HARNED/WHITMAN  NOTEBOOKS   c.1849?   "Physique"  (L.C. 81)
Box 2 Folder 8
*81 PHYSIQUE [note and scrapbook. 1849?] Five holograph scraps, in
ink on blue paper, twenty-one clippings, and a thirty-six page pamphlet
pasted inside the covers of a book 19 x 11 1/2 cm. in size.
Concerns diet, exercise, and health.
Pamphlet title: "The Science of Swimming" (1849).

THE FEET IN WINTER TIME.
No person can be well long, says Hall's Journal
of Health, whose feet are habitually cold;
while securing to them dryness and warmth, is
the certain means of removing a variety of annoying
ailments. The feet of some are kept
more comfortable in winter if cotton is worn,
while woollen suits others better. The wise
course, therefore, is for each one to observe for
himself, and act accordingly, Scrupulous cleanliness
is essential to the healthful warmth of
the feet; hence all, especially those who walk
a great deal out of doors during the day in cold
weather, should make it a point to dip both
feet in clod water on rising every morning, and
let them remain half ankle deep, for a minute
at a time, then rup and wipe dry, dress
and move about briskly to warm them up.
To such as cannot well adopt this course from
any cause, the next best plan is to wash them in
warm water every night just before going to
bed, taking the precaution to dry them by the
fire most thoroughly before retiring: this, besides
keeping the feet clean, preserves a natural
softness to the skin and has a tendency to prevent
and cure corns. Many a troublesome
throat affection, and many an annoying headache
will be curing if the feet are kept always
clean, warm, soft and dry. The moment the
feet are observed to be cold, the person should
hold them to the fire, with the stockings off,
until they feel comfortably warm. One of the
several decided objections to a furnace heated
house, is the want of a place to warm the feet,
and registers being wholly unsuited for that
purpose.
Our wealthy citizens do themselves and their
families a great wrong if they fail to have one
room in the house, free for all, where a fire is
kept burning from the first day of October until
the first day of June, on a low grate, on a level
with the hearth; for the close the fire is to
the hearth in a grate, or to the  floor in a stove,
the more comfortable is it, and the less heat is
wasted. This is one of the delight of the good
old fashioned wood fires, the very thought of
which carries so many of us away to the glad
scenes of childhood and early homes. It ought
to be known in New York, where hard or anthracite
coal is burned, that with one of the
grates named, filled with hard coal and a few
pieces of Liverpool or cannel put on top, nearly
all the advantages of a wood fire are secured, at
least as far as cheerfulness, comfort and warmth
are concerned.
Some feet are kept by their dampness from incessant
perspiration ; in such cases cork soles are
injurious, because they soon become saturated,
and maintaining moisture for a long time.
Soak a cork in water for a day or two and see.
A better plan is to cut a piece of broadcloth the
size of the foot, baste on it half an inch thickness
of curled hair, wear it inside the stocking,
the hair touching the sole; remove at night and
place it before the fire to dry until morning.
The hair titilates the skin, thereby warming
it some and conducts the dampness to the cloth
Scrupulous cleanliness of feet and stocking
with hair soles, are the best means known to
of keeping the feet warm when they are [?]
cold from decided ill health. A tight show will
keep the seat as cold as ice, when a loose fitting
one will allow them to be comfortably warm.
A loose woollen sock over a loose shoe will
maintain more warmth than the thickest sole
tight fitting boot. Never start on a journey
in winter, nor any other time, with a new shoe.
766

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

The Olympian Games.
These notes festivals of antiquity were celebrated
every fourth year, at Olympia, on the
banks of the river Alpheus, near Elis, in Western
Greece. They began about the year 776
B. C., and appear to have continued long after
the Christian era. They were largely attended
from all parts of the country, from the Grecian
colonies abroad, and even from foreign lands.
None but Greeks, however, were suffered to participate
in the games, and females were at first
excluded from the grounds, on penalty of death;
but it seems that women were subsequently
admitted, and even became competitors in some
of the exercises. The games consisted of horse
and foot races, leaping, throwing, boxing, and
wrestling. In the two last named contests, the
combatants were wholly naked. The length of
the races was at first by 38 rods, afterwards
twice that distance, and finally much farther.
There were also contests in poetry and music
at the Olympian festivals. The prizes awarded
to the victors at first consisted simply of a garland
of wild olive, plucked from a sacred grove
in the vicinity. Palm leaves were placed in the
hands of the conquerors, and their names, and
the contests in which they had come off victorious,
were proclaimed by a herald. Great
honors,
however, awaited the victors on their return
home from the games- triumphal entries,
public feasts, odes, &c.- the Athenians also
bestowing a large sum of money on their fortunate
sons, and the Spartans placing theirs in
the foremost rank in battle. In some instances,
even altars and sacrifices were decreed to
the victors, but their fellow citizens. The grandest
temple and statue of Jupiter, in all Greece,
was in the sacred grove at Olympia- the state
being of colossal proportions, composed of gold
and ivory, and wrought by PHIDIAS, the greatest
artist of his time. 767

[From the St. Louis News.]
A TURKISH BATH.
Some attempts have been made to introduce into
St. Louis what is known "in the Orient," and in
some portions of Europe, as the "Turkish bath."
But these attempts have been indifferent copies of
the original. Bathing is in season at all seasons,
whether hot or cold ; and bathing after the fashion
of the Osmanlis ought to be always in season. For,
as its effects have been rightly described, it is the
laying down of half the troubles of existence ; it is a 
regeneration into a new life- a thorough inspiration
and reinvigoration. It brings ease to the body, and
calm to the spirit ; it revives the weary ; cheers the
sorrowful ; pours balm around the pain-racked limb ;
elates and comforts the heaviest hearts ; gives a man,
in a word, a new lease of his life, with all its abundance
of strength, all its sensuous pleasures, all its
golden dreams.
A description of one of these baths as they have
been naturalized across the water, is not without its
interest to all men who want to be cleanly, and
would essay the best means of driving off the blues :
When you enter you are requested to take off your
boots, and are furnished with a pair of slippers- a
precaution necessary to keep the matted floor of the
salon, or "cooling room" perfectly clean. You are
conducted to a dressing room, where you divest yourself
of your clothes, and an apron is handed to you,
which you straightaway gird about your loins; then
a sheet, with which you drape yourself, and straightaway
you are conducted down stairs to the bat.
Your conductors are, like yourself, dressed in an
apron. They are stalwart fellows, and look as if
they never had been dressed in their lives; for
"they are naked and are not ashamed." These lead
you into the bath, which is a somber chamber, lit
with colored windows, and admitting what the French
call mi-jour; it is well ventilated, and the air is quite
dry, but the temperature is 130 degrees of Fahrenheit.
As you enter you lay aside the sheet, and
when you have been seated some seconds, every part
of your skin begins to cover itself with a profuse
perspiration. At first, breathing is a little oppressed;
but that wears off rapidly, and in a short
time you respire with perfect freedom.
Presently you are aware that you are in a bath of
your own making. In drops, in streams, in rivers,
it runs over you ; your hair is full of it; your face is
bathed ; your limbs are inundated. The even millions
of pores said to be in the human body are busily
engaged in freeing themselves from the bonds of a
long, unconscious imprisonment. In fact, you are
in the most profuse perspiration you ever experienced
in your life. What was the ten-mile walk on the
August day to this? What the gallop over the downs,
or the spurt to Iffley, or even the training walk under
heaven knows how many pea-jackets? All these
made the shirt stick to your back; but this would
soak a whole week's washing of shirts. 768
And so you sit quietly communing with yousrself
on these matters until one of the bath-men tells you
that it is time to you into the hot room. The hot
room ! Why, you have been sitting for half an hour
in a temperature of 130 degress, and now you are to
go into the hot room ! Great is the power of human
endurance' your body is now seasoned, and you walk
into a room where the temperature is 170 degrees,
without feeling in any way oppressed. And now
the streams pour out afresh. All around is dry, but
you are like Gideon's fleece. The heat is great, but
you do not care for it. The seven millions of pores
are now all free, and are rejoicing in their freedom.
You thought yourself a cleanly person, because you
have taken a sponge-bath every morning all your
life and an occasional warm dip. Clean ! why, you
were filthy. So at least the bath men prove to you
presently, for they take you back to the former room ;
they extend you upon a slab ; they knead your muscles
and your flesh and then they roll of you such
a mask of dead skin, [?] oldermis, that, but for
the evidence of your sense, you never could have
believed had once belong to you. However cleanly
you may have fancied yourself to be, that is what
the Turkish bath will take from you, not only on your
first visit, but every week after. The sensation of 
relief which follows this disincumbrance is amazing.
But what follows is the crowning joy of all. The
Tritons, having shampooed you, lead you into a cool
room ; they anoint you with soap, and turn upon you
a shower of cold water, following it up with a douche.
Oh, the enjoyment, the delicious enjoyment of that
sensation ! There is no pleasure of the senses to compare
with it. The reaction calls the blood back to
the surface, and your new polished skin glows with
health and vitality. Your court the cool water and
embrace it : you revel in it, and cannot have too
much of it ; the Tritons have some difficulty in leading
you forth, and, sheeted once more, you again
ascend to the "cooling room," where, lying on a
couch, your expose your body to the fresh and cooling
air, giving it as much oxygen as you can in exchange
for the carbon of which you have been purified.
In this stage of the proceedings a good cigar
is not to be despised. After this you quite Paradise;
you resume your clothes, the consequences and
memorials of our degradation, and you walk forth a
regenerated man. [*768 A*]
What a difference between yourself as you walked
in and yourself as you walked out of this magic
palace? You almost doubt whether you have not
changed your limbs, or those of some one else, leaving
the weary old ones behind, and taking some of a
superior construction, brand new, muscular, untiring.
You could walk twenty miles without wearying those
well-oiled joints. You could fly if you had wings.""To sedentary persons, violent, sudden, and fitful
exercise is always injurious, and such are gymnastic
performances.
"The exercise of the student should be regular,
gentle, deliberate, always stopping short of felt
fatigue.
"On hour's joyous walk with a cheerful friend,
in street, or field, or woodland, will never fail to
do a greater and more unmixed good, than double
the time in the most scientifically conducted gymnasium
in the world.
"There are individual cases where the gymnasium
is of the most undeniable benefit, but the masses
would be better for having nothing to do with
them.
"A million times better recipe than the gymnasium
for sedentary persons is:
"Eat moderately and regularly, of plain, nourishing
food, well prepared. Spend two or three hours
every day in the open air, regardless of all weathers,
in moderate untiring activities.
Elsewhere "the Journal of Health teaches that "to
derive the highest benefit from exercise as a means of
health, it should be in the open air, moderate, continuous, 
and having an object in view, beside that
of the mere exercise itself, which shall be agreeable,
interesting, and encouragingly remunerative in a
pecuniary point of view.
"That, if gymnasiums are founded, they should always
be under the immediate direction, control and
supervision of those who are thoroughly versed in
anatomy and physiology, not merely theoretically,
but practically.'i
These positions will scarcely be dissented from by
educated physicians, or by any person who has that
kind of common sense which is derived from extended
practical observation. Your correspondents,
in their strictures on the sentiments of the Journal of
Health, deal somewhat in personalities and epithets;
that is, their taste and strength; but it would have
been of more importance to have stated how and why
muscular exercise promotes health; for it would have
enabled the thoughtful reader to form a more correct
opinion as to the philosophy of physical culture
than anything the writer has yet seen on the subject
in the newspapers; they are anatomical and physiological 
facts, received the world over, and need no
proof.
No two important organs of the body can be called
into energetic action at the same time without injury
to both, because one organ in high functional action
attracts the nervous and sanguinous fluids from the
other organs of the system, and any attempt to change
the direction of the current suddenly is always injurious.
Hence the ill results to man and beast of
active exercise or working, immediately before or
after a meal. For the same reason, violent exercise
immediately before or after severe study is always,
and under all circumstances, pernicious to the organ
of the brain and to the muscular organs. [*769*]
Nourishment, repair, growth, strength, all are derived
from the blood. If the flow of blood is cut off
from any part of the body, that part begins to die on
the instant. A steady natural flow of pure blood to
a part keeps it in a living, healthful condition. If
the flow is increased, but still steady, there is a proportional
increase in the vigor of that part. If the
supply of blood is very rapid, the ultimate globules
or cells are deposited more rapidly than steady nature
can receive them, and they are lost or broken,
and are passed out of the system as waste, represented
in the destruction of glassware in a burning building
when there are more persons to hand it out than
there are to receive it.
Every one knows that exercise of the body increases
the circulation of the blood. The violent
exercises in gymnasiums, as almost, if not universally
conducted hitherto, produces a violent flow of
blood, of nutrient particles to the various muscles
which are brought into most active exercise, and
being carried thither faster than they can be taken
up, unmixed harm is the result. Hence the life-long
disablements and even deaths, which have resulted
from gymnastic performances and other violent exercises;
as of the little girl, not long ago reported,
who died in consequence of her ambition to skip a
rope a certain number of times without stopping; 
of racehorses dying on the track; and minor forms
of injuries, down to the feeling of soreness of the
whole body the day after some unnusual exercise;
and with which almost every one is familiar.
Thus it is that the sudden, violent, fitful, exhaustive
exercises of ordinary gymnasiums are unwise,
hurtful, dangerous; and to derive from muscular exertion
a high degree of health and manly vigor, it
should be moderate, continuous, regular, in the open
air, and should be pleasantly remunerative beyond
the mere benefits of the exercise itself. None of
these conditions are fulfilled in gymnasiums as
generlly conducted hitherto. Physical culture is not
objected to, but the manner of it.
The impression is sought to be made in Wednesday's
World that clergymen, for want of physical culture,
are particularly distinguishable by their want of
healthful appearance. But it is an undeniable fact
that clergymen, as a class, live longer in this country
than mechanics or common laborers. Of 120 clergymen
who died in the United States in 1855, two-thirds
had their ages recorded; of these, one-half had
passed seventy years.
Of 2,500 Presbyterian clergymen who were living
in 1858, 31 died within the year following, making
their "death rate" twelve and a half, or one-sixth
lower than the most favored people known on earth
as to health. So that if it be assumed as a fact that
clergymen take less muscular exercise than others,
the whole argument of your correspondent, in connection
with the two items above, is a perfect non
sequitur. The editor of the Journal of Health does
"look well after the sanitary interests of the clergy,"
it was for their benefit and that of theological students
that it was originated, not as a means of "conciliating
them," but of inducing them to perform
more work and for a longer time, because "the harvest
is great, and the laborers are few," and the
more ought they to be taken care of; and it is a sufficient
reason for their care, that they are men of high
acquirements and culture; are the leaders and the
workers also in the most efficient enterprises for the
elevation of the human family, and yet as a class,
do not receive an annual average compensation for
their services, equal to thot of a New-York butcher
or draymen. EDITOR OF JOURNAL OF HEALTHr
[*769A*]

Dr. WYNNE of New-York, gave a lecture on Friday
evening at the Smithsonian Institution, on "The Effect
of Occupation on the Duration of Human Life."
This lecture was the first on a series which will be
given by Dr. W. on the subject stated, and embraced
a number of facts of great value, bearing upon different
pursuits. The series promises to be both interesting
and instructive. In the lecture of last evening
he showed by extensive observations, made in this
country as well as in Europe, the sickness and mortality 
increased in rapid progression with the advance
[*778 Feb. '58*]
of years, in a ratio which was fixed and
determined and furnished the basis of large mon-
monetary transactions in insurance upon lives
and health. He examined the statistics of the
Odd-Fellow's Order int his country, which he denominated
a great society based upon the principle of
health assurance, and predicted its speedy dissolution
unless it should reorganize the basis upon which its
benefits are conferred. He deprecated the slight attention
paid to philanthropic subjects by our legislators
and urged that the foundations upon which benevolent
societies rested were of an importance
which yielded to none other in a legislative point of
view. The ablest statesmen of other countries had
greatly distinguished themselves by their efforts in
this department of legislation, and the time would
soon come when our own statesmen would be called
upon to devote more attention to these subjects.
Dr. WYNNE also gave a lecture at the Smithsonian
this evening, in continuation of the subject treated by
him on Friday evening last. He stated that notwithstanding
the great difference in the chances of health
and life in various pursuits, yet not more than one
person in fifty ever selected an occupation on account
of its healthy character, and few abandoned
their pursuits from that cause. The agriculturist
freed from the insalubrities of town life and its harassing
cares, of all classes of those who were compelled 
to labor, enjoyed the greatest length of life,
and yet our census returns showed a strong and
growing desire on the part of our people to abandon
this healthy pursuit for those which are usually prosecuted
in town. Could the tiller of the soil realize
that, by abandoning his pursuit, he was inevitably
shortening his life by one-third of its entire length,
he thought he would hesitate before making the
change. The various mechanical pursuits, as the
butcher or the baker, were treated, their peculiarities
noticed and chances of life exhibited. In conclusion,
he thought we had reason to rejoice that so much
larger a portion of our people were engaged in agriculture
than in other countries. The lecture was
attended by a large audience, who listened with such
interest. [*779*] S.

ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE DIET.—If there exists
a considerable diversity of opinion on the subject
of rice and potatoes, so does there exist also
a considerable diversity as to butcher meat.
Among the middle classes of society, among the
traders, and lawyers, and other professional men,
there is too great an exertion of the brain, with too
little exercise of the muscular powers. The result
is generally a want of vigorous health. This is
one cause of the success of the various experiments
on diet by many men, who seek merely their
own case, and not a reputation for invention. I
have had several friends who have tried the effect
of abstaining from meat; in only one instance that
I remember, has the practice been continued, and
in all the others I have been told that a want of
vigor and of powers of work was soon felt. It seems
to be acknowledged that vegetables furnish the
same elements of fuel and of fibrine that are obtained
[*780*]
from flesh, but it is clear that we obtain a
far larger quantity of nutriment by eating a certain
weight of meat than by eating the same
weight of vegetables. If a man leads a quiet life,
he may find time to swallow a sufficient quantity
of bread, or even of potatoes, to supply the muscular
waste that takes place. But if a man has to
task his bodily powers to the utmost, he must take
his food in the concentrated form of flesh, qualifying 
it, of course, with a mixture of vegetable.
Let the vegetarians go among the navies, and try
if those brawny fellows can get through their herculean
tasks on a diet without meat; let them go
to the trainers, and see if these people can turn
out a prize-fighter or a pedestrian on such a regimen.
I have read of a man who was trained o[?]
gin as his drink, but I never heard of one who wa[?]
brought up to his task on vegetables.—Sargant [?]
Economy of the Laboring Classes. [*781*]

A LONG SWIM.—The Hawaiian Advertiser
says, that on the 10th of August, a schooner, plying
between the islands, with eight natives and three foreigners
on board, upset. The natives picked up the
foreigners, put them on the bottom of the vessel, and
then started to swim to the nearest land, fifteen miles
distant. They swam during the remainder of that
night, through the following day and night, and on 
Thursday, six out of the eight landed on Nihau, an
old man and a stripling having proved unequal to the
task. [*782*]

DEATH OF AN OLD INDIAN.—At San Buenaventura, on
the 26th of September last, an Indian died named Placido,
aged 137 years. The mission of San Buenaventura was
founded eighty-four years ago. The Indian worked
at that time for the mission as a blacksmith. Three
years ago Placido, being deaf and blind, danced and leaped
at a fandango with the aid of two sticks. [*783*][*Bronchia – the smaller ramifications
of the windpipe*]
BRONCHITIS—CHRONIC BRONCHITIS. 359
instances, the local remedies being generally sufficient to
remove or mitigate any symptoms which may occur. The
state of the bowels should be carefully attended to, and the
died must be strictly regulated. Throughout the treatment it
must be borne in mind that the debility is real, not the result
of oppression of the nervous power, but a depression of
strength. For the treatment of the local complications, see
the several diseases themselves. 
BRONCHITIS.
SPECIES.—1. Acute; 2. Chronic; 3. BRonchitis, vel catarrhus,
senilis.
ACUTE BRONCHITIS.
SYMPTOMS.—The general symptoms are those of catarrh in
its most severe form, or they are those of common continued
fever. The symptoms referable to the chest are oppression
and sense of constriction, rarely attended with actual pain
within the chest, but often combined with muscular pains,
which are a part of the original catarrh, or the consequence
of the effort of coughing: the pain is not increased by a deep
and slow inspiration. There is dyspnœa, increased by exertion
and cough, attended with expectoration, which is scanty
at first, then more copious, of a white, glairy appearance, resembling
white of egg; in still more advanced stages, it is
muco-purulent or purulent, and sometimes tinged with blood.
The symptoms are generally more severe toward evening,
when there is an increase of feverish symptoms. In favorable
cases, the severity of the symptoms abates between the
fourth and eighth day; the dyspnœa subsides, the expectoration
gives more relief, the febrile symptoms disappear, and
the patient recovers, or the disease passes into the chronic
form. Acute bronchitis often occurs in children: its most
severe and urgent form has received the name of suffocative
catarrh.
CHRONIC BRONCHITIS.
SYMPTOMS.—Is the sequela of the acute form, or commences
as a common cold in the young and middle aged, and
continues a month or two. In the middle aged, or old persons,
it returns every winter with increased severity, and reappears 
for several years in succession, in which case it is
called winter cough. When the mucous membrane secretes
freely, and the breathing is difficult, the disease is called humoral
asthma. The expectoration may be copious or sparing,
and of all characters, even purulent; being sometimes inodorous,
at others extremely fetid. It varies in color and
[*Bronchus – the upper part of the windpipe
– Bronchi - two tubes [are in] forking from
the trachea, and carrying air into
the lungs.*]
773

CATARRH. 357
flammation of one or other of the mucous membranes. If
confined to the mucous membrane of the eyes and nostrils, it
is called coryza, or cold in the head; if it extend to the bronchial
tubes, it is termed bronchitis; if it attack the mucous
membrane of the bladder, it becomes a catarrhus vesicæ. Sometimes
the inflammation, instead of attacking the mucous membrane
of the air passages, affects that of the alimentary canal,
and is attended with sickness and diarrhœa, or with both together,
assuming the form of gastritis, enteritis, or gastroenteritis 
mucosa. Its essential characters, therefore, are an
increased secretion of mucus from the lining membrane of the
nose, fauces, bronchi, intestinal canal or bladder, attended with
pyrexia.
SYMPTOMS.—Slight rigors followed by pyrexia; weight and
pain in the head; oppression of the chest, and impeded respiration;
sense of fullness and stopping up of the nose; watery,
inflamed eyes; cold shiverings, succeeded by transient flushes
of heat; soreness of the fauces and trachea; herpetic eruptions
on the lips; cough; pains about the chest; rheumatic
pains in the back, neck, and head; increased secretion of mucus
from the mucous membrane of the nose, fauces, bronchi,
&c. It may be acute or chronic: when it assumes the chronic
form, the symptoms are those of inflammation of the mucous
membrane originally affected. As this is most frequently the
mucous membrane of the air passages, catarrhus and bronchitis
are frequently employed as synonymous terms. The
term catarrh is here used to designate a febrile affection, complicated 
with inflammation of one or other of the mucous
membranes; those inflammations being afterward treated as
separate diseases.
CAUSES—Remote.—Cold applied to the body; contagion?
PROGNOSIS.—It is seldom attended with immediate danger,
but often lays the foundation for serious diseases.
TREATMENT—Indication.—To reduce the existing fever and
allay irritation.
If the fever run high, the best remedy is tartar-emetic in
nauseating doses and at short intervals, with cooling drinks
and saline purgatives; but where the fever is inconsiderable,
or the cold stage still continues, an opposite plan of treatment
will be equally effectual, and the above indication may be fulfilled
by ten grains of Dover's powder given over night, followed 
by the pediluvium, a basin of warm gruel, and a hot
bed. By these means a profuse perspiration is excited, which
effectually removes the febrile action. The Dover's powder
may be followed up next morning by a brisk aperient. A
large draught of cold water will often effectually remove a
common cold. The treatment of the accompanying inflamma-
772

DISEASES OF THE BRONCHIAL TUBES AND AIR
CELLS.
CATARRHUS . . . . . . . . . Catarrh.
CATARRHUS EPIDEMICUS . . . . Influenza
BRONCHITIS . . . . . . . . . Bronchitis.
ASTHMA . . . . . . . . . . Asthma.
PERTUSSIS . . . . . . . . . Hooping-cough.
EMPHYSEMA . . . . . . . . . Emphysema.
CATARRHUS—CATARRH.
Acute catarrh, or what is commonly called "a cold," is a
febrile affection, complicated in the majority of cases with in-
771

To present A
[The] Case of [Specimen] the Condition
of Perfect Health.
[*THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS*]
770all, corner of South 2d and Fourth S
iving Taxes from 9 A. M., till 2 P. M.
City of Williamsbu
185
VALUATION. CITY.

