Newspaper Page Text
€J)t €ssoi)ist.
HOW TO MAKE HOME UNHEALTHY
BY HARRIET MARTINEAU.
vl
THE WATER PARTY.
w ater rains from heaven, and leaps
out of the earth; it rolls about the land
in rivers, it accumulates in lakes;
three-fourths of the whole surface of the
globe is water; yet there are men una
ble to be clean. “ God loveth the
clean,” said Mahomet. He was a san
itary reformer; he was a notorious im
postor ; and it is our duty to resist any
insidious attempt to introduce his doc
trines.
There are in London districts of filth
which speak to us —through the nose—
in an emphatic manner. 1 heir foul air
is an atmosphere of charity ; for we
pass through it pitying the poor. Burke
said of a certain miser to whom an
estate was left, “that now, it was to be
hoped, he would set up a pocket-hand
erchief.” We hope, of the miserable,
that when they come into their proper
ty they may be able to afford them
selves a little lavender and musk. We
might be willing to subscribe for the
correction now and then, with aro
matic cachou, of the town’s bad breath;
but water is a vulgar sort of thing, and
of vulgarity the less we have the better.
In truth, we have not much of it.
We are told that in a great city Wa
ter is maid of all work ; has to assist
our manufacturers, to supply daily our
saucepans and our tea-kettles ; has to
cleanse our clothes, our persons, and
our houses; to provide baths, to wash
our streets, and to flood away the daily
refuse of the people, with their slaught
er-houses, markets, hospitals, &c. Our
dozen reservoirs in London yield a sup
ply daily averaging thirty gallons to
each head —which goes partly to make
swamps, partly to waste, partly to rot,
as it is used in tubs or cisterns. Rome
in her pride used once to supply water
at the rate of more than three hundred
gallons daily to each citizen. That was
excess. In London half a million of
people get no water at all into their
houses ; but as those people live in the
back settlements, and keep out of our
sight, their dirt is no great matter of
concern. We, for our own parts, have
enough to cook with, have whereof to
drink, wherewith to wash our feet some
times, to wet our fingers and the corner
of a towel —we inquire no further. —
Drainage and all such topics involve
details positively nasty, and we blush
for any of our fellow-citizens who take
delight in chattering about them.
W e are told to regard the habits of
an infant world. London, the brain
of a vast empire, is advised now to for
get her civilization, and to go back
some thousand years. We are to look
at Persian aqueducts, attributed to No
ah’s great-grandson —at Carthaginians,
Ltruscans, Mexicans—at what Rome
did. It frets us when we are thus
driven to an obvious reply. Man, in
an unripe and half-civilized condition,
has not found out the vulgarity of wa
ter; for his brutish instinct is not over
come. All savages believe ti at water
is essential to their life, and desire it
in unlimited abundance. Cultivation
teaches us another life, in which our
animal existence neither gets nor mer
its much attention. As for the Ro
mans, so perpetually quoted, it was a
freak of theirs to do things mas* ely.
While they were yet almost barbari
ans, they built that Cloaca through
which afterward Agrippa sailed'down
to the Tiber in a boat. Who wishes
to see II is Worship, the Lord Mayor of
London, emerging in his state barge
from a London sewer?
Now here is inconsistency. Thirty
million gallons of corruption are added
daily by our London sewers to the
Thames; that is one object of com
plaint, good in itself, because we drink
Thames water. But in the next breath
it is complained that a good many mil
lion gallons more should be poured
out; that there are three hundred thous
and cesspools more to be washed up;
that as much filth as would make a lake
six feet in depth, a mile long, and a
thousand feet across, lies under Lon
don stagnant; and they would wish
this also to be swept into the river. 1
heard lately of a gentleman who is
tormented with the constant fancy that
he has a scorpion down his back. He
asks every neighbour to put in his hand
and fetch it out, but no amount of
fetching out ever relieves him. That is
a national delusion. Our enlightened
public is much troubled with such
scorpions. Sanitary writers are infest
ed with them.
They also say, that in one-half of
London people drink Thames water;
and in the other half, get water from
the Chadwell spring and River Lea.
That the River Lea, for twenty miles,
flows through a densely populated dis
trict, and is, in its passage, drenched
with refuse matter from the population
on its banks. That there is added to
Thames water the waste of two hun
dred and twenty cities, towns and vil
lages; and that between Richmond and
Waterloo bridge, more than two hun
dred sewers discharge into it their fetid
matter. That the washing to and fro
of tide secures the arrival of a large
portion of filth from below Westmin
ster, at Hammersmith; effects a perfect
mixture, which is still farther facilitated
by the splashing of the steamboats. —
Mr. Hassal has published engravings
of the microscopic aspect of water
taken from companies which suck the
river up at widely separated stages of
its course through the town —so tested,
one drop differs little from another in
the degree of its impurity. They tell
us that two com; allies—the Lambeth
and West Middlesex—supply Thames
Mixture to subscribers as it comes to
them; but that others filter more or
less. They say that filtering can ex
purge nothing but mechanical impuri
ties, while the dissolved pollution,
which no filter can extract, is that part
which communicates disease. W e know
this; well, and what then] There are
absurdities so lifted above ridicule,
that Momus himself would spoil part
ot the fun if he attempted to trans
gress beyond a naked statement of
them. \\ hat do the members of this
W ater Party want? I’ll tell you what
1 verily believe they are insane enough
to look for.
