Earlier text: Dress.Lung affections are very much under the control of discipline. A contracted chest, whether hereditary, or produced after birth, is a general precursor and accompaniment of consumption. This difficulty can be greatly, if not entirely, removed. A contracted chest can be expanded. Indeed, we may almost make our own lungs. When the chest is deficient in space, the lungs are compressed and irritated; and they are unable to inspire as much air as is necessary to properly oxydize the blood and prepare it for arterial circulation. When the blood which comes into the heart from the veins, is thrown from the heart into the lungs, it contains a surplus of carbon—the basis of charcoal. Here it comes in contact with the air inhaled by the lungs, takes a portion of oxygen from the atmosphere, and gives off its excess of carbon. Here, then, the blood, by becoming oxygenized and decarbonized, changes its color; and returning to the heart, it is carried to every part of the system to supply its nutrition. It is then returned again through the veins, to the heart and lungs. Before entering the heart, however, it meets with the nourishment of our food, carried through the thoracic duct into the circulation.—41 This being added, the blood again enters the heart. In this way the whole system is furnished with nutrition. The oxygen taken in through the lungs, together with a portion of electricity, is carried and distributed to all parts of the body, to maintain its substance and vitality. Hence the importance of having not only wholesome and well oxygenized air to breathe, but a good full set of lungs to perform the process of breathing. If the chest is contracted, the lungs have not room to expand and receive a sufficient amount of air; and the vital powers become impaired. The blood is returned to the arteries imperfectly oxygenized and electrified, and the whole system suffers. General health becomes impaired, the lungs themselves then often become irritated and inflamed, and death by consumption ensues. A full chest therefore becomes an important matter. If the chest is too narrow and flat, a discipline must be gone into, in order to expand it. With proper effort, the chest and the compass of the lungs may be greatly enlarged. In this way consumption may be prevented. Even if it has already reached its premonitory symptoms, it may be averted; or even in any stage short of ulceration, it can be cured. The manner of doing this consists first in standing erect. Persons with weak lungs are inclined to bend over their chest, letting the spine curve between the shoulders, till the lungs become flattened and depressed. Let every such person bring his mind immediately to bear upon the consequences of this state of things, and determine to stand erect; let the front side of his body measure as much from the highest point on his head to his feet, as the back side from the same point. Let him also lie straight in bed; with shoulders elevated by an inclined plane, and head lying on the same line of elevation, with a single pillow. This unvarying erectness of posture will of itself accomplish much in relieving oppressed lungs. A second step to be taken consists in often inhaling large draughts of air; distending the lungs as much as practicable. By continued practice the lungs will be made to contain more and more air: the air cells42 become expanded. This should be done many times a day until relief can be obtained. A third step consists in repeatedly—many times a day—throwing the arms and shoulders back. This may be aided by weights in the hands—the dumbbells, or something equivalent. The shoulders should be kept back, and not permitted to curve round the lungs. If such be the degree of debility that the shoulders cannot be kept back, or in cases of children who cannot remember to do so, put on a shoulder brace. But where Nature is able to sustain herself in this process, she will ultimately do better without a brace, than with it. Those who use them are apt to depend on them, without trying to discipline themselves. If people will bear this matter in mind, and can possibly support the effort, let it be done without a brace: do the same in respect to this, as ought to be done in respect to medicines; use them as the last resort, where Nature cannot perform her own work alone. Where a cough exists, this will demand attention. One of the very best cures for cough, is to stop coughing. Instead of allowing it to have full sway, increasing the irritation of the lungs and bronchial tubes, let it be suppressed as far as practicable. This will diminish the irritation of the lining membrane of the bronchial tubes and the substances of the lungs. The less the coughing allowed, the less the inclination to cough. Where this effort cannot succeed, then some resort must be had to palliatives in the form of remedial agents. When this shall be done, let the mildest palliatives be used which are able to give relief, and as few opiates as possible. If a homœopathic medicine will operate, so much the better. In all cases where a cough is the result of consumptive lungs induced by dyspepsia—and such cases are not few—the best cough-drops in all the world are made by dropping the habits in which the cause originated. Another important matter, is living and sleeping in apartments well ventilated. This is important as a means of health, or the relief from any form or kind of disease. Every apartment of a house, and every43 