SYNONYMS.—Crowing inspiration, child crowing, spasmodic
asthma of children.
SYMPTOMS.—The principal feature of the disease is a remarkable
crowing inspiration, unattended by cough, coming
on suddenly, and often on first waking from sleep. For a
short time the child makes ineffectual efforts to inspire air,
and struggles violently, but at length the difficulty is overcome,
and the breath is drawn in with a loud crowing sound. If the
impediment is less complete, the respiration is hurried and laborious,
each inspiration being attended by the peculiar crowing
sound; the face becomes livid, the eyes staring and suffused,
convulsions supervene, the thumbs are clinched in the
hands, the fingers and toes are flexed, and the joints of the

[*herpes – herpetic*]
[*cutaneous eruption – little pimples – 
– creeping*]
358 INFLUENZA.
tion must vary with the mucous membrane affected. If the
symptoms are those of coryza in the severe form, relief may
be obtained by holding the head over the steam of hot water,
or bathing the eyes repeatedly with warm water. For the
remedies appropriate to the other inflammations, see the diseases
themselves.
CATARRHUS EPIDEMICUS—INFLUENZA.
SYMPTOMS.—Rigors, lassitude, weariness, severe pains in
the head, back, and loins, followed by flushing, feeling of
weight in the head and oppression at the chest, redness and
suffusion of the eyes, sneezing and tingling at the nose, with
an acrid discharge from the nostrils, herpetic eruption on the
lips, redness and soreness of the fauces and tonsils, a frequent
short cough, with expectoration, at first of a thick, viscid mucus,
afterward of opaque, muco-purulent, or purulent matter.
The pulse is small and frequent at the commencement of the
disorder, and toward the decline often becomes slow, and
sometimes irregular. There are loss of appetite, nausea, or
vomiting, a furred tongue, the urine scanty and turbid, the
skin at first hot and dry, afterward covered with profuse perspiration.
With these symptoms there is extreme prostration
of strength, loss of energy, and depression of spirits. Sometimes
there is extreme debility without accompanying local
symptoms.
TERMINATIONS AND COMPLICATIONS.—Bronchitis, pneumonia,
pleuritis; inflammation of the brain or its membranes;
muscular and articular rheumatism; cynanche tonsillaris;
diarrhœa and dysentery; skin disease; erysipelas, typhus.
CAUSES.—The disease is epidemic, and dependent upon some
peculiar condition of the atmosphere.
DIAGNOSIS.—From common Catarrh, by the greater prevalence
of the complaint, and by the extreme debility which attends
and follows it. From common Ephemeral Fever, by the
extreme prostration, and, in many cases, by the herpetic eruption
on the lips.
In the recent epidemics, 1844-45, several cases of influenza
have assumed a well-marked remittent character, with exacerbations
on alternate days. The herpetic eruption on the lips
has served to show the real nature of the malady.—(G.)
PROGNOSIS.—Rarely fatal to the young and robust, unless it
be complicated with very severe local affections; dangerous
to the feeble and aged.
TREATMENT.—In mild cases, that of catarrh; in severe
ones, and in aged persons, stimulants, combined with opiates,
and local treatment appropriate to the existing complication.
General blood-letting is contra-indicated, except in very rare
[*Fauces – back part of 
the mouth*]

360 CATARRHUS SENILIS.
consistence. In severe cases there is dyspnœa or orthopnœa,
and great pulmonic congestion. The pulse is commonly
small and feeble, and there is often great prostration of
strength, in which case the secretion of the lungs is expectorated
with difficulty, and the patient may die suffocated.
The sufferings of the patient are often increased by flatulence.
CATARRHUS SENILIS.
SYMPTOMS.—This, as the name implies, is a disease of advanced
age. Its symptoms are dyspnœa, wheezing, cough, 
orthopnœa, abundant mucous expectoration, drowsiness, extreme
debility, cold extremities. The patient expires slowly
and without suffering, suffocated by the accumulated mucus
which he has no longer strength to expectorate. It generally
occurs in more than one winter in succession before it proves
fatal.
ANATOMICAL CHARACTERS.—Redness of the tracheal or
bronchial mucous membrane to a greater or less extent. This
redness is observed most commonly at the termination of the
trachea, and in the first divisions of the bronchi. There may
be purulent expectoration though the mucous membrane appears
perfectly healthy.
PHYSICAL SIGNS.—Sound on percussion clear, or slightly
duller than natural. Sonorous and sibilant rhonchi in the first
stage, followed by the mucous and submucous rhonchi. These
sounds are often heard without applying the ear to the chest.
The death rattles are caused by an accumulation of mucus in
the bronchial tubes.
EFFECTS OF BRONCHITIS.—The effects of chronic bronchitis
are partial or extensive dilatation of one or several bronchial
tubes, evidenced by bronchophony; or, where the dilatation
is partial and of considerable extent, by pectoriloquy. These
sounds are heard either over the site of the larger bronchial
tubes, or in parts of the chest in which such tubes do not
exist.
Another effect of bronchitis is emphysema. The disease
may also become converted into pneumonia. Diseases of the
heart may follow the long continuance of bronchitis. Dyspepsia
is a common accompaniment of the chronic form of the
disease. Ascites and anasarca supervene in the last stage
of bronchitis.
TREATMENT—Of acute Bronchitis.—In very acute attacks,
occurring in persons previously in strong health, general
blood-letting, followed by tartar-emetic in nauseating doses,
may be necessary. When the disease is less severe and the
general health is unimpaired, local depletion, followed bySPASMODIC ASTHMA. 365
tion of emphysema, pulmonary congestion and hæmorrhage,
dilatation and hypertrophy of the heart, &c.
TREATMENT—Indications.—I. To relieve the patient's sufferings
during the fit. II. To improve the general health, and
give tone to the system during the intervals.
I. When the fit has actually commenced, some relief may
be afforded by counter-irritants to the chest, epigastrium, and
extremities; by antispasmodics, as æther, opium, belladonna,
asafœtida, and valerian; and by strong coffee. This latter
remedy has been strongly recommended by Pringle and Laennec.
When the patient is aware of the approach of a fit, he
may sometimes ward it off by an emetic, or by smoking stramonium
or tobacco. Dashing cold water over the face and
body will often succeed in preventing a paroxysm. Electricity
has been used with the same view. The ascertained causes
of the fit must of course be carefully avoided.
II. The state of the digestive organs demands peculiar attention:
the diet should be light, wholesome, and easy of digestion;
all substances which encourage flatulence should be 
avoided. The state of the bowels must be carefully attended
to. For the improvement of the general health, the shower
bath or cold spunging, followed by frictions of the chest,
should be employed every morning, and tonics should be administered
in full doses. The preparations of iron, zinc, silver, 
or bismuth, are the best. Where much flatulence is
present, alum in combination with ginger may be given with
advantage. If there is tenderness in any part of the spine,
leeches may be applied, or the tartar-emetic ointment, or both.
When the spasm of the bronchial tubes is combined with
congestion of the mucous membrane, or increased secretion,
the treatment must be varied accordingly. Depletion or
counter-irritation must be employed with antispasmodic remedies. 
The same strict attention to the diet, to the state of
the bowels, and to the general health, will be required in
every form of asthma.
Spasmodic asthma is sometimes confounded with a totally
different disease, which has its seat in the external muscles,
and is closely allied to chorea and hysteria. It is characterized
by extraordinary frequency of the respiration, and by the
perfectly healthy sound of the chest and breathing. It is
sometimes also a marked symptom of paralysis agitans, the
muscles of respiration partaking of the affection of the other
muscles. A remarkable case of spasmodic asthma occurred
in a female aged twenty-two, who came under my notice
some years back as a patient of the Surrey Dispensary. The
paroxysms, which were of variable duration, were characterized
by extreme frequency of breathing, with comparatively
776

CONGESTIVE ASTHMA. 363
TREATMENT—Indications.—I. To shorten the paroxysms
and relieve urgent symptoms. II. To prevent the recurrence
of the fits, by removing the predisposing and exciting causes.
I. The first indication may be fulfilled by an emetic at the
onset of the attack, but this is inadmissible where there is
great debility. In strong and healthy persons, full doses of
tartar-emetic, of ipecacuanha, or the lobelia inflata, in the form
of tincture, in doses of from twenty to thirty drops, may be
given with great advantage. In the debilitated, stimulants are
required, such as strong coffee, ammonia, or æther. These
may be combined with opium in moderate doses. Heat applied
to the extremities, or to the entire surface, by means of
the warm or vapor bath, is extremely serviceable, but should
be applied at the onset of the attack. Where the fit has already
lasted some time, and the expectoration is abundant,
provided that at the same time there are no very severe or
dangerous symptoms, it is best to leave the patient to himself,
as the increased secretion is the best relief to the breathing.
II. The exciting causes must be carefully avoided, the general
health must be preserved, and the state of the digestive
organs be carefully attended to. The bowels should be kept
free, but hypercatharsis must be avoided; liquids should be
taken in moderation; the diet should consist of a due mixture
of animal and vegetable flood, but acescent fruits and such
vegetables as occasion flatulence should be taken sparingly.
I have found alum, in combination with ginger, very serviceable
in removing the distressing flatulence which often
precedes and accompanies the fit. Ten grains of the one,
with five grains of the other, and three or four grains of rhubarb,
may be given three or four times a day. I have also
more than once met with tenderness on pressure in the cervical
and dorsal regions, and have used tartar-emetic ointment
with much benefit.—(G.)
CONGESTIVE ASTHMA.
This resembles the foregoing variety in coming on in paroxysms
of severe dyspnœa, but differs from it in the scanty expectoration
which accompanies the cough, and terminates the
fit. The physical signs are those belonging to a swollen state
of the mucous membrane of the air tubes, viz., clear sound on
percussion, indistinct respiratory murmur, with sibilant rhonchi,
or a peculiar click, and, in limited portions of the chest,
the mucous rhonchi.
ANATOMICAL CHARACTERS.—A deep red or violet color of
the mucous membrane of the air tubes, with scanty mucous
secretion.
[*cervical – (of the neck)*]
[*dorsal – (of the back)*]
775

[*THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS*]

ASTHMA. 361
counter-irritants to the chest, will be required, and the compound
squill pill, alone or in combination with extract of conium,
given three or four times a day. When the cough
comes on in fits, a lozenge containing a sixth of a grain of
extract of stramonium often proves serviceable.
In the chronic form of bronchitis the treatment must be nearly
the same as in the milder form of the acute disease, except
that local depletion will rarely be required, unless in case of
severe exacerbations. The compound squill pill is here an
excellent remedy, and it may be advantageously combined
with Dover's powder, or the extract of conium. When there
is a considerable collection of mucus in the air tubes, an
emetic may be given early in the morning, or twice in the
week. The chest and body should be kept warm, and the
chest itself may be protected by a full-sized emplastrum roborans.
In Bronchitis Senilis.—When the debility is extreme, and
in all cases of bronchitis senilis, the appropriate remedy is a
combination of stimulants and narcotics. One of the best
consists of five grains of sesquicarbonate of ammonia, with
five minims of laudanum in an ounce of mistura camphoræ.
In extreme cases, still stronger stimulants are required.
When dropsical effusions supervene, stimulants, diuretics,
and expectorants are indicated. In the bronchitis of children,
emetics are very serviceable by promoting expectoration.
REMEDIES—In chronic Bronchitis.—Oil of turpentine, balsam
of copaiba, lobelia inflata, colchicum, and the inhalation of
chlorine, iodine, or tar vapor.
It is important that those who are subject to bronchitis, or
who labor under it in the chronic form, should avoid all unnecessary
exposure to cold. This is more especially necessary
in the bronchitis of old people, which is greatly aggravated
by exposure to cold. The rooms which they inhabit
should, therefore, be kept warm, and as nearly as possible of
a uniform temperature; the chest and extremities should be
carefully protected from cold; and they should avoid exposing
themselves to cold air. If obliged to leave their rooms during
the winter, they should use a respirator, or, what answers
nearly as well, a folded handkerchief held before the mouth.
In many cases, exposure to cold air gives temporary relief,
but the symptoms return with renewed severity when the circulation 
is restored by the warmth of the room.
ASTHMA.
CHARACTER.—Dyspnœa occurring in paroxysms, with intervals
of freedom of respiration.
SPECIES.—1. Humoral asthma, bronchorrhœa, or bronchial
Q
774362 HUMORAL ASTHMA.
flux; 2. Congestive asthma, or dry catarrh; 3. Spasmodic
asthma.
HUMORAL ASTHMA.
SYMPTOMS.—The attack is usually preceded by a sense of
fullness about the stomach, lassitude, depression of spirits,
drowsiness, and pain in the head. On the approach of evening,
a sense of tightness is perceived across the breast, with
distressing difficulty of respiration. The difficulty of breathing
continues to increase for some length of time; both inspiration
and expiration are performed slowly, and with a
wheezing noise; the speech becomes difficult and uneasy;
cough succeeds, followed by the most anxious difficulty of
breathing; the patient is threatened with immediate suffocation,
and is obliged instantly to rise from the horizontal position;
the face is sometimes turgid, and of a livid hue; at
others is morbidly pale and contracted. These symptoms
usually continue till toward the approach of morning, when
a copious expectoration of a thin frothy mucus comes on, the
breathing becomes less laborious and more full, the patient
speaks and coughs with greater ease, and feeling every way
relieved, soon falls asleep. The dyspnœa and tightness across
the chest remain for some days after the attack, and for several
succeeding evenings an exacerbation occurs similar to
that above described.
ANATOMICAL CHARACTERS.—Not constant. The mucous
membrane is generally free from disease; but some affection
of the heart, particularly of the right side, is not uncommon.
Miliary tubercles, and extensive disease of the bronchial
glands, have been met with in fatal cases.
PHYSICAL SIGNS.—Sound on percussion generally good, but
in extreme cases dull. Sonorous and sibilous rhonchi at the
commencement of the attack, followed by the mucous, submucous,
and subcrepitant rhonchi. Some degree of wheezing
and sibilus usually remains after the attack.
CAUSES—Predisposing.—Hereditary peculiarity; lax habit
of body; long-continued dyspepsia; gout.
Exciting.—Sudden changes of temperature; disorders of the
primæ viæ, especially flatulence; certain effluvia, as of hay or
ipecacuanha.
DIAGNOSIS.—The pathgnomonic symptoms are, paroxysms
generally coming on at night in which there is frequent and
extremely anxious respiration; together with a wheezing
noise, and sense of tightness across the chest.
PROGNOSIS—Favorable.—Youth and unimpaired constitution,
and the absence of organic disease. Unfavorable.—Repeated
attacks; old age; debility; organic disease.

364 SPASMODIC ASTHMA.
CAUSES.—Dyspepsia, exposure to wet and cold, and organic
disease of the heart, leading to obstructed circulation.
PROGNOSIS.—Generally favorable, except where the disease
is of long standing, or complicated with other functional or
organic derangements.
TREATMENT.—Dry cupping and counter-irritation to the
chest, expectorants, as squills, ipecacuanha, or colchicum in
combination with alkalies, the inhalation of steam holding
some stimulant in solution, such as tar vapor or ammonia.
Smoking stramonium is sometimes found advantageous.
Strict attention must be paid to the state of the digestive organs,
the bowels must be kept free by aloetic purgatives, and
the general health must be carefully attended to.
SPASMODIC ASTHMA.
This term is applied to dyspnœa occurring in paroxysms,
unaccompanied by signs of congestion or inflammation of the
bronchial tubes, and presumed to depend on a spasmodic action
of the muscular fibres of the air-tubes.
SYMPTOMS.—Sudden and extreme dyspnœa; a feeling of
constriction in the chest, as if a cord were bound tightly
round it; the countenance suffused, and expressive of intense
anxiety and distress; the superficial veins distended; the
skin covered with a profuse perspiration. The body is bent
forward, the arms resting on the knees, the shoulders are
raised, the abdomen contracted, and all the muscles of respiration
are thrown into violent action.
PHYSICAL SIGNS.—Sound on percussion less clear than usual,
respiratory murmur very faint, and occasionally accompanied
with slight wheezing or whistling. If the patient is desired
to hold his breath for a few seconds, or to count until
the air in the chest is exhausted, and then to inspire slowly
and steadily, the air will be found to enter as usual. The
respiratory murmur soon becomes feeble again. The distinctive 
physical sign, then, of spasmodic asthma, is imperfect
respiratory murmur, except after holding the breath, when
it becomes loud as, or even louder than, usual.—(Williams.)
CAUSES—Predisposing.—The same as in other spasmodic
diseases; hereditary peculiarity; hysteria. Exciting.—Attacks
of dyspepsia; extreme flatulence; irritation of the upper
part of the spinal cord; pressure of tumors on the pulmonary
plexus or on the par vagum; peculiar odors, as of hay,
the smell of a stable, of ipecacuanha, &c.
PROGNOSIS.—Favorable in the absence of complications.
It is dangerous when combined with other diseases of the
lungs, or with those of the heart. It often lays the founda-
[*dyspnœa – (difficult breathing)*]

366 HOOPING-COUGH.
little general disturbance of health, and perfect freedom of
respiration. There was amenorrhœa, some tenderness of the
upper part of the spine, and constipation. The disease was
cured by purgatives judiciously and perseveringly administered.
No other remedy was employed. Hypercatharsis was
invariably followed by a paroxysm. I have recently seen a
case of the same kind in which there were 140 respirations to
144 pulses. In this case much benefit was derived from cold
affusion.—(G.)
PERTUSSIS—HOOPING-COUGH.
SYMPTOMS.—The disease comes on with slight difficulty of
breathing, thirst, quick pulse, hoarseness, cough, and all the
symptoms of common catarrh. In the second or in the third
week after the attack, it assumes its peculiar and characteristic
symptoms. The expiratory motions, peculiar to coughing, are
made with more rapidity and violence than usual; and after
several of these expirations thus convulsively made, a sudden
and full inspiration succeeds, accompanied by a peculiar hoop,
from which the disease has obtained its name. When the
sonorous inspiration has happened, the convulsive coughing
is again renewed, and continues in the same manner as before,
till a quantity of mucus is thrown up from the lungs, or the
contents of the stomach are evacuated by vomiting, which generally
terminates the fit; the patient has then most frequently
an interval of perfect freedom from cough, and often expresses
a desire for food; but when the attack has been severe, it is
succeeded by much fatigue, hurried respiration, and generally
by languor and debility. After a longer or shorter continuance
of the disease, the paroxysms become less severe, and at
length entirely cease. In some instances, however, it has
been protracted for several months, and even for a year.
CAUSES.—Children are most commonly the subject of the
disease; and it is supposed to depend on a specific contagion;
at first it is a nervous disorder, but may be followed by pulmonary
or cerebral congestion, or inflammation.
DIAGNOSIS.—It is distinguished from every other disease by
the convulsive cough, followed by the peculiar sonorous inspiration
above described; and by its terminating in vomiting
or free expectoration.
PROGNOSIS—Favorable.—Moderate and free expectoration;
the strength little impaired; the fits neither frequent nor violent;
in the interval, the respiration free; the appetite good;
the absence of fever; moderate hæmorrhage from the nose.
Unfavorable.—The disease occurring in children under two
years of age; in children born of phthisical or asthmatic parents;
much fever, with symptoms of pneumonia: very copi-Between the ages of 35 and 80
may be the perfection [and happiness
of] [*and reglization of*] mortal life; rising
above the previous periods
in all that makes [one] [*a person*]
better, healthier, happier,
more commanding, more beloved,
and more a realizer of love.
The mind matured, the senses
in full activity, the digestion
even, the voice firm, [are]
the walk untired, the
arms and chest [*sincing, and*] imposing,
the hip-joints flexible,
the hands capable of [all] [*many*]
things, — the complexion and
blood pure, the breath sweet
the procreative power [perfect] [*ever-ready*]
[*in man, the womb-power in woman —*]
the inward organs all sweetly
performing their offices; — [all] [*—[???] those years*] the
universe presents its riches, its
strength, its beauty, to the [e?]
parts of a man, a woman, — Than
the body is [*817*] [realized] [*ripe*], and the soul als[?]
and all the shows of nature [*are attained*], and the pr[?????]
of thought in b[????]
[*THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS*]

performance of the legs—
walking, running, leaping,
supporting, &c.— The legs
have a great deal to do
even with the accomplishment
of the work of
[*the whole of*] the other parts of the
body, and give grace
and impetus to it.—
Walking, perfect
walking, in man or
woman, is a rare accomplishment,
[and] more
rare than fine dancing,
and [it is] more desirable
than the finest dancing.—
Who ever sees a woman
walk perfectly?— Who
ever sees a man?—
[*815*]
[*THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS*]

The persistent exercise
for developing and strengthening
them, of the lower
legs, and of the ankles
and feet — No example is yet seen, (not in 
modern times hereabout
at any rate,) of the
power of endurance and
[*814*]
[*THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS*][BANKABLE MONEY ONLY RECEIVED.
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9 A. M., till 2 P. M.
f Williamsburgh, Dr,
on the following Lot
TION. CITY. COUNTY. DEFAULT. TOTAL.

ERVE THIS BILL.] [BANKABLE MONEY ONLY RECEIVED.
Collector's Office, City Hall, corner of South 2d and Fourth Streets.
Hours for Receiving Taxes from 9 A. M., till 2 P. M.
To City of Williamsburgh, Dr,
City and County Tax for the year 185 on the following Lot
ESSED NO. LOCATION. VALUATION. CITY. COUNTY. DEFAULT. TOTAL.

PLEASE PRESERVE THIS BILL.] [BANKABLE MONEY ONL[Y]
Collector's Office, City Hall, corner of South 2d and Fourth Streets.
Office Hours from 9 A. M. till 2 P. M. daily—Wednesday and Saturday Evenings between 7 and 9 o'clock.
M
To City of Williamsburgh, Dr
To City and County Tax for the Year 185 on the following Lot
WARD. ASSESSED NO. LOCATION VALUATION. CITY. COUNTY. DEFAULTEMPHYSEMA. 367
ous or scanty expectoration; great debility; convulsions, or
coma.
TREATMENT—Indications.—I. To keep up a constant state
of nausea, so that the fit may be more promptly finished by
vomiting. II. To reduce existing inflammation of the lungs.
These two indications may be perfectly fulfilled in a large
majority of cases by the same remedy, viz., tartar-emetic in
doses sufficiently large to keep up a constant state of nausea.
From a twelfth to a sixth of a grain, according to the age of
the patient, may be given at short intervals, either alone, or
in combination with a grain of hydrargyrum c. cretâ. The
bowels must, at the same time, be kept free by gentle aperients,
the diet must consist of bland farinaceous substances, and the
patient must be carefully guarded from cold, and kept in a pure
warm air. No other remedies are required; but when there
is extreme restlessness, and the fits are accompanied by great
distress, the tartar-emetic may be combined with opium, or
the antimonial wine with laudanum. Half an ounce of antimonial
wine with a drachm of laudanum, and distilled water
in sufficient quantity to make a mixture of [?]iss., will form a
very good combination. The dose may be a tea-spoonful
once, twice, or thrice daily. When the expectoration is
brought up with difficulty, an emetic should be given once,
twice, or thrice a week.
If there are signs of inflammation in the lungs, the tartar-emetic
must be continued in increased doses; one or more
leeches may be applied to the chest (the most convenient place
is the upper bone of the sternum), followed, if necessary, by
counter-irritants, hot water, or mustard poultices to the extremities; 
and, in fact, the treatment appropriate to pneumonia.
If there is determination of blood to the head, leeches
to the temples and cold applications. When the severity of
the disease has passed away, change of air is the best restorative.
Existing debility must be treated by tonics, of which
the best are the preparations of steel.
REMEDIES.—The nauseating remedies, as tartar-emetic, and
ipecacuanha, with or without laudanum, tincture or extract of
hyoscyamus, sirup of poppies, extract of lettuce, &c.; [russic
acid, belladonna, digitalis, musk, camphor, cochineal, oil of
amber, cantharides. Counter-irritants.
EMPHYSEMA.
SYMPTOMS.—Permanent shortness of breath, increased to
extreme dyspnœa by occasional exciting causes, as exercise,
flatulence, or a common cold; and, in extreme cases, by assuming 
the horizontal posture. Fits of dyspnœa coming on
suddenly in the night, and obliging the patient to sit up, and
777

the disease is fairly established, and during the stage of congestion,
crepitant rhonchus; in the stage of hepatization, ab-
[and bronch-]368     EMPHYSEMA.

to open the doors and windows of his room for air. These
fits are accompanied by severe palpitations of the heart, blueness
of the face and lips, edema, and dropsical effusions.
There is usually some cough, with scanty expectoration, which 
varies in character, consisting in most cases of a thin mucus, 
mixed with small tenacious clots, and filled with air-bubbles.
The expectoration is increased by a supervening attack of
bronchitis. The general aspect of the body undergoes a 
change by the long continuance of the malady; the countenance
becomes pale, the body is emaciated, and the legs and
abdomen swell.
   PHYSICAL SIGNS. - Peculiarly clear sound on percussion, 
with indistinct respiratory murmur; to which is sometimes
added a dry crepitous rhonchus, with occasional loud clicking
sound, or a friction sound, similar to that of a finger rubbed on
a table. When there are complications, the physical signs of
such complications are superadded. In marked cases, the 
chest is enlarged and rounded in all directions. when the 
emphysema is confined to one lunch, or to a part of one lung, 
the chest is irregularly enlarged. The respiratory movements 
are indistinct, and the respiration is abdominal.
   ANATOMICAL CHARACTERS. - Enlargement of the air cells, or 
rupture of the air cells into each other, or into the subserous
cellular membrane (interlobular emphysema). The lungs increased
in volume.
   PROGNOSIS. - The disease is not fatal in itself, but dangerous 
by laying the foundation for other diseases.
   THREATMENT. - I. During the paroxysms. II. During the intervals.
   I. During the Paroxysms. - The fits may be greatly relieved
by a combination of opium and diffusible stimulants. From
20 drops to 3ss. of laudanum, with from half a drachm to a 
drachm of spirits of sulphuric ether, may be administered at
the onset of the fit. The shoulders should be well raised, the
doors and windows should be thrown open, at the same time 
that the body, and especially the lower extremities, are kept
warm. In extreme cases, cupping between the shoulders, or 
the cautious abstraction of blood from the arm by a small orifice,
may become necessary. When the patient has reason
to apprehend an attack, an emetic, by emptying the stomach
and removing the existing flatulence, may prevent the paroxysm.
  II. During the Intervals. - The disease does not admit of
cure. The treatment is partly that of the complications which
may exist with it, and partly consists in a few simple precautions,
such as the avoidance of colds by warm clothing and 
dry feet, the daily use of cold spunging or the shower bath,
regular and moderate meals, aloetic aperients, liquids in small
quantity, and the avoidance of the causes of flatulence. if 
flatulence exists, a combination of alum, rhubarb, and ginger
(ten grains of the first, three of the second, and five of the
third), taken twice or thrice a day, or a dinner pill, containing
the same or similar ingredients, taken daily an hour before
dinner.    777AWhat boxers require to attain by training, is increase
of strength, activity, wind, and power to support continued
exertion and punishment or what is well known by the
word "bottom." The consciousness of possessing these
qualities inspires confidence, and also imparts courage.
A question here naturally suggests itself, whether men,
who are so liable as pugilists to be called upon for the
exhibition of great exertion, ought not invariably to adhere
to training, at least in a modified degree? We should
unhesitatingly say they ought. A man suddenly put on
the training system is like a colt taken up to be broken
in. We study his temper, and by degrees accustom him
to his altered situation. Training, when compared to the
freedom of ordinary life, is privation; for it consists in a
course of exercise and regimen particularly adapted for
the purpose of gaining additional strength, in order to
enable us to undertake and accomplish some unusual
feat, as boxing, walking, running, &c., for a prize. It
was known to the ancients, who paid considerable attention
to the means of augmenting corporeal vigor and
activity, and accordingly among the Greeks and Romans,
certain rules of diet were prescribed to those who contended
for honors in the public arena. Though not knowing
in detail the diet in use among the Greeks previously
to the solemn contests at the public games, we are assured
that the strictest temperance, sobriety, and regularity in
living were observed. Candidates at the time were subjected
to daily exercise in the gymnasium for ten months,
which, with the prescribed regimen, constituted the preparatory
course of training adopted by the athleœ and 
wrestlers of ancient Greece. We may here observe that
training was less necessary among the Greeks and Romans
than with us, because, being military nations, their youth
were continually undergoing the severest exercise. Gibbon,
the historian, says, that when the Roman troops
were encamped, they were, veterans and all, daily exercised
as though they were raw recruits, and that their
exercising weapons were twice as heavy as those with
which they actually fought. One of the greatest taunts
to a Roman youth was to say to him, "You cannot swim."
The privation of traning suddenly enforced would be
likely to affect the boxer's mind, his feelings, or his love
of pleasure; for, if his whole mind does not go along
with his bodily endeavors, vain will be the trainer's care.
"Gently does it," is the phrase of the most skilful of our
horse-breakers at first going out; and it applies the more
forcibly to man, in the ratio that he possesses more reasoning
powers than the horse. The greater its viciousness,
the more gentle must be the first steps towards breaking
it in; if the boxer have given way to abasing debaucheries,
his repugnance to training severely will be greater,
and less likely to answer the end proposed, than if the
new course of living he is about to commence be but a
continuation or modification of his former mode of life.
[*784*]
Let the mind be consulted from the first minute; let
the trainer talk of nothing but how the victory is to be
obtained, and show his man how; lead the soul along,
and the body must follow; yet guard him against blind
confidence, and tell him of his faults.
A good portion of judgment, then, in the trainer, in
discovering and manging his man's temper, is necessary
to conducting the important business of training rightly;
and the qualifications of the trainer himself well deserve
a moment's consideration in this place. He should be
intelligent and firm in his manner, divested of prejudices
and devoid of vulgar notions on the use (abuse) of medicines;
and be open to instruction, and willingly obedient
to the rules laid down for his guidance, with power to
enforce them. That he is faithful we presume to hope;
the backer, or his agents or friends must bring into play
all their arts to discover this vital fact—this leading
move upon the board, around which all the subsequent
play is to centre—their bets, stakes, and laying on and
hedging off, all rest upon this main point of faithfulness
in the trainer. He may even be tempted by some unknown
agent to swerve from his duty, if he is not known
to be attached to the well-doing of his man by some
motive more binding than mere payment comes to; indeed,
he should be placed above a bribe, or be himself so
closely watched in his movements as to render clear the
detection of his unfaithfulness, if any. We blush and
feel sorrow whilst we allude to this point which might
render nugatory all our labors. The trainer's part is no
bed of roses; he must be vigilant night and day; must
never quit his man, and his example must accord with
his precepts, being equally abstemious with the man he is
training, or nearly so. He must report progress with
veracity to his backers, his employers, for if he be found
falsifying even in trivial matters, he will not be trusted
when he tells truth of importance.
The trainer must proceed, during the first days of his
labor, to find out if his man be ever thoughtful, wanting
of confidence or despairing of victory; and must remove
such obstacles to good training by inspiring contrary
notions. If the pugilist neglects any of the rules, sets
them at naught, or runs counter to the plans laid down;
if he be peevish at the watchfulness of his trainer, and
would be out of sight more than a minute at a time, takes
ill the severest part of the sparring, grunts in his sleep,
breathes hard and with difficulty, or, worse than all,
[*785*]
groans in the night—training will have proceeded but
uselessly for such a man; his better part is concerned in
each of these indications, and if he does not "train off"
he will at least "show sallow," or with skin of various
hues, or one part redder than another. He must then
lose his battle. The loins, the ribs, the pit of the stomach
should exhibit the same hue, viz., greater paleness than
that he showed before training, and if with a tint of red,
the more vigor will be found in his system.
Of course the trainer would be the last person to irritate
his man, either by harsh treatment, or by permitting improprieties
tending that way; he will, therefore, reduce
imperceptibly the quantity of indulgences which may
have been habitual to him. Spirits, porter, gross feeding,
stimulants, tobacco, onions, pepper, and sexual intercourse
must vanish, and be no more heard of within and
after the first week; let a choleric disposition be smoothed
down, suavity be taught, and none but pleasant thoughts,
fine walks, and cheerfulness prevail during all this time.

