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THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH,
AND
JOURNAL OF THE TRUE HEALING ART.
Volume n.]
NEW YORK, FEBRUARY, 1867.
[For the Gospel of Health.]
PHYSIOLOGICAL TRANSGRESSION
IN HIGH PLACES.
[Number 8.
Until we learn to know aright,
And knowing, care to do,
Transgression, in the bud will blight
The Noble and the True.
BY MONTADELPHOS.
How foolish are the ways of man !
Since Adam sinned at first,
To kill himself because he can,
By wickedness the worst.
The Parent wonders at the Youth,
Because he’s heedless growD ;
When he, himself, to tell the truth,
Has sins still worse his own.
The Minister, he wonders why
The World he cannot save ;
Whilst his own conduct gives the lie
To the Profession grave.
The Son of Temperance wonders too,
And raves about the same,
Because “ Old Sots” at times get “blue,”
When he’s as much to blame.
He's tipsy, too, from morn till night—
Tobacco’s all the rage ;
And coffee ’s just the thing that’s right
To make him feel so sage.
The Doctor, too, he wonders why
Mankind, so premature,
' Will still get sick, lie down and die,
In spite of Physic-Cure ?
If men transgress the Laws of Life,
And sickness comes at last,
Why should the Doctor, then, in strife.
Their hopes with poisons blast ? ,
[Written for the Gospel ofHealth.J
FIRST PRINCIPLES, NO. I.
BY J. F. SANBORN, M. D.
Many of the readers of the Health journals
know that certain articles in common use in
bread-making, as bi-carbonate of soda, salt,
yeast, cream-of-tartar, are not proper articles for
food. They know that alcoholic liquors, tea,
coffee, and even hard water, are not proper for
drink ; that impure air is improper for us to
breathe : But why they are so, is not generally
understood ; and one reason is, it ig easier to
write an article, that will please even the read
ers of a Health journal, stating that this or that,
is thus and so, than it is to explain why they
are so. The enlargement of the Gospel of
Health will enable us to elucidate some of
these first principles, somewhat at length.
That matter which is endowed with life, is
called organic matter. To sustain life, organs
are furnished ; to animals, lungs, heart, bowels,
kidneys, arteries, veins, nerves, etc.
Vegetables have organs as rootlets, roots
trunks, branches leaves, etc.
Inorganic matter has no life—it has no need of
organs to support its existence, for it exists from
age to age ; it may be subject to change of form
and place, but does not grow old as domen, ani
mals, trees, and all matter endowed with life.
Life must at some time cease, and the organic
matter ot which living bodies are composed,
must return to the earth from which it came—
the organic dies—decays, and becomes inorganic
matter.
The vegetable kingdom subsists on inorganic
matter, and by a process of vitality peculiar to
its organization, changes the inorganic into or
ganic matter.
In animal life there is a continual change of
�50
THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
substance, nutritious matter becoming a part of
the living body ; and while this addition is be
ing made, other parts are broken down and re
moved.
This change in animals, and growth in vegeta
bles, are carried on by small structures known
as cells, somewhat analogous to an egg that has
no shell ; their size is very minute, and tlieir
form varies by the pressure of surrounding
cells.
In animals, the materials of these cells are
formed from the food eaten.
Now, can animals take the inorganic ele
ments of earth, and organize them into cells,
form and structure, and add them to their
bodies? Can an animal eat clay or soil, and be
nourished thereby? No one will claim that
such materials are food for “ man or beast
and if one should eat it, it could not be so
changed as to make anything organic.
Vegetables, on the contrary, do subsist on the
inorganic, elements of earth, and decayed or
broken-down cell-structure of plants and ani
mals ; changing them into their own structure,
by cell formation ; adding cells to the end of previ
ously-formed cells, thus increasing in length, or
by placing several around on the outside of others
and thus increasing in size. Thus has God made
the vegetable kingdom to prepare the inorganic
materials of earth, and organize them for food
for the animal kingdom. Animals take of the
cell-formation of the vegetable kingdom, and
build up their own solid structure. Vegetables
furnish food for animals by their growth ; and
animals furnish food for plants by decay, or the
breaking down of their cell-structure.
It is a fundamental law of animal life that it
can in no wise add to its cell-structure any matter
that is not cell-structure. If cell-structure is
broken down, be it animal or vegetable, it can in
no wise become a part of the cell-structure of
animal life. Inorganic matters cannot be digest
ed—they are not cell-structure—they are the
same when they leave the body that they are
when they enter it ; which is not the case with
an apple, or bread, or anything that is food.
Food is digested and by assimilation becomes
a part of the body—a part of the cell-structure
of the living, moving body ; and when it leaves
the body, it does so as broken-down or waste
matter, which is food for plants.
This principle is not generally understood ; if
it was, all matter not of cell-structure would
sedulously be excluded from the vital domain, as
bearing an abnormal relation to the Jiving
tissues.
A statement was made in alate number of the
Dental Cosmos, that a man died for want of phos
phate of lime in his bones, and yet he had taken
large quantities of the phosphates as a medi
cine.
The statement was a part of the report of the
doings of one of the most learned Dental Socie
ties in the United States ; yet no one explained
the mystery. All mineral medicines are inor- 1
ganic matter ; iron, of which such large quanti- i
ties are used as a “ tonic,” by the very learned
Allopathic M. Ds., is an inorganic substance, and
as a consequence, it can never become a part of
the cell-structure of the blood, or of any other
part of the body; but in common with all other
inorganic matters, bears an abnormal relation to
the living system. This is a sufficient reason
why we, as Hygienists, should not use it.
As soon as the cell-structure of our bodies be
comes broken down, it becomes as repugnant ^o
the living system, as dead bodies are to a living,
refined, civilized community ; and if it is retained
in the body, or becomes absorbed from without,
it must be expelled, or death must soon follow.
Broken down cell-structure, taken as food,
bears an abnormal relation to the living tissues,
so that it matters not how good food a substance
may be, in its natural state of perfect develop
ment ; as soon as it becomes decayed or broken
down in its structure, by fermentation, so far as
the change has taken place, so far has the arti
cle of food deviated from its perfect adaptation
to the wants of the system ; and the part sc
changed is no longer food ; it cannot become a
part of the cell-structure of the living body, but
is a poison to be expelled.
Fermented articles, either as food or drink,
are more or less broken down cell-structure,
and bear an abnormal relation to the living
system.
Disease is the effort of the system to rid itself
of obstructing materials.
These obstructing materials are—first, the
broken down cell-structure of the system itself,
and not depurated or removed from the body ;
or, second, those which are received into the sys
tem by absorption, or as inorganic substances in
food, as bi-carbonate of soda, or bi carbonate of
potassa, or common salt used in making biscuit.
Hard water contains carbonate of lime, which is
an inorganic substance, and bearsan abnormal re
lation to the living system. Fermented bread
is made by decomposing the sugar in the meal
or flour, as the case may be, converting it into
carbonic acid gas and alcohol, thus destroying
at least one sixteenth of the nutriment there
was in the flour, and breaking down the cell
structure so that so much of the flour as has
undergone the change by fermentation, not only
does not nourish, but thereby becomes a source
of disease. Alcohol is broken down cell-struc
ture. There is no alcohol in any of the grains
in their natural degree of perfection, but they
all contain both sugar and starch ; the sugar is
first decomposed; then the starch is changed
into sugar, and both sugars are changed into
carbonic acid gas and alcohol. The carbonic
acid gas is used in n aking carbonate of soda
and potassa, which are used in making bread
which the good temperance people use, while
those who make no pretensions to being tem
perate, use the alcohol itself. All of these brokendown cell-structures are poisons to the living
tissues, because being broken-down matter,
they bear an abnormal relation to it. Many
substances that are of cell-structure bear an ab
normal relation to the living system, which it
is not proposed to discuss at this time
Chemical action invariably destroys the cell
structure of all organic matter on which the
action takes place, so that in the chemical prep
aration of medicines from vegetables that are
good for food, as soon as the chemical change
has taken place, they are no longer tolerated by
the vital powers, because their cell-structure
being destroyed, they bear an abnormal relation
�51
THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
to vitality. All medicines are poisons. They
all bear an abnormal relation to the living sys
tem, and almost without exception, are, when
taken, but adding inorganic matter or broken
down cell-structure to that already the cause of
the disease ; so that it matters not according to
what school of practice the medicine is adminis
tered, it is but adding broken-down cell structure,
which is obstructing matter, to that already the
cause of the disease, and is but carrying out
the principle of “ like cures like and we read
the “ blind lead the blind, and both fall into the
ditch,” alias the grave.
[to be continued.]
WHAT IS TEMPERANCE?
BY HYGEALTnEUS.
There is probably no subject upon which
less perfect views are entertained, than that of
Temperance. Some persons hold that abstinence
from alcoholic liquors is temperance, whilst
others maintain that the moderate drinking of
the same constitutes temperance ; and upon the
one or the other of these two propositions the
majority of the people are stationed.
Now, to my mind, both positions are, in re
ality, wrong. Temperance is moderation, no
matter to what it be applied; and intemper
ance, immoderation. Persons, too, may be as
truly intemperate in not using enough of a thing,
as in using too much ; as it is the proper quan
tity, or degree, which constitutes temperance—
degree or quantity always entering in as an
element—and not total abstinence, as some sup
pose.
“Well,” says one, “you believe, then, that
the moderate drinking of alcoholic liquors is
temperance, do you not ?” Not by any means.
If they are right who contend against absti
nence because temperance implies moderation,
then it is evident that we would all be justified
in doing what is manifestly wrong; for St.
Paul admonishes us to be “ temperate in all
things,” and as “ all things,” as this class of
persons would have it, necessarily includes a
great many wrong things, therefore we would
be advised to do many wrong things, moder
ately, however. This, though, is too absurd to
be admitted. There must, therefore, be some
other criterion whereby we are to be governed
in our eating and drinking habits, which is sub
stantially the relation existing between our
selves and the universe of matter around us.
Nothing having an unhealthful relation to
man can ever be a subject of temperance. The
use of all such things is qualitatively an evil,
as was the eating of the forbidden fruit by our
first parents; whereas, the use of thingshaving a i
physiological or healthful relation, can only be
an evil quantitively—because of an improper
quantity or degree. Who would ever think of
swearing, lying, or stealing temperately ? Or
who would for a moment contend that fornica
tion and adultery could be committed in mode
ration ? Or where is the individual to be found
who would call the performance of one or all of I
these deeds intemperance ? I venture to say
that no person of intelligence can be found en !
tertaining such an idea, from the simple fact
that all such conduct is wrong in its very na
ture. and hence can have nothing to do with
temperance. Why, then, should we contend
that other things may be done temperately,
which are, in their very nature, wrong or unpliysiological ? Or why should we call absti
nence from the same temperance ? The fact is,
the imbibition of alcohol, and all other poisons,
is a violation of physiological law, because of
the chemically incompatible relation existing
between them and the tissues of the organism,
and hence can have no more to do with temper
ance or intemperance, than stealing or commit
ting murder has.
It may be said, however, that St. Paul would
have you «“ eat and drink whatsoever is set be
fore you, and ask no questions for conscience’
sake but if the “ whatsoever” is not restricted
to such things as bear a physiological relation
to the body, then of course the injunction is
equivalent to a command of self-destruction ;
and we would be entirely excusable for »uicism,
should “ mine kost” chance temptingly to pre
sent a poison.
Temperance, then, is the moderate, use of
things having a physiological or healthful rela
tion to our being ; whilst intemperance is the
immoderate use of these same agencies, and the
immoderation may be because of either excess
or deficiency. The imbibition of things, how
ever, having an unhealthful relation to the or
ganism, is physiological transgression, from the
infinitesimal nothingness of the Homeopath,
up through the ponderous doses of the heroic
Allopath, to the practice of the Suicide, who
takes the same for the purpose of separating the
soul from its tenement of clay.
[For the Gospel of Health.]
DRUG MEDICATION THE CHIEF
CAUSE OF OUR PRESENT PHYS
ICAL DEGENERACY.
NO. I.
BY THOS. W. ORGAN, M. D., CHALFANT, OHIO.
Radical and revolutionary ideas are of slow
growth. The human mind, in its perversion
and depravity, will grasp error quickly, while
truth and right may be unnoticed, or if noticed
at all, only to be opposed and persecuted. The
subject on which I propose to write a series of
articles, is the most radically and aggressively
reformatory in its bearing of any of which I can
now conceive. It anticipates, as the grand re
sults of an enlightenment of the people, the
overthrow of drug-shops, dram-shops, and to
bacco-shops. Could a nobler or grander reform
occupy the human mind, or engage the labors
of the’ philanthropist ? It more deeply involves
both our individual and collective weal or woe ;
our future felicity and destiny, physically, mor
ally, and socially, than any other that can be
named, except the Gospel of Christianity. If
not Christianity itself, it is essentially a part or
element of it. It is not Christianity either to
give drugs or to take drugs. True science
�52
THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
based on the unerring laws of Nature, and all
LETTER FROM A SCAVENGER.
experience, properly interpreted, demonstrate
that the administration of drugs is fearfully
destructive of human health, of human life, and
Dr. Trall—Dear Sir: In the December
of human happiness. And if destructive and
detrimental to human interests, is not their use number of the Gospel I asked, in substance,
a fearful wrong ? If wrong, can their adminis the question: Why cannot man be, safely al
tration be in consonance with Christianity ? lowed the same freedom in diet as other ani
True science and Christianity can never conflict. mals that mix their food, without detriment to
The fact that nine tenths of the physicians of health or longevity ? to which you replied : you
our land do not take their own medicines when could not see the pertinency of my reasoning,
sick, is sufficient evidence of another very im- ' and that if the devil could change his habits,
portant fact, “ They do not do unto others as he would become a better being.
Very “pertinent” “if” indeed. An if style
they wish to be done by.” If physicians would
apply the golden rule in all cases, drugging of argument is pardonable when founded on
would soon be extinct. There can scarcely be something within the bounds of possibility;
found an intelligent physician that would not but, when a debater resorts to an assumption,
prefer to risk his life to the efforts of nature, (to illustrate a point at issue) that is utterly
rather than to the remedies of a physician of inconsistent with nature, illogicalyand impossi
his own school. He would also do so with his ble as yours was in “ raising the devil,” it por
patients, but for one “ small consideration.” tends an extreme want of something real or
“ There is not much money in such a course.” | reasonable on which to base an argument.
Why, sir, it is worse than falling back to the
His patient would doubtless recover more speed
ily without his drugs than with them, vet that “last ditch” (for in that there is still hope.) It
would involve him in another fundamental dif is, in fact, going beyond, over the verge, into
ficulty. “ They would quickly perceive that his dark and empty space for impossibilities as
services irere not necessary.” It is therefore ne weapons to defend a one-sided, fanatical theory.
cessary for the existence of the drug medical And, even then, in his blindness, to say he
profession that its practitioners continue the “fails to seethe pertinency” of the logic that
business of dosing and drugging, (no matter I drove him to so extreme a measure, is decidedly
how.) behind an array of technical jargon which cool indeed.
Apropos to your “pertinent” style of reason
they cannot understand, which the people can
not understand, and which, I think, never was > ing and to follow out its absurdity, wonder if it
wouldn’t be better for the rattlesnake to rid
intended to be understood.
This subject not only interests us as individu itself of its venom in some possible way, and be
als, but as a nation. The aggregate of indi come as harmless as a dove.
Wonder if it would n’t be better for God,
vidual existences constitutes a nation. It con man, and the Devd, if the “ Old Nick” had n’t
cerns also the physical and moral growth or
decline, development or decay, of our national been created at all ? Or, if the “ Old Fellow”
existence. It is therefore self-evident that the would commit suicide and thus tempt man, no
destiny of the race is involved in the discussion ! longer to pervert his mind, injure his health,
of this subject. A nation’s character is read by and shorten his life by sinful flesh-eating. Oh,
the health or vigor of its people. If the indi the “ permitted" monster ! why mil he persist in
viduals constituting this nation become dis acting so unnatural a part toward God’s crea
eased and effeminate, the inevitable result must I tures ?
Wonder if it wouldn’t be better for the lion,
be that the nation will be deteriorated in a pro
portionate degree. Whatever affects our indi tiger, Esquimaux, etc., to quit flesh-eating in
vidual existence must, in an exact ratio, modify ■ favor exclusively of corn, potatoes, grass, etc.,
our nationality. The constitutional vigor of and thus hasten on the glorious coming (?) mil
the people determines the physical and moral | lennium ?
condition of our nation. Although we are nu- | By your permission, I would ask a few more
merically strong, yet, comparatively speaking, | questions on this important subject, so vital to
in physical vigor and vital force, we are depio- I the welfare of man immortal.
You claim that all constituted flesh-eaters
rably deficient. It is estimated that fully threefourths of our people are in some way diseased. , were calculated by the wise Creator as scaven
gers to rid the earth of obnoxious offal, and ren
All forms of disease tend to physical degeneracy. I
The average of human life in boasted America der the air more wholesome for the decent por
is scarcely thirty years. Why should it not be tion of animation and man. Now, the Esqui
one century ? One-half of the children born die maux are considered men, and why did God in
before they are five years old. Scarcely one- his goodness consign man to so low an office,
half of tlu' remainder reach manhood or woman- I they being obliged to scavenge, the earth in the
hood. Never was there a time in our nation’s absence of anything else to sustain life ? or are
an exception to Nature s plan?
history when there were more dyspeptics, liver they is fair to presume that ’Mary, the mother of
It
disorders, scrofula, and consumptives, than now. Jesus, was a meat-eater. How do you make
Wherever I go, I see too plainly the evidence of
that compatible
these conditions impressed on those around. ■ her offspring? with the great purity of Christ,
Pale faces, sunken, hollow cheeks, bloodless
And, why
not Christ, the most
extremities, sunken eyes on one hand, or on the ! dipped bread didsop, and divided fishes holy, (who
in
to the mul
other, bloated faces, bloodshot eyes, eczemated : titude,) strike at a prominent root of evil, and by
6kins. Each set of symptoms indicates the his divine precept and example, try to abate the
physical depravity of our people.
sinful practice of flesh-eating ? Or, was he un-
�THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
53
So stands the common human opinion upon
one of the greatest of all the moral and social
questions which agitate the world. It is easy
to see that prejudice and ignorance are at the
bottom of this ridiculous and cliildish estimate
of woman. The young maiden grows to woman’s
estate under the eye of her mother, who still
persists in treating her as a child, and so it is in
the other case. ’The day has gone by when
woman could be speculated upon as merchan
dise, or treated as one of the effects of the house
hold. She has enfranchised herself by her in
telligence, education, and virtue, and holds the
foremost and topmost rank in the modern civ
ilization. Our literature, -which appeals alike
to both sexes ; our newspapers, which are read
by all. educate all. Slowly 'but surely has the
female element come to a great recognition in
these times. We are beginning to ask ourselves
why she who includes within the boundaries of
her own nature so many noble virtues, and half
the intellect of the world, should be held in
subjection, because one strong-minded female
without a tooth in her .head, has put herself
forward to advocate, in a somewhat unwomanly
manner perhaps, the rights of her sex !
We are proud to own that-we claim for woman
all that she can ask or think, in the direction of
Elkader, Iowa, Dec. 28, 1866.
mental, moral, and social freedom. We claim
it as a right, not at all as a privilege, that she
shall have an equal vote with men upon all sub
jects and upon all occasions. We are ashamed
WOMAN’S RIGHTS QUESTION.
of man’s injustice, and astonished also, at the
One would think, to hear the crusty old bach short-sightedness, that he will give a vote to
every ignorant and degraded serf of Ireland and
elors talk of politics, that womankind lias no the other European countries, and deny it to his
rights at all which mankind has any right to own educated and refined mother, wife, and
respect. Woman, according to their estimate
of her, is a mere appendage to man—is here sister.
upon sufferance and ought to be kept well un I If we are to have a manhood suffrage, and
der. They do not quite sanction the ancient I extend its latitudes and longitudes until it take
traditions of her social status, which record her ' in also the refuse of the colored belts of the
as little better than a household drudge, who tropics who may chance to be “ round” at voting
was cuffed and abused at pleasure by the lords time, including the African, who, poor fellow,
paramount of the family : but they think she is is only two generations removed from the bar
by no means entitled to the same rights and barism and fetishism of his native forests, then
privileges which they possess, or so much as a in God’s name let the suffrage be universal, and
tithe of them. What, they ask, has a woman put it into the power of American women to
to do with the great emprises of human thought, save, by their wisdom and fervid patriotism,
or the affairs of society ? Her proper sphere is this great Republic from being swamped like
the household, and her higher right is the right old Rome by the inflooding of the barbarians.
of doing her duty to her husband and her chil We do not expect to see women in Congress
dren. As to her meddling with politics—they during the next dozen years, although far more
laugh that proposition to scorn. Politics are impossible things have happened in the lifetime
for rough, strong men, not for weak, tender of all now living. But this is one of the great
women. What should they know about the questions which has to be met. It is society’s
functions of office, the business of the state, or biggest egg, and she must hatch it. Already,
the diplomacy of governments ? These are mat we are happy to say, this Woman’s Rights ques
ters beyond the reach of her intellect, and which, tion has received the consideration of some of
even were they not so, would unsex her if she our greatest modern thinkers, and they have
lent their sanction to the fact that woman has
interfered with them.
But the climax of all absurdities in their re inalienable rights, and that the right to vote is
gard, is the idea of giving a vote to women. It one of them. She, being born out of the loins
.so completely upsets all their preconceived no of this great Commonwealth, is fully armed and
tions of public and private decorum, that they equipped for service, and can assuredly as well
are driven almost to their wits’ end at the bare be trusted with the destiny of the country which
thought of it. It is not so long ago that woman she loves, as those ignorant foreigners who go
was a mere chattel ; and even to this day both to the polls like oxen to the market, in obedi
the laws of England and the canon of the ence to the whipper-in of their party. Twenty
Church, recognize her only as the property of years will not elapse before this voting phase of
her husband, whom she is sworn to love, honor, the Woman’s Rights question will be brought
before the whole male people for issue, and itj
and obey.
luckily ignorant (?) of its evil effects on the
bodies and morals of men, and thus failed to put
in His holy and timely protest against its use ?
And, how could He remain so pure and good,
while partaking of so pernicious an article of
fo< >d ?
In sickness, you say, allow the patient to eat
whatever he naturally craves; and why make
meat an exception ? Perhaps you would answer
“ the taste is abnormal!” Then why object in
cases of babes ? Here, again, you would assume
the taste inherited ; Very well, follow the mat
ter back, and, pray tell us, where in the world’s
history did the taste begin ? Who knows, per
haps at the “ fall of Adam thus accounting for
our consequent misery. Perhaps these sugges
tions may lead you to solve the mystery of the
“ Fall of Man
if so, you are welcome to
them.
How do you make your Gospel teachings, on
this question, harmonize with the Holy but
flesh-polluted Bible?
Hoping you may, philanthropically, enlighten
my flesh-polluted mind (?) by answering these
questions, I close, and,
With respect, remain,
Your Purifying Scavenger,
J. M. Snedigar.
�54
THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
will be carried in the affirmative. Then we may
hope to see a more Christian courtesy in the
conduct of affairs, and a new public morality
and decorum. Woman, who refines and ele
vates whatsoever she touches, will create an at
mosphere of purity around the foul places where
legislators and aidermen most do congregate.
Her beauty will grow into their manners, and
her wisdom into their work ; ^nd with this new
element infused into the executive of the coun
try, we may look for a new development of our
civilization.—The New Republic.
ITEMS FROM ILLINOIS.
I
with those who would rather help me up than
pull me down. Still I rejoice that you have suc
ceeded in securing a territory where the pros
pect is favorable for a much better life, tho’ I
may never participate in it.
“ The Kingdom of God cometh not with obser
vation, but is within you!” How consoling.
Heaven is a condition. The happiest man I ever
saw, was blind and poor. The wisest man I ever
saw, was the most permanently happy. As to
smartness—we are all about alike, we are like
measures of the same size, (pint tin cups if you
please.) The man that is full of party politics,
is not of necessity or generally, full to overflow
ing of a broad and comprehensive philanthro
py. He who is racking his brain to get up a
perpetual motion, is not the most successful agri
culturist. The great mathematician is often a
great fool, (in a horse trade.} “But the mind
expands by culture and education.” Aye, and
like most other things, becomes thinner by the
operation. Education is the father of pedantry,
and the foe to progress. He who fools away his
time in rummaging over the musty thoughts of
the past, to be consistent, ought to live on
“ hash,” and wear his grandfather’s hat.
The more I think of it, the more I regard the
stomach the citadel of life.
Parents, I see many of your children with
sore eyes, and raw, running sores on their
hands and faces, and I hear them complain of
ear-ache, tooth-ache, stomach-ache ; and I see
that they have a pinched, shrivelled, and some
times a flushed face ; and some of the little ones
lay down and moan, refuse to eat or play. Then
you hunt up the pill-box or phial of worm med
icine, or send post haste for the doctor. In this,
or all of these, it seems to me you are unwise.
You had much better do nothing, let the child
CONSISTENCY.
rest, and for mercy’s ■•sake, let its stomach rest,
Consistency, fudge ! If one should practise it
for here is where the trouble lies. Over-eating,
and eating too nutritious or concentrated food, in any community, Jje would be ridiculed as a
are filling the world with disease and premature dolt, and justly too.
Suppose a doctor, after giving his patient a
death.
dose of physic, should order him to mount a mill
CONFIDENTIAL, SUGGESTIVE, AND BUSINESS.
saw lathe, so as to have it well shook up. This
Friend Trail & Co.: I find that accidentally I seems to me both logical and analogical, and
do once in a while write on both sides of a consistency here would be a jewel (in a hog’s
sheet, and am inclined to all the time, and don’t nose) very much out of place. If I advocate a
see why I may not, for you see it is much more more natural life, must I throw off my clothes,
economical, and I believe in economy, in fact, run to the woods, and climb a tree ?
seem to have been compelled to practise it all
Check any evil, as well as any heavy body
my life. The December number of the Gwspel suddenly, while in rapid motion, or under full
has just come to hand, so the suggestions I headway, and the result is more or less destruc
thought of making are impracticable, or rather tive. *
*
*
uncalled for. I am so glad that you are able or
I hardly dare say there is evil in the world,
encouraged to increase the size of the paper. would rather prefer to use such terms as misfor
I like your decision to have it issued as now time and inliarmony, for what seems to me to be
once a month. I would say, do not change it wrong. Tastes differ ; my Heaven would prob
from a monthly, though it might be necessary to ably be somebody’s hell. I would like to live
tncrease it to five times its present size. Cut, with a people who had no coercive laws, no
trimmed, and stitched, no broad, blank margins, domestic brute animals, fowls, insects or rep
or blank leaves, a plain, neat, compact style—is tiles, and of course no fences, barns, yards, pens,
what I like.
or stables, and no prisons, asylums, or churches,
I hope you will be able to stereotype it, for I no distilleries, poor-houses, or court-houses, and
think it will be demanded in coining years.
where all fashions and customs impose no re
COMPROMISES.
straints upon a joyful, free, spontaneous life. I
My life is, and ever has been, only a sort of do not want to live any longer with a people
compromise. How dearly I would like to live who spank their children, fight, pull hair, take
�THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
medicine, wear hoops, paper collars, boot and
shoe heels, or shear and shave.
■ Now, readers, it you know of such a place or
people, do tell us where it or they may be found.
“ There is none”—none in this broad world,
why? Must wranglings, and fightings, and
want, and ignorance, and folly, ever sit en
throned in the hearts of men ?
A friend tells me we could not live without
brute-animal force or power. He says we must
have horses or oxen to do our heavy hauling
and plowing, and that by their use we can have
more life, i. e. more people can and will be gen
erated or created, “and the more life the bet
ter.” But these are only assertions, and I think
facts would not sustain them ; and as to life
being desirable under all conditions, is ques
tionable.
I suppose the uncivilized portions of humanity
are generally not as prolific; but such, I be
lieve, cultivate the earth but little, but subsist
mostly or its spontaneous productions and other
animals.
