fectly discharges its functions, and with vitiated digestive juices. Af these causes may contribute to the decay of teeth, and the bad state of the gums.

The gums cannot be healthy unless they are firm and red, and adhere to the roots of the teeth. These qualities depend in a great measure on the state of the health.

The gums are liable to a variety of accidents which impair both their health and beauty, and which often transform them into objects most disgusting to the eye. Sometimes they grow soft, swell, and ap pear full of livid and corrupted blood-at others, they project, and cover great part of the teeth: they also become inflamed and painful, and covered with offensive and malignant ulcers.

When disease of the gums proceeds from internal causes, these must be first attacked with adequate remedies: in this case, recourse must be had to medical advice; we shall only here, therefore, consider such cases for which local applications are sufficient.

Tincture for the Teeth and Gums.

Take Peruvian bark, coarsely powdered, one ounce, and infuse it for a fortnight in half a pint of brandy.

Gargle the mouth morning and night, with a teaspoonful of this tincture, diluted with an equal quantity of rose-water.

Mixture for Caries, or Rotten Teeth.

Make a balsam with a sufficient quantity of honey, two scruples of myrrh in fine powder, a scruple of gum juniper, and ten grains of rock alum. A portion to be applied frequently to the decayed teeth

A Coral Stick for the Teeth.

Make a stiff paste with tooth powder, and a sufficient quantity of mucilage of gum tragacanth; form with this paste cylindrical rollers, the thickness of a large goose-quill, and about three inches in length. The way to use this stick is to rub it against the teeth, which become cleaner in proportion as it washes.

Dog-wood for the Teeth.

A small twig of dog-wood is of great service in cleansing the teeth. It may be used instead of a tooth-brush, and is particularly serviceable in cleansing between the teeth without injuring the enamel. A silk thread, well waxed, will also effectually remove the tartar from be 'ween the teeth.

To clean the Teeth and Gums.

Take an ounce of myrrh in fine powder, two spoonfuls of the best white honey, and a little green sage in a very fine powder. Mix them

well together, and wet the teeth and gums with a little every right and morning.

Another Prescription.

Take pummice stone, and cuttle-fish bone, of each half an ounce; vitriolated tartar, and mastic, of each a drachm; oil of rhodium, four drops. Mix all into a fine powder.

Obs.

Charcoal alone stands pre-eminent in the rank of de ntrifices. From the property it possesses of destroying the coloring particles, it has been turned to a good purpose as a tooth powder for whitening the teeth: as it attacks only the coloring matter of the teeth, it does no injury to the enamel. It possesses, besides, the property of opposing putrefaction, of checking its progress, and even causing it to retrograde; hence, it is calculated to destroy the vices of the gums, to clean them, and to correct the fetor which may accumulate in the mouth and among the teeth; in these two respects, powdered charcoal is the tooth-powder, par excellence, and is, accordingly, recommended by many eminent physicians and chemists. It may occasionally be used either with myrrh, Peruvian bark, cream of tartar, or chalk

THE LIPS.

The lips are liable to excoriations and chaps, which often extend to considerable depth. These chaps are generally occasioned by mere cold; the following salves will be found efficacious in correcting these evils.

(1.) Lip Salve.

Take oil of almonds three ounces; spermaceti one ounce; virgin rice half an ounce. Melt these together over a slow fire, mixing with them a little powder of alkanet root to color it. Keep stirring till cold, and then add a few drops of the oil of rhodium; or,

(2.) Take oil of almonds, spermaceti, white wax, and white sugarcandy, equal parts. These form a good white lip salve; or,

(3.) Take oil of almonds two ounces, white wax and spermaceti, of each one drachm; melt, and while warm, add rose water two ounces, and orange flower water half an ounce. These make Hndson's cold cream, a very excellent article.

THE HANDS AND ARMS.

A fine hand is always pleasing, and next to the charms of a beau. tiful face, a woman has an undoubted right to be proud of a fine

delicately tapered hand, and a symmetrical and elegantry rounded arm A handsome head may be appended to a very ordinary body, or an ugly head may detract from the elegance of a well-shapen body; but a fine hand and arm scarcely ever accompany any than an otherwise perfect person, and are an unerring symbol of gentility or nobleness of birth and character.

To improve the Skin of the Hands and Arms.

Take two ounces of Venice soap, and dissolve it n two ounces of lemon juice. Add one ounce of the oil of bitter almonds, and a like quantity of the oil of tartar. Mix the whole, and stir it well till it has acquired the consistence of soap; and use it as such for the hands.

The paste of sweet almonds, which contains an oil fit for keeping the skin soft and elastic, and removing indurations, may be beneficially applied to the hands and arms.

The most common accidents to which the hands are liable, are chaps, chilblains, and warts. The perspiration of the hands is also, at times, very troublesome, especially to such as are employed in works which require great cleanliness.

Chaps

Are usually the result of cold, and though not so serious as cniblains, of which we shall treat hereafter, are very detrimental to delicate hands. They leave the true skin, which is acutely sensible, bare, raw, and sore; and thus cause irritation and inflammation. This may alike occur from summer's heat as the cold of winter; and equally attack the lips, face, hands, or any other part exposed to heat or cold.

