dysentery and typhus fever are much less frequently epidemic, and much less fatal in American than European cities. There, a vast number of individuals being congregated together in crowded, filthy and ill ventilated apartments, and living on crude, indigestible food, and this in scanty quantity, furnish a very hot bed for these and similar fatal diseases. In this respect we are preeminently favored.

traveller for asserting, that a change of fifty-three degrees | abodes and better clothing,) is the principal reason that has been occasionally witnessed in the old world in the same period. The sudden and violent changes that are frequently exhibited in Italy, have become almost proverbial-where the scorching sirocco, "Auster's sultry breath," and the freezing transmontane, hold alternate sway, and with such short intervals, too, that the unwary traveller, who has sought this fair but treacherous clime in search of health, often discovers to his sorrow, that he has left the comforts and pleasures of his own fireside but to find a grave in a foreign land! Nor are those sudden and fatal vicissitudes of temperature confined to Italy. Although more striking, perhaps, “in that land of glory and of song," they occur in a greater or less degree in France, Germany, and every other part of continental Europe.

The difference as to climate then, I am persuaded, is so slight, as to produce but little effect in favor of European health-and in fact (always excepting that portion of our southern country bordering on marshes and stagnant water and swamps,) I firmly believe that the climate of America is as favorable to health and longevity, as any equally extensive portion of the eastern continent.* The United States, it should be recollected, cover almost as great an area as the whole of Europe, and of course, taking in their whole extent, as much variety in the temperature of the weather is to be expected. Indeed, the middle, Atlantic, and north-western states of our confederacy, possess as salubrious a climate as any in the world. The difference then which we suppose to exist between the health of American and European women, cannot be attributed in any considerable degree to the difference of climate; and of course this can have no effect in rendering it inferior to that of the men, as here the causes operate equally on both.

There is a variety of causes tending to deteriorate the standard of female health in America, some of which are common to both sexes, and some peculiar to females. The former I consider as of no great importance, comparatively, and I shall, therefore, merely glance at them.

A much greater quantity of animal food is eaten here than in any other part of the world; and I have no doubt, that with females and men of sedentary habits this is no inconsiderable source of ill health-while, very probably, with the poorer laboring classes it is decidedly beneficial, and (together with more comfortable

*The relative mortality of different countries, is of course the only fair criterion by which to estimate their comparative healthfulness. I am aware that implicit confidence cannot be placed in

the bills of mortality, yet as they are the only guides we have, and as in most cases they probably make a near approximation to the truth, no great error can be committed in making calculations from them. During the year ending on the first of October last, particular care was taken to have full and complete returns of all interments in the city of Washington; and as these were made under my superintendence, as connected with the Board of Health, I know that they are correct, so far at least as the number of deaths is concerned. In that time we had about our average amount of sickness, and I cannot, therefore, be far from the truth in assuming the number for that year as a standard. There were 419 deaths during the year, and as our population is fully 25,000, including strangers, it gives a mortality of but one in fiftynine; while in London, which is undoubtedly one of the healthiest cities in Europe, the mortality is one in forty; and in Rome and Naples one in twenty-seven pays the debt of nature annually; showing a decided superiority in favor of our national metropolis, and which I believe is likewise applicable to all our principal cities, except those of the south.

But while a sufficiency of animal and other nutritious food is important to the health and comfort of those who labor hard in the open air, it is equally certain that a large quantity of meat is injurious to others whose pursuits are of an inactive and sedentary kind. Every body here is too much in the habit of using animal food three times a day, whereas once a day, and then in moderate quantity, is as often as any, except the hard-working laborer, requires it. Its excessive use tends to derange the general health, to debilitate the digestive organs, and produce a plethoric state of the whole vascular system, and should therefore be proscribed by every medical man, to all females, with very few, if any exceptions.