ihey would, if possible, forsake
1 hames water, calling it dirty, saying
it is hard. So hard they say it is, that
it requires three spoonbills of tea in
stead ot one in every man’s pot, two
pounds of soap for one in every man’s
kitchen. So they would fetch soft wa
ter from a Gathering Ground in Sur
rey, adopting an example set in Lanca
shire; from rain-fall on the heaths be
tween Bagshot and Farnham, and from
tributaries of the River Wey, they
would collect water in covered reser
voirs, and bring it by a covered Aque
duct to London. In London, they
would totally abolish cisterns, and all
intermittence of supply. Water in
London they would have to be, as at
Nottingham, accessible in all rooms at
all times. They would have water, at
high pressure, climbing about every
house in every court and alley. They
would place w ater, so to speak, at the
finger’s end, limiting no household as
to quantity. They would enable every
man to bathe. They would revolution
ize the sewer system, and have the
town washed daily, like a good Ma
hometan,clean to the finger-nails. They
hint that all this might not even be ex
pensive; that the cost of disease and
degradation is so much greater than
the cost of health and self-respect, as
to pay hack, possibly, our outlay, and
then yield a profit to the nation. They
say that, even if it were a money loss,
it would be moral gain; and they ask
whether we have not spent millions,
ere now, upon less harmless commodi
ties than water?
An ingenious fellow had a fiddle—all,
he said, made out of his own head ; and
wood enough was left to make another,
fie must have been a sanitary man ;
his fiddle was a crotchet. Still farther
to illustrate their own capacity of fid
dle-making, these good hut misguided
people have been rooting up some hor
rible statistics of the filth and w retch
edness which our back-windows over
look, with strange facts anent fever,
pestilence and the communication of
disease. All this 1 purposely suppress;
it is peculiarly disagreeable. Delicate
health we like, and will learn gladly
how to obtain it; but results we are
content w ith, and can spare the details,
when those details bring us into con
tact, even upon paper, with the squalid
classes.
If these outcries of the Water Party
move the public for a thirst for change,
it would be prudent for us aegritudina
ry men not rashly to swim against the
current. Let us adopt a middle course,
a patronizing tone. It is in our favour
that a large number of the facts which
these our foes have to produce, are by a
great deal, too startling to get easy
credit. A single Pooh ! has in it more
semblance of reason than a page of
facts, when revelations of neglected
hygiene are on the carpet. If the case
of the Sanitary Reformers had been
only half as well made out, it would be
twice as well supported.
VII.
FILLING THE GRAVE.
M. Boutignv has published an ac
count of some experiments which goto
prove that we may dip our fingers into
liquid metal with impunity. Professor
Pliieker, of Bonn, has amply confirm
ed Boutigney’s results, and in his re
port hints a conclusion that henceforth
“certain minor operations in surgery
may be performed with least pain by
placing the foot in a bath of red-hot
iron.” Would you not like to see Pro
fessor Pliieker, with his trowsers duly
tucked up, washing his feet in a pailful
of this very soothing fluid? And
would it not be a fit martyrdom for
sanitary doctors, if we could compel
them also to sacrifice their legs in a
cause, kin to their own, of theory and
innovation ? As Alderman Lawrence
shrewdly remarked the other day, from
his place in the Guildhall, the sanitary
reform cry is “got up.” That is th<?
reason why, in this ease, it does not go
down. He, for his own part, did not
disapprove the flavour of a church-yard,
and appeared to see no reason why it
should be cheated of its due. The san
itary partisans, he said, were paid for
making certain statements. It would
he well if we could cut off their supply
of halfpence, and so silence them.—
Liwang, an ancient Emperor of China,
fearing insurrection, forbade all con
versation, even whispering, in his do
minions. It would be well for us if
Liwang lived now as our Secretary for
the Home Department. There is too
much talking—is there not, Mr. Car
lyle? We want Liwang among us. —
However, as matters stand, it is bad
enough for the sanitary reformers.—
“ They drop their arms and tremble
when they hear,” they are despised by
Alderman Lawrence.*
Let us uphold our city grave-yards;
on that point we have already spoken
out. Let us not cheat them of their
pasturage ; if any man fall sick, when,
so to speak, his grave is dug, let us not
lift him out of it by misdirected care.
That topic now engages our attention.
There is a report among the hear
say stories of Herodotus, touching some
tribe of Scythians, that when one of
them gets out of health, or passes for
ty years of age, his friends proceed to
slaughter him, lest, lie becomes diseased
tough, or unfit for table. These peo
ple took their ancestors into tlieir stom
ach’s, we take ouisinto our lungs—and
herein we adopt the better plan, be
cause it is the more unwholesome. —
We are content, also, now and then to
let our friends grow old, although we
may repress the tendency to age as
much as possible. We do not abso
lutely kill our neighbours when they
sicken ; yet by judicious nursing we
may frequently keep down a too great
buoyancy of health, and check recove
ry. How to produee this last effect 1
*The honest and uncompromising spirit in
which these papers oppose the sanitary move
ment, has led some people to imagine that
there is satire meant in them. The Best way
to answer this suspicion, is to print here so
much as we can find space for the speech of
Alderman Lawrence, reported in the “Times”
one Saturday. It will be seen that the rone of
his eloquence, and that of ours, differ but little;
and that the present writer resembles the learn
ed Alderman (who has succeeded, however, on
a far larger scale) in his attempt miacere stul
titinm consiliia brevetn. The noble city lord
remarked: “The fact was, that the sanitary
schemes were got up ; talk was made about
cholera, and people became alarmed. Now, it
was said that burial-grounds were highly inju
rious to health, and a great cry had been raised
against them. He did not know such to be the
fact, that they were injurious to health. He
did not believe one word about it. There were
many persons who lived by raising up bugbears
of this description in the present day, and those
persons were always raising up some new
crotchet or another.” After giving his view ol
the new interments bill, he asked, “Was it
likely that the public would put up with the
idea even of thus having the remains of their
friends carried about the country ? Was it
likely that the Government would be permitted
thus to spread perhaps pestilence and fever ?”