1 doubt even the economy of brute power. I
believe human beings pay in advance for every
ounce of power or moment of labor they get
out of a brute. True, after we have been the
humble servant for three or four years in rais
ing, breaking, and furnishing harness, etc., for
a horse, he can pull about eight times as much
as one of us; but he can do nothing else—not
even provide his own food, harness or curry
himself—and then we don’t need all this extra
labor.
Suppose he does help us to produce more, we
produce of some things too much now. I some
times think over-production is the great foun
dation stone of evil or inharmony.
All machinery, all power, and all contrivances
that enable any healthy human being to live
without their just and equal proportion of labor,
is a curse to the world. But we must get out
of this evil of brute dependence, gradually, I
suppose, or else we shall encounter obstacles
that will put our faith and patience to their ex
tremist test. For a while I might find it more
convenient—if not absolutely necessary—to ex
change my labor for food, fruits, vegetables, and
grain, and some of my clothing, etc., for that
which had been in some manner raised or cre
ated with the use of brute-animal power, for all
our industries are now in some way, directly or
indirectly, interwoven with them. And still I
see no necessity for their continuance after a
short time. Next spring, I should like to com
mence the culture of the earth with a few or
many associates, using nothing but simple hand
55
utensils, aided, it may be, with a few “mechani
cal powers
but these utensils and powers
should be of the best kind. Various forms of
spades and hoes, all made of the right size and
shape, and of polished steel, and kept so; for I
find if all such articles are made and kept in
this way, much more labor can be done in a
given time, and with far greater pleasure too.
If large logs or rocks are to be removed, com
bined human power, aided with wedges, screws,
levers, ropes, and railways, could do it, and
more economically and pleasantly, too, I think.
It is not true that “ man wants but little here
below.” The trouble is he wants too much.
His needs are few and simple. The great de
sideratum is contentment, or a calm acquies
cence in the inevitable. How to attain this
contentment, is an interesting question, and not
so easily communicated, unless one has an or
ganism in harmony with the laws of God or
Nature; and if they have, there is surely no
demand for it.
* * Yes, you must allow me again to insist
upon this general idea. Our highest mission is
not to minister to the sick, give to the poor, or
simply relieve the miseries and wretchedness
around ug. What should we think or say of a
•man who knew of a fallen bridge or a railroad,
when he heard the rumbling of the distant
coming train, should raise no signal to stop it,
but should start off after a load of liniment
and coffins ?
CONFIDENTIAL AGAIN.
I think myself rather smart gifted or talented
in mechanism. Have known, very few, if any,
that excelled me in variety of mechanical pur
suits, including speed and workmanship, and
should like to live where I could be the most
useful in helping get up good tools, implements,
etc., for hand labor, or of making labor easy or
pleasurable. I think, too, I can communicate my
ideas or knowledge of mechanism to others—
rather help give them confidence in their own
abilities. Men like me will no doubt be in de
mand in the “ good time coming,” and perhaps
now in Hygeiana ; but can’t go; am one of the
Moseses, I ’spect—not permitted to enter the
“ Promised Land.”
Hurry up the new Gospel, I want to try and
get more subs.
H. B.
Hath any wronged thee? Be bravely re
venged ; slight it and the work is begun ; forget
it and ’tis finished. He is below himself that
is not above an inj ury.
A CHEERFUL spirit makes labor light and
sleep sweet and all around happy, which is much
better than being only rich.
�56
THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
while adhering to some one, or ten, or twenty,
or the whole ninety-nine remaining ones, may
XLI.
be strictly professional, but is not so conducive
to the progress of the temperance reformation
ALCOHOLISMUS.
as it is to the pecuniary interests of the profes
Dr. Alonzo Clark teaches the theory and sion, the apothecary, and the rumseller.
practice of medicine in the College of Phys
“ UNHEALTHY PORK.”
icians and Surgeons in the city of New
This caption we copy from the newspapers
York; Williard Parker, M. D., is Professor
of Surgery in the same school. Both gen We do not believe that pork was ever healthful,
tlemen are eminent in their profession, and en nor that domesticated porkers can be any thing
joy a large and lucrative practice. But we have I but a mass of morbid and disease-producing
thought for many years that, hardly a physi matter.
cian could be named who was more sure kill I Trichinosis, measles, scrofula, diphtheria, car
than either of them, in a simple case of fever. buncles, cancers, leprosy, erysipelas, and cholera
We have known many cases of sudden and un morbus, are not sufficient warnings against eat
expected death under their medication, wherein ing that filthy scavenger, the hog, and so sud
we believe, and have reasons as plenty as black den deaths are occasionally credited to the fear
berries for believing, that, but for their treat ful catalogue of consequences. '
Hardly a week in the year passes away
ment, the patients would have recovered with
out difficulty. We say this with no ill-feeling without some account being published of
toward the learned professors. We wish not to deaths resulting from eating swine-flesh
disparage either their integrity or their intel The last account of the kind comes from
ligence. They are scientific, according to the Louisville, Ky.; and the peculiarities of it
system into which they have been educated, and consists in the statement that the mischief
they practise the Healing Art as it has come chief came from “ choice porkers,” from a “ fine
down to them from time immemorial. And if drove” which produced “ splendid hams!” The
their treatment causes the death of their pa Louisville Journal says:
tients, very frequently, the fault is not in the
'■ One of the most prominent and highly-re
physicians but in their system.
spected farmers living in the vicinity of Crab Or
In their clinics of the present college course chard, whose name we did not, unfortunately,
killed
use,
choice
they have spoken very emphatically against the j procure, from a for his family hogs a few he had
porkers
fine drove of
that
prevalent alcoholic medication, especially as it raised, and sent a few neighboring families a
is in whisky. They have even declared the few splendid hams as presents. Nearly every
present mania for administering whiskv to be family to which the pork had been sent, partook
productive of vastly more injury than benefit, of what they supposed were delicious morsels.
Early the following day the members of the sev
and, indeed, a prolific source of intemperance eral families were taken violently ill, with all
among the people, and of death among the sick. the symptoms of cholera. The best medical
A temperance reformer could hardly have taken skill was at once procured, and every exertion
made to relieve rhe sufferers. The patients suf
more radical and ultra ground against -alcohol, fered, we are told, intensely, and by night five
no, against whisky, as a medicine, than have Drs. of the number had died.
“ The wife of the owner of the hogs has died,
Clark and Parker in their clinical instruc
and there are no hopes of his recovery. Several
tions.
others lie in a very critical condition and are not
But we happen to know that both of these likely to survive.
gentlemen have been among the foremost in ad
“ The same day on which the families were at
ministering some kinds of alcoholic liquors (bran tacked, the remainder of the drove of hogs were
seized with
disease, having some
dy, for example) in typhoid fevers, consump thing of the some strangehog cholera, and nearly
character of
tion, and a variety of diseases of low diathesis. | all have died. The occurrence has caused great
And now we are curious to know whether our | excitement in that section of the state, and is
professional brethren of the school which cures likely to extend its influence to others.”
“ Great excitement!” of course ! But will it
the disease by killing the patient, have really
experienced a change of opinion. Have they i not all end in excitement ? Will anybody sug
abandoned brandy as well as condemned i gest that any thing ought to be done about it
whisky ? Grog-medicine exists in a hundred [ except to be excited ? Will any person propose
shapes, and to tickle the ears of the temperance i to discontinue using the foul carcasses—we mean
folks, and make the thoughtless stare by de- I the “ delicious morsels ”—of the infectious
nouncing one form of alcoholic medication, | beasts as food ? Will not the pork interest
RAMBLING REMINISCENCES.
�THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
(many millions a year) induce many editors of
numerous newspapers, and diverse agricultural
journals to re-assure their readers that there is
no danger ? And will not medical men again
be found to certify that trichina in the flesh are
the most harmless things imaginable? And,
that, if fifty millions, or fifty thousand million
billions of them are diffused through the head,
heart, liver, lungs, stomach, bowels, kidneys,
muscles, nerves, and blood and bones of the
“ human animal ” nothing at all need be appre
hended ?
That so many who use hog-food freely sicken
and die suddenly of “ acute poisoning,” or rot
away by the slower process of chronic disease,
cannot surprise the true physiologist. He can
only wonder that any body survives the abomi
nable aliment.
ADULTERATIONS OF FOOD AND DRINK.
In a late speech at a reform demonstration
in London, England, Thomas Hughes, M. P.,
«aid, while advocating the extension of the elec
tive franchise, “ Then there is the question of
food and drink. The stories about adulterations
are perfectly true. The food of the people is
abominable.” The poorer classes in England,
as well as in all countries, pay a greater price
for provisions than the rich, while the articles
palmed off upon them are villanously adultera
ted. Few persons who have not fully investigated this subject, can believe to what an enor
mous extent the business of adulterating foods,
drinks, and medicines, is carried. Scarcely a
pure drug can be found at an apothecary-shop.
Nearly all the articles employed as beverages—
tea, coffee, chiccory, chocolate, and the hundred
kinds of alcoholic liquors, are adulterated in va
rious ways ; while a large proportion of the but
ter, cheese, milk, flour, and some other things,
is not far from “ abominable food,” when they
'reach the mouth of the consumer. There is,
however, a very simple and perfectly infallible
remedy for these evils and frauds, and perhaps
some chance reader of the Gospel of Health
may thank us for the suggestion. 1. Take no
medicine. 2. Drink nothing but water. 3. Buy
your materials of food as nature produces them,
and do your own preparing and cooking. We
have followed these rules for a quarter of a cen
tury, and can speak by authority.
sr
altogether too stony for any immediate
fruit. The people are more fixed in their habits
and customs in that country than in this ;
are more conservatively inclined, and are
a quarter of a century behind us on all
the subjects pertaining to Health Reform.
Moreover, they are very disinclined to accept
foreigners as teachers, preferring to be guided
by the advice and opinions of their own coun
trymen who occupy high positions in society, or
great reputation as authors, professors, &c. .
We have no doubt that, in a general sense,
these views are entirely correct. But from a
somewhat extensive correspondence, and a rath
er limited personal observation, we incline to
the opinion that competent lecturers of our
school, could be eminently successful there, at
least in many parts of the Queendom. Among
the middling-classes are many quiet, thinking
men and women, who are unknown to fame as
Health Reformers, for no other reason than be
cause they have, not seen the opportunity to be
useful in that capacity, nor to organize them
selves for co-operative effort. They want a lead
er. They need some one to expound the system
of Hygeio-Therapv in its purity ; some one who
can meet their drug-doctors, cliemico-physiologists, and metaphysical-phvsicits in argument,
and show the fallicies and absurdities of the
prevailing medical system, and the incalculable
benefits to result from its overthrow. We are
of opinion that if either one or half a dozen per
sons we could name, should spend one year in
lecturing in England as opportunity presented,
a large body of Health Reformers would mani
fest themselves, and, probably, establish a Col"
lege of Hygeio-Therapy. Some persons think
that the political agitations of that country so
preoccupy the public mind as to embarrass any
attempt to introduce a new subject for discus
sion. But we think just the contrary. Politi
cal agitation causes the people to think, and
while in the thinking mood, they are the bel
ter prepared for listening to argument ; and
if our system is properly presented, the labor
ing people can hardly fail to see the immense ad
vantages and power its adoption would place in
their hands. It would very soon solve the
vexed question of Labor and Capital by making
the laborer independent.
GREAT BRITAIN NO PLACE FOR REFORMERS.
A gentleman aud his wife, who are graduates
of our school, have recently spent several months
in Great Britain, and bring a discouraging ac
count of the prospect for Health Reformers in
that country. They regard the ground as I
THE WATERS OF VALS.
Some friend in Paris has sent us a small pam.
phlet of 22 pages, with the disproportionately
long title, Memoir Concerning the Acidulous.
Gaseous, Bi-carbonated, Sodaic Waters of Veil :
by Dr. Tourrette. The work is devoted to a
chemical analysis of the waters of the various
�58
THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
mineral springs in the Department of the Ar
dèche, and a laudatory and commercial state
ment of their remarkable therapeutic prop
erties. These waters contain, in varying pro
portions, chalk, soda, potash, common salt,
silica, iodine, iron, arsenic, and some other
poisons, with a small proportion of some other
impurities. These are precisely the ingredients
which render water unfit for drinking or cook
ing purposes. Should any one put them in a
neighbor’s well in the same proportions and
quantities in which they are found in “ The
Waters of Vais,” he would almost certainly be
prosecuted for an attempt to kill. But, when the
person is sick he will swallow them in any
quantities his stomach can hold, per advice of
the family physician, and regard it as an attempt
to cure. There are some strange inconsistencies
in this world, and swallowing poisons because
one is sick is one of them.
We quote a specimen of the author’s style :
In the diseases of the digestive organs, gastralgy, dyspepsias, the alkaline mineral water
of Vais impregnates to the digestive mucous
membrane lasting physiological modifications.
Pâtissier, a fellow of the Academy of Medi
cine, traces in a few lines the principal effects :
“ In a healthy state,” he says, “ the water of
Vais, taken as a drink, increases the appetite,
renders digestion easier, regulates the alvine
evacuations, and sometimes produces a pur
gative effect ; the circulation increases, the
skin becomes warmer, there is an unusual
feeling of strength and well-being ; some
glasses of that water are sufficient to ren
der alkaline the sweats and the urine, which
naturally are acid.
“ It has been observed, that .mineral waters,
when well borne by the stomach, stimulate its
vitality, and increase its digestive power. This
influence is especially the property of the gas
eous, alkaline, sodaic, cold waters of Vais.”
Petrequin and Socquet (medical treatise on
mineral waters, a work having obtained a prize
from the Academy) :
“ The influence which the waters of Vais
bear on the digestive organs, as soon as they
are made use of, is most remarkable, and their
effects are so soon felt that it might be said,
without exaggeration, that they present some
thing marvellous.”
This is good advertising, but bad grammar,
and worse logic.
In the “ healthy state,” the appetite should
not be increased. To alter a healthy appetite is
to render it unhealthy—morbid. And, again, in
the healthy state, the digestion is always per
fectly easy, and the alvine evacuations regular.
How can that which is perfectly easy be made
easier? and why should regular evacuations
be regulated ? With all due deference to the
distinguished savans of the French Academy,
we must dispose of their euphonious lingo by
applying to it the uneuphonious epithet—
fudge!
VEGETARIAN
FESTIVAL
LAND.
IN
ENG
Our English exchanges contain an account of *
a festival on vegetarian principles. Says one of
them :
A rather remarkable festival was held at
Blennerhasset, England, on Christmas Day, upon
the farm of Mr. William Lawson. The farm is
conducted upon the co-operative principle—a
tithe of the profits being divided among the
workers, and Mr. Wm. Lawson and his servants
are vegetarians. All the people of the district
who chose to write beforehand for free tickets,
or to pay 4d. on Christmas Day, were invited.
Musicians were requested to take their instru
ments with them, and it was added “ those who
like may bring their own spoons.” About 1,000
people attended. The farm buildings were dec
orated, and in the large rooms, singing and
dancing, and lecturing on phrenology, co-opera
tion, vegetarianism, and physiology, went for
ward at intervals during the day. At noon a
meal of grain, fruit, and vegetables was given,
which rather surprised some of the beef-eating
peasantry, who had assembled to take part in
the festival. There were raw turnips, boiled
cabbages, boiled wheat, boiled barley, shelled
peas, (half a ton of each of these three lastnamed :) oatmeal gruel, with chopped carrots,
turnips, and cabbage in it; boiled horse beans,
boiled potatoes, salads, made of chopped carrots,
turnips, cabbages, parsley, &c., over which was
poured linseed boiled to a jelly. As there were
no condiments of any kind, either upon the ex
traordinary messes, or the table, and all beingcold except the potatoes, it may be imagined
that the guests did not sit down with much rel
ish to their vegetarian fare. Each one had an
apple and a biscuit presented on rising from the
table. Good order was maintained all day, the
farm-servants of the establishment acting as
officers, and Mr. W. Lawson himself performing ■
the duty of special constable, a fact which was
announced by placards posted up on the farm
buildings, bearing the words, “ W illiam Lawson,
sworn constable.”
The Tomb of Semiramis.—It is said that
Semiramis directed the following inscription to
be placed upon her tomb : “ If any king stand
in need of money, let him break open this mom
ument.” On reading this Darius ransacked the
tomb, and found inscribed the following rebuke ;
“If thou hadst not been insatiably covetous, thou
wouldst not have invaded the sacred mansion
of the dead.” He retired with shame and dis
appointment, as will every one who is guilty of a
dishonorable action.
NATURE.
Read nature ; nature is a friend to truth ;
Nature is Christian ; preaches to mankind;
And bids dead matter aid us in our creed.
�THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
Agricultural gqmrtmort.
POMOLOGY IN HYCEIANA.
BY E. YODER, M. D.
59
in hermetrically sealed cans and jars, for winter
use, and for exportation, than was used for all
purposes, green and dried, ten years ago. And
yet millions of people use it only as a luxury,
not aware of the fact, that human life can be
sustained in its best conditions by making fruit
the staple, if not the sole article of diet.
THE COST OF CULTIVATION.
Settlers in a new “ colony ” intending to
engage in fruit culture, can not over-estimate
the importance of planting largely and atten
tively cultivating small fruits.
The standard fruits, apples, pears, peaches,
cherries, etc., require more time to complete
their growth before bearing fruit; and hence
to persons who need quick returns for small
outlays of capital, are less profitable and incur
greater risks than small fruits.
The expense of raising and marketing of
strawberries, does not ordinarily exceed five cents
per quart. Canning establishments can afford
to pay from ten to fifteen cents per quart.
Therefore settlers in “ Hygeiana ” need not fear
over-stocking the market, even if an acre of
strawberries were planted on each ten acre farm.
A CANNING FACTORY
should be built by the settlers of “ Hygeiana.”
They should organize a joint-stock company,
STRAWBERRIES.
so that the handsome profits realized by can
When well planted and properly cared for, ning establishments would be kept in the hands
strawberries yield a full crop the second season of the fruit-growers, to whom it justly belongs.
of their growth.
FIVE ACRES ENOUGH.
MANNER OF CULTIVATION.
Five acres of land are enough for a family of
Any person who is familiar with the cultiva five persons, if planted to fruit in the following
tion of Indian corn can easily manage strawber order, thus giving the first necessary requisite.
ries. This remark applies equally to the culti
A FIVE-ACRE SYSTEM.
vation of all kinds of fruit.
Prepare the ground as for corn, d’lant in rows
One acre planted to Strawberries,
U li
“
“ Raspberries,
four feet apart, and set the plants 15 inches
Il
Ct
“
“ Blackberries,
apart in the rows. Be careful in planting to give
Cl
CC
“
“ Grapes,
the roots their natural position, (instead of being
crowded into a little hole). Keep free of runners, leaving one acre fol buildings, ornament
except where you wish to propagate plants, and grounds, roads and a grove.
there remove all blossoms and fruit. Cultivate
RASPBERRIES.
thoroughly between the rows and irrigate freely.
The common black cap is the safest, and has
ROW TO PROCURE PLANTS.
the advantage over other varieties in bearing
Obtain plants only of reliable dealers, and transportation better.
Plant them eight feet apart. This will give
avoid all new, untried and consequently high
priced varieties. Do not under any circumstances room between the rows for one row of beans,
take, even as a gift, unknown varieties ; labor, potatoes, cabbages, or other vegetables ; thus
time, and the opportunity to produce good crops, securing thorough cultivation, so essential to
with good plants, are thus lost, and strawberry the production of good fruit.
Dig holes a» foot deep and fifteen inches in
culture called a failure.
diameter. Place six inches of leafmould, or
THE “ WILSON.”
muck, in the bottom of the hole ; fill up with
Of the different varieties, none give better fine loam and cover the roots of the young
satisfaction than that known as the “Wilson’s plants about two inches. Spring planting is
Albany.” The “ Russell” strawberry described best.
in the July number of the Gospel of Health,
BLACKBERRIES.
is perhaps larger in size, and under the manage
The
or
Dor
ment of experienced pomologists, may yield chesterLawton,bestNew Rochelle, and thebeing
are the
varieties. The latter
larger crops, but for amateurs, (and for this class the earliest and sweetest, but not so prolific a
I write,) the “ Wilson ” will prove more profit bearer nor so large in size.
able, because it will flourish under all kinds of
Plant four by eight
but
treatment, better than any other variety. It is four to grow in each hill.feet apart. Allowprop
If you wish to
the best for marketing because it is solid, and agate plants, appropriate a part of your land
beats transporting a long distance.
excep
At Hammondton and Vineland, N. J., this exclusively to that purpose, and, with the ” keep
of a single row of
“ hoed crops,
variety is so decidedly preferred, that fruit tion remainder as cleansome corn-field. Cultiva
growers in these places have almost entirely ' the is equal to a thickas a
tion
coating of “vegetable
discarded all other varieties.
not always
obtained.
Fruit-growers in southern Illinois, say, when ' rubbish,” which can number of thebeospel con
The September (1866)
G
speaking of strawberries: “we mean Wilson’s tains appropriate hints on shortening in, which
every time." So hardy are they that they send I will not repeat.
them to Chicago, Buffalo, Pittsburg, and even
GRAPES.
to New York city.
Grapes will prove among the most profit
THE DEMAND FOR FRUIT
able of all fruits for cultivation in our new “ El
is steadily increasing. More fruit is now put up 1 dorado but, one acre will be enough in con-
�60
THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
nection with the plan above specified, which has
been found to give such an admirable succes
sion of employment as well as fruit. The vari
ety which is best under all circumstances is thus
expressed by an experienced grape-grower in
Vineland, N. J. He says, “ If I were to plant a
thousand grape-vines, I would first plant five
hundred of the Concord variety ; 2. I would
plant four hundred Concord grape-vines; 3.
Seventy-five Concords ; 4. Twenty-five Concords,
and, to make up the thousand, I would plant
one good Concord.
Much has been written about trenching for
grapes, until many people actually believe that
to produce grapes deep trenches must be dug ;
these filled with bones, stones, old-leather, and
rubbish generally. This method would neces
sitate an expense of from $1,000 to $1,200 per
acre. But there is a better as well as cheaper
way. Plant the grape-stocks as you would a
young fruit tree, eight by twelve feet apart;
having first cleared the ground and prepared it
as for corn. To insure thorough cultivation,
plant melons, vegetables, or some other * ‘ hoed
crops” between the rows, but not so near, how
ever, as to prevent the free use of the cultivator
every two weeks next the rows ; thus keep the
surface in as good condition the entire season as is
required to make corn grow, and you will not be
troubled with the worms, bugs, and caterpillars,
whose homes are on neglected farms, and who
flourish by reason of the luxuriant growth of
weeds, found too often in vine-yards. Without
thorough cultivation the farmer would not ex
pect to be successful in corn-culture ; but many
who attempt fruit-culture seem to think plant
ing should suffice, and are ready to denounce
grape-raising as a failure, and fruit-growing gen
erally as a humbug, when they are simply get
ting nothing for doing nothing.
VV hen we consider the fact that from $300 to
$700 per acre is realized by fruit-culture, we cer
tainly owe the soil and the plants which pro
duce such results, proper cultivation and care.
•
STANDARD FRUITS.
can be planted among small fruits in the follow
ing order:
Among Blackberries, plant apple-trees, 30 ft.
by 30 feet.
Among Raspberries, plant pear-trees, 25 feet by
25 feet.
Among Strawberries, plant peach-trees, 18 feet
by 18 feet.
Cherries, plums, apricots, nectarines, and all
fancy fruits, with evergreens and flowers, find
their places in the ornamental grounds around
dwellings.
MANURING.
“ Fertilizing” with stable-manure is perni
cious. It impairs the quality of the fruit, and
produces insects, which destroy both trees and
fruit. Eternal vigilance is required, especially
in new settlements, to protect fruit from the
depredations of insects, without adding to their
opportunities to multiply their numbers.
The “ virgin soil ” of “ Hygeiana ” contains
all the elements necessary to the production of
all the fruits in perfection.
Thorough stirring is the secret of success. Ir
rigation and cultivation will enrich even the
most sterling desert on the globe.
THE PLAN OF PLANTING.
This should be such as to give rows extend
ing lengthwise through the entire lot. If less
than an acre of each of the fruits we have men
tioned be planted, the same general plan can be
adopted, extending the rows in the direction of
the land which is to be planted next, giving an
opportunity to extend the rows. Thus econo
mizing the horse-labor required in cultivation.
SOCIAL REORGANIZATION.
The leading problem in Sociology—the re
organization of society on its natural and only
practical basis—is well stated by Francis G.
Abbott in the Radical:
Now the great problem of sociology is the
right adjustment of the relations between the
unit and the aggregate, the part and the whole,
the individual and society. Neither war accord
ing to Hobbes, nor savage isolation, according to
Rousseau, is “ the state of nature,” but, these
being excluded, only one alternative remains,
and that is co-operation. The state of nature is
mutual co-operation, which is the Christian ideal
of society. But co-operation implies a common
end for which all co-operate; and what is that ’?
This is a most important question, and the an
swer to it will effect essentially the character of
every voluntary organization into which men
enter.
The ideal end of society is accomplished in the
highest possible development of all its individual
members, according to the law of their natural
individualities. The individual cannot develop
in isolation, independently of social helps ; and
that is the sufficient answer to the advocate of
pure individualism. From birth to death men
are dependent on each other in countless ways;
there is no such thing as human independence,
except in a very Pickwickian sense. The com
pletes! possible education of all its individuals,
their most perfect development in all directions,
is the grand end and function of society. This
end attained, the highest welfare of all is se
cured in the highest welfare of each. It is the
duty of society to propose this end ; it is the duty
of the individual to co-operate in achieving it.
Society defeats its own end if it violates the
individuality of any one of its members ; the
individual defeats at once his own end, and the
end of society, if he refuses to co-operate with
his fellows. The prosperity of a state depends
on commerce, in a higher sense of that word
than the common one. The free commerce of
intellectual, moral, and religious influences, the
unstinted interchange of ennobling ideas, senti
ments and social helps of every kind, is the verv
condition of true social progress ; and all this is
co-operation, mutual giving and taking, practi
cal outcome and income of all that is best in
humanity. In no other way than by this per
petual co-operation of each with all, can society
attain its ideal end.
How clear, then, is the duty of society to
respect to the uttermost the liberty of the indi
�THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
fll
vidual! The good of society is at once sacrificed I organization which represses individuality, but
oy any restriction on the individual’s free activ ! only in favor of organization which shall develop
ity, whether of body or mind. How clear, on it. Disorganization is simply anarchy, social
the other hand, is the duty of the individual to [ death. Scrutinize, therefore, the fundamental
work heartily for the welfare of society ! His principles of social organizations as severely as
own highest good, in which that of society is you will; but do not defeat your own end by
also involved, is sacrificed by a selfish refusal to destroying what you seek to reform. Let every
bear his part of the common burden. Private new organization be helped and encouraged
culture and public usefulness are thus recipro which shall tend to accomplish the genuine
cally ends and means; the highest individual object of all organization: namely, the higher
culture is impossible unless dedicated to public development of the individual. That is the
uses, and the highest usefulness to society is touchstone, the test of all beneficial organization.
impossible, except through the most perfect Individual development need not be the direct
culture of the individual. This mutual exist object proposed ; but if it is not the ultimate
ence of the individual for society, and of society object attained, if it is in any way, shape, or
for the individual, constitutes the human race a manner interfered with, then the organization,
single organism, which the immortal Kant de no matter how dazzling its professions, or phil
fines as " that in which the whole and the parts anthropic its intentions, obstructs the genuine
are mutually means and ends.” The more highly progress of society, and should either be re
society becomes thus organized, the richer, freer, formed or abolished. If reform is impossible,
and grander, is each individual life. Let society there is no remedy but abolition.
and the individual be faithful in the perform
ance of these reciprocal duties, and the greatest
THE TEMPERANCE FAILURE.
of human triumphs is achieved—liberty in union,
the unimpeded evolution of every soul accord
ing to the Divine ideal implanted in it, and the
It is refreshing to read, among the intermin
harmonious working of all souls for the highest
good of each. Is not this the true idea of the able nonsense on this subject, a writer on tem
perance who can see to the root of the matter.
kingdom of God ?