Perhaps a still more injurious practice is that of using hot, unleavened bread at our meals, and particularly at breakfast. Almost every family in this country, and more especially in the southern portion of it, is in the habit of having hot bread of some kind, and frequently three times a day. Every physician knows that this is much less digestible than bread which is properly leavened and has had time to become cold after being baked. It is, in fact, often but little better than half risen dough, and its digestion is a most unreasonable task to impose on any stomach, except such as can form chyle out of brick-bats. To make the matter worse, large quantities of tea and coffee are taken at a temperature little less than that of the boiling point, as if we were determined to do our utmost to violate the laws of nature and derange the functions of the animal economy.*

Another habit, in which undoubtedly all classes here are deficient, is the daily practice of ablutions. This subject has of late been frequently discussed, and its importance urged upon the attention of the public; but still I am afraid that little progress has been made in its general adoption: and yet every one who reflects a moment on the nature and functions of the skin, the importance of removing every obstruction to the insensible perspiration, and the increased danger of cutaneous diseases from want of cleanliness, knows that the importance of frequent friction and constant ablution can hardly be overrated. The habit of daily or at least

All foreigners are struck with the diseased appearance and premature decay of our teeth. How much of this national and most unfortunate defect is to be attributed to our taking our food, and especially our drinks, at so elevated a temperature? It would be an interesting subject of inquiry, if some one who has the requisite leisure and suitable opportunities, would investigate this matter thoroughly and philosophically; and he would confer a public benefit of no little magnitude, if he could ascertain its causes and point out the appropriate remedies. There can be no doubt, that extremely hot drinks always injure the teeth, giving rise to inflammation and subsequent caries and destruction of these important but delicate and susceptible organs; and probably the iced water, too, so freely used during our hot summers, may be equally injurious, as it is the sudden change of temperature to which the teeth are exposed that causes the mis

chief.

frequent bathing or washing the whole body, is deci-
dedly more necessary to the health of women than of
men, as a general rule, because from the very nature of
their employments (being sedentary and within doors)
they need something to make up for the deficiency of
more active occupations. Bathing and rubbing the skin
afterwards with a flesh brush, or a coarse towel, is the
very best substitute for this want of general activity,
because it actually affords considerable exercise, and
because it accomplishes one of the most important ob-constitution of American females.
jects of exercise-a healthy state of the skin.

towel, and five or ten minutes at rising or going to bed
are all that are necessary. And where is the man,
woman or child, in the whole land, so busy or so poor,
as not to be able to afford all these? It is desirable
that this ablution should be performed every day, but
it should never be neglected for more than two days.
There can be no doubt, that this habit alone, persever-
ingly and regularly continued, would do very much to
restore the feeble health and invigorate the enervated

Our whole national habits need a thorough reformation in this respect. If we may judge of the domestic habits of the people, by the condition of our public hotels, there is no civilized nation on the face of the globe, so deficient in the conveniences for cleanliness, (and of course, we may suppose in the reality,) as our selves. We are certainly behind most European nations, and still more inferior to many of the Asiatics, in the practice of this most delightful and beneficial of all the appliances for health. Mr. Stuart, who presents a much more favorable portrait of us than the generality of his countrymen have, in his travels in this country, remarks, that "the practice of travellers washing at the doors, or in the porticoes or stoops, or at the wells of taverns and hotels, once a day, is most prejudicial to health: the ablution of the body, which ought never to be neglected, at least twice a day, in a hot climate, being altogether inconsistent with it. In fact, I have found it more difficult, in travelling in the United States, to procure a liberal supply of water at all times of the day and night in my bedchamber than to obtain any other necessary. A supply for washing the face and hands once a day seems all that is thought requisite."

When the saline and other elements caused by perspiration and by exposure to the air and dust, are allowed to accumulate on the skin, they necessarily obstruct its pores and derange its functions; and if this state of things is permitted to continue for some time, obstinate cutaneous diseases and not unfrequently violent internal affections, particularly of the stomach and bowels, will almost infallibly ensue. I have again and again witnessed that most obstinate and disgusting complaint, the scald head, arise from apparently no other cause. The quantity of dry, white scurf, which collects on the skin and which can be removed even by the flesh brush, is really surprising; and travellers in the east, who have enjoyed the luxury of an oriental bath at Constantinople or Cairo, and who considered them selves not previously deficient in habits of cleanliness, express their astonishment at the immense amount of these scaly particles, which a single ablution will remove-and they tell us, after using the bath two or three times, the skin instead of presenting the dry, rough, husky feeling so common with us, has all the elasticity, delicacy and softness of the finest velvet.*

The daily use of the bath has often been objected to, as inconvenient and as occupying too much time, and time too which can ill be spared by the industrious and busy American. But the fact is, it can easily be so managed as to occupy but little time, and occasion but little inconvenience. A basin of water, a coarse ⚫Several of the remarks and illustrations contained in this ar

ticle, were published by the writer in a series of essays in the Philadelphia Saturday Courier of 1936.

