CAUSES OF CONSUMPTION.
Prevention better than cure.--Local causes of disease.--Our school
system objectionable.--Dr. Bowditch's opinion.--Location of our
homes important.--Damp soils prolific of lung troubles.--Bad
ventilation.--Value of sunshine.--City girls and city life.--Fashionable
society.--Tight lacing fatal to sound health.--Modern living.--The iron
hand of fashion.
The proverb that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," has
been almost totally ignored in its relation to the laws which govern
health. It seems quite as essential, however, to examine into the cause
of disease as it is to seek for remedies which, in many instances, can
work but a temporary cure, so long as the cause is overlooked. One is
but the sequence of the other; and, to remove the malady, or prevent its
recurrence, they have but to remove the cause. This is freely admitted
to be the right principle, yet, is it always the course pursued? Do not
people mislead themselves much, and, instead of going to the root of
difficulty, remain content with what must prove but a temporary
restoration?
How often, for example, does the physician, when called to the patient
suffering from a cold, inquire to see the shoes or boots of the invalid?
Never; the thing is unheard of. Their questions in the direction of
causes would not reach half way to the real goal which should be made
the point of investigation. Not that the insufficient shoes or boots are
going to have any part in the restoration of the invalid; but it may be
shown, on examination, that they were the real cause of trouble, and, by
a change, prevent in the future a similar attack, from that source at
least. The same is true of half the diseases afflicting mankind; their
prevention may be assured, to a great extent, by attention to the
dictates of hygienic laws, which are no more or less than the laws of
moderation and common sense, and not, as many suppose, the law of
obligation to eat stale bread, or "cold huckleberry-pudding," all the
balance of their lives, though this diet might be beneficial if
ghost-seeing and spirit-rapping was determined upon.
Very many cases of fevers can be directly traced to some local cause,
which should receive as much attention from the physician as does the
patient, and either the one or the other promptly removed. Indeed,
people must learn for themselves to investigate the laws regulating
health, and thus be able, without the aid of any professional, to decide
intelligently all of the more obvious questions.
It does, in this connection, seem that there is great want of judgment
on the part of those having the direction of our public schools, in that
there is so trifling attention given both the study and observance of
the laws which control our existence. What is education without a sound
body? what is life to the creature of broken health? and what is there
which is more valuable and priceless to us? The answer is plain to all,
and yet the whole advancing generation of boys and girls, beyond a mere
inkling in physiology, a possible recollection of the number of bones in
the human frame, and that common air is composed of two principal gases,
they know of hygienic law practically nothing. Worthy pupils of
incompetent pedagogues, who, not being required by the public to
properly inform themselves with a full knowledge of these important
studies, are perhaps in some measure excused for their shortcomings.
Instead of the inculcation of these useful and more vital lessons of
life, they are required to fritter away time and health over a French
grammar, or other equally foolish study, which cannot, in a vast
majority of cases, be of the least service to them. They had much better
be at home making mud-pies (which, by the way, are about the only ones
that ever ought to be made), or learning to bake wholesome bread, or
even chasing butterflies in summer through the green fields, or braving
the cold of winter by joining in some of the healthful out-of-door
sports. It would, perhaps, be proper enough for such as proposed to fit
themselves for teachers, or who expected to spend their lives abroad, or
who, from pure love of a scholastic life,--with the means to follow
their inclinations, and necessary leisure at command,--thought to devote
theirs to its fullest enjoyment and bent. These form the exceptions; but
for all to essay the task, regardless of natural inclination and of the
true relation which life bears to their individual cases, is simply
absurd, and can only be accounted for in this wise, that _fashion_ seems
to demand it, as it does many other outrageous requirements, to some of
which, as they concern health, we shall have occasion to refer as we
proceed. Life is too short, at longest, and is filled with too practical
requirements, for the most of mankind to try to master or even
familiarize themselves with all the sciences of which the world has
knowledge. Even the Humboldts of the race, favored with long life, good
health, and devotedness, declare they have attained to but little more
than the alphabet of knowledge, and they--few in number--have
experienced few of those restrictions which hedge about the lives of
most people. All cannot be great linguists any more than all can be
great inventors, and it were just as valuable and reasonable an
expenditure of time to teach a child to be one as the other. Of what
benefit is a smattering of foreign language, except to make people
ridiculous? and that class is already sufficiently large; far better
that they learned to speak and spell their mother tongue with a
commendable degree of accuracy, or that they learn to train future
families in consonance with the laws of nature, and save to health the
time spent in poorly-ventilated rooms, where, under the pressure of the
modern school system, everything valuable and practical seems sacrificed
to the ephemeral and non-essential. We do not underrate the good our
schools accomplish, not at all; on the other hand, we feel a just pride
in the liberality of the country, and realize that in them lies the only
security for a Republican form of government, and, indeed, our opinions
go further in this direction than that of most persons, for we would
make it obligatory on the part of parents to school their children to a
certain degree, and that no one should be eligible to vote who could not
read and write in the common language of the country.