Meanwhile, let the skin be well cleansed of its impurities
by washing (in-doors) in soapy water, the entire body;
getting rid of the first water by repetitions of that which
is clean, since soap (or at least the potass used in making
it) contracts the membraneous part of the system. But
the long adhering dirt and grease of perspiration can be
got rid of by no other means unless by a soapy sort of
earth, found at the edge of some rivers. Coarse linen
cloths only must be used in rubbing down the body, and
used briskley, until a glow of warmth is felt, particularly
in winter time, and cool and damp weather. A brisk
walk should follow each washing, and a brisk rubbing of
the body nearly all over with dry cloths follow each
sweating, if produced by the walk. Washing of the body
and feet is to be practised every night, though less often
might do in winter; but the cold bath (in-doors or sheltered)
may be employed daily in summer to advantage,
taking a short walk before going in, and remaining in but
a short space at any one time. Neither body washing,
bathing, rubbing, nor walking, so as to produce perspiration,
is to take place the day a man is physicked, at least
not until the effects of the purgative have entirely passed
away.
Physicing requires great attention, and it has generally
been practised on wrong principles, drastic or griping
medicines have been commonly resorted to, and these
repeated, to a certain extent, upon every man alike.
Cases may occur where no physic whatever will be proper;
namely, when the man trained is already in a low state,
[*786*]
and requires at the commencement feeding and training
upwards, and also when his body is in that open and
relaxed state that the administering of the usual physic
(salts) would be sure to "train off" such a subject. In
general, however, men when matched to fight are found
to be of full habits, flushed countenance, somewhat scorbutic, 
and a full pulse, sanguine, and usually slow, until
nature has received one of those fillips which stimulate
but to destroy. Sir Thomas Parkins, an ancient trainer
of wrestlers, used to say exultingly, "Give me your man
of scurvical habit, before a rheumatic one, who is in general
a milksop or tea-drinker; there we have blood and
strength to work upon;" and he was right in the main, 
though our system of training at the present day tends
principally to subdue every appearance of that sort upon
the surface. So much is this the case that the condition
of the men is invariably estimated by the state of the skin
on stripping. Indeed our men, for the most part, strip as
fair as women, which is brought about by the system of
training to be laid down; the perspiration, and the rubbing,
and subdued manner of living, throwing off or absorbing
those numerous little scorbutic eruptions and pustules,
in which hair is engendered.
This absorption and throwing off is best brought about
by perspiration, procured in the first place by walking
exercise, with good rubbing down, emptying the bowels,
and keeping them open. If, notwithstanding all this
reducing of the system, the person trained retain all his
passions to the full, with quick action of the pulse, this is
a sign of irritation—if he feel repugnance at washing the
body, it is a sign of great excitability and of inflammation,
and tells forcibly, and he must be pled and purged
well, though he may and ought already to have taken
one dose of a brisk cathartic. Dull, heavy eyes, with a
great disposition to sleep, starting in his sleep, or pricking
of the skin, demand that he should be blooded; opening
physic should ever follow bleeding.
Sweating, profusely, for two or three days and nights
early in the second week, should be regulated by circumstances
of more or less bodily strength (hardness of
constitution), and by the quantity of loose flesh and inside
fat. The latter is ascertained by his being soon
"blown" at running; in sparring, the man's loose meat
may be perceived shaking on his sides, breasts, &c.: if it
lie about the chops it is seen he is blubber-headed, and
his head must be sweated particularly. As this course
will reduce his strength, he cannot extend his exercises
far while this is going on without inconvenience, yet is
[*787*]
not this circumstance to be considered a bad symptom.
Warm clothing and possets procure these sweats by night,
with the help of walking hard or running by day. He
must be ever rubbed down after the runs, and his body-clothes
changed often in a close shut-up chamber; it is
the trunk more than the limbs that requires this kind of
attention. If he shiver from within at any time the forcing
sweats must be discontinued; it is the sign of wanting
stamina, or that the reducing part of the process has been
carried full far enough. The degree or quantity of reduction
a man may bear without harm may also be ascertained.
[*788*]
With regard to losing weight, if the loss be gradual,
the evacuations should continue until the man is sufficiently
reduced; but if the loss be rapid, as from 9lb. to 4lb., 
and from 4lb. to 2lb., each successive day, the reducing
must cease, as on the contrary, the system requires instant
bracing up. Vomiting may be used when the stomach
is foul, and to get rid of crudities which are not cleared
away by purging. It must be resorted to when the
pugilist feels nausea, has a hot fetid breath, or his tongue
furred and white of a morning. This preliminary plan
is necessary to clear the stomach and bowels of all obstructing
and unwholesome substances, and to bring the
organs of digestion into a healthy state; for if it be not
done, the subsequent food and exercise will be thrown
away, and the person will never gain in strength. Though
the ancients and modern began training by freely giving
an emetic, the propriety of emetics at all in training is
very questionable. The best form of an emetic is one
grain of tartar emetic and twenty grains of ipecacuanha,
worked off by warm camomile tea. This cleansing exterior
and interior is absolutely necessary, previous to
the adoption of a regular course of living and exercise,
which is the best calculated to improve a man's stamina;
and though, as a general rule, it ought to cease at the
end of the second week or commencement of the third,
yet, under peculiar circumstances, opening medicine will
be found necessary long afterwards. Its necessity will
be ascertained by the bad state of the digestion, which
may be produced by feeding too fast, by accidental

[*THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS*]

debauch, and port wine has on many men the effect of
producing constipation of the bowels, which must be
gently removed by administering mercury in a mild
shape, such as from three to five grains of the blue-pill
over night, worked off next night by a mild infusion of
senna. As a rule, the person trained should produce one
stool a day, of somewhat firm consistence, and of a clear
yellow color. If it be of a dark brown color it is a proof
that the party is troubled with bile, and requires more
physic. If the belly gets hard to the touch, or a short
cough comes on after running, the blue-pill is the remedy.
EXERCISE.
From the first moment the trainer should begin his exercises,
unless his man be lately come out of a debauch
of spiritous liquors, or is weak from recent disease,
privation, or the sexual intercourse. Should be take a
long walk, or run a hundred yards, with inconvenience,
coughing, or pain in his side, the hams, or back, the
trainer should seize this opportunity of operating upon
his understanding by insisting that those obstacles shall
vanish by strict attention to his instruction and example; 
and, indeed, so important is this species of inculcation,
that in default of his man complaining of pain
anywhere, or of being evidently blown, inquires should
be made on those points, or the man be exercised hard
until he do give in. That part of his system which is so
first affected, while his body is yet unemptied, may be
noted as the weakest point about him; and that part,
wherever situate, should ever undergo rubbing with the
hand, or a rough cloth, or a horsehair glove of a morning,
and first receive attention whenever the person is
rubbed down. This species of rubbing, or friction, has
been found a highly serviceable kind of treatment in all
cases of rheumatic affections, or pains in the limbs; and
should be followed assiduously by the careful trainer,
who should show his employers early indications of a fine
skin—that just criterion of condition in man and horse.
In fact, it is through the skin chiefly that the loose fat is
to be evacuated which hangs about the kidneys and intestines,
about the ribs, the heart, and the skirt; and as
the man will perspire more freely and copiously when
the bowels are full than after they have been emptied, on
account of the connection between them and the skin, if
he be sweated in the first instance, he will, through the
pores of the skin, lose that fat which would be carried
away by purging. The pugilist should be properly
sweated; and if his nature resist exercise and food, medicine
should be administered, such as the Dover powders,
or tartar emetic. The "hot liquor," recommended by
Captain Barclay, to sweat pedestrians, should not be administered
to pugilists.
[*789*] TO BE CONTINUED.
EXERCISE. [*790*]
WE cannot too strongly insist on the necessity of reducing
all appearance of corpulence by perspiration.
This end cannot be well attained without a strict attention
to dress. In order to increase perspiration, Mr.
Jackson, a practical authority, recommends an extra
quantity of clothes, particularly during morning exercise.
Running is to be performed in a flannel dress, but exercise
by walking in a man's ordinary clothes. The young
are recommended by the same training authority to
wear calico next the skin, but for older men flannel is
preferable. Those who are trained for running are put
between feather beds and loaded with clothes, to increase
perspiration, but this is not done in training the boxer.
With respect to bed-clothes, let us remark that they
should be light, in order that the person may not be
heated whilst asleep, which is extremely weakening. It
is also important that there be no curtains to the bed,
or at least that they be kept closely tied up during the
night. Nothing is more prejudicial to strengthening and
healthful sleep than close curtains. The increase of
strength or weakness, though much influenced by what is
taken into the stomach, and by its powers of digestion,
yet a great deal depends on the management of the skin;
and unless that be attended to there is every risk that
your training will go for nothing. The stomach and
bowels may be in healthful order, your wind may be
sound, your lungs play freely, and yet may your skin, by
improper management, soon throw the whole into disorder.
Recollect for a moment, that nearly two-thirds of
all that you eat and drink, passes off by the skin, and
you will at once see the importance of keeping its pores
open, and taking care not to stop or impede the free
passage of perspiration. The subject is so extensive that
a volume may be written upon it, but we must content
ourselves here with a few practical remarks upon it as
applicable to training. In order to keep the pores of the
skin free to admit the escape of perspiration, it is indispensable
that your man be kept clean in skin, and that
it be purged of all the greasy scurf which naturally collects
upon its surface. We should therefore recommend
that the whole body be carefully washed, at least once a
week, taking care to let this be done as speedily as possible,
to prevent the bad effects of cold. Water somewhat
warm is the best for cleansing the skin thoroughly; and
to prevent its opening the pores too much it ought to be
instantly followed up b a second wash of the coldest
water that can be procured, or a plunge into the cold
bath. The cold bath is recommended by Mr. Jackson to
be used three times a week, and he very properly prefers
sea bathing to fresh water bathing. But when it is inconvenient
to go to the seaside, a quantity of salt thrown
into the cold bath will render it better. The use of the
salt is to smart and stimulate the skin and consequently
to open its pores. The shorter time a person remains i[?]
the bath the better. Friction in training was better understood
by ancient than by modern trainers. In training
race horses, indeed, it is much better understood, and
more practised than in the more important training of
men. On the principles laid down we say, that if you
rub the skin till it glow, you will stimulate the pores into
healthy action, and also draw to the part rubbed a great
quantity of blood, as you will see by the increased redness
of the parts. Now, all the perspiration must come from
the blood; and consequently if you both open the pores
of the skin and bring thither a greater determination of
blood, you will to a certainty increase perspiration, and
of course reduce your fat, and improve your wind. The
only friction mentioned by Jackson is performed afterhard exercise, and particularly after the morning run, 
when he recommends the skin to be rubbed dry, and immediately
clothed, one limb after another.  We should 
advise the daily use of the flesh-brush or horsehair glove
for about a quarter of an hour, morning and evening. 
Nothing acts more powerfully on the wind, and on the
process of digestion.    
791 
Early hours, in respect to training, are marked by
daylight and dark night only---the dial having nothing
to do with these at any time of the year.  Night-fall 
should send the trainer and his man in doors, and if it be
summer time, to bed;  let dawn of day and the clarion of
chanticleer call him forth, if he be not already abroad, 
as he would no doubt desire to be, in case of sultry nights 
and a clear sky.  Damp atmosphere and chilling winds
must be guarded against, and instead of running abroad
when they prevail, let the pair spar at home, grind the
meal, rub down a horse, play at nine pins, leap-frog, or
any manly exercise, other than riding, swinging, dancing. 
With these precautions, the walk to the bath may 
be followed by a trot after it. i. e. the extreme pace of toe 
and heel for a mile; then a rest, as long as one might eat
a dry biscuit, or stale crust, and then a run home to
breakfast, increasing in quickness daily, and perhaps in
the length of the whole excursion also, up to three or
four miles. 
His first repast being finished in ten or fifteen minutes, 
he will have more time for the rubbing down which is to 
follow or precede it, according as the perspiration may 
subside a little, after breakfast being the preferable time 
for this operation and the change of linen, by throwing
off the night-shirt and its load of impurities.  In half-an-hour
he will be ready for the morning walk, and wish for
it, too, provided he has been reduced sufficiently by the
profuse sweats.  While jogging along the conversation 
should be of the pleasant sort;  viz., concerning the coming
battle, his former encounters---how battles are won
and lost, and so on.  All at once, or by preconcert, a mile
run, at nearly top speed, is to be knocked up;  next day, 
two, and soon after three miles may be done;  then the
bare suggestion of the propriety of being at home to meet
the patron, or some friend, with whom to have some
agreeable chat or play, will bring back the trainer and
the trained to head-quarters.  As the latter cools he will 
require suction of some sort, but in moderation.  If thirst 
becomes at any time troublesome, as it often does during
ta course of training, the speediest way of allaying it is, 
not to supply liquid, but to prevent its expenditure, and
to sooth the glands of the mouth, &c., which crave supply. 
Economists well know that "to save is to gain."
On this principle, then, by applying cold water to the
skin, you stop the pores and diminish perspiration;  even 
dipping the hands in cold water has an instantaneous
effect in quenching thirst.  Great draughts of liquor are
justly considered injurious, for they only deluge the
stomach without assuaging thirst, which is more effectually
accomplished by taking liquids in mouthfuls only. 
At no time, by day or night, should a trainer omit to 
to spar with his man, whenever occasion imposes on them 
the necessity of keeping within doors, particularly during
very bad weather, and of winter evenings.  On such occasions
and soon after meals, however lightly they may
then play with each other, the heaviest combat of the
day is to take place about noon, or one o'clock;  indeed, 
as nearly as possible, at the precise hour at which the 
real fight is likely to take place, and the sham fight
should resemble in earnestness and duration the forthcoming
encounter.  Combining the peculiar tactics of his 
man's opponent, his mannerism, language, accent, and
vulgarism, the trainer in sparring must endeavor to imitate
them all.  The sparring should continue at this hour 
of the day for an hour at shortest, including a bout or
two after dinner is announced as ready.  Dinner being
dispatched, the man should not be allowed to remain in 
a sitting posture for more than an hour, and the whole
time of his rest should be limited to two hours;  sitting
any any other sort of rest occupying less time in winter
than in summer;  because in one case, it is desirable that
this part of the day should wane while the pair are sheltered
from the scorching sun;  in the other, that they 
should take advantage of its presence to conclude the
day in the open air.  At night, nothing should be eaten 
after the last exercise, and very little drank.  Going to
792  [*- 793*] 
bed need not be protracted;  it should be gone about
pleasantly, and take place in an airy chamber with chimney, 
but without curtains of any sort;  on a hard bed
with coarse linen, and not too much---for he wants no
forced sweats at this stage of his training.  Enough of 
clothes, however, should be at hand, to put on upon an
emergency---as change of weather, &c.  When the night 
is fine and open, the window should, in like manner, be
opened wider than usual;  for that is a vulgar error which 
maintains that the night air is unwholesome at any time, 
the danger lying mostly in the manner of exposing to its
influence the vulnerable parts of the body---as the throat, 
chest, &c.  But much of the management of his trainer
in this respect must depend upon the former habits of his 
man;  if he has been stove-bred in the populous purlieus
of a large town, he may find the rare air of the country 
overpower the compass of his lungs---if let in upon him 
at once;  be he a country-bred one, a cottager or laborer, 
the trainer must not hesitate as to the free admission of
air.  On windy nights a different course must be pursued;
and when the winds arise after the going to bed, a contrivance
may be adopted by which to arouse the party
concerned;  an ill-hung window, or flapping casement are
among the most obvious means of accomplishing this end. 
When the trainer turns out of a morning, as well as on 
going to bed, he must watch the breathings of his man. 
If the air be confined and the chamber hot, his respiration
will seem difficult, each inspiration scarcely perceptible, 
each expiration quick and troubled.  Then let the trainer
open the window to a good extent, and in two or three 
minutes the beneficial effects thereof on the sleeping subject
will be visible, in the full inflation of his lungs, in a 
sort of tasting and smacking of the lips, and a sleepy
thankfulness for the boon conferred.  He will stretch out
his legs and arms, the breathing will now be carried out
by the nostrils, and each inspiration and expiration be co-equal. 
A cold or standing sweat which might hitherto be 
felt upon the face, by placing the back of the hand there 
will subside, and be replaced by a genial heat.  Let your 

794 
man slumber half-an-hour while inhaling this new supply
of health. 
Medicines necessary for training are few and simple, 
  se of a drastic or griping nature should be avoided. 
  dicines are generally relied upon too much, and administered
with an ignorant zeal that does harm.  For a
very young man who is not over fat, simply opening the
bowels once is fully sufficient to prepare him for the acquisition 
of strength, by regular living, air, and exercise. 
From the drastic nature of the medicines usually administered
by trainers, the body becomes greatly agitated, 
and recovers slowly form the internal commotion produced
by them.  Aloes and salts are the only variety of
purgatives employed by them, and these they prescribe
without regard to the temperament of the person so
treated.  Doubtless, if a man be of a cool habit, a couple 
of Scott's pills (Inglis's), given at night, will empty the
stomach and chief canal of the body;  if he be of a hot 
and sanguine temperament (and it is three to one but the
is), the administering an ounce of salts in the morning 
will achieve the same end---and little fault is to be found 
with either kind of the doctor-trainer.  But it not unfrequently
happens that the drastic nature of these medicines
occasions the gut called the colon to protrude, particularly
with elderly persons, which, if not repressed by
force, produces the disorder called piles, or at least a 
disposition towards contracting that disagreeable affection 
during life.  Besides the evil just noticed, the repetition 
of those tow medicines fails to operate as at first.  To
avoid those disadvantages, let the person requiring simply
opening medicine take, at going to bed, a small blue
pill*, about the size of a gray pea,---this will produce one
stool;  take the pill a little larger and two or more
stools may come, proportioned to the quantity of offensive
matter that lurks in the bowels.  In those other
cases where a thorough cleansing is required, a small blue
pill taken at night, and half an ounce of salts in the 
morning, will effect that end.+  Let the dose be much
diluted, and taken lukewarm.  On the day that this medicine 
is operating, it would be highly improper for the
trainer to run his man a heat as usual, though he should
move about to aid and accelerate the operation of the
physic.  Neither should  he eat of the same kind, or so
much solid food as usual, notwithstanding the fresh access
of appetite that ever follows the taking of opening 
medicine, especially in very strong and healthy persons. 
All that he takes whilst in this state is quickly converted 
into blood---the pure stream of life, and this new blood is
rapidly conveyed, and if in the contest that is to follow, 
this particular man is much battered about the upper
works, he goes off to "dorse," and loses his battle, money, 
and character.  Many a man has become deaf to time on
this account.  Tartar emetic, taken in small doses, will
excite vomiting, in larger doses it is a sudorific, or
sweater.  Dover's powders, in the quantity of ten grains, 
will sweat a little one, twelve for a stronger man, and
fifteen grains for a big one.  Emetic tartar, from one to
three grains, will cause a man to vomit, according to the 
quantity of offensive matter to be ejected;  if this be
little or none, perspiration will ensure.  Six grains of ths
incomparable medicine is a sure sweat, but no vomit; 
and will open the bowels, too, when given in a large dose 
---which latter course we would not recommend.  But the
blue pill, of the size of a pea, as aforesaid, containing 
above one and a half grains, is the proper and readiest
alterative, as it forms also a neat adjunct to salts, &c., 
rendering a lesser quantity of this drastic medicine fully
sufficient for a brisk cathartic. 
795 
Considerable error prevails among the trainers on
several points besides those before noticed, viz., the use
of the oils (of the farriers) for stiff-jointed subjects, and
the application of opodeldoc to a joint or other part 
where pain is felt.  Both are injurious;  the first-mentioned 
sadly so.  Opodeldoc being made of soap, spirits of wine, 
and camphor, is objectionable on account of the first
ingredient, which is detrimental to the cuticle or skin, and
the effect of spirits of wine upon the ligaments and
tendons is rather to contract than render them supple. 
The remedy for pained limbs, or stiff joints which arise 
from over-exercise or local weakness, is sweet oil (good 
olive oil is still better), and camphor well rubbed over
the part, or rather into it.  The chemists prepare this
embrocation by dissolving the camphor in one-eighth its
weight of spirit, and then mixing the solution with 
almond oil.  We may here add, too, without affecting
more appearance of modesty than belongs to us, that, 
after all we can say upon paper, a good deal must yet be 
left to the trainer's own judgment and experience, and
the particular care required by each individual man that
may be confided to him.  Yet will he be thankful, no
dou     for a few items of information on some minor 
poin    onnected with this great and vital (though preliminary) 
part of the momentous contest. 
In the question of victuals and drink, and the the manners 
and times of refreshing, no greater variety of opinions
and practices exist on any part of the subject now
under consideration.  And each of the augmentators may 
have been in the right with respect to the training of
certain individuals who may have been placed under his 
care.  But we deny the general application of such doctrines 
to all men.  What !  because Joe Ward's men succeeded 
after taking his "three threes,"++ or Dan Mendoza's
protege, old Dutch Sam, trained upon gin, are we, 
at this improved state of science, to allow of the like 
insane courses ?  The old adage is true---and these wise
saws are sometimes of great service---"What is one
man's meat is another man's poison."  Much, nearly all, 
depends on previous habits, and the trainer that would 
lead his man from bad to good ones, must go about his
work gently, that he may succeed more surely.  "Set out
on your journey softly, that you may come home safely;" 
or "slow and steady wins the race," two good proverbs to
be marked by all trainers in breaking in their men. 

*  The blue pill here prescribed is made upon the same principle of
strength everywhere;  but its chiefest recommendation lying in the
minuteness and care with which the particles of mineral are distributed
over the mass, that excellence is to be found in the preparation of
Apothecaries' Hall, where a machine performs the labor of mixing, at
which kind of toil the strongest arm will tire too soon.  It were best
purchased at the said hall, "in the mass," per ounce, but be careful
not to use too much at any one time. 


+  Blue pill and other preparations of mercury being apt to adhere to
the system, ought to be worked off the morning after they are taken
by a warm infusion of senna, as we have already recommended. 
++  Three doses of salts, three sweats, three vomits for three weeks, 
with victuals three-parts dressed, constituted the rationale of training
recommended and practised by the trainer of the old school. 
796

797 
OF DRINK. 
BEER has been interdicted in toto by many trainers, and
their injunction is right as far as regards London-brewed 
malt liquor.  Yet, bad as it is, we would not advise that
the man who is just taken into training should be denied 
porter altogether, though he should be cut off to one-half 
his usual quantity the first day;  and in the course of a 
fortnight, if he cannot do without, be allowed only a pint
a day, taken with his animal food (at twice), and always 
stale, bottled stout being the next best malt liquor to the
kind which alone we would recommend.  This should be 
home-brewed beer, made of hops, malt, and water, of the 
strength of three bushels to the barrel, or thereabouts, 
with hops enough to keep it six months at least;  double 
that age, however, would answer our purpose much better, 
but in no case should the beer be drunk to the ordinary quantity 
he has been in the habit of taking.  Our men should 
avoid taking the beer of two different breweries on the
same day;  for the variety of proportions and kinds of ingredients
used (if naught worse) will derange the bowels. 

WINE. 
In case a man gets such malt liquor as has been described, 
he will require but little wine.  This should be
port, drunk diluted in water that has been boiled and got
cool again.  Port wine is a main assistant in training 
upward a man who has been too much reduced.  If such
a one take his dinner of roast or boiled meats, using 
salt, and drink a glass of pure old port at two or three 
sips in the intervals of eating, he will make blood (increase
its quantity and good quality) faster than by any
other means we know of.  The sick and valetudinary cannot
adopt this method;  but as soon as they become convalescent, 
let them adopt it in a modified degree.  Let
exercise always precede and follow such a meal---up to
the pitch of strength, before dinner long, but slowly after
dinner;  he may then drink cold tea by way of diluent; 
and as he acquires strength, increase his portion of wine 
to two glasses---no more.  Neither tea nor coffee are adjunct
liquids we should recommend, though the man who
has been accustomed to them should not be entirely debarred
either, particularly after taking a solid and frugal
dinner;  but mind let each be always nearly cold.  Hot
tea or coffee is in all cases enervating.  They may stimulate
the hard-worked sedentary student or man of business; 
they are unfit for the man of active bodily occupation. 
Instead of such "catlapperies" for breakfast, let
water-gruel be taken in incipient training, for than water-gruel 
well made there is not in the whole dispensatory a
better preventive of diseases, or more able assistant in
the recovery of patients, or more certain strengthener of
man in health.  Oatmeal, and water, and salt, are the
sole ingredients of gruel;  put into it anything else, and
it ceases to be gruel.  Smoothness, thinness, and slowness 
in the preparation are indispensable requisites for
the gruel you want for your men.  At any hour of the
day or night, hot, cold, or lukewarm, at exercise or 
riding, let no man who seeks health deny himself all-potent
water-gruel---iron prince of health and strength.* 

MEATS.
The only meats that, generally speaking, need be used
in training is good beef and good mutton.  All young
meat, such as veal and lamb, all white flesh meat, whether
game or poultry, are good for nothing.  They contain no 
nourishment for the muscle.  Soups, fish, pies, puddings, 
must be left to the club-house gourmands;  they are poison 
to the boxer.  His animal food should be ramp-steaks
good ox-beef) and mutton (wether) chops, or cutlets 
rom the leg, slightly broiled;  and every particle of fat
cut away.  We here may as well observe, that the flesh
of full-grown animals is every preferable to that of young
ones, and that of those which are naturally fed---on grass, 
&c., to that of those they pamper with grease and stimulants. 

*  The subject of drink being of paramount importance, we here
quote a medical testimony (Mr. Forsyth) respecting it.  He says, 
"Medically speaking, as regards drink, we would say, that water 
would be the best liquor in training;  but it is never given alone in 
modern times, as it is thought to be a weakening diluent.  The ancient
athletae, however, were allowed nothing but water, or a sort of
thick sweet wine.  The drink preferred in modern training is good old 
malt liquor in bottles, and as mild as possible, without any perceptible
tartness or harshness.  It is occasionally taken with toast in it, but
this is optional.  Those who do not like malt liquor, particularly for 
breakfast, may have half the quantity of wine and water.  Even tea 
(not hot)  is permitted but this reluctantly, as it is not considered 
strengthening.  Bot, or even warm liquor of any kind, is reckoned
very weakening, and is never given, except warm gruel or beef tea, 
when taking physic.  Those who have been accustomed to wine, and
insist upon having it, are recommended to take red wine, in the quantity
of half a pint to dinner, but none is allowed for supper.  Mr. Jackson, 
however, is positive that if a person accustomed to wine would 
relinquish it for malt liquor, a few weeks would convince him of the
superiority of the home-brewed over the foreign stuff.  No spirits are
ever permitted, not even with water, under any pretence or consideration 
whatsoever.  We may also mention that no milk is allowed, as 
it is, particularly when strong and creamy, of a fattening and weakening
quality.  No drink is permitted before meals, unless there be distressing
thirst." 
798 
All oily messes, melted butter, and buttered toast, 
and gravies, are to be eschewed;  the meats taken directly
after physicking and purging medicines have laid open 
the lacteals, should be dressed more than ordinarily, i. e., 
until all the redness disappears;  it should then consist of 
boiled meat;  and mutton, in every case, is the best.  Of
pork eat little, bacon none.  After all is said and done, 
probably, we may add, that exercise and hard work will 
digest any food whatever;  but take this into consideration 
at the same time, that such stomachs as can achieve 
this, must have been unused to the debauches of great
towns.  Dr. Armstrong says, 
"Nothing so foreign but th' athletic man 
Can labor into blood;  the hungry meal 
Alone he fears, or aliments too thin. 
The languid stomach curses ever the pure
Delicious fat, and all the race of oil: 
For more the oily aliments relax 
Its already feeble tone." 

799 
With respect to cooking meat for training, broiling is
by far the best mode of dressing it for that purpose, as it
is a much more perfect way of preventing the escape of 
juices than even the process of roasting.  The great
staple articles, we repeat, therefore, of training, are beefsteaks 
and mutton chops and cutlets, broiled and underdone, 
with the fat all carefully cut off before they are
brought to table.  The seasoning is also of the greatest 
importance;  for by improper and high seasoning, all the
other parts of the process of training, however carefully
attended to, may be ruined.  Mustard, pepper, and all 
hot spices are prohibited, as producing a high stimulus
and consequently reducing the volume of the muscles by
absorption.  We ought not, however, to object to a little
plain mustard, if the underdone meat cannot otherwise
be relished.  Salt should be used in very small quantities, 
on account of its tendency to produce thirst.  Salt provisions
are not to be touched. 

