of washing every day: must it not, then, be a departure from nature?

Let us inquire. If it is so, a part of the animals below us depart from nature; for they bathe. But what is nature, especially human nature ? Does it not take in the arts of life? These certainly bring with them the necessity of attending, more or less, to the law of cleanliness. He who objects to nature should, in order to be consistent, object also to civilization and the arts and conveniences of life. He should contend for remaining always mere children of nature. He should contend for having barbarism stereotyped.

LAW 7. In order to have a healthy Skin, the internal or spiritual Part must be in a good and healthy Condition. The old maxim, A sound mind in a sound body, is also true in another form A sound body to insure a sound mind. In any event, we can no more have a perfectly sound mind in connection with a sickly, crazy body, than we can have a railroad to Jupiter.

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Dr. Darwin, in his Zoönomia, marks not only the excess of grief as a disease, which he calls maror, but also the fear of poverty, the fear of death, the fear of hell, &c.,—I mean whenever this feeling is in excess. Now, I may safely say, in this connection, that no person under the protracted influence of grief, fear, hatred, envy, or any of the depressing passions or affections, can have his skin duly perform its offices.

Who has not, for example, observed the condition of the skin while influenced by fear? Who has not seen the hairs which pierce it stand erect, surrounded by little prominences or hillocks? Why this appearance? Simply because the skin is shrunk or collapsed every where except at its connec.

tion with the roots of the hairs which pierce it, where it remains in its natural place and position, and thus, in contrast with the rest of the skin, in its shrunk or shrivelled state, appears like so many little papillæ or eminences.

Now, is it to be believed, that, in such a shrivelled or shrunk condition, the skin can perform its wonted offices? Could the wheelwork of a vast machine do this when shrunk or contracted to one half its diameter or thickness? Could the fluids in our trees and plants do this when they were so collapsed or shrunk as greatly to reduce the diameter of all their little vessels?

Not only fear and grief, but also hatred, envy, jealousy, discontent, melancholy, over-anxiety or fretfulness, and the whole tribe of depressing passions and tendencies, as I have before asserted, may, by their continued influence, and even by their occasional indulgence, be productive of the same results in a degree, and are to be studiously avoided.

The habit of being over-anxious or fretful-so touchingly referred to by our Savior on the mount is as unfavorable to the proper and healthful activity of the whole cutaneous system as it is to the health and peace of the soul. Here I might again quote the apostle Paul, on the profitableness of godliness to both worlds; but I forbear.

It is most certain that the mere habit of fretting- not so much the occasional outburst is of itself quite sufficient to break down the healthy action of the skin, and make a stout, robust person an invalid for the rest of his life. How much worse, then, the whole host of depressing tendencies!

I have said elsewhere, page 208, that a strong centrifugal tendency in the system, as manifested by a plump and healthy action of the skin, is desirable. It is, indeed, one of the best safeguards when we are exposed to contagion. I

know that amulets and charms, and other things equally frivolous, not to say ridiculous, have accomplished the same object; but how did they do it? Most certainly by inspir ing confidence and reviving a degree of hope; and this hope acted on the physical system to aid in giving it that centrif ugal tendency of which I have often spoken.

But this brings us to one more important remark under this head. The proper cultivation of the intellectual, no less than the moral, faculties should be kept in view, by all parents and teachers who would wisely conduct and control the education of their children and pupils. The better the intellect, other things being equal, the better the health. To what heights, in this particular, the development and cultivation of body, head, and heart may yet carry us, is utterly unknown.

IV. DISEASES OF THE SKIN.

One of the most certain penalties attached to disobedience of the laws of the skin, is what is called a cold. A cold, it is true, is not itself a disease of the skin, but a penalty attached to violations of the laws of the skin, falling upon some part with which the skin is in sympathy, especially upon parts lined with mucous membrane.

The cold, in these cases, is particularly apt to fall on a part of the system which is already suffering under diseased tendencies, either inherited or acquired. Should any one regard this as not a little unfair, and be disposed to think that the cold ought to fall upon the stronger part, since that is better able to bear it, I have only to say that I cannot help it. I am not the maker, but only the expounder, of the law. Besides, we should never forget that any increase of vigor in the skin is transferred also to the weak part so that the law, after all, is just and good.

I have said that a cold is a disease, usually, of some part of the system which is lined by mucous membrane. Thus we may not only have colds of the head, as we call them, and of the lungs, but also of the eyes, ears, stomach, intestines, bladder, &c.

And whatever may be the common opinion on this subject, I have not a doubt that a very large proportion of our diarrhoeas, our dysenteries, and even our choleras, are, in the beginning, neither more nor less than colds. Treated wrong on the one hand, or neglected on the other, they proceed to that termination of which I have spoken.

"But what is a cold?" you will perhaps say. I will not attempt an answer. This is not the place for it; nor is it necessary that I should present theories on this or any other subject. It is sufficient if I point out the causes of colds, and show you how to avoid them.

For every practical purpose it is sufficient to say, what I have already more than intimated, that under the influence of cold or catarrh, there is suffering, greater or less, of some part or parts lined with mucous membrane; and this happens as the divinely-appointed consequence of diminished or suspended action of the skin.

A cold is, of itself, a disease, as much as small-pox or cholera. There are not less, probably, than one hundred million colds, in the United States, every year. I should not be greatly surprised to know that, including every slight affection of the kind, the number was twice that.

But we are not only, in this climate, very large sufferers from colds directly, but also from numerous diseases which colds are apt to excite or aggravate. Among these are consumptions, pleurisies, peripneumonies, rheumatisms, fevers, and, as I have before said, diarrhoeas, dysenteries, and choleras.

There is ample reason for believing that the skin, as an organ of excretion, should carry off, in the case of the adult, at least one hundred grains of azotized or waste matter daily. Now, whenever the proper activities of the skin are suspended, additional labor is thrown on the kidneys; and thus, at least in our climate, these organs are liable to almost continual derangement..

Nor must we forget that colds either produce or aggravate many diseases of the skin itself. I hardly know of a single eruptive disease of this organ that is not more troublesome, as well as more difficult of cure, in persons who habitually neglect the laws of the skin, than in other persons.

It was said that diarrhoea, dysentery, and cholera sometimes have their origin in colds. But habitual neglect of the skin has, in a thousand instances, transformed mild attacks of diarrhoea into severe chronic affections, incurable by medicine, but not always beyond the salutary influence of a speedy return "to the law and to the testimony."

Colds on the eyes have been alluded to.

Those whose

eyes are constitutionally weak, are extremely apt to take cold on these organs; and some individuals whom I know, whose skins are peculiarly susceptible, are almost always found complaining of their eyes.

One proof of the connection between the eyes and the skin is found in the fact that whatever invigorates the skin, and hardens persons against taking cold, does, at the same time, strengthen and invigorate the eyes. It is also true, to a moderate extent, that whatever materially improves the eyes at the same time benefits the skin.

I have not a doubt that one of the most serious evils resulting from sudden warming, when we are excessively cold, is the effects it has on the eyesight. No individual addicted