It is the administration of the school system which we deprecate. Hear
what the famous Dr. Bowditch of Boston says upon this question,
namely:--"* * * Not only does our school system, in its practical
operation, entirely ignore the necessity for physical culture, but it at
times goes farther, and actually, as we believe, becomes the slayer of
our people. * * * We appeal to every physician of ten or twenty years'
practice, and feel sure that in reviewing his cases of consumption he
will find not a few of them in which he will trace to _overwork_ in our
schools the first springs of the malady.
"The result of all this school _training_ is as certain as the day.
Every child who goes through these modern processes must inevitably
suffer, but not all alike. Some have one complaint, some another, and
some, doubtless, finally escape unharmed. At times they only grow pale
and thin under the process. But not a few go through to the exhibition,
and, after working harder than ever for the two or three last weeks of
the term, they gain the much-coveted prize only to break wholly down
when it is taken. The stimulus of desire for success is gone. That has
sustained them up to the last moment. Success having been accomplished,
the victim finds, too late, that what he has been striving for is
nothing, now that it is won, compared with the vitality lost and the
seeds of disease sown."
It is true that there are a very few schools in the country where
physical culture receives, in connection with other duties, its due
share of attention. We know, personally, of but one--the Howland Ladies'
Seminary, at Union Springs, New York, and we understand, on the
authority quoted above, that the Latin and High Schools of Boston are of
this class. Our colleges, however, as a rule, seem as bad as the
schools. Half the students who complete their course come out broken in
health, and those who do not are about the toughest "horned cattle," as
Horace Greeley says, that can be found.
Another important item involving the economy of life is the
LOCATION OF OUR HOMES,
which has received little or no consideration, judging from what one may
observe who chooses to look about them. Circumstances entirely beyond
the control of most people conspire to locate for them their places of
abode, and when originally selected no regard was paid to sanitary laws,
and the result many times has been the forfeiture of precious lives as a
penalty.
Not till a very recent period has the character of the soil figured to
so great an extent as is now conceded. It has been proved by statistics,
both in New England and the mother country, that a heavy, wet soil is
prolific of colds and consumption; while, on a warm, dry soil the latter
disease is little found. If we stop to consider what has been written in
the previous chapters on climate, and that it was stated that a cold,
humid atmosphere, from whatever cause, coupled with variable
temperature, was the chief occasion of consumption, we can the more
easily understand why a wet soil would tend to produce this disease.
Whether the dampness arises from excessive shade, or is inherent in the
soil, which may be so situated as to receive the drainage water of more
elevated surfaces contiguous, is not material, so that it is the
prevailing condition, thereby constantly exhaling cold vapors, which sow
the seeds of death in many an unsuspecting household.
We cannot urge the importance of a right location better than to again
quote from Dr. Bowditch what he once wrote with regard to the residence
of two brothers whose healths were equally good, as was that of their
wives, but one chose a home upon a dry, sandy soil, while the other
settled upon a wet, cold plain--not remote from each other. "Large
families were born under both roofs. Not one of the children born in the
latter homestead escaped, whereas the other family remained healthy; and
when, at the suggestion of a medical friend, who knew all the facts, * *
* we visited the place for the purpose of thoroughly investigating them.
