curve of a straight-backed chair. Straight-backed chairs are instruments
of torture, and are more likely to make a girl crooked than to make her
straight. Sir Astley Cooper ridiculed straight-backed chairs, and well
he might. It is always well for a mother to try, for some considerable
time, such ridiculous inventions upon herself before she experiments
upon her unfortunate daughter. The position is most unnatural. I do not
approve of a girl lounging and lolling on a sofa; but, if she be tired
and wants to rest herself, let her, like any other reasonable being, sit
upon a comfortable ordinary chair.
If you want her to be straight, let her be made strong; and if she is to
be strong, she must use plenty of exercise and exertion, such as
drilling, dancing, skipping, archery, croquet, hand-swinging, horse
exercise, swimming, bowls, etc. This is the plan to make her back
straight and her muscles strong. Why should we bring up a girl
differently from a boy? Muscular gymnastic exercises and health-giving
exertion are unladylike, forsooth!
HOUSEHOLD WORK FOR GIRLS.
345. _Do you recommend household work as a means of health for my
daughter?_
Decidedly. Whatever you do, do not make a fine lady of her, or she will
become puny and delicate, listless and miserable. A girl, let her
station be what it might, ought, as soon as she be old enough, to make
her own bed. There is no exercise to expand the figure and to beautify
the shape better than bed-making. Let her make tidy her own room. Let
her use her hands and her arms. Let her, to a great extent, be
self-reliant, and let her wait upon herself. There is nothing vulgar in
her being useful. Let me ask, Of what use are many girls of the present
day? They are utterly useless. Are they happy? No, for the want of
employment they are miserable—I mean, bodily employment, household work.
Many girls, nowadays, unfortunately, are made to look upon a pretty
face, dress, and accomplishments as the only things needed! And, when
they do become women and wives—if ever they do become women and
wives—what miserable, lackadaisical wives, and what senseless, useless
mothers they make!
CHOICE OF PROFESSION OR TRADE.
346. _What profession or trade would you recommend a boy of a delicate
or of a consumptive habit to follow?_
If a youth be delicate, it is a common practice among parents either to
put him to some light in-door trade, or, if they can afford it, to one
of the learned professions. Such a practice is absurd, and fraught with
danger. The close confinement of an in-door trade is highly prejudicial
to health. The hard reading requisite to fit a man to fill, for
instance, the sacred office, only increases delicacy of constitution.
The stooping at a desk, in an attorney’s office, is most trying to the
chest. The harass, the anxiety, the disturbed nights, the interrupted
meals, and the intense study necessary to fit a man for the medical
profession, is still more dangerous to health than either law, divinity,
or any in-door trade. “Sir Walter Scott says of the country surgeon,
that he is worse fed and harder wrought than any one else in the parish,
except it be his horse.”
A modern writer, speaking of the life of a medical man, observes: “There
is no career which so rapidly wears away the powers of life, because
there is no other which requires a greater activity of mind and body. He
has to bear the changes of weather, continued fatigue, irregularity in
his meals, and broken rest; to live in the midst of miasma and
contagion. If in the country, he has to traverse considerable distances
on horseback, exposed to wind and storm—to brave all dangers to go to
the relief of suffering humanity. A fearful truth for medical men has
been established by the table of mortality by Dr. Casper, published in
the _British Review_. Of 1000 members of the medical profession, 600
died before their sixty-second year; while of persons leading a quiet
life—such as agriculturists or theologians—the mortality is only 347. If
we take 100 individuals of each of these classes, 43 theologians, 40
agriculturists, 35 clerks, 32 soldiers, will reach their seventieth
year: of 100 professors of the healing art, 24 only will reach that age.
They are the signposts to health; they can show the road to old age, but
rarely tread it themselves.”
If a boy, therefore, be of a delicate or of a consumptive habit, an
out-door calling should be advised, such as that of a farmer, of a
tanner, or a land-surveyor; but, if he be of an inferior station of
society, the trade of a butcher may be recommended. Tanners and butchers
are seldom known to die of consumption.
