writer who has wit-
messed their effects thus describes them :
“This perforation of parts by millions of microscopic worms, is
attended with symptoms more or less violent, depending upon their
numbers, and the strength and health of the victim. While passing
the coats of the bowels, violent purging often arises, simulating arsen-
ical poisoning, and many people have been unjustly suspected of this
crime, when persons eating food prepared for them have been thus
alarmingly seized. As the worms make their way into the muscles,
pains like those of rheumatism, cramp, weakness, or entire loss of
power, resembling paralysis, ensue; and when the numbers of trichinae
are large, wasting, cxhaustion, and death follow. Those who escape
with a few of these disagreeable tenants, suffer in a smaller degree
from similar symptoms, but gradually recover, and a small portion
of their muscles, removed and magnified, reveal the trichinae arrived
at their destination, and undergoing the various stages of calcareous
encystment.”
THE PORK PARASITE CAUSES INTERNATIONAL CONTROVERSY.
Since the lively interest awakened among scientists by the discov-
ery of trichinae as the cause of what seemed like epidemics of disease in
Germany, pork has been a constant source of international dissension
mixed with tariff issues. The German, the French, and many other
European nations, for some time prohibited the importation of Amer-
ican pork, on the ostensible ground that it was largely infected with
trichinae, but, in fact, to protect home industries, till our own coun-
try found it necessary to set various commissions of experts at work to
discover what basis there was for such charges. They always found that
some percentage of American hogs were “guilty.” Professor Dettmers,
of the Agricultural Department, acknowledged finding the parasites in
four per cent. of hogs slaughtered in Chicago, but the experts claim
that this is a smaller percentage than is found in European exami-
nations of the same kind. However, to allay foreign prejudices and
make our hog products marketable abroad, Uncle Sam established a
system of constant supervision of the wholesale slaughter and packing
houses, for the purpose of thoroughly excluding all possible objection.
On the score of contaminated pork, but the difficulty is not yet settled.
Dr. Rudolph Artman, a German veterinarian, who was once em.
ployed in meat inspection in Germany, has been examining into the
methods of the Bureau of Animal Industry of our country, and con-
siders it a gigantic humbug—carried on at a cost of half a million dol-
58 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
lars per year—a decision quite in conformity with charges of the New
York World. It appears that the examination, if not merely a matter
of form, is far from thorough, and so far as the people of this country
are concerned, there is no protection by keeping trichinous pork out of
the market. Dr. Salmon, Chief of the Bureau, believes that it is unsafe
to rely on microscopic examination of the meat, and that the only
Safety lies in thorough cooking. He claims that if all such food be
FIG. 20. sufficiently cooked the microscopic
examination is superfluous (except to
pacify the foreign buyer); that the
trichinous pork is just as good eating
as any ; and he further charges that
in Germany, in spite of their careful
inspection, far more people die of
trichinosis than in this country, because
the Germans have a fancy for eating
raw pork, and because no microscopic
examination can completely insure them
against eating diseased pork.
On the other hand, Dr. Artman
believes that the people of this country
suffer far more than they know from
infection with trichinae; that the para-
worm (A), the separated sacs or sites do not always invade SO quickly d
encysted "worms (c. d), and a or numerously as to kill, and that in the
piece of meat highly magnified many Cases where they “go slow ’’ and
(B) with many cysts scattered keep comparatively quiet, the victims
through it. become chronic sufferers from rheuma-
toid pains and other discomforts difficult to name or diagnose. He
examined muscles taken from thirty dead human bodies, at Buffalo, and
found trichinae present in ten per cent. Yet he is not at all sure that ten
per cent. of our population is thus affected. Dr. Artman also denies that
the food value of trichinous pork is just as good as that which is free
from infection, provided it is well cooked, on the ground that the
trichinae replace part of the muscle tissue with chalky deposits, and
this is true, so far as it goes, but to the fastidious eater the knowledge
of the presence of parasites, even if harmless because too well roasted
to revive, would be apt to dull his appetite more than the fact that their
chalky relicts diminish to some extent the food value. His relish for
pork tenderloin will hardly be stimulated by the fact, now admitted by
the Government Bureau, that all hogs which were found infected with
trichinae, withheld from export, amounting to two per cent. of the
whole number inspected, have been thrown on the home market for
consumption, instead of being boiled down in the rendering tank, as
TRICHINAE, Cysts AND MEAT.
Fig. 20 shows the separated

THE FOOD WE EAT. 59
represented by the inspectors in charge. If, like the farmer who keeps
small potatoes for home use, we reserve all trichinous pork for home
consumption, we shall not be surprised to learn some day that one-
tenth of all pork-eaters are entertaining more or less of the trichinae
parasites in their muscles.
If, as Dr. Salmon seems to admit, parasitic pork may escape the
vigilance of the hundreds of lady microscopists employed to detect
them, this government bureau is a uselessly FIG. 21.
expensive matter of form ; but his claim that
safety is assured by cooking is denied by
German scientists who find that in a large
piece of meat the heat at the centre, during
cooking, is not sufficient to kill the trichinae
therein. There seems, therefore, to be no
solution of this international sanitary and
trade complication, but any person can settle.
the problem for himself by declining pork
foods. Of course, even when cooking fails
to kill the encysted worms it is possible that
persons of remarkably good digestions and
unlimited gastric juices may be able to digest
them, but it is a risk they would hardly take
knowingly. It is reported that during a
period of five years, when the people of New
York City and Philadelphia consumed nearly
fifteen million hogs, among 350,072 deaths
recorded there were only six, three in each
city, from trichinosis; but since it requires
a microscopic post-mortem examination to In above figure the mus-
tº e ſº Cular fibres are shown
determine it, very likely many more deaths pressed apart by a cysted
Were due to this cause than thus appears. trichinae.
i
AÅ
|
*
i
i
\
l
y
|
ENCYSTED TRICHINAE BE-
TWEEN MUSCLE FIBRES.
A HOG WOULD BECOME DISEASED BY EATING MAN.
It has been said that no animal was ever created which had an
inherent proclivity to disease. This may be true ; but some animals
from their earliest history have been diseased ; and none in the animal
kingdom better illustrate this proposition than man and hog. And while
I am firmly convinced that mankind are injured by eating hog, I am
equally disposed to believe that the hog, if a healthy animal to-day, would
in time become diseased by eating man. Both man and hog are intem-
perate eaters, and addicted to filthy habits. As for the latter, he is
Such a proverbial gormand, that no word in the English language so
Strongly portrays a voracious appetite as the term hoggish. Then his
eating propensities are ever encouraged by the pork-raiser, who wishes to

6o CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS,
make every carcass as heavy as possible. Many farmers and other pork-
producers put their pigs in close pens, to prevent their exercising and
running off their fat, and in these close, filthy quarters, the grunters
are systematically stuffed till they can hardly open their eyes. What
Would become of a human being so treated ? Could a man be so con-
fined and fed, and not become a diseased and bloated carcass 2 It is
equal to a fashion they have in Germany, of putting geese singly in
COOps so small that they cannot stand up or turn around, and there
stuff them with a kind of meal mixture every day, until they become
loaded with fat. Then they are considered in good condition to kill
FIG. 22.
TEIE UN HEALTEITY PAIR.
and eat. Can any creature in creation be treated in this way, or as
Swine are fattened, and not become diseased ? What, then, may we
expect of an animal which, from our earliest knowledge of him, has
been scrofulous 7 It is related of Dr. Adam Clarke, that he had a
strong aversion to pork, and that upon one occasion, when called on to
say grace at dinner, where the principal dish was roast pig, he said:
“O Lord 1 if Thou canst bless under the Gospel what Thou didst
curse under the law, bless this pig.”
HOG AND HOMINY IN OTLD RENTUCR.
A good-natured farmer writes me that he and all his neighbors are
pork-eaters, and that the people of “Old Kentuck” have always been fed
on “hog and hominy,” and yet are perfectly healthy and blessed with
longevity. I reply, blessed with longevity, perhaps, but not entirely free
from disease. I am often consulted by these very farmers, who open by
saying, “I am not sick, Doctor, but I am plagued with salt-rheum.”
Another writes, “I am the picture of health, and my neighbors would
laugh at me if they knew I was applying to a physician ; but I am
troubled with catarrh.” Another has piles, another worms, another
rheumatism, another predisposition to sore throat, and so on; but all

THE FOOD WE EAT. 6 I
claim to be in the enjoyment of the best of health ! But there are un-
questionably pork-eaters who have no apparent disease whatever.
Although the scrofulous impurities of their diet find lodgement, they
remain latent in their systems, and are even transmitted to their chil-
dren, without manifesting themselves in the parent stock. Those
especially who till the soil, toughened by exercise, strengthened by
pure air, and relieved of much diseased matter by active perspiration,
may carry with them to a gray old age a scrofulous impurity without
suffering from its presence. But how is it with their boys who enter
counting-rooms in large cities, or adopt professions of a sedentary char-
acter ? Have you never noticed how apt these Scions of athletic sires
are to break down before reaching the meridian of life 2 Other causes
than these inherited impurities may often contribute to this result ;
but if impurities do exist to any FIG. 23.
extent, will they not be more
likely to be active, and obtru-
sively present themselves in the
form of disease, internal or ex-
ternal, in the confined atmos-
phere of the store or office, than
on the broad acres of the parental
homestead 2 It may be a ques-
tion of no little importance, how
much the diseases of young men
in villages and cities are derived from pork-eating progenitors, who
pursued the healthful occupation of tilling the soil and feeding the pig.
My own opinion is that trichinae are not liable to revive and be-
come mischievously active in the human system after pork is thorough-
ly cooked—done through—unless there are impurities to resuscitate them
and encourage their reproduction. The reason they affect the hog so ex-
tensively is because he is an unclean beast, although it is true that the
same parasite has been found to some extent in other animals, such as
the rabbit and Cat.
If a man be scrofulous, or have other impure affections of the
blood, the trichinae are liable to be resuscitated and reproduced in the
system, no matter how much they may be toasted, short of absolute
scorching. Microbes only thrive in corruption, and when they get into a
wound, confine their operations to the diseased tissue. So I confidently
believe it is with the trichinae ; they only have an affinity for such
people as contain inflamed or corrupt blood, in which the health of the
muscular fibre is involved, and, perhaps, such are the bad habits of the
human family, and so prevalent the disease of the fluids, that any
person, however healthy apparently, may be likely to be attacked with
trichinosis if pork, or ham, containing the parasite, be eaten raw.
INFECTED MUSCLE.

62 CAUSES OF NERWOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
Another worm or parasite that is common to both hog kind and
mankind is a species of tapeworm, the taenia solium. During its so-
journ in Swine flesh this parasite infests it in the form of little cysts
that give the meat a mottled or “measly” appearance. Measly pork
is tabooed wherever recognized, but much of it gets on the market
nevertheless, and so into human stomachs, where, after the cysts or
sacs are partly digested, the inclosed worms are let loose to set up busi-
ness in a new style, and under another name as tapeworms. The
tapeworm in man is more easily discovered, and less fatal by far than
trichinosis, and it is less to be feared, because it can be routed out of its
abode in the intestines, but few victims of tapeworm enjoy a sound
state of mind after learning that they have taken in a lodger and board-
er that pays no rent, and they willingly swallow many a horrid dose to
rout him. It is fair to say that pork meat is not the only possiblesource of
taking in a tapeworm. It may also be acquired from eating too rare
beefs or mutton, since the flesh of these animals is sometimes “measled”
or infested with the larval, encysted, (not dead but sleeping) forms of
this and other species of tapeworms. ‘Horse meat offers great advan-
tages over other forms of flesh food in that it contains no such parasites,
and no tuberculosis. If this fact were generally known, and the su-
perior cleanness of horse meat appreciated, it ought to sell at a premium.
In closing what I have to say regarding pork, I would seriously
advise all who will use the meat of this unclean beast, despite the
objections to it herein offered, to cook every particle of it to a crisp.
Bacon and ham, which are the most toothsome of all pork products,
can be so treated without difficulty, and if pork sausages are to be
eaten, they should remain in the hot frying-pan till they pop open and
give evidence of having been cooked through and through.
PLENTY OF MORE WHOLESOME FOOD.
Mutton ought to be universally substituted for pork. It is less
liable than the latter, or even beef, to augment uric acid in the circula-
tion of those who are predisposed to diseases resulting from an excess
of that acid. It is more easily digested, and may be regarded as a
healthful meat. Besides, it can be produced at much less expense
than pork among the farmers, and yields more nourishment. Sheep
need no corn, and can be kept during the winter on hay, turnips, beets,
etc. True, pigs will eat what nothing else will, and consume all the
slops in the kitchen ; but a great deal of corn, or other Solid food is
required to fatten them for the butcher. Besides, sheep will eat all
that is fit for food from the kitchen slops, and their preparation for the
slaughter-house is attended with trifling expense. -
As a rule, the flesh of herbivorous is more wholesome than that of
carnivorous or omnivorous animals. The use of animal food of every
THE FOOD WE EAT. 63
kind has been pronounced injurious by many. That it is not necessary
for the sustenance of man, in a normal state, I am fully convinced ;
equally satisfied am I that its moderate use is attended with no physical
injury, but almost everywhere it is used to excess. Too much animal
food inflames the system, and overloads the blood with the red cor-
puscle. In our climate, and in Southern latitudes, little or none should
be used in summer, and in winter there is enough heat-producing food
FIG. 24.
_-------------
&
/ * ſ º = ~
Ž t --- - * ~TC’ *
: ſ i ! | Aft º, | º
/2; sº ſ |||||||Bigº | º
º §§ 7|ſº §§ sº -
}
cº-º
\ !.
§
* º tº f%
NSS
S$ --- | º 2.
=jº
- & S.
*
SEIEEP—WEIOLESOME TO THE EYE AND WHOLESOME TO THE STOMACH,
of a vegetable character to impart sufficient warmth to those preferring
Vegetable diet. Still, beef, mutton, lamb, poultry, and even horse-flesh
may be regarded as wholesome for food, if not eaten to excess. Pro-
fessor Saint-Hilaire, of Paris, strongly urges the introduction of the
latter as an aliment. He says that during the great French wars, the
celebrated surgeon, Larrey, was accustomed to give horse-flesh to the
Wounded soldiers, and that he attributed their cure in many instances
to this nourishment. The ancient Germans were in the habit of eating
horse-flesh, and to this day, shops for the sale of this meat, under the
superintendence of a veterinary college, exist by authority in Copen-























64 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
hagen. It is also resorted to by the poor of Vienna, while in Hamburg
it commands a high price. The horse is considered a great delicacy in
some of the southern portions of South America, where it is introduced
at the festive board as a luxury, equal to a sirloin of beef. There can
be no doubt of its utility and cheapness on the battle-ground, where the
majestic steed is hourly falling before the destructive cannon-ball.
Those who turn up their noses at the idea of eating horse-flesh, are
requested to lead a horse from the stable, and a pig from the gutter,
and ask themselves which is the more respectable looking candidate for
the carver. [Since the foregoing was written, horse-meat has been
adopted as an article of food by many in all civilized countries and
much of it is being used in the United States.]
If I may be allowed a brief paragraph, to deviate from the legiti-
mate purpose of this chapter, I will remark that the excessive use of
animal food is a great social evil. It is a proverbial fact, that mankind
are too much given to the brute diversion of fighting. Our halls of
legislation are disgraced with personal encounters between gentlemen
who are supposed to be far elevated above the brute creation, by their
distinguished intellectual endowments. Now, we have as good authority
as Professor Liebig, that meat makes men more pugnacious. He says:
“It is certain that three men, one of whom has had a full meal of beef
and bread, the second, cheese, or salt fish, and the third, potatoes,
regard a difficulty, which presents itself, from entirely different points
of view. The effect of the different articles of food on the brain and
nervous system, is different, according to certain constituents, peculiar
to each of these forms of food. A bear kept in the anatomical depart
ment of this university, exhibited a very gentle character so long as
he was fed exclusively on bread. A few days’ feeding with flesh
rendered him savage, prone to bite, and even dangerous to his keeper.
Swine grow irascible when fed on flesh, so much so that they
will attack man. The carnivorous are in general stronger, bolder,
and more pugnacious than the herbivorous animals on which they
prey. In like manner, those nations which live on vegetable food,
differ in disposition from those which live chiefly on flesh.” Forbear-
ance is a great virtue, and should be cultivated by every enlightened
man. Had human beings been intended for fighting animals, their
finger-ends would have been decorated with huge unbending nails,
and their jaws distended with savage tusks, like the boar. The ex-
cessive use of flesh is not promotive of amiability, but rather leads man
to forget his present duty, and his higher destiny, ſt excites those
emotional faculties which are prone to dethrone reason.
An Edinburgh physician, Dr. Haag, in The Hospital under-
takes to prove that the excessive use of meat leads to suicide. He
attributes the disposition on the part of many unhappy people to
THE FOOD WE EAT. 65
hasten their exit from the world to the presence of an excess of uric
acid in the system, and this excess he believes to be due to the use of
too much animal food. He does not quite prove his doctrine with
evidence which would be accepted as final by a scientist, but when we
admit that a meat diet renders the human family more pugnacious, it
is not impossible that a man well fed on the flesh of other animals
might exhibit his pugnacity in inflicting fatal wounds upon his own
person as well as upon his neighbor's.
A noted Hindoo scholar, in an address before the Vegetarian Society
of New York, said that his people in India believe “a diet of meat
makes man restless and less self-controlled, like all carnivorous
animals. He expresses the belief that the eating of flesh and the drink-
ing of wine go hand in hand, and that a diet of meat conduces to
selfishness and accustoms one to the butchery of innocent beings.”
Much has been written, pro and con, as to the necessity of resorting
to the animal kingdom for sustenance. It seems to me the vegetarians
have the best of the argument. Vegetables possess all the necessary
elements of food, and by combination or eaten in variety, impart more
nutrition than animal diet. According to the investigations of Liebig,
and other celebrated chemists, peas, beans, and lentils contain more of
the blood-forming principle to the pound, than meat ; wheat meal con-
tains about as much, and oatmeal, barley meal, stale bread, and maize
meal, about half as much ; and , when you seek the heat-forming
principle, potatoes contain more than meat, while bread, peas, lentils,
barley meal, beans, Sago, maize, oatmeal and rice, yield double and
treble the supply to the pound that animal food does. Nearly all
vegetables provided for the table contain more solid matter to the
pound than meat possesses.
FACTS REGARDING VEGETABLE DIET.
Facts sustain the vegetarian. A large portion of the people of
Ireland, in their native home, hardly taste meat. They subsist upon
potatoes, oatmeal, and cabbage. Many of the Asiatics mainly subsist
On rice and vegetable oils. The Lazzaroni of Naples, with , all their
uncleanliness, idleness, and vice, maintain a good physical appearance
on a diet of bread and potatoes. The Turks live mostly on vegetables,
fruits, and nuts. A traveller remarks: “Chops, substantial SOups,
joints, anything on which a Westerner could support nature, are never
Seen in a Turkish bazaar.” We have people living in various parts of
the United States who are practical vegetarians, and eschew animal
food of every description, excepting it may be eggs, milk, and butter,
and some of these people do not use the latter. I once met a hard-
meated, healthy young Jew, who subsisted on Graham bread, fruits,
and, nuts; and to carry out his dictetic rules he hired a room and
66 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
boarded himself, which he could easily do without cook or housekeeper.
D. U. Martin, the vegetable wherryman, gymnast, and phrenologist,
tested his strength and endurance by subjecting himself to all sorts of
hardships and exposures while pursuing strictly a vegetable diet. He
Subsequently adopted an exclusively fruit diet, mainly apples, with
What results I am unable to state. In June, 1899, Gus Egloff, a
German-American cyclist of New
York, only nineteen years old,
rode 1,000 miles on Long Island
roads in four and a half days, with
only six hours sleep, while Sub-
sisting on a diet of milk, crackers,
ice-cream and coffee.
Many years ago Dr. Bourne, a
vegetarian of San Francisco, a
gentleman then sixty-six years of
age, walked a distance of nearly
seven hundred miles, eating noth-
ing on the way but “crackers
baked from unbolted wheat flour,
with a little fruit by way of dessert,
and drank only cold water.” At
this stage of his journey, for he
was going farther in proving the
value of a vegetable diet, “he
walked with an easy stride which,”
THE WIBGETARIAN BICYCLIST. said a newspaper reporter, “Would
bother half our young men to keep step with.”
Charles W. Miller, of Chicago, a vegetarian, won the first prize at
a six day's bicycle race in New York in 1897, in 1898, and again in 1899.
“The score at the end of the race on December 10, 1898, was,” says Food,
IIome, and Garden, “2,007 miles, while Waller, his closest competitor,
scored 1,985 miles.” In answer to an inquirer, he said: “My diet con-
sisted of only oatmeal, boiled rice-pudding, custard, kumyss, and grapes;
On the last day, milk, coffee, apples, and Oranges. No meat, whatever,
at any time. I never use meat in my races. No butter and no cheese
were used.”
“Mr. Miller,” says the same paper, “was evidently not seriously
fatigued, as on the last day of the contest he took one hour off the
track, during which time he was married to Miss Hanson, also of Chi-
cago, and then resumed the contest on the wheel, which con-
tinued until 10 P.M. At eleven o'clock Saturday morning, it was an-
nounced, amid much applause, that Miller had beaten his own record
of a year ago by three miles, and after this he settled down to a methodi-

THE FOOD W E EAT. 67
cal gait, and in two hours the substantial distance of cighteen miles
assured him of victory over all his nearest competitors. We under-
stand Mr. Miller's earnings were $4,000 and a good Chicago wife
Thousands of spectators witnessed the contest, and the management
reaped a handsome profit.”
In Berlin, Germany, in June, of 1898, there was a notable walking
race in which Karl Mann, a vegeta-
rian, won a 70 (English) mile walk- FIG. 26.
ing race in fourteen hours and
eleven minutes. According to a
magazine, entitled Food, Home, and
Garden, there were 25 entries, of
whom 17 were flesh eaters and
cight were strict vegetarians, Karl
Mann being one of the latter. “The
weather was unfavorable, with
rain in the latter part of the after-
noon.” With the exception of five
or six miles of macadamized high-
way, “the road lay along poorly
made country roads without foot- agº. 2
paths.” The result, as given by ſº $3::::::: º
the magazine already named, was º º
as follows: “1—Karl Mann, vege-
tarian, 14 hours, 11 minutes;
2—Emil Makowski, vegetarian,
14 hours, 32 minutes ; 3–Fritz
Badenstein, vegetarian, 15 hours,
34 minutes; 4—Wilhelm Damm, vegetarian, 15 hours, 59 minutes; 5–
Paul Schirrmeister, vegetarian, 17 hours, 6 minutes; 6–Herman Zerndt,
vegetarian, 17 hours; 7—Friedr. Zahrt, flesh eater, 17 hours, 32
minutes. The six vegetarians all came in as certified by the judges,
in excellent form. The only arriving flesh eater who finished more
than half an hour after the two last vegetarians (notwithstanding
their having made five miles more than he), after calling for brandy,
put up in the village for the night !” Professor Goldwin Smith, of
Cornell University, writing in the Toronto Weekly Sun, respecting this
trial of pedestrian endurance, says: “In a 70-mile walking race in
Germany the vegetarians have shown a remarkable superiority in
endurance over the eaters of meat. There is nothing new in this.
Extraordinary journeys are made by the Hindoo palanquin-bearer,
Whose only food is rice. There is probably a gradual tendency on the
Whole, to vegetarian diet. It does not appear that animal food is abso-
lutely essential to any function of the human body or brain. No man
THE WEGETARIAN PEDESTRIAN.
}

68 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
did a better day's bodily work than the British farm laborer when he
had no meat but a taste of bacon. No man ever did a greater amount
of brain work than a monastic saint, who was forbidden meat—by the
rules of his order. No man ever produced higher fruits of his imagi-
nation than Shelley, who was a devout vegetarian. A much greater
amount of vegetable than of animal food can be produced on a given
area. The inclination of taste as human nature grows more refined,
points the same way. Homeric heroes ate masses of meat apparently
without vegetables; and to the bard of that day the picture of the
shambles is not less congenial than that of the harvest or the vintage.
To us the details of the shambles are abhorrent. We require vegetables
with our meat, while there is a tendency to disguise the meat itself by
elaborate cookery. On the whole, it seems probable that progressive
vegetarianism is the rule, though there will be no sudden leap, nor will
the vegetarian think it his duty to enforce this habit on us by law.”
It sometimes seems as if we only use meats as vehicles for convey-
ing salt, sauces, and condiments to the stomach. People think they
love the flavor of animal food itself. Just try it without salt, pepper,
mustard, butter, or other seasoning, and see. Advocates of animal
diet generally refer to the teeth, and some to the anatomical formation
of the stomach, for evidences that our Creator intended that we should
eat meat; but the teeth and stomach of the orang-outang resemble
those of man, and yet he does not belong to the carnivorous or omniv-
orous species. Du Chaillu says, that notwithstanding his large canine
teeth, the gorilla of Africa is a strict vegetarian. According to Cuvier,
“man’s teeth are frugivorous—the cow's herbivorous—the lion's, car-
nivorous—and the hog's, omnivorous,” so that both sides claim that the
indications of the dental organs favor their distinctive views of diet.
We have the testimony of the great naturalist Linnaeus, that “man’s
organization, when compared with that of other animals, shows that
fruits and esculent vegetables constitute his staple food.” In eating the
flesh of animals, as I look at it, we get vegetables second-hand, and
contaminated more or less by the diseases with which they are affected
There is, however, in animal food, a stimulating property which vege-
tables do not possess. Having heard of vegetarians being made slightly
intoxicated by beefsteak, I once induced a vegetarian friend to try the
experiment on himself, and he assured me it produced in his brain a
sensation similar to that induced by a slight potation of alcoholic liquor.
It is said that Irishmen who live exclusively on vegetables at home, on
enlisting in the British army are sometimes attacked with what is called
“meat fever,” in consequence of their new diet being so much more
stimulating than that to which they had been accustomed.
There is a supposed necessity, and possibly a real necessity in some
cases, for the use, to some extent, of animal food. This undoubtedly
w
THE FOOD WE EAT. 69
results from the habits of our ancestry. The child of an inebriate
father often inherits his appetite, and cannot resist the temptation to
drink intemperately of intoxicating beverages, and it may be easily
supposed that the child of meat-eating parents may at least imagine he
cannot live without meat. When, during a long line of ancestry,
animal food has been the principal article of diet, the necessity may be
actual instead of imaginary. He is like a patient who told me disease
was his normal condition, and that medicine was his natural food |
Opium eating sometimes becomes a necessity by the perversion of the
system by narcotism. What-
ever may have been the orig- FIG. 27.
inal practice of mankind in
the infancy of its develop-
ment, I am confident the time
will come when a more hu-
manely developed and civil-
ized humanity will look back
upon us of this century as a
race of cannibals. No man or
woman to-day, of noble senti-
ment and sympathetic nature,
unless the habitué of the
market, and thus hardened WEGETABY.E FOOD.
by familiarity with such
sights, can pass the stall of the butcher with its display of trunkless
heads of calves, pigs and cattle, and the bleeding and partly flayed
carcasses of lambs and sheep, or look upon the white, but blood-
stained apron of the meat-man, holding his monstrous knife, without a
shudder, and a feeling of self-condemnation that he and she are accessory
to this wholesale slaughter of innocent animals. “The dog delights to
bark and bite; ” it is the instinct of the cat to sneakingly assail and
devour animals too weak to resist her prowess; it is in the nature of
the huge boa-constrictor to swallow pigeons, rabbits and other small
game by the bushel ; it is the habit of the large fish to live upon the
Smaller ones, etc. But when we ascend from these lower species of the
animal kingdom to the “noblest work of the Creator,” may we not
reasonably look for an end to this mutual carnage for the wherewithal
to keep the vital machinery in action ?
What excuse for man, who can shake from the tree above his head
the juicy fruit which is ready to fall ripe into his hand ; who can pluck
from the vine clusters of delicious grapes containing all the elements of
food, prepared only as Old Dame Nature can prepare them ; who can
plough up the rich sod, and produce by the planting succulent vegetables
and fields of golden grain, and beneath the surface of the grim soil,

7o CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
esculent roots capable of imparting warmth and nourishment to the
body; who can find in the rich meats of abundant nuts, and other oily
products of plants and trees, all the oleaginous properties which animal
fat supplies; what excuse, I ask, for man, with all these luxuries at
hand, loaded with the necessary alimentary constituents, to imitate the
murderous instincts of the lower animals, and cannibally live upon an-
imals less powerful than himself There is one excuse, and only one,
that can be presented for a man of this century, namely: a meat-eat-
ing ancestry, and in some cases an ancestry of meat gormands. As be-
fore remarked, with some persons it seems to be an inherited necessity.
But I have faith that man will some time outgrow this brutal appetite
—this cruel"physical necessity. The dawn of the “good time coming”
cannot light up human hands and arms red with the blood of slaughtered
animals, or overtake the athletic man picking the bones of tiny birds !
The ingenious Yankee has already invented a substitute for leather, and
we have quite enough substitutes for ivory and bone. There are millions
of men and women to-day who would give up a meat diet if they were
compelled to slay the animals they eat. Stop for a moment and read
HOW THE KILLING IS DONE.
The following is copied from a daily paper—it is headed: “How
Cattle are Slaughtered—Sunday Scenes at the Abattoir.” The writer
then proceeds: “On the arrival of cattle, they are transferred from
the cars to yards, where usually they remain until sold or slaughtered.
Before they are killed, eight or ten are driven up an inclined plane into
the abattoir, where they are confined in pens about ten feet Square. A
row of these pens extends across the building, directly back of the
dressing racks. When an animal is needed, he is either drawn up with
a rope attached to his hind leg, or he is speared. If the cattle are wild,
the executioner mounts the stall, and takes his stand immediately over
his victim. His spear is a rod of iron, six feet long, an inch in diameter,
sharpened at the end like an oyster-knife. The “killing spot' is just
behind the horns, on the neck, which the spearsman frequently does
not hit. To see a person throwing one of these spears into a pen of
cattle is sickening. Often several bullocks are pierced in the forehead
or eyes, and their faces are streaming with blood long before the death
of a single one The wounded, after waiting from ten minutes to an
hour for their turn, are again attacked, and killed one by one, the Sur-
vivors receiving fresh wounds on every attack l A Western expert,”
continues this writer, “styles this treatment the devilish torture of a
bungling butcher.” (If it only were, I should say Amen ; but it seems
to be the devilish torture of innocent animals.) “Cattle are not the
only sufferers, but the swine are also pierced, and often plunged into
scalding water before they are dead | The butchers say that the spear
THE FOOD WE EAT. 71
is used for killing wild cattle only ; but one who frequents the abattoir
says that the contrary is the fact. Even the windlass is a barbarous
instrument. With this a noose is fastened to the animal’s hind leg ; the
machinery is started, the bullock tumbles over, and after being swung
up alive, his throat is cut. In Cincinnati butchers knock their hogs
on the head with a long-handled hammer, but in Chicago,” the writer
thinks, “dumb brutes are killed humanely. A rope communicating
with a windlass passes through a ring in the floor, and is made fast
to the bullock's horn. Then a man turns a crank, and the animal is
gently led into the slaughter-house, where, at one blow, he falls to the
floor. The executioner never misses his mark, because the bullock's
head is held immovable by the ring.”
º:
*]
§ .
#
tº gº.
ºl
l i
|
J.
- }
} §
T IIF, ANIMALS WIE SLAUGHTER,
Farmers who do the slaughtering upon their own premises, for
their family use, generally treat their animals with greater gentleness;
but under the best of circumstances, cutting the throats of lambs,
knocking cattle on the head, piercing the jugular of the hog, guillotin-
ing poultry with an axe, cannot be done in any way to avoid shocking
the sensibilities of people who have kind hearts and educated heads.
It is in vain to talk of this murderous work being done humanely, and
Such are its effects upon those styled butchers, that they are not
allowed, in some States, to sit upon a jury in cases involving the life of
the criminal
Then, for a moment, look at the extent of it. I saw in a daily
paper some years ago, that on the east side of the City of New York,

72 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTs.
alone, there were annually slaughtered about 239,000 cattle, 1,000,000
Sheep and lambs, and 250,000 calves, and this, remarked the writer,
comprised only about one-third of all the slaughtering in this one city.
And this destruction of innocent domestic animals increases with the
growth of the city year by year, and is doubtless much greater now.
The late Henry Bergh, who effected much in mitigating the
Cruelties practised on animals, writing to Dr. Holmes, remarked as
follows: “I believe, as you do, that the abolition of the use of the
flesh of all animals would result in physical and moral improvement to
our race. Having been in countries where meat is rarely, if ever eaten,
and having observed the superior endurance of fatigue, as well as
gentleness of character of the inhabitants, I feel convinced that the
slaughter of dumb animals, and the devouring of their flesh, account
for the largest share of the moral and physical diseases which affect
mankind. I have had an Arab of the desert run behind my horse a dis-
tance of twelve miles without betraying the least sign of fatigue, and the
cheerful fellow had never tasted meat. For my own part,” continues
Mr. Bergh, “I can eat meat because of habit. But then the least
appearance of blood, by reason of insufficient cooking, shocks my
sensibilities, and causes my stomach to revolt.” Let us hope that
every generation of max: may consume less animal flesh, and feed his
children with still less, until the human race shall outgrow a labit
which makes him little better than a cannibal.
CANNIBALISM WITHIN THE HUMAN BODY.
Under this head, Cosmos, a Parisian publication, mentions
something which the reader probably never thought of, and I will
reproduce it here: “It is a revolting and nevertheless incontestable
fact that certain parts of the body live at the expense of others, which
they—so to speak—devour. These cannibalistic organs are the brain,
the heart, and the lungs, which, to fulfil their functions, need to be
fed constantly, otherwise they would die. When this nourishment is
wanting, they get it from other less vital parts of the body. The heart,
for example, has an enormous amount of work to do, and consequently
must receive a large amount of nourishment. In the ordinary course
of things, the blood brings to it from the stomach the necessary quan-
tity ; but after one has fasted for a certain length of time, the stomach
can no longer do its duty of nourishing the heart, and the blood is
obliged to find elsewhere the food necessary for the life of this essen-
tial organ. It goes, therefore, to the fatty portions and to the muscles
of the trunk and limbs. First it applies to the liver, where it finds a
provision of sugar that is sufficient for several hours; then it resorts to
the deposits of fat stored up in various parts of the body—that is why
one's clothes become too large when he is famished. When all the fat
THE FOOD WE EAT. 73
has been devoured, the blood takes what it wants from the muscles, SO
that finally little but skin and bone is left, while the brain, the heart,
and the lungs preserve their former size. And we surely cannot com-
plain of this; it is the salvation of the miners who are buried in a
caved-in mine, of the sailors who have been cast by shipwreck on a
desert isle, of the polar explorers whose provisions have given out ; for
even if their secondary organs suffer, their brains and hearts preserve
their energy, which is the essential thing.”
FOOD FOR THE FAT, AND FOOD FOR THE LEAN.
There is a valuable hint in the foregoing for those who complain of
being, or of becoming, too fat. The demonstrated fact that the most
vital and important organs of the system will, if necessary, draw sus-
tenance from the less vital parts, suggests fasting for the fat or obese,
The writer of what is said of “Cannibalism. Within the Human Body *
might have added the nervous structure to the brain, the heart, and the
lungs, for the former has been found to undergo little or no shrinkage
under a prolonged fast. It may exhibit much less activity. There
would naturally be less nervous force generated and exhibited in the
movements of the body and in the stimulation of cerebral action. But
the nervous structure is but little affected by fasting. This being the
case, frequent fasts with moderate use of food in the intervals would
greatly reduce superabundant flesh in persons of vigorous health with-
out positive harm. Then the right selection of foods, while indulging
the appetite, can be made to contribute to the reduction of obesity.
The fat-making foods are fats, starch, and sugar. A diet largely made
up of raw and juicy fruits, such as apples, grapes, peaches, oranges,
gooseberries, melons, cte., omitting the more nourishing fruits, such as
bananas, figs, and dates, will be likely to be attended with satisfactory
results. If addicted to peanut eating let these little fattening nuts
alone. Abjure all nuts, for they are noted for their oleaginous prop-
erty. Vegetables which are not sweet or farinaceous are allowable and,
in brief, nearly all green garden stuff. If meats are taken, avoid the
fatty portion. If butter be eaten, let it be with extreme moderation.
If wheat bread, let it be cut in thin slices and thoroughly browned in
the oven. M. Philbert very properly says: “That the temperament of a
person is also to be kept in view in the selection of animal food. The
lymphatic should have a red diet, such as beef, mutton, pheasant, etc.,
while one of the sanguine temperament should have a white diet like
veal, fowl, turkey, quail, oysters, etc.” It should be added here that
When one of the sanguine temperament is corpulent, it is because he is
actually fat, while one of the lymphatic temperament with the soft
flabby tissues peculiar thereto, is lymphatic. This will be better under-
stoº by a study of the temperaments in Chapter II of Part IV,
3å. *. *
74 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
I once had a lymphatic patient who, at the outset of treatment,
Weighed 805 pounds. His menu, under my advice, consisted of about
one-half pound of round steak, and two or three large tablespoonfuls
of oatmeai mush for breakfast. At noon, about the same food that
others used, except avoiding pastrics and sweet things. At tea, oatmeal
mush, stewed prunes, or other stewed or canned fruits. In about three
FIG. 29. months, under this régime, which was
not the best in the light of modern
Science, he reduced his weight one
hundred pounds. His dictetic habits
Were supplemented with long walks
every day, of four or five miles in
going to and from his office. Then,
occasionally, he bundled up warmly
(it was winter) and walked until per-
Spiration streamed from his face.
Much exercise, with cold bathing and
tight bandaging of the abdomen will
Nº materially assist in reducing flesh or
excess of lymph. In the selection
º of food, bulk rather than nutritive
material is to be chosen. Also the
avoidance of liquids at meals.
It is natural for some people to be
fat, and for others to be lymphatic.
Starvation seems to be the best way
to lessen fat in the former, and the
lymph fat, if I may be allowed the
term, in the other, provided a person
has sufficient stamina to enable him to
hold out under it. It would hardly
N& W
* W º %) answer for the feeble or the aged.
º #2 *...* Cz, IEven when food is taken, in the
restricted way suggested, it is practi-
SOMEWHAT WEIGHTY. cally partial starvation. It might be
Too fat for a seat in a trolley! . likencó to dwarfing or stunting a
shrub or a trec by withholding nourishing fertilizers. There are those
who have not the physical stamina to carry them through the starva-
tion treatment, and such persons should watch symptoms closely and
not persist in it after they are greatly falling away in strength and
vivacity as well as in flesh. The readers of the daily press are now and
then informed of cases which have proved fatal by blindly and perse-
veringly following rules for reducing corpulence. There is no need of
that. Be reasonable and quit any régime which is reducing the vitality

THE FOOD WE EAT. 75
as well as superabundant fat. In some instances it is well to supple-
ment the required dict and exercise with mcdical treatment. There is
such a condition as too active assimilation, and this is a discascó or
morbid activity of the villi or absorbent vessels along the alimentary
Canal, of which thore are about four millions, all on the alert to take
in what is called for by the various hungry cells composing the body.
In diseased subjects they may be cxcessively active and absorb more
than the cells call for or need. Such cases should have the advice of a
competent physician, who must determine the cause of such derange-
ment and prescribe the appropriate remedy. Dict and exercise alone
will not suffice.
A BIRIEF WORD TO THE LEAN.
- What has been said regarding the best FIG. 30.
food for the fat readily suggests to any -
intelligent person what should be selected
When there is a desire to cover the bones
and muscles with a good coating of flesh.
One in this dilemma needs to reverse the
foregoing advice. Eat fats and starchy
and saccharine foods. Partake only
moderately of fruits or foods containing
much that is acid, and aim for that
which is nutritious rather than bulky,
though something of bulk is always
required to assist the digestive process.
In Some cases of extreme leanness, how-
Cver, it will be found that assimilation
is inactive just as in others it is too active.
That is to say, the little absorbent ves-
Sels in the lining of the stomach and
intestines are not active enough. The
appetite may be good, even voracious ;
the digestion may give no evidence of
derangement; but the nutritive matters
fail to be taken up. Here, then, is a job Could escape through a good-
for the doctors. The twenty foot or sized koy-hole !
more of intestines must be put into a healthy condition, so that they
Will perform their functions. This accomplished, the cadaverous sub-
ject can, by the proper selection of foods, cease to be a walking
skeleton. To make such choice of foods intelligently, do what a
fat person is directed not to do, bearing in mind always that diges-
tion must precede absorption, and that foods of a fattening kind will
not be so to those who cannot digest them—often truc of nuts and sweets,
TH IN | TOO THIN

76 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS,
BEWARE OF FADS.
While guarding ourselves with reasonable caution against things
which are manifestly injurious, we must quite as carefully avoid fads
which unnecessarily limit our freedom in the choice of foods. The
following, which appeared in The Humanitarian, published in London,
and quite extensively copied in this country, should not be regarded as
authentic or conclusive unless some further evidence is given of its cor-
rectness. My criticism will appear in the proper place. Says The
EIumanitariam :
“Anatomical experiment and investigation show that the chief
characteristics of old age are the deposits of earthy matter of a gelati-
nous, fibrinous character in the human system. Carbonate and phosphate
of lime, mixed with other salts of a calcareous nature, have been found to
furnish the greater part of these earthy deposits. As observation shows,
man begins in a gelatinous condition ; he ends in an Osseous or bony
one—soft in infancy, hard in old age. By gradual change in the long
space of years the Ossification comes on ; but, after middle life is passed,
a more marked development of the ossific character takes place. Of
course, these earthy deposits, which affect all the physical organs,
naturally interfere with their functions. Partial ossification of the heart
produces the imperfect circulation of the blood which affects the aged.
When the arteries are clogged with calcareous matter there is inter-
ference with circulation, upon which nutrition depends. Without nu-
trition there is no repair of the body.
“None of these things interfere with nutrition and circulation in
earlier years. The reparation of the physical system, as everyone
ought to know, depends on this fine balance. In fact, the whole
change is merely a slow, steady accumulation of calcareous deposits in
the system. * * * When these become excessive and resist expul-
sion, they cause the stiffness and dryness of old age. Entire blockage
of the functions of the body is then a mere matter of time; the refuse
matter deposited by the blood in its constant passage through the sys-
tem stops the delicate and exquisite machinery which we call life.
This is death. It has been proved by analysis that human blood con-
tains compounds of lime, magnesia, and iron. In the blood itself are
thus contained the earth salts. In early life they are thrown off. Age
has not the power to do it.
“Hence, as blood is produced by assimilation of the food we eat,
to this food we must look for the earthy accumulations which in time
block up the system and bring on old age. * * * Almost everything
we eat contains more or less of these elements for destroying life, by
means of calcareous salts deposited by the all-nourishing blood. Care.
ful selection, however, can enable us to avoid the worst of them.
THE FOOD WE EAT. 77
“Earth salts abound in the cereals, and bread itself, though
seemingly the most innocent of edibles, greatly assists in the disposi-
tion of calcareous matter in our bodies. Nitrogenous food abounds in
this element. Hence a diet made up of fruit principally is best for
people advancing in years,” continues The Humanitarian, “for the
reason that, heing deficient in nitrogen, the Ossific deposits so much to
be dreaded are more likely to be suspended. Moderate eaters have in
all cases a much better chance for long life than those addicted to
excesses of the table. Fruits, fish, poultry, young mutton, and veal
contain less of the earthy salts than other articles of food, and are there-
fore best for people entering the vale of years. Beef and old mutton
usually are overcharged with salts, and should be avoided ; a diet con-
taining a minimum amount of earthy particles is most suitable to retard
old age, by preserving the system from functional blockages. * * *
The daily use of distilled water is, after middle life, one of the most
important means of preventing secretions and the derangement of
health. As to diluted phosphoric acid, it is one of the most powerful
influences known to science for shielding the human system from the
inconveniences of old age. Daily use of it mixed with distilled water
helps to retard the approach of senility. By its affinity for oxygen the
fibrinous and gelatinous deposits previously alluded to are checked, and
their expulsion from the system hastened.
“To sum up,” says this writer in conclusion, “avoid all foods rich
in the earth salts, use much fruit, especially juicy, uncooked apples,
and take daily two or three tumblerfuls of distilled water with about
ten or fifteen drops of diluted phosphoric acid in each glassful. Thus
will our days be prolonged, old age delayed, and health insured.”
The foregoing is not wholly faddish. It contains some valuable
hints which can be utilized by a person of ordinary intelligence, but it
is questionable whether a person could greatly lengthen his life by fol-
lowing a theoretical rule and use just so much of each of the elements
contained in foods. One would indeed need to be a practical chemist
to derive much benefit from what is said in the quotation regarding
nitrogenous foods. Bread is universally regarded as the staff of life.
Almost every civilized individual uses it. Sir William Crookes said,
in an address before the British Association for the Advancement of
Science : “We are born wheat eaters. Other races, vastly superior to
us in numbers, and differing widely in material and intellectual prog-
ress, are eaters of Indian corn, rice, millet, and other grains, but none
of these grains has the food value, the concentrated self-sustaining
power of wheat, and it is on this account that the accumulated experi-
ence of civilized mankind has set wheat apart as a fit and proper food
for the development of muscle and brain.” He estimates the bread-
eating population of the world at the present time at 516,500,000 |
78 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTs.
Are all these people making a fatal mistake in using broad 7 I think
not, and I will state the reason why. The blood sustains the same
relation to the animal world that the soil does to the plant. The blood
may be said to be the soil of the man, from which he receives his
FIG. 31.
Bº-
s
&
*:#| Taº ſºsºsºs.sºss ==
/ ſ - #.
SººHºº {
d 2:IES",
| is ºf
| d | r-- #.
d | | | . | s:-" § l
- 'A' || || --~~ S
|\|| # =
|º]}ºj =
Cººl ºf %
Wiś §§ ſº e,
jº
S.
º
tº ºr
§ Yº ſºlº * Ž *---> - † ºSºº-ºº: % - º | ; ſ
º ſº e. & * ſ Cº-º- ; Jºſs Y . !
A PUBLIC DINING-IROOM.
“Ho may live without books—What is knowlodge but grieving
IIc may live without hope—What is hope but deceiving 2
IIe may live without love—What is passion but pining 2
But whero is the man who could live without dining !”
—OWIN MERIET) ITII.
nourishment. Now, the plant needs no one to tell it what to take into
its roots for the proper nutrition of its trunk, branches, and foliage.
Its little root-fibres reach out into the soil, and instinctively sclect just
so much and no more of what is needed for its health and growth. So
the bone, nerve, and muscle cells of the animal, be it dog, horse, or
man, take up from the blood just what is needed to support its respec-
tive part. It is hardly probable that they, any more than the root-fibres
of the plants, take up more than is needed if in health. A person may
ent too much of that which is too rich, and thereby injure his digestion ;
he may take food which contains injurious microbes or poison, and
thus render his blood impure. Disease or death may result from such
indigestion or impurity ; but it is not to be reasonably supposed that









THE FOOT) WE EAT. 79
the little cells composing the various tissues of the body, as a rule, take
up for their use any nutritive particle they do not require. It may be
that in a person of poor health or great age, elimination may be slug-
gish, and the old earthy constituents of the body may not be quickly or
sufficiently enough removed, but manifestly the remedy for such a con-
dition is the use of such foods or remedies as will awaken more active
elimination. This, rather than scientific selection or starvation, is the
proper method of preventing an undue storage of earthy matter. The
aged, while avoiding all excesses, should answer and supply every
reasonable demand of the appetite. If a person be constipated, or if
he have any derangement of the urinary organs, which interferes with
the proper drainage of the system ; if the natural processes for the re-
moval of old material are for any reason acting sluggishly, such
a person, whether he be a youth of fifteen or an adult of eighty,
should see to it that all such obstructions are quickly removed by
laxative food or medicine. It is not because of too much earthy matter
in bread that old people become earthy and stiff, but rather because in
the order of nature, they must, whatever their dict. It is simply the
natural trend of age. A person of good habits in health can safely
depend upon his appetite for the kind of food he needs. The bone, the
muscle, the nerve, and every other part of the animal organization
makes known its wants by what we familiarly call the appetite. We
but answer their needs when we carefully masticate the foods contain-
ing the properties they ask for, and deposit those supplies in the
stomach. We must use some discretion in regard to the amount to be
taken, or we may derange the digestive machinery. When the various
parts obtain what they call for, we become satiated, or in other words,
Satisfied. Appetite is appeased. A person may have a morbid appetite,
but such a person is not in a normal condition. He is diseased. I am
talking about one in ordinary health. The advice given by The
IIumanitarian to the aged, to use considerable fruit, is rational and
aluable, if fruits are found to agree. Some people cannot make a free
use of fruits. Those who can may safely follow that advice.
In the discussion of foods, a writer is quoted as saying : “Since
Wheaten bread contains some 35 to 40 per cent. of starch, and it is
acknowledged that starchy food is of an unhealthy nature, the use of
such bread must also, therefore, be unhealthful ; the reason given for
this unhealthfulness being that starchy food is not digestible in the
stomach, but in the intestines or second stomach of the body, and that
therein lies the difficulty of digestion of wheaten bread.” To this comes
the reply, says another writer, “that the stomach is only a fractional
part of the digestive tract, and that the second stomach, or intestinal
tract, is called on to aid the digestion of nearly all varieties of food.”
Observing the foregoing discussion of starchy foods going the rounds of
So CAUSES OF NERVO US AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
the daily press, Dr. E. B. Foote, Jr., who has given much attention to
dietetics, and is the author of a practical monograph on foods, naturally
Cxclaimed : “What are the threefold starch digestive processes and
fluids for, except to properly dispose of starchy foods 7 What is intesti-
nal digestion for 7 To be idle, like a tramp : The stomach itself can
more easily be dispensed with than intestinal digestion.” It may also be
insisted that starchy food is not “acknowledged ” to be unhealthy.
No, that is certainly a fad. There are enough hoodoos and quite
enough real pit-holes to arouse the fears of groping humanity, without
putting up unnecessary scarecrows. I shall speak of some of the real
dangers we encounter a little farther on.
OLEOMARGARINE has been condemned by those who are materially
interested in milk products, and its manufacture and sale have been
forbidden by the statutes of some of the States of the Union. That it is
a fraud to put this article on the market under the pretence of its being
pure creamery butter, no one will question. But when it is made of
suet or oleo-oil, it is not unsavory ; it is not prejudicial to health ; at
least, any more so than beef containing fat; and if it could be
offered in our markets for just what it is, it would be a boon to those
who cannot afford the luxury of creamery butter. If the latter can be
made to have a delicate fresh flavor by the addition of the cultured
bacteria referred to on page 43, as claimed, there is no reason why the
same means should not be employed by the manufacturers of oleomar-
garine for imparting the same flavor to their product. At the annual
exhibition of the American Institute, in the City of New York, some
years ago, there were samples of oleomargarine placed side by side with
the best of creamery butter, with a challenge to the visitors to distin-
guish, if possible, which was oleomargarine and which the genuine
butter. As often as otherwise, the former was decided to be the Simon-
pure article ! When the best of suct or oleo-oil, which is made from
the selected fat of the steer, is used in its manufacture, and the cleanli-
ness which has been ascribed to its makers maintained, it is undoubtedly
a wholesome article of food. Chemistry says that it is, and that it
contains all the properties of the best dairy butter. A lady contributor
to the Scientific Arena, Mrs. M. S. Organ, M.D., tells us, however,
that “Chemistry developed to its highest analytical and synthetic
power, is utterly incapable of deciding a priori whether organic or
inorganic elements are best fitted to nourish the animal economy.”
She further says: “Vitality can and does transmute material of what-
ever grade into living fluid, so similar in its constituent elements that
the most careful chemical analysis cannot detect any appreciable differ-
ence. Yet physiological science has fully demonstrated that in Vital-
izing quality there is vast dissimilarity. Blood made from pure whole-
some food will resist decomposition for a much longer period than that
THE FOOD WE EAT. 8 I
made from an inferior quality.” She contends that the dietetic nature
of the substance depends, not upon the matter of which it is composed,
but upon the constitutional laws of its arrangement of particles; that
pure oleomargarine contains the same primordial elements as butter,
but in the face of the primary law of nature this chemical fact cannot
establish its claims to a pure and wholesome article of food ; that the
suet or fat of which oleomargarine is made cannot under any circum-
stances be a healthful or nourishing product, because its formation
depends upon an abnormal or diseased condition of the animal. She
believes “the process of fattening—of developing suet—necessitates an
unbalanced relation between the assimilating and depurating organs, in
consequence of which waste matter in the form of fat is retained ; that
an animal allowed the kind and amount of exercise which is essential
for its healthful development, the depurating organs will be excited to
that normal activity which will eliminate the excess of fat,” and she
thinks these well demonstrated facts “settle the question that oleomar-
garine can never be made a healthful dietetic product.” The trouble
with Mrs. Dr. Organ's facts are that they prove too much. If they are
facts, then all the fat meats prepared for our table, of every description,
are unwholesome. It is customary whether preparing a chicken or a
bullock for the table to sufficiently confine the animal to prevent it
from running off its fat, and then, too, it is usual to so feed him as to
produce as much fat as possible. This process is believed to render
the meat tender and delicious. All this may be a mistake, and if it is,
it furnishes a first-rate argument for the use of the vegetarian, but it
hardly furnishes a good one for discarding oleomargarine, while we are
freely eating of other animal fats. If oleomargarine is not healthful
when properly prepared, then all of our meats so common to our table
are also objectionable. Perhaps Mrs. Dr. Organ is a vegetarian ; possibly
her very intention in attacking oleomargarine in this way was to lead the
logical reader to see that not only oleomargarine, but all animal food, at
least that derived from the flesh of animals, must be discarded. What-
ever her design, it will probably fall short of its purpose, for the reason
that if she wishes to dissuade the human family from the use of meats
because those meats are injurious, her alleged facts necd more support
than she has given them. If her intention was to discourage the use of
Oleomargarine while her readers are allowed to eat dead animal fats in
all forms except in that of oleomargarine, the reader who uses his
thinking machine will be apt to question either her sincerity or her
argument.
What is herein said in vindication of oleomargarine applies only to
the article made from the fat of the beef. It can be, and sometimes is,
adulterated with lard and other oleaginous products—and so is butter
itself. For this reason, vigilant inspection by legally appointed officials
82 CAUSES OF NERVO US AND BIOOD DERANGEMENTS.
of the State is absolutely necessary to prevent fraud and protect the
health of the consumers. Such products should be lionestly labelled for
just what they are, and should bear only the price to which they are
justly entitled. But oleomargarine should not be condemned just
because it is oleomargarine.
GOOD DIGESTION THE MAIN THING.
Diet exercises such an influence on all, physically and morally, that
too much care cannot be observed as to the quantity and quality of the
food we cat, and the regularity with which it is taken. A newspaper
Writer, I don't know who, remarks, that “much of our conduct
depends upon the character of the food we eat. Bonaparte used to
attribute the loss of one of his battles to a poor dinner, which at the
time disturbed his digestion. How many of our misjudgments, how
many of our deliberate errors, how many of our unkindnesses, our
cruelties, our acts of thoughtlessness and recklessness, may be actually
owing to a cause of the same character 7 We eat something that
deranges the condition of the stomach. Through the stomach nerve
that derangement immediately affects the brain. Moroseness succeeds
amiability, and under its influence we do that which would shock our
Sensibility at any other moment. The disturbance of the digestion
may involve the liver. In this affliction the brain profoundly sympa-
thizes. The temper is soured, the understanding is narrowed, preju-
dices are strengthened, generous impulses are subdued, selfishness,
Originated by physical disturbances which perpetually attract the
mind's attention, becomes a chronic mental disorder. The feeling of
Charity dies out ; we live for ourselves alone ; we have no care for
Others, and all this change of nature is the consequence of an injudi-
cious diet.”
A FEW DANGER-SIGNALS.
Let me sound a few notes of warning which, unfortunately, are
not fads. The careless use of fruits or vegetables having seeds of a
certain size and conformation is to be deprecated. We hear frequently
of both children and adults dying of appendicitis—more often children.
Our sires and grandsires knew little of this disease ; cven the doctors
not much. It has, nevertheless, been as prevalent and as fatal in the
past as the present. It used to be considered almost sacrilegious to use
the knife upon the bodies of deceased friends. Autopsies were allowed
only when the deceased was friendless. Consequently, then, as now,
there was much mortality in what was called appendicitis, or inflamma-
tion of the bowels. The real exciting cause was seldom considered or
known. It was merely guessed at. Under a more rational usage the
physician is permitted to make an autopsy to ascertain the cause of
THE FOOD WE EAT. 83
death in the families of intelligent people. These examinations have
revealed the fact that peritonitis is often caused by the lodgement of
a seed or some other small object in what is called the Vermiform
appendix. And what is the vermiform appendix 2 ſt is a little pocket
In the intestines which is much in the form of a worm, hence its name.
ſts location can be seen in the accompanying illustration :
This illustration represents a small FIG. 32.
portion of what is called the “blind
end " of the large intestine—the cacum.
It is to this portion that the small
intestine is joined (though not pictured
here), and into it the contents of the
Small intestine are discharged through
a valve-like opening as they are moved
on through the body. The upper por-
tion of this picture shows this part of
the large intestine “tied off" or cut
away from the rest. At the lower part
of the picture is seen the vermiform, or
worm-like appendage, which is not
known to serve any useful purpose
and which is usually empty. presenting
an opening into which nothing larger
than a straw can readily be introduced.
A LITTLE DEATEI-TRAP.
Exactly what this appendage is for, physiologists have not yet
fully determined. It has doubtless served some useful purpose in the
other forms of animal life. In the human race it is supposed to be rudi-
mentary. An apple, orange, or a grape seed, lodging in this little
pocket, may awaken an inflammation which is liable to form an abscess,
and the discharge of the contents of this abscess into the cavity of the
abdomen will induce inflammation of the peritoneum—a membrane
that lines the abdominal cavity—and this inflammation, or the absorp-
tion of the contents of the abscess into the blood, may cause death. A
person losing his life in this way is said to have died of appendicitis.
So it will be seen that it is no false alarm when the reader is cautioned
to avoid Swallowing the seeds of oranges, lemons, or apples, or cherry
Stones, or other hard, small substances about the size of these. Any-
thing of the size and shape of an orange seed is most liable to firmly
lodge in the vermiform appendix, because the latter is just about as
large, usually, as a goose quill. It is not cntirely safe to swallow grape and
other smaller seeds, but those which are just about the size of the mis-
chievous little pocket are manifestly the most dangerous, for the reason
that when they once enter they get wedged in, and are not easily dislodged

84 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
by any movement of the intestines. It may as well be added here that
Sometimes Secretions of the intestines fall into this pocket and harden
So as to produce equally fatal results. Small gall-stones may lodge in
it and give trouble. But these causes can hardly occur in persons who
can be said to be in good health. They are only liable to affect those
having serious Catarrhal diſticulties, habitual indigestion, or bilious
affections. The Seeds referred to are clearly avoidable causes, and that
is Why they are mentioned in this place.
WINGEID SCAVENGERS.
Keep flies off your food. It is to be admitted that this cannot
always be eſſectually done. During the warm weather the fly is
omnipresent. He is ready to dip his unclean proboscis into everything.
IIe creeps over your pies and cakes, and inspects every fresh loaf of
bread ; he takes a plunge into your soup, and a swim in your milk; he
probes your butter to see if it is the pure stuff or only oleomargarine;
all this and more he performs after a clumsy fashion, unless you faith-
fully employ the wire-gauze covers to be found at the house-furnishing
stores for table use. He samples your sugar, molasses, and honey, and
these should be kept closely covered. So far as possible, keep these
winged scavengers from everything you eat. Prevent them from being
generated on your premises. Most people do not know where flies
come from. As soon as warm weather appears, you have the full-
grown fly. You do not see a baby fly which gradually grows to adult
proportions, but he comes to your kitchen and table full-fledged and
ready for mischief. There is some fermenting or decomposing material
near your door which breeds maggots. From these full-grown maggots
the full-fledged fly cmerges after passing through the pupal state. Then
every female fly lays cighty eggs at a time in filthy or decomposing
substances, from which the maggots in due time emerge, ready to run
their career and send out the same number of new full-grown flies. It
is computed that “one fly will in the space of a year find itself at the
head of one million one hundred and ninety-two thousand descendants l’”
Therefore, look out that antiseptics are used in the sinks of your out-
houses, while removing as quickly as observed all outlying filth. By
taking these precautions you will not be as greatly afflicted with the fly
pest, for all flies come from the larvae we commonly call maggots. The
varieties smaller than the house-fly, some of them mere gnats in size;
are of an entirely diſferent species—not young flies—and they come
from a maggot as well as the larger kind. Such flies will often swarm
about a plate of decaying fruit from which they have been generated.
Your less careful neighbors will, of course, have these insects, and they
will trouble you more than their hens and chickens do, unless you pro-
tect yourselves by screens in your windows, Screen doors, and wire
THE FOOD WE EAT. 85
covers on your tables. By all means keep flies from contaminating
your food by every device you can conveniently employ.
During America's war with Spain you all know how our soldiers
perished more by malarial, typhoid, and other ſevers than by the
Mauser bullet. Flies were one of the most prolific causcs of that fear-
ful mortality. The men, by privations, hardships, various indiscretions,
and homesickness, became physically devitalized. Their systems Were
made an easy prey to depredative
bacteria. The irrepressible and
inevitable house-fly was the car-
rior and distributor of the mis-
chievous microbes. In some
cases there were open sinks
within twenty fect of the kitchens
of the camps, and while the sinks
were recking with the ferment-
ing cxcrementitious matters from
malarial and typhoid fever pa-
tients, and with the larvae of flies,
these inscCts emanating in swarms
from this impure source, raven-
ously covered the food of the
soldiers on duty. It is not
Strange, therefore, that there were
daily accessions to the hospitals
of new patients, some with mal-
aria, others with typhoid, and
many with yellow fever. How TIIE IIOUSE-FLY, LARVA AND PUPA.
could it have becn otherwise in view of what has already been presented
on page 26 under the head of “Germ Diseases * In his testimony
before the War Investigating Committee, Surgeon R. Emmett Griſlin
testifical that in his opinion, “the regiments at Chickamauga Park were
all infected with typhoid which had been carried by the flies from open
sinks to the food in the kitchen.” Some of the generals of the army
added testimony corroborative of that which Dr. Griffin had given.
Malaria of that sort, so fatal in tropical climes, was the scourge of
the camps in Cuba. When one reflects upon the way the bacteria of
malaria are produced and reproduced by the millions (see page 32), and
further considers the microscopic character of those minute malarial
germs, what more natural than their adhesion to the legs and wings of
the flies Swarming from the open sinks, and their deposit upon the food
Over which the next moment the insects would be crawling. Just as birds
and insects carry the fructified pollen from the male ſlower to the
pistils of the female, the common house-fly may carry bacteria from a
FIG. 33.

86 CAUSES OF NERVous AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTs.
reeking mass of filth to the food of the kitchen, or to the delicacies of
the table. It is not strange, therefore, that malaria and yellow fever
spread with great rapidity in the army in Cuba, requiring its immediate
removal to the more salubrious atmosphere of the States, nor that ty.
phoid fever threatened to wipe out the entire army tented in Chicka-
mauga Camp. Sternberg Camp received 120 new cases in a single day;
450 in six weeks. In the camp there were 5,000 cases | Prior to the
arrival of the troops, it was said that there had not been a case of ty-
phoid fever in that locality for nine years l General Boynton, in his tes-
timony before the War Committee, said : “The open sinks attracted
Swarms of flies, only to be compared to the
Egyptian plague described in the Old Testa-
ment. Those flies Swarmed back and forth
from the sinks used for typhoid fover patients,
to the mess tents of the officers and men.”
If General Boynton had said that the contents
of the sinks reeked with filth-producing,
Squirming millions of rhaggots, which, in turn,
liberated from their sking swarms of flies, he
would have hit the nail on the head, and have
rendered his testimony still more valuable.
Frg. 34.
The lesson to be learned from all this is the
importance of destroying flies while in the
larvae rathor than by the cruel method of fly.
paper. The former method is far more effec-
***** ****, tive. If the contents of refuse barrels are fre-
WEIICHI P L A S T E R S M I - tº .
croºs os our rags, quently disposed of and kept covered closely
OTEIER COMMON INSECTS while being filled ; if the sinks of Outhouses
ARE ENGAGED IN Poison are frequently treated to antiseptics like lime
ING U.S. or carbolic acid, or Sulphate of copper, or Sul-
phuric acid ; if all garbage from whatever source is quickly buried or
burned ; if decaying fruits and vegetables are not permitted to accumu-
late in kitchen or cellar, or in the neighborhood of the home, the fly
pest will be greatly lessened, and the danger of contracting disease from
mischievous bacteria reduced to a minimum. A formula for cesspools
and for faecal matters in vaults, given by Dr. Vincent in a report to the
Academy of Sciences at Paris may, with advantage, be reproduced
here. “His experiments showed that the best of all disinfecting agents.
for the destruction of faecal matters in vaults and cesspools is Sulphate
of copper employed in connection with one per cent. Of Sulphuric acid.
The quantity of sulphate of copper required was one pound for every .
three cubic feet of faecal matter mixed with urine. It was found
necessary that the disinfectant should remain in contact with the
infectious material for at least twelve hours.” -

THE FOOD WE EAT. 87
I well remember how in my boyhood I watched the grazing horses
and cows with Surprise, while at the same time noticing the activity of
the small insects teeming in the grass. It Scemed Strange to my imma-
ture mind that they could relish their food when it was filled with lively
arthropoda. (I didn't know them by that name then I) Little did I
dream that I, and all other human beings, were daily consuming
microscopic creatures which, although invisible to the naked eye, were
no less living and active organisms. That fact being known, and the
further fact that some of these bacteria, either in themselves or because
of their impure origin, may communicate malignant disease to One
whose system may be somewhat reduced by trouble, overwork, or
hardship, it behooves us to employ all known means to prevent them
from being brought into our homes; or if they cannot be kept out of
our homcs, then, as already suggested, use every device to keep thcm.
from our food. If butter is made sweeter, or cheese improved in
flavor by the kindlier sort of bacteria, we may be pardoned for closing
our doors and windows so far as practicable to the pestiferous variety
borne on the backs, legs, or wings of the house-fly.
EDIBLE BIVALVES.—Epicures who greatly relish oysters on the
half-shell should take Some pains to ascertain where they come from.
The place of their nativity, or the spot where they may have been bedded,
is not a matter of Small importance, especially if a person is not sure of
having a digestive apparatus strong enough to destroy possible germs
of typhoid or something equally threatening to health. If they come
from oyster-beds in the neighborhood of large cities, look out for them.
In such case it is safer to have them well cooked and well done. Dr.
Cameron, Health Officer for Dublin many years ago, in a paper on
“Typhoid in Oysters,” said that large numbers of persons have suffered
from inflammation of the small intestines as the result of eating oysters
taken from places to which sewage had access. An outbreak of typhoid
fever among the students of a well-known university in Connecticut
was said to have been caused by eating “raw oysters which had been
kept in a bed in the Connecticut river where it received contamination
from a sewer.” It is safer, I repeat, in using oysters, clams, or mussels,
to have them thoroughly cooked. Other examples of mischief arising
from carelessness in this matter might be given—enough indeed to fill
many pages in this book.
GREASE is supplied quite too abundantly for the table to preserve
the purity of the blood. Weak stomachs call loudly for reform in this
particular, while strong ones faithfully perform their work of sending
the offending substance to the vascular system, to feed or create humors.
Fat is not digested in the stomach, but simply melted and absorbed into
the blood. A certain amount is necessary to nourish the brain, and
88 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
save the wear and tear of the nervous system; but fatty meats and rich
gravies are positively injurious. Dead animal fats are non-conductors
of electricity, and their presence in large quantities in the stomach
tends to resist the action of the nervous fluids furnished by the brain
through the pneumogastric nerve, and to impair digestion. Eggs,
milk, butter, vegetables, and nuts yielding oil, furnish all the oleaginous
Substance necessary to carry on the processes of nature.
IT would hardly seem necessary here to speak of unripe or decayed
fruits. But iteration and reiteration of such a warning seems always
the safer plan. Children particularly need to have it brought to their
attention by parents day by day. It should be understood that the cells
of unripe fruit are not only harder to digest, but that in the stomach
thcy undergo a process of fermentation which furnishes the appropriate
nesting-place for the mischievous variety of bacteria. Decayed fruits
may contain these microscopic creatures—and the germs—which are
quick to set up a fermentive instead of a digestive process. Hence the
“stomach-aches" and other ailments of the digestive organs from
which children and sometimes adults complain. Intelligently guard
the straight and narrow path to the stomach.
ICE CREAM is a luxury which most people enjoy if they have the
money to pay for it—and many do who do not—but it should never be
caten as a dessert at the close of a hearty dinner. A certain high tem-
perature in the stomach is required to carry on the process of digestion,
and to top off a full meal with something which cannot fail to retard it,
is anything but rational. . We now and then—quite too often—hear of
an entire family or a grove full of picnickers being poisoned by ice-cream.
This happens because proper care has not been exercised by those
having charge of the milk or cream from which it has been prepared.
If the milk pails or pans are not absolutely clean, thoroughly disin-
fected ; if the milk while warm from the cow is too quickly placed. in
covered vessels; if it be stored in closets or cellars in proximity to
animal foods; if it be placed in refrigerators with fresh meats; what are
called ptomaînes may be developed, and these poisonous products of
fermentation if taken into the stomach cannot fail to produce serious
illness, if not death. “The effects of ptomaîne poisoning,” we are told
by Max Meyer, M.D., Ph.D., Bacteriologist to the New York Board
of Health, “are twofold, namely, nervous and gastric, and the Symp-
toms are as follows: A sensation of heat and itching, distressing
asthmatic breathing, dyspnoea, insensibility, lividity of the face, a bad,
metallic taste in the mouth, pains in the stomach and intestines, nausea
and vomiting, diarrhoea, tenesmus, convulsions, delirium, coma, and
finally death.” It is always well to know where ice-cream comes from
before running the risk of partaking of it. Reputable manufacturers
are prompted by self-interest to exercise the necessary vigilance, Their
THE FOOD WE EAT. 89
business would be ruined by any mishap resulting from carelessness in
this matter; but housewives who prepare it for their tables, and those
who think they know how to make ice-cream when they are mere
novices in the art, should know of the poisonous alkaloids which may
be generated in milk or cream when not carefully handled, and it is for
this reason, ‘mainly, that this paragraph appears in this place.
MUSHROOMS.—Many years ago, while I was ruralizing and writing
my “Science in Story” in a small country village in Connecticut,
nearly the entire family of an intelligent gentleman in the neighbor-
hood was wiped out of existence in a few hours by eating what were
supposed to be mushrooms. The wife
and mother, a woman of some literary
ability who contributed articles to the
press, hence not an illiterate person,
together with an interesting family of
children, allate of the fungus and died.
I believe that the husband and father
recovered from the effects of the poison.
Now, while I am writing these “Danger
Signals,” the New York papers give an
account of a family in New Jersey that
has been nearly extinguished by the
same cause. The father, mother, and
One son have been buried, and four
others who partook of the deadly
vegetable are in a condition border-
ing on death. How many such sad
recitals I have seen in the daily papers coºros Frºup Mushroom-ºpiºiº.
in the interval between the fatal event in Connecticut and the one now
reported in New Jersey, I will not undertake to estimate ; but quite
enough to lead me to say something in this place about the uncertain
nushroom / I would urgently advise my readers to never partake of
this fungus unless it has been passed upon by an expert mycologist,
who may be supposed to have a discriminating eye in such matters.
The Encyclopædia will tell you that “there is no general rule for dis-
tinguishing the wholesome from the harmful. The colors produced by
contact with a silver spoon or by the action of salt, have been proposed,
but are fallacious. The only guide to be relied upon is an eye educated to
observe the peculiarities of structure, color,” etc. So it will be seen that
any effort in this article to describe the harmless edible would be of no
use whatever. If you are not an expert, your judgment cannot be
trusted. Submit what you gather from the pastures or fields to some-
body who is, or straightway thrust them into the refuse barrel if you
Value your life. The varieties of the fungi are numerous, over one
FIG. 35.

90 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
hundred, and but few of them, our best writers tell us, are safe as food.
It seems that the most deadly are slowest to exhibit their fatal effects.
The “minor poisons” are said “to begin their work within four or five
hours after the fungus has been eaten, while ten or twelve hours may
Supervene before the worst symptoms of the most deadly kind present
themselves, and the case is almost always hopeless.” Those raised
from the spawn by a gardener or florist may be safely trusted; but
Such as are gathered in fields, as before remarked, should be first sub-
mitted to an expert mycologist before they are brought to the table.
This is absolutely the only safe plan for those who will eat mushrooms.
CANNED Foods.-It is not an easy matter to advise the reader how
to avoid that which is deleterious, if not actually poisonous, that comes
to us in Cans. Accounts are often appearing in the daily press of
cases of severe illness or death resulting from the eating of canned fish
or meat. It would require the knowledge of a good chemist in some
Cases to detect the offending property. To guard against possible fer-
mentation which renders such foods worthless, canning establishments
have resorted to the use of antiseptics. “This custom,” remarks an
editorial writer in the New York Tribune, “has been growing for
years, until now few articles of preserved food are entirely free from
suspicion. Fruits and vegetables in tin or glass, fruit jellies, juices and
extracts, meats and fish, all are treated with antiseptic chemicals to,
keep them from decay. Various agents are used for the purpose, all of
them objectionable. Once there was a great run on salicylic acid,
especially that synthetically prepared. Then formaldehyde and bisul-
phite of lime were taken up. At present boracic acid is probably the
favorite, and is used in enormous quantities, partly because it is so
weak an antiseptic that much of it is needed to fulfil the purpose, and
partly because it is deemed to be so harmless that it may be taken with
entire impunity. *
“Harmlessness has, in fact, been predicated of all such drugs.
But the truth is that they are all harmful. An antiseptic must, in the
very nature of the case, be harmful to the healthy orgānism. Its
peculiar property is its power to destroy low forms of life. But many,
indeed most, of the low forms of life are beneficent, and the destruction
of them is an injury to the higher. The human body swarms with
beneficent bacteria, which serve both to destroy noxious bacteria and to
promote the various constitutional functions of the body. If these be
destroyed by the reckless use of antiseptics, positive and perhaps serious
harm is done. Moreover, the protoplasm of the bacteria is identical
with that of the human body itself, and if the antiseptic drug be
destructive to the one, it may at least be injurious to the other. That is
not to argue against the use of antiseptics as medicines. In disease, -
when the body is filled with noxious bacteria, such drugs may be most
THE FOOD WE EAT. 9I
desirable. But the very thing that makes them desirable then makes
them undesirable at all other times. That is a common rule. Patients
suffering from certain diseases can tolerate and get good from a dose of
drugs which would be inevitably fatal to one in health.
“But whether or not the drugs are harmless, they have no legiti-
mate place in food. When people need drugs they should get them at
a chemist's, under a doctor's prescription, and take them in regular and
ascertained doses. They do not want to be indiscriminately dosed three
times a day by the dairyman, the grocer, and the butcher. In this
country State action has been taken here and there to prohibit such
adulteration of food, but it is to be feared the evil is by no means Sup-
pressed. In Germany, Denmark, and Belgium strict prohibitory laws
have been enacted and are being executed. France, Italy, Holland, and
Great Britain are reported still to be sinning against health, but the
agitation which has now arisen promises salutary results. It certainly
should have such results the world around. There is really no need of
using antiseptics. All food articles can be preserved without them.
But even if they could not be, the use of drugs would not be justified.
Better go without preserved foods,” concludes this able writer, “and
use only such as can be obtained in a fresh state, than to adopt drugs
wholesale into the popular dietary.”
The thrifty housewife who does home canning and preserving for
her family can profit from this warning by not falling into any such
pernicious methods, but the only way to guard the unsuspecting public
from those Süpplies obtained at the market or over the counters of the
grocers is for the Government to take action and appoint competent
inspectors to supervise the canneries, to watch all such products, and
Condemn the latter when they contain drugs.
FINALLY, in closing what I wish to present under the head of “Dan-
ger Signals,” there are many temptations and perils in our pathway
which ordinary intelligence will guard us against. What are usually
Classed as rich foods, like plum puddings, mince pies, and other prep-
arations of the skilled pastry cook, as well as those which take a long
time to digest, such as hard-boiled eggs, boiled cabbage, beets, salted
beef or pork, dried beef, veal, ducks, sausage, salted salmon, and all
Other fish dried, Smoked, or salted, etc., which are three or four hours
taxing the digestive processes, most people know must be used with
moderation, if at all, and at proper times, never indeed when just about
to retire for the night. Rich pastries are decidedly unhygienic after a
hearty meal or at bedtime. It behooves everybody to acquaint himself
Sufficiently with the hygiene of the table to protect the stomach, especial-
ly if it be a weak one, from that which may, if not careful, cause
disease and death. - -
92 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
PROTRACTED INTERVALS between meals should always be avoided,
if possible. In large cities, it is the custom of many business men to go
from 8 or 9 A.M. to 4 or 5 P.M., without eating. Three-fourths of the
merchants of New York do not dine till 6 or 7 P.M. and a large number
of these take no luncheon. A writer, quoting from Dr. Combe, and
IIousehold Science, advances some sensible views, which may be appro-
priately introduced here. He says: “The grand rule in fixing the
number and periods of our meals is to proportion them to the real
Wants of the system as modified by age, sex, health, and manner of life,
as indicated by the true returns of appetite. As the blood is usually
most impoverished after the eight or ten hours' fast of the night, break-
fast should be early. The stomach is usually vacated of its nutritive
Contents in about four hours after cating, but it may be an hour or
two later before the blood begins to call upon it for a renewed supply.
Persons engaged in active labor, in which bodily expenditure is rapid,
of course require to eat more often than the indolent and sedentary,
and children need nourishment oftener than adults. But too long
abstinence, especially if the digestive power be not strong, sharpens the
appetite, so that there arises danger of excessive eating. Some avoid
luncheon, for fear of spoiling the dinner, whereas the thing they most
need is to have it spoiled. When the intervals between the meals are
So long as to produce pressing hunger, something should be taken
between them to stay the appetite, and prevent over-eating. Late and
hearty Suppers are to be reprobated ; active digestion and sleep mutu-
ally disturb each other, as at night the exhalation of carbonic gas is
lowest, and tissue-changes most retarded. The overloaded blood is not
relieved, and invades the repose of the brain, producing heavy, dis-
ordered dreams, and nightmare, followed by headache and ill-humor
in the morning. Still, there is the opposite extreme, of sitting up late,
and going to bed wearicq, hungry, and with an indefinable sense of
sinking, followed by restless, unrefreshing sleep. A little light
nourishment in such cases, a couple of hours before retiring, may pre-
vent these unpleasant effects.”
THERE is no doubt great difference in the actual needs of people
in the matter of food. Many have tested and become ardent advocates
of the “two-meals-a-day ” plan, while some find even only one meal per
day sufficient for them, and seemingly best to maintain health. Experi-
ences of such persons also differ as to the time of day when the one or
two meals should be taken. Dr. Edward Hooker Dewey, of Meadville,
Pa., after seventeen years’ experience in going without breakfast, wrote
a book of over three hundred pages to advocate his plan for general
adoption, but especially for those who have become dyspeptic, obese,
plethoric, or addicted to excessive use of alcoholics. He has many
converts who are firm in the faith of “the morning fast.” His theory is
THE LIQUIDS WE DRINK. 93
that the digestive apparatus is not fully awake and ready for business un-
til the person has stirred about and got the blood circulating well, and
the glands begin to secrete digestive fluids. Others advise dispensing
with the noon-day meal on the ground that when the nerve-forces are
drawn to the brain in active business affairs, digestion is likely to fail
for tack of nerve-stimulus. Others prefer going without an evening
meal. The fact is, the stomach has been a much abused organ, and
there are many ways of easing up on it, no one of which is the perfect
one for everybody, but each has its fitness for somebody. The over-
fed brain-worker who dines and wines to repletion in the evening,
sleeps late and gets up with a “thick tasting ” mouth and no appetite,
may well breakfast on a cool glass of water and an orange, postponing
his first real meal till lunch-time ; while the farmer who rises at four or
five in the morning and completes half a day's work before breakfast
will find his digestive functions ready for it. Yet the farmer may find
it wise to eat lightly at noon if he have an afternoon’s work to do in the
heat of the Sun. Food should not be taken after severe exercise, nor
very severe exercise follow a hearty meal. To sum up all under this
head, people must be more careful what they eat, at what times they
cat, how much they eat, if they would preserve the healthy condition
of the vascular and nervous systems. There can be no precise rule laid
down for the governance of all. A little careful observation, however,
would teach everyone of mature age what is best adapted to his par-
ticular organization. If men would watch with half as much anxiety
the influences of different articles of food on their systems, as they do
the effects of growing crops and financial failures on the money mar-
ket, longevity would oftener be obtained than ſarge fortunes.
The Liquids we Drink.
A correct understanding of the effects of various liquids commonly
used as beverages, will enable the reader to understand how much they
have to do in the production of nervous derangements and blood im-
purities. It is estimated that every person drinks about 1,500 pounds
of liquids per annum. All these are filtered through the human system,
leaving whatever nutritious or poisonous properties they possess. The
Chinese tea forms, the principal beverage of all the Northern States
and British Provinces of America. In Central America the hetero-
geneous population resort to chocolate, while in South America the
tea of Paraguay is freely indulged in. In the Southern States and
West India Islands coffee seems to be the greater favorite, particularly
With adopted citizens, and perhaps this remark is equally true of this
class in the Northern States. In France, Germany, Sweden, and Tur-
key coffee is principally used; in England, Russia, and Holland tea ;
in Spain and Italy chocolate; in Ireland the husks of cocoa. The
94 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTs.
Chinese tea has found its way to the Himalayas and the plains of
Siberia, and is probably drank by more people than any other beverage.
Coffee-leaf tea is sipped in Sumatra, while the Ethiopians of Central
Africa quaff the Abyssinian chaat. In portions of Africa, the natives
make a beverage of the juice of the plantain, called pombe. The plan-
tain is said to be “the food, and its juice the drink of the people.”
Pombe is intoxicating, and a traveller relates that “no man of any
standing thinks himself to have got fairly through the day, until he has
Sat upon pombe, which simply means become drunk.” The Mexicans
make several liquors from a plant that grows very extensively there,
called the maguey, the most common of which liquor is called pulque.
It is as common in that country and as
much prized, as beer is in Germany. The
Indians along the borders of the Rio
Grande slice and dry what they call
piedke and what the whites denominate
“whiskey root,” which they chew until its
intoxicating effects are experienced. In
all civilized countries, malt and vinous
liquors, rum, whiskey, brandy, gin, and
other distilled liquors are drunk in enor-
mous quantities. It may be truly said,
that whiskey leads the march of civiliza-
tion. Wherever the missionary or the
agent of commerce penetrates, civilization
creeps along with whiskey in the advance.
THE LIQUIDS WE DRINK.
Authors and orators are often excessive topers. The author of
“The Raven” died of the effects of a drunken frolic. One of the most
eloquent men that ever graced the Senate of the United States, and to
whom on one occasion when he was speaking, a celebrated English
authoress threw her glove, as a demonstration of her appreciation of his
eloquence, dropped from the eminence he had gained, before the world
fairly knew him, overpowered with excessive indulgence in strong
drink. Gluck, the musical composer, drew his inspiration from cham-
pagne ; Southey drank hot rum at bed-time ; Coleridge absorbed rum
excessively ; Byron's poems were the products of poet's brains macer-
ated in gin. Rabelais said, “IEating and drinking are my two sources
of inspiration. See this bottle ž It is my true and only Helicon, my
cabalistic fountain, my sole enthusiasm. Drinking, I deliberate, and
deliberating, I drink.” “Ennius, AEschylus, and Cato,” remarks a
writer, “all got their inspiration while drinking ; Mezzerai had always
a large bottle of wine beside him among his books; he drank of it at
each page he wrote.” It is not surprising that someone discovered that
“genius to madness is close allied,” and since that discovery we see many

THE LIQUIDS WE DRINK. 95
who seem to think that madness to genius is close allied, so that all they
have to do to exhibit great genius is to get drunk. We will not, however,
dwell longer on the drinking proclivities of nationalities and individuals,
but proceed to look into the qualities and effects of our most common
beverages.
TEA AND COFFEE.
Tea was first brought to the notice of Europeans by the Portuguese
in the sixteenth century, although previous to that period warm drinks
were extensively made from sage and other herbs. Coffee was first
introduced into Southern Europe in the same century, but the Persians
received it from Ethiopia as early as the eighth century. Unadulterated
tea, as it comes upon the table, contains gum, grape sugar, tannin, and
theine; and coffee ready for use possesses fat and volatile oil, Sugar
(such as may be obtained from grape, honey, and most acid fruits),
dextrine, and caffeine. -
The enthusiasm which these beverages have awakened respecting
their agreeable qualities may be interesting here. An astute China-
man, with the funny cognomen of Lo Yu, who sipped piping-hot tea
over one thousand years ago, said, “It tempers the spirits and harmo-
nizes the mind, dispels lassitude, and relieves fatigue, awakens thought,
and prevents drowsiness, lightens or refreshes the body, and clears the
perceptive faculties.” A European of the sixteenth century spoke of
coffee “as a beverage which helpeth digestion and procureth alacrity.”
Whether Chinaman and European were entirely right or not in their
estimate of the good qualities of tea and coffee, the fact presents itself
to-day that no beverages are so extensively used ; and I think modern
writers may say with truth that, if used moderately, and with due
reference to temperament and individual idiosyncrasy, none are more
harmless. Be sure you get the full meaning of the last sentence.
The fact that tea does not agree with one person, does not prove it
dangerous or injurious for another. Some people cannot eat straw-
berries without an attack of colic ; others enjoy strawberries, but a
sweet apple will create constipation. The effects of tea and coffee
depend entirely on the physical peculiarities of the drinkers, and the
same as in the use of food, no definite rule can be laid down. General
directions may be given which, if observed, will enable most intelligent
persons to judge of what is positively hurtful in their individual cases.
Few nervous people can drink tea, while those of a bilious and lymphatic
temperament can indulge with impunity. The effects on the former
are usually weakness, tremor, hysteria, hypochondria, and paralysis :
While on the latter, they are mental and corporeal exhilaration. Tea
acts at Once on the nervous system, quickening the circulation of the
electrical elements, and imparting to the man of sluggish nerve activity
96 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
and vivacity, and its use often allays headache. Both tea and coffee
may be the cause of obstinate, nervous headaches, if used in excess,
and even a little used constantly may bring this result in some per-
sons, but those not already over-dosed with tea or coffee may find them
useful medicines for relief of headache. Some physicians, writing of
popular stimulants and narcotics, have not hesitated to say that the tea
and coffee habits have done as much harm to the health of people as
liquors and tobacco, and though less indictable from the point of view of
morals, there can be no doubt that much feminine peevishness, irrita-
bility and “tantrums” are due to the stimulating effects of these drinks.
One of their worst effects is to appease hunger for real foods, so that
the habitual user of tea or coffee may come to lack true nourishment.
The normal hunger has been suppressed by the feeling of satisfaction
impaired by tea or coffee. -
Doctors are accustomed to prescribe coffee as a quick stimulant.
Coffee is a palliative in tropical, malarial diseases, hysterical affec-
tions, and chronic diarrhoea, and asthmatic persons ind relief in its use,
provided other peculiarities of their systems do not reject it. Coffee
should not be used by fleshy and bilious people. It thickens the blood,
and apoplexy is sometimes the result of its excessive use. For the
Game reason, chocolate and cocoa may be drunk by lean, nervous people,
while they are injurious to those of corpulent tendency. Many nervous
individuals, however, cannot drink coffee, chocolate, or cocoa, for the
same reason they cannot drink any hot beverages, i.e., they stimulate
in too great a degree the action of the stomach battery, by which means
the system becomes overpowered, not exactly with the quantity, but
velocity of the animal electrical currents, and the vital organs rendered
too active. Pour hot water into the acid of a galvanic battery, and
the generation of electricity is greatly accelerated. As in eating, there-
fore, effects should be watched and heeded. Tea and coffee, like many
other things, are abused. They are universally used to excess, and
by many who should not use them at all. They are also often badly
adulterated. The producers of both of these staples have among them
people who are quite as unscrupulous as are those farmers who sell
apples and potatoes, with large ones only at the -top of the barrel; or,
as those who not knowing which end of the barrel will be opened, put
the Small ones in the middle and the large ones at either end. John
Chinaman is even worse, for he puts poison in tea to improve its ap-
pearance. Sir John Davis caught him adding Prussian blue, indigo,
and porcelain clay, to give inferior tea a good salable color. Merchants
sometimes play a scaly trick on tea drinkers, by purchasing from hotels,
cheap boarding-houses, and other public eating places, tea leaves which
have been used and dried, then mixing them with genuine teas. This
bit of cheatery enables them to undersell their more honorable compet-
THE LIQUIDS WE DRINK. 97
itors. Traders who can do this are fit companions for tobacco manu-
facturers who have collected from the streets and sidewalks cigar-stumps
which they manufacture into Smoking tobacco,
BIOW TEA SEIOULD BE PIREPAIRED.
Miss Alice Neilsen, the prima donna, in a letter to the New York
Daily Journal, after returning from a trip to Japan, tells us how tea
should be brewed. I will give the information in her own words:
“Americans,” she says, “appear to have been content with visiting the
tea gardens or the O’Chaya, as one would say in Japanese, and with
drinking the delightful tea as it is made by the dainty tea girls. But
I felt that I ought to know how to make it all by myself. So when
I arrived at Nagasaki I Secured the services of a little Japanese
girl who was regarded as one
of the best tea makers in all
Japan. She came to my room
and brought her tea kit with
her. She spoke a little Eng-
lish, and when I made my
wants known, and informed
her that I desired to know
every trick in the art, she
squatted herself on thematin
a bay window and the lesson
began. First she lighted an
alcohol lamp, although a char-
coal brazier is just as good,
and placed upon the flame a
Quart of fresh, clear water which, in about five minutes, came to a boil.
While the water was heating she placed in another kettle a portion of
green tea, such as would fill a demi-tasse. She carefully shook the kettle
until the tea was spread evenly over the bottom, and when the water in
the first kettle began to boil she removed it from the alcohol lamp and
Set it on the tray until it ceased to bubble. When it stopped seething
she poured a sufficient quantity of the hot water over the tea to fill a
Small tea cup, and then, as quickly as possible, poured it out, without
letting it steep at all. Right there was the trick.”
Another writer (from whose style I suspect her to be a woman), in
the columns of the New York Mail and Fapress, gives some good advice
on the same subject. She had just been reading something from the
pen of Dr. Goodfellow, an English analyst of repute. “To begin
With,” she says, “Dr. Goodfellow insists on earthen teapots, of which
there should always be two, and they should be comfortably warmed
and thoroughly dry before being used. Then put the required amount
EIG. 37.
TEA PLANT,

98 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
of tea in the pot and allow it to remain with the cover on for about half
a minute. Next pour on the boiling water as quickly as possible and
let it stand from three to five minutes, according to the kind of tea
used. In the case of the Chinese teas, four to five minutes might be
allowed. In the case of the Indian and Ceylon varieties, three to four
minutes will be sufficient. The infusion should then be used at once,
Or if necessary for it to stand, pour it into the other hot teapot. Now,
as to the effects of the cup which ‘cheers but does not inebriate.” The
three principal soluble constituents of tea are theine (which acts on the
nervous system), an aromatic oil, and tannic acid (which is the injurious
ingredient of tea). In carefully prepared tea the two first abound and
the latter only appears in a minimum quantity. Deep color in common
tea is due simply to the tannin which is present. Such tea is usually
poor in theine—the stimulating property—which is colorless. Taken
in moderation, properly preparod tea stimulates the nervous system,
the circulation, and creates activity of the Sweat-glands. Theine acts
as a general rouser to the brain.” This writer concludes as follows:
“In a condensed form here are six golden rules for tea lovers: (1)
Always use good tea. (2) Use water which has just got to the boil.
(3) Infuse about four minutes. (4) Do not allow the leaves to stand in
the infusion. (5) Avoid second brews and used tea leaves. (6) If suffer-
ing from heart or nervous complaints, only use the very finest qualities
of tea, with short infusion. If this cannot be afforded, give up tea
altogether.”
Steeping the tea leaves, as is quite too common with us, extracts
the tannin, and this is not a wholesome property. To say the least, it
is constipating, and if freely used is an irritant. Some writers call it a
poison. Aside from these important facts, the aroma of the tea which
imparts its delicious flavor, is entirely lost by steeping and allowing
the tea to stand long after it is prepared. Miss Neilsen says: “Never
use sugar or milk, and above all things, do not steep it for a second.”
I should say that sugar and milk or cream will not render it unwhole-
some, and therefore it may well be left to the taste of the drinker to add
or withhold these usual accompaniments as may be preferred. Recur-
ring once more to adulterations, it may be said that adulterations of
tea are much more deleterious to health than those commonly practised
in coffee.
ENGLISH CHICORY,
which is similar to our dandelion, is extensively employed in Sup-
plying the market with cheap coffee. It possesses little of the properties
of genuine coffee, and no substitute for it medicinally. Not content
with adulterating coffee with chicory, the grasping dealer often adul-
terates chicory with scorched wheat, peas, acorns, rye, beans, corn,
THE LIQUIDS WE DRINK. 99
carrots, etc., and to such an extent that those who purchase packages
ready burned and ground, labelled “coffee,” do not know what they
drink. The only plan for the consumer who desires to use only pure
coffee is to purchase the berry before it is ground. If it costs more it
is simply because it is not adulterated, while the ground article is
cheaper for no other reason than because it is composed of Something
cheaper than the coffee berry. These coffee adulterations may be easily
avoided ; it would be a comfort if those of tea could be as surely
excluded. There are those who may be benefited by adulterated coffee
because the pure article does not agree with them. For such people
the greater the adulteration the better, if only harmless admixtures are
used. Chicory is indicated as a valuable addition to the genuine coffee
berry for people of bilious tendencies, if used in moderate quantities.
Various kinds of so-called coffee prepared from the cereals may, in many
cases, do well if used alone or mixed with pure coffee for those who
cannot use the latter in its purity. Now and then one is met with
wherein the use of pure coffee will cause irritation attended with
pain in the region of the heart, technically called cardialgia. This
symptom will be sure to manifest itself even with moderate indulgence
in some cases, while in others only slightly predisposed to such pain, it
appears only when the beverage is prepared with unusual strength or
used two or three times per day. Such individuals would do well to
add two ounces of pure English chicory to every pound of the coffee
berry, and when thus prepared and made ready for the table, mix it
with equal parts of some cereal coffee after it has been made ready for
the cup. By pursuing this plan it will in most cases be found that a
tolerably good flavored coffee may be used without the recurrence of
pain in the region of the left side. But all such persons should use
CVen this preparation in moderation, say one or perhaps two cups per
day. In many diseases, especially spasmodic nervous affections, such
as epilepsy, chorea (St. Vitus's dance), and in spermatorrhoea, coffee
aggravates the condition of nervous “high tension,” and should be
avoided ; and whether conducive or not be the diseased state of the blood
Vessels which constitutes the apoplectic condition, it is one of the things
Which apoplectic persons should leave alone.
In concluding my remarks on tea and coffee, I may add incident.
ally that we are not now dependent upon the Chinese for tea. The
Japanese are fully abreast, if not ahead, of their Mongolian neighbors.
The English raise an excellent article in Ceylon, and the Yankees are
also wroducing it in good quality in one or more of the Southern States.
ALCOHOLIC DRINIKS.
As previously remarked in introducing what is said on “The
Liquids we Drink,” every people under the sun have ever had their
IOO CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
favorite stimulating beverages. In fact, scientists believe that the
human stomach does some brewing for itself, and if so, none can escape
the presence in the system of a little alcohol. I ventured many years
ago, in The Health Monthly, to say that such was probably the case,
not knowing that the idea had ever been broached before. But in
looking up this subject I find that Steinmetz’s “ History of Tobacco,”
published about the middle of the nineteenth Century, is quoted as
having said: “I feel compelled to believe, in advance of Liebig, that
alcoholis absolutely generated in the digestive process of all animals.” An
article in the Food and Fuel Reformer in 1875 tells us that Dr. Dupré in
the course of his investiga-
tion discovered that alcohol
is found in small quantities
in the excretions even of per-
Sons who do not touch fer-
mented beverages in any
form ; that is, the healthy
System of the teetotaler
brew8, so to speak, a little drop
for itself.
Dr. Edward Curtis, while
Occupying the Chair of Ma-
terialyſedicain the College of
Physicians and Surgeons in
New York, in a letter to one
W §Cº. 3. of our metropolitan journals,
... º. a. º. º. º S㺠gave his testimony as fol-
ºs ººs = “Some late researches
" make it more than probable
that a certain amount of
alcohol is regularly formed
in the animal economy, since a substance answering all the tests of
alcohol has been detected in small quantity as a regular ingredient of
the blood and certain secretions, both in animals and in men who had
taken no alcoholic drink for years.”
The Wational Druggist, published in St. Louis, tells us alcohol can
be found in almost everything. “Müntz, several years ago,” says this
periodical, “showed the almost omnipresence of alcohol in nature.
He found it in the air, the cultivated soil, between the paving-stones
of the streets, in sewers, rivers, and the sea. Only the waters of cer-
tain springs were found to be absolutely free from the substance.
After the astonishment experienced on first hearing such a statement,
reflection will convince anyone that nothing is more natural. Decom-
FIG. 38.
THE MAN WHO DRINKS MODERN LIQUORS.


THE LIQUIDS WE DRINK. IOI
}
posing organic matter is everywhere, and decomposition is but one of
the forms of fermentation, and the products are carbonic acid and
alcohol—and the diffusion of these is but a sequence or corollary. Cold
rains and freshly fallen Snow are richer in it than warm rains. Sewage
water is especially rich in the substance, and cultivated soil yields
really appreciable quantities. As siloed fodder is simply green fodder
stuff, wilted and exposed to a form of fermentation, nothing can be
more natural than that alcohol in very appreciable quantities should
exist, and that sometimes there should be sufficient to affect animals
that eat the fodder.”
The unrestrained appetite for it seems almost universal. Even
other animals than man seem to take to it from natural inclination or
perverted taste. The Literary Digest translated from the Revue
Scientifique an article which states that “the taste for alcohol is not the
privilege of man alone. It is well known that the horse will eagerly
drink a quart of red wine, and that dogs love beer. The exploits of
Gideon in Zola's ‘La Terre’ attest from the stand-point of literature
the bacchic tastes of the animal. Médecine Moderne tells us of a demon-
stration made by Mr. Tutt, of London, that even butterflies may go on
a spree. In a public lecture TMr. Tutt shut up in a case male and
female butterflies with flowers of divers species. Now, while the
female butterflies quenched their thirst modestly by sipping a few drops
of dew in the calyx of a rose, the males indulged in characteristic
intemperance. They went straight to the flowers whose distillation
produced the most alcohol, and indulged in their juices till they fell
senseless where they stood. The butterflies were dead-drunk. To
further convince his auditors, Mr. Tutt introduced into the case a glass
of water and several glasses of brandy. The male butterflies, without
hesitation, chose the brandy. The fact does not admit of doubt.
Male butterflies in a state of freedom are often attracted by the emana-
tions of a glass of gin that has been left on a garden table, and having
drunk of it to excess, sleep the heavy sleep of drunkenness.”
IDOCTOR'S DISAGREE.
Notwithstanding the general tendency of the animal, human or
otherwise, to sip of this treacherous nectar, doctors and scientific
writers in discussing the liquor habit greatly disagree. They have
been investigating the properties and effects of alcohol with much
persistence during the memory of the oldest inhabitant, and there has
as yet been no unanimous verdict as to their properties and effects. On
the one side we have a large and intelligent band of reformers who
proclaim that all malt, vinous, and distilled liquors are a curse to the
race and are only productive of evil. They would not employ them
even as medicines. On the other, there are physicians and scien-
Io.2 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
tists who insist that they possess virtues which, if used intelli-
gently and not abused, may add to the sum of human happiness.
Some experimentalists deny that they possess any of the properties of
food, and others will cite remarkable examples to prove that they do.
When doctors thus disagree, we can only fall back on the experiences
of the human family, and each for himself draw his own conclusions.
So far as the writer's observations enable him to speak, he would say
that malt liquors, which are almost universally used among the most
advanced nations of the earth, may be considered wholesome, if used
in moderation, by lean, nervous, cold, bloodless persons, but they are
not adapted to individuals of full habit. In extreme moderation they
may doubtless be taken without any manifest injury by the latter ; but
under strictly hygienic rules such beverages are only suited to those
who need “building up,” to use a common expression.
The same rule applies to other fermented liquors known as wines.
In some conditions of the stomach, wherein digestion and assimila-
tion are not active, the temperate use of wines with food may at
least allay the uncomfortable symptoms of dyspepsia ; but the pro-
FIG. 39. * FIG. 40.
THE TEMPERATE MAN. TEIE AUTUMIN OF A TEMPERATE I, IFE.
hibitionist will tell you it is because they produce an anaesthetic or
sedative effect; that they simply deaden sensibility. An anti-prohibi.
tionist will as confidently assure you that they awaken the digestive
machinery and stimulate it to healthful action. Wines doubtless have
their uses as well as abuses.
Some years since Dr. Edward Curtis, whom we have already
quoted, contributed an article to the New York Thibune, in which he
claimed that alcohol, if used within certain limits, is transformed like
ordinary food without injurious effects; that used in excess it produces
a well-known train of perturbations of function ; that “even the early
phases of aſcoholic disturbance, which are often improperly termed
“stimulating,’ are part and parcel of the injuriously disturbing influ-

THE LIQUIDS WE DRINK. IO3
ence of over-dosage, and must therefore be put in the same category
with the more seriously poisonous effects of pronounced intoxication.”
“Alcohol,” said this writer, “has thus a twofold action. First, it
is capable, in proper dose, of being consumed and utilized as a force:
producer; in which case there is no visible disturbance of normal
function. Such action cannot be distinguished either by the drinker
or the physiologist from that of a quickly digestible fluid food, and is
no more an ‘excitement’ or “stimulation,” followed by a ‘recoil' or
‘depression,” than is the action of a bowl of hot soup or of a glass of
milk. The second action is the poisonous influence of an excess of
alcohol circulating in the blood, which makes itself sensible to the
drinker by peculiar sensations and disturbances, and is not only followed
by “depression,’ but is itself a form of depression—that is, a disturb-
ance of balance; an unnatural perturbation of the normal working of
the functions.”
Dr. Curtis then proceeds to say that no one rule can be given as to
the quantity which a person may safely use. The “poison line" is a
shifting one. “Even in health it varies according to age, sex, indi-
vidual peculiarity and habit, and even in the same person according to
his physical condition for the time being.” -
This rational and scientific treatise was at once attacked by T. H.
Taber, of Illinois, who, in a communication to the same paper, quoted
Dr. W. B. Carpenter, Dr. E. Smith, F.R.S., Professor Lehmann,
Professor Moleschott, Dr. T. K. Chambers, and many other prominent
authorities, all of whom were made to appear quite antagonistic to
Dr. Curtis's views and conclusions; but early in 1899 Professor W. O.
Atwater and his aids at the Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn.,
made original and very careful tests of this matter by the aid of spe-
cially devised apparatus, and the results confirm Amstie's and Curtis's
claim that a small amount of alcohol (about two ounces in small
potions during twenty-four hours) can be consumed in the human sys-
tem, as a fuel food, for production of bodily heat or energy. The
energy of alcohol cannot be stored in the body (as can that gained
by eating fat or sugar), but is developed and spent at once by immediate
oxydation (burning). From the point of view of cost two ounces of
alcohol per day is not an economical form of food, and it may yet be
learned that it is not economical from a physiological stand-point,
if it should be discovered that its fuel-food value cannot compensate
for its poison properties or depressing effects on vital functions.
Dr. Egbert Guernsey, a homeopathic physician, in the Medical
Union gave expression to opinions which most people, not warped by
extreme prejudices, would be likely to endorse.
“A slight examination of alcohol as a narcotic, its depressing and
poisonous influence on the human system,” he says, “will be sufficient
to 4 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
to show that the stronger forms of alcoholic liquors, such as brandy,
whiskey, rum, and gin, should never be used except with great care
and only as a medicine. * * * Alcohol, in doses capable of producing
drunkenness, has been demonstrated to be a true narcotic poison, of
the same class as the anaesthetics—chloroform and sulphuric ether.
Given in large doses, it produces a suspension of nervous activity, a
paralysis more or less marked. This, combined with the deficiency in
Vital power so common in chronic drinkers, accounts for the great
nervous debility we see in the delirious crisis. Alcohol is easily
absorbed into the system, and given in small doses in weak and
exhausted systems when there is a deficiency of vital action, it acts as a
healthy stimulus, toning up the arterial and nervous systems, bright-
ening the faculties and improving the digestion. When properly timed
and given only in doses just sufficient to gently stimulate, we get
Only its homeopathic or tonic action, and never experience that de-
pressing reaction which is sure to follow the stronger or more narcotic
doses.
“This is demonstrated,” says Dr. Guernsey, “by the sphygmo-
graph of M. Marcy, which carefully registers every pulse-wave, show-
ing the arterial tonicity present. Applying this test, we find that the
Small vessels, relaxed from fatigue, are brought up by a small dose of
alcohol to a healthy action from which there is no recoil. Tf the
dose has been large, or given when the system did not require it,
the Sphygmograph, measuring carefully the pulse-waves, shows an
arterial relaxation, and an accelerated pulse. If the dose has been
Sufficiently large, symptoms of a paralytic nature are speedily ob-
served, confined at first to the spinal and fifth cranial nerves, and
shown in the weakness of the muscles of the extremities, and the
numbness of the lips. Steadily the narcotic influence marches up to
the cerebral hemisphere, and now comes the intellectual confusion and
the thickness of speech, the delirium, the coma, and, if the system has
been brought completely under the influence of the poison, the paralysis
of the medulla oblongata and cardiac nerves, and death,”
TJSES AND AIBUSES OF AI, COHOL.
The prevalence of the liquor habit is doubtless due to the fact that
all the races of mankind are as yet imperfectly developed. The whole
human family is sick, and alcohol in Some form is the popular drug,
the great panacea. The time will come, quite likely, when distilled
liquors will find their appropriate place on the shelves of the apothecary.
Alcohol is the product of the most nutritive substances, and of So
much use to them, that they decay as soon as the alcohol, either by
distillation or evaporation, is taken from them. A little of this prop-
THE LIQUIDS WE DRINK. IO5
erty added to a mash of decaying vegetables, or to fermenting syrups,
arrests the chemical change they are undergoing.
In persons of greatly reduced strength, and having an insufficient
supply of nervous vitality, alcohol seems to furnish, temporarily, at
least, a substitute for nerve-force, which carries them over an unbridged
chasm, and sustains them until the recuperative powers of nature can
rally to their assistance. Facts sustaining this statement have come
under the observation of every physician, or nurse, in either acute or
chronic-practice. At moments when a patient seems to be in a sinking
condition, the administration of an alcoholic stimulant in the form of
brandy, or of vinous liquors, will revive him.
Alcohol is an almost indispensable agent in the laboratory, in the
preparation of tinctures and extracts. The virtues of many plants
would be lost without the aid of alcohol to extract them. After this
extraction, however, the alcohol may be “turned out of doors,” by
evaporation, so that it is not an indispensable part of a treatment to
administer this poison to the patient whose physical condition would not
require it.
For the same reason that vinous and distilled liquors are beneficial
to some people, they are dangerous and injurious to others. Those
having healthy blood, and plenty of nervous vitality, may carry the
thickening of the one, and the stimulation of the other, too far, so that
the former be made too sluggish in its circulation, and the latter
excessive in its action. The blood, becoming too thick, congests the
minute and sensitive arteries and veins of the brain, and causes apo-
plexy, congestion of the brain, etc. The nervous system, maddened
by excitement, renders the brain a victim to all sorts of mental vaga-
ries, ending, if carried beyond a certain limit, in delirium tremens.
The evil of alcohol is its power to dethrone reason, and lead its
victim a driveling captive to poverty, vice, and crime. It enables
people to overwork mind and body; to revive spirits depressed by
social dissipation ; to put to rest a stomach loaded with unwholesome
viands; to silence the voice of an outraged conscience; to drown the
woes which a reckless life has engendered.
Alcohol disease is a terrible malady. It is attended with constant
and insatiable thirst, and the victim seems powerless to reform. Dr.
Day, of the Binghamton Inebriate Asylum, says that dissections
of dead drunkards betray enlargements of the “globules of which the
brain, blood, and other organs are composed, so that those globules
stand open-mouthed, as it were, empty, athirst, inflamed, and eager to
be filled.” To people thus afflicted, who have reformed, and seem-
ingly got the better of the disease, alcohol in any form is a dangerous
medicine; and physicians should exercise great caution when such
case: come under their care. There are, undoubtedly, quite as many
3,
IO6 CAUSES of NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
affected with alcohol disease as with dyspepsia—possibly more—facts
which exhibit the evils of excessive drinking, as well as those of
excessive and ill-timed eating. All intemperance has its physical as
well as moral penalties, which sometimes fall with crushing weight on
those who do not study their constitutional peculiarities, and confine
themselves to such habits in life as in their best judgment promote
strength of nerve and purity of blood.
T)RUNKARDS ARE NOT PROPERLY TREATED
to effect their reformation. Men of unfortunate habits are daily ar-
rested in our large cities, dragged to dark and dismal cells, locked
up for the night, and in the morning taken before the police magistrate,
charged with gross intoxication, when they are either “sent up" for
thirty days, or fined ten dollars, or, perhaps, in some cases, both
penalties are inflicted. A man who is in the habit of getting drunk
will not think much of ten dollars after he has taken the third horn,
and by the time he has taken his tenth, he becomes too oblivious to
Care whether he sleeps in his own bed at home, or upon the floor of a
cell at the station house. But he awakens in the morning to find that
he has taken one more step in disgracing himself and, with his self-
respect considerably lowered, he emerges from his cell to receive his
examination and sentence. As many times as he gets drunk, so many
times is he put through this process of degradation, until every particle
of manhood is thoroughly worked out of him. The proper way to
treat slaves to an inebriate appetite would be to sentence them to ten
days of instruction on the injurious effects of intemperance upon the
stomach and nervous system. It would be public economy to employ
good lecturers, who could portray in stirring words, such as the late
John B. Gough uttered, the misery entailed, morally, socially, and
physically, by intemperance, and at the same time exhibit by anatomical
plates, prepared expressly for the purpose, the serious injuries the
digestive and other vital organs suffer through the effects of inebriety.
Every large city could well afford an institution of this kind, with
every facility for improving the minds and morals of those who are
picked up drunk in the streets. In the rural districts, every county
could economically make such an investment, and in this way a multi-
tude of inebriate homes could be sustained at no greater expense than
is now incurred in punishing the offenders of law and good order, who
are made so through intemperance in the use of ardent spirits. Many
young men go on a spree without thinking they receive more than
temporary injury, which a little attention to diet, etc., for a few days,
will overcome ; and many a hardened toper thinks when he takes a
notion to stop the use of intoxicating drinks, that will be the end of it.
Such uninformed persons should be taught better, There is no prospect
* * * * * *
THE LIQUIDS WE DRINK. IO7
of their receiving the necessary tuition, so long as they are simply fined
and imprisoned for becoming intoxicated.
Having hastily reviewed the constituents and physical effects of
the most common beverages concocted by man, and passed some strict-
ures upon them and their consumers, I will now call the attention of
the reader to those fluids which Nature has so abundantly furnished
for the use of mankind. Many may be surprised to find that these are
not entirely above criticism.
MILE IS THE FIRST FILUID
permitted to enter the human system ; and, perhaps, considering
the ignorance, indiscrimination, and reckless folly of the mass of
human animals, it were better if others had never been provided.
Milk contains all the elements of wholesome food, and all that is neces-
sary to the sustenance and growth of the animal organism. Its constit-
uents are water, sugar, butter, caseine, or curd, and the various Salts
necessary for the support of the system. The sugar of milk is less apt
to produce acidity of the stomach than the Sugar of vegetables. It is
prepared in Switzerland for food, and exported for the homeopathists,
who use it in making their little medicated pellets. No milk, except
that of the elephant, contains so much of this sugar as that from the
breasts of woman. Indeed, all the constituents of milk vary consid-
erably in their proportions in different animals. Compared with that
from the cow, woman’s milk contains not only more sugar but more
water, and usually more salts, while it contains less butter and caseine.
This difference renders it impossible to make cow's milk a perfect
substitute for that from the breast of the mother for infants. If com-
mon sugar be added to the milk of the cow to make up a deficiency in
this property, and water to lessen the excessive supply of butter and
caseine, the babe becomes affected with Sour stomach and indigestion.
If the cow be fed on improper food, such as still slops, its milk becomes
a still poorer substitute for the mother's milk for the child, because it
contains a still less supply of Sugar of milk and natural salts, and an
excessive quantity of caseine. The deficiencies and inequalities are
sometimes regulated by shrewd dealers, but the milk cannot be made
to possess the properties of that of a healthy grazing cow. When
given distillery slops the milk may contain alcohol, and thus initiate in
the infant a craving for alcoholic drinks. H. Weller is said “to have
found positive evidence of alcohol to the extent of 0.96 in the milk of a
large dairy attached to an important distillery where the cows were fed
on distillery slops containing 5.9 per cent. of alcohol.” The Medical
Record is quoted as saying : “This milk was stronger in alcohol than
most beers, but in what quantities it was given is not stated. The milk
examined was perfectly fresh, free from acidity, and in most other
io9 CAUSES OF NERVO US AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
respects normal, having a specific gravity of 1.0335, with total solids of
13.37 per cent., of which 3.79 was fat.” Milk is extensively adulterated
in large villages and cities. A man living in the suburbs of the City of
New York was reported to the President of the Sanitary Commission
as a fabricator of milk by chemical composition, as follows: Sugar,
roasted, imparted the yellow color; oil produced the fat; eggs gave an
appearance of richness; starch was added to represent the caseine or
curd ; all that was necessary in addition was water. Other equally
deceptive imitations are made by diluting good, or swill milk, and add-
ing yolks of eggs, sheep's brains, flour, Subcarbonate of potash and
chalk. Although killing to small children, so much is not to be feared
from these adulterations as from milk obtained from diseased animals.
Cows are kept the year round in stables by many dairymen in cities,
or adjacent thereto. By confinement, if not by bad food, they become
diseased, just as men and women do when shut in from open air and
cxercise. Their diseases, as a matter of course, render their milk
unwholesome and innutritious. When, together with confinement,
cows are fed on still slops, their milk becomes actually poisonous.
Some hard stories are related of dairymen who, it is said, keep their
cows closely tied up in sheds, and fed on still slops till they actually
drop dead in their stalls. From the specimens of milk that I have seen,
and the dishonest character of some of those engaged in the milk
traffic, I am not disposed to doubt their entire truthfulness.
The shocking consequences of such speculative recklessness fall
with particular severity on the juvenile portion of a metropolitan
population, and it is sad to contemplate that the perversity of man can
lead him to the perpetration of such wholesale slaughter of innocent
babes, who, by reason of maternal disability, are denied the nourish-
ment of a mother's breast. But the cupidity of the unprincipled
money-seeker knows no limit, and the fact that such impositions are
practised, should lead the consumer to guard himself against them.
“It is a mistake, however,” as remarked by R. A. Pearson, B.S., “to
consider that milkmen are naturally a lot of tricksters. Honest men are
in this business as well as any other, and one of the most important steps
toward securing honest milk is to encourage the honest man by giving
him deserved trade.” The same writer remarks : “The practice, which
seems to be growing among customers, of visiting the farms and
stores from which their milk comes, cannot be too highly commended.”
AN IDEAY, STABLE FOR COWS.
For the farmer who would provide his immediate family with
wholesome milk, and for the dairyman who honestly desires to serve a
product that is above reproach, it would not be out of place to give
herein a description of an ideal stable for the sheltering of cows, as
THE LIQUIDS WE DRINK. IO9
recommended by Dr. John B. Crosby, Commissioner of the Board of
Health of New York. “The building,” he says, “should be made in
a substantial manner and be free from draughts. It should give each
animal not less than 600 cubic feet of air room—800 is better. It should
have windows on all sides to furnish a liberal supply of light and air,
FIG. 41.
|
º
tºll
|}.
lºnnll |,
ſ
|
\.
\\
\\
§
TEETII OF A GRAZING COW.
and the first floor should be made absolutely water-tight, by means of
asphalt, cement, or concrete. The roofs should contain ventilators.
The cows should have individual stalls, and should stand back to back,
FIG. 42.
(A ſº ſº. tº,
- §
- º |d
W
-o-º-º-ºl, ſº
t - #/.
N-º-º:
SN Nº W \ | | | %
§ hº
W
N £º NºN \ \ |
w N ". l !"
N § \ Q’ Y w" W |
N \\
NN º \
TEETH OF A STALL-FED COW.
With a broad passage between. Once a day the cattle should be removed
and the floor thoroughly washed down, and the building aired. All
Wood-work should be frequently whitewashed. Finally, all those
engaged in milking and handling the milk should be clothed in com-
plete sets of clean overalls, and everything about the milk-house should









IIo CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
be kept in the most scrupulously clean condition.” I would add that
milkers should not only be healthy, but they should go to their duties
With hands washed as clean as if they were about to attend a fashion-
able reception, and their clothing should be as neat, if not as “swell.”
The latter portion of Dr. Crosby's recommendation is exceedingly
important when it is borne in mind how easily milk may become a
virulent poison by the introduction of ptomaînes, when carelessness
and uncleanliness characterize the habits of dairymen or of those in the
home who have charge of the milk. I have already spoken of the
ptomaînes in what is said of ice-cream on page 88, and it is not neces-
sary to repeat that warning here.
According to Dr. Crosby, the cows may contract consumption
from consumptive attendants or from grazing in the neighborhood of
homes for consumptives. And why not, if that disease be really
Communicable 7 “A case in point,” he says, “is that of a herd of cows
being pastured in a field near a home for consumptives where the
stronger patients play ball. Four of the five cows in this herd were
found to show very marked tuberculous lesions; so that we have here
a case of the transmission of the disease from man to animal, as the
cows were perfectly healthy when purchased two years prior to the
inspection.” This fact would show the necessity of keeping consump-
tives off the pasture grasses, and also suggest to the farmer and dairy-
man the prudence of employing no one with tuberculosis to attend
upon the herds, either as stablemen or milkers. Cows, as well as
human beings, may from some cause be made quite susceptible to the
disease, and when such sensitive creatures are pastured or stabled where
they may inhale the powdered dry sputa of consumptives, it is quite pos-
sible for them to contract the malady. The New York State Commission-
ers on Tuberculosis, from certain data obtained by them, believe that
“6.93 per cent. was about the true proportion of diseased animals.” “Out
of one herd of thirty-two cows,” says Dr. Crosby, “twenty-eight were
marked cases, and it was found by actual count that about eighty chil-
dren were using this milk daily as the greater part of their food-supply.”
If these children were in a vigorous condition, it is quite probable that
the consumptive bacilli, if present, were destroyed by the gastric
secretions of healthy stomachs, but if, as is quite possible, there were
weaklings among them, no one can tell how much mischief was done.
I am not alone in this view of the matter, for Dr. C. A. McQuesten,
Secretary of the United States Board of Examining Surgeons of San
Erancisco, declared it as quite true “that many healthy persons cari
drink infected milk with impunity,” but he added that “anyone can
see that it is rank suicide for a consumptive person to drink tainted
milk.” While it is reasonable to suppose that a consumptive individual
may contract tuberculosis by imbibing tainted milk, it may, neverthe-
THE LIQUIDS WE DRINK. III
less, be said that it is mostly the inhalation of the dried sputa of those
affected with tuberculosis that communicates the disease, if it indeed be
communicable, and not the use of the mammary secretions of a diseased
mother or cow ; but the use of milk from consumptive mothers, Wet
nurses, or cows, cannot fail to cause deterioration of the blood, and thus
render the child a susceptible victim to any prevailing malady. If, as
many physicians believe, tuberculosis only developsin animals or individ-
uals having at least a taint of scrofula, the milk of consumptives is liable
to impart that taint to the blood of children or adults who use such impure
milk and thus lay the foundation for extreme susceptibility to tubercular
affection. This being the case, consumptive mothers should not feed
their babies at their own breasts, and consumptive cows should not be
utilized for their milk or meat.
TIG. 43.
%
º
* ...fºr
ſº
- º -
ºffs: -
º Tº ºs.g. º
| | || "... f. S.
Sºlº % ".. º
[. ºxº
A FAMILIAR SCENE ON THE FARM,
FIOW TO PURIFY MILIK.
“The wide area over which milk is collected for supplying a large
city,” says the Popular Science Monthly, “renders it practically im-
possible to regulate the supply in a hygienic way by control of its
Sources. For this reason some general method of purification, which
can be applied to the milk in bulk after it has been collected, becomes
an essential to a safe product for general consumption. The ordinary
tests, while fairly accurate in determining adulteration, are of no value
in indicating the presence of disease germs or ordinary dirt. In fact,
nearly any sample taken from the milk wagons of a city will be found
to contain a number of bacilli which would immediately condemn any
water as unfit for drinking. Sand filtration has been practised for
Several years in some continental cities, and apparently with very satis-
factory results. The filters used by Messrs. Boll, large milk dealers of
Berlin, consist of cylindrical vessels divided by horizontal perforated




f 12 CAUSES OF NERVOIJS AND BIOOD DERANGEMENTS,
diaphragms into five superposed compartments, of which the middle
three are filled with fine, clean sand, sifted into three sizes, the coarsest
being put into the lowest and the finest into the uppermost of the three
Chambers. The milk enters the lowest compartment, and, having
traversed the layers of Sand from below upward, is carried by an over-
flow to a cooler fed with ice-water, whence it passes into a cistern, from
which it is drawn direct into the locked cans for distribution. The
filtered milk is not only freed from dirt, but the number of bacteria is
reduced to about one-third, without sterilizing. The loss of fat is, in
new milk, stated to be small, but the quantity of mucus and slimy
matter retained in the Sand—which is, of course, renewed every time—
is surprising.”
All this is suggestive to the large milk producer, or milk dealer, the
hotel or boarding-house keeper, and with a little tact and ingenuity on
the part of farmers' wives and those who only keep a cow or two, it is a
lesson to them. The latter can hardly go to the expense of any such
apparatus as that employed by the Berlin concern, but little ingenious
ways can be devised in the home for properly and thoroughly filtering
the milk acting upon the hints given in the quotation. The immediate
cooling of the milk is also important, especially when it has to be put
into close cans for transportation. Ptomaines may otherwise be gener-
ated, which may change a nutritious fluid to a dangerous poison. This
change may also occur if the milk be stored in open vessels where there
are tainted meats. Milk should not be kept on the same shelves nor in
the same closets with animal food. These facts make One almost afraid
to use one of the most useful products of civilized life. It is said that in
Ceylon they have a cow-plant yielding a milk which serves as food for
the Cingalese. Oh I for acres of the cow-plant on every dairy farm,
and a plant or two in every barnyard | Still, such precautions are
being taken by the Board of Health and milk inspectors to insure the
purity of milk in large villages and cities, we may soon reach an era of
ontire safety, if small home-producers in sparsely settled communitics
will properly look out for themselves and for their rich relations from
the city who smack their lips with complacency over a glass of pure
country milk. Unless a person possesses some chemical knowledge, it
is not an easy matter to advise them how to detect adulterations or
fabrications of milk. When a sediment is detected, and little or no
cream rises after the milk has been put away for a few hours, or when
it has then a bluish appearance, or when it does not leave whitish
globules clinging to the glass from which it is taken or poured, it is at
least to be suspected. It is related of a young Society lady, who had
been reared in a city, and was for the first time spending a few days at
a farm-house, that she was disgusted with the milk because a scum
formed on it after standing for the night ! She had not been accus-
THE LIQUIDS WE DRINK. II 3
tomed to the use of milk rich in cream. She was acquainted with the
cream of society, but not with the cream of the country milk-pan.
Good milk usually exhibits the “scum ” that the young city lass
observed, after it stands for a while. When milk is blue, it may be due
to having been watered or skimmed, or to the presence of much disease:
producing bacteria, which may impart that color. When having a
bluish tint it may well be condemned.
Milk is often rendered unfit for use by something the cows have
eaten. It is difficult to detect such milk by the test suggested. What
are commonly known by the names of swamp sickness and milk sick-
ness are fevers induced by poisonous herbs eaten by the cows. In the
spring of the year milk is sometimes made unsavory to the taste by the
leeks that the cows have found and eaten in the pasture. Turnips fed
liberally to a herd of cows will give the milk the flavor of that vege-
table. As before related, the milk of cows fed on still slops may Con-
tain quite a percentage of alcohol. Farmers and dairymen cannot
exercise too much care in the selection of the food they provide for their
milk-giving animals. Impurities of the nature herein described can
hardly be detected except by the flavor of the milk. It is always the
safer plan to reject that which does not possess the usual sweet taste to
which one is accustomed while sipping the delicious lacteal fluid.
Pure milk is not congenial to everyone. In some, by its dilution
of the gastric fluids of the stomach, together with the resistant action
of its oily property, the generation of vital electricity is impeded and
drowsiness induced. This is especially so in a case of bilious predis-
position. In others, who are predisposed to catarrhal difficulties, the
caseine of milk increases slime, and tends to aggravate the complaint.
But with the majority of people, milk is a highly nutritious drink, and
When copiously added to tea and coffee, often renders these beverages
harmless to those who otherwise could not use them. To use milk as a
beverage, most perfect digestion is required. Weak stomachs cannot
tolerate it when it is taken down by the glassful. Babies seem to thrive
on it, but just sce how they take it. Their little jaws work just as ours
do when we masticate our food. This motion of the jaws liberates the
Salivary secretions, and these mixing with the milk prepare it for the
gastric secretions of the stomach and for easy digestion. If adults who
think they cannot use milk without inconvenience would take it by the
Spoonful and move the mouth as when eating, with each sip, most of
them would find that they could take milk and feel the better for it. I
claim no originality for this suggestion. Many years ago Dr. Frank Fuller,
of the Health Food Company, imparted this information to me, and
ever since I have been able to put many of my patients on a milk diet,
who could not make use of it before. It is valuable, and do not forget it.
114 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
MILK SHOULD NOT BE BOILED.
A writer in the British Medical Journal tells us that “there are
reasons for supposing that when fresh milk is taken into the stomach,
the living cells are absorbed at once, without any digestion ; that they
enter the blood-stream and are utilized in building up the tissues;
that the caseine of the milk is digested in the usual way of other
albuminoids by the gastric juices, and absorbed as peptone; and that
there is also absorption of serum-albumen by osmosis.” This writer
would seem to advise against the somewhat common practice of boiling
milk. Indeed, this plan is often advised for the purpose of destroying
any injurious germs. It is unnecessary, as will be seen farther on.
“In the boiling of milk,” he says, “the chemical result is to kill all the
living cells and to coagulate all the albuminoid constituents, and the
milk after boiling is thicker than before; the physiological results are
that all the constituents of milk must be digested before they can be
absorbed into the system, and therefore there is a distinct loss of utility
in the milk, because the living cells of fresh milk do not enter into the
circulation direct as living protoplasm, and build up the tissues direct,
as they would do in fresh, unboiled milk. In practice it has been
noticed that there is a distinctly appreciable lowered vitality in infants
who are fed on milk that has been boiled—that is, the process of
absorption is more delayed, and the quantity of milk required is posi-
tively larger for the same amount of growth and nourishment of the
child than is the case when fed on fresh milk.” We must not, there-
fore, undertake to dispose of mischievous bacteria or other disease
germs that may possibly be formed in milk by boiling it. We must
resort to filtration and sterilization. Both of these processes can be
adopted with a little ingenuity and patience by the painstaking house-
keeper. Any vessel which will allow the milk to filter through clean
Sand will relieve it of its grosser impurities, and sterilization, as sug-
gested by the process in “Facts About Milk,” issued by the U. S.
Department of Agriculture, will destroy the bacteria. In brief, it is as
follows: Take a tin pail of sufficient size, having a cover. Make an
aperture in the latter which will closely admit a chemical thermometer
so that the bulb will reach the water which is to be poured into the pail.
Place in the pail a tin pie-pan, well punched with holes, and bottom
side up. Put one or more bottles in the pail in an upright position after
nearly filling them with milk, and plugging them with absorbent or
other clean cotton sufficiently to fill their necks. The water should
then be poured into the pail until it rises to the level of the milk in the
bottles. Thus arranged, set the pail on the stove, and heat the water
until the mercury in the thermometer rises to 155 degrees Fahrenheit, or
in winter to 180 degrees. Then remove it, and keep it tightly covered
THE LIQUIDS WE DRINK. II5
for half an hour. A heavy cloth over the pail will help to retain the
heat. This done, remove the bottles, keeping the cotton plugs as dry
as possible, and place them in cold water or on ice, where they should
remain without removing the plugs until the milk is wanted. In this
way a novice may sterilize the milk, and as the heat has not been raised
to the boiling-point, the product cannot be regarded as boiled milk, nor
is it open to the same objection. Even if it were boiled, it is better
than to imbibe disease-producing bacteria. The evils referred to in the
British Medical Journal are not so perilous. But by the process given
above, the milk is not heated to the boiling-point, and yet it is sufficient
to destroy any dangerous organisms, and to make the milk keep
indefinitely. It is not as digestible as raw milk, but is much more so
than when it has been boiled. About 212° Fahrenheit are required to
bring it to a boil.
It is simply astonishing how rapidly bacteria will generate in milk.
It seems to be especially suited to their rapid reproduction. It is said
by experts that milk taken from a healthy cow early in the morning
contains only a small number of bacteria—not more than nine or ten to
the cubic centimetre. At about eight o'clock in the morning it may
contain 750,000, and twenty-four hours later 7,500,000 in the same small
quantity Modern Medicine and Bacteriological Review is responsible
for the surprising statement that “Conn has shown that germs may
multiply at the rate of doubling every hour, thus producing in three
days the inconceivable number of 4,772,000,000,000,000 !” This is,
of course, when the temperature favors. Perhaps Professor Conn's
Uruguay Bacteria No. 41, for improving the flavor of cream and butter
referred to in the opening chapter, are more high-toned and more
powerful than the common herd, and if so, they might serve the pur-
pose of exterminating the mongrel hordes that increase so rapidly
when added to milk or cream. War, civilization, and evolution may
not be the monopoly of the human family. Fortunately, most of the
low organisms, if from a healthy cow, are harmless; if from tuber-
culous creatures, quite otherwise.
RELIABLE MILK IS COMING.
Since the germ theory has obtained such wide attention in this and
every other civilized country, the producers of milk are vying with
each other in their efforts to show to their customers healthy cows,
Well selected pasturage lands, clean and nicely kept cow stables, having
plenty of air and sunshine, perfect ventilation, clean floors, and hygienic
surroundings. It is even said that in old Rome all cows are subjected
to rigorous examination by skilful veterinarians, and when they do
pass the required examination, certain marks indicating the fact are
placed on their horns, and the owners are provided with licenses to sell
T 16 CAUSES OF NERVO US AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
milk. In England, Germany, France, and elsewhere, hygienic authori-
ties are active in devising plans to insure the health of children and
adults who are more or less dependent upon large producers for their
supplies of milk. In this country, too, both the authorities and the
people are thoroughly aroused to the necessity of general reform in the
milk trade. The tubercular test introduced by Koch is resorted to
when cows are suspected to have any taint of consumption, and all
diseased animals are immediately slaughtered. Enterprising business
Fig. 44.
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A FIRST-CLASS PALACE FOR THE KINE.
men with the requisite capital are taking a hand in the production of
pure milk and are establishing dairies in the neighborhood of all our
principal cities, and are extending their operations into Canada and
even into England. There is no limit to Yankee enterprise when it
Once mounts its stilts and strides forth to accomplish anything it has
in view. It enters upon the industry in a business-like manner, and
starts out with stables which might well be called palaces for the kine.
The floors are concreted, and the inside trim is so constructed as to
enable the attendants to keep the place as clean as a well-ordered
kitchen. Physicians are employed to look out for not only the health
of the cattle, but to supervise the men and women employed about the
stables. All employees are required to have clean and suitable cloth-
ing, and to enter upon the task of milking with hands thoroughly


THE LIQUIDS WE DRINK. I 17
washed in the presence of the superintendent. Everything for the care
and storage of the milk is provided for in the same lavish manner, and
all the most approved processes for filtering and sterilizing are scrupu-
lously practised. As expressed in one of the announcements of an
enterprising company, “the safeguards that have been placed around
the production of milk may be enumerated as follows, namely : The
veterinary care of the herd, and its protection against tuberculosis,
sepsis of the udder, and other infectious diseases of the cow herself;
the medical care of the attendants, in regard to their health, the
hygiene of their home, and the practical quarantine of the farm;
the careful sterilization of milkers’ clothing, and the cleanliness of
their hands and arms during the process of milking; the care of the
cows, the absence of manure in the barns, the practical exclusion of
fecal matters from the milk, and precautions against the entrance of
dust ; the extraordinary precautions placed around the milk in the milk-
house, and in the progress of transportation and delivery.”
•
EUMYSS, BUTTERMILK, ETC.
Milk which has undergone some sort of fermentive change some-
times seems to be more digestible or acceptable to weak stomachs than
ordinary milk. Very likely the action of millions of useful bacteria
helps to break apart the solids—especially the caseine of the milk—thus
performing a process which may be almost called predigestion. Thus,
ordinarily soured milk may agree with some folks better than sweet
milk, especially if it is well shaken before taken, or put through a little
churning. It is perhaps superfluous to describe the making of butter-
milk. The fact that the butter or fatty portion of the milk is removed,
leaves buttermilk less rich than pure milk, and for this reason more
acceptable to some stomachs. But aside from that difference it has
less sugar of milk, and a new ingredient called lactic acid, which gives
it the sour flavor. Lactic acid in buttermilk sometimes seems to have
the property of killing out other deleterious acids which are formed by
fermentive changes in unclean stomachs. So it happens that buttermilk
may often be a good food for those troubled with sour stomach. In
consequence of the presence of lactic acid, M. Robin, an eminent French
chemist, recommends its use to keep the system free from clinkers. He
says “that the mineral matter which constitutes an ingredient in most
of our food after the combustion, is left in our systems to incrust and
stiffen the different parts of our body, and to render imperfect many of
the vital processes.” He compares “human beings to furnaces which
are always kindled ; life exists only in combustion, but the combustion
which occurs in our bodies, like that which takes place in our chim-
neys, leaves a detritus or residuum which is fatal to life.” This, he
claims, the free use of buttermilk will remove. Another physician, in
I 13 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
a paper read before the French Academy, asserted that “this product
of the churn contains an acid which destroys the incrustations that
form on the arteries, cartilages, and valves of the heart, and that a con-
stant use of it would prolong life far beyond the allotted three score and
ten years.” The change of souring in milk may be produced by a
variety of different growing harmless bacteria, and the flavor, whether
pleasant or otherwise, depends upon the kind that is in the majority
Among the Tartars and other nomadic people, it has long been the
custom to ferment the milk of mares to produce an alcoholic drink
called kumyss. You may spell it almost any way you like—kumyss,
koumys, koomis—and there are others. Mare's milk contains so much
sugar that it is easily made subject to fermentation, and the amount of
alcohol will depend upon the season of the year and the length of time
that the fermentation is permitted to continue actively. The alcohol in
kumyss varies from 1.65 to 3.62. In our country kumyss is made of
cow’s milk, to which sugar and brewer's yeast are added to favor fermen-
tation. Sometimes skimmed milk is used. A good formula for making
it is the following : “Grape sugar, half an ounce, dissolved in four
ounces of water. Dissolve twenty grains of compressed yeast or well
washed and pressed out brewer's yeast in two ounces of milk. Mix the
two solutions in a quart bottle, and then fill the bottle with cow's milk,
and within two inches of the top. Cork well, secure it with wire, and
place the bottle in the cellar or ice-chest with a temperature of about
50° Fahrenheit. Give it a good shaking up three or four times a day.
In three or four days the kumyss is ready for use.” Kumyss may be
pought ready-made in many of our large cities. It is used in some
acute maladies and in wasting affections, such as consumption, abdom-
inal catarrhs, and Bright's disease. It is both a food and a diuretic.
Some patients are put on this food exclusively. In Russia the kumyss
cure requires that doses from a teacupful to a tumblerful be taken
every half hour up to twelve or fifteen pounds of milk per day ! One
foreign, writer claims that if no improvement in weight occur in ten
days the treatment should be discontinued. Another form of fermented
milk made by special process, as yet unpublished, is called Zoolak. Some
find it more agreeable in flavor than kumyss, and it is without the
gaseous bubble.
THE MILK OF HUMAN KINDNESS.—In taking leave of this inter-
esting subject, I will not close without reminding the reader that, after
all, there is no milk that adds so much to the happiness of mankind as
the “milk of numan kindness.” It contains no microbes, good, bad, or
indifferent. In noble natures it never sours. In it no ptomaines are
generated, nor is it bought with a price. It does not grow dearer, but
sweeter, with a scarcity of fodder, It may be drawn from every kind
THE LIQUIDS WE DRINK, I IQ
and generous heart that beats under the mellow light of a beaming
countenance, and when once the fountain is touched with the sympa-
thetic hand of friendship, it yields to the grateful receiver without stint
or limit. Try it, for the cares that corrode, and the earthy matters that
incrust and deaden the psychic nature. Try it even for the physical
ills that depress the spirits and rack the diseased body with pain. You
who were reared in rural regions will remember to have met with
pumps that would yield no water unless you poured a little in. It is
sometimes so with the sources of the milk of human kindness. If they
seem to be dried up, awaken your own kindly impulses, enkindle your
own slumbering beneficent nature, and it will be like adding coaxing
water to the unwilling pump. If it has not been your good fortune
thus far to have sweetened your life with the milk of human kindness;
if you fail to find it in abundant measure among your amiable neigh-
bors, there is something radically wrong that requires correcting right
within yourself. In the language of Gerald Massey:
“There's no dearth of kindness
In this World Of Ours;
Only in our blindness
We gather thorns for flowers.”
NATURE's BEVERAGE–WATER.
Water is sometimes the cause of blood diseases. Not only does a
considerable quantity pass through the system in some form, but much
is retained temporarily, and its bulk fully replaced by the newly taken
liquids when the old pass off. Nearly three-fourths of the weight of
the body consists of water, and more than two-thirds of the surface
of the earth is covered with the same. And what is water ? It is a
mineral composed of two volumes of hydrogen and one of oxygen. When
the mercury in the thermometer falls below 32°Fahrenheit, it becomes
as solid as rock. Man's weight being made up of three-fourths of this
mineral, he would become as stiff as a hitching post, with his sur-
rounding atmosphere at 32°, or below, were it not for the caloric gener.
ated by the vital processes going on within his body I In his stomach he
carries a furnace which consumes food-stuffs; in his lungs a gas-burner
that consumes oxygen ; and in his solar plexus a dynamo producing the
clectrical forces which circulate the stream of life we call the blood,
and promote the active interchange between the blood and the tissues.
Therefore the real live man does not turn to ice in frigid weather unless
he aspires to Arctic discovery and goes unprotected in search of the
North Pole ; or, catching the gold craze, hies for Alaska without
Woollen or furs. But one who is not fully alive, he who is called blood-
less, with weak lungs and poor digestion, must seek the tropics or
envelop himself in the furs of animals, And this condition may be
f
12o CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
induced if he does not give proper attention to the purity of the water
he drinks. The water you are now drinking, dear reader, may have
quenched the thirst of millions before you ; it may have been used for the
morning bath of a fond mother'
s blessed baby ; you may have sailed over
it with genial company on a summer's evening ; it may have turned the
wheels of the mill that ground the flour in the roll you ate at break,
fast ; it may have been used at the baptism of your ancient sires; it
may have been a part of the frolicking mountain-stream in which you
waded with laughing companions when a child. The water you are now
drinking has quite likely been used over and over again in all sorts of
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THE OLD OAKEN BUCKET.
ways in the thousands of years the planet
has given life to the animal kingdom.
All the immensely big animals, with still
bigger names, away back before man
made his appearance on the globe, swam
in it, plunged in it and quenched their thirst
# with it. But it matters not what uses it may
have been put to in the past ; the only
thing to be considered now is its present
purity or impurity. With such devices as
have been provided by the ingenuity of
man, it can be made pure if Mother Nature
... “old dame" is constantly distilling the
world's supply. Running water precipi-
, tates all organic impurities, and the action
of air and sunlight upon its surface
liberates its impure gases, while bacteria
of the useful sort are as busy as bees in
helping to remove the last vestige of uncleanness. Therefore, it matters
not how many throats it has moistened, or how much soiled, linen it
may have washed ; we can take it second-hand if we have given Nature
time enough to purify it for
OUlr U186
PRECAUTIONS TO BE TAKEN.
Notwithstanding what
laboratory, water should be
is being done to this end in Nature's
filtered that is to be used for drinking pur-
poses unless it comes from a deep, clean well, far removed from out-
houses, pig-pens, barnyards,
graveyards, slaughter-houses, and in brief,
quite isolated from the abodes of man. About the only region
where such wells can be found, is in some small village or sparsely
inhabited settlements on farm lands, unless you can draw your supplies
from an artesian well, or uncork a sparkling bottle that has been filled






THE LIQUIDS WE DRINK. I2 I
at some of our famous springs. To make sure of pure water from Wells,
the latter should be sunk to a great depth, and for twenty or thirty
feet its walls should be rendered impervious to surface water by Port-
land cement.
FIG. 46.
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NATURE’s BEVERAGE ON A FROLIC THROUGH THE HILLS.
Residents along the shores of muddy rivers, or drawing their sup-
plies from such sources, are aware of the injurious properties which
may be lurking in them, and often resort to rain-water for what may
be needed for the table. Unfortunately, they only “jump from the
frying-pan into the fire.” In large cities the air above is no cleaner
than the streets beneath. It is a reservoir of the animal effluvia of
crowded populations. The breath of thousands of diseased men and
animals mingles with the rains as they descend, infecting them with
their poisonous gases. I have no doubt that, in seasons of epidemics,
the seeds of the prevailing diseases are often drank with water. Con-
sequently, those who drink rain-water should first expose it for several
days to light and air, and then to filtration. By these means it may be

122 CAUSES OF NERVOtjS AND BLOOD 1).ERANGEMENTS.
rendered wholesome, and better by far than the heterogeneous com-
pound of decayed vegetation, solution of dead horses and dogs, and
the city slops, which flow in the channels of many rivers, and yet even
the waters of these may be made not only palatable, but clean and
healthful by careful filtration. Brook streams which have the appear-
ance of purity, are not always safe to drink from, in consequence of the
possible presence of dangerous animalculae ; many instances of frogs,
evets, and worms in the stomach have occurred in consequence of
want of care in this particular. Those having their sources or channels
near marshes, frog-ponds, hog-pastures, cesspools, distilleries, poultry-
yards, slaughter-houses, and saw-mills, may with good reason be
avoided. If one finds himself in a dilemma with burning thirst, and
only such water to be had, by all means filter or boil it before allowing
it to enter the stomach. A rude filter could be improvised with a leaky
tin cup, and some clean. sand or charcoal. Better even to pass it
through a clean pocket-handkerchief or some part of an undergarment
than to run the risk of drinking it without some such precaution.
For those who live in cities there are reversible filters which can be
attached to the water-faucets. The filter can be used in one position
for a few hours, and then reversed. After thus changing it, and run-
ning water through it long enough to wash out the impurities it may
have gathered in what was its upper chamber, pure water can be had
until it is necessary to reverse it again. Then there are all sorts of
devices for effecting filtration which can be had at almost any house-
furnishing store. There is no excuse for using impure water in a
civilized community. If there is no good water to be had on draught,
resort to bottled water from well-known springs.
In trying to effect the purification of water, it seems we may carry
it too far. Dr. Koppe, in The National Druggist, tells us that abso-
lutely pure distilled water is poisonous ! Just read what he says and
do not resort to distilled water as long as that purified by other proc-
esses can be had :
“By ‘chemically pure water’ we usually understand perfectly
fresh, distilled water, whose behavior and properties are well under-
stood. It withdraws the salts from the animal tissues and causes the
latter to swell or inflate. Isolated living organic elements, cells, and
all unicellular organisms are destroyed in distilled water—they die,
since they become engorged therein. They lose the faculty, upon
which life depends, of retaining their salts and other soluble cell con-
stituents, and consequently these are allowed to diffuse throughout the
Water.
“Distilled water is, therefore, a dangerous protoplasmic poison.
The same poisonous effects must occur whenever distilled Water is
drunk. The sense of taste is the first to protest against the use of this
THE LIQUIDS WE DRINK. 123
substance. A mouthful of distilled water, taken by inadvertence, will
be spit out regularly. * * * The local poisonous effect of distilled
water makes itself known by * * * all the symptoms of a catarrh
of the stomach on a small scale.
“The harmfulness of the process, so much resorted to to-day, of
washing out the stomach with distilled water, is acknowledged, and we
find the physicians who formerly used that agent are now turning to
the ‘physiological solution of cooking salt,' or ‘water with a little salt,”
or the mineral waters recommended for the purpose. The poisonous
nature of absolutely pure water would surely have been recognized and
felt long since, were it not that its effects, in their most marked form,
can seldom occur, for through a train of circumstances, ‘absolutely
pure’ water can rarely be found. The ordinary distilled water, even
when freshly distilled, is not really absolutely pure, while that used in
the laboratories and clinics is generally stale, has been kept standing in
open vessels, generally in rooms where chemicals of every sort abound
and whose gases and effluvia are taken up by the water.”
If, therefore, the process of distillation be resorted to for the pur-
pose of removing its more objectionable impurities, it should be allowed
to stand for several hours in a healthful atmosphere to recover those
properties which are essential to render it healthful.
The well-water of limestone countries is productive of gravel and
kidney difficulties, and causes the hair to become prematurely gray,
while in all new countries it is often rendered unwholesome from the
drainage of decayed vegetation. The former is known by its hardness,
and the latter by its peculiar odor, and frequent discoloration. Water
which has been standing long in one's room is unfit to drink. It has
absorbed the perspired and respired gases, and the colder the water the
more completely has it effected this. The disinfectant qualities of
water by the absorption of deleterious gases are so well known to
intelligent people, that many keep vessels of water standing in their
sitting or lodging rooms. Water which has remained all night in
leaden pipes becomes affected with the properties of the lead, and that
which remains for a long time in a pump, with the impure gases of
the atmosphere; and in both cases should be drawn off before any is
taken for drinking purposes. Leaden pipes are chiefly used in cities for
conveying aqueduct water into the houses, and too much care cannot
be taken, when no water has been drawn through the night, to avoid
taking any that may bave stood in the pipes during the interval.
In summer, ice water should be used with great caution, for if
drunk excessively, it causes irritations, and sometimes fatal inflamma-
tions of the stomach and bowels. I am satisfied that correct habits in
drinking would require the use of warm drinks in summer and cold
drinks in winter. It is undoubtedly owing to our tendency to invert
{
124 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTs.
almost every hygienic rule, that it has become the custom everywhere
to resort to cool drinks during hot weather, and to hot drinks in cold
weathcr. The temperature of the water taken inside, as well as that
applied outside, should, as a rule, having of course its exceptions, be
made to correspond with the temperature of the atmosphere. Ice
water should not be taken with the meals at all, for it chills the
stomach, and retards, and sometimes arrests, digestion. The colder the
water, the more likely it is to do this. Nor is this all; it acts unfavor-
ably upon those excretory vessels in the lining of the intestines which
help to rid the system of waste matter.
A NOTICI) WIRITER IN FERROR.
Dr. Felix L. Oswald, in IIealth Culture, has given publicity to
Some views quite antagonistic to the foregoing, and contrary to some
other advice given in this volume. He claims that in partaking of a
modern dinner there is “a longing for a cooling diluent,” and that it is
entirely right to satisfy that desire. IIe says Professor Orthodox
“enumerates five distinct sources of peril from indulging that appe-
tency.” He quotes Dr. Sohrodt, the author of “Natur-Heilkunde,”
who holds, on the contrary, “that our diet is not half fluid enough,
and demonstrates that organic warmth will soon reduce over-cold
beverages to the right medium, and that a craving which nothing but
fresh water will satisfy is a clear proof that the stomach is suffering
from an excess of caloric and deficiency of moisture.” If our food is
not ſluid enough that deficiency can be supplied without ice water or
that which is much colder than the atmosphere, and when this can be
done, it is self-evident that it is a saving to the vital energies engaged
in the work of digestion to not arrest the latter, while cold water, taken
into the stomach, is being brought to a sufficiently warm temperature
to enable digestion to resume its work. It is an accepted fact by the
medical profession that a temperature of “98° to 100° Fahrenheit is
requisite for the perfect action of the gastric juice.” It was observed
by the experiments of Dr. Beaumont, on Alexis St. Martin, who
received a wound in liis stomach permitting the former to watch the
effects of certain foods and fluids entering that organ, that cold water
produced turgidity of the lining of the stomach, and that it retarded
the digestive processes. A further objection to the use of much water,
warm or cold, while eating, is that a rapid eater is enabled to “wash
down his food * instead of taking the first step in the digestive process
by freely mixing it with the salivary secretions. And considering the
“hustling” propensities of the Americans, this objection is not to be
lightly considered.
Again, Dr. Oswald gives the following, to my mind, erroneous
teaching. IIe says: “The danger-of-cold-drinks-in-warm-weather
\
THE LIQUIDS WE DRINK. I 25
dogma is an insult to common-sense that had never a fair living chance
in a country like ours, where millions of farmers, hunters, trappers,
miners, and travellers must have experienced the beneficent effects of
cooling beverages enjoyed at moments when their welcome has reached
its maximum, i.e., after a long walk in the Summer heat of our Con-
tinental climate. The absurdity of the old bugbear dogma is so extrava-
gantly preposterous that * * * the grannies of anti-naturalism might
as well tell us that it is dangerous to engage in outdoor sports at a time
when the instincts of youth clamor for the exercise of sinews and
muscles, and that the would-be indulger must wait till he is palsical
with old age.”
I feel compelled to take issue with this facile writer and to frankly
say that he is giving dangerous advice. The stalwart farmer, the
hardened hunter and trapper, and the tissue-pickled miner, inured to
hardships that have killed off all weaklings who have essayed to under-
take the wearing drudgery of such avocation, may, as Dr. Oswald
remarks, have exhibited no immediate bad eſfects resulting from such
a violation of generally accepted hygienic rules, but persons less robust
may well beware. The fact that the farmer and the others mentioned
enjoy the cooling beverage after a long walk in the summer's heat does
not prove that even they may not receive some injury therefrom which
counts in the aggregate with other similar violations of Nature's laws,
in ultimately bringing them upon a bed of sickness. Persons less
vigorous have been severely punished for this indiscretion at once.
Nor is it alone with the digestive activities of the stomach that we must
reckon. Farther on, where the subject of electrical radiation or
insensible perspiration is treated, we shall see how important this
function is in relieving the system of effete matters. Now, while the
perspiratory glands underlying the skin are doing their important
work, the mucous membrane lining the intestines is no less busy
through its minute excretory vessels in discharging the waste matters
that are carried off through this channel. A draft of cold air may,
by checking insensible perspiration, produce what we familiarly call a
cold. A draft of cold water poured into the intestines may check tho
action of the excretory vessels of the intestincs and produce the same
result. Persons after improper cating and drinking sometimes experi-
ence all the symptoms of having taken a severe cold. They sneeze
and snuffle, and wonder “why ’’ or “how” they have contracted it.
Let it be understood, therefore, that when the proper drainage of the
system is interfered with by cold drafts of air or of cold drafts of
water, the symptoms of a cold may soon follow. Dr. Oswald is an
able and interesting writer, but unless I am mistaken, it is rather as a
writer than a practitioner of medicine that he has acquired a wide
reputation. With an experience of over forty years in medical practice
I 26 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
I find myself obliged to treat his doctrine regarding cold drinks with
the same Contempt he pours out upon the “grannies of anti-naturalism”
in the extract quoted. Moreover, the “grannies” in the profession
will outnumber him ten to one in dealing with this exceedingly impor.
tant matter. Moderate indulgence in water of the temperature of that
taken from a spring or well, while dining or when perspiring, may
prove harmless. Warm drinks at such times are still better.
* FIG. 47.
SOME OF THE DENIZENS OF A PON ID OF WATLR.
THE TRUE VAI,UE OF WATER.
A liberal supply of water at proper times is useful in every way;
first, to favor solution and assimilation ; and, lastly, to favor the action
of all the processes of elimination and to modify the acridity of the
excretions. While it constitutes some part of all the foods we are
accustomed to eat, we are likely to need some of the pure article in
addition to what we get in ordinary foods ; and the more concentrated
our foods, the more the necessity for extra water, while those eating
largely of succulent vegetables and fruits get about ninety per cent. of
water therein, and may not need any extra as drink.
When one can be sure of a sufficient supply of good water, its very
free use, externally and internally, at proper times, as before remarked,
conduces to good health. In the human system water keeps things
moving. In the plumbing of a house the use of a great deal of water,
flushing the pipes, is regarded as of more value than disinfectants, and
so in the plumbing of the human system it is a good idea to keep the

THE LIQUIDS WE DRINK. 127
pipes well flushed. It certainly helps elimination through the skin, the
lungs, the bowels and kidneys, and every drop of water which is
vaporized with the breath, or issues through the skin, or is excreted
from the kidneys, takes along with it waste matters that the system is
well rid of. In the Lancet it was once written: “As a matter of fact
and experience, those who drink innocuous and unstimulating fluids
freely do not suffer from kidney trouble, but are almost uniformly
healthy, at least so far as these excreting functions are concerned.
Those who do not recognize the fact that three-fourths, by weight, of
the entire human organism is entirely composed of fluids, cannot fully
realize the great needs which exist for a copious supply. The excre-
mentitious product, uric acid, requires not less than some eight thou-
sand times its bulk of water to hold it in solution, and if it be not dis-
solved it rapidly crystallizes with more or less disastrous consequences,
as in acute gravel and in other less well recognized troubles.”
Water gives mobility to the fluids, dissolves and carries in solution
the various substances intended for nutrition or destined for excretion.
It supplies rotundity and flexibility to the body as a whole; strength
and elasticity to the muscles, bones, ligaments, and cartilages; through
its agency exchange of matter and tissue metabolism is effected. In
short, we repeat, it is only by the presence of water in proper propor-
tion in all the tissues and fluids of the body that the physiological
phenomena which characterizes health can take place.
The United States are becoming noted for their mineral waters.
The sulphur and other springs of Virginia have been the resorts of the
sick for many generations. The springs of Saratoga enjoy an enviable
reputation, not only in this country, but in Europe. Those of Avon are
favorites with many, and the Poland Springs of Maine are noted for
their absolute purity. There are other springs of more or less note in
various parts of our country, all of which possess some merit as
remedies for disease. The fact that most of them are medicinal, should
lead to reasonable caution in their use. The visitors to these springs
generally seem to imagine that the more of these waters they can
“worry down " in the course of a day, the more rapidly will they
recover from some difficulty with which they are affected. With this
excess, and in many cases the possible inadaptation of a certain water
to the constitutional peculiarities of the patient, injuries instead of
benefits are experienced. The advice of resident physicians should in
all cases be obtained, as their observation in the use of these waters
enables them to give directions which will the more likely insure
success in their employment.
It may be thought that I am inconsistent in thus speaking favorably
of mineral waters, by those who have read my essay on vegetable
medicines. In that place I denounce mineral medication, but every
I 28 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
rule has its exceptions, and I cannot but make an exception in favor of
these remedies, “distilled as they are from the bowels of the earth by
the hand of Omnipotence; ” for analysis of most of those in favor
shows no mineral or salt that is actually foreign to the tissues or fluids
of the human body. Some are, however, pretty strong doses, only
occasionally useful to effect a quick evacuation of the inner man, by a
Washing down and out process; and I would not be understood as
intimating that all mineral waters must be useful because “mother
earth’ provides them. This sort of superstition should need exposing
rather than encouraging, for, in fact, nature compounds many a solution
that can serve no good purpose in the human economy.
Mineral waters are manufactured, and some of them pretty good
imitations, but as well might the artificial flower maker essay to manu-
facture a natural rosebud, with its rich colors and delightful fragrance,
as for the chemist to attempt to prepare a perfect imitation of any of
our best mineral springs.
IN CONCLUDING the Essays on “The Food we Eat" and “The
Liquids we Drink,” we may well express surprise that anybody born
into this world lives to exceed ten or a dozen years. To live until fifty
is a great achievement, and to cling to the vital spark until eighty or
one hundred seems like a miracle ! With trichinae in our pork,
tuberculous bacilli in our meat, ptomaînes and other impurities in our
milk, toadstools simulating mushrooms growing in our fields, careless
use of antiseptic chemicals in our canned foods, typhoid bacteria in our
bivalves and in our drinking-water, and the possibility of our vermiform
appendix slyly pocketing a stray seed, we seem to be beset with perils.
But, on the other hand, we are favored with providential sentinels and
protectors. With eyes to inspect ; the olfactory nerves to smell and
taste ; the sense of feeling, to report when anything acrid or irritating
is passing the entrance to the oesophagus; the extremely acidulous
gastric juices in the stomach to burn up living germs; and the stalwart
gendarme we call the liver, at the delivery gate of the portal system,
ready to gather in all the mischief-makers before they can enter the .
general circulation, all of us who are truly alive in every inch of our
being manage to eke out a tolerably happy existence extending over a
term of fifty, eighty, or one hundred years l But the puny, devitalized,
thin, or impure blooded, the careless and the reckless, have to succumb 1
This view is well sustained by the report of the United States Consul
at Sivas, Turkey. This city is located about five thousand feet above
sea-level, and farther up the mountain is a village pouring all its
sewage into a river which supplies the people of Sivas with water.
This water flows through open ditches in which the denizens bathe,
wash their clothing and dirty rugs, and still it is used for drinking
THE ATMOSPHERE WE LIVE IN. I 29
without boiling or filtration. Cholera broke out in that upper village,
and strange to say, “only twelve per cent. of the population of Sivas
contracted the disease, and only one-fourth of these died.” The Sanitary
Inspector adds: “This indicates that a majority of the people were not
susceptible to the infection.” That is it exactly, and illustrates the
necessity of keeping all the vital processes in healthy activity. The
Turks are a hardy race, and can endure a great deal while living care-
lessly. But we are not made up in that way in America, and we must
employ the means science has supplied to protect ourselves. If we will
do our part, the sentinels presiding over our vital organs will do the
rest. The latter will conduct us through all kinds of perils if we will
preserve strength of nerve and purity of blood.
The Atmosphere we Live in.
It is estimated that each individual takes Frei. 48.
into his lungs annually about 800 pounds of
air, and if the reader has observed in the pre-
ceding essays the amount of food and drink
consumed every year by one person, it will be
discovered that the aggregate amount of air,
liquid, and substantial food received per
year, by only one member of the human
family, amounts in the aggregate to about one
and one-half tons.
The value of the air in nourishing the
human system may be in a measure appreci-
ated, when we consider what it may do in
promoting the growth of a tree. Read the
following narrative of an experiment and the
comments of the narrator : “Two hundred
pounds of earth were dried in an oven, and afterward put into a large
earthen vessel; the carth was then moistened with rain-water, and a
willow-tree, weighing five pounds, was placed therein. During the
space of five years, the earth was carefully watered with rain-water or
pure water. The willow grew and flourished, and to prevent the earth
from being mixed with fresh earth, or being blown upon it by the
Winds, it was covered with a metal plate full of minute holes, which would
exclude all but air from getting access to the earth below it. After
growing in the earth for five years, the tree was removed, and on being
weighed, was found to have gained 165 pounds, as it now weighed 170
pounds, and this estimate did not include the weight of the leaves, or
dead branches, which in five years fell from the tree. Now came the
application of a test. Was this all obtained from the earth ? It had
noºnsibly diminished, but in order to make the experiment conclusive,
OUR PLANET, AND ITS SUR-
YROUNDING ATMOSPEIERE.

130 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
it was again dried in an oven and put in the balance. Astounding was
the result ; the earth weighed only two ounces less than it did when the
willow was planted in it ! Yet, the tree had gained 165 pounds.
Manifestly, then, the wood thus gained in this space of time was not
obtained from the earth ; we are, therefore, compelled to repeat our
question, “where did the wood come from ?' We are left with only
two alternatives—the water with which it was refreshed, or the air in
which it lived. It can be clearly shown that it was not due to the
water ; we are consequently unable to resist the wonderful conclusion—
it was derived from the air.” An English physician has very aptly
called air “gaseous food.”
If air can make a tree, it can make or unmake man, according to
its quality, for the lungs of the former (its leaves) are not so perfectly
constructed for respiration as those of the latter ; nor is its bark So per-
vious to the air as the skin which envelops the human body ; and before
the conclusion of this essay, I shall show to the reader that many
derangements of the blood and nervous system arise from impure air.
As my views with regard to the influence of air upon the human
system are somewhat peculiar, and a proper understanding of them
necessary to aid the reader in readily comprehending many important
points in subsequent pages of this work, I shall subserve both the pur-
poses of this chapter, and many which are to follow, by a general
treatise on the nature and effects of this wonderful element.
Scientists used to say that the air was composed of nitrogen,
oxygen, and carbonic-acid gas; but new gases have been from time to
time discovered, and at the present time they may be given entire, as
follows: Oxygen, nitrogen, argon, krypton, neon, metargon, and
etherion. M. de Parville well says: “This atmosphere of ours is
positively a box full of surprises 1” Etherion is the discovery of Pro-
fessor Charles F. Brush, the noted inventor, chemist, and electrician of
our own country, and he ventures the conjecture that “etherion will
be found to consist of three or more gases forming one or more periodic
groups of new elements, all very much lighter than hydrogen,” and he
proposes, if this conjecture proves true, “to retain the present name
for the lightest one.” Unless mistaken in certain premises, in an
address before the American Association for the Advancement of
Science, he believes “that it extends far beyond the atmosphere of the
earth, indicating the possibility of an interplanetary and interstellar
atmosphere.” In addition to the gases named, “carbonic acid, ammonia,
free nitric acid, and certain organic substances are present in very small
proportions as impurities,” together with more or less vapor of water,
according to the temperature. Then, just as heat or cold, or light or
darkness, may pervade the atmosphere, electricity in varying volume
THE ATMOSPHERE WE LIVE IN. 131
and influence may be present therein. It is only on cloudy, wet, or rainy
days that telegraphic operators suffer much inconvenience from atmos-
pheric electricity, and when such weather prevails they are sometimes
knocked down by currents gathered from the atmosphere. Frequently
they are compelled to suspend operations during a thunder-storm. At
least this used to be the case until electricians devised means for self-
protection. Then, too, does not the lurid lightning, with its voice of
FIG. 49.
THE ELECTRICITY OF THE THUNDER-STORM.
thunder, often tell us of the greater presence of electricity when the sky
is cloudy and the air loaded with vapor 7 Victor Hugo, in describing
an equinoctial storm, says: “The magnetic intensity manifests itself
by what might be called a fiery humor in the sea. Fire issues from the
Waves; electric air—phosphoric water. The sailors feel a strange las-
Situde. This time is particularly perilous for iron vessels; their hulls
are then liable to produce variations of the compass, leading them to
destruction. The steamer Iowa perished from this cause.” When
this undue presence of positive electricity exists, there are, undoubtedly,
Currents of negative electricity moving about to some extent, and it is

132 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTs.
the approach of positive and negative currents toward each other which
causes the lightning flash and the atmospheric concussion which con-
veys to the ear the sound of thunder. But if the atmosphere, as a
Whole, were more negative, positive currents would not traverse the
telegraphic wires, but would be absorbed or taken up instead of moving
in accumulated bodies toward the operator's instruments; and if the
air near the earth's surface were all negative, and that far above it
all positive, then would occur a constant equalization, or blending of
the two opposite forces without the violent hurling of lightning balls,
whose movements are observed and mutterings heard during a thunder-
St0rm.
EILECTIRICAI, RADIATION.
I, therefore, offer the proposition, that the air in dry and pleasant
weather usually possesses the electrical element to a wholesome extent,
while during wet and rainy weather it contains an excess. When the
weather is fair, the human system is relatively in a positive, and the air in
a negative, condition ; that is, the former possesses more electricity than
the latter. The result produced by this disparity between the body and
the element which surrounds it, is a constant radiation from the former,
or, in otherwords, a continual flowing off of the electrical element into the
atmosphere as represented in Fig. 50. It is well known to physiolo-
gists that when the pores of the skin are in a healthy condition, there
is an incessant discharge from the skin of what is termed insensible
perspiration ; but nothing is said of the motive power by which the
effete particles of the system are thus so wonderfully carried off.
Now, if a doctor should retire at night with his garden strewn with
filth and rubbish, and on arising in the morning should find the whole
mass emptied into the street, he would naturally enough inquire who
or what had removed it. Surcly dead and waste matter could not
remove itself. Strange it is, then, that the astute professors of anatomy
and physiology have never thought to ask themselves how the corrupt
particles of the system, day by day and year by year, during the
natural life of man, are emptied into the great thoroughfare of life—
atmospheric air. The pores possess no power in themselves to throw
them off, and if, by the act of contraction, they should succeed in
expelling these impurities, with no motive power to carry them away
from the skin, the latter would daily become coated with the diseased
exudations of the body. There are about seven millions of pores in the
human body, and the quantity of useless matter that is daily discharged
from them amounts to from twenty to forty ounces. The reader can See,
therefore, how soon the avenues of the skin would close up, were the
discharge of effete matter produced by merely a contracting process of
the pores. Nature has manifestly employed a motive power, and this
THE ATMOSPHERE WE LIVE IN. I33
agent is the same which the mind of man uses in controlling his muscus
lar organization, and the same, too, that moves and sustains the planes
tary systems of innumerable worlds.
It is found in cases of fever that the blood is overcharged with acid,
and the fever is undoubtedly, in a measure, due to the presence of this.
This excess may be easily explained. The excretions from the skin are
acidulous, showing that electrical radiation, when active, relieves the
blood and system generally of all excessive acidulous accumulations,
as well as waste matters. But IFIG. 50.
when the pores of the skin are
closed up by sudden exposure to
cold, or taking cold, or the radi-
ation is more sluggish by pro-
tracted wet weather, or a resi-
dence in a damp location, the
acidulous and effete properties
of the blood and tissues do not
pass off sufficiently, and the
system becomes loaded with
them, inducing fever or other
inflammatory difficulties, and
even sunstroke, as will be ob- *= *\sº &\#
served a little farther on. Here == ºğ) WA #=
we have physiological evidence # *Nº, Nºşis
of a too positive condition of the ºffl § : #=
atmosphere in wet weather. = {\ }
====
The system, no longer electri- ## * §
cally positive in its relation to the #_\\
Se:
e º o TEE SM
surrounding air, active, health- ==#& N
ful radiation of electricity, with ( zº&
its loads of impurities, is partial- º }
ly or wholly suspended. It is sſ ºs- %
under the influence of these con-
ditions that rheumatic and neu- ELECTRICAL RADIATION .
ralgic invalids complain of increased pain, because the damming up of
the impurities of the system promotes the accretions of acrimonious
particles of matter which attach themselves to the living tissue and
inflame it. The application of galvanism, or electricity, while this state
of things exists, not only tends to detach the irritating particles from
the parts to which they have adhered, but also has a tendency to throw
the body into a positive condition, or in other words, to render it more
electrified than the atmosphere, so that radiation of the impurities is
partially resumed. No one feels as well on a rainy day, or living in a








134 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
damp location, excepting those whose electrical conditions are abnor-
mal, or whose fluids radiate too much to the surface, leaving the
mucous membranes dry. Such, of course, feel better when the air is
moist, and more strongly electrical, while catarrhal invalids, or those
having excessive mucous secretions of any kind, are made worse thereby.
As a rule, having few, exceptions, then, pleasant weather and dry
locations are most conducive to health, because these conditions and
circumstances promote the relative electrical condition between the
body and its surrounding element, and are best calculated to keep
healthfully active the electrical radiation which carries off the rubbish
of those portions of the system not easily relieved by other depurating
organs. The doctrine of electrical radiation first propounded in my
“Medical Common Sense,” in 1857–58, has never been refuted, while
scientific discovery in the fields of clectricity and photography is tend-
ing more and more to confirm its absolute correctness. There is good
reason to believe it will some day be universally accepted.
There are other reasons why the air is not as wholesome in wet as
in dry weather. When the latter prevails, the density of the air causes
a rapid passing off of earthy, vegetable, and animal impuritics which,
owing to their vapory form, rise with such rapidity as to scarcely affect
the air we breathe. But when it rains, or when the atmosphere is
unusually humid, the air being lighter, the gases of decaying vegeta-
tion and animal effluvia (which are also light) mingle with the air we
breathe. Some writer, whose name for the moment escapes my
memory, has attributed sunstroke to the confinement within the body
of effete matters which should escape with the insensible perspiration.
Such attacks usually occur when there is great humidity as well as
intense heat, and he believed the blood became poisoned by the retained
impuritics dammed up in the system, which is certainly quite reasonable,
but I would add that such a tendency would be materially assisted by
the impure gases one is taking into his lungs when the air is loaded
with moisture.
Thus, both the internal and external conditions would be such as
to cause blood poisoning, and the disease we call Sunstroke. That the
latter results from blood poisoning scems especially plausible when We
take into account the function of the perspiratory glands underlying
the skin, and these glands, as heretofore remarked, are Wonderfully
numerous. The function of the skin is related to that of the kidneys.
In some of the lower forms of life there are no such organs as kidneys.
The skin performs the entire work of climinating the fluids. In the
higher and more complex forms, the kidneys are added to do this work
more thoroughly, and the importance of this function is evidenced by
the fact that when there is any obstruction to the free passage of the
urine, the blood becomes poisoned with urea. When, therefore, it is
THE ATMOSPHERE WE LIVE IN. I 35
considered that some thirty or forty ounces of effete matters escape
from the skin in its normal condition every day, it can be seen what
mischief must necessarily ensue when, because of unusual heat and
humidity in the atmosphere, the process of electrical radiation is re-
versed, and all the impurities are carried into, instead of out of, the
human body. Sunstroke, which is hardly known in regions noted for
the dryness of the atmosphere, is unquestionably caused by blood
poisoning induced by this reversal of the important function of the
skin, and while the victim thereto is suffering from this condition, the
trouble is still further aggravated by the fact that the lungs do not
receive from the moist air taken with each inspiration, pregnant as it
is with the impure gases with which it is tainted, the vital elements the
system requires.
ERIRONEOUS I’IIILOSOPHY CORRECTED.
A popular writer, who has Said a FIG. 51.
great many good things, erroneously
remarks as follows: “The amount
of exhalation and effluvia which
rises from the ground, depends
much upon the atmospheric press-
ure. When the air is heavy, these
Substances are, as it were, confined
to their sources, that is, they are
liberated at the slowest rate ; but as
the barometer falls, the pressure is
taken off, and the miasmatic ema-
nations rise much more rapidly.”
A more palpable error was never
uttered. It is contrary to the laws
of gravitation. Investigate it in
any way you choose, and you will
find it wrong. If you suppose the SWEAT-GLANDS
miasmatic emanations heavier than From the palm of the hand. The coiled
air, they remain near the ground in glands in the deeper parts
e * are not shown.
Consequence of their own weight.
Suppose them lighter, and it is impossible for them to be held down
by the pressure of the air, for the latter will then settle down under
them, and raise them up. Who ever heard of putting a flat stone on
Water to hold it down 7 No, the quotation is absurd and contrary to
fact. Miasmatic emanations are lighter than air on a clear day, and
rapidly rise above the strata of air we breathe ; but on damp and wet
days, when the air is also light, miasmatic emanations rise sluggishly,
and mix with the air we breathe. From this it appears that Nature

136 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
Sometimes disturbs one of the chief elements of life, a fact which
rather disproves the writings of some people who assert that there is no
reason why a person may not live on earth forever, if he strictly
observes the laws of life and health. It is well enough to say that few
people live as long as they might, for that is true ; and I shall now
proceed to treat upon matters relevant to this subject, which go to
prove the fact. The atmospheric changes and conditions which we
have thus far been contemplating, are not within the control of man.
If pains were taken to preserve the purity of the air we breathe, so
far as it is within our power, health would be promoted and longevity
increased. The venous blood which enters the lungs is in a negative
state, and depends upon the oxygen or electricity of air to electrify it,
remove its carbon, and perfect its arterialization. Hence, the air we
inhale may contain its natural constituents in their due proportions, but
that which we exhale contains almost the usual quantity of nitrogen,
with eight or nine per cent. of its oxygen replaced with an equal amount
of carbonic acid. The stomach, in the digestion of food, cannot pro-
duce all the electricity necessary to move the animal machinery, and
therefore the lungs, with their curious mechanism, receive the blood
from the venous system, and expose it to the electrifying influence of
the atmosphere. I may be asked why the blood is not like the body,
electrically positive in relation to the air. I reply, that it is when it
leaves the lungs chemically changed by its contact with oxygen; but in
passing through the arterial and capillary systems, it distributes its
electrical properties and returns through the venous system destitute of
that element. Respiration is really governed by electrical laws in a
measure, although mostly produced by the movements of the diaphragm,
and contractions and relaxations of the walls of the air-vesicles. Infla-
tion is aided by the attraction the negative venous blood has for the
electrical elements of the atmosphere, and exhalation, after the vesicles
have expelled the air which has been used into the bronchial tubes, is
aided by the attraction existing between the negative properties of the
latter and the more positive properties of the former.
The lungs are very generous to the stomach. They keep up a
necessary supply of electricity during the hours of sleep, when the di-
gestive organs are permitted to take partial repose. Did ever the reader
notice what long, deep inhalations a person takes while sleeping 2
While the stomach is enjoying rest, the lungs work their utmost to
keep up a supply of vital clectricity, and although they exhale the use-
less gases with the same rapidity that they do when the individual is
awake, they draw in deeper and more copious draughts of the electri-
fying element. The stomach being on such amicable terms with the
respiratory apparatus, and having made such excellent arrangements
with it to aid in doing its work during the hours of partial repose (for
THE ATMOSPHERE WE LIVE IN. I37
the stomach never sleeps soundly), the reader can see how wrong it is
for him to give his stomach a big job of work to do on going to bed
by eating a late supper, and that he has no right to complain if the di-
gestive organs refuse to do it, but allow the food to ferment, and fill
his blood and brain with inflammation. When the stomach has such
perfect confidence in the integrity and industry of the lungs, it is also
wrong to oblige the latter to cheat the former by going to sleep in badly
ventilated rooms, or where malaria exists, by which the blood becomes
poisoned instead of arterialized, and the stomach finds its work not only
undone, but itself disqualified in a measure to resume its labors. Facts
go to prove that there is a greater proneness to disease during sleep than
in the waking state. In Turkey and Hindostan, if a person falls asleep
in the neighborhood of a poppy field, over which the wind is blowing
toward him, he is liable to “sleep the sleep which knows no waking.”
The peasants of Italy, who fall asleep in the neighborhood of the
Pontine marshes, are invariably smitten with fever. Even travellers
who pass the night in the Campagna du Roma invariably become
more or less affected with the noxious air. Commercial men often con-
duct their business affairs in unwholesome locations in cities, but main-
tain a fair degree of health by having their residences, and sleeping, in
healthful neighborhoods. The man whose business calls him into
marshes and swamps during portions of the day, and sleeps upon the
hill-top, may avoid chills and fever, with which the inhabitants who
lodge in proximity to those marshes are affected.
The reason of this, after what has been said, must be obvious.
The stomach battery having partially suspended operations in sleep,
the lungs redouble their efforts to inhale the life-giving properties of the
atmosphere. In malarious or unwholesome localities they unfortunately
receive them most poisonously adulterated, and the various organs of
the system, if not murdered in their slumbers, awaken to find them-
Selves invaded by a destructive foe. An English traveller in Abyssinia
has asserted that he could live in health in that sickly climate by a
proper Selection of the situation where he slept every night.
All this argues the deleterious effects of late suppers, as well as
the necessity of well-ventilated and healthful sleeping apartments,
and people who complain of ennui and ill health while they persist
in the former, and take no pains to secure the latter, are as foolish
as the boy who thrust his hand into hot embers and then cried
because it was burned. Let those who sleep in small rooms, with
Windows and doors closed, remember that every individual breathcs, on
an average, from thirteen to twenty times per minute, and inhales from
thirteen to forty cubic inches of air at each inspiration. Now take as a
low estimate the consumption of air at twenty inches, and the number
Of hºpirations at fifteen, and we find that in the space of one minute
138 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
300 cubic inches (some authorities say 500) of air are required for the
respiration of one person, during which twenty-four cubic inches of
oxygen are absorbed by the blood, and the same amount of carbonic
acid given out. Proceed with this estimate, and we find that in one
hour one pair of lungs have consumed 1,440 cubic inches of oxygen,
and in seven hours, the time usually allotted to sleep, 10,080 cubic
inches of oxygen have been replaced with an equal quantity of carbonic
acid. The deadly effects of the latter are illustrated by the fact that
a canary bird, Suspended near the top of a curtained bedstead where
persons are sleeping, will almost invariably be found dead in the morn-
ing. It has further been demonstrated that when there is six per cent.
of carbonic acid in the air, it is rendered unfit for the support of
animal life, and half this proportion would put out the light of a candle.
In view of these facts, how many churches, school-houses, places of
amusement, factorics, workshops, and dwelling-houses are but the
nurseries of disease. Nor is it surprising that a great majority of tomb-
stones in our cemeterics are inscribed with ages below twoScore.
IPROPER MANAGEMENT IN COLD WEATHER.
For sleeping-rooms it is doubtful if, in all cases, it is well to have
wide open windows during the hours of sleep. Dr. Hall, a well-known
writer about thirty years ago, in his Journal of Health, said : “Robust
persons may safely sleep in a temperature of 40° or under, but the old,
the infant, and the frail, should never sleep in a room where the atmos-
phere is much under 50° Fahrenheit.” The Oneida Community at that
time took the hint and tested the doctrine. It seems that the young
and the old, as well as those who were not physically strong, had been
much subject to coughs, colds, catarrhs, etc., under the practice of
sleeping with open windows. In building anew for the housing of a
community composing about 200 persons, they provided for a plenty of
ventiducts and other improvements for maintaining the purity of the
air, and they decided that they found a confirmation of Dr. Hall's
doctrine, according to which “to lie still in bed with nothing to pro-
mote the circulation, and breathe for hours an atmosphere of forty and
even fifty degrees, when the lungs are at ninety-eight, is too great a
change. Many persons wake up in the morning with inflammation of
the lungs who went to bed well, and are surprised that this should be
the case. The cause may often be found in sleeping in a room the
window of which has been incautiously hoisted for ventilation. The
water-cure journals of the country have done an incalculable injury by
the blind and indiscriminate advice of hoisting the window at night.
The rule should be, everywhere during the part of the year when fires
are kept burning, to avoid hoisting outside windows. It is safer and
better to leave the chamber-door open, as also the fire-place—then there
a. *
THE ATMOSPHERE WE LIVE IN. I 39
is a draft up the chimney, while the room is not so likely to become
cold. If there is some fire in the room all night the window may be
opened an inch. It is safer to sleep in bad air all night with a tempera-
ture over fifty, than in a pure air with a temperature under forty. The
bad air may sicken you, but cannot kill you ; the cold air can and does
kill very often.” A good-sized sleeping apartment, if kept well open
during the day, will be in good condition at night to sleep in with
closed windows. Small rooms should in some way provide for the
ingress of fresh air, but an open window, unless the sleeper be unusually
robust, is not the hygienic thing.
IMPORTANCE OF CAREFUI, VENTILATION.
Some physiological writers have said that scrofula is often pro-
duced by bad air. That it is rendered contagious through the medium
of the air is certain, but I am hardly inclined to believe that the disease
would directly arise from breathing the atmosphere of a crowded room
unless there were persons in the apartment affected with it. Scrofula.
and all diseases are rendered, in a measure, contagious by the diseased
animal vapors from the lungs and pores of persons affected with them.
These vapors mingle with the natural ingredients of air in a confined
room, and are conveyed to the blood of others through the respiratory
apparatus, and hence, impure air may, in one sense, be said to produce
scrofula. Certain it is, that it will convey the disease to those not
affected with it, if it is rendered impure by the presence of scrofulous
persons. Every man and woman is constantly perspiring or radiating
from the skin, and exhaling from the lungs, waste animal matter, and
if a person is diseased, these vapors partake of the nature of that disease.
Inasmuch, then, as there are at least five diseased persons to every
ten sound ones in every community, the reader can see how liable he
is to contract disease in a crowded lecture or show room. The best
ventilation does not render us entirely safe, but improper ventilation
makes the spread of disease positively certain. Professor Faraday gave
his experience regarding the atmosphere of crowded rooms, as follows:
“Air feels unpleasant in the breathing cavities, including the
mouth and nostrils, not merely from the absence of oxygen, the
presence of carbonic acid, or the elevation of the temperature, but from
other causes depending on matters communicated to it from the human
being. I think an individual may find a decided difference in his feel-
ings when making part of a large company, from what he does when
One of a small number of persons, and yet the thermometer give the
Same indication. When I am one of a large number of persons, I feel
an oppressive sensation of closeness, notwithstanding the temperature
may be about 60° or 65°, which I do not feel in a small company at the
Same temperature, and which I cannot refer altogether to the absorption
14o CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTs.
of oxygen, or the exhalation of carbonic acid, and probably depends
'upon the effluvia from the many present ; but with me it is much dimin-
ished by a lowering of the temperature, and the sensations become more
like those occurring in a small company.”
If mankind were generally aware of the effects of the diseased
radiations and exhalations of invalids, popular lecturers and preachers,
and favorite dramatists and operatic singers, could hardly induce the
convocation of the crowded audiences that they now do, and people
would be as particular in the air they breathe as in the water they drink.
The use of stagnant waters could not be more deleterious to the ner-
vous and vascular systems than the inhalation and absorption of vitiated
air. Still, most people are regardless of the latter, while they throw
Out with disgust a glass of water which has odor, sediment, or color.
And how many fastidious men and women would suffer almost any
punishment rather than go in bathing in a bathing-house crowded with
all sorts of people as thick as they can stand or swim. They would
consider the water unfit to enter, and so with reason they might think,
but these same persons do not seem to imagine when in a crowded
and even odorous car, omnibus, or lecture-room, that they are in fact
bathing in the same air with all the individuals they are crowded with,
and not only that, but breathing it, too. Your clothing does not pro-
tect your skin from the effluvia passing off from the besotted and
tobacco-saturated man who sits against you on one side, nor your veil
from breathing the same air which has been inhaled and exhaled by the
woman with decayed teeth, catarrh, and bad breath on the other side.
Men returning from their business, and women from shopping, do not
seem to realize that they bring home with them in their parlors some of the
essential parts of men and women whom they would not allow to enter
their back doors. This is no fling at poor people, but at those whose habits
and dissipations have rendered them not only filthy, but diseased. It
is, indeed, amusing sometimes to see how an aristocratic individual
will turn his or her back upon, or leave a seat contiguous to, Some plain-
ly dressed person, though the latter be glowing with health, and seek
contiguity with quite an opposite character, whose countenance bears
every evidence of disease, but whose physical infirmities are almost
concealed by the tailor, or dressmaker, and the perfumer. Better at
any time seat yourself in public vehicles beside men whose clothes are
soiled with honest labor, but whose skins are red with the glow of
health, or next to women in plain, cheap Calico, with vivacity in their
eyes, and sweetness in their breath, than to haughtily squeeze yourself
between two well-dressed invalids. The former impart to you the
magnetism of health, while the latter absorb your vital magnetism, and
corrupt the air about you. By one, your stock in health is enriched;
by the other, it is impoverished. Fish swim in water—you swim in
THE ATMOSPHERE WE LIVE IN. I41
air ; look out for its purity. And parents, have an eye to your chil-
dren, who rely upon your judgment and care. Horace Mann, alluding
to ill-ventilated school-rooms, said: “To put children on a limited
supply of fresh air is as foolish as it would have been for Noah during
the Deluge to put his family on a short allowance of water. Since God
has poured out an atmosphere of fifty miles deep, it is enough to make
a miser weep to see our children stinted in breathing.”
As for the great body of animal effluvia poured into the atmos-
phere by our numerous and sickly human family, Nature has provided
a neutralizer. The electrical scintillations which are often observed on
warm evenings, and the more powerful currents which rend the atmos-
pliere during a thunder-storm, produce an element called ozone, and
this neutralizes those properties in the atmosphere the accumulation of
which in time would destroy animal life. All have observed how
refreshing the air is after a thunder-storm. Not only has the air
returned to a healthful electrical condition, but it has become per-
meated with vitalizing ozone. A few hours before it was stagnant
and debilitating; your skin was relaxed and gluey to the touch ; you
felt languid and spiritless, but now you feel as refreshed as a child
from a bath. This change has been produced by ozone. If the air be
deprived of it for a great length of time, sickness becomes prevalent,
particularly that which is characterized by fevers; and epidemics, if
present, rage with fearful fatality. Thus, when Nature has provided
an element for disinfecting the great body of the atmosphere which
Surrounds our planet, and arresting the spread of pestilence, each
individual should put forth some personal effort to preserve the purity
of the air which immediately surrounds himself, and to protect the
helpless and inexperienced from unnecessary exposure to diseased
effluvia and poisonous miasma.
OljR METHODS OF HEATING.
The introduction of stoves for heat has been as injurious to health
as it has been universal. Air to be healthful must possess a certain
amount of moisture (which is more electrical than dry air), to prevent
a too copious radiation of the electrical elements and fluids of the body.
The effect of stove heat, as everyone knows, is to render the atmos-
phere dry. But if this were the only objection to the use of stoves,
Some means might be devised to overcome it. Says Professor You-
mans : “While in point of economy stoves are most advantageous
Sources of heat, yet in their effects upon the air they are perhaps the
Worst. We saw that in the stoves called air-tight, the burning is carried
on in such a way that peculiar gaseous products are generated. These
are liable to leak through the crevices and joinings into the room.
Carbonic oxide gas is formed under these circumstances, and recent
142 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
experiments have shown that it is a much more deadly poison than
carbonic acid. A slow, half-smothered burning of these stoves requires
a feeble draught which does not favor the rapid removal of injurious
fumes. Besides, carbonic acid being about half as heavy again as
common air, must be heated 250° above the surrounding medium to
become equally light, and still higher before it will ascend the pipe or
flue. If the combustion of the fuel is not vivid, and the draught brisk,
there will be regurgitation of this gaseous poison into the apartments.”
FIG, 52.
|||}|| ||
ºffſ |
III:
#####|| ºil iſ ºn
º ºjillº
| º |º
º
|º sº
#||||||||||rºſſ |Illulºſſºſ, ||f|| ||º
º | º |
|
§
t
t
* :||
º
&
|
º
%5
i
|
YE OLD-FASHIONED FIRE-PLACE IN YE OLDEN TIME,
The same writer continues: “Probably all stoves, from their improper
fittings, are liable to this bad result. Hot-air furnaces also have the
Same defect. They are cast in many pieces, and however perfect the
joinings may be at first, they cannot long be kept air-tight in conse-
quence of the unequal contraction and expansion of the different parts
under great alternations of heat. Combustion products are hence
liable to mingle with the stream of air sent into the room.” Dr. Ure also
remarks: “I have recently performed some careful experiments upon
this subject, and find that when the fuel is burning so slowly as not to

THE ATMOSPHERE WE LIVE IN. I43
heat the iron surface above 250° or 300°, there is a constant deflua, of
carbonic acid ºnto the room.” From recent experiments of French
savants, it appears that cast-iron stoves are more injurious to the health
than those made of sheet or wrought-iron. They say that under a
certain degree of heat, cast-iron is rendered porous, or at least pervious
to the passage and absorption of gases. They think they have been
able to state the quantity of oxide of carbon which may transude from
a given surface of metal, and have shown that the air which surrounds a
stove of cast-iron is greatly impregnated with hydrogen and oxide of
carbon. They also say that these cast-iron stoves absorb oxygen, thereby
taking up the vital elements of the air at the same moment they are
poisoning it by exhaling deleterious gases. M. Deville, at one of the sit-
tings of the Academy of Sciences, Paris, warmly supported this view. In
his lecture-room at the Sorbonne, he had placed two electric bells, which
were set in motion as soon as hydrogen, or oxide of carbon was diffused
in the room. During his last lecture, the two cast-iron stoves had
scarcely been lighted when the bells began to ring. The credit is due
to M. Caret, one of the physicians of the Hotel Dieu of Chambery, for
first calling attention to this matter. The arrangements for heating
houses by hot-water furnaces and steam are open to less objection than
any other modern improvement. They produce a less dry warmth, and
the pipes conveying the hot air or steam through the various rooms of
the building are not the conductors of unwholesome gases.
To warm an apartment, there is nothing really like the old-
fashioned fire-place, and all who have ever had the felicity of warming
themselves before it, will join with me in this assertion. The
author of this work spent his juvenile winter evenings before the light
and heat of this ancient device for keeping the shins warm. A fire on
the hearth does not heat the air, but as a writer truly remarks, “the
heat rays dart through it to warm any object upon which they may
fall.” The same writer continues: “The sun passes his floods of
light through the atmosphere without warming it a particle. Air is
made to be breathed, and we again discover providential wisdom in the
arrangement by which the sun warms us, without disturbing in the
slightest degree the respiratory medium. But if we heat the air itself,
We at Once destroy the natural equilibrium of its composition, and so
change its properties, that it becomes more or less unpleasant and
prejudicial to health.”
Large, open grates for burning coal are good substitutes for fire-
places and should take the place of stoves, not only in dwellings, but
in churches, theatres, and show-rooms, where the animal effluvia of a
Crowded assembly are sufficient to render the air vitiated, without the fur-
ther addition of stove or furnace heat; but if economy will not sanction
this, then let steam be introduced through iron pipes, so arranged as to
144 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
distribute heat equally in every part of the building, and not make a
volcano of fire in the basement to emit ashes and gases as well as
Scorched air in the apartments above.
Too much care cannot be taken for the maintenance of the natural
purity of air. School-houses, churches, theatres, dwellings, and factories
should be daily aired, in cold as well as hot weather. The permanency of
impure air in a close building is forcibly illustrated in a recent account
given in the American Medical Gazette of the vault of the old cathedral
church of Bremen. Hundreds of years ago, when the old church was
built, the plumbers occupied the vault for melting and preparing ma-
terials for the roof, and since that time its atmosphere has possessed the
peculiar property of preserving from decay all bodies placed therein.
That paper remarks :
“Visitors are shown eight human bodies, besides a number of cats,
dogs, monkeys, birds, etc., all of which, by mere exposure to this
atmosphere, have become dried and free from all offensive effluvia;
resembling in appearance coarse parchment.
“The body nearest the door is that of an English major, said to
have lain there one hundred and eighteen years.
“The second, that of a German student, who lost his life in a duel.
The hard, dry flesh, still shows the sabre wounds on his throat and
arm. His body has been here one hundred and seventy years.
“The third, that of a Swedish countess, whose body has remained
free from the lot of common mortals for one hundred and forty years.
“The fourth, that of a Swedish general, who was killed in the
‘Thirty Years' War,’ and whose throat still exhibits the mark of the
wound of which he died. -
“The fifth is that of his aide-de-camp, who lost his life at the same
time, by a cannon-ball striking him in the side. The destruction of the
parts is plainly visible.
“The sixth is that of a workingman, who fell from the steeple of .
the church when near its completion—four hundred years ago—and
broke his neck. Owing to this accident, the peculiar properties of the
vault became known ; for the body of the deceased workman was laid
in this vault for a few days, and, having evinced no signs of decom-
position, the singularities of the fact induced the authorities to permit
it to remain, and here it has remained during all that time.
“The seventh is the body of an English lady, who died one hun-
dred and thirty years since of a cancer on the lower jaw ; the ravages
of disease are still perceptible in the ulcerated flesh.
“The eighth is the body of a workingman, who has lain here for
sixty years.
“In a marble sarcophagus, standing in the middle of the vault,
are said to repose the mortal remains of the Swedish Chancellor, Van
THE ATMOSPHERE WE LIVE IN. I45
Englebrechten; but they are not permitted to be exposed to public
view, on account of some still surviving relative of the family.
“Each of these bodies retains to a great degree the appearance
peculiar to itself in life. Thus, the Swedish General was a short, round-
faced man, inclined to corpulency; his aide-de-camp was a slender, well-
proportioned man, in the prime of life. As in general appearance, SO
also in facial expression, do these bodies differ; the parchment-like
skin, though drawn tightly over the bones, still shows something of
the manner in which the muscles beneath once worked.
“No other part of the church possesses this peculiar atmosphere,
and we can only suppose that the entire chamber became so surcharged
with lead, that it has continued ever since to give forth vapors, which,
forming an antiseptic chemical compound of lead, have operated upon
the cadavera exposed to its influence.”
Now, this condition of the air is well enough for dead bodies, but
baneful enough to live ones. Mechanics who work in metal can see
from this, how prolific of diseases their workshops may become by
being daily and nightly closed, as they frequently are in winter. There
can be no doubt, too, that churches, closed up as they generally are,
at the end of every Sabbath, retain a great deal of the diseased emana-
tions of unhealthy visitors, which cannot be removed by a day's airing
toward the end of the week when the sextons usually sweep and ventilate
the buildings. Churches should, therefore, be aired immediately after,
as well as just before, the day for services, and an airing every day
would be still better.
Happily we may soon have canned air as well as canned foods, so
that when Nature stints us, as on a humid or rainy day, or when our
houses, churches, theatres, or lecture-rooms have become congested
with stifled air, we can open the can and liberate a fresh supply, which
will not only be refreshing, but on a close, perspiring day, cooling.
“In our natural philosophies,” says Professor Irwin W. Fay, “there is
an axiom that the air that we breathe may not be liquefied. Well,
Charles E. Tripler has proved that even that was not impossible. He has
compressed 800 cubic feet of air into a cubic foot of liquid. He has sub-
jected air to a pressure of thousands of pounds and placed it in liquidſ
form at the bottom of an uncovered tin can.” “Professor Fay,” says the
New York Morning Journal, “in his lecture, pointed to the can and
said what the use of its contents might be. Liquid air might be used
as Cold air in houses in summer, as pure air in the sick rooms, as
explosive air in bombs, as motive air in balloons. The lecturer said
things that were practical, and they sounded like fairy tales 1” Let us
hope that scientists will erelong be able to supply us with canned air
that will not require antiseptics to preserve its purity. We live in a
Wonderful age, full of surprises, and we may yet have fresh air on tap.
146 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
In concluding what I have to say on “The Atmosphere we Live
in,” let me add : Those who are struck down by the hand of disease
and marvel at the cause of their afflictions, because, perhaps, they have
been regular in their habits of eating, drinking, and sleeping, may find
in this essay a solution of the secret. That it may have a happy effect
upon mechanics who build houses; upholsterers who furnish them ;
Servants and housewives who have the care of them ; the artisan in the
Workshop ; the pale-faced woman in the cotton factory ; the hotel-
keeper who entertains lodgers; the conductors of railways; the par-
Son ; the Sexton ; the dancer; street commissioners; the frequent
Visitors of cemeteries; and the mothers of young families, is the hope
of the author,
The Clothes we Wear.
The human being comes into the world very rudely. He not only
disregards the prevailing styles of dress, but unblushingly presents
himself with no drapery whatever. Nat-
FIG. 53. ure persistently adheres to her vanity,
and believes that “Nature unadorned is
adorned the most,” and consistently there-
with thrusts both male and female babies
into the world without clothing. This is
very immodest on the part of old dame
Nature, but as she is a very old-fashioned
jade, and has more good sense than popu-
lar refinement, everybody puts up with
her pranks in this respect, and the young
mother who would run from a stranger,
well enveloped in a clean night-gown,
does not attempt to run away from the
little stranger who comes to her without even a fig-leaf.
There is, however, quite a display of haste to wash the baby and
dress it. If the poor little thing could be dressed comfortably, there
would be no reason to complain of the proceeding, but mamma or the
nurse has some extravagant notions as to beauty of figure, and instead
of baby-clothes being put on to conform to the anatomical developments
of the infant, it is expected that these will be made to conform to the
notions of proud mamma, who calculates her baby shall be as pretty as
anybody's. If the baby happens to be of the feminine gender, it is
especially unfortunate in this respect, as well as in all others through
life. It must have a small waist, whether made so or not, and its baby-
clothes must be so pinned as to favor this conformation of figure. So,
too, when the infant has grown to girlhood, her dresses must be made
fashionably, and her body, by means of lacing, and other inventions,
EIOW WIE COME INTO THE WORLD,

THE CLOTHES WE WEAR. I47
crowded into them, and she becomes so gradually accustomed to tight-
fitting garments about the waist, that when she arrives at womanhood,
nobody can make her believe she dresses too tightly. One obstacle
which every sensible physician has to contend with, is to convince his
female patients that they dress too closely about the waist. If he have
the boldness to thrust his fingers under the belt or waistband, she has
the presence of mind to suddenly exhaust the air from her lungs, and
then insist that “it is not too tight, Doctor.” Many women are hon-
est in believing that they do not dress too closely, simply because they
have become so thoroughly used to it. Had they never been dressed
unwholesomely in babyhood, and through succeeding years to adult
age, and then the same dresses they are now wearing be put upon them,
they would beg as piteously to be released, as if crushed beneath the
ruins of a fallen building. A fractious husband could not be more
inhumanly punished than to be sentenced to wear for one week his
waistcoat as closely fitted to his body as his wife habitually wears the
waists of her dresses. It is something it seems almost superfluous to
assure the reader, that tight clothes of every description are injurious.
Knit shirts, knit drawers, tight stockings, tight garters, tight boots,
close-fitting vests and waists, tight night-drésses, tight shoes, tight hats
and caps, all tend to obstruct the circulation of the blood, and also the
electrical radiation which carries off the impurities of the system; and
females suffer other injuries from compressing the waist, which will
be presented in another essay, where the evils of tight lacing will be
referred to.
So long have the habits of close dressing been pursued, a very large
proportion of the men and women of civilized countries may be said to
be ‘‘hide-bound ; ” that is, the pores of the skin have become closed and
gummed up by the exhalations of the skin, which have not been per-
mitted to pass off freely and naturally.
It is perfectly astounding how fashion has knocked out the brains
of people in regard to dress. When we consider that there is not any-
thing in the world so comfortable as comfort, is it not surprising that
men and women will attire themselves with little or no regard to com-
fort during their conscious hours ? Only when about to get into bed,
and enter upon a season of obliviousness to all earthly woes, do they
put on garments that admit of a fair degree of physical happiness; and
how many fashionable women rush frantically to their chambers when
they escape from society at the close of day, to relieve themselves of their
uncomfortable costumes. If the “man in the moon” should be per-
mitted to descend to this planet, entirely ignorant of the follies of
the people of earth, it would be hard to make him believe that these
discomforts were self-inflicted. Except for the fact the Divine man-
dates are seldom so religiously obeyed, he would imagine this self-tort-
148 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
ure to be decreed by Jehovah. Then the amount of fabric required
for clothing a fashionable woman of civilization is truly appalling to
herself if she is self-supporting, or otherwise to a husband, or father, of
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slender means. Someone has suggested that the quickest Way to mako
a fortune is to marry a fashionable young lady, and sell her clothes
Look for a moment, too, at the bigotry of Fashion. IIere sits an
intelligent lady reading with surprise of the Chinese. The traveller in
the narrative tells her that they wear tightly fitting wooden Shoes to





































THE CLOTHES WE WEAR. I49
make their feet small and pretty If she be of a sympathetic turn of
mind, she is horrified, and “pities the poor things,” and if she be
mirthful, she laughs outright at the ridiculousness of the thing. But
how about the Chinawoman ; may she not be equally surprised, horri-
fied, or amused, when she reads of this very same lady who has been
dressed tightly about the waist from infancy, to give her what is called
a pretty figure ? Maybe 1 Flora McFlimsy laughs at the idea that
some women in barbarism wear rings in their noses, but in the very act
of doing so shakes the glittering jewelry which hangs pendant from
her own ears It is said that “a letter written more than thirty years
ago, by Rev. Dr. Jackson, on the Vanity of Heathen Women, cited the
fact as proof of their heathenish customs that the Karen women wore
fancifully constructed bags, inclosing the hair, which they suspended
from the back of their heads.” Yet, this identical fashion, regarded
by Dr. Jackson as one of the peculiarities of heathenism, was subse-
quently adopted by a majority of the women in civilized countries, and
poetically called “The Waterfall !” Our aristocratic lady thinks the
Indian squaw acts absurdly when she tattoos her skin to gratify the rude
tastes of her warrior lover ; but she does not hesitate to use paint and
powder on her own face, and sometimes lavishly. The Hindoo women
used to (and perhaps now do) paint their eyelids, and the cuticle around
the eyes within a given boundary, with lampblack, much to the disgust
of travellers in their country ; but you may often sce in Central Park
fashionable women with pencilled eyebrows, blackened eyelashes, and
dark lines drawn under their eyes, to impart (as they think) brilliancy
to the eyes | Much of this criticism, I admit, does not apply to dress,
but it does to the toilet, and it is presented here for the purpose of
making the fair reader more tolerant of other, and perhaps more sensi-
ble, people's tastes.
NOT ROBUST ENOUGH For BLóOMERs.
Thousands of sensible women would adopt what is called the
“American,” or “Bloomer Costume,” were it not for the bigotry of
fashion. They do not feel strong enough to face the ridicule of those
who make themselves more ridiculous by trailing long dresses. It is a
pity that women who are conscious of the comfort, and greater health-
fulness of the reformed costume, cannot be more independent, and
those who are not, more tolerant. It is a pity that men who originally
practised an act of robbery on women by usurping a comfortable style
of dress, should not encourage the latter in reforming their costume.
Perhaps the reader does not know that the women formerly “wore the
breeches.” A young Belgian writer—Miss Webber—has demonstrated
that “the nether garment was first worn in a bifurcated form by the
women of ancient Judah—that the claim which man so pertinaciously
1so CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTs.
maintains to the use of this garment, is purely arbitrary, without a soli-
tary argument to support it—not even that of prior possession.” As
late as the fifteenth century, the petticoat was worn by both sexes. A
gallant piece of strategy indeed for man to have caused the women of
ancient times to allow them to adopt their comfortable costume, and
then pass and enforce laws to arrest every woman caught in the street
dressed in what they fraudulently call “male attire l’” After having
thus usurped the breeches, men (too many of them) are not willing to
compromise with the originators of this most comfortable style of dress,
and allow them to wear short skirts and loose pantaloons.
Progress often comes in very unexpected ways, and the dress reform
movement, after sleeping a quarter of a century, is being revived by
numerous organized bodies of women who seek emancipation from all
hindrances to their normal development and useful activity in the
family, in business, in society, in affairs of the State—and in sport.
Probably the most important impulse toward dress reform in the clos-
ing years of the nineteenth century is the remarkable spread of the
“bicycle fever,” and the comfort of special costumes, such as are
adapted to cycling, golf playing, and other outing pastimes.
The health of women demands reform in dress. The close-fitting
waist and long skirt should give way to loose tunics, short skirts, and
what are sometimes called Turkish trousers. I have already pre-
sented some objections to the close-fitting waist, and shall present others
in another place. The physiological objections to long skirts may be
briefly stated as follows: they interfere with the free motion of the
limbs, and make the exercise of walking exhaustive. Nervous force is
absolutely wasted in the effort, and weakly or sickly women are there-
by discouraged from attempting to move about to any extent, or suffi-
ciently to preserve what little muscular strength they possess. Long
skirts hang too heavily from the waist, and generally with no support
from the shoulders. They encourage women in dressing the limbs too
scantily, rendering them more subject to cold extremities, and to at-
tacks of cold. Dr. Harriet M. Austin, speaking on this point, Very
truly remarks that “one of the great physiological sins of women is,
that they cover the extremities of the body so poorly that the circula-
tion has to be maintained at an immense waste of life. If the body is well
clad over the whole surface, the limbs being dressed as warmly as the
other parts, the external circulation is kept up. with comparative ease,
the blood passing Through the capillary vessels readily ; but when any
part of the surface is inadequately covered, the blood has to be forced
along at a disadvantage, and there is an unnecessary strain upon the
vital energies. Neither men nor women, as a general thing, have any
conception of the ill-health which accrues to women from lack of suffi.
THE CLOTHES WE WEAR. I51
cient clothing. Thousands and thousands of women go through life
without ever being comfortably warm in the winter.” -
A female contributor to the Herald of Health gives her experience
in regard to dress in the following forcible language : “In the custom-
ary dress I am at once transferred to a state of the most thorough
incapacity for all practical or sensible purposes; my spirit and ambition
become as effectually snuffed out as a candle with a pair of snuffers ; I
have no power, either aggressive or defensive ; am unable to resist the
cold weather even, and feel like curling myself down by the parlor
registerein a state of the most approved flexible vapidity. But in the
other dress, ambition, health, and spirits are in the ascendant. Im-
possibilities become possibilities. I feel capable of meeting and
conquering every difficulty that presents itself. Could face a northeast
storm if necessary, and run ten miles—in fact, rather feel inclined to do
it without the necessity. In short, inactivity in this dress is as impossi-
ble as activity in the other. There are, no doubt, hundreds of women
in every city who would send forth the most grateful thanksgiving ever
uttered could this dress be the prevailing one. But the great obstacle
in the way is the fear of being conspicuous, of being the target of all
eyes and all remarks, of being alone in it. Could these hundreds be
united, and adopt the dress at the same time, it would remove the diffi-
culty. Of all reform dresses, I think the poorest is the one with full
skirt, reaching nearly to the ankle. It has neither the merit of good
taste nor convenience. Skirts and trousers do not harmonize. It will
be found, in time, that everything that does not meet the wants of the
proprieties and conveniences of life, violates the laws of good taste.
Dangling skirts always do this, although partially abbreviated in
length. The partially abbreviated one is more out of taste than the
full length ! Trousers and skirts can never be made to chime. A sacque,
reaching only to the knees, and trousers, d la Turc, or d la Americaine,
according to the taste, will be found the better dress, both as to good
looks and convenience.” -
At the World's Convention of the Woman's Christian Temperance
Union, held in London in 1895, an organization whose branches extend
throughout the civilized world, the late well-known president, Frances
Willard, in her great address, did not overlook the question of dress
reform. She said : -
“One thing is certain, when women come to themselves out of the
dream and inanition of ages; when it is demonstrated to them, as it
will be, that they are simply machines for the exploitation of silk,
woollen, and cotton mills, without the slightest regard to their comfort
or the real beauty of their garments; when they have studied physiology
and hygiene long enough to know that by their senseless and criminal
manner of girding themselves about with tight corsets and bodices,
152 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
wearing weights and false hair on their heads, cramping their feet and
exposing their lower limbs insufficiently clad to the vicissitudes of
climate ; when they are intelligent enough to see, and alive enough to
Fig. 55.
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feel, the degradation of sweeping all the microbes and filth of the pave-
ment with their long skirts, it is safe to say there will be such another
revolt from the prevailing methods of feminine attire as will prove, in
right down earnest, that women have developed a future race worthy
to live in that better world that we are now engaged in manufacturing
here below.”















THE CLOTHES WE WEAR. I 53
Artistic ideals now require both beauty and fitness in dress, and
the coming reform costumes promise better to fulfil both demands
than the earlier inventions in bloomers, as in daily evidence among lady
bicycle riders. Our artist, however, in depicting the great change has
hardly done justice to Mrs. Bloomer, who adopted a new style of dress
in the State of New York in about 1849–50. This estimable lady was
not only personally good looking, with a countenance beaming with
intelligence, but her dress looked far more tasteful than is represented
in the picture. In both beauty and comfort it so far exceeded the
fashionable costumes of those days that the writer enthusiastically urged
its adoption and quite succeeded in prevailing upon some of his lady
friends to appear in public thus attired.
The testimony of those who were induced to try it was decidedly in
its favor. At that time, however, the reformation made little or no
progress, but now, as remarked by Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “the
women are riding to freedom on their bicycles.” They never looked
more fascinating than when standing by their wheels in their short
skirts, or more like birds on the wing than when spinning over the
streets or pathways. It may be only a wave of progress, but it is moving
things on further than they will be likely to recede when the wave
Subsides.
It is a great pity that we go to Paris for our fashions. It were
better for the health of our women if we imported them from China,
or from Japan, or from Persia. To reform, however, we need not copy
the latter. Some of their styles would hardly answer for our climate.
We ought to be able to devise fashions ourselves, suited to our physical
wants, and not go to Paris. Let our American women set the Paris-
ians an example, which, when physiological knowledge becomes more
general, their better sense may compel them to adopt.
LOW-NECKED DRESSES.
Much has been said for and against low-necked dresses. In the
early days of Pennsylvania, the law-makers took the subject in hand,
and enacted “that if any white female, of ten years or upward, should
appear in any public street, lane, highway, church, court-house, tavern,
ball-room, theatre, or any other place of public resort, with naked
shoulders (i.e., low-necked dresses), being able to purchase necessary
clothing, shall forfeit and pay a fine of not less than one, or more than
two hundred dollars ” It was, however, graciously provided that
Women of questionable character might go with bare shoulders, as a
badge of distinction between the chaste and unchaste. It is astonishing
how men are always interfering with women's attire by legislative
enactment. Will the women retaliate when they have the ballot and
the law-making power The style of dress prohibited by the early
154 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
“Pennamites” is now fashionable at balls and parties, even in Penn-
Sylvania.
If both men and women could be induced to let the neck go
undressed at all times, there would be less throat and pulmonary dis-
ease. The evil lies in sometimes dressing the neck warmly, and at
others not at all. For instance, during the winter our fashionable
Women not only commonly wear high-necked dresses, but in addition
thereto, fur capes and tippets. But you will meet the less sensible of
them at Some social gathering, with either no neck-dress at all, or with
one made of some fabric of transparent texture. If they escape a cold
after such exposure, it is altogether a miracle. It would be greatly to
the advantage of people of both sexes, if they would toughen the neck
like the face by exposure. But this can only be done by throwing
aside all neck-dress at all times, both out as well as in doors. The fur
Capes of the women, and the fur and woollen tippets of the men, are a
fruitful source of bronchial and throat difficulties. Many a disease of
this kind may be cured by simply leaving off neck-dresses. When
considerable care is exercised, colds are contracted by tender throats
and necks, made so by fur and woollen. When a lady or gentleman
enters the house, furs and tippets are laid aside, often when the tem-
perature is colder in-doors with them off, than out-of-doors with them
on. It is next to an impossibility to so manage such neck-dresses as to
CScape injury in consequence of this fact. Especially imprudent is it to
put furs and woollens on the necks of children. It is actually “killing
them with kindness.” They are not, and cannot always be under the
eye of an attendant, and their little necks, made sensitive by such warm
dressing, are affected in a moment by some unexpected exposure.
They may even go out at times without their tippets, though carefully
watched, and then mamma has no idea, how Charlie or Ida contracted
those horrid colds. Would it not be well for those having the care of
children, and who are so careful to muffle them up when they go out,
to give this matter a little serious reflection, and ask themselves when
they have done the little folks all up so securely, whether they have
any guaranty that they will return in the same condition. If not, are
you not prepared to acknowledge with me that all this muffling is
attended with injury rather than benefit 7 You often wonder why the
children of the poor do not more often die in winter from their exposure
to the cold ; but the cold seldom kills indigent children. Badly venti-
lated rooms in winter, and bad food in summer, make the mortality of
this class greater; but they do not suffer with those coughs and colds,
bronchial difficulties and snuffles, which affect the children of the rich.
We might learn something from our antipodes in the way of
dressing loosely. On a previous page is illustrated the free and airy
clothing of the Japanese. There is looseness enough for freedom of
THE CLOTHES WE WEAR I55
motion and circulation of air about the skin and a chance for electrical
radiation to go on unobstructedly. There is not much weight to such
clothing, and what there is, drapes from the shoulders. It is not well
adapted to our colder climate and to the diversified employments of our
women ; but the lesson of comfort and hygiene is there and We can
adopt Something of the principle if not the style.
ABOUT THE COSTUMES OF MEN.
Dr. Frank Hamilton made a fling at the costume of the men of
America, which I shall quote here, for the criticism is worthy of con-
sideration. He said : “We have adopted as a national costume broad-
cloth—a thin, tight-fitting, black suit of broadcloth. To foreigners, we
seem always to be in mourning ; we travel in black, write in black, and
we work in black. The priest, the lawyer, the doctor, the literary man,
the mechanic, and even the city laborer, chooses always the same
unvarying, monotonous, black broadcloth ; a style and material which
ought not to have been adopted out of the drawing-room or the pulpit ;
because it is a feeble and expensive fabric ; because it is, at the North,
no suitable protection against the cold, nor is it any more suitable at
the South. It is too thin to be warm in the winter, and too black to be
cool in the summer ; but especially we object to it because the wearer
is always afraid of soiling it by exposure. Young men will 'not play
ball, or pitch quoits, or wrestle, or tumble, or do any other similar
thing, lest their broadcloth should be offended. They will not go out
into the storm, because the broadcloth will lose its lustre if rain falls
upon it. They will not run, because they have no confidence in the
strength of the broadcloth ; they dare not mount a horse, or leap a fence,
because broadcloth, as everybody knows, is so faithless. So these young
men and these older merchants, mechanics, and all, learn to walk, talk,
and think soberly and carefully; they seldom laugh to the full extent
of their sides.” Golf and other sports are changing all this. -
Perhaps as our country expands, there may be as great variety in
our dress as that exhibited in the comic picture we take the liberty to
copy from Collier's Weekly. Uncle Samuel is enlarging his family and
taking in all sorts of people It looks as if the Sombre suits of black
Will have to go.
ICNIT SUITS, RUBBER GARMENTS, AND FOOTGEAR.
The invention and adoption of knit shirts and drawers have done
much to destroy the purity of the blood, and the harmonious action of
Vital electricity. The use of flannel as an article of underdress, in
Changeable climates, is certainly commendable. But to obtain the
benefit which wearers usually seek, i.e., health and comfort, such gar-
ments must be made loose, and changed often. Red flannel, too, is
156 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTs.
better than white. There is something in the chemical qualities of the
red coloring matter that seems to act healthfully, when worn next to
the skin. People of a rheumatic tendency are greatly protected from
attacks of rheumatic pains by the wearing of red flannel. Those who
are susceptible to colds are less liable to take one when red flannel
1S WOTD.
A COMIC PICTURE OF THE COSTUMES OF UNCLE SAM’s NUMEROUS FAMILY.
Knit shirts of whatever color usually set closely to the skin, and
often draw so tightly around the chest as to prevent a free action of
the lungs. I have had occasion to examine consumptive invalids who
were hastening decline by wearing flannel shirts so closely fitted to
them that india-rubber could not have been much more objectionable.
When worn so closely to the skin, these garments tend to gum up the
pores by pressing back upon them their effete exhalations. Flannel
shirts should therefore be made up from the cloth, and loose enough to
admit a free circulation of air between them and the skin. It is well to
wear two, each twenty-four hours, laying off at night the one worn
through the day, and laying off in the morning the one which has been
worn during the night, so that the exhalations and impurities which
may have been absorbed by the flannel can have an opportunity to
pass off.
In this connection I would not omit to warn invalids against the
use of plasters. Almost daily am I consulted by those who have been

THE CLOTHES WE WEAR. I57
in the habit of wearing them more or less for years. “But,” says one,
“they are recommended by my physician.” Shame on your physician
If he knows the offices of the pores of the skin, he is guilty of wilful
malpractice ; if he does not, he ought not to be your physician. I know
that by thus speaking I shall incur the maledictions of the “regulars,”
and not a few of those who call themselves “reformers,” but what do
I care—I have them already. There are said to be nearly three thousand
pores in every Square inch of the human body, and there are from seven
to ten square inches in an ordinary sized plaster. Now think, for one
moment, of the effects which must ultimately ensue from plastering up
twenty to thirty thousand of those useful little orifices through which the
electrical radiations of the system carry off the noxious and waste mat-
ter of the blood. True, you feel a temporary suspension of pain, but
do you not know that skilfully prepared embrocations will produce this
happy result as well, while they allow the machinery of Nature to go on
uninterruptedly 7 When an invalid comes to me plastered up from the
top of his neck to the extremity of his spine, I am invariably reminded
of the way in which some South Americans kill prisoners. It is at
Montevideo, I believe, that they sew them up in a wet hide, leaving
only the head and neck exposed to the vitalizing influences of the
atmosphere. When the hide becomes dry it sticks just about as close
as a “pitch plaster,” and the unfortunate victim dies a slow, but ex-
cruciating death. Why, “Mr. Doctors” (as the Germans sometimes
call the members of our profession), do you not know that the pores are
of as much importance to the human system as the safety-valves to the
steam-engine 7 The pores are actually safety-valves to the animal
machinery, and there is not one more than is necessary. Do not, then,
delude the suffering victim to disease, who has already more noxious
and health-destroying matter in his system than he can carry, with the
hope that a plaster can be of any possible benefit to him. If he has
pains and you cannot cure them with unexceptionable remedies, pass
him over to some of your brethren who can. “There is a balm in
Gilead, and a physician there.”
Overcoats made of the skins of buffaloes are extremely warm in
cold climates in winter, and rubber coats are protective in all climates
in rainy weather, but garments of both descriptions are unhealthful,
because their texture is of such a nature as to prevent the escape of the
insensible perspiration. They are most undoubtedly comfortable for a
day, but their injurious effects may last for a lifetime. For the same
reason, india-rubber, and patent-leather boots and shoes are objection-
able. Those who wear either are not unaware of the excessive moisture
of the feet when dressed with rubber or patent-leather, and that moisture
is simply the dammed up waste fluids which have not been permitted
to escape unobstructedly as Nature intended. There are times and
258 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
Seasons when it may be the least of two evils to put on rubber sandals
or boots in stepping out, but when such emergencies do arise, the feet
should be relieved of them as soon as possible after re-entering the
house. Thick-soled leather boots and shoes are usually sufficient for
any Weather. The addition of a coating of oily blacking does not pro-
vent the feet within them from perspiring naturally, or the exhalations
from passing off freely, and at the same time does most effectually keep
Out Water. Patent-leather is altogether worn for ornamentation, and
not from any seeming necessity. The physiologist should, therefore,
unqualifiedly denounce it as possessing no merit of utility, while it
does possess the demerit of doing injury to the feet of the wearer.
Rubber, patent-leather, close-fitting and insufficient dressings for the
feet, are in many instances the causes of colds, paralytic affecticºs of
the extremities, corns, bunions, etc.
Men usually dress their feet more sensibly than women do. A
lady, Writing for the Home Journal, presents a criticism upon this fact,
and exclaims: “Look at their feet ! You don't see
one in a hundred venture forth in damp, chilly
weather with a thin-soled cloth boot. No | They
Wear boots with thick soles and high heels; while,
on the other hand, you will not see one woman in a
thousand who, when the rain is not pouring, but
when the pavement is only damp and cold, wears
--- anything thicker than a single-soled kid or a calf
ºs gaiter | If you doubt my assertion, go look for your-
£º self at thousands who walk in our crowded cities.
=Sºs Why is there such a difference 7 Is it that women are
inferior to men in possession of good common-sense;
THE WARIOUS INVEN- or is it that they dress in this absurd manner to please
****** the eye of man 2 If so, he must bear some of the
blame, if, instead of boldly condemning their folly, he encourages them
by admiring the beauty of feet dressed in this manner. Let fair
women dress as they please in their warm houses, or in warm, dry
weather, but, for pity's sake, in cold weather let them find something
warmer than a boot which a strong, healthy man would not consider
sufficient protection for himself from the dews of summer.” There is
a healthy reform in progress among women, having reference to the
clothing of the feet, and the writer quoted is a little too sweeping in
her assertion when she says that not one woman in a thousand exhibits
good sense in dressing her feet for damp and cold weather. But her
complaint is well put, barring the extravagance of the statement. It is
to be hoped that it will every year grow less applicable to women every-
where. When the public becomes sufficiently enlightened, no covering
for the feet will look so beautiful as a thick-soled boot.
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THE CLOTHES WE WEAR. I59
SECORD-BIAND CLOTHING AND SEIODDY.
Second-hand clothing is a medium through which many an aristo-
cratic disease is conveyed to poor people. A wealthy invalid who gives
his coat to a poor man without having it cleansed and sterilized,
bestows no blessing. No man can wear a garment for one week with-
out imparting to it a portion of himself, and if he be diseased his gar-
ment is also diseased. A dog will recognize his master's clothes by the
smell, and I have seen those whose clothes anybody with less acute
olfactories could recognize by their odor. There is a perfectly simple
and philosophical solution of this phenomenon. The electrical radia-
tion of the impurities of the system, commonly known as insensible
perspiration, enters the minutest threads of the cloth, and an old coat
and pair of trousers contain many ounces of waste animal-matter from the
body of the wearer. Bring these in contact with the absorbing pores,
and a person is at once inoculated to a certain degree with the noxious
matter contained in them. Syphilitic and other venereal diseases are
frequently transmitted in this way, and other complaints, probably
quite as often, only the latter are not as immediately detected as the
former.
Persons should never wear their deceased relatives' clothes, unless
they consist of articles which can be thoroughly washed, and then it is
doubtful if they can be entirely cleansed of the diseased radiations
which must have taken place weeks and perhaps months prior to the
last sickness of the wearer. Although individuals of robust constitu-
tion often appear well till thrown at once on a bed of sickness, there are
unhealthy conditions of the system which always precede acute attacks,
and render the clothing unfit for the use of others. The same criticism
that has been made of second-hand clothing may be repeated of second-
hand boots and shoes. A London medical paper has very properly
warned its readers not to wear old boots. It declares that “oftentimes
the leather harbors microbes which may prey on the feet of the wearer.”
If this is true, and why not, of old boots of one's own wearing, how
much truer it may be of second-hand articles of this kind, especially if
the generous giver has some disease of the feet. It may be suspected
of both second-hand clothing and second-hand footwear that they are
polluted with filthy bacteria unless they have been subjected to a
thorough cleaning, including the use of antiseptics for their complete
sterilization. Sweet, clean, new fabric, and leather fresh from the vats
of the tanner are none too good for an American pauper.
Shoddy clothes which are manufactured of people's old clothes,
cast-off blankets, old carpets, worn-out stockings, flannels, tailors'
scraps, etc., are liable to impart disease to the wearer. The process
they pass through in the factory undoubtedly disinfects them to some
I6O CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
Cxtent, but there are some rags that no chemical agents can disinfect,
and these may get upon the backs of the wearers of shoddy. Both in
England and in this country shoddy is extensively manufactured. In
this State alone there are many shoddy factories. Millions of pounds
of Woollen rags are annually made into shoddy in England. Now, who
Supposes when there is such a demand for woollen rags that small-pox,
ship fever, cholera, yellow fever, syphilis, and scrofula can be kept
Out of shoddy ? The great trouble is to detect this kind of cloth before
it is worn ; after it is worn awhile, the collection of short woollen rolls
between it and the lining betrays the character of the fabric. We need
inspectors of rags. Will not our humane legislators protect us 2 If
We must wear shoddy without knowing it, let us have its manufacture
so looked after that we shall not wear on our backs anything worse
than the old stockings, undergarments, and blankets of invalids who
have died of ordinary, non-contagious diseases, and the old coats and
trousers of decent living people.
In conclusion, I would say, that if costume is indispensable, there
are three rules to be observed to secure that which is healthful, viz.:
First, cover no more of the body than the dictates of common modesty
require, and let the covering be equally distributed. Second, let the
clothes be made of entirely new material, and of such as will allow
the uninterrupted egress of the bodily impurities, and the ingress of
the vitalizing properties of the air. Third, dressmakers and tailors
must make clothing to hang loosely about the body, and shoemakers
must be instructed to make the outer dressings of the feet with thick
Soles and easy uppers. When men and women become wise enough to
observe these, the adoption of the more primitive style of our first
parents will appear less called for.
Bad Habits of Children and Youth.
Many of the blood and nervous derangements of adult age are but
harvests of seed sown in childhood and youth. To begin with, the
dietetic habits of children are entirely wrong. Indulgent mothers are
mainly to blame for this. Many mothers imagine that they are greatly
strengthening the little bodies of their babies by giving them the juices
of animal flesh in the form of soup or broth, before they have teeth to
masticate the flesh itself, and as soon as the masticating organs are
developed they are allowed the diet of an adult. Often, too, they are
allowed stimulating drinks, such as tea and coffee, and in some cases
even wine. Then, what lots of candy the little ones make away with
from one Christmas-day to another. Candy-eating is a habit in which
many parents indulge children to an extent calling loudly for the
warning of the faithful physician. The innocent darlings are almost
ready to bound out of their shoes when papa or mamma brings home
BAD HABITS OF CHILDREN AND YOUTH. I6 I
from the confectioner a sweet little package of beautifully striped, red,
blue, green, and yellow sugar-plums; of course they are, for they have
the most implicit confidence in their dear parents, and know they will
not give them anything which will injure them But parents may not
know that there are stomach ills concealed in the pretty spiral streaks
which ornament the confectionery; papas are so absorbed in business
and mammas in fictitious literature, it is a chance if either of them ever
find it out. So long as no immediate fatalities occur to the little creat-
ures it is supposed that such indulgences are harmless. As in excessive
meat-eating, and other bad habits, Nature does not cry out at Once, and
as a consequence, physical injury therefrom FIG. 58.
is not dreamed of. But ignorance does not
shield the juvenile or adult from the deadly
consequences of pernicious habits, which
gradually undermine the constitution and
induce premature decay.
In former editions of this work this page
was filled mainly with quotations from Hassell,
telling of the injurious adulterations and min-
erals employed in coloring candics, but times
change, and with them the tricks of all trades.
New discoveries of organic dyes have been
made which make it easy to manufacture
candies in various attractive colors without THE LITTLE BAREFootBD
resorting to salts of lead, antimony, copper, CANDY-EATER.
etc. Therefore the official or authoritative criticisms in reference to
candies have necessarily been modified. The U. S. Department of Agri-
culture has a division of chemistry under the direction of Professor H. W.
Wiley, that looks after food adulteration and issues reports thereon. In
the last report, for 1892, Part VI. relates to sugar, molasses, syrup, con-
fections, and honey, and contains an account of the investigations of
nine chemists residing in the largest cities of North, South, East, and
West. They purchased the cheapest grades of candy to examine, and
though true sugar was often found to the extent of only one half, the
other ingredients were not really objectionable, being mainly glucose,
starch, and flour; and no mineral coloring matters were detected—only
a trace, now and then, of copper from vessels in which candies are
made. The colors are generally aniline dyes or coal-tar products, used
in so very small an amount that it is doubtful if much harm can come
from them.
Whatever may have been the sins of candy-makers, evidently
science has made possible progress and reform in the art of manu-
facture in this line as well as in so many other directions, so that now
it i. perhaps easier to do right than wrong. As to the adulteration

I62 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
with starch and flour, or even glucose, it is extremely doubtful if any
injury to the eater can arise from them. The objection to candy-eating
now is reduced to the one fact that excess of sweets tends to derange
digestion, and favors a process of fermentation which may bring about
a very troublesome disorder of all digestive processes. Not only is
normal digestion of all proper food in the stomach and intestines
interfered with by the ferment set up by candy-eating, but the liver
functions also become greatly disturbed, and even the kidneys may be
found casting off the excess of sugar in the urine, which is not a prop-
er task to impose upon them. Directly and indirectly, the effect upon
the teeth of children is unfavorable, and when general nutrition of the
body has become impaired, as it often does, from the candy habit, the
way has been paved for the onset of quite a variety of chronic diseases.
“Too much of a good thing is good for nothing,” or even worse,
is a rule that applies pretty generally to the human organism, and in
nothing more surely than in excessive use of sweets. They are natural
foods, in a way, but in candies too concentrated. Nature furnishes them
diluted for our use in the form of fruit juices, and generally with some
acid. When we extract the sugar from cane or beets, we are liable, if
tempted by a “sweet tooth,” to use more of it than is good for us, and
the most likely victims of this appetite and habit are children.
As to the starch and flour adulterations, no harm can be charged
against them, since they are more normal foods than sugar, and less
injurious, bulk for bulk. With reference to glucose there is a difference
of opinion, but the writer strongly favors the view that glucose, as an
ingredient of candies, can do no more harm than sugar ; and even when
used largely, as it is in compounding syrups and bottled honey, it is
about as innocent as any of their components.
I have perhaps said all that is necessary about candy-eating; but
the evils of meat-eating and coffee-drinking by children have been but
briefly alluded to in this place. These habits are such a prolific cause
of sickness among the infantile portion of our community, I would
urgently direct the attention of mothers to what I have to say on this
subject in the chapter on the Prevention of Disease, where I speak of
dietetics for young and old.
BAD HABITS AT SCHOOL.
At school children acquire many injurious habits, one of which
is illustrated in Fig. 59. The effect of this posture is to cramp the
lungs, thereby preventing the usual quantity of electrifying air from
coming in contact with and arterializing the venous blood. It also
curves the spine, the great nervous trunk, and in a measure interrupts
the harmonious distribution of the nervo-electric fluid. Hence, both
blood and nervous derangements are induced thereby. Parents and
BAD HABITS OF CHILDREN AND YOUTH. I63
teachers are not particular enough in observing and criticising the
posture of the school-boy. Many a case of spinal disease and pulmonary
consumption had its origin on the bench of the school-room. Seats
should always be provided with suitable backs for the support of the
spine, and children should be required to maintain a correct posture.
A great error is generally committed by parents in sending their
children to school at an age so tender that the development of the
mental faculties seriously interferes with the vigorous formation of
their physical parts. A child of three or four years of age, seated on a
bench in school is no more in his place than a twelve-year-old boy
would be on the judge's bench in a Court of
Chancery. What does he care about letters or
syllables 2 What he learns is not the result of a
gratification of a thirst for knowledge, but of a
severe and health-destroying discipline, which
effects a forced growth of the mind at the ex-
pense of the body. The vital nervo-electric
forces withheld from the generous development
of the chest, the vital organs, and the muscles,
are consumed in nourishing and enlarging the
brain. In art, mankind exhibit common-sense.
The master builder, who is about to decorate his
grounds with a superb edifice, first lays a strong
and perhaps inelegant foundation upon which to
raise the monument of his superior skill in archi-
tecture. So the parent, who wishes his child to
occupy a commanding and useful position in
society, when he shall have arrived at the stature
of manhood, should take pains to secure for him
a physical foundation which can firmly sustain PAP Position in sitting.
the mental superstructure. To this end, children should be kept out of
school, and allowed to dig play-houses in the sand, play horse with
strings, jump ropes, and roll hoops until their little limbs become hard
and chests broad, and, too, until they evince some desire for study. If
this desire is manifested before the age of five or six, it should not be
encouraged. The first six, and even ten, years of boyhood are none too
long to prepare the physical trunk for the nourishment of mental
growth. We once had in the United States Senate a man who was
taught his alphabet by his wife after marriage. We have had, at
least, two Presidents of the United States who hardly saw the inside of
a school-room before they became old enough to work and pay for their
own education. Nor are these isolated instances of final rapid mental
progress of early neglected minds, after the bodies which nourished
them had gained both strength and maturity. History is embellished
FIG. 59.