TIME AND QUANTITY OF EATING. 
There is not a more important part of the regimen to 
be observed by a person under training, than the time of 
taking his meals, and the quantity of food he ought to
use.  In ordinary life, and more particularly in fashionable
life, this is very erroneously managed;  for nothing
is more detrimental to health than irregular hours, long
fasting between meals, and this followed by every kind of
repletion.  The trainer allow only two full and substantial 
meals in the day, namely, breakfast at eight and
dinner at two o'clock, according to Mr. Jackson;  and at 
five o'clock, according to Mr. Hall, of Yorkshire.  When 
the person cannot do without supper, a buiscuit and a
little cold meat are allowed at eight in the evening;  but
it is supposed that suppers of all kinds have an injurious
effect upon the lungs, or, as they express it, on a man's
wind.  With difference, however, to these authorities, an
early, light and nutritive supper would greatly benefit 
the trainer, and prevent the bad consequences to the
wind, of going to bed with a full stomach.  The breakfast 
is a la fourchette, that is, a meat breakfast.  Those accustomed 
to tea or coffee for breakfast, will find this one 
of the hardest rules to comply with.  The dinner also 
consists of meat.  As relates to quantity, the trainees
are allowed to eat as much as they please, and it may be
remarked that, confined as they are to one diet, with
little variety of cooking or training, there is very little
danger of their eating too much.  The stomach is very
easily satisfied with a single dish.  The ancient athletae, 
who did many very erroneous things, actually gorged 
themselves with food.  It is remarked by Mr. Jackson,
that little men eat as much as large men, and sometimes 
more;  but this depends much on constitution and habit. 
Training sharpens the appetite, and therefore more food 
will be taken after it has been for some time preserved 
in than at first.  One rule ought never to be dispensed 
with---viz., to have some evidence of the appetite, that a
previous meal is digested before taking another. 

BREAD. 
Trainers should avoid giving their men London-made
bread, which is anything but the staff of life.  Light
country-made bread, well baked, and two days old, is
what the boxer is to eat with his meat, and the trainer
should take care to have dry biscuit always at hand;  a
small bit taken as soon as the eyes open in the morning
is an excellent absorbent of the accumulated mucus of the
mouth, throat, and windpipe.  And remember, 
The opening of the eyes
Is the signal to arise. 
The potatoe is the thing which best corrects the evil
effects of London-made bread, as it also absorbs the oleaginous
parts of the animal food;  and whether our trainer 
and his men can or cannot procure country-made bread, 
they may in either case take good dry mealy potatoes
with their meats, or mashed potatoes and milk alone (on 
physic days, &c.), nor will they hereby find inconvenience
in the bowels, as to flatulency, which was so much deprecated
by the trainers of the old school.  Take no other vegetable, 
however, nor of potatoes an inordinate quantity. 
800 

EARLY RISING. 
No one can form an idea of the great
advantages of being out and about by
sunrise except those who practise it; and
few can practise it but those who retire
early.  If a man can escape to bed at ten, 
he may rise in the summer at four, five, 
or six, when the best part of the day is at
his command.  A ride, drive or walk, till
eight or nine is most delicious---the atmosphere
is fresh, and unincumbered with
smoke.  The sky is usually cloudless---
the sun shines forth fully and yet mildly 
upon us, the great heat of midday being
the result of accumulation as well as solar 
altitude and position---the breeze is fragrant
to inhale, passing playfully about
us, loaded with the odor and harmony of
the living universe. 
801 
The chirrup of the sparrow, the trill of
the lark, the blackbird's whistle and the
twittering of the many little winged flutterers, 
posses a poesy, for words difficult
to express;  the silence also from the clamor
of bustling man, or a wakeful city, 
draws froth feelings of homage, gratitude
and enjoyment, which form, ceremony, 
and set-devotion often fail to command. 
These feelings are in store, more or less, 
whether we bid the day good morrow on a 
metropolitan bridge, a suburban field, or
a country hill, but the purity and ecstacy
of the delight, increases with the distance
from town.  I could rhapsodise myself into
the belief that I was scribbling under
the influence of what I advocated, and far 


from the world of business, at the bare
thought of it, instead of being seated in a
four-walled room, with only a window
prospect of dirty-colored brick walls and
red chimney tops;  but the hours I have for
years past stolen from the drowsy morning
doze, and the continuance of such a practice
as long as I hope to command the
means, would reconcile me to live in a cellar
the rest of the day, for such a privilege. . . . . 
The morning ride or walk 
is preferable for healthy purposes to any
other part of the day.  This exercise 
strengthens the body and no less the
mind---it fortifies one against the mystifications
and drudgery of the coming day, 
and it materially lengthens life, and gives
energy and hope for the morrow.  What 
a contrast on a six o'clock summer's morning
to contemplate from the hill-top animate
and bustling nature, to the sweltering
and sleeping in a close room, covered
to the nose in sheets and quilts, night-capped
and hemmed in by drawn curtains in
a darkened chamber, resembling more a
sepulchre for the dead than an abode for
one living and sensible.  Country people
have no excuse for lying in bed. 
I am not an advocate for a man to worry
himself to death, nor to live always in
a hurry---a certain amount of rest and
sleep is indispensable.  It is ridiculous for
a man who goes to bed at one or two in
the morning, to attempt to rise at four or
five for the delight of an early stroll---it
would spoil him for the remainder of the
day.  Early rising is only compatible with
moderate and early people---great feeders
want much sleep and rest;  but although 
they gain one enjoyment of an hour in
twenty-four by stomach gluttony, they
lose many in sloth and oblivion.  When
once the habits of early rising and temperate
feeding be acquired, they will be
found so delightful that it will be a great
sacrifice to abandon them. 
802 

[seal] THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

On entering the cottage of 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.---A Year in Spain
803 

O. S. Fowler. 

804 
A VEGETABLE DIET. 
For many years benevolent individuals
have been endeavoring to make the world
believe, with Pythagoras, that abstaining
from animal food, and living on vegetables, 
was the sure mode of preserving
health and promoting longevity.  Many
individuals, accustomed to animal diet, 
have tried the experiment, but found, after
a few days, that their strength began 
to decrease, and their muscles to relax. 
Recently, in England, a whole party of
vegetable diet socialists met to pass the
day together, and compare notes.  They
then amused themselves in walking and
gymnastic exercises, until the bell rang
for dinner, when the company clustered 


round the table, which groaned beneath
pies, puddings, and a variety of fruits and
farinacea.  Not a particle of animal food
of any kind, or intoxicating drinks, was
seen on the occasion.  The secretary of
the National Institution declared his adhesion 
to the principle of abstaining from 
animal food.  Mr. Lane gave a report of
the progress of vegetarianism, and showed 
the connection existing between such 
a principle and human purity.  A German
by the name of Dornbach, who had
lived on vegetable diet for several years, 
gave his own experience, and contended 
that the greatest longevity is compatible
with abstinence form the flesh of animals. 
805 

"The temperance and abstemiousness
of most of the ancient philosophers is well
known.  Demosthenes, the great orator of
Greece, used no other drink than water. 
In modern times, we ought not to be ignorant
of the fact, 'that Sir Isaac Newton, 
when composing his celebrated treatise 
upon optics, confined himself to water and
a vegetable diet:  to this abstemious mode
of living, probably, may be ascribed the
great age, viz. eighty-five years, to which 
he attained.  John Locke, too, died in the
seventy-third year of his age;  his common
drink was water, which he justly considered 
as the cause of his life being prolonged 
to so great an age, notwithstanding the original 
feebleness of his constitution, and
the distressing disease, the asthma, under
which he laboured for many years.  To
this temperate mode of life, too, he was
probably indebted for the increase of those
intellectual powers which gave birth to his
incomparable work on the human understanding, 
his treatise on government and
education, as well as his other writings, 
which do so much honour to his memory. 
---Hosack's Address. 
"Boyle, the father of modern chemistry, 
and the liberal promoter of science in general, 
though possessed of a very delicate
constitution, attained to the age of sixty-five
years.  His drink was water.  It has 
been said of him, that 'the simplicity of
his diet, to all appearance, preserved his
life so long beyond men's expectation:  and
in this he was so regular, that in the course
of above thirty years he neither ate nor
drank to gratify the varieties of appetite, 
but merely to support nature. 
"Euler, the famous mathematician, 
who attained the advanced age of seventy-six
years, was strictly temperate.  He is 
represented as of a cheerful and always 
pleasant temper;  fond of society, and had 
the art of enlivening it by an agreeable wit. 
"Without being able to affirm that La
Place, the most original and celebrated natural 
philosopher, since the time of Newton, 
drank nothing but water, we have the
evidence of this eulogist before the French 
Institute, that he was enabled to continue
his habits of excessive application to study 
until within two years of his death, without
any inconvenience, owing to his always
using very light diet, even to abstemiousness. 
La Place died in the seventy-eighth 
year of his age."---Philad. Journal 
of Health. 
806 

CRACKED WHEAT---UNLEAVENED BREAD. 
807 
We have often spoken of the great value
of cracked wheat mush as an article
of diet in constipation, and in fact, for
all persons, whether sick or well.  Have
the best of wheat---of good, plump. well-matured
grain.  Wash it if necessary. 
Have it cracked coarsely, in a mill that
will cut rather than crush it.  The less
you have ground at a time the better, for
the fresh ground article is the best.  The
wheat should be boiled in pure soft water; 
(rain water is excellent, and if people
were half as particular in obtaining water 
as tea, coffee, tobacco, and a thou- 

sand other useless and pernicious things
to please the palate, they would always
have enough pure soft water.) Boil this
an hour at least, and two hours is still
better; for the more we cook farinaceous
food the better. Eat this one, and better,
two times a day as a regular meal,
with a very moderate portion of milk,
stewed fruit, honey, sugar or molasses.
But be very careful as to any or all of 
these condiments. If too much milk is
taken the head is oppressed, because of

{{section break}}

the stomach's too hard work; and so of
the other articles, particularly sweets.
This wheat, then, is one of the best possible
forms of food for either sick or well.
   The family of one of our patients has
experimented a good deal of late upon
making brown bread. The form that
suits them best, is that made by boiling
the cracked wheat at least for two hours.
This is then made into small cakes, with 
the use of a sufficient quantity of fine
flour to make the dough adhere properly.
The cakes are then baked without salt,
yeast, or any additional whatever, and are
much relished. It is one of the most 
foolish things in the world for a person 
to eat superfine bread, when they can 
possibly get any other.

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    HARD STUDY AND GOOD HEALTH. -- Hard study
is generally thought to be adverse to health; 
and conversely, unhealthy students are thought
or think themselves to be identical with hard
students. Paleness of countenance, nervous
weakness and headache are cultivated or affected,
because they are supposed to indicate superior
intellectual gifts. Dangerous fallacy which
has cost many a good fellow his life! No man,
or woman either, every killed himself or herself
with hard study. Not a bit of it; but many a 
lazy fellow, fond of intellectual occupation, with
physical inaction, has fallen a victim to disordered
digestion and crazed nerves, all the time
laboring under the grievous mistake that he 
was one of those favorites of the gods who die
young, because they are of too ethereal a temper
to stand the rude shock of such a miserable 
world as this. Why the world is a brave world
- worthy to be the dwelling place of the noblest
creatures God ever made. it is too good for the
simpleton who does not know how to take care
of himself; who mistakes neglect of body for
culture of mind; who goes moping and moaning
about because his breakfast sits uneasily on his
weakened stomach, thinking it to be proof that 
he is too delicate or too refined for the hardships 
of human condition. Up, man, dreamer, fool; 
go plunge into the health-giving, joy-inspiring
waves of yonder ocean, while summer lasts;
take a cold shower bath in winter. Walk long
distances, if you have the time; swing the dumb 
bells if you have not. Cold water, vigorous exercise,
hard study - these are the conditions of 
moral, mental and bodily health. All kinds of 
devils, as well as the blue devils, flee before
these mighty enchanters; even the leader of

them all the old Prince of Darkness, fears
the dumb bells, cold water, and an active brain more
than he did Martin Luther's inkstand.

{{section break}}

says, "nor do I ever find myself the worse
for writing immediately after meals; nor
is my understanding ever clearer; nor
am I apt to be drowsy; the food I take
being in too small a quantity to send up 
any fumes to the brain." After his long
experience of half a century, he says:
"O, how advantageous it is to an old man 
to eat but a little! Accordingly, I, who 
know it, eat but just enough to keep body
and soul together."

{{section break}}

THE TURN OF LIFE
   BETWEEN the years of forty and sixty, a man who has
properly regulated himself may be considered in the prime
of life. His matured strength of constitution renders him
almost impervious to the attacks of disease, and experience
has given soundness to his judgment. his mind is resolute
firm and equal; all his functions are in the highest order;
he assumes mastery over business; builds up a competence
on the foundation he has formed in early manhood, 
and passes through a period of life attended by many gratifications.
Having gone a year or two past sixty, he arrives
at a stand-still. but athwart this is a viaduct, called
the "Turn of Life," which, if crossed in safety, leads
to the valley of old age, round which the river winds, and 
then without a boat or a causeway to effect its passage.
The bridge is, however, constructed of fragile materials,
and it depends upon how it is trodden, whether it bend or 
break. Gout, apoplexy, are also in the vicinity to waylay
the traveler, and thrust him from the pass; but see
him gird up his loins and provide himself with a fitter
staff, and he may trudge in safety, with perfect composure.
To use ametaphor, "The Turn of Life" is a turn
either into a prolonged walk, or into the grave. The
system and powers having reached their utmost expansion,
now begin to close like the flowers at sunset, or
break down at once. One injudicious stimulant, a single
fatal excitement, may force it beyond its strength,
while a careful supply of props, and the withdrawal of
all that tends to force a plant, will sustain it in beauty
and vigor until night has nearly set in.

{{section break}}

LONGEVITY - IS IT THE LAW OF NATURE?
   From a Villaclara (Cuba) paper of the 6th inst.
we translate the following item: "Maria del
Buenviaje Martinez was buried in the cemetery
of this city on Sunday last. She was born Feb.
17th, 1756, and was baptized into the parochial
church of Don Manuel de J. Sardni. She was a 
few months over a hundred and one years when
she died. It is worthy of note, that she was erect
and vigorous up to the time of her last illness.
She was twice married, had children from both
relations, and left behind a large number of
descendants."
   There are many well-authenticated cases of
longevity on record, and there are many living witnesses
that the human frame was made to endure 
for upward of a century. There is now living in 
the town of Garland, Penobscot Co., Maine, a 
Congregational minister named John Sawyer, a 
native of Connecticut, who was a hundred and 
one years old last October, and is still engaged in 
the ministerial work. He settled in Bangor, Me.,
when there were only four houses in the place; he 
has seen its growth from an infant settlement to 
an opulent city.
   The writer well remembers the benevolent features
of his grandfather, who lived to the age of 
ninety-seven, and who, after he was eighty years 
old, frequently walked to our house, a distance of
four miles, and returned at night. He preferred 
walking to riding, and would often go into the
fields and assist in the duties of farming.
   On Sunday, the 15th inst., we listened to an 
able discourse preached by Rev. Dr. Lyman 
Beecher, who, Theodore Parker says, is the father
of more brains than any other man in America.
He is over eighty-two years of age, and his mind
is still vigorous.
   Until a recent date there lived a Baptist clergyman
in Herkimer Co., N. Y., named Harvey,
who was engaged in the duties of the ministry
when upward of a hundred and seven.
   There are many cases of more extraordinary longevity
upon record. Lord Bacon tells us that 
Thomas Parr, who was born in 1483, died in 1635,
at the remarkable age of a hundred and fifty-two
years; and that he died, "not from the disease or 
decay of a single organ, but from too great fullness
of blood, cased by more than usual indulgence 
in eating and drinking."
   We might further enumerate instances, but
these are quite sufficient for the purposes of this
article. They demonstrate the fact that, under
certain conditions, the life of man extends beyond
a century. It becomes an interesting and
important inquiry whether, in view of the fact
that man's life is frequently thus prolonged, the
conditions under which some enjoy exemption
from our more common destiny can be ascertained;
whether the principles underlying this result
can be discovered and applied, until the period of 
human life shall be so extended that the cases of
longevity which are now regarded as extraordinary,
shall become the general rule; whether long life

{{section break}}

is the law of nature, and sickness and early death
is the result of its violation. Dr. Buchanan assures
us, as the result of careful research upon the subject,
that the average period of life has steadily 
extended since the middle ages; and this he regards
as the result of the progress of physiological
science, and the increase of physiological education
among the people. This certainly, if true, 
which we do not doubt, would go to strengthen
this theory. If the period of life has been extended
by only a partial distribution of imperfect
physiological knowledge, it is a fair inference that
a more general dissemination of more perfect
knowledge will extend it proportionably further.
   One thing is evident - there were reasons in all
the cases cited for the long life of the persons referred
to. Nature operated upon fixed principles,
and the same rules apply to one and all alike.
Could the history of these persons be well under-

{{section break}}

stood, it would undoubtedly appear that they
started with strong constitutions, and that these
strong constitutions were not the mere result of 
accident. Their habits were probably simple - 
their hands inured to toil and their bodies to exercise.
In a word, it would be found that their
physical conditions from the first were more in
accordance with the requirements of nature's laws.
   It is found that persons with certain diseases
require certain kinds of food; it is found necessary 
to regulate the habits by the physical condition.
It only needs an application of this fact to 
show, what no intelligent person will deny, that
the condition of the body is more or less under
the control of the individual, and is to an extent
regulated by his manner of living. and this
principle still further applied leads us to the conclusion
that, with a perfect knowledge of the laws 
of life, and a perfect obedience thereto, the period
of man's existence on earth may be greatly extended;
that the physical condition of the majority 
may become in future generations as healthful
as that of the persons referred to, and thus longevity 
become the rule instead of the exception.

{{section break}}

   The first paper was by Mr. E. B. ELLIOT of Moston
upon the law of human mortality obtaining in Massachusetts.
He explained the difficulties attending the 
discovery of this law, arising from the great difference
of carefulness in the town officers. The returns
of many towns indicate extreme carelessness and inaccuracy.
Taking the best towns, i. e. those with most 
careful registers, he compared their results with the
mortality of England. England is the most healthy of
European countries, the mortality being one in forty-six;
next comes Sweden, then France, Belgium, Prussia,
Austria, and finally Russia, in which the mortality
is one in twenty-eight. According to the returns
the vitality in Massachusetts up to the age of nineteen
is much greater than in any European country.
From that age to forty the vitality in Massachusetts
is less than that of England or Prussia. from that
time to the end of life the vitality is the same in all 
three countries.
   Prof. PEIRCE stated that he has examined the mortality
of the graduates of Harvard College, and find it
agrees remarkably with Mr. Elliot's table for Massachusetts.
He also compared the mortality with the
scholarship of the graduates, and found that the best
scholars were longer lived; that is, that dissipation
and indolence killed more than hard study.
   Dr. WYNNE made some general remarks on the subject,
mentioning, among other things, that the nobility 
of England had less expectation of life than the laboring
classes. He found that Kentucky differed widely
in her law of mortality from Massachusetts. Philosophers
and men of quiet reasoning, naturalists, &c.,
are long-lived; while poets, novelists and men of excitement,
are short-lived. Dr. Wynne urged the great
pecuniary as well as moral importance of this subject,WATER-CU[R]E JOU[R]NAL, AN
en troubled with shooting
pains across the chest, occasioned by long
speaking at a time?
Priessnitz.—Take rubbing sheets, and
rub the throat and chest with water.
In regard to friction, Mr. Wright judiciously
remarks, "that it is worthy of
special notice that Priessnitz never orders
the rubbing to be done with brushes, flannels,
or even linen towels. He never
applies flannels and brushes to the skin for
any purpose; linen is only used for wiping
the surface dry, and, even in this process,
the rubbing should be gentle. He wishes
to have the skin kept as smooth and soft
as possible; and hence his disuse of flannels
next the skin, and of brushes and
hard substances in rubbing. He recommends
that the hand only should be used;
and it is not possible to be long under his
treatment, and to enjoy the delicious sensations
resulting from a clear, smooth, soft
skin, the almost invariable result of the
cure, without being convinced of the correctness
of his practice in this respect."
ABSTINENCE AND THE EFFECTS OF MODERATION
IN FOOD.
Discourses and Letters of Louis Cornaro, on a
Sober and Temperate Life; with a Biography
of the Author, by Piero Maroncelli, and Notes
and an Appendix, by John Burdell, Dentist, of
New York. Fowlers & Wells, 131 Nassau
street, New York. Price 25 cents—mailable.
During the five months of our absence
in Europe, we have been much, very
much, interested in the study of diet;
and, after thinking much of the matter,
we have come to the conclusion that, notwithstanding
we have a constantly increasing
confidence in the curative and
hygienic effects of water, (if it be possible
for our confidence to increase,) the
regulation of the dietetic habits has more
to do with the true methods in the cure
and prevention of disease than has the external 
application of water, by bathing,
[*309*]
[*THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS*]
wet sheets, bandages, and [???????]
If, then, we are correct in this o[ur] c[o?]clusion,
the more proper name for the tr[?]
and natural method of healing would [??]
the diet-cure. But names are no[? ??]
much consequence. Truth, inev[it?????]
and unerring truth, this is the great [???]deratum
in the healing art.
We have to-day been confirmed [?????]
opinions of the good effects of abstin[????]
by reading again the above work of [???]naro;
not that it is accurate in ev[er?] [??]spect, 
but yet we could wish that e[???]
one of our readers would obtain a cop[? ??]
the work, and study it faithfully. [????]
we see a rich nobleman, who, by [???]
living and intemperance, found [him????]
at between the age of thirty-f[??? ???]
forty, with a heavy train of infi[???????]
which, he says, had invaded and [?????]
great inroads upon his constitut[???] so
that all ordinary means were of n[? ??]ail.
He had, moreover, a bad cons[??????]on
naturally. At this time he made a [???]ng
resolution to follow the advice of [h?? ?h]ysicians.
This was, that he shoul[? ?]ake
only such food as was generally d[???]cted
for sick persons, and that very spar[?n]gly;
in such quantity as would be recei[?]ed in
a perfectly genial and friendly man[n]er by
the system. Writing his first trea[ti]se, or
essay, at the age of 83, in the year 1550,
Cornaro says: "I entered with so much
resolution upon this new course of life,
that nothing has been since able to divert
me from it. The consequence was, that
in a few days I began to perceive that
such a course agreed with me perfectly
well; and, by pursuing it, in less than a 
year I found myself (some persons will
not believe it) entirely freed from all my
complaints."
Cornaro came to the conclusion, and
very properly, that if an abstemious and
temperate mode of life had such powerHERA[?]D OF [??]FORMS.
[?]ge is, that probably no where
[?]e [?]orld can there be found the same
[?]ber of persons as at Graefenberg with
[?] of coughs and symptoms of cold in
[?] or lungs. The freedom from
[?] and colds among the Priessnitz's
[?]ts is notorious. Be it remarked,
[?] that there is here in the winter
[?] much of damp, fogs and winds;
[?], according to the popular notions
[?]s subject, persons would be much
[?]t to the difficulties in question. But
[?] among the profession, as well as 
[?]eople, much error in reference to the
[?]s of wind and damp. We find that
[?]f the best possible things for cough
[?] is to go to sea. Consumptive
[?]even, are recommended often to
[?]oyages, and there appears in cases
[?]y, whether curable or incurable,
[?] to be [m]anifest improvement in so doing.
We [??]e known persons, repeatedly, to
hav[? ?]evere cold, attended with cough,
on [????]g to sea, to become very soon
cur[e?] Now, it should be understood
that [???]re is, besides the winds at sea, a
great [?]eal of moisture. The atmosphere
is, in [?]onsequence of evaporation, at all
times [?]ompletely loaded with humidity;
and th[?]s is not saltish, as many suppose,
bu[? ??e]sh; for we know that salt is of 
great specific gravity, and does not rise.
In the manufacture of salt, by evaporation
in the sun or by boiling, the mineral is
left behind, while the pure water passes off.
We see, from the above facts, that wind
and moisture are not necessarily so deleterious
as is generally supposed; but, on the
contrary, that they are, under certain circumstances,
extremely favorable to health.
If a person has an incurable disease
of the lungs, Priessnitz would, of course,
be very careful in references to changes
[?]f whatever kind. The cases we have
[??f]erred to he regarded as curable. Such
persons can make much gr[?]
with safety, than is generally supposed.
Even in cases of incurable disease of the
lungs, people are perpetually injuring
themselves by too much clothing, confinement
in close, overheated and illy-ventilated
rooms, sleeping upon feather beds 
down, pillows, &c. Now in these, often
great good may be done in the way of
mitigating the disease. But all changes
should be made with proper caution, and
according to the dictates of an enlightened
experience. Inasmuch as the water-means,
diety, &c., are the best possible for
cure, so, also, properly managed, are they
in mitigating the sufferings arising from
incurable disease.
Before leaving Graefenberg, Mr. Wright
prepared, in writing, a list of questions,
which were proposed to Priessnitz, the
answers to which were taken down upon
paper at the time. Some of these questions
were as follows:
Wright.—In case of severe cold on the
lungs, attended with much coughing and
expectoration, what should be done?
Priessnitz.—Rub the chest and throat
with cold water, holding, at the same
time, some water in the mouth. In cold
climates, the wet bandage around the
throat would be of service occasionally.
In warm climates, washing and rubbing
alone are better.
Wright.—In cases of inflammation and
soreness of the throat, attended with
hoarseness and difficulty in speaking?
Priessnitz.—Friction, washing, and the
application of wet bandages.
Wright.—In cases of long attendance
and speaking at public meetings, in hot,
close, crowded rooms, and then going out
into the chilly night air?
Priessnitz.—The rubbing sheet, washing
and rubbing the head and throat wel
and the use of the foot-bath.ALD OF RE[F]
enable the body to throw off all that complications
of grievous disorders he had so
long been afflicted with, it must also have
great power to preserve his health; and
thus, unlike many, he continued his abstemious
habits, when he might, without
apparent detriment, have gone back to
his old modes.
One important point Cornaro set himself
at work to find out, viz: whether
those things which please the palate best,
were, as is the common notion, the most
healthful. This he very soon found to be
false. Salad, fish, pork, pastry, &c., he
found, disagreed with him, notwithstanding
they were exceedingly pleasant to the
palate. He, therefore, betook himself to
the simple substances, such as were found
to agree with the stomach, although they
might, at first, be very unpalateable. He
determined, also, the truth of the proverb,
that one should always rise from the table
with a good relish for more food; that a
man, to consult his health, must check
his appetite.
Besides Cornaro's cure for the time,
he found that, by pursuing rigidly and invariably
his abstemious course, he no
longer experienced those annual fits of
sickness with which he was formerly
afflicted, and which often, as he tells us,
brought him very near to death's door.
And up to the time of writing his first
essay, he had never experienced a single
attack of illness of any kind.
Another remarkable fact in the effects
of food Cornaro learned, viz: that the diet
of the individual has great influence over
the mind. While his relatives and friends,
who did not lead a temperate life, would
become much perturbed and dejected by
misfortunes, he could remain calm and
serene. If he lost a child or member of
his family by death, the affliction was felt
most keenly, for a moment as it were, and
[*810*]
then, like a healthful child, his feelings
became buoyant, calm, and resigned, and
he made the strong assertion, "that neither
melancholy, or any other affliction of the
mind, can hurt bodies governed with temperance
and regularity."
"O, thrice holy sobriety," says the
great and good man, "so useful to man,
by the services thou renderest him! thou
prolongest his days, by which means he
greatly improves his understanding, and,
by such improvement, he avoids the bitter
fruits of sensuality, which are an enemy
to reason, man's peculiar privilege: those
bitter fruits are the passions and perturbations
of the mind. Thou, moreover,
freest him from the dreadful thoughts of
death. How greatly is thy faithful disciple 
indebted to thee, since, by thy assistance,
he enjoys this beautiful expanse of
the visible world, which is really beauti[f]ul
to such as know how to view it with a
philosophic eye, as thou hast enabled [??]
to do. Nor could I, at any time o[?]
even when I was young, but altog[?]
debauched by an irregular life, pe[??]
its beauties, though I spared no pa[?]
expense to enjoy every season of [?]
But I found that all the pleasures o[?]
age had their alloy; so that I [?]
knew, till I grew old, that the worl[?]
beautiful."
The greatly increased curative po[?]
nature, to bear up against and [?]
physical injuries, was another point [?]
Cornaro ascertained. He says tha[?]
at the age of seventy, "I happene[?]
often the case, to be in a coach [?]
was going at a pretty smart ra[?]
overset, and, in that condition d[?]
considerable way by the horses, [?]
means could be found to stop them [?]
I received so many shocks, and [?]
that I was taken out with my h[?]
all the rest of my body, terrlbly [?][?E JOURNA]
and a dislocated leg and arm. When I
was brought home, the family immediately
sent for the physicians, who, on their arrival,
seeing me in so bad a plight, concluded
that within three days I should die.
Nevertheless, they would try what good
two things would do: one was to bleed,
the other to purge me, and thereby prevent
any humors from altering, as they
every moment expected, to such a degree
as to ferment greatly and bring on a high
fever. But I, on the contrary, who knew
[?]t the sober life I had led for many years
past had so well united, harmonized, and
disposed my humors, as not to leave it in
their power to ferment to such a degree,
refused to be either bled or purged. I just
caused my leg and arm to be set, and
suffered myself to be rubbed with some
oils, which they said were proper on the
occasion. Thus, without ever using any
other kind of remedy, I recovered, as I
thought I should, without feeling any alte[?]
[?]in myself, or any bad effects from
[?]cident; a thing which appeared mi[?????o]us
even in the eyes of the physi[?]"
Thus Cornaro ascertained, in his
[?]erson, the wonderful effects of ab[??????]ce
in enabling the body to bear up
[?] injuries; a good lesson for surgeons,
[?]f the present day, to learn.
[?]ther important matter which this
[?]able man satisfied himself of was,
[?] a person becomes old, the amount
[?]iment should be diminished, instead
[?]g increased. At one time, to
[?] his friends merely, he consented
[?]all increase daily in his food and
[?]r he took the latter article, new,
[?] or more alcoholic wine, disagree[?]
[?]h him). In consequence of this
[?] and change from the very regu-
[?]ts he had so long been accustomed
[?]perienced a severe attack of fever,
[?]arly carried him off. He then
took to his old regimen, which had the
same good effects as before. This happened
in Cornaro's seventy-eighth year,
and, as he says, reduced him to a mere
skeleton; and he was fully convinced that
it was the great temperance he had for so
long a time observed, and that only, which
rescued him from the jaws of death.
Here is one important lesson of Cornaro,
which every one may easily learn for
himself, viz: that accordingly as a person 
becomes truly temperate, the relish for
food improves; that the plainest articles
at length become more agreeable than all
of the fine things when the appetite is depraved.
At this advanced age (83), Cornaro
said that he enjoyed a better relish
for his dry bread than formerly, in his
youth, for the most exquisite dainties;
and "all this he compassed by acting rationally,
knowing that bread is, above all
things, man's proper food, when seasoned
by a good appetite; and whilst man leads
a sober life, he may be sure of never
wanting that natural sauce; because, by
always eating little, the stomach, not being
much burthened, need not wait long to
have an appetite. It is for this reason
that dry bread relishes so well with me;
and I know it from experience, and can
with truth affirm, I find such sweetness in
it, that I should be afraid of sinning
against temperance were it not for the
fact of my being convinced of the absolute
necessity of eating it, and that we
cannot make use of a more natural food."
How many clergymen, physicians,
lawyers, students, and other literary and
sedentary persons, are there in our country
now-a-days who, when they eat their
habitual dinner, become perfectly miserable,
unfit for any business, as well as
most uncomfortable in body. So it was
with Cornaro, until he had learned how
to live. But in his abstemious course, heCLOTHING AND COLD CATCHING.
Colds and coughs, catarrhs and croups, stiff
muscles and neuralgic jaws, aching teeth and
rheumatic twinges, with frequent inflammations
and occasional fevers, are among the calamities
usually looked for in "cold, frosty weather." Indeed,
the "dreary winter" season, as one fourth of
the year is most unjustly termed, is, to many
minds, suggestive of frozen toes and sore noses,
with a long catalogue of intermediate maladies,
among which are influenzas, pneumonias, joint-racking
rheums, and bronchial difficulties.
And some doctors, as well as many people, are
too apt to suppose that the prevention for all these
ills and ailings is to be found wholly in the
quantity of the clothing we surround ourselves
with.
The Boston Medical Journal, in a late number,
on the Hygiene of Dress, makes some judicious
observations on the errors of sudden and improper 
exposures, and advises thick shoes, heavy
cloth, abundant furs, and plenty of garments, as
the panacea in the matter of keeping the animal
temperature above the cold-catching point.
But there is a physiological limit to dress as
well as to every other hygienic agent or appliance.
"Bundling up" is all very well and very
necessary to a certain extent; yet excess of clothing
is an evil, and is really one of the most frequent
causes of a feeble, sensitive, and morbidly-susceptible
skin, and consequent suffering from
exposures to sudden or great alternations of
temperature. [*823*]
Of equal importance with the amount of our
clothing are the quality of our blood and the
state of its circulation. The skin is the great
regulator of animal heat, and one of the principal
organs of blood-purification. Hence if we overclothe
the body, we certainly lessen its power of
self-protection, and, in the end, induce the very
evils it is the object of clothing to prevent.
Instead of "piling on" all the clothing we can
endure, a much better rule is, to dress just as
lightly as we can without actual discomfort.
"The life-principle within," as has been well
explained in the Water-Cure Journal, "is our
main protection against the elements without."
And to have the very best protection under all
circumstances of heat and cold, or of their ever-varying
vicissitudes, we must keep the vitality in
free and vigorous play.
The most prevalent error in dress is too little
about the feet, and too much about the neck and
chest. Since heavy neckerchiefs have been in 
fashion, throat-ails and quinsys have multiplied
correspondingly. We have known many persons
entirely cured of a tendency to frequent attacks of
quinsy, by merely washing the neck each morning
in cold water, and substituting a light ribbon
around the shirt-collar, for the repudiated heavy
stock or thick cravat.
A morning bath or ablution with tepid, cool, or
cold water, according to the reactive energies of
the superficial circulation, will so invigorate the
whole surface, as to enable us to dispense with
much clothing otherwise necessary, while it
wonderfully diminishes our liability to take cold,
or to suffer serious consequences in any way, from
inclemencies of the weather.
Another important consideration for those who
are not willing to "freeze to death continually"
in cold weather, is the matter of bodily positions.
We should never allow the assailing blast to take
us at a disadvantage. Man was made to walk
upright at all seasons of the year and in all states
of wind and weather.
But the great majority of our overmuch "bundled
[*823*]
up" people have a way of drawing their
ponderous shawls and massive overcoats so tightly
about the neck that, when walking, they do not
more than half breathe. And in addition to this,
instead of bravely facing and fairly conquering the
fierce winds, by a rapid step, an erect posture,
and a broad expanded chest, they throw the head
forward, crook over the trunk, and draw in the
shoulders, and thus, by impeding respiration and
obstructing circulation, they prevent a due distribution
of well-vitalized blood from performing
its natural office of keeping up a permanent supply
of animal heat.
Keep the feet warm, the head cool, the body
evenly yet moderately clad, the skin well bathed,
and accustom yourself to active out-door exercise,
with "head erect, and face up-turned to heaven,"
and colds will never produce in you any very
dangerous indispositions. [*824*]

