For in the warres of eating 'tis the use A table of clothe is hunger's flagge of Truce, Whilst in the fight the Napkins are your friends, The following is a sad enough proof of the value men attach to clean linen : "Most men, cleane shirts, at such esteeme doe prize, He hangs the handsomer and better pleas'd." The Life of a Physician.-There are few medical men who will not be ready to assent to the accuracy of the following sketch. It is drawn by one, who is represented to "have attained eminence in the profession, but who is desirous of dissuading his nephew from pursuing it." 66 Of all professions, that of medicine is the most anxious, the most disgustful, the most thankless. Forced to humour the capricious, to soothe the irritable, to persuade the headstrong; to mingle in scenes which even familiarity cannot divest of their loathsomeness; to feel the gnawing of anxiety, when fathers, husbands, and brothers confide their dearest interests to your skill-still more, when with the life of your patient your own reputation lies at stake-and then, when all is done that man can do, to have your services requited with a grudging hand, and unthankful heart,-such is the life of a physician! Nay, even in the eyes of those, who should know how to appreciate your merits, you will find that the discharge of the pecuniary debt cancels all obligation. As if money could repay such services as ours!-Remember, Jeremy, I speak of the better (would I could say the greater!) part of the profession: for, as for those whose only object is to earn a living, who would draw the last drop from the veins of their victim, could they but coin it into goldNephew! a quack you shall not be! I will bury you with this hand first! "Believe me, this is no fanciful picture. If you have genius, if you be of an impatient temper, if your character be proud and finely sensitive, I warn you-study not medicine. Yet I repeat: as far as concerns myself, I have no objections; I am willing to instruct you: but weigh well what you do-lest you repent, when repentance will avail you nothing. New Species of Exercise for Valetudinarians.-An invalid in Paris, is said to have recently recovered his health by riding daily at the funerals of his fellow citizens. The number of funerals which go out of Paris every day, and at which the carriages are furnished by the relatives of the deceased, renders this account not improbable. Abstinence a Beautifier.-On entering, says the author of a year in Spain, the cottage of the Hermano Mayor, he came to the door to receive me, signed the cross over me, and pressed my hand in token of a welcome reception. Like other hermits, the Hermano Mayor wore a large garment of coarse cloth, girded round the middle with a rope, and having a hood for the head. The only covering of his feet consisted of a coarse shoe of half-tanned leather. Yet there was something in his appearance, which would have enabled one to single him out at once from a whole fraternity. He had a lofty and towering form, and features of the very noblest mould. I cannot tell the curious reader how long his beard was; for after descending a reasonable distance along the chest, it returned to expand itself in the bosom of his habit. This man was such a one as, in any dress or situation, a person would have turned to look at a second time; but as he now stood before me, in addition to the effect of his apostolic garment, his complexion and his eye had a clearness that no one can conceive, who is not familiar with the aspect of those who have practised a long and rigid abstinence from animal food and every exciting aliment. It gives a lustre, a spiritual intelligence to the countenance, that has something saint-like and divine. THE ANNIVERSARY REPORT of the Managers of the Pennsylvania Society, for discouraging the use of ardent spirits, with an Appendix, forming a pamphlet of seventy-two closely printed pages, is for sale at the Literary Rooms. In order that all societies and benevolent individuals may have the ability to circulate widely this Report, the price is fixed at six and a quarter cents a copy, by the quantity; and twelve and a half cents the single copy. Ample details are given in it respecting the effects, physical and moral, of the use of ardent spirit, wine, and malt liquors, as furnished by the experience of literati, physicians, travellers, labourers of all kinds, soldiers, and sailors. The direct concern which all classes of society, and every member of a family have in promoting the temperance reform, is distinctly pointed out. The arguments and facts are such as to reach all minds, and dispel some of the most inveterate prejudices against the cause. Useful dietetic hints are given at the same time to the invalid, who may be desirous of improving his health, and prolonging his life. GREGORY'S PRACTICE OF PHYSIC. A new edition of the above valuable work, from the last London edition, with notes and additions, adapting it to the Practice of the United States, by Nathaniel Potter, M. D. Professor of the Practice of Physic in the University of Maryland, and S. Colhoun, M. D. is just published by Towar, J. & D. M. Hogan. Agents for the Journal of Health. P. Potter, Bookseller, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. Wm. D. Starr, Middletown, Con. H. & F. J. Huntington, Hartford, Con. C. M. Reed, Merchant, Washington, Pu. W. & J. Neale, Booksellers, Baltimore, Md. J. & J. Markell, Fredericktown, Md. J. H. Nash, Richmond, Va. Richards & Ganahl, Augusta, Ga. Drs. Dunlap & M'Dougall, Indianopolis, In. In the second volume of this Journal, we expressed our intention of giving occasional sketches of the chief means of prolonging life; and in pursuance of our plan, treated briefly of some of the requisites for longevity, viz. good physical descent; prudent physical education. Some hints additional to what we have already said on the latter subject, will be of service to our readers-especially mothers, and those more immediately concerned in the management of infants and children. The first cries of the infant are often responded to by immersing it in cold water; as if it were necessary that the little being should have an early foretaste of the transitions and shocks to which is after life is to be almost unavoidably subjected. Certainly the practice must have some hidden or typi cal meaning, since it is equally opposed to instinctive feelings and the dictates of common sense. Warm water, a little below blood heat, is the temperature at which ablution ought at this time to be performed; it is more congenial with the feelings of the little stranger, and better adapted to the purposes of cleanliness. The temperature of the water for daily immersion and washing of the infants, may gradually be reduced to tepid or lukewarm90° to 84° F. In proportion as the child acquires more vigour, and has a warmer skin, the water may be cooler; especially if, in place of the bath by immersion, sponging or washing of the surface be practised. But it ought to be always borne in mind by mothers and nurses, that the weaker and more puny the child, the more necessary is it to protect it against external VOL. III.