and they were cases in which all the symptoms were those of bronchitis-many of them having been under our own observation for twenty years, and still living.

When we reflect upon the insane adherence to fashion in our country, and the total want of that knowledge that would compel precautionary measures, why should it not be so? It is part of an American female's education to wear tight dresses and thin shoes; she esteems herself, at least temporarily, degraded if she does not do it. What becomes of the blood-that is, of four or five pounds out of the twenty-five she has in her body-when it is driven from her extremities by cold, upon the heart and lungs? These organs struggle to overcome their bonds, and to pass it through the lungs fast enough to preserve the balance of the circulation, but they must fail; a dozen powerful hooks and eyes, if not a corset to boot-and one is just as bad as the other-resist the efforts of the muscles to raise the ribs, and the delicate blood-vessels lining the bronchia, tender from congestion, give way here and there, and she spits blood: 'tis merciful she does; it had better come out than remain in the substance of the lungs.

Men exhaust themselves with tobacco, drink, and other vices, and if they do not wear tight clothes, over-exercise and exert themselves, and the same thing occurs; for the blood must pass through the lungs at a certain rate of speed, and they cannot transmit it fast enough, and so ruptures occur, and they spit blood. This is the whole matter in its naked simplicty; scientific words by the score would make it neither plainer nor more true.

The good effect of nitrate of silver, applied to the throat and wind-pipe or its divisions, shows that many of the cases hitherto deemed consumptive are chiefly bronchitis, whether there be tubercles in the lungs or not. That the two diseases are very often combined, we know.

Difficulty of breathing upon slight exertion, is a common

symptom of consumption, but not an invariable one. It originates, if it exist, from the fact that the lungs are more or less filled with tubercles, which encroach upon and press together the air-cells, and diminish the capacity of the lungs for air; when increased exercise quickens the circulation, the blood endeavors to get through the heart and lungs faster, and thus still further aggravates the difficulty. But this symptom is sometimes scarcely observable. The digestion in many consumptives, is greatly impaired, and the blood. diminished in quantity—as is sufficiently evident by the thinness and paleness of the invalid-is accommodated to the diminished capacity of the lungs. Moreover, many persons thus situated, use little exertion, and so do not hurry the circulation. Neither is pain always present. We have known cases in which no pain was felt to the last : we know no reason for this.

Dr. Watson remarks: "When during the progress of consumption, violent pain in the side, and extreme difficulty of breathing and anxiety, set in suddenly, they denote with much certainty, perforation of the investing membrane of the lungs, or pleura-(hence the word pleurisy)—and serious, and generally fatal consequences. This, with hectic fever and diarrhoea, constitute the last symptoms of consumption." Hectic is accompanied with exhaustion, and extreme sweating, and frequency of the pulse. We know little or nothing of the immediate cause of this distressing symptom. It seems to be connected with sleep, the patient not experiencing it while awake-some escape it entirely. Many control it somewhat by reclining partially when sleeping. Diarrhoea does not always occur as a last symptom; it sometimes comes on early in the disease, and often serves to denote its approach with certainty, when the other symptoms are not all present, or sufficiently distinct to remove doubt. It is generally connected with ulcers in the intestines; and these often originate from the attempt instituted

by nature to get rid of the tubercles often formed there, as in the lungs. The system becomes irritable from want of exercise, or improper and indigestible diet, not producing sufficient nourishment to maintain its functions in quietness, from mental anxiety, or else from venereal excesses (a most powerful and frequent cause), and so inflammation, of a slow and scrofulous character, occurs all round the tubercles, and nature attempts to get clear of these foreign substances precisely as she rids herself of a splinter in the finger.

There is this grand difference, however, in the result: a splinter is thus ejected from a part not essential to life, a finger or toe for instance-a part of the body comparatively at rest-whereas the lungs and intestines must move constantly, and the ulcer is irritated by motion, air, or the contents of the bowels, if the tubercles be situated there, which they sometimes are. Moreover, the disposition in the individual is to form tubercles constantly; in short, he is scrofulous.

When the constitution can be rapidly improved by diet, exercise or climate, these ulcers may heal, and if no more tubercles form, and digestion and the skin be kept in full play of their powers, so as to produce plenty of material, and to throw off carbon or the useless matters of the system, the person recovers. But if prostrated by physic, or sexual excesses, bad diet, and cold air, he dies.

TOILETTE OF THE NEW YORK LADIES.

WHAT ARE THE ACTUAL CONSEQUENCES OF COLD FEET?

"Life is Warm; Death is Cold."

Ir there be one subject that beyond all others demands. the earnest attention of the American mother, that subject is the protection of the feet of her daughter from the cold and dampness of the pavement. We give it more than usual prominence, because the evil is neither understood nor regarded in any other light than a remote contingency, not worth a moment's thought, when compared to the gratification of making an impression on her admirers, by what she imagines a beautiful foot. It is by no means necessary that this object of her soul's idolatry should bear any proportion to the other parts of her person, or in any degree be adapted to the requirements of her system in taking exercise. If God has given her a good constitution and a well-proportioned and muscular body, adapted to the emergencies and trials of life, and the display of those graceful movements impossible without organic strength, she is greatly afflicted. A companion, either influenced by envy, or an absurd estimate of gracefulness, originating in that absence of true taste always the result of an education in which drawing, the anatomy of the human figure, and the study of antique sculpture, are not prominent objects, tells her she is fat; and if she herself be unusually angular and awkward, she may add that her foot is "immense ;" or some invidious and art

ful comparison is made, that causes the young creature the greatest unhappiness. The first thing consequent on this assurance observed by her ignorant and distressed parent, is the paleness of her cheek, and her refusal of that wholesome food her appetite has hitherto craved; this is probably due to excessively tight clothing, and perhaps drinking vinegar, or some other monstrous and suicidal practice. To appease the Juggernaut of fashion, her feet, or rather her toes, are encased in a slipper with wafer sole, her arms in open sleeves, and her chest with a delicate covering, at best of a single thickness of wool, and a scanty cloak, and thus she trips it over the pavement of a December morning, to a school where, too often, everything but sense, and true gracefulness and dignity of character are taught.

Physiologists have proved by actual experiment with the thermometer, that the central heat of the body, or that of the blood as it issues from its starting point, the left ventricle of the heart, is 100 degrees; and that at the sole of the foot it is no more than 90 degrees!

The great and unchangeable law of the Creator that develops life, is warmth. The egg of the fowl only possesses latent life, till the warmth of the mother expands the germ, and gives the heart its first contractile or active force; without warmth, it would never assume its organized form nor continue its action.

Before we speak of the influence of cold on the nerves of the feet, and its still more rapid effect on the circulation of the blood through their action on the heart, let us consider the value of the great facts we have presented to the reader, viz. the natural decrease of the warmth of the blood in the blood-vessels of the feet, as a probable means of permitting the ill effect of cold on these great central organs of life, the lungs, if not prevented by art.

It is conceded by all intelligent observers, that a violent chill communicated to the body, is very soon and sensibly