HEALTH,
HAPPINESS,
and LONGEVITY.
Health without Medicine, Happiness
without Money,
THE RESULT,
LONGEVITY.
BY
L. P. McCARTY,
Author of the Annual Statistician and Economist,
SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.
SAN FRANCISCO:
CARSON & CO.,
210 POST STREET.

HEALTH HAPPINESS AND LONGEVITY.

Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1890, by

L. P. McCARTY,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C.

Price, in Flexible Covers, $.75 Price, in Paper Covers, .50

ADDRESS, L. P. McCARTY, 814 Cal. St., S. F., Cal. OR THE BOOK TRADE GENERALLY.

CARSON & CO., Wholesale Agents, 210 Post St., SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.

PREFACE.

... "to know
That which before us lies in daily life
Is the prime wisdom. What is more is fume,
Or emptiness, or fond impertinence,
And renders us, in things that most concern,
Unpractic'd, unprepar'd, and still to seek."
—Milton's Adam to Angel.

Experience is honored.

This book is the result of experience.

Man is interested in what pertains to health.

We are positive that the ideas herein set forth are healthful.

Our profession is not that of a doctor of chemical medicines.

We have no hobby to ride or patent panacea to advertise, but desire to express, in plain, forcible, truthful language, the methods by which mankind can practically achieve health, happiness and longevity. These go together. Why should they not? Related, dependent upon each other, the great objects of human life, the culmination of all physical and worldly pleasure are contained in them.

Whether you are the perfect embodiment of a business man or the ideal disciple of a certain profession, you cannot possibly reach the highest or even most lucrative grades of your calling without health, happiness, and their logical consequence, longevity. They will prove trusty lieutenants. Without them the battle of life will draw to a close in retreat and end in defeat.

To assert that the average man can enjoy health without medicine, happiness without even money, and longevity too, is a broad and sweeping declaration. In fact, we expect to have opposition from those who have not tried the formula laid down in the following pages.

To keep yourself in health without medicine is what we intend to convey; and we assert that but little or no medicine is necessary to reach that condition. To have happiness without any money (in the present condition of society) is not what we claim, but that more happiness can be extracted from a competency than by more or less.

To live to good old age means with us 80 to 120 years, to increase with future generations, when order, regularity, sobriety, cleanliness, and love for the whole human family, shall be paramount in the political, moral, and intellectual world.

The author is living on thirty years of made land. In other words, according to medical diagnosis, he should have died thirty years ago! Hence he desires to put before the unhealthy, unhappy, and short-lived human race the result of his experience of half a century. Having battled with a score of diseases, a number of which were claimed to be absolutely incurable—having freed himself entirely of them all—having been completely restored to health and happiness, he honestly believes that he has a convincing right to be heard.

You can now prove for yourself.

PART I.

CHAPTER I.

"Health is the vital principle of bliss, And exercise of health."

Health, Happiness, and Longevity. What a talisman is here! In them is the magic that can rule all men. No seal, figure, character, engraven on a sympathetic stone, can equal their single or combined influence. Say to your fellow-man, "If you follow my direction I will confer upon you health, happiness, and longevity," and you will receive his lasting gratitude. He will always be your friend. Money is potent, but these qualities are, as it were, omnipotent. Money alone cannot bring them; they alone can make wealth.

This work is not a philosophical treatise, difficult to read and more so to comprehend. Its ideas are simple, the result of long experience and observation. Its propositions are easily demonstrated. Then, my reader, do not think you are perusing the hobbies of a crank, the fantasies of a dreamer, and the preachings of him who does not practice. The world has been so flooded with worthless productions of such characters that we fear we must combat severe prejudice. Will you lay that aside? If so we will not only interest but instruct you. Agreeing with our premises and conclusions, you will certainly reap some benefit; not agreeing, you will be tempted to further investigation, which will inevitably prove the strength of our position.

This book was not written at one sitting or many, but it is the culmination of several years' preparation. While the first part is the result of thorough reasoning and experience, the second is a collection of the best modern data on prominent diseases and their remedies, with our own annotations. Both sections represent thoughtful and painstaking labor. Even if you are so bold as to maintain that you possess health, happiness, and are sure of longevity, we believe you cannot fail to find practical, valuable truths in these pages. Whether you are an editor, merchant, lawyer, doctor, minister, or day-laborer, we hope at least to entertain you. Are we right? Read and judge.

From the mythological times of Æsculapius down to the present day, votaries of medical science have been compounding, diagnosing, and prescribing for helpless, suffering humanity. For many ages this condition may have been a necessity, but in the light of our present civilization, sound common sense is the best physician. That doctors cannot be trusted to be right in every instance or even in a majority of them is shown by practical experiments. They certainly are well proved to be an inharmonious crowd by the experience of a Boston Globe reporter, who recently called upon ten regular physicians on the same day, and described his symptoms in exactly the same language to each. He received ten prescriptions, of which no two were alike, and a majority were utterly inconsistent each with the other. Nellie Bly, the famous lady writer of the New York World, had a cold and went to over fifty of the city's leading physicians, in October, 1889, asking them to prescribe for her. They did, and among the collection there were no two alike, and many diametrically opposite in nature and effect!

In a lecture recently delivered before the Cooper Medical College, San Francisco, Cal., on the subject of "Quacks and Quackery," by Prof. L. C. Lane, the speaker said: "Every good thing in the world has been counterfeited, and in these advanced times the work is so well done that it takes an expert to detect the true from the false. Everything is now more or less adulterated, especially the food we consume. The three great professions also of theology, law, and medicine, have been and are grossly counterfeited, especially the latter, which opens up the widest field for imposture."

As the above quotations, without an explanation, might convey the idea to the reader that the author considers that doctors, dentists, and specialists are no longer a necessity, I will say, Under the present state of society, they are not only indispensable, but absolutely a necessity. When you are ill, and do not know what is the matter with you, or if you know the nature of your ailments, and do not know a remedy, seek a first-class physician; take his advice in every particular until he either cures you or you are convinced he cannot. I am not a prophet, nor the son of one, but I will venture an opinion that before the close of the next century, the position of the minister, teacher, and physician will be filled by one and the same person. The teacher then will fill the most exalted position on the earth. He will not only instruct how to navigate the air without collision, but how not to catch cold at 30,000 feet elevation in your shirt sleeves, and who and what is God. His school-house will sit upon the most elevated spot in his district, with light reflected from all four sides; it will be at least fifty feet from the floor of his school-room to the ceiling; and in place of a steeple, there will be a dome, containing a 100-inch refractor telescope, and with the extra timber not used for a steeple, the seats will be made more comfortable, and pure filtered water will be supplied for the pupils to drink.

It is granted that the majority of mankind appreciate health, desire happiness, and expect longevity. With this as an incentive, why not strive to win the prize? Do not depend on the doctor, do not think some drug must be applied or imbibed for every ill; there are other methods.

Perhaps we can aid you to the true enjoyment of life if you will impartially weigh our argument. Here is an editor suffering from nervousness. He consults a physician, who hands him an opiate so that he can sleep. Better if he had given up all thought of his paper and battles of words, on leaving his office, and allowed his throbbing, weary brain a deserving rest. Then the cells of this brainy tissue would cease to be gorged with blood, and sleep would positively follow. Again, there is a clergyman every Sunday beseeching his flock to obey the commandments of the Bible; while every day, through carelessness, he is breaking the laws of health. If an all-wise Being gave us our bodies as homes of our souls, did he not mean that we should promote the happiness of the soul by providing for it a healthy residence? What logic and strength exist in a religion that does not countenance such philosophy? The majority of mankind admire a well-developed physique. The minister wishes and prays to influence the masses of men. Can he reach them effectively, can he point to himself as an example, can he sway them by any reasoning or eloquence, when he himself has a husky voice, a pallid face, and a weakened figure? Indeed, the cowled, decrepit monk could lead the world in the darkness of the middle ages; but in the brightness of the nineteenth century his scepter is powerless.

Health, Happiness and Longevity seem to be all that is required for mortal man. They are the foundation, the superstructure, and the apex respectively of the great Pyramid of life. Who would desire more than the possession of perfect health, the realization of happiness, the achievement of ripe old age, retaining all the pleasurable attributes of Perfected Manhood, experiencing all these until called upon to surrender this present house of clay for a more advanced state, whatever that may be? Such degrees of soundness, felicity, and age, which we have mentioned, are within the reach of all who desire them, if they will observe the rules implied in the following terms, arranged in the order of their importance: Regularity, Cleanliness, Temperance (or moderation), Morality, and Self-control. It is safe to state the proposition that there is not one in a thousand of those induced to peruse this humble effort, who will not claim to possess one or more of the foregoing virtues, while a fair minority will urge that they are characterized by all of them.

That your egoism may not get the better of you in the start and bias you before reading my talk, I will frankly say that there is hardly a person living to-day who is either regular, cleanly, temperate, moral, or self-controlled. It is a fact that some have made fair efforts in those lines of action, but we shall attempt to prove that not any have perfected themselves in a single attribute above mentioned. With us, regularity, cleanliness, temperance, morality, and self-control are so interlaced as to become synonymous terms, the perfection of any one of which means the consummation of all, while their master could laugh at sorrow, pain, and even death, for through long years they would pass his door and forget to knock. Just in proportion as we approximate these virtues, correspondingly will our lives be prolonged and our happiness intensified. Fear will not prostrate us because

"Death rides on every passing breeze, He lurks in every flower."

As modifying the foregoing partially, let us understand, however, that it is possible to have health and longevity to a wonderful degree without cleanliness, temperance, morality, and self-control, on one vital consideration. That is, the continual exercise of regularity. Here we have the corner-stone of the whole structure of health, the cardinal first law. But can we be happy without the generous employment of all these virtues? Obviously and fortunately, we cannot. Health is also the chief desideratum to happiness. As disease creeps through the physical frame, as aches and pains increase and torment our bodies, our doubts supplant faith in the Source of all goodness.

After a quarter of a century's constant devotion, in sackcloth and ashes, as it were, attempting to free the body from the shackles of pulmonary consumption, and growing gradually worse during the whole period, the majority of devotees, we think, would begin to inquire, "Are our prayers lacking sincerity? or is the Source of goodness at this time otherwise occupied? or may it not be that this for which I ask, I must seek by personal action?" We will try this self-helping method; if success comes, we will return to the same altar with a more exalted idea of a higher Source. Cleansed of our maladies, we will have a clearer perception of who and what is God.

CHAPTER II.

"There is naught like universal co-operation to promote universal achievement."

Individuals may seek and obtain health through the agencies already, and to be, suggested. To keep in health, their neighbors must be induced or compelled to adopt the same course. This is not an absolute law, but manifestly is very essential. Supposing your own house, sidewalk, alley, or yard, are comparatively immaculate, it will be impossible to live without constant danger and exposure if your friend (or enemy in this sense) has an untidy house, a dirty sidewalk, and a filthy yard, in your proximity. Then how encouraging to note that health is as contagious as disease. It even spreads with greater rapidity. Health is gladly welcomed; disease is shunned like a deadly poison. All over the world past and contemporary history proves that, once started, health spreads at a rate that disease cannot follow. What will surely result? Healthful communities will make healthful municipalities; healthful municipalities will end in commonwealths and nations of like character. The whole earth will be leavened. From a record of 34 years as the average duration of human life, the thermometer of universal progress will point to the threescore and ten, or 70 years.