It seems quite unwise, then, to object to The majority of temperance writers and speakers
organization per se,-or to hold that it naturally ! are directing all their efforts in mitigating the
and inevitably tends to evil; for social progress evils of intemperance, while a moiety of the
manifestly consists in perpetual movement to
ward a profounder organic integration of the money, time, and brains, expended in the right
whole, and a higher spiritual differentiation of direction would rid the earth of the curse en
the parts. There is nothing antagonistic in j tirely. The Church Union has a pertinent
these two ends; on the contrary, the attain- ; article which concludes with the following para
mentof one depends directly on the attainment I
of the other. The most highly organized plants graph :
and animals are precisely those in which the ■ “ It was found one thing to stop the sale of
individual organs are most dissimilar. To hold rum, but quite another thing to stop the drink
back, therefore, in jealousy of organization as ing of it; very soon no one was found willing to
such, from the great social duty of co-operation i prosecute under the act, when of course it
for human welfare, is to distrust the nature of ' became a dead letter, and to sum up the matter
things and the wisdom of God’s cosmical laws— i in a word—in the whole history of the enter
which is the worst kind of skepticism. Organ- j prise, temperance men never had so much law,
izations crystallize around all great ideas, and and drunkards never had so much liquor, as at
every great idea creates its own appropriate . this present time. This result might have been
form of organization. If a vitally powerful idea ; expected. The Maine Law went on the princi
gets hold of men’s minds, it will organize them [ ple that the evil came from the traffic, but it is
almost in spite of themselves ; it will bring them I just the other way, the traffic comes from the
together as inevitably as the force of gravitation I evil. Intemperance does not come from the
brings together the tiny streams, trickling down tippling-shop, it comes from the heart; it is
the mountain’s sides, into the larger stream of found everywhere. Notv having stated the
the valley. There is no use in fighting against cause of failure, let us at some future time apply
nature. If men keep apart, it is because they the remedy.”
have no common purpose or principle to unite
We are anxious to see the “ remedy ” which
them; continued separation is a verdict pro the writer proposes to indicate. We confess
nounced against their principles—“guilty of
our fears that it will be another compromise
worthlessness in the first degree.”
Least of all should the liberal preacher of to after all. Intemperance certainly comes from
day look askance on organization. For what is morbid appetency—in one sense, “ the heart.”
he preaching? Clearly for reform—political,
social, religious. But he who works for reform, But what is the cause of the morbid appe
must first believe in form, and form is organiza tite? To this cause the remedy should be
tion. The modern prophet of humanity aims applied, or it will never be successful.
not to disorganize society, (though often falsely
accused of that,) but only to re-organize it, on
the basis of love, righteousness, and truth. He
Great men direct the events of their time ;
can only aim to correct the wrong basis of pres wise men take advantage of them ; weak men
ent organization; he protests against every are carried along in their current.
�62
HYCEIANA
THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
AGRICULTURAL
LEGE.
COL
One of the institutions that we desire to see
in operation at the earliest practical moment, is
a school where children of both seXes—old or
young—can he taught the most important of all
human avocations, that of tilling the soil. How
earnest we are in this matter may be learned
from our advertising department, wherein we
offer to donate fifty acres of land in Hygeiana,
to any competent person who will purchase as
many acres more, and devote the whole to the
purposes of an agricultural school. The better
plan would be, of course, to combine it with a
general educational institution, where the ordi
nary branches of a college course, as well as all
the branches of the primary school, are taught
in connection with manual labor. The writers
in our educational magazines do not agree re
specting the propriety of connecting the study
of agriculture with a regular college course. A
writer in the American Agriculturist presents
one side of the subject thus :
“ It is a noteworthy fact, that agricultural
colleges and schools, as thus far organized and
conducted in this country, have, with a single
exception, perhaps, proved practical failures.
Students in law schools become lawyers, medi
cal students become physicians, and so on, but
the students in our agricultural schools do not
distinguish themselves as farmers, and time
enough has passed for them to have done so if
they would. How is this to be accounted for ?
We may not be able fully to explain it, but may
point out some of the defects in the plans of the
institutions thus far established.
“ It is a mistake to make an agricultural school
a school also for general education. Our com
mon schools and academies teach the rudiments
of geography, grammar, arithmetic, &c.; why
burden an agricultural school with these ele
mentary and common branches? They cannot
teach them any better or more economically
than is now already done elsewhere, and it only
wastes time and clogs the working of the pro
fessional school to bring them into their courses
of study. It not only takes up the time which
should be devoted to studies strictly profession
al, but it lowers the standard of attainment. It
tends to make a young man’s education super
ficial, and hurries him into practical life at too
early an age. The growing tendency in our
country to shorten the period devoted to
education, is hurtful, and should be resisted.
As the country grows older, the tendency should
be in the other direction.
“ Again, it is a mistake to connect the study of
agriculture with a regular classical college, and
make it a part of a course of general and classi
cal education. This' would tend to divert the
mind too much from the regular studies. If a
young man who intends to be a doctor, should
have the science of medicine taught him in the
midst of his college course, he would be very
apt to neglect the other studies and give his
chief thoughts to medicine. It might, in some
cases, be wise to have an agricultural school in
the same town with the classical college, but
they should be separate institutions. In this re
spect, they should be organized just as our exist
ing schools of medicine, law, theology, and prac
tical science, are—separate and independent.
“ It is a mistake, also, to make an agricultural
school a manual-labor school. The student in
any and every department of knowledge should
have daily exercise in the open air for the pres
ervation of his health. But his exercise should
partake of the nature of recreation, not labor.
No man can well carry on two kinds of work
at once: it may be either brain-work or muscle
work, but not both in the same day. If he toils
with hands the largest part of each day, his
reading, during his hours of rest, should not be
of the nature of study. If he toils with his
head the largest part of every day, he should,
for the remainder, seek some kind of diversion,
amusement, not additional labor of any sort.
For all kinds of labor exhaust vitality. ‘ All
work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.’ ”
To this very superficial and most unphiloso.
phical argument we may oppose all the teach
ings of physiology and a thousand lessons of
experience. A vast majority of the men who
have been truly and originally great in the
world, were in some way laborers when they
were students. It is not true that “ all kinds of
labor exhaust vitality.” It is only excessive la
bor that does it. A certain amount of ^exercise
is essential, not only to the development of an
organic structure, but also to the preservation of
its health. If the brain organs are fatigued,
they can be restored while the muscles are ex
ercised, and vice versa. We are of the opinion
that boys and girls, or men and women, will
make better progress in classical studies by
working several hours in each day. It is stated
that, at the Michigan Agricultural College the
boys all work three hours a day, and those who
are reported by the farmer as the best in the
field, are uniformly the best scholars.
Foreign Beds.—It is curious to notice the
habits of different nations in regard to beds.
However dress, food, manners, cooking, political
conditions may vary in other countries, the beds
differ as notably as anything does. In Eastern
nations the bed is often nothing but a carpet,
and is carried about and spread in any convenient
spot, and the tired native lies down in his clothes.
We remember a child who used to be puzzled
with those miracles of -our Saviour, who, in re
storing an impotent man, directed him to take
up his bed and walk—his idea of a bed consisting
in a four-post bedstead, with its palliasse, mat
tress and feather-bed, besides blankets, sheets,
and pillows. But even in very cold countries
the beds are closely allied to the Eastern carpet.
In taking a furnished house in Russia, on inquir
ing for the servant’s bed-rooms and beds, which
�THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH
did not appear in the inventory on our surveying
the apartments, it comes out that the Russian
servants are in the habit of lying anywhere—
in the passages, on the floors, on the mats at the
room door, or even on the carpets in the sitting
rooms—generally as near as possible to the
stoves in the winter season. The emperor
himself sleeps on a leathern sofa, in a sitting
room, lying down in a dressing-gown, but not
removing his under-clothing. But in Russia
the houses are kept so warm by the system of
stoves through the walls that much bed cover
ing is no more required in winter than during
the heats of summer. In Germany, the con
struction of the beds gives one the impression
that the Germans do not know what it is to lie
down. The bedstead is a short, wooden case,
there is a mattress extending from head to foot,
but so formed that at the half-way the upper end
is made to slope at an angle of considerable ele
vation, and upon this are two enormous down
pillows, which reach from the head of the bed to
the half-way down to the feet; consequently the
occupant of the bed lies at an angle of at least
forty-five degrees, and is nearly in a sitting posi
tion all night. In some parts of Germany there
are no blankets ; there is a sheet to lie on, and
another over it, which is tacked to a quilt wad
ded with down ; and this is the entire covering,
with the exception of a sort of bed, a thick,
eider-down quilt, but not quilted, which is placed
on the top, and which, unless the sleeper is very
quiet in,his sleep, is usually found on the floor
in the morning. In hot weather there is no
medium ; either a sheet is the only covering, or
one of these over-warm eider-downs.—[All the
Year Rbund.
A PREMIUM FOR CRIME.
63
government. The proposition of Commissioner
•Wellsis simply offering a premium on crime;
and we are glad that a few of the newspapers of
our country are intelligent enough to understand
it, in this light, and honest enough to express
their thoughts in words. The New Republic
well says:
The reasons for the proposed reduction of
the tax are 1st, the ratio of taxation to cost, and
2d, to promote morals.
We insist that the taxation should bear a
ratio to the profits of an article, rather than to
the cost of its manufacture, and it is a wellknown fact, that on every gallon of whisky
there remains a net profit to the trade, of from
$3 to $15 per gallon. In other words, the $2
tax per gallon can be paid, and leave a mean
net gain to the trade of at least $5 per gallon.
This comes from the consumer, a reduction of
tax would be only so much additional gain to the
trade, the cost to the consumer would remain
the same.
Instead of adjusting the ratio of taxation to
the cost of an article, equity requires it to be
adjusted to the profits, and in the whisky trade,
the cost becomes almost 000 compared with the
profit—it is almost all profit. If a man clears
$8 a gallon on whisky, why should he not pay
$2 to the government ? Rather, we say, pay
$5 to the government, for even then his profits
would exceed those of almost every other busi
ness.
But the “ improvement of morals ” to be
secured is a suggestion worthy of the “ Forty
Thieves! ” The distillers are styled “ dishonest,”
they defraud the government, therefore a ‘‘limit
has been reached.” To prevent fraud and dis•honesty, yield to the demands of these dishonest
men, although the deficit must be ‘‘wrung from
the hard earnings of labor! ” Here’s a Daniel
come to j udgment. Here is a sovereign balm
for burglary, and crime of every hue—take off
the tax! Ten years in the penitentiary is too
high a tax on horse-stealing, reduce the tax to
one year! The scaffold is too high a tax on
murder, reduce it to a fine of $11)0 ! I The ques
tion is thus: Is the ratio of tax to profit too
high? Manifestly not. Then enforce the law!
When was the Rum power honest? Under
Washington, they refused to pay the tax im
posed, and raised the standard of revolt. What
was Washington’s remedy to “benefit the mor
als ” of these people? An army of 16,000, each
with a persuasive musket, the logic of which
they saw the force of, and submitted. The
government should legislate in this matter, as
for burglars and thieves. The whole business
begins, progresses, and ends in robbery and
perjury. To succumb to this wicked monopoly
is infinitely worse, than to have yielded to all
the demands of the Confederacy. We respect
fully commend to our Commissioner a study of
the old adage “ The bird that can sing and will
not sing, must be made to sing!” Surrender
to thieves, never!
The whisky makers, having succeeded in
defrauding the Government out of $53,000,000,
Mr. Commissioner Wells proposes to reduce the
tax to the degree that the whisky lords will be
pleased to condescend to pay, with the ulterior
view, probably, of inducing those who amass
wealth in ¿he ruin of their fellow-beings, to
become honest dealers. We are not in favor
of licensing either the manufacture or sale of
intoxicating drinks, nor even of tolerating them.
But the public mind is not yet educated up to
the moral point of distinguishing between prop
erty and poison, nor of understanding that all
vocations which are pernicious to society, are
criminal in the sight of God and all true men.
Hence we must do the best we can in mitigating
the evil of that which the law and public sen
timent permit, and in keeping the fiends in
human form, as near the line of honesty as is
compatible with a dishonest calling. But we
protest, in the name of all that is decent in
morals, or respectable in legislation, against
An editor says the only reason why his house
allowing the makers and traffickers in the drunk was not blown away during this late gale, was
ard’s drink to be above law, and to control the because there was a heavy mortgage upon it.
�64
the; gospel of health.
moral and intellectual world, to be measured by
the literary retailers, and the literary yard-sticks
In the Galaxy for the present month is a ' of our ordinary or average life.”
biographical notice, by Eugenia Benson, of that ■
remarkable and gifted woman, Madame Du[For the Gospel of Health ]
devant, better known in the literary world by
the nom-de-plume of George Sand. The follow NEW YEAR ON HYGIENIC PRINCI
PLES.
ing account of her prodigious labors and the
expansive scope of her genius will interest our
Dear Dr. Trall.—Would your readers like
readers. Is not such a woman entitled to the I to hear how Hygienic New-Yorkers can cele
elective franchise?
brate the first day of the year ? I am sure they
“George Sand has given forth an amazing would, so will give you a short account of “ our
quantity of literary work, and she is at the pres New Year’s.” are aware that some 20 or more of
Perhaps you
ent time either contributing to the ‘ Revue des your students are rooming in one house, corner
Deux Mondes’ or writing a play for the stage, j of 7th avenue and 53d street ; a fine airy place,
It would be impossible for me to enumerate all | only a few blocks from Central Park. A fun
loving class as
her works, still less to analyze them, for I do i life. Well, we well as living earnest workers in
thought to .celebrate the bright
not know them, nor are they accessible to me. new year, with a Hygienic dinner, and a “ good
I propose to express the character, to give the i time” after it, in the rooms of Mr. Stockwell,
drift of, to analyze as I may, certain leading one of the students, who has a wife and baby to
pleasant while
works, which, by common consent, best express make his home hours happy and under Hygeia’s
he is ea rnestly seeking knowledge
the scope and meaning of her prodigious literary own tutelage. New year's morning dawned
activity.
beautiful and sunny. Smiling faces were in
“ George Sand could not be silent; she is the [ each room preparing something for the grand
dinner.
voice of her age ; through her, not France alone, | Those of us 'who eat only one meal per day
but Europe, has spoken. With the people rest omitted our breakfast, and gratified our alimenless, the old order of society broken up, laws, tiveness, in exercising our ingenuity in getting
theologies and creeds from obsolete conditions j up goodies, or something more substantial for
the table that “ Was to be.”
of life and thought—the whole moral and in
Two o’clock, the dinner hour, came, and the
tellectual world detached from the sixteenth ! company assembled, nor do I believe that a
and seventeenth centuries by the disorders and more tasteful or inviting table was spread,
assaults of the eighteenth, yet, restless to reform neither a brighter, happier company assembled
in New York, on that day. Vegetables, pud
itself on an industrial basis, in consonance with J dings, pies, fruits, appeared in many and various
universal benevolence and in accordance with forms. Yet nothing that would not nourish
the Christian idea—it has been the work of the body was to be found there. Every one ate
Madame George Sand to make known all this ; with a relish ; the best feeling prevailed, each
thought more of the comfort and happiness of
she has sought to express the spiritual and others than of his or her own.
moral needs of her age, to unmask established
The dinner passed off to the gratification of
forms of injustice, to expose the pretensions of all concerned. In the evening the company
customs derived from an old and different order assembled again, and spent the time in recita
tions of poetry, speeches, plays, etc., retiring at
of society, to weaken social bonds that retard i an early hour, feeling the better prepared for
aid often paralyze the best impulses, and de life’s work, for the short period of relaxation.
Hoping that ere many years roll around, there
stroy the free activity of men. It was for this
that George Sand, artist in her genius and in i ■will be many Hygienic dinners in answer to your
earnest, hopeful efforts, I am,
her instincts has been the conscience, the moral
Most truly, yours,
“ K.”
sense, and the intellectual protest of her time ;
New York, Jan. 1, 1S67.
it was for this that she has been forced to pro
duce such an amazing quantity of work, as from
“ Do you eat well ? ” asked one of our modern
an inexhaustible source ; it was for this that she
has been animated by a genius at once artistic pill-venders, who was in the process of manu
facturing a patient.
and moral, at once unrestrained and self-pos
“Yes, very well.”
sessed. Madame George Sand, who has shocked
“ Do vou sleep well ?”
“ Yes.”
moral people in England, America, and France,
“ Eh ? you do, eh ? That’s not exactly the
is among French writers an example of purity
thing for one in your condition. I’ll do away
and nobleness. But she is altogether too grand with that for you. Take four of these every
and impassioned a type of woman, too compre morning, and four after dinner. You’ll soon
hensive in her mind, covers too much of the see a change! ”
A “ STRONG-MINDED ” WOMAN.
�THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
SUFFRAGE FOR WOMEN.
ADDRESS OF ELIZABETH
CADY STANTON IN
BEHALF OF THE AMERICAN EQUAL RIGHTS
ASSOCIATION TO THE LEGISLATURE OF THE
STATE OF NEW YORK.
Gentlemen of the Judiciary : I appear before
you at this time to urge on you the justice of
securing to all the people of the state the right
to vote for delegates to the coining Constitutional
Convention. The discussion of this right in
volves the consideration of the whole question
of suffrage, and especially those sections of your
Constitution which interpose insurmountable
qualifications to its exercise. As representatives
of the people, your right to regulate all that
pertains to the coming Constitutional Conven
tion is absolute. It is for you to say when and
where that convention shall be held, how many
delegates shall be chosen and what classes
shall be represented. This is your right. The
actions of the Legislatures of 1801 and 1821,
furnish you a precedent for extending to dis
franchised classes the right to vote for delegates
to a Constitutional Convention. Before those
conventions were called the right of suffrage
was restricted to every male inhabitant who
possessed a freehold to the value of £20, or
rented a tenement at the yearly value of 40
shillings, and had been rated and actually paid
taxes to the state ; and yet the Legislature of
those years passed laws setting aside all prop
erty limitations, and providing that all men,
black and white, rich and poor, should vote for
delegates to said conventions. See Session Laws
of 1801, page 190, chapter 69, section 2 : also,
those of 1821, page 83, act 90, sections 1 and 6.
The Constitutional Convention of Rhode Island,
in 1842, affords another precedent of the power
of the Legislature to extend the suffrage to dis
franchised classes. The disfranchisement of
any class of citizens is in express violation of
the spirit of our own Constitution, which says,
art. 1, section 1 : “ No member of this state shall
be disfranchised, or deprived of any of the rights
or privileges secured to any citizen thereof,
unless by the law of the land and the judgment
of his peers.” Now women, and negroes not
worth $250, however weak and insignificant, are
surely “members of the state.” “The law of
the land” is equality. The question of disfran
chisement has never been submitted to the j udgment of their peers. A peer is an equal. The
“ white male citizen ” who so pompously parades
himself in all our codes and constitutions, does
not recognize women and negroes as his equals,
therefore his judgment in their case amounts to
nothing ; and women and negroes constituting
three-fifths of the people of the state, do not
recognize this “ white male” minority as their
rightful rulers. On our republican theory that
the majority governs, women and negroes must
have a voice in the government of the state ;
and being taxed should be represented. “White
males ” are the nobility of this country. They are
the privileged order, who have legislated us unj ustly for women and negroes as have the nobles
of England for their disfranchised classes. The
existence of the English House of Commons is a
65
strong fact to prove that one class cannot legislate
for another. Perhaps it may be necessary, in this
transition period of our civilization, to create a
Lower House for women and negroes, lest the
dreadful example of Massachusetts should be
repeated here, and black men take their places
beside our Dutch nobility in the councils of the
state. If the history of England has proved
that white men of different grades cannot legis
late with justice for one another, how can you,
honorable gentlemen, legislate for women and
negroes, whom, by your customs, creeds and
codes and common consent, are placed under
the ban of inferiority? If you dislike this view
of the case, and claim that woman is your supe
rior, and therefore you place her above al]
troublesome legislation, to shield her by your
protecting care from the rough winds of life, I
have simply to say your statute-books are a sad
commentary on this position. Your laws degrade
rather than exalt woman ; your customs cripple,
rather than free ; your system of taxation is
alike ungenerous and unjust. In demanding
suffrage for the black man of the South, the
dominant party recognizes the fact that, as a
freedman, he is no longer a part of the family,
therefore his master is no longer his representa
tive ; and as he will now be liable to taxation,
he must also have representation. Woman, on
the contrary, has never been such a part of the
family as to escape taxation. Although there
has been no formal proclamation giving her an
individual existence, unmarried women have
always had the right to property and wages, to
make contracts and do business in their own
name. And even married women, by recent
legislation in this state, have been secured in
some civil rights. At least as 'well secured as
those classes can be who do not hold the ballot
in their own hands. Woman now holds a vast
amount of property in the country and pays her
full proportion of taxes, revenue included; on
what principle, then, do you deny her represen
tation ? If you say women are “ virtually rep
resented ” by the men of their household, I give
you Senator Sumner’s denial in his great speech
on Equal Rights in the XXXIXth Congress.
Quoting from James Otis, he says: “No such
phrase as virtual representation was known in
law or constitution. It is altogether a subtlety
and illusion, wholly unfounded and absurd.
We must not be cheated by any such phantom
or any other fiction of the law or politics, or any
monkish trick or deceit or hypocrisy.” In re
gard to taxation without representation, Lord
Coke says: “The supreme power cannot take’
from any man any part of his property without
his consent in person or by representation.”
Taxes are not to belaid on the people (are not
women and negroes people) without tiieir con
sent in person or by representation. The very
act of taxing those who are not represented
appears to me to deprive them of one of their
most essential rights as freemen, and if contin
ued seems to be in effect an entire disfranchise
ment of every civil right. For what one civil
right is worth a rush after a man’s property is
subject to be taken from him without his con
sent.” In view of such opinions is it too much
to ask the men of New York either to enfran
chise women of wealth and education, or else
�66
THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
release them from taxation ? If we cannot be
represented as individuals we should not be
taxed as individuals. If the “ white male ” will
do all the voting, let him pay all the taxes.
There is no logic so powerful in opening the eyes
of men to their real interests as a direct appeal
to their pockets. Such a release from taxation
can be supported, too, by your own Constitution.
In art. 2, sec. 1, you say, “ And no person of
color shall be subject to direct taxation unless
he shall be seized and possessed of such real
estate as aforesaid,” referring to the $250 quali
fication. Now a poor widow who owns a lot
worth $100 or less is taxed. Why this partiality
to the black man ? He may live in the quiet
possession of $249 worth of property and not be
taxed a cent. Is it on the ground of color or
sex that the black man finds greater favor in
the eyes of the law than the daughters of the
state ? In order fully to understand this partiality
I have inquired into your practice with regard
to colored women. I find that in Seneca Falls
there lives a highly estimable colored woman by
the name of Abby Gomore. She owns prop
erty to the amount of $1,000. It consists of
village lots. She now pays, and always has
paid, from the time she invested her first $100,
the same taxes that any other citizen paid, just
in proportion to the value of her property, or as
it is assessed. After excluding women, and
“ men of color ” not worth $250, from represen
tation, your Constitution tells us what other
persons are excluded from the right of suffrage.
Article 2, section 2 ; “ Laws may be passed ex
cluding from the right of suffrage all persons
who have been or may be convicted of bribery,
of larceny, or of any infamous crime, and for
depriving every person who shall make or be
come directly or indirectly interested in any bet
or wager depending upon the result of any
election, from the right to vote at such election.”
IIow humiliating! for respectable, law-abiding
women and “men of color” to be thrust outside
the pale of political consideration with those
convicted of bribery, larceny, and infamous
crime, and, worse than all, with those who bet
on elections, for how lost to all sense of honor
must that “ white male citizen ” be who pub
licly violates a wise law to which he has himself
given an intelligent consent. We are ashamed,
honored sirs, of our company. The Mohammedan
forbids a fool, a madman, or a woman, to call
the hour for prayers. If it were not for the invi
dious classification we might hope it was tender
ness rathor than contempt that moved the
Mohammedan to excuse women from so severe a
duty. But for the ballot, which falls like a flake
of snow upon the sod, we can find no such ex
cuse for New York legislators. Article 2,
sections, should be read and considered by the
women of the state, as it gives them a glimpse
of the modes’of life and surroundings of some
of the privileged classes of “ white male citi
zens ” who may go to the polls. “For the
purpose of voting, no person shall be deemed to
have gained or lost a residence by reason of his
presefice or absence while employed in the ser
vice of the United States, nor while engaged in
navigating the waters of the state, or of the
United States, or of the high seas, nor while a
student of any seminary of learning, nor while
kept at any almshouse or other asylum, at public
expense ; nor while confined in any public pris
on.” What an unspeakable privilege to have
that precious jewel—the human soul—in a set
ting of irhite manhood, that thus it can pass
through the prison, the asylum, the almshouse,
the muddy waters of the Erie Canal, and come
forth undimmed to appear at the ballot-box at
the earliest opportunity, there to bury its crimes,
its poverty, its moral and physical deformities,
all beneath the rights, privileges, and immuni
ties of a citizen of the state. Just imagine the
motley crew from the 10,000 dens of poverty and
vice in our large cities, limping, raving, cringing,
staggering up to the polls, while the loyal
mothers of a million soldiers, whose bones lay
bleaching on every Southern plain, stand out
side, sad and silent witnesses of this wholesale
desecration of republican institutions. When
you say it would degrade women to go to the
polls, do you not make a sad confession of your
irreligious mode of observing that most sacred
right of citizenship. In asking you. honorable
gentlemen, to extend suffrage to women, we do
not press on you the risk and responsibility of a
new step, but simply to try a measure that has
already proved wise and safe the world over.
So long as political power was absolute and
hereditary, woman shared it with man by birth.
In Hungary, and some provinces of France and
Germany, women, holding this inherited right,
confer their right of franchise on their husbands.
In 1858, in the old town of Upsal, the authori
ties granted suffrage to 50 women holding real
estate and to 31 doing business in their own
name. The representative their votes elected
was to sit in the House of Burgesses. In Ireland
the Court of Queen’s Bench, Dublin, restored to
women in 1804 the old right of voting for town
commissioners. In 1864, too, the government
of Moravia decided that all women who are tax
payers had the right to vote. In Canada, in 1850,
an electoral privilege was conferred on women,
in the hope that the Protestant might balance
the Roman Catholic power in the school system.
“ I lived,” says a friend of mine, “ where I saw
this right exercised for four years by female
property holders, and never heard the most
cultivated man, even Lord Elgin, object to its
results.” Women vote in Austria, Australia,
Holland, and Sweden, on property qualifications.
There is a bill before the British Parliament,
presented by John Stuart Mill, asking for house
hold suffrage, accompanied by a petition from
11,000 of the best-educated women in England.
Would you be willing to admit, gentlemen, that
women know less, have less virtue, less pride
and dignity of character under republican insti
tutions, than in the despotisms and monarchies
of the old world ? Your codes and constitutions
savor of such an opinion. Fortunately, history
furnishes a few saving facts, even under our re
publican institutions. From a recent examina
tion by Lucy Stone, of the archives of the state
of New Jersey, we learn that owing to a liberal
Quaker influence, women and negroes exercised
the right of suffrage in that state 31 years—from
1775 to 1807—when “ white males ” amended
the constitution and arbitrarily assumed the
reins of the government. This act of injustice
is sufficient to account for the moral darkness
�THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
that seems to have settled down upon that un
happy state. During the dynasty of women
and negroes does history record any social revo
lution peculiar to that period ? Because women
voted there, was the institution of marriage
annulled, the sanctity of home invaded, cradles
annihilated, and the stockings, like Gov. Mar
cy’s pantaloons, mended by the state ? Did the
men of that period become mere satellites of the
dinner-pot, the wash-tub, or the spinning-wheel ?
No! Life went on as smoothly in New Jersey
as in any other state in the Union. Anc^the fact
that women did vote there created so slight a
ripple on the popular wave, and made so ordinary
a page in history, that probably nine-tenths of
the people of this country never heard of its
existence until recent discussions in the United
States Senate brought out the facts of the case.
In Kansas, women vote for school-officers, and
are themselves eligible to the office of trustee.
There is a resolution now before the legislature
of Ohio, to strike the words “ white male ” from
the constitution of that state. The Hon. Mr.