I cannot refrain from reprobating the too common practice among parents
of bringing up their boys to the professions. The anxieties and the
heartaches which they undergo if they do not succeed (and how can many
of them succeed when there is such a superabundance of candidates?)
materially injure their health. “I very much wonder,” says Addison, “at
the humor of parents, who will not rather choose to place their sons in
a way of life where an honest industry cannot but thrive, than in
stations where the greatest probity, learning, and good sense may
miscarry. How many men are country curates, that might have made
themselves aldermen of London by a right improvement of a smaller sum of
money than what is usually laid out upon a learned education? A sober,
frugal person, of slender parts and a slow apprehension, might have
thrived in trade, though he starves upon physic; as a man would be well
enough pleased to buy silks of one whom he could not venture to feel his
pulse. Vagellius is careful, studious, and obliging, but withal a little
thick-skulled; he has not a single client, but might have had abundance
of customers. The misfortune is, that parents take a liking to a
particular profession, and therefore desire their sons may be of it;
whereas, in so great an affair of life, they should consider the genius
and abilities of their children more than their own inclinations. It is
the great advantage of a trading nation, that there are very few in it
so dull and heavy who may not be placed in stations of life which may
give them an opportunity of making their fortunes. A well-regulated
commerce is not, like law, physic, or divinity, to be overstocked with
hands; but, on the contrary, flourishes by multitudes, and gives
employment to all its professors. Fleets of merchantmen are so many
squadrons of floating shops, that vend our wares and manufactures in all
the markets of the world, and find out chapman under both the tropics.”
347. _Then, do you recommend a delicate youth to be brought up either to
a profession or to a trade?_
Decidedly. There is nothing so injurious for a delicate boy, or for any
one else, as idleness. Work, in moderation, enlivens the spirits, braces
the nerves, and gives tone to the muscles, and thus strengthens the
constitution. Of all miserable people, the idle boy or the idle man is
the most miserable! If you are poor, of course you will bring him up to
some calling; but if you are rich, and your boy is delicate (if he be
not actually in a consumption), you will, if you are wise, still bring
him up to some trade or profession. You will, otherwise, be making a rod
for your own as well as for your son’s back. Oh, what a blessed thing is
work.
SLEEP.
348. _Have you any remarks to make on the sleep of boys and girls?_
Sleeping-rooms are, generally, the smallest in the house, whereas, for
health’s sake, they ought to be the largest. If it be impossible to have
a _large_ bed-room, I should advise a parent to have a dozen or twenty
holes (each about the size of a florin) bored with a center-bit in the
upper part of the chamber-door, and the same number of holes in the
lower part of the door, so as constantly to admit a free current of air
from the passages. If this cannot readily be done, then let the bed-room
door be left ajar all night, a door-chain being on the door to prevent
intrusion; and, in the summer time, during the night, let the
window-sash, to the extent of about two or three inches, be left open.
If there be a dressing-room next to the bed-room, it will be well to
have the dressing-room window, instead of the bed-room window, open at
night. The dressing-room door will regulate the quantity of air to be
admitted into the bed-room, opening it either little or much, as the
weather might be cold or otherwise.
_Fresh air during sleep is indispensable to health_—If a bed-room be
close, the sleep, instead of being calm and refreshing, is broken and
disturbed; and the boy, when he awakes in the morning, feels more
fatigued than when he retired to rest.
If sleep is to be refreshing, the air, then, must be pure, and free from
carbonic acid gas, which is constantly being evolved from the lungs. If
sleep is to be health-giving, the lungs ought to have their proper food,
oxygen,—and not be cheated by giving them instead a poison, carbonic
acid gas.
It would be well for each boy to have a separate room to himself, and
each girl a separate room to herself. If two boys are obliged, from the
smallness of the house, to sleep in one room, and if two girls, from the
same cause, are compelled to occupy the same chamber, by all means let
each one have a _separate_ bed to himself and to herself, as it is so
much more healthy and expedient for both boys and girls to sleep alone.
The roof of the bed should be left open—that is to say, the top of the
bedstead ought not be covered with bed furniture, but should be open to
the ceiling, in order to encourage a free ventilation of air. A
bed-curtain may be allowed on the side of the bed where there are windy
currents of air; otherwise bed-curtains and valances ought on no account
to be allowed. They prevent a free circulation of the air. A youth
should sleep on a horse-hair mattress. Such mattresses greatly improve
the figure and strengthen the frame. During the daytime, provided it
does not rain, the windows must be thrown wide open, and, directly after
he has risen from bed, the clothes ought to be thrown entirely back, in
order that they may become, before the bed be made, well ventilated and
purified by the air:
“Do you wish to be healthy?—
Then keep the house sweet;
As soon as you’re up
Shake each blanket and sheet.