If you were induced to smile at the close of the last sentence, it shows that you are not lost to all sense of appreciation—but quietly put on your sober cap for a moment and read a few facts on vital statistics. The average length of life up to twenty years ago was 33 years, now it has reached about 34.8 years. This has not been caused by the whole world becoming more healthful—indeed, some portions of the earth, including sections of the United States, have retrograded, and the former limit of mortality has been lowered—but by the health of a number of organizations, sects, and individuals who have increased their standards of regularity, cleanliness, temperance, morality, and self-control. Thus the average rate of mortality has been raised nearly 2%. An interesting fact which is new to the majority of persons is this, that the whole sect of Friends, or Quakers, live an average of 58 years per individual. In the thirty-two years from 1850 to 1882 they raised the average six years, or about one year in five. With this ratio, which is itself increasing, the plurality of Quakers will be centenarians in less than two hundred years—in half that time if assisted by the world at large. By the foregoing it will be seen that the whole organization of Friends live 70% longer than the general age allotted to mankind, which includes them to make up the universal rate. Another noticeable feature in connection with the Quakers' life is this, the deaths among them average 18 in every thousand; in the general population, 22 per thousand; while the amount given to charities per inhabitant in that sect is $7.78, and in the total population the average is $1.46. Why this difference in longevity to so marked a degree?

The prohibitionist will give this reason, that the Friends dissipate less; the religionists will say they are more truthful, more godly. While each of the aforementioned reasons have a healthful tendency, there is a more scientific conclusion, for it is a well-known fact that there are thousands of cases of longevity of men and women who lack every moral principle, and dissipate all their lives. The scientist comes to our rescue. He tells us that the Quaker's life is prolonged by his methodical way of living, evenness of temperament, wearing the same weight of clothing, allowing nothing to furrow the brow, regularity of sleeping, drinking, exercising, and eating. He takes no food or drink into his stomach above 100° or below 50° Fahr. Boiling hot soup and frozen ice-cream are unknown in a Quaker family. This might convey the idea that ice-cream is foresworn by them. Not entirely so. They use the same good judgment in that as in every other indulgence, allowing the cream to rise in temperature from 10° to 15° above the freezing point, to soft consistency, before it is taken into the stomach. Dr. Ufflemann, a German physician of authority, draws some important conclusions from his own experiments and those of others. The rules laid down are briefly:—

1. That, in general, a temperature of food which approaches that of the blood is most healthful.

2. For quenching the thirst the best temperature is from 50° Fahr. to 68° Fahr. Americans prefer about 40°.

3. The gulping down of ice-water or hot coffee, etc., means eventually a stomach damnation.

4. The use of very hot and cold substances, following or alternating, is injurious to the teeth.

5. Ingestion of cold food and drinks lessens the bodily temperature, whether it be normal or febrile.

6. Cold food and drinks increase the tendency to cough, by causing, reflexly, a congestion of the bronchial vessels. Hence persons with bronchial disease ought not to indulge in cold drinks.

The habits of indulgence in alcoholic drinks, tobacco, opium, and other narcotics or stimulants, have less to do than is generally supposed with longevity, but much to do with happiness, while their abuse or irregularity determines all for health, happiness, and longevity combined. Temperance men and moralists will take issue with me, and undertake to prove that any quantity, no matter how small, of either alcohol, tobacco, or opium will shorten life; but the facts will not sustain the assertion. It is the irregularity with which the body is treated, either by outward application or bathing, in eating, sleeping, or excess in all vices. For health, a regular gratification in the full list of vices is better than having no vices—such as are so termed by the world—and being irregular in everything else. While I do not believe in practising any form of vice, yet the man who takes six drinks of alcoholic spirits in reasonable quantities at fixed intervals each day, smokes six cigars—two after each meal—chews three ounces of tobacco with the same punctuality every day, eats his meals slowly and at stated periods, sleeps from 8-1/2 to 9 hours per night between the same hours, will outlive the man who neither smokes, chews, or drinks, but does eat and sleep irregularly, and lies awake all night hating his neighbor for his immoralities. He gets thin and haggard, followed by all the weaknesses to which his system is heir; while the other man, with his evenness of nature, habits, and dissipations, enjoys health, becomes fat, and lives to the proverbial good old age.

Here, then, my reader, we have the explanation why a man may live through dissipation all his life, and then die only by accident at 80 or 100 years of age. A beggar, miser, or hermit may by degrees contract the habit of filthiness, non-bathing, scantiness of food and improper clothing, with such regularity that he will outlive all his friends and relatives, and be chronicled at his death as one of the centenarians. As an interesting fact, we state that in 1888 a beggar, aged 84, in Perth, Hungary, tried to commit suicide by throwing himself into the Danube because he was no longer able to support his father and mother, who were 115 and 110 years old respectively! Poisons may be taken in infinitesimal doses for a while, then increasing by degrees until twenty grains of morphia or strychnia may be taken at a single dose without immediate injury. There is at least one case of positive record in Colusa County, of this State.

In closing this chapter we wish to call attention to a reasonable result of true system, or regularity. Here is a convict in the State prison. Before he was incarcerated his health was imperfect, and he wore a sallow, dejected look; but behold him after six months of strict penitentiary discipline; he is a well man, fat and sleek—no longer a semi-invalid. There are exceptions, but they are due to melancholy generally. A soldier after he enlists, unless he is exposed to the constant privations of protracted war, throws off most defects in his physique. You must know the cause; it is the compulsory regulation of diet and clothing. Cleanliness and regularity are forced upon them, showing it to be just what they needed.

CHAPTER III.

"Let health my nerves and finer fibers brace."

The possession of health, happiness, and longevity requires not so much a general literary and scientific education, as a practical knowledge of one's own self. The latter will far outweigh the other. In many ways, however, will these qualities be improved by the former. A person must know what is regularity, cleanliness, and temperance, or moderation. By the use of these effective auxiliaries, I have freed myself of so many maladies within the last thirty years that the average medical devotee will laugh in derision and question my trustworthiness. For the first eleven years of my life I had seven years of wasting sickness. Of these, five were spent in bed. At the age of 22 I left a clerkship in New York City to come to California, via Cape Horn. Consumption was strongly seated on my lungs. In addition to this dangerous affliction I had bronchitis, catarrh, constipation, piles, periodical rheumatism, cataracts on my eyes, corns on my feet, and fever and ague from one to three months every year. Surely I was in a position to sympathize with Job, but impatient, rather than patient like the Biblical hero. I set myself towards absolute health. Before I had been in this State two years, I gained the mastery of the lung and throat troubles; but while assisting in putting in a flume in Feather River, below Oroville, in 1859, I ruptured myself so that for twenty-five years I wore a truss. Now I am entirely rid of the aforementioned list of ailments, including hernia.

The detail of how I treated each of the maladies might not interest the reader, and is too long a story to relate in this work. The principal things done in each case, however, will be chronicled under their proper heads in the second part of this work. See index. I do not now smoke, chew, nor drink intoxicants; the latter I did to a limited degree, and the former to excess, for a number of years, up to the close of 1869. On the 31st day of December of that year—the day I smoked my last cigar—I bought twenty-five cigars and smoked twenty-three of them. My cigar bill that year averaged $2.50 per day, and ran as high as $4.00. Having dissipated, and had nearly every form of disease, I speak from my own thorough experience and not from that of anyone else. Why should not my story, then, have a beneficial influence? If any man knows how he can improve the welfare of his fellows, it is his duty to spread the information. True it is that many of the quasi reformers, or informers, are cranks or dreamers; but we wish the fact distinctly understood and appreciated that we come not under that category. We raise no false standard; we send forth no untried hypothesis. There is a man in a New England State who annually lectures on agriculture, writes special and general articles for the country papers on the most improved methods of farming, appears before legislative committees as a successful tiller of the soil. But, alas! what superficiality is contained in this man's brain. His house is a barn, his garden a chicken-yard, his orchard a forest, and his meadow a pasture. There are like phantasmagoric geniuses interested in the health question. We simply say, Trust them not. Shun them and their advice as you would the presence and enticings of a bunco steerer. But you will get impatient to learn in what consists cleanliness, regularity, and temperance if I do not proceed. Indeed, I think I can hear some of you say, "I neither chew, drink, smoke, eat irregularly, or miss my stipulated number of hours in bed; yet I have all manner of aches and pains, and many lingering maladies." If such be the case, you do not understand the true principle and its practical application of cleanliness. A word here in regard to bathing. There is no doubt we all should bathe at least once a day. It should be done either at retiring or rising. If a warm or hot bath, at night; if cold or sponge bath, in the morning. Of course, if a person is not accustomed to a cold sponge bath, or is quite nervous, he must not attempt it too strongly at first. Commence and advance by gradation. Almost anything can be done to which an individual is unaccustomed if regular steps are taken towards the end, and not one leap. Whether it be beneficial or destructive, invigorating or poisoning, gradation will accomplish the end.

Madame Patti, who always has been obliged to take the greatest care of herself, gives this warning, which may not be out of place: "Take plenty of exercise, take it in the open air, take it alone, and breathe with the mouth closed. Live on simple food; all the fruit and rare beef you want, very little pastry, a glass of claret for dinner, coffee in moderation, but never a sip of beer, because it thickens the voice and stupefies the senses. Keep regular hours for work, meals, rest, and recreation, and never under any circumstances indulge in the fashionable habit of eating late suppers. If you want to preserve the beauty of face, and the priceless beauty of youth, keep well, keep clean, keep erect, and keep cool." Without being didactic, let me detail to you a few things you should and should not do; and all of which I carry out to the letter:—

Adopt some style of clothing so that even if you change the color the weight will be about the same.

Wear no overcoat, overshoes, nor gloves; in their place wear a sufficiently heavy suit when it is warm, so as to have enough on when it is cold. By wearing a chest protector fore and aft of the lungs, made of chamois and flannel, over the under-garment and under the shirt, you will never take cold through your lungs.

Have good, thick-soled boots—and always of the same thickness—and you will not take cold through your feet.

Have a hat always of the same weight, and that should be light, with ventilators in the top or sides. If you do not wear your hat at the lunch table, or in your place of business, you will not catch cold in your head.

A large list of accessories accompany the above:—

Never sit at your desk or home fireside with the same coat which you use on the street. In its place have one 50 per cent lighter for such occasions and positions.

Never sleep in your under-garments, nor in any other clothing that you carry during the day. The reason is strong and obvious. Your covering in the course of the day receives all the perspiration and surface deposit of the skin, which amounts to considerable in sixteen hours. This must have a chance to escape or be absorbed by the air. The amount is only increased by wearing the same garments at night. Have a good warm night-shirt, and a clean one at least every week.

Do not sleep in a room without having the windows down from the top to some extent. If there be six, lower three of them.

If you sleep with a companion and do not know anything about animal magnetism, find out through someone who does know. Ascertain which of you is more positive, and govern yourself accordingly. I find best results for me in sleeping with my head north, and on the west side of a negative companion. This principle of magnetism is too little observed. Yet it applies to all persons at all times. Naturally some individuals are more magnetic than others, that is, more positive. Usually, if not always, the more masculine, swarthy, is the more positive, while the light-haired and eyed are negative. Sleep invariably with your head towards the north if you are positive, towards the west if you are negative, but never in any case towards the east or south.

These conclusions are based wholly on scientific reasons, and anyone who understands physics will see the cogency of our statements.

As a preventative against anything that has once been in my stomach rising and remaining on the tongue, I use a piece of ordinary whalebone to curry it every morning, from end to end. This will tend to purify the breath, sweeten the mouth, and aid mastication.

My tooth brush, after using, is so thoroughly cleansed and dried that anyone acquainted with the facts would hardly believe it had been used.

There are millions of particles of dust, atoms, microbes, or any other name you may use, that collect upon your person and clothing hourly. If your garments be tattered and torn, or patched and glazed, this will not shorten your life or lessen your appetite; but I assure you, if you will use up a 15-cent whisk-broom twice a year, in brushing yourself from head to foot before each meal, there will be less to fall upon your food, and thus find its way to your stomach, and your days will be prolonged in exact ratio.

CHAPTER IV.

"On life's vast ocean diversely we sail, Reason the card, but passion is the gale."