school-room and public hall, should have a ventilator at the top of the wall. This allows the air in the room to keep itself pure. A portion of the oxygen being taken up by the lungs, and carbon being given off by them, the air becomes devitalized and unfit for being received again into the lungs. This impure air being lighter than healthy air, rises to the top of the room, and will pass off if it can find vent, leaving room for pure air to come in. In this way the lungs are receiving new and healthy air by every inspiration. For the same reason, no one should sleep without free access to a change of air. The offensive smell of sleeping rooms in the morning is owing to the repeated breathing of the same air, till its vitality has become destroyed, and the impure exhalations from the body pent up in a close room, where the air cannot renovate itself. It is all folly for people to talk of being so feeble that they cannot bear a window open, especially in summer, in the night. Every one can bear air enough to sustain healthy breathing; and all notions to the contrary are foolish and wicked. In small rooms, a window, or door, or both, should be opened in winter, as well as in summer. If we breathe the same air twice, it cannot the second time furnish sufficient oxygen for the blood. If people would give heed to these facts, they would prevent and even cure a large proportion of consumptive cases which appear among us. The strength and endurance of the whole system depend, in a very great degree, on the amount of healthy air that is breathed. Tight lacing—compressing the lungs with ropes, and boards, and steel—is now nearly abandoned; but still dresses are made too tight in the waist, and too much filled with whalebone. The chest should have free room to expand itself, and allow the lungs to fill with air. The breathing should meet no resistance from dress. There is great damage done at the present day to the health of females by hanging under-dresses upon the bowels. This unnatural weight dislocates the bowels and all the other viscera of the abdomen. It drags them downward from their proper location and44 connection with the stomach, diaphragm and lungs. This leaves a space between these organs which gives a sensation of faintness and sinking at the pit of the stomach, which is often called a “goneness.” This leads often to a bending over of the chest and flattening of the lungs. Other organs also suffer. The liver is pushed downward and rendered torpid. The bile, which is the appropriate stimulus for the bowels, becomes deficient; the bowels become sluggish and costive; and the blood is left impure because the bile is not properly taken up, as is shown in the countenance. If ladies would have health and a pure, clear skin, they must allow their lungs to receive the air freely, their liver a chance to cleanse the blood, and their bowels an opportunity to clear themselves. Unless they will do this, they cannot long maintain a clear skin and a healthful feeling. Costive bowels alone are ruinous to a healthy body and a cheerful mind. This state of bowels is produced, not only by a sluggish liver, but by the whole viscera being pressed downward upon the lower intestine, and preventing its proper action by mechanical pressure. All other kinds of costiveness can be greatly overcome by discipline in mind and diet; but that which is caused by mechanical pressure cannot be cured till the pressure shall be removed. The use of physic in such a case would be as unphilosophical as taking an emetic to get rid of tight boots. The bowels and other organs which are fallen down upon the lower bowel, must be pressed upward. Every weight must be removed from them, the dresses suspended from the shoulders, and the bowels repeatedly pressed upward. If their drooping cannot be overcome in this way, a supporter should be worn till their native strength has accumulated. But where costiveness depends alone on the sluggish action of the bowels themselves, it can be overcome by mental discipline. The mind should be brought to bear every morning on their action. They should be brought under the magnetism of thought. Let the mind electrify the bowels till they will move. A regular, systematic45 discipline in this way has overcome many a case of obstinate costive habit. A mental determination, persevered in, will sometimes effect that which never can be done with medicine. Indeed, medicines should never be taken for costiveness, if it be possible to do without them. Alteratives only increase the difficulty in the long run, as a general rule. Another complaint prevalent at the present day among ladies, is depression of the uterus. This may be caused by a weakness in the ligaments which suspend it, or by a falling and pressure, as already described, of the bowels. Where it is produced by the latter cause, the remedy is obvious. Raise the bowels up to their place, and keep them there. When this cannot be done without mechanical support, an abdominal supporter should be used, till Nature shall again be able to support herself; for, without this kind of relief in the case, there can be no cure of this uterine derangement. Here let every young female see how liable she is to incur immense suffering by the weight of heavy skirts hung upon the bowels, and resolve never to run the risk of ruining herself for life in this reckless way. The Bloomer costume is certainly to be commended for one of its characteristics,—all the skirtings are