Noell, of Missouri, has presented a bill in the
House of Representatives, to extend suffrage to
the women of the District of Columbia. * w * As
to property and education, there are some plausi
ble arguments in favor of such qualifications, but
they are all alike unsatisfactory, illogical, and un
just. A limited suffrage creates a privileged class,
and is based on the false idea that government is
the natural arbiter of its citizens, while in fact it
is the creature of their will. In the old days of
the colonies, when the property qualification
was £5, that being just the price of a jackass,
Benjamin Franklin facetiously asked, “ If a man
must own a donkey in order to vote, who does
the voting, the man or the donkey ?” If read
ing and money-making were a sure gauge of
character, if intelligence and virtue were twin
sisters, these qualifications might do ; but such
is not the case. In our late war black men
were loyal, generous, and heroic, without the
alphabet or multiplication-table, while men
of wealth, educated by the nation, graduates of
West Point, were false to their country and
traitors to their flag. There was a time in Eng
land’s history when the House of Lords even
could neither read nor write, Before the art of
printing were all men fools? Were the apos
tles and martyrs worth $250? If a man can
not read, give him the ballot, it is a school
master ; if he does not own a dollar, give him
the ballot, it is the key to wealth and power. I
have called your attention, gentlemen, to some
of the flaws in your constitution, that you may
see that there is more important work to be
done in the coming Constitutional Convention
than any to which Gov. Fenton has referred in
his message. I would also call your attention
to the fact that while His Excellency suggests
the number of delegates at large to be chosen
by the two political parties, he makes no pro
vision for the representation of women and
“ men of color” not worth $250. I would,
therefore, suggest to your honorable body that
you provide for the election of an equal number
of delegates at large from the disfranchised
classes. But a response to our present demand
does not legitimately thrust on you the final
consideration of the whole broad question of
67
suffrage, on which many of you may be unpre
pared to give an opinion. The simple point we
now press is this : That in a revision of our con
stitution, when the state; is, as it were, resolved
into its original elements, all the people should
be represented in the convention which is to
enact the fundamental laws by which they are
to be governed the next twenty years. Women
and negroes, being five-eighths of the people,
are a majority ; and, according to our republi
can theory are the rightful rulers of the nation.
In this view of the case, honorable gentlemen, is
it not a very unpretending demand we make,
that we may vote once in twenty years in
amending our state constitution ? But, say you,
the majority of women do not make the de
mand. Grant it. What then ? When you es
tablished free schools did you first ask the ur
chins of the state whether they were in favor of
being transplanted from the street to the school
house ? When you legislated on the Temper
ance question, did you go to rum-sellers and
drunkards and ask if a majority of them were
in favor of the Excise law ? When you pro
claimed emancipation, did you go to slavehold
ers and ask if a majority of them were in tavor
of freeing their slaves ? When you ring the
changes on “ negro suffrage ” from Maine to Cal
ifornia, have you proof positive that a majority
of the freedmen demand the ballot ? On the
contrary, knowing that the very existence of
republican institutions depend on the virtue,
education, and equality of the people, did you
not, as wise statesmen, legislate in all these
cases for the highest good of the individual and
of the nation ? We ask that the same far-seeing
wisdom may guide your decision on the ques
tion before you.
Remember the gay and
fashionable throng who whisper in the ears
of statesmen, judges, lawyers, merchants, “ We
have all the rights we want," are but the mum
mies of civilization to be galvanized into life
only by earthquakes and revolutions. Would
you know what is in the soul of woman ask not
the wives and daughters of merchant princes, but
the creators of wealth—those who earn their
bread by honest toil—those who, by a turn in
the wheel of fortune, stand face to face with the
stern realities of life.
Speculators.—There are a species of idlers
called speculators—I mean visionary speculating
in regard to the future. ’Tis pitiable to see a
strong man live day after day in the shadow of
the sometime; he shuts his eyes, and lo! a
vision, far off on the enamelled plain of the
“ To-come ” appears, then he wiM do so and so ;
when he makes such an acquirement he will
rear himself a fabric of splendor ; then he will
sway the throng with the sceptre of power; then
he will stand on the “ Parnassus of Fame; ”
then he will find ease and happiness! O fool
ish speculator ! that then will never come. Daily
you will rear fair fabrics and dream dreams, and
daily will your fabrics fall, your dreams fade,
till you and your visions will pass into the vale
of the unknown. Rouse the faculties that have
lain dormant 1 Act for the present! Be vigorous,
heroic, and persevering! While the now looms
in strange beauty around you, improve it.
�68
THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
THE SMOKE QUESTION.
Few persons, even among those who reside,
“ from the cradle to the grave,” in the smokiest
of smoky places, are aware of the deleterious
substances they are taking into their lungs
with every inspiration. The following article,
from the pen of R Agnus Smith, M. D., F. R.
8., though applied to the large English manu
facturing towns, is equally applicable to many
cities and villages of the United States, and par
ticularly to Pittsburgh, Pa., Cincinnati, Ohio,
and St. Louis, Mo.
Warm interest has compelled me for many
years to attend to the condition of the air of
towns. Habit has no power of rendering smoke
pleasant. Few men living in a smoky town
require to be convinced that they are in the
daily endurance of a monstrous evil. You do
not require details, but it is well to remind you
of some points, as possibly some present might
have long ago given up all consideration of a
sight which during all their lives had taken
the appearance of an unavoidable misfortune.
Many substances make their appearance as
smoke from chimneys ; that kind to be now con
sidered is coal smoke ; all other kinds are com
paratively rare ; and with us here smoke means
generally coal smoke. There are various colors
characteristic of smoke from pale blue to gray,
brown, and intense black. The first comes chiefly
from domestic tires,when the heat is considerable
but the combustion slight. A dark gray or a deep
brown smoke is the product of the distillation
of coal. When the dense hydro-carbons have
been heated highly, but with insufficient air,
we have them decomposed, and carbon of a pure
black is thrown out. The colored substances
in smoke are tar and carbon chiefly; the com
pounds vary with the heat, and may be numer
ous. Some time ago I calculated that sixty tons
of carbonaceous matter were sent off in a day
into the atmosphere in Manchester. A very
small amount affects the atmosphere ; a grain in
18 cubic feet is sufficient to convert good air into
Manchester air, so far as carbon is concerned.
About one half the color is due to tarry matter,
and the other half to black carbon only. This
black matter is the coloring material of all our
smoky towns, and, to a great extent, of the
clothes, as well as of the persons of the inhabi
tants. We live in houses colored by it, and we
walk
roads colored by it, and we can see the
sun, the moon, and the heavens only after they
have been, to our eyes, colored by this universal
tincture.
These are calamities of themselves ; but, al
though some men would look on such a view
of the case as mere sentiment, not one amongst
us can fail to have his spirits tinged with the
darkness of the sky. I found this strangely cor
roborated lately. One of the best men of business
in Manchester informed me that, on an atmo
spherically dull day, no one would give a high
price for goods, no one had the courage to give
it, but on the other hand they could buy goods
at a lower price—the seller had not the courage
to hope for better.
These dull days are caused in part by the cli
mate, but their remarkable oppressiveness is un
questionably due in great part to the smoke. We
do not consider that by the smoke we make wa
are affecting our own spirits and clouding ourt
own j udgment. It is my belief that this effects
on the spirits is the most powerful of all objec-i
tions to smoke, even in the minds of those who!
believe themselves above such feelings. There i
is, however, no denying the next great fact, than
everything coming in contact with a smoky at-|
mosphere is so blackened that cleaning becomesl
difficult or impossible. Smoke gives to every,
household it visits either a greater amount oil
labor, or a lower social appearance. Let us sup ,
pose a housewife only strong enough to do al',j
the work of her house so as to keep it comforta!
ble when there is no smoke plague, she will
break down before attaining the same results in,
a smoky town. We may, however, fairly doubt!
if it is possible by any means to attain the sama
results, and in reality they are not attained!
We areapt to call the people who suffer most
by it indolent, and they sometimes believe them«
selves so, but the cause is rather despair at thtjii
amount of work demanded of them. Even th«
higher wages in towns fail to make them recon*
ciled to curtains blackening in a few days, where
in country places these would have kept theii
windows neat for many months. Nor can th«,
higher wages of town reconcile them to having
their clothes blackened as soon as they arq
washed, instead of being dried when they ar<|i
hung out for that purpose. The poor pay dig
rectly for the smoke, living where it prevails^
and the middle-classes and the wealthy suffeli
proportionately in being compelled to live oup
of the town, and to spend time in going to ani
fro. It is quite true that carbon, tar, and suli
pliurous acids, are disinfectants ; but we do nog;
wish to breathe them constantly—we cannot;
live on medicines. The disinfecting powers oi
smoke have not rid us of disease, nor does it pre!
vent occasional pestilences. If it does good, it doe*
more evil, and much of the mortality of Maur
Chester must be attributed to smoke. It hag
been said that if the carbon was thoroughly
burned, the amount of sulphurous acid woulir
be so great as to be intolerable ; but when th I.
blackness is removed the sulphurous acid seemlr
to escape more easily. We can imagine thd
carbon, soaked with the acid, falling down witlB
double effect upon the town.
One product of the combustion of any carbol»
naceous substance is carbonic acid ; this is iwi
evitable, and must be endured. Another prod«,
uct is carbonic oxide, which has a deadly chart
actor, is invisible, and is not sent out by th k
domestic fire, and only to a small extent b;a
high chimneys. From a sanitary and economic
cal and an a?sthetic point of view, we shall gainb
much by the removal of the carbon, and an adj.
ditional gain will be obtained by removing th*
carbonic oxide. We are not, however, to supl
pose that all is then gained ; we are not entire! 4
safe until we have removed the sulphuroul
acid. To effect this is not a problem which w|
can expect to solve rapidly. The sulphur gasel
collect wherever there is any obstruction t-j
ventilation. Sometimes the smoke is retainer:
in the town as certainly as if a firmament werl
�THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
.“put over it of impenetrative material. On a
‘still day, with a clear sky and considerable cold,
the smoke lies on Manchester until the streets
' become dark at midday. It is then that the
acids are found painful to the eyes, bad to the
taste, dangerous to the breathing. The black' ness might be removed ; what shall we do with
the sulphur ?
It is the sulphur acids which render the air
and rain of Manchester so destructive to metals.
Iron roofs will not remain there ; even houses
cease rapidly to exist, and become old at an early
period. The lime of the mortar becomes sul
phate of lime, and the rain washes it away. The
very stones decay under the constant action of
acid, and the bricks crumble more rapidly.
Even in places less troubled with smoke, we
j see the decay. The Parliament Houses, built
to remain for ages, are rapidly, before our eyes,
! turning into plaster of Paris and Epsom salts.
Probably some of the evil might be avoided.
The finest buildings in London appear less
handsome than flimsy structures in many Con
tinental cities. With us, the peculiarity of the
climate is a great enemy. On ceriain days the
acids rise rapidly ; but, as a rule, they fall.
Great extremes of dryness and of rain are the
best protectives, and, during heavy showers, the
air of Manchester is not unpleasant to breathe,
because the sulphur is carried down in the rain.
The coal used here contains not less than one
per cent, of sulphur, and one of sulphur makes
, three of vitriol. Some coals contain more. The
. amount of sulphurous acid sent out is enormous
. —it cannot be less than one hundred and eighty
' tons per day. The rain is acid. It falls on the
’living grass, and puts it out. Young plants
! struggle against it, but they cannot do so long.
1 We scarcely know how much of the beautiful
and useful is destroyed by this acid. The fine
i arts could scarcely flourish in an atmosphere
’ which attacks without fear a great building
' which ought to remain sound for centuries.
One of the foremost printers of Lancashire
told me that there were some colors which he
found almost instantly to fade. They were fre
quently sent back upon his hands. He was
annoyed to find that the French sent the same
colors to the same markets without the risk of
/having them returned, and it was only after
^inuch time and loss that he found that the
goods must not be allowed to pass through Man' Chester. One day was enough, but in some
weather two hours were sufficient for their
deterioration. The colors imbibed a poison and
went off to die of it. He now sends such goods
from his works without coming here, and he is
as successful as his rivals in France.
It must be remembered that even if we burn
Chmoke colorless, this sulphurous acid will remain.
¿The rain will be equally acid, but ifwe burn the
[ smoke no particles of carbon filled with vitriol
’will fall upon us. It will more readily diffuse.
■This seems to be the experience, but it is mat?ter for open discussion. We are told on one side
that the sulphurous acid is decomposed by the
♦carbon, and that the sulphur falls down with it
{In a solid state. 1 do not know if this is a fact,
but if it be, the result will be that the sulphur
will be very finely divided, and in that state be
r oxidized by the air and water, forming oil of
69
vitriol where it lies. It will not be less innocent,
although it may change the sphere of its iniqui
ties. This may explain why the black vegetation
is so frequently very acid, as it most surely is
often or always found to be.
The only sure mode we know of diminishing
the amount of acid given out by chimneys is by
burning less sulphur. This can be donej- per
haps, to some extent, by burning less coal, and
burning it more economically ; next by not al
lowing the most sulphurous of the coals to be
burnt in large towns. This latter is a simple
mode of doing some good, and cannot in all
cases be considered too great a demand on manu
facturers. I inquired of engineers the amount
of coal burnt per horse-power per hour in the
best and the most careless establishments, and
was told that it varied from three pounds tc
fifteen pounds. I obtained other answers, which
went lower and higher, but enough if we know
that coal is, in many places, burnt at a wasteful
rate. This is a department concerning which I
am not called on to speak, but it comes as a
part of my subject. If we examine this care
fully, we shall find, in all probability, that the
amount of heat we really use is trifling, whilst
the coal is in amount enormous.
A wasteful management of coal is the perpe
tration of a nuisance not justified by the exigen
cies of manufactures, and the agents can scarce
ly plead that they are following a legitimate
occupation. I shall say little of this ; probably
the change in this branch will be more gradual
than the destruction of the blackness, but we
must not forget it. A great thinker of the time
said to me once. The nation reminds me of a
man who has left a great barrel of wine for long
use; he pulled out the bung to fill his little
glass, and had not sense to see that the most of
the liquid ran off on the floor. The diminution
of the amount of coal burnt without giving out
its equivalent of power, will be a benefit sani
tary as well as economical. How far we have
this in our hands, it is not easy to say ; but it is
so to some extent, and it would be well if the
subject were kept before us permanently. Peo
ple inform us that the selfishness and self-inter
est of manufacturers are sufficient for this. That
is a theory which I never have found reason
to believe in fully. The manufacturers are not
more selfish than other men ; and if they were,
the most selfish man is often blind to his own
interest.
One of the effects of the combustion of coal is
to remove from the air a certain amount of
oxygen, putting in its place the gases and car
bonaceous substances spoken of along with coal
ashes, which are in paft carried upwards. The
removal of the oxygen occurs only to a
small extent, but it is perceptible, and in some
cases considerable. This deterioration of the
air occurs most in places where there is most
carbon floating, and where it is therefore least
pleasant to open our windows. Now, if there
is less oxygen, we require the air to be renewed
more frequently, and this we cannot permit
because of the blackness. The smoke acts like
a prison wall, and we shut windows and cease
| to ventilate. Bad as the air may be, it is better
than that which we manufacture for ourselves
| by shutting our rooms, which remain closed
�70
THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
until the bed-rooms, even in the large hotels of
all our town, become unpleasant to the senses.
It is the custom to ventilate by the doors from
corridors only, in London, and elsewhere, in
hotels, lest the blacks should enter by the win
dow, from which the freshest air comes. Private
houses suffer equally. The weavers of SpitalfieldB were glad to be able to open their win
dows when the establishments near began to
burn their black smoke, and this is a powerful
argument against the opinion of those who
would attempt to show that the sulphur is the
only thing to be feared. Bad the sulphur gases
unquestionably are, but it is the carbon which
causes the alarm of housewives and house
maids, and which prevents the needful change
of air in our town houses. The oxygen which
is removed from the air is the whole of the most
active portion. It has long been called ozone
and peroxide of hydrogen; but, by whatever
name, it is a something always found in agree
able air. This is never found in Manchester.
It is for medical men to consider wliat class
of disease may arise from this diminution of
oxygen. Children suffer most in smoky towns,
we are told. They have rapid circulation, they
require much oxygen, and are instinctively fond
of fresh air. It seems to me that the analyses
of the air, showing a diminution of oxygen,
even forgetting the sulphurous acid, explains
why children should suffer so much, and helps
along with other causes, to explain what Mr.
Leigh has called “ the massacre of the innocents.”
The deficiency of active oxidation is equal to a
deficiency of power and of healthy stimulus. If
so, we need not wonder that some persons should
6eek artificial means of stimulus, nor why others
should rather seek the less vigorous oxidation of
a town. I cannot doubt that we have here some
(>f the reasons for a deterioration of race spoken
3f by Dr. Morgan as visible amongst us. Our
trength must be proportionate to the amount
of healthy oxidation. If by any method we
reduce the amount of floating blackness, we
shall increase the purity of the air of the town,
increase the beauty of its buildings, and im
prove the appearance of the inhabitants. We
shall enable the houses to be ventilated more
thoroughly, and we shall diminish the inten
sity of those days of darkness that sometimes
paralyze the whole community. Every day
will be brighter, and I think, happier to every
inhabitant. If we diminish the sulphur by
burning less coal, we shall diminish the amount
of coal dust also, and these two points are not
to be forgotten, although the full combustion
requires first to be settled. *
A conceited young fellow, calling upon an
old lady friend previous to his departure for
China, was taken somewhat by surprise when
the good-natured lady advised him to be careful
of himself in the “ flowery kingdom,” as she
understood “ the Chinese feasted on puppies.”
A Western paper strikes the names of two
subscribers from his list because they were re
cently hung. The publisher says he was com
pelled to be severe, because he did not know
their present address.
LEADING THE VAN.
The Evening Post, in a leading editorial un
der the caption, “ Connecticut Leads the Van,”
says:
“ The republicans of Connecticut deserve suc
cess, and, we doubt not, will gain it. They
have adopted a platform of equal political
rights ; they assert ‘ that the only just basis of
human governments is the consent of the gov
erned ; that in a representative republic such
consent is expressed through the exercise of the
suffrage by the individual citizen, and that the
right to that exercise should not be limited by
distinction of race or color.’ ”
We fail to see the equality or the justice of
this platform. Race and color are very well as
far as they go, but they comprehend only one
half of the human race. Has the Post never
heard that woman claims the elective franchise,
without regard to race, color, or sex ?
CATOPATHY.
That marvelously learned body, the Paris
Academy of Sciences (said to be the most learned
body of men in the world—the earth-world, not
the moon), has made another marvelous discov
ery, and, as usual, through the manipulations
and investigations of some distinguished chem
ist. The learned chemico-dietico-physiological
and categorical therapeutist aforesaid, has pre
sented to the Paris Academy of Science above
mentioned, a report of an analysis of the milk
(the mammary secretion—lac catawaulimeouw)
of that familiar household pet and mousehole
pest, commonly denominated pussy, and has
“ proved” (this word is copied verbatim et litera
tim from one of our exchanges), that it (the
milk aforesaid, not the cat above mentioned,*
but, being, and intended to be, nevertheless, the
milk of the cat or pussy aforesaid and above
mentioned) has (we quote the next three words)
“ extraordinary restorative qualities.” The ex
change hereinbefore alluded to goes on to say
and state and expatiate in manner following:
It would, he argued, be found of great value
in cases of debility and consumption. Two or
three queries naturally suggest themselves : Are
cats to be raised and tended like cows ? Who
is to milk them ? What would be deemed a
sufficient quantity for a daily dose or beverage,
and how many cats would be required to furnish
this quantity ? To those, a fourth question
might not improperly be added, viz.: If the
new beverage is to be generally adopted, what
is to become of all the kittens ?”
O “ scat,” you unhandsome editor! Who cares
for all the kittens, “ to be or not to be,” when
�THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
the milk of the cat, or the cat of the milk (we
think it does not matter much which) is a great
restorative remedy ? If cat-milk will cure con
sumption, kittens must take care of themselves.
But what if the supply of cats should fail?
What would the thousands of consumptives, all
of whom are cured on cod-liver oil (see weekly
bills of mortality), do in that event ? We have it.
Soon after the expensive cod liver oil came into
vogue, it was discovered that any cheap fish oil
was just as good (witness medical journals).
Should the cat-cure become so popular, and the
remedy in such demand as to alarm the four
legged quadrupeds 60 that they should all run
away and refuse to be milked, it may be found
that the milk of any other animal will answer
all purposes. Perhaps, however, the restorative
qualities of cat’s milk are due to the fact that
the cat is carnivorous. The codfish is, weknow,
flesh-eating. If so, we should only milk for
medicine in the line of the carnivora—lions,
tigers, hyenas, wolves, leopards, dogs, etc. Shall
we not have a specimen of this extraordinary
medicine at the Great Exhibition?
“A DIFFERENT FO OTINC”-QUEER
LOGIC.
The English papers are reporting the sayings
and doings of Dr. Mary E. Walker, and com
menting on her morals, manners, dress, personal
appearance, eccentricities, &c., from their re
spective stand-points of observation. They all
concur in regarding her pants as perfectly awful;
none of them, however, seem disposed to argue
the question of its utility nor even of its propri
ety, but proceed to judge it, and as a matter of
course, to condemn it, by the standard of fash
ion. Indeed they treat the subject very much
as nearly all of the American newspapers did
fifteen or twenty years ago, when women in the
“ Reform Dress,” first appeared “ on the world’s
wide stage,” in this country. Dr. Walker has
lectured to a large audience in St James’ Hall,
London, on which occasion, a lot of young men
of rowdyish proclivities, most of whom are said
to have been medical students of the allopathic
colleges (Dr. Walker is opposed to allopathic
druggery), undertook to interrupt or prevent her
performance by singing, hooting, and other de
monstrations always at the command of rowdy
ism. As a specimen of rather queer logic, we
copy the following concluding paragraph of an
extended, and, on the whole, fair notice of her
lecture in St. James’ Hall:
“As regards physique, it is plain that Dr. Walk
er’s frame has been subjected to hardships per
71
haps in excess of its powers of resistance. That
consideration increased the regret that every
one must have felt that a lady should be exposed
to constant and by no means mannerly interrup
tions. At the same time, a lady who comes for
ward to claim ‘ perfect equality ’ with men,
occupies a different footing from other ladies.”
How different ? This is certainly queer logic,
and seems intended to propitiate the rowdies,
while obliged to condemn their conduct. We
are unable to comprehend how the claim of any
woman to perfect equality with men justifies or
excuses ill-treatment, or places her on any differ
ent footing from “ other ladies.” Is it a crime
to claim equality ? Suppose a servant, or a
serf, or a slave, should honestly believe and
plainly declare himBelf entitled to the same po
litical rights and privileges as his employer,
guardian, or owner, would this fact authorize
any one to abuse him? The golden rule is
beautiful when our fellow-beings apply it to us
—but when we are asked to apply it to others
—a-hem !
Cheese-eaters.—The consumption of cheese
in England amounts to the amazing quantity of
821,250,000 pounds a year. This may be one
of the reasons why Brother Bull is so conserva
tively inclined, for there is not, in our humble
judgment, a more stupifying article of food in
use. It is befouling to the mouth—inflaming
the stomach, constipating to the bowels, obstruct
ing to the kidneys, congesting to the liver, clog
ging to the skin, thickening to the blood, stiffen
ing to the muscles, irritating to the nerves, torpifying to the mental powers, and wholly unfit
for human food—“ only that and nothing
more.”
DRILL FOR VOLUNTEERS.
Fall in ! To good ways and habits.
Attention ! To your own business.
Right Face ! Manfully to your duty and keep
sober.
Quick March! From a temptation to do any
thing which is unmanly.
Halt! When conscience tells you that you are
not doing as you would like others to do unto
you.
Right about Face ! From dishonesty and false
hood.
Present Arms! Cheerfully when your wife
asks you to hold the baby for an hour.
Break Off! Bad habits, and everything that
is likely to retard your advancement in this
world.
TnE following bill was lately presented to a
I farmer in Sussex :
1 “ To hanging two barn doors and myself seven
I hours, four shillings and sixpence.”
�THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
HOUSES, CHEAP AND CONVENIENT.
By permission of the publisher of
the American Agriculturist, we are
enabled to present the readers of the
Gospel of Health with another
plan for the construction of cheap and
convenient dwelling houses,
think it will be difficult to plan a
house better combining the consider
ations of convenience and economy,
and the design seems well adapted
to many who propose to build plain
and comfortable bouses in Hygeiana
the ensuing season.
In this design, upon the ground
floor, as seen in fig. 2, are a Parlor,
Bed Room and Kitchen ; A, Porch ;
G. Front Entry;
Stairway; A1,
Pantry, connecting by slide with the
sink in the Back Entry (E); C, C, marks the
China Closet. Each room has independent
facilities for warming ; and while the rooms
Fig. 2—ground plan.
are in close communication with each other,
they yet can be quite separate. The bed-room
has a spacious closet. Upon the chamber floor
Fig. 1.
in the roof. This Cottage, if well built, may
be made a comfortable, and as they say, a
“ genteel ” house. It is very compact—not an
inch of room is lost. If desirable, the partition
between the closets over the pantry and back
entry, may be moved a little to one side, making
one of the closets larger ; a circular window may
be inserted in the gable ; and to the room used
for bathing, water may be carried by a force
pump, and even heated by a boiler connected
with the kitchen fire. Few plans of this size
afford a greater amount of convenience than may
be found in this simple design. True, the
economy in side walls, accompanying square
ground plans, is sacrificed to the greater light
and airiness of the structure, but in a snug cot
tage like this that is a small fault.
Poisoning by a Human Bite.—A sad occur
rence has happened at Arth, in France. Lieu
tenant Felchin was some time back bitten io
the thumb by a man named Muller, but he
thought nothing of the wound, and went next
day on a journey on his private affairs. On
reaching Bale he found his hand and arm began
to swell, and a medical man declared that the
case was one of poisoning from a human bite.
He at once returned home in haste, but he
refused to have the arm amputated. The con
sequence was that the inflammation increased
frightfully, and he died some days after in
horrible suffering.
Employment, which Galen calls “nature’s
physician,” is so essential to human happiness,
that indolence is justly considered as the mother
of misery.
Fig. 3.—BED-ROOM PLAN.
He who lives with a good wife becomes
(fig. 3), are three nice bed-rooms and four closets- better thereby, as those who lay down among
Each room has direct access to a chimney flue- violets arise -with the perfume upon their gar
The stairway can be lighted by a glazed scuttle ments.
�THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
THE
GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
NEW YORK, FEBRUARY, 1867.
TOPICS OF THE MONTH.
•
The Problem of Problems.—To him who
can “ look through nature up to nature’s God,”
no truth is clearer than that the Health Problem
underlies all reforms among men, and is the
basis of all permanent improvement in the con
dition of the human race. Hence it is the
problem of problems. For this reason it is the
most radical and revolutionary of all problems ;
and its advocates can hardly expect that the
masses of the people, to whom physiology is as
a sealed book, and the great body of the medical
profession—whose physiology is mainly chemi
cal, and hence contains more false principles
than true ones, and whose pathology and thera
peutics are inexplicable dogmas and absurd
errors—will regard them otherwise than as
enthusiasts and fanatics. The world has always
applied these epithets to those who advocated
truths in advance of public sentiment, who op
posed ancient and venerable errors, or who
taught against the current of popular prej udices.
But what was radical a hundred years ago is
conservatism now, and what is ultra to-day may
be conservatism a hundred years hence.
And now, what is the Health P»oblem? And
why should the world be so indifferent to it,
and the medical profession so opposed to it ?
Health is the “normal play of all the functions;
disease is their disarrangement or abnormal
action ; health is happiness ; disease is misery ;
health is power ; disease is disability ; health is
beauty ; disease is deformity ; health is the re
sult of obedience to the laws of the vital and
mental organism ; disease is the consequence of
disobedience to them. Vital laws and mental
laws are God’s laws, as much so as are moral
or spiritual laws. Disobedience to the laws of
our bodily organization is as sinful in the sight
of the Creator of all, as is disobedience to the
laws which apply to our moral powers—what
ever distinctions we may make.