* * * These two houses had nothing about them peculiarly noticeable by
the passing stranger. They were situated in the same township, and
within a very short distance one from the other, and yet scarcely any
one in the village with whom we spoke on the subject agreed with us in
our opinion that it was location alone, or chiefly that, which gave life
or death to the inmates of the two homes."
We suppose thousands must continue to pay the penalty of the faulty
locations of those who first built, since it is difficult to persuade
many to sever the ties which bind them to their early homes, even
though they are unhealthful, to say nothing of the expense to be
incurred in making a change, yet those who have homesteads to establish
encounter none of these drawbacks, and should exercise great care in
making selection of a site for their dwellings.
A dry soil is indispensable to good health, and if it cannot be found as
dry as wished for, it may be remedied by thorough underdraining. A sandy
soil, the poorest or dryest on the farm or lot, is the best point to
erect a healthful home.
The habit of embowering the house with a dense growth of shrubs and
trees, even where the soil is naturally dry, defeats the desired end,
and provokes disease. There are many places made so cosy and attractive
with these aids that, with persons of culture and taste, the tendency is
to run into extremes, and, while they render their homes beautiful to
the eye, they are fatal to life. A few shade-trees and shrubs properly
distributed about the ground can be indulged, and in numbers quite
adequate to give an air of grace and beauty to the home, while not
endangering its inmates. They should stand at proper distances from the
sides and roof, or not to constantly shadow them through the whole
summer, but allow, instead, the caressing sunshine to have full, free
play over them. Again, we have often entered dwellings where it seemed
to be the study of the good, ambitious housewife to shut out all the
light, and shut in--of course, unconsciously--all the death which comes
of dampness and dark, only so that her carpets are kept bright and
shining for some--gossip's tongue.
Sunlight has come to be, of late years, one of the great remedies, and
sun-baths are now duly administered in establishments erected for that
purpose, and there can be no doubt of their efficacy in giving health
and strength to all whose habits of life prevent their exercise in the
open air.
Next to a proper location, by which health is to be promoted, is
VENTILATION,
and this covers a multitude of minor matters, but we have only room for
considering the subject in its broader aspect.
In olden times ample ventilation was secured through the massive open
chimneys, which, with their generous hearthstones, was such a
distinguishing and healthful feature of the homes of our ancestors. They
were, perhaps, "a blessing in disguise," but that they were a real
blessing there is no doubt. Then, too, they were the grand altars of the
family, around which the sweetest recollections of childhood and youth
cluster, as does the ivy to the walls of old-time buildings, making
them, though rude and rough, to memory most dear.
In place of these natural escapes for foul, and the admission of fresh
air, we have absolutely nothing in the present day to take its place. On
the contrary, air-tight stoves and air-tight furnaces have supplemented
the cheerful blaze of the fireplace, and in lieu of fresh air, a great
amount of poisonous gases are emitted, which stupefy and promote
disease. Especially is this the case where the fuel used is any of the
coals, instead of wood. The most deleterious of coals is the anthracite.
Its heat is scorching and drying beyond any other, and the gases are
more subtle and pernicious, excepting, possibly, charcoal, which,
however, is not used as fuel to any extent.
These air-tight coal stoves, such as are in ordinary use, are the worst
of all, since their name gives confidence to the public, who do not
consider that, while they have the merit of "keeping the fire through
the night," they do not keep the gases within. They are sure to creep
through the apertures, or, if barred there, will escape through the iron
itself, and it need not be very much in quantity to prove offensive to
people with delicate lungs or in a debilitated state of the system. The
strong and well will scout these opinions doubtless, and hold them of
little value, and to them it is not of so much consequence whether they
observe strictly the rules which govern health or no, their robust
constitutions (thanks to their parents, who did observe these rules,
either accidentally or purposely) will carry them along, doubtless, to
a ripe old age; but their children are to be reared in health, and the
fact of vigorous parentage may not, in their cases, where carelessness
prevails, guarantee vigorous lives; and, while the fathers and mothers
may escape from the ill effects of the vitiated atmosphere of their
apartments by exercise in the open air, their children cannot. And it is
well known that the children, in these cases, die one after another, the
result of poor ventilation or unhealthful location, or both combined,
while the parents wonder what the cause can be, ascribing it to all
things but the right.