For the cure of chapped hands, take three drachms of bole ammo niac, three drachms of Myrrh, and a drachm of white lead. Incorpo rate these with a sufficient quantity of goose-grease; and with this anoint the parts affected; and wear worsted gloves: or,

(2.) Take myrrh, one ounce; litharge, one drachm; honey, tour ounces; wax, yellow, two ounces; oi! of roses, six ounces. Mix the whole in one well-blended mass for use.

When the hands are chapped, avoid putting them in water. To whiten the hands, and preserve them from being chapped, rub them with a tallow canale before retiring, and wear a pair of gloves through the night.

To remove Stains from the Hands.

Ink-stains, dye-stains, &c., can be immediately removed, by dipping the finger in water, (warm water is best) and then rubbing on the stain a small portion of oxalic acid powder and cream of tartar, mixed to gether is equal quantities, and kept in a box. When the stain disap pears, wash the hands with fine soap, or almond cream. A small bor of this stain-powder should be kept always in the washstand drawer

unless here are smal children in the family, in which case it should be put out of their reach, as it is poison if swallowed.

The Nails.

To g.ve a fine color to the nails, the hunds and fingers must be well lathered and washed in scented soap; then the nails should be rubbed with equal parts of cinnabar and emery, and afterwards with oil of bitter almonds. When the bad color of the nails is occasioned by

me internal evil, the cause must be first attacked. In jaundice, for instance, the nails become of a yellow color, which it would be in vain to attempt to correct by external application.

There are sometimes white specks upon the nails, called gifts. These may be removed by the following preparation.

Melt equal parts of pitch and turpentine in a small vessel: add to it vinegar and powdered sulphur. Apply this mixture to the nails, and the spots will soon disappear. Pitch and myrrh melted together may be used with equal success.

Chilblains,

Generally attack the hands and feet; but are cured by the same neans, on whatever part they may appear.

When the tingling and itching are first felt (a sure sign of chilblains,) the parts, hands or feet, ought to be bathed in cold water, or rubbed with snow, till the sensation subsides, then well dried; or the following preventive embrocation may be used, though the first method is unquestionably the best. Take spirits of turpentine one ounce, balsam of copavia one ounce. Mix them together, and rub the afflicted parts two or three times a day with a portion of it.

Mr. Wardrop's Chilblain Embrocation.

Take tincture of cantharides two drachms; soap liniment one and a half ounces. Mix, and rub the affected parts therewith.

Warm spirits of rosemary, or spirits of camphor, are useful at the first appearance of chilblains. Those who are most liable to chilblains, should, on the approach of winter, cover the parts most subject to be affected, with woolen gloves or stockings, and not expose the hands or feet too precipitately to wet or cold, or, as before observed, to a considerable degree of heat.

Hints to Ladies.

Stair carpets should always have a slip of paper put under them, at and over the edge of every stair, which is the part where they first wear out, in order to lessen the friction of the carpets against the boards beneath. The strips should be within an inch or two as long as the carpet is wide, and about four or five nches in breadth, so a to lie a distance from each stai This simple plan, so easy of execu

tion, will, we know, preserve a stair carpet ha.f as long again au la would last without the strips of paper.

THE INVALID'S MANUAL

HOW TO CURE DYSPEPSIA, OR THE ART OF ATTAIN. ING AND PRESERVING HIGH HEALTH.

It is an acknowledged fact that there are fewer individuals in the constant enjoyment of robust health in this country, according to its population, than among any other people. The want of a proper physical education, and an intense application to business, are among the most obvious causes for this phenomenon.

Having been, for a considerable part of my life, an invalid, I have made the art of regaining and preserving health a subject of the most careful and elaborate study, and I am firmly of the opinion that almost every individual not absolutely broken down, has it completely within his power to compass this attainment.

As I have now established, in my own mind, a complete system or code of principles relative to the preservation of health, I propose in this, and the succeeding numbers of the "Manual," to give such an exposition of the subject as 1 am entirely confident contains the true secret of reaching this object, and of curing all those maladies now so prevalent, that are usually spoken of as dyspepsia, liver compleint, acrvousness, hypochondria, &c.

Of late years, there has been a multitude of theories and systems put forth for the cure of this class of complaints; one (Halstead) says, knead the stomach; another (Graham) prescribes the use of bran

ead as indispensable; a third (Banning) has a sort of lace, which he says performs wonders, and so on. Now I do not wish to say that these systems are all perfectly false, on the contrary, I believe all of them contain more or less truth, but their propagators being men of narrow minds, and moreover, being actuated by selfish motives, push their views to the most absurd limits. The poor invalid who has, mayhap, tried medicines of all sorts, when he takes up one of them as a last resource, and does not find the relief he has been promised, very naturally arrives at the conclusion, that in his case, systems of diet or regimen have as little efficacy as prescriptions of medicine. But in this he is in error, for there can be no question in the mind of any one who has given much reflection to this subject, that no perma. nent cure can be made for this class of diseases except in and by a proper course of diet and regimen. A cure, in such cases, depende upon a few plain principles strictly followed; these I shall now pro ceed to lay down in the order of their importance, with the cautionary remark, that I hope no one who takes up some one of them for a few weeks, and does not get well, will thereby conclude that it is of no evail

No; the invalid, f he would regain his health, must pur is