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€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