There are more diseases contracted, more unhappiness created during life, and early decay occasioned, by politeness and pride than by whisky and tobacco combined. Total-abstinence advocates will assert that drink kills more than all other causes. What would they think if we should say, if he is a reformed drinker, that it was out of pure politeness that he quaffed his first glass.

Politeness is the cause of disease in many ways, of which the following are a few:—

A friend—only in name—will stop you in the first corner of the street and insist on telling you a good(?) joke about Brown, Smith, or Jones. He takes you by the lapels of the coat, holds you to windward for twenty minutes in a breeze blowing twenty-five miles an hour, although this lays you up with a cold for a week, and thus plants the first seeds of consumption. You will be too polite to tell him that your health will not permit you to be so exposed. As a remedy for this class of attacks, if a man insists on saying anything more than "How do you do" or "Good-bye," I should invite him into the nearest hall-way or around the corner to leeward, entirely out of the draft. If this does not seem feasible, I would bid him "Good-day."

Another case of excessive politeness is when a gentleman or lady continues chatting ten minutes in the hall after he or she must go immediately. Then at the door after they have walked out, you, in dressing-gown and slippers, stand on the cold marble step in a driving fog for twenty minutes more, to hear the latest gossip—too polite to slam the door in their faces, or excuse it as an accident.

But the politeness that kills faster than any other is that of the consumptive, bronchially-affected, or catarrhal patient. He will sit at the table, or in company, and, out of pure politeness, swallow the mucus and other impurities that arise in his throat—too polite to use a cuspidor or excuse himself by withdrawing to another room or the open air, and clear his throat. A great many people are accustomed to expectorate into their handkerchiefs. This is a baneful practice. Just as soon as that gets dry which they have thrown up from their lungs, innumerable microbes of deadly effect escape and do extensive harm. Avoid this habit and use the cuspidor or step out-of-doors. It is not unreasonable to believe that 50 per cent of all the consumptives would recover if they would, by care and cleanliness, see that no particle of mucus once away from the lungs should ever go back down the throat, and observe other points regarding apparel and cleanliness mentioned in the first part of this work.

We have already devoted some space to what we should and should not do. All that, however, is but a small part of a life which will continually experience health, happiness, and longevity. We trust you do not simply read these statements not intending to test their value. It is not unlikely that many of you from your course or line of business will find it eminently difficult to absolutely follow our instructions. Be that as it may, come as approximately as you can, and there will positively result an improvement in your physical condition, a progression in your happiness, and a realization of longevity. The remainder of this chapter will be occupied by a program, or rather set of formula of what is necessary to aid you in keeping well, living long and happily.

Keep your bowels open and regular in action. This you can do, if irregular or constipated, by taking a few drops of water in your right hand every morning and rubbing the bowels in a circular motion from right to left, until a friction is produced and the moisture gone. From six to ten separate passages of the hand over the bowels is usually sufficient, and the object will be accomplished. Each day this is repeated; in a very short time you will be all right in this particular, and will not require even this effective medicine. You must be aware that a score of maladies are kept at bay by the regularity of the bowels. This fact cannot be too strongly impressed on mankind in general. It is very seldom indeed that you come upon a man who is well with a bad digestive apparatus; but, again, he who possesses a strong stomach and is moderate and regular in eating is almost invariably characterized with a vigorous constitution. Disease finds no place to locate upon or in him. There is no doubt the American people eat too fast, and that is why so many die so soon. The system is worn out when it should be ready to do its best work. If all the men and women in this country would eat 50% slower they would live 25% longer. Of this we have no doubt—nor do you, reader.

Sleep eight hours every night, between the same hours, as nearly as possible, in a room well ventilated from the top of the window. If your room is small you will require more ventilation than if it is large; in this case use more clothing on the bed. If possible have a bowl or basin of water uncovered in the room, but the next morning do not either drink or wash your face in the water that has stood exposed all night. To drink it is slow suicide; to wash in it is unhealthy.

In the morning scrape the tongue with a strip of whalebone, as before mentioned; brush the teeth with a good stiff clean tooth-brush, up and down, but not across; note this latter proposition, there is reason for it. By perpendicular brushing the bristles or hairs get in between the teeth, where much sediment is left, and the gums are not made sore. This is the best method also to prevent tartar forming. Gargle the throat with clean water three or four times; then, if you have it at hand, drink about three swallows of cool filtered water; if not near go thirsty until it is. Never take a drink of water, whether you be sick or well, without first gargling the throat with at least one swallow and spitting it out. Do you think filtering of reservoir or general city water is necessary? If not, then make a microscopic examination, and any skepticism will be entirely removed. It is a prominent fact in science to-day that almost all diseases and troubles are started or promulgated by microbes and bacilli. There are often enough of these in one swallow of water to poison a whole family. Then take a moist towel and apply it to every part of your body; follow this with a vigorous rubbing with a dry towel. A sponge bath is recommended by many physicians. This is all right for the first time, but from that on the sponge begins to get foul, not from necessity, but because not one person in fifty will wash and thoroughly dry the sponge. In any other case it is a disease breeder. Perforated with so many cells and passages, intricate and numberless, it is not surprising that it should be the residence of much that is dangerous.

During the time of your bath you should close the windows of your room to exclude the cold draughts—in any part of the country where the atmosphere moves over two miles per hour—but not the sun. After this lower or raise your window to the height or level of the eyes, and proceed to enjoy a breathing exercise. This is done by first exhausting all the air from the lungs through the mouth, then inhale, slowly, through the nasal organs to the full capacity of the lungs. Do this three times or more each morning. If your lungs are not too weak, tap with your fingers on your chest while it is inflated. This will tend to develop your capacity of breathing wonderfully. The gentle percussion thus effected is quite exhilarating. Practice yourself also in holding your breath for a prolonged interval, but always draw in air through your nostrils; they strain out all impurities.

You are now ready for your breakfast; but, perhaps you say, I am a workingman and have not the time. To such I would reply: I go through all these duties in one hour's time, and if belated I accomplish it in forty minutes. If I have to take a train at 5 a. m., I see that I am called at 4 a. m., at least, and enjoy my regular time for toilet. I would advise those of you who think you have not time, to go to bed that much earlier. Even if you are to travel, by using my method of preparation you will not experience that tired, disagreeable, restless feeling that will otherwise come. You all know how intensely that feeling acts to destroy all your pleasure until the day is half over and it is worn away. Employ common-sense ways and you will be as fresh at 6 as at 12 o'clock. Your lips will not be blue, your skin cold, your teeth unclean, your mouth dry, your eyes red, and your whole self out of sorts as it were.

CHAPTER V.

"Of right choice food are his meals, I ween."

Now as to what you should eat, what you should not eat, and how you should eat. This is perhaps the greatest problem for a man to solve. A man with a bad digestive apparatus is practically an invalid. We have no hesitation in saying that there is as much bodily injury done by over and careless eating among people commonly called temperate as among those who drink alcoholic liquors to a large extent. If you would preserve your vital strength and capabilities for a happy, long period, mind your diet. Don't rest too much on the insane idea that you have a stomach of iron and that you can digest shingle nails. You are not a species of the genus ostrich, or goat. Then if you really do possess organs that can take care of all kinds of food, their splendid power should not be destroyed or even weakened by improper indulgence. The mightiest engine is soon as valueless as old iron if it is continually exerted to its greatest velocity. If inanimate mechanism cannot stand a permanent strain surely bodily flesh would be quickly disabled.

Some foods are particularly muscle formers, others produce fat, and still others brain and nerve, while most of the common articles of diet combine these uses in varying degrees.

But the question to cover our entire physical needs requires to be broadened into this: What combination of food will best nourish the body? Even then the answer must be modified to suit individual cases, for the digestive power differs greatly in different persons. Moreover, there is an interdependence between the different bodily organs and tissues, so that the body must be built up as a whole. If one part lacks the whole suffers, and if one part is overfed the others will be underfed.

Thus a person who becomes unduly fat loses in muscular fiber, either in quantity or quality. One who overfeeds the brain loses in muscular strength. So, too, muscular development may be carried to such excess as to impoverish the brain, and also to reduce the fat of the body below what is necessary both as surplus food laid up for emergencies, and as a protection against sudden changes of temperature.

The best food for producing muscle, therefore, must, while being duly appetizing, contain a large per cent of nitrates for the muscles, of phosphates for the brain and nerves, and of carbonates for the fat.

Of nitrates, beans stand at 24 per cent, then peas at 22, cabbage and salmon at 20, oats at 17, eggs and veal at 16, and beef at 15.

Of phosphates, salmon stands first at 7, then codfish at 6, beef and eggs at 5, beans and veal at 4, and cabbage, peas, and oats at 3.

Of carbonates, butter stands at the head at 100, rice at 80, corn and rye at 72, wheat at 69, oats at 66, peas at 60, beans at 57, and cabbage at 46.

Fresh codfish fried in fat or served with butter gravy about equals beef in all respects, and so do eggs fried in fat. But we must add:—

The mere eating of food cannot make muscle. The muscles must be called into vigorous daily exercise, yet without overdoing.

Excessive eating is weakening, and must be avoided. It is the amount digested and assimilated that tells, not the quantity taken into the stomach.

All the laws of health must be steadily observed. We are in favor of a diet that excludes meat entirely; and once a day should be the excess of those who indulge in the flesh-eating luxury. A suspicion that there is a difference between merely getting food down into the stomach and its digestion, is abroad, and that a peach, an orange, an apple, a spoonful of flour, or something similar, which is digested, is really better for a man than a beefsteak, which simply passes through the alimentary canal. See "Food" for further consideration of vegetarianism.

For breakfast have any of the numerous preparations of mush, such as oatmeal, cracked wheat, and germea, every other day some kind of fish; of the miscellaneous, potatoes baked or boiled, eggs poached, boiled, or omelette, and natural fruit; of drinks, water, filtered or boiled, and not below 56° Fahr., milk, pure and sweet but not cream, cocoa, chocolate, tea, or coffee. These are good and beneficial in the order they are placed. The following from the N. Y. Medical Record is invaluable information:—

"Stimulants (drink most healthful).—Milk heated to much above 100 degrees Fahrenheit loses for a time a degree of its sweetness and density. No one who, fatigued by over-exertion of body or mind, has ever experienced the reviving influence of a tumbler of this beverage, heated as warm as it can be sipped, will willingly forego a resort to it because of its being rendered somewhat less acceptable to the palate. The promptness with which its cordial influence is felt is indeed surprising. Some portion of it seems to be digested and appropriated almost immediately, and many who now fancy they need alcoholic stimulants when exhausted by fatigue will find in this simple draught an equivalent that will be abundantly satisfying and far more enduring in its effects. There is many an ignorant overworked woman who fancies she could not keep up without her beer; she mistakes its momentary exhilaration for strength, and applies the whip instead of nourishment to her poor, exhausted frame. Any honest, intelligent physician will tell her that there is more real strength and nourishment in a slice of bread than in a quart of beer; but if she loves stimulants it would be a very useless piece of information. It is claimed that some of the lady clerks in our own city, and those too who are employed in respectable business houses, are in the habit of ordering ale or beer at the restaurants. They probably claim that they are 'tired,' and no one who sees their faithful devotion to customers all day will doubt their assertions. But they should not mistake beer for a blessing or stimulus for strength. A careful examination of statistics will prove that men and women who do not drink can endure more hardships, and do more work, and live longer, than those less temperate."

If you must eat meat for breakfast, have your steak rare, mutton chops well done; if fish, always well done; and if each are fried, use butter, not lard—the same applies to everything else that has to be fried. All meats are sweeter and more healthful broiled than fried. Of bread, for health, natural graham comes first; and, in order of nutrition, corn, corn and wheat mixed, rye, and wheat. They should be taken cold and at least twenty-four hours after baking. If the midday meal is a lunch, all dishes should be cold. It can be made up largely from dishes left over from the morning meal, such as cold cracked wheat with milk, natural fruit; add nuts, sauces, jellies, and prepared fruit.