164 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTs.
with them. The great Patrick Henry was, mentally, a dull boy, and
hated books, but when the flowers of his mental garden, enriched by
the nutriment of a strong and matured physical organization, did bloom,
the whole country was intoxicated by their fragrance, inspiring the
American patriots with an enthusiasm which naught but success could
Satiate. In the face of Such facts, let not parents make intellectual
prodigies and physical wrecks of their children. If they possess the
germ of greatness, there is no danger but it will become developed
by the time society, the State, and the nation have need of them.
GOING ‘‘ BARE FOOT.”
A very common practice among the children of the indigent in
cities, and those of all classes in the country, is a common cause of
blood diseases. In large towns the streets and gutters are the receptacles
of filth of every description, a partial specification of which would
embrace the diseased expectorations of men and animals, dead carcasses
of flies, cockroaches, rats, and mice, killed by poison, poisonous
chemicals and acids swept from drug stores and medical laboratories,
filthy rags which have becn used in dressing foul ulcers, mucus from
syphilitic sores, etc., the bare touch of which is polluting. But when,
as is almost daily the case, the barefooted urchin “stubs his toes”
against a projecting stone, rupturing the skin, and then brings his
bleeding feet in contact with this heterogeneous compound of mineral,
vegetable, and animal poisons, to say nothing of dangerous microbes,
the blood is sure to receive an impure inoculation which, unless eradi-
cated by vegetable medication, clings to the individual through life,
rendering him ever a susceptible subject for epidemics, colds, and
chronic diseases. In villages, although less exposed to corrupt animal
inoculations, barefooted children are liable to have the purity of their
blood contaminated by contact with poisonous plants, which abound in
country places. And merely a thoughtless gallop through stubble
fields, where wheat or oats have been harvested, may impart to the
blood of the barefooted child a humor which is sooner or later to cause
his death. Because serious effects do not manifest themselves immedi.
ately, many parents flatter themselves that the practice is not attended
with bad results. But blood impurities are generally insidious, and pro.
duce disease when it is least expected.
The following remarkable case of poisoning, by a bone, will serve
to illustrate the danger of going barefoot. I will quote from a woman
who wrote me upon the subject of her ill-health. This is her narrative :
“Up to my ninth year I was in perfect health, with the free use of
every sense and faculty. At that time I stepped on a bone while playing
in the dooryard. It pierced the foot, but so slightly as to cause but
little blood to flow. The hollow of the foot was the place injured, but
BAD HABITS OF CHILDREN AND YOUTH. 165
no swelling or soreross ensued, excepting that it hurt me inwardly to
walk on it. The thira r fourth day a high ſever made its appearance,
and the tongue and lips commenced swelling rapidly. The throat
swelled outwardly until nearly even with my chin, attended also with
Soreness inside. The poison went through my entire system, breaking
out on my legs in large sores, which discharged freely. Disease seemed
to effect alarmingly the whole inside of my mouth, physicians taking
from my nose with instruments two large pieces which seemed like
softened bone. Discharges from nose and ears were very free for
months, and I became almost deaf for a year, mind almost destroyed,
memory entirely gone, playmates, playthings, prayers, and everything,
all to be learned anew. Seemed to be nearly idiotic, laughing so long
and loudly at the striking of the clock that the striking had to be
stopped. During this sickness, which lasted nine weeks, I received no
medicine, being unable to swallow anything, only that which was
forced down my mouth and throat with a feather. Death was hourly
expected, often thought to be very near. My teeth all hung loose, my
hands being tied to prevent me from taking them out. My tongue
hung far out of my mouth, and that which remained in was so swollen
as to nearly fill my whole mouth. You don't know how much I suffer
in writing this terrible experience, and I will say no more.” This bone
was undoubtedly from some animal most thoroughly diseased, and this
case may be presented as an extraordinary one. But milder poisons are
received into the system by this same contact of bare feet with poisonous
substances without producing such marked effects, and the sufferer
does not think to attribute the difficulties with which he is contending
to such a cause.
I do not believe it was ever intended that every child should pass
through the retinue of diseases which is considered the lot of childhood.
All tender mothers appear to think that their children must have the
mumps, whooping-cough, measles, and Scarlet fever, and the Sooner the
“darlings” have them the better. Now is it reasonable to suppose that
human nature requires these diseases as settlers, the same as coffee
requires eggs or cod-fish skin 2 If children are brought up properly,
they may escape all these diseases. What, with stimulating animal
diet, excess of confectionery, bare feet, and so forth, by which the vital
fluids of the system become rivers of death, can be expected but nur-
sery diseases I Corrupt blood is that which renders the child a ready
victim to a whole train of juvenile ills.
SLEEPING WITH ELDER PERSONS.
A habit which is considerably prevalent in almost every family, of
allowing children to sleep with elder persons has ruined the nervous
vivacity and physical energy of many a promising child. Those hav-
166 CAUSES OF NERVO US AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
ing dear old friends, whose lives they would like to perpetuate at the
sacrifice of their innocent offspring, alone should encourage this evil;
but every parent who loves his child, and wishes to preserve to him a
sound nervous system, with which to buffet successfully the cares,
sorrows, and labors of life, must see to it that his nervous vitality is not
absorbed by some diseased or aged relative.
Children, compared with adults, are electrically in a positive con-
dition. The rapid changes which are going on in their little bodies
abundantly generate, and as extensively work up, vital nervo-electric
forces. But when, by contact for long nights with elder and negative
persons, the vitalizing electricity of their tender organization is given
off, they soon pine, grow pale, languid, and dull, while their bed com.
panions feel a corresponding invigoration. King David, the Psalmist,
knew the effects of this practice, and when he became old, got young
women to sleep with him that his days might be lengthened. Dr.
Hufeland, the German physiologist, attributes the frequent longevity
of schoolmasters to their daily association with young persons.
Invalid mothers often prolong their existence by daily contact with
their children. I once knew a woman who, by weak lungs and mineral
doctors, had been prostrated with incurable consumption. Her infant
occupied the same bed with her almost constantly day and night. The
mother lingered for months on the verge of the grave, her demise being
hourly expected. Still she lingered on, daily disproving the predictions
of her medical attendants. The child, meanwhile, pined without any
apparent disease. Its once fat little cheeks fell away with singular
rapidity, till every bone in its face was visible. Finally, it had imparted
to the mother its last spark of vitality, and simultaneously both died.
I saw it stated in a newspaper that a man in Massachusetts had lived
forty-one days without cating anything, during which period he had
been nourished altogether by a little cold water, and “by the influ-
ences absorbed by him while daily holding the hand of his wife.”
Many old men who marry young wives are aware of the nourish-
ing effects of such unequal unions, and are not such “old fools” as
many pronounce them, while the young women who become their
wives are bigger “young fools” than they are ever reputed to be.
Some old ladies, tenacious of life, and wickedly regardless of the Welfare
of others, often coax children or compel their servants to sleep with
them. Parents, therefore, who feel that affectional devotion to their
children which is usually instinctive, should exercise vigilance and
protect their offspring from a robbery which can never be repaired.
Great care should also be taken to have diseased and healthy children
sleep in separate beds. Although the effect of putting them together is
favorable to the former, it is attended sometimes with fatal and nearly
always injurious results to the latter. It is better in raising a family of
DAD HABITS OF CHILDREN AND YOUTH. 167
children to preserve in health a rugged child, even if its puny brothers
and sisters die, than to distribute his full measure of vitality among
half a dozen, and thus place him on a debilitated level with the whole.
If, however, there be only one or two sickly ones in a large family of
children, it may be an act of mercy to put them with the healthy
group, for if the stock of health held by the rugged young mem-
bers is fully average, they may bring the weakly ones up to their
standard of health without perceptibly lowering their own. A group
of vigorous children may also bring in from their out-of-door plays a
surplus of vitality, which they may beneficially impart to a brother or
sister confined to the sick-room. But in any family, unless a stock of
health predominates among the children, the sickly ones will bring the
more rugged ones down to their physical level unless parents exercise
great care,
A DESTRUCTIVE HABIT.
Masturbation, or self-pollution, is a prevalent vice among both
children and youth. The amative passions prematurely developed by
stimulating diet, importune gratification which cannot be granted in the
manner prescribed by Nature, because marriage is an institution avail-
able only for adults. Ignorant of the physiological effects of resorting
to artificial means, and goaded to desperation by the perusal of popular
romances, the unsophisticated youth falls an easy victim to a habit
which taps the very fountains of nervo-vitality, and drains from the
blood all its purest and most strengthening qualities. It has always
seemed surprising to me how many parents allow their tables and book-
shelves to become loaded with yellow-covered, or equally pernicious
literature, while they carefully exclude every book which treats on
physiological matters. If Mr. Beelzebub should write out a prescrip-
tion for the destruction of young men and women, and in its punctua-
tion use a grave for a period, its adoption could prove no more fatal
than has the prescription of civilization. Am I asked what this is ?
Then I will tell you. In utero-life, before the child has breathed the
atmosphere of this world, the treatment begins. Excessive venery
between the parents imparts to the unborn child a too great prepon-
derance of the animal nature. After its birth, this excess continues,
and, through the milk which it absorbs from its mother's breast, the
instinct derives immoderate nourishment. Before the natural fountains
are dried up, animal broths are introduced into its active little stomach,
and ere it reaches the age of three years, it daily gluts itself with the diet
of a full-grown man. Coffee and steak for a three-year-old child !
Next, it is taught to read, and at the age of ten or fourteen years, while
it feeds its stomach with highly seasoned meats and drinks, it quenches
its mental appetite with fictitious romances. Is it strange, then, that
I68 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
!
masturbation is a prevalent vice : Some may think it is not. This
only proves lack of opportunities for observation, and want of ability to
detect its effects upon those given to it. Five children in every ten
over twelve years of age bear the marks which this disgusting vice
Stamps on the Countenances of its victims. Children of both sexes are
included in this estimate, although the evil is not so prevalent with girls
as with boys. Should I speak of boys only, I would say seven of every
ten Were addicted more or less to it. The fatal consequences of mastur-
bation are painfully apparent to every physician having a large pro-
fessional correspondence, or an extensive practice in those diseases
termed chronic. Undoubtedly, the reason I receive so many letters
from the victims of this pernicious habit is because they can, with less
embarrassment, present their cases by letter to a distant physician than
in person to a resident medical adviser. The habit acts slowly, but
powerfully, in destroying the harmony of the nervous system, vitiating
the blood, producing, ultimately, a great variety of diseases, according
to the idiosyncrasies of its slaves, but more commonly, neurasthenia,
mental depression, and insanity. I am daily written to by invalids in
all parts of the country, who freely confess the cause which led to their
ill-health. I am also often called upon by persons of both sexes affected
with diseases which I see, at a glance, are the direct or indirect prod-
ucts of the habit of self-pollution. Some candidly confess it at the
outset; others stoutly deny it at first, but generally, the truth finally
comes out by confession or detection. Parents always (and very
naturally) dislike to believe their children addicted to the vice. I was
once called upon by a clergyman desiring to consult me about the
illness of his daughter. I will not state when or where, or the nature
of the difficulty with which his daughter was afflicted, as all consulta-
tions must be treated confidentially, and nothing be said by the physician
to identify a patient alluded to by way of illustration. Suffice it to say,
she was a pretty, blooming girl of education and refinement, with no
mark of disease, excepting one, and that was the result of nervous
derangements, induced, as I readily perceived, by the unfortunate
habit under consideration. My first thought was to communicate with
her mother, but on inquiry, I found that she was deceased. On com-
municating my convictions to the father, he exhibited considerable
indignation, and said that he knew better. I finally prevailed on him
to present the matter to his daughter, and she became overwhelmed
with mortification, and solemnly protested her innocence. The father
censured me for my alleged erroneous and hasty diagnosis, and left my
office, feeling himself aggrieved, and his daughter's sensibility out-
raged. But what better could I have done 7 Here was a disease pro-
duced and perpetuated by the habit of masturbation. All the medical
skill in the world could not cure her, if she were not informed of the
13 AD HABITS OF CHILDREN AND YOUTH. I69
fact, and the habit discontinued. Not many weeks passed before my
course was vindicated. The father called again, made humble apology,
said the daughter's remorse for having told a falsehood had rendered
her sleepless. She had confessed that I was right, and admitted that
her indulgence was frequent. The result rewarded me for the course
I pursued, for she gave up the habit, and recovered her health com-
pletely. The object of this illustration is to show how parents may be
deceived, and how the protestations of a child in these matters cannot
always be relied upon.
To show how enslaved a child may sometimes become to the habit,
and how unable to relinquish it after its health-destroying consequences
are discovered, a more appalling story may be related of a young man
who fell into the vice. He consulted me at about the age of nineteen
years, after he had become entirely impotent. At a very early age he
commenced the habit of masturbation, and at fourteen, by some means,
became aware of its injurious effects. He tried repeatedly to abandon the
habit, but resolution was weakened by the effects the vice had produced
upon his mind, and after many attempts, and as many failures, he
actually tried to castrate himself with a jack-knife. He succeeded in
removing one of the testicles, but nearly bleeding to death, and fearing
to make a confidant of anyone, he desisted from completing the opera-
tion, and his habit continued to enslave him till he became impotent
physically, and wretched mentally. In this condition, after having read
some of my publications, he sought my advice, and confided to me what,
if his parents had discharged their duty, would have been confided to
them before he became such a wreck, if, indeed, under such circum-
stances, he would have contracted the destructive habit. If it were neces-
sary, I could fill this volume with harrowing narrations of those who have
consulted me in relation to diseases induced by solitary vice, but I trust
what has been already related will suffice to make parents watchful.
And let me advise young people of both sexes, struggling to overcome
the habit, and suffering physically and mentally from its effects, to
make confidants of their parents, if the latter have not made themselves
unapproachable by their children, or, failing in courage to do this, to
present their cases to some reliable physician.
I am often asked for some little tract that teachers or friends may
hand to young folks who need a caution in this regard, and have
arranged that my publishers shall carry a stock of Dr. Miller's “A
Father's Advice to a Boy” (ten cents), and Mrs. Miller’s “Mother's
Advice to a Girl.” They also have the story of “A Blighted Life ; or,
The Mill Boy—What he didn’t know, and what came of it.” This
dime pamphlet is more suitable for youth who have fallen into evil
ways, and who need something pretty emphatic to rouse them to
reform,
6a,
17o CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTs.
Although physiological works generally fail to explain the reason
Why masturbation is worse in its consequences than sexual indulgence,
most of them are good for something, because they serve as a warning
to thoughtless youth. I have never, as yet, read a physiological or
medical work which exhibited the real difference between the effects of
self-pollution and those of sexual intercourse. In fact, many young
people, who have studied the writings of medical men consider-
ably, have asked me why masturbation moderately indulged in is any
more injurious than a natural gratification of the passions. This work
shall not be incomplete in this particular ; it shall not only sound in the
young ear the tocsin of alarm, but give philosophical reasons why the
former is positively deleterious, and the latter, in a measure, beneficial.
Such an explanation, however, is reserved for Part Third, in which all
matters pertaining to the amative passion and sexuality will be thor-
oughly discussed. Let all of both sexes, old and young, read it, for
no one should hesitate to obey the injunction—“Know thyself.”
STANDING ON THE EIEAD.
The juvenile feat of standing on the head is quite extensively prac-
tised by school-boys without a knowledge of the injurious effects. Ihave
seen urchins remain in an inverted position till the blood appeared as if
ready to gush out of their eyes and cheeks. One case of immediate
death from this cause was lately given in an Illinois paper. The effect
of the exploit is to impair the circulation of both the blood and nervous
fluids, and congest the brain. On a par with this exercise, is that of
turning around sufficient to become dizzy and fall down. Little girls
are most addicted to this practice. It is injurious to the optic nerve,
which is irritated by the sudden changes of objects passing before it,
and also to the brain, whose function of distributing nervo-electricity
to the system is partially suspended. A rapid spiral motion, in brief,
tends to destroy the general harmony of the physical functions.
School-teachers should have an eye to their pupils out of as well as in
school, and discourage all practices so obviously injurious,
THE CIGARETTE HABIT.
I once indited an essay entitled “The Ambition of Atoms,” in
which I endeavored to show how what we call inorganic particles of
matter exhibited sufficient intelligence to associate themselves together
in such a way as to be more beautiful and attractive, as illustrated in
the rock-crystals, the rhombs of calcspar, the stalactites, and stalag-
mites, the cubes of sea-salt, the needles of nitre, the precious stones,
and the ice which forms upon the window-panes in freezing weather.
This ambition exhibits itself throughout all Nature, and suggests quite
irresistibly the truth of the doctrine of evolution, Nowhere is it more
BAD HABITS OF CHILDREN AND YOUTH, 171
markedly exhibited than in the small boy. He no sooner gets into long
trousers than he wants to be a man—every inch a man. As the years
do not fly fast enough, and the object of his ambition seems to be afar
off, he imitates the practices of his seniors, and the virtues being harder
to acquire than the vices, he naturally falls into the latter. One of the
most common is smoking tobacco. To help the Small boy along in
adopting the tobacco habit, some man having an eye to business
devised a small cigar made by rolling fine cut tobacco in rice paper.
This little device became attractive to men who did not quite like the
usual pipe or cigar, and was still more largely adopted by women of
convivial tastes, but to none was it a greater boon than to the Small boy.
With this he could mingle with his youthful associates with the same
sportive airs he observed among his seniors, and he could imagine
himself to be in manners and accomplishments a full-fledged man.
The results to the dealers in tobacco can be somewhat measured when
it is stated that in 1886 there were manufactured in this country
1,310,961,350 cigarettes, and at this time 4,000,000,000 are placed
annually on the market. The manufacturers stoutly insist that nothing
worse than the tobacco weed is put into these cigarettes, although it is
charged by many that they contain opium, morphine, belladonna,
cannabis indica, cocaine, and other powerful narcotics, and to these
adulterations is attributed the baneful effects observed upon the small
boy. To my mind it is quite objectionable enough that they contain
tobacco. The effects of tobacco upon the human system will be suffi-
ciently presented further on without mentioning them here. (See “Bad
Habits of Manhood and Womanhood.”) I might add, however, to what
is said in that place, that Dr. Francis Dowling has been investigating
the effects of tobacco on the vision. The Health Magazine says “he
personally tested the vision of one hundred and fifty men employed in a
large tobacco factory. He found that vision was very greatly dimin-
ished in nearly one-third the entire number. In thirty cases there was
very serious impairment of vision and the men were almost absolutely
color-blind. In seventy-five, or one-half the total number, there was a
persistent contraction of the pupil and accompanying defects in vision.
Other statistics equally convincing might be quoted,” and, says this
authority, “what tobacco does for the nerves of the sight, it does to
every other nerve in the body.” It has been charged that the cigarette
produces insanity, but Clark Bell is quoted as having presented on some
public occasion “letter after letter from neurologists, alienists, and
Superintendents of insane asylums,” probably all smokers, “to the effect
that cigarettes had never caused insanity.” This reminds me of a
colloquy between “Stratekut’ and a physician. Queried the former :
“Doctor, do you believe that smoking cigarettes ever made one crazy 7°
“I am not so sure about that,” quickly replied the doctor, “but I do
172 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
Suspect that craziness has caused a good many people to take up cigar-
ettes | " (While reading proof of this matter, New York papers give the
story of a young man, twenty years old, made insane through their exces-
sive use). Health authorities and others are so aroused in opposition to
the cigarette‘that laws are being enacted in many States in our Union,
forbidding under heavy penalties the sale of cigarettes to young men
under a certain age. It is stated, too, that the School Board of the City
of New York requires all applicants for the responsible position of
teacher to be examined physically as well as mentally, and that one of
the causes for rejecting an applicant is the manifestation of any signs
of impairment from the use of either tobacco or liquor. It is said that
“the cigarette fiend is ruled out.” Some foreign countries, noticeably
Norway, are pursuing a similar drastic policy, and it is reported that
the latter has enacted a statute forbidding the sale of tobacco or
Cigarettes to youths under sixteen without signed orders from adults.
“Even tourists who offer cigarettes to youths render themselves liable
to prosecution, while the police are empowered to confiscate the pipes,
cigars, and cigarettes of youths who smoke in the public streets, a fine
for the offence being likewise imposed which may be anywhere between
two shillings and five pounds.” The New York Tribune, from which
these quotations are made, adds: “King James's counterblast against
tobacco was light in comparison with the robust counterpuff of the
Storthing, most of the members of which are smokers and know what they
are legislating about.”
Precisely so | While the fathers, and in some cases, the mothers,
of these youths are making no secret of smoking cigars or cigarettes,
they are trying ineffectually to prevent their children by law from
imitating their pernicious example. In this broad country the same
example is given to the young. There can be no question of the
physical evils resulting to father and child from the use of the poisonous
weed, but if we would save our boys from such a destructive habit we
must, in view of the monkey-like imitativeness of our children, show
our sincerity by abjuring tobacco ourselves, and when I say ourselves,
let it not be implied that I personally use tobacco, for I never did. But
we will let this suffice for the boy and the cigarette. For a fuller
exposition of the effects of tobacco, whether used by a child or adult,
see the next essay.
To make healthy men and women, an entire revolution is necessary
in the training of children. Very few girls and boys, nowadays,
bloom into womanhood and manhood with healthy physical organ-
isms. Some of the causes are indicated in what has been said in this
essay. The principal errors in their training have been briefly alluded
to, and a thousand minor ones cannot fail to suggest themselves to the
experienced mother,
BAD HABITS OF MANHOOD AND WOMANHOOD. 173
Bad Habits of Manhood and Womanhood.
It is a trite adage that “man is a creature of habit.” Indeed,
every man, woman, and child has habits of some kind, and nearly every
person is addicted to what are called bad habits to some extent. It is a
good habit to speak well of your neighbor, instead of saying hard
things about him, even when he provokes you. It is a good habit to
“do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” It is a good
habit to preserve personal cleanliness inside and out, by keeping the
outer skin or cuticle free from all obstructing accumulations and excre-
tions, and the inside skin, or mucous membrane, uncontaminated
by noxious vapors, poisonous drinks, un- FIG, 60.
wholesome food, excrementitious engorge-
ments, and vitiated secretions. Every prac-
tice, indeed, which makes the conscience
clearer, the mind happier, and the functions
of the whole system more regular and thor-
ough in their performance, may be put down
as a good habit, and every practice producing
an opposite effect may be denounced as a bad
habit. It should also be borne in mind that
what we may indulge in, or pursue occasion-
ally with benefit, may injure us if it become
a habit, and that self-deception is easy if
wilful ignorance is encouraged. SMGRING AND SN UFFING.
One of the most prevalent of bad habits is the use of tobacco.
This poisonous weed is extensively used by nearly every community of
people under the sun. In New York City alone there are hundreds of
thousands of smokers, and nearly as many chewers of tobacco, to say
nothing of snuff-takers. It is estimated that its citizens spend more for
cigars than they do for bread. The Europeans, and the present white
inhabitants of this continent, borrowed the habit of smoking of the
aborigines of America, and the Asiatics somehow or other got hold of
the trick themselves. Many fashionable ladies on both sides of the
Atlantic smoke their cigarettes, and a cigar-dealer in Boston makes the
astounding announcement that he sells an average of three hundred
cigars daily for the use of the fair ones of New England. According
to Johnson, every female in the big empire of China, “from the age of
eight or nine, wears as an appendage in her dress a small silken pocket,
to hold tobacco and a pipe.” The Japanese also smoke, women as well
as men. A majority of men all over the world smoke, or chew, and
not a few boys follow their illustrious example. The poet Milton was
a moderate Smoker, and Lamb, at one time, carried smoking to a great
excess. The latter, in a letter to Wordsworth, said : “Tobacco has

174 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
been my evening comfort and morning curse for these five years.”
The great preacher Robert Hall claimed to have adopted the habit of
smoking to qualify himself for the society of a certain Doctor of
Divinity (?), and finally he became so much of a slave to it, he found
himself unable to overcome it. He thanked somebody who was trying
to reform him for Adam Clarke's pamphlet on “The Use and Abuse of
Tobacco,” following with the exclamation, “I cannot refute his ar-
gument, and I cannot give up smoking !” A friend one day accosted
him with, “Ah I find you again at your idol l’” Whereupon Hall
FIG. 61.
FIRST LESSON IN STMOEING.
responded, “Yes I burning it !” Sir Walter Raleigh, who first appeared
in England with a pipe of tobacco in his mouth, was said to have had a
bucket of water thrown on him by his servant who, seeing the smoke
issuing from his mouth, supposed him to be on fire.
In portions of the Southern States, a practice called “dipping” is
indulged in to a disgusting extent among women. A little mop is
made by mashing the end of a stick of pine, or some other soft wood,
and with this instrument snuff is rubbed sometimes for hours at a time
on the lips, teeth, and gums. A young miss in Arkansas died from the

BAD HABITS OF MANHOOD AND WOMANHOOD. 175
effects of snuff-dipping, she having fallen asleep with a mop in her
mouth. “A post-mortem examination,” remarked the newspaper,
“revealed the fact that she had swallowed the juice containing a large
quantity of nicotine, which is a deadly poison. Her lips, cheeks, and
breast were smeared with the foul stuff in her dying struggles alone
in her room.” This is shocking, to be sure ; but many ladies and
Some gentlemen, who would be shocked to hear of a friend having Con-
tracted the habit of snuff-dipping, may be caught snuffing powdered
tobacco into their noses, if you watch them closely. By some micro-
scopic distinction, not perceptible from a physiological stand-point,
snuff-taking is considered more respectable than snuff-dipping, and yet,
many American ladies, moving in fashionable society, are confirmed
snuff-dippers. The gentleman who solaces himself with a fine Havana.
cigar, considers snuff-dipping and snuff-taking detestable—cannot
imagine what makes women do such disgusting things | Meanwhile,
another individual with a streak of tobacco juice in the corners of his
lips intrudes his presence, and argues (really with truth) that his habit
is not so injurious as that of the smoker | Now, the long and short of
the whole matter is this : Tobacco is a medicinal plant, just as much
as belladonna, stramonium, hyoscyamus, etc., all of which belong to
the same order, and should not be indulged in by healthy persons any
more than cathartics and emetics. It is a very active narcotic and
sternutatory, and should only be used by neuralgic and catarrhal
invalids, or those troubled with constipation, and then only for a
limited time, and by the direction of a physician. Its habitual use by
healthy people is attended with injury to the nerves and blood. The
poisonous properties of tobacco are forcibly exhibited in the following
extracts from a little work by Dr. Alcott, and from other publications.
IPO ISO NO US PROPERTIES OF TOISA CCO.
“By the ordinary process of distillation, an alkaline principle in
small quantity is obtained, called by chemists “nicotin,’ as well as an
oily substance called ‘nicotianine.’ A drop of either of these, but
especially of the former, is found sufficient to destroy life in a dog of
moderate size ; and two drops destroy the largest and most fierce.
Small birds perish at the bare approach of a small tube holding it.
“There is another oil procured from tobacco, by distilling it at a
temperature above that of boiling water, called empyreumatic oil. It is
of a dark brown color and has a smell exactly like that of old and
strong tobacco pipes. A drop of it forced into the lower portion of the
intestine of a cat causes death, in most instances, in about five minutes;
and two drops, applied in the same way to a dog, are often followed by
a similar result.
176 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
“The experiments on which these conclusions are based have been
repeated and verified in this country by Dr. Mussey. His subjects
were dogs, squirrels, cats, and mice. The following are among the
most important of his experiments :
“Two drops of oil of tobacco, placed on the tongue, were sufficient
to destroy life in cats which had been brought up, as it were, in the
midst of tobacco smoke, in three or four minutes. Three drops rubbed
On the tongue of a full-sized young cat killed it in less than three
minutes. One drop destroyed a half-grown cat in five minutes. Two
drops on the tongue of a red squirrel destroyed it in one minute. A
Small puncture made in the tip of the nose with a surgeon's needle,
bedeved with the oil of tobacco, caused death in six minutes.”
Life Illustrated says: “There is infinitely more poison in one
package of tobacco than in the tinfoil that surrounds hundreds. If
anybody doubts it, let him but hold a sheet of white paper in the
Smoke that curls up from burning tobacco, and after a pipeful, or a
cigar has been devoured, scrape the condensed smoke from the paper,
and put a very small amount on the tongue of a cat, and he will see
her die by strokes of paralysis in fifteen minutes.” g
Mr. Barrow, the African traveller, assures us that the Hottentots
use this plant for destroying snakes. “A Hottentot,” says he, “applied
Some of it from the short end of his wooden pipe to the mouth of the
Snake while darting out his tongue. The effect was as instantaneous as
that of an electric shock. With a momentary convulsive motion, the
Snake half twisted itself, and never stirred more ; and its muscles were
so contracted that the whole animal felt as hard and rigid as if dried in
the sun.”
“The tea of twenty or thirty grains of tobacco,” said Dr. Mussey,
“introduced into the human body for the purpose of relieving spasm,
has been known repeatedly to destroy life.”
Dr. Rush said, that even when used in moderation, “tobacco
causes dyspepsia, headache, tremors, vertigo, and epilepsy.” “It pro-
duces,” he again said, “many of those diseases which are supposed to
be seated in the nerves.” “I lost a young man,” he added, “seventeen
years of age, of pulmonary consumption, whose disorder was brought
on by intemperate use of cigars.”
All empyreumatic substances impair digestion by interfering with
the action of the animal matter, the pepsin, which is the principal
solvent agent of the gastric juice.
Bishop Ames, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, one time
expressed to the New England Conference his opinion that a large
portion of the funds for superannuated preachers is paid to men men-
tally and physically disqualified by the use of tobacco.
BAD HABITS OF MANHOOD AND WOMANHOOD. 177
Dr. Woodward, after presenting a long array of facts showing the
tendency of tobacco to produce disease—apoplexy, aphony, hypochon-
dria, consumption, epilepsy, headache, tremors, vertigo, dyspepsia,
cancer, and insanity—concludes with the following inquiry: “Who
can doubt that tobacco, in each of the various ways in which it has
been customarily used, has destroyed more lives and broken down the
health of more useful members of society, than have been sufferers
from the complaint in question (bronchitis), up to the present time, or
than ever will be hereafter ?” "
Professor Silliman mentioned an affecting case of a young student
in Yale College, who fell a victim to tobacco. “He entered,” said he,
“with an athletic frame ; but he acquired the habit of using tobacco,
and would sit and smoke whole hours together. His friends tried to
persuade him to quit the practice, but he loved his lust, and would have
it, live or die, the consequence of which was, he went down to the grave
a suicide.” Professor Silliman mentioned also the case of another young
man, in the same institution, who was sacrificed by the same poisonous
weed. Professor Pond, of the Bangor Theological Seminary, related
one or two similar cases of students whom he knew at Andover and
elsewhere.
A distinguished medical man at Brighton, England, has given a
list of sixteen cases of paralysis produced by smoking, which came to
his own knowledge within the brief period of six months.
All that one may read of the fatal effects of a few drops of nico-
tine on animals or the testimony of doctors and professors concerning
the depressing, even paralyzing, effects of tobacco on boys and men,
when used continuously or in excess, cannot so profoundly impress
anyone of the evil as personal observation. The writer will never for-
get the night he spent in watching at the bedside of a man who should
have been “in the prime of life,” but who lay prostrate, almost totally
paralyzed, from excessive use of tobacco. Otherwise his habits had
not been far from right, but he was so saturated with tobacco poison
that it not only stained his skin, but it soaked deeply into the nerve
centres themselves until the paralysis became general, and extended to
the heart, causing death. Our Home Journal has gathered and con-
tributes the following facts in regard to tobacco : “One of the mem-
bers of the French Academy of Medicine, in a very elaborate paper,
drawn up with great care, asserts that ‘statistics show that in exact
proportion with the increased consumption of tobacco by its habitues is
the increase of disease in the nervous centres (insanity, general paraly-
sis, paraplegia), and certain cancerous affections.’ It may be said in
reply, that the Turks, Greeks, and Hungarians are inveterate smokers,
and yet are little affected by these nervous diseases. But M. Jolly ac-
counts for their exemption by the fact that the tobacco used by them
178 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
is of a much milder form, containing slight proportions of nicotine, and
sometimes none at all. Excessive indulgence, therefore, does little harm
in this direction ; and no case of general or progressive paralysis has been
discovered in the East, where this mild tobacco is in use. M. Moscan
Says : “The cause is plain enough, and evidently physiological. In
all the regions of the Levant they do not intoxicate themselves with
nicotine or alcohol, but saturate themselves with opium and perfumes,
sleeping away their time in torpor, indolence, and sensuality. They
narcotize, but do not nicotize themselves, and if opium, as has been
said, is the poison of the intellect of the East, tobacco may one day in
the West prove the poison of life itself. It is the nicotine, in the strong-
er tobacco used in England, France, and the United States which
proves so pernicious, and the French physicians hold that paralysis is
making rapid advance under the abuse of alcohol and tobacco.’”
German physicians state in their periodicals that, of the deaths
occurring among men in that country, between eighteen and thirty-five
years of age, one-half die from the effects of smoking. They unequiv-
Ocally assert that “tobacco burns out the blood, the teeth, the eyes,
and the brain.” It has been observed that the manufacturers of this
article carry pale, ghastly countenances; and it is also said that few of
them live to old age. Agriculturists say that it soon poisons the soil on
which it grows, or rather that it impoverishes the soil more than any
other plant in the vegetable kingdom.
All the foregoing facts have been gathered up from various sources,
and enough more might be presented to fill a volume like this.
But there is one difficulty induced by tobacco which I have not seen
other medical writers advert to. Tobacco is the cause of impotency among
men. All violations of the laws of health exhibit their effects first up-
on the weakest parts of the system. Every individual has some part less
able to resist disease than another, and as the procreative system, from
childhood to age, is usually more abused than any other, not excepting
that ever-to-be-pitied organ, the poor stomach, it is more liable than any
other portion of the human machinery to suffer from the nerve-
destroying effects of tobacco. To illustrate this proposition, let me give
you in Fig. 62 a picture of three sticks of wood having weak points.
The one marked a has a knot in its centre. A strain coming upon the
stick will manifestly break it in two in the middle ; b has a worm-hole
near the right end, and any child would say that in bending it, if it
breaks, it will give way where the worm has punctured it ; c has
been whittled down pretty small to the left, and here it will break
when any pressure is placed upon it. Now, we will call a a man with
weakened procreative organs, b a person with a weak stomach, c an
individual with contracted chest and weak lungs. The gradual use of
tobacco will make a impotent, b a melancholy dyspeptic, c a victim to
BAD HABITS OF MANHooD AND WOMANHooD. 179
consumption. But, as before remarked, more have abused or neglected
the organs of generation than have ever injured the stomach, or lungs,
and consequently, it is no uncommon thing for the physician to be called
upon by athletic-looking smokers, chewers, or snuffers, who complain
that they have lost all power in the genital organs. The effect tobacco
had produced in these cases is made still more apparent when the
reader remembers the paralyzing properties of the plant. Then, again,
let young men remember that in addition to impotency often result-
ing from the habitual use of tobacco, the beauty of the face is impaired
by it. The Scalpel, the mouth-piece of the eminent surgeon, Dr.
Dixon, while he lived, presented this fact in language which I cannot
do better than quote here : “Both smoking and chewing,” remarked
the distinguished editor, FIG. 62.
“ produce marked alterations
in the most expressive feat-
ures of the face. The lips
are closed by a circular
muscle which completely sur-
rounds them, and forms their
plumpy fulness. Now, every
muscle of the body is devel-
oped in precise ratio with its G
use, as most young men
know—they endeavor to de-
Velop their muscle in the DEFECTIVE STICKS.
gymnasium. In spitting, and holding the cigar in the mouth, the
muscle is in constant use ; hence the coarse appearance and irregular
development of the lips, when compared to the rest of the features, in
chewers and Smokers.” It is not pleasant to think of becoming im-
potent and ugly, and still it is a more alarming reflection that so many
people are poisoning themselves.
IIEALTH HINTS TO SMORERS.
While hardly willing to aid and abet those who will smoke, despite
what hygienic science teaches, I am disposed to present before closing,
Some hints to smokers which have been offered by a German physician,
Who is probably a smoker himself, and speaks from personal experience,
as well as from his professional observations for many years, as stated
in the Pharmaceutical Era, from which the quotation is taken. It
appears that he has been watching the “mouth, teeth, stomach, lungs,
heart, and skin of the devotees of tobacco,” with the closest attention,
and urges the observation of the following rules: “The first and
foremost is never to smoke before breakfast, nor, as a rule, when the
stomach is empty. Never smoke during any exertion of great physical


I 80 CAUSES OF NERVO US AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS,
energy, as dancing, running, cycling, mountain climbing, or rowing,
and especially if in a contest. Never follow ‘the bad custom of the
French and the Russians’ by allowing the smoke to pass through the
nose ; never inhale it through the nose. Keep the smoke as far as
possible from the eyes and nose; the longer the pipe the better; the
use of a short pipe during work is to be avoided. A pipe is the most
Wholesome form of smoking. Always throw away your cigar as soon
as you have Smoked four-fifths of it. The smoker should rinse his
mouth with a glass of water in which a teaspoonful of table salt has
been dissolved. It should be used as a gargle at night, and care
should be taken that every cavity in the teeth is well washed with it.”
When one has to carefully obey the foregoing instructions to avoid
being fatally poisoned by a weed which is filthy as well as injurious,
the best advice is : Do not smoke at all. º
In some countries Indian hemp is the fashionable poison, in others,
the betel nut, and to sum up all, there are about three hundred millions
of opium-eaters | Verily, it seems as if mankind were universally bent
On Self-destruction, and that those who put the razor to the throat are
the impatient few who cannot await the gradual results of the popular
methods of suicide.
INTEMPERANCE IN THE USE OF ARDENT SPIRITS.
The prevalence and fatal consequences of intemperance in the use
of ardent spirits have been fully considered under the head of “The
Liquids we Drink ; ” likewise the injurious results of excessive meat-
eating under the caption of “The Food we Eat.” It is only necessary
to advert to them in this place in order to remind the reader that there
are other popular habits, equally as destructive to health as the use of
tobacco. It is a peculiarity of human nature not “to see ourselves as
others see us,” and frequently the tobacco-chewer will upbraid his
brother for drinking, and vice versa, and the excessive meat-eater
moralizes on both of these practices, while the pork-eater considers
himself the very paragon of sobriety. Probably two-thirds of the
temperance philanthropists who are making such strenuous efforts to
put down the rum-sellers, are themselves constant patrons of the hog-
butcher, and do not dream that they are inconsistent. By eating dis-
tillery-fed pork, they actually consume second-hand liquor, or, in other
words, eat it after the hogs have drunk of it, and still they would
religiously refuse a piece of mince pie which was known to contain
brandy. Now, my object in writing thus, is not to throw ridicule upon
the philanthropic movements of the day, but rather to suggest for them
a wider scope, and judicious action. The starting of “tea saloons” to
draw away the patrons of liquor saloons is at least questionable, as to real
benefit and lasting advantage.
BAD HABITS OF MANHOOD AND WOMANHOOD. I 81
BAD FIAIBITS IN DRESS.
Bad habits in dress have been investigated under the head of “The
Clothes we Wear,” but as I declined in that place to treat of the evils of
tight lacing, I will devote a little space to them here, inasmuch as it is a
practice more destructive to health and longevity in fashionable circles
than tobacco-chowing, liquor-drinking, or pork-eating. Women who
“will not put their arms through rum-jugs” (as some have appropri-
ately termed the elbows of liquor-topers), must not consider themselves
immaculate, which they may be inclined to do, if one of their iniquitous
habits is not exposed in this connection. One of the most injurious
effects of tight lacing can be seen in noticing the peculiar office of the
diaphragm, as represented in Fig. 63; D D exhibit the diaphragm, and
M M M the abdominal
muscles. The first view FIG. 63.
represents the diaphragm
as it appears when air is
inhaled, the other as when
the air is expelled. The
diaphragm rises and falls
to aid the lungs in inhaling
vital air, and exhaling
that which has been de-
prived of its electric prop-
erty and loaded with
animal effluvia.
How common it is for
women to complain of
short ness of breath /
Strange it is that they do
not know the cause, when
they compress the chest so
tight that the free action
of the diaphragm is inter-
rupted. Of the many POSITIONS OF TEIE DIAPEIRAG. M.
thousand women whose lungs I have examined, at least seventy-five per
cent. of them could expand the upper parts of their chest from one to
three inches, by tape measurement, while the expansive powers of the
lower portions were often less than half an inch, and seldom exceeded
one. In those persons who have not habituated themselves to the
wearing of tight clothes, the expansive power of the upper and lower
portions of their lungs varies, only about a quarter to half an inch,
whereas, in fashionable ladies, it almost invariably varies from one to
three inches. Any woman can try this experiment and convince her-

I82 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
Self, with a tape measure, placing it first around the chest immediately
under the arms, and then to the lower extremity of the lungs. The
experimenter, after adjusting the tape, should exhaust the air from the
lungs and draw the tape as closely as possible ; then inhale, gradually
allowing the tape to slip through the fingers until the lungs are swelled
out to their utmost capacity. The figures on the tape generally give a
result which will convince the fair experimenter that she has been from
Childhood a constant violator of Nature's laws.
The disturbance of the functions of the diaphragm is by no means
the only evil of tight lacing. The circulation of the blood and the
electrical radiations are impeded thereby, in addition to which there is
a still greater and more alarming evil. I allude to the pressure which
is thrown upon the bowels, and from the bowels upon the womb. The
peculiar organism of woman renders the practice tenfold more in-
jurious to her than it would be to the male. The shocking prevalence
of prolapsus uteri, commonly termed falling of the womb, is greatly
Owing to the pernicious practice of tight lacing.
The great mystery to me is that women lace at all. A majority of
them who do are members of Christian churches, and are instructed
weekly from the pulpit that the works of God are perfect ; do they
then mean to wilfully insult the wisdom of their Creator by attempting
to improve upon them 7 Now this question is a poser to those who be-
long to the Church of Christ, but as a faithful physiologist I am in
duty bound to ask it. The fact is, it is a mistaken notion that wasp
waists are pretty. They look perfectly horrible / I would rather see a
woman’s waist as big round as a bushel-basket than to see it contracted
to a size a trifle larger than the neck. I am glad to see that many of
the women themselves are beginning to regard small waists as physical
deformities. One of them, a Mrs. Merrifield, speaks right out as fol-
lows:
A NATURAL WAIST.
“The very expression ‘a small waist’ implies a disproportion. A
small waist is too small for the general size of the figure to which it
belongs, just as a low-pitched room or a narrow room is too low or too
narrow in proportion to its height. A well-proportioned room has none
of these defects and the waist of a well-proportioned person should be
in harmony with the other parts of the figure.
“The ancients do not appear to have recognized the virtue of
small waists; and a modern lady would be in agony if her waist were
of the proportional dimensions of those of Some antique statues. The
celebrated Venus de Medicis—‘the bending statue that enchants the
world’—has what would, at the present time, be called a large waist ;
yet modern connoisseurs and artists have unanimously declared that
BAD HABITS OF MANHOOD AND WOMANHOOD. I83
this is the most perfect female form which the art of ancient or mod-
ern times has transmitted to us. They commend, not only the faultless
shape of each part, but the admirable proportion of one part to another.
Let us devote a short space to a few observations relative to the dimen-
sions of the waist of this figure.
“The Venus has been frequently measured, and with great accu-
racy, by artists; but the view taken is a painter's view of a flat in-
stead of a round surface ; consequently, instead of the whole circum-
ference of the waist, we have only its breadth from side to side, and
from back to front.
A CONTRACTED WAIST. A NATURAI, WAIST.
“The whole figure is divided into seven heads and three-quarter
parts ; each head into four parts, and each part into twelve minims.
The diameter of the waist from side to side is one head (or four parts)
and eight minims, or nearly one-seventh of the entire height ; the di-
ameter from front to back is only three parts and seven minims ; it is,
therefore, nearly one-fourth longer in one direction than the other.
This is the first point in which fashion is at variance with the finest
forms of nature and art. Fashion requires that the waist shall be round
instead of oval, and she attains her object by compressing the lower
ribs, which are forced closer together. To such an extent is this con-
striction sometimes carried, that the impression of the ribs is left per-
manently upon the liver.
“But it is not sufficient that the waist should bear a due propor-
tion to the height, it must also be proportioned to the breadth of the

184 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
shoulders. Now, the Venus is just two heads, three parts, and eight
minims across the shoulders—exactly half a head more than the
FIG. 66.
FRAGMENT OF ANCIENT (GREER) MARBLE STATUE OF VENUs, PRESERVED IN NAPLEs
MUSEUM, ILLUSTRATING DUE PROPORTIONS OF WAIST IN AN IDEAL FEMALE FORM.
diameter of her waist from side to side. When, therefore, there is
more or less than half a head proportionate difference between the
breadth across the shoulders and the waist, the figure is deficient in just
proportion. It is to be observed that some individuals are tall and
slight ; others short and broad ; in all cases, however, there must be a

BAD HABITS OF MANHOOD AND WOMANHOOD. 185
corresponding agreement between the breadth of the shoulders and
that of the waist.
“As we know the two diameters of the waist, we are able to calcu-
late the circumference, which is equal to three heads and four minims,
or somewhat more than two-fifths of the entire height. We shall
assume this approximation to be correct. Now, the real height of the
Venus de Medicis being four feet eleven inches, and two lines, and her
proportionate height seven and three-quarter heads, the proportionate
circumference of her waist, being three heads and four minims, is equal
to twenty-four inches eight minims, more than two-fifths. It may be
considered, then, that a well-proportioned waist should be at least two-
fifths of the height of the figure. Whatever is smaller than this, is
disproportioned. According to this scale, therefore, the waist of a per-
son five feet three inches high should not be less than twenty-five and a
quarter inches; of five feet five inches, twenty-six inches; of five feet
Seven inches, twenty-six and three-quarter inches; of five feet eight
inches, twenty-seven and a quarter inches.
“We have heard of a young lady of the middle height, or perhaps
somewhat under that standard, who found fault with her stay-maker
for having made her stays nineteen inches round the waist, when she
knew that the young lady's measure was eighteen inches | Eighteen
inches According to scale of two-fifths of the entire stature, which,
as we have seen, is under the mark, the height of a young lady whose
waist did not exceed eighteen inches, should have been three feet nine
ºnches 1–the height of a child, with the proportions of a woman.
“Enough has been said,” concludes Mrs. M., “to convince our
readers that a very small waist is a defect rather than a beauty, and
nothing can be truly beautiful which is out of proportion. Would that
we could also convince them that they cannot possess an excessively
small waist without the certain sacrifice of their health !”
Would that the female portions of civilized society were made up
of Mrs. Merrifields, and my word for it, men would have merrier
and more béautiful wives, and healthier children. I have never had
the pleasure of seeing Mrs. Merrifield, and know not if she is pretty or
ugly, but if, by any possibility, she be the latter, her offspring cannot
fail to be both handsome and healthy, as a reward to the mother for
her obedience to Nature's laws.
IN THE NEXT PLACE I should treat of some of the pernicious habits
of married people, in their private relations, were it not for the fact
that extended remarks on these will be given in Part Third. They
might with propriety be introduced here, for they are common causes
of nervous and blood derangements. But the consideration of all
matters relating to marriage, its excesses, etc., will be deferred for the
place specified.
I86 CAUSES OF NERVO (JS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
THE DRUG HABIT.
There is one habit growing with fatal rapidity in the United States
which demands the criticism of the physiologist, and that is medicine.
taking. The country is flooded with patent medicines, and every village
store has shelves appropriated to the display of this kind of semi-
apothecary merchandise. If they would remain shelved no injury
could ensue from their preparation ; but, unfortunately, there is a
ready market for them, as is evinced by the rapid accumulation of
Wealth by those who manufacture them. The origin of each one of
these medicines is something like this : Mr. Unfortunate has a wife or
other relative sick with consumption ; he tries everything and every-
body with little or no success; finally he resorts to something which his
own fertile brain suggests, and, astonishing to say, the invalid actually
recovers. The surprised discoverer at once thinks he has found an
infallible remedy for consumption, and the bottle-maker and the printer
at once receive stupendous jobs—the former to make some quart-
bottles with a jaw-breaking name blown in one or all sides, the latter to
get up labels and flaming posters. He is received at once by credulous
invalids as a great benefactor, and by the old-school doctors and
“knowing ones" as a huge humbug. But, reader, he is neither of
these two—only a mistaken man. He does not understand the law of
temperaments. Many physicians do not. I might say further : the
majority of the medical profession do not.
Notwithstanding the adage “what is cure for one is poison for
another ” has become trite from daily repetition, its true import is not
comprehended. It should be understood that every variety of tem-
perament denotes as many varieties of human beings, the same as the
leaves and bark of trees indicate different varieties of trees. For this
reason individual idiosyncrasies must be considered as well as symptoms,
and the appropriate medicine must in each case be selected, unless the
remedies are prepared and prescribed so as to act in a general way like
food upon simply the blood and nerve, with the view of removing the
conditions that possibly produce the symptoms. Usually, patent
medicines act upon the “kill or cure * principle. In many instances
they are absolutely dangerous, and the amount of mischief they are
doing is incalculable. Many an invalid is rendered hopelessly incurable
by experimenting with these nostrums before consulting a skilful
physician. I have frequently been called upon by poor emaciated
creatures who have swallowed forty or fifty bottles of different panaceas.
If their cases are at all curable, a great deal has to be undone before
any relief can be administered. If people would exercise half as much
discrimination in dosing as they do in many other things of less
importance, patent medicines would be robbed of half their power to
f
BAD HABITS OF MANHOOD AND WOMANHOOD. 187
harm. They understand why Parson A.'s coat will not fit Capt. B.'s
back—why the pretty dark dress of blue-eyed Mary does not become
“black-eyed Susan,” and why a hymn in long metre does not sound
well to a tune of short metre, but it does not occur to them that the
rule of adaptation extends equally to medicine. Let it be understood,
then, that difference in form, size, and complexion indicates difference
in temperament, and that difference in temperament indicates difference
in constitutional peculiarity. Next we arrive at the irresistible infer-
ence that what is beneficial to a man of a nervous temperament may be
injurious to one of a bilious temperament, etc. The intelligent farmer
understands the temperaments of soils, and throws on such manure as
they require. On soil deficient of alkali he strews ashes or lime ; on
that deficient of ammonia, the gleanings of the stable, etc. A majority
of intelligent physicians do not understand the laws of temperament, and
such not unfrequently have to bear the name of “kill or cure doctors,”
and such they manifestly are.
In medicating, however, not only temperaments, but complications
must be considered. The organ has many stops, as they are called by
the musician, and one drawn out, or another pressed in, modifies or
changes the whole tone of the instrument. By changing the position
of these numerous stops, all sorts of variations in tone may be produced.
Now, the human system is likewise full of its little stops. Every organ
of the body has its stops, and all these must be considered by the
intelligent physician before he administers medicine, and the medicine
must be prepared to suit the complications. If it is not, it will, while
benefiting one difficulty, aggravate another, and the unlucky invalid
finds relief in one organ, or one organ-stop, at the expense of one,
or maybe all, of the rest. It is for the purpose of thoroughly under-
standing any case presented by letter that the “Questions to Invalids,”
presented in another place in this book, are so impertinently inquisitive.
It will be seen by the preceding that while those who buy and take
patent medicines are often ingloriously humbugged, the manufacturers
are by no means in all instances humbugs. Many honest men and
women think they are doing a great amount of good in the world by
compounding and selling “one-cure-alls.” Their error lies in the head,
and not in the heart.
Patent-medicine eaters and drinkers should, therefore, be careful
what they put down, and take nothing in the form of medicine unless
necessary. It is said that there is a tombstone in one of the English
cemeteries on which are inscribed the following words: “I was well,
took medicine to feel better, and here am I.” There are thousands of
tombstones in America which might truthfully bear this same inscription.
If the manufacturers and venders of what are called “proprietary
medicines” would use only innocent ingredients, such things as “would
188 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
do no harm if they do no good,” in the preparation of such panaceas,
they might be useful for the relief of common ills, and especially con-
venient for families living in sparsely inhabited regions, remote from
any physician. Just as our old grandmammas in our childhood used
to hang up in the attic certain useful but mild and harmless herbs for
minor ills, the prudent housewife might place in the family medicine-
closet certain convenient preparations emanating from some physician
in whom she has implicit confidence, and resort to them for ordinary
coughs, colds, and other slight ailments which can be checked by a
mild remedy before they reach the stage requiring more active treat-
ment. In this way the incipient trouble may be aborted. Such
remedies, if they should fail in any instance to meet the requirements
of a case, would at least cause no aggravation of such incipient disease,
but it is well known that many proprietary and patent medicines con-
tain properties that never should be administered except under the
watchful eye of a careful physician.
Arsenic-eating is a habit to which many women are addicted for
the improvement of their complexions, and the obliteration of the marks
of age. So long as our fashionable women are ashamed of old age, and
insist on being considered thirty when in fact they are on the shady
side of fifty, such desperate remedies for the marks of time will be re-
sorted to by many. Young girls, too, who are willing to sacrifice life
itself to look pretty, and especially those who admire “languishing
beauties,” will continue to eat arsenic, or any other powerful drug, if
by the means the complexion may be improved. Until common-sense
and the laws of health and life are taught in the family as well as in
the common schools, it is almost useless for the physician to “croak,”
as his voice of warning is often called.
The opium-eater and the morphine fiend hardly need a word of
caution in this essay. No adult becomes addicted to a habit of this
kind without earnest words of admonition from friends and medical
advisers, at least “hardly ever.” It is worse than the liquor habit, and,
if possible, more destructive. A timely bit of advice, however, to those
who have not contracted it may not prove amiss. A good rule for
everyone to adopt would be never to take a dose of opium or any of
its preparations except by the prescription of a physician, and a timely
word to the latter would be to never prescribe any preparation of this
drug to relieve pain when something else will tolerably well answer the
same purpose. With a practice of over forty years I have not pre-
scribed or administered as much opium or any of its representatives as is
usually taken by one addicted to the opium habit in one brief year.
It is exceedingly seldom that a physician is justified in employing this
insidious drug, and no invalid is safe in self-administering it. Better
die outright than lose your senses
BAD HABITS OF MANHooD AND womanhood. 189
“Opium inebriety,” says Dr. George W. Winterburn, “is a topic
which has received from the medical profession but a moiety of the at-
“ention which it deserves. Our literature is meagre, and but few phy-
sicians are familiar with what we have. And yet the evil is widespread
as I have stated, and is spreading year by year. That opium is em-
ployed largely in excess of any legitimate therapeutical demand, is
admitted by even so careful an observer as Dr. E. R. Squibb, of Brook-
lyn, N. Y., who supposes the importation of opium and opium products
to exceed $2,000,000 in value in excess of the quantities required to fill
physicians' prescriptions. Another careful statistician. reports more
than a quarter of a million confirmed opium inebriates in the United
States.” In the paper from which this is quoted, the writer refers to
the fact that many of the patent and proprietary medicines recom-
mended to relieve sleeplessness, nervousness, and pain contain opium,
and especially those prepared for soothing the restlessness and insomnia
of infants, and he justly ascribes the prevalence of the opium habit in
part to the use of such remedies in the nursery. The little ones who
are not killed outright in infancy grow up with an acquired craving
for the drug which curses them for life unless they can summon enough
Self-control to drop the habit or find medical help for their relief.
When the will alone is insufficient, the skilful physician can render
Valuable aid, unless he himself is addicted to its use. It is an astonish-
ing fact that physicians themselves are often captured by the intoxicat-
ing drug. Dr. Mattison, in the Journal of the American Medical As-
800?ation, states that “in a résumé of 300 cases we noted 118 doctors,”
and of 125 most recently under his care, 62 were medical men Such
doctors are hardly safe as medical counsellors. If they take it them-
selves, they are pretty sure to administer it to others. Nevertheless,
When one is bound hand and foot to the use of the drug, he should have
the advice of a physician of character and good habits. One of my
earliest triumphs was the cure of an elderly lady of the morphine habit.
She had so accustomed herself to the drug that she took it in doses
that would have killed outright any ordinary mortal, and it had made
her an unwilling slave to its sedative effects for more than a quarter of
a century. With blood and nerve building medicines, assisted by heroic
determination on her part, the victory was achieved in a little less than
six months. There is hope for the slave of the habit, and to those who
have never acquired it, I most urgently say, opium is dangerous stuff;
let it along.
HUMAN NIGHT-HAWKING.
Turning night into day is an injurious and prevalent custom, par-
ticularly in fashionable life. Observation and experience have taught
almost everyone of adult age, that the habit is destructive to the nerv-
190 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
ous system, but these teachers often fail to improve anyone in the
absence of testimony founded on philosophy. I have looked in vain
in the writings of medical men and physiologists for any rational reason
why man should lie down at night and rise with the sun. The effects
of the non-observance of this hygienic rule are plainly exhibited by
many popular medical authors, but frequently not so forcibly in their
literary productions on the subject as in their own faces, which betray
the secret that the physiological teacher does not always practise what
he preaches.
Such is the happy predominance of the social faculties in the best
classes of human beings, the social circle is more attractive than the
embrace of Morpheus, and most persons are ready to attribute the in-
jurious physical effects of unseasonable hours for rest to any other
cause than the true one. There is, therefore, great need of new light
On this subject—something which will appeal to the reason of men, and
demonstrate the fact that one hour of sleep at night is worth more than
three after the sun has risen. From the investigations I have made, I
have come to the conclusion that during the day the magnetic or electric
currents from the sun predominate, and descending perpendicularly or
obliquely the upright body is brought in harmony with the descending cur-
rents ; while at night the magnetic or electric currents of the earth predom-
imate, and flow from north to south horizontally, in consequence of which
the human body should be in a recumbent position, with head to the north,
in order to preserve the harmonious circulation of the nervo-electric fluids.
That this hypothesis will be favorably received by those who have had
much cxperience as electrical therapeutists, I am confident ; for all who
understand the proper application of electricity know that, with few
exceptions, the electrical currents from the machine must be passed
from the positive to the negative in the directions which the nerves
ramify. This being the case, ought not the electrical currents from
the sun during the day, and those of the earth from north to south
during the night, be made to observe the same rule by a conformity of
the position of the body to them 7. In applying the galvanic battery,
if the electrical currents are passed contrary to the nervous ramifica-
tions, or from their termini to their source—the brain—nervous irri-
tation ensues, and the patient is rendered more nervous. Such it seems
to me must also be the result of a nonconformity to the directions of
the currents of the earth and sun. In fact, we see it exhibited in a
majority of those who turn night into day. True, there are a few
whose strong nervous organizations appear to resist all such influences,
but the continual dropping of water wears away a stone, and these ex-
ceptions finally favor the truth of this philosophy.
The sun exerts a powerful magnetic influence on the earth, arous-
ing all animal life to activity, from the merest insect to the most highly
BAD HABITS OF MANHOOD AND WOMANHOOD. 191
evoluted man. The fowls of the air, the beasts of the field, and all
human beings who obey the laws of Nature, feel inspired with new life
when the golden rays of the rising sun radiate from the east. The
activity of the animal fluids increases till he reaches his meridian, and
then gradually decreases until he sinks to rest in the West. When
“old Sol’’ retires, the colder magnetic currents of the earth prevail
with greater power, animal life becomes more sluggish, the wearied
body seeks repose, and the most perfect repose is obtained by reclin-
ing in a position consonant with the earth's currents.
FAST EATING.
Fast eating, a universal habit with Anglo-Americans, is highly in-
jurious to the nervous and vascular systems, and induces those con-
ditions in the stomach which usually ultimate in dyspepsia. By fast
eating I do not have reference to rapid mastication, but rather to a hur-
ried meal when sufficient time is not taken to thoroughly mix the food
with the salivary secretions. It is held by some writers that one should
chew the food with energy; that by so doing the salivary secretions
will be more abundantly liberated ; but what is objected to is limiting
the necessary time to do the work of mastication in the most thorough
manner. It is eminently characteristic of the Yankee to do every-
thing in a hurry. Not satisfied with praying fast, walking fast, work-
ing fast, and travelling fast, he generally, and that too, unconsciously,
eats fast. His jaws keep time with the locomotive's wheels, and his
arms and elbows with the rapid alternate movements of the piston-rods.
I was once much amused with an illustration an Italian gave of a Yan-
kee at a steamboat table. Just previous to the sounding of the dinner
gong, he was descanting most wittily in broken English on the customs
of the Americans and when dinner was announced he proposed to
show how a Yankee enjoyed (?) a good meal. With true Yankee im-
petuosity he rushed to his seat at the table ; knives and forks flew in
every direction ; one arm shot to the right for one thing, and the other
to the left for another; while the fork was performing a rapid trip to
the mouth, the knife, which had just discharged its load, was nervous-
ly returning to the plate. A few such spasmodic motions, and impul-
sive calls to the waiters, ended the repast, and with a whirl of his chair,
he turned almost breathless from the table. Nor was his delineation
overwrought. I have myself seen just such spectacles hundreds of
times at public tables.
At home at his own table the Anglo-American is not much more
moderate in eating. The mouth is crowded with food, and successively
washed down with tea, coffee, or some other liquid. Now, it is the duty
of the physiological writer to admonish the reader of the effects of this
habit, and if, after knowing the consequences, it is still persisted in, no
192 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
one will be in fault but the sufferer, if the worst form of dyspepsia is
the result. Perhaps I should say here that rapid mastication is not so
much the objectionable habit as the rapid swallowing of the food.
Every particle of food should be thoroughly masticated.
The thorough lubrication of the food with saliva is necessary to
promote good digestion. Saliva is an alkali, and electrically speaking,
a negative, while the gastric fluid in the stomach is an acid and a posi-
tive. When, therefore, food descends into the stomach only half-
masticated and lubricated with some other fluid than saliva, digestion
Fig. 67.
THE SALIVARY GLANIOS.
1—Parotid gland ; 2—Its ducts; 3—Submaxillary gland ; 4–Its ducts; 5–Sublingual
gland.
for some time is almost suspended, because the negative fluid is wanting
to attract the immediate action of the positive fluid, and the presence
of other liquids tends to dilute and destroy the power of the latter. In
addition to this, the labor of the jaws and teeth is thrown upon the dis-
abled stomach. How surely, then, must the electrical or nervous
machinery of the digestive apparatus be disturbed. Then, again, food
in the stomach, unless at once acted upon by the gastric fluid, com-
mences a process of decomposition and fermentation, by which means
the blood also becomes involved in the pernicious results which follow.
If a person eats slowly, masticates thoroughly, and omits all drinks,
Nature furnishes three or four ownces of salival fluid with which to

BAD HABITS OF MANHOOD AND WOMANHOOD. 193
moisten his food, preparatory to its entrance into the stomach. Here
the first step in the digestive process begins. No one requires liquids to
drink at the table. This habit is the result of fast eating. The salivary
glands cannot furnish lubricating fluids fast enough for the rapid
eater, so he depends on artificial liquids, which dilute what little Saliva
is used as well as the gastric juices. Liquids should be taken either
before or after eating, and then not to the extent that they are usually.
Eat slowly, and depend only on the fluid Nature furnishes to moisten
your food.
IBIG DINNERS.
Still another habit—not, however, peculiar to our fast-living
Americans—is that of stuffing the stomach with hearty food on various
holiday occasions, when the system does not at all require it. A grand
reception is to be given to a live prince, a president, a diplomat, a gov-
ernor, a general, a congressman, or to one of our ever over-fed alder-
men. A “big dinner’ is gotten up, regardless of expense, and at about
twelve o'clock, midnight, all sorts of game, turtle soup, turkey, roast
beef, roast pig, lobster salad, and a thousand other things dignified
with French names, and well wet down with champagne, etc., are
served to a crowd of red-faced gentlemen, whose vascular fluids are
already engorged with red corpuscles and with inflammatory properties
by Over-eating, done on many a previous occasion. And these big din-
ners are carried home to the bed-chamber to fill the mangers of night-
nares, and feast the hobgoblins of the night which perch upon the
bed-posts, and make the sleeper jump from his disturbed rest whenever
the Sensitive nerves of the brain are pressed and fired by the inflamma-
tory blood. It is surprising that this gluttony—this making a sewer of
the mouth and the oesophagus—this midnight bedaubing of besotted
lips, has not made mankind ashamed of the mouth and digestive appar-
atus as masturbation and sexual pollution have made them ashamed of
the Sexual organs, which were created mainly for reproduction, as eat-
ing was instituted chiefly for the purpose of supporting life. I have
read of a people, somewhere, who are ashamed to eat in public ; every-
One seeks solitude while partaking of food; and it may be a debauched
ancestry led to this peculiar custom.
On Thanksgiving Day, Christmas, and various other holidays,
families get together and abuse their stomachs. Nearly everybody, at
Such times, eats too much, and does it wilfully ; and some eat and drink
things on such occasions that are so hurtful to them, that they do not
think of touching them at any other time. Now, why eat any more on
these days than on any other ? Associate together if you choose—have
a good dinner—have some dishes you cannot afford to have every day—
lot yºur table literally groan under the load of good things; but why
194 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
so completely shift the burden as to groan yourselves? Let the table
continue to bear the burden, while you bear away from it no more than
you can comfortably carry,
As to public dinners, and all meals prepared simply for entertain-
ment, why would it not be better to cover the tables with light,
delicious food 7 How beautifully they would look on such occasions,
provided with rustic arbors, entwined by artificial vines, and loaded
with real grapes; with baskets of apples here, and oranges there, inter-
spersed with bouquets of natural flowers, filling the room with their .
delicious fragrance; gotten up, in brief, with the material and taste one
meets with at a horti-
cultural fair. How
do you suppose the
§ * atmosphere of Such a
FIG. 68.
§§ feast would seem to a
§º well-fed man, Com-
sº sº pared with that which
sº sº Äsſ. is loaded with the
§§ fumes of Onions, and
5. ſº gº the odor of scorched
º º animal fats 2 And, if
sº people are not hun-
ɺ gry, but eat simply to
§ be sociable, why not
nibble grapes, apples,
and other wholesome
fruits, while toasting and chatting, instead of cramming the stomach
at midnight with food only suitable at seasonable hours for that of a man
who follows the plough, or bends over the anvil 7 The prevalent prac-
tices of banqueting not only injure the stomach, induce disease, and
abbreviate life, but they make wise men talk silly. This nation had a
President who filled every office of honor, from that of a mayor of a
small city to the highest place in the gift of the people ; but banquets
and feasts made this great man talk like the habitué of a common oyster-
cellar ! A man of distinction certainly requires a peculiarly organized
brain, an enormous stomach, and a discreet tongue, to accept and endure
proffered honors.
Would it not be better—incomparably better—to never partake of
solid, hearty food to a greater extent than is necessary to support life
and health, and on all public and festive occasions, when it is proposed
to have a “feast of reason and flow of soul,” to cover the tables with
fruits rather than cooked animals 2 The demands of the social circle
are very different from those of hunger, and people are not supposed to
attend a banquet to Save a dinner at home.
THESE ARE FIT FOIR. A FEAST.


















socIAL MAGNETISM VERSUS SEXUAL ISOLATION. 195
N.
In giving this advice, I am not unmindful of the old adage, that
fruit is “golden in the morning, silver at noon, and leaden at night.”
This apothegm is based on the indisputable fact that meat-cells are
more easily digested than fruit-cells. But we must consider the effects
on the blood as well as on the digestion. Much late eating is an evil
whether we use meats or fruits. My advice is, nibble the latter, instead
of gorging the stomach with the former. Let us resort to the least of
the two evils. The juices of the fruits will act like refrigerants to the
blood, while the juices of the meats, if taken in excess, will heat and
inflame it.
“HABIT Is SECOND NATURE.”—So says the proverbialist. How
important then it is that we should form such habits as will tend to
develop physical health and mental vigor, instead of physical decay and
mental imbecility. Habit is not acquired in a day—seldom in a year.
It creeps upon an individual gradually, and if its effects are disastrous
to health and longevity, so imperceptible are the changes it produces in
the system from day to day, the victim is seldom aware of the cause of
a disease which is developed by it.
Experiment has demonstrated that a man may endure, without
pain, the heat of an oven hot enough for baking purposes, if he be
placed there while the oven is cool, and the heat is slowly raised to the
baking point. But does anyone believe that a person kept in such a
temperature, however comfortable it may become to him, will live as
long as if he were surrounded with a temperate atmospheric element 7
Dr. Kane and other Arctic navigators became so habituated to a cold
temperature, that they could walk themselves into a comfortable per-
spiration with the thermometer at forty-two degrees below zero, or
Seventy-four degrees below the freezing point / But their enterprising
adventure made sad inroads upon their physical organizations, and the
brave commander of the early American Polar Expedition, with several
of his heroic companions, soon after paid the forfeit with their lives.
Thus, we see the flexibility of the human body to conform for the time
being to whatever conditions we force upon it, and we also perceive
how fatal to longevity are all deviations from the injunctions of first
nature. We may change our natural habits of eating, drinking,
Sleeping, etc., to some others acquired, as easily as we can accustom
Our Systems to extreme temperatures, and experience no immediate dis-
Comfort ; but first nature will some time demand a settlement, and
Second nature will turn bankrupt, throwing the loss upon his superior.
Social Magnetism versus Sexual Isolation.
Some of my readers who have given little or no attention to the
Subject of animal magnetism, personal magnetism, individual electricity,
etc., as it is variously denominated, will be startled at the above head-
196 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
ing, in the chapter giving some of the principal causes of blood and
nervous derangements. Especially will coarsely made, blustering men,
who never deny themselves any indulgence of appetite or passion, and
frigid, unsympathetic women, who could live in the Arctic seas on an
isolated cake of floating ice, turn up their noses at this new bubble of
“sickly sentimentality.” There are two classes, however, of both
sexes, who will instinctively comprehend the subject under considera-
tion before reading anything more than the caption. One is composed
of girls and boys, and women and men, who possess fine sympathetic
organizations, easily affected by atmospheric changes, or by social or
domestic discord, and whose condition in life has been such as to cause
them to live more or less isolated from those of their opposite sex. The
other embraces warm-blooded, affectionate,
FIG. 69. impulsive people of both sexes, who have
--~ been compelled by various circumstances to
iº ..." live in sexual isolation. Both of these classes
º will understand me, and say AMEN, when I
place sexual starvation among the principal
causes of derangements of the nervous and
vascular systems. \,...,
There is, throughout all Nature, a male and
female element, between which there is an
irresistible attraction. The observer at Once
recognizes it so soon as he leaves the mineral
kingdom, and the higher he ascends in the
THE Isolated GIRL. vegetable and animal world, the more
prominently sexual distinction and attraction present themselves. In
the vegetable kingdom, and among the lower orders of animal life,
sexual attraction and magnetic interchange find expression only in
physical contact for reproduction. Among the higher types of animal
life, before reaching the human being, they find expression chiefly in
sexual contact, in performing the function of reproduction, but to a
moderate degree in physical contact in unimpassioned association.
When we ascend to the family of mankind, We find specimens of low
psychic and cerebral development, but one remove from the brute
creation, who are governed by the instincts of the latter. Above them, we
meet men and women with considerable mental and psychical develop-
ment, but with a preponderance of the animal organization and impulse,
whose sexual attraction leads to considerable interchange, socially, but
more to the impetuous interchange which characterizes sexual contact.
Looking still higher in the scale of evolution, We find individuals Of
greater moral, mental, and physical perfection, in Whom spirituality and
ºnentality predominate over the animal instinct, and among whom
sexual attraction leads chiefly to magnetic interchange by social prox-

SOCIAL MAGNETISM VERSUS SEXUAL ISOLATION. 197
imity, while direct sexual contact occurs only incidentally and occasion-
ally, and is in no instance premeditated. In other words, the reservoirs
of sexual magnetism in these people are located in the superior brain at
the head of the spinal column, among the intellectual and affectional
faculties, from which the element radiates diffusively, and envelops the
object of attraction, and occasionally extends to, and ignites the mag-
netic combustible elements below ; and not in the inferior brain, seated
between the hips, near the extremity of the spinal Column, from which,
when so located, the element radiates more intensely, but Seldom SO
diffusively, as to light the fires of the affectional nature above. It should
be understood in this connection, that the plexus of nerves located near
the extremity of the spine is sometimes called the inferior brain.
Looking neither higher nor lower in the mass of humanity, we find
a few who possess apparently no susceptibility to the influence of sex-
ual magnetism. If absolutely none, they are not a whit more celestial
than their more susceptible neighbors, and are invariably found on ex-
amination to be diseased specimens, and not a distinct type having
healthy physical organizations.
If now, reader, you are prepared to dismiss all question as to sexual
attraction being natural, and to admit that interchange of sexual mag-
netism is instinctively demanded, you are also prepared for the logical
conclusion that sexual association is beneficial, and sexual isolation in-
jurious, for Nature's laws are imperious.
There are two essentials to the immediate support of animal life
which are known to all, viz. : air and food. Without the first an in-
dividual must perish in a few moments; without the latter, in a limited
number of hours. There are four essentials to physical and psychical
health which are too seldom recognized, viz.: vital electrical air; food
possessing not one, nor two, nor three, of the elements of nutrition, but
all the heat-producing and blood-making properties of true aliment ; sun-
light; seasual magnetism. Especially are the two latter more instinctive-
ly and impulsively than intelligently sought after, and a house-builder
strains his inventive genius to shut us out from the sunlight, while the
conservative tinker of our social institutions labors to isolate the sexes,
suppress sexual attraction, and ignore the existence of sexual magnet-
ism. Do Some readers inquire why the nervous system requires sexual
magnetism to preserve it in health ? If so, and you will enter into the
mysterious science of life sufficiently to tell me why the nervous system
requires sunlight, I will undertake to answer the question propounded.
I have no doubt that plausible reasons could be given for both of these
necessities with a little reflection, but it is not necessary for the purposes
of this essay to enter upon any long-winded theory to account for them.
Enough is contained in this essay to lead irresistibly to the conclusion
that the sexes cannot maintain perfect health in isolation.
198 CAUSES OF NERVous AND BILOOD DERANGEMENTS,
WHERE THE EIFFECTS OF.. ISOLATION MAY RE SEEN.
Where the isolation is only partially maintained, as in Shaker com-
munities, the effects of sexual starvation are indicated. As a body,
they look physically dried up. The health of the women, who the
more rigidly and conscientiously carry out the principles of Ann Lee,
is, according to the testimony of a seceder, not up to the standard of
women outside of their communities; insanity is common among them ;
and yet among these people, under certain restrictions, the sexes have
times of meeting. In nunneries we meet with the most marked cases of
sexual starvation. Nuns are seldom if ever"vigorous looking. Even if
they are apparently healthy, there is a paleness about them which in-
dicates a deficiency of that magnetic vitality and red corpuscle which
give the true indications of health. They may protest that they are
healthy, but their countenances tell a different story, especially to the
practised eye of a medical man. Only lately, I was called upon by a well-
dressed, intelligent-looking woman, having in charge a delicate, blood-
less, cadaverous appearing young woman, of about twenty years of age.
On examining her case, I found no indications of organic disease. She
seemed to be simply bloodless, and completely wanting in electrical or
magnetic vitality. I instinctively diagnosed her case as one of sexual
starvation, and turning to the elderly lady, remarked that I should sup-
pose this young woman had been carefully restricted to the Society of
her own sex. What visible effect this announcement had upon the
young invalid I know not, as I was addressing and looking directly at
the one who accompanied her, and who appeared for a moment sur-
prised and confused, but finally sufficiently recovered her self-posses-
sion to remark that her niece had been till very lately for several years
in a convent | Now this young woman had on nothing of the dress
peculiar to a nun, and I had not even suspected the aunt and niece of
being Catholic in their religious proclivities. I simply diagnosed the
case according to its physical aspects, with no word, hint, or suspicion
to aid me in forming an opinion. But 6bservation had taught me that
such physical prostration is often produced by sexual starvation, and I
was convinced it was the cause in this instance, without mistrusting the
verdict would receive instant confirmation. My advice was—“Take no
medicine—let doctors alone. Go at once into the society of both sexes,
encourage the attentions of honorable men, and by social contact draw
out of them all the masculine magnetism you can.”
The case cited is not the only one I have examined, coming from
convents, giving indications of sexual starvation. I have had also from
young ladies’ seminaries similar cases. Institutions for young women
where the exclusion of gentlemen's Society is too rigidly enforced are
nearly as bad for the pupils as convents. When that gifted woman,
SOCIAL MAGNETISM VERSUS SEXUAL ISOLATION. 199
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a young miss, she was sent to one, and I
cannot better describe the effect than by quoting from her interesting
book entitled “Eighty Years or More.” She says: “After I had been
there a short time Iheard a call one day : ‘Heads out !” I ran with the
rest, and exclaimed, “What is it 7” expecting to see a giraffe or some other
wonder from Barnum's Museum. “Why, don’t you see those boys 7°
‘Oh, I replied, is that all 7 I have seen boys all my life.” When visiting
family friends in the city we were in the way of making the acquaint-
ance of their sons, and as all social relations were strictly forbidden,
there was a new interest in seeing them. As they were not allowed to
call upon us or write notes, unless they were brothers or cousins, we had,
in time, a.large number of kinsmen.
“There was an intense interest to me now in writing notes, receiv-
ing notes, joining the young men in the streets for a walk, such as I
had never known when in constant association with them at School and
in our daily amusements. Shut up with girls, most of them older than
myself, I heard many subjects discussed of which I had never thought
before, and in a manner it were better I had never heard. The health-
ful restraint always existing between boys and girls in conversation is
apt to be relaxed with either sex alone. In all my intimate association
with boys up to that period I cannot recall one word or act for criticism,
but I cannot say the same of the girls during the three years I passed
at the Seminary in Troy. My own experience proves to me,” says Mrs.
Stanton, “that it is a grave mistake to send boys and girls to separate
institutions of learning, especially at the most impressible age. The
stimulation of sex promotes alike a healthy condition of the intellectual
and the moral faculties, and gives to both a development they never
can acquire alone.”
Large factories and cotton mills where females are almost exclu-
Sively employed, generally contain hundreds of pale, emaciated women
who are slowly dying of sexual starvation, their physical exhaustion
being aggravated, of course, by the sedentary character of their labor.
Thé world is full of women contemptuously called “old maids,”
who are drying up, and daily growing more fretful and nervous in con-
Sequence of Sexual isolation ; for men, as a rule, cruelly avoid women
of a certain age, when Mrs. Grundy brands them with the common
distinguishing epithet by which they are known. It is one of the great
evils of the marriage institution that a woman may not remain single,
enjoying the Social consideration of the married, and the social atten-
tions of men, especially when marriage is such a “leap in the dark,”
and often proves so disastrous to the happiness of her sex. There is
improvement in this direction, however, and we are beginning to talk
of “women bachelors” instead of “old maids.” And the ranks of
Women bachelors are steadily growing,
2OO CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
WHAT RAPPENS IN CITIES.
Large cities and villages have swarms of women, young and old,
belonging to what are denominated the “working classes,” a consider-
able number of whom are excluded from good society while possessing
native refinement, which renders it impossible for them to associate
With uncouth and often unprincipled men, who ever stand ready to
extend the hand of pretended sympathy and affection to females in
FIG. 70.
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• social, MAGNETISM.
their position. Men morally and mentally suited to the best of this
class of women have superior advantages in many ways to rise above
indigency and humble social position, and there are never enough of
the former in the social circle of the latter to keep up anything like an
equilibrium between the male and female magnetic elements, and
woman, of course, is the sufferer. -
Wealth, however, does not always place woman in a position to
receive a healthful supply of masculine magnetism. The pride of aris-
tocracy often steps in between the young women of wealth and those






















SOCIAL MAGNETISM VERSUS SEXUAL ISOLATION, 2O I
young men of little money, but much virtue, who would gladly associate
with them ; while the young men pecuniarily able to move in the social
sphere of the former, are, in a great majority of instances, attracted to
association with those with whom their money will purchase the most
unlimited privileges. As a rule, having quite too few exceptions,
young men of wealth are given to habits of dissipation and licentious-
ness which disqualify them for association with the respectable daugh-
ters of affluent parents, and, consequently, if the latter have the pride
of caste common to people of this class, their daughters are deprived of
the society of men, and, with all their advantage of position and
material comfort, must suffer from sexual starvation.
Occasionally we hear of men effecting great cures by the “laying
on of hands,” and the response is often playfully made, “Pshaw I He
only cures women I’” While this is not strictly true, and while the male
magnopath sometimes effects cures by imparting his healthy magnetism
to a debilitated person of his own sex, it is nevertheless a fact that a
majority of his cures are effected in cases of women ; the simple reason
for which is, that the want of masculine magnetism led to the nervous
derangements, which, in turn, produced the diseases, from which they
seek relief. In any given case we may not always find the invalid
to be a single woman. She may be the wife of a sickly man, who gen-
erates scarcely enough magnetism to keep his own vital machinery in
motion, and if he give off any, it is of a devitalized quality; she may
be the wife of a husband who is magnetically repulsive to her ; the hus-
band and wife may be so much alike in temperament, that the forces
each generates have, by years of contact, become similar in character or
quality. In any such cases, if the wife goes to the magnopath, and he
manipulates with his magnetic hand some part of her body which has
become the seat of disease, she receives benefit and possibly experiences
an entire cure. She receives what her system required, for the time
being at least, and she revives. Women often cure male invalids by
the “laying on of hands,” “magnetic manipulation,” etc. I once saw
a letter from one conservative gentleman to his equally conservative
brother, in which, after telling how much he had suffered from nervous
prostration, he said : “I have experienced marked relief from Mrs.
's rubbings, which put the animal magnetism into me, and they
are more powerful and reviving than any electrical battery. You,” he
continued, “may laugh at this, but I, as one who has suſtered so much,
and received such decided 7'elief, and in so short a time, could not doubt
her wonderful power.” This letter was shown to me with quite an
expression of incredulity by the party to whom it was written, but its
Contents were not at all surprising, for the philosophy of the whole
thing was entirely familiar to my mind. I had been cognizant of
may cures of male invalids by the hands of female magnopaths,
8, - - , ,
202 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
Cases of disease produced by sexual starvation are not so common
with the masculine as with the feminine sex. The late Dr. William
McLaury, in an address before the Society of Medical Jurisprudence
and State Medicine in 1886, said that “some of the most affectionate,
loving girls ever born into life have gone down to despair and suicide,
through remorse and self-condemnation at their inability to control their
love for men perhaps wholly unworthy. Miss Phelps says no man can
realize the agonies women suffer from fifteen to thirty, that is, from the
nubile age to marriage. Maudsley, in Body and Mind, says: Although
women bear sexual excesses better than men do, yet they suffer more
than men by the entire deprivation of social intercourse. Sexual starva-
tion is a condition in which either men or women may reach a state
when they will sacrifice everything dear in life to them to appease that
appetite—money, property, friends, family, reputation, and even the
hope of eternal bliss. To prevent or appease this morbid craving of a
natural appetite,” continues Dr. McLaury, “it is only necessary that the
Sexes should commingle without too much restraint by conversing,
singing, dancing, or even kissing in a decent, orderly manner; but too
much law and rigor in things that pertain to the love-nature is worse
than none at all, as we all know forbidden fruit is eagerly sought. As
a dignified matron once expressed it, “If it was a sin to take a drink of
water, what a luxury it would be l’”
I have said that cases of sexual starvation are not as common with
the masculine as with the feminine sex. Why, Mother Nature can-
not tell, but undoubtedly Mother Grundy can. Men only are allowed
to make advances—they do all the courting—often shabbily—but they
do it all; they even allure young and thoughtless girls into trouble ;
get drunk ; Swear ; chew tobacco, etc., without greatly affecting their
personal or family respectability. They may become the fathers of
illegitimate children, with the applause of the vulgar, the harmless
jests of their associates, and the mild censure of staid people ; while
the mothers of illegitimate children are turned out of good society, and
frequently from their mother's door, without shelter for themselves or
the innocent victim of their thoughtlessness. With all their privileges
and opportunities, however, I have met with some men, old as well as
young, of conscientious or bashful traits of character, or without social
opportunities, who were really suffering from physical derangements
caused by sexual starvation. There are those who think they should
bestow no attention upon a young woman unless with the intention of
marriage, and their moral nature revolts at association with disreputable
women. There are conscientious young men in large villages and cities,
who, not having opportunity for introduction into good society, live as
isolated from women as hermits, having no other society than that of men
with whom they are employed. Many of these, however, are finally con-
SOCIAL MAGNETISM VERSUS SEXUAL ISOLATION. 2O3
quered by their instinctive longing for the society and magnetism of the
opposite sex, and, denied the society of the good and respectable, they
lay their conscientious scruples a sacrifice at the feet of harlots.
Years ago the New York Tribune, in speaking of the social life of
young men, made some remarks which might appropriately find place
here, for there has been little or no change for the better. The editor
was calling attention to the large and increasing number of youths
between fifteen and thirty years of age in our large cities who were
without resident friends or kindred, “striving to conquer a foothold,
and,” exclaimed the writer, “how hard the contest What daily
widening gaps between those who have succeeded and those just enter-
ing the field | Neither the religion nor the social enjoyment of our
prosperous men seems broad enough to include their employees. Look
at the growth of aristocracy and seclusion ; the world of folly, luxury,
and fashion ; the enormous cost of subsistence; the meagre salaries in
vogue, and see what chance of comfort or sympathetic ease the town
has to proffer her clerks, apprentices, and students. Herded together
in the beds and attics of boarding-houses, shut out from the happy
homes established by long residence and success, they are almost driven
to the public saloons for light and warmth, and for that friendly com-
panionship” (and I will add magnetism) “which, either for good or
evil, youth instinctively craves and will obtain.
“The employers are surrounded with all the appurtenances
which make virtue attractive. The employees are not only urged into
vice by their discomforts, but it is vice alone which tenders them
an alluring hospitality. She sets forth her convenient bar-rooms, her
billiard tables, her concert saloons, her houses of prostitution—in all
of which he will find a merry welcome.” It may be added that the
young men of larger means and opportunities have their clubs, and the
more favored individuals of the other sex have their exclusive associa-
tions, each not only giving facility to sexual isolation, but rather en-
couraging the same.
Young men crowd the beer saloons where “pretty waiter-girls”
are employed, and really simply for magnetic association with women.
Lager, wine, or some other beverage is called for, and often drank
reluctantly, for they wish it to appear that the drink is what they are
after, at least to those who observe them descending or ascending the
steps of the saloon. Sometimes the contents of the glasses are left
undisturbed. Many of these young men enter with no libidinous
intentions. They feel thirsty or hungry for something, they hardly
know what ; it is not whiskey—it is not beer—it is not tobacco—all
these they may purchase at almost any corner, and the tobacco may be
chewed or smoked in the streets. No, nothing will satisfy the physical
and soul yearnings but the magnetism of women. They may not have
204 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
thought of this element—they may never have asked themselves, or
anybody else, what animal and sexual magnetism is ; they may never
have thought of any such thing ; but here they get what they hanker
for without asking the name or quality of the article.
TIII SIECRET OF SEXUAL ATTRACTION.
People of both sexes generally recognize the fact of sexual attrac-
tion ; few have given the least attention to the subtle element which
constitutes it. This element, if investigated, is found not only to be a
nutrient, but a stimulant more potent than alcohol, and naturally
possessing none of the injurious properties of the latter. It gives vigor,
and, in reality, it imparts erectile power to all the tissues of the body,
and aids in producing and preserving plumpness of form. It stimulates
ambition, imparts elasticity to the muscles, and brilliancy to the eye,
of those who are favored with its influence. Both sexes have an
appetite for it, and frequently without knowing it. They long for
Something, they know not what, and seek to appease an indefinable
desire by resorting to narcotics, stimulants, and nervines. Herein
drunkenness has an incentive, which has perhaps never before been
thought of ; but it is a fact that, with the imperfect social arrange-
ments which characterize our so-called civilization, and which attempt
to regulate the Social intercourse of the sexes, men and women go up
and down the earth famishing for something they cannot, or will not,
tell you what—unbappy, unsatisfied, hungry, starving—in some cases
stark mad—and finally, in their blind search for what their systems
Crave, take to liquor, tobacco, or opium. -- *
There are, in fact, to cover the whole ground, two kinds of invisible
Sustenance, for which nearly all men and women are starving, viz.:
the spirit of good and seawal magnetism. One nourishes the moral
nature, and by its elevating effects upon the corporeal system, imparts
physical lealth. The other nourishes the physical structure, and by its
exhilarating effect upon the nervous system, makes the spiritual nature
buoyant and receptive. Both may be made attainable. To invoke and
receive the spirit of good, one has only to sincerely and heartily resolve
to make moral improvement the chief aim and most-important work of
his life, and he finds at once a steady influx of the elevating influence.
To obtain sexual magnetism, nothing is necessary but association of
the sexes, and Society and State should institute such regulations as
will not unnecessarily restrict this. Many suggestions bearing di-
rectly or indirectly on this subject will be found in Part Third. But
I will here present one way in which sexual starvation might to some
cxtent be remedied, without weakening, but rather strengthening, the
props of our social system. I would advise the establishment in every
Sommunity, large or small, at public caponse, reading and conversation
PROSTITUTION. 2O5
rooms, numerously in cities, where the sexes may socially intermingle,
whether acquainted or not. They should be under the supervision of
a certain number of eminently respectable ladies and gentlemen,
appointed as trustees, whose duties it should be to enforce order and
decorum, and to exclude only persons of dangerous character. Such
rules and regulations could be easily devised and enforced as would
effectually prevent those who would contaminate the moral atmosphere
of the place from being admitted ; but with these precautions not too
strictly instituted, all who are permitted to enter should be admitted
without fee, and allowed free social intercourse, without the formality
of introduction, unless a committee, with badges to designate it, be
organized for the purpose of conducting personal introductions, a prac-
tice already in vogue to some extent at balls and sociables. These
reading and conversation rooms should be well supplied with books and
papers of interest, and open alike to rich and poor of both sexes, and
all conventional reserve should be thrown off while at these places, even
if put on again when outside of them. Would not such places of resort
be full of entertainment for women, and also full of attraction for men 7
Would they not, if properly managed, successfully compete with the
drinking Saloons, gambling hells, and houses of prostitution, in arresting
the interest and securing the presence of young men who are now the
patrons of demoralizing attractions ? If we create free public schools
for the education of our children, may we not with equal benefit to
the community create institutions which shall encourage moral, in-
tellectual, and physical development of men and women 7 At what
fixed age should the State abandon the intellectual and physical culture
of its people 7
Prostitution.
It is sickening to reflect that in civilized countries there exists, to an
extent even greater than in the vast domain where the ethics of civili-
Zation are not taught, a class of women who, for a sum of money vary-
ing from twenty-five cents to $100, will put themselves in sexual con-
tact with men for whom they entertain no sentiment of love, no sense
of physical attraction, and toward whom they, in many cases, feel an
aversion if not disgust. It is also humiliating to all who are working
for, and have faith in, the ultimate moral and physical regeneration of
the human race, that the amative passions of men can be so morbid as
to lead them for one moment to value an indulgence of this nature
Which can be purchased like a paper of tobacco or a glass of rum; but
look whichever way you will, we are confronted by a masculine element
Wherein the sentiment of love is so perverted that there is a perpetual
demand for demoralizing indulgence; and a female element wherein
perverted love, pride of dress, and destitution stand ready to Supply it.
2O6. CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
Hence, sexual gratification becomes an article of Commerce, purchased
by the male and sold by the female, greatly to the moral and physical
degradation of both. The first effect upon the female is moral débase.
ment. Her countenance may have exhibited all the marks of trouble,
disappointment, and want ; but now she has the additional mark of
shame. She has lost her self-respect, and painfully suspects that she
has forfeited the respect of others. When this Suspicion is confirmed,
she becomes bold and reckless. An expression of hardness creeps over
her features, and all the artlessness and sweetness of her former face
have given way to a look of disgrace, defiance, and self-abandonment.
In a little while the violation of her moral nature exhibits its effects
FIG. 71. in her nervous system, and she is obliged to
live under constant excitement of some kind
in order to feel at all comfortable in mind or
body. If the social surroundings are not
sufficient to furnish this, liquors, drugs,
and narcotics are excessively resorted to for
this purpose. Finally, physical corruption,
by venereal distemper, is inaugurated. How
Could this be otherwise ? Suppose a person
should post himself on a conspicuous corner
of the street, or in some building accessible
to everybody, and should propose to eat
everything that the crowd chose to give him,
THE INNocent GIRI, CHANGED provided he were paid for it. Then picture
** *** *** * to yourself any number of wanton men and
boys patronizing his folly—one giving him something he possibly likes;
a dozen, something he perfectly loathes, and twenty more, something
he is entirely indifferent to, but which he knows he does not physically
need. Let this abuse of his stomach go on day after day, and night
after night, for months and years. What person is there whose
stomach, under such treatment, would not become frightfully diseased ?
Even voluntary excesses in eating bring on the various derangements
of the stomach, known by the one common name of dyspepsia ; but
what sort of a malady do you suppose the person would have that I
have just instanced ? Heaven only knows | Well, now, it is unneces-
sary for me to assure anyone that the procreative system of the female
is just as sensitive as the stomach, and that with abuse it is even more
liable to disease. With voluntary, unpaid for, excesses, various diffi-
culties, such as leucorrhoea, prolapsus of the Womb, etc., ensue ; but
when a female gives herself up to sexual pollution to everyone who
will pay her for it—often entertaining several in one day or night, for
whom she cares little or nothing, or cordially dislikes, what may we
more naturally look for than the vitiation of the vaginal secretions,

PROSTITUTION, 2O7
and the generation of poison capable of inoculating the blood of both
sexes, and producing local affections of a most frightful character 7
There is, consequently, in addition to the original stock of Venereal
disease, about which there is so much dispute as to its origin, a new
supply constantly being manufactured in the dens of harlotry, and
of a quantity and quality not in the least inferior to any which has
been imported.
TIG, 72.
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A NIGHT SCENE IN “suicide. HALL,” MRs. BIRD ON HER MIDNIGHT MIssion work.
The hardening and degrading effects of prostitution are visible at
all times to the casual observer who walks the crowded main streets of
any large city after nightfall, when the glare of abundant electric
lights exposes the thin veneer of artificial complexions that cannot con-
ceal “tough "features beneath ; but a more impressive and depressing
view is obtained by a tour among the free concert saloons and dance
halls of “the Tenderloin District” or the Bowery in New York. The
interior decorations of such places are gaudy, nay, tawdry, and the
frequenters seem to be enjoying a “gay life,” with no end of “wine,


























2O8 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
Women, and song; ” but the gayety is as superficial or artificial as the
flimsy tinsel decorations of the saloon, and only those pretty well
Saturated with alcoholic spirits are capable of manifesting any “high
spirits” or hilarity, while here and there may be seen many a sober
face of delicate features, and, no doubt, refined, in which the observer
may trace an expression of regret and hopelessness. The frequent
occurrence of suicides of such women at the corner of the Bowery and
First Street has led to its being known as “Suicide Corner,” and the
discovery of a “suicide club,” of members who had made mutual
pledges to quit their “gay life” in the only way open to them, drawing
lots to take their turn. Near this corner is a notorious concert-hall
Saloon, patronized mainly by jolly tars on an intoxicated cruise about
town in search of such women. The true-to-life picture of this resort
(Fig. 72) is taken from the Christian Herald of April 12, 1899, and shows
Mrs. Sarah J. Bird, “the mother of the Bowery,” in one of the visits
which she makes with the hope of rescuing now and then some victim
who is anxious to reform. Generally it is hope deferred, that maketh
her heart sick. -
The fact is, that even a short course of the intense dissipation gen-
erally attendant upon the lives of “fast women’’ renders them physi-
cally, as well as mentally and morally, unfitted for the steady, plodding
life of a working woman, and as no one stands ready to offer them a
comfortable home as an adopted daughter, or a wife, there is practically
no avenue of reform, and so no way of escape except by suicide or death
by exposure or disease. -
With such inevitable results attending marketable promiscuity, pros-
titution may be compared to a vast sea of physical corruption, in whose
waters the licentious lave and come out lepers. Where the beautiful
river, lake, or ocean contributes to the commercial prosperity of any
city, there also this great sea of corruption rolls along unobstructed,
and thousands of peaceful villagers who daily or nightly frequent the
metropolis, in an unguarded moment become submerged in its dirty
waters, and them carry home to their faithful wives a disease more
loathsome than a suppurating cancer.
HOW IT AFFECTS THE INNOCENT.
In 1894 Dr. L. Duncan Bulkley, of New York City, published a
prize essay in form of a four hundred page book on “Syphilis in the
Innocent,” to show to what a large extent, and in how many insidious
ways, it is spread about among those who never deserve any such ter-
rible fate. He estimated that even among men ten per cent. Of the
cases may be due to heedless use of tools, toilet articles, pipes, wearing
apparel, or unclean closets, while of the cases among women twenty-
five to fifty per cent, acquire the disease in some manner they cannot be
PROSTITUTION. - 2O9
held responsible for. Even children become inoculated with the loath-
some disease by many unexpected channels other than heredity, such
as nursing, kissing, circumcision, contact with syphilized nurses, un-
clean handling, and especially by vaccination, of which Dr. Bulkley
cites 1,863 cases. -
It is a curious as well as sickening account which this writer gives
of the methods and frequency of transmitting syphilis to the innocent,
and it more than ever proves the necessity of extending a knowledge of
such facts to the general public, and warning the innocent, those not
addicted to vice, against too careless relations with those who may be.
It is simply one more evidence that there is no safety in favoring ig-
norance, and however unfortunate it may seem to contaminate innocent
minds with information regarding such a disease, it is more unfortunate
to leave them liable to become easy victims in a hundred unexpected
ways, especially when the disease thus acquired is no less virulent than
when inoculated in the worst way.
Were it universally known to what an alarming extent the perni-
cious physical effects of prostitution are felt throughout all communi-
ties, more decided measures would be adopted under the paternal roof
to cut off one of the main tributaries to this gigantic evil. The word
of the mother is the law of the household, and she seldom dreams,
even if suffering with disease induced by venereal poison, that pros-
titution can ever inflict a pang in her sheltered home. Why, I have
cured hundreds of women from nearly every State in the Union, whose
diseases arose directly or indirectly from syphilis, and who would have
died of grief had I divulged to them the real nature of their com-
plaints. I will not venture to compute how many have been my
patients for the cure of venereal disorders, or diseases arising therefrom.
Fowler, in a little work on Amativeness, remarks, “ Many do not know
how prevalent this disease is in its various forms. Its victims keep
their own secret as long as possible, and doctor themselves, except when
their case becomes desperate; and then confide it only to their medical
adviser, whose very profession forswears him to keep the secret. Oh
how many of our young men have ruined their constitutions, and be.
come invalids for life, solely by means of this disease or attempts to
Cure it.” It is admitted by physicians who are competent judges that
“there is one person affected with syphilitic virus in every twenty of
our population,” and that at the opening of the twentieth century, with
a population of seventy millions, without including newly acquired
territory, there are not less than three million, five hundred thousand
Syphilitics | Think of it ! And those in the primary stages of the
disease are further passing it around, while those suffering from the
constitutional taint are bringing into the world innocent babes with
blood poisoned with the dread impurity. Professor Tarnowski, of St.
21o CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTs.
Petersburg, says “that a syphilitic woman who had come under his
observation had succeeded in contaminating with syphilis no less than
three hundred men within a period of ten months.” This, says a
writer, “represents merely the primary transmission of the disease ;
it naturally takes no account of the syphilitic taint which would reach
the Offspring of the men who suffered. Thus from one source, that of
an infected woman, an amount of syphilis was disseminated, and injury
done to healthy persons, which it is scarcely possible to estimate.”
Dr. C. Irving Fisher, superintendent of the State Almshouse at
Tewksbury, Mass., tells us that “during the year ending March, 1890,
there were admitted to the hospital 1,058 men. Of these one had con-
genital syphilis; fifty-four had primary or secondary lesions well marked;
while 496 had tertiary symptoms more or less active—a total of 551
syphilitics, or more than 52 per cent. of the whole number admitted.
The statistics of the female hospital are not given because the specific
examinations were not instituted until later, and therefore do not cover
the whole year.” In speaking of the dangers medical men encounter
in handling such cases, the same authority says: “I have kept a list of
physicians whom I have seen directly or indirectly as patients, with
syphilis thus acquired in the past few years, and their number is
astonishingly large. The mortality in our own profession from such
forms of syphilis is not inconsiderable in the last ten years. If we go
into communities of a lower civilization, we find that syphilis is often
conveyed in other than venereal ways; and I think that syphilis should
be regarded as leprosy is regarded by public enactment, and by the
community. If a leper comes to this port, the newspapers are full of
it. He is looked at through a glass case ; nobody wants to touch him
or go on the same steamer with him. It is no more dangerous for a
leper to come to Boston, to any hospital in this city, to this room, than
a case of syphilis, and there is no more danger of infection; it is not in
any way so dangerous to the community as a whole, as is a case of
syphilis, and the public should be made to understand this.”
I have not the least doubt that over 5,000 males are daily infected
with venereal poison in the large cities of the United States, a majority
of whom are residents of inland towns, whither they return to spread
the seeds of the loathsome disorder I Men of vicious habits in cities are
generally too well acquainted with the different grades of courtesans to
contract disease. They know who are “sound,” as they express them-
selves. Their acquaintance with lewd women is not so limited but that
they can exercise the privilege of choice. Still, the boasted Smartness
of these men does not always avail. When the medical Seine is drawn,
this class is numerously represented. It is estimated that in the city of
New York alone, there are about 40,000 courtesans, and this is only one
of many large cities in this country.
PROSTITUTION. 2 II
The reader cannot fail to see from the foregoing facts that prostitu-
tion is a prolific source of blood disease, and that it is rapidly converting
the great fountain of life into a slough of death. Of all blood impurities
there are none which lead to such endless varieties of disease as those
induced by the virus with which whoredom is inoculating the whole
human race. Then, too, the nervous disorders resulting from market-
able promiscuity should not be lost sight of in the summing up. On
opening this essay I spoke of the depressing effect which a sense of
disgrace inflicts upon a young woman who takes to her embrace a man
for whom she has no affection, solely for the money he pays her. Her
innate, womanly delicacy is affected from centre to circumference, and
if she possesses a particle of natural refinement, her moral nature is no
less agitated. How, under such disturbing influences, can the nervous
system maintain its normal vivacity and strength 2
The male is not simply liable to venereal affection. Unless the
female is magnetically responsive to the amative delirium of her com-
panion, the latter has simply practised the act of masturbation, and the
effects upon his nervous system are no less injurious than when this
outrage upon the genital organs is self-inflicted. It is a well-known
fact that the courtesan nearly always has her paramour, upon whom
she exclusively lavishes the intensity of her passion, while all manifes.
tations of enjoyment with her patrons are merely pretence. The physi-
cal injury which the patrons of the houses of ill-fame suffer in this re-
Spect is more extensive than many who have given attention to the evils
of prostitution dream of. There is, too, such a thing as diseased mag-
netism which the courtesan may impart when she has no local difficulty
with which to infect her patron. If she has “repeatedly had venereal
disorders, her nervous or electrical fountains, as well as her blood, have
beerſ vitiated, in consequence of which her very atmosphere is physi-
cally deteriorating.
Nor is physical health alone affected by the diseased magnetism of
the courtesan. Character itself is contagious, and more so by sexual
than by social association. An intellectual woman who had given
much attention to subjects relating to sex, once remarked to me : “If
a maiden aspires to be a poet, I would advise her to marry a poet. If
she would be an artist, I would say, marry an artist. If an orator,
marry an Orator.” And there was practical common-sense in the
remark. The same advice would be of value if given to a young man
contemplating marriage, while entertaining an ambition to perfect him-
self in somé given direction. Mental qualities are undoubtedly catching,
S0 to Speak, and the more so when the association is so intimate as it is
between two persons uniting in the sexual relation. Therefore, the
patron of the harlot is not only in danger of contracting a hideous blood
malady or nervous affection, but he takes on more or less of the mental
2 12 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
degradation and reckless nature of his companion in vice, and what is
more, he may take upon himself the possible villainous magnetism and
criminal nature of the man who preceded him as a patron. There is
more than one way of being affected by hypnosis. This character, itself
good or bad, is catching.
STATE REGULATION OF PROSTITUTION.
It has been proposed, in view of the terrible ravages of venereal
disease, that the various States in our Union should adopt the plan of
State regulation of vice. The advocates of such measures would have
courtesans subjected to periodical examinations by competent physi-
cians, who should issue a license to those found to be free from disease,
and promptly quarantine those who were not. Whenever it has been
attempted, an active band of reformers has loudly protested. A
prominent humanitarian from away back, who was active in the anti-
slavery crusade, also in the temperance reformation—Aaron Macy
Powell—devoted many years of a long and useful life in opposing such
a statute, and dropped dead in the spring of 1899 while addressing a
meeting for discussing such subjects. I might quote many forcible
passages from his writings and addresses bearing upon this matter, but
let us see how it strikes the mind of an intelligent woman. :
It seems that the editor of the New York Voice made a suggestion
which called forth an able rejoinder. The following is the proposition
of the editor: “A law of some kind seems imperatively demanded.
There is no reason why such a law should savor of a license law. It
should not provide for the giving of any certificates. It should provide
that all examinations of women should be made by women. And it
should provide for equally careful and systematic medical examination
of men, and the rigid quarantining of men as well as women until they
are cured. In other words, the disease should be treated on the same
principle that small-pox or cholera is treated by the quarantine laws,
not for the purpose of rendering vice less dangerous, but for the pur-
pose of protecting the public from the spread of an infectious disease.”
Mrs. Emma Bryant, of Mount Vernon, N. Y., who shows a thor-
ough acquaintance with the subject in hand, replies as follows:
“These suggestions raise three questions: First—Is it possible to
formulate any law to cover the proposed ground that is not, in effect, a
license law 7 Second—Is the suggestion that all examinations of
women should be made by women, and that compulsory examinations
should include men as well as women, sufficiently practical to hold out
any hope of their becoming bona fide features of a new law Third—
Has the result of these acts in the past been such as to encourage the
belief that their re-enactment would solve the problem which is vexing
the British Army and the British nation to-day ?
PROSTITUTION, 2 I 3
“First : The brothel and the saloon are twins, and our experience
in dealing with one is most suggestive as to the other. In Ohio, and,
perhaps, some other States, it has been claimed that the saloon is not
licensed but taxed, and everywhere the opponents of Prohibition insist
that laws regulating the traffic savor not so much of license as of
restriction. The Gothenburg and all kindred systems are founded upon
the principle that men will drink and men will sell, and, to mitigate
existing evils of such a business, government itself must become par-
ticeps criminis ; that regulation and not prohibition is the only tenable
theory.
“Can the State hold any attitude short of Prohibition toward
recognized crime of any sort that does not savor of license ? By
whatever name it is called, any contagious diseases’ act, to meet the
requirements of those who are clamoring for its re-enactment, must
possess certain features. It must recognize prostitutes as a regular
annex to every army station in order to bring them under medical
supervision ; and their discharge from hospital or quarantine and their
return to their vocation with the knowledge and real or implied con-
sent of medical examiners are of the nature of a certificate, whether
written or unwritten.
“It must sanction the procurement of women to meet the demands
of this supposed necessity of British soldiers; to suppose that this
demand will be met exclusively from the ranks of those who go under-
standingly and voluntarily into such a life would be to vouch for the
wolf as a safe nurse for motherless lambs, or to entrust the fluffy brood
of the farmyard fowl to the tender mercies of the hungry hawk.”
“For the information of any who may think this statement too
strong, we make here a few quotations from the Circular Memorandum,
written on June 17, 1886, by order of General Sir Frederick (now Lord)
Roberts, Commander-in-Chief in India, and addressed to general of.
ficers commanding divisions and districts. The ninth paragraph of
this official document says: ‘In the regimental bazaars it is necessary
to have a sufficient number of women; to take care that they are suffi-
ciently attractive ; and to provide them with proper houses.’ In fur-
therance of the instructions of this memorandum, the officer command-
ing the Connaught Rangers at Jullunder wrote to the assistant quarter-
master-general on July 9, 1886, as follows: “The cantonment magis-
trate has already on more than one occasion been requested to obtain a
number of younger and more attractive women, but with little or no
success. He will be again appealed to. * * * The major-general
Commanding should invoke the aid of the local government by instruct-
ing the cantonment magistrates, whom they appoint, that they give all
possible aid to commanding officers in procuring a sufficient number
of young, attractive, and healthy women.”
214 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
“The officer commanding at Jutogh wrote to the assistant quarter.
master-general on July 28, 1886, in this wise : ‘I have ordered the
number of prostitutes to be increased to twelve, and have given special
instructions as to the four additional women being young and of at-
tractive appearance.'
“These are features which are inseparable from any form of
governmental regulation of vice for the army in India or elsewhere ; if
it docs not savor of license it is difficult to see how else to view it or to
characterize it.
“Second : Where could reputable women physicians be found
who would be willing to so degrade the profession as to treat venercal
diseases, not for the purpose of restoring their patients to lives of use.
fulness, but for the very purpose of their perpetual return to the same
loathsome lives until death puts an end to their sufferings 7 Echo
answers : Where ?
“The Sentiment of army officers as to compulsory examination for
men is voiced by the indignant protest of Lord Sandhurst, who repudi-
ated the suggestion with Scorn, saying that he meant to treat his men
like men, not like brutes,
“Granting that the end justifies even such means as these, did the
law diminish to any perceptible degree the ravages of this disease during
the years in which it had full sway, sustained by the power of the
government and commanding the services of the ablest medical men 7
Let the army sanitary commission, the highest authority known to the
War Office, answer this question. In a statement sent to the War Office
last year, in reply to a request for information upon this point, they
reſcr to the belief of some that the reintroduction of State regulation
would raise the standard of health of the army in these words: “Unfor-
tunately, the facts do not support such an opinion. When the rules
were first promulgated, the Sanitary department was sanguine that
venereal diseases would be reduced to a mere fraction, and even after
years of unsuccessful results it was still hoped that with greater care
and increased stringency the desired cnd might yet be obtained. But
there can be no question that the outcome was a failure. These dis-
cases increased. * * * Statistical returns from the army medical
department in the army at home do not show any more favorable
results during the time the acts were in operation. As a matter of fact,
the ratio of admissions per 1,000 has decreased since the acts have been
abolished.’ -
“That this law does not assume any such attitude toward venereal
diseases as the quarantine laws do toward small-pox and cholera seems
to be self-evident. In the treatment of these diseases modern medical
science seeks to remove the underlying causes, as Well as to cure the
sick. By the law under discussion, the cause is cherished and its
IPROSTITUTION. 2 I 5
necessity assumed. It is not the object of such laws to diminish licen-
tiousness, but solely to obtain immunity from its results.
“I am unwilling to conclude this article,” says Mrs. Bryant,
“without reference to an important consideration, which seems to have
been overlooked in most discussions upon this question. It is the low
moral standard which is set before every soldier who enters Her
Majesty's service in India, if he is confronted with the fact that the
English Government considers it necessary to provide her soldiers with
facilities for vice. There is but one logical inference to be drawn,
namely : That chastity is not expected of British soldiers; that vice
is necessary to the maintenance of the health of one sex, and that that
portion of the moral law upon which God and Nature have laid especial
stress is for women only ; and that, of these even, there must always
exist a pitiable fraction, condemned to degradation, to satisfy the
necessities of the other sex. This view of the case is so abhorrent to
every instinct of womanhood that all the horrors of the loathsome
bodily disease seem but the outward sign of the moral malady which is
threatening not only England but all civilized nations.”
It is only fair to the editor of The Voice to follow with his reply,
which is this : “We are, it is perhaps needless to say, in thorough
accord with the above. What we intended to convey in our suggestions
was this:. That certain venereal diseases, wherever they occur, in men
or women, should be treated on the same basis as any other dangerous
communicable diseases, such as small-pox or cholera. A quarantine
law is not a license law. The idea that the advocates of former con-
tagious diseases’ acts seek to convey is that those acts are necessary to
prevent the spread of the diseases. We don't believe it. If all that is
desired is to prevent the spread of the diseases, treat them as cholera is
treated. Compel the physicians to report every case and compel the
health authoritics to quarantine each person so afflicted. This, instead
of making vice more secure, will make it the more odious, and the
public health will be much better protected than under the abominable
system against which the above letter is a protest.”
The plan proposed by the editor of The Voice is not practical. It
would simply lead the victims of the disease to conceal their malady,
treat themselves with such specifics as they could obtain, and risk the
result. In the primary stages, and often in the more advanced, they
are not physically compelled to take to their beds and call a physician
as when prostrated with small-pox or cholera. They are able to go
about and attend to their business while complaining of not feeling
quite well because of a cold or a little indigestion. Just enough of this
explanation to allay suspicion. Nor does the plan of examining a
Courtesan amount to much. One fact alone is sufficient to indicate its
inadequacy. The disease may be transferred from one infected patron
2 I 6 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
of the harlot to another without the exhibition of the malady in the
medium through which it has been conveyed. In other words, the
Courtesan may impart diseased virus which has been deposited in the
folds of the vagina to a healthy visitor before it has had time to produce
any direful effect upon herself. Then, too, there are those, doubtless,
Who are immune, and consequently could be only the medium of its
transference. While this is the true situation, it may be said that under
State regulation the courtesan would feel secure from police interference,
and her patrons would labor under a mistaken notion of immunity from
Venereal contagion. Such measures have proved their inefficiency in
Europe and in India. They have been in a measure tried with no better
results in this country ; notably in St. Louis and in Cleveland.
According to the statistics of Dr. Nevins, of Liverpool, which were
exhibited as authoritative, there was an increase of prostitution and
venereal disease during the years of license in England up to the repeal
of the law in 1886; “also,” says this authority, “in India, where the
object of the system was especially to lessen venereal disease among
the Soldiers, at different places the number of prostitutes provided for
the Soldiers varied from about one for seventeen men, one for nine men,
and one for three men. Yet, the venereal disease was more prevalent
among the soldiers provided with the greatest number of prostitutes.”
It has been argued, and with a show of plausibility, that prostitution
is a necessary evil. That did it not exist, our wives and daughters
would be unprotected from the insidious advances of libertines, and
the forcible outrages of men of reckless passion. My own observation
has convinced me that libertines in towns of moderate size, where pros-
titution is not tolerated, are more given to the seduction of thoughtless
wives and unsophisticated young girls than the same class in large
cities. But the Rev. Dr. Wardlaw asks, and with propriety : “What
special title have the wives and daughters of those who employ this
plea to the protection of their virtue, more than other wives and daugh-
ters ? Why are theirs to be protected at the expense of others, and not
the others at the expense of theirs ? Who, in the community, are
to be the victims—the vice-doomed safeguards of the virtue of the rest
—the wretched safety-valves of unprincipled and unbridled passions 2
Are we to have a decimation, by lot, of the virginity of the country 7–
or is some inferior class to be sacrificed to the demon of lust for the
benefit of those above them 2 Is vice essential to the preservation of
virtue º That were indeed a hard necessity. Where is the individual,
male or female, and in what rank soever of society—whom I am not
to dissuade from vice —whom it would be wrong so to dissuade 7–
the successful dissuasion of whom would be an injury to the public 7–
by prevailing with whom to give up the evil course, I should incur the
responsibility of one who shuts a high pressure Safety-valve *—where
PROSTITUTTON. 217
the individual whose body and soul I am bound to leave to death and
perdition, lest perchance some others should come to be exposed to
temptation ?” These questions are suggestive, and cannot fail to
awaken reflection in the minds of those who claim that prostitution is a
necessary evil. If such an institution is inseparable from our civiliza-
tion, we need a radical change in some department, and if this is im-
possible, we might at least learn something of our new neighbors, the
Japanese. In Japan prostitution and prostitutes are entirely respectable.
At least, prostitutes of Japan are far from being regarded as Outcasts
or disreputable.
Mr. Gerry tells us: “For a long time previous to the contact
of Japan with the enlightened nations of the earth, the social evil was
looked upon as one necessary and unavoidable, and the government
took entire charge of the matter. In a suburb adjacent to the Capital
(Tokio), large houses were built for the purpose, some of them elaborate
in construction, and the whole guarded most thoroughly by the Soldiery.
The number of prostitutes in Tokio alone is said to be about five
thousand. The children of the poor are usually utilized for the pur-
pose and sold by their parents, who receive a stipulated income as the
result. It is not an unusual thing for these girls to marry, and they are
not looked upon as outcasts or pariahs of society by any means. The girls
in these establishments range in age from ten to eighteen, and owing
to the developing influences of the climate, at the latter age they are as
mature as most of our women at twenty-five to thirty. These are the
regular, so to speak, licensed or recognized prostitutes. The women
are permitted to leave and marry when they choose. This number, of
course, does not include the kept mistresses of foreigners or others, who
occupy small houses at the expense of their maintainers. Of these dis-
tricts, which are known as Yoshiwara, there are five in Tokio and two
in Yokohama, the latter possessing probably the largest and best known.
The government has entire charge of the system, derives extensive
revenue as the result, and under the Japanese code of morals, from
which sexual morality is practically excluded, it is said to be a success
So far as engendering public peace and quietness. Such a course,” says
Mr. Gerry, “naturally destroys all appreciation of the vice as vice, and
the nation itself being heathen, a very different view is taken by it of
women from that recognized by the principles of the Christian religion.”
When we call the Japanese “heathens,” they may well retaliate
upon us by calling us barbarians in view of our heartless treatment of
those in our civilization who seem doomed to fill the ranks of harlotry.
Whether they succeed any better than we do in preventing the spread
of venereal diseases, I have no statistics within reach to inform me.
But I see no reason why syphilis should not be as widespread there as
elsewhere. º
218 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTs.
SOME OF THE AVOIDABLE CAUSES OF DIROSTITUTION.
Perhaps a little inquiry into the causes of prostitution will help to
Settle a difficult problem. One of the primary causes, I maintain, is the
premature development of the amative passions of youth by a too
stimulating diet. Most parents allow their children in swaddling
Clothes to indulge in a diet only suitable for adult age. Do they not
FIG. 73.
§
%;s:
/m sº
ſ
£32
º
WHEN SUCH REWARD IS OFFERED FOR VICE.
know that condiments, animal food, and coffee early arouse the
slumbering sexual passions of the young 2 These articles of diet at once
impart undue warmth to the blood, and awaken early sexual desires in
their children, leading boys to early acquire the arts of the libertine,
and rendering girls susceptible to the amorous advances of the opposite
sex. Thus, from one parental error, spring up on one side a host of
amative libertines, and on the other, scores of voluptuous women who
have not the power to resist temptation, all of whom are required by
custom to abstain from legal marriage until they have nearly or quite
passed their teens. Accompanying this dereliction on the part of








DROSTITUTION. 2 IQ
parents is their disposition to rear their children in utter ignorance
of their sexual organs and their true function. As a general
rule, mothers know very little themselves in this domain, and that
little they keep hidden within their own closely knit craniums. I
would call the attention of mothers to the essay in this volume
giving “Ignorance ’’ as one of the many causes of nervous and
blood derangements. What I have offered there need not be
Fig. 7.
§
t
{\
f
ſ
R
º
ſº
º:
º
º
§
§:
zºº
*
;
#ſl
ººſ
i
&-
.
| * § º
fº
Will
|
tº
S
lilº
AND WANT AND THREATENED STARVATION IIELD OUT TO VIRTUE.
repeated here. “Youth has been unprotected and parents unwatch-
ful because ignorant,” says Dr. Fisher. “Our work has been
Curative. It should be broadened, and become educational and pre-
Ventive.” The same writer further says: “As a step in educational
work, Why should it not be made obligatory upon the physician to place
in the hands of his patient circulars regarding syphilis, such as are now
furnished by Boards of Health relating to small-pox, diphtheria, Scarlet
fever, etc., telling the people how to care for the patient, and its dan-
gers, present and future,” and I would add, why should it not be
Obligatory for parents to impart this valuable information to their chil-
dren & The remedy for these evils suggests itself.

220 CAUSES OF NETWOUS AND BIOOD DERANGEMENTS.
Another cause is unhappy marriage. This creates thousands of
reckless men and imprudent women. The indissolubility of the marriage
contract drives both parties to desperation ; makes the husband a
willing patron of the harlot, and the wife an easy victim to the libertine.
Ignorant of the laws that should govern marriage, men and women are
daily rushing into matrimony whose physical, mental, and magnetic
uncongenialities are only discovered to them after the “honeymoon’’
has cooled down their impulses, and left their reasoning faculties un-
obscured by the infatuation of passion. When they awaken from their
dream, they find the civil law a reality, and that they must content
themselves to live in their adulterous relation one with the other or
incur public disgrace by the commission of some misdemeanor which
will entitle them to a divorce. They may not in all cases aim directly
at this, but they feel a kind of recklessness which leads them to decide
that they cannot, under any circumstances, plunge themselves into a
worse condition. Some suggestions for removing this evil will be given
in Part Fourth.
Another fruitful cause of prostitution in large cities is the small
compensation awarded to female labor. In consequence of this, few are
able to earn more than enough to supply present necessities; and when
“hard times” prevail, they have neither work nor other resources for
subsistence. In such extremities, a few, whose pure souls abhor a life
of shame, choose death rather than the princely abode of the courtesan,
and end their existence by poisoning or drowning. Many rush into har-
lotry, for observation has taught them the humiliating fact that men will
pay dollars for sexual gratification who will bestow only pennies in char-
ity. It is estimated that over twenty millions of dollars are annually paid
in this city alone to courtesans | When such reward is offered for vice,
and want and threatened starvation held out to virtue, it is only sur-
prising that more do not abandon the flickering night-lamp and needle
for the dazzling chandelier and the easy cushioned tâte-à-tête of the
fashionable brothel.
Hard times and lack of employment drive unknown numbers into a
life of prostitution, and in a large city like New York, where there are
thousands of women working at an average wage of only sixty cents a
day, the margin between life and death is so narrow that absolute neces-
sity must too often be the direct cause of “the first step downward.”
Imagine their extremity when work slacks, and there are no savings to
tide over a dull spell. The periodical expansions and contractions in
all business, as at present carried on, are a factor in the causes of prosti-
tution which indicates the impossibility of eradicating it without an
entire change in business methods and social arrangements. Speaking
of these, W. J. Strong, in The Public, is quoted as saying: “Chattel
slavery is not as inhuman as economic slavery. True, chattel slavery
PROSTITUTION 22 I
was the breeder of lust and licentiousness. True, it separated husbands
and wives in some instances, when slaves were sold ; but is not the
economic slavery of our day responsible for nine-tenths of the prostitu-
tion of to-day ? Are not many of the wives and daughters of to-day
sold body and soul for the necessaries of life 7”
The late Frances E. Willard, President of the Woman’s Christian
Temperance Union, in an address in London before a convention of
that organization, stated the situation in the following unmistakable lan-
guage: “Poverty and dependence are the curse of women and all the
world. Very few women ever sink so low that the virgin dies out of
their hearts. When they meet one whom they deem worthy to be the
father of that future child, for whose sake every woman is, in the
thought of every reputable man, a Madonna, either actual or potential,
they have risen rather than fallen. It is the hunger that cries out for
bread, and the cowardice that cannot cope with death, which lead
women to that awful commerce so much worse than death could be,
which is the fountain of disease and diabolism to men and women both,
as they find out ; and which is far worse even than that awful blight of
African slavery, which was characterized by Dr. Livingstone as ‘the
great open sore of the world.’”
It is said that out of 5,000 prostitutes in Paris, whose cases have
been minutely examined, 1,400 were reduced to that state by sheer
destitution | A writer remarks that “there are fifty or sixty families in
Edinburgh who are almost wholly supported by the secret prostitution
of the mother, and three times that number who are partially main-
tained in the same manner. A daughter had struggled on six years to
support herself and bedridden mother by the needle; before sacrificing
her virtue she sold the last blanket from her mother's bed and her own
last dress.”
“Who will deny,” says a writer, “that these are startling state-
ments 2 And what is true of European cities is true of American
municipalities to a greater or less degree. Young girls can always get
money in our large cities by bartering their virtue. It is an unfailing
dernier ressort. Why should it be thought strange that a female,
pressed by pale want, should submit to an act which a male will
Commit in the absence of this necessity, and without a scruple 2 And
Why, especially, should it excite wonder, while black-hearted seducers
and procuresses, knowing this want, swarm thick around, ever ready
to take advantage of their distressed condition ?” And why should
there not be seducers, procurers, and procuresses, when such an
example is set by civilized governments in procuring good-looking young
Women to satisfy the lascivious desires of their soldiers ?
For this evil it is difficult to suggest an immediate remedy, such is
the Spirit of rivalry, speculation, and selfishness in the commercial
222 CAUSES OF NERVO US AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
world ; but there is one which time and change in public opinion is
slowly introducing. It is the educating of girls as we do boys, in the
practical business matters of life; opening to them the pursuit of all
trades and professions to the end that their fields of industry may not
be unreasonably circumscribed. Our social regulations, which unjustly
limit the industrial sphere of women, frequently place them in a con-
dition of want, without shelter for their heads, or food for their
stomachs. They are confronted by two-alternatives, beggary or pros-
titution. In pursuing the former, they meet the frowns and whining
excuses of those more fortunate in life, while in the latter money comes
frcely from the hands of willing patrons, who not only give them
Sustenance, but privily flatter their vanity. All trades and professions
should be open to women, and they should be compensated as liberally
as men for their services. “One of the greatest boons and one of the
Surest prophecies which can be offered as a result of the industrial
emancipation of women,” says Carroll D. Wright, Commissioner of
Labor, “will be the frank admission on the part of the true and chivalric
man, that she is the sole rightful owner of her own being in every respect,
and that whatever companionship may east between her and man shall be
as thoroughly honorable to her as to him.” The cure certainly does not lie
in driving the poor creatures, who eke out a miserable existence in the
brothels, from one quarter of the city to another with the relentless
policeman's club, and treating them as hopeless outcasts. There is a
deal of cruel hazing outside the college campus.
Another cause of prostitution has its origin in the ignorance which
prevails concerning the power and phenomena of animal electricity, or
magnetism, as it is generally termed. All classes of females, from the
daughters of the affluent to the pretty shop-girls, contribute inmates to
the brothel. In consequence of ignorance in this matter, they are not
aware that some men possess electrical power to charm like the Snake.
Nor are they sufficiently educated in regard to the strange passion ex-
isting within themselves, to know how weak, under some circumstances,
they may become to resist temptation. The philosophy of this charm-
ing power will be thoroughly explained in Part Fourth, but the conse-
quences admit at least an allusion here.
Coquettish ladies are apt to invite the attention of prepossessing
strange young gentlemen, and coquettish young ladies, I am Sorry to
say, are numerous. They commence flirting with their admirers with
the predetermination of keeping their affections to themselves ; still
they will venture much to ascertain the sentiments of their pretended
lovers. Sometimes they are pleased to see how they can amatively ex-
asperate them ; but gradually they become practically mesmerized,
when pretty coquettes find themselves, like the fluttering bird before
the charming serpent's mouth, utterly unable to control themselves.
PROSTITUTION. 223
The keepers of houses of ill-fame in large citics know that many men
possess this singular power to charm, though perhaps not one of them
knows the mysterious agent they employ to produce this fascination.
The result is, that men who are so powerfully electric or magnetic as
to be able to exercise such a controlling influence over young women,
are stationed in all large manufacturing towns, where female operatives
are numerous, to obtain fresh victims for the fashionable dens of pros-
titution. A partial remedy for this evil may be given in a few words.
Young ladies must not make too free with young gentlemen, whose
characters are not favorably known in the neighborhood in which they
reside. Observance of this rule may sometimes cause Julia to turn her
back upon an angel; but as devils are more numerous in travelling
trousers and waistcoats, so serious a slight will seldom be given to celes-
tial broadcloth.
Still another cause of prostitution is “sexual starvation.” As the
preceding essay is devoted to this subject, I will only allude to it here as
a promoter of licentiousness. There is a natural appetite—an insatiable
craving, if denied—of one sex for the society and magnetism of the
other. If free social intercourse between men and women be provided
and encouraged in some rational and elevating manner, magnetic equal-
ization would take place in a great measure simply by social contact,
and that intoxicating attraction, aggravated by isolation, which, when
the sexes come together, is liable to lead to direct venery, would be
forestalled. The free interchange of the sexual magnetic elements in an
elevated social way would greatly tend to prevent those earthquake and
tornado outbreaks of passion which result in rape and sexual pollution.
The man who is stomach-starved will devour the flesh of his fellow-
man, or even his own tissues, as illustrated in narratives of shipwrecks;
and the man of strong amative passions, who is sexually starved and
isolated from the female element will, when opportunity occurs, out-
rage the persons of passionless little girls; or appease his heated desires
in Sexual contact with women reeking with disease, in the low dens
of harlotry. It is utterly useless to shut one's eyes to these facts, and the
only way to avert them is to try, by morally elevating means, to so
Cqualize the magnetism of the sexes as to prevent thunder-storms of
passion, such as newspapers daily chronicle from one end of Christen-
dom to the other. A partial remedy for sexual starvation is given in
the essay on this subject, and those philanthropic men and women, who
hope by combined action to repress or exterminate the natural passion
of amativeness in other people, while they do not expect to effect such
a result in themselves individually, had better expend their ammunition
in the direction I have pointed out.
In reviewing some of the principal causes of prostitution, can we not
See that if it, really be a necessary evil, it is so because of important errors
224 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTs.
in the training of children ; unsuitable civil laws regulating marriage;
despotic customs circumscribing the industrial sphere of women; ig-
norance of the electrical power of every individual for good or evil;
and of the Social despotism which separates the sexes 2 Reformation in
the training of children is the first place to begin to extinguish pros-
titution. So long as the sexual passions of children are stimulated to
precocity by an exciting regimen, and goaded to illicit gratification by
all sorts of fictitious and exciting literature ; so long as they are reared
in utter ignorance of the function of the sexual organs and of the pas-
sion which is sure to take possession of them ; so long will there be
men who will violate the marriage-bed, and destroy virgin purity where
the institution of prostitution is not tolerated ; and so long will houses
of ill-fame be furnished with women from all ranks of society.
In full view of the moral and physical degeneracy of the con-
demned courtesan, however, it is wrong and uncharitable for her sex to
abandon and leave her in her unhappy situation without persistent ef-
fort for her reformation. Popular opinion and action are all wrong
here. Let a woman—no matter how destitute—no matter what palliat-
ing circumstances may be urged in her behalf, once become the inmate
of a brothel, she is condemned to stay there until she comes to moral
and physical rottenness, unless she have force of character sufficient
to rise unaided from her degradation ; and even then she must buffet
social isolation, and the chilling contempt of her more fortunate sisters
What wonder that the poor prostitute considers herself an abandoned
woman I Even when death rescues her from social and physical wretched-
ness, her body is denied a “Christian burial l’” Think of it, men and
women who profess Christianity, and then call to mind the words of
Jesus : “The publicans and harlots go into the kingdom of God be-
fore you.”
There are thousands of women to-day, whose naturally pure spirits
are chafing and their divine forms wasting in the atmosphere of pros-
titution, who are better educated and possess better qualities to make
good wives, mothers, and thorough workers in the cause of humanity
than many daughters of affluent parents. All they need is a sympa-
thetic, encouraging, and loving hand extended to them across the almost
impassable gulf which a false society has too rigidly fixed between the
condemned ground upon which they stand and the fields of usefulness
and respectability. A little moral and material assistance, extended by
women and encouraged by men, would deliver thousands of females—
naturally good—circumstantially bad, from brothel hells. Shall they
receive it, or will woman continue to be cruel, uncharitable, and unjust,
to the more unfortunate of her sex, who are perishing morally, and
whose gradually dying bodies are inoculating the whole human family
with putrefactive disease ?
TJNHAf>PY MARRIAGE. 225
Unhappy Marriage.
I.
“Last year we paced the yellow sands
Beside the restless Sea ;
Qe I held in mine your tiny hands
And drew you close to me,
I marked your blushes COme and go,
The sigh, the Smile, the tear;
The words you whispered soft and low,
Were music in mine ear.
II.
“We two were dreaming Love's young dream
Beside the murmuring sea ;
Your presence made the whole earth seem
A paradise to me.
We said Our love would never change,
Would no abatement know
While life should last—it seems so strange
'Twas just a year ago.
III.
“Once more we pace the yellow sands
Beside the Summer Sea ;
I do not hold your tiny hands,
You do not cling to me,
I do not press you to my heart
And kiss your snowy brow—
We're strolling twenty yards apart,
For We are married now.”
The foregoing from the Boston Courier presents one sorrowful pict-
ure, and those instances where the motive at the outset is to secure
home, position, or wealth, without the sentiment which animated the
mistaken pair described in the quoted verses, usually turn out infinitely
worse. Unhappy marriage contributes greatly to the lowering of tone
and vigor of both the nervous and vascular fluids. The mind chafing
in the galling fetters which bind it to an uncongenial companionship,
almost forgets its corporeal dependency, and consumes within itself the
nervo-electricity which should be dispensed through the nervous sys-
tem, to impart vitality and healthy action to the blood and the organic
machinery. Unhappy marriages are unlike any other troubles, because
Society is so constituted that a majority of their victims prefer rather
to fall suicides to their self-inflictions, than to encounter the frowns of
their friends and acquaintances by practically severing a contract
which yields little but mental disquietude, affectional suffocation, and
nervous and vascular debility.
The world little knows the extent of matrimonial inharmony.
Each pair who find themselves unhappily mated, imagine that they
8 gº
226 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
belong to the unfortunate few who have made the great “mistake of a
lifetime;” but the physician, in whom is generally confided the secrets
of the broken heart, after the constitution has also become broken,
knows, from the frequency of such confessions, that they form a part .
of the great majority instead of the minority. «»
FIG. 75. It is difficult to obtain reliable statistics
that will show by figures the exact extent
of matrimonial infelicity. Many years ago
Some English statistician undertook to
measure this phase of unhappiness, and
placed it before the readers in round num-
bers with the following surprising result:
There were in London 1,132 runaway
wives; 2,348 runaway husbands; 4,175
married people legally divorced ; 17,345
living in open warfare ; 13,279 living in
private misunderstandings; 55,340 living
in mutual indifference; while only 3,175
were regarded as happy; 127 nearly
happy ; and 13 perfectly happy. -
In what way the English statistician obtained these facts, if they
are facts, I am unable to Say. In this country it would be impossible
to gain correct information of the amount of connubial infelicity as
compared with the real happiness in the domestic relation, unless every
physician of extensive practice should contribute the results of his
observation. Seldom are the most gossiping neighborhoods of the
United States acquainted with the actual state of feeling existing
between the husbands and wives which live therein, and it is not
uncommon for husbands and wives to deceive each other with regard
to their real sentiments when they find that they have mistakenly
entered into a companionship distasteful, and perhaps disgusting, to
one or both. The family physician, or any physician in wide practice,
hears the murmurs of discontent from his confiding patients, and never
betrays the confidence which is reposed in him. As remarked by
Marie Howland in “Papa's Own Girl,” “The kind-hearted and high-
minded physician, especially if he be a man of the world, as all great
physicians have invariably been, is the priestly confessor among Prot-
estants. He no more thinks of betraying the confidence of his patients
than the Catholic priest does those of the confessional.” Every com-
munity is aware of this, and consequently the physician knows more of
the matrimonial unrest existing in the world than any other person,
not excepting the minister. Dr. Samuel Johnson once facetiously said:
“Marriage is like flies on the window-glass; those who are outside are
wanting to get in, and those who are inside are wanting to get out,”
UNHAPPY MARRIAGE.

UNHAPPY MARRIAGE, 227
and Sir John Davies put a similar statement of fact in verse, as fol-
lows :
“Wedlock, indeed, hath often compared been
To public feasts, where meet a public rout,
Where they that are without would fain go in,
And they that are within would fain go out.”
This is, however, too serious a matter to incite levity. The divorce
courts give only a partial glimpse of the skeletons in the domestic
closet, and such as are attainable are indeed surprising, Appleton's
Annual Cyclopædia for 1889 gives the report of the Commissioner of
Labor covering a period of twenty years from 1867 to 1886, inclusive,
in 96 per cent. of the 2,700 counties of the United States. From this
report it appears that there were 328,716 divorces ! “Of the six New
England States, Massachusetts had the greatest number, 9,853 l’ And
this staid old commonwealth only grants divorce for one or two flagrant
causes. “The little Republic of Switzerland makes the startling exhibit
of 10,501 in eleven years.” “Among the Greek Catholics of Russia for
nineteen years there were 17,601 1” “The total in the German Empire
during six years was 34,082 l’” In France, before the passage of the
“Naquet Bill,” there were 5,000 judicial separations granted annually,
and after that bill was passed in 1883, permitting complete divorce,
there were, when last reported, about 13,000 divorces granted each year !
Returning once more to our own country, it has been said of Tolland
County, Conn., that there is one divorce to six marriages. Then
out in Fargo, North Dakota, in 1896, a local newspaper reported the
divorce colony in that city alone at that precise moment to number 150
members. As these depart with the coveted decree, as many new ones
come in to take their places. “The conditions that exist in Fargo,” says
an encyclopaedic writer, “are to be encountered in all large cities, but
the business is conducted on a smaller scale.”
If one should gather and publish the divorce statistics of all the
States in our Union and in all other countries, they would probably
surprise people who give little thought to these matters, and still it
must be constantly borne in mind that in many foreign countries and
in some of our States it is extremely difficult to obtain divorce. For
instance, in South Carolina divorce cannot be obtained for any cause.
This fact, taken in connection with the further circumstance that most
people will suffer deeply in silence rather than exploit their family
troubles in court, it can approximately be seen how much there is of
human misery, causing not only mental unrest, but physical disturb-
ance, resulting from unhappy marriage. Many and many a time have
I been consulted by women whose minds were nearly unbalanced and
nervous systems exhausted because of unhappy alliances with men
Whom they found they could neither respect nor love; but they had
great benevolence, and rather than make their husbands unhappy by
228 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
the disclosure of their real feelings, they concealed their discontent, and
their hidden troubles were steadily bearing them to a premature grave.
Ah how many wives whose eyes fall upon this story will see in it the
mirror which reflects their own miserable situation | Rest assured that
these women are not the only ones whose benevolence and pride bind
them to an unnatural union, and the concealment of their wretchedness.
Unhappily, the victims to uncongenial marriages are not alone
sufferers thereby. The nervous, puny offspring, which is the issue of
such adulterous alliances, opens its eyes on a world of physical and
moral wretchedness, and hence the sin of the parents is visited upon
their children of the first and every succeeding generation. So marked
are the physical influences of unhappy marriage on the offspring, I
can generally tell at once, when I see a family of children, whether the
father and mother are happily or unhappily mated. Both mental and
physical suffering is the inevitable inheritance of the unfortunate child
who is born of ill-mated parents ; and if it survives the fatal tendencies
of a poor constitution till it becomes a parent, its child, in turn, will
possess at least a trace of its progenitor's infirmities, and so on through
the whole line of its posterity.
For further remarks on this subject, embracing a treatise on the
causes, effects, and partial remedies for unhappy marriages, the reader
is referred to Part Fourth of this work, where it will receive the atten-
tion its importance demands.
Impure Vaccination.
About the year 1796, a country-woman astonished her surgeon by
telling him that she could not have the small-pox because she had
already been affected by the cow-pox. The woman was fresh from the
cow-yard and the country, and the surgeon was Dr. Edward Jenner, a
physician at that time of no very great prominence. Dr. Jenner at once
set himself to the work of investigating the country-woman’s whim,
when he found that the dairy-maids frequently contracted a disease
from an eruption on the bag of the cow, which affection was called
cow-pox. Jenner therefore supposed, and attempted to prove, some
close relationship between cow-pox and small-pox, with the hope of
placing the practice of vaccination on a scientific basis. He experi-
mented with several forms of pox disease with variable results, but
finally settled down on the theory that a disease of the horse's hoof,
known as “horse-grease,” was the source of human small-pox and of
cow-pox. A boy named Baker, whom he inoculated with “humanized
grease,” taken from the hands of a man who had caught it from the
heels of a mare, died from the severity of the malady, and so he was
induced to modify it by working it through the cow. His own child
he inoculated with swine-pox, and this he would have advocated as a
IMPURE V ACCINATION. 229
regular practice, except that he appreciated that it was too disgusting
to secure popular acceptance. Jenner’s “great discovery ” has been
celebrated by an artist's statue (by Monteverde), which pictures him in
the act of “vaccinating his son,” but it doesn't seem so pretty When We
remember that it was “porcination,” instead of vaccination, he was
inflicting on his first-born, and that the boy subsequently died of con-
sumption before reaching manhood ; but that is only one of thousands
who have since that time succumbed to scrofulous and infectious dis-
eases implanted with the virus used in vaccination. It seems remarkable
that with Jenner's few experiments, shift-
ing arguments, and the many early fail-
ures of vaccination to protect, that he
should have succeeded in overcoming the
numerous objections to it, and establishing
a general belief in its efficacy, which, in
course of time, led to its official adoption
and legal enforcement in many of the
most civilized countries of the world ; but
this is, after all, but one of many curious
medical errors and superstitions that have
dominated the minds of men ; and in the
home of its birth, England, there is a
strong and growing reaction against it
which is surely destined to lead to its
abolition. With our increasing proneness
to ape English customs, when vaccination
shall be turned down in England our
“scientists” and authorities will be pretty JENNER WAccINATING His child
sure to follow master, WITH SWIN E-PO X.
The English people suffered the inconvenience and distress of com-
pulsory vaccination from about 1850 until 1880, when, under the leader-
ship of Mr. William H. Tebb, a society was formed for the abolition of
compulsory vaccination. Under his masterly and untiring leadership
the movement grew to great proportions, and in 1889 a Royal Commis-
Sion was appointed which took about six years to study the subject in
all its phases and render its report. The report was unfavorable to the
Compulsory feature of vaccination, and in August, 1898, a law was
passed which provided that during five years it should be possible for
the objectors to vaccination to save their children from it by announc-
ing their objection to a magistrate before the child is four months
old. It was said in Parliament during the debate on this measure that
about one-third of the children born, already escape vaccination, and a
few months’ experience under the new law made it appear likely that less
than one-third of children born from that time on, would be subjected

23o CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
to voluntary vaccination. The vaccinists, of course, regard this as a
Very dangerous experiment, while the objectors, of course, expect that
it will prove so satisfactory to the mass of the English people that it
will be made permanent after the five years of trial. The results of
this experiment in England will, no doubt, in the course of time, influ-
ence legislation and the action of Health Boards all over the civilized
World, and cspecially in the United States.
For many years arm-to-arm vaccination had the preference, because
the local sores thus resulting were less liable to take on severe forms,
but as it became generally known that other diseases might be also
transmitted, including syphilis (many hundreds of cases are on record),
and leprosy, the profession, for the sake of allaying popular prejudice,
favored “bovine virus,” that cultivated on the abdomen of calves in
farms conducted with a view to provide a safe and “pure virus;” but
the most competent students of the matter are obliged to admit, as Dr.
Klein has done in an official report, that they cannot recognize in any
virus the precise clements (microbes, probably) which they presume to
be useful, while mixed colonies of undesirable bacteria have been
obscrved in “points" obtained from all “reliable * sources of supply
in the United States, as stated by Surgeon Walter Reed of the United
States Army in the Journal of Practical Medicine for July, 1895. High
authorities among the advocates of vaccination could be quoted to show
their admission of the possibility of as many as twenty-two complica-
tions resulting from vaccination, including nine forms of skin disease,
erysipelas, tuberculosis, leprosy, and syphilis, though it is claimed that
instances of the three latter are rare, and gan arise only from the
use of “humanized virus,” and that crysipelas and other serious local
“accidents’ need not occur if a pure animal lymph is used with suffi-
cient care—at least, so says Dr. George F. Shrady, editor of the New
York Medical Record (June 15, 1895); and if his position be tenable, it
is fair to say that the frequency of the occurrence of serious and
crippling complications of vaccination, and the occasional deaths
directly traceable to it, oſter damning testimony against the care and
expertness of the vaccinators and the purity of the virus they use. I
am not disposed to lay more than half the blame of accidents, risks, dan-
gers, and complications upon careless operating, fully believing that
with the utmost care, some proportion of vaccination would turn out
badly, and some deaths occur.
There has been a great deal of difference of opinion among vac-
cinators as to the best way of preparing a virus and applying it, and
the variations in practice have been so numerous that the meaning of
vaccination has varied greatly with time and place. In the English
parliamentary debates on the law of 1898 great claims were made for
what was offered as a new style of virus compounded with glycerine,
IMPURE V ACCINATION. 23 I
and about this date many Health Boards in the United States were
adopting this kind of virus, although not long before, an authority on
vaccination had called it “a preposterous adulteration.” The main
claim for it was that it was sterilized of all other germs but the one
which imparts vaccination. But the Sanitary Review (English) of March,
1898, said : “Laboratory workers have about come to the conclusion
that it is at present impractical to produce a sterile vaccine. The results
of the use of this so-called germ-free-lymph have not secured freedom
from the inflammatory complications of vaccination. On the contrary,
it is the general testimony that inflammatory reactions occur in about
the same proportion of cases as before this lymph was introduced.” A
German official report on vaccination for the year 1894 tells of eleven
deaths from this glycerinated “what-is-it,” and a circular of the New
York Board of Health cautions those who use it not to expect entire
avoidance of inflammatory complications. It therefore appears that
there is no safe and pure virus, and that anyone who claims that there
is, is either talking ignorantly or mendaciously.
The history of vaccination shows great changes of opinion among
its most ardent supporters, and never any unanimity of opinion as to
very important practical points, so that there are generally as many
contradictory opinions regarding its essentials as there are about
religious creeds; and yet the one claim that most of them are agreed
upon is that vaccination is so great and good a method of protection
against small-pox that it is above criticism, and that its utility is so
thoroughly settled as to be beyond dispute.
Mr. Alexander Wheeler, in an article entitled “A Changing Medi-
cal Dogma,” written December, 1883, reviewed the history of vaccina-
tion from its origination by Jenner to the last statement which had
then been made from the side of those favorable to the practice, by Dr.
Guy, a statistician, as well as a vaccinist, who wrote for the Statistical
Society's Journal a résumé of two hundred and fifty years’ history of
small-pox. “Taking,” concludes Dr. Guy, “a careful and compre-
hensive view of all the facts that bear upon the question, it is allowable
to conjecture that while vaccination does not act as a sufficient protection
in epidemic years, it does effectually guard against attacks of small-pox
in all other years, and that where it does not protect it mitigates.” If,
in the opinion of one favorable to vaccination, it is “ merely allowable
to conjecture * these small benefits from its practice, we unhesitatingly
affirm that its known dangers far outweigh its doubtful benefits; but
let us quote, after Dr. Guy's feeble apology for the continuance of the
practice, Mr. Wheeler's brief review of the gradual modification of
Opinion favorable to vaccination. “Thus we find,” says Mr. Wheeler,
“the original dogma, that one vaccination protects absolutely for life;
the doctrine of 1804, that it protects with exceptiens; doctrine of 1809,
232 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
it gives as much protection as small-pox itself; doctrine of 1818, it
does not protect absolutely, but modifies the disease ; doctrine of 1868,
it requires repetition, as it wears out (the doctrine of many marks, the
more the merrier); doctrine of 1877 (Grayton), ‘a repeated vaccination
after a certain age confers an almost absolute protection;' doctrine of
1881 (Guy), “it is allowable to conjecture,’” etc. Mr. Wheeler asks,
“May I not be permitted to think that a confession of absolute failure
must before long close this series 7"
Two of the most effective contributions for dispelling the vaccina.
tion delusion have been the writings of Professor E. M. Crookshank,
M.D., of King's College, London, and Dr. Creighton. Both made
Original, deep, and thorough investigation of the subject, and have ex-
pressed themselves decidedly opposed to it in works whose scientific
facts and arguments have not been disproved.
Professor Crookshank's work on the “History and Pathology of
Vaccination,” in two volumes, scientifically demolishes the theoretical
foundation for vaccination, and exposes the insincerity, incapacity,
and vacillation of its founder, Edward Jenner. Dr. Creighton, in the
last edition of the great “Encyclopædia Britannica,” and in special
books, demonstrates the fallacy of the statistical or practical experience
basis of vaccination, so that now it has no demonstrable value except
what it is worth in fees for the doctors, business profits for vaccine
farms, public jobs for health (?) officials, and other incidental interests.
While those who do have faith in vaccination, and desire to employ
it, should have every facility for doing so, no one should be compelled
by law to submit to its employment. The argument that the State may
make it compulsory for the protection of the community at large loses
all its value in the face of the allegation of pro-vaccinationists that
vaccination affords absolute protection, for the penalty for refusing the
alleged boom will only fall upon those who resist it, while those who
meekly accept, according to its advocates, will be exempt from the
danger of contracting small-pox. Under such regulations it would not
require many years to demonstrate which party is in the right. In the
present state of uncertainty, compulsory vaccination is an outrage.
Space cannot be spared here for further discussion of the claims for
and objections to vaccination, but those seeking fuller information can
find it in several interesting books and pamphlets, free from technical-
ities, and suitable for the general reader. A list of such publications
can be had from the office of The Vaccination Enquirer, published
monthly at No. 4 Ave Maria Lane, Paternoster Row, London, E. C.,
England. The publishers of this book are prepared to offer a dime
pamphlet on “Bacteria,” a discussion of the germ theory of disease, by
Dr. E. B. Foote, Jr., and several handy, cheap tracts for distribution
by those who wish to fight off compulsory vaccination laws.
ADULTERATED MEDICINES. * 233
Adulterated Medicines.
*
That man's cupidity should so far transcend his native humanity
as to lead him to imperil the lives of thousands of his fellow-beings by
the base adulteration of those things to which the sick resort for re-
lief from their physical sufferings, thus depleting their pockets simul-
taneously with corrupting the vascular and nervous fluids of their al-
ready enervated systems, is a fact almost sufficient, one would suppose,
to destroy what little confidence men do entertain in the integrity of
each other.
The extent to which the adulteration of medicines is carried is
truly surprising. Says Normandy: “Adulter- FIG, 77.
ation is a widespread evil, which has invaded
overy branch of commerce, everything which
can be mixed, or adulterated or dcbased in
any way, is debased.” There is, indeed, bet-
ter opportunity for adulteration of medicines
than of foods, and more temptation because
of greater profits in such fraud. All adulter-
ation is not necessarily directly injurious, since iſ .
much consists in merely weakening the prop- s jº sº
er article with some incrt substance, but this S. WT S
spoils the physician's reckoning as to dosage,
and is responsible for much of the disap-
pointment in medical practice. Whenever Ti” "AN" "** * *
State officials make their rounds they discover many inferior samples.
A writer remarks that “more than half of many of the most
important chemical and medicinal preparations, together with a large
quantity of crude drugs, come to us so much adulterated, or otherwise
deteriorated, as to render them not only worthless as medicines, but
often dangerous.”
Nearly all kinds of vegetable medicines, such as sarsaparilla, yellow
dock, elder flowers, uva ursi, rhubarb, Iceland moss, and other useful
roots and herbs which are thrown into the medicine market, are citler
adultcratcd in such a way as to elude the detection of those unacquainted
with the botanical description, fragrance, and flavor of the pure articles,
or have been rendered inefficient by being gathered at the wrong season
of the year. To secure absolute purity and strength I have my own
private laboratory, with a pharmaceutist, who has been in charge of it
for nearly thirty years, and here all my preparations are carefully pre-
pared from material gathered from the most reliable sources and sub-
mitted before used to a careful examination. Expense is never con-
smººd in obtaining the very best material that can be had,
à,
tº

234 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS. -
l
It is impossible for a physician to predict, with any certainty, the
effects of a prescription upon a disease, if it be prepared from the in-
gredients furnished by most medicine dealers, however honorable, for
if they do not themselves practise adulteration, those of whom they
purchased may have done so, and the worthlessness of any root or herb
cured in the wrong season, can only be determined by a trial of its
strength. “Upwards of one hundred persons,” says a newspaper
writer, “are fatally poisoned in New York City every year through the
practice of druggists of substituting one drug for another, either by
mistake or to increase profits.”
Those who reside in the country, surrounded with the numerous
antidotes which Nature furnishes for the diseases of mankind, might
easily avoid this species of imposition, and do much to preserve and
restore their own health, by acquiring a little knowledge of the medi-
cinal properties of the numerous plants springing up about them, and
preserving, in their season, such as are valuable in sickness. It is true
that adulterations in roots and herbs are not so positively injurious as
those of mineral medicines, which I shall soon consider, but time is
too valuable in sickness to be trifled with by the administration of med-
icines of an uncertain efficacy.
Those living in cities might more safely employ physicians who
supply the patient with medicines prepared by their own hands or un-
der their personal supervision.
The Botanic System of practice has not gained that high reputa-
tion for success which it would have attained had its practitioners
been their own botanists, and gathered by their own hands, or by those
of agents of integrity and ability, in their season, the many health-
restoring plants which they rely upon in the treatment of the sick.
The industrious farmer knows how difficult it is for him to buy as
good corn, potatoes, eggs, and butter in the city markets as he can
raise himself. Now, it is just as difficult for the botanic physician to
purchase at random, at the medicine stores, as efficient medicines as he
can collect through private sources with a little extra trouble and
expense.
I have cured hundreds of cases of difficult chronic diseases with
botanical medicines bearing the same name as those the invalids had
been using for weeks and months without benefit, under the direction
of other physicians, which fact can only be explained by the suppo-
sition that adulteration, or carelessness in curing, had been practised
upon those administered by my medical contemporaries.
There are, of course, some medicinal vegetable productions of
foreign countries which we can only get by importation. Nearly all
are generally more or less adulterated, which fact should lead the care-
ful physician to double diligence, Indian Opium, for instance, is often
ADULTERATED MEDICINES. 235
adulterated with mud, sand, powdered charcoal, soot, cow-dung (hold
your stomach, opium-eater) powdered poppy-petals, and powdered
seeds of various descriptions. Smyrna scammony frequently contains
chalk, guaiacum, jalap, Sulphate of lime, gum tragacanth, bassorin,
etc., and some samples are met with which do not possess a particle of
that drug which it is pretended to represent. The Mexican jalap is of
two varieties, one of which is almost worthless. The latter is called
male jalap, and often comes mixed with the better article, and some-
times unmixed. The Spanish licorice is also much adulterated. Hassall
found in twenty-eight samples of the powdered, eleven which were
adulterated, and the extract can seldom be obtained pure.
ADULTERATIONS OF MINERAL MEDICINE8.
When so much injury results from the adulteration of vegetable
medicines, what shall be said of those arising from the adulteration of
mineral medicines, whose counterfeits are often more pernicious in
their effects than the genuine 7 According to Normandy, Bingley, and
Wakley, calomel is adulterated with chalk, sulphate of barytes, white
lead, clay, sulphate of lime ; mercury with lead, tin, bismuth ; mer-
curial ointments with Prussian blue, clay, etc.; nitrate of silver with
nitrate of potash, and so on through the whole catalogue of mineral
remedies.
While writing this the New York morning journals inform their
readers that E. W. Martin, Chief Inspector of the Health Board, has
discovered that phenacetin, a coal-tar preparation much used as an
antipyretic, has been imitated. The newspaper reporter says: “One
chemist examined two hundred samples of what was sold for phenace-
tin, and found in many cases a spurious drug had been used. A com-
mon substitute was acetanilid for phenacetin. Starch, Sugar, bicarbon-
ate of soda, chalk, and citric acid were also used in place of phenacetin.”
Why, the disclosure of this wholesale deception in drugs and med-
icines is enough to make a man see red and blue lights in the apothe-
caries' windows, if all the “big bottles” of colored fluid were taken
out. It is no wonder that the patients of old-school physicians make
ugly faces at their family doctors, and call them hard names. Min-
eral doctors, under the most favorable circumstances, are unsuccess-
ful enough, without having their already uncertain remedies perverted.
As a general rule all internal medicines, whether vegetable or min-
eral, are potent for good or evil. They seldom have a passive effect,
but a positive or negative. It is all-important, therefore, that they
should be just what the prescriber supposes them to be, or serious
lmischief must necessarily occur. Although the records of crime indi.
Cate that mankind places a trifling estimate on human life, its most de-
preciated value is quite too great to warrant the carelessness which is
236 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
often manifested in the preparation and administration of drugs, par-
ticularly when the extent to which adulteration is practised is so
Widely known among the intelligent members of the medical profession.
One of the secrets of my success lies in the fact, that I spare neither
labor nor expense in obtaining the best things from the vegetable king-
dom that mother earth furnishes for the ills of mankind—and I can Say
too, that they are prepared in a laboratory with facilities second to none
in this or any other country.
Brutality and Inhumanity.
Shocking instances of brutality and inhumanity are constantly
straining the nerves of all good people, and affecting to a frightful
degree those who are finely organized physically. Some people delight
FIG. 78. in whipping horses; others in kicking dogs;
and there are those who cannot pass an ani-
mal of any kind without hitting it with stick
or stone. Almost everybody seems to enjoy
º to some extent the destroying of life. Boys,
for the mere fun of the thing, catch flies in
& order to kill them. Very bad boys delight
ɺl in putting pins through insects, and fastening
£º º Eff them to boards to watch their painful writh-
#Aº;7 ings and flutterings. Older boys and men
*::::::= Hº find pleasure in shooting little birds, rabbits,
*ś 2. Squirrels, and other pretty animals which
çº-º-º-º-º-º: beautify and enliven the landscape. Very
AN ILLUSTRATION. bad men enjoy pummelling and killing each
other. In brief, nearly all men possess the impulse, to some extent,
to destroy life. It is small in those who simply like to step on worms,
pull the wings from flies, and catch and torture the busy honey-bee ; but
- at the same time this is one of the worst and most inexcusable exhibi-
tions of the impulse. It is larger in those who can entertain them-
selves for days and weeks with guns on their shoulders, searching
wood and stream for something to destroy, merely for the pleasure of
taking life. It is tragically enormous in men who delight in the car-
nage of war; who boast how much they like to fight; and who can
look with fiendish complacency upon the bleeding form of a brother
slain ; but it presents the dimensions of a fiend incarnate, and a power
incomprehensible even to those we commonly esteem as bad, when it
compels a man, in the absence of any serious provocation, to murder a
large family, as illustrated in the case of Probst. As I see the wasp,
ever ready to inflict his sting; as I read of the serpent, ever alert for an
object into which he may fasten his poisonous fang; when I am told
by the traveller of the blood-thirsty habits of the tiger, the panther,



IBRUTALITY AND INHUMANITY. 237
and other animals of this class, I sometimes think that this disposition
to inflict pain and destroy life, is, in a measure, derived from man. Man
fills the whole animal world with magnetism bearing more or less of his
qualities of mind and disposition. Place a good man for awhile in the
magnetic atmosphere of those who are bad, even if the latter be mute
or asleep, the good qualities of the former will be, in a measure, modi-
fied. No one can habitually live in the atmosphere of cruel people
without being to some degree contaminated. There are places which
good men cannot enter without having their moral nature somewhat
injured. Now, if men are so under the influence of their fellow-men,
may not the inferior animals also be affected by the moral atmosphere
of mankind. We find where men are the most savage, most brutal, and
most given to the pastimes of torturing and killing, that there, too,
animals of all kinds exhibit the most blood-thirsty instincts. The same
animals removed to regions of civilization, and among men of greater
kindliness of feeling, lose very much of their savage disposition. ; and,
too, these ferocious animals are often subdued by the presence of one
noble, generous man. All successful tamers of ferocious animals, as
well as our best horse trainers, are men of kind hearts. It is impossible
to subdue the tiger with a club, or a vicious horse with a whip; and
may it not be that the promised millennial era, “When the lion and the
lamb shall lie down together,” will make its advent on earth so soon
as man shall have subdued all his cruel passions—so soon as he
shall recognize the rights of animals of every grade to exist and enjoy
life—shall love his neighbor as himself—and shall love everything that
creeps upon the earth, because they are his fellow-creatures.
The health of the nervous system of many good people is, as it
were, sacrificed by their being compelled to witness cruelty to animals.
The more sensitive are shocked at cruelty to insect life ; but all noble
Souls tremble in their nervous centres when they see horses lashed,
dogs kicked, and other animals rudely treated. No really generous,
kind-hearted man can see the songsters of the forest, and the quadru-
peds which enliven wild and uninhabited resorts, shot down from pure
wantonness, without a feeling detrimental to the nervous harmony.
MAN’s INHUMANITY TO MAN.
Inhuman conduct between man and man, however, produces the
greatest discord in the nervous system. It not only affects injuriously
the perpetrator and victim of the cruel act, but it convulses the nervous
Systems of those who witness it, and those in the radius of thousands
of miles, who may read, or be told the affecting tale. Burns, ever glow.
ing with sympathy, never uttered truer poetic words than those in
which he said:
“Man’s inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn.”
238 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
It is shamefully the rule, instead of the exception, that men, cre-
..ated, as we are told by Christian teachers, in the image of God, do not
treat each other more kindly. Selfishness abounds everywhere, and
constantly generates a spirit of inhumanity. This, in turn, leads to acts
of cruelty, and when these culminate in murder, then again we witness
the inhumanity of scores of people gathering in mobs to be revenged
upon the unfortunate murderer; and the law, through its officers, jeal-
Ous of its inhuman prerogatives, protects its victim, not only from the
ferocity of the mob, but with stomach-pump takes from the wretched
man the poison he has swallowed, in order that it may have the satis-
faction of putting out his poor life; and when he has sufficiently re-
covered from this attempt upon his life, he is conducted, tremblingly,
to the guillotine, the garrote, the scaffold, or electric chair | Readers,
not one in ten of you have stopped to consider the moral and physical
injury the human family suffers from the inhuman practices of behead-
ing, choking to death, hanging and electrocuting those who, through
unfortunate mental organization, or more unfortunate circumstances,
commit murder or other crime. The effect upon the child, and in fact,
upon all, is to create the impression that murder is justifiable, if the
provocation is what the law regards a capital offense; and the result is
that many people, impatient of the law's delay, take, as they say, the
law into their own hands, making themselves judge as well as execu-
tioner. This is true, not only of mobs organized to lynch and kill some
offender, but often of individual action. A man feels himself aggrieved
by the supposed or real injustice of another and thinks his injurer ought
to be killed; and fearing or knowing that it cannot be effected by due
course of law, he does the bloody work himself, after arraigning the
accused before his own excited imagination, and pronouncing sentence of
death upon him. Now, if law will not countenance killing for any cause
whatever, will it not have a healthful effect upon the passions of men
who are now taught by its example that killing is right under certain
circumstances, and by methods prescribed by law, and who, consequent-
ly, convinced in their heated judgment that some enemy of their hap-
piness should be killed, proceed at once to do the murderous work 2
Would it not be far better to teach our children, as they are growing
up, impressible and easily moulded, that no one, ruffian or sheriff, has a
right to slay his fellow-man.
Should not the law be made a good exemplar, in order that im-
mature minds may be correctly formed, and those which have received
the development of adult age, impressed with the sacredness of human
life. There is no difficulty in placing the murderer where his existence
will no longer be dangerous to society. Let it be the law, if necessary,
that men guilty of capital offenses shall uot be pardoned by President,
by governors, or other officials, and we may safely await the natural
BRUTALITY AND INHUMANITY. 239
processes of nature for their final removal. So long as the law recog-
nizes murder as necessary in some aggravated cases, individuals will
entertain the same sentiment, and act upon the conviction. While
writing, my eye falls upon a newspaper containing the following para-
graph, dated at the office of Wells, Fargo & Co., San Francisco : “San
Juan and Nevada stage robbed at four A.M. of $3,000; reward offered
at seven A.M.; robbers shot and all the money recovered at two P. M. ;
coroner's inquest at three P.M.; funeral of the thieves at six P.M. The
foregoing programme of a ‘spirited little affair,’ came off on the
15th of May. First part of programme not so pleasant as the last.”
Of course all of this must have been done under the law of Judge Lynch,
and as the newspaper seemed to regard it as a cute way of disposing of
such matters, it is presumable that public sentiment also approved of it.
With this and other precedents in mind, somebody will shoot his neigh-
bor for invading his orchard ; some lover send cold lead into the heart
of his rival; and some fellow in a barroom brawl, plunge the fatal
knife into the breast of his adversary ; for each one feels that the object
of his dislike should be speedily put out of the way, and that killing is
not, in all cases, morally and legally wrong. This conclusion is borne
out by what is actually transpiring. In 1897 there were 167 lynchings
in States which uphold the death-penalty, and not one in those States
which have abolished capital punishment. And it can be further added
that more murders are committed in Massachusetts where the death-
penalty is rigidly administered, than in Wisconsin where it has been
for several years abolished. People laboring under violent passion
seldom pause to consider consequences; while, as before remarked, the
fact that public opinion and the law approve the taking of life in some
cases, affords them an excuse for so doing, for they frantically imagine,
for the moment, that there never was so great a provocation—never a
better cause for the adoption of extreme measures.
THE DEATH-PENALTY MUST GO.
The death-penalty, happily, is becoming unpopular, though too
slowly. In the earlier period of man's history, a murderer was pur-
sued and slain by the friend of the murdered man. The early Hebrews
punished blasphemy, disobedience to parents, desecration of the Sab-
bath, idolatry, witchcraft, and many other misdemeanors, with death.
The Athenians considered people guilty of open disrespect for religious
rites or popular faith deserving of the death-penalty. From those
earlier periods to the present time, public sentiment has been slowly,
but steadily, undergoing a wholesome change, and laws have, accord-
ingly, been made more humane. It is only about one hundred years
since a woman was hung on Boston Common for snatching a bonnet
and reticule from a lady on one of the streets leading from Fort Hill.
24o CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
It was pronounced a clear case of highway robbery, upon which charge
she was convicted, and for which the penalty was death. To-day, in
most of the States of the Union, only treason, murder, and homicidal
arson are visited with death.
The death-penalty, according to General N. M. Curtis, was abol-
ished in Michigan in 1847; in Rhode Island in 1852; in Wisconsin
in 1853; and in Iowa in 1872. Still later, the beautiful State of Col-
orado has been added to this roll
of honor. In Kansas a death-
sentence must have the approval
of the Governor to be effective,
and if he withholds his sanction
the culprit is sent to the State
prison for life. During the last
year of the nineteenth century
Kansas had a Governor who was
opposed to the death-penalty, and
consequently a man convicted of
the crime of murder by a jury of
his countrymen went quietly to
the State prison instead of being
used for a dramatic and tragic
show and thereby shocking the
sensibilities of the entire com-
munity. The name of this enlight-
ened Governor was W. E. Stan-
ley. All honor to his humani-
tarian character and wisdom, and
GENERAI. N. M. CURTſs, his appreciation of s a n it a ry
who justly won military distinction during science. May Kansas have many
our Civil War, but who has achieved still such governors.
higher honors in peace by his persistent
and able advocacy of the abolition of the If we cast our eyes º We
death-penalty in the Legislature of the find that Switzerland, Holland,
State of New York and in the Congress of Belgium, Tuscany, and Portugal
the United States. have kept pace with the advance
of civilization, and have done away with the hideous practice of killing
murderers. Since taking this humane step, homicidal crimes have actu-
ally lessened in frequency within their borders. Russia, since the reign
of Catherine II., has not applied the death-penalty for any crimes
excepting those of a political nature. In our own country we have
been greatly indebted to General N. M. Curtis for the progress made
in the abolition of the barbarous custom. During the seven years he
was a member of the New York Legislature, he introduced a bill at
every annual session, having that object in view. Twice the bill passed

BRUTALITY AND INHUMANITY. 24 I
the Assembly, but did not receive the approval of the Senate. Public
opinion, in the estimation of many, is not yet ripe for sustaining the
measure. While a member of Congress General Curtis succeeded in
securing the passage of a bill limiting the death-penalty to three crimes,
and doing away with its execution for eighteen offenses. Under exist-
ing National statutes the death-penalty may be inflicted for murder,
rape, and treason, unless the jury adds to its verdict—without capital
punishment. Before this change was made in the National penal code,
the laws of the United States were the most barbarous of any nation
in the world !
General Curtis's humanitarian work has been greatly aided by the
voice and pen of General Stewart L. Woodford, William D. Howells,
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll, Hon. Thomas B.
Reed, Drs. Ecob, A. Jacobi, Alexander Wilder, E. Park Lewis, George
F. Shrady, and many others whose names I cannot at this moment
recall. Of those in the earlier years of the Republic who have left
a record of their opposition to the death-penalty, may be mentioned
Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, Benjamin
Rush, Edward Livingston, and later, Governor J. A. Andrew, Reverend
Theodore Parker, Governor William H. Robertson, William Cullen
Bryant, John G. Whittier, Alice Cary, Henry W. Longfellow, Horatio
Seymour, Horace Greeley, Charles A. Dana, Charles Sumner, Henry
Ward Beecher, Wendell Phillips, M. H. Bovee, Roscoe Conkling,
Father Mathew, and other eminent men and women whose names are
entitled to the homage of their fellow-men. Abroad, the opponents of
the death-penalty have been Pericles, the Athenian, Cicero, Cesare
Bonesana Beccaria, Voltaire, Elizabeth of Russia, Victor Hugo,
Wilberforce, Tr. William Paley, Sir Thomas More, General Lafay-
ette, Lamartine, Jeremy Bentham, and doubtless many othews.
MEDICAL SOCIETIES OPPOSE THE DEATEI - PEN AI.T.Y.
The medical societies, recognizing the evil effects of cruel and bar-
barous punishments upon public health, have taken the subject up,
and two of them at least have passed resolutions in opposition to the
infliction of the death-penalty. The Eclectic Medical Society of the
State of New York, at its annual meeting in 1892, put itself on record
with the following resolutions, which were two of six bearing upon the
subject :
Resolved, That when the death-penalty is inflicted, it is the com-
munity rather than the culprit that is punished. Sensitive minds and
delicate nerves are greatly and injuriously shocked by the tragic event
and the reports thereof that inevitably appear in the press, while the
victim of the barbarous usage goes out quickly, even though shocking-
ly, and is soon oblivious to the circumstances which for days, weeks, and
242 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTs.
possibly years, haunt the minds of those who are endowed with humane
attributes.
Resolved, That when the penalty of imprisonment is inflicted upon
one who has taken the life of another, the punishment but justly and
naturally falls upon the one who most deserves it, and the public is
spared the painful recitals following the infliction of the death-penalty.
He is silently, and without the inevitable excitement attendant upon
executions, conveyed to his living tomb.
See how quietly the assassin of the Empress of Austria was dis-
posed of in Switzerland in the autumn of 1898.
The fifth resolution recommends the Legislature of the State of
New York to substitute imprisonment for life for the present method of
punishment in such cases. The Homeopathic Medical Association of
the State of New York also passed resolutions in favor of the abolition
of capital punishment. The Allopathic Society had the same subject
under discussion, with what result I have not been informed.
This subject should receive the careful attention of physicians and
sanitarians. General Curtis informs me that the tragic reports of the
hanging of the Chicago anarchists caused forty gravid women to be-
come insane I Think of the effects of this tragedy upon not only these
expectant mothers, but upon the unborn child Under the influence
of prenatal impressions what evils must have happened to the children
of these women. Some of them doubtless heirs to insanity or idiocy;
others marked with tendencies to crime. Try, if possible, to measure in
the imagination how greatly these tendencies will be handed down
through succeeding generations, bringing an inevitable blight upon their
posterity. Are we not shocked and made sick enough by the violence
of badly constituted men and women without having the State con-
tribute such shocking examples 7
It is becoming a serious question if criminals should be punished
for the especial purpose of inflicting suffering upon them for their vio-
lent acts; whether indeed, they should not be treated in the same man-
ner as the dangerously insane are cared for. In an address at Geolog-
ical Hall, in 1892, on the “Relation Between Crime and Disease,” which
received considerable favorable comment from the press, I took the
position that it is as natural for some people to commit crime under
great provocation or extraordinary temptation as it is for a consump-
tive to contract a cold or cough with exposure; that, too, we have
mental monstrosities as well as physical deformities; that we have those
with us who are as unfortunate in their mental make up as others are
in their physical conformation. In brief, that the hump-backed, rickety,
club-footed, and knock-kneed have their analogues in those who are no
less mentally deformed, and that society should simply seek to have
the latter segregated instead of being punished or killed. This paper
BRUTALITY AND INHUMANITY. 243
may be found in the “Transactions of the Eclectic Medical Society of
the State of New York,” Vol. XV., p. 328 et seq., where this phase of
the subject is treated at considerable length.
“The facts collected by Lombroso,” says Helen Zimmern in Ap-
pleton's Popular Science Monthly, “place beyond all doubt the intimate
connection between crime and mental derangements which has so long
been suspected to exist. Madmen and criminals belong to the same
family ; not in the sense of the vulgar and unthinking expression that all
criminals are mad, though every-day experience in the police courts puts
it beyond doubt that many are actually deranged, but in the sense that
both classes are in a similar pathological state, which manifests itself on
the one hand in lunacy, on the other in crime. This position is ren-
dered still stronger by the revelations of genealogical statistics, which
reveal the heredity through long generations of criminal tendencies, as
they do of insanity, and alternations of criminals and mad men, in the
same or successive generations.”
When this view of crime shall be generally accepted by our law
makers, the death-penalty will not only be abolished, but the unfortun-
ate classes will be more humanely treated than they now are as prison-
ers. All that society will ask will be the removal of such mischievous
people from their more fortunately organized neighbors, and their reten-
tion where they cannot annoy peaceable and law abiding citizens.
Perhaps when as much thought and attention shall be given to
stirpiculture as is now bestowed on the rearing of improved specimens
of domestic animals, the unfortunate classes may be saved from taking
passage to this beautiful planet. The world moves, though on some
lines painfully slow. Our social advancement is far from keeping pace
With our material improvements. When the works of the botanist,
Linnaeus, were burned because they treated of the sex of plants, there
could have been little progress made in the culture of flowers or trees.
So long as it is considered obscene to instruct the human family in re-
gard to the true functions of the sexual organs, and all that legitimately
relates to physical, mental, and temperamental adaptation in parentage,
progress in race culture must necessarily be greatly retarded.
IS THE DEATH-PENALTY A DETERRENT 2
In regard to Wisconsin, Governor Washburn, when occupying the
executive chair, said : “It is twenty years since the abolition of
Capital punishment. No State,” he added, “can show a greater free-
dom from homicidal crime.” Crime decreased instead of increased
With the growth of the State. The statistics of Rhode Island bearing
on this matter are equally favorable to the abolition of the death-
penalty. They show in all the States that have done away with these
barbarous methods that convictions are more easily obtained, and that
244 CAUSES OF NERVO US AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
a far less number of capital crimes are committed within their bound-
aries as compared with contiguous States wherein the death-penalty
hangs mercilessly over the head of the murderer. The difficulty in
convicting those who are charged with murder under the existing
Statutes in the majority of States is illustrated in the following facts
gathered by General Curtis : “In 1885 there were 1,808 murders, only
108 executions, while there were
FIG. 80. 181 lynchings. In 1886, 1,499
murders, only eighty-three ex-
ecutions, and 133 lynchings. In
1887, 2,333 murders, seventy-
nine executions, and 123 lynch-
ings. In 1888, 2,184 murders,
eighty-seven executions, and
144 lynchings. In 1889, 3,567
murders, ninety-cight execu-
tions, and 175 lynchings. A
little over three per cent. of the
murderers are legally executed,
while the efficiency of Judge
Lynch's court seems to be from
two to three times as great. It
is worthy of note, that Judge
Lynch's proceedings are wholly
carried on within the limits of
capital States.”
Those who have given atten-
tion to the subject are impressed
with the conviction that the
TII R. R.I., RCOTROCUTING CHAIR. death-penalty has no deterrent
influence upon the criminal
mind. “The pretext of warning,” says Professor Alexander Wilder,
M.D., “is gossamer. The experience of England demonstrated that
the more capital punishment was resorted to, the more occasion was
found for it. Indeed, the severest courts and the most rigidly enforced
penalties are found on pirate ships, yet we hardly look to such a com-
munity for personal security. There is something in the familiarity
with bloodshed that maddens men to be murderers. * * * Children
reading or hearing particulars of an execution imitate it in their play.
Men attending such an occurrence are maddened and made murderous
in temper. This fact has led to the executing of men in private with
only witnesses enough to make sure that the work has been properly
done. Yet if it were so holy, so religious, so necessary for an example
the logic is inevitable that executions ought to be public and that every
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BRUTALITY AND INHUMANITY. 245
man, woman, and child ought to be encouraged, if not forced, to attend
them for the sake of the moral influence.”
Cicero said : “Away with this cruelty from the State Allow it
not, O judges 1 to prevail any longer in the commonwealth ! It has
not only the fatal effect of cutting off so many of your fellow-citizens
in a most atrocious manner, but it hath even banished from men of the
mildest disposition the sentiment of mercy by the familiar practice of
slaughter.” *
And Victor Hugo, in a speech in the National Assembly, exclaimed :
“What is the death-penalty if not the special and eternal sign of bar-
barism 7 Wherever capital punishment is frequent savagery predom-
inates; wherever capital punishment is rare civilization reigns.”
In a letter to the English poet, William L. Linton, John G.
Whittier said: “I have given the subject of capital punishment much
consideration, and have no hesitation in saying that I do not regard the
death-penalty essential to the security and well-being of Society ; on the
contrary, I believe that its total abolition, and the greater certainty of
conviction which would follow, would tend to diminish rather than
increase the crimes it is intended to prevent.”
In New York it was attempted to exclude from the daily press all
descriptions of the events of the death-chamber when the electric chair
succeeded the gallows. This was found to be impracticable, and the
reading public is served up with a chapter of horrors whenever a con-
demned man is shocked to death. It seems difficult for the mind of
man to devise any means of killing criminals humanely. Dlectricity is
clearly a disappointment, and those who are called to witness the execu-
tion by this method are nearly shocked to death themselves by the con-
tortions of a fellow-being strapped to the chair while the painful current
is doing its murderous work. Better than this plan would be to put the
unfortunate man in a car and sinkit to the bottom of a river, as the pound-
master used to drown dogs, for we should at least be saved the horror
of beholding the victim in his last agonics | But there can be no
humane or elevating device for perpetrating judicial murder.
When statute law ceases to provide physical torture as a punish-
ment for crime, we may reasonably hope to see less cruelty exhibited
by man toward his fellow-man, and to the lower orders of animal life.
Remove this barbaric example from high places and the influence will
be humanizing to the entire race ; and with this regeneration of man,
even the ferocity of beasts will ultimately be subdued by the magnetic
power of benevolence and fraternal love. This is not too much to hope
for by those who really believe in the predicted millennium ; but let us
not lose sight of the sanitary motive for reform in this particular. Let
every one remember that all cruelty, and all inhumanity is not only
felt by the victim thereof, but by all good men and women who are
246 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
Cognizant of the violence or unkindness, and that their nervous systems
are seriously impaired by all that is commonly and correctly denomi.
nated “Shocking,” and that the perpetrator suffers physically, to some
extent, in consequence of the allowed presence of the passions which
instigate him to commit the offense. Let me also add that it would
greatly conduce to health of nerve if people of delicate organizations
would suppress the morbid taste or curiosity which leads them to wit-
ness a stage or real tragedy ; which makes them attentive readers of a
tragical story, or accounts of actual murder; which induces them to
apply to the sheriff for permission to witness the dying convulsions of
a convicted murderer, or fly to the newspaper for the harrowing
description of the last moments of the condemned man. Let us rather try,
so far as possible, to turn away our eyes from the bloody acts of de-
praved human nature and barbaric laws, and thus preserve our nerves in
tranquillity while watching and applauding the examples of the good,
and trying to make kindness of heart a quality of earnest and universal
aspiration. -
Wealth.
Wealth, with its attendant dissipations, is a prolific source of ner-
vous derangements and blood impurities. Many physiologists have
described money as the “elixir of both mind and body.” Dr. Hall, in
his Journal of Health, remarks as follows:
“This idea of the hygienic value of money on men is strikingly
illustrated in the report of M. Vallerme, secretary of the poor-house
commissioners in Havre, where the average age of the rich is twelve
years greater than that of the poor. Thus, 1,088 prosperous persons
died at an average of forty-two years; 4,791 of the middling classes at
twenty-nine years; and 19,849 poor at twenty years.”
Now, these statistics, at first glance, look like “knock-down
arguments’; but those who argue from them that wealth is a pro-
motor of health and longevity, overlook one important consideration
which strikes at the very root of their philosophy, to wit. : health begets
wealth, instead of wealth begetting health. It must be remembered that a
large proportion of mankind is born into the world with hereditary
disease or enfeebled constitution, which disqualifies them for the activo
pursuits of life, and consequently, unless they become heirs to wealth
they must live and die poor. Look over our country now, and learn
the history of its’ wealthy men ; what do we find Ž Two-thirds at least
have been the architects of their own fortunes. They have amassed
their wealth by that indomitable perseverance and industry which
they could only have maintained under the encouragement of vigorous
physical organization. What chance has the invalid to gain wealth, or
even a competency He is interrupted in his business pursuits by the
WEALTH. 247
visitations of disease, and the harvests he may reap during the intervals
of comfortable health are at once absorbed in the expenses of sickness
which follows. If, as the statistics indicate, the average age of wealth
over poverty is only twelve years, the argument is in favor of the latter;
for if, with good health to start with, and subsequent wealth to enable
them to live as they choose, rich people cannot exceed an average of
twelve years over a class, a majority of which is born in sickness and
physical deformity, we may justly conclude that wealth, with its usual
dissipations, shortens the lives of its possessors. Dr. Hall has fallen
into the same error that many other physiological writers have in
treating on this subject.
Men who have been gifted with that men- Fig. 81.
tal and physical energy, united with extraordi-
nary powers of endurance, which has enabled
them to stem with success the opposing cur
rents of life, ought to live from twenty to
fifty years longer than the sickly crew who
follow in their wake with spirited oars to-day,
and exhausted strength to-morrow. But it
appears they can only average twelve more,
and probably these are obtained from the ex-
traordinary longevity of the minority of
wealthy men, who have attaincó remarkable
age in consequence of an adherence to ten
perate and industrious habits, unallured by the
vices of wealth.
IIORN OF I’I,ENTY.
A few men use riches as if they were a loan from the Deity, strew-
ing the paths of indigency and suffering with blessings; many men
value riches only because they enable them to live in sluggish idleness—
to glut their bellies with besotting wines and rich Viands—to gratify in
full measure their stimulated passions, and dazzle the world with glitter-
ing gew-gaws. The former possess placidity of mind and harmony of
body ; the latter, mental uneasinoss and physical debility, and from
the dissipations of these arise the common evils of wealth. The mind,
under constant excitement, the blood hot with excessive stimulus, and
the muscles paralyzed with habitual inactivity, cannot fail to destroy
the tone of the nervous and vascular systems.
There is a happy medium between wealth and poverty, which
promotes physical health and social comfort, and beyond this boundary
it were well if none could pass. Inasmuch as man can carry nothing
With him at the close of life except a record of good works, he who
possesses a competency during life enjoys all the pleasures that money
can buy, without surfeit. But some wish for wealth to be enabled to
do good, An excellent lesson for such may be found in the life and

248 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
sayings of Socrates : A Grecian youth, who saw the errors and follies
of the people, and wished to reform the world, exclaimed : “Oh, that
I were rich, and famous as an orator, I would move the world so soon
Here are sins to be plucked up, and truths to be planted. Oh, that I
could do it all ! I would reform the whole world—and that so soon 1"
Socrates, hearing the youth, said : “Young man, thou speakest as
silly women. This gospel in plain letters is written for all—‘LET HIM
THAT WOULD MOVE THE WORLD, MOVE FIRST HIMSELF.’ It asketh
neither wealth nor fame to live out a noble life. Make thy light thy
life ; thy thought thy action. Others will come round, and follow in
thy steps. Thou askest riches to move the world. Foolish young man,
as thou art, begin now. Reform thy little self, and thou hast begun to
reform the world. Fear not ; thy work shall never die.”
The general tendency of wealth is not benevolence, but prodigality,
Selfishness, idleness, and gluttony. There is more true benevolence
exhibited by the poorest than the wealthiest classes. The late Hon.
Geo. S. Hilliard has beautifully remarked : “I confess that increas-
ing years bring with them an increasing respect for men who do not
succeed in life, as those words are commonly used. Heaven is said to be
a place for those who have not succeeded on earth ; and it is surely
true that celestial graces do not best thrive and bloom in the hot blaze
of worldly prosperity. Ill success sometimes arises from a superabun-
dance of qualities in themselves good—from a conscience too sensitive,
a taste too fastidious, a self-forgetfulness too romantic, a modesty too
retiring. I will not go so far as to say, with a living poet, that the
“world knows nothing of its greatest men,” but there are forms of great.
ress, or at least excellence, which “die and make no sign;' there are
martyrs that miss the palm, but not the stake ; there are heroes without
the laurel, and conquerors without the triumph.”
The view I take of the physical effects of riches is sustained by the
late Dr. Channing. He gives it as his opinion that the difference be-
tween the rich and the poor in regard to physical suffering is not as
great as has been imagined, in support of which he says: “That some
of the indigent among us die of scanty food is undoubtedly true ;
but vastly more die from eating too much than from eating too little ,
vastly more from excess than from starvation. So as to clothing, many
shiver from want of defence against the cold ; but there is vastly more
suffering among the rich from absurd and criminal modes of dress
which fashion has sanctioned, than among the poor from deficiency of
raiment. Our daughters are oftener brought to the grave by their rich
attire, than our beggars by their nakedness. So the poor are often
overworked ; but they suffer less than many among the rich who have
no work to do nor interesting object to fill up life; to satisfy the
infinite cravings of man for action. According to our present modes of
FAILURES IN BIJSINESS. 249
education, how many of our daughters are victims of ennut, a misery
unknown to the poor, and more intolerable than the Weariness of
excessive toil.”
Failures in Business.
Of those casualties which, through their depressing influence
upon the mind, disturb the harmony of the nervous system, there are
none, which prudence has power to avert, more prolific of nervous
derangements than failures in business. In fact, financial prosperity
often sustains men in apparent health, whose systems are loaded
with diseases in embryo, and the first stroke of misfortune which
causes the brain to withhold and consume within itself the measure of
vital electricity which it habitually dispenses
to the various organs of the body, removes
the restraining power which holds the latent
disorders of the system in check, and, all at
once, the unfortunate business-man becomes
the tenant of a sick-bed, or the inmate of a
lunatic asylum.
The human brain sustains a similar relation
to its dependency—the body—that the bank
does to the commercial world. Its medium
is not silver or gold certificates, but vital
electricity ; and its depositors and patrons are
not merchants and manufacturers, but organs
and functions. When trouble overtakes a 3 -,
OTHELLO'S OCCUPATION GONE.
man, a physiological “panic ’’ ensues, and
the brain discounts sparingly. If a “run” is made upon it, it partially
or wholly “suspends.” The process of digestion and the action of the
heart, liver, lungs, kidneys, etc., are dependent upon the vital electric
forces emanating from the brain, and when the latter is over-exercised
with trouble and hard thinking, it reserves its electricity for its own use,
leaving the body only partially supplied ; and if the organs retaliate by
denying nourishment to the brain, as they are obliged to do, in a meas-
ure, the delicately organized man becomes a lunatic, and the vigorous
man, whose system is filled with inflammatory matter, a victim to some
Corporeal disease, acute or chronic.
“Hard times” invariably increase the labors of a physician,
although they do not always increase the gold in his coffers. A bank
rupt man is generally an invalid, a prostrate patient, or a mental
imbecile. The statistics of lunacy show that in periods of industrial
and financial depression there are large accessions to our asylums. The
press is filled with accounts of suicides, and painfully anxious faces
Swarm in great business centres.
FIG. 82.

250 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
Such being the effects of business failures upon the health of a
people, they should be avoided, as far as possible, by prudence and
economy. “Live within your means,” is an old and good proverb, and
he who does not, almost invariably brings upon himself nervous
derangements which are sure to lead to fatal results.
Every married man should confide to his wife the real condition of
his finances. Much is said of the extravagance of married women.
Their conduct is often pronounced the cause of their husbands' ruin.
Much truth is uttered in such assertions, but not the whole truth.
Men are apt to represent their pecuniary resources much greater than
they actually are. As a sequence, wives laugh at their admonitions
of economy—think their consorts “stingy"—and govern their wants
by the supposed capacity of their purses. Nothing short of a failure
reveals to them their insolvency.
The average wife's condition, under the most favorable circum-
stances, is a hard one, and she cannot be blamed for reaching for the
good things of life, if her husband leads her to believe he is rich, par-
ticularly if he gives plausibility to her delusion by indulging in such
Superfluities as Havana cigars and expensive wines.
It is high time that men began to appear to their wives exactly
what they are, pecuniarily, morally, and socially. Frankness in these
respects would not only tend to lessen the number of business failures,
but would greatly diminish the evils of prostitution. But deception, in
most cases, commences in the moonlight nights before marriage and
continues until some pecuniary or physical disaster reveals things as
they are. This sometimes happens unexpectedly early.
There are unquestionably some wives who, with full knowledge of
their husband's limited resources, endeavor to vie with their wealthiest
neighbors, and bring upon their indulgent providers premature ruin
and death. Such, however, are exceptions, and, when the grave closes
over the victims of their foolish extravagance, they bitterly reflect on
the errors of their conduct.
Running in debt to an extent beyond all present prospect of liqui
dation, is a common cause of failures in business. This error is almost
characteristic of the Yankee, whose enterprising spirit leads him to
embark in hazardous speculations. His organ of “Hope,” generally
hredominates over his “Causality,” and “Caution,” and, urged on by
argely developed propelling faculties, he frequently finds himself in
deep water, without plank or life-preserver. He is, too, of all men,
least calculated, physically, to endure reverses, for although he may
succeed, by his indomitable will, in buffeting the waves of adversity,
his physical health suffers from all such encounters. Here, too, the
proverbialist whispers—“Live within your means.”
EXCESSIVE STUDY. 25 I
Dishonesty causes many failures. Let one man of extensive reputa-
tion and high-standing in the commercial world turn trickster and
defraud a bank or railroad of a large sum of money, and the whole
community suffers. Public confidence is shaken. Men who have con-
tracted debts with a good prospect of being able to pay, cannot extricate
themselves from an unexpected dilemma. Failure after failure follows
in the wake of the defaulter, destroying the prospects of many careful
as well as careless men. Do defaulters ever reflect that their dishonesty
carries thousands to premature graves 7 Observation proves such to be
the fact. But reckless men seldom look at consequences, and if they
can only raise themselves from the ashes of a financial ruin, which
their dishonesty has brought upon a community, their humane curi-
osity is not sufficiently awakened to inquire how many have been
buried in it.
Financiers, who are supposed to regulate the monetary affairs of
the world, should realize the powerful influence they exert over the
physical well-being of the race. Recklessness by the few should not
be tolerated by the many, or at least, not countenanced Every “false
step" brings with it multitudinous failures, and failures in business
produce depression of mind, and depression of mind disturbs the har-
mony of the nervous system, and this leads to mental and corporeal dis-
eases of every variety, according to the predisposition of victims. Do
not strive to acquire sudden fortune. Remember that contentment is
wealth, and that there is no real wealth without it. He who passes
through life with a sufficiency of food and clothing, and a contented
mind, has the benefit of all the wealth the world possesses. In the
language of Homer, “The best of things beyond their measure clog.”
Excessive Study.
“The mind, just like the stomach, takes
Its food for pleasure, profit, use,
Teflection all the virtue makes
And serves it for its gastric-juice.”
The mind may be overloaded as well as the stomach. Reading too
constantly and studying too closely is as injurious to the mind and
nervous system as is eating too much to the stomach and blood. The
back doors of many of our colleges and seminaries open into lunatic
asylums and cemeteries. The literary world is full of physical wrecks,
and many a mind has become bankrupt by trying to acquire knowledge
too fast, like the ambitious business-man who fails, through his over-
exertions to get rich. Avarice for knowledge is generally more suc-
cessful than avarice for money; but while the failure of the former
leads to an empty head, that of the latter only leads to an empty
pocket. Every man is born into the world with a certain amount
252 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTs.
of mental capacity which will admit of cultivation, but not of forced
growth. By gentle discipline the mental powers of a man will gradu-
ally develop, and reach maturity as early as good playsical health will
permit, but when the student attempts to crowd his mind with learning
all at once, he not only fails to reach the high summit of his inordinate
ambition, but often falls a helpless imbecile.
“Professor Houghton, of Trinity College, Dublin,” says a news-
paper writer, “has published some curious chemical computations
respecting the relative amounts of physical exhaustion produced by
FIG. 83. mental and manual labor. According to
these chemical estimates, two hours of severe
mental study, abstract from the human sys-
tem as much vital strength as is taken from
it by an entire day of mere hand-work.” This
fact, which seems to rest upon strictly scien-
tific laws, shows that the men who do brain-
work should be careful, first, not to overtask
themselves by too continuous exertion, and,
secondly, that they should not omit to take
physical exercise each day sufficient to restore
the equilibrium between the nervous and
muscular systems.
Studies, to be improving, must be pursued
with a relish, the same as good edibles are
sought after by the epicure. If the mental appetite is too craving,
gratify it sparingly, as every man should his corporeal appetite; if too
dull, nurse it gently. An observance of this rule will prevent our
institutions of learning from sending thousands of mental dyspeptics into
the world to flash and flicker with intellectual light, and then go out
like a used-up tallow candle.
THE STUDENT A T H IS BOOKS.
Excessive Labor.
“The night is come, but not too soon—
The laborer's hand is weary growing.”
Foolish pride and aspirations for wealth, more frequently than
necessity, drive men to excessive labor. Both the mental and physical
system demand rest, and inflict a penalty on the individual who refuses
to grant it. Not only has nature ordained night as a season of repose,
but usage among all civilized or semi-civilized peoples has set apart one
day in each week as a period of rest for all human beings, and has so
impressed the necessity of such a regulation on the human mind, that,
however diverse may be the religious opinions of different worshippers,
all have a day professedly set apart for that purpose. Thus, Sunday is

EXCESSIVE LABOR. 253
appointed by the Christians, Monday by the Grecians, Tuesday by the
Persians, Wednesday by the Assyrians, Thursday by the Egyptians,
Friday by the Turks, and Saturday by the Jews. The strict observ-
ance of the day is, however, unusual. The business man, although
he be a constant attendant at church, is apt to look over his accounts
and lay down his programme for the week, while the literary character
meditates on what he will write or speak, regardless of the sentiment
of the Roman philosopher, Seneca, who said that “the mind of man is
like the fields, the fertility of which depends on their being allowed a
certain period of rest at the proper season.” FIG - 84.
And a great deal of this over-work is for the
frivolous purpose of driving a prettier span of
horses than some neighbor, wearing a finer
coat, holding larger estates, or possessing
more of that attractive commodity—gold !
The best remedy for this evil is content-
ment. This should be cultivated, for it is
wealth. A contented man with fifty cents in
his pocket, and a clear conscience, is far
wealthier than the millionaire, whose daily
thought and night-dreams are all about
gold, and how more may be accumulated
Dismiss your avocations, all who can, at night THE overworked MAN IN
and on the one rest-day of the week, and * *
acquire contentment if you would preserve your nervous systems
in health, and your minds in happy placidity. There are, it is true,
many so pressed with want that they can hardly do so. Our sew-
ing-women are the most unfortunate representatives of this class;
but even they would be able to accomplish more in the end by
religiously observing some hours for rest, divided between sleep and
out-of-door exercise. Sickness, and consequent compulsion to entirely
abstain from work for weeks and months, would not occur so often, if .
those who are obliged to support themselves by the needle would pursue
this rule. A healthful position can hardly be maintained in plying the
needle steadily, in consequence of which the activity of the vital organs
is interrupted, and the circulation of the blood impaired. Exercise of
some kind every day, and a reasonable amount of repose every night,
are absolutely necessary to preserve health of body and mind. To
assist in preserving the strength of the eye, it has been wisely suggested
by the Surgeon of the Royal Ophthalmic Hospital of London, that
“needle-women, embroiderers, etc., should work in rooms hung with
green, and have green blinds and curtains to the windows. In China,
this rule is adopted by the exquisite embroiderers of that country.”
Thus it seems we can learn something of the “heathen Chinee.”

254 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
.*
Worry.
“What's the use of worrying,
Of hurrying
And Scurrying,
Everybody flurrying
And breaking up their rest ?
When everyone is teaching us,
Treaching and beseeching us,
To settle down and end the fuss,
For quiet ways are best.”
Some rhythmical writer, whose name I do not know, perpetrated
the above jinglish verse. But while the advice is good, who can abso-
lutely follow it 7 When a child is sick, nigh unto death, how can the
FIG. 85. devoted mother help worrying 7 When a
country merchant has sold nearly all his
goods on credit—merchandise for which he
paid good money—and one by one the people
he has trusted move out of town without
paying their bills, what can he do but worry 7
How can he help it 2 When the doctor has
some patients on his visiting list whose symp-
toms will not yield to his remedies, how can
he lay his weary head upon the pillow at
night without worrying 2 And so I might go
on with a great variety of illustrations to
show that it would be quite impossible to
avoid some kinds of worry.
There is, however, a deal of worrying
which might well be avoided, and it is of this kind I wish to speak.
Good wise thinking uses up a great amount of vital force, but anxious,
troubled thought, metaphorically speaking, makes a bonfire of the
entire brain, leaving for the moment little but trembling fibres and hot
ashes. Usually one little live spark is left to enkindle anew the same
round of trouble, and the unfortunate sufferer nearly collapses with
exhaustion. Only wonderful recuperative power could restore the
normal condition, and this power may be spent by too frequent drafts
upon its endurance. Jean Porter Rudd has well said : “One might
as well take frequent spoonfuls of poison as to worry ; while to think
thoughts of resentment, malice, hatred, or revenge, is less wise than to
thrust one's hand into a fire.” - -
A WORRYING WOMAN.
Theodore F. Seward tells us that “worrying is a species of insanity.
We would,” he says, “count a man insane who took a dose of poison
every day to improve his health. He is no less mentally unbalanced
who desires happiness, yet allows himself to indulge a habit of worry-


WORRY. 255
ing. It is like walking south to find the North Pole. It is going into a
cellar to look for rainbows. It does not prevent or modify the dreaded
ill, but paralyzes the powers by which the evil thing may be averted.
Moreover, in nine cases out of ten the evil does not come. “Children,”
said a good man to the family gathered around his death-bed, “during
my long life I have had a great many troubles, most of which never
happened.’ A prominent business man told me the other day that his
father worried for twenty-five years over an anticipated misfortune
which never arrived.”
The London Standard says: “If Mr. Seward can induce the
American people to give up their worrying and fidgeting he will accom-
plish more for them than all that was done by his cousin, the distin-
guished Secretary of State, and all the Cabinet officers since the
Revolution.” -
There are innumerable little annoyances which with practice can
be put aside, and it is a wrong to one's self to let them find lodgement
in the brain. The one to suffer is the person who harbors them, and
it is not often that he can be made any better by dwelling upon them.
Banish them, for they greatly lower the tone of the nervous system,
and in many instances inflame the blood. An attack of rheumatism has
often been induced by worry. Headaches are common results. Heart-
aches always. Whatever disease the system may be subject to, is
inevitably made worse by mental unrest. The most common causes of
worry are simply borrowed or imaginary troubles. If one allows these
to take lodgement in the mind, they will return as frequent unwelcome
visitors, unless one resolutely shuts them out. They must be summarily
ejected. Some people have a chronic habit of worrying. Their minds
are mostly occupied with evils which are not present, but apprehended.
By employing the mental powers in some useful manner, or by seeking
the company of cheerful companions, this kind of worry can usually be
avoided. There are those who are constantly dreading illness or death.
Every little ache or pain is magnified. A slight throat cough is at
Once thought to be consumption—a tiny pimple is believed to be a
cancer. Such worry is really liable to induce the very disease which is
dreaded. Dr. Herbert Snow, of the Cancer Hospital, says worry is the
chief exciting cause of cancer.
In a sermon on Worry, the Rev. M. J. Savage once said: “If you
can help a thing, do not worry, but go to work to help it. If you can-
not help it, do not worry, but wait, and preserve your strength for
Something you can do. There is no use in beating yourself against the
bars of the universe. This is to be a child, and cry because it does not
Snow when your new sled comes home. To fret against the weather,
for instance, is to think your convenience ought to interfere with and
change an adamantine chain of cause and effect that stretches from
256 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
eternity to eternity. To annihilate one drop of moisture or one ray of
light in the heavens to-day would be as much a miracle as to pitch the
Catskills into the Hudson by a wish. The wise man tries to get on the
side of the movements and forces of the world, but never wastes his
strength in beating against the barriers of the inevitable. * * * Now
in all these things, friends, what shall we do 7 Is it not really best to
do all we can calmly, to plan as well and wisely as we can, and
then hope for the best, and only take the worst when it really comes 7 I
have about made up my mind, that since I have not got to die but once,
instead of making it my life-work, I am going to ‘live while I do live,’
in the best sense, and then die all at once and have it done with ! It is
not worth while to die by piece-meal, spreading it over years and mak-
ing all life dark with its shadows. Let us pick up and carry bravely
the burdens that duty lays in our path, but let us not be cheated out of
the best of our life by bugbear phantoms that tell us that something
dreadful is always about to happen. Let it happen first, and then we
will take care of it afterwards.”
A newspaper reporter asked Senator Chauncey Depew how he
kept young and ardent. “I don’t worry,” Mr. Depew replied. “My
father and mother died of worry. Fifteen years ago I was gravely
annoyed. I had endorsed more paper, lost more money. Things
were dark indeed. My health was poor, my nerves were gone. I said
to myself. “Old man, that will never do. Stop worrying.” I ceased
to worry. No matter what happened during the day I went to bed,
leaving all my annoyances behind.” Thus we see Mr. Depew is a phil-
osopher as well as a good after-dinner speaker.
Anti-worrying societies and clubs are being formed in various parts
of the United States, and they are beneficent institutions. It is a good
thing for the chronic worriers to gather together, compare notes, and
see how much misery they are unnecessarily bringing upon themselves.
One can always laugh at another's phantoms, it is irresistible, and when
the company of worriers get together and display their wares (in this
connection it might be spelt wears), one would suppose that they would
all become hilarious—pretty nearly laugh themselves to death. Then,
inasmuch as worrying and hilarity are not compatible, the former
would have to go. When worry proceeds from real causes, the skilful
doctor can usually be of some service. Without administering mis-
chievous opiates he can prescribe nerve-soothing remedies and support-
ing tonics. He can brace up and put your vital machinery in the way
of re-establishing itself. In this way troubles that are nearly enough to
kill can be bridged over, and the unhappy patient spared to enjoy
many prosperous years. To once more quote the bard whom I intro-
duced at the opening, I will close by saying, in the language of this
poet :
MELANCHOLY. • 257
“‘Tis better far to join the throng
That do their duty right along ;
Reluctant they to raise a fuss
Or make themselves ridiculous.
Calm and serene in heart and nerve,
Their strength is always in reserve.”
Melancholy.
Some writer has facetiously remarked that “there are many peo-
ple who keep pet griefs as certain other people keep lap-dogs, that they
carry about with them wherever they go. These are the people who
feel the best when they feel the worst, and FIG. 86.
are never so happy as when they are utterly
miserable. Like the maiden ‘who milked
the cow with the crumpled horn,” they are
always “all forlorn,' and they keep a figur-
ative dog to be “tossed,’ and a cat to be
‘worried,” and a rat to be “killed 'upon every
possible occasion. They turn down the leaf
at, ‘Oh, that my head were waters and mine
eyes a fountain of tears,’ as if griefs were like
bulrushes, and flourished best in wet places.”
Melancholy seriously disturbs the circula-
tion of the nervo-electric forces, and causes
an undue consumption of the latter in the
brain. Melancholy people are almost invari- THE MELANCHOLY MAN.
ably dyspeptic, because a full supply of the electric element is withheld
from the pneumo-gastric nerve, which conveys from the brain the force
that gives tone and activity to the digestive organs. Despondency, in
fact, affects all the organs of the system on the same principle ; the
brain consuming, in its excitement, more than its natural allowance of
nervo-electricity, and, as a consequence, withholding the vital element
from the organs which are dependent upon it for healthful action.
Cheerfulness should be cultivated by every one. It is an antidote
for many ills; and a laugh is of immense value, physiologically. It
produces an electric effect throughout the whole system. It is felt in no
one place particularly, but every nerve, muscle, and fibre is simultane-
ously titillated with the electric flash from the brain. All who have
melancholy friends should try to excite them to laughter. A few
hearty laughs will cure the most desperate case of melancholy. It is a
social duty to look cheerful, and a blessed privilege to laugh. “Away
with melancholy.”
Really the only melancholy which we may be excused for indulg-
ing is that which must come over every one in observing the general
ill-health with which we are surrounded, by the unfortunate customs

258 CAUSES OF NERVOUS AND BLOOD DERANGEMENTS.
and habits which we recklessly observe and blindly pursue. They are
so multitudinous, and so impertinently insinuating, that they may be
compared to the insects of summer. They creep into a man's hat ;
they crawl into his boots; they nestle in woman's waistbands, and
they conceal themselves in her trailing drapery. They fall into the
food we eat, and drop into the liquids we drink. With the greediness
of fabled vampires, they suck out the little brain some people bring
into the world with them, leaving a sting that destroys all moral sense.
They penetrate not only the tenement basement, but the drawing-rooms
of the affluent. They mark the faces of the poor with pock-pits, and
cause the rich to hobble about on gold-mounted crutches. Science
must find a cure for their sting, and common-sense must devise means
for their extermination.
FIG. 87.
A Clu RE FOR MELAN CEIOLY.