hung upon the body of the dress. This lets the shoulders carry the weight of the whole dress, and the bowels and other organs are left free from pressure. Where depression of the uterus is owing to debility of the ligaments sustaining it, some means must be resorted to for the restoration of tone. This may generally be done by giving tone to the muscular system in general; for these difficulties are generally found in those of feeble physical forces. Hence, restoring the general tone of the muscular system will give tone generally to this part. That part of the system which can be exercised with the greatest advantage in these cases, is the arms and chest. Instances have often occurred where females laboring under this form of complaint were so feeble that they were almost, and sometimes quite, unable to walk. Many such have been cured by a process of exercise46 which only called into exertion the muscles of the arms and chest. By sitting and lifting weights, tossing balls, and such other measures of discipline as were proportioned to their strength, many have been restored to perfect health and soundness. Millions of females are suffering for want of some vigorous employment of their physical energies. They do not go out enough and exercise in the open air, expand their lungs, and exercise their limbs. The English ladies generally, could almost take one of our puny, pale-faced American ladies in their hand, and carry them through town in their fingers. But walking is not sufficient exercise; it only uses the muscles of the lower limbs. The most important part of the system to be exercised, in any one of sedentary habits, is the arms and chest. An editor once said, “The best board for dyspeptic ladies, is a washboard.” This remark contains sound philosophy. They need, not only for dyspepsia, but for the complaints just described, as well as others, some vigorous exercise for the muscles of the arms, chest, and abdomen. Raising the tone here, will by sympathy raise the tone in other parts.—Philosophy of Health. How to Manage Delicate Young Girls.
“I HAVE a daughter of fourteen. She seems robust and healthy, except that she is subject to attacks of quinsy. Can I do anything to relieve her of this tendency?” “My two daughters are thirteen and sixteen years of age. One is dyspeptic, and the other is subject to nervous headache. How ought they to live?” “What habits shall I cultivate in my little girl of twelve years, who is delicate, nervous, and precocious?” It is no wonder that we are often pressed to answer questions of this sort, for on the parents of such children rest heavy responsibilities. In the first place, in nearly every case of this kind, the father and mother, through lack of health, and ignorance, have transmitted to the child feebleness of constitution, and impurity of blood; and have ripened her tendencies to47 disease by bringing her up in unnatural habits; and so are, directly, the creators of her morbid conditions. In the second place, the girl must almost inevitably die early or drag out a suffering, miserable existence, unless she has her relations to life re-arranged. The reason why girls die from twelve to twenty years of age, is because they are not allowed a chance to live. They are entitled to a chance. To live is just what they are put here for. Ample provision for their continued life is made in their organizations and in their relations to external nature. But their parents do not know how to let them live. They are anxious for their welfare—to have them grow up just as they ought. And so they subject them to the artificial regulations of society, which is almost the surest way to defeat their object. If a young girl is delicate in health, her father and mother are ready to resort to any expedient which promises to “patch her up.” They are willing to give her medicine of any sort or kind—to follow the directions of any medical quack—anything except to comply with those conditions which are absolutely essential to be regarded, in order to allow what constitutional power she has, opportunity to express itself healthfully. For instance, I have heard mothers say, “My daughters cause me great trouble and anxiety by their propensity to run and race out of doors, and to engage in rude play. I endeavor to restrain and teach them as well as I can, but fear they will never be lady-like and refined.” . . . If I were to give to parents the three rules most necessary to be observed in the physical training of feeble girls, I should say: - Give them out-of-door life.
- Encourage them to out-of-door life.
- Urge on them life out of doors.
Not but that there are other things of vast importance, but that it is difficult to induce parents to appreciate this. Why, the young were made to live where the sunshine and pure air can visit them freely. All their nature clamors for such life. No sooner is the infant able to walk than it begins to manifest its desire to get outside the house, and it never consents to live in the house till its instincts are subdued. It goes48 naturally from the maternal lap to the “lap of Mother Earth,” and as certainly gathers strength and vigor from contact with the latter as from the former. And at no period of life is habitual exercise out of doors more beneficial than from eleven or twelve, to fifteen or sixteen years of age. Those are the years in which the body makes essential changes and rapid growth, and its proper care should be of the first interest to