Everything about our homes should be subjective to the one central idea
of _health_. Things of beauty or luxury, whether in or around the
dwelling, should, if on close scrutiny they are found prejudicial, be at
once removed.
The family sitting-room, if no other in the house, ought to be warmed by
means of a wood fire if a stove is used, yet a grate is far better, and
is the nearest approach to the old-fashioned fireplace attainable in
these times. A flue cut in the chimney near the ceiling, with a register
affixed, will, where stoves or furnaces are used, be of service, and are
quite easily and inexpensively constructed. The windows of
sleeping-rooms should be so made that the top sash can be as readily
lowered as the bottom one raised, and at night the former should be left
down sufficient for the free admission of fresh and the escape of foul
air, but it ought not to draw across the sleeper. Night air is not as
objectionable as the confined air of unventilated rooms. Invalids
should, however, avoid exposure to it as much as possible, since when
out in it, it envelops the whole person, and the chill and humidity may
work serious injury.
The old saw, that "early to bed and early to rise, makes people healthy,
wealthy, and wise," is deserving of more consideration than is accorded
it. Take any city-bred girl, who has been accustomed to late hours and
the excitement of entertainments and parties, and who, by these
unhealthful and killing rounds of so-called pleasure, has become
emaciated and prematurely old, and place her in a well-regulated
home,--the country is by far the best, where early retirement is a rule,
with a wholesome diet,--and she will in a few weeks show a marked
improvement. Mrs. Stowe relates a very interesting story of a city-girl
who had all to gratify her that fond parents could procure, and, though
constitutionally strong, this hothouse, fashionable life had began to
undermine her general health, and having exhausted the skill of the
regular physician, her condition became so alarming that other counsel
was sought; and this new disciple of Esculapius was a shrewd, honest
man, and wont to get at the root of difficulties. He saw at a glance
that the patient's disease was born wholly of _fashion_. He found her
waist so tightly laced as to admit of little room for full and free
respiration; this, with late hours and unwholesome food, was doing its
work. Being asked to prescribe, he first cut loose the stays which bound
her; then, ordering suitable shoes and apparel, gave directions for her
immediate removal to the country, where she was to first rest and lounge
in the sunshine, and as health returned, to romp and frolick in the open
fields and join in the merry glees of country life. With feelings akin
to those coming of great sacrifices, the commands were followed, and
this frail, dying girl was, in one brief summer, so far restored as that
the glow of her checks and the sparkle of her eyes rivalled those of the
farmer's fair daughter whose companion she had been.
City life is exceedingly destructive to young people, even when
considered aside from all undue excitements, indecorous habits, and
improprieties. The custom of late hours, night air, and the vitiated air
of apartments where companies assemble together, with the liability to
contract colds by being detained in draughts, or from want of sufficient
protection while returning from social assemblies; all these things
destroy annually a great army of young people, who either do not think
of consequences or else willfully neglect their lives to pay homage to
fashion--the curse of the world.
We cannot think all parents wholly neglectful in teaching their children
how to preserve health, and much of responsibility must rest with the
young; yet by far the larger portion of parents are so flattered by
alluring admirers, and led by the requirements and glamor of foolish
fashion, that they seem, to the cool observer, to fairly dig and garland
the premature graves of their loved ones.