Leave the beds to get fresh
On the close-crowded floor;
Let the wind sweep right through—
Open window and door.
The bad air will rush out
As the good air comes in,
Just as goodness is stronger
And better than sin.
Do this, it’s soon done,
In the fresh morning air,—
It will lighten your labor
And lessen your care.
You are weary—no wonder;
There’s weight and there’s gloom
Hanging heavily round
In each overfull room.
Be sure all the trouble
Is profit and gain,
For there’s headache, and heartache,
And fever, and pain,
Hovering round, settling down
In the closeness and heat:
Let the wind sweep right through
Till the air’s fresh and sweet.
And more cheerful you’ll feel
Through the toil of the day;
More refreshed you’ll awake
When the night’s pass’d away.”
Plants and flowers ought not to be allowed to remain in a chamber at
night. Experiments have proved that plants and flowers take up, in the
daytime, carbonic acid gas (the refuse of respiration), and give off
oxygen (a gas so necessary and beneficial to health), but give out in
the night season a poisonous exhalation.
Early rising cannot be too strongly insisted upon; nothing is more
conducive to health, and thus to long life. A youth is frequently
allowed to spend the early part of the morning in bed, breathing the
impure atmosphere of a bed-room, when he should be up and about,
inhaling the balmy and health-giving breezes of the morning:
“Rise with the lark, and with the lark to bed:
The breath of night’s destructive to the hue
Of ev’ry flower that blows. Go to the field,
And ask the humble daisy why it sleeps
Soon as the sun departs? Why close the eyes
Of blossoms infinite, long ere the moon
Her oriental veil puts off? Think why,
Nor let the sweetest blossom Nature boasts
Be thus exposed to night’s unkindly damp.
Well may it droop, and all its freshness lose,
Compell’d to taste the rank and pois’nous steam
Of midnight theater and morning ball.
Give to repose the solemn hour she claims;
And from the forehead of the morning steal
The sweet occasion. Oh! there is a charm
Which morning has, that gives the brow of age
A smack of youth, and makes the lip of youth
Shed perfume exquisite. Expect it not,
Ye who till noon upon a down-bed lie,
Indulging feverish sleep.”
If early rising be commenced in childhood it becomes a habit, and will
then probably be continued through life. A boy ought on no account to be
roused from his sleep; but as soon as he be awake in the morning, he
should be encouraged to rise. Dozing—that state between sleeping and
waking—is injurious; it enervates both body and mind, and is as
detrimental to health as dram-drinking! But if he rise early, he must go
to bed betimes; it is a bad practice to keep him up until the family
retire to rest. He ought, winter and summer, to seek his pillow by nine
o’clock, and should rise as soon as he awakes in the morning.
Let me urge upon a parent the great importance of _not_ allowing the
chimney of any bed-room, or of any room in the house, to be stopped, as
many are in the habit of doing, to prevent, as _they_ call it, a
draught, but to prevent, as _I_ should call it, health.
349. _How many hours of sleep ought a boy to have?_
This, of course, will depend upon the exercise he takes; but, on an
average he should have every night at least eight hours. It is a
mistaken notion that a boy does _better_ with _little_ sleep. Infants,
children, and youths require more than those who are further advanced in
years; hence old people can frequently do with little sleep. This may in
a measure be accounted for from the quantity of exercise the young take.
Another reason may be, the young have neither pain nor care to keep them
awake: while, on the contrary, the old have frequently one or both:
“Care keeps his watch on every old man’s eye,
And where care lodges, sleep will never lie.”
ON THE TEETH AND THE GUMS.
350. _What are the best means of keeping the teeth and the gums in a
healthy state?_
I would recommend the teeth and the gums to be well brushed with warm
salt and water, in the proportion of one large teaspoonful of salt to a
tumbler of water. I was induced to try the above plan by the
recommendation of an intelligent American writer.
The salt and water should be used _every night_ at bedtime.
The following is an excellent tooth-powder:
Take of finely-powdered Peruvian Bark;
„ Prepared Coral
„ Prepared Chalk;
„ Myrrh, of each half an ounce;
„ Orris root, a quarter of an ounce;
Mix them well together in a mortar, and preserve the powder in a
wide-mouth stoppered bottle.