the parent. Intellectual culture need not, and should not, be neglected; but I venture to say that he who, during those years, makes mental training his object, forgetting the body, acts quite as unwisely as he who goes to great pains and expense to procure beautiful and excellent furniture for a house, which, for aught he knows, is leaky and dilapidated, and tottering on its foundation. It is not so difficult for persons to understand the necessity that boys should have exercise out of doors. But the distinction in the needs of the sexes in this respect, rests entirely in the false notions of the people, and not in the nature of things. Let fathers and mothers see to it that their daughters have some hours in the open air daily. . . . . But they need be by no means confined to play in their out-door life. There are many kinds of work which they may do to great advantage. They can split wood, or saw wood, plant, or hoe, or husk corn, dig potatoes, rake hay, pick up stones, make garden, milk cows, harness or drive horses, &c. Aside from the physical benefits to be derived, the real solidity of character, the self reliance and the general intelligence girls would attain from learning and pursuing these occupations, as work cannot well be over-valued. This would be a very important addition to their course of education. And there need be no doubt as to the propriety of taking so much time from their studies. For any girl of fourteen whose constitution is not strong and health firm, who studies books over three hours a day, loses more than she gains, and will be less a woman at twenty-five than if she had taken a different course. I am well satisfied that if parents are under the necessity of sending their daughters away from home to school, they will promote their49 highest interests by keeping them under their own immediate supervision, caring especially for their proper physical development, till they are well grown. Thus the value to them of five years at school, from sixteen to twenty-one, is incomparably greater, than it is from twelve to seventeen. Next to out-of-door life, legitimately comes the subject of dress, for one cannot exercise to great advantage in the style of dress usually worn by girls. I think parents should give their attention to this subject in proportion to the value which they set upon their daughters. If I had a daughter whose life, and health, and happiness, and character, and future welfare I prized as highly as if she were a son, I would provide for her as economical expenditure of her nervous energy as if she were a son. For walking, or playing, or working out of doors, she should have plain, substantial clothing—strong boots, stout pants, short, light skirts, perfect freedom about the chest and arms, and a light straw hat. And she should have a supply of warm overcoats and mittens, and water-proof boots, so that no weather could keep her in-doors. If I was desirous that she should make a pretty, respectable woman, but considered her of less consequence than my boys, I would see that she went out with them, but would take a little more care to have her dress conform to the established standards. She could afford to do things at some disadvantage, and if one hand was needed to take care of her dress, why, I would only ask her to do half as much as her brother. If I expected her never to be of any account to anybody, but chose to do what I conveniently could to make her effeminate and sickly, I would clothe her just as most mothers do clothe their girls. She should never step out of doors without a large sun-bonnet tied close under her chin, her bodice should be hooked snugly about her chest, the dress should come so low at the shoulders that she could not raise her arms above her head, her skirts should be long and wide, and particularly warm about the back and hips, she should have nothing about the ankles but thin cotton hose, and only thin-soled shoes on her feet. She50 might have India-rubber sandals to put on in a wet day; or if that would not do, she might stay in the house. More attention should be paid to clothing the feet of girls, even in the house. A pair of cloth or leather shoes, with light soles, and one pair of cotton stockings, do not afford sufficient warmth, when thick dresses and outside wrappers are needed about the ‘body.’ The neck and arms should always be covered, except it be when the temperature of the atmosphere is so elevated that no clothing is needed for the purpose of warmth. Flowing sleeves are decidedly objectionable, unless warm under-sleeves are worn. Every young girl should have all her clothing suspended from her shoulders, and should wear no garment so tight as to give any feeling of pressure when the lungs are expanded to their fullest extent. I wish I could induce mothers to believe this. But I cannot. I can only tell the truth (and every honest physician, or other person who knows anything about the human system, will corroborate this statement), and leave them to assume the responsibility of acting. An immense amount of unnecessary work is expended on the wardrobe of misses. I have no objection to ornamentation anywhere, if it does not cost too much. But ruffles, and scallops, and edgings, and embroidery, on their night-dresses, and drawers, and skirts, and sleeves, and collars, and handkerchiefs, cost vastly too much, when the mothers or daughters who do them cannot get time for reading or for out-of-door exercise. And besides, girls