There! If you want satire, could you have a
finer touch than that last sentence ? There-is a
bone to pick, and marrow in it too.
SOUTHERN LITERARY GAZETTE.
will now tell vou. Gentle mourners,
do not chide me as irreverent —
‘‘Auch ich war in Arkadien geboren,”
hear with me, then,and letmegivemy
hints concerning aegritudinary sick-room
discipline.
Os the professional nurse I will say
nothing. You, of course, have put
down Airs. Gamp’s address.
A sick-room should, in the first place,
he made dark. Light, I have said be
fore, is, in most cases, curative. It is
a direct swindling of the doctor when
w e allow blinds to be pulled up, and so
admit into the patient’s room medicine
for which nobody (except the tax-gath
erer) is paid.
A sick-room should, in the next
place, be made sad, obtrusively sad.—
A smile upon the landing must become
a s : gh when it has passed the patient’s
door. Our hope is to depress, to dis
pirit invalids. Cheerful words and gen
tle laughter, more especially where
there is admitted sunshine also, are a
moral food much too nutritious for the
sick.
The sick room, in its funiture as well,
must have an ominous appearance.—
The drawers, or a table should be deck
ed with physic bottles. Some have a
way of thrusting all the medicine into
a cupboard, out of sight, leaving a glass
of gayly-coloured flowers for the wea
ried to rest upon : this has arisen
obviously from a sanitary crotchet, am
is, on do account, to be adopted.
Then we must have the sick-room !<•
be hot, and keep it close. A seentlesj
air, at summer temperature, sanitary
people want; a hot, close atmosphere
is better suited to our view. Slops and
all messes are to be left standing in the
room—only put out of sight —and
cleared away occasionally ; they are
not to be removed at once. The cham
ber also is to be made tidy once a day,
and once a week well cleaned : it is not
to be kept in order by incessant care,
by hourly tidiness, permitting no dirt
to collect.
There is an absurd sanitary dictum,
which I w ill but name. It is, that a
patient*ought to have, if possible, two
beds, one for the day, and one for the
night use ; or else two sets of sheets
that, each set being used one day and
aired the next, the bed may be kept
fresh and wholesome. Suppose our
friend w ere to catch cold in consequence
of all this freshness!
No, we do better to avoid fresh air;
nor should we vex our patient with
much washing. We will not learn to
feed the sick, but send their food away
w hen they are unable to understand our
clumsiness.
Yet, while we follow our own hu
mour iu this code of chamber practice,
\vc will pay tithes of mint and cum
min to the men of science. We will
ask Monsieur Purgon how many grains
of salt go to an egg; and if our pa
tient require twelve turns up and down
the room, we will inquire with Argan,
whether they are to be measured by its
length or breadth.
When we have added to our course,
some doses of religious horror, we shall
have done as much as conscience can
demand of us toward filling the grave.
I may append here the remark, that
if ever we do resolve to eat our an
cestors, thereistheplan of a distinguish
ed horticulturist apt for our purpose.
Mr. London, J believe it was, who pro
posed, some years ago, the conversion
of the dead into rotation crops—that
our grandfathers and grandmothers
should he converted into corn and
mangel-wurzel. His suggestion was
to combine burial with farming opera
tions. A field was s o be, during forty
years, a place of interment ; then the
field adjacent was to be taken for that
purpose; and so on with others in ro
tation. A due time having been al
lowed for the manure in each field to
rot, the dead were to be well woiked
up and gradually disintered in the form
of w heat, or carrots, or potatoes.
Nothing appears odd to w hich we
are accustomed. We look abroad and
w onder, but we look at home and are
content. The Esquimaux believe that
men dying in wintry weather are un
fortunate, because their souls, as they
escape, risk being blown away. Some
Negroes do not bury in the rainy season,
for they believe that then the gods, be
ing all busy up above, can not attend
to any ceremonies. Dr. Hooker writes
home from the Himalaya mountains,
that about Lake Yarou the Lamas’
bodies are exposed, and kites are sum
moned to devour them by the sound of
a gong and of a trumpet made out of
a human thigh-bone. notions from
abroad arrest our notice, but we see
nothing when we look at home. We
might see how we fill our sick-rooms
with a fatal gloom, and keep our dead
five or six days within our houses, to
bury them, side by side and one over
another, thousands together, in the mid
dle of our cities. However, when we
do succeed in getting at a view of our
own life ah extra , it is a pleasant thing
to find that sanitary heresies at any
rate have not struck deep root in the
British soil. In an old book of em
blems there is a picture of Cupid whip
ping a tortoise, to the motto that Love
hates delay. If lovers of reform in
sanitary matters hate delay, it is a
pity; for our good old tortoise has a fa
mous shell, and is notstimulated easily.
[To be continued,]
Humous ok a Large City.-— A cor
respondent of the New York Tribune
relates the following pleasant adven
ture its it happened to himself:
“Having an advertised letter in the
Post Office, J went down for it Sunday
noon. I stopped to buy a peach of a
little girl who kept a stand near, and
gave her a quorter for the peach; wait
ing for my change, she told me that
that was right. ‘I gave you a quarter,’
said 1. ‘No, you only gave me a cent.’
Then she began to whine, which drew
around some dozen Irish women who
kept stands near. Some vvell dressed
(1 wish 1 could say well behaved ) men
stopped, and 1 was accused of being a
swindler, and trying to cheat a child.
One or two peaceable individuals threat
ened to flog me, and talked of calling
the police. I walked off philosophi
cally, leaving a very bad character be
hind me.”
ggfpAmong the Mongees, thunder is
called “the sky’s gun,” the morning “the
day’s child;” and when one is intoxcat
ed, is said to be “taken captive by
rum.” A native of Africa, who had
visited America some years ago, when
asked what ice was, said “Him be wa
er fast asleep,” and of a rail car he said
“ Him be one thunder mill.”