The absurd system of dress too, adopted by the sex, is often productive of serious mischief, and not unfrequently leads to fatal results. It seems as if a mode of dress could hardly be devised, which in some respects would more infallibly produce disease, suffering and death, than the one now in vogue. The exposure of the feet, neck, breast and arms, to cold, wet and sudden vicissitudes of temperature, is exactly fitted to bring on pleurisy, coughs, consumption, dysentery and various other serious complaints. The exposure of the feet alone, in the way in which it is often done, is enough to cause the most fatal attacks. For example, I have seen a lady walking to the capitol, through the streets of Washington, when the snow was two or three inches deep and melting rapidly, with nothing to defend the feet but silk stockings and thin morocco shoes. Nor is this a very uncommon occurrence in any of our citiesand at any rate, exposures almost as suicidal are daily taking place. Instead of wearing boots with India rubber over-shoes and thick stockings, (concealed, if fashion render it necessary, by silk or cotton over them,) they at best have only worsted hose, thin low shoes, and perhaps over-shoes, all so low as readily to admit snow and water. Again, it is a very common practice for them to wear worsted or cotton stockings in the house and by a warm fire, and to put on silk when going out, thus rendering the dress thinner instead of warmer on being exposed to a lower temperature. The same dangerous practice prevails likewise with respect to the arms and neck, both of which will be more or less warmly covered at home, but at parties, where they are constantly exposed to sudden changes of air, they are either naked or nearly so. These and a hundred other instances of imprudence and carelessness, with respect to dress, are constantly occurring with females of all ages-but more particularly at that period of life when they are most dangerous, viz: at the commencement of puberty, when nature is exerting herself to effect those changes in the constitution, which are indispensable to fit the female for her peculiar and important duties in society.

Consumption too, is often caused by exposures of this description-and in fact, the greater number of instances of this complaint, which occur among females than among males, between the ages of sixteen and twenty, (a difference which certainly exists,) can, I suspect, be accounted for only on the supposition that their dress and habits generally render them peculiarly liable to it. What stronger proof could be adduced of the necessity of a radical change in these respects? This subject need only be referred to, to convince every individual of its importance and its truth.

To enjoy perfect health, it is absolutely indispensable that the feet should be kept dry and warm-and this is decidedly more necessary for females, for very obvious

reasons, than for the other sex. Every woman should | and generally vigorous health of the sons, as clearly intherefore have her feet guarded with the most sedulous dicate the propriety of the opposite system. care from wet and cold, and then take as much exercise in the open air as her situation and circumstances will admit of. She should always, in the winter season, wear woollen stockings, stout shoes or boots with thick soles, with over shoes in wet weather, and all sufficiently high to effectually exclude snow and water. Flannel drawers also, and sufficient covering for the breast and neck, should never be omitted—and above all, those capricious and dangerous changes of dress, (now so common,) should be most carefully avoided.

The practice is continued as the girl advances from infancy to childhood and youth. At the age of three and four years, and sometimes even earlier, she is sent to school to spend six or seven hours a day, in a crowded room, with the atmosphere rendered impure and unwholesome by the congregated breaths and bad ventilation. And, as if this were not doing enough towards enfeebling her health and undermining her constitution, she is, in addition, placed on a seat without a back, so that the muscles of the spine and trunk are kept continually on the stretch in order to support the body, instead of being allowed the alternate contraction and relaxation so essential to their active growth and perfect development. These muscles from being placed in this unnatural state, soon become enfeebled and drawn to one side, and that dreadful malady, curved spine, is the frequent consequence. And, to make the matter still worse, the enervated frame is now encased in tight stays, with an abundance of steel and whalebone, and thus all motion of these muscles is literally prevented, and nature wholly obstructed in her attempts to coun