The teeth ought to be well brushed with the above tooth-powder every
morning.
If the teeth be much decayed, and if, in consequence, the breath be
offensive, two ounces of finely-powdered charcoal, well mixed with the
above ingredients, will be found a valuable addition.
Some persons clean their teeth every morning with soap; if soap be used
it ought to be Castile soap, and if the teeth be not white and clear,
Castile soap is an excellent cleanser of the teeth, and may be used in
lieu of tooth-powder as before recommended.
There are few persons who brush the teeth properly. I will tell you the
right way. First of all procure a tooth-brush of the best make, and of
rather hard bristles, to enable it to penetrate into all the nooks and
corners of the teeth: then, having put a small quantity of warm water
into your mouth, letting the principal of it escape into the basin, dip
your brush in warm water, and if you are about using Castile soap, rub
the brush on a cake of the soap, and then well brush your teeth, first
upward and then downward, then from side to side—from right to left and
from left to right—then the backs of the teeth, then apply the brush to
the tops of the crowns of the teeth both of the upper and of the lower
jaw,—so that _every_ part of each tooth, including the gums, may in turn
be well cleansed, and be well brushed. Be not afraid of using the brush:
a good brushing and dressing will do the teeth and the gums an immensity
of good; it will make the breath sweet, and will preserve the teeth
sound and good. After using the brush the mouth must, of course, be well
rinsed out with warm water.
The finest set of teeth I ever saw in my life belonged to a middle-aged
gentleman; the teeth had neither spot not blemish—they were like
beautiful pearls. He never had toothache in his life, and did not know
what toothache meant! He brushed his teeth, every morning, with soap and
water, in the manner I have previously recommended. I can only say to
you—go and do likewise!
Camphor ought never to be used as an ingredient of tooth-powder, it
makes the teeth brittle. Camphor certainly has the effect of making the
teeth, for a time, look very white; but it is an evanescent beauty.
Tartar is apt to accumulate between and around the teeth; it is better
in such a case _not_ to remove it by scaling instruments, but to adopt
the plan recommended by Dr. Richardson, namely, to well brush the teeth
with pure vinegar and water.
PREVENTION OF DISEASE, ETC.
351. _If a boy or a girl show great precocity of intellect, is any organ
likely to become affected?_
A greater quantity of arterial blood is sent to the brain of those who
are prematurely talented, and hence it becomes more than ordinarily
developed. Such advantages are not unmixed with danger; this same
arterial blood may excite and feed inflammation, and either convulsions,
or water on the brain, or insanity, or, at last, idiocy may follow. How
proud a mother is in having a precocious child! How little is she aware
that precocity is frequently an indication of disease!
352. _How can danger in such a case be warded off?_
It behooves a parent, if her son be precocious, to restrain him—to send
him to a quiet country place, free from the excitement of the town; and
when he is sent to school, to give directions to the master that he is
not on any account to tax his intellect (for a master is apt, if he have
a clever boy, to urge him forward); and to keep him from those
institutions where a spirit of rivalry is maintained, and where the
brain is thus kept in a state of constant excitement. Medals and prizes
are well enough for those who have moderate abilities, but dangerous,
indeed, to those who have brilliant ones.
An overworked precocious brain is apt to cause the death of the owner;
and if it does not do so, it in too many instances injures the brain
irreparably, and the possessor of such an organ, from being one of the
most intellectual of children, becomes one of the most commonplace of
men.
Let me urge you, if you have a precocious child, to give, and that
before it be too late, the subject in question your best consideration.
353. _Are precocious boys in their general health usually strong or
delicate?_
Delicate. Nature seems to have given a delicate body to compensate for
the advantages of a talented mind. A precocious youth is predisposed to
consumption, more so than to any other disease. The hard study which he
frequently undergoes excites the disease into action. It is not
desirable, therefore, to have a precocious child. A writer in “Fraser’s
Magazine” speaks very much to the purpose when he says, “Give us
intellectual beef rather than intellectual veal.”