Employments [*THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS*]
x x Francia, like Quintus Fixlein,
had perennial fire-proof joys,
namely employments" x x x
(idea from
a Latin
writer)
825y Hall, corner of South 2d and Fourth S
Receiving Taxes from 9 A. M., till 2 P. M.
To City of Williamsb
ar 185
VALUATION. CITY.[seal] 
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

BRAIN WORK AND MUSCLE WORK. 
The dyspepsia of brain-workers is generally
charged to excessive mental work.  From 
observations we are satisfied that this is a
mistake.  It is not too much brain work, but
too little muscle work, and neglect of the
commonest principles of hygiene in its relation 
to digestion, that makes such pessimistic
authors as Carlyle, such acute theologians as
Calvin, such savage skeptics as Voltaire.  The
latter once wrote to Lord Chesterfield:  "My
Lord Huntingdon tells me that you have a
good stomach, which is worth more than a
good pair of ears."  Sydney Smith declared
that he could feed or starve men into virtues 
or vices, and that the character, talents, 
virtues and qualities are powerfully affected 
by beef, mutton, pie-crust and rich soups. 
Good humor helps to keep a man in good
digestion, but is not a substitute for dietetic
rectitude or ample muscular exercise. 
829 

Intemperance. 
No change in the License Laws, no prohibitory
statues, will alone avail permanently, to prevent
intemperance.  If we would thoroughly
cure this evil, we must remove its causes.  Let
us, then, for a short space, consider the Radical 
Causes and the Radical Cure of Intemperance. 
The view though condensed, shall be 
comprehensive. 
I.  The causes of Intemperance are of three 
kinds, Physical, Mental, and Moral.  Let us
regard each in turn. 
1.  Among the physical causes may be mentioned
first, a weak, unstrung, and feeble organization, 
which wanting the stimulus of warm 
blood, of a free circulation, and of quick tansmissions
of nervous energy, predisposes the individual 
to desire artificial excitements.  What 
pity may we well feel for the flabby, lymphatic, 
half grown, puny creatures, called men and women, 
of whom earth is full!  What wonder that
such morbid abortions are tempted to kindle
within their sluggish systems some sparkles of
genial life, by transient exhiliration! 
Next to a state of half-health, may prevalent
habits of life be spoken of, as a predisposing
cause of intemperance.  Foul miasms from dirty
streets, ill-ventilated, and ill-lighted houses, 
deficient and bad food, absence of baths, irregular
hours, producing alternate feverishness
and torpor, which all but force the sufferers
from these abuses to periodical stimulation. 
Overwork and idleness come next in the enumeration 
of the physical causes of intemperance. 
Incessant monotonous drudgery, produces
an exhaustion of the muscular and nervous
system, from which the natural cure is
some powerful excitant.  The sense of weariness
and weakness which follows excessive labor, 
is almost insufferable.  And blame for the
drunkenness so common among the working 
classes of all countries, may fairly be referred 
back to the task-masters, who compel this violation
of natural laws, by the repugnant toil they
impose. 
Closely connected with this cause, is the last
which can now be mentioned.  It is the want
of sufficient rest and relaxation.  How much 
that word Re-creation means!  Can we not
learn from the observation of children, what a
surplus of bodily vigor joy can give?  Had men
more play, they would be too full from within of
animal spirits ever to feel the need of external 
excitement. 
God's Elixir of life is wonderously compounded
of sunlight, and pure air and water;  of the
perfume of flowers, of music, and the continual
change of hours and seasons. 
We drive each other to quaff the fiery fountain 
which bubles up from hell, by robbing one another
of the exhaustless animal joy, which our 
Creator would pour upon us from all living and
moving things.  The drink to fullness of the
nectar which Nature distils, is to be intoxicated
with health.  Drunkenness is the exact 
opposite of this. 
2.  Among the mental causes of Intemperance, 
may be placed first, the want of habits of observation 
and reflection.  The active brain 
sends forth along the nerves of motion, a constant, 
invigorating impulse, and gathers up from 
the sensitive nerves every-varying impressions. 
But a dull brain makes the body heavy and inelastic. 
An uneasy sense of latent mental power
makes the uncultivated man struggle against 
the brutal lethargy which he finds creeping over
him.  He delights in the quickening of his
thoughts, which stimulants for the moment produce. 
Closely connected with this cause, a second
may be found in the mechanical nature of most
kinds of labor.  A slight effort of mind is required 
to gain skill in a branch of industry;  but
afterwards, there follows but a series of repeated 
experience.  No new lessons are learned, 
no new volitions made.  Nature, gently, by her
living laws would stimulate the mind to ever-fresh 
discoveries, and fresh inventions, which 
bring serene delight.  But routine baffles the
powers of thought;  attention flags amidst unvarying
toil;  and reason is dizzied by a perpetual 
recurrence of the same petty details.  Is it 
wonderful, that men so gladly escape from their 
noisy work-shop of life, on to the high grounds 
of fancy and wit?  Exciting drinks seem to set
free their prisoned talents, open wide prospects, 
and break up the plodding crowd of common
thoughts.  Sad is it to be obliged to confess, 
830 

that in our present modes of labor, multitudes
find their only hours of anything like a poetic or
ideal state of mind, when met to talk with boon 
companions. 
And this brings up to view a third mental 
cause of intemperance.  It is the want of constant, 
free intercourse with other minds.  Conversation 
is one of the most delicious stimulants 
which life affords.  A new mind opened to us, 
is better than a novel.  Our own familiar
thoughts reflected from another's experience, 
seem to gain a new gloss and brightness.  Images 
and echoes multiply the charm of sights and
sounds.  But how little opportunity, life, as now
arranged, allows for habitual intercourse of mind 
with mind.  Untaught, dull from drudgery, prejudiced
and proud men meet in society, oppressed
with false shame and taciturn habits. 
Drink breaks down the barriers, brings them 
to an intellectual level, and quickens self-confidence, 
while disarming criticism.  Men filled
with facts and suggestions, have a conscious 
wealth of mind;  it is a delight to then;  and
they feel small temptation to seek the feverish 
visions of intemperance, which mock their less
cultivated fellows with a show of thought.  They 
drink too often of living springs to be deceived
by a mirage. 
3.  Among the moral causes of Intemperance
comes first, that most prolific one, unhappy
homes.  How many a woman has been led to
drown the degrading consciousness, that also has
given her life to one unworthy of her, in the delirium 
of intoxication!  Disappointment and
despair in heartless marriage are too intolerable. 
And how many a man is driven to the
club or the hotel, by the sneer, and the scowl 
and petty usurpations, of a wife!  The dreariness
of a home, where indifference or hate are
the Penates, may well account for, though they 
cannot excuse, a resort to temporary self-forgetfulness. 
Deprived of the most longed-for sources
of constant excitement in reciprocated love, 
how easy is the surrender to a transient joy. 
When home, too, is merely the place, as it too 
often is among the poor, where the weary partners
come to pour out upon each other, or upon 
their children, the hoarded spleen of the day, 
 and to aggravate by recriminations, care and
anxiety already too oppressive, how tempting  
seems the careless revelry of the gin-shop and
bar-room. 
A second, and a very common moral source
of intemperance, is the want of pure and ennobling
public amusement.  Even the savage 
shows in his passion for festive meetings, how
strong is our instinct to seek social pleasures 
amidst a multitude.  The civilized man manifests 
this tendency yet more.  The mere presence
of a crowd, gathered to behold a spectacle, 
is a powerful excitement, no matter how
trifling is the occasion that summons them together, 
nor how wanting in genius and grace are 
the people.  But most of our public gatherings 
are of a kind that leave a feeling of vacuity. 
The show and treat are poor.  It is no wonder, 
then, that artificial stimulants are brought in to
waken an enthusiasm, which the scene itself
cannot give.  There is a rude address to the
senses in our amusements, rather than a delicate
appeal to the imagination and taste, and
through them to the judgment and heart.  We
jostle each other in selfish scramble, because
unaccustomed to refined joy.  There is so little 
in the modes of the meeting to call out courtesy
and high bred disinterestedness, that the chief
thought is of selfish indulgence.  The fit accompaniment 
of our holydays is the booth.  And it
need excite no surprise, that at the end of a day 
of pleasure, the heels of many are lighter than
their heads.---  H  
831 

PRICE 12 1/2 CENTS.
THE SCIENCE
OF
SWIMMING.
J. W. S. N. ORR.
BY AN EXPERIENCED SWIMMER.
NEW YORK:
FOWLERS AND WELLS,
CLINTON HALL, 131 NASSAU STREET.
826THE SCIENCE
OF
SWIMMING,
AS TAUGHT AND PRACTICED IN
CIVILIZED AND SAVAGE NATIONS;
WITH PARTICULAR
INSTRUCTION TO LEARNERS:
ALSO SHOWING ITS IMPORTANCE IN THE
PRESERVATION OF HEALTH AND LIFE.
ILLUSTRATED WITH ENGRAVINGS.
BY AN EXPERIENCED SWIMMER.
"Leap in with me into this angry flood,
And swim to yonder point."—SHAKESPEARE.
NEW YORK:
FOWLERS AND WELLS, PUBLISHERS,
CLINTON HALL, 131 NASSAU STREET.
1849.Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year of 1849, by
FOWLERS & WELLS, 
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District
of New York. 


[seal] 
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

SWIMMING. 

"The same Roman arm, 
That ran victorious o'er the conquer'd earth, 
First learned, while tender, to subdue the wave." 
THOMSON. 

THE ART OF SWIMMING appears to be as natural to
man, as it is useful, and, in some cases, necessary for
the preservation of his life. 
Cleanliness and exercise, both so necessary to health, 
are combined with a high degree of enjoyment in the
practice of this art. 
The importance of frequent ablutions can scarce be 
over-rated.  In fact, the Water Cure has become a
popular remedy for most of the diseases to which humanity
is liable.  But however excellent the various
kinds of bathing may be for curing diseases, there can
be no doubt that in preventing them they are still more
efficacious. 
Those who swim daily in summer, and continue the
use of ablutions in some form in winter, are not liable
to sudden colds, or inflammatory diseases, and rarely, 
if ever, suffer from chronic complaints.  Their bodies
become indurated, their skin is healthy, and all the 
functions of life are carried on with healthful vigor. 
They who merely bathe, without being able to swim, 
lose half the pleasure and m ore than half the benefit
which arises from frequent ablutions.  Swimming is an
exercise which brings more muscles into action than 
any other;  and the body being supported by an equal 
pressure on every part, their action is harmonious--- 

6  SWIMMING.

none being relaxed, and none over-strained.  This exercise gives vigor and form to the limbs, and to the general system.  It is probably that the ample exercise which the muscles and lungs obtained in the frequent bathing of the ancients, gave their chests that round, full form, which is so observable in their statues.  All flat and narrow-chested children should be taught to swim, as nothing is more likely to counteract a tendency to consumption.

The most beautifully developed forms now to be found in the human species, are those of the South Sea Islanders, who bathe at least twice a day, and are almost as much at home in water as upon the land; and where the vices and diseases of civilization have not been introduced, it is rare indeed to find among them a cause of sickness, of premature death, or of decrepitude, excepting from extreme old age.

Among the Greeks and Romans, swimming was considered an important branch of education, and "He can neither read nor swim," was a reproach for the last degree of ignorance.  Caesar was a good swimmer; Cato taught his son to cross dangerous gulfs; the Emperor Augustus taught his nephew to swim.  As the natives of Greece and Rome were manned by soldiers, and their battles were hand to hand encounters, to be able to swin was the last necessity, and required of every soldier.

In more modern times, Charlemagne was renowned for being a good swimmer, and Louis XI often swam in the Seine, at the head of his courtiers -- a better example than is often set by monarchs.

The capability of the human race, civilized or savage, for swimming, is generally understood.  The human form is better adapted to it than that of any animal not absolutely aquatic; and the inhabitants of warm latitudes excell most amphibious animals in the water, fighting with the shark, diving with the alligator, and re-

SWIMMING.    7

maining for a long period in profound depths in search of coral, pearls, and other treasures in the sea.

The pearl divers of Ceylon will descend to the depth of sixty feet; and though such diving is accompanied with a great pressure of water and violent exertion, they do not seem to suffer from it, as they make forty to fifty plunges a day, and at each plunge bring up about a hundred oysters.

The swimming couriers of Peru cross the continent hundreds of miles, swimming down the rivers, their dispatches enclosed in a turban on their heads.  They wim day and night, aided only by a light log of wood.

In Prussia, swimming has long been a military exercise, whole regiments being instructed to swim in line, fully equipped, to wheel in column, and even to load and fire in the water.

A few years since the Viscount de Courtivron exhibited some experiments of this character in the Seine at Paris.  He went into the water, accoutred as an infantry soldier.  After swimming thirty fathoms from the boat, he raised himself in the water, and fired a musket, at which signal one of his pupils sprang from the Pont Royal, a bridge, into the Seine, from a height of sixty-four feet, and carried to M. Courtivron a tin box containing dispatches.   He read the papers, gave a signal, and was joined by a class of sixty-four puils, who in the water executed a series of military movements.

Dr. Franklin was an excellent swimmer, and his instructions for learning to swim, being some of the best ever given, are copied at full length in the following pages. 

Lord Byron was an excellent swimmer, and prided himself much on his aquatic feats.  In imitation of Leander, he swam the Hellespont, a narrow strait which divides Europe and Asia, in an hour and ten minutes,8     SWIMMING. 

with a strong tide against him.  He swam the Tagus
in three hours, and afterwards swam four hours and
twenty minutes without rest at Venice. 
Dr. Bedall, an English gentleman, swam for a wager
between Liverpool and Runcorn, in 1827, a distance of
twenty-four miles, which he performed at the rate of
six miles an hour---with the tide, probably! 
A French sailor was washed overboard from a sloop 
at nine o'clock, in September, 1820, and picked up next
morning, and this, be it noted, in a rough sea. 
How important is it, in a country like ours, that every 
man should learn to swim.  Storms strew our vast seacoasts 
with wrecks---steamboats are liable to accidents 
from collision, explosions, or fire, on our rivers and
lakes---pleasure boats frequently upset, and numerous 
accidents occur from the sudden breaking of ice in winter. 
The necessity of saving one's own life by swimming, 
or the opportunity of saving the lives of others, 
may happen to any one, and to many these things must
often occur in the course of their lives. 
At the burning of the steamboat Erie on Lake Erie,
of the hundred or more persons lost, every one might
have been saved, had they been able to swim like Dr. 
Franklin or Lord Byron;  but even the captain of the
boat was indebted to a negro who could swim for an oar 
which saved his life.  In a hundred such melancholy
disasters on our great lakes, rivers, and the ocean, valuable
lives might have been saved by a little pains in
learning to swim. 

MAN A SWIMMING ANIMAL. 

Young Neuha plunged into the deep, and he
Followed :  her track beneath her native sea
WAs as a native's of the element, 
So smoothly, bravely, brilliantly she went, 
Leaving a streak of light behind her heel, 
Which struck and flashed like an amphibious steel. 
Closely, and scarcely less expert to trace, 
The depths where divers hold the pearl in chase, 
Torquil, the nursling of the northern seas, 
Pursued her liquid steps with heart and ease.
"The Island."---LORD BYRON. 

NOTHING is so important in learning to swim as a
confidence in one's powers, and in the buoyancy of the
liquid element;  and perhaps one acquires a confidence 
in himself by no means sooner than by knowing what
can be done by others.  I shall therefore give a few 
additional examples of the skill in swimming to be acquired
by habit, begging my readers to remember, 
"Whatever man has done, man can do," and that we 
do not vary, in any important degree, in physical organization, 
from those who have this art in the highest 
perfection. 
When the lamented traveller, Mungo Park, was 
swimming across the river Niger, with his negro servant, 
a huge crocodile suddenly rose from the bottom 
of the river, and seized the thigh of the latter.  He
would doubtless have crushed and torn it off with his
immense jaws, had not the negro, who was as good a
swimmer and diver as the crocodile, turned round rapidly
under water, dashed his thumbs into the crocodile's 
eyes, and gouged them out.  The monster quitted his 

10     SWIMMING.

hold, and roared with agony, and the negro, seriously
but not dangerously wounded, reached the shore.
   The Caribs are expert at all gymnastic exercises,
and particularly at swimming, as if they were born in 
the water, and formed for it. They swim like fish,
and the women are skilful as the men. When a 
canoe overturns from carrying too much sail, they never
lose their baggage, and drowning is never heard of. on
such occasions, the children are seen swimming around
their mothers like so many little fish, and the mothers
support themselves in the water with infants at the 
breast, while the men bale out the canoes. In 1679 a 
vessel was overset in a squall off Martinique, in which
was one Carib, the rest being Europeans. All were
lost but the Carib, who, after supporting the violence 
of the tempest, as well as hunger and thirst, for sixty 
hours, reached the land in safety.
   But some of the most beautiful descriptions of bathing
and swimming are given in Mr. Melville's narrative
of his residence in Typee, a valley of the Marquesas, 
one of the finest groups of islands in the South Seas.
I shall be pardoned for quoting at some length from his
interesting pages. By the operation of the "taboo" - 
a religious prohibition - the use of canoes is not allowed
to the females of Marquesas: "consequently, when
a Marquesan lady voyages by water, she puts in requisition
the paddles of her own fair body.
   "We had approached within a mile and a half, perhaps, 
of the foot of the bay, when some of the islanders, 
who by this time had managed to scramble aboard of
us, directed our attention to a singular commotion in the 
water ahead of the vessel. At first I imagined it to be 
produced by a shoal of fish, sporting on the surface, but
our savage friends assured us that it was caused by a 
shoal of 'whinhenies,' (young girls,) who in this manner
were coming off from the shore to welcome us. As
they drew nearer, I watched the rising and sinking

{{page break}}

SWIMMING.         11

of their forms, and beheld the uplifted right arm, bearing
above the water the girdle of tappa, and their long 
dark hair trailing beside them as they swam, I almost
fancied they could be nothing else than so many mermaids."
   Through the Typee valley runs a clear stream of fresh
water, in which the whole population, old and young,
bathe morning and night. Describing his first bath,
our author says: "From the verdant surfaces of the 
large stones that lay scattered about, the natives were
now sliding off, diving, and ducking in the water, the 
young girls springing buoyantly into the air, with their
long tresses about their shoulders, their eyes sparkling
like dew drops in the sun, and their gay laughter pealing
forth at each frolicsome incident."
   "The ease and grace with which the maidens of the 
valley propelled themselves through the water, and
their familiarity with the element, were truly astonishing.
Sometimes they might be seen gliding along just
under the surface, without apparently moving hand or
foot; then throwing themselves on their sides, they
darted through the water, revealing glimpses of their
forms, as in the course of their rapid progress, they 
shot for an instant partly into the air; at one moment
they dived down deep into the water, and at the next
they rose bounding to its surface."
   The education of these islanders in their aquatic accomplishments
commences with their birth. Infants 
but a few days old are daily taken into the water by
their mothers, and swim long before they can creep or 
walk. "I am convinced," says Mr. Melville, "that it
is as natural for a human being to swim, as it is for a 
duck! And yet, in civilized communities, how many
able-bodied individuals die, like so many drowning kittens,
from the occurrence of the most trivial accidents!"12     SWIMMING. 

DR. FRANKLIN'S HINTS TO SWIMMERS. 