(Original
For the Southern Literary Gazette.
THE PALE, COLD STARS.
BY ROSE DU SUD.
The pale, cold stars look down on throbbing
hearts
And burning brows, in mockery of their an
guish !
They know no syn pathy with suffering,
For, far above the mists of earth, they hold
Their calm and beauteous being; no tears
E’er dim their brightness; and their eyes of
light
Will ope again, though but a moment since
They closed on scenes of dark despair.
Bright ones! how oft sad hearts have yearned
To be, like you, unmoved, whatever
Fate may bide, whatever change befall !
Should death snatch from thine arms all, all to
which
Thy soul had bound itself; and the cold grave
Shut from thine eyes the light of thine own
being;
Or bitterer far ! should all the love
Thou deemedst thine, fade from thy dark’ning
path,
And meet a living tomb; should hearts grow
changed,
That love had knitted unto thine so deep,
That scarce thou knew’st the lov’d one’s from
thine own ;
Eyes grow cold, once warm and bright with
passion’s ray,
And thou be left to wander on, unloved.
Oh ! then, how grand the power, like yonder
star
To shine, all pale and cold and bright; change
less, • .
Mid every change, undimmed by shadow’s,
Triumphant still, though storms beat fiercely
round !
But no ! The heart must writhe with agony,
And thrill with deeper, wilder anguish ;.
Be stung by grief and w’rung by sorrow;
Must bleed at every pore, and give
Its latest drop to bitter suffering.
So God ordains! To His sovereign will
We bow, and feel that He the chastened loves,
And ever for our good afflicts us!
€l)t turn'll Jlltnr.
ALL THY WORKS PRAISE THEE.
BY MARY HOWITT.
The moonbeams on ihe billowy deep,
The blue waves rippling on ihe strand,
The ocean on its peaceful sleep,
The shell that murmurs on the sand,
The cloud that dims the bending sky,
The bow that on its bosom glows,
The sun that lights the vault so high,
The stars at midnight’s calm repose :
These praise the power that archetd the sky,
And robed the earth in beauty’s dye.
The melody of nature’s choir,
The deep-toned anthems of the sea,
The wind that tunes a viewless lyre,
The zephyr on its pinions fiee,
The thunder with its thrilling notes,
The peal upon the mountain air,
The lav that through the foliage lfoats,
Or sinks in dying cadence there ;
These all to Thee their voices raise,
A lervent voice of gushing praise.
The day-star, herald of the dawn,
As the daik shadows flit away,
The tint upon the cheek of mom,
The dew-drop gleaming on the spray—
From wild birds in their wanderings,
From streamlets leaping to the sea,
From all eaith’s fair and lovely things,
Doth living praise ascend to Thee ;
These with their silent tongues proclaim
The varied wonders of Thy name.
Father, Thy hand hath formed the flower,
And flung it on the verdant lea,
Thou hadst it ope at summer’s hour,
Its hues of beauty speak of Thee,
Thy woiks all praise Thee ; shall not man
Alike attune the grateful hymn 1
Shall he not join the lofty strain,
Echoed from the heart of Seraphim ?
We tune to Thee our humble lays,
Thy mercy, goodness, love, we praise.
Lesson lor Sunday, December 8.
GOD’S GOODNESS TO filS PEOPLE.
“ Truly God is good to Israel: even to such as are of a
clean heart,” —Psalm Ixxiii. 1.
Asaph, to whom this Psalm is
asciibed, was greatly perplexed when
he saw the prosperity of the wicked,
and the pains and crosses that attended
the righteous ; but he went into the
sanctuary, and there liis mind was re
lieved. He here acknowledged God’s
goodness to his people. The passage
contains a very encouraging declaration.
Consider
Whom it regards. The children of
God: those who are Israelites indeed,
‘1 here are seveial marks they bear.
1 hey have a heart enlightened in the
knowledge of God, renewed by the
Spirit of God, and consecrated to the
glory of God. *
Wiiat IT INCLUDES. God is good to
all, in the gifts of providence, but espe
cially to bis people in the blessings of
grace. Ihree things show this.
T/teir past experience. What a
change has he wrought in them; it was
he that brought them from sin’s [ erni
cious road, and led their feet into the
way of peace, Believers should re
member the hole of the pit whence
they were digged. “Memory,” says
Boston, “is the store-house of former
experiences, and they are the Christian’s
way-marks, by attentively observing
which, he may know where he is, even
in a dark hour.”
Their present enjoyments. Are they
not possessed of a peace which passeth
all understanding, and a joy that is un
utterable, a faith that draws aside the
curtain of futurity, and exhibits the
magnificent objects of an unseen world,
and a hope that maketh not ashamed?
Would they exchange their present for
their past condition?
Their future prospects. Is not Je
hovah good in giving* such exceeding
great and precious promises both for
time and eternity? Millions above,
and multitudes below, unite in confirm
ing the truth that God is good to Israel.
Can you not add your testimony ?
“ The Lord is good ; the Lord is kind ;
Great is his grace, his mercy sure ;
And all the race of man shall find
His truth from age to age endure.”
The Glory to be Revealed. —Dr.