If dinner is taken at noon instead of lunch at that hour, any one of the score of vegetable soups are first in value; all other kinds are secondary; let there be from three to six kinds of vegetables cooked; any of the drinks mentioned for breakfast may be used, but none of them iced; cold bread, and no pastry unless an open pie with unshortened undercrust. An excellent morsel for dyspeptics is sea biscuit dipped in cold water and then placed in a hot oven from three to five minutes. If meat is to be a portion of this meal, you can have beef, mutton, or venison, roasted or broiled, the former rare, and the two latter well done. Provided dinner is enjoyed at the close of the day, it should occur before 5:30 p. m.; if at midday, then the lunch meal can be renamed supper, and can be partaken of as late as 6 or 7 p. m. Let there be no eating two meals for Sundays and holidays, and three for other days, or indulging in them at later hours in the morning and earlier in the evening; for this irregularity will detriment more than many kinds of improper food.

Do not eat fresh pork, for this and every other kind of swine flesh is an abomination. Eat no kidney, liver, or tripe; deal sparingly with fowl and all the bird family. Outside impure water and uncleanliness, there can be but one cause for skin diseases, eczema, boils, and the dread leprosy, which is the eating of pork, kidney, liver, duck, etc. If the lion indiscriminately kills and eats all kinds of flesh, and thereby is made ferocious, if the lamb is rendered passive and inoffensive by grasses and grains, then what the swine or different domestic fowls eat must have something to do with the make-up of the flesh of their bodies. The hog is the most filthy animal of that nature, while chicken and duck are the most so in the line of fowls used by man for food. It is offensive but true that they will not only eat but relish both their own and man's excrement.

We cannot use space foolishly, if we show plainly why pork should be abandoned. Did you ever stop to think on what most swine live? Swill is the most common term for it. Anything and everything that is the refuse of a boarding-house will they eagerly devour. Give them rotten apples and potatoes, full of innumerable microbes, and they will relish the repast. Place them in a dung heap—they will root, and eat much of what they find. Now all meat, all flesh and tissue, is made from what an animal or person eats—if he doesn't eat he grows thin and starves. Then the hog's flesh is made from elements derived from swill, decayed substances, and everything either cooked, uncooked, or even digested, that man is through with or has cast off. You who eat pork relish that which once you have refused to eat—only in another form. Can you enjoy this meat when you consider all this? Surely its use means bad health and contamination. Skin diseases and poor complexions are found almost entirely among those who live on these improper foods. Again, even if you feed swine on clean corn, milk, and water, we ascertain by careful experiment and examination that pork is most susceptible to bacteria of almost any meat. Better boycott it altogether. Leprosy and skin troubles are found largely among pork-eating people—such as the inhabitants of the Hawaiian Islands, where there are 749 lepers. On the other hand, Jews, who everywhere are marked with clear skins, avoid pork. In Constantinople there are 250 lepers, in Crete upwards of 3,000, and quantities in the islands of eastern Mediterranean Sea, and 1,000 in Norway. These places are all characterized by the great amount of pork, and duck too, that they consume.

Other things not good for invalids, and will make strong persons invalids, are: Fried potatoes, hot cakes, warm bread, pound cake, green cucumbers, and rich pie-crust. Eat only those things that will excite the salivary glands to assist digestion. The walls, not the center of the alimentary canal, need attention.

Have your soup cool enough so that it will not cause tears in your eyes when you swallow—same with your coffee, tea, and other warm drinks; take no ice drinks; if you are used to having water only with your meals, drink it warm with sugar and milk, and not hot. If you are obliged to live in a second-class boarding-house or restaurant, and are obliged to take one of three meals each day at such a place, insist on having a napkin. Use it first to wipe your glass for water, then follow by polishing every utensil set before you for use at your meal. If note is taken of the napkin before and after each meal, you will be able by a mathematical calculation to tell just how much real estate did not belong to you.

How you should eat: Begin with one swallow of cool water. Eat slowly; take full 20 minutes for a hurried meal, and 45 minutes when you have the time. If you eat beefsteak, have it rare; if mutton chops, have them well done; if fish, well done and brown; if potatoes, first choice, baked; second, boiled; third, stewed or mashed. Never eat decayed vegetables or fruit; have them fresh or do without them. At table, see that the conversation is pleasant and mirthful. Should any of the younger members of the family insist, at each meal, in changing this order of things, cause them for a short season to sit at a separate table in the kitchen, until this sort of disease—for disease it is—may be cured. Nothing retards digestion, brings dyspepsia, or creates neuralgia, to such extent as a sullen disposition. We will end this chapter with a remarkably bright paraphrase on the ten commandments, which we recently ran across:—

THE TEN HEALTH COMMANDMENTS.

"1. Thou shalt have no other food than at meal-time.

"2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any pies, or put into pastry the likeness of anything that is in the heavens above or in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt not fall to eating it or trying to digest it. For the dyspepsia will be visited upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that eat pie; and long life and vigor upon those that live prudently and keep the laws of health.

"3. Remember thy bread to bake it well; for he will not be kept sound that eateth his bread as dough.

"4. Thou shalt not indulge sorrow or borrow anxiety in vain.

"5. Six days shalt thou wash and keep thyself clean, and the seventh thou shalt take a great bath; thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, and the stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days man sweats and gathers filth and bacteria enough for disease; wherefore the Lord has blessed the bath-tub and hallowed it.

"6. Remember thy sitting-room and bed-chamber to keep them ventilated, that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

"7. Thou shalt not eat hot biscuit.

"8. Thou shalt not eat thy meat fried.

"9. Thou shalt not swallow thy food unchewed, or highly spiced, or just before hard work, or just after it.

"10. Thou shalt not keep late hours in thy neighbor's house, nor with thy neighbor's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his cards, nor his glass, nor with anything that is thy neighbor's."—New England Farmer.

With the use of the foregoing as a guide, and ordinary judgment in the affairs with your fellow-men, life will run smoothly, happiness will follow, and a long life be the result.

CHAPTER VI.

"Let the jewel of happiness poise in the setting of health."

If you are a reader of this work to find out a cure for consumption, catarrh, bronchitis, constipation, hemorrhoids or piles, hernia or rupture, rheumatism, fever and ague, cataracts on the eyes, warts on the hands, corns on the feet, and how to abstain from drink and tobacco in all injurious forms, we will try and not disappoint you. Under the head of each disease above named, see index and second part. We offer you a remedy. All of these troubles I have had (and a score not mentioned), of the entire list of which I am now free completely. In short, the whole number of diseases that beset the human family can be cured by care, cleanliness, regularity, fresh air, cold water used internally, and by compress, proper clothing, right food, regular exercise, an even disposition, a clear conscience, intelligent and agreeable associates, and a reasonable amount of time.

It took me 30 years, 25 of which I spent ascertaining the way. If someone could have informed me, as this book does you, I would have enjoyed full health twenty-five years earlier than I did. Anyone observing the rules I have recounted can restore a broken-down constitution in less than 5 years—yes, even if one foot is already in the grave! Soon you will begin to lift it out, and it will be a long period before you will take that step again. I do not exaggerate when I state that I had both feet in the grave. Fortunately, however, my head was above-ground, and I began to reason how to get the rest of myself away. The secret was discovered, the causes set to work, and finally the end achieved. To use another figure, my coffin had many nails already driven in it when I secured a clincher, pulled them all out, and then split up the old wooden hulk to make fires with which to start the steam of my new energies.

All of my time is employed. I do some sort of laborious work every day to start my blood coursing vigorously, and open the pores of my skin. By a proper adjustment of my under-clothing, I prevent a cold, and am always ready with a good appetite when meal-time comes. I have never studied Anatomy, Medicine, or Surgery, know but little about the niceties of the English language, but I have studied the Materia Medica of myself, and am aware of just what is beneficial and what is injurious for me.

There is a duty each individual owes to his fellow-man, each municipal corporation to its citizens, and each State and general government to those over whom they preside. Every individual should strive to see how much distress he can relieve during his short stay on this earth; how few thorns he has to place in the pathway of others, and how many drops of oil he can pour on the disturbed waters of the ocean of life.

Accidents that are preventable, caused by carelessness, laziness, and ignorance, cost more money, suffering, and life than viciousness and incendiarism, in the ratio of 3 to 1. Every man who builds a mill, manufactory, or a business block, makes his own rate of insurance.

A slight variation in the construction of a building, the omission of certain details, the wrong location of hazardous machinery or materials, or the neglect of cleanliness and order, may very seriously affect the fire hazard, and consequently the rate of insurance which must necessarily attach to the property.

The Fire Losses in the United States amount to $125,000,000 per annum, and the great mass of this enormous loss is chargeable to bad construction of buildings, the lack of necessary apparatus for extinguishing fires, and carelessness in the management of property. The unavoidable losses are few in number; the avoidable, many. Insurance companies restore no value, repair no loss; they can only distribute the loss throughout the community. Careless, ignorant, annihilative, is the term to be applied to 75% of the fire losses. The destruction of life by accidents, where immediate death follows, in the United States is large; but, in comparison with those that assist in shortening life, they are about in the ratio of 1 to 100. Only such persons as have undoubted integrity, coupled with order, cleanliness, and carefulness should be allowed to insure their property, and this should be restricted by law. A certain sect in our population that now have to be charged from 50 to 100% more for insurance than other people, should be stricken from the list of the insured, until they have by personal action abolished this difference in risk.

When the time comes that only such persons as attend to all the details of cleanliness and prevention of the loss of property and health can be insured, the cost will be reduced 50%. Until we are willing, or educated up to that point, to protect our neighbors' lives and property as if they were ours, we must expect to pay this 50% more for everything we have, use, drink, eat, and wear. Longevity will be restricted in the same proportion. Hundreds of accidents would be prevented by proper care. Throwing foolishly the match, cigar, cigarette, etc., any and everywhere, causes great loss of property, and often life; the unthinking eat oranges and bananas in the street and cast underfoot the rinds and skins to cause the next moment the dislocation of a limb, or broken skull. Over 500 accidents have occurred in this city alone during the last 5 years, occasioned by some sort of vegetable or fruit refuse lying upon the pavements; fatal results, though not all immediate, happened to 15 persons, and a number were maimed for life. Broken bottles and glass thrown into the street and on the sidewalks bring about at times frightful accidents to both man and beast; and if a correct report could be had from each livery-man and teamster in this regard, it would startle the most inhuman of our race.

The tax-payer has a tendency to be selfish when he is really doing himself severe injury. It is a case of reflex action. In passing along a thoroughfare he sees a banana skin lying on the sidewalk. He cannot possibly stop or trouble himself to push it into the gutter. Almost immediately another man comes along, steps on the skin, slips, breaks his leg, and is carried to the hospital. He remains there a month, supported by the city, that is, by money paid by the same tax-payer. In this manner, and other ways, can every man act, both selfishly or unselfishly. If selfish in passing this by, it is sure to come back on him a hundred-fold to the original trouble required. His unselfishness will consist in saving his fellow-men from danger by removing the cause. Indeed, he will be selfish if he casts it off for the sake of decreasing his taxation, but such selfish unselfishness will be gladly excused.

Garbage thrown out of back doors or under neighbors' steps creates contagion, and in time the thoughtless individuals fall a prey to their own carelessness. Three out of every five men and five out of every hundred women are ruptured as a result of their own or somebody else's recklessness.