CHAPTER III.
PREVENTION OF DISEASE.
If half the thought and sentiment that are spent on the subject of death,
were bestowed on the practical duty of strengthening, lengthening, and ennobling
life, we should be more fit to live worthily and die contentedly.”—Barriet Martineau.
sº &
~\\\{^\Ağ tº a tº º
3. º, HIS proposition may sound shocking to many,
:N
&but it is a living truth ; and it may be added,
*Nº-J
#º §ſ that if half the time and money expended
§§§ }} by the sick to recover health had been timely
N º devoted to the preservation of health, life
& ¥ tº * - y would be a more enjoyable and less expen-
§§§ sive luxury. The trite maxim that “an
Š ounce of prevention is worth a pound of
cure,” applies with greater force, in this connection, than it
can in any other. If people would properly consult tem-
peraments in marriage; then, if they would take some
thought and pains to prepare themselves to become the
healthy parents of viable children ; and then again, if the
children of such careful progenitors would take reasonable care of the
valuable legacy bequeathed to them, after a few generations the good
people could tip their hats with a sarcastic good-by to the doctors, use
patent nostrums for poisoning troublesome insects, and limit the busi-
ness of the undertaker to the burial of those who die by accident or old
age. A writer in the Atlantic Magazine says: “In our civilized sed-
entary life, he who would have good health must fight for it. Many
people have the insolence to become parents, who have no right to
aspire to that dignity ; children are born who have no right to exist;
and skill preserves many whom Nature is eager to destroy. Civilized
man, too, has learned the trick of heading off some of the diseases that
used to sweep over whole regions of the earth, and lay low the weak-
liest tenth of a population. Secondly, while the average duration of
human life has been increased, the average tone of human health has
been lowered. Fewer die, but fewer are quite well. Many of us
breathe vitiated air, and keep nine-tenths of the body quiescent for
twenty-two or twenty-three hours out of every twenty-four. Immense
-- 259








26O PREVENTION OF DISEASE.
numbers cherish gloomy, depressing opinions, and convert the day set
apart for rest and recreation into one which aggravates some of the
worst tendencies of the weak, and counteracts none of them. Half the
population of the United States violate the law of Nature every time
they take sustenance, and the children go, crammed with indigestion, to
sit six hours in hot, ill-ventilated, or unventilated school-rooms. Except
in a few large towns, the bread and meat are almost universally inferior,
or bad ; and the only viands that are good are those which ought not to be
eaten at all. At most family tables, after a course of meat, which has
the curious properties of being both soft and tough, a profusion of inge-
nious puddings, pies, cakes, and other abominable trash, disagrees with
the young, disgusts the mature, and injures all. From bodies thus im-
perfectly nourished we demand excessive exertions of all kinds.”
The proprietor of an expensive steam-engine would never permit
such a “Gump’’ to take care of it, as he allows to take care of his own
delicate physical machinery. He will not employ an engineer who does
not fully understand the entire mechanism of the engine. He will em-
ploy one who knows when to increase and when to decrease the amount
of fuel ; when to let off some of the superfluous steam, and when to
augment it ; when to clean out the ashes and cinders; and when to add
a lubricator to all the various parts subject to friction. Well, now, the
human system is a thousand times more intricate and delicate in its
mechanism than the steam-engine, and yet people all over the world are
“running it,” who know nothing of its complicated parts—are in
absolute ignorance of the functions of many of them ; and are entirely
incapable of selecting the proper food (fuel) to keep it in first-rate order.
To the ear of an observant, reflective physiologist, it sounds almost
like an insult to the Creator to say that providence has taken this or
that young relative or friend from the family of which it is a dearly
loved member. An anonymous writer disposes of this fallacy with the
following pointed interrogatories and sensible replies : “Take, for ex-
ample, the young girl bred delicately in a town ; shut up in a nursery
in her childhood, in a boarding-School through her youth, never accus-
tomed to air or exercise—two things that the law of God makes essen-
tial to health. She marries ; her strength is inadequate to meet the de-
mand upon it, Her beauty fades early. “What a strange Providence
that a mother should be taken in the midst of life from her children l’
Was it providence 7 No 1 Providence has assigned her three-score and
ten years, a term long enough to rear her children, and to see her chil-
dren’s children ; but she did not obey the laws on which life depends,
and, of course, she lost it.
“A father, too, is cut off in the midst of his days. He is a useful
and distinguished citizen, and eminent in his profession. A general
buzz rises on every side, of ‘What a striking Providence l’ This man
BREVENTION OF DISEASE. 26 I
has been in the habit of studying half the night, of passing his days in
his office and the courts, of eating luxurious dinners, and of drinking
various wines. He has every day violated the laws on which health
depends. Did Providence cut him off 7 The evil rarely ends here.
The diseases of the father are often transmitted ; and a feeble mother
rarely leaves behind her vigorous children.
“It has been customary in some of our cities for young ladies to
walk in thin shoes and delicate stockings in mid-winter A healthy,
blooming girl thus dresses in violation of Heaven's laws, pays the pen-
alty—a checked circulation, cold, fever, and death. “What a sad Provi-
dence l’ exclaim her friends. Was it Providence, or her own useless
and sad folly 7 .
“A beautiful young bride goes, night after night, to parties made in
honor of her marriage She has a slight sore throat, perhaps, and the
weather is inclement; by day her shoulders are loaded with furs, but
on these occasions she must wear her neck and arms bare, for who ever
heard of a bride in a close evening dress 7 She is consequently seized
with an inflammation of the lungs, and the grave receives her before
her bridal days are over. “What a Providence l’exclaims the world.
Alas! Did she not cut the thread of life her own self Ż
“A girl in the country, exposed to our changeful climate, gets a
new bonnet instead of getting a flannel garment. A rheumatism is the
consequence. Should the girl sit down tranquilly, with the idea that
Providence has sent the rheumatism upon her, or should she charge it
to her own vanity, and avoid the folly in future ? Look, my young
friends, at the mass of diseases that are incurred by intemperance in
eating and drinking, in study or in business; by neglect of exercise,
cleanliness, and pure air ; by indiscreet dressing, tight lacing, etc., and
all is quietly imputed to Providence 1 Is there not impiety as well as
ignorance in this 7 Were the physical laws strictly observed from gen-
eration to generation there would be an end to the frightful diseases
that cut life short, and a long list of maladies that make life a torment
or trial. It is the opinion of those who best understand the physical
system, that this wonderful machine, the body, this ‘goodly temple,
would gradually decay, and men would die as if falling asleep.’”
No one but a fanatical pietist can find fault with the foregoing,
and how can he consistently 7 Is he not taught to regard the Heaven-
ly Father as the author of all good? “How about the loss of our dear
baby ?” some afflicted mother may inquire : “It surely had committed
no physical sin ; and I was careful in feeding and clothing it ; and
scarcely allowed it out of my sight.” Ah, woman, you must look farther
back for the causes of your infant’s early death. They may have been
as remote as the violations of the laws of health by its grandparents,
or great grandparents. They may have originated in your ignorance, or
262 PREVENTION OF DISEASE.
wilful non-observance of those laws which govern healthy propagation
of which I shall shortly speak. Health and longevity greatly depend
upon what is termed a good constitution at the outset. Many a baby is
conceived with the germ of disease and early death, and it strikes me that
“ Divine Providence ’’ has little to do with the removal of such a child.
Disease may not be apparent at its birth. It may even have a healthy
appearing skin and plump body, while in its blood lurks a poison or
taint of disease which needs only the contact of the atmosphere of scar-
let fever, measles, or whooping-cough, to develop. Its blood may be
possessed of properties which render it susceptible to colds, resulting in
croup, diphtheria, inflammation of the brain, or something equally
fatal. I have picked open the fairest of rosebuds, and found beneath
its delicate leaves worms that would have prevented it from ever
blossoming. I have eaten apples that had the external appearance of
soundness, and the rich complexion of perfection, which were rotten at
the core. You cannot always conclude that your children are con-
stitutionally healthy because they are fat and fair. Indeed, scrofulous
babies are usually remarkable for clearness of skin and plumpness of
body. I shall therefore tell you, in the opening essay of this chapter,
How to Have Healthy Babies.
With some childless people, I am aware, it is a question of chief
importance, “How to have babies at all ?” All such persons I would
refer to Hints to the Childless, in another part of this work. The rele-
want question to be considered here is, what means are necessary to
secure healthy offspring when people are physically capable of healthy
reproduction. The human family is not sufficiently interested in it,
I know, but the physiologist should, nevertheless, endeavor to improve
the physical and moral condition of the human race by calling attention
to it. If boys and girls, and men and women were marketable in the
civilized world, as they are in some semi barbarous countries; if they
could be sold like horses, cattle, and sheep, the commercial and practical
spirit of the age would irresistibly demand an improvement in the stock
of human beings, as it demands, and is busy in Securing, an improved
stock of domestic animals. Celebrated stock-raisers in Europe and
America, and many of our scientific farmers, are superintending, with
much care in field, stall, and pen, the propagation of fine breeds of
cattle, horses, sheep, and pigs, while at home, their offspring are creat-
ures of accident ; conceived, in many instances, under circumstances
which render them inevitably puny, sickly, and ill-natured, if not con
stitutionally immoral. Now, certainly, an argument is not necessary
here to show that we should devote as much attention to the proper
propagation of children as we do to the breeding of calves and colts.
HOW TO HAVE HEALTHY BABIES. 263
Look at the statistics of infant mortality. One-quarter of the people on
the earth are said to die before the age of six years; one-half before the
age of sixteen. If we seek our statistics among the poor and unfort-
unate classes we find that fifty per cent, of their offspring succumb before
the age of five years I shall, therefore, defer no longer in coming
directly to the advice I proposed to give in this essay.
My first proposition embodies the proscription of a certain class.
People who are physically infirm should not have children while such
infirmities exist, because they are almost certain to transmit them
to offspring, and the combined infirmities of each parent (when both
are diseased) frequently result in most lamentable consequences to
the innocent victims of this indiscretion. In some semi-barbarous
countries, diseased and malformed children are destroyed as soon as
born, or when the abnormal manifestations appear, and to the little
sufferers this seeming inhumanity may be in reality a mercy; but
disregard of the true laws of propagation, followed by such wholesale
butchery of the products, would forever keep a people in barbarism,
notwithstanding their efforts to preserve only the best specimens of
humanity they might find themselves able to produce. It may be hard
for the hopelessly incurable to deny themselves the pleasure of becom-
ing parents; but it is questionable if this self-denial brings more suffer-
ing to their philoprogenitive nature, than the sickness and early death
of Offspring inflict upon them, while their enlightened, moral, and
benevolent faculties—if they possess such—must upbraid them for the
evil they achieve by bringing into the world a little, living, conscious
being, Susceptible to the keenest suffering, immediately coupled with physical
dérangements only capable of inflicting pain. To do such a deed pre-
meditately would require the fiendish attributes of a demon. It is the
ignorance of infirm parents which brings into the world such pitiful
Specimens of humanity; and it is to the credit of the intelligence and
benevolence of some hopelessly diseased men and women, that they do
not become parents, for the reason, simply, that they do not wish to
bring children into the world certain heirs to their own sufferings.
There is, however, a large class, embracing invalids of both sexes,
who think themselves hopelessly incurable, when really, under proper
treatment, they might be restored to a comfortable degree of health.
Physicians of the reformed school of practice often meet these wrecks
of the old-school methods, and triumphantly set them on their feet.
In some cases these people may not attain firm health, but if they will
unite with those of opposite temperament, having perfect health, and
have connection for the purpose of offspring only at such times as they
feel in the most buoyant physical and mental condition, they may be
blessed with healthy children, if other necessary rules given in this
chapter are observed. The proper combination of temperaments is a
264 BREVENTION OF DISEASE.
very important consideration. If the parents themselves possess perfec-
tion of health, and they have coalesced without reference to physical
adaptation, the children may be physically as imperfect as they would
be if they were the products of diseased progenitors. In Part Fourth
this subject of temperamental adaptation will be presented in such a
Way as to afford a guide to those contemplating marriage.
HINTS TO PARENTS IN AVERA GE HEALTH.
My Second proposition embraces hints to those who, having health,
do not make the most of it in the act of propagation. People claiming
entire immunity from disease, have seasons of feeling less vigorous and
vivacious than at others, and unfortunately for offspring, coition is
sometimes resorted to at such periods, by way of experiment, to see if
better feeling may not be induced. If more convenient, a glass of
wine, beer, or other stimulant, or a narcotic is taken for the purpose;
but if the drug fail, the exhilarating delirium of sexual excitement is
sought ; and if offspring is produced, it not only receives at the moment
of conception the Organic impression of the physical derangements
leading to the momentary depression of the parent, but probably also
the embryonic formation of vitiated appetite and passion. With people
of this class, offspring should not be accidental, and propagation should
only be allowed when they are in the enjoyment of their best physical
and mental moods.
The medical profession is greatly to blame for this state of things.
The average physician gives little attention to anything but prescribing
for the ills of his patient. He seldom advises how to escape disease,
much less how to avoid bringing sickly offspring into the world.
Those who are impressed with the importance of having children born
right are not given a patient hearing. At a National Convention of
medical men held in New Haven, in 1892, I offered a resolution urging
every physician to become familiar with the laws of heredity and
prenatal influences, and to impart such knowledge to those of his
patients contemplating marriage, and to give such advice to pregnant
women seeking his counsel, as would aid in securing healthy offspring.
Also to do everything in his power to discourage the present haphazard
method of reproduction. Was it adopted ? Hardly considered 1 It
was referred to a committee which reported it without recommendation,
and when submitted to the convention was laid on the table by an
almost unanimous vote I Was this because physicians, as a body, are
mercenary 7 Do they want invalids to be conceived, gestated, and born,
“to bring grist to their mills 7”. This would indeed be a lamentable
conclusion. The real reason is that doctors, no more than laymen, are
sufficiently impressed with the importance of such information, and in
most cases do not possess it themselves. Many of them are overworked
HOW TO HAVE HEALTHY BABIES. 265
and poorly paid for saving human wrecks, and have little time to give
to humanitarian or economic questions. Under such circumstances,
the people are left to gather knowledge from other sources, and these
sources are not numerous nor always attainable. Law-makers are more
to blame than the doctors. They have so formulated the statutes that
a conscientious wife has no means of protecting herself from becoming
the mother of defective offspring by a consumptive, inebriated, or
insane husband, nor can one subject to ill-health exercise her own wis.
dom in selecting the most opportune time to assume the responsible
duties of maternity, especially if she has an unreasonable husband.
The proper education of the masses must right this wrong.
THE SECRETIONS ARE AFFECTED BY MENTAL CONDITIONS.
My third proposition possesses something of value to people who are
subject to periods of fretfulness; to attacks of melancholy ; to fits of
violent temper; to quarrelsomeness, etc. Such persons should be made
acquainted with the fact that if, while under the influence of any such
feelings or passions, or for some time after they have been subdued, the
germ of a new being is planted in the womb, it is liable to be marked
or influenced by them. The settling up of a matrimonial misunder-
standing is, for instance, a most inopportune time to beget offspring,
yet the conception of many a child has celebrated the conclusion of a
family fracas. It should be understood that it takes time for the system
to recover from the effects of bad passions, and that the incoming good
feeling, incident to “making-up,” does not for some hours erase the
impressions produced on the nervous system, the fluids of the body,
and the germs inhabiting the procreative organs of either sex. In my
first chapter I have spoken of how all the organs and secretions are
affected by the various passions of the mind, and that matter need not
be repeated here. With people belonging to the class under considera-
tion, offspring should not be accidental, and conception should take
place only when both parties have been in good temper, spirits, and
health for at least a period of twenty-four or thirty-six hours.
ADVICE TO THE PREGN ANT.
My fourth proposition should be heeded by the pregnant woman
and those who are associated with her during this important period.
She should avail herself of every means at her command to preserve
her physical health unimpaired ; and should avoid all things calculated
to fret, annoy, or distress her. He who is to be the recognized father
of her child, should employ every resource within his reach to preserve
tranquillity of mind and vigor of body to this woman, who is freighted
with a germ which is developing the soul and body of a new human
being. Critical period How greatly it decides, and, too, how early,
9a x- . - -
266 PREVENTION OF DISEASE.
Whether the earthly existence of the future man or woman shall be
happy or miserable. , Shall the foetus of to-day wish twenty or fifty
years hence that it had never been born ? The friends of the pregnant
Woman, and those of all who surround her, should be united to prevent
this. She may maintain her physical health by Seeking for residence
such locations as are proverbially healthful; living and sleeping in well-
FIG. 88. ventilated rooms; carefully
Watching diet—eating only
those things which seem to
agree with stomach and
mind ; avoiding excessive
and irregular eating; exer-
cising daily in the open air
without reference to the
criticism of Mrs. Grundy on
one corner, or the smoking
loafer on the other ; observ-
ing habits of personal clean-
liness; and, in brief, by
patient, constant watchful-
ness, doing every thing
within her power to pro-
mote a feeling of health,
and avoiding every thing
which in any way produces
the contrary effect. Mental
tranquillity may be main-
tained by carefully keeping
A cluster of BABIEs. up the physical health ; by
No. 1 represents poor scrofulous little job—the association with those who
offspring of parents who ought not to have are cheerful and entertain-
had children. No. 2 represents º John ing; by reading books and
...*.*.*.*.*.*... newspapers of an interesting
ful, bad-tempered parentage. No. 4 is poor and elevating character; by
Benny—the child of sensuality, liquor, and to- doing acts of kindness and
bacco. No. 5 is healthy Charley—the fortunate benevolence when oppor-
offspring of healthy and intelligent parents. tunity offers; by prayer-
fulness, if a religionist; by sweet communion with Nature, if a
moralist; by avoiding jealousy, selfishness, peevishness, and outbursts
of temper; by indulging in the passion of hatred toward no one ; and
by cultivating a love of humanity. The more closely a pregnant
woman can observe the foregoing rules, the more nearly will she suc-
ceed in giving birth to a being that shall possess at once a healthy,
vigorous brain, a happy temper, and a spirit of philanthropy,

HOW TO HAVE HEALTHY BABIES. 267
SOME GENERAI, HINTS.
There are some hints to be observed which could not be properly
classed under any of the foregoing heads. Conception should not be
allowed to take place without a preparatory season of abstinence from
sexual indulgence, in order that the procreative systems of both parties
may be free from morbid excitability and exhaustion. It should not
occur when the muscular system is exhausted by overwork or exercise.
It should not happen immediately, or for some time, after eating, when
the nervous forces are being largely employed by the digestive organs
in doing their work, and consequently refuse to be sufficiently engrossed
to perform the function of reproduction as well as the procreative
organs are capable of performing the latter function when the stomach
is at rest, and can “lend a hand.” It should not happen while the
mother is already nursing, thereby causing a division of nourishment
between two, which is sufficient for one only ; for it must be borne in
mind that the pregnant mother has to feed the growing unborn babe,
as well as the one in the arms. It should be known to the reader that
some women conceive during the period of lactation, and that this evil
should be guarded against. Nor should it be allowed to occur in less
than two or three years after the birth of a child; and in Some cases
five years should intervene between the ages of the children, for the
mother to sufficiently regain a physical condition capable of imparting
health to one in utero-life.
During the period of pregnancy, excessive sexual indulgence unduly
develops, in the unborn child, the passion which leads so many young
people to a destructive vice. Even amative excitement, on the part of
the mother, without indulgence, has a tendency to do this. She
should consequently avoid such food and drink as stimulate the amative
impulse. When the impulse becomes strong—when the desire is so
great as to take possession of the mind, it is then better that it should
be gratified, lest the foetus be marked by this unsatisfied appetite,
thereby producing the very evil sought to be avoided. Sleeping in
separate beds may be advisable in some cases, to prevent the tendency
to excitement by contact. Association with deformed people, or those
having birth-marks, or diseases which cause unnatural manifestations
and expressions, should be avoided so far as practicable, to avert the
danger of marking the unborn child with any of these peculiarities.
Cramped positions in sitting, stooping, bending, and sleeping ; falls and
contusions ; and violent coition in sexual intercourse, should be
cautiously avoided, to save the precious little being in the womb from
displacement of its limbs, or spinal distortion, which might result in
permanent physical deformity ; for although remarkably well pro-
tected by surrounding membranes, fluids, and the muscular walls of
268 I’REVENTION OF DISEASE.
the uterus, the foetus is sometimes deformed by one or more of these
C81,\l SCS.
Lastly, when labor-pains commence, and the doctor is called in,
do not urge or allow him to hasten a work which old Dame Nature is
usually able to do herself, without intervention or aid. If you do, you
may injure the child. Especially is this danger imminent if instru-
ments are employed. Women in labor are naturally impatient, and
surrounding friends must not be too much in sympathy with this im-
patience. Physicians are often impelled by the solicitations of those
present to make the period of labor as brief as possible; and it would
be well for all to know that this effort to help matters along not
unfrequently results in retarding it, and increasing the sufferings of
the patient. It is better to give her moral encouragement ; cheer her
up , keep up a running conversation, that will divert her from the dis-
comfort of the moment ; but keep hands off—at least do not employ
them locally to hasten the birth. It is well for her to move about, for
by exercise and bodily motion labor may be safely accelerated. In
Some parts of Mexico the native women fasten ropes in the beams above
their heads, and, taking one in each hand, suspend themselves per-
pendicularly, and remain in this position until the affair is over. This
position is a good one to facilitate the process, and some such arrange-
ment might well be adopted by women generally, for labor is often
rendered unnecessarily tardy and painful, by a bad position of the
patient, as well as by the drugs and instruments employed to assist.
With this brief caution to women at the critical period of parturi-
tion I Will close this essay, and proceed to answer the next question in
order.
How to Preserve the Health of Children.
After the baby arrives, the next duty is to take care of it properly.
The nurse, grandma, aunt, or some other kind attendant knows how to
wash it, and sometimes, not often, how to dress it, and many other
etceteras are to be thought of. Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a great
and sensible woman, as well as an experienced mother, in her book
entitled “Eighty Years and More,” says: “An important fact has
only becn discovered and acted upon within the last ten years, that
children come into the world tired, and not hungry, exhausted with the
perilous journey. Instead of being thoroughly bathed and dressed and
kept on the rack while the nurse makes a prolonged toilet and feeds it
some nostrum supposed to have much needed medicinal influence, the
child's face, eyes, and mouth should be hastily washed with warm
water, and the rest of its body thoroughly oiled, and then it should be
slipped into a soft pillow-case, wrapped in a blanket and laid to sleep.
Ordinarily, in the proper conditions, with its face uncovered in a cool,
How TO PRESERVE THE HEALTH OF CHILDREN. 269
pure atmosphere, it will sleep twelve hours. Then it should be bathed,
fed, and clothed in a high-necked, long-sleeved silk shirt and a blanket,
all of which could be done in five minutes. As babics lic still most of
the time the first six weeks, they need no dressing.” Mrs. Stanton
also advises the nurse “to wash the baby's mouth with pure cold
water morning and night, and give it a teaspoonful to drink Occasion-
ally during the day, thereby avoiding the danger of red gum.” In one
instance she telegraphed a young couple : “Give the baby water six
times a day.” With Mrs. Stanton's hereditary wisdom and her experi-
ence as a mother, her advice for the management of babies is more relia-
ble than that of any masculine physician, however noted and skilful.
Babies are generally dressed too tightly. Their bones are as elastic
as cartilage, and their flesh is spongy, in consequence of which the little
lumps of humanity give way easily to pressure. The baby clothes which
have been so studiously prepared in anticipation of the event are uncon-
sciously if not intentionally pinned or sewed on too closely to allow
circulation and physical development to naturally go on. Mrs. Stan-
ton disapproves of bandaging, which is quite in keeping with the advice
I give to avoid tight-fitting garments. She demonstrates in the chapter
from which the foregoing quotation is made, that bandaging is entirely
unnecessary. The next error deserving criticism is usually an excess
of clothing, both by day and by night. Mothers think their babies are
such tender little things that they must be warmly clad, hence the
flannels, etc., are put on like so many layers of onions. As a conse-
quence, the little sufferers wriggle and twist and cry all day to get out
of them ; and kick them off altogether by night, which last act of the
triumphant heroes gives them a cold.
Let me now appeal to the observation of mothers. You know,
don't you, that your babies at night will kick the clothes off 7 You
tuck them in here, and pin them down there, but when you rub your
eyes open at midnight, or near morning, you are surprised to find them
nearly or wholly outside of their bed-covering What can it mean 7
Now will you tell me what causes you to kick off your bedclothes
Sometimes 7 Do you do it because you are cold 7 Is it always because
you are nervous or fidgety ?
How often, an hour or two after you have put your child to bed,
you will find by laying your hand on its brow, that it is bathed with
perspiration. Is it necessary that you should give it a sweat 7 If not,
Why do you not remove a portion of its covering 7 The skin should
not be wet ; it should be scarcely perceptibly moist. If you have
night-sweats, you become frightened, and run to the doctor; but you
persist in giving your babies night-sweats | By careful observation you
may ascertain just how much clothing your child needs, and just how
to vary it to suit all atmospheric changes. Nearly always when it
270 PREVENTION OF DISEASE.
wriggles out of, or kicks off clothing, you may rest assured that it is
too warmly blanketed. Remove a little of the covering and watch
again. If it repeats the same thing, take off still more, and so continue
to do until the restlessness of the little creature subsides. You will be
surprised, at last, to see how very little covering an infant needs. In
rigorous winter, the indigent mother sometimes freezes to death ; not
So the babe beside her. Who cannot call to mind some illustration of
this remark 7 I think I have fully demonstrated the assertion that
babies and children require less clothing than adults; but if any fail to
FIG, 89.
%
ſº
*s. A
|ſ. ºl
ſº
l
||||| |
N º . | § ſº
Sºlº
||
|
TEIE TRIUMPHANT BABY AND SIUIRIPRISED MOTEIILR.
be convinced, let me ask them which they suppose will best conduce to
the health of the child—to make it tender by much clothing, so that by
getting the clothes off at night, or some other exposure, it inevitably
takes cold ; or by clothing it sparingly so as to accustom it to cold
weather and its changes 7 .
THIEIR LITTLE LEGS NEED CLOTIIING.
Another important suggestion in regard to clothing is, that it be so
distributed to the various parts of the body, that the circulation may
not be impaired. In my essay on the clothes we wear, and in some
observations in other places on tight-lacing, I have sufficiently cautioned
the reader against tight-fitting clothing, and I will not in this place do
more than call attention to those remarks; but let me here speak of the
great error of dressing the neck, chest, and abdomen warmly, and leav-
ing the limbs scantily covered. I have seen children dressed like High-

How To PRESERVE THE HEALTH OF CHILDREN. 271
landers—with nothing on the limbs at all, while the upper portions of
their bodies were clad in flannels. “The dear little things look pretty,
don’t they 7” Well, I must confess that they do to those who do not
know the physical consequences of such an unequal distribution of
raiment. Their plump legs, white or rosy skin, and dimples in the
knees are charming ; but the exposition of them should only take place
when their whole bodies are equally exposed. Everybody knows, or
ought to know, that the circulation of the blood in any part is more or
less governed by the temperature of that part. Warm dressing of the
feet and limbs, for instance, invites the blood into them ; and if they
are more warmly dressed than the rest of the body, there will be an
undue presence of blood in the extremities. If this habit of dress be
reversed, and the upper portions of the body be more warmly clad, then
the lungs, liver, stomach, heart, and head become congested by the
excessive presence of blood, while the extremities are cold, and the cir-
culation in them insufficient. Want of common-sense on this point is a
great cause of nervous and blood derangements; and in many cases
the immediate cause of headache, congestion of the lungs, dyspepsia,
and constipation among adults, particularly women. I once heard the
late Dr. Dio Lewis very felicitously describe the dress of women before
a gymnastic class. I will not attempt to give any portion of his
remarks, but some things I have to say here were substantially pre-
sented by him. Let us for a moment look at the dress of women,
especially that worn in winter. An ever-varying head-dress, exposing,
during the continuance of one fashion, that part of the head which had
been covered by the style of hat and head-dress in vogue immediately
previous. Fur collars about the neck, and in many instances fur
cloaks enveloping the whole upper portion of the body. Flannels
extending from the neck to the waist, with sometimes many other
garments over them, thus producing undue warmth in that part of the
body containing the vital machinery, while the limbs are protected
only by cotton, or cotton-flannel, at best one thickness of flannel in the
shape of drawers, coming a little below the knee, where they meet and
lap under white cotton stockings. -
Now, with such a costume as this, where does the blood go 2 A
skirt and a petticoat or two, will not compensate for the furs and other
garments about the neck and waist, and the blood will congest those
parts which, by warm covering are kept at the highest temperature.
Hence the complaints: “Oh, what an awful headache I do have l’”
“Doctor, what do you suppose is the matter with my stomach 7” “I
am habitually constipated,” etc. It would be well for all women to
remember, both in clothing themselves and their children—if they are
mothers—the whole body should be equally clad to insure a good
circulation. The mere fact that you have lung difficulties will not
272 PREVENTION OF DISEASE.
excuse you for covering your chest with woollen and fur unless you put
precisely the same covering on your limbs. For every garment put
Over the chest, one of equal warmth should be placed over the limbs, or
you will defeat the very object you desire to attain ; and mothers, if
you will be reckless of your own comfort, health, and life, by obeying
the caprice of fashion rather than the laws of hygiene, I pray you heed
the hints herein given for taking care of your children : for, possibly,
by the time they become men and women, health will become more
attractive than dress.
HOW BABIES SHOULD BE FED.
Leaving the criticism of dress, we will next turn our attention to
the food of children. It would seem hardly necessary to start out with
the remark that babies should not be fed on cow’s milk when that from
the breast of a healthy mother or nurse can be obtained ; but observa-
tion proves that mothers are careless—wilfully ignorant—or wantonly
indifferent in regard to this matter. I would call the attention of all
who are interested in it, to the comparison between the milk of the cow
and that of the human mother, in the essay on milk, in Chapter II.
The breasts of women are nowadays too much cultivated with refer-
ence to a pretty form and figure ; and while this need not be discouraged,
the necessity of developing the mammary glands, with a view to mak-
ing them productive of nutritious milk when their possessors become
mothers, is of far greater importance. It is especially so when young
mothers decline to nurse their babies, lest the breasts should become
flabby, or otherwise affected in their symmetry. Speaking of women,
the Rev. O. B. Frothingham very truly remarked : “It may be a
great thing to be a merchant, a financier, an advocate, judge, writer,
or Orator, but before these can exist, there must be men ; before these
can be what they should be, there must be healthy, disciplined men;
there must be well-bred youths, carefully instructed, and carefully
trained children ; infants lying on deep motherly bosoms, and sucking
rich motherly milk. Yes, more than that, inhaling the pure womanly
spirit. It may be a fine thing to have control of their property; to help
in making the laws they live under; but to be good mothers of men
and women, is the greatest thing in all this world.” Many mothers in
fashionable life, who are endowed by nature with well-developed organs
for nourishing their babies, shirk the responsibility because it is a task—
it soils their fine clothes—or what is still more nonsensical—because
suckling their young is doing so much like the inferior animals. To
such folly has an undue love of ease, and a false idea of refinement led
many women When, however, such considerations govern mothers,
or when an imperfectly developed body has failed to endow the mother
with the power to nurse her child, it should not be fed on the milk of
HOW TO PRESERVE THE HEALTH OF CHILDREN. 273
cows or goats if a wet-nurse can be obtained, for it is quite unlike
human milk in its qualities, as already remarked ; and then, too, some
discrimination should be used in the selection of a nurse. A cross, ill-
natured woman ought not to be employed, because bad temper affects
the secretions of the mammary glands, as well as it does other secre-
tions. A scrofulous nurse will not answer, because she not only gives
the child scrofulous food from her breasts, but daily bodily contact
with her affects a healthy baby injuriously. Recollect what Dr.
Combe Said about the atmosphere of a scrofulous person being con-
tagious. A puny, sickly nurse, is also incapable of imparting to a child
the nourishment it requires. A nurse must, indeed, be a healthy, tem-
perate, good-natured, kindly woman, with the milk of human kindness
flowing from her soul, and pure, wholesome milk issuing from well-
freighted bosoms. When such a nurse cannot be obtained, there is
manifestly no nourishment so wholesome for babies as the milk of
healthy animals diluted sufficiently to agree with the infant stomach,
for all vegetable preparations for babies have a tendency to cause
acidity, and contain particles which the young digestive machinery
is not strong enough to dissolve. Meats, and the juices of meats, will
not answer, as they are too stimulating. They are not, indeed, fit for a
child under ten years of age, as the reader will observe in my next
essay on dietetics. ar
BATHING, EXERCISING, DOSING, ETC.
In addition to clothing and feeding babies properly, attention must
be given to bathing and exercising them. If they are fat and full of
animal spirits, they should be sponged every morning with tepid water
and a little (very little) castile soap. If lean in flesh, they should be so
treated only every alternate morning ; but their little bodies should be
rubbed down gently with a healthy hand, from head to foot, every day.
If the child be absolutely wasted so that marasmus is threatened, it would
be better to use a good quality of Sweet oil instead of water, and rub
it from head to foot with the magnetic hand; after which wipe it
down with a dry napkin. This will keep the skin healthfully active
and cleanly ; and the absorbing pores may be provoked to take up
some of the oleaginous matter, and with it assist in inaugurating
plumpness. Babies should be carried into the open air daily in all
Weather, and shaken and jostled by their nurses. Babies, as much as
adults, need muscular exercise to develop the muscular system. They
are not strong enough to take that exercise themselves, and it is, there-
fore, necessary to tumble them about, squeeze their muscles, pat them,
and attend to all those little matters which go to promote muscular
development. A writer in Blackwood's Magazine very sensibly advises
nursery tales, rhymes, and other good things, “I would,” he remarks,
274 PREVENTION OF DISEASE.
“say to every parent, especially to every mother, sing to your children;
tell them pleasant stories; if in the country, be not careful lest they get
a little dirt upon their hands and clothes; earth is very much akin to
us all, and children's out-of-door plays soil them not inwardly.
There is in it a kind of consanguinity between all creatures; by it we
touch upon the common sympathy of our first substance, and beget a
kindness for our poor relations, the brutes. Let children have free,
open-air sport, and fear not though they make acquaintance with the
pigs, the donkeys, and the chickens; they may form worse friendships
with wiser-looking ones. Encourage a familiarity with all that love
them. There is a language among them which the world's language
obliterates in the elders. It is of more importance that you should
make your children loving, than that you should make them wise.
Above all things make them loving ; and then, parents, if you become
old and poor, these will be better than friends that will neglect you.
Children brought up lovingly at your knees will never shut their doors
upon you, and point where they would have you go.”
Babies must also be carefully guarded from all poison, external
and internal. Vaccination often destroys the health, if not the life of a
child. Read what I have said under this head in the chapter on the
Causes of Nervous and Blood Derangements. Mothers should be carefu.
that their nipples are free from eruptions which might possibly inoculate
the baby with their impure secretions. Nurses and other attendants
should have clean hands and well-washed calico gowns. Look out for
the napkins and towels which are employed about the baby. Care-
fully exclude from the nursery all poisonous or unwholesome things
which the baby can, on floor or in chair, lay hold of. Every thing, you
know, goes into the mouth of an infant. Painted toys have sometimes
caused the most serious consequences in the hands of babies.
IExcessive and injudicious dosing is a common cause of ill-health
among children. If a child take a slight cold—if it have a little pain
in the stomach—if the bowels move a little too frequently—if it have
earache—if it be restless and fretful—the doctor is sent for, who,
either through ignorance of the injurious effects of unnecessary drug-
ging, or from fear of not pacifying the mother, deals out a little of
this, that, and the other thing, to be taken at various hours of the day
or night. In the majority of cases children do not need medicating,
and a mother more often injures her child by sending for the doctor too
soon than by delaying too long. Eaternal applications of proper
remedies will, in a majority of cases, cure all sorts of baby complaints.
I do not exactly want to assume the character of a panacea pedler, but
I feel moved to say, in this connection, that if you possess a bottle of
my magnetic ointment, such as I speak of in the closing part of my
book, a doctor need seldom be called. If a child have a cold, attended
HOW TO PRESERVE THE HEALTH OF CHILDREN. 275
with any affection of the throat or lungs, apply the ointment thor-
oughly to the throat and chest ; if wind colic, cramping of the stomach
or bowels, loss of appetite, worms, diarrhoea, or the opposite—constipa-
tion—apply the ointment to the stomach and bowols for several minutes
with the hand. If the child receive a bruise, cut, or burn, the ointment
will prove a never-failing remedy. For weakness of the spine, weak-
ness or pain in the limbs, stiff neck, for cold feet, etc., it may be suc-
cessfully applied to the part affected. It may be effectually applied to
the region of the bladder in incontinence of the urine, or other affections
of the bladder. In brief, there is hardly an infant ill which the external
use of this ointment will
not relieve, and generally
completely cure ; while
grown-up children, who
have once introduced it as
a family medicine, feel
that they cannot pass a
night without it in the
house. The reader should
have the formula except
for the fact that you
would not prepare it if Š W Aº º
ſº * §§ § * \ W. lºſſº ----
you had it. It requires j º §§ gº.
& ŞSS º *3 §§ º &\" y A W º º º ===
the skill of a pharmaceu- sº sº ºf \ º _-----------
tist and much experience ºilຠ'º' {iº N = T, –-
to prepare it properly.
Nor could it be prepared
economically in small quantities, suited for family use.
Simple hand friction will often relieve the local difficulties of chil-
dren. Do anything—do everything, mother, but administer to the
sensitive little stomach a dose of medicine. Soothing syrups are
invariably anodynes in their properties, and almost invariably contain
morphine or opium. Rather than use them for a nervous or fretful
child, I would resort to the ridiculous remedy proposed by a Buffalo
Editor. “As soon,” he says, “as the squaller awakens, set the child
up, propped by pillows if it cannot sit alone , Smear its fingers with
thick molasses; then put half a dozen feathers into its hands, and the
young one will sit and pick the feathers from one hand to another,
until it drops asleep. As soon as it awakes—more molasses and more
feathers, and, in the place of nerve-astounding yells, there will be
silence and enjoyment unspeakable " It is well to bear in mind that a
child may at times be restless and irritable from thirst, and that a half
cup of cool water will comfort it If it have Colic, try plain hot water,
but try it yourself first.
TEIE EDITOR'S PLAN FOR DIVERTING TELE BABY.







276 PREVENTION OF DISEASE.
THE EDUCATION OF AN INFANT.
In regard to the education of an infant, a review of a work by Dr.
Nathan Oppenheim, entitled “The Development of the Child,” gives
the results of his observations and researches. He having been the
attending physician to the children's department of Mount Sinai Hos-
pital Dispensary, ought to be qualified to advise in such matters. The
reviewer says: “Children are regularly sent to school so that their
time for a large part of the day may be well taken up, and that the
parents may thus have a season of freedom. In addition the little ones
are taught too much. Dr. Oppenheim observes that the facts which
are learned by a tremendous outlay of nerve-force are of little, if any,
use. He shows that the nerve-cells concerned in the process of learning
are immature, and therefore not in a condition to do fine work.
Instead of being benefited, the children are apt to be definitely harmed
by a system of teaching which is supported at a tremendous expendi-
ture of time, trouble, and money. He wants to apply to ordinary edu-
cation some of the methods of Froebel and Postalozzi, after simplifying
and purifying them by a scientific training which those great teachers
never had.” A well-conducted kindergarten is undoubtedly the proper
place for a young child.
“DON'TS” FOR THE NURSERY.
Among my scraps I find a list of “don’ts” which may well appear
in this essay. I do not know who was the author, but as this method
of giving instruction by “don’ts” originated with my son, Dr. Foote,
Jr., it does not matter much. Literary indebtedness is about even,
These “don’ts * are sensible, of practical value, and the reader shall
have them : “Don’t hang curtains around the cot. Children need
plenty of air, especially when sleeping. Don't place the cot in a posi-
tion where the light will fall on the child's eyes; nor in a draught.
Don't make up the baby’s bed on the floor. The air is most pernicious
near the floor, and purest in the middle of the room. Don't forget that
children's clothing should be reasonably warm, but light. Don't forget
to remove the child to a cot with a hair mattress, when old enough to
leave the cradle. Don't neglect to air the child's bed-clothes every day,
taking them in about noon. Don't allow a child to sleep with an elder
person ; its rest will be less disturbed and more beneficial alone.”
“Don’t cover the baby's face completely with a blanket shawl.” So
says Mrs. Stanton. She also says : “Ignorant nurses and mothers have
discovered that children sleep longer with their heads covered. They
don't know why, nor the injurious effect of breathing over and over the
same air that has been thrown off the lungs, polluted with carbonic acid
gas, This stupefies the child and prolongs the unhealthy slumber.” I
DIETETICS FOR OLD AND YOUNG. 277
will add to the foregoing list the following: Don't strike a child on
the head. The brain is a great nervous reservoir where all the nerves
centre, and a blow here may kill it outright, or make it idiotic. Don't
“box it's ears.” There is danger, by doing so, of rupturing the ear-
drum, thereby rendering the hearing defective if no greater evil ensue.
Don't whip it with a stick or lash—such a punishment deranges the
action of the capillaries and the circulation of blood through them.
Don’t fill its imagination with hobgoblins, and shut it in a dark room.
Kept for moments or hours under the influence of fright, the nervous
system is fearfully affected, and made susceptible to attacks of a Spas-
modic nature. Don't punish it by depriving it of its regular food, for
then stomach derangements are inaugurated. All kinds of punishment
should be avoided if the child can be controlled by moral influences ;
but where punishment is necessary, a “good spanking ” is the only
physical chastisement the body presents a proper place to receive , while
those acting upon the fears of the child should be avoided altogether.
Dietetics for Old and Young.
Little space will be occupied under this head, because the reader
may learn from the essay entitled “The Food we Eat,” in the second
chapter, the author's views on what may be regarded as wholesome
food ; but I have something important to offer in this place which, if
observed, will have a tendency to build up the physical man, and guard
against the insidious approach of disease. Nowadays, children and
youth accustom their systems to a stimulating diet, suited only to the
sluggish systems of older people, so that when old age comes upon them,
they have nothing to turn to but medicinal tonics to impart to the
infirm body and mind strength and vivacity. So long as animal food
continues to find a place upon our tables, and stimulating liquids are
tolerated by nearly all, and used by a large portion of mankind, the
rule should be as follows :
“Milk for babes,” and that only, if possible, which issues from
the breasts of healthy mothers. “Mush and milk,” for children under
six years of age ; and during this period all wholesome vegetables may
be permitted, but no stronger animal food than milk. Passing the
sixth year—butter, eggs, and fish may be allowed to enter sparingly
into the dict of the child; and from the twelfth year—poultry, broths,
and the soups of other meats. Not before he is fifteen or twenty should
he be permitted to taste of steak, roast beef, or other strong meat.
Not before he is twenty-five or thirty, should he allow himself to drink
coffee or tea. Not earlier than forty or fifty should beer or other
liquors pass his lips. Then, when the infirmities of age begin to Creep
upon him (and they will come later under this regimen), if it be neces-
278 PREVENTION OF DISEASE.
Sary to resort to stronger stimulants, such inventions as Bourbon whis.
key, French brandy, Holland gin, Jamaica rum, etc., may be called to
the rescue. But, understand me—I do not advise malt liquor or strong
drinks; I merely say, so long as animal food and stimulating liquors are
used, the foregoing rule is the proper one to be pursued, and now for the
I'CaSOD :
Children cannot well endure a stimulating diet. Their little vital
machinery, fresh from the ingenious hands of nature, is full of life,
clectricity, and animation. At birth their palpitating little hearts con-
tract from 180 to 140 times per minute. At the age of three, a child's
pulse is about ninety, while that of an adult averages seventy-two. Stim-
ulating food, of course, quickens the activity of the vital Organs of chil-
dren, and this morbid activity renders them susceptible to inflammatory
diseases. Hence the prevalence of measles, Scarlet fever, canker-rash,
IFIG. 91. chicken-pox, and other ills, hardly
known to adults. I really believe that
these disorders would never affect
children if they were fed and clothed
properly, or in such a way as not to
derange the activity of their vital ma-
chinery as set agoing by good old
Dame Nature. The blood of children
is richer in solid constituents, and
especially in blood corpuscles, than
that of adults, and as animal food
tends to increase this richness and
solidity to a greater extent than vege-
table food, allowing to a child the
former, inevitably causes an undue
proportion of those constituents to go to the blood, thereby rendering
the vascular fluids as ignitable to the breath of contagion as powder
is to the touch of fire. Intelligent mothers, who set their children's
blood on fire with the flesh of animals as food, and then let their doc-
tors kill them in endeavors to quench it with poisonous drugs, should
hesitate before they add fuel to the flame. Children do not crave meats,
they would not eat them if they were not introduced into their toothless
mouths while they are in Swaddling clothes, while they have not sense
enough to reject them, by which means they acquire a taste for this
kind of diet. If meats are denied the children, strong drinks will not
be craved by the middle-aged ; for in a perfectly healthy condition of
the human race, meats and strong drinks would not be needed, and the
promptings of appetite might be trusted ; but now pandemonium
exists in the palates and stomachs of men because they are not started
right in babyhood and childhood; and the hydra-headed gourmand
A LI 12 ALT LIY NIOT LIE IR ANI) CEIII,I).

DIETETICS FOR OLD AND YOUNG. 279
looks forth from behind decayed and broken-down teeth, for things
totally unsuited to the development of the inner man.
Fruits are excellent preventives of disease in children and men.
The value of apples as food is suggested by Liebig, who says: “The
importance of apples as food has not hitherto been sufficiently esti-
mated or understood. Besides contributing a large portion of Sugar,
mucilage, and other nutritive compounds in the form of food, they
contain such a fine combination of vegetable acids, extractive sub-
stances, and aromatic principles, with the nutritive matter, as to act
powerfully in the capacity of refrigerants, tonics, and antiseptics ; and
when freely used at the season of ripeness by rural laborers and others,
they prevent debility, strengthen digestion, correct the putrefactive ten.
dencies of nitrogenous food, avert scurvy, and maintain and strengthen
the power of productive labor.”
Nature has kindly looked to sanitary effects in providing summer
fruits. As mankind emerges from the winter season, more or less
loaded with carbonaceous dregs which have accumulated under the
influence of a keen appetite, and the use of hearty food to warm
the body in spite of the cold atmosphere, strawberries, currants, and
other acid fruits of a relaxing nature to the bowels are presented for his
use; and these dissolve and wash away the effete accumulations of the
liver, stomach, and bowels. Lest, however, this process be carried too
far, raspberries, with a mild astringency, quickly follow, checking any
undue activity of the bowels; and, finally, when hot weather comes
upon us, rendering the system an easy prey to diarrhoea, along come
the luscious, dimple-faced blackberries, with still greater astringent
qualities, which have the power even to cure an attack of summer com-
plaint. The provident housewife not only welcomes their advent, and
provides them abundantly for the table, but from their rich juices she
prepares blackberry syrup for use in all seasons when the little ones are
attacked with bowel complaint. Good, loving, kind-hearted, old Dame
Nature ; and wise, maternally affectionate, and ever-to-be-remembered
mother, who receives and properly uses the fruits of her bountiful
hand 2 These remarks, of course, apply to our latitude where these
fruits are raised, but it will be found in all climes that there are fruits
of corresponding qualities, whose effects aid nature in keeping up a
healthy condition of the system. -
Next, a word about fasting. If people would enjoy good health.
fasting should only be resorted to in obedience to physiological re.
quirements. While fasting, the solid constituents of the blood de-
crease rapidly. It is customary, even in the nineteenth century, for our
rulers, moved by a mistaken religious sentiment, to appoint days of
fasting, which, unhappily, are generally observed exclusively by the
Very people whose abstemious and religious lives not only render them
28O PREVENTION OF DISEASE.
unnecessary, but whose bloodless condition makes it really a sin for
them to fast. It is said that “the monks and the anchorites of old
sought to serve God and win an immortal crown by spending their
lives in self-inflicted penances and mortifications, the severity of which
seems almost incredible. It is related of them that they would live for
years in cells and caves scooped out of rocks, which were scarcely large
enough to turn round in. They would load themselves with heavy
crosses and chains ; or put collars and bracelets of massive iron about
their limbs. They would stand in uncomfortable attitudes until per-
manently deformed ; or look at the sun without winking until they
were blind. They would pass many days without food, many hours
without sleep, and many years without speaking. One of the most
celebrated of these ascetics, Simeon Stylites, lived on the top of a column
sixty feet high, for thirty years, exposed alike to the heat of Summer
and the cold of winter, and at length died without descending !” All
of these things look ridiculous to people nowadays, just as the present
custom of fasting will ultimately appear to coming generations. There
is not a particle of doubt but that fasting would do thousands of people
good, but the days appointed for the purpose are only in exceptional
cases observed by these ; while pious and weakly men and women who
cannot possibly afford to fast, almost invariably do so, most scrupu-
lously, much to their injury. Fasting, unless called for to counteract
the effects of gluttony, also deranges the stomach. This organ must
have its due and regular supply of aliment to preserve the digestive
machinery unimpaired. Parents should never punish their children by
depriving them of their dinner, as is sometimes the practice. A dinner
neglected to-day, prepares an unnatural appetite and a weak stomach for
to-morrow. A plain dinner, in place of the usual family dinner, would
answer just as well for a punishment for a child, and physically do
him good ; and plain living for the glutton would be better than fasting,
while regularity in eating is important on fast days as well as on others.
A few remarks on regulating the diet and selecting the food
according to the condition of the bowels, and I will close this essay.
Many people predisposed to constipation, and others affected in an
opposite way, are ever hitting wrongly in their eating. Those who are
habitually costive should not eat their meats and vegetables cooked
brown ; nor such binding food as boiled rice, boiled milk, wheat-bread
toast, etc. Such things will do for those who are predisposed to
excessive and too frequent movements of the bowels. Nor should the
latter eat meats rarely cooked, nor brown, Graham, and corn bread,
hominy, baked beans, or other relaxing articles of food. These are
just suited to constipated people. Among fruits—oranges, figs, sour
apples, etc., are well known as relaxing in their properties; while
sweet apples, raspberries, blackberries, black currants, and all fruits
PHYSIOLOGICAL INSTRUCTION OF CHILDREN. 281
having a puckering flavor, are binding. Consequently, fruits should
be selected in their season, suited to the over-active or inactive Con-
dition of the bowels.
As remarked before, other matters regarding food and diet would
be relevant here, were they not treated upon in Chapter Second ; I will,
therefore, leave this subject and invite the reader's attention to
The Physiological Instruction of Children.
In view of the startling wretchedness and vice growing out of
physiological ignorance, an essay bearing the above title may properly
find place in this chapter. An essay in the second chapter, as well as
facts appearing in various pages of this book, exhibit the necessity of
proposing some radical course for the proper instruction of children in
regard to their bodies, the organs composing their bodies, and the
functions of those organs. In our favored country, every district in
our cities, and every village in the rural regions, has its school-house.
Now, is a knowledge of the alphabet, of spelling, of reading, of writ-
ing, of grammar, of arithmetic, of history, of philosophy, etc., more
important than a knowledge of anatomy, physiology, and hygiene 7
Some schools, public and private, have introduced physiological works,
which treat, in a “gingerly manner,” of the human system. They are
doing good, but are not just what we want. The most important
organs, and those which are most abused, are so delicately alluded to,
if spoken of at all, that the student obtains little information regarding
them. In our large public schools, academies, and colleges, teachers,
male and female, should be appointed to attend to the anatomical,
physiological, and hygienic departments, where children and youths
should be classed according to age and sex, and instructed, not in the
technical, jaw-breaking name of each nerve, muscle, and bone (these
may be acquired in a medical college), but in the uses, and conse-
quences of the abuses, of the various organs of the body, not omitting
those most sinned against—the organs of generation. To girls just
entering womanhood, lectures should be given on conception and preg-
nancy, and the duties attending maternity—on every subject, in fact,
which prepares them to become the healthy mothers of healthy chil-
dren, when they shall be ready to assume such responsibility. In
smaller village-schools, although as thorough training may not be
practicable in this department, a very successful plan may be adopted
where but one teacher is employed. A female should be kept in the
instructor’s chair during the summer, and a male teacher during the
winter—a custom not uncommon now in many country places, as a
matter of economy. These teachers should be supplied with two sets
of plainly written lectures on all the organs, functions, diet, etc., Suited
282 PREVENTION OF DISEASE.
to various ages. One set of lectures should be adapted to girls, and
the other to boys. In summer the girls should be classified according
to age, and daily, during the boys' recess, the teacher, with such assist-
ance as she might select from the older female pupils, should deliver,
in as effective a manner as possible, to the various classes, a lecture
appropriate to each. In winter, the male teacher should pursue the .
same course with the boys, during the recess of the girls. These
lectures could be interspersed with such further instruction as the
teacher might be qualified to give. A good manikin would be a profit-
able investment for any school, large or small, with which to illustrate
the instructions given in this branch of study. Anatomical plates might
also be obtained for school purposes, exhibiting the formation of the
sexual organs, or those organs which are the more commonly injured
in boyhood and girlhood—those which Nature instituted for perpetu-
ating the human family. Some such plan will be carried out in a not
far distant future, depend upon it. Let us all try and hasten the day.
It is necessary, however, that something be done immediately. Boys
and girls are annually destroying themselves or making wrecks of
their constitutions, for the want of physiological instruction. Parents
must take this matter in hand, until our institutions of learning are
complete in this respect. If unwilling to counsel their children them-
selves, then they should throw in their way books containing the need-
ful information. Almost daily am I receiving letters from young men
and women, who commence their epistles with something substantially
as follows: “If I had only read your “Plain Home Talk’ five years ago,
I should have saved myself the necessity of addressing you now.” It
should be borne in mind that if children do not obtain physiological
information from proper sources they learn enough to contract vice
through hidden and vitiated channels, and sooner or later the physician
is consulted for the relief of diseases which never would have presented
themselves if parents had religiously discharged their whole duty.
Mental and Physical Recreation.
These are both necessary to the preservation of health. In this
busy practical age, the mental and physical energies are too much con-
centrated upon money-making. Business men wear themselves out in
their counting-rooms, and die just as they are about to reap the golden
fruit of their labors, having denied themselves all social and physical
enjoyment, with the delusive promise to themselves and their friends,
that after a certain end is attained, they will give rest to their over-
worked faculties. This end reached, another one is substituted, and still
another, till the worn-out, cheated brain seeks in the repose of death
that rest which its possessor denies it in the Whirl of busy life.
MENTAL AND PHYSICAL RECREATION. 283
The tiller of the soil, who caresses mother earth, and inhales her
vital breath, lives longer, but his mental faculties are dwarfed by the
monotonous drudgery with which he seeks to obtain the golden bauble,
and his overworked muscles shrink, and his shoulders droop with ex-
cessive toil. He, too, plants his ambitious stake afar off, moves it on-
ward still farther as he approaches it, and finally reaches it too ex-
hausted to enjoy what he has so long labored to attain. -
MAGNETIC EXER/XISE.
The wealthy idler too often pursues his avocation of doing nothing
with such singleness of purpose as to induce depression of spirits, and
thereby enfeeble both mind and body. His imagination becomes tired
at grasping empty shadows, and his faculties wear themselves out in
striking at nothing.
Many people mistakenly imagine that mental and physical recrea-
tion consists in idling away time, while it really consists in doing some-
thing all the while, but with such a change of thought and action as to
give rest to those powers which are the more constantly employed.
There is, for instance, but little recreation in a game of chess for a man
who has been employed in the counting-room all day. His play should
be out of doors, and his diversions of a character to free the mind
from calculation, and give healthy exercise to the enervated muscular
system. The farmer may advantageously shorten his days of toil, and

284 PREVENTION OF DISEASE.
spend some hours in every twenty-four in visiting his neighbors, and in
the perusal of books and newspapers. The wealthy idler will find
happiness and health in industry of some kind, even if it be not remu-
nerative. For the accountant, professional man, or for any one closely
engaged in sedentary pursuits, there is probably no exercise so bene-
ficial as horseback riding. Much walking exhausts the magnetic forces
of the system, if they are deficient, but in riding a horse, the animal
does the work, and the rider takes the exercise, and not only do the
stomach, liver, and other internal organs get wholesomely jostled, but
every muscle of the arms and limbs partakes of the invigorating shaking.
Then, too, the horse is a regular battery for the generation of animal
electricity. The vapors from his nostrils, and the steam from his body,
are loaded with magnetic life. The busy brain-worker, seated upon
the Saddle, is enveloped in an atmosphere of vital magnetism, which
his attenuated body drinks in as the parchcq earth takes in the evening
showers.
Although consumption prevails to a serious extent in the British
Army, investigation has proved that the cavalry regiments suffer much
less than the infantry. There is no other way for accounting for this
fact excepting this : while the infantry are exhausted by their weary
marches, the cavalry have the exercise and magnetism of horseback
riding while performing their military duties. For women of sedentary
habits in our civilization, horseback riding is deprived of a good share
of its advantages by the cramped position they are obliged to take on
the detestable side-saddle. It seems as if every permicious crotchet
entering into the popular sense of propriety, invariably bears the most
heavily upon woman. We call her the “weaker vessel,” and while we
pile upon her shoulders the most unhealthful burdens, we also require
her, whether walking or riding, to be trammelled with something that
lessens the value of her exercise. If she walks, her limbs are impeded
in their motion by cumbersome skirts; and if she rides one limb is put
to sleep on the pommel of the saddle and her body placed in an attitude
which would naturally nearly face the side her limbs occupy, while she
is required to face and address her attendant back of her.
In Peru, the Sandwich Islands, and among many people we call
heathen, or semi-barbarian, women ride astride; and since the advent
of the bicycle, this sensible position is being encouraged in England and
our own country. I strongly advocated it over forty years ago. Mrs.
Clara B. Colby says: -
“The ‘New Woman’ is only copying after the ancient dame when
she rides astride, as is now the fashion of the royal princesses and the
leading equestriennes of both England and America. Joan of Arc rode
astride at the head of the French Army, and Queen Elizabeth used to
ride to falcon hunt in this fashion behind Lord Leicester. It was only
MENTAL AND PHYSICAL RECREATION, 285
in the sixteenth century that the side-saddle came into use in England,
and women rode astride in Germany until the close of the eighteenth
century. In most foreign countries the fashion of riding on one side
has never been adopted by women.”
For people of sedentary habits who have not the means to keep
horses, or to hire them, dancing and gymnastics afford healthy recrea-
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THE COM ING FASHION FOR LADIES ON HORSEBACK,
(From a cartoon in Philadelphia “Life.”)
tion, if the former be not carried to the extreme of midnight dissipa-
tion, and the latter to the point of physical exhaustion. Among the
ancient Hebrews, dancing formed a part of their religious ceremonies,
and even in the Christian Church at an early period, ‘‘the dance was
united with the hymn in Christian festivities.” To-day the Shakers of
Our Own country unite dancing with worship, but among what are popu-
larly denominated orthodox people, dancing is considerably in disrepute,
unless conducted in private assemblies, or in the parlors of those whose
means enable them to entertain rooms full of their friends on appointed
occasions. If conducted without excessive eating and drinking—at
Seasonable hours and in healthful costumes, dancing is an exercise which













286 PREVENTION OF DISEASE.
promotes health of body and grace of motion. It has been remarked
that a young woman fond of dancing, traverses, in the course of a single
season, about 400 miles, while no lady would think of walking that dis-
tance in six months. Nor is it simply by the exercise of the muscles, and
grace of movement, that benefit is derived. The commingling of the sexes
is highly beneficial. In an assemblage of ladies and gentlemen where
there is almost constant contact of hand with hand, and interchange of
Sentiment, there is also an interchange of sexual magnetism, which im-
parts a daintier glow than paint is capable of giving to the cheek of the
maiden or matron, and to those of the “sterner sex’’ who participate
in these festivities, it gives mental and muscular vivacity never derived
from association of gentlemen alone. At the opening of dancing soirées,
the ladies generally begin the festivities with cold, clammy hands and
feet, but after a few commands from the prompter of “right and left,
all around ’’ their circulation becomes healthful, and the pleasant tem-
perature of the hand is an evidence that the feet too have become warm
by exercise and masculine magnetism. Nature has ordained it, and man-
and-woman-kind cannot disregard the law that sexual isolation impairs
the physical health, and renders the mind more or less fretful, peculiar,
and taciturn. It still further enfeebles the nervous systems of the weak,
and inaugurates nervous derangements and mental eccentricities in the
strong. It makes man rude and gross; it makes woman weak and
capricious. Had it not been intended that women and men should
commingle in their work and play, the earth with its flowers and birds
would have been given to women, and the moon, with its rocks and
arid mountains, would have been the abode of men, and like some of
the representatives of the lower order of animal life, each sex would have
had within itself the power of reproduction. But enough on this point.
If the reader is interested in this partial digression, he may turn to the
essay in Chapter Second, on Sexual Isolation.
Parlor or light gymnastics, as introduced by the late Dr. Dio Lewis,
may be pronounced “the king and queen of indoor exercise.” This sys-
tem of gymnastics oncourages the commingling of the sexes in physical
movements, which are so devised as to bring every muscle of the body
into exercise. It possesses all the social and magnetic charm of dancing,
while the movements more fully and uniformly develop the whole
muscular system. Especially is this remark true when placing light
gymnastics in comparison with the modern fashionable style of danc-
ing, which precludes all lively motion of the limbs, or other parts of
the body. The gymnastic march brings the sexes together in a frolic-
some exercise, which gives as much motion to the limbs as the old-
fashioned “jig.” The ring exercise again unites the sexes in move-
ments and attitudes which bring into play every muscle belonging to
our wonderful bodies. With the wooden dumb-bells and wands, a
MENTAL AND PHYSICAL RECREATION. 287
series of exercises may be indulged in at home or in the class, which
call into play muscles which men or women of sedentary habits hardly
know they possess. The “breathing exercises” give ladies, who, from
long habit of pernicious dress and short breathing, might imagine
their lungs were no larger or deeper than a chicken's crop, some rational
idea of their respiratory capacity. In the vocal exercises, the voice
receives not only cultivation, but an increase of strength, and these,
combined with the breathing exercises, afford an excellent medicine for
people of a consumptive diathesis. In the class, all of these move-
ments are made under the inspiration of music, and music itself is better
than medicine for many people. “Luther and Milton found the greatest
solace in music.” “Nothing,” said Alfieri, the Italian tragic poet, “so
moves my heart, and soul, and intellect, and rouses my very faculties
like music ; almost all my tragedies have been conceived under the
immediate emotion caused by music.”
There is one peculiar advantage which light gymnastics possess
over dancing, so long as the latter remains in disrepute among strict
religionists, and that is, they are encouraged and patronized by the
clergy, and no one could reasonably object on religious grounds, if
they were introduced as a part of the education of children in all the
schools, or made a part of the festivities at ministers’ donation parties,
and social entertainments of all kind, public or private, religious or
Secular.
Parlor gymnastics have been considerably neglected of late years.
When introduced about the middle of the nineteenth century they were
all the rage. It would be well for the rising generation to obtain Dr.
Dio Lewis's book, which teaches and illustrates the movements in light
gymnastics, and bring them to the front once more. They are graceful.
They are beneficial. They are greatly enjoyed by young people.
Gymnastics originated with the ancient Greeks, who made it a
rule to spend not less than two hours each day in physical develop-
ment. Their children were required to take exercise in a nude state,
So as not to encumber the muscles while undergoing motion and develop-
ment. And here I may say, that one of the peculiar advantages of
light gymnastics over dancing is, that in all classes where they are
taught, the men are required to dress in loose trousers and blouses, and
the ladies in loose-waisted and short dresses. Bathing was religiously
attended to by the Greeks of old, and every conceivable plan was
devised and practiced to build up and strengthen their physical organ-
ism. They despised themselves for any manifestation of physical
weakness. The Spartans were the first to require their women to be
good gymnasts. They were not allowed to marry till they publicly
exhibited their proficiency in this kind of physical exercise. In our
day, the Germans seem to have some of the Spirit of the ancient Greeks.
288 PREVENTION OF DISEASE.
They give much attention to gymnastics, both light and heavy ; but
among our American people, the credit is due to Dr. Lewis for having
perfected and introduced a system of gymnastics suited to all ages,
and to both sexes, and conducted like dancing to the time of inspiring
music. Those not familiar with his system, and who may feel inter-
ested in looking into it, may, as before intimated, find at the book-stores
an illustrated work by Dr. L., descriptive of the series of exercises
which he recommended for muscular development. Swimming may
FIG. 94. be reckoned among the
a C C O m p 1 is h m ent s
which promote physi-
cal health. Buoyed
up by the water, the
limbs are at liberty to
move without impedi-
ment, and while the
arms are moving in
Such a way as to de-
Velop the chest, shoul-
ders, and back, the
action of the limbs
strengthens their own
muscles and those
which are remotely
Connected with them.
This exercise is not
available to all, nor can
it be enjoyed at all sea-
Sons unless it be in
citics where facilities
are provided by indi-
vidual enterprise or
When you swim, imitate the frog. municipal government.
One of the most extensive and finely appointed bathing establishments
in the world is in San Francisco. This was erected and bountifully
supplied with every convenience by the late Mayor Sutro. It covers
five acres and contains several large swimming-tanks of different tem-
perature, so that the swimmer can select the one he likes. One can
move his arms and limbs in the Sutro baths under the inspiration of
music, as an excellent band is present during the most popular hours to
enliven the exercises. Boston doubtless comes next to San Francisco
with its twenty-three public baths, and probably stands at the head of
all cities of the United States in respect to the number of such estab-
lishments. Then, too, at the “Hub,” they supply, at the expense of the
THE swim MER.

MENTAT, AND PHYSICAL RECREATION. 289
city treasury, teachers to instruct in the art of swimming. In 1898
3,500 children were taught to swim, according to the statement of
Mayor Josiah Quincy. The number who enjoyed the baths during that
year was 1,900,000. “The expense to the city for all this,” according
to the Mayor, “was about $38,000, paid mostly in salaries, and the
average cost of each bath was about two cents. When we consider the
incalculable benefit to the public,” remarked the Mayor, “I believe
this money was a tremendous factor in the development of the health
and morals of Boston.” .
For those living near rivers, lakes, or the ocean, or for those who
visit the seaside in summer, bathing is a recreation in which both sexes
during the months of the year when exercise is apt to be neglected, may
indulge freely and greatly to their advantage, because it cleanses and
invigorates the skin at the same time that it develops every muscle of the
body. The art of swimming is so easily acquired that those who make
a practice of bathing should also learn to swim. Many are injured by
bathing who would be benefited by swimming. It is never well to
creep or step cringingly into the water. The slow movements, the
fear, the low temperature of the water, all tend to drive the blood to
the head, and the bather, under these circumstances, emerges from the
water with chills and disturbed circulation. Not so with the swimmer.
He plunges in with the alacrity of the frog ; his head is as cool as his
body ; his motions to keep afloat send the blood frolicking through the
body to its extremities. He comes out of the water with a glow of
warmth. A little friction with a towel makes him feel as if he had
experienced a new birth. There is no reason why women, as well as
men, may not swim. There is no better fun for a party of girls and
boys than to put on bathing suits and imitate the pranks of the finny
tribes in the water. I have seen many expert female swimmers. One
young woman of my acquaintance, who recently acquired the art, in
One brief summer expanded her chest several inches by the exercise, so
much, indeed, as to attract the attention of her friends on her return
from the seaside. Her avowed experience was that bathing injured her.
Before learning to swim, if she entered the water she came from it cold
and Shivering; but so soon as she became a swimmer, her aquatic exer-
cises became beneficial, and were no longer attended by the recession of
the blood from the extremities. A word of caution is not to be omitted.
Do not remain in the water too long. The difference in temperature
between the water and the human body is usually very considerable, and
there is rapid giving-off of the caloric of the latter to the cooler surround-
ing element. Fifteen to twenty minutes should be the limit. I have spent
my Summers for more than thirty years at popular seaside resorts, and
I have not failed to observe that those men and women who stay in the
watº for thirty or forty minutes, or in some instances, an hour or two,
290 PREVENTION OF DISEASE.
die, get ill, or give up the exercise with the plea that bathing does
not agree with them. Some one of these results has invariably hap-
pened to those who were reckless in their indulgence in this otherwise
healthful and delightful exercise.
BICYCLE EXERCISE.
Among popular modes of exercise, outing, and “sport,” bicycle
riding is the “up-to-date" recreation at the beginning of the twen-
tieth century, and has, without doubt, tempted more people of all
classes to healthful effort than any other form of exercise. It has been
taken up by men, women, and children, of all ages, from three to
eighty, and is even being recommended as a new “cure-all” for a large
variety of common complaints. Many physicians have not only ex-
perimented with its effects upon themselves, but also made a close
study of the effects upon the people in general. Veteran riders have
been subjected to inspection, to discover if any impairment of physique
or function has been occasioned by it, but the tests thus far reported
are very favorable to riding “the wheel.” The lung capacity is
markedly increased (about half an inch), and the heart (itself mainly a
bundle of muscles) is somewhat increased in size and power—an effect
which may in some cases be carried too far. In short, the whole
muscular system shows development, for the muscles of the back,
chest, and arms are largely called into action, as well as those of the legs.
Even in the men who ride “hump-backed ” it has not been possible to
discover any permanent physical deformity, though the position is un-
graceful, if not actually disgraceful. As Mrs. Alice Lee Moqué puts it,
“Then here's to the wheel ! And the joy We feel
When speeding from care away.
To the bicycle strong I sing my song,
Though it be but an humble lay.”
Nevertheless, those who carry bicycling to excess, especially when
not originally extra robust, are likely to suffer from nervous exhaustion,
or by over-strain of the heart and arteries; and many sudden deaths,
some from apoplexy, have followed speedy or long “runs.” *
The greatest evil of this exercise is the tendency to overdo it, and
while this may be said of any good form of exercise, the temptation to
excess in speed or distance on the wheel is a propensity inherent in its
fascinations. In reasonable moderation it seems suitable, with but few
exceptions, to all who need exercise of any kind. Specialists in diseases
of women seem pretty well agreed that even many having diseases
peculiar to the sex need not be ruled off—that it may even help to
relieve local congestion and improve the position of the affected parts
by restoring a better muscular tone. It is generally known that the
MENTAL AND PHYSICAL RECREATION. 29I
treadle motion in working the sewing-machine is injurious to one hav-
ing womb trouble, and it has been seriously urged by some writers
that the bicycle must be equally objectionable, but the position of a
woman on the wheel is widely different from that seated before a
sewing-machine. In the latter instance the body is cramped, and the
f"IG. 95.
A GROUP OF CYCLERS.
limbs are nearly in a horizontal position, confining and chafing the
uterus with every motion of the foot. In the former the body is or
should be nearly erect, the limbs nearly straight, and there is neither
downward pressure nor friction brought to bear upon the delicate
reproductive system. Facts are better than theories, and those who
have the best means of judging are unanimous in the opinion that the
bodily position and action in working a sewing-machine are no more
like those employed in riding a wheel than the position when sitting is
like that when standing. In cases of functional nervous disease,
dyspepsia, constipation, and even gout and diabetes, the bicycle has
been regarded as of good effect, and my own observations alike with
these and uterine affections are in accord with the testimony of other

292 PREVENTION OF DISEASE.
specialists. But how about the heart and the wonderful arteries and
veins which circulate the blood 7
Sir Benjamin W. Richardson has taken much pains to observe the
effects of bicycle exercise, and in a paper read before a medical society
in London he summed up its favorable and unfavorable effects upon the
heart and circulatory system. He is reported by the press to have said
as follows:
“1. Cycling, when carried on with moderation, might in so far as
the healthy heart was concerned, be permitted, or even recommended,
by practitioners of the healing art. 2. In all cases of heart disease it
was not necessary to exclude cycling. It might even be useful in cer-
tain instances—where the action of the heart was feeble, and where
signs of fatty degeneration were found—since increased muscular exer-
cise often improved the condition of muscle, and of no muscle more
than the heart itself. 3. As the action of cycling told directly upon
the motion of the heart, the effect it produced on that organ was
phenomenally and unexpectedly great in regard to the work it got out
of it. 4. The ultimate action of severe cycling was to increase the size
of the heart, to render it irritable and hyper-sensitive to motion, the
cycling acting upon it like a stimulant. 5. The over-development of
the heart under the continued and extreme over-action affected in turn
the arterial resilience, modified the natural blood-pressure, and favored
degenerative structural change in the organs of the body generally.
6. A fact that had only been incidentally noticed in the paper was
worthy of notice—namely, that in persons of timid and nervous natures
—“neurotics’—the fear incidental to cycling, especially in crowded
thoroughfares, was often creative of disturbance and palpitation of the
heart, and ought to be taken account of as a piece of preventive advice.
7. In advising patients on the subject of cycling, it was often more
important to consider the peripheral condition of the circulation than
the central. Enfeebled or worn-out arteries might be more dangerous
than the feeble heart, and when connected with a heart that was over-
active were seats of danger. This same remark would, of course,
apply to cases where there was local arterial injury, as in aneurism.
8. Wenous enlargement seemed rather to be benefited than injured by
cycling, and conditions marked by sluggish circulation through veins
were often greatly relieved by the exercise. 9. There were three things
which were most injurious in cycling—(a) Straining to climb hills and
to meet head-winds; (b) excessive fatigue ; (c) the process of exciting
the heart and wearing it out sooner by alcoholic stimulants, and the
omission of light, frequently repeated, and judiciously selected, foods.
Too much cannot be said against what is commonly called “scorch-
ing.” Any amount of mischief has been done to many young men and
women in racing on the wheel. Tests of endurance in this exercise, as
MENTAL AND PHYSICAL RECREATION. 293
well as in all others, are to be deprecated. They bring disease and
death to the riders and prejudice to a commendable means of exercise.
Dr. S. C. Stanton, who has charge of the examination of recruits for
the United States Army in Chicago, has “caused a sensation among
medical men by declaring that an habitual fast rider of bicycles,
or a ‘scorcher,’ is unfit, physically, to serve as a soldier in the army.”
He has made this matter the subject of his severest tests in his exami-
nation of applicants for enlistment, and many men have been rejected
because of a “bicycle heart,” as the practitioner terms it, caused by
excessive exercise in riding a wheel. The doctor says: “Persistent
scorching or fast riding has a tendency to enlarge the heart, and thus
interfere with its proper action. This being the case, the riders would
be unable to endure the hardships that army life imposed, and should
not be permitted to enter the service.”
Dr. Patton, Chief Surgeon of the National Soldier's Home of Day-
ton, Ohio, is quoted by the Providence Journal as saying “that of the
5,000 soldiers in the Dayton Home, fully eighty per cent. are suffering
from heart disease, in one form or another, due to the forced physical
exertions of the campaign.” “And,” says the Medical and Surgical
Reporter, “he made the prediction that as large a percentage of the
athletes of to-day will be found twenty-five years from now to be vic-
tims of heart disease, resulting from the muscular strains that they
force themselves to undergo. As for the likelihood of exercise to pro-
long life, it may be said that according to the statistics of M. de
Solaiville there are more people living in France to-day who have
passed the age of sixty than there are in England, the home of athletic
sports. And there is probably no nation in Europe more averse to
muscular cultivation for its own sake than the French. Great athletes
die young, and a mortality list of Oxford rowing men published a few
years ago showed that a comparatively small percentage of them lived
out the allotted lifetime. Dr. Jastrow has demonstrated, in some very
elaborate statistics, that men of thought live on an average three and a
half years longer than men in the ordinary vocations of life "
This is disheartening to one who believes in, and enthusiastically
advocates, rational exercise, but it is well to give it place here for the
purpose of impressing upon the impulsive and reckless mind, as noth-
ing else would, the importance of reasonable moderation in taking it.
In one respect Dr. Stanton's views are quite sustained by mortality
statistics. In England, of 10,000 deaths by various diseases, 620 are
from heart disease, while in France there are only 290 from the same.
But the figures are not as favorable for France as they are for England
in deaths by apoplexy, consumption, pneumonia, and some other
physical ills, and comparing the mortality of the two countries from all
diseases, the rate is not far from equal, although a little in favor of
294 PREVENTION OF DISEASE.
France. Not enough difference to lead to the conclusion that it is best
for the Anglo-Saxon to give up muscular exercise for its own sake.
Far better reform in the way it should be taken.
The young especially need cautioning and restraining, lest in their
impetuous and emulative ardor they overtax their strength, aud do
themselves irreparable injury; and the man of fifty or more years must
remember that he has not the elasticity of youth, and may overstrain or
burst a blood-vessel if he attempt to keep up the hot pace of men in
their prime. Women, too, handicapped as most of them are by heavy
machines, skirts, and muscles less trained to severe and continuous
effort, should make haste slowly in their attempts to become experts,
and be especially particular to have a comfortable saddle.
‘‘SHUT YOUR MOUTH.”
This may be said in an aggressive, rude, and offensive manner, but
in this instance it is meant for good advice to the wheeler. It is not
an uncommon practice for both men and women riding the wheel to
have the lips parted, and in some cases the mouth quite open, and
taking in the breath by the latter rather than through the nose, as
Nature intends that we should do. The nasal cavity is well provided
with all that is necessary to filter the air that we breathe. The lips
were intended not only as ornaments to the face, but to protect the
mouth from dust and bacteria. It is no unusual thing for a wheeler to
Complain of dryness of the mouth, and some even adopt the vulgar
habit of chewing gum to awaken the salivary secretions and give
moisture to the mouth. “Wheeler's Rests” have sprung up along the
roadside, where soda-water, beer, and other drinks, both soft and
strong, are provided for the thirsty cycler. Some complain of sore
throat. Both thirst and throat irritations can be avoided by resolutely
Compressing the lips, and breathing through the nose. Then, when
returning from a spin, rinse the mouth, gargle the throat, and wash out
the nasal passages with a solution of sulpho-carbolate of soda. For
this purpose, put half a teaspoonful, or a little less of the latter, into a
tumblerful of pure water. Let it stand a few moments until the salts
are nearly or quite dissolved. The water will take up no more of the
salts than is necessary to give the solution sufficient strength. Then
use this solution as a mouth and nose wash and a throat gargle. If a
little passes down the throat it will do no harm.
There are, in addition to equestrian exercises, dancing, gymnastics,
swimming, and wheeling, various other sports which afford mental and
physical recreation, such as golf, lawn tennis, croquet, billiards, ten-
pins, base-ball, parlor and pond skating, etc., all possessing more or
less merit ; but those should be chiefly encouraged which bring the
sexes together, because they are not only more beneficial physically,
SLEEP. 295
but also because women are too generally neglected, and too often left
at home by fathers, husbands, and brothers, and even lovers, when
they drop the cares of business for rest and relaxation. In addition to
this consideration, the sexes should fraternize in their sports, in order
that men may become more womanly and kindly, and women more
manly and practical in their characteristics. We are slowly, but I
think surely, approaching an age of greater sexual equality, and the
race will be better and happier when it is reached. We have had
enough of rough and heartless men, and of debilitated and babyish
women. The lawyer and sheriff fatten on the former, and the latter
mainly supply the bread and butter wherewith the doctors are fed.
Sleep.
Nearly every one who is not a baby sleeps too little. Babies are
in the way, and are dosed with soothing syrups and put to sleep—“the
troublesome little things l’ But when they grow up, excess of sleep is
exchanged for too little. Business, social intercourse, and, in many
cases, dissipation, occupy so many of the twenty-four hours, that rest is
neglected. Many do not seem to know the value of sleep. They over-
look the fact that it is the season of vital recuperation ; that while the
body is recumbent, the eyes closed, and the faculties at rest, repairs go
on which are no less necessary for the duration of life, than for the
health of every individual. “Without the proper amount of sleep,”
says Professor Hubland, “the vital energy is dried up and withered,
and we waste away as a tree would, deprived of the sap that nourishes
it. The physical effects of sleep are, that it retards all the vital move-
ments, collects the vital power, and restores what has been lost in the
Course of the day, and separates us from what is useless and pernicious.
It is, as it were, a daily crisis, during which all secretions are reformed
in the greatest tranquillity and perfection.” Tesla says: “I believe
that a man might live 200 years if he would sleep most of the time.
That is why negroes live to such an advanced age, because they sleep
so much. The proper way to economize life is to sleep every moment
that is unnecessary or desirable that you should be awake.”
Many medical writers have given their testimony upon this subject,
and instead of originating a new essay, it is hardly necessary to do
more under this head, than to quote what has already been well-written.
Dr. J. C. Jackson remarks: -
“As a habit and fashion with our people, we sleep too little. It is
admitted by all those who are competent to speak on the subject, that
the people of the United States, from day to day, not only do not get
sufficient sleep, but they do not get sufficient rest. By the preponder-
ance of the nervous over the vital temperament, they need the recuper-
ating benefits which sleep can afford during each night as it passes. A
296 PREVENTION OF DISEASE.
far better rule would be to get at least eight hours' sleep, and, including
sleep, ten hours of recumbent rest. It is a sad mistake that some make,
who suppose themselves qualified to speak on the subject, in affirming
that persons of a highly wrought, nervous temperament need—as com-
pared with those of a more lymphatic or stolid organization—less sleep.
The truth is, that where power is expended with great rapidity, by a
FIG. 96.
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ALL ASLEEP.
constitutional law, it is re-gathered slowly ; the reaction, after awhile,
demanding much more time for the gathering up of new force than
the direct effort demands in expending that force.
“Thus, a man of the nervous temperament, after he has established
a habit of overdoing, recovers from the effect of such overaction much
more slowly than a man of different temperament would, if the balance
between his power to do and his power to rest is destroyed. As between
the nervous and lymphatic temperaments, therefore, where excess of
work is demanded, it will always be seen that, at the close of the day's
labor, whether it has been of muscle or thought, the man of nervous
temperament, who is tired, finds it difficult to fall asleep, sleeps per-
turbedly, wakes up excitedly, and is more apt than otherwise to resort


























SLEEP. 297
to stimulants to place himself in a condition of pleasurable activity.
While the man of lymphatic temperament, when tired, falls asleep,
sleeps soundly and uninterruptedly, and wakes up in the morning a new
man. The facts are against the theory that nervous temperaments
recuperate quickly from the fatigues to which their possessors are sub-
jected. Three-fourths of our drunkards are from the ranks of the men
of nervous temperament. Almost all opium-eaters in our country—and
their name is legion—are persons of the nervous or nervous-sanguine
temperaments. Almost all the men in the country who become the
victims of narcotic drug-medicine are of the nervous or nervous-san-
guine temperament.”
Every medical man of much observation, and every intelligent
non-professional man, who has given any attention to the laws of
health, will not hesitate to indorse Dr. Jackson's views, as expressed in
the foregoing paragraphs. People of the nervo-sanguine temperament
are not so successful at manufacturing, as they are extravagant in
expending, the vital forces, and as you would control the prodigality of
a money spendthrift by keeping him employed, so you should control
the prodigal expender of nervous vitality by keeping him asleep as
many hours of the twenty-four as can be done without recourse to per-
nicious drugs.
Insanity often results from want of sleep. “The most frequent
and immediate cause of insanity,” says Dr. Cornell, in the Educator, “is
want of sleep. Notwithstanding strong hereditary predisposition on
the part of some people, if they sleep well they will not become insane.
No advice is so good, therefore, to those who have recovered from an
attack, or those who are in delicate health, as that of securing by all
means sound, regular, and refreshing sleep.”
Dr. Spicer says: “There is no fact more clearly established in the
physiology of man than this : That the brain expends its nerves and
itself during the hours of wakefulness, and that these are recuperated
during sleep ; if the recuperation does not equal its expenditure, the
brain withers—this is insanity. Thus it is that in early English history,
persons who were condemned to death by being prevented from sleep-
ing, always died raving maniacs ; thus it is also, that those who starve
to death become insane ; the brain is not nourished, and they cannot
sleep.”
With a little sensible advice, which I quote from Dr. Hall's
Journal of Health, as to how to go to bed, I will close this essay. “In
freezing winter-time,” says Dr. Hall, “do it in a hurry, if there is no
fire in the room, and there ought not to be unless you are quite an
invalid. But if a person is not in good health, it is best to undress by
a good fire, warm and dry the feet well, draw on the stockings again,
run into a room without a fire, jump into bed, bundle up, with head
B,
298 T'REVENTION OF DISEASE.
and ears under cover for a minute or more, until you feel a little
Warmth ; then uncover your head, next draw oſt your stockings,
straighten out, turn over on your right side and go to sleep. If a sense
of chilliness comes over you on getting into bed, it will always do you
l'IQ. 97.
PERSPIRATORY G.I.AND AND TUIRE.
an injury ; and its repetition increases
the ill effects without having any
tendency to ‘harden' you. Nature
CVCr abhors violence. We are never
shocked into good health. Hard usage
makes no garment last longer.”
One word more before concluding.
It is really quite important that a per-
son should retire on the right side.
This position favors the passage of the
Contents of the stomach into the duo-
denum, or lower stomach. It is well
that what remains in the stomach on
going to bed, should be disposed of,
and that position which will the best
conduce to the digestion and removal
of this matter, is the one which should
be adopted. By the time the sleeper
has become tired of resting on his right
side, unless he has taken a late supper,
his digestive organs will have been
sufficiently relieved to allow him, with-
out disadvantage, to turn upon the left.
Sleeping upon the back is a bad habit,
because the pressure of the contents of
the bowels upon some important arter-
ies, interferes with a frce circulation of
the blood, resulting in frightful and
disagreeable dreams and nightmare.
Cleanliness.
Insomuch as uncleanliness is the
parent of epidemics and the nesting
places of microbes, so is cleanliness a
preventive of disease. Many do not
know, while others who do, overlook
the fact, that the skin is full of little sewers, called pores, through
which are emptied out from the blood five-sevenths of all its impurities.
1t must be remembered that while the intestines carry off one kind of
waste matter, and the bladder and urethra another, there are over

CLEANLINESS. 299
twenty miles of perspiratory tubes engaged in disposing of effete matter,
unless obstructed by neglect ; and uncleanly accumulations on the skin
are, in a measure, as injurious to the health as constipation or suppres-
sion of the urine. Fig. 97, on the opposite page, represents, magnified,
one of the perspiratory glands and tubes. Dr. Wilson has counted
3,528 in a square inch, on the palm of the hand, of these minute but
useful organs. When the skin is neglected, these tubes, or pores
become literally dammed up, and if nature cannot force a passage
through them for disposing of effete matters, her next attempt is to
throw them out in the form of pimples, ulcers, or boils. If this effort is
not successful, they remain in the circulation, poisoning the blood and
making that fluid, which should be the dispenser of health, the fountain
of corruption and disease.
Daily bathing is not indispensable to protect the outlets of these
little sewers. Many people cannot bathe every day. The friction of
the hand over the whole surface of the body, with an occasional bath,
will answer in many cases. Comparatively few, however, are injured
by an excess of soap and water, and every one who is not advised by
his own symptoms, or his playsician, not to do so, may use plenty of
water without injury by cmploying that temperature which best pro-
motes subsequent good feeling. The after-effect is a good monitor to
govern the frequency of bathing, and to direct as to the temperature
most conducive to individual health. But while keeping the excre-
tory pores active, it is also necessary to see that the liver and kidneys
are performing their offices, for if they are not, the active skin will
become the outlet of an undue share of the waste matters of
the system, and cause odors to be emitted which are obnoxious to all
who value pure air, and especially to those who have sensitive
olfactories.
If men and women were careful in eating and drinking, it would be
necessary that all the outlets of waste matter should be kept free from
obstruction ; but when excesses in eating and drinking are the rule,
rather than the exception, when the mouth and the stomach are made
receptacles of overything which tickles the palate, whether the system
requires it or not, it becomes still more necessary that the various
Sewers which nature has provided for the emptying out of useless mat-
ter, should be kept active and free from everything that obstructs tho
performance of their functions. A good breath is greatly dependent
upon the healthful activity of the skin, liver, and kidneys. If these are
all in working condition, the rubbish of the system passes off freely.
If they are not, it goes through a process of decomposition, and sends
its odorous gases through the blood to the lungs, from which they are
carried out with the vapors exhaled. Nor is this all. They are worse
in the human system than dust in the delicate works of a watch.
3OO PREVENTION OF DISEASE.
Pure Air.
Little need be said under this caption in addition to what may be
found in the essay entitled, “The Atmosphere We Live In ;” but the
importance of pure air as a preserver of health is so great that this
Chapter would be incomplete without at least an allusion to it. “Peo-
ple have often said,” remarks a writer in the Scientific American, “that
no difference can be detected in the analyzation of pure and impure air.
This is one of the vulgar errors difficult to dislodge from the ordinary
brain. The fact is that the condensed air of a crowded room gives a
deposit, which, if allowed to remain a few days, forms a solid, thick,
glutinous mass, having a strong odor of animal matter. If examined
by the microscope, it is seen to undergo a remarkable change. First of
all, it is converted into a vegetable growth, and this is followed by the
production of multitudes of animalcules—a decisive proof that it must
contain certain organic matter, otherwise it could not nourish organic
beings. A writer in Dickens's Household Words, in remarking upon this
subject, says that this was the result arrived at by Dr. Angus Smith, in
his beautiful experiments on the air and water of towns, wherein he
showed how the lungs and skin gave out organic matter, which is,
in itself a deadly poison, producing headache, sickness, disease, or
epidemic, according to its strength. Why, if a few drops of the liquid
matter obtained by the condensation of the air of a foul locality intro-
duced into the vein of a dog, can produce death by the usual phenomena
of typhus fever, what incalculable evils must it not produce on those
human beings who breathe it again and again, while rendered fouler
and less capable of sustaining life with every breath. Such contami-
nation of the air, and consequent hot-bed of fever and epidemic, it is
easily within the power of man to remove. Wentilation and cleanliness
will do all, so far as the abolition of this evil goes; and ventilation and
cleanliness are not miracles to be prayed for, but certain results of com-
mon obedience to Nature's laws.”
Few people take in enough fresh air to keep their systems well
supplied with electricity. Thousands of women in our large towns do
not venture out of their houses oftener than once a week in cold
weather, and these houses are protected by patent weather-strips, and
every possible device for excluding the breath of heaven ; and when
the dear creatures do summon the courage to face a north or east wind,
they so envelop themselves in heavy clothes, furs, and veils, that they
can hardly see out. Beneath all this muffling, they breathe over and
over again their own exhalations, with scarcely enough fresh air to
even partially disinfect them. Of course their verdict is, on re-entering
their residences, that it does not agree with them to go out ; So they
stay in until some necessity compels them to go out again. Professional
TURE AIR. 3OI
men cloister themselves in their offices, and work up with hard thinking
what little vitality they derive from imperfectly digested food. Busi-
ness men stick to their counting-rooms with as great pertinacity as the
bull-dog hangs to the nose of a stag, and expend their nervous forces
in business-planning, and belaboring their brains with long columns of
figures. With such practices in vogue, the stone, the brick, the mor-
tar, the double window-sashes, the weather-strips, etc., which are
devised by cunning hands to protect us from the storms of winter, and
to shelter us from the oppressive heat and dust of summer, form SO
many barriers between man within and the health-giving element with-
Out. With stoves and hot-air furnaces to furnish heat to destroy what
little life the confined atmosphere originally possessed, he breathes over
and over a few hundred cubic feet of air, as if it were an expensive
commodity delivered at the door by the conscienceless express com-
panies, instead of the free gift of Nature, which can be had by opening
a door or window.
Besides opening our houses for the ingress of pure air, our clothes
should not be made of such waterproof material as to exclude it.
Besides going out to parks, cleanly streets, and the country for it, an
air-bath before going to bed is an excellent promoter of sleep. Dr.
Franklin found this so ; and many philosophical men and women now-
adays take air-baths. An intelligent woman informed me that she
could not sleep without spending an hour in a nude state in a well-
ventilated room before retiring. This may appear a little inconsistent
with Dr. Hall's suggestion as to making haste into bed ; but I have no
doubt that there are many people who would be benefited by this prac-
tice. Such, for instance, as are full of blood and animal caloric ; and
those who, instead of experiencing a chill, would find simply a sense of
coolness creeping over the skin, followed by a reaction immediately
after covering up warmly. It would not do with the thermometer at
40°, but would answer at a temperature of 68°, 70°, or 72°. We breathe
through the pores of the skin as well as by the lungs. These micro-
scopic lungs cannot be safely insulated from the air.
Especially should the sick-room be well-ventilated. Not only
should the air therein be cautiously changed in inclement seasons, but
disinfectants should be freely used. It is not difficult to obtain these,
nor are they expensive. A large bowl of water standing by the bedside
will absorb an immense quantity of impure gases. “Few,” remarks a
writer, “are aware of the valuable antiseptic properties of charcoal in
the sick-room, or of its purifying effects in crowded chambers. A
dozen pieces, the size of a hazel-nut, placed in a saucer or soup-plate,
daily moistened with boiling water, will, in the course of a week, have
gathered their own weight in impure air. At the end of the sixth day
they should be renewed, and the infected ones burned, as in cases of
302 PREVENTION OF DISEASE.
disease they have gathered the poisonous exhalations, and are, there-
fore, no longer without danger.” In sickness or health, we cannot
afford to do without pure air, and as it comes to us without money and
without cost, it is one of those priceless blessings which the poor may
enjoy as well as the rich. Let us all have plenty of it. Next, let me
call the attention of the reader to
Sunshine.
It is said that if a potato is put into a warm cellar with one small
window, the potato will sprout, and that the leading vine will run
along the floor of the cellar until it reaches the window, when it will
make directly for it, and continue to grow in that direction as long as
it can support itself. House-plants instinctively turn their leaves
toward the windows, thirsty for sunlight. A running vine planted in a
shady locality seems almost to possess intelligence in creeping around
where the rays of the sun may fall upon it. Now, shall not mankind
be as wise as the plant, or as Sagacious as the potato ?
Dr. Moore, the metaphysician, speaking of the necessity of sunlight,
says that : “A tadpole, confined in darkness, would never become a
frog; an infant, being deprived of heaven’s free light, will grow into a
shapeless idiot instead of a beautiful and responsible being. Hence,”
continues the same writer, “in the deep, dark gorges and ravines of
the Swiss Valais, where the direct sunshine never reaches, the hideous
prevalence of idiocy startles the traveller. It is a strange melancholy
idiocy. Many of the citizens are incapable of articulate speech. Some
are deaf ; some are blind ; some labor under all these privations; and
all are misshapen in every part of the body. I believe there is in all
places a marked difference in the healthfulness of houses according to
their aspect with regard to the sun, and those are decidedly the most
healthful, other things being equal, in which all the rooms are, during
some part of the day, fully exposed to the direct light. Epidemics
attack inhabitants on the shady side of the street, and totally exempt
those on the other ; and even in epidemics such as ague, the morbid
influence is often thus partial in its labors.”
Sunlight not only imparts vital magnt 'ism to the extent of prevent-
ing disease, but it has been resorted to with success as a curative agent.
One of our journals commenting upon the healing influence of light,
remarks that, “Sir James Wylie, physician to one of the Emperors of
Russia, attentively studied the effects of light as a curative agent in the
hospitals of St. Petersburg; and he discovered that the number of pa-
tients who were cured in rooms properly lighted, was four times greater
than that of those confined in dark rooms. This led to a complete re-
form in lighting the hospitals of Russia, and with the most beneficial
results. In all cities visited by the cholera, it was univerally found
SUNSHINE. 3O3
that the greatest number of deaths took place in narrow streets, and
on the sides of those having a northern exposure, where the salutary
beams of the sun were excluded. The inhabitants of the Southern
slopes of mountains are better developed, and more healthy than those
who live on the northern sides ; while those who dwell in secluded val-
leys are generally subject to peculiar diseases and deformities.
“The different results above mentioned are due to the agency of
light, without a full supply of which, plants and animals maintain but
a sickly and feeble existence. Eminent physicians have observed that
partially deformed children have been restored by exposure to the Sun
and the open air. As scrofula is most prevalent among the children
of the poor in crowded cities, this is attributed, by many persons, to
their living in dark and confined houses—such diseases being most com-
mon among those residing in underground tenements.”
In scrofulous affections and bodily deformities, Dr. Edwards ad-
vised isolation in the open air, and nudity where it would not be in-
compatible with comfort, as calculated to restore the sufferer. People
having a consumptive diathesis, or those having a consumptive ances-
try, should pay particular attention, in the choice of a location for a
dwelling, to select one which has a southern exposure. Sick people
are too apt to be regardless of their surroundings, and depend entirely
upon their physician to cure them. A thoughtful man, when he is
affected with illness, will seek to discover the cause, and also the in-
fluences surrounding him which may aggravate the complaint. On
making an investigation, he may not only find that his rooms are not
well ventilated ; that the location is not free from swampy dampness;
but that his dwelling is so situated behind hills, or under so much
shade, as to entirely shut him in from the light of the sun. Discovering
these disadvantageous conditions, he should at any sacrifice of business
or property, if he values health and life, betake himself to some spot
where he may secure all of nature's agencies for his recovery.
People living in or owning houses with verandas can have no idea,
without trying it, how much health and pleasure may be derived from
enclosing the latter in glass. I had to live over half a century before
finding it out. My city residence, which is almost wholly occupied
with my professional business, does not admit of this improvement, but
I have it and enjoy it at my country home, eighteen miles from the
city, the house having a southern frontage.
On the coldest days of winter when the sun shines, the thermom-
eter will rise in such an enclosure from 20° to 30°, and when the tem-
perature outside is not below 40° one can usually enjoy sitting in it. It
is a saving of fuel as well as a builder of health. You who have a
Veranda should try it if you have not done so already. The enclosure
should be so constructed that it can be easily removed in warm weather
3O4 TREVENTION OF DISEASE.
and stored in some convenient place until the return of the cold season.
It should have windows for ventilation.
Occasionally, some one daily exposed to the sun in the heat of sum-
mer, gets an overdose of the curative agent, and has an attack of sun-
stroke. All active medicines are injurious taken in overdoses; but
sometimes the sun's heat is censured for what bad habits have induced.
If a man eats and drinks excessively, or fires his blood with “cam-
phene whiskey,” he is more liable than anybody else to have sunstroke.
Fig. 08.
tº 'ºn * *
, * $º § XP, £3
alº, ſº, ſîſlºº 3%. Alſº,
p § 㺠$ º i } { : 3. % . -
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=#|ſ gº ** (§ ) *IN', UN'ſ, º º º 't. -> iſ hº N6%, ’’. ... 'a
7-Eºſ, * 3 { º • * ~ /* ( * ~ * v-
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THIS IS HOW AN INCLOSIED WERANDA LOOKS ON TIIE OUTSIDE.
Some medicines become injurious by mixing, and it could hardly be Sup-
posed that the pure sunlight would mix well with the vile drinks of our
low groggeries. As, however, the lightnings of heaven sometimes kill
innocent people, continuous exposure to a summer's sun may, in some
cases, strike down sober, temperate men. To avoid this, those who are
compelled to work in the sunlight during the hottest days of the year,
would do well to wear a wet napkin or handkerchief on the top of the
head, under the hat. The farmer or gardener has something still bet-
ter in the cabbage-leaf which may be dipped in water and worn in
the same way. It should be said in this connection that the heat of
the sun alone can hardly cause sunstroke. As already remarked in












































SUNSHINE. 3O5
another chapter, the atmosphere must be so humid as to interfere with
electrical radiation from the body to induce the malady. In some of
the warmest climes where the atmosphere is dry, sunstroke is not
known. Dr. Sanborn, in the British Medical and Surgical Journal,
says that “siriasis (heat stroke) is unknown in many of the hottest
parts of the world.” He seems to think it is produced by a specific
germ. If so, the sun has nothing to do with the trouble except to pro-
duce the necessary warmth to promote the life and activity of such
germ. My own vicw of it, however, has already been indicated.
Actual sunstroke requires stimulants to be applied, and not bleed-
ing or debilitating medicines as in the treatment of apoplexy. A writer
remarks that it “resembles apoplexy in some of its external features,
and is often mistaken for it, but in truth is very different ; the brain
is not congested as in that disease ; no effusion of blood or serum on the
brain's surface ; the patient is pale, cold, and quiet ; or, as is often the
case, he is convulsed and has tromors like one in delirium tremens, both
on approaching and recovering from insensibility—his pulse weak,
quick, and frequent, 100 to 160. On the contrary, in apoplexy he is
flushed, heaving, and stertorous, or his breathing is very hard—pulse
full, strong, and slow.” In view of what has been said of the true
causes of sunstroke, let no one be afraid of sunshine because of occa-
sional cases of this kind of prostration.
If statistics could be obtained regarding those who die directly or
indirectly from want of sunshine, we should find that this class would
number a thousand to one who dies of an overdose. People in the
country are apt to bury themselves beneath the foliage of shrubs and
trees, and bid defiance to the few rays that do penetrate, by closing the
blinds which shelter the parlor windows. Mechanics and a great many
of the business men in cities, are contented to pursue their avocations
all day by gaslight. There is said to be an office in Nassau Street, in
this city, the window of which is so shut in by its contiguity to another
building, that the sunlight never enters it ; and that every one who has
occupied it for the past ten or fifteen years, died of consumption.
People who break away from their business for summer recreation,
and make tours to the watering-places, think that they derive great
advantage from change of air. It is true that they do. The qualities
of the air are greatly modified and affected by the geological formations
beneath the surface, and the vegetable products which present them.
selves above ; so that one cannot breathe the air of any of these
locations, without extracting certain properties which the system
requires. In this way, change of air frequently proves highly bene-
ficial ; but often benefits are attributed to this cause, which are really
due to exposure to sunlight. When people allow the sun to paint their
faces brown, torpid livers are less liable to paint them yellow.
306 PREVENTION OF DISEASE.
Good Temper
And, I might also add, a clear conscience, are necessary for the
preservation of health ; but, in my essay on the “Violation of the
Moral Nature,” all has been said that need be in regard to the impor.
tance of having the conscience free from a sense of self-accusation and
remorse. I will, however, say something in this place about good tem-
per and its beneficial effects upon the system. Just exactly to that
degree in which men and women are improved by a cheerful, unpreju-
diced condition of mind, they are physically injured by a morose,
bigoted, and selfish habit of thought. Anger, jealousy, envy, distrust,
and personal dislikes, all tend to induce nervous diseases. When the
white man hates the Indian ; when the Irishman detests the colored
man ; when the Christian despises the Jew : when the Yankee-feels
like fighting the “cockney;” when the Hindoo, laboring under preju-
dice of caste, will not associate with the European ; when the Moham-
medan regards the Christian as a hog ; when a full-blooded African
disdains to associate with a mulatto or quadroon ; there are certain
mental emotions experienced, which contort the features and disturb
the harmony of the whole system. The indications of such feeling are
at once conveyed to the face, and, to some extent, leave their impress
on the facial muscles, giving to the individual habitually indulging
therein, a countenance more or less disagreeable. They make themselves
felt upon the nervous system, by irritating it, and disturbing the har-
monious circulation of the nervous forces. They also impair digestion
and interfere with the healthy action of the liver.
Chronic grumblers are never really well. They cannot be. They
keep their sensitive nerves constantly vibrating with discordant emo-
tions; yet grumbling is indulged in by people of all religions and
nationalities. The farmer leans over his fence and grumbles about his
crops. Showers have been too frequent and the ground is too wet ; or
a drought is scorching his growing vegetables. The tradesman grum-
bles because trade is too dull; or, when customers are coming in
numerously, he grumbles because of overwork. Even the parson
grumbles because his parishioners fail to “come to time” in requiting
bim for his labors in the pulpit. Grumbling gives the features a
pinched, “sour-milk" appearance ; vitiates the gastric juices, and dries
up the secretions. These effects are only just penalties on the person
who allows his temper to be thus disturbed ; but his innocent family
and friends suffer with him, as they are kept in a perpetual “nettle,”
and this induces nervous derangements in them. Many a good wife
has been worn into her grave by a grumbling husband ; and many a
good husband has been driven from intimate association with his
family by a fault-finding wife. The children in either case are brought
GOOD TEMPER. 3O7
up in a hot-bed of discontent, which makes its impress first on the
buoyancy of their young spirits, and then on their nervous systems.
Petulance is worse than grumbling. Many people are like Snap-
ping bugs, that cannot be touched without snapping ; or like rattle-
snakes, that cannot be looked at without hissing from their throats and
rattling their bones. Such folks are said to be “full of bile ;” but the
petulance causes the bilious condition, instead of the latter causing the
petulance. Petulance often causes hysteria among women, and hypo-
chondriasis among men. Artemus Ward said that “ G. Washington
never slopped over.” Petulant men and women are constantly slop-
ping over, and there is no nervous rest or happiness for those who get
bespattered with their venomous utterances. Even dogs stand about
them with ears and tail down, and with an increased susceptibility to
distemper and hydrophobia. Perfect health is incompatible with a
petulant disposition, and cannot be maintained by those who are com-
pelled to associate intimately with petulant people.
Violent temper is worse than petulance. It is absolutely dangerous
to life as well as to health. I have known people to bring on attacks
of hemorrhage by indulging in explosive anger. Such tempestuous
emotion causes congestion. At such moments the blood presses the
brain, and jumps violently through the delicate machinery of the heart;
it unduly fills the arteries and veins of the lungs; it completely arrests
digestion, and suspends biliary secretion. All the vital machinery is
clogged with the undue presence of the perturbed vascular fluids.
People who have naturally good temper deserve no credit for being
habitually good-natured ; but those who have a fretful disposition or
violent temper, are censurable for indulging in grumbling or rage.
There is no work so necessary and ennobling as that of rooting out
inherited bad qualities. As soon as they are discovered the work
should begin in earnest, nor should it be suspended till they are com-
pletely eradicated. If the aspiration for moral perfection is not suffi-
cient to prompt this effort, then selfishness should, for every one
desires to have health, and this is not permanently compatible with the
indulgence of an irritable or violent temper. Move around good-
naturedly. Let your Soul shine out as brightly as the sun at noon-day.
It will warm yourself within, and all those whom you hold dear with-
out. It will promote harmony of action in your intricate physical
machinery, and make all about you happy and more nearly healthy.
!,
Keep the Feet Warm.
Almost every reader of this book is undoubtedly aware of the
prevalence of cold feet. You, who are at this moment perusing these
pages, may have cold feet, and think this condition of little conse.
quence. You know your neighbor across the way is affected in the
3O8 . PREVENTION OF DISEASE.
SàIſle way; and perhaps you know hardly any one who is not sub-
ject to cold feet, at least during the winter. The husband often jokes
his wife in the presence of friends, “that her feet are like icicles,” and
the levity which follows shows the entire misapprehension on the part
of the popular mind, of the serious character of the impaired circula-
tion which is indicated by this affection. When there is little blood in
the extremities, where do you suppose that fluid is ? It is certainly
confined within the skin somewhere. Perhaps it has not occurred to
your mind that the frequent headaches with which you are affected,
arise from an undue supply of blood in the head; or, that you have
fluttering and palpitation of the heart, from a pressure of the fluid in
that organ ; or, that the pain in your right side proceeds from the con-
gestion of blood in your liver; or that an affection of your lungs or
stomach is caused by a pressure of blood in them. There is really no
such thing as computing the number of those who die annually from
cold feet, or, what is the same thing, from diseases induced by con-
gestion of some vital part, or parts, at the expense of the feet, which
are left without a sufficient supply of blood. Although cold feet do
not directly kill the patient, warm feet would cure him, and the invalid
dies because this equilibrium in the circulation is not established. Let
us look for a moment into the cause of cold feet. It is probably known
to most intelligent readers that the healthy action of the heart, and of
all the arteries and capillaries, is dependent upon a generous supply of
nervous stimulus; and this nervous stimulus, I have already shown to
be a kind of animal magnetism or electricity. Whenever, then, the
vital forces become deficient in the extremities, there is an insufficiency
of nervous stimulus given to them, and the arteries and capillaries
become, as an inevitable consequence, sluggish in their action ; and
this failure of the arteries and capillaries to perform their functions in
the extremities, leads to an insufficient supply of blood in the feet, just
as a defective pump will give an inadequate supply of water to a
country kitchen. The blood may be too thick, or it may be loaded
with impurities; still if the arterial and capillary action is sustained by
an abundant supply of nervous or magnetic force, the blood keeps
moving to the feet and the toes are made warm by the presence of an
abundance of blood. It is true, however, that if the blood is in a dis-
eased state its circulation to the extremities is retarded, unless Nature
supplies a sufficiently increased nervous stimulus to off-set this diffi-
culty. This qualification does not in the least affect the accuracy of
my first statement as to the cause of cold feet; for it still remains true
that the nervous forces must precede the blood circulation, and pre-
pare the way for it, and that any means which may be used to supply,
divert, or stimulate these forces in the bloodless part will, if followed
up with reasonable patience, result in a cure. -
REEP THE FEET WARM. 3O9
To preserve the warmth of the feet, one of the first things neces-
sary is, to keep them warmly dressed. I have alluded in the essay on
“The Clothes We Wear,” and also in a preceding essay of this chapter
to the importance of dressing the feet and extremities as warmly as the
shoulders and chest are dressed. The next thing to be observed is to
avoid disturbing the harmony and force of nervous action in the arteries :
and capillaries of the feet by too much fire warmth. Holding the feet
habitually to the stove, grate, register, or fireplace, will induce cold
feet, even in those who are not subject to them, by relaxing the capil-
laries and arteries, and destroying the harmony of that nervous action
which in health is ever busy in moving the blood through its natural
channels, whether we are wrapped in unconscious slumber, or engaged
in the festivities of the dance. Habitually bathing the feet in warm
water will also, in time, produce arterial and capillary relaxation in the
extremities. Those who occasionally have cold feet, and resort to hot-
water foot-baths to cure them, obtain momentary relief, but the diffi-
culty is made worse and worse every time the hot bath is resorted to.
If there existed in all cases constitutional vitality enough, cold-water
foot-baths would be excellent treatment for cold feet, as hot Water
really is for uncomfortably hot feet; for the reaction from cold baths
is warmth, and the reaction from hot baths is coldness. In a great
many, perhaps in a majority of cases, the vitality is too low to effect a
warm reaction when cold is applied ; while the less vitality a person
has, the more certain are hot water applications to produce a cold reac-
tion. Hence it will be perceived that popular habits are entirely wrong
in the management of cold feet. .
By this time, some fair reader is mentally inquiring, “What am I
to do, doctor ? I must not put my feet to the fire, nor into warm
water, and I cannot go to sleep with cold feet. Now, you will laugh
when I tell you ; but if you will try it, you will in less than ten days
bless me for the suggestion. It is simply this: Have Some kind friend, . *
for about twenty minutes or half an hour, every evening, hold your
feet in his or her hands as represented in the cut on page 810.
The shoes must remain on, and morocco, or other leather, is better.
than cloth. Place the feet in the lap of your friend, and have him or
her place the hands over them, so that the palms will rest upon the
toes and instep, while the thumbs and fingers grasp the soles of the
shoes with sufficient firmness to exclude the air from between the hands
and the parts of the shoes covered by the hands. In this way preserve
the grasp immovably, with a gentle, but not pinching pressure, until
the feet become warm, which will not require many minutes. This
method is invaluable because it imparts magnetic warmth, which acts
as a tonic to the arteries and capillaries; it diverts the nervous circula-
tion to the extremities by that inevitable interchange of animal mag-
3IO PREVENTION OF DISEASE.
netism which always takes place between two persons when they are
in contact ; it gives to the feet more permanent warmth than artificial
heat, each warming improving the condition of the patient instead of
making it worse; and it often vitalizes one who is deficient in nervous
vitality, and thereby improves the general health. The foregoing
reasons will suffice, yet still more could be given.
When some other person is available, the husband should not
employ the wife, nor the wife the husband, to do this feet-warming,
because they are so frequently in contact that there is less difference in
their magnetisms than there is between those less familiar, and con-
FIG. 99.
ºz-sº
º *~
% =/,
//º
2. (lºss/ 2,-
* }), \
WARMING THE FEET MAGNETICALLY, AND STIMULATING ARTERIAL AND CAPILLARY
ACTIVITY,
Sequently a less active interchange of magnetic forces during the pro-
cess. One of the opposite sex is always preferable to one of the same
sex, because there is a greater difference between the magnetisms of
male and female than usually exists between two of the same sex.
There is still another way of warming the feet, by electricity,
which may be pursued by those who have no friends to take sufficient
interest in them to admit of their adopting the first method proposed.
It is to put on thin-Soled slippers, and scuff the feet, without raising
them, repeatedly over a woollen carpet, in a room comfortably warm,
and to continue the exercise until the feet become burning hot. This
should be repeated as often as once or twice a day, and oftener, if con-
venient, until a good circulation is established. This process will not






OTHER SUGGESTIONS. 3 II
accomplish the object as speedily, nor will it so greatly benefit the
general health, as the plan previously advised ; but it is incomparably
better in every respect than fire warmth, or the immersion of the feet
in hot water.
Warming them by the sun is to be commended. When the wife
sits down to her sewing or the husband to read his newspaper, a window
should be sought where a full stream of sunlight falls in. The feet,
clothed as if for walking, should be so placed as to allow the sunshine
to fall upon them, and even up to the knees. You cannot know until
you try it, how delightful and beneficial this practice is if you suffer
habitually from cold feet.
I will add one more suggestion on feet-warming. Those who have
plenty of vitality and are nevertheless affected with cold feet, can
generally restore active circulation in the extremities by springing
out of bed every morning, dashing the feet into cold water for a
moment, wiping them dry, returning to bed and remaining there with
plenty of covering upon the feet until they become warm. In con-
clusion, I will say, that I have not patented any of the proposed
plans, and consequently there is no expense in making the experiment.
Perhaps the cheapness of the treatment is its only objection, as people
are apt to undervalue that which costs nothing.
Other Suggestions
For the prevention of disease may be found in various parts of this.
volume, and especially in the chapter immediately preceding, to which
this is simply a correlative. It would be supererogatory to make this
chapter as complete as the subject would require if the one on the
“Causes of Nervous and Blood Derangements” were omitted. Then,
again, in matter coming after this, on chronic maladies, marriage, etc.,
hints on the prevention of disease will naturally find expression where
infirmities growing out of physical or social discord are treated upon.
In taking leave of this chapter, therefore, with its seeming incom-
pleteness, the author takes consolation in the belief that the reader will
find somewhere in the pages of this volume, the information which
may possibly be sought and not found in the essays herein presented.
CHAPTER IV.
COMMON=SENSE REMEDIES.
º §§ غ AVING glanced at the proximate and many
of the remote causes of disease, and made
\ some suggestions for their prevention, next
ūN in order is a consideration of appropriate
}(N remedies. In pointing out and commenting
- On these, I expect to encounter the criticism
of Old-School physicians, and some opposi-
tion from the new.
I am often asked the question : “To what school of
medicine do you belong 7” What does it matter ? I
\ have been a diligent pupil of all the old masters, and
have investigated all systems. I am now a devoted pupil
of Nature ; intuition is my counsellor; common-sense my
pharmacopoeia. In other words, I am independent—bound by the
tenets of no narrow medical association, and consequently prejudiced
against no new discovery which can be made subservient to suffering
humanity. Whatever I find in earth, air, water, and science, useful as
remedial agents, I appropriate, and resort thereto, when occasion
demands, without fear of being confronted by a conservative brother
who sees merit in nothing which has not the sanction of antiquity.
I have wasted much time in the exploration of what is inappro-
priately termed medical science, but have always found instruction and
entertainment in the great book of Nature. The literary productions
of old-school writers are often interesting and contain much sophistry;
Nature is refreshing and pregnant with truth.
Hippocrates flourished over eighteen hundred years before the
modern science (?) of medicine was founded. He was even unacquainted
with the circulation of the blood ; yet he was styled the “father of
medicine,” and his success in curing discase so excited the superstition
of the ancients, that many of them believed he stayed the plague of
Athens. Some are born physicians. Hippocrates was. Every man
possesses a special talent for Something, and he who becomes a doctor
when Nature designed him for a reaper, will mow down human beings
when he should be cutting wheat.

312
WFGETABLE MEDICINES. 313
Redfield, the physiognomist, says that he can tell who are natural
playsicians by the bones in the face. He describes them as men having
an elevation of the arch of the check-bone, called the Zygomatic arch.
He says that one possessing this peculiarity, other things being equal,
“is not only inclined to study and practice, but will have a certain
instinct for it, which will materially assist his scientific knowledge.”
“Without this faculty, and its sign, in a superior degree,” continues
that popular physiognomist, “no person ever attained to skill and
eminence in the medical profession, or even made a good nurse.”
With regard to my natural qualifications, my interested readers will
pardon me for saying that, besides possessing the sign Redfield de-
scribes, my medical proclivities manifested themselves at an early age.
My parents often reverted to my boyhood, when pill-making, etc.,
entered conspicuously into the diversions in which I indulged, and
facetious neighbors after seeing the contents of my juvenile waistcoat
dubbed me with the title of “Doctor.”
With these remarks, prefatory and egotistic, I will enter upon the
legitimate mission of this chapter, which is to advocate the merits of
those classes of remedies which have rendered my practice so eminently
successful and popular, and to expose some of the most prevalent
medical errors of the day.
Vegetable Medicines.
The trees, shrubs, flowers, and plants, I contend, possess, in a
refined form, all the medicinal properties of the mineral kingdom.
Their numerous and far-reaching roots span rocks, ramify in various
strata of soil, and extract from good old mother earth her hidden
medicinal treasures, which are transposed to regions of air, light, and
heat, where chemical changes are effected which at once deprive them
of their grosser characteristics, and render them far more efficacious
and harmless, as antidotes for human infirmities, than they can possibly
be made in the laboratory of the most skilful chemist.
It is said that “if a bone be buried just beyond and a little at one
side of a root, the latter will turn out of its direct course and go in pur-
Suit of the bone, and when it finds it, it will stop and send out numerous
little fibres which, forming a net-work, will envelop the bone; and
when all the nourishment has been sucked out of it, the root will again
pass on its way, and the temporary fibres thrown out around the bone
will gradually disappear.”
Thus the inflexible relic of a decomposed carcass may be trans-
formed into a beautiful flower What human chemist can do this 2
And yet it is trifling, compared with what nature is daily producing in
her boundless laboratory. The roots of herbage and trees have the
same power to extract the useful properties of minerals, and, in a
3I4 COMMON-SENSE REMEDIES.
measure, derive their nourishment from the various ingredients of the
soil. An intelligent writer tells us, that “One of the most remarkable
properties of plants is the power with which they are endowed of
Selecting their food. The soil contains various kinds of aliment for
Vegetation, and the little fibrous roots that fill the ground select from
the Whole, and suck in, through their minute openings, just the kind
Suited to the nature of the plant or tree to which they belong. All
plants will not thrive on the same soil any more than all animals
will live on the same kind of food. Grass and grain require a soil that
FIG. 100.
contains an abundance of
silica or flint.” The soil of
Herefordshire, England, is so
genial to the oak, that the
trees bearing this name are
called, in that region, “The
ºl weeds of Herefordshire.”
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how absurd appears the con-
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from the vegetable to the
mineral world, in search of
remedial agents. Even that
greatly prized mineral, iron,
which enters so extensively
into the materia medica of
modern practitioners, is pos-
A specTMEN OF WHAT CHEMIST NATURE PRO- sessed by vegetables, and
DUCES IN HER LABORATORY, may be administered without
resorting directly to the mineral kingdom for a supply. A writer,
remarking upon the influence of iron on vegetables, says: “A curious
discovery has recently been made on the chalky shores of France and
England. Where there is an absence of iron, vegetation has a seared
and blanched appearance. This is entirely removed, it appears, by the
application of a solution of sulphate of iron. Haricot beans watered
with this substance, acquired an additional weight of sixty per cent.;
mulberries, peaches, pears, vines, and wheat derive advantages from
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VEGETABLE MEDICINES. 3I5
the same treatment. In the cultivation of clover, wonderful advan-
tages have been gained by the application of the sulphate of iron on
soils in which that ingredient is wanting, and in cases where it is desired
to produce an early crop.” Some herbs produce the properties of iron
to such an extent that they are easily detected in them, and these herbs,
growing on soil where iron ore is found in great abundance, contain it
sufficiently to answer all the medicinal purposes of the mineral, and in
a form much more suited to the needs of the animal organism than
that worked up in the laboratory of the chemist. Many other minerals
are found in plants. We are told by Italia Termale, as quoted by the
Révue Scientifique, and translated by the Literary Digest, that “lithium
accumulates in the leaves of the grape-vine, in tobacco, and in the
grape itself. Another alkaline metal, which accompanies lithium in
almost all minerals, but in smaller quantity, is found in the ashes of a
large number of varieties of tobacco, in coffee, and in tea ; and it is
very abundant in the beet, whose ashes form the most advantageous
source of the metal. Although the presence of aluminum in the ashes
of vegetables is doubtful, that of the oxides of iron and manganese is
evident. It is rare that we burn wood, leaves, or nuts without seeing
in the ashes a reddish tinge due to iron oxide, and a greenish hue caused
by manganate of potash. Zinc exists in the ashes of several plants,
notably in the viola calaminaria, whose presence in fields often serves
as an indication whereby deposits of this metal may be found. Bromine,
iodine, and chlorine, which are metalloids, are found in composition
with the alkaline metals, especially in marine plants. Even to this day,
iodine, used so freely in medicine and the arts, is extracted from sea-
weed, where it occurs in small quantities. Meyer, of Copenhagen, was
the first to assert that the grains of wheat and oats contain copper as a
constituent element. Copper, in fact, does exist in these cereals, especi-
ally in their hulls. As even the finest bread is not free from bran, it is
evident that we consume copper. It should be noted that copper may
play a considerable part in making bread, a proportion of one-thirtieth
of one per cent. of sulphate of copper being sufficient to raise a moist
flour.” The vegetable kingdom practically steps in between man and
the mineral world, and says: “Do not, O man, eat dirt or the crude
indigestible substances that are found therein. I will send my roots
deep into the earth, seek out the medicines buried beneath its surface,
filter them through my fibres, expose them to the magnetic rays of the
ripening sun, and then hand them over to you, deprived of the dregs
that would otherwise obstruct the wonderful machinery whereby you
move and exist.”
I have already alluded to the instinct of plants in searching out
bones, and taking from them the mineral properties they possess. A
curious illustration of this is found in the fact, that when the grave of
316 COMMON-SENSE REMEDIES.
Roger Williams was opened in Providence, many years ago, it was dis-
covered that the roots of an apple-tree had struck into the skull, and
following the course of the spine, had branched at the legs, and turned
up at the feet ! Besides this instinct to search out sustenance, there is
evidence that vegetation possesses sensorial power to some degree.
There are plants which, when you touch their leaves in the most gentle
manner, fall to the ground as if wilted and dead, and then in a few
moments after recover their usual appearance. There are flowers which
only open when the rays of the morning sun reach out from the east
and touch their folded leaves; there are others which are so sensitive
to Sunlight, they remain closed during its presence, and only display
their beauties and fragrance to the stars. The sensorial life of a plant
is probably not unlike that of man when in that condition of repose
which renders him unconscious intellectually of what is passing about
him, and yet fully appreciative of existence and the luxury of rest. All
of you have experienced this sleep in your morning naps. The bite of
a fly, or the slight prick of a pin causes the flesh to recoil, or the mus-
cular fibre to quiver when you are in this condition. And if you will
take pains to observe, you will discover that the breaking of a leaf, or
the plucking of a flower, produces to a perceptible degree some such
motion in the ordinary plant or tree, while there are specimens of veg-
etable life which seem absolutely to suffer pain when their foliage is
rudely disturbed. It is pleasant, therefore, to believe that that very
restful semi-unconsciousness which still allows an appreciation of ex-
istence, such as we have in conscious sleep, constitutes the sensorial
life of the vegetable world, and confers upon it at least passive enjoy-
ment. And when we find the vegetable world so near us, so in sym-
pathy, if you please, with our existence, so instinctive in seeking and
digesting the useful minerals of the soil, so assimilating when taken
into our bodies what folly to excavate the earth or the coal-fields for
medicine !
Gross minds beget gross ideas—demand gross food and gross reme-
dies. They naturally turn from the study of the green trees and beau-
tiful flowers, with which the brown earth is adorned, and whose lux-
uriant branches point upward to heaven and health.
MEDICINE IN YE OLDEN TIME.
When I was a boy, the old-school doctors in the region where I
lived were practically “routinists.” They had only about a dozen
remedies or less, the leading one of which was calomel or some other
preparation of mercury. These they gave to everybody for everything.
Not that they emptied them all indiscriminately into the stomach of
one unfortunate patient at one time. As a matter of course they se-
lected the one or two or three which they considered best adapted to
WEGETABLE MEDICINES. 317
the symptoms in the case as immediately presented. These medicines,
together with bleeding, blistering, salivating, vomiting, purging, and
cupping, constituted their stock in trade. Their main competitors were
botanical practitioners, who were contemptuously dubbed quacks ; but
they had the greater success. There was one in the town where I lived.
He was a tall, lank, raw-boned man without school-book education, or
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"THE BOT ANIC DOCTOR OF YE OLDEN TIME.
any of the polished manners of a professional gentleman. He was so
plain, indeed, in his apparel that a pair of grimy trousers tucked into
the tops of cowhide boots and a cotton blouse or shirt covering his arms
and shoulders, overlapped with shoulder-straps, usually constituted his
outfit in clothing. But he had the keen instinct of the lower animals
in Selecting the remedies for physical ills. He gathered in the marshes,
Woodlands, fields, and pastures, the remedies he used, and he might
often be seen in the summer and autumn wending his lounging way
home with a bag over his shoulders heavily freighted with “roots and
|
























3.18 COMMON-SENSE REMEDIES.
herbs.” His success in treating the sick was phenomenal. When the
“regulars” failed, he was usually called in, and almost always the
“hopeless case ’’ was saved. The preceding illustration does not pretend
to give a picture of the man, but rather the style of man. Of course
there were botanical practitioners in those days, of education, good
clothes, and agreeable manners, but they were mainly found in villages
or cities of some size. They were by no means numerous. Not one
for each county. Their success was proverbial.
To go farther back than my boyhood, the entire practice of medi-
cine was widely different from what it is now. Dr. Rufus W. Griswold,
in 1892, read before the Connecticut Medical Society a paper entitled
“Somewhat About the Therapeutics of One Hundred Years Ago,” in
which he said : “It is remembered that 100 years ago drug-shops
properly were not numerous in the commonwealth. Compared with
the present time, in ratio to the population, they were scarce. About
all the practitioners of the time kept, compounded, put up, and dis-
pensed their own medicines. In endeavoring to get at the articles used,
we are first to consider that under the system of education then almost
exclusively in vogue, the medical man had gathered less from books
than from oral teaching. Tradition, precept, and example, had given
him more in the way of instruction than the printed page. Not much
original matter in medical literature had gone into type in America, and
but a very moderate amount had been reprinted from British and Ger-
man writers. As to most of the men in practice, their libraries were
too small. The way had been mostly that the student rode and saw
some practice with his teacher, and from him absorbed the greater part
of what he had to start with by himself.”
The status of medicine in my native State, Ohio, during my boy-
hood, was but little different from that which Dr. Griswold has so well
depicted as having existed 100 years ago, and as remarked before, the
botanical practitioners were renowned for their success. And indeed,
that may be said at the present moment. Pharmaceutical chemistry has
made such progress that the medicinal herbs and roots which used to
be taken in teas and decoctions and in draughts of a tablespoonful or a
teacupful, are now neatly administered in drachms or drops, and crude
pulverized roots which were given by the teaspoonful, are divested of
their inert and useless fibre so that they may be taken by a patient in
minute pills or tablets. If one of the “root and herb doctors” of half
a century ago were to take a look into my laboratory of to-day, with all
its facilities for extracting the very soul of a medicinal plant, he would
rub his eyes with astonishment. He would find too, that while in his
time he was limited to less than 100 different remedies, the botanical
practitioner of to-day has more than twice that number. And still, we
have not found all the medicinal treasures of the vegetable World.
VEGETABLE MEDICINES. 3 I 9
Henry Ward Beecher truly remarked in one of his sermons, that
“there are medicinal roots in every field which have never heen dis-
covered. Many and many a man has been buried within a yard of
plants, that, if their healing properties had been known, would have
saved his life.” There is opportunity for still further progress in the
botanical system of practice.
Botanic physicians deserve censure for not being more particular
in obtaining good herbs and roots. They have often earned an unfa-
vorable reputation by their remissness, when fame would have other-
wise been their reward. Gathered in the wrong season of the year
they are worthless. Two-thirds of those sold in botanic stores are, on
this account, but little better than chips. Then, too, medicinal plants
should always be raised and gathered on their native soil. Fishbough
very correctly says, that “The vegetation indigenous to any particular
clime or locality always bears a relation to the temperature, soil, and
moisture prevalent in that locality. The mountains of tropical regions,
which rise from a realm of perpetual summer to an altitude of eternal
snow, are clothed at their different elevations by different genera and
species of plants, adapted to all the gradations of temperature, from the
tropic to the arctic. An artificial transplantation of any of these veg-
etable forms is either fatal to the latter, or else causes in it a gradual
change of constitution until it is fully adapted to its new condition.”
This change in constitution is a virtual change in medicinal properties.
Those who cultivate, either by transplantation, or sowing seed, any
medicinal plant, in a soil not natural to it, fail to obtain the plant with
its full and native properties. Consequently, all who raise in a garden,
herbs, etc., of every variety, for the market, contribute in a degree to
the ill-success of those physicians who purchase them. During the
first two years of my practice I collected with my own hands nearly all
the medicinal plants used in my laboratory—not only gathered, but
bagged them, and carried them to a convenient place to extract, by
various processes, the valuable health-giving medicinal properties hid-
den in their fibres. What they yielded was as precious as gold, and
laid the foundation for a practice so large and so exacting of time and
energy, that no more of that delightful botanizing has been possible for
me. Whatever may be discovered in the way of curative agencies
nothing can wholly take the place of the modest little plants that hide
away in the fields and woodlands, or the hardy shrubs or stalwart
trees that stand like sentinels to guard them from unfriendly elements,
the former pregnant with properties adapted to the upbuilding of dis-
eased tissue, and the latter endowed with strength which can be trans-
mitted to enfeebled nerve or muscle. Hygienists take them when ill.
There are thousands of intelligent men and women who do not believe
in what is usually termed drug treatment, but who are not averse to
32O COMMON SENSE REMEDIES.
using extracts of roots and herbs. Why should they be 7 In the in-
terchange between the blood and tissues, the food eaten enables Nature
to put in a new particle wherever an old one is removed. In the use of
well-selected vegetable remedies a new particle of a better quality is
supplied, or encouraged to replace the old. Call it blood-food if you
please, for such it is. It is not only nourishing, but stimulative of re-
parative action—a clearing away of old substance and substitution of
new. Life in health consists of putting off the old and putting on
FIG, 102,
NATURE'S LABORATORY-GOOD FOOD AND MEDICINE.
the new, and much disease is merely due to inaction or stagnation in
the processes of tissue change. Give the weakened system the right
material and it will make good use of it.
THE SELF-CTJ RE OF ANIMALS.
The brute creation is more enlightened to-day in materia medica
than those physicians who resort to the mineral kingdom for medicines.
When the horse feels unwell, he eats dock and other herbs, if he can get
them, and recovers. The cat, subject to fits, eats catnip and dispels the
disease. If any of my readers have a sick cat, just give her some catnip
herb, and observe the delight which she manifests in rolling on it, snuff-
ing its aroma, and finally eating it. Naturalists say that the fox, rabbit,
and many other animals, keep themselves from madness by the use of
the medicinal plants with which their wild abodes are surrounded ; and
it is related of the grizzly bear of California, that, when he gets wound-

WEGETABLE MEDICINES. 32 I
ed, he gathers leaves from the bush called “grease-wood,” and forces
them tightly into the wound. If the animal had the intelligence (or
rather the want of it) to call on an old-school physician, he would proba-
bly get a mercurial plaster.
Whether or not the animals can communicate their instinctive knowl-
edge of plants to their fellow-creatures, there is probably no naturalist
who can tell us. In this particular the aborigines of North America
would seem to have had the advantage of the animals, while they ap-
peared to be no less instinctive. It was therefore not strange that the
Indians who could communicate with each other had developed a
materia mcdica peculiarly their own, not perhaps unmixed with Super-
stitious ideas, and with many fetish notions which the civilized mind
would naturally eliminate, saving much of value that could be utilized
by an intelligent brain. Their valuable discoveries were quickly seized
upon by the early colonial practitioners, and it is questionable whether
the successes of to-day in medicine are very much greater than they
were at that time. Certainly the introduction of mercurial and other
mineral preparations did not add anything of value. Quite otherwise
when they were allowed to supersede such remedies as were adopted
from the Indian medicine men.
IREVOLUTION IN THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE.
As already intimated, half a century ago the doctors were “routin-
ists,” and depended upon a certain round of limited “heroic medicines.”
The Eclectics and Homeopaths as well as the original Botanics have
made a wonderful change in this respect. They have indeed revolu-
tionized the practice of medicine in this country. Nevertheless, the
Criticism made by a smart newspaper writer many years ago concern-
ing medical education as imparted in our colleges, still holds true. Our
System of medication he says, “imparts a knowledge of books, and the
precedents established by certain ancient practitioners : it explores the
narrow channel of usage and custom, deferring to names and opinions,
but neglects the study of the natural remedics by which we are sur-
rounded. In the commonest of our fields, springing unnoticed by the
brook-side, and among the pastures, or growing neglected along stone
Walls, are hundreds of plants possessing valuable medicinal properties,
but of which, not one in forty of our physicians can tell the name, much
less the use. And yet nothing can be plainer than the fact that Nature
has furnished a remedy for every disease, and that nearly every remedy
Cxists in the vegetable kingdom. Why, then, is the study of the plants,
the roots, and the herbs of the field, the forest, and the mountain-side
Aeglected in the education of those who are styled doctors ? Is the
acquisition of Latin terms and a general reliance upon mercury and the
kniº deemed to be more important or safe 7”
322 COMMON-SENSE REMEDIES.
If there is any school that the foregoing does not hit hard, it is the
Eclectic, but the fathers of this practice were mostly the abler pioneers
in the botanical system. Dr. Griswold, who is an old-school physician,
in the paper from which a quotation has already been made, remarked
that in the earlier days of the settlement of America, drugs were largely
botanical, and were used in a crude state, or in the form of decoctions,
powders, and tinctures. The study of botany was a part of the study
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of medicine. “Now,” says Dr. Griswold, to use his exact language,
“we average to know as little of botany as of the evolution of worlds !”
This is not as it should be. And it is because things are as they are,
that my practice is not local, but extends into every State and Territory
in the United States, and, indeed, every country in Europe, Asia, and
Africa, where the English and German languages are spoken. It is
because of this that my laboratory has become a world's dispensary, and
that invalids suffering from every variety of human ills in every part of
the globe are my hopeful patients; and I have a couple of capable sons
who have been professionally working by my side for many years, and
who can, with fidelity to the botanical practice as improved by the latest.
scientific discoveries, follow in my footsteps when I am compelled to
retirc from the field of active labor.








































































PSYCHIC MEDICINE. 323
WILL VEGETABLE MEDICINES DRIVE OUT MICROBES 2
No, nor is it best to give such heroic doses. It is not necessary
to administer powerful medicines to kill microbes. It is quite evident
from what is presented in the first chapter of this book, that there are
useful as well as depredative and vicious bacteria ; and there is reason-
able evidence that the useful kind are as valuable in the economy of
nature as the baser variety are destructive to human life. It is more
than probable that the kindly bacteria wage a war of extermination
against those of the baser sort, and under favorable conditions over-
come and destroy them. If this philosophy is based on fact, it is self-
evident that the true and rational way to get rid of the objectional
bacteria is not to take strong and poisonous medicines to kill them, and
thereby kill your bacterial friends as well as your bacterial enemies,
but to use such remedies as will restore the blood and fortify the ner.
vous system, and thereby starve out the baser bacteria that depend for
their existence upon blood impurity and want of nervous vitality.
There is no excuse for giving medicines to kill anything of a bacterial
nature, although it may be admissible in some exceptional cases to
resort to such destructive measures to kill tapeworm, and other intes-
tinal worms. I say may be admissible, for it is possible that restoring
the health and purity of the intestinal secretions will often starve them
out. It positively will do so in most cases, as my own experience in
their treatment has fully convinced me. I have never resorted to heroic
measures except in the destruction of persistent tapeworm, wherefor the
most immediate relief is commonly insisted upon by the patient. If, as
some bacteriologists hold, bacteria of the useful variety are employed
to assist digestion—if good digestion depends in a measure upon the
operations of these microscopic creatures—it is manifestly bad prac-
tice to take medicines of sufficient strength to kill microbes. For
this reason antiseptics should not be put in canned foods to assist
their keeping properties. Strong stomachs in vigorous adults may not
be injured by them to any perceptible extent, but for those in delicate
health they are without question exceedingly deleterious. Physicians,
more than trades-people, should be careful, and not administer drugs
which may do possible injury. The days for “heroic treatment” are
gone by.
Psychic TMedicine.
The time has come when the doubting Thomases of the medical
profession must recognize some truth and therapeutic value in Christian
science, mental science, mind cure, etc. There are several schools of
these so-called “fads,” all of which, if not centred upon one idea, at
least rely upon one agency, the power of the mind over what we call
324 COMMON-SENSE REMEDIES.
matter. Wherein they disagree, is considered of enough importance
for the different schools or sects to war upon each other, and the con-
flict is as warm between them as in the earlier days it was between the
Old and new schools of practice, or between the average physician and
the Christian Scientist. They can, however, each show evidences
of success as well as some lamentable failures. The latter result
mainly from their blind dependence upon their one mental remedy.
Their patients must dabble in no medicine, and they must ignore not
Only all material remedies, but with some of the prophets of this school
they are taught to ignore the commonest rules of hygiene ; or, at least,
they must consider them as not at all necessary to prompt recovery.
One must not think of what he eats or what he drinks, or what he does.
He must never admit that he is ill. However, time and experience will
rectify these errors, and there can be no doubt but that in the end the
science of medicine will be rendered more complete by the discussion
which their, in some instances, preposterous claims awaken. All suc-
cessful physicians cannot fail to have observed how much easier it is
to cure a patient when they themselves feel confident of effecting a
cure, and when they are able to create around the patient an environ-
ment of confident expectation. When the physician, patient's family
and friends, and the patient, him or herself, feel complete confidence
that a cure is to be realized, it is as when you are on a yacht with both
the wind and tide in your favor. It is, indeed, easy sailing, and unless
there are hidden rocks or sandbars there will be a triumphant landing
in the haven of health. There are wonderful powers in the human
mind, and we have only to educate ourselves in the art of employing
them. Mental telepathy, thought transference, and other mental
phenomena are to some extent engaging the attention of the scientific
world, and if blind prejudice will hide its diminished head, the human
race will be benefited by the investigation. This result, too, can be
greatly hastened by the various devotees of mental science if they will
not make too extravagant claims for it or allow their patients to die
without medicine when the latter is the one thing needed to save.
Medical men also may hasten the dawn of better things by not holding
the advocates of the so-called “fads " up to ridicule, and in Some
instances pursuing them with the lance of persecution. There should
be an open field and a fair opportunity for every one who honestly
believes he has a remedy or an idea that can minister to the ills of man-
kind. The healing art was never more progressive in America than
when there was the utmost freedom in medicine. Progress is only
possible in freedom. In the ranks of the mental healers and Christian
Scientists their one ideaism is the stumbling-block,
“Owing to the one ideastic tendency, about all mental healers
drift out into pure idcalism,” says Dr, W. C. Cooper in the Medical
PSYCHIC MEDICINE, 3.25
Gleaner. “It is not a bit difficult to prove that nothing exists but
mind. But, if possible, it is more easy to prove that nothing exists but
matter. For instance, only the idea of matter is thinkable, and this
depends upon the fact that thought, itself, is material. Idealism,
pushed far enough, rules out existence itself. Mrs. Eddy's transcend-
entalism with reference to disease is the attempted minification of the
general into a particular. At the last, she recognizes the relationability
of something to nothing, but denies the actual relationability of nothing
to something. And this constitutes the basis of Christian Science l’”
“It is a fundamental fact,” continues Dr. Cooper, “that the mental
half of a patient cuts exactly no more, nor less, a figure in disease than
does the physical half. You can FIo. 104.
affect the mind through the body
with precisely the same facility as
that with which you can affect the
body through the mind. A mental
shock will kill. A physical shock
will kill. More are killed by physi-
cal than by mental shocks, because
physical shocks are more frequent.
We can impress the body with
medicines and other physical agen-
cies; we can equally impress it by
suggestion. The Healing Art
draws upon every substance and
influence that can affect the animal
Organism.”
'º
%
º É& º: 3. -
Dr. Cooper has stated the matter %
º º º º &rºlº ZººZººZ2
so cogently and succinctly, hardly % Ż
o º 4-71
a word needs to be added, but it - 23%
should be understood that while
We can “impress the body with Mrs. Eddy, THE Founder or CEIRISTIAN
medicine,” and can equally “im- SCIENCE.
press it by suggestion,” the physician meets with cases where both
therapeutic agencies are necessary to effect a cure. While we live on
this planet we must not neglect to remain firmly rooted in its soil. We
must depend mainly upon its material products to maintain life. We
must look to Mother Earth as well as to the occult or unknowable for
succor when ill. “It comes down to where the priest used to wet the
ground every spring with holy water to make sure crops,” remarks an
able scientific writer. “Coming on one occasion to a very sterile field,
he paused and said : “Holy water will not answer here. It wants
manure.” That priest had more practical horse-sense than any cult of
mental healers.” -
















326 COMMON SENSE REMEDIES.
The author of this volume has passed the prime of manhood
through a series of severe illnesses, commencing in his childhood with
a pulmonary attack which the medical faculty considered incurable.
His father, though not a physician, resorting to remedies decidedly
earthy, though not mineral, things which the author has utilized with
great advantage in similar cases in his practice, restored him to health.
Consumption was then considered incurable. The case was clearly one
of consumption—tubercular consumption—and was so diagnosed by a
Council of physicians. In the other illnesses, to which allusion has
been made, the products of the fields and woods were his remedies, for
Christian or mental science had not yet been announced. Neither its
truths nor its absurdities had been formulated. Botanical remedies,
aided, of course, by electricity and magnetism, have been almost his
entire reliance during over forty years of remarkably successful practice.
I have said that until comparatively recently Christian or mental science
had not been heard of. Nevertheless, it may be truly affirmed that
it had been practised, for, as before remarked, most physicians who
have cut much of a figure in this world have been those large-hearted,
big-headed, optimistic, and magnetic men who brought sunshine and
good cheer, as well as a case of medicines, into the chamber of the
Sufferer from disease, and who left the patient and the family-in a happy
and hopeful condition of mind. They have employed mental science
without knowing it. In other words, they practised the art of healing
better than they knew.
The lesson to be learned from this is that a physician should never
take a case of illness under treatment unless he feels at the outset, at
least, the greatest confidence in his ability to cure. This confidence is
necessary to give him the required condition of mind to inspire his
patient with hope ; to give his facial expression an assuring appearance;
to give his voice the right ring ; to give the relatives and friends of the
sufferer the cheerfulness which should pervade the entire atmosphere
of the invalid ; and finally to send out from the mind of the physician
those subtle forces which act as an uplifting tonic to one under his care.
Call it Christian Science, mental science, mind cure, or what you like.
It matters not by what name you indicate it. I may be asked : “What
Ss to be done when no educated physician will accept a case—when
those skilled in medicine pronounce it incurable 7” I reply, without
hesitation, that it would be better for such a case to fall into the hands
of a charlatan who really believed the case curable, than in the care of
a diplomaed physician who considered it beyond help. If “regulars ”
and “irregulars” are without hope, the sick man can generally find
some one “fool enough '' to think he can extend a helping hand, and
with such confidence sincerely entertained by even an ignoramus, he
may succeed. I should certainly advise the hopeless case to try him,
PSYCHIC MEDICINE. 327
remembering the old adage that “while there is life there is hope.” A
charlatan or an ignoramus, if dishonest and insincere, would be of no
avail. He must be moved by proper motives, and inspired with an
earnest desire to save his patient. In treating a case I would even cater
to the superstitions of an invalid.
IHUMOR SUPERSTITIONS.
It is as necessary for a successful physician to accommodate himself
to the Superstitions, the beliefs, and the religious proclivities of a patient
as to the temperament Or the Complications. If one is ill and believes
that thirteen at the table at One time means death to one of the party
within a year, I should
advise him to go without FIG. 105.
eating rather than make
one of a party of thirteen. %-->
If ill, and he should think ſº **ºsſº
ſº º § f ſº § … %:
} §§ Kº A.
looking at the moon over
the left shoulder bodes *: sº
evil, I should say, be care- º º 2&
ful that you do not do it. > * Fº
If in poor health, he 23 º sº
should think it wrong to º = ºr==
eat meat on Friday; I
should advise him to
let it alone on that day.
Even observe fasts if you
Cannot bring your mind
to believe that you are
excused when a generous
diet is absolutely neces-
Sary to support your wast-
ing tissues. Get such
Crotchets out of your mind
if you can, but while they
..".” “Helº analoada. Thºma. fiddle
you would have mental The cow jumped over the moon,
Quietude, for when your The little dog laughed to see such sport,
mind is laborin g under The dish ran away with the spoon.”
disease, or, in other words,
unrest, the physical organs are no less disturbed, and the harmony of
the vital processes is set awry. When you get well of bodily disease,
it will be in order to throw out all Superstitious notions and possess
mental as well as physical soundness. Indeed such hallucinations can
hardly exist in a healthy brain.
VIEWING THE MOON OVER THE RIGHT SEIOULDER.





328 COMMON.SENSE REMEDIES.
Some of the more rational minded among the Christian Scientists
give about the same advice to those who think medicine indispensable.
A very gifted lady, who became a convert to Mrs. Eddy's doctrine,
wrote me as follows: “In regard to taking medicine, it would proba-
bly prove injurious to discard drugs so long as the mind of the indivi-
dual indorses them, or the immediate environment is almost wholly in
their favor. The lesson,” she says, “is this : That mind is arbiter
and dictator. This simple fact, discovered and retained in conscious-
ness, slowly augments our resources of power, of confidence, and self-
help.” It would be well if all Christian Scientists were equally sensible,
and if they were, there would not be so many fatal endings to their
treatment of the sick. A simon-pure Christian Scientist may ask :
“Why not be consistent, Doctor, and make allowance for the alleged
superstition of the Christian Scientist who fully believes that medicine
is unnecessary 7” To which I reply, that medicine should not be forced
upon any adult. If I could not convince an invalid of mature years
that medicine was the very thing necdod for his restoration I would
certainly say that neither the entreatics of friends, nor the mandate of
the law should compel him to swallow a dose of medicine against his
will. Now, am I not consistent 7
While writing this, I remember at least one case which might
require an exception to be made to the above rule. A devoted wiſe
came into my office with a thoroughly discouraged and hopeless hus-
band, who objected to taking medicine. He had an aggravating bron-
chitis, which was developing into consumption. He was a lawyer and
he could not plead a case without such interruptions by paroxysms of
coughing that he had decided to retire from practice. After a prolonged
interview, in which his scepticism in regard to medicine could not be in
the least modified, his wife finally remarked that if I would make up a
course of medicine she would sce that he took it, but he added, “If
anything in your treatment, Doctor, depends on faith, it can do no
possible good.” I prepared the medicine, she followed him about the
house with a spoon till he began to see benefit, and by and by hope
returned and he recovered. This is one case of good results following
unwilling medication.
Returning to the subject of Christian Science, even if, as Mrs.
Eddy contends, “mind is all-in-all,” and “Divine mind and its ideas
are the only realitics,” it will take nearly or quite another century for
the masses of the people to comprehend and fully accept the proposition,
and in this interim there must be resort to material remedies for the
amelioration and cure of human ills. Meanwhile it would be well for
the medical profession to employ psychic medicine as an aid in restoring
the sick. It has its merits if not relied upon as a “one cure all.” It
would also bring the Christian and mental Scientist quite within the
THERAPEUTIC, ELECTRICITY. 329
atmosphere of our planet if they would concede the value of material
remedics. They would require no such string as is attached to a toy
balloon to hold them down,
Therapeutic Electricity.
It is generally conceded by the medical profession and the public
at large to-day that electricity may be advantageously employed in the
treatment of discase. In
the earlier years of my
practice, the medical
fraternity in this coun-
try called those who
claimed to do wonderful
FIG. 106.
things with this myste- ; §§ * §
º º Nº º, Y . g º 3.
rious agent, “quacks.” º §§ *. §
w ! º §§§ tº . Aºº ºr Vº
To-day there is hardly º º
an educated member of § $.
g º S$ § S.
the profession who will & S.S. §§
º: w §.
deny its virtue if intelli- $ $.” &
gently cmployed. In
1857–58, when I issued
my “Medical Common § § *\.
º - º .* § lº § Š §§§ §§§
Sense,” seven or eight §§§ §§
• **
pages were taken to prove $$$. &
: 4. * g" º !. X. *...º. ^ º
it might be advanta- ? §§
& & § •º.
geously used in a variety § *ś
of physical d e range- :
ments. In the Old World
its value was recognized
by Faraday, Golding
Bird, Donovan, Le Roy
.* 5 3
§º" Álf º
...tº 6. §
#. } : §’;
Å
:"...º. ... };''''''''''º' * MºW t
ºft º §) - § ! § \ § º } . ſ * SA
ſº * tº "ſº
*If:
#ºf * - ić; i;
sº
ſ zºº/# •
*Sº - * * *% § '.
e º, sº yº & ºf § f ‘.6R º {{ {{{ { º
d’Etoille, Cross, Palaprat º 㺠º ſº §§§
© º . º º Ž * §Ž §ſ. § ºffi tº º
Smee, Matteucci, and ºğ § § §§
Sºi º 'ºrº, §ſº . - Wyº.
other medical writers,
and it was also em- ELECTRIOAL IRADLATION FROM THE HAND,
ployed in many hospitals
in Europe. But our smart
Set of the profession would have none of it. Besides myself I knew
of less than a half dozen practitioners (and they were not consid-
ered “regulars ”) who used it in the treatment of disease. All honor
to their names. They were Drs. Dodd, Benton, Smith, and LeRoy
Sunderland. Probably I am the only living pioneer at this time in this
county who was early in the field of electrical therapeutics. Has great
8,
As pictured in the New York Journal.













































33O COMMON-SENSE REMEDIES.
progress been made in this department of medical science 7 Not that I
can discover. So far as results are concerned, the physicians who used it
in those early days were able to report quite as wonderful cures through
its agency as are observed to-day. This is called the “electrical era.”
And so manifestly it is, for we use electricity for almost everything,
and the discoveries of the past fifty years have been phenomenal. We
send messages with it beneath the ocean to distant continents, and
thousands of miles away by land in a few seconds; we hold conversa-
tion with friends at a great distance through its agency, and can even
recognize the voice; when old Sol is absent, cities and villages are
illuminated with its silvery light; passenger-cars are speedily moved by
its irresistible force ; and there is a fair prospect that in the near future
we shall be flying through space like the birds in the air by its guiding
and propelling power. But as a medical help in the cure of disease,
other agencies have not only caught up with it, but to-day, with the
improvements in the preparation of vegetable remedies, it is far less
necessary than formerly in the treatment of human ills. Nevertheless,
it has its value, and this chapter would not be complete if it were
omitted.
If my theory, as given in the first chapter, is correct, regarding the
important part which electricity performs in the animal economy, it
does not require facts or arguments to prove the value of electricity as
an auxiliary agent in the treatment of disease. The fact is rendered self-
evident. It will be remembered that I assume and give facts to prove
that the same agent (electricity) which is employed to move and regulate
the sublime planetary world, is used by the mind of man to move the feet,
arms, limbs, and perform the various functions of the animal mechanism,
and that all the vital processes depend upon it. This theory was, so far
as I know, first clearly set forth in “Medical Common Sense,” my first
cloth-bound publication, which had not less than a million readers
between 1858 and 1869, and which, at the last-named date, was merged
into this volume. The same theory is the all-pervading idea in this
work. Science, in its steady and majestic march, is giving the most
convincing evidence that this idea is not elusive, but based upon the
very laws of our being. Recent discoveries by means of photography
tend to prove that every human body is surrounded with a halo of
electrical radiation, and Professor A. D. Waller, M.D., F.R.S., of
London, has been reported by the press as saying that he has been able
“to show by laboratory experiments that the human heart has an
electro-motive force, and that electricity may be considered the cause
of its beating.” He has also traced the electric currents that are sent
through the various parts of the body. In addition to muscular elec-
tricity he can proceed a step farther and show that an electrical effect
accompanies a natural discharge of nerve-impulse, He has found that
THERAPEUTIC ELECTRICITY. 33 I
the galvanometer is a good indicator of physiological changes. To
watch the alterations of physiological activity taking place in fatigue
or under exercise or other influences, the electrical effect is an exact
measure of the action in the muscles.”
The New York Morning Journal of November 27, 1898, reported
Professor Adrian Majewski, a famous Parisian scientist, as saying :
“It seems almost incredi-
ble that the human hand FIG. 107.
has such strong electrical
qualities that it gives out
an electric light like an
incandescent lamp, but
that is what is shown by
the photographic plate.
The pictures which I
have obtained have been
made by the simple pro-
cess of placing my band
over a sensitive plate in
a dark room. After fif-
teen or twenty minutes
of contact the image ..º
which appeared on the . §
g ** * º
plate was almost as dis- i. §§§§
e e § º: §: §§ § §§ t
tinct as if my hand had sº § §§
§§ § §§
been photographed by §§ §
e #S ${\º. º, s º
Sunlight. tº §§§ 2 § †º
§§§§§ % %. jºš.
“Whether all persons §§ §§ v.& Ż. § §
º e §º § §'...' fºr §
hands give out sufficient jº º ºg: § §
- SººHºº ºùù * $ *...*** * º § §§
- º: tº:
electrical rays to make
a photographic impres-
sion I am unable to state.
It is possible that only
people with strong mag-
retic qualities can pro- THE REPELLANT ELECTRIC waves oF THE HAND.
duce this effect.
“I have long been aware that my hands gave out a strong mag-
netic influence. It was this which prompted me to see whether this
electricity would make any impression on a photographic plate. To
my surprise I found they did. I also found that these luminous jets or
currents which radiate from the hand flow freely between hands of
persons in sympathy with one another. But in the cases of persons not
in sympathy the electrical currents as shown on a photographic plate
are turned back and flow in opposite directions,”
















332 COMMON-SENSE REMEDIES.
Reichenbach tells us that the “sensitive man" put in a dark room
where there is a cat or bird or a butterfly, will observe flowing from
their bodies what he calls a “luminous effluvia.” He even claims that
flowers will exhibit a kind of surrounding light which in a room how-
ever dark, will enable a “sensitive ’’ to determine what flower it is.
He speaks of light radiating from the hands, and indeed from the whole
body. What he calls “luminous effluvia " I have named electrical radia-
tion. This I did before knowing of his experiments or of his discov-
eries.
Thus science is gradually proving all that I claimed in my early
publications in regard to the part that electricity plays in the vital pro-
cesses and movements of the human body. It is said that “a professor
of the British Royal Institution took up a vial of cow's blood, into which
he put two wires connected with an electrical bell. He then added some
oxygen to the blood, and behold, the bell began to ring !” What does
that suggest when we consider how the blood enters the lungs for its
aëration, and that the oxygen which is inspired comes in contact with
the blood in the lungs 7
ARE NOT NERVE-FORCE AND ELECTRICITY THE SAME 7
The only plausible objection to the theory that electricity and nerve-
force are closely related if not identical is given by Dr. Ure, who says
that electricity will pass through, nerves which are almost severed and
divided, and produce contractions in the muscles over which they are
distributed, while the nervous forces will cease to pass through and per-
form any muscular motion when the nerves are thus lacerated.
To one who has failed to discover the almost omnipotent power
and instinctive wisdom of the mind, this objection would appear
decisive. But my reply is, that animal electricity is controlled by the
mind to which it belongs, while chemical or other electricity is controlled by
the will of the operator who employs it. In other words, animal electricity
is governed in its distribution through the system by the intelligent
mind whose seat is in the brain, and who voluntarily withdraw8 it from
any nerve which may be disabled, less the severed or divided nervé be en-
tirely destroyed by the continued performance of its legitimate function
while in this sorely lacerated condition. The mind constitutes what is
called the vis medicatria, natura, or healing power in any animate body,
by which, when diseased, the system is assisted to recover. It is the
“family doctor” of the organs over which it presides. Consequently,
notwithstanding the mind has not the power to resist electricity arti-
ficially applied to any disabled nerve, by an operator, it can and does
control its own electricity, and will not allow it to traverse a wounded
nerve, Nor can this peculiar power of the mind be overcome by the
will in such a case, any more than the will can arrest the action of the
THERAPEUTIC, ELECTRICITY. 333
involuntary organs; who can stop the pulsations of the heart by an
effort of the will ?
The perfect control which the mind has over its own electrical
agent is again exhibited when business or family troubles or bereave-
ments overtake an individual. The brain, stimulated to painful ac-
tivity, consumes more than its due proportion of the nervo-electric
fluid, and the mind withdraws enough from the stomach and vital
organs to supply the demands of its most important dependent. In
consequence of this physiological “panic,” the heart, liver, stomach,
etc. (corresponding to the merchants), fail, and the brain (bank) takes
care of itself. In diseases induced by mental depression, we therefore
find electricity valuable as an assistant, although, in consequence of the
blood derangements entailed thereby, insufficient unless supported by
nutritive and purifying vegetable remedies.
It is the interruption or partial withdrawal of the nervo-electric
circulation, which causes what we term “nervous diseases; ” and there
are more affections of this character than were ever dreamed of in the
allopathic philosophy. There is often an inharmonious action of the
nervous forces in lung, liver, heart, and kidney diseases. All these
organs perform their appropriate offices under the stimulus of elec-
tricity. For instance—the lungs are not expanded and contracted by
the inhalation and exhalation of air, but the diaphragm is thrown
downward, and the air-vesicles opened by the nervo-electric forces
acting on the muscles controlling the former, and on the little muscular
fibres and tissues composing the latter. By this electric movement,
air of necessity rushes in to fill the vacuum ; when the same forces
contract them, exhalation necessarily follows. In diseased lungs and
shortness of breath, there is frequently an interruption of the aervo-
electric circulation, and hence the value of electrical remedies of some
sort, in addition to internal medical treatment, in the cure of many
cases of pulmonary disease.
When it was discovered that the nerves were composed of separate
nerve-cells, and were not like a continuous thread or string or tele-
graphic wire without intermittent space, it looked as if the theory were
put in question, but it should be understood that the nerve-cells, though
Separate and distinct bodies, have minute tentacles or feelers which
reach out to each other and afford the necessary connections for con-
tinuous current of nerve-force. Even if this were not the case, it would
appear from what follows that nerve or electric force could traverse
them just as electricity can traverse discontinuous metallic conductors.
The Literary Digest of June 25, 1898, contained an article headed
“Similarity of Electricity and The Nervous Current,” translated from
La Wature, which I will copy entire, for although a little technical in
its language, it will be discovered by the average reader that it strongly
334 COMMON-SENSE REMEDIES.
supports the theory I have so long held in regard to the part electricity
plays in the functions of the human body. The article is from the pen
of Dr. E. Branly, an eminent French electrician, and is as follows:
“Progress made in one branch of science often throws light on
obscure points in entirely different branches. Thus it is that the so-
called radioconductors in electricity seem likely to aid us in understand-
ing the phenomena of nervous currents.
“Nerve-currents have long been compared to the electric currents
that circulate in metallic wires. This analogy became inadmissible
after the discovery that the nerve-elements are anatomically discon-
tinuous; but it has been re-established by the knowledge of the method
of propagation of electricity in discontinuous conductors.
“Radioconductors are discontinuous substances consisting of metal-
lic particles in an insulating medium, the quantity of insulating material
being very small. They are insulators under ordinary circumstances,
but become conductors under various electric influences, as when a
spark is caused to pass in their neighborhood, even at a considerable
distance, or when a condenser or transformer discharge, or a current
from a battery of numerous cells is passed directly through them. This
conductivity often persists a very long time. Certain physical circum-
stances, such as a rise of temperature, and particularly a sudden shock,
hasten the return of the insulating state. When conductivity has once
been established and the return to a state of resistance has taken place,
an action weaker than at first is sufficient to re-establish conductivity,
“There is no sharp distinction between continuous and discontinuous
conductors; the discontinuous conductor of separate particles in an in-
sulating medium is the type of all conductors. In a metallic block,
compression has greatly reduced the insulating medium that surrounds
each grain. In substances that are visibly discontinuous, insulating
matter keeps the conducting particles clearly Separate, and when the
insulator is in a sufficient proportion, the increase of conductivity,
instead of lasting some time, disappears immediately after being caused,
while with a yet greater quantity of insulators finite conductivity no
longer appears, even with the direct application of violent discharges.
“The nervous system is made up of “neurons,” or independent
elements, not fastened together, and connected only by their branched
extremities, and by contiguity, not continuity. The nerve-current is
stopped when this contiguity ceases. Its passage occurs again when-
ever the force of the current is increased or whenever the contiguity of the
extremities of the neurons becomes more perfect. Is this discontinuity
at the extremities the only kind, or can the constituent particles of each
nervous conductor also offer—at least in pathologic states—a form of
discontinuity that makes the passage of the nerve-current still more
difficult 7 -
THERAPEUTIC, ELECTRICITY. - 335
“Certain nerve-phenomena are analogous to the phenomena of
radioconductors. Just as a shock weakens and even stops the Conduc-
tivity of radioconductors, so a wound may produce anaesthesia and par-
alysis, due to a suppression of the nerve-current, and consequently to
a defect in the contiguity of the nerve-elements.
“On the other hand, just as the oscillations of the electric dis-
charges establish the conductivity of radioconductors, so we see that
these discharges act most effectively in the cure of anaesthesia and hys-
terical paralysis.
“The parallelism between the effects of shock and of electric
sparks on radioconductors, and on the nervous system in hysteria, ex-
tends also to its susceptibility to feeble action after a powerful action
has produced a primary effect.
“Discharges of high frequency are eminently fitted to make radio-
conductors conductive, and we see also, according to the observations
of D’Arsonval and Apostoli, that they exert a curative effect on affec-
tions due to retardation of nutrition. Tf these affections can be at-
tributed to imperfect transmission of the nervous current, we are justi-
fied in supposing that the discharges act by re-establishing between the
nerve-elements a contiguity that has become insufficient.
“If we compare the propagation of a nerve-wave in the nervous
system to the propagation of the electric current in a radioconductor,
we may assert that a neuron behaves like a metallic particle. In the
case in which the intervals that separate the extremities of two con-
tiguous neurons cannot be crossed, because they are too wide, or
because the nerve-current is not strong enough, an electric discharge
will re-establish the broken communication, and this communication
will remain for some time. The therapeutic rôle of electricity can
thus be explained. . It would not be substantially altered if it should
be found that not only the extremities of the neurons, but the elements
of a simple nervous conductor were themselves too far apart to trans-
mit a nerve-wave.
“The facts seem to me to be important enough to form the basis
for hypotheses and experiments from which electro-therapeutics cannot
fail to receive much benefit.” -
THE THERAPEUTIC VALUE OF ELECTRICITY.
Golding Bird, who devoted much time to the investigation and
application of electricity, said: “Conscientiously convinced that the
agent in question is a no less energetic than valuable remedy in the
treatment of disease, I feel most anxious to press its employment upon
the practical physician, and to urge him to have recourse to it as a
rational but fallible remedy, and not to regard it as one either eaſpected or
capable of effecting impossibilities.” The same writer adds, that “elec-
336 COMMON-SENSE REMEDIES.
tricity has been by no means fairly treated as a therapeutic agent, for it
has either been exclusively referred to when all other remedios have
failed—in fact, often exclusively, or nearly so, in hopeless cases—or its
administration has been carelessly directed, and the mandate, ‘Let the
patient be electrified,” merely given without reference to the manner,
form, or mode of the remedy being for once taken into con-
sideration.” In this country there are hundreds of good mechanics
who make various electro-magnetic machines, and sell them for family
FIG. 108.
AN OR DINAIRY ISLIECTRO-MAGNETIC MACIIINE.
use, with a circular or pamphlet professing to give unerring directions
for their use in different diseases. As a rule, having a few honorable
exceptions, they are ridiculously incorrect. But few of them, that
have ever come under my eye, can be safely relied upon. They abound
in errors which would be laughable were it not for the reflection that
they mislead the “drowning man catching at straws.” It is a serious
matter to trifle with a man who has lost health, and perhaps all hope of
recovery.
Think not from these remarks that it is an easy matter to give cor-
rect directions for popular use. So much depends upon the constitu-
tional peculiarities of the patient, the complications which exist, and a
correct knowledge of the disease or diseases, no such chart can be safely
put into the hands of those who do not make pathology, anatomy,
physiology, and electrical therapeutics a study. Much must necessarily
depend upon the diagnostic skill of the operator, and his judgment in

THETRAPEUTIC, ELECTRICITY. 337
making the application. Each complication which the patient has,
must be duly considered in its relation to the others. Constitutional
causes must also be duly considered. The proper course for a physician
to pursue, who wishes to obtain proficiency as an electrical operator,
is to place himself under the personal tuition of a competent cleC-
trician, and during his pupilage witness all important operations, just
as he who wishes to become a good surgeon attends the clinics, and
witnesses the dexterity exhibited by his instructor in the use of the
knife. An invalid who wishes to employ electricity without submitting
to the experienced operator, should obtain, from an intelligent Source,
Special directions for his individual case.
Guided by the directions which are furnished by mechanical elec-
tricians, isolated cases do occur wherein remarkably successful results
are realized. “Accidents will happen in the best of families ;” and,
inasmuch as electricity possesses peculiar curative powers, now and
then one who knows nothing of the science of electricity; knows noth-
ing of the peculiar structure of the human organism ; a mere novice in
the art of detecting the nature and extent of a disease, will stumble into
success. Many more not only fail to derive benefit, but injure them-
Selves by random experimenting. Fatal results may not be as likely to
follow as if the same persons had plied themselves with blue-pills and
other allopathic inventions, for the reason that lightning in any form
is a safer agent to deal with. It is related of Ben Johnson, a Revolu-
tionary soldier, of Milford, Mass., that he was struck with lightning,
and remained insensible for two days, when two doctors were called,
who said he would die; but just at that moment his power of speech
returned, and he ejaculated : “I have stood cannon, musket-balls, and
bayonets, and I can stand thunder and lightning if the doctors will
only let me alone.” The old man recovered. Now, no one supposes
that such an overwhelming dose of mercury would have ever let the
veteran Soldier speak again. It takes a vast amount of electricity, even
in the form of a bolt of lightning, to kill any one. Hence the seeming
impunity with which electro-magnetic machines are employed by per-
Sons who do not know the negative pole of the instrument from the
positive, and who are much less acquainted with the nature of the
various currents which may be employed.
ELECTRICITY, TO BE EFFECTUAL, MUST BE PROPERLY APPLIED.
The reputation of electricity has suffered by its bungling applica-
tion in the hands of inexperienced operators. As the effect must
depend upon the form and mode of application, it is obvious that no
one should apply it without definite instructions, unless he is acquainted
with the science of therapeutic electricity and has some knowledge of
anatomy and pathology.
338 COMMON-SENSE REMEDIES.
I have observed, with regret, the infatuation some men exhibit
after witnessing its beneficial effects in one or two cases. Having cured
themselves, or perhaps a neighbor with electricity, the conceit at once
overcomes them that they are natural physicians, and that that agent
alone is capable of healing every ill that flesh is heir to, while perhaps
they are “natural ninnies,” tampering with the sublime phenomena of
an Omnipotent and mysterious element.
Such operators, unschooled in physiology and the science of
"materia medica, have done much mischief with electrical machines,
often applying them when there was no occasion, and with a power too
intense for even a person in health to endure. Some parts of the
human system are more sensitive than others, and while a powerful
Current is necessary to affect some organs, a weak and almost imper-
ceptible one is required to have a beneficial effect on others. But the
most contemptible men are those who, taking advantage of the reputa-
tion electricity enjoys, set up regular “Peter Funk" establishments,
from which they advertise to cure every disease that flesh is heir to by
an operation or two. While skilful electricians are, by their good
works, imparting faith in the therapeutic power of electricity, these
despicable charlatans are imposing on the confidence thus created, by,
humbugging unfortunate invalids who happen to fall into their meshes.
Among the later developments of electrical humbuggery are a large
variety of appliances in the form of belts, pads, corsets, hair-brushes,
and garments. All are “loaded ” with metal parts, but very few will
show by a galvanometer test the power to develop any electrical current
or effect, and those which can by such test be shown to be honest are
cumbersome and disagreeable nuisances for daily wear, and invariably
cost as much or more than a first-class electro-medical battery. Every
good thing has its counterfeit, but it would seem that electricity has
had rather more than its share of such debasement.
Cleveland, in treating on galvanism as a remedial agent, very
sensibly remarks: “In making use of galvanism as a therapeutic agent,
it should not be relied on to the exclusion of every other treatment,
neither should a cure of the disease for which it is applied, be antici-
pated in a miraculously short space of time. Disease in any organ
produces a change in the condition of the organ diseased, and time
must be allowed for the process of absorption and deposition necessary
to bring the organ back to its normal condition. Galvanism, when
properly applied, will be found of great advantage in hastening these
processes; yet it will not do to apply it with such power as to destroy the
organ from which we wish to remove the abnormal accumulations, or
even to carry the action of that organ beyond the condition of health.”
In this connection I would say that shocks are not only unnecessary
but are often injurious in treating diseases. I have never found it
THERAPEUTIC, ELECTRICITY. 339
necessary, with the beautiful machine I have had constructed for
therapeutic purposes, to administer shocks, except in obstinate cases of
paralysis of both nerves of motion and sensation, and in these cases the
nerves of sensation are not sufficiently active to allow the patient to
suffer any pain or discomfort from them. The most delicate and sensi-
tive females who have submitted to my electrical manipulations, have,
from the first operation, considered the influence agreeable rather than
otherwise ; and many of my patients have continued their use longer
than was actually necessary, because the sensations, during the opera-
tion, were not only exceedingly agreeable, but the after-effects inspiring
and invigorating. As regards making electricity in any form a “one-
cure-all,” Cleveland is eminently right. I meet with very few diseases
that can be cured by electricity, galvanism, or electro-magnetism alone.
Nervous affections almost invariably inflict an injury upon the vital
organs and blood, which is not removed by the correction of the ner-
vous harmony merely. Here recourse must be had to mild medication.
In mercurial diseases, it will not answer to merely cleanse the system
of the offending mineral by the electrical process, particularly if the
mercury has been many years in the system. It is, of course, of para-
mount importance to remove this corroding cause, but, having done
this, effects, which have become diseases in themselves, remain, and
must be disposed of. Here, too, mild, nutritious, and blood-toning
medicines must be given in connection with electricity.
It is idle prattle to talk of making the lame walk by the use of a
single electro-chemical bath. Instances do occur upon which to base
such exaggerations, it is true ; I have seen many such surprising results
attend my own operations. But he who indiscriminately promises such
success does positive injury in eight cases out of ten. It is enough
to say that a skilfully administered electro-chemical bath will expel
mineral poisons. This is a great achievement and opens the avenues of
health to thousands who are suffering from the effects of old-school
malpractice. After having cleansed the system of the vile poison, it
only remains for the skilful physician to remove the injuries the system
has sustained by its former presence.
Let not the temperate tone of the preceding paragraph lead any
one to suppose that the blusterers, who startle whole communities with
the announcement that they are curing everybody and everything with
electricity, are any better posted regarding its marvellous curative
powers than the writer of this ; I doubt if any one's experience in its
employment can more than parallel my own. I say this, not in a
spirit of boasting, but only in simple justice to myself, while cautioning
the afflicted against exaggerated statements put forth by impostors.
For the past forty years I have been a faithful student in electrical
therapeutics, and have employed the agent in thousands of cases, A
34O COMMON-SENSE REMEDIES.
large practice has given me every opportunity to test its effects in all
sorts of chronic diseases. The results, in a majority of them, have
been truly wonderful, and those who have witnessed my operations
have turned away with the settled conviction that all a physician needs
for permanent success, in every form of disease, is a well-constructed
electro-magnetic machine, and a thorough knowledge of its use. One
instance made an indelible impression on my mind. A German physi-
cian, who had been through the best European schools, and had had
FIG. 109.
#####| || Fººl
- -> • * * * * * il
|
*F it tº a lº
Tº
º C * - º br [...] G P . . . . * * * * -- -
•ºmº ºm ** E. d Sº tº fºs. C &r ſº * -- ~ || || - wº EEE-E=
|
Hº
{ !
i
º |Tºº*
º |ººl
º
*
ſ C-X-X-X3-3
C Eº
5-º-º-º-º:
| 5->
&==E.
*ºmºmºmºmºmºmºmºmº
*E: E
fºlſ 45-º º
DR. FOOTE'S OFFICE BATTERY.
much experience in various hospitals, ridiculed the claim I set up for
therapeutic electricity, and, under the supposition that he would see
something to strengthen his prejudices, took pains to witness Some of
my operations. The results of his investigations were to him perfectly
overwhelming, and after giving some applications himself, under my
directions, he proposed to procure an electro-magnetic machine, and
adopt electropathy as a specialty I have made both rheumatic and
paralytic invalids run and rejoice in the restoration of painful, con-

THERAPEUTIC, ELECTRICITY. 34. I
tracted, stiff, and withered limbs. I have caused the haggard, down-
cast, cadaverous face of the dyspeptic to light up under the exhilarating
effects of currents of electricity sent down the pneumo-gastric nerves to
the stomach. I have imparted an elastic step and glow of health to
many a woman who had for years before crept about her domicile
under the debilitating effects of female weaknesses. I have given the
neuralgic sufferer occasion to rejoice in my discoveries in electrical
therapeutics. An interesting young woman, a teacher in a popular
New England institution of learning, once called upon me with a neu-
ralgic difficulty. She had suffered a thousand deaths in the period of
about ten years. From early girlhood, a rain-cloud had never darkened
the horizon without aggravating her torture to such an extent that she
often implored her medical attendant to open an artery and let the hor-
rors of such a life ebb away with the arterial fluid. She had tried
everything old school and new school had recommended, and her faith
in all had vanished. The principal of the institution, however, had
called on me and investigated the methods of my practice, and under
his solicitation she determined to make one more attempt. After the
fifth operation, a long, drizzling spring rain of nearly two weeks' dura-
tion set in, but her old tortures did not return. She wisely adopted a
course of vegetable medication to render this good work permanent,
and a year afterward she wrote that she had been entirely free from
neuralgia. I might relate enough wonderful instances of my success in
the employment of electricity to filſ this volume ; I have only given the
foregoing instance because of its peculiarity. In the practice of a life-
time, a physician would hardly meet with another such sufferer. To
be a first-rate operator, a physician must be a battery in himself. In the
treatment of many diseases, the current sent out of an instrument must
be modified by individual electricity, or, as it is more commonly termed,
“animal magnetism.” There is great difference in individuals in the
possession of this. While some are very positively magnetized, others
are, naturally, extremely negative, and cannot impart to another the
first particle of this invigorating influence.
Figure 110, on page 342 will serve to illustrate this proposition.
We will suppose the dots to represent the animal magnetic currents.
The hand held above the head illustrates the magnetic power of a per-
son who is highly electrical ; the one above the right shoulder, that of
a person considerably so ; while the one over the left shoulder fairly
illustrates one nearly destitute of animal magnetism, or individual
electricity. Not that any one is entirely destitute, but many do not
possess a sufficient supply to exert any perceptible influence over an-
other. To be a successful electropath, one must possess the highest
amount of positive individual electricity, as represented by the hand
above the head in the picture, * -
342 COMMON-SENSE REMEDIES.
Now, while I am well aware of the fallibility of this mode of treat-
ing disease, when adopted as a specialty by persons possessing the
greatest amount of magnetism, and while I know that cures apparently
effected by this power or agency alone are seldom permanent ones, but
reliefs of temporary duration, the truth cannot be gainsaid that the
possession of this magnetic power is of vital importance to one who
desires to be a successful electrical operator. I have found, in giving
instructions in therapeutic electricity to physicians, that they differed
greatly in the power of employing
it efficiently, even when they seemed
to be cqually proficient in the theory
and practice. In oth er W or ds,
while they perfectly understood the
modus operandi of making the ma-
nipulations, and the currents to be
employed, the results of their ex-
FIG. 110.
£ºf Xº periments were widely different.
º Aº This want of uniformity in their
§ §: º '': e
Aº success I have attributed to the
º N. tº. % N N NºW g g 4
sº difference in the magnetic powers
Nº N.W. º.º.º.º. gº * -i º ºs t
§ § §§ of different individuals, and how
§º
wisely, I leave it for the reader to
decide, after having perused what I
have herein written, and what will
be further found in Part Third of
this book. .
In all disorders involving the ner-
vous system, electricity, applied
properly by a good Operator, is an
excellent substitute for popular
anodynes. It has been the general
custom of the medical profession
to resort to stupefying narcotics to allay nervous irritability, which
unquestionably produce temporary relief, but, as certainly, ultimate
injury. I may truly say, that I have always found electricity to be
eminently a nerve-medicine, yielding timely relief, and no unwelcome
reactive results.
However, as before remarked, such wonderful progress has been
made in pharmaceutical chemistry during the past quarter of a cen-
tury, and so many new remedies of the vegetable kingdom added to the
materia medica, that electricity is not so indispensable to a successful
medical practice as it once was. During my professional career I have
annually treated, successfully, hundreds of patients laboring under dif-
ferent chronic diseases, whose faces I have never seen. My files contain
N Nº. § -
N Nº.
N N |
W N
MAGNETIC HAN DS.

















ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 343
letters from every State and Territory in the United States, from nearly
every part of Europe, from some portions of Asia and Africa, and also
from nearly every province of British and South America; and I will
further say that if I could, without violating confidence, publish their
contents, my readers would almost conclude that the days of miracles
are not past. Occasionally a case presents itself which absolutely re.
quires the application of the element generated by a mechanical or a
chemical apparatus. Such invalids to obtain the required benefit must
present themselves in person for the necessary electrical manipulation,
unless there are good operators in their immediate neighborhood, or
except it be in cases of self-treatment with a home battery under the
specific directions that may be provided by a skilful physician.
Animal ſtagnetism.
“Animal magnetism is a humbug / " No, reader, you believe in
it. Your reason, perhaps, is not convinced and you may think you do
not. Then, why should I know better than you do what you have
faith in 7 Let me tell you. The other day you came in collision with
a chair and bruised your shin. Instinctively you bent over and rubbed
the contused limb with your hand. The baby fell from your lap upon
the floor; you picked it up hastily and rubbed its little head till it
stopped crying. One night you were attacked with cramps in the
stomach, and the hand flew there immediately ; you pressed and manip-
ulated the region where the suffering was felt until you were relieved.
But a few days ago your wife had a headache, and as she reclined on
the sofa, you sat beside her and passed your hand gently over her
feverish temples. Now all these instinctive, and I may almost say in-
voluntary applications of the hand, in cases of physical distress, show
that with all your professed scepticism you, practically, believe in the
efficacy of animal magnetism, and it is your experience and mine, and
my observation as a medical man, that leads me to place animal mag-
netism prominently among what are denominated in this chapter Com-
mon-Sense Remedies.
Thus, I introduced this curative and mysterious agent in the early
editions of this work in 1869. Few in this country had any knowledge
of, or faith in, Animal Magnetism at that time. Drs. Dodd, Sunder-
land, Benton and others had lectured upon the subject and, by experi-
ments, exhibited some of the wonderful effects of this peculiar force.
The gentleman last named was especially successful in showing what
could be done by the power now called “hypnotism.” Most of my
readers are doubtless somewhat familiar with the strange performances
of susceptible subjects while under the influence and control of a good
mesmerizer. Well, all these things were done repeatedly by Benton in
344 COMMON-SENSE REMEDIES.
Various parts of this country between the years 1840 and 1860. The
medical profession, however, were Sceptical, and laymen shook their
heads with incredulity. They were sure there was some deception
practised, notwithstanding the fact that those who were put in
the mesmeric sleep allowed pins to penetrate their flesh, burning
hot irons to be applied to their arms, and teeth to be drawn, with .
out flinching. Under the will of the operator timid young men could
be made to personate orators and deliver long speeches before large
audiences. Invalids were relieved of various ills by the laying on
of hands, etc. Knowing ones exclaimed “Humbug | *-and those who
took all ideas second-hand echoed the verdict of their superiors. Now
all is changed. Learned professors come before the public with lectures
and experiments. “Hypnotism” is popular ! They are not disposed
to award due honor to Mesmer by calling it Mesmerism. Everything
is “Hypnotism.” Let us briefly review its history.
THE BEGINNING OF MESMERISM.
Dr. Frederick Anthony Mesmer was the first in what is called the
Christian world to recognize the wonderful powers of animal mag-
netism, and employ this agent in the cure of disease. He promulgated
his theory in 1778, and was denounced by the medical faculty, as a mat-
ter of course. Two commissions were appointed to investigate what
was called mesmerism. In one of these commissions our own honored
Dr. Benjamin Franklin took part ; he who, with the kite and key,
coaxed lightning to come out of the clouds and prove to us that it was
not a stranger, but the same kind of wonder electricity is. And these
two commissions, one having the wisdom of Franklin to guide it, dis-
missed the doctrine of Mesmer as a delusion I Still the people flocked
to Mesmer, and, although he was derided by the medical profession,
condemned by scientists, and watched with suspicion by all intelligent
communities, his success in healing the sick brought him support, so
that poverty was not added to persecution to embitter his useful life.
The great naturalist, Joseph Francis Deleuze, the friend of Cuvier and
Won Humboldt, visited Paris to gather material to expose the humbug
He returned to proclaim the wonders of mesmerism and to practise it
himself He wrote and published a volume giving accounts of cures
as remarkable as those to-day ascribed to Mental Scientists, Christian
Scientists, Faith Healers, and others of the occult school. The Marquis
de Puysegur became a pupil of Mesmer, and discovered in his experi-
ments that some people could be put in an unconscious sleep by the
power of animal magnetism, and this condition was called mesmeric
sleep. Dr. Braid, of Manchester, following in the wake of the origi-
nals, found he could produce the same phenomena, and he was first to
call the mesmeric sleep “hypnotism.” Had not ethereal anaesthesia
ANIMAT, MAGNETISM, 345
been discovered by Morton and others it is probable that mesmerism or
hypnotism would have been more speedily brought to the attention of
the public as an anaesthetic in dentistry and surgery. It had been tried
with more or less success when Dr. Morton introduced his important
discovery. For many years mesmerism was in a profound mesmeric
sleep, when it suddenly awoke between 1870 and 1880 with such men
as Charcot, Hansen, Weinhold, and others in the Old World, and Drs.
R. A. Gunn, Wm. A. Hammond, and others in the New World, sur-
prising large audiences with examples in mesmerism such as Dr. Ben-
ton and other pioneers in this field had exhibited long years before,
when the “regular ” profession would have nothing to do with them.
The doctors disagree as to the nature of the phenomena. Dr. Braid
did not believe that any magnetic fluid emanated from the operator.
The hypnotic state, as he called it, was induced by certain physiological
modifications in the nervous system induced by “suggestion.” He has
his disciples, but the intelligent masses are quite ready to believe that
everybody has a magnetic atmosphere of his own, and that everyone
possesses magnetic forces which can be made to influence, and in some
cases control susceptible persons. I have met with no more rational
theory to account for mesmeric phenomena than the one given on page
189 of my work, entitled, “Medical Common-Sense,” published in
1858, and reproduced on page 827 of Part Third. Indeed, this theory
has been adopted by many writers upon the subject. At least one
comparatively recent writer speaks of it as if it were a discovery of his
Own. Whatever differences exist in the minds of medical men as to
just what causes mesmeric phenomena, all now recognize and believe in
them, and the employment of mesmerism or hypnotism is recommended
in many cases of nervous disease. In the summer of 1889 a convention
of Scientists in Paris had hypnotism under consideration, and it was
resolved that the study and application of this agent should be intro-
duced into the teachings of Medical Science. And thus have the claims
of Mesmer and his followers been vindicated.
MORE RECENT INVESTIGATIONS.
My theory of mesmeric power is quite essential to support many of
my views as given in this work, and hence I was pleased to find, many
years ago, that the experiments of Mr. William Crooks, as reported in
a work entitled, “Spiritualism Answered by Science,” by Edward W.
Cox, served to confirm it. Mr. Cox was a member of the London
Dialectical Society’s Investigating Committee, and was present at the
experiments of Mr. Crooks. The object of his pamphlet was to show
that the so-called spiritual manifestations were produced by something
he called psychic force. He says, “This force is generated in certain
persons of peculiar nervous organization in sufficient power to operate
346 COMMON-SENSE REMEDIES.
beyond bodily contact,” and, he continues, “there can be little doubt
that the force is possessed by every human being—that it is a necessary
condition of the living nerve, if, indeed, it be not the vital force itself,”
and that it is possessed by psychics in extraordinary degree. Mr.
Crooks, he adds, “has recently constructed an instrument of extreme
delicacy, which seems to indicate the existence of the psychic force
more or less in every person with whom he has made trial of it. The
existence of such a force is asserted by Dr. Richardson, in a recent
Fig. 111.
PUTTING A SENSITIVE SUBJECT TO SI, EEP.
article in the Popular Science Review, in which he contends that there
is a nerve-fluid (or ether), with which the nerves are enveloped, and
by whose help it is that the motion of their molecules communicates
Sensations and transmits the commands of the will. This nerve-ether
is, he thinks, no other than the vital force. It extends with all of us
somewhat beyond the extremities of the nerve-structure, and even
beyond the surface of the body, encompassing us wholly with an
envelope of nerve-atmosphere, which varies in its depth and intensity
in various persons. This, he contends, will solve many difficult prob-

ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 347
lems in psychology, and throw a new light on many obscurities in
psychology and mental philosophy.”
Now, the psychic force referred to by Mr. Cox, and the nerve.
ether so called by Dr. Richardson, are manifestly only other names
for what Mesmer and his followers called mesmeric force, all of which
so-called forces are one and the same as animal magnetism. The same
writer speaks of “nerve-ether or nerve-atmosphere,” which emanates
from every animal body. It may FIG. 112.
as well be called magnetic at-
mosphere. So long as we recog-
nize its existence it matters little
what name we give to it. When
we acknowledge its presence and
its power it is not difficult to ac-
count for all the seeming mira-
cles performed in the name of
Christian Science, Mental Sci-
ence, Faith Cure, Prayer Cure,
and the Bones of St. Anne !
HOW ARE THESE ALLEGED CURES
EFFECTED 7
First stop and think how viti-
ated and noisome the air becomes
by confinement ; how impure
and full of miasma water is
found to be when stagnant.
Then think. for a moment what
may be the pathological con-
dition when nervous force is
moving sluggishly and languidly
through the human organism.
What but disease can result Neave-Atmosphere,
When the nervous forces become According to Dr. Richardson.
thus inactive, and in some cases E L E G T R I C A L R A D I A TI ON,
insufficient in intensity to per- According to Dr. Foote.
form their functions in the system 7 In this condition whatever
can impart more force and set in action the sluggish, nervous
circulation ; whatever may be brought to bear in the way of super-
stitious faith or great expectation to produce profound emotion in the
sufferer, may quicken nervous circulation, and thus, for the time being
at least, change conditions which predispose to disease. In nearly all
these cases, however, animal magnetism plays an important part. Those
Who resort to Christian Science methods are what Cox would call

348 COMMON-SENSE REMEDIES.
Psychics, or what I would call good magnetists. The same may be
said of those who practise the Mind Cure, Faith Cure, etc. It is even
reported that on days when the devout Catholics visit the bone of St.
Anne, pricsts are in charge of the Sacred relic, and there is a relay of
priests, so to Spcak, Some retiring when fatigued, and others, fresh and
full of animal spirits, coming in to conduct the services while the faith-
ful sufferers are crowding to the front. The book already referred to,
written by Deleuze, tells us that “the magnetizer causes a headache or
side-ache to cease simply because he wills it ; ” then he says, “There
are men endowed with Such magnetic power they can act upon patients
who are very susceptible, and in perfect communication with them,
while directing the action upon this or that part by the thought and by
the look.” Many stories are told of the late Colonel Ingersoll which are
untrue. I will relate one for which I am unwilling to vouch, but which
will illustrate a point I desire to make : A minister asked the Colonel
what he would have different from what the Almighty had instituted.
“I would,” replied the Colonel, “have had health catching instead of
disease.” Well, the real fact is, health is catching, and an invalid can-
not associate with persons full of health and vitality without receiving
benefit. I think Colonel Ingersoll must have recognized this fact.
Probably he did, and if so, the story is quite likely untrue. If persons
with whom they come in contact are very magnetic, the benefit is well
marked. Let me here relate a little incident in my own experience
confirmatory of this statement :
Whilo in Troy, N. Y., on a professional visit many years ago, a
gentleman hobbled upstairs to my rooms to consult me regarding rheu-
matism in one of his knee-joints, which had been very painful, and
which had made his limb stiff for over a year. It appeared very dif-
ficult for him to walk, and the invalid exhibited in his countenance
that contortion of features so peculiar to one suffering pain, that no one
in health could possibly imitate. Then, too, the knee was red and
swollen. I gave it a very careful examination, following up each muscle
that could be reached, with my fingers, for Several inches, to see if I
could discover any adhesion or rigidity. I then examined his blood,
stated my opinion, and my terms for treatment. He expressed himself
favorably impressed with the interview, and promised to call in the
afternoon and decide whether or not he would place himself under my
care. He had hardly been out of my rooms ten minutes, when he re-
turned with a look of indescribable surprise, and exclaimed : “What
have you done to my knee, Doctor 7” “Why do you ask *"I interro-
gated. His reply considerably astonished me, for he said he had both de-
scended and ascended the stairs without pain, and at the Same time ges-
ticulated with the limb, moving it backward and forward to show its
mobility, I of course saw at once what my magnetism had done for it
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. . 349
while manipulating his muscles, and explained the philosophy of the
phenomenon. I say I was astonished because I did not exercise my
will-power, as I am in the habit of doing in imparting animal magnet-
ism. It was an act of unintentional magnetic piracy on his part, and
he bore off his booty in triumph. I could not have been more suc-
cessful if I had seated myself deliberately and magnetized his painful
joint.
I could fill several pages with similar incidents—I will, however,
occupy space with but one other. A young woman called upon me in
consultation, and I made a note of her most prominent symptoms, but
gave no treatment. One of these symptoms was a lifelong headache.
Six weeks after this call she visited my office again for treatment, and
as she said nothing of headache I expressed my surprise, when she
replied, “Why, Doctor, I have not had a particle of headache since I
called on you before.” Having been a reader of my publications she
seemed to understand how it had been relieved.
In all such cures, if cures indeed they can be called, I am inclined
to question their permanency unless the magnetic treatment is supple-
mented with good vegetable alteratives to remove the deep-seated pre-
disposing cause or causes. Magnetism should not be relied upon to the
exclusion of other remedies. Those who do ride the “one hobby”
have a great many hard things said of them, which they partly deserve.
They also bring to contempt an agency for the amelioration of human
suffering which is worthy the attention of all intelligent physicians,
and of their patients whose maladies might be benefited by its employ-
ment. While there are some invalids so peculiarly affected that they
cannot be restored without magnetic treatment, the majority of these
very cases cannot be radically cured by this agency, unaided by suita-
ble medicine.
The benefits derived from Massage are largely due to the magnet-
ism of the operator, and the more magnetic the Operator, if his mag-
netism is agreeable to the patient, the greater will be the relief obtained.
The massage, as defined in the dictionary, is a “system of remedial
treatment consisting of manipulating a part or the whole of the body by
percussion.” A “Masseur’ is a male massagist. A “Masseuse” is a
female massagist. As most of my readers are aware, massage is widely
practised, especially in large cities, where specialists are well supported.
The kncading, the slapping, and the rubbing, as performed by the ex-
perienced operator, greatly benefits enfeebled muscles, vitalizes weak
nerves, and promotes circulation. Such manipulations would doubtless
impart some benefit without the magnetism of the operator, but with it
they are far more efficacious if the magnetic quality of the operator is
suited to the patient. It is doubtful if one could derive any help from
a masseur or masseuse who is distasteful, or whose touch is not agree-
35O COMMON-SENSE REMEDIES.
able. Nor is a masseur as efficacious with one of his own sex as
with a person of the opposite sex, or vice versa, for reasons that will
appear obvious to one who reads what I have said under the head of
Sexual Isolation. “In civilized communities,” according to Dr. Balls-
Headley, in so conservative a medical paper as the Medical Record,
“more than half the women under thirty years of age are unmarrieu ;
in other words, the sexual instinct, during the first half of its existence
is in most women ungratified. Hence spring,” in Dr. Balls-Headley's
FIG. I 13. opinion, “many
sexual disorders.”
Now, it is not indis-
pensable that sexual
intercourse should
take place to supply
a much-needed
Want to Women thus
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affected. They
need not only ani-
mal magnetism, but
masculine magnet-
ism, and this they
could obtain under
the professional and
entirely pro per
treatment of a mas-
Sour. With the
greater freedom en-
joyed by men there
are comparatively
few young men who
greatly suffer from
a want of female
magnetism, and yet
JAIPAN ESE MANIPULATO IłS.
there are cases to be found among men that might be materially bene:
fited by the manipulations of a masseuse of the right adaptability.
In Japan the natives have successfully practised the massage from
away back, and their manipulators are usually blind men who go about
with a long wand in their hand and a reed whistle in their mouth, as
represented in Figure 113. The whistles are used to acquaint the resi-
dents along the thoroughfares through which they are passing of their
presence, as the horn or the bell of the huckster is employed in Our
streets to attract customers. In Figure 114 is a picture of a Japanese
masseur applying his cure to a female patient. In the picture the latter
is represented with drapery, but I am assured by E. A. Wilson, for a

ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 35 I
long time attached to the Naval Service off the coast of Japan, that in
the actual operation female patients, as well as male, are entirely nude,
for in that part of the world neither men nor women make any effort
at concealment when taking their daily baths. It is therefore manifest
that blind operators are not chosen for the purpose of avoiding the ex-
posure of the person of the patient ; just why, Mr. Wilson could not
inform me. In this country, where even the nude in art is considered
objectionable by our most conventional people, blind masseurs and mas-
Seuses would be considered especially qualified for the practice of this
art. But even with two good eyes in the head of the operator the prac-
tice of the massage is
|
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mal magnetism with-
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brocations extensive-
absolutely no merit in
themselves, while the
real benefit attending
their use arises from
the direction—“Rub
in briskly with a
Warm hand for sev-
eral minutes l’’ Exter-
nal remedies possess-
ing valuable proper-
ties are always ren-
dered more efficacious by the observance of such directions. In the
religious world we find people employing animal magnetism combined
with religious faith in the curing of disease, notwithstanding the fact
that Mesmer was denounced by the clergy, and his discovery pro-
nounced an attempt to use demoniac influence in relief of the sick.
Not only does the devout Catholic resort to the inſluence of magnetism
in an indirect way, but the Church of the Latter Day Saints depends
almost wholly upon it when overtaken by disease. While anointing
the sufferer with oil (sweet oil) they practise the laying on of hands,
first rendering the patient passive and receptive by prayer. A corre-
spondent in Utah, a reader of the earlier editions of this work, wrote
the author that he had been exceedingly interested in my views on elec-
|
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JAPANES E M AN IPULATOIRS.










352 COMMON-SENSE REMEDIES.
tricity and animal magnetism after observing what the elders of the
church could do with their sick disciples by the laying on of hands and
the use of “sanctified oil.” He said the results looked like miraculous
phenomena, but after what he had read in this work he was satisfied
they were due simply to animal magnetism. While spending a little
time in Salt Lake City, I found that the Mormons had quite an aversion
to medicine, but they seemed willing to take mine, for when their own
resources failed they had more confidence in botanical remedies than in
any other.
Dr. Cox's work attributes the success of “spiritual mediums ” to
what he calls psychic force, which, as I have already claimed, is only
another name for animal magnetism. But even if the medium is made
the instrument of some unseen power, as claimed by the faithful
believer, in the light of what has already been presented, it is fair to
Suppose it is the magnetism of the disembodied spirit, if not of the
medium, that gives relief to the patient. Dr. James R. Cocke, in his
Work on Hypnotism, says he believes it “has played a great part in the
political and religious historics of the world, and is as important as a
Sociological factor as a healing agent.”
Water.
In all ages of the world, and in all nations, civilized and barbarous,
water has ever been held in high estimation as a remedial agent.
IIippocrates, Pindar, Thales, Virgil, Pliny, Galen, Charlemagne,
Hahnemann, Priessnitz, Wesley, and all distinguished philosophers,
physicians, and theologians, ancient and modern, have extolled its
virtues. It was Priessnitz who made it a “one-cure-all.” He was the
first to open a “Watcr-Cure.” Priessnitz was great, but Priessnitz
was an enthusiast. Still his enthusiasm was the result of extraordinary
succesſ, compared with the medical exploits of the allopathic profes-
sion with which his rural abode was surrounded. His hydropathy
cured thousands—hundreds managed to survive the barbarities of allo-
pathy. He killed a few—allopathy slaughtered daily more than
Priessnitz healed. The zeal of a military chieftain heightens with the
number he slays; that of a medical practitioner with the number ho
kccps alive. Is it strange that Priessnitz was an enthusiast 7
Yet the establishment of the school called hydropathy was an error.
Water was not an infallible remedy, and less so in the hands of the
disciples of Priessnitz than in those of the great founder himself. The
latter was naturally gifted with peculiar skill in the application of
water, which characteristic exhibited itself in the juvenility of the son
of the Graefenberg farmer. But a medical cducation would have
materially modifical his “one-ideaism.” Pricssnitz did not possess that.
WATER 353
Had he explored the green fields and forests of Nature, as well as laved
in her limpid waters, he would have been less exclusive in his choice
of remedics, and his practice, and that of his imitators, would have been
more uniformly successful. At the present time, sanitariums have
entirely taken the place of what used to be called “water Gures” in
this country. This change was suddenly and arbitrarily effected by the
medical legislation which went into eſſect in nearly all the States of
the Union between the years 1874 and 1890. Such legislation bore
down with undeserved severity upon those who did not believe in
medicines, but who did have entire faith in the curative virtue of water.
The statutes, if they must have been FIG. 115.
enacted, should at least have been
tempered to permit the intelligent dis-
ciples of Pricssnitz to practise a sys-
tem which the disbeliever in drugs
could have recourse to, for there are
many such prejudiccd individuals in
this world, and our laws cannot Com-
pel them to take medicine. For peo-
ple of this way of thinking, the hydro-
pathic system was a boon. Such leg-
islation was arbitrary and Cruel to
many who had devoted all their early
years to the study and practice of this
method. One case in point may be
cited. There were doubtless many of
them. In the city of New York we
had a Dr. Schicferdeckcr, an original
and accomplished gentleman well up
in his school of practice, but he did
not believe in medicine, and naturally PRIESSNITZ'S MEDICINE.
enough with this disbelief he had never studied the materia medica of
any school. I happened to belong to one of the Boards of Censors of one
of the legalized medical societies at that time, and at a meeting of this
Board at my residence, a tall, stately, intellectual man applied for a
license to practise. It was Dr. Schieferdecker, who was well-known
to have an extensive practice in the city of New York among some Of
its wealthiest and most inſlucritial citizens. IIc frankly confessed he
had given little attention to materia medica, for he had no faith what-
ever in the treatment of disease by drugs. As the hydropathists had
no organized societies to whom he could appeal, he came to us. Under
the laws of New York then existing, a practising physician was required
to have a license from some one of the medical societies recognized by
the statutes of the State. I did my best to pull him through. I argued
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354 COMMON-SENSE REMEDIES.
with my fellow-members of the Board without avail. I urgently ad-
vised the granting of a license to the Doctor to practise his specialty
—hydropathy. It could have injured nobody but his wilfully blind
disciples who could not be prevailed upon to take a dose of medicine of
any kind, old school or new. As the old adage puts it, “Any man can
lead a horse to water, but a whole regiment of them cannot make him
drink.” And so it is in medicine, when a doctor attempts to force a
hygienist who abhors drugs to take his prescriptions. Persuasion and
law are powerless. I found it equally difficult to convince my col-
leagues that Dr. Schieferdecker should receive a license, and the disap-
pointed man went away empty-handed. He soon became involved in
worrying lawsuits instituted by the “regulars,” and shortly after his
obituary was published in the newspapers. The story, briefly told,
is that he was hounded to his death by envious contemporaries who
had the law on their side 1 This was not magnanimous. It was cruel.
It was barbarous. But this is a digression. I am treating of water as
a therapeutic agent and will return to the subject. .
While I do not deny the contracting and relaxing influences of
water, according to its temperature and the beneficial effects of each of
these in appropriate cases, I maintain that the real philosophy of
“water-cure” is based on electrical principles. Water possesses a great
amount of electricity. If the blood of an individual contains its natural
supply of iron, it attracts the electricity from the water, thereby rendering
the body of the invalid in an electrically positive condition compared with
the atmosphere. As soon, then, as the application has been made, an
active radiation of electricity from the system takes place, which accelerates
the escape of effete matter, and renders the pores, skin, and other organs
more active. It is, therefore, diametrically wrong to resort to Water in
the treatment of invalids with thin blood. Did hydropathists, gener-
ally, understand this philosophy, “water-cure” would not prove so often
water-kill. My theory is indirectly supported by that of Priessnitz.
According to Claridge, he held : .
1st. “That by the hydropathic treatment, the bad juices are
brought to, and discharged by, the skin.”
2d. “That a new circulation is given to the diseased or inactive
organs, and better juices infused into them.”
3d. “That all the functions of the body are brought into a nor-
mal state, not by operating upon any particular function, but, upon the
whole.” - *
Now, when we consider that whatever moves has a motive power,
and that “better juices” cannot enter, or “bad juices” depart from
the system, without some active agent to move them, my theory is not
only rendered plausible, but probable. Thus, when the electricity of
the water enters the body, water must necessarily go with it, because
WATER. - 355
its relations are such with that element that it forms a part of it ; and in
this way better juices are infused. When the application of water ceases,
the body being electrified by that fluid and rendered strongly positive,
compared with the surrounding atmosphere, active electrical radiation
ensues, carrying with it the “bad juices” which nature, in its instinct-
ive wisdom, is ever ready to dispose of when opportunity is presented.
The great amount of electricity possessed by water has been dem-
onstrated by Professor Faraday, and is now generally admitted by
chemists. His experiments show that the quantity of electricity set
free by the decomposition of ten drops of water is actually greater than .
exists in the most vivid flash of lightning.
In bloodless patients even tepid and hot baths are injurious, be
cause the blood does not possess the attractive property or iron to draw
in the electricity of the water, while its temperature relaxes the tissues
and leaves the system open to the ingress and progress of disease. It is
safe to say that a majority of invalids suffering with debility, ner-
vousness, consumption, and predisposition to apoplexy, should not re-
ceive full hydropathic treatment. In many cases of these descriptions it
should not be administered at all, and in most only sparingly and with
great discrimination.
Satisfied of the virtues of water as an aua'iliary agent, I have re-
sorted to it extensively in my practice, and by exercising the most care-
ful discrimination, with uniform success. Simple and abundant as this
remedy is, it is something which cannot be trifled with. Many good
men and women have unwittingly committed suicide with water. Hy-
dropathy is not as popular to-day as it was fifty years ago, on this ac-
count. It is a great pity that mankind is disposed to abuse and misuse
almost every good thing.
I have assiduously pursued the botanic, the hydropathic, and the
magnopathic methods of practice, and would rather abandon my pro-
fession than to discontinue any one of them, although I must candidly
confess that I would rather give up hydropathy than therapeutic elec-
tricity were I obliged to remove one plank from my medical platform.
If forced to drop one, the choice would rest between water and elec-
tricity, and I am thoroughly convinced that the latter can be made far
more conducive to the requirements of the invalid than the former.
My attention is wholly devoted to the treatment of chronic diseases, and
in such my experience demonstrates that electricity can be made more
available. In the treatment of acute disease, particularly fevers, water
may be, and, without doubt is, preferable. But for all around practice
there is nothing to-day which answers so many indications as the
botanical materia medica with the marvellous progress it has made in
the past twenty-five years. Call me what you like. I stick to “my
first love,” I am a botanical practitioner.
356 COMMON SENSE REMEDIES.
Medicated Inhalation.
Having found this system of treating pulmonary diseases a valua-
ble assistant in my practice, I should not close this chapter on remedies
Without, at least, an allusion to it. I have heard much said of curing
lung and bronchial diseases by medicated inhalation. Allow me to
make the bold assertion that a disease of the pulmonary organs was
never 7'adically cured by medicated inhalation alone.
In support of this view, I have only to invite the attention of the
reader to a consideration of the causes which lead to pulmonary and
bronchial complaints. It is well known that an abscess under the arm,
tubercles on the skin, and ulcers on the limbs, denote an impure con-
dition of the blood, from which they all arise. Is it not, then, self-
evident that any of these diſticulties located in the delicate membranes
of the respiratory organs give evidence of and spring from the same
cause ? Is there an AEsculapian wiseacre who can command enough
Sophism to seemingly disprove this 7
The blood is not impartial in the distribution of its impurities, but
invariably sends them to that part of the system which has the least
power to resist them. Hence, persons having a scrofulous or canker
humor in the blood, and at the same time a predisposition to weak lungs,
the worst form of ulcerous or tuberculous consumption is in time de-
veloped. The question then arises, will medicated inhalation cleanse
the blood of its impurities 7 If not, how can a radical cure be effected ?
There are other forms of consumption, such as those induced by
amenorrhoea, thin blood, solidification of the lungs, etc. The first, of
course, is peculiar only to females. Will inhalation remove the cause
from which springs the effect 7 The second arises from general debil-
ity, and a diseased action of the liver and kidneys. Will inhalation
arouse the lethargic functions of the system, and restore to the blood
its strength and nutrition ? The third either grows out of one of the
different forms of consumption first considered, or else from a weak-
ness of the nerve or electric force, which expands and contracts the
air-vesicles and moves the diaphragm. The medicated vapors inhaled
must therefore possess miraculous powers in the restoration of the tone
of the vascular and nervous system, or a cure cannot be effected.
Consumptive invalids, who resort to inhalation alone for relief, as
well as physicians who practise on that system, lose sight of one im-
portant fact—i.e., consumption of the lungs and bronchºtºs are only the
EFFECTs of other derangements of the system.
It is unnecessary to occupy space with an argument to show how
certainly a convalescent consumptive must relapse when effects are
treated and causes left undisturbed. If this essay should happen to
meet the eye of any one who thinks he has been cured of consumption
MEDICATED IN HALATION. 357
or bronchitis by inhalation, let me assure him that either his physician
was mistaken in the diagnosis of his disease, or his old complaint still
lurks in his system, ready at any favorable time, when exposure occurs,
to return with redoubled virulence.
I prescribe inhaling remedies in pulmonary and bronchial difficul-
ties, for the same reason I do washes and ointments in the management
of cutaneous diseases. Local applications are often necessary, while the
slow but sure work of purification is going on internally ; but to rely on
them exclusively is presumptuous, to say the least. I sometimes find it
necessary to summon electropathy or magnopathy to my aid in battling
the hydra-headed disease—consumption. I always prescribe invigor-
ating and purifying blood medicines in addition to medicated inhalation,
and should as soon think of dipping out the Croton River without cut-
ting off its tributaries, as to attempt to cure consumption without them.
Conclusion.
The successful physician does not ride “one hobby.” One-ideaism
in medical practice is perfectly incompatible with uniform success.
Then, too, different constitutions require different remedies. A “one-
cure-all” is an impossibility. One hat will not fit everybody's head—one
coat everybody's back, nor one circumscribed medical system every-
body’s disease. The medical profession generally must mount a more
comprehensive platform.
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CHAPTER V.
DOCTORS.
EFORE passing a criticism upon the pro
fession myself, allow me to give a few speci-
mens of the hard raps they receive from
various sources. Some graceless wag has
Said that “Physicians are the nut-crackers
used by angels to get our souls out of the
shells that surround them l’” When Woltaire
was informed that a friend was preparing for the practice
of medicine, he exclaimed: “Why will he be so mean
He will have to thrust drugs of which he knows little,
into a body of which he knows less l’” A story is told of
‘. . a doctor and a military officer who became enamoured of
the same lady. Somebody inquired of her which of the
two suitors she intended to favor. Her reply was, that “It was diffi-
cult for her to determine, as they were both such killing creatures.”
The Portland Transcript relates that at a “Medical Convention holden
at Lewiston, the clergy and members of the bar were invited to a repast
given at a hotel by the followers of Galen ; and after the cloth was
removed, during the interchange of sentiments, the Rev. Mr. B., while
alluding to the intimate relations between the clergy and the physician,
in all seriousness remarked, that it was a somewhat singular fact that
* When the doctor was called, the minister was sure to follow.’ The doc-
tors gave him three cheers.” A newspaper at Lynn, noticing this scrap,
remarked that it was reminded of a hard hit at the doctors, which may
be found in the Bible, in the 16th chapter of the second book of
Chronicles : “And Asa in the thirty-ninth year of his reign was
diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceedingly great ; yet in his
disease he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians. And Asa slept
with his fathers, and died in the one and fortieth year of his reign.”
Still another editor thought he discovered a harder rap on the medical
fraternity, in St. Mark's Gospel, 5th chapter and 26th verse, relating
to a “certain woman who had suffered many things of many physicians,
and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather

358
DOCTORS. 359
grew worse.” The unkindest cut of all has been made by the Cleveland
Leader on the surgeons, and this is what it said :
They sawed off his arms and his legs,
They took out his jugular vein ;
They put fancy frills on his lungs,
And they deftly extracted his brain.
'Twas a triumph of surgical skill
Such as never was heard of till then :
'Twas the subject of lectures before
Conventions of medical men.
The nows of this wonderful thing
Was heralded far and Wide :
But as for the patient there's nothing to say,
IExcept, of course, that he died
FIG. 116.
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THE “DOCTOR'' IN THE BOW.
Where the editors stopped in this tirade it is difficult to say ; but
one of our city physicians received a “stunning ” surprise from a red-
man, when on a summer vacation in Michigan, a few years ago. Dr.
G. was being rowed across the St. Clair River by two Indians, who had
a stupid, half-drunken companion stowed away in the bow, whom they
familiarly called “Doctor.” Dr. G.'s curiosity was aroused, and he
inquired why they called that man Doctor. The red-men rowed away
lustily without replying, knowing that their guest and patron was a
physician. Again he asked, and received no response. The Indians
evidently did not like to tell. As they neared the shore, Dr. G. could
endure the suspense no longer, and approaching within whispering
distance, again repeated the question : “Why do you call that fellow






































36O DOCTORS.
Doctor 7” “Cause,” said the red-face, very vehemently, “he d–n
fool | " Dr. G. gracefully subsided !
While all the foregoing are jokes, the perpetration of them indi-
Cates an undercurrent of prejudice against the profession, which quite
universally exists. Few entertain it toward any honorable member
of the profession individually ; but they regard doctors, as a class,
necessary evils, and by no means equal to what is required of them by
suffering humanity. One reason for this is that so many men of
mediocre ability enter the profession. The rich man who has a son
mentally unqualified to be a lawyer, morally unfitted to be made a min-
ister, and who has not the capacity to make a successful business man,
is very likely to be sent to a medical school. He may there acquire,
parrot-like, the names of the various organs of the body, and by toler-
ably hard study, a passable knowledge of the dispensatory; and, con-
Cealing his natural incapacity in a dust of technicalities which he ostenta-
tiously kicks up when he emerges from the college, diploma in hand,
he passes among quite intelligent people for an accomplished physician.
Then there are many young men who work their way up through
poverty, and desiring to enter some one of the professions, are quite apt
to select that of medicine, without once asking themselves if they
have any natural aptitude for the discharge of its duties. Thus the
medical schools are annually graduating young doctors as numerously
as the Yankee factories are turning out all sorts of “notions.”
Another reason for want of confidence in the profession at large is
its want of originality in devising means to relieve suffering humanity.
There are not enough inventive and independent men among the doctors.
Surgery makes some progress, but medicine very little, excepting
among men who are willing to be reviled as “quacks,” rather than
follow the beaten paths of the “regulars.” Young physicians enter
upon the practice of medicine with the idea that they have only to fol-
low the rules given in their books, and the precepts of their alma mater,
to raise the sick from beds of suffering, and make themselves famous
for skill. The thinking ones discover their mistake in a few months
or years, and make amends by embracing the remedies and systems
of other schools. Some do this without attempt at concealment, and
others vary the practice of their particular school while claiming to
remair, true to its teaching. They have too much professional-caste-
pride to admit that they at all deviate from the creed of their faculty.
The non-thinking, booby-class, stick to the text blindly. They shut
their eyes to every new medical invention ; will not listen to any report
of good coming from any other school ; fully believe, every time they
lose a patient, that it is in the dispensation of Divine Providence that
people should die at the particular juncture that they yield up their
last breath ; they are entirely satisfied that they have done the best that
DOCTORS “JACKS AT ALL TRADES.” 36I
could be done, and they feel perfectly resigned to the will of the
Supreme Being ! Men of no medical attainments whatever often suc-
ceed, through good sense and ingenuity, in curing people who have
been set aside to die by the doctors. It has almost become a proverb that
a good nurse is better than a physician ; and an invalid is more ready to
take the advice and herb-tea of some good old mother or “aunty,” than
the counsel and drugs of the polished physician. Indeed, the latter is
often employed for no other reason than to silence the clamor of friends,
who would be shocked if the patient should die without the attend-
ance of a popular doctor. The chaise at the door, and the gold-
mounted cane in the hall, are evidences that nothing is left undone
which may in any way contribute to the restoration of the one pros-
trated on a bed of sickness I Still another reason for the lack of Con-
fidence of the people in physicians, and the partial failure of the latter
in making themselves worthy of confidence, will be found in the next
essay.
Doctors “Jacks at all Trades.”
There can be no greater folly in a physician than to attempt,
within the brief period of his mundane existence, to acquire skill in
the treatment of all diseases to which mankind is subject. A large
majority of the members of the medical profession are like the versa-
tile mechanic, who is said to be a “jack at all rades and master of
none.” Any man who tasks his ingenuity by trying to unite in him-
self the house-carpenter, the joiner, the cabinet-maker, the carver, the
pump-maker, the ship-carpenter, and chair-maker, may generally be
set down as a man of extensive pretensions and "meagre executive
abilities. The professional man who assumes to combine in himself
the politician, the pedagogue, the editor, the pettifogger, the dominie,
etc., may possibly exhibit some little tact in all, but he will as surely
excel in none. So with the physician who would be a skilful surgeon,
an accomplished accoucheur, and a successful doctor, in diseases, both
acute and chronic ; he divides his attention to such a degree as to ren-
der him unskilful in the performance of the duties of any one of them.
There ought, at least, to be three distinct branches in the medical
profession. The Surgeon : He must be a natural mechanic, and as
well acquainted with the mechanism of the human system, as the watch-
maker is with the fine works of a time-piece. His sympathies must be
sufficiently blunt to enable him to take the human system apart with a
steady nerve. He must be as deaf to the cries of his patient as if he were
moved by machinery like an automaton. The Physician in acute diseases:
He must have a fair knowledge of anatomy, and be thoroughly accom-
plished in materia medica. He must be sympathetic, and recognize the
value of psychic medicine ; a constant student, and thoroughly ac-
3a,
362 DOCTORS.
quainted with all the symptoms presented in what are called acute
diseases. He must have a taste for the duties of his vocation, and
not pursue them simply with an eye to business. The Physician in
chronic diseases: He, too, must have a pretty good knowledge of the
Organs and functions of the body, and of the science of materia medica.
He must have the sympathetic nature of a woman, and the patience of
a mother. He must practise mental science as well as materia medica.
He must possess that intuition which will enable him to seek out the
hidden causes of disease—to comprehend the relation which one com-
plication sustains to another. He must move around with his eyes and
ears Open—ready to enlarge his medical resources. He must, in brief,
possess ingenuity, observation, intuition, sympathy, magnetism, pa-
tience, and a spirit of perseverance and industry. He must love
humanity, and pursue his profession mainly because he loves to do
good. These are three entirely different vocations, even more dis-
similar than house-building, cabinet-making, and ship-building. Surely,
surgery is totally unlike prescribing for the sick, and it may be easily
shown that there is no similarity whatever between acute and chronic
diseases. -
Now, why should the physician be a jack at all trades any more
than the mechanic, the lawyer, the school-teacher, or merchant 2 Look
at the various departments in mercantile pursuits. The jeweller does
not traffic in dry-goods, nor the dry-goods merchant in hardware, nor
the grocer in watches, nor the furniture dealer in tinware, nor the
crockery merchant in sugar, except in the large department stores,
where a specialist presides over each line of goods. Occasionally, these
branches are united under one management in sparsely settled villages,
and in such localities a physician might be excused for playing the Sur-
geon and doctor in acute diseases, but a person residing in a small place
suffering with a chronic complaint can avail himself of a city physician
who devotes his entire attention to such disorders, and the village doc-
tor should not tamper with this class of diseases if he desires to be suc-
cessful and to do injury to no one. -
In large towns there is not a shadow of an excuse for a physician
to practise all branches of his profession, to the manifest detriment of
a large portion of his patients. Every physician knows, or Ought to
know, in what class of diseases he is most successful, and in the treat-
ment of which his mental capacities and acquirements best qualify
him, and to this particular class he should devote his undivided atten-
tion, and not, like a patent medicine, proclaim himself an infallible
cure for every disease.
With such a classification as I propose, the man who wants a limb
amputated would go to the surgeon whose daily experience qualifies
him to do his work skilfully ; one with a fever would send for a doctor
| SHOULD WE HAVE WOMEN DOCTORS ) 363
whose experience is daily ripened in his exclusive attendance upon the
calls of sufferers with acute diseases; one with neurasthenia, consump-
tion, or other lingering disease, would call upon a physician whose
attention is solely given to the treatment of chronic disorders, in the
constant management of which he is daily acquiring additional skill.
In trying to cover the whole ground, a physician cannot possibly
acquire superior skill before his locks are hoary and his energies
paralyzed with age, and then, to use a common expression, he “is too
lazy” to put to active use the acquirements which long years of study
and experience have bestowed on him. How many, too, the old man
has killed in preparing himself for skill and eminence, which he can
not bequeath to any younger relative or friend.
What nonsense, then, for men to attempt to grasp knowledge and
skill in all branches of the healing art, blundering along through
years of unproficiency, dodging from the operating-chair of a surgeon
to the sick-bed of a feverish patient, and from the accouchement-bed
to an examination of, and prescription for, a chronic disease of the
lungs, liver, kidneys, stomach, or something else.
So far as I am concerned, I wish it distinctly understood that I
have nothing to do with surgery or acute diseases, my whole study and
practice being solely devoted to complaints of a chronic nature. In
these I claim to be proficient, and stand ready to compare the results
of my practice with that of any ten physicians, put together, who essay
to treat all classes of disease.
For the benefit of such of my patients as need surgical operations
of any kind, I have a separate surgical bureau under the management
of a physician skilful in this department; but, personally, I meddle
with nothing outside of my specialty. If physicians generally would
pursue this course, the public would in time entertain a better opinion
of the medical profession, and doctors would cease to be the butts of
ridicule,
Should We Have Women Doctors?
It seems really difficult to write a word seriously under this head,
for the reason that when the question is presented to any impartial
mind, it would appear that if there is any one vocation to which woman
is better suited by nature than to another, it is the care of the sick.
Look for a moment at the qualities requisite to make a good physician.
They are : keen perception—intuition—sympathy—magnetism—pa-
tience—gentleness—love. No one, who has ever been stretched upon
a bed of sickness, will omit from the category one of these qualities as
unnecessary. Only two qualifications remain to be added, viz.: an
enthusiasm to undertake the duties of the profession, and a thorough
education. No one will dispute that the first qualities named are gen.
364 T)OCTORS.
erally possessed to a greater degree by women than by men. Of the
Qualifications last mentioned, there is as little danger of women becom-
ing doctors without a natural taste for the labors of the profession, as
there is of men doing so ; and if any are disposed to assert that they
are mentally incapable of acquiring an accomplished medical education
when proper facilities are afforded, I suppose that person must be
answered, although I blush at the indignity offered to women while
undertaking the task. How do we generally find it in schools 7 Is it
indeed the case that boys learn more rapidly than girls & Reverse the
question, and teachers will respond “Yes.” Some claim that girls
cannot attain proficiency in mathematics. This has never been estab-
lished by any satisfactory evidence ; and if it were, what need has a
physician of a complete mathematical education ? Others have said
that she is not inventive. It is true that she has not flooded the patent
office with caveats and applications for patents; possibly because hus-
bands and fathers have usurped for their personal benefit nearly every
thing which the female mind may have suggested. But an objection
of this kind may be effectually met by the facts that Madame Ducou-
dray invented the manikin, and Madame Boivin some of the most useful
obstetrical instruments in use. The lady last mentioned is the author of
several medical works, which are regarded as authoritics by many em.
inent medical men in Europe and America. Professor Meigs, of Philadel-
phia, in alluding to the valuable services this eminent woman has ren-
dered to the medical profession, remarks that : “Her writings prove
her to have becn a most learned physician, and as she crjoyed a very
large practice, her science and her great clinical experience, as well
as her personal knowledge are more to be relied on than that of all
male physicians together.” In England, a person must pass a rigid
examination to become a druggist, and a Miss Garrett passed “a five
years' apprenticeship ; a preliminary examination in arts, and two pro-
fessional examinations, each comprising five subjects.” Miss Garrett
was reported to have acquitted herself brilliantly, and the chairman of
the apothecaries, after complimenting her ability, expressed a wish
“that all men in the profession were as well prepared.”
The first woman who aspired to become a physician had a hard
time of it. The story is as follows: “Agnodice, a native of Athens,
was the first regular qualified female practitioner of whom there is any
authentic record, and gained considerable renown. At that time the
laws forbade women to study medicine, but Agnodice, being evidently
an advanced woman, disguised herself as a man, and succeeded in pass-
ing through the college—graduating with honors, 300 B.C. She prac.
tised among the women of Athens, with marked success, it is said, but
eventually her secret became known, whereupon she was arrested, and
only released in deference to the storm of protest from her sex.”
SHOULD WE HAVE WOMEN I) ()()T() RS & 365
The time is rapidly approaching, however, when the success of
women in the practice of medicine will be so well established that no
one will have the effrontery to question her capacity in this pursuit.
Since Elizabeth Blackwell graduated from the medical school at
Geneva, N. Y., in the year 1849, various medical colleges and hospitals
have been established for the benefit of female students and practitioners.
There are medical institutions for the instruction of women in this
city, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and other cities of the United
States. There are about three thousand female physicians in this
country, who graduated regularly from chartered institutions. Some
of these have incomes of ten or twenty thousand dollars per year from
their practice.
In England, France, Germany and Austria, women have been
admitted to practice. While writing this a press dispatch from Buda-
pest, Hungary, says the “Royal Society of Physicians here has just
ended a long debate to decide whether women doctors should or should
not be admitted to membership in the society. A resolution was
finally voted to revise the statutes of the society so as to allow of their
admission. Ninety-one members voted for and forty-four against the
Women.”
At this rate it will not take many years to convince the most
knotty conservative mind that women will practise medicine, and that,
too, with credit to themselves and satisfaction to their patients.
There is one point wherein those favorable to women as practi-
tioners of medicine fail to appreciate the benefit which may accrue
when women doctors become available in every part of the country.
The presentation of it at this time will sound as ridiculous as the claim
of women to study medicine did half a century ago; but I trust that a
score of years will not pass before it is recognized. It is this: Male
invalids should have female physicians, and female invalids should have
7nale physicians.
One great argument used at this time for the admission of women
to the practice of medicine is, that they may attend to the diseases
peculiar to their own sex; but if the truth were fully known, the secret
of the opposition of women to their own sex aspiring to fame in the
medical profession springs out of repugnance, in a measure, to any
Such arrangement. Women do not want female doctors to attend
them. There are, of course, Some actual and many seeming exceptions
to this rule; but if there were as many eminent women in practice at
this moment as there are men, the majority of women would at heart
prefer that the latter attend them ; and so soon as women conquer all
prejudice and become famous as doctors, men will not hesitate to
exhibit a preference for female skill. This secret crops out even now,
and may be perceived by any observer, The sick man who has a skil-
366 T)OCTORS.
ful female nurse in his room is charmed with her attentions, and takes
her advice and the little daintics she prepares, without hesitation. The
visit of his physician is accepted as an evil that cannot be dispensed
with, and when he has departed, the patient Sagely questions the
'rationale of his counsels and prescriptions. On the other hand, the
sick woman, if her preferences in the selection of a physician have not
been wantonly disregarded, doles on the call of her doctor, and feels
better when he is present. She takes his doses about as submissively
as the sick man swallows the pleasant things the nurse prepares. The
philosophy of all this may be discovered in the essay on “Social Mag-
netism,” etc., commencing on page 195. I have taken some pains to
ascertain the sentiments of intelligent patients of both sexes on this
point, and although they at first appeared startled at the novelty of the
idea, having never thought of such a thing before, they almost, without
exception, on reflection, agreed that such an arrangement would best
accord with their individual preferences, if skill were equally shared
by the doctors of each sex. As things now are, the most steadfast
friends of the family doctor are women. Every woman who has a
really good physician recommends him to everybody, and is impatient
because she cannot induce her next-door neighbor to employ him.
To her imagination, he is about the nicest man, and the most skilful
doctor the world has ever produced. Men never get so enthusiastic
over their medical adviser, although they may express gratitude when
relieved of pain by him. In the latter case, the relief is obtained
mainly through the effects of medicaments administered ; but with the
woman, the benefit is about equally derived from the medicines and
the magnetism of the doctor. He presses his hand on her brow, feels
her pulse, sits for awhile beside her, and chats as only a person of one
sex can talk with one of the other. The conversation becomes flippant
and cheerful ; the spirits rise like mercury in the thermometer when
held in a warm hand ; the effect is magical ; and when he departs, she
looks forward with pleasure to the next call, while taking his prescrip-
tions with confidence and alacrity during the interval. This, under-
stand me, when she has the physician of her choice. Woe to the doc-
tor if she does not like him personally 1 She hesitates to send for him
when her friends think it necessary. She never did take such nasty
stuff before She knows it can do her no good “Oh, dear, how can
my husband have any confidence in that fellow * *
Now, reader, here is a new crotchet for you to mentally digest.
Bring the results of your observation, your personal experience, physio-
logical and magnetic law, to bear upon its consideration. Dismiss all
idea of any impropriety in employing a female doctor if a man, or a
masculine doctor if a woman. Indeed, the latter have had very little
medical care from any other source than that of their opposite Sex ; but
JRAPACIOUS DOCTORS. 367
scarcely anybody seems to have discovered any impropriety in the
custom which sanctions it. I speak now as a man's-rights-man I
demand for our sex the medical education of women in order that We
may, when sick, have their sympathy, advice, and medical care.
Who can consistently oppose the proposition ? Certainly not those
women who have objected to the medical education of women, because
they are satisfied to have only male doctors; this would be selfish.
Nor yet men who think the latter may be with propriety employed to
attend their wives and daughters in all cases however delicate.
“What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander l’” It is, then,
left for those only who are in favor of female medical schools and
practitioners, to urge an objection. Nothing can consistently come
from this quarter; for when women physicians become numerous, it
may, in sparsely settled regions, be quite as difficult to employ a male
practitioner as it is now to find a female physician. The latter may
take the place of many of the former cntirely in some localities; SO it
will be perceived that “things will become mixed,” unavoidably, unless
we have some definite idea of the distinct functions of male and female
practitioners, and act upon it. If it be decided that we must have
female doctors for men, and male physicians for women, it will
encourage the settlement of those of each sex in every neighborhood,
large or small ; and then, when anyone has an affection of a very
delicate character, peculiar to his or her sex, there will be an oppor-
tunity to “change base,” and present the case to a physician of the
Same Sex as the patient.
Rapacious Doctors.
The finny inhabitants of the sea have sharks among them. On
land there are beasts and birds of prey. The human family is not
exempt from analogous specimens. There are vampires among all
classes, trades, and professions. Sharp practice in trade, however,
produces no immediate effect upon any thing except the pocket; but the
physician who prostitutes his profession by frightening, and then
picking the pockets of the sick, places himself on a level with those
monsters in human shape, who, amid the crash and ruin of earthquakes,
Sack falling buildings and rifle the bodies of the prostrate and dying.
“Your money or your life I’’ is the ejaculation of the highwayman,
and it is morally and practically the demand of the rapacious physician.
These strictures by no means apply to those who, by assiduous devotion
to the studies and duties of the profession, acquire a reputation which
enables them to charge and receive large fees for their services. It is
perfectly consistent with the commercial spirit of our imperfect civili-
Zation, and in exact keeping with the business understanding which
Our Social system has established, to do so. The minister of the gospel
368 T)OCTORS.
who possesses the greatest power to edify a Congregation, generally
finds it his Christian duty to accept a call from the church which pays
the highest salary. The lawyer who has gained a reputation in his
profession is so beset with clients that he can keep his practice within
the limits of his physical endurance only by Charging such fees as will
frighten away from his office what are Commonly denominated “small
s
FIG. I. 17
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THE TERRIERIICD LADY.
fry.” The merchant who possesses a mind that enables him to con-
duct an extensive establishment, makes his millions per year, while his
Smaller competitors are satisfied with their thousands or hundreds.
The experienced navigator, who can trace a path covered by fathomless
water, commands a larger salary than the captain of an oyster sloop,
who guides his craft by landmarks and light-houses. The mechanic
who has acquired such skill in handicraft as to be able to construct a
steam-engine, receives greater pay than one who can only hammer out a





















RAPACIOUS T)OCTORS. 369
pot-hook. The farmer who has studied so deeply the science of agri-
culture that he rivals his less enterprising neighbors in the production
of fine crops, receives a correspondingly larger compensation for
his wisdom and industry. Even Bridget, in the kitchen, who under-
stands all the arts of cooking, receives five or ten dollars more per
month than her muscular sister who can only do the household
scrubbing. It is, therefore, entirely in harmony with the established
law regulating compensations, for the skilful physician to limit his per-
sonal labors to his power to do, by charging fees commensurate with
his ability ; but the rapacious doctor is one who, for the express pur-
pose of making fees, alarms those who consult him. I will give a
couple of illustrations of an aggravating character which came under
my immediate observation. One Sabbath morning I was summoned to
my consultation-room by a woman about thirty years of age, who
looked the picture of despair. Every feature betokened agonizing dis-
tress. She had passed many sleepless nights in apprehension of an early
and painful death. This apprehension was occasioned by consultation
with a doctor who pronounced her disease, cancer in the stomach ;
and, as if this diagnosis was not sufficiently alarming in itself, he told
her she would not live six weeks if she did not have immediate medical
attention. Fortunately he placed his fees above her ability to pay. I
Say fortunately, because had she become his patient, she would have been
frightened and drugged into a condition of disease. Unable to raise the
required money, she sought other advice. After examining her case
I assured her that there was nothing in the world the matter with her
but a slight attack. of gastritis, caused by some imprudence in eating.
She had consulted the doctor only on account of momentary pain, such
as anybody may have by eating something which might disturb the
digestion. After some effort, I quieted her fears, and sent her away
without fee or medicine. Some months after, she called to assure me
of the correctness of my diagnosis, and to thank me for the mental
relief my opinion had rendered. Case number two was a planter from
Louisiana, who had come to the city to sell a cargo of sugar. He had
the appearance of a man of means, and was a capital subject for a
rapacious doctor. He called upon me with the remark that he had
stricture of the urethra. Upon examination, no symptom warranted
any such supposition, and I asked him why he had imagined that he
Was strictured. He replied that he had, before leaving New Orleans, ,
a disease of the urethra liable to result in stricture, and that on arriving
in New York he had consulted a physician to ascertain if such a diffi-
culty was developing. The doctor examined his case, and gravely
decided that the urethra had already become the seat of stricture. He
prescribed for him, and received a fee of thirty dollars Making fur-
ther investigation, to be sure that I was quite right, and finding not the
370 DOCTORS
first indication of any complaint, I assured him that there was nothing
at all the matter, and advised him to let medicines and doctors alone ;
but the idea seemed fixed in his imagination that there was, and with
Strange persistency, he inquired if I would not undertake his case.
What, thought I, shall I do with this man 2 My business and moral
faculties had a soliloquy. The latter told me that if I accepted his
money it would burn my pocket and disturb my sleep. Finally, Isaid:
“Mr. A–, let this alone for four weeks, and if at the end of that
time anything like stricture shows itself, I will prescribe for you.”
He departed, and in less than ten days called again, and informed me
that he felt an unusual uneasiness in the urethra. On examination I
found the orifice inflamed, and inquired if he had not been using
bougies. “Yes,” was his response, “the doctor who before prescribed
for me, advised them.” I urged him to let the supposed affection alone,
as he was causing irritation; and made him promise that he would
Wait the time I had before advised; but before the expiration of twenty
days he fell into the hands of another rapacious medical concern, more
ravenous than the first—had paid $100; and now they demanded
$1,400 more before they could perfect a cure | The man was so thor-
Oughly scared that he actually thought of accepting these exorbitant
terms, and it was with difficulty that I talked him out of the notion
which the doctors had talked into him. Determining not to be
remotely accessory to the robbery of this frightened man, I refused,
from first to last, to receive one cent from him. I say this in justice to
myself, for it is due to my self-respect, at the close of this remarkable
story, that I should publicly wash my hands of all participation in the
revenue accruing from the sharp practice of the doctors in this case.
Whether he finally followed my advice I am unable to say, as he did
not call again.
While some people are not apt to realize the danger they are in
when diseased, many become unduly alarmed on the slightest occasion
of pain or other physical disturbance; and it is better that the former
die in their ignorance, than that the latter should be frightened to
death by an intentionally deceptive, or a careless diagnosis. It, therefore,
should be the aim of the honorable physician to avoid arousing unneces-
sary alarm in the minds of invalids or those who may imagine that they
are sick ; and the latter should not be too credulous when a doctor tells
them that their symptoms indicate danger. Indeed, the honesty of any
physician may be suspected when he takes apparent pains to impress
on the invalid a sense of anxiety about himself. This duty may safely
be left to the friends of the invalid if he be not himself sufficiently
Jncerned to take the necessary steps for effecting his recovery. Anx-
ious mothers, sisters, husbands, and wives are generally quick to
observe the signs of failing health in one they love, and unfortunately
DoCTORS WHO BANK ON REPUTATIONS OF OTHERS, 371
they sometimes unduly alarm the invalid by their expressions of solici-
tude. In no case is it necessary for the doctor to do so, even in express-
ing a candid opinion, as there is a way of pronouncing an unfavorable
diagnosis without arousing the timidity of the patient.
Fortunately for the sick, the practice of medicine has a humanizing
effect upon the hearts of men who pursue it. Daily contact with
suffering humanity develops sympathy and liberality, so that even the
mercenary doctor of to-day may in time become too considerate of the
health and life of those who consult him, to prey upon their fears.
Doctors Who Bank on the Reputations of Others.
Before concluding this chapter it may be well to put the reader on
his guard against the impositions of those who seek to gain favor and
practice through representations that they are in some way related to,
or professionally connected with, a physician who has gained eminence
by his success. This deception is in some instances resorted to, and for
a time quite successfully. I will mention one which will serve to show
how easily an intelligent community may be victimized by a fairly
agreeable looking man who has some native ability combined with what
may be called “colossal cheek.” In the early part of the eighties,
word came to the writer from Fargo, N. D., that a physician had put
out his shingle there with the representation that he was the son of Dr.
E. B. Foote, the author and practitioner of New York. I at once
caused the imposition, to be exposed through the press of that city, and
he was next heard of at Bismarck, where he had advertised himself as
Dr. E. B. Foote, Jr. A patient residing in that city wrote to me
inquiring if I had a son in practice there, and I made haste to dislodge
him from that locality. Next his shingle appeared in Helena, Mont.,
and one of the local readers of my publications immediately acquainted
me with the fact, so that he was soon broken up in this new field of his
professional labors and characteristic deceptions. -
One would naturally suppose that after all this experience he
would have dropped the name of Foote, Jr., and caught upon some
other name that would have given him prestige. But no, he was next
heard of in Salt Lake City, where he had borrowed $1,500 from one of
the local clergymen and opened a medical establishment, occupying the
entire second story of a large brick building with a well displayed sign
of “Dr. Foote's Institute.” My publications had been largely read
throughout the West, and I was professionally well known all through
Utah. The information came quickly of the new-comer who still ad-
vertised himself as Dr. Foote, Jr. He had in his large reception-room
a charming young woman, who did not dream of his being a fraud, to
receive callers and to tell them that he was the son of the well-known
372 ſ)OCTORS.
Specialist bearing his (assumed) name in New York City. She had been
instructed to give glowing accounts of his father's practice, of the suc-
cess of his “Medical Common Sense,” “Plain Home Talk,” “Science
in Story,” etc., not forgetting to add that the son had had the advan-
tages of a superior European education, and that he was even better
equipped than his father in New York for the successful treatment of
chronic diseases. To these facts regarding her function she made affi-
davit when she came to know his real character. He had made arrange-
ments with the managers of the railroads having lines centring there
to sell excursion tickets at a reduced price to people of distant cities,
Villages, and mining camps, and on the strength of his reputed father's
reputation his practice grew to such an extent that he was compelled to
employ three medical assistants to help him take care of his numerous
patients | His drug bill at one local pharmacy was said to average
$250 per week He patronized the press of Salt Lake City most gen-
erously, and almost everything else, including the livery stables. He
Was an experienced equestrian and rode a handsome horse with much
grace and dignity. In brief, to use a common expression, he “cut a
Swell,” and was in “full feather ” when I determined this time to
appear on the scene in person. It was in the early spring of 1885 that I.
alighted from the train at the station in Salt Lake City, and judge of
my surprise when I was at once accosted by a “cabby" who inquired
if I wanted to go to “Foote's Institute l’’ I took carriage to the
Walker House and had not been there many hours before the “big
fraud.” was pointed out to me as he passed the door, seated on his
favorite steed, and looking as if he might have been the king of the
cannibal isles. I at once determined, if possible, to have an injunction
served on the impostor, but my legal adviser cautioned me that it might
not be an easy matter to prove that his name was not Foote, or that he
was not entitled to the name of Foote, Jr. This was before I had ascer-
tained how ingeniously he was making it appear in his parlors and
otherwise that he was directly connected with me. In his advertise-
ments he dropped the initials “E. B.” after having been driven from
the other cities named, and at Salt Lake City he was known simply by
the name of “Dr. Foote, Jr.” I found the newspapers loath to expose
him, as he was a generous patron at the advertising counters of the pub-
lication offices. I decided to open rooms myself and put out my
shingle with the name of Dr. E. B. Foote, Sr., of New York. I had
the entire ground floor wing of a hotel in the place, at that time called
the Spencer House. This proved a successful scheme. The public
preferred to see the Senior. They did not care to consult the boy when
the old man was around ! My rooms were crowded, and his parlors
became the storage-rooms of vacant chairs. He gradually gave up
his apartments one by one until he retained, only two. As the readers
DOCTORS WHO BANK ON REPUTATIONS OF OTHERS, 373
of my publications related to me their experiences when calling upon
the impostor, their verbal statements were taken down by my stenog-
rapher, and affidavits were made by the relators affirming their truth.
After spending some weeks with all I could well get through with in
practice, equipped with a large armful of affidavits, I personally pre-
sented the evidences of the man's fraudulent practices at the law offices
of Messrs. Sutherland & McBride, and in turn they laid them before
Judge Zane, who at once issued an injunction ; but before the instru-
ment could be personally served upon him the impostor, hearing of what
had happened, decamped. If lie had remained a few days longer, the
Grand Jury would have taken the matter up and he would have been
criminally indicted. .
There is a genuine Dr. E. B. Foote, Jr., and he is associated with
his father in practice, having graduated from the College of Physicians
and Surgeons in 1876. He has been in practice by my side since his
graduation up to the present moment, but it is unnecessary to say he is
a widely different character from the one to which this narrative relates.
When the Senior is for any reason absent from his office, the Junior is
in charge. My absence during my trip to Salt Lake City covered a
period of a little over two months on that eventful visit, and in 1890,
through the urgent Solicitation of friends and patients, I made a second
professional visit to Salt Lake City, remaining several weeks. On my
arrival the second time I found a gentleman from Idaho awaiting my
coming with what the doctors had diagnosed as a tumor in the hip-
joint. (Bear in mind this chapter is about doctors.) They had actually
advised a hip-joint amputation His suffering with pain in the joint
was indescribable, banishing all refreshing sleep and threatening to
end his mundane existence. One of the most noted surgeons in that
region, it was said by the unfortunate man, agreed with other physi-
cians whom he had consulted, and strongly advised the amputation of
the limb I found it to be simply a bad case of neuralgia, and in a
week's time, without the aid of opiates, I had him sleeping comfortably,
a luxury which had been denied him for many months, and in due
time, with such remedies as I expressed to him at his home in Idaho,
he made a complete recovery. “Doctors disagree,” according to the
old adage, and it is well that they do sometimes. Surgery is too often
resorted to when medicine will remove the trouble. Good medicine
may often take the place of skilful surgery. It may also effect what
Some Occult means may fail to accomplish. The “Latter Day Saints"
are as Opinionated as the Christian or mental scientists are in regard to
medicine, and when they are ill they apply to the elders, who treat
them by “anointing them with oil and the laying on of hands.” But
on both of my visits to Utah, I discovered that they were not averse
to taking doses of botanical medicine, and I found many patients and
374 Doctors.
good friends among them. All this, however, is a little digressive, and
I will bring this matter to a close.
MORE PRETENDERS,
It was my original intention to end Part I. with the exposé of the
remarkable character who cavorted under the assumed name of Dr.
Foote, Jr., in several Western cities some years ago. But for the pro-
tection of my readers and myself, it seems best to extend this chapter
a little further. The foregoing had been written but not put in type
when information reached my office that four men had opened a hand-
Some office, with well furnished reception and consultation rooms, at
No. 161 Adams Street, Chicago, Ills., under the firm name of “DR.
FOOTE & STAFF.” An investigation was promptly instituted at the
instigation of Dr. Foote, Jr., and it was found that these men were
actually representing their concern as a branch of my office in New York
City. Strange to say, when they were discovered, they were doing a
flourishing professional business in a metropolis which has the strictest
medical laws of any city in the Union. Their misleading sign was
large and attractive, bringing many local patients under their treat-
ment, and they were also receiving many letters daily from invalids in.
various towns in Illinois, and from States farther west. It was also
discovered that these men had at least one branch office in the city of
Butte, Montana, using the name of Dr. Foote on their signs and in their
newspaper advertising. The matter was immediately placed in the
hands of attorney David S. Geer, of Chicago, who caused the following
injunction to be issued :
STATE OF II, LINOIS, }ss i-
Cook County, * tº -
The People of the State of Illinois : To J. L. Stoddard, M. Frazier,
D. Westfall, and Edward Frank, and your attorneys, solicitors,
agents, and servants, and to each and every of them, GREETING:
Whereas, It has been represented to the Honorable the Judges of
the Circuit Court of Cook County, in the State aforesaid, on the part
of E. B. Foote, Sr., and E. B. Foote, Jr., complainants in their certain
bill of complaint, exhibited before said Judges, and filed in said Court
against you, the said J. L. Stoddard, M. Frazier, D. Westfall, and
Edward Frank, among other things that you are combining and con-
federating with others to injure the complainants touching the matter
set forth in said bill, and that your actings and doings in the premises
are contrary to equity and good conscience. And Honorable Abner
Smith, one of said Judges, having under his hands endorsed upon said
bill an order that a Writ of Injunction issue out of said Court, accord-
ing to the prayer of said Bill; We, therefore, in consideration thereof,
DOCTORs who BANK ON REPUTATIONS OF OTHERS. 375
and of the particular matters in the bill set forth, DO STRICTLY COM-
MAND You, the said J. L. Stoddard, M. Frazier, D. Westfall, and
Edward Frank, and the persons before mentioned, and each and every
of you, that you do absolutely DESIST AND REFRAIN from using the
name of Dr. Foote & Staff, medical and surgical specialists, and Sur-
geon and physician specialists, or Dr. Foote & Staff, or from giving
out to the public that you, the said J. L. Stoddard, M. Frazier, D.
Westfall, and Edward Frank, are Dr. Foote & Staff; or that you, the
said defendants, are the authors or publishers of “Plain Home Talk; ”
“Medical Common Sense,” or “Science in Story,” and that you, said
Stoddard, Frazier, Frank, and Westfall, your agents, attorneys, Ser-
vants, workmen, and assigns refrain and desist from using the name of
Dr. Foote or Dr. Foote & Staff in connection with any advertisement or
printed matter, circulated by said defendants, until this Honorable
Court, in Chancery sitting, shall make order to the contrary. Hereof
fail not, under penalty of what the law directs.
To the Sheriff of said County, to execute and return in due form
Of law.
Witness, John A. Cooke, Clerk of said Court, and the Seal thereof,
at Chicago aforesaid, this 14th day of June, A.D. 1889.
JoHN A. CookE, Clerk.
There were no feet or even one Foote in the concern except those at
the extremities of the four men which enabled them to hastily decamp
during the night of the preceding day on which the injunction was
issued from Judge Smith's Court. These they used with great expedi-
tion, and up to the present time there has been nothing further heard
from these impostors. Shortly after the Chicago concern was disposed
of, attention was called to the one in Butte, Montana, and the name of
Foote was dropped from its sign and its advertisements. Another page
or two might be used in exposing those who have imitated and in some
instances largely plagiarized my publications; but this is not necessary
for the protection of my intelligent readers. Such impostors usually
expose themselves. When my readers find anything in my publica-
tions that they have read before, unless it is duly credited to its orig-
inal source and properly indicated by quotation marks, they may rest
assured it appeared for the first time in my works, and that it has been
stolen from them by conscienceless writers unless, as said before, it is
quoted matter with due acknowledgment in mine. In one instance I
legally captured the entire stereotyped plates of a publication made up
Wholly from some of the chapters of this book. It was a brazen exam-
ple of violation of the copyright laws, and the offender was glad to get
off with paying all costs and the surrender of the plates on which the
plagiarized edition had been printed. The interested reader will now
be invited to a perusal of Part II,
~º
--~~~~
§

PLATE III.
P. H. T. PART II. CHAP. I. VITAL ORGANS, BACK VIEW.
THE SKELETON AND VITAL ORGANS, RELATIVE Positions, observed FRom BEHino,
AS BY AN x-RAY view, BuT FAR MoRE DISTINCT THAN THAT would show. THE Lungs
(not Pictured) natural LY LE BEHind THE HEART, spleen and Liver as HERE shown.