of feeble vitality do actually wear upon their constitutional strength, by always when they sit, doing sewing or knitting work. Regularity, particularly in the hours of eating, of going to bed, and rising, is of great importance in the habits of the class of persons whose management we are considering. A delicate child should take her meals at the same time each day, and never eat anything between meals. Whatever she eats, whether it be fruits, or nuts, or anything else, should be eaten at her meals. Whatever may be said of the necessity of flesh-meats as a diet for working or thinking men,51 they are never appropriate to be eaten by young girls; and are most unfit for those who have the greatest desire and longing for them. The diet of these persons should consist of fruits, grains, and vegetables, in their least complicated forms of preparation. The less condiments used the better. Tea or coffee should never be allowed. The supper, if taken at all, should be very light, and eaten at least two hours before bed-time. Sleep is the great upbuilder and restorer of the nervous system, and growing girls should have plenty of it. From April to October they should go to bed before the candles are lighted, and during the winter should not be out of bed after seven and a half o’clock. Neither should they be dragged out in the morning at four or five o’clock. If they go to bed regularly and early, they will be pretty sure to get up in good season, in summer. And in winter, if they are inclined to sleep, in bed is the best place for them, till the gray dawn begins to break. Their beds and pillows should be of hair, sea-grass, husks, hay, straw, or something of the sort, and even cotton for beds is much less objectionable than feathers. Their sleeping-rooms should be thoroughly ventilated every day, and in all moderate weather the window may be left open a little at the top during the night. No garment which has been worn through the day should be worn at night, and those worn day or night should be hung up and aired before being again put on. Cleanliness of the skin is essential to good health in every person, but need not by any means be secured by taking a “cold bath on rising every morning.” Young girls, unless quite robust, as a rule, would do better to wash off quickly in water, and in a room of moderate temperature, about three hours after breakfast; and that not oftener than every other day, if it seems to tax the strength. The washing should be performed, however, at least twice a week, and should always be followed by brisk exercise. Delicate young girls should never take any medicine, no matter what doctor advises it. They do not need it. It can do them no good. It can only help to make them, permanently, more feeble than before.52 Parents, if your daughters seem sickly and frail, and you are at a loss what to do with them—if they have symptoms which you do not understand, and you are anxious and perplexed, you may send for your family physician, if you choose. He may give you some information, or make suggestions which will be of service to you. But if he begins to talk about something “to take” though it be no more than a dose of “herb tea,” be assured he will prove no true helper. Turn from him to Nature. Seek to place your child in harmony with her, and wait patiently; and you will learn that she can find ways to remove difficulties which discourage you.—Laws of Life, for April, 1860. I CANNOT keep out of my mind the thin gaiter on that little tiny foot, this windy March day. The little girl sat beside me in church, and I could have taken her in my arms, and pressed her to my heart with many a fond kiss,—we know what a treasure a little girl is,—the twining arms, and the sweet caresses. So quietly she sat, that little one of three years; hushed was her merry prattle, and serious her pretty face, for it was the house of God. My heart was full of pity for the child, and indignation that a woman could be so foolish as to risk the life of her child, by changing the thick, every-day shoe for a light prunella gaiter, with a sole as thin as paper, and take a long walk to church. All the child’s other clothing was suitable, from the satin hood, the delaine dress, to the lambs-wool stockings. Her mother sat beside her, wrapped in cloak and furs. I heard a gentleman say, not many days since, that nine women in ten would run the risk of burying their children in order to have them dressed fashionably to go to church or Sabbath-school. The mother’s heart within me would not admit that; but is it not too true that mothers are really cruel to dress their children in the way they do? Will the women of this generation, with all the light and knowledge that53 physiological science gives them, and the good sense with which God has endowed them, thus put the little feet of their own offspring in the cold grave? Or, if the child have sufficient constitution to live through, will the mother so act as to make her offspring a puny, sickly being all the days of its life? Is there not a fearful load of guilt resting upon such mothers,—is it not her duty to be as wise and as judicious in the physical training of the little ones of her household, as of their moral training? Do not thus expose your child, and say “the Lord hath taken her away,” for it is blasphemy. What a blessed thing it would be if mothers would have independence enough to discard every foolish fashion, and dress their children comfortably; then