How we wish we might impress one mother who worships at this abominable
shrine, set up heretofore--but we now hope forever cast down to make
room for an era of good sense and womanly delicacy--in Paris, by either
a dissolute court, or, as we have often been informed, by the _nymphs du
pavé_, who seek to attract by tricks of style till they have come to
rule the whole of their sex, or such portions as have not the moral
courage to mark out an independent course. The violation of health,
contortions of the body, and other absurdities, aside from the vast
expense entailed upon the whole people, are perfectly astounding and
outrageous beyond belief. Let us examine a moment and see if we are
presuming. Granting that every lady in the land expends on an average of
but ten dollars each year for the fashionable make-up of her wardrobe;
that this mite goes for style, and necessary little etceteras growing
out of it, and not in any way for the material itself, which is really
the mountain of difficulty. Now, if there are twenty millions of women
in our country, it would give the sum of two hundred millions of dollars
annually expended for _style_. What a noble charity this would
establish every recurring year. What a relief to pauperism it would
form, and that too without the sacrifice of anything but "style." What a
relief to struggling, disheartened men, whose lives are those of slaves,
and families who pinch and starve themselves that they may possess the
magical key to fashionable society! But what is fashionable society that
it should have such charms for common and honest people? We give in
answer what was given us by one who had had for many years access to it.
He said, "Struggle to avoid it as the worst of calamities." It had swept
him and his family from a position of comparative affluence to one of
misfortune and distress. Fashion is the parent of both--"cussedness" and
consumption.
We know some young ladies are personally disgusted with all this "fuss
and feathers," who at the same time insist that, if they did not follow
the lead of "society" they would be thrown in the background, as at most
entertainments those who have carefully and elaborately arrayed
themselves receive the lion's share of attention and compliment from the
opposite sex, whose good opinion and company they wish to share. While
there is more of truth in this response than most gentlemen are willing
at first to admit, yet, observant people have ever noted the fact that,
notwithstanding these fashionable and polite addresses at public
assemblies between the beaux and butterflies, the end of the levee
usually terminates the hobnobbing. The "gay ladie" has had, quite
likely, her hour of triumph over her more modest, quiet, and unassuming
rival, now in the background, but whom--when the young man is ready to
proffer his hand and fortune--is most likely to be led to the front,
blushing with her becoming and well-deserved honors, leaving the doting
mothers, with their _dear_ daughters, to reflect on the "strange ways of
you men."
If the world sees, it does not fully believe what it sees, else a change
would surely come. The fact is, while men, especially the young men,
delight to do _honor_ to these devotees of the milliner and
mantua-maker, they cannot--those who have a fair share of good
sense--afford to _marry_ them. Their means, their prospects, and their
happiness forbid it, and they are right in this conclusion. They prefer
to unite their lives with some equally good, and usually more sensible
and healthful girl, but of, perhaps, no special prospects or position in
society. This decision is certainly founded in wisdom. They are forever
relieved from that constant strain on their pride, and the consequent
drain on their purse. Their style of living may, in this latter case, be
squared, without jar or reproach, to their real revenues, and life be to
them worth the living, while they gradually and lovingly lay aside, for
any future exigency, something each year on which, in old age or
disaster, they may confidently lean, and which, though it may not be
great, yet shall, in a reasonable life, be sufficient to tide them to,
and "over the river."
Everything, of course, has some exceptions; and where the fashionable
lady can sustain the family pride and family coach both at one and the
same time, why, then, our remarks and objections have little weight.
Yet, in what we have written may be found the real cause of the increase
of bachelors and old maids in society.
There are a few noble souls who rise above the bondage of their sex, and
follow the dictates of their own consciences in dress as in other
matters. This class embraces usually the very wealthy and the very
learned people who compose the polite and refined circles, as
distinguished from the flippant and fashionable ones. All honor to them.
Their example is great, and furnishes the chief hope of any possible
reform.
Some ask, what, indeed, shall we do if we discard all fashion? Our reply
is, to do as the Quakers do. They certainly look quite as presentable
and pretty in their "plain clothes" as do any other class of society.
But I hear the answer: "Yes, and is not their style _fashion_?" We grant
that it is, but at the same time insist that it is both a sensible,
economical, and becoming one; and such a fashion--a fashion of common
sense--is what we indorse, having not the least objection to that sort.
Like, the old-time mode of cutting boys' hair by use of a bowl clapped
over the head, it was a fashion, but a very simple, inexpensive, and
proper one enough, considering the circumstances. Now they must have the
assistance of a professional artist. Singular now one extreme follows
another.