PLATE IV.
VITAL ORGANS, FRONT. PLAIN HOME TALK.
FRONT VIEW OF VITAL ORGANS of cHEST AND ABDom EN, showing THE Lungs over-
LAPPING THE HEART, THE BORDER OF THE LIVER ABOVE THE STOMACH, AND THE INTES-
Tines covered BY THE ONENTUM.
THIS Picture ExHiBITS THE NATURAL POSITION AND RELATION OF THE PARTS.

PART I I.
Chronic DiStåSES; their CalSCS and Slſ(essful
Treatmelli,
WITH CLOSING CHAPTER.
Containing Numerous Prescriptions for Common Ailments,
Antidotes for Poisons, Valuable Suggestions
for Emergencies, Etc.
OPENING CHAPTER.
CHRONIC DISEASES.
HIS portion of “Medical Common Sense,”
designated as Part Second, will be devoted
to essays on those forms of disease usually
known by the name of chronic. To the
treatment of chronic affections the author
has given his undivided personal attention
for a period of forty years. And, since 1876,
his two sons, Dr. E. B. Foote, Jr., and Dr.
Hubert T. Foote, have been closely associated with him
in a practice which extends over all parts of the civilized
world. The Junior was graduated from the College of
Physicians and Surgeons of the City of New York, which
is well known as the medical department of Columbia
University, bearing off the Seguin prize for proficiency, and Dr. Hubert
T. Foote was a matriculant and graduate of the Eclectic Medical College
of the City of New York. Their method of treating disease, however,
is neither that of the so-called “Q. School” nor “New School,” but

378 CHRONIC DISEASES.
pre-eminently Foote-arian, as evolved and developed in a long and suc-
cessful special practice extending over a period little short of half a
century. In the preparation of Part II., for the Twentieth Century
Edition, I have called to my assistance these two younger men—for I
can hardly call them young men, both having arrived at what is com-
monly called middle age—and before proceeding far with this opening
chapter I shall avail myself of the art of the photo-engraver to make
my indulgent readers acquainted with these two well-cut “chips of
the old block.” With these pictures for reference, it will hardly be pos-
sible for any charlatans to successfully represent themselves as my sons.
In the treatment of disease it often happens that a council of
physicians is deemed desirable. In the office of the author there is
ever such a council present, for “Dr. Foote and his Staff’’ consists not
only of Dr. Foote, Sr., and his two sons, but of other thoroughly
equipped professional associates in their various departments, the phar-
maceutist, who is a graduate of the New York College of Pharmacy,
having been engaged in the laboratory for nearly thirty years with
experienced assistants. And just here let me once more give a note of
warning to the reader not to be deceived by mountebanks like those ex-
posed under the head of “Doctors Who Bank on the Reputation of
Others,” commencing on page 371. Not in a spirit of boasting, but as
a mere statement of fact, which may have the effect of saving many of
my readers from being grossly imposed upon by pretenders, I will add
that for twenty years “Dr. Foote and Staff,” composed of myself, two
sons, and loyal assistants, have been the only specialists bearing the
name of Foote of international repute practicing in the city of New
York, or indeed in the United States, and for twenty years previous to
such association Dr. Foote, Sr., had occupied the field alone and estab-
lished the reputation of this widely known concern. If it should ever
happen that a branch office is opened in Chicago, on the Pacific coast,
in Europe, or elsewhere, it will be well authenticated, and no offence
will be taken, if the establishment be genuine, to the most search-
ing investigation of its relations to the home office. Unless abundant
proof be offered, it may be considered a “fake ’’ concern, like those
which have already been exposed. In our New York office all difficult
or supposed incurable cases have the advantage, as already remarked,
of a council of physicians, and all owners of this book can have the
benefit of their professional advice without money and without price.
Simply the investment of a postage-stamp will bring to the reader the
matured opinion of expert medical council in any given case at a dis-
tance.
Physicians devoted to what is commonly termed “Family prac-
tice,” are so occupied with the management of acute disease, that they
have little patience and less skill if called upon to remove anything more
CHRONIC DISEASES. 379
than the physical ills which confine their patients to their bed or room.
Consequently, when a person is out of health and yet able to be about,
he imagines he must “grin and bear it,” as his family physician fails
to prescribe anything which affords more than present relief. If he
decides to try skill which is regarded as eminent, he is then liable to
fall into the hands of some surgeon who has carved out of the flesh and
bor.es of his fellow-beings, an immortal name. The public fails to dis-
criminate between the qualifications necessary for a successful Surgeon,
and those requisite for success in medicine. Dr. Knife has performed
operations in cutting out tumors; in removing an entire nose, and
making a new one ; in taking out a portion of the jaw ; in taking some-
body pretty much all to pieces and putting him together again, etc., etc.;
all of which operations have been duly chronicled in the columns of
the daily press, and excited the surprise of the multitude. On the other
hand, Dr. Herb has actually taken cases pronounced as consumption ;
others considered as incurable dyspeptics; and still others of Women
dragging out a miserable existence with female complaints; and these
supposed incurables he medicates and advises until they are thoroughly
restored, much to the surprise of their friends. The newspapers take
no notice of these remarkable cures; and they are known to but
the limited circle of those immediately interested. Why? Because a
reporter for the press could not be on the spot those long weary weeks
or months to witness the growing strength and ultimate triumph. The
doctor's story told to the editor, seldom elicits his earnest attention, as
he hardly considers the hero of this medical feat a competent witness.
If he takes the pains to inquire about the matter in the neighborhood,
it is quite likely some envious resident physician will “put a flea in his
ear;” Pooh Pooh 1 at the whole thing ; and gravely declare that the
invalid was in a fair way to recover before Dr. Herb was employed.
So, Mr. Editor thinks it is quite as safe to say nothing about the matter.
Thus, in this little illustration it will be seen how easily an expert sur-
geon can build up a great reputation by a few important Operations,
and how slowly the skilful man of medicine rises by a gradual exten-
sion of a knowledge of his ability; and even at the apex of his success,
he has not attained that celebrity which the surgeon acquired by the
extraordinary stories of his surgical feats, published, as they were, in
widely circulating journals on both sides of the Atlantic. This coun-
try has produced surgeons who have a world-wide celebrity, and justly
SO ; but whose medical attainments, or, at least, triumphs in medicine,
have been less marked than those of some obscure village doctors.
Indeed, I could name two or three who are as well known in Europe
as in America, having performed , operations that made their names
famous, but whose advice I would not accept in any case of disease,
acute or chronic, requiring the administration of medicine. I would
38O CHRONIC DISEASES.
sooner put my case, if I were not able to take care of it myself, in the
hands of somebody’s grandmother than to trust to their combined skill.
The public, however, seldom notice the means by which the sur-
geon acquires reputation ; and, consequently, when the family physi-
cian fails to cure an invalid, and it is thought best to try other skill, he
is almost sure to fall next into the hands of some man eminent in sur-
gery, and bitter is the disappointment if this great physician (?) fails to
produce any change for the better. Heart-sick and discouraged the
patient abandons his avocations and prepares for the other world, if the
medicines have produced adverse instead of beneficial results. . “My
fate is sealed,” mutters the disconsolate invalid, “if this great man can
do me no good.” The world is full of these discouraged people, many
of whom are naturally so enduring—so tenacious of life—that they can-
not die, while existence to them is but prolonged misery. But is it really
true that there is no help for these sufferers ? From the experience
and success I and my immediate associates have had in an exten-
sive practice exclusively devoted to this very class of diseases, I can
conscientiously assure my readers that there is. Not that all can
be cured ; this would be an extravagant assumption ; no miracles are
proposed. In a majority of cases, however, pronounced incurable by
the faculty, and esteemed in the neighborhood where they exist as
hopeless—there is help—there is permanent relief; but that succor
must be sought at the hands of someone who is as familiar with the
peculiarities of these diseases as the surgeon is with anatomy and
the instruments he uses in his operating-room. Do not go to the
blacksmith for bread, nor to the baker to have your wagon repaired.
Do not employ a surgeon when a medical doctor is needed.
What is a Chronic Disease ?
There is a deal of vague apprehension in the minds of professional
as well as non-professional men and women, as to what constitutes a
chronic disease. Some physicians in family practice denominate evéry-
thing chronic which their advice and prescriptions do not cure. Not
a few people conjecture that it is a term applicable only to diseases of
a disreputable character. An advertisement was once rejected by one
of our leading daily journals, because it contained the word.chronic
Even Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, held that all diseases
not ultimately curable by Nature's spontaneous effort, were not only
chronic, but had their origin either immediately or remotely in syphilis
or badly treated itch. To many there is a terror in the name CHRONIC,
to the extent that they at once imagine themselves consigned to unin-
terrupted suffering and a lingering death, when the family physician
gravely looks over his spectacles and remarks—“Your disease has as-

WHAT IS A CHRONIC DISEASE * 381
sumed a chronic form.” Webster defines it as a disease of an inveterate
nature, or of long continuance, in distinction from an acute disease
which speedily terminates. This definition is not strictly correct.
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A chronic affection is one in which disease has insidiously taken pos-
session of the human system, or become triumphant after a painful strug-
gle of long or short duration; while an acute affection is one in which
the struggle is actually going on, at which juncture it is difficult to
tell, from hour to hour, whether nature will prove victorious and the pa-
tient get well, or the disease come off conqueror, and leave the patient



































382 CHRONIC DISEASES.
stone dead or physically infirm. If the latter, then chronic disease has
succeeded the acute attack. Through improper habits of living, im-
purities may creep into the blood, and infirmities take possession of the
system as quietly as filibusters sometimes creep one by one into a
country, and peacefully revolutionize it. The filibusters become foo
powerful to be resisted, before the native inhabitants are apprised of
their presence. So the seeds of chronic disease may stealthily and
steadily gather in the system until they become too formidable for the
recuperative powers of Nature to resist, when, as one patient remarked
to me, “Disease became my normal condition.” Or, a person may be
born diseased, in which case the recuperative powers from birth were
bound as with cords. In either case, whether disease has quietly taken
possession of the system, or been handed down from generation to gen-
eration, Nature may in time sufficiently rally to make an attack, and
then comes the keen struggle, called acute disease, just as when disease
is acting on the offensive. This is an important combat, and when the
smoke of battle clears away, the patient may find that he has recovered
or attained to a condition of health; if not, he relapses into his former
condition of lingering infirmity, and his disease is called chronic.
Acute disease may precede and usher in the chronic form. With-
out any symptom of warning, the victim may be prostrated with con-
tagion, poison, or fever. In this case disease comes with banners and
trumpets, and a fierce conflict ensues between the bold enemy and the
vis medicatrix naturae. Friends watch anxiously at the bedside; the
countenance of the attending physician is studied for encouragement;
unnecessary work is suspended to attend to the sufferer; all is excite-
ment and anxiety as when a fierce battle is raging between your own
armies and those of an enemy. The day and night pass. The Sun
glimmers through the lattice-windows, and rests upon the face of the
sick man. Is Nature coping successfully with the enemy 7 If so, the
patient will in a few days or weeks be restored to his wonted health.
If Nature's powers waver, the enemy triumphs, and the victim is either
slain or released from his bed on parole. If the latter, the patient bears
about with him what may properly be termed a chronic disease.
Let it not be inferred from what has been said, that chronic disease
can be cured only by bringing on What the hydropathists call a “Crisis.”
The predisposing or perpetuating causes may be gradually overcome
without precipitating a struggle such as is presented in the conflict be-
tween nature and disease, just as chronic disease is sometimes acquired
by the gradual ingathering of blood impurities and nervous derange-
ments. This gradual revolution of the system may be reversed in favor
of health, and although it will not be possible in all cases to avoid a
crisis, it had better be averted if possible, even though the patient pur-
sue treatment longer.
VARIOUS KINDS AND SIGNS OF CHRONIC DISEASE. 383
Various Kinds and Signs of Chronic Disease.
In writing of the symptoms, natural cause, and treatment of the
various chronic diseases with which I have become familiar through
many years of observation, it will of course be convenient to adopt
some system, arrangement, or classification; but the more one knows Of
chronic diseases, their relations to each other and their complications,
the more he is puzzled to decide upon any one classification as the best,
most natural or convenient. Some makers of books of “household
medicine” have, no doubt for the sake of easy reference (since there
can be no other good reason), adopted the alphabetical arrangement of
a dictionary or encyclopædia, and this suffices for a mere recital of
symptoms to aid diagnosis and of suggestions for management; but it
is the poorest possible way to convey to the reader any real comprehen-
sion of the nature of the diseased processes going on, such as is neces-
sary to enable him to appreciate the wise course to follow in order to
combat them and obtain relief.
Of course a disease cannot be properly classified for consideration
until it is well enough understood to give it a distinctive name, and it
may as well be admitted right here that this is not always easy. To
begin at the beginning, what is disease ? Health or wholeness means
the presence of all normal parts of a living organism, and these all act-
ing harmoniously for its well-being. Herbert Spencer defines life as a
constant adjustment of the interior relations (of a living thing) to its
external relations (or the things about it). Natural adjustment of all
parts within and without results in a healthful or comfortable status,
which is normal life. When this delicate adjustment faiks, for any
cause, disease, often discomfort, results. Yet there are many trifling
ailments or disorders which are of too little importance to be named
or classified among diseases, and there are the failings and enfeeble-
ments of even “a.good old age” which Charcot speaks of as “normal
disease.”
Many an external blemish (as a mole on the face) or deformity (as
bow-legs) may exist without actual impairment of health, and it is
equally true that all men are not anatomically just alike in their inter-
nal make-up of muscles, bones, and blood-vessels. There are many
possible variations or anomalies within normal limits, and even the
man with his heart on the right side and his liver on the left, may
suffer no inconvenience from this extremely rare variation (we doubt
that it should be called ab-normal, since it is normal to him, and not a
defect). It is no doubt equally true that all normal vital organs do not
carry on their functions in exactly the same way. There are wide
differences of lung-power, within healthful limits, and even greater
384 CHRONIC DISEASES.
variety of digestive capacity, so that it is only stretching the truth a
little to say that “every stomach is a law unto itself.” Then, again,
our adjustment of internal parts includes a saving power of compensa-
lºon, by which if one organ falls short some other may take on extra
Work, and so the fact of a deficiency may be for some time concealed
so long as no evidence or symptom of mal-adjustment exhibits itself;
the person appears as in health, though in fact on the verge of disease.
FIG. 121. Such a person may become
* diseased before being made
- º aware of it by any symptom
§=% of discomfort or incapacity.
Ç) - Disease cannot, therefore, be
*: as properly, as it has been
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The uneasy symptoms of dis-
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Subjective signs, i. e., the
symptoms, complaints, de -
fects that are felt and mostly
evident to the subject him-
self, but there are other symp-
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BOW-LEGGED, BUT HEALTHY. signs Of disease in him, but
only on account of one or more little flaws which are regarded as
suspicious evidences of some disease that may possibly develop. In
such cases, after repeated examinations, the supplicant may be accepted
as safe, or indefinitely put off as too hazardous a risk, in spite of seem-
ing continued enjoyment of health and every faculty and power, mental
and physical. These facts, no doubt well known to many already, are
cited here to show the difficulty of deciding regarding any person at a
certain time as to whether he is a healthy or diseased subject,





VARIOUS KINDS AND SIGNS OF CHRONIC DISEASE. 385
While some are disposed to magnify the importance of minor ail-
ments, “make a mountain of a mole-hill,” and fret themselves ill over
matters unworthy of a thought, there are others who take risks in
ignoring the early signs of a break-down, bear their sufferings too
bravely, and neglect too long submitting themselves to the careful ex-
amination of one who might greatly aid them to stave off disease or rise
above it.
The presence of disease is made known, as I have just said, by
symptoms, subjective or objective, and the meaning or importance of
symptoms, or just what they signify concerning the location, extent, or
advancement of disease, these are the puzzling problems which a
physician is called upon to decide. Among less well-informed persons,
lacking a wide range of study and experience FIG. 122.
in such matters, symptoms and diseases are -
too much confused. Anyone with a head on
him is able to decide if he has a headache,
but it often takes a much wiser and clearer
head to discover the real disease back of it,
the cause of the headache, and to suggest the
best remedy likely to be appropriate and cura-
tive. “Headache Powders” may be found
at every drug-store, but to be even generally
successful they must have the power to be-
numb almost any sort of a pain, without ref-
erence to the cause, and so be generally as
harmful as helpful. The relief of pain, or sub-
duing Nature's sign of “something wrong,” * S)
by the shortest cut, may be very bad policy.
Nature puts up a pain or an ache as a sign SEEMS NERVOU.S.
of distress, that there is a misfit somewhere in vital processes, and merely
pulling down the sign by an opiate or narcotic or other painkiller, is not
the wise way to respond to her call for relief. Of course, the wise way
must be to search out the cause and remove it by affecting readjust-
ment of normal activities. To be more explicit, suppose a headache
due to indigestion, generally a dull heavy ache in the forehead. In
severe cases an emetic, to unload the contents of the stomach, may be
the real thing wanted. In less desperate cases an aid to digestion so
simple as a little sodium bicarbonate in hot water is “just the thing.”
A “headache powder,” merely a knocker-out of pain, would be bad
treatment, even though successful. Or, in case of headache in top of
the head, due to congestion of the womb, the sufferer may be surprised
With the prompt relief afforded the head by 1ocal treatment applied to
the womb. If the ache be in the occipital region, high in the back of
the *ck, and low in the back of the head, it is probably due to the

386 CHRONIC DISEASES.
defective action of the kidneys, and the proper, as well as efficient
remedy will be a diuretic, and perhaps a cathartic, too. If it be a
bilious sick-headache, with nausea—an all over sort of headache—the
sooner the bowels and stomach are washed down and cleaned out, the
quicker the relief. The above brief facts about headache show how
foolish it would be to write of headache as a disease under a heading
“Diseases of the Head,” or even to include headaches under nervous
affections. The most pressing symptom is no doubt the pain or ache in
nerves of the head or about the brain, but the differences between a
symptom and a disease must not be forgotten, and the search for the
disease or disorder of function which causes the headache, is the first
step in aiming to select the right remedy.
Pains and aches located in other parts of the body are apt to be
deceptive, and easily lead the inexperienced to locate them falsely.
Many a pain thought to be in the heart is only a stomach ache, and
most of the pains that the subject refers to the kidneys are really in the
tenderloin muscles of the back, while many a so-called backache is but
reflected from the womb. Pains down the thighs, as well as top-head
aches and some back-neck aches, may also be due to congested or mis-
placed uterus. Pains in the eyes or weakness of sight is often merely
a “reflex” of sexual irritation or weakness, and many other symptoms
could be named which seem to locate the disease where it does not really
exist. If headache be due to eye-strain, as often happens, no relief
will be had by offering remedies for the other forms of headache already
mentioned ; the sure remedy is to adjust glasses to correct the fault in
the eyes and help them to do their work without strain.
Many a chronic complaint is based upon some persistently annoying
symptom that is hardly enough to make a diagnosis of disease upon,
and yet may be so troublesome as to be harder to bear than some
diseases that endanger life; as, for instance, the temporary itching of
hives caused by an occasional over-acid state of the system, or the nag-
ging, continuous pruritis (itching) which may be the only active evi-
dence of a gouty diathesis, or of some more obscure and indetermi-
nable disorder. Anal pruritis, that almost drives the subject wild, may
yield to no other treatment than the discontinuance of the use of coffee;
and coffee-poisoning or coffee idiosyncracy would be about the only
appropriate name for the state of disease the patient was suffering
from.
Those seeking advice concerning some obstinate chronic affliction
must not expect that the physician can always find an appropriate and
clear name for the disease, and, on the other hand, if several physicians
seem to make differing diagnoses they must not jump at the conclusion
that one or more of them must be in error. The same case might be
called catarrh by one physician, dyspepsia by another, anaemia by a
THE PERSONAL EQUATION. 387
third, and neurasthenia by a fourth, and all be correct, as far as they ex-
pressed their opinions. One might hesitate to oppress his consultant by
naming the full list of his diseased states, another would be content to
name the dominant leading or most important fault, while the third
might prefer in his diagnosis to use the name which to him summed up
the greatest number of existing symptoms and disorders. Some in-
valids are so thoroughly diseased that no physician could be content
with a diagnosis made up of less than a dozen names if expected to tell
all, and yet were such a case to die it might often puzzle him to find a
better cause to enter in the death certificate than time-worn “heart
failure,” or general exhaustion—which after all only means “the man
died.”
For the vital statistics or records kept by official health boards it is
of course necessary to have a definite nomenclature and classification
of all causes of death, direct and indirect, and civilized countries are
aiming to adopt a conventional classification which will be helpful to
all who study such records for comparison of facts concerning the dis-
eases that affect mankind everywhere, but as this book will be limited
to chronic diseases not generally directly or necessarily fatal, and as it
will include some that do not figure at all in vital statistics as officially
recorded, the order in which they will be considered will be entirely
one of our own choosing, adjusted for the writer's convenience and the
reader's easy understanding. If any reader personally interested be-
cause of chronic symptoms of his own, fails to find them all duly pre-
Sented in any one chapter, he will please remember what has been
already said of the possibility of the coexistence of diseases, or a com-
plication of numerous disorders, and it may therefore happen that he or
she will find matters of special interest here and there scattered through
several chapters.
The Personal Equation.
It is often necessary to bear in mind that the significance and im-
portance of similar symptoms may be different in different persons. A
disease does not always present the same “train of symptoms” in even
two members of one family, and the status, constitution, idiosyncracy,
or predisposition of each individual is largely accountable for the way
in which a disease takes hold and makes itself manifest.
This fact of a personal factor has to be considered both in diag-
nosis and treatment. It is always to some extent a matter of heredity,
for each of us is born, not like Holmes's imaginary “one hoss shay,”
equally strong and durable in all its parts, but with a proneness to
Weakness, or to give out, in some part sooner than others. We have
Our Susceptibilities to disease as well as to climates, foods, and poisons.
One man's food may be another's poison, and there is a marked differ-
388 CHRONIC DISEASES.
ence in the reaction of various constitutions and temperaments to drugs,
as well as their influences for good or ill.
The personal factor or susceptibility, that quality in which we are
different from other folks, and peculiar to ourselves, is not wholly a
matter of heredity. It varies and changes with our habits, course of
life, accidents and diseases. Through heredity one person may be
liable to catarrhal diseases, another to spasmodic and another to inflam-
matory symptoms. Many inherit, either with or without a family
estate, what is termed the gouty diathesis, which simply means that
state of blood and nerves which renders one more liable to gouty forms
of disease than to other cqually undesirable heritages. Others get by
inheritance a predisposition to “go into consumption,” or become
insane, epileptic, or cancerous; but in addition to such “bred in the
bone" tendencies, we all receive from time to time the impress and
influences of the climate we live in, the sort of lives we live, and the
diseases we suffer. One who has lived long enough in a malarial
region to receive the impress of its influence will give proof of it when
Smitten with some other discase, oven if residing in a healthier locality.
When the influenza or grip makes its periodical appearance it has three
distinct methods of gripping its victims, and whether it take hold and
disturb mainly the nerves, the mucous membrancs, or the abdominal
parts, no doubt largely depends on the weak points of the subject him-
Self, but for a long time after an attack of grip, the same person, when-
ever suffering from any form of disease, is liable to be reminded of his
last attack of grip by the course and symptoms of his later disease.
As to the cffocts of mode of life it will suffice to illustrate this
point by mentioning the “neurotic diathesis,” or that state of nervous
instability which so often becomes the lot and portion of the well-to-do
classes who are addicted to excesses of work and play—the so-called
victims of over-civilization, “high life,” “fast life,” “high pressure
city life,” etc. A peculiarity liable to grow on such persons is the lack
of nerve to bear the ills they have, a disposition to make over-much of
their pains and penalties, and to escape, their due punishment by resort
to narcotics, hypnotics, and anaesthetizing drugs. Thus they acquire
still greater constitutional peculiarity, for which we know no better
term than neuroticism. The physiological objections to this kind of
drugging have been well stated by Professor D. S. Jordan, in an article
in the Popular Science Monthly, as follows: “The healthy mind
stands in clear and normal relations with Nature. It feels pain as pain.
It feels action as pleasure. The drug which conceals pain or gives
false pleasure when pleasure does not exist, forces a lie upon the nervous
system. The drug which disposes to reverie rather than to work,
which makes us feel well when we are not well, destroys the Sanity of
life. All stimulants, narcotics, tonics which affect the nervous system
THE PERSONAL EQUATION. 389
in whatever way, reduce the truthfulness of sensation, thought, and
action. Toward insanity all such influences lead ; and their effect,
slight though it be, is of the same nature as mania. The man who
would see clearly, think truthfully, and act effectively, must avoid
them all. Emergency aside, he cannot safely force upon his nervous
system even the smallest falsehood. And bere lies the one great un-
answerable argument for total abstinence , not abstinence from alcohol
alone, but from all nerve-pois- l'IG. 123.
ons and emotional excesses.”
Besides the above mentioned
individual peculiarities, result-
ing from heredity, habits, and
diseases, there are others to be
reckoned as part of “the per-
Sonal equation,” when figuring
out the significance of symp-
toms of disease. There are in-
fluences depending upon race,
education, religious belief, and
mental and moral make-up.
Some are so constituted as to
fight disease as valiantly as
they do all other vicissitudes
of life and fortune, while oth-
Crs let go too soon, fall at the
first fire of the enemy, and
m a ke feeble resistance. In
fighting disease, as in any other
battle of life, where there is a
will there may be a way to win,
but without the will, and the
hope and faith which natur
ally go with it, the disease,
even though not necessarily Titº octopus of Evil, HABITS AND victims
fatal, is likely to be so. In OF “ IIIGII LIFE.”
reckoning the influence of the mental state in aiding a patient to main-
tain a hold on life, the wish to ſive counts for much. If one's experi-
ences and education have developed the mental habitude of pessimism,
and a large doubt whether fife is worth living, disease has in him an
easy victim. Optimism, nope, faith, will, and cheerfulness are the
life-saving corps,
Writing on “The Physiological Effect of Faith ” in The Outlook
(August 19, 1899), Dr. George F. Gorham well shows that the benefits
of faith and hope are clearly natural that is, based on what we know

39C) CHRONIC DISEASES.
of human physiology, and so do not require any magical or super-
natural explanation. ~
“If one can accept what the study of the processes of the body
seems to prove, that the sympathetic nervous system and its functional
activities—that is, the making and repairing of the body—are so bound
to the conscious life that they respond to fear and faith in a far greater
degree than we have thought, and that the release of fear and the
stimulating effect of faith so improve the working of the manufactur-
ing plant of the body that cures are the result, we then have a principle
which will aid in the solution of the whole problem of faith-cures.
From a physiological standpoint one must say that he who is cured by
faith has simply complied with one of the fixed laws of the body. This
law is universal, regardless of the soundness of the faith.
“The unconscious processes respond to faith as they do to fear,
blindly. It makes no difference to them what one believes, only so he
believes it strongly enough to produce deep feeling. The physical
and mental changes wrought in our bodies through substituting faith;
a faith that amounts to genuine expectancy, leaving no shadow of fear
or doubt ; Substituting such a faith for anxious thought, often produces
the most salutary effect. * * * Suppose one comes into the presençe
of a sympathizing friend who excites all the ennobling emotions of
love, trust, hope, and courage. None of the crippling effect of fear is
in the body, but the whole life is stimulated by the faith and trust one
has in the friend. Thoughts come quickly and freely. The body is
at ease and its functions go on steadily and well.
“The unconscious processes of the body are only doing their best
when they feel the throb of a great faith, a great hope, love, and cour-
age. * * * From these observations we have come to the following
conclusions: First, That cures are made under all systems of faith-
healing, cures of many functional and some organic diseases, which
often have resisted for a long time all regular methods of treatment.
Second, That in no single instance is a cure made which may not be
made by an improved condition of the unconscious processes of the
body, resulting from the elimination of anxious thought and the sub-
stitution of a deep faith and trust. Third, That the power which
works the cure comes in all cases from these improved physical opera-
tions of the body, and not in any magical way from the object of the
faith.”
Functional and Organic.
While treating of matters relating to disease in general, it may be
well to explain what is meant in speaking of one as functional and an-
other as organic.
FUNCTIONAL AND ORGANIC. 39 I
The processes of life are carried on mainly in the vital organs, and
each organ has its use, business, or function. If there is merely a
disorder of function, without probable or discoverable change in the Sub-
stance of the organ itself, the disease is functional, whereas, if the Sub-
stance of the organ is impaired there is said to be a lesion, and the dis-
ease is organic. In asthma there may be nothing more than temporary
spasm of the air-tubes, obstructing breathing, and it is functional, while
in consumption of the lungs the tissue is in time destroyed by Organic
disease. In bronchitis, a catarrhal inflammation of the air-tubes, it is
not so easy to say whether it is functional or organic. If the congestion
of the membranes can be relieved and the breathing apparatus again
made normal, it would do to call it functional, though for a time there
was material obstruction, but if the trouble be due to some incurable
cause, so that the inflammatory congestion continues, then there is or.
ganic disease. Yet, it would not be true to say that all curable dis-
eases are functional, or all incurable ones organic, nor to reverse these
statements. An organic disease with considerable lesion, as a consoli-
dated part of lung-tissue, may cease as an active disease, and the case
be practically cured with a defective spot. On the other hand, a
chronic “functional” disease, that obstinately refuses to be cured year
after year, as seems true of a few cases of asthma, may after all be
caused by some undiscovered lesion, not in the lung-tissues, but in one
of the many nervous ganglia that control the action of the lungs. It is
a fair inference that in most of the functional diseases of vital organs
the first fault and continuing seat of disorder is in the operation of
that great sympathetic nervous system which controls and operates
these organs: in health systematically and harmoniously ; in disease
more or less otherwise.
I shall find a more fitting place to take up this question later, in
the concluding chapters upon nervous and blood diseases. I shall first
endeavor to make as clear as possible to the average reader the nature,
course, and treatment of these particular diseases, which can be more or
less definitely specified by name, and described as to locality according
to the parts or regions of the body most subject to their operation. I
shall begin with diseases of the air-passages or breathing apparatus,
then take up those of the nutritive and eliminative organs, later the
sexual or procreative system, and conclude with general consideration
of nervous and blood diseases.
Q
S sº
CHAPTER 11.
cHRONic Diseases OF THE BREATHING ORGANS.
the causes, nature, and management of affec-
tions which should be considered under this
- º *>= <-Nº head, let us stop for a moment and observe
}}} #º º t the importance of the organs with which we
§ § \\ § y \: breathe. Every living thing has to have air
sº to enable it to exist. Even the plants and
à § trees have lungs; but by a strange provision of nature,
º they are enabled, in cold climates, to do without them
\ during the winter. (It would be a happy arrangement for
consumptive people if they could do so, too.) The foliage
constitutes the lungs of vegetation, and if a tree be girdled
so as to prevent the Sap (blood) from passing up through
its branches (bronchial tubes) to the leaves (lungs), it will perish. By
this plan of girdling, a woodman may strangle a forest of oak as easily
as an orchard of apple-trees. In Fig. 125 we have a representation of
the respiratory system of a tree, and in Fig. 126 a representation of the
breathing passages of the human system.
By this comparison we find them quite analogous; but if we dis-
sect the two we shall at once be struck with the greater completeness of
the respiratory organs which appertain to animal life.
The minutest insect must breathe or die. Corked in a bottle, or
otherwise confined, the tiny gnat, as well as the noisy bee, will die so
soon as the vitalizing properties of the air in the confined vessel are
consumed. Fishes must breathe or cease to swim. Their lungs are so
wonderfully formed, and fringed by what are called their gills, that
they separate the air from the water ; and while the water passes into
their mouths and through their gills, they receive the life-giving
properties of air. When taken out of the water they live until the
slimy secretions of their delicate breathing apparatus become gluey,
and then, as one by one the air-passages are sealed up, respiration
becomes more and more difficult, ºil the function of breathing ceases






CHRONIC DISEASES OF THE BREATHING ORGANS. 393
Fig. 124.
\ N
- W N º º
W\ Nº. 2. - -
& § \ º
º
ºº § n
W
º
DIAGRAMMATIC illus'TRATION or The LUNG AND ITS STRUCTURE.
outward appearance and internal structure of the lung. 2, 3, outer surface,
4, great bronchial tube; 5, artery; 6, vein ; 7, nerve ; 8, lobules; 9, magnified
lobules; 10, air-sacs in a lobule. A diagrammatic picture, of course,
-






394 CHRONIC DISEASES OF THE BREATHING ORGANs.
altogether. It is not impossible that human ingenuity may some time
invent something that will perform the peculiar function of the gills,
so that the appliance attached to the head and shoulders of a human
being will enable him to live for hours under water; but it will be
time better employed for the present to devise means to enable all to
breathe above water. Many are troubled to do this, and die for want
of breath, when all other but the respiratory organs are unimpaired.
A majority of the doctors, and all the surgeons, seem to rather hasten
than to arrest disease affecting the
Organs with which we breathe. One
eminent surgeon has remarked that,
N § 4 § “Consumptives are not subjects for
FIG. 125.
medical treatment, except when it is
\ | N 6 necessary to smooth the path to the
ſ § { } } d grave.” This is honest, and it would be
ë ū well if all surgeons and physicians in
! § ſº § § family practice would make haste and
º * / b COme to the same conclusion, and act
§ \ consistently there with. The public arc
W \ \ A V/K. § slowly discovering that to obtain relief .
@ § from this class of affections, they must
\\ | § go out of the “Regular Practice,” and
, \ ſ employ the services of somebody who
{ § gives special attention to what are
termed chronic diseases.
The breathing passages of the human
body begin at the nose, where the air
should in all cases be received, in order
that it may be filtered of dust, and
warmed by its passage through the
spongy mass of animal fibre which in-
tervenes between the nasal cavities and
the vesicles Qf the lungs. On enter-
ing the nostrils, the air passes do ºn
through the filtering membranes to the throat and bronchial tubes, and
is by these latter organs conducted into the little cells called vesicles,
which are so numerous that it is computed the lungs contain six hun.
dred millions of them, and that their entire surface is equal to fifteen
hundred square feet ! IIere, with only a thin transparent membrane
intervening, it comes in contact with the venous blood. This venous
blood has traversed the whole system, and gathered up the useless gases
to be respired. Quickly as the touch of strawberry-juice on your clean
white collar imparts a stain of red, the dark carbonaceous blood is
changed to a rich arterial complexion, and then goes on its way to dis.
RESPIRATORY SYSTEM OF A TREE.

CHRONIC CATARRH OF THE HEAD. 395
tribute the valuable properties it has derived from its commercia. visit
to one of the great physiological marts. The blood, indeed, carries on a
regular trade between the various organs of the body and atmosphere,
the lungs being one of its principal ports. It barters off carbonic-acid
gas for oxygen, and although it seems almost like sharp practice, the
atmosphere does not seem to realize that it is cheated, but at once makes
use of what it receives in its great laboratory, as if it had made a capital
xchange; but we would hastily adjudge the gardener a fool who
would give a pound of vegetables
for a pound of compost Consider-
ing, therefore, the liberal arrange-
ment Nature has made for this un-
equal exchange, the least we can do
is to keep the roads in good order,
so that the carbonic-acid gas may
be brought without impediment to
the place where it may be disposed
of on such generous terms. To do
this we must keep the breathing
passages of the head, throat, bron-
chia, and lungs in a healthy condi-
tion, and the essays given in this
chapter will point out the most com-
mon difficulties which interfere to
prevent this, and present some im-
portant suggestions on their preven-
tion and cure.
FIG. 126.
.
|||
d
§§
#SN:
% º
º
Chronic Catarrh of the Head.
There is no affection of the breath-
ing passages, excepting actual con-
sumption, that more effectually ob-
structs the action of the respiratory
apparatus than chronic catarrh of RESPIRATORY SYSTEM OF MAN.
the head. The purulent mucous secretions which characterize this
difficulty, not only block up in many cases the air-passages of the head,
but they pass along down into the larynx, run into, and coat the bron-
chial tubes, and not unfrequently lodge in the air-vesicles of the lungs.
Thus obstructed, thus coated, thus filled up, in the act of respiration,
the air with difficulty passes the blockade, and when it enters the cells
of the lungs it finds them muffled almost to imperviousness; in conse-
quence of which the blood is but partially relieved of its carbona-
ceous qualities, and is insufficiently vitalized by oxygen. Fig. 127,
on next page represents the canal and sinuses, or cavities, in the bones

396 CHRONIC DISEASES OF THE BREATHING ORGANs.
of the face, in which catarrhal secretions are liable to occur. The dark
patches are intended to illustrate the cavities, and the black lines the
canals. The latter are not separate and distinct tubes, as might be
inferred by the lines made to represent them. The lines are simply
designed to trace the course of the smaller cavities which unite the
larger ones, and further to illustrate how catarrhal secretions are con-
ducted into the respiratory organs below, and also how they may reach
FIG. 127. and affect the ears. This
cut beautifully illustrates
the parts liable to the
affection under consider-
ation, and was designed
expressly for this book.
Catarrh is a common
complaint. Almost every-
body, at times, has a
touch of it, while some
never know what it is to
be free from the distem-
per. Many people are
affected with it who do
not mistrust that it is a
disease. They imagine
that the discharges from
the head are but the nat-
ural wastes of the mu-
cous membrane. Such
persons ought to be in-
formed that the healthy
mu cous membrane se-
cretes only a sufficiency
of mucus to keep it moist
or free from uncomfort-
able dryness, and that
when there is a discharge
- from the nose Or an ex-
pectoration of mucus from the throat, there exists a disease of that
membrane known by the name of catarrh. This affection in many
cases produces no painful symptoms, and presents no evidence of its
existence other than the accumulation of phlegm in the breathing
passages. In others, it is attended with heaviness and perhaps pain in
the base of the forehead ; redness of the eyes; dulness of hearing, and
ringing in the ears. In more susceptible cases it produces inflamma-
tion of the eyes and deafness; or tickling in the throat and cough ; or
TEIE CAVITIES IN THE BONES OF THE FACE
SUBJECT TO CATARRBI.

CHRONIC CATARRH of THE HEAD. 397
foul breath and decomposition of the facial bones; or loss of taste and
smell. --
The medical profession are about as much befogged in regard to
the cause of catarrh as the masses of the people. In the days of Hip-
pocrates it was supposed to be the effete secretions of the brain, which
found vent at the nose, eyes, and ears When Galen was accounted
an authority, it was thought that there was a kind of animal vapor con-
stantly rising in the human system, which on reaching the arch of the
skull, gathered there, and, passing through a process of condensation
like the steam in the cover of a tea-kettle, drizzled down through the
facial orifices ! It was not suspected, until the Seventeenth century,
that catarrhal matter emanated from the glands of the mucous mem-
brane, and ever since then the doctors have been mainly treating it
as if it were simply a local disease; and it has been a favorite target
for all sorts of medical sportsmen to fire at. Some shoot astringent
liquids into the nostrils; others play fine streams of medicated spray
into the breathing passages; another attempts to flank the enemy by
throwing dust into his eyes in the form of catarrh Snuff ; while still
another medical wiseacre thinks he will smoke or steam him out with
some newly invented fumes or vapors. It is not to be disputed that
some of these inventions may prove valuable as adjunctives; but they
should only be so employed, for catarrh is really the result of a diseased
state of the blood. It seems to me very easy to account for catarrh,
and I will here present a theory which I have never seen promulgated,
but which the intelligent reader will, I am confident, regard as com-
mon-senseful. Checked perspiration, such as may occur whether a per-
son is conscious of having taken a cold or not, confines within the skin
the acidulous and effete vapors which in health pass off in the form of
insensible perspiration, or what I have denominated electrical radiation;
and these properties, thrown back upon the blood, cause inflammation,
and this inflammation decomposes some of the corpuscles and other solid
substances of the blood ; reduces a portion of them to purulent matter,
just as the inflammation of a running Sore eats away and decomposes the
animal fibre about it. As this melting of the solid constituents of the
blood proceeds, an outlet must be found for decayed matter, and as it
more nearly resembles mucus than any other of the secretions, the mu-
cous glands come to the rescue, and this purulent matter sweats
through the mucous membrane as profusely, in some cases, as common
perspiration pours through the skin of an excited man on a sultry day.
When the checked perspiration, the cold, or influenza, is overcome, and
the skin becomes again active, the catarrhal symptoms may possibly
disappear without treatment ; but if they do not, one of two conclu-
sions may be fairly deduced ; either the blood has been so poisoned by
the effete matters thrown back upon it, that it has not recuperative
398 CHRONIC DISEASES OF THE BREATHING ORGANs.
power sufficient to recover and arrest this rotting of its solid constit.
uents; or else the blood possessed beforehand impurities which ren-
dered it susceptible to attack, and which have become too active to sub-
side without the aid of medicine calculated to enrich and purify the
vascular fluids. Upon this hypothesis regarding the pathology of
catarrh, I have cured cases of this disease of twenty years' standing.
There is, however, something further to be said about the cause and
continuance of colds and catarrhs. Though always due to some check-
ing of normal elimination whereby the nasal (or other) membranes are
stimulated to excessive activity, it is not always possible to trace the
Origin to “catching cold” by any of the common means of exposure,
whereby the action of the pores of the skin is suppressed. Sometimes
the start is from an indigestible meal or an excess of food, a mince-pie
or an ice-cream on top of a big dinner, or too much drinking of ice-
water, whereby the digestive processes become disordered and the liver
congested or blockaded. The elimination through the pores of the skin,
constant though generally imperceptible, is no more continuous and
important than the elimination of waste products by means of the bile
(from the liver) and the secretions of the glands of the intestines. The
inner membrane of the bowels has as many million pores as the outer
membrane or skin, whose business it is in health to pour a pretty steady
current of waste matters into the canal which is the main sewer of the
body; and their business may be partially suppressed not only by ex-
posure to cold on the outside, but also by too much cold drinks or in-
digestibles, or by depressing emotions, fear, anger, etc. A stuffed feel-
ing in the nostrils, and troublesome excess of watery secretion soon after
eating is a common symptom of indigestion, especially of hyperacidity,
and when such a stomach disorder becomes a sort of “steady diet” or
regular thing, then a chronic nasal catarrh is likely to be added as a
continued performance; and so many a chronic catarrh, whether of the
nose, throat, bronchial tubes, mouth or elsewhere, is just as chronic and
obstinate as the disorder of digestive functions which is really its backer,
and yields only when such course of treatment and habits of life have
been adopted as will successfully restore the stomach, liver, and bowels
to a clean state and healthful activity.
Whenever a case of catarrh outlasts the cold which precipitated it,
the difficulty may reasonably be called chronic, and it will be found
upon examination with the speculum that the mucous membrane
appears blanched and thickened, with here and there raw and inflamed
patches. The secretion by this time is either thick and gluey, so as to
coat over the delicate lining of the breathing passages below, or
possessed of less consistency and greater acrimony, so that it scalds and
inflames the membrane over which it passes. In all cases of a consump-
tive diathesis, either of these conditions is threatening, and Will lead to
CHRONIC CATARRH OF THE IIEAD. 399
serious lung complications unless timely arrested. In other cases Of
different idiosyncrasy, it may confine its operations so much to the
sinuses and the organs of special sense, that deafness, blindness, loss Of
smell and taste may be the results—one or all—of its progress. Or it
may limit its action entirely to the breathing passages of the head,
causing simply bad breath and unwholesome expectoration. In no
case, however, can the full benefit of the function of respiration be
obtained while catarrh in any form exists. When nasal respiration
is cut off there is a noticeable diminution in the air-supply to the
lungs, and, as can be readily ascertained by listening, to the chest of
one who alternately breathes
through the mouth and the
nose. The nose is the proper
organ to breathe through, not
the mouth ; and the evil
effects of mouth-breathing are
many; but with the nostrils
blockaded by swollen mem-
branes, mouth-breathing be-
comes the only other way.
Occasional allusion has been
made to this subject by medi-
cal writers, but the first to
draw definite attention to the
serious results of mouth-
breathing was George Catlin,
the famous American travel. The Nostrºns as seen From behind—by A
ler, whose accuracy of obser- MIRRoR IN THE THROAT—whkN THE MEM-
vation. on this subject, for a BRAN Es ARE PUFFED Up with CATARRHAL
non-medical man, Was quite IN FLAM M ATION AND BREATHING IS IMPEDED.
remarkable. Catlin observed the practice of mouth-breathing to be
“the most destructive of all habits,” and applied to it the classical
but significant name of “malo-inferno,” and remarked : “If I were
to endeavor to bequeath to posterity the most important motto which
human language can convey, it should be in three words: Shut your
mouth.”
FIG. 128.
If catarrh does not absolutely stop up the air-passages of the head,
it vitiates every breath of air the person inhales; for in its mildest form
the viscid matter is corrupt and imparts a taint to the air which comes
in contact with it. Then, just to the extent that it spreads itself over
and coats the membrane lining, the bronchial tubes and air-vesicles, it
renders these organs less capable of performing their work of vitalizing
the blood. So it will be seen that catarrh is self-supporting when once
established in the head ; for while it is perpetuated by impure blood, it

4oo CHRONIC DISEASES OF THE BREATHING ORGANs.
so poisons the air inhaled, and so obstructs the meeting of the air and
blood in the vesicles of the lungs, that the vascular fluids are still fur-
ther impaired and made capable of supplying indefinitely the diseased
matter, which the mucous glands will secrete. The catarrhal secre-
tions of to-day poison the blood, and this poison decomposes enough
of the substance of the blood to cause a copious catarrhal secretion to-
morrow—and that to-morrow repeats the process, and so on illimitably.
If this action and reaction be arrested simply by local means for a few
weeks or months, the patient is pretty sure to have a return of the dis-
temper, unless all the offensive matters have been expelled from the
circulation ; consequently, even in the lightest cases of catarrh, consti-
tutional treatment should be used in conjunction with what may be
done locally. In cases of women when only topically treated for
catarrh, the disease in some instances is driven to the vagina, causing
copious leucorrhoea, then the latter treated locally results in the resump-
tion of the catarrh of the head. In this way it is driven from one
point to the other, alternately, until the patient becomes nearly dis-
couraged. I might occupy considerable space here in presenting the
history of some cases illustrative of this statement, but as the personal
experience of many female readers will corroborate it, this course is .
hardly necessary. Those having catarrh who have become faithless as
to its curability are invited to a perusal of the extracts of letters from
patients given in the closing chapter of this part. My success is the
result of combining constitutional with local treatment. By pursuing
this course I have found catarrh, in most cases, a disease which may be
easily and permanently disposed of.
INFLUENZA-CATARRHS.
The foregoing sufficiently explains the origin and nature of most
colds and chronic catarrhs brought on by any exposure that depresses
the nerves and checks excretory functions, but there are “influenza"
colds which seem to be mainly the result of local (nasal) irritation from
active germs or other irritant properties of the atmosphere. There are
epidemics when almost no susceptible person escapes, unless by seclud-
ing himself entirely from association with the afflicted ones. If some
microbe be responsible for these epidemics it has not yet been discov-
ered, though the unseen culprit is pretty generally believed to exist.
Many personal experiences, as well as reports of special instances of
influenza spreading through families, asylums, and towns, seem to show
that some colds are contagious or catching, and that those thus afflicted
would be doing their friends a kindness to “flock by themselves” until
well over it.
In the Lumleian lectures of 1899, delivered by Dr. Samuel Gee at
the Royal College of Physicians in London, the following closing
CHRONIC CATARRH OF THE HEAD. 4OI
remarks were made : “We have found it to be highly probable that
most catarrhs are due to a specific infection, and they often depend
upon contagion spreading from man to man. This doctrine has very
important bearings upon medical practice. It leads us to believe that
the means by which we may prevent catarrh are to be found in ventila-
tion and cleanliness, if, indeed, ventilation be not a kind of cleanliness.
Experience confirms this belief. When epidemic catarrh prevails,
where do we find most of our patients 7 In those houses which are
obviously the worst venti- FIG. 129.
lated, even though they +
be the spacious houses of D §
the rich. And where do ...~\, t
our patients catch their ca- 2 º'
tarrh . Either in houses …” z-- ~~~. - , is
of the kind which I have 2-º
mentioned, or in buildings 6 * *
where men most do Con- ."
gregate, especially in Of- #"
fices, shops, and churches. * *
Large shops and stores, .
public museums and libra-
rics, are ventilated as little
as possible, for fear of
\
&: grº sº ń. §
& \\} | §3%
º
their contents being spoilt $º º <-
by smoke a n d dust. & ºf |
Many churches, both in *S$ § !
town and country, are º
never properly aired for º/4 f
another reason—namely, \\ ??]
because their architecture
does not admit of it. A POLYPUS TUM O.R.
Thoso rich. W in d O W S ' The Tumor, A, being cut away by a wire snare
which exclude the light D C, worked through the nose, while the right
y
• hand of Operator, B, aids by the mouth.
do worse than this—they p y Ul
exclude fresh air. The subsidiary and merely ornamental arts, which
do no more than please the eye, are studied to the neglect of that far
greater art which promotes the happiness and welfare of the whole
man—the art of preserving health.”
Any fair consideration of the subject of influenza or “La Grippe’”
—the grip—would make a long story for which space will not be allot.
ted, since this book must have its limits and acute diseases are not with-
in its scope. I will however take space to give one caution as regards
treatment. I am convinced that too much is done in the way of trying
to repress Nature's distress-signals in the way of resort to phenacetine,















402 CHRONIC DISEASES OF THE BREATHING ORGANs.
antifebrin, acetanilide, and other such aniline product powders that
lower temperature and subdue pain, while far too little is done to
aid Nature in restoring full action of the eliminating organs, the only
means by which the system can be relieved of its poisons. Most of my
experience with grip cases has been in the care of those chronic disor-
ders which remain after the storm and stress of the acute disease has
passed. I have seen many a shattered wreck where it was difficult to
decide whether the disease or the treatment had done the most harm,
and though many are slow to recuperate, I have always succeeded by
Systemic treatment in effecting full restoration.
A further account of the grip and its sequelae or after-symptoms,
with an account of cure of a remarkable case, may be found in the
Chapter on Auto-toxaemia in a pamphlet by Dr. Foote, Jr., on “Won-
ders, Freaks, and Diseases.”
Hay Fever.
Hay fever is a periodical catarrh of the mucous membrancs of the
head, Sometimes also invading the lungs, which can respond to roll-call
both in the list of chronic and acute diseases. It is acute enough dur-
ing the few months of the summer season when it is at work, but as it
attacks its victims annually they are certainly chronic sufferers from it.
In the first place it is certainly the result of a local irritant, not a mi-
crobe, but another sort of germ, for it is attributed to the floating pol-
len of plants, grasses, or grains, which exert a particularly persistent,
pernicious irritation when coming in contact with the air-passages of
some people, for this disease requires not only the irritant cause, but
also a susceptibility. Fortunately comparatively few persons are so
constituted that they must suffer whenever such pollen are afloat, for
of course in their season all persons must breathe them. The suscep-
tibles must either fly to the sea or to some island or mountain resort
where their plague does not abound, or stay at home and weep, sneeze,
and suffer until the season is passed. Some local relief of the swollen,
tender, and watery membranes of eyes and nose, can be had by soothing
ointments, antiseptic washes and vapors of eucalyptol, camphor or car-
bolic acid, and some think that they get a little relief by quinine, bro-
mides, and iodides. It is evidently a local disease while it lasts, for
which local treatment is the main reliance ; but its foundation is the
susceptibility, which means a diathesis or constitutional bias, the some-
thing which constitutes the victim's difference from other folks, and
this can only be modified by a long course of treatment between the
seasons of attack. I have often been able, by “alterative treatment,”
to remove this susceptibility by practically bringing the patient in line
with other folks—thus making him or her like them &mmune.
CHRONIC AFFECTIONS OF THE THROAT. 403
NASAL POLYPI.
In all cases of chronic catarrh there is more or less thickening of
the membranes, partially obstructing the narrow air-lumen of the nos-
trils, and at times one side or the other—seldom both at Once—becomes
occluded, so that, as the child says, “one of my noses won't go.” If
one side persistently remains closed—impassable to air—it is well to
invite examination by an expert, who may very likely find a polypus,
which is a bag, cyst, or sack of membrane distended with watery
mucus, and acting as a tight plug. There may be several such polypi
and both mostrils may be entirely
closed by them. They are often bal-
loon-shaped, and attached only by a
narrow-necked pedicle, which makes
it possible to pull them off with for-
ceps, or strangle them off with a loop
of wire, as shown in the illustration,
Fig. 129. Such operations often re-
quire a good deal of skill—to ensnare
the polypi—and to prevent re-growth
it may be necessary to cauterize the
base from which the polypus is re-
moved. These operations are far
more troublesome than risky, but the
relief afforded is generally very prompt
and satisfactory, except that renewed
growths may necessitate more opera-
tions, not because those taken away have sprouted again, but because
new ones sprout from other parts of the membrane in those disposed to
such growths. Such a disposition or liability is generally dependent
on both constitutional and local conditions that can be removed by
appropriate treatment.
FIG. 430.
THE DISEASED THROAT.
Chronic Affections of the Throat.
Now let us take a peep into the throat. Bring a spoon or some-
thing with which to hold the tongue down. We are supposed to have
a patient affected with throat difficulties, as represented in the above cut.
You see those spongy-looking bodies on either side of the orifice
leading to the throat 7 They are the tonsils, which in some cases
become so inflamed and swollen as almost to obliterate the passage. By
pressing them, instead of sending out a transparent mucous fluid as
they do in health, a thick, white, green, or yellow matter issues from
them. They are enlarged, and your doctor may advise you to have
them clipped off a little, but I would discountenance haste in this

404 CHRONIC DISEASES OF THE BREATHING ORGANS.
*
emergency. An operation of this kind should not be performed unless
other means have failed. Generally, medicine will cure them. That
little round pendulous thing that hangs down between the tonsils is the
uvula. That, too, in some cases, is inflamed and unduly elongated—so
much so, that when the mouth is closed it will rest upon the tongue.
It may be thought best to take off a little piece of that ; but it is not
well to allow any operation of the kind, unless it be too long when no
inflammation is present. Sometimes there is what may be called a con-
genital elongation, in which case only it may be abridged by the sur-
geon. That arch-like membrane over the entrance to the throat, from
the upper central part of which the uvula is suspended, is popularly
called the “Soft Palate.” Behind, and below that, the membrane cover-
ing the back wall of the throat has a fiery red appearance, with patches
of white or yellow matter here and there ; or perhaps a few ulcers are
interspersed. Your family doctor will want to cauterize the diseased
membrane. Do not accept too quickly this advice. It may be well
to resort to cauterization in some cases, but the cautery had better be
avoided until more gentle means are tried. The application of caustic
to the mucous membrane always leaves it in a sensitive condition ; and
if the blood is overloaded with impurities, the ulceration is absolutely
made worse by its application. It acts like a local irritant, and diverts
the impurities to the place where it is applied, and its persistent use
leaves a dry, scarred membrane.
There are many people who are subject, whenever there is a change
of weather, to sore throat. They are said to be predisposed to affections
of the throat. Why this predisposition ? The immediate cause is gen-
erally known. Some stubborn man “with a big overcoat" in the cars,
would keep the window open and our neighbor caught an awful cold.
This, in his opinion, was the cause of his difficulty, and, indeed, so it
was the immediate cause, but if he had escaped this exposure Some other
would have precipitated the same difficulty, because his system was in
a condition to predispose him to just such an attack. Perhaps the pre-
disposing cause was hereditary—perhaps it was incurred by impure
vaccination to prevent the much-dreaded small-pox—possibly it was
contracted in youth by dissipated habits—it may be that the invalid
had a scrofulous ancestry; but however this predisposition may have
been obtained, it will in all such cases be found to exist in the blood.
Consequently, an impure quality of the vascular fluids may be set
down as the predisposing cause. There are those who constantly carry
about with them enlarged and inflamed tonsils, and possibly ulcerated
throats. In these cases it will be found on investigation that their
troubles arise from syphilitic impurities; or an inherited scrofulous
taint ; or possibly from contracted scrofulous impurity; but syphilitic
or scrofulous blood, one or the other, is the predisposing cause.
...”
CHRONIC, AFFECTIONS OF THE THROAT. 4O5
When attacks of sore throat are occasional, not constant, but the
“same old trouble” frequently renewed by slight causes, or no discov-
erable cause, the predisposition is often based on the gouty and rheu-
matic state of the system. This is so closely allied to the catarrhal or
scrofulous, that it is not always necessary to make special reference to
FIG. 131,
flºº,
§ {}
§ ſº § : º ; *
ſ ſ º MS § # # -
-- º ºil tº i. t
w | ####! W.
ſº wº
§§
\\
* Alsº hº Wº,
§§ *
y
WN \ º \.
\\ § § §:
THE NASAL AND THRO AT AIR-PASSAG E.
An illustration showing : 1, Nose ; 2, Arch of the Mouth ; 3, Uvula ; 4, Eustachian
Tube to Ear ; 5, Tongue ; 6, Jawbone ; 8, Anterior pillar of palate ; 9, Tonsil ;
10, Posterior pillar of palate; 11, Epiglottis ; 13, Vocal Cords; 15, Trachaea ;
17, OEsophagus; 18, Pharynx ; 19, Canal for Spinal Column ; 20, 21, Bodies of
Spine-cut across.
it ; but if one were to write a full chapter on gout and rheumatism their
predisposition to worry the throat would deserve no small consideration.
Indeed, the person of gouty-rheumatic diathesis may some day uotice a
tender joint, next a soreness about the rectum, and a day or two later a
sore throat. The order of appearance of such symptoms is not always
º § Nº.
() sº sº \ º § W £º º: N § *
15 Nº § A.
>\\ § § N W
























406 CHRONIC DISEASES OF THE BREATHING ORGANS.
the same. A headache or skin irritation may be thrown in for variety,
but the throat will have its full share of attention from the blood im-
purities which pester the gouty man. The fact that chronic throat
troubles are so generally based upon some constitutional cause shows
that the broad-minded specialist who studies the system as a whole, and
the relation of all symptoms to each other, is more likely to discover
and relieve the cause than the specialist who focuses his eye and his
remedy on the throat. Except where there is some tumorous growth
, FIG. 132. to remove, local attention to
throat affections is the small-
est part of the treatment re-
Quired. That part of the
throat which is right back of
the mouth, and which con-
nects it with the back of the
nose above and the tube to
2' the stomach below, is called
the pharynx. It has its mem-
branes well stocked with
mucous-secreting glands, and
these take part and keep as
busy as any of the others,
when catarrhal disease at-
ăşN ef tacks the air-passages of the
\ 22% º head. In the upper part are
º o: the openings that lead to the
middle ear, called the Eus-
REI,yº tachian tubes, a, Il d i t is by
extension of catarrhal disease
LARYN GOSCOPE. along these tubes, as fire
As used to view the vocal cords, showing how spreads in grass, that the
both doctor and patient could see the vocal deep, un-get-at-able parts of
Cords. the ear become choked up
with catarrhal disease and its products, leading to thickening of the
delicate vibrating membranes, defective hearing, and deafness. Herein
is the origin of 99 of 100 cases of impaired hearing. Below, the pharynx
merges into the oesophagus, the tube that conveys food from the
mouth to the stomach, and down the same route goes a good deal of
catarrhal matter from the back of the nose through the pharynx. This
is one way in which catarrh of the head is liable to disorder the
stomach. Another opportunity for extension of Catarrhal process is
from the pharynx into the larynx, which is the voice-box at the top of
the trachea or great bronchial tube by which air is conveyed to the
lungs. Fig. 131 well illustrates the relations of these parts.

CHRONIC AFFECTIONS OF THE THROAT. 4O7
Figure 131 shows how the air-route crosses the food-route. Breath-
ing is constant, eating occasional. When food is swallowed, the epi-
glottis, No. 11 in the picture, folds down and back over the larynx Open-
ing, and the food shoots over it into the stomach-tube (Nos. 18 and 17).
If swallowing be too fast, and the epiglottis does not shut tightly,
there is a leak of food into the larynx and wind-pipe and a coughing-
spell that casts out the offending substance which has “gone down the
wrong way.”
The next illustrations show
how, by means of a reflecting
mirror in the back of the
throat, well illuminated, a
physician can see the vocal
cords, and even between them
quite a distance down into the
lungs. This is very useful
when there is disease in the
larynx, or when some foreign
body like a collar-button has
been lodged in the air-pas-
sages. The vocal cords are
tense bands of membrane that
vibrate to produce sound for
Speaking and singing, but
they lose their elasticity and
tone in all conditions of debil-
ity, so that the tone of the
voice is quite an indicator
of the state of one's general
health or bodily tone, and in
most cases of catarrh of the
head the voice is impaired. - As seen in mirror, held in pharynx.
There is still another affection called laryngitis, or “clergyman's
Sore throat,” which arises from milder impurities of the blood. While
clergymen appear more subject to it than other people, it is, neverthe-
less, a common disease among the members of the legal profession,
public singers, school-teachers, lecturers, auctioneers, and those who
are obliged to exercise their vocal organs to a considerable extent. In
talking, public speaking, and singing, the air expelled, as it always is,
With vehemence, has a frictional effect upon the mucous membrane,
just as rubbing the finger on the outside produces friction of the skin.
This friction produces heat—the heat attracts the humoral properties
of the blood—the presence of these produces irritation—irritation in-
duces inflammation, and if the blood is in a scrofulous or syphilitic
&
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408 CHRONIC DISEASES OF THE BREATHING ORGANS. -
condition the inflammation may cause ulceration. Laryngitis is char-
acterized by hoarseness and weakness of voice; dry cough ; and some-
times with pain and Soreness about the throat. Catarrh of the head
often so irritates the throat as to invite blood impurities there, and in
childhood diphtheria, measles, scarlet fever, colds, etc., are the imme-
diate causes.
Gargles of various kinds are generally resorted to for relief from
throat affections; but they are as insufficient, so far as any permanent
relief is concerned, as snuff and vapors are for catarrh. The blood
must receive the most attention.
The sufferer from throat troubles, catarrh, or other difficulties, is
always tempted to go to work at once locally. He imagines that if he
can only bring something of a healing character in contact with those
irritated or ulcerated surfaces, he can overcome the evil; and after hav-
ing tried all sorts of local panaceas, he is too liable to conclude that his
difficulty is incurable, and that he must go through life with it ; but
in nearly all cases when the faith of this class of patients can be suffi-
ciently established to enable them to go patiently at work in the use of
remedies, skilfully prepared, to act upon constitutional or predisposing
causes, they are agreeably surprised to find that this class of difficulties
may be disposed of permanently with comparatively little trouble.
The faithless are commended to a perusal of Chapter XII in this part.
Chronic Bronchitis.
Here is a disease which often proves obstinate in the hands of those
physicians who have had limited experience in its treatment, and those
who so imperfectly comprehend its nature and origin as to resort to
little else than inhalants and expectorants. In this, as in diseases of
the head and throat, the predisposing cause is apt to be overlooked.
Bronchitis has its root in an impure condition of the blood. Some
imprudence or unavoidable exposure may have brought on the diffi-
culty, but if it does not pass off readily with the cold which ushered it
in, doubt should not exist for a moment that the blood of the patient is
mainly at fault. When this disease first makes its appearance, it
usually presents the acute form, and is attended with a dry cough,
showing a preponderance of the positive fluids; but when it becomes
chronic, excessive expectoration ensues, evincing an entire inversion of
the disease, and a preponderance of the negative alkaline fluids.
Unless checked or cured in season, bronchitis not unfrequently
leads to diseases of the lungs. As will be observed in Fig. 134, the
bronchial tubes are extensively distributed in the lungs for the purpose
of conducting the air to the vesicles, and when inflammation exists in
the former, it is very easy for it to extend to the latter. Every person
has doubtless noticed how inflammation in the finger or hand, produced
CHRONIC BRONCHITIS. 4O9
by soreness or accidental causes, will frequently communicate to the
arm, and gradually extend toward the shoulder until the whole arm
becomes affected. Now the bronchial tubes are as closely allied to the
lungs as the hand to the arm, and the inflammation affecting one, will
very soon affect both, unless timely attended to.
Bronchitis is often mistaken for consumption. It sometimes pre-
sents all the symptoms of lung disease; so much so, that physicians not
Fig. 134.
WIND-PIPE OR BRONCHUS AND BRONCHIAL TUBES, AND THEIR RAMIFICATIONS in
THE LUNGS, SHOWING THEIR INTIMATE RELATIONS WITH
BLOOD-WESSELS FROM. The HEART.
familiar with pulmonary diseases diagnose it incorrectly, much to the
discomfort of the patient. There is one rule, however, which in most
cases is reliable for non-professionals to go by. Invalids affected with
bronchitis are apt to be easily discouraged, and at times depressed,
while the consumptive is almost always hopeful. The hopefulness
of consumptive patients is proverbial—they are seldom disposed to be-
lieve that they have the disease, while those affected with throat or
bronchial affections are nearly always apprehensive, hypochondriacal,
and disposed to imagine themselves the victims of consumption.


410 CHRONIC DISEASEs OF THE BREATHING organs.
Persons affected with bronchitis should, as much as possible, avoid
coughing. It is sometimes difficult to do so, but coughing tends to ex-
tend the disease. It is a kind of involuntary effort of nature to ease
the irritation. All persons who have ever had an itching eruption of
the skin, know how natural it is to scratch. People will scratch when
they do not think of it. In this case it seems to be an involuntary move-
ment to ease the irritation, but it generally makes it worse, and the
humor and redness of the cuticle spread over more surface in conse-
quence of it. The same in coughing : the mucous membrane, instead
of the surface skin, being irritable, and the seat of annoyance being un-
approachable with the hands or fingers, a sudden discharge of air from
the lungs is resorted to, the friction of which administers temporary
relief, but as certainly increases the latitude of the disease. For this
reason coughing should be controlled so far as practicable, and bron-
Chitis should not be neglected. It is consumption in embryo, and many
times as obstinate to cure as a deeply seated pulmonary disease.
There is no one habit better calculated to bring on bronchitis and
to perpetuate it than the habit of bundling up the throat. By this
practice the throat is rendered tender and sensitive and susceptible to
colds on the slightest exposure. My personal experience in this con-
nection may be interesting. When a boy I was constantly afflicted
with this disease, and falling into the error that most people do who are
troubled with the complaint, I never stepped out of doors without
winding a great woollen comforter two or three times around my neck.
One doctor after another was applied to—one dosing me with calomel;
another advising the application of gargles; and another swabbing my
throat with nitrate of silver, until I was nearly doctored into my grave.
As I became older, and began to exercise my own judgment, I resorted
to simpler remedies of my own invention, with partial relief, still con-
tinuing, however, the injurious practice of enveloping my neck in wool-
len ; but at the age of about fourteen I determined to make my neck
tough like my face, and not only throw off the neck-dressing customary
in cold weather, but also the cravat, and turn down my collar on a level
with the collar-bone. At once the difficulty was removed, and, by the
aid of medication to purify the blood, every vestige of the disease depart-
ed. I have so far back-slidden as to resume the necktie, but in no case is
it my habit to wear fur, tippet, or other extra clothing about the neck
in winter. No one in the habit of bundling up his throat can at all
times avoid exposure when the neck is not guarded. The atmosphere
indoors is sometimes as cold as that outside, and he who envelops his
throat to his ears in furs or woollen, on stepping out, must keep them
on after returning, or a cold will be the result.
If neckwraps are to be discarded in winter, of course it should be
done gradually, and the neck should be bathed every morning in cold
ASTHMA. 4 II
water. Exposed to the air, the neck becomes no more sensitive than
the face or hands, and who with any frequency takes cold in the latter ?
Let me not, however, be understood to say that the abandonment
of neckwraps will effect a cure in cases of bronchitis. The exposure
of the neck toughens it, and renders it less liable to attacks of cold, as
previously remarked, and in this way victims of bronchitis may be
benefited without other treatment.
Cases of bleeding bronchitis sometimes present themselves in an ex-
tensive practice. In some of these their difficulty has been mistaken for
hemoptysis or bleeding of the lungs. A case of this kind from New Eng.
land some years ago came under my treatment, and it was generally sup:
posed by his physicians that he was affected with hemorrhage of the pul-
monary Organs, but I was convinced, after an examination, that the blood
proceeded from a certain portion of the bronchia, which I pointed out,
and proceeding upon this diagnosis, I cured my patient after he had been
given up to die by his doctors at home. The treatment of bronchitis,
to be successful, must be about the same as in a case of consumption.
Asthma.
Asthma is a word on a Greek basis, meaning “I blow,” because its
distinctive symptom is difficult breathing, with a wheezing sound. It
comes on in periodical attacks. The most common time is about two
o'clock in the morning, and the patient, if not aroused by premonitory
symptoms of distress through chest and bowels, as many are, may be
promptly aroused from slumber, and compelled to assume a sitting
attitude, bolstered up by pillows in order to breathe at all. The attack
gets worse before it gets better, so that to one unaccustomed to it “it
seems as though I would die,” and the onlooker is even more liable to
think so; but the “old-stager,” through long experience, comes to take
his nightly turn at it quite philosophically, learning that its persistence is
consistent with a long life and a very useful one. The man who built up
the New York Times, George Jones, was a steady victim till he died at
the age of seventy-nine, and Mr. Geo. T. Angell, the active though
aged leader of the National and Massachusetts Societies for the Abo-
lition of Cruelty to Animals, finds consolation in the good ideas that
come to him in the long and lone vigils of the night when he has to sit
up with himself.
In moderate attacks the difficult respiration is the only important
symptom, but in severe ones there may be cold, extremities and sweat-
ing, even vomiting (often, however, induced by the medicines used).
After two or three hours of such suffering the spasm relaxes, some
mucus is expectorated, and exhaustion leads to a morning nap. For
the rest of the twenty-four hours the asthmatic may be quite like other
folks, not showing evidence of the disease ; but many cases (about
412 CHRONIC DISEASES OF THE BREATHING ORGANs.
eighty per cent.) are attended with more or less constant bronchitis or
catarrh, and others are dyspeptic. The disease rarely stands distinctly
alone, unrelated to other constitutional disorders. It is often founded
in a gouty state, and may take turns or alternate with attacks of gout,
or of its eczematous skin manifestations (salt-rheum). Acidity of the
stomach, heartburn, and other forms of indigestion are frequently ob.
served in asthmatics. Malaria and syphilis have also been found re-
sponsible for their torments.
Asthma must, therefore, be generally due to blood humors, and we
are reminded how almost impossible it is to write about a chronic dis-
ease of any kind without coming back to them as the basic cause ; but
in asthma the nervous system must also be taken into account, since in
many respects it goes hand in hand with what are called neuroses, or
derangements of nerve-action. In the actual spasmodic attack the
nervous system plays a most important part, for the difficult breathing
is very directly due to spasm of the many muscles surrounding the
bronchial tubes, partially closing them ; and this is due to a stimulus to
spasmodic action received from the nerves which control these muscles,
so that an attack of asthma is, like a periodical attack of neuralgia or
sciatica, due to spasm originating in the nerves; but why a spasm there ?,
because it is excited by properties in the blood which are irritants to the
nerves. Thus, asthma becomes clearly a disease due to blood impuri-
ties and nervous derangements, and the best line of treatment for cure
is clearly indicated, but before saying more of treatment, it will be
well to consider the various immediate or external causes that take a
hand in stimulating asthmatic attacks.
Many cases suffer their regular attacks whatever their abode or
manner of living, but often it is evident that the “touchy’ nerves are
set off and the spasm brought on by states of the atmosphere, floating
dust, plant spores or pollen, the emanations from a feather-bed or from
animals. Various odors, as from cooking and perfumes, may act as an
exciting cause, and so may errors in diet, bringing on indigestion, or
merely mental storms, such as anger or fright. The exciting cause is
not always discoverable or necessarily present, but the predisposing:
causes in the states of the blood and nervous system must be ever
present to render such exciting causes operative. Many an asthmatic,
though really uncured, may avoid the attacks if he can discover some
particular climate suited to him, but what gives comfort to one may do
the reverse for another, and not infrequently the Smoky and dusty air
of cities is less stimulating, and so more bearable than the bracing
and clear out-of-town air. Extremes of temperature, and of dryness or
moisture in the air, are known to act as exciting causes ; and variations
in the electrical state of the atmosphere are very likely as influential
as they are obscure. Some say heredity can be traced in forty per cent.
CONSUMPTION. 4I 3
The treatment is of two kinds, palliative and curative. When the
attack comes on, it is natural to seek immediate relief, even by such
nauseous doses as ipecac and lobelia, which help to relax spasm.
Indian hemp and chloral are also employed for this purpose, but many
get most prompt relief from breathing the stifling fumes of burning
stramonium leaves and paper that has been soaked in nitre and dried.
Strong coffee is a common resource, and even mustard-plasters to the
feet are helpful to some folks on such occasions. The curative treat-
ment is such as is appropriate to removal of causes, to improve the
state of the blood, and relieve the irritability of the nerves and their
proneness to explosive action. This means the eradication of Scrof-
ula, gout, or malaria, if they be in the background. Sometimes there
is a nasal obstruction, such as polypus, to be removed. Probably the
seeming incurability of some persons is due to the impossibility of
repressing their tendency to over-activity. They are full of business,
nervous, active, energetic, and perpetually over-tax the nervous system,
and keep it continually “unstrung,” or below par, so that spasmodic
asthma becomes even “natural ” to them.
The author has no recollection of ever failing in a case of asthma
when the patient was under fifty years of age, while he has been suc-
cessful in many on the shady side of fifty. The combination of elec-
tricity and medicine seems admirably adapted to the requirements of
asthmatic patients, and must almost invariably succeed.
Consumption.
It is almost unnecessary to remark that consumption is the most
common and fatal of lung diseases; indeed, it is so common and
familiar that we have become hardened to the fact. It is sometimes
called the “great white scourge.” If any new scourge were to come
upon humanity and carry off an equal number of victims in a civilized
community, it would arouse terrible apprehension and constant investi-
gation. As the disease is always with us, so the subject is almost
always up for discussion somewhere, and many earnest men in all
classes are seeking to abate the scourge. Every two or three years
some international congress is held to compare notes and strive at least
for some mitigation of it. In brief, it may be said that about one in
every seven deaths is set down to consumption of the lungs, and the
annual tribute of the United States is over 100,000 of its inhabitants.
So that when we are a population of 70,000,000, it would seem that
about 10,000,000 are doomed to pass away with consumption. Further-
more, the disease is more prevalent than appears from the tabulated
tables, as we know from the fact that in many persons who die from
other causes, there can be found in the lungs evidence that they have
414 CHRONIC DISEASES OF THE BREATHING ORGANs.
had more or less tuberculosis and practically recovered from it, or at
least lived to die of something else. So it has been estimated that at
least half of the population is, or has been, tuberculosed. Before pro-
ceeding farther it may be well to say that all tuberculosis is not con-
sumption, and all consumption of the lungs is not attended with
tubercles. But the two names of consumption and tuberculosis are
frequently used as interchangeable, because the lungs are the organs
most commonly afflicted with tubercles, and because there are very
few cases of consumption in which they do not exist.
KOCH's BACILLI.
All the editions of this book during forty years past have given
scrofulous impurities as the basis of this disease. During that time the
FIG. 135. progress of medical studies has dis-
covered the fact that little micro-,
Scopic fungi, now generally known
as Koch’s bacilli, are the tenants of
tubercles. At first many were in-
clined to say that they were the
cause of the disease. But now we .
hear little of that. All authorities
agree that they only take root on
what is called favorable soil, just as
plants in general only take root
when the seed falls on favorable
ground. Dr. Jacobi rightly says
that “the tubercular bacillus never
attacks healthy tissue.” While all
the schools of medicine are nearly
unanimous on this point, that there
must be a favorable soil; that some
are predisposed ; that others cannot be touched by it, there ere physicians
who deny that the bach are always present in the disease. One of
these, Dr. Gibbes, was for ten years the Professor of Bacteriology at
Ann Arbor Medical School. He claims to have conducted hundreds
of autopsies of consumption without finding a trace of this tuberculous
fungus. If he is right, of course they must be wrong who say “every
new case of tuberculosis must be derived from another case by direct
or indirect infection.” My study of the subject leads me to believe that
if every specimen of the fungus could be stamped out by methods pro-
posed, nevertheless people would suffer and die from scrofulous inflam-
matory, wasting disease of the lungs with the course and symptoms to
which we give the name consumption. In general, the function of
such minute organisms is to tear down or pull apart dead and depleted
A TYPICAT, CASE OF CONSUMTPTION.

CONSUMPTION. 4 IS
animal tissues. As Jacobi says, healthy tissue is not in their line. But
when disease sets in and when the individual becomes susceptible to
their depredations, then they take hold and hurry on the destructive
processes. Very likely, cases of consumption that reach a fatal termi-
nation, would die very much more slowly were it not for the activity of
these little busy-bodies. Dr. E. G. Janeway, of New York, is report-
ed as having said at a meeting of the New York Academy of Medi-
cine, May 5, 1898, that some physicians were inclined to go too far in
their statements regarding the infection of tuberculosis. He distinctly
declared that the soil is more important than the germ, and he finds
that the catarrhal tissues of the
membrancs is one indication of sus-
ceptibility, and that those persons
who are disposed to develop fre-
quent attacks of catarrhal pneu-
monia are liable to drift into con-
Sumption.
FIG. 136.
In looking for ways and means
to avoid this widely prevalent dis-
ease, it would be foolish to ignore
the possible powers for evil of the
germ. But on the other hand, it
is more evident to me that it would
be foolish to make light of the
conditions that produce the favor-
able soil. Boards of Health in THE FUN (; I O B. BACILI, I () F CON-
various cities are laying consider- SUM PTION.
able stress on Sanitary means of restriction and prevention, hoping
thereby to accomplish something in the way of stamping out the dis-
case. And the mortality records of New York City for 1888 to 1898
seem to show that the death-rate has been reduced from about four per
thousand to two and one-half per thousand. It may be fair to attribute
at least a part of this to cnergetic methods for the improvement of the
sanitary condition of the city in general, and allow also that the special
efforts against the spread of the tubercular material has not been
without avail. Yet we agree with Dr. M. L. IIolbrook, the veteran
hygienist, who believes that more can be accomplished through indi-
vidual hygiene to maintain such a high standard of personal health
that immunity will thus be insured, not only against the consumption
germ, but also many other inflictions. I take enough stock in the
idea of contagion of consumption to endorse and help give publicity to
those sanitary precautions which various Health Boards are urging.
It is claimed that the contagion is in the broken-down tubercular tissue,
and whether it is cast off in the form of the sputa from the throat or

416 CHRONIC DISEASES OF THE BREATHING ORGANs.
lungs, diarrhoeal discharges of the bowels, or unclean matter from a
tuberculated gland, cold abscess or scrofulous inflammation of the joint,
it should be thoroughly disinfected and destroyed. I would certainly
agree that the meat and milk of tuberculous cows should not be con-
sumed by man,” and that consumptives should not be as free as others
in their family associations. They need not be isolated like lepers, but
if there be another susceptible member in the family, the kiss of a con-
sumptive or the use of the same clothing or utensils might be a means
of contagion. Rooms recently occupied by one family should be gen-
FIG. 137. erally cleansed before a n -
other family goes in. If
there were a consumptive in
the outgoing family I should
believe in a more thorough
W
ſ Š wº § wº !,
§§ º
N
ONE WAY OF TARING IN TUBERCLE GERMS-
“PITY 'TIs, 'Tis TRUE.”
4"ºf *... . .,, ºr lº cleansing and renovation.
*> §§ § º' % } %’sº | The ventilation of rooms is
§§ }\ tº, 23. | & A important for everybody, sick
i. §§§ſ! sº sº Nº| or well, but thorough venti-
lation is of more than usual
value if there be a consump-
tive about. Were there no
germs to consider, it is never-
theless true that the emana-
tions from diseased lungs are
often fetid, and should not be
breathed in by another per-
SOD1.
The question—
“Is consumpTION HEREDITARY 2’
has been productive of endless debate. Professor Rudolph Virchow
declares that tuberculosis is never found in children just born, but this
does not invalidate the fact that the soil is more important than the
germ, that the predisposition is the first defect, and experience Cer-
tainly shows that the predisposition runs in families. Of course it can
be acquired, but this does not at all lessen the truth that it may be
transmitted. Nevertheless, it should be understood that the child of a
* “It may then be assumed that milk drawn from the diseased udder of a
tuberculous cow may, and in many instances will, be the means of implanting the
germs of consumption in those—and especially in young children—who partake of
it. Opinions differ, however, as to whether the milk of a tuberculous COW, the
udder being unaffected, contains the micro-organism of the disease. In 1895 the
Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture is said to have demonstrated
beyond a doubt that milk taken from a cow with healthy udders may contain
tubercle bacilli.”—Medical Record, August 12, 1899. -












CONSUMPTION. 4I7
consumptive parent is not necessarily doomed to the same fate. While,
on the other hand, the child of the most healthy parents may acquire
the state of body or scrofulous taint which renders one liable to it.
The person who is probably somewhat tainted with this tendency
through heredity, may have to be a little more watchful of his hygiene
than other folks in order to escape the development of the disease.
The susceptibility may be acquired in many ways. In brief, poor
health, or the state which is called “run down " may suffice, and the
ways to work toward and into this condition are innumerable. Dis-
sipation, over-work, worry, sedentary pursuits, over-crowded houses,
ill-ventilated rooms, and especially the breathing of used up, stale air in
business places, at home and in crowded places—all these may pave
the way to consumption. Out-of-door laborers are less liable than
clerks, printers, and those engaged in sedentary labor or dusty occupa-
tions. Dampness and lack of sunlight in living rooms deserve special
mention. Mental influences, prolonged grief, or any such cases of
weakened vital functions may alone suffice. -
The predisposition to consumption may be acquired very gradu-
ally by a general decline from a state of fair health to a state of dis-
ease, calling for no better definition than mal-nutrition, debility, and
anaemia. It is often impossible to know just when the disease consump-
tion develops upon or out of the state of predisposition ; when the
tubercles first begin to form ; when a low grade of inflammation takes
the place of passive congestion. One writer thinks he has discovered
as the earliest symptom what he calls “the gravitation cough *—a
slight cough or hack repeated two or three times on reclining at night,
manifesting itself for some time before the advent of the morning cough,
which has been generally regarded as an early symptom.
When the stage of predisposition has existed for a time and the
lungs are ripe and ready for such trouble, then it is fair to presume
that the inflammation may actively begin through the operation of the
fungus germs already referred to. No doubt these may get access to
the body in many ways. They are so baneful and almost so ubiquitous
that it is hardly supposable that any of us can entirely escape them.
Whether taken in through inhalation or by the stomach route or
through an open sore, they seem prone to locate in the lungs and begin
operations at the point where one of the air-lobules of the lungs is
joined to one of the bronchial tubes, as shown where the number 1 is in
the illustration Fig. 138. Tubercles also have a fancy to locate in the
membranes of the brain and those of the intestines. There are tuber-
cular affections of the joints and many other parts, but the favorite
location is in the lungs and in what is called “the apex * or upper part
of the lobes. Dr. J. West Roosevelt has found anatomical reasons
why hey first lodge there. He believes that the lymphatic or absorb-
418 CHRONIC DISEASES OF THE BREATHING ORGANS,
ent system is the route by which the bacilli travel, and that if they
escape the destructive powers of the lymphatic glands and succeed in
running this long gauntlet, then they pass on through the thoracic duct
into the venous blood and are soon pumped through the pulmonary arter-
ies into the delicate blood capillaries of the lungs. Here they lodge and
begin business. He thinks it very improbable that the bacilli are drawn
so deeply into the air-tubes by the lungs as to reach directly the spot
where they set up shop. I think he is correct. All this goes to show
that our protection against them lies mainly in maintaining an invul-
nerable lymphatic or glandular system. Scrofula makes itself evident
in derangements of this glandu-
lar system. In the scrofulous
person the germs have an easy
access. If the glands are all
right, the germs cannot get
through without being practi-
cally eaten up and destroyed.
One of the routes by which
tubercle-bacilli gain access to
the lymphatics is through vac-
cination. This is coming to be
generally recognized as evi-
denced by the following resölu-
tion adopted at one of the ses-
sions of the International Con-
gress of Hygiene, held at Madrid
in the spring of 1898 : “Inas-
much as tuberculosis is easily
transmitted by vaccination when
it is done directly from the calf,
this Congress asks that in all the
Mations represented at the meet-
B, a pulmonary lobule, magnified in A, ing, the practice should be
tº sº. ...ini wºj.g. 3, 4, 5, adopted of using only lymph of
6, and their relation to the bronchial calves which have been ex-
tube, 1. Phthisis involves these air-sacs. amined post mortem and pro-
nounced to be free from tuberculosis.” Not many years ago these
devotees of vaccination were strenuously maintaining that neither
The AIR-SACS OF THE LUNGS.
consumption nor syphilis were possible risks of vaccination. Now they
admit both risks.
Having shown how it is that the disease known as consumption
comes about, I will give a little description of what kind of change
takes place in the lung-tissue, and then speak of the symptoms that
result more or less from that change.

CONSUMPTION. 4I9
Nearly all educated physicians are perfectly acquainted with the
disease as it is locally presented. One of the best descriptions of tu-
bercle in its incipient and progressive stages is given in the “American
Cyclopædia.” “In the earliest stages the tubercular matter, " remarks
the writer, “presents itself in one of two forms : first as Small, rounded
semi-transparent granulations, of a grayish color, varying in size from
a millet-seed to a pea, disseminated throughout the affected portion of
the lungs; in the progress of the disease a yellow spot is formed in the
centre of the grayish matter, and this gradually increases until the
whole becomes of a uniform color; second, the grayish matter is infil-
trated into the substance of the lungs in irregular masses; the yellow-
ish points make their appearance in these masses, increase and coalesce,
until the whole forms irregularly round bodies, varying in size from a
pea to a hen’s egg, more or less soft and friable, breaking down like
cheese under the pressure of the fingers. After a time these yellow
bodies undergo a new transformation ; they begin to soften in the centre,
and gradually become converted into a thick, yellowish fluid or semi-
fluid matter. The abscesses containing this matter are termed vomica;
by degrees their contents find their way into the bronchial tubes, and
are expectorated, leaving ragged, irregular cavities in the lungs. These
cavities at first are rounded ; old cavities are irregular in their form,
presenting anſractuosities, and are commonly lined with a dense false
membrane, while their walls and the neighboring pulmonary tissue are
infiltrated with tubercle. The mucous membrane lining the bronchial
tubes, which are connected with old cavities, is almost invariably in-
flamed and thickened. In a certain number of cases the trachea pre-
sents ulcerations varying in size and number ; the larynx is more rare-
ly affected, and here the ulcerations are mostly confined to the vocal
cords and the epiglottis.” -
The symptoms of consumption the doctors mainly agree upon.
They are, briefly : wasting of the flesh ; more or less cough in most
cases; shortness of breath ; expectoration of matter which falls below
the surface of water, or sinks to the bottom, and, in some cases, streaked
with blood ; growing contraction of the chest ; quick pulse ; dry heat
in the palms of the hands and soles of the feet ; flushes at times on the
cheeks; gradually increasing debility; and, in advanced stages of the
disease, hectic fever ; chills; copious expectoration, in some cases with,
and in others without blood ; night-sweats; eyes sunken and glassy;
Cheeks hollow ; lips compressed ; nose pinched in its appearance ; com-
plexion bloodless when fever is absent ; and, in the last stages, great
emaciation ; Swelling of the extremities; expectoration ash-colored and
heavy ; relaxation of the bowels; disturbed digestion ; and, in many
cases, ulceration of the mouth and throat. Some cases pass through all
of these stages with little or no cough, or pain in chest; but usually at
420 CHRONIC DISEASES OF THE BREATHING ORGANs.
the outset there is a hacking cough, which gradually increases as the
disease progresses, both in severity and frequency; and weakness, pain,
and constriction of the chest are experienced.
This disease often becomes established so insidiously, as I have
already said, that it is impossible to learn just when it began. But there
are cases which very evidently follow as a sequela of measles or pneu-
monia. When fairly established there are generally symptoms enough
to make diagnosis easy and sure, and if the symptoms of which the pa-
tient himself complains are not enough alone, then more can be learned
by the physician's method of examining the chest ; and the latest in this
line is the use of the X-ray. It is seldom necessary to resort to this,
but it is rather intercsting to know that it often gives evidence of old
Scars—spots that have been cured—in persons who were never suspected
of having the disease. This is of course one more evidence of the cura-
bility of consumption. When this book was first written, it was medi-
cal heresy to declare consumption curable, but for some years past I
have not been alone in this claim.
THE CUIXAIBILITY OF CONSUMPTION.
The “National Encyclopædia of American Biographies,” published
by James T. White & Co., in 1893, Vol. III., speaking of the author of
“Plain Home Talk,” said: “In fact, he has, during his entire pro-
fessional career, demonstrated the curability of consumption.” At
present I would not know where to look for a quotation in modern lit-
erature to the effect that consumption is always necessarily incurable;
of course there still remains a great difference of opinion as to the num-
ber of cases that can be cured. In the Medical Record, an organ of the
old school profession of New York City, in its issue of October, 1898, I
find Dr. S. A. Knopf reported as claiming that twenty-eight per cent.
might be cured in special Sanitaria in the Adirondacks, and that
patients could be taken care of there at less cost than in the public hos-
pitals in New York City. He was arguing that very few cases recover
in the general hospital, so that the money spent on them there was vir-
tually thrown away, whereas, if specially provided for in suitable Sani-
taria and in favorable regions, one-fourth might be restored to health
and business. He remarked that the plan had proved very successful
in Germany, where there are fifty Sanitarias for the poor, and that in
this country it need not cost more than one dollar per day a man. We
find the following in an editorial in the Medical Record, presumably
by Dr. George F. Shrady : “That pulmonary tuberculosis is curable, or
rather that it does not always progress to a fatal termination, has been
shown again and again in autopsies where the lungs present unmistak-
able evidences of having once been the seat of tuberculous lesions. The
bacilli have obtained a lodgement at some period and have begun their
CONSUMPTION. 42 I
ravages, but the organism, aided perhaps by hygienic or medicinal
remedies, has proved itself strong enough to destroy the micro-organ-
isms, and repair as far as possible the injury done by them. . In this
fact the therapeutist finds encouragement for renewed cffort, and upon
it he rests his hopes of ultimately triumphing over the Scourge of man-
kind.”
Dr. Henry P. Loomis, of New York, says: “After a careful
study of the processes which result in the arrest or cure of this form of
tuberculosis, that of seven hundred and sixty-three persons dying of
non-tubercular disease, seventy-one, or over nine per cent., presented in
their lungs changes characteristic of healed tuberculosis, and other Ob-
servers tell us that their clinical experience and post-mortem exami-
nations prove to their minds that the reaction against these infective
microbes is so marked in some constitutions as to even bring about
spontaneous cures of tubercular disease without the aid of therapeuti-
cal measures.”
Dr. Andrew Clark, a celebrated London physician, said to an inter-
viewer :
“Now let me tell you how I myself have managed to live at all.
I am sixty-six. Over thirty years ago, when I was a young and obscure
Scotch practitioner in London, I applied for a place on the medical
staff of the London Hospital. The authorities there said : ‘Oh, let us
give the poor chap a chance. He is consumptive ; he won’t last long.
Let us, in pity, give him the post.’ Well, I have outlived nearly every
one of them. All my life I have been delicate ; I have several times
been at death's door, but by reason of a simple life and a life of work,
I have managed to get very close to three-score years and ten.”
TREATMENT OF CHRONIC DISEASES OF THE BREATIKING ORGANS.
In all of these difficulties excepting asthma (and in many cases this
affection may be included), the main thing to be accomplished is to
purify, enrich, and build up the corpuscles of the blood. In all cases
of catarrh, inflammations or ulcerations of the throat, bronchitis, and
consumption, the blood, on examination, is found to be inflammatory
and impure, or else deficient of red corpuscles, while all the substantial
Constituents of the blood exhibit a disposition to decay. I am con-
stantly treating, and with gratifying success, invalids affected with the
diseases under consideration, as will be observed in some extracts of
letters given in Chapter XII. of this Part, and the remedies I employ
are such as are calculated to restore the blood to its wonted richness
and strength, and impart nervous vitality to the wasted and enervated
System.
It is well, however, to give early attention to consumption in its
incipient stages. The earlier the better.
422 CHRONIC DISEASES OF THE BREATHING ORGANS.
THE PROFESSION IS COMING TO MY VIIJWS OF FORTY YEARS AG.O.
The treatment I adviso has stood practically as it is in all previous
editions of this work. I see no occasion to amend it in spite of the fact
that there have been more new cures for consumption offered than for
any other disease—and generally after brief trial abandoned. I find
the medical profession of all schools coming, in the main, to my point of
view. I will quote but one of many available. I find Dr. Porter say-
ing in the Clinique : “Without fear of contradiction it may be asserted
that tissue-building—the establishing of healthy cell-life—is the foun-
dation treatment of every case of tuberculosis in all stages.” The blood
is the material from which all tissue-building must draw supplies, and
upon the quality of the blood will depend the kind of tissue that is
built up. Again I quote from Dr. Porter because he expresses my oft-
stated views. “Feeding is not nutrition. The best of diet may not
be assimilated—may do harm rather than good. The practice of stuf-
fing, so honestly advocated by some authors not long ago, has been
rapidly abandoned. Years ago every case of phthisis got a bottle of
cod-liver oil ; now it is given only to selected cases. Nutrients are
chosen which can be appropriated, and food is given in such a manner
and of such kinds as may easily induce complete assimilation.
“There must be a demand for nutrition before assimilation can be
satisfactorily performed. There must be the ability to appropriate food
that is taken, else the defective cell in a remote part of the system will
profit little thereby. Just here, I believe, is an important point in the
treatment of tuberculosis. The best of food and the most reliable
nutrients are taken and still the waste in many cases goes on. There
is either want of assimilation, or a want of gain from the process.”
This is simply another way of saying what ſ have always claimed,
that means must be adopted for increasing what may be called in short
the in-take and out-put processes of repair and cleansing. The system
must be aided to unload all useless and harmful waste matters, and
encouraged to take on fresh, wholesome reparative substance. There
is in such cases a general disposition to emaciation, attended with a lack
of power to absorb fatty matters. For over half a century it has been
common to prescribe cod-liver oil to make up for this deficiency, over-
looking the fact that the real flaw is the inability of the system to
digest and absorb fatty matters. No doubt some of them are more
easily assimilated than others, but in general it has been worse than
wasting cod-liver oil to try to enforce it upon organs and tissues that
would persistently refuse to receive it. At this late day we find Dr.
H. A. Hare, in his “Practical Therapeutics,” making the following
statements: (1.) Never use cod-liver oil when the disease has passed
the primary stages of thickening of the lung and roughening of the
CONSUMPTION. 423
respiratory Sounds, unless fibroid changes are going on and the changes
are very slow indeed. (2.) The use of cod-liver oil when rapid degen-
crative changes are occurring in the lung is distinctly harmful, as it is
not of any Service, disorders the digestion, and destroys the appetite.
There is an old-time story of a German who thought his doctor
prescribed for him dog-liver oil. He tried it and it helped him. In
New Bedford, years ago, when the whaling business was brisk, sperm
oil was used in place of, or to adulterate, cod-liver oil. When the
digestive processes can be coaxed to call for and make use of easily
digested fats, probably good cream and butter are as cheap as any.
Without resorting to any obnoxious oils like those just mentioned, any
consumptive patient can obtain all the oleaginous matter necessary to
supply the waste of his system, by eating those articles of wholesome
food like roast and boiled beef, and boiled mutton, while his medica-
tion should be such as to deprive his blood of its impurities.
Dyspepsia is a very common companion of diseased lungs, and in
such cases cod-liver oil, or even fat meats, are loathsome to the stomach.
Dr. Pereira remarks that “fixed oil or fat is more difficult of digestion
and more obnoxious to the stomach than any other alimentary princi-
ple.” “Indeed,” adds he, “in some more or less obvious or concealed
form, I believe it will be found the offending ingredient in nine-tenths
of the dishes which disturb weak stomachs.” Here, then, cod-liver oil
not only ceases to be a remedy, but becomes an injurious medicine.
What are cod-liver oil doctors going to do in such an extremity ?
I have a suggestion which may help them out a little. It is to
apply the oil externally with the friction of the hand. Any whole-
Some oil may be employed for this purpose, and the frequency of the
application must depend upon the condition of the patient. If he be
greatly emaciated, every other day would not be too frequent, but the
skin should be well frictionized with the naked hand, and the person
making the application should be one in the full vigor of health. Any
oily matter remaining after this application may be removed with a dry
napkin.
KOCEI’s SERUM AND OTHER REMEDIES.
It would be useless to attempt to make any list of the great num-
ber of cures first heralded as sure, and then abandoned and forgotten.
One of the most celebrated was the serum treatment of Koch, the Ger-
man who discovered the bacilli of consumption and thereby gained a
reputation for knowing something which has been largely lost through
the failure of his cure. His plan was to make a sort of poison-broth by
cultivating the bacilli in fluids wherein they thrived, and then filtering
so as to get their poisoned product. It seems a little like trying “the
hair of the same dog to cure the bite.” The editor of the Medical
424 CHRONIC DISEASES OF THE BREATHING ORGANS.
Record says: “In no instance has failure been more Conspicuous than
in the serum treatment of tuberculosis; ” but he concludes his article
with an expression of a hope that there will yet be discovered an anti-
toxin for tuberculosis which will effectually cure the disease. To my
mind this seems as hopeless as the search for an elixir of everlasting
youth. The real cure for consumption must be a gradual reversal of the
Slow process by which it has come about.
One old-school author says: “Writing in the light of many
months' world-wide trial of Koch's remedy, I see in the present
resources of medicine no means of directly or indirectly destroying the
bacillus or of preventing its
destructive action save by rein-
forcing the tissues. Nor do I
conceive it within the range of
probability that a specific in this
disease will ever be discovered.
Specific medication in tubercu-
losis while it may not be irra-
tional is certainly misleading,
for it is directed to simply an
effect, or a secondary result of
a fundamental cause which lies
anterior to, or prior to, the inva-
sion of the system by the bacilli.”
Solomon Solis-Cohen, Lecturer on Special Therapeutics in the Jefferson
Medical College of Philadelphia, who has written an excellent article
on tuberculosis, not long since, says, “that the bacillus of Koch, while
it is perhaps the most important of several microbes that influence the
progress of lesions in the various forms of this disease, does not of itself
originate the disease in any form.”
Still another writes: “By a careful study of Nature's own efforts
in coping with this affection we find that her success lies along the line
of physiological resistance of the tissues to the microbe. If she fails,
her failure should not be attributed to the destructive effect and
infective nature of the bacilli, but to a lack of sufficient vital force to
properly maintain the integrity of her own structures, in Consequence
of which these parasitic agents which float in the air we breathe, and
lurk in the food we eat and the liquids we drink, find a suitable lodge-
ment for their growth, a favorable soil where they can live and thrive
upon a pabulum furnished them in poorly organized tissue. * * *
All measures to keep up vitality and revitalize diseased structures must
be foremost in the mind of the therapeutist, remembering that measures
which favor the nutrition of man oppose the nutrition of harmful
bacteria. Fight the enemy by strengthening your own fortress. Do
FIG. 139.
THE OUT-DOOR CURE.

CONSUMPTION. 425
not spend valuable means and time in useless efforts in attempting to
destroy or eradicate a universal foe, which lies waiting to attack the
weak on every hand, but guard well your frontiers, build up your
barriers of defence ; for fortification against a further invasion of such
an attack is safer and wiser than to seek protection by useless attempts
to destroy the enemy.
“We believe, if a successful treatment of tuberculosis is ever
attained, that the microbe will be practically forgotten, and that the
therapeutical measures will be directed to FIG. 140.
the condition of the system upon which
the bacilli thrive.”
If these “regulars” are at last teaching
science and truth in this matter, then this
book has done so from the start, and needs no
revision in its claims concerning the treat-
ment of consumption.
While writing this we read of one more
great discovery by a professional in Rome,
Italy, who expects that the inhalation of the
gas containing a powerful antiseptic will
destroy the bacilli. I am not at all sure that
a case of consumption would be very much
better if the bacilli could be killed off by
wishing them dead. I can certainly say that
that alone would not be sufficient for a cure.
Another mode of treatment worthy of mention, because it has hung
on for a good many years, is the use of creosote taken by the stomach,
but no doubt with the expectation of choking out the life of the germ
in the lungs. If it has any utility whatever it is in disinfecting the cºn-
tents of the alimentary canal ; but too often it impairs what is le
of normal digestion. It is not uncommon to find some writer fº
medical journal referring to the creosote treatment as “about plºt
out.”
Inhalation of dry vapors with antiseptic properties, balsan; i.
medicaments with soothing powers, have their place in the treatment of
Consumption, aside from any thought of using something to paralyze
the bacilli. When the inner membranes of the lungs are inflamed one
sort of air or vapor may be more comfortable or congenial to them than
another. The air of pine forests has been found agreeable and helpful.
Thus we approach the subject of climatic treatment for consumption.
Here, again, we find no end of difference of opinion. Many resorts
have been discovered, proclaimed, utilized, and abandoned. A few are
still in vogue, favored, patronized. The fact is that the relation of
climates to consumptives is not a small matter. There is not only the
14a.
G ETTING FRESH AIR.

426 CHRONIC DISEASES OF THE BREATHING ORGANS.
quality of the air but of the soil, the proportion of sunny to cloudy
days, the altitude and barometric pressure. Then again, as in every-
thing else, the locality that may seem just right for one consumptive
may not fit another, or all.
CLIMATIC INFLUENCES CONSIDERED.
Climatic influences analyzed disclose many factors. A writer in
the London Spectator asserts that the value in the Swiss treatment is
not “the air of the Alps,” but the air. His idea is that the benefit.
obtained at Davos, or Moritz, may be had at home at less cost if people
would live at home in the open air as they do in the Swiss mountains.
While it is true that consumptives need no end of fresh air, and noth-
ing is more free and easy to get almost anywhere, it is equally true
that they need sunlight, and the locality having the most bright days
and the most available sunlight may be far preferable to places where
the Sun is much obscured.
Theodore Parker, the celebrated preacher who succumbed finally
to consumption, was much interested in its relation to heredity and
climate, and wrote upon the subject. One of his most important obser-
vations, as I see it, was that a family living on the southeastern slope
of a hill or a mountain enjoyed health, while one of the same family
who was living in a house on the northwestern slope developed consump-
tion. This might be just as true of a family living in one big house.
Those occupying rooms with a northern exposure, without sunlight,
would be more liable to develop consumption, or at least the predis-
posed conditions, than others residing on the sunny side. -
A gentleman who was sent to Arizona with bad lungs thinks this
climate simply wonderful. He admits that it is hot, but very dry. He
thinks the dryness the important factor. He seems to forget about the
power of the sun's rays where there is so much clear weather and so
little moisture. The salubrity of Liberty, New York, and the Adiron-
dacks is attributed largely to their sunny slopes giving a maximum of
sunshine and excellent drainage. Good drainage means dry soil, per-
haps more important than dryness of the atmosphere. An item in
the New York Tribune gives the result of studies by Drs. Mitchell and
Cronch on the influence of sunlight on tuberculosis in Denver. They
attribute the benefits not only to the dry air and diminished atmos-
pheric pressure, but also to the powerful influence of the solar rays.
In regard to altitudes, it has been found that when the blood is low
or poor in red corpuscles, as in anaemia, the effect of altitude or low
pressure is to greatly stimulate the formation of new corpuscles, en-
riching the blood proportionately. Yet high altitudes are not well-
suited to those cases where much of the lung is involved or the heart .
weak, or when extensive cavities with tendency to hemorrhage are
CONSUMPTION. 427
known to exist. After all, it appears that the main advantages of
the change of climate are due to an abundance of fresh air and Sun-
shine, and few need go very far away from home to get these. This
accords with the fact that consumption is a house disease. Houses
limit our sunshine and fresh air. They often do worse by increasing
dampness. Many a consumptive might be blest by being dispossessed
of house and home and compelled to live in a tent in an open field.
Dr. Hall, the fertile writer on hygiene, said : “If I were seriously ill
of consumption, I would live out of doors day and night, except it was
raining, or in mid-winter; then I would sleep in an unplastered log-
house.”
It is quite common for the faculty to recommend consumptive
invalids to go South, after they have made some good round fees out
of them | Probably this is because they want to get them off their
list of patients. They get tired of hearing them say: “I’m no better,
doctor.” Cold air is just as good for consumptives as warm, provided
it is dry. This is the important consideration. There is almost
invariably an excess of mucus in lung diseases, which causes profuse
expectoration. A dry and negative atmosphere excites active electrical
radiation from the system, which carries off the internal moisture, ren-
dering the mucous membrane less relaxed and the mucous secretions less
copious. I would sooner go to Maine than to Florida if I had tuber-
culous lungs, although I would advise patients to go where they
please, only taking care to avoid damp localities.
“A change of climate,” a newspaper writer remarks, “has been
commonly believed to be beneficial to the person suffering with con-
sumption. Sir James Clark, of England, has, however, assailed the
doctrine with considerable earnestness, and a French physician, M.
Carrière, has written against it ; but the most vigorous opponent of it
is a Dr. Burgess, of Scotland. He contends that climate has little or
nothing to do with the cure of consumption, and that, if it had, the
curative effects would be produced through the skin, and not through
the lungs. That a warm climate is not of itself beneficial, he shows
from the fact that the disease exists in all latitudes. In India or Africa,
tropical climates, it is as frequent as in Europe and North America.
At Malta, right in the heart of the genial Mediterranean, the army
reports of England show that one-third of the deaths among the soldiers
are by consumption. At Nice, a favorite resort of English invalids,
especially those affected with lung complaints, more native-born per-
sons die of consumption than in any English town of equal population.
In Geneva this disease is almost equally prevalent.”
Notwithstanding, however, the opinions of Clark, Carrière, and
Burgess, the results of my observation lead me to decide that change of
scene and climate is good for consumptives, The real mistake is to
428 CHRONIC DISEASES OF THE BREATHING ORGANS.
depend upon any particular temperature of climate for restoration.
If the patient travel through various localities, his system will gather
up those properties of which it is deficient. If he lack iron, breathing
the air, and drinking the water of a section where iron is largely pro-
duced, will of course benefit him. If lime be deficient in his system,
the air and water of limestone countries will prove useful. For almost
all cases of pulmonary disease, breathing the atmosphere of a pine
region administers to the diseased mucous membrane a balsamic prop-
erty which is beneficial. In this particular Dr. Burgess is wrong. The
lungs and skin both take in what the system hankers after. You have
only to place a diseased body in a position to come in contact with
what it wants, and the ois medicatria, matura, will take it in and use it,
just as a dry sponge will absorb water. The South, however, is no
better than many Northern climates. Some parts of Wisconsin are said
to have superior climate for lung diseases. I have been told that horses
with heaves soon recover when driven to the central part of that State.
Minnesota, too, has been highly recommended, and I have known of
some cases visiting that State with benefit. It may be put down as a
pretty good rule that persons living on the seashore, affected with pul-
monary difficulties, may be benefited by a visit to Wisconsin or Min-
nesota, or to some mountains in the interior ; while those who have
been accustomed to an inland climate may visit the seashore to advan-
tage ; but the theory that tropical climates favor the recovery of
pulmonary invalids is entirely exploded. The soil of Key West is
enriched with the bones of deceased consumptives.
AIRTIFICIAL INFLATION OF THE LUNGS.
It is not likely that one could obtain all the advantage to be had
from change of altitude without going from home, but I find one
writer arguing that it is a forced distention of the lungs in high altitude
which benefits, and so, he teaches his patients the art of mechanical
eapansion, or voluntary, enforced, deep-breathing. He says: “I
have practised but two specific exercises which Nature herself teaches.
The first is an imitation of the cough, and the second of a person
stretching.” He recommends also filling the lungs to their utmost
capacity and letting the air escape slowly through a small tube, and he
finds that the repetition of such exercises many times a day is very
beneficial. He thinks some lungs Chronically lazy, and that they need
systematic exercising.
DEEP-BREATHING AND CHEST EXERCISE.
Dr. T. J. Mays contributed an article to the Century Magazine on
the subject of deep-breathing as a remedy for consumption, in which
he wrote: “It is evident that proper development and expansion of the
CONSUMPTION. 429
lungs by well-regulated breathing must be regarded as of the greatest
value in the prevention and in the treatment of some stages of pulmona-
ry consumption. Much has been written on the subject of artificial
inflation of the chest and bringing into agtion that upper part of the
lungs which tends to become idle. Consumption is not a disease which
originates in a day; but it is an outgrowth of morbid habits and
agencies which may even antedate the birth of the individual. De-
fective breathing is one of those habits, and its pernicious prevalence is
more widespread than is supposed. I feel that the good which may be
accomplished by following the simple means suggested Cannot be over-
estimated. They should be continued until they become a part of the
very nature of the breathing organs itself, until the habit of deep-
breathing becomes established and goes on without any extra effort.”
For many years I have recommended all my consumptive cases to per-
sist in such exercises, and the above quotations are given mainly as
further evidence of their utility and importance.
Dr. Tucker Wise, an English physician, gives this very wise advice
about breathing: “Learn to breathe habitually through the nose and
not by the mouth. Children ought to be taught this habit when they
are young. The nasal passages act as a filter for the inhaled air. Much
atmospheric impurity and even disease germs, which would otherwise
enter the throat and lungs, then get arrested and expelled in the nasal
mucus. Hold the body erect and avoid constrained positions of the
chest, or a habit of shallow, listless breathing when at rest. Take a
long-drawn sigh at intervals, to expand and contract the lungs, and so
preserve chest elasticity and capacity. If circumstances do not admit
of a person affected with tubercle occupying a separate bedroom, let a
large airy room be selected, with separate beds; the window should be
kept partially open day and night” (I should say provided the temper-
ature is not below forty-five degrees), “the room scrubbed out once a
fortnight, and the ceiling and walls cleaned and colored yearly.”
It may well be added that chest and lung exercises should be
systematically practised by all persons, so that the conditions of dis-
ease may not be invited in lazy, inactive, ill-ventilated lungs.
Dr. J. Gardiner Smith, physical director of the Harlem branch of
the Y. M. C. A., New York, is another advocate of systematic chest
exercises, even before there is any indication of weak lungs. He says:
“The capacity of the thorax, too, may be increased by judicious
exercise in breathing. The passive individual in a healthy condition at
each inspiration inhales perhaps thirty cubic inches (Kirke) of air.
This is called “tidal' air. The average individual without special
practice in breathing or vigorous physical exercise of some kind can
inhale a veritable quantity over and above this, called “complemental,”
air. Again, this individual can exhale, by forced expiration, a variable
430 CHRONIC DISEASES OF THE BREATHING ORGANs,
quantity over and above the ordinary tidal air called ‘supplemental”
or “reserve.’ There still remains in the chest after a forced expiration
a certain quantity of “residual’ air, estimated (Kirke) at one hundred
cubic inches. This quantity also varies with the ability of the indi-
vidual to contract all the diameters of the chest. In my statistics of
2,000 men of average age, about twenty-three years, the total capacity
of the chest (“ complemental,” “tidal,’ and ‘supplemental' air) was
about two hundred and fifteen cubic inches, and this quantity is about
the same for 2,000 men since that reckoning. This capacity by practice
was increased by fifteen cubic inches (average) within one year.”
“Upper chest or thoracic breathing (see Fig. 141) may be practised
on command “inhale' and “exhale,” or ‘one,’ ‘two,’ and “three,’ ‘four.”
On the first command, or first two counts, raise the upper chest, upper
and forward, to the fullest extent (see dotted line). Do not raise the
shoulders. On command “exhale,” or ‘three,’ ‘four,’ the chest should
recede; keep head erect. Pupils will grasp the idea more quickly
and better by placing the left hand on the upper chest, inhaling
and exhaling through the nostrils. This may be done to music (count
of sixteen). The photographs show the proper movement of the chest.”
“For abdominal or diaphragmatic breathing (see Fig. 142). On
command “inhale’ and “exhale,” or ‘one,’ ‘two,” and “three,’ ‘four,”
lower and raise the diaphragm. This action "presses the abdominal
organs downward, and thus, on the first command, of ‘one,’ ‘two' the
abdomen protrudes (see dotted line). Do not move the chest-wall or
bend the body.”
As to exercise in general it is impossible to give advice to suit all
cases. Some need more of a “rest cure " than of an exercise cure. If
the temperature is not above 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit, moderate exer-
cise is advantageous. When it over-excites the heart's action or pro-
duces fatigue fever, there is more indication for rest than exertion.
Cheerfulness and freedom from mental excitement are essential to
the recovery of a consumptive patient. This fact becomes apparent
when the philosophy of respiration is explained. It is held by all
medical writers whose books I have read, that respiration is wholly
produced by the upward and downward motion of the diaphragm
which divides the stomach from the lungs. This is only true in part.
Besides the movements of the diaphragm, I am convinced by experi-
ments, that the air-vesicles, permeated as they are by minute nerves,
have a contractive and expansive power in themselves, so that when
the diaphragm is in any way disabled or prevented from performing
its functions freely, the lungs can in a measure supply themselves with
air. The unprofessional reader must understand that the lungs are not
expanded by the air entering into them. The diaphragm falls and the
air-vesicles are opened by the same electric force which is employed by
CONSUMPTION. 43 I
the brain in producing the pulsations of the heart. A vacuum created,
and the air rushes in—this is the act of inhaling. The diaphragm con-
tracted and drawn up, and the vesicles closed by the electric force act-
Frg. 141. |FI (; , 142,
;ſ
y/
CEl EST EXERCISES, CII EST EXERCIS F.S.
ing on the nerves ramifying through these organs, and the air is expelled
—this is exhaling.
Were the human system wholly dependent upon the upward and
downward movement of the diaphragm for respiration, women who
compress their chests with corsets and other close-fitting garments

432 CHRONIC DISEASES OF THE BREATHING ORGANs.
would be unable to breathe at all. It is true that such foolish people
Feathe but little, and that the air penetrates only the upper portion of
the lungs. But what little air they do inhale is chiefly obtained by the
expansion of the air-vesicles and the chest-walls, nearly or quite inde-
pendent of the movements of the diaphragm, which becomes literally
paralyzed. The action of the nervo-electric forces on the nerves
ramifying through
FIG, 143.
the respiratory or -
| gans, being the mo-
|. e ©
§§ º tive power which
§ : º keeps them in motion,
...}}." N
* and the brain being
* * * the reservoir from
which the nervo-elec-
tric forces are derived,
the reader can readily
perceive how neces-
sary is tranquillity of
mind for the promo-
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:
§§ º º º º: tº s
§, \%ftſ, ſº º º • { * f.y.
º º & WS % ºftº | tion of convalescence
§ % ºf §º º in the consumptive,
Wº % . . . º | |
*: º º º º º and also how pulmon-
|\ºº :^"...ºf any diff tº l,
TW º º É. fººl, ary difficulties may be
\l. -}}}| sº induced by grief and
º
º º
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trouble. Under the
influence of grief,
trouble, fear, and
anxiety, many are aware that their respiration is subdued, short, and
inefficient, so that an occasional long sigh is instinctively resorted to for
relief of the oppression experienced because of partially suppressed
respiration. Mental joyousness, on the other hand, favors deep and
frequent breathing.
The possibility of the development of consumption out of nervous
prostration, through a partial paralysis of the nerves which control the
nutrition of the lung-tissue is explained in Chapter X., on Nervous
Diseases. Some writers have even gone so far as to claim that con-
sumption is invariably of such origin, and that there is never a chance
for microbes to settle and tubercles to develop until the failure of
nutrition has prepared the soil for these seeds of tuberculosis. This
idea is favored by the success of electricity or electrical medication in
many cases. Wital electricity is undoubtedly more intense than any
which can be artificially produced ; but as quantity can be obtained to
any desirable extent by various electrical contrivances, it often sur-
passes intensity in effectiveness.
LUNGS AND FIFA RT.































CONSUMPTION. 433
LIVING WITH ONE LUNG.
The entire destruction of one lung py tubercles or ulceration need
not excite serious apprehension, if the invalid is so situated as to be
able to avail himself of superior medical skill. Persons often live to a,
good old age with only one lung. I have observed in cases of this kind
which I have treated, that, after the progress of the disease has been
stopped and the tubercles of the remaining lung removed, the latter
gradually expands and sometimes almost fills the cavity created by the
one which has decayed or dried up. I have now in my mind one case,
in particular, illustrative of this remark: a lady, whose case was given
up as hopeless by a score or more of physicians, but who has been
kindly spared to her husband and children through the instrumentality
of my treatment. In her case the left lung had been entirely consumed,
and the destructive disease had made considerable inroad on her right
lung. The last examination which I had the pleasure of making
showed that the right lung had so expanded as to fill nearly one-half
the cavity occasioned by the destruction of the left. The reason of
this is obvious. The right lung having to perform the same amount of
labor intended for two, the air-vesicles by degrees enlarged, and with
their expansion the lobes extended their increased dimensions into the
vacant chamber of the left chest.
Accounts are given in the records of many hospitals, of old people
who have died of other than pulmonary diseases, and whose chests, on
being opened, exhibited the fact that they had lived many years with
only one lung. Healed cavities have also been found in the lungs of
such subjects, showing that either Nature or the physician had cured
them of consumption. President Jeremiah Day, of Yale College, dur-
ing his early life was interrupted in his studics by lung disease and
alarming pulmonary hemorrhage, but he lived to the age of 95 years
“An autopsy revealed the existence of cicatrices or scars of former
ulcers in the upper part of both lungs, showing that extensive con-
sumptive disease had existed more than sixty years before, the recov-
ery from which had been complete.” “Here, then,” says Dr. Hub-
bard, in a paper read before an annual convention of the Connecticut
Medical Society, “was all that remained to mark the beginning, prog-
ress, and cure of a case of tubercular consumption, occupying twelve
gears in its period of activity, and with its incipient stage dating back
more than three-quarters of a century. A legible record, surpassing in
interest and importance to the human race those of the slabs of Nineveh,
or the Runic inscriptions.”
In all cases of affection of the lungs the blood must be properly at-
tended to. As intimated in various portions of this essay, almost all
the diseases of these organs arise from impuritics of the vascular fluids.
434 CHRONIC DISEASES OF THE BREATHING ORGANs.
It is for this reason that inhalants should not be depended upon to the
exclusion of other remedies. There are physicians who treat pulmo-
nary diseases exclusively with remedies to be inhaled. Their success is
in no instance permanent, excepting in those cases wherein the affection
had been induced by simply an inflammatory condition of the lung. The
inflammation subsiding, and the irritated mucous membrane healed by
the inhalants, a cure in this way may have been possible. The value of
inhalants is not for a moment to be questioned. They must in near-
ly all cases be employed to some extent, but to rely upon them exclu-
sively is almost as absurd as to stake the life of the patient upon the suc-
cess of whiskey and cream. What I have said, commencing on page
356, on the subject of inhalation, may be interesting to the consumptive
reader.
With the advancement which has been made by a few independent
medical men in the treatment of consumption, no one suffering with
this disease should for a moment entertain the idea that his or her case
is hopeless. The popular systems of drugging have of course proved
futile, and because you have failed to receive relief at the hands of your
family physician, or from the use of some popular panacea, you may
settle down into the belief that your disease is beyond the reach of hu-
man skill. From this despondency, rally, I pray you. Waste no time
in uncertain experiments, but place your case in the hands of some
physician who devotes his exclusive attention to the treatment of
chronic diseases. Many years ago in Northern Vermont a well-known
merchant was stretched upon a bed in the last stages of consumption,
as was confidently supposed. The best physician of his county had
given him up, and celebrated medical skill of Montreal had been re.
sorted to, but the wise men of the profession shook their heads. It was
expected that he could not survive many days. In this hour of gloom,
his devoted wife, determining to make one more effort, sat down by
the bedside of the sick man, and in a letter to the author presented
the symptoms. Guided simply by this presentation of the case, I pre-
pared and forwarded medicines which fortunately arrived in time. Im-
mediately on taking them, his strength revived, and so rapidly, that it
was feared that the treatment consisted of some strange and powerful
stimulant. It was gravely predicted by the doctors and neighbors
that a fatal reaction would soon follow. I was even blamed for the
presumption of holding out any encouragement of cure in this hopeless
case; but, to the happy disappointment of his friends, he steadily
gained until he was restored to the family circle, his business avoca-
tions, and his former health. Although I had the pleasure of meeting
this gentleman after his recovery, I have been instrumental in curing
hundreds that I have never seen ; one case, in particular in the Same
section of country as the above, of hemorrhage of the lungs, which had
CONSUMPTION 435.
also been pronounced hopeless by resident physicians. The case, in-
deed, was regarded as so far beyond the reach of medicine or other
means of cure, that at the time he consulted me the doctors had ceased
to prescribe, and he was simply being kept up on stimulants.
THE MAIN THING TO EFFECT A CURE.
In treating consumption, whatever is done to meet the acute symp-
toms, the main thing to be aimed at is the blood. Use all the adjunc-
tive means which observation and experience approve, but do not
neglect the important work of restoring strength and purity to that
fluid which circulates through all parts of the system, and imparts to
every organ the atoms it needs for preserving its wholeness and integ-
rity. Auxiliary remedies may better be dispensed with than this one
for the regeneration of the blood; but the wise and experienced physi-
cian, while he works with the main lever, will employ as many assist-
ing ones as can be usefully adopted, and one of the most useful and
simple assistants is the habit of deep breathing, which can be practised
at all times, much to the aid of the physician and the comfort of the
patient. An enthusiastic writer in the Evening World says: “Enough
cannot be said of full, deep breathing. It is no hobby or wild notion,
but if you would prove its benefits practise it daily, and you will increase
the circulation, purify the blood, and send it, rich and hot, to warm
the feet, make ruby lips, and plant roses on the cheeks. It will aid your
digestion and give you a clean, Sweet breath, promote sleep, quiet the
nervous system, strengthen the throat and vocal organs, and increase
the chest capacity. It will also cure your asthma, catarrh, and bron-
chitis, and prevent lung trouble.” In conclusion let me urge all who
have perused the foregoing essays on diseases of the breathing organs,
to turn to Chapter XII. in this Part, and read it attentively,
CHAPTER III.
DISEASES OF THE HEART AND BLOOD-VESSELS.
HE heart and blood-vessels, and the blood
contained therein, constitute what is called
the blood circulatory system. Some de-
scription with illustrations of these parts is
given in the First Chapter of the First
Part of this book. What has been stated
there need not be repeated here. So thor.
oughly is the whole human body permeated
§ With blood-vessels of greater or lesser degree, that if it
* were possible to freeze the body solid, and then by some
means melt and dissolve away all tissues or substance ex-
\ cept the blood-vessels and their contents, there would still
* remain the form of the human body and all its organs
properly related to each other. Even the outlines of the
skeleton or bony man would be preserved. I have called the heart the
capital of this great system, and this capital is located in the thorax
or chest between the lungs with which it is intimately associated by
means of large blood-vessels. This intimate relation of the heart and
lungs is exhibited in pictures to be found in the previous chapter on
Diseases of the Lungs. As the heart is the only other organ in the
chest the diseases of which I will describe, I consider this an appro-
priate place to present what I have to say about diseases of this organ,
and what little I shall have to offer concerning diseases of the blood-
vessels may be well included in this chapter also.
The heart is really a double pump-two hearts that beat as one.
Its substance is mainly made up of firm muscles closely and intricately
blended for power and durability. It has four cavities and four impor-
tant sets of valves. One heart, or one side of it, keeps the blood going
through the vessels of the body generally, while the other side has the
smaller task of sending blood through the short route to the lungs.
The two hearts work together in lºon, showing two movements, one
§

DISEASES OF THE HEART AND BLOOD-VESSELS. 437
of contraction, by which the blood is forced out of the cavities of the
heart, and a second motion of relaxation or expansion, during which
the heart-cavities fill up again. As the contractions occur about sixty
times a minute, or more, as long as life lasts, the heart is properly
accredited as being FIG. 144 -
the most busy organ
of the body, but if
the movement of re-
laxation or expansion
may be properly con-
sidered a period of
rest and ease, then it y \,
is fair to say that the *
heart lets up on its
work during about
one-third of the time,
or takes it easy about
eight hours a day. It
is hardly possible that
it can sleep in naps
of a third of a second,
but that is all the
sleep that it gets.
* §§§
tº & © & 3–tº };
With this imperative §: sº º,
necessity of being 0 A šº
ever on duty, we may |
credit the heart with
being one of the most
reliable Organs Of the a, b, the left and right ventricles ; c, e,f, the aorta ;
body and the more 9, h, i, the innominata, left carotid, and left subclavian :
º & k, the pulmonary artery, which is given off from the
especially does it de- right ventricle, and conveys the blood to the lungs;
serve credit When We i, l, branches of the pulmonary artery distributed to the
remember how often right and left lungs; ºn, m, the pulmonary veins, which
it is disturbed about bring the oxygenated blood from the lungs to the left
auricle ; m, the right auricle ; 0, q, the ascending and
iº ge descending venae cavae, which return the blood from the
action is regulated general system to the right auricle ; p, veins which con-
from the nervous SyS- vey the blood from the liver, bowels, and spleen ; s, the
tem through the great coronary artery which carries blood into the substance
pneumogastric nerve, * * *
but through this it is also frequently subject to disturbance and
irregular action. When there is trouble brewing in the stomach below
the heart, it is subject to what is called reflex irritation, reflected
through the nerves whose duty it is to control and regulate the organs
above and below the diaphragm. When business is going wrong
TEIE HEART.
its work. The heart's









438 DISEASES OF THE HEART AND BLOOD-VESSELS.
somewhere in the domain of the great lung-stomach nerve the heart is
liable to suffer from the faults of its neighbors. On the other hand, in
the disease called pneumonia, which causes temporary solidification of
more or less of the lung-tissue, the work of the heart is tremendously
impeded because the blood is dammed back by obstructed vessels.
Again, the heart has more troubles to contend with than those
arising from the common disorders of its neighbors. Many thoughtless
persons, who do not know any better, and some of them who do, overtax
the heart by extreme or prolonged physical work, or stimulate it to
over-action by the unwise use of tea, coffee, and alcoholics. When the
FIG. 145. heart is stimulated hour after hour and
day after day to work faster than it
ought, it may wear itself out and give
out prematurely. It may at first be-
come hypertrophied or enlarged
through the natural result of being
called upon to over-exert itself. Many
young persons gradually bring about
Wº% º t º Some enlargement of the heart (now
Šâ Žs= =SE2 - often referred to as “the cycle-heart”)
-º-º-º-º-º-º-º-º-º: through their over-indulgence in
EN LARGING HIS HEART. cycling or other athletic sports, so that
by middle age they have a very feeble or flabby sort of heart, for the
enlarged heart is prone to become what is called a dilated heart, and
that is a heart in which the cavities are too large and the muscles un-
equal to the task of regular and efficient work. -
There are still other ways in which the heart becomes weakened,
diseased, and incapacitated from no fault of its own. Ordinarily it is
saved from friction in its outside movements by a smooth sac or peri-
cardium, and there is no great wear and tear from the continuous cur-
rent of blood through its valves and cavities, because these are cov-
cred or lined with a thin, smooth, shiny membrane to save friction.
The valves are wonderfully constructed of delicate folds of this mem-
brane with firm bands or stay-ropes which make tight joints when the
valves are closed. No mechanical valve for machinery exhibits more
perfect and beautiful adaptation of means to ends. When, however,
through the fault of the organs or processes which have to do with
making good blood and keeping it clean, this fluid becomes the carrier
of impurities or irritating properties, as in a rheumatic state of the
system, then the outer sac of the heart and its lining membrane are
liable to suffer from inflammation. When rheumatism “goes to the
heart” its affinity is for the same sort of tissue that it worries in the
joints. It either inflames the outer sac, causing pericarditis, or it
irritates the lining membrane, producing roughness in place of the

DISEASES OF THE HEART AND BLOOD-VESSELS. 439
usual smoothness, and if severe enough it may distort the valves and
cause what is called valvular disease of the heart. Pericarditis is
generally an acute, serious disease, of which I need give no further
description. Endocarditis, or inflammation on the inside, may come on
in a chronic, quiet sort of way, leading to gradual distortion of the
valves. It is estimated that the blood of the whole body is sent through
the heart about twice a minute, so that when it contains irritable prop-
erties it would seem as though they would come more in contact with
the lining of the heart than with any other one organ of the body.
Unless this lining be rather callous it is perhaps surprising that it does
not oftener become irritated to the point of inflammatory disease.
When the valves become twisted or distorted, as above described,
and they are no longer tight joints on closure, then at each contraction
of the heart a part of the blood slips back through a leaky valve, and
it has to do some of its work over again and again. Not only is this
felt or made evident by symptoms about the heart itself, such as dis-
tress and palpitation, but there must, of course, be defective circula-
tion of the blood leading to suffering in other parts. Physical weak-
ness and disinclination to exercise is a conservative sort of symptom, for
all the organs of the body are likely to suffer inactivity when deprived
of sufficient blood. The lungs are likely to show shortness of breath,
and more or less bronchitis with expectoration. Sleep is apt to be
disturbed through lack of proper blood circulation in the brain. The
kidneys are liable to become deficient, slow, or inactive, and a tendency
to general dropsy is not uncommon. Though valvular defects are not
really curable, there is a natural method of compensation whereby
the muscles become increased, the whole organ growing larger and
so equal to the task of doing more work than it was built for. It is
owing to what is called compensatory hypertrophy that many cases of
organic heart disease go on living year after year, to the surprise of
physicians having them in charge. In spite of the fact the text-books
teach, that persons with organic heart disease may go on living for forty
years, I must confess that I have been repeatedly surprised with occa-
sional visits of former patients whose hearts upon examination have
been found to be very rickety—not a professional term, but a very ex-
pressive one. One of the most remarkable was an old gentleman of
seventy years, whose life I had expected to make a little more comfort-
able and prolong somewhat by appropriate treatment. His machinery
was put in such good order that he lived to the age of ninety-four !
There is a general and unnecessary dread of organic heart diseases, for
physicians know that they take longer to kill than most other organic
diseases. It is, however, well that every person so affected should be
made acquainted with the fact early so that he may at least know how
to avoid aggravating it. Of course such cases should avoid all strains,
44o DISEASES OF THE HEART AND BLOOD-VESSELS. '
either quick or prolonged physical effort, and it will be well, too, if
they can learn to control their emotions and avoid intense excitement
from any cause. They must learn to let alone stimulants, tea, coffee,
liquors, and tobacco. By living a smooth, easy-going, comfortable
sort of life they can prolong it indefinitely and postpone the painful
and distressing symptoms for many a year. While a physician cannot
get at a heart to repair the valve as the watchmaker can repair a watch
that is going wrong, yet it is possible for a physician to be of great ser-
vice to his patients with organic heart disease. He can do this by the
aid of medicines, which help to control the action of the heart pretty
directly, but more by regulating the operation of other vital functions
so that the heart need not be impeded by reflex disturbances. The en-
feebled heart will manage pretty well so long as it is not annoyed by a
blockade of the blood circulation in a torpid liver, by gases and poisons
developed through indigestion, or by impurities with which the blood
becomes overcharged from inaction of the bowels, kidneys, or skin. In
short, if the general health be maintained “on a level ” a patient may
not be greatly inconvenienced by a heart imperfection.
In earlier editions of this work I was disinclined to say much about
this class of troubles because I had seen so many persons unnecessarily
distressed by fear of heart disease when there was nothing wrong with
them but functional disorder growing out of other affections. Many
persons have worried themselves sick and greatly aggravated the
symptom of palpitation through mere apprehension. My further study
of all cases, real and imaginary, leads me to conclude that both kinds
would be better off for knowing the facts. I have endeavored to make
it plain that the person with valvular disease who will adopt the right
course of living, may feel secure of a moderately active life for many
years. But any such person would certainly live longer for know-
ing that it is not safe for him to run to catch a train, to jump a fence,
or do other straining work. Probably those who do suffer some from
the symptoms of an impaired heart suffer less than those who have
functional disorder of it. When the symptoms of distress in the
region of the heart are great and there is much fear of impending dis-
aster, indigestion is generally the cause of the symptoms. I might say
that the dread of heart disease is one of the symptoms of dyspepsia.
Palpitation of the Heart.
Palpitation is perhaps more often of nervous origin than otherwise.
Palpitation and ‘‘the blues,” with proneness to fear all sorts of evil,
make a combination of symptoms common to any state of nervous
debility and may result from a variety of causes. Nervous palpitation
is apt to occur when lying down for the night, while palpitation due
PALPITATION OF THE HEART. 44 I
to organic disease is more likely to occur from over-exertion ; but palpi-
tation from over-exertion may be merely from nervous debility.
Palpitation of the heart may be induced by various causes.
There may be too great an expenditure of nervous force upon this
organ, and when this is the case, it is generally found on examination
that it is at the expense of FIG. 146.
other organs. When the
liver be comes torpid,
it will Often be discov-
ered that the nervous
stimuli belonging to that
organ have in some way
been diverted to the heart,
resulting, of course, in
the inactivity of the
former, and the excessive THE NORM A L H EART.
activity of the latter. FIG. 147.
Persons subject to cold
extremities often have all
the nervous forces and
vascular fluids which
should be occupied in
keeping the feet and limbs
warm, acting in and about
the heart, causing the
latter to jump and beat IN WALWULAR DISEAS E.
unnaturally, violently, FIG. 148.
and injuriously. There
are affections of the pro-
creative organs, which are
attended with such ner-
vous derangements as to
give both to them and the
heart an undue supply of
nervous stimuli. Persons
of both sexes are subject
to them, and when they
exist all of the other or- Tracings made by a Sphygmograph.
gans of the body are robbed to supply this abnormal diversion, which
Sets the amative organs of the brain on fire, and makes the heart leap
with morbid excitement. The stomach may become so distended with
wind, when digestion is sluggish, as to encroach upon the cavity occu-
pied by the heart, and interfere with its action to such a degree as to
Cause palpitation or labored pulsation. Excess of flesh in some cases
IN DISEASE OF A CORONARY ARTERY.



442 DISEASES OF THE HEART AND BLOOD-VESSELS.
renders the space naturally allotted to the heart, too limited, and the
Same Symptoms are then experienced as when the stomach invades it.
Excess or insufficiency of blood, excessive mental emotions, whether of
joy or sorrow, and too severe and protracted physical exercise, may
induce an unnatural action of the heart. There is more fear of heart
disease among dyspeptics and neurasthetics than among those who
really have it, for the former are apt to be full of all sorts of fears, not
only suffering from actual but also from imaginary symptoms. It is
generally true that occasional palpitation is of nervous origin, while
that from organic disease is pretty persistent.
Sometimes the diagnosis—the discrimination between functional
disturbance of the heart and actual organic disease—can only be made
by a personal visit to a physician and giving him a chance to apply his
ear over the region of the heart. There are normal sounds due to the
heart's muscular contraction and the clicking of the valves, and there
are sounds varying from the normal according to the location of defects
in the valves. Much also can be learned of the state of the heart by
an experienced finger on the pulse, and also by an instrument called
the Sphygmograph, which gives a mechanical tracing on paper from
which physicians can learn much. Still, in every case that is not extraor.
dinary, answers to such searching questions as are given on page 761
will enable an experienced physician to determine the real condition of
this important organ. If any doubt remains in his mind he would be
likely to call for a personal examination. At least I should.
Heart-burn is a symptom which has nothing to do with the heart
but belongs entirely to the stomach. The burning sensation, attended
with the feeling of constriction, is due to the accumulation in the stomach
of an irritating, sour secretion, which often rises to the back of the mouth
and scalds the throat. It is a symptom of dyspepsia, and is merely
mentioned here in order to say that it is really a stomach-burn and not
a heart-burn.
The Tobacco Heart.
The tobacco heart is common enough to deserve a few words of
explanation. Tobacco so affects the nerves controlling the heart's
regular action that in course of time the regularity is lost, and in its
place the subject has an intermittent action, shown by the finger on
the pulse at the wrist as well as by the ear at the chest. The heart goes
“steady by jerks,” drops a beat now and then, or even seems to quit
for a moment. This may even be appreciable to the patient, and the
first trouble that will cause him to visit a physician. Not infrequently
I discover the intermittency in men who have no sense, feeling, or
appreciation of the fact that they have acquired “a tobacco heart,”
but now and then I have a call from someone who notices the seeming
ANGINA PECTORIS. 443
stoppage and is a little annoyed by it. Often it will be the only symp-
tom that an otherwise well man has to complain of, and it may become
to him even a source of worry. It is indeed lucky for such a man if it
worry him enough to lead him to learn its true nature and adopt the
only remedy, which is, of course, the avoidance of the cause, i.e., the
use of tobacco. When tobacco manifestly disorders the heart's action,
as evidenced by intermittency of pulse, it is also impairing the nutri-
tion and muscular power of the heart, and paving the way for
serious organic and possibly incurable change. It is one of Nature's
warnings which should not be heedlessly ignored. When the heart
wobbles from tobacco and by its distress pleads that the use of tobacco
be discontinued, it is time to quit for sure. The quitting will very
likely, for awhile, occasion other symptoms, hard to bear, in one who
has been accustomed to the habit, but the fight can be made easier for
those who accept my aid in helping them to make it. The opium-eater
can be materially aided by a physician in the struggle to wean himself
from that powerful narcotic, and the slave of tobacco can more easily
free himself from the use of the poisonous weed by the aid of remedies
suited to his temperament and idiosyncracies.
Angina Pectoris.
This is a phrase of very serious import, or of very little according
to the nature of the case. It has been applied in many cases of neural-
gia of the heart, and in some cases to indigestion. Dyspepsia can at
times give rise to very severe distress over the region of the heart, but
it is doubtful if that distress ever quite equals that arising from the
condition for which we ought to reserve the name of Angina Pectoris.
Neuralgias about the lungs and heart may be as sudden and severe as
any where else, but neuralgia is less extensive than true angina. This
genuine distress of the heart itself arises from impaired nutrition of
the organ. The first great blood-vessel leaving the heart is called the
aorta, and its first and smallest branches are the little arteries which
branch out over and into the muscles of the heart itself to supply them
with nourishment. It is possible in various ways for these coronary
arteries (see Fig. 144, letters), to become interfered with so as to lessen
the blood-supplies to the heart itself, practically causing its slow star-
vation. Sometimes the little arteries become dense, hard, or Ossified,
and sometimes the substance of the heart shows fatty degeneration from
mal-nutrition. Such a heart is necessarily a weak one, and no wonder if
occasionally it goes into spasms through incapacity to bear its never.
ending drudgery. Attacks of angina are intensely painful, and with
them comes a sense of utter powerlessness, fear, and dread. An attack
may last but a few seconds, or a few minutes, or for many hours. The
patient becomes pale and livid around the mouth, with a cold perspir-
444 DISEASES OF THE HEART AND BLOOD-VESSELS.
ation upon the forehead. The pulse is irregular, small, and weak, or
sometimes not affected at all. These painful spasms generally follow
Some exertion or exposure to cold. They may be brought on through
indigestion or constipation. Dr. W. S. Connery gives an excellent
description of the characteristic pain of this affliction :
“The pain differs in character and situation and in intensity in dif-
ferent cases. Some sufferers will say that it is indescribable; nothing
in their previous experience suggests even a comparison. Others speak
of the pain as a severe cramp in the heart, or as if the heart were
gripped by an iron claw ; while pain of a shooting neuralgic character,
Sometimes intermittent, sometimes persistent, seems to radiate from the
Chest to the left shoulder, the inner side of the arm, the forearm, and
the third and fourth fingers. Occasionally there is a sensation as of
the wrist being grasped so tightly as to cause pain. With the pain in
the heart there may be pain down both arms or shooting up into the left
side of the neck, very rarely in the right arm only. Occasionally the
pain may be felt first in the arm and seem to travel up to the chest, or
may come in the inner side of the arm as a kind of warning of an attack.
Another description of the pain is that it feels as if the sternum (breast-
bone) were being crushed back to the spine, or, again, as if the whole
chest were being held in a vice. In other cases the pain is compared
to a bar of iron across the upper part of the chest ; in others, again,
to a ton weight upon the lower part of the chest.” It was such a
spasm that ended the life of that great-hearted and big-brained rep-
resentative American, Colonel R. G. Ingersoll, in July, 1899. This
is the one organic disease of the hcart which causcs sensation of dread,
and which there is reason to dread, but those who were close to the
Colonel near the last years of his life know that he bore his sufferings
bravely and exhibited no fear of the inevitable outcome. He died in the
effort not to be treated as an invalid. In this and in any other real heart
disease life can only be prolonged by treating one's self as an invalid.
So the Colonel was more brave than Wise, if he knew or appreciated
his condition and danger.
Diseases of Blood–Vessels.
The blood-vessels which convey the blood from the heart, branch-
ing off to all parts of the body, are called arteries until they run off into
the smallest channels, and these are called capillarics. The arteries
have three coats, like some rubber tube or hose, an outer firm, fibrous
tubing, a middle muscular clastic layer, and a glazed inner surface.
The most uncommon change in disease is one which belongs mainly to
advanced life, called sclerosis or hardening. The tube loses some of
its elasticity and becomes hard and stiff through partial Ossification.
This leads to various infirmities of old age.
DISEASES OF BILOOD-VESSELS. 445
Writing of the degenerated tissue-changes which occur as old age
comes on, or of “Senility,” Dr. T. W. Higgins, in a paper read before
the New York Medical Association, said : “Old age is not a question of
years; it is not determined by the grayness of the hair alone, nor will
it do to measure it by the feel of the temporal artery. Cazali's state-
ment that “a man is as old as his arteries’ is too short a phrase to con-
tain the whole truth of so large a theme. Yet it is in the walls of
the blood-vessels that the most important though the less striking
changes take place. De Menge examined five hundred senile cases
microscopically, and found such changes in all. At first, these changes
are slight; but soon in the cells of the inner coat of the minute blood-
vessels, apparently from the irritation of some peccant material in the
blood circulating through them, a degeneration of the normal serous to
fibrous and fatty cells takes place. An extension of the same process
to the muscular coat follows, with the resulting thickening of the wall,
diminution of the calibre, and hindrance to the normal blood-supply.
A rich train of the manifestations of senility originates from this factor.
Atrophy and softening of the brain from lessened blood-supply, apo-
plexy from a broken weak vessel, and gangrene of the extremities arise
in this way. Another sequel is weakness of muscle, which gives rise to
such diverse symptoms as presbyopia ; dilatation of the heart and the
arch of the aorta ; dilatation of the hollow organs, as the stomach and
bladder; torpidity of the bowels, with constipation and all its chain of
evils.
It will be noticed at once that the pathology of chronic alcoholism
presents an almost identical chain of lesions. The acute observation
that “for the alcoholic the years count double and triple would indi-
cate that the effects of old age and of alcohol on the system were the
same, and each intensified the other.
One is certainly justified in asking this apparently absurd question,
can it be true that the microscopic changes found in old age are identical
with those produced by alcohol, the toxin of syphilis, or the products
of defective nutrition in the gouty or rheumatic subject 2 The term
toxin of old age sounds ridiculous, but, after reading Bouchard's mono-
graph on auto-intoxication, it appears slightly less so. If in the normal
Organism sufficient toxins are daily elaborated to cause death if not
eliminated by the kidneys and liver and lungs and skin, it becomes
comprehensible how the system may become clogged by the ashes of
its own fires.”
Aneurism.
Another form of disease consists in a local softening, weakening,
and expansion of a blood-tube. This gives rise to a change in shape, as
illustrated in several forms in Fig. 149. One may often have a chance
446 DISEASES OF THE HEART AND BLOOD-VESSELS.
to see similar weak points developed in a rubber tubing of the hose of
a fire company. The hose can be saved for awhile by bandaging on
the outside. In the human arteries Nature sometimes endeavors to repair,
with more or less success, the weak spot by a new deposit in the inside.
These enlargements of an artery produced by the pressure of the blood
FIG. 149. within are called aneurisms. They
may occur on the largest artery, the
aorta, not far from the heart, or on
arteries of lesser size in various
parts of the body. When they occur
On arteries on the extremitics there
are methods of surgical treatment
which cure, but aneurism in the
chest or abdomen are beyond the
reach of surgery, and there is sel-
dom much hope by medical treat-
ment. Yet it is fortunate when an
early diagnosis can be made and the
patient warned to take life easy.
Such things are apt to occur when
men attempt to do work for which
they are unfitted ; they result from
straining. The symptoms are some-
times obscure, but the presence of
an aneurism is apt to be known by
the pulsating tumor causing uncom-
fortable pressure on neighboring
parts. The tendency is to a pro-
gressive enlargement and thinning,
until death occurs by rupture. But
sometimes Nature long delays this
finality by sending new tissue to
strengthen the weakened part or
by forming a clot in a sac-like
aneurism and closing it up. I Once
treated a case of aneurism of the
aorta of a man who suffered much
distress until he took my advice and treatment and was seemingly
cured probably by so enriching his blood while maintaining a quiet life
that Nature was somehow enabled to patch up the breach. I say
somehow, because Nature has more than one way of repair in Such cases
when she has the right material and blood with which to make the
repairs. The one thing essential for safety in all such cases, is avoid.
ance of strain.
VARIOUS FORMS OF ANEURISMIS.

APOPLEXY. 447
Apoplexy.
This cannot properly be classed as a chronic disease, but the
causes that lead to it may be of a chronic nature. Minute aneurisms
occur on small arteries in the brain, visible only by the aid of a magni-
fying-glass, and sometimes so frequent as to remind one of the beads on
a string. The rupture of a little aneurism here is the cause of most
apoplectic strokes followed by paralysis. In other cases when apo-
plexy may be due to the blockading of the artery in the brain by a
little granule which has been washed away from the valves of the
heart, the growth of such fibrous particles being one result of the
roughening processes of inflammation already described as one origin
of heart disease. I have said that the inflammation of the heart’s
lining membrane was due to scrofulous or rheumatic impurities of the
blood, and so, too, are these weak spots in the arteries, giving rise to
aneurisms, large or small. Probably the beginning is some little
erosion or spot of softening similar to an ulcer on the skin arising from
blood disorder. It is evident that one is fortunate to have blood im-
purities break out rather than break in, and it is equally clear that the
best way to avoid disease of the circulatory system is to keep one's
blood clean. One may be able to bear occasional attacks of rheumatism
with fortitude or get along with pretty constant rumbling pains about
the joints, but one should not be content to put up with such infirmities
indefinitely when appreciating the fact that this state of blood may be
rotting out the blood-vessels and preparing the way for sudden break
down or prolonged enfeeblement. The policy of a stitch in time when
the blood becomes impure may prevent more than nine kinds of chronic
and obstinate diseases.
When one of the minute aneurisms bursts and the blood is allowed
to flow out of its proper channel and press upon the substance of the
brain, there will be for a time loss of consciousness, and if the stroke
be not fatal, some part of the body—sometimes one whole side—will be
paralyzed for many weeks or months. The cure for this paralysis
comes about through the gradual re-absorption of a clot of blood, and
then all goes fairly well unless another little bulb on a blood-tube
bursts. The occurrence of one stroke of apoplexy should be caution
enough that it is time to lead an easy life, avoid stress, mental or
physical, and also to make an effort to improve the general health as far
as possible. Any inactivity of vital functions, any retention of waste
matters, favors the recurrence of another stroke; whereas, good clean
blood may for a long time ward off more breaks. Among the causes of
disease of the blood-vessels deserving mention is syphilis. Probably
no blood impurity is responsible for more damage of this sort, and a
long fight for the purification of the system from this scourge would
448 DISEASES OF THE HEART AND BLOOD-VESSELS.
be Worth while if only to protect one against the erosion of the blood-
vessels and subsequent disasters so invited. Syphilis plays havoc with
every sort of tissue of the body, but one of its favorite affinities is the
inner coat of the blood-vessels, and this it may soften in very risky
places.
FIG. 150,
VARICOSE WEINS OF LEG.
Exposed to view by dissection.
Varicose Veins.
The veins are the tubes which convey
the blood from the capillaries back to the
heart. The blood is not under high pres-
Sure in them, and their walls or coats are
less strong than those of the arteries. We
have far less trouble on account of them,
but in certain places they are rather prone
to over-distention, whereby they become
elongated, tortuous, and swollen. Such
veins are most commonly scen in legs and
thighs of persons who have to be much
on their fect. They can be treated surgi-
cally to obliterate, but in most cases it
suffices to employ Snug bandaging or
elastic stockings, either of which gives
comfort by support. Varicose veins of
the testicle are called varicocele, and will
be given attention later. Hemorrhoids or
piles are really varicose veins of the
rectum, and this trouble will also be
further described in a more appropriate
place. In all such afflictions as those
described herein, except the last named,
the proper course to pursue is to have
skilful attention directed to the improve
ment of both the vascular and nervous
systems. Answers to the questions referred
to will enable the author in most cases to
give a correct diagnosis and advice that
will prove useful. All readers of this book are entitled to such advice,
and it will in all cases be cheerfully given.

CHAPTER IV.
CHRONIC DISEASES OF THE LIVER, STOMACH, AND
BOWELS,
LL of the organs named in the heading of
this chapter are in some way accessory to the
function of digestion. Let us examine, then,
the process which food goes through to
nourish and support animal life. First, it is
taken into the mouth, and is, or should be,
thoroughly mixed with the saliva, by proper
º Pºº mastication. This (the saliva) is electrically a negative,
| because an alkaline fluid. Descending the Ocsophagus, or
canal leading to the stomach, it is precipitated into the
gastric juices of the stomach, which are electrically a posi-
tive, because an acid fluid. Here, under the laws of elec-
trical attraction, the gastric or positive fluid takes hold in
earnest in penetrating and dissolving the particles of matter already
permeated by the saliva or negative fluid. This process is further
stimulated by the presence of nervous or clectrical forces sent from the
brain, through the pneumo-gastric nerves, which keep up a constant
telegraphic communication between the brain and the stomach. (See
page 18.) By the time the digestible portions of the food become dis-
solved, and well saturated with the gastric or positive fluid, it is next
carried into the lower stomach, or duodenum. Here it meets with two
fluids: one, the bile, sent by the liver through the gall-bladder and its
duct ; and the other, the pancreatic fluids furnished by the pancreas or
sweetbread. Now the latter, like the saliva, is strongly alkaline, or
negative, and, inasmuch as that portion of the food which has been re-
duced to the finest pulp contains the greatest quantity of gastric or
positive fluid, a combination at once takes place between them. Then
the bile is slightly alkaline, or negative, while the indigestible portions
of * food are only slightly saturº with the gastric or positive fluid,

45O DISEASES OF LIVER, STOMACH, AND BOWELS.
FIG. 151
In IGESTIVE!' MACHINERY.
This figure gives, in a diagrammatic way, a good
idea of the digestive Organs. A, mouth ; B,
tongue ; H, Ocsophagus ; J, stomach ; O, gall-
bladder ; M, duodenum ; N, bile-duct orifice ;
q, Small intestino ; P, pancroas ; S, ileo-coeca F
valve whoro small intestine joins large ; U, as-
conding colon; V, transverse colon; X, descend-
ing colon ; Y, flexure of colon ; Z, rectum.
consequently these very
naturally coalesce under
the laws of chemical or
electrical attraction. Fig.
151 will assist in giving a
proper understanding of
this explanation. Thus
We see how the nutritious
matter is separated from
the innutritious or uscless.
Under the laws of electro-
chemical attraction, mar-
riages take place between
inanimate as well as be-
tween animate bodies.
The pancreatic fluids
marry the nutritious, and
the bile marrics the innu-
tritious. The former com-
bination is sucked up by
the absorbents to nourish
the system, while the lat-
ter passes along down into
the colon, where there is
a sort of rendezvous for
fecal matter. How well
adapted the bile is to act
as a consort must be seen
w he n it is remembered
that it is a soapy kind of
fluid, well calculated to
lubricate the fac C. c s a n d
make them pass easily
th rough the intestines.
The bile, too, gives the
yellow color to the fecal
discharges.
I have never seen in any
medical work, nor have I
ever heard, a philosoph-
ical description of the
process of digestion, and
the separation of nutri-
tious from innutritious

CHRONIC AFFECTIONS OF THE LIVER, 45 I
matter. I presume the theory I have given will be new to all my
readers, professional as well as non-professional ; but when the chemical
constituents of the bile and the pancreatic fluids are taken into Con-
sideration, together with those of the saliva and gastric juices, does
it not perfectly accord with common sense 2 If so, and I think it does,
it is eminently proper that the pages of this book should give birth to it,
for the author of “Medical Common Sense ’ desires to make them the
disseminators of original views, bearing the impress of Self-evident
truth.
Chronic Affections of the Liver.
The liver is the largest organ in the body, and is subject to a
variety of chronic as well as acute disorders. The office of the liver is
to suck up from the blood those properties which constitute bile, and
to send them to the duodenum to assist digestion, as explained in the
foregoing essay, and then to the intestines to lubricate and soften the ex-
crementitious matters, and conduct them through the Serpentine intes-
tinal canal.
The most common derangement to whº ‘h the liver is subject is
torpidity. This is the result of nervous disturbances. Either the
nervous forces are unequally distributed among the organs, or there is
an insufficient supply of nervous vitality in the system. In either case,
the liver lacks nervous stimulus, and the organ may be said to be par-
tially paralyzed. Grief, fright, dissipation, or some bad habit, may
produce an unequal distribution of the nervous forces among the dif-
ferent organs of the system. I often meet with cases wherein there is
too great an expenditure of nervous force upon the heart, producing
too rapid pulsations or palpitation, while the liver is almost deprived
of it. Other organs may sometimes receive an excess at the expense of
the liver.
When nervous debility exists, or when the patient is unconscious
of any such debility, and his system does not contain its ordinary sup-
ply of nervous vitality, with which to keep the various vital organs
active, Nature, ever disposed to avoid greater evils, is apt to withdraw
a portion of the nervous stimuli from the liver. Why 2 Decause no
one of the other vital organs can be slighted with the same impunity.
Partially deprive the heart of the nervous forces, and its pulsations
would become so feeble that death would soon ensue. Partially deprive
the diaphragm and lungs of them, and respiration would become
difficult. The patient would gradually die of suſtocation. Partially
deprive the kidneys of them, and the secretions of the urine would be
retarded, speedily followed by dropsy or something worse. Digestion
of food in the stomach must go on, however imperfect, or the system
wastes for the want of nourishment, and nervous force must be sup-
452 DISEASES OF LIVER, STOMACH, AND BOWELS.
plied in abundance to stimulate the digestive process. In brief, the
partial withdrawal of the nervous or electrical forces from any other
vital organ than the liver would be followed with more dangerous con-
sequences. Still, good old dame Nature, the common-sense nurse, will
not deprive the liver of its due share of nervous stimuli, without giving
notice at the same time to the invalid. She paints his face yellow with
the bile which the liver fails to secrete from the blood. She consti-
pates his bowels, and in some cases, to urge him on to give proper
attention to himself, afflicts him with a painful and annoying difficulty
in the rectum and anus called piles. While thus urging the invalid to
give her means whereby to relieve the liver, she often gets insulted
with a dose of calomel. She “asks for bread and gets a stone.” But
she graciously pockets the insult, knowing that it is the result of
ignorance, and applies the nervous force, generated by the contact of
the mercurial substance with the gastric juice or acid of the stomach,
to the stimulation of the liver. The good old dame is then pestered
to know how to get rid of the mercury, and, in some cases, allows it to
attack Some muscle, bone, or nerve, in order that the pain resulting
therefrom may drive the victim to efforts to get rid of it.
WHERE TOTRPID LIVERS ARE FOUND.
Although torpid livers are found almost everywhere, they are
more common in the South and newly settled West than in any other
localities in this country. I scarcely ever examine an invalid from the
South who has not a dead liver. My theory for this is, that in tropical
latitudes, in consequence of the expansion of the air by heat, less
oxygen by weight is inhaled, and that consequently there is not so
much oxygen or electricity imparted to the system, through the medium
of the lungs, as in colder climates, while at the same time, the blood is
less decarbonized, leaving more for the liver to do. Under such a
climatic influence the system is apt to become deficient in nervous
vitality and overloaded with carbon, unless the habits of the people
are good—which they are generally not—one of their most common
errors being a diet of excess of hog, hominy, and molasses, all of which
are rich in carbon. Keeping hot coal fires going all the year round, in
the South, would be just as sensible.
Proper attention to dict and other habits would, in a majority of
cases, avert a tendency to liver derangements; but our friends in hot
climates like living up to the Northern epicurean standard, and not un-
frequently absolutely exceed it. Thus, an excess of work is given to
the liver by the use of too much carbonaceous food, and less nervous
force is supplied by respiration to enable it to perform the labor.
While, in the extreme North, barbarous epicures may glut their
stomachs with the blubbers and skins of whales, putrid whales' tails,
CHRONIC AFFECTIONS OF THE LIVER, 453
decayed seals, the entrails of the rytina, mixed with fresh train-oils,
etc., without serious consequences, those of southern latitudes should
eat but little animal food, and particularly avoid rich gravies, and
other aliments which fill the system with carbon. “Greasy matters,”
says a popular writer, “though composed mostly of waste, useless, and
excrementitious materials, which have accumulated in the cellular
repository because the process of alimentation was increased beyond
that of elimination, are not strictly poisonous. They doubtless contain
a very small quantity, yet very impure quality, of substances converti-
ble into nutriment. But as food they are to be regarded as neart to
venous blood in grossness and impurity.” Considering, then, that the
liver has to filter out a great share of this impure and gross matter, it
can be readily seen why, at least, those living in climates predisposing
them to inactive livers, should not eat such food. Instead of being
more careless in their diet, the inhabitants of warm countries should
be much more careful than those living in colder climates, so that, by
preserving a healthy liver, this organ may do part of the work usually
given to the lungs. Where the air is expanded by heat, and conse-
quently less oxygen by weight inhaled at each inspiration, there is need
for this. In unborn infants, who are entirely shut out from the oxygen
of the air, the liver has to do the work of the lungs in decarbonizing
the blood, but Nature provides for this necessity by making the liver
larger than all the internal viscera, and still larger in proportion in
utero life. After birth, when the lungs begin to perform their func-
tions, this relative disproportion is modified, and it then behooves the
more developed being to keep both organs in a healthful state.
People living under a southern sun can do this with care and the
exercise of a little self-denial. Their food should be nutritious rather
than stimulating. Gluttony and dissipation above all things should be
rigidly avoided. Remember that the golden rays of the sun may paint
the complexion brown, while every organ is faithfully performing its
functions, but that when old dame Nature brings in a tint of yellow,
the liver has failed in the performance of its duty.
WHY THE NEGRO IS MORE ENDURING IN THE TROPICS.
What I have just said regarding the influence of the atmosphere of
the tropics on the liver, is applicable to the Caucasian rather than to
the Ethiopian race. Old dame Nature has done all things well, and
those who were especially made to breathe the scorched air of tropical
Climes have broader nostrils and greater depth and breadth of the
respiratory apparatus (see Fig. 152), so that they may inhale a greater
quantity of the heat-expanded atmosphere at each inspiration than can
the Caucasian (see Fig. 153), with his compressed nostrils and less
capacious throat and lungs. The liver, too, of the negro, is propor-
454 DISEASES OF LIVER, STOMACH, AND BOWELS.
tionately larger, while his nervous system does not possess that acute
sensitiveness and liability to disorder which characterize the finely or-
ganized nervous structure of the white man. Nor does he seem to re-
quire so much nervous stimulus to carry on his sluggish physical machin-
ery. Our sable brother is almost a stranger to nervous diseases. He
sometimes has liver derangements arising from vascular impurities,
but even then he gets off with comparatively little suffering, for the
reason that his excretory pores are as much more open than those of
his white neighbor, as the texture of his skin is coarser. Hence, the
odorous effluvia which proverbially emanate from the skin of the un-
adulterated negro. In perfect health, the excretions of his skin greatly
relieve the depurating labors of his liver, and when hepatic difficulties
do overtake him, the amount of the
excretions is considerably increased,
unless the pores are simultaneously
closed.
The physical organization of the
Ethiopian also better enables him to
withstand the deleterious influences of
bad air in malarious districts. It has
been found that the hanging of wet
blankets or sheets at the open windows
in malarious regions, greatly purifies
the air which enters an apartment.
This is because water is a disinfectant,
rendered so by its disposition to take up
THE ETHIOPIAN. poisonous gases. Well, now, the negro
has as good protectors as wet blankets or sheets at his mouth and nasal
passages. The red lining of the lips and nostrils in health is always
moist, as all know. Hence, the large lips and nostrils with which he
is provided, with their large surfaces of the moist red lining or mucous
membrane, serve as disinfectant protectors, such as the Caucasian,
with his thin lips and compressed nostrils, does not possess. And the
rule may be put down as invariable, that those persons, black or white,
who have the thickest and widest lips, and the largest and broadest
nostrils, can the best endure the depressing atmosphere of malarious
tropics.
FIG. 152.
LIVER-TORPOR COMMON IN NEW COUNTRIES.
Disturbances in the purity and tonicity of the air, are what pre-
dispose the people of new countries to torpid livers. The miasmatic
emanations from the soil of a country recently cleared of its timber and
shrubbery, greatly adulterate the atmosphere, and thereby induce
those nervous disturbances which are so apt to leave the liver Without

CHRONIC AFFECTIONS OF THE LIVER, 455
sufficient nervous stimuli. People living on new and unimproved
farms are famous for torpid livers. Nearly all of them are enveloped
in Sallow skins; and in those presenting themselves to me for medical
examination, I usually find the liver seriously involved, whatever
other complications may exist. Even the livers of beef cattle driven
here from such quarters and slaughtered for our market, are seldom
free from disease.
It may not be possible, therefore, for the pioneers of new countries
to entirely escape hepatic or liver complaints; but it is nevertheless
true that such difficulties are more prevalent among them than would
be the case if proper regard were paid to hygienic laws. Western
farmers are proverbially great pork-eaters, and pork-eating overloads
the blood with carbon, and gives FIG. 153.
the liver too much work to do.
Nor are farmers alone addicted to
the use of filthy swine's flesh. The
denizens of Western cities glut
their stomachs with spare-ribs and
sausages. The farmers usually
carry more healthy countenances
than citizens, because their physical §
exercises are better calculated to §§
dispose of the excess of waste and §§
impure matter by perspiration. † º
There is another reason why citi-
Zens Wear a more sallow skin than
the industrious farmer, which is,
the vice in all cities of turning night into day, while farming com-
munities, exhausted with physical labor, retire early. A Western citi-
Zen supposes he can expose himself to night-air with no greater injury
than the indweller of the old Eastern cities receives who does the same
foolish thing. This is an error. Miasmatic vapors, as before remarked,
are more excessive in new cities, and at night-time they mingle more
freely with the lower strata of air. Then, too, vegetation which, dur-
ing the day, takes up carbon and gives off oxygen, reverses this pro-
Cess at night, so that carbonic gases are its nocturnal exhalations.
Here, then, we see why our Western neighbors cannot imitate the
vices of our Eastern metropolitans without suffering a severer penalty
by bringing upon themselves greater derangements of the nervous har-
mony and biliary system. To avoid these derangements they should
not indulge, excessively, in carbonaceous food and drink ; they should
retire early, select for sleeping-rooms those apartments most elevated
from the ground, in order to get beyond the miasmatic gases which
hover near the earth’s surface at night-time ; open the windows for
THE CAUCASIAN.

456 DISEASES OF LIVER, STOMACH, AND BOWELS.
ventilation, and if the sleeping-room be near the ground, to escape the
poisonous Vapors, hang wet curtains before the windows, for water, as
before remarked, is an excellent disinfectant, and readily takes up dele-
terious gases. In the most unhealthy localities it is better to ventilate
Sleeping apartments by this process than to breathe, over and over
again, the air which has been poisoned by the exhalations from the
lungs and skin.
Persons of sedentary habits in all countries can see, from the pre-
ceding suggestions, the necessity of breathing pure air, and plenty of it,
FIG. 154,
THE LIVER UNIXER. SIDE, SHOWING 1, 2, 3, RIGHT, LEFT, AND MIDDLE LOBES ; 8, GALL-
BLADDER ; 9, 10, 11, GALL-DUCTS : 12, ARTERY ; 13, PORTAL WEIN, WHICH con VEYs
BLOOD FROM stom ACII AND INTESTINES TO THE LIVER ; 15-18, VEINS CONVEYING
BLOOD TO HEART.
and observing correct dietetic rules if they would preserve healthy livers
a nÓl a skin free from the sallow tint of bile.
Probably the ubiquitous patent medicine almanacs and advertise-
ments are in the main responsible for the fact that the liver is blamed
for the greatest number of human ills. A large class of chronic com-
plainants find some satisfaction in the ready-made diagnosis, “Oh my
liver is out of order,” and, though the doctors are inclined to laugh at
the diagnosis, the chances are that the people are more than half right.
When we consider the size and the numerous important functions of
the liver, and its close relations with all the vital organs, it would seem

CHRONIC, AFFECTIONS OF THE LIVER, 457
that if anything goes wrong with any of them the liver must get “out
of order” too. If it be not deserving of all that is charged to its ac-
count, yet it is generally one of the delinquents; but in justice be it
said, it is less the fault of the liver than of the man who carries it, and
who puts impossible tasks upon it. In fact the liver does nobly, and
compensates for much that other organs fail to do. It not only sup-
plies bile to take part in the intestinal digestive processes, but it stands
as a filter between the absorbent veins of the intestines and the general
blood circulation, receiving all that has been taken up by them, work-
ing some over into proper shape for use, holding some in its storage for
a better time, and eliminating in the bile those products which it would
be unsafe to let pass. So it is a sort of rag-sorter, and a factory for work-
ing raw materials into finer form and eliminating the dross. Digestion
is not half completed in the alimentary canal ; the liver has its turn,
and the products of digestion get a final cleansing in the process of
oxygenation in the lungs.
The liver carries on several important lines of work—more than
can be told here—and as yet physiologists don’t comprehend them all ;
but it is pretty certain that one of its most important functions is to act
as a sentinel against poisons sent to it from the intestinal absorbents.
Digestion is seldom perfect, in spite of the gastric juice and numerous
other digestive fluids, so that considerable food undergoes putrefactive
change instead of digestion, and thus poisons develop which would do
great harm if taken into the general circulation, but, being carried in
the portal vein to the liver, they are arrested and transformed or cast
out in the bile. If the contents of the intestines become too rotten day
after day, the extra work thrown on the liver may tire it out, so there
is reason enough why it should often become torpid. Then, in its weak-
ened condition, the poisons slip through it and bring on symptoms of
biliousness, feverishness, and various depressing effects on the nervous
system. The ordinary symptoms of biliousness are dull, heavy, drowsy
feelings, even to sick headache, sallow or yellow stained complexion,
Sometimes approaching that of jaundice, yellow-coated tongue and
unpleasant taste, tendency to nose-bleeding or to hemorrhoids (from
interference with blood circulation through a sluggish, congested liver),
and mental moods of gloomy, despondent, and irritable kind. Locally
there may be a sense of aching, heaviness, or weight in the right side.
A catarrhal state of the blood is one of the results of liver torpor, and
it is hardly possible to check catarrhal discharges anywhere until the
liver has been restored to pretty normal activity,
OTHER IDISEASES MAY RESULT FROM NEGLECT OF THE LIVER,
It is now being taught that when such disordered states are pro-
longed, they may lead to diabetes and Bright's disease, for Professor
458 DISEASES OF LIVER, STOMACH, AND BOWELS.
Bouchard and others have proved, by actual experiment on dogs, that
When portal blood is sent into the general circulation without passing
through the liver poisonous symptoms appear, consisting of fever,
nephritis (Bright's disease), and albuminuria. No doubt the liver itself
suffers and flinches when overloaded with poisonous products of imper-
fect digestion, and so in course of time its own tissue may become
altered through inflammatory action, and what has been a torpid,
overworked, tired, and functionally deranged liver becomes a hard,
knotty, and contracted liver, one organically diseased, and that is called
cirrhosis. Its duties are then more neglected than ever, the blood
takes on a chronic state of self-poisoning, and its circulation through
the narrowed blood-vessels is so impeded that dropsy develops, gener-
ally abdominal, and matters go from bad to worse till the end.
When the liver becomes irritated enough to harden and contract
it is too late to talk of a cure, and, therefore, it is well to take notice of
its first signals of distress, and give it a rest, or make things as easy for
it as possible by a course of diet, abstemiousness, and medicines that
help to make its tasks easier. From what has been said of the liver's
functions it is easy to conclude that all means that will improve or per-
fect the first digestion will be of service to a torpid or an overstrained
liver. Further, since all food-products, good or bad, must pass its in-
spection and manipulation, its day's work can be lessened by eating
lightly, especially of concentrated foods, such as meats, fats, and sweets,
and allaying the appetite mainly with fruits, green stuff, and succulent
vegetables, with plenty of water to flush the main pipe and sewer.
Morbid appetite is one unfortunate symptom of congested liver,
and ignorance of this fact is a large factor in the obstinacy of liver and
digestive disorders. It must be held in check, as all the “liver invig.
orators” ever devised cannot relieve congestion when it is not. The
reason why appetite is craving is because the cells of all parts of the
body are not being properly nourished. The appetite is the voice of
these cells calling impatiently for nutrition, but overloading the stom-
ach, or indeed, taking a reasonable supply of food will not satisfy it so
long as the liver is not properly doing its work. Set the liver right the
first thing, then food can be properly utilized and the incessant cravings
of appetite satisfied.
Another unfortunate symptom or effect of liver torpor is constipa-
tion, because the bile is an important element for stimulating peristaltic
(muscular, worm-like) action of the intestines, besides its saponifying
effect on their contents, which renders fecal matter more easily movable.
Liver torpor favors constipation, and constipation aggravates liver
torpor. Some say that calomel, long famous for its supposed stimula-
tive effect on the liver, has no effect on that organ, but affords relief
only by hurrying the bile down and out of the intestines.
CHRONIC AFFECTIONS OF THE LIVER, 459
Much of the unwise employment of mercurial preparations has
been laid aside, but the relief of biliousness and constipation by calomel
is seemingly so prompt and efficient that very likely it is as much mis-
applied in this manner as ever—possibly more. Mercury is a foreign
body to the human system, and can have no rightful place in its
cconomy in heaſth or disease. It is a mineral not normally found in
any of the bodily tissues, but with a peculiar power of amalgamating
with them, and settling down as a permanent element, much to their
discomfort. It would do far more damage except that most of it is cast
out with the cathartic effort of Nature to get rid of it ; but when regu-
larly used the little that is absorbed of every dose accumulates to under-
mine the constitution, as surely as it softens and disintegrates metals
with which it comes in contact. Even the old-school practitioners are
learning that there are “eclectic specifics" which give as prompt relicf
as mercury, and which may be repeated time after time, and employed
year after year without injury. My “Vegetable Anti-Bilious Pills”
afford a combination of safe and pleasant persuaders of normal func-
tion, that is a perfect substitute for blue pill, suitable for all ages,
temperaments, and climates.
The difficulty of separating liver and “stomach disorders” in
diagnosis will also be made evident in considering another way in
which the liver suffers from its relations to its neighbors. The bile-
duct (see Fig. 151, O N) is a small tube which conveys the bile to the
duodenum, or that portion of the small intestine which leads off from
the stomach, and in which intestinal digestion begins. When this part
suffers from inflammation and catarrh, the trouble extends into the
bile-duct, narrows the calibre, and impedes the flow of bile, besides
vitiating it. This diseased action may go so far as to cause a full
blockade, a damming back of bile, and jaundice, with its characteristic
yellow stain of the whole skin. Except when the liver becomes torpid
and inefficient because of lack of nervous stimulus, it is fair to suppose
that it would have the right to say to its neighbors, when charged with
disorderly conduct, “You began it,” but when the doctor is called to
repress disorder, he must deal with all parts involved.
BILIOUS FIEADACHE.
Bilious headaches have their origin in a deranged liver. How are
they produced ? I can tell you in a few words. The liver in health
extracts from the blood certain properties which, when collected
together, constitute bilo—a carbonaceous, soapy compound which,
poured into the duodenum, becomes one of the agents of digestion, as
described in other places in this chapter. When, therefore, the liver
becomes so diseased as not to do this, the blood becomes loaded with
these bilious properties, and the digestion becomes in a measure ims
46o DISEASES OF LIVER, STOMACH, AND BOWELS.
paircd. These irritating matters in the blood visit the head as well as
other portions of the body, and coming within sensible contact with the
delicate norves therein, cause irritations which make themselves felt in
the form of aches; and these aches are aggravated by the disturbed
digestion ensuing from the absence of the bilious properties from the
lower stomach. The bile is just where it is not wanted. In the duo-
denum it is useful ; in the circulation it is a mischief-maker ; and while
neglecting its own business, it is meddling with that of others; a result
not unfrequently met with when people do not attend to their own
affairs. *
There is still another way in which bilious headache of a periodical
kind may be produced. In some constitutions, the accumulation of
FIG. 155. bile in the circulation causes
little else but drowsiness or
heaviness, until all at once a
crisis arrives, the liver suddenly
awakens from its inaction, and
takes up and pours into the
lower stomach, bile in such im-
moderate quantities as to irritate
the duodenum, causing it to con-
tract and eject quantities of the
irritating fluid into the upper
stomach, where the food is first
received after passing the mouth
and the Oesophagus. The pres-
ence of this intruder causes in-
tolerable nausea, or sickness, and
such a disturbance of the stom-
ach nerves, that the nerves of
the head become involved, pro-
ducing what is commonly called
sick-headache, which usually
continues until relief is obtained by vomiting. When the bile is entirely
removed from the stomach by this effort, the headache disappears.
If in any case, or at any time, the duodenum can prevent this reverse
action, and carry the deluge of bilious matter downward into the intes-
times, bilious diarrhoea, instead of headache, takes place. It is for this
reason that some persons subject to sick headache are also liable to
bilious diarrhoea, and it will be noticed in such cases that the attack of
headache passes by, or presents itself very slightly, when the bilious
matter takes this course.
Nearly all persons subject to bilious headache have sallow com-
plexions derived from the influence of the bilious matter in the circula-
IBILIOUS HEADACHE,
*

CHRONIC AIFFECTIONS OF THE LIVER, 46I
tion, and usually, too, they are greatly annoyed with drowsiness during
the day, and with a predisposition to restlessness at night ; while those
who do drop off to sleep without difficulty awaken in the morning with
the remark, that they have slept too soundly, and feel uncomfortable
in consequence. Bad tasting, bitter mouth, also frequently contributes
to the discomfort of bilious people, because the blood, overloaded with
bile, allows some of these bitter, nauseous properties to sweat through
the mucous membrane lining the mouth and stomach, as well as
through the external skin ; and when the coatings of the stomach are
covered with this unwholesome secretion, the tongue usually presents
a yellow, furred appearance. This internal bilious perspiration often
destroys the purity of the breath, just as the external perspiration in
surch cases renders the effluvium disagreeable ; but the latter is not so
readily noticed because it passes off more diffusively from the whole
surface of the body, while the former is thrown out with each exhala-
tion in a concentrated stream from the breathing passages.
No person need suffer with bilious headache. Because it is not
regarded fatal, many people who pay thousands of dollars for fine
houses, nice furniture, sumptuous tables, and other creature comforts,
go through life with this discomfort, which greatly disqualifies them for
the enjoyment of the things they provide so lavishly for the entertain-
ment of themselves and friends. If they would stop for a moment to
reflect upon it, they would see how much more they would enjoy were
they to drop off a few superfluities, if necessary, and make an appro-
priation for “internal improvements;” for, notwithstanding all political
wrangles on this topic, I can confidently assure them that in all cases of
this kind, it is strictly “constitutional.” A little attention to the lºo-er
as well as the lºv-Čng would result in greater comfort and happiness
than is now enjoyed by thousands in all conditions of life.
GALL-STONES.
When matters in the region of the liver have been permitted to go
wrong for some time, it Often happens that gall-stones are formed, and
: their passage through the slender duct is attended with terrific spas-
modic pains, cold sweats, and vomiting—an attack of gall-stone colic—
and such attacks may occur periodically for years, unless corrective
treatment be applied. Very large stones may be formed in the gall-
bladder, and be removed by cutting through the abdominal walls.
The largest we ever saw pictured was like a small potato, two inches
long by over an inch in diameter.
Gall-stones occur mostly in persons of middle life, and in women
more than men, especially if prone to obesity, indolence, and inactivity.
The Corset and trimming in of the waist-line can displace and constrict
the liver and very likely impede free flow through the gall-ducts, and
462 DISEASES OF LIVER, STOMACH, AND BOWELS,
this mistake may have much to do with the larger percentage of gall.
stone cases among women than among men, who seldom wear tight
bands about the waist. A failure to drink enough water no doubt
favors increased viscidity or denseness of secretions, and this has been
Suggested as another favoring cause of formation of gall-stones, which
is due to a process of crystallization, as when sugar crystals form in
Syrup. The liver produces a pound of bile daily, and whether it shall
be fluid or too viscid will depend somewhat upon the water-supply
taken into the body in food and drink. Among the means commonly
recommended for combating the gall-stone tendency is the free use of
moderately alkaline (not limy) waters, as Carlsbad, Vichy, and our na-
tive Lithia waters, and of green vegetables and juicy fruits, but often
there are evidences of some perverse or pernicious derangement of diges-
tive processes which requires systematic, well-selected treatment to re-
lieve. Yet they sometimes form in young persons who look the picture
of health ; and without any very evident cause. Many gall-stones may
jostle each other in the gall-bladder, like pebbles on the beach, for a
long while, without giving trouble, but nothing can produce more
sudden and severe illness (with possible danger to life) than the descent
of a stone when it starts to move on from the gall-bladder through the
narrower canal to reach the outlet of the intestines. Such attacks, if
severe, are apt to be “characteristic ’’ enough to make an easy diagnosis
—severe and cutting pain in the right side, with jaundice and vomiting
—but there are cases of seeming indigestion whose obstinacy is really
due to gall-bladder disease.
Dr. Edward S. Stevens thus writes of these obscure afflictions :
“In many of these cases we can “in the first place’ merely be sus-
picious of the existence of gall-bladder disease. When one applies for
relief from trouble with the stomach and gives a history of having ap-
plied for relief in vain to many well-qualified physicians, we may sus
pect that there is some condition present apart from the stomach. If
the supposed signs of indigestion are independent of the taking of food
into the stomach, our suspicion is strengthened. But this is not suf-
ficient to establish a diagnosis of gall-bladder disease. The suspicion
of it being aroused, months may elapse before anything is noticed, more
than simple distress in the stomach with eruciations of gas. Stones
may be present and yet cause no pain, or catarrh of the gall-bladder of
low grade may exist without either pain, tenderness on pressure, or a
perceptible tumor being noticed. If one does not hastily jump at a
conclusion, he will sooner or later discover other signs of the suspected
trouble. There may be a slight sallowness of the skin. If it is from
bile, there will be a reaction in the urine upon the proper test, although
the colors may be quite faint. There may be periodical passages from
the bowels of strings of mucus, Occasionally of blood also,
DYSPEPSIA. 463
“Just as certain mental emotions may cause at times the involuntary
evacuation of the rectum or urinary bladder, so they may give rise to an
effort on the part of the gall-bladder to expel its contents. This may
be more or less painful, or perhaps produce symptoms of distress so
slight that it is not considered important enough to refer to a physician.
I have seen this slight distress follow worry over business affairs and
a lawsuit. In one such case the diagnosis was confirmed by the pas-
Sage of a calculus from the bowels after a sharp attack of hepatic colic.
In a second case prolonged and severe distress was caused by deep grief
Over the death of a child at one time, and at other times excitement
produced a like effect. In another case hypochondriac distress was
Subsequent to a prolonged fit of laughter. The diagnosis, strength-
ened by other signs, was confirmed in this case by cholecystectomy (the
Operation by which gall-stones are removed by cutting through the
walls of the abdomen and into the gall-bladder).
“Among the most interesting symptoms dependent upon the exist-
ence of gall-bladder disease with which I have met are certain reflex
symptoms. In considering them one should bear in mind the exten-
sive distribution of the branches of the pneumogastric nerve and the
sympathetic. Among the most common of the reflex disturbances is
palpitation of the heart. Others which I have observed are pain in the
urinary bladder, distress in breathing, and spasmodic coughing spells
with loss of Voice.”
Water is a valuable solvent, and the free use of it, as before re-
marked, will be found beneficial. Just plain pure water will answer,
but some of our mineral waters, as already suggested, will be more ef-
ſective. If mineral waters of an alkaline property are not employed,
then those freest from impurity, like the Poland or Waukesha waters,
may be advantageously used. Bicarbonate of soda is a good household
remedy and usually near at hand, but the proper thing to do is to first
ascertain all the complications entering into the immediate trouble, and
then pursue for days, weeks, or months, such alterative treatment as
will cover all the derangements existing in any given case.
Dyspepsia.
This is one of the most common diseases that afflict humanity, and
the suffering is by no means confined to the greatly abused stomach.
The brain at once enters into sympathy with this important organ of
digestion when it is disordered. So intimately are the head and stom-
ach connected by the nervous system that mental disturbances will de-
stroy appetite, and arrest the progress of digestion ; and digestive de-
rangements will produce depression of spirits, irritability, hypochon-
dria, and almost insanity,
464 DISEASES OF LIVER, STOMACH, AND BOWELS.
The immediate causes of dyspepsia, nearly everybody is familiar
with. They are—rapid, immoderate, and irregular eating; excessive
drinking ; injudicious drugging ; tight dressing of the waist; exces-
sive brain labor ; grief; anxiety; and jealousy. Tobacco-chewing, in
many cases, causes such a waste of the salival fluids by expectoration
that the food enters the stomach insufficiently mixed with them. The
importance of the salivary fluids in performing the digestive function
is given in the introductory matter of this chapter. The excessive use
of alcoholic liquors irritates and inflames the lining of the stomach, and
this leads to dyspepsia. Only those who have weak or feeble stomachs
without irritation, are benefited by the use of tonics or stimulants. The
immoderate use of condiments also induces irritation or inflammation of
the lining of the stomach. I am often surprised beyond expression at
the test of endurance some people put upon their stomachs in the whole-
Sale use of pepper, mustard, and horse-radish. The amount of any one
of these things swallowed at one meal by some individuals, would draw
a blister in an hour or two if applied to any external part of their
persons. How the stomach manages to dispose of these things without
getting burned, is a mystery to anybody who realizes how much more
Susceptible the mucous membrane is to the effects of irritants, than is
the Cuticle. Hence, it is perceived, the immediate causes of dyspepsia
are as numerous as are bad habits. The predisposing and perpetuating
causes, however, are what are generally overlooked. What are they 7
The predisposing and perpetuating causes of dyspepsia are, impure
blood, and derangements of the nervous system. When the blood is
at fault, the lining of the stomach is liable to an attack of eruption, or
irritation, or inflammation. In this form of dyspepsia the invalid
experiences pain, Soreness, gnawing, burning, or other inflammatory
symptoms ; with an empty feeling, sourness, wind, trembling, nausea,
etc., at the stomach. Not all of these symptoms in any one case, but
some one or more of them. When the dyspepsia proceeds from nervous
derangements, the symptoms are usually : palpitation of the heart ;
trembling at the pit of the stomach ; a weak or all-gone feeling at the
stomach ; while the body appears attenuated, and the countenance
pale ; the sleep disturbed ; the spirits more continually depressed, and
the mental and physical energies subdued.
In either of the foregoing forms of dyspepsia, the food passes
through more of a rotting than of a digesting process, and the gases
emanating from the decomposing mass cause acidity and flatulence.
Then the nutritious substances are so contaminated by properties calcu-
lated to irritate or inflame the blood, that rotten apples would answer
about as well for food as sound vegetables and meats; and they would
impart about as much benefit to the system. Much good food is spoiled
in the cooking of it, and much by poor digestion.
DYSPEPSIA. 465
Epicures, good feeders, or those who are denominated “high-
livers,” and those who have plenty of ſlesh on their bones, are the
most liable to that form of dyspepsia which is perpetuated by blood
impurities. Imprudence in eating produces in, and sends forth from,
the stomach to the vascular fluids, impurities which in time “come
home to roost.” They pay a visit to their maternal home, and their
presence is anything but agreeable ; for like wanton children, they
mark and deface the walls, and turn everything topsy-turvy. Some
unfortunate people, however have this form of dyspepsia, who have
not been seemingly
irregular in their
habits. This is be-
cause they either in-
he rit. ed Or C on -
tracted scrofulous
impurities; or took
injurious medi-
cines, or were pois-
oned in some way.
These dyspeptics
are lean or fleshy
according to their
temperaments. I
have met dyspeptics
whose p a rents on
one side were scrof-
ulous and, on the
other, predisposed
to diseased livers
and weak stomachs
—a capital heredi-
taay combination to
produce dyspeptic
progeny. The chil-
dren of such parent-
age are as sure to
inherit dyspepsia as
those of affluent
parents are to in-
herit wealth.
Professional men,
students, and other
brain-workers are
most liable to that
FIG. 156.
32 % - *: NW º §§ * W.W
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& º , "I ** 9 l
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A: §
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ſ | ill, § ". gº .. 3
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tº: § § %. sº
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|
NERVES OF THE STOMACH.
The above figure shows how extensively the stomach
and digestive apparatus is permeated with nerves.
The liver (1) is turned up to exhibit the anterior surface
of the stomach ; also the gall-bladder (2). The organic
nerves of the great solar-plexes are marked 3, 3, while
the pyloric extremity of the stomach is shown at 4 and
5, 7, 7, 7, mark the Omentum,

466 DISEASEs of LIVER, STOMACH, AND Bow ELS.
form of dyspepsia which is perpetuated by nervous derangements.
By too close mental application they exhaust nervous vitality, and, con-
Sequently, too little nervous stimulus is given to the stomach to render
digestion properly active. Dyspepsia of this form may also proceed
from nervous derangements induced by any excessive mental emotion,
or by marital excesses, masturbation, or from diseased procreative
Organs of either sex, as these affections invariably prostrate the ner-
Vous energies.
THE HORRORS OF DYSPEPSIA.
Dyspepsia, in many cases, is perpetuated by both blood and ner-
Vous derangements; or, in other words, the blood of the dyspeptic
being impure and the nervous forces insufficient or misapplied, a com-
plicated form of the disease exists. Mental depression and irrita-
bility, if not imaginary horrors, are ever present when both of these
constitutional derangements form the root of the digestive disturbance.
“Physically,” a writer speaking of this class of invalids, remarks, “the
dyspeptic has many evils to contend with ; pain in the chest, and other
parts of the body, particularly the left side and the sternum. The
muscles of the body become weak and flabby, manifesting Soreness on
the least unusual exertion, with lameness in the limbs, etc. There is
tenderness in the region of the stomach and the hips, felt upon pressure.
The extremities are cold and rigid ; the skin dry, rough, and pale;
hands and feet usually cold, are sometimes hot and burning. The
patient at times is distressed with night-sweats, bad sleep, and worse
dreams. He seems heir to a thousand evils, changing in their nature—
Old Ones vanishing, new ones appearing. Some of the most alarming to
the sufferer are palpitation and cough. He is troubled with vertigo,
ringing and other sounds in the ears. Sometimes he hesitates in his
Speech—has uncertain action—is pleased with nothing—pleases nobody
—has abundant occasion for regretting blunders of manners and
morals. Moral power he seems greatly to lack ; he has lost self-control,
follows this whim and that, but never the doctor's prescription to the
end—he cannot remain in the mood long enough. Hence the disease is
prolonged, especially as time is necessary to a cure. He has no patience
for that, he is so moody, so wavering. In a word, he is only the
shadow of himself.” This is a very fair description of the condition of
body and mind in a case of complicated dyspepsia. A man or woman
So affected cannot be an agreeable companion The victim grumbles
and frets involuntarily, and creates a domestic hell at his or her own
fireside. Surrounding friends try to be forbearing and make all due
allowance for the unfortunate physical derangements of the invalid ;
but incidents will occur when patience is strained almost to the point
of breaking, when relatives and friends are compelled to cry out,
DYSPEPSIA, 467
“What next 2" as the tadpole has been reputed to exclaim when he
loses his tail - -
There is still another class of dyspeptics who suffer little except
from leanness, susceptibility to cold, and general lassitude. Persons
thus affected have stomachs so inactive that the food might about as
well pass down outside as inside. A Soup bath might answer still
better | The stomach is never provoked into making use of what is
put into it, and in many cases the appetite of these invalids is perfectly
enormous. Everybody wonders where so much food goes to. It seems
as if the hungry and wasted system was constantly crying for food,
causing a disposition to eat voraciously, w].ile the stomach remains an
idle spectator to all that is passing. It is questionable whether invalids
so affected derive any nourishment at all from the usual digestive pro-
cess. As the food passes along the oesophagus, and through the upper
and lower stomach, and finally along the crooked path of the intestines,
the mucous membrane absorbs enough nutriment to keep the person
alive by the aid of air, Sunlight, and Social magnetism. The predispos-
ing and perpetuating causes of this form of dyspepsia are, deficiency of
red corpuscles in the blood, and lack of nervous vitality; and these
causes are aggravated in every case by the very disease they have
induced. -
There is a too general propensity to let up on normal digestion, an
to look for “pre-digested ” foods and artificial aids to digestive pro-
cesses, instead of trying to give all digestive functions a fair and nor-
mal amount of work. Of course there is, too, the tendency to overtax
by gluttony, or excess of concentrated (“rich") foods, besides the habit
of throwing the duty of one part on another, as of swallowing food
without mastication, seemingly with the idea that the stomach has
teeth, claws, or other apparatus for comminuting the food. Most folks
seem too tired or hurried to work their jaws and teeth as Nature in-
tended, and in this laxness they have even been encouraged by short-
sighted teachers of the physiology of digestion.
IMPORTANCE OF SALIVARY DIGESTION.
For a long time the physiologists, even influential writers of text-
books, have been in serious error regarding mouth digestion of starch and
the function of the saliva. Food, even when sufficiently masticated, is
not long held in the mouth, subject to salivary action, and it was taught
that when it was swallowed, the acid secretion of the stomach at once
checked salivary digestion, and postponed further change in starchy
foods until they could be passed through the stomach and take another
turn at being digested by intestinal fluids and pancreatic juice; but
later investigation has shown that thorough mixing of food with saliva
counts for more than the short time of mouth-mastication, and that for
§
*
468 DISEASES OF LIVER, STOMACH, AND BOWELS.
awhile the saliva is very active even after the food has been swallowed.
Not at once is the food mass rendered acid by gastric juice, and while
it is yet alkaline and neutral, which may be half an hour, the saliva, if
it has been well mixed with the food, “gets in its fine work,” so that
even eighty-five per cent. of the starch may be digested before the con-
tents of the stomach are forwarded to the Small intestine to complete
the job. -
For this recent revelation of new light on salivary digestion we
are indebted to Dr. Kellogg, editor of Modern Medicine, and he further
claims that saliva aids the food in “stimulating glandular activity on
the part of the stomach whereby an active and abundant supply of
gastric juice is produced.” Dr. Kellogg's statements are based on over
4,000 analyses of the contents of the human stomach at the Battle Creek
Sanitarium. What he says is well worth listening to, remembering
and acting upon, and to help “drive it in ’’ the minds of our readers,
and so encourage renewed activity of their jaws, more bites to each
morsel, longer lingering on its Sweetness and thorough salivation, we
quote from him as follows: -
“It is more than probable that hasty mastication is one of the
principal causes of dyspepsia in Americans. The gastric juice cannot
act upon the starch ; it can only act upon gluten and other nitrogenous
elements of bread and other cereal foods after these elements have been
set free by the action of the saliva upon the starch which constitutes
the greater bulk of these food substances.
“This neglect of mastication, and resulting salivary indigestion,
explains the enormous demand for malt preparations (we do not refer
to beer, which is worthless as a digestive agent) which has sprung up
within the last few years. The product of malt digestion, or maltose,
is precisely the same as that of Salivary digestion, the action of the
saliva upon the starch resulting in the production, not of glucose, as
was formerly supposed, but of maltose.
“Another cause of salivary indigestion which we should mention
is the abundant use of sweets. In order that the saliva shall exercise
its properties efficiently, it is necessary that it should act in a suitable
medium. A temperature of 100° and an alkaline or neutral reaction are
necessary for prompt and vigorous action on the part of the Saliva upon
the farinaceous elements of food. A low temperature hinders this
action, and acidity stops it altogether. The presence of a large amount
of sugar also hinders the action of the saliva.
“It is thus evident that the copious drinking of cold water, or the
taking of ice foods in connection with meals, is a means of producing
salivary indigestion. The free use of strong acids, such as vinegar, in
connection with cereal foods, is equally objectionable. Nothing could
be more absurd than the combination of strong acids with vegetable
DYSPEPSIA, 469
elements, as in pickles. This is probably the reason why many persons
find themselves unable to use acid fruits without fermentation. The
acidity may be sufficient to neutralize the action of the saliva upon the
starch.
“Evidently it is not only physiologically absurd to add sugar to
farinaceous foods, since the starch, which composes one-half the weight
of these foods, is all converted into sugar in the process of digestion,
but the practice is also highly injurious, since it prevents the normal
action of the saliva upon the starch.”
This will be unwelcome intelligence to children who cry for sugar
on their bread and butter, and for the adult who greatly relishes buck-
wheat cakes with maple syrup, sweetened rice-puddings, bread-pud-
dings with hard sauce, and indeed all rich pastries. But it can do no
harm to understand the various processes of digestion if such knowl-
edge will lead to even a little more caution in our habits of eating.
Probably if we had been trained to it from childhood, we should like
our farinaceous foods quite as well without the addition of sugar, or
other sweets, but with the present generation it will be difficult to
greatly change the habits of the people. The very fact that everybody
does not become a dyspeptic while using sweetened farinaceous foods
would indicate that there is some saving process which in a measure
neutralizes the effects of these unhygienic combinations somewhere
along the alimentary tract. It is more than probable, however, that
this process is not active in the digestive machinery of those who have
become the victims of dyspepsia, and all such persons while suffering
from the disease would do well to profit by the information herein given.
Those in robust health will no doubt disregard Dr. Kellogg's theory,
for they have the digestive capacity of an ostrich, and will use all such
popular dishes as their appetites crave.
INTESTINAL INDIGESTION.
The preceding matter sufficiently emphasizes the importance of
Salivary digestion and thorough mastication which, it need hardly be
Said, take place in the mouth. The next process entered upon after the
food descends to the stomach is really the least important in the whole
business. It is necessary to say this distinctly, if not repeatedly, in
Order to correct the very prevalent and equally erroneous idea that
indigestion is mainly a stomach trouble. I have already commented
upon the remarkable capacity of the stomach-membranes to bear a large
assortment of irritating substances, but one of the somewhat curious
evidences of its toughness is the fact that this membrane itself secretes
a juice—the gastric juice—which softens, digests, and dissolves other
meaty substances of the same sort. In short, we can digest cooked
tripe, prepared from the stomach of other animals, but fortunately
47O DISEASES OF LIVER, STOMACH, AND BOWELS.
every stomach knows too much to turn upon itself and digest its own
Substance, except now and then when it develops an ulcer so different
from ordinary ulcers as to make it seem as though it had forgotten it.
Self in some spot and eaten a hole there. Examinations, post-mortem,
of persons who have died with dyspepsia, not necessarily of it, generally
show a much better condition of the membranes of the stomach than of
that part of the intestinal canal which is joined to and follows it. The
business of the stomach, its main function, that of digesting albuminous
food, seems to be a very important one, especially in those people who
are prone to live mainly upon meat ; but the small intestine, besides the
digestive fluids secreted from its own membranes, receives from the
pancreas a digestive fluid which has several properties or ferments.
One of these, called trypsin, does with meaty foods what pepsin does
in the stomach, but this pancreatic juice provides also a ferment to
emulsify or Saponify fat, which means fitting it for absorption, and a
diastase for digesting starch. Bearing these facts in mind, we ought
not to have been quite as much surprised as we were when we learned
that a surgeon of Zurich had so successfully removed the whole stom-
ach of an aged woman that she was able to live comfortably without
it for over a year. She had cancer of the entire stomach at the age of
fifty-six, and more, too, as the cancerous disease was disseminated
through other vital organs. Her stomach, however, was so saturated
with cancer that she was better without it until the progress of the dis-
case terminated life fourteen months after the operation. This cele-
brated operation of Dr. Schlatter, performed on Christmas Day, 1897,
led to other successful surgical ventures. About a year later, an Italian,
Juan Patriti, a dairyman, of San Mateo County, California, thirty-nine
years of age, became an interesting specimen because he, too, lived
through the operation of removal of the stomach, and a year later still
it was reported that he was eating and keeping well on a mixed diet,
including such meats as are generally supposed to be only digested in
the stomach. These cases prove positively that the stomach, with its
digestive processes, is not indispensable, and that if we could wilfully
neglect or ignore it, we might suffer less from so doing than from bolt-
ing our food in a way to let it escape the changes of mouth digestion.
The possibility of doing without a stomach while still getting the good
of meaty foods is, of course, due to the fact that their digestion, even
though not begun in the stomach, by the aid of pepsin, can be carried
on in the duodenum by the solvent power of the pancreatic juice. The
pancreas deserves to have its picture taken for this place, because it is
the right-hand man and chief agent in the business of intestinal diges-
tion, and we have seen that this is the one place where all sorts of
digestive processes go on. It is the indispensable organ of digestion,
and, no doubt, also the seat of most cases of dyspepsia. The pancreas
DYSPEPSIA. 47 I
itself is a soft organ with which many consumers of animal food are
familiar, as it is offered under the name of sweetbreads in the market.
It is sometimes the seat of cancerous disease, and no doubt it may
become, as we say the liver does, sluggish and inactive. When it
does, the symptoms may simply be those of intestinal indigestion, due to
a deficiency of the strong ferments which it ought to contribute.
GOOD AND BAD FERMENTS.
A little explanation may be called for here, since the reader may
be puzzled, because, on the one hand, fermentation in the place of
digestion is regarded as objectionable, while, on the other hand, the
useful properties of various digestive fluids are spoken of as ferments.
All these digestive processes, ex-
cept the emulsifying of fat, are a
sort of fermentation, but they are
of the right sort, and we prefer to
call them digestion. The last ver-
dict of practical experimenting
physiologists is that bacteria are and its ducts, through which the pan-
of great use in normal digestion, creatic fluids pass to the duodenum.
aiding its ferments. The Literary Digest of April 8, 1899, trans-
lates from the Revue Scientifique the conclusions of Professor Max
Schottelius, Professor of Hygiene in the University of Freiburg. His
investigations lead him to conclude that the microbic occupants of the
intestinal canal play a useful part in digestion, though, he also admits,
they may be the cause of temporary derangements or chronic disorders.
We may fairly assume that when our own digestive fluids are of the
right sort they are aided by the various and numerous low and small
forms of life which swarm within the alimentary canal, but when our
own secretions are not of the right quality, or when we impose upon
our digestive organs a mass of indigestible stuff that is too much for
them to manage, then the changes which go on in this warm, moist
mixture may develop processes of fermentation which are more deserv.
ing the name of rot than of digestion.
With our present understanding of how closely allied are fermenta-
tion and digestion, it is evident that we can have no use for “em-
balmed food.” This subject came to the front during the war with
Spain about Cuba. In the effort to keep foods of various kinds from
spoiling until they could be transported where needed, chemists
resorted to such things as salicylic acid, boric acid, and formalin. It
was claimed that these articles were harmless because not used in suffi-
cient amount to cause any poisonous or injurious effect, but their use
is objectionable because just so far as they are effective in preserving
foods from fermentation they prevent as well the process of digestion,
FIG. 157.
THE PAN CREAS

472 DISEASES OF LIVER, STOMACH, AND BOWELS.
which is the necessary preliminary of assimilation. It has been found
that the proteids of milk containing formalin do not yield to the diges-
tive action of pepsin ; so an infant fed upon milk thus preserved would
starve for lack of power to get the good of the riches locked up in the
milk. Just as leather will not take the place OI steak, so meats, milk,
and other foods treated with these chemical anti-ferments become pre
served against digestion as well as against formentation, and a food tha.
Cannot be digested is no food at all.
Dr. Hill, Health Officer of Birmingham, England, reported in 1899
that during three years' service he found twenty per cent. of the food
Samples he examined to contain boric acid, salicylic acid, or formic
aldehyde. One would think we already had enough causes of indiges-
tion and malnutrition without introducing these new inventions of the
chemist, which preserve foods from digestion as well as from decay.
Some interesting facts about the business of the small intestine was
learned from the study of a woman sixty-two years of age, who was
Operated on for strangulated hernia by Professor Kocher, in Berne,
Switzerland. It was necessary to cut the small intestine away from the
large intestine and make what is called an artificial anus, so that it was
possible to examine everything coming from the small intestine at this
Opening. It was found that the flow of material at this point was con-
tinuous, though less in the night hours, and the time required for an
article of food to pass through the stomach and intestines was from two
to five hours, but some things, green peas for instance, required from
fourteen to twenty-three hours before the last portion passed out
through the artificial opening. As a rule, this matter was almost
Odorless, and usually acid. The study of this case further showed that
the bulk of digestible food-stuffs is digested and absorbed before reach-
ing the large intestine—probably eighty-five per cent. It would also
appear that all the malodorous and excretory business of the intestines
Occurs in the large gut.
SUGGESTIONS FOR TREATMENT.
Those who have been interested in this subject thus far appreciate
that the study of digestion is not a simple and easy one, and that practi-
cally it is a very complex process. It naturally follows that one case
of dyspepsia differs from another to the extent that there are many
kinds of indigestion. Therefore, there can be no one remedy suitable
for all cases unless it be hygiene. The hygiene of dyspepsia means
making one's habits right, but the reform necessary and helpful in one
case may not be just what is needed in the next. There can be no
objection to these general rules: Do as near right as you know how ;
avoid such foods as you find to be hurtful ; simplify your diet; and
insure regular and sufficient elimination. Dr. T, Lauder Brunton
1DYSPEPSIA. 473
wrote: “It would seem that the vital processes are much more
readily arrested by the accumulation of waste products within the
organs of the body than by the want of nutriment of the organs them-
selves.” He compared vital functions to processes of combustion, and
claimed that people not only put on too much coal, but allowed it to
get smothered in ashes. I shall shortly come to the consideration of
constipation, but can well say right here that the relief of constipation
and the acquiring of a habit of regular, sufficient evacuation of the
bowels is one of the first moves for the relief of any sort of indigestion.
The use of copious injections of pure water even to the extent of two,
three, or four quarts at a time, may be a good way to make a beginning.
This could be done every other night for a week or two until all objec-
tionable ferments and fermenting things have been well cleared out.
There are cases in which it is well to begin by thoroughly cleansing
the stomach itself, giving it a thorough washing out. This is quite
possible, but not as easy and agreeable a thing to do as we might wish.
It only requires a funnel with a rubber tube five or six feet long, and
plenty of warm water. About two feet of this tube must be swallowed
or pushed down the oesophagus, and this is a trick at which some folks
gag. Many get used to it. Water is easily poured into the stomach,
and then it can be siphoned out as illustrated on pages 474 and 475.
This can be repeated until the water comes out pretty clear. A spoon-
ful of bicarbonate of soda in a quart of water will expedite the
cleansing. Of course, the small intestine, a tube about twenty feet
long, cannot be reached and washed out, but in the course of a few
days a good deal can be done to clean it by drinking freely of pure water
or some moderately alkaline mineral water. I would not have the
reader imply that all cases of dyspepsia require such cleansing treat-
ment as I have just described, but there are a good many exceedingly
unclean stomachs for which it would be very desirable. The pangs
of indigestion, or the “heavy-hearted ” stomach may be relieved by
various simple expedients—and again they may not—but they are
handy and innocent enough to be worth trying. The sipping of hot
water not only adds warmth and solvent power to digestion, but the
act of sipping probably re-acts through the nerves, causing by reflex
action an increased flow of the digestive fluids when they are needed ;
and chewing-gum no doubt acts much the same way, though, of course,
it more directly stimulates the flow of salivary fluids, which, even if
supplied after the food, may be very helpful, as explained in previous
pages,
AIDS TO DIGESTION.
A maker of pure vinegar sends me a circular presenting his pro-
duct as a remedy for dyspepsia, recommending a tablespoonful in
474 DISEASES OF LIVER, STOMACH, AND BowFLs.
water, sweetened, after each meal. I would not deny that he has
found it useful, but whether it is likely to be beneficial or not must
depend upon the kind of food eaten. I have already quoted very
positive testimony from Dr. Kellogg, showing how such an acid,
especially with sweet added, would be decidedly disadvantageous after
a meal of starchy or cereal food ; but if the food be mainly meat, an
acid may work well and aid the stomach digestion. Ordinary apple
FIG. 158. cider has been similarly used
with good effect. In some
cases of acid-dyspepsia or
heart-burn, the use of acid
may be just the thing. The
juice of half a lemon or lime
in water, before meals (about
half an hour before), affords
a nice clean acid that kills
out the biting, irritating acids
of unclean fermentation.
My friend's vinegar has no
doubt been well employed in
such cases, too, but I regard
lemon or lime juice as rather
cleaner than the vinegar.
On the other hand, there
are cases where, either for
temporary relief or as a cura-
tive measure for steady use,
some form of alkaline treat-
ment is more appropriate
and successful ; but, perhaps,
not one remedy has been so
much used to excess by dys-
peptics as bicarbonate of soda. In many cases it tends, in the long
run, to aggravate and perpetuate the symptoms it at first relieves. To
encourage dependence upon its use, instead of reforming the disorders
that invite the relief it affords, is bad policy. Too much of a good
thing may become a very bad thing, and if this remark had no other
application, it would be at least worth printing in large letters in refer-
ence to alkalies in dyspepsia. -
The right sort of exercise and the time for it, is often no easier to
decide than whether acids or alkalies should be preferred. Our domes-
tic animals certainly are quite disposed, after browsing, to coil up com-
fortably and be cosily quiet, and while this does not prove the whole-
Someness of late and hearty dinners near the hour of retiring, a nap
STOMACH WASHING.
Taking in water.

DYSPEPSIA. 475
after lunch or a quiet siesta after a light dinner certainly agrees with
the digestion as well as the comfort and disposition of many persons.
Sometimes the taking of a few teaspoonfuls of food when restless will
promote sleep, yet, I have heard some folks claim that they walk off
dyspepsia, by long, vigorous, pedestrian exercise right after eating.
Such exercise must directly stimulate sluggish blood-circulation in
these exceptional cases, and indirectly favor secretion of digestive
fluids, if not carried to the point of over-fatigue ; but on general prin-
ciples I incline to favor only a - Fig. 19.
moderate activity soon after
eating, and the more vigorous
exercise of the day at such
times as digestion of the meals
is well advanced. It certainly
is not wise, however, to sit
down to a hearty dinner when
thoroughly exhausted and
“fagged out,” from any un-
usual and fatiguing exertion.
Last, but certainly not least,
among the non-medicinal
means that may be highly
recommended for dyspepsia, is
rest by fasting. This, of
course, applies to those who
are full-blooded, and have
some stored material which
the system can draw upon.
Dr. Tanner and others have STOMACH WASEIING.
proved that long fasts of forty siphoning out water.
days need not be either fatal or harmful ; and, yet, some have died in
following his example. So, here, too, one might make a grave error
in getting too much of a good thing, but this is not likely. The tend-
ency is the other way, and the man who overdoes fasting will be a rare
one of strong will. The people who need the fasting cure are those of
weak will, who are daily tempted to overtax their digestive organs by
stuffing or by other errors in diet. Because of defective assimilation,
morbid appetite is often a feature of dyspepsia, and must be continually
fought off, for crowding the stomach with food cannot relieve the
craving until the disorder which occasions it is removed. A limited
fast can be generally recommended for any dyspeptic patient. In some
cases a complete fast for One, two, or three days, once a month, is a
good prescription, using freely of pure water meanwhile ; but even
this is too heroic for many dyspeptics, and the most a doctor can cut

476 DISEASES OF LIVER, STOMACII, AND BOWELS.
them down to is a limited fast of two meals a day, or half their usual
allowance at each meal, or a long fast from certain kinds of food in
which they have over-indulged. Finally, there are cases which may
be benefited by the taking of a very little nutritious food once in two
Or three inours.
The digestibility of foods depends much on their quality and the
mode of cooking, and also on how and when they are eaten ; but with-
out going into all these complexities, it may be of interest, as well as
useful instruction, to give the following list of foods according to their
FIG. 160. digestibility, as given by Hartshorn :
EASY OF DIGESTION : Mutton,
Venison, chicken, beef and mutton
broths and milk; fresh fish, such
as turbot, sole, haddock, and oys-
ters; rice, tapioca, arrow root, as-
paragus, and cauliflower ; baked
apples, oranges, grapes, and peaches.
MODERATELY DI G E S T I I I, F :
Beef, lamb, duck, snipe, soups, and
eggs; potatoes, beets, turnips, let-
tuce, and celery; raw apples, bread,
puddings, rhubarb, chocolate, and
coffee.
HARD TO DIGEST : Pork, veal,
hard boiled eggs, salt meats, and
sausages; Salt fish, lobster, herring,
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fresh bread, pastry, cakes, nuts,
DR. TANNER, plums, Cherries, cucumbers, onions,
who fasted for forty days. carrots, parsnips, and pickles.
While it has been my aim to provide for the average reader about
as much information regarding digestion as he can mentally digest and
make practically useful to himself, I shall not go farther and attempt
to instruct him in the use of medicines for the cure of dyspepsia—ol
rather of dyspepsias. If there were but one kind, and a few appro.
priate remedies, I should not despair of advising every dyspeptic how
to be his or her own doctor ; but I find at present that a great deal of
suſtering is kept up through the lack of appreciation of the fact that
the study of dyspepsia is a diſticult one, and the common inclination of
one dyspeptic to think that whatever has helped his friend must also be
the right thing for him. Even the doctors do not always hit right in
the selection of remedies. For instance, I was called upon by a fash-
ionable woman who had long been a sufferer from dyspepsia, and who
had had a score or more of doctors; I do not remember how many.

(JONSTIPATION. 477
She wanted her case treated in some way without medicine. She said,
emphatically : “Medicine can do no good I have reached a stage,
Doctor, where I cannot even retain any kind of medicine !” Not
being a Mental or Christian Scientist, I found myself in a perplexing
position, and I begged of her to try medicines once more After much
urging she consented. I gave much thought to the case, and taking
my time for it, carefully prepared a course of remedies. They appeared
to be well chosen, for at her next visit she expressed the greatest sur-
prise that she had found at last remedics that she could not only retain
but use with conscious benefit. She patiently pursued the entire
treatment recommended, and wholly recovered.
Constipation.
To properly understand the causes which may produce this com-
mon and troublesome difficulty, it is necessary to know the process by
which the solid waste matters thrown from the stomach are disposed
of. It has already been explained at the beginning of this chapter how
the liver, if active, supplies a saponaceous fluid called bile to mix with,
soften, and lubricate them. Then, on entering the intestines, there is
a worm-like motion, technically called peristaltic action, of these tubcs;
or, in other words, a contraction of the fibres of the intestincs abovc
the matter to be removed, which carrics it constantly along. Then at
stool the breath is inhaled so as to depress the diaphragm, which pro-
duces a pressure downward upon the intestines ; and the muscles of the
abdomen contract so as to produce pressure in front of them ; and it is
by this process that the residuum of the food taken into the mouth, and
the excrementitious secretions of the colon are cast out of the body. It
will be interesting here, if the reader has not already done so, to turn
to Fig. 151, and observe the convolutions of the intestines, and the
circuitous route which the facces are compelled to pursue before ſcaving
the system. -
To prevent a blockade, and to encourage the peristaltic action of
the intestincs; and, in fact, to properly relieve the human machinery
of Waste matters, every person ought to have a thorough evacuation of
the bowels at least once a day. Some very hearty caters may better
have two. If the facces are dry, and much straining is required for
their expulsion, even if the bowels move regularly once a day, the
person so aſſected may very correctly be said to be constipated. Simply
this sluggish condition is liable to induce serious derangements, such as
falling of the rectum and piles; and, when the blood is in a scrofulous
condition, difficult stooling may induce ulceration, abscess, or fistula.
The immediate causcs of constipation are : a diseased liver, by
which an insufficient supply of saponaceous bile is given to the waste
478 DISEASES OF LIVER, STOMACH, AND BOWELS.
Substances to soften and lubricate them ; retention of the faeces until
their fluidity has been absorbed or evaporated in disagreeable gases;
the use of food that too greatly absorbs the fluids; the use of astringent
food or medicine ; the habitual use of too concentrated nutrition—for
there must be bulk as well as true aliment; over-eating, by which the
digestive apparatus and the intestines are unduly distended : relaxation
of the muscular fibres of the intestines, so that they contract feebly ;
- FIG. 161. contraction of the respiratory or-
gans by tight-lacing or disease, so
that the diaphragm cannot be deeply
depressed ; weakness or flabbiness
of the abdominal muscles, in conse-
quence of which the bowels can
give little or no pressure in front;
and partial or complete paralysis of
the rectum, in which case it has not
the power to expel substantial faces.
- § - The predisposing causes are usu-
... **::FE sº ally sedentary habits, which depress
*:::::::= B. the nervous energy and weaken
those forces which give activity to
the various parts depended upon
for the energetic expulsion of the
useless solid matters of the system.
Blood impurities, in many cases,
intercept the nervous forces, and
practically produce the same result.
Everybody who has ever been
affected with constipation is famil-
ILLUSTRATIONS S EI O W, I N G H O W T H E iar with many Of the effects of the
MALE organs ARE AFFECTED BY con- crowded, distended feeling of the
STIPATION. - bowels; the drowsiness, lassitude,
headache, and, in some cases, disagreeable breath and offensive effluvia.
But most people are not aware that injury may be inflicted upon
the procreative organs of both sexes. For this reason I have had
designed and engraved the annexed illustrations, Figs. 161 and 162.
The relative location of the rectum and seminal vesicles, and prostate
gland, is given in Fig. 161. In the section marked A the seminal
vesicles and the prostate gland are exhibited as they appear when they
are not crowded by a constipated rectum. The prostate gland is that
bulb-like formation just over the anus or mouth of the rectum. The
seminal vesicles lie back of the prostate gland between the bladder and
rectum. The location of these vesicles may be still better understood
by turning over to Fig. 162. Now look at B, in Fig. 161 and see how,
.
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CONSTIPATION. 479
when the rectum is engorged with excrementitious matter, the gland
and vesicles are pressed. Unless the person so affected is remarkably
strong in these parts there must inevitably be an involuntary exudation
of both semen and prostatic fluid. Especially must this be the case at
stool when by straining this pressure is aggravated. Then, too, when
the anus becomes irritated and inflamed by the straining and friction,
that irritation is almost always communicated to the prostate gland
and Spermatic vessels, producing or greatly aggravating involuntary
nocturnal seminal emissions. When pin-
Worms exist, as they often do in this dis.
eased and engorged condition of the rectum,
the itching and tickling caused by the
movements of the parasites also predispose
the one so affected to involuntary emissions.
The serious consequences of these seminal
losses are presented in an essay on seminal
weakness in a chapter farther on.
FIG. 162.
Now, let me call your attention to Fig.
162, representing the female organs. The
Section designated by the letter A pre-
sents all the organs in their proper condi-
tion—the bladder in front ; the vagina
next ; and the rectum behind. Above the
vagina an outline of the womb is given and
its cavity dotted out. Below this picture,
B represents these same organs when the
lower part of the rectum, marked 2, is dis-
tended with fecal matter. The cavity of
the vagina, it is noticed, is nearly obliter-
ated, and the womb is somewhat pressed
above its natural position. This engorge- ILLUSTRAT I O N S S HOW IN G \.
ment, in many Cases, Commences e Ven How THE FEMALE organs
above the figure 1, and in these instances ARE AFFECTED BY consti-
the womb is pressed downward and for- PATION.
ward, and sometimes frightfully displaced. When badly prolapsed, it
becomes inflamed, congested, and swollen; and in this condition it
retaliates upon the rectum, and to such an extent in Some instances as
to almost close the canal through which the excrementitious matters
pass out. Here is a combination which in its effects is very trouble-
some. It is most unfortunate for a person of either sex to suffer With
this mutual antagonism and crowding of the organs represented in the
illustrations given. In health there is space enough for them all, and
elbow-room sufficient to enable each to perform its allotted function ;
but when the rectum or intestines above become engorged with Waste

48o DISEASES OF LIVER, STOMACH. AND BOWELS.
matter, disorder commences, and a regular family fracas ensues, or a
sort of civil war, which in time involves every organ of the system.
In some cases the intestines and upper part of the rectum succeed
very well in moving along the waste matters, while the lower part of
the rectum is nearly paralyzed. In such persons the blockade takes
place at about the point designated by figure 2, in illustration B, repre-
Senting the female organs. Here a regular fecal plug forms, and in a
little time becomes as hard as a rubber ball. The disposition is con-
stantly felt to go to stool, but after repeated failures, in which the rec-
tum is painfully irritated, and the adjoining organs most uncomfortably
pressed and strained, the person affected is apt to give up the cffort,
and turn to cathartics to remove the obstruction ; but it is soon dis-
covered that the dissolving effects of the cathartics do not reach the
plug at all, while the intestines and their contents above are disagree-
ably affected by the action of the medicine. When at last the physi-
Cian or some knowing friend is consulted, an injection of oil, or molas-
Ses and water, or something else, to act locally upon the plug, is pre-
Scribed. By these means the patient is relieved, and with the removal
Of the plug there comes a regular freshet of what had been retained
above, and changed almost to a scalding mixture by medicine. The
parts now smart and burn with irritation ; and the sufferer is fortunate
if piles do not attack the rectum. As this plug may be easily reached,
the better way at the outset, before either medicine or injection is used,
is to take to the water-closet a vessel of either sweet or castor oil, or any
relaxing ointment, and while making a gentle straining effort, lubricate
the rectum well with the oil, and actually pick to pieces the indurated
fecal plug. Then look out next time and not go too long without
another effort to effect a movement ; for this difficulty is not infrc-
quently ifiduced by deferring attention to Nature's call. In some cases,
if a strong inclination to evacuate the bowels be disregarded for twenty
minutes, this fecal plug will form low down in the rectum, and harden
so rapidly, that when an effort is made, it cannot be moved a particle
without artificial aid.
Not only may the lower part of the rectum become inactive with
the results hereinbefore described, but the outlet may become contract-
cd so that the facces which escape are flat and ribbon-like, or as small
as the little finger, and escape with great difficulty. The sphincters
which act as gateways at the aboral extremity of the alimentary canal,
may become so constricted as to make the expulsion of fecal matters
extremely difficult. When such troubles are observed, dilatation of the
anal orifice and lower part of the rectum is necessary. Every one should
thoroughly wash those parts at least once a day for the sake of clean-
liness, and while doing so, if any contractions of the Sphincters or the
rectum are detected or suspected, the fingers should be well coated with
CONSTIPATION. 48 I
Soap-Suds, and one, and then two of them should be introduced their
full length, making such movements as will serve to stretch the canal.
For this treatment the finger-nails should be closely trimmed so as to
cause no lacerations. The stretching of the rectum should be pursued
daily while any constipation exists, but may be omitted when the bowels
are regular. The ablution of the parts with plenty of soap and water
at least once a day, however, should not be neglected. It has been
found too, that the stretching of the rectum is beneficial to the general
health. Wherever there are external cavities in the human body thc
nerves pervading the parts come as far as the opening and then loop
back, and when from any cause the openings become unduly contracted
these loop nerves get pinched and irritated, and by reflex action often
involve the entire nervous system. This discovery became the basis of
orificial surgery as introduced by Dr. E. H. Pratt, with much benefit
in many nervous affections. In obstinate cases, instruments are used
that stretch the rectum, and when this is done the patient is put under
the influence of an anaesthetic, for the operation is likely to be painful.
For the relief of constipation, digital dilatation as described herein is
usually quite sufficient, unless there is some congenital contraction. I
would strongly advise all who are troubled with constipation to give
attention to this advice.
An inactive liver and obstinate constipation, in many cases, compel
Nature to dispose of the bile and waste matters through the excretory
pores of the skin. When so expelled, the effluvia of the person are
very offensive, and the linen worn next to the skin quickly discolored.
If the under garments are worn for a day, they look as if they had been
colored by a dyer. Such invalids owe it not less to their companions
and friends than to themselves to adopt early and thorough medical
treatment. They are a stench in everybody's nostrils, or, in brief,
travelling nuisances, which should be speedily cured or abolished. Such
persons generally feel pretty comfortable, because Nature manages to
dispose of the excrementitious matter. The atmosphere becomes their
privy or water-closet, and no one would be surprised at the intuition of
the dog in smelling out the tracks of his master, if all individuals were
thus diseased.
THE TREATMENT OF CONSTIPATION.
In the treatment of constipation, the causes should be ascertained ;
and so long as the popular mind is so ignorant of the human machinery,
a physician should be consulted to avoid mistake. Those wishing to
consult the author, can answer the questions on page 761. Before
taking this step, however, it is well enough to see what care in regard
to diet will effect. It is not uncommon to see persons of constipated
haº make a breakfast of wheat-bread toast, or a luncheon of crackers
482 DISEASES OF LIVER, STOMACH, AND BOWELS.
and cheese. These are the worst things that can be eaten in a case of
constipation. They will constipate a person in perfect health if eaten
to any great extent. Fried and baked potatoes; vegetables and meats
cooked brown ; fine wheat bread ; rice in any form ; sweet apples;
blackberries, fresh or preserved ; and all food and fruit of an astringent
quality, are bad for people of costive habit. Among those things
which may be used to advantage, are brown, corn, Graham, and rye
- FIG. 163. bread ; wheaten grits, or
cracked wheat; hominy;
mush ; tomatoes; beans;
peas; Squashes ; green
corn, fresh or canned ;
boiled or stewed pota-
t O e S ; meats cooked
rare, etc.
C on stipation may
often be relieved by re-
laxing fruits. The Med.
cal Magazine, in speak-
ing of the virtues of the
grape, remarks as fol-
lows: “When in health
Swallow only the pulp;
when the bowels are cos-
tive and you wish to re-
lax them, swallow the
Seeds with the pulp,
ejecting the skins; when
you wish to check a too-
relaxed state of the bow-
els, swallow the pulp
A DELICIOUS-LOOKING MEDICINE, ejecting the seeds, also
masticate the skins well and swallow the astringent juice of them.
Thus may the grape be used as a medicine, while at the same time it
serves as a laxative, unsurpassed by any other fruit. An adult may
eat three or four pounds a day with benefit. It is well to take them
with, or immediately after, your regular meals.” There is, however,
one serious (very serious) objection to the advice to swallow the seeds
of the grape for constipation, and that is the liability to the lodgement
of them in the vermiform appendix, and thus causing appendicitis.
This danger was not so well understood when the article in the
Medical Magazine was written. Either appendicitis is becoming much
more frequent, or else, in former years, cases of peritonitis were not
correctly diagnosed. I cannot, therefore, recommend the reader to

CONSTIPATION. 483
swallow the seeds. Otherwise the advice is good. The pulp of the
grape is doubtless an aid to the digestive processes, and may quite
likely assist in helping to relieve constipation. The French say of the
grape that “it not only dilutes the thick blood but sends the circula-
tion to the surface, giving color to the pale cheek ; that it removes
obstructions from the liver and lungs, aids digestion, brings the stom-
ach and bowels into a healthy state, dislodges gravel and calculi from
the kidneys, and confers vigor and health upon the debilitated system.”
All acidulous fruits act favorably in cases of constipation ; such, for
instance, as sour apples, oranges, lemons, etc.; while figs, though
sweet, are relaxing and beneficial. Perfect regularity at stool is
essentially necessary to prevent and cure constipation. Fixing the
mind upon the function of expelling the faeces also aids; while the
diversion of the mind in thinking of other matters or in reading greatly
retards the free movement of the bowels. When at stool, kneading the
bowels with the hands, or pressing and manipulating them, greatly aids
in producing an evacuation. This is called abdominal massage, and
has been found to be exceedingly beneficial. Not only is kneading of
the bowels useful in starting motion to the intestines, but the danse du
oentre, a religious performance among some of the tribes of the Orient,
as the Shaker dance is among the pious followers of Ann Lee, may be
resorted to for the purpose of facilitating the passage of excrementitious
matter. The muscles of the abdomen may be eiucated as well as any
other muscles of the body and, by practice, the bowels may be made to
dance, so to speak, or to move violently in every wirection, and to be
drawn inward with much force. All this action helps where peristaltic
action is dormant. Those who saw the danse du ventre at the Midway
Plaisance in Chicago, during the great exposition in 1893, were not a
little shocked at the Oriental display of what the abdominal muscles
could be educated to do ; as a public exhibition it was not aesthetically
edifying to a cultivated audience, but as a study for the anatomist it
did surprisingly show what activity could be put into the abdominal
muscles by practice, and it suggested to my mind, at least, how these
exercises could be employed for an exceedingly useful purpose. It is a
well-known fact that exercise, by jostling the intestines, aids the con-
stipated person in the performance of an important function, and this
dance, when one successfully acquires it, gives most effectively to the
sluggish intestines the violent shaking up that they obviously require.
It is certainly a cure for intestinal stagnation. I have advised it in
many cases of obstinate constipation, with the most gratifying results.
Furthermore, I think I was the first to discover its hygienic value in
this particular.
It is not an easy matter to agitate the bowels with this muscular
dance at the first trial, You will find it as difficult as the trick of
484 DISEASES OF LIVER, STOMACII, AND BOWELS.
FIG. 164.
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THE DANSE DU VENTRE. .
This danse calls for very little motion of the legs, but the arms and body sway
rhythmically, and the abdominal muscles are every now and then vigorously
contracted. It is an exercise or danse of the abdomen and its contents.