Health Reform means obedience to all the laws
of our being. To have healthy muscles, nerves,
brains, bones, stomach, bowels, liver, kidneys,
skin, etc., we must in all respects conform to the
laws which our Heavenly Father has implanted
in their organization. And to have healthy
73
perception, judgment, conscience, will, passions,
emotions, propensities, etc., we must obey the
irreversible laws which control the organs of
the mental and moral manifestations. In short,
Health Reform means “ cease to do evil and
learn to do well” in all things ; and to do this,
we must “ prove all things and hold fast to that
which is good.”
The basis of all good, all truth, all progress,
is integrity in the bodily structures, which are
“ the temples of the living God.” The immédi
ate source of all error, all falsity, all crime in
the world, is morbid conditions of the bodily
organs. The idiot, the madman, the murderer,
are but extreme illustrations of the principle.
Avarice, gambling, licentiousness, selfishness,
and multitudinous vices and crimes and faults
and foibles, which are so prevalent as to be re
garded by many as “ necessary evils,” and by
some as the normal condition of society, are
more common but not less significant demon
strations of foul blood and bad digestion.
If the Christian would succeed in evangeliz
ing the world ; if the Temperance Reformer
would rid the earth of the terrible curse of in
toxicating drink ; if the Moralist would close
the dens of debauchery and prostitution ; if the
Statesman would purify legislation of party po itics and chicanery ; if the Philanthropist would
shut up the gambling palaces in high places
(witness stock exchanges and produce specula
tors), and if the Sociologist would induce men
to deal equitably with each other, they must go
back to first principles, and teach all classes and
all conditions of human beings that the first
rule of conduct and the highest good of all re
quire a life in accordance with the laws of life.
“ Strong-Minded Women ” in Ohio.—We
have long believed and thought that all licensed
laws, and all statutory’ enactments in any man
ner pertaining to thê regulation of the liquor
traffic, are a curse to the world and ought to be
abolished. No law except that of absolute and
unconditional prohibition ought to be recorded
in the statute books of a civilized nation, and
even this would be superfluous were the whole
subject left to the compion sense of society and
the common law of humanity. A beautiful illus
tration of the doctrine we have indicated, oc
curred a few days ago in the state of Ohio. A
correspondent of the Cincinnati Commercial tells
the story :
Some time in July, 1865, the ladies of Green
field, Highland county, took it into their heads
that there should be “ no more whisky sold in
I Greenfield.” The question of abating the nuii sance had been discussed frequently, when an
�74
THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
accident occurred that brought things to a crisis.
A young man named Blackburn, highly esteem
ed, only 21 years of age, was the victim of a
whisky brawl. A party of drunken men got
into a quarrel and a shot was fired, and this
young man, who was passing the house, received
his death wound. Shortly after this the ladies,
with a.secrecy unparalleled in the history of wo
man, met and resolved on the destruction of the
spirit. So in broad daylight, about noon, a
posse of about seventy started on the cleansing
expedition, armed with hatchets, axes and
woman’s determination. Some three or four
stores were entered and the bottles made to
dance jigs and the whisky to gurgle down the
gutters before the other wdiisky fiends were
made aware of what was going on. When they
did become cognizant of the situation of things,
they barred, bolted and barricaded their doors.
But nothing daunted, the women quietly de
manded the liquor, and if not admitted into the
house they quickly battered down the doors or
shutters. This was carried on till nearly every
respectable wliisky-sliop was demolished. Suits
were brought, but the verdict of equity said,
“ Served cm right.”
Now the whisky-dealers have combined to
bring suits against the husbands of many of
the ladies for damage to property, but nearly
everybody feels that the slight damage tempora
rily done is nothing to the benefit derived there
from. The most extensive preparations are be
ing made to escort the ladies of Greenfield, sev
enty of whom have been subpoenaed as wit
nesses. Large wagons are to be fitted up, and
their male relations wiil accompany them to
Hillsborough, where the court will be in session
on the 16th of this month. The ladies of Hills
borough are making the most ample prepara
tions to receive them as welcome guests, and
they are to be entertained by the ladies of that
place.
Just imagine seventy women in court! Im
agine the ineffectual cry of “ silence ” from the
stentorian lungs of the sheriff! What will the
judges do ? what will the jury do ?
We care very little what the judges or the
jury do, or all the people of the species mascu
line, in and about the court, or neighborhood, or
state, or nation, provided the women of Green
field and the region round about are true to
themselves. If they will follow up the kind of
“ moral suasion” they have so successfully com
menced, they will do more for the cause of Tem
perance during the year 1867 than the men have
done in fifty years. We would rather have a
grand Temperance army of seventy women,
armed with hatchets, or even broom-sticks, and
“ woman’s determination,” than all the organ
izations of Washingtonians, Sons of Temper
ance, Rechabites, Good Templars, &c., that the
world has ever seen. These may talk, and re
solve, and preach, and sing beautifully, but those
do the work.
Our Cottage Illustrations.—We are in
debted to the politeness of that sterling journal,
the American Agriculturist, for the illustrations
which appear in the present number of the Gos
pel of Health, and also for those which ap
peared in our January issue. It is our duty to
say that these cuts are copyrighted, and cannot
legally be published without permission of the
Agriculturist. We intend, in future issues, to
give a great variety of designs for buildings, and
extensive illustrations of the best fruits of all
kinds, so that our colony at Hygeiana can have
all necessary data on which to predicate success,
both in building Hygienic houses, and in rais
ing the very best varieties of fruits.
Profitable Crops.—Several persons have
written us for information concerning the most
profitable crops that can be raised in Hygeiana
before returns can be had from the growing
fruit trees. We answer, there are many kinds
of vegetables, roots and seeds, which are ready
sale and always command a good price, and
which produce sure crops. Among these are
onions and white beans. Probably it would be
impossible to realize more the first season from
any crops that could be raised than from these.
The best article of small white beans is now
retailing at twenty cents a quart in this city.
There are other kinds of garden beans which
will produce more to the acre, and which find
ready sale ; but, we doubt if anything, unless it
is onions, will yield a greater return of money
for the quantity of land cultivated and the
amount of labor performed, than white or field
beans. Tomatoes, cabbages, sweet corn, and
beets, are usually very profitable crops, but are
more troublesome to preserve and market. Some
correspondents have suggested the propriety of,
raising our own cereals, especially wheat and
corn ; but as these grains are plenty and cheap
in the neighborhood, it is our opinion that we
should find both pleasure and profit, at least
in the infancy of our colony, in limiting our
product ions to a few of the choicest fruits and
vegetables. These crops can be raised without
interfering much in the cultivation of fruit
trees. In this connection, we commend to the
attention of our readers the able article of Dr.
Yoder, in the present number, on the subject of
immediate fruit-raising in Hygeiana. Dr. Yoder
has had much experience in fruit-culture, is a
thorough Hygienist, and a graduate of the Hygeio-Therapeutic College, is well acquainted
with the locality we have selected for our pio
neer colony, has been a practical fruit-culturer
in Vineland, N. J., for several years past, and
has, moreover, sold his property in Vineland
�THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
and invested the whole amount in the purchase
of five ten-acre farms in Hygeiana. These cir
cumstances evince his earnestness and capacity
in Health Reform movement, and give especial
importance to his suggestions. We have the
pleasure to state, also, that Dr. Yoder will be
among the “ first settlers” of our colony, so that
others may profit by his experience.
Suffrage for Woman.—We publish in
another department, in full, the address recently
delivered by Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, to
the Legislature of our state. It covers the whole
ground. And now that the “Woman Question ”
is rapidly assuming form and magnitude, so
that it can and must be discussed in all its
length and breadth, we are sure that the great
majority of our readers will be interested in the
perusal of Mrs. Stanton’s able and admirable
address. We have long regarded the full recog
nition of woman’s rights—her equal, social, civil,
political, and religious rights—as one of the pre
requisites to her full and just influence in the
medical profession and in the great field of Health
Reform. And no one who understands the import
ance of woman’s work in aiding us to revolu
tionize many and reform most of the habits and
fashions of society, which are now rapidly de
teriorating the human race, will regret the
prominence we give to this subject. If we can
correctly read the signs of the times, the day is
not far distant when the greatest and most
beneficial reformation agitated since the dark
days of the middle ages—the enfranchisement
of woman—will be achieved in all the length and
breadth of our land. Every day witnesses the
accessions to her cause of noble, influential,
earnest, practical men ; and whether the “ ma
jority of women” petition, or not, for the right
to vote and hold office, the voice of the Creator,
which endows her inalienably with all the rights
and privileges that pertain to humanity, will be
regarded in the legislation of all intelligent and
Christian states and nations, and then her equal
opportunities for development, for education,
and for avocations, will soon follow as a matter
of course.
Twenty-four Dollars a Gallon.—Several
weeks ago we called upon an artisan of this city
to get a little work done. He was sick of a cold.
In a few days we called again. He had been
better, but had suffered a relapse. Two weeks
later we visited him the third time. He was
now decidedly and fatally consumptive. His
friend informed us that he had just changed his
physician. We saw at a glance the whole state
of the case, and knew from the array of bottles,
75
phials, poisons, plasters, etc., that the poor pa
tient was another illustration of
The deadly virtues of the healing art.
He had been drugged to death’s door. Among
other potent medicines which he had been tak
ing was a very powerful kind of brandy. It
was a rare and choice brand ; so rare and choice
and powerful that it cost twenty-four dollars a
gallon. He was taking a teaspoonful every
hour. The doctor told him he might eat what
ever he pleased, so long as he took the brandy.
The physician gave the patient to understand
that the brandy was so powerful a promoter of
digestion and so infallible a supporter of vitality
that he might safely follow his appetite or fancy
in the matter of victuals. The poor victim of a
murderous medical system was suffocating by
night and by day in a dark, damp, unventilated
bedroom, the door and windows kept con
stantly closed, and the confined air redolent of
typhus miasm from the effete matters of his
own body. Not a word had been said about
bathing or washing ; not a hint had been ut
tered about the necessity of fresh air. Pure
water and wholesome food were never men
tioned. But drug and dose, and dose and drug,
narcotize and stimulate, and stimulate and nar
cotize, brandy and opium, and opium and more
brandy. These were the remedial measures
prescribed by a member of the New York Acad
emy of Medicine in this enlightened 19th century
and the year of grace, 1867. But why need we
dwell on this particular case. He is only one
of the thousands who are killed annually by the
same or similar means. The case, however, has
an unusual significance in illustrating the com
mercial side of the healing art as it is in druggery. The profit on such a gallon of brandy can
not be less than twenty dollars. Suppose (we
admit the case isn’t supposable, but suppose it
was supposable) that the doctor and the apoth
ecary divide the profits between them. The
doctor gets ten dollars (in addition to his pro
fessional fee), for prescribing the brandy, and
the apothecary gets ten dollars clear profit for
dealing it out. And as doctors and apothecaries
must live, and as sick folks, however poor, will
have medicine, why not accommodate all round
in this way ?
The Prince of Wales.—Since our article on
“The Smoking Palace of Frogmore” appeared,
a correspondent has sent us the Philadelphia
Press containing an article from a London letter
writer, in which the Prince is very severely
handled. It is not only intimated but openly
asserted that the Prince is becoming addicted to
�76
THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
other bad habits besides tobacco-smoking; in
deed that he is rapidly going the downward road
in various ways through dissolute associates
and evil communications, which so frequently
corrupt both the morals and manners of young
“ Princes of the blood.” We hope these state
ments are not true, or that they, are greatly ex
aggerated. And lest injustice might be done to
some person, or persons, we refrain from giving
any further publicity to the matter.
Wayside Jottings in Great Britain.—
With this number we commence the publication
of a series of extremely interesting articles, under
the above head, from the pen of Mrs. Susannah
Way Dodd§, M. D.,of Antioch College memory.
She has recently returned from a tour through
many parts of the Queendom, and her keen ob
servations, practical views, intelligent criticisms,
and candid statements, cannot fail to instruct and
profit our readers in thSt country and in this.
Vegetarians will be especially pleased with the
assurances that ample provision exists for them
in that part of the “Old World,” and her direc
tions for finding and enjoying them.
Flowers and Plants in Sleeping-Rooms.
—W. M. writes from Maryland : “ My son is a
subscriber to your Gospel of Health. It is
truly what its name imports—a joyful visitant—
and its monthly instructions bring most blessed
instructions. In the November number there is
an important subject named—ventilation. But
the writer says, ‘ Leaves of the trees lake in car
bonic-acid, and emit oxygen.’ Now, some au
thors say that this is only true of the leaf in the
daytime, but not in the night, or during hours
of darkness. Will you be so kind as to give us
the correct chemical process ? Are flowersand
plants in sleeping-rooms conducive to health, or
are they injurious ?”
There is no “ chemical process ” of any kind.
But the vital process that governs the nutrition
—the assimilation and disintegration—of the
vegetable kingdom as a general law is, that
leaves emit carbonic-acid gas to some extent
during the night, and oxygen gas during the
day ; hence, it follows that any considerable col
lection of plants or flowers in a sleeping-room
would be injurious ; and a single one would be
if there was defective ventilation.
Hygeiana and Vineland.—It is known to
many of our readers that the citizens of Vine- j
land. N. J., are, on the whole, a much better 1
class of people—more progressive and reforma
tory—than are “ the generality of mankind in
general,” as we find them in most of the large |
villages and small cities of the United States.
The manner in which the place was settled, the
provisions made for improvements, and the
protection against many of the nuisances to be
found in all other places, were well calculated to
attract a high order of human nature. And
those who have lived there a few years have
experienced the great comforts and advantages
of the precautions which have been so judi
ciously taken to prevent the seeds of vices,
crimes, debauchery, etc., from contaminating
their domain. Yet there are some nuisances
tolerated there. Tobacco is cultivated, drug
shops exist, and we are not aware that rum-shops
are prohibited. And because we prohibit all
nuisances of every name and nature, except
original sin, from entering the domain of Hy
geiana, several residents of Vineland have al
ready purchased farms in Hygeiana, and intend
to remove there early in the season. And more
than a dozen others write us that they will
emigrate Hygeianaward as soon as they can sell.
Indeed we have sold more lots to the citizens of
Vineland, than we have to the people of any
other place. Can there be any more convincing
testimony that our scheme is not only right but
bound to “ go ahead ” ?
Vaccination.—A Jew was lately fined in
London for refusing to allow his child to be
vaccinated. The Jew was right. Since the
days of Moses and the prophets the Jews have
had a salutary horror of pork, scrofula, small
pox, plague, leprosy, and viruses, venoms and
infections of all kinds. And what right has any
one to infect their blood and bones with the
virus of small pox ? If the learned medical gen
tlemen of the Board of Health of the city of
New York should order us to poison our chil
dren, or anybody’s children, with this or any
other infection, wTe should, most respectfully,
decline to do it, and most peremptorily prevent
others from doing it, fine or no fine. Neither
nature, Bible, science, nor common sense, teaches
the absurd doctrine that poisons are remedies
for the ills that flesh is heir to ; but, on the con
trary, each and all teach that cleanliness is the
only preventive of disease. Vaccination is
one of the many curses which the abominable
drug medical system has inflicted on humanity.
The child that is vaccinated has to take the
chance of being infected with humors a thou
sand times worse than “ small-pox the natural
way,” while it is almost certain to be in some
way contaminated. That a large proportion of
those who are vaccinated become affected with
venereal disease, may be learned from the fol
lowing paragraph which we clip from the Med
ical Record of this city:
�THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
“ Syphilis by Vaccination.—In the ‘Depart
ment du Morbihan,’ France, a great many
children have been found affected with syphilis
after vaccination. The report of the commis
sioners charged by the Academy of Medicine
with the duty of investigating the subject, con
cludes as follows: I. Several of the children
presented to the commission were really affected
with secondary syphilis. II. It seems impossi
ble to account for their contamination otherwise
than by vaccination. III. It appears evident
that the virus was contained in the vaccinal
liquid. M. Ricord gives his assent to these
conclusions, provided they contain (as well as
the report itself does) the mention that primary
syphilitic accidents were also present.”
Hygeiana at Cost.—Since our last issue,
several persons have offered to purchase one or
two hundred acres each in Hygeiana, and im
prove them at once, provided we would sell the
land at a small advance from cost—say ten or
fifteen per cent. We reply that we will do even
better than that: we will sell at actual cost,
as nearly as we can calculate. In a business of
$200,000 or more, we can’t estimate within a
few hundred, nor possibly within a few thou
sand dollars, the exact receipts or expenditures.
Our aim is to make receipts and expenditures
balance ; and if any person or company sees
any chance for a pecuniary speculation, he or
they shall be more than welcome to take the
business out of our hands, provided he or they
will guaranty the enterprise to be carried out
according to our printed programme. We have
to reserve the streets and avenues, and all the
public grounds, which make the land we have
to sell some hundreds of acres less than those
we have to purchase. Then, again, we have
the expenses of surveying, advertising, travel
ing, the commissions to agents, etc., and lastly,
unmarried women (several of whom have al
ready purchased) must have their farms at half
price. If one-half of the purchasers should be
unmarried women, we should be many thou
sands of dollars out of pocket. We shall be sat
isfied if we come out minus one or two thousand
dollars ; and if the result should be plus that
amount, or even more, we should not be very
sorry. But, as already remarked, our plan and
prices are intended to be “ six of one, and half-adozen of the other.” If we make any money, it
will be in the next purchase.
77
velop and reform our mental and moral nature ;
and if all medical sects, who profess to be the
conservators of our vital organisms, would
adopt the platform of principles set forth in
this article, or rather make the principle of tl.e
article their platform, they would be vastly
more successful than they ever yet have been
in saving the souls and preserving the bodies
of men.
Is Salt Necessary for Stock?—The Cali
fornia Rural Home Journal says: “ Some
eighteen years since, while living at Tangier,
in the empire of Morocco, we sent into the in
terior of the empire to purchase of a tribe of
Bedouins, who were famous for their choice and
rare stocks of barbs, or Arab horses, one of their
fine barbs for our own use, which we were so
fortunate as to obtain, after not a little maneuv
ering and diplomacy. As a matter of course, we
made a great pet of him ; and almost the first
thing we offered him, as a condiment to his feed
of barley and straw (the universal food of the
horses of that country), was a handful of salt;
but, to our surprise, he would not touch it, but
turned up his aristocratic nose at it, as if he felt
a big disgust at such, to him, unsavory dose.
On making further inquiry, and experimenting
with several barbs that we owned subsequently,
we found that neither the Moors nor Arabs ever
gave salt to their horses, cattle, or sheep. And
yet there are no horses in the world equal in
healthful vigor, in powers of endurance, or elas
ticity of movement and robust constitution, to
these same Arab horses.”
The Cattle Plague in Holland.—The
Belgian Moniteur publishes the following par
ticulars of the cattle plague in Holland : “ The
cattle plague appears to be making dreadful
ravages among the cattle in Holland. The num
ber of fatal cases do not cease to increase, and
if the progress observed to have been made by
the disease since the end of November con
tinue, the losses of the Dutch farmers will soon
exceed those of the English cattle-owners at
the time when the plague was most violent.
According to the official reports, the number of
cases among cattle were, for the weeks ending
November 3d, 1,443 ; 10th, 1.551; 17tli, 1,592 ;
27th, 3,257 ; and December 4th, 7,162. The last
number is more than double that w’hich is re
corded when the epidemic w-as at its worst in
December, 1865, and everything tends to show
that it does not indicate the greatest height of
the disease. The cattle plague was especially
virulent in the provinces of Utrecht and South
ern and Northern Holland ; but it has also shown
itself in Friesland and Overyssel, and has lat
terly attacked many parishes of Guelderland
Wholeness.—We commend the article in and North Brabant.”
tlie present number from the Spiritual Repub
When the regulations of the Boston and Cam
lic to the careful and prayerful consideration of bridge Bridge were drawn by two famous law
our readers. The philosophy of sociology is yers, one section was written, accepted, and now
stands thus:
stated with a clearness and precision that leave
“ And the said proprietors shall meet annu
nothing to be desired. If all religious denomi ally on the first Tuesday of June, provided the
nations, whose teachings are intended to de same does not fall on Sunday.”
�THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
78
VOICES OF
THE PEOPLE.
One of Many.—The experience and observa
tions of the writer of the following are similar
to those of a thousand who have written us their
story. But it is on a subject whereon “line
upon line and precept upon precept ” is neces
sary. She writes from a rich agricultural dis
trict in a Western state. “ Dr. Trail—Dear Sir :
although a stranger to you, I am not a stranger
to the great principles so nobly advocated in
your writings. Two years ago I became acquaint
ed with them, and ordered your Encyclopaedia,
Hand Book, Cook Book, Diphtheria, Water-Cure
for the Million, and would have purchased
more of your works had I been able. I have
lent my books to my neighbors and tried to
convince others of the value and importance of
Hygienic principles. But the great majority
seem bound to live as they list, be the conse
quences what they may. Very few ‘ eat and
drink to live.’ It has been more than a year
since I discontinued the use of all animal food,
butter, salt, spices of every kind, and all warm
drinks at meals. In short, I am striving to live
in accordance with the laws of health. My
husband does not sympathize with the Health
Reform, and thinks the idea of a Vegetarian
Colony very unlike the manner of all other
great reformers. He says, that, if they think
they are right and everybody else wrong, it
would be more Christ-like to remain among
the people and try to enlighten and reform them.
But I am thinking it is not easy to work much
of a dietetic reform among those ‘whose God is
their belly,’and ‘whose glory is their shame.’
To explain our principles to them seems very
much like ‘casting pearls before swine.’ For
my part I am tired of living in society where the
people are addicted to such gross habits. It is
all that I can possibly do to live among them
without contamination; and what can I hope
for my children ? I have four now living, and
two in the spirit-land, who, doubtless, would
have been living at this time, if I had not been
in utter darkness as to the proper manner of
training them.”
Tired of Fashionable Life.—S. R. writes
from Ohio : “I intend to look at your location
for a vegetarian colony in Ross county, and if
the scheme suits me to remove there at an early
day. 1 feel, and my wife does also, just about
ready to go into a Hygienic settlement, but, as I
am pretty well circumstanced here, I must ne
sure of making an improvement before pulling
up stakes. I am thoroughly disgusted with
the bloody-boned surroundings here. My finer
sensibilities are continually outraged by the
butchering of the bloated scavengers (swine) and
the grinding of their corrupt carcasses into dis
ease-engendering food. I hear their last and
smothered groans saddening the merry hum of
the balmy breeze, and am almost forced to ex
claim, 0 God, how are thy children sunken in
iniquity! Then, perhaps, before the crimson
blood is dried up, the besotted devotee of the
corner groggery comes staggering along, breath
ing his venomous breath upon all around ; and,
perhaps, before he has disappeared, along comes
the tobacco-smoker, puffing his detestable ex
halation into every passer’s face. I turn from
all these, horribly disgusted, but to meet the
knight of the pill-bags dispensing his vaunted
nostrums to a deluded people ; and then my
heart sickens, and I long for the promised land
where these debasing influences cannot come. I
have a little cherub growing up that I do not
want exposed to all of these morbid and pollut
ing influences which exist all around us.”
Mountain Land for Fruit-Growing.—J.
G. P., writing from North Carolina, near Black
Mountain, strongly recommends that part of
the country as a proper location for a Vegetarian colony. The following remarks are equally
j
applicable to his location and to Hygeiana:
'
“ The great and chief business of colonies, such
as we contemplate, will be that of raising fruits;
and as there is but one kind of locality (in this
country, at least), which never fails to hit (as
the saying is), and as the land hereabouts is
mostly of this kind, so I regard it as of great
value, although for raising Indian corn, which
is considered the neplus ultra of successful farm
ing, it is not as well adapted as the bottom lands
along the rivers and creeks; hence the hilly
lands are considered of little value by people
generally, and can be purchased for a trifle com
paratively. The land I speak of as best adapted
to the purposes of a Vegetarian colony is moun
tain land ; and I have no doubt that thousands
of acres which can be cheaply purchased, are
perfectly adapted to the raising of all kinds of
fruits. I consider a large quantity of this kind
of land a sine qua non to a successful Hygealthic community, and my policy would be to lo
cate as much of it as possible. Mountains were
the ‘ sunny spots’ of earth with our Saviour, and
his most sacred acts were performed upon them.
And why should they not be dearest to us also ?
Besides, the ‘ good time coming,’ according to
Isaiah, will be ushered in on or in the moun
tains. Let us, then, have at least one Hygeal1 thic mountain colony, and call it Montadelphia.
�THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
79
“ P. S. The above was written before I saw typographical appearance and its doctrines. I
your ‘ Hygeiana.’ You took this word ‘ out pity the man who is so mystified and befogged
that he can read its pages and not be convinced.
of my mouth.’ as the saying is.”
A Good Word from Missouri.—T. S. writes To me, who am one of the most radical believ
ers in the Hygienic system and its philosophy,
from Clinton county, Mo.: “ The Health Reform
seemed to be entirely unknown here when I it is utterly incomprehensible how men can so
settled in 1863. But by circulating your jour often have the truth presented to them and yet
nals among the people, I have made some con see it not. You may or may not recognize my
verts. Several families of my acquaintance are name among the list of your students for 1863—4.
now zealous advocates of the Hygienic system, As I have not been heard from since then, do
and do not employ the drug doctors when they not think I have been a backslider. From my
organization, that I could not be. I am prepar
are sick.”
ing to take the field at no distant day, and work
A Watch for Hygieana.—An unmarried with heart and soul for the cause of Health Re
lady writes from Ohio : “ Dr. Trail—Sir: On form and for all reforms. I have a large vol
noticing in the last number of the Gospel of ume (manuscript) of reports of your lectures,
Health that a whole score of unmarried ladies which I took phonographically, and which I
had entered into your enterprise of Hygienic value far more than any book I have. W ithout
homes, I bid them God-speed, and wished that trespassing further upon your time, believe me
I was among the number ; but not having any
always your
“ Co-worker.”
ready funds, I have delayed sending an applica
tion. I am very desirous to try my hand at
Hogs and Dogs, Tobacco and Drugs.—A.
farming, and have bethought myself of my E. writes from Vineland, N. J.: “My Dear
watch which, perhaps, you will accept in ex Friend Dr. Trail: I am glad that the colony
change for a ten-acre lot in Hygeiana. It is is finally located, for 1 have been waiting and
considered a good gold watch, but there is no working for this for twenty years. I feel that
sale for such property here ; but if you think the time has come to come out from the wicked,
you can dispose of it to advantage, and can afford and to get away' from hogs and dogs, the vile
to take it. Please let me know.”
weed tobacco, and the doctors’ drugs. Hygei
Send on the watch ; the farm is yours. We ana, in a few years, with its fruits and flowers,
will not dispose of the watch, but keep it as col its sweet lawns and beautiful cottages, its hap
lateral ; and when our fair unmarried corre py homes and healthy inhabitants, will present
spondent earns the money and can conveniently the most remarkable contrast with the general
spare the money, she shall have the watch aspect of society that the world has ever seen.
again.
Will it not be a second Eden, or Eden restored ?
Tired of the “Natives.”—C. D. B. writes An influence cannot fail to emanate from its
from Illinois : “ Dr. Trail—Dear Sir: I have green fields and beautiful hills that will extend
missed your teachings very much since you the blessings of the Hygienic system far and
discontinued your connection with the Herald wide. After looking over your programme for
of Health, and did not know what had become colonization, I have no fears that it will be too
of you until I accidentally met with a number radical. I am a gardener and nurseryman, and
of the Gospel of Health a few days ago. I think that I can be a useful man among you.
do not wish to part company, and so send my At all events, put me down for one farm. I
subscription for one year. I am very much in will send the amount in a few days, and shall
terested in your project for a Hygienic settle purchase several lots if I can raise the means
ment, and would like to become a member of soon enough. My family will remove to Hygei
it. This is a fine fruit country, but I am sur ana just as soon as I can dispose of our property
rounded by ‘ natives’ who think that hog and in this place. Myself and wife are getting old,
hominy and strong coffee are the -necessities of but we desire to do good to our fellow-mortals,
and I know no way of accomplishing more, as
life.”