On the top of nearly every house in the section where artesian water is used, there is a tank to receive water for various purposes about each dwelling; much of this is employed for drinking and culinary uses. Without any attempt at a sensation, we pronounce this box or tank a death trap! There is not a clean one in this whole great city, that has an outside exposure, and 9 out of every 10 are reeking with filth. Having had occasion to investigate several I am convinced that they average alike. If so, there are at least 500 tons of concentrated filth playing the part of filters in the tanks of this city alone at this writing! And there is every reason to believe that this city is as clean as the average. Provided this is so, there is enough of such refuse in the United States to dam the Mississippi River many times and build a levee across Lake Erie.

Health officers may keep their own tanks clean in the future, but if individuals desire health and abolition of the need of Health Boards, let them keep their own tanks, back yards, streets, and pavements neat. Municipal corporations should prevent by law the throwing of any kind of rubbish into the streets, and make it a misdemeanor for the proprietors allowing any of their mercantile houses, work-shops, or residences to be found filthy, and there are thousands of them in this city. To avoid accidents, every man, woman, and child should be compelled to pass to their right on the street. Every person in every city not having a legitimate vocation in the eyes of the law, nor an income from property or money in the bank, should, if criminally inclined, be sent to the House of Correction. If poor and willing to work, they ought to be put to work in the public streets and in the parks, to beautify them, for the benefit of the frugal classes. No begging should be allowed, under penalty of imprisonment. That a city may escape being overrun by country tramps, their entrance should be quarantined.

To stop contagion, public crematories should be established and cremation of the human and animal bodies be compulsory. If the principal church and secret organizations will now change their rituals so as to permit of the incineration of the bodies of their deceased members, the world will have advanced 100 years before the close of this century and the average duration of life at that date will have increased from 34.8 to 40 years. It is needful that the false sentiment regarding the disposition of our dead should undergo a complete revolution. There could probably be no better aid to this end than a general investigation of the mortuary records of the towns and cities of the globe, by proper officials, the facts and discoveries of whom should be given all possible publicity. An hundred or so years ago this was not so much a matter of importance as now, with a greater and increasing density of population, by virtue of which a great portion of the habitable earth is fast becoming a mass of putrifying corruption, that will involve at no distant time the world in pestilence, woe, and desolation.

The recent official return on the condition of the London cemeteries is, or should be, sufficient to cause all reasonable persons to cry out for the crematory. In Brompton Cemetery, with an area of twenty-eight and three-fourths of an acre, there have been buried in less than fifty years one hundred and fifty-five thousand bodies. In Tower Hamlets Cemetery, with twelve acres less, in about the same time, the number is two hundred and forty-seven thousand.

When it is remembered how perfectly unfitted the soil of these districts is for burial purposes, together with the means so largely employed for preventing speedy decomposition, one may readily imagine the danger that menaces those above this still-increasing mass of sub-pollution.

Multiply the condition of the London suburbs by several hundred thousand more, and then ponder the product! Talk about sanitary regulations, when our public health laws are violated thus, and the air and water poisoned as a result of the superstitious custom of body burial! When pestilence stalks abroad, it is said to be planetary influence or divine wrath! The following from the Springfield Republican will indicate the current of public opinion:—

"That the custom of burying the dead is bound to be superseded by more scientific and economical methods, especially in the centers of population, may be seen in the reanimation of the old scheme of desiccation by New York capitalists. These men are not yet ready to accept cremation. Their project is to build mausoleums as substitutes for cemeteries, where the body will be subjected to the absorbent action of currents of pure, dry air, which will prevent decomposition, and, by thoroughly exhausting the body of moisture and gases, carry away all germs of disease. These air currents, thus laden, will then pass through furnaces, where all noxious elements will be destroyed. The lifeless form will be reduced in weight about two-thirds and nearly one-half in size. Resting in a sepulcher, it may then be preserved for an indefinite period. As explained in detail, with particulars of the beauty of the buildings thrown in, this scheme has advantages compared with the undesirable method in vogue, though it is less thorough and simple than cremation. A promoter of the enterprise in speaking of the desiccated body says that 'although shrunken, still, with the semblance of life, it is an object that the eye of affection can look upon without a shock, and the sanitarian can think of without a shudder.' In essence, however, the scheme is simply a concession to a public, not yet educated to the idea of cremation. While appropriating enough of the latter system to solve the question of public health, it caters to the human sentimentalities in preserving at half size the dead form. Upon these sentiments, summed up as the 'instinct of humanity,' the promoters of the new system base their hopes of profit. Besides advancing in its favor all the arguments used for cremation, its friends add that in the desiccating process no danger can exist of suspended animation escaping notice."

Public fountains should be established in every other block of cities or towns having over 1,000 inhabitants, with best-devised filters known, so that both man and beast could enjoy pure water to drink, free for the taking. During epidemics it should be not only compulsory in municipalities to have water filtered in each house before drinking, but it should be boiled. Every house ought to have a filter. If you cannot afford a $40 one, you can secure one for 40 cents.

CHAPTER VII.

"Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,
As to be hated, needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace."
"But evil is wrought by want of thought
As well as by want of heart."

The following extract from the report of the Grand Jury of this city, given publicity December 5, 1889, is self-explanatory:—

"Some of the dives and variety theaters are the nurseries of vice and crime, where drunkenness is encouraged, our youth demoralized, the unwary roped in and robbed, and crimes committed which the authorities are unable to prevent or discover. There is, of course, a broad distinction to be noted between those places of public resort where the demand for distilled, fermented, and malt liquors is supplied in a legitimate manner, and the entertainment provided, if any, is not of an objectionable character, and those places where salacious performances are presented as an attraction, and lewd women, under the guise of waitresses to serve liquors, pursue a shameful vocation. These evils may be partly remedied if respectable citizens will refuse to rent their property for such uses, and also refuse to assist in obtaining licenses whereby such headquarters for drunkenness, lewdness, and crime are in a measure entrenched behind existing general laws.

"The so-called 'social evil' is aggressive on our thoroughfares, and should be restrained by the authorities within narrower limits."

But we add our interpretation and our suggestions for these twin evils which stalk up and down the earth and apparently defy control.

The minister treats lightly upon the liquor traffic, in many instances because certain of his church members either sell it at wholesale, retail, or furnish the barley, corn, grapes, hops, or rent to the man who does. The editors of all newspapers of general circulation must treat the subject likewise, for fear of his advertising patrons. His readers are never taken into account, for the simple reason that circulation alone does not pay newspapers issued daily, and very few that are issued weekly. It will be seen by the above report that the grand jurymen too have vital interests at stake. In order to keep their respective businesses from being boycotted by their fellow-merchants, they handle the subject with soft gloves, as if it were eggs, and the "social evil" by this same jury is done up in nineteen words. But they have indicated a great deal in those few words, namely, that such an evil does exist—something the different church organizations have refused to acknowledge.

High license, with personal responsibility for results, under a sufficient bond, will in time remedy the liquor traffic.

The social evil should be licensed, and under the perfect control of the police—and not the police under its control, as seems to be the case in this city. Are they not under pay to look the other way? Its boundaries should be exact, isolated, and under the direct supervision of the health department. Is there any justice in demanding a license of a milliner, or on any other mercantile pursuit that a female may see fit to adopt, while 5,000 of these questionable women go untaxed, because you do not dare to acknowledge that their calling exists? To ask the question is to answer it—No!! Let no one think that in any way whatever we would seem to unduly countenance, or in the least encourage, this evil. But we do believe in recognizing absolute facts. They cannot be overlooked. It is surprising that, amidst all this widespread discussion of intemperance, no more has been said on this social problem. As long as men are mortal, this condition of relations will exist—it has existed through all time—but it is possible to limit it, to heavily license it, and keep it within proper bounds.

Then by all means should churches and various kinds of societies exert their influence to the legal recognition of the true status, and benefit the general condition of mankind. Boards of supervisors, aldermen, etc., are clothed with power to accomplish the ends suggested, if they are only backed by public sentiment.

If the Catholic Church organization alone will inaugurate a general agitation over the country, as they have already indicated and begun in their convention at Baltimore, on the liquor traffic, they will either break it up or put it under control; for 60% of this business is carried on by their following.

Public urinals are greater necessities than public fountains in cities and large towns. The alarming increase of diabetes and kidney troubles in cities during the last few years, while remaining normal, or actually decreasing in the rural districts, has led to the belief that the prolonged detention of the urine is the principal, and, in most cases, the only cause of this terrible malady. The foregoing facts recapitulated exhibit a few of the ills of mankind that are in the power of municipal officials to alleviate. The duties of the general government cover all of the above, and include the prevention of all criminals and paupers of every nation from landing on our shores; the compulsory education of all citizens old and young—as it is cheaper to educate than to punish criminals; to furnish employment upon all useful and needed public works for the worthy, willing poor, and cause to be distributed with equity to the deserving, all the earnings of the criminal institutions of the country, over and above their actual expenses.

It will not be out of place to complete this chapter with a few words on the necessity of giving man and beast one day in seven to rest. Sunday seems to be the preferable one, but to compel the observance of one particular day in each week for all classes and sects would be tyrannical. The majority of religious societies employ Sunday for worship and rest, but, throwing aside the moral and religious bearing, every human being would be healthier, happier, and live longer, if he rested one day in the week. We all live too fast. Though we enjoy laziness at times, yet we are too anxious to get riches or fame earlier than we ought or can. A man may work so mightily that he will be very wealthy at 40 instead of 50, but he will die at 70 instead of 80. Better prolong life by reserving forces for the future.

CHAPTER VIII.

"For a man's house is his castle."

After individual cleanliness and regularity, erect your next house in which you intend to live, or that you expect to rent to another, or remodel your present residence, to correspond with the following:—

Sanitary House.—It should stand facing the sun, on dry soil, in a wide, clean, amply-sewered, substantially-paved street, over a deep, thoroughly ventilated and lighted cellar. The floor of the cellar should be cemented, the walls and ceilings plastered and thickly whitewashed with lime every year, that the house may not act as a chimney to draw up into its chambers micro-organisms from the earth. If your lot is situated so that you cannot face your house either east or south, construct the rooms in such a way that your parlors and sleeping apartments will receive the sun at least 3 hours during the day. All windows should extend from floor to ceiling, adjusted to let down from the top, and in position to secure as much as possible of the through currents of air. The outside walls, if of wood or brick, should be kept thickly painted, not to shut out penetrating air, but for the sake of dryness. All inside walls should be plastered smooth, painted, and, however unaesthetic, varnished. Mantels should be of marble, plate, iron, or, if wood, plain, and, whether natural, painted, or stained, varnished.

Interior wood-work, including floors, should all show plain surfaces and be likewise treated. No paper on the walls, no carpets on the floors, but movable rugs, which can be shaken daily in the open air—not at doors or out of windows, where dust is blown back into rooms—should cover the floors. White linen shades, which will soon show the necessity of washing, should protect the windows. All furniture should be plain, with cane seats, without upholstery. Mattresses should be covered with oiled silk. Blankets, sheets, and spreads—no comforts or quilts—should constitute the bedding.

Of plumbing there should be as little as is necessary, and all there is must be exposed.

The inhabited rooms should be heated only with open fires, the cellar and halls by radiated heat, or, better, by a hot-air furnace, which shall take its fresh air from above the top of the house and not from the cellar itself or the surface of the earth, where micro-organisms most abound. Let there be no annual house cleaning, but keep it clean all the time, and have it gone through thoroughly at least four times per year.

Of course a corner lot is always preferable, but how often it is supposed that the benefit consists alone in a commanding position, in a chance for architectural display, when the greatest boon is the increased opportunity for sunlight. The atmosphere of a room where the sun never shines is never agreeable or healthful. Science has taught us that the sun is the source of all life. It will effect more than tons of disinfectants and chemicals to purge and sweeten the air of a house. Let the building be exposed to the south, and keep shade trees from checking the sun too much. Verandas and broad piazzas often do as much harm as they give pleasure—especially if they are all covered with vines. Be more careful about plumbing than people are wont to be. Do not practice economy by trying to cut down plumbing bills. When a contractor agrees to erect a house, either withhold this part from him or see that he employs the most skilled labor. Ventilation cannot be slighted, for upon it health greatly depends. If you can in any way afford it, use incandescent electric light instead of gas or oil. The reason is a powerful one. An ordinary gas jet destroys as much pure air and oxygen as five men—a good-sized oil lamp equal to three men. Add to this the heat that comes from such methods, and we see the strong advantage of the incandescent electric light. This vitiates no air, gives off no perceptible heat. Though there are stories that electric lights injure the eyes, from careful observation we find that it hurts the eyes of the majority no more than any artificial light.