WHEN learning to swim in infancy has been neglected, 
the art may easily be learned at any age by a few
well-directed efforts.  The hints of Dr. Franklin are
the results of sound experience, and are well worth 
attending to;  and are as follows: 

"The only obstacle to improvement in this necessary and life-preserving
art, is fear;  and it is only by overcoming this timidity, that you can 
expect to become a master of the following acquirements.  It is very 
common for novices in the art of swimming, to make use of corks and
bladders to assist in keeping the body above water;  some have utterly 
condemned the use of them;  however, they may be of service for 
supporting the body while one is learning what is called the stroke, or
that manner of drawing in and striking out the hands and feet, that is
necessary to produce progressive motion.  But you will be no swimmer
till you can place confidence in the power of the water to support
you;  I would, therefore, advise the acquiring that confidence in the
first place, especially as I have known several, who, by a little practice
necessary for that purpose, have insensibly acquired the stroke, taught
as it were by nature;  the practice I mean is this:  choosing a place
where the water deepens gradually, walk coolly into it till it is up to
your breast, then turn round your face to the shore, and throw an egg
into the water between you and the shore;  it will sink to the bottom, 
and may be easily seen there if the water is clear.  It must lie in the
water so deep that you cannot reach to take it up, but by diving for it. 
To encourage yourself in order to do this, reflect that your progress 
will be from deep to shallow water, and that at any time you may, by
bringing your legs under you, and standing on the bottom, raise your 
head far above the water;  then plunge under it with your eyes open, 
which much be kept open before going under, as you cannot open the
eyelids for the weight of water above you;  throwing yourself toward 
the egg, and endeavoring by the action of your hands and feet against
the water, to get forward till within reach of it.  In this attempt you
will find that the water buoys you up against your inclination, and that 
if is not so easy to sink as you imagine, and that you cannot but by force
get down to the egg.  Thus you will feel the power of water to support 
you, and learn to confide in that power;  while your endeavors to overcome
it and reach the egg, teach you the manner of acting on the water
with your feet and hands, which action is used afterwards in swimming
to support your head higher above the water, or to go forward
through it. 
"I would the more earnestly press you to the trial of this method, 
because, though I think I shall satisfy you that your body is lighter than 
water, and that you might float in it a long time with your mouth free 
for breathing, if you would put yourself into a proper posture, and
would lie still and forbear struggling, yet, till you have obtained this
experimental confidence in the water, I cannot depend upon your having 


SWIMMING.     13 

the necessary presence of mind to recollect the posture, and the
directions I give you relating to it.  The surprise may put all out of
your mind. 
"Though the legs, arms, and head of a human body, being solid
pars, are, specifically, somewhat heavier than fresh water;  yet the
trunk, particularly the upper part, from the hollowness, is so much
lighter than the water, that the whole body, taken altogether, is too light
to sink wholly under water;  but some part will remain above until the 
lungs become filled with water, which happens from drawing water
into them instead of air, when a person in a fright attempts breathing
while the mouth and nostrils are under water. 
"The legs and arms are specifically lighter than salt water, and will
be supported by it, so that a human body cannot sink in salt water, 
thought the lungs were filled as above, but from the specific gravity of
the head.  Therefore, a person throwing himself on his back in salt
water, and extending his arms, may easily lie so as to keep his mouth 
and nostrils free for breathing, and by a small motion of his hand, may
prevent his body from turning, if he should perceive any tendency
to it. 
"In fresh water, if a man throws himself on his back near the surface, 
he cannot long continue in that situation, but by proper action of
his hands on the water;  if he use no such action, the legs and lower 
part of his body will gradually sink till he comes to an upright position, 
in which he will continue suspended, the hollow of his breast keeping
the head uppermost. 
"But if, in this erect position, the head be kept upright above the
shoulders, as when we stand on the ground, the immersion will, by the
weight of that part of the head that is out of water, reach above the
mouth and nostrils, perhaps a little above the eyes;  so that a man cannot
long remain suspended in water, with his head in that position. 
"The body continuing suspended as before, and upright, if the head
be leaned quite back, so that the face look upward, all the back part of
the head being under water, and its weight consequently in a great 
measure supported by it, the face will remain above water quite free
for breathing, will rise an inch higher every inspiration, and sink as 
much every expiration:  but never so low as that the water may come
over the mouth. 
"If, therefore, a person unacquainted with swimming, and falling accidentally
into the water, could have presence of mind sufficient to
avoid struggling and plunging, and to let the body take this natural position, 
he might continue long safe from drowning, till perhaps help
should come;  for as to the clothes, their additional weight when immersed 
is very inconsiderable, the water supporting it;  though when
he comes out of the water, he would find them very heavy indeed. 
But, as I said before, I would not advise you, or any one, to depend
upon having this presence of mind on such an occasion, but learn fairly 
to swim, as I wish all men were taught to do in their youth;  they
would, on many occasions, be the safer for that skill, nd on many 
more the happier, as free from painful apprehensions of danger, to say
nothing of the enjoyment in so delightful and wholesome an exercise. 
Soldiers particularly should, methinks, all be taught to swim;  it might
be of frequent use either in surprising an enemy, or saving themselves: 
14     SWIMMING. 

and if I had boys to educate now, I should prefer those schools, (other
things being equal,) where an opportunity was afforded for acquiring
so advantageous an art, which, once learned, is never forgotten . 
"I know by experience that it is a great comfort to a swimmer who
has a considerable distance to go, to turn himself sometimes on his
back, and to vary in other respects the means of procuring progressive
motion. 
"When he is seized with the cramp in the leg, the method of driving
it away is to give the parts affected a sudden, vigorous, and violent 
shock;  which he may do in the air, as he swings on his back. 
"During the great heats of summer, there is no danger of bathing, 
however warm we may be, in rivers which have been thoroughly warmed
by the sun.  But to throw one's-self into cold spring-water, when 
the body has been heated by exercise in the sun, is an imprudence
which may prove fatal.  I once knew an instance of four young men, 
who having worked at harvest in the heart of the day, with a view of refreshing
themselves, plunges into a spring of cold water:  two died 
upon the spot, a third the next morning, and the fourth recovered with
great difficulty.  A copious draught of cold water, in similar circumstances, 
is frequently attended with the same fatal effect in North
America. 
"The exercise of swimming is one of the most healthy and agreeable
in the world.  After having swum for an hour or two in the evening, 
one sleeps coolly the whole of the night, even during the most ardent
heats of summer. 
"When I was a boy, I amused myself one day with flying a paper
kite;  and approaching the banks of a lake which was near a mile broad, 
I tied the string to a stake, and the kite ascended to a very considerable 
height above the pond, while I was swimming.  In a little time, being
desirous of amusing myself with my kite, and enjoying at the same
time the pleasure of swimming, I returned, and loosing from the stake 
the string with the little stick which was fastened to it, went again into
the water, where I found that, lying on my back, and holding the stick 
in my hand, I was drawn along the surface of the water in a very agreeable
manner.  Having then engaged another boy to carry my clothes 
round the pond, to a place which I pointed out to him on the other side, 
I began to cross the pond with my kite, which carried me quite over
without the least fatigue, and with the greatest pleasure imaginable.  I
was only obliged occasionally to halt a little in my course, and resist
its progress, when it appeared that, by following too quick, I lowered 
the kite too much;  by doing which occasionally I made it rise again.
I have never since that time practised this singular mode of swimming, 
though I think it not impossible to cross, in this manner, from Dover to
Calais.  The packet-boat, however, is still preferable." 

EFFECTS OF BATHING ON THE HEALTH. 
CLEANLINESS, obtained in whatever way, keeps open
the pores of the skin, and allows of the free escape of
the insensible perspiration, which is thrown off in great 


SWIMMING.     15 

quantities, and the free egress of which is of the utmost
importance to the health of the system. 
To the benefits of exercise in swimming, I have
already alluded. 
The tonic and reviving qualities of cold water are of
the most remarkable character.  How wonderfully refreshing
is it to bathe merely the face and hands in cold 
water!  How uncomfortable for one to whom even
these slight ablutions are habitual, to do without them 
even for a single day!  Those who are accustomed to 
bathe every day the whole surface of the body, feel
from this practice a proportionate vigor and exhilaration. 
On first plunging into cold water, there comes a
shock which drives the blood to the central parts of the
system.  But immediately a reaction takes place, which 
is assisted by the exercise of swimming, producing, even
in water of a low temperature, an agreeable warmth. 
The stay in the water should never be voluntarily prolonged
beyond the period of this excitement.  If the
water be left while this warmth continues, and the
body immediately dried, the healthy glow over the
whole surface will be delightful. 
To remain in the water, after the first reaction is
over, produces a prolonged chilliness, a shrinking of the
flesh, and a contraction of the skin, by no means favorable
to health or enjoyment, for it is only in water thouroughly
warmed by the summer heats, or which is never 
cooled by northern winters, where we may bathe for 
many hours with impunity. 
In our climate certain precautions are necessary. 
Moderate exercise, by summoning into action the powers
of the system, and quickening the circulation, is better
than inactivity.  We should never go into water 
immediately after a meal, nor while the process of digestion 
is going forward.  Nor should we plunge into the 
water when violently heated, or in a state of profuse
perspiration.  In our climate, such imprudencies are 
16        SWIMMING.

often fatal, especially if the water be unusually cold. if
too warm, the temperature of the body may be reduced
by bathing the wrists, and wetting the head.

TIMES AND PLACES FOR SWIMMING.

BEFORE meals, rather than after, and especially before
breakfast, and before supper, are proper seasons for 
bathing. The heads of the day are to be avoided, but,
in very hot weather, a bath is useful to cool the blood, 
and secure refreshing sleep. if in the middle of the
day, a shaded place should be chosen, or the head protected
from the sun by being kept wet, or by wearing a 
straw hat, as is pratised by the fashionable French
ladies at their watering places.
The sea is the best place for swimming. Owing to 
the greater specific gravity of salt water than fresh, the 
body is more buoyant in it, as are other substances. a 
ship coming out of salt water into fresh, sinks perceptibly
in the water. the difference is nearly equal to the 
weight of the salt held in solution. 
Next to the water of the sea, is that of clear running
streams, and last of all fresh water ponds.  The great 
lakes on our northern frontier, however, owing to their
extent, and constant agitation, have all the purity of
running streams, with greater specific gravity, from the 
lime they hold in solution.  It is the limestone which 
gives them their beautiful blue color, and not, as some
suppose, their depth, for Lake Erie, a comparatively 
shallow lake, is deeply colored, while Lake Huron 
much larger and deeper, is as clear as crystal, and quite
colorless. 
Bathing is best performed when quite naked, but, as
in the bathing establishments in large towns and cities, 
and in thickly-settled parts of the country, decency forbids
entire nudity, a kind of short drawers is worn, as
may be seen in our engravings;  and where ladies and 


SWIMMING.     17 

gentlemen bathe in company, as is the fashion all along
the Atlantic coast, and especially at Rockaway, Coney
Island, Long Branch, etc., shirts and trowsers are
worn by the men, and flannel bathing dresses, made for
the purpose, by the ladies. 
At Coney Island, the nearest bathing ground to New
York, there are small houses on the beach for both
sexes, in which their bathing toilets are arranged, and
from which  parties of merry bathers issue, and the 
ladies are conducted into the surf by their attendant 
cavaliers, with less ceremony perhaps, but more fun, 
than is generally found in a ball room.  Many of our
city ladies are also in the habit of frequenting the swimming
baths, and this accomplishment has in more than 
one instance enabled them to save individuals of the
other sex from a watery grave. 
The bottom should be of hard sand, gravel, or smooth
stones.  Sharp stones and shells cut the feet---weeds 
may entangle them.  The swimmer must avoid floating
grass and quicksand.  The new beginner must be careful 
that the water does not run beyond his depth, and
that the current cannot carry him into a deeper place, 
 also that there be no holes in the bottom.  As persons 
are ever liable to accidents, cramps, etc., it is always 
best that boys or girls should be accompanied by those
who are older than themselves, and who will be able to 
save them in any emergency.  The brother of the writer 
was once seized with a cramp at the bottom of a river, 
 and must have drowned had not a noble-hearted boy
dived down and rescued him.  Had he been bathing
alone, nothing could have saved him. 

AIDS IN LEARNING TO SWIM. 

PROBABLY one of the best ways of learning to swim 
is to go, with a competent teacher, in a boat in deep
water, this supporting the body more buoyantly than 18     SWIMMING. 

that which is shallower, and preventing the constant
tendency of beginners to touch bottom;  which here is
of course imposible. 
The teacher should fasten a rope carefully around
the waist, or, better still, to a belt, which can neither
tighten nor slip down.  The rope may be fastened to a
short pole.  Supported in this manner, the pupil may 
take his proper position in the water, and practise the
necessary motions, and the support of the rope may be
gradually lessened, until the pupil finds himself entirely
supported by the water. 

[illustration of swimmer (with "bladders") in water] 

Corks and bladders are often used as supports for
learners;  but it is much better to begin without them. 
As, however, they may be a protection in some cases 
against accidents, and enable the learner to practise
the proper motions for rapid swimming more carefully, 
they are not to be entirely condemned.  Several 
large pieces of cork, uncut into stopples, must be strung 
upon each end of a piece of rope, long enough to pass
under the chest, and reach just above the shoulders;  or
well blown and properly secured bladders may be fastened
in the same way, as seen in the engraving.  Care
must be taken to confine these supports near the shoulders, 
as by their slipping down, they would plunge the
head under water, and produce the very catastrophe 
they were designed to prevent. 
A great variety of life-preservers have been invented. 


SWIMMING.     19 

made of Indian-rubber, and cork shavings, in the form 
of jackets, belts, etc., which may be used like the cork 
 and bladders;  but as their bulk is generally all around 
the chest, they hinder the free use of the arms, and
impede the velocity of motion.  As life-preservers, they 
would do very well if people ever had them on when 
they were needed, or had presence of mind enough to
fit and inflate them in sudden emergencies.  The best 
life-preservers are the self-reliance and well-directed
skill of a good swimmer. 

[illustration of swimmer (with plank) in water] 

Swimming with the plank has two advantages.  The
young bather has always the means of saving himself
from the effects of a sudden cramp, and he can practise
with facility the necessary motions with the legs 
and feet, aided by the momentum of the plank.  A
piece of light wood three or four feet long, two feet
wide, and about two inches thick, will answer very well 
for this purpose.  The chin may be rested upon the
end, and the arms used, but this must be done carefully, 
or the support may go beyond the young swimmer's
reach. 
A better method, as many think, than any of these, 
is for the teacher to wade into the water with his pupil, 
and then support him in a horizontal position, by placing
his hand under the pupil's chest, while he directs his
motions.  He may withdraw his support almost imperceptibly; 
but I do not see what advantage this method 

20     SWIMMING. 

has over that first noticed with the boat, unless it be
that the teacher can better enforce his precepts by examples, 
and in swimming himself, give practical illustrations
of his theories of propulsion.

[illustration of swimmer (with rope attached to tree limb) in water] 

The rope is another artificial support which has its
advantages.  A rope may be attached to a pole, fastened
---and mind that it be well fastened---in the bank, or it
may be attached, as shown in the engraving, to the 
branch of an overhanging tree.  Taken in the hands, 
the swimmer may practise with his legs, or by holding 
it in his teeth, he may use all his limbs at once.  The
rope, however, is not so good as the plank, as it allows
of less freedom of motion, and the latter might easily
be so fixed as to be laid hold of by the teeth, and held
securely. 

THE CRAMP. 
THOSE persons who plunge into the water when they
are heated by exercise, and remain in it until they are 
benumbed with cold, or exhaust themselves by very
violent exertion, are the most subject to attacks of 


SWIMMING.     21 

cramp.  The moment the swimmer is seized by cramp
in the legs, he must not suffer himself to feel alarmed; 
but strike out the limb affected with all his might, keeping
the heel downward, and drawing the toes as far upward
as he can, although at the time these movements 
give him great pain;  he may also turn on his back, and
jerk the limb into the air, though not so high as to throw 
himself out of his balance.  Should these attempts 
prove unsuccessful, he must try to reach the shore with
his hands;  or, at all events, keep himself afloat until 
assistance can be procured.  If he cannot float on his
back, he may swim upright, keeping his head above the
surface, by striking the water downward with his hands
near his hips;  and he can thus make steady progress
without using his legs.  If only one leg be attacked, the
swimmer may strike forward with the other;  and to
acquire confidence in cases of cramp, it is advisable to
practice swimming with one hand and leg;  with the
hands only, or even with one leg. 

ENTERING THE WATER---STRIKING OUT. 

WE now come to the most important directions.  As 
the pupil must gradually acquire confidence in this new
element, he should not be urged to plunge in against his
inclination.  After wetting his head, he may wade in
until the water is up to his breast, then turning towards 
the shore, inflate his lungs and incline forward, until 
the water covers his chin.  The head should be thrown 
backward, and the back hollowed, and the chest as much 
as possible expanded.  In swimming the feet should be
about two feet below the surface. 
The hands should be placed just in front of the breast, 
pointing forward, the fingers kept close together, and
the thumb to the fingers, so as to form a slightly hollow
paddle.  Now strike the hands forward as far as possible, 
but not bringing them to the surface;  then make a 


22     SWIMMING. 

sweep backward to the hips, the hands being turned
downward and outward;  then bring them back under
the body, and with as little resistance as may be, to their
former position, and continue as before. 
The hands have three motions---First, from their 
position at the breast, they are pushed straight forward; 
second, the sweep round to the hips, like an oar, the
closed and hollowed hands being the paddle portion, 
and their position in the water and descent serving both 
to propel and sustain the body;  and, third, they are
brought back under the body to the first position. 
Having learned these motions by practising them 
slowly, the pupil should proceed to learn the still more 
important motions of the legs.  These are likewise
three in number, one of preparation, and two of propulsion. 
First, the legs are drawn up as far as possible, 
by bending the knees, and keeping the feet widely separated; 
second, they are pushed with force backward
and outward, so that they spread as far as possible; 
and, third, the legs are brought together, thus acting
powerfully upon the wedge of water which they enclosed. 
Some works upon swimming advise that the propelling
stroke of the arms and legs should be used alternately; 
but this is not the method used by good swimmers, 
or by that best of teachers, the frog, of whom I
would advise all new beginners to take lessons.  It is 
better that the feet should be brought up, at the same
time that the hands are carried to their first position; 
the propelling strokes may then be combined so as to
give the body its most powerful impetus, as a boat is 
rowed best with simultaneous strokes. 
The motion in the water should be as straight forward
as possible, and the more the head is immersed
the easier is the swimming.  Rising at every stroke---
breasting, as it is called---is both tiresome and inelegant. 
All these movements should be made with slowness, 


SWIMMING.     23 

an deliberately, without the least flurry.  The learner
will soon breathe naturally, and as the motions are really
natural, he will not be long in acquiring them.  If he 
draw in his breath as he rises, and breathe it out as he
sinks, he will time his strokes, and avoid swallowing
water.  Those who have been accustomed to fresh water, 
must be particularly careful when they go into the
sea, the water of which is very nauseous. 

PLUNGING OR DIVING. 

[illustration of swimmer poised to dive into water] 

IN leaping into the water, feet first, which is done
from rocks, bridges, and even from the yards and masts
of lofty vessels, the feet much be kept close together, and
the arms either held close to the side, or over the head. 
In diving head foremost, the hands must be put together, 
as in the engraving, so as to divide the water before the 
head.  The hands are also in a proper position for striking
out. 
It is wonderful how easily the swimmer directs his
course under water.  If he wishes to go down or come
up, or swim to the right or lift, he has but to bend his
head and body in that direction, and after a little use he
will do this almost unconsciously, as if his movements
were the result of volition alone. 

24     SWIMMING. 

In diving in shallow water, care must be taken not to
strike the head upon a hard bottom, nor to stick it in
the mud.  It is better to fill the chest always.  The 
deeper a man dives the more buoyant will he be, and
from a depth of twenty feet, even in fresh water, he
will rise to the surface with considerable impetus.  No
one need fear not being able to come up, the great
difficulty being to say down;  those who make a business
of diving being obliged to have heavy weights for that
purpose. 
The best swimmers and divers in the world, keep
their eyes open under water, so as to see their course
and any object of which they may be in search.  The
South Sea Islanders, who are almost born in the water, 
will swim for miles without showing their heads above
the surface, which they manage in this manner.  After 
diving beneath the surface, the swimmer keeps parallel
to it as long as he can without breathing, when, turning
upon his back by an easy motion of his hands, he allows
his nose and nothing more to come above the surface. 
After breathing once or twice, by a slight motion of the
hands he sinks again, and so pursues his course. 
In descending in the water, bend the head so as to
bring the chin near the breast, and curve the back in 
the same direction;  in ascending, hold back the head
and hollow the back.  In swimming over the surface, 
look up to the sky.  It is quite impossible to dive beneath
the surface in this position. 

SWIMMING IN DEEP WATER. 

IN the swimming schools of Prussia, the pupils are
taught in deep water, sustained by a belt, and a rope
attached to a pole, which the teacher holds as a lever
over a railing.  The motions of the arms, then of the
legs, and then both together, are practised by word of
command, like military exercises.  The support is given 


SWIMMING.     25 

as required.  After a few lessons the pole is dispensed
with---then the rope;  but the pupil is still kept, until 
quite proficient, within reach of the pole. 
This mode of learning to swim is like that practised
in teaching boys to ride in the circus.  A rope, fastened
to a belt, passes through a ring in the saddle, and the
end is held by the riding master in the centre of the
ring.  If the boy falls, his teacher has only to draw
upon the rope, and he is secure from danger, and ready
to spring to his feet again. 
Those who are learning to swim in shallow water, 
and without a teacher, may find advantage in the following
method: 
When the learner has acquired some facility in swimming, 
and wishes to try to swim out of his depth, he
should first venture to cross a stream which may be a
foot or two overhead in the middle.  He must not be
alarmed at not feeling ground under his feet, or make
quick and short strokes, and breathe at the wrong time, 
so that he involuntarily swallows water;  all which 
mishaps, of course, increase the hurry and agitation, 
and make it difficult for him to get back to shore. 
Learners should therefore never venture out of their 
depth, without having first practised such distances only
as they are certain they can accomplish;  for if they can 
swim eight or ten yards without allowing their feet to
touch the bottom of the river, they may fearlessly attempt
to cross a deep stream of only half that width, 
and so on, increasing the distance by degrees;  they
will thus progressively attain presence of mind, and
find that the deeper the water, the greater is is sustaining
power, and the easier they will be enabled to
swim in it. 

326     SWIMMING. 

TREADING WATER. 

THIS is a favorite position in the water, and useful as
a means of resting in swimming long distances.  The
position is perpendicular;  the hands are placed upon 
the hips, as in the vignette, or kept close to the side to 

[illustration of swimmer treading water] 

assist in balancing the body, being moved like fins at 
the wrist only.  The feet are pushed down alternately, 
so as to support the head above water;  and the body 
may be raised in this way to a considerable extent.  While 
in this position, if the head be thrown back, so as to
bring the nose and mouth uppermost, and the chest
somewhat inflated, the swimmer may sink till his head
is nearly covered, and remain for any length of time in 
this position without motion, taking care to breathe very
slowly. 

UPRIGHT SWIMMING---SYSTEM OF BERNARDI. 

BERNARDI, an Italian teacher of swimming, who has
written a treatise upon the subject, warmly recommends
the upright position in swimming as being in conformity
with the accustomed movements of the limbs;  from 
the freedom of the hands and arms;  greater facility of 


SWIMMING.     27 

breathing, and less risk of being caught hold of by persons
struggling in the water. 
Though this method can never supersede that taught
by nature, and the frog, her best professor, it may be 
practised for variety's sake.  The great difficulty is in 
keeping the head properly balanced, for whichever way
it inclines, over goes the body. 
The first object of Bernardi's plan is to enable the
pupil to float in an upright posture, and to feel a decided
confidence in the buoyancy of his body.  He first 
supports the pupil under the shoulder, until he floats 
tranquilly, with the heard and part of the neck above the
surface, the arms being stretched out horizontally under
water;  from time to time the supporting arm is removed, 
but again restored, so as never to suffer the head
to sink, which would disturb the growing confidence of
the learner. 
The learner is then taught the use of the legs for
balancing the body in the water;  one of these being
stretched forward, and the other behind, and the arms
laterally, he will soon find himself steadily sustained, 
and independent of further aid in floating. 
Next is shown the sweeping semicircular motion of
the arms;  this is practised slowly without motion forward, 
until attained with precision;  after which, a
slight bending of the body occasions its advance.  The
motion of striking with the legs is added in the same
measured manner.  The strength may be recruited by
using the arms and legs alternately, turning first the
right shoulder and then the left to the water;  for, by
this means, less resistance is opposed, than by presenting
the whole breadth of the breast. 
The upright position, a little inclined backward (which 
like every other change of posture, must be done deliberately, 
by the corresponding movement of the head); 
reversing, in this case, the motion of the arms, and
striking the flat of the foot down and a little forward, 


28     SWIMMING. 

give the motion backward, which is performed with
greater ease than when the body is laid horizontally on
the back. 
Such is an outline of Bernardi's method of teaching
the art of swimming;  by which he calculates, that, at
every stroke, a swimmer ought to impel himself forward
a distance equal to the length of his body;  and, 
 in general, at the rate of three miles an hour.  In consequence
of Bernardi's successful practice, he was appointed
to instruct the youths of the Royal Naval Academy
of Naples, in the art of swimming. 
The upright mode of swimming is far more secure
than the ordinary system, and it may be learned in one-twentieth
part of the time.  A young Italian, after
eleven days' instruction by Bernardi, is stated to have
swam a circuit of nearly six miles in the bay of Naples, 
although he was previously unacquainted with swimming. 
The natives of New South Wales swim nearly upright, 
and generally backward, yet with must skill and
velocity;  indeed, they swim and turn with such swiftness, 
even under water, that they see and spear fish
while beneath the surface. 

SIDE SWIMMING. 

IN swimming on either side, the motions of the legs
have no alteration, but are performed as usual.  To
swim on the left side, lower that side, which is done 

[illustration of side swimmer in water]  


SWIMMING     29 

with the slightest effort, and requires no instructions. 
Then strike forward with the left hand, and sideways 
with the right, keeping the back of the latter to the 
front, with the thumb side downward, so as to act as an 
oar.  In turning on the other side, strike out with the
right hand, and use the left for an oar.  To swim on
each side alternately, stretch out the lower arm the instant
that a strike is made by the feet, and strike with 
the other arm on a level with the head at the instant
that the feet are urging the swimmer forward;  and
while the upper hand is carried forward, and the feet
are contracted, the lower hand must be drawn toward
the body.  This method is full of variety, and capable
of great rapidity, but it is also very fatigning. 

THRUSTING. 

THIS is a beautiful variety of this exercise, and must
used by accomplished swimmers.  The legs and feet
are worked as in ordinary swimming, but the hands and 

[illustration of swimmer in water] 

arms very differently.  One arm---say the right---should
be lifted wholly out of the water, thrust forward to its
utmost reaching, and then dropped upon the water with
the hand hollowed, and then brought back by a powerful 
movement, pulling the water toward the opposite
arm-pit.  At the same time the body must be sustained 
and steadied by the left hand, working in a small circle, 
and as the right arm comes back from its far reach to
the arm-pit, the left is carrying in an easy sweep from 
3* 

30     SWIMMING. 

the breast to the hip.  The left arm is thrust forward
alternately with the right, and by these varied movements, 
great rapidity is combined with much ease. 

SWIMMING ON THE BACK. 

THIS is the easiest of all modes of swimming, because
in this way a larger portion of the body is supported by
the water.  It is very useful to rest the swimmer from 

[illustration of swimmer [on back] in water] 

the greater exertion of more rapid methods, and especially
when a long continuance in deep water is unavoidable. 
The swimmer can turn easily to this position, or
if learning, he has but to incline slowly backward, keeping
his head on a line with his body, and letting his ears 
sink below the surface.  Then placing his hands upon 
his hips, he can push himself along with his feet and
legs with perfect ease, and considerable rapidity. 
The hands may be used to assist in propelling in this
mode, by bringing them up edgewise toward the arm-pits, 
and then pushing them down, the fingers fronting 
inward, and the thumb part down.  This is called
"winging." 
The hands may be used at discretion, the application 
of force in one direction of course giving motion in the
other;  and the best methods are soon learned when 
once the pupil has acquired confidence in his buoyant
powers. 


SWIMMING.     31 

FLOATING. 

THIS is so useful a part of the art of swimming, that
it cannot be too soon obtained.  In salt water, nothing
is easier, and in fresh, to most persons, it requires but
the slightest exertion.  The feet should be stretched 

[illustration of swimmer floating] 

out, and the arms extended upward, so as to be at least
as high as the top of the head, and under water.  The
head must be held back, the chin raised, and the chest 
expanded.  The hands will easily keep the body in this
horizontal position, and by breathing carefully, a person 
may float at ease for hours.  Could a person, unable to
swim, but have the presence of mind to take this position, 
he could never drown. 

TO BEAT THE WATER. 

THIS and the succeeding feats should never be attempted
until the pupil can swim well, and has acquired 
perfect confidence in the water.  The water is beaten 
by raising the legs out of it alternately, while swimming
on the back, the body being sustained by the hands. 
While swimming on the breast, one leg may be carried
backward, and taken hold of by the opposite hand, 
and the swimming continued with the leg and hand 
kept unemployed.  This is said to be useful when taken
with the cramp in one leg. 

32     SWIMMING. 

TO SWIM UNDER WATER. 

THIS should be done with the eyes open.  If you 
would swim midway between the bottom and the surface, 
make the strokes of the arms and the hands inward, 
i. e., toward you, as if you would embrace the
water by large armfuls, keeping the thumbs turned
rather downward.  These are most important manoeuvres. 
You are thus enabled to pass unseen across a
river of branch of water;  or to search for anything
which has fallen to the bottom;  and also to rescue any
one who is drowning. 

TO SWIM DOG-FASHION. 

One may easily swim like a dog, by imitating the
motions of that animal in the water.  It is useful as a 
variety to rest from fatigue, by a change of muscular
exertion.  The right hand and foot are worked together
alternately with the left. 

SPINNING IN THE WATER. 

To spin in the water, the altitude must be perpendicular, 
the chest well inflated, and the feet may be
crossed under the swimmer.  The circular motion is to
be given by the alternate motion of the hands working
in the same direction. 
By the same means, the swimmer in a horizontal position 
may roll along with considerable velocity, especially
down the current of a stream. 

ARTIFICIAL AIDS. 

DR. FRANKLIN found that with two painters' pallettes, 
broad pieces of wood with holes for his thumbs, with
a little practice he could greatly increase his velocity. 


SWIMMING.     33 

Similar paddles might give greater breadth to the feet, 
and even the insides of the legs might be so provided. 
Their use would require practice, as in skating, and
would serve to vary this amusement. 

CAUSES OF DROWNING. 

IN Dr. Arnott's Physics, the causes of drowning are
thus succinctly stated: 

"1.  Their believing the body to be heavier than water, 
which is not;  and, therefore, that continued exertion 
is necessary to keep them swimming, by which 
means they become the sooner exhausted. 
2.  From a fear that water, by entering the ears, may
drown, a wasteful exertion of strength is made to prevent 
it;  the truth being, however, that it can only fill
the outer ear, or as far as the membrane of the drum, 
and is therefore of no consequence.  Every diver and
swimmer has his ears filled with water, and with impunity. 
3.  Persons unaccustomed to water, and in danger of
being drowned, generally attempt, in their struggle, to
keep the hands above the surface, from feeling as if their 
hands were tied while held below;  but this act is most
hurtful, because any part of the body kept out of the
water in addition to the face, which must be out, requires
an effort to support it, which the individual is
supposed at the time to be incompetent to afford. 
4.  Not knowing the importance of keeping the chest
as full of air as possible, the doing of which has nearly
the same effect as tying a bladder of air to the neck; 
and, without other efforts, will cause nearly the whole
head to remain above the water.  If the chest be once
emptied, while, from the face being under water, the
person cannot inhale again, the body remains specifically 
heavier than water, and will sink." 