Our New Volume.—G. G., who is principal we are in feeble health, than to settle in Ilyof a seminary for learning near Philadelphia, geiana and take an agency for circulating your
Pa., writes : “ Dr. Trail—Dear Sir: Permit me journal and selling your books, and procuring
to express my great pleasure at seeing the Gos orders for nursery stock—choice kinds of vines,
pel of Health come out in a new and vastly apple, peach, and pear trees, etc. I am willing
improved form. It is now in a style fitted to to exchange property—let you have my houses
go forth and challenge criticism, both as to its and lots in Vineland—and take their value in
�80
THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
land in Hygeiana. I would like to take a thou
sand copies of the Gospel ok Health to give
away, but have no means until I sell. The
Gospel ought to be in every family in the
United States.
TO CORRESPONDENTS.
A Hotel in Hygeiana.—E. B. B.—Dr. Trail
—Dear Sir: I would like to have you answer a
few question in the Gospel of Health, es
pecially as they may interest others as well as
myself. 1. What is the name of the nearest
town to Hygeiana? 2. What is the nearest
Post-office? 3. Is the Sciota river navigable?
4. Will there be a house or shanty erected by
the first of April, so that persons can have shel
ter for a night or two, till he can construct a shan
ty of his own ? I shall send you the names of
several purchasers in time for the March num
ber.”
1. Hygeiana is bounded on the north by
Chillicothe, and on- the south by Waverley.
2. Waverley is the nearest Post-office. 3- The
Sciota is not navigated, a canal along its banks
doing the freight business, and the railway
transporting the passengers. 4. As to the shanty
we cannot say. Probably a number will be
built before the middle of April. But persons
can get lodgings near by, among the farmers,
for a few nights, or they can live in tents, or
sleep in a covered wagon as thousands of travel
ers do on long journeys.
Buckwheat—Itch—Gripes.—E. O. M.—“1.
Is buckwheat a wholesome article of food ? 2. If
so, why does it give people, cattle, and hogs the
itch? 3. How do you heal gripes and green
discharges in children ?” 1. Yes. 2. It does
not do it. 3. Abdominal fomentations or warm
hip-baths, with proper attention to diet. I&the
child is nursing, the mother’s habits of eating,
drinking, exercise, etc., must be attended to.
Sick-Headache.—A. S. T.—“ What can be
done for one who is subject to what is called
the sick-headache ? It is either constitutional
or caused by the measles when a child, or by
drug medication for the measles. The patient
is thirty years of age ; was in the army three
years, and st ffered much from sickness or from
the prescriptions of the M. Ds. His paroxysms
of headache are much more frequent than be
fore going into the army.” A disordered liver
is the immediate cause of the trouble, whatever
may have been the remote or primary causes.
An abstemious diet, a daily ablution, and occa
sional hip-baths, are the proper remedial meas
ures.
Palpitation.—0. S. F.—Constipation of the
bowels is the most common cause. An enlarged
liver will occasion it. The remedy is plain food,
moderation in the quantity of food, and correct
habits generally. Bleeding affords temporary
relief, but always aggravates the trouble event
ually.
Panting.—S. S. R.—Short breath, panting,
and “fluttering of the heart,” etc., are caused
by obstructions in the livgr or bowels, weak
ness of the abdominal muscles, congestion of the
lungs, and many other causes. Ascertain the
abnormal condition, and medicate accordingly.
Quick Returns.—S. O. wants to know what
are the best crops for immediate profit to raise
in Hygeiana while the fruit-trees are growing.
There are several, and among them are onions,
beans, beets, and sweet corn. These are always
saleable at a remunerating price, are easily cul
tivated, and require no special attention or
preparation.
The Appetite for Tobacco.—T. S.—“Please
give me, in the next Gospel, a plan of home
treatment to destroy the appetite for tobacco—of
long standing, say twenty or thirty years.”
Let the patient discontinue the use of it for
as many days as he has used it years. He must
not touch it again during his life lest the appe
tite return with redoubled fury, and he become
more the child of the devil than before.
Spinal Irritation.—M. A. S.—Tenderness
of some part of the spinal column does not prove
the existence of spinal disease, but in nine of
every ten cases, is merely indicative of disease
or obstruction in some of the internal viscera.
Caustics applied to the back for supposed spinal
diseases, have ruined the health of thousands
who never had spinal disease at all.
Zymotic.—E. S. S.—This term is applied to
such diseases as are more especially occasioned
by foul air, as typhoid fevers. Accumulated
excrement, imperfect ventilation, and too long
retention of the waste or effete matters of the
body, are the causes of zymotic diseases. Clean
liness would be a complete preventive of all
contagious diseases, as measles, small-pox, hoop
ing cough, etc.
Baker’s Bread.—A. L. R.—Physiologically
we regard baker’s bread as a worse article of
diet than lean flesh-meat. We know of no
article that is baker’s manufacture that is proper
food for human beings, nor, indeed, for ani
mals.
�THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
Plethora.—A.M.—Sugar, butter, starch, etc.,
may be very fattening, but are also very disease
producing. They are in no proper sense proper
food at all. It is not fat but flesh that you need.
You have too much adipose matter already, and
the more you increase it the more you will
diminish the flesh. Avoid sugar, milk, grease,
salt, and seasonings of all kinds.
Books.—A. R. R.—Your letters were answered
and the books forwarded according to order, by
mail Why you have not received them we
have no means of knowing. It is customary for
everybody to blame publishers for all disap
pointments, but we happen to know that the
fault is much more frequently with mail-carri
ers and post-masters, than with publishers or
their clerks.
Eastern IIygeiana. Home.—S. S. C.—We
shall be ready for patients at Florence, N. J., on
the first day of April next. During the summer,
heating apparatus will be distributed through
out the building, so that it will not be closed
another winter.
OUege geiiartmeut.
81
rejoice, as it has not had since the advent of
Hippocrates, when the best Allopathic medical
class is reduced to a Homeopathic dilution of
the tincture of the shadow of a shade of noth
ing at all.
No Summer Term.—In reply to frequent in
quiries, we reiterate the statement we have
often made, that there will be no summer term
of the Hygeio-Therapeutic College in 1867. This
is settled, whether we go to Paris or not. Other
work, which we have delayed for years on ac
count of the college, must now be attended to,
after which we hopo to resume the college
terms under improved auspices. All scholar
ships, outstanding or hereafter purchased, will
be good for the next or any subsequent term of
the college.
A Court Journal on Crinoline.—The
London Court Journal, of a late date, has the
following remarks on this expansive subject:
No beauty of form or splendor of material
in costume can compensate for manifest incon
venience to the wearer. No dress is sanctioned
by good taste which does not permit, and seem
to permit, the easy performance of any move
ment proper to the wearer’s age and condition
in life ; for it defies the very first law of the
mixed arts—fitness. Form is the most impor
tant element of the absolute beauty of dress, as
it is of all arts that appeal to the eye. The
lines of costume should in every part conform
to those of nature, or be in harmony with them.
We must, therefore, regard as the elementary
requisites of all dress, that it be comfortable and
decent, convenient and suitable, beautiful in
form and color, simple, genuine, harmonious
with nature and itself. The taste for the very
wide, full skirts, aDd large jupons, which has so
long prevailed, is now beginning to decline ; and
ladies distinguished for their good taste are
adopting a moderate style of crinoline. Many
persons are apt to run into extremes at the least
indication of a change in fashion, but nothing
can be a greater error. Fashion, as we have
hinted, changes by almost imperceptible de
grees, in accordance with the progress of public
taste ; and every new style which is introduced
must, to become successful, be an improvement
on those which preceded it. It is, therefore,
ludicrous to see a few ladies who have quite dis
carded thejupon without modifying the form of
their skirt, thus leaving the dress to trail on the
ground, and form very ungraceful folds.”
The theory of dress announced by the Court
Journal, is both sensible and true; but the
practice it recommends seems to ignore the the
ory entirely. If the lines of costume are to
conform to those of nature in every part, why
not adopt the “ American Costume ‘I ”
Medical Schools at a Discount.—The
Medical Record of this city imputes the small
- classes of medical students now attending the
Allopathic Colleges to the increase of the lecture
fees. We incline to the opinion that this cir
cumstance has little or nothing to do with the
question. We think it is owing to the obvi
ously diminished demand for their services on
the part of the public. Precisely as the people,
in any part of the world, become more enlight
ened on the subjects of medical science and the
Healing Art, as they exist in Poisonopathy, the
less will they have to do with doctors of the
drugopathic persuasion. Before the war there
was a remarkable diminution of medical stu
dents ; but the war created an opportunity for
some thousands of physicians and surgeons to
find temporary employment. Then there was
a rush to the medical colleges, which did not
♦
end with the war, and the year immediately
preceding the cessation of hostilities witnessed
unprecedented crowds of ambitious young men
en route for the places where diplomas were
conferred. But the “ reaction,” to use the usual
absurd expression of Allopathic friends, has al
ready “ set in.” Students have fallen off like
the subsidence of the hot stage of a quotidian.
Well, we hope the “ subsidence ” will continue
A lady advertises in a Glasgow paper that
to increase, and humanity will have cause to she wants a gentleman “ for breakfast and tea.”
�82
THE
THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
CHURCH UNION
ENCE.
ON
INFLU
There are words of wisdom in the following
remarks, which we clip from a religions paper
recently started in Brooklyn. Without assent
ing to or dissenting from its political predilec
tions, we can most heartily recommend the
principle inculcated to all Health Reformers
and especially to those whom the world de
nounces as crazy one-ideaists.
INFLUENCE.
must therefore never be measured by his FifthAvenue Church, and its wealth, quality, and
obsequious obeisance to his flatteries. The
camel’s hair and leather girdle has a revolution
bound up within it, even if locust and wild hon
ey is its meat.
•
George Fox, in his leather-breeches, was more
powerful than archbishops ; yea, popes, when
the whole column of debit and credit shall be
run up some time yet. Wait till the battle is
over, and see if the little corporal isn’t emperor
at last.
•We are induced to commend these reflections
to the consideration of all men in search of pow
er to do good. Power for evil never comes in
this way—that is therefore out of the reckoning.
Power for good is gained by devotion to truth.
He is a “ Brick ” who never worships only at
the shrine of truth ; who hates all sycophancy,
all ceremony of diplomacy, all indecision, all
Chesterfieldian morals, all high-low cliurchi.m,
all vicars of Bray, all mutual admiration, Chris
tian unionism—but loves and fears only God
and his Truth, and he, only, has influence. Such
men are not now in power among the sects, for
sectarianism draws its life from sycophants.
We used to think a man’s, and especially a
minister’s influence, was proportioned to the
number of admirers, imitators, and sycophants
he could gather around him. This is’ the pop
ular idea. We can point to the so-called lead
ing men in the different sects, and the world
will always judge of their influence by this
standard. He who has the most fashionable
congregation, who presides at all social or sec
tarian meetings, who sits in the seat of honor
when Morton Petolias a dinner of notables, who
make the clerical speech when the President, or
Japanese Tom comes, he is the man of in
CFor the Gospel of Health.]
fluence ; so thought we once in Callow’s simple
WHAT THEY HAD FOR SUPPER.
days. So think the crowds yet. A little reflec
tion, and more acquaintance with men, have com
pletely revolutionized our ideas. Jesus of Naz
First, I will tell you something of the family
areth—shall we leave him out of the list of in
It consisted of six persons, father, mother,
fluential characters ? Or, if he be said to have and four children—all boys, respectively, ten,
been divine—Wickliffe, Huss, Galileo, Burns, ' twelve, fourteen, and sixteen years of age. The
Milton, Wilberforce, Garrison—what will we do father was U large, well-formed, intelligent, and,
with them ? None of them were appreciated, I must say, healthy-looking man, about fortynor had they much visible influence.
five years of age. The mother was pale, deli
The man most dreaded to day in this nation, cate, intellectual, and miserable. The boys
the man who has done more to bend this nation, were sallow, cadaverous, and voracious.
give it ideas, shape its policy, nerve it for the
Now for the supper. There was half a bushel,
conflict of the age, is a man of so little personal or a little less, of hot, saleratus biscuit—prop
influence, that he probably could not get elected erly so called, as from their looks I should judge
to the office of hogreeve for the township where they were made of two parts saleratus and
he dwells. He has been President of these I grease,and one part flour; pork sausage, swim
United States these ten years past, and is quite mingin grease ; potatoes fried in grease ; a large
likely to be for thirty years to come, if not long bowl of grease—called gravy ; apple-pie, of which
er, though he couldn’t be elected to Congress the crust was at least one half grease ; dough
in any district in the country. Don’t think we j nuts, or crullers, cooked in grease, and rpplemean Pierce, Buchanan, Lincoln, Johnson ; No 1 sauce, spoiled by spices, of some kind. For drink,
these have been mere clerks of the great leader 1 they had strong, green tea.
of public opinion, who has presided over states
Of all these various abominatione, all the fam
where a vote for him would have been an ear ily (except one of the boys, who was sick with
nest—of tar and feathers, if not a gentle suspen- j headache) partook hugely, and just before retir
sion from the nearest tree. We mean, of course, ing, the sick boy was so far recovered, as to be
Mr. Phillips.
able, at the earnest sol ¡citation of the mother, to
In short, no influence is so absolutely Omnip eat a quarter of a pie, and a handful of the
otent as that of the Truth-teller. Devils fear doughnuts.
and tremble before him ; timid time-servers flee j Now, is not the ignorance, as such a supper
before him as they did before him of the whip I as this displays, of all of God’s laws of health,
of small cords.
perfectly astounding ?
They who judge a man’s influence by the
Yet, as I said before, the parents were intel
flattery the people give him, tremble for fear ligent people, on nearly all other subjects. The
“ he may hurt his influence.” “ You destroy father had held a lucrative position in the army,
your power with leading men by your radical and had just bought and furnished a nice little
ism,” say men with gold spectacles and white home of fifty acres in the country.
chokers. Not a bit of it. Never fear. The
They were well supplied with books, papers,
great truth-teller of Judea lost his life by his &c.
radicalism, but his death was victory over sin
I tried to get them to subscribe for the Gos
and hell. A man’s influence, and a minister’s pel of HEALTH.but no—they could not afford it!
power, whose whole stock in trade is truth, Poor man !—he had better take it if it cost hint
�THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
•$200 a year, instead of $2. Perhaps some read
er may be ready to inquire, “ Well, what did
you find to eat at such a table?’’ Easily an
swered—nothing. I excused myself from going
to the table as best I could.
In the morning we‘had for breakfast about
what we had for supper, with the addition of
buckwheat cakes. I ate some of the latter, and
a little of the apple-sauce—considering these the
least objectionable of anything I could get.
My business calls me from home a good deal
of my time, and I believe it is no exaggeration
to say that three-fourths of our people live as
does this family. Is it any wonder we are a na
tion of invalids ? Occasionally, I meet with a
family intelligent upon the subject of Hygiene
—and whose practice is in accordance with their
belief. Such a family to me, is like an oasis in
the desert to the lost and weary traveller.
Intelligence upon this subject is generally bom
of much suffering, and untimely death of friends
and relatives.
Let all who have been enlightened, labor to
extend a knowledge of the Gospel of Health.
j. w. M.
WHOLENESS.
Wholeness is completeness. Applied to
things it signifies unity and symmetry of form.
Applied to persons, it supposes power ; a wellbalanced distribution of activity, and a certain
execution of purpose, implied in the constitu
tional functions of our being.
Womanhood and Manhood are the significant
terms for human wholeness. A stone may be
whole as a stone; an edifice may be whole—
complete—as an edifice ; a child may be whole
—healthily performing its emotional functions
as a child ; but more than this, Womanhood and
Manhood, in wholeness enshrines greatness,
which, like a star, sheds its light on all con
tinually, and brightens as there is need for
light.
It must be seen, however, that human whole
ness, as above defined, is not a birth right only
by possibility of attainment.
The fabled ones of old have no corresponding
facts in human experience; we are not born
women and men, bnt babes ; as we are not born
noble and virtuous, but innocent; the latter be
ing a prophesy of the former.
Evidently, the grand purpose of our earth life
is, by a process of culture, to attain human
wholeness. Will persons say the purpose of
life is to glorify God? We answer, the glory of
God is his manifestation, and the highest mani
festation of any divine life on earth is in the
human consciousness of spiritual things. And
the cultivation of human life produces higher
'and higher manifestation of the divine will or
purpose, therefore, the highest cultivated life,
human wholeness, is the greatest glory, and the
highest thinkable end of earthly action.
In the light of this corollary we view all pres
ent aims, methods and institution with this
further provision:
1st. That all thingsand conditions,actually
desirable are attainable by human effort in keep
ing with natural law.
83
2. That the things and conditions attainable
are associates, therefore cannot be legitimately
sectarized. The one cannot be attained, held,
and used successfully, without reference to the
other.
Our first proposition, we presume, will be
readily seen and accepted by all thinking per
sons unless we except some theologians who
will as readily drop it as “ infidel.”
The second is like unto it, in point of fact,
though if involves methods that are not so
readily mastered. Herein we see the waste of
effort, the want of wholeness.
We will take to illustrate our thought, the
process of physiological evolution in the child.
We may supjjose the babe j ust born to be whole
as a babe. Bodily organs, respiration, circula
tion, all complete. There is a perfect adjust
ment of one part to the other, leaving no undue
extremes. Here, then, to our observation, com
mences a struggle upward toward womanhood
or manhood. We know that all things desira
ble are possible, so far as the constitution of the
child is concerned, and the only questionable
ground is the method adopted in rearing the
child. But what are the requirements ? Sim
ply that an equilibrium shall be maintained, as
between the several organs and functions of the
body; that wholeness be perpetuated, and that
no one part feed upon and devour the other, or
in any way rob it of its required vitality or ex
ercise. As the child advances, new functions
will appear, broader scope of action will be de
manded, and therewith the nicer adjustment of
one part to all the rest. If the newly-born babe
be subjected to extremes of heat and cold ; it
it be starved and overfed alternately, and if in
after-years it be subjected to extremes of affec
tion and anger, caressed and beaten ; if extremes
rapidly alternate through life, or if an extreme
in any one direction be taken and maintained ;
we shall hardly fail to see, as a result, some
glaring fault, some insurmountable weakness,
and withal a fretful waste of life’s forces.
May not this process of individual growth find
an exact counterpart, so far as methods and re
sults are concerned, in society ? Society is not
merely a collection of men, women, and children,
any more than the human form is merely a col
lection of bones, muscles, and nerves. One part
of society cannot be fostered at the expense, or
to the neglect of the other, without abating the
action, and impairing the health of the whole.
Witness even the extremes of American society
in this respect. Our appeal to arms in 1861 had
no other cause, primarily, than the persistent
effort of one part of the body politic to usurp the
rights of another part, and socially to make
equals in fact, subservient in use. One can but
see the inevitable consequence of such a course.
It came, and corresponding results will continue
to come, as long as similar causes exist, or until
an equilibrium metes out equal and exact jus
tice to all.
In the religious department of society, we
find excessive turmoil: sect warring with sect,
and in sheer contention for masteiy, wasting
more than one-half their energy ; and the whole
theological or “ orthodox ” school deny the right
of equal Divine favor to others, who, just as no
ble as they, differ in forms of belief. Who can
�84
THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
not prophecy that just as certain as authority to
dictate is assumed by the “ orthodox,” and per
sistently urged, that they will be overthrown
by the dissenters; and the extreme measures
employed for their overthrow will be in exact
proportion to the gravity of their assump
tion, and the tenacity of their adherence to
it ?
As between the sexes, the same comparison
can be drawn. Without any inherent right
whatever to do so, man assumes the control of
society. He makes and administers what is
called law, demanding of woman not only obe
dience to it, but also to his wishes, often to her
own destruction, and oftener to her inexpressi
ble disgust. In this respect, the record of wrongs
silently borne, in intensity and depth of mean
ing, exceed, perhaps, that of any other depart
ment of life, at least in the present century, and
it becomes more and more significant. Is there
no remedy ? Yes, it is in the very constitution
of society, and cannot be forever, or long with
held. And, further still, the classes are terribly
unbalanced. Money, even in America, warrants
favor, and gains position, as against brains and
integrity. Capital owns labor, and degrades it
just as the priest degrades the layman, or man
the woman, that thereby its power and rule may
be perpetuated. Now, we affirm that as human
wholeness is the grand aim of individual life,
that as woman and man, physically, mentally,
morally, and spiritually equilibrated, are the
highest earthly expression of Divine wisdom, so
society, which derives its type from them, finds
its highest expression in wholeness, or the ad
justment of all its parts so as to secure activity,
without contentious opposition. All women
and men are created equal, and are endowed
with certain inalienable rights which pertain to
the whole being, politically, religiously, so
cially.
Can it be otherwise than that the same stand
ard and practice shall obtain in society ? Cer
tainly not. We may cry peace! peace! but
there is no peace until the Idea of Wholeness
is practically acknowledged and sought to be
attained by all.
Upon this we base our hopes and labors for
reform in the future, with the full consciousness
that, though there maybe differences of opinion,
and though different women and men are speciallv adapted to certain work and unfit for cer
tain other work, yet all together constitute the
measure of human uses and symbolize industrial
wholeness. The various legitimate means of
life and progress everywhere chime in their
perpetual harmony of purpose. And we rise in
the scale of being just in proportion as we, in our
consciousness and volition, accord with the great
eternal Ideas of Wholeness, and practically bal
ance the scales of justice. The difference in our
illustration of the child and society is nominal.
We assume the child’s equilibrium, and proceed
to perpetuate it. The different departments and
parts of society are not in equilibrium, but by
effort this condition is to be attained, until dif
ferences will not be a synonym for contention ;
then the waste of effort ceases, and the social
and industrial energies produce, where now they
irritate and re-act.
We are not expecting to attain peace and
vigor by merely writing or announcing the con
dition of their existence. The significant words
of Emerson, “ Choose which ye will, truth or
repose,” ring in our ears, and every day we
tighten our armor for continued effort, with the
simple provision that we stand in the breach
and strike for justice and equality. Time will
render an account of persistent’ effort, which
will be effectual in proportion as it is wise.
We have no particular desire that people
should agree. Wholeness is not sameness. It
would be well, however, if we could agree to
disagree, and not stoop to the obstruction of each
other’s way. No one class can far precede the
others ; each must help ; and egotism is a cursed
thing. May it not be that all political, social,
and religious reformers constitute, in three
divisions, the Grand Army of Progress ? It seems
so to us ; and while we sincerely admire indi
vidual Wholeness which, at least, implies vigor,
justice, and virtue, we can but plead for social
Wholeness, which implies unity of effort, to
the end that each may have his or her own.
THE KEY TO KNOWLEDGE.
There is a refreshing philosophy of theology
in the following extract from a sermon lately
delivered by Rev. O. B. Frothingham of this
city :
Once we waited on the theologians to give us
the magic word, at whose utterance the gates
which open from our cavern into the light-of
day would roll back. Now, to understand the
theologians’ word is one of the undertakings
that we are ready to abandon. The difficulty
is to reveal the revelation ; to unveil the veil.
We are getting tired of looking on as at some
grand spectacle that is to be disclosed before
our eyes, by a few workmen who are toiling
behind the scenes to lift a curtain which still
hangs stubbornly before certain majestic but.
dumb statues of antiquity, and are thinking it
is high time to find out some truth for our
selves. The revelations of men who look away
from human life into a far-off literary world—
who take the wings of their imagination and
dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, are illu
sive and unfruitful. They are productive of
conjecture, and guess, and surmise, and specu
lation, but of little else Their light is at the
best uncertain—it is commonly misleading.
Their teaching lacks authority, and it lacks
consistency—it bewilders more than it guides.
These great seers and prophets had life before
them just as we have. Their object was to get
a solution of life’s mystery—even such as we
desire—but their method was to look away
from life in order to get light upon it; to retire
to their closets in order to get at the secret
which was in the world; to burrow into the
recesses of their own minds in search of the key
which was to unlock the chambers of the ma
terial and human universe, to escape into the
regions of sentiment, that they might hear
the Btill small voice which counsellors and
kings must obey.
Such was not the method of Jesus. No meta
physician, or theologian, or closet-philosopher
�THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
85
was he, but a genuine child of nature. He lived into its parts, analyzing, pulverizing, blowing
in direct communication with the life of his substances into gas—its optics screwed into a
time, to the consideration of which he brought lens, and boring into a point, it is apt to miss
the keenest of observation, the finest of intelli those splendid combinations which reveal the
gences, the purest and sweetest of hearts. The spirit, movement, and genius of the whole. The
meaning of what he saw was revealed to him. specialists in science seldom throw light on the
The sunbeams were his teachers, and the show purposes and ends of things, The atoms are
ers, the grasses, the lilies, the birds, the pastur more than the eternities to them. The most
ing sheep, the mountain torrents, the harvest famous of them, lacking the sympathy that
fields, the sowers scattering their grain, the blends them with the whole, will deny all pur
fishermen hauling in their nets, the people.pray pose, all end, all design and significance. No
ing or trafficking in the temple, the children heap of information is equivalent to a truth.
playing in the square—in all these things he The physiologist may show us all there is in a
saw God. If he went away alone, it was for human "body, may explain how it is formed out
meditation and prayer—to the end that he of a tiny cell, how it is nourished by the assim
might keep clear and single the inward eye by ilation of food, how the secretions are made,
which he perceived the divine significance in how the condition of the brain affects intelli
gence ; but when he has set up his skeleton,
the common events of his day.
it
Two things of inestimable value Jesus has and clothed the with flesh, and covered it all
breathing garment
bequeathed to us. One is his method of seeking round with shown us a man. Thereof the skin,
he has
are worlds
revelations ; the other is the quality of vision by within not
worlds of meaning there that he has not
which revelations are made possible. This come upon, or guessed the existence of. All
method was the study of life—this vision was that we call affection, intelligence, heart, soul,
the loving intelligence.
spirit, whatever it be, is hidden trom him. That
The first point is obvious. The world is before sphere of fine sympathies and relations in which
us still; and life is before us—real as ever— he touches other beings like himself, higher,
richer than ever. Not a fact of the universe lower, wiser, simpler, better, worse, is to him
has been removed from its place ; cm the con as though it were not. In a word, he sees the
trary, many additional facts have been piled up carnal, lie does not see the divine. He sees the
under our observation. The world we live in, portion that belongs to the dust, not the portion
as compared with the world that Jesus lived in, that belongs to the deity. To see that, requires
is as the city of New York to a country village. an illuminated mind. The unilluminated man
We have new sufferings and new diseases—new sees no revelation of God’s truth or benignity
modes of living and dying; new interests and in the flowers—
new relations—new duties and new responsibili
“ The primrose on the river’s brim
ties. Married life is not the same—home life is
A yellow primrose is to him,
not the same—life of leisure and of business is
And it is nothing more.”
not the same. Men are not the same, nor women,
But the great poet says :
nor children. We have new doubts, beliefs,
<• Thanks to the human heart by which we live,
sentiments, fears, sorrows, aspirations. What
Thanks to its tenderness, its joys and fears,
shall reveal to us the meaning of this life of
To me the meanest flower that blows can give
ours? What can reveal it to us? Can any
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.”
thing but study of our life as it is, do it ? There
A mind thus illuminated and turned directly
it is before us, no doubt, full of order, and law,
and beautv, if we could but see it—full of wis upon our human life, not turned away to creeds
dom, too. Every thing in it appointed, arranged, and bibles and theologies, but turned directly
adjusted nicely to every other thing. No acci upon human life, has the revelation of God s
dents, no surprises, no untimely or disjointed will and purpose in human life. The meaning
events. All things well in their place, all things of God is wrought into the substances of things ;
tending upward toward perfection, all things into organic and inorganic matter ; into the hu
doing good service in their time, all things man frame; into the regulation of personal
provided for—every thing ministering to some habits; into private, domestic, social, civil, po
thing else—how are we to know it, to feel it ? litical life; into days and epochs; into events
and histories. If it is revealed to us at all. it
Clearly by looking at it, not away from it.