-11 83 cold. If it be the victim to acute disease, with a hot and burning skin, as a scarlet fever, the physician may perhaps direct to have cold water poured on it, or that it shall be immersed in this fluid. Our advice, however, is in reference to the frequent or habitual recourse to bathing, as a means of preserving health, or removing infirmities, in cases in which a physician is not consulted. We repeat it then, let mothers and nurses beware how they subject puny children, with feet and hands constantly cold, to the cold bath; or to what they may call the hardening process, by exposing it half naked-that is, with breast and arms denuded, to the cold air out of doors, or the damp and chilling current of entries inside. These ladies and goodies may think they are following the example of Spartan mothers; but we know, and we tell them, that they are greatly multiplying the chances of disease and death by such exposures. Many are, we fear, influenced by more unworthy motives-motives which an affectionate mother ought to be ashamed to avow-such as a desire to imitate other people who dress their children in this way, and a love of exposing their beautiful breasts and round arms. Do these parents love that their children should have catarrhs, croups, violent colics, &c.? One would suppose they did. Or are they prepared to answer this question? Is it a greater pity for a child to be unfashionably dressed, than to be tossing about in all the agonies of disease, threatened every hour with suffocation, and not unfrequently finding no repose but in the sleep of death? What, we would ask, has fashion to do with children, or they with fashion? Is it not enough for mothers and grown daughters to be the victims to fashion, as when they parade with bare shoulders, and tightly corseted waists, and paper soled shoes, without inflicting punishment on young beings, who, insensible to the admiration of the idle and the silly, find no compensation for their sufferings in gratified vanity? Mothers practice a delusion on themselves, when they consent to receive compliments for the appearance of a child dressed up like a model doll in a milliner's shop. To be consistent, they ought to hire them out to managers of theatres, when a new opera or pantomime is about to be got up, in order to have them figure away as Cupids and Floras and Zephyrs-dressed in light gauze, and exposed to the chill air rushing on the stage. Drilled day after day, and often exhibited at night, they would, during the short time they had to live, astonish not only the friends and neighbours of their doting mothers, but the whole town itself. The pallor of their cheeks could be easily remedied by rouge, which, like short sleeves and low breasted frocks, would also come with the additional recommendation of its being fashionable. Another flagrant contradiction in the style dress of infants, is in their so uniformly being made to wear caps; as if covering a head, which has a natural protection in the hair, and which in all after life is so much exposed, were to compensate for leaving the breast bare, which is so sensitive to cold-which has no other means of protection against vicissitudes of temperature than by clothing, and which in after life, moreover, is, at least in the male sex, habitually covered with more than one garment. In brief, it would seem that the head is early covered with a cap, that this part may, after a time, be able to do without it; and that the breast and arms are left naked and exposed to cold and moisture, in order that they may be prepared for a comfortable and constant clothing. Here again maternal vanity is active. The true reason for the child's wearing a cap, is not that first assigned: it is not that its head may be protected from cold-it is that the eyes of the vain mother may be gladdened; and the admiration, perhaps envy, of her female acquaintances, be excited by the sight of a decorated cap. The bad effects of this covering to the head, are manifold. It invites, by its warmth, a still greater quantity of blood to a part (the brain) which is soft and vascular, and liable to inflammation from the large amount of this fluid in it. Surely this is no reason why a mother should put on, and a physician allow, a warm cap. The scalp or outer tegument covered by the skin, is tender and irritable, and prone to eruptions in early life--no cause certainly why it must therefore be chafed and irritated by a worked cap full of rough projections. The ears are apt to inflame and discharge, or the skin behind them to be excoriated. Now assuredly we shall not prevent these effects, by excluding air from the ear, and keeping this part closely pressed against the side of the head. In vain does the poor child scratch its head with all possible force; in vain does it cry and toss about on account of the itching, or heat and pain caused by the cap! The thing is pretty, and therefore must be worn, even though the mother should pass sleepless nights in consequence of the child's fretfulness, or the doctor have to be sent for to devise means of composing the little dear. We have not yet adverted to the string which passes under the chin, and which is at times tied, or becomes, so tight by the child throwing its head back, as to act the part of a ligature, and give the poor little sufferer the sensation of the first stage of hanging. In our professional experience, we have often found it impossible to cure cases of diseased scalp, and sore ears, so long as caps were worn. These left off, the sores and breakings out soon disappeared. On the tight body dress of children, and on other errors connected with their physical education, we shall offer some additional comments hereafter. |