354. _What habit of body is most predisposed to Scrofula?_
He or she who has a moist, cold, fair, delicate, and almost transparent
skin, large prominent blue eyes, protuberant forehead, light-brown or
auburn hair, rosy cheeks, pouting lips, milk-white teeth, long neck,
high shoulders, small, flat, and contracted chest, tumid bowels, large
joints, thin limbs, and flabby muscles, is the person most predisposed
to scrofula. The disease is not entirely confined to the above;
sometimes he or she who has black hair, dark eyes and complexion, is
subject to it, but yet far less frequently than the former. It is a
remarkable fact that the most talented are the most prone to scrofula,
and being thus clever their intellects are too often cultivated at the
expense of their health. In infancy and childhood, either water on the
brain or mesenteric disease; in youth, pulmonary consumption is
frequently their doom. They are like shining meteors; their life is
brilliant, but short.
355. _How may Scrofula be warded off?_
Strict attention to the rules of health is the means to prevent
scrofula. Books, unless as an amusement, ought to be discarded. The
patient must almost live in the open air, and his residence should be a
healthy country place, where the air is dry and bracing; if it be at a
farm-house, in a salubrious neighborhood, so much the better. In
selecting a house for a patient predisposed to scrofula, _good pure
water should be an important requisite_—indeed for every one who values
his health. Early rising in such a case is most beneficial. Wine,
spirits, and all fermented liquors ought to be avoided. Beef-steaks and
mutton-chops in abundance, and plenty of milk and farinaceous food—such
as rice, sago, arrow-root, etc.—should be his diet.
Scrofula, if the above rules be strictly and perseveringly followed, may
be warded off; but there must be no half measures, no trying to serve
two masters—to cultivate at the same time the health and the intellect.
The brain, until the body becomes strong, must _not_ be taxed. “You may
prevent scrofula by care; but that some children are originally
predisposed to the disease there cannot be the least doubt, and in such
cases the education and the habits of youth should be so directed as to
ward off a complaint the effects of which are so frequently fatal.”
356. _But suppose the disease to be already formed, what must then be
done?_
The plan recommended above must still be pursued, not by fits and
starts, but steadily and continuously, for it is a complaint that
requires a vast deal of patience and great perseverance. Warm and cold
sea bathing in such a case is generally most beneficial. In a patient
with confirmed scrofula it will of course be necessary to consult a
skillful and experienced doctor.
But do not allow, without a second opinion, any plan to be adopted that
will weaken the system, which is already too much depressed. No, rather
build up the body by good nourishing diet (as previously recommended),
by cod-liver oil, by a dry, bracing atmosphere, such as either Brighton,
or Ramsgate, Llandudno; or, if the lungs be delicate, by a more
sheltered coast, such as either St. Leonard’s or Torquay.
Let no active purging, no mercurials, no violent, desperate remedies be
allowed. If the patient cannot be cured _without_ them, I am positive
that he will not be cured _with_ them.
But do not despair; many scrofulous patients are cured by time and by
judicious treatment. But if desperate remedies are to be used, the poor
patient had better _by far_ be left to Nature. “Let me fall now into the
hand of the LORD; for very great are his mercies: but let me not fall
into the hand of man.”
357. _Have you any remarks to make on a girl stooping?_
A girl ought never to be allowed to stoop: stooping spoils the figure,
weakens the chest, and interferes with the digestion. If she cannot help
stooping, you may depend upon it that she is in bad health, and that a
medical man ought to be consulted. As soon as her health is improved the
dancing-master should be put in requisition, and calisthenic and
gymnastic exercises should be resorted to. Horse exercise and swimming
in such a case are very beneficial. The girl should live well, on good
nourishing diet, and not be too closely confined either to the house or
to her lessons. She ought during the night to lie on a horse-hair
mattress, and during the day, for two or three hours, flat on her back
on a reclining board. Stooping, if neglected, is very likely to lead to
consumption.
358. _If a boy be round-shouldered and slouching in his gait, what ought
to be done?_
Let him be drilled; there is nothing more likely to benefit him than
drilling. You never see a soldier round-shouldered nor slouching in his
gait. He walks every inch like a man. Look at the difference in
appearance between a country laborer and a soldier! It is the drilling
that makes the difference. “Oh, for a drill-sergeant to teach them to
stand upright, and to turn out their toes, and to get rid of that
slouching, hulking gait, which gives such a look of clumsiness and
stupidity!”
359. _My daughter has grown out of shape, she has grown on one side, her
spine is not straight, and her ribs bulge out more on the one side than
on the other: what is the cause, and can anything be done to remedy the
deformity?_