Let us come to the second condition. The must be revealed there. To the loving eye it
revealer is the Reason, the illuminated mind will be revealed.”
turned on life at any point. The illuminated
mind, I say again ; and by the illuminated mi nd
I mean the mind which is lighted by splendid
Among mere blunders we believe we have
ideas, and warmed by a deep and wide humani met with no richer specimen than this one, per
ty. God’s truth is wrought into the texture of petrated by a bell ringer in Cork :
our common life, and may be found there full
“ Oh, vis'! oh, yis1 Lost somewhere between
and glowing by him who has eyes to see it. But twelve o’clock and M’Kinney’s store in Market
the eyes that are to see it must have behind street, a large brass key. I’ll not be after tellin’
them, not speculation merely, but sentiment, yees what it is, but it’s the key of the bank,
heart, soul. They must be loving eyes, as well sure.”
as keen ones. And so I say that science, in the
A counsel being questioned by a judge to
ordinary sense of the word, is not the revealer.
Science uses the microscope, the spectrum, the know “ for whom he was concerned,” replied,
retort, the crucible—vea, the telescope, with “ I am concerned, my lord, for the plaintiff, but
wonderful skill; but while separating matter I am employed by the defendant.”
�86
THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
WAYSIDE JOTTINGS IN
BRITAIN.
GREAT
NO. I.
Said a friend to us j ust before we started on
our tour to Great Britain in August last, “ You
can’t practice vegetarianism in that country
where there are no fruits.” “ Are there no
fruits there?” said I. “ Scarcely any,” was the
reply. “ Peaches and grapes are only grown in
hot-houses, and even apples are a meagre and
indifferent crop. Small fruits are not much at
best ; and, as for dried fruits, they are not in
the market.” Such was the doleful prospect
presented to the frugivorous tourist.
Well, after traveling through the length and
breadth of the country, from almost the ex
treme north of Scotland to the south coast of
England, and visiting, meanwhile, most of the
large cities, I had some little opportunity to
take items on a subject in which I was practi
cally interested, at least two or three times
daily. In the first place, the humidity of the
climate is such that one needs, and therefore
desires, a drier diet there than here. Just as on
sea, one naturally prefers more of “hard bis
cuit” (alias Graham crackers), and less of fruits
and other moist and juicy substances.
But, aside from all climatic considerations,
the vegetarian will experience no difficulty
whatever, as he travels from city to city, in ob
taining the very best of fruits, vegetables, and
farinaceous food. Instead of taking the usual
hotel fare, etc., for some two hours, laboring
through six, eight, or ten courses of soup, fish,
fowl, mutton, beef, dessert, etc., etc., with length
ened pauses between each (for the good natives
are strangers to the dispatch of our American
hotels), and finally finishing off with several
rounds of porter, claret, champagne, etc., the
traveler can go to the “ coffee-room,” order just
what he wants, and haw and when it shall be
prepared. Or, if he doesn’t like the extrava
gant bills at hotels, he can obtain, for a few
shillings per week, excellent private lodgings
(say a parlor and bed-room), with attendance
included, and order his meals as before. This
is really the better way. One is more comfort
able, more retired, better waited upon, and at
less expense than he would be at a hotel. You
can have, if you like (in Scotland at least), su
perb oat-meal porridge—better than you ever
ate in this country—for the imported article
(and that is all we have here) is always injured
by damp and otherwise, together with good
brown bread, excellent vegetables, and the
choicest of fruits.
In no cities in our own country have I ever
seen in the markets a finer supply of fruits and
at so trifling expense. (Think of a great “ Scotch
pint” full of splendid strawberries or goose
berries for three pence, and a pound of good
eating apples for the same money!) Some of
the imported fruits are higher, but we should
think none of them extravagant. Apples, pears,
plums, grapes, gooseberries, strawberries, and
other fruits, are plentiful and cheap. Some of
the large fruit stores in the cities are beautiful
beyond description. The “ small fruits ” con
tinue much longer in summer there than here ;
the climate is peculiarly adapted to them. The
abundant moisture that permeates the soil and
fills the very air, making it at times almost op
pressive, is most favorable to the growth of all
fruits and vegetables native to the island. The
raspberry, gooseberry, and strawberry, grow
much larger than with us; and, instead of that
keen, sharp' acid which people with a “ sweet
tooth ” take such exceptions to, they have a
mild, sweet, and delicious flavor.
In Aberdeen market I sa.w raspberries, goose
berries, strawberries, and currants, as late as the
middle of September; (they were done in Glas
gow some two or three weeks before ;) and I
was informed that these fruits begin to ripen
there almost as early as they do with us. The
berries which I saw were the last of the season,
and the market women called them “ poor
but I thought them very fine indeed. I tried
the experiment of putting a single strawberry
(an extra big one, of course, and rather irregu
larly shaped) into a .common-sized tumbler, and
found that it would not go half way to the bot
tom ! The gooseberries are of several varieties
and of different colors—yellow, green, pink, and
dark red—the green-colored ones being gener
ally the best. They are about twice as large
as we usually grow them here in Ohio, and are
very delicious ; the same may be said of the
raspberry. There were currants and huckle
berries in the market, much the same as we
have them in this country ; and in some of the
cities I saw cranberries, said to be grown, I
think, in the north of Scotland. The blackberry
(or “ bramble-berry,” as they call it—the black
currant is their “ blackberry ”) is only grown in
the wild state, and is very similar to our wild
blackberry.
Grapes, although commonly grown in hot
houses, are very fine, especially those grown in
the southern parts of England. Some of the
white grapes are excellent. Apples are rather
�THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
plentiful, at least in the cities ; they ripen later
than with us, and are inferior in quality, par
ticularly those grown far north. The Scotch
apples are usually very sour and crisp and rather
small; some of them are very fine cooked. The
best eating apples that I saw in Scotland, that
is, the best native apples, were the Scotch “ pip
pins,” a very small apple, with a mild, sub-acid.
The apples commanding the highest price are
those imported from America. Apples do best
in that climate when the trees are trained up
to i wall or to the side of a house, where they
cai have all the sunlight and heat possible, for
Great Britain is not a land of sunshine. Indeed,
during the three months that we were there,
the island seemed almost constantly enveloped
in mist and clouds ; and I said to the good peo
ple—who think the Americans very dark-col
ored—that it was no wonder they were white,
since the sun never shown upon them.
It is too far north, and there is too little sun
shine for peaches. They can only be grown in
hot-houses; and though they often look very
well, they are rather insipid. I saw at Salis
bury, England, nice-looking tomatoes growing
in the hot-houses, but they are seldom in the
market, imported or otherwise ; and many of
the country people have never seen one. Beau
tiful plums and pears are in the markets and
fruit stores, most of them imported from France
and Germany. Of dried and canned fruits there
are not so many, nor is there so great variety
there as here, chiefly because there is not that
demand for them by the people, who seem
scarcely to have learned either the luxury or
the worth of them. Canned fruits are to be
found in some of the cities (sometimes imported
from New York), but the great masses of the
people have never heard of such a thing. Did
wholesome fruits take among poor people the
place of the pipe and snuff-box, and among the
rich people the place of John Barleycorn, or
some other John (of whom I shall have some
thing to say hereafter), all would be better off.
The vegetables of Great Britain are very fine
indeed. If there are not so many native fruits
as there are in the warmer climates, the lack
of them is greatly atoned for in the abundance
and excellence of the native vegetables. The
jxitato is very much better than ours ; not any
larger, but drier and finer flavored. The turnip
is so far superior to those in this country, both
in size and quality, and especially in the pecu
liar sweetness of its flavor, that there is really
no comparison between it and the article grown
here under the same name. Of parsnips, car
87
rots, cabbage, Scotch cale and the like, there is
no lack, and of the best quality.
The vegetarian will rest assured, therefore,
that Great Britain is the last country in which
he need be compelled in practice to abandon his
faith. (And yet, the people, there as here, ask,
“ Why, what do you live on ?” as if there were
no “ living ” exclusive of meat, tea, and, one
may add—tobacco.) The stranger can obtain,
even on the streets and from the shops, good
brown bread, choice fruits, and plainly-cooked
vegetables. In London, fine large baked pota
toes, hot in the oven, are common on the street
corners.
'
S. W. D.
Xenia, Ohio, January, 1867.
IMPORTANCE OF PROPER FOOD.
[A little girl just entering on her “teens,”
and who has lived in a Hygienic family for sev
eral years, being requested to write an article
for the Gospel of Health, complied without
a moment’s hesitation, and the following is the
result of her first effort in the literary line.
We are of the opinion that many thousands of
full-grown American girls might derive profita
ble instruction by its careful perusal.]
“ People generally eat milk, sugar, and but
ter, and many other things, which are really
not food at all. I have read in some books
about sugar being useful and necessary food ;
but I havesince learned it is not food at all, and
that all kinds of seasonings are injurious. In
deed, proper food never requires anything with
it, and this will nourish the body most perfectly
if nothing is taken with it. If you should take
a handful of salt, or a chunk of butter, and eat
it by itself, it would make you sick. And so, if
persons eat proper food five or six times a day
sickness will be the result. But if proper food,
with no seasonings nor additions of any kind, is
eaten, in proper quantities, twice a day, it will do
all that food cando to give strength and preserve
health. One who has never tried the experi
ment can scarcely imagine what a change for the
better there will be in adopting a Hygienic diet,
and eating only two meals a day. Since I have
lived strictly according to this system, I have
grown stronger, got more rosy cheeks>and am
in better health in all respects.
“ Some folks think that if you eat only twice
a day, you will get so very hungry that you can
not help over-eating. But this is not so : When
you eat too frequently the stomach is over
worked, for it has to labor to get rid of the ex
cessive quantity, and this causes fatigue and
�88
THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
weakness. If you wanted your house clean, and “ worst features ” removed. All whose grog
some one kept throwing dirt into it, you would geries are “reasonably respectable” will be
have to work too hard" to get it all out, and tolerated. And then we have the assurance that
might get sick. And this is the way you get the business of rumsellingis not to be diminished.
iick when you eat too much or too frequently. It is only to be placed in fewer hands. The
The stomach must have rest, like all other or same quantity is to be sold.
gans, or it will soon wear itself out. 1 know a
W ell, we fear this is too true, and we are of
little girl about my size who eats five or six the opinion that one “ respectable ” rumshop is
times a day, and she is hungry all the time, more mischievous in society than are ten low
and so long as her mother indulges her in this groggeries. Indeed, the more “respectable,"
way she will feel a continual craving. It is said the greater is their influence for evil. No drunk
to be very hard for mothers to deny their chil ard ever led a human being into habits of intem
dren food when they call for it; but it is better perance ; but moderate drinkers have influence
than to let them become sickly, and grow up fee in that direction. No low groggery ever caused
ble and useless. Some parents say that their a human being to take the first downward step
children eat all kinds of food and seasoning, i on the road to drunkenness; but every respecta
and between meals, and yet are well enough. ble drinking place in the country has turned the
But such children are never in good sound steps of many perditionward. We are of the
health. They are often sick of fevers, inflam j opinion that all the excise laws that ever were
mations, convulsions, &c., and many of them or ever can be enacted only make the matter
die of these or some other diseases. Many per worse. By “ regulating ” the traffic in intoxi
sons think they cannot work without eating cating drinks, and authorizing certain persons
flesh-meat, and drinking tea and coflee. But this to deal in them, they make the traffic, which
*s another mistake, for I know many vegetari in its very nature is infernal—an outrage on
ans who drink only water, and not that at God and man—“ respectable." If the whole
meals, who are always in good health, and work matter were left to common law, a remedy would
very hard. I advise all persons, and young per very soon be found in a “Vigilance Committee ”
sons especially, to adopt the Hygienic manner or something similar.
of living, and when they become old, not to de
part from it.”
Bread Thrown Upon the Waters.—The
President of the Franklin County (Pa.) FruitGrowers' Association writes us : “ Dr. R. T.
REASONABLY RESPECTABLE
CROC-SHOPS.
Trail & Co.—Dear Sirs : Inclosed find $5, for
which please send as many of the January Gos
The comments of our city papers on the Ex pels of Health, including a few copies of
cise law, passed at the last session of the Legis Hygeiana as you can afford for the money. I
lature, since its constitutionality has been am much pleased with the journal. It is not
affirmed by the Court of Appeals, are very too radical for some of us, although it is so far
various, as the papers are or are not in the in advance of public opinion generally, that
interest of the rumsellers, and some of them many will not see even the glimmer of its light.
quite amusing. The following is a specimen of Whatever quantity you send will be for gratui
logic as it is in rum :
tous distribution. I shall consider them as bread
“ It is not the object of the law to suppress the thrown upon the waters, or good seed sown
sale of liquor. It is only intended to prune the
evil of its worst features by closing up the low which may bring forth a rich harvest. I am
and disreputable groggeries where vice and very much pleased with your Hygeiana pros
crime are bred. Dealers who keep reasonably pect, and hope it will prove a success. Permit
respectable places, and who are willing to ob me here to offer a few suggestions, if they have
serve the restrictions imposed by the law, will
be allowed to continue their business. This not already been considered : that the best fea
class ought to be well satisfied, for the natural tures of the Vineland enterprise be laid down
effect of the new measure will be to increase the as a basis to keep out speculation ; and that it
patronage of the better places by the suppression be made obligatory on all property holders to
of others.
sow the road sides in grass lawn, and plant with
Of course it will never do to think of removtrees, etc.”
ini»1 the evil entirely ! That would be radical
and fanatical, and proscriptive, and in divers
“ I have not loved lightly,” as the man said
ways offensive to the knights of the toddy-stick. when he married a widow weighing three hun
The evil is only to be “ pruned ” a little, and its | dred pounds.
�THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
NEW YORK STATE TEMPERANCE
SOCIETY.
We are glad to record that one more Tem
perance organization has taken a step in ad
vance. At the recent annual session of the
New York State Temperance Society, held at
Auburn, the following platform of principles
was announced:
Resolved, That, in view of the facts : 1. That
domestic wine is intoxicating; 2. That nearly
two-thirds of it is manufactured into brandy ; 3.
That intemperance is on the increase in wine
growing districts, especially among the youth
of both sexes ; we deprecate the production of
grapes for the manufacture of wiue, believing it
has an immoral tendency.
Resolved, That we recommend the vigorous
enforcement of all the restrictive and prohibit
ing provisions of the Excise law, and that we
further recommend the friends of Temperance to
petition the Legislature to extend the Metro
politan Excise Law over the entire state.
Resolved, That the approaching convention to
'amend the Constitution of the state of New
York should be regarded in the good Providence
of God as a fitting opportunity for the people to
declare in the new Constitution, “ that hence
forth no license in any form or under any cir
cumstance shall be granted in this state for the
manufacture or sale of intoxicating liquors as a
beverage, and that such permission shall be
submitted by separate article to the voters of
the state for adoption or rejection concurrently
with the new Constitution which may be ap
proved by the convention.”
In view of the facts that the rum trade owes
all of its vitality, directly or indirectly, to the
abominable license system, and that nearly all
of our agricultural journals, and the great
majority of our political newspapers (conspicu
ous among which is the New York Evening
Post) are advocating and encouraging the busi
ness of wine-making, these are certainly import
ant resolutions. We hope they will be endorsed
by and echoed from every temperance meeting
which may be held from this day until the final
consummation of the Temperance Reformation.
True, they do not go quite far enough. But
they are steps in the right direction. The real
root of the evil is alcoholic medication. But
our temperance friends have not yet got their
eyes open wide enough to see this. Possibly,
however, they may in the good time coming.
Cato, being scurrilously treated by a low and
vicious fellow, quietly said to him: “A contest
between us is very unequal, for thou canst bear
ill language with ease, and return it with pleas
ure ; but to me it is unusual to hear and disa
greeable to speak it.”
89
How Paris Wives Get Rid of Their Hus
bands.—La Patrie relates the following start
ling incident : “ M. Sam relates that he was
standing at a ball given at the Tuileries, talking
to the great chemist. Dr. Lisfrank, when he
perceived him suddenly become pale, and move
from his position. M. Sam, fancying that his
friend had been taken ill, followed him out to
the Salle des Maréchaux. There, having re
covered his equanimity, he said,‘ I have just
seen a beautiful young bride waltzing with her
second husband. Now, lam perfectly convinced
she murdered her first husband. It had been a
love match ; but the young man discovered he
had made a fatal mistake, and his health visi
bly declined. One morning he was found dead
in his bedroom, which his wife had filled with
flowers, especially with hyacinths. Their poi
sonous emanations had evidently killed him.
On being summoned to inquire into the cause
of his death, I perfectly remember having re
lated in his wife’s hearing a case of poisoning
produced by these very flowers ; and, on learn
ing that a scandalous intrigue on her part had
been the cause of his misery, 1 have not the
slightest doubt that the wretched woman took
this mode of regaining her liberty. This tragic
anecdote recalls to me another, which one of
the first physicians in Paris related a few days
ago as having occurred to him during the course
of his practice. He had been for some time in
attendance on a wealthy merchant, whose ill
ness, though of a painful nature, was not dan
gerous. Much to Dr. N.’s surprise, the symptoms
became complicated, and M. X. got rapidly
worse. Dr. N. asked to see the mixture his
patient had been taking during the night, and
remarked to the servant that the glass from
which he had apparently drank was not clean.
‘ No one, Sir, touches it but Madame,’ replied
the servant. Pouring a little water into it, Dr.
N. put it to his lips. He then asked to see
Madame X. alone. She was young and lovely.
‘Is my husband worse?’ she inquired, with
great apparent anxiety* ‘Yes, Madame; but
he must improve rapidly.
Do you hear,
Madame ?—in a week he must be cured.’ The
lady’s cheek grew pale. ‘ But, Doctor—’ ‘ You
have understood me, Madame ; good morn’ng.’
The patient recovered within the given time,
and M. and Madame X. gave a ball last week
and looked as jolly a couple as you would wish
to see.”—[Paris Correspondent of the Morning
Star.
One of “ the sex” writes that “ though a few
American ladies live in idleness, the majority as
yet work themselves into early graves, giving
the men an opportunity to try two or three in
the course of their own vigorous lives.”
Two ears, and but a single tongue,
By Nature’s laws to man belong ;
The lesson she would teach is clear,
“ Repeat but half of what you hear.”
A singular innovation was made at a funeral
in Paris the other day. Instead of a laudatory
discourse in honor of the individual interred,
one of his friends read extracts from a newspa
per in his praise.
�90
THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
THE LIFE OF A RADICAL.
My father was independent. T do not think
he ever thought of the consequence of any spe
cific act. Was it right?’if so, it must be per
formed. This made him a host of enemies, and
none were more bitter than the clergy. I re
member that he was the member of a Baptist
Association, and not one but were bitterly op
posed to him.
It was at the period when the Liberator began
to be published in Boston, and we took the pa
per, its editor, Mr. Garrison, visited our village,
and of course stopped at our house. He was
regarded as an infidel, and the most trouble
some fellow in the country. He was announced
to deliver a lecture in our church. At the hour
appointed the building was crowded to its ut
most capacity with a throng of noisy town
loafers, who, hearing of the proposed advocacy
of the unwholesome doctrines of “ abolition ” by
the chief mover in it all, came for the express
purpose of breaking up the meeting. This was
easily done with the help of some worthless
boys, and through the connivance of respectable
men of wealth in the town. My father, my
mother, and one or two others, were the only
supporters he had. The roughs made short
work of it, put out the lights, and cleared the
house within ten minutes. We were compelled
to flee for our lives, and were scarcely in sight
of our hopse before we saw the light blazing up
ward against the dark nightsky. Our church
was on fire, and before we reached our house,
the conservatives had been there before us, for it,
too, burst into flames, and we were compelled
to pass the night as best we could, at the hum
ble farm-house of a neighbor. Every thing we
had in the world was consumed, except the
clothes we wore. It was in the dead of winter.
My father was penniless, houseless, and hated
of every man in the town. And yet there was
a certain sort of respect accorded to him, that
showed that the truth was working. My sisters
readily obtained employment at a farm-house.
My mother wrote a little, and got enough to take
care of herself. My brothers and myself sought
and obtained work in various pursuits, one as a
clerk, and I as a farm boy. Father began to ad
dress himself to the work of reform entirely.
Heretofore he had not devoted himself to this
exclusively. Now, however, God had taken
away all hinderances ; so he consecrated his
taients and time entirely to this work. He
went from town to town, and district to district,
teaching the sin of American Slavery. He was
a man of powerful frame, with great black eyes
looking out from under shaggy iron gray eye
brows. His look was as stern and forbidding as
that of Alpine ('rags in winter. There was no
grace or beauty in his style. He spoke plain
truths, and eschewed all ornament and all cir
cumlocution.
As I have said, not a minister sustained him.
There came at last to his net, three only out
of the whole region round about, who might be
called supporters. One vi as a teacher who read
the Liberator, and taught the village school;
another was a long-haired reformer, who lived
a lone, bachelor life, subsisting chiefly upon
vegetables, and talked reform constantly; and
a bloomer-costumed Amazon, who came no one
knew whence or how, and lived chiefly by prac
tice of certain medical arts, phrenological lec
tures, examination of heads, and operating in
the capacity of a medium in spiritual manifesta
tions. These formed the party outside our family,
who sustained my father, and I may say, be^
lieved in him.
The town had a population of one thousand
souls, and there were of course four churches.
Each of them about as prosperous as my father’s
church, save this, lhe Episcopal Rector took
the only persons of wealth ; the Presbyterians,
the timid and middle class ; and the Baptist and
Methodist strove, one with another, to get all
that remained.
The three ministers dragged out a miserable
life of servitude and obedience to public will,
and never dared so much as to notice my father*
lest their constituency should suffer thereby.
It took us all nearly a year to get enough
together to think of having a home. This we
did by combined effort. I putting in my little
earnings with the rest. We built a plain house
of humble pretensions, and all came back again
to the work of rdform.—[Church Union.
THE YOUNG MEN OF OUR CITIES.
Rev. Dr. Osgood, in a recent work entitled
“American Leaves,” gives the following painful
but truthful sketch:
“The number of youth in our cities who are
seeking some kind of employment that allows
them to have a delicate hand, and wear kid
gloves and polished boots, is enormous, and fur
nishes a fearful number of recruits to the army
of vice and crime. What the cause of the disin
clination to the manual arts is, it is not always
easy to say ; and certainly, in the nature of
things, there is far more demand for intellect
and far more exercise of manly power in tilling
the soil or building houses and ships, than in
selling silks and calicoes behind the counter.
It would be a great gain if ten thousand clerks
could at once go into the fields and workshops,
where they are wanted, and leave their places
to ten thousand young women, who have noth
ing to do but to make their poor fingers the
hopeless rivals of the sewing-machine, and
to anticipate the uncertain time when some
young man. not yet able to pay for his own
board and clothes, shall venture upon the enter
prise of taking a wife less thrifty than himself.
It is partly from the false feminine notions of
gentility that much of the rising aversion to
manual labor springs, and much harm comes
from the frequent preference of the dainty swain
of the counter over the far abler worker at the
plough or plane bv sentimental maidens, who
have studied out their ideas of the gentleman
from trashy novels, and not from the good old
Bible and its noble standard of the gentle
heart.”
Thirteen objections were once given by a
young lady for declining a match—the first
twelve being the suitor’s twelve children, and
the thirteenth the suitor himself.
�91
THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
Paris a Doomed City.—London Society, in an
article on “The Beaux Mondes of Paris and
London,” utters the following fearful, and we
fear, truthful prophecy concerning the most gay
and luxurious city in the world :
Paris has reached a climax in what is gener
ally called civilization that cannot be surpassed.
She lias adorned and beautified herself with a
rapidity and splendor that are without a paral
lel. She is the most beautiful capital in the
world—the queen of cities ; she has put out of
sight all that can offend the taste of the most
refined critics ; she has driven further and fur
ther back all the signs of poverty and labor
which might offend the eye or suggest a thought
inconsistent with the opulence and gayety with
which it is her desire to impress her visitors;
she is a very Sybarite of cities ; but with all her
magnificence of decoration, with all her lavish
outlay and ever-changing caprice, which consti
tute her the leader of fashion throughout
Europe, she carries within herself the elements
of her own ruin, which cannot be far distant.
No society can last long which is so rotten at
its core, where profligacy reigns, and all sense
of propriety is at a discount.
The history of the world supplies abundant
instances of cities which have reached a climax
of refined splendor, and, being lifted up in their
pride, have overlooked virtue, and have been
dashed to the ground, and have crumbled to
ruin ; nor need France go far to look for such an
example. In the period before the great French
revolution society had become corrupt. They
who ought to have been examples of virtue
made use of their high and exalted position for
the indulgence of their evil passions, and saw in
it only opportunities for a vicious life. Even
now men tremble at the recollection of the aw
ful judgment that fell upon them, which has
left that fair and beautiful country in a state of
ferment from which there seems to be no repose,
and which can only be kept under by the firm
hand of a great military power which is ever
ready to repress the first indication of the pop
ular mind daring to think for itself.
Pure Wines and Temperance.—Dr. Stone,
of San Francisco, says he is fully convinced that
the manufacture and introduction of pure wines
into general use will not diminish intemper
ance, as has been supposed. Full two-thirds of
all the wine manufactured is converted into
brandy, and in the wine districts intemperance
is on the increase, extending to the youth of
both sexes.—Exchange.
The exercise of a little common sense, will
enable any physician in any part of the world,
or any man, woman, or child, who has arrived
at a condition of reasoning, to see that all use
of the alcoholic element, as drink or medicine,
must conduce to intemperance.
Let us give them a very simple illustration.
Mercury is a poison. In all forms and prepara
tions it injures the vital organization, and in
large doses tends to induce the inflammatory
condition of the mouth and salivary glands,
technically termedptyalism or salivation; though
they may not occasion manifest local inflamma
tion, they do, nevertheless, produce some degree
of the same or a similar morbid condition. They
can never be taken without injury exactly pro
portioned to quantity.
Alcohol conduces to intoxication. Large doses
occasion drunkenness. Small quantities pro
duce a slight degree of intoxication, termed
stimulation. But, as the alcoholic element is
always a poison, its use in any form is injuri
ous exactly in ratio of the quantity taken, no
matter whether taken in the form of rum,
brandy, wine, cider, porter, lager, etc., etc.
A Fine Lady.—We clip the following para
graph from the New York Tribune :
“ For the Paris Exhibition.—At No. 544
Broadway is a cooking-stove which cost $1,000.
The boiler, tank, and pot closet, are of German
silver, and the whole is as splendid as a piano.
Of course, it embraces latest improvements. In
cooking, a current of air passes through the
oven, and bread is baked in a brick oven. With
such a stove, a fine lady might be induced to
make herself useful.”
The diabolical innuendo of the writer is that a
fine lady isn’t useful! Was there ever a more
preposterous absurdity ? Half the commerce
of the world depends on her finery for its ex
istence. All of the dry goods’ merchant princes
owe their fortunes to her disposition to display
fine things. Every milliner’s and mantua-maker’s shop in the land may bless her desire to
shine in frills and flounces for their meagre
bread and butter. The Tribune itself is in
debted to the fine ladies for one-half of its im
mense advertising patronage. Indeed, discon
tinue fine ladies, and the controversy between
the Tribune and Post on the subject of “Pro
tective Tariff and Free Trade,” which has raged
for twenty years, and bids fair to continue so
long as they both shall live, would be deprived
of three-quarters of its facts and illustrations.
We doubt if either of these papers could live if
there were no fine ladies.
Carnivora and Herbívora.—An exchange
says:
“ A dinner was given, near Paris, recently, of
which the principal dishes were shark, horse,
dog, and rat.”
A dinner was given, in this city recently, of
which the principal dishes were bread, apples,
potatoes, and beans. Which dinner indicates
the higher grade of civilization?
4
�92
THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
A Marvelous Medicine.—A writer in the
Religio-Philosophieal Journal gives a wondrous
statement of a medicine which is greatly relied
on for the cure of mortal or immortal maladies
in one of the “ spheres ” or “ grand divisions of
the spirit land.” We have much faith in the
remedy, and believe that more of it could be
used by people “ in the form ” with advantage :
“ The medicine most in vogue there is that
of Namm oc Esnes, sometimes used on earth.
When well applied and digested, it there, as
here, effects the most marvelous cures. I may
state, however, that the people on earth spell
the name of this great remedy backwards ; for
here the letters are reversed. Every one can
find and use it, and it is already being applied
to the cure of many ills.”
Canada.—Canada subscribers will send 12
cents extra for postage.