CONSTIPATION. 485
“wagging your car ” if you have never attempted to do that. With a
little patience, however, you would acquire the art. Each time you try
you will find a little improvement until at last you can arouse just such
muscular motion of the abdomen as was displayed, at the exhibition re-
ferred to, by the Cairo girls. When at stool, and there is no apparent
inclination for a movement of the bowels, set them in motion by the
play of the abdominal muscles, as in the danse du ventre, and you will
be surprised at the result, unless the bowels are in a condition that ab-
solutely requires the most active relaxing medicine.
INJECTIONS AND PUIKGATIVES.
Before dismissing this subject I will offer my views concerning the
most common resources for relief of constipation, viz. : injections and
purgatives. My advice is, of course, to obtain, if possible merely by
resort to hygienic means a regular daily evacuation ; but, I also say,
get it by any or all means rather than permit yourself to become clogged.
The evils of constipation are worse than the most commonly employed
means of relief. A correspondent of The New Voice tells how he had
recourse to Dr. Wilford H. Hall's method of copious injections, using
two to four quarts of water at 100° Fahrenheit every other night for a
number of years, and that he became quite dependent upon it and very
tired of it too. Then he found it possible to abandon it by eating at
the commencement of each meal some dry granose ; but, I will add,
“Granule" or “Grape Nuts" would do just as well. While I do not
think it wise to become dependent upon injections of any kind, or even
stimulating suppositories of glycerine, gluten, etc., I know of no actual
serious harm done by even long-continued resort to these methods,
other than the misfortune of scarcely being able to do without them.
The right way—Nature's own—is of course the best ; but some persons
seem almost lacking in the normal capacity of effecting regular and
sufficient alvine evacuations. Dr. Edward H. Williams, of New York,
wrote for the Medical Record an article in which he claims that congen-
ital constipation may be one of the “stigmata of degeneracy"—or, one
way of being born defective, just as a malformed palate is another way
of not being a well-formed human being. I regard it as plausible, even
probable. The obstinacy of constipation in some people needs just
Such a far-reaching explanation to help us to conclude—“well, that
must be it !” for the human mind is never satisfied until it knows the
reason why of all perplexing problems; yet, it may be that all con-
stipation is not so much a sign of degeneracy as of a lack of human
progression. Even the eye is not a perfect instrument optically, and
maybe in the domain of the human intestines there is room for im-
provement, and that mankind will some day evolve beyond the need of
syringes and purgation. A physician who has had abundant oppor.
486 DISEASES OF LIVER, STOMACH, AND BOWELS.
tunity for studying the diseases of American Indians, believes that con,
stipation is common to the whole human family, regardless of race or
Color. He found the Indians very much troubled with it. When an
Indian feels ill he grunts out “My stomach is bad,” and seeks relief by
a purgative. This writer says: “This mania for purging which I be- .
lieve exists among all races, is worthy the consideration of the physi-
Cian ; first, because the idea cannot be of such widespread acceptance
and not contain much truth, that a thorough evacuation of the alimen-
tary canal must indeed be beneficial in many ailments; second, that we
may intelligently combat the enormous use of purgatives.”
An ancient treatise on Hindoo medicines, “Charaka Sambita,” tells
of six kinds of constipation, and one hundred purgatives for each kind.
The evolution of man during four thousand years has not yet lessened
the number, for the druggist’s shelves carry six hundred laxatives or
combinations thereof for satisfying the caprices of customers. While
there are at least six kinds of constipation, there is no real need of even
one hundred laxatives to choose from, and many could well be dis-
carded for all time; but there will be reasonable and proper use for
some of them for a long time to come. In every case that needs them,
however, there will be equal need of brains to select the best combi-
nation. Many will continue to try them on until they hit it right, as
they do in fitting themselves to clothes in a general store; but the eyes
deserve more consideration and some skill in selection of the glasses
they will do the best with, and this is just about as true in the Selec-
tion of means for the encouragement and aid of sluggish bowels.
Spring Disorders and Loss of Appetite.
Such are the habits of mankind in those portions of the world
called civilized, that almost every man, woman, and child emerges from
the winter season with a decided susceptibility to what are commonly
denominated “spring disorders,” accompanied usually with loss of ap-
petite. The liver is torpid—the skin is sallow—the head feels heavy—.
sleep is disturbed—the bowels are either constipated or relaxed—the
tongue is furred—the digestion is imperfect—and an overpowering
sense of lassitude creeps over the whole muscular system, and So affects
the mind as to render it restless or inactive. It is true that lassitude to
some extent is the inevitable result of the peculiar properties of the
atmosphere of spring. The relaxing air which is supplied by Nature
for the purpose of swelling and opening the buds of vegetation is such
as to relax and weaken to some degree the muscular fibre and les-
sen mental energy; but this condition is greatly aggravated, and the
symptoms before named produced, by bad habits in eating and drink-
ing, and by confined air, during a season when the appetite is sharpened
SPRING DISORDERS AND LOSS OF APPETITE. 487
by frosty air, and warm, illy ventilated apartments are sought for refuge
from cold. Overloaded stomachs, late entertainments, artificially
warmed and vitiated air, poison the blood, lower the stock of nervous
vitality, and thus cripple the motive powers which Nature employs in
keeping the vital machinery in healthful activity. The advent of Spring,
consequently, becomes the harvest of the venders of all sorts of pana-
ceas, for these are resorted to by almost everybody. Nature has spread
her green carpet over the grim soil, beautified the woodland with fo-
liage, festooned the arbors with vines, and the birds seem happy. Old
Sol looks as if indulging in laughter—and the insects creep from the
walls and fences to join in the chorus which seems to issue from the
countless throats of animate nature, and the Sallow-faced lord of Crea-
tion cannot understand why he too does not feel in the mood to enjoy
the exit of winter and the presence of spring.
His appetite for food is gone, and indeed for everything else. So
he takes bitters—not because he knows anything about their properties
—but because something must be done ; if not bitters, then cathartics;
and he fancies they improve him, for bitters are usually stimulating,
and cathartics are liable to give him something of a cleaning out. If
these remedies be not the best that could be devised for the purpose,
they appear to afford some relief, and as they can be obtained about as
handily as bread, they are swallowed down, q, 8.
Most of the bitters with which the country is flooded are simply
abominable decoctions, with no medicinal property excepting alcohol.
If stimulus were wanted, it would be better by far to purchase and use
some good brandy, rum, or gin ; and if a bitter is desired, steep and add
a strong decoction of equal parts of hops and chamomile flowers. But
in most cases of spring disorders, stimulants of any kind produce only
temporary exhilaration, while the blood is thickened and made worse
by them. If they quicken the appetite there is no essential gain,
for a good appetite, when the digestive and biliary systems are in a
wretched condition, only tends still further to overload the disabled
organs. The blood needs cooling and renovating in those who are
fleshy, and purifying and enriching in those who are lean. Therefore,
bitters are not what Nature requires for spring repairs, and the alco-
holic property cheats the drinker by making him feel momentary im-
provement, while the real sources of weakness and discomfort remain
undisturbed.
Cathartics usually act locally upon the contents of the stomach
and bowels by dissolving them, and quickening peristaltic action, with-
out in the least stirring up healthful activity of the liver and gall-ducts.
Consequently, those who resort to simply purgative or cathartic med-
icines are only improved by the local unburdening of the stomach and
bowels, while the blood and inactive liver remain untouched. The re-
488 DISEASES OF LIVER, STOMACH, AND BOWELS,
sult in this case is, no permanent relief, and Nature is left, after all, to
help herself as best she can.
The course which ought to be pursued by those who find them-
selves physically out of order in the spring, is to consult some physician
in whom they have confidence. Reliance cannot Safely be reposed in
the thousand and one blood-purifiers and sarsaparillas which stand in
Solid battalions on the shelves of the apothecary, nor in the anti-bilious
pills, or liver pills, which are advertised in the newspapers. The former
are little more than colored sweetened water and alcohol, and the latter
possess usually no other than purgative properties. Summer sickness
may be prevented by Spring renovation, but any hap-hazard attempt at
the latter may only the more surely prepare the system for the former.
If “a stitch in time Saves nine,” when applied to our garments, it may
apply with equal truth and felicity to the body the garments envelop.
But all botch-work should be avoided as the least economical in the end.
If you desire any advice from me, answer the questions on page 761.
I will be pleased to direct you to a path that will lead to health.
Chronic Diarrhoea.
Diarrhoea is characterized by frequent thin or watery stools; heat,
and sometimes Smarting in the bowels; a dragging or downward pres-
Sure in the rectum ; and, in severe cases, faintness at stool. In the
Chronic form of the disease, one or more of these symptoms may or
may not present themselves prominently. There are those affected
With chronic diarrhoea who have but one passage of the bowels per
day; but that passage is loose, perhaps watery, and possibly attended
With great flatulence. There are other cases in which the bowels move
frequently during every twenty-four hours, who experience no other
disagreeable symptoms or inconvenience. They seem to feel pretty
well, but are compelled to attend to the calls of Nature so frequently
as to greatly annoy them, whether indulging in recreation, sociality,
or engaging in their usual avocations. Especially will persons thus
affected feel an inclination to stool when under any excitement. Then,
again, there are those who are alternately relaxed and constipated.
For a few days or weeks they are uncomfortably bound up, having no
evacuations of the bowels; when suddenly and almost without warning,
the flood-gates give way and the excrementitious matters pass off in a
softened or fluid form every few hours for a certain length of time.
The causes of chronic diarrhoea are various. In that form last
mentioned in the preceding paragraph, the liver remains in a state
of stubborn torpidity for a time ; then it changes to an activity re-
versely as excessive, and the bile which has been dammed up in the
system pours down the ducts into the lower stomach and bowels, and
CHRONIC DIARRHCEA. 489
dissolves to fluidity the excrementitious matters, and they run off in
streams much to the discomfort and annoyance of the invalid, who,
while feeling relieved from the heaviness, drowsiness, and fulness of
the costive condition, suffers from a sensation of weakness and a bear-
ing down or dragging sensation almost unendurable, together with a
scalding or smarting feeling after each stool. The derangement of the
liver in these cases proceeds from a want of regular nervous action in
that organ, and the disposition of the recuperative powers in Some per-
sons to force hepatic action and overcome obstructions when the circu-
lation becomes loaded with bile and the intestines engorged with fecal
accumulations.
Diarrhoea may also arise from the blood being so impure as to
render the bilious secretions acrimonious and too solvent, in conscquence
of which the fecal contents of the intestines are rendered watery and
irritating to the coatings of the intestinal canal. Sometimes blood-
impurities cause eruptions along the lining of this canal, and these
eruptions give off a catarrhal secretion, which acts as a solvent and
irritant. In persons of a scrofulous diathesis, ulcerations sometimes
take place in the bowels, the discharge from which mixes with the
faces, and gives them a diarrhoeal consistency. Excessive drugging
for liver derangements, constipation, and other difficulties, has often
induced intestinal irritation, which in turn has caused chronic diarrhoea.
A dyspeptic stomach, which gives rise to great acidity and flatulence,
may impart to the waste matters that pass from it undue solvent quali-
ties, and thereby cause diarrhoea. At the close of the great civil war I
was consulted by a Union soldier, who received a bullet-wound in the
abdomen three years previously, since which time he had been con-
stantly affected with chronic diarrhoea. The ball had been extracted,
but irritations remained which caused catarrhal and ulcerous secretions,
and sympathetically affected the digestive organs. He was greatly
reduced in flesh, and looked as bloodless as one in the last stages of
consumption. Notwithstanding, however, the peculiarity of the case,
and his repeated failures to get well, under various systems of medica-
tion, his difficulty readily yielded to my remedies, which were pre-
pared with reference to the restoration of his blood, and the vitalizing
of his wasted nervous system.
In all cases of chronic diarrhoea it will be found that the blood
is thin and usually impure. In nearly all cases there are nervous
derangements. In a majority of them the liver is out of order ; and
in not a few cases the stomach is diseased and digestion impaired. It
is not well, therefore, to resort simply to astringents. In many cases
no more unfortunate result can be obtained than the arrest of the fre-
quent passages while the causes remain undisturbed. The shutting up
of this outlet of acrimonious matter by opiates is liable to produce
16a,
490 DISEASES OF LIVER, STOMACH, AND BOWELS.
bilious or other fevers. Still, many imagine that if they can only stop
the flux, all will be right with them ; and acting upon this hypothesis,
they ply their stomachs and bowels with narcotic or paralyzing drugs,
or allow an indiscreet doctor to do it for them. In any case of chronic
diarrhoea, if the questions given on page 761 are answered, I can easily
ascertain the cause or causes, and by removing that or them, effect a
radical cure. All the astringents necessary may be obtained by a
proper selection of food. Wheat-bread toast ; cracker-toast ; boiled
rice ; rice-gruel ; baked potatoes; toast prepared with boiled milk;
blackberries, fresh or canned ; baked sweet apples; grape-pulps, and
the juice of the skins, without the seeds; black currants; brandy
peaches; wild cherries; and any other wholesome vegetables and fruits,
possessing mild binding qualities. Astringent drinks may also be pre-
pared and used moderately. Rice scorched and prepared in the same
way as we prepare the coffee berry ; crust coffee ; toast water ; black-
berry-jelly water; and diluted blackberry brandy are all useful in
chronic diarrhoea, if used with sufficient moderation, and not depended
upon for effecting a cure. º
When there is a chronic tendency to weakness of the bowels and
over-action on slight provocation, a dry diet of toast and lamb chops
will be a useful occasional resource, and the wearing of a flannel binder
about the abdomen will be found very helpful and comforting for con-
stant use; even day and night in some cases, but such a condition is
not likely to be persistent when the blood is right, and the nervous
system of good tone. It may be simply a case of persistent indigestion,
or it may be from tuberculous invasion of the glands of the intestines,
or an expert may discover that the diarrhoea is only symptomatic of
some liver or kidney disease. When diarrhoea is persistently chronic,
it is wise to advise with one who can accurately diagnose the underlying
and hidden causes.
Hemorrhoids, or Piles.
In introducing this essay, I will first explain that the rectum is the
third and last portion of the large intestines, and was so named by the
mistaken anatomists of old, under the supposition that this portion of
the gut was straight. The illustrations, Figs. 161 and 162, show just
about how straight it actually is, and how erroneous it was to Christen
it after the Latin term rectus / As the name, however, does not give
anybody any distress, we will turn our attention to those diseases of
the rectum which do.
The most common affection of the rectum and its termination, is
piles. All persons subject to constipation, or diarrhoea, are apt to be
troubled with piles, and some have them who are not subject to
HEMORREIOIDS, OR PILES. 49 I
irregularity of the bowels. Itching piles are those which often present
no distinct elevations, but great irritation of the anus and sometimes a
puffiness of the surrounding membranes. Then there are cases where
an eruption of an itching character breaks out about the anus which
may also be called itching piles. The most troublesome piles, however,
are those of a tumorous and varicose nature, such as are represented in
the annexed illustration, Fig. 165.
The arteries of the rectum are numerous, and whether the enlarge-
ments are simply varicose or tumorous, the blood presses in upon the
affected parts, and alarming hemorrhages in some cases take place. I
once had an interesting case of this kind, who, before becoming my
patient, had for more than a year been subject to daily excessive
hemorrhages from the rectum, and to such a frightful extent as to give
her a death-like paleness, and such weak- FIG. 165.
ness that she could with difficulty keep
from her bed. Her friends despaired of
her recovery after the failure of the
family physician to relieve her. She was
a Jewess, and her gratitude on being re-
stored under my treatment found expres-
sion in the naming of her first-born after
the author, who, by invitation, was pres-
ent at the peculiar ceremony of circum-
cision. This was all contrary to the
canons of the Jewish religion, which for-
bid the adoption of Christian names, and
prohibit religious fellowship with those TUMoRous AND VARIcos; PILEs As
Outside their fold. But, she insisted that THEY APPEAR IN THE ANU.S.
Dr. F. had saved her life, that the baby A.i. i." º
was the offspring of her recovery, and after they are extended, #
the opposition of friends to the course piles formed of swollen mucous
she chose to pursue did not prevail. membrane and enlarged ves-
The immediate cause of piles may be sels: C, anal aperture.
briefly given as everything which tends to irritate or unduly heat the
anus or rectum. Hard fecal plugs, and watery and scalding stools may
induce an attack of piles. Considering the vascularity of the rectum,
it is frightful to think of a large dry fecal plug, as hard and irregular
as a stone, descending the rectum, scratching and pushing along,
abrading the lining in one place, and so distending it in another that
the blood actually exudes from the congested membrane. But there
are those who are so ignorant of the peculiar structure of the rectum
that they allow constipation to produce these fecal plugs which are
thrown off every few days for weeks and months, until the most obsti-
nate diseases of the rectum are induced.

492 DISEASES OF LIVER, STOMACH, AND BOWELS.
Carelessness in the selection of instruments for cleansing the parts
after stool often induces irritation which develops piles. This evil is
so excessively prevalent, particularly in rural districts, that I must beg
the indulgence of the reader for a moment while I call attention to it.
Nothing is more common than to find in the “little-house” of a farm-
yard, a huge pile of corn-cobs for the purpose indicated. Even chips
are Sometimes resorted to. Now, to frictionize the external skin with a
harsh substance like either of those, would be sufficient to produce
eruptions or sores upon anyone affected with blood impurities; but
applied to the delicate membrane of the anus, no one addicted to the
practice can escape having piles unless his blood is remarkably pure.
Leaves of plants are often used with like results. The leaves of almost
all descriptions of vegetation are more or less bearded or coated with a
kind of fuzz which, when brought in contact with the mucous mem-
brane, causes irritation. Coarse brown paper is nearly as unsuitable,
inasmuch as it is too rough and harsh, while a newspaper is equally
Objectionable, because of the irritating properties of the ink with which
it is printed. t
It would be well if all would regard this matter of sufficient im-
portance to provide themselves with paper which is manufactured
and sold expressly for the purpose. If not, only the softest and most
pliable brown paper, such as would answer to wipe the mouth or nose
in the absence of a handkerchief, should be employed.
People of sedentary habits should also be guarded as to what they
use for seats. Sitting in cushioned chairs covered with worsted,
enamelled cloth, or other heating material, tends to produce irritation
in the anus. If a person is at all predisposed to piles, cane-seated
chairs are far preferable to any other, and a wood-bottomed chair is
decidedly better than one that is luxuriously upholstered.
The anatomical relation of the blood-vessels of the rectum to the
liver is such that the return flow of blood from the hemorrhoidal veins
at the rectum or anus is obstructed when the liver is congested, and
therefore liver torpor is the most common cause of the engorgement and
swelling of the veins which constitute pile tumors. It is seldom possi-
ble to do much for permanent relief of piles without giving due atten-
tion to the liver, and relieving the torpid state of circulation there
which dams back the blood into the veins below, at the rectum.
Local treatment, whether medicinal or surgical, is not likely to be truly
curative. Soothing ointments (particularly my Magnetic Ointment
No. 1, and Pine Cones, No. 0 of Sanitary Bureau list) will give great
relief from Soreness, heat, and the results of chafing, and for a time
seem to cure ; and the various operations by knife, clamps, and cautery
will, of course, at once destroy the piles thus treated, but the veins there
are numerous, tortuous, and lengthy, so that after a few pile tumors
HEMORRHOIDS, OR PILES. 493
have been removed, if the cause is not, another lot is likely to be pro-
duced. Some cases are so severe as to call for very prompt relief by
the aid of surgery, and some of the most successful operations are done
without any pain to speak of, but unless constitutional treatment be at
once adopted for removal of causes, there may soon be another call for
operation. On the other hand, if the patient can bear his discomfort a
little longer, the right sort of constitutional treatment, combined with
Soothing and astringent local applications, will often do wonders in
the way of reducing large, protruding, and bleeding piles, and ren-
der any sort of surgical operation unnecessary. Piles that bleed enough
to gradually impair the general health, and weaken sexual vigor in
course of time, do not always protrude and cause Soreness and chafing.
Their main annoyance is from bleeding at stool, and perhaps some
pain then, and these may not be enough to compel due attention to
proper treatment, but it is unwise to neglect it.
The most skilful treatment, however, is liable to fail in any case,
unless proper attention is paid to personal habits. I have already
spoken of constipation, and advised means for overcoming the diffi-
Culty, in an essay devoted to that subject; but the importance of
avoiding a constipated condition of the bowels is so essential to success
in removing hemorrhoidal affections, I must be pardoned for intro-
ducing matter here which may almost seem like repetition. First,
and all-important, after giving attention to dietetic rules, is regularity
in attending to the calls of Nature. Every man, woman, and child
should have a stated hour, from which he or she should reluctantly
deviate if the house is on fire. Persons accustoming the bowels to
move at a certain time each day will find that organ ready to respond
to his or her efforts, and they will further find that if they pass much
beyond the usual time, constipation will exhibit itself.
The habit many have, of reading or thinking intently on business
•or domestic affairs, of nursing griefs and taking a retrospect of a
gloomy past, Or, in fact, of engaging the mind either in reflection or
diversion, while at stool, tends to retard the bowels in the exercise of
their functions, and consequently produces constipation. The Hay-
binger of Health very sensibly gives utterance to the following lan-
guage on the subject : “Any mental occupation foreign to the proper
and prompt performance of the function is positively certain to stamp
the impress of disease upon the weakest part ; and, inasmuch as, while
engaged in this particular function, the vessels and fibres of the rectum
are distended and principally taxed, so is inattention at the time most
likely to produce one or more of the above-mentioned forms of
hemorrhoidal disturbances.” By concentrating the will upon the parts
which expel the faces, costive persons will find it much easier to
relieve themselves of excrementitious matter, -
494 DISEASES OF LIVER, STOMACH, AND BOWELS.
Prominent among the remedial exercises suited to persons affected
With piles, is horseback riding. The jolting of the diseased parts
upon the saddle quickens circulation, and helps thereby to relieve
Congestion, and when piles are tumorous it promotes absorption.
Theodore Parker once facetiously remarked that the “outside of a
horse is good for the inside of a man.” This was said, of course, with
more especial reference to dyspeptics and those who do not take much
exercise, for the outside of a horse is equally good for the outside of a
man. Women would be quite as much benefited by horseback riding
FIG. 166. as men, if they would adopt some costume
§§§ which would enable them to ride gracefully
s astride. It is questionable whether they
# % |N
- ;
º derive any greater advantages from eques-
iº º
trian exercise than exhilarating joltings and
the breathing of the pure atmosphere of
heaven. Their cramped-up position on the
saddle does not allow a free and easy play
of the muscles, such as men experience
with both feet in the stirrups, and present-
ing an untwisted front. Women have yet
to work a reform in this matter. There is
no good reason why a woman should put
one of her limbs to sleep over the pommel,
and occupy a distorted position every time
she takes a horseback-ride. While fashion
THE RECTUM IAID open, to may treat with scorn and contempt the sug-
*...*.*.*.*.*.* gestion that a woman should ride astride
AFFECTED WITH PILES. t e º
like a man, common-sense cries out against
the present ridiculous custom. Already in some parts of the United
States women are giving up the uncomfortable and unhygienic side-
Saddle for such as is used by the masculine equestrian. It is to be .
hoped that this fashion will spread, and that the side-saddle will
become a thing of the past.
º º
|ft
|
ſº i. *.
§
&
º
º S.
For external piles, and especially those of a varicose nature, or
falling of the rectum, the Pile Compressor (see page 1227) yields great
relief and comfort. The effect of the wearing of this ingenious
instrument in cases of external piles, is very similar to that pro-
duced by frequent horseback-riding. The continuous gentle pressure
of the congested parts serves to relieve them of their painful and some-
times unendurable distention, and to induce a more natural circulation
of the blood in them. For those who have not the time or means to
indulge in equestrian exercise, and particularly for women who are
compelled by King Custom to so seat themselves on the saddle as to
derive little advantage therefrom, the Pile Compressor is invaluable.

FALLING AND STRICTURE OF THE RECTUM. 495
Even if under skilful treatment for the removal of both the disease
and its cause, something is needed to give relief while the good work is
going on, for piles cannot be permanently cured in a few weeks under
any system of treatment. Then, there are persons advanced in life,
who cannot be cured, and who, consequently, require something to
render them comfortable. To such I would most urgently recommend
the Pile Compressor; while those of all ages, suffering with falling of
the rectum or bowel who adopt it, will pronounce this mechanical
invention an inestimable blessing. I would also advise digital dilata-
tion of the rectal orifice, using some good ointment in place of soap-
suds, as advised in the essay on constipation. This can be done after
thoroughly cleansing the parts with soap and water.
Falling of the Rectum.
In persons of relaxed fibre, after long-continued constipation, Or
the opposite trouble, diarrhoea, the lower bowel may “turn wrong-
side out,” or roll down and out through the sphincter muscle. Ordi-
marily the anus is tight enough, and the membrane above firm enough
to prevent this, but it will happen even to children, and the Sooner the
protruding part is returned the better. Using my magnetic ointment,
or even a good quality of vaseline, not only aids in effecting the return
of the protruding parts, but soothes and strengthens, so that the lia-
bility to recurrence is lessened. In persons of middle age addicted to
the use of tobacco, simple cases of falling rectum, if not from con-
stipation or diarrhoea, may result from the relaxing effect upon the
tissues of this region by the steady use of tobacco. It may not be
excessive use, judging by the amount used per day by the Ordinary
slave to tobacco; but year after year the influence of the tobacco habit
tells, and the relaxation becomes so fixed as the status of the part that
no remedies, local or constitutional, will avail until the tobacco habit
has been lived down, and the drug entirely let alone for some time.
In elderly persons the relaxed, drooping parts may be due to other
causes, the rectal looseness being in fact hardly more evident than
the general flabbiness of the tissues. The Pile Compressor is a relief
for that—and in such cases may be more properly called the rectal
supporter.
Stricture of the Rectum
is an annoying and generally painful affection which may result
from neglected obstinate constipation, local inflammation, cancer or
syphilitic ulcers, or anything which causes an abrasion or great irrita-
tion in the lining of the canal. The stricture may consist of a thick-
ening of the walls of the rectum, causing a partial obliteration of the
canal; adhesion of some portions of the walls, after the healing of
496 DISEASES OF LIVER, STOMACH, AND BOWELS,
abrasions or abscesses; or it may be caused by indolent tumors forming
therein, or remaining after a severe attack of piles. Stricture of the
rectum is a most troublesome difficulty, because it obstructs the passage
of the excrementitious matter, and in some cases to such a degree as to
prove fatal. The symptoms attending stricture in this locality are—
difficulty in passing faces even when they are soft and pliable ; pas-
sage of faeces in small fragments, sometimes streaked with blood ; and,
when caused by thickening of the walls of the vectum, the expulsion
of narrow flattened faeces. Here is something which may be especially
benefited by daily resort to digital stretching of the lower part of the
rectum. In some obstinate cases it will be necessary to resort to instru-
mental dilatation, in which case the services of a physician will be
required ; but, with many, it will be sufficient to first thoroughly
cleanse the parts with soap and water, and then, cmploying my oint-
ment or some other oleaginous preparation possessing properties favor-
ing relaxation, lubricate one finger and introduce that ; after enlarging
the parts as much as possible with one, lubricate and introduce the
second finger in addition, and make such movements with the two
fingers as will tend to stretch the constricted parts. In obstinate cases
which resist self-applied orificial surgery, both constitutional and local
treatment are necessary, and the patient cannot do better than to rely
wholly upon the advice of the physician in whom he may entertain
confidence. In cases living at a distance, the author can give such
directions as will enable the patient to administer the necessary local
treatment himself, or herself.
Fistula-in-Ano
is a troublesome and dangerous affection, which is liable to result
from neglected or badly treated piles. It may also occur in persons of
scrofulous diathesis without the provocation of any previous disease in
the anus or rectum. It commences not far from the anus, and usually
announces its approach by itching, or pain, or uneasiness, although in
some cases no unpleasant symptom is experienced until it begins to
discharge its purulent matter, and then this discharge may be the only
evidence of its existence. So long as it has but one opening it is called
incomplete, but when the abscess has proceeded so far as to penetrate
the rectum, or any other cavity, it is said to be complete. The annexed
cuts, Figs. 167, 168, represent a complete fistula-in-ano. Sometimes it
has several openings into the rectum or other parts, and the canal is in
some cases so complete as to have a lining almost like the mucous
membrane. I once had a case of fistula which opened perfect com-
munication between the rectum and the urethra, so that at stool some of
the fluid portion of the facces passed out of the mouth of the penis.
When the abscess is active, large quantities of purulent matter issue
FISTULA AND FISSURE OF THE ANU.S. 497
therefrom, especially at stool when it is pressed by the descending
faces. When much inflammation is present the affection is terribly
painful. -
In most cases of fistula, the blood should receive the first attention
of the physician, and the knife should be the last resort, because if the
latter be employed, it still remains necessary to purify the blood, or
the fistula, or an abscess of some kind will be likely to return. It
would consequently seem the more sensible plan, in all cases, to have
suitable blood-treatment at the outset. This may suffice to cure the
FIG. 167, FIG. 168.
ilāIIIlilº -
| ..;;
º Vº
.*.* * sy
: º,
t º |
º
:
COMPLETE FISTULA-IN-ANO.
SURGICAL EXAMINATION.
The fistulous canal is observed
in the right side of the rec- Tiscovering or proving fistula by
tum. examination.
difficulty. If it does not, neither time nor money will have been un-
necessarily wasted, because the constitutional treatment cannot be
- safely dispensed with, however successful the operation, and many
cases are not in fit condition to make good recovery without a course
of preparatory, purifying treatment. When the patient is fit for opera-
tion, it need not be feared, as there is no danger from it, and the result
is almost sure to be entirely satisfactory.
Fissure of the Anus.
Ulcerations are liable to take place in any part of the body when
anything like a scrofulous or a syphilitic taint exists in the system.
Chronic ulcer of the stomach is perhaps more frequent than ulceration
of the bowels, but the most common, if least serious, ulcer occurs at
the anus, and is quite analogous to a “crack in the lip " of the mouth.
It is called “anal fissure,” and is painful out of all proportion to its
size, the pain being sharp and severe during stooling, and continuing
long after. Bleeding may occur with it. It is practically incurable
While constipation lasts, owing to the wear and tear of its situation,





498 DISEASES OF LIVER, STOMACH, AND BOWELS.
and even when the bowels move Comfortably it is often obstinate.
Anodyne ointments relieve ; lunar caustic touching stimulates healing
action ; a knife operation is sometimes necessary ; but with this, as in
cases of ulceration elsewhere, there is a fault in the blood which must
be corrected to encourage Nature's own reparative processes.
Another very distressing disease of this part, often with very little
to show for it, but generally due to more or less local eczema, is obsti-
nate itching, or pruritus-ani, which may either disturb sleep at night
Or make its victim uneasy all day. It is due to either the visible, local
lesion, to irritating (unnatural) secretions from the intestines, or Worms,
or in some cases it seems to be purely nervous. All these anal troubles
may be considerably relieved by appropriate local treatment, but
removal of the particular cause in each case is the only means of per-
manent relief. The lower bowel being the slop-bucket of the body,
receives its worst or most noxious substances, and yet, in health, fecal
Waste is not really irritating to the parts that must contain it and retain
it for awhile ; but in disease, or as a result of various and numerous
disorders anywhere along the route of the stomach and bowels, the
fecal evacuation may become even excoriating. The membranes at
the outlet may be only tickled to the point of persistent itching, or
they may be Scalded, excoriated, and lacerated. So once more we
learn that the art of health from mouth to the extremity of the ali-
mentary canal, consists mainly in learning to keep clean all through ;
that there is such a thing as “clean dirt,” even in fecal parlance ; and
that unclean, diseased, and acrid discharges from above are what initi-
ate rectal diseases.
Intestinal Parasites.
It is not pleasant to think of, but the fact is that men, as well as
animals, are prone to be wormy, and the number and variety of para-
sites that find a home along the course of the alimentary canal is almost
legion ; but the common forms that most folks need to know some-
thing about are the long, round worms, the little pinworms, and
several kinds of curious tape-worms. If adults and children would be
more particular about what they eat and drink, there would be far less
complaint on, account of worms. If all maintained a first-class diges-
tion, and clean blood and secretions, these internal vermin would have
less opportunity to take up their abode and thrive and breed. Chap-
ter XIII. of Part II. gives some good formulae for routing them out.
Injections of salt and water, quassia water or sweet oil are useful in
drowning out pin-worms, but they are very persistent, and the victim
must be more so. Be sure you are right before you go ahead. Parents
sometimes think a child has worms because of colicky pains, poor
INTESTINAL PARASITES. 499
appetite, bad breath, itching about the anus, or grinding of the teeth ;
but “seeing is believing,” and a cathartic dose with observation of
results should be tried before further specific dosing against Worms.
The ordinary round worm, common to children of four to twelve years,
is easily seen, it being from a few inches to a foot long, and of a yellow-
ish white color. Thread-worms are much smaller, so that they are
often called pin-worms, being only -
half an inch long or less, and not
much larger around than a pin,
but they are more annoying than
the larger sort. They congregate
in masses in the rectum and titil-
late the nerves of the anus, mak-
ing it feel as if it had become a
nest for hornets. Local injections
may or may not be all that is re-
quired to rout them, but these
must be employed persistently for
two or three weeks. Occasional
laxative dosing is likely to be
needed tC) drive them down and MAGNIFIED HEAD OF TAPE-WORM.
out, and a small teaspoonful of turpentine in a cup of milk, given an
hour after breakfast, may be necessary to make their home in the
bowels unattractive.
As to tape-worms, a book as large as this would be required to tell
all that is known of the various kinds; but the man who has one gen-
erally seems to want to know nothing of his tenant except how to be
well rid of him and her—for it is hermaphrodite. A recipe for cook-
ing a hare started out with “First catch the hare; ” and so, before
beginning to take medicine to dislodge a tape-worm, it is wise to catch
enough of one to prove its presence. It is produced in sections, or
joints, which may prolong it to a length of forty feet, and these break
off, and come away separately or in ribbons. A single large joint is an
inch long by a quarter of an inch wide, slimy, soft, and white, but
without head or tail. A few such captures are enough to make a
diagnosis, but many persons with bowel disturbances and “queer rumb-
lings,” or “gnawing feelings,” have the notion that they have tape-
worm instead of having the thing itself. Dyspepsia and bowel irrita-
tions of the ordinary kind are aggravated by the rather severe dosing
necessaryto dislodge a tape-worm, and the treatment should be avoided
except where really required. Tape-worms are provided with a won-
derful arrangement of Suckers or hooks about the head, which enable
them to hold on for “dear life” (no doubt life is dear to them), and so
long as the head clings to the liming membraue of the human intestine,
FIG. 169.

500 DISEASES OF LIVER, STOMACH, AND BOWELS.
it can go on producing “sections” and piecing itself out. So the pass-
ing away of parts day after day means little loss to the worm—that's
his business—and little gain to the patient—who grows impatient. To
Sunder these relations of house-owner and tenant requires a dose of
Something that will paralyze Mr. Taenia—knock him senseless—and
then a brisk cathartic to sweep head and tail all out in one fell swoop.
If it happens to be truly tonia solium (solitary), nothing remains to be
done but repair the damages to the premises by a suitable course of
treatment; but there are some people who provide quarters for two or
more such tenants, and more than one writ of ejectment may be neces-
sary. Anyone afflicted with a troublesome customer of this kind, or
With some obstinate disease of the class treated of in this chapter, may
consult the author in person or by letter, and further information or
advice will be cordially given.
Hernia or Rupture.
Hernia is an affliction so prevalent (some estimate one in every ten
has it) and SO lasting that it deserves some consideration in this volume.
There is no more fitting place for this than in the chapter relating to
Diseases of the Bowels. It is a weakness and giving way of the abdomi-
nal Walls Somewhere at one of its least well protected spots, and not a
disease unless the intestines which protrude through the opening be-
come pinched. The abdominal wall in front is made up of fibrous and
muscular layers, but there are a few small, necessary openings which
are generally Snug or close fitting about the cords or vessels that pass.
through them ; it is when these become over-stretched and permit the
slipping out of a piece of intestine that a hernia occurs. There is sel-
dom any real rupture of tissues, but rather a spreading as when a pencil
is poked through some loose-knit fabric. Hernia is generally the result
of some sudden accident or excessive strain, but in persons of relaxed
fibre, loose-knit sort of folks, or those who have suffered recent illness,
and so lack firmness, mere coughing, straining at stool, a mis-step, or
other minor cause may suffice to drive a wedge of intestine through the
weak spot, and so start a hernia. Hard workers are apt to have very
strong abdominal walls, but an unusually heavy lift or unexpected effort
may “rupture” them, and render them unfit for the occupation they have
long filled. In just the other type of person, who has been too weakly
or lazy to do physical work, hernia may just come on without apparent
cause. In infants a colic, cough, or fall may produce hernial protru-
sion before the parts have become adjusted to bear even a slight strain,
but many a case in infants will soon be “naturally cured ” if the swell-
ing is kept well pressed back, and great care taken to prevent its re-
currence. A thick skein of yarn bound round the abdomen, with, a
HERNIA OR I. UPT U RE 5O I
knot in it over the weak spot, and a branch between the legs to hold it
well in place has sufficed to hold many an infant or child. Some will
need a small truss for a year or SO.
It is not easy to make plain to the general reader just how hernia
occurs, but some years ago a writer of Health Talks for the Orange
Judd Farmer accomplished this as well as it is likely to be done, and I
shall offer here his description and illustrations because I could not
hope to do better.
“Hernia (from the Greek word, 'ernos or hernos, a ‘branch,” or
a shooting forth) means a protrusion of internal organs through the
wall of the abdomen. “Rupture literally means a breaking or tear-
ing. The popular idea that hernia is caused by accidental “rupture’
is erroneous; there are very few cases which are due to external acci-
dent. To make the subject clear, we have prepared some special
engravings, which the reader should carefuſly study along with the
explanations under each figure.
“Fig. 170 shows at I I, FF and N the location of five natural open-
ings outward through the wall of the abdomen. W and II are directly
over the interior opening. E E are the Outer openings (under the
skin) of II. F. and F are two exterior openings under the skin at the
top of the thighs, of which the interior openings into the abdomen (not
shown) are deep-seated and higher up. The canal or tube between I
and E is 1% to 2 inches long. Its course, etc., are shown and explained
in Fig. 171. FF are alike on the right and left side, as are II and
E E,and a description of one of eacb answers for both.
“Through the canal extending from F back into the abdomen
comes down the great artery which supplies blood to the whole lower
limb. IMPORTANT NOTE. —If an artery anywhere in the leg or foot be
cut or broken the dangerous escape of blood can be almost entirely
stopped by simply applying strong pressure at F.
“The large vein carrying the blood from the limb to the heart also
goes up through the same canal, which extends back and upward
from F.
“In like manner, arteries and veins, nerves, cords, etc., connected
with reproduction, pass through the canal between I and E.
“N is the fifth natural opening from the abdomen. It is through
this umbilicus that the unborn animal receives its blood and entire
nourishment. It is usually closed, but it is sometimes the source of
serious trouble—frequently so in infancy, and quite often among fleshy
persons.
“Fig. 171 is a side or sectional view of the abdomen A with a por-
tion of the intestines In. We also see the front wall, including the mus-
cular tissue M, the outer skin S, the Peritoneum P, which latter is
a thin membrane, Smooth on the inside where the intestines move
502 DISEASES OF STOMACH, LIVER, AND BOWELS,
against it. (The terrible affliction known as ‘Peritonitis’ is an inflam-
mation of this Peritoneum P.) This coating is quite clastic and capa-
ble of large expansion, as we shall see. The ‘Inguinal Canal,” or tube,
described in Fig. 170, extending from I to E, is also shown in Fig. 171
at T. This canal is the seat of the larger portion of Hernias, or ‘Rup-
tures.’ It runs from its upper inside opening, but outside of the Peri-
toneum, down obliquely among the muscles M, M, to its lower opening
under the skin at E, Fig. 170. This canal is usually large enough in
FIG. 170. adults to admit the finger up
through most of its length. The
inguinal canal, while carrying
through it the arteries, veins,
etc., described under Fig. 170, is
N ordinarily kept closed around
O them by the weight of the intes-
tines inside, and the resistance of

| | the outer muscles of M, M.
“Fig. 172 shows the same paris
`s 2^ as Fig. 171 ; but illustrates the
F F beginning of a Hernia, in which,
owing to a weakness of the
muscular coating M, M, or to
extraordinary pressure of the in-
testines, In, or both, the intes-
times begin to push the elastic
peritoneum into the upper mouth
of the canal T, and to act as a
wedge to enlarge the canal. The peritoneum itself is so expansible
that it does not resist the intrusion of the intestine into the canal.
“Fig. 173 shows progress from Fig. 172. The intestine has pushed
farther down, enlarging T.
“Fig. 174 shows still further progress. Here a whole loop of the in-
testines has Forced its way down the canal, but is still almost invisible
on the outside of the abdomen. The progress, thus far, may have
taken months, or even years, or it may have occurred in a few weeks
or days, or in a few hours, if the muscular coat M is weak and debili-
tated, or if there is extraordinary pressure from the ºnside, by violent
coughing, by jumping or stepping down and coming to a sudden stop,
and by violent strains in a variety of ways. The injection of the intes-
tine can be discovered by a physician, or by a person of ordinary skill,
on thrusting the finger up the canal from below.
“Ordinarily no severe pain will be felt except when the loop of the
intestine is so pinched by the upper end of the canal, or so filled with
hard food or gas that there is not free circulation through the loop.
WHERE HERN IAS OCCUR.
IIERN IA OR RUPTURE. 5O3
Hence, a hernia may have made considerable progress before the person
affected is aware of its existence, either by marked external swelling,
or by recognized pain from it.
“Fig. 175. CoMPLETED HERNIA.—This shows the onward progress
of the intestine which, while between 1 and E in Figs. 170, 171, 172,
173, 174, 175, and 176, was called an ‘Incomplete Hernia.’ Referring to
Fig. 175 it has passed through E and below, and is now visible on the
outside, pushing the skin outward, forming a tumor or lump. At first it
FIG. 171. FIG. 172. FIG. 173.
ILLUSTRATING PROGRESSIVE HERNIA.
is perhaps the size of a walnut or less, but if not arrested may go on to
enormous proportions, up to the size of an egg, a pint, a gallon, indeed
to almost inconceivable dimensions. Cases are reported where almost
the entire viscera or bowels have passed into the hernial sac.
“Fig. 176. UMBILICAL HERNIA, of large proportions. (Side or sec.
tional view.)—After what is said of the previous figures, little expla.
nation is needed here. Beginning, as in Fig. 172, the Intestine (In) has
gradually enlarged the naturally small navel aperture, steadily pushing
the peritoneum before it, and stretching the muscular coating M, out.
ward, and a loop of it has got through the originally small opening.”

504 DISEASES OF LIVER, STOMACH, AND BOWELS.
INCONVENIENCE AND DANGER,
When the completed stage is reached, there is usually both a dis.
agreeable pain and the inconvenience of the outside enlargement and
its weight, and also the constant danger of further growth, and especial-
ly of “strangulation,” as it is termed, that is, the pinching of the
aperture I, so as to prevent the return of the intestine, or of its contents,
the hardening of the faeces or food in the protruding loop of the bowel,
etc. The result is inflammation and fatal mortification of the bowel,
unless well-directed, competent surgical skill succeeds in affording re-
lief.
Probably the most important fact for the ruptured to know is that
their state is attended with great risk, if neglected, and that neglect will
certainly lead to its getting worse. From the start its tendency is to
stretch and extend until the intestine may reach the scrotum, and that
become as big as a man's head, for the weight of the intestine is of
course pushing, pressing, wedging, distending, and gradually enlarging
the hermial sac. In no human strain of tissue is the “stitch in time ’’
more important, and that stitch consists in the early application of a
dam to the breach, i.e., some mechanical support that will brace the
weak spot where the protrusion starts and hold it back. One who is
content to let his rupture hold itself may any day have one more unex-
pected strain that will suddenly crowd more of the gut into the narrow
channel, and thus bring it to a state of Strangulation that may be fatal.
- The treatment of hernia is reduced to two methods—an operation
to tighten the slack part, or a truss to brace it. Various operations
have been employed with varying success. The last and highest claim
is a cure of eighty per cent. in private practice, by the insistance upon
the use of a truss for several months after the operation, till its results
can be confirmed by time. Such cure really results from new tissue
brought to the part by inflammatory action, and the natural tendency
of seat tissue to contract. The same process of cure is accomplished in
a slower, and cqually sure or successful way, by wearing a truss-pad
that will produce deep Soreness, in fact a slight grade of inflammation,
which in time, say a year, repairs the breach. The rubber-cure pad
which I have tested and sold for many years was devised upon this
theory, and has practically proved a success in a large number of cases,
and the proportion of cures would be far larger if subjects would use it
religiously as directed instead of recklessly to suit their convenience.
Further information regarding this method may be found in my dime
pamphlet on Rupture. (See last page.)
Other surgeons acknowledge the “spontaneous” cure of rupture
after years of wearing of various trusses, but the chances of cure are
greatly increased by the use of one specially devised for this mode of
cure. Some pads would always tend to prevent rather than promote a
HERNIA OR RUPTURE. 5O5
cure. It is only inguinal hernia I E that is thus curable ; the femoral F,
and umbilical kinds will always require continued support.
Some denounce trusses, and offer “appliances” or elastic bands.
The simple fact is the bracing pad must be retained in place effectively,
and the subject may choose the means that is most comfortable while
accomplishing this object. The first truss a man wears will pretty
surely get liberal abuse from him, and only after trying several may he
discover that after all the first was the best—or, may be some other.
The ruptured person is more comfortable and safe with a well-fitting
truss than without, but he cannot be as comfortable as when he had no
use for it.
§ N
§
§§
§
OPERATION FOR RELIEF OF STRANGULATED HERNIA, which BEcoMEs N EcESSARY
WHEN THE IN TESTIN E G ETS PIN CHED AND CAN NOT BE RETURNED
BY MANIPULATION.


CHAPTER V.
CHRONIC AFFECTIONs of THE URINARY organs.
==\ sh HEN the skin and lungs are in a healthy
- § * Condition, a large amount of the waste fluids
W of the system pass off in the form of sensible
º or insensible perspiration, and in vapors ex-
-, haled, but the excretory pores and lungs
would be quite insufficient, unaided, to dis-
& pose of all the soluble effete matters in the
ſº £e more complex Organisms, and hence we find in the human
sº Q body, and in the bodies of all vertebrates, organs called the
N. kidneys, together with other helping organs which have
tº been named by anatomists the ureters; bladder, and urethra,
to act subordinately to them. The kidneys in the human
system are brownish red, bean-shaped glands, located on
either side of the spine in what is denominated the lumbar region.
They are largely made up of tubes and cells and of membrane of so
thin a texture, that as the blood passes through the kidneys, the watery
portions pass through the membrane as readily as water passes through
muslin, and it then trickles down through tubes to little reservoirs in
the kidneys, and from thence through the little canals called the ureters
to the bladder, which is the great receiving reservoir of the urine.
In health the bladder retains the water till it becomes full, or until it is
convenient to dispose of it. In both sexes the bladder is located in the
lower part of the bowels. In men it is bounded at the back by the
seminal vesicles and rectum, and in Women by the vagina. In front it
lies just back of the lower abdominal walls. The bladder empties
itself through the urethra, which in the male extends along the under
part of the penis to the orifice at the end, and this same urethra is the
conducting pipe of the seminal fluids when they pass off. In the
female it performs only the office of carrying off the urine ; it is very
short and terminates just above th: yºginal orifice.

CHRONIC AFFECTIONS OF THE URINARY ORGANS. 507
In my practice I have a large percentage of cases suffering with
diseases of a chronic nature, located in some part of the urinary appar-
atus. So closely connected, anatomically, are the urinary with the
procreative organs, and so greatly are the latter abused, it is not sur-
prising that the former are frequently the seat of painful and dangerous
affections. In both sexes the amative pas- FIG. 177.
sions are prematurely developed and stimu-
lated. These, at an early age, too often lead
boys and girls into private vices, and the
mature and married into sexual excesses and
pernicious modes for the prevention of con-
ception, all of which physical violations are
well calculated to disturb the nervous har-
mony of the parts, impoverish and vitiate
the blood, and to lay the foundation for
serious derangements of those organs which
secrete and discharge the urine. The most
common of these diseases are : Chronic in-
flammation in the kidneys; weakness in
the kidneys; consumption of the kidneys;
stone in the kidneys; chronic inflammation
in the bladder; paralysis of the bladder;
gravel; chronic gonorrhoea ; stricture of the
urethra, etc.
The office of the kidneys is to secrete the
useless alkaline and calcareous particles and the aux, swares-w ORRS.
the soluble waste matters from the blood. The kidneys at the top are
The bladder, as before remarked, is the connected by canals called
reservoir for these, and the urethra is the the ureters leading to the
waste-pipe for carrying them off. Every- º: sº i.
body living in houses supplied with aque- urethra, which is º: given
duct Water knows how much trouble it in the illustration, as the
gives the kitchen-maid when something, by latter is without sex and
her own carelessness, obstructs the waste- stands to represent the uri-
pipe. Now, old dame Nature has double “” ” of both sexes.
the trouble of any “Bridget ’’ in keeping human water-pipes in order,
not from any dereliction of duty on her part, but from the carelessness
and imprudences of man and woman kind generally. Mechanical
water-pipes could never endure the abuses which are almost daily
inflicted by men, women, and children, on those organs made in part,
by the economy of Nature, for the purpose of carrying off the waste
fluids which must be in some way disposed of, and which, if obstructed
or dammed back, give rise to a variety of most painful and serious
disorders,

508 CHRONIC AFFECTIONS OF THE URINARY ORGANs.
Albeit, it is useless to moralize, even in this quaint way. Gener-
ation after generation passes off the stage of life, one profiting little by
the experience of its predecessor. Individuals suffering with such
troubles only intrust the secret to their physician, and the mass of
humanity goes recklessly on, vainly thinking that this first, second, or
third abuse of the delicate urino-genital structure will not be followed
with a penalty, until a large proportion of all have at last tasted the
bitter cup, while some drink it to the dregs. It is, therefore, waste of
words for the medical writer to do more than point out the dangerous
shoals and breakers, and then turn his attention to those already
Wrecked, and who are too often catching at straws to save themselves.
I will, therefore, pass to the consideration of some of the diseases I
have adverted to.
Diseases of the Kidneys.
The kidneys are very vascular organs, and are so arranged anatom-
ically that they receive constantly a large amount of blood which, in
passing through them, is purified of many forms of waste matter and
deprived of much of its water, the latter being necessary to hold the
impurities in solution until they may be cast out from the body. The
kidneys are therefore in intimate relation with the circulatory system,
the heart and blood-vessels, and they not only suffer when disease
invades the heart and arteries, but if the kidneys become first affected,
the circulatory system is, sooner or later, weakened also. The kidneys
are also sensitive to any faults in digestion, whether in stomach or
liver, for if any unusual amount of impurities are thrown into the
blood through faulty digestion, the kidneys are put to extra strain in
eliminating them. On the other hand, if through disease of the kid-
neys, the blood fails to be steadily and sufficiently purified, the retained
impurities are likely to irritate the digestive organs and derange their
action. They stand in equally intimate relations with the lungs and skin.
Therefore the indications of kidney disease are generally round-
about, indirect sort of symptoms affecting other parts. They are too
deeply situated to be seen or felt, and are not in themselves very sensi-
tive. Even cancer may eat them up without causing pain, and the
back-aches which people so commonly attribute to kidney troubles
are generally in the tenderloin muscles of the back, and not in the
kidneys themselves, though it may be their sluggish action which
causes the accumulation of irritants that render the muscles painful,
as in lumbago. -
BRIGHT's DISEASE.
It is hardly to be doubted that the kidneys, like other important
organs, may be functionally disordered, or slow and inefficient in their
DISEASES OF THE KIDNEYS. 509
action, without being actually diseased with what is called an organic
lesion, and, like other parts, they may be subject to sudden congestion
from “colds,” rendering them for a time practically of little use ; but
it is also true that repeated attacks of congestion are liable to impair
the substance of the kidneys, and bring on a chronic form of inflamma-
tion known as Bright's disease. This is the most common form of
chronic disease of the kidneys, named after Dr. Richard Bright, of
England, who first gave a fair description of its symptoms and lesions
in 1830, but it is
only since 1860 that
it has been thor-
oughly studied and
understood, even
by physicians,
and perhaps only
during the latter
part of the nine-
teenth century that º
w
- - - º º ZººZºº
the general public ºãºsº
--- - - º
Fig. 178.
learned, through fa-
miliarity, to fear it.
It is the most in-
sidious for m of
chronic disease, and
may be far ad-
vanced before any
symptom develops
by which its pres-
ence could be sus-
pected. Many a
man who dies sud-
denly of apoplexy,
in seeming fair
health, has really
had, for years pre-
ceding that event,
a slow fever in the kidneys, and disintegration of the blood-vessels of
the brain where the fatal break at last occurred. Dr. Francis M.
Delafield once reported the case of a policeman who had passed a
critical physical examination for promotion with a rating of ninety
points, only three months before his death by inflammation of the
bowels, when the post-mortem examination showed his kidneys greatly
wasted by chronic nephritis—another name for Bright's disease. It
could not be learned from his friends that he had ever complained of
º
---
º
-
The ExIDNEY CUT THROUGEL.
1, vein : 2, artery : 3, ureter, leading to bladder.



510 CHRONIC AFFECTIONS OF THE URINARY ORGANs.
its ordinary symptoms. While such reports are not rare, the disease
as a rule offers plenty of warning in a variety of symptoms, the real
meaning and importance of which must be determined by taking one
thing with another.
The ordinary symptoms are those common to many other chronic
diseases originating from general debility or blood impurity. Among
the early symptoms are apt to be simple indigestion and much flatu-
lence, sometimes with nausea or vertigo and persistent headaches; or
there may be only a gouty joint, Sciatic rheumatism, or facial neuralgia
FIG. 179. as evidence of retained waste
matters. Sometimes the latter
only tickle the surface, but
when thus operating in the
skin they may cause most dis-
tressing itching. There may
be pale and numb finger-tips,
cold feet, cramps, or other
sign of impeded blood circu-
lation and propensity to bleed
from the nose, gums, rectum,
and other parts, with slight
provocation. The subject
Often complains of general
sensitiveness to cold, and yet
the pulse will be hard and
firm. Palpitation of the heart,
languor, early fatigue, and
inability for prolonged effort are commonly present, soon or late, while
pallor, anaemia, or at least a general appearance of being below par, assist
the professional eye to detect a subject of this disease. The mental tend-
ency is gloomy, to “blues” and irritability of temper, and lack of hope
and ambition. In advanced cases an inflammation of the retina (the deep
light-sensing membrane of the eye), called retinitis, is quite charac-
teristic of the disease ; while the ears are subject to noises not at all dis-
tinctive, except, perhaps, in their persistence. CEdema, in the form of
puffy lower eyelids and swelled ankles, is one of the common later
symptoms, while general dropsy from weakening heart comes toward
the last.
It must not be supposed that any one case will include all, or even
a fourth of all these symptoms, and yet in the course of years the ma-
jority of them may appear in turn, or a few at a time. When some
such symptoms are present, and the question arises as to diagnosis of
the true state of the patient, an examination of the urine will aid in
settling whether the kidneys are or are not subject to this disease.
RIDNEY CAST8,

DISEASES OF THE KIDNEYS. 5 II
One of the proofs of its presence is the discovery of albumin in the
urine, by special tests which will readily detect the presence of so small
an amount as one part in 10,000. The significance of albumin thus
found is yet undecided. Many physicians claim that under some cir-
cumstances it may be found in the urine of healthy persons, as of Sol-
diers or athletes after prolonged effort, while others claim that it cannot
occur without some weakness or predisposition to Bright's disease. Life
insurance examiners, as a rule, “hold off " a candidate for insurance if
even a small trace of albumin is detected, until repeated examinations
show that it no longer occurs. Yet, on the other hand, there have
been observed many true cases of chronic nephritis, in whose urine
albumin was never detected.
Another more certain evidence is the discovery, by aid of the
microscope, of little “casts,” which have been shed from the lining
cells of the kidney-tubes, and are found in the sediment that settles in
the urine. There are several varieties of such casts, which tell much
of the stage of the disease, its seriousness, and rate of progress. Their
presence proves much, but their absence does not necessarily prove
that there is no form of Bright's disease. The urine may give other
indications which, if frequently observed, are of much significance,
viz.: constant low specific gravity (about 1010 to 1015); deficiency of
phosphates in urine ; and increase of uric acid and oxalates. The
urine is naturally a pretty complex solution of chemical waste matters,
and the capacity or integrity of the kidneys can be gauged largely by
what it can do in eliminating them.
The patient with Bright's disease is not likely to suspect anything
wrong with his water from its appearance, unless perhaps he notices
that it is generally too high colored or pale, and the first symptom that
may call his attention to it is that he is troubled with frequent calls to
urinate during the night. The amount at any one time may be small,
but in the course of the day and night it will generally exceed the nor-
mal. When urine is rather heavy, cloudy, and malodorous, and quickly
throws down a large amount of sediment, it indicates that the kidneys
are successfully doing more than they ought to be called upon to do,
probably because of defective action of other organs. No doubt their
power may be weakened by over-work, and the patient who has what
he calls “bad urine,” does well to submit a sample to his physician for
examination, but he should not be surprised to receive the report that
his kidneys are not diseased, but that the disorders that deserve atten-
tion are in fact in other parts. If these be not corrected, it may not be
long before the kidneys will become worn out and irritated to the point
of “breaking down.” It is, of course, very unwise to neglect giving
due attention to what may be called the precursory conditions of
Bright's disease, º
512 CHRONIC AFFECTIONS OF THE URINARY ORGANS.
e
In the preceding chapter, when writing of the evils of constipation,
I intimated one that may now be more fully explained. If the liver
and bowels are clogged, their work may be in part left over for the
kidneys, which, therefore, volunteer to attend to business that is not
properly just in their line. If this be necessary for any considerable
period, it is somewhat risky for the kidneys, and they may wear out in
the attempt to perform unnatural tasks. The fact of “auto-intoxica-
tion ” from insufficient faecal evacuation, from fermenting and rotting
changes producing gaseous and other poisonous substances that are
absorbed into the blood and slip through the sleepy liver, is being more
and more remarked upon by medical writers. Many of the symptoms
of indigestion, nervous irritability, mental dulness, headaches, sinking
feelings, and other indications of self-poisoning thus occasioned, may
be merely the signs of a state of disorder that leads to confirmed kid-
ney disease, though they are likely to be rather more constant and
persistent when the kidneys grow weary and can no longer do even
their own full duty. The insidiousness of Bright's disease, and the
difficulty of saying positively yes or no in answer to the question, “Has
it begun ?” is universally admitted among medical men. Even the
“totality of symptoms,” including what may be learned by frequent
examinations of the urine, may not suffice, but whenever there is any
reason to suspect its possibility, it is none too soon to give due atten-
tion to the case, and many times I find the indications by urinary tests
in cases with no “characteristic ’’ symptoms—that is, without any com-
plaints to indicate that the kidneys must be involved.
There appears to be a prevailing notion that “the first urine
passed in the morning ” is what a physician prefers for examination.
I find that is generally what is sent me unless I state distinctly that it
is not what I want. It has its use—for shedding light on a case—if
accom.panied by others ; morn, noon, and night samples go well to-
gether ; but if only one is sent, I prefer to have that of the noon time,
or about four ounces taken from the mixed accumulation of twenty-four
hours. With the latter, and a statement of what the whole amount
was, I can figure out pretty accurately what the daily output is, and
so judge of the state of the kidneys by their working capacity. It
is generally agreed that they may occasionally leak a trifling per-
centage of albumin, or shuffle off a few “hyaline casts” or molds of
their tubing, when there is nothing more than neurasthenia, or from
some temporary disorder resulting from excesses of various kinds, but
when the percentage of dissolved “solids” is persistently short of nor-
mal, then there is good reason to believe the eliminating power of the
kidneys has been curtailed by actual disease. So a study of the amount
of urine and its specific gravity (or weight) may show more than the
discovery of albumin now and then,
DISEASES OF THE KIDNEYS. 5 I 3
BICYCLES AND BRIGHT's DISEASE.
Only a short time ago I had a sample of urine taken from a young
man who had just completed a “century ride" on a bicycle in less than
five hours, and found “abundance” of albumin, from an examiner's
point of view. Yet it is very doubtful that there is anything wrong
with his kidneys; but I would certainly fear that some day there may
be if he repeats this excess of effort several times. Overtraining in
cycling develops an enlarged heart—the “cycle heart”—which, in
time, favors changes in the arteries and kidneys. Various authorities
who have gathered facts from numerous post-mortem examinations
report finding from eighty to ninety per cent. of hypertrophied hearts
with advanced lesions in the kidneys. The proportion of deaths from
kidney disease is certain to be increased from injudicious and excessive
indulgence in sports of various kinds, but mainly from those which
strain the heart or over-develop it as reckless cycling does. Two
facts should be impressed on the public mind in reference to the rela-
tions of exercise to heart and kidney diseases; first, that they may be in-
duced by over-doing, either by too sudden or prolonged effort ; and, sec-
ond, that when either the heart or kidneys have become weakened, the
amount of exercise to be indulged in, must be far less than permissible
to, or wholesome for, a whole and sound man. Dr. Sapelier, a French
writer upon hygiene of Bright's disease forbids his cases any indul-
gence in cycling, even in moderation, but permits and advises walking
and horseback-riding. In my opinion, a stroll on a cycle can be enjoyed
with less actual effort and strain on the blood-vessels than from quick
or far walking, and surely some horseback-riding would be much too
vigorous exercise for many cases of even mild Bright's disease. Any
moderate exercise may be recommended for cases of kidney impairment
that will not cause appreciable increase of the heart's action, or uncom-
fortable fatigue. The latter, if it occurs, is likely to be an indication
that more fatigue-poison (muscle-waste) has been produced than the
kidneys can eliminate.
THE CURABILITY OF BRIGHT’S DISEASE,
To the possible subject of this affection, the most interesting facts
are those relating to its curability. In one sense it is incurable ; that
is, whatever portion of the kidney has been wasted and destroyed by
inflammation cannot be rebuilt, but must remain a scar. A good deal
of one kidney may be reduced to scar-tissue without throwing the
remaining parts out of work, and a cure, so far as it is possible, con-
sists in checking the destructive process, and saving all that can be.
The disease is slow, as a rule, and if diagnosed and attended to in time,
muº can be done for its relief. -
514 CHRONIC AFFECTIONS OF THE URINARY ORGANs.
Dr. Arthur R. Elliott says: “A beneficent Nature has endowed
the human organism in essential places with organic provision sufficient
to meet any reasonable degree of strain above the physiological level
that may be imposed upon us by the exigencies of life. Accordingly,
we are provided with lung-tissue largely in excess of the capacity for
aêration necessary in ordinary physiological living, so that we are en-
abled without difficulty to meet emergencies, and so it is that extensive
organic impairment of lung-tissue is compatible with a fair degree of
health and usefulness. We see this admirable arrangement duplicated
in the kidneys—organs which are even more abused than the lungs,
even more frequently called upon to protect the system from the
results of our excesses. It is certain that there is a far greater supply
of renal gland-tissue than is ever required in physiological living, and
which can be dispensed with without discommoding the individual so
long as ordinary conditions prevail. The degenerative changes which
are the special feature of the granular kidney advance very slowly and
may cxist months and even years before the renal-tissue has been so far
cncroached upon as to render the organs incapable of the proper perform-
ance of the work demanded by normal conditions. It is then only that a
distinct and certain set of symptoms becomes apparent. Ralfe indeed
states that it is only when two-thirds of the kidney substance has been de-
stroyed that toxaemic symptoms become prominent. If, by good fortune,
the disease is discovered in its incipiency, before the organs are greatly
hampered, a very promising field is open to our endeavor, and by judi-
cious management further advance may be arrested or so far retarded
as to enable the patient to live in comfort and usefulness many years.
It is not too much to say that the majority of cases of chronic intersti-
tial nephritis are never discovered, and that apoplexy and heart disease
frequently usurp its rightful place upon mortality records.”
In a comparison of views of eminent professors of all countries,
there is a remarkable unanimity of opinion to the effect that in cases of
Bright's disease, life can be indefinitely prolonged by hygienic and
medicinal means. At a meeting of the Practitioners’ Society of New
York, one speaker told of a commodore in the navy, still in service,
who was pronounced to have Bright's disease thirty-five years ago;
while another respected authority expressed the opinion that a person
with albumin and casts in the urine “might live as long as anybody.”
A life insurance examiner almost acknowledges that a Brightique may
do better than that, because, if warned of his weakness, he will be
more careful than the robust man, take less risks, and escape many
dangers that are liable to suddenly pick off the latter from the list of
the living.
I was once called to treat a case of Bright's disease in Worcester
County, Massachusetts, of three years' standing. The patient's local
DISEASES OF THE KIDNEYS. 5I 5
physicians said she could not live a month. She had been for several
months bed-ridden, and a dear sister had been called home from a
distant city under the supposition that she could not long survive.
In two months I had her off her bed, and she lived for over thirty
years, dying finally of infirmities peculiar to old age. After her recov-
ery from Bright's disease she used to say that a sensation was ever pres-
ent as if she had a cavity in one of her kidneys. Since treating that case
I have had many similarly but not so seriously affected, who have been
to all appearances restored under my treatment. In the case here
referred to I did not have the advantage of seeing the patient personally
before or during the treatment. Her sister was the bearer of the first
course of remedies, and the subsequent treatment was conducted by
letter and express. Years after her recovery she favored me with a
visit to express her gratitude.
Probably there is no chronic organic, or so-called “wasting” dis-
ease, in which good advice, management, and treatment can be so
effective in staying progress as in Bright's disease. In the main its
hygiene consists in moderation in all things, avoidance of hard labor,
severe exertion, and rapid exercise, restriction to a vegetable, cereal and
fruit diet, with eggs and milk, and abundance of pure water to flush
the kidneys. It is important to maintain sufficient bodily warmth by
suitable clothing, and always to avoid a “chill,” or anything approach-
ing thereto. With the inflammation of the kidneys subdued by appro-
priate treatment, and the adoption of a course of life tempered to the
tender condition of these delicate organs, “even an advanced grade of
contracted kidney may be compatible with great mental and physical
activity,” says a writer on this subject. The trick of prolonging life
on one kidney, as it were (and, by the way, the left kidney, for well
understood anatomical reasons, is most prone to disease), consists in so
living as to give it as little as possible to do, by avoiding such foods as
make ashes for the kidneys to Secrete (i.e., nitrogenous substances,
especially meats), and exercise that excites the heart's action and
hastens the production of waste matter for the kidneys to handle.
Dr. Henry B. Millard, while claiming that a much more cheerful
outlook can be promised for a man with consumption of the kidneys
than for one with consumption of the lungs, further says with em-
phasis : “When I say that many cases may be cured, it is not to be
inferred that a cure is always easy, or to be effected without a great
deal of labor and time on the part of both physician and patient. Cir-
cumstances must favor the latter in enabling him to pursue the treat-
ment uninterruptedly for as long a time as is necessary.” This accords
with my own experience, and I would even add that to preserve intact
from further consumption what is left of working kidney tubules, it
may be necessary to prolong or continue the hygiene as recommended
516 CHRONIC AFFECTIONS OF THE URINARY ORGANS.
for the rest of his life. He cannot afford to take chances of “colds on
the kidneys,” or other acute disorders which can be lived through by
those who have yet kidneys to spare.
FURTHER ON THE HYGIENE OF BRIGHT'S DISEASE.
Dr. Sapelier also remarks upon this in these strong words: “We
repeat, then, it is the duty of the physician to be severe—very
severe—with reference to the general and dietetic hygiene of Bright's
disease. Any imprudence, any departure from the prescribed regimen,
may be attended by serious consequences, and may even compromise a
cure and place the life of the patient in danger, or, at least, cause him
to lose, for an ephemeral gratification, the benefits of treatment which
he has received during a more or less prolonged period.” He strongly
advises, in accord with my own views, a continuous life in flannels—all
the year round. As to bathing, sea-baths are generally not thought
good for such subjects, but a daily sprinkle of tepid water and thorough
frictioning of the skin is advisable. t
Again, as to diet : There is general agreement that avoidance of
meats is wise, while all commend the free use of pure water as a
diuretic to flush the kidneys before meals and at bed-time, and all
writers equally insist upon free and easy action of the bowels, by resort
as may be required to hygienic or medical means to effect this purpose.
Milk is favored both as a food and diuretic, and in some cases may be
adopted as the only food with advantage, at least for a few weeks at a
time. Duttermilk may be an agreeable change. Eggs are generally
permissible, and so is fresh pot-cheese, but not strong or old cheese.
The hygiene of Bright's disease also requires a free and easy mind
as well as bowel. Professor Clifford Allbutt remarks that in thirty-five
cases under his observation, twenty-four showed a marked history of
mental stress or care. Whatever the relation of mental strain to kidney
disease as sole cause, none would doubt the necessity of avoiding care,
anxiety, and all depressing mental influences as part of the means of
cure. While mind work is less productive of waste products for the
kidneys to handle than is physical labor or much exercise, the nervous
system may be unwisely strained or over-taxed by work as well as
worry; and, furthermore, there is an expense-account, from many en-
joyments, which Brightiques better not run up too fast.
Bright's disease is quite a common complication of pregnancy,
going from bad to worse until delivery occurs. The poisonous state of
the mother's blood often blights the foetus so that premature birth or
abortion occurs spontaneously, as Nature's own way of Saving the
mother, for if this ordeal be safely passed, the kidneys may quickly be
relieved of their dangerous condition ; but sometimes it becomes neces-
sary to effect this mode of relief artificially, and wise physicians nowa.
DISEASES OF THE KIDNEYS. 5I 7
days keep watch of their “confinement cases,” and make frequent ex-
aminations of the urine so that they may know if the kidneys are be-
coming congested, and to what extent.
Dr. Sapelier gives further advice, which accords with what I have
been accustomed to offer all my cases: “Women suffering from
Bright's disease should not be allowed to marry, or, at least, should not
become pregnant, as all will agree. Men suffering from Bright's dis-
ease must, in our opinion, exercise the greatest moderation in respect
to sexual relations. We have observed cases in which sexual indul-
gence has contributcd largely to the aggravation of symptoms.
“Tobacco is an enemy to the subject of Bright's disease. We have
observed in the subjects under our care in the hospital service, acute
attacks which could not be explained otherwise than by the use of
tobacco, by chewing, snuffing, or smoking. If tobacco does not act
directly upon the kidney, it is at least unfavorable to the heart, which
is already sufficiently threatened by Bright's disease.
“As to alcohol, all are agreed in recognizing that in any form it
can only be harmful to the subject of Bright's disease.”
MEDICAL TREATMENT OF BRIGHT'S DISEASE.
As to medicinal treatment I can only say that there are many
resources for one who knows well how and when to apply them, but I
could not hazard any attempt to instruct the non-medical man how to
employ them without possible misapplication. Digitalis, for instance,
may be of great utility for diuretic effect, as well as a heart regulator,
but it would be very risky to try to explain when to use it. Iron, in
some forms and doses and in some cases, can be made serviceable, but
more often as commonly employed in some compounds, it would be an
irritant and may better be let alone. When employed it is better to
use vegetable remedies containing iron. There are many forms of
chronic disease where it is very poor policy for non-professional persons
to prescribe for themselves, and in none more than to the class of
genito-urinary troubles does this remark apply. Yet, because the onset
of Bright's disease is so like mere debility or indigestion, many do go
just the wrong way and ply themselvos with tonics, stimulants, and a
“high diet,” or take up exercises not well-suited to their real needs.
If the candidates for Bright's disease could all be detected, and prop-
erly advised before going too far in “taking title,” many could be
saved from its fatality.
I shall be pleased at any time to advise those of my readers who
have any reason to suspect that they have the disease under considera-
tion. Answers to the questions on page 761, accompanied with sam-
ples of the urine, according to instructions hereinbefore given, will
receive my careful consideration.
518 CHRONIC AFFECTIONS OF THE URINARY ORGANS.
Kidney Colic, or Gravel.
When, through perverted nutrition, the blood becomes impure and
the urine abnormal—either too acid or too alkaline—it may happen that
certain ingredients will not remain in solution, but crystallize into solid
particles prematurely or before the urine leaves the kidneys. Such
accumulations are called gravel, calculi, or stones, and are apt to have
pricking points or sharp corners, which, as the stone descends through
the narrow ureter, scrape along, attended with terrific pain, until the
Stone drops into the bladder.
A glance at Fig. 177 (page 507) will show that the kidney stone has
Quite a journey to reach the bladder, and the wear and tear thereof,
and, of course, the attending agony, will be according to its size and
shape. Some are very “three-cornered ” and rasping. The stone may
later make another uncomfortable trip through the urethra, unless that
canal is of sufficient size to favor its easy expulsion.
Persons who have one such experience are likely to have more,
and soon learn that they are victims of kidney colic. The treatment
necessary is of two kinds. During a spell of “borning ” a baby stone,
relief can be had by hot baths, opiates, and relaxing medicines, like
lobelia ; but the wise treatment is, of course, such as will cure the
Cause, and put a stop to the formation of the calculi; for there is not
only the distress of the colic, but the further danger that the gravel
may linger and agglutinate in the bladder to form a stone which will
some day require a surgical operation for its removal. Such operations
are generally successful, but not always; and in no phase of disease is
it more evident that prevention (by appropriate medicinal treatment) is
better than cure (by surgical operation). Some who read this may
have been my patients, when they were suffering with this very pain-
ful trouble, and they will be able to recall with much satisfaction the
almost instant relief they received from my treatment, and that, too,
without opiates. I might speak of some very interesting cases, but
time and space forbid.
Cystitis.
Inflammation of the bladder may arise from a variety of causes,
and produce an amount of suffering that can only be appreciated by
one who has had it. The bladder may smart under the influence of a
hot and acrid urine sent down from inflamed kidneys, until its own
lining membrane becomes inflamed ; or an inflammation in the urethra
may extend into the bladder; but, no doubt, catarrhal inflammation of
the mucous membrane of the bladder may originate, as catarrh does
any where else, from the irritating properties of the blood sent through
CYSTITIS. 5 I 9
its capillaries. The symptoms referrable to the bladder are pretty
much the same whatever the cause of the inflammation, but the deter-
mination of the cause may be very essential to successful treatment.
Pain and soreness over the region of the bladder, low down in the
abdomen, are prominent symptoms, and frequent calls to pass water,
inability to retain long after notice is given, and smarting while uri-
nating are among the symptoms to be expected. The urine is apt to be
“off color " or high-colored, and to contain an excess of mucous sedi-
ment or catarrhal (slimy) matter. Even pus and blood are found in it
in serious cases. The microscope is a useful aid in examining the sedi-
ment to decide the exact nature of the case. Of course the presence of
FIG. 180.
STMOOTEI. —BLADDER STONES. —ROUGH.
a stone in the bladder is cause enough for cystitis, and accurate diagnosis
of its presence or absence can sometimes only be made by a “sound.”
(steel probe) passed into the bladder through the urethra. The sound
of a “sound ’’ striking a stone settles any question as to its presence.
When, besides the usual symptoms of cystitis, there occurs occasional
stoppage of urine in passing, or frequent pains near the end of the
urethra, it is time to suspect the presence of stone. Some quite large
Stones have smooth surfaces and cause less irritation than others of
smaller size and of very uneven feel. The latter are especially adapted
for rasping any sensitive mucous surface. The small boy will go
around Comfortably with his pockets full of stones, but the bladder is
no place for them.
In the treatment of cystitis, after the kidneys and urethra have
received due attention, the bladder itself may often be considerably
eased by cleansing, antiseptic solutions injected through a catheter or

52O CHRONIC AFFECTIONS OF THE URINARY ORGANS.
soft rubber tube, which a patient can easily learn to introduce to the
bladder. This means of clearing out all ferment and urinary remnants
is of great service, but the main reliance for cure must be resources for
removal of the cause, or chronic cystitis may continue obstinately and
develop most distressing and even fatal complications.
Enlarged Prostate.
A neighbor of the bladder, from which it is liable to suffer much
inconvenience, is the prostate gland. In elderly men this is very prone
to become enlarged so as to obstruct the free flow of urine from the
bladder, for the prostate gland surrounds the urethra where it joins the
bladder. So troublesome is this form of obstruction that many of its
Subjects are willing to submit to anything for relief. Almost the “last
thing out ’’ in the way of surgical treatment is the removal of the
testicles, which many old men are willing to part with for so great a
consideration as relief from enlarged prostate. The theory is that
their removal induces a withering, or atrophy of the prostate, and prac-
tice, in the few dozen cases so far reported, seems to support the
theory. Whether there will be occasion to regret castration for this
purpose because of subsequent impairment of general vigor remains to
be seen. If all-round atrophy or progressive senility should be one of
its results, there will be “cause why ’’ to seek a better way. Among
the better ways already experimented with, is the cutting out of the
Spermatic cords, only leaving the testes in place, and surgeons are
reporting Some encouraging cases of this kind. Many cases of enlarged
prostate can be kept comfortable by care in diet and beverages, and by
Constitutional and local (per rectum) treatment, and if they now and
then get cornered with inability to evacuate the bladder, a soft catheter
kept ready to hand will enable them to pipe the bladder through the
obstruction, and thereby get immediate relief; but it is indeed unfor-
tunate to reach the state where it must be used every time. In all
cases, it is better to try skilful medical treatment before resorting to
Surgical methods, for medicines can be prepared for most of them that
will at least give relief to the more painful and dangerous symptoms,
and many of them may be radically cured by the use of such remedies
as will restore the general health. I would be pleased to advise any
elderly person who may be a victim to the trouble.
Incontinence of Urine, Etc.
The inability to retain urine naturally during day or night almost
constitutes a disease in itself. It is the “bed-wetting” complaint of
childhood, but in adults it is more often a trouble of the day-time.
Occurring in children there may be no other symptoms requiring atten-
INCONTINENCE OF URINE, ETC. 52 I
tion, and with the exception of wetting the bed almost every night,
there may be nothing seemingly wrong with the child. Various means
of relief have been tried, with more or less success. In some Cases
“moral measures” are needed ; that is, the child must be impressed
with the importance of rousing itself to attend to this function, and
even a spanking has been found effective, but I almost hesitate to
mention it, lest it be too often misapplied, for the fact is that most of
such children are really not to blame, and simply cannot help what is
entirely involuntary during a sound sleep. A vegetarian diet, Or
omission of meats of all kinds, has often been sufficient to cure. To
give the child less fluid drinks or food toward bedtime may be helpful,
but even that may be carried too
far. To rouse it when the parent
retires, and again very early in the
morning, may or may not solve
the problem. To raise the foot of
the bed has been recommended.
Generally, the quality of the urine
is not right, or there is a weakness
of the closing muscle at the neck A SOFT CATEIETER.
of the bladder, and these are conditions calling for appropriate treat-
ment. The urine may be too acrid or “not strong” enough. The
bladder most comfortably retains normal urine, and that is a mildly
acid or neutral solution of many things. Plain water is probably no
more congenial to the bladder than to the eyes or nostrils, but salts in
solution makes the water bland. Both in children and adults urine
may occasionally be too watery to be bland and easy for the bladder to
hold, or it may be too acid and cutting. The kind of treatment re-
quired depends on which way the urine is at fault, and if the urine is
not “off,” then the sphincter muscle needs a tonic. Pin-worms may b.
a cause of such incontinence in children, or other local irritation, such
as arises from the lack of cleanliness caused by an elongated and con-
stricted foreskin. Early circumcision, or dilation, may, therefore, be
just what is needed for relief of this, or even worse troubles of child-
hood, for which it has often been found responsible.
FIG. 181.
During the strawberry season, and other times, when fruits of an
acid nature are generally eaten, I hear from many adults complaints of
irritable bladders and frequent calls to urinate, with attendant heat or
pain. Caution in diet and the use of alkaline waters are prompt to
relieve. Many women suffering from a relaxed state of the pelvic parts
are annoyed by inability to hold urine perfectly when laughing, cough-
ing, or sneezing. Local, as well as general tonics, are then called for.
In men of advanced years, with enlarged prostate, there may be a con-
stant dribbling when the bladder is really over-distended—a true over-
17a, * -

522 CHRONIC AFFECTIONS OF THE URINARY ORGANS.
flow—and yet the patient be unable to let go what the bladder con-
tains. Such a state requires relief by Catheter. In Some cases, gen-
erally of aged people suffering from paralytic affections, there is no
remedy for the constant dribbling, and the only partial relief from
serious annoyance to be had is by wearing a rubber urinal to catch the
water as it comes : nd hold it conveniently for occasional discharge.
I have known of many cases, both in men and women, but more
often in women, where almost irreparable damage had been done the
bladder, through over-distention, caused by holding the water too long
—because it was not possible to obtain privacy for its voidance. The
bladder may thus become stretched so far that it cannot come back and
so loses the power of thoroughly emptying itself as it ought. Men can
generally find a way or a place to relieve themselves, but women should
use forethought and avoid probable conditions under which they would
be placed in the unfortunate predicament of not being able to have
proper relief when occasion demands it.
Urethritis, Gonorrhoea, Gleet, Stricture.
The urethra is the canal—about the size of a quill from the tail of
a fowl—which conveys the water from the bladder when it is being
evacuated. In the female it is about an inch long, and in the male from
six to nine inches in length ; and the diseases arising from inflammation
therefrom are about nine times as troublesome in men as in women.
In men it is much more subject to injuries from accidents, and to the
passing of calculi or stone. When inflammation occurs in such a tube,
the extent thereof must of course be in some degree proportionate to
length, but it also depends on the cause. Acid urine may make the
urethra wince, and cystitis may thus be its cause, but much more often
the trouble begins at the outer end of the tube by taking in the materia
morbes (unclean matter) of gonorrhoea or leucorrhoea. Urethritis of this
origin is called specific or non-specific according to its source; but the
symptoms are not sufficiently different to make it easy by them alone to
decide which it is. Generally, the doubt can be cleared up by putting
a drop of the discharge under a microscope which reveals the specific
micrococci called gonococci, appearing as twin dots, or four or more
together. Leucorrhoeal matter is composed only of mucus and pus cells,
as shown in Fig. 182, while true gonorrhoeal discharge exhibits the
dotted appearance of Fig. 183.
Gonorrhoea is so widespread and so contagious it is generally taken
for granted that it is present when a case of severe urethritis oc-
curs “even in the best regulated families,” for it is often acquired in-
nocently by both men and women ; but this is truer of women than of
men. The latter no doubt suffer most of their troubles in this line
through impure intercourse or contact with promiscuous Women out-
URETHRITIS, GONORRHOEA, GLEET, STRICTURE. 523
side their own homes; but cases of “don’t know where I got it,”
though rare for a fact, must be admitted among the possibilities. Care-
less use of unclean closets, wearing another man's trousers, or using a
“company towel,” may be the correct explanation, and so it behooves
travellers to be cautious about such things. Cases have been reported
in which careless men have brought this disgusting disease home to the
whole family, including all the children as well as the wife, so that one
of the most important facts for every one to know is the extreme con-
tagiousness of the abundant discharge of gonorrhoea *
commonly called “clap.” All who have it ought, for
general decency and the safety of themselves and .
others, to collect the discharges on cheese cloth or
other soft absorbent fabric ; to frequently change the
dressings; and to promptly burn those discarded.
Carelessness in handling them and neglect to cleanse
the hands may cause the victim of gonorrhoea to in-
fect his own eyes or leave some of the infective pus LEUCORREGEAL
where it will be the means of destroying the sight of MATTER.
children. There may be no better place than this to make known
the fact that if childbirth occurs when any of the germs of this disease
are lurking about the reproductive organs of the mother, the eyes of
the child may become severely inflamed. Many cases of blindness from
ophthalmia neonatorum are rightly set down among the terrible evils of
this species of contagion. In the severity of gonorrhoea whenever it
occurs, whether innocently or otherwise acquired, it is •
no respecter of persons, but one who is reckless enough
to pick it up guiltily ought at least to have conscience & §º
enough to so conduct himself as to avoid inflicting it ºf
incautiously upon his family or upon others residing .
in the same house; and, furthermore, however lawless º:
and immoral in his habits, he might have enough fel-
low feeling for those of his kind to avoid conveying it to
even promiscuous women with whom he is permitted -
to associate. Only doctors know how many men seem goNokkhosai.
totally devoid of regard for others in this matter, and warren.
they also know that one of the reasons of this is the fact that in many
cases, long before a cure can be effected, there is a morbid or abnor-
mal desire for intercourse as a part of the disease, growing out of the
congestion and irritation it excites. Even when the act itself may be
painful, the propensity to indulge may be beyond the power of control
of many impulsive and reckless men. A prevalent superstition, almost
too horrible to mention, will be here stated with the hope of helping to
destroy it, for it is indeed most mischievous. Among the more ignorant
classes there is a silly notion, as false as it is silly, that in an obstinate
FIG. 182.
FIG. 183.
WA.
§§ . .
* :
* -



524 CHRONIC AFFECTIONS OF THE URINARY ORGANs.
case of gonorrhoea a man can get rid of the disease by transferring it to
a virgin, and even cases of rape have been traced to this absurd idea.
Such a man could, if unrestrained, convey the disease to a hundred
virgins without diminishing it in himself one hundredth part. Yet
there can be no estimate of the extent to which this disease has been
spread through this and other ridiculous notions about it. The only
possible romedy is in making known the truth, or as a meeting of
Trussian physicians recommended, in “vulgarizing knowledge ’’ of
such things, however vulgar and disagreeable they may be. It is cer-
tainly better to have a knowledge of them from reading than from
learning by experience, however innocent, and indeed the more inno-
cently acquired, the more aggravating it may be and mentally hard to
bear. Wives who have gonorrhoea innocently thrust upon them often
suffer more from the painful sense of degradation than from the dep-
redations of the local inflammation. *
I have already stated that there is a non-specific urethritis, a dis-
ease hardly to be distinguished from true gonorrhoea by symptoms.
This may arise from intercourse with a woman with a leucorrhoeal dis-
charge of an acrimonious nature or, perhaps, from the contact of the male
organ with a scalding menstrual flow. Some writers claim that a severe
urethritis in the male may result merely from Sexual excesses, and that
the discharge arising therefrom would excite a similar disease in the
wife. So it appears that such a disease may occur in a family without
either husband or wiſe having been guilty of any decided indiscretion.
Cases of that kind have come under my own observation. At least there
were reasons for supposing that both were innocent of illicit inter-
course. The lack of knowledge of this fact has made possible many a
lively family quarrel, with fierce recriminations and charges of infidel-
ity by husband or wife, according as the first symptoms developed in
one or the other. In any such event it is better to restrain angry pas-
sions as well as softer ones, and at Once consult a specialist who can at
least advise you, and mend the situation, whether or not he can success-
fully explain it, However knowing a physician may be, it is quite pos-
sible for him to be puzzled to cxplain the origin of the family's troubles
when he cannot feel sure of the facts in the case, it being so often for
the interest of the guilty one to withhold the actual facts rather than let
out the whole truth. Prevalent as gonorrhoea is among those who run
about town with no regard to chastity, or exclusiveness, I occasionally
meet just such men who have never contracted any local disease and
must conclude that they are not susceptible to it. Almost all persons
are susceptible to kine-pock, but some are not, even though the virus be
often thrust under their cuticle. Similarly some men do not take on
gonorrhoea, either because they are too thick skinned or because, for
some other unknown reason, they seem to be practically immune. . This
URETHRITIS, GONORRHOEA, GLEET, STRICTURE. 525
appears to be the only reason why some men arc called “lucky,” who
take the same chances by which others get severely punished ; and,
again, as to those others, “the unlucky dogs,” there are a few who are
relieved from the disease very slowly. It may persist in spite of the
best treatment for months, and it is then called gleet or chronic gon-
orrhoea. The discharge may be the only lingering symptom, and that
not constant ; it may be only a drop in the morning, or now and then
through the day, or not even visible every day. Persons of scrofulous
blood are liable to this form of the disease, and probably they are the
main disseminators of the virus to others, generally no doubt thinking
the little drop can do no llarm. Too many men thus affected marry
before they ought, and by excesses renew active inflammation in them-
selves, and then light the same fire in their innocent brides, with no end
of trouble for both. I cannot too strenuously advise all who have any
lingering evidence of gonorrhoea to avoid the possibility of such gross
error by deferring marriage until consent thcreto is obtained from a
conscientious expert, who has been made acquainted with the whole
history of the case. It is not possible hero to make it clear to the or-
dinary reader when he may safely cohabit after having been subject
to gonorrhoea, especially if it have been protracted into the gleety stage.
As to the nature of this disease, it is generally thought that it is a
mere local inflammation, resulting from the invasion and multiplication
of herds of gonococci which, like the germs of measles, run their course,
and die out if the general health be equal to coping with the invaders
and whipping them out. I do not accept this view. I am absolutely
sure gonorrhoea is always as constitutional as is vaccination when it
“has taken,” and often there is as much evidence of fever, malaise, and
debility as there is from vaccination. In each discase there is a time of
incubation between the taking in and the breaking out of the contagion,
and the time is about the same—five to eight days. Both the vaccine
disease and the gonorrhoea are too lightly regarded, and too carelessly
treated with occasional results that are causes for bitter regret for the
remainder of life. Even an authority who describes it as a mere local
disease says: “A patient suffering from gonorrhoea should never lose
sight of the fact that however well he may fecl, he is subject to a seri-
ous disease which may render his life miserable and even cause death !
* * * The prime importance of quict during the early stages of
gonorrhoea cannot be overestimated, and is not generally appreciated,
even by physicians.” There would be far less suffering from gonor-
rhoea, quicker relief, and less lasting or long-drawn out sequelae if the
patients so affected could be made to understand this important fact
that the more they rest and conduct themselves as in any case of acute
fever, the easier, safer, and better it will be for them, and less costly
too, in the long run, for it is too often a very long run with those who
526 CHRONIC AFFECTIONS OF THE URINARY ORGANs.
ignore this caution. My idea of the constitutional nature of this dis-
ease is to me confirmed by many things—its incubation period, gen-
eral symptoms (marked only in Some cases, I admit), good results of
“laying up entirely,” the occasional development of gonorrhoeal rheu-
matism which every one must admit to be constitutional, and finally, I
find that in any and every case, there is advantage in treating it con-
stitutionally as well as locally.
The symptoms of gonorrhoea in the male generally make their ap-
pearance within a week after an exposure. First an uncomfortable
feeling, accompanied with an unnatural redness at the orifice of the
penis is experienced. In some cases a sense of itching, and in others
pains almost like those caused by the pricking of a needle. Next, a
discharge commences from the mouth of the urethra, slight at first, but
gradually increasing. The color of this is variable. In some it is
white or yellow, in others it is greenish or bloody. There is a tender-
ness on pressure to the urethra about an inch from the end of the penis,
and usually a burning or scalding feeling while urinating. In some
aggravated cases of this disease the passing of water is attended with
the most intense pain. The inflammation of the urethra is sometimes so
great that the canal will not stretch with an erection of the organ and,
consequently, when erections do take place, it assumes a curved shape,
its extremity being drawn downward by the urethra which, in its in-
flamed state, possesses none of its natural elasticity. Proceeding thus
far, the affection is called chordee, and it is a most distressing one.
The symptoms of gonorrhoea in women are less definite ; only an
experienced physician can determine, when a woman has a vaginal dis-
charge, whether she is affected with gonorrhoea or leucorrhoea; and
when the latter is very acrimonious, the difference is simply in the name,
for the effects, when it is communicated to the male, are precisely simi-
lar. If it be known that she has been exposed to the former, and in a
few days thereafter a discharge, attended with burning and scalding in
passing water, follows, it may be safely decided that her disease is gon-
orrhoea. But she might have this with no other symptom than simply
a discharge from the vagina, differing slightly from that attending Com-
mon leucorrhoea,
TREATMENT FOR SUCFI CASES.
Almost every one, “fast enough "in his habits to contract gonor-
rhoea, generally has in liis possession what some friend has handed him
as an “infallible recipe’’ for its cure. More people are strictured by
these “infallible recipes" than by the disease itself. Indeed, between
these “recipes” the advertised panaceas of quacks, and the heroic
treatment of the regulars, it is almost impossible for the victim of gon-
orrhoea to escape stricture. What is stricture of the urethra It is, in
URETHRITIS, GONORRHOEA, GLEET, STRICTURE. 527
few words, a partial or entire obliteration of the urethral canal by
inflammation or induration of portions of the walls. The annexed
illustration, Fig. 184, represents stricture of the urethra in the male
organ. In the first picture the urethra is laid open, to show the boun-
daries of that canal when obstructed by strictures; there are two prom-
inent ones given. The second picture presents simply a tube, with dot-
ted lines, exhibiting the points of stricture. The third is intended to
represent a cast of the strictured cavity, to show how nearly closed in
occasional cases it becomes. In some cases there is but one stricture,
and that is located about an inch or two from FIG 184.
the mouth of the urethra. Then, again, it will
be found in a few cases that the walls of the
urethra are knotted up with them throughout
their whole length, so that the canal is about as
much obstructed as a stone culvert would be if
it were caved in from its opening to its outlet.
In some cases, the symptoms of stricture are so
painfully unmistakable, that the affected per-
Son is unable to pass his water without intro-
ducing a small metal or gutta-percha tube in
the obstructed canal, as far as the bladder,
when the water passes off through this tube.
In most cases, however, the urine can be voided
naturally, except that it flows in a much small-
er stream than normal, generally with rather
more than usual effort, and often with a pain-
ful sensation which seems to be in the head of
the organ, but the stricture itself may be sev-
eral inches down.
While stricture of the urethra is most gener- STRICTURES OF THE
ally caused by neglected or badly treated gon- UIRETHRA.
orrhoea, it may be induced by inflammation of the urethral canal,
brought on by other causes, such as colds, urethral catarrh, contusion
of the parts, strains, passage of calcareous accretions with the urine, the
excessive use of condiments and stimulating drinks. Whatever may be
the immediate cause, while that cause exists, internal treatment must be
given to modify the acrimony of the urine, to cool and purify the blood,
together with local treatment of injections into the urethra of something
soothing and disinfecting. When the worst stage of the affection su-
pervenes, and stricture actually takes place, a combination of constitu-
tional and surgical treatment is necessary in the most difficult cases,
while in those of not a very serious character, constitutional remedies,
together with such local treatment as the patient can administer him-
self without the aid of a physician or surgeon, may be successfully pre-

528 CHRONIC AFFECTIONS OF THE URINARY ORGANs.
scribed ; but in no case of gonorrhoea or other inflammatory affection of
the urethra, nor in a case of stricture, should the person affected trust
to his own judgment and remedies, unless he be himself an expert in
the treatment of these maladies.
Among “young men about town,” gonorrhoea is regarded far too
flippantly, and many are heard to say they “don’t mind it any more
than a cold in the head,” but most of these reckless fellows learn their
mistake in course of time. Aside from strictures and the no-end of
trouble that may arise from them, gonorrhoea may be early followed by
the most intractable form of rheumatism, and lay a man up for six
months, or it may bring on orchitis (swelled and inflamed testicle), one
of the most painful diseases known, and keep him out of business on
that account from three to six weeks. If both testes be thus affected,
the inflammation may seal them up for life and render him sterile, or
incapable of paternity, and it is well for posterity that it is so.
In woman, gonorrhoea has opportunity to do more lasting harm than
in men. The gonococci (microbes of the pus) may find their way into
the womb and along the Fallopian tubes, and light the fire of an inflam-
mation that can hardly be quenched, or if it be, the scars left in its wake
will be very likely to cause barrenness and, again, it is well that they do.
Another serious complication of gonorrhoea in either sex is its in-
fection of the eyes, when through carelessness a particle of the discharge
is conveyed to them on the finger. Innocent children also may become
victims of the disease when gonorrhoeal relatives or boarders in the
family are reckless in the use of towels and handkerchiefs. The dis-
charge is always extremely contagious, and should be handled with care,
and cloths that have come in contact with it should, as I have before
advised, be destroyed by fire.
Perhaps no disease is more often treated with medicine recom-
mended by a friend, or bought ready-made of druggists; but the possi-
bility of serious complications and sequelae make it eminently wise for
any and every victim of it to obtain the best advice and treatment he
can afford. It is not a disease to trifle with in any case. There are
however, a few simple measures that all may promptly and wisely put
in practice as soon as they have reason to suspect gonorrhoea. First,
take things easy, lay off from work if possible, and at least go slowly.
Also simplify diet, eat less than usual, avoid stimulating food and
drinks, including liquors, tea, and coffee, and Spiced food ; and, if in the
habit of using tobacco, drop that. Drink freely of pure water, or a
mildly alkaline mineral water, or water with a little baking soda in it.
Flaxseed or slippery elm teas are good. Keep the bowels comfortably
free by laxatives or copious warm water injections. Locally keep clean,
and soak the parts twice a day or oftener if possible, with a large sponge
full of hot water, during ten minutes or more. Wear a suspensory
PLATE V.
P. H. T. PART II. WOMB ANATOMY.
º
-
Ž
:*º
Aº
Sh
º
º
:
5.
1. BLOOD-VESSELS OF WOMB AND OVARY.
2. LYMPHATICS OF THE WOMB.
3. NERVE SUPPLY OF THE WOME AND ADJOINING PARTS, shown in wºre
LINE NETWORK, MAINLY OF THE SYMPATHETIC NERVous SYSTEM.






PLATE VI.
ABDOMEN AND PELVIS. PLAIN HOME TALK.
SIDE VIEW OF ABDOMEN AND PELVIS, SHowing THE DAPHRAGM, Liver, GALL-BLAD-
DER AND 8ToMACH DRAwn up, our of NATURAL Position ; THE ‘‘REFLECTIONs " of
PERITONEum of 8ACK WHICH covePS THE ORGANS AND HOLDS THEM IN PLACE ; AND ALSo
THE RELATIONS OF WOMB, BLADDER AND RECTUM.

URETHRITIS, GONORRHOEA, GLEET, STRICTURE. 529
bandage to support well the testicles, and at first sign of swelling or pain
there, take to the bed if you have not already laid up, and call your
doctor. I admit that most cases of gonorrhoea get well under the dis-
advantage of attending to one's usual business, but there are compli-
cations which should at once put a stop to this, such as swelled testicle,
bubo (swelled glands in the groin), extreme odema (swelling with Water)
of the foreskin, paraphymosis, constriction of the foreskin behind the
glans penis or acute rheumatism of the joints. If any such complica-
tions arise you cannot afford to do without the care of a physician.
FIG. 185.
º º "S
ºº:::::::Nº º,
*ś/º
* jºu º,"nº - ...” º
URINARY FISTULA RESULTTNG FROM STRICTURE FOLLOWING GONO RRFICEA.
* rectum ; 2,bladder; 3 urethra ; 4, strictured point of urethra ; 6, 7, 8, 9, tracks,
and outlets of fistula, or false passages through which urine escapes, be-
tween the legs and back of the rectum. This illustrates one Of the most
troublesome complications which may come from gonorrhoea. It is of Course
a case for surgery, and a very difficult one for the most expert Operator.
The author has long been accustomed to invite free consultations
concerning all the diseases of the urinary organs, including several not
common enough to be described herein. Where analysis of the urine or
microscopic study of the discharge is necessary, three dollars is charged
for this, except to those already undergoing treatment. Samples should
be sent by express, prepaid, or, if by mail, only in special mailing boxes.













CHAPTER VI.
PRIVATE WORDS FOR WOMEN.
WANT the attention and candid consider-
ation of my female readers to what I have
to Say regarding the common affections of
the amative and procreative organs of their
sex. It will not do to pass this subject over
as too vulgar or indelicate for investigation.
If it be pretended by any woman that she
places no value whatever on the enjoyment
4%§ Nº which may be derived from the reasonable use of healthy
º ſ procreative organs, she will not certainly be ashamed to
N
admit that physical health is a blessing, and that disease, .
whether in the head, stomach, or the organs of gen-
* eration, is an evil which she should employ her faculties
of reason to avoid. If the subject is delicate, the complex sexual organ-
ism is also delicate, and a vast amount of human suffering, not only
to women themselves, but to posterity, results from a foolish squeam-
ishness on the part of many females, old and young, who shut their
eyes upon everything calculated to teach them how to preserve the
strength and healthfulness of the organs peculiar to their sex. The late
Sir Lawson Tait, F.R.C.S., the eminent English specialist and operator
in diseases of women, as long ago as 1890, in a popular lecture to wom-
en, opened his subject by expressing a hopeful view of their readiness
to hear the truth on this subject, and I wish that even now, ten years
later, I might have as much confidence as he seemed to entertain that
the desirable “striking change” has come about. He was reported as
saying: “A very striking change has come over the manner in which
women regard all matters concerning themselves; and this change
promises well for the health and comfort of the rising generation.
Women were formerly ignorant, and it was believed that it was better
that they should remain so, despite the constantly recurring experience
of all who had to do with their spººl ailments, that a little knowledge

PRIVATE WORDS FOR WOMEN. 53 I
on their part of their peculiar functions would save them endless suf-
fering. It is now an accepted article of faith that all matters concerns
ing our lives may become the subject of legitimate inquiry, of reverent
discussion, and that there is nothing known to us which may not be a
subject of instruction to the purest and most innocent mind, if handled
in such a manner as to have for its object the benefit of those who are
instructed.”
What the speaker said at the same time in reference to the physical
disabilities of women is also sufficiently interesting and instructive to
quote here, and it needs no amendment because spoken ten years ago.
It was as follows: “None of the many mysteries displayed by the
study of life has been to mankind more unintelligible than that of dis-
ease, and nothing is more striking about this than the terribly dispro-
portionate amount of suffering which falls to the lot of women. All
my life I have been engaged in the study of their special ailments,
and no conclusion is more firmly rooted in my mind than a devout
thankfulness that I belong to the other sex. A wise Frenchman form-
ulated this conclusion in the brief sentence, “woman is always ailing.’
Yet this seems to be the lot of civilized women only, and to be the re-
sult of their civilization—why we know not. Take the case of a half
savage negro woman, working in a sugar-field. The pains of labor will
come upon her ; she will go on working till her child is almost born ;
she will retire to some secluded spot, alone and unattended ; will go
through her travail, and return to her field work in an hour or two.
Such a proceeding would be certain death to a woman living in a civil-
ized country. Hundreds, nay, thousands of women in this country suf-
fer from diseases which are almost unknown—indeed, I might say are
absolutely unknown—amongst Savage races. These diseases are on the
increase—have increased amazingly in my own time. Why this is
So we cannot guess; but it is certain that the blessings of civilization
bring their corresponding curses with them, and that a change some-
where will have to be effected, unless we are to submit to the extinction
of civilized races by the advance of these special diseases of women.”
When Dr. Tait says, “Why this is so we cannot guess,” I am
surprised, but as it is the Yankee that “guesses” instead of the English-
man, this fact may account for that. Dr. Foote and some of his Ameri-
can contemporaries not only “guess” the causes, but they are presented
in this volume, or at least many of them, so clearly that they appear
to be self-evident. -
Many years ago it was said “Catherine Beecher goes from one vil-
lage to another in New England, and reports that there are no healthy
women to be found within their limits, though the oldest inhabitant re-
members one, his grandmother.” Dr. Anna Longshore Potts has vis.
ited hundreds of villages in old England, the home of the late Dr. Tait,
532 PRIVATE WORDS FOR WOMEN.
and other cities and villages from New York to San Francisco on this
continent ; also in Australia; and her experience is entirely in accord
with that of the late Catherine Beecher and the late Dr. Tait. I have at
hand abundant further testimony from physicians, both in general and
Special practice, but to take space for it would be superfluous. Even
our American novelist, William D. Howells, speaks of the “typical
American girl, never very
sick, and never very well.”
It is not denied that there
are many exceptionally
healthy women at all ages,
but those very ill will out-
number them. There are
reasons for this unhealthi-
ness among females, and
it will not extenuate the
matter to say that while
Our grandmothers were ap-
parently more healthy than
women at the present day,
they were quite as destitute
of physiological knowl-
edge. This may be true.
But if the advance of civil-
ization carries with it great
blessings, it also drags in
ORGANS OF WOMAN (DIAGRAMMATIC), its trail pernicious evils
FIG. 186.
To which allusion is made in this chapter—1, top which science as well as
Of º ; 2. º Of º . º . good morals must do much
or cavity, opening in front, and extending bac to avert. Our grandmoth-
and encircling the neck of the womb ; 4, the
bladder, with the urethra; 5, left external lip ers Were not so much the
of the vagina ; 6, the clitoris, or the organ in slaves of pernicious cus-
Woman corresponding With the head of the pe-toms and fashions as those
ms in man, but Without Orifice ; 7 is intended * who are in future to be.
designate at its upper part, the location of the ~ * d h d
hymen in young women; 8, rectum ; 9, minute Come grandmothers, an
terminal branches of one of the Fallopian tubes; consequently many precau-
10, one of the Fallopian tubes ; 11, One of the tions which are necessary
Ovaries. to maintain health to-day,
were not necessary in their day and generation. I do not wish to neg-
lect this opportunity to remark, however, that past generations of
women are credited with having possessed more universal health than
was actually the case. Only the living grandmothers are pointed to
and quoted, while it is not borne in mind that many of their generation
died even before they became mothers. Young unmarried women, and

FRIVATE WORDS FOR WOMEN. 533
young mothers, have died in all ages of the world, a large number of
whom might have been saved to become grandmothers, had they
properly understood and regarded all the laws of life and health, or
what are frequently contemptuously termed “new fangled notions”
by those whose fast habits of living are as fully up to the customs of
civilization as their ideas of physical preservation are far down in
fossilization.
It is by no means a
pleasing diversion to
startle the public with the
utterance of strange facts,
and with opinions entirely
at variance with those
popularly entertained, nor
to place one's self in a
position antagonistic with
everybody else, so as to
stand like a target for the Ç 52.
venomous arrows of en-
vious contemporaries; but ^
I have so little respect for
error, modern or anti-
quated, that I would rath-
er have my pen rest and ANOTHER SEETCH MORE TRUE TO LIFE.
rust than use it in pander- In illustrating the actual relation of the parts to
ing to ridiculous fancies each other. See preceding cut for names of
and propping up dogmas parts denoted by figures. This better shows the
which, if not bolstered up º
by a rigid conservatism, ing, thus weakening the support of the vagina
Would fall through their and womb. Actually, the vagina is a closed
own inherent rottenness. canal, as in this picture, and not open as gener-
This book is not written ally presented in illustration.
to gloss over prevalent vices or to eulogize customs and views founded
only on the whims and caprices of mankind, but to take a common-
sense view of the subjects on which it treats.
FIG. 187.
º:
f
ſ # ; º
# 4%;.
º #, § º
º % º:
º
ºf ſº ºr
|ſ.
Uterine diseases are becoming so common, that women entirely ex-
empt from them are more rarely to be met with than those who are
suffering to a greater or less degree with them in some form, as has been
already remarked by many observers. Nor do these difficulties affect
women merely locally. So complex and delicate is the procreative
system, and so intimately connected is it by the nervous ramifications
with every organ in the body, it cannot be the scat of disease without
affecting the general health. Even so natural a process as foetal forma-
tion in the uterus disturbs the health and comfort of nearly every




534 PRIVATE WORDS FOR WOMEN.
**.
woman who becomes pregnant. Particularly in the first stages of
pregnancy, nausea at the stomach and other disagreeable symptoms are
usually felt, while some females, through the whole period of gestation,
have painful, and others, alarming symptoms. In the case of a woman
of Lyle, who had five children at one birth, during the last two months
of her pregnancy, according to the statement of the Journal des
Annonces, all objects before her eyes were several times repeated, but
after her delivery her sight returned to its natural state. Now, if a
woman is so liable to suffer, however slightly, when the womb is simply
performing one of the functions it was made to perform, is it not self-
evident to every person that the presence of disease must produce
incomparably greater suffering 7 I can, at least, truthfully affirm that
in a large majority of all my female patients, I have found more or less
uterine disease ; and, further, that it was the intermediate cause of
whatever other difficultics existed. What I mean here by intermediate
cause, is that which, following nervous and vascular derangements,
produces, in turn, other physical ills.
CONCERNING CAUSES.
I shall not attempt to explain all the various causes of the special
complaints of women, but I do wish to point out the most serious,
common, and avoidable ones, in order that this chapter may be helpful
in showing what women may do to save themselves from much unneces-
sary suffering. In the American Therapist, Dr. John Ford Barbour,
has told so straight a story of the “evolution of ill-health in the Ameri-
can woman,” that I can well reproduce it here for her enlightenment.
This is his brief story: “Her undeveloped body is encased in corsets
when she is fifteen years old. At school she learns a great many
things, but is not taught that in order to have good health she must
exercise the muscles of her body, and especially those of the trunk,
daily and systematically. After marriage she settles down to a life of
physical inactivity; she takes hardly any exercise, and even this little
is not taken systematically ; she does not breathe with the diaphragm;
her circulation becomes feeble, her hands and feet are always cold; the
blood accumulates in her abdominal and pelvic cavities; the functions
of the abdominal and pelvic viscera are imperfectly carried on ; she
becomes dyspeptic ; her stomach is distended with gas ; her liver and
intestines are torpid ; the waste products of the system are not carried
off, but accumulate in the blood. The opinion is constantly gaining
ground that most of the functional nervous disturbances in women are
due to auto-intoxication (self-constitutional poisoning).
“By and by the pelvic organs begin to show signs of disease.
When one hears of the daily exploits of the abdominal surgeon, and
learns that there is hardly one woman out of five who has not some
PRIVATE WORDS FOR WOMEN. 535
form of pelvic disturbance, the conviction forces itself upon the mind
that surely our women must be grossly violating some fundamental
law of health. We have traced out the chain of physical causes which
lead inevitably to a stasis in the abdominal and pelvic circulation. As
a further result of this stasis there occurs a sagging of the abdominal
and pelvic viscera, and as the latter are underneath, they catch the
worst of it. Malpositions of the uterus are produced ; the power of
resistance of the pelvic tissues to invasion by FIG, 188.
pathogenic microbes is lowered ; the tendency
to plastic exudations is increased ; the resolu-
tion of inflammatory processes is very much re-
tarded ; and thus the foundation for every
variety of pelvic disease is laid.”
Corsets get early mention in the foregoing
account of the evolution of weak women ; but
much more must be said of their evil effects in
order to make any useful impression on the
mind of the coming woman at all proportionate
to their harmful impression on the body. In
order to make it evident that I am not alone in
my opposition to corsets, I will let another
speak my views for me. Dr. Jerome Walker,
author of a text-book on anatomy, physiology,
and hygiene, offers a very moderate indictment
in saying : “Any reasonable physician who
knows the importance of girls being robust,
must deprecate the hampering of muscular en- compositi: Photograph
ergy and the weakening of strength of internal Of girl in corset and with-
organs, for which bands and corsets are largely out corset ; an exact re-
responsible, for they are frequently tight-fit. Pºº"...”.”
tº - o - e & two outlines a t the
ting, though very infrequently is this fact ad- waist. This is not what
mitted by the fair owners of these appliances. is called “tight-lacing,”
Corsets or waist-bands, even if only moderately but from a working
tight, are liable to have three bad effects: 1st, costume-Pº".
binding especially at waist-band and slowing the function of stomach
and liver; 2d, pressing downward the contents of abdomen upon the
pclvic organs, inducing pelvic disorders; and 3d, restricting the motion
of the chest and its contents, the lungs. Rarely can a person wearing
Such constriction expand the chest above two and one-half inches, when
the normal expansion should be three or even four inches. Many can.
not reach an expansion of more than two inches—the minimum allowed
for admission to life insurance companies.”
The last writer fails to mention the limiting of the action of the
diaphragm, that great muscle which makes a floor for the lungs, and a

536 PRIVATE WORDS FOR WOMEN.
ceiling for the abdominal cavity. It normally acts like the piston of a
pump-fifteen times a minute—and does much to pump up the blood
from the abdomen and pelvis into the chest and heart. It gives a great
impetus to circulation, as well as great suction to draw air into the
lungs, and these important functions cannot be more or less repressed
or held down every minute without harm to the general health, such as
Dr. Barbour so well described. The vital organs must have sufficient
Toom to work in, or they must certainly be impeded in the performance
of their functions. The accompanying illustration (Fig. 189) gives
an outline when the waist-line is normal,
while the opposite sketch, Fig. 190, gives
some idea of what happens within when
the waist-line is drawn in by too snug a
corset-waist or belt. The liver, stomach,
and bowels can bear some compression,
but the mass that cannot be further com-
pressed is driven down upon the pelvic
parts, and then down against the womb.
At Chautauqua, N. Y., some years ago,
the dress reform movement took a new
start —as it does every few years—but
somehow lacked the momentum to keep
it moving, and the late Miss Frances
Willard was one of the promoters of the
“Dress Reform Crusade.” In a report
of her remarks upon it was the following:
“This death-line,” said she, drawing in
the air with her finger the outline of a
woman's waist, squeezed into the shape of
an hour-glass, “has filled more graves than whiskey !” And she was
applauded to the echo, many, no doubt, lending a hand in the applause
who could not show a proper waist-line. Her denunciation of the evil
of tight-dressing was as severe as she could well make with her position
as leader of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union crusade against
whiskey.
FIG. 189.
ROOM FOR WITAL ORGANS.
Golf and cycling, and other outing amusements of the leaders of
fashion, are doing much to make them familiar with the comforts and
advantages of dressing with room enough to breathe and run, and
among the more industrious classes “Rainy Day Clubs’ are aiding to
introduce costumes suitable for stormy weather. Fortunately there is,
generally, something going on that tends to emancipate women from
the worst faults of their modes of dress; but progress is practically
extremely slow, and reactions or relapses into “bad form * are far too
frequent,

PRIVATE WORDS FOR WOMEN. 537
Kate Field, when publishing her Washington weekly, in World's
Fair times (1893), remarked upon the advantages to women's health, of
Oriental costumes and exercises. “The mid-Orient,” she said, “con-
fines dancing to abdominal gyrations, marvellous as gymnastics and
absolutely impossible to women who have ever worn corsets. Such
development and control of abdominal muscles as are exhibited by the
Cairo dancing-girls in Chicago would, if possessed by American Women,
be the salvation of the race. Invalidism would be impossible, and
children would be born healthy. Other than as gymnastics the danse
du wentre has no interest whatever. It has neither grace nor beauty,
the dancers are not attractive, and FIG. 190.
their persisting in wearing French
heels denotes incapacity on their part
to appreciate the eternal fitness of
things. Vulgar men and women who
have set up a howl against this per-
formance would do well to look around
the American ball-room and dinner-
table and discover like food for prurient
fancy.” The observant reader will
remember that I have advised the
damse du ventre for constipation. The
last quoted writer is undoubtedly right
in also advising it as preventive and
curative in diseases peculiar to her Sex.
The stated object of the Chautauqua
crusade was to instruct women “to
stand well, to walk well, to breathe VITAL ORGANS CROWIOED.
correctly, and thus control the vital points of well-being.” Contracted
waists are not the only mistakes women make. By wearing too high
heels they throw the body out of poise, as illustrated in the next Fig.
191. Faulty position in standing, walking, and sitting, together with
a relaxed state of the abdominal muscles, fro. lack of proper exercise
and general loss of tone of fibre, ſ.vor a general prolapsus or falling of
all the internal parts. The relation of female weakness to general
bodily relaxation is one of the facts insisted upon by Dr. J. H. Kellogg,
and here is his forcible way of stating it: “So-called pelvic disease,
eaccluding infections, is seldom a distinctly local affection. A failure to
recognize this principle has led gynecologic surgeons to remove a vast
number of hyperasthetic ovaries which were sensitive only because the
patient was suffering from a general condition of malnutrition and
resulting nervous irritability, and not infrequently to perform unneces-
sary operations. The gynecologist meets with a vast number of cases
in which the symptoms relating to the pelvic organs are present simply

538 PRIVATE WORDS FOR WOMEN.
because the patient's general health is not good. Total extirpation of
the pelvic viscera will not cure such a condition. I have seen many
patients who had had both uterus and ovaries removed by some
Specialist possessed of a penchant for this sort of surgery, who were not
FIG. 191. FIG. 192.
:
º:-
WIRONG IPO STURE. RIGHT POSTURE.
Contrasting views of standing in the wrong way and the right way. The first
picture shows a sagging of abdominal and pelvic parts, while in the second
picture they are well posed.
relieved one whit of the various annoying symptoms on account of
which the operation was performed, but whose condition was, on the
contrary, actually made worse. A pelvic examination, even the most
thorough, is rarely sufficient to furnish the necessary data for insti-

PRIVATE WORDS FOR WOMEN. 539
tuting a rational plan of treatment. In the great majority of chronic
cases, excluding tumors and infections, the whole woman is sick—the
whole body—and the condition of every important organ and every
vital function must be investigated, and
the possible relation of any gencral morbid
condition to the pelvic symptoms must
also be carefully studied. I have nearly
always found serious displacements of
the viscera (vital organs) accompanied by
extreme irritability of the sympathetic
nerve-centres of the abdomen, especially
the lumbar or hypogastric plexuses and
the solar plexus. The strain upon, and
the constant irritation of, the great sym-
pathetic centres of the abdominal cavity,
from displacement of the colon, kidneys,
or liver, is a constant source of reflex
irritability, which, acting first upon the
great centres of the brain and spinal cord,
may be reflected to any or all of the
superficial nerve-ramifications. That
such an irritation exists is shown by the
fact that tenderness of the solar plexus,
of one or both of the lumbar ganglia, or
of the lumbo-aortic plexus was found in a
large proportion of the total number of
cases to which the foregoing statistics
relate. I have long been convinced that
the greater number of symptoms, such as
backache, dragging sensation across the
lower abdomen, inability to stand long
upon the feet, and similar symptoms are
not, in the great majority of cases, due to
pelvic disorders, but to the general vis-
ceral prolapse which not infrequently in-
volves all the organs of the abdominal
cavity. To cffect a permanent cure in
these cases usually requires considerably
more than the employment of such local
FIG. 193.
A MIS-SE(APEN FURM.
Showing the effect of heavy
skirts and a bad position in
a woman aged twenty-four
years.-Rellogg.
palliative measures as pledget-placing, electricity, and vaginal douches,
or even plastic operations. Such methods of treatment must be insti-
tuted as will reconstruct the constitution, give tone to the nerves, vigor
to the muscles, and cause a general increase of vital energy.” All of
which this work has, from its earliest editions, advocated.

54O PRIVATE WORDS FOR WOMEN,
CONTAGIOUS WENEREAL DISEASES.
Besides the general causes of diseases of women, heretofore de-
scribed, there are others more directly affecting the generative organs.
The contagious venereal diseases are too often responsible for not only
acute affections, but also those of long standing. That mischievous
systemic poison, syphilis, does more general than local damage to
health and displays its ravages from head to toe, in brain, nerve, skin,
and bone. Not a tissue of the body escapes its devastations, though in
any given case it is prone to take one part at a time rather than affect
all at once. I have already, in a previous chapter, briefly reverted to
the complicated troubles that gonorrhoea may bring upon women. If
it light up a fire (inflammation with catarrhal discharge) in the womb,
it may extend into the tubes that lead to the ovaries and involve them,
too. Such cases are among the most troublesome and intractable that
any doctor meets with. They are, doubtless, more common than they
would be if women who catch this unclean contagion were early
informed of the nature of the disease. In most cases, especially when
acquired innocently, as it generally is by women who grace the domestic
hearth, it is mistaken for a bad case of leucorrhoea, and before it is
thought necessary to see a physician it has had time to extend beyond
the reach of local disinfection. Any unexpected, or out-of-the-ordinary
appearance of vaginal discharge is worthy the attention of one who
can recognize what it means, and suggest what may be immediately
necessary to be done. If the ravages of gonorrhoea can be confined to
the urethra, outer parts, and lower half of the vagina, no lingering or
permanent disability is likely to follow in its wake, and its cure, with
proper attention, becomes complete. The critical and disastrous
results are likely to follow only when the pestiferous invaders (gono-
cocci) are allowed to go up to the private apartments and breed with-
out limit in the womb and its tubes, whose true function may be SO
seriously impaired thereby as to render the patient incurably sterile.
DISEASES RESULTING FROM CHILD-BEARING AND ABORTION.
The natural function of the female generative organs is largely
responsible for the diseases of women, or to be more accurate, I should
say that the management of conception, gestation, and child-bearing,
directly or indirectly, causes many such diseases, and for this mis-
management women themselves are partly to blame, and largely to be
pitied because so much goes wrong through ignorance. Many of their
most obstinate ailments may be traced to abortion or child-bearing.
Some abortions are the result of unavoidable accidents, but more are
induced by medical or surgical means or by purposely over-doing, and
the forced kind are more liable to do harm and leave trouble behind
DRIVATE WORDS FOR WOMEN. 54. I
than are those which come about naturally, as it were, or because the
organs are not able to carry gestation the full term. Some women get
a false idea of the evils of abortion because they think they know of
so many of those “mishaps” that were seemingly recovered from
promptly and without disease directly following; but being unable to
impart to them in language which would be free from technicality the
larger knowledge possessed by physicians, it is difficult to impress
them with the fact that forced abortions are dangerous and likely to
lead to many forms of regretable weakness and disease. While admit.
ting all that is generally said to women for the purpose of dissuading
them from resorting to this sort of relief from undesired burdens,
whether on moral or physiological grounds, I am free to say I hardly
wonder that the monotonous preaching on this subject is of so little
avail so long as they are expected to act as wives, while being deprived
of the knowledge whereby they may regulate the frequency of child-
bearing. I am one of those who claim that women should have the
knowledge and power to decide when or under what circumstances
they will undertake the important function of motherhood ; and I
would, if the law permitted, help to put such information within the
reach of all of them ; but since what I regard as proper or necessary
instruction regarding contraception (prevention of conception) is by
law denied to them, I do not wonder that women who have conception
forced upon them by law (analytically, it comes to just that) often
develop a mood desperate enough to seek unlawful relief, however
perilous to life and health. Custom makes them slaves ; law makes
them unwilling mothers | No wonder that some become distracted
and do rash things in spite of the cry of the physiologist that it is
physically destructive, or the preachers that it is a sin I see but one
practical remedy for this phase of social evil, and that is a fair and
Square admission that every Woman has a right to control the function
of her womb and to the best knowledge of how it may be done in mar-
riage. And, furthermore, the recognition of the fact that the world is
sufficiently populated with imperfect specimens to warrant the human
family in giving attention to stirpiculture. We want “fewer and better
children.” We can only have such when woman can protect herself
from those which are mentally and physically undesirable.
One of the good things attributed to the late Colonel Robert G.
Ingersoll was this iconoclastic statement: “There is but one hope for
the World : Science must make Woman the owner and mistress of
herself. Science, the only possible saviour of mankind, must put it in
the power of woman to decide for herself whether she will or will not
become a mother.” And Mrs. Josephine K. Henry, commenting
thereon, briefly said: “On these fateful words hang the destiny of
the human race. Oh I could they but fall upon Willing ears and
542 PRIVATE WORDS FOR WOMEN.
retentive minds of women, the mightiest revolution of the ages would
be on, and woman would become an entity, an individual and helpful
factor in civilization, with a sovereign right to her person, her name,
her opinion, her property, and legal co-guardianship of her children
would be conceded at once, and the criminal conspirators against
human welfare made to capitulate to human rights.”
This doctrine has been preached by the author of this volume, with
more or less opposition and persecution, for forty years. It was further-
more advocated as long ago as 1877 in a notable address before the
Liberal Club, at the Hall of the College of Physicians and Surgeons,
in New York City, by Dr. E. B. Foote, Jr., the subject of the lecture
being “Generation. Before Regeneration,” Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson,
the well-known philanthropist, at that time being the president of the
Club, The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher served up just about the same
ideas to the parishioners of Plymouth Church a few Sabbaths after-
wards, probably inspired by this same address, for he followed about
the same lines, and his sermon gave so much delight to several of, his
hearers, the latter were said to have followed the noted preacher to his
home to express their satisfaction with it. The same ideas are now
becoming popular, and they are taking a firm hold upon the consciences
and intellects of the most up-to-date men and women throughout the
civilized world. Even the most devout believers in the saving influence
of the Christian religion must admit, at the end of nineteen hundred
years of unsuccessful effort in trying to raise the standard of health and
morals to what it should be with the present hap-hazard practice in re-
production, the complete Salvation of the race seems quite hopeless.
The salvation of mankind really depends upon right generation as well
as what the Christian calls regeneration, and the former must precede
the latter. Whether one believes in Christianity, Mahomedanism, or
occultism, he must perceive that we must have better basic material
than we now have to work with before any great racial reform can be
successfuly accomplished, or even the health of the human family can
be greatly improved. Perhaps at the present time women are doing as
much to invite their diseases by injurious means of contraception as by
abortion. The law is more effective in restraining needed criticism of
bad methods than it is in restricting the vice of such methods. Daily
I am consulted by women who have injured themselves by cold injec-
tions or solutions of too strong disinfectants, or by incomplete inter-
course (onanism). Only a few days ago I examined a young woman
who had employed such strong injections that the Vagina was as dry as
parchment and as hard almost as boot leather ; but thousands will
continue to do just such things, many even when they know the harm,
until lawmakers awaken to the sense of the situation, and make it
possible to advise better methods than those commonly known and
t
*
rººts
DERANGEMENTS OF THE MONTHLY FLOW. 543
practised. Furthermore, I am not infrequently consulted by women
now ready and very anxious for child-bearing, who have been rendered
sterile by long resort to some injurious method of prevention such as I
have above-mentioned.
Derangements of the Monthly Flow.
Every little girl should be early informed by her mother or guar-
dian, that at some time during her girlhood, if her system is in a healthy
condition, a flow of blood will appear from the sexual Organs and recur
once in about every four weeks. This function is termed menstruation.
For want of proper information in this matter many a frightened girl has
resorted to every conceivable device, to check what she supposed to be
an unnatural and dangerous hemorrhage ; and thereby inaugurated men-
strual derangements which have prematurely terminated her life or en-
feebled her womanhood. I have been consulted by women of all ages
who frankly attributed their physical infirmities to the fact of their
having seated themselves in a snow-bank, applied ice, or made other
cold applications locally in their frantic endeavors to arrest the first
menstrual flow ! Intelligent mothers, who in girlhood, escaped this ig-
norance, this crime against Nature, and this penalty, I beg of you, as
you value the health and happiness of your daughters, not to take it for
granted that they will be as fortunate as you have been, but take it up-
on yourselves to discharge your whole duty to them, and impart such
information in regard to their physical functions as will insure their
safety.
Menstruation commences generally between the ages of twelve and
fourteen, and there are all kinds of unaccountable variations from this
rule. In the year 1858 there was living in the town of Taunton, Mass.,
at the public charge, a mother who was not quite eleven years of age
One instance came under the author's observation in which the menses
made their appearance at the age of only three years, and accompany-
ing the premature advent of this function, was the development of the
breasts as at the age of puberty. Another wherein a young woman
married at the age of seventeen, and died childless with consumption
at about thirty, without having had a menstrual flow, or any known
affection of the uterine organs. No examination was made after death,
but it was altogether probable that there was some obscure malforma-
tion of the upper part of the womb, the Fallopian tubes, or the ovaries.
Immediately preceding the first appearance of the menses, girls,
reared according to the customs of our as yet imperfect civilization,
feel considerable languor, aching in the back, pains in the limbs, chilli-
ness and restlessness; and, if they come on tardily, pressure of blood in
the head, headache and dizziness are usually experienced. The estab-
544. PRIVATE WORDS FOR WOMEN.
lishment of the function gives relief, and if the person possesses an
average degree of health, the flow will take place with uniform period-
icity, without unpleasant symptoms, until what is called the “change
of life,” except when interrupted by child-bearing and nursing ; and
occasionally an instance is met with wherein pregnancy does not put a
Stop to the menstrual flow.
“Change of life’ is when Nature terminates the menstrual func-
tion, and woman becomes emancipated from the pains, anxieties, and
cares of child-bearing. This takes place in some cases as early as thirty,
and as late as fifty-five or sixty ; but in most cases, not far from forty-
five. A statement appeared in one of the daily journals a few years ago,
that a woman in Batavia, N. Y., was safely delivered of a male child
at the age of sixty-four years “Extremes meet,” when we place this
Case in contrast with the one mentioned a moment before of the little
girl having all the functions of womanhood at the age of three years 1
Change of life often takes place prematurely in persons who have suf-
fercd long from physical weakness. In these cases the flow will make
its appearance irregularly, at intervals of several months, and greatly
aggravate all difficulties previously existing.
It was once generally supposed, and the same opinion is now enter-
tained by many, that the menstrual flow is in some way produced by’
the detachment of ova or eggs from the ovaries. Physiologists thus
believing, claim that pregnancy can only take place a little before, or a
little after, the menstrual period. But every physician in large prac-
tice who has been disposed to give the matter investigation, finds that
the ova are developing and descending at no regular period, and that
nearly all women are liable to become pregnant at any time. If the two
germs coalesce, some few hours or days before menstruation, it may
obtain sufficient development and attachment to the walls of the uterus,
to remain. But it is unphilosophical to suppose that either the zoö-
sperm or ovum singly and alone could effect lodgement in the womb
when the cavity of that organ is copiously drenched with blood. No,
it is cvident that the only relation that menstruation sustains to ovula-
tion is, that the czcessive presence of blood in the female generative
organs, once in about twenty-eight days, stimulates the generation of
the female germs. The blood that passes off, exudes from the con-
gested vessels of the womb and from its walls, just as profuse perspira-
tion sometimes bathes the brow, trickles in rivulets down the face, and
runs in a stream from the chin. And this profuse exudation is suf-
ficient to sweep everything from the cavity of the womb, excepting a
foetus which may have obtained sufficient development to possess at
least the rudiments of a placenta attached to its walls.
“What is the use of menstruation,” Some one may inquire, ‘‘ and
what part does it perform in the physical economy 7” The doctors
DERANGEMENTS OF THE MONTHLY FLOW. 545
do not essay a reply to this question, and it is consequently presumable
that they do not know. They look wise but they do not say anything.
It is perhaps one of those secrets that should not be divulged to the
public I have a theory and I am going to present it : MENSTRUA-
TION IS NATURE's w Ash-DAY. The ovaries above the womb carry On
a pretty extensive manufacturing establishment, and throw off the ova
and the waste matters, or chips, through the Fallopian tubes into the
cavity of the uterus. While this work of generation is going On,
Nature has a wash-day once in about four weeks and, pouring the
blood into the womb's cavity, washes its walls, and empties all outside ;
and in order to waste no vital material, the poorest blood in the circu-
lation is used for the purpose, for menstrual blood possesses none of
the vital properties peculiar to that taken from the arm, or to that
which escapes when hemorrhage occurs. While pregnancy exists,
house-cleaning is generally laid aside, for a period of about nine
months, and if the activity of the glands of the breast is sufficient to
arrest the production of germs in the ovaries, wash-days are not re-
sumed until the mother has weaned her child, and the suspension of
the manufacture of milk in the breasts allows the ovaries to return to
their work. When, at forty-five, or thereabouts, the shop is per-
manently closed and ovulation ceases, there is no further necessity for
the wash-days, and the menstrual function disappears.
The breasts and the uterine organs of the female exhibit the most
intimate relationship. When menstruation commences in girlhood,
the breasts at once begin to enlarge. Diseases of the womb or ovaries
often give rise to pain or aching in the breasts. Barrenness, arising
from inactive ovaries, arrests the development of the breasts, and in
Some cases causes the latter to shrink away to simply the prominence
of the nipple. I once examined a case of suppurating tumor in the
breast of a woman who informed me that when the tumor discharged
daily, she did not have her menses, but when it dried up, the menses
appeared regularly, and that there had been for several years an alter-
nation between the tumorous and menstrual discharges. With these
necessary preliminary observations for the proper understanding of
the subject, I will now proceed to speak of the derangements of the
menstrual flow.
IRREGULAR AND PAINFUL MENSTRUATION.
Irregular and painful menstruation is among the most common of
the many menstrual derangements. I group irregular and painful
because these symptoms usually present themselves together, although
cases of irregular menstruation do occur without pain, and of painful
menstruation, without irregularity. Irregular menstruation may re-
sult from the deficiency of blood in the system to perform the function
546 PRIVATE WORDS FOR WOMEN.
as often as once a month, and in this case it may take place without
pain. Painful menstruation may arise from inflammation or other dis-
orders of the womb, in cases where Nature is strong enough to force
all barriers, and present the periodical flow with mathematical regu-
larity. In most cases, however, those causes which are sufficient to
produce one, are such as may induce the other.
In some young women the menses are obstructed because the
hymen has not been ruptured, or in consequence of the aperture of the
hymen being too small to allow the free passage of the menstrual
blood. Then, partial retention and decomposition of the menstrual
blood poisons the general circulation, and the impurities so generated
and absorbed return to inflame and congest the womb, so that in a little
time the menses do not make their appearance periodically, or without
pain, even after the hymen has become ruptured. The same condi-
tion of things has often been produced by checking the menses in the
manner alluded to in the first part of this essay, and by contracting colds
just before or during the flow. Strictures obstructing the orifice
through the neck of the womb are often the cause of painful derange-
ments of the menstrual function. Sometimes the strictures are spas-
modic, occurring only at the time of the function. Anything, in fact,
which may obstruct the orifice leading to the cavity of the womb, is
liable to disturb the regularity and freedom of the menstrual flow.
TJlcers in the neck of the womb may do this, and so may any tumorous
formations therein. In some cases the womb becomes so displaced that
the menstrual function is interfered with. For instance, if the womb
be so fallen as to imbed the mouth of that organ in the back wall of
the vagina, the outlet is as effectually stopped as is the mouth when
the hand is closely pressed over it. In such a case as this, the womb
becomes engorged with blood before it forces the outlet, and then it
passes out sluggishly and in a way to cause the person so affected
much distress. In all cases of ulcers or tumors, impurities of the blood
give rise to them, and the predisposing cause of displacements of the
womb is want of vitality in the vascular fluids, with which to give
strength to that organ, although other causes may have immediately
precipitated the difficulty. Congestion and inflammation of the ovaries
and womb are frequent causes of painful and irregular menstruation,
and these, with the causes previously alluded to, are the Ones most
commonly encountered in medical practice.
Among those causes which appear less frequently, I may give as
examples—polypi of the womb, hardening of the inner lining of the
uterus, and the periodical shedding of the lining of the interior cavity
of the womb. In cases coming under the head last mentioned, the lin-
ing, in some instances, comes away almost complete; in others, it is
broken into strips or shreds. Then, cases are met with of fruitless
DERANGEMENTS OF THE MONTHLY FLOW. 547
women who become pregnant so far as the union of the zoösperm and
ovum are concerned, and Nature makes an effort to retain the germ of a
new being, but either because of inflammation or weakness of the pro-
creative organs of the female, or in consequence of want of vitality in
the foetus itself, it simply protracts the appearance of the menses for a
few days, or a few weeks, when suddenly the flood-gates are opened and
the menses make their appearance out of Season, and in Some cases
attended with great pain.
Immoderate flowing, or flooding, may arise from irritability or
inflammation of the womb, and when protracted, there is evidence of
continued inflammation and congestion. Women of strong amative
passion are more predisposed than others to a difficulty of this kind,
although instances are not wanting of those possessing little or no
passion being thus affected.
Insufficient or slight menstruation may also arise from inflamma-
tion and congestion of the womb. In some cases the inflammation may
be so great as to nearly or quite obliterate the cavity of that organ, or
to obstruct the outlet, in which case the flow is slight and labored, and
in many instances protracted. Slight menstruation may arise from a
bloodless condition, the person so affected having really too little blood
to perform the function properly. Cases of this kind often suffer from
great depression and lassitude at such times. It seems as if the nervous
forces and vascular fluids are barely sufficient to carry on the daily
work of the body, and when this extra work is added, it can hardly be
accomplished. It is as if an engine is producing just enough steam
to revolve a certain number of wheels in a factory and an extra belt
and wheel are added, when all at once the whole machinery moves
sluggishly, and as if about to stop.
*
SUPE’RESSED MENSTRUATION.
Suppressed or delayed menstruation may arise from an aggravation
of any one or more of the causes already stated in the foregoing ; or, it
may occur in consequence of conception. If the cause be disease and
the person be not bloodless, the face is usually flushed, the head con-
gested, while headache, vertigo, and more or less pain in the ovaries,
womb, and back are experienced. If the suppression is not overcome
by the healing powers of Nature or by proper treatment, hemorrhage
of the lungs may take place with the same periodicity that menstru-
'ation should appear; or the blood may flow every month from the
nostrils, mouth, eyes, stomach, or from the rectum. If suppression be
caused by pregnancy, the common symptoms are a gradual change in the
redness around the nipple to a purple color ; enlargement of the breasts
and abdomen ; sickness at the stomach in the morning ; unaccountable
aversion to some article of food previously much relished ; and longing
548 I’IRIVATE WORDS FOR WOMEN.
for something little thought of before. All of these symptoms do not
usually manifest themselves in one case, for while nearly all women in
this condition have the first three, the others are distributed about,
according to individual peculiarities. Then, again, the fact should not
be overlooked that other causes may produce these very symptoms.
For instance, dropsy may enlarge the abdomen and breasts and arrest
menstruation. Tumors in the womb or ovaries may produce the same
results, and the disturbance of the menstrual flow, by any one of these
causes, may induce some one or more of the other symptoms which
usually attend pregnancy. Even physicians are sometimes obliged to
wait and let time determine the question. It may be asked : “What
can be done in such cases 2" My reply is, give only such remedics as
Will have a tendency to strengthen and innpart health to the procreative
apparatus. Indeed, in no case should remedies be given to force the
menses. This is the common method of treating such difficulties, I
know, but not by any means a safe one ; and no physician can reason-
ably excuse himself for the act of eſtecting abortion on the plea that
he did not positively know pregnancy existed in a given case. It is
sufficient, and much better for the patient, to use remedies that have a
tendency to impart health to the womb, ovaries, and contiguous organs.
This treatment can do no harm when pregnancy is the cause, and will
allow it to go on to the full natural period with no injury to the foetus,
while in cases of disease, if properly selected and prepared, they will
remove the obstructions and prepare the circulation for the function SO
that Nature will be enabled to resume it at as early a day as possible
without disturbance to the general health.
Menstrual derangements should never be neglected, for in all cases,
excepting suppression by pregnancy, they lead to other diseases which
are liable to prove troublesome, and perhaps fatal. In women of slen-
der figure they are apt to attend consumption of the lungs; in those of
full habit, they are liable to cause affections of the brain, liver, heart,
and stomach, predisposing these organs to congestion and the person
aſſected to apoplexy. In many cases, when neglected, they induce
hemorrhages of a troublesome and dangerous character. Answers to
the questions given in another place in this book will enable the author
in all cases to discover the causes and suggest the best means of over-
coming them. (See page 761.)
Leucorrhoea.
By some this disease is called fluor albus ; but, among women gen-
erally, it is better known by the name of “whites.” It exhibits itself
usually at the outset by a slight discharge of a thin, watery fluid from
the vagina. In time this discharge thickens and becomes more copious.
IEUCORRFIOE.A. 549
In its advanced stages it may present a green, a yellow, a brown, or a
florid appearance. Often in one case the discharge will change from
time to time not only in its color, but in its consistency and quantity.
The disease is usually accompanied with a great degree of lassitude,
particularly in the morning ; fainting, variable appetite, palpitation
of the heart, shortness of breath, paleness, dark circles around the
eyes, pain in the back and loins, and, in many instances, Smarting of
the water, as in a case of unmistakable gonorrhoea, Indeed, in aggra-
vated cases, it possesses all the acrimony and characteristics of the
last-named disease. As I have already referred to the similarity of
gonorrhoea and leucorrhoea, when the latter possesses peculiar acrimony,
I need not repeat it here. What I allude to is presented under the
head of Gonorrhoea and Stricture in the preceding chapter. Consider-
ing the infectious qualitics of leucorrhoea in many instances, it is well
to suggest to married people in this connection, not to be too suspicious
of each other when something having the appearance of gonorrhoea
presents itself. I have on several occasions been called upon by men
suffering with discharges from the urethra, who were jealous enough
to suspect their wives of infidelity. On the other hand, I have been
consulted by Women, Who on the first appearance of an acrimonious
leucorrhoea imagined that their husbands had been up to something not
exactly consistent with matrimonial fidelity. An excellent imitation of
gonorrhoea may be often Worked up between husband and wife when
One is scrofulous. If both parties possess a scrofulous diathesis, the
chances are still greater that a troublesome affection of this kind may be
generated.
Leucorrhoea is a disease which is generally very prostrating in its
effects. Now and then a woman may be met with who preserves all
the bloom and exuberance of health while a discharge of this kind is
going on daily ; but these are rare exceptions to a general rule; for,
in by far the greater number of cases, the difficulty is attended with
all the symptoms peculiar to it, and in time with those of a more dis-
tressing character. The constant drain, if not checked, leads to gens
eral uterine derangements: irritability of mind, nervousness, hysteria,
difficult respiration, and consumption. It is, indeed, an affection in
Women corresponding in many respects with spermatorrhoea, or invol-
untary Seminal emissions in men; and it gradually undermines the
constitution of females who are its victims.
The predisposing causes which produce leucorrhoea are vascular
impurities and nervous derangements, and then there are exciting or
immediate causes, the most common of which I will examine. (I may
add here that all exciting causes derange the nervous and vascular
health, and that consequently there exists a reciprocal relation between
predisposing and immediate causes.)
55O PRIVATE WORDS FOR WOMEN.
It is humiliating to say that masturbation among young women is
a prolific cause. But the truth should be told for the benefit of those
Who, from ignorance of its consequences, are slaves to the vice, and no-
Where can it be revealed so appropriately as in the pages of a medical
Work. Under sixteen or eighteen years of age, girls are not so much
addicted to the pernicious habit as boys; but after that age, and until
marriage, the rule is reversed. This anomaly can be accounted for.
Rakish young men are always admitted to good society, while the
appearance of wildness among young women awakens the bitter
tongue of slander, which only the most modest and retiring demeanor
On their part can silence, while defiance to it banishes them from all
good Society. Thus the hot blood of budding man and womanhood,
stimulated by exciting food, drinks, and condiments, leads the young
man to the embraces of the harlot, and the young woman to the vices
of the secret chamber, so that the former sacrifices his moral sense,
and the latter her physical bloom and health. True, the young man
exposes himself to a fatal inoculation of venereal poison ; but with all
this risk, his vice, so far as the mental and bodily health is concerned,
is the safer.
I remember bein g consulted by a father concerning the poor health
of his two daughters, aged, respectively, twenty-two and twenty-four
years. From the description of their cases, they appeared to be physi-
cal wrecks, suffering with almost every complication that ever afflicted
poor mortals. I saw by an analysis of their symptoms, that although
nervous and vascular disturbances were the present causes of their
complaints, self-abuse had induced these. I informed the father as to
the nature of the present causes, but to spare the feelings of the young
women, I dropped a private note to each of them, revealing the whole
truth in regard to the terrible vice which was destroying them. With
commendable frankness they responded to my letters, acknowledging
the accusation, and informing me of their ignorance of its hurtfulness.
They further stated that they had long been troubled with leucorrhoea,
and that they were even disturbed with lascivious dreams, from which
they were awakened in the highest state of amative excitement. Many
similar cases have been presented to me for my opinion and medical aid,
but never before any so hopeless as those I have just mentioned, for
they were on the verge of insanity, and already affected with occasional
mental hallucinations as terrible as those which attack the degraded
inebriate. -
Sexual excesses among the married, bad habits for the prevention
of offspring, co-habitation with uncongenial husbands, for whom no
love is entertained, sedentary habits, retention of part of the menstrual
blood in the folds of the vagina, are also among the immediate or
exciting causes of leucorrhoea.
LEUCORREICEA. 55 I
If proper regard were paid to cleanliness (excuse me, ladies, but it
is so), there would be much less liability to this debilitating distemper.
Every female who has arrived at the age of puberty should thoroughly
syringe the vagina with pure tepid water every morning, excepting
while having her menses, and at the same time apply plenty of Soap
and water to the labia or lips of the vagina, for there are located about
the clitoris and contiguous parts, glands and follicles which secrete an
oily fluid for the preservation of their moisture. If this secretion is
allowed to remain too long, it undergoes a chemical change, which
imparts to it not only a disagreeable odor, but an acrimony which is
liable to induce irritation. All oily substances become rancid and dis-
agreeable by age and neglect, and these secretions, provided by Nature
for moistening, softening, and preserving the health of these parts, are
subject to the same law. When the vagina and labia are kept cleanly,
they are as pure and as sweet as the mouth and lips of the face when
they are properly taken care of.
In a previous edition of this work I spoke adversely, to an excessive
use of cold water in the vagina immediately after the copulative act,
for the prevention of conception, and I may call attention to this point
again. In order that I may not appear inconsistent, let me here explain
that immediately after great amative excitement, the nerves of the pro-
creative organs and the liming of the vagina are in an unfit condition
to receive a deluge of any fluid. If the fluid be cold, it gives a shock
to the excited nerves which, if frequently repeated, in time deadens
their sensibility. When, however, the nerves and membranes of these
organs are not under the influence of amative excitement, or just recov-
ering from it, they may be cleansed as frequently as the mouth may be,
not only without injury, but with decided benefit. Within two days
after the cessation of the flow of the menses, there should be a general
drenching of the walls of the vagina with castile soap-suds, followed
with clear water, so as to remove every particle of menstrual blood
that may linger, and then every day until nearly time for the menses
to reappear, copious injections of tepid water should be made to pre-
serve the healthiness and cleanliness of the parts. A medical gentle-
man of considerable repute—an able writer and successful practitioner
—having read the foregoing advice in an early edition of this book,
seemed to think so much washing tended to remove the necessary
secretions for the proper lubrication of the parts, and we had a heated
discussion on the subject. Doctors proverbially disagree. Thinking
an intelligent woman's opinion would settle it, he wrote to one who
has acquired not a little prominence as a medical writer and lecturer
on medical and hygienic themes, and on receiving her frank and pro.
nounced reply he was fair enough to show the same to me. Not men-
tioning name, I shall reproduce it here verbatim et literatim. “No,”
552 I’RIVATE WORDS FOR WOMEN.
!
she says to her medical friend, “I cannot and do not agree with you
on the proposition you mention. Dr. Foote is right, and I know it.
The Secretions you seem to think should not be disturbed, are excreta
in the same line with ear-wax and the mucus in the nose, and are
usually as disagreeable to the olfactories as the aroma under the arms
and in the groins of females who do not wash. My testimony is, that
the bathing daily of the feminine privates, both by external washing
and by internal Syringing, is the greatest tonic possible, not to the sexual
apparatus alone, but to the whole woman. On receiving Dr. Foote's
advice, I tried it, and find that in my own case, at least, it rests me up
as nothing else can. Don't ask me why, for I candidly confess I do
not know, but when fagged out by long exercise, mental or physical,
the Washing process sets me up again exactly as washing one's face
drives away the sleepy feeling and gets the eyes open. After a cold
Wash—I prefer cold water, but advocate lukewarm for the inner appli-
cation, with hot water and soap externally, followed by a cold water
finish —I feel as frisky as a French dancing-master, and am ready for
anything. I am sure that water and soap is needful to keep a woman
Sweet and clean, more particularly in those parts of her body where
the Secretions are natural and where the parts are folded within them-
Selves, so to speak. Being scrupulously clean, she has taken the first
step toward health, and the having and holding process. I most
heartily indorse all that Dr. Foote says, from my own personal experi-
ence, and believe his advice is good for all women as well as for a live
one, like myself.” This verdict, from a scientific woman, ought to
settle the question, especially when I inform the reader that hundreds
of patients have given similar testimony after following this advice,
perhaps I might say thousands, but I do not wish to speak extrava-
gantly. “But, Doctor, you would not thus advise unmarried women,
would you ?” Certainly I would, simply because it is just as necessary
for them as for married women. Health is of more consequence than
the whims of society. As I am a physician, I shall not feign ignor-
ance of the anatomy or structure of the orifice of the vagina in young
women, nor shall I, as an inhabitant of this mundane Sphere, where a
great many funny customs and foolish notions exist, overlook the Sup-
posed, evidence of virginity which young husbands in their own im-
maculate purity (?) usually expect to find in their newly made brides.
Nor can I, in justice to my views, ignore the fact which my extended
observation as a physician has presented, that many a young husband
has been disappointed in finding such evidence, when his bride was
as innocent as an infant and she, consequently, the Victim of the most
unjust and shameful suspicion.
ſt is a custom more in keeping with the drolleries and phantasms .
of the barbarians than with the common sense and Scientific light of
LEUCORREIOE.A. 553
the twentieth century, to esteem those only as virgins who have an
unruptured hymen. The Lew Africanus describes one of the wedding-
customs of the Africans, as follows: “After they were married, the
bridegroom and bride were shut up in a chamber while the wedding
dinner was preparing, and an old woman stood by the door to receive
from the bridegroom a sheet having the bloody tokens of the wife's
virginity, which she showed in triumph to all the guests, and then they
might feast with joy; but then, if there was no blood to be seen, the
disappointed guests went home sadly without their dinner.” Now,
this custom, although revolting to people of intelligence, is excusable
in heathens; but does it look well for those enjoying the light of civil-
ization to so far imitate it as to require an unbroken hymen as an evi-
dence of virginity ? Physicians know it is a very fallible test of virgin-
ity; that the hymen is often ruptured by various accidents; that cutane-
ous eruptions near the labia many times exist of such an irritating nature
that the hymen is broken by the incessant scratchings of the victim ;
that the hymen is often destroyed by surgical operations in childhood ;
that sneezing, coughing, violent straining, and any number of other
causes may break it ; that the test is in fact no test at all, and only Sub-
jects those who happen to have the hymen broken to unjust and cruel
suspicion. While writing this chapter I was called upon to examine a
little girl only seven years of age, whose hymen had been destroyed
in consequence of an irritating eruption on the labia causing her to
scratch and frictionize the parts, even in her sleep, and I could men-
tion many other instances coming under my observation in which the
hymen had been destroyed by the same cause or by accident. Why,
then, preserve the hymen 2 Why regard it as an evidence of virginity
when such a test only excites mortification and a sense of disgrace in a
large proportion of all young females, not a small number of whom
have always been chaste and unexceptionable in their character ? Be-
sides, the mortification of a broken hymen only falls on those the most
innocent, and such as have become the least acquainted with the vices
of the world. The courtesan and mistress, and even respectable young
women, who have eaten of the fruit of knowledge and trespassed
against social statutes, know how to resort to deceptive means to throw
off all suspicion when they are married. As a rule, those spinsters who
are “fast” enough to have carnal connection with a man, are also sharp
enough to avail themselves of such means, while only those who have
been innocent of illicit intercourse enter marriage so unsophisticated
as to be ignorant of these things.
In asserting that the hymen is a cruel and unreliable test of vir.
ginity, I do not stand alone. Every intelligent physician, particularly
in extensive practice, knows the fact, if deference to popular prejudice
lead; him to conceal it. Many have frequently proclaimed it, Pancoast
8a,
554 PRIVATE WORDS FOR WOMEN.
States: “The presence of the hymen was formerly considered a cer.
tain test for virginity, on account of its being ruptured during coition.
This idea has long since been repudiated, for it is not infrequently
lost through accident, disease, etc. In many instances it does not give
FIG. 194. way in the first or subsequent
connections and pregnancy. In
Such cases the spermatozoa of the
male work themselves through the
Opening of the hymen, and finally
pass up through the vagina, uterus,
and into the Fallopian tubes, where
impregnation occurs. Therefore,
medical writers no longer regard
the presence of the hymen a proof
of chastity or its absence a proof of
immorality.”
Dr. Ferguson says: “The sides
of the vagina are in contact ordi-
marily, but it is capable of enormous
distention and of again returning
to its natural size. The opening is
closed by a fold of the mucous
membranc, which is called the
hymen. This membrane is casily
ruptured, or it may become so re-
laxed as scarcely to be perceptible,
which will account for its rarity in
adults. From very carly times it
has been made the test of virginity,
its absence being considered con-
clusive proof of sexual intercourse
having taken place. Modern inves-
tigations have proved, not only that
it may be destroyed by many causes
11, tho vagina, and above it the uterus; unconnected with sc Xu a l indul-
o, the bladder, 1, the rectum; s, gence, but that intercourse may
stomach ; X, intoStines. take place, followed by pregnancy,
without its destruction. It is, therefore, of mo value as a test.”
Dr. Parr states: “The hymen naturally shrinks with years, or is
torn by straining, and often disappears at an early age. It can, there-
fore, be no proof of virginity.”
Dr. Wilson remarks, that “the hymen must not be considered a
necessary accompaniment of virginity, for its ea’istence is very uncertain.
When present it assumes a variety of appearances; it may be a mem-
W. W. tº º
ºw".. g-S sº º Aº º
ºſſilliºğ
| º '. | lº; § N
Łº. . . . - º d º
FIEMALE INTERNAL ORGANS FXPOSED.

















TIEUCORIRH(EA. 555
branous fringe with a round opening in the centre; or a semilunar
ſold leaving an opening in front ; or a transverse septum leaving an
opening both in front and behind ; or a vertical, bored with an open-
ing on either side.”
The natural purpose of the hymen is to protect from colds and ex-
posures the sensitive sexual organization of the female before the age
of puberty, for until this is sufficiently developed to perform the men-
strual function it is extremely delicate. We see similar protective
provisions throughout Nature. The “leaves of the common chick-
weed approach each other in pairs, so as to include within their upper
surfaces the tender rudiments of the young shoot.” The bud of every
flower is so enveloped as to protect its delicate internal structure till
maturity, when it bursts forth with its fresh beauty and imparts
delightful fragrance to every passing Zephyr. Nuts of every variety
are provided with an outcr burr or shuck to protect them in their
embryonic state, and by the time the autumnal frosts come, the shell
which contains the meat becomes strong enough without protection,
so that the outer one can be dispensed with. Many other illustrations
of this impression might be given.
It is difficult to tell how much the hymen may have to do in shiclal-
ing the procreative organs of females from exposure and disease, dur-
ing the early period of their development. But the age of puberty,
indicatcd by the appearance of the menses, is one in which the hymen
may be altogether dispensed with ; for whether accident or marriage
happens to the young female within six hours or six years after the
appearance of the menses, it is certain her reproductive organs are fully
matured, and that the hymen has fully subserved its purpose. In
some cases the hymen proves so great an obstacle to the flow of the
menses that the whole vaginal canal becomes blocked up, when
hysteria and other spasmodic affections ensue. Under such circum-
stances it must necessarily be ruptured, and, when very strong, with
the knife of the surgeon. When the hymen remains unbroken until
after marriage, it occasionally occurs that, it has become so cartilaginous
by age that the vagina cannot be entercd, in which case the unfortunate
bride is obliged to submit to a surgical operation for its removal.
Now, if this membrane was not so carefully protected and valued, such
annoyances as these would be avoided, while the hundreds and thou-
sands who have, by accident, ruptured it, would not be the objects of
crushing suspicion on the part of those who possess so little anatomical
knowledge that they are not aware such accidents ever happen. The
commencement of menstruation marks a new era in the life of a
female. She becomes more graceful in her manners ; her face changes;
her breasts rapidly develop ; she loses her childish airs and becomes
more attractive and womanly. It is then that she shºld be treated as
556 PRIVATE WORDS FOR WOMEN.
a Woman, not only socially, but hygienically and medically. The
hymen, if it still exists will have subserved its purpose.
The menstrual blood was supposed by the ancient Jews and the
medical men of Arabia, to possess peculiar malignant properties, and
in some countries the laws and customs required that females should
be cloistered during the menstrual periods. In Isaiah xxx. 22, the
writer speaks of the defilement of graven images, which shall be cast
away as a menstruous cloth ; and in Ezekiel xviii. 6, and xxxvi. 17,
allusions of the same import are made. “It was formerly supposed,
and so stated by Pliny and others, that the menstrual blood contained
principles of a noxious and poisonous character. Pliny informs us
that “the presence of a menstrual woman turns wine sour, causes trees
to shed their fruit, parches up their young fruit, and makes them for-
ever barren ; dims the splendor of mirrors and the polish of ivory,
turns the edge of sharpened iron, converts brass into rust, and is the
cause of canine rabies.’”
While I have no respect for antiquated notions, unless sustained
by reason and philosophy, I am disposed to agree with these ancient
views so far as this : that the menstrual blood becomes acrimonious if
it is permitted to remain and decompose in the folds of the female
vagina, and that leucorrhoea and ulceration of the vagina or womb are
often the results of the excoriating properties developed by particles
retained in the vagina, and particularly in that of young females,
whose hymens have not been ruptured. My observation fully sustains
these conclusions, but I do not think the menstrual blood malignant
or injurious, if a woman takes care that the vaginal cavity is cleared of
all relics of the fluid. º
Mankind entertain a thousand whims, and I am not disposed in this
work to meddle with any which do not interfere with cleanliness and
good health; but I consider it my prerogative to attack those which do
interfere with physical development, and the comfort and health of
the human race; and I cannot but regard that one which leads a young
husband to suspiciously and sneakingly seek to know if his young bride
has an unruptured hymen, as humiliating and degrading to all the
nobler attributes of a moral and intellectual being. My advice, there-
fore, is, that single females, as well as married, should keep the
vagina cleansed of every decomposing particle of menstrual blood, and
that the female syringe should be thoroughly used within forty-eight
hours after the menses have ceased. The more efficient the instrument
used the better. In fact, the common glass and metallic syringes are
little better than none. The various patterns of India-rubber syringes
are the best, because they can throw such a volume of water, and that,
too, with so much force, that every particle of decomposing blood can
be washed away. The annexed cuts represent the best articles of the
FAT, LING OF THE WOMB. 557
&
kind, considering simplicity and little liability to get out of order. They
should find a place among the articles of every woman’s toilet-room.
Young unmarried women, of course, value (or at least should) as
of first and paramount importance in the regulation of their customs
and habits, the advice of intelligent mothers. I would not urge upon
them the use of the syringe at the end of each monthly period without
the consent of their maternal guardians. But may I not hope that
sensible mothers, who watch with anxious eye the first symptoms
of disease and decline in daughters just blooming into womanhood,
will take a practical view of the hints I have given, and advise them
to regard more scrupulously the requisites of health than the morbid
and foolish notions of sensual mankind As for married women, there
is no possible excuse for their non-observance of
the most rigid rules for the maintenance of cleanli-
ness. They should use the female syringe very
thoroughly at the end of each catamenial flow,
with Soap and water, and then daily with pure
Water, as before directed.
The use of astringent injections is the most popu-U
lar mode of treating leucorrhoea, but however
much relief may be obtained in this way, it is
usually of the most temporary nature, unless ac-
companied with such medicaments as will improve **** ***N*
the general health and impart vitality to the whole
procreative system. A bad case of leucorrhoea is FIG. 196.
of quite too threatening a nature to trifle with ;
and, in its incipient stages, it had much better
receive skilful treatment, for it is liable at any
time to assume a troublesome and prostrating form,
which may end in premature decline. WAGINAL SYRINGE.
FIG, 195.
Falling of the Womb.
This difficulty may almost be said to be coexistent with civilization.
Travellers report that among the women of Savage and semi-barbarous
countries this affection is hardly known. This fact, taken in conjunc-
tion with the proverbial one tha falling of the womb is a prevalent
disease with women living under our system of society, furnishes a
subject worthy of the consideration of medical men, social reformers,
and of those who have the good of humanity at heart.
When the abdominal muscles, or those of the womb itself, become
relaxed by insufficient nervous stimuli; when the vagina becomes
weak through the debilitating effects of leucorrhoea, so that it fails to
do its part in Sustaining in its place the organ suspended within its


558 PRIVATE WORDS FOR WOMEN.
walls; when a pernicious fashion induces a woman of not very strong
muscular organization to compress her waist so as to press down the
stomach and bowels below their normal position ; when constipation
engorges the intestines with fecal matter so as to produce a pressure at
the top or back of the womb ; or when a pregnant female, bound on
expelling from the uterus the embryo of a human being, resorts to some
means to effect abortion ; through any one or more of these causes, the
FIG. 197.
SS:
§ -
THE WOMB FALLEN FORWARD ON THE BLADDER,
advent of a distressing disease, usually termed prolapsus uteri, may
very reasonably be looked for. Although more common to married
women, the unmarried are not exempt from it. If correct statistics of
the prevalence of this disease could be presented, they would astonish
the reader. -
The position of the womb when it is prolapsed is various. In some
cases it falls over to one side or the other ; sometimes it turns almost a
complete somersault ; in a few cases there will be found to be a pro-

FAILLING OF THE WOMB. 559
lapsus not only of the womb, but of the vagina, so that the neck of the
womb absolutely protrudes; in some cases it is found to lie crosswise—
the top pressing one side of the vagina, and the neck the other; or
the neck may press the back wall of the vagina while the top lies
against the front wall, or vice versa. In most cases the womb falls
either forward or backward, keeping rather more of an oblique than a
FIG. 198.
Wººll.
22.
* * Ž
f
%
ſº º:
º º
WS ºš
º
THE WOMB FALLEN BACKWARD AGAINST THE RECTUM.
horizontal position. The illustration, Fig. 197, represents pretty well
the position of the womb when it is fallen forward. When the organ
occupies this position, the mouth of the womb is generally found to be
somewhat imbedded in the back wall of the vagina. This point is not
so well illustrated in the figure presented. Its position, however,
against the bladder is well shown, and when in this position it causes a
frequent desire for micturition. . When fallen backward, as represented











560 PRIVATE WORDS FOR WOMEN.
in Fig. 198, it then interferes with the free expulsion of the faeces by
its pressure against the rectum, thereby predisposing the one affected to
Constipation ; and if, as is sometimes the case in this unnatural position,
the neck of the womb presses against the neck of the bladder, micturi-
tion becomes difficult, and at times painful. This may also be the case
When the womb is fallen forward, if the muscular relaxation is so great
as to drop the womb below the upper or main part of the bladder.
FIG. 199.
K-
º "
N
NS
*N
º
*§
§
PROCIDENTIA,
The womb so far fallen as to protrude from the body—the extreme possibility,
and, fortunately, not common.
The common symptoms of falling of the womb are dragging or bearing-
down sensations in the lower part of the abdomen ; pain and numbness
in the limbs; weakness in the loins and lower part of the back ; gen-
eral debility, and nervous irritability. I say these are the common
symptoms, but I should here mention that I have often encountered
cases of prolapsus of the womb in my practice, in which there were no
unpleasant local symptoms whatever. The displacement had occurred
at such an early age that the system had been made gradually to toler-
ate its unnatural position. In these cases, when the physician Suspects

FALLING OF THE WOMB. 56I
Something wrong about the uterine organs, the patient quickly informs
him that she is perfectly sound in that locality ; and she has reason to
think so because she has no one of the symptoms common to an affec-
tion of this kind ; but an examination reveals the correctness of her
physician's opinion ; and it is generally found in cases of this kind that
their ill-health proceeds directly or indirectly from the uterine displace-
ment.
Leucorrhoea generally precedes, and in most cases attends, falling
of the womb. When chronic irritation or inflammation, with more or
less congestion, is also present, existence is a burden, and married life
a curse rather than a blessing. Unless relieved or cured, months or
years of misery, according to the endurance of the sufferer, are fast-
ened upon her, until consumption, or some other disease, in a fatal
form, forever relieves her of her physical distress.
In the early stages of the disease the exercise of walking is neces-
Sary to keep up what is left of the muscular strength ; but in advanced
stages this exercise is generally too painful to be endured, and in such
cases frequent manipulation of the abdomen with the hand should be
resorted to. All the muscles may indeed be benefited by pressure and
manipulation by a healthy hand, and the danse du ventre may be ac-
quired with great benefit, or, systematic gymnastics for the abdominal
muscles may be practised. -
To cure prolapsus, various vaginal supporters or pessaries have
been invented, more for the purpose of making money than doing
good. These mechanical means of support are irritating to the womb
and vagina, which are so delicately organized and permeated with
sensitive nerves, that constant contact with any wood, glass, earthen,
or metallic contrivance used to support the parts, can only give tem-
porary relief and ultimate injury in most cases; while instances do
occur in which the first effects are so irritating and distressing that the
patient has more inflammation induced thereby. These worse than sense-
less things should be dispensed with entirely, and the disease treated
locally and constitutionally, as the common-sense of the skilful physi.
cian naturally suggests.
It is only fair to admit that there is a great difference of opinion
among physicians as to the utility of pessaries. Of course I feel sure
that the eminent authorities whom I can quote as entirely agreeing
with me are in the right ; and if so, there has been a great deal of
inventive genius and mechanical skill thrown away in the devising of
a thousand different styles of pessaries—mostly abominations Many
physicians who employ them admit that they are only temporary ex-
pedients, and many have experimented with them for years, finally
to throw them all aside. A few, unfortunately, still have them “on
the brain,” but their day is past. Dr. Paul F. Mundé employs them
562 PRIVATE WORDS FOR WOMEN.
“for temporary relief.” only, and relies mainly on posture and vaginal
tampons. He says in the American Journal of Obstetrics that “the
protracted wearing of astringent vaginal tampons, introduced daily,
offers for some cases of ante- and retro-displacements an excellent and
for most cases of procidentia, almost the only efficient and safe remedy
for the displacement, far superior to all steadily worn hard or soft
pessaries. A procidentia of uterus or vagina may even be cured by
Several months of this treat-
ment, if the affection be not
of too long standing.”
FIG, 200.
I will call upon one other
witness among gynecologi-
cal specialists to reinforce
my opinion about pessaries.
Dr. Horatio R. Bigelow, of
Washington, D. C., in an
article contributed to the
Medical Record of New York,
remarks as follows : “There
are some reasons which al-
most lead me to believe that
pessaries are an abomination.
The resultant ease and com-
fort may be followed by
after-suffering, and is con-
tinuous only with the wear-
ing of the support. No per-
manent cure is brough t
about ; the vaginal walls are
put upon a stretch, so that
they lose their contractility,
and can never be relied upon
for any natural support to the uterus ; the bladder and rectum are
both intolerant of the pressure, and the superimposed uterus suffers at
the fundus in a large proportion of cases. In retroversion I have
found scores of women who complained of rectal tenesmus and pain,
irritation at the neck of the bladder, and of a sore spot at the fundus,
who were wearing a most carefully adjusted pessary made from exact
measurement. In ante-flexion they accomplish absolutely nothing.
The whole principle is wrong. Some women, especially those with
lymph-adenitis, can wear no support whatever. So far as I possibly
can I. rely upon pneumatic pressure, replacement, and astringent tam-
pons. In other cases I use the pessary for want of Something better,
but always with fear and trembling.”
SOME OF THE PESS ARIES IN USE.

FALLING OF THE WOMB. 563
I can recall a case of a teacher of Boston, who wrote me regarding
a uterine displacement which she had supported by pessaries for many
years. After investigating it I proposed treatment which would
require her, in a few weeks, to give up the pessaries aſtogether. To
which she promptly replied that that would be impossible, as she could
not waſk or stand erect without their support. She seemed to have no
idea of getting rid of the pessaries, but simply sought relief from the
irritation and inflammation which they caused. She seemed to imagine
that she was destined to be a slave to them for the period of her natural
life. But the pessaries were now causing much painful inflammation,
and what she desired was relief from that. I took the case for the pro-
posed purpose, and in six weeks her difficulty was so far relieved that
she could get along without these artificial supports, and in a few months
she became as free from her old chronic trouble as if she had never had
it. This is one of many cases I might cite to show that in supposed
incurable troubles of this kind, the pessaries may not only be set aside,
but the displacement for which they are employed radically overcome.
There is a pessary, however (see Fig. 201), which is not objectionable
on many of the grounds herein named, and which may be found ser-
viceable in elderly women who are so flabby or relaxed that no elas-
ticity or tone can be restored to them, and it may be utilized tempo-
rarily in younger women until a normal tone can be revived by other
appropriate means. It is a pessary that does not distend the vagina or
press hurtfully on neighboring parts, but holds the womb in a well-
shaped cup above, taking its support below from rubber bands which
are held in place by an abdominal supporter. In many cases the Outer
abdominal supporter is alone sufficient, while proper attention is being
given to restoring muscular tone all about this region. Some cases
may need shoulder-braces also to help them regain better form, while
others may be, as I have said, temporarily aided by bolstering up the
womb from the inside, too. The main objection to all such bracing is
that the patient may be so much comforted by it as to neglect more
important and irksome means to regain conditions of permanent cure,
such as proper diet, dress, exercise, and treatment. Any appreciative
reader of what has been offered in the earlier part of this chapter as to
causes, and who readily took it in and understood the relation of general
debility and falling of abdominal organs to crowding, congestion, and
prolapsus of pelvic parts, will readily see that merely to prop up the
womb by any somewhat successful plan, is doing but a small part of
what needs to be done to effect a cure in such cases, and it will also
seem evident that to prop up the womb by any mechanical means
before undue pressure is taken off above, must surely result in crowd-
ing it, bruising it, and may be, bending it out of shape. Until a
woman thoroughly senses the imperative need of dressing right, and
564 PRIVATE WORDS FOR WOMEN.
doing all other things needful for establishing things favorable to com.
fort for the womb, it is hardly worth while to provide her with any
kind of local treatment to improve its condition or health. When all
clse is being done that should be, it is often possible to get such tem-
porary local lift as may be advisable by using a bolster of a pledget of
Cottom or of Surgical wool covered with my magnetic ointment, or a
Velvet Sponge, of a small, compact, firm, close-knit kind, lubricated
With Some soothing ointment or with vaseline.
Ulceration of the Womb.
This disease is common to women of a scrofulous diathesis; a vene.
real taint in the system may also produce it. Other less virulent im-
purities of the blood occasionally induce it.
The neck of the uterus is its most common
location, and it is attended with an offensive
discharge from the vagina, and much burn-
ing heat and pain in the region of the abdo-
men. Aside from its debilitating, painful,
and offensive effects, it is liable to lead ulti-
mately to cancer of the womb, a distressing
disease which is generally difficult to cure,
particularly in its advanced stages. Taken
in season, ulceration may be easily eradi-
* cated, and even cases of cancer of the womb
DR. Pott's SPRING-STEM PEs are not always incurable. When either
SARY. ulceration or cancer affect the vagina or
womb, the acrimonious nature of the purulent Secretions are such as to
impart disease to the organ of the male in copulation, unless the mem-
branous envelope is used.
FIG. 201.
Polypus of the Womb.
This is a tumorous affection characterized by the growth of fleshy
fungus, which often attains great size. This disease seldom occurs
except in cases which are affected more or less with scrofula. In such
cases, often more than one tumor presents itself, some of which are
hard and firm in their fibres, and others Soft and Spongy. Females
affected with this difficulty are often suspected of pregnancy. I was
once called upon by a lady affected with polypus of the womb, who had
been pronounced pregnant by several physicians, some of whom had
made private examinations. A thorough examination Satisfied me at
once as to the nature of her disease, and I was enabled to prescribe
remedies appropriate thereto. Surgery is usually resorted to by the
profession for the removal of a polypus of the womb, the operation

DROPSY OF THE WOMB. 565
being similar to the one referred to for the removal of like tumors of
the nasal passages. But in all cases coming under my treatment I have
found constitutional medical treatment the safest and best. In one
remarkable instance, attended with most frightful hemorrhages, I pre-
vailed upon the patient to hold off from any surgical treatment for a
reasonable length of time, that we might see what medicine could ac-
complish. She soon found the hemorrhages greatly lessened in fre
quency and profuseness, and in a few months she had the satisfaction
of realizing the fact that the tumor had been entirely removed, and
that by such means as would not only assure its permanent cure, but
reasonably give promise of no more
coming of the same sort. The very
causes in the system which had pro-
duced this troublesome one having
been removed, she got well, and dis-
missed all fears of further annoyance
FIG. 202.
#:
from the development of others. A §§
little later on I shall have more to say is lº
in criticism of the too frequent em- ºp s\
ſº er º §§ §§
ployment of surgery in the cure of dis- º
eases peculiar to women. tºº
§ º *:
§3 ºil
Dropsy of the Womb. s tº
This is a uterine disease which is not ABDOMINAL SUPPORTER,
so common as the ones I have pre-
viously considered. Occasion ally,
cases are met with in a large practice. This disease often leads to
the suspicion that the invalid is pregnant, and sometimes physicians
who ought to discriminate more correctly, are deceived by it. It was
owing to the palpable ignorance of those who were considered the first
physicians of England, that Lady Flora Hastings, a maid of honor to
Queen Victoria, was driven in disgrace from the court. She was sup-
posed to be enceinte, and being a single lady, for her to become a moth-
er would have had a most prejudicial effect upon the character of the
court. The most notable matrons and physicians were summoned to
make an examination, and their decision was confirmatory of the ter-
rible suspicion. The broken-hearted lady soon afterward died of
dropsy of the womb, which had deceived her medical examiners.
Greater medical stupidity cannot be conceived of I Had her physicians
possessed the skill which they ought to have acquired, to wisely dis-
charge the responsible duties of their position, the disease of the lady
would have been readily detected, and her life and reputation saved.
In both polypus and dropsy of the womb, the delicacy of women to
With stem pessary attachments.





566 PRIVATE WORDS FOR WOMEN,
submit to private examinations, and the destitution of diagnostic skill
in the medical profession, lead to some mischievous blunders. Although
I Seldom find it necessary to resort to such examinations, to decide as to
the true nature of the disease, cases occasionally occur in which such
examinations are necessary ; and when necessary, the good sense of the
patient should overcome all feelings of delicacy. I had opportunity
Once to admire the courage and good sense of a very respectable and
modest young woman of sixteen or seventeen, who had cancer on one of
the lips of the vagina, which was so far advanced as to require local
treatment. Other physicians besides myself pronounced the tumor can-
Cerous. Although she possessed all the modesty and refinement com-
mon to the well-bred of her sex, she submitted without objection, and
with commendable heroism, two or three times a week to the necessary
topical treatment ; and I am fully convinced that my success in treating
her case was greatly owing to the freedom which enabled me to give the
disease the attention it required. Had she been more prudish than
sensible, there can be no doubt that her distressing affection would
have proved fatal. When women suffering with uterine difficulties
apply to a physician, they must bear in mind that there is no part of
their system with which he is not thoroughly familiar.
Chronic Inflammation of the Womb.
When, succeeding childbirth, abortion, contusion, or other cause,
acute inflammation ensues, if not properly treated by the medical
attendant, either death, or chronic inflammation of that organ, is the
result. The chronic form of the disease is characterized by Soreness in
the region of the uterus, great pain in cohabitation, nervousness, fret-
fulness, and, in many cases, pains in the breast. Sometimes the uterus
will enlarge, and the courses become irregular, Scanty, or profuse.
The inflamed and swollen uterus may press upon the bladder so as to
interfere, more or less, with the urinary organs. This disease may be
aggravated by hot and stimulating foods, condiments, violent exercise,
and grief. Local treatment, alone, cannot cure chronic inflammation
of the womb, for in all cases of this kind there are constitutional dis-
turbances which must be removed.
Vaginal Affections.
It would hardly seem necessary at this point to explain in this
chapter, what the vagina is; but still it may be that some have failed to
draw any inferences from the preceding matter, relative to its location,
construction, or office. I will, therefore, describe it as a Canal of
cylindrical form, five or six inches in length, situated between the
bladder and rectum, its mouth forming the front external opening
WAGINAL AFFECTIONS. 567
below the pubes, and its upper extremity encircling the neck of the
womb, as illustrated, not only in some figures presented in previous
essays in this chapter, but also in those representing the effects of Con-
stipation upon the procreative organs. It is lined, internally, by a
mucous membrane, and around this membrane is a layer of Spongy,
erectile tissue. It is provided with muscles, veins, and nerves, and its
office is to receive the male organ in sexual intercourse, and conduct
the spermatic fluid to the womb for the purpose of reproduction. The
reader is referred to Figs. 186, 187 and 194.
The membranes, muscles, nerves, etc., are liable to be affected by
disease. The lining may be the seat of ulceration, in which case,
smarting and pain are experienced, and a disagreeable discharge from
the orifice observed, as when the womb is ulcerated. The lining is
sometimes attacked by eruptions, causing the most intense itching, and
when, to allay this itching, the membrane is frictionized, a swelling or
puffiness arises, attended with distressing smarting. In some cases,
this eruption extends to the lips of the vagina ; and when these parts
are rubbed or scratched to allay the itching sensation, they become
greatly inflamed and swollen. When either ulceration or eruption
affects the vagina it indicates an impure condition of blood, from which
the difficulty arises; and, although the local affection may be some-
what benefited by washes and injections, constitutional treatment is
necessary to effect a permanent cure. In cases of ulceration, astrin-
gent injections of decoctions of white-oak bark, or of alum-water, or of
a weak solution of carbolic acid, are sometimes useful. When the
vagina and its external parts are affected by irritation and itching, a
free use of castile soap-suds as an injection, and as a wash, frequently
allays the troublesome symptoms. A weak solution of carbolic acid,
one dram to a pint of water, may also be injected in cases of this kind,
as a local application ; but whatever is done locally should be accom-
panied with thorough treatment for the blood. The muscles of the
vagina are so much relaxed sometimes by leucorrhoea and other causes
that the lining becomes loose and flabby, and in some cases actually
protrudes. Electricity, locally applied, is advantageous in affections
of this kind ; but even this should be accompanied with internal treat-
ment calculated to strengthen and build up the muscular system.
Nymphomania.
This is a name given to a disease not infrequently occurring
among females of both high and humble life, and which is character.
ized by a violent desire for coition. Hooper describes it as “a species
of madness, or a high degree of hysterics. Its presence is known by
the Wanton behavior of the patient ; she speaks and acts with unre-
568 PRIVATE WORDS FOR WOMEN.
strained obscenity, and as the disorder increases she scolds, cries, and
laughs by turns. While reason is retained she is silent, and seems
melancholy, but her eyes discover an unusual wantonness. The symp-
toms are better or worse until the greatest degree of the disorder ap-
proaches, and then by every word and action her condition is too mani-
fest.”
Hooper's description applies, of course, to the most marked cases
of nymphomania. But it exists in various degrees of intensity, and in
the mildest cases causes only a desire for excessive venery, without
symptoms which betray her feelings to those about her. The cause
of this singular difficulty is altogether attributed by medical writers to
a local irritability of the procreative organs. I cannot acquiesce fully
in this explanation. That nervous irritability, or, rather, that too
much nervous or electrical stimulus is present in these organs there can
be no doubt ; but an inharmonious distribution of the nervous forces
among the organs of the brain, manifestly precedes or co-operates with
the former condition. It is a fact that ought to be well understood,
that the nervous forces, sometimes in consequence of some violation of
JNature's laws, are withdrawn, or partially So, from one or more organs,
and the excess given to another, so that, while one or more may be
deprived, or nearly so, of their vitalizing or stimulating presence, the
recipient of the excess is excited to an unusual degree. Thus, one or
more of the organs of the brain may become abnormally excited at the
expense of inactivity to the rest, so that a person will be fanatical on
some one subject, and think and talk of little else. In brief, he has a
“hobby.” In consequence of this mental inharmony, growing out of
an unequal distribution of the nervous forces among the organs of the
brain, we often meet with crazy poets, fanatical religionists, mad poli-
ticians, luny inventors, harum-Scarum doctors, etc., etc. Now, when
the causes of these peculiar conditions of mind are understood, accord-
ing to my explanation, is it not easy to see how an excess of nervous
force may be sent to the organ of amativeness, at the expense of other
organs of the brain 7 If the reasoning and moral organs are robbed to
supply this excess, how natural that a woman who may have previously
sustained a spotless character for modesty and reserve, should, with
such an abnormal condition of the mental faculties, exhibit uncon-
trollable emotions in the presence of men, in extreme cases, or a dis-
position to indulge to excess in venereal pleasure, with husband or
paramour, when able to restrain her emotions in company. The intel-
lectual organs are almost paralyzed, and the nervous or electrical
stimulus which should give them activity is expended upon amative-
ness; and this organ, very naturally, expends its excess upon the
nerves centring in the sexual or procreative system, of which it is the
head and director,
AMOROUS DREAMS. 569
Females laboring under nymphomania deserve rather the sympathy
than the condemnation of friends. It is a species of monomania, and
as such should shield its victim from unjust and uncharitable asper-
sions,
When the blood is diseased and nymphomania exists, inflammation,
irritation, and sometimes ulceration, locate about the pudenda, vagina,
and uterus, rendering the parts sore and extremely tender. But this
condition of the organs is not sufficient to deter the female from the
act of coition if the opportunity offers. A very respectable married
woman, afflicted with this malady, whose desire for coition was inces-
Sant, in describing her symptoms to me in a letter, said : “In de-
scribing myself, I cannot think of any better way of expressing myself
than to say it feels good to be hurt.” This quaint and frank statement
conveys the idea exactly, for the nervous excitability of the organs of
amativeness and the sexual parts, demands gratification, however sensi-
tive the latter may become by the presence of ulcerous or inflammatory
diseases.
My mode of treating nymphomania without complications, is by
administrations of electricity such as are calculated to equalize the ner-
vous circulation, and draw off the excess from the organ of amativeness
and the sexual parts. In complications growing out of blood impurities,
the treatment must combine both electrical and blood-purifying reme-
dies. My theory of the disease is original, as is also my mode of treat.
ing it, but my success in its management convinces me that both are
COrrect.
Amorous Dreams.
Women, as well as men, are subject to these, and they are nearly
as debilitating to the former as they are to the latter. Although no
very vital secretions are lost by a woman so affected, the vital or ner-
vous forces are expended without recompense, as in masturbation.
The organisms might be likened to nervous explosions. An amorous
dream is indeed practically an involuntary act of masturbation. It has
often been remarked that no exercise is so tiresome to the muscular
system as to kick or strike at nothing. All know, too, how it wrenches
one to step down a foot or two without preparing for it, while walking.
What this wrench is to the muscular system, an amative dream is to
the nervous system. A volley of nervous force is gathered up from all
parts of the body, and directed with the greatest impetuosity toward
a supposed companion in the sexual embrace, and it passes off with
violence and is lost, while the compensative nervous or electrical volley
from the supposed companion is not received. In men this nervous
loss is accompanied with an expenditure of Some of the most vital
57O PRIVATE WORDS FOR WOMEN.
fluids of the system—those secreted by the testicular glands, and which
are composed of the most vital elements of the blood. In women, the
nervous waste is simply accompanied with an expenditure of glandular
Secretions of not much more vital value than the saliva or spittle of the
mouth. But the nervous waste—the nervous shock—the wrench to the
magnetic system, is such as will, if frequently repeated, prostrate the
nervous energies, destroy the memory, and weaken all the faculties of
the mind. -
Some married women have these dreams who do not enjoy natural
intercourse. The function of the amative organs is so perverted that
the imagination can affect those organs when contact with a male com-
panion cannot arouse them. This morbid and unnatural condition
has been caused, in most cases where it exists, by masturbation. The
amative organs of the brain, and those occupying their proper position
in the body below, have been trained as it were to act alone or without
the help of a companion of the opposite sex ; and after marriage it is
found, much to the mortification and disappointment of the wife, that
she is unable to participate in the pleasures of the sexual act, while her
dreams are made delirious with imaginary pleasure. It seems as if the
erectile muscle and tissue of the clitoris, labia, and vagina had become
so accustomed to receive their inspiration or magnetism from, to use a
homely illustration, the back-door, that they are perfectly dead to any
raps at the door in front. The organs have been accustomed to simply
unmagnetic friction locally, and that of the most violent nature, so
that the milder friction of the male Organ, and the presentation of a
magnetic force to the nervous termini, produce no sensibility whatever.
They seem to shrink from it.
Married or single women awaken from these dreams with a sense
of weakness they are often unable to account for. They do not suspect
for a moment the true cause. General want of energy, in both mind
and body, and sometimes backache, weakness of the limbs, faintness,
and entire want of appetite, are experienced in the morning, especially
when one of these dreams has taken place during the preceding night.
Masturbation is not in all cases the cause of these debilitating
dreams; sexual isolation, diseased wombs, ovaries, etc., many times
induce this morbid condition of the amative Organs ; but whatever the
cause, the disastrous effects are the same, and no woman, young or old,
should allow these dreams to occur without making thorough effort for
their cure. Some have them once a month, others much oftener. I
have had cases wherein they occurred every night. This frequency is
frightful. Once a week is sufficient to overcome the strongest consti-
tution in a few years. For their cure I have found electrical applica-
tions very efficient; but for those at a distance, or for such as prefer to
consult me by letter, I can, taking a little more time for it, cure with
SEXUAL DYSPEPSIA. 57 I
vegetable medication. It is necessary, the same as in the treatment of
nymphomania, to equalize the nervous circulation, and to restore those
nerves centring in the sexual organs to their natural condition, and the
treatments referred to seem sufficient to effect this result. As these are
not new cases in my practice, no person affected should hesitate
through feelings of false delicacy to present her case for advice. Con-
Sultations in person or by letter are strictly confidential.
Anthropophobia and Sexual Apathy.
These are the very antipodes of nymphomania. The first causes
repugnance to, or dread of coition ; and the other a perfect disinclina. .
tion for the act. These are much more prevalent diseases than nym-
phomania. I term them diseases because they are manifestly entitled
to this classification. All perfectly formed females, if their organs of
amativeness are properly active, and their sexual Organs in a normal
condition, are susceptible to amative desires and emotions, and pleasur-
able sexual excitation. Inasmuch as the size of the organ of amative-
ness varies in different females, of course this susceptibility varies in
a corresponding degree ; but when repugnance or total indifference
exists, one of the faculties belonging to all normal Organisms, human
or otherwise, is paralyzed as much as the arm is paralyzed if it is de-
prived of sensation and motion.
It is not, however, my design to treat of these diseases here. I
choose to reserve a further consideration of them to an essay in Part
IV., to which the interested reader is referred. I merely desire to
name them in this connection, because I regard sexual repugnance and
indifference as diseases of so prevalent a nature as to deserve mention
in this chapter on chronic diseases of the female organs of procreation.
Sexual Dyspepsia.
Probably this is the first time the term dyspepsia has been applied
to any other affection than that of the stomach when digestion is in
some way interfered with ; but there is an affection to which some
married women are subject, presenting, mentally, all the symptoms of
dyspepsia when the stomach is free from disease, and the digestion
tolerably active or entirely so. As it proceeds from derangements of
the amative and procreative organs, I shall denominate it sexual dys-
pepsia. This I said thirty years ago, and it was true then, that I had
first used the term, although in later years other medical writers have
employed it when writing upon the same subject. The affection is
unlike anthropophobia, because this is characterized by dislike of
men, and decided aversion to sexual intercourse. It is unlike sexual
apathy, for this simply consists of inability to enjoy the sexual
&
572 PRIVATE WORDS FOR WOMEN.
embrace. In Sexual dyspepsia there is often a morbid desire for
Coition, just as in some cases of stomach dyspepsia, there is a voracious
appetite for food with no capacity to digest it. Intercourse in this
Case makes the female irritable, dissatisfied and wretched. She may
momentarily experience pleasure, locally, and then all at once every
particle of sensation flies a Way, and at the close of the act, she finds
herself exhausted, disappointed, and annoyed by the fluctuating moods
Which she experienced during its continuance, and in a condition of
FIG. 203. mind, for days afterward, which renders
her peevish, irritable, whimsical, and dis-
Contented. Even when sexual desire is
moderate, and coition is attended with
º * Variable sensibility and final disappointment,
§§§§º g º •
º º S the result upon the mind is just about the
- - § º e
A s \ Same as I have described when a morbid
desire exists. Indeed, the mind in these
cases exhibits all the varying and incon-
sistent moods peculiar to one affected with
RW. & § º
jº § Confirmed dyspepsia of the stomach. Every
movement and motive of the husband is
º ==% misinterpreted ; and if the affected wife be
of a jealous disposition, the atmosphere of
the house is loaded with vapors of restless-
neSS which settle down upon the innocent
heads and hearts of every inmate like soot
from a smoky kerosene lamp. The mag-
netic atmosphere is thick, stifling, and pois-
Onous, completely destroying social enjoy-
ment. There is, indeed, no restful hap-
piness for anyone under the same roof, and
the worried, half-crazed husband runs his
hands through his hair, presses his tem-
Woman as Foºtº NATURE. ples, lays hold of his boots, and reaches
out to touch other things mundane to Satisfy himself that he has not
“waked up ’’ in Hades.
The immediate causes of sexual dyspepsia are various. It may
arise from marriage of convenience rather than of affection ; from dis-
placements of the uterus ; from vaginal irritations, or uterine conges-
tions; from too great similarity of temperaments ; from local inadap-
tation ; and from a capricious disposition, or ever-changing temper, on
the part of the wife. When it proceeds from either the first or last
mentioned cause, it is not in the power of a physician to remedy the
evil; but when it arises from any of the causes named intermediately,
a medical man who has given proper attention to the treatment of
** - º 'ſ













OVARIAN DISEASES. 573
affections of the sexual organs may usually prescribe successfully for
its removal. It will be noticed that the first cause referred to, as well
as the last, is not dependent upon physical derangements, while the
other causes, with two exceptions, are so dependent. Any one affected
with sexual dyspepsia, or with sexual apathy, or anthropophobia, is at
liberty to consult the author.
Ovarian Diseases.
The consideration of these diseases might properly find place in
this chapter, but as I shall have to go over the same ground when I
come to treat upon barrenness, Space
will be saved here by referring the
reader directly to the chapter “Hints
to the Childless.” The subject of
barrenness itself, the reader may think,
properly belongs to this chapter, but
on perusing that, it will be found that
barrenness is not alone peculiar to
women, and as I have considerable to
say in regard to sterility and its cure,
I prefer to place the suggestions I have
to offer under that head, in a chapter
by themselves.
FIG. 204.
Treatment of Diseases of Women.
More or less has already been said,
under each head, of the treatment best
adapted to these affections, but a few
words more may be properly added.
It is quite too commonly the custom of
physicians to depend entirely upon the
application of electricity, caustic, in-
jections, or to something else which
is simply applied to the part immedi-
ately diseased. The result is, that any woman As Dºroºp by Fashion.
encouragement which the patient receives through temporary benefit
is followed by discouragement in consequence of ultimate failure; and
there are thousands of women to-day suffering with uterine derange-
ments who really believe that there is no help for them. There are
even some physicians who have been led by their poor success in these
cases, to pronounce them incurable. Now I am confident that all this
discouragement on the part of the patient, and all this failure on the

574 PRIVATE WORDS FOR WOMEN.
part of the physician, is mainly, if not entirely, due to the fact that
those constitutional derangements which either preceded the local
difficulty, or became complications after the local difficulty had made
its appearance, are overlooked. In my practice I have generally found
myself able to permanently cure these supposed incurable cases. I
first Satisfy my mind regarding the constitutional complications which
Coexist, and give especial attention to them at the same time I am
treating the local difficulties. What I have in various parts of the
foregoing essays denominated immediate, intermediate, exciting, or
provoking causes of uterine derangements, may be properly termed
Sub-causes. The vascular or nervous system, or both of these systems,
must have been antecedently deranged, to allow the sub-causes to which
I have alluded, to fasten chronic affections upon these organs, unless
they were directly caused by mechanical injuries, abortions, or venereal
contagion; and even in these cases the blood and nervous system
become involved, and then react upon the local diseases, so that perfect
recovery in all cases depends upon the comprehensive treatment I have
named.
Many of my patients of this class very likely get tired of hearing
me advise dress reform as one of the first essentials to successful treat-
ment. Much criticism has, in previous chapters, been given to the
unfortunate features of women’s mode of dress, and the general advan-
tages to be expected if they could be removed ; but it is especially when
some congestion or mal-position of the womb exists that it is absolute-
ly necessary to “let up on it.” Constrictions about the waist, heavy
skirts hanging on the waist for support, and excess of clothing over the
congested parts, are so literally depressing in their effects on the
womb that there is small chance of getting it into normal place and
condition until all such evils are removed. To effect this, it is not
even necessary to make any considerable change in the Outer garments,
or adopt bloomers. It can be effected by so altering the clothing as to
carry all its weight from the shoulders, and relieve the soft abdominal
region of all constriction, weight, and pressure. This subject, and
other matters, relating to deformities, tumors, examinations, methods
of treatment, etc., have been clearly presented in a dime pamphlet by
Dr. E. B. Foote, Jr., on “Gynecology, or Diseases of Women.” Those
who may not have learned just what they need to know from this
chapter, will very likely find it there, or, if not, the author stands ready
to make up for the deficiency by freely answering letters of inquiry.
The above-named pamphlet has fifty pages that might Well be incor-
porated here, but it seems better to refer those especially interested in
the subject to that monograph than to unnecessarily extend this book,
already growing quite too bulky, in the attempt to cover all the mat-
ters of interest to people in general, as well as to those who are per-
TREATMENT OF DISEASES OF WOMEN. 575
sonally suffering from some one of these difficulties; but I will allot a
portion of one page more in this chapter to a quotation from the
pamphlet referred to where the subject of medicine versus surgery is
under discussion. Any woman who has been urged to undertake Some
operation, and who is still in doubt what she had better do, should See
all that there is offered therein, and what Dr. Frederick Wallace
Abbott says in regard to it in an editorial article on “The Sexualiza-
tion of Women,” in the Massachusetts Medical Journal (Vol. 19, p. 478,
October, 1899), before deciding to submit to surgery.
“Probably in no branch of medical practice is there more oppor-
tunity for competition and difference in opinion between the Sur-
geon and the physician than in this department of women's diseases,”
says Dr. Foote, Jr. “In looking about to see what had better be done
for her relief the sufferer will on the one hand be advised to submit to
Some sort of Surgical procedure in the way of caustic application, cut-
ting operation or electrolysis, and on the other hand, she may be
informed by Some physician that he proposes to effect a cure without
resort to any such heroic measures. There is no denying that there
is room enough in this vast field of work for both the surgeon and the
physician, for there can be no doubt that there is a large variety of
cases which can only be remedied by some surgical procedure ; but on
the other hand it is equally true that among this class of specialists there
has been too great a tendency to resort to surgery, resulting in the
employment of this method when the expedients of the physician
would have been better. Many a woman has been unnecessarily
slaughtered and injured by ill-advised operations, so that we have
come to advise that in any case of doubt—that is, where there is any
doubt at all of the necessity of it—it is better first to employ other
means, with a view, if necessary, of falling back upon surgery as
a last resort. Not only in these cases, but in those where operation
must in the end be a means of cure, a preparatory course of treatment
is usually necessary in order to fit the patient for it. Dr. J. Duncan
Emmet, who recently visited Europe to discover the secret of success
of its laparotomists (surgeons who remove the ovaries) writes that their
low death-rate from operations is largely due to the fact that the sur-
geons choose their own time for such treatment, and “pick’ their patients.
He says: ‘Keith told me that the cases of the same disease which he
considered fit for operation did not probably average one in a hundred
of all that came to him.’ So there are ninety-nine of a hundred cases
that the surgeons will not touch, and whatever relief is for them must
be at the hands of physicians.” See Chapter XII.
CHAPTER VII.
HINTS TO THE CHILDLESS.
ARRENNESS is a word which designates
a physical condition abhorrent to every one
in married life, who has not already become
a parent. The exceptions to this rule are
only those who have but recently entered
matrimony, or such as have not yet acquired
means sufficient to enable them to undertake
lº the expense of rearing a young family. Whether love of
ſ $ ? & children is limited or universa), the idea of being barren,
\ is one from which every individual who has been long
} married, and has not at least one child to enliven the
family circle, instinctively recoils. Such a condition has
in all nature but one parallel, and that, the great desert
which spreads its vast expanse wearily before the eye without a blade
of grass, leaf, twig, or tree to nod a welcome to the passing breeze, nor
the first crystal of water to reflect in prismatic colors the golden rays of
the sun. With many women, the grave is more cheerfully looked for-
ward to than childless longevity, and not a few husbands would rather
die in the prime of manhood, leaving an heir, than to live to gray old
age and be esteemed incapable of reproduction. The careless world
cannot know the secret yearnings of the hearts of such unfortunate
persons so well as the physician; nor is the family doctor so liable to
find them out as one engaged in a national practice like myself. A
majority of childless married people will strive to make their neighbors
think they cannot endure children, while the physician in whom they
have confidence, living ton, twenty, or a thousand miles off, is intrusted
with the secret of their hearts' desire. Now, I am betraying the confi-
dence of no one in making these general remarks. I never breathe the
professional secrets intrusted to my keeping, nor would I make these .
general allusions to them, except % the fact that those of my readers

HINTS TO THE CHILDLESS. 57.7
with a houseful of babies might feel surprised to find space, however
limited, devoted to the subject of barrenness.
A wife who has had four or five children, generally wishes herself
barren, feeling that she has done her share toward populating the
world, and she is entirely unfitted by her fruitfulness to sympathize
with one, who, loving children, has none of her own to love. But,
taking a serious view of the matter, however badly children may some-
Times turn out, childless old age is a dismal future for the mind to
dwell upon, and, having reached it, the present is no less cheerless.
The hearthstone of a married pair, in the vigor of life, is electrified
with the presence of the bright roguish eyes which mischievously
watch the smiles and frowns of approving and reproving papas and
mammas, while no vernacular is so enchanting as the hesitating and
rambling utterances of “our baby” when it first begins to kill the
king's English. The new father seems more dignified, and stands
several inches higher in his stockings while the mother is never tired
of relating the extraordinary feats and accomplishments, or quoting
the wise remarks of her prodigy. Passing the meridian of life, doting
parents watch with pride the developing genius of a promising son, or
the unfolding brilliancy, beauty, or goodness of a favorite daughter,
while the infirmities of old age are deprived of their depressing influ-
ences by the aſſectionate attentions of grateful children. Therefore,
the desire for offspring is natural, and all honorable means to obtain
them excusable. A woman who is devotedly attached to them cannot
imagine how far she might go in her attempts to become a mother,
unless placed right in the position of one who has spent many years of
married life without a sign of pregnancy.
The female members of the human family very early give evidence
of their love of children. A little girl who knows nothing of the pro-
cess of obtaining a living child, nor possesses sufficient physical devel-
opment to produce one, evinces her love of offspring by making rag
babies, and dressing and caressing the dolls which are purchased for
her at the store. As she becomes older, she loses attraction for this
imitation of the real article, and loves to attend a live baby. A noble
woman has said : “Motherhood is the ideal state of womanhood to
every woman not arrived there. * * * Woman must yearn for
motherhood because she is woman.”
The long and short of the matter is, no woman, in the secret
recesses of her own heart, will felicitate herself with the reflection that
she is physically incapacitated to bear a child. You who read this, and
who, in middle or advanced age are without children, will whisper to
yourselves—“This is true.” Aside from the incentive to child-bearing,
which proceeds directly from the love of children on the part of
womº, the wife naturally fears that she will lose the affection of the
578 HINTS TO THE CHILDLESS.
husband if, after many years of marriage, there is no issue; nor is this
fear without foundation, for instances are not wanting wherein separa-
tions have occurred simply on this account. Napoleon and the Em-
press Josephine present a notorious example of this kind, and probably
every reader will remember some such case coming under his or her im-
mediate observation. At least, I am confident, every physician in large
practice has personally known of one or more such cases.
Considering, then, the importance of the subject, do not require
me to go around that information which may be most useful to you, for
FIG. 205.
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. fºllºw sº {{#1%
- W Sº, º \) ) § %*> 2/CŞ
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ſ N \é 22, 2:5 ſº º
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--- # =\; \ Nº s Š § | ſ | |
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A PLAIN HOME TALE BABY.
Photograph taken at the age of two months.
(See testimonial on page 775.)
|
i
N
%
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the purpose of em-
ploying words and
illustrations which
cannot possibly
Offend the false
modesty of some
who are unwilling
to take a sensible
view of anything
relating to the or-
gans of procreation.
These pages have
been written for the
childless by one
who has given es-
pecial attention to
what is popularly
called barrenness,
and discovered
many new and use-
ful means for over-
coming the same ;
but those belonging
to this unfortunate
class who are at all given to prudery, should avoid even a cursory peru-
sal of the matter presented herein. So far as the writer's observation
extends, Mother Nature has provided only one process for procreation.
That process may be varied to meet the necessities of various cases; but
in some way or other the germ generated in what is called the testicles
of man, must be brought in contact, in the womb, with the germ gener-
ated in one of the ovaries of woman. We who call ourselves human
beings, properly belong to the animal kingdom, and must consequently
be controlled by the laws which govern animal life and its perpetuation.
However sexual intercourse may be regarded as an act indulged in for
merely sexual gratification, for the single high purpose of reproduction,



















HINTS TO THE CHILDLESS. 579
it should be considered not only free from vulgar criticism, but as one
entirely chaste, and, indeed, indispensable, unless we can all adopt
Shaker philosophy and theology. In fact, it is not participation in this
peculiar physical contact for the main purpose of reproduction, that
has led the whole affair to be privately esteemed attractive and un-
avoidable, and to be publicly considered disgusting ; but rather ex-
cessive copulation for the mere sexual pleasure it affords. A man who
gluts his stomach with rich viands and libations from his breakfast
hour until bed-time, ultimately becomes dyspeptic, and when his appe-
tite has become cloyed, and his stomach painfully sensitive, he regards
nearly all food as disgusting and nauseating. Forgetful of his former
habits, he is surprised at the gluttony of his more fortunate neighbors
who have not yet reached the stage of diseased stomach, and he thinks
the world is made up of despicable gourmands. Now, a large major-
ity of men and women are sexual dyspeptics. In other words, they
and their ancestors have drank so deeply and so unnaturally of the Cup
of sexual pleasure that the act designed for mankind to perpetuate them-
selves, and the organs which were given them to perform the function
of procreation are looked upon as not only inherently disgusting, but
beneath the worthy attention of a cultivated people. Sexual connection
may be indulged in as an animal necessity in the privacy of the bed-
chamber, or even in the abode of the harlot ; but a treatise upon these
organs and the most effectual plans for securing fruitfulness to those
who have been denied the pleasures of maternity and paternity may
not unlikely be regarded as impure, obscene, and unfit for perusal.
My idea is simply this : That sexual intercourse for merely sensual
pleasure, when true affection is absent, cannot be mentally or physi-
cally elevating ; for the purpose of procreation, it is neither socially,
morally, nor religiously debasing, but rather simply obedience to
Nature's mandate. It may be entirely right, and in harmony with
Nature's innocent impulses, that men and women should cohabit to a
moderate extent for pleasure only. There are those who question this.
It is, certainly, in harmony with Nature's plans that cohabitation should
take place between the sexes for perpetuating our species. This can-
not be questioned by a reasonable person who has not a Shaker cavity
in his brain. The reproductive organs then, instead of being morally
neglected and treated as too vulgar for our consideration, should be
regarded as the most valuable of all our organs, and the most worthy
of our care, so that they may be employed, at least, for their most im-
portant function—that of the reproduction of our kind. The stomach
digests the food which supports life; the neurons of the brain give
rise to various thoughts, feelings, and emotions; our eyes enable us
to see objects beautiful, or disagreeable about us; our ears to hear
Sweet Sounds or grating discords; our olfactories to smell delightful
58O HINTS TO THE CHILDLESS.
odors or disgusting fumes; and all the other organs of the human
body, excepting the reproductive, minister simply to the being who
now lives; but none of them possesses the mysterious power of a cre-
ator; none can reproduce themselves ; and, excepting for the procre-
ative organs, all those I have named would cease to exist in a little
time. When we consider this fact, it is hardly strange that the people
of the pagan world formally worshipped images fashioned like the
procreative organs of both sexes; but it is strange that any process of
refinement, or any school of civilization should have been able to lead
the human family to be ashamed of them. It has been said very truly,
that “many peo-
ple are a shamed
that they have
bodies;” and it may
be still further said
ash a med of the
%, most complex and
Wºº wonderful of all
º, the organs of those
sº tº bodies. If, as a
%)º º
a * * º % gº ^ º 2% Sº sº º e
% % - gº ſº is a result of sin—if
º ºs
§§ Rºžº the fall of man led
§ him to envelop him-
º, self in fig-leaves, it
seems to me that we
might better all get
up as soon as we
A PLAIN EIOME TALK BABY. Call, and Comport
º: 3.2
Photograph taken when six months old. The mother Ourselves as Obe-
WriteS : - ** She is a lovely baby, and We Should not have dient children who
our darling had it not been for you.” e
have at last discov-
ered the error of our first parents. The child may be to blame for
falling, but there is not a particle of excuse for him when refusing to
make the least effort to regain his feet.
Let it be understood that this chapter is intended for sensible peo-
ple—for those who can look beyond the prudery of Mrs. Grundy, and
appreciate the true uses of things—for true men and women who are
disposed to take a scientific view of important matters, however deli-
cate, without a too sensitive regard to the conventional prejudices to
which civilization in its infancy has given rise; in brief, for those who




















THE CAUSES OF BARRENNESS. 581
possess all the foregoing qualities, with a laudable desire to be happy
fathers and mothers.
The Causes of Barrenness.
I do not propose in this chapter to treat upon every possible cause,
but rather to confine myself to those causes which may in some way
or other be overcome. Those causes which may be put down as ir-
remediable in any way whatever, are those arising from some congenital
malformations of the organs of procreation which are sometimes met
with, or some organic destruction of the completeness of the procreative
system by disease, accident, or surgical operation. Among the former
may be mentioned deformities of the vagina, womb, Fallopian tubes,
and ovaries of the female; or testicles, spermatic tubes, or penis of the
male. Among the latter may be named strictures of the womb of an
obstinate character, caused by inflammation or ulceration of the Cavity,
stricture of the Fallopian tubes, misplacement of the fimbriated ex-
tremities of the Fallopian tubes, permanent adhesions of the fimbria to
the ovaries, and a partial destruction of the ovaries of the female ; and
in the male, the removal of the testicles by disease or the surgeon's
knife, their partial destruction by self-pollution and sexual excesses, the
permanent consolidation or obstruction of the tubes carrying the Semen
from the testicles to the seminal vessels, and such a permanent obstruc-
tion of the canal of the urethra as to resist the propelling force of the
ejaculatory ducts, causing the seminal fluids to be emptied into the
bladder.
Those which may be regarded as common, and which may be
obviated by some means, may be classified in the order of their fre-
quency, as follows: First—Local inadaptation. Second–Diseased
condition of the wife. Third—Diseased condition of the husband.
Fourth—Excessive amativeness. Fifth–Temperamental inadaptation.
Local Inadaptation.
This is pretty faithfully represented in all its varied phases in
Figs. 207 and 208, which I have had designed and engraved expressly
to illustrate this essay. No attempt has been made at anatomical
accuracy in giving the form of either the male or the female organs.
The obvious reason for this is to avoid unnecessary offence to what is
popularly regarded as refined taste.
I am more and more convinced, every year of my practice, that
local inadaptation is the commonest cause of barrenness. While it is
true that some women are so susceptible to impregnation that they will
conceive if the seminal fluids be but deposited within the lips of the
vagina, whatever may be the position of the womb, there are very many
582 HINTS TO THE CHILDLESS.
who cannot, unless the local adaptation is so perfect as to cause the fluids
of the male to be poured directly into or upon the mouth of the womb.
In an excited state of the healthy uterus, the mouth draws toward itself
and Sucks up at least a portion of the male fluids, if deposited near it ;
but this absorbing or suction power differs to a remarkable degree in
Women—so much so, indeed, that in some who greatly enjoy the copu-
lative act, it is feeble and the susceptibility to impregnation slight ;
while in others, who enjoy the embrace but little, or possibly not at all,
it is so powerful as to take up fluids deposited in any part of the vagina.
It has been, and is now, supposed by many, that the female cannot be-
come pregnant unless she enjoys coition. Even physicians used to enter-
tain and publish this fallacy. It is a great error, for while the clitoris
and erectile tissue which, by excitation, usually give pleasurable sensa-
tions, may be nearly or quite paralyzed, so that the wife is indifferent,
Or, perhaps, opposed to intercourse, the mouth of the womb may be
active and the ovaries, where the ova or eggs are formed, fully capable
FIG. 207. &

SEE NOTE BELOW
§
%
LOCAL IN ADAPTATION.
Note.—As the illustrations originally designed for this place can only be of interest
to those who are barren, and to medical men, it has been thought best, after
reflection, to omit them, and then supply them by mail in letter envelope with-
out charge, to those who may be individually or professionally benefited by
their possession. Scmd postage. The author's address is given on page 1226.
of performing their functions, so that conception will result. I have met
many such cases, and have been called to explain the reason in hundreds
of them. The fact is, many women will conceive by simply the injec-
tion of the male fluids into the vagina, or even the deposit of a drop of
them on the lips of the vagina, when they are not under a particle of
amative excitement. On the other hand, a woman may be excessively
excitable, amatively, and keenly relish the embrace, when she is not
susceptible to impregnation. One reason for this is, that while the cli-
toris and erectile tissue may be full of animation and susceptibility, the
mouth of the womb may act sluggishly, and, in some cases, the ovaries
in addition, may be at fault. Another reason will be presented before
the conclusion of this chapter.
Notwithstanding the two prominent peculiarities I have just in-
stanced, it is nevertheless true, as a general rule, that amative excite-
LOCAL INADAPTATION. 583
ment and enjoyment of the act of coition in most women, render im-
pregnation more certain ; and, considering the prevalence of sluggish
wombs, local adaptation is very desirable, and often indispensably
necessary when children are wanted. Unless the womb be active, as
the male organ relaxes from its distended dimensions, or is withdrawn
after the expenditure of the semen, the folds of the vagina in closing
together press out the seed of the male, and the childless wife at the
close of each intercourse meets with the disappointment of finding the
impregnating fluid upon her clothing, until by its continued frequency,
she ceases to expect anything better, and despairingly gives up her
fondest hope of becoming a mother.
The reader should carefully examine the annexed illustrations in
the light of the foregoing explanations, and it will then be easily under-
stood how a great many wives may be childless simply because of the
failure of the male fluid to reach the mouth of a sluggish womb. In
these illustrations of local inadaptation, I embrace displacements of
FIG. 208.
SEE NOTE BELOW .
%) §

LOCAL IN ADAPTATION.
JWote.—With the greatest effort on the part of the author and engraver, it has been
found difficult to present these illustrations in a way to avoid offence to those
who are not individually or professionally interested. The course suggested
in the Wote on the opposite page has therefore been chosen, and they will be
supplied to the barren or to physicians free of charge.
the uterus. These are common ; more common than is generally sup-
posed, for the reason that it is popularly believed that displacements do
not exist in healthy women. It is generally thought that only those
have displacements who are affected more or less with discomfort in the
pelvic region. They are generally associated with such symptoms as
leucorrhoea, dragging or bearing-down feelings in the region of the
uterus, and various other symptoms described as occurring in these cases
in the preceding chapter; but it should be understood that they are often
produced in young girlhood so gradually, that Nature meekly con-
forms to the changed position of the womb. When brought about by
any pressure of the bowels downward, the womb usually takes the
position represented in the diagram marked I; or, when by contracting
the cavity which it should occupy, the displacement represented by K.
In far the greater number of apparently healthy cases I have examined,
584 HINTS TO THE CHILDLESS.
however, the diagram designated by the letter I, best represents the
displacement. It seems almost impossible that such a position should
not in all cases affect the proper action of the bladder ; but it does not
perceptibly in many, for I have discovered it in women who suffer no
inconvenience whatever from an inability to retain the water, nor yet
from any sensation of dragging, bearing down, or weight in the region
of the womb. Besides the early effects of bad habits in dress, falls,
severe jarring of the body, and diseases in girlhood cause displace-
ments of various kinds, which, not remedied, in adult age continue
without the usual painful symptoms. Nature, having become accus-
tomed to the changed position, performs all her functions faithfully,
excepting that important one—reproduction, and for the purpose of
this, all that is necessary is to introduce the fecundating fluid of the
male into the uterus, or bring it in direct contact with the mouth of
the womb.
I trust the reader will bear patiently with me while I enter into an
extended explanation of the diagrams. Let us look them over care-
fully together, for local inadaptation should be carefully studied by
the childless. It is, as I have already said, not only the most common
cause of unfruitfulness, but also one which is the most easily remedied
without the aid of a skilful physician experienced in the treatment of
sterility.
A, represents the womb in the right position, but the organ of the
male is some seven or eight inches long, and, therefore, passes the
mouth of the womb. Although the average length of the male organ
is six inches, in many cases it is soven, and in Some as long as eight or
nine inches, while in a few, and I might say extraordinary ones, its
length is greater than I have mentioned. . Practically, this inadaptation
amounts to the same as that represented in the next illustration. The
mouth of the womb must be active, or the impregnating fluid of the
male will pass out of the vaginal cavity without causing pregnancy.
B, represents the womb as being located too low in the vaginal
cavity, so that the glans-penis of an organ of average length is imbedded
in the loose bagging folds of the vagina above the mouth of the womb,
and there, away from the entrance to the uterus, the seed of the male
is deposited. As it falls outwardly, unless the mouth of the womb is
very active, it passes this orifice and finds its way out of the Vagina,
not a drop being retained for fecundation. This position is not uncom-
II) Oll.
C, represents the reverse of A. Here the female organ is well
formed, but the male organ is only three or four inches in length, and
consequently barely passes the external and internal lips of the vagina,
leaving a distance of two or three inches between the glans-penis and
the mouth of the womb, Now, here we see quite a disparity, and es-
LOCAL INADAPTATION. 585
pecially so when it is borne in mind that if the penis be even one inch
too short, and deficient in ejecting force, the impregnating fluid may
fail to reach the womb unless the mouth of the Tatter has active absorb-
ing power. The force with which the semen is ejected from the male,
greatly varies in different persons, so that, if one having but little of
this force and a short penis, is united to a female having the womb in
the right place, but deficient in suction power, pregnancy will not be
likely to take place, however fruitful the female may be in the pro-
duction of healthy ova, or the male in secreting vital semen.
D, gives a view of quite a different position of things. Here the
male organ possesses the average length, but the uterus is located too
far up in the vaginal cavity. The vaginal canal is really quite too
long. The distance from the outer surface of the external lips of the
vagina to the mouth of the womb should not exceed five or six inclies.
Here the distance may be supposed to embrace eight inches, leaving a
penis of six inches in length, two inches from the mouth of the womb ;
and one of three or four inches, as in C, hardly half way up the vaginal
cavity. If a woman of this procreative organism be the wife of one
having a short penis, all must depend upon extreme susceptibility to
impregnation on the part of the former, for the ejaculatory force of
the seminal expenditure could hardly be sufficient to reach the mouth
of the womb, if the male organ is of the usual length, as represented
in D. With two inches space between it and the uterus, deficiency
of suction power on the part of the wife and of ejaculatory force on
the part of the husband, intercourse would prove fruitless.
E, represents the womb in the true position ; but there is a down-
ward curvature of the male organ, so that it not only does not reach
the mouth of the womb, but it pours the fecundating fluid upon the
back wall of the vagina, from which position it may pass out without
coming in contact with the mouth of the womb. I have known cases
of married people who were liable to excessive child-bearing, in which
the husband successfully resorted to this position in the vagina at the
moment of the seminal expenditure, for the purpose of preventing con-
ception. The only reason it may not be considered a reliable preven-
tion is because of the great suction power of the uterus in many women;
but in those I refer to it was a success, and they only bore children
when they desired to.
F, represents another malformation of the penis. Here the organ
has a side curvature, and points to one side of the walls of the vagina.
The deposit of the seminal fluids in this place, at each intercourse, is
sufficient in some cases to render the married pair childless.
G, represents the neck of the womb twisted so that it will not face
the glans-penis in the sexual act. This malformation is not infre-
quently met with, I have examined many cases in which it was long,
8,
586 HINTS TO THE CHILDLESS.
slim, and contracted, pointing, in some, to the side ; in others, upward
or downward. In one case that I examined, the neck of the womb was
two inches long, no larger than a good-sized goose-quill, and as pointed
as a pencil. The suction power in such a womb is never more than
moderate.
H, exhibits the glans-penis with a similar deformity. This one is
twisted sideways. In some cases the glans is bent downward, and in
others, upward. I have never yet in my practice met with a pair in
which the wife had the malformation of G, and the husband that of H.
If there are two such unfortunates, offspring cannot reasonably be
looked for until my remarks on remedies are read, and the difficulty
mechanically obviated. When one has such a deformity, it is enough
to cause the absence of offspring. We will now turn to Fig. 208, and
continue this investigation.
I, presents the top of the womb fallen forward, causing the mouth
to rest against the back walls of the vagina. So imbedded is the neck
of the uterus in the membrane lining the vaginal cavity in some cases
of this kind, that no other than mechanical means can possibly rescue
a female from barrenness. When it simply rests against the back wall,
without pressure, the penis passes above it and pregnancy may be pre-
vented from taking place.
J, represents the opposite position, the mouth of the womb press-
ing against the front wall, dividing the vagina from the bladder, in
which case the penis passes under the mouth of the womb and to the
side of it. When the womb occupies this position, or the one shown in
I, its mouth is as completely covercd as if the finger were placed over
it. To these two positions may be attributed the most common causes
of barrenness presented under the head of local inadaptation, although
the inadaptations represented in A and B occur nearly as frequently.
K, presents a position not very dissimilar to that given in J. The
difference is, that the uterus has fallen downward as well as backward.
There are also downward and forward displacements, as when the
womb occupies the low position represented in K, with its top against
the bladder, and its mouth against the rectum. In these displacements
the penis presses against one side of the womb, and in most cases is not
allowed to enter far into the vagina. When, however, the male organ
is short, this position of the womb occasions no inconvenience in coition.
If the male organ is long, it does.
L, represents the uterus in its right place, and the penis also ; but
the glans-penisis covered with the foreskin, which will not yield and
press backward, but closely envelopes the glans, and projects beyond
it. This is technically called phimosis, and unless the orifice of the
foreskin is on a direct line with the glans, the seminal fluids may be
misdirected, and their ejaculatory force impeded, º?
LOCAL INADAPTATION. 587
M, gives something of an idea of the position of the womb when
it is doubled upon itself. In this diagram the engraver has not been
entirely successful in presenting the doubled position of the neck, or
the obliterated condition of the cavity. It is often much more doubled
upon itself than the diagram represents. In a case of this kind, the
male organ has no difficulty in coming in contact with the mouth of
the uterus; but the canal leading up through the neck to the cavity of
the womb is nearly or quite closed up by its cramped position. In
this position the mouth usually has but little suction power, and some-
times none at all. When the suction power is sufficient, the compressed
condition of the canal may obstruct the passage of the spermatozoa,
and thus prevent the possibility of conception. -
N, presents an irregular, contracted vagina, preventing the en-
trance of an ordinary-sized penis to a sufficient depth to meet the mouth
of the womb. The womb itself is in a good position, and in its right
place ; but it is practically blockaded. While many of these contrac-
tions are congenital and incurable, some are produced by disease, and
may be remedied. When congenital, the skilful knife of the surgeon
may sometimes obviate the difficulty.
O, represents a similar inadaptation arising, not from contraction
of the vagina, but from the unusual size of the male organ. When
the diameter of the penis much exceeds two inches, it is apt to prove a
troublesome member. I was recently consulted in a case where the
circumference was seven inches, and the length eight inches, and the
vagina of the wife had not yet been able to admit it. If the mouth of
the womb is very active, this inadaptation may not prevent pregnancy;
but if it is sluggish, some means recommended in the remarks on
remedies should be adopted.
P, presents the womb in its proper position, and the glans-penis
near its mouth, but the natural outlet of the urethra of the male has
been closed by disease, considerably scarifying the glans, and the
orifice through which the seminal fluids are discharged is over, or in
more cases, underneath the glans-penis, and a little below it. In such a
case, the glans may be so pressed against the mouth of the womb, as
to absolutely obstruct the orifice when the seminal fluids are discharged
in an upward or downward direction. In such a case the suction
power of the uterus might be vigorous, and the end of the penis
so block the passage into the uterus that pregnancy would not take
place.' If the mouth of the womb be inactive in such a case, concep-
tion would be almost, if not absolutely, impossible, excepting with
the adoption of some means recommended for overcoming local in-
adaptation, given in another place.
Considering how blindly people come together in marriage, it is
not at all surprising that local inadaptation often takes place. In just
588 HINTS TO THE CHILDLESS.
what manner, consistent with the safety of our system of society, the
liability to mistakes of this kind may be obviated is difficult for the
physiologist to suggest. Even when a person selects a companion with
the strictest view to a union founded upon affection only, the choice
may prove a partial failure. A man may enter a clothing store and
select a garment which exactly suits his idea in quality and style, but
when it is sent home, if he has not tried it, he may find that it pinches
in the arms; draws too tight in the back; or is too long, or too short-
waisted. A young woman may select at the shoe store a pair of shoes
which in her opinion will prove “just the thing,” when, upon trying
them on, they pinch the toes, or the instep, or in some other way fail to
make the feet comfortable. So here is a question for physiologists and
moralists to settle. How shall all liability to local inadaptation be
avoided ?
Let me strongly urge upon all who are childless to sufficiently ac-
Quaint themselves with their organs of reproduction, and the position
which they occupy in the act of copulation, to determine if possible for
themselves, whether local inadaptation may not be the real cause of
their barrenness. By carefully examining the names, locations, and
descriptions of the organs as presented in “Private Words for Women,”
and as will be presented in “Private Words for Men,” it seems to me
all may be able to do so without any direct aid from the physician.
Diseased Condition of the Wife.
Falling of the womb is a very frequent cause of barrenness. I
have already explained in what I have said regarding local inadaptation,
how this affection may prevent pregnancy ; and I have here only to
remark that while displacements very often exist without any signs of
disease, the world is full of sufferers from painful displacements of the
womb. When the painful symptoms are present, pregnancy is less
liable to occur than when these symptoms are absent, because their
presence shows that the womb is not only out of its natural position,
but that it is congested, inflamed, and debilitated, and all of its ap-
pendages with it. The whole muscular structure of the procreative
apparatus is relaxed, and every organ involved ; intercourse is more or
less painful, the mouth of the womb is sluggish and often congested,
and sometimes sensitive to pressure. Its orifice is nearly or quite
closed up by inflammation ; or is open and so nearly paralyzed as to
be unable to receive or retain the impregnating fluid. Impregnation
may be effected in some cases by means which I shall advise where
simply local inadaptation exists; but in a majority of them, the womb
is too much diseased to perform its most important function success-
fully. Even if impregnation is effected, an early miscarriage may
DISEASED CONDITION OF THE WIFE. 589
occur ; for, if the womb is inflamed and swollen, it will not expand to
make room for the growing foetus ; if relaxed, it does not possess suffi-
cient strength or contractile power at its mouth to retain, for the natural
period of gestation, its precious fruit.
In some cases, when the womb is really in its right position, and
all the organs of generation are in a sound state, the cavity of the womb
may be closed by inflammation. In others, the lining of the cavity may
be so affected by inflammation that it will peel off, either in a body, or
in strips or shreds, so that when conception does take place, if concep-
tion be possible, the infant foetus, with its placenta, is carried away
sooner or later, by this shedding of the lining of the womb's cavity.
In some cases of this kind which have come under my observation,
conception would take place and pregnancy continue to the second,
third, and in some instances, to the fourth month, and then all would
be detached and pass off in a shapeless mass, or else in fragments.
Ulceration in the lining of the cavity may exist, and poison or destroy
the life of the spermatozoa, and thus prevent conception.
It is sometimes found that a body of coagulated mucus blocks up
the canal leading from the mouth of the uterus to the cavity, so that
the spermatozoa can neither pass through it, nor between it and the
walls of the canal. It should be understood that there are glands in
the uterus which secrete mucus for the purpose of lubricating the
parts and facilitating the passage of the child in confinement. These
glands are usually active in sexual intercourse, and somewhat so in
menstruation ; but when this mucus possesses unnatural properties, es-
pecially glutinous, it may obstruct the passage as I have explained, and
although the obstruction may be swept out by the menstrual blood
each month, such may be the condition of the glands that another plug
will almost instantly form, allowing no opportunity for the spermatozoa
to ascend the canal. Chronic irritation or inflammation may cause a
puffiness of the lining of the neck of the womb so as to effect the same
result. Stricture of the neck of the womb may also prevent the sperma-
tozoa from entering the cavity. Chronic irritation may not only exist
in the lining of the neck, but also up through the cavity just sufficient
to produce a high degree of sensitiveness, such as sometimes exists in
the lining of the stomach. When this condition prevails, the presence
of the seed of the male in the womb causes contractions either at the
time it is received or not many days after, and it is thrown off just as
food is thrown from the stomach by vomiting when this kind of irrita-
tion exists in the stomach.
Ovarian affections are often the cause of barrenness. It must be
remembered that the ovaries in health are the organs which produce
the ova or eggs of the female. They are to the female what the testi.
cles are to the male. In them is produced the little germ which, united
590 HINTS TO THE CHILDLESS.
.
%
with the male germ, forms the foetus. Foetus is a name given to the
child in the first stages of its utero life.
The ovaries are subject to many affections which might be prop-
erly stated as inflammatory, ulcerous, cancerous, tumorous, dropsical,
and paralytic. Fig. 209 represents an ovary affected with cysts, or
sac-like bladders, filled with fluid (serum), which form the common
kind of “dropsical ovarian tumor.” Such a tumor, if small, may give
very little inconvenience, but when large enough to press injuriously
on neighboring Organs—the intestines, rectum, bladder, and womb—
there may be serious impairment of general health, and urgent neces-
sity for relief. This may sometimes be afforded by tapping, to draw
off the fluid, a very simple operation ; but the radical operation for
FIG. 209.
DISEASED OVARY,
removing such a tumor is called ovariotomy, and though it requires
opening into the abdominal cavity, the mortality has been reduced from
fifty to seventy, to five or ten per cent. by the improvements in modern
surgery. When barrenness is caused by this condition, of course the
only hope of relieving barrenness lies in medical treatment. Removal
of the ovaries by surgery renders parentage impossible to the one who
is compelled to resort to it; that is to say, if both ovaries have been
involved and both removed. \
Ovarian affections, unless of a paralytic character, are attended
with more or less pain in either side of the abdomen in the regions
where the ovaries are located. Often distention and tenderness are ex-
perienced in these regions when inflammation is present. In the
paralyzed state of the ovaries there is an entire want of action, and

DISEASED CONDITION OF THE WIFE. 59 I
seldom any feeling of pain, soreness, or other symptoms to indicate the
existence of the trouble, excepting barrenness. Every organ of the
body requires the nervous or "electrical stimulus to properly perform
its function. The stomach will not digest food if the pneumogastric
nerve conducting the nervous or electrical stimulus to that organ is
severed ; and when the nerves leading to the stomach are inactive,
digestion becomes at least defective. Now, the ovaries require the
same stimulus, and unless they have it, either no eggs at all are ripened,
or any which may be generated are not sufficiently perfect to render
impregnation possible. The thoroughly paralyzed ovary much resem-
bles that of a female who has passed the age for child-bearing, as rep-
resented in Fig. 211. Partial paralysis of the ovaries may not at all
interfere with the general health ; and a per-
son having these organs so affected may ap-
pear to be in the full enjoyment of health,
not only to their neighbors, but to them-
selves; but child-bearing is impossible un-
less they are restored.
Affections of the ovaries are in most cases
attended with more or less disturbance of
the menstrual function. When the Ovaries
are nearly or quite paralyzed, the menses
are too slight. When inflammatory, ulcer-
ous, or tumorous affections are present, the
menses are too profuse ; and sometimes
fleshy substances or fibres pass with the
menstrual discharges. When the ovaries
are dropsical, the menstrual fluids are often
found to be very watery, with a lightish
appearance or yellowish color. Tumorous * *Y*** * *****
and dropsical ovaries in Some cases produce very great abnormal dis-
tention, so that the female is supposed to be pregnant by those not
capable of judging. It is well in these affections that females so
suffering are not liable to pregnancy, for they could hardly survive the
period of gestation. Nor is it best that women should become preg-
nant until these difficulties are entirely eradicated, for pregnancy is
possible when only a partial cure is effected. Both out of regard for
the health of the offspring, and the greater safety of the mother, every
vestige of tumor, or dropsy, should be removed before conception is
allowed to take place. -
Diseased secretions of the vagina and womb frequently occasion
barrenness. The most common difficulty which may be mentioned
under this head is leucorrhoea. I have spoken in a preceding chapter
of the prevalence of this disease. In health there is only just sufficient
FIG. 210.