The Sanitary News urges people not to paper or paint the interior walls of houses. Arsenical poisons are used in coloring wall paper. Mold collects in flour paste used in fastening paper to walls, absorbing moisture and germs of disease. Glue also disintegrates, so that any friction removes small particles, to which germs attach and float in the air. Undecorated walls, ugly as they are, the News insists are the only healthy ones to live within.

Dr. Cushing, of this city, thus ends his lecture on "Healthful Houses":—

"The essentials then of good house building are, first, a dry soil, a good foundation, exposure to the sun, and, next, good plumbing by reputable men at whatever cost necessary for first-class work, warming and ventilating by open grates rather than by steam heaters and stoves, clean floors and clean walls; and now, if there be no decomposition of animal or vegetable matter allowed in the immediate vicinity of the house, we shall have done the best that the present state of science will permit toward making our houses healthful."

The Hotel Del Monte is the only perfectly clean hotel in America. It is located at Monterey, Cal., not over a quarter of a mile from the ocean. The prevailing winds are from the sea and would naturally blow over the sands towards the house. Now the cause of dirt has virtually been killed by the planting of trees, brush, and by the laying of asphaltum walks and sod-ground drives on this windward side. The only dirt is that which is brought there by travelers—this is easily kept down. The moral is here: If possible prevent dust and dirt by stopping the cause.

CHAPTER IX.

"Let this great maxim be my virtue's guide."

As we are hastily reading books and papers we continually come across maxims, epigrams, and short, pithy sayings that attract us. We wish we could not only remember them, but also often put them in practice, but they slip our mind and actions almost immediately. From time to time the author has collected fruit from the vast field of health of its kindred subjects, and placed the best of them in this book for the reader's careful consideration. Among the multitude of "Don'ts" for politeness are the following for health alone:—

"Don't endeavor to rest the mind by absolute inactivity; let it seek its rest in work in other channels, and thus rest the tired part of the brain.

"Don't delude yourself into the belief that you are an exception as far as sleep is concerned; the normal average of sleep is eight hours.

"Don't allow your servants to put meat and vegetables in the same compartments of the refrigerator.

"Don't keep the parlor dark unless you value your carpet more than your and your children's health.

"Don't forget that moral defects are as often the cause as they are the effects of physical faults.

"Don't direct special mental or physical energies to more than eight hours' work in each day.

"Don't neglect to have your dentist examine your teeth at least every three months.

"Don't read, write, or do any delicate work unless receiving the light from the left side.

"Don't pamper the appetite with such variety of food that may lead to excess.

"Don't read in street-cars or other jolting vehicles.

"Don't eat or drink hot and cold things immediately in succession.

"Don't pick the teeth with pins or any other hard substance.

"Don't sleep in a room provided with stationary washstands.

"Don't neglect any opportunity to insure a variety of food."

There are many things we should never do. Among them are:—

"Never go to bed with cold or damp feet.

"Never lean with the back upon anything that is cold.

"Never begin a journey until the breakfast has been eaten.

"Never take warm drinks and then immediately go out in the cold.

"Never ride in an open carriage or near the window of a car for a moment after exercise; it is dangerous to health or even life.

"Never omit regular bathing, for unless the skin is in regular condition the cold will close the pores and favor congestion or other diseases.

"Never stand still in cold weather, especially after having taken a slight degree of exercise."

Perhaps among the following you may find succinctly stated what will be of eminent value:—

"Focus your brain as you would a burning-glass. Butter enough for a slice won't do for a whole loaf.

"Keep empty-headed between times. Mental furniture should be very select. Useless lumber in the upper story is worse than a pocketful of oyster shells. Leave your facts on your book shelves, where you can find them when wanted. A walking encyclopedia cannot work for want of room to turn round in his own head.

"Don't tax your memory. Make a memorandum, and put it in your pocket. Every unnecessary thought is a waste of effective force.

"Don't believe that muscular exercise contracts head work. Brain and muscle are bung-hole and spigot of the same barrel. It is poor economy to keep both running.

"Pin your faith to the genius of hard work. It is the safest, most reliable, and most manageable sort of genius.

"Amuse yourself. This is the first principle of good hard work. And the second is like unto it.

"Don't work too much. It is quantity, not quality, that kills. Therefore, work only in the day-time. Night was made for sleep. And loaf on Sunday. Six days' work earns the right to go a-fishing, or to church, or to any harmless diversion, on the seventh.

"Go to work promptly, but slowly. A late, hurried start keeps you out of breath all day trying to catch up.

"When you stop work forget it. It spoils brains to simmer after a hard boil.

"Feed regularly, largely, and slowly. Lose no meal; approach it respectfully and give it gratefully. No more can be got out of a man than is put into him.

"Sleep one-third of your whole life. How I hate the moralist who croaks over time wasted in sleep. Besides, sleep is, on the whole, the most satisfactory mode of existence."

Misconceivements.—"There are a number of mistakes made even by wise people while passing through life. Prominent among them is the idea that you must labor when you are not in a fit condition to do so; to think that the more a person eats the healthier and stronger he will become; to go to bed at midnight and rise at daybreak, and imagine that every hour taken from sleep is an hour gained; to imagine that, if a little work or exercise is good, violent and prolonged exercise is better; to conclude that the smallest room in the house is large enough to sleep in; to eat as if you had only a moment to finish a meal in, or to eat without any appetite, or to continue after it has been satisfied, merely to please the taste; to believe that children can do as much work as grown people, and that the more hours they study the more they learn; to imagine that whatever remedy causes one to feel immediately better (as alcoholic stimulants) is good for the system, without regard to the after-effects; to take off proper clothing out of season because you have become heated; to sleep exposed to a direct draught; to think any nostrum or patent medicine is a specific for all the diseases flesh is heir to."

Weariness.—"A tramp knows what it is to be leg-weary, a farm laborer to be body-weary, a literary man to be brain-weary, and a sorrowing man to be soul-weary. The sick are often weary of life itself. Weariness is generally a physiological 'ebb-tide,' which time and patience will convert into a 'flow'. It is never well to whip or spur a worn-out horse, except in the direst straits. If he mends his pace in obedience to the stimulus, every step is a drop drawn from his life-blood. Idleness is not one of the faults of the present age; weariness is one of the commonest experiences. The checks that many a man draws on his physiological resources are innumerable; and, as these resources are strictly limited, like any other ordinary banking account, it is very easy to bring about a balance on the wrong side. Adequate rest is one kind of repayment to the bank, sound sleep is another, regular eating and good digestion another. One day's holiday in the week and one or two months in the year for those who work exceptionally hard usually bring the credit balance to a highly favorable condition; and thus with care and management physiological solvency is secured and maintained."

"What Produces Death.—Someone says that few men die of age. Almost all persons die of disappointment, personal, mental, or bodily toil, or accident. The passions kill men sometimes even suddenly. The common expression, 'choked with passion,' has little exaggeration in it, for even though not suddenly fatal, strong passions shorten life. Strong-bodied men often die young; weak men live longer than the strong, for the strong use their strength and the weak have none to use. The latter take care of themselves, the former do not. As it is with the body, so it is with the mind and temper. The strong are apt to break, or, like the candle, run; the weak burn out. The inferior animals, which live temperate lives, have generally their prescribed term of years. The horse lives 25 years, the ox 15 or 20, the lion about 20, the hog 10 or 12, the rabbit 8, the guinea-pig 6 or 7. The numbers all bear proportion to the time the animal takes to grow to its full size. But man, of all animals, is one that seldom comes up to the average. He ought to live a hundred years, according to the physiological law, for five times 20 are 100; but instead of that he scarcely reaches an average of four times the growing period. The reason is obvious—man is not only the most irregular and most intemperate, but the most laborious and hard-working of all animals. He is always the most irritable of all animals, and there is reason to believe, though we cannot tell what an animal secretly feels, that more than any other animal man cherishes wrath to keep it warm, and consumes himself with the fire of his own reflections."

Provided you have babies in your family go through the following and see if you can't train your child so it shall be among the last seventeen mentioned:—

"Take your pencil and follow me, while we figure on what will happen to the 1,000,000 of babies that will have been born in the last 1,000,000 seconds.

"I believe that is about the average—'one every time the clock ticks.'

"One year hence, if statistics don't belie us, we will have lost 150,000 of these little 'prides of the household.'

"A year later 53,000 more will be keeping company with those that have gone before.

"At the end of the third year we find that 22,000 more have dropped by the wayside.

"The fourth year they have become rugged little darlings, not nearly so susceptible to infantile diseases, only 8,000 having succumbed to the rigors imposed by the master.

"By the time they have arrived at the age of twelve years but a paltry few hundred leave the track each year.

"After threescore years have come and gone we find less trouble in counting the army with which we started in the fall of 1889.

"Of the 1,000,000 with which we began our count, but 370,000 remain; 630,000 have gone the way of all the world, and the remaining few have forgotten that they ever existed. At the end of eighty, or, taking our mode of reckoning, by the year 1969 a. d., there are still 97,000 gray-haired, shaky old grannies and grandfathers, toothless, hairless, and happy.

"In the year 1984 our 1,000,000 babies with which we started in 1889 will have dwindled to an insignificant 223 helpless old wrecks, 'stranded on the shores of time.'

"In 1992 all but seventeen have left this mundane sphere forever, while the last remaining wreck will probably, in seeming thoughtlessness, watch the sands filter through the hour-glass of time, and die in the year 1997 at the age of one hundred and eight.

"What a bounteous supply of food for reflection!"

"Laughter as a Health Promoter.—In his 'Problem of Health,' Dr. Greene says that there is not the remotest corner or little inlet of the minute blood-vessels of the human body that does not feel some wavelet from the convulsions occasioned by good hearty laughter. The life principle, or the central man, is shaken to its innermost depths, sending new tides of life and strength to the surface, thus materially tending to insure good health to the persons who indulge therein. The blood moves more rapidly and conveys a different impression to all the organs of the body, as it visits them on that particular mystic journey when the man is laughing, from what it does at other times. For this reason every good hearty laugh in which a person indulges tends to lengthen his life, conveying, as it does, new and distinct stimulus to the vital forces."

CHAPTER X.

"While bright-eyed science watches round."

A scientific investigation into the nature and causes of consumption proves the immediate causes, apart from hereditary, to be dampness of houses and localities. Of races, the negroes seem most liable, and the Jews the most exempt. A french scientist has found that inhalation of air containing a small amount of hydrofluoric acid gas has a remarkably good effect on consumption. In England good results were obtained by inspiration of air mixed with ozone. That the disease results chiefly from inactivity of the lungs is the statement of a physician who maintains that the cure of the disease is a mechanical question. The International Tuberculosis Congress lately held at Paris admits that tuberculosis is contagious, can be transmitted from man to animals, and vice versa, and is the same in men, women, and cattle. Diseased milk is the most frequent agent of transmission, and with this meat, particularly lightly cooked, as food. Predisposing causes are sedentary life, overwork, mental anxiety, insufficient nourishment, in general, anything calculated to lower the vitality. The congress has discovered no remedy, only palliatives for tuberculosis. Catarrhs, bronchitis, and other throat troubles have a tendency to develop into pleurisy or consumption when neglected.