Arnold very strikingly remarks, “Men
forget w hat they were in their youth,
or at best only partially remember it;
it is hard even for those w hose memo
ries are strongest and liveliest, to put
themselves into exactly the same posi
tion in which they stood as boys; they
can scarcely fancy that there was once
a time when they cared so much for
pleasures and troubles which now seem
so trifling. And it may be, that if we
rise hereafter to angels stature; if wis
dom be ours such as we dream not of;
if, being counted worthy to know God
as he is, the poorness of ajl created
pleasures shall be revealed to us, flash
ing upon our uncreated spirits like
light—it may be that we shall then
feel it is hard to fancy how’ we could
have cared for what we now deem most
important; how twenty years, more or
less taken from this span of our earthly
life; how being parted for a few years,
more or less, from those dear friends
with whom we are united forever—
how this could have seemed of any
importance to beings born for immor
tality. It is quite reasonable to sup
pose that the interests of manhood will
hereafter appear to us just as insignifi
cant. 1 ought rather to say ten thous
and times more so. than the interests
of our boyish years seem to us now.”
(glimpflts us jOrm ®mks.
BEVERAGE.
From “ Health, Disease and Remedy,” by Geo. Moore,
M. D. PublSlied by Harper A Brothers, New York.
STIMULANTS.
\\ hen we consider that nine-tenths
of our food consists of fluid, and that
every drop of fluid taken into the
stomach must be conveyed into the
blood, and be conducted into every part
of the body before it is naturally re
moved from the system,the importance
of our drink will be sufficiently evi
dent. When, moreover, we reflect on
the fact, that pure water alone is the
proper solvent of nutritious substances,
and that whatever is added to the wa
ter we drink has a direct effect on the
chemical processes of digestion and of
life, we shall perceive how careful we
ought to he in our choice of fluids.
Whatever is admitted into the blood
must be first dissolved in water, and,
when thus admitted, it acts not only
on the blood, but also on the minutest
parts of the organization wherever the
blood flows, so that the whole body is
influenced in every atom by the nature
of our beverage. We all feel the in
fluence of a stimulant almost instantly
on its being swallowed, in consequence
of its direct eflect on the nerves of the
stomach, and thence on the brain ; but
stimulants have another effect in the
course of circulation in the blood.—
Physiologists have proved by experi
ments that stimulating substances be
ing injected into the veins invariably
produce a dilation of the capillary ves
sels, by diminishing their vitality,
which of course is immediately follow
ed by an accumulation of blood in those
vessels, terminating speedily either in
some disturbance of function, some
permanent stoppage, or some degree of
inflammation there, lienee the con
gestions of the drunkard, the perma
nent debility of his brain, his liability
to disorders of the intestines, his thick
ened stomach, his hardened liver, and
his coarse, distempered skin, and bad
disposition, i apply the term drunk
ard to any one who, from habit, resorts
to stimulants of any kind to keep up
a false sense of vigour. Such a per
son, though, perhaps, never quite in
toxicated, is thoroughly diseased, and
under the dominion of a depraved ap
petite, which is not to be cured without
especial grace, and a decision of charac
ter that will at once defy the tempter
to his lace.
“We curse not wine; the vile excess we blame.”
There can not be a more striking de
monstration of the evil effects produced
on the vital economy by the habitual
use of alcoholic fluids than the occa
sional occurrence of what is called
spontaneous combustion of the body,
‘lhe combustion, however, is not spon
taneous, but it results from the greater
inflammability of the structure, in con
sequence of its surcharge with hydro
gen and carbon ; tin* body under such
circumstances, readily taking fire from
the contact of a burning substance, and
consuming to ashes in a few minutes.
The peculiar liability of brewers’ dray
men to attacks of destructive erysipe
las arises from some similar state of
body, and is clearly the consequence of
habitually taking an immense quantity
of beer, often as much as six quarts a
day, a quantity of fluid sufficient of it
self to produce mischief, irrespective of
the spirit and carbonic acid contained
in it. That it is what the water con
veys into the blood-vessels, however,
that mainly disturbs the equilibrium
between waste and supply, 1 learn from
the experience of a thin and active hy
dropathic hypochondriac who, at a
neighbouring pump, fills his half-pint
mug, and empties it into his stomach
about forty times a day ! Water
drinking intemperance is certainly the
safest to a man who sufficiently se
cretes, but the man who thinks he needs
to flood all his functions in order to
keep them in health, is as much sub
ject to excess as the tippler, and that
although cold water be his only stimu
lant.
There are but four sufficient reasons
for taking stimulant'beverages :
1. A constitution which would be
come scrofulous without it. This is
rare.
2. Recovery from exhausting illness,
in which there might sometimes be risk
or delay of improvement, without such
aid to the functions.
3. A loss of general tone from great
mental depression, or from extreme ex
haustion. Wine is good for those of
a sad heart, and strong drink for him
who is ready to perish, says Solomon.
4. The necessity of an unusual effort
of mind or body may demand extra
stimulation. We should, however, re
member that stimulation, if continued,
becomes a direct source of exhaustion,
and therefore it can be useful only on
particular occasions, just us the bel
lows may be occasionally employed to
kindle a neglected fire. What should
we say of the management in a house
where the kitchen lire was always kept
to the needed height by the use of be 1
lows 1 The object in our economy is
to maintain a steady fire, neither too
rapid nor too slow, and that is best ef
fected by proportioning the # supplies of
food, or fuel, to the quantity consumed
which is determined by the degrees of
cold, the amount of exercise, and the
qaantity ofair breathed in a given time.
The comparison between the bellows
and the stimulant is, however, not quite
correct, since in fact to take alcoholic
drink unnecessarily is rather like smoth
ering a tire with coals, while the fire to
perform its office fully, requires to be
steadily and slowly supplied with fuel
and kept clear, that the vital air may
act regularly and equally thoughout,
just as it does on all the body, if not
distflrbed by an unnecessary and sud
den supply of carbon and hydrogen.
The readiness with which the fuel of
the system is supplied by spirits, is the
cause of their value in great sinking of
the vital powers, and also of their in
jurious influence when the system is
vigorous, and well furnished with nu
triment.