Not until quite a recent date were we inclined to advocate "women's
rights," which is but another name--as modernly interpreted--for the
ballot. Now we are persuaded that it would be wise for the States to
concede this, and thereby open a new channel to them for thought, at
once weakening their hold on fashion, and enlarging their views of life
and its requirements. Good to the race, it would seem, must come of any
change whereby the rising generation shall have less of fashion and its
attendant evils, and more of health, with its accompanying blessings.
How few of perfectly healthy girls do we see among all those with whom
we are each severally acquainted. Tight lacing, began in early
childhood, is one of the chief of evils. You ask a girl of twelve years
if she is not too tightly dressed, and the reply is "no;" and the mother
is sure to argue that if the girl does not complain it is none of the
father's business to meddle. The fact is, the child has been gradually
brought to that state of unconsciousness of any discomfort by having
been subjected to this abominable process from a very tender age, and
being continued each year, the waist is scarce half the natural size it
should have been at womanhood. Take a country girl who has grown up free
from this practice, and has a well-developed frame, and put on her the
harness of her fashionable sister, and draw it to the point the latter
is accustomed to wear it, and you shall see whether there is any wincing
or no. The argument of these unreasoning mothers is that of the Chinese,
who dwarf their children's feet by beginning at an early period, and,
doubtless, if these youths were similarly questioned, they, too, would
complain of no inconvenience.
In the management and care of children, fond parents seem, in these
later years, little else than a bundle of absurdities. For instance,
take children of from three to ten years, and you shall see, in a
majority of cases, when dressed for the street, their backs ladened with
fold on fold of the warmest clothing, while their poor knees are both
bare and blue.
Ah! we forget, perhaps, that the physician and undertaker must live; and
then the army of nurses and others, too, are to be provided for, quite
as the fashionable lady would make reply to any _impertinence_ in
matters of her dress, that it kept an army of sewing-girls employed who
would otherwise be left to starve!
One of our most vigorous writers, treating this subject, says:--
"Showy wardrobe, excessive work with the needle, where it is done to
gratify a taste for display, or morbid fancy for exquisite work, is a
crime. Shoulders are bent, spines are curved, the blood, lacking its
supplies of oxygen, loses vitality and creeps sluggishly through the
veins, carrying no vivid color to the cheek and lips, giving no activity
to the brain, no fire to the eye. Let women throw away their fancy work,
dispense to a degree with ruffles and tucks, and, in a dress that will
admit of a long breath, walk in the clear bracing air.
"Mothers should begin early to lay the foundations of health. Children
should have plenty of vigorous, joyous exercise out of doors. They
should have romping, rollicking fun every day, at the same time giving
exercise to every part of the body, and a healthy tone to the spirits.
The body and soul are so intimately blended that exercise for the one is
of little value when the other is repressed. Thus the limbs will become
well knit and beautifully rounded, the flesh will be firm and rosy, and
the whole frame will be vigorous and elastic--vital to the finger tips.
Better that our youth should have a healthy _physique_, even if they
cannot read before they are ten years old, as in this case they would
soon overtake and outstrip the pale, narrow-chested child who is the
wonder of the nursery and the Sunday-school. Children are animals that
are to be made the most of. Give them ample pasturage, and let them be
as free as is consistent with the discipline they need; keep the girls
out of corsets and tight shoes, give them plain food, fresh air, and
plenty of sleep."
Nothing invites disease so much as the present style of living among the
well-to-do people. Nearly everything tends among this class to
deteriorate general health, and, since their numbers have within the
last decade greatly increased, the influence on the country must be
markedly detrimental, and, but for the steady flow of vitalizing blood
from the Old World, the whole Yankee race would ere long, inevitably
disappear.
We have dwelt in this chapter at considerable length on the importance
of right training and education of the young, and especially of girls,
though no more than the subject seems to demand. Boys are naturally more
out of doors, since their love of out-of-door life is greater than that
of girls, and their sports all lead them into the open air, and by this
means they more easily correct the constitutional and natural tendencies
to disease, if any there be. Then, too, the iron hand of fashion has not
fastened itself so relentlessly upon them as to dwarf their bodies and
warp their souls, as it has in some degree the gentler and better and
more tender half of mankind, to whom the larger share of this chapter
seems the more directly to apply.