34     SWIMMING. 

HOW TO SAVE PERSONS FROM DROWNING. 

THE art of swimming, always pleasant and useful, 
may, in certain circumstances, be more useful than all 
others.  The drowning wretch would give wealth, learning, 
accomplishments, every thing, to be able to swim; 
and so would he who sees a friend or a fellow creature
go down and perish in his sight, where he is unable to
save him. 
It is difficult, and often very dangerous, for even the
best swimmer to attempt to save a drowning man.  The
grasp of such a person is dreadful.  The person attempting
to save another should, if possible, reach him 
with a stick, which he may grasp without injury.  Or
he should come behind and seize him by his hair, or by
the heel.  If the drowning person be still sensible, and
can be calmed sufficiently, he may be brought to the
shore by placing his hands upon the swimmer's shoulders; 
or the swimmer may take him under the arm. 
If a drowning man seize a person, the first object
must be to free himself, and this must be done at all
hazards.  Sometimes if the swimmer go down the other 
will let go, from the instinctive desire to get near the
surface.  If he do not, he must be throttled without 
mercy, and the, when insensible, he may be brought 
ashore safely.  These situations require great coolness
and courage, but with these a good swimmer may generally
save a person;  and if they have sunk for the last 
time, so much the less likely are they to destroy those 
who would preserve them. 
An exhausted swimmer, or one seized with cramp, 
generally has sense enough not to embarrass one who 
would save him;  but even such persons are sometimes
overcome by fear. 

RESUSCITATING THE DROWNED. 

IT is not possible to say how long a person must remain 


under water before life is extinct.  Persons have 
been recovered after an hour's drowning, and perhaps
more.  Those who have thus suffered, describe their
sensations as not at all painful, but a gentle and very
gradual loss of sensibility, sounds and sights gradually
fading from their senses.  On the other hand, the coming
out of this swoon is accompanied with violent and
painful spasms. 
When a body is taken from the water, it should be
subjected to no violence, such as rolling on a barrel, 
etc., and the coroner should not be thought of until all 
means have been tried, for at least six hours, for its 
recovery. 
Strip the body instantly, and if the weather or water
be cold, put it in hot flannels, and apply cloths rung out
in hot water.  In any case, restore warmth, the firt
condition of vitality. 
Especially, lose no time in inflating the lungs, and
getting up an artificial breathing.  This may be done
with a bellows, by placing the nose to one nostril, and
at the same time stopping the other and the mouth. 
Fill the lungs, and by a quick pressure expel the air; 
and continue this at the same time that the means are
used to raise the temperature.  By these means, hundreds 
of persons apparently dead, and who without
them would never have breathed again, have been recovered. 
The consciousness of having been the instrument of
saving the life of one human being, is probably one of
the purest sources of human happiness. 

SWIMMING IN NEW-YORK.  

Dr. Rabineau, long connected with the bathing
establishments of this city, assures us that there are not
less than three thousand ladies in New-York, who are
excellent swimmers, and who might, with entire safety, 

36 SWIMMING.
at any time, plunge into the water to save the life of a
drowning person.
At the principal swimming baths, teachers are engaged, 
expressly to teach the patrons of these useful
establishments, especially in the ladies' department;—
and if three thousand have learned so useful an accomplishment,
there is no reason why every female in the
city should not be able to enjoy the same elegant recreation.
That the foregoing hints may prove useful to both
sexes and every class, is the earnest desire of the Author
and the Artists.

1849. "WASH AND BE HEALED." 1849.
THE 
WATER-CURE JOURNAL
AND HERALD OF REFORMS,
FOR 1849.
JOEL SHEW. M D., EDITOR.
THE object of this Journal is to explain, in a manner suited to the capacity of
all, the new and celebrated system called HYDROPATHY, or the WATER-CURE—a
system which is, deservedly, fast gaining in popular favor, and which, in efficacy
to cure and prevent disease, is unparalleled in the healing art. This system embraces
a wide range of particulars, all of which may be stated in the general 
term,
THE PHILOSOPHY OF HEALTH.
Bathing, Chothing, Air, Ventilation, Food, Drinks, Exercise, Tobacco, or
whatever tends to the preservation or the destruction of the body or mind, will
be treated in this Journal.
THE WATER-CURE,
Now well established, is peculiarly favorable to the treatment of the maladies,
both chronic and acute, to which the human body is subject. We hope, also, to
teach our readers the best modes of PREVENTING, as well as CURING disease.
REFORMS,
Of whatever kinds, we shall promulgate as we think they deserve, and endeavor
to adapt our Journal to the wants of every family in the land.
THIS JOURNAL
Will be published monthly, containing thirty-two large octavo pages of the best
matter with reference to the application of this system, together with an interesting
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THE SCIENCE 
OF
SWIMMING. 

[illustration] 

BY AN EXPERIENCED SWIMMER. 

NEW YORK: 
FOWLERS AND WELLS, 
CLINTON HALL, 131 NASSAU STREET. 
828 

THE SCIENCE 

OF

SWIMMING, 

AS TAUGHT AND PRATICED IN 

CIVILIZED AND SAVAGE NATIONS; 

WITH PARTICULAR

INSTRUCTION TO LEARNERS:

ALSO SHOWING ITS IMPORTANCE IN THE

PRESERVATION OF HEALTH AND LIFE. 

ILLUSTRATED WITH ENGRAVINGS. 

BY AN EXPERIENCED SWIMMER. 

"Leap in with me into this angry flood, 
And swim to yonder point."---SHAKESPEAR. 

NEW YORK: 
FOWLERS AND WELLS, PUBLISHERS.
CLINTON HALL, 131 NASSAU STREET. 
1849.Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year of 1849, by
FOWLERS & WELLS, 
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District
of New York. 


[seal] 
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

SWIMMING. 

"The same Roman arm, 
That ran victorious o'er the conquer'd earth, 
First learned, while tender, to subdue the wave." 
THOMSON. 

THE ART OF SWIMMING appears to be as natural to
man, as it is useful, and, in some cases, necessary for
the preservation of his life. 
Cleanliness and exercise, both so necessary to health, 
are combined with a high degree of enjoyment in the
practice of this art. 
The importance of frequent ablutions can scarce be 
over-rated.  In fact, the Water Cure has become a
popular remedy for most of the diseases to which humanity
is liable.  But however excellent the various
kinds of bathing may be for curing diseases, there can
be no doubt that in preventing them they are still more
efficacious. 
Those who swim daily in summer, and continue the
use of ablutions in some form in winter, are not liable
to sudden colds, or inflammatory diseases, and rarely, 
if ever, suffer from chronic complaints.  Their bodies
become indurated, their skin is healthy, and all the 
functions of life are carried on with healthful vigor. 
They who merely bathe, without being able to swim, 
lose half the pleasure and m ore than half the benefit
which arises from frequent ablutions.  Swimming is an
exercise which brings more muscles into action than 
any other;  and the body being supported by an equal 
pressure on every part, their action is harmonious---6     SWIMMING. 

none being relaxed, and one over-strained.  This exercise
gives vigor and form to the limbs, and to the
general system.  It is probably that the ample exercise 
which the muscles and lungs obtained in the frequent
bathing of the ancients, gave their chests that round, 
full form, which is so observable in their statues.  All
flat and narrow-chested children should be taught to
swim, as nothing is more likely to counteract a tendency
to consumption. 
The most beautifully developed forms now to be
found in the human species, are those of the South
Sea Islanders, who bathe at least twice a day, and are
almost as much at home in the water as upon the land;  and
where the vices and diseases of civilization have not
been introduced, it is rare indeed to find among them a 
case of sickness, of premature death, or of decrepitude, 
excepting from extreme old age. 
Among the Greeks and Romans, swimming was considered
an important branch of education, and "He can
neither read nor swim," was a reproach for the last
degree of ignorance.  Caesar was a good swimmer; 
Cato taught his son to cross dangerous gulfs;  the Emperor
Augustus taught his nephew to swim.  As the
navies of Greece and Rome were manned by soldiers, 
and their battles were hand to hand encounters, to be
able to swim was of the last necessity, and required of
every soldier. 
In more modern times, Charlemagne was renowned
for being a good swimmer, and Louis XI often swam in 
the Seine, at the head of his courtiers---a better example
than is often set by monarchs. 
The capability of the human race, civilized or savage, 
for swimming, is generally understood.  The human
form is better adapted to it than that of any animal not
absolutely aquatic;  and the inhabitants of warm latitudes
excell most amphibious animals in the water, 
fighting with the shark, diving with the alligator, and remaining 


SWIMMING.     7 

for a long period in profound depths in search
of coral, pearls, and other treasures of the sea. 
The pearl divers of Ceylon will descend to the
depth of sixty feet;  and though such diving is accompanied
with a great pressure of water and violent exertion, 
they do not seem to suffer from it, as they make
forty or fifty plunges a day, and at each plunge bring up 
about a hundred oysters. 
The swimming couriers of Peru cross the continent
hundreds of miles, swimming down the rivers, their
dispatches enclosed in a turban on their heads.  They
[s]wim day and night, aided only by a light log of 
wood. 
In Prussia, swimming has long been a military exercise, 
whole regiments being instructed to swim in line, 
fully equipped, to wheel in column, and even to load
and fire in the water. 
A few years since the Viscount de Courtivron exhibited 
some experiments of this character in the Seine
at Paris.  He went into the water, accoutred as an
infantry soldier.  After swimming thirty fathoms from 
the boat, he raised himself in the water, and fired a
musket, at which signal one of his pupils sprang from 
the Pont Royal, a bridge, into the Seine, from a height
of sixty-four feet, and carried to M. Courtivron a tin
box containing dispatches.  He read the papers, gave a
signal, and was joined by a class of sixty-four pupils, 
who in the water executed a series of military movements. 
Dr. Franklin was an excellent swimmer, and his instructions
for learning to swim, being some of the best
ever given, are copied at full length in the following
pages. 
Lord Byron was an excellent swimmer, and prided
himself much on his aquatic feats.  In imitation of Leander, 
he swam the Hellespont, a narrow strait which 
divides Europe and Asia, in an hour and ten minutes, 

8     SWIMMING. 

with a strong tide against him.  He swam the Tagus
in three hours, and afterwards swam four hours and
twenty minutes without rest at Venice. 
Dr. Bedall, an English gentleman, swam for a wager
between Liverpool and Runcorn, in 1827, a distance of
twenty-four miles, which he performed at the rate of
six miles an hour---with the tide, probably! 
A French sailor was washed overboard from a sloop 
at nine o'clock, in September, 1820, and picked up next
morning, and this, be it noted, in a rough sea. 
How important is it, in a country like ours, that every 
man should learn to swim.  Storms strew our vast seacoasts 
with wrecks---steamboats are liable to accidents 
from collision, explosions, or fire, on our rivers and
lakes---pleasure boats frequently upset, and numerous 
accidents occur from the sudden breaking of ice in winter. 
The necessity of saving one's own life by swimming, 
or the opportunity of saving the lives of others, 
may happen to any one, and to many these things must
often occur in the course of their lives. 
At the burning of the steamboat Erie on Lake Erie,
of the hundred or more persons lost, every one might
have been saved, had they been able to swim like Dr. 
Franklin or Lord Byron;  but even the captain of the
boat was indebted to a negro who could swim for an oar 
which saved his life.  In a hundred such melancholy
disasters on our great lakes, rivers, and the ocean, valuable
lives might have been saved by a little pains in
learning to swim. 

MAN A SWIMMING ANIMAL. 

Young Neuha plunged into the deep, and he
Followed :  her track beneath her native sea
WAs as a native's of the element, 
So smoothly, bravely, brilliantly she went, 
Leaving a streak of light behind her heel, 
Which struck and flashed like an amphibious steel. 
Closely, and scarcely less expert to trace, 
The depths where divers hold the pearl in chase, 
Torquil, the nursling of the northern seas, 
Pursued her liquid steps with heart and ease.
"The Island."---LORD BYRON. 

NOTHING is so important in learning to swim as a
confidence in one's powers, and in the buoyancy of the
liquid element;  and perhaps one acquires a confidence 
in himself by no means sooner than by knowing what
can be done by others.  I shall therefore give a few 
additional examples of the skill in swimming to be acquired
by habit, begging my readers to remember, 
"Whatever man has done, man can do," and that we 
do not vary, in any important degree, in physical organization, 
from those who have this art in the highest 
perfection. 
When the lamented traveller, Mungo Park, was 
swimming across the river Niger, with his negro servant, 
a huge crocodile suddenly rose from the bottom 
of the river, and seized the thigh of the latter.  He
would doubtless have crushed and torn it off with his
immense jaws, had not the negro, who was as good a
swimmer and diver as the crocodile, turned round rapidly
under water, dashed his thumbs into the crocodile's 
eyes, and gouged them out.  The monster quitted his10     SWIMMING.

hold, and roared with agony, and the negro, seriously
but not dangerously wounded, reached the shore.
   The Caribs are expert at all gymnastic exercises,
and particularly at swimming, as if they were born in 
the water, and formed for it. They swim like fish,
and the women are skilful as the men. When a 
canoe overturns from carrying too much sail, they never
lose their baggage, and drowning is never heard of. on
such occasions, the children are seen swimming around
their mothers like so many little fish, and the mothers
support themselves in the water with infants at the 
breast, while the men bale out the canoes. In 1679 a 
vessel was overset in a squall off Martinique, in which
was one Carib, the rest being Europeans. All were
lost but the Carib, who, after supporting the violence 
of the tempest, as well as hunger and thirst, for sixty 
hours, reached the land in safety.
   But some of the most beautiful descriptions of bathing
and swimming are given in Mr. Melville's narrative
of his residence in Typee, a valley of the Marquesas, 
one of the finest groups of islands in the South Seas.
I shall be pardoned for quoting at some length from his
interesting pages. By the operation of the "taboo" - 
a religious prohibition - the use of canoes is not allowed
to the females of Marquesas: "consequently, when
a Marquesan lady voyages by water, she puts in requisition
the paddles of her own fair body.
   "We had approached within a mile and a half, perhaps, 
of the foot of the bay, when some of the islanders, 
who by this time had managed to scramble aboard of
us, directed our attention to a singular commotion in the 
water ahead of the vessel. At first I imagined it to be 
produced by a shoal of fish, sporting on the surface, but
our savage friends assured us that it was caused by a 
shoal of 'whinhenies,' (young girls,) who in this manner
were coming off from the shore to welcome us. As
they drew nearer, I watched the rising and sinking

{{page break}}

SWIMMING.         11

of their forms, and beheld the uplifted right arm, bearing
above the water the girdle of tappa, and their long 
dark hair trailing beside them as they swam, I almost
fancied they could be nothing else than so many mermaids."
   Through the Typee valley runs a clear stream of fresh
water, in which the whole population, old and young,
bathe morning and night. Describing his first bath,
our author says: "From the verdant surfaces of the 
large stones that lay scattered about, the natives were
now sliding off, diving, and ducking in the water, the 
young girls springing buoyantly into the air, with their
long tresses about their shoulders, their eyes sparkling
like dew drops in the sun, and their gay laughter pealing
forth at each frolicsome incident."
   "The ease and grace with which the maidens of the 
valley propelled themselves through the water, and
their familiarity with the element, were truly astonishing.
Sometimes they might be seen gliding along just
under the surface, without apparently moving hand or
foot; then throwing themselves on their sides, they
darted through the water, revealing glimpses of their
forms, as in the course of their rapid progress, they 
shot for an instant partly into the air; at one moment
they dived down deep into the water, and at the next
they rose bounding to its surface."
   The education of these islanders in their aquatic accomplishments
commences with their birth. Infants 
but a few days old are daily taken into the water by
their mothers, and swim long before they can creep or 
walk. "I am convinced," says Mr. Melville, "that it
is as natural for a human being to swim, as it is for a 
duck! And yet, in civilized communities, how many
able-bodied individuals die, like so many drowning kittens,
from the occurrence of the most trivial accidents!"12     SWIMMING. 

DR. FRANKLIN'S HINTS TO SWIMMERS. 

WHEN learning to swim in infancy has been neglected, 
the art may easily be learned at any age by a few
well-directed efforts.  The hints of Dr. Franklin are
the results of sound experience, and are well worth 
attending to;  and are as follows: 

"The only obstacle to improvement in this necessary and life-preserving
art, is fear;  and it is only by overcoming this timidity, that you can 
expect to become a master of the following acquirements.  It is very 
common for novices in the art of swimming, to make use of corks and
bladders to assist in keeping the body above water;  some have utterly 
condemned the use of them;  however, they may be of service for 
supporting the body while one is learning what is called the stroke, or
that manner of drawing in and striking out the hands and feet, that is
necessary to produce progressive motion.  But you will be no swimmer
till you can place confidence in the power of the water to support
you;  I would, therefore, advise the acquiring that confidence in the
first place, especially as I have known several, who, by a little practice
necessary for that purpose, have insensibly acquired the stroke, taught
as it were by nature;  the practice I mean is this:  choosing a place
where the water deepens gradually, walk coolly into it till it is up to
your breast, then turn round your face to the shore, and throw an egg
into the water between you and the shore;  it will sink to the bottom, 
and may be easily seen there if the water is clear.  It must lie in the
water so deep that you cannot reach to take it up, but by diving for it. 
To encourage yourself in order to do this, reflect that your progress 
will be from deep to shallow water, and that at any time you may, by
bringing your legs under you, and standing on the bottom, raise your 
head far above the water;  then plunge under it with your eyes open, 
which much be kept open before going under, as you cannot open the
eyelids for the weight of water above you;  throwing yourself toward 
the egg, and endeavoring by the action of your hands and feet against
the water, to get forward till within reach of it.  In this attempt you
will find that the water buoys you up against your inclination, and that 
if is not so easy to sink as you imagine, and that you cannot but by force
get down to the egg.  Thus you will feel the power of water to support 
you, and learn to confide in that power;  while your endeavors to overcome
it and reach the egg, teach you the manner of acting on the water
with your feet and hands, which action is used afterwards in swimming
to support your head higher above the water, or to go forward
through it. 
"I would the more earnestly press you to the trial of this method, 
because, though I think I shall satisfy you that your body is lighter than 
water, and that you might float in it a long time with your mouth free 
for breathing, if you would put yourself into a proper posture, and
would lie still and forbear struggling, yet, till you have obtained this
experimental confidence in the water, I cannot depend upon your having 


SWIMMING.     13 

the necessary presence of mind to recollect the posture, and the
directions I give you relating to it.  The surprise may put all out of
your mind. 
"Though the legs, arms, and head of a human body, being solid
pars, are, specifically, somewhat heavier than fresh water;  yet the
trunk, particularly the upper part, from the hollowness, is so much
lighter than the water, that the whole body, taken altogether, is too light
to sink wholly under water;  but some part will remain above until the 
lungs become filled with water, which happens from drawing water
into them instead of air, when a person in a fright attempts breathing
while the mouth and nostrils are under water. 
"The legs and arms are specifically lighter than salt water, and will
be supported by it, so that a human body cannot sink in salt water, 
thought the lungs were filled as above, but from the specific gravity of
the head.  Therefore, a person throwing himself on his back in salt
water, and extending his arms, may easily lie so as to keep his mouth 
and nostrils free for breathing, and by a small motion of his hand, may
prevent his body from turning, if he should perceive any tendency
to it. 
"In fresh water, if a man throws himself on his back near the surface, 
he cannot long continue in that situation, but by proper action of
his hands on the water;  if he use no such action, the legs and lower 
part of his body will gradually sink till he comes to an upright position, 
in which he will continue suspended, the hollow of his breast keeping
the head uppermost. 
"But if, in this erect position, the head be kept upright above the
shoulders, as when we stand on the ground, the immersion will, by the
weight of that part of the head that is out of water, reach above the
mouth and nostrils, perhaps a little above the eyes;  so that a man cannot
long remain suspended in water, with his head in that position. 
"The body continuing suspended as before, and upright, if the head
be leaned quite back, so that the face look upward, all the back part of
the head being under water, and its weight consequently in a great 
measure supported by it, the face will remain above water quite free
for breathing, will rise an inch higher every inspiration, and sink as 
much every expiration:  but never so low as that the water may come
over the mouth. 
"If, therefore, a person unacquainted with swimming, and falling accidentally
into the water, could have presence of mind sufficient to
avoid struggling and plunging, and to let the body take this natural position, 
he might continue long safe from drowning, till perhaps help
should come;  for as to the clothes, their additional weight when immersed 
is very inconsiderable, the water supporting it;  though when
he comes out of the water, he would find them very heavy indeed. 
But, as I said before, I would not advise you, or any one, to depend
upon having this presence of mind on such an occasion, but learn fairly 
to swim, as I wish all men were taught to do in their youth;  they
would, on many occasions, be the safer for that skill, nd on many 
more the happier, as free from painful apprehensions of danger, to say
nothing of the enjoyment in so delightful and wholesome an exercise. 
Soldiers particularly should, methinks, all be taught to swim;  it might
be of frequent use either in surprising an enemy, or saving themselves: 14     SWIMMING. 

and if I had boys to educate now, I should prefer those schools, (other
things being equal,) where an opportunity was afforded for acquiring
so advantageous an art, which, once learned, is never forgotten . 
"I know by experience that it is a great comfort to a swimmer who
has a considerable distance to go, to turn himself sometimes on his
back, and to vary in other respects the means of procuring progressive
motion. 
"When he is seized with the cramp in the leg, the method of driving
it away is to give the parts affected a sudden, vigorous, and violent 
shock;  which he may do in the air, as he swings on his back. 
"During the great heats of summer, there is no danger of bathing, 
however warm we may be, in rivers which have been thoroughly warmed
by the sun.  But to throw one's-self into cold spring-water, when 
the body has been heated by exercise in the sun, is an imprudence
which may prove fatal.  I once knew an instance of four young men, 
who having worked at harvest in the heart of the day, with a view of refreshing
themselves, plunges into a spring of cold water:  two died 
upon the spot, a third the next morning, and the fourth recovered with
great difficulty.  A copious draught of cold water, in similar circumstances, 
is frequently attended with the same fatal effect in North
America. 
"The exercise of swimming is one of the most healthy and agreeable
in the world.  After having swum for an hour or two in the evening, 
one sleeps coolly the whole of the night, even during the most ardent
heats of summer. 
"When I was a boy, I amused myself one day with flying a paper
kite;  and approaching the banks of a lake which was near a mile broad, 
I tied the string to a stake, and the kite ascended to a very considerable 
height above the pond, while I was swimming.  In a little time, being
desirous of amusing myself with my kite, and enjoying at the same
time the pleasure of swimming, I returned, and loosing from the stake 
the string with the little stick which was fastened to it, went again into
the water, where I found that, lying on my back, and holding the stick 
in my hand, I was drawn along the surface of the water in a very agreeable
manner.  Having then engaged another boy to carry my clothes 
round the pond, to a place which I pointed out to him on the other side, 
I began to cross the pond with my kite, which carried me quite over
without the least fatigue, and with the greatest pleasure imaginable.  I
was only obliged occasionally to halt a little in my course, and resist
its progress, when it appeared that, by following too quick, I lowered 
the kite too much;  by doing which occasionally I made it rise again.
I have never since that time practised this singular mode of swimming, 
though I think it not impossible to cross, in this manner, from Dover to
Calais.  The packet-boat, however, is still preferable." 

EFFECTS OF BATHING ON THE HEALTH. 
CLEANLINESS, obtained in whatever way, keeps open
the pores of the skin, and allows of the free escape of
the insensible perspiration, which is thrown off in great 


SWIMMING.     15 

quantities, and the free egress of which is of the utmost
importance to the health of the system. 
To the benefits of exercise in swimming, I have
already alluded. 
The tonic and reviving qualities of cold water are of
the most remarkable character.  How wonderfully refreshing
is it to bathe merely the face and hands in cold 
water!  How uncomfortable for one to whom even
these slight ablutions are habitual, to do without them 
even for a single day!  Those who are accustomed to 
bathe every day the whole surface of the body, feel
from this practice a proportionate vigor and exhilaration. 
On first plunging into cold water, there comes a
shock which drives the blood to the central parts of the
system.  But immediately a reaction takes place, which 
is assisted by the exercise of swimming, producing, even
in water of a low temperature, an agreeable warmth. 
The stay in the water should never be voluntarily prolonged
beyond the period of this excitement.  If the
water be left while this warmth continues, and the
body immediately dried, the healthy glow over the
whole surface will be delightful. 
To remain in the water, after the first reaction is
over, produces a prolonged chilliness, a shrinking of the
flesh, and a contraction of the skin, by no means favorable
to health or enjoyment, for it is only in water thouroughly
warmed by the summer heats, or which is never 
cooled by northern winters, where we may bathe for 
many hours with impunity. 
In our climate certain precautions are necessary. 
Moderate exercise, by summoning into action the powers
of the system, and quickening the circulation, is better
than inactivity.  We should never go into water 
immediately after a meal, nor while the process of digestion 
is going forward.  Nor should we plunge into the 
water when violently heated, or in a state of profuse
perspiration.  In our climate, such imprudencies are16        SWIMMING.

often fatal, especially if the water be unusually cold. if
too warm, the temperature of the body may be reduced
by bathing the wrists, and wetting the head.

TIMES AND PLACES FOR SWIMMING.

BEFORE meals, rather than after, and especially before
breakfast, and before supper, are proper seasons for 
bathing. The heads of the day are to be avoided, but,
in very hot weather, a bath is useful to cool the blood, 
and secure refreshing sleep. if in the middle of the
day, a shaded place should be chosen, or the head protected
from the sun by being kept wet, or by wearing a 
straw hat, as is pratised by the fashionable French
ladies at their watering places.
The sea is the best place for swimming. Owing to 
the greater specific gravity of salt water than fresh, the 
body is more buoyant in it, as are other substances. a 
ship coming out of salt water into fresh, sinks perceptibly
in the water. the difference is nearly equal to the 
weight of the salt held in solution. 
Next to the water of the sea, is that of clear running
streams, and last of all fresh water ponds.  The great 
lakes on our northern frontier, however, owing to their
extent, and constant agitation, have all the purity of
running streams, with greater specific gravity, from the 
lime they hold in solution.  It is the limestone which 
gives them their beautiful blue color, and not, as some
suppose, their depth, for Lake Erie, a comparatively 
shallow lake, is deeply colored, while Lake Huron 
much larger and deeper, is as clear as crystal, and quite
colorless. 
Bathing is best performed when quite naked, but, as
in the bathing establishments in large towns and cities, 
and in thickly-settled parts of the country, decency forbids
entire nudity, a kind of short drawers is worn, as
may be seen in our engravings;  and where ladies and 


SWIMMING.     17 

gentlemen bathe in company, as is the fashion all along
the Atlantic coast, and especially at Rockaway, Coney
Island, Long Branch, etc., shirts and trowsers are
worn by the men, and flannel bathing dresses, made for
the purpose, by the ladies. 
At Coney Island, the nearest bathing ground to New
York, there are small houses on the beach for both
sexes, in which their bathing toilets are arranged, and
from which  parties of merry bathers issue, and the 
ladies are conducted into the surf by their attendant 
cavaliers, with less ceremony perhaps, but more fun, 
than is generally found in a ball room.  Many of our
city ladies are also in the habit of frequenting the swimming
baths, and this accomplishment has in more than 
one instance enabled them to save individuals of the
other sex from a watery grave. 
The bottom should be of hard sand, gravel, or smooth
stones.  Sharp stones and shells cut the feet---weeds 
may entangle them.  The swimmer must avoid floating
grass and quicksand.  The new beginner must be careful 
that the water does not run beyond his depth, and
that the current cannot carry him into a deeper place, 
 also that there be no holes in the bottom.  As persons 
are ever liable to accidents, cramps, etc., it is always 
best that boys or girls should be accompanied by those
who are older than themselves, and who will be able to 
save them in any emergency.  The brother of the writer 
was once seized with a cramp at the bottom of a river, 
 and must have drowned had not a noble-hearted boy
dived down and rescued him.  Had he been bathing
alone, nothing could have saved him. 

AIDS IN LEARNING TO SWIM. 

PROBABLY one of the best ways of learning to swim 
is to go, with a competent teacher, in a boat in deep
water, this supporting the body more buoyantly than 

18     SWIMMING. 

that which is shallower, and preventing the constant
tendency of beginners to touch bottom;  which here is
of course imposible. 
The teacher should fasten a rope carefully around
the waist, or, better still, to a belt, which can neither
tighten nor slip down.  The rope may be fastened to a
short pole.  Supported in this manner, the pupil may 
take his proper position in the water, and practise the
necessary motions, and the support of the rope may be
gradually lessened, until the pupil finds himself entirely
supported by the water. 