Alcoholic fluids put a stop for a time
to the proper metamorphoses of the
tissues, and supply the elements of
respiration, which should be furnished
by the body itself. Hiey, therefore,
lower the vital powers, if improperly
employed, and may quench life. Such
stimulants are never safely given mere
ly for the purpose of keeping up the
temperature of the body, except in ex
treme cases ; since, as long as it is pos
sible to take exercise and digest a suf
ficiency of food, nothing more is need
ed to sustain the temperature of the
body in any climate than proper food,
good water, and warm clothing. Lie
big does not speak like a pathologist,
when he classes brandy with train-oil
and tallow candles, as a means of main
taining the flame of life in cold-climates;
or he forgets that the oil and the grease
are not direct stimulants, and that they
furnish those who can digest them with
fuel that does not cause the whole sys
tem suddenly to flame to its great
risk, as often as they are used.
Ihe fact that the American whalers
have nearly driven ours out of the
Arctic regions on total abstinence prin
ciples, they taking no fermented or
spirituous liquors, while ours use an
abundance of such things, is a proof
that the habitual consumption of alco
holic drinks does more harm than good
in those regions, as well as everywhere
else. Nevertheless, such things are
often very convenient aids when the
body is not sufficiently nourished; and
there can be no doubt that scurvy is
more likely to occur among a crew bad
ly provisioned if they are also deprived
of beer and spirits.
Even when direct stimulation is most
frequently resorted to, as a fatigue, it
is evident that in most cases the more
natural and salutary plan would he
quietly to rest, and wait for t he tar bet
ter refreshment which follows sleep
and the assimilation of a temperate
meal.
WATER.
All the living waters of the earth
seem to assure us, that it was the Cre
ator who exclaimed, Whosoever will ,
let him take of the water of life freely,
for there is no limit to the liberality of
Heaven ; and water, as the vehicle of
life to all living things, is the proper
symbol of God’s own generosity.
\V ater is, indeed, the natural source
of all nourishment, and without it not
a single process of creation is carried
on—it is as essential to life as the uni
versal light and the genial ‘warmth of
Heaven, and it is, in fact, “the chief
ingredient in Heaven’s various works.”
By the wonderful combination of
agencies that preserve the balance be
tween all animate and inanimate things,
a certain quantity of water is always
suspended in the atmosphere, ready to
be distilled upon the bosom of the
earth, and always more readily and
freely upon those parts which by their
elevation or position would best con
tribute to the wide distribution of living
streams for the use of man and beast,
and the various tribes of vegetable be
ing. By this, means, also, the essen
tial fluid is furnished in its purest state,
for usually, as found in risers, it con
tains nothing prejudicial to life, and the
more nearly it resembles rain-water the
better, for this, beyond comparison, is
the best for the promotion of digestion
and for ali the purposes for which wa- j
ter is demanded.
Good river-water contains about
three per cent, of its bulk of atmos
pheric air, or rather air having a slight
ly greater proportion of oxygen, and
this affords a test of its purity. As
water becomes impure it loses the free
oxygen naturally contained in it. Thus,
in the water of the Thames, near Lon
don Bridge, oxygen can not be detect
ed —phosphuretted hydrogen standing !
over a quantity of it does not lose its
combustibility, and the phosphorous is
not oxydised as it would be by stand
ing over pure river water. The rivers
of mountainous countries are generally ;
purer than those of champaigns; the
water of the Leven, a tributary of the i
Clyde, contains only SAi) grains of
solid ingredients in a gallon, according 1
toDr. Penny, while that of the Thames,
even at Teddington, contains 13-86,
and at Londom Bridge no less than
28-035. ‘l he water of mountain lakes
is even purer still, from the circum
stance of their allowing the subsidence
of impurities; the water of the Bala
Lake, in North Wales, for instance,
contains only one grain of earthy mat
ter in a gallon. The water of ponds is
very differant, and usually holds more
imptirily in solution than the Thames
at Greenwich.
Hard wafer is commonly unfavoura
ble to health, as it holds in solution
much mineral that diminishes its sol
vent action, and is not unfrequently in
jurious to the blood. The lower ani
mals prefer soft water, and if confined
to that which is hard, they soon become
diseased in the skin, stomach, spleen,
and intestines ; and man is just as ob
noxious to these ill effects, and often ex
periences them.
PURIFICATION OF WATER.
We must not overlook the fact, that
the chief mineral found in w ater is usu
ally either the sulphate or the bicar
bonate of lime ; and lime, we know, is
a necessary ingredient in our bodies. —
It usually exists as a bicarbonate in
river water, and it was proposed by
Dr. Clarke to precipitate the lime from
the water supplied to London, by ad
ding enough pure lime to convert the
bicarbonate into a carbonate, which
would slowly precipitate in the form of
whiting. This would be an extensive
tampering w ith a natural provision, and
might be productive of equally exten
sive mischief amoug a multitude living
so artificially as the inhabitants of Lon
don, whose food is probably of a kind
ill calculated to enable them to dis
pense with the lime which Providence
sends them in the water ; and, besides,
it would not improve the w ater for laun
dry purposes, since it is always boiled
tor washing, and boiling effects the
doctor’s object better than added lime.
