Letters to Persons Who Are Engaged in Domestic Service

by Catharine Esther Beecher

There is nothing, then, more pernicious to health, than sitting, or sleeping in rooms where the air is loaded with the air breathed out of the lungs. For this reason, I advise you never to go to bed, till you have secured a good supply of pure air. Open your door into an entry, or make a crack in your window, or contrive some other way to keep pure air in your room. If you have an open fire-place, this is sufficient, as then, the fresh air falls down the chimney from out doors. But if you have a close stove in your room, or have a room with no fire-place, be sure always to have your door open, or a small opening in your window. If you do not take this precaution, though you may not feel the evil, because it is so slow and gradual, you may be sure that your constitution is

gradually growing weaker, so that diseases will more easily be induced, and thus that your life will be shortened. One other thing about the lungs. Any person who wears clothing so tight, that they cannot expand the chest as easily as they can when undressed, is doing the same sort of mischief. When the waist is constrained by tight clothing, some parts of the lungs are so impeded and compressed, that the air cannot enter the air vessels. The consequence is, the blood is not properly purified, and often, from this cause, ulcers form in the lungs. Tight dressing is one of the most frequent causes of consumption and dyspepsia, for dyspepsia is often brought on by such tightness of dress, that the stomach and the other organs around it, are impeded in their duties.

It is very important for health, that persons who labour should have enough sleep, and it is also important that they do not sleep too much. If they do not sleep enough, the strength and health slowly decay, and if they sleep too much, the same effect is produced. Seven or eight hours, is the amount of sleep that is needed

by persons who labour, and none ought to sleep more than eight hours, unless they are sick.

If you will take care of your teeth, by washing them with fair water and a brush, when you go to bed and get up, you probably will save yourselves from teeth-ache, and from the early loss of teeth. Not that this care will always prevent these evils. A disordered stomach, or a weakness of the nerves, will often induce pain and decay, for which there is no prevention, or remedy. But your chances of keeping your teeth, and of escaping tooth-ache, are much increased by removing with a brush, every night and morning, the tartar which the spittle deposits on the teeth and gums, during the night and through the day. This tartar injures the gums, and tends to make the teeth decay.

There are some other causes of ill health that I will point out. One is, drinking strong tea or coffee. These drinks always stimulate the nervous system, in a way similar to the effects of intoxicating drinks, and though they are not so injurious or dangerous, yet, in many

cases, they produce weak nerves, indigestion, teeth-ache, head-ache, and various nervous complaints. If, then, you use these drinks, I advise you to use them very weak. In my youth I did not love them, but after I was twenty, I learned to love them quite strong, and did not love them weak. When I was convinced that they were injurious, I began to drink them very weak; and though at first they seemed very flat, I persevered, until I learned to love them weak, and now I do not love them strong. I mention this to show that our taste can be changed. I advise you therefore to try the experiment, and after you have drank them a month or two very weak, I think you will love them as well as you now love them strong. At any rate, you will escape the dangers that always attend the use of tea and coffee, as most persons drink them. And I believe that it is sinful to run any risk of injuring one’s health, for the sake of drinking what we love best, when another drink is just as good for us, and is far more safe.

In regard to eating, I believe a person in health, who labours all day, may eat almost any

thing with safety. But a person in delicate health, or with a disordered stomach, ought to be careful to notice what food produces uncomfortable feelings, and avoid it. For nothing wears down health faster, than to eat food that the stomach cannot digest, and when this occurs a warning is often given by unpleasant feelings after eating.

Eating too often, is a frequent cause of disease. This is done, because people do not know how hard the stomach has to work, after food is put into it. But if we could look within us at all that is going on, we should see, that as soon as any food is put into the stomach, its muscles are all set to work to move the food about and mix it with the gastric juice which is to dissolve it, so that the stomach actually is working as hard as the arms would work, in sweeping or in hammering at the anvil. Now the stomach needs to rest awhile, after its work, and therefore, four or five hours ought to elapse after eating, before any more food is put into the stomach. This gives time for the stomach to do up its work, and have a little time to rest. But a person, who is frequently putting food