Typhoid fever never affects the atmosphere, but it does affect water, milk, ice, and meat. The eggs of a parasite from dogs, and hence more or less infecting all waters to which dogs have access, appear to have an unequaled facility of passage to all parts of the human system.

As for surgical operations, in a German paper are particulars of a case in which the eye of a man was thrust out of its socket by a parasite cyst in the rear, discovered by surgical exploration and extracted. From a 5-year old boy an injured kidney was removed successfully and the patient recovered. The bridge of the nose was completely restored by using the breast-bone of a chicken and stretching the flesh of the old nose over it.

Even the part of a destroyed nerve of the arm was restored by the substitution of a part of a sound nerve from an amputated limb, so that the continuity was restored and sensation returned in 36 hours! Prematurely-born children are kept in an artificial mother, which consists of a glass case warmed by bowls of water. A new opiate has been discovered called the sulsonal. It produces sleep in nervous people and those affected with heart disease, but not in healthy subjects. The idea that sufferers from heart disease should avoid physical exertion has been dispelled by a noted physiologist who has successfully employed regulated exercise.

Brown-Séquard has brought out his great Vital Fluid. He is reported as saying: "I never made use of the word 'elixir,' still less of the words 'elixir of life.' These are all expressions or inventions of sensational newspapers. If quacks or ignorant men in America have killed people, as stated by the New York papers, they would have avoided committing those murders had they paid the least attention to the most elementary rules as regards the subcutaneous injection of animal substances. Injections of animal matter have no danger, as a rule, unless the substances begin to be decomposed. When this condition of things exists, no good can be obtained, and there is grave danger of inflammation, abscesses, and even death."

"Professor Brown-Séquard is reported to have lately informed the French Academy of Sciences that, by condensing the watery vapor coming from the human lungs, he obtained a poisonous liquid capable of producing almost immediate death. The poison is an alkaloid (organic), and not a microbe or series of microbes. He injected this liquid under the skin of a rabbit and the effect was speedily mortal without convulsions. Dr. Séquard said it was fully proved that respired air contains a volatile element far more dangerous than the carbonic acid which is one of its constituents, and that the human breath contains a highly poisonous agent. This startling fact should be borne in mind by the occupants of crowded horse-cars and ill-ventilated apartments."

"A very curious geographical distribution of certain virtues and vices has been mooted by a scientist. Intemperance is mostly found above latitude 48°, amatory aberrations south of the forty-fifth, financial extravagance in large seaports, industrial thrift, in pastoral highland regions."

"Advance in Hygienic Clothing.—The new cellular clothing now coming into use in England is said to be a success. It is woven out of the same materials as the common weaves of cloth, being simply, as its name indicates, closely woven into cells, the network of which is covered over with a thin fluff. Its porous quality allows the slow passing of the outside and inside air, giving time for the outside air to become of the same temperature as the body, obviating all danger of catching colds, and allowing vapors constantly exhaled by the body to pass off, thus contributing toward health and cleanliness. The common objection to cotton clothing—that it is productive of chills and colds—is removed if woven in this manner, and the invention can certainly be said to be strictly in accordance with hygienic and scientific principles."

The annual death rate, in 1888, for the principal cities of the world, per 1,000 inhabitants, was: San Francisco, Cleveland, Stockholm, 17; Bristol, Dresden, 18; Chicago, Cincinnati, Edinburgh, London, Turin, 19; Berlin, Baltimore, Brussels, Buffalo, Liverpool, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, 20; Brooklyn, St. Louis, Tokyo, 21; Amsterdam, Christiana, Paris, Washington, 22; Glasgow, 23; Copenhagen, 24; Bombay, Boston, New Orleans, Pesth, Venice, Vienna, 25; Breslau, Calcutta, Manchester, New York, Prague, Rotterdam, 26; Dublin, 27; Rome, 28; Hamburg, Munich, 29; Trieste, 30; Buda Pesth, St. Petersburg, 32; Alexandria, 38; Madras, 40; and Cairo, 51.

The death rate among the poor and rich respectively varies much. In Paris the death rate per 1,000 inhabitants between 40 and 50 years in easy circumstances was 8.3 against 18.7 among the poor. In London are some districts of the wealthy classes where the rate was 11.3 against 38 in the slums. The mean age at death among the gentry was 55 years, while among the workers it was 20-1/2 years. It was found that only 8% of the children of the upper classes died in their first year against 19% in the general population of Liverpool and 33% in the slums of that city. Deaths from consumption were nearly one-fourth of all deaths among the poor, and only one-eighteenth among the rich.

The above facts and figures cannot fail to set every intelligent person who reads them to thinking of this great health problem.

HAPPINESS.

CHAPTER XI.

HAPPINESS.

"The learned is happy Nature to explore,
The fool is happy that he knows no more."

Happiness is defined by Webster as an agreeable feeling or condition of the soul arising from good of any kind; the possession of those circumstances or that state of being which is attended with enjoyment; the state of being happy; felicity; blessedness: bliss; joyful satisfaction.

Happiness is generic and applied to almost every kind of enjoyment except that of the animal appetites; felicity is a more formal word, and is used more sparingly in the same general sense, but with elevated associations; blessedness is applied to the most refined enjoyment arising from the purest social, benevolent, and religious affections; bliss denotes still more exalted delight, and is applied more appropriately to the joy anticipated in heaven.

Happiness is only comparative, and we drink it in, in the exact ratio of our understanding to interpret the justice of the divinity within us. The first pre-requisite is wisdom, the second is like unto it, more wisdom, and the third sufficient understanding to know that it is wisdom.

"It is easy enough to be pleasant,
When life flows by like a song,
But the man worth while is one who will smile
When everything goes dead wrong.
For the test of the heart is trouble,
And it always comes with the years,
And the smile that is worth the praises of earth
Is the smile that shines through tears.
"It is easy enough to be prudent
When nothing tempts you to stray,
When without or within no voice of sin
Is luring your soul away.
But it's only a negative virtue
Until it is tried by fire,
And the life that is worth the honor of earth
Is the one that resists desire.
"By the cynic, the sad, the fallen,
Who had no strength for the strife,
The world's highway is cumbered to-day,
They make up the item of life,
But the virtue that conquers passion,
And the sorrow that hides in a smile,
It is these that are worth the homage of earth,
For we find them but once in a while."
—Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

We possess none of the attributes save in a degree only, any one of which can be intensified, brightened, or benefited by our thoughts and actions. The shortest road to happiness, after having cleansed your body, actions, and thoughts, is to "do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, to all living creatures you can, just as long as you can." The more unselfish you become, the less you think of personal comfort, and the more pleasure you take in the comforts of others, the deeper and broader will the fountains of your own happiness become. There is no class of people who have equal happiness or bliss pictured upon their countenances to those who practice and teach the universal brotherhood of man without regard to race, creed, sex, caste, or color.

Happiness is like manna. It is to be "gathered in grains and enjoyed every day; it will not keep; it cannot be accumulated; nor need we go out of ourselves nor into remote places to gather it, since it is rained down from heaven at our very doors, or, rather, within them."

George Macdonald says: "A man must not choose his neighbor; he must take the neighbor that God sends him. In him, whoever he be, lies hidden or revealed a beautiful brother. Any rough-hewn semblance of humanity will at length be enough to move the man to reverence and affection."

And there is a still more extensive love, urges Charles Mackay:—

"You love your fellow-creatures? So do I,—
But underneath the wide paternal sky
Are there no fellow-creatures in your ken
That you can love except your fellow-men?
Are not the grass, the flowers, the trees, the birds,
The faithful beasts, true-hearted, without words,
Your fellows also, howsoever small?
He's the best lover who can love them all."

There are certain principles that lead to positive happiness. One of these is the avoiding of mistakes. "What have been termed 'the fourteen mistakes of life' are given as follows: It is a great mistake to set up our own standard of right and wrong and judge people accordingly; to measure the enjoyment of others by our own; to expect uniformity of opinion in this world; to look for judgment and experience in youth; to endeavor to mould all dispositions alike; not to yield to immaterial trifles; to look for perfection in our own actions; to worry ourselves and others with what cannot be remedied; not to alleviate all that needs alleviation as far as lies in our power; not to make allowances for the infirmities of others; to consider everything impossible that we cannot perform; to believe only what our finite minds can grasp; to expect to be able to understand everything. The greatest of mistakes is to live for time alone when any moment may launch us into eternity."

Ignorance is a state of happiness that many fairly intellectual people cite as well worthy of emulation; but those who assert it have not understood, or attempted to fathom, how shallow is this lake of knownothingness called "ignorance." Only a slight ripple can be seen on the bosom of a shallow lake during the most fearful storm, yet but a slight zephyr is needed to show the white caps upon the grand old ocean, and at the least provocation of a storm "see how she causes the continents to tremble, showing her great depth and majesty." If in the presence of this happy, ignorant personage, we place the most beautiful piece of statuary or painting, or produce the most startling of Shakespeare's plays, with the best living talent, or have the most gifted vocalist sing the most difficult aria, or have a panorama of the pyramid Jeezeh, Eiffel Tower, Washington Monument, Philadelphia City Hall, Cologne Cathedral, all actual size, and such of nature's grandest views as the Yosemite Fall, and Father of the Forest, we would look upon this happy individual and listen in breathless silence for his opinion. Well, what of it? what is to prevent it? would be the reply. But note the difference even in a cultured child; see the gentle cheek turn from pale pink to livid carmine, the heart pant, the bosom heave, and the whole form, for the time being, feel itself suspended in the air. To the above picture, add cultured, ripe old age, and the enjoyment, ecstasy, and pure happiness that would follow could only be measured by the difference between where we stand and the end of space!

Prerequisites in the begetting of wisdom are, first, you must be regular in everything you do, act, or think. This will give you health. Second, you must be regular, cleanly, temperate, and moral. This will start you on the road to happiness. Third, in addition to the first and second propositions, you must exercise self-control in all its aspects if you would have health, be happy, and live to excessive old age, before the culmination of which you will possess wisdom of no ordinary character.

Let the legend that "man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn," cease, and in its place have, "The universal brotherhood of man removes the shackles of inhumanity, replacing them by bands of love." This will elevate the trend of human thought, and every zephyr of human intellect will gather and multiply until a cyclone of happiness envelopes the earth; like love it will seem but a soothing breeze to the human heart, so gentle will fall its benign influences.

This brings us to the point where every person is led to look to each of the four points of the compass and there exclaim, "Who or what is God?" This is the first thing upon which intelligent beings should render a decision; mankind can only approximate happiness until they have settled in their own mind this point. It is not imperative that your decision should cover all the truth or the only truth in regard to Deity, but it should preclude all doubt on the part of the person so deciding. There is just as much inconsistency in the statement that we know who and what is God in his physical proportions, just where He or It resides, and just what relation It or He holds toward the human monad, man, as there is in the assertion, "There is no God."

There is no harm, however, in asserting our belief in one God, the Trinity, or a great First Cause. If we believe it and shape our lives accordingly, true light will be given sufficient to satisfy each searcher after the Truth; and he or they will advance to some other belief just when it is necessary. The exultant Methodist receives his light in one form, and the quiet Quaker in another. The devout Catholic represents still another type of ritualistic form, and the Wisdom Religionist (Theosophist) seems to get his from Nature, and finds some good in everything. With the 1,100 other different kinds of faith, there should be no complaint on our part of a variety from which to choose.