The mode of female dress is bad enough in all fashionable circles throughout christendom, but unfortunately for us, it is decidedly worse in America—at least that commonly worn in the street-than in Europe. In London it would not be considered genteel (a most important and potential consideration,) for ladies to be seen in the street as thinly clad as is customary with us. There, the rules laid down in the preceding paragraphs, are in general fully adopted, and the principle is carried even farther: for India rubber over dresses are not uncommon as a defence against their sudden showers-a precaution, to be sure, which our more regu-teract this absurd and dangerous violation of her laws. lar climate renders in part unnecessary.

Curvation of the spine is found to occur much more

There is another custom, peculiar almost to Ameri- | frequently in girls than boys, owing without doubt (for can women, which prevails to a great extent in some no other reason can be assigned) to the more active parts of our country, and which is productive of im- habits of the latter when out of school, which invigorate mense suffering to the individuals themselves, as well their muscular system, render it more elastic, and thus as of great injury to the constitutions of their children: I enable them successfully to withstand the effects of this refer to the extremely early age at which females are confinement. I am fully satisfied that the great and often married, particularly in the southern and western increased frequency of this harassing and obstinate afstates. This is not a proper place to discuss this subject fection among girls, arises chiefly if not wholly from their in all its painful aspects, and I will therefore only remark, improper and useless confinement in school when very that every physician of extensive practice, is often call-young, superadded to their general languor and debility, ed to witness and lament the distressing and irremedia- from want of active exercise in the open air. ble maladies caused by the indiscretion referred to. This view of the subject is confirmed by Dr. Forbes

The most prolific source, however, of disease and suf-in his excellent article on "Physical Education," in the fering to the female sex, is, unquestionably, the want of Cyclopedia of Practical Medicine, where, in speaking of proper and sufficient exercise in the open air. This is the regulations of a boarding-school for girls, which prean evil that I despair of ever seeing completely reme-scribe daily one hour's exercise, (a walk on the public died so long as fashion throws so many obstacles in the way; but still I have no doubt a great deal may be accomplished by perseveringly calling the attention of the public to its injurious consequences; and there is no class of men who can do so much and act so appropriately as the medical profession, in bringing about this desirable reform.

road,) and that only when the weather happens to be pleasant, at the precise hour assigned to it, he remarks, "That the practical results of such an astounding regimen are by no means overdrawn in the preceding pages, is sufficiently evinced by the following fact—a fact which we will venture to say, may be verified by inspection of thousands of boarding-schools in this country. We The habit of confining the female sex within doors lately visited, in a large town, a boarding-school, conto the certain and irremediable injury of their health, istaining forty girls; and we learned on close and accubegun in early childhood. From the time the child can rate inquiry, that there was not one of the girls who walk, till she sinks into her (perhaps premature) grave, had been at the school two years, (and the majority had confinement in close, ill-ventilated and may be crowded been as long,) that was not, more or less, crooked! apartments, is her lot. While the boys of the family our patient was in this predicament; and we could are allowed, nay urged to spend much of their time, perceive (what all may perceive who meet that most when not at school, in active out-door sports, which are melancholy of all processions-a boarding-school of considered important, if not necessary for their health, young ladies in their walk,) that all her companions a totally different course is pursued with the daughters, were pallid, sallow and listless. We can assert, on as if their systems were constituted in a manner to re- the same authority of personal observation and on an quire no such adventitious aid to invigorate and extensive scale, that scarcely a single girl, (more espestrengthen them. The natural consequences of such a cially of the middle classes,) that has been at a boardplan of education are too soon apparent in the palliding school for two or three years, returns home with countenance—the feeble frame-the languid appetite-unimpaired health; and for the truth of the assertion, the restless night-the feverish tongue-the nervous we may appeal to every candid father whose daughters head-ache of the daughter--while the rosy complexion, have been placed in this situation."