592 THINTS TO THE CHILDLESS.
mucus secreted in the vagina to produce an agreeable moisture without
any discharge whatever. It has been discovered that the spermatozoa
of the male will live for many days in the healthy secretions of the
vagina, whereas their contact with the diseased secretions seems to
prove almost immediate death to them. Some of these abnormal Secre-
tions simply lack a sufficiency of the natural properties belonging to
them ; others possess purulent and acrimonious properties, attended
with more or less irritation or burning heat in the parts. It is not in-
frequently found that unwholesome discharges proceed from ulcers in
the vagina, or in the womb. Whatever may be the source or im-
mediate cause of the discharges, it may be safely said that any depart-
ure from the natural properties of the healthy vaginal secretions may
occasion barrenness. Some childless wife will observe that she has
these discharges just before and just after the menses, the very times
when she would be most likely otherwise to conceive. Some women
FIG. 211. can only conceive within
two or three days before,
Or within ten or fourteen
days after menstruation.
Suppose, in a case of this
kind, leucorrhoea sets in
just previous to the menses,
and reappears at the cessa-
THE OVAT&Y IN OLD AGE. tion of the menses, and con-
tinues for about a couple of weeks; if that leucorrhoea possesses acri-
monious properties, there is hardly a shadow of a chance for a person
thus affected to become pregnant. It is true that some women habit-
ually affected with leucorrhoea raise large families. In these cases, either
the secretions are not acrimonious or poisonous, or local adaptation
is so complete that the spermatozoa enter the mouth of the womb at
the moment they are discharged from the male organ so as not to come
in contact at all with the fluids of the vagina.
The Fallopian tubes, through which the ova descend to the cavity
of the womb, are sometimes obstructed by inflammation, ulceration,
gluey secretions, or strictures. Any one of these conditions of the
ovarian tubes may exist without any perceptible effect upon the general
health.
In persons of a scrofulous diathesis, the blood may be so greatly
diseased that the productions of the ovaries lack vitality. This want
of vitality may be sufficient to prevent conception altogether ; or it may
be sufficient to allow impregnation to take place, but not sufficient to
withstand and prevent the menstrual flow ; and, in Some cases, it may
even allow pregnancy to go on for a few months, but before the child
can be fully developed, the foetus dies and a miscarriage occurs. In

DISEASED CONDITION OF THE WIFE. 593
those who are born there are all degrees of vital tenacity exhibited.
Some perish in infancy, some in early childhood, some in youthhood,
some in middle age, while a few live to ripe old age. Well, now, there
are all degrees of vital tenacity in those ova inhabiting the wombs of
pregnant women, and the vital tenacity of each foetus depends upon
the health of the parents, temperamental adaptation, and upon the cir-
cumstances under which conception has taken place.
An excess of flesh may occasion barrenness. Fatty matter may
not only so envelop the ovaries as to interfere more or less with their
functions, but it may so separate the ovaries from the fimbria, or ex-
tremities of the Fallopian tubes, as to prevent the egg from descending
to the cavity of the uterus. In some cases, excessive flesh may so
widen or distend the body in the region of these organs as to render the
Fallopian tubes too short to reach the ovaries. Anyone can easily
picture to herself how the distention of the body between the hips may
remove those little ovarian organs sufficiently far away from the ex-
treme ends of the Fallopian tubes as to completely isolate them. When
this state of things exists, the ova or eggs as they ripen, simply drop
into the cavity of the abdomen, where they doubtless are removed by
absorption, while the womb, vagina, and the whole procreative system
appear to be in perfect health.
Impotency on the part of the wife may cause barrenness. This
disease may exist in the erectile muscle and tissue of the female, as
well as in those of the male, in which case there is too much of a
flabbiness and relaxation of the procreative system to either take up
the spermatozoa of the male, or to retain for impregnation the ovum of
the female. In such cases, frequently there are no other symptoms
except inability to enjoy the sexual act.
Tumors in the vagina, the rectum, the bladder, the neck of the
womb, the ovaries, or the Fallopian tubes, may be so located as to
prevent the male germ from effecting a meeting with the ovum of the
female. The presence of these tumors may always be detected either
by external or internal examination.
MORE INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE OVARIES,
Inasmuch as the reader was referred in “ Private Words to
Women” to this chapter for information respecting these important
organs, I shall have more to say about them here than is quite germane
to “Hints to the Childless,” but the matter will be found exceedingly
interesting, and especially so to those looking into the causes of barren-
ness. In almost all cases of tumors about the generative organs, es-
pecially if in the ovaries, the question is likely to arise as to the advisa-
bility of Operation. Many such operations must of course be followed
by hopeless sterility ; but this will not be an item to consider if the
594 HINTS TO THE CHILDLESS.
condition already existing is really an incurable case of sterility. Then
the Woman becomes no more sterile after operation than before, and
the advisability of it will depend entirely on what it may be expected
to accomplish in the way of actually improving the state of health and
the comfort of the patient. This is generally a very debatable ques.
tion, and often difficult to decide, as must have been already observed
in what has been said on the subject. Some cases would surely be
Somewhat benefited by removal of very diseased ovaries or tubes, and
in others operation merely substitutes a new set of troublesome symp-
toms for the old ones. The results of complete removal of the ovaries
cannot in any case be fully foreseen nor predicted by the wisest of the
profession, and this is so because they are so dependent upon the idio-
Syncracy of the patient ; but the probable results are those summed
up by Dr. Christopher Martin.
1. The woman becomes absolutely sterile. 2. Menstruation ceases
in about ninety-five per cent. of the cases. 3. The uterus, and
to a less extent, the vagina and vulva undergo a process of atrophy.
4. The nervous symptoms of the menopause appear abruptly and
violently—viz., heats and flushes, perspirations, palpitations, giddiness,
depression of spirits, and a generally unstable condition of the nervous
system. 5. In a considerable majority of cases there is a diminution
Or total abolition of the sexual instincts. 6. The patient has a ten-
dency to obesity.
A very curious case was reported in one of our medical journals
showing, that aside from the reproductive function, the ovarian action
seems to exert some systematic effect which a woman cannot well
afford to do without. The Medical News of April 29, 1899, had a
report by Dr. Gloss of an operation for transplantation of the ovary.
A housemaid, thirty-nine years of age, had been relieved of both ovaries
by previous operation, and the artificially induced cessation of menstru-
ation was attended with such depressing nervous symptoms that it was
deemed best to give her back an ovary. The operator fortunately
found another woman who ought to be made sterile, and who could
spare an ovary. Only one was removed from her, and she was ren-
dered sterile as to the other left in place by stricturing the adjoining
Fallopian tube. The freshly removed ovary from woman No. 2 was
introduced into the peritoneal cavity back of the womb of woman No. 1,
by a small incision through the roof of the vagina, and, in due time, the
symptoms complained of disappeared ; menstruation was resumed, and
sexual appetite returned as well. Were this not reported in journals
of high standing, and seemingly credited by their editors, I should not
relate the case here, for it reads not a little like a “fairy story,” and
yet has nothing positively incredible about it. Therefore, it is supposed
that either the ovary abstracts something from the blood, or contributes
DISEASED CONDITION OF THE WIFE. 595
something to it, in a way that makes at least one, or part of one, a
handy thing to have about a person of the feminine gender.
ARE THE OVARIES ESSENTIAL
FOR THE MAINTENANCE OF SEXUAL DESIRE 7
As to the need of the ovaries for preserving something of the noi-
mal sexual desires, there is considerable very positive testimony that
they are not essential. That operative removal of the ovaries is often
followed by sexual apathy is certainly true, as proved by numerous
reported cases; and the late Dr. Lawson Tait, whose experience in such
operations was perhaps unequalled, gave the results of his observation
in one of his last articles contributed to the medical press (see N. Y.
Medical Record, April 8, 1899). Dr. Tait was a man of very positive
opinions, as indicated by this quotation from his pen : “We are told
once more, though the contrary has been proved over and over again,
that in a considerable majority of cases there is a diminution or total
abolition of the sexual instincts. This is not true ; in fact, it is abso-
lutely untrue. It is a subject on which, of course, the publication of
facts is extremely difficult, either one way or the other. But my own
facts establish the conclusion that the cases of abolition are extremely
few, not more than five per cent. ; but they get greatly talked about by
loose-minded women and by men whose sense of honor and proper
reticence in matters concerning their wives is strangely defective. On
the other hand, the instances of restitution of marital relations which
had been entirely destroyed by disease and restored by the operation
required are at least sixty per cent. Of all the cases. In a few instances
the mysterious fact remains that women who before operation had
little or no sexual appetite had it developed after treatment to an ex-
tent which became inconvenient. I removed the appendages, twelve
years ago, of a lady noted in public estimation to the highest degree.
She had had one child, and to her husband had never shown any
sexual response whatever till after the operation ; it became op-
pressive to him and he died. She lived as a widow for three years,
applying to me from time to time for arrest of this symptom, until it
got so bad that I advised removal of the uterus, and this I carried out
not only without benefit but rather with a further increase of the
trouble. She greatly objected to the idea of a second marriage, and
had always resisted my advice and the advice of her parents in that
direction ; but at last, and entirely to save her conscience from the
reproach of wrong, she married again, and a few months ago the fact
was announced in every paper in Europe. It is, therefore, perfectly
useless to say that in a few cases the sexual tastes are destroyed.
* * * The whole thing is based on a misconception of the
function of the ovaries, which have no more to do with the sexual
596 HINTS TO THE CHILDLESS.
appetite than the kidneys. Nor have the Fallopian tubes nor the
uterus, as it is maintained. On the contrary, it is sometimes increased
by the complete absence of all five. The two most erotic women I
have ever come across were two sisters in whom not the slightest trace
of uterus or ovaries could be determined, and in one of them I had
positive knowledge of the fact of their complete absence when I oper-
ated upon her for tuberculous peritonitis. They were in good social
position, were not insane, yet no kind of inducement, social, parental,
or restrictive, could prevail upon these women to refrain from inducing
every man with whom they could get an opportunity to have inter-
course with them, and they were confirmed Sapphists as well as the
daughters of a well-known physician.”
Physically, the women last described were almost sexual neuters,
and certainly they were rare specimens to be so highly endowed with
the desire for use of parts so deficient. I had one somewhat similar
case, only a little more a-sexual, being without trace of a vagina. She
was anxious to marry, and one of my assistants succeeded in develop-
ing by gradual operations a very passable vagina, but we did not know
where to borrow other parts for transplantation. Nevertheless, she
was married, her suitor being content without prospect of further
family, but whether, as the fiction often puts it, they were “forever
after happy,” my record of the case fails to state.
Congenital neuters are not uncommon, but there are far more con-
genital psychic, than congenital physical, neuters. Naturally we
should expect those devoid of sexual parts to be also without sexual
appetite, and no doubt most of them are so ; but on the other hand,
there are numerous women who have all the parts and no normal
desires, and of these psychic neuters Some are sterile, and Some are
not, and some, if married, do develop that in Which they seemed de-
ficient,
Diseased Condition of the Husband.
It seems seldom to be mistrusted that the husband is at fault in an
unfruitful marriage. Besides the evidences revealed by the microscope,
childless widowers have been known to marry the second or third time,
and still died without ever having become fathers; while one of their
wives, and possibly each of them, has been the mother of children by a
former or subsequent husband. I believe all medical works use the
word barrenness only in speaking of women who are incapable of re-
production, but this same term may be properly applied in reference
to a husband who is unable to impart to the wife a healthy germ. The
husband may be to all external appearances in a perfectly healthy con-
dition. He may be capable of enjoying the sexual act to the fullest
DISEASED CONDITION OF THE HUSBAND. 597
extent, and still be incapable of becoming a father. A wife is not in-
frequently blamed by the husband and friends for not becoming a
mother when she is not at all at fault. All that she requires for
becoming a parent is the introduction of a healthy spermatozoon into
the vagina where it may come in contact with the mouth of the womb.
There are a few congenital neuters among men, in whom the generative
organs have not fully developed, and such men, even if disposed to
marry, could not reproduce their kind. This is, no doubt, one reason
why there are no more of them, for they almost always are devoid of
attraction for women, and so remain single, as they ought. A physi-
cian of one of our New York hospitals, describing four of them, how-
ever, says they are retiring and “lady-like ’’ in behavior I Post-mortem
examination of one of them discovered only rudimentary testes no
larger than a pea, and no prostate gland. Even men with well de-
veloped testes might be sterile, if the prostate gland were undeveloped,
or seriously diseased, for the sperm-cells in the testicular fluid are inert
or motionless, and no doubt of no account until vivified by contact with
normal secretions of the prostate gland, with which they are usually
mixed in a seminal discharge. This has been demonstrated by Für-
bringer, and indorsed by others. Congenital deficiency of testes and
prostate are rare, but the diseases which so interfere with their func-
tions as to make a man sterile are only too common results of abuse .
and contagion.
The most common cause of barrenness on the part of the male is
debility of his procreative organs, and especially of the testicular
glands, causing the production of non-vital semen. In Fig. 212, A
represents a microscopical view of living and healthy spermatozoa ;
while B represents a similar view of sickly and inanimate spermatozoa,
such as are often found in the seminal fluids of a barren man. Mastur-
bation in boyhood, or excessive venery in boyhood or manhood, may so
weaken the testicular glands as to cause this difficulty in the male.
Mumps settling in the testicles may produce a similar result, while
severe sickness of any kind may in some cases so affect the testicular
glands as to vitiate their natural secretions. Mercurial salivation may
so affect the testicular glands as to render the spermatozoa sickly, so
that if they are capable of impregnating the ova, a diseased embryo is
produced which will not tarry long in the uterus. When the system is
affected with constitutional syphilis, the male germ may not be suffi-
ciently healthy to produce a vigorous embryo. In some cases the
syphilitic impurity will so far affect the spermatozoa as to render them
incapable of impregnating the ova. It should be understood that the
germ of the male as well as that of the female, may be affected by dis-
ease. The extent of that disease may widely vary in the spermatozoa
of different men ; and it may greatly vary in any one person at differ-
598 HINTS TO THE CHILDLESS.
ent times. In other words, a man who is usually sickly, or locally
affected with disease, may have days or hours of convalescence when
the spermatozoa generated at this particular time may possess all the
vigor necessary for a successful impregnation, and the production of a
healthy child. On the other hand, a man in perfect health in all his
parts may have occasional seasons of debility in the procreative system,
at which times the spermatozoa produced would either be incapable
of impregnating a female, or of producing a healthy foetus if impreg-
nation did take place.
Destitution of the spermatic fluids may render a man barren.
Occasionally cases are met with in which the male is fully capable of
coition, and even the enjoyment of the act, when no seminal fluids are
emitted. In these rare cases, either the
testicular glands, and the prostate and
Cowper's glands are literally dried up,
or there is some obstruction to prevent
their secretions from reaching, the
mouth of the urethra. In some cases
there will be an emission of fluids from
the prostate and Cowper's glands and,
to the non-professional eye, these fluids
may have all the appearance of natural
semen, when they do not possess the
spermatozoa. e e gº
B, Microscopic view of sickly in- least particle of the germinal fluid
animate spermatozoa found in from the testes. In these cases, the
the seminal fluids of a barren prostate and Cowper's glands are active,
Iſla, Il. while the testicular glands are inactive,
or are prevented in some way from communicating, with the seminal
vessels. By referring to the chapter entitled “Private Words for Men,”
the complexity of the procreative machinery of the male will be ob-
served ; and it will be seen how easily those small tubes called the vasa
deferentia, which convey the secretions of the testicles by a circuitous
route to the seminal vessels may be in some way obstructed. Their
natural orifice is only sufficiently large to admit of a bristle, so that any
affection of these tubes might easily shut off the contributions from the
testicular glands, which contributions possess all that is actually vital
in the semen. -
A stricture of the urethra, as I have before remarked, may pre-
vent the seminal fluids from passing it at the time of intercourse. In
this case the semen passes back into the bladder, and escapes with the
urine when that is voided. This may reasonably be expected, even in
slight cases of stricture, in which the person has but little trouble in
expelling the urine, because the act of voiding the water usually takes
place when the penis is in repose, and not erected, and when elastic
FIG. 212.
THE SPERMATOZOA.
A, Microscopic view of healthy

EXCESSIVE AMATIVENESS. 599
and flabby, the urine may pass quite easily, carrying with it the sper-
matic fluids which may have been emptied into the bladder, while the
spermatic fluids could not pass in a state of erection because of the Con-
gested condition of the organ, and the consequent contraction of the
canal of the urethra. Stricture cannot very well exist without the knowl-
edge of the person so affected. If it does not so far obstruct the pas-
Sage of the water in urinating, as to give some inconvenience, the
stream flowing from it is divided as it leaves the orifice, or in some
cases it may present a spiral motion as it flows out. As the symptoms
attending stricture, as well as other remarks upon this disease are pre-
sented in a previous chapter, it is unnecessary to dwell upon this diffi-
culty here.
Chronic gonorrhoea or gleet may render a man barren ; for if the
spermatozoa are produced in perfect health in the testicles, their vitality
will be affected or destroyed, as they pass through the urethra, by the
acrimonious secretions of that canal.
Like leucorrhoea in the female, gleet or gonorrhoea is destructive
of the spermatozoa. No one affected with this disease need be uncon
scious of its presence. There is, either at intervals or constantly, a
passing out of diseased mucus; or, if it does not run or drizzle away,
it may be pressed out of the orifice of the urethra.
Catarrh of the bladder, or of the urethra, may destroy the vitality
of the seminal fluids and thereby render the male barren. In fact, any
unwholesome secretions of the urethra or bladder, or any ulcerous
matter habitually descending the canal of the urethra, may be sufficient
to kill the seminal animalcule so as to render the husband incapable of
effecting conception. As in gonorrhoea or gleet, these difficulties are
attended with discharges from the urethra, so that no one can be un-
conscious of their existence.
The reader has, in the foregoing paragraphs, the most common
causes of barrenness in the male. Those difficulties proceeding from
malformations of the penis have already been referred to in the essay
on Local Inadaptation.
Excessive Amativeness.
This, on the part of either husband or wife, may be the cause of
barrenness. If on the part of the former, he may be so excessive in
intercourse as to hardly allow the spermatozoa to become sufficiently
developed for impregnation ; or he may be so violent in coition that at
the very moment when the womb should be under the influence of its
absorbing movements, it shrinks away and recoils from contact with
the male organ. In the latter case, the wife may or may not enjoy the
act of coition ; but if she does, the womb at the climax involuntarily
shrinks from the violent contusion which it is receiving.
6OO IIINTS TO THE CHILDLESS.
When excessive excitability exists in the wife, the ova are some-
times actually ruptured by the violent contractions of the Fallopian
tubes, or paralyzed by the excess of nervous force or electricity present.
The womb may also, under such excitability, be set into violent con-
tortions and contractions sufficient not only to expel the ova outright,
but to prevent the spermatozoa of the male from entering. In some
FIG. 213.
TEMPERAMENTAL INADAPTATION.
A and B are supposed to represent one married pair, and C and D another married
couple. The first two have light hair and eyes, and the second have black
hair and eyes.
cases of this kind there is no doubt that the ova are absolutely ejected
from the womb with as much force as the spermatic fluids are ejected
from the urethra, whereas the ova ought to be retained in the cavity of
the uterus. However forcibly the ova may be taken from the ovarian
glands and carried down through the Fallopian tubes, they should not
pass beyond the cavity of the womb, for conception never takes place
in the vagina. In some cases where the procreative organs are exces-

TEMPERAMENTAL INADAPTATION. 6OI
sively sluggish in their action, pregnancy has taken place in one of the
Fallopian tubes, much to the distress of the patient ; but no one Who is
at all informed in regard to the organs of the female, need be assured
that an ovum precipitated into the vagina could not become impreg-
FIG. 214.
TEMPERAMENTAL INADAPTATION.
E is the husband of F, and G husband of H. The first pair have hazel eyes and
dark brown hair, and the second light hair and eyes.
nated and developed there. Excessive amative excitability is, there-
fore, more apt to cause barrenness than is sexual apathy.
Temperamental Inadaptation.
In my classification of the causes of barrenness, temperamental in-
adaptation came last. If I were treating upon ill-success in raising a
family of children from conception to adult age, this cause would have
been assigned the first place, What is temperamental inadaptation ?

6O2 HINTS TO THE CHILDLESS.
It is the marriage of a man and woman who are too much alike in
their physical structures and constituents. They may be as dissimilar
as possible in their sentiments and tastes, but if they are not unlike in
their constitutional formations and atomic ingredients, either entire
barrenness or inability to have healthy, enduring offspring will cer-
tainly ensue. Let me here group together a few people as we are too
apt to find them in married life. Just look for a moment at Figs. 213
and 214. The adaptation is all wrong here, and must cause either
entire barrenness or weak and short-lived progeny. If all were put
into a bag and well shaken together they would probably come out
better assorted than they are now. A could have healthy children if
united with D or with H. C would be successful in this direction with
B, and do pretty well with F. E would answer well with D, and still
better with H. G. would have healthy offspring if joined to B, and
the stock would be still stronger if he were the husband of F. The
physiological fact is, that a married couple should be physically as
different from each other as possible in the formation of the face, head,
and body ; and when those who are barren find on an examination of
themselves critically that they are very much alike physically, it would
be well for them to investigate the question as to their physical fitness
for each other. As all rules have their exceptions, there is one and
Only one to the rule herein given, which should be mentioned in this
connection. Some childless couple may say, “Certainly, we are dis-
similar enough.” Let us see. The husband is a lean or spare man,
with a large, broad, almost perpendicular forehead, and small back-
brain, while the wife has a full form, with indications of a decidedly
lymphatic temperament. Or perhaps it is the reverse, the husband
Being lymphatic and the cranial and bodily formation of the wife such
as I first described. This pair really look dissimilar enough, to be
sure ; but one is of what is called, according to Powell, the encephalic,
and the other of the lymphatic temperament, both of these tempera-
ments being what are called the non-vital. To this pair no offspring
will be born, or if ushered into the world it can have only a brief ex-
istence. This is the exception. In all other particulars the more dis-
similar a husband and wife are the better it is for offspring.
In the most conspicuous cases of temperamental inadaptation con-
ception cannot possibly take place ; in those less marked, impregnation
is not impossible, but the foetus seldom survives the period it should
remain in the womb ; in those wherein physical adaptation is a shade
better, healthy children may be born, but only to fill infant graves.
Turning from the more prominent cases of inadaptation, families of
children are found possessing all degrees of health and vital tenacity,
the more vigorous-looking not always being the toughest and most
enduring, p
TEMPERAMENTAL INADAPTATION. 603
The natural law demanding temperamental adaptation for success-
ful parentage undoubtedly extends throughout the animal kingdom,
and perhaps some day stock-breeders will become sufficiently familiar
with it to insure unvarying success. Already they seem to instinctively
know more than the average physiologist or practicing physician in
this matter, and are more successful in improving the breeds of domestic
animals through such knowledge than the wisest of men are in per-
fecting the human kind. Speaking of animals, other than the human,
Darwin has been quoted as saying : “It is by no means rare to find
certain males and females which will not breed together, though both
are known to be perfectly fertile with other males and females. We
have no reason to suppose that this is caused by these animals having
been subjected to any change in their habits of life. The cause appar-
ently lies in an innate sexual incompatibility of the pair which are
matched. Several instances have been communicated to me by Mr.
W. C. Spooner (well known for his essay on Cross-breeding), by Mr.
Eyton, of Eyton ; by Mr. Wicksted, and other breeders, and especially
by Mr. Waring, of Chelsfield, in relation to horses, cattle, pigs, fox-
hounds, other dogs, and pigeons. In these cases, females which either
previously or subsequently were proved to be fertile, failed to breed
with certain males, with whom it was particularly desired to match
them. A change in the constitution of the female may sometimes
have occurred before she was put to the second male ; but in other
cases the explanation is hardly tenable, for a female known not to be bar-
ren has been unsuccessfully paired seven or eight times with the same
male, likewise known to be perfectly fertile. With cart-mares, which
sometimes will not breed with stallions of pure blood, but subsequently
have bred with cart stallions, Mr. Spooner is inclined to attribute the
failure to the lesser sexual power of the race-horse; but I have heard
from the greatest breeder of racchorses at the present day, through Mr.
Waring, that it frequently occurs with the mare to be put up several
times during one or two seasons to a particular stallion of acknowledged
power, and yet prove barren, the mare afterwards breeding at once
with some other horse. These facts are worth recording, as they show,
like so many previous facts, on what slight constitutional differences
the fertility of an animal often depends.”
Thus, what I have said of the importance of temperamental
adaptation in the human family, is supported by what Mr. Darwin
has offered upon the Subject as to the breeding of lower animals. The
facts given by the great naturalist equally sustain the claims of the tem-
peramentologist. Animals must, to be fertile and to insure viable off-
spring, be temperamentally mated. Much has yet to be learned by
stock-breeders, but they already show more wisdom in raising colts,
dogs, and pigeons than they do in raising children.
6O4 HINTS TO THE CHILDLESS.
The subject of this essay is a most important one, and should com-
mand the attention of every individual, whether married or contem-
plating marriage. As the temperaments will be thoroughly treated of
in Part IV., I will not in this place enter into a physiological or noso-
logical explanation of them. In this chapter it is simply my aim to
awaken inquiry on the part of childless readers. May not your un-
fruitfulness arise from temperamental inadaptation ? If you cannot
decide the question by the general hints herein presented, then turn to
Part IV., and make yourselves more familiar with the temperaments,
and then, if you are still in doubt, present yourselves to the author in
person or by letter.
How to Promote Childbearing.
In all cases of barrenness, the husband and wife should first make
themselves sufficiently acquainted with their procreative organs and
the various kinds of local inadaptation represented in the illustrations,
Figs. 207 and 208, to determine if local inadaptation may not be the
probable cause. If examination and observation lead to this supposi-
tion proceed at once to overcome the difficulty by such hints as I shall
immediately present. First, let it be remembered that usually the
most susceptible period for a woman to become pregnant is immediately
after the cessation of the menstrual flow. This susceptibility continues
for about ten days, when, in women not easily impregnated, it com-
pletely subsides. During this period of susceptibility, intercourse may
take place two or three times with such aids to conception, as follows:
If the inadaptation be such as is represented by either A or B in
Fig. 207 make a circular cushion as large as the hand, stuffing it with
hair or cotton. Then make an orifice through its centre large enough
for the male organ to pass through. The thickness of the cushion
should be just sufficient to bring the end of the penis, in intercourse,
in juxtaposition, or face to face with the mouth of the womb. Use
this cushion whenever connection takes place for at least one year,
unless the object is sooner attained, for a woman who does not readily
conceive may not have more than one or two susceptible periods
throughout the whole three hundred and sixty-five days.
If the inadaptation be such as illustrated in C and D, Fig. 207,
in some cases a bandage fastened tightly around the body of the female,
over the region of the abdomen, during connection, will press the
womb downward sufficiently to bring the mouth of that organ in con-
tact with that of the male. The posterior of the female body should
also be elevated by a pillow for obvious reasons. Observance of these
directions failing after six or eight months' trial, the wife may, in addi-
tion thereto, draw in her breath as fully as possible and with it press
HOW TO PROMOTE CHILDBEARING. 605
downward at the moment the male fluids are being received. This
alternative should only be resorted to after failure of the first, because
this downward pressure of the breath in some women having a relaxed
uterus, prevents the seminal fluids from entering the mouth of the
womb, but there are cases in which this kind of effort favors concep-
tion. If all these plans prove fruitless after one year's trial then resort
should be had to the “French Pessary” (see page 609). This instrument
should also be used in cases of malformation, such as those represented
by E, F and H, while in such a difficulty as that illustrated by G, the
use of the impregnating syringe will prove most available (see page1227).
If the inadaptation be such as illustrated by I, in Fig. 208, the
bladder should not be voided for several hours before, nor until at least
thirty minutes after connection. If connection be painful with the
bladder thus distended, make a pad of hair or cotton as large and thick
as the hand, and another one of the size and shape of half an orange.
Attach the flat surface of the latter to one of the flat surfaces of the
large cushion right in the centre. Then void the urine before inter-
course, and place the conical surface of this cushion over the region of
the bladder, or, in other words, a little above the bone at the top of
the entrance to the vagina. Fasten it to this place by straps or strings
passing round the body. This will produce a pressure against the
bladder, and the bladder will press against the upper part of the womb
and cause the same to assume a more favorable position. To facilitate
this object nearly or quite the whole weight of the male body should
rest upon that of the female at the moment of the seminal discharge.
If this plan fails, in addition to the application of the pad over the
region of the bladder, take the precaution before coition to place a
piece of moist velvet sponge under the neck of the womb so as to bring
it forward, but press the sponge sufficiently back to prevent it getting
out of place. It would also be necessary to make use of the cushion
directed for A and B if the male organ passes beyond the mouth of the
womb.
If the inadaptation is such as is represented in either J or K, con-
ception would be more liable to take place when a desire is felt for a
movement of the bowels, as the pressure of the faeces in the rectum .
tends to press the upper part of the womb into its proper position, and
thereby brings the mouth of the womb away from the front wall of the
vagina. If this rule be observed, the facces should still further be re-
tained for upward of forty minutes after connection, as immediate strain-
ing might expel the male germ from the feeble uterus; and it is proper
to add, that violent straining at stool within twelve hours after might
defeat conception. If the distention of the rectum by the plan pre-
scribed does not sufficiently liberate the mouth of the womb from the
front Walls of the vagina, insert a piece of moist velvet sponge between
6O6 HINTS TO THE CHILDLESS.
the neck of the womb and walls of the vagina, taking care to press the
Sponge far enough above the mouth of the womb to prevent it from
falling out of place. If conception fails after observing the foregoing
Suggestions for four or five months, it would be advisable, in addition
to adhering to the same rules, for the female to make a practice of re-
clining on her face more or less every night, and for twenty or thirty
minutes before connection, and even during connection, if necessary,
as this position still further aids in restoring the womb to its right
place when the upper and heavier part rests against the back walls of
the vagina. In this kind of displacement it may be necessary also to
Observe the directions given for A and B, if the male organ be long or
the womb low down in the vaginal cavity.
If inadaptation proceeds from phimosis, as shown in L, the male
should be circumcised if the foreskin be very redundant ; or, if con-
stricted only, the part can be expanded, and the phimosis cured, by
using an instrument which I devised for that purpose (see advertise-
ment on page 1227. The use of this instrument will usually prove
effective even when the prepuce is too long, for then it can pass back
over the glans-penis.
When the neck of the womb doubles upon itself as (rather imper-
fectly) represented by M, medical treatment should be resorted to for
the purpose of giving it its natural shape. The skilful physician can
usually remedy the trouble, but if he fails, recourse may be had to the
impregnating syringe recommended for G.
N presents a condition of the vagina that might render childbirth
unsafe, if conception were possible. Consequently, the opinion of a
physician should be sought as to the expediency of adopting means
that would favor conception. In most cases of this kind the use of the
impregnating syringe recommended for G, causes pregnancy to take
place; but might it not be hazardous to the wife to encounter the
possible perils of parturition ? If the congenital or acquired malfor-
mation of the vagina can be removed by the surgeon's knife, then con-
ception might take place naturally ; but, again, if the surgical opera-
tion should materially lessen the elasticity of the vagina, it might not
be possible for the living child to pass the inelastic cavity. While
some of these cases may be helped out of barrenness without unusual
hazard, it would be well for persons who are unfruitful through this
cause to obtain the opinion of some experienced medical man.
When inadaptations like those illustrated by O and P in Fig. 208
exist it is often necessary to resort to the use of the French Pessary
spoken of on page 609. Sometimes, however, in cases like P, barrenness
may be overcome by arranging the cushion as directed for A and B, of
just sufficient thickness to prevent the end of the male organ from
pressing or even touching the mouth of the uterus. This precaution
HOW TO PROMOTE CHILDBEARING. 607
will at least prevent the mouth of the womb from becoming blockaded.
When other means fail, an operation may usually be safely performed
for the restoration of the mouth of the male urethra to its natural place.
IMPORTANCE OF OVERCOMING LOCAL INADAPTATION.
Before leaving this subject of local inadaptation, I wish to add that
although it has been generally overlooked or neglected by the so-called
authorities and text-books, I am not alone in regarding it as exceedingly
FIG. 215. FIG. 216. FIG. 217.
DR. PALLEN'S OPERATION FOR ELONGATED CERVIX.
Fig. 215. —A. Abnormal implantation of the vagina producing intra-vaginal elonga-
tion of the cervix. B. Normal Vaginal implantation. This figure is given as
illustrative of the mechanism of the lesion under consideration by comparison
of the two conditions. Fig. 216.-Showing the line of separation above the
stripped cervical mucous membrane, and the position of the silver sutures
before the sliding is perfected. Fig. 217. –Showing the adjustment of the flaps,
and the appearance of the neck after vagino-cerviplasty.
important and worthy of all the consideration I have given it, while on
the other hand, the lack of attention by other writers and specialists is
one of the most glaring and remarkable deficiencies of medical litera-
ture. What I have presented in the foregoing pages was certainly
original with myself and was discovered as far back as 1865 or earlier,
but was first given to the public in this work in 1869. If any previous
writer can be quoted as being in advance of me, it has not been my
good fortune to happen upon his work, Ten years subsequent to the
appearance of this matter in this volume, Professor Montrose A.
Pallen, A.M., M.D., Professor of Gynecology in the University of

6O8 HINTS TO THE CHILDLESS.
the City of New York, since deceased, delivered a lecture which was
reported in the Medical Record, August 30, 1879, on a special opera-
tion which he had found useful in remodelling the relation of the womb
and vagina where Nature had failed to make up a woman just right.
He spoke of many faults of those organs originating from lack of nor-
mal development, but the special deformity which he had operated to
correct, was that of an over-long cervix ; and this he did by making a
new place of attachment for the vagina, lower down upon the womb.
He then reported five successive cases, and explained why the method
was far preferable to that of cutting off the seeming surplus of cervix
as others had done up to that time. Dr. Pallen's illustrations show
where he found the vagina attached (A) and where he left it (B), and
how it was done by aid of many stitches (see Fig. 216). Its position,
at last, is shown in Fig. 217. He said “The patient presented herself
simply because of sterility. She had no aches or pains save during
marital congress. * * * * Her sterility was certainly mechanical.
This operation was made for the purpose of allowing the implantation
of the seminal fluid in the proper place. * * * Then,” added
Dr. Pallen, “the correction of defective physical relationships, and over-
coming of sterility is worthy the profoundest study.” This remark from
high authority sustains all I have said upon the subject.
While not denying the utility of various operations for recon-
structing faulty parts, it has been my aim, as this essay from begin-
ning to end shows, to devise other means of accomplishing the object,
for if conception can once occur, and child-bearing result, there may
follow a sufficient re-development or re-adjustment, and subsequent
pregnancies will occur without resort to special methods. While indi-
ting this paragraph I recollect a very peculiar case of elongation of the
cervix or neck of the womb once coming under my treatment, and the
extraordinary feature of it was its smallness and its corkscrew shape.
It was as spiral as the caudal extremity of a young pig is sometimes
observed to be. Furthermore, its extremity tapered to a point. Such
a case naturally suggested the necessity for surgery, but even to my
own happy surprise I brought it to a normal shape and length by local
and constitutional medication without recourse to surgery. This story
may appear as incredible as the one about the transplantation of the
ovary, but it is true, nevertheless, and serves to show that medicine can
often accomplish what one would suppose could only be remedied by
the instruments and deft fingers of a surgeon, or some of the devices I
have suggested. Many years ago, as I remember it shortly after the
publication of the first edition of this book in 1869, I received thankful
acknowledgment from an English physician because he had through the
suggestions of this chapter been able to solve the hitherto puzzling
problem of sterility covering a period of seven years in his own domestic
HOW TO PROMOTE CHILDBEARING, 609
life, and this is but one instance of hundreds of “Plain Home Talk”
readers who have been thus aided to overcome barrenness without
surgical operation ; but if surgery, either for the husband or wife, be
really necessary, it only remains for him or her to say whether the end
justifies the means.
In its issue of January 21, 1888, the New York Medical Record pre-
sented some valuable hints for overcoming sterility in cases of ante- and
retro-version of the womb, which were credited to Professor Pajot, a
noted French physician ; but they were so like the advice long ago
offered in this book as to make me wonder if Professor Pajot had
not been an attentive reader of it. The hints presented by Dr.
Pajot were in words, and even sentences, so much like what I had
printed in this volume in 1869, that it certainly looked as if he
had derived his information from the pages of one of the early
editions. Many thousands of copies had been sold in both the English
and German languages, and he might easily have had access to this
very matter as it originally appeared in “T'lain Home Talk and Medi-
cal Common Sense,” or in the German translation entitled “Offene
Worksprache.” However, if they were thought out by himself, it is one
more evidence that this long-neglected subject is coming to receive the
attention it deserves, and some day the medical text-books and colleges
will present what my readers have known for over thirty years, and,
furthermore, have used for their practical advantage, while the majority
of the profession are still ignorant of it.
MORE VALUABLE HINTS FOR OVERCOMING BARRENNESS.
Besides the various suggestions I have heretofore given in cases of
physical inadaptation, and Operations possible for mending matters,
there are other resources which are well worthy of mention here, and
they can be utilized when barrenness is due to uterine inactivity or
vaginal Spasm, or to contractured neck of the womb, or, indeed, for
several of the difficulties indicated by the illustrations of Local Inadap-
tation, Figs. 213 and 214. In many cases the seminal fluid, after being
deposited appropriately where it should be, is too quickly exuded by
contractive muscular action of the vagina ; but it stands to reason that
if the impregnating fluid could be held for many hours closeup against
the mouth of the womb the chances of conception must be greatly
increased. It is possible to effect this by using a rubber cup or cap
pessary, a ring with a diaphragm, all of rubber, usually sold by the
druggists under the name of “French Pessary,” although it was, in fact,
an American invention, which was devised by myself and an associate
physician in my office as long ago as 1859, and first made for my use in
practice. It is not large and hard enough to exert the harmful pres-
Sullſe * which I objected in speaking of vaginal womb-supporting
6IO HINTS TO THE CHILDLESS.
pessaries. Besides which, like rubber shoes, it is used only occasion-
ally, not constantly. It should be introduced immediately after the
fluid has been deposited in the vagina, in a way to catch up and carry
it to the mouth of the womb, where it may be left in place for even
twenty-four hours. Its introduction and removal can be easily learned
by any woman, and the circulars that go with the pessaries are gen-
erally explicit enough. They may also be serviceable for application
of medicaments to the mouth of the womb if retained in place for a
short time only. In using this article for barrenness I would suggest
that no medicated ointment or carbolated vaseline be used upon it. It
may be simply immersed in tepid water before its introduction. If a
year's trial of this promoter of conception fails to cause it, then there
is one more possible resource in the impregnating syringe whereby the
seminal fluid may be injected into the womb itself, and this idea may
be fairly credited to some French physician. It is the last resort in
mechanical means, and if it fails after a few trials one may conclude
that there is some uterine, ovarian, or Fallopian tube obstacle to con-
ception, or that the married pair are not temperamentally matched for
parenthood. I and my two sons have advised the use of both the so-
called French Pessary and the impregnating Syringe in quite a number
of cases with great success.
WHEN DISEASE IS THE CAUSE OF STERILITY,
It is always best to consult a physician who has given attention to
this branch of physiology and medicine. When possible, medical
counsel should be sought by personal application ; when impossible or
inconvenient, correspondence will be necessary. In the latter case,
answers to the questions on page 761 will usually enable the author to
determine as to which of the parties is barren, and the cause of the
barrenness. In some obscure cases it is necessary to examine the seminal
fluids under the microscope before a satisfactory diagnosis can be deter-
mined. This may be done by personal application of the husband, or by
correspondence. The annexed cut, Fig. 218, represents the instrument
with which the author conducts such investigation, and, it may be add-
ed here, with pardonable pride, that it was the college prize which
Dr. E. B. Foote, Jr., won when he graduated from the New York Col-
lege of Physicians and Surgeons in 1876. It is a powerful one, and so
magnifies objects that the spermatozoa of the male when placed under its
lenses look about as large as those larvae in rain-water from which the
mosquitoes finally emerge. A particle of healthy human semen no larger
than a pin's head presents under the lens of this microscope hundreds
of wriggling frolicking spermatozoa. By a simple process of drying a
' portion of the spermatic fluids, and subsequently overcoming its capac-
HOW TO PROMOTE CHILDBEARING. 6II
ity, a practised eye can distinguish with considerable accuracy vital
from non-vital semen, which fact enables those at a distance to consult
the author upon this point in all cases wherein barrenness is suspected to
arise from incompetency on the part of the husband.
At this point I will add that though a monograph entitled
“Borning Better Babies,” by Dr. E. B. Foote, Jr., was written mainly
to interest those who complain of being too fertile, and who seek after
what have been called means for “artificial sterility,” it contains a
chapter on sterility of the involuntary kind, which may be of use to
those who are especially interested in this subject. (See page 1248.)
Obstinate barrenness in males is sometimes difficult to cure, and in
some instances baffles the skill of the physician. Strange as it may
appear, the artificial injection of healthy FIG. 218.
male semen into the vagina has been
resorted to by resolute and determined,
but virtuous wives, in their childless
despair. I have already mentioned the
means by which the artificial injection of
healthy male spermatic fluids may be
made so as to induce impregnation. In
the majority of cases, however, an incom-
petent husband may be fully restored to
all his powers by medicines or electricity,
or both. No married pair should despair
of having children, until skilful medica-
tion has been tried ; and proper electrical
applications will often cure when the
former fails. Too much care to protect
the embryo cannot be taken by a wife
who, after years of fruitless marriage, THE PRIZE MICROSCOPE.
arising from disease, becomes enceinte. Such a person is much more
liable to miscarry, and miscarriages are apt to render a predisposition
to barrenness more confirmed. I have had women under my care who,
after having by patient perseverance in my treatment, attained the con-
dition so long sought for, fail to reach the full realization of their
hopes, by falls, frights, excessive fatigues, or some cause of like nature,
and I have found it quite impossible, in some cases, to restore the tone
of the productive organs so that pregnancy would again take place.
When excessive amativeness is the cause of unfruitfulness, some
rules requiring self-denial and self-control must be observed, or offspring
Cannot be obtained. If the fault exists in the husband, he must be
less excessive in sexual indulgence so as to allow time for the sperma-
tozoa to attain vital development. If he be violent in coition, then he
should use the pads recommended for A and B, so that he may not

6I 2 HINTS TO THE CHILDLESS.
quite touch the mouth of the womb. In some cases of this kind the
ejaculatory forces are so great that the fluids will reach the uterus if
the glans-penis does not come within one or two inches of it. If the
wife be too impulsive, as described in a previous essay on “Excessive
Amativeness,” she should abstain from intercourse from a week to ten
days before and during menstruation, to allow the ova to become fully
developed ; at the cessation of the menses the husband should induce
sufficient excitement in himself to yield the spermatic fluids as soon as
the vagina is entered, so as not to arouse too greatly the amative ex-
citement of the wife. As before remarked, her participation in the
pleasure is not necessary for impregnation, and in a case of this kind it
defeats it. Then, for a week at least, all excitability or indulgence on
her part should be avoided so as to give time for the embryo to set.
The wife may be materially aided in preserving self-control previous
to, during, and for a reasonable time after, impregnation, by avoiding
all stimulating food and drink, such as highly seasoned meats, eggs,
fish, oysters, clams, celery, parsnips, water-cresses, pepper-grass, Con-
diments, wines, liquors, cordials, strong coffee, chocolate, etc. The
plainer the diet the better. Injections of warm water into the vagina
daily will produce a cooling reaction and lessen excitability. When
pregnancy is found to exist, then moderation in sexual intercourse is
necessary to prevent miscarriage. No married couple whose cases
come under this classification, should become discouraged before giving
the foregoing suggestions at least one year's trial. If they fail, medi-
cines adapted to their cases will in most instances accomplish a triumph.
WHEN UNFRUITFULN ESS
IS CAUSED BY TEMPERAMENTAL INADAPTATION,
Or, when children are born that die in infancy, my advice as a
physiologist and humanitarian is to go to a State where divorces are
easily obtained, dissolve your unnatural connection and form new
alliances, unless your congenial companionship can compensate you for
your unfruitfulness. Nearly all such marriages are, in nature, more
incestuous than the union of brother and sister in matrimony, for if
they are not closely related by blood they are so by temperament. It
is usually easier to give such advice as above than to practise it, for
many such unfortunate people are so pleasantly united in taste and
social companionship that the thought of separation cannot be enter-
tained for a moment. Then there are many more so situated in prop-
erty and family matters, or so awed by village opinion, or swayed by
some other consideration pertaining in some way to money, position,
influence, or the opinions of Mrs. Grundy, that such a step Seems to
them impracticable. From all these sources will come up the inquiry :
“Is there no other help for us?” To which I must reply—hardly any-
HOW TO PROMOTE CHILDIBEARING. 613
thing that is legitimate. You may derive some advantage from sug-
gestions given in what I have to say on “Physical Adaptation,” begin-
ning on page 1053 but either temporary or permanent reassortment is,
in most cases, the only expedient that can be successfully resorted to,
excepting artificial impregnation, and then the male germs must be ob-
tained outside the childless family. Many, in their determination to
have at least one child, have adopted the first, and a few the last of
these alternatives. Some have severed altogether old ties and formed
new ones. Those who have a baby every year or two will think these
facts strange ; but, according to Paul Gide, “the desire for offspring
has been, in all antiquity, the prime motive of marriage—the first senti-
ment that impressed upon the union of the two sexes a moral character
and a regular form of marriage.” In ancient times fidelity to a barren
wife was considered a crime against the gods, and still later, in civilized
Europe, the husband of a barren woman was compelled to renounce
her. Manon says: “In India, if the wife is sterile, the husband for-
sakes her and takes another ; if the husband be sterile he cedes tempo-
rarily to his brother or one of his male relatives his rights to his wife.
This being done to render the marriage fruitful, it is believed to be
stripped of all impurity and regarded as a religious duty. ” In ancient
Athens a man could repudiate a wife who could bear him no children,
and take another ; or, if he preferred, he could take a concubine and
legitimatize her children. In the early history of man, as given in the
Old Testament, instances are found wherein the fruitless wife gave to
her husband a favorite servant for the purpose of offspring. Human
nature has not greatly changed by time or the advance of civilization,
and though social regulations forbid recourse to some of the means
mentioned for becoming a parent, such expedients, nevertheless, are
privately adopted by those who have become maddened by disappoint-
ment after years of fruitless marriage.
A WOIRD TO JEA LOUS II USBANDS.
Before concluding this essay, I have a word to say to the jealous
husband who is, or may become, the father of an only child after years
of unproductive married life, followed, after the birth of one child,
with years no less sterile. In some cases, the causes producing bar.
renness are temporarily removed, even when husband and wife have
been pursuing no medical treatment for that purpose. A barren wife
may, under an unusual, and only temporarily improved condition of
the procreative organs, develop a perfect egg, which may be impreg-
nated and become a healthy foctus; or a barren husband, under a tem-
porarily improved condition of his genital organs, may give to the wife
a healthy spermatozoon with like result, but sub-equent sterility ought
not to lead the husband to suspect the fidelity of his wife, because the
614
HINTS TO THE CHILDLESS.
reproductive organs of either sex are liable to sudden and temporary
convalescence when abnormal, as any other organ in the body. Cases
have occurred of persons who have been nearly all their lives blind,
but who have suddenly received the gift of sight for a moment, for a
day, for a week, for a month, but as suddenly relapsed into the same
darkness which had so long enveloped them. Confirmed dyspeptics
w ill occasion-
ally, or for once,
be able to eat a
hearty meal
without suffer-
ing the usual
distress, in COn-
sequence of a
sudden te m p O-
rary improve -
ment of the Or-
gans of diges-
tion. So all the
organs of the
body are liable
to fluctuations.
If usually in
health they have
an hour or a
day of disease.
If usually dis-
eased, they may
have an hour Or
a day of freedom
from that dis-
ease. The pro-
creative organs
FIG. 219.
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A “PLAIN HOME TALK ?” BABY.
are not exempt Born to a mother who had been fruitful and then sterile. At
from this liabil-
ity.
the age of forty, with the help of this book, she again became
a happy mother. See testimonial On page 775.
The foregoing hints are suggested to my mind by some cases of
matrimonial unhappiness which have come under my observation. I
will relate one in this connection. A lady once called on me who had
been married twelve or fifteen years, and had had but one child, and
that after nine fruitless years. Her previous and subsequent periods
of sterility aroused the green-eyed monster in her husband, and she
assured me that her home had been a perfect pandemonium ; first,
because she did not have a child and, next, because having one, she did
























































BHOW TO PROMOTE CHILDBEARING. 615
not have more, from which latter fact he imagined he was not its
natural father. I would advise all husbands who are afraid to father
children which in their jealousy they think do not belong to them, to
read my Philosophy of Child-marking (see Part IV.), which, I think,
will have the effect to make husbands more attentive to their wives, in
order that they may so win the love of those who are to become the
mothers of their offspring, that a child will be marked by them in em-
bryo life. Jealousy and abuse of the wife will do more to insure the
birth of children by her resembling other people than could possibly
result from actual impregnation by the spermatozoa of others if confi-
dence and kindness be generally manifested by the husband. Treat a
wife badly, if the spermatozoon which impregnates her may have been
produced in you, the chances are that the child will resemble some one
her mind more agreeably dwells upon. Treat her kindly, and though
she may, under a momentary impulse, be impregnated by another, the
chances are ten to one the child will resemble you, and, in fact, be
your own as much as if the little germ, insignificant in itself, had
Originated in your own organs of reproduction (see page 1174). But,
aside from these suggestions, do not suspect unchastity in your wife
merely because, after years of barrenness, she accidentally conceives,
and then, after the birth of One child, relapses into the former sterile
condition ; such a circumstance is not uncommon when the mother of
the first and last baby never for a moment relinquished the chastity and
fidelity which Caesar demanded that a Wife should possess.

CHAPTER VIII.
PRIVATE WORDS FOR MEN.
S a rule, men know more of women than
they do of themselves, and I will venture
the prediction that a majority of them will
read the chapter “Private Words for
Women" before reading this one, which is
especially intended for them. Still it may
be said that they are generally better in-
6 ſº formed on the structure of the male organ-
©ſ") ism, than the women are on the anatomy and physiology
| of the female body. The ignorance of men, however, in
regard to themselves, is highly discreditable when their
advantages for information are taken into account. The
writer once directed a patient of good general intelligence,
filling a Government appointment, to make an injection into the rectum
for pin-worms, and after a few weeks received word from him that he
could not use half the quantity of liquid advised. Upon further in-
quiry, I found he had mistaken the urethra for the rectum Persons
have told me that they were affected with soreness and swelling of the
bladder, when, on examination, I found they were talking about the
scrotum | Some men actually suppose that the water and the seminal
fluids come from the same reservoir, and that that reservoir is the
scrotum ! A majority of men imagine that the testicles are connected
by short direct ducts with the urethra, and that the seminal fluids are
injected directly upward into and out of it. A perusal of this chapter
will show what a circuitous route the semen pursues to reach the
seminal vessels in which it is held in reserve until emptied by amative
excitement. I trust every male reader will carefully look over and
digest all I have to present in this chapter, for by so doing he will
Better comprehend the complexity of his sexual organs and probably
be induced to take better care of them

- 616
PLATE VII.
P. H. T. PART II. v.ARICOCELE.
VARICOCELE, shown by ENLARGED and roRTuous veins on one sloe, in conrºast with
Normal. Blood-vessels on THE or HER, THE schoruM ae|NG LAID open to Expose
con TENTs.

SYPHILITIC LESIONS.
-
- -
--
-
-
-
--- - º
* º
- ...;
-
º ºws º
PLATE VIII.
PLAIN HOME TALK.
PRIMARY SORE.




THE PENIS AND ITS DISEASES. 617
The Penis and its Diseases.
The penis, two views of which are presented in the annexed cut,
is mainly composed of two oblong cylinders, placed side by side, hav-
ing within a cellular structure, capable of being greatly distended when
filled with blood. These two cylinders, which are represented in
the small cut B, marked 1, 1, run parallel, leaving a groove above and
FIG. 221.
º
%2. W |%
*A* %3 º
AACPU/7”H of wºº:/ºa
VERTICAL SECTION OF THE MALE ORGANS.
The small cut marked B gives a view of the organ as it would appear if
Chopped off with a knife or axe.
underneath. The upper groove is occupied by a large vein marked 2,
and the under one by a third tube called the urethra, marked 3. The
urethra is composed of an exceedingly spongy substance which expands
at the apex as represented in the large cut, forming what is called the
glans-penis. Through the canal of the urethra the urine is emptied




















618 . . PRIVATE WORDS FOR MEN.
from the bladder, and in sexual intercourse the semen is injected into
this canal from the seminal vessels which are exhibited as lying back
against the bladder in the large figure. The main branch of the pubic
artery enters the penis, the blood from which inflates it during erec-
tion. The whole organ is enveloped by a loose skin which is attached
at the neck formed by the junction of the glans or head with the ex-
ternal termini of the two cellular cylinders, at which point it doubles
upon itself and forms what is called the prepuce or foreskin which, in
infancy, completely envelopes the glans and, in adult age, may be drawn
over or pressed back of the glans. In repose the penis is shrunken and
flaccid, measuring not more than one-third its length and diameter when
in the state of erection. When, by amative excitement or titillation,
the blood is diverted to the organ, it congests all the cellular and
crectile tissue to their utmost limit of expansion; then its average
length is five or six inches, and the average diameter an inch or an
inch and a half. There are all sorts of deviations from this measure-
ment. I have been consulted by those whose organ distended would
not measure more than one inch, and others where it measured over
cight inches. Either of these extremes may be regarded as a deformity,
and so indeed may be one of four or seven inches. As I am frequently
asked the question by letter and otherwise, if this organ when diminu-
tive can be enlarged, let me reply: not a very great deal unless it be
shrunken by disease or abuse. When weakened by any cause, its
restoration to a condition of health produces a corresponding increase
in its vigor and size, observable mainly in cases of spermatorrhoea,
where treatment provided to improve nerve-tone and blood circulation
naturally results in improved nutrition and growth. -
The penis is subject to various diseases and to some deformities.
The most common of the former are those maladies contracted from
impure coition. The glans-penis may be scalded by acrimonious leu-
corrhoeal and gonorrhoeal secretions with which it comes in contact in
the female vagina. When the secretions possess unusually poisonous
properties, or when they are syphilitic in their character, the glans-
penis coming in contact therewith becomes the seat of pustules and
sores called chancre, or, in vulgar parlance, “the pox ;” and these
local affections, unless skilfully managed, diffuse Syphilitic poison
throughout the entire system, and render it liable to all sorts of ulcer-
ous and, I may say, rotting distempers. There are two kinds of
chancre which are represented in Fig. 222, opposite, marked A, B.
In from one to four weeks after coition with a syphilitic female, an
itching and a slight burning sensation are experienced at the spot
where the infection has taken place; next a small red spot makes its
appearance, upon which a clear vesicle of the size of the head of a pin
soon presents itself, the contents of which speedily becomes purulent.
THE PENIS AND ITS DISEASES. º 619
Usually a discharge from the sore follows of matter variable in quan-
tity and appearance and, in the advanced stages, greenish or grayish
and tinged with red. When the base of the ulcer is quite round and
hard it may be regarded as Hunterian chancre, such as is represented
by A. The upper one gives a view of the side, and the one below it a
view of the face of the chancre of this description. When the ulcer
has an irregular boundary, with indentations rather than elevations,
and a thin coating of grayish matter, accompanied with fetid and
bloody discharges from the numerous small vessels it so rapidly de-
stroys, it is called a phagadenic chancroid, such as is represented by
B, in which a view is given of the margin as well
as the face of the ulcer. The margin of a venereal
sore of this description is usually raggcd, thin, un-
even, and brown or violet colored. The Hunterian - -
chancre is the one which produces constitutional A. º
syphilis, but the phagadenic is more apt to destro § §
. penis and surrounding parts, for it eats sº º
the flesh more rapidly than cancer. It would be
useless to attempt to lay down here any rules for
the treatment of these dangerous local disorders, B
for even the attending physician, with all his ex-
perience in the management of them, to be success-
ful is obliged to tack about in all sorts of ways to
meet the ever-changing phases of the disease, and CHANCRE.
thereby counteract its destructive effects. Not a A, Hunterian Chancre.
moment should be lost by a person who has con- B, Phagadenic Chan-
tracted this disease, in obtaining the advice and chroid.
medical treatment of a physician in whom he can place the most im-
plicit confidence, for of all the ways to leave this world none are so
terrible as to rot with the virus from a Hunterian chancre or to be eaten
up alive with a phagadenic ulcer.
When men are not cleanly in their habits, the glans-penis may
become excoriated by its own secretions. There are located about the
neck of this organ, little glands and follicles which secrete an unctuous
fluid for preserving the moisture of the glans and foreskin which falls
over it. This oily lubricator is as pure as that which is supplied to the
eyelids if the parts are kept clean ; but when neglected a chemical
change occurs which imparts to it a disagreeable odor, a caseous con-
sistence and color, and sometimes an acrimony which produces inflam-
mation and ulceration. These glands and follicles are less active and
their secretions less oily before the age of pubescence, but after this
period the genital organs should be washed with soap and water every
day, and the foreskin pressed back to receive the full benefit of the
ablution. If proper habits of cleanliness were observed by those of
FIG. 222.


62o.º. PRIVATE WORDS FOR MEN.
both sexes, there would exist less prudery respecting the organs of
generation, which in health, with the same care that is usually given
to the organs of the face, would be equally sweet and wholesome. No
one has the moral right to mingle in social life and come in social con
FIG, 223.
§
:
A NOTHER SIIDE VIEW OF M A LE ORGANS.
1. Sacrum (bone of pelvis). 2. Pubic bone. 3, Ischium (bone of pelvis cut
across). 4. Rectum (faccal passage). 5. Bladder. 6. Ureters (to carry urine
from kidneys to bladder). 7. Was deforens (tube conveying semen from testicle
to seminal vesicle at 13). 8. Testicle. 9. Sheath of testicles. 11. Artery of
spermatic cord. 12. Hypogastric plexus, or ganglia of nerves. 13. Seminal
vesicles. 14. Artery and branches bringing blood to these parts. 15. The
penis.
tact with his or her friends whose body from neck to feet is not as
clean in every respect as the face. No amount of eau d'espagne or
Florida water about the person will compensate for personal unclean-
liness. Either from uncleanliness or the irritation of venereal secre-


THE PENIS AND ITS DISEASES. º 62 I
tions, such as gonorrhoeal discharge and the pus of local ulcers, warts
may develop, singly or in groups, and may be easily recognized by
their similarity to warty growths elsewhere, by their being dry,
rough, uneven, scaly, and raised. Some writers claim that these warts
may be catching or conveyed from one to another, without other
venereal contagion. They may be removed directly and quickly by
surgery; slowly eaten off by mild caustics; or more gradually disinte-
grated by alterative, disinfecting, and stimulating powders. If entirely
neglected they may develop curious and monstrous specimens for
anatomical museums, such as horns of remarkable size.
Affections of the urethra might appropriately find place here, but
as they have already been treated in the chapter on diseases of the
urinary organs, it would be mere repetition to more than allude to them
in this connection. I may remark, however, that chancre of the urethra
is a more common difficulty than many of the profession imagine,
because physicians are not apt to discriminate between ordinary and
syphilitic gonorrhoea. It should be remarked that the virus of primary
syphilis sometimes fails to produce chancre on the glans, while it does
take effect in the urethra; and the inexperienced doctor pronounces it
gonorrhoea of the ordinary type, and treats it as such, but, of course,
without success. I have often becn called upon to prescribe for cases
of this description which had been badly managed by physicians hav-
ing little practice in this class of disorders, and who did not for a
moment mistrust the true character of the venereal poison. I am not
alone in believing chancre of the urethra to be a common disorder.
Professor Sigmund, of Vienna, stated in a lecture upon the subject,
that of four hundred and eighty-three cases of chancre coming under
his observation, in forty-seven of them the disease was located in the
urethra. - *
The prepuce or foreskin of the penis is often greatly inflamed
when the glans-penis or urethra is affected with venereal disorder. It
may also become irritated or inflamed by other causes, such as scalding
of the urine, uncleanliness, canker, etc. In nearly all of these cases a
. weak solution of sugar of lead frequently applied every day to the
irritated or inflamed part will remove the difficulty. Considering the
unhealthy condition of the human family, its habits of uncleanliness,
and the prevalence of uterine diseases among women, it is well, so soon
as the age of puberty is reached, to teach the foreskin to remain back
So as to expose the glans. I’ressing it back every day for a little while
will accomplish the object, and the exposure of the glans will toughen
this sensitive part so as to render it less liable to contagion and irrita-
tion. As an extra precaution, well worth the trouble, the foreskin
should be drawn over the glans when visiting a strange “privy " or
water-closet, or when sleeping away from home. Then, in coition, if
TRIVATE WORDS FOR MEN.
the Membranous Envelope were always employed where there are any
uterine affections on the part of the wife, disease of the glans, urethra,
and foreskin would rarely occur. However acrimonious or poisonous
the Secretions of the vagina may be the Envelope is an infallible
Safeguard.
PIIIMOSIS.
When, after the age of pubescence, the foreskin cannot be pressed
back of the glans, the difficulty is called Phimosis. In many cases of
this kind the foreskin is very long and its orifice contracted or inclastic.
Both for the purpose of preserving the health and cleanliness of the
glans, and for convenience in coition, this should be relieved by cir-
cumcision or some more modern and painless method as advised farther
on. Most of my readers are doubtless aware that the ordinance of
circumcision practised by the Jews consists in the entire removal of the
foreskin by excision, and observation proves that those people are less
liable than others to venereal affections. When habitually covered by
the foreskin the membrane covering the glans is remarkably delicate
and sensitive, but when czposed by the removal of the foreskin,
whether moved back or cut away, as in circumcision, it becomes gradu-
ally toughencd and consequently made less susceptible to the attacks
of any venereal poison which may accidentally, or otherwise, come in
contact with it. Thus exposcq, it is also less liable to irritations pro-
ceeding from chemical changes in the ScCretions of the glands and
follicles. Circumcision is an operation so ancient that it has not been
possible to trace its origin or to discover why it was first practised.
Away back, and even to a late period, it has been one way of taking
scalps or trophics of war from an enemy, and it has also becn practised
upon the young as a religious rite of Sanctification. Whether or not
any of its early uses were merely for the sake of health, cleanliness, and
avoidance of disease, it is difficult to ascertain ; but, in the last quarter
of a century only have the many possible disadvantages of phimosis
been fully appreciated by medical writers, and cven some of the popu-
lar books within my reach failed to offer the words of caution on the
subject which should be known to every parent. The phimosed fore-
skin is a source of evil in many ways. It is often congenital (from
birth); it being one of the carliest causes of infantile ills. The opening
may be so small as to make urination difficult and painful, while the
retained secretions between it and the glans, called Smegma, may
cause irritation even to inflammation. Frequent erections and various
reflex disturbances may thus come about, the minor ones being incon-
tinence of urine, sleeplessness, fretfulness, and night terrors. The
major ones include even masturbation, convulsions or paralysis, as de-
scribed in the writings of Dr. Lewis Sayre over twenty years ago, It

TEIE PENIS AND ITS DISEASES. 623
is sufficient merely to mention these possibilities here, and those who
need further information are referred to my pamphlet on phimosis,
as well as to what I say on the subject later, or wherein I speak of my-
self as being the first to offer a means of relief without a knife. At a
convention of medical men in Albany, N. Y., May 3, 1881, I read a
paper proposing gradual dilatation or stretching of the foreskin by
means of an instrument I devised for the purpose, and related a few
successful cases. My first case so treated was in the winter of 1876–77,
and since then I have cured hundreds with this instrument, and had no
failures in uncomplicated cases. In 1877–78–79, and 1880, I was free to
communicate my success in treating phimosis by this method, and in
1879 when on a voyage to Liverpool, in conversation with the late Dr.
Gray, the eminent alienist and physician in charge of the Insane
Asylum at Utica, I communicated my discovery without reserve. He
was then en route to the great International Medical Convention in
Scotland.
In a small proportion of phimosis subjects there are dense attach-
ments of the under side of the foreskin to the glans, which necessitate
operation, and now and then the foreskin is so redundant or super-
fluous that a part may well be spared. In such cases it may be best to
resort to circumcision. But in ordinary cases, the simple, easy, and
painless cure for phimosis is certainly preferable, and I may say at this
writing, that it is an unknown discovery to the majority of the profes-
Sion, but now and then Some one appears to find it out and to resort to
it. In the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology (1897), Dr.
J. L. Morse speaks very highly of it without indicating where he
obtained the idea, or claiming originality for it himself. Here is his
way of recommending it :
“The advisability of removing the natural protection of the glans.
penis, unless it is absolutely unavoidable, must be considered as at least
questionable. I feel, moreover, that it is unnecessary, except in certain
cases of hypertrophic phimosis, and that equally satisfactory and last-
ing results may be obtained from gradual dilatation. By the exercise of
a little time and patience, even the tightest strictures may be overcome,
as the young tissues are very distensible and readily adapt themselves
to new conditions. Many of the milder forms in infants may be
relieved by simply pulling the foreskin with the fingers and breaking
down the adhesions, if they exist, with a probe or a director. Even in
these cases, however, it is advisable not to complete the procedure at
one time, but to do it gradually. In cases in which the phimosis is
more marked the first step is to thoroughly dilate the opening. This I
do by introducing into it the point of ordinary dressing forceps, and
allowing them to dilate by their clasticity. Several sittings, best on
Successive days, are often necessary to accomplish this. The prepuce
624 PRIVATE WORDS FOR MEN.
is then gradually retracted over the glans and the adhesion broken up,
as in the milder cases. Care must be taken not to produce a paraphi-
mosis the first few times that the prepuce is completely retracted. The
mother then pulls back the foreskin daily in order to prevent possible
recontraction. Cleanliness is, of course, essential both during and after
treatment. Almost all cases of phimosis, eacept those in which the prepuce
38 very long, can be satisfactorily treated by this method, and the field for
surgical interference is thus restricted to this class of cases alone. The
advantages of gradual dilatation are the attainment of equally as satis-
factory results as by more severe methods, the avoidance of surgical
Operation, and the retention of the natural protection of the glans-penis.”
Thanks to Dr. Morse for this indorsement of cure by dilatation.
As this method of treating phimosis will undoubtedly come generally
in vogue, I wish it distinctly understood that I lay claim to being its
discoverer. I was also the first to devise and patent an instrument for
the purpose, as the records of the Patent Office in Washington will
bear witness. In spite of the possible disadvantages of phimosis, many
come into adult age without especial inconvenience from it until they
reach a marriageable age, and some enter matrimony without giving it.
any attention—unwisely, as I think. My instrument was devised for
adults—although by using it with two blades it can be employed on an
infant—and my first success was with a married man rather past mid-
dle age with quite a family of children, who had sufferedathe trouble
to remain simply because he lacked the nerve to face the surgeon's
knife.
Paraphimosis is that state in which the foreskin gets caug at behind
the glans-penis and cannot be easily brought forward. It occurs to
children with a moderate or partial phimosis, who attempt to “follow
my leader,” and be as smart as other boys. Unless their predicament is
soon brought to the attention of an experienced nurse or a physician,
there is trouble indeed, and quick operation may become necessary to
relieve a state of strangulation, the foreskin being closely constricted
and tightly drawn around the neck of the glans-penis. Adults get in
the same fix from equally foolish experiments and from inflammation
of the foreskin attending chancroidal ulcers. Here, again, the delay of
due attention may make a serious and difficult case for the surgeon. A
part choked in its blood-supply and exit is in imminent danger, and
that is the state of the glans-penis with a tight paraphimosis.
Before concluding my remarks regarding, the penis, I should say
that this organ is as it were an open door for the entrance of many of
the diseases which affect the human race. It is so abundantly provided
with absorbent vessels, and so frequently brought in contact with un-
wholesome secretions, that the system is often poisoned when no local
disorder manifests itself. If it were made of ordinary Sponge it could
TILE SCROTUM AND ITS DISEASES. 625
hardly be a better conductor of impure fluids directly to the circulatory
system ; and, if this fact were fully understood by the male portion of
the human family, dens of harlotry would soon be closed up for want
of patronage, and a man would as quickly bend to quench his thirst at
a public sewer as visit the abode of the courtesan for the gratification
of his amative appetite,
The Scrotum and Its Diseases.
By turning back a few pages, and looking at Fig. 221, the location
of this pendulous pouch which encases the testicles will be observed.
As remarked before, some quite intelligent men think this is the blad-
der. All such persons should study the figure referred to attentively,
and they will see that the location and offices of the scrotum and
bladder are widely different and distinct. The scrotum consists of a
wrinkled or corrugated pouch, the skin of which has the same structure
as that of the other parts of the body, excepting that it is thinner, more
delicate, and perhaps more sensitive. A small raised line begins at the
root of the penis and extends back on the scrotum so as to divide it
into two parts. This pouch is provided with numerous follicles, which
bathe the parts with a sebaceous fluid that preserves their moisture
and softness. Here is another reason why daily ablutions of the parts
should be resorted to by every man to keep these secretions wholesome
and free from rancidity and acrimony. The scrotum itself is only
liable to such irritations, dropsical affections, etc., as may affect any
part of the skin or cellular tissue, and I shall consequently forbear
dwelling upon its diseases.
f
The Testicles and their Diseases.
Under this head I shall briefly refer to not Only the structure and
diseases of these glands, but to those of the spermatic cords, seminal
conductors, vessels, etc. Very few men who possess these important
organs, know much about them. And some even carry about more
than the average without knowing it; a United States army recruiting
Officer and examining surgeon reports finding three full-sized testes
and one small one in a recruit. It is diſlicult to fully explain their
structure without employing technical names, which would not be un-
derstood by the non-professional reader. I will, nevertheless, try to
avoid these, and give as correct an idea as I can without making it
necessary to refer to the medical dictionary.
The testicles are formed in the male babe in womb-life, immedi-
ately below the kidneys. This provision of Nature is undoubtedly for
the purpose of insuring their proper development, for if thus early
626 PRIVATE WORDS FOR MEN.
lodged in the scrotum, they would be liable to contusions by the blind,
unintelligent movements of the foetus, and to a deficient supply of
blood if the spermatic arteries were thus early elongated. . While nest-
ling beneath the kidneys a cord proceeds from the lower part of each
testicle, down through a canal, on each side of the abdomen, in the
groin, to the scrotum or pouch which is to be their future residence.
The lower ends of these cords are attached to the scrotum. Between
the fifth and eighth month they gradually contract, and with their con-
FIG. 224. scends. As the testicles descend, the peritoneum
in the lower part of the abdomen, to which the
cords described adhere, moves down on either
side immediately in advance of the testicle,
forming a pouch which becomes one of its per-
manent coatings. After its descent into the
scrotum this portion of the peritoneum closes
at the upper ring by adhesion, and this adhesion
advances down the track of the spermatic cord,
so that the testicles cannot again return to the
cavity of the abdomen. The line of this de-
scent is well marked by the spermatic cord,
which is designated by 8 in Fig. 225. The
journey of the testicles from their original loca-
tion near the kidneys down to the pouch which
becomes their future residence, is usually com-
pleted by the eighth month ; but instances do
occur wherein one or both never entirely leave
the abdominal cavity, and others wherein they
tarry in the groin. The detention of one or
THE INTERNAL STRUCTURE both within the abdomen, or in the inguinal
of THE TESTICLE. canal in front of the groin, does not materially
interfere with their functions, and hence there are men who are the
progenitors of healthy children who, to all external appearances, are
without testicles. The same fact exists in the case of men in whom
only one of the glands has descended. Unless, therefore, the testicles
have made their appearance in the scrotum and been removed by dis-
ease or the surgeon's knife, no one having this defect need be immedi-
ately apprehensive of inability to perform all the duties of a husband,
nor think himself incapable of becoming a father, although there are
rare instances in which they are indeed absent or not fully developed.
The testicles do not attain their full size till about what is usually
called middle age, at which time their average dimensions are about an
inch and a half in length, and an inch wide, and three-quarters of an
inch thick. The right testicle is usually a little larger and is held a
traction the testicle on each side slowly de-

THE TESTICLES AND THEIR DISEASES.
627
little higher in the scrotum than the left one. The opposite cut, Fig.
224, represents the internal structure of one of these glands, and the
ducts, etc., leading from it.
are Composed of convoluted
tubes and they connect with
ducts terminating in two
Canals which conduct the secre-
tions of the testicles to the semi-
nal vessels, as will be explained
by and by. These seminiferous
ducts in the testicle are only
about one two-hundredth part of
an inch in diameter, and when
unravelled and drawn out are
nearly a mile long !
Let us look for a minute at
the wonderful complexity of the
procreative machincry of man.
Along the track of the descent
of the testicle on each side of
the body, there passes down
what is called a spermatic cord,
which consists of an artery and
veins and lymphatic vessels and
nerves. (See 8 in Fig. 225.) The
artery is about the size of a
crow's quill. This conveys to
the testicle the blood from which
the gland with all its peculiar
mechanism secretes and gener-
ates the vital elements of the
semen. As before remarked,
many imagine that in coition,
at the climax of excitement, the
testicles inject the semen directly
up into and through the urethra.
This is not so at all. As the tes-
ticular glands make their secre.
tions, they pass them up through
a canal called the was deferens
on each side.
Those lobes, presented one above another,
FIG. 225.
MALE ORGANS,
1. One of the testicles.
2. Stands above one of the tubes called the
was deferens (the White line), where it
leaves the spermatic cord, and conveys
the semen to the seminal vessels marked
3. This tube runs with the spermatic
cord till it reaches the point just below 2,
when it strikes off by itself and dips
down to the spermatic vessels marked 3.
4. The penis with the urethra passing
through it. 5, one of the kidneys. 6, one
of the ureters which conveys the urine
from the kidneys to the bladder. 7, the
bladder. 8, the spermatic cord. 9, the
aorta from which the testicle derives its
supply of blood. 10, the rectum.
These canals have an outer coating like cartilage, but
their linings are composed of mucous membrane and their orifices are
only large enough to admit a bristle.
They ascend with the spermatic
cord till they enter the cavity of the abdomen, when they curve over

628 PRIVATE WORDS FOR MEN.
each side of the bladder and bend down and connect with the seminal
vessels. (Pause a few moments and look over Fig. 225 with its explan-
ations.) Instead, therefore, of the testicles participating at all in the
Sexual act, they are comparatively at rest, and at the climax of amative
excitement their secretions, which have been accumulated in the sper-
matic vessels, are propelled outward by what are called ejaculatory
ducts and, passing the prostate and Cowper's glands, are mixed with
the secretions of these, which contributions add considerably to the
Volume of the semen, and are believed to stimulate its vitality and pro-
creative energy. Propelled by the ejaculatory ducts and the simulta-
neous spasmodic contractions of the urethra, the seminal fluids are
emitted with much force in distinct jets from the mouth of the urethra.
Considering the complexity of the male organs of generation and the
abuses to which they are thoughtlessly subjected, it is not surprising
that they are often affected by disease.
Sexual excesses on the part of the male are much more disastrous
than those on the part of the female. The reason for this is that the
spermatic secretions are composed of the most vital properties which
the blood is capable of imparting. One drop of semen, such as may be
taken up on the point of a pin and placed under the microscope pre-
sents hundreds of those little wriggle-tail cells called spermatozoa, and
from this fact it may be reasonably inferred that the vital resources
must be severely taxed when the spermatic fluids are prodigally wasted.
The injurious effects of an excessive waste of them are well known to
every physician who has given a reasonable share of attention to this
branch of physiology. In the sexual Orgasm the female simply gives
off a glandular secretion, possessed of no more vital properties, if as
many, as the salivary fluids. It is true that in most cases she also con-
tributes a germ called the ovum ; but this passes away at its period of
ripeness whether sexual intercourse takes place or not. The ovaries
are each month ripening ova or cggs, and as rapidly as they reach per-
fection they pass off, so that the loss of these is cf no consequence
whatever to the health of the female organs of generation, nor to her
system generally. Pfluger's Archiv. f. d. ges. Physiol. presents the fol.
lowing calculation to show the difference in production of the germs of
reproduction in the male and female. “Of the 72,000 ovula contained
in the ovaries of an eighteen-year-old girl (Henle) only about 200 per
ovary, or a total of 400, according to Hensen's statements, reach their
development. The seminal production in man presents far more im-
posing figures. Supposing the weekly production to be equal to the
average quantity of 226,257,000, as ascertained by observation, during
the period from the twenty-fifth to the fifty-fifth year of life, the num-
ber of seminal corpuscles produced, while the Zenith of genital pro-
ductivity lasts, would reach the enormous number of 339,385,500,000.
ENLARGEMENTS OF THE TESTICULAR GLANDS. 629
There would consequently be 4,713,700 spermatozoa to one of Graaf’s
vesicles (ovules), and even as many as 848,463,750 spermatozoa to one
ovule which has reached development, a ratio probably never attained
in any of the known plants whose favorable economy was so highly
admired by Darwin.”
Excesses are nevertheless deleterious to the female because the
nervous system is injuriously affected by too much venereal excite-
ment. In some cases these excesses lead to undue activity of the organ
of amativeness, so that even in her dreams she is excited by amative
delirium. Sexual excesses and self-abuse on the part of the male lead
to what is commonly called seminal weakness, or the disease technically
called spermatorrhoea. This trouble is so prevalent and disastrous to
health and longevity, I shall leave it here with simply this allusion and
resume its consideration in an essay by itself.
Enlargements of the Testicular Gilands.
The testicular glands are liable to inflammation, congestion, swell-
ing, tumors, cancer, and abscess. I Once had a case of abscess of the
testicles which had caused an adhesion of the glands to the scrotum,
with openings through which the ulcerous matter was poured out. The
patient became the father of one child previous to this affection, but at
the time I made the examination he had not for a long time passed a
particle of semen in coition, and his testicles were nearly wasted away.
It was a remarkable fact, however, that his passions, according to his
own statement, were even stronger and his pleasure in intercourse
greater than they were prior to the partial destruction of the glands.
It is supposed by many that the loss of the testicles by disease or cas-
tration destroys the erectile power. Frequently it only destroys the
procreative power, leaving amative desire and power of erection intact.
In some it paralyzes desire, while local titillation will cause erection.
Acute inflammation of the testicle (orchitis)—most often the result
of gonorrhoea—is attended with a rapid swelling and intense pain.
Perfect rest and sedative poultices (of opium or tobacco) are the main
stay in treatment aside from the “tincture of time,” of which a liberal
supply may be needed. Following the acute trouble, there may be a
long spell of chronic, moderate enlargement, with a sense of weight,
tension, and tenderness, requiring constitutional as well as local treat-
ment to encourage absorption. Sometimes there remains only chronic
Soreness and congestion of the epididymis—a soft part upon the testicle
on its upper part. Accidental injuries may be the cause of such
troubles aside from gonorrhoea. Hard tumors of the testicle may be
either scrofulous, tubercular, or cancerous. The size and “feel,”
form and hardness, help in making a diagnosis; but the points of
63O PRIVATE WORDS FOR MEN.
difference are not such as can be easily made plain to the unprofessional
reader. Hence their omission.
Hydrocele.
Hydrocele is a softer and yet dense fulness of the scrotal sac, the
testicle itself being all right. Between it and the sac there is formed
an excess of serum, a fluid strong in soluble albumin, limpid and
faintly yellow. This fluid can readily be drawn off by tapping with a
Small hollow needle, with no greater pain than the prick of a pin, and
With very prompt and satisfactory alleviation, but generally not lasting
relief, for the fluid is likely to accumulate again slowly, and need
another, and still another such tapping. I find in most of these cases
that there is a constitutional blood fault which must be corrected in
order to overcome this tendency to serous secretion, but in those whose
general health is not greatly involved a radical cure operation can be
performed by injecting the sac with some irritant such as iodine, car-
bolic acid, or thuja. Such an operation, however, should not be self-
performed. It should be attended to by either a physician or surgeon.
Hydrocele is probably the most common tumor affecting these parts
without inflammation, and if it not only feels like a dense bag of water,
but also shows some translucency to the light (with a lighted candle
behind it) then the diagnosis is made certain enough to justify an ex-
perimental tapping with a hypodermic needle. A hydrocele cannot be
“reduced ” in size or tension by placing the patient on the back and
Squeezing the parts, while this manipulation will cause much of vari-
cocele or hernia to disappear—by its going into the abdomen. Neither,
of course, can a Sarcocele or other hard tumor of the testicle be lessened
in this manner.
Varicocele.
Varicocele is an enlargement of the veins in the scrotum, and
alongside of the testicle. The feeling to the hand of an examiner or
the patient himself is commonly compared to a bunch of earthworms
in the sac, and as the excess of blood in the over-distended vessels
gravitates back into the body when the subject lies upon the back, the
enlargement almost disappears by so doing. It is the most noticeable
after working hard all day or standing long upon the feet. In these
points it is quite like hernia or rupture, and so the two conditions are
often mistaken ; but to the practiced touch of a physician, the feeling
is quite different, and the reduction or disappearance of hernia on
reclining is generally less easy than in varicocele. Varicocele Swelling
subsides steadily, though quickly, while in hernia the lump is slow to
WARICOCEI.E. - 631
move, and may at last drop back very suddenly. Moderate varicocele
needs no further treatment than the wearing of a scrotal supporter.
(See page 1227.) When it is one of the symptoms of scrotal weakness,
the relaxed vessels may regain tone and the trouble disappear under
treatment for strengthening the parts all through. When it is heavy,
achy, and annoying, a radical cure operation may be advisable. There
are many methods, but those simple ones of tying off the veins—liga-
ture—which are easily and quickly done, and SOOn Over, are not aS
surely curative as those operations by which the surplus veins are cut
out. One of the worst cases I ever saw had been twice “radically
cured” by some ligature FIG. 226.
treatment, and the last
operation was done by
an expert who was in
position to handle more
of these cases than any
other surgeon in this
country. When I con-
clude that operation is
worth while I prefer
that plan which obliter-
ates the excess of veins
with no chance of re-
lapse, and I never saw
or heard of a failure that
way; but it may take
three weeks to see it A FRENCH METEIOD OF LIGATING WARICOCELE,
through instead of one—the time generally supposed to be necessary to
recover from mere ligating. Again, I must invite those who would
like further information about varicocele to read our special pamphlet
on that subject and let this description suffice for this work. In all
affections of the testicles and spermatic cord, a physician should be
consulted, and for this reason I shall not enter into a minute descrip-
tion of the various diseases of these organs. Physicians who have not
had extensive experience in their treatment sometimes make mistakes
in deciding upon the exact nature of a case, and therefore it would be
useless for me to attempt to make the non-professional mind suffi-
ciently familiar with the variety of diseases to which these organs are
subject, to enable the reader to diagnose correctly for himself. The
discriminating eye and touch of the experienced physician should be
sought in all such cases if the patient would avoid mistakes and the
possible ultimate necessity of castration growing out of neglect or mal-
treatment. Color plate VII, gives a fine view of Varicocele, contrast-
ing the overstretched veins on one side with normal veins on the other,

632 PRIVATE WORDS FOR MEN.
Awº3
Seminal Weakness.
This disease is technically termed spermatorrhoea, and is usually
the offspring of masturbation or self-abuse, although occasional in-
stances are met with in which the difficulty, or the predisposition to
it, was unquestionably inherited from the father. It exhibits itself
locally by involuntary discharges of the seminal fluids through the
orifice of the penis, or, more properly speaking, from the urethra.
In the advanced stages of the disease there is also a wasting away of
one or both of the testicles. In the illustration, Fig. 227, A repre-
sents a healthy testicle, and B one which has become wasted by mas-
turbation and seminal weakness.
FIG. 227. I am almost daily called upon by young
men who ask if it is not perfectly natural
to have involuntary nocturnal emissions
occasionally—say once in a week or two.
They have been so informed by their
physicians ! Such young men are excus-
able, perhaps, as they have not had oppor-
tunities of knowing better; but it is dis-
graceful for any man laying claim to a
knowledge of physiology to make such an
assertion. It is too true that men who are
in the habit of cutting up dead bodies,
know too little of living ones. Good
anatomists are not always astute physiolo-
gists. Those who are reputed to be ex-
pert surgeons are apt to be the poorest
physicians, and really seem incapable of
was restes, is aparta Aso giving any common-sense advice on sub-
DISEASE- jects like the one under consideration.
A, represents one in health; B, Almost every year Some most eminent
one wasted by masturbation. surgeon, in a lecture before the Young
Men's Christian Association, states that involuntary emissions are inevi-
table occasionally, unless prevented by living in natural relations with
the opposite sex. It would seem as though common-sense would teach
anybody better; and it would almost seem as if young men themselves
ought to know better without being told. It is a rule, having few ex-
ceptions, that a person subject to involuntary emissions feels the debili-
tating effect of them invariably the next morning after their occur-
rence, while every man of experience knows that sexual connection with
a companion who is responsive, if not too frequent, leaves no depress-
ing effect upon mind or body, but on the contrary, a buoyancy of the
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SEMINAL WEAKNESS. 633
former and elasticity of the latter. Throwing aside, however, all refer-
ence to palpable effect, with which nearly every one troubled with invol-
untary emissions is familiar, do we find Nature so ready to cast off its
vital substances and nervous forces 7 Is it a fact that Dame Nature is
a prodigal—following the profligate and dissipated example of her Sons Ž
The seminal fluids are in part made up of the richest and most vital
elements of the body. The best material of the whole system is con-
centrated in the secretion which contains the germs of a new being.
Now, why should Nature throw away this fluid any more than it should
throw away blood 7 We find that in all cases involuntary expenditures
of blood are hemorrhages, resulting from a diseased state of the system.
The fluids which are of no use to the system are secreted by the kid-
neys, and thence poured into the bladder to be removed at the con-
venience of the person. The more solid effete matters are gathered
into the colon to be expelled periodically through the rectum. Even
these functions are not performed involuntarily unless disease exists.
Now, if it were necessary that the seminal fluids should be disposed of
at certain intervals, why are they not absorbed and removed by those
channels provided by Nature for the expulsion of waste matters, in-
stead of disturbing the rest and quiet of the dreamer and so far derang-
ing the nervous system as to produce depression of spirits, headache,
and lassitude the succeeding morning 2 To all this it may be objected
that once a month, the female loses blood, from the age of puberty to
the turn of life, in what is called the function of menstruation. If the
objector be a physician, knowing as he should, the quality of that
blood, I would ask if he really believes that nenstrual blood possesses
any vital properties 2 Is it blood at all in the sense in which we em-
ploy that term in speaking of the fluid that circulates in our arteries
and veins and supports life 2 Does he not know, and does not every
woman know, that when pure arterial, instead of menstrual, blood
flows from the vagina of the female, it is at once called uterine hemor-
rhage instead of menstruation ? Does such a physician believe for a
moment that any such draft is made upon the system to supply the
menstrual secretion as takes place when the spermatic vessels are sup-
plied with their secretions ? Will he for one moment place the sper-
matic secretions and menstrual fluids side by side as possessing equal
life and vitality ? Is it not a fact that while the spermatic secretions
are teeming with life, the menstrual secretions are as effete in their
properties as the urine 7 In another place it will be observed that I
speak of the ova of women passing off involuntarily, but only one or
two microscopic seeds thus ripen and pass off once a month—an insig-
nificant loss.
It may be asked, if the seminal secretion is so vital, how it happens
that married men and others who are perhaps excessive in its expendi-
634 PRIVATE WORDS FOR MEN.
ture do not feel injury from its loss 2 To these queries I would reply,
that in natural intercourse there is at least a partial, if not complete,
compensation, received in the act, as explained in my essay on the
philosophy of sexual intercourse (see Part III.). Excesses, however,
will lead to seminal weakness and in due time induce a train of disorders
not much unlike those developed by masturbation or involuntary seminal
emissions. I have said in one place that it is a rule, having few excep-
tions, that unpleasant effects follow involuntary losses of semen, such
as physical lassitude, mental depression, etc. I might have added that
even these exceptions finally arrive at the same condition; and that the
weakness, if not cured, invariably leads to that injury of the parts
which induces losses with the urine and at stool ; the weakness finally
eventuating in impotency. I know all about it, because I am perfectly
conversant with the history of thousands of people who have been
affected with this difficulty; have met them daily in my office for forty
years, and probably have had a larger practice in this class of diseases
in office and by mail, than any other physician in the United States;
and any medical man who has so little knowledge of spermatorrhoea as
to say that it will naturally occur in young men at certain intervals,
should lose no time in explaining why Nature provides such a function
when it leads to such fearful results. Such advice, unless correct, is
mischievous and tends to still further demoralize the patient. I have
been told by young men laboring under the supposition that these
nocturnal emissions were natural, that they had practised masturbation
once in a week or ten days to prevent this involuntary overflow, re-
marking that they felt better when they did so than when they allowed
the loss to take place without assistance. There is not a particle of
doubt in my mind that the immediate effect is better. The ultimate
effect is worse, simply because it is continually aggravating the Sper-
matic weakness which they are endeavoring to palliate.
Some patients have said that they felt better by continuing their
practice of masturbation. This was because the habit had induced
such an unnatural activity of the testicular glands that the Spermatic
vessels became congested with the seminal Secretion, and the removal
of this secretion at such times produced possibly as great a Sense of
relief as bleeding at the nose in those persons who are subject to con-
gestions in the head. This, however, is a most ruinous way to relieve
congested vessels, for no sooner are they emptied, than they begin at
once to fill, and soon reach the state of renewed congestion. The
proper remedy is to restore them to their normal action, and not still
further increase their excessive activity by repeating that which led
originally to the whole difficulty. I have been asked what becomes of
the seminal secretions if not passed off, naturally or involuntarily. I
answer: they are re-absorbed or taken back into the circulation, the
SEMINAL WEAKNESS. w 635
vital constituents going to vital centres to strengthen them, and the
earthy properties to the bones, hair, nails, etc., to build up the mascu-
line qualities of the man. (See page 814.) But in no case does Nat-
ure dispose of these vital fluids by involuntary emissions, excepting
when the parts are diseased.
None of the profuse secretions are thrown off involuntarily in a state
of health, excepting the catamenial, and those take place in normal sub-
jects with such perfect regularity that they can be taken care of. If
there be drooling from the mouth, there is some disease of the facial
muscles or of the salivary glands; if the urine drizzles away involun-
tarily, or if the sleeping child wets its bed with an unconscious paroxysm
we say at once that there is some disease of the urinary organs; if the
rectum fails to maintain control over its fecal contents, we know that
there is something wrong there. Now, why should there be any in-
voluntary losses of seminal secretions 7 And when they occur in sleep
under an amative paroxysm, or during the day in a drizzling way, why
should we not at once suspect disease to exist in the generative organs?
If the boy after passing the age of puberty should have an involuntary
emission once a month just as the girl has her menstrual flow, why do
not all healthy boys have these emissions with perfect periodicity ?
How does it happen that those who do have involuntary emissions
seldom ever have them with that regularity which would enable them to
provide themselves with a napkin 7 Are all boys sick or in an abnor-
mal condition who do not have involuntary emission with perfect
regularity once in twenty-eight days 2 and if so, who can say that he
knows of a single healthy lad 2 For, be it remembered that young men
who are afflicted with nocturnal emissions have them at a great variety
of intervals; some every night, others every other night, more of them
Once in a week or ten days, some of them once in a week or two ; others
once in thirty to sixty days, but no one of them with that degree of
regularity which would enable them to precisely forecast the visitation.
For instance, any one of the classes mentioned may have them two or
three nights in Succession and then go for weeks or months without
them. Then, if these involuntary losses are natural, why do not these
young men feel well, and why do not those who escape them feel ill ?
Shall we prescribe for those rugged young masculines who have never
had these “periodicals 7” What shall we give them to make them
regular, and how shall we persuade them that they are fit subjects for
our advice and medicines 7 And why should we not prescribe for
those who do have them until they come to have the spermatic
catamenia with exact periodicity ? Now, all this is nonsense, but it
has to find place here to answer the statements of those who are so
thoughtless as to say that involuntary emissions are natural to men
and therefore not worthy of attention,
636 RRIVATE WORDS FOR MEN.
It is slow work to down old superstitions or false notions, especially
those entertained by the medical and surgical profession, and I am well
aware that after forty years of wide publication of my views there are
many books called “standard authorities” that teach the ideas I so
strenuously combat, and yet I do know that my arguments have im
pressed many minds in the profession as well as out of it, and that the
common-sense point of view is making haste slowly. I find that the
article on spermatorrhoea in “The Practical Home Physician,” proba-
bly written by Dr. Henry M. Lyman or Dr. W. T. Belfield, is only
advanced to the view that involuntary seminal losses are injurious when
followed by distressing symptoms, but as the writer states unequivo-
cally that “every healthy male suffers a discharge of seminal fluid at
stated intervals, no matter how continent he may be,” I state boldly
and without hesitation that this is not true. Again, I find him stating
as a matter of fact that “emissions may be the result as well as a cause
of general debility.” Here I agree with him decidedly, but must won-
der how a sign of health may result from a state of weakness. Coming
to matters of opinion instead of fact he asserts that “a seminal emission
artificially induced does not and cannot exhaust the individual so much
as a natural intercourse,” where arguing that masturbation is only apt
to be more injurious because “so easily and generally practised to
excess.” Yet it is such writers for popular instruction who declaim
against “yellow quack literature * distributed in free pamphlets and
exposing the evil effects of masturbation in a manner which is some-
times overdone. I have always becn opposed to imparting any unneces-
sary scare on this subject, and have seen many an advertising tract
which was very objectionable from this standpoint, but between the
disseminators of such tracts and the eminently respectable authorities
who teach that masturbation is “not so bad" after all, my preference
is for the cheap yellow trash, and I am glad the other kind is held too
high-priced for the multitude. The fact is, that the overdrawn pic.
tures of the evils of sexual abuse by those whose object it is to sca e the
victims into their offices, has led to the other extreme of doctors who
declaim that it is all a fake, and that involuntary losses are all right.
Both are wrong—the truth lies between, and it has been my earnest
endeavor to make the truth plain.
MY VIEWS INDORSED.
It is pleasant to turn from such an authority to one who deserves
to be so considered because his experience has been plentiful, and his
conclusions well-founded thereon in reason and common-sense, I am
now about to quote several separate paragraphs from “Plain Facts for
Old and Young,” by J. H. Kellogg, M.D. It is under the heading,
Spermatorrhoea (losses with urine or at stool) that I find the following:
SEMINAL WEAKNESS. 637
“There are those who claim to believe that the disease occurs so in-
frequently that it is scarcely worthy to be considered a distinct disorder.
After carefully investigating several hundred cases of diseases peculiar
to men, we have come to believe that it is by no means So rare a disease
as is generally supposed to be the case, having determined the presence
of spermatozoa by microscopical examination in a large number of
cases in which a discharge occurred after urinating or while straining
at stool.
“The opinion expressed by many physicians when called upon by
patients suffering in this way, that the discase is one of little consc-
quence, and probably does not exist at all, often leads to great mischief ;
and certainly when such an opinion is given without a close and critical
investigation of the case, the patient may well doubt the individual's
competence to deal with disorders of this class. Those who have had
much to do with cases of this sort, have become thoroughly con-
vinced, not only of their great frequency, but of the fact that their
successful treatment requires the most painstaking efforts, and the ex-
ercise of the highest skill, not only in the selection and the application
of remedial measures to the diseased parts, but in the education and
discipline of the patient so as to secure his full coöperation in carrying
out those measures of treatment and regimen elsewhere suggested, such
as proper diet, exercise, abstinence, etc.”
Further along, writing of nocturnal seminal losses, Dr. Kellogg
again says: “The great prevalence of masturbation among boys and
young men, and marital excesses among married men, has rendered the
existence of genital weakness so common that many physicians have
come to believe that the occurrence of seminal losses during sleep is a
perfectly normal condition, if not too frequently repeated. Extensive
observation has convinced the writer that this opinion is an error, and
that in a man who is in perfect health, physically, mentally, and
morally; such a thing as involuntary seminal losses will not occur,
either sleeping or waking. * * * In the treatment of many of these
cases, we have invariably noticed as one of the first symptoms of im-
provement that though the seminal losses still continued without great
diminution in frequency, the patient no longer suffered the great de-
pression of mind and body which had previously followed their occur-
rence. This is a sign of improvement in general nerve-tone, by means
of which the disorder will be ultimately controlled. This change in
the advance of the disease toward health, is directly the reverse of that
which occurs in the march of the disorder in the opposite direction.
Patients may often imagine the emissions are doing no harm, though
occurring with great frequency, simply because they do not feel any
serious effects. But this is only because the general vital tone is suffi-
ciently great to withstand for a time the exhausting drain upon the
638 PRIVATE worDS FOR MEN.
system ; but sooner or later, nervous bankruptcy will supervene, and
the patient will appreciate his true condition.
“Sometimes the discharge of seminal fluid is backward into the
bladder, and so mixed with the urine that attention is not called to it,
and the patient is wholly unaware of the mysterious disease which is
undermining his health, and goes from one physician to another seek-
ing to find the real cause of his malady and the proper remedy, but
obtaining no relief. We have met a number of cases of this sort, in
Some of which the amount of seminal fluid lost in this way, and the
constancy of the symptom, quite exceeded any conception which we
had previously formed of cases of this sort. The only method of de-
tecting these cases is for the physician to adopt as a routine practice the
plan of making a careful microscopical examination of the urine in
every case,
“When a person discovers himself to be affected with discharges
of this sort, he should consider the matter deserving of immediate and
careful attention until every vestige of the disease is removed. The
penalty of neglecting to attend to the matter with promptness will
usually be, in the most favorable cases, early loss of sexual vigor, and
in the great majority of cases, some worse form of sexual disease, and
all the various accompanying symptoms which have been pointed out.
The only methods of treatment which can be advantageously employed
by the patient himself are such as have been already described as use-
ful in other forms of sexual disease. The question of marriage has
been discussed elsewhere in this work; but we cannot allow this oppor-
tunity to pass without reiterating the warning that a person suffering
in this way should never think of marrying until the local disease has
been substantially cured, as the deepest regret and intensest suffering
are almost certain to result when the contrary course is taken.”
TWO RINDS OF SPERMATORFEICEA.
There are, in reality, two kinds of spermatorrhoea, which are of so
opposite a nature that treatment beneficial to one is injurious to the
other. One results from excessive expenditure of nervous stimuli on
the organ of amativeness and the organs of procreation ; and the other,
from a want of nervous vitality in the procreative organs, while the
organ of amativeness may or may not be abnormally excited. In the
former, or where there is undue excitability of the organs of amative-
ness and generation, emissions occur with erections, and usually under
the influence of lascivious dreams. The victim is suddenly aroused
under the most intense amative excitement, just as the seminal fluids
are ejected, or, in some cases, he may not discover what has happened
until some time afterward, although he remembers, either clearly or
vaguely, the amorous dream under which the excitement and seminal
SEMINAL WEAKNESS, . . 639
:
loss took place. A person predisposed to this form of the disease may
have it greatly aggravated by pin-worms in the rectum, or by any
affection of the vascular system which produces an itching humor in
the urino-genital organs. The worms will so titillate the nerves leading
to the sexual parts, that erections and losses of semen result. A slight
inflammation or eruption in the neck of the bladder may, when the
latter becomes distended with urine in sleep, cause an erection; and if
the person becomes sufficiently awakened to get up and urinate, an
unnatural emission of semen may be avoided. If he does not, the de-
bilitating discharge is almost sure to take place. Drinking too much
fluid of any kind in the after part of the day or at bedtime is apt to
cause a distention of the bladder, and then there is pressure upon the
spermatic vessels, which produces very much the same effect as when
they are congested on the inside with the spermatic secretions. The
immediate nerves are awakened to excitability, and the excitement is
communicated by nerve-telegraphy to the cerebellum. An amorous
dream is brought on with the usual consequences. Engorgement of the
rectum with fecal matters may produce the same result. The other
form of spermatorrhoea, arising from a relaxed condition of the organs,
or, in other words, from a want of proper nervous stimulus to give
strength to the spermatic vessels and ducts, is usually the most difficult
and troublesome. It is the open door to impotency, and frequently the
latter exists with it, or perhaps I had better say, that it continues after
impotency has taken place. A person afflicted with spermatorrhoea of
...this character loses the seminal fluids on almost any occasion giving rise
to amative emotion or physical effort They exude when in the com-
pany of women, or in riding, walking, or urinating, and particularly at
stool, if costive. Fig. 228 represents a microscopic view of the floating
mucus and spermatozoa as found in the urine of one afflicted with this
disease. The spermatic fluids may be wasted in this way for weeks,
months, and sometimes years, if the constitution of the victim holds
out so long, without his being aware of the drain which his system is
laboring under, although he cannot fail to suffer from its effects.
Some persons of constipated habit, troubled with this form of sperma-
... torrhoea, eject large quantities at every stool; others will merely find,
by examination, a drop or two oozing from the urethra. These diurnal
losses are, if frequent, more exhaustive than the nocturnal, and the
mental sufferings of the patient are usually intense.
COMPLICATED SEERMATORREICEA.
I have yet to speak of a more difficult and debilitating form of
spermatorrhoea than what I have already mentioned, and that is a com-
plication involving both of the forms described. Persons affected in
this way will have occasional erections, attended with frightful losses,
*}J
640 ARIVATE WORDS FOR MEN
While they are almost constantly suffering with diurnal discharges.
Their procreative organs seem to be Vibrating between an excess of
nervous stimulus and an entire want of it. There is Seldom, in such
cases, any control of the parts. Erections will take place involuntarily,
When cohabitation is not thought of, but when desired, the erectile
tissue and muscles are flabby and powerless.
The local symptoms attending the several phases of spermatorrhoea
I have already given. The constitutional Symptoms are various, ac-
cording to the temperament and idiosyncrasy of the invalid. In some
cases only a little nervous irritability or debility is experienced, while
the mind gradually loses its
vigor and activity. The victim
Gº is no more aware of the gradual
§ approach of imbecility than an
old, infirm man, who is losing
his faculties day after day and
seems unconscious of declining
intellect, and feels exasperated
ſ §: if his abilities are questioned.
©º g * * >
© N & & Another is alive to his actual
© & \ condition — finds his memory
* Q 9 waning—his powers of concen-
trating thought declining—and
SPERMATOzoA, ETC. both his bodily and mental ener-
Discovered, by the aid of the microscope, gies wasting away. Still an-
in the urine of one having the worst form other loses Suddenly his mental
of spermatorrhoea. powers, and becomes idiotic or
insane. Still a greater number live in the greatest mental and physical
Wretchedness if not in hopeless despair. Hypochondria seizes upon
them ; they are full of whims and bugbears; they imagine the approach
of all sorts of evils ; feelings of dread constantly overpower them ; and
they fear death as if it were a plunge into a pit of burning sulphur or
Something worse, and nothing in Nature can excite their admiration or
awaken within them pleasurable emotions. They are blind to the
beauties of the starry heavens or the charming landscapes of field and
wood. There is nothing in the wide world that can make them happy.
They are the most hopeless pessimists that come under the observation
of the physician. A look upward at night into the begemmed dome
bewilders rather than enchants their depressed and troubled spirits.
Their diseased imaginations are wrapped in a pall of horrors, and
though they may occasionally peep through its folds and catch a ray
of hope and sunshine, a little thing startles them, and they turn from a
world of horrors without to a temple of terrors within. If these men-
tal hallucinations do not harass them they are dizzy-headed, short of
FIG. 228.


SEMINAL WEAKNESS. 641
breath, dyspeptic, victims to sleeplessness, neuralgia, pains in and pal-
pitation about the heart, debility, nervous irritability, fretfulness, and
melancholy. I do not mean to say that one person suffering with
spermatorrhoea has all these troubles; but every sufferer has one or
more of them, depending upon the sensitiveness of his nervous organ-
ization and the length of time his disease has affected him.
What adds most to the horrors of this malady, which drains off
the most vital fluids of the organism, and strikes at the intellect and
manhood of its victim, is the ignorance of the profession generally in
its treatment. As a rule, medical men treat one form of the disease
precisely as they do the other, and this lack of discrimination and dis-
cernment aggravates the trouble, and destroys the confidence and hope
of the patient. Then, too, local remedies are generally too greatly
relied upon. I have already shown that the disease in its various forms
is perpetuated by nervous derangements, or I have at least explained
the manner in which nervous irregularities produce the losses. There
is either an excess of the nervous forces precipitated on the organ of
amativeness and the procreative system, or else there is a moiety, ex-
cept in cases of complications such as I last referred to, in which there
is a vibration between the two extremes. Consequently the nervous
system must receive especial attention. To regulate the nervous circu-
lation, or, in other words, to restore the nervous harmony is, in fact,
to effect a cure. At least that is the conclusion I have come to after
treating successfully nearly every case which has been placed under
my care, and I have had many which were regarded as extremely diffi-
cult, and any number of those which were considered incurable under
the ordinary systems of medication.
I find even the writer of the article in the “Practical Home Physi-
cian,” with whom I so thoroughly differed as already explained, say.
ing of spermatorrhoea, when he consents to considerit a disease instead
of a regular function, “in most cases it is simply a nervous disease.”
I have italicised the two last words in the quotation. It is quite true
that it is a disease, but seldom a simple one, as the writer’s statement
would imply. Dr. George M. Beard, one of the first old school writ-
ers to acknowledge any such disease as spermatorrhoea, wrote as fol.
lows to explain the mental depression and digestive disorders that so
often attend it.
“The explanation is to my mind quite clear. The great sympathetic
nerve is at fault. This nerve sends prominent branches to the stomach
and to the genital organs. Therefore, these three—the brain, the
stomach, and the genital apparatus—are in very distinct and close sym-
pathy with each other. They form a kind of family. They are in
constant telegraphic communication with each other, and any injury of
()]].62 is soon felt by the other two.”
642 PRIVATE WORDS FOR MEN.
After perusing my remarks at the commencement of this essay, the
reader cannot infer that I am unaware that masturbation and sexual
excesses are usually the first causes; that in consequence of children
not being properly instructed by parents with regard to the evils of
self-pollution, they nearly ruin themselves before they know any better;
that grown-up boys, or those calling themselves men—married men—
destroy the tone of their reproductive organs by sexual excesses and
other pernicious practices treated of in this book. But all these evil
practices induce the troubles which follow, by deranging the nervous
circulation, or by robbing the system of nervous vitality. It is true,
the vascular fluid or blood suffers from a waste of the seminal fluids,
because the latter are largely composed of its very best properties; but
the nervous system is always the more disturbed, and requires the
more particular attention. My custom is, to treat the disease with ref-
erence to all derangements involved, combining the remedies in such a
way as to reach all, and yet the nervous derangements command my
greatest care, and the removal of these is invariably succeeded by a
discontinuance of the involuntary discharges. º
While, as remarked in the preceding paragraph, the causes are
usually self-induced, I have met with cases wherein seminal weakness
or predisposition thereto, was undoubtedly inherited. There is noth-
ing surprising about this. It could hardly be otherwise, considering
the acknowledged excesses previous to and immediately following
marriage, and the further fact that many have been unfortunately ad.
vised to marry because suffering from particularly obstinate spermator-
rhoea, and have thus fathered puny, strumous, devitalized children,
before giving themselves time for even the possible benefits of a moder-
ate marital mode of living. It would be remarkable if many children
so begotten were not strongly predisposed to weakness and irritability
of the sexual Organs.
One of the most marked illustrations of this kind occurring in my
practice, was that of a young man about twenty-five, who, at the early
age of eight years, commenced having nocturnal losses without any
knowledge of the practice of masturbation. At first they occurred
about once a week; at the age of sixteen they happened as frequently
as every alternate night, and before twenty, while losses continued both
night and day, he was entirely impotent. At the time he first called at
my office he had been pursuing the advice of various doctors for some
five years without material benefit. Having become interested in a
young lady whom he desired to marry, he had, on the confidant assur-
ance of a cure from one of the most eminent surgeons in New York,
made an engagement of marriage. At the close of several months of
surgical treatment, as unsuccessful as it was painful, the young man
'became frantic with a realizing sense of his position. Said he to me :
SEMINAL WEAKNESS. 643
“Doctor, if you fail, I die a suicide; I cannot tell this young woman
of my infirmity; I cannot enter marriage with it ; I cannot break my
promise. My mind is firmly made up. I have heard of your success
in these difficulties, and if you cannot cure me I shall put an end to this
wretched existence.” A minute history of the events attending the
treatment of this case would be too lengthy to be interesting—the ups
and downs of the young man's hopes—the encouragements and dis-
couragements of physician as well as patient for the first two or three
months; but by the end of the fifth, victory seemed promising, and at
the close of the sixth, certain. At the end of eight months, the unmis-
takable success of the treatment was celebrated by his marriage.
Although this was many years ago, since which time I occasionally
meet my former patient, the cure seems permanent, and the now middle-
aged man is grateful and happy.
TEIE TREATMENT OF SPERMATORRHOEA.
Persons afflicted with spermatorrhoea cannot be too strongly cau-
tioned against the various clap-traps and catchpennies of quacks and
empirics who profess to have some remarkable panacea for the disease.
It cannot be too generally known that a “one-cure-all” cannot be made
to suit everybody's case, even if it be possessed of some degree of vir-
tue ; but by far a greater number of the advertised specifics are not
only worthless but positively injurious. Some of the more powerful of
them tend more to dry up the seminal secretions than to impart power
to the vessels and ducts to retain them. Thus sterility or impotency
instead of the restoration of the parts is effected. Those who have
tried them, need not be assured of what I have stated, but I give cur-
rency to these facts, for the benefit of those who have not yet been
victimized by these pretentious, worthless, and too often harmful
panaceas. It is a false supposition entertained by many, as I have re-
peatedly said, that marriage cures seminal weakness. There may, of
course, be exceptions, but as a rule a cure cannot be effected by taking
this step. It simply amounts to this : the secretions of the testicular
glands are discharged by a natural process, before time is allowed for
them to pass off unnaturally. The weakness and nervous irritability
of the organs still remain. Unless cured, premature impotency event-
ually takes place. With this difficulty it not infrequently happens
that a middle-aged man is as powerless in the organs of generation as
the majority of men are at the age of eighty years.
I wish here to use a clipping which I took from some periodical,
and which must go on its own merits, since the name of the author is not
given : “TJnder almost any circumstances there is danger that the
employment of marriage as a means of cure might result unhappily,
and as the unpleasant results are of such very great importance to the
644 PRIVATE WORDS FOR MEN.
Welfare of our race, we propose to act upon the maxim already quoted:
‘ of two evils choose the least,’ and of two or more remedies choose the
least liable to do harm. A cure can be accomplished in all these cases
without incurring any danger of domestic trouble, by a well-regulated
hygienic and therapeutic course. We urge upon our suffering readers
Continence—purity of thought and act—avoiding any and everything
capable of inflaming the passions and debasing the mind, whether in
the form of literature, conversation, sights, etc. Keep the mind em-
ployed upon such matters as are ennobling and instructive—grammar,
astronomy, mathematics, geography, languages, etc., etc., are studies
that are to be recommended, because, in addition to diverting the mind,
keeping it occupied, they at the same time are highly instructive and
beneficial and no mental occupation can excel them for purity.”
Treatment, to be efficient, must be especially prepared for the case,
for an invalid can ill afford time in experimenting in the use of nos-
trums of doubtful utility. Every reader at a distance should state
frankly, in answer to the questions on page 761, every symptom
attending his case, so that a correct diagnosis can be given, and all who
become my patients may rest assured that my best efforts will be used
for their permanent restoration.
Inflammation of the Prostate Giland and Seminal Vesicles.
I must now attempt to condense in one page, if possible, the main
facts concerning a state of disease to which one author has devoted
a book of 240 pages, and yet he has not stated any more than all medi-
cal men should be anxious to learn. Probably in almost all cases of
spermatorrhoea there is some congestion of the prostate gland and
Seminal vesicles, but in the troublesome cases these parts are inflamed,
enlarged, tender, sensitive, irritable, and produce an excessive secretion
which may be as acrid as the contents of a boil. The symptoms will
vary with the extent or severity of this local inflammation, but the
least of them are : Sense of fulness, weight, pressure, and discomfort
in the region of the neck of the bladder, deep-seated in the crotch,
above what is technically called the perineum. A Soft seat that presses
there is uncomfortable. Hard seats are preferred, because the bony
framework somewhat relieves pressure on this part when sitting.
Sexual desire may be diminished, but in severe cases it is troublesome—
constant, intense, insatiable, unsatisfying—and such a condition is, no
doubt, often the local physical excitant of that state of psychic mania
which will be described soon under the head of Satyriasis. Involuntary
losses of some kind are pretty Surely frequent, and may be attended
with sharp pain or followed by dull aching. Ejaculation in intercourse
is commonly premature and may be colicky—painful—or there may be
PROSTATE GLAND AND SEMINAL VESICLES 645
such local swelling as to send the discharge backward into the bladder.
In aggravated cases the parts may be at times cold or shrivelled, and
the scrotum painfully constricted ; or, extreme relaxation may be the
general state, with pendulous and flabby scrotum. A burning Sensation
is common all through the urethra—a sense of rawness—and the pas-
Sage of urine causes Smarting; or there may be only a painful spot,
and urination fre-
quent, and some-
what uncomforta-
ble. The urine is
apt to contain mu-
cus, pus, or blood-
cells, of a kind that
enable the micro-
scopic examination
to reveal the true
nature of the dis-
ease. Oozing mu-
cus discharges may
or may not exist.
The indirect or gen-
eral symptoms are
those already de-
scribed as sympto-
matic of spermator-
rhoea. These are
indeed the tough THE PROSTATE AND SEMINAL VESICLES ; REAR VIEW.
cases of Spermator. The prostate gland (3), seminal vesicles (5), was deferens
rhoea, obstinate and (6), as seen from a rear view of the bladder (1), and
chronic, and often showing the place (7) Where the seminal canals pass
C ompli cated with through the prostate into the urethra, which, however,
is not seen here. The vas deferens is a tube bringing
the remnants of the testicular secretions to the reservoirs called seminal
deep gonorrhoea, vesicles, from which they are discharged by muscular
which has lit a fire Contraction and compression into the urethra. Com-
that still smoulders. pare this description with other cuts.
Besides gonorrhoea as a cause, Dr. Eugene Fuller names also conti-
mence (especially in widowers who have been accustomed to normal
activity), withdrawal in intercourse, and he adds, habits of “sexual,
trifling” in any manner that produces prolonged congestion without
the natural finality and relaxation. This last-named cause is not ac-
cepted by those who recommend male continence in intercourse. As
physicians differ on this point, it may be well considered as yet an open
question. In the worst cases of the class under consideration, the
Secretion from the inflamed parts is so excessive and acrid as to cause
FIG. 229

646 PRIVATE WORDS FOR MEN.
irrepressible itching, heat, tenesmus, and desire for relief, through mas.
turbation which, for a brief spell, partially empties the vesicles, but in
turn aggravates the persistence of the disease. Certain manipulative
(hardly to be called surgical) procedures and instrumental means can be
employed for evacuation, and compression of the over-charged parts,
affording relief without the exhausting nervous action and reaction of
any form of sexual excitement. The pitiable subjects of this trouble in
its most aggravated form are always “between the devil and the deep
sea,” suffering, as they do, from constant local distress, heat, tension,
and pain, unable to divert their thoughts and attention from the one
dominant locality, constantly fighting off the propensity to self-relief,
until self-control fails, and then overburdened with pangs of conscience,
self-accusation, remorse, or self-abasement. No wonder that many
have willingly submitted to various surgical operations for extirpation
of the testicles, but such extreme measures are seldom to be thought of
except in cases of a tubercular or malignant (cancerous nature). The
extremely bad cases are fortunately not common ; but those of minor
degree of prostatic or vesicular irritation or weakness are nearly as
common as spermatorrhoea, and, indeed, those parts are the main seat
of the disease as referable to, or located in, the sexual organs. Nothing
short of the most skilful treatment by an experienced specialist can
overcome physical derangements of this character. Many affected
with these troubles prefer to consult a physician at a distance by letter
rather than present themselves in person, feeling more or less embarrass-
ment and extreme nervousness when applying in person for examina-
tion. All wishing to do so can consult the author of this work by mail
without fee and their letters will be treated with strictest confidence.
Satyriasis.
The title of this essay is the name used to designate a morbid ama-
tive passion in males. This disease, for such only can it be called, is
barely recognized by the medical profession, entirely ignored by the
legal fraternity, and any violent manifestation of it denounced as a
crime by the judiciary. While the intelligence of mankind has so far
advanced that many life insurance companies have Come to regard a
suicide as an insane person, whose death entitles his heir to the insur-
ance money, the law in many States of our Union inflicts the penalty of
death upon a man who, through the insanity induced by ungratified
amative passion, commits an act which is denounced as the crime of
rape. Women, more merciful, if she had power to make laws, would
probably consider the destruction of the sexual organs of the unfortu-
nate criminal as a penalty fully commensurate with the magnitude of
the offence. Indeed, we had an illustration of this in an orphan asylum
\
SATYRIASIS. 647
in this State thirty or forty years ago. A boy of ten years of age, who
was detected in an act of impropriety toward a little girl—also an in-
mate of the institution—was spared his life by the gracious matron,
who was satisfied with causing the destruction of the Offending
juvenile's genital organs by the application of that soothing emollient
Oil of vitriol I
It is perhaps a little difficult always to discriminate between wilful
perversity and “moral insanity,” but offences are sometimes committed
wherein the circumstances attending their perpetration plainly show
that the Offender was not of sane mind. When the wife of an affluent
and highly respected citizen, surrounded at home with every luxury
heart could desire, is so afflicted with a propensity to steal, that the
husband gives notice to the merchants to watch her and charge her
thefts to his account, the doctors and men of law pronounce the insane
peculiarity a disease which they call kleptomania. There are ever so
many manias, the victims to which should be placed where they can
do no harm to their stronger-minded and more fortunate neighbors,
but who do not deserve punishment as a penalty for crime. Orderly,
sound-minded people need protection from the unaccountable freaks of
those who are subject to some kind of mania ; but it seems to me no
mania is so injurious to the public peace as to deserve the extermina-
tion of those who are liable to its attacks.
Satyriasis is most unquestionably “moral insanity,” and is gener-
ally, not always, the result of sexual starvation. It is a noticeable fact
that abstinence from carnality on the part of woman generally leads to
partial or entire loss of amative desire, while the abstinence of a pas-
Sionate man, in most instances, aggravates his amative appetite and
drives him to madness. It will be found on investigation usually that
the perpetrator of rape has either been so isolated from the society of
females as to be sexually starved, or to have been fed on the husks of
harlotry till he is driven mad with desire for wholesome sexual gratifi-
cation. He is like the beggar who has been for a long time without
food, or else fed on the pickings from ash-barrels, until, finally, stand-
ing before the tempting window of the bakery he madly dashes his
hand through the pane for the coveted loaf.
Rape is a terrible offence to a pure woman, married or single ; but
morally and physically, unless the perpetrator be diseased, she receives
not much greater injury than if, under fright she had fallen on some-
thing which had inflicted a similar shock to nerve and physical tissues.
I say physically and morally, because I am aware that public sentiment
makes a good deal more of it. It is due to society that a man who has
thus given way to unbridled passion be placed where he cannot again
commit the offence; but it is murder to take his life with legal hemp
or to dispatch him with the bullet. He is an insane man. He should
648 PRIVATE WORDS FOR MEN.
be confined and put under mental and moral treatment and low diet.
There is better chance of making a good citizen of him than there is of
making an honest and peaceable man of a pickpocket or housebreaker.
Under the influence of honorable marriage he might become a worthy
citizen—a good husband—a kind father. The very act he has com-
mitted is not considered a crime in wedlock, although when committed
against the remonstrance of the wife it should be so I The law takes
no cognizance of legal rape
That I may be fully understood I will add a word or two by way
of qualification of the foregoing paragraph. A pickpocket or house-
breaker, or a shrewd swindler possesses traits of character which must
be actually eradicated to make him a good citizen ; his character must
undergo a radical change. The perpetrator of a rape may be a man
of genial disposition, of strict business integrity, but of such unconquer-
able passion as to outrage another for its gratification. His fault may
be overcome—his passions subdued or at least placed within his con-
trol by marriage. He consequently possesses no quality which must
be thoroughly rooted out, such as the reformer always encounters in
making a good man of an ordinary criminal, to fit him for honorable
and peaceful citizenship. There are more such cruel trespasses com-
mitted in matrimony in ten days than outside of it in ten years. And
yet wives have no legal redress.
The man conscious of having ungovernable passion and sincerely
wishing to reduce it to proper limits has remedies within his reach
which will in most cases enable him to maintain self-control. They are
—a plain vegetable or frugiverous diet ; avoidance of condiments and
stimulating drinks; the use of refrigerent medicines, such as epsom
Salts, Seidlitz powders, citrate of magnesia and mineral waters; a daily
ablution of the genital organs with hot water, followed with cider
vinegar freely applied with a sponge. The local baths should be hot
rather than cold, because when warm they produce a cooling reaction.
When this treatment proves insufficient, consult some sensible physician
who, if familiar with the management of satyriasis and the adaptation
of remedies to temperaments, will have little difficulty in affording the
desired relief. -
To conclude this essay, let me urge a change in public sentiment
in regard to this form of disease, in both sexes, which manifests itself in
ungovernable amative passion. It is invariably the result of derange-
ment of the procreative system or of sexual starvation. In either case
the offender deserves pity, and aid in reformation. In its most flagrant
manifestations it is without question necessary to confine the patient
until the mania subsides, and there is positive evidence of so complete
recovery and reformation that pardon and release will not imperil per-
sonal safety.
SEXUAL PERVERTS AND DEGENERATES. 649
Sexual Perverts and Degenerates.
Besides the satyrs just described, there are several other varieties
of abnormal specimens of humanity, some of whom are merely differ-
ent from other folks in their one fault of sexual aberration ; some un-
fortunately born, and of distinctly neurotic taint; some depraved by
vicious companionship in early youth ; and some on the verge of
paresis, and merely manifesting sexual abnormality as an early symptom
of a complete mental collapse—soon to come. This condition is com-
parable to drunkenness in the chance for difference of opinion as to
when it is evidence of disease—when of vice, and when of degeneracy.
Dr. B. Tarnowsky, of the Imperial Academy of Medicine, Russia, in
his book on the “Sexual Instinct,” writes: “The medical jurist sees
depravity, over-satiated lust, inveterate vice, wickedness, and so on,
where the clinical observer recognizes with certainty the symptoms of
a morbid condition and the necessity for methodical therapeutics.
* * * * The actual criminal and undoubted mad-man are two ex-
tremes, beside which are found a host of unrecognized sufferers and
vicious subjects burdened with an abnormal sexuality. * * * *
Just as children may be born with bodily deformities, a congenital
tendency may develop toward perverse modes of manifestation of the
genetic instinct.” This writer finds such unfortunates in families prone
to insanity, epilepsy, and drunkenness, or, among fairly good stock, if
the act of parentage occurs while one or the other parent is intoxicated
or suffering from syphilis, or severe illness, such as typhoid fever or
nervous exhaustion from any cause. Hereditary epilepsy is often found
in combination with abnormal sexual instincts, and such subjects have
been detected in the commission of acts too horrible to describe when
in a state of mind far removed from Sane and responsible consciousness.
If it be true, as statistics seem to prove, that insanity in general is on
the increase in highly civilized nations, it is no doubt equally true that
the special phases of insanity evidenced by sexual abnormality are
becoming more common. This is not the place to go into so large a
subject as the cause of the increase of such insanity, general or sexual,
and it is not a healthful or inspiring subject for some, of the most sane
mind, to study. Insanity seems to be in a measure catching (whether
by microbic or psychic contagion, no one knows), as shown by occa-
sional cases in which man and wife go daft with the same delusions;
and there is perhaps even greater risk of contagion by associating with
sexual perverts or dwelling upon reports of their peculiarities. This
evil, however, is one that is not abolished in proportion as it is ignored,
and the frequent offences that bring it before the eyes in daily police
reports show that it cannot be kept out of sight and out of mind, and
65o PRIVATE WORDS FOR MEN.
so some other treatment seems necessary. While considering what
might be written of it here, the daily press reports the arrest of a col-
lege Professor of high attainments and most respectable family for
peeping into the houses of other folks at night, and of an Italian fruit-
vender for slashing two women with a knife in the slums of New York.
The friends of the promising Professor discovered promptly that his
mind was unhinged by overwork, and he was sent to an asylum for
rest and treatment. The other coarser and more brutal fellow was
treated as a criminal in accord with his savage and dangerous deeds;
and yet the psychologist knows that the impelling motive in each case
was the same—a queer sort of perverted sexual desire—notwithstanding
the fact that one case was a very dangerous man to be abroad, and the
other only an insufferable nuisance. But the young freak who finds
Satisfaction at first in Salacious, sly glances at women’s undergarments,
or stealing them from the clothes-lines, may later develop a savage lust
that can only be satisfied by slashing women's clothing or their flesh.
The celebrated case of “Jack the Ripper” who, in a few years, disem-
bowelled over a dozen women in London, to gratify his morbid, lustful
cruelty, may have commenced his erratic career with some compara-
tively harmless mode of perverted self-indulgence. The worst fiends
of this class are generally beyond middle age. They are the product
of early morbid propensities that might have been controlled or
checked at the start by proper instruction and management.
“As THE TWIG IS BENT, THE TREE INCLINES.”
Dr. Havelock Ellis, in a book on “Sexual Inversion,” treating of
the freaks that exhibit impulses only toward their own sex, says that
“in most of them, the abnormal instinct began early in life, at puberty
or much earlier, and generally a congenital precocity of sexual activity
has been aggravated by masturbation before actual addiction to other
vice.” In the appendix to Dr. Ellis's book is a contribution by one
signing herself Dr. K., containing the following: “Perversions of
the sexual instinct, it is obvious, are especially liable to be acquired
among highly civilized nations, where the custom prevails of keeping
the young for as long a time as possible in extreme ignorance in regard
to everything appertaining to sexual relations, so that its instinct is left
to drift about at the mercy of circumstances, and is consequently
almost of necessity diverted from the normal channel. * * * * In
some cases where there is simply a strong predisposition to inversion,
or the premature development of the emotions, such tendencies should
be corrected; but all effort leading to this end must begin in childhood,
while the feelings and imagination are in a state of plasticity. * * *
That an instinct which has, during the period of plasticity, been habit-
ually gratified in some unnatural way, may be rendered utterly incapable
SEXUAL PERVERTS AND DEGENERATES. 651
thereafter of finding normal gratification, is well illustrated by the
following extract from ‘Darwin's Variations of Animals and Plants
IJnder Domestication '': ‘An animal when once accustomed to an un-
natural diet, which can be effected only during youth, dislikes its proper
food, as Spallanzini found to be the case with a pigeon which had long
been fed on meat.’ ” # * * The sexual instinct is not an acquired
instinct, but its modes of ea pression are acquired.” The neglected youth
in high civilization is apt to acquire one or more of the vicious modes.
Dr. Ellis is of the opinion that sexual vagaries, of whatever sort,
are not easily acquired except by those with some congenital bias or
twist. “Thus, in sexual inversion, we have what may be fairly called
a ‘sport' or variation, one of those organic aberrations which we see
in plants and animals. * * * * The sexual pervert may be roughly
compared to the congenital idiot, to the instinctive criminal, to the man
of genius” (off the normal type). “Strictly speaking,” remarks the
same writer, “the pervert is a degenerate ; he has fallen away from
the genus. * * * * The inverted impulse is sometimes considered
as obsession developing on a neurotic basis.”
DANGERS OF SCEIOOL-E, IFE.
Coming to causes, or more strictly the conditions that favor rather
than prevent the fixing and developing of such morbid impulses, Dr.
Ellis gives first place to our school system with its separation of boys and
girls. He finds “a large number who date the development of homo-
sexuality from the influences and examples of school life. * * * *
While much may be done by physiological hygiene and other means,
to prevent this evil in schools, it is impossible, even if it were desirable,
absolutely to repress the emotional manifestations of sex in either boys
or girls who have reached the age of puberty. The only way to ren-
der such manifestations wholesome, as well as prepare for the relation-
ships of later life, is to insure the adoption, so far as possible, of the
modes of co-education of the sexes.”
All of which leads us to carefully consider whether it may not
even be better to give unemasculated physiological education in infant
schools to mixed classes—whether, indeed, it would not be the sensible
thing to adopt co-education in the teaching of children in sexual physi-
Ology.
Other writers on this subject agree that boarding-schools and col-
leges are the main hot-beds for the planting of the seeds of early vice
and perversions, thus blighting the buds of humanity much as insects
spoil fruit by laying their eggs early in the opening buds, to make
wormy the core of the flower or the fruit. Nuts may be found so full
of worms, without a blemish or an orifice in the shell, that there is
not a trace left of the true kernel, The meat has been devoured, and
652 PRIVATE WORDS FOR MEN.
the worms fill the cavity—as many as five or six in a single nut. Some
young men come out of institutions of “higher education'' so worm-
eaten with various vices that there is no trace of wholesome true love
sentiment in their blighted mentality.
OTEIER SOURCES OF CONTAMINATION.
There are, however, other sources of contamination than the risks
of close companionship of school-life, and parents who wish to protect
children from them must bear in mind possible innate or congenital
depravity, and by watchful care
discover and guard against
home-brewed vices that may grow
out of over-feeding, local irrita-
tions, ignorance, or even mere
monkeyishness. Children may do
some queer things merely through
o imitativeness or from their pro-
§§§ pensity to over-activity, and to see
§ É what they can do; so they may
º * happen to make risky experiments
with the sexual organs as they do
with the nose or ears, when pok-
ing peas or pebbles into them.
That queer but immortal genius,
Rousseau, relates in his “Con-
fessions ° that his first sexual sen-
sations were experienced at eight
years of age, from a spanking in-
flicted by a woman teacher; but
she soon discovered his peculiar
enjoyment of such punishment, and wisely found some other way. One
curious class of perverts find satisfaction in severe castigation inflicted
by a woman. Parents who drift along unconsciously with the com-
fortable notion that their children are too innocent and nice and well-
behaved to be addicted to any vice, are often sadly deceived. The par-
ticularly nice, clean, studious, gentle, and well-mannered youth may be
a very knowing and secretly vicious one, especially needing watching
if he be a “Miss Nancy,” with great fondness for chums of his own
sex, and no attraction for the opposite sex. Furthermore, though it
seems a harsh thing to say, parents should not trust elderly persons of
the same or the other sex to have the sole care of, or sleep with, a child,
unless they have entire confidence in, and pretty intimate knowledge
of the person. It is a terribly unfortunate fact that many a seemingly
mice old gentleman or harmless old lady, long before exhibiting other
º
REV. RUDOLPH FOIT H.


SEXUAL PERVERTS AND DEGENERATES. 653
signs of senile dementia, may develop a preference for childish asso-
ciates, and a fondness for youth that goes beyond the bounds of decent
limitations. Many young persons have informed me that their initia-
tion into the mysteries of sex or to evil indulgences was by the seduc-
tions of someone old enough to be their grandfather. Indeed, some
very affable and highly cultured elderly gentlemen are the most dan-
gerous elements of any society, because, however often discovered in
their seductions, exposure is avoided for the sake of the future reputa-
tion of their youthful victims. As Tarnowsky says, these candidates for
senile dementia are most likely to be detected and arrested for some
public exhibition of themselves of-
fensive to decency. Then the court
officials are puzzled how to deal
with them, for the mental status
of weakmindedness or senility may
not be otherwise well marked ; and
yet the necessity for restraint is
evident. Tarnowsky says of them :
“While they appear to enjoy good
bodily health, are intellectually
highly gifted, possess experience,
knowledge, and means, they sat-
isfy their morbid instincts with the
utmost caution and patience, and
proceed methodically in the work
of depraving children.” Dr.
Charles E. Nammack, police sur-
geon of New York, with opportun-
ity for study of many cases that
never come to public notice,
writes: “Are these people
votaries of vice, or are they insane 7 If the latter, some lunatics
are filling positions of great responsibility and trust.” In perverts
of middle age, the extravagance and contamination of their vicious in-
fluence cannot often be excused by possibility of degenerate mental
capacity, and severe punishment has been inflicted on some of them.
The most notable case was that of Oscar Wilde, who paid a penalty of
two years at hard labor for seducing mere lads to his aid in satisfying
his very peculiar “aesthetic tastes.” If such “artists” were content to
seek out only their kind, possibly there would be some advantage to
society in letting the dead bury their dead, and hurry the prepara-
tion for burial unnoticed ; but most unfortunately they have a danger-
ous propensity for making new converts to their degraded cult of the
guilelessly young and unsophisticated. Because of this, there is really
*...* º
33Nº ŠS
%
:
i.
**d
OSCAR WILOE,

654 TRIVATE WORDS FOR MEN.
need of more repressive attention from the police and courts. Facts
given wide publicity by the Mazet Committee's witnesses justify the
last statement. As Dr. Nammack truly says: “Krafft-Ebing has de-
scribed nothing which cannot be duplicated here, if those are to be be-
lieved whose duty throws them in contact with vice.”
This matter was in type and about to be put in plate when a case
was reported remarkably confirming the need of the cautions above
given. The superintendent of the German Protestant Orphan Asylum,
of Cincinnati, Rev. Adolph Foith, was discovered as an arch fiend in
the art of seducing the little girls under his care, and he at once ended
his life with quick poison rather than face his accusers and the penal-
ties of conviction. He was a man nearly sixty years old, of fine ap-
pearance and very genteel and persuasive manners. The Cincinnati
Times-Star learned from the trustees that “he was a minister of the
gospel, of high learning, good breeding, excellent family, and appar-
ently every trait which could recommend him for the position,” and he
had held similar responsibilities in other institutions for ten years.
As children cannot be well brought up under glass, or without
associates of their own age, or caretakers or instructors—since they
must run the gauntlet of various dangers from unsuspected sources—
the only safe reliance of parents is to gain their full confidence and in-
struct them wisely and sufficiently concerning many matters hitherto
withheld from them, before there is a chance for their minds and man-
ners to be corrupted by evil associations; and this will be just as soon
as they exhibit any curiosity about such subjects. It is a great mis-
take to put them off until they get the idea that some things are too
private and shameful to speak of to their parents. Krafft-Ebing's
classical work on “Psychopathic Sexualis” relates case after case of all
sorts of perverts whose first wrong step was taken long before puberty,
and many spontaneously.
To treat the subjects of this chapter in a manner entirely satisfac-
tory to the writer would require another book of a thousand pages,
and, considering the prevalence of such vices and diseases and their
far-reaching influences, it might be fairly charged that they have been
too briefly handled here, except that they receive a good deal of fur-
ther consideration in Parts III. and IV. As there must be a limit to
the size of this work, the author would refer the unsatisfied reader for
further special information to several dime pamphlets of the Murray
Hill Publishing Company treating of the subjects of their respective
titles, viz.: “Spermatorrhoea,” “Phimosis,” “Varicocele,” and to
“Sexual Physiology for Children,” by the author of this work, which
retails at fifty cents. Furthermore, as intimated in other places, anyone
in need of special advice may freely consult the author in person or by
letter. See Chapter XII.
CHAPTER IX.
ITIPOTENCY.
HIS term may be properly applied to that
inactivity of the organ of amativeness, or
that interruption of its nervous or electrical
communication with the procreative organs,
which paralyzes the erectile tissues or mus-
cles of the latter. It is usually only used in
speaking of such difficulties among males.
But it is a physiological truth, promulgated
medical work which I have not had the pleasure of perus-
ing, that females as well as males are sometimes impotent.
W I know how the lexicographer defines the term, but I claim
*\ for it a more extended application than is usually conceded,
and the correctness of my position will be made plain in a
few paragraphs.
What is termed ‘‘ erectile tissue "seems to consist of loose elastic
tissue intimately interwoven with nerves, and divided into multitudi-
nous cells, into which, under excitement, blood is forced, filling or con-
gesting them to their utmost capacity. The penis and glans-penis of
the male, and the clitoris, nymphae, or internal labia, and a portion of
the vagina of the female, are largely composed of this tissue, and the
nerves in these parts being numerous, and in a healthy state sensitive,
a little titillation will give them prominence and turgidity. Or, if the
organ of amativeness becomes aroused without any such local titillation,
it precipitates such a supply of electrical stimuli upon the nerves of the
organs under its control, that they suddenly become erected. The ner-
vous forces so sent not only contract the muscles of the arteries adja-
cent to the erectile tissue, by which their blood is forced into the latter,
but the heat which the presence of the nervous stimuli creates, also
invites the pressure of blood. Every person who has ever immersed
his feet in hot water, has undoubtedly noticed how distended the veins
(i.55

656 IMPOTENCY,
of them become. This is not in consequence of the contact of the water
itself with the feet, but because the water imparts its heat to them,
while the blood is ever ready to congest any part of the system which
is unduly heated. Even the lips of the human face possess some of this
same erectile tissue, and any emotions of a pleasurable kind, and es-
pecially those of an amative or affectional nature, are likely to cause
them to pout and at the same time visibly augment the rich colgr of the
mucous membrane. Now, whether or not the external temperature of
the erectile tissue is heightened, so as to be perceptible, when the organ
of amativeness warms it up with its magnetic influence, certain it is, an
unusual degree of heat is present therein, and that there is every in-
centive given for the blood to occupy and distend it, as well by invita-
tion as by coercion.
But it is not by congestion of the erectile tissue alone that the
penis of the male and the clitoris, nymphae, etc., of the female become
erected under amative excitement. All of these organs are also pro-
vided with erectile muscles, which, when free from the presence of the
electrical excitation, are flabby and shrunken in size, and under excite-
ment, extended and rigid.
The Fallopian tubes of the female which carry the egg from the
ovaries to the uterus, not only seem to be spongy bodies, capable of
distention by congestion of blood in their cells, but, like the penis,
clitoris, and other erectile organs of both sexes, are also provided with
erectile muscular fibres. These tubes, commencing at the uterus and
terminating in a fringe-like protuberance called the fimbriae, in juxta-
position with the ovaries, are represented by T and P in Fig. 230.
During coition, if the female is not impotent, the Fallopian tubes are
erect, and at the climax of the act, the fimbriae grasp the ovaries. If
the egg or ovum is matured, it is sucked up by them and carried to
meet the spermatozoa of the male for impregnation. I know it is dis-
puted by some physiological writers that the fimbriae grasp the egg
under the influence of the sexual Orgasm, but their objections are
poorly supported, or I might better say, well refuted by facts.
Blundell says: “The vaginal canal during heat is never at rest;
it shortens, it lengthens, it changes continually in its circular dimen-
sions, and when irritated, especially, will Sometimes contract to one-
third its quiescent diameter. In addition to this, the vagina performs
another movement, which consists in the falling down, as it were, of
that part of the vagina which lies in the vicinity of the womb, so that
every now and then it lays itself out flatly over this orifice, as we
should apply the hand over the mouth in an attempt to stop it.” The
entrance to the vagina is also provided with a sphincter muscle, which,
in health, contracts so as to prevent, in a measure, the escape of the
seminal fluids injected therein. º
1MAY AFFECT EITHER SEX. 657
May Affect Either Sex.
Now, then, in my opinion, when the organ of amativeness is cut
off from proper electrical communication with the erectile tissue and
muscles, so that the erection and proper action of the procreative organs
are imperfect, the disease may be properly termed impotency, whether
the person so affected be female or male. The disease, whether it ex-
ists in one sex or the other, is identical in its nature and effects.
The fact that the organ of amativeness in the congress or parlia-
ment of the mental faculties, is the member who governs the amorous
impulses, that the organs of
generation act under its direc-
tion, and that it communi-
cates with the latter by the
nervous telegraph between
them, is illustrated in cases
where the cerebellum (the
part of the brain where ama-
tiveness resides) becomes dis-
eased or impaired by acci-
dent. I had, at one time, a
very respectable married
woman under my treatment, WOMB, OVARIES, FALLOPIAN TUBEs, ETC.
Whose cerebellum Was the U, uterus; c, cervix (neck and mouth); v,
seat of painful neuralgia, Vagina laid Open ; O, Ovary; t, Fallopian
and after the advent of this tubes; T, broad ligaments; l, round liga-
disease, she expressed the be- ments. On the left side the fimbrie Of the
lief that neither marriage nor tube are grasping the ovary, which happens
- when an OVum has ripened, and is ready to
sexual intercourse Was right, be carried to the womb. If this delicate
and it was with difficulty her adaptation of parts should never occur,
friends could prevent her from any cause, all ova are lost and the
Woman is sterile.
FIG. 230.
from separating from a kind
and devoted husband, to whom she had, previous to this attack, been
fondly attached. Pancoast mentions the case of a young officer who,
on the eve of marriage, received a “blow on the occiput (back of the
head) by falling from a horse. He became impotent without any other
derangement of his bodily or mental functions, and in his distress,
upon discovering his imperfection, committed suicide on the morning
fixed for the wedding.”
The various members of the body are, in health, under the control
of the congress of mental organs. If a mechanic wishes to build a
house, Mr. Constructiveness telegraphs to the hands and feet to pro-
ceed to execute the work. A congress of the Various organs convenes,

658 IMPOTENCY,
and Messrs. Causality, Comparison, Size, Ideality, etc., etc., all have a
voice in the matter. But Mr. Constructiveness is the “boss of the job.”
and sees that the work is done up “ship shape.” But if Mr. Construc-
tiveness is shut off from all communication with the hands and feet by
What is termed paralysis, then the hands cannot perform the work, and
Mr. C. might as well shut up shop until the telegraphic or nervous
Communication is opened, and he obtains control of the wires or nerves.
Now, amativeness and philoprogenitiveness have agents to do their
Work. But if telegraphic communication is cut off between the base
of the brain and the organs of procreation, impotency is the result.
Excessive study will sometimes so divert the nervous forces from
the base of the brain that entire disinclination for sexual intercourse
will ensue, to those who previously possessed much amative passion.
Here the intellectual organs consume all the brain nerve-force and
starve out amativeness. On the other hand, cases occur, in which both
men and women, by thinking too much of sexual matters, or from
some other cause, which inharmonizes the distribution of the nervous
forces among the mental facultics (so that the organ of amativeness is
unduly excited), become crazy in ungovernable desires for constant
gratification of their sexual instincts. This disease, when it affects
females, is called nymphomania; when it affects males, satyriasis.
Sometimes the erectile tissue and muscles of the procreative organs
are supplied at intervals with nervous or electrical stimuli from what is
called the inferior plexus, near the terminus of the spinal Column,
while all direct or instantaneous communication between them and the
organ of amativeness seems to have ceased. In these cases erections
will occur involuntarily or by titillation of the parts, but they gener-
ally become flabby and powerless in any attempt at copulation. Such
cases are not at all uncommon among males, for I have treated many
of this description, and it is probable the difficulty is quite as common
among females, although I have not had so many cases from among the
latter, nor does it prevent them from indulging in a spiritless union
with the opposite sex.
Impotency in either sex does not necessarily produce barrenness.
If the testicles of the male secrete semen, containing healthy Sperma-
tozoa, and the ovaries of the female produce completely formed Ova or
eggs, then they are not in the strict signification of the term barren.
In fact, impotent women do in many cases conceive by the Spermatozoa
being injected into the mouth of the womb, and there finding a ma-
tured egg which, if not taken up by the fimbriae of the Fallopian tubes
during coition, may have entered and descended one of the tubes a
short time before.
The organ of philoprogenitiveness is often active when the organ
of amativeness is powerless, and the difficulty in the way of the impo-
1MENTAL AS WELL AS PHYSICAL CAUSES. 659
tent man, if he has healthy spermatozoa, lies in his inability to pene-
trate the female organs. Still, under a local excitation of the parts,
if taken advantage of, the act may be accomplished. In some cases,
amativeness may even be active, and the person may have the strongest
desire for sexual intercourse without the ability to perform the act
satisfactorily. When this is the case, amativeness is sufficiently stimu-
lated by the nervous forces in the brain, but either the nervous com-
munication between it and the sexual organs, or else the nerves in the
sexual organs themselves, are paralyzed or partly so.
The causes of impotency are as numerous as those which produce
nervous inharmony of any kind. Perhaps the most common are :
intemperance in the use of stimulating foods and drinks, masturbation,
and sexual excess. Among women, sedentary habits may be the most
frequent cause. Their muscular systems become relaxed, and their
nervous systems disordered for want of pure air and out-of-door exer-
CISC,
Tiental as Well as Physical Causes.
The conditions necessary to a full and satisfactory accomplishment
of the generative act are so numerous and so complicated that there may
be many causes of failure. The erectile function is dependent upon
the mental as well as upon the physical state, and upon the co-operation
of both. Of course the first essential in either sex is integrity of the
parts. A few unfortunate individuals are born with deficiency or mal-
formation, and some are very slow to reach full development. Such
persons are more or less asexual, so-called, and, fortunately for them,
they are often as much so mentally as physically, having no inclination
for marriage. In many ways they are likely to be “not like other
folks,” but they do not miss their loss in the way of suffering for any
unsatisfied call of Nature. When there is merely malformation or par-
tial incapacity, those coincidences of lack of ability and of desire may
not occur. Now and then a physician may find a man in whom “the
parts are all there,” while the desire is lacking; and this state of affairs
is far more common in women. I shall not here explain why sexual
apathy is so much more common in women than in men; but in either
sex it is of course a sufficient cause of impotency, as well as a predis-
posing factor in incapacitating a partner in marriage.
One of my peculiar cases was a young man of good family and
fair health, but lacking in magnetic vigor and vim ; who had lived
continent until twenty-five years old, never having any disposition to
act otherwise, and then he “made a good match” with a lady acquaint-
ance (Note: I do not say lady-love), who was acceptable to his relatives
as well as to himself. It was all proper, no doubt, as well as conveni.
66O 1MPOTENCY,
ent and agreeable; but there was lacking the real passionate attraction
that brings animals of all sorts (including mankind) to mate. Thére
was no “sparking,” and not enough fire or intensity on either side to
get up a spark. They essayed to consummate the marriage in the
proper way, but for three months it was a dismal failure, and even
when he could gain sufficient erection, they lacked the instinctive action
necessary to complete the orgasm. Both were anxious for a child, in
part because it was “the proper thing,” and expected of them by their
families and friends. Therefore, my advice was sought. They had
had singing and dancing lessons, and were well educated in the genteel
accomplishments, as well as schooling; nevertheless they lacked the in-
stinct as well as the knowledge of how to complete the act of parent-
hood; but they were instructed, and he was treated, by methods that suf-
ficed to arouse the dormant propensities with which most men at least
are too liberally supplied. Eventually the platonically longed-for child
arrived, and I trust “they were happy ever after.”
The state of apathy arising from sluggish Sexual development or
enforced continence is far less common than that due to exhaustion of
the brain sex-centres by early vices or perversion. The vain attempt
to keep young folks ignorant of all sexual relations results in a variety
of early vices or perversions which, in course of time, and because of
the lasting power of early impressions, establishes a state of abnormality
of the sexual nervous system, so that erection and Orgasm respond only
to unnatural stimuli and not to the normal relations of sexual inter-
course. In short, such persons are impotent for the marital congress,
and it is only by constant self-reformatory effort and prolonged medical
attention that they can be switched off the old tracks of abnormal
indulgence and made capable of the natural. Many sufferers from
various forms of sexual disease who try marriage as a cure, find that
they have made a serious mistake, and that if not entirely impotent,
they are far short of being fit for matrimony. Even when this is tried
in the early stages of spermatorrhoea with no seeming lack of erectile
vigor, it may be discovered that there is actual incapacity because of
premature loss, or lack of ability to obtain an erection when wanted.
The state of the mind has much to do with sexual potency. All
through the animal kingdom both males and females are acted upon
by what are called “secondary sexual characteristics,” which become
most prominent and attractive during certain seasons. These appeal to
all the senses—sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. Standard books
by Darwin and other scientists present wonderful facts, in an interest-
ing way, showing how Nature conspires to trick the sexes into physical
union for reproduction. In mankind there are not only many such
secondary influences, but also more subtle psychical attractions that
might be called “tertiary, ” and these count for more with women than
MENTAL AS WELL AS PHYSICAL CAUSES.
66 I
with men.
Bulls, stallions, and the males of many other animals, will
hardly refuse any opportunity, but cows, mares, and female birds cer-
tainly exhibit preferences and refuse the services of some males.
men are impotent with some women, and entirely
potent with others. Some might be powerless
with any but the right one, and this is much
more the fact with women. The “cause why ’’
of a woman's preferences may be inexplicable
to any one else, and perhaps she could not
always explain it confidentially to herself, but
some “tertiary’ attribute of the right man,
some psychic power or spell, will arouse in her
desires and the potency of response which would
lie dormant to all others; and this is well when
we consider how much the mind of the mother
has to do with the formation of the physical and
mental character of the child in utero-life during
some seven or nine months that it is nested under
the pulsations of her beating heart and the in-
fluence of her active brain. Hence the impor-
tance of a man taking in marriage a woman who
really loves him ; one who is intensely and be-
witchingly attached to him ; and not one who is
merely looking for support, or what is called a
good catch 1 The apathetic wife may in time
paralyze the potency of the husband, and cer-
tainly will impair the sexual vigor. On the
other hand, men should remember the sensitive-
ness of women, and that they may be repelled by
an unclean (tobacco) mouth, an unpleasant (alco-
holic) breath, soiled hands, or a careless word or
jest or reproach, so that just as the tide of desire
is arising in response to favorable conditions, it
may be turned back by an unpleasant sight,
odor, or act, or slighting word.
Apathy in other cases may be due to mental
preoccupation, inattention, worry, fear, or other
emotion, inconsistent with the mental status of
the passion of love. A man may be so taken up
Some
FIG. 231.
FRONT WIEW OF PEN IS.
A, the glans-penis, the
corrugated lines indi-
cating the appearance
of the erectile tissue
under the microscope ;
B, orifice of the ure-
thra ; C, the foreskin ;
D, the great vein ; E E,
nerves ; F F, arteries ;
G. G., CaVernous bodies
in the penis ; H, ure-
thra ; I I, the erector
muscles.
with business or study that he cannot drop it from his thoughts, and
a woman may be so overwhelmed with no end of worries as to never
be in the right mood for responding to the husband's desires; but per-
haps the most common worry of women, that practically paralyzes the
“imperious impulse,” is the fear of pregnancy when the married pair
W

662 - IMPOTENCY.
have any reason, justifiable or otherwise, for dreading it. Many a wife
would be far more satisfactory, indeed, normally responsive, except
for this dread that drowns desire.
Imaginary Impotency.
Many men suffer from a sort of imaginary impotency or a self-im-
posed phobia or fear that they may fail. It matters not that the fear is
imaginary. Unless dispelled, it will operate as surely as any real
cause. No man is likely to succeed in anything that he fears he cannot
do ; and this act is especially disturbed by doubt, because the emotion
of passionate love can hardly manifest itself when any depressing emo-
tion dominates the mind. In some instances, it is the “conscience that
makes cowards of us all,” that acts as a damper, but even when the
conditions are favorable, including the legal and moral sanctions, mere
timidity or bashfulness, inexperience, or the novelty of the situation,
may suffice to incapacitate a man who is in no ordinary sense impotent.
It often happens that the first failure under such circumstances so
aggravates the lack of self-confidence as to lead to further failure and
establish a state of chronic fear with mental depression, that constitutes
a true psychic or imaginary impotency. Such doubt or fear may have
for its base the consciousness of an unwholesome past record, or self-
inflicted injury even after all symptoms of physical fault or sexual dis-
ease may have been relieved by skilful treatment. It is in such cases
that the encouraging advice of an experienced physician, even if con-
sisting only of the methods of “mental science,” or “faith cure,” can
aid wonderfully to reassure the unfortunate patient, and cure his
psychic impotence. Merely adopting an “expectant” attitude, and
waiting for the spirit to move, is good advice in general for such cases
as these. *
It is further true, as before remarked, that the most potent men
may be impotent with some women, and incurably so; but, except for
“marriages of convenience,” or for money, it is not at all probable that
such incompatibles would marry, as the familiarities of courtship en-
able the parties to judge of their magnetic adaptability. It is no small
objection to marriages arranged wholly by letter-writing, often begun
through advertisement, that this method enables the correspondents to
judge only of mental compatibility, without giving them any chance in
advance to test physical attraction or magnetic adaptation, both of
which are necessary to harmony and happiness. Even where all neces-
sary adaptation exists at the outset, it may disappear with changes of
time, and true lovers grow away from each other ; but the less the
original fitness the greater the liability to early dissatisfaction and dis-
sociation,
PHYSICAL CAUSES. 663
Dr. Hammond has told of a curious case that illustrates the need
in some cases of having just the right mental impressions in order to
feel at home. He was consulted by a gentleman who found himself
impotent, much to his surprise, just after moving into a new house.
At the Doctor's suggestion he replaced his new furniture with the same
old bedstead, chairs, pictures, and belongings of the old homestead,
and soon found that “Richard was himself again.” Piece by piece he
was able to substitute the new furniture for the old, and thus he suc-
ceeded at last in retaining his manhood while enjoying the new fur-
nishings appropriate to his new house. It was in fact a gradual re-edu-
Cation of his senses to feeling at home in his new surroundings.
Men who, having been addicted to some error of youth, and doubt-
ing their sexual capacity, go forth to make experiments with unfamiliar
women where they are likely to feel like a “cat in a strange garret,”
may learn from the foregoing case that they are not giving themselves
a fair test, and should not condemn themselves as unfit for marital
intercourse simply because of failure under such a test. In fact, many
men are of too fine mental calibre and too good mental instincts to suc-
ceed with any one, anywhere, at any time. A much more reliable,
fitting, safe, and in all respects, advisable test, is to go courting the
right one, and judge of the potency by the reaction, during the usual
affectional demonstrations of such events. • -
Physical Causes.
Thus far I have considered mainly those causes operating to impair
the normal desire for intercourse—the psychical side of the problems
of impotency—and of these only a mere outline has been presented ;
but there is another equally important class of cases in which physical
weakness is the basic cause, and this may be mainly from a low general
condition, as in constitutional diseases, or from local impairment of the
sexual organs themselves from diseases directly affecting them.
- In acute diseases, when the powers of Nature are employed in the
effort to combat them, it is a conservative factor, to be acquiesced in, if
sexual desire and power are temporarily suspended, and in some forms
of chronic or Wasting disease impotency may be regarded as one of the
symptoms. There are several such diseases in which it is unwise to
attempt to stimulate the return of potency any faster than it can be re-
established by means calculated to relieve the main disease. Impotency
may be an accompaniment of general paresis, locomotor ataxia, anaemia,
diabetes, Bright's disease, and lead-poisoning. In such cases, to treat
for impotency and ignore the real disease may be very unfortunate.
Opium habitues and inveterate users of tobacco may lose their sexual
power from the d pressing effects of these drugs upon the sexual sys-
tem, and excessive use of beer may put either a temporary or permanent
664 - IMPOTENCY.
quietus on desire or capacity. A lady who, through being addicted to
opium, had become apathetic, resolutely gave up this habit for the
greater love of her husband, being advised by the writer that this was
her only hope of becoming again normal, and she was rewarded in ac-
cord with her highest anticipations. Tobacco-smokers have been often
similarly advised with equally happy results, though after some years
of the depressing influence of such drugs on the sexual nerve-centres,
there is often required a few months’ treatment by means of antidotal
medicines to aid in restoring nerve-sensibility and power of complete
control.
On the day of revising this chapter I received a renewal order for
treatment of a case who had discharged himself as cured ten months
previously, and whose cure would have been permanent had he been
content to let tobacco alone. He was a locomotive engineer, thirty-five
years of age, and needing good nerve in his work. When he placed
himself in my care he weighed only 137 pounds, was melancholy, unfit
for his work, and almost impotent. After four months (he had quit
tea, coffee, liquors, and tobacco) he was well, happy, and robust, and
weighed 157 pounds. Against my urgent advice he gradually re-
sumed the use of tobacco, and now he is needing treatment again
for the former symptoms and an irritable, irregular heart. I cite this
as only one of hundreds of cases I could bring forward to prove beyond
doubt the power of tobacco to depress sexual vigor. I find its use to
'be one of the commonest causes of impotency, and am accustomed to
say to those consultants who seek relief, that they will have to decide
between their love of tobacco and their love for wife, and if they will
not discard the former, I cannot hope to restore them to the possibility
of the latter. If anyone—some woman for instance—is inclined to
urge that most men are too active in this propensity, and that the use
of tobacco to tone them down is one of Nature's wise provisions, I have
nothing to say just here as to whether tobacco is a Godsend for the
purpose, but I do state its tendency and power, so men can take their
choice knowingly.
Tobacco has, of course, a depressing effect in the long run on the
whole nervous system, but in some cases it seems to have an affinity for
special parts or ganglia of the nervous system, and without doing much
evident harm in general, it may do great damage to erectile vigor, as I
have shown by argument and illustration on page 179.
Among the more direct or local causes of impairment of sexual
power are a few unavoidable ones; mumps is one of the honest or
innocently acquired diseases which may so injure the testes as to favor
impotency, and varicocele, in its exaggerated forms, has the same
effect. The wearing of trusses, if not so carefully adjusted as to avoid
injurious pressure, may predispose to impotency. Horseback-riding
PHYSICAL CAUSES. 665
and cycling, where the saddles are such as make hurtful impact on the
soft parts in the seat may cause deep bruising of important sexual parts,
and so predispose them to impotency.
The most common and really avoidable causes of the local kind,
are abuse, excess, and venereal diseases. It is impossible to apportion
their responsibility, and in most cases of impotency more than One
cause has been at work—often many. I have at hand an editorial
clipped from the Medical News attributing five-sixths of all cases to the
deep urethral strictures and inflammation that follow in the wake of
gonorrhoea. Another recent author, Dr. Scott, offers an illustration
showing a dozen different kinds - FIG. 232.
of “itis” or inflammatory affec-
tions of the genito-urinary Or-
gans, that result from gonor-
rhoea, and after reading his long
article on its ravages, one might
conclude that man was punished
enough for all the sins he could
commit, if he ever had the mis-
fortune to pick up this infection.
Syphilis is the other bad disease
that affords no end of trouble
for its victim, and impotency is
found to be prominent on the
list. The man who is reckless
enough to load up with both
gonorrhoea and syphilis is pretty
sure to find himself “between
the devil and the deep blue sea,”
with a mess of mean complica-
tions ; and if Nature TIS6S im- CAUSE OF IMPOTENCY MAY BE FOUND BIERE.
potency to prevent transmission of the tainted blood, even he ought to
see some good in it.
Enough has been said in other chapters of this work concerning
the evils of masturbation, but it deserves brief mention here as one of
the most certain causes of impotency, especially if begun early and
continued long. Excesses in natural function come to the same result,
and there are various modifications of normal intercourse each claiming
the same penalty. Withdrawal or onanism is one of them. There are
several injurious methods for the prevention of conception resorted to
by men, as well as by women, which tend to greatly weaken, if not de-
stroy the vigor of the reproductive organs. As, however, the subject
of contraceptics will be treated quite at length in Part IV., I will refer
the reader to what is presented there by way of criticism of the various

666 IMPOTENCY.
plans employed for this purpose. In “Private Words to Women,” I
have also alluded to some of them. Suffice it here to say that ignor-
ance, Crass ignorance, is responsible for most of the sexual sins of
humanity, and it may be added, it will never be dispelled until men
and Women can be thoroughly instructed in all that relates to the or-
gans of reproduction—the most important organs in the physical organ-
ism. The entire world is groping in darkness in matters sexual, and
the masses are mainly driven by blind passion instead of being guided
by the light of intelligence in the indulgence of one of the strongest
appetites that sways human motive and action. Even our medical
literature—not that alone intended for the people, but that provided by
the Faculty for medical students—is sadly deficient in this field—shall
I say of knowledge 7 Nay, but speculation and guess-work; and the
conscientious inquirer knows not where to appeal for safe guidance
When about to take upon himself the responsibilities of matrimony and
Wise parentage. In our medical associations, which should be robust
enough to listen to all papers upon the subject that are prepared by
well-meaning and able minds, valuable suggestions and discoveries are
often thrown aside in deference to prevailing false modesty, and
treatises of great value are not allowed to appear in the published
transactions of such societies where, if anywhere, they should not only
be tolerated, but their presentation encouraged. Unless this condition
of things be remedied, we can never have anything in literature worthy
the name of Sexual Physiology. There is nothing in literature to-day
worthy of that name, nor that approaches it, unless it be this volume,
and it does not contain one-half of that which the author knows, or
thinks he knows, upon the subject. If medical bodies in convention
could openly exchange views, report the results of personal observa-
tions, and make suggestions based upon their own experiences, the
world would rapidly become wiser and better, and the public at large
would enjoy a far greater degree of health and happiness. At least
people would stand some chance of being born right.
Besides many injurious methods of limiting the size of families
and other causes of impotency to which the attention of the reader has
been called, there is one more common mistake that is responsible for
many a case of sudden sexual bankruptcy, and that is the too frequent
repetition of the sexual act. The nerve-centres are like storage-batter-
ies that run automobile carriages, and it is said of them that careless
operators can run out the power in a very short time by mismanage-
ment. Frequent repetitions of coition are equally sure to run out or
exhaust the sexual nerve-ganglia or cells where, normally, time
enough should be allowed for a full recharge before another call is
made upon them. Foolish fellows have been known to break the bank
in a night, and to become almost if not entirely impotent by eight or
PHYSICAL CAUSES. 667
ten repetitions attempted either on a silly wager or to beat some other
fellow’s record ' Nature's prompt penalty for such spendthrifts is one
in which “the punishment fits the crime,” or would if the victim of
such folly had received proper instruction from his youth up.
We have seen that the mechanism of erection requires the Co-Oper-
ation of muscles, blood-vessels, and nerves ; but the greatest Of these
is the nervous system, with its nervous-ganglia in the brain, spinal
cord, and pelvis, and its terminal filaments in the sensitive parts of the
organs themselves. Cutting certain nerves invariably causes impotency,
and there are many ways in which the normal relations of the nerves
and ganglia can be severed temporarily or paralyzed for awhile, or
for all time by disease. So the diagnosis of the cause of any case of
impotency and the selection of most appropriate treatment offers a
problem which generally needs for its solution all the knowledge and
experience that the best posted medical man can summon to his aid.
He may sometimes think best to advise that Nature has wisely put a
quietus on sexual activity, and that impotency cannot or should not be
treated until more important diseases affecting one's hold on life itself
shall have been checked or cured. In this connection it may be said
that it is indeed wonderful how little practical information can be ob-
tained by the laity from the average practitioner upon this subject.
In most cases they seem to have learned little by their professional
experience in regard to sexual diseases, while the text-books are too
often deficient in the information desired by a sufferer from them.
From what has been presented herein regarding the origination
of amorous impulses and forces in the brain, and what will be said in
the next chapter, of the nature of bankruptcy of the nerve-centres, it
will be readily understood that impotency is almost invariably a psychic
or nervous disease, and that erectile power is no more to be expected
when the sexual nerve-centres are “played out ’’ or the lines down,
than a trolley-car could be made to run if the dynamos at the power-
house stopped or a break occurred in the wires.
Treatment, to be successful, must rest, restore, feed, recharge, and
revitalize the storage-batteries in the brain and spinal column, and re-
establish the normal current of the nerve-force circulation, so that sen-
sation-impulses shall be transmitted to the sexual nerve-centres, and
muscular-power impulses be sent to the erectile muscles. All laboring
under any of the derangements spoken of in this chapter who do not
find the full information they desire in these pages, are at liberty to call
on or address the author, and advice will be freely given without fee
for such consultation.
CHAPTER X.
AFFECTIONS OF THE NERVES, BLOOD, AND SKIN.
AVING already occupied a greater amount
of space than was originally assigned to Part
II., I propose to present, as briefly as possible,
under the above heading, a few essays on
diseases of too frequent occurrence and of
too much importance to pass over in silence.
In Part I. attention has been given to the
“Causes of Nervous Derangements and
l |
§ :* Blood Impurities,” but under the above chosen cap.
º tion I wish to treat of a class of maladies which the
\" most unlearned reader would naturally associate with
derangements of the nervous system, or with blood im-
purities, or with affections of the skin.
It may be thought by some that I have given undue prominence
and unnecessary length to my treatise on the procreative organs and
their various affections, and that a portion of the space occupied by
that might have been more profitably used in the consideration of the
pathology and treatment of other organs. If so, from this hypothesis
I must dissent, for the reason that the affections alluded to are found
to exist as troublesome complications in nearly every case of chronic
malady which comes under the care of a physician. It is pleasant to
know that this rule, like most others, has its cxceptions; and all those
who are fortunate enough to belong to this class must bring their
observation, rather than their experience, to bear in judging of the cor-
rectness of my statement.
Furthermore, it is possible in very many Cascs of chronic diseases
to trace them back through various stages, or lines of cause and effect,
to the originating cause in some injury inflicted on or through the re-
productive system by mismanagement or abuse of its function. It
would, of course, be going too far * attempt to assign this as the basic

AFFECTIONS OF THE NERVES.
669
cause of all insidious chronic diseases, but
having just left the consideration of these
very prevalent diseases of the sexual system, \ \
and being about to describe the most common \ º
and allied diseases, including their causes N
and relations to each other, it is convenient Šºš-zº
to pass to our new subject over the broad s ſº
natural bridge by which so many are found >6 ) # , ºº
travelling from the former domain to the y
latter. This is now known as neurasthenia, 4.
the nature of which will be given in the
proper place.
Affections of the Nerves.
It may be some time since the reader began the first chapter
of this book, and probably he will be helped to understand what
follows in this place by refreshing his memory with what the
opening chapter tells of the brain, spinal cord, and nerves. One
must understand something of their normal operations in order
to get any idea of what happens when anything goes Wrong
with them. The brain was called the capitol, or headquarters
of the combined human organism, and the nerve-cords connect-
ing the brain with all other parts were compared to telegraph
wires sending messages to and from the capitol. The head, when
*t is level, controls all below, regulates all vital functions, the
movements of heart and lungs, and co-ordinates or harmonizes
all, either automatically or through exercise of intelligence and
will, but there may be, in disordered states of the brain, not only
impairment of mind and will, but also of the automatic nerve-
regulators, so that important functions, for lack of proper stimu-
lus and control, become irregular, as when the heart palpitates,
or muscles twitch involuntarily. Even the sensory nerves, those
ubiquitous reporters who stand as sentinels at millions of points
in the surface of the skin, may begin to send in “fake,” or
“sensational ‘’ news and inform the brain
that insects are crawling on the skin, or
water trickling on it, pins pricking it or
needles stabbing deeply, when in fact there
is no such state of the case. Sometimes it is
not the outer sentinels who are responsible
for false alarms, but the receiving operators
in the central office are either misinterpreting
despatches, or creating them out of their own
imagination, as it were. Let us, then, look NEURON AND NERVE-BULBs.


670 AFFECTIONS OF THE NERVES, BLOOD, AND SKIN.
after these responsible officials at headquarters and find out what is
wrong with them when there are signs of local or general disturbance
in the human nervous organism.
Investigators in what is called minute or microscopic anatomy long
ago ferreted out the units or cells of the nervous system, and found
the gray or ash-colored brain-substance to be made up of countless
microscopic “ cells,” connected together by innumerable “processes,”
lines, cords, or wires, in comparison with which even a spider's thread
would be larger than any bridge-cable ever constructed ; but it is only
since 1890 that they have discovered and been able to describe just
what difference there is between a nerve-cell in its healthful and un-
healthful states. This is an interesting achievement of modern re-
search, and its main facts will be now presented as briefly and clearly
as possible.
The elements or units of the nervous system are now called neurons,
and as that is an easy word to speak and write, the name may as well
be made popular as well as technical. The neuron consists of the
nerve-cell and its branches. The cell, or body, part, is of various
forms. It consists of protoplasm, or soft, egg-like substance, with a
part more condensed than the rest, and called its nucleus, but it has one
or more branches, which spread out and divide like the roots of a tree,
to connect the neurons with each other and with the nerve-cords or
wire that extend to all parts of the body. Our Fig. 233 exhibits one
neuron with its branches, and pictures one leading away to a sense-
testing nerve bulb located, may be, in the tip of the finger. The bulb
is the “transmitter’ of an impression, and the neuron the “receiver.”
If the news be important the neuron informs other “operators,” whose
business it is to know, and perhaps the result is the neuron becomes
the “transmitter’ of a command or telegram along another nerve-cord
to a “receiver” nerve-plate in a muscle that responds by an action that
jerks the finger-tip away—if, for instance, it has come in contact with
a lighted match or sharp tool. The neurons are then operators whose
function it is to receive impressions from all the special senses, interpret
or arrange them, distribute the news as does an “American Press As-
sociation ” to all its subscribers, and lastly to act promptly, even auto-
matically, or deliberately, which means that many neurons confer in
what we call unconscious cerebration before any one of them is author.
ized to issue an order for action. This brief outline of nerve-anatomy
and action is but a mere glimpse at the Wonderfully complex functions
by which we feel, think, and act, and is only preparatory to showing
what happens to the neurons when they become ill, and make us feel,
think, and act abnormally.
AFFECTIONS OF THE NERVES, 671
NEURASTHENIA.
This word, of comparatively new coinage, was not employed by
physicians when the first editions of this work were published, and yet
has come within the last fifteen years into such common use that one
may frequently find it in ordinary literature, taking the place of the
old familiar phrase of nervous debility. It is a new name rather than
a new disease that confronts us; but it has come to stay, and we accept
it as a name that is employed wisely and well to cover a large range of
nervous symptoms which may occur without any actual lesion or per-
manent destructive change in nerve-tissue, such as occurs in organic
nervous diseases. Neurasthenia simply means nerves without strength.
Those who have read the brief summary of constitutional symptoms of
spermatorrhoea on page 632, have already a fair idea of what consti-
tutes neurasthenia, but, when combined with spermatorrhoea, it is better
called sexual neurasthenia. As a similar train of symptoms may arise
from other causes, and be indicated by some other special name, it may
be well thus early to emphasize the fact that neurasthenia in general is
not invariably due to the exhausting effects of spermatorrhoea, since
over-work, or worry, sudden shock or extreme grief, as well as acute
fevers or other exhausting disease, may afford the foundation for it ;
but, remembering also how common neurasthenic symptoms are among
women as a result of uterine or ovarian irritations, it is fair to Say that
at least three-fourths, if not more, of all cases of neurasthenia may be
properly prefixed with the qualifying adjective indicating sexual origin.
It is further true, that even those cases of neurasthenia not developing
out of disease of the sexual system are liable in time to be attended
with symptoms of irritability of the genito-urinary organs, such as fre-
quent urination, involuntary Seminal losses, impotency, or, in women,
with local pains, menstrual disorders, and other evidences of irritation
of the womb or ovaries.
While, therefore, we must recognize cases of neurasthenia aside
from sexual diseases, based often on brain-fag, nervous shock, eye-
strain, dyspepsia, etc., the fact is that it is most commonly associated
with more or less symptoms of sexual disorder, and it is in this respect
that the subject has received most attention from physicians. The late
Dr. George M. Beard, who awakened a deep interest in it by a series of
articles written about the year 1879, was probably the first among old-
school physicians of this country to recognize and urgently advocate
that involuntary seminal losses may be pathological—the basis of serious
disease—a field in medical literature which I had occupied for a period
of over twenty years previously. There are some good reasons to sus-
pect that he had been an interested reader of my publications. From
the predominance of nervous symptoms, and perhaps from some indis.
672 AFFECTIONS OF THE NERVES, BLOOD, AND SKIN.
position to regard spermatorrhoea alone as 'a disease, but rather as a
Symptom, he was accustomed to write of it as sexual neurasthenia.
Though he did not go so far as to consider involuntary losses in all
cases as evidence of disease, he forcibly combated the disposition so
Common among his associates to regard them as of no consequence, even
When followed by such complaints as headache, languor, nervousness,
and general or local pains. He said: “It is the common belief that
patients suffering from this form of disease magnify—create symptoms
Which really never existed. This belief,” he adds, “is an erroneous
one ; there are more persons who overlook many of their symptoms,
forget them, or regard them simply as signs of health, than of those
Who create symptoms that do not exist, or over-estimate their impor-
tance.” He further described many who drag along, never knowing
what real health is, handicapped unnecessarily by a variety of trouble-
Some symptoms which, though for awhile permitting a fair amount
of activity of mind and body, in time lead to serious or incurable con-
ditions.
BURNING THE CANDLE AT BOTH ENDS.
Almost enough has been said of the causes and symptoms of neu-
rasthenia, a disease which is said to be more common in the United
States than in foreign countries. Some think our climate induces an
over-excitable state of the nerves, by which they wear themselves out
prematurely, but whatever the stimulus to drive, hurry, cram, jam,
haste, and waste, certain it is that we are a nation of energetic, ambi-
tious hustlers, making heavy calls on “nerve” in the every-day affairs
of life. So we hear much on all sides of confession of over-work, too
close application to business, etc., etc., and yet, to some who lend the
ear in the medical confessional, the doubt often arises whether all this
could not be pretty well borne if it were not for the added strain of
over-play, the “early indiscretions,” and late night-hours dissipated in
amusement, and the insatiable appetite for emotional excitement. Too
much of a good thing is good for nothing, whether work or fun ; no
doubt some exhaust themselves, and bring on premature old age of the
nervous system by over-work alone, others by dissipation, but the
lively, all-round man of the world, who devotes himself assiduously to
work, and also indulges in all that's going on in the way of so-called
fun, is burning the candle at both ends too literally, in consuming his
nerve-forces at both top and bottom of the spinal column as well as
along its whole course. Neurasthenia is the warning signal of danger
for such reckless men, but if, by plentiful use of narcotics and anaes.
thetisers, such as alcohol, tobacco, and opiates, they still the cry of the
nervous system, its disorganization, or utter break-down in paresis or
AFFECTIONS OF THE NERVES. 673
general paralysis is one of the ways that Nature has of settling her
account with them.
Records of Ward's Island Insane Asylum, from 1885 to 1895, show
that one-third of all the cases that terminate fatally are of paresis, at
ages from twenty-two to seventy-nine. Neurasthenia may lead,
through impairment of the action of the vital organs, to break-down
and death by almost any of the wasting diseases, or render its victim
easy prey for some infectious disease or epidemic, but the transition
from nerve-exhaustion to paresis is a direct, if imperceptible, change
from a functional and curable to an organic, incurable form of nervous
disease, and affords a good opportunity to study the difference between
the two in their nature, or what doctors call their pathology.
It would be an endless story to tell all the queer mental and ner-
vous symptoms complained of by neurasthenic sufferers; but here is a
list of those most frequently occurring, whether real or imaginary,
reported by cases of neurasthenia of whatever origin, in men and
women. It is seldom that one sufferer presents all—at least, not all at
one time—though in the course of this variable disease, with dropping
out of one symptom and creeping in of another, even one neurasthenic
may run through the list ; perhaps, more accurately, the list runs
through him. Some of the most dominant, though not invariable symp-
toms, are debility, weakness, disinclination for effort, mental or physical,
and a sense of incapacity, with loss of memory, mental depression,
and abject hopelessness. Perhaps more distressing than the debility
are the symptoms of irritability, mental or nervous, such as fretfulness,
restlessness, peevishness, “groutiness,” tremors of muscles, jerking of
limbs, twitching of eye-balls or lids, itching or formication (a feeling
as though insects were creeping on the skin), chilly feelings, hot
flashes, or Sweating in parts or all over, wakefulness in hours for sleep,
and drowsiness during the day. Still other symptoms are aching eyes,
blurring of sight, inability to use the eyes long, ringing sounds in the
ears, palpitation of the heart, catching pains there, poor circulation,
cold extremities, a Sense of fulness or oppression in the head, aches on
the top or back of the head, a feeling as though the brain were “in a
vice,” dizziness, vertigo, explosions in back of head, pains all down the
spine, dull backache, heat in Small of back, shooting pains and neural-
gia in any part of the body. One having all these is surely deserving
of pity. He is a wreck, but not, perhaps, a hopeless one.
Some neurasthenics are of fair exterior, or present the outward
aspects of health, and exhibit their nervous weakness only in spots, or
under special circumstances that arouse or depress them. Some seem
especially to lack nerve-balance and self-control, and have periods of
excitement as though a storm swept through the emotional nerve-
centº. Many are easily influenced, either to laughter or weeping, to
674 AFFECTIONS OF THE NERVES, BLOOD, AND SKIN.
sympathy or anger, through inability to hold the passions in check.
Advice to sufferers from neurasthenia will be presented later.
HYPOCEIONDRIA.
In those cases where hypochondria exists, Dr. Beard regarded it
very properly as a symptom—just like sweating of the hands, backaches,
dizziness, tremors, palpitation, or cold hands and feet—a result of the
exhausted state of the brain, which, like other symptoms, disappears
with improvement in general nerve-tone. Opposing the too common
and slip-shod way of shirking attention to obstinate subjective symp-
toms by dubbing them “only hypo’’ (hypochondria), he said: “In
the majority of cases of hypochondria there is some real and demon-
strable disease as the basis of the mental trouble which can be found if
we but look closely into the condition of every organ ; the term hypo-
chondria being quite often a cover for Our lack of thoroughness in ex-
amination. Very rarely do I find a case of morbid fear of disease
where the kidneys, liver, stomach, and the prostatic urethra are in
health.” In fact he found, as all physicians will, who look deep
enough, the cause of hypochondria where the ancients did who happily
named it, that is, under the lower border of the ribs—in the abdominal
regions—in conditions that send either reflex nervous influences, or op-
pressing poisons in the blood, to the brain.
In hypochondria there is, as part of the disease, a tendency of the
victims to magnify their ailments, but it and they have, at bottom, a true
foundation in disordered vital functions, which may, by due attention,
be cleared up, or, by neglect, be permitted to develop a form of insanity
called melancholia. Hypochondria is therefore one phase, or symptom,
of that lowered state of the nervous system which we call neurasthenia,
'but it is only one of many peculiar fears which the affected mind con-
jures up. One suffering from hypochondria may dread to meet other
persons, especially strangers, sometimes even friends, and for short we
say he has anthropophobia ; another may dread to be alone, mono-
phobia, while others become subject to curious, fortunately rare, fears
of particular places or acts. For treatment look a little farther on.
HYSTERIA.
An attack of hysteria, with exhibition of hilarity, excitement, and
convulsions, may not at first thought seem to indicate a lowered state
of the nerve-forces, but it is, in fact, the result of an irritable and ex-
plosive state of the emotional and lower nerve-centres, with lack of
power and control in the higher. It is, like hypochondria, a phase of
neurasthenia, and not liable to occur in a well-ordered, well-nourished,
and well-toned nervous system. It is often associated with sexual ner-
vous irritations, arising from diseases peculiar to women, and takes its
}

AFFECTIONS OF THE NERVES, 675
name from the womb (Greek, hystera), but it occurs also in men, and
more often in boys, from disturbances arising in sexual neurasthenia,
and it may occur either in men or women from a neurasthenic state not
dependent upon sexual disease. Hysteria is, however, far more com-
mon among women than men, while the reverse is true of hypochondria.
Often the description of some one case in the patient's own way
gives a better idea of a disease than mere general statement of the
symptoms. While writing this there comes to hand a letter from a
Woman who is placing herself under treatment for a severe and typical
form of neurasthenia, bordering on hysteria, brought on or precipitated
by an attack of La Grippe about four months previous, though evi-
dently the final collapse was invited by causes dating back even to
childhood, as well as five years of working nine hours a day, with no
time for dinner, as a telegraphic operator. Besides being melancholy,
She is sometimes overcome, when about to go to sleep, by a sort of
frightful paralysis of body and mind. “Now, when I begin to feel
that way, I sit up and it passes off. My sleep is restless—dream all
night long ; have not had a good night's rest in five years; have had
to give up my position on this account, as my nerves were too unstrung
for work. Am always drowsy, sleepy, good-for-nothing during the
day. Hands and feet always cold and moist. Headaches every day—
sometimes so severe I fear it will affect my mind; half of my head
aches, but a constant pain in back of head near the neck; also very
dizzy at times, and rush of blood to the head when the least bit excited ;
heavy, oppressed feeling, expecting all the time something terrible to
happen. * * * Chronic catarrh. * * * Palpitation of the heart,
seems to flutter, then stop, and I get short of breath. * * * Indi-
gestion, I feel hungry after a hearty meal, and have a sense of trem-
bling and faintness in stomach ; bowels constipated. * * * I feel
very weak, nervous, and trembly all over, and sore, as though I had
been beaten with a club, and sometimes it seems as though the life was
gradually dying out; it commences in my wrists, or pulses, and they
get weaker and weaker, my sight becomes dim, and my face turns very
pale—I have completely fainted away in such spells.” She has no
doubt given a very accurate account of her condition in spite of her
distressing mental hebetude, and such are the symptoms, with infinite
variety, and no end of new combinations and individual peculiarities,
which can all be cleared up by raising the tone of the nervous system,
as a fog clears with the rising sun.
TREATMENT FOR NEURASTHENIA, HYPOCHONDRIA, AND HYSTERIA.
Let it first be understood that the function carried on by Mr.
Neuron makes him tired, uses him up, so to speak, and tends to unfit
him for business. This is compensated for by his power to recuperate,
676 AFFECTIONS OF THE NERVES, BLooD, AND SKIN.
to recoup his substance from the blood, and “pull himself together
again ;” but if he is held down to long hours in business, “rushed,”
or “rattled,” he misses food and sleep, and shows signs of exhaustion.
How does he appear then * The observers who have caught him in
this predicament under the microscope say that this is how the neuras.
thenic neuron looks: “There is a gradual diminution in the size of
the cell, a lessened power to absorb staining substances (dyes which
color some particles more than the rest), that may be regarded as evi.
dence of imperfect power of nutrition; vacuolation (open-like spaces),
which may be taken as proof of the using up of its own substance, and
alteration in the nucleus (the “heart’ of him), which is decreased in
size, and changes from a smooth and rounded to a jagged and irregular
outline. As the cell gradually alters in its structure by constant
work, it becomes more and more exhausted, so that finally there comes
a time when it is no longer capable of sending out impulses, and re-
Quires a period of rest to make up what it has lost of form and sub-
stance, and to regain a store of energy. * * * These results have
been reached by stimulating cells to work in living animals either by
electricity, or by keeping up movements, such as running, or by ex-
posing one cye to light while the other was kept dark, and then con-
trasting the appearance of the cells made to work with those which
were kept at rest. It is evident, then, that we can now study the
exact mechanical and chemical effects of nervous activity. When a
stimulated cell is allowed to rest, it gradually resumes its original appear-
ance ; but the period of rest must be adequate.”
Almost everyone who reads this description of a “played-out”
neuron will be likely to see many points to remind him that “that's
just how I feel myself when I’m used up,” and therefore not be inclined
to doubt the truth of the observation. It may be of use to him if he
will take pity on the countless millions of neurons which constitute his
nervous system, and remember that it is when many of them feel
gaunt, vacuous, and jagged, that “he knows how it is himself”—a
phrase which, though common, needs no apology, since it fits so well.
How does Mr. Neuron recuperate 2 His means of “bracing up "
are much like our own, but his success in the attempt depends on what
we do for him. The ‘’’ oread and butter question ” is with him, as with
us, the one of first importance. He lives on what he feeds on, and
takes the best he can get. Anatomists say “there is no part, every
cell of which is so constantly bathed in the vital fluid, as the neuron.”
To cut off his supply means paralysis for him, and for at least some
part of the man he belongs to. It is a rather remarkable fact, though,
of course, a very conservative factor in human economy, that when
a man is compelled to starve, and live by self-consumption, the nerve.
substance of his body is the last to be called upon to give itself up “to
AFFECTIONS OF THE NERVES. 677
keep the pot a-boiling,” the fires up, and life's forces at Work. It is,
indeed, for the good of the whole organism that the nerve-man has the
nerve to preserve himself till the last hope of food is gone ; but, toward
the end, Mr. Neuron, too, literally caves in. Though he long shrinks
from yielding, yet at last he shrinks indeed, and wastes to a mere skele-
ton of a nucleus—so far gone that, if at this late day food comes to the
rescue, it is many weeks before he can be made to look like himself
again. The lower the state of nervous exhaustion, the slower the recuper-
ation. Another fact to bear in mind is that Mr. Neuron is particular,
and wants good nourishing food, and is easily irritated by foul, impure
things. Neuralgia has been well defined as the cry of the neuron for
better blood. So even when the body as a whole is in a fair state of
fulness, there may be hungry and unsatisfied neurons that have not
had their fill of what they need, because the blood did not bring it to
them ; or there may be neurons that sicken and wilt from the stupefy-
ing effects of poisons circulating in the blood, as in cases of acute fevers,
syphilitic infections, and chronic autotoxaemia, where the system is
charged with its own excremental waste matters when they are not
being eliminated fast enough. The man who is bilious, jaundiced,
diabetic, rheumatic, or uraemic, is sensible of the fact that all his neu-
rons are depressed, under a cloud, or in some state of Self-blood poison-
ing. The neurons may be irritated to such a degree of irrepressible
excitement as to develop explosive storms made evident by epileptic
fits, or attacks of acute mania.
The subject of autotoxaemia, or how, why, and when a man
becomes ill in many ways through accumulation and retention of blood-
poisons produced within himself, thus accounting for a large range of
chronic diseases, is very thoroughly treated, and made plain for the
average reader, in a pamphlet entitled “Autotoxaemia—self-blood
poisoning,” by Dr. E. B. Foote, Jr., and those who wish to know more
of the subject than we can tell here will find much of interest in that
monograph. (See catalogue of Murray Hill Publishing Company.)
It makes little difference as to the appearance presented by Mr.
Neuron whether he has been abused, over-worked, ill-fed, or poisoned.
In any event, he becomes shrunken, pale, haggard, vacuolated, and in
function inattentive, irregular, careless, unreliable. Shakespeare said:
“O that men should put an enemy in their mouths, to steal away their
lorains !” The effect was evident, but the almost omniscient poet
didn’t know, as we do now, how alcohol acts directly on a man's neu-
rons to steaI away their power. Andriezen has discovered that when
a man “gets a jag on,” the neurons become “jagged ” too. The first
effect is to cause softening and swelling of the neuron's branches, and
next the substance of the neuron itself becomes disintegrated and
vacuolated—“channelled and tunnelled by holes and seams of liquefac-
678 AFFECTIONS OF THE NERVES, BLOOD, AND SKIN.
tion.” Along with these discoverable alterations of substance go the
noticeable symptoms of drunkenness, the weakened faculties of atten-
tion, memory, and will, and the loss of muscular power and steady
control. “If this destructive process has gone on beyond the power
of regeneration, the disease progresses to chronic alcoholic dementia.
If, however, regeneration is possible, recovery ensues.” Repeated
assaults in this manner upon the integrity of the neuron cause gradually
diminished power of recuperation, and what began as a vice becomes
fixed as a disease. Either periodical sprees or steady immoderate drink-
ing may bring on permanent changes in the structure of the neurons,
impairing all mental and bodily function, will-power, “nerve” and
muscular strength, and so knock out the finest specimens of brute
humanity, as shown by the early decline, downfall, and premature
death of many celebrated champions of the prize ring.
Enowing now what the neurons look like, the wonders they can
do in health, how they wilt when abused, and recuperate when they
have a chance, we get a fair idea of the physical or tissue-difference
between a state of healthy nerve-tone, a functional nervous disease, and
an organic one. In health the neuron is well-fed, not overworked, and
has fair hours of rest ; when it is abused, overworked, or under-fed,
or poisoned (it would be impossible to say from which of these evils it
suffers most), it becomes lean, hungry, gaunt, haggard, “soft,” weak,
and incapable of steady attention to business, and the possessor of such
neurons becomes neurasthenic, or has functional nervous disease, man-
ifested by symptoms of debility and irritability; but until the neurons
have become utterly exhausted, degenerated, and wasted, they may be
enabled to revive, and the disease be cured. When they become soft
beyond repair, or hardened by another process of degeneration called
sclerosis, the nervous system is the subject of an Organic, incurable
disease, more or less serious according to location and extent of the
“lesion.”
The well known disease brought on from Softening is general pa-
resis, a prostration of both mental and bodily powers, which renders,
the subject a candidate for some insane asylum, where most of them
vegetate to the end—sometimes in a long-drawn-out period of useless-
ness necessitating much care. Probably the most common cause of
this degenerative disease is the state of mal-nutrition of the neurons,
due to blood-poisoning by syphilis, through its destructive effect on
the blood-vessels.
There are several other causes which operate through the circu-
latory system to rob the neurons of blood-supply, and thus bring on
apoplexy, and various forms of localized paralysis, affecting half the
body or less. Small arteries in the brain may become so thinned or
“varicose.” as to burst, and others may become blockaded by plugs of
TARALYTIC AFFECTIONS. 679
clotted blood. If these obstructions can be removed by absorption
before the neurons in their field of blood-supply become too far starved
to death or softened, such an “organic nervous disease” may be cura-
ble,
It would hardly be possible to present in a book for popular read-
ing the means of deciding between functional and organic nervous
diseases, or between curable and incurable nervous affections, for, as
we have just shown, all organic diseases are not incurable, neither are
all (seemingly) functional diseases curable ; but in a general way it may
be said that while most of the symptoms of neurasthenia may belong
to organic diseases, none of them necessarily indicate it, and the impor-
tant thing for all sufferers from nervous symptoms to remember is that
they must not let their neurons run so far on the down grade of mal-
nutrition as to become softened beyond repair, and that the nearer they
go to the line of degenerative change, the more difficult and tedious
will be the task of restoring them to the normal state. They who
would save their life must lose it—that is, the mode of life which has
seemed good, but proved to be destructive—and rigorously or relig-
iously adopt such means as strict hygienic living ; avoidance of all in-
tense excitement, worry, overwork, or idleness; moderate systematic
exercise, short of the fatigue point ; regular and long hours of rest ;
plain, nutritious fare, and plenty of it, and an appropriate course of
treatment by electricity, baths, or medication that will enrich the blood,
renourish and revitalize the neurons, and reorganize all vital functions
on a harmonious basis. (See page 75l.)
Paralytic Affections.
There will probably be no better opportunity or appropriate place
than this to give a brief description of the most common and serious ner-
vous diseases. General Paresis, or general paralysis of the insane, has been
mentioned, and its mode of origin explained as due to a breaking down
from malnutrition and exhaustion of the nerve-elements—brain-soften-
ing, as it is shortly stated and commonly expressed. It is not at all
easy to judge by the symptoms in any case just when it passes from
being One of mere neurasthenia to one of general paresis—i.e., when the
process of actual softening beyond repair has begun, when the line of
degeneration is passed, beyond which there is no turning back. It is
like the passing of day into night when the sun is behind the clouds.
The recognized symptoms of this disease are mental failure, loss of
memory and concentration of thought, flighty notions, extravagance of
the imagination, false ideas of wealth, ability, and power, “crankiness,”
restlessness, sleeplessness, progressive weakening of muscular power
and control, with irregular drunken gait, thickness of speech, and un-
68O AFFECTIONS OF THE NERVES, BLOOD, AND SKIN.
equal size of the pupils. The weakness gradually becomes utter paraly-
sis, and the mental state degenerates to imbecility. This comes about
in from one to ten years. Most of such cascs, becoming well defined,
are fit subjects for asylum treatment, as epileptic and maniacal attacks
are apt to be occasional occurrences. Paralysis is the name applied to
cases in which there is loss of power in some part, owing to loss of ner-
vous control. There is often also a loss of sensation, or ability to feel
a touch or injury of the paralyzed part. When due to apoplexy, already
explained as an injury to nerve-centres resulting from a rupture of a
weak blood-vessel, and the pressure of an oozed clot of blood, the paraly-
sis is likely to affect only one side of the body, including the arm and
leg of the same side, and that is called hemiplegia, but when the lesion
or accident has occurred in the spinal cord, as from “breaking the back,”
or the growth of a tumor, the loss of power is in the lower half of the
body and the legs, and the arms are seldom involved—this is called
paraplegia. A sensation as of a girdle around the body often helps to
locate the site of the injury in the spine. Of course the curability or
prognosis in cases of paralysis depends mainly on the nature of the
lesion, and what may be done to repair the damage. The apoplectic
kind is most often cleared up in course of time by the absorption of the
blood-clot, and the main danger to fear and provide against is the repe-
tition of such attacks. While paralysis of this origin is truly enough a
nervous disease, it is not primarily such, and the treatment needs to be
directed mainly to the blood and circulatory system, since it is weak
spots in the smaller arteries which are the Source of danger (from rupt-
ure), and the probable cause of such erosions of the arteries is a bad
quality of the blood favoring either malnutrition or a slowly corroding
inflammation.
TACIAL PARALYSIS.
Facial Paralysis occurs on one side of the face in the region of the
nerve that controls its muscles, and is usually due to pressure on the
nerve where it passes through a narrow, bony canal. “Catching cold.”
may cause a swelling along this nerve, and there would be room to ac-
commodate it almost anywhere clse, but it gets itself pinched by swell-
ing, and then that side of the face “falls,” becomes lifeless, expression-
less, powerless. The eyelid cannot be closed to wink, or the mouth
puckered to whistle. Most such cases clear up in a couple of months,
especially if proper local and constitutional treatment be employed. It
is one of the many manifestations of the rheumatic state of the blood.
Locally, hot water applications, massage, and electricity are the favorite
remedies, but daily hand rubbings with my Magnetic Ointment is the
best local treatment I have to propose for most such cases,
EPILEPSY. 68 I
SHARING PALSY.
Paralysis Agitans, or shaking palsy, is an affection of advanced age,
in which there are occasional or constant tremors (trembling) of the
hands and feet, and maybe rigidity of the muscles, impairment of Walk-
ing, loss of equilibrium, and cramp-like pains. The head and neck, if
free from tremors, may become rigid or fixed in a forward position.
There is difficulty in talking, and maybe in swallowing. The mental
state is one of restlessness and irritability, and gradual failure. It is a
disease of slow progress, and the possibility of arresting it depends, of
course, on the age of the patient, and the general state of bodily Vigor.
LOCOMOTOR ATAXY.
Locomotor Ataxy is a disease located in the spinal cord, an atrophy
of nerve-fibres, and fatty degeneration, impairing the nerve-muscular
control and sensation in the lower limbs. Its most noticeable objective
symptom is the “ataxic gait,” which is unsteady by jerks, with a pecul-
iar prance or kick, but the worst subjective symptoms are the stabbing
or shooting neuralgic pains. The limbs are anaesthetic—slow to sense
a prick—heavy and numb. Such symptoms may later affect the arms
and hands also. The eyes are liable to be “crossed,” or to double vis-
ion and other disturbances. Among the early symptoms which lead us
to suspect this disease are difficulty in going down-stairs, or in standing
still with the eyes closed, especially on one foot. The patient does not
sense the ground properly, and feels as though “walking on air.” On
rising to walk he hesitates a moment, to get well balanced for a start,
and when well started he cannot promptly stop. Rheumatic pains,
shifting, coming or going suddenly, or fixed in one spot for hours, often
precede the more certain diagnostic signs. The causes are various, in-
cluding exposure, fatigue, all forms of dissipation, and especially sexual
excess and venereal disease (syphilitic). Excepting when the disease is
due to “the bad disease,” there is no specific treatment, but it can often
be arrested by diligent enforcement of general measures for improving
all vital functions, and providing a good, clear, and rich quality of
blood, and the same may be said of all paralytic affections spoken of
under the one general head.
Epilepsy.
IEpilepsy (fits, or falling sickness) is one of the most common of the
serious and obstinate nervous diseases, and yet it is generally supposed
to be functional, or, if there be some change from the normal state of
the nerve-cells (neurons), it has not yet been discovered except in those
cases of epilepsy directly following injury to the skull, or coverings of
the ſain In an epileptic person these nerve-centres are peculiarly
238, * * ** --- -
682 AFFECTIONS OF THE NERVES, BLOOD, AND SKIN.
“touchy,” irritable, and predisposed to volcanic eruption of nervous
energy, whereby the whole body is thrown into spasms, and conscious-
ness is lost for a time. Just why these neurons are ready to “go off
half-cocked ” on slight provocation is not understood, but the fact is
well settled that some persons “are born that way,” with an unfortu-
nate inheritance of a nervous system which may be said to be in a con-
stant state of unstable equilibrium. This does not mean that the parent
of an epileptic by heredity must have had the disease, but if one of
the parents had not some marked disorder of the nervous system, then
the lack of proper adaptation in marriage was such as to transmit an un-
stable nervous organism. Ireland, in “Mental Affections of Children,”
tells us that “general causes assigned to epilepsy are much the
same as those for idiocy. That the malady is frequently transmitted
by heredity is clearly proved by Dr. Féré.” He observes that “when
the marriages of epileptics have an average fecundity, scarcely one-fifth
of the children are healthy. Epilepsy seems to be propagated more
directly than are other neuropathic diseases. This is what is called
similar heredity. Eccheverria found that out of a total of five hundred
and seventy-two epileptics, thirty-nine per cent. had an hereditary taint
received directly from the parents. In many cases epilepsy appears in
the collateral lines, and sometimes passes over the son or daughter to
affect the grandchild. Sometimes, on the other hand, the neurosis takes
another form, such as idiocy, insanity, hysteria, hemicrania ; or the epi-
lepsy is combined with these affections. Perhaps as many as one-fourth
of all idiots are epileptics, or have fits now and then. Drunkenness in
the parents is found to be a common cause. Eccheverria found it in
seventeen per cent. of his cases, but Wildermuth in less than two per
cent. Excess in alcohol may originate epilepsy or bring it back after
the disease seems to be cured. The craving for intoxicants may itself
be an inherited disease, apt to propagate its like or Some other form of
neuropathy. Epilepsy is occasionally caused by injuries to the head or
by cerebral tumors. Brown-Séquard has proved by experiment that
guinea-pigs may be rendered epileptic by lesions of the sciatic nerve or
of the spinal cord, and that this epileptic proclivity was transmitted to
their descendants, and Luciani has observed the hereditary transmission
of epilepsy in animals in which the disease was provoked by irritative
lesions of the brain.”
When the nervous system is thus susceptible to spasmodic action,
it is “set off" in epileptic attacks by slight provocation, as by emotional
excitement, some indigestible substance in the intestines, or a little ex-
cess of some autotoxic impurity in the blood. Dr. Brown-Séquard
wrote that “Sympathetic Epilepsy is frequently due to an irritation of
the sexual organs, especially brought on by masturbation. In Anglo-
Saxon countries, where children are less watched and warned against the
EPILEPSY. - 683
dangers of that fatal habit than in other civilized countries, epilepsy
due to that cause is particularly frequent.” He showed also that in
Hasse's record of a thousand epileptics, 364 of them were found to be be-
tween ten and twenty years of age. If, when the nervous system is prone
to epileptic seizures the individual could be so carefully guarded through
the tender period of youth as to avoid unnecessary sources of irritation,
very likely when reaching adult age the propensity would have been
outgrown—the dangerous period passed ; but the susceptible nervous
system, together with some abnormal and continuous aggravation of
its infirmity, leads to the establishment of a confirmed form of epilepsy,
and one that will yield only to prolonged and careful treatment.
In considering the aggravating causes of epilepsy, it is difficult to
decide whether to lay the greater blame on irritations originating in the
sexual organs or the digestive organs. At all ages, but especially in
unguarded youth, the chance of evil from both sources is unfortunately
very great. During infancy it often takes but little belly-ache to give
rise to convulsions in children who do not really belong to the epileptic
class, and as boys and girls are brought up to gourmandize on meats
and sweets, and partake of everything set on the table, there is abun-
dant source of irritation for their nervous systems in the almost per-
petual disturbance going on in their stomachs, so that, wherever there
is a tendency to epileptic disease, it is pretty sure to be stimulated into
activity, either through ignorant or reckless abuse of the digestive and
generative functions.
A general epileptic attack usually exhibits these symptoms: pale-
ness, loss of consciousness, a cry, general spasms, a fall, biting of
tongue and lips, congestion and redness of face, short, difficult breath-
ing, frothing at the mouth, perspiration, relaxation of spasms, stupor,
sleep, and, on waking, headache and fatigue. In the mildest cases,
called petit-mal (little sickness), there is only a momentary lapse of
consciousness, and spasm of a few muscles of the face or neck.
Whether great or small, the attacks recur periodically, often with
some regularity, from ten a day to one in ten years. Some such cases
have premonitory or warning symptoms, in form of queer sensations,
irascible temper, cold hands or feet, or some optical illusion, occurring a
few hours or seconds before an attack. Epileptics generally have
other evidence of poor health, and no doubt the nervous system suffers
from every new attack. In time memory fails, and other mental facul-
ties are impaired. Excitability of temper, depression of spirits, and
even symptoms of insanity develop in some of these cases.
In the treatment of epilepsy little can be done during an attack
except to guard the subject against self-inflicted injury. After an
attack he should be turned on his side and the tongue drawn forward,
so as not to obstruct breathing while he is permitted to “sleep it off.”
684 AFFECTIONS OF THE NERVES, BLOOD, AND SKIN.
The curative treatment demands that the general health should be at-
tended to all round : the nerve-centres nourished, the blood made rich
and pure, all sources of irritation removed, especially from the mind,
the digestive and the sexual organs, and lastly, not firstly, as most cases
are treated, a sedative compound may be used to subdue the over-excit-
ability of the nervous system, and so stave off its explosions. The bro-
mides, though much abused for this purpose, are still indispensable,
but their utility, and especially their harmless application, requires good
judgment in selection and combination, with an eye to the objects first
stated in speaking of treatment. The writer has found simplicity and
abstemiousness in diet, and a preference for a vegetarian bill of fare,
very conducive to success, and will be pleased to give free advice to all
sufferers from this annoying and inconvenient malady.
The Question of Functional or Organic Disease.
In contrasting functional or organic diseases we have been accus-
tomed to think of the former as presenting no discoverable change in
the actual structure of parts, while in the latter there is evident change
or loss of substance; but the latest facts in regard to the changes ob-
served in neurons coincident with neurasthenia, which have been above
described, favor the idea that there is not likely to be disordered func-
tion without some physical basis, whether we are smart enough to dis-
cover it or not. We find it difficult in all problems of life to draw hard
and fast lines, and make definitions that will always stand. It is not
easy in all cases to distinguish living from non-living matter, plant
from animal, vital force from the other forces operating on or in mat-
ter, health from disease, or even life from death. The bounds of true
functional disease are likely to be narrowed. We can easily see the
changes in a lung destroyed by phthisis, and know that it is organic,
while in asthma the lung-tissue may show no deviation from normal,
however much the breathing may be interfered with, and, so far as the
lungs are concerned, the disease may be entirely functional, but if we
could find a way to see into the neurons in control of respiration, very
likely we should find some change in the “operators,” or in the wires
by which they confer and send out their messages. This would apply
as well to a large number of functional diseases of vital organs, by tra-
cing the trouble first to the nerve-centres (neurons) that control their
action, and then assuming some flaw in their relative neurons.
Having shown how these neurons are subject to abnormal condi-
tions, and how these may develop into the most serious forms of ner-
vous disease, the next business in hand is to show the relationship between
the disorders of the nervous system and the more common constitutional
diseases and localized chronic ailments, but to do this it is now necessary
QUESTION OF FUNCTIONAL OR ORGANIC DISEASE. 685
to explain another important function of the nervous system which, up
to this time, has been purposely left almost out of sight, in Order to bring
it out in the strongest light when most needed. It may be well intro-
duced with a little story.
In a case before a coroner's jury of a man killed by accident, whom,
for the sake of argument, we assume to have been a rare specimen, “in
perfect health,” a juror asked the coroner, a German doctor whom
some folks regarded as somewhat eccentric, whether the organs had
been, in the post-mortem examination, found to be in a healthy state.
The coroner replied : “No I the man was dead,” and some who heard
the story didn’t know whether “the laugh was on ” the coroner or the
juror, but the coroner was, in fact, telling a great truth, and one which
it is well to remember. Any organ, to be in a healthy state, must be
operating—alive. The body of the man, and all
his parts, may have been without a flaw in struct- FIG. 234.
wre or substance, if he were killed by a shock
from a trolley-wire, but he was dead, and, with-
out the spark of life, the organs, being function-
less, were not healthy. Health implies life and
action, as well as wholeness of parts, and if one
organ be “all there,” but not “up to duty,”
there is ill-health, disorder, and disease. The
great function of the nervous system, aside from NEURON .
its relating us to the outer world—adapting us to From a ganglion of the
our environment—is its business of administering Sympathetic nervous
System, in its capsule,
with its “processes”
cut a Way.
the affairs of the body itself in all its parts. It
stimulates, regulates, controls, and harmonizes a
great variety of processes which we call vital
functions because vitally necessary to maintenance of life and health.
If, because of any sleepy neurons, or break in the wires, this adminis-
tration fails, there is lack of proper adjustment of the affairs of life,
and proportionate illness.
Though the brain is, as already said, the capitol and referee and
main storage and distributing reservoir for the supply of nerve-energy,
there are many sub-treasuries and minor administrative officers scat-
tered through the chest and abdomen in what are called the ganglia
(masses) of “the sympathetic nervous system,” one of the largest being
the “solar plexus,” situated “at the pit of the stomach,” or where a
man may be easily “knocked out,” if you hit him “where he lives.”
It is well shown in Fig. 156, on page 465, and in the second colored
plate, where the intimate relations of the sympathetic ganglia and the
spinal cord are shown in the white cords that join them, but the most
direct connection between the brain and the vital nerve-centres is by
means of two pneumogastric (chest-stomach) nerves, which afford not

686 AFFECTIONS OF THE NERVES, BLOOD, AND SRIN.
Only a steady flow of energizing nerve-influence to the vital organs, but
exert also a controlling or restraining action, as though holding the
rein over them as well as the whip. Evidently this is a great business
with “a beautiful system,” but the story of its far-reaching influence
is not yet half told. It has only been traced as far as the vital organs
themselves, for controlling their operations, even to the number of heart-
beats per minute, but now we must follow the nerves along the routes
of the blood-vessels in what is called “the vaso-motor system,” because
they regulate the size of the blood-vessels, and so the blood-supply of
every part, but they go farther still, even to the elementary cell or fibre,
to influence its nutrition
as well as its operation.
It is through some disturb-
ance of this finely adjusted
patent lever regulator of
Our watch-works that the
face blushes or pales, the
mouth becomes dry, or
the eyes moist from emo-
tion ; and when extreme
shock occurs to headquar-
ters, whether from physi-
cal or mental cause, it is
through this endless chain
of nerve-work that all
blood - circulation a n d
Other business of the cor-
poration may be brought
A CASE OF HEMIATROPHY, to an end in fatal syncope.
Or wasting of the tissues of one side of the face, In tracing the nerve-
from nervous disease.
ITIG. 235.
influence down to this
microscopically fine point—the ultimate elementary cell of every tissue
—and finding even its nutrition dependent upon the constant galvanic
current of vital nervo-electricity, the way is made easy to understand how
every failure of function or wasting of substance from malnutrition may
result from a fault in the administration and supply office—the nervous
system—and it will be a local or general disease according to the num-
ber of neurons that wilt and become inattentive to business. Other
chapters of this book have traced heart, lung, dyspeptic, and liver de-
rangements to nerve-failure. Though written many years ago, they
stand the test of scientific study as well as professional experience; but
since we have come to understand the greatness of the fact of the de-
pendence for nutrition of every bodily cell upon its supply of nerve-
stimulus, what wonder that there is a disposition to bring more and

SCROFULA. 687
more all wasting diseases into the category of nervous diseases, and
how reasonably will be herein shown.
This influence of the nervous system is called trophic, from a Greek
root meaning to nurse or feed, and if the body-tissues cannot feed and
reconstruct themselves from the blood so generously distributed within
their reach, without being coaxed to do so by some nerve-influence,
then that is well named trophic or mother-nurse influence. There are
well-recognized nervous diseases in which some part becomes atrophied
—starved out—because its neurons are fading, still fading. The best
known cases, though fortunately not common, are seen in the “living
skeletons,” which are cases of “wasting palsy,” or “progressive mus-
cular atrophy.” In them the gradually wasting FIG. 236.
muscles indicate that a process of atrophy has
begun in the neurons of the nerve-roots of the
spinal column, but this sort of wasting may be
localized instead of general, and only affect one
arm, or a small portion of the face in the domain
of one nerve, and, knowing of such cases, the
question naturally arises whether in every in-
stance of wasting disease, even though, as in
phthisis, there be an invasion of microbes to
hurry along the “consumption” of tissue, the
real cause may not be in a shortage of the tro-
phic nerve-energy, which the cells need to enable
them to keep well fed, and capable of warding
off invaders. It is admitted that the Koch bacilli
cannot take up their abode except in soil pre-
pared for them, and now the question arises
whether this acceptable soil means a particular
(abnormal, of course) state of the blood, or a de- CHARLEs SPRAGUE, THE
ficiency of trophic nerve-influence; and the prob- JLIVING SRELETON.
able fact is that it is generally both, since impoverished blood and de-
ficient nerve-energy so often go together, constituting that preliminary
stage of the disease in which a person is said to be “running into con-
sumption.” It is more often a slow drifting, with symptoms of neuras-
thenia (showing that the neurons are getting weary of well-doing) and
of scrofula, with the familiar train of symptoms usually attributed to
bad blood.
Scrofula.
Having thus stumbled upon scrofula in this relation, let us see what
there is to be said of it in this connection. We have been accustomed
to look upon it as essentially a blood disorder, and in earlier edi-
tions of this work it was attributed to a blood-poison whose effects were

688 AFFECTIONS OF THE NERVES, BLOOD, AND SRIN.
evident, even though the poison itself had not been discovered. The
origin of the disease, not only by heredity, but by an unhealthy mode
of life, was dwelt upon, such as “residence in damp localities, habit-
ually sleeping in chambers where the sunlight seldom penetrates, daily
exposure to cold, damp air, insufficient food, a pork diet, impure air,
and personal uncleanliness—also impure vaccination—and finally, viti-
ated and dissipated habits, and all influences which have a tendency to
depress the vital forces, may open the doors of the system to the devil's
breath and inaugurate scrofula.”
Though we still know that such conditions of life render us easy
victims to malign influences from without, such as malaria, it is now
known that a “depressed state of the vital forces” implies sick neurons,
and leads to such derangement of vital functions that poisons are self-
developed—right at home, in our own bodies—and the scrofulous poison,
if not always, certainly is often, of this kind. A late English writer (in
Quain’s “Dictionary of Medicine”) says the chief characteristics of scrof-
ula “consist, structurally, in a defect in the blood, and functionally in
languor. It is a special form of constitutional weakness, debility, or
degeneracy of mankind, manifesting itself in two ways, in a defective
power of resistance to external influences and a defective power of
growth and development in some or all parts of the body. What-
ever lessens health and strength tends to beget Scrofula, and once
produced it is highly hereditary,” and so commonly congenital, mean-
ing from birth. -
Scrofula, therefore, originates in self-blood-poisoning, debility and
malnutrition, and as we have found the trophic neurons to be in con-
trol of all this important business, we trace the “languor.” to them,
and so find scrofula not out of place in a consideration of nervous as
well as blood diseases. Its hereditary transmission also goes to confirm
this view.
Dr. Benjamin Ward Richardson, one of England's most fertile and
popular medical writers, says that “In cases of hereditary disease the
impression which has been made on the affected person, and which is
transmitted to the offspring, is inflicted primarily upon the nervous cen-
tres. This view is contrary to the common belief which fixes the taint
in the blood, and which is expressed in Such every-day terms as ‘bad
blood, good blood, ancestral blood,’ terms which are applied as freely
to mental as to physical proclivities. The view which assigns the seat
of the taint to the nervous matter (neurons) rather than to the circula-
ting blood is most in accord with modern observation. * * * Moreover,
we learned by direct experiment that physical nerve-injuries inflicted
on parents are transmitted to offspring. Epilepsy induced by nervous
injury has been thus transmitted. * * * It is observable that the in-
juries to nervous matter which are capable of producing hereditary
SCROFULA. - 689
diseases must be inflicted either on a nervous centre or on a trunk of a
nerve. Injuries inflicted on the extremities of nerves do not seem to be
followed by changes transmissible by heredity. * * * It is not until
the nutrition of a part directed by central nervous control is perverted by
a central injury that the inherited mischief is established. * * *
Whether something material and active is passed on from one genera-
tion to another, or whether it is a purely physical impression or otbra-
tion which is transmitted, we cannot pretend to say.” My preference
is for the theory that normal nerve-action (life itself) is a mode of mo-
tion (vibration), and that the several “taints” or hereditary diseases
are abnormal modes of motion, resident in the neurons (central ner-
vous matter), and transmissible as unpleasant memories to offspring.
The initial impulse thus implanted in the germ decides in the main how
it shall grow, develop, and act—in short, what kind of life it will live
and how long.
Dr. Richardson says the “view is now gaining ground that the
scrofulous taint is a variety of the syphilitic.” This book always main-
tained their close relationship and their resemblance in physical effects.
Previous editions said: “Syphilis is own cousin of scrofula.” The
syphilitic taint is recognized as the most intense and far-reaching of any
of the hereditary “diatheses,” though syphilis in its more virulent or
active form is acquired by direct innoculation ; but however acquired,
while it is liable to invade, mar, or destroy every tissue or organ, the
deepest impression is made on the nervous system, which fact is en-
tirely consistent with its power of hereditary transmission even to the
third and fourth generation. In the first generation, as in the victim
of acquired syphilis, it may be responsible for epilepsy, chorea, loco-
motor ataxy, paralysis, and an almost endless variety of degenerative
changes in the bones, skin, and mucous membranes; but as its power
wanes in further generations the results are symptoms such as are com-
monly called “Scrofulous,” of which there are twenty or more.
SYMPTOMS AND TREATMENT OF SCROFULA.
Among the more common symptoms of scrofula are enlarget
glands, especially in the neck, catarrh of any mucous membrane, bron
chitis, consumption, ulceration of the bowels, many varieties of skill
eruptions, chronic abscesses, which, if they form in the bones of the
spine, lead to Pott's Disease, humpback, rickets, hip-joint disease, tu-
mors, notched teeth, hydrocephalus, ophthalmia, blindness, ulceration
of the ears and deafness, and yet the whole truth is not told, and space
cannot be spared for it. When children early display signs of a scrofu-
lous tendency everything favorable to its relief should be religiously
employed, for it is through neglect that we see the many sad deformi.
ties that result from early caries (decay) of the bones, or the rickety
690 AFFECTIONS OF THE NERVES, BLOOD, AND SKIN.
soft state which leads to bow-legs. Rickets in children may be sus-
pected when there is much tendency to diarrhoea, fever, thirst, perspir-
ation, Swelling of the knees, wrists, and ankles and poor teeth.
The early symptoms of Pott's disease (of the bones of the spine)
are pain on motion of certain parts, with a disposition to keep the body
fixed while stooping, and pain on pressure over some point of the spinal
Column, often noticeable soon after a fall, blow or wrench, and, though
constitutional treatment must not be neglected, the first effort should
be to give the inflamed part rest by means of a suitable apparatus for
support, which will permit the child to go out in the Sunshine and air.
Many cases of mere curvature of the spine imply no disease of the
bones, but merely a bad habit of position in sitting, sleeping, or work-
ing, and are better treated without apparatus than with, the patient
being made to brace up and strengthen his or her own muscles by suit-
able exercises.
While my views in regard to the nature of scrofula have advanced
rather than changed, I see no occasion to modify what I have always
advised and found satisfactory as to treatment—consisting in the main
of all those hygienic means explained at length in the chapters relating
to causes and prevention of chronic diseases, together with vegetable
alterative medication selected according to temperament and symptoms
with a view to eliminating the scrofulous poison, enriching the blood,
and thus renourishing and revitalizing the neurons. Particular attention
is invited to Chapter XII., Part II.
One of the worst cases of Pott's disease that ever came under my
treatment was that of an otherwise promising young woman of about
twenty years of age, who had reached the stage of lateral double curva-
ture of the spine, and inability to maintain an upright position of the
upper part of the body, without iron crutches under the arms, having
their ends supported in pockets in a heavy leathern belt securely fastened
about the body, just above the hips. Having worn this supporting har-
ness for several years, she finally became a constant sufferer from severe
bladder troubles, causing incontinence of urine. She came for relief from
the latter, not dreaming of the possibility of a cure of the spinal curva-
ture. It was apparent that so long as she was obliged to wear the har-
ness, she would continue, from the pressure upon the parts below the
|belt, to suffer from an annoying urinary affection. I undertook the
seemingly hopeless task of curing the Pott's disease, and at the end of
about one year's treatment I had the satisfaction of discharging the
case with a spine that could support itself and complete relief from the
affection of the bladder | The heretofore hopeless young Woman had
come to possess backbone, and was able to join her comrades in their
sports and social events as well and as joyous as any of them. This
remarkable restoration was accomplished by simply alterative treat-
ACHES AND PAINS. 69 I
ment for both nerves and blood. The scrofulous condition of her blood
had doubtless been inherited, in consequence of which she was being
punished for some ancestral errors. Whether inherited or a result of
some pernicious habits on the part of the invalid, the treatment must be
constitutional, and not simply local. It is said that charity will cover
a multitude of sins, but it will not atone for them, and when the human
body exhibits the effects of sins of omission, or commission, due to
those who have gone before, or committed by the present sufferer, the
only effectual atonement is to sin no more, and apply all possible regen-
erative means that will restore the integrity of the blood and neurons
and their ability to evolve, store, and distribute the vital forces.
We have traced the possibilities of disease resulting from weak and
weary neurons far enough already to see that when the nerve-energies
are debilitated, the vital functions sluggish or disordered and the blood
impoverished or impure, the subject of such tendencies “has a right,”
as our Hibernian friend would say, to take on or run into almost any
form of chronic disease, but which of them will develop, what part be
chosen for the seat of the disease, or what “taint” become established
as the habit and display its trade-marks on its “subject” will depend
on various influences of which we know something but not all. Hered-
ity, temperament, habits, environment, and even some accident will all
help to decide whether the taint shall be mainly scrofulous, tubercu-
lous, syphilitic, gouty, cancerous, or mixed. It may tend one way in
one generation and another in the next, and be aggravated or mitigated
by various combinations in marriage.
Aches and Pains.
There are several taints so closely allied in origin and nature that
they may well be spoken of in a lump before describing each in detail.
All have pain for their main symptom, due to the irritation of sensitive
nerves by blood impurities. The blood is such a complex fluid that
there are many ways in which it may become off-color, tainted, or im-
pure, but one of the most common faults is retention of waste matter,
such as urea, uric acid, and their compounds. In health these sub-
stances are being cast into and out of the blood daily. The arteries are
the supply-pipes of the fresh blood which builds up the tissues, and the
veins are the Sewage pipes of the vascular system, whose office it is to
gather up all that is effete and carry it to the organs which are capable
of disposing of it. Only the sluggishness of the output through the
skin, kidneys, liver, and intestines, may result in gradual accumulation
until the blood becomes tainted or poisoned beyond the limits of well-
being and comfort. Then some part suffers, and pain is its cry.
Wherever there is pain it is because some tender nerve-filament is being
692 AFFECTIONS OF THE NERVES, BLOOD, AND SKIN.
pinched. If the blood impurity causes inflammation and swelling of
the nerve alone then neuralgia is the name given, or it may be sciatica
when the great sciatic nerve at the back of the hip and thigh is hit. If
the muscle or joint becomes inflamed, it is called rheumatism or gout,
but the local signs of heat, swelling, redness, and pain are the same,
and the blood poisons are quite alike, whether the pain be neuralgia,
headache, rheumatism, or gout. Physicians call these “neuro-humeral-
diatheses,” or nerve-blood taints, and though there is chance for de-
bate as to the chemistry of the poisons, there is general agreement that
relief can only come through cleansing the blood, and regulating all
vital and eliminative functions, so that no more such poisons shall be
excessively produced or retained in the system. These painful affec-
tions do not come upon fairly healthy people, but upon those with de-
fective neurons and blood-corpuscles through trouble, excessive brain-
work, exposure, malaria, or unhygienic practices, and the chronic forms
of main interest here take hold of the neurasthenic, anaemic, dyspeptic,
run-down, played out or used up folks, who have been neglecting very
slight ailments until the blood has accumulated impurities to an inflam-
matory point, and when fire breaks out somewhere an acute pain gives
the alarm. The gouty diathesis is common to our robust neighbors, or
those seemingly so, who have overfed themselves, and who look pretty
hearty and strong; but from a physician's point of view, they are not
as healthy as they look, Their flesh and blood is not really good stuff;
their vital organs have been overtaxed, and they are always on the
verge of an inflammatory attack from insufficient action of the skin,
liver, bowels, or kidneys. One really cannot be too robust, but he may
be too plethoric, too full, too fat, or possessed of too thick blood, and
perhaps added to this, too generous in his diet.
NERVOTUS HEADACHE.
Most headaches are due directly to blood impurities, from liver or
kidney torpor, or indirectly to reflex irritation from congestion of the
stomach, or sexual organs, but there are cases in which the difficulty
arises purely from nervous disturbances. Incipient neuralgia may pre-
sent all the symptoms of nervous headache. The affection of the
nerves not having proceeded far enough to induce irritation or inflam-
mation sufficient to cause distinct neuralgic pains, the Sensations are
those which are best described by the term aché. Overworked brain
may induce nervous headache, or establish a predisposition to its
attacks. The nerves as well as the muscles may be overstrained by
over-exercise, and in such cases they will cry out, and their voice will
be an ache or a pain. The brain actually swells in some cases from
over-exercise. I have had for patients authors and professional men
and women, whose main difficulty might with propriety be called
ACHES AND PAINS. 693
swelled brain. Overwork of any particular part or organ of the body
may bring about inflammation and congestion, and consequently en-
largement. The brain is not an exception to this rule, and when it is
thus affected, the bony frame-work called the skull, will not allow much
expansion of its contents, in consequence of which a sense of great
pressure and aching will be experienced, together with labored pulsa-
tion of its arteries. This sense of pressure is more often experienced in
the top of the head than elsewhere, but sometimes there seems to be a
sense of pressure throughout the brain. -
People not subject to neuralgia, or given to excessive mental labor,
may in some instances be predisposed to nervous headache. Grief,
disappointment, and other excessive mental emotions may occasion
it ; too much use of the eyes may induce it ; when the optic nerve is
weak or irritable, sunlight or gaslight may bring on an attack; if the
auditory or hearing nerves are much affected, disagreeable noises may
cause nervous headache; an affection of the spine may predispose a per-
son to it; morbid conditions of the procreative organs of both sexes are
liable to disorder the brain and develop a tendency to headache ; and,
lastly, it may be caused by a bad circulation of the nervous forces, or
a deficiency of them. In the latter case when nervous vitality is low,
the brain lacks strength and becomes tired by the slightest care, or the
most ordinary thinking, just as the limbs, when weak, may become so
tired by a little walking as to ache like toothache when the person so
affected sits or lies down after exercise.
CONGESTIVE HEAD ACHE.
This kind of headache is most liable to affect people who are
fleshy and full-blooded. The arteries and veins of those who are so fat
that their skins are stuffed to their fullest capacity of expansion, are
often so crowded as to circulate the blood very sluggishly, and in such
cases the head is liable to ache from the presence of too much sluggishly
moving blood. When a person thus affected stoops over, the head
swims on assuming an upright position; and when headache is con-
stantly present, there is experienced a sense of fulness; a predisposi-
tion to vertigo ; and, in some cases, throbbing in the temples and over
the eyes. People thus affected should pursue a course of medication
calculated to thin the blood ; and adopt a system of dietetics and exer-
cise calculated to reduce the plethora.
In lean persons, Congestive headache is sometimes a troublesome
companion, proceeding from imperfect circulation. In these cases,
while the extremities are cold, and the arteries and veins in them al-
most collapsed by the absence of the vascular fluids, the brain is unduly
supplied and pressed with blood. A good remedy for this is given in
the essay for keeping the feet warm, in the chapter on the prevention
694 AFFECTIONS OF THE NERVES, BLOOD, AND SKIN.
of disease. Anything that will restore warmth to the feet and a nor-
mal temperature to the head will give present relief.
Women are sometimes victims of periodical attacks of congestive
headache when they are subject to menstrual derangements. The
blood, instead of flowing off at the proper period, determines to the
head and face, giving to the latter a flushed or florid appearance, and
to the former a sense of pressure which often amounts to severe head-
ache. Women are especially liable to these attacks, when the function,
generally known by the name of the “monthly flow,” is just about be-
ing established ; and when that period arrives in older womanhood,
commonly called “change of life; ” but there are those who suffer at
every recurrence of the menses, with flushed face and congestive head-
FIG. 237. ache. The only remedial plan is, of
Course, to give such medical atten-
tion to the nervous system, blood,
Ovaries and womb, and to the ex-
tremities if cold, as will eradicate
the causes. It is hardly necessary
to say that menstrual difficulties
proceed from disease, and are nat-
ural to no one. In women of health
the flow will come on with little or
no warning in the way of pain, and
at the age for it to cease it will
simply fail to appear, with no symp-
tom whatever of discomfort. The
treatment would vary little from
that recommended for Nervous
jº'ACIAL NERVE8. Headache. *
NEURALGIA.
Neuralgia is a disease of the nerves and blood, and may affect any
part of the nervous system, although it most commonly attacks the
nerves of the face, jaws, breast, and side. Its presence is announced by
the most piercing, darting pains, recurring in paroxysms, followed
with brief intervals of relief; but hardly a moment elapses after a
lacerating pain darts along the course of the affected nerve, ere another
shoots forth, inflicting pain equally distressing to the patient.
The above cut presents, in the prominent black lines, the nerves
of the fifth branch, which are most liable to attacks of neuralgia.
Many a victim to the distressing disease will be able to recognize in
those lines the tracks of the pains which so often afflict them. Neural-
gia may also occur in the course of other nerves. It often strikes along
those between the ribs, and is then called intercostal. It may be mis-

ACHES AND PAINS. 695
taken for pains in the heart or lungs; it is in fact about them, but not
in or of them. But neuralgia of the heart or lungs is not uncommon ;
it may also attack the organs below the diaphragm, and is intensely pain-
ful when it strikes the ovaries or testes. Neuralgia in the teeth does
not always mean that they are decayed and must come out. Many a
good tooth has thus been sacrificed unnecessarily, when the proper
thing to pull out was the impurity of the blood that was nagging the
nerves at the roots of the teeth. The victim may often feel as though
he wanted to tear out a neuralgic part, but that would only result in
its going for some other sensitive part.
The pathology of this disease is about as little understood by the
medical profession as the science of aerial navigation. As well might
a person look into patent-medicine almanacs, Robinson Crusoe, or the
yellow-covered literature of the day for a correct explanation of the
nature of the disease, as into the pages of medical publications. Med-
ical authors generally attribute its cause to nervous debility. What is
nervous debility ? Why, it is simply a relaxed and enfeebled condition
of the system resulting from an insufficient supply of nervous vitality.
Persons so affected are troubled with lack of strength and want of vi-
vacity or animation. Now every one knows that neuralgia is often
found among persons of robust appearance, who have a fair degree of
strength, and that it sometimes manifests itself in those possessing ex-
traordinary muscular power and physical vigor. How can this fact
be accounted for, if nervous debility be the cause ?
Now, then, let us take a common sense view of the disease. An
impure condition of the blood, or the presence in the system of some
poisonous mineral, like mercury or lead, may cause inflammation in
any nerve which the impurity or mineral may attack, and when the
nerve is attacked by either, so that there is danger of the nervous com-
munication being blocked up, the available nervous forces are gath-
ered up and Suddenly precipitated at intervals upon the obstructed
nerve by the efforts of Nature to keep the communication open. These
violent propulsions of the nervous forces through the inflamed nerve,
cause the sharp darting pains. Nature always attempts to get rid of
any functional intruder. This is illustrated when something gets in
the eye ; a sudden gush of liquid from the tear-glands attempts to carry
it out. If something offensive to the olfactory nerves, or anything not
suitable to breathe into the lungs, enters the nose, an involuntary sneeze
takes place for its removal, or, at least, to prevent its entering the pul-
monary organs. . If the stomach is crammed with a mixture of un-
wholesome food, Nature often visits upon the careless gormandizer an
attack of vomiting or diarrhoea to carry it off. If corrosive or acrimo-
nious Secretions of the bronchial tubes roll down toward the air-vessels
of the lungs, a cough involuntarily takes place to bring them up.
696 AFFECTIONS OF THE NERVES, BLOOD, AND SKIN.
Now, all these efforts of Nature to effect relief may sometimes not only
prove unavailing, but go too far, unless remedies are resorted to for the
removal of the intrusion which she has faithfully tried to dispose of.
The tears may flow too copiously or too continuously ; the sneezing may
become convulsive and painful; the vomiting or diarrhoea may become
excessive, continuous, and debilitating ; and the cough may become
rasping, exhaustive, and alarming. So with the precipitation of the
nervous forces on the nerves attacked by unwholesome humors or min-
eral poisons, which threaten to cut off communication through those
nerves; it may become too painful, too continuous, and even threaten-
ing, unless remedies are adopted to assist Nature in getting rid of the
offensive visitors; but that natural effort, that sharp-shooting of the
nervous forces through the invaded and inflamed nerves for the expul-
sion of the invaders, that, I say, is neuralgia. Neuralgia is a regular
pitched battle between the forces circulating through the nerves and
tle offensive humors or minerals which attempt to obstruct their path-
way, and when they are defeated, paralysis of the parts follows, for the
nerves of sensation, or motion, or both, become lifeless when the ‘pas-
sage of animal electrical currents is completely obstructed. Sometimes
the warfare will be kept up for years, at intervals, unless Something
sensible is done to assist Nature.
THE TREATMENT OF NEURALGIA.
The assistance needed is readily suggested by a proper understand-
ing of the disease as herein explained. If blood impurities are attack-
ing the nerves, remedies suitable to cleanse and nourish the vascular
fluid must be taken by the patient at the same time electricity is being
locally applied to relieve the painful paroxysms and the inflammation
which has taken place in the affected nerve. If mineral poisons are
lurking in the system and permeate the delicate nervous structure, these
must be entirely eliminated. The advances made in vegetable medica-
tion and electrical therapeutics have placed neuralgia in the list of cur-
able diseases, notwithstanding the bigoted carpings of old fogies in the
profession, many of whom, even at this late day, deny its curability;
and why Simply because they have not been able, with their obtuse
comprehension, to see into underlying causes of the malady, nor the
wisdom to resort to the newer remedies of the botanical practice with
its valuable alteratives.
Probably the most common error in the treatment of neuralgia is
the resort to sedatives and narcotics to subdue the pain, the sufferer
being content with the relief which can thus be obtained, and doing
nothing for a radical cure. Many a case of opium or aicohol habit is
thus induced and confirmed. Another risky mode of obtaining tempo-
rary relief is by headache powders that sometimes kill the pains, and
ACHES AND PAINS. 697
now and then kill the patient. Local stimulant pain-killers, such as
lotions or menthol pencils, are far safer for self-prescription, and one Of
the safest as well as best local applications is a hot-water bag or hot
brick in ſlannel wrapper. For sciatica, try a hot flat-iron applied over
enough flannel to warm through the muscles without burning the skin.
I would refer those suffering with neuralgia to page 342.
REIEUMATISM.
The theory of this disease has never been correctly explained by
anyone. In fact there is not even a show of plausibility in any of the
written views of medical writers respecting its cause. As Sensible a
description of this painful affection as any that has fallen under my
FIG. 238. eye, was given some time ago
in All the Year Round. The
writer says: “Put your toe in a
vice ; turn the screw until you
can bear the pain no longer;
that is rheumatism. Give the
screw one more turn—that is
gout.” When this book was
first written, I, too, misled by
popular errors, gave a very im-
perfect idea of the real nature of
the disease, but my experience
and success in treating it have, I
am confident, suggested to my
mind the correct pathology. In
later editions I felt constrained
to substitute a new essay for the
fºllºe old one, and in submitting it to
tº hºl, º my intelligent readers, I feel
confident it will be accepted as
rational and sensible.
It must be understood by the reader that the arterial blood con-
tains the elements of vitality and nutrition, which it empties into what
is called the capillary system. This capillary system is a kind of fil-
terer of the blood, and after the nutritious particles have been filtered
from the arterial fluid the latter is sucked up by the minute branches
of the venous system, and carried back to the lungs for vital recupera-
tion. Then the atoms of nutrition, composed of fluid bone, fluid muscle,
etc., move by the laws of affinity to the various parts they are adapted
to build up. Now, it so happens that through the effects of bad habits,
bad medication, etc., this stream of blood emptied into and diffused
through the capillary System is not always pure or free from inflamma-
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REIEUMATISM.