We offer not as anything new, but as something possibly forgotten, the following formulæ for obtaining happiness, viz.: (1) The carrying out in our lives and actions the Golden Rule; (2) total unselfishness as regards self; (3) trying to excel all others in doing what the world calls good; (4) condemning no one until we have heard both sides of the question in dispute; (5) having the same tender compassion for all the lower animals that you exercise towards the human family; (6) following out consistently some religious belief, and, until you are convinced of a better one, defending it; (7) above all other things, having charity for every person's short-comings and belief. Add to these a few intrinsic principles: (1) Happiness is no other than soundness and perfection of mind; (2) there are two ways of being happy—we may either diminish our wants or augment our means—either will do, the result is the same; and it is for each man to decide for himself, and do that which happens to be the easiest; (3) happiness is a road-side flower growing on the highways of usefulness; (4) carry the radiance of your soul in your face; let the world have the benefit of it; (5) learn the lesson embodied in this little poem:—

THE TWO WORKERS.
"Two workers in one field
Toiled on from day to day,
Both had the same hard labor,
Both had the same small pay;
With the same blue sky above,
The same green grass below,
One soul was full of love,
The other full of woe.
"One leaped up with the light,
With the soaring of the lark;
One felt it ever night,
For his soul was ever dark.
One heart was hard as stone,
One heart was ever gay;
One worked with many a groan,
One whistled all the day.
"One had a flower-clad cot
Beside a merry mill;
Wife and children near the spot
Made it sweeter, fairer still.
One a wretched hovel had,
Full of discord, dirt, and din,
No wonder he seemed mad,
Wife and children starved within.
"Still they worked in the same field,
Toiled on from day to day,
Both had the same hard labor,
Both had the same small pay;
But they worked not with one will:
The reason let me tell—
Lo! the one drank at the still,
And the other at the well."

(6) Embody in your lives the better idea of this poem, "Where Do You Live," by Josephine Pollard:—

"I knew a man, and his name was Horner,
Who used to live on Grumble Corner:
Grumble Corner, in Cross-Patch Town,
And he was never seen without a frown.
He grumbled at this; he grumbled at that;
He growled at the dog; he growled at the cat;
He grumbled at morning; he grumbled at night;
And to grumble and growl were his chief delight.
"He grumbled so much at his wife that she
Began to grumble as well as he;
And all the children, wherever they went,
Reflected their parents' discontent.
If the sky was dark and betokened rain,
Then Mr. Horner was sure to complain;
And, if there was never a cloud about,
He'd grumble because of a threatened drought.
"His meals were never to suit his taste;
He grumbled at having to eat in haste;
The bread was poor, or the meat was tough,
Or else he hadn't had half enough.
No matter how hard his wife might try
To please her husband, with scornful eye
He'd look around, and then, with a scowl
At something or other, begin to growl.
"One day, as I loitered about the street,
My old acquaintance I chanced to meet,
Whose face was without the look of care
And the ugly frown which it used to wear.
'I may be mistaken, perhaps,' I said,
As, after saluting, I turned my head;
'But it is, and it isn't, the Mr. Horner
Who lived for so long on Grumble Corner!'
"I met him next day; and I met him again,
In melting weather, and pouring rain,
When stocks were up and when stocks were down;
But a smile somehow had replaced the frown.
It puzzled me much; and so one day
I seized his hand in a friendly way,
And said: 'Mr. Horner, I'd like to know
What can have happened to change you so?'
"He laughed a laugh that was good to hear,
For it told of a conscience calm and clear,
And he said, with none of the old-time drawl,
'Why, I've changed my residence, that is all!'
'Changed your residence?' 'Yes,' said Horner,
'It wasn't healthy on Grumble Corner,
And so I moved; 'twas a change complete;
And you'll find me now on Thanksgiving Street!'

"Now, every day as I move along
The streets so filled with the busy throng,
I watch each face and can always tell
Where men and women and children dwell;
And many a discontented mourner
Is spending his days on Grumble Corner,
Sour and sad, whom I long to entreat
To take a house on Thanksgiving Street."

CHAPTER XII.

"Gold can gild a rotten stick and dirt sully an ingot."

Aids to Morality.—"Many imagine that the only ways in which public and private morality can be improved," says the Philadelphia Ledger, "are those definite and direct methods which appeal at once to the conscience and the heart. Preaching and teaching, persuading and warning, exhorting and encouraging, are instrumentalities worthy of all honor, and those whose abilities qualify them for such tasks should receive every possible stimulus to exert them in so noble a cause. But it is a great mistake to suppose that these are the only means to promote morality. Every truly civilizing influence is also a reforming one. By this we do not mean that miscalled civilization which multiplies wants, and increases luxury and develops refinement in a few, at the expense of the many, but that advancement of mind and of knowledge, which is forever disclosing better methods of living and diffusing them among the whole people. Dr. Howard Crosby, president of the Society for the Prevention of Crime, in New York, and who has had wide opportunities of observing the condition of morality in that city, has recently declared that the moral condition of New York has vastly improved during the past few years, and that fifty years ago, although there was far less of the foreign element than there is now, a low condition of morality existed that would not be tolerated at the present time. What is true of New York in this respect is equally true of our other cities, and if there be any pessimist who points to the well-known corruptions and vices which still exist as a refutation of this statement, we would remind him that the very fact that such things are now brought to the light, discussed, and condemned, is a proof that they are on the decline. When a community is deeply sunk in immorality, little or no comment is made on the fact. When we come to seek into the causes of this improvement, we shall find that among the most prominent are the practical results of scientific progress and the civilizing tendencies of the age. There is no question that dirt, disease, and darkness are prevalent sources of vice and crime, and whatever influences are brought to bear against them will also press heavily against immorality. The increasing value set upon health, as shown alike in sanitary laws and regulations and in the greater willingness manifested by the community to understand and adopt hygienic modes of life, is beyond dispute. The improvements in house building and drainage; the introduction of water, pure and plentiful; the freer admission of fresh air; the better systems of ventilation; the brilliant lighting up of our city streets—all contribute to the prevention of crime and to the spread of a higher type of morality, while increasing the health, peace, and comfort of the community. And when to all these we add the better and wider education given to the rising generation than was thought possible fifty years ago, we shall find abundant reason for the moral advancement which has been made. There are some persons who feel quite powerless to help on the cause of reform, or to improve the moral character of a single individual, because they have no gift for influencing men by direct appeal. They have, perhaps, tried and failed, and so, although they would like to do some good in the world, they are hopeless of any success. Let such take courage as they remember how many indirect, yet most effectual, methods there are of accomplishing this end. Let them look over the multitudes of civilizing agencies that are silently working in the interests of morality, and attach themselves to such as most heartily engage their interest. Every intelligent individual must be in sympathy with some of them; and it is just there that his services are needed and will be most valuable. Nor let him make the mistake of supposing that he is thus working upon a lower or inferior plane. It is in works of benevolence and reform, just as in all other kinds of work—that which a man can do best is the very best thing for him to do. So, if one man is interested in sanitary schemes and another in evening schools; if one is anxious for free libraries and another for free parks; if one can help to secure good roads and clean streets and another can aid in protecting children or dumb animals from ill-treatment, let each be assured that in such exertions he is doing his share in promoting morality and in elevating character as surely and as effectually as those whose peculiar province it is to teach or to preach, to admonish or to advise."

If the butcher's trade begets in him, the butcher, a disposition to use the knife more indiscriminately, and causes him to look upon the taking of life indifferently and unconcernedly, so that in a majority of the States he is disqualified from sitting upon a murderer's jury, there then must be something not only in the associations we keep but in the business we follow.

The average lawyer tries by every known means to clear his client. In 50% of the cases handled by 50% of the attorneys their clients are guilty and they know it. They do not break the law of their State or country simply because the laws in the main are made to screen the evil-doers and not the honest citizen. But how they can do this and affiliate with any one of the 1,100 different faiths, or attend their church organizations or services sincerely, is more than we can surmise. In contrast, however, we must mention an isolated case that has reached us well authenticated. A very prominent and able lawyer of New York City, who had the reputation of never losing a case, was accosted by a well-known offender of the law on trial for felony before the court of Oyer and Terminer. The attorney invited the would-be client into his private office and had him state his case. He finished, and the lawyer remarked, "You are guilty." "Well, I know that," replied the culprit, "that is why I want your services—you never lose a case." "Sir," said the lawyer, "you have come to the wrong office. I have never failed in any case before the courts; I account for it from the fact that I have never espoused a cause where I knew the client was guilty. Knowing I was right, I have thrown my whole soul into it, and won."

Gossip.—There is a vast deal of unhappiness in this world caused by gossip. Dr. J. G. Holland presents helpful ideas in the following:—

"What is the cure for gossip?—Simply culture. There is a great deal of gossip that has no malignity in it. Good-natured people talk about their neighbors because they have nothing else to talk about. As we write, there comes to us the picture of a family of young ladies. We have seen them at home, we have met them in galleries of art, we have caught glimpses of them going from a book store or library with a fresh volume in their hands. When we meet them they are full of what they have seen and read. They are brimming with questions. One topic of conversation is dropped only to give place to another in which they are interested. We have left them after a delightful hour, stimulated and refreshed, and during the whole hour not a neighbor's garment was soiled by so much as a touch. They had something to talk about. They knew something, and wanted to know more. They could listen as well as they could talk. To speak freely of a neighbor's doings and belongings would have seemed an impertinence to them, and, of course, an impropriety. They had no temptation to gossip, because the doings of their neighbors formed a subject very much less interesting than those which grew out of their knowledge and their culture.

"And this tells the whole story. The confirmed gossip is always either malicious or ignorant. The one variety needs a change of heart and the other a change of pasture. Gossip is always a personal confession either of malice or imbecility, and the young should not only shun it, but, by most thorough culture, relieve themselves from all temptation to indulge in it. It is a low, frivolous, and, too often, a dirty business. There are neighborhoods in which it rages like a pest. Churches are split in pieces by it. Neighbors are made enemies by it for life. In many persons it degenerates into a chronic disease, which is practically incurable. Let the young cure it while they may."

Married Life.—As the family is the center about which all life revolves, it is absolutely essential to have happy relations there. Husbands too often neglect their wives and homes. "Women are lonely," says Mrs. Annie Jenness. "They miss their husbands. What amount of companionship exists between the American woman and the man? He starts for his office as soon as his breakfast is hurriedly swallowed. He does not come home at the lunch hour. He is barely in season for a late dinner. Very possibly he belongs to a club and has an engagement as soon as dinner is done.

"If not that, his head is in bank or counting-house, and he studies the stock quotations in the night's paper, and counts, as against a possible rise of wheat, the day's gossip, with which his wife is overflowing, very small potatoes. They have callers, or they go to opera or theater. It may easily happen that they do not spend ten minutes in conversation with each other during the day. American men are always in a hurry. They seem to live for the sole purpose of catching trains. They have no time to amuse or be amused.

"The conditions of modern life separate them from women. The lives of men grow more and more simple—business comprehends the whole. The lives of women grow more and more complex—everything which is not business is given over to them. A man past the romantic epoch, who honestly enjoys talking with women, is not an average mortal. The every-day sort of man takes pains to be detained somewhere until all the guests have departed from his wife's 5 o'clock tea. The couple live in different worlds. The world is now discussing why marriage is a failure, if it is? Then consider this collection of reasons:—

"When either of the parties marry for money.

"When the lord of creation pays more for cigars than his better half does for hosiery, boots, and bonnets.

"When one of the parties engages in a business that is not approved by the other.

"When both parties persist in arguing over a subject upon which they never have and never can think alike.

"When neither husband nor wife takes a vacation.

"When the vacations are taken by one side of the house only.

"When a man attempts to tell his wife what style of bonnet she must wear.

"When a man's Christmas presents to his wife consist of boot-jacks, shirts, and gloves for himself.

"When the watchword is, 'Each for himself.'

"When dinner is not ready at dinner-time.

"When 'he' snores his loudest while 'she' kindles the fire.

"When 'father' takes half of the pie and leaves the other half for the one that made it and her eight children.

"When the children are given the neck and back of the chicken.

"When children are obliged to clamor for their rights.

"When the money that should go for a book goes for what only one side of the house knows anything about.

"When there is too much latch-key.