Very hard water, however, and also
such as contains much vegetable im
purity, I have frequently found to be
rendered quite wholesome by the ad
dition of about twenty grains of pure
fresh lime to every gallon, stirring it
well, and then filtering it, or allowing
it to stand until perfectly clear. Car
bonate of soda softens the well-water of
most soils; it throws down chalk when
the water contains the bicarbonate of
lime or the sulphate, and a carbonate
of magnesia when the chlorine of mag
nesium is present. Os course the effect
results from the union of the carbonic
acid of the soda with the bases precipi
tated, and therefore the cleared water
will hold sulphate of soda and chloride
of sodium. Oxalate of potash, as pro
posed and patented by Air. Horsley,
decomposes all the earthy salts on
which the hardness of water usually
depends, but it can not be generally
appdicable, although very efficient in
competent hands. Supposing the hard
ness of water to be owing to the bicar
bonate and sulphate of lime, bv the
addition of oxaiate of potash, an inso
luble oxalate of lime is precipitated,
w hile bicarbonate and sulphate of pot
ash are held in solution.
Stagnant water is apt to beget dys
entery and ague, probably from being
impregnated w ith poisonous gases, and
certain peculiar acids, the nature of
which is not weil understood, chiefly
from the decomposition of cryptogamic
and microscopic- vegetation. Alkalis
and boiling render such water less un
wholesome; and it is said that astrin
gent bitters, such as the bark of the
w illow and the Peruvian bark, not only
cure ague, but also the water that causes
it. The presence of trees diminishes
malaria, and prevents the water near
their roots from becoming putrid ; and
cleared countries, if not well drained,
are far more subject to intermittent
diseases than those that are full of
forest. Here I would incidentally ob
serve, that bitters are more relished
and more useful in marshy districts
than in those more salubrious. The
poor on the coast of Sussex use a strong
infusion of that excellent bitter, the
lesser centaury, with success, in brow
ague, and the intermittent headache, so
common among them.
The putrid matter held in solution
by stagnant water acts peihaps as a
specific ferment, which propagates it
self under favourable circumstances;
and, from analogy, it is not unlikely
that certain vegetable principles, such
as the bitter alkaloids, quina, &e.. may
arrest this ferment both in the body
and out of it, just as the fermentation
of yeast in beer is arrested at a certain
point by the hop and yther bitters, or
by the addition of a sulphate.
Moses was divinely directed to east
a tree into the well, which the liaelites
found too impure to drink (Exod. xv.
25.) 1 here was a natural fitness in
that tree for the purpose or it would
not have been selected. Might it not
have been burnt, and so cast into the
water 1 ? Charcoal alone removes pu
trescence from water, but the ashes of
a tree would also contain carbonate of
potash, which would improve water
holdingbicarbonateof limeand chloride
of magnesia in solution, by throwing
down a precipitate of c halk and carbo
nate of magnesia, the alkali taking their
place in the water, and making it soft
and comparatively palatable. In the
Taleef Shereef, or materia medico of i
India, it is said that if the bark of the
tree known in Persia as Lirzan, and in
Jnd aas Peepul —Ficus Reliejiosa, be
burnt and thrown into water, it quickly
purifies it.
W hen gelatinous substances from an
imal bodies, or from the decay of con
ferval vegetation exist in water, they
tend to prevent the subsidence of any
earthy matter mixed with tlie water,
and in that case the addition of an astrin
gent bark or fruit will clear it. Alum,
also, has a similar effect.
W ater may also be cleared of sus
pended impurities by pounded seeds,
which contain albumen. In this way
the Egyptians clarify the muddy wa
ters of the Nile, by smearing the inside
of their water-jars with a paste made
of almonds. It seems to act much in
the same manner that white of egg and
blood act in purifying sugar, by entan
gling the impurities. With us, all such
methods are superseded by the use of
the filter.
Filtration naturally suggests itself
as the readiest method of separating
impurities suspended in water. Sand
and gravel, and porus earth and stone,
are the evident materials through which
the water of our springs is filtered ;
and, by experiment, it is proved that
the passage of water through a large
quantity of sand, not only removes
what was mixed with the water, but al
so some of the ingredients dissolved in
it. The attraction of adhesion, capil
lary attraction, is sufficient sometimes
to overcome chemical affinity. Animal
charcoal is remarkable for its power
in removing not only suspendeded im
purities, but even noxious odor, colour
ing matter, and many other things from
their solution. Hence, it has been con
joined with sponge and sand informing
filters, but although perfectly efficient
at first, it is found that, by constant
use for a few days, the quality of the
charcoal becomes impaired, and it re
quires renewal at least once a week, in
order to preserve the purifying power
of the filter. Boiling improves almost
every kind of water, but boiled water
should be agitated in the air when cold,
that it may regain the oxygen it has
lost.
The preservation of water is best ef
fected by keeping it in closed iron ves
sels. \\ ater exposed to the air espe
cially in summer, gets loaded with mi
croscopic fungoids and animacules,
which do no harm while alive, but
cause putrescence by their death and
decay.
We should intimate the ancients in
our concern to obtain pure water, for
we have abundant evidence that the
most prolific source of disease, next
to bad air, is bad w ater. Whenever it
contains animal or vegetable matter in
a state of decay, or minerals projudi
cial to the blood, such as lead, it should
be shunned as the direct instrument of
death, instead of being, as intended, the
essential vehicle of life.
W'ATER DRINKING.
The quantity of fluid it may be prop
er to take, wiil depend on circumstances.
A man who is -trong, and fully em
ployed, w ill require from three to four
pints of drink a day in dry weather.—
In general, even less than this is desi
rable in a climate like ours. Every
drop of water more than enough for
digestion increases the demand upon
the vital energy, and facilitates waste
of the body. Hence, if a man takes a
large quantity of water with a small
quantity of food, he will become thin
more rapidly than with the same quan
tity of food, and a proportionate sup
ply of water; an excess of water in
fact, facilitating the action of the air
upon the substance of the body, and
so far in its effects resembling absti
nence, and leading directly to impover
ishment of blood, as we see in the cri
sis of the water-treatment.