[illustration of swimmer (with "bladders") in water] 

Corks and bladders are often used as supports for
learners;  but it is much better to begin without them. 
As, however, they may be a protection in some cases 
against accidents, and enable the learner to practise
the proper motions for rapid swimming more carefully, 
they are not to be entirely condemned.  Several 
large pieces of cork, uncut into stopples, must be strung 
upon each end of a piece of rope, long enough to pass
under the chest, and reach just above the shoulders;  or
well blown and properly secured bladders may be fastened
in the same way, as seen in the engraving.  Care
must be taken to confine these supports near the shoulders, 
as by their slipping down, they would plunge the
head under water, and produce the very catastrophe 
they were designed to prevent. 
A great variety of life-preservers have been invented. 


SWIMMING.     19 

made of Indian-rubber, and cork shavings, in the form 
of jackets, belts, etc., which may be used like the cork 
 and bladders;  but as their bulk is generally all around 
the chest, they hinder the free use of the arms, and
impede the velocity of motion.  As life-preservers, they 
would do very well if people ever had them on when 
they were needed, or had presence of mind enough to
fit and inflate them in sudden emergencies.  The best 
life-preservers are the self-reliance and well-directed
skill of a good swimmer. 

[illustration of swimmer (with plank) in water] 

Swimming with the plank has two advantages.  The
young bather has always the means of saving himself
from the effects of a sudden cramp, and he can practise
with facility the necessary motions with the legs 
and feet, aided by the momentum of the plank.  A
piece of light wood three or four feet long, two feet
wide, and about two inches thick, will answer very well 
for this purpose.  The chin may be rested upon the
end, and the arms used, but this must be done carefully, 
or the support may go beyond the young swimmer's
reach. 
A better method, as many think, than any of these, 
is for the teacher to wade into the water with his pupil, 
and then support him in a horizontal position, by placing
his hand under the pupil's chest, while he directs his
motions.  He may withdraw his support almost imperceptibly; 
but I do not see what advantage this method20     SWIMMING. 

has over that first noticed with the boat, unless it be
that the teacher can better enforce his precepts by examples, 
and in swimming himself, give practical illustrations
of his theories of propulsion.

[illustration of swimmer (with rope attached to tree limb) in water] 

The rope is another artificial support which has its
advantages.  A rope may be attached to a pole, fastened
---and mind that it be well fastened---in the bank, or it
may be attached, as shown in the engraving, to the 
branch of an overhanging tree.  Taken in the hands, 
the swimmer may practise with his legs, or by holding 
it in his teeth, he may use all his limbs at once.  The
rope, however, is not so good as the plank, as it allows
of less freedom of motion, and the latter might easily
be so fixed as to be laid hold of by the teeth, and held
securely. 

THE CRAMP. 
THOSE persons who plunge into the water when they
are heated by exercise, and remain in it until they are 
benumbed with cold, or exhaust themselves by very
violent exertion, are the most subject to attacks of 


SWIMMING.     21 

cramp.  The moment the swimmer is seized by cramp
in the legs, he must not suffer himself to feel alarmed; 
but strike out the limb affected with all his might, keeping
the heel downward, and drawing the toes as far upward
as he can, although at the time these movements 
give him great pain;  he may also turn on his back, and
jerk the limb into the air, though not so high as to throw 
himself out of his balance.  Should these attempts 
prove unsuccessful, he must try to reach the shore with
his hands;  or, at all events, keep himself afloat until 
assistance can be procured.  If he cannot float on his
back, he may swim upright, keeping his head above the
surface, by striking the water downward with his hands
near his hips;  and he can thus make steady progress
without using his legs.  If only one leg be attacked, the
swimmer may strike forward with the other;  and to
acquire confidence in cases of cramp, it is advisable to
practice swimming with one hand and leg;  with the
hands only, or even with one leg. 

ENTERING THE WATER---STRIKING OUT. 

WE now come to the most important directions.  As 
the pupil must gradually acquire confidence in this new
element, he should not be urged to plunge in against his
inclination.  After wetting his head, he may wade in
until the water is up to his breast, then turning towards 
the shore, inflate his lungs and incline forward, until 
the water covers his chin.  The head should be thrown 
backward, and the back hollowed, and the chest as much 
as possible expanded.  In swimming the feet should be
about two feet below the surface. 
The hands should be placed just in front of the breast, 
pointing forward, the fingers kept close together, and
the thumb to the fingers, so as to form a slightly hollow
paddle.  Now strike the hands forward as far as possible, 
but not bringing them to the surface;  then make a22     SWIMMING. 

sweep backward to the hips, the hands being turned
downward and outward;  then bring them back under
the body, and with as little resistance as may be, to their
former position, and continue as before. 
The hands have three motions---First, from their 
position at the breast, they are pushed straight forward; 
second, the sweep round to the hips, like an oar, the
closed and hollowed hands being the paddle portion, 
and their position in the water and descent serving both 
to propel and sustain the body;  and, third, they are
brought back under the body to the first position. 
Having learned these motions by practising them 
slowly, the pupil should proceed to learn the still more 
important motions of the legs.  These are likewise
three in number, one of preparation, and two of propulsion. 
First, the legs are drawn up as far as possible, 
by bending the knees, and keeping the feet widely separated; 
second, they are pushed with force backward
and outward, so that they spread as far as possible; 
and, third, the legs are brought together, thus acting
powerfully upon the wedge of water which they enclosed. 
Some works upon swimming advise that the propelling
stroke of the arms and legs should be used alternately; 
but this is not the method used by good swimmers, 
or by that best of teachers, the frog, of whom I
would advise all new beginners to take lessons.  It is 
better that the feet should be brought up, at the same
time that the hands are carried to their first position; 
the propelling strokes may then be combined so as to
give the body its most powerful impetus, as a boat is 
rowed best with simultaneous strokes. 
The motion in the water should be as straight forward
as possible, and the more the head is immersed
the easier is the swimming.  Rising at every stroke---
breasting, as it is called---is both tiresome and inelegant. 
All these movements should be made with slowness, 


SWIMMING.     23 

an deliberately, without the least flurry.  The learner
will soon breathe naturally, and as the motions are really
natural, he will not be long in acquiring them.  If he 
draw in his breath as he rises, and breathe it out as he
sinks, he will time his strokes, and avoid swallowing
water.  Those who have been accustomed to fresh water, 
must be particularly careful when they go into the
sea, the water of which is very nauseous. 

PLUNGING OR DIVING. 

[illustration of swimmer poised to dive into water] 

IN leaping into the water, feet first, which is done
from rocks, bridges, and even from the yards and masts
of lofty vessels, the feet much be kept close together, and
the arms either held close to the side, or over the head. 
In diving head foremost, the hands must be put together, 
as in the engraving, so as to divide the water before the 
head.  The hands are also in a proper position for striking
out. 
It is wonderful how easily the swimmer directs his
course under water.  If he wishes to go down or come
up, or swim to the right or lift, he has but to bend his
head and body in that direction, and after a little use he
will do this almost unconsciously, as if his movements
were the result of volition alone.24     SWIMMING. 

In diving in shallow water, care must be taken not to
strike the head upon a hard bottom, nor to stick it in
the mud.  It is better to fill the chest always.  The 
deeper a man dives the more buoyant will he be, and
from a depth of twenty feet, even in fresh water, he
will rise to the surface with considerable impetus.  No
one need fear not being able to come up, the great
difficulty being to say down;  those who make a business
of diving being obliged to have heavy weights for that
purpose. 
The best swimmers and divers in the world, keep
their eyes open under water, so as to see their course
and any object of which they may be in search.  The
South Sea Islanders, who are almost born in the water, 
will swim for miles without showing their heads above
the surface, which they manage in this manner.  After 
diving beneath the surface, the swimmer keeps parallel
to it as long as he can without breathing, when, turning
upon his back by an easy motion of his hands, he allows
his nose and nothing more to come above the surface. 
After breathing once or twice, by a slight motion of the
hands he sinks again, and so pursues his course. 
In descending in the water, bend the head so as to
bring the chin near the breast, and curve the back in 
the same direction;  in ascending, hold back the head
and hollow the back.  In swimming over the surface, 
look up to the sky.  It is quite impossible to dive beneath
the surface in this position. 

SWIMMING IN DEEP WATER. 

IN the swimming schools of Prussia, the pupils are
taught in deep water, sustained by a belt, and a rope
attached to a pole, which the teacher holds as a lever
over a railing.  The motions of the arms, then of the
legs, and then both together, are practised by word of
command, like military exercises.  The support is given 


SWIMMING.     25 

as required.  After a few lessons the pole is dispensed
with---then the rope;  but the pupil is still kept, until 
quite proficient, within reach of the pole. 
This mode of learning to swim is like that practised
in teaching boys to ride in the circus.  A rope, fastened
to a belt, passes through a ring in the saddle, and the
end is held by the riding master in the centre of the
ring.  If the boy falls, his teacher has only to draw
upon the rope, and he is secure from danger, and ready
to spring to his feet again. 
Those who are learning to swim in shallow water, 
and without a teacher, may find advantage in the following
method: 
When the learner has acquired some facility in swimming, 
and wishes to try to swim out of his depth, he
should first venture to cross a stream which may be a
foot or two overhead in the middle.  He must not be
alarmed at not feeling ground under his feet, or make
quick and short strokes, and breathe at the wrong time, 
so that he involuntarily swallows water;  all which 
mishaps, of course, increase the hurry and agitation, 
and make it difficult for him to get back to shore. 
Learners should therefore never venture out of their 
depth, without having first practised such distances only
as they are certain they can accomplish;  for if they can 
swim eight or ten yards without allowing their feet to
touch the bottom of the river, they may fearlessly attempt
to cross a deep stream of only half that width, 
and so on, increasing the distance by degrees;  they
will thus progressively attain presence of mind, and
find that the deeper the water, the greater is is sustaining
power, and the easier they will be enabled to
swim in it. 

324     SWIMMING. 

In diving in shallow water, care must be taken not to
strike the head upon a hard bottom, nor to stick it in
the mud.  It is better to fill the chest always.  The 
deeper a man dives the more buoyant will he be, and
from a depth of twenty feet, even in fresh water, he
will rise to the surface with considerable impetus.  No
one need fear not being able to come up, the great
difficulty being to say down;  those who make a business
of diving being obliged to have heavy weights for that
purpose. 
The best swimmers and divers in the world, keep
their eyes open under water, so as to see their course
and any object of which they may be in search.  The
South Sea Islanders, who are almost born in the water, 
will swim for miles without showing their heads above
the surface, which they manage in this manner.  After 
diving beneath the surface, the swimmer keeps parallel
to it as long as he can without breathing, when, turning
upon his back by an easy motion of his hands, he allows
his nose and nothing more to come above the surface. 
After breathing once or twice, by a slight motion of the
hands he sinks again, and so pursues his course. 
In descending in the water, bend the head so as to
bring the chin near the breast, and curve the back in 
the same direction;  in ascending, hold back the head
and hollow the back.  In swimming over the surface, 
look up to the sky.  It is quite impossible to dive beneath
the surface in this position. 

SWIMMING IN DEEP WATER. 

IN the swimming schools of Prussia, the pupils are
taught in deep water, sustained by a belt, and a rope
attached to a pole, which the teacher holds as a lever
over a railing.  The motions of the arms, then of the
legs, and then both together, are practised by word of
command, like military exercises.  The support is given 


SWIMMING.     25 

as required.  After a few lessons the pole is dispensed
with---then the rope;  but the pupil is still kept, until 
quite proficient, within reach of the pole. 
This mode of learning to swim is like that practised
in teaching boys to ride in the circus.  A rope, fastened
to a belt, passes through a ring in the saddle, and the
end is held by the riding master in the centre of the
ring.  If the boy falls, his teacher has only to draw
upon the rope, and he is secure from danger, and ready
to spring to his feet again. 
Those who are learning to swim in shallow water, 
and without a teacher, may find advantage in the following
method: 
When the learner has acquired some facility in swimming, 
and wishes to try to swim out of his depth, he
should first venture to cross a stream which may be a
foot or two overhead in the middle.  He must not be
alarmed at not feeling ground under his feet, or make
quick and short strokes, and breathe at the wrong time, 
so that he involuntarily swallows water;  all which 
mishaps, of course, increase the hurry and agitation, 
and make it difficult for him to get back to shore. 
Learners should therefore never venture out of their 
depth, without having first practised such distances only
as they are certain they can accomplish;  for if they can 
swim eight or ten yards without allowing their feet to
touch the bottom of the river, they may fearlessly attempt
to cross a deep stream of only half that width, 
and so on, increasing the distance by degrees;  they
will thus progressively attain presence of mind, and
find that the deeper the water, the greater is is sustaining
power, and the easier they will be enabled to
swim in it. 

328     SWIMMING. 

give the motion backward, which is performed with
greater ease than when the body is laid horizontally on
the back. 
Such is an outline of Bernardi's method of teaching
the art of swimming;  by which he calculates, that, at
every stroke, a swimmer ought to impel himself forward
a distance equal to the length of his body;  and, 
 in general, at the rate of three miles an hour.  In consequence
of Bernardi's successful practice, he was appointed
to instruct the youths of the Royal Naval Academy
of Naples, in the art of swimming. 
The upright mode of swimming is far more secure
than the ordinary system, and it may be learned in one-twentieth
part of the time.  A young Italian, after
eleven days' instruction by Bernardi, is stated to have
swam a circuit of nearly six miles in the bay of Naples, 
although he was previously unacquainted with swimming. 
The natives of New South Wales swim nearly upright, 
and generally backward, yet with must skill and
velocity;  indeed, they swim and turn with such swiftness, 
even under water, that they see and spear fish
while beneath the surface. 

SIDE SWIMMING. 

IN swimming on either side, the motions of the legs
have no alteration, but are performed as usual.  To
swim on the left side, lower that side, which is done 

[illustration of side swimmer in water]  


SWIMMING     29 

with the slightest effort, and requires no instructions. 
Then strike forward with the left hand, and sideways 
with the right, keeping the back of the latter to the 
front, with the thumb side downward, so as to act as an 
oar.  In turning on the other side, strike out with the
right hand, and use the left for an oar.  To swim on
each side alternately, stretch out the lower arm the instant
that a strike is made by the feet, and strike with 
the other arm on a level with the head at the instant
that the feet are urging the swimmer forward;  and
while the upper hand is carried forward, and the feet
are contracted, the lower hand must be drawn toward
the body.  This method is full of variety, and capable
of great rapidity, but it is also very fatigning. 

THRUSTING. 

THIS is a beautiful variety of this exercise, and must
used by accomplished swimmers.  The legs and feet
are worked as in ordinary swimming, but the hands and 

[illustration of swimmer in water] 

arms very differently.  One arm---say the right---should
be lifted wholly out of the water, thrust forward to its
utmost reaching, and then dropped upon the water with
the hand hollowed, and then brought back by a powerful 
movement, pulling the water toward the opposite
arm-pit.  At the same time the body must be sustained 
and steadied by the left hand, working in a small circle, 
and as the right arm comes back from its far reach to
the arm-pit, the left is carrying in an easy sweep from 
3*30     SWIMMING. 

the breast to the hip.  The left arm is thrust forward
alternately with the right, and by these varied movements, 
great rapidity is combined with much ease. 

SWIMMING ON THE BACK. 

THIS is the easiest of all modes of swimming, because
in this way a larger portion of the body is supported by
the water.  It is very useful to rest the swimmer from 

[illustration of swimmer [on back] in water] 

the greater exertion of more rapid methods, and especially
when a long continuance in deep water is unavoidable. 
The swimmer can turn easily to this position, or
if learning, he has but to incline slowly backward, keeping
his head on a line with his body, and letting his ears 
sink below the surface.  Then placing his hands upon 
his hips, he can push himself along with his feet and
legs with perfect ease, and considerable rapidity. 
The hands may be used to assist in propelling in this
mode, by bringing them up edgewise toward the arm-pits, 
and then pushing them down, the fingers fronting 
inward, and the thumb part down.  This is called
"winging." 
The hands may be used at discretion, the application 
of force in one direction of course giving motion in the
other;  and the best methods are soon learned when 
once the pupil has acquired confidence in his buoyant
powers. 


SWIMMING.     31 

FLOATING. 

THIS is so useful a part of the art of swimming, that
it cannot be too soon obtained.  In salt water, nothing
is easier, and in fresh, to most persons, it requires but
the slightest exertion.  The feet should be stretched 

[illustration of swimmer floating] 

out, and the arms extended upward, so as to be at least
as high as the top of the head, and under water.  The
head must be held back, the chin raised, and the chest 
expanded.  The hands will easily keep the body in this
horizontal position, and by breathing carefully, a person 
may float at ease for hours.  Could a person, unable to
swim, but have the presence of mind to take this position, 
he could never drown. 

TO BEAT THE WATER. 

THIS and the succeeding feats should never be attempted
until the pupil can swim well, and has acquired 
perfect confidence in the water.  The water is beaten 
by raising the legs out of it alternately, while swimming
on the back, the body being sustained by the hands. 
While swimming on the breast, one leg may be carried
backward, and taken hold of by the opposite hand, 
and the swimming continued with the leg and hand 
kept unemployed.  This is said to be useful when taken
with the cramp in one leg.32     SWIMMING. 

TO SWIM UNDER WATER. 

THIS should be done with the eyes open.  If you 
would swim midway between the bottom and the surface, 
make the strokes of the arms and the hands inward, 
i. e., toward you, as if you would embrace the
water by large armfuls, keeping the thumbs turned
rather downward.  These are most important manoeuvres. 
You are thus enabled to pass unseen across a
river of branch of water;  or to search for anything
which has fallen to the bottom;  and also to rescue any
one who is drowning. 

TO SWIM DOG-FASHION. 

One may easily swim like a dog, by imitating the
motions of that animal in the water.  It is useful as a 
variety to rest from fatigue, by a change of muscular
exertion.  The right hand and foot are worked together
alternately with the left. 

SPINNING IN THE WATER. 

To spin in the water, the altitude must be perpendicular, 
the chest well inflated, and the feet may be
crossed under the swimmer.  The circular motion is to
be given by the alternate motion of the hands working
in the same direction. 
By the same means, the swimmer in a horizontal position 
may roll along with considerable velocity, especially
down the current of a stream. 

ARTIFICIAL AIDS. 

DR. FRANKLIN found that with two painters' pallettes, 
broad pieces of wood with holes for his thumbs, with
a little practice he could greatly increase his velocity. 


SWIMMING.     33 

Similar paddles might give greater breadth to the feet, 
and even the insides of the legs might be so provided. 
Their use would require practice, as in skating, and
would serve to vary this amusement. 

CAUSES OF DROWNING. 

IN Dr. Arnott's Physics, the causes of drowning are
thus succinctly stated: 

"1.  Their believing the body to be heavier than water, 
which is not;  and, therefore, that continued exertion 
is necessary to keep them swimming, by which 
means they become the sooner exhausted. 
2.  From a fear that water, by entering the ears, may
drown, a wasteful exertion of strength is made to prevent 
it;  the truth being, however, that it can only fill
the outer ear, or as far as the membrane of the drum, 
and is therefore of no consequence.  Every diver and
swimmer has his ears filled with water, and with impunity. 
3.  Persons unaccustomed to water, and in danger of
being drowned, generally attempt, in their struggle, to
keep the hands above the surface, from feeling as if their 
hands were tied while held below;  but this act is most
hurtful, because any part of the body kept out of the
water in addition to the face, which must be out, requires
an effort to support it, which the individual is
supposed at the time to be incompetent to afford. 
4.  Not knowing the importance of keeping the chest
as full of air as possible, the doing of which has nearly
the same effect as tying a bladder of air to the neck; 
and, without other efforts, will cause nearly the whole
head to remain above the water.  If the chest be once
emptied, while, from the face being under water, the
person cannot inhale again, the body remains specifically 
heavier than water, and will sink."34     SWIMMING. 

HOW TO SAVE PERSONS FROM DROWNING. 

THE art of swimming, always pleasant and useful, 
may, in certain circumstances, be more useful than all 
others.  The drowning wretch would give wealth, learning, 
accomplishments, every thing, to be able to swim; 
and so would he who sees a friend or a fellow creature
go down and perish in his sight, where he is unable to
save him. 
It is difficult, and often very dangerous, for even the
best swimmer to attempt to save a drowning man.  The
grasp of such a person is dreadful.  The person attempting
to save another should, if possible, reach him 
with a stick, which he may grasp without injury.  Or
he should come behind and seize him by his hair, or by
the heel.  If the drowning person be still sensible, and
can be calmed sufficiently, he may be brought to the
shore by placing his hands upon the swimmer's shoulders; 
or the swimmer may take him under the arm. 
If a drowning man seize a person, the first object
must be to free himself, and this must be done at all
hazards.  Sometimes if the swimmer go down the other 
will let go, from the instinctive desire to get near the
surface.  If he do not, he must be throttled without 
mercy, and the, when insensible, he may be brought 
ashore safely.  These situations require great coolness
and courage, but with these a good swimmer may generally
save a person;  and if they have sunk for the last 
time, so much the less likely are they to destroy those 
who would preserve them. 
An exhausted swimmer, or one seized with cramp, 
generally has sense enough not to embarrass one who 
would save him;  but even such persons are sometimes
overcome by fear. 

RESUSCITATING THE DROWNED. 

IT is not possible to say how long a person must remain 


under water before life is extinct.  Persons have 
been recovered after an hour's drowning, and perhaps
more.  Those who have thus suffered, describe their
sensations as not at all painful, but a gentle and very
gradual loss of sensibility, sounds and sights gradually
fading from their senses.  On the other hand, the coming
out of this swoon is accompanied with violent and
painful spasms. 
When a body is taken from the water, it should be
subjected to no violence, such as rolling on a barrel, 
etc., and the coroner should not be thought of until all 
means have been tried, for at least six hours, for its 
recovery. 
Strip the body instantly, and if the weather or water
be cold, put it in hot flannels, and apply cloths rung out
in hot water.  In any case, restore warmth, the firt
condition of vitality. 
Especially, lose no time in inflating the lungs, and
getting up an artificial breathing.  This may be done
with a bellows, by placing the nose to one nostril, and
at the same time stopping the other and the mouth. 
Fill the lungs, and by a quick pressure expel the air; 
and continue this at the same time that the means are
used to raise the temperature.  By these means, hundreds 
of persons apparently dead, and who without
them would never have breathed again, have been recovered. 
The consciousness of having been the instrument of
saving the life of one human being, is probably one of
the purest sources of human happiness. 

SWIMMING IN NEW-YORK.  

Dr. Rabineau, long connected with the bathing
establishments of this city, assures us that there are not
less than three thousand ladies in New-York, who are
excellent swimmers, and who might, with entire safety,36     SWIMMING. 

at any time, plunge into the water to save the life of a
drowning person. 
At the principal swimming baths, teachers are engaged, 
expressly to teach the patrons of these useful 
establishments, especially in the ladies' department;---
and if three thousand have learned so useful an accomplishment, 
there is no reason why every female in the
city should not be able to enjoy the same elegant recreation. 
That the foregoing hints may prove useful to both
sexes and every class, is the earnest desire of the Author 
and the Artists. 


1849.     "WASH AND BE HEALED."     1849. 

THE 
WATER-CURE  JOURNAL 
AND HERALD OF REFORMS, 
FOR 1849. 

JOEL SHEW, M D., EDITOR. 
The object of this Journal is to explain, in a manner suited to the capacity of
all, the now and celebrated system called HYDROPATHY, or the WATER-CURE---a 
system which is, deservedly, fast gaining in popular favor, and which, in efficacy
to cure and prevent disease, is unparalleled in the healing art.  This system embraces
a wide range of particulars, all of which may be stated in the general 
term, 

THE PHILOSOPHY OF HEALTH. 
Bathing, Clothing, Air, Ventilation, Food, Drinks, Exercise, Tobacco, or
whatever tends to the preservation or the destruction of the body or mind, will
be treated in this Journal. 

THE WATER-CURE, 
Now well established, is peculiarly favorable to the treatment of the maladies, 
both chronic and acute, to which the human body is subject.  We hope, also, to 
teach our readers the best modes of PREVENTING, as well as CURING disease. 

REFORMS, 
Of whatever kinds, we shall promulgate as we think they deserve, and endeavor
to adapt our Journal to the wants of every family in the land. 

THIS JOURNAL 
Will be published monthly, containing thirty-two large octavo pages of the best 
matter with reference to the application of this system, together with an interesting
MISCELLANY, on the following 

TERMS IN ADVANCE: 
SINGLE COPY, ONE YEAR,  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  $1 00 
FIVE COPIES, ONE YEAR,  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  4 00 
To receive attention, letters and orders must, in ALL cases, be POST-PAID, and
directed to 

FOWLERS AND WELLS, 
CLINTON HALL, 131 NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK. 

Volume Eleven commences January, 1849.  All subscribers will commence
and close with the year. 
POSTMASTERS, TEACHERS, AND CLERGYMEN, are authorized to receive subscriptions
for these Journals. 

1849.     KNOW THYSELF.     1849. 

THE AMERICAN 
PHRENOLOGICAL JOURNAL, 
FOR 1849. 

EDITED BY O. S. & L. N. FOWLER. 

To reform and perfect ourselves and our race, is the most exalted of all works.
To do this, we much understand the human constitution.  This, PHRENOLOGY, 
PHYSIOLOGY, PHYSIOGNOMY, and VITAL MAGNETISM embrace:  hence fully expound
all the laws of our being, and conditions of happiness. 

PHRENOLOGY. 
Each number will contain the analysis and location of some phrenological 
faculty, illustrated by an engraving, or an article on their combinations, with instructions
to learners. 

PHYSIOLOGY. 
Health is life, the great instrument of talent, virtue, and happiness, all of which
it augments.  To its preservation and restoration, special attention will be given.  

VITAL MAGNETISM, 
With practical instruction, interesting facts, and those choice truths which it unfolds, 
will be presented in this Journal. 

YOUNG MEN, 
The blessings they enjoy, the influence they can wield, and their preparation for
conducting our institutions, will form the theme of a series of articles. 

SELF-IMPROVEMENT. 
Who does not long earnestly, and would not strive assiduously, to cultivate
his natural powers, and render himself better and more happy?  To such, each 
number will be a prompter and a text-book. 

THE JOURNAL
Will be published monthly, containing thirty-two large octavo pages, on good type
and paper, with a variety of engravings, and much practical instruction to learners, 
on the following very low 
TERMS IN ADVANCE: 
SINGLE COPY, ONE YEAR,  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  $1 00 
FIVE COPIES, ONE YEAR,  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  4 00 
Sample numbers of this Journal will be sent GRATIS, when desired. 
Please address, POST-PAID, 
FOWLERS AND WELLS, 
CLINTON HALL, 131 NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK. 

Volume Eleven commences January, 1849.  All subscribers will commence
and close with the year. 
EDITIORS, who copy this Prospectus, will be entitled to an exchange 

1849.     KNOW THYSELF.     1849. 

THE AMERICAN 
PHRENOLOGICAL JOURNAL, 
FOR 1849. 

EDITED BY O. S. & L. N. FOWLER. 

To reform and perfect ourselves and our race, is the most exalted of all works.
To do this, we much understand the human constitution.  This, PHRENOLOGY, 
PHYSIOLOGY, PHYSIOGNOMY, and VITAL MAGNETISM embrace:  hence fully expound
all the laws of our being, and conditions of happiness. 

PHRENOLOGY. 
Each number will contain the analysis and location of some phrenological 
faculty, illustrated by an engraving, or an article on their combinations, with instructions
to learners. 

PHYSIOLOGY. 
Health is life, the great instrument of talent, virtue, and happiness, all of which
it augments.  To its preservation and restoration, special attention will be given.  

VITAL MAGNETISM, 
With practical instruction, interesting facts, and those choice truths which it unfolds, 
will be presented in this Journal. 

YOUNG MEN, 
The blessings they enjoy, the influence they can wield, and their preparation for
conducting our institutions, will form the theme of a series of articles. 

SELF-IMPROVEMENT. 
Who does not long earnestly, and would not strive assiduously, to cultivate
his natural powers, and render himself better and more happy?  To such, each 
number will be a prompter and a text-book. 

THE JOURNAL
Will be published monthly, containing thirty-two large octavo pages, on good type
and paper, with a variety of engravings, and much practical instruction to learners, 
on the following very low 
TERMS IN ADVANCE: 
SINGLE COPY, ONE YEAR,  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  $1 00 
FIVE COPIES, ONE YEAR,  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  4 00 
Sample numbers of this Journal will be sent GRATIS, when desired. 
Please address, POST-PAID, 
FOWLERS AND WELLS, 
CLINTON HALL, 131 NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK. 

Volume Eleven commences January, 1849.  All subscribers will commence
and close with the year. 
EDITIORS, who copy this Prospectus, will be entitled to an exchange.Fowler
on
Hereditary
DescentEnt 81