"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.