698 AFFECTIONS OF THE NERVES, BLOOD, AND SKIN.
tory particles. There are corrupt and corrosive adulterations. What
becomes of them 2 They, too, are emptied into the capillaries and are
sucked up with the venous blood into the veins, so that they continue
in the circulation, or else pass off with the insensible perspiration out-
wardly, or with the waste matter of the system inwardly. But the
coagulation of several of these corrupt particles is apt to take place
whenever the pores of the skin are closed by exposure to wet or cold or
other causes, or the internal drainage and sewerage are inactive. These
coagulated particles of corrupt matter may make their appearance
under the skin, producing pustules, scaly eruptions, or running Sores.
They may attack the skin called the mucous membrane, lining the
throat, bronchia, stomach, and other cavities. They may locate about
a nerve and induce neuralgia, as explained in the preceding essay, and
—now we come to it—they may attach themselves to the arterial tubes
and veins, large or small, and inflame them by their corrosive influence.
Mercury often forms a part of these coagulated particles of acrimonious
matter, and any other injurious mineral may do so. The lodgement of
these and the inflammation they induce, render the channels of the
blood sensitive, and the circulation of the vital current through these
affected parts becomes painful, just as it is painful to drink when the
throat is sore; to pass the faeces when the rectum is affected with piles; to
pass the urine when the urethra is inflamed or otherwise diseased. What
does Nature do now 2 She sends blood in abundance to drench out or
dislodge, if possible, these corrosive particles, and the parts become very
red from the congestion or pressure of the blood therein. This is called
acute rheumatism. What if Nature does not succeed in washing out
these acrimonious atoms ? She withdraws the undue supply of the
blood from the parts, gives up the contest, and continues to perform
the function of circulation as best she can, but the passage of the cur-
rents of blood through their affected channels still continues painful.
This is called chronic rheumatism. When the seat of the affection
changes in a single day, night, or hour, as it often does, then it is that
these corrosive quicksands have been washed from one position to
another. By a sudden dislodgement they may be carried by the circu-
lation to some part far distant from the place they previously annoyed.
Now, who will say that here is not, in a few words, the whole philos-
ophy of that painful disease called rheumatism 2
TREATMENT OF RFIEUMATISM.
As my successful treatment of the disease suggested the theory,
the theory in turn points to the correct treatment. Anything which
will dislodge the corrupt particles, dissolve and expel them from the
system, and purify the blood, will give permanent relief. Vegetable
medication, made up according to some of our latest botanical formulas
ACHES AND PAINS. 699
and suited to the idiosyncrasy of the patient, may alone accomplish
these results. If not, then electricity may be employed successfully as
an adjunct. See page 329. Many think they are cured when the
coagulated particles are dissolved and dispersed. But such cures are
never permanent. They must be expelled and the blood restored, or
the corrosive particles will reunite whenever a sudden change in the
weather or exposure to dampness closes again the pores or other ave-
nues through which they escape; for so long as the blood remains im-
pure, so long will the circulation, the insensible perspiration, the faces
and urine be loaded with those which daily accumulate.
A careful regard to air, exercise, and diet, should be observed by
the sufferer with chronic rheumatism. A dry atmosphere is of the
utmost importance, and dry stove-heat is far preferable to the damp
atmosphere out of doors on a rainy day. In dry weather, out-of-door
exercise is exceedingly beneficial, and if the invalid is so badly affected
as to preclude the possibility of walking, carriage-riding should be re-
sorted to. The diet should be regulated according to the general con-
dition of the patient, the digestive capacities, and the stage of the dis-
ease. In plethoric persons of so-called “full habit,” plenty of red
blood and tendency to be fleshy, a diet of fruits, grains, and especially
succulent (watery) vegetables is preferable, and such diet is generally
advisable where the digestion is pretty good, and the rheumatism
affects the muscles, or mainly the smaller joints, as in rheumatic gout.
In chronic cases, where the tendency is to poor nutrition, anaemia, pale
lips, leanness, and general debility, a meat diet may be the best, and
more especially when vegetables are likely to cause sour stomach. As
all rheumatism is more or less allied to disorders of digestion and as-
similation, the peculiarities of each case should be carefully observed
with a view of selecting a simple, nutritious diet that shall best agree
with the stomach, and in many acute cases the duration of the disease
can often be shortened by great abstinence—the starving-out plan.
The free drinking of pure water is a safe recommendation as steady
diet for all cases, and sometimes alkaline mineral waters for a while.
Much might be said of the unhealthful conditions that favor the
production and accumulation in the blood of irritating poisons which,
according to their kind or quality, may be the cause of rheumatism,
neuralgia, headaches, and so forth, but this would require a long chap-
ter in itself, explaining the operations of the vital organs in health, and
their perverted action in disease. This may be found in a pamphlet by
Dr. E. B. Foote, Jr., on “Auto-toxaemia” (see page 1248), which ex-
plains the method of self-blood-poisoning by which a great variety of
blood impurities become developed through disorder of the digestive
and eliminative organs. The attention of the reader is also directed to
Chapter XII.
7oo AFFECTIONS OF THE NERVES, BLOOD, AND SKIN.
GOUT.
Much that has been written in explanation of rheumatism might
with little qualification be repeated concerning gout. There is no
doubt a chemical difference in the impurities, and, for some undiscov-
cred reason, those of gout have an affinity for the smaller joints; but
the large range of their action would be lost sight of were we to look
only to the joints for the evidences of gouty inflammation. Many skin
diseases are undoubtedly based upon the gouty diathesis, and some
cases of asthma are traccd to it. Many a throat trouble is the sign of
its occasional preference for a tonsil rather than a tender joint, and an
attack of piles may be its way of showing that it is no respecter of
places or persons. Indeed, gout is almost ubiquitous, and goes here
and there “as the wind bloweth where it listeth.” It tickleth the skin
or scalp with a scattering itchiness; it grips the throat; inflames the
eyes; twinges the heart-strings; grips the intestines with colic; bites
the urinary organs; bores through the finger or toe joints in a come-
and-go-as-you-please style. Dr. Fothergill wrote a book about “Gout
in its Protean Forms,” calling especial attention to its nervous mani-
festations which are quite like those of neurasthenia. “Blues” may
be one of its modes of expressing itself through the nervous system ;
and nervous irritability another. The gouty subject may sometimes be
sleepless and at other times drowsy and sleep every day; or, he may
have drowsiness with inability to sleep.
Typical acute gout is of course an intensely painful attack in the
joints of the knees, feet, wrists, or hands, lasting several days; but one
may get a great variety of symptoms, occasionally, or some phase of
the gouty state pretty steadily without ever being laid up with a
gouty attack. It is naturally the neglected chronic state of goutiness
which paves the way for a sudden acute attack, if some such cause as
a cold or severe indigestion occurs to inflame the blood suddenly with
an unusual amount of gouty impurities; and so the gouty person who
ignores its minor penalties is taking the risk of suffering its major ones.
There is a more subtle danger in permitting gouty irritants to lurk
about the blood indefinitely, and that is their propensity to eat away on
the lining of the blood-vessels, the heart, and the kidneys until those
organs suffer some irreparable damage. Therefore anyone who dis-
covers in himself a predisposition to gouty symptoms, should endeavor
to so order his life and habits as to hold them off, and if it be a strong
hereditary propensity, eternal vigilance will be the price he must pay
for liberty from its varying depredations.
THE TREATMENT OF GOUT.
The treatment of gout consists mainly in attention to dietetics and
exercise. It is attributed largely to suboxygenation, or an insufficient
CANOER. 701
supply of oxygen to burn up the clinkers. Food is fuel ; waste matter
is ash; an abnormal or obstructive waste may be called clinkers.
Plenty of air-blast in the lungs aids to burn up clinkers. Exercise, joy,
and laughter, stimulate deep and frequent inspirations of air-carrying
oxygen. Sedentary occupations, worry, and grief, and depressing
mental emotions favor lessened action of the lungs, shortage of oxygen,
deficient fuel change. Over-eating, especially of meats, sweets, and
fats, crowds the body furnaces with more fuel than can be digested,
burned up, oxygenated, and ashified for elimination. Hence, again,
clinkers to obstruct, irritate, and inflame somewhere." Strike a good
balance in your food and exercise; remember that air is one food you
are not likely to get too much of, and that exercise as well as eating
may be overdone. You have the principles by which to hold off gout
as well as other debiliting diatheses, or teasing taints. Another food
that, like air, is seldom taken in excess, is water—pure water. It aids
the perpetual flow of the fluids of the body. It favors activity, motion,
solution, and evacuation. Every drop going out by the breath of the
lungs, from the skin, bowels, or kidneys, carries with it some burden
of waste matter, and what goes in must come out. Read what is said
of water in Part I. The medicinal treatment of gout consists in the
proper administration of such remedies as may be indicated for the im-
provement of digestion, the arrest of fermentation and restoration of
sufficient activity of liver, bowels, and kidneys. Whatever fault in
constitution, or acquired physical conditions favoring its manifestation,
must receive the attention of the patient if he is treating his own case,
or the physician who has charge of it. It may well be added that the
very best medicines for such a trouble must come from the fields and
woodlands. Botanical treatment is especially suited to a gouty diathe-
sis. See page 313,
Cancer.
The last disease of uncertain origin to be claimed in the list of dis-
eases of malnutrition through perverted nerve-action is cancer, and the
claim is plausible, as will be soon shown ; but first let it be said that
cancer as yet appears to consist of nothing but the body's own cells
gone Wrong, and there is no proof of the presence of any parasitic or
microbic invaders. As Professor Virchow says: “The cellular elements
of a tumor are derived from the pre-existing cells of the body,” which
for some cause have reverted to a rudimentary or simple state of life
and begun to increase and multiply regardless of other parts, as though
their neuronic guardians had lost all control of them. It is a sort of
War among our tissue elements, in which one kind proceeds to run wild
at the expense of the rest.
702 AFFECTIONS OF THE NERVES, BLOOD, AND SKIN.
It has seemed very reasonable to suppose that such abnormal
growth was stimulated by some impurity of the blood, and it has even
been suggested that cancerous tumors were evolved as a new ex-
Cretory organ to rid the system of some poisonous property; but now
there are many studious observers who believe that the various forms
of tumors are but the results of some failure of the trophic nerves
Whose duty it is to regulate nutrition and cell growth ; and this view
is encouraged by the fact that cancer increases in frequency as age
advances, and as vital power declines, that mental and nervous depres-
Sion are predisposing causes; and, finally, the fact that it is most preva-
lent and increasing in conditions of high-pressure civilization involving
nerve-strain, tiredness, and exhaustion. Senility of tissue predisposes
to cancer, so that where causes of early death are reduced more en-
feebled aging folks are left as probable victims for the cancerous mode
of death. Dr. Herbert Snow, of the London Cancer Hospital, believes
mental worry to be one of the chief exciting causes of cancer, and,
from what we have known of the personal experiences of many can-
cer patients, I think he is right. Mental disturbances of any kind are
liable to put the system in a receptive condition capable of taking on
any malady to which it has even a slight predisposition.
The Literary Digest tells us that the theory is advanced by Dr. W.
B. Clarke, of Indianapolis, Ind., in a paper read before the State So-
ciety of Homeopathic Physicians that “the recent increase in the
spread of cancer is directly due to vaccination.” Starting with the fact
that cancer is a disease characterized by rapid growth of abnormal
cell-structure, he says: “It takes twenty-one years or more to make a
man, and from three or four to make a cow. As cancer is a disease
characterized by the rapid imposition of cells, I ask you, is it safe to
put the rapid-growing cells or protoplasm of a diseased animal into the
slow-growing cells of man, as is done in vaccination ? Dr. Clarke
believes, ’’ continues the Digest, “that we are reaping the harvest of
the seed so generally introduced forty to sixty years ago,” and that
“deaths from cancer are more numerous in England and Prussia, sim-
ply because the pernicious practice [of vaccination for smallpox] was
generally introduced so much earlier there.”
T Another cause for the increase of cancer, according to Dr. W.
Roger Williams, as given in the London Lancet, is high feeding He
says: “There can be no doubt that the greed for food manifested by
modern communities is altogether out of proportion to their present re-
quirements. Many indications point to the gluttonous consumption of
meat, which is such a characteristic feature of this age, as likely to be
especially harmful in this respect. Statistics show that the consump-
tion of meat has for many years been increasing by leaps and bounds,
till it now has reached the amazing total of 131 pounds per head per
CANOER. - 7O3
year, which is more than double what it was half a century ago, when
the conditions of life were more compatible with high feeding. When
excessive quantities of such highly stimulating forms of nutriment are
ingested by persons whose cellular metabolism is defective, it seems
probable that there may thus be excited in those parts of the body
where vital processes are still active such excessive and disorderly cel-
lular proliferation as may eventuate in cancer. No doubt other factors
coöperate, and among these I should be especially inclined to name
deficient exercise and probably also deficiency in fresh vegetable food.”
THE TREATMENT OF CANCER.
Cancers are hard or soft according FIG. 239,
to whether they are built up of
fibrous or soft cellular tissue, and they
differ, too, in rapidity of growth.
The evil a cancer may do depends
largely on where it is located, how
early it can be discovered, and the pos-
sibility of eradicating it. All tumors
are not cancers. Some are called “be-
nign,” because comparatively slow and
harmless, as fatty tumors and wens,
but true cancers are “malignant,”
rapid, ugly, and tend to reappear after
removal. It is not always possible,
even when a clipping from a tumor
can be taken and examined microscop-
ically, to say “for certain” whetherit is
benign or malignant, and so operative
means (knife or plaster) get credit for
curing more cancers than they really "hºtºntº theºnor
do; but generally a microscopic exam- in General Grant’s throat.
ination will decide, and whatever the nature of the growth, if removal
be possible it may be good policy in Some advanced cases to take it out
with either knife or plaster. Whether by the former or the latter must
be decided by the nature and location of the tumor, and sometimes the
subject may decide for himself, there being little preference. The
“painless” claim of the plaster plan is generally a delusion and a
snare, and with anaesthetic Surgery the cutting operation really causes
far less suffering ; but whatever local treatment be adopted it is most
important to resort at once to constitutional measures that will fortify
the tissues generally against the progress of this degenerative change,
and hold the unruly members (cells that have revolted) in subjection,
otherwise they are prone to spread through the lymphatic channels to
A NEST OF CANCER CELLee

704 AFFECTIONS OF THE NERVES, BLOOD, AND SKIN.
glands in other parts of the body, and start other tumors of the same
sort—branch offices. These tumors all enlarge by “cell infiltration,”
multiplication of cells in all directions, as a vine grows through a tree,
until they exhaust their source of supplies by getting too far from
blood-vessels and then ulceration begins—a “break-down” and slough-
ing. If permitted to go so far the blood itself becomes contaminated
with absorbed poisons which stain the “complexion ” all over to a
peculiar yellow hue—the stage of “cancerous cachexia.”
My experience would lead me to strongly advise the medical treat-
ment first, as the reader might well conclude by what has just been
stated. If there be no urgent necessity for immediate heroic treatment,
it is undoubtedly the Safest and best plan. The medical treatment will
certainly be needed before or immediately after to clear the system
from the cancer-cells floating in the circulation, and that being the case,
why not have it at the outset, and thereby possibly avoid the surgical
method altogether ? Some remarkable cases wherein I have effected
cures by systematic treatment, I am firm in the belief were true cancer,
and such they were pronounced to be by eminent surgeons. There can
be no doubt, however, that there are many tumors so much like cancer
as to be mistaken for that dread disease by careful diagnosticians, and
that they are often cured by skilful vegetable medication. I have
myself cured many such cases when other physicians besides myself
have pronounced the tumors cancerous, whether we were mistaken or
otherwise. In all cases where a supposed cancerous tumor is removed
by local treatment of any kind, whether by a cancer plaster or the sur-
geon's knife, as I have before remarked, the constitutional treatment
of the patient must not be neglected, for if it is, just such tumors are
almost sure to reappear to take the place of those which have been
removed either in the same or some other location.
I might mention some instances wherein I have been called upon
to medically treat cases by recommendation of reputable surgeons, to
prepare them for the removal of an apparently malignant tumor by
the knife, their anaemic condition being such as to render immediate
operation risky ; and the preparatory medical treatment effected a rad-
ical cure I When the well-known surgeon, Dr. Van Buren, of New
York, was living and practicing his specialty, a lady came from
Northern Vermont to have a huge and malignant looking tumor re-
moved, involving the entire mammary gland of one of the breasts.
The surgeon found her in such a reduced condition that he advised
her to place herself under the care of some physician in whom she had
confidence, and take a course of medicine that would improve the con-
dition of her nerves, blood, and digestion, so that she might safely
undergo the contemplated operation. It so happened that she came to
me, and when I told her that if she were to use my medicines faith-
SYPHILIS. 7O5
fully, operation might not be necessary, she excitedly responded :
“Don’t say such a thing to my husband, or he will think you are a
quack.” I then took the case Ostensibly to prepare it for the supposed
inevitable operation. But the surgeon never had the opportunity, for
in less than a year's time the medicine accomplished the entire removal
of the tumor, and my patient had no further trouble from it. In this
instance the surgeons who examined it pronounced the tumor a cancer.
I am often asked if tomatoes cause cancer. Dr. Andrew Wilson,
of London, has been quoted as saying that he is tired of answering that
oft-repeated question. Probably any pnysician of extensive practice
is. How such an idea ever got into the heads of the people, it is hard
to surmise. Perhaps it was because that healthful vegetable with its
rapid growth, corrugated surface, and deep red color reminded one of
a cancerous growth. Dr. Wilson's reply will doubtless be endorsed by
most medical men who may happen to see it. He answered as follows:
“But for the fact that one takes a pleasure in stamping one's foot on a
misleading statement calculated to prejudice people against a vegetable
food which is entirely healthful and safe, I should grow weary of as-
serting that not a jot or tittle of proof has ever been offered in support
of the outrageous statement. One might as well allege that cabbage
causes cancer, for there would be no more proof to be had concerning
the tomato myth. I can only repeat that the tomato is an excellent
vegetable enough, and may be partaken of by those with whom it
agrees without any fear of it initiating any disease whatever.” It is
evident, if what Dr. Roger Williams says in the London Lancet be
true, there is more reason to fear the effects of animal food in our
diet, than any vegetable whatever. Overfeeding, living too generously,
especially upon meats, is manifestly injurious to those who fall victims
to cancer, and Once more I must urge that constitutional treatment
shall in all cases precede or immediately follow surgical operation,
and the former should be given the preference. See Chapter XII.
Syphilis.
Another of the great constitutional diseases the nature of which
baffles the most earnest investigations of students of disease is syphilis.
Like cancer it may be said of it, that as yet no true parasite has been
found in the sores or secretions which in case of syphilis are so surely
the means of communicating the disease from one to another. (It is
not yet proven, however, that cancer can be transmitted in this man-
ner.) As it was said of cancer, so it may be said of syphilis, that the
changes produced in the diseased tissues seem to be such as may occur
from simply a perverted or degraded action of the body's normal cells,
9.S though they were operating wholly “on their own hook,” without
706 AFFECTIONS OF THE NERVES, BLOOD, AND SKIN.
reforence to the disturbance to other parts thus occasioned. Yet it
may bo said that they are stimulated to this diseased action by the
presence of some microbe that has so far eluded the vision of micro-
scopists; and this is made probable by the similarity of syphilis in some
features to the acute infoctious fevers and in others to leprosy, an even
more chronic form of infection, which is now generally regarded as of
microbic origin ; but leprosy, if “catching,” is far less so than syphilis.
Whatever the nature of the syphilitic virus, it is undoubtedly easily
communicated wherever it comes in contact with an abraded surface.
It is extremely fortunate that the virus is not erosive, and that it
cannot eat its way through the natural protective scaly covering of the
skin and mucous membranes, for if it were able so to force itself upon
us its devastation would be far greater than at present, since the disease
is not only acquired through venereal (sexual) contact, but in various
other ways, and its infectious sores are not limited to the sexual organs.
Even a chancre may occur upon the lip and be directly given to another
lip, while the mucous patch inside the mouth Secretes a matter which
if left upon a cup, pipe, or musical mouth-instrument may be the
means of starting a syphilitic sore on the lips or mouth of the next
person who uses the infected article, if that person have an abrasion or
crack on the lip.
Specialists who have traced the origin of syphilis in thousands of
cases estimate that twenty-five per cent. Of the cases among men and
fifty per cent. among women are acquired “innocently,” and the great
variety of unexpected ways in which this may occur is astonishing.
The extreme provalence of syphilis in Russia is attributed more to the
uncleanly habits of the people in general than to sexual promiscuity,
and its medical men advise “vulgarization" of a knowledge of this
subject as the only means of counteracting the tremendous evils of
ignorance. Syphilis in the very young is more often hereditary than
acquired, even innocently, but, as Dr. L. D. Bulkley says, “Even if
brought into the world alive, the product of syphilitic conception has
a relatively weak hold on life. This is instanced in the well-known
statistics of the Moscow Hospital, in which, of two thousand syphilitic
children born in eleven years, over seventy per cent. died. Fournier
makes the mortality twenty-eight per cent. from exclusive paternal
herodity, sixty per cent, from heredity, and 68.5 per cent from a mixed
heredity. Some figures are even more appalling.”
No space need be given here to the history or origin of syphilis as
a discase. It dates back of recorded history, and it would take much
less space to name the nations, if any, which may have escaped it than
of those which have long suffered. Races as well as individuals seem
to acquire some immunity through experience. Those of Asia and
Europe bear it far better than did the aborigines of Hawaii, among
SYPHILIS. 707
whom it was introduced by Captain Cook's sailors one hundrcd years
ago, with very fatal results and great reduction in population—much
the same result as when measles is first disseminated among Pacific
islanders who are unaccustomcd to its presence.
It is rather fruitless to speculate as to whether the disease may be
generated anew under the conditions of recklessncss, excess, and all un-
cleanliness, where it is so generally distributed; for the seeds of the
disease are so widely scattered in all the dens of harlotry that most new
cases are casily traceable to some such source, while the multitude of
roundabout routes by which its virus may be conveyed to innocent
victims makes il, fair to suppose in any case of doubtful origin that it
has been picked up somehow, even though we cannot tracc Surely the
manner of its invasion.
ITS PROGRESS.
Whether it be in the most innocent or most reckless manner, if the
syphilitic virus finds itself implanted upon a slightly abraded mucous
membrane, or a crack in the skin of the finger or lip, it becomes the
spark by which a slow fire is started that may never be quenched, for
in some scrofulous and impaired constitutions (by gout or Bright's
disease) the disease develops with a rapidity and severity that can be
moderated but not controlled. It so happens that because of suscep-
tibility its innocent victims often suffer more than its vicious oncs.
From the time that the impure contact occurs there is a period of from
ten days to four weeks, called “the incubation period,” during which
the virus is taking root and hatching mischief unsuspected. Then ap-
pears at the point of infection a red spot which becomes raised in a few
days to a nodule or papule; this scales and softons on the surface until
it ulcerates and Secretes a thin liquid, which is more virus. Though
this virus might provide material to innoculate a hundred more sores
On other persons, it seldom starts another such sore on the same indi-
vidual. The base and edges are hard, so that it is called a “hard
chancre.” It is often painless, gencrally slow to heal, and may last
several months, gencrally about two months. What is called “the ini-
tial Sore” may be so slight as to be unnoticed—a more dry, scaling
patch, or, in persons of very low, reckless, or filthy habits or “depraved
constitution,” it may become phagcdenic or gangrenous, so that it may
fail to be “characteristic” in being more slight or more malignant than
usual. Within two weeks from the first “lesion ” (the initial sore) the
virus spreads through the lymphatics to the nearest glands, which be-
come enlarged—perhaps in an effort to arrest it, and so ends the first,
or primary stage.
The virus almost always pushes its way through the glandular sys-
tem and reaches the blood (in about six weeks), and then the disease is
708 AFFECTIONS OF THE NERVES, BLOOD, AND SKIN.
called “secondary syphilis,” and becomes manifest in slow fever,
malaise, headaches—sometimes terrific—and a rash of numerous mot-
tled red spots on chest, abdomen, or thighs, called roseola. The color
fades on pressure. About the same time there may occur ulcers on the
tonsils, sore throat and mouth, and falling out of hair. The red spots
gradually become raised to papules—small, tense, firm, with Smooth
and slightly scaly tops, of the color of raw ham, without much irrita-
tion or itching about them. These are apt to come on the border of
the scalp, on the limbs, palms, and soles. Vesicles and pustules also
may begin to appear, or there may be “mixed eruption.” Syphilis
seems to have the power to develop any or all of the diseases of the
skin, one at a time or mixed, but the peculiarities of its eruptions are
their coppery color, absence of
FIG. 240 itching and symmetrical appear-
ance, occurring on both sides in
the same places. Rupia is one
of its results in case it lays
deeper hold on the skin, when
papules ulcerate and leave ac-
cumulating crusts. All the
secretions in this stage, whether
from skin Sores or mouth, are
dangerous to others, and should
be handled with care and de-
stroyed. Some of the pustules
leave scars or stains that last a
long while. Syphilitic warts,
wide and flat, are apt to occur
about moist surfaces. The blood
may become so anaemic as to
cause a general pallor, so impure
as to cause rheumatic pain in
muscles, bones and joints, or inflammation of the eyes. Iritis, the most
common, is an inflammation of the iris, the curtain that makes the pupil
of the eyes. The syphilitic virus seems to have an affinity for all the
tissues, and to excite in them a low-grade destructive inflammation. It
softens the bones, consumes cartilages, and leaves scars of its destruc-
tive devastation everywhere. See Plate VIII., of Syphilitic Lesions.
After this active all-around course, during about One Or two years
of what is called the secondary stage, there may be a period of three to
five years, or even twenty, of quiescent brooding—if it has not been
effectually cleaned out of the system—and the symptoms which then
follow are called “tertiary”—or the third stage. They are mainly due
to development of large or small “gummy” tumors or nodules in the
GUMMY TUM.O.R.S.

SYPHILIS. 7O9
skin, where they may be seen or felt, or in the brain, nerves, or vital
Organs, and the symptoms are varied according to size and location of
these lumps. Whenever symptoms are peculiar or hard to account for
a physician is apt to think of this “specific” disease and inquire for its
history. Tertiary lesions of the skin and mouth are likely to ulcerate
and “act mean.” At this stage the disease is no longer transmissible, by
contact or heredity, according to the experts, but we should regard it a
Sorry fate for a child to be parented by such a case. Dr. George W.
FOX no doubt expresses the present sentiment of the profession in say-
ing “the old iron-bound division of syphilis into secondary and tertiary
is being given up to-day, because some of the tertiary symptoms occur
in the early course of the disease, while some of the so-called secondary
lesions might appear fifteen or twenty years after infection,”
ITS TREATMENT.
There yet remains a great difference of opinion among physicians
as to the curability of syphilis and the propriety of advising marriage
and parentage to those who have ever had the disease, even though no
symptoms have appeared for many years. Some declare that “syphilis
once, syphilis ever,” must be the fate of anyone who has it, while
others write at length and quote numerous authorities to prove it may
be mild, benign, curable, and even that the disease itself may “die a
natural death” untreated, as in India, China, and Brazil, where, though
the disease is very prevalent, its treatment is generally neglected. Such
differences of opinion among men equally capable are due to the long
duration of the disease and the difficulty of keeping such cases and
their descendants under observation until the health of their children
and grandchildren can be fairly judged ; and the other difficulty of
knowing when the disease has exhibited its last symptom, and when it
is simply latent or lying low, to appear again in the dim, distant fut-
ure. Furthermore, it has been the custom of most doctors to rely on
mercurial treatment, in spite of the fact that many of them admit it
can only subdue symptoms and cannot cure the disease, and one emi-
nent English writer, who has practically nothing else to offer in way of
treatment, says of it : “The drug has a better chance for producing its
fullest beneficial effect when the patient is kept a little below his ordi-
nary standard of health " In assisting Nature to throw off every other
disease it is thought best to aid her effort to maintain the highest pos.
sible standard of health, and the success with which Nature alone copes
with syphilis in countries above noted, where physicians and mercury
are not employed, tends to show that if mercury temporarily represses
the symptoms it helps also to fix the disease in the system—to bind it
down in a Rip Van Winkle nap, from which it may too often awaken
and surprise its spouse after twenty years.
710 AFFECTIONS OF THE NERVES, BLOOD, AND SKIN.
Q.
In reference to treatment I have nothing to suggest to the unpro-
fessional victim who wants to treat himself, except to say, beware of
mercury. When it is proposed to give a remedy which will be the
most efficacious by keeping the patient below his ordinary standard of
health, it is best to let it alone. We poor mortals need the aid of the
natural recuperative powers to work with our remedial agents, what-
ever they may be. It is yet to be shown that there is anything better
for the purpose than vegetable medication, and this harmonizes and
works with Nature's force without reducing the strength of the patient
Or depending upon the reduced condition of the system for effective
Work. It is far too serious a disease, both in immediate danger and ul-
timate possibilities of permanent injury of important parts, to permit
of trifling or temporizing, and as soon as anyone has occasion to sus-
pect its presence he will be wise to seek the diagnosis and advice of a
trustworthy physician, for if an eruption on the privates be not syphi-
lis it may be a simple skin eruption that might occur anywhere else, or
it may be another form of venereal ulcer called chancroid that is often
more speedily, destructive locally than is true chancre. The progress
of the disease, especially in its secondary and later stages, is so slow,
and its symptoms are generally so unmistakable to an expert, that I am
able to advise concerning such cases by mail, without the necessity. Of
a personal examination. The exhibition of local or surface eruptions
on Plate VIII. of the color plates, will enable the reader to get a good
idea of how the most common ones appear, but it must also be remem-
bered, as above remarked, that syphilis is a great imitator of many
other skin lesions, and may be the cause back of a mere rash, an eczema
or spreading ulcer of small or large extent. It is by the “history” of
a case rather than by any one symptom, Superficial or constitutional,
that its syphilitic nature can be diagnosed. Those personally inter-
ested in further information should read Chapter XII. There is also
much bearing on this disease in what is said of prostitution in Part I.
Skin Diseases.
Books on skin diseases describe over one hundred kinds, but fortu-
nately for mankind many of the most interesting to doctors are very
rare, and only the most common need be mentioned here; but before
even naming them the way for a clear understanding of them will be
made easy by a very brief description of the anatomy of the skin and
of the primary signs of its diseases. The skin is one of the organs of
the body, spread out in a thin layer all over its surface instead of massed
in one place like the liver. It is quite a complex organ, having many
parts and several functions. It is generally described in layers, and,
like an onion, may be dissected into few or many ; but the main ones
PLATE IX.
P. H. T. SEE PART I. - vaccina TION.
1. LIFE-8IzE LARGE ULCER THAT A NEW York HEALTH Board of Ficial ceRTIFIED as ''PERFEor
WAccINATION," on Twel FTH DAY. THIS child's INFANT BROTHER DIED FROM vac-
cination.
2. A “Nor UNcommon " case of PAPULAR ERYTHEMA, ALL over Body, FRom vaccination.
3. Twelve-YEAR-old Boy, whecked BY vaccination ; 8KETCHED For John Pickening, F. R.
G. S., F. S. S., London, 1890.
4, 5 AND 6 8How SMALL Pox ERUPTION, vaccination AND CHANCRE (gRear pox) at sixth
DAY : 5 AND 6 ARE MoRE ALIKE THAN 4 AND 5, vaccination is poxification.

PLATE X.
FACE ERUPTIONS. PLAIN HOME TALK
ROSACEA.
PIMPLES-ACNE.
COMEDONES.
HERPES.




SKIN DISEASES. 71 I
are the deep “true skin,” the papillary layer and the epidermis, the lat-
ter consisting of horny scales which, under a mild magnifying-glass
make our finest skin look as rough as a tanned crocodile's hide. In and
through these layers are found multitudes of sweat-glands, sebaceous
glands, and hair papillae. These parts indicate the several functions of
the skin. The horny layer is for protection, the papillary layer to
afford places for nerves of touch ;
the sebaceous glands secrete an oily
substance, to keep the skin soft and
moist; the sweat-glands excrete
perspiration and aid in elimination
and in cooling the body, and the
thick, firm skin affords a basis tissue
for these useful parts and for the
blood-vessels that supply them.
Diseased action may begin in only
one of these skin elements, though
other parts are apt to become more
or less changed also, and thus is
produced a great variety of what
are called skin “lesions,” meaning
changes from the natural condition.
It will simplify the study of skin
diseases themselves if the main
“lesions” are first described. They
are the “objective” (that is, the
visible) symptoms.
THE MAIN AFFECTIONS DESCRIBED.
A mere excess of blood in some
part of the skin produces redness—
a rash—which may occur in spots,
called macules, or, when diffused,
erythema. If the red spot becomes
projected in a small, solid lump, it
is a papule, or, if slightly promi-
nent, with a broader base, it may be
Fig. 241.
A MAGNIFIED CROSS-CUT OF SIKIN.
Showing: 1, Fibrous and muscular lay-
er ; 2, 3, cuticle, or horny layer; 4,
pigments, or color layer; 5, gland
and vascular layer; 6, papillary, or
sensitive layer ; 7, sweat-gland, and,
8, 9, its tube.
a wheel (as in hives). If a pin-head spot becomes elevated, with a
watery fluid, or, if it be as large as a pea, it is a bleb; if the contents
are more creamy it is a pustule, while, if deeper and larger still, it is a
boil. Hard, deep, small lumps may be tubercles, while larger ones are
called tumors. An excessive production of the horny layer makes
scales, and if hard with cracks they are fissures. A loss of horny layers
makes an eacortation, which, if it goes deeper, causes an ulcer. If ex-


712 AFFECTIONS OF THE NERVES, BLOOD, AND SKIN.
cessive secretion dries and hardens on the surface crusts are formed.
Scars and atrophy (wasting) are relics of skin disease, but a stain may
be a symptom or a relic. -
The subjective symptoms are those which the patient feels, such as
itching, tingling, burning, pain, tenderness, heat and “formication” (as
though insects were crawling on the skin), and such symptoms may be
present without any visible evidence of skin lesion. There are still
other symptoms, such as an excess or lack of moisture (gland secretion),
local perspiration, atrophy of the skin and falling out of hair, which
may be present without other sign of local disease, but indicating some
fault in the blood or nerve supply. -
Some writers have preferred to classify skin diseases according to
their symptoms, but the most simple and useful classification in help-
ing to an understanding of their nature and treatment is that based on
causes. Owing to its large exposed surface, and being the part where
we come in contact with all the outer world, the skin is subject to in-
jury such as most of the internal Organs escape, and if it become
burned, chafed, bruised, or inflamed, it is further aggravated by the
invasion and irritation of parasites, always ready to pounce upon it and
lend a hand in increasing its afflictions. There is a great variety of
animal and vegetable parasites, from the ubiquitous microbes, to the
penetrating itch-mite and the peripatetic louse. As to the microbes and
some vegetable fungi, it is a debatable question whether they ever lay
hold on a man’s hide and begin a disease as first cause, but certain it is
that there are plenty of them ready to revel in it if “the soil is pre-
pared ” by a letting down of general health, or if an opening be offered
by local injury. In one skin disease, due to “constitutional weakness,”
as many as eighty varieties of bacteria and fungi have been found in
the scaly secretions—a rich field. It may be that there are some per-
sons upon whom the itch-mite, the louse, the ringworm or barber's
itch fungi will not take hold, but there is no surety that a state of
health offers invulnerability to them.
THE CAUSES.
Aside from hereditary birth-marks and the purely local results of
injury and parasitic irritation, the causes of skin diseases are nervous,
or blood, or both. The champion blood disease—syphilis—has been
called “the great imitator,” because it has manifested itself in all forms
of skin disease, and from this fact it is fair to conclude that all these
varieties, when syphilis is not present, may be due to blood impurities
of some other Origin.
In short, what one blood poison can Surely do another may, and so
we find some of the most common forms of skin disease accompanying
those states of malnutrition and imperfect elimination which constitute
SKIN DISEASES. 7I 3
what has long been known as the scrofulous state. This affords a
foundation upon which to erect a great variety of skin eruptions, from
lèchen scrofulosum, a rash of pin-head papules in patches of various
sizes, without much itching, to strumous ulcers, which spread slowly
and exhibit slight disposition to heal, or lupus vulgaris, in which the
bacilli of tuberculosis play an active part, taking advantage of the con-
genial soil which scrofula offers them.
URTICARIA—EHIVES, PLATE XII.
The irritating eruption which we early learn to call hives comes
with an over-acid state of the blood, induced by some error in diet or
indigestion, and is generally promptly relieved by a few doses of
any suitable alkaline medicine. Yet wrticaria is put in the class of
nervous diseases by a writer of a very recent and readable text-book
on this subject—Mr. Malcolm Morris, of London, England. He seemed
indisposed to make any class of skin diseases due to blood derange-
ments, and even writes of eczema, without giving it any particular place
in his arrangement of classification by causes, although admitting there
must be “some constitutional peculiarity’ as a basis, and that the state
of gout or rheumatism is “favorable to the continuance of a skin affec-
tion.”
The author is pleased to include urticaria in his list of nervous skin
diseases, because he finds it the result of a “reflex vasomotor disturb-
ance.” In writing of nervous diseases it was explained how the size of
blood-vessels and processes of nutrition are under the control of the
vasomotor branches of the sympathetic nervous system, and how
through any disturbance of normal action of one of these nerves dis-
orders arise in the parts supplied by it. As the tissue-changes or nutri-
tion of the cells which make up the skin as well as its blood-supply are
under control of “trophic nerves,” the direct relation between nervous
and skin diseases is easily understood ; but the state of the blood can-
not be overlooked, since it is often an impurity in the blood that irri-
tates the nerves and through them brings about the disorder in the
skin. There are some skin diseases apparently due to nerve dis-
turbance alone, but it is better to recognize as due to blood-impurity
those which can be relieved mainly by the removal of that impurity.
Yet there will be cases enough where both the nervous system and the
blood are so evidently out of order that it would be an error to lay the
blame on either one alone for a skin disease which could only be re-
lieved by giving due attention to both blood and nerves.
ROSACEA. PLATE X.
A blush is a temporary reddening of the skin due to an emotion
causing a nervous failure to control the blood circulation through the
238, *-
714 AFFECTIONS OF THE NERVES, BLOOD, AND SKIN.
vasomotor nerves, and no blood disorder is a necessary factor. If
through some more lasting disturbance of nerve-control the flushing
becomes a permanent blush, the congestive redness, as of cheeks and
nose, is called erythema or rosacea—roso-face would be a more home
talk name. The glands being over-stimulºited secrete too much, and
pimples arise until, after a time, “grog blóssoms” develop. This may
happen to persons not addicted to excessive use of liquors, but the fact
that over-indulgence in alcoholics and chronic dyspepsia are cited as
causes, shows that it is a skin disease in which the blood as well as the
nerves must be looked after. Chilblains, dusky red or bluish patches,
tender and itchy, occurring on hands and feet of scrofulous children
and enfeebled elderly persons, are erythematous, and frost-bête is a
further stage of the same process.
PRURITUS—ITCFIING.
Dr. Morris includes pruritus also among “neuroses,” meaning that
sort of itching which occurs “without any visible cause to account for
it”; but farther on he says: “The causes of it are mostly constitutional
—gout, rheumatism, jaundice and functional derangement of the liver;
diabetes, Bright's disease, dyspepsia, uterine disease or pregnancy.
Many sufferers from pruritus are the subjects of lithaemia or oxaluria.”
(meaning a retention of acids which ought to be eliminated by the kid-
neys). Whether those held-in impurities titillate the Superficial nerve-
sense bulbs directly or indirectly, the disease is more in the blood than
the nerves, and can only be relieved by cleansing the blood or paralyz-
ing the sensitive nerves, and of course the first method is the rational
and truly curative one. It is remarkable how serious this pruritus,
without apparent skin disease, may be—enough at times to “drive one
wild,” as its victims say, especially on going to bed. It is generally
quite extensive, skipping all over the body, but it may localize about
the genitals or anus, and then seems to be aggravated by the neighbor-
ing excretions. Such troubles are often due to errors in diet, especially
excessive use of coffee, and the way out of them is to Clean house.
PRURIgo.—When the blood state is a little worse there may be
something to sce as well as feel, and on the parts which itch intensely
will be seen slightly raised papules, giving a nutmeg-grater-like feel
to the touch, often with blood-crusts on them, if there has been much
scratching, and it is almost impossible to keep the hands off. It occurs
in infants and adults.
EIERPES. PLATE X.
IIerpes may be accepted as a skin disease of purely nervous origin,
and there are many varieties, from slight to serious. Ordinary herpetic
vesicles, about pin-head size, occur in clusters about the face, mouth,
plate x1.
P. H. T. PART II. THROAT DISEASEs.
THESE PICTUREs will Aid IN DIAGNosis of THRoar Diseases.
AFTER SKETCHES FROM Actual cases BY LEnnox BRow NE, F. R. C. s. E.
1. CHRONIC PHARYNGEAL cataRRH (common). 5, chronic schofulous, ENLARGED Tonslus.
2. TYPICAL SYPHILIric Mucous PATCHES. 8, cHRonic ENLARGED Tonsils FROM Quins.y.
3. ACUTE Tonsultis in A Gouty subject. 7. DiPHTHERITIC MEMBRANE on THE Tonslls.
4. Quinsy sore THROAT, on Tonsluts. 8. SoRE THROAT of scARLET FEVER,
-

COMMON SKIN DISEASES.
PLATE XII.
HIVES-URTICARIA.
PLAIN HOME TALK.

SRIN DISEASES. 7I 5
and genitals, with a sense of heat, tension, and some itching. They
are apt to disappear in a week or two, and the cure is hastened by ap-
plication of spirits of camphor. On the genitals the eruption is apt to
cause more irritation, and hence sooner attracts attention than real
venereal sores, and as there may be enlarged glands in the groin at
the same time the fear occasioned is not surprising.
IIenºpes Zoster is an eruption of such vesicles in the region Con-
trolled by one particular (diseased) nerve-branch on any part of the
body. It lasts from two to four weeks, and may leave permanent Scars
and disfigurement. This eruption, commonly called shingles, is apt to
occur on the body, below the arms and above the hips, but only on one
side. There may be a patch of it as large as a silver dollar, or a strip
extending almost halfway around the body. There may be no discom-
fort other than heat and stinging, but some cases are extremely painful.
Soothing local applications and warmth are helpful, and my Magnetic
Ointment has served well -
RCZEMA-SALT REIEUM. PLATTE XII.
Eczema, commonly known as salt rheum, may be described as a
typical example of skin discase due to blood humor, or to scrofulous,
catarrhal, rheumatic or gouty states of the blood. “Catching cold” or
getting a chill may produce an internal catarrh of the head, the lungs,
or the bowels, muscular rheumatism, joint inflammation or eczema.
What determines the location of diseased action, when the blood is thus
suddenly thrown into a state of fever, is not known ; but it is evident
from its relations as well as its appearance that an eczematous eruption
is “a catarrhal inflammation of the skin, originating without visible
external irritation,” and attended by serous discharge. Dr. Piffard
says: “No form of external irritation is capable of exciting true eczema
in a perfectly healthy individual. * * * It is due to retention and
accumulation in the blood of an undue amount of excrementitious sub-
stances which, under normal conditions, would be removed by the kid-
neys as fast as formed.”
Eczema makes its appearance in various forms, and often mixed
lesion, including erythema, papules, pustules, vesicles, scales, cracks
and crusts. Its appearance depends on location, chance of local irrita-
tion, and other factors; but essentially it is an inflammation, with red-
ness, swelling, heat and discharge—a catarrh. The oozing moisture
(serum) Cakes, Crusts, Cracks, makes fissures, and when the scales come
off there is left an angry, moist surface. Itching, heat, and discomfort
attend it more or less, according to the space involved, intensity of in-
flammation, and general state of the patient. A little may drive some
folks wild, while in others a good deal may be borne with slight com-
plaint. All parts of the skin are liable to it, but it is prone to attack as
716 AFFECTIONS OF THE NERVES, BLOOD, AND SKIN.
its favorite places the scalp, ears, palms, soles, surfaces about joints,
and, in women, the breasts. The anus and genitals are places where a
little of it will go a great way in making life seem not worth living.
The skin becomes thick and tender, and cracking makes performances
of the usual functions painful. It may take a turn occasionally and
be substituted by dyspepsia, gout or asthma, and Brocq (of Paris) says
that in children its rapid disappearance may be followed by dangerous
congestion of the lungs. It is not comfortable outside, but may do
Worse inside; and hence the importance of always employing against it
means for removal of causes as well as local palliatives or stimulants.
Inasmuch as eczema appears as a symptom of many different blood de-
rangements, and in both acute and chronic forms it is not possible even
to outline a treatment suitable to all cases, in the choice of local appli-
cations one will find comfort or relief in what is to another an unbeara-
‘ble irritant. Fresh water is a local irritant to most cases, and should
be used as little as possible. A little salt added to water makes it less
So, and salt-water bathing may be advantageous. Its Secretions, cracks
and crevices naturally offer an inviting field for parasitic microbes, and
their multiplication in such nests may easily make matters worse.
Some eminent teachers have attributed all eczema to parasites, but
while this is claiming too much, Some cases appear to be contagious,
for Jamieson has found the arms of nurses to become affected from
carrying babies with eczema about the nates, and it seems possible to
auto-inoculate it or extend the diseased surface on one's own body by
scratching, thus ploughing up new susceptible Soil and transplanting it.
OTHER SCALY SIGIN DISEASES.
Eczema in its many forms stands at the head of the list of the eigh-
teen more common skin diseases. Of the many thousand cases recorded
by members of the American Dermatological Association during ten
years eczema figured over thirty per cent., while even syphilitic skin
eruptions only gave eleven per cent. ; acne, seven per cent. There are
other inflammatory diseases of the skin of the scaly kind, and some-
times of doubtful causation, but pretty Surely not parasitic, which
cannot be described here fully enough to enable anyone to make a
diagnosis. Indeed there are cases that puzzle experts for awhile to
name them confidently. In Pityriasis there is an excessive scaling off of
flaky, bran-like scales, of dirty gray color. In Lichen there are solid,
red, pin-head or pea-size papules, with glazed, shiny, or scaly top, oc-
curring in groups, mainly on the limbs. Treatment, local and consti-
tutional, is based on the same principles as in eczema. Psorºasis is a
more common disease that may easily be mistaken for eczema ; but its
scaly patches are dryer, sharply defined, and less incrusted. Its erup
tion varics in size from a pin-head lesion to a silver-dollar, and its Scales
SKIN DISEASES. 717
are silvery white. The process of free coinage is often as persistent or
irrepressible as the advocates of free silver. It occurs on the body and
limbs and on the face only along the border of the scalp. It can often
be quickly cleared off by pretty strong local applications, but of the
milder sort tar in ointment or solution is one of the best ; and gen-
erally constitutional treatment is also called for. Seborrhaea is a disease
common to the face and scalp, which is like, and perhaps allied to,
eczema ; and yet different enough to deserve another name. It is due
to excessive action of the sebaceous glands which, on the forehead or
near the nose, may only cause too much of liness or, on the Scalp, dry
scales called dandruff, with falling out of hair; but more commonly it
produces greasy crusts, or large masses that mat the hairs together.
There is less itching and inflammation than with eczema, but it is gen-
erally more extensive. The crusts can be removed by shampooing, and
the part treated locally by my Magnetic Ointment or a sulphur lotion,
but to prevent recurrence it is generally found necessary also to attend
to other symptoms of impairment of health, such as indigestion,
anaemia, scrofula, or general debility.
Overaction of the sweat-glands, Hyperdrosis, also results from de-
bility, and it may be general or troublesome only on hands and feet, or
about the armpits or genitals, an occurring thus locally it may be mal-
odorously offensive (bromidrosis). Astringent lotions, disinfecting
soaps, dusting powders, and stimulating ointments, are of much ser-
vice ; but a true cure is likely to require an improvement in the action
of the other organs of elimination—liver, bowels, and kidneys—for the
relief of the skin,
COMEDONES, ISLACK-HEADS, WORMS. PLATE X.
In many conditions of ill-health the secretions of the sebaceous
glands are liable to become too viscid, and stick instead of flow, thus
filling the glands with comedones or black-heads, which can be pinched,
Squeezed, or pressed out in little plugs. These plugs, that some call
“worms,” are condensed Sebaceous matter, but in them may sometimes
be found, by aid of a magnifying-glass, a demodew parasite, with eight
stubby legs and a long tail. As it is not only found in comedones, but
may be found in healthy follicles (not blockaded or black-headed) it is
not considered causative. Squeezing out the black-heads, with as little
hurting as may be, gets rid of them, but to prevent more coming the
face should be steamcd or washed with hot water and ichthyol soap,
and my Magnetic Ointment applied to relieve irritation and stimulate
healthy action. This ointment, being anti-parasitic and sedative
(soothing), as well as slightly stimulating, is very useful in a large
variety of skin diseases, and especially good for hair and scalp.
7 I4 AFFECTIONS OF THE NERVES, BLOOD, AND SKIN.
*
vasomotor nerves, and no blood disorder is a necessary factor. If
through some more lasting disturbance of nerve-control the flushing
becomes a permanent blush, the congestive redness, as of cheeks and
nose, is called erythéma or rosacea—rose-face would be a more home
talk name. The glands being over-stimulated secrete too much, and
pimples arise until, after a time, “grog blossoms” develop. This may
happen to persons not addicted to excessive use of liquors, but the fact
that over-indulgence in alcoholics and chronic dyspepsia are cited as
causes, shows that it is a skin disease in which the blood as well as the
nerves must be looked after. Chilblains, dusky red or bluish patches,
tender and itchy, occurring on hands and feet of scrofulous children
and enfeebled elderly persons, are erythematous, and frost-bite is a
further stage of the same process.
PRURITUS—ITCHING.
Dr. Morris includes prwritus also among “neuroses,” meaning that
sort of itching which occurs “without any visible cause to account for
it”; but farther on he says: “The causes of it are mostly constitutional
—gout, rheumatism, jaundice and functional derangement of the liver;
diabetes, Bright's disease, dyspepsia, uterine disease or pregnancy.
Many sufferers from pruritus are the subjects of lithaemia or oxaluria.”
(meaning a retention of acids which ought to be eliminated by the kid-
neys). Whether those held-in impurities titillate the superficial nerve-
sense bulbs directly or indirectly, the disease is more in the blood than
the nerves, and can only be relieved by cleansing the blood or paralyz-
ing the sensitive nerves, and of course the first method is the rational
and truly curative one. It is remarkable how serious this pruritus,
without apparent skin disease, may be—enough at times to “drive one
wild,” as its victims say, especially on going to bed. It is generally
quite extensive, skipping all over the body, but it may localize about
the genitals or anus, and then seems to be aggravated by the neighbor-
ing excretions. Such troubles are often due to errors in diet, especially
excessive use of coffee, and the way out of them is to clean house.
PRURIGo.—When the blood state is a little worse there may be
something to see as well as feel, and on the parts which itch intensely
will be seen slightly raised papules, giving a nutmeg-grater-like feel
to the touch, often with blood-crusts on them, if there has been much
scratching, and it is almost impossible to keep the hands off. It occurs
in infants and adults.
HERPES. PLATE X.
Herpes may be accepted as a skin disease of purely nervous origin,
and there are many varieties, from slight to serious. Ordinary herpetic
vesicles, about pin-head size, occur in clusters about the face, mouth,
PLATE XIII.
P. H. T. PART II. HUMAN EYE.
-º-º-º: -
---
-
1. HUMAN EYE Fanous, Hand wall out away to show aloob-vesseus (Red and elue
Lines) and nerves (white Lines). Buack oval is the pupil, and around it the Ris
and oil-larly MuscLE.
2, HEALTHY RETINA, as seen ex opthal Moscope, showing optic nerve (white psk)
And Blood-vessel-s-
3. PALE WHITE DISK AND SHRUNKEN VESSELS seen in auntoness FRom ATRopray
or T. HE optic NERVE.



SKIN PARASITES. PLATE XIV. PLAIN HOME TALK.
RINGWORM OF
SCALP, FACE
AND BEARD.
TINEA VERSICOLOR.

SKIN DISEASES, 719
PARASITIC SKIN DISEASES.
Even though all persons may not be equally susceptible to annoy-
ance by parasites, it is fair to classify as parasitic those skin diseases in
which the parasite can be discovered, and where anti-parasitic treat-
ment cures the patient by killing off the parasites. Various skin dis-
eases. have been found directly due to the irritation of either animal
or vegetable parasites, and in the brief space to be allotted to their de-
scription we may as well take up the worst first, omitting more than
mere mention of bedbugs and other insects, which, though responsible
for many a skin irritation, do not abide with us, or rather upon us.
Scabies is a disease caused by the doings of the itch parasite and,
though it is only the female that goes below the surface in bur-
rows, she “sticketh closer than a brother.” She may bore half an inch
FIG. 243.
22% º
eSP/ 3% **-.
*s.
BURROW OF AN ITCH-MITE, HER EGGS AND EMPTY SHIELLS.
under the horny layer (epidermis), leaving her fifty eggs behind her,
and then die in her tracks, which, except in very uncleanly persons,
may be seen. The skin naturally exhibits inflammatory lesions from so
much irritation, and the result may be mistaken for eczema or other
disease, for there is great itching, which may add to and obscure the
symptoms. The burrows are most commonly found between the
fingers and toes, or on the wrists or breasts, and there is a vesicle where
she went in. If one can be picked up on the point of a pin it is visible
as “a pearly object,” though less precious than pearls. They “catch
on ” from one person to another, or are acquired by sleeping in another
fellow's bed or borrowing his clothes; but since they have been dis-
covered, and hospitals abound, the “itch '' is far less prevalent than of
yore, for a free bath with soft soap and plenty of sulphur ointment will
rout them if used diligently twice a week until the new generations are
disposed of, but the clothing must be treated as well as the patient, by
boiling or fumigating with sulphur.


720 AFFECTIONS OF THE NERVES, BLOOD, AND SKIN.
PEDICULI—LICE.
Pediculi, familiarly known as lice, being several times larger than
itch-mites, perhaps need no description for some of my readers, if their
memory carries them back to the time of mothers and fine-tooth combs.
What most persons able to read are not aware of is the terrible state of
disease that may occur to the heads of neglected children among the
slovenly poor for lack of the mother's combing. Mere itching is caused
by the wounds made by the lice in feeding, but this, with scratching
and filth, may lead to suppuration, scabs, and a “terrible mess.” Oleate
of mercury (five per cent.) which can safely be used externally with equal
parts of ether effectually kills them out, but nits glued to the hair will de-
velop a new crop unless removed by frequent washing with vinegar or a
solution of soda and borax. Besides head lice there are two other kinds,
one that prefers the body and another that en-
joys the pubic hairs (“crabs”). When there is
imuch itching then a search is in order, and if
the lice or their nits be found then “seeing is
believing.” The most effectual remedy is local
use of tincture of staphisagria (which, since it is
not everywhere to be found, may be obtained of
the Sanitary Bureau Department). There are
many other interesting animal parasites (to the
naturalist), since “for ways that are dark”
they are peculiar, but they are not common and
troublesome enough to des&ve particular mention here.
Coming to the vegetable parasites or fungi that make a heaven of
the home afforded by the human skin, we find several called tânea, not
because they are so tiny that only a high power microscope can show
their spores and filaments, but that fact may help to remind us of the
name. Since man lives So largely on plants, it is perhaps to be expected
that some forms of plant life should retaliate and make a moss-bank of
him, but whatever “the economy of nature” may have to do with para-
sitism, the fact is that many persons are physically as well as intel.
lectually moss-backs ; while, on the other hand, it is far easier to clear
away many of the spots on the skin than spots on character.
FIG. 244.
FEDICULUS PUBIS.
TINEA TRICEIOPEIYTINA–RINGWORM. PLATE XIV.
Most of us when children learned to recognize ringworm, but we
haven’t learned yet to call it by a better name—say ring-plant. We
notice it in variable sized rings on the face and hands of children, or in
the scalp. The centre is scaly and dull, while the margin is distinct,
red, and raised. On the scalp the hair becomes brittle, leaving a “field
of stubble” amid grayish scales. In adults it invades the beard only

How To CULTIVATE BEAUTY OF FACE. 721
(not the scalp), and is called barbers’ itch, or tinea sycosis or barba.
There it develops lumpiness or nodules and pustules, each one in a
hair-follicle, destroying the hair. By careful examination of bits of
hair or softened crusts under the microscope a vegetable fungus can be
found. It is contagious from child to child, or from dogs and horses
that have it, and through combs, brushes, and shaving materials. Such
$ infected articles may remain dangerous for two years unless thoroughly
cleansed with ammonia solution.
Ring-plant of the non-hairy surface is easily cured by any of many
parasiticides—kerosene, iodine, sulphur, mercury, carbolic acid, Salicy-
lic acid or chrysarobin (see Chapter XIII.); but when on the scalp
or in the beard it may involve a year's hard fighting, for the fun-
gus is deeply rooted in and about the hair-follicles, where it is difficult
to reach them with killing agents, and such cases had better be put in
a doctor's care. It is generally necessary to pull out every hair in the
diseased area and a few around it, in order to get the lotions into the
hair-follicles where the fungus has penetrated. In the beard it is a
“stayer,” and may leave permanent scars and bald spots, if not prop-
erly weeded out. Its growth is favored by warmth and moisture, and
it is well not to wash affected spots with water alone.
TINEA WERSICOLOR.—PITYRIASIS. PLATE XIV.
Tºnea versicolor is another fungus that spreads on the skin, and
may occur over large areas of the trunk, causing a yellowish brown or
“fawn’-colored stain, with slight itchiness, increased by getting over-
warm. It extends slowly, does no harm, prefers adults and men, and
is contagious; but there seems to be some state of the system which
makes it easy for it to take root and hold on. Morris claims that
“neither good health nor absolute cleanliness is a sure protection,” but
my experience is that “alterative” treatment aids to prevent new crops
when there is great tendency to their development. Thorough wash-
ing with Soft soap and water, rubbing with a flesh-brush and the appli-
cation of a Solution of hyposulphite of soda (one dram to make one
ounce), is the “regular” treatment; but I have found my “Magnetic
Ointment” to be a very effective antidote to this growth. In smaller
areas some call this stain “liver spots,” a name more appropriate for
other discolorations really due to torpid liver and constipation.
How to Cultivate Beauty of Face.
If eyes were made for seeing,
Then beauty is its own excuse for being.—EMERson.
Emerson was right when he penned the above couplet. If we were
all blind like ground-moles, it would make little difference how we
722 AFFECTIONS OF THE NERVES, BLOOD, AND SKIN.
looked, if we kept ourselves clean inside and out. But just as things
are, it makes a wonderful difference whether we look ugly or Comely.
It not only affects our own aesthetic tastes when we stand before the
mirror, but it materially affects our social rating when mingling with
the outer world. Hence, men and women need not accuse themselves
of being ridiculously dudish if they give reasonable attention to what
is commonly called personal good looks. A real dude is defined by
our lexicographers as “a person who renders himself socially conspic-
uous by the affectation of an exaggerated fastidiousness in dress, deport-
FIG. 245, ment, discourse, etc., or one un-
duly devoted to the niceties of
dress or manners.” Even rea-
sonable care for the quality and
comeliness of our clothing is
commendable. Plain ness of
face and feature is compatible
With physical wholesomeness,
but facial disfigurements such as
we have been reviewing in the
closing portion of this chapter,
are indicative of disease and, in
Some cases, of vice a n d un-
cleanliness. I shall not there-
fore conclude what has been
presented on “Affections of the
Nerves, Blood, and Skin,” with-
FAIR AND SIPOTLESS. out giving Some practical advice
upon the cultivation of the beauty of the skin, face, and hair, for
even the hair which adorns or disfigures our persons has its rootage in
the skin, and the nutrition, health, and appearance of both skin and hair
depend on the richness and quality of the blood, but external influ-
ences count also, as I will soon show.
Several of the skin diseases already described are likely to appear
upon the face, and thus Occasion more annoyance than when they take
hold upon a part that is under cover of the clothing. The exposure of
the face and neck to sun and air may even invite the occurrence of a skin
disease that must come out somewhere. Many of the most persistent
skin diseases have a mean sort of predilection for exposed parts. Plain
pimples may be abundant on the face, while the rest of the body is
almost clear and clean. Ringworm, barber's itch, and other parasitic
affections appear more often on face and head than other parts.
Every facial blemish, due to the operations of an animal (or vegetable)
spore parasite, needs local treatment in form of lotion, Salve, or
soap, to kill off the invader. Some parasitic troubles seem to

HOW TO CULTIVATE BEAUTY OF FACE. 723
locate only on preferred soils, not taking hold on everyone, and in such
cases, alterative, constitutional treatment is necessary in addition to
direct local methods. When the disease is mainly from blood impurity
and the parasites are only incidental, much as flies hover about sores,
the local treatment is less imperative than the constitutional, but not
unimportant. Such growths as moles, warts, and wens seem to occur
and recur in some cases more than others, and the discoloration called
“liver spots” on women evidently has close relation to congestion of
the womb. All of these can be readily and completely removed by
local treatment, but unless something is done to improve the general
condition more such blemishes
are liable to appear. Mere dis-
coloration and some Scaly, erup-
tive blemishes can be fought
off with Anti-parasitic soap, £º
Ichthyol soap, or Sanitary -
Emulsion, but growths above
the surface like warts or moles
require something to eat them
off. The Sanitary Caustic is a
safe one for self-application.
There are stronger caustics that
work faster, but they need the
guiding hand of a physician.
The surgeon’s knife is the
quickest eradicator, and some-
times the only real resource, for
wens, or enlarged glands be-
neath the real skin, that are, in
fact, little tumors. Wens in
the scalp can be easily peeled
out with a small in cision,
but those in the neck make
a difficult job for the operator. Dr. S. V. Thayer, of San Fran-
cisco, Speaks in favor of a “sunglass,” or convex lens for concen-
trating sunlight, as a means of burning off birth-marks, small superfi.
cial growths, and even some parasitic diseases. He finds that the irri-
tation and inflammation following its application are surprisingly light
and of short duration, and another point in its favor is that the pain
subsides immediately upon removal of the lens.” Some soft brown
moles may be rubbed off by repeated friction with the fingers while
using my Magnetic Ointment. They crumble away slowly, but two
or three weeks of this method will suffice, if the daily work be not
forgotten. (Advertisement of articles above mentioned on page 1230)
Fig. 246.
3.
§
;
:
§
;
:
:
*...*** .
-
w
g
**.
§
§
s
§
NOSE MADE FROM FOREIIEAD.















724 AFFECTIONS OF THE NERVES, BLOOD, AND SKIN.
Women with liver-spots (cloasma uterinum) should not be content
to Wash them out with a “face-bleach,” however Successful, for re-
peated applications would be necessary to hold them off, and such
treatment may be overdone. The right way includes a treatment of
the Womb-congestion, and when that is cured, the face will remain clear
With Ordinary cleansing. In both men and Women, facial eruptions are
often due to sexual irritations, and no real or permanent relief can be
had without due attention to this cause. In women the appearance of
Superfluous hair, and in men, premature baldness, is often associated
With some sexual disorder, but not always. Many cases of sperma-
Fig. 247. torrhoea coming under my
care complained of “fall-
ing out of hair,” and there
Seems to be an unnatural
(Sometimes an uncomfort-
able) heat on the crown of
the head, when there is
irritation and congestion
of the sexual organs.
Both men and women may
suffer with headaches
from this latter cause.
So the rational treatment
of Some cases of this kind
or of too much or too lit-
tle hair on face or head,
as well as of face and scalp
eruptions, calls for due
NOSE MADE FROM THE ARM. attention to causes treated
Until the stitched parts shall have grown togeth- away down at the other
er the skin of the arm has to remain attached to end of the trunk of the
the latter. The end of the nose will be formed
later. body.
FIEAI,TII TLIE IBASIS OF BEAUTY.
General ill-health, or some special torpor of liver, kidneys, supra-
renal capsules or bowels, is often responsible for a bad complexion or
skin-stain, even when there is no actual blemish or eruption. Anaemia
makes the complexion pale and bloodless; malaria stains to a Swarthy
color ; cancer gives a peculiar tint; chlorosis (green sickness in girls)
has its characteristic tinge ; kidney disease produces a waxy-paleness;
and a rare disease of the supra-renal capsules causes a deep brown dis-
coloration, Mere constipation is enough to cause Sallowness or to impart
an unhealthy hue. No face-bleaches or other local applications can
wipe out these indelible stains of general blood disorders, and so the

HOW TO CULTIVATE BEAUTY OF FACE. 725
problem of how to be beautiful often involves much more than the cos-
metic expert may do. The fresh, clear, fine complexion of health and
youth cannot be closely imitated, and the real foundation for good
looks is good health, clean blood, and the fatty padding or fulness of
tissues which is based on good digestion and nutrition. When there is
great excess of fat or tissue-padding, it is not a sign of being too well
nourished, but of another form of faulty nutrition, and the overweight
and unwelcome fulness is not made up of good flesh. Obesity requires
some modification of the digestive processes as well as revision of the
individual’s habits. Valuable advise for the obese will be found under
the heading of the “Food
We Eat, ” in Part I. Ex-
treme thinness generally
means poor digestion and
nutrition, but while the
body generally is full
enough, some parts, like
the cheeks or breasts, may
lack fulness. Local mas-
sage (rubbing) with some
unguent that will be local-
ly absorbed more or less
each time, stimulates the
trophic nerves, the blood
circulation, and the local º º º, º sº ºr É
nutrition. My Magnetic & §§§§§§S º, .
Ointment has stimulating §§ * ºr m º *AS § 3.
properties that make it :*::::::::::::iii! tºº
useful for this purpose— JO JO THE DOG-FACED BOY,
especially in cases wishing
fuller development of the
breasts. For general leanness the reader is again referred to what is
said on “Foods” in Part I.
To look well one must, as a rule, be well as to general health, and
to be beautiful one must be good in habits of life essential to maintain-
ing health. There is, too, a mental as well as a physical side to looking
well. Fret, frowns, anger, worry, and the moods of grief and sorrow
draw their lines on the face as surely as the artist does who sketches a
woe-begone countenance. The signs of advancing age need not be al-
together concealed in order to grow old gracefully and beautifully, but
serenity of mind, kindliness of nature, and nobility of Character, will
help as much to maintain bright eyes and pleasing features as will good
digestion and hygienic habits. Wrinkles are bound to come. They
result from shrinkage of the under portion of the Skin, and contraction
No medical or surgical remedy for this.

726 AFFECTIONS OF THE NERVES, BLOOD, AND SKIN.
of fibrous tissues that tie the skin to the flesh it covers. To some extent
they are signs of character, and become part of fixed features, but
many “crow's-feet" can be manipulated, steamed, or rubbed out by
mechanical methods. The latest invention for this is an elastic ex-
haust cup, a rubber disk, shaped somewhat like a shallow saucer, so
that it may be pressed upon the skin, in a way to make a vacuum, into
which the flesh is gradually drawn. This of course, draws blood to the
part, and also loosens the flesh. -
I have said enough of the
necessity of maintaining good
health as the first essential in
the art of being beautiful,
but there is a hygiene of the
skin and face alone, and the
heartiest person is likely to
have a rather coarse, rough,
or Over-red skin if contin-
ually exposed to sun and
wind, or if left unclean day
after day. For local cleans-
ing of the skin covering the
face, relieving its pores and
stimulating its nutrition, sim-
ple hot water applied before
retiring, with much rubbing,
is the One Safe and old-relia-
ble cosmetic. In the morning
a cold water dash will suffice
and is tonic locally as well as
in Vigorating generally.
Neutral high class soaps are
Sometimes advisable in face
HORN ON FOREHEAD. Washing, but “cheap and
Pictured from an actual case. nasty " soaps have no util-
ity for personal use. Lemon-
juice, vinegar, or white wine and water, buttermilk, sweet milk, oat-
meal in the wash basin, or a bit of borax, are innocent and useful aids
to skin cleansing, bleaching, and softening. The home journals abound
with highly lauded recipes of endless variety, but one who starts out
to make them up or get them compounded, will generally conclude
that it would have been just as cheap and less trouble to buy some
ready-made article. Here are two of the “home-spun" kind, which
may safely be accepted on the testimony of those who have said they
are good. -
FIG. 249.

How To CULTIVATE BEAUTY OF FACE. 727
Soak one-quarter ounce of quince-seed in pint of Soft water on back
of stove until thick, strain through cloth, and to the Solution add one
ounce of glycerine, and two ounces of alcohol. Use externally.
Two ounces of green elder bark, scraped from young branches, one
gill of cream ; stew three hours in a covered porcelain dish, being care-
ful not to burn; strain and keep covered in a glass jar for external use.
Tecipes including sulphur, camphor, oxide of zinc, Salicylic acid,
and mercury in one form or another, may be all right, or they may be
faulty from printer's errors, and then again they may not fit your needs.
Some skins need something imparting a soothing influence, and others
a stimulating effect. Some of these free recipes are strong enough for
corn cures, and would take off the cuticle so quick as to make the face
SOI’e.
Mrs. Ayer, the New York World's expert adviser, offers a formula
for a skin-food, of which lanoline is the only easily absorbable fatty
ingredient. Spermaceti and white wax are less absorbable than mutton
tallow, but they are no doubt added to stiffen. I should rather advise
pure lanoline, even if not so “elegant,” as the combination. Here,
however, is what Mrs. Ayer advises: Oil of almonds, 6 ounces; sper-
maceti, 1 ounce; white wax, 34 ounce ; lanoline, 2 ounces; glycerine,
% ounce ; tincture of benzoin, 60 drops; melt the first four, and while
cooling, stir constantly, and add the benzoin. Her suggestion for a
“too-shiny” skin is rubbing with a camel's-hair face scrubbing brush,
“but it will take time.” This is no doubt good. Time, water, warmth,
rubbing, are the main “ingredients” of local hygiene, and if more is
needed, resort may be made to Soaps, emulsions, and ointments to kill
off parasites and stimulate nerves, blood, and glands.
Baldness is due to contraction and atrophy (wasting) at the roots of
the hair-follicles, and though often mainly due to general impairment of
health, some sudden affliction, acute fever, syphilis (very fatal to hair),
or lingering, exhausting disease. There are cases in which it is mainly
due to local thinning and tightness of the scalp, until sometimes “the
scalp of a bald person fits over the skull as closely as parchment tightly
stretched over a cannon-ball,” and as dry as the leather cover on a base-
ball. If this process is not allowed to go so far as to choke out all the
hair-follicles, something can be done to loosen the scalp, stimulate
blood circulation, and feed the tissues about the roots of the hair.
Again I may say that I know of no better article for this local
treatment than my Magnetic Ointment, well rubbed in twice a week, for
it combines the oily ingredient to soften the hard skin, as well as a
stimulating element to coax more blood there. The rubber disks or
Vacuum appliances are “the latest thing out ’’ for prevention of bald-
ness, and though I have no personal knowledge of their merits, I grant
that they act on the right principle, and ought to work well. Much
728 AFFECTIONS OF THE NERVES, BLOOD, AND SKIN.
more can be accomplished by massaging the scalp with the finger-tips
than is generally known, because few are persistent enough. They get
good instructions, stick to them a little while, and then forget, and the
Scalp is neglected. It takes time and persistence in such matters to get
results, while most people are too impatient to succeed in obtaining
them. The hygiene of the hair requires that everyone stick to his own
hair-brush, and keep it clean. The brush will bear and need alkaline
(ammonia) washing out oftener than the hair will. An occasional fresh
water cleansing for the scalp is needed, and less often a thorough
shampoo, but alkalies to hair and scalp tend to dry them too much for
their real benefit. When the brush
is clean and the hair not too thin
and brittle, its brisk daily use is
invigorating to the scalp, but in
parts nearly bald, the finger-tip
mass age is the saf cr stimulus.
Public hair brushes and those used
at home by several members of a
family are the means of transfer-
ring microbes of baldness from one
to another. There are vegetable-
spore parasites which destroy the
hair-follicles, and when their seeds
are but few, or sown but once, the
crop may be abundant, and there
results a pretty speedy loss of hair.
Hairs do not live as long as the in-
dividual, and some shedding all the
time is to be expected. One hair
may hold on from two to five years,
but when its time comes to fall out,
HAIR IN ITS FOLLICLE. another starts from the same folli-
cle if it remains vigorous. It is not
a bad sign if this falling hair shows the root-knob or thickened bulb-
end. It is all right that it should come Out, “roots and all,” in moder-
ation. The real root or matrix, however, does not come out. When
many short hairs are falling, it is a sign that they are coming out too
soon. Olive oil may serve as a simple fatty food for an over-dry scalp.
The hair need not be deluged with it, but only the scalp itself. When
a stimulus too is needed, it may be found with oil in my Magnetic
Ointment, which has the further advantage of being a good microbe-
killer. If a liquid hair tonic and microbe-killer is preferred, the fol-
lowing formula will provide these properties: Bay rum, one pint ; tinc-
ture of cantharides, one drachm; castor oil, one ounce; resorcin, one
FIG. 250.

r[OW TO CULTIVATE BEAUTY OF FACE. 729
drachm. It may be used on the scalp twice a weck, and should be well
rubbed in. While lack of hair “on the top of the head, the place where
the hair ought to grow,” is a more common complaint of men than of
women, it is more often the women who are annoyed by its growing
where it ought not to. So there is frequent inquiry for the best means
of abolishing this sort of nuisance. Most of the successful depilatories
are chemicals of a caustic kind that eat off the hair down to the sur-
face, and maybe some of the Sur- FIG. 251.
face of the skin too. They may
leave a superficial soreness, like
º
§§§)\º
º . % }
& º º %
º § º
ºš És
**ś
chapping, or even a redness that is 6 §§ W.
slow to fade. After trying several º: º
§ w
kinds, I have discarded them since
finding a far better way. It is a
true haº” eradicator that removes
the hair way down to the roots with-
out taking off any of the skin. It
operates mechanically and effec-
tively, and with little discomfort.
The hair is eradicated, but, will it
grow again 7 Yes, but it appears
far less quickly than after removal
by chemical depilatorics, and the
former mode of eradication if re-
peated several times injures the
matrix at the bottom of the folli-
cles, so that the power of reproduc- HAIR NASVUs,
tion or of starting new hairs, is An extreme, or unusually extensive case.
gradually destroyed. Its repeated
use is harmless to the cuticle and hurtful to the hair follicles. (See
page 1230 for further description of this and other Sanitary articles.)
Besides the aforesaid blemishes there are Congenital defects and
some facial deformities which can only be remedied by Surgical opera-
tion. Nevi, or “wine marks,” are due to an excess of vascularity
(i.e., blood-vessels), and this means an anatomical flaw which can only
be made over by surgery. Wens are lumps in scalp, neck, or face,
from enlarged glands. There is one short cut to cure, and that is with
a knife. Abnormal or unfortunate shapes of noses and cars are now
made over to suit the preferred styles of beauty, by skilful operators.
Even a nose that has been eaten or knocked off can sometimes be re-
stored in some shape from stuff borrowed from the arm. I must now
bring this chapter to a close, simply adding that those having any of
the affections treated therein requiring medical treatment will learn how
to proceed by reading the next chapter.
º
:
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ºſ
£7.
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CHAPTER xi.
AFFECTIONS OF THE EYES AND EARS.
#ºs' T is no slight undertaking to get through this
§ world with a pair of good eyes, and a brace
of ready ears. Nor do those people get
along very well who do not “keep their
eyes and ears open.” To have anything
\º like a fair chance in love or trade, two eyes
are as few as anybody can well do with.
y & Mºº The schoolmaster, the man who enters Wall
£º Street, the woman of great personal beauty, the widow
* of wealth, the reputed millionaire, and the mother of
\ twelve children, need eyes all around them, and ears as
We long as those of that much-abused animal which is
accused of having had a hand in the invention of the
mule. A medical work would therefore be incomplete without a chap-
ter upon the affections of the eyes and ears.
Nature’s Photographic Camera.
Before treating upon optical defects or diseases I desire to make
the reader acquainted with the organs of vision. What is the eye 7
What are its functions, and how does it perform the mysterious office
of seeing 2 The human eye, taken as a whole, may be regarded as a
globe; and although it cannot, like the planet, be divided into eastern
and western hemispheres, it may nevertheless be divided into hemi-
spheres which are subject to many subdivisions. The several parts of
the eye necessary to be defined for the purposes of this essay are the
sclerotic covering of the globe, to which should be added the cornea,
the two lenses—aqueous and crystalline—the vitreous humor, the
retina, and the optic nerve. Reference to Fig. 252, and its explana-
tions, will enable the reader to learn the location of these. The scle-

730
NATURE'S PHOTOGRAPHIC CAMERA. 731
rotic is a firm, fibrous, opaque, or untransparent membrane, covering
and protecting four-fifths of the globe, while the cornea, of transparent
fibrous tissue, covers and protects the balance, or front, central portion
of the globe.
This cornea also forms the anterior or front capsule of the aqueous
lens, convex in form, so as to converge or bring together the rays of
light as they pass this medium more dense than the atmosphere. Be-
hind the aqueous or fluid lens is located the crystalline lens, the cap-
Sules of which are of a firm, delicate, transparent texture, and its face
convex so as to still more converge or bring together the rays of light
which have passed through
the aqueous lens. The retina
lies in the posterior or back
hemisphere of the globe, as
represented in Fig. 252, and
presents a concave or hollow
surface, upon which to re-
ceive rays of light, giving the
form or image of any object
the eyes are turned upon. If
the two lenses—aqueous and
crystalline—are neither to O
greatly nor too slightly con-
vex, a perfect image of any
object presented is photo- 1, 1, 1, 1, the sclerotic membrane. Or What is
e usually called the white of the eye : 2, 2,
graphed OD. the re t in a , aS the COrnea ; 3, 3, 3, 3, the retina ; 4, crystal-
represented in Fig. 253. If line lens; 5, 5, iris ; the aqueous humor,
too convex, the image is which forms the aqueous lens, occupies the
formed before it reaches the space between the iris, 5, 5, and the cornea,
º g º 2, 2 ; 6, 6, the posterior or back chamber of
retina, as shown in Fig. 25 - v. v. Ҽ *
€ 5 g 8 3, the eye, which is filled with the vitreous
and the person is near-
humor.
sighted, so that Objects must
be held close to the eye to throw the image far enough back to produce
the perfect picture on the retina; if flattened or not sufficiently con-
vex, the retina is not far enough back to receive a perfect image of
near objects, and the latter must be removed away a suitable distance,
to have the picture of the image fall correctly on the retina (see Fig.
254). Persons thus affected are long-sighted, and their eyes are sup-
posed to be impaired by age. The eyes may be said to have three coats
or layers, this outer one firm to give form, and the middle one carrying
blood-vessels and pigment, and the inside lining, which is the sensitive
layer of nerves called the retina. The middle is called the choroid.
It remains to speak of the optic nerve. This nerve is attached to
the retina, or more properly speaking, the retina is a continuation or
FIG. 252.
VERTICAL SECTION OF THE EYE.

732 AFFECTIONS OF THE EYES AND EARS.
expansion of the optic nerve. It perforates the sclerotic back of the
eye, passes back to the cranium and connects with the sensorium, by
means of which, as by a telegraph wire, intelligence is communicated
to the brain of the various images which are from time to time formed
On the retina, and made mysteriously to pass before the mind's eye.
So far, we are allowed to understand how vision is affected ; but after
having fully pursued the philosophy of the material we come to the
psychical, and here philosophy must end and faith begin.
The eye is therefore Nature's way of making a photographic cam-
era, but the box is round instead of cubical, and the receptive screen
(retina) does not catch and fix the picture, but telegraphs each photo-
graph almost instantaneously to the brain centres of vision,
TIG, 258,
A.N. R.Y.E WITH PROIPER CONV EXITY.
a, is the object seen ; b, the cornea, which catches the rays of light reflecting the
image of the object ; c, the image properly focalized on the retina.
Nature invented the first adjustable iris diaphragm, a thin tissue
curtain with a small aperture in the middle, the size of which is regu-
lated by a delicate muscle which is controlled by nerves that react to the
light. Its receptiveness or quickness of action everyone has observed
in the eye of a cat. In comparative darkness the pupil—which is an
aperture of the iris—greatly enlarges to let in what little light there is,
while in strong daylight it contracts closely so that the nervous screen
of the retina may not be blinded by excess.
The eyelids are self-acting shutters which come into play “quick
as a wink” more or less involuntarily, to protect the eyes from excess
of blinding light, and are comparable to the shutters of a photographic
camera. The inside of the camera is always made of dark material,
for obvious optical advantage, and, so it is in the eye, the middle or
choroid coat, and the iris, providing the dark pigment. Like all cam-
eras, the eye has its lenses, but it beats the man-made invention in hav-
ing one that is adjustable for near and far objects, and it can be fo-
cused as required by the action of the ciliary muscle. This muscle con-
tracts upon and compresses the lens to alter its shape and increase its
convexity, and so the lens must be of flexible substance to permit this

NATURE'S PHOTOGRAPHIC CAMERA. 733
variation. Like other fibrous tissues of the body, its flexibility may be
somewhat impaired by age, and then Nature is helped out by one or
more pairs of convex spectacles unless its flexibility can be restored.
Some need several pairs of glasses for varying distances, just as the
“camera fiend” may carry about with him several lenses to fit one
camera and suit it to his long and short shots. Opticians have not yet
invented a flexible lens as adjustable and convenient as that of the eye,
and in that respect the eye is “peculiar to itself,” as an ingenious and
successful camera. The lens is necessary to reduce or condense a large
view to the small receptive screen of the eye, or the camera. The con-
vexity of the lens refracts or converges the outlines of the picture until
they finally reach a focus behind the lens at a greater or less distance in
proportion to its convexity; the more convex the sooner they will be
Too GREAT convKxITY, or sm ARPNEss of TRE Corn FA.
a, object ; b, the too convex, or sharp, cornea ; c, the rays of light converged, or
focalized, forming the image before reaching the retina. A person so affected
is called near-sighted.
brought together; the less convex the more remotely will they touch
each other. A. glass with a flat surface will not alter the direction of
the rays of light, and if the eyes were flat, they could not receive the
image of any object unless they were as large as the object itself. For
instance, to see an elephant near by, the eyes would need to be as large
as an elephant; and to see a building, as large as the building itself.
Now, everyone can see without eyes that it would be inconvenient to
carry around such immense organs of vision | A concave glass refracts
the rays asunder, and were the eyes to be concave, the retina would not
be large enough to receive the image of an object. It will therefore be
perceived that the lenses of the eyes should possess just the right de-
gree of convexity.
We occasionally meet with those whose eyes are too convex, and
who, as a consequence, are what is called near-sighted ; but when the
lenses of the eye are too flat for correct vision, it may generally, but
not always, be regarded as the result of artificial means, such as rub-
bing the eyes from the nose outwardly, either in washing or in friction.

734 AFFECTIONS OF THE EYES AND EARS.
-
izing them when irritated. John Quincy Adams preserved the convex-
ity and perfectness of his sight till his death (and he died at eighty-one)
by pursuing, from early age, the habit of frequently washing the eyes
and making the manipulations, in so doing, toward instead of from the
bridge of the nose. There are multitudes of cases of men retaining
perfect vision after the ravages of time have crippled all the other
organs and faculties. Some authors claim that presbyopia, or long-
sight, is often induced by age diminishing the quantity of the aqueous
humor, but the fact is that as the aqueous humor decreases in quantity,
it increases in density, and, inasmuch as increase in density adds to its
refractive power, what may be lost by the lens becoming less convex
is made up by its denser quality, so that the perfectness of the vision is
retained. It is in consequence of this humor being rarer or denser,
FIG. 255.
CORNEA TOO FILAT .
a, the object ; b, the cornea, too flat to converge or draw together the rays of light
reflecting the image of the object sufficiently to form the focus on the retina ;
c, is where the image should be formed, but d, is where the image would fall
if the retina were there to receive it. A person thus affected is called long-
sighted. Most old people have this difficulty, and they can, consequently, dis-
cern Objects at a distance better than they can those near by.
according to its quantity, that a large and small eye of equal convexity
may distinguish objects equally well. By this explanation, too, the re-
turn of the sight may be accounted for in some old people who, after
years of long-sightedness, requiring the constant use of convex glasses,
gradually regain their sight. The rubbing of the eyeballs in the wrong
direction from childhood flattens the cornea, and then sight becomes
defective. But old age brings density to the aqueous humor, and the
old eyes become as good as new.
How Old Eyes Can be Restored.
From the foregoing it appears evident that in most cases all that is
required to preserve the sight in perfection until death, unless accident
or disease destroys the structure or paralyzes the nerves of the visual
organs, or affects the adjustable lens, is to sustain the convex form of
the eye. Whether or not, simply care as to the manner and direction

THOW OLD EYES CAN BE RESTORED. 735
of manipulating it from childhood to age be sufficient to do this in all
cases, is not only uncertain, but, if certain, could prove of no very
great practical benefit to the present generation. Correct manipulations
can neither save the convexity of the eyes of those who are just becom-
ing long-sighted, nor restore those who are already laboring under the
infirmity. To reap the benefit of such a custom in middle or advanced
life, it must have been adopted in the nursery—learned with the A, B,
C, and followed up with the persistency which characterizes habits
generally. Its influence is not sufficiently marked to restore convexity
to the eyes of those already beginning to experience the inconvenience
of flattened lenses. They require something more potent—something
which will produce more immediate results. Knowledge regarding the
tendency of right and wrong manipulations is of value to those who
have not yet emerged from childhood, and parents should instruct
their children according to the hints herein given. Knowledge of this
kind will also be serviceable to those who regain the convexity of their
organs of sight, for art appears ready to come to the rescue of those
whose vision is already impaired or becoming so. We have knife-
sharpeners, Scissors-sharpeners, and pencil-sharpeners, and why not
have eye-sharpeners ? Every part of the human organism is susceptible
to physical impressions, except the large bones of the Osseous structure.
Women, by wearing tight clothing about the waist, acquire small
waists; the constant wearing of garters makes an indentation in the
flesh of the limb, which is noticeable after death ; tight-fitting shoes
make small feet, as is illustrated by the habits and physical character-.
istics of the Chinese ; tight-fitting rings worn long on the finger, pro-
duce ineffaceable evidence of their having been worn ; the common
practice of Germans, especially in their “fader-land,” of carrying bur-
dens on their heads, has undoubtedly something to do with the pro-
verbial flatness of their craniums; children who get into the habit of
reclining exclusively on One side, exhibit the effects in formation of the
face and head ; the infants of mothers who can only nurse them from
one breast, are liable to grow up with a depression on that side of the
face and head which came next to the breasts during the months they
derived their nourishment from the mother; the hair will curl if done
up in papers or twisted around the curling-iron ; naturally curly hair,
unless we except that incorrigible sort which grows on the head of an
Ethiopian, becomes straightened by Combing and brushing persistently
for a time. Now, it is equally true that physical impressions may be
made on the human eye, and that it can, with a suitable instrument, be
restored to its proper convexity. This is no mere theory but a fact
demonstrated by the experience of thousands who have, after years of
slavery to glasses, been emancipated through the agency of a simple
mechanical invention. The use of it is perfectly harmless, and can in
736 AFFECTIONS OF THE EYES AND EARS.
no way whatever injure the visual organs. The trouble of employing
it is nothing compared with the daily annoyance of glasses, nor is its
daily use necessary after a few months, according to the length of
time the eye has been flattening. Only a very few applications are
necessary for those who are just beginning to think it advisable to adopt
spectacles. I would most urgently commend this instrument to Such
persons before they be come
slaves to glasses, for artificial
lenses are liable to be laid down
anywhere, and at any place, to
the most aggravating inconven-
ience of the wearer, while the
natural lenses, if carefully pre-
served, are always where they
are wanted, and never left at
home, or the office, or work-
shop. Those who are already
enslaved to the spectacle-makers,
will need no urging to induce
them to avail themselves of the
discoveries of science and art, to
overcome their optical infirmity.
However defective their vision,
their eyes will not become tired
FIG. 256.
N
§N
§
WN
§
*',*:
º
§ºW %$ºſ.
" . . s º 㺠of reading this essay, which they
º §º will peruse, from beginning to
º $º-E=- end, with eagerness and pleas-
§§º-E-
ure, and hail with gratitude
their delive rer. A complete
history of this remarkable in-
strument, together with the tes-
timony of many who have employed it, interesting to all who wear
glasses, is given in a pamphlet—“Old Eyes Made New.” (See page
1248.) Enough letters commendatory of its utility have been received
to fill every page of this book, and in the pamphlet above referred to,
a few will be given as fair specimens of the many in the hands of the
author.
THE APPLICATION OF THE FINGERS FOR
NEAR-SIGHTEDNESS.
Near-sight, or Tlyopia.
The foregoing essay gives little but discouragement to a large class
of people who are affected with near-sight. Since I first introduced the
instrument for restoring far-sight, many years ago, I have been called
upon by swarms of pretending inventors—some greedy—others addle-




OTHER OPTICAL DEFEUTS. 737
pated—having in their hands some device for flattening the eye. Of
course it is not logical to say that side pressure upon the eye will impart
convexity, while a flat pressure upon the face of the same will not re-
sult in causing less convexity ; but there are two objections to the use
of instruments for flattening the cornea in cases of near-sight. First :
near-sight is in nearly all cases congenital. In other words, those so
affected were born with just such eyes, and consequently it is more
difficult to change Nature by attempting to flatten such eyes, than it is
to restore to convexity those which were originally right, but have be-
come flattened by age or bad manipulations. Second : no instrument
can be devised for producing pressure upon the face of the eye, so
complete as the balls of the fingers. I do not by any means deny the
utility of pressure upon the face of the eye in cases of near-sight; I
only call in question the merit of any mechanical instrument for that
purpose, while reminding all near-sighted persons that they cannot
expect as much nor as speedy benefit from this flattening pressure as
far-sighted people receive from the means I have devised for restoring
the convexity of the eye. Everyone having a particle of discrimina-
tion can see this ; but were I near-sighted my fingers should always be
employed, in my leisure moments, by placing the ball of the first finger
of my right hand on my right eye; the next one on the bridge of the
nose to steady the hand ; and the third on the left eye—both eyes be-
ing closed. With the elbow resting on a table, and the head slightly
bent forward to give an easy position, you have in this way, near-
sighted reader, the best instrument ever devised for improving your
vision, and I would urgently advise you to adopt it and use it persever-
ingly every day, though you may perceive no change for the better in
three months. In time it will affect your sight favorably, and you
might as well substitute a habit of thus pressing your eyes, for some
other habit which you are conscious injures you—smoking, perhaps.
The pressure may be gentle, and continued at each sitting for fifteen or
twenty minutes. Fig. 256, represents the position the fingers should
occupy in the act of imparting this pressure.
Other Optical Defects.
Besides far-sighted and near-sighted eyes, there are other defects
of construction whereby the sight is not readily and properly focused
as it should be, but very full explanation would necessitate more space
than can be allotted to them here. Hypermetropia is a congenital
defect in which even children are aided by convex glasses usually worn
by old folks; and astigmatism is another common abnormality which
calls for specially cut glasses of great variety. Astigmatic eyes do not
See all the spokes of a wheel (in a picture) equally plainly. Some eyes
are ºffected With both myopia and astigmatism, and there are other
738 AFFECTIONS OF THE EYES AND EARs
combinations of defects. The proportion of such defective eyes is in-
creased by the arts of civilization, and by putting the eyes to more strain
of Some kinds than they seem able to bear. Near-sight is known to be
developed largely in early school life, and probably by too long and
continuous viewing of near objects, fine print, etc., at a time when the
tissues are plastic and easily pressed into abnormal shapes. A news
item reports that half the white men offering themselves for examina-
tion for army service in 1898 were found to have defective vision, while
no colored men were disqualified on this account. The attention given
to optics has done wonders to aid all sorts of defective eyes, but it has
also enabled many persons so affected to continue overtaxing their de-
fective eyes until they have paid the forfeit in some form of blindness.
Many notably successful professional and business men could be cited
as terrible examples of this kind. If one must use defective eyes in
ways to which they are not well suited, he should have the best possi-
ble fit in spectacles by tests familiar to the expert oculists and opticians,
and not depend on fitting himself to glasses as he would to shoes.
Furthermore, many need to have new tests from time to time, and a
“new suit” of eye-glasses. The defects described are not to be classed
as diseases, but such eyes are more prone to disease than others, and
should be used with more care.
Diseases of the Eyes.
The more common diseases of the eyes are mainly the result of
accident, inflammation, or degeneration—wasting from malnutrition.
The most frequent accident is getting some foreign substance in the
eye, and the sooner it can be removed the better. Turning down and
up the lids often aids to find and dislodge it ; but a bit of steel or cin-
der may get fixed on the cornea in a way to need the care of a surgeon
as soon as possible. The prompt flow of tears is Nature's way of wash-
ing out such offenders, and often suffices for the minor ones, but those
which take hold and cling may soon excite acute inflammation and en-
danger sight. * ,
The deeper as well as the superficial layers of the eye are subject
to a variety of inflammatory diseases, but their diagnosis can only
be accurately made by means of examination with the ophthalmoscope,
a little but great instrument which enables the physician to see into the
interior parts. Most of these deep-seated diseases, even to cataract of
the lens, or atrophy of the optic nerve, are as surely the outgrowth of
blood disorders as is a simple stye on the lid, and some of the most
serious of them are symptomatic of diabetes, Bright's disease, syphilis,
etc. The diagnosis of such diseases, involving and threatening the
precious sense of vision, can only be safely entrusted to those who have
DISEASEs OF THE EYES, 739
opportunities to make special study of the subject; but from the nature
of these diseases their treatment often falls more appropriately to the
general specialist than the oculist.
Looking into the eye to see its fundus, or bottom, is like trying to
see what is in a jug. The inlooker cuts off the light, and all is dark
within ; but the ophthalmoscope is a little mirror with an orifice in the
centre by which light can be thrown by reflection from the mirror into
the jug or the eye
while the obser-
wer is stealing a
look through the
middle aperture.
It was the happy
thought of a Ger-
man named Hoff-
man, and its prac-
tical application
has liter a l l y
thrown great
light on the diag-
nosis of eye dis-
eases. The fun-
dus of the normal
eye, thus viewed,
FIG, 257.
is a fine picture, EXAMINING THE EYE WITH THE OPEITHALMOSCOPE,
of which you get .
a faint idea when you sight occasional glimpses of a cat's eye lit up by
a lamp-light. With the instrument it is possible to see the condition of
the optic nerve, and the delicate blood-vessels that enter with it. The
expert examiner can learn something not only of the state of the eye,
but also of the blood-vessels of the brain. The reader will find on
color Plate XIII. a pretty picture of the normal retina, and also one
that has lost sight through the wasting disease known as atrophy of the
optic nerve, which is nowadays not infrequently simply a result of
wearing out the vision by excessive use of the eyes. The very busy
millionaire merchant, well-known throughout the United States, Mr.
Charles Broadway Rouss, has in vain offered a fortune for a cure. He
seems to have had unlimited capacity for work, except with the eyes,
and they are practically used up—dead beyond redemption—in the
nerves (optic nerves) which in good condition would be capable of
wiring views to the brain. The beautiful picture of the anatomy of
the eye on Plate XIII. will help the reader to appreciate its wonderful
structure, its intricacy, delicacy, and consequently the need of care in
its use, - -

740 AFFECTIONS OF THE EYES AND EARS.
The most serious diseases of the eye are of course those in which
organic change has occurred, but this is generally due to, or preceded
by, some constitutional disease that impairs the quality of the blood, or
the tone of the nervous system, so that it is through gradual interfer-
ence with its nutrition that the eye has become inflamed, hardened,
softened, or wasted in part. There are many cases of eye trouble not
so far advanced, which depend almost entirely on a state of general ill
health. Mere lack of nerve-tone, or nervous debility may first express
itself in tired eyes that cannot work long or steadily at anything ; and
in another way the eyes may suffer from what we call reflex nerve-
symptoms—as when they suffer from disturbances of the digestive or
sexual organs. In many cases the eye symptoms need no other treat-
ment than that which is directed to the seat of the disease. But when
the blood is quite impure, the eyes may suffer from congestion, ca-
tarrhal inflammation, or neuralgia, and in such cases local treatment
for the eyes is of less effect than the use of means to improve the qual-
ity of blood with which they are served. Considering the vascularity
of the eye, it is not at all surprising that impurities make them wince
or inflame. Any reader of this volume who has any defect in
the vision, is at liberty to consult the author by mail or in person with-
out cost, and if it be a case requiring the medical or Surgical treatment
of a skilful oculist, he or she will be conscientiously so advised. If it
should be a case resulting from some derangement of the vascular, ner-
vous, or digestive system, or from affection of the vital organs, the suf-
ferer can be directed to the right path for recovery. Answers to the
questions on page 761 will be sufficient to enable me to give the re-
quired advice,
Chronic Sore Eyes.
The mechanism of the eye is such, that the presence of inflamma-
tion or congestion in them is exceedingly mischievous. To perform
its offices easily it has to be kept well lubricated. To this end the lin-
ing of the socket is not only provided with sebaceous glands, but over
each eye, in the upper part of the cavity it occupies, there is a reser-
voir called the lachrymal gland, which pours out upon the ball a fluid
slightly mucous and saline; and, to make the arrangement complete,
at the inner corner of each eye there is a canal, the orifice of which is
large enough to admit a bristle, and which in health conveys off any
excess of this fluid, as well as that which has become too old to be
made useful. These canals connect with the nasal duct. To prevent
the lachrymal fluid or tears from running down over the face of the
eye when open, there are a number of minute glands along under the
edges of the lids which secrete an oily substance. This, with the im-
CHRONIC SORE EYES. 74 I
perceptible pressure of the edges of the lids upon the eyes, holds back
the watery secretions, which pass down around the inner edges (as if
eave-troughs confined them) to the tear-ducts before described. The
oil-glands at the edges of the lids also prevent the latter from becoming
a-glued or stuck together during sleep. Without them it would be
difficult to get the
eyes open in the
morning. Even the
eyelashes at their
roots have the oily
Secretions common
to all hair, which
lubricate them, and
prevent them from
becoming adhesive
when moistened
with the watery se-
cretions of the lach-
rymal glands. In
addition to all this
ingenious and won- 1, Lachrymal or tear gland; 2, 3, its ducts; 4, its Ori-
derful mechanism fices; 5, mucous membranes of the eye ; 6, cartilage of
y the lid , 7, sebaceous glands; 8, their orifices On the
lid ; 9, tear-ducts to convey tears to the nose.
FIG. 258.
MECHANISM OF TELE EYE.
the veins of the
eyes in health are
too small to admit the red corpuscles of the blood, and it is by this ar-
rangement that the whites of the eyes in health preserve their clear-
ness, and the lenses are enriched by colorless blood, for otherwise the
vision would be obstructed by specks, spots, patches, etc., even in
health.
With the foregoing brief description of some of the mechanical.
arrangements of the eyes, it may be readily seen how inflammation or
any undue pressure of blood upon the organs of vision, and their im-
mediate surroundings, will interfere with the proper performance of
their functions. When inflamed, red, feverish corpuscles enter the
veins, they redden the sclerotic or white of the eye; they distend the
veins of the eyelids and linings of the sockets; they vitiate the secre-
tions of the lachrymal glands, or reservoirs over the eyes, making
them scalding in their properties; they dry up or make gluey
the oily secretions of the glands along the edges of the eyelids, and also
those which keep the eyelashes from becoming matted or stuck to-
gether. When all these derangements take place a person has what
are commonly called sore eyes, and technically, ophthalmia. When
the difficulty survives the immediate cause which precipitated it,
whether the immediate cause be cold or catarrh, or something getting

742 AFFECTIONS OF THE EYES AND EARS.
into the eye, or local infection, or contusion, or, if it comes on gradu-
ally without any known immediate cause, it may be called chronic
SOre eyes, or chronic ophthalmia.
Sore eyes induced by a cold may simply present an inflamed and
SWOllen appearance, with a profusion of water, and sensitiveness to
light ; induced by catarrh, similar symptoms with an exudation of
unwholesome mucus; induced by something entering the eye, Sore-
ness, and sometimes great pain attended with an excessive flow of
the lachrymal fluid ; induced by contusion, similar symptoms to those
just described; but when induced by infection such as leucorrhoeal or
gonorrhoeal or syphilitic matter, or perpetuated by scrofulous or syph-
ilitic impurities in the blood, the discharges are purulent, with all the
foregoing symptoms combined ; and the poisonous matter which is
exuded, if brought in contact with the lids of healthy eyes, prove conta-
gious. It is believed by some people that simply looking into such
eyes will affect healthy ones; but I am confident that all such supposed
cases came some way in contact with at least a particle of the diseased
virus. In a family, for instance, where chronic sore eyes attack one of
the children, and then the difficulty spreads to several others, it will
probably be found on close investigation that they have played with
each others' toys, or wiped on the same towel, in either of which ways
a little grain of the diseased matter may have been communicated to
the eyes of the healthy child. Women having had leucorrhoea, and men
affected with gonorrhoea; or others of either sex having syphilitic ul-
cers or sores, should always be extremely cautious not to touch the
fingers to the eyes after they have been in contact with the affected
parts, and should carefully avoid wiping the face with the same towel
used for wiping the hands. Health officials have of late announced
that the prevalence of sore eyes, and even the proportion of blind per-
sons to the whole population, is on the decrease as a result of instruct-
ing school children and restricting them in the exchange or indiscrim-
inate use of towels, handkerchiefs, etc. If “publicity, publicity, pub-
licity,” by proper education, has been thus proven to be of great ser-
vice, the hundreds of thousands of copies of this book which in years
past have been issued with the above instructions, must have served a
useful purpose. Greater care during childbirth to insure cleanliness of
the mother and prevent contamination of the infant’s eyes has also pre-
vented many cases of blindness from the ophthalmia that used to be
common in babies just born.
In the treatment of chronic sore eyes the blood must receive the main
attention. No case will become chronic unless the blood was previously
impure, or became so by the infectious matter with which the eyes
were inoculated. I have cured many cases without any local treat-
ment whatever; but when the latter is resorted to, it should be of a
CROSS EYES.
743
mild healing nature, and always accompanied with thorough medica-
tion for the blood.
Cross Eyes.
The muscles that roll or direct the
eyeball are six in number—for each
eye—and their coöperation when they
do work in harmony is one more of the
wonders of vision, besides being a
beautiful sight to see—when in the
presence of a particularly pretty pair
of eyes; but the cross-eyed lass is at a
disadvantage as well as her visitor. He
may think she is casting a glance at
some other fellow, when he only is the
man in her eye. Cross-eyed school-
masters are always a great bother to
the boys, who naturally perpetrate
their mischief when the eyes of the
teacher are apparently not on them ;
but when the tutor has optics like any
of those given in the annexed illustra-
tion, and especially if like C, the boys
are entirely adrift, and find it unsafe
to look off their books, or throw paper
bullets at their fellow-students. There
can be no doubt that all congenital for-
mations of this kind were originally
intended for school-masters and school-
ma'ams, but the fall of man has so
mixed up things, that Cross-eyes seem
to present themselves here and there
without a particle of reference to avo-
cation, and School-boys are not often
enough afflicted with teachers having
them.
In the annexed illustration, A repre-
sents a single Convergent Squint; B, a
CROSS EYES.
double convergent Squint ; 0, a double divergent squint ; and D a con-
vergent and divergent Squint. The displacement of the eye in any one
of the cases illustrated, if congenital, or in other words, when the per-
son affected Was born So, results from the natural contraction of one
set of muscles, and the natural extension or relaxation of those on the
opposite side; but this same position of the eyes may be produced by

744 AFFECTIONS OF THE EYES AND EARS.
disease affecting the muscles; or it may be acquired by practicing it
for Sport ; or a weakness of one set of muscles and a contraction of the
Other may gradually take place without any visible cause. Strabismus
generally must be treated both medically and surgically, and in my
surgical department all operations of this kind are performed by an ex-
perienced operator, who does the work so expertly as to give the pa-
tient scarcely a particle of pain. When there is cerebral affection or
weakness of the eyes, medication alone will sometimes overcome the
difficulty, but if not, it should either precede or immediately follow an
Operation.
OTELER DISEASES OF THE EYE
will not be presented here, as more space than was originally appor-
tioned to this division of the chapter is already occupied. I will, there-
fore, call the reader's attention to diseases of the ear, after remarking
that all affected with any diseases of the eyes are at liberty to consult
the author, without fee, in relation thereto. In all letters of consulta-
tion, answers to the questions on page 761 should be given.
Defective Hearing,
If the non-professional reader could follow me through all the cir-
cuitous paths of the ear without becoming befogged with the technical
names anatomists have bestowed upon the various organs therein ; if the
common mind could be made conversant with the complex physical
machinery of the organs of hearing ; and then, if we could all of us
comprehend the mysterious, ever-hidden connection existing between
the physical organs of sense and the conscious principle, we might
cease to wonder at, but never to admire, the peculiar mechanism by
which all of us, gifted with the sense of hearing, are made conscious of
so much that is passing in the material world through that remarkable
something we familiarly denominate Sound.
Your friend speaks to you. How are you made aware of the fact,
and of the impression he wishes to convey to your mind Ž He expels
from his lungs currents of air, shaped by the organs of the throat and
modified and chopped off here and there by the motions of the tongue
and lips, so the air moves toward you in what may be called articu-
late waves. These fall upon the external ear, which is so modelled as
to conduct them into the orifice, where they soon come in contact with
the ear-drum, technically called the tympanum. This instantly vibrates
in perfect accord with the motions of the articulate waves, and the vi-
brations of this organ in turn set in motion other waves in the air con-
fined in the cavity beyond, when motion is communicated to reeds of
delicate bones—the smallest bones in the body—and to fibres of muscle,
which vibrate like the reeds of an organ when acted upon by currents
DEFECTIVE HEARING. 745
of air, or the strings of a violin when agitated by the finger or bow.
Thus further modified and intensified, these waves move onward
through irregular cavities, circuitous canals, convoluted tubes, and
delicate membranes, all of the most wonderful complexity, until
reaching the labyrinth, or parlor of the ear, where there are cushions
of fluids upon which they fall and set in motion multitudinous little
granules of calcareous matter, whose agitation frictionizes the sensi-
tive, minute branches of the auditory nerve, which penetrate the sacs
confining the granules. This influence conveys to the mind what is
commonly called sound ; but just how this is effected no human anat-
omist or physiologist is likely ever to be able to determine. The pho-
nograph, graphophone, and other wonderful inventions of the latter
part of the nineteenth century, impress one as nothing else can, with
the extreme sensitiveness of the normal nerves of hearing. When
those nerves are, so to speak, in tune, observe in the workings of the
instruments referred to, how simply the rapid revolutions of what are
called the “records” will, with their lines and dots which are some-
what similar to embossed writing, set in motion atmospheric waves
capable of reproducing the human voice, and faithfully reporting a
communication or an address; or, parrot-like, reproducing the music
which the instrument has caught upon the surface of its plastic cylin-
ders in some opera or music hall. Considering the complexity of the
hearing machinery, and the delicacy of the various parts composing it,
exceeding in some respects the wonderful mechanism of the eye, it is
not at all strange that many are affected with partial and some with
entire deafness. Not a single tube can be closed, not a bone or fibre
destroyed, not a particle of change in quantity or quality of the fluids
of the sacs, or those moistening or bathing the membrane lining the
canals or cavities, occur, without affecting the accuracy of the impres-
sions conveyed to the mind through the mechanism of the ear.
Let us briefly look into the most common causes of defective hear-
ing. We will commence as soon as we penetrate the orifice. In what
is called the external opening, between the outer orifice and the ear-
drum, there are yellowish colored glands which pour out upon the lin-
ing of this canal a fatty, albuminous, yellow substance, possessing
some of the properties of bile, which we call the ear-wax. The true
office of this secretion is probably to exclude insects from the ear, as
it is disagreeably bitter and adhesive. Flies, mosquitoes, fleas, and the
minute inhabitants of the tenement bed-chamber could make as little
headway through this secretion as they could through molasses, while
its flavor to their epicurean teeth would be far less palatable. So
long as this secretion is not deficient, excessive, or vitiated, this portion
of the ear generally performs its function properly. But if it dries up,
bacteria or insects may nestle there, irritate the canal, and obstruct the
746 AFFECTIONS OF THE EYES AND EARS.
vibrations of the air; if it becomes excessive, or gluey and dense, then
the canal is obstructed, and in some cases completely filled up. A de-
ficiency, excess, or vitiation of this secretion, called car-wax, may
therefore render the hearing defective. Children have a propensity to
poke beans and other small things into the ear and even forget having
done so, in consequence of which many a trouble with the ear of a child
originates from this cause, and it may only produce partial deafness, or
FIG. 260.
TEIE EIUMAN EAR.
1, external auditory canal ; 2, drum of the ear ; 3, 4, 5, the chain of three bones
stretching across the middle ear, popularly called the hammer, the anvil, and
the stirrup ; 7, part of internal ear called the semi-circular canals ; 11, 12, an-
other part of internal ear, called the cochlea or shell ; 13, auditory nerve ;
14, ICustachian tube leading from the throat.
a local inflammation and discharge. Gently and persistently injecting
warm soap and water may remove some such foreign substance, but
beans and peas may absorb moisture, swell, and become too closely im-
pacted to be easily dislodged. So it often becomes necessary to call
upon the skill and instruments of a surgeon to remove these obstruc-
tions or to clear the external orifice of the ears of plugs of wax, which
have become hard and firmly anchored therein. Adults sometimes in-
troduce small pledgcts of cotton and forget all about them after they
have been a few days lost sight of.
The external opening of the ear terminates with an organ called
the tympanum or ear-drum, a membrane nearly circular in form, and

DEFECTIVE HEARING. 747
fastened in a bony ring. Its external surface forms a conical concavity
highly polished, and in the living subject the membrane is nearly trans-
parent. Naturally it is without orifice, but in some persons, by disease
or accident, it may have become slightly perforated without materially
affecting the hearing. If, however, this organ be greatly perforated,
or nearly or quite obliterated ; or if it be thickened or indurated; or if
the muscles controlling it be weakened or destroyed, hearing may be
defectivo or lost altogether.
The inner side of the ear-drum is what is called the cavity of the
tympanum. This must be supplied with air to make the hearing com-
plete. The air reaches it by what is called the Eustachian tube, which
opens like a trumpet, large enough to insert a pencil-point in the
throat, and extends along upward and backward, for nearly two inches,
when it opens into this cavity; but the lining of the latter secretes a
mucus, with which to moisten its walls, and in disease this secretion
may be thick and excessive, in which case it fills up the Eustachian
tube, and thereby excludes air from this cavity, and in many cases fills
the cavity itself. Or, if the mastoid cells or sinuses, which have an
opening in the cavity of the tympanum, nearly opposite the Eustachian
tube, be the seat of irritation, the secretions of these may deluge the
cavity or clog the tube. In some cases, these walls, cavities, and tubes
are affected with catarrh, and become congested with catarrhal mat-
ter. Whenever or however they are obstructed, the person so affected
cannot hear distinctly, if at all.
The most common seat of deafness lies just here in the drum of the
car, in the small space at the inner end of the Eustachian tube ; and
the most frequent cause is the extension of catarrhal disease along the
membranous tube, from the throat, or a catarrhal inflammation begin-
ning in an acute cold affecting the space of the drum. Acute disease
hereabouts may destroy various delicate parts, distort the little bones,
and totally destroy the hearing apparatus, or chronic catarrh may
thicken the drum, distort its form, bind down the bones, and thicken
the membranes of the middle ear space so that normal vibrations are
greatly impeded. Ninety per cent. of cases of impaired hearing are
due to this condition of the complex organ of hearing, and ninety per
cent. of humanity have more or less of it at some time in their lives,
with temporary or permanent loss of hearing to some degree in one or
both ears. It sometimes happens that the labyrinth, with all its deli-
cate appurtenances, becomes the seat of disease, obstructing communi-
cation with the tympanum, or causing such a change in the fluids of the
sacs containing the calcareous granules, that the auditory nerve fails to
receive any impression from the vibrations going on in the tympanum,
or its vicinity. In either case, partial or entire deafness must ensue.
748 AFFECTIONS OF THE EYES AND EARS.
Ulcerations sometimes take place in the delicate organs of the ear.
It is terrible to have such visitations here, for they are liable to destroy
the walls of the tubes, canals, and cavities; to eat away entirely the
ear-drum, and to break up and destroy the delicate bones and muscles,
forming the reeds and strings, and to expel them through the external
opening in the form of offensive matter. Entire deafness sometimes
results from these ulcerations.
No form of disease, however, can be more complete than that
caused by paralysis of the auditory nerve. All the other organs of the
ear may be in complete order, and mechanically vibrate to every atmos.
pheric impulse. The articulate waves may move along regularly through
all the natural cavities and tubes, and enter the labyrinth with the
greatest precision and order; they may set in motion all those peculiar
little granules which play upon the termini of the auditory nerve, but
if the latter be paralyzed, no intelligence whatever is conveyed to the
brain. This line of telegraph is practically down, and although the
brain may be in communication with the external world by telegraphic
connection with the eyes and other organs of sense, no message what-
ever is received via eardom. The approach of paralysis of the auditory
nerve is usually heralded by noises in the head, ringing and roaring in
the ears, and, in some cases, by acute pain. There are constantly mo-
tions taking place in the atmosphere of so slight a nature that the
healthy auditory nerve is not impressed by them. If you please to call
them sounds, then there are sounds of which the normal auditory nerve
takes no notice. But when that nerve becomes irritated or inflamed—
as sensitive as a tender tooth—it feels every impulse of the air, however
slight, and considering the forms of the canals through which these
impulses pass, the sensation conveyed through the irritated nerve to the
brain is more commonly that of roaring. This is undoubtedly mainly
due to what is called the cochlea, which is a conical tube so convoluted
that its form resembles the shell of the snail, having, however, two cavi-
ties, one of which begins at the vestibule and the other at the tympa-
num, and continues through its whole extent. Nearly everybody has
undoubtedly noticed what a roaring noise a large shell produces when
held near the ear. When the auditory nerve has only the sensitiveness
natural to it in health, the shell needs to be nearly or quite as large as
a hen's egg; but when it has the acute sensibility which irritation or
inflammation imparts, even the action of the air in this little convoluted
tube, having the form of a shell, conveys to the nerve and thence to
the brain a sound similar to that experienced when a large shell is held
against the ear. This is a new theory, of my own, but I think it will
commend itself to physiologists. All the peculiar noises experienced
in the ears of persons having affections therein, like the singing of a tea-
kettle, ringing and ticking, indicate an undue sensibility of the auditory
DEFECTIVE HEARING. 749
nerve, which is made conscious of motions of air in the tubes, canals,
and cavities of the ear, of which, in health, it is not cognizant; another
cause of such annoying sounds is the loss of delicately adjusted
balance of bones, membranes, and fluids whereby the tension becomes
abnormal, both in the air of the middle ear, and the fluid of the inner
ear. Quinine, in overdoses, and other drugs, cause ringing noises by
disturbing the blood circulation in these deep parts of the ear, and it is
fair to suppose that self-developed blood impurities may act in the
same manner. When these noises continue for a long time, a reaction
is liable to follow, and the auditory nerve changes from this acute sen-
sibility to partial or entire insensibility, and at this juncture of the dis-
ease, defective hearing or complete deafness ensues.
Complete deafness is usually incurable. If, however, a person can
hear a little ; if by the aid of ear-trumpets the human voice can be
heard and its language understood, it is generally prophetic of the pos-
sibility of recovery, if the right course be pursued by the physician
having the case in charge. Every one affected with partial deafness
should intrust his case to a skilful physician who is thoroughly ac-
quainted with the anatomy of the ear, and who has had experience in
the treatment of its diseases. No practitioner deficient in these qualifica-
tions should attempt to treat partial deafness, and especially should the
victim of this affection refrain from any attempt to devise or apply
local remedies unless guided by the advice of a physician.
\ Persons observing the approach of difficult hearing may many
times prevent the development of deafness by taking remedies suitable
for purifying and strengthening the blood, because all the secretions of
the ear are derived from the circulation, and will be healthy or un-
healthy according to the pure or impure condition of the vascular
fluids; but when the affection seems to be steadily coming on in spite
of general constitutional treatment, obtain without delay the advice of
a medical man in whom you have confidence.
Paralysis of the auditory nerve has in some instances been cured
by the judicious application of electricity. Deafness resulting from
the obstinate obstruction of the Eustachian tube has been relieved by
admitting air into the cavity of the tympanum by slightly perforating
the ear-drum. Defective hearing caused by entire destruction of the
ear-drum has in some cases been greatly benefited by wearing a false
tympanum. For many years I supplied artificial drums by mail, but
the number of cases in which they proved helpful appeared so very
few, I discontinued recommending the device for self-application; only
expert examination of the ear can decide when the artificial drum
is likely to be of service. It is, however, a harmless experiment, even
when a disappointing one, and the price, which need not exceed one
dollar, is not a severe tax. Catarrhal people affected with deafness have
750 AFFECTIONS OF THE EYES AND EARS.
many times entirely recovered from the latter by the cure of the
former. Scrofulous people who have nearly lost all sense of hearing
may generally have that sense restored by the eradication of the scrof-
ulous impurity if ulcerations have not impaired the structure of the
€8.I’. -
The miraculous cures of deafness are generally effected by remov-
ing a plug of wax from the outer canal. This sort of “stopper” of
hearing can be extracted by a physician with instruments, or, at home,
by persistent warm-water injections, and the cure is immediate if the
plug has not been there so long as to paralyze or injure the deeper
parts. Hot water injections are the safest and best treatment for many
affections of the ears, while oils and soothing ointments may do much
to soften tympanums that have become too hard and stiff to vibrate.
Placing the finger-tips firmly in the ears and wriggling them there is a
good way of vibrating the drums, to loosen them, and holding the nose
while forcing air from the lungs to the head tends to inflate the Eus-
tachian tubes, and balance the air-pressure on both sides of the ear-
drums. The latest device for loosening adherent ear-drums is an elec-
trical instrument that causes them to vibrate very rapidly by sounds.
The usual mechanical aids to hearing, various forms of ear-trumpets,
are not as fashionable, convenient, or effective as the glasses used to
aid defective vision ; and although various instruments are largely ad-
vertised to cure deafness that can be almost concealed in the external
canal, we never knew any of them to be worth the price. Human in-
ventive ingenuity has not yet supplied the long-felt want of a satisfac-
tory aid for impaired hearing, and since Edison has unusual genius for
invention, the best equipped laboratory for experiment, and incentive
enough to apply himself because of his own considerable deafness, we
may conclude that it is a very difficult problem to solve—and yet per-
haps not hopeless. - *
There are, however, many people going about using ear-trumpets
or habitually holding a hand to the ear when in conversation with a
friend or listening to an address who might be entirely cured of their
deafness by constitutional treatment. Such persons have acquired de-
fective hearing either through neglect, catarrh, or some blood impur-
ity which has been treated upon in this essay. The fine mechanism of
the ear, as must have already been seen by the reader, can be easily ob-
structed by the former ; or the vitiated secretions resulting from the
latter. I have had the satisfaction of radically curing quite a number
of such cases. Any reader of this chapter who is affected with partial
deafness is at liberty to write or call in person upon the author, no
charge being made for such consultation and advice.
CHAPTER XII.
TREATTIENT OF DISEASE.
N this chapter of practical matter, will be
thrown together, without any waste of
labor in classification, suggestions of such
importance to the invalid reader, that it is
hoped every sentence will be perused with
care and reflection. There are many truths,
medical and moral, which the mists of ig-
norance, or popular prejudice, partly or
wholly, shut out from the mental vision, and, inas-
much as the great mass of people know more of every-
thing else than they do of that which pertains to the
laws of physical and psychical health and life, and to a
rational art of healing, it is not surprising that many
dose themselves to death with their Own uncertain concoctions; that
thousands become the dupes of Wicked Charlatans; that tens of thou-
sands allow themselves to become Sewers for patent nostrums; and that
millions are the patrons of a so-called Scientific School of medicine,
which cures (?) the sick by making them life-long cripples. I trust
that a candid perusal of this chapter will serve to dispel these mists, or
what might be properly called medical and moral fogs, for no harm
can possibly result from an effort to impress upon the public mind the
necessity of doing for the invalid the best that can be done at the very
outset, instead of experimenting from Week to Week, and month to
month, with something or somebody which or whom it is thought
“will do,” until the disease-burdened body nearly sinks into the grave
embalmed with a thousand drugs.
With this brief prologue I will pass to the presentation of matter
appropriate for this chapter, -
75i

752 TREATMENT OF DISEASE.
Everybody His Own Doctor.
This is an attractive motto which graces the title-page, or gleams
from the preface of many a medical work gotten up for the patronage
of a too credulous public. It would be no less pleasing to the author
than to the reader, if, in this volume, instructions could be given,
which would enable every invalid who peruses its pages, to treat his or
her own case without the aid of a physician. Such a task, notwith-
standing the assumptions of many to the contrary, would be simply
impossible, as everyone of genuine good sense must perceive. So much
depends upon the constitution or the temperament of the sick man or
woman (see page 186), only one who makes these idiosyncrasies his
constant study, is capable of prescribing successfully, especially in the
thousands of cases in which there is a variety of blendings or mixtures
of temperaments.
If my system of practice were at all similar to that of physicians
who make calomel or some other drug a favorite remedy for every dis-
ease, with only an occasional deviation, the task of instructing non-
professional readers in the healing art—if art, in that case, it could be
called—would not only be possible but easy ; or if my system was like
that of medical men who have a specific for every ill, and who would
treat a dozen patients afflicted with one kind of disease in precisely the
same way, then would it be but a pleasant pastime to sit down and in-
struct the world's sufferers just how to doctor themselves. But the
attentive reader cannot have failed to perceive that I entirely disap-
prove of treating the sick on this “hit or miss” principle, and insist on
the necessity of prescribing, not only for disease, but for constitutions
or temperaments. Never, yet, has there been written for popular use,
medical books in which prescriptions or recipes were given for the OS-
tensible purpose of enabling the sick to treat their own diseases, that
did not prove failures, and in a majority of cases, worse than failures,
for the reason that they lead people requiring the best of medical skill
and experience, to tamper with themselves till their diseases became in-
curable, or to employ active remedies (the nature of which they did not
fully understand) when the complications contra-indicated their employ-
ment. -
The chief aims of the author in placing this work before the pub-
lic, are to give publicity to a volume of original ideas which he believes
will be of advantage to the world ; to exhibit to the reader the causes of
disease and social unhappiness, in order that the rocks and shoals which
lie hidden in the turbid sea of life may be avoided ; to impart to those
possessing ordinary intuition the ability to judge wisely of the merits
of the various systems of therapeutics in vogue, and to put all on their
EVERYBODY HIS OWN DOCTOR. 753
guard against—not only the unjust prejudices and old fogyism of the
“regular practitioner,” but the impositions of the empiric. If I were
writing this book for the exclusive use and benefit of the medical pro-
fession, it would be necessary to make it voluminous, expensive, and
not a little obscure to the non-professional reader, for lengthy details
in regard to the treatment of every case, with its many possible pecu-
liarities and complications would have to be scrupulously given, the
comprehension and appreciation of which would require the possession,
on the part of the reader, of extensive pathological knowledge. I may
yet make such a contribution to medical literature, but I doubt my
ability to produce a work of this description, which would enable read-
ers of little or no medical attainments, to act as their own physicians.
Doctors will continue to be “necessary evils” till mankind for several
generations, shall have strictly obeyed the laws of life and health ; or,
in other words, until disease shall have become an annoyer and de-
stroyer of only those who have passed temperately through the spring
and summer of life, and entered the closing winter of their earthly
career ; or, on the other hand, they will have to be endured until
physiology, pathology, materia medica, hygiene, and Surgery become
household sciences, taught, not only in all institutions of learning, but
in the nursery and family; and then, as “practice makes perfect” in
every art, profession, or trade, an invalid laboring under any difficult
disease, would rather trust his case in the hands of one whose sole la-
bors are devoted to the relief of the sick, than in the hands of an artist,
a lawyer, a parson, a merchant, a mechanic, or a farmer, however de-
voted a student he may have been in matters pertaining to the healing
art. If a man possesses the necessary attainments to practise medicine,
every day's experience adds to his skill ; every case upon which he
attends, the better prepares him for successfully managing the next,
and while his success extends his practice, his practice, in turn, aug-
ments his skill. “Every man to his trade,” is an old adage, and in no
sphere of life does it apply with greater force than to the physician.
None but those who are engaged in the practice of medicine with
eyes and ears open, can realize how complicated are nearly all cases of
chronic disease. Seldom is a single organ or function involved; several
affections usually coexist, each of which aggravates the other, and any
one remedy, which is favorable to the cure of one, oftentimes gives
disturbance to the rest. In no such case can a single prescription
effect, favorably, these combinations; nor can directions be laid down
in a popular work, which will enable the invalid reader to go under.
standingly to work to concoct a set of prescriptions adapted to his par.
ticular case. But suppose such a plan practicable, then the adultera-
tions practised in drugs and medicines would put to hazard the reputa.
tion of a popular author.
754 TREATMENT OF DISEASE.
In this connection I may make a quotation which bears directly on
the point last referred to in the preceding paragraph. While reading
the proof-sheets of the foregoing matter my attention is called to an ar-
ticle in one of our most influential city papers. The editor has been
reading an exposé of the extent to which drugs are adulterated, in The
Journal of Applied Chemistry, published in New York, and after pre-
Senting some startling facts, proceeds to comment as follows: “Hence
the physician either increases the doses or condemns the drugs entirely ;
Or, should he fix upon the amount required by his experience in the
use of such an article, and afterward obtain that which is pure, he will
find his patient exhibit the symptoms of being poisoned. Nor is the
adulteration limited to a few unprincipled dealers here and there
through the country, but it is so general that the leading importers of
drugs are aware of it; nor do they deny it, although it might be sup-
posed that their interest lies in the concealment.”
y
“In discussing the remedy,” remarks the same editor, “it is said
that too great reliance is placed on the manufacturer ; for the apothe-
Cary seldom applies the proper tests to his purchases. We are in-
formed, also, that it is no uncommon practice for clerks to put up a
different drug from that named in a prescription, both to avoid the
trouble of getting it elsewhere and to be sure of making a sale, and in
calculating the chances of escaping detection, they rely mainly upon
the ignorance of the patient and the inattention of the physician. As
an effectual remedy for these crimes and stupidities, our authority pro-
poses that honest drug inspectors shall be appointed alike for large and
small places; it shall be their duty to examine every invoice of drugs
purchased by the retail dealer, and also to do all in their power to pre-
vent the druggist from ‘sophisticating such drugs, or in any way de-
frauding his patrons.” In addition, what are called patent medicines
should be sold with a statement of the articles of which they are com-
posed, by which means it is thought that dishonest quacks will become
obsolete ; when the motto with regard to their preparations, “Open
your mouth and shut your eyes’ will cease to have application. But
the inspectors should critically examine all of this class of medicines;
for it is charged that the proprietors are in the habit of buying dam-
aged drugs, worthless for any other purpose, and they also use bad
wines and alcoholic liquors in the preparation of ‘invigorating bitters,’
‘health cordials,’ and the like. It is proposed also to forbid those who
refine aloes to sell the dregs to brewers; nor may the manufacturers of
quinine and morphine sell their exhausted bark and opium to drug-
gists, for, we are told, ‘they will invariably dry and pulverize these
articles, and use them for the adulteration of genuine drugs.” As to
wines and liquors, none must be allowed to be sold for medical pur-
poses unless they have the stamp of approval of the inspectors.”
EVERYBODY HIS OWN DOCTOR. 755
“It must be confessed,” continues the same writer, “that this is
an alarming exhibit to such as take medicine and beer. But it does not
seem likely that the proposed examination will effect the desired object,
since it will be easy for any druggist to keep on hand samples for in-
spection other than such as will be sold. If we look deeper and fur-
ther, it will be seen that the trouble arises from an adulteration of
quite another kind, and, in our opinion, no remedy can be found until
one is applied to this. We refer to the adulteration of human nature;
for this is a necessary preliminary, not only to the adulteration of
drugs but of food, and of every commodity from which money by this
practice can be made. In the same journal from which we have
quoted, a certain firm advertises with large heading, “Pure White
Lead, and they add, in a sort of postscript, that they also manufacture
a special article equal to that produced by any other establishment.
The inevitable tendency of this widespread debasement is to destroy
the moral sentiment in man ; and there seems no hope of reformation
until fraud and rascality pervade society to such an extent that the
social structure breaks down with the weight of its iniquity, when the
world will begin again.” -
The foregoing, from a disinterested source, presents a stronger in-
ducement than the author can modestly offer, to induce invalids to
employ only those physicians who prepare the remedies they dispense,
and who, by so doing, have opportunities of judging correctly of the
therapeutic value of the medicines they propose to administer. Self-
interest and reputation, if no nobler motive, inevitably prompt physi-
cians of this class to labor diligently to avoid the evils of adulteration.
Here there is no divided responsibility. The failure of a prescription can-
not be laid to the dishonesty or carelessness of the druggist.
In the first edition of this work I proposed to furnish written pre-
scriptions on the reception of a full description of a case, but I soon
found myself compelled to abolish this plan, for, notwithstanding my
almost uniform success in the treatment of cases wherein I prepared and
supplied medicines myself, those to whom I furnished written prescrip-
tions did poorly indeed. This was chiefly owing to the fact that drug
and botanic stores, almost everywhere, are more or less stocked with
stale and adulterated herbs and roots, which are worthless, in conse-
quence of having been kept too long, or mixed with inferior species;
or with those which had been gathered at the wrong season of the year,
before their medicinal properties had matured, or after the changes of
the season had destroyed them. Many persons whom I have employed
at the proper seasons of the year to collect such things as I need in my
laboratory, have made it their business out of season to gather for the
market. Furnishing prescriptions, however, was more practicable at
that time than now, for the reason that many of my processes of pre-
756 TREATMENT OF DISEASE.
paring medicines are entirely changed. Some of the processes are orig-
inal, so much so that the apothecary could not well prepare the reme-
dies if the prescriptions were given. Aside from these considerations
there are cases which require electricity in some form.
Inasmuch as many who read the common-sense theories advanced in
this book will desire to avail themselves of the system of treatment they
naturally suggest, I will say that if invalids at home or abroad (see Ques-
tions to Invalids, page 761,) will give me the opportunity of doing for
them as each individual case seems to require, I can treat such as I may
be willing to undertake with confidence of success. Invalids under my
treatment are not restricted in diet or exercise ; and those who are able
to pursue their business, can do so without any interruption from the
effects of the medicines, which will only the better enable them to fol-
low successfully their vocations. This, to the business man, is an im-
portant consideration. Such being the debilitating effects of most
things bearing the name of medicine, it is not singular that those who
have a business or profession requiring their personal supervision, feel
that they must live and suffer on till death ends their infirmities, rather
than adopt any system of medication. My mode of treatment does
away with this objection, for I do not “tear down to build up,” nor are
the medicines I administer usually unpleasant to the taste. I give nu-
tritious instead of drug treatment.
Dietetics.
With regard to dietetics, I should perhaps remark that I do not
mean by anything said in the closing portion of the foregoing essay
that invalids can always eat just what a vitiated appetite may call for
without injurious consequences. There are many kinds of food which
only the strongest stomachs can digest, and these, it is palpable to
every mind, should be avoided by the invalid, whether the digestive
organs are impaired or not. But it would hardly seem necessary for a
physician to advise an invalid to abstain from warm bread, mince-pies,
rich pastries of every kind, pork, cucumbers, boiled cabbage, and such
edibles as are doubtfully wholesome for healthy persons. My injunc-
tion to the sick is—eat only such food as seems to agree with you, and that
which distresses you, avoid. Perhaps some dyspeptic will say: “Why,
Doctor, all kinds of food distress me.” To such I would reply, “You
know something of the digestible qualities of the food set before you,
and from it you must select that which is the most nutritious, and
inflicts on your stomach the least disturbance.” This is a good rule to
observe, and may beneficially take the place of those starve-to-death
dietetic prescriptions so often given by physicians of cranky procliv-
ities. The system tottering under the burden of chronic disorders,
DIETETICS. --> 757
much more than the healthy body, needs nutrition, and nothing can
be more foolish than to weaken the healing powers of Nature by the
adoption of a system of starvation.
In Part I. of this volume will be found invaluable hygienic advice
on “The Food We Eat,” and on “The Liquids We Drink.” To this
advice I would refer the reader who wishes to choose intelligently be-
tween the multitudinous edibles and beverages usually found upon the
table of the well-to-do American family or that of a popular hotel. In-
deed, the hygiene of this volume upon all matters affecting the health
and longevity of the human family, is more comprehensive than can
be found in any other popular medical publication in this or any other
country. Letters expressive of the greatest gratitude reach the author
by every mail from readers who attribute their restored health to the
reading and strict observance of the advice given in these pages. It
is not an extravagant statement to say that thousands of readers of
“Plain Home Talk” in America and throughout the civilized world
have been restored to health without medicine by simply following
the rules laid down in this volume regarding hygienic habits, and our
files of letters will bear evidence of the entire truth of this assertion.
Clear Conscience Better Than a Petted Stomach.
It seems to me that those physicians who direct so particularly in
regard to the taking care of the stomach, would do a better thing if
they would take the same amount of pains to impress on those under
their treatment the necessity of keeping the conscience clear. An over-
loaded stomach will not half so much depress the physical health as a
sin-loaded conscience. I have already spoken in various portions of this
book of the influence of the mind on the body, and it may be set down
as an absolute fact, that if a sick man or woman is daily doing things
which he or she believes to be wrong, the regrets which follow cannot
fail to seriously aggravate whatever physical trouble may exist, while
cheerfulness, or, at least, an undisturbed mind, greatly aids medica-
ments in affecting cures. If we may “laugh and grow fat,” it is reas-
onable to suppose that by being at peace with ourselves, we may, with
proper remedies to assist nature, find relief from bodily infirmities, if
curable at all.
I may be asked, “What do you mean by a sin-loaded conscience 7”
I answer, a conscience harassed by the commission of acts which you
believe or know to be wrong, I do not intend, in this place or in any
other, to don the robe of a theologian. I am a physiologist and physi-
cian, very little acquainted with theology. This volume will undoubt-
edly fall into the hands of Protestants, Catholics, Swedenborgians,
Theosophists, Spiritualists, Jews, Mormons, Deists, Atheists, Panthe-
758 TREATMENT OF DISEASE.
ists, and it may possibly be read by Mohammedans, Simonians, Supra-
lapsarians, and may not impossibly find readers among the Jumpers,
Whippers, Diggers, and others of the more eccentric class of religion-
ists. Hence it would be useless to require my patients to conform to
any particular standard of morals or creed in religion; but I can, with-
out questioning the correctness of any one's religious opinions, insist on
their living up fully to their highest conceptions of right; to their liv-
.
ing at peace with themselves and the inward monitor. Though an act
may not, in itself, be wrong, it should not be committed by one who
thinks it wrong, for not only does unhappiness follow in the wake of
such conduct, but the effect on the moral sense is precisely as bad as if
it were an actual wrong, and it opens the way for the perpetration of
the latter. In other words, persons may become heedless of the dic-
tates of conscience by doing what they think they ought not to do, and
in the end, actual as well as supposed sins are committed, while in
either case remorse usually succeeds, and depresses the physical ener-
gies no less than the mental complacency. It is therefore properly
within the province of a physician to insist on correct moral deport-
ment on the part of the patient, as well as to direct in regard to diet,
doses, etc.
I am often told by invalids consulting me, that they are distressed
with doubts on religious subjects. Now, there is no good reason why
any person should keep his mind in painful commotion because he can-
not square his faith and belief with that of his neighbor. So long as
people's brains differ in shape and size, so long will it be difficult for
them to think alike, and no one should allow himself to become dis-
tressed because he cannot put on his neighbor’s Opinions any more than
he should weep because he cannot put on his neighbor's hat, coat, and
|boots. To all such I say, live true to yourselves and the light you
possess. Do just as you think you ought to do. Cultivate your under-
standing and your conscience, and be guided by both. If at any time
you doubt the correctness of any opinion or creed you have long cher-
ished, investigate cheerfully and carefully and, if a Christian, prayer-
fully, but not painfully and impatiently ; then leave the result with a
merciful Providence.
It is really more important that the mind of a patient should be free
from distress than that the stomach should be free from the presence
of unwholesome food. A sin-loaded conscience has brought many a
stalwart man upon a sick-bed, and it is useless to try to conceal the fact
that it preys heavily on the remaining energies of the sick. I have
thought proper, in another part of this volume, to present an essay on
“Violating the Moral Nature,” for the purpose of showing the effects
of outrages of the moral sense on the nervous and vascular systems, for
as the inner suffers with the outer man by the violation of physical
WARRANTING CLJ RES. 7.59
laws, so does the outer suffer with the inner man by the violation of
moral laws.
With this view of the matter I would say to my patients, be just as
particular in not overloading or offending your conscience as in not
overloading or offending your stomachs. I cannot tell you just what you
can or must believe ; neither can I tell you just what you can or must
eat. I can confidently assure you that you must not lie, cheat, steal, nor
murder; that you should not eat warm bread, rich pastries, nor shingle
nails; but there are thousands of practices which you may Or may not
pursue, according to the condition of your consciences and stomachs that
may or may not inflict physical pain. As your physician—not your
parson—I advise you to do nothing you believe to be wrong ; eat nothing
which seems to distress you. So far as a life of honesty is concerned, I
advise no one to live so, merely because honesty is the best policy.
Warranting Cures.
The question is often asked me : “Will you warrant a cure ?” In
order that those who read these pages may understand my position on
this point without interrogating me, I reply to this question emphati-
cally no. Invalids must remember that they have as much to do, and
often more, in effecting cures in their cases, than the physician. Medi-
cine must be used with regularity, and general directions strictly
observed to insure success, and it is not reasonable, therefore, to ask
the physician to shoulder the whole responsibility. However skilful
a physician may be, however adapted his medicines to any particular
case, however wise his hygienic advice, unless the patient does his or
her part faithfully, treatment never so appropriate, never so skilful,
may prove abortive. As well might a man carrying one end of a stick
of timber ask his companion at the other end if he would warrant the
stick not to drop. The latter would doubtless reply : “I can only
speak for my end.”
Those who are disposed to employ me may rest assured of one
thing, viz.: that I shall not hazard my reputation, gained at the ex-
pense of close application and years of toil, by giving any unwarrant-
able encouragement or uncandid diagnosis. The course I have pursued
has been strictly in accordance with this principle, and I shall not,
under any circumstances, in the future pursue any other. I may not,
in all cases, be as successful as I at first expect, but I will guarantee
that I will cure as large a percentage of my patients after they have been
given up by old-school practitioners, as the most successful of allopathic
doctors do in treating cases first presented to them, many of which are
neither difficult nor complicated. Nearly all becoming my patients
have been under the treatment of five to twenty different physicians
76o TREATMENT OF DISEASE.
before employing my services, and I now invite the most obstinate and
intractabie cases to consult me, for it is my ambition to rescue the most
hopeless cases from the grasp of disease. Ordinary cases can be cured
by ordinary remedies. Every town must have its physicians; as be-
fore remarked, they are “necessary evils,” and I will not utter a
word to their disparagement, if they do not poison their patients with
pernicious drugs and mineral preparations. I only invite the consulta-
tions of those who have failed to find relief under their treatment. In
such cases I find in disease a foe I delight to combat, and a keen Satis-
faction when I find I have conquered.
To Consultants.
Those at a distance, who wish to avail themselves of my services
need not hesitate because of their inability to visit me. I have treated,
successfully, patients in all the States and settled Territories of the
United States, and in all the civilized countries of the world. Send
answers to the following questions, and I can judge correctly of your
diseases and temperaments. Those who prefer to indemnify me in
slight measure for my time and trouble in examining their cases, can
enclose a fee of one dollar, and those who do not, need simply enclose
a letter stamp with which to reply. All readers and especially all pur-
chasers of this volume are entitled to a reply to any question which
may arise in their minds while perusing its pages.
Answers to the following questions will enable me to judge nearly,
if not quite, as correctly of the nature and extent of a disease as a
personal examination. Many of the questions pertaining to complex-
ion, height, weight, measure, etc., may appear, at first sight, trifling,
but they are of first importance, because on answers to these I must
depend in forming my opinion of the temperament of one whom I
am not permitted to see; therefore, no one should pass over them in
describing his or her case. When perfectly convenient to do so, in ad-
dition to the answers to the questions, a photograph may be sent with
the letter. Many invalids at a distance pursue this plan in consulting
me, and, although it is by no means important, something may occa-
sionally be gained by the patient doing so. All may safely confide
in the author in describing fully and frankly a case, or giving the
result of treatment. I am daily in receipt of letters from patients giv-
ing the most gratifying accounts of the effects experienced in pursuing
my advice, and which, if published, would greatly redound to my
credit, but I never publish any letter or parts of letters, with the name
of the author, unless his or her consent has been eaſpressly given, and even
then, but seldom, as the good results of my practice are quite too well
known to need any evidence of this kind.
LIST OF QUESTIONS. 761
List of Questions.
In answering, correspondents need not say they are not troubled
with this, that, or the other difficulty, but mention only the 89.7mptoms
they have, as they look over the questions one by one. Correspondents
are also requested not to simply say Yes or No, after putting down the
figures before each set of questions, but state the symptoms fully.
Write plainly, and with ink, if possible.
What is your name 7 What is the name of your post-office 2
County ? What State 2 To what office should express packages be
sent 2 By what express company ? Have you previously written re-
garding your health ? If so, when 7 Have you the book entitled,
“Evidences of Dr. Foote's Success 2". . . . . . . . . . . . 1st. What is the
color of y ur hair 7 Eyes 7 What your complexion ? Age 2 Height 7
Weight 2 Ever weighed more ?. . . . . . . . . . . . 2d. Is your skin soft and
moist, or rough and dry 7 Is it sallow 2. . . . . . . . . . . . 3d. Parents liv-
ing ? If so, at what age 2 If dead, of what did they die 7 Any
hereditary disease in your family 7 Any disease common in it 2.... . . .
4th. Are you affected with melancholy, or the “blues 7” Any
trouble of the mind 2 If so, what causes it 2 Have you ever had fits
or spasmodic difficulties 7 Have you ever been badly frightened ?
What is your occupation ? Ever overtaxed your mind with study or
business 2 Are you troubled with loss of memory 7 Do you sleep
well ? Any disagreeable or amorous dreams ? If wakeful, at what
time of night 2 Are you drowsy during the day ?. . . . . . . . . . 5th. Have
you any deformity, by birth or accident 7 Ever been injured by an
accident 2 Any pimples, salt-rheum, ulcers, boils, cancer, or eruptions ?
Been vaccinated ? Did it produce any unusual soreness 2 Ever been
poisoned internally or externally 7 Ever taken mercurial medicine 7
Have you any tumors or swellings 2 If so, what and where ? Are
you ruptured ? Any lumps about the groin or navel ? If so, do they
disappear when you lie down 2 Or protrude more on sneezing or
straining 7 Do you feel strong or weak in body ? How far can you
walk 2 Is your flesh firm or soft and flabby ? Do you like exercise or
avoid it 2 Are your hands and feet warm or cold 2 Are they moist,
dry, or hot at times 7... . . . 6th. As to your daily habits: Are you
regular to bed ? How many hours sleep do you get 7 Do you use
stimulants 2 Tea or coffee (how often)? Do you use tobacco in any
form 2 Opium, or other narcotic * Do you eat much meat 7 Pork 2
Or rich pastries, pickles, condiments 7 Have you injured yourself by
any bad habit 2. . . . . . . . 7th. Any trouble in the head : Headache,
pains, neuralgia, in the top, front, back, or side of the head 2 Any
762 TREATMENT OF DISEASE.
dizzy sensations 2 Rush of blood to the head 2 Heavy oppressed feel-
ings? Any excess of mucous discharges from the nose or throat (catarrh)?
. . . . . .8th. Have you weak or inflamed eyes 2 Any dulness or
fault of vision ? Stars, specks, or streaks floating before the sight 7
Clouds or mists * Any twitching of the lids 2 Pains in the eyeballs 2
Gumming during sleep 2. . . . . . . . 9th. Any trouble about the ears ?
Defective hearing 2 Roaring or singing 2 Earache 7 Discharges 2
Excess of wax * Dryness 2... ...10th. Is the tongue coated ? All
Over ? White or yellow 2 Any small red points, pimples, deep fur-
rows, or wrinkles on the tongue 2. . . . . . 11th. Any trouble in the
mouth 7 Diseased teeth or gums ? False or filled teeth ? Canker in the
mouth 2 Dryness 2 Excessive moisture ? Bad taste 7 Bad breath ?
* * > & e º 12th. Any affection of the throat 7 Irritation, discharge, hawk-
ing, tickling, Soreness 2 Choking sensations ? Hoarseness or weak-
ness of the voice 7 Enlarged tonsils 2...... 13th. Do you take cold
easily 7 Where is it likely to affect you ?...... 14th. Any symptoms
affecting the lungs 2 Dry or loose cough 7 Nights or mornings 7
What is your chest measure in inches, under the arms, with full
breath ? Without 7 What is the number per minute of your pulse when
lying down 7 Sitting ? Standing ? Any tenderness, pain, soreness,
constrictions, or weakness about the chest ? Do you raise matter from
the lungs? Does it sink in water ? Is it yellow, chunky 7 Is it
streaked with blood 2 Did you ever raise blood 7 How often ? Are
you short of breath on slight exertion ? Do you have swelled an-
kles 2 Chills during the day ? Night-sweats 7 Flushed face after-
noons ? Have you had pneumonia, or any serious fever ? Fever and
ague 2. . . . . . 15th. Have you palpitation of the heart 2 Pains or soreness
about the heart 7 Any unusual or disagreeable sensation there 7 Sense of
Stoppage?. . . . . . 16th. Have you dyspepsia, heaviness, Soreness, gnawing,
burning or pain in the stomach 7 Any sourness, wind, trembling,
nausea, or sickness 2 Is the appetite good, poor, variable, or voracious 2
Are you, or have you been, careless about what or when you eat 2. . . . .
17th. Do the bowels move regularly 7 One or more times daily 7 Easily
or not ? Is there any bloating, tenderness on pressure, or griping? Have
you piles 2 External or internal? Itching or bleeding 7 Have you fistula 2
© e º 'º º 18th. Have you weakness, pain, Soreness, or lameness across the
lower part of the back 2 Pain or uneasy feeling in the lower part of the
bowels, over the bladder Do you pass water often ? Much or little
at a time 7 Any pain or smarting 2 Is there much smarting 7 Is
there much sediment ? Red, white, brown, yellow or gritty ? Is there
any unusual color or deposit in the urine 7 Any blood or gravel ?
Have you had any venereal disease ? If so, what and when, and how
long 7. . . . . . 19th. Do you have pains, weakness, Soreness, numbness,
or other disagreeable sensation in any part of your body not mentioned
EVIDENCES OF CURABILITY OF CHRONIC DISEASE. 763
already ?. . . . . . 20th. Are you married ? Ever been 7 Have you chil-
dren 7 Are they healthy Ž If married and without children, do you
desire them 7 Is husband or wife sterile 2 If children are desired,
describe eyes, hair, complexion, height, weight, age of both parties,
stating how many years married, and give all the information you can
think of as important in enabling a physician to ascertain the cause of
unfruitfulness on a separate sheet of paper. Have you read the chap-
ter on “Local Inadaptation” in “Plain Home Talk,” and studied Figs.
207 and 208?. . . . . . 21st. Do you have involuntary seminal emissions day
or night 2 How many during a month at night 7 How often and when
during the day ? Do you know the first or real cause ? Are there any
casual, direct, or present causes 2 Is your sexual power impaired ? If
married, is the seminal discharge premature ? Did you have losses be-
fore marriage 2 Are your testicles diminished, wasted, swollen, en-
larged, aching, tender ? Is there any feeling as of a bunch of earth-
Worms in the scrotum (varicocele) 2. . . . . . 22d. If a female, are you
troubled with leucorrhoea or whites ? Continually or occasionally 2
Have you bearing down or dragging feeling in the region of the
womb 7 Have physicians told you that the womb is falling down,
back, or forward 7 Is intercourse painful ? Are you sexually apa-
thetic 2 Are the periods regular 7 How many days do they con-
tinue 2 Is there any pain before, after, or during the flow 2 Or other
derangement 2 Is the quantity about right, slight, or profuse ? Do
you have Soreness, irritation, Smarting, or itching in the vagina Ż
Have you ever had miscarriages 2 If so, how many, and at what
period of pregnancy 7 Were the causes accidental, medical, or surgi-
cal ?. . . . . . 23d. Is your place of residence considered healthful ?
Answer unreservedly, for as has been repeatedly said in the pages of
this volume, everything revealed to an honorable physician is treated
with strictest confidence. ... "
Evidences of the Curability of Chronic Diseases.
In presenting the following evidences of the curability of chronic
diseases, the author begs the indulgence of his readers while offering a
few explanations :
1st—These evidences are presented for the two-fold purpose of
showing what can be accomplished by what has been termed “Com-
mon Sense Remedies,” in Chapter IV. of Part I., and to inspire those
who have lost confidence in most of the medical pathies, if not all,
with new hope, and a fresh determination to renew the life forces for
one more struggle with the enemy which has bound them in a state of
chronic invalidism. As I think I have said elsewhere in this volume,
Nature really has to do the work of restoration. Physicians can cure
764 TREATMENT OF DISEASE.
no one. They can only furnish the means with which Nature recoups
herself for the battle, and those agents which can the most effectually ral-
ly the vital forces for the fray are the true allies of what is called the vis
nedicatria naturae, which, as defined by the lexicographer, is “the ca-
pability of living tissue, animal or vegetable, to remedy or remove dis-
ease or repair injuries inflicted upon it.” What a skilled gardener is to
a place set apart for flowers, vegetables, or fruit, the physician should
be in a community where illness of any description prevails. After
having perused the pages of “Plain Home Talk” thus far, the reader
might naturally remark: “Your theories, Doctor, look quite plausi-
ble, but how do they work in practice?” Hence, it would not seem
out of place to present in the closing pages of Part II. a few evidences
of their practical value, and if the reader would like a pamphlet with
eighty pages—each page about four times the size of this one—well
filled with them, it will be mailed free on application.
2d—The signatures of the writers are omitted from the extracts of
letters in compliance with a standing promise, made at the very begin-
ning of my practice, and repeated in every edition of this book, that
the names of all correspondents and patients should in no case be men-
tioned without their declared consent ; this rule appertains to all pa-
tients, whether they consult me by letter or in person. The affidavit of
their genuineness should however compensate for the omission of sig-
natures.
3d—As it has been contrary to my practice to ask testimonials, and
with few exceptions to accept and publish them when proffered, the
following are wholly from patients at a distance who have consulted
me by letter; but if difficult chronic diseases may be cured when the
patient receives treatment by letter and express, they certainly may be
under the personal care of a physician, with the advantage of frequent
interviews. The reader will undoubtedly regard the former the greater
triumph; I can hardly say that I do, as my practice in the treatment of
diseases at a distance is reduced to such a system by the aid of a care-
fully prepared list of questions, and by registers in which each case is
carefully minuted with reference to symptoms, and to remedies dis-
pensed, that consultations by letter are usually entirely satisfactory and
successful. -
4th–An extract detached from the body of a letter is often less
expressive of satisfaction and gratitude than the letter would be if pre-
sented in full ; but room can only be spared for a brief quotation from
each, and manifestations of thankfulness and joy on being relieved, or
of seeing a prospect of cure, are necessarily in most cases omitted.
5th–Nevertheless, these testimonials are of more value than they
would be if they were obtained by solicitation, because, as they now
appear, they possess the spontaneous acknowledgments of grateful
EVIDENCES OF CURABILITY OF CHRONIC DISEASE. 765
patients who have been benefited or cured. When they have come in
answer to a letter of inquiry they can hardly be called testimonials
obtained by solicitation, for, if a patient does not report upon the re-
sults of treatment we naturally ask for a report. Interest in the case
prompts us to do this.
6th–The quotations from letters have been hastily collected, con-
sequently they present cases in all stages of treatment; some just be-
ginning, others further advanced ; and still others at the close. My
first impulse was to present only cured cases; but on reflection I think
my readers will be more interested in the expressions of patients in all
stages of treatment, just as their letters reach me from day to day.
This course will also save time in collating the matter to be presented.
7th—As nearly as I can, without taking too much time and trouble
in selecting them, I shall give quotations from letters representing a
variety of diseases; but want of time will prevent me from making the
variety successfully treated as extensive as my files of letters would
afford if fully examined.
AFFIDAWITS OF THE DRS. FOOTE.
STATE of Nºw York, To wit:
County of NEW YORK, e
Edward B. Foote, E. B. Foote, Jr., and Hubert T. Foote, of the City
of New York, of the County aforesaid, being duly sworn, say that the
extracts of letters regarding the success of their medical practice con-
tained in this volume and other publications issued by them, are genu-
ine quotations of letters from their patients or from those attending
upon them, and that all extracts from letters from those endorsing their
publications or commending their remedies, are also genuine quotations
taken from testimonials received by them ; and further, that such let-
ters are but a few samples of the many that are constantly coming to
them by mail from all parts of the United States, and from foreign
lands.
EDWARD B. FootB, M.D,
|B. B. FootB, J.R., M.D.
H. T. Foot'E, M.D.
Sworn to before me this 23d day of July, in the year 1900.
D. SYLVAN CRAKAw, Notary Public, 84,
New York County.
766 TREATMENT OF DISEASE.
CASES OF DISEASES OF THE BREATEIIING OFGANS.
CASE 73.212.- Catarrh of long standing in a woman 87.2ty-nine years of age, whose
general health was much impaired.
She writes from Cambridgeport, Mass.: “Yours of October 27th is at hand. I
have often thought I would write to you, acknowledging the wonderful cure I
received from your skilful treatment. I think I can safely say that I am entirely
cured of that terrible trouble for which you treated me. When I last wrote you I
was improving slowly, but had not fully recovered, when in March, my husband
died. So you see that I have been all broken up since, and more than that, had
lost your address. Since then I have buried three sisters and a sister’s husband.
At the present time I am quite well.”
CASE 100,120.-Incipient Consumption in a young woman whose parents and two
sisters died of this disease.
She writes from Worcester County, Mass., Oct. 9, 1899, as follows: “In reply to
your letter I am happy to say that at the present time I am enjoying perfect
health, thanks to your treatment, and rest and care of myself on my own part. I
am feeling better at the present time than I have for years.”
CASE 92,101.-Catarrh, Dyspepsia, Constipation, and Neuralgia.
A lady living at Locke Mills, Me., writes: “Your kind letter of the 20th inst.
received. In regard to my health I have been better this spring than for many
years and I know it is owing to the treatment I received from you last spring.
Was glad to hear from you and I thank you for your kindness. I can never say
too much in praise of Dr. Foote.”
*-
CASE 78,199.-Chronic Bronchátā8, Constipation, etc.
A gentleman writing from Montrose, Wis., says: “Your letter of late date in
hand, and in reply will say that the two month's treatment has done me a great
deal of good. I now feel strong and healthy, and do not think I will need any
more medicine at present, but should I ever fail in health again I will look to you
for help as I have before. Allow me to heartily thank you for what you have done
for me and may the blessings of God go with you now and forever is my sacred
Wish.”
cAsh; 92,162.—Catarrh affecting nasal passages, throat, and bronchi, Newrasthenia,
and Rheumatism of long 8tanding.
A middle-aged man writes from Fort Walla Walla, State of Washington, as
follows: “Your kind letter and medicine of last month came duly to hand. I
do not think that I will need any more medicine as I feel better now than I did for ten
wears, in fact I am a different man; see things in a different light, allowing to your
treatment. I shall take your advice in regard to marrying Very SOOn. You have
in nine months accomplished what others failed in for three years, and Whenever
I get the opportunity will not fail to advise others, and tell them what you
have done for me. Nine months ago life was a burden to me and I did not care
how soon it would end; now everything 38 Ghanged; I feel like a young man of
twenty; feel cheerful; no more gloomy thoughts; but look in the future with
cheerfulness and hope, with a fearlessness not known to me for years. Thanking
you kindly for your always generous advice and good treatment believe me,
always grateful.”
EVIDENCES OF CURABILITY OF CHRONIC DISEASE, 767
CASES OF DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS.
CASE 79,124.—Dyspepsia, Wervous Irritability, and Spermatorrhoea.
A gentleman writes from Fruitland, St. John's River, Fla.: “Your letter Of
the 9th of February last was duly received. I did not answer it right away, as I
wanted to see what improvement there was without the use of the remedies. I
am glad to say that the improvement is great, and somewhat beyond my expecta-
tions, and I shall never regret that I placed myself in your hands. My friends tell
me I am looking much better than I used to. I firmly believe that it is entirely
due to the remedies you sent me. Always wishing you success in your profes-
Sion,” etc.
CASE 94,172.-Dyspepsia and Catarrh following early seawal indiscretions.
A middle-aged man writing from Allen County, Ohio, says: “Yours of late date
received. I have medicine for about ten days yet. You know I wrote you that
the last medicine was delayed quite considerably. * * * I am so much improved
that I think it not necessary to continue treatment any longer. My appetite is
Splendid and my digestion apparently perfect. There seems to be no fermentation
in the bowels at all any more. I am quite strong in muscle and in nerve. I am
quite hopeful as to my condition in every respect. Am grateful for the valuable
aid received at your hands.”
CASE 70,149.-Dyspepsia, Constipation, and Piles.
A lady writing from Phoenix, Ariz., says: “Yours of October 21st at hand.
Many thanks for the kindly interest you take in me. I am thankful to say that at
last I feel as if I were quite well again. Two months ago I had a sharp attack of the
piles, and up to six weeks ago I had nearly always the tongue dry and stiff on awak-
ening. Now all those symptoms have disappeared as if by magic. I relish a chop
in the morning at breakfast. Before, I used often o go until dinner-time without
eating. I think your medicine has marvellously strengthened my digestive organs.
So, dear Doctor, I think I may enroll myself as one other added to your large list
of relieved sufferers. In the meantime, pray accept my most grateful thanks for
your kind care of and attention to me during the last eight months.”
*º-
CASE 61,010–Bad Fistula in a Scrofulous woman suffering from Dyspepsia, Con-
Stipation, etc.
She writes from Berkeley County, W. Va.: “I think I have good news to tell
you this time. My health has improved more since I last wrote you than it has in
the same length of time since I have been under your treatment. I weighed 135
pounds tWO months ago, and still improve rapidly. My cheeks are as rosy as can
be, and I never feſt so fresh and buoyant as now. That fistula on the left side has
all been healed since November. The one on the right side has been healed since
May. 'I never expected it to heal like that. I feel so much better every way since
they are healed. I am not nervous, my memory is better, and I am so much
stronger. Everyone thinks it is wonderful, the way I improve. * * * I know,
Doctor, if it had not been for you, I should have been dead long ago. I am sure
God sent me to you. My husband says the best thing he ever did was to put me
under your treatment.”
768 TREATMENT OF DISEASE.
CASE 90,203.--Dyspepsia, Catarrh, and Spermatorrhoea.
A gentleman writes from Burdette, N. Y., as follows: “I have been married
since June 21st. I am delighted to say that despite all difficulties your medicine
has effected a cure of all debility in my case. My memory is not what it was, but
is slowly improving. I feel as Strong as a bull physically and otherwise. Such
physicians as you are a blessing. I cannot express my thanks fervently enough
for your painstaking care. My health is excellent ; I weigh 170 pounds, and it
looks as if I might begin having a family in two or three months.”
CASE 74,218.-Dyspepsia, Constipation, and Piles.
A gentleman writes from Tourtelotte, Col. : “Your favor of the 16th inst. at
hand, and contents noted. It was very kind of you to remember and take interest
in me, your former patient. With the greatest pleasure I answer your letter. I
admire honesty of purpose and integrity, because I should judge it is a plant of
rare growth, especially in your profession. My last letter I think will say that I
was not entirely cured. Since then I took a two month’s supply of your son's tab-
lets, Nos. 5 and 7. Once in awhile I have a touch of the old enemy, not often nor
severe. Aside from that I am more vigorous, both mentally and physically, than
ever before in my whole existence. I don’t say this without long and deliberate
meditation, nor because some one else said it. It must be remembered that I labor
under disadvantages—obliged in my present occupation to disregard laws , of
health well known to me. It would avail nothing to wash clothes and throw them
into the mud. Working in a silver mine, often in bad air loaded down with car-
bonic-acid gas and powder-smoke of the giant class, is a drawback, especially for
One better suited for clerical work. So far as I can, I recommend you to my
friends and acquaintances.”
CASES OF NERVOUS DISEASE.
CASE 100,080.—Weurasthenia, Diarrhaea, Pºles, etc.
A middle-aged lady writes from Sheboygan, Wis. : “I received your letter some
time ago, and was glad to hear from you. You ask how I am feeling. To tell the
truth, I am feeling well, and I have taken no medicine since I took yours, and I do
not forget to speak of it to a great many of my friends. Naturally I am an early
riser, and am up at five or half - past five o’clock every morning. If you re-
member, last summer, I was afraid to get up early, such a feeling of fear would
come over me that the day would be too long, and So I Would lay an hour or
more longer, and after -dinner would take a nap ; but this summer I have got
up at four o'clock and am feeling well. I am feeling nervous but very little, and so
find it unnecessary to take any medicine. My Sister is feeling quite well, and she has
taken no medicine since she took yours. So I think We are doing well, and seem
favored in regard to health. I am sure no medicine could have helped me like
yours, for which I am very thankful. If you could see me this summer and com-
pare me with last summer, you would see a well person. Perhaps the thought of
knowing you are where I can get help at any time keeps me well. At any rate, I
am more than happy in my present condition. Would be glad to hear from you
again.”
case, 92,230.—Nervous Prostration, Sea:ual Weakness, etc.
A gentleman writes from Baltimore, Md.: “The medicines are all gone, and
I can truthfully state, without any hesitation Whatever on my part, that your treat-
EVIDENCES OF CURABILITY OF CHRONIC DISEASE. 769
ment was most wonderfully effective. When I began, I was very nearly a wreck
So far as my nervous system was concerned, and had tried two or three doctors
without receiving any benefit. I then thought of trying you, which I did. You
stated that it might take me six or eight months to build up. I placed myself in
your charge. Only used four months of treatment, with the result that to-day I
feel ten thousand times better; have gained in flesh, don’t trouble my brain about
my health, for I don't think anyone could improve on that. Now I owe all this
improvement to you, through your skilful treatment, and to any of my friends
who are in need of strictly first-class medical advice, I recommend you, no matter
What the ailment may be.”
CASE 60,111.—Case of “Railroad Spine,” from accident, with inability to move
about, Wervous Headaches, etc.
A gentleman writes from Concord Church, W. Va.: “Since I took your treat-
ment I have had very good health. Have done more hard work than most anyone
else I know of. Can walk thirty to forty miles per day over our rough mountains.
Have been Deputy U. S. Marshal for about five years, and have done more work
than any deputy in West Virginia. Delivered forty-seven U. S. prisoners to our
Federal Court in one ‘gang.’”
&
CASE 81,236.-Spinal Irritation, with peculiarly distressing symptoms. Reports
progress after only two month’s treatment.
A gentleman writes from Bridgeport, Ct.: “I feel much better in every way,
especially the tenderness in my back. I don’t know as I will try any more of your
treatment just at present, but I can say now and here that I believe it was your
treatment that saved my life.”
*sºmº-
CASE 68,131.—Paralysis of sæteen years’ standing, following childbirth.
After two months' treatment a lady writes from Danbury, Conn. : “The
second box received. I begin to feel the effects of the second course of treatment.
I did not think it possible that I could feel so much better in so short a time. I
feel quite encouraged, so much so that I must write you. It must be very pleasant
to you to hear good reports from your patients. The muscles of my side used to
be so soft that I could not bear to try to use them. They felt as if they were tired.
They are more limber. I use them every time I can.”
A year later this patient writes: “Yours received. I have been out of medi-
cine for some time. I don't think I will take any more now as I am so much bet-
ter. My general health is good. The use of my limbs depends on myself. I find the
more I use them, the more I can. I take exercise with light dumb-bells no longer
than five minutes at a time, and rest afterwards. The muscles must be exercised
and trained to use. You can see my will must be stronger to force the muscles to
work. If I feel that I need more treatment you will be the one I will call upon.”
CASES OF DISEASES OF THE URINARY ORGANS.
CASE 68,043.-Cystitãs in young woman, attended with marked Nervous Irritability,
and Bed-wetting and Neuralgia.
She writes from Garrett, Ind.: “No doubt you will remember me as one of
you patients about a year ago. Indeed, I have come to forever remember you, for
2
77o TREATMENT OF DISEASE.
you succeeded in curing me of a disease of the urinary organs which was the
greatest relief on earth to me.”
CASE 46,246.-Bright's Disease, showing Dropsy, advanced symptoms, cured during
1877.
Patient writes April 19, 1885: “I am still in good health; no change for the worse
that I am conscious of. In July last I passed a very rigid examination for admit-
tance to the American Legion of Honor, an organization incorporated for a sys-
tem of life insurance. All I can remember of the condition of the urine was
“Specific gravity, 1020, alkaline.’ You may gather something from that as to what
the condition was. Wishing you continued success in your profession, and a long
and happy life, I am,” etc.
The same gentleman writes from Bridgeport, Conn., under date of Septem-
ber 1, 1899, as follows: “My Dear Doctor—I write this to enclose with list of
answers to be forwarded to you by my son-in-law who seems to me to be a fit sub-
ject for your skilful treatment. I bespeak for him your thorough examination of
his case. I take pleasure to inform you that I am still in good health, 51 years of
age, and a grandfather. Thanking you for all you have done for me, and feeling
confident that you can benefit my son-in-law equally as much, I remain,” etc.
A NOTHER CASE OF BRIGHT"S DISEASE.
A gentleman writing from Momence, Ill., to the Murray Hill Publishing Co.,
says: “If you will mail me a copy of ‘Plain IIome Talk’ I will prize it very highly
and keep it in my shop. I have seen the book and have wanted one, but did not
know tho address. I owe my lifelong gratitude to Dr. Foote and his book, as he
cured my mother of long-standing Bright's disease when all local doctors gave her
up. Now she is as well as ever.”
CASE 92,036.—Cystitis, passing pus in urine, vital organs all &mpaired, greatly re-
duced physically, coughing badly and eacpectorating profusely.
A well-known writer and lecturer on the Pacific coast writes: “I feel like a
new man with at least twenty years of a useful future before me. When I think
how I was a year ago, going down daily until I could not walk without reeling,
alone and uncared for, and through your skill and kindness I am again well, Strong,
and happy, I feel like praising Drs. Foote “from whom all (these) blessings flow."
I have not been so free for twenty years from troubles in my head, stomach, lungs,
liver, bowels, etc. Your medicines are certainly great rejuvenators, and I am,
sure saved my life, and worked out the poisons that were making life a hell for
me. * * * My wife and myself will always recommend your publications, and
urge the sick and suffering to apply to you for help.”
CASEs of DISEASEs OF MEN.
CASE 101,148—Spermatorrhoa with marked Nervous symptoms, Dyspepsia and
JBronchial Catarrh.
A gentleman writes from Lancashire, England: “I beg to acknowledge the
receipt of your letter of the 20th inst., and I regard it as extremely good On your
part to be anxious about my cure. It is exceedingly gratifying to know that One
has been under the care of a gentleman as well as a doctor. With regard to my
condition I beg to state that I consider myself fully cured. I might be guilty of
jumping at conclusions, but I can state without exaggerating anything that I
EVIDENCES OF CURABILITY OF CHRONIC DISEASE, 771
never felt better in my life, to my knowledge, and I have decided to try my luck
without further treatment at present. My weight, Doctor, is 9% pounds heavier
than it was three months ago. It is 11 stone, 13% pounds, nearly 12 stone. Now I
eat and sleep well. My friends say I look a lot better. Of course I do not care
to tell them that I was under your care. I showed them your “Plain Home Talk'
book, and one old gentleman remarked that the man who wrote that book was no
duffer. He said, ‘I have heard about Dr. Foote before, and I believe he is a clever
man.” ”
cAsk: 98,166.-Self-abuse, with considerable constitutional disturbance and Vari-
cocele.
A gentleman writes from Gaylordsville, Conn. : “Yours of the 28th inst re-
ceived. I finished my last course of treatment some time ago, and am able to Say
that I now feel better than I ever did in my life. I have not once fallen into my
previous bad habit since I began taking your treatment, and I hope I am entirely
cured. The varicocele does not trouble me as much as it did. Thanking you for
your interest in my case, I remain,” etc.
case 102,035.—Spermatorrhoea; seminal losses almost every might, these having
occurred for nine years, general health greatly reduced.
An officer in the government service in New South Wales, Australia, writes:—“I
have much pleasure in enclosing post-office order for another two months' course
of treatment. I heartily appreciate the kind advice in your last letter, and also the
kind interest you have taken in my welfare. The exhausting nightly losses I used
to undergo have almost disappeared. In spite of the irregularity of the mails, etc.,
and the unhealthy surroundings, I am making rapid progress toward health. You
see, Doctor, the unfavorable conditions I am living under are unavoidable. It
reflects great credit on your mode of treatment. I am improving so rapidly that I
can hardly comprehend it. The daily troubles of life which I used to chafe under,
have flown away from me as chaff before the wind. Life is a great and glorious
pleasure to me now, when it used to be a burden. You have more than saved my
life. I shudder when I look back on the suffering I endured through the maltreat-
ment at the hands of unscrupulous quacks with which Sidney abounds. I bless
the day your book came into my hands. I shall always celebrate the anniversary
of that day while I live. Hoping to be able to visit New York some time in the
near future, and personally thank you for all you have done for me, and with best
wishes for your health, and happiness, yours gratefully,” etc.
CASE 42,143.−Spermatorrhoea.
An officer in the English Navy writes from Devonport, England: “I received
your letter some months ago, and you requested me to write you after finishing a
course of remedies. I finished them about the end of February and was married
the 21st of last month. I might say that they made me a changed man. I am.
strong and Vigorous and look the picture of health, and I live according to your
suggestions in your valuable book.”
CASE 90,024.—Impotency, Constipation, and Catarrh.
A gentleman writes from Kinderhook, N. Y.: “In reply to yours of the 25th,
Would say that I am now married nearly a year, and that your treatment restored
me completely. I am almost cured of the constipation habit, and on the whole J
bwe you a debt of gratitude which I cannot repay.”
772 TREATMENT OF DISEASE.
CASE 97,018. —Spermatorrhaea of long standing and Phimosis.
A gentleman of middle age, who had previously doctored many years without
success, writes from Bangor, Me.: “Your favor of the 25th received. I can say
that I have continued to enjoy fairly good health during the past year, perhaps as
good as I could expect, considering constitutional holdbacks, and the fact that I
am still doing night work. I should add that I have been married for some time,
and am very well satisfied. Perhaps it would be well to consider my case closed on
your records, though if in future I should require special medical assistance, I
should feel confident in calling upon you again. The phimosis was completely
cured by your instrument, although it took a good deal longer than I anticipated.
I have, however, no reason to complain.”
CAs E 71,042.—Spermatorrhoea, and sympathetic nervous disturbance.
A gentleman writes four years after treatment from Whiteport, N.Y.: “In reply
to yours of the 1st, would say that I am enjoying excellent health at present, and
ever since I stopped treatment with you, for which words fail to express my grati-
tude, I can work harder, feel stronger, eat anything, sleep sound and refreshing.
Rest assured should I require the services of a physician, I would immediately
apply to you for relief and recommend others as well. Wishing you abundant suc-
cess and prosperity, which you so richly deserve, Tremain,” etc.
Five years later this same gentleman writes: “In answer to your letter of the
22d inst. would say that at the present time I am enjoying the best of health. I
highly appreciate the benefit derived from your treatment, and can say I have im-
proved 100 per cent., physically and mentally. If an occasion arises that I require
your services, will give you a call.
****
CASE 101,148.—Spermatorrhoea, weak physically, Dyspepsia, Constipation, and
Chronic Bronchitis. *
A gentleman writes from Lancashire, England, as follows: “I beg to acknowl-
edge the receipt of your letter some time ago. I thought I would wait awhile and
see if my cure were permanent, and to-day I can say that it is. I am positively
sure that I am cured. I would not have that dread disease on me again for any
amount of money. I am very thankful to you, Dr. Foote, for curing me, and if
ever I suffer from any disease again of any consequence or chronic form, I will
certainly seek your advice. I never eat any food of a heavy character or take
any intoxicating drink of any kind since I commenced treatment, but I think I
may eat more freely now, as I feel strong enough to digest anything. I still follow
bathing. I thank you once again, Doctor, for curing me, for I feel healthy and
happy now. Yes, the best I ever did in my life. Money is nothing to health like
this. I will conclude for the present, but will remember you to my last day.”
*
case 101,064.—Sea:ual Atrophy, resulting from Self-abuse.
A gentleman in County Cork, Ireland, writes: “My reason for not writing to
you sooner was to see would any of the disagreeable symptoms return after I
ceased taking your medicine. I am glad to say I am completely cured after tak-
ing your invaluable medicine according to your directions. May you be long
spared by Providence to preside over the noble work you so successfully accom-
plish.”
EVIDENCES OF CURABILITY OF CHRONIC DISEASE, 773
case 102,095.—Self-Abuse, much Wervous Depression, Dyspepsia, and Constipation.
A gentleman approaching 30 years of age, after four months' treatment, writes
from Akron, Ohio: “Your letter of the 25th of July duly received. I know it has
been some time since I wrote you last, but I intended to use all the medicine before
making my final report. I have some tablets of No. 4 left yet. I can say that my
condition has much improved under your care, and do not think I will need any
more medicine. The pimples are much better, and I have good control of Iny
sexual Organs.”
CASES OF DISEASES OF WOMEN.
east 100,109.—Uterine Weakness, Poor Elimination, Impure Blood, and Marked
Anaernia.
A young lady writes from Anawan, Ill.: “I think it is my duty to write you
to let you know how well I am. Doctor, you Ought to see me; I wish you could
see how I have changed in the last three months. I went to see a friend of mine
that I had not seen since I began to take your treatment. Doctor, I wish you
could have been with me when she said: ‘Why? How you have changed Why? the
last time I saw you you looked as if you would not live six months. And now I see
you as well and fleshy as ever.” Doctor, would you believe it, I weigh 132 pounds
now. Oh! Doctor, I cannot thank you enough for what you have done for me. I
am only sixteen years old now, but I think I have suffered enough to satisfy any-
body that wished me to suffer. I used to go to my’room and cry every afternoon;
but now I sew, or take a walk with my sister. Oh! I am so happy because I am
well. Doctor, I have nothing to give you in return but my poor thanks, but such
as they are, I hope you will take.”
---
CASE 97,231.-Retroversion of the Womb, much nervous disturbance, Dyspepsia, and
Constipation.
A lady Writes from Hudson, Kan.: “I will now drop you a few lines to let
you know that my health is almost as good as ever. I have a fine baby girl, four
months old to-day, as fat and healthy as can be. I got along very good. Even
when baby was born I suffered but very little pain, and I know it is all due to your
medicine, for which I am very thankful to you. After all those years of pain and
misery if I am in need of medical attention I will certainly turn to you again.”
CASE 94,006.—Uterine Prolapsus, Dyspepsia, and Pilés.
An elderly lady writes from Philadelphia, Pa...: “I must ask you to excuse me
this time for not writing Sooner, as it has been a busy time with housecleaning, but
I am happy to say that I am well and went through with my work with little
fatigue. The womb does not trouble me any more, and the piles are cured, for
which I am grateful, as I suffered most from them, which made me feel very weak,
and I do not feel the Weakness or the palpitation of the heart. Last Thursday I
walked about seven miles. I was tired, of course, more with the heat, but got
home, had a bath, and laid down to rest, and felt bright afterwards; took a short
walk again before bedtime. So I think I am pretty well. My medicines are about
dome, except those tablets. I will have some of those anti-bilious pills shortly. I
think they are very good. If there is anything more that you require to know, I
will gladly inform you.”
774 TREATMENT OF DISEASE.
°ASB 103,049.-0varian Disease, Uterine Weakness, and marked Nervous Irritability.
A lady living in Catskill, N. Y., writes: “I am very much better in every way.
After years of headache, have scarcely had one since I began the treatment.
Also, no more backache, except when I am very tired. My abdomen was swol-
len hard and sore. That is much better, so much better that I can hardly express
how differently I feel. The nervousness is much better too. Am still nervous,
though not so distressingly so, and can control it more now. The trembling in my
limbs was gone after the first month, and now I never feel it except when I work
all day or when I have my sickness. As to my monthly sickness, instead of spend
ing three days of agony in bed, I am able to be around a little the first two days.
By keeping quiet and using the medicine, I get along wonderfully for me. Hardly
know myself. My husband says I am a different person, that the medicine has done
Wonders. I am doing my own work and washing alone now after having help all
Summer, and I do so want to keep well.
CASE 74,206.-I’rolapsus Uteri of several years' standing, and general health much
impaired.
Husband writes from Syracuse, N.Y.: “It is a late day to give in our final
report of my case, 71,234, and my wife's case, 74,206. We delayed reporting to see
if the marvellous cure so speedily effected, was permanent, and can say that we
are both in perfect health, better than we ever enjoyed in our lives. It is now
eight months since we discontinued your treatment. I have gained 28 pounds, and
remain at a weight of 145 pounds. Your system of treatment certainly cannot fail
to Secure the highest endorsement.”
In a second letter from the same patients recently received, the husband
Writes: “Your favor of the 6th inst. received, noting inquiry concerning my wife's
health. Would say that while she was not feeling well (simply for a few weeks
in August, 1893), she has never enjoyed better health than since your treatment and
Cure of 1888. The cure was perfect and lasting, and I can truly say that to-day
there is not a woman who enjoys better health—never ailing—constantly well.
In Case anything would trouble, she would surely consult you ; but the weakness,
Which you undoubtedly diagnosed correctly, has been entirely removed by your
treatment. We have since four healthy young children, none of them ever sick,
all playful and happy. Gratefully and respectfully,” otc. g
CASE 31,020.-Prolapsus Uteri, marked irrotation, and depression of the nervous sys-
tem, and obstinate constipation.
A lady writes in 1809 from Washington, D.C.: “I am one of your old patients.
Somewhere in the seventies—I forget the exact date—I consulted you at your
office where you prescribed for me a six-months' course of your medicine which I
paid for, and you expressed to me. I do not think I could have invested what I
gave you for the medicine in anything else which would have given half the relief
I obtained from it. I have been much stronger in every sense, and have told hun-
dreds of people of the efficacy of your remedies. I think you understand there are
so many worthless advertisements afloat, purporting to cure all the ills of flesh,
but which are worthless when tried, that many think there is no cure. Again,
there are so many in the working-classes who take no time to investigate the glar-
ing pamphlets thrown into the front door. These have become a matter of course;
so they think all a hoax. There are so many who know nothing of your medicines,
yet need them so much. Every day and hour I see and know of suffering for lack
of such common sense medicines.”
EVIDENCES of CURABILITY OF CHRONIC DISEASE, 775
CASES OF BARRENTNESS.
CASE 83,176.-Barrenness from Prolapsus and Congestion; Dyspepsia and Neuralgia.
A lady writes from Greenpoint, N. Y.: “Your inquiry received this A. M., and
am happy to say that I had a fine, perfect, ten-pound boy born On February 11th. I
had a very hard time, but I feel all right now, and the baby is doing well. I can
say with pleasure and thanks to your treatment that I am a happy mother. I send
you a photograph of my baby boy taken when he was two months old, for publica-
tion in THE HEALTH MonTEILY. I was married nine years ago, dating from May 5,
1895, and the baby was born on February 11, 1895. I would like very much to have
a MONTHLY sent to me wherein you publish the picture.”
(A photograph of this infant is given on page 578.)
CASE 87,077.-Barrenness and Dysmemorrhoea, Dyspepsia and Catarrh. No children,
though married sia: years.
A lady writes from Illinois: “I received a letter from you some time ago. I
was not at home at the timo as I had left for Buffalo where I visited five weeks
with my parents. I intended writing you, but since we have had baby I don't get
much time to do anything outside of my general work. Baby was born March
15th. I was sick five days before baby was born. She was very weak and weighed
but three pounds. She is a lovely baby now and we are very proud of her; also of
you, Doctor, for we would not have our darling had it not been for you. We are
indeed very grateful to you. Baby being a girl robbed her of your name; we
named her Vivian. I had baby's picture taken when six months old and we will
send you one so you can see for yourself how rapidly she has improved. She
weighed twenty-three pounds when six months old. I am quite Well, although I
don’t feel quite as strong since baby was born; probably I will be stronger after I
stop nursing her. I have been talking to my friends of you, two of which called at
your office to see you. They told me your office was full of patients and they
hadn't the time to Wait as they had to catch their train as they stopped over while
going through New York. I hope you will let me hear from you What you think of
our darling baby if your valuable time will permit.”
(The picture above spoken of is produced on page 580.)
BOIRN BY THE BOOK.
A lady writes from Massachusetts: “Concerning the health of my husband, I
will say that he is much better. Immediately after the first week he slept better,
appetite came back, and now he pursues the exact mode of living as you directed.
He does not eat much meat, and avoids everything that could molest his stomach.
He does not drink any beer either. We give you our sincerest thanks for your
valuable treatment.
I shall have to thank you once more for your great book “Plain Home Talk.”
When We arrived in this country seven years ago I became the mother of a little
girl who was Our great delight, as she was the first girl of six children that we
have had. She seemed to be healthy and happy when in the course of two days
she died from Summer complaint. I was struck down by this great blow, and I
was at the point of really losing my mind, I did not sleep for nights and lost all
joy in living. The only desire I had was to meet my child. I could sit for hours
thinking of her. Considering that I was about forty I had very little hopes of be-
coming a mother again, when through an advertisement in some paper my atten-
tion was called to your book which I procured at once, and which gave such clear
776 TREATMENT OF DISEASE.
and succinct directions about sexual matters. I read it very carefully and after
two months I became pregnant. I herewith give you once more my best thanks
for your clever work. I lived during my pregnancy according to your advice, and
I became the mother once more of a little girl. I cannot refrain from sending you
her picture, and repeating that through you joy and happiness have once more
made their abode in our home. I have no objection to your using this letter.”
(This child's picture is exhibited on page 614.)
CASE 96,074.—Barrenness of a woman who miscarried repeatedly.
A Woman of low vitality, who miscarried every time she became pregnant,
Writes from Hoboken, N. J.: “Words cannot express my thankfulness to you for
your treatment. I feel better than I ever did, and a little girl was born to us the
21st of August. She is a lovely child, full of life. She has not been sick a day since
She was born, and I hope she will keep well. I am sure if I had not taken treat-
ment from you I would have lost her like the others. Thanking you again for your
kindness, I remain, yours,” etc.
*-i-º-º-º-º-
CASE 61,010,-Barrenness in a scrofulous woman reduced in health, and suffering
Jrom Prolapsus, Piles, and Fistula.
She writes from Bunker Hill, W. Va.: “It is a long time since I wrote, and a
great many things have happened since then. The best thing is, I have a fine, big
boy, nearly four months old. He was born on the 14th of August, and weighed
twelve pounds at birth, and twenty pounds at three months old. I do not know how
much he weighs now, and he is increasing all the time. He is the premium baby
Of this county. Every one knows about him, and so many come to see him. It is
such a wonder because I always was so delicate. I used the foods you recom-
mended during pregnancy, and had a good time. He never has been sick,
and is the picture of health. I never saw as strong a child as he is. Every one re-
marks it. He could hold up his head as soon as he was born, and in three or four
days could turn over. I guess you would think you had done wonders with me if
you could see this baby. The physician who attended me is a new one here, and a
good one too. I told him how I had been and how I was under your treatment,
and he said that was just the kind of treatment I needed. He thinks there never
was such a baby as this. Says he never saw such a one in his life. I am getting
along very well now. I am getting strong again. I am taking very good care of
myself, and I think if nothing happens, I will be stronger than ever I was. Dear
Doctor, I thank you se much for what you have done for me. Every time I look
at my baby, I shall think of you, for if it had not been for your treatment I never
should have had him, and I am the happiest woman in the World.”
CASE 84,239.-Barrenness, due to Anteversion and Leucorrhoea in an anaemic woman
with scrofulous inheritance.
She writes from Cape Lookout, N. C.: “I have been thinking of writing you
for a long time to let you know how I am getting along, but have neglected to do
so. I am more than thankful to you for the treatment and advice. I have been
gaining in health ever since I commenced to take your treatment, and can truthfully
say that I am in the best health I have been for twelve years, and weigh twenty-
five or thirty pounds more than I ever did. I have a fine baby boy a little over five
months old, and the picture of health. I had no difficulty in carrying it, or at his
birth. You cannot tell how I appreciate my improved health.”
*
EvidLNCES OF CURABILITY OF CHRONIC DISEASE, 777
IMISCELLANEOUS DISEASES.
CASE 66,241.-Rheumatism, affecting p?'etty much all the joints, following a prostra-
ting attack of Malaria.
A gentleman writes from Savannah, Ga.: “Your favor at hand. I feel very
much ashamed of not having written you long ago, and beg your pardon for
neglect. You ask me how I feel. NOW, Doctor, if there is anything the matter
with me, I don't know what it is. I never felt better in my life, and am working
like a Turk from six in the morning until eight or nine at night, seven days in the
week; eat regularly, and sleep the moment I strike the bed until I get out in the
morning. I am now 28 pounds heavier in weight than when you took hold of me.
I don't use tobacco in any form. Now, Doctor, if there is anything within my
power I can do for you, just mention it, and you will always find me at your Ser-
vice, for to you I consider I owe my life and happiness to-day.”
CASE 80,010.-Sciatica of nine years' standing.
A gentleman writes from Fort Lemhi, Idaho: “Your lotter and medicine re-
ceived. Very many thanks. I am gaining On the sleep trouble. I received a letter
a few days ago from a brother who lives in Minnesota, and he has about the same
opinion of you that I have, and if you succeed in curing him, I shall regard it as a
much more wonderful cure than mine He lives in Morristown, Rice Co.; do not
know his case number. He says he ki.ows that he is on the road to recovery and
that he believes Dr. Foote is the Smartest doctor on the face of the earth, and he
is not a man given to use extravagant expressions. I think I can understand how
he feels. Doctor, there is not an hour while I am awake, that does not find me
comparing my present condition with that of last year, and then there comes the
thought that I owe you such a debt of gratitude as I shall never be able to repay.”
(This correspondent had what the Surgeons supposed to be a tumor in the hip-
joint, and amputation of the leg was seriously advised. I diagnosed the trouble
as sciatica, and made an entire cure of it by medical treatment.)
CASE 97.241.-White swelling of the knee-joint in a lady with a scrofulous condition of
blood.
She writes from Janesville, Wis.: “I am feeling very much better. Have not
had a pain in my side for the last two weeks. My knee also is very much better.
It is still swollen on the left side, which at times is worse, and then again hardly
to be seen, I am now quite satisfied with the good your medicines have done for
me. I was very impatient at first, but now that I see a great change and feel
so much better I am well pleased.”
CASE 67,219.-Syphilis (8econdary) with marked constitutional disturbance.
A gentleman Writes after seven months' treatment from Brooklyn, N. Y.:
“From the day I commenced your treatment I saw no traces of my disease. I have
increased since then from 188 to 198 pounds, and to-day am as big and strong as an
ox. My brother whom you treated has died, but I think had he stayed with yOu
that he would have been all right.”
Ten years later the above correspondent writes again as follows: “All of my
other troubles have disappeared, except that perhaps my throat sometimes both.
ers me in the morning. This I have to clear out before I can speak clearly. The
wash you gave me for my throat I did not use but a little while. I did not bring it
withºe, but I will send home for it. The pains about my chest that I had when I
778 TREATMENT OF DISEASE.
Commencod treatment, left bofore I had used the medicine three weeks. In fact,
I never felt bottor in my life than I do now. If I have any more trouble with the
disease (syphilis) I will take another course of treatment.”
CASE 104,015.-Syphilís, Jºheumatism, and Neurasthenia.
A young man of Jamaica, British West Indies, writes, after only one month's
"eatment: “IIercin I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your remedies which
camo safely as per Invoice. I certainly paid regular attention in taking the medi-
cine, and to say that they did me good, would be but a slight way of expressing it.
I feel vigorous, more so than I have felt for many a day, and both my condition
and complications improved. The pains in my left chest and knce are nothing
near What they wore. The ringworms on my thighs, and pimples on hands are
about the greatest trouble. Still, they show signs of a change. My appetite has
fairly improved, and I digest food with less diſficulty. The only trouble I expe-
rience now is frequent belohing, say about two hours after each meal. The consti-
pation is not so troublesome. I havo sont you a full report regarding my symp-
toms So far as my ability pormits, and am making preparations to send you a big
Order by next mail.”
*-
CASE 103,009.--Diabetes five years ago, follow d by threat of Bright's disease and
general prostration. i
A lady of Quoboc, Can., after taking throo months' troatment, writes: “Your
treatment has becn very helpful to mo. I am onjoying better health than I have
had for yoars. You may be sure, Dr. Foote, that I shall placo myself under your
treatment whenever I noed it. I havo not lost an opportunity of praising and
recommending you to my friends.”
CASE 103,056.-Bad blood condition, Constipation, Piles, and Catarrh.
A middle-aged man writes from IElizabethtown, Now Moxico: “Having re-
ceived your letter inquiring how the courso of treatment has benefited me, I will
say that I feel better in every way than for five years, and I can do more work
without fooling over-fatigued than beforo. I have not used quite all the medicine,
as there have becn soveral times that I was away and could not carry the modi-
cine with mo, but whon possible, I have taken tho medicino according to direc-
tions. I shall advise others to give you a trial, as I am satisfied your medicines
will do all you claim for them. ...Very gratefully yours,” etc.
cas E 72,222. – Glandular Congestion accompanied with severe pains and much physical
weakness.
A middle-aged lady writes from Easton, Md.: “I must thank you again for
my better feelings, which cxtend to a healthful state of mind, as well as marked
physical improvement. Tho glands are in a natural condition again, and if I could
only realize the necessity every hour of not overtaxing the powers of endurance, I
might be better than 1 am, but when I remember where I was last year, and my
condition then, I am overwhelmed with gratitude both to you and the common-
sense system you represent-bound as it is by no limitations as to School or preju-
dice—but open to the advance of truth and science from overy direction. You
may be sure that your praises will be sung by me for the good of mankind.”
EVIDENCES OF CURABILITY OF CHRONIC DISEASE, 779
oasis 85,110.-Bedridden, with Wervous Prostration, Uterine Weakness, Dyspepsia,
Constipation, and Weuralgia.
A lady writes from Ellis, Iowa: “I am growing stronger every day. The old
disease does not return, and I now do lots of work, while I was bed-ridden When
I came to you, for all of which I am exceedingly grateful.”
cast 101,145.-General Debility, resulting from overwork, and sedentary habits.
A young drossmaker of Ida Co., Iowa, writes: “Your romedios have done
wonderful work for me. I have now finished my six months' treatment, and feel
now that I could do without medicinc. I fecl altogether like a new person, and I
feel very grateful to you that you have taken so much interest in me and cured
me. I will write hore and toll you about my symptoms: My bowols movo regularly. I
have not taken anything to move them for over a whole month. My tonguo docs
not coat any more. I have a good appetite. I have gainca six pounds this last
two months. I come around regularly every month. I don't have any pains of
any kind. I don't have any pain in my side any more.”
EARLIER TIRIUMPTIS.
Thus tho quotations of lotters from gratoful pationts might go on until we
reached the last cover of tho book, and even then it would require a larger volume
than this to publish them. To show, however, the superiority of botanical reme-
dics over tho drugs usually employed, I shall ask tho indulgence of the reader
while I prosent one—just one—of many tostimonials that might be given from
those recoivod in tho carlior years of my practico, whom such results must bo
more attributable to the character of the medicines employed, than to experience
or acquired skill in the practice of my profession. I look back with pride and
groat satisfaction to many apparently hopeless cases which were completely ro-
stored through the ovident reliability of my vegetable medicines. That is to say,
they signally oſſectod in each one just what I was seeking to accomplish. This
could not havo becn tho result if from any causo they were inert or otherwise doſi-
cient in quality. If the roadcr has not read what is said of such therapeutic agen-
cies in former pages of this work, lot mo ask him to turn to Chapter IV. of Part I.
But to the testimony in point:
A IBICIORIT) I). EN CASI.
Note: If any person of inquiring mind would ask what caused tho patient to
be bedridden, I will answer at tho outsct that thoro was not a sound organ in her
body, nor was any natural function normally performed. Thero was hardly room
on One entire pago of my register to admit the description of tho pains, aches, and
uncomfortable symptoms undor which she suffered. It was one of the blackest
looking pages in the case-book.
On the 26th of January, 1868, at the conclusion of hor treatment, I recoivod a
lettcr from this patient, from which I will make the following quotation:
“I regret to torminate so pleasant a correspondence, and shall take pleasure in
calling upon you when we visit New York. Before taking leave I wish to say that
if extracts from my former letters or this can be of any service to you, you are
welcome to use them in any way you like. And if you desire it, we will send you
an affidavit testifying to your success, for I not only consider myself a wonder, but
far and Wide has been known and discussed the remarkable sufferings and recov-
ery of H. W. Satterly, daughter of Wm. It. Satterly of this place, and now your
sincore friend, Mrs. S. F. Smith, East Setauket, L. I.” *
78o TREATMENT OF DISEASE.
It was in compliance with my acceptance of her grateful proposition that the
following affidavit was subsequently made and forwarded to me by mail:
“EAST SETAUKET, L.I., N. Y., May 4, 1868.
“DR. E. B. Footp:-
DEAR SIR: Although you are fully aware of the wonderful success of your
efforts in my behalf; and although the voice of one will scarcely be heard among
the many who are daily proclaiming their gratitude to you, I feel it a duty to send
you the following testimonial, in order that others may read, believe, and hope.
For my case was certainly an unusual one, and almost unparalleled.
“When I was but three months old, symptoms of erysipelas were first noticed,
and I was never afterwards a healthy child, but was always feeble and never able
to endure fatigue.
“At times I suffered much from erysipelas in the eyes and head, and various
parts of the body. At fourteen years of age, my health became very poor, and for
more than two years I was miserable indeed—often confined to the bed for weeks
together. At the end of that time I was entirely prostrated. Then what a suf-
ferer I became! I was tortured with the most exquisite pain, lost all appetite, was
reduced to a mere skeleton, and was soon so feeble that I could not raise my head
from the pillow.
“After a few months I rallied slightly. But the sufferings were only somewhat
alleviated by Opiates, which I took in various forms and in incredible quantities.
All efforts to remove the causes were vain—all the remedies tried seemed to be of
no benefit. Thus I lay for more than four years, helpless and despairing. Then
We heard of and applied to you. But I had no hope, no faith in any medicine. For
my system seemed to be wholly under the power of disease; the lungs, liver, etc.,
in a very bad condition, the nervous system completely shattered. For three
years the bowels had never moved without artificial means. Your reply to our
letter of consultation was so gratifying that we determined that I should be placed
under your care. For you guaranteed nothing—did not promise to give me health
in a week or a month, but said that you “should expect that I would shortly begin
to improve, and by perseverance, be ultimately cured; " and that “my recovery,
in order to be real, must be gradual.” I commenced using your remedies, and in
two weeks there was a slight, though marked improvement. Then I began to hopel
I continued under your treatment, and we endeavored to second your efforts, and
follow your directions in every particular. Gradually the Tyrant Disease was
vanquished. The cough and expectoration became better; the pain in the head
was lessened; the cramp in the stomach and dyspepsia were relieved; the bowels
became active and regular, and, in short, the whole system was invigorated, re-
newed. In about six months I began to stand alone and gradually my strength
increased so that I could walk about my room; and finally—in little less than a
year after commencing the use of your remedies—oh, joy of joys! I was able to
ride out! Just five years and four months had passed since I had breathed the fresh
air under the open heavens. About this time I wrote as follows:
“‘When we look back, and think of the state of my health when I commenced us-
ing your remedies, only about a year ago, of my sufferings, feebleness, nervousness,
at that time; and when we remember the four previous years of misery, in which
countless doses were swallowed, with very doubtful results, and sufferings that
were only relieved by morphia; when we think of all this and more—more than I
can tell, and then reflect upon the present condition, we cannot indeed but feel
very grateful and hopeful, and regret so much that we could not have known of
you five, yes, seven years ago. We have no doubt but that, could I have been
treated by you then, I should never have become so feeble and thoroughly diseased,
*
EVIDENCEs of CURABILITY OF CHRONIC DISEASE, 781
To-day, as I write, I can, when weary, lay down my pen, walk about my room, go
to the window and look out, breathe the fresh air, and return to my writing re-
freshed. A year ago, to-day, I could not; no, not if by doing so I could have gained
health itself. I could not have stood alone one second.”
“And now I can say that I am stronger, and am rejoicing in better health than I
have known for more than nine years. I have entirely relinquished the use of
morphia, and though not constitutionally strong and robust, feel that the health I
now enjoy is good compared to the ill-health that I formerly endured.
“I care not what skeptics may say, I know that your remedies have helped me.
And furthermore, I wish to say that I send this testimonial and affidavit entirely
unsolicited. MRS. S. F. SMITH.”
SWOrn to before me this
4th day of May, 1868.
ORAN W. RogFRs,
Justice of the Peace. [Copy.]
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
In a large 80-page pamphlet entitled “Evidences of Dr. Foote's
Success” (sent free to all applicants), many equally remarkable cures
are given in letters from patients treated in the decade ending with the
year 1900. Just such so-called “miracles” were performed in nearly
every State and Territory in this great Republic, and the extended
knowledge of them is what has made the name of Dr. Foote an attractive
bait for the professional hooks of charlatans in various States in this
country, which I have exposed, notably in Illinois, Utah, Montana, and
North Dakota, and from which States I have caused to be driven out
mountebanks who either assumed my name or pretended to be con-
nected with me, as related in the closing pages of Chapter W., Part I.
It will be well for the invalid reader to refer to this chapter on Doctors,
and avoid being taken in by any such impostors. All of the foregoing
extracts, except the last, are from comparatively recent letters. Once
in about three months we must consign to the flames most of our cor-
respondence and memoranda, or we should have to maintain an im-
mense store-house for the archives that would otherwise accumulate.
Furthermore, it would require much valuable time to select the best
that might be given. But taking them pretty much as they come, they
give a better idea of how patients report at different stages of treat-
ment, and they are perhaps more interesting than they would be if
they were all final letters after a cure had been effected. In giving a
limited number, all kinds of diseases cannot be represented. To at-
tempt to do this would make a huge volume. The pamphlet alluded
to contains a greater variety, and it is pretty much given up to such
testimonials, and all can receive a copy gratis who are interested in
them. Those desiring to consult the author can call at his office or
answer the questions on page 761. Consultations are always free.
CHAPTER XIII.
PRESCRIPTIONS FOR COMMON AILMENTS AND SUGGES-
TIONS FOR EMERGENCIES.
Preliminary Remarks.
©, HIS part of “Plain Home Talk” appeared in
º Some former editions as an Appendix. Bé-
fore it appeared not a business day came
without the receipt by author and publish-
ers of letters expressing the highest gratifi-
cation with the work, or containing thanks
for some special bit of advice or informa-
ſº-> \ \ſº tion which a reader had found very use-
; \; ful and appropriate to his needs; but now and then was
y ſ heard a complaint that the book was not as other popular
• *. medical works in the one matter, that it lacked special
instructions for the management of all diseases, and pre-
scriptions for medicinal treatment of them. To the care-
ful reader of the book it has doubtless been made evident
that the author never intended to include in this work the broad
domain of medical practice, which would require, at least, another
volume of a thousand pages. There are already several carefully
prepared, but necessarily large and expensive, works covering this
field, while this volume embraces many very important sub-
jects which these family practice books do not touch upon. A knowl-
edge of the causes and means of avoiding disease is not only more im-
portant, but more easy to make plain to the general reader, and the
author still holds firmly the opinion that, in selecting subjects for the
preceding chapters, he has chosen well for the greatest good of the
greater number of his readers. To acquire even a moderate under-
standing of the other domain—the diagnosis and treatment of disease—