This change is equally necessary in all ranks and conditions of society. From the lady of fortune, who spends her time over the piano and the latest novel, to the humble seamstress, who devotes perhaps fourteen hours out of the twenty-four to her needle, all suffer from the want of active employment, and all need the cautionary advice of their medical friends. The wealthy indeed have much less excuse for their deficiency here than those in poorer circumstances. A great variety of modes of exercise, agreeable and convenient, are accessible by them, while the others are necessarily more restricted in their choice. Riding on horseback, in carriages, walking, swinging, battledore, &c. &c., are all good, and might all be usefully resorted to in their turn, and all these too, except the first, could readily be enjoyed by all.

The importance of this subject can hardly be overrated. Robust and vigorous health is necessary to the physical, intellectual and moral advancement of a nation, and every thing, therefore, which tends to its more rapid improvement and more extensive diffusion, should never be neglected by the patriot or the philanthropist.

The idea of bedecking churches and houses with green boughs was Druidical; and has been used in Britain, ever since the times of those ancient pagans. They covered their dwellings with ivy and holly boughs, to invite thereto the sylvan deities they worshipped, to protect them there, till the woods should again put on their foliage. This custom is continued, in this country, among the Catholic and Episcopal congregations, as well as in the father land. It is an erroneous derivation of the origin of it from that passage in Isaiah's prophecy, which tells of the box, the fir, and the pine, as beautifying the sanctuary, and making the place of God's feet glorious. The custom is clearly a pagan, and not a christian one, in its origin.

In "Poor Robin's Almanac," as given in the "Popular Antiquities," by Branel, there is a Christmas carol that shows how that festival was commemorated in 1695, and so worth copying here.

"Now, thrice welcome, Christmas,
Which brings us good cheer!
Minced pies and plum pudding,
Good ale and strong beer!
With pig, goose, and carpon,
The best that may be,-
So well doth the weather
And our stomachs agree!

Observe how the chimnies
Do smoke all about!
The cooks are providing
For dinner, no doubt.
But those on whose tables

No victuals appear,
Oh! may they keep Lent,
All the rest of the year!

With holly and ivy,

So green and so gay,
We deck up our houses,
As fresh as the day.
With bay and rosemary,
And laurel complete,
And every one, now,
Is a king,-in conceit !

But as for curmudgeons
Who will not be free,
I wish they may die,
On a three legged tree!"

Keeping Christmas is a very ancient custom: and our fathers in the "old countrie," have been longer renowned for this usage than any other people, and for a much longer time, moreover, than they themselves have celebrated any other festive occasion. Of yore, How clearly does the old prophet-bard, above named, they appointed at the king's court, (as old Stowe tells throughout the whole sixty-six chapters of that divine us,) a "lord of misrule, or master of merry disports:" poem, foretel the coming of the Father, Prophet, King, the same merry fellow made his appearance at the whose birth millions are, at this hour, engaged in celehouse of every nobleman and person of distinction; brating! And how does his song call to mirth and gladand, among the rest, "the lord mayor of London, and ness, in its every burst of prophetic eloquence! "Break the sheriffs, had their lords of misrule, ever contend-forth, break forth into joy! Sing, sing together! ing, without quarrel or offence, who should make the Wasted Jerusalem! Jehovah hath comforted his peorarest pastime to delight the beholders." ple! Jehovah hath redeemed Jerusalem! He hath bared his arm in the sight of all the nations! All ends of the earth shall see his glorious salvation!" And they have!

Then there was the "hagmena," a night or two before Christmas, when folks went about in the garb of beggars, wishing happy Christmas and New Year, and carrying away money, pies, puddings, nuts and apples: a very olden custom. Kindred with it is "mumming," which is, the different sexes changing attire and going about, from house to house, on the "hagmena," or begging frolic. I believe this is kept up in our own more sober land, "a custom," however, to quote Hamlet, "more honored in the breach, than in the observance."

Eighteen centuries ago, it was one perpetual night which veiled the whole earth. To a handful of the human race, upon the remote corner of Judea, there shone the faint light of ancient prophecies; but they were only like distant stars, which sent their trembling rays upon the darkness, and adorned, but not removed the curtain that hung its folds over the world. As to the Gentile nations, their "philosophy” had now sunk into