might the coming generation improve upon the present, and American women not be a reproach and by-word for European nations, who are continually saying we are the sickliest women on the face of the earth. Does a thin cloth shoe look as well or as suitable for the winter season, as a nice calf-skin or morocco? It seems to me that it is as much out of place as a lace bonnet or lawn dress. Another little girl I saw, of perhaps five years, quite decently clad, with bare arms, and three or four inches from stockings to pantalettes. Do not wonder at the mortality of children,—let us rather wonder that so many live to mature years. Do not wonder that the young girls and women of our country are pale and delicate; not able to do a quarter of the work that their mothers and grandmothers accomplished at their age; but let us rather wonder that it is no worse. With every mother, with every one who has charge of young children, lies the work of reform. Some are awake and alive to their duty, ready for the love they bear their children, and for the good of those that may live after them, to try and rear their children to be strong and healthy,—to bear the epithet old-fashioned; and, perhaps, remarks of ridicule, and to be laughed at by some silly people. If any part of the body should be well protected from cold and wet, it is the feet, and little girls need their feet as well covered54 as little boys, and what woman would think of putting such drab gaiters on her little boy?—Rural New Yorker. “Of all parts of the body,” says Dr. Robertson, “there is not one which ought to be so carefully attended to as the feet.” Every person knows from experience that colds, and many other diseases which proceed from colds, are attributable to cold feet. The feet are at such a distance from “the wheel at the cistern” of the system, that the circulation of the blood may be very easily checked there. Yet, for all this, and although every person of common sense should be aware of the truth of what we have stated, there is no part of the human body so much trifled with as the feet. The young and would-be genteel-footed cramp their toes and feet into thin-soled, bone-pinching boots and shoes, in order to display neat feet, in the fashionable sense of the term. There is one great evil, against which every one should be on their guard, and it is one which is not often guarded against—we mean the changing of warm for cold shoes or boots. A change is often made from thick to thin-soled shoes, without reflecting upon the consequences which might ensue. In cold weather, boots and shoes of good thick leather, both in soles and uppers, should be worn by all. Water-tights are not good if they are air-tights also; India rubber overshoes should never be worn except in wet splashy weather, and then not very long at once. It is hurtful to wear any covering that is air-tight over them, and for this reason India rubber should be worn as seldom as possible. No part of the body should be allowed to have a covering that entirely obstructs the passage of carbonic-acid gas from the pores of the skin outward, and the moderate passage of air inward to the skin. Life can be destroyed in a very short time by entirely closing up the pores of the skin. Good warm stockings and thick-soled boots and shoes are conservators of health, and consequently of human happiness. If two persons are to occupy a bedroom at night, let them step upon weighing scales as they retire, and then again in the morning, and they will find their actual weight is at least a pound less in the morning. Frequently there will be a loss of two or more pounds, and the average loss throughout the year will be more than one pound. That is, during the night there is a loss of a pound of matter, which has gone off from their bodies, partly from their lungs, and partly through the pores of the skin. The escaped material is carbonic acid and decayed animal matter, or poisonous exhalations. This is diffused through the air, in part absorbed by the bed-clothes. If a single ounce of wool or cotton be burned in the room, it will so completely saturate the air with smoke that one can hardly breathe, though there can only be an ounce of foreign matter in the air. If an ounce of cotton be burned in every half-hour during the night, the air will be kept continually saturated with smoke, unless there can be an open door or window for it to escape. Now the sixteen ounces of smoke thus formed is far less poisonous than the sixteen ounces of exhalation from the lungs and bodies of the two persons who have lost a pound in weight during the night hours of sleeping, for while the dry smoke is mainly taken into the lungs, the damp odors from the body are absorbed both into the lungs and into the pores of the whole body. Need more be said to show the importance of having bedrooms well ventilated, and of thoroughly airing the sheets, coverlids and mattresses, in the morning, before packing them up in the form of a neatly made bed?—Agriculturist. VENTILATION OF BEDROOMS.—Two persons occupying a bedroom will weigh at least a pound less in the morning than at night. This is owing to the escape of matter that has passed off in the meantime through the skin and lungs. The exhalation is carbonic-acid gas, which is poisonous. This is diffused56 in the air or absorbed by the bed-clothes. The fact suggests the necessity for ventilating sleeping-rooms, and airing bed-clothes in the morning before making the bed.—Ex.