782 -
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 783
really necessitates much study, wide reading, special aptitude, and op-
portunity for varied experience; but there is no need of repeating
here the line of argument presented in a chapter under the heading
“Everybody His Own Doctor.”
An old recipe for cooking a hare, begins, “first, catch the hare,”
and so, to use wisely a prescription suggested for a disease, presupposes
that the disease has been correctly recognized. For neither acute nor
chronic diseases is it possible to name universal specifics that are applic-
able in all cases; and many of the familiar names of disordered states
of the body are, in fact, merely names of signs or symptoms, and not
of primary diseases. So it becomes easier to suggest remedies or re-
cipes for relief of ordinary symptoms of consumption (of which disease
there are many varieties) than to write down dogmatically prescrip-
tions for the disease itself, or the remedies for removing its causes.
As to acute diseases, even when correctly recognized, the curative
medicine for one person might be the worst possible for another, as in
pneumonia ; and all physicians agree that, however important be the
recognition of the disease, the treatment is after all determined by the
symptoms.
Even for well-known symptoms it is not always easy to point out
how to select the best remedy. Take headache, for instance, it may
be due to brain exhaustion, to stomach disorders, to liver or kidney
incompetency, to sluggish bowels, or womb congestion; and the best
mode of relief for any case is that which will in the best and quickest
way remove the cause.
It is, therefore, easy to see that a prescription may frequently do
wonders or do nothing, according as it is or is not appropriately se-
lected and employed. No physician can, then, be judged by his
prescriptions, except when they are used by his direction and
Selection in cases under his care. Turthermore, in fairness both
to myself and to my readers, I must say that I have not thought
best to present always my “first preferred” formulae in the following
pages, because many of them could not be promptly and properly pre-
pared, except in my own laboratory or in some other one where all the
resources of “eclectic specifics” are available. To make recipes of use
anywhere “’round the world,” they must be such as can be “filled ”
or made up at the average pharmacy, and not call for specialties that
are carried in stock by only a comparatively few druggists. I have
had occasional letters from readers who have not been able to get some
of the simple articles named in the following recipes, but it is not my
intention to make it necessary to send to me for the materials or com-
pounds proposed. On the contrary, the intent is, so far as possible, to
name only such as can be obtained in almost any place where a drug-store
is to be found, and this necessitates for me some compromise of princi-
784 PRESCRIPTIONS FOR COMMON AILMENTS.
ple as well as preference. Many a “common stock” article, if availa-
ble just when needed, may be far more useful than the preferred thing
that can only be had several days or weeks later. Some emergencies
can only be well met by having handy in the house a few standard
things likely to be needed any day. My Sanitary Bureau specialties
are handy, ready-made stock covering a large range of utilities. If I
were to offer their formulae here all could not be promptly obtained of
every druggist, and when they could be got, the price would, for a
small lot, generally exceed mine.
A few years ago a collection of useful notes and articles was made,
from previous volumes of Dr. Foote's Health Monthly, to make a pam-
phlet of one hundred and twenty-eight pages, published under the title
of “Dr. Foote's Handbook of Health Hints and Ready Recipes.” It
served so useful a purpose, and helped so often to alleviate the com-
mon ailments of many a family (judging by the favorable reports of it),
that we were encouraged to think that the utility of “Plain Home
Talk” could be increased by adding this chapter of selected prescrip-
tions. Many have been chosen because they are in the best sense
“homely ” and handy, and care has been exercised in the selection to
avoid such drugs or combinations as might not be safe in inexperienced
hands. Yet even the dullost tools may hurt clumsy hands, and those
who make use of any of the following formulae are urged to exercise
care to avoid mistakes in copying or compounding, and to make them-
selves familiar with measures and doses. Both solids and fluids are
prescribed in drachms and ounces, but there are two parallel tables of
weight and measure, thus:
60 grains = 1 drachm.
60 drops = 1 fluid drachm.
8 drachms = 1 ounce.
8 fluid drachmS = 1 ounce.
16 ounces = 1 pint.
An ordinary teaspoon once measured approximately one fluid
drachm, but now teaspoons are made larger than formerly, so that
one teaspoonful may measure two drachms. A tablespoonful equals
about four drachms, or half an ounce, while a teacup holds about four
(fluid) ounces, or one gill.
1. Abortion, when threatened, may Or,
be warded off by entire rest in bed, and
the administration of one to five drops | }. P. Sãºhoº. 10 grains.
Of the fluid extract of conium, Once in Simple sulphur oint-
two hours ; or fluid extract of Vibur- ment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Ounce.
I)ll II) prunifolium in doses of one drachm
once in tWO hours.
ACNE : FACE PIMPLES.
2. B. Tinc. green soap.... 3 ounces.
Carbolic acid. . . . . . . }% drachm.
Alcohol..... to make 4 Ounces.
Apply at night and wash off dext
morning with hot water.
*
Apply at night and Wash off next
morning with hot water.
Or,
4. R. Ammonium carbo- -
nate. . . . . . . . . . ..... 3 drachms.
Boracic acid ........ 1 drachm.
ther. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3'Ounces
Water. . . . . . . . . . . . ... { {
Tsed as a lotion twice daily.
PRESCRIPTIONS FOR COMMON ATLMENTS.
785
ANAL CHAFING AND SORENESS.
5. B. Tannin......... . . . . . 2 drachms.
Lard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 OUInCe.
Makes an ointment for local use.
PAINFUL
ALSO
ANGINA PE C T OR IS :
CRAMPS IN THE CHEST.
FOR FACIAL NEURALGIA.
6. B. Ammonium Valerian- -
ate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 grains.
Ammonium chloride. 30 “
. Take in one dose, in water, and again
in an hour, if required.
APHTHAE, OR A PHT HO U s SORE
MoUTH, CoMMON IN PHTHISIs.
7. B. Sulphate quinine...... 1 grain.
Oil of black pepper.... 1 drop.
Water. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Ounce.
Use to rinse the mouth,
A ST IIM A ; F O R RE I, II; F O F
PAROxYSMs.
(Apply free ſy Dr. Foote's Magnetic
Ointment to the chest.)
8. B. Tinc. lobelia......... 1 ounce.
Ammonium iodide... 2 drachms.
Ammonium bromide 3 { %
Syrup tolu ........... 3 ounces.
Pose.—One teaspoonful every one or
two hours.
Or,
9. 13. Powdered lobelia...... 2 ounces.
POWClered Stramonium 2 “
Powdered nitre. . . . . . . . 2 “
Powdered black tea... 2 “
Mix thoroughly, place a teaspoonful
On a saucer, ignite it with the flame of an
alcohol lamp, and breathe the fumes,
holding head well over the saucer,
BABY FOODs.
10. Add a P; of hot water to an
ounce of pearl barley; cool and strain ;
mix one-third of a pint of this barley-
water with two-thirds of a pint of fresh
cow’s milk, and add a teaspoonful of
milk sugar.—DR. S. B. SHERRY.
11. B. Cow's milk. . . . . . . . . . 1 Ounce.
Lime-water . . . . . . . . . 2 Ounces.
Cream....... . . . . . . . . 2 “
Sugar-Water......... 3 “
The sugar-Water consists of 18
drachms of milk-sugar in a pint of
Water.
BAKING Powde:Rs.
12. B. Tartaric acid. . . . . . . 6 Ounces,
Bicarbonate sodium 8 “
Flour , , , , , , , * * * * * * ... , 82 “
Mixed,
Or,
13. 13. Pure cre a m of
tartar. . . . . . . . . . 2% drachms.
Baking Soda..... 1 drachm.
Corn-starch...... 1 { %
To make this excellent powder easily
use one teaspoonful of each article as a
drachm. Sift together and keep dry.
BALDNESS IN SPOTs.
Use with care a stimulating salve of
14. B. Veratria. . . . . . . . 5 to 10 grains.
Lard. . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Ounce.
BED SOREs.
15. B. Alum................ 1 OUInce.
Tinc. Camphor. . . . . . 4 Ounces.
Mix thoroughly with the whites of
four eggs, and apply to the SOres.
Before bedsores Dr. Rosenbach rec-
ommends that lanolin be rubbed into a
red spot denoting an impending bed-
j the has had unvarying success
Wit e
BITTERS.
16. B. Bruise d cinchona
rk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Ounce
Bruised bitter Or-
ange peel. . . . . . . . . 1 drachm.
Bruised C alum b a -
TOOt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . { %
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
TOO *
Chamomile flowers 1 & 4
Mix and dampen the above and then
percolate through a tin fun nel,
slowly, with brandy, six ounces, and
then with water, one pint.
Dose.—One tablespoonful before each
Iſlead.
BLEEDING FROM THE STOMACH.
17. The safest, and most pleasant
remedy for hematemesis is said to be
Water, drank as hot as can be borne, in
quantities of a half-tumblerful to a
tumblerful. . No further hemorrhage
flººrs, and fragments of clots are vom-
ited.
BLUES, MELANCHOLY.
18. , Dryden says: “The yellow gall
that in your bosom floats, engenders
all these melancholy thoughts.” The
late Rev. Dr. Deems hence prescribed
anti-bilious pills for members of his
flock in the mire of despondency, and
I eported good results. Of all anti-bilious
lºttls, Dr. Foote's Magnetic Vegetable
Anti-bilious Pills are the best.
786
PRESCRIPTIONS FOR COMMON AILMENTS.
BRONCHITIS, IN INFANTs.
19. B. Syrup of senega... 1 drachm.
Syrup of tolu. . . . . . 2 OunceS.
Ammonium chlor-
ide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 grains.
One small teaspoonful every three
hours.
BRUISEs.
20. To prevent black and blue spots,
try starch powder or arrowroot moist-
ened with water to a paste.
BITES OR STINGS OF INSECTs,
BUGS, FLEAs, Mosquitoes, ETC.
©. . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 drachm.
Water... . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Ounces.
A tablespoonful by the mouth, four
times daily, and apply externally to the
Stung part.
22. Locally, apply castor-oil; it is
generally handy, and always soothing.
23. For bee-sting, apply a wee drop
Of 3. of cinnamon With a Splinter of
WOOOl.
BOILS, ABSCESSES, CARBUNCLES.
24. Apply with a camel's-hair pencil
one part of carbolic acid in ten parts of
glycerine.
Or,
25. Hot formentations of p O p py-
heads, and poultice.
Or, an ointment of
26. B. Powdered borax... 1 drachm.
Benzoic acid. . . . . . . % “
Petrolatum... . . . . . . 2 Ounces.
and take internally the following:
27: 1-10th-grain tablet of calcium sul-
phide three times daily.
The homeopaths prescribe:
28. Tincture of armiga, one drop once
in three hours for use internally. Two
drachms of extract of fresh arnica
flowers in four dra chms of honey,
make a good local application beneath
a poultice.
BURNS.
(Dr. Foote's Magnetic Ointment on
linen.)
29. Carron oil, an old standard rem-
edy, is made of equal parts of linseed-
oil and lime-Water.
30. Dip pieces of blotting-paper in
molasses and apply them to the burns;
especially handy and safe in burns
about the face.
31. B. Boracic acid....... 15 grains.
Glycerine.......... 1 drachm.
Olive-oil. . . . . . . . . ... 1 Ounce.
As a local application.
32. Paint the burned part with ex-
tract pinus Canadensis.
Baking soda applied dry, with band-
age Wet With Water, is very soothing.
CANCER.
Locally, to relieve pain, apply lint
Soaked in a solution of
33. B. Citric acid......... % drachm.
Water... . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Ounces.
CATARRH OF THE HEAD.
34. Use Magnetic Catarrh Balm at
night, and a cleansing, disinfectant
wash for use as a nasal douche, morn-
ing; also one of the following recipes:
35. B. Carbolic acid. . . . . . 5 grains.
Camphor . . . . . . . . . . 5 “
Common Salt... . . . . 2 drachms.
Water. . . . . . . . . . . ... 1 pint.
Or,
36. B. Permanganate of po-
tassium... . . . . . . . . . . 4 grains.
Water... . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Ounces
Snuff this solution up the nostrils.
37. A pinch of salt in Warm water
makes a good nasal wash.
38. B. Baking soda. . . . . . . . . . 8 grains.
Borax. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 “
Water. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Ounce.
As a nasal wash.
For a catarrh of the stomach, or mu-
cous membrane generally.
39. B. Potassium bich ro-
d J)ose.—One teaspoonful three times a
ay.
Or,
40. Tinc. nux vomica, two or three
drops in water every three hours.
CHILBLAINS.
41. B. Carbolic acid...... 1 drachm.
Tinc. iOdine. . . . . . . 2 drachms.
Tannic acid . . . . . . . 2 $ $
Simple cerate..... 4 Ounces.
42. B. Ammonium chlor-
I
* * * * * * * * * * * e e º e $
Apply as a lotion.
43. Oil of peppermint, applied with
soft cloth or camel's-hair brush.
TRESCRIPTIONS FOR
COMMON AILMENTS. 787
44. CINDER IN THE EYE.-Try rub-
bing the other eye, which causes flow of
§: in both and washes out the foreign
Ody.
45. Get a friend (who knows how)
to roll the upper eyelid over a pencil to
expose its under Surface, when any
foreign body imbedded in the mem-
brane can be wiped off with soft tip of
a finger. In doing this the subject
looks downward, while the operator
takes the º of upper lid be-
tween thumb and finger, and raises
them up while, with the other hand,
using a Pºll or pen-holder to press the
body of the lid down, thus turning it
Wrong side Out.
CoSMETICs.
46. For removal of c O m e do n e S
(“black heads” or “flesh worms”)
from the face, try washing with water
containing dilutéd'water of ammonia,
One teaspoonful of the latter in a wine-
glass of Water, and rub briskly, dry
with a rough towel. Comedones can
be pressed out with a watch-key, plac-
ing the winding end Over the black
spot and pressing down firmly.
CoMEDONE LOTION, for faces marred
With “black heads "" or “Worms:”
47. B. Sulphuric ether.... 1 ounce.
Ammonium carbo-
nate . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 drachm
Boracic acid. . . . . . . 20 grains.
Water to make.... 2 ounces.
Mix and apply twice a day.
For acne or pimples, a good lotion
is as follows:
48. B. Sulphur... . . . . . . . . . 3 drachms.
Spirits of camphor 1 drachm.
Lime-water........ 3 Ounces.
EMOLLIENT GLY CERINE LOTION, for soft-
ening chapped skin.
49. B. Mucilage of quince
Seeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Ounce.
Glycerine... . . . . . . . . . 1 “
Orange flower-water 4 ounces.
50. For CHAPPING, try finely pow-
dered common starch.
f To a basin of water add a teaspoon-
Ull O - -
51. B. Tinc. benzoin....... 1 drachm.
Rose-Water......... 2 OunceS.
Many proprietary cosmetics contain
lead, zinc, or mercury, in Some form, as
their basis, and Such are poisomous.
For Cold IN THE HEAD, with “dry
vapor" inhalant, like Cutler’s :
52. B. Comp. tinc. iodine 3 drachms.
Carbolic acid. . . . . 48 drops.
Glycerine. . . . . . . . . 1 drachm.
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 drachms.
Can be smelled from a bottle, or
through a tube or inhaler.
For cold in the head—a snuff of
53. B. Quinine sulphate. 1 drachm.
Camphor . . . . . . . . . 4 drachms.
Powdered sugar... 10 { {
Many a “cold" is evidence of over-
acid State and is relieved by
54. Sodium carbonate . . . . . . 10 grains
taken in full glass of water three times
a day—half way between meals, and at
bed-time. Hot Whiskey Or lemonade is
Often bad treatment.
COLIC.
55. B. Magnesium car-
bonate. . . . . . . . . 1% drachm.
Ammonium car-
bonate. . . . . . . . . 2 ( (.
Comp. tinc. lav-
€DC162T. . . . . . . . . . 2 drachms.
• * * * * * - - - - e º a 6 Ounces.
JDose.—A tablespoonful every two
hours till relieved.
56. For baby's colic there is no safer
treatment, and often nothing more re-
quired than gently rubbing of bowels
with Dr. Foote's Magnetic Ointment.
It is useful either in cases of diarrhoea.
or constipation, and favors normal ac-
tion.
CoLic, CoLDs, Coughs, FEVERs—instead
Of paragoric:
57. B. Pulv. lobeliae........ 2 ounces.
Pulv. Cypripedium ... 1 ounce.
Pulv. ictodes. . . . . . . . 1 $ $.
Pulv. menth. pip. ... }6 “
Pulv. anisi sem. . . . . . % “
Vin. xericum. . . . . . . . 2 pints.
M. Agitate daily for two weeks and
filter.
For adults a tablespoonful in hot,
sweetened water, every hour till sweat-
Ing.
For children, a spoonful, and for in-
fants 30 drops or less.--T. S. PRETTY-
MAN, M.D
CHOLERA MIXTUREs; FOR COLIC,
CRAMPs, DIARRHCEA.
58. B. Try first Hayden's Viburnum
Compound, one spoonful in hot water
every two hours.
59. B. Tinc. capsicum....
Spts. Camphor.... 2
Tinc. guaicum .... 1% ounce.
Dose.—One Small spoonful in hot
water every two or three hours,
% ounces.
788 PRESCRIPTIONS FOR
COMMON AIf,MENTS.
(The New York Sun mixture.)
60. B. Tinc. capsicum....... 1 Ounce.
Tinc. Opium. . . . . . . . . . 1 “
Tinc. rhubarb . . . . . . . . 1 “
Essence peppermint . 1 “
Spirits camphor...... 1 “
JDose.—Fifteen to thirty drops, hourly.
Lemon-juice......... 1 ounce.
Butter............... 2 Ounces.
Rum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2. “
Warm and simmer well together.
Dose.—One teaspoonful, hourly.
70. B. Potassium citrate. 1 drachm.
Lemon-juice....... 2 Ounces.
Syrup ipecac...... % ounce.
Simple syrup. . . . . . 4 Ounces.
Dose.-A tablespoonful four or six
times daily.—H. C. WooD.
Cough REMEDY.
71. R. Fl, ex. wild cherry. 2 drachms.
Simple syrup . . . . . . 2 { %
Glycerine.......... 6 § {
Syrup Of tar....... 3 ounces.
Dose.—One teaspoonful as required.
LONDON Cough SYRUP.
72. B. Hops.................. 1 Ounce.
Hoarhound . . . . . . . . . . 1 “
Wild cherry bark..... 1 “
Iceland moss......... 1 “
Mix and pour on two quarts of water,
simmer to one quart, and add four
Ounces of 5. tar. Stir till nearly cold
and add loaf-sugar, one pound, an
good rum, half-pint.
Dose.—One teaspoonful as required.
s is a s tº e e g e º 'º s º e 1 Ounce.
§ {
e tº $ tº a s e s tº a g g º e a 9
WOO
Tinc. lobelia inflata ... 1 “
Glycerine . . . . . . tº e s tº e º 'º 1 “
JDose.—From ten drops to a teaspoon-
ful, every half hour to three times a
day.—DR. ELMORE PALMER.
CoNSTIPATION OF PREGNANCY.
74, B. Powdered senna ... 2 drachms.
POW dered licOrice
{ {
drachm.
(Squibb's diarrhoea mixture.)
61. lik. Spirits camphor.... 1 ounce.
Tinc. Opium........ 1 “
Tinc. capsicum. ... 1 “
Chloroform . . . . . . . 3 drachms.
Alcohol to make... 5 ounces.
Dose.—For adult, one drachm.
CIHOLERA INFANTUM, INFANT's
SUMMER DIARRFICEA.
I'luid ext, lycopus
Virginicus (bugle
Weed) . . . . . . . . . . . 4 drachms.
Sweet milk. . . . . . . . 8 Ounces.
Boil together one minute; cool it and
keep cool, and give teaspoonful doses
from fifteen minutes to t W. O hours
apart.
63. B. Sodium bicarbonate 4 grains.
Spts. Of chloroform. º ill'OpS.
e 0 § {
62. B.
1 Ounce.
Dose.—One teaspoonful in two tea-
spoonfuls Of hot water, and repeat in
half an hour, if necessary.
CoRNs.
64. Apply glacial acetic acid with
care to avoid touching adjacent parts.
Or,
65. Tincture of iodine.
Or,
06. Salicylic acid. . . . . . . . . . . . 1 drachm.
Simple cerate. . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Ounce.
Or,
67. Ext. cannabis indica. . . . . 5 grains. .
Salicylic acid. . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 “
Collodion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . %. Ounce.
Apply with camel's-hair pencil night
and º; for several days, till a pro-
tective coating is formed.
68. Dr. Foote's Magnetic Ointment is
not caustic or irritant enough to dis-
solve corns, but is of great service in
softening them, and to relieve heat,
Soreness, and inflammation when bound
on with a soft cloth during sleeping
hours.
CouGII.
69. B. Rock candy . . . . . . . . . 4 ounces
Honey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Ounce.
Powdered sugar... 6 drachms.
Mix, and one teaspoonful, more or
less, makes a pleasant laxative.
75. For constipation in infants try
giving two or three times a day, a lump
of common brown sugar, or a nice
raisin. For children an #ſº Of a
teaspoonful of glycerine will often bring
about a movement of the bowels in fif-
teen minutes.
AN “IEFFERVESCING APERIENT SELT-
ZER'' SALT:
76. B. Sodium bicarbonate. 2 ounces.
Tartario acid........ 1 { {
Rochelle salt........ § {
Magnesium sulphate 94 “
Dose.—One or two teaspoonfuls in a
glass of Water, on rising.
PRESCRIPTIONS FOR COMMON AILMENTS.
789
ANoTHER LAxATIVE SALT, like Enos'
(English).
77. B. Tartario acid.... . . . . 2 ounces.
Sodium carbonate... 2 “
Cream of tartar... . . . 2 “
Magnesium citrate... 2 “
Epsom salt . . . . . . . . . . 2. “
Powdered sugar..... 4 “
DOse.—One spoon ful or more dis-
Solved in water.
78. HABITUAL ConstipATION.—Inject
eight ounces of tepid water on retiring
and allow it to be retained until ab-
Sorbed. Increase the quantity progres-
sively each night while lowering the
temperature of the water. ... If neces-
sary, give an ordinary injection in the
morning. Four to six weeks suffices to
establish unaided defecation.—KLEM-
PERER.
CYSTITIs, INFLAMMATION OF THE
BLADDER.
79. Try fluid extract of stigmata.
maidis (the stigma of maize), one tea-
Spoonful three times a day.—DR.
STERNE.
Or,
80. B. ɺle acid... . . . .
* * * * * * * * g e e s &
1 drachm.
orax
Infusion buchu, ... 12 ounces.
Dose.—One-sixth part of the mixture,
three or four times daily, with consid:
erable water or flaxseed-tea.
DANDRUFF (of THE SCALP).
81. B. Chloral hydrate.... 1 drachm.
Glycerine . . . . . . . . . 4 drachms.
Bay rum. . . . . . . . . . . 8 Ounces.
As a .# Wash, use two or three
times a week.
82. In all scaly conditions of the
Scalp, and where the hair tends to fall
Out, Dr. Foote's Magnetic Ointment
stimulates better blood circulation,
Softens and removes scales, allays itch-
ing and irritation, and favors growth of
hair; if applied at night three times a
week, and hair washed next morning
With good castile soap-suds.
DEPILATORY TO REMOVE SUPER-
FLUOUs HAIR.
Sanitary Bureau No. 36 is the best
means. See page 1230.
83. B. Washing soda...... 1 drachm.
Quicklime . . . . . . . . . % “
Glycerine.......... 1 { {
Lard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 drachms.
Charcoal powder... 8 grains.
Apply once or twice daily till the
hairs come out easily.
Or,
84. A saturated solution of barium
sulphide, made into a paste with pow-
dered starch; which paste is applied to
the hairy spots, allowed to remain till
it causes smarting, then scraped off
with a knife, and the part washed with
water or some pleasant face Wash.
DIPHTHERIA.
85. Ilocally, spray the throat with
lime-water; or, -
86. A solution of permanganate of
potassium; 10 grains in a pint of water;
Ol', -
87. Apply locally powdered sulphur
(blown in); or,
88. Pepsin in glycerine; or,
89. Glycerite of borax.
00. Put five teaspoonfuls of cubebs
(powder) in a steam vaporizer, and con-
vey the steam by a rubber tube to the
patient's mouth for inhalation (a French
idea).
91. Saturate cotton-wool with lemon-
juice and press this against the affected
Surface four times a day.
A SUITABLE GARGLE FOR DIPH-
THERITIC SORE TII ROAT.
92. B. Carbolic acid. . . . . 20 drops.
Acetic acid. . . . . . . 30 “
Honey. . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 drachms.
Tinc. myrrh.. . . . . . 2 § {
Water to make... 6 ounces.
TIsiNFECTANTs.
An Ordinary wash for sores, ulcers,
WOunds, etc.:
93. B. Carbolic acid....... I drachm.
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 pint.
Forbed-pans and other utensils:
94. B. Labarraque's solution
of chlorinated soda, 1 ounce.
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Quart.
For articles of clothing:
95. Boil a solution of one ounce of
permanganate of potassium in three
gallons of water.
A good deodorizer for privies.
96. One pound of sulphate of iron
(common copperas) dissolved in a gal-
lon of Water.
Or,
97. B. sºphate of zinc.. . . . 4 ounces.
Salt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 “
Water............... 1 gallon.
98. B. Thymol. . . . . . . . . . . 6 grains.
Boracic acid. . . . . . 30 “
Qil of eucalyptus. 4 drops.
Oil of wintergreen 1 drop.
790 PRESCRIPTIONS FOR
COMMON AILMENTS.
Alcohol . . . . . . . . ... 4 drachms.
Glycerine . . . . . . . . 4 tº
Water to make... 1 pint.
No. 98 is for general use externally
and internally ; doses of one tea-
Bpoonful). Pleasant as a mouth wash,
nasal douche, throat spray, or wash for
ulcers, Sores, boils, etc.
DROPSY.
99. B. Tinc. digitalis. . . . . 1 ounce.
Tinc. hyoscyamus. 9% “
itre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 drachms.
Fl. ext, scutellaria 2% ounces.
Dose of the mixture, a teaspoonful
every three hours.
DRUNKENNESS.
(To tone º the system, and blunt the
appetite for liquor.)
100. B. Tinc. nux,yomica... 1 drachm.
Tinc. gentian comp. 2 ounces.
Tinc. calumba comp 2 “
One teaspoonful before meals as an
appetizer.
Or,
These ten drops of the mixture on
Sugar twice a day, night and morning.
EARACHE.
108. B. Oil of sassafras... 20 drops.
Glycerine......... 2 drachms.
Olive-oil.......... 1 Ounce.
A few drops in the canal of the ear,
and a bit of cotton to retain it.
109. B. Camphor... . . . . . . . . 1 drachm.
Chloral hydrate.... 1 { %
Glycerine . . . . . . . . . . 2 OunceS.
Oil of almonds . . . . . 1% ounce.
Use same as No. 108.
110. Try a pinch of black pepper on
a bit of cotton, dipped in sweet oil an
placed in the ear canal. -
111. Drop 10 drops of Plan tags
Major Fluid Extract in the ear; put 15
drops in half a glass of water and give
a Spoonful of this every half hour.
112. EAR WAx.—A safe and rapid
method of removing it. Cerumen may be
quickly and effectually softened by fill-
ing the meatus with peroxide of hydro-
gen and allowing it to soak for a few
moments, after which it may be easily
fºoved by syringing with warm wa-
€I".
ECZEMA.
For dry eczema of the scalp, Dr. Pif-
fard recommends a few drops (rubbed
in gently) of the following mixture:
113. B. Salicylic acid... 20 grains.
Oil of lavender. 3% drachms.
Oil of Citron. . . . 3 drachm.
Oil of pinus syl-
vestris . . . . . ... 2 ounces.
Oil of castor.... 1% ounce.
For eczema of the face:
114. B. Hydrargyrum am -
moniatum . . . . . . . . 5 grains.
Sulphur........ . . . . 10 “
Petrolatum. . . . . . . . , 1 Ounce.
Apply as a salve once daily.
For eczema, anywhere:
115. 13. Tinc. cantharides... 1 drachm.
Tinc. lobelia . . . . . . . 1.
Fl. ext, hamamelis 1 § {
Glycerine . . . . . . . . . . 1 Ounce.
Water to make .... 1 pint.
Use as a lotion once daily.
ERYSIPELAS.
116. Among simple measures that
prove useful is the local application
of a poultice of cranberries.
Or,
101. B. Tinc. capsicum..... 1 drachm.
TinC. nux vomica... 1 { %
Dilute nitric acid ... 1 { {
Water. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 OunceS.
Dose.—One fluid Ounce or two table-
Spoonfuls three times a day.
For sleeplessness of alcoholism:
102. B. Ess. Jam. ginger. ... 2 ounces.
t. ammon. arom... 2 “
Tinc. Valerian . . . . . . 2 “
Sat. Solution potass.
brom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 “
M. S. One tablespoonful in water
every three to four hours.—C. W. IIUNT.
103. A wineglassful of vinegar will
sometimes sober a very drunken person
in twenty minutes.
DYSENTERY.
104. B. Table salt..... . . . . . 4 drachms
I3aking Soda. . . . . . . . 4 { %
Water . . . . . . . . . . . ... 1 pint.
J)ose.—A wineglassful c V C Ty two
hours.
105. For dysenteric diarrhoea in chil-
dren, try one drop every hour, in War
ter, of the wine of ipecac.
106. B. Carbolic acid. . . . . . . . 10 drops.
Oil of lemon. . . . . . . . . 5 “
Oil Of Sassafras. . . . . . 5 “
Syrup rhubarb arom. 1 ounce.
Dose (For adults).-One tea Sp O O n-
ful every three hours.
107. B. Oil of turpentine. . . . . . 5 drops.
Fl, ext, of witch bazel 5 “
117. Cloths sat u rated with one
drachm of borax in an ounce of glycer.
ine. Apply to the parts affected.
PRESCRIPTIONS FOR COMMON AILMENTS.
79 I
118. Dr. Behrend treated erysipelas
in the first stages successfully with a
lotion of strong alcohol, 90 per cent,
three times a day. No case ever Went
on to suppuration.
FOR THE EYES.
Eye-WATER for inflamed and granul-
lated lids:
119. B. Sulphate hydrastia. . 2 grains.
Water 1 Ounce.
Apply by spray or soft cloth once
aily. Or, -
s e a s = e < * * * * * * * *
dail
120. B. Sulphate copper... 10 grains.
Sulphate zinc .... 40 . .”
Rose-Water. . . . . . . 2 pints.
Tinc. Saffron. . . . . 4 drachms.
Spts. Camphor... \ {
Mix and filter.
EYE-WASH when the “whites...are
inflamed; for “chronic conjunctivitis :”
121. B. Acidi tannici...... 3 grains.
Sodii biboratis. . . . 1 drachm.
Glycerini. . . . . . . . . . 2 drachms.
Aquae camphorae. . 4 ounces.
For external use.
EYE LOTION, for styes:
122. B. Spts. camphorae 15 drops.
Sulphuris pre-
Clp . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 grains.
Aq. Calcis . . . . . . 2% drachms.
Aq. roSæ... . . . . . 21/6 § {
Gum acacia..... 3 grains.
FAINTING, or threatened collapse
from overheating, overwork, mental
shock, etc.:
123. , Lay the patient horizontal, with
head low, and free the clothing to fa-
cilitate breathing, and hand rubbing.
For stimulant use aromatic spirits of
ammonia, one-half to one teaspoonful
in water, administered by the mouth.
Or,
124. B. Chloroform........ 1 drachm.
Lavender water...11 drachms.
Dose.—A teaspoonful.
FEVERS. — A Suitable thermometer
placed under the tongue, with the
mouth closed about the instrument,
shows, in man, that the
Normal temperature is... . . . 98.4°.
Feverishness varies from... 99 to 100°.
Slight fever { % ... 100 “ 101°.
Moderate fever { { ... 102 “ 103°.
High fever { { ... 103 “ 105°.
Intense fever { % ... 105 “ 107°.
One degree rise in temperature cor-
responds generally with an increase of
ten beats of the pulse. The normal
pulse is about 70 per minute (adults),
and the respiration about 18 times per
minute. Pulse, respiration, and tem-
perature rise in proportion to fever,
FEVER BLISTERS.
Camphor. . . . . . . . . 5 grains.
Arrowroot, powd. 30 { {
Bismuth Sub ni-
trate . . . . . . . . . . . { {
Cold Cream. . . . . . . 4 drachms.
Mix well ; for external use.
FEVER MIXTURES.
126. B. Potassium citrate. 1 drachm.
Sweet spirits nitre 5 drachms.
Syrup of lemon ... 5 { {
Liquor ammonium
acetate. . . . . . . . . . 2 OunceS.
Dose.—One teaspoonful every two
hours, for a child three years of age;
older persons, in proportion of ten
drops more for each year added.
127. B&. Tinc. aconite root... 15 drops.
Water. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 OunceS.
Dose.—(For adults.) One teaspoonful
every four hours.
128. B. Asclepias tuberosa ; drachm.
125. B.
Lobelia.... . . . . . . . . . #. grains.
Infuse in One §. of boiling water
and give One tablespoonful as a mild
febrifuge to allay fever.
FLATULENCE.
Wind on stomach, belching.
adults:
129. B. Tinc. valerian. . . . . 2 drachms.
Ether
For
CT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 drachm.
Ammonium carbo-
nate . . . . . . . . . . . . . { %
Cinnamon Water... 2 ounces.
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 * {
. Dose.—One tablespoonful, and repeat
in fifteen minutes, if necessary. Or,
130. B. Myrrh..... . . . . . . . . . . 40 grains.
Capsicum . . . . . . . . . . . 10 “
Make ten pills; One after meals, as re-
quired. Or,
131. B. Tinc. rhubarb...... 1 drachm.
Bicarb. Soda. . . . . ... 1 “
ESS. peppermint.... 1 “
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Ounces.
Dose.—One tablespoonful every hour.
132. R.
FOR FETID FEET.—Use a wash of
Perman g a nate of
potassium......... 12 grains.
Water...... ........ 1 Ounce.
Or,
133. B. Alum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 drachm.
Boracic acid....... 1 \ ,
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Ounces.
Every other evening apply with soft
Sponge, right after removing stockings,
whilo feet are moist.
792 PRESCRIPTIONS FOR
COMMON AILMENTS.
Or, dust into the stockings a powder
composed O
134. B. Carbolic acid...... 10 grains.
Salicylic acid. . . . . . 10 “
Burnt alum powd. 1 drachm.
Starch. . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 OUInCeS.
French chalk...... 1 Ounce.
Lemon oil . . . . . . . . . 20 drops.
Useful also for sweaty hands.
Sanitary Powder (No. 57 on the list
of Sanitary Bureau Articles) is a well-
prepared and handy article for the feet,
and Other skin SOreness.
FROST BITES,
135. B. Oil Cajeput....... . 4 drachms.
Chloroform........ 3 { {
Tinc. cantharides. 3 { %
Oil Cotton-Seed to
8 Ounces.
Apply to frosted parts on soft cloths.
136. Enclose the part in raw cotton
soaked in castor-oil.
HAIR TONICS.
137. B&. Castor-oil . . . . . . . .
Bay rum . . . . . . . . .
Oil bergamot...... 20 drops.
Tint. Cantharides 4 drachms.
Carb. ammonium 1 drachm.
2 OunceS.
4 { %
138. 3. Tinc. arnica. . . . . . . 1 drachm.
Tinc. cantharides. 2 drachms.
Water of ammonia, 4 { % -
Bay rum... . . . . . . . . . 5 Olln CeS.
Alcohol... . . . . . . . . . 5 { %
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 { %
139. B. Sulph. quinine ... }3 drachm.
Tinc. cantharides 1 * {
Aromatic spirits
8.IIllſlo Illa. . . . . . . . 1 Ounce
Castor-Oil . . . . . . . . 1% € $
Rosemary-oil . . . . 10 drops.
Bay rum . . . . . . . . . 5% ounces.
*
HAIR RESTORATIVES.—Many proprie-
tary hair restoratives contain from One
to five grains of lead to the Qunge, and,
º, constant use, are very liable to bring
about lead poisoning. The following
dye contains no injurious ingredient:
140. B. Hulls of butternuts. 4 ounces.
W 5 quartS.
Make an infusion, and add an Ounge
of copperas (sulphate of iron). Apply
two or three times a week with a Soft
old brush.
HAIR WASH for Dandruff;
141. B. Chloral hydrate..... 1 drachm.
Ac. tartaric.......... 1
Castor-Oil. . . . . . . . . . . § “
Alcohol . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Oull Ce.
ESSentiæ flor. 32th., 1 * *
HANDs, Sweaty:
142. B. Borax............ 15 drachms.
Acid salicylic.... 15 ( & -
Acid boracic...... 5 ( &
Glycerini . . . . . . . . . pint.
Alcohol, dilute....
Apply three times a day.—MODE.
HEADACHES
from acid fermenting stomach.
143. Powdered charcoal, one tea-
Spoonful in a cup of water.
(Charcoal tablets are a cleaner and
more convenient form.)
144. For nervous or rheumatic head-
ache, or that at beginning of a men-
strual period, try ten drops of fluid ex-
tract of cimićifuga, and repeat the dose
every half hour for three hours.
For nervous headache:
145. B. Elixir valerianate
Of ammonium... 2 ounces.
Sodium bromide... 4 drachms.
Dose.—One teaspoonful in wineglass
of water, and repeat in an hour, if nec-
essary.
HEAD WASH, for cases of fever, with
Congestion, headache, and throbbing:
146. B. Alcohol................ 1 pint.
Water. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 pints.
Another Head Wash:
147. B&. Common salt... . . . . . . 1 Ounce.
Spirits Camphor... . . . 1 “
Water of ammonia... 1 “
Water to make. . . . . . . 1 pint.
Used externally as a lotion.
HEART DISEASE.
148. Three golden rules:
Take exercise, without fatigue,
Nutrition, without stimulation,
Amusement, without excitement.
HEMORREIOIDS, OR PILES.
149. B. Ext. hamamelidis Vir-
fl. Ozs.
densis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Tinc. benzoini comp... 2 “
Tinc. belladonna .... }; fl. Oz.
Olei olivae carbolisati
(5 per cent.). . . . . . . . 4
Local application.—ADLER.
Or, this ointment:
150. B. Ungt. belladonnae. 2 ounces.
Camphorae... . . . . . . . 1 drachm.
Tr. camph. Comp ... 1 º, Ç
Apply to painful hemorrhoids,-NELI-
GAN, - -
fl. OZS.
1PRESCRIPTIONS FOR COMMON AILMENTS.
793
HOARSENESS.
To clear the Voice:
151. B. Powdered liquor-
ice root... . . . . . . . 4 drachms.
Balsam Copaiba... 3 { {
BeeSWax. . . . . . . . . . 2 { {
Make into pills of three grains weight
each, and use two or three daily.
152. B. Benzoic acid...... 6
Red currant paste 2
Make twelve troches.
Dose.—One every hour or two.—Dr.
MoRELL MACKENZIE.
HYSTERIA.
rains.
rachms.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * e º º $ $ $ tº e º e e tº
Tinc. Castorei. . . . .
Spirits chloroform 3
Syrup aurant. Cort. 3
Dose.—One teaspoonful frequently re-
peated.
2
4 drachms.
* {
{ {
INFLUENZA.
154. B. Tinc. cubebs. . . . . . . 1 drachm.
Linseed-tea. . . . . . . . . 1 pint.
Take as a drink on retiring.
ITCH.
For true parasitic itch:
155. B. Sulphur (flowers)... 3 ounces.
uicklime . . . . . . . . . . 4 “
ater. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 pints.
Boil together till combined, then allow
to cool and settle. Degant and preserve
in hermetically Sealed bottles. Appli-
cation: Rub patient all over with soft
soap for half an hour, then place in a
tepid water bath for another half hour.
Next rub over with the solution and
allow it to dry on the skin for a quarter
of an hour. Complete by Washing in
the bath.--Canada Lancet.
ITCHING.
156. B. Sulphur.............
Fluid extract hy-
drastis Canad. ... 1 drachm.
Fluid extract ham-
- amelis. . . . . . . . . . . 1 { %
Vaseline 6 Ounces.
Bathe with warm soap and water,
and then apply the ointment once every
other day.
For itching of the skin, without erup-
tion, or about the privates:
* * * * * * * * * * *
: drachms.
158. Take a warm bath, aftding a
handful of borax and the sayré amount
of Sodium bicarbonate to ºſbout t y
gallons of water.
159. B. Carbolic acid...... 2 drachms.
Glycerine . . . . . . . . . 1 drachm.
ROSe Water. . . . . . . . 8 OunceS.
Apply with a sponge.
160. For itching about the anus try
local application of balsam of Peru.
161. For itching of urticaria (heat
rash and º; sia), try two to ten
exains of menthol in an ounce of Water,
sponging with it.
For itching of winter eczema:
162. B. Tannic acid. . . . . . . 1 drachm.
Glycerine.......... 6 drachms.
Alcohol............ $ (,
Water to make.... 6 ounces.
Used as a Wash.
PREGNANCY.
To relieve the pains, aches, disquiet-
udes, and nervousness common in preg-
nancy.
163. B. Fl.ex. hyoscyamus 1 drachm.
Oil Sassafras...... { %
Fl. ex. juglan..... 7 drachms.
Sodium bicarbon-
ate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 { %
Simple syrup...... % pint.
D08e.—A teaspoonful four times a
day, or double that dose, as required to
keep the bowels moving well.
IVY POISONING.
164. Bathe the inflamed surfaces
with a decoction of oak leaves, or bone-
set, or of hemlock boughs.
Or,
165. A Saturated solution of potas-
sium chlorate, or of sodium bicarbon-
ate. x-
Or,
166. Apply glycerite of tannin, or oil
of Sassafras to the eruption.
Or,
4 Ounces,
Use as a wash.
167. B. Carbolic acid....... 1 drachm.
Strong ammonia
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . % “
Olive-oil............ 3 Ounces.
Apply On soft cloths.
168. B. Salicylic acid ...... 1 drachm.
Olive-oil . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Ounces.
For external use.
LICE.
169. A safe and good wash for chil-
dren's heads consists º Of a tea or
decoction of quassia-wood chips.
794 PRESCRIPTIONS FOR
COMMON AILMENTS.
170. Tinc. staphisagria,
e Only as a
Wash, with care.
(Fatal to “crabs.”)
LUMBAGo.
171. . Try the essence of spruce in tea-
jººful doses three or four times
ally.
173; For external use nothing equals
Dr. Foote's Magnetic Ointment, though
the fluid or lotion pain-killers listed
farther on are all applicable.
MAN.—How to make a man of the
ºte elements of which he is com-
p0Sed:
173. B. Oxygen............ 97 pounds
Carbon............. 48 “
Hydrogen.......... 15 “
Nitrogen . . . . . . . . . . 4 “
Calcium............ 3 “
Chlorine . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Ounces.
Fluorine. . . . . . . . . . . . 3% “
Phosphorus... . . . . . 2.6 “
Sulphur........... ... 2% “
Potassium ......... 2 “
Sodium . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 “
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * # ,
MALARIA.
174. To Ward it off, take a whole
lemon, cut in slices, boil in three glass-
fuls of water down to one glassful,
which take during one day.
MALARIAL FEVER.
175. B. Sulphur... . . . . . . . . . . 90 grains.
Camphor . . . . . . . . . . . 3 “
Capsicum . . . . . . . . . . . 1 grain.
TMake six powders and take one three
times a day.
This was found very useful in Red
Cross work in Cuba by Dr. A. Monale
Lesser, of New York.
MENSTRUATION, TARDY.
176. Try a tablespoonful of black
mustard-seed in milk at bed-time.
MENSTRUATION, ExCESSIVE.
179. For “painful Pºiº. try half
teaspoonful doses of fluid extract of
Witchhazel, in sweetened water, three
times a day.
Mosquito BITEs.
For local use:
180. B. Carbolic acid..... 30 grains.
Glycerine... . . . . . . 3 drachms.
Camphor water .. 8 ounces.
MOUTH WASH, or GARGLEs.
181. B. Borax . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 drachms.
Powdered myrrh.. 1 drachm.
ater. . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Oud GeS.
182. B. Powdered borax... 1 ounce.
Honey of rose. . . . . 2 Ounces.
Infusion of roses .. 6 “
183. B. Tannin ............ 2 drachms.
Alcohol............ 1 drachm.
Camphor water... 4 ounces.
One tablespoonful in water for gargle.
Or,
184. Glycerite of t a n n in, a table-
Spoonful to a Cup of water. t
NAUSEA OF PREGNANCY.
185. B. Ingluvin . . . . . . . . . . . .
Oxalate Cerium. . . . .
Make six powders, and take one in
water every four hours.
Or,
24 grains.
24 * {
186. B. Calumba root...... % ounce.
Ginger root ... . . . . . b b.
Senna leaves....... 1 drachm
Boiling Water. . . . . . 1 pint.
Make an infusion, and take a wine-
glassful before each meal,
Or,
187. B. Cerium oxalate....... 1 grain
Ipecac ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . { %
Creosote.............. 2 drops
Or,
177. Sucking the juice of one or two
lemons is a valuable remedy for exces-
sive menstrual flow.
178. For “painful periods,” , try an
infusion of life everlastin §.
flowers, one-half ounce of the flowers in
one-half pint of hot water. Divide the
tea or infusion in four parts; take the
first dose of one-fourth at first symptom
of distress, and the remaining parts One
every three hours.-J. T. McSIIANE,
M.D. ".
188. B. Eat pop-corn; chew well.
NERVOUSNESS.
180. B. Tinc. scullcap........ 19unce.
Tinc. Valerian........ 1 * “
Tinc. hyoscyamus.... 1 “
Spirits lavender. . . . . . 1 “
Dose.—One teaspoonful three times a
day.
190. B. Fl. ext, cypripedium. 1 ounce.
Fl. ext, asclepias tu-
* * * g º e a tº e º 'º - 4
* * * * * g e º 'º - e º - a e
bage
Fl. ext. Scullcap. . . . . 1 “
Dose.—One-half to one teaspoonful
three times a day.
PRESCRIPTIONS FOR
COMMON AILMENTS. 795
NEURALGIA OF THE STOMACH.
191. Take a tablespoonful of black
mustard-seed, before meals. Moisten
well with saliva before attempting to
Swallow the seeds.
192. Tinc. nux vomica, one-drop
doses every half hour.
NEURALGIA, for external use as an
anodyne, the following :
193. B. Chloroform . . . . . . . . . . 1 Oun Ce.
Camphor. . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 “
Chloral hydrate...... 1 “
At the same time:
194. B. Ammonium car- o
* * * * * * * * * 5 grains.
* e º s - * * * * * * * * *
1016.
Peppermint water 7 drachms.
Mucilage. . . . . . . . . drachm.
Mix and take in one dose internally.
195. Try internally a tea of common
field thistle (leaves), and externally a
poultice of the same.
NEURALGIA—for internal use:
196. B. Potassii nitratis... 4 drachms.
Aqua Camph....... 1 Ounce.
One teaspoonful in half a wineglass-
ful of water every fifteen minutes until
relieved.—Dr. T. S. LAN.E.
NIGHT-SWEATS OF PHTHISIS
(CONSUMPTION).
Sponge the surface of the body with:
197. B. Chloral hydrate... 2 drachms.
Alcohol
COhol. . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Ounces,
Water. . . . . , , , , , , , 3 “
Or,
198. B. $º Sulphate. . . . . 5 grains.
ater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 pint.
Lotion for a sponge-bath.
NIPPLE OrNTMENT.
For sore, inflamed or cracked nipples.
—CAZEAUX.
199. B. White wax......
4% ounces.
Oil of sweet al-
monds. . . . . . . . . Ul
Clarified honey... }6 “
Balsam Peru. . . . 2% drachms.
200. Dr. Foote's Magnetic Ointment
is unsurpassed in affections of breasts
and nipples.
NoSE-BLEED.
201. Snuff powdered alum u
nostrils. Cork up the nostrils wit
tissue paper.
the
Soft
202. . The injection of a glass Syringe:
ful of lemon-juice into the nose, after it
has been cléansed of clots, will stop
#ºns after everything else has
failed.
203. For scaly condition of nasal
mucous membrane predisposing to
bleeding, use Dr. Foote's Magnetic Caº
tarrh Balm—cleansing, softening, and
healing.
* PAIN KILLERS.
For external use:
204. B. Myrrh gum. . . . . . . . 1 Ounce.
Capsicum... . . . . . . . 2 drachms.
Camphor. . . . . . . . . . { %
Opium gum. . . . . . . . 1 drachm.
Guaiac . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 . "
Alcohol. . . . . . . . . . . . 1 pint.
Mix thoroughly.
205. B. Wintergreen oil.
Soap liniDnent.
Mix equal parts.
206. B. Camphor............ 34 ounce.
Oil of turpentime... , 1 drachm.
Oil of peppermint... }. “
Oil of wintergreen... }. “
Tinc. capsicum..... }%. Ounce.
Alcohol to make... 1 pint.
O ºften put up and Sold as “Indian
l .”
207. B. Oil of Sassafras, ... 2 ounces.
Oil of Olives . . . . . . . 2 { %
Camphor . . . . . . . . . . 2 { {
Chloroform. . . . . . . . 2 { {
Spirits of turpen-
time. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 § {
Capsicum.......... 1 drachm.
Dissolve the camphor in chloroform,
add the oils, and lastly the capsicum
and spirits of turpentiné.
208. B. Tinc. capsicum..... 1 drachm.
Oil of Origanum.... }; ounce.
3} § tº * - ſ: º
il Of pennyroyal ... }.3 °
Oil of hemlock. . . . . $3 “
Alcohol . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Quart.
A handy and efficient one:
209. B. Red pepper......... 1 drachm.
Salt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . %. Ounce.
Vinegar . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 # \,
Water. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 $ i.
PRURITUs WULVAE, ITCHING OF
THE PRIVATEs.
210. Try a sponge soaked in boiling
Water.
211. Try linseed oil, locally.
212. B. Carbolic acid. . . . . 1 drachm.
Boracic acid... . . . 2 drachms,
Morphia sulphate 10 grains.
Petrolatum 2 ounces.
Apply as a Salve.—Dr. W. GooDELL.
796
PRESCRIPTIONS FOR COMMON AILMENTS,
FOR PRURITUS OF PREGNANCY.
213. H. Thymol. . . . . . . . . . . . 15 grains.
Petrolatum . . . . . . . . * { %
PO w d e red brick
clay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Ounces.
For local use.—Dr. M. A. PALLEN.
TAT POISON.
214. Rat poisons are said to be com-
posed of white arsenic mixed with corn-
meal and lampblack.
215. Peppermint scattered in the
resorts of rats makes them quit in dis-
gust.
RHEUMATISM, ACUTE.
216. Try application to painful part
of brown paper steeped in Vinegar.
Or,
217. A flannel cloth Wrung out in
vinegar, place over the affected mus-
cles, and press over the flannel with a
hot flat-iron.
218. B. Tinc. blk. cohosh 2 drachms.
T in C. Colchicum
Tinc. gelseminum 2
Sweet spirits of
nitre. . . . . . . . . . . . 10 tº º
Essence W in t e r-
€ell. . . . . . . . . . . { {
Simple syrup. . . . . 8 Ounces.
Doge.—One to two teaspoonfuls every
four hours, in inflammatory rheuma-
tism.
An agreeable alkaline drink for use
Once in two or three hours, in acute
rheumatism, is made by combining the
two following mixtures, or Solutions,
which effervesce when combined—to be
taken while effervescing:
219. 3. Potassium carbon-
ate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 grains.
Water. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Ounces.
To be mixed with
Citric acid ......... 25 grains.
Water. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Ounces.
Dose.—The whole, when combined.
RHEUMATISM OF THE JOINTS.
220. B. Acid. Salicylic....... 1 Ounce.
Olei terebinthinge... 1 & º
Lanolin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Ounces.
Ung. paraffin. . . . . . . . 5 “
Apply externally.—ZIEMSSEN.
FOR RHEUMATISM.
A liniment for outward application:
221. B. Oil sassafras...... 2 fl. Ounees.
Oil wintergreen... 2 * *
Chloroform. . . . . . . 2 fl. ounces.
Ammonia water... 2 “
Camphor spirits... 4 “
Tinc. capsicum... 1 fl. ounce.
RING-wormſ.
222. Moisten cigar-ashes to a paste
and apply to part, and repeat till the
ring ” fades away.
Wash with soft soap, and -
tion of p, and apply a lo
223. B. Iodine .............. 10 grains.
Turpentine.......... 1 Ounce.
Or,
224. B. So dium hyposul.
phite.............. 1 drachm.
Water. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Ounce.
Use as a lotion to the part.
225. B. Chrysophanic
acid
* 1 drachm.
Petrolatum....... 10 drachms.
. For local use as a salve, and parasiti-
cide.
226. B. Calomel, ........... 1 drachm.
Tinc. iodine........ 1 Ounce.
. Paint the ring-worm with this solu-
tion, using camel's-hair brush.
227. B. Boracic acid........ 1 drachm.
Water. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Ounce.
Apply freely and let it dry on.
SICK-HEADACHE.
228. Try a cup of strong catnip-tea
and repeat in two hours, if not rel eved
SOOIlêI’.
229. Dr. Foote's Magnetic Vegetable
Anti-bilious Pills are generally a specific
for sick-headaches.
SMALL-Pox.
230. Two tablespoonfuls of common
Vinegar, with or without water, taken
twice daily, one hour after breakfast,
and again toward evening, is highly
recommended as a rophylactic (pre-
Ventive) against small-pox.
*:
SOOTHING SYRUP WITHOUT
OPIATE.
231. B. Peppermint water 5 drachms.
- T in G. Virginia.
Snake-root . . . . . . 2 • &
Tinc. gold thread. 1 drachm.
Syrup Orange peel. 1 ounce.
Dose.—For a two-year-old child, one-
half a teaspoonful, repeated two or
three times in an hour, if necessary.—
Dr. A. T. HALEY.
PRESCRIPTIONS FOR COMMON AILMENTS.
797
SPAVIN CURE.
(Probably as good as any.)
232. B. Camphor......... 21 drachms.
Water............ 39 “
Iodine............ 5 { %
Oil turpentine.... 30 “
Oil rosemary. . . . . 1 drachm.
Alcohol........... 24 OunceS.
Dissolve the iodine and oils in the
alcohol before adding the Water.
STOMACH-ACHE.
SQUIBB's CoM.Pound RHUBARB MIXT-
URE, for children's stomach-aches With
fermentation, foul breath, etc.
233. B. Fl. ext, rhubarb... 1 drachm.
Fl. ext. ipecac.... 15 drops.
Sodium bicarb.... 2 drachms.
Glycerine... . . . . . . 3 OunceS.
Peppermint water 4 (, ,
JDose.—One-half to Ono teaspoonful
two or three times daily.
SweATING HANDs, FEET, ETC.
234. B. Boric acid............ 5 parts
Borax................ 5 “
Salicylic acid........ 15 “
Glycerine ... . . . . . . . . . 60 “
Dilute alcohol....... 60 “
Mix. Rub on three times a day.
TAPEW ORM ROUTER.
235. B. Male fern ext.... 1% drachm.
- Kamala powder. 2 drachms.
Mu Ci I age gum
arabic © e s e º e º 'º e 2 { {
Cinnamon Water
to make. . . . . . . 3 Ounces.
Mix and take one-half the mixture at
bed-time, and the remainder the next
In Ornlng.
TONSILLITIS.
236. Give fifteen drops of ammoni-
ated tincture of , guaiac every four
hours On a lump of sugar.
237. Moisten the finger with water,
dip it in powdered bicarbonate of soda,
and touch this gently to the tonsils;
repeat every five minutes for half an
hour, and then only once an hour.
TOOTH WASH.
Like sozodont, to be used with a
brush.
TOOTH POWDER.
To make One Ounce:
239. B. Boracic acid. . . . . . . . 40 grains.
Potassium chlorate. 30 “
Resin guaiac... . . . . . 20 “
Prepared chalk..... 60 “
Magnesium carbon-
ate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 “
240. B. Pulv. castile soap. 4 drachms.
Pulv. prep a red
chalk. . . . . . . . . . . . 6, 6
Pulv. pumice-stone 9% drachm.
Oils wintergreen
and sassafras... 2 to 5 drops.
Very largely used.
TOOTHACFIE.
241. Oil of cloves, or oil of Cajeput,
on lint, in the hollow of the tooth.
242. Chew cinnamon bark.
ULCERs of THE LEG.
243. B. Carbolic acid... 30 grains.
Boric acid. . . . . . 2% drachms.
Powd. Camphor 2 * *
Ichthyol. . . . . . . . £ 4,
Oil of Sweet al-
monds. . . . . . . . % { {
Zinc ointment... 3 Oun CeS.
Mix. Apply topically.—ELDEN.
WHOOPING COUGH.
244. Five-drop doses of tincture of
238. B. White Castile
SO8.p. . . . . . . . . . . . 4 drachnis.
Glycerine......... 4 ( a
Alcohol........... 14 * *
Water. . . . . - - - - - e - 8 { *
Peppermint oil... 1 drachm.
Anise oil......... 32 drops
Cinnamon oil.... 16 º
Clove oil......... 4 { {
eucalyptus three times a day, as an in-
ternal medicine.
245. B. Dried thyme......... 6 OunceS.
Boiling Water. . . . . . . 1 pint.
Infuse for ten minutes, Sweeten to
the taste, and give a tableSpoonful
every hour.
246. Make a tea of red clover blos-
soms and give freely through the day.—
HAYDEN.
247. B. Ammonium bro-
ide... . . . . . . . . . . 1 drachm.
Tinc. belladonna... }; { %
Mixture liquorice
COInp . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 OUInce.
Syrup of tolu...... 2 OunceS.
Doge.—A teaspoonful every three
hours for a child of five years.
248. Drop oil of turpentine on the
Fº where its vapors will be inhaled
y the patient, and during distressing
convulsive cough hold a handkerchie
wet with fifteen or twenty drops before
the child's face.
249. Try oxalate of cerium, once a §
before breakfast, in doses of One-ha #
grain, for a child of one year, up to five
grains for one of seven years; more eS-
pecially useful in Second stage of Spas-
modic cough.
798
PRESCRIPTIONS FOR COMMON AILMENTS.
WARTS.
Constitutional treatment.
250. B. Tinc. thuja occidentalis.
D086.-Half a teaspoonful three times
a day.
Locally, that is, externally.
251. , Try a mixture of equal parts of
glagial acetic acid and iodine, applied
with a camel's-hair brush night and
ºming, avoiding touching the healthy
SRIIle
Or,
252. Try dusting on twice daily a
É. Of equal parts of tannin and
urnt alum. (This is safe and sure for
venereal warts.)
WORMS: PIN WORMS.
253. B. Quassia:. . . . . . . . . 2 drachms.
Acid. Salicylic. ... 10 grains.
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 pint.
Use as an injection once daily.
To ExPEL ROUND WORMS.
254. B. Santonin. . . . . . . . . . . . 16 grains.
Fluid extract senna. 1 ounce.
Fluid extract spige- 1 “
One small teaspoonful of the mixture
by the mouth to a child of five years, at
bed-time, or half the dose to younger
children.
A POPULAR WERMIFUGE.
255. B. Wormseed. . . . . . . . . 2 Ounces.
Valerian. . . . . . . . . . . 1%. Ounce.
Rhubarb...... tº e º p & #: OUInC8.
Pink-root.......... & &
White agaric. . . . . . I & A
Boil in three quarts of water, and add
Oil of tansy.......... 80 drops.
Oil of cloves......... 45 “
JDose.—A teaspoonful three times
daily.
WRINKLES.
These tell-tale marks of time are
caused by the diminished elasticity of
the skin and by loss of water from the
tissues as age advances; and thus the
Creases that in youth leave no mark,
become in after years permanent. In
an infant the amount of water in the
tissues is 66.4 per cent. while, as years
advance, it forms but about 58.5 per
cent. It is absurd to fill the furrows up
with powder and º: in an attempt
to hide them. The better way is to pre-
serve the elasticity of the skin by hy-
gienic means, especially between the
ages of twenty and thirty. Where the
lines tend to become prematurely per-
manent, “a mixture of cold cream and
adeps lanae should be rubbed in twice a
day.” “Retiring cream,” having as its
base wool-fat, readily penetrates the
skin and renders it soft, smooth, and
supple. It is made according to this
formula:
256. B. Expressed oil of
almonds . . . . . . . . 2 drachms.
Cacao butter. . . . . . 4 { %.
Wool fat........... 3 Ounces.
Glycerin . . . . . . . . . . 2 drachms.
Oil of rose. . . . . . . . . 2 drops.
Melt the first three ingredients by
means of heat, then add the others.—
O. B. SALISBURY.
Among the advertising pages at the back of this book may be
found a list of ready-made household articles in cheap and convenient
form to supply many needs in the line of common ailments, or minor
emergencies.
Well prepared and strictly sanitary toilet articles are
included in the list, as well as a few very serviceable surgical goods,
supporters, syringes, etc.
Some of the above, it would be well for every family to have at
hand at all times, while others need only be sent for when the need
is felt.
ANTIDOTES FOR POISONS. 799
Antidotes for Poisons.
This schedule is based on a paper by John S. Dunn, Ph.C., read
before the Michigan State Pharmaceutical Association. It is the rec-
ommendation of Drs. A. B. Lyons, O. Eberbach, G. W. Stringer, a
committee to whom Mr. Dunn's paper was referred. The report in full
will be found in the Pharmaceutical Record, 1886, pp. 88, 89.
GROUP 1.-Acids: Acetic, Muriatic, Witric, Witro-Muriatic, Sulphurčc.
GROUP 1.-Give no emetic. Give at once large draughts of water
(or milk) with chalk, whiting, magnesia, or baking Soda ; or give strong
soap-suds, to neutralize acid ; olive-oil, white of egg, beaten up with
water, and, later, mucilaginous drinks of flaxseed or slippery-elm are
useful. Give laudanum (20 drops) if much pain.
GROUP 2.--Carbolic Acid, Creosote, Resorcine.
GROUP 2. —Promote vomiting with warm water containing baking
soda, or cause it with mustard (a tablespoonful stirred to a cream with
water). Give white of egg beaten up with water, or olive-oil (a cup-
ful); stimulants (whiskey, etc.) freely; warmth and friction to the ex-
tremities.
GROUP 3.—Antimony, salts of; Cantharides, Colch?cum, Elaterium,
Iodine, and their preparations ; Copper, salts of; Mercury, salts
of, Oils of Croton, Savin, and Tansy ; Potassium Bichromate ;
Tin, muriate of ; Zinc, salts of -
GROUP 3.–Give white of eggs (% dozen or more, raw), or flour
mixed with water. Promote vomiting with warm water containing
baking soda, or cause it with mustard (a tablespoonful stirred to a cream
with water). Give strong tea or coffee ; stimulants, if needed ; laud-
anum (20 drops), if much pain; demulcent drinks of flaxseed or slip-
pery elm.
GROUP 4.—Caustic Alkalies and Ammonia.
GROUP 4.—Promote vomiting by large draughts of warm water.
Give vinegar or diluted lemon-juice; olive-oil; the whites of eggs
beaten up with water; gruel, or demulcent drinks of flaxseed or slip-
pery elm ; laudanum (20 drops), if much pain.
GROUP 5.-Cannabis Indica and its preparations ; Morphine and its
salts; Opium and its preparations (except paregoric).
GROUP 5.-Give emetic (if necessary) of mustard (a tablespoonful
stirred to a cream with water), followed by large draughts of warm
water. Then strong tea or coffee. Arouse the patient, and keep him
8OO SUGGESTIONS FOR EMERGENCIES.
awake and in motion. Keep up artificial respiration cven after life
8CCms to be extinct.
Gltour 6–Acid Hydrocyanic (prussic) and all Cyanides ; Alcohol ;
Benzine ; Benzole; Camphor; Carbon Bisulphide ; Chloral
IIydrate; Chloroform; Ether; Oil of Bitter Almond, Oil of
Mörbane, Sulphurets of the Alkalies.
GROUP 6.—If necessary, give emetic of mustard (a tablespoonful
stirred to a cream with water). Let patient have plenty of fresh air;
maintain a horizontal position. Keep the body warm, but try to rouse
patient by ammonia to nostrils, cold douche to head, friction and mus-
tard plasters to limbs, etc. Use artificial respiration.
Group 7-Aconite, Aconitine, Cotton Root, Digitalis, Ergot, Lobelia,
Tobacco, Voratrum (IIellebore), Veratrine, and all preparations
containing any of the foregoing articles.
GROUP 7.–Give emetic of mustard (a tablespoonful stirred to a
cream with water), followed by large draughts of warm water. Give
strong tea or coffee, with powdered charcoal; stimulants (whiskey,
etc.) freely; warmth to the extremities: keep the patient in a horizontal
position ; use artificial respiration persistently.
GROUP 8.-Atropine and its salts; all preparations containing Bella-
donna, Calabar Béan, Gelsemium (Yellow Jasmine), IIemlock
(Conium), Ilenbane, Jaborandi, Pilocarpine and its salts, Santon-
tne, Slavesacre Seed, Stramonium.
GROUP 8. –Give emetic of mustard (a tablespoonful stirred to a
cream with water), followed by large draughts of warm water; give
strong tea or coffee, with powdered charcoal ; stimulants (whiskey, etc.)
if necessary ; rouse the patient if drowsy ; heat and friction to cxtremi-
ties; artificial respiration.
GROUP 9.-Cocculus Indicus; Wua Womica and its preparations ;
Strychnine and its salts.
GROUP 9.-Give crimetic of mustard (a tablespoonful stirred to a
cream with water), followed by large draughts of warm water. Give
powdered charcoal, iodide of starch or tannin. To relieve spasms let
the patient inhale pure chloroform, or give chloral hydrate (25 grains),
or potassium bromide (% ounce). Lose no time.
GIRoup 10.-Arsenic and all its compounds ; Cobalt (arsenical fly-
powder).
GROUP 10.-Promote vomiting with warm water, or cause it with
mustard (a tablespoonful stirred to a cream with water). Procure at
once from a drug-store, hydrated oxide of iron, and give a cupful of it
(or mix a teaspoonful of calcined magnesia with a cupful of water, add
RULES FOR RESUSCITATING THE DI:OWNED. 8O I
three teaspoonfuls of tincture of iron, mix well and give the whole of
it). Follow with olive-oil, or whites of eggs (raw) and mucilaginous
drinks. Laudanum (20 drops), if much pain.
GROUP 11.-Oaxalic Acid and its 8alt8.
GROUP 11.-Give chalk or whiting (a tablespoonful), or even air-
slacked lime (a teaspoonful in fine powder) mixed with two tablespoon-
fuls of vinegar (do not give soda or potash to neutralize the acid).
Promote vomiting by large draughts of water, or cause it with mustard
(a tablespoonful stirred to a cream with water). Give olive-oil and
mucilaginous drinks; stimulants (whiskey, etc.) and warmth to extrem-
ities.
GROUP 12.-Barium, Salts of; Lead, salts of.
GROUP 12.-Give Epsom salt (9% ounce) or Glauber's salt (1 ounce)
dissolved in a tumblerful of water. Promote vomiting by warm water,
or cause it with mustard (a teaspoonful stirred to a cream with water).
Give milk, demulcent drinks of flaxseed or slippery-elm, and lauda-
num (20 drops), if much pain.
GROUP 13.−Silver, nitrate of.
GROUP 13.—Give common salt (a tablespoonful dissolved in a tum-
blerful of warm water); then an emetic of mustard (a tablespoonful
stirred to a cream with water), followed by large draughts of warm
water. Later, give gruel, arrow-root, or demulcent drinks of flaxseed
or slippery elm.
GROUP 14.—Phosphorus (rat-paste).
Group 14–Give an emetic of mustard (a tablespoonful stirred to a
cream with water), or better, of blue vitriol, 3 grains every five min-
utes, until vomiting occurs. Give a teaspoonful of old, thick oil of
turpentine; also, Epsom salt (onc-half ounce in a tumbler of water).
Do not give oil, except the turpentine.
Rules for Resuscitating the Drowned.
AS ADOPTED BY THE EIEALTHI DEPARTMENT OF TELE CITY OF
NEW YORK.
REMEMBER that the patient must be treated instantly, and on the
spot where rescued. He must be freely exposed to the open air; loosen
the clothing so as to freely expose the neck and chest. All persons not
needed for saving him should avoid crowding about.
1. Let the throat and mouth be cleansed by placing the patient
gently, face downward, with one of his wrists under his forehead.
Quickly wipe and cleanse the mouth, and if the patient does not
brºke. immediately begin the following movements:
8O2 SUGGESTIONS FOR EMERGENCIES.
2. PosturE.—Place the patient on his back, with shoulders
raised, and supported easily on a folded coat or some kind of pillow.
3. TO KEEP UP A FREE ENTRANCE OF AIR INTO THE WINDPIPE.
—Let one person at the patient's head, grasp the tongue gently and
firmly with his fingers, covered with a bit of handkerchief, and
draw it out beyond the lips; then either hold it or press the under jaw
(chin) up so as to retain the tongue protruding from the mouth; but it
is better to hold it in that position with the hand.
FIG. 261.
Nº. SKººs
wº & ºr
º §: § &S.* if:
ºl
º
;&º --
%NºW
º #% §. A.W.’
- 'fºº', 'ſ ºtſ
ºft % tºº º
a % Xx * *
These engravings show how to give breath to a person rescued from
the water and apparently dead. The posture in which the patient is to
be laid (face down and wrist under the forehead) for a moment, as
soon as he is taken out of the water, is not shown here. [See 1st Rule.]
The movements here shown for one side of the patient must be
made on both sides, by two persons working together. "
These figures show how one of the two men works.
Fig. 1 shows the long and strong pull, for opening the chest to let
fresh air in.
Fig. 2, next page, shows how to make the strong side and front
pressure to drive the air out of the lungs.
Fig. 3 shows how the tongue is to be held.
4. To PRODUCE AND IMITATE THE MOVEMENTS OF BREATHING.
—Raise the patient’s extended arms upward to the sides of his head, and
then pull them steadily, firmly, slowly, outward. Next turn down the
elbows by the patient's side, and bring the arms closely and firmly
across the pit of the stomach, and press them and the sides and front

RULES FOR RESUSCITATING THE DROWNED. 803
of the chest gently but strongly for a moment, then quickly begin to
repeat the first movement.
5. Let these two kinds of movements be made very deliberately
and without ceasing until the patient breathes, and let the two move-
ments be repeated about twelve or fifteen times in a minute, but not
more rapidly, remembering that to thoroughly fill the lungs with air is
the object of the first, or upward and outward, movement, and to expel
as much air as possible is the object of the second, or downward, mo-
FIG. 262.
tion and pressure. This artificial respiration should be steadily kept
up for forty minutes or more, when the patient appears not to breathe;
and after the natural breathing begins, let the same motion be very
gently continued, and let the proper stimulants be given in the inter-
vals.
WHAT ELSE is To BE DONE, AND WHAT Is Not To BE DONE
WHILE THE MOVEMENTS ARE BEING MADE.
If help and blankets are at hand, have the body stripped, wrapped
in blankets, but do not allow the movements to be stopped. Bystand-
ers can supply dry clothing ; and the assistants should briskly rub
the feet and legs, pressing them firmly and rubbing upward, while the
movements of the arms and chest are going on. Apply hartshorn or a
feather within the nostrils occasionally, and sprinkle or lightly dash
cold water upon the face and neck. The legs and feet should be
rubbed and wrapped in hot blankets, if blue or cold, or if the weather
is cold.

8O4 SUGGESTIONS FOR EMERGENCIES.
WHAT TO Do WHEN THE PATIENT BEGINS TO BREATHE.
Give brandy by the teaspoonful or hot sling two or three times a
minute, until the beating of the pulse can be felt at the wrist, but be
careful and not give more of the stimulant than is necessary. Warmth
should be kept up in the feet and legs, and as soon as the patient
breathes naturally, let him be carefully removed to a house, and be
placed in bed under medical care.
The Care of Babies.
WE can cheerfully recommend the following thirteen rules—issued
under the auspices of the French Academy of Medicine—for the care
of infants : -
1. During the first year the only suitable nourishment for an
infant is its own mother's milk, or that of a healthy wet-nurse. Suck-
ling should be repeated every two hours—less frequently at night.
2. When it is impossible to give breast milk, either from the
mother or a suitable nurse, cow's or goat's milk given tepid, reduced at
first one-half by the addition of water slightly sweetened, and after a
few weeks one-fourth only, is the next best substitute.
3. In giving milk to an infant always use glass or earthenware
vessels, not metallic ones, and always observe the most scrupulous
cleanliness in their management, rinsing whenever used. Always avoid
the use of teats of cloth or sponge, so frequently employed to appease
hunger or quiet crying.
4. Never forget that artificial nourishment, whether by nursing
bottle or spoon (without the breast), increases to an alarming degree
the chances of producing sickness and death.
5. It is always dangerous to give an infant, especially during the
first two months of its life, solid food of any kind—such as bread,
cakes, meats, vegetables, or fruit.
6. Only after the seventh month, and when the mother's milk is
not sufficient to nourish the child, should broths be allowed. After the
first year is ended, then it is appropriate to give broth or paps made
with milk and bread, dried flour, rice, and the farinaceous articles, to
prepare for weaning. A child ought not to be weaned until it has cut
its first twelve or thirteen teeth, and then only when in perfect health.
7. A child should be washed and dressed every morning, before
being nursed or fed. In bathing a child, temper the water to the
weather, carefully cleanse the body, and especially the genital organs,
which require great cleanliness and care; and the head should be care-
fully freed from all scabs and crusts which may form. Where the
belly-band is used, it should be kept on for at least one month.
THE CARE OF BABIES. 805
8. An infant's clothing should always be so arranged as to leave
the limbs freedom of motion, and not to compress any portion of the
body.
9. An infant's clothing should always be studiously adapted to
the weather, avoiding at all times exposure to the injurious effects of
Sudden changes in temperature without proper covering ; but nurseries
and sleeping apartments should invariably be well ventilated.
10. An infant should not be taken into the open air before the
fifteenth day after birth, and then only in mild, fair weather.
11. It is objectionable to have an infant sleep in the same bed
either with its mother or nurse.
12. No mother should be in too great a hurry to have a child
walk; let it crawl and accustom itself to rising on its feet by climbing
on articles of furniture, or assisted by the arms of a careful attendant.
Great care should be taken in the too early use of baby wagons, etc.
13. In cases of suspected pregnancy, either of mother or nurse,
the child should be weaned at once.
Before concluding this chapter the reader should be reminded
that there are many good points for the guidance of parents in the
care of babies in the essay entitled How to Preserve the Health of
Children, in Part I. If any parent reading the foregoing rules have
not perused it I would commend it to his or her attention. Next to
having a clear conscience there is nothing that can give greater com-
fort and cheer to a mother than a healthy family of children,
asº." -**

INDEX TO
PARTS I.
and II.
Relating to Health and Disease.
(For Index of Parts III. and IV, Relating to Marriage, see Page 1218.)
bandoned women, wretchedness, 224
Abattoir, Sunday scenes at the, 70
Abdominal cavity open, ill'd, 376
Abdominal massage, benefit of, 483
Abdominal supporter, illustrated, 565
Abnormal specimens of humanity, 649
Abortion, diseases resulting from, 540
treatment of, 784
Abscesses, prescription for, 786
Aches and pains, 691-701
Acne, description of, 718
Acme recipes, 784
Adaptation and imadaptation in mar-
riage, ignorance Of"the laws of, 39
Adulterated medicines, 233, 754
Adulterated milk, 108
Adulteration, of food, State action to
prevent, 91
of tea and coffee, 96
Africans, wedding customs of, 553
Agnodice, the first female physician, 364
Ague plant, the, 30
Air, amount of, inhaled per minute, 137
change of, advantages of, 305
constituents of, 130
influence upon the human system, 130
ure, as a preserver of life, 300
Air-bath, promoter of sleep, 301
Air-sacs of the lungs, illustrated, 418
Albumin, in Bright's disease, 511
Alcohol, a dangerous medicine for re-
formed drunkards, 105
as a stimulant in sickness, 105
beneficial and dangerous properties
of, 105
harmful to subjects of Bright's, 517
in the animal economy, 100
narcotic poison, 104
poisonous effects of, on vital func-
tions, 103 -
uses of, in the laboratory, 105
Alcoholio drinks, 99, 100
Alcott, Dr., on the poisonous properties
of tobacco, 175
Altitudes, high and low, effect of, on
tuberculous patients, 426
Alvarez, bacillus discovered by, 83
Amative passions of children prema-
turely developed, 167
Amativeness, excessive, 599
a CauSe Of barrenness, 611
“Ambition of Atoms, The,” 170
American Woman, the evolution of ill-
health in the, 534
Amorous dreams, 569, 570
Anal chafing and Soreness, recipe, 785
Anºgical plates in schools, need of,
Aneurisms, various forms of, ill'd, 446
Angina pectoris, 443, 444
prescription for cure of, 785
Animal electricity, 19
controlled by the mind, 332
Animal food, use of, injurious, 62-64
Animal industry of United States, Bu-
reau of, 57, 58
Animal knowledge of medicinal plants,
Animal lymph, in vaccination, 230
Animal magnetism, 343-352
º: concerning, 222
Animals, cross breeding of, 603
diseases peculiar to certain, 56
the self-cure of, 320
torture of, 70
wholesale slaughter of, 69
Anthropophobia and sexual apathy, 57.1
Antidotes for poisons, 799-801
Antifebrin, popular resort to, 402
Anti-parasitic soaps, 723
Antiseptic properties of charcoal in
sick-room, 301
Antiseptics harmful to an healthy or-
anism, 90
Ant j societies and clubs, for-
mation of, 256
Anus, fissure of the, 497
Apathy, sexual, 571-661
Aphthas, prescription for cure of, 785
Apoplexy, 447
caused by excessive use of alcohol, 105
Appendicitis, causes of, 82, 88
Aº. how to obtain a good, 79
OSS of, 486
should regulate time of meals, 92
Apples as food, value of, 279
Arsenio-eating, bad habit of, 188
Assimilation of food, 76
1198
INDEX TO PARTS I. AND II.
I IQ9
Asthma, 411-413
Fº for the relief of parox-
ySms of, 785
coffee, a relief to, 96
change of climate beneficial to, 412
Astringent injections in leucorrhoea, 557
Athens, divorce laws of ancient, 613
Athletes, heart disease in, 293
Athletic exercise for young and old, 294
Atmosphere, dry, helpful to Some Con-
sumptives, 427
effect of stove-heat On, 141
of crowded rooms, unpleasant, 139
we live in, 129
Atrophy of vagina and vulva by re-
moval of OVaries, 594
Atwater, Professor W. O., views of, on
alcohol, 103
Auditory nerve, paralysis of the, 748
Austin, Dr. Harriet M., on the physio-
logical sins of women, 150
Auto-intoxication, Bouchard's mono-
graph on, 445
functional nervous disturbances in
woman due to, 534
Autotoxaemia, treatment of, 677
AVOI), mineral springs of, 127
Ayer, Mrs., recipe for skin food, 727
abe, Mrs. Stanton on the treatment
B of the new-born, 268, 269
Babes conceived with the germs
of disease, 262
Babies, dressing, bathing, exercising,
feeding and dosing of, 269-275
the care of, 804, 805
effect of pure milk on, 113
how to have healthy, 262-268
impro § brought up, 40
Baº, a Buffalo editor's plan for divert-
ng the, 275
Baby clothes, notions about, 146
Baby foods, prescriptions for. 785
Baby's colic, recipe for cure of, 787
Bacilli of consumption, Koch’s discov-
ery of, 414, 415
Bacillus, 26
Bacteria, 32-35
eneration of, in milk, 115
llustrated, 28
in vaccine points, 230
Bad habits, in dress, 181
of children at school, 162
of manhood and womanhood, 173-195
Bad qualities, rooting out inherited, 307
Baking-powder, prescriptions for, 785
Baldness, in Spots, prescription for, 785
Baldness, treatment Of, 727
Bandaging of babies unnecessary, 269
Banqueting injurious to stomach, 194
Barbarous laws of the United States in
regard to the death-penalty, 241
Barefoot, going, 164
Barren couples should not despair, 611
|Barrenness, an excess of flesh some-
times occasions, 593
cases of, cured, 775, 776
causes of, 581-598 , .
constitutional syphilis as cause of, 597
description of, 576 -
onorrhoea, a cause of, in the male, 590
É. for Overcoming, 609
Barrenness, miscarriages lead to, 611
when caused by temperamental in-
adaptation, 612, 613
when disease is the cause of, 610, 611
Bathing, daily, necessary, 299
of babies, 273
seaside, proper length of time for re-
maining in the water, 289
Baths, public, of Boston, a factor in the
morals of that City, 289
tepid and hot, injurious to bloodless
patients, 355
Beard, Dr. George M., hypochondria, 674
On neurasthenia, 673
on spermatorrhoea, 641
Beaumont, Dr., effect of foods in the
stomach, 124
Beauty, health the basis of, 724
Beauty of face, how to cultivate, 721-729
Bed, how to go to, 297, 298
Bed-sores, proscription for, 785
Beecher, Catherine, on the unhealthl-
neSS Of WOman, 531
Beecher, Henry Ward, on generation
before regeneration, 542
On the love of gain, 46, 47
On medicinal roots of the field, 319
#. or prostitution, 222
Belgium, death-penalty abolished in, 240
Benton, Dr., success of, with hypnotism,
343, 344
Bergh, Henry, on cruelties practised On
animals, 72
Betel-nut a fashionable poison, 18U
Beverage, wafer as a, 119
Beverages of different nations, 93
Bicycle dresses and bloomers, 153
Bicycle exercise, its good and exill
effects, 290–294
Bicycles and Bright's disease, 513
Big dinners, injurious, 193
Bigelow, Dr. Horatio R., on the use of
pessaries, 562
Bile, action of, 450
quantity of, produced daily, 462
Bilious condition from petulance, 307
Bilious headache, how produced, 459
Biliousness, ordinary symptoms of, 457
Bird, Dr. Golding, on the application of
electricity in disease, 335
Birth, case of five children at One, 534
Birthmarks, burned off by sunglass, 723
Bitters, their medicinal property, 487
Bivalves, edible, 87
Blackberries, value of, as food, 279
Bladder, damage by over-distention, 522
description of, 506
diseases of, 507
falling of Womb on the, illustrated, 558
inflammation, recipe for relief of, 789
Bladder stones, illustrated, 519
#iebs described, ºf
Bleeding from the stomach, prescrip-
tion for, 785
Blood, abnormal conditions of, 35
action of alcohol on healthy, 105
amount of, in human body, 23
causes of nervous derangements and
affections of the, 37-258
circulation of the, 439
circulation, diagram of, 23
derangements, 23
I 2GO
INDEX TO PARTS I. AND II.
Blood, excess of, 35
good, essential to health, 36
impurities, from venereal diseases, 211
impurity of the, 308
Blood, nerves, and skin, affections, 668
Blood-poisoning, some causes of, 134
Blood-vessels, diseases of, 444, 445
Bloomer costume, description and illus-
tration, 153
Blues, prescription for cure of, 785
Boarding-Schools and colleges hot-beds
of early vice, 651
Boards of health should publish dan-
..gers of syphilis, 219
Boils, description of, 718
prescription for, 786
Boots, for wet weather, 158
Second-hand, danger in wearing, 159
Women's thin soled, bad effects, 158
Boric acid, use of, in preserving food, 472
“Borning Better Babies,” by Dr. E. B.
Foote, Jr., referred to, 611
Botanic doctor of ye olden time, 317
Botanic System of practice handicapped
by adulterated §: 234
Botany, neglect of knowledge of, 322
Bowels, chronic diseases of, 490-505
BOW-legged man, illustrated, 384
Braid, Dr., experiments in hypnotism
Brain, congestion of, caused by exces-
sive use of alcohol, 105
influence, on the digestive organs, 21
use of the, 17
vital electricity distributed by, 19, 20
Brain-substance, composition of, 670
Brain-workers’ food, 93
Brandy, use of, as medicine, 104
Bread, value of, 77, 78
Breasts and uterine Organs, relation, 545
Breasts, arrested development of, 545
Breath, good, dependent on healthful
Stomach, 299
Breathing, Dr. Tucker Wise's advice
about, 429
Breathing organs, cases r * disease, 766
chronic diseases Of th’ 392
treatment of chronic Jiseases of, 421
Breathing passages of human body, 394
Breeches, wearing Of, by both Sexes,
149, 150
Breeding of humanity not regulated,
while stock of domestic animals is
Cultivated, 262
Bremen, cathedral church of, peculiar
}. of vaults in preserving
rom decay, 144
Bright, Dr. Richard, disease of the kid-
neys. 509-516 -
Bright's Disease, a common complica-
tion of pregnancy, 516
case showing dropsy, 770
medical treatment Of, 517
use of kumySS in, 118
Bromide in marine plants, 315
Bromidrosis, treatment Of, 717
Bronchial diseases, causes, 356
Bronchial tubes, illustrated, 409
Bronchitis, chronic, 408-411
case of, 766
impure condition of the blood in, 408
Bronchitis in infants, recipe for, 766
Brook streams, danger in drinking, 122
Brothels, all classes of females contrib-
ute to the, 222
Brown-Séquard, Dr., on epilepsy, 682
Bruises, prescription for, 786
IBrutality and inhumanity, 236
Buffalo skin overcoat unhealthful, 157
Burning the candle at both ends, 672
Burns, prescription for, 786
Business failures, causes and effects of,
249-251
Butter, bacteria in, 30-32
Butterflies, liking for alcohol, 101
Buttermilk, effect of, on the prolonga-
tion of life, 118
alomel, how adulterated, 235
use of, in liver-torpor, 458, 459
Campagna. Of Rome, noxious air
from, 137
“Camphene whiskey,”
stroke, 304
Cancer, caused by worrying, 255
Causes of, 701
prescription for, 786
some remarkable Cures, 704
tomatoes not a cause of, 705
Vaccination a cause of, 702
Candy, adulterations in, 161
Candy-eating injurious to children, 160
Candy-making, improvements in, 161
Canker of the prepuce, 621
Canned air, 145
Canned foods, antiseptics used in, 90
Cannibalism within the human body, 72
Capillaries, description of, 24
Capital punishment, resolutions of
Eclectic Medical Society of New
York, 241
its evil effects upon public health, 241
the death-penalty must go, 239
Carbonic acid, deadly effects of, 138
Čarbonic oxide gas found in air-tight
Stoves, 141
Carbuncles, description of, 718
prescription for cure of, 786
Cardialgia from drinking coffee, 99
Carlsbad water, for gall-stones, 462
Carpenter, Dr. W. B., on alcohol, 103
Cast-iron stoves more injurious than
wrought-iron, 143
Catarrh a common complaint, 396-401
Of long standing, case of, 766
of the head, prescription for, 786
Catarrhs, abdominal, use of kumyss, 118
infectious, 401
Cathartics, action on the stomach, 487
Catheter, a soft, illustrated, 521
Catlin, George. On mouth breathing, 309
Cattle, how slaughtered, 70
Caucasian, the, illustrated, 455
Causes of heart palpitalion, 441
Cauterization of the soft palate, 404
Cereal preparations of coffee, 99
Cervix, elongated, Dr. Pallen's opera-
tion for, illustrated, 607
clongation of, case of, 608
Cesspools, formula for disinfecting, 86
Chancre, hard, 707
Hunterian, 619
of the urethra, 621
Change of life, period of, 544
bad in sun-
INDEX TO PARTS I. AND II.
I 2C) I
Chapped skin, emollient lotion for, 787
Character contagious, 211
Charcoal, antiseptic properties of, in
sick-room, 301
Chastity not expected in the British
army, 215
Chautauqua, N. Y., dress reform at, 536
Cheerfulness an antidote for ills, 257
Cheerfulness and consumptives, 430
Cheese and butter-making germs, 32
Chemical electricity controlled by the
will of the operator, 332
Chest and lung exercises, 429
hest, artificial inflation of the, 429
best exercises, illustrated, 431
hewing tobacco, bad habit, 173
hickamauga Park, typhoid in regi-
ments at, 85, 86
Chicory in adulterating coffee, 98
Chilblains, 714
prescription for, 786
Child-bearing, diseases from, 540-542
how to promote, 604-615
regulation of pregnancy, 541
Childhood, diseases of, 165
Čhildless, hints to the '576
Childless readers, assistance offered, 604
Children, diseased and malformed, de-
stroyed in semi-barbarous Coun-
tries, 263
fewer and better wanted, 541
grown-up, ignorance of the human
system, 43
how to preserve the health Of, 268-277
nervo-electric forces Of, 166
Overabundance of Sweets consumed
by, 469
reformation in the training of, 224
Sexual passions Of, 2
should not be muffled in furs, 154
should sleep in separate beds, 166
the physiological instruction of, 281
the proper propagation Of, 262
training of, 172
who have no right to exist, 259
hinamen, food of,
hinese women, dress of, 148, 149
hlorine in marine plants, 315
hlorosis in girls, 724
Cholera, infantum, recipe for cure of, 788
Cholera mixtures, for colic, Cramps,
diarrhoea, 708-787
Cholera, mortality from, 302
Christian burial denied fallen Women,
:
:
Christian Herald on prostitution in the
Bowery, 208
Christian Science, the basis of, 325
Chronic disease, various kinds and
signs of, 383-387
what is a chronic disease? 380, 381
Chronic diseases, evidences of the cur-
ability of, 763
management of, 668
nearly all cases of, complicated, 753
causes and successful treatment, 377
Churches, proper airing of, 145
Cicero on the abolition of the death-
º 245
Cigarette habit, the boys, 170
Cigarettes, adulteration of, 171
Cigar-smoking among Boston ladies, 173
Cigars versus bread, cost of, 173
Circulation of the blood, diagram of, 28
Circumcision, operation of, 622
Ordinance of, 622
“Clap.” See GonoRRHCEA
Cleanliness, 298, 299
personal, 173 tº
the first step toward health, 552
Clergymen’s sore throat, 407
Climate of United States induces an
Over-excitable state of nerves, 672
Climatic treatment for consumption, 425
Clitoris, proper cleanliness of, 551
Closets, careless use of unclean, 523
Clothes we wear, the, 146-160 -
Clothing, excess of, injuriousness of, 574
Cochlea. Of the ear, 748
Cod-liver, and other oils, author's Sug-
gestions as to use of, 423
Co-education Of the sexes, 651
Coffee, effect of, on different people, 95
useful in asthma, 413
Coition, injurious if too frequent, 666
during pregnancy, 267
Cold, rich people susceptible to, 154
Cold feet, a positive cure for, 309
Cold in the head, recipes for, 787
Cold, taking, 133
Cold water, drinking of, and salivary
dyspepsia, 468
effect of, on the digestive organs, 124
Colic, recipe for, 787
baby’s, recipe for, 787
Colleges and boarding-schools hot-beds
of early vice, 651
Colorado, death-penalty abolished, 240
Comedones, cosmetic for removing, 787
Comedones or black-heads, 717
Common-sense remedies, 312-357
“Company towels,” danger of, 523
Compensatory hypertrophy, 439
Complications of Vaccination, serious
and Crippling, 230
Conception, how to promote, 604-607
hints in procuring healthy, 267, 268
the critical period of, 265
Conception and pregnancy, need of
public lectures on, 281
Condiments arouse Sexual passions of
the young, 218
Confessor, priestly, the family physician
aS a, 226
Congenital deficiency of testes, 597
Congenital neuters, male, female, 596
COngestion of brain from alcohol, 105
Congestive headache, Origin of, 693
Conscience, a clear, better than a
petted stomach, 757
COnstipation, a sign Of liver-torpor, 458
Causes and treatment of, 477-481
fruits suitable for relief of, 280
of pregnancy, recipe for, 788
Consumption, of lungs, 413-435
advancement in treatment of, 434
climatic treatment of, 425
curability of, 420, 421
development of, Out of nervous pros-
tration, 432
fungi or bacilli of, illustrated, 415
incipient, case of, 766
inhalation of dry vapors in the treat-
ment of, 425
I2O2
INDEX TO PARTS I. AND II.
Consumption, is it hereditary? 416
Koch’s bacilli of, discovery of, 423
mortality of, 413-415
recipes for night-sweats of, 795
§. of, 419, 420
the author pronounced an incurable
case of, 326
the effect of other derangements, 356
use of kumyss in, 118
Consumptive mothers should not suckle
their babies, 111
Consumptive patients’ hopefulness, 409
Consumptives as subjects of medical
treatment, 394
author's Opinion on change of scene
and climate for, 427
benefit to, of southern exposure in
dwellings, 303
COntagious diseases’ acts necessary to
prevent the spread of disease, 215
Contagious venereal diseases, 540
Contamination, moral, sources of, 652
Contentment, cultivation of, 253
wealth of, 251
Contraception, injurious means of, 542
instruction in, forbidden by law, 541
Convents, isolated life of women in, 198
Conversation and reading-rooms for
both sexes needed, 204, 205
Copper, a constituent element of wheat
and Oats, 315
sulphate, in disinfecting cesspools, 86
Coquettish ladies numerous, 222
Cornea. Of the eye, description of, 731
Corns, recipe for cure of, 788
Corpuscles, red and white, 35
illustrated, 36
COrsets, Waist bands, bad effects of, 535
Cosmetics, recipes for making, 787
Costive, habitually, best food for, 280
Costume, rules to secure healthful, 160
Costumes of men, the, 155
Cough, recipes for cure of, 788
Courtesan, diseased magnetism of, 211
uncharitable to abandon, 224
Courtesans, estimated amount annually
paid them, 220
Cowper's glands, active and non-active,
Cow-plant of Ceylon, 112
Cow-pox, 228
Cows, an ideal stable for, 108
diseased, milk from, 108
milk, not a perfect substitute for
mother's, 107
swamp and milk sickness in, 113
teeth of grazing and stall-fed 100
veterinary examination in Rome, 115
Cramps, recipes for cure of, 787
Cramps in the chest, painful, prescrip-
tion for, 785
Creosote treatment of Consumption
played Out, 425
Crime, decrease of, in Wisconsin and
Rhode Island, by abolition of Capi-
tal punishment, 243
Crookshank, Professor E. M., on the
delusion of vaccination, 232
Cross-breeding of animals, 603
Cruel hazing outside the College cam-
pus, 222 -
Çruel people contaminate others, 267
Cultivation of the beauty of the skin,
face, and hair, 723
Cures, warranting, 759
Currants, value of, as food, 279
Curtis, General N. M., on the abolition
of the death-penalty in N. Y., 240
humanitarian work of, 241
Customs and habits of life recklessly
and blindly pursued, 258
Cycle-heart, the, 438, 513
Cycling assists in improving style O
Women's dress, 536
may predispose to impotency, 665
Cystitis, and treatment, 518-520
in a woman, case of, 769
recipe for relief of, 789
andruff, 717
recipe for cure of, 789
Wash for, 792
Danger signals, a few, 82
Danse du ventre for gymnastics, 537
beneficial in facilitating the passage
of excrementitious matter, 483
illustrated, 484
in diseases of the womb beneficial, 561
Dancing among ancient Hebrews, 285
disrepute among Orthodox folks, 282
promotes health of body and grace of
motion, 285, 286
Darwin, on the breeding of animals, 603 .
Darwin’s ‘‘Variations of Animals and
Plants under Domestication,” Quo-
tation from, 651
Deafness, most common seat of, 747
Death-penalty, abolished in Several
European countries, 240
abolished in several States, 240
Is it a deterrent? 243
opposition of m-dical societies to, 241
Debt, running in, a common Cause of
failure in business, 250
Decomposing matter breeds maggots, 84
Degenerates, sexu l perverts, 649-654
Dernodex, magnified and illustrated, 718
Depew, Chauricey, On the folly Of WOr-
rying, 256
Depilatory to remove superfluous hair,
relief for, 789 :
Depression fö owing use of alcohol, 103
Derangements of monthly flow, 543-548
Destitution responsibl for an alarming
number of prostitutes in Paris, 221
Development of females in Japan, 21?
Dewey, Dr. Edward Hooker, on the
morning fast, 92
Diaphragm, position of the, ill’d, 181
Diarrhoea, astringent foods in, 490
chronic, causes of, 488,480
coffee a palliative in, 96
description of, 488-490
recipe for cure of, 787
Diet, facts regarding a vegetable, 65
regulation of, 289
Dietetics for old and young, 277-281
meaning of, 756
Digestion, aids to, 473–477
depends on microbes, 34
good, and daily habits, 82 -
of food, 17
salivary, importance of, 467
the process of, 450, 451
INDEX TO PARTS I. AND II.
I2O3
Digestive apparatus disturbed by lack
of saliva, 192
Digestive machinery, derangement, 79
illustrated, 450 -
Digestive organs, cases of disease, 707
effect of cold water on, 124
influence of the brain upon the, 21
Digitalis, use of, in Bright's disease, 517
Dilatation of the prepuce, 623
Dilated heart, a, 438
Dinners, big, injuriousness of, 193
fashionable, composition of, 52
Diphtheria, recipe for cure of, 789
Diphtheritic sore throat, gargle for, 789
Diplococcus, 26
“Dipping,” a disgusting practice, 174
Discomforts, Self-inflicted, 147
Disease, a normal condition in some
people, 882
and its causes, 15-36
disproportionate amount of suffering
from. in Women, 531
greater proneness to, during sleep
than awake, 137
made known by symptoms, 385
prevention of, 259-311
rimary causes of, 36
subjective, objective symptoms, 384
the application of electricity in, 335
treatment Of, 751
Diseased condition of husband, 596-599
Of the Wife, 588-596
Diseases, functional and organic, 390
Diseases, of blood-vessels, 444, 445
of childhood not essential if child is
brought up properly, 165
of men, cases of, 770-773
of the breathing organs, cases of, 766
of the digestive organs, 767, 768
of the eyes, 738-740
of the heart and blood-vessels, 436-448
of the urinary organs, 769, 770
of women, cases of, 773-776
of Women, treatment of, 573-575
resulting from child-bearing
abortion, 540-542
Dishonesty, failures in business by, 251
IDishonorable men, 50
Disinfectants, recipes for making, 789
should be freely used in Sick-room, 301
}; induces consumption, 417
Distillation of water, process of, 123
I)istilled water, daily use of, 77
is it poisonous? 122
Distillery slops, 107
Diuretic, kumyss as a, 118
Divorce, in South Carolina, none for
any cause, 227
Divorces, Massachusetts, statistics, 227
in the German Empire,
in Russia, Statistics of, 227
in Switzerland, 227
in the United States, statistics of, 227
Doctor, everybody his own, 752-756
Doctors, 358
“Jacks-at-all-trades,” 361-363
necessity for, 753
the opium habit among, 189
want of confidence in, by the laity, 360
who bank On others’ reputation, 371-374
women, shall we have? 363-367
Don’ts, sensible, practical, nursery, 276
and
Dreams, amorous, 569, 570
Dress, bad habits in, 180
fashion in regard to, 147
Dress reform, Frances Willard on, 151
Crusade, 536
in treatment of female diseases, 574
movement at Chautauqua, N. Y., 536
Drinking, immoderate, and changes in
neurons, 678
Drinking-water, benefit of a good Sup-
ply of, 126
precautions to be taken in use of, 120
Dropsy, recipe for cure of, 790
Dropsy of the womb, mistaken for
pregnancy, 565 & a g º
Drowned, rules for resuscitating, 801-804
Drug habit, the, 186
Drugs, adulteration of, 754
Drunkards, proper treatment of, 106
Drunkenness, recipes to blunt the ap-
petite for drink, 790
Duodenum, digestion carried on in the,
by aid of the pancreatic juice, 470
Dysentery, recipe for cure of, 790.
Dyspepsia, a common companion of
diseased lungs, 423 .
bicycle riding beneficial to, 291
Case Of, 766
causes of, 464
horrors of, 466
sexual, 571, 572
re
ulceration. Of the, 748
Earache, recipe for cure of, 790
Ears and eyes, affections of the 730-750
Ear-wax renders hearing defective, 746
Earthy matter, proper method of pre-
venting an undue storage of, 79
Eating, fast, injuriousness of, 191
caution inhabits of, 469
Eclectics, homeopaths, and botanics
revolutionize medicine, 321
Eclectics the pioneers in the botanical
System, 322
IEconomic slavery and prostitution, 221
IEczema, or salt rheum, described, 715
recipes for cure of, 790
|Baldy, Mrs., the founder of Christian
Science, 325
Edible bivalves, 87
Education, of an infant, the, 276
of girls in the practical business mat-
ters of life, 222
Fffete matters, daily escape of, from the
skin, 135
Effluvia from besotted and tobacco-sat-
urated men, bad effects of, 140
“Eighty Years and More,” by Mrs.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, quoted,
199, 268, 269
Ejaculatory ducts of the penis, 628
Electric currents through the human
E" the human, illustrated, 746
ody, 330
Electric waves of the hand, repellent,
illustrated, 331
Electrical air, vital, 197
Electrical era, phenomenal discoveries
of the, 330
Electrical power possessed by some
men to charm like the snake, 222
JElectrical radiation, 132-135
I2O4
INDEX TO PARTS I. AND II.
Electrical Radiation, illustrated, 133-347
from the hand, illustrated,329
Electricity, 18
and nerve-force, 332
animal, 19
application of, in disease, 329, 335
author's experience in use of 339
Capital punishment by, a disappoint-
ment, 245
for loosening adherent ear-drums, 750
in the human heart, 330
mischievous and harmful use of, by
unskilled operators, 338
a nerve medicine, 343
of the thunder-storm, 131
Substitute for popular anodynes, 342
Supplied by lungs during sleep, 136
Value of, in disease induced by men-
tal depression,
similar to nervous currents, 333
Bleºmagnetic machine, illustrated,
Electrocuting chair, illustrated, 244
Elliºr. Havelock, on sexual inversion,
Emangipation of women, industrial, 222
Embalmed food, 471 -
Embryo, Care to protect, 611
Emergencies, prescriptions for, 782
Emissions, involuntary, injurious, 632
Emotional excitement, insátiable appe-
tite of Americans for, 672
Employees in large cities urged into
Vice by discomforts, 203
Endocarditis, 439
Enlarged prostate, 320
Epidemics, frequent on the shady side
Of the street, 302
ungleanliness, the parent of, 298
£pididymis, congestion of the, 629
Epiglottis, 407
Epilepsy, 681-683
treatment of, 683
Equinoctial storm, an, 131
Erectile tissue, what it consists of, 655
Erection, mechanism of, 667
Erections, involuntary, 640
Erysipelas, recipe for cure of, 790
Etherion discovered by Prof. Chas. F.
Brush, 130
Ethiopian, the, illustrated, 454
Eustachian tube, description of, 747
Eustachian tubes, catarrh of, 406
Excessive amativeness, 599 ...
Exºility, excessive, in the female,
Executions in the United States, statis-
tics of, 24
Exercise cure, 430
Exercise, daily, necessary to health, 253
Exercising babies, 273
Eye, cinder in the, treatment for, 787
mechanism of the, 740; illustrated, 741
vertical section of, illustrated, 731
Eyes, chronic sore, 740–743
Cross or squint, illustrated, 743
diseases of the, 738-740
Onorrhoeal infection of, 528
OW to restore the Old Ones, 734–736
manipulation and care of, 735
near-sighted, description of, 733
JEye-water, recipes for, 791
ace, beauty, how to cultivate, 721-729
Face pimples, prescriptions for, 784
Facial nerves, illustrated, 694
Facial neuralgia, prescription for, 785
Facial paralysis, description of,
“Facts about Milk,” quoted, 114
Fads, beware of, 76
in medicine, 323
Failures in business, 249
Fainting, treatment of, 791
Faith, the ph siological effect of, 389,390
Fake medical concerns, 378
Fallen women, treatment of, 224
Falling womb, treatment Of, 564
Fallopian tubes, 656
illustrated, 657
obstruction of, 592
False modesty, in medical societies, 666
leads to hygienic error,
Faraday, Prof., on crowded rooms, 139
On electricity in Water, 355
Fargo, N. D., divorce colony of, 227
Farmer, necessity for recreation, 283
Farmers, arrangement of meals for, 93
Fashion, bigotry of, 148
in regard to dress, 147 e
Fashion’s requirements in the size of the
waist, 183
Fast eating, injuriousness Of, 191
Fast, the morning, 92
Fast women on the Bowery, 209 t
Fasting, as a punishment injurious, 280
decrease of solids of blood in,
deranges the stomach, 280
as a remedy for dyspepsia, 475
Fat-making foods, 73
“Father's Advice to a Boy, A,” 169
Faucet-filters, 122
Fear, Eliot Warburton on, 21
Feeding.”high, a cause of cancer, 702
Feeding the baby, 272
Feet, warm water harmful to, 309
best covering for the, 158
cold, dangers to health of, 308
fetid, wash for, 791
various inventions for the, 158
Feet-warming, by cold water, 311
by the sun, 311
magnetically, 310
Female labor, small compensation for,
a fruitful cause of prostitution, 220.
Female modern dress, impracticable, 151
Female operatives, dangers to, in large
towns, 223
Female organs, illustrated, 554
Pemale weakness, the relation of, to
general bodily relaxation, 537
Females, develop early in Japan, 217
Fences, no great names on, 4
Fermentation and digestion closely
allied, 471
Fermenting material breeds maggots, 84
Fever blisters, recipe for, 7
Fever mixtures, recipe for, 791
Fever and ague, cause of aching and
shaking in, 31 e
Fevers, ºtes in, 791
Filtered milk, 112 -
Filters, faucet, 122
Fire-place, old-fashioned, healthful, 143
Fissure of the anus, 497 -
Fissures described, 711
INDEX TO PARTS I. AND II.
12O5
Fistula in a scrofulous woman, 767
Fistula-in-Ano, description of, 496
illustrated, 497 . . &
Flannel, red, use of, in rheumatism, 156
Flannel underwear, 155
Flatulence, recipe for cure of 794,
Flies, prolific causes of mortality in
Spanish-American War, 85
winged scavengers, 84
Flirting, dangers of, 222
Flooding, immoderate, 547
Flow, derangements, monthly, 548-548
Fluor albus. See Leucorrhoea.
Foith, Rev. Rudolph, portrait of, 652
his art of seduction, 653
Food, assimilation of, 76
difference in needs of people, 92
digestion of, 17
for the fat and the lean, 73
strange things used as, 54
value of different animals as, 54
which agrees with the system, 756
Foods, adulteration of, State action to
prevent, 91
digestibility of, and cooking, 476
Foote, Dr. E. B., Sr., exposure of bogus
practitioners who had taken the
author's name in various parts Of
the country, 371-373
one corner of his laboratory, ill'd, 322
pronounced by old-school doctors an
incurable consumptive, 326
Footgear, 155, 156
Foreskin, contracted, gradual dilatation
of, 623
inflammation of, 621
Formaldehyde in canned foods, 90
France, marriage and divorce in, 227
Fraudulent doctors, 371
Free Lowers. See Oneida Community
French pessary, use of, 605, 606, 009, 610
Fresh air on tap, 145
Frog's foot, capillaries seen in a, 25
Frost bites, recipe for, 792
Fruit diet § for old age, 77
Fruits, acidulous, for constipation, 483
for public dinners,
meats, 194
preventives of disease, 279
suitable for constipated subjects, 280
unripe or decayed, 88
Functional disease, bounds of true, 684
Functional and Organic diseases, 390, 391
Functional nervous disturbances in
women, 534
Fungi, described, 720
Fur capes a fruitful source of bronchial
and throat diseases, 154
preferable to
all-bladder disease, 462, 463
Gall-stones, description of, 461
Galvanism as a remedial agent, 338
Gargles, recipes for, 794
for throat affections, 408
Garments, loose-fitting, 148
Gaseous food, 130
Gases, impure, absorbed in sick-room
by bowl of water, 301
Gay life in New York, 207
“Generation before Regeneration,” 542
Germ theory, the, 26, 27
German Empire, divorces in the, 227
Germans rule out American pork, 57
Germany, large percentage of deaths
in, from the use of tobacco, 178
Germs, multiplication of, 115
Of malaria, 31, 32
of Sunstroke, 305
production of, in male and female, 628
Gide, Paul, on desire for offspring, 613
Gin, use of, as medicine, 104
Girls, education in business of life, 222
who amatively exasperate, 222
Glucose, use of, in candy-making, 162
Glycerinated vaccine, deaths from, 231
Golf improves women's style of dress,536
Gomorrhoea, a cause of barren: less in the
male, 599
complications of, 529
constitutional nature of, 526
danger in childbirth during attack, 523
danger, ready-made drugs, 528
diseases arising from, 528
may cause death, 525
mischievous notions concerning, 523
regarded too flippantly by men,525-528
serious effect of, on women, 528
simple measures to º: into practice
as soon as inoculated, 528
symptoms of, 526
treatment of, 526
Gonorrhoeal infection of the eyes, 528
Gonorrhoeal discharge, illustrated, 523
Good habits, 173
Good temper, beneficial effects of, 306
necessary for enjoyment of health, 306
Gorilla, the, as a vegetarian, 68
Gothenburg system, the, 213
Gout, description of, 700
treatment Of, 700, 701
Gouty diathesis in robust men, 692
Grandparents responsible for health of
coming generation, 261, 262
Grape, virtues of, in constipation, 482
Grape-vines, lithium in, 315
Grates, Open, good substitute for fire-
places, 143
Gravitation cough, the, 417
Grease too abundantly used at table, 87
Greasy foods should be avoided, 453
Griefs, pet, of melancholy people, 257
Griswold, Dr. Rufus W., on medicine in
the Olden time, 318
On modern medical education, 322
Grumblers, chronic, never well, 306
effects of, upon the family, 306
effects of, upon the features, 306
Gummy tumors, illustrated, 708
Gymnastics, parlor, 286, 287
abit is second nature, 195
man a creature of, 173
Hair follicle, illustrated, 728
Hair tonics, recipes for, 792
Hands, sweaty, recipes for, 792
Hard times increase the labors of the
physician, 249
Hay fever, 402, 403
Head, standing on the, injurious, 170
Headache, congestive, Origin of, 693
Headache-powders, risks of, 385
Headaches caused by worrying, 255
recipes for cure of, 792
various kinds of,
I 206
INDEX TO PARTS I. AND II.
Hoad-wash, for fevers, recipes for, 792
IIealth, ancestral violation of, 261
tho basis of beauty, 724
begets wealth, 246
Boards of, should make the dangers
of Syphilis public, 219
hints to Smokers, 179
mental and physical recreation neces-
Sary for preservation of, 282
perfect, incompatible with a petulant
disposition, 307
Women violate fundamental law, 535
Health and longevity depend on a good
constitution, 262
Henlº Boards opposed to cigarettes,
IIealthy offspring, how to secure, 262
Hearing, defectivo, 744–750
machinery, complexity of the, 745
Heart, action of, how regulated, 437
enlargement Of, 438
has more troubles to contend With
than any organ of the body, 438
healthy action of, dopendent upon a
supply of nervous stimulus, 308
palpitation of the, 440-442
rheumatism of the, 438
rickety, 439
the Secrets of a broken, conſided to
the physician, 226
valvular disease of tho, 439
TIeart and arteries illustrated, 22
Heart and lungs, illustrated, 432
IIeart-beats of an infant, 278
IIeart-burn, symptoms of, 442
Heart disease among Soldiers Of the
º War, 293
golden rules for, 792
Organic, 439
Heating houses by hot-water furnaces,
a modern innprovoment, 143
Hoating, our methods of, 141
IIemiatrophy, case of, illustrated, 686
IIemiplegia, doscription of, 680
ifemorrhoids or piles, 490-495
recipes for cure of, 792
Henry, Mrs. Josephine K., on the free-
dom of women to regulate mother-
hood, 541, 542
Hereditary diseases, 388
IIernia, or rupture, 500-505
operation for reliof of, 505
trusses and appliances for, 505
umbilical, 503
Herpes zoster, described, 715
IIilarity and worry not compatible, 256
IIindoo women, customs of, 149
IIints, some general, in procuring
healthy conception, 267
to parents in average health, 264
to the childless, 576
IIippocrates a born physician, 312
“History and Pathology of Vaccina-
tion,” quoted, 232
Hives, described, 713
IIoarseness, recipes for Cure of, 793
Hog, the, not a healthy animal, 55
Hog and hominy in old Kentucky, 60
#. public, the stomach abused
on, 193
Holland, death-penalty abolished in."240
Holmes, Dr., on the food we eat, 52
Homicidal crimes, decrease of, in Ru-
ropean countries where thé death-
penalty has been abolished, 240
Homeopaths, Eclectics, and Botanics
revolutionize medicine, 321
IIoneymoon, awakening from the, 220
Horseback, the coming fashion for la-
dies on, 285
IIorseback riding, as a cure for piles, 494
for ladies, awkward attitude for, 284
magnetic exercise of, 283
may predispose to impotency, 664, 665
value of, to those engaged in seden-
tary pursuits, 284
Horse-flesh recommended as food, 63, 64
IIorse-grease, the source of human
small-pox and of cow-pox, 228
IIot-air furnaces, defects of, 142
IIottentots, use of tobacco by, in killing
snakes, 176
IIot-water injections safest remedy for
many affections of the ear, 750
#. the, 85
toºp ants, effect of sunshine upon,
IIowland, Marie, on the family physi-
cian as a priestly confessor, 226
Hubbard, Professor, On the proper
amount of sleep, 295
IIugo, Victor, on the abolition of the
death penalty, 245 t
Human life, trifling estimate on, 235
Human lives, }. of, 128
IIuman night-hawking, 189
IIuman system, ignorance of the, 260
proper care of the, 260
water beneficial to, 126
Human water-works, the, ill'd, 507
Humanity, abnormal specimens of, 649
breeding of, neglected, 262
IIumanized virus, use of, 230
Hunger that cries out for bread, 221
Hunterian chancre, 619
Hurry in eating injurious, 191
Husband and wife, the more dissimilar
the better for offspring, 602
jealous, a word to, 613
IIydrocele, description of, 630
Hydropathy, 853
IIymen, as test of virginity, 558
cartilaginous by age, 555
not needed after age of puberty, 555
natural purpose of the, 555
obstructed menses caused by, 546
why preserve the, 553
IIyperdrosis, or over-action of the
Sweat-glands, 717
IIypertrophy, compensatory, 439
IIypnotism, fºr Benton's success with,
putting to sleep, illustrated, 346
recent investigations in, 345
teachings of Medical Science, 345
Hypochondria, 674
Hysteria among women caused by pet-
ulance, 307
more common in Women than in men,
a phase of neurasthenia, 674
recipe for cure of, 793
treatment for, 675, 676
Hysterical affections, use of coffee in, 96
INDEX TO PARTS I. AND II.
I 207
ce-cream injurious for dessert, 88
º: y, 88 e
ce-foods, cause of dyspepsia, 468
Ice-water, bad effect of, at meals, 124
Ignorance, 37
a cause of nervous and blood derange-
ments, 219
in feedin babies, 272
responsible for most of our sins, 666
Illegitimate children, mothers of, ta-
booed in social life, 202
Ill-ventilated rooms, conducive to con-
sumption, 417
Imaginary impotency, 662, 663
Immunity to venereal diseases, 524
Impotency, 655-667
caused by excessive use of tobacco, 178
causes of, 659
may affect either sex, 657-659
mental and physical causes of, 659-662
Impregnation, susceptibility to,582
In adaptation, temperamental, ill’d, 600
In adaptation and adaptation, ill'd, 1151
Inadaptation, local, 581, 607
Commonest cause of barrenness, 581
explanation of diagrams of, 584-587
Incontinence of urine, 520-522
Incurables, treatment of, 326
India, licensing prostitution in, a fail-
ure, 214. .
sterility of wives in, 613
India-rubber shoes, unhealthful, 157
syringes, best for general use, 556
Indian hemp, a fashionablo poison, 180
Indian knowledge of medicinal plants,
321
Indigestion, intestinal, 469
suggestions for treatment of, 472
Indissolubility of the marriage
tract, dangers of the, 220
Industrial emancipation of woman, 222
Inebriety, frightful effects of, 100
statistics of, 263
Infants, care of, 804, 805
the education of, 276
Infatuation of passion, 220
Inferior brain, the, 197
Inferior plexus, electrical stimuli of, 658
Suspected by husbands, 549
Infirm, should not have children, 263
Inflammation of the womb, chronic, 566
Inflation, artificial, of the Chest, 420
Influenza, recipe.for cure of, 793
catarrhs, 400
Ingº, Col., death of, by angina pec-
Orls,
anecdote of, 848
on the freedom of women to regulato
motherhood, 541
Inhalation, in pulmonary diseases, 356
of dry vapors in consumption, 425
medicated, 856, 357
Inhumanity and brutality, 236
Injections and purgatives, 485
Innocent girls changed by hardship and
vice, 206
Innocent, how fast life affects the, 208
Insanity, catching, 649
caused by bad habits, 168
caused by Smoking cigarettes, 171
from want of sleep, 297
Insect bites, recipes for cure of, 786
(2() Th-
Intemperance in ardent spirits, 180
penalties of,
Intestinal canal, microbes of the, 471
Intestinal indigestion, 469
Intestinal parasites, 498-500
Intestine, small, function of the, 472
Invalids, cured § male and female
magnopaths, 201
diseased radiations, exhalations, 140
who might be restored to health, 263
Involuntary losses, 672
Iodine in marine lants, 315
Iowa, death-penalty abolished in, 240
Iritis, or inflammation of the iris, 708
IrOn in vegetables, 314
Irritability, due to use of tea and coffee,
Isolated men, 202
Isolation, the sexes cannot maintain
perfect health in, 197
Itching, recipe for cure of, 793, 795
Causes of, 714
piles, 491
Itch-mite, burrow of an, illustrated, 719
Ivy poisoning, recipes for cure of, 793
“ Iack the Ripper,” case of, 650
Japan, regulation of prostitution
in, 217
tobacco-smoking in, 173
Japanese, food of, 53
Japanese heathens versus Christian bar-
barians, 217
Japanese, loose-fitting garments of, 148
Japanese manipulators, ill'd, 350, 351
Japanese tea, 99
Jealous husbands, a word to, 613-615
Jenner, Dr. Edw., and vaccination, 228
Professor Crookshank’s exposé of, 232
Joints, tubercular affections of the, 417
Jo-Jo, the dog-faced boy, 725
Judicial murder, no humane device for,
245
ane, Dr., arctic explorer, on the
K effoct. Of cold on the human sys-
tem, 195
Karen women, Customs of, 149
Ridney casts, illustrated, 510
Kidney colic, or gravel, 518
Kidney cut through, illustrated, 509
Kidneys, benefit of water to the, 297
function and description of, 506
diseases Of, 507-517
none in lower forms of life, 134
Kleptomania, 647
Knit suits injurious to purity of the
blood, 155, 156
Knowledge, avarice for, 251
Koch's bacilli, 414, 415
Koch's serum and other remedies, 423
Kumyss cure in Russia, 118
formula for making, 117, 118
abor, excessive, 252
L mental and manual, 252
Labor-pains should not be has-
tened, 268
treatment of, in Mexico, 268
Laboratory, Dr. Foote's illustrated, 322
Lactic acid in buttermilk, 117
Ladies, cigarette Smoking by, 173
I 208
INDEX TO PARTS I. AND II.
Ladies, horseback riding for, 284
Lagrippe or influenza, 401
Laparotomy, 575 -
Laryngitis, description of, 407
Laryngoscope, illustrated, 406
Late eating injurious, 195
Latter Day Saints depend on magnetic
influence for healing, 351
Latter Day Saints. See Mormons
Laughter, a cure for melancholy, 257
physiological value of, 257
Laveran, A., germs of malaria, 32
Laws against cigarette smoking, 172
{ { º; On Of hands” magnopaths, 201
Lead, poisonous vapors of, 145
Lean, food for the, 73, 75
Lectures to girls on pregnancy and con-
ception, need of, 282
Legislation against hydropaths, 353
against low-necked dresses, 153
Lemon-juice preferable to vinegar, 474
Leper versus syphilitic, 210
Leucorrhoea, 548-551
astringent injections in, 557
destructive of the spermatozoa, 599
Leucorrhoeal matter, illustrated, 523
Lewis, Dr. Dio, his system of parlor
gymnastics, 286, 287
Liberty, N. Y., salubrity of, 426
Lice, description of, 720
wash for, 793, 794
Licensing prostitution, 212
Dichen, treatment Of, 716
Licorice, Spanish, adulterated, 235
Liebig, Prof., on the use of meat, 64
Life, average duration of, increased, 259
Life and death, the margin between, 220
Light, the healing influences of, 302
Lightning, anecdote of Ben Jonson,
who was struck by, 337
Dime, bisulphate of, in canned foods, 90
Liquid air, numerous uses of, 145
Liquids we drink, the, 93-101
Liquor habit, prevalence of, 104
Liquor sanguinis, 23 * &
Literature, fictitious and exciting, evils
of, 224
Lithia Waters, use of, for gall-stones, 462
Lithium in grape-vine and tobacco, 815
Liver, the benefit of water to, 299
Chronic diseases of, 451-463
diseases that result from neglect, 457
the, illustrated, 456
Liver-spots, description of, 723
Livers, torpid, where found, 452 º
Liverpool, England, increase of Fº
tution and venereal diseases in, 216
I.iving with one lung, 433
Loathsome diseases, spread of, in large
Cities. 210 e
Local inadaptation, explanation of dia-
gram of, 584-587
illustrated, 582,583 . -
importance of overcoming, 607, 608
Local marital inadaptation, 581
Locomotor ataxy, description of, 681
Longevity and constitution, 262
increased by pure air, 136 e
Long skirts, physiological objection, 150
Loose-fitting garments of Japanese, 148
LOW-necke dresses, legislation in
Pennsylvania against, 153
Lumbago, recipe for cure of, 794
Luminous effluvia, 332
Fº from financial panics, 249
Lung, living with One, 43
Lung structure, illustrated, 393
Lungs, air-sacs of the, illustrated, 418
work of, in sleep, 136
Lungs and heart, illustrated, 432
Lung-tissue, changes of, in consump-
tion, 418, 419
Lymphatic patient, a, 74
Lynchings in the U. S. statistics, 239, 244
aggots, propagation of, 84
Magnetic equalization, 223
Magnetic exercise, illustrated, 283
Maºence, author's anecdotes
O 5 * *
of the sun on the earth, 190
Magnetic manipulation by female mag-
nopaths, 201
Magnetic Ointment, for ailments, 274,
275, 495, 564, 717, 721, 723,727
for extreme thinness, 725
use of, for baldness, 727
Magnetism, animal, 343-352
diseased, 211
of the sexes should be equalized, 223
of women, 203
should not be relied on to the exclu-
sion of other remedies, 349
Maguey, Mexican beverage, 94
Maguey butter, 54
Malaria, germs Of, 31
recipe for cure of, 794
the Scourge of American camps in
Cuba, 85 *
Malarial diseases, coffee for, 96
Malarial fever, recipe for cure of, 794
Malarious localities, poisonous air of, 137
Male Organs, illustrated, 627
vertical section of the, ill'd, 617, 620
Malt liquors, 102
Man, elements composing, 794
weight of, 11
Manhood and womanhood, bad habits
of, 173-195
Mankind, whims of, 556
Man's inhumanity to man, 237
Marasmus in babes, treatment of, 273
Mare's milk, kumyss made from, 118
Marriage between inanimate bodies, 450
Marriage, temperaments should be con-
suited in, 259
Marriage, unhappy, 225-226
Marriages, uncongenial, victims to, 228
unhappy, effects of, 220
unhappy, unlike other troubles, 225
Married couples should be physically
different, 602
Massachusetts, divorce statistics, 227
Massage, abdominal, benefit of, 483
benefits derived from, 349
practice of, among the Japanese, 350
Masseur and masseuse, manipulations
of the, 349-350
Mastication, hasty, evils of, 468
should not be hurried, 191-192
Masturbation, among children and
youth, a destructive habit, 167
a prolific cause of leucorrhoea, 550
appalling Story of a young man, 169
INDEX TO PARTS I. AND II.
12O9
Masturbation,
dreams, 570
a cause of impotency, 665
dime pamphlets on, 169
fatal consequences of, 168
habit of, 634
practised by unresponsive sexual con-
nection, 211
Sad Case of clergyman’s daughter, 168
tracts showing evils of, 169
tWO nearly hopeless cases of, in young
Women, 550
WOrse than excessive sexual indul-
gence, 170
Matrimonial inharmony, extent of, lit-
tle known, 225, 226
Meals. intervals between, 92
rules for arrangement of, 92
Meat-eating ancestry, 70
Meat fever, 68 *
Meats too stimulating for babies, 273
Medical education, modern, neglects
natural remedies, 321
Medigal profession to blame for propa-
gation of sickly offspring, 264
Medical Societies, false modesty im, 666
Oppose the death-penalty, 241
Medicated inhalation, 356-357
Medication and Christian Science, 328
Medicinal properties of plants, 321
Medicine, psychic, 323-328
revolution in the practice of, 321-322
in ye olden time, 816-818
Medicine taking, habit of, in the U.S., 186
Medicines, adulterated, 233
internal, potent for good or evil, 235
mineral, adulterations of, 235
pure, author’s plan for Securing, 233
vegetable, 313-323
Melancholy, 257
a Cure for, illustrated, 258
people invariably dyspeptic, 257
prescription for cure of, 785
seriously disturbs circulation of
nervo-electric forces, 257
Membranous envelopes, 622
Men of wealth, young, given to habits
of dissipation, 201
Men, private words for, 616-654
Menopause abrupt and violent appoar-
ance of nervous symptoms, on re-
moval of ovaries, 594
Menses, premature advent Of, 543
obstructed by hymen, 546
symptoms of first appearance of, 543
Menstrual blood, ideas of ancient Jews
and Arabians on, 556
Menstrual derangements, congestive
headache caused by, 694
neglect of, 548
Menstruation ceases generally on re-
moval of Ovaries, 594
Commencement of, 540-543
Commencement Of, marks a new era.
in life of a female, 555 O
excessive, recipe for cure of, 794
information regarding should be im-
parted to every young girl,543
irregular and painful, 545-547
suppressed, 547-548
tardy, recipe for cure of, 794
use of, 544-545
C a us e Of amorous
Menstruous cloth, allusions in Bible to
the, 556
Mental depression caused by mastur-
bation, 168
Mental disturbances, 20-22
Mental dyspeptics, 252
Mental joyousness favors deep and fre-
quent breathing, 432
Mental Organs, control of, 657
Mental powers, development of, 252
Mental qualities catching, 211
Mental telepathy and the modern phy-
sician, 324 tº
Mental troubles of unhappy marriages,
227–228
Mental worry a cause of cancer, 702
Mental and physical recreation, 282
Mercurial and mineral preparations of
no value to Materia Medica, 321
Mesmer, Dr. Frederick Anthony, pro-
mulgation of his theory, 344
Mesmeric phenomena, theory of, 345
treatment of women in labor, 268
Miaºtic emanations lighter than air,
5
Miasmatic vapors in new cities a source
Of liver disease, 455
Microbes, a plea for, 34
flºº depends On, 34
in blood of a sick man, 35
thrive in corruption, 61
vegetable medicines to drive out, 323
Micrococcus, 26
Microscope, the prize, illustrated, 611
Microscopic anatomy, investigations,G70
Midnight mission work, 207,208
Milk, as a wholesome food, 107
bacteria in, 32-33
cow’s, no substitute for mother's, 107
effect of germ theory on, 115
extensively adulterated, 108
fermentive change in, 117
filtered through sand, 111-112
how to purify, 111
of human kindness, the, 118
sterilization of, 114-115
trade, general reform in, 116
Milton, a tobacco-smoker, 173
Mind, emotions of the, 21
the Overloaded, 251
Mineral medicines, adulterations of, 235
Mineral waters, in United States, 127
manufacture of, 128
Minerals in plants, 315
Miscarriages lead to barrenness, 611
Modesty, false and hygienic error, 42
Moles, treatment of, 723
Money, hygienic value to men, 246
Moon, superstition in regard to, 327
Moqué, Mrs. Alice Lee, lines on the bi-
cycle, 290
Moral and intellectual
needed, 205
Moral debasement of prostitution, 206
Moral insanity, 647
Moral nature, cultivation of, 51
Morals, Japanese code of, 217 *
Morbid appetite, a symptom of con-
gested liver, 458
Mormons, aversion of, to medicine, 352
Morº taking Worse than the liquor
abit, 188
institutions
I 2 IO
INDEX TO PARTS T. AND II.
Mosquito bites, recipe for cure of, 704
prescription for, 786
Mother Grundy, 41
“Mother of the Bowery, tho,” 208
Motherhood, Colonel Ingersoll on the
freedom of women to regulate, 541
the ideal state of womanhood, 577
“Mother’s Advice to a Girl, A,” 169
Mother's duty to her child, 41
Mothers, ignorance of their sexual Or-
gans, 219
Motor nerves, 18
“Mouth, shut it,” in whecling, 294
Mouth washes, recipes for, 704
Mugous membranc, cauterization of,404
Muffling injurious to the throat, 154
Mumps and impaired sexual power, 664
in testicles a cause of barrenness, 597
Murder in the U. S. statistics of, 244
Murderers, primitive punishment of, 289
Muscular exercise for babes useful, 273
Muscular straining of athletes a cause
of heart disease, 293
Muscular system and motor nerves, 18
Mushrooms, edible, Gaution to be used
in gathering, 89
Mutton, a substitute for pork, 62
Myopia, near-sightedness, 736
acvus, hairy, illustrated, 729
Naquet I)ivorce Bill, in France,
227-955
Nasal and throat air-passago, ill'd, 405
Nasal cavity well provided to filter the
air we breathe, 204
Nasal polypi, 403
National Convention of Medical Men at
New Haven, author's resolution of-
fered at, urging physicians to be-
come familiar with laws of heredity
and prenatal influences, 264
Nature, kind provisions of, 279
calls of, false modesty in attending, 42
laws of, violated by half the people of
the United States, 260
Nature's beverago, water, 119
Nature's laboratory, illustrated, 320
Nature's sign of disease, 385
Natiºn § pregnancy, recipe for curo
of, 704
Near-sightedness, or myopia, 736
Neckwraps should be discarded in win-
ter, 154,414
Negro, why more enduring in the trop-
ics, 453
Norve-anatomy, brief outline of, 670
Nerve-atmosphero, illustratod, 347
Nerve-blood taints, 692
Nerve-bulbs and neuron, ill'd, 669, 670
Nerve-centres, 16, 17, 18
Nervo-currents compared to electric
Currents, 334
Nerve-force and electricity, 332
Nerves, blood, and skin, affections of,008
Over-excitable by Climate, 672
Nervo-electric fluids, harmonious Circu-
lation of, 190
Nervo-sanguine temperament, its vital
forces, 297
Nervous debility of alcohol drinkers, 104
Nervous derangements, caused by fail-
ure in business, 249
*
Nervous derangements and affections
of the blood, 37-258
Nervous diseases, bicycle riding benefi-
cial to, 219
cases of, 768, 769
Nervous disorders rosulting from pro-
miscuous intercourse, 211
Nervous disturbances and auto-intoxi-
Cation, 534
Nervous headaches, origin of, 692
Nervous system, effect of tea on, 95-98
elements of, 670
maddened by alcohol, 105
relation between its disorders and
• Constitutional diseases, 684
why it requires light, 197
Nervousness, recipes for cure of, 704
Neuralgia, treated by electricity, 341
of the hearſ, or lungs, 695
of stomach, recipes for Cure of, 705
the cry of neurons for better blood, 677
pathology of, 695
Symptoms of, 694
Neurasthenia, case of, 766
caused by masturbation, 108
..º.º. of, 671
sexual origin of, 671
symptoms of, 673
treatment of, 675, 676
Neuron, consistence of, 670
illustrated, 685
Neuron and norvo-bulbs, ill'd, 669
Neurons of the nervous system, 334
Neuroticism, 388
New woman, 284
Nicotine, deadly qualitics of, 175
Night-hawking, human, 189
Night, a Season of repose, 252
Night-sweats of phthisis, recipes for, 795
Nipple ointment, recipe for, 795
Nose-bleed, recipes for stopping, 795
Noses made from skin of diſferent parts
of the body, 723, 724
Nostrils, as seen from behind, ill'd, 309
Novels, bad effects on amatory passions
of the young, 167
Nuns, doficient magnotic vitality in, 198
Nursery diseases, nocqlessness of, 165
Nursery, practical don’ts for the, 276
Nurses, syphilized, danger to children,
200
Nymphomania, oxplanation and treat-
ment of, 567-560
ats, º a constituent of, 315
O Obesity, tendency to, on removal
of Ovaries, 594
Objective and subjective symptoms, 384
Octopus of Cvil habits, illustrated, 389
Offspring, common desire for, 613
inopportune times for begetting, 265
nervous and puny, of uncongenial
marriages, 228
propagation of, should not be acci-
dental, 265
Old age, 445
Old maids in France, isolation of, 199
Oleomargarine not unhealthful, 80
Oncida Community, experiments on
ventilation of sleeping-rooms, 188
Open-air exercise for young babes, 278
Open-air treatment of consumption, 426
-*.*
INT)FX TO PARTS T. AND II.
I2 IT
Ophthalm4a neonatorium, 523
Qphthalmoscope, use of, illustrated, 739
Qpium, advice about taking, 188
Opium eating, 69
Qpium, Indian, how adulterated, 235
Qpium inebriety, 188, 189
Qptic nerve, description of, 731, 732
Optical defects, 737
Orchitis, intense pain of, 629
Qvarian affections, pain of, 590
Ovarian diseases, 573
OVaries, inflammation of, 546
illustrated, 657
interesting facts about the, 593-505
partial paralysis of, 591
results of complete removal of, 594
tumorous and dropsical, 591
Ovary, diseasod, illustrated, 500
in health, illustrated, 591
in Old age, illustrated, 592
Overcoats made from buffalo skins,
unhealthfulness of, 157
Over-crowded houses conducive
consumption, 417
Qver-work induces consumption, 417
Overworked man, tho, 253
QXygen, amount consumed by man, 138
Oysters, raw, danger in, 87
Ozone, production of, 141
acking-houses, United States super-
vision of, 57
Pagan worship, facts regarding,811
Pain, the relief of,385
Pain relieved by animal magnetism, 351
Painful menstruation, 545-547
Pain-killers, recipes for making, 705
Pains and aches, 691-701
apt to be deceptive, 386
Painting and powdering by women, 1.1%)
Palate, Soft, Gauterization of the, 404
Palpitation of the heart, 440-442
Palsy, Shaking, description of, 681
Pancreas, illustrated, 471
“Papa's Own Girl,” quoted, 226
Paralysis of the auditory nerve, 748
Paralysis from tobacco-smoking, 177
Paralytic affections, 679-681
Paraphimosis, description of, 624
Parasites, intestinal, 498 -
Parasitic skin diseases, 740
Parents, rear children in ignorance, 210
in average hoalth, hints to, 264
unwatchful because ignorant, 219
Paresis, cases of, on Ward's Island, 673
Causes of, 678
Parlor gymnastics as indoor exercise,
286, 287
t()
Passion, the infatuation of, 220
Pastries bad for digestion, 91
Patent-leather boots, unhealthful, 157
Patent medicines, baneful effects of, on
Some invalids, 186
manufacturers of, not all humbugs,187
origin of, 186
regulating sale of, 754
Patient's confidence assists in curing,824
Patients, discouraged, 380
fatally poisoned by druggists, 234
incurable, treatment of 326
Pediculi, or lice, description of, 720
Pediculus pubis, illustrated, 720
Poevishness, due to tea and coffee, 96
Pelvic discases, 535-539
Penis, and its diseases, the, 617-625
deformities of, 618
front view of, illustrated, 661
“Pennamites,” sumptuary laws of, 153
Pericarditis, 488
Peritoneum, inflammation of the, 83
Perpetuation of the species, 579
Personal equation, the, 387-390
Perspiration, checked, 397
insensible, 132
Perspiratory gland and tube, ill'd, 298
Peru, style for female horseback riders,
284
I’erversion of Soxual instinct, 650
Pessaries, difference of opinion as to
utility of, 561
Petit-mal (little sickness), 683
Petulance, dangers of, 307
worse than grumbling, 307
Thagadonic chancroid, 610
J’honacotin, how adulterated, 235
popular resort to, 401
Philanthropist, an excellent opening for
the, 204, 205
Philoprogenitiveness, organ of, 658
Philosophy of child-marking, 615
Phimosis, 622-625
Phobia, self-imposed, 662
Phosphoric acid, use of, in old age, 77
Phthisis, night-sweats in, recipes for
cure of, 795
Physical machinery, proper care of, 260
Physical and mental recreation, 282
Physician, the family, as a priestly con-
fessor, 226
qualifications for, 361, 362
º fees of, 369
should become familiar with laws of
heredity and prematal influences, 264
Women, in England and Europe, 365
in the United States, 365
Physiological panics, 249
sins of women, 150
Physiology, works on, in our schools,281
I?ickles, and salivary indigestion, 469
I?icoke, Rio Grande Indian beverage, 94
Pile Compressor, for external piles, 494
in falling of the rectum, 495
Piles or hemorrhoids, 490-495
Piles, recipes for cure of, 705
tumorous, illustrated, 491
Pine forests, helpful in consumption,425
Pin-worms, 521, 522
cause loss of seminal fluid, 639
recipe for removing, 798
treatment of, 498
Pityriasis, 716
Plain Home Talk Baby, 614
Plant, the sensorial life of, 816
Plants, the growth of, 78
minerals found in, 815
Plasters, injury in use of, 156
Plato on ignorance, 37
Polypi Of the womb, 546
Pontine marshes, fevers from air of, 137
POOr lº Stand cold better than
rich, 154
Porcination, 229
Pores of the skin, and plasters, 15?
uses of, 298
I2 I2
INDEX TO PARTS I. AND II.
Pores of the skin, we breathe through
the, 301
Pores, number in the human body, 132
POrk º against in Europe, 56
reck eSS use of, 55
wormy, 56
Pork-eating among Western farmers, 455
Portugal, death penalty abolished, 240
Potatoes, effect of sunshine upon, 302
Potency, sexual, 660
Pott's disease, early symptoms of, 690
POverty and dependence the curse of
women, 221
Poverty and wealth, happy medium, 247
“Pox.” See Syphilis
Predigestion, 117 -
Pregnancy, as complication of Bright's
disease, 51
dropsy of the womb mistaken for, 565
the most susceptible period for, 604
nausea of, recipes for cure of, 794
recipe for relieving pains of, 793
When it takes place, 544
Without rupture of hymen, 554
Pregnancy and conception, need of lec-
tures On, in public schools, 281
Pregnant, advice to the, 265, 266
the most susceptible period, 604
Preº WOmen, should try to preserve
ealth unimpaired, 265-267
Prepuce, inflammation of,621
Prescriptions for common ailments and
Suggestions for emergencies, 782-805
why some fail, 755
Priessnitz, founder of “Water Cure,” 352
Private vices, 507
Private words, for men, 616-654
for women, 530-575
Probst, the murderer, case of, 236
Procidentia, protrusion of womb, 560
ProCreation, only one process for, 578
Procreative system as sensitive as the
Stomach, 206
Procuresses on lookout for victims, 221
Professions open to girls, 222
#; Quarrelsome, 39
Prolapsus of the womb, cure of, 561
Promiscuous intercourse, nervous dis-
Orders resulting from, 211
womanly delicacy affected by, 211
Propagation of children should be cul-
tivated in preference to breeding of
domestic animals, 262
Proprietary Medicines. See Patent
Medicines
Prostate, congenital deficiencies of, 597
the, illustrated, 645
Prostitute, hopelessness of the, 208
Prostitutes, number of, in New York
City, 210
Prostitution, 205-224
avoidable causes of, 218
hardening effects of, 207-209
in Japan, regulation of, 217
in New York, 207
increase under license system, 216
licensing in India a failure, 214
principal causes of, 223, 224
a prolific source of blood diseases, 211
State regulation of, 212
Protoplasm, description of, 670
Prurigo described, 714
Pruritus described, 714
Pruritus of pregnancy, recipe for, 7.96
Pruritus-ani, cause of, 498
Pruritus vulvae, recipes for cure of, 795
Psoriasis, description of, 716
Psychic force, introduction of, 345
Psychic medicine, the merits of, 325-328
Ptomaîne poisoning, 88 -
Public dinners, abuse of the stomach
at, 193
Pulmonary diseases, causes, 356
prevented by baring the neck, 154
Pulque, Mexican beverage, 94
Pulse of an infant, 278
Pulse-waves, use of sphygmograph, 104
Pure air, 300-302
Pure milk, 113
Pure water, chemically, 122
Purgatives and injections, 485
Purging, mania for, 486
Pustule described, 711
uestions, list of, to be answered by
patients, 761
adioconductors, description of, 334
R Rags, inspectors of, needed to
protect public health, 160
Railroad spine, case of, 769
Rain, disease in, 121
Rainy days, depressing effect of, 133,134
Rainy Day Clubs, 536
Rape, 647,648
the result of sexual starvation, 648
Raspberries, value of, as food, 279
Rat poison, recipe for making, 796
Reading and conversation rooms for
both sexes needed, 204, 205
Reading too closely injurious, 251
Reckless financial men, 25
Recreation, mental and physical, 282
Rectum, anatomy of, 491
diseases of the, 495, 496
falling of womb against, 559
laid Open to show piles, ill’d, 494
Recuperation of brain during sleep, 297
Recuperation slow in neurasthenics,
hypochondriacs, and hysterics, 677
Reflex disturbances, 440
Reformation in training of children, 224
Reformation of drunkards, 106
“Relation Between Crime and Dis-
ease,” address by author, 242
Religious subjects, doubts on, 758
Remedies, common-sense, 312-357
Repose, nightly, necessary to health, 253
Respiratory apparatus during sleep, 136
Respiratory system, of man, ill'd, 395
of a tree, illustrated, 394
Rest cure, 430
Rest, days of different peoples, 252, 253
Retina of the eyes, description of, 731
Retroversion of the womb, cured, 773
Revenge dwarfs moral growth, 51
Rheumatism, acute, recipes for treat-
ment of, 796
caused by worrying, 255
chronic, 698
Of the heart, 438
Rhode Island, death-penalty abolished
in, 240
INDEX TO PARTS I. AND II.
I2 I 3
Riches, physical effects of, 248
Rickety heart, 439
Ring-plant, treatment Of, 721
Ringworm, description of, 720
recipes for cure of, 796 .
Rome. veterinary examination of COWS
n, 115
Roots, medicinal, of the field, 319
Rosacea described, 713
Roseola, syphilitic, 708
Round worms, to expel, 798
Rubber coats, unheathfulness of, 157
Rubber garments, use of, injurious, 155
Rum, use of, as medicine, 104
Rupia, syphilitic, 708
Rupture or hernia, 500-505
Russia, and the death-penalty, 240
marriage customs of, 959
statistics of divorces in, 225
t. Anne, the bone of, 348
Salicylic acid in canned foods, 90
use of, in preserving food, 472
Saliva, thorough lubrication of food
with, necessary, 191
Salivary digestion, importance of, 467
Salivary glands, the, illustrated, 192
Saloon, youth in cities driven to the,203
Salt Lake City, the author's successful
trip to, 373
Salt rheum, or eczema described, 715
Salt water for washing out stomach, 123
“Sanctified oil,” use of, 352
Sand filtration for milk, 111
Sandwich Islands, horseback riding,284
Sanitary caustic, 723
Saratoga, mineral springs of, 127
Satyriasis, 646-648
Savage races and disease, 531
Scabies, description of, 719
Scammony, Smyrna, adulterated, 235
Schieferdecker, Dr., his application to
Board of Censors to practise hydro-
pathy, 354
School Board of New York rules Out
cigarette fiend, 172
School-life, dangers of, 651
Schoolmasters, Jongevity of, 166
School-rooms, ill-ventilated, 141, 260
Sciatica, case of, cured, 777
“Scorching ” On bicycles dangerous, 292
Scourge, the great white, 413
Scrofula, chief characteristics of, 688
in underground tenements, 303
from bad air, 139
Scrofulous affections, benefit of living
in Open air, 303
impurities of pork-eaters, 61
taint, a variety of the syphilitic, 689
Scrotal supporter, use of, 631
Scrotum and its diseases, the, 625
SebOrrmoea, description of, 717
Secondary sexual characteristics, 660
Second-hand clothing and shoddy, 159
Secretions affected by mental condi-
tions, 265
Sedentary habits induce leucorrhoea, 550
persons of, should breathe pure air,456
Sedentary pursuits Conducive to Con-
sumption, 417
Seducers aud procuresses take advan-
tage of the distressed, 221
Seeking advice of the physician, 386
Self-abuse, case of, cured, 771
Self-abuse. See Masturbation
Selfishness, effects of, 238
Self-pollution, injury to the young, 167
evil of not instructing children, 642
Seminal fluid, escape into bladder, 638
Seminal fluids, material of, 633
Seminal vesicles, inflammation of, 644
illustrated, 645
Seminal weakness, 632-644
Seminaries, young ladies, unheathful-
ness Of, 198
Seminiferous ducts of the testicle, 627
Senility, 445
Sensation, nerves of, action of the
brain upon the, 18, 19
Sewage water, alcohol in, 101
Seward, Theodore F., on worrying as a
species of insanity, 254
Sewing-women, excessive labor of, 253
Sexes, separation at school a mistake,199
Sexual act, injurious if too frequent, 666
Sexual apathy, more common in
women than in men, 659
Sexual apathy and anthropophobia, 571
Sexual appetite, unappeasable, 202
a cause of prostitution, 223
in men, effect Of, 223
a promoter of licentiousness, 223
typical case of, 198
Sexual atrophy, case of, 772
Sexual attraction, the secret of, 204
Sexual commerce worse than death, 221
Sexual desire, Ovaries not always essen-
tial for the maintenance of, 595
Sexual disorders in females due to late
marriages, 350
Sexual dyspepsia, 571, 572, 579
Sexual excesses more disastrous to male
than female, 628
Sexual gratification an article Of Com-
merce, 206
annual amount paid to courtesans,220
Sexual indulgence, excessive, in the
pregnant woman develops a de-
structive passion in the offspring,267
Sexual instinct, perversion of, 650
Sexual instincts, removal of ovaries, 594
“Sexual inversion,” quotation from, 650
Sexual isolation, 196
Sexual magnetism, 197-204
Sexual morality in Japan, 217
Sexual nerve-centres, treatment of dis-
eases of, 667
Sexual neuters, strange case of, 596
Sexual passions of children, 224
aroused by use of condiments, 218
Sexual perverts and degenerates, 649-654
Sexual power, how impaired, 664
Sexual vigor, early loss of, 638
treatment Of, 638
“Sexualization of Women, The,” quota-
tion from, 575
Shaker Communities, and sexual star-
Vation. 198
Shaker women's health poor, 198
Shaºgancing and religious worship
OT,
insanity Common among the, 198
Shaking palsy, description of, 681
Shingles, described, 715
I2 I4
INDEX TO PARTS I. AND II.
Shoddy clothes impart disease, 159, 160
Shoes for wet weather, i58
Sick-headache, recipe for curing, 706
Sickly sentimentality, 196
Sick-room, disinfectants in, 301
s.should be well ventilated, 30i
Siriasis (sunstroke), 305
Sitting, bad position in, 162, 163
Skeletons, living, 687
Skimmed milk, 113
skin and porous Flå; 157
Skin, Cross-cut of, illustrated, 711
daily escape of effete matters, 135
nerves, and blood, affections of,668-729
Skin diseases, 710-731
9CZema, or Salt rheum, 715
herpes, 714
hives, 713
parasitic, 719
prurigo, 714
pruritus, 714
TOSalcea, 713
scaly, 716
urticaria, 713
Skin foods, recipes for, 726, 727
Skin, We breathe through pores of,301
Skirts, long, objections to 150
Slaughter Of cattle, 70
Slaughter-houses, U.S. supervision of,57
Sleep, 295-298
effect of irregular eating on, 92
insanity resulting from want of, 297
magnetic influences of, during night
and day, 190
Sleeping affärtments, ventilation of, 137
Sleeping with elder persons, 165
Small-pox, changing doctrine of, 231,232
propagation of, 228
recipe for prophylactic against, 796
Smokers, health hints to, 179
Smoking, by both sexes in Japan, 173
among females in China, 173
among ladies of Boston, 173
health authorities opposed to, 172
Smoking and snuffing, illustrated, 173
Sneezing may rupture the hymen, 553
Snuff, disgusting habit of women, 174
Snuff-dipping, death from, 174, 175
Social evil in Japan, regulation of, 217
Social life of young men, 203
Social magnetism,200
Social magnetism versus sexual isola-
tion, 195
Social regulations limit women, 222
Social surroundings of fallen women,306
Soothing syrups, dangerous, 275
without opiate, recipe for, 796
Sore throat, predisposition to, 404
South Carolina, no divorces in, 227
“Sparking,” absence of, 660
Spartan Women good gymnasts, 287
Spavin cure, recipe for, 797
Species, perpetuation of the, 579
Sperm-oil, adulterant Of cod-liver oil, 423
Spermatic cord, the, 627
Spermatic fluids and barrenness, 598
Spermatorrhoea, cases of, 770-772
Spermatorrhoea, complicated, 639
constitutional symptoms Of, 640
injuriousness of, 634
treatment of, 643
Spermatozoa, healthy, unhealthy, 598
~ *
|
Spermatozoa, the, illustrated, 598-640
under the microscope, 610
Sphygmograph, use of, in alcohol pois-
Oning, 104
Sphygmograph tracings of the normal
heart, heart in valvular disease, and
in disease of a coronary artery, 441
Spinal Cord, the great nerve-trunk, 18
Spinal irritation, Case of, 769
Spirilli, 26
Spirit of good, how to invoke, 204
“Spiritualism Answered by Science,”
Quoted, 345
Sports, the sexes may fraternize in, 294
Sprague, Charles, the living skeleton,
portrait of, 687
Spring disorders, loss of appetite, 486
Squeamishness of many females in re-
gard to sexual matters, 530
Stables for cows, construction of, 109
Standing on head, injurious effects, 170
Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, experiences
of, in a young ladies” seminary, 199
on the treatment of the new-born
babe, 268, 269
Starch and flour adulteration, 162
Starchy foods, are they unhealthful? 79
State laws vs. cigarette-smoking, 172
State regulation of prostitution, 212
Statistics of divorces in Germany, 227
in Massachusetts, 227
in Russia, 227
in Switzerland, 227
Statistics of matrimonial infelicity, 226
Statistics of murders, lynchings, and
executions in the United States, 244
Sterility, from removal of ovaries, 594
instructions for Overcoming, 604-610
when disease is the Cause ğ, 610
Sterility. See also Barrenness.
Stimulating diet injurious to youth, 277
Stirpiculture, needs more attention, 541
thought and attention given to, 243
Stomach, abuse On public holidays, 193
bleeding from, prescription for, 785
chronic diseases of, 463-490
generation of electricity in, 19
nerves of the, illustrated, 465
neuralgia of, recipes for cure of, 795
removal Of, in Case of Cancer, 470
salt water for washing out, 123
Stomach washing, illustrated, 474, 475
Stomach-ache, recipe for cure of, 797
Stove heat injurious to health, 141
Strabismus, treatment Of, 744
Strawberries, value of, as food, 279
Streptococcus, 26
Stricture of the recturm, 495, 496
Stricture of the urethra, a cause of bar-
Tenness, 598
causes Of, 527
Study, excessive, 251, 252
a cause of impotency, 658
Stylites, Simon, penance of, 280
Subjective and objective symptoms, 384
Suffering, how women may avoid it, 534
Sugar of milk, beneficial use of, 107
Suicide Corner, 208
“Suicide Hall,” a night scene in, 207
Suicide rather than a life of shame, 220
Sulphuric acid, disinfecting Cesspools,86
Summer fruits, sanitary effect of, 279
INDEX TO PARTS I. AND II.
I2 I5
Sun, magnetic influence on earth, 190
warmth of, 1
Sunlight, as a curative agent, 302
influence of, on tuberculosis in Den-
ver, Col., 426
Sunshine, a saver of fuel, 303
Sunstroke, due to confinement of effete
matters in body, 134
germ of, 305
low to avoid, 304
Superstitions of patients should be hu-
mored, 32
Suppers, late, effects of, on digestion,13?
Surgeon, the, qualifications for, 361
Surgery, too frequently employed in
diseases of women, 565
Susceptible periods for becoming preg-
nant, 604
Sutro swimming baths of San Francis-
CO,
Swamp sickness in cows, 113
Sweat-glands, effect of tea on, 98
illustrated, 135
Sweating hands, feet, recipe for, 797
Sweets, and salivary indigestion, 468
effect of excessive use Of, 162
Swimming,promotes physical health,288
the art of, easily acquired, 289
Swimming-baths of San Francisco, 288
Swine, subject to scrofula, 56
the use of, 55
Swine-pox, 229
Swieńd, death-penalty abolished
in. 24
statistics of divorces in, 227
Syphilis, alarming increase in U. S., 209
as a cause of barrenness, 597
dangers of, should be made public by
Boards of Health, 219
description of, 705
incubation period of, 707
initial stage of, 618
innocently acquired, 706
public danger of infection of, 210
secondary period of, 708
tertiary, 709
treatment of, 709
“Syphilis in the Innocent,” quoted, 208
Syphilitic gonorrhoea, 621
Syphilitic women, Prof. Tarnowski, 210
Syphilized nurses, danger of, 200
Syringe, family, illustrated, 557
use of, after cessation of menses, 556
vaginal, illustrated, 557.
Syringing vagina, proper time for, 551
Tanner, Dr., forty days fast of, 475, 476
T portrait of, 476
Tannic acid in tea, 98
“Tantrums,” feminine, due to exces-
sive tea and Coffee drinking, 96
Tape-worm, how to destroy, 323
magnified head of, illustrated, 499
treatment of, 500
Tapeworm router, recipe for, 797
Tapeworms in hog and man, 62
various kinds of, 499
Tartars, introduction of kumyss by, 118
Tea, drank more than any other bever-
age, 93, 94
effect of, on different people, 95-98
fermentation in the preparation of 33
Tea, how it should be prepared, 97
Tea and coffee, abuse of, 96
in excess cause nervous headaches, 96
Tea-plant, illustrated, 97
ebb, W. H., leader of society for abol-
ishing vaccination in England, 229
Teeth, bad effect of candy On, 162
Of animals, 68
Teetotalers, alcohol in system of, 100
Telegraphy, nervous, 17-19
Tº good, and health, 306
violent, worse than petulance, 307
Temperance lecturers, employment, 106
Temperamental inadaptation, 601-604
illustrated, 600 - 4 -
Temperaments, the proper combination
of, 263, 264
Temperature of crowded rooms, 139
“Tenderloin District ’’ of New York,
prostitution in, 207
Tent-life helpful to consumptives, 427
Tesla. On Sleep, 295
Testes, congenital deficiencies of, 597
in health and disease, ill'd, 624–626-632
Testicle, acute inflammation of, 629
Theine in tea, 98
Therapeutic electricity, 329-343
Therapeutics of the olden time, 318
Thick-soled boots, healthfulness Of, 158
Thieves, primitive punishment of, 239
Thirst, how to avoid in Cycling, 294
Thought transference and the modern
physician, 324
Thread-worms, description of, 499
Throat air-passage, 405
Throat, chronic affections of the, 403-408
the diseased, illustrated, 403
Throat diseases, prevention of, by ex-
posing neck, 154
Throat irritations in bicycle riding,
how to avoid, 294 t
Throat should not be wrapped up, 410
Thunder-storm, electricity of the, 13'
Tight clothes, injuriousness of, 147
Tight-dressing, evils of, 536
Tight-lacing, evils of, 181
Tinea trichophytina, or ring-worm, de-
scription of, 720
Tinea versicolor, or pityriasis, 721
Tobacco, cause of impotency, 178
depresses sexual vigor, 664
depresses nervous system, 664
diseases produced by use of, 177
effects of, on the nerves, 171, 175, 178
effects of, on the vision, 171
effects of, on Bright's disease, 517
impoverishes soil, 178
a medicinal plant, 175
Tobacco-heart, the, 442, 443
Toilet paper only should be used, 492
Tokio, Japan, districts set apart for
kept mistresses, 217
Tomatoes not a cause of cancer, 705
Tonsillitis, recipe for cure of, 797 &
TOnsils, enlarged and inflamed, 404
extirpation of, 403
Toothache, recipe for cure of, 797
Tooth powder, recipe for making, 79°
Tooth wash, recipe for making, 79°
Torpid livers, where found, 452
Torture of animals, 70
Toxin of old age, 445
I 216
INDEX TO PARTS I. AND II.
Trades and professions should be open
to WOmen, 222
Tragedy, morbid taste for, 246
Training of children, errors in, 172
Tree, respiratory system, ill’d, 394
Trichinae, 57
engysted, between muscle fibres, 58
Tripler, Charles E., experiments of, on
liquefied air, 145
Troubles, borrowed or imaginary, 255
Trousers, Wearing another man's, 523
Trusses, and impotency, 664
Tubercles, described, 711
in the brain, 417
Tuberculosis from men to cows, 110
not always consumption, 414
a possible treatment of, 425
Tumors, described, 711
Turkish trousers for Women, 150
Turning night into day, 190
Turnips, effect of, on milk of cows, 113
Tuscany, death-penalty abolished in,240
Tympanum, or ear-drum, 746
Typhoid in oysters, 87
Typhoid fever, mortality in Chicka-
mauga Camp, 86
Wºgation Of, in Spanish-American
&I’,
lceration Of the ear, 748
U Of the womb, 564
|Ulcers of the leg, recipe for, 797
Of neck of womb, 546
|Umbilical hernia, 503
|Uncleanliness, habits of, 621
the parent of epidemics, 298
of the prepuce, 621
Uncomfortable costumes, 147
Uncongenial marriages, puny offspring
Of, 228
Unfruitfulness from temperamental in-
adaptation, author’s Offer, 604
See also Barrenness.
Unhappy marriage, 225, 226
COntributes to lowering Of tone Of the
nervous and vascular fluids, 225
effects of, 220
“ Unlucky dogs,” 524
United States, Statistics Of divorces, 227
Upper chest breathing, 430
Urethral strictures and impotency, 665
Urethritis, specific and non-specific, 522
Uric acid and water, 127
Urinary fistula from stricture following
gonorrhoea, illustrated, 529
Urinary organs, diseases of the, 506-529
diseases of, cases of, 769, 770
|Urine, samples of, for examination, 512
scalding of, 621
Urticaria, described, 713
TJseful bacteria, 32, 33
Uterine affections, bicycle riding bene-
ficial to, 291
Uterine diseases, very common, 533
Uterine organs and the breasts, rela-
tionship of, 545
TJterine prolapsus, cases of, cured, 773
ljvula, inflammation of, 404
\ /accººn, arm to arm, 230
Y books and pamphlets on the
claims for and objections to, 233
Vaccination, a cause of cancer, 702
Complication of diseases from, 230
Compulsory, an outrage, 232
Compulsory in England, 229
history of, 231
impure, 228, 229
Often destroys the health and life of
a child, 274
Origin of Dr. Jenner's discovery of,228
resolution of the International Con-
gress of Hygiene regarding, 418
Vaccine points, bacteria in, 230
Vagina, atrophy from removal of ovar-
ies, 594
construction of, 566
injurious use of cold injections, 551
proper cleanliness of, 531
remodelling the, 608
ulceration of the, treatment of, 567
Vaginal canal, changes in, 656
Waginal discharges should be attended
to at Once, 540
Vaginal secretions, vitiation of the, 206
Vaginal syringe, illustrated, 557
Valvular disease of the heart, 439
Varicocele, description of, 630
French method of ligating, ill'd, 631
Varicose veins, 448
Vasa deferentia, obstruction of, 598
Vascular system, capitol Of the, illº. 24
Vaso-motor nervous system, 686
Vegetable Anti-bilious Pills vs. blue
pill, 459
Vegetable diet, facts regarding, 65
Vegetable food, 69
Vegetable medicines, 313-323
nearly all adulterated, 233
Vegetable parasites, description of, 720
Vegetable world in sympathy with hu-
man existence, 316
Vegetables as food, 65
effect of sunshine upon, 302
iron in, 314
Vegetation, decaying in wet weather, 134
Venereal diseases, in the dens of har-
lotry, 207
contagious, 540
increase, under a license system, 216
large number of, cured by author
without patient’s knowledge, 209
proposal to prevent spread of, 212
some men immune to, 524
Venereal poison, large number daily
infected in cities of U. S., 210
Ventilation necessary to life, 300
Ventilation, importance Of, 139
prevents catarrh, 401
Venus de Medicis, waist Of, 182-185
Veranda, enclosed in glass, ill’d, 304
Vermiform appendix, description of, 83
Vermifuge, a popular, 798
Vice, facilities for, in British Army, 215
Vices, early, caused by ignorance, 660
how the small boy acquires them, 171
private, 507
Vichy water, for gall-stones, 462
Victoria, Queen, in the prime of life,951
Virginia, springs of, 127
Virginity, hymen no test Of, 553
Virtue, the reward of, illustrated, 219
Vision, effects of tobacco On the, 171
organs of, description of, 730
INDEX TO PARTS I. AND II.
1217
Wilde, Oscar, notable case of, ill'd, 653
Willow trees, cultivation of, 120
Wine, use of, to allay dyspepsia, 102
“Wine, women, and song '' in New
York, 207, 208
Winged scavengers, 84
Wisconsin, death-penalty abolished, 240
Wives, extravagance of some, 250
should have the means of protecting
themselves from becoming mothers
of defective offspring, 265
“Woman, always ailing,” 531
as formed by Nature, illustrated, 57
as deformed by Fashion, ill’d, 573
a worrying, illustrated, 254
development, after menstruation, 555
the evolution of ill-health in, 534
mis-shapen form of, illustrated, 539
Organs of, illustrated, 532
Womanly delicacy affected by promis-
Cuous intercourse, 211
Womb, chronic inflammation of the,566
displacements of, 546,656
dropsy of the, 565
elongation of neck of the, case of, 608
polypi of the, 546
remodelling the, 608
retroversion of, case of, cured, 77
ulcers of neck Of, 546-564
ulceration of, may lead to cancer, 564
Women, abandoned, wretchedness, 224
bachelors, ranks of, growing, 199
diseases of, Cases of, cured, 773-776
doctors, should we have? 363-367
early development Of, in Japan, 217
fallen, 224
false ideas of refinement Of, 27
fashionable, painting, powdering, 149
health Of, demands dress reforms, 150
industrial emancipation of, 222
life of, in cities, 200
magnetism of, 203
may save themselves suffering, 534
poverty and dependence the curse,221
private words for, 530-575
procurement of, for the use of the
British army, 213
social regulations limit sphere of, 222
taste of, for cigarettes, 171
trades and professions should be open
to, 222
treatment of diseases of, 573-575
unhealthiness of, 531, 532
Violate the laws of health. 535
Workshops,baneful effects of bad air,145
Worms, recipes for removing, 798
skin, 717
Worry, conducive to consumption, 417
from real causes, the service of the
doctor in, 256 .
Worrying, a species of insanity, 254
chronic habit of, 255
inflames the blood, 255
Wrinkles, recipe for removing, 798
-ray, use of the, in diagnosing con-
Sumption, 420
Vital force or nerve-ether, 346
Vocal cords, how to see them, 406
illustrated, 407
“Vulgarizing knowledge,” 524
aist, contracted, a, 183
W natural, a, 182, 183
Waist-line, normal, 536
Waiter-girls, in saloons attract men, 203
Walking, a cure for dyspepsia, 475
Warts, treatment of, 723,798
Waste matter, outlets of, should be
kept free from obstruction, 299
Water as a remedial agent, 352-355
in treatment of disease, 355
the benefit of plenty of, 299
constantly being distilled, 120
disinfection of, 123
distilled, daily use of, 77
distilled, is it poisonous? 122
electricity in, 354
failure to drink enough favors dense-
ness of Secretions in the body, 462
from muddy rivers, 121
in seasons of epidemics, 121
in the treatment of acute diseases,355
moderate indulgence in, beneficial,126
Nature's beverage, 119
men who extolled its virtues, 352
precautions taken in drinking, 120
in sick-room to absorb bad gases, 301
sometimes the cause of blood dis-
eases, 119
a solvent in gall-bladder disease, 463
Water-closet, precaution to be taken
in visiting a strange, 621
Water-cure, author's theory of, 354
“Water Cure,” Priessnitz, founder of
the first, 352
Waterproof material excludes fresh
air, 301
Water-works, the human, ill'd, 507
Waters, mineral, U. S. noted for, 127
Wealth and poverty, happy medium
between, 247
Wealth, aspirations for, cause excessive
labor, 252
Source of nervous derangements, 246
the tendency of, 248
use of, by different kinds of men, 247
young men of, given to habits of dis-
sipation, 201
Wealthy people, average age of, 246,247
Wedding-customs of Africans, 553
Weights and measures, table of, 784
weiſ water, 120
Well-water of limestone countries, 123
Weller, H., on alcohol in milk, 107
Wens, treatment of, 723
Western farmers great pork eaters, 455
Wet-nurse, how to select a, 273
Wet-nurses for children preferable to
cow’s or goat’s milk, 272, 273
Wheat, copper in, 315
a developer of muscle and brain, 77
Whiskey in the march of civilization, 94
use of, as a medicine, 104
Whiskey drinking and sunstroke, 304
Whiskey-root, Indian beverage, 94
Whites. See Leucorrhoea.
Whooping-cough, recipes for cure of,797
Wife, apathetic, 661
ankee, characteristic hurry, 191
enterprising Spirit of, sometimes
leads to speculation, 250
INDEX TO
Dr. Foote's New
ON
Plain Home Talk
Love, Marriage, and Parentage
~~~~
(PARTS III. & IV.)
bolition of marriage advocated in
the Western States, 1036
Abortion, crime of, 1087
Abraham, marriage customs in the
time of,
Abyssinia, marriage in, 941
Adamites, an early Christian sect, 919
Adaptation and inadaptation in mar-
riage, illustrated, 1151
Adaptation in marriage, 1045-1080
Adhesiveness, Organ of, 1052
Adulterers, treatment of, by Augustus
Of Rome, 849
Africa, marriage unknown among an-
Cient tribes of, 847
After-birth, the, 839, 840
Alaskan Eskimos, marriage customs
of, 969
Albanians, marriage customs of, 966
Algonquin Indians, marriage of, 971
Alii Manpio, a sacred caste of the Ha-
Waiians, 981
Alsace-Lorraine, marriage customs, 957
Amativeness, Organ of, 105
Organs Of, proper use for, 823
Amazons Of Cappadocia, 840
Amazula Tribes of the Bantu, marriage
customs of the, 944
America, Central, marriage in, 989
American girls, marriage of, to titled
foreigners, 974
American wives, Condition of, 976
social condition Of, 971
American women, popular delusion re-
specting, 845
much petted and considered by the
men, 1043
Amniotic fluid, the, 839
Anti-marriage literature, 1036
Aguascalientes, hot springs of, 988
Araucanians, marriage Customs Of, 990
Asceticism, among Various Saints, 892
votaries of, 822
Ascetics, object of the, 892
Asiatic Russia, marriage in, 936
Athens, prostitution in, 860 º
Augustus, Emperor of Rome, curtails
the rights of women, 841
I 2 I 8
./NJ’Nº-º-º:
Australia, divorce in, 935
marriage and sexual customs of na-
tive tribes of, 933
Austria-Hungary, illegitimate births, 961
marriage laws of, 961
achelors objects of contempt in
China, 917 t
Baker, Miss Polly, prosecuted for
having illegitimate children, 1002
Bantu, Amazulu Tribes of the, peculiar
marriage customs of, 944
Barbary States, marriage in, 941
Barrett, Judge George C., on a uniform
divorce law for all the States, 1097
Bastardy, impossible in Oneida Com-
munity, 902
Batºuses an institution of Japan,
9
Beecher, Henry Ward, portrait of, 822
Betrothal, origin of the custom, 911
Betrothing and espousals among the
Romans, 910
Bierce, Ambrose, on the treatment of
mental and moral diseases, 1088
Bilious and encephalic compound tem-
perament, 1066
Bilious and lymphatic compound tem-
perament, 1066
Bilious, encephalic, and lymphatic com-
pound temperament, 1069
Bilious temperament, described, 1057
illustrated, 1055
Bly, Nellie, visit of, to the Oneida Com-
munity, 898, 899, 908, 909
Boeck, Dr., German explorer, on pecu-
liar marriage customs of Southern
India, 940
Brazil, marriage system in, 990
self-imposed law of higher classes in
relation to marriage, 1093
Brazilian polygamy, 865
British North America, marriage in, 970
Bundling, a custom of courtship in
Wales, Germany, and America, 920
Byron, Lord, on the customs of Spanish
ladies, 952, 953
on the morals of Venetian Women, 959
--~
INDEX TO PARTS III. AND IV.
12 I 9
marriage customs of the Con-
goes and the Amazala Tribes, 943
Calmuck Tartars, marriage customs, 936
Canada, marriage laws of, 972.
Capac, Manco, Peruvian marriage SyS-
tem of, 852
Card to married people, 11:33. 1157
Cecrops's Greek code for rºgulating
marriage, 852
Celibacy, advocated by St. Paul, 889
attempt to enforce it in Rome, 890
Central America, marriage customs in,
Cº. Rev. Isaac, on the peculiar
989
Cervix-uteri, Clipping of, to restrict pa-
rentage, 1087
Ceylon, marriage in, 939, 940
Chastity required by Greeks of their
native women, 1030
Childless women among Eskimos, 968
Child-marking, phenomena of, clearly
explained, 1168–1177
Children, of the Oneida Community, 897
#ºld be taught to know themselves,
101
Chili, marriage laws of, 989
inese marriage, a, described and
illustrated, 924, 925
Chips, historical, 909-920
Chorion, Outer membrane of Ovum, 839
Cicero on sexual intercourse, 912
Circassian girls sold to Turks. 962
Citizens, some Of Our new American,
illustrated, 843
Cleanliness, Japanese Women, 920
Clergy, degradation of the, in the four-
teenth Century, 891
Clitheroe Case, conjugal rights in, 950
COemtio, a form of marriage among the
ROmans, 912
Colorado, progress of woman in, 851
COmbativeness, Organ of, use for, 823
Compatible marriage, directions for,
1062-1064, 1078
Complex marriage, demerits of, 1009
history of, 894 *
Complex marriage system, merits of,
1015, 1016
Concubinage, Constantine's attempt to
destroy system of, 889
Grecian, 859
Concubines in Japan, 925
Confarreatis, a form of marriage among
the Romans, 912
Congoes, marriage among the, 943
Conjugal infelicity, 1043
Conjugal prudence, 1136-1143
Connubial infelicity, 1043
Contraceptic, origin of the word, 1143
Contraceptics, their value in promoting
human evolution, 1143–1148
Conversation, freedom of, in France, 955
Courtesans of the Greeks had to be
foreigners, 1030
Courtesans in Japan, treatment Of, 849
in the Netherlands, treatment Of, 849
among ancient Greeks, 849
Government protection in Venice, 918
Courtship in Mexico, 986, 987
in Porto Rico, 983
Crime and mental derangements, inti-
mate relation between, 1089
Criminal ancestry, inheritance, 1089
Criminals’ brains, experiments, 1090
Cuba, legal prostitution in, 986
marriage laws of, 985
syphilis in, 986
ebilitated men and women, moral
or mental pursuits of, 824
Des Enfants Trouvez, Paris insti-
tute, illegitimate children, 956
Desire for offspring common to almost
all married people, 1102
Digamy versus monogamy, 1044
Divorce, 1095-1099
easier in Australia than England, 935
Grecian laws concerning, 861
rounds for, in England, 948, 949
in Albania, 966
in Austria, 961
in Canada, 972
in China, 923
in Cuba, 985, 986
in France, 955
in Russia, 959
in Switzerland, 958
in Turkey, 966
in the United States, 977-980
not recognized in ancient Rome, 882
Poet Milton on, 1109
uniform laws for all the States, 1097
Dixon, W. Hepworth, on Mormons, 867
Dot, the, of the Frenchwoman, 954-957
dmunds–Tucker Act abolishing Mor.
E monism, 87
Egyptian º system, 854
Egyptian women, life of, 922
Electricity, chemical, 831
frictional, 833,
frictional development of, 833
individual, in social life, 826-831
individual, power of, manifested in the
successful libertine, 830
Elopements, the philosophy of, 1111-1116
Encephalic temperament, 1060, 1062
illustrated, 1059
England, monogamic marriage in, 948
English women, liberty of, 951
Eskimos, marriage customs of, 967
Espousals among the Romans, 910
Essays for married people, 1121-1157
parentage, 1087
Feredjah, a Turkish Outer dress or
garment, 96
Fidelity, of husbands to their wives,
Aristotle On, 1031
little known among married people in
Spain; 952
mutual, of monogamic marriage, 1029
Filipinos, Social intercourse among, 932
Finland, marriage customs of, 960
Finnish woman, a, illustrated, 960
Food for pregnant women, 1155, 1156
Formosa, Island of, marriage in, 938
France, marriage and divorce in, 953
Free love, 1032
in Abyssinia, 941
Frictional electricity, 833
Friendship marriages, 1101
Fu-hi, marriage system of, 852
Fº tube, ligation of, to restrict
I22O
INDEX TO PARTS III. AND IV.
German marriage law of 1900 Op-
posed by German women, 958
Germany, various marriage customs,857
Gestation, process of, 839
Gide, Paul, On the treatment of women
by ancient nations, 847
Gilmore's Band at the Mormon Taber-
macle, 879
Gold kidnaps fashionable women, 1106
Golden rule of Jesus, 1028
Grecian concubinage, 859
Greece, ancient treatment of wives, 861
Greece, marriage customs of, 959
Greeks, chastity required of women, 1030
Greenland, marriage customs in, 969
Hº individual, trampled out,
G": entertainers in Japan, 929
Harem, the Turkish, 962, 963
Hawaii, marriage customs of, 980
Hebraic polygamy, 856
Hindostan, marriage in, 940
Historical chips, 909-920
Holmes, Dr. Oliver Wendell, On sexual
isolation, 824
Horseshoe magnet, 1170
Humanity, the importance of sterilizing
bad Strains Of, 1
Husband and wife, sleeping, apart, 1127
Husbands, buying, on the instalment
plan, 974
Hypnotizer, the power of the, over an
audience, 827
mmigration laws of the U.S., 1083, 1084
Immorality of the tenth century in
Europe, 892
Incompatible natures, 999
India, Southern, marriage in, 940
Individual electricity, 826-831
Infant mortality, percentage of, 1086
Infanticide in Hawaii, 980
Infidelity among Orientals, 914
Inhabitiveness, organ of, 1051
Intellectual faculties, use Of, 1052
Intercourse of the sexes, the regulation
of, 1019 º
Intermarriage of relatives, 1117-1120
Intrigue in Spanish married life, 952
Ireland, marriage laws of, 952
Italy, marriage laws of, 959
new social changes in, 926
prostitution in, 928
treatment of courtesans in, 849
Japanese women, their chief duties, 927
Java, Island of, marriage in the, 939
Jealousy, 1134-1136
jenny june's visit to the Oneida Com-
munity, and her opinion of it, 1014
Jerome, St., on the marriage laws, 888
Jo-ro, or Japanese prostitute, 929
Juke family, statistics of crimes, 1094
Jº marriage customs of, 925
affirs, marriage customs of the, 947
Kaiulani, Princess of Hawaii, por-
trait of, 980
Kissing in France, 955 .
Koreki, a people of Russia, laws regard-
ing women, 919
marriages, 917
Landor, Walter Savage, on the pe-
culiar marriage customs of Thi-
bet, 942
Law of love, 1047
Lecky, William Hartpole, on the im-
morality of the tenth century, 892
Lee, Ann, founder of the Shakers, 889
Lee, Mrs. Frances S., the first Speaker
Of any House, 851
Lee, Henry C., sacerdotal celibacy, 890
Libertine, the conduct of a, 1031, 1032
Licensed parentage, 1082
Love, law of, 1047
platonic, 1045
Lymphatic temperament, ill'd, 1058
agnetic hammer, 1171
Magnetic Ointment, a boon to
pregnant women, 1154
Magnetism, of men, women's need, 819
of women, need of, by men, 819
Magnetized cane dance, ill'd, 828, 829
Male continence in Oneida Community,
| “... aemonians, laws against deferred
80
Magºreans of procreation, worship of,
Man's longing for Ownership, 1009
Marriage, adaptation in, 1045-1080
a mutual bond, 1029
abolition . Of, advocated by some
Western journals, 1036
#ons Amazula Tribes of the Bantu,
among the ancient Mexicans, 919
among the Brahmins, 917
among the Chinese, 922, 923
among the Congoes, 943
among the Kaffirs, 947
among the Northern Barbarians, 886
among the South Africans, 945, 946
an ideal never realized, 1100
avoided by ancient Romans, 912
complex, history of, 894
compulsory, 995
defect in present system of, 1043
did not exist in the early stages of
human Society, 847
from the standpoint of Christians, 993
history of, 852
how to contract a happy, 1053
importance of, among Jews, 917
in Abyssinia, 941
in ancient Greece, 884
in ancient Peru, 918
in ancient Rome, 883
in ancient Scandinavia, 893
in Asiatic Russia, 936
in Austria-Hungary, 961
in barbarism and civilization, 921-991
in the Barbary States, 941
in Brazil, 990
in Egypt, 921, 922
in France, 953
in Greece, 959
in Hindostan, 940
in Jtaly, 959
in Java, 939
in the New World, 966, 991
in Norway, 961
in the Old World, 921-966
**--> •
I 2.2 I
INDEX TO PARTS III. AND IV.
Marriage, early, 1179-1187
prepare the young for early, 1191-1195
in England, 950
in Brazil, 1093
in Canada, 972; in China, 923
in British North America, 970
in Central America, 989
in Chili, 989; in Cuba, 985
in Finland, 969
in Germany, 950; in Greenland,969
in Hawaii, 980, in Formosa, 938
in Japan, 925, in Mexico, 986, 987
in the Philippines, 931
in Porto Rico, 982–984
in Portugal, 958; in Persia, 963
in Russia, 959; in Southern India, 940
in South America, 989
in Spain, 917, 952; in Sweden, 961
in Thibet, 942; in Venice, 959
of Alaskan Eskimos, 969
of Algonquin Indians, 971
Of the Araucanians, 990
of Australian tribes, 933
of Ireland,952; of New South Wales, 934
of Switzerland, 958; in Australia, 935
Of the Calmuck Tartars, 936
of the Hebrews, 856
of North American Indians, 970
of Northern Eskimos, 967
Of the Romans, 882
restricted, 1081–1099; science of, 1062
Suggestions for improvement Of, 1041
theory of divine origin dispelled, 1042
three kinds admitted by Romans, 912
unknown among ancient, African
tribes, 847
with deceased wife's sister, 950
Marriage fees, high, a hindrance, 1082
Marriage and procreation, national bu-
reau to regulate, wanted, 1021
Marriage ceremony among Chinese, 923
Marriage customs in Albania, 966
Marriage of American girls to titled
foreigners, 974
“Marriage of convenience,” 973, 974
Marriage rites, origin of, 1046
Marriage System, means for improving
the present, 1044
Marriage systems, defects in, 992
the remedy for defects in, 1012-1023
rise and progress of the principal, 853
Marriage tie, growing laxity of, 1036
Marriage Vow, of what it consists, 1046
Marriageable age, what is a, 1080-1085
Marriageable girls, sale of, among the
Assyrians, 916
Married people, card to, 1156, 1157
essays for, 1121-1157
liability to outgrow compatibility by
constitutional changes, 1076
Marriages, children’s, 1183–1187
Marriages, physiologically incompati-
ble, 1075 t
friendship, 1101; idolatrous, 999
mental, 1101, 1102
of convenience in French circles, 957
unhappy marriage of, 1109, 1110
history of, 880-894
physical, 1103-1104, platonic, 1045
unhappy, disastrous effects of, 1044
Marrying to please relatives, 1108
Matrimonial agencies for foreigners, 974
Matrimonial life-preservers, 1049
Matrimony influenced by wealth, 1106
Mekaké, concubinage in Japan, 926, 927
Menes, first king Of .# civil code of,
for government of the sexes, 852
Mental organization, illustrated, 1051
Mental marriages, 1101-1102
Men and women, 1098
Mestizo girl, a, illustrated, 989
Mexicans, marriage among ancient, 919
Milton, on divorçe, 1109-1185
Misfits, wretched, 1104-1110 *
Mitylene, marriage Customs in, 819
Modern occupation for college girls, 1188
Mohammed, sketch Of, 863
Mohammedan polygamy, 862 .
Mohammedans can have four wives, 963
Monogamic family, the, illustrated, 881
Monogamic marriage, reforms in, 1178
Monogamy, 880, 948, 961, 972, 998, 1018
demerits of, 998-1001; evils of, 998-1000
required of bishops and elders of the
Church, 1018
Moral arguments for early marriages,
Morals, state of, in America Compara-
tively pure, 1043
Mormon Church, doctrine of, 869
Mormon household, a, illustrated, 871
Mormon polygamy, history of, 866-880
Mormons, choosing a partner, 870
exempt from venereal diseases, 1026
non-existence of prostitution, 991
Moses, rules of, for the sexes, 852
Motherly instinct necessary to raise
healthy and intelligent children, 1085
Mothers, prolific and overburdened, 1085
“Mysteries of Nature concerning the
Generation of Man and Voluntary
Choice of the Sex of Progeny,” 1163
ew Hedonism, Grant Allen on, 1195
New WOman, prospects of, 1.191
in the Census Statistics, 1189
Non-vital temperaments, 1059
North American Indians, marriage, 970
Norway, marriage laws of, 961
Nose, profiles of the, illustrated, 1056
Noyes, Rev. John Humphrey, founder
of the Oneida Community, 903
death of, 907
religious views of his disciples, 1010
Noyes, Dr. T. R., Son of the founder of
the Oneida Community, 897
O” of women, diversity of,
Odin, ancient German marriage
laws of, 886
Offspring, common desire for, 1102
the youngest the best specimens, 1179
Old maids in France, 956
Oneida Community, basic principles, 901
dissolution of, 906; history of, 894, 895
Jenny June’s visit to, 1014
mansion of the, illustrated, 907
no indications of uterine disease
among its females, 1026
Ovarian pregnancy, development of
foetus in, 835
Ovaries, effect of loss of, 817
Work Of the, 816
I 2.2.2
INDEX TO PARTS III. AND IV.
arentage, licensed, 1082
restricted, 1082-1090
prepare for, 1195-1197
regulated by statute, 1183
Parental function, pleasure of, 1026
Parental interference with children's
marriages, 976
Parthian polygamy, 862
Passional love, 1053
Passions, natural and unnatural, 821-823
Reons of Mexico, description of, 988
Persia, choosing a wife in, 937
marriage customs of, 936-938
Shah of, selecting wives for, 937, 938
Persian lady, a, illustrated, 937
Persian, Mohammedan polygamy, 862
Peru, marriage customs in, 918
Phallic worship, oldest religion, 812
Philippine Islands, aborigines of, 931
property laws of married persons, 93
Social customs in the, 929, 930
Philoprogenitiveness, organ of, 1051
proper use and exercise of, 823
Philosophy of child-marking, 1164-1177
Physical adaptation, necessity of, in
marriage, 1046 |Organs, 814
Physical development and the sexual
Physical marriages, 1103, 1104
Placenta, 839
Platonic attachments, ill effects of, 1178
Platonic love, origin of, 1027
Platonic love and marriages, 1045
Pleasurable occupations, 1187, 1188
Poisons, antidotes for, 789-801
Polyandry and Bºon, 848
Polyandry in Thibet, 942
Polygamic family, the, illustrated, 856
Polygamic marriages, toleration of, 1022
among the Congoes, 943; Brazilian, 865
characteristic to Asia, 915
demerits of, 996, 998
effects On Our national Welfare, 1018
established in 1838, at Nauvoo, Ill.,866
Hebraic, 856; history of, 853-865
in Central and South America, 865
in China, 923; in Judea, 859
in the New World, 865; in Thibet, 942
Mormon history of, 886-890
not §§ by New Testament, 1018
unchanged throughout the East, 915
Poor among the Mormons, 879
Population, the tendency of dense, 1016
Porto Rico, marriage customs in, 982–984
Portugal, marriage customs in, 958
Powell, Dr. William Byrd, on the differ-
ent temperaments of mankind, 1056
life-work of, 1080
Pregnancy, ovarian, 835
signs and discomforts of, 1153-1155
Pregnant women, food for, 1155, 1156
Prepare the young for early marriage,
1191-1195 © -
Procreative organs, ancient worship,811
Propagation of life, law of, 1194
Prostitutes in France, life Of, 956
Prostitution and polyandry, 848
in Athens, 860; in Australia, 933, 934
in Japan, 928; in Cuba, 986
no houses of, in Stockholm, 962
Prudence, conjugal, 1136-1143
Psychologist, power greater than mes-
merizer, 827
Puberty, age of, 815
appointed by Nature for marriage, 1180
Puritan rigidity among the Romans, 911
eciprocity in sexual relation, 1046
Reforms necessary under the re
straints of marriage, 1022
Relatives, intermarriage of 1117-1120
Reproduction, artificial methods of, 1191
Reproduction, ignorance concerning,666
the physiology of, 834-838
Restricted marriage and parentage,
1081–1099
Romans, espousals among the, 910
marriage customs of the, 882
Rome, the real causes of her fall, 842
treatment of woman in early days, 844
Russian custom of crowning the bride
with wormwood, 913
alt Lake City, Utah, a glimpse of, 878
Mormon Church established at,867
Sanguine temperament and its
compounds, 1054-1070
Scandinavia, marriage in ancient, 893
Scantinian law against unnatural love
enforced by Domitian, 887
"Secret indulgences deleterious, 826
Secretary of §: 1142
Seduction, betrayal of confidence, 1031
Seminal secretion, analysis of, 816
Sex, determination of, 1158-1163
Professor Schenk's theory, 1159–1161
Sexes, social intercourse between, 820
Sexual connection by some extremists
considered the original sin, 1027
Sexual customs of Australian tribes, 933
Sexual excesses of newly married, 1179
Sexual immorality, 1024-1034
the cure of, 1028-1033
Sexual indifference, 1148-1152
Sexual intercourse, philosophy of, 825
Sexual manners, training of children
in, 1186
Sexual moderation, 1130-1134
Sexual morality, true, 1031
Sexual organs, how made instruments
Of conjugal association, 825–834
the, how made instrumental in per-
petuating the race, 834-837
the cause of their disgrace, 810
plain talk about the, 807-851
their influence on Civilization, 846
their influence On health, 814-818
On the Social position of women, 840
Shakers, celibacy advocated by, 889
Silver rule of Confucius, 1028
Sixt, Dr. P. F., on control of sex, 1163
§ * husband and wife, 1127
Smith, J., the founder of Mormonism,866
Snake-charming, anecdote of, 1113
Social evil in Japan, regulation of, 929
Social questions, importance of, 1037
Sociology, Secretary of, necessary at
seat of government, 1021, 1086, 1090
South Africa, marriage customs, 945,946
South America, marriage customs, 989
South Australia, enfranchisement of
Women in, 934
Southern India, marriage Customs, 940
Spain, marriage customs of, 952
Spanish etiquette to Women, 953
INDEX TO PARTS III. AND IV.
I 2.23
Sparta, functions of women in, 914
Spaying female calves, 817
Spenelli, Professor, of Turin, his plan
to restrict parentage, 1087
Spermatozoon, illustrated, 836
Spiritual wives of the Mormons, 870
Statutory law for childbearing age, 1186
marriageable age in, 1181
Sterilizing weaklings and criminals, 1087
Stirpicultural regulations necessary to
reduce infant mortality, 1086
Stirpicultural youths, portraits of, 898
Stockholm, the most licentious city, 961
Sulu Islands, polygamy in, 932
Sulu, Sultan of, our treaty with, as to
polygamy, 876.
Sunday Societies in Switzerland, influ-
ence Of, On WOmen, 958
Surgical sterilization, 1092
Sweden, marriage laws of, 961
Swedes, as immigrants to the U. S., 962
Switzerland, marriage jaws of 958
consent of magistrates needed, 1093
marriageable age in, 1081
Syphilis, in Cuba, 986
agal marriage customs, 930
Tarrying, a custom of courtship
Once Common in Wales, Ger-
* many, and America, 920
Tartars, marriage among the, 918
Tasmania, WOman enfranchisement, 934
Temperament, the bilious, 1057
the encephalic, 1059
the lymphatic, 1058; the non-vital, 1039
Temperamental adaptation, 1056
the importance of, 1072
Temperaments, the mixture of two, 1064
the mixture of three, 1067-1069
the mixture of four, 1069-1071
the vital, 1056
Temperaments, study of, 1178
Thibet, marriage in, 942
Thracians, Sale of women for wives, 919
Todas, a people of Southern Hindostan,
destruction of female children, 941
Trading wives, 975
Turkey, marriageable age in, 1181
marriage contracts in, 962
Turkish bath, an alluring dissipation,964
Turkish ladies, liberty of, 963
social Customs of, 965
Tyrrheni, customin regard to women,847
mbilical cord, the, 839
Unhappy marriage,
º effects Of, 1044
United States and Territories, marriage
disastrous
laws of, 973
Unmarried, card to the, 1197
Usus, marriage among the Romans, 912
Utah, polygamy in, 866
as deferens, resection of, to restrict
parentage, 1087
, Vedahs, savages in Ceylon, 940
Veils, largely used by Turkish ladies, 963
Venice, government protection of cour-
tesans in, 918; married life in, 959
Vienna, illegitimate births in, 961
Violation of sexual morality, awful
evils of, 1194
Virgins, parable of the, explained, 910
Virtue, celibacy incompatible with, 1183
Vital temperaments, the, 1056
Vital tenacity in ; dependent
on parents' physical adaptation, 1074
Witellus, 835
allingford Community, a branch
W of the Oneida Community, 894
Wealth, result of civilization, 1061
the trade of acquiring, 1107
Wedding-cake, custom of breaking
Over the bride, origin of, 910, 911
Whitman, Walt, on the desire of man
to Own things, 1009
Widows, eligibility of, to marriage, 1184
position of, under monogamy, 1000
Wife, advice to the reluctant, 1049
the equal partner, 1123-1127
Wilcox, Ella. Wheeler, advice of, to
parents regarding teaching the phy-
sical and sexual functions of their
children, 1191, 1192
Willow Place Community, a branch of
the Oneida Community, 894
Wives, mutual exchange of, curious
case, 1102; spiritual,870 -
Woman, adoration of, by the ancient
Germans and Scandinavians, 845
Aristotle on the powerlessness of, 841
end of the nineteenth century, 851
her position in industrial pursuits, 1189
in Ceylon, 939
in the fourth century, 844
in Japan, the chief duties of, 927
legal status of, in the Philippines, 930
in the legislature, 1.188
little esteemed in France, 953, 954
moral and Supernatural power of, be-
lieved in by ancient Germans, 886
physical disabilities of, 846
progress of, in Colorado, 851
under the Roman republic, 883
suffrage first introduced on the Amer-
ican Continent by the Mormons, 873
under Greek civilization, 860
under the Roman Empire, 841
Woman’s varied avocations, 1187-1191
Women, American, popular delusion
respecting, 845 [South Australia. 934
enfranchisement of, in Tasmania and
more numerous than men, 1016, 1017
in the Oneida Community, 903-905
bachelor women in the U. S., 1190
rights of, in early history, 848
Scarce in ancient Athens, 859
Worrying and fretting produce victims
to disease, 1.188
Wretched misfits, 1104-1110
ashmak, veils used by Turkish la-
dies when driving, 964, 965
Yoshi-waras, Or brothel houses,
in Japan, 929
Young, Brigham, joins Smith in the
Mormon church, 866; portrait of, 869
Youthful marriages, requisites for, 1183
munities for sexes among, 918
Zulu doctor, a, illustrated, 945
Zulus, marriage customs of the, 944, 945
Z”: COSSacks, separate com-
A FEW LAST RE MARKS
ON
MEDICAL SPECIALISTS-THEIR F UNCTIONS AND METHODS.
The following excerpt from the Philadelphia Polyclinic is given as
evidence of growing rationalism in old-school circles on the subject of
specialism in modern medical practice. The necessity of some means
of advertising as an accompaniment of its development is acknowl-
edged, and the propriety of direct or straightforward methods, in place
of prevalent roundabout ways, is pretty distinctly intimated. Maybe
some day we will awake to find that in this, as well as other progres-
sive ideas, we have been simply leading the procession and setting the
style, when some thought we were pursuing an erratic or irregular
COUl]'SG :
“The increase of specialism can only go on as the specialist is able
to draw on a larger number of people for his support, and to do this he
must in some way acquaint that larger number with himself and his
work. Extending this acquaintance is the legitimate function of
advertising. Specialism and advertising of some sort necessarily go
together. This connection is neither recent nor local, nor temporary.
When the doctor gave up his farming or storekeeping, he put out a
sign and got a degree, setting forth what sort of work he expected to
do, and assumed a professional demeanor, all calculated to extend in
the community the knowledge of what service he was prepared to
render. And with large numbers of people to be reached, and new
means at hand by which to inform them of his existence, no ‘conserva-
tism ' on the part of those who fail to recognize the continuous forward
flow of events will prevent the adoption of new methods of advertising.
“By the later specialists, teaching and hospital positions have been
eagerly sought for their supposed advertising value, and the article in
the medical journal has become a part of the routine task of the aspir-
ant in this direction, until the profession and the Community are both
suffering from the multiplicity of medical Schools and hospitals, and
legitimate medical literature is drowned in the torrent of medical writ-
ing. And still the professors and holders of official positions are cer-
tifying nostrums and ‘mineral waters,’ being interviewed by the
ubiquitous reporter, and in every way struggling to have their names
floated to a still larger circle of possible patients.
“There can be no question but that specialization, in So far as it is
normal, is progress; that the community is better served, more cheaply
and satisfactorily served, by legitimate specialists than by jacks-of-all-
trades. Specialism is bound to extend, and for the evils its attempts at
advertising now inflict, no more legitimate remedy will be found than
proper and efficient means of accomplishing this necessary function,
I 224
MEDICAL SPECIALISTS. I 2.25
When Dr. Smith can otherwise let the community know that he is pre
pared and desires to practise ophthalmic surgery, his desire for a pro.
fessorship or a hospital service, irrespective of his aptitude for teaching
or his interest in studying hospital cases, will be greatly moderated ;
the true teacher and clinical student will have a correspondingly better
chance, and mushroom medical schools and new hospitals will be less
of a burden in the land.”
The specialist is confronted with another prejudice existing to
some extent in the public mind and which is professedly, though We
think not sincerely, entertained by the average physician. It is that a
specialist living, say in the city of New York, cannot successfully
attend to some case of chronic disease in Chicago, San Francisco, or
Australia. It will be conceded instantly that in all cases of acute dis-
ease a physician must be close at hand. T In five minutes' time the
symptoms may change in such a way as to require immediate attention.
But this is not true of chronic diseases. There are many having
chronic diseases who will even assume to treat themselves by resorting
to some domestic remedies, or by going to the drug-store and purchas-
ing some proprietary nostrum. With no knowledge of medicine what-
ever, they guess at the nature of the complications affecting them, and
then guess again as to the remedy which would probably be the best
suited to their complaints. It need not be said that this is tampering
with one's self. A person is quite at liberty to pursue this haphazard
course if he chooses to do so, but it is perfectly proper to pronounce
such a course quite imprudent, to say the least manifestly indiscreet.
But when such a person avails himself of the wonderful facilities of
our civilization, the quick mails and express, it is clearly the very
thing to do, for a person having some disease which has resisted home
skill to apply to a noted specialist who has mainly acquired his celeb-
rity and good reputation through his medical success. With a practice
reaching out from his office to all the States and Territories, he can
hardly fail to acquire an experience which will enable him to perform
what many will regard as miracles. A person having a chronic disease
of a difficult character is infinitely better off in the hands of a noted
Specialist one hundred or one thousand miles away, than he can be
under the supervision of one whose time and professional skill is mostly
employed in the treatment of a class of ills as little like those of a
chronic character as a mule is like a horse or a goat is like a jackass.
We therefore say that an invalid who has been suffering for months
and perhaps for years with a supposed incurable malady is fully justi-
fied, in the light of reason and common sense, in opening communica-
tion with one having a wide range of experience in the treatment of
such ills.
E. B. FOOTE, M.D.
1226 ADWERTISEMENTS.
Dr. E. B. FOOTE and His Assistants
May be Consulted daily, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
(excepting Sundays),
In the English or German Languages,
at their office,
120 LEXINGTON AVENUE, Cor. of EAST 28th STREET,
NEW YORK CITY.
For convenience and permanence of location, Dr. FootB purchased, in 1867
the property above mentioned, and here his professional work has been carried
on for over thirty years. It is within one short block of the Third or Fourth Avenue
surface railroads, and a station of the Third Avenue elevated road. The Lexing-
ton Avenue trolley-cars run by the door—a branch of the Broadway route. It is not
far from the Grand Central Depot, at Forty-Second Street and Fourth Avenue, and
by the above named car-lines and transfers it is easily reached from the routes of
travel which land their passengers in New York by ferry. Dr. Foot'E's office is but
a few steps from Madison Square Garden.
In answer to numerous inquiries, Dr. Foot'E takes this opportunity to in-
form correspondents that he cannot accommodate patients with board. There
are, however, hotels and boarding-houses within a convenient distance, fashion-
able and expensive, and unfashionable and comparatively cheap, where invalids
can obtain accommodations according to their means.
IN THE TREATMENT OF CHRONIC DISEASES,
Dr. Foot'E makes use of all the remedial agencies recommended in this work.
Each disease is attended according to its individual peculiarities, and such treat-
ment prescribed as, in all human probabilities, will most likely insure success.
Invalids preferring to consult by letter are referred to page 761, where a list of
questions will be found, answers to which Will enable the author, by a careful
analysis of symptoms, to form a correct opinion of the nature and curability of the
CàS6.
ALL CONSULTATIONS,
In person, or by letter, in the English or , German languages, are free, with
the exception of those relating to matters referred to on pages 1080 and 1197. All
consultations, either personally or by letter, are strictly confidential. This rule
has been so faithfully observed by the author in his long and extensive practice,
that no person who has ever consulted him can complain of its infraction in a
single instance.
All letters are promptly answered when there is any reply called for. This is
an invariable rule; consequently anyone who addresses the author without
receiving within, reasonable time an agknowledgment, may rest assured that
either the letter of the correspondent or the reply thereto has miscarried,
RESIDENTS OF FOREIGN COUNTRIES,
England, France, Germany, and even Japan, China, Australia and South Africa,
where this book has already found a wide circulation and made hundreds of
friends, have availed themselves of the Offer of free consultation by mail, and
others are hereby invited to consider themselves welcome to seek advice in the
same manner. There are many forms of chronic disease which can be successfully
treated afar off, as abundant letters of evidence in hand attest. -
ADVERTISEMENTS. - I227
SANTARY ARITIES, INSTRUMENTS, MEDICINES, Eið.
SUPPLIED B IL OR EXPRESS FROM
Dr. Foote's “Sanitary Bureau,” 129 F. 28th St., M. Y.
[Make money orders, etc., payable to DR. H. T. FootB, Manager.]
(A more complete descriptive list or catalogue sent free.)
- NER, or Self Sight Restorer, for the restoration of sight impaired
Exº page 734.] Sent by mail, postage paid, on receipt of $2. Agents
Wanted.
IC CROUP TIPPET.-Warranted to prevent croup. A valuable, sim:
Aº perfectly comfortable. nursery article, which has stood the test of
forty years' trial, given perfect satisfaction and, insured Welcome, relief in thou-
sånäs of families. Sent by mail for $2. (A pamphlet of advice and prescriptions
for 10 Gts.)
AMILY SYRINGES.—A plain, compression bulb, Family Syringe, With three
rubber pipes, by mail for $1.
sHE ARTERIAL ACTION, Continuous Flow, all rubber Syringe (pipes of hard
rubber); a first-class article, for $2.00, by mail. -
OUNTAIN SYRINGES, with three hard rubber pipes, two-quart size for $1.50,
and four-quart size for $2.50; postage 25 cents extra.
ANITARY SYRINGES, for married women, only, are great for thorough cleans-
S ing and use of medicinal washes Without Waste; by express Only, for $2.00.
LECTRO-THERAPEUTIC MACHINES—the best medical batteries; less expen-
sive and better than “magnetic " or “electrig.” belts, bands, medals, gar-
ments, etc., most of which are useless clap-trap. Elegant, practical, and handy
machines; $8, $12.
ICK's PATENT AIR-INFLATED RUBBER TRUSS PADS.—One cure pad and
one relief pad—can be adjusted to any truss. Price $3.00 each, or the pair for
$5, by mail, prepaid. The “cure '' is as sure cure as any “appliance". Offered at
ten times the cost, and the “relief '' pad is the most comfortable One that can be
worn in any Case.
Tºg SSES, SINGLE AND DOUBLE.—Single truss, fitted with two of Hick's pads,
$12; double truss, fitted with four pads, $15. When Ordering any truss send
measurement in inches around the body at the level of the hips. These are fine
goods, well finished, neatly covered and durable.
HIMOSIS INSTRUMENT.—For the cure of congenital or acquired Phimosis
[contracted foreskin] without circumcision, cutting, tearing, or pain. ... An
instrument which can be safely put in the hands of the patient himself to effect
his own cure, and one which cannot fail when intelligently applied according to
directions. Price, by express, $10.
PERMATORRHOEA RING.—An easily adjusted instrument to give the sleeper
timely warning in case of threatened involuntary loss. By mail, prepaid, $1.50.
CROTAL SUPPORTERS FOR GENTLEMEN.—A comfortable suspensory for
relaxed parts; absolutely indispensable in VARICOCELE, invaluable in all
cases of swelling or disease of the testicles, and always an aid in the gure of Sper-
matorrhoea. Simple suspensory for support, 75 cents, by mail, prepaid. One-string
compression Supporter, the improved supporter, $1.50. Three-string bandage, for
bad cases of varicocele, hydrocele, and orchitis [inflamed testicle], $3. Each
style made in three sizes ; small, medium, and large. [Read Chapter VIII. (Dis-
eases of Men) of this book.]
ILE COMPRESSOR.—For external [protruding] piles and falling of the rectum;
a Source of , great comfort to many sufferers. [See page 449.] By mail,
reduced from $10 to $5. In ordering send waist measure to insure right size.
HOULDER BRACES AND . ABT)OMINAL SUPPORTERS.–For both sexes,
When Ordering asshoulder-brace send measurement around chest, under arms,
and around Waist; also from shoulder blade to waist. Price, by mail, prepaid,
$2; steel back brace, to order, $5. When ordering abdominal supporter send
waist measurement and also largest abdominal girth. Price, $5 by mail.
MPREGNATING SYRINGE.-An instrument for facilitating conception ſh cases
of barrenness due to obstruction in the neck of the womb, Price, with full
directions, $5 by imail.
I 228 ADWERTISEMENTS.
Dr. Foote's Standard Specialties
Supplied by mail or express from
Dr. Foote's Sanitary Bureau, 129 East 28th St., New York.
(A More Complete Illustrated Circular sent free.)
No. 0, Pelvic Pine Cones,
Direct local treatment for piles and constipation. -
A “Wonderful relief "in all rectal diseases, anal fissure, etc.
Also for prostatic, bladder, and deep urethral irritations.
e e Works well with No. 10 in all “female complaints.”
Price by mail, 50 cents per box; twelve boxes for $5.00.
No. 1, Magnetic Ointment,
Cures sprains, bruises, wounds, sore throat, stiff neck,
Backache, Sore jº. colic, cramps, piles, corns,
Relieves rheumatism, salt rheum, boils, felons,
Promotes easy labor. A boon to mothers.
A valuable remedy for all infants' ills.
Price by mail, sample, 25 cts. ; 2 ozs., 50 cts. ; 4 ozs., $1. By express only, at
purchaser's expense, 16 ozs., $3.
No. 2, Magnetic Catarrh Balm,
Cures nasal catarrh, sore eyes and ears, chapped º;
Disinfects discharges, softens scabs, allays itching,
Soothes irritable, inflamed mucous membranes.
Price, 50 cts. per jar, by mail.
No. 3, Magnetic Anti-Bilious Tablets, Entirely vº.
Cure biliousness, sick headaches, chronic constipation,
Liver torpor, sallowness, nausea, hemorrhoids, flatulence.
°romote digestion, assimilation, pure blood.
Stimulate elimination, cleanse entire system.
Price 25 cts. by mail; large box, $1.
No. 4, Tonic and Ague Tablets, sanitary ºr barº
Cure chills and fever, dumb ague, all malaria.
Loss of appetite, bloodlessness, weakness, blues.
Price by mail, 50 cts. per box of 90 tablets—90 doses.
No. 8, Anti-Rheumatic Tablets, A FINE RIDNEY TONIC,
Cure rheumatism, gout, sciatica, lumbago and all
Headaches, heart, lung and skin diseases caused by
uric acid in the blood; and Bright's disease.
Price by mail, 50 cts. per box of 60 tablets.
No. 10, Soluble Sanitary Tampons, strengºftheaſing
Self-cure, home treatment for DISEASES OF WOMEN.
“Direct medication " for misplacements, inflammation.
Menstrual pains and irregularities, apathy, Sterility,
Leucorrhoea, ulceration—a mild medicament.
One box of tampons sufficient for one month, by mail, $1. Six boxes, $5.00.
No. 11, Magnetic Cramp Tablets, A soothing ºn.
Cure colic, dyspeptic headaches, pains and Cramps,
“Bówel complaints,” scant and painful “periods.”
A great boon to women and children.
Price by mail, 50 cts. per box of 90 tablets.
No. 12, Magnetic Cough Tablets, **śorari.
Cure spasmodic coughs and nervous headaches,
Neuralgia, nervous irritability, hysteria, and sleeplessness,
Price by mail, 50 cts. per box of 90 tablets.
ADVERTISEMENTS.
I229
100 Pointers for Self-Treatment.
Abscesses, boils; NOS. 1, 3, 4, 8.
Acidity of stomach; Nos. 3, 11.
Acne (pimples); NOS. 1, 2, 3, 4.
Ague; Nos. 3, 4, 8,
Amenorrhoea (suppressed or Scanty pe—
riods); Nos. 4, 10, 11.
Asthma; Nos. 1, 4, 8, 12.
IBad breath; Nos. 3, 4, 8.
Baldness, dandruff; No. 1, pomade.
Biliary colics; Nos. 3, 4, 8, 11.
Biliousness (sallow skin, yellow tongue,
Constipation); NOS. 3, 4.
Bites of insects; Nos. 1, 2.
Blood disorders; NOS. 3, 4, 8.
Breasts inflamed ; No. 1.
Bright's disease (kidney); Nos. 4, 8.
Bronchitis; Nos. 1 (to chest), 12.
Bruises, burns, etc.; No. 1.
Catarrh, nose, eyes, ears; Nos. 2, 3, 4.
Chapping, chilblains, etc.; Nos. 1, 2.
Cholera, infantum; Nos. 1, 11.
Chorea (St. Vitus's Dance); Nos. 4, 12.
Colds, coryzas; Nos. 2, 3, 4, 8.
Confinement, to ease labor; No. 1.
Constipation; Nos. 1, 3, 4, 0.
Consumption (lungs); Nos. 1, 4, 12.
Convulsions; Nos. 1, 3, 12. Hot baths.
Coughs; Nos. 1 (to throat), 12.
Cramps; NOS. 1 (to bowels), 11.
Cystitis (inflamed bladder); Nos. 0, 1, 8,
and Slippery-elm tea.
Dengue, a malarial fever; Nos. 3, 4.
Diarrhoea in infants; Nos. 1, 11.
T)izziness (dyspeptic); Nos. 11, 3, 4.
Dropsy; Nos. 3, 8.
Dysentery; Nos. 1, 3, 11.
Dysmemorrhoea (painful periods); Nos.
0, 1, 10, 11. • º:
Dyspepsia; Nos. 3, 4, 11.
Eczema (Saltrheum); Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 8,
Epilepsy; Nos. 4, 8, 11, 12.
Eyelid inflammations; Nos. 1, 2.
Far sight, “old eyes;” No. 48.
Fevers; Nos. 4, 12.
Fissure of lip or amus; Nos. 1, 2, 3.
Flatulence; Nos. 3, 4, 11.
Gastralgia, gripes; Nos. 1, 11, 19.
Glands, enlarged; Nos. 1, 3, 4.
Gonorrhoea; Nos. 1, 3, 4, 8,
Gout; Nos. 1, 3, 4, 8.
Gravel, uric acid; Nos. 3, 4, 8.
Hay fever; Nos. 2, 4, 12.
Heartburn, water brash; No. 11.
Headaches; periodical, liver and Sto-
mach, over eyes; Nos. 3, 4, 11. In
rheumatic, gouty persons in back,
head, or neuralgic; Nos. 3, 4, 8, 12.
Malarial, periodic; Nos. 3, 4. Nervous
exhaustion; Nos. 4, 12. At menstrual
periods; Nos. 11, 12. On top of
head; womb disease; Nos. 4, 10, 11.
Hiccough; Nos. 11, 12.
Hoarseness; NOS. 1, 12.
Hysteria; Nos. 4, 12.
Incontinence of urine; N.O. 12.
Itching; Nos. 1, 2, 4, 8, 31, or 33.
Jaundice; NOS. 3, 4.
Ridney diseases; Nos. 1, 4, 8.
Kidney colic; Nos. 8, 11, 12.
Leucorrhoea (whites); Nos. 4, 10, 0.
Lice; Nos. 1, 33.
Liver torpor; Nos. 1, 3, 4.
Lumbago; NOS. 1, 3, 8.
Malaria, chills, fever; Nos. 3, 4.
Nervous exhaustion; No. 4.
Nervous irritability; Nos. 4, 12.
Night-sweats; Nos. 1, 3, 4, 12.
Nipples, sore, cracked ; Nos. 1, 2.
Pains, aches, Soreness; No. 1.
Piles (hemorrhoids); Nos. 0, 1, 2, 3, 15,
Pleurisy, pneumonia; Nos. 1, 4, 12.
Prolapsus of rectum; No. 1, and a salve
of tannin, alternating,
Prolapsus (falling womb); Nos. 4, 10.
Itingworm; Nos. 1, 32, 37.
Sciatica; Nos. 1, 3, 4, 8, 12.
Seat Worms; No. 1, at night, and salt
Water injections mornings.
Skin (scaly) diseases; Nos. 1, 3, 4, 8.
Sleeplessness; Nos. 11, 12.
Sore nipples, throat, sprains; No. 1.
Stiff neck, stiff, lame back; No. 1.
Stomach ache; Nos. 3, 11.
Sunburn, freckles, blotches; No. 1.
Sweating feet; Nos. 31, 37.
Tonsillitis; NOS. 1, to throat; 12.
Ulcers; dress with No. 1, and Wash with
Suds Of No. 33.
Varicocele; Nos. 16, 17, 18.
Vertigo, dizziness; Nos. 3, 4, 11.
WOmiting; NO. 11. No. 1 to Stomach.
White swelling; No. 1, and tight ban-
daging. -
Whooping cough; No. 12, and tea of
red Clover blossoms.
Wounds; No. 1, plastered on lint,
1230 ADWERTISEMENTS.
FACIAL BLEVIISHES.
Besides the disfigurements caused by various skin diseases, already sufficiently
described in Chapter X. there are several minor ones, hardly belonging among
diseases, and yet a source of much annoyance. Some are birth-marks, naevi,
Which can only be removed by operation. Some are scars, from accidents, which
can seldom be removed. , Some are like freckles, peculiar to the skin, and hardly
removable. But, many blemishes are mere superficial growths, warts or moles,
that can be readily and safely eaten off by mild caustics, persistently applied.
Liver spots” and other local stains, can be removed hy lotions that bleach the
skin without harm; but these and more general stains that constitute a “bad
complexion " are often indications that there is need of general treatment to
purify the blood and secretions.
... . Hair may grow where it ought not to—“superfluous”—and may fall out where
it is wanted—baldness. These complaints are often dependent upon general faults
of nutrition, deserving of attention, and yet the immediate and most practical
treatment for many cases is local. Recognizing the desire for self-improvement in
this direction as commendable, DR. Footº has sought the safest and most legiti-
mate methods of relief for these personal defects, and offers the following list of
Safe Sanitary Skin and Toilet Articles.
No. 31. Boracic Soap,
To improve complexion, relieve itching, and minor eruptions, red spots, Scales
and dandruff (a fine shampoo), 50 cents per cake, mailed. For every-day use.
No. 32. Ichthyol Soap.
For saltrheum, ringworm, un atural redness of nose or face, “skin worms,”
blackheads, pimples. 50 cents, by mail.
No. 33. Anti-Parasitic Soap,
. Banishes all superficial parasites, animal and vegetable; fleas, ringworm, itch
insects, lice, “crabs,” and is useful against unclean eruptions (Syphilitic), ulcers,
etc. 50 cents, by mail.
No. 34. Sanitary Caustic,
Will gradually eat away warts, moles, and Other excrescences without excit-
ing inflammation or leaving scars. 50 cents, by mail.
No. 35. Sanitary Emulsion,
A moth and freckle lotion, to clear the complexion, which it does by erasing
the color-patches, brown stains and deposits left by blood impurities. liver torpor,
etc. It thoroughly cleanses the pores, dissolves hardened secretions, and in Short
helps “off with the old and on with the new "cuticle. 50 cents, by mail.
No. 36. Depilatory—A True Hair Eradicator.
*Removes superfluous hair, without any caustic effect, thus avoiding the in-
jurious effect of the ordinary chemical depilatories. $1.00 per box, by mail.
N For threatened Eal cir ess, poor growth of hair, and all Scalp
0. A - irritations, we offer our regular Magnetic Ointment (No. 1) as the best
remedy, and can show the finest testimonials to its usefulness in this line. 25C.,
50c., $1.00; by mail; (see page 727). Order Dr. Foote's No. 1 Hair Pomade, 50 cents.
No. 37, Sanitary Powder,
Just the thing for sore feet, moist, itchy skin surfaces, Chafing, etº. Handy
for ladies' and babies' toilet; also for barbers, big and little shavers. Relieves ten-
der feet, moist arm-pits and many forms of skin disease needing, a drying, disin.
fecting, soothing and real Sanitary influence. Dispels disagreeable odors of the
body; substitutes better odor. 25 cents, by mail.
SANITARY BUREAU, 129 East 28th St., New York.
READ VVHAT
Physicians, Clergymen, Editors,
AND
PEOPLE GENERALLY
HAVE SAID OF PREVIOUS EDITIONS OF DR F00TE'S
Pláil Hille Talk and Medical Cºmm)|SEISE
Review of “Plain Home Talk,” by the eminent English Physician,
Essayist, and Reviewer, the late Professor Strauss.
NEAR the close of September, 1887, a cablegram announced the death of Dr. G.
L. M. Strauss, of London, England, a savant well known to scientists and people
of literary tastes. The following review of the field of medicine is from an unpub-
lished manuscript received a few years ago by Dr Foote, Sr. It was originally
written as a preface to the English edition of “Plain Home Talk, embracing
Medical Common Sense.” If, as was intended at that time, stereotyped plates had
been used in London for the special English edition, the manuscript might have
been so used; but, for English publishers, it was decided best to continue to fur-
nish the work in printed sheets, and the length of Professor Strauss's article ren-
dered it hardly suitable for the entire edition printed for use on this as on the
other side of the Atlantic. The whole article was printed in the November, 1887,
issue of Dr. Foote's Health Monthly, and that portion referring directly to this
book is such a valued endorsement of it, from an unquestionably competent and
high authority, that it is printed herewith as a suffix instead of where a preface
belongs.
Professor Strauss Wrote :
“In limine, I must crave to explain briefly how I came to volunteer to write
this Preface to the new English edition of Dr. Edward B. Foote’s ‘Plain Home
Talk.”
“ Up to some thirty months or so ago Dr. Foote was personally unknown to
me, nor had I read a line of his books, though I had, indeed, for years past, heard
much of him and his great success in his professed Common Sense treatment of an
almost all-embracing variety of human ailments. With a pretty long and not
altogether uneventful professional career of my own lying behind me, I continue
to take a warm interest in all genuine, bona fide progress of the most important of
all sciences—Physic.
“But I must confess that my experiences in that noble science, and with its
professors and leaders, rather tended to predispose me to look with skeptic
suspicion upon all claims and claimants to exceptional success in the treatment of
diseases.
I 23 I
I 232 - ADVERTISEMENTS.
& “I may conscientiously aver that I have, from an early period of my life,
striven hard and with honest endeavors to acquire and practise the beneficent
healing art. I have been privileged to sit at the feet of many a reputed Gamaliel
of the Æsculapian science. I studied Physic under the great leaders and teachers
of the most renowned schools and Systems of my time, in Germany as well as in
France—and in many a civil and in many a military hospital has the sad Opportun-
ity been most profusely offered me to see daily and hourly proof of the hopeless
helplessness of the vaunted ars medendi, and to find, to my most bitter grief and
deepest humiliation, that most of the fancied theoretic lore I had acquired turned
out in the crucible of attempted practical application like unto dry bones, sapless
chips, withered leaves, and burnt-out ash. -
* * * * I was led in the end to forsake the exercise of Physic as an un-
grateful occupation, and to take to pursuits less fraught with danger and incon-
Venience to my fellow-men. Now, with these notions of mine, it was but natural,
I think, that, as I have stated at the OutSet, I should feel rather disposed to look
With Sceptic suspicion upon all claims and claimants to exceptional success in the
treatment of diseases. I must once more observe here that at that time Dr. Foote
Was personally unknown to me, and that I had never seen a line of his medical
Writings.
“Now it so fell out that a young friend of mine, who had heard of Dr. Foote,
and who had unsuccessfully tried the ministrations of some of our most highly
reputed doctors in a delicate case, was induced at last to consult the famous New
York physician. I must confess it was not at my suggestion, at least, if not abso-
lutely against my advice, that he did so.
“He showed me the Doctor's letter in reply, and placed in my hands the reme-
dial agents sent over to him from America. Well, the letter and the remedies—
powerful agents compressed into the very smallest compass—staggered me consid-
erably. Although an unsuccessful practitioner, if you will, I knew quite enough of
my profession to see and understand that this American Doctor was a man who
thoroughly knew what he was about, and that his practice was really based upon
the great Sound principle of Common Sense. My young friend recovered speedily
and completely under Dr. Foote's treatment by correspondence. It is a homely old
Saying that the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Dr. Foote's success in this
Case impressed me rather favorably; it even led me to advise some other suffering
friends of mine to apply to the New York Doctor. The result was equally favor-
able in every case.
“I now for the first time procured a copy of Dr. Foote's ‘Plain Home Talk,”
and read it carefully through—indeed, over and over again—and the more and the
oftener I perused the Doctor’s ‘Plain Home Talk' upon Disease and its causes,
prevention, and cure, the stronger the impression grew on my mind that here I had
met at last with a true healer—an effective redresser of Nature’s wrongs. This
impression was confirmed and strengthened when I had the much-coveted pleas-
ure of meeting Dr. Foote face to face, and conversing with him exhaustively upon
the subject dearest to his heart, and engrossing all his thoughts, faculties, and
talents: the relief of human suffering. This was some years ago, upon the Occasion
of a visit which the Doctor made to the ‘old country.”
“It was, in a great measure at least, upon my advice that Dr. Foote decided
to publish a special edition of his ‘Plain Home Talk’ for the use and guidance of
Englishmen and Englishwomen—which I now beg leave to introduce to the fair
notice of the British Public, fully convinced that all who will read the book with a
candid mind and unbiased judgment, and with the honest intention of profiting to
the fullest extent by the sage lessons and sound advice upon the most important
questions of life and health, so intelligently and exhaustively conveyed in every
chapter of the work, will reap a rich reward. -
ADWERTISEMENTS. I 233
“‘Plain Home Talk" may fairly be described as a veritable ‘Enchiridion Medi-
cum; a Compendium of sound advice upon the preservation of health and the
proper treatment of every ill and ailment our poor human flesh is heir to, conveyed
in plain homely language that addresses itself with straightest directness to the
clear intelligence and understanding of all sensible men and Women.
“From the firstline of the Author's own Preface to the last passus in the book,
the work is replete with the very highest sense, Common Sense, to Wit, that most
desirable commodity which the Author truly—albeit somewhat bitterly perhaps-
declares to be held at a discount, especially in the profession of Physic, where
everything is proverbially ignored that has not the mustiness and dustiness of
antiquity and incomprehensibility to recommend it to the favorable notice of the
“learned.” The Author proceeds to characterize, rather felicitously I think, med-
ical works in general as heterogeneous compounds of vague ideas and equally
vague jaw-breaking words, in which the dead languages are largely employed to
treat of living subjects. Progress, says Dr. Foote, is fully admitted to be possible
and real in every branch of art and science and human lore—except in Medicine,
in which it would appear the beaten old track must be stolidly pursued, although
it has been over and over again, even superabundantly, proved and demonstrated
to the meanest capacity, that the beaten old track is altogether the Wrong road,
and leads to perdition. Ay, he who would strike out a new path for himself runs
the risk of being dubbed by staid medical orthodoxy an empiric—if not an impu-
dent and ignorant quack! However, the dread of this has clearly no terror for Dr.
Foote, who says he is content to bear the vaporing denunciation of antiquated,
unreasoning, and unreasonable Medical Bigotry. He cares not for personal renown
or popularity. His chief aspiration is to strive to promote to the best of his ability
and power the physical and moral well-being of the great human family. In his
‘Plain Home Talk’ he has endeavored to give to the world a Medical Work treat-
ing with equal thoroughness of first causes and ultimate effects, and of all inter-
mediate facts and circumstances bearing upon them, and Written in language
Strictly mundane, and comprehensible to all alike.
“Many of the theories which Dr. Foote advances in this work are certainly
new, and occasionally rather startling. I must candidly admit that some of his
notions do not run on all fours, as the Common saying has it, with my Own most
cherished ideas on the same matters, though I do not think I am fairly open to the
taunt of old fogyism. However, as the Doctor avouches that all his views and theo-
ries are founded upon close observation and careful experiment, and an extensive
successful medical practice, I say over again the proof of the pudding is in the
eating, and Objections based merely upon divergent theories should not be urged
in opposition.
“There is one passage in the Doctor's own Preface to his book in which I go
along with the author to the very fullest extent. He says, “It may sound boastful
in a medical man to parade his great success in the practice of his art before the
public,” but, he thinks “it is as fair and proper in him to do so as it is in a military
chieftain to flash his achievements on the field of battle, and the long array Of
orders he has received in reward for his skill and prowess, in the eyes of an admir-
ing and applauding people.” This remark is true to triteness. I go further—I
maintain that as by universal assent it is so much more honorable, and certainly
so much more beneficial to mankind, to fight fell death and combat feller disease,
and prevent loss of limb, and restore the mained and lamed to power and action,
than to slay and slash—the true healer has so much more reason to exhibit his
sigh-board, as dear Artemus used to have it ; nay, it seems to be his bounden duty to
his suffering fellow-men to do this, that they may know where to apply for relief.
“In conclusion I have to say a few words on a delicate subject which requires
delicate handling.
I234 ADVERTISEMENTS.
“Dr. Foote in his ‘Plain Home Talk" treats of all parts, organs, and functions
of the human body alike, and of the derangements to which they are liable—which
Surely, to any man of plain understanding and average intellect, would seem to be
the only Common Sense way in a professedly medical work on the preservation of
health, and the prevention and cure of diseases. - -
“There are two sets of organs and functions in the human body—the one
devoted more especially to the preservation of the individual, the other more ex-
clusively to the preservation of the species. Both sets are equally important, one
Would think, or if there be a difference of degree, it surely must be held to prepon-
deräte on the side of the latter. Yet, strange to say perhaps, a somewhat tyran-
nical custom, based upon spurious shamefacedness, or an overwrought sense of
innate modesty, has, to a great extent at least, placed all allusions to things more
Or less immediately connected with this latter set under a kind of social taboo.
I know this is treading on dangerous ground. I will therefore content myself here
with referring the reader of ‘Plain Home Talk to Dr. Foote's reasons, as stated in
his own preface, why he has made no marked distinction in his book between the
treatment severally of the two sets. I may perhaps be permitted, however, to
append a single remark : - ,
“Parents living in a city with dirty and dangerous back-slums in and about it,
Will, if endowed with an ordinary share of Common Sense, surely endeavor to the
best of their ability to instruct their children, who may at sometime or other have
to pass through such objectionable places, as to their nature, and to warn them
against the danger lurking in them. Yet will they, from mistaken delicacy and
shame, send forth their children on their way through the infinitely more danger-
ous back-slums of life, without instruction, without warning.”
A Physician of a Broad Education writes from Hambrook Court,
Jöngland.
“DEAR SIR : I was in Bristol a few days ago, and when at a bookstall I saw
your remarkable book entitled ‘Plain Home Talk,” I began to read, but Gould not
put down the book till it was read through. Although a hard student for fifty
years, I have met with much that was new, startling, and very instructive. If
every adult in the civilized world could read, understand, and would follow out
your views, in a few generations there would be a world of physical, intellectual,
and moral giants. Your work is priceless in value and caſculated to regenerate
Society.
“If there is anything you think I should like to have in tract-form, please send
it. I have lately retired from practice, and am ready for anything in advance.
Believe me, fraternally yours, S. EADoN, M.A., M.D., Ph.D., F.S.A., Grad. of Med.
of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen.”
A Physician's Honest Opinion.
PRILADELPHIA, PA.
“DEAR SIR : I have carefully read your book ‘Plain Home Talk and Medical
Common Sense,” and as I am myself a physician, and also have given a good deal
of attention to social science and kindred studies, I feel competent to judge of it.
I was strongly prejudiced against all publications of the kind I thought this to be.
But now I must, as an honest man, say to you that your book is an able, honest,
and truthful presentation of facts and theories, and calculated to do much good.
I thank you for it. You may use this letter, as I mean what I say and am not
ashamed to say it. * *
Your obedient servant, LOUIS SEYMOUR.”
1240 ADWERTISEMENTS.
T. H. E.
MURRAY HILL SERIES!

A N A MUSING STORY,
IN WIIICEI
DR. FootB, Author of Plain Home Talk, ETC.,
TEACHES ANATOMY PHYSIOLOGY, and HYGIENE,
A series for the young, the middle-aged, the old, and everybody!
Five Volumes, containing in aſſ over 1,200 pages and 400 Comic and
Scientific Iſlustrations ! !
This series bears the name of
“scieNCE IN STORY:
OR, º
Sammy Tubbs the Boy-Doctor, and Sponsie the Troublesome Monkey,"
CHILDREN ARE CARRIED AWAY WITH IT,
AND TEIE OLDER ONES ARE SPLITTING THEIR, SIDES
While reading it, and learning more than they ever before thought of respecting
the curious mechanism of their Own bodies
Buy it for yourself ; obtain it for your children ; for, while being amused and
entertained with the progress of Sammie and the laughable tricks of Sponsie, you
will be acquiring the most Valuable information ever presented about the con-
struction and marvellous workings of the Wonderful Organs which enable you to
live and move upon the earth as an animate and human being.
The work is mainly sold by agents, but it may be had directly of the Publishers
if no agents are selling it in your neighborhood.
RETA 1 PRICES.
Extra Cloth, inked back and sides, in set of five volumes, - $2.5o per vol.
Tinted paper, red lined, extra English cloth, bevel boards,
gold side and back, red edges, just the thing for Holi-
day and Birthday Presents, in set of five volumes, Ea 5.00 { {
The five vols. in one, on light paper, neatly bound, ONLY, Eº = $2.oo
AGENTS WANTED for the sale of the MURRAY HILL SERIES. Teachers, and
especially lady teachers, have unusual facilities for selling this work with benefit
to their pupils and profit to themselves, Call on or address
MURRAY HILL PUBLISHING COMPANY,
139 East 38th Street, N. Y.
ADWERTISEMENTS. I 24 I
“science IN story;”
Cr, “Sarn riny Tubbs the Boy-Doctor a ric
Sporns ie the Troubles orne NM orn key,”
Advertised on the preceding page, is a most attractive, original, and novel publica-
tion from the pen of DR. Foot'E. Stop a moment and give a hasty glance to the
Subjects of each volume.
VOLUME H.
Gives a history of Sammy's beginnings; of Sponsie's arrival in this country, and of
his invaluable services as a companion of the Boy-Doctor. It also imparts a clear
knowledge of how the frame of the human body is put together and held together
by Cartilages, Tendons, and Muscles.
VOLUME II.
Is humorous with April-fool jokes, fantastics, monkey-tricks, etc., and instructive
in matter pelating to the Arteries, Weins, Capillaries, Lymphatics, Lacteal Radicles,
Willi, and all that appertains to circulation and absorption.
VOLUME III.
Shows how a mischievous animal can turn a well-regulated household upside-down
with his sly and cunning tricks. It is irresistibly funny, and at the same time it
gives the reader a clear idea in regard to the way in which Digestion, Nutrition,
and IRespiration are performed.
VOLUME IV.
Gives an account of Sammy's first lecture, the masked party at the Biddlewicker's,
the two monkey-soldiers, and the tragedy of Shin-bone Alley ; and it gives facts
and theories of great interest respecting the Brain and Nerves. Everything in it
is plain to those who have attentively read the preceding three volumes. Each
volume prepares the reader for the next.
VOLUME V.
Treats upon the Eliminative and Reproductive Organs, and reopens the story
which seems to close with Vol. IV. This is the most Valuable and instructive of
the whole series; but parents who do not think it best to give their children this
most important information, are at liberty to withhold it from them.
EACH VOLUME
Contains 256 pages, although the folios in Some of them do not run so high in con-
sequence of full-page pictures, which are not counted in the numbering. Each
one is handsomely illustrated with comic pictures from the experienced hand of
II. L. STEPHENs, Esq. The illustrations are copied On plates from Original pen-
and-ink designs, making the series a novelty in art as Well as in matter. The
reader is - • -
INSTRUCTED AS WELL AS AM USED
And interested in the perusal of this remarkable Series. BVerybody likes it, and
everybody is buying it. -
ºA full contents table will be sent free to all interested parties who prefer
to examine the summary of contents before ordering the series. Copies sent,
postage prepaid, on receipt of the price. Neat Cloth binding, per volume, 50 cents.
Gold embossed, red line, red edges, $1.00 per volume. (Sold Only in sets.) The five
volumes in one, on light paper, neatly bound, in Black Cloth, Only $2.00.
AGENTs WANTED for this series and for Dr. Foote's other publications. Call
on or address MURRAY HILL PUBLISHING COMPANY, 129 East 28th Street, New York.
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. I245
READ WHAT
ONE OF OUR LEADING NEWSPAPERS
SAID MANY YEARS AGO REGARDING
oUR PUBLISHING House, AND OF THE AUTHOR OF
PLAIN HOME TALK, SCIENCE
IN STORY, ETC.
We trust our vanity may be pardoned if we obtrude in these pages a notice of
ourselves which will be read with no less interest by the friends of our author. It
may inspire the eonfidence of agents in us, and the confidence of the sick in
DR. Foote. The following is from the New York Independent:
Among the many successful enterprises in our metropolis may be mentioned
that of the MURRAY HILL PUBLISHING CoMPANY, whose office and publishing
rooms are at 129 East 28th Street. This company was organized mainly for the
purpose of publishing the medical and reformatory works written by that emi-
mently successful physician, E. B. Foote, M.D., author of Medical Common Sense,
a work widely known in this and foreign countries, it having reached a sale of
250,000 copies. This work was revised and enlarged a few years ago, and reissued
under the title of “Plain Home Talk and Medical Common Sense.”
- DR. Foote possesses the happy faculty of conveying information relating to
the physical well-being of people in such a plain way that he has succeeded in
interesting thousands of those who have hardly heretofore given a serious thought
to such matters. His Plain Home Talk is filled with interesting facts and sugges-
tions to the sick, which has been derived from over twenty years of experience in
the treatment of all forms of chronic disease. His elegantly fitted Offices at his
residence, 120 Lexington Avenue, are daily thronged with patients from all parts
of the country, who bear witness to his uniformly successful treatment of their
various ailments. -
The MURRAY HILL PUBLISHING COMPANY have also issued a beautiful Series of
books in four volumes, entitled Science in Story; or, Sammy Tubbs the Boy-Doctor,
and Sponsie the Troublesome Monkey. The purpose of this series is to interest
the young with an amusing story, while at the same time it teaches therein the
science of physiology. It is written in the doctor's inimitably pleasing and simple
style, and certainly seems to succeed in perfectly illustrating and simplifying the
knotty, abstruse Science of physiology, making it interesting and instructive to the
young, and we suspect that many of the older ones might read this interesting
series with profit. The older ones indeed are reading it, and are expressing their
great satisfaction with the work. Those who are intelligent upon nearly every
other subject are often found to be lamentably ignorant of their own organiza-
tions. Among Such as these this popular series cannot fail to do a world of good.
We are disinclined to omit in this connection a brief description of DR. Foot R's
establishment. The laboratory in which the medicines are prepared occupies the
upper floor, consisting of three rooms, fitted up with all the conveniences and appli-
ances of a first-class laboratory. One of these rooms, where considerable heat is
employed, is made thoroughly fire-proof by about six inches of Portland cement
I 246 OPINIONS OF THE PRESS,
upon its floor and walls. Here are many thousands of dollars' worth of various
kinds of medicinal roots and plants, from which, under the personal supervision of
the Doctor, competent assistants prepare the medicines for use. No mercurial or
injurious drugs are allowed to enter this laboratory, and the greatest pains are
taken to exclude everything excepting the purest and best products of the botan-
ical kingdom. The laboratory is connected with the sub-basement of the building
by a large elevator.
“A lower floor is occupied by the stenographers, or short-hand writers, and
Other assistants, who are employed in attending, under the direct dictation of the
Doctor, to the immense correspondence, which exceeds one hundred letters per day.
In no other way could one brain and one pair of hands attend to so many profes-
sional letters. The Doctor has originated and perfected a series of questions
relating to the physical conditions of invalids. These questions are so thorough
and complete that when they are answered by patients at a distance, the Doctor
is able to make a complete diagnosis and prescribe for his patients with about the
same facility that he could do were they present. The questions are furnished to
all applicants by mail or otherwise. By the aid of such perfected questions and
ingenious registers for booking all cases, he is now successfully treating patients
in all parts Of this country and many in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. The
immense sale of his works, treating directly of disease and how to avoid it, has
made his name almost a household word. On the first floor are the spacious and
elegantly furnished offices, occupying four rooms, where DR. FootB personally
superintends the reception and consultation of his patients, assisted by three phy-
sicians. Here may be seen patients who have travelled long distances to avail
themselves of the Doctor's well-known skill and experience. The fact that Ito
charge is made for consultations in person or by letter greatly increases the labor
of conducting such an establishment. But this rule was adopted by the Doctor at
the outset of his practice, and he proposes to adhere to it in spite of the extra
work it entails. Three large rooms in the basement are occupied for smaller publi-
cations, packing-rooms, etc., while in the sub-basement is a carpenter's shop,
wherein are manufactured the wooden boxes used in sending away medicines.
“It seems almost incredible that any one having such a large professional
business to attend to can find the time to produce the works which emanate from
I).R. FootB's pen. It is seldom that the Doctor absents himself from his office
during office hours. A part of last summer, however, was devoted to the produc-
tion of the new series, during which time the details of the business were intrusted
to competent associates.
“The MURRAY HILL PUBLISHING ComPANY,” says the Independent in conclu-
sion, “conducts its business on the subscription plan mainly, and its agents may .
be found in almost every neighborhood, while other publishers in London and
Berlin pursue a similar plan in the sale of the Doctor's publications abroad.
Since the foregoing descriptive notice was printed, several years ago,
many additional books and monographs on Hygiene, Physiology, Temperament-
ology, and Popular Medicine, etc., etc., have been issued by the MURRAY HILL
PUBLISHING COMPANY. “Plain Home Talk’” has been four times revised and
enlarged, and the author's headquarters greatly extended and changed. Nearly
all of two houses on Lexington Avenue is occupied now with the Doctor's pro-
fessional business. His two sons have become men in the prime of life, having
been associated with him in practice for about twenty years, with qualifications
which not only enable them to act as valuable assistants but to successfully carry
on the entire professional Work of the Office, Whenever from any cause the senior
is absent. The latter is ready to vouch for the ability and conscientious profes-
sional work of the former, See Chapter I, of Part II.
ADV ERTISEMENTS, I 247
||||||||IS
By Alhºrt Westland, M.D.
A MEDICAL GUIDE
TO THE CARE OF THEIR HEALTH
AND THE -
Management of their Children
American Reprint Edition, edited by
E. B. F00TE, Jr., M.D.
Helpfully illustrated in the teact besides
a dozen half-tone engravings.
PARTS I. & II. EARLY MARRIED LIFE AND CHILD=BEARING
Chapter I. Duties and Responsibilities of Married Life.
Chapter II. Conditions of Life after Marriage—how to “settle down.”
Chapter III. Signs of Pregnancy, duration, date of confinement. ..
Chapter IV. Disorders of Pregnancy, and what to do for their relief.
Chapter V. Miscarriage or Abortion; causes, prevention, management.
Chapter VI. Premature Birth, Signs of ; care of mother, saving of child.
Chapter VII. Preparations for Confinement, articles required.
Chapter VIII. . Confinement (labor) “false and true pains; ” the three stages, de-
scribing what happens and what to do without a doctor. .
Chapter IX, Convalescence; after-pains; rest, diet, bandaging, douching.
Chapter X, Mother and Infant; the art of sucking in Comfort, weaning.
PART III. CHILDREN THEIR GROWTH, CARE, TRAINING:
CONITAON DISORDERS.
Chapter XI. Normal Development; size, growth, teething, walking, talking.
Chapter XII. Care of the Child; washing, bathing, clothing, Outing.
Chapter XIII, Nutrition; ratural food, artificial food, feeding-bottles, etc.
Chapter XIV. Physical and Mental Training; systematic exercise. rest and play.
Chapter XV. Congenital (from birth) Defects; “marks,” club-foot, hernia, etc.
Chapter XVI. Nursing Sick Children; how to apply remedial agents.
Chapter XVII. Early Infant Life; minor troubles, thrush, diarrhoea, constipation.
Chapter XVIII. Disorders of Teething; mouth ulcers, indigestion, cold, croup.
Chapter XIX. Common Maladies; earache, catarrh, tonsillitis, bronchitis, eruptions
Chapter XX. Emergencies, what to do for bruises, burns, sprains, bleeding,
PART IV. LATER MARRFºre—the CHANGE AND
AFT
Chapter XXI. The Menopause, or change of life; hints for comfort and health.
INDEX – -
The above work is the most recent and complete of its kind, and “fills the bill '' for
those women who are wise enough to prepare themselves for “the event of their lives.”
Many a mother's or infant's life is lost through lack of knowing how to do the right
thing at the right time, when skilled and as not within ready call. Ignorance is not
bliss in the “ borning of babies,” and such a book is really
INDISPENSIBLE TO EVERY WIFE AND MOTHER.
Price, Cloth Bound, by mail, on ty $1.o.o. [AG ENTS w ANTED.]
[N. B.- This American edition is not salable in England, but the original author's
edition can be obtained there through L, N, FOWLER & CO., Book-sclers.]

B|ISDNMEDIAl,STIAL, SHUMISIB|IS
DR. FOOTE'S HOME CYCLOPEDIA ;
. Dr. E. B., Foote's Complete Work, including Health and Disease, with
Recipes, and Plain Home Talk, from new type ; with 18, color plates and 330
other illustrations; 1248 pages, cloth bound, Standard, Edition, $3.oo, Popular
Edition, $2.oo, in Leather, $4.oo. Sent by mail on receipt of price.
DR. FOOTE'S HEALTH AND DISEASE, WITH RECIPES,
Is made up of the first 800 pages of the above work ; 14 color plates, and
260 illustrations. In cloth, $1.5o.
PLAIN HOME TALK,
With Tocology for Mothers, is made up of the last 400 pages of Dr. Foote's
Home Cyclopedia, and the following work by Dr. Westland; 4 color plates, 100 il-
lustrations. In cloth, $1.5o.
TOCOLOGY FOR MOTHERS,
y Dr. Westland, is a “mother's manual " about child-bearing and child-
caring; 330 pages; illustrated. In cloth, $1.o.o. -g
DR. FOOTE’S OFFENE VOLKS-SPRACHE
Is the German Edition of Dr. Foote's complete book; also revised and en-
larged in 1900; 950 pages. In cloth, $1.50.
SCIENCE IN STORY; or Sammy Tubbs, the Boy Doctor, and
Sponsie, the Troublesome Tlonkey, for young folks.
By T)r. E. B. Foote. Five volumes in “red line,” presentation edition, $5.o.o.
Five volumes, plainer binding, $2.5o ; all in One volume, $2.o.o.
SEXUAL PHYSIOLOGY FOR THE YOUNG ;
Being fifth volume of “Science in Story,” 250 pp.; cloth bound; ill’d; soc.
HAND BOOK OF HEALTH HINTS
And Ready Recipes; paper cover ; 128 pages ; 25c.
WONDERS, FREAKS AND DISEASES,
A “brief" on life, health, and Autotoxaemia, illustrated, 25c.
BORNING BETTER BABIES,
Through regulating reproduction by controlling conception; 150 pages. 25c.
REPLIES TO ALPHITES,
The pro and the con of sexual continence—a debate; 128 pages. 25c.
DIVORCE, Alecture by Dr. Foote, and extracts from noted authors. 2sc.
COMTION. SENSE CARE OF CANARIES,
By Mrs. Farwell. Color cover. 50c.
HOW TO TIESTIERIZE, By James Coates, Ph. D. Plain instruction; soc.
THE HUMAN FACE, How to read it, by Prof. Willis. Well illustrated. 5oc.
HOME CURE SERIES, &
Of Dime Pamphlets—on Croup; Old-eyes; Cold-feet; Rupture; Phimosis;
Spermatorrhoea; Varicocele; Gynecology, (for Women); Bagteria. (about vaccina-
tion); Pleasures of Health; A Blighted Life. Eleven pamphlets, roc. each.
SOCIAL SCIENCE SERIES, Ǻ
Of Dime Pamphlets—Wedlock; Scientific Marriage; Heredity; A, B. C. Of
Temperaments; Powell and his Critics; Physiological Marriage; Physical Im-
provement of Humanity; Causes of Disease, Insanity, and Premature Death ; A
Step Backward. Any of the above books sent by mail on receipt of price.
MURRAY HILL PUB, C0, 129 East 28th Street.
1248
ſiliſii

ºs.
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a ºr nº
. . . . *:::."