A draught of cold water will some.
times stop digestion, and sometin,
expedite it, according to the state of t! ’
stomach at the time. The stinmlous‘t
cold will excite the secretion 0 f g UM ■
juice, if the nervous system beuutot
hausted, and actual thirst may a alaw a ‘
be safely met by a moderate draught
of water at a temperate degree
however, digestion i 0 effected by tj, N
action of a solvent, to dilute this sj
vent is, of course, so far to diminU
its direct action, and therefore as a rid,,
no more fluid should be taken with ■
meal than will suffice to facilitate prom
er mastication. Those who indujdp
largely in warm diinks, especially
strong tea and coffee, are peculiarly ]ij
ble to disorders of the stomach, and t,,
all those anomalous nervous distress -
and excitements which arise from in’
pure blood ; but a moderate use of
those fluids, when not too strong. <„.
too warm, is certainly in most cases f,
vourable to the health, but of tho .
especially whose employment is seden
tary or not very laborious, and who
therefore, do not require a full animal
diet.
TEA AND COFFEE.
Tea and coffee contain principles
highly conducive to the vigorous action
of the brain (theine and caffeine), and
we ought to be thankful to providence
for those excellent productions, bv the
use of which the commerce of the
world is so greatly promoted, intcllec
tual cultivation advanced, socially ve
fined, and the intoxicating chalice ban.
ished from our boards.
Nevertheless, I am inclined to think
with many rustical old ladies, whose
w isdom is founded iq on experience
that sage-tea is often superior in its ef
fects upon both the stomach and the
brain to either the infusion of the Chi
nese herb, or the decoction oftho roast
ed berry. It is, however, unknown in
fashionable circles, and science lias neg
lected it; but still it deserves atten
tion, for it contains just that combina
tion of bitter with aromatic, which
would justify the praises bestow ed upon
it by the ancients. Thorough dvspcj -
tics, however,generally find cocoa made
from the nib sufficiently agreeable to
the taste, and not unfavourable to di
gestion. Toast-water, prepared from
bard biscuit, reduced by fire to a coffee
colour, according to the direction of Sir
A. Carlisle, is a wholesome and agreea
ble beverage. It should lie prepared
by pouring boiling water upon it, and
drunk as soon as sufficiently cool, as all
such infusions become mawkish if kept
beyond two or three hours. But how
ever advisable certain medicated drinks
may be for invalids, we may still con
clude with the poet, that—
“ Nothing like simple clement dilutes
The food, or gives the chyle so soon to flow—
What least of foreign principles partakes
Is best.” Armstrong.
Hiistfllnm].
CULTURE OF ARROW ROUT IN
FLORIDA.
A correspondent of the Bt. Augus
tine u Ancient Cityf speaking of tliis
plant, says that lie who knows howto
make a crop of corn cannot fail in an
effort to make a crop of arrow root.
Hie planting may be begun at am
time after the preceding crop has been
gathered, the sooner the better, lhe
eyes of the root (and if economy in
seeds be an object, but one eye used
be left on a cutting.) should be depos
ited in rows two and a half feet apart,
and at the distance of fifteen or eighteen
inches apart in the row, and covered
with the plow or hoe to the depth of
three or four inches. The afterculture,
as regards mode and manner, is identi
cal with that of corn. Poor land will
yield an average product through a
term of years, of no less than eighty
bushels per acre, whilst the good ham
mock lands of the interior, or lands fer
tilized by the application of appropriate
manures, will yield, (1 think 1 hazard
nothing in saying) from one hundred
and fifty to two hundred bushels, and
perhaps more, to the acre. A bushel
of roots with defective machinery, will
yield six pounds of fecula, whilst from
some, more than nine pounds have
been extracted by careful manipulation.
\\ ith such improvements of machinery
as the importance of this crop will
speedily secure, I think an average
yield of seven or eight pounds of fecula.
may be safely anticipated. Bermuda
arrow root now worth at wholesale
Vrom 20 to 25 cents a pound, is not
better in appearance than the Florida
article, and for culinary purposes is
greatly inferior, as ascertained by the
careful experiments of a lady every
way qua’ified to test practically this
product of the two localities. Other
advantages connected with the cultiva
teon of this crop are found in the ca
pacity of the plant to bear up against
drought or excess of rain, its exemption
from the ravages of insects, the pro
tracted season of three months or more,
during which it may be prepared f° r
market, and finally its diminutive bub
as compared with its value, or with eth
er crops, with the exception of tobacc"-
CHINESE IN CALIFORNIA.
The California. Courier estimates t he
number of Chinese in San Francisco a--
about twelve hundred, and append?-
some very truthful remarks.
“ These Chinese are the most ardent,
industrious, and prudent of any
in our city. You never catch <'t
the long queues in any of the haunts
of dissipation, and, per consequence,
none of theni on the police books.—
They are generally pretty gor’d ,IH ”
chanics—some of them keep restar
rents, and a few trade in nick-nacks am
curiosities. When lumber was sea’ 1
in the market, a large quantity “ ;i ’
brought from Chinese ports,
framed and matched for ten-footers.
“ The Chinese are, in some respn
the Yankees of the East. r lJ lc ' r
‘dundant population overflows into
the neighbouring countries —and ” L
ever they go they art sure to gc l
cream of all the trade. Large o ■
munities of them are found tc-attt m
throughout all Further India, and 1
islands of ihe Eastern Arehipe -
where they unfortunately show t
selves superior to the people
whom they settle, in civilization. 111
telligence, industry, thrift, orden}
haviour, and all the qualities ot g l
citizens. There is no doubt tlut j
attractions of commerce and g illfl ‘
draw still greater numbers of
into the Pacific territories of the
States, where they will enjoy “Lj
have never yet possessed out o
own country —a perfect political cq