More or Less.—Send us whatever sum you
can afford the cause, from ten cents to ten dollars
or more, and we will return its value in the
Gospel of Health.
Clubs.—Is there one earnest Health Re
former in tliis country who cannot send us a
club of subscribers ?
To Editors.—Country papers and magazines
which give the Gospel of Heat.th a proper
notice, or publish its table of contents, will be
entitled to an exchange.
As we Expected.—Many agents who had
sent in clubs to the Herald before they saw the
Prospectus for the Gospel, write us that the
clubs for another year will be sent to the Gospel,
and not to the Herald. Of course.
Our Address.—Recollect that subscriptions
for the Gospel of Health, and all communica
tions relative to it, and all orders for books, or
goods of any kind, to insure prompt attention,
should be addressed, “ R. T. Trail & Co., No. 97
Sixth Avenue, New York.”
Advertising Rates.—Four lines, or less, $1;
each additional line, 25 cents. One column,
$25 ; one page, $40. When advertisements of
half a column, or more, are continued without
change for three or more months, a reduction of
twenty per cent, will be made.
Anonymous.—We can pay no attention to
anonymous communications. We do not desire
to publish names without permission, but, as
an evidence of good faith, and for many other
reasons which could be named, we must have
the name of the writer, or the article must go
into our waste basket.
Specimen Numbers.—Many persons write
Gqspel vs. Herald.—Many of the subscribers
us to send them specimen numbers, and forget
to enclose the requisite dimes. Please read our to the Herald of Health have requested us to
transfer their subscriptions to the Gospel of
Prospectus more carefully.
Health. This is impossible. We have nothing
Canvassers.—We offer special terms and further to do with the Herald, except to run
extraordinary inducements to persons who will “ opposition to imposition.” Those who wish
make it a business to canvass for subscribers. for the Gospel had better subscribe for it.
Send stamps for terms and circulars.
How to Canvass.—The best way to obtain
Our Illustrations.—These will largely in subscribers is, to leave specimen numbers of the
crease our expenses, but we shall confidently Gospel of Health at each of the dwelling
rely on the efforts of our friends to extend our houses, stores, and workshops, in your neighbor
circulation, so that we may continually improve hood for examination. In a few days thereafter
call for them and solicit subscriptions. In this
in this attractive feature.
manner a hundred numbers will enable an agent
Certificates of Agency.—We will send to to canvass a large territory.
any person, on receipt of request and satisfactory
Geometrical Proposition.—We have a plan
references, certificates of agency, authorizing
them to receive money on our account, for for annihilating the drug-medical system in less
than ten years. It is this : Let each subscriber
subscriptions to the Gospel of Health.
send us one new name in 1867 ; each subscriber
The Present Number.—Can our friends do in 1867 send us a new name for 1868, and so
themselves, their neighbors, us, and everybody on to the end of the chapter. A little arithme
else, a greater good, at a small expense, than tic will demonstrate not only its practicability,
by circulating a few copies of the present num but its infallibility. We will wager all Hygeiber among their neighbors, and asking them to ana on the result.
read carefully.
Non-Subscribers.—Pursuant to a request in
Pay Your Own Postage.—We receive our Prospectus, we have received several thou
several letters a day requesting information on sands of names, to many of whom we have sent
a variety of subjects which it is of no earthly ad onr first number. But we learn that, in a few
vantage to us to give, but which may be of instances, those who forwarded the names have
importance to the writer, min ms the stamp for neglected to subscribe for the Gospel, or to
return postage. A three-cent stamp is a small solicit subscriptions, on the supposition that all
matter per se, but several thousands of such names sent to us, as well as all persons sending
letters in a year would impose on us an un them, would receive the Gospel gratuitously.
reasonable tax for the privilege of working for This is a mistake. The only way to be sure of
nothing.
the Gospel is to subscribe for it.
�93
THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
WORKS BY DR. TRALL.
GRANITE STATE HEALTH INSTITUTION,
(Prepaid by Mail. )
HILL, N. H.
Hydropathic Encyclopaedia......................................... $4 50
Hydropathic Cook Book............................................. 1 50
Hygienic Hand Book...................... ,.......................... 2 00
Diptheria. .................................................................... 1 60
Sexual Physiology........................................................ 2 00
Sexual Pathology......................................................... 2 00
Home Treatment for Sex-Abuses............................... 50
Uterine Dis. and Displacements................................. 3 50
...................
“
Colored Plates . ... 6 00
Water-Cure for the Million .. ..................................
35
Diseases of the Throat and Lungs ............................ 25
>^rize Essay on Tobacco.............................................. 20
Prize Essay on Temperance.....................
20
The Alcoholic Controversy......................................... 50
The True Temperance Platform....... . .......................
60
Alcoholic Medication ................................................
30
Problems of Medical Science.................................... 20
Principles of Hygeio-Therapy....................................
20
The True Healing Art.................................................
35
Health and Diseases of Woman................................
20
Lecture on Drug Medication........ ..............................
20
Lecture on Nervous Debility.....................................
20
The Complete Gymnasium ....................................... 2 00
Anat. and Phys. Plates................................................. 20 00
Phys, and Path. Charts...............................
12 00
WORKS EDITED BY DR. TRALL.
Fruitsand Farinacea................................................... $2 00
Accidents and Emergencies........................................
30
Hydropathy for the People......................................... 1 50
Theory of Population.................................................. 40
Hydropathic Review ................................................... 3 00
Milk Trade in New York.............................................
50
Mysteries of Nature..................................................... 2 00
Dress Reform (Mrs. Harman)...................................... 20
WORKS IN PREPARATION BY DR. TRALL.
Principles of Hygienic Medication.......................... $12 00
Physiology and Hygiene for Schools......................... 2 00
Philosophy of Human Nature.................................... 3 00
VALUABLE WORKS FOR SALE.
Science of Human Life.................................................$3
Woman and her Era.............................................
4
The Empire of the Mother.........................................
The Unwelcome Child.................................................
Fowler’s Phrenology.. ...........................
1
50
00
80
75
75
COLLEGE TEXT-BOOKS.
(By Express.)
Gray’s Anatomy............................................................ 87 00
Dalton’s Physiology...................................................... 5 25
Youman’s Chemistry................................................... 2 00
Bedford’s Obstetrics..................................................... 5 50
Erichsen’s Surgery..................................................... 6 50
Dunglison’s Med. Dictionary. .................................. 6 75
Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary.................... --....12 00
This institution is located in one of the finest regions
of the “Old Granite State,” on the direct route from
Boston to the White Mountains. The cars bring patients
within a few rods of its door.
The establishment is one of the oldest in the country,
and its physician is one of the most experienced in the
treatment of all the varied forms of chronic disease,
whether of the male or female organization.
For further particulars, please inclose stamp for circu
lar, and address
W. T. VAIL, M. D.,
Hill, N. H.
G. H. SALISBURY,
Manufacturer of All Kinds of Crackers
of
A Superior Quality,
436 Greenwich Street, New York.
GRAHAM
CRACKERS
Prepared on strictly Hygienic principles, according to
directions of R. T Trall, M. D., constantly
on hand.
All orders filled at‘shortest notice.
PHILADELPHIA HYGIENIC INSTITUTE.
Dr. WILSON’S Establishment is now located at 1109
Girard Street, above Chestnut. This Institution is very
favorably located. The situation is central, pleasant, and
healthy. The rooms are spacious, well ventilated and
attractively furnished. Patients receive the personal at
tention of the doctor and wife, and may rely on skillful,
careful, and attentive treatment. We use no drug medi
cation. Our table is supplied with a variety of well cooked
food. Persons visiting the city can be accommodated with
rooms and board. Address
R. WILSON, M. D.,
1109 Girard Street,
PHIL A DELPHIA.
FAMILY PANGYMNASTIKON.
An improved and more convenient apparatus, which
answers all the indications, and costs but one-third as
much as that which has hitherto been sold under this
title, has just been invented. It is simple and durable,
and an admirable contrivance for enabling invalids to
exercise in their own rooms. Moreover, it can be carried
in one corner of a carpet-bag. Price, $5. Send orders
to R. T. Trail & Co.
Dr. N. R. ADAMS,
Physician, and Surgeon,
SYRINGES.
Bridgeport, Gloucester Co.,
(By Mail Prepaid.)
Mattson’s Improved....................................... • - ....... $3 00
NEW JERSEY.
HAND
MILLS.
(By Express.)
Large Size.................................................................
pm all Size........................................................................................
G. W. BACON & CO.,
American Booksellers and Publishers,
$8 00
0®
NO.
48 paternoster row,
LONDON, ENGLAND.
�THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
94
N. D. THOMPSON, M. D.,
Hygienic Physician.
Swedish Movements for Diseases of long standing.
No. 149 West Sixteenth Stbeet, New York.
A few invalids can find a pleasant home, with skillful
physicians, and favorable surroundings for restoring to
health. Hygienic boarding.
HIGHLAND WATER-CURE.
H. P. Burdick, M. D., and
Mrs. Mart Bryant Burdick, M. D.,
Physicians.
Send for circulars. Address
Alfred, Alleghany Co., N. Y.
J.
F. SANBORN, M. D.,
HYGIENIC PHYSICIAN AND DENTIST,
E. YODER, M. D„
HYGIENIC
PHYSICIAN.
Residence and Office,
Third Street, between Landis Avenue and Elmer Street,
Vinela/nd, N. J.
fi®* All diseases successfully treated without the use of
drugs.
Z. P. GLASS, M. D.,
HYGIENIST.
Address letters and telegrams to Box 1,094, Quincy, IU.
Patients at a distance visited promptly.
Mrs. M. E. COX, M. D.,
HYGIENIC
PHYSICIAN
AND LECTURER,
CHESTER, N. H.,
Desires to enter into communication with Health and
Dress Reformers who would like lectures in their lo
calities.
Mrs. Cox, with competent assistants,will open, for the
summer the “Old Homestead,” lor the reception of a
few patients who are willing to live on strictly Hygienic
diet. Invalids will not find magnificent accommodations,
but good conditions of health. We offer them careful
and judicious attention, and proper diet, with the purest
air in New England. Address
B. T. COX,
Chester, N. H.
ECONOMY IS WISE—HEALTH IS WEALTH.
THE HYGIENIC COOK-BOOK;
OR, HOW TO COOK
Without the use of salt, butter, lard, or condiments.
A book for those who eat to live. Eighty pages. Forty
kinds of bread, cakes, pies, puddings, etc., palatable,
nutritious, and healthful. How to prevent dyspepsia,
causes of summer complaints, etc.
“Just what is wanted in every family.”—E. Yoder,
M. D.
“Will save more than the cost in one day.”—Every
body.
Price by mail, 20 cents ; $1 75 per dozen.
Mbs. M. E. COX, M. D.,
Chester, N. H.
M. AUGUSTA FAIRCHILD, M. D„
HYGIENIC PHYSICIAN,
HANNIBAL, Mo.
PREMIUM DRESS PATTERNS.
Patterns of the Premium Dress for Women will be
sent by mail on receipt of one dollar. Address, Ellen
Beard Harman, M. D., care of R. T. Trail & Co., 97 Sixth
avenue, New York.
PREMIUM DRESS PHOTOGRAPHS.
Photographs of the author of the Premium Dress for
Women, in costume, will be sent by mail on receipt of
25 oents and postage stamps. Send orders to R. T.
Trail & Co.
TABOR, FREMONT CO., IOWA.
All diseases successfully treated with Electricity, Mag
netism, Bathing. Gymnastics, Movement-cure, and other
Hygienic agencies. Positively no drugs given.
WATERS’
SQUARE AND UPRIGHT PIANOS, MELODEONS
AND
CABINET ORGANS, .
The Best Manufactured.
TO LET, and rent allowed, if purchased. Monthly pay*
ments received for the same. Second hand Pianos
at bargains, from $60 to $225. Old Pianos taken
in exchange. liberal discount to teachers
and clergymen. Cash paid for sec ndhand Pianos. Pianos tuned and re
paired. New 7 octave Pianos for
$275 and upward.
Warerooms, 481 Broadway, New York.
HORACE WATERS.
HYGIENIC HOME,
GENEVA, KANE COUNTY, ILL.,
By John B. Gully, M. D.,
Thirty-five miles from Chicago, on the Chicago and
Fulton Air Line Railroad.
APPARATUS FOR LECTURERS.
For $100 we will furnish the following:
Dr. Trail’s Anatomical and Physiological Plates, six in
number; a painting of Powers’ Greek Slave; a painting,
taken from life, of the figure of a woman deformed by
tight lacing, to contrast with the preceding ; paintings of
the male and the female skeletons; paintings represent
ing the vital organs in their normal position, and as de
formed and displaced by fashionable dress; a painting
representing the different kinds of uterine displacements;
and a painting representing the fcetus in various stages
of development. The paintings are all on light canvas,
and with the plates, can be carried conveniently in a
small trunk.
B. T. TRALL & CO.
IMPROVED RUPTURE TRUSS.
We are prepared to supply persons afflicted with Rup
ture or Hernia with a new and improved article, which the
patient can adjust for himself. The Pad-spring is so
arranged as to make upward and inward pressure, thereby
avoiding all injury to the spermatic cord.
Price, only $5.
In ordering a Truss from a distance, send a mea
sure round the body—take two inches below the hip
bone.
R. T. TRALL & CO.
HOUSES TO RENT IN HYGEIANA.
Several persons have proposed to erect a score or two
of nice cottage houses in Hygeiana, early in the season,
and rent them to parties who will furnish good refer
ences as to ability and character for the term of five
years for $50 per year each, payable in advance. If
the parties renting will bind themselves to make cer
tain improvements in fruit trees, vines, etc , which will
be named from time to time, at their expense, they can
have all of the proceeds of the same, and their rent re
paid at the end of fitje years, and have an equal interest
in what the places will sell for ; and it shall be at their
option whether to buy or sell one half interest in the
same.
For further information, address
R. T. TRALL & CO.,
No. 97 Sixth Avenue, New Yqrki
�THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
95
NEW ILLUSTRA.TED
PHYSIOGNOMY; or, ‘SIGNS OF CHARACTER,”
As manifested in Temperament and External Forms,
AND ESPECIALLY IN THE
cc ZEi TT TvT -A- TSJ"
F
C E
DIVINE.”
Large 12mo, 768 pages. Price $5. With more than 1,000 Engravings.
Orders reoeived by R. T. TRALL & CO., No. 97 Sixth avenue, New York.
A SPECIAL REQUEST.
THE CHRISTIAN HERALD,
AU persons who see this advertisement, wiU greatly
oblige us, and probably benefit others, by sending us the
names and post office address of aU invalids in their
vicinity; also of aU friends of Hygeio-Therapy, or
Health Reform • and also of aH who are or have been
subscribers to the “Water-Cure Journal,” “Hygienic
Teacher,” “Herald of Health,” “Water-Cure World,”
“Western Water-Cure Journal,” “Health Journal for
the People,” “Laws of Life,” “HaU’s Journal of
Health,” or the “ Phrenological Journal.”
Devoted to the advocacy of Primitive Christianity, in
Theory’ and Practice, containing twenty-four double
column pages to each number. It acknowledges the
authority of no Creed but the Bible. TermB, $2 per
year ; one number, P2 cents. New vol. begins March,
’66. Address,
J. W. KARR, Publisher.
Eureka, Ill.
• s. H. HUNT, M.D., Hygienic Physician,
r*eoria, Illinois.
CaUs from a distance promptly attended to, either in
person or by letter.
A SEMI-MONTHLY PERIODICAL,
SPECIAL NOTICE.
All communications for R. T.Trall, as weU as for R. T.
Trail & Co., should be addressed to No. 97 Sixth avenue,
New York. Wherever Dr. Trail maybe, his letters will
be forwarded to him, if directed as above.
�96
THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
BLOOMINGTON
NURSERY.
HYGEIANA AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL.
Fifteenth year, Eight large Green-houses, 275 acres
To any person who will establish an Agricultural
Fruit, Ornamental, and Nursery stock—a very large and
School on our domain, we will donate fifty acres of land,
complete assortment, including
with the proviso that the grantee shall purchase as much
500,000 APPLE, 1 to 4 year, $50 to $140 per 1,000.
more, and devote the whole one hundred acres to the
150,000 PEAR, standard grafts, 1,000, $120.
purposes of an Agricultural College. All the emolu
20,000 HARDY CHERRY; also Plum and Peach.
C00,000 GRAPE, on over 25 acres of vines; best leading ments shall be the proprietors. We have no manner of
sorts, as Adirondae, Concord, Catawba, Clinton, Delaware, doubt that this enterprise can easily be made very profit
Diana, Hartford, Ives, Iona, Rogers’ Hybrids, 17 Nos., of able as well as very useful. It can be started with a
small capital. Address
which No. 4 by the 1,000.
R. T. TRALL, M. D.
30,000 each, CURRANT and DOOLITTLE RASP
BERRY.
100,000 STRAWBERRY, over 40 sorts.
500,000 APPLE STOCKS, 1 and 2 year.
GARDENER WANTED.
500,000 APPLE ROOT-GRAFTS, in winter, 10,000, $100.
1,000,000 OSAGE ORANGE, first class, 1,000, $3; 100,000.
A person who thoroughly understands “ Truck Gard
$250.
ening ’’ may find steady employment and fair wages at
2,000 ALTHEA, named double, two feet, 100, $12.
20,000 ROSES, aB classes.
“ Eastern Hygeian Home,” Florence, N. J., after the first
of April next. Address
5,000 PEONIES, etc.
Send two red stamps for wholesale and retail catalogues.
R. T. TRALL, M. D.
F. K. PHCENIX,
Bloomington, McLean Co., Hl.
PRINCIPLES OF HYGIENIC MEDICATION.
By R. T. TRALL, M. D.
Having at length finished all of the books on our desk
catalogue preceding the large work, we are now engaged,
as busily as half a dozen other avocations will permit, in
preparing this for the printer. The retail price cannot be
less than $12. But those who have sent us $6 will have
the work at that price, whatever may be the actual coBt
of publication. We cannot, however, accept any more
advance subscriptions at that rate. The price to the
trade will probably be $8, and all who send us this
amount between this time and the announcement of its
publication day. will receive the work. Many corres
pondents have written us to inquire when it will be pub
lished. But this question, for reasons which will be
obvious on a moment’s reflection, we cannot with pro
priety answer. We can only say that we shall do it as fast
as it can be well done, and no faster. It will be pub
lished in three volumes of 750 pages each, and will be a
complete library of Hygeio-Therapy. Send orders to R.
T. Trail A Co.
HOW TO GET GOOD BY DOING GOOD.
The friends of Health Reform generally, and the prac
titioners of our system especially, who desire to make
the Hygienic System or their business known in their
neighborhoods, cannot do better than distribute (gratui
tously if need be) a few specimen numbers of the pre
sent issue among the people. It will pay, For this pur
pose we will furnish them at something less than actual
cost, say $12 for one hundred copies, and $100 for one
thousand.
BACK NUMBERS OF THE GOSPEL.
We have a few hundred complete sets of the Gospel
of Health (from July to December, inclusive), and
several thousands of the July number, which we will sell
at one-half the cost of publication—that is, $3 50 per
hundred, and $25 per thousand. We will furnish them
in full sets, or such numbers as may be preferred.
Wherever they have been distributed, we have heard a
good account from them ; and if the friends of Health
Reform desire to bring the subject under the notice of
their neighbors, they can have an opportunity to do
much good at little expense.
B. T. TRALL A CO.
HYGIENIC FARMER WANTED.
We wish to employ a Farmer, who is a strict Vegeta
rian, and who understands fruit culture in all its branches.
He must be well acquainted with grape-culture, especially
of the Delaware and Concord varieties. Address
R. T. TRALL A CO.,
No. 97 Sixth avenue, New York.
HEALTH CONVENTION.
The Fourth Annual Session of the World’s Health Asso
ciation will be held in Chillicothe, Ohio, on the second
Wednesday in June, 1867. We hope to see the friends of
Health Reform present in large numbers,
R. T. TRALL, M. D., President.
ELLEN BEARD HARMAN, M. D., Secretary.
HYGEIANA NO. 1.
A pamphlet, entitled as above, has been published, de
scribing the tract of land in Southern Ohio which we have
purchased for founding aVegetarian Colony, and explain
ing the plan of organization, etc. Price 15 cents; ten
copies for one dollar. Send orders to
R. T. TRALL A CO.,
No. 97 Sixth avenue, New York.
FRUIT FARMS FOR SALE.
We offer to sell ten thousand acres of land in Franklin,
Ross county, Ohio, in building lots, and in farms of ten
acres. The price is $200 for each farm of ten acres, with
out regard to location, and $200 for each building lot,
without regard to size. We will sell as many building
lots or farms as above, to one person, as he or she wishes
to purchase, subject, in all cases, to the conditions men
tioned in Hygeiana No. *1. To unmarried women we will
sell building lots or ten-acre farms at $100 each.
R. T. TRALL, M. D.
�
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Pamphlet
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Title
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The Gospel of Health and Journal of the True Healing Art. Vol. II. No. 8. February 1867
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: New York
Collation: [49]-96 p. ; 24 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Printed in double columns. Contents: What is temperance? -- Women's rights question --Vegetarian festival in England -- A 'strong-minded' woman -- Suffrage for women - Importance of proper food -- Reasonably respectable grog shops.
Publisher
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[R.T. Trall]
Date
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[1867]
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G5395
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[R.T. Trall]
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Health
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (The Gospel of Health and Journal of the True Healing Art. Vol. II. No. 8. February 1867), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
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Text
Language
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English
Conway Tracts
Health
Temperance
Women's Rights
-
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PDF Text
Text
THE HERALD OF HEALTH
Vol. 8, No. 4.]
NEW YORK, OCTOBER, 18661
[New Sebies.
PUBLISHED BY MCO., 13 & 15 LAIGHT ST.
Antral ^rtitlts.
[For The Herald of Health.]
My Creed.
BY THEODORE TILTON.
As other men have creeds, so I have mine;
I keep the holy faith in GodBiS man,
And in the angels ministrant between.
I hold to one true church ofMttjtruej^m^^H
Whose churchly seal is neither bread nor wine,
Nor laying on of hands, nor holy oil,
But only the anointing of
I hate all kings, and caste, and rank of birth;
For all the sons of man are sons
Nor limps a beggar but is nobly born
Nor wears a slave a yoke, nor czar a crown,
That makes him less or mor^^^B just a man.
I love my country, and her righteous cause ;
So dare I not keep silent of her sin:
And after Freedom may her bells ring Peace!
I love one woman with a holy fire,
Whom I revere as priestess of my house;
I stand with wondering awe before my babes,
Till they rebuke me to a nobler life.
•
I keep a faithful friendship with my friend,
Whom loyally I serve before myself;
I lock my lips too close to speak a lie;
I wash my hands too white to touch a bribe;
I owe no man a debt I can not pay,
'
Save only of the love men ought to owe.
Withal, each day, before the blessed Heaven ,
I open wide the chambers of my soul,
And pray the Holy Ghost to enter in.
Thus reads the fair confession of my faith ;;
So crossed with contradictions of my life
That now may God forgive the written lie!
KSO^HMby help of Him who helpeth men,
l|nBe two worlds and fear not life or death.
f^KtB^nead me by thy hand 1 Amen.
[Written for The Herald of Health.]
Concerning a Muscular Christian!
BY MOSES COIT TYLER.
“The views which Dr. Arnold considered invaluable
BnaamSaMMeverv case be held by those whom he trained!
to hold ideas on conviction only; points which he insisted'
on as indispensable may appear otherwise to his pupilsin their maturity; but they owe to him the power and the
conscience to think for themselves, and the earnest habit
of mind which makes their conviction a part of their
life.”—Harriet Jfartineaw.
“The sun never hides his face when the Queen,
shows hers to her people.” This legend, which
expresses the devout belief of the humbler
classes of England, and implies that the clerk
of the weather, with all his faults, is at least a
very shrewd courtier as well as a right loyal
Briton, was certainly justified by the fact,,
when, last February, on a charming day sand
wiched between two epochs of dreary wet and
cold, the Queen came forth in state to meet her
faithful Barons and Commons in Parliament
assembled. For hours before that which had
been set for Her Majesty’s arrival at Westmin
ster Palace, the streets and courts of the neigh
borhood, the highways and byways, the win!
dows, roofs and balconies, were filled with a
[Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by Millee, ‘Wood & Co., in the Clerk’s Office of
the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.]
�,146
HERALD 01” HEALTH.
multitude of all lands and tongues to witness
the splendors of the regal procession, and more
-especially to see again the face which sorrow
and the dark veil of widowhood had so long
concealed. I remember that I had a fine out
door position by one of the windows of West
minster Hall, and had been watching the car
riages of the nobility and foreign ambassadors
passing to the door of the Peers’ Entrance,
when my attention was suddenly arrested by
the sight of a gentleman on foot, in plain black
clothes, advancing rather nervously along the
sidewalk, which was being guarded by the po
lice from the encroachments of the multitude.
He was walking toward the Peers’ Entrance,
and yet he half-seemed to have lost his bearings,
and not to know precisely whether he was going
the way he wanted to. He appeared to be
rather under the middle age; of medium height,
neither slender nor stout; with a ruddy, genial,
earnest face; with lip and chin shaved, but whis
kers of sandy hue at the side; and altogether
having a look of ample health, vigor, elasticity,
kindliness, intelligence and success. Who could
it be ? Evidently he was not a nobody; else
the discriminating gentlemen in sham helmets,
whose creed seems to be that a nobody is worse
than a knave, would have pushed the audacious
intruder back among the rabble. But he can
hardly be a very great somebody: ^S^^he had
been, he would have emulated the other great
somebodies by coming in his carriage. Who
can he be ? On he goes along the sidewalk be
neath us toward the Peers’ Entrance, with a
quick step, and now a little conscious that many
eyes are upon him, and a little anxious to hurry
away out of sight. Perhaps it is one of the
new members of Parliament, and not being yet
thoroughly broken -to the intricate courses of
statesmanship, it may be thatitBahas already
lost his way and is going in by the wrong door.
But, hark! Listen to those voices of the crowd
across the street and of the crowd on this cor
ner of New Palace Yard. Wha^lMhey say ?
All this time, while you have been letting the
man go by in the fog of your own speculations
concerning him, you might have used your ears,
:and you would have instantly found without
further trouble who he was. Your last chance!
Listen sharply! As the cheer dies away, do you
not catch the words of that fellow shouting
with delighted enthusiasm, “Ji’s Tom Hughes,
■the member for Lambeth!”
Yes, glorious Tom Hughes; the new member
for Lambeth, the trusted favorite of the work
ingmen ; because, though their friend not their
attererof almost boundless popularity with
them; because, while helping them he can
frankly tell them their faults! Tom Hughes,
the pupil of Dr. Arnold, tie graduate of Ox
ford, the barrister of Lincoln’s Inn, the author
of “Tom Brown’s School-days,” the friend of
Maurice and Ruskin and Kingsley, and the
Prince of the Muscular Christians!
According to the promise of my letter a
month ago, I now proceed to give you a brief
sketch of the eminent man whom I have thus
introduced to you hastening along the sidewalk
near Westminster Hall on that fine February
afternoon.
Thomas Hughes is one whose name England
will not willingly let die ; or, if she were so
disposed, America would come to the rescue,
and carry it off from the gates of Forgetfulness. There are some men the very sight of
whom gives us a better opinion of human na
ture, rekinding our hopes, rebuildling the fabric^
of our fortitude and our faith. Thomas Hughes
is one of these men. It was said of Swedenborgj so sensitive was his organization to moral
influences, that the approach of a hypocrite
used to give him the toothache. We may be
grateful that we do not possess such a delicate
spiritual barometer; for who would like to be
continually clapping his hand to his jaw ? Yet
wha^in Swedenborg was an abnormal develop
ment, ^Mn the rest of us only the common en
dowment of Nature—a faculty of responding
IKher with pleasure or with trouble to the moral
Eo®®ions of those who approach us. Hence,
an honest man is a joy for ever! Thomas
Hughes is not a great scholar, nor a deep philosopher, nor an acute reasoner, nor an orator
at all; but he is and he has more than all that
—he bears about with him the nameless aroma
of moral reality, of downright manly virtue,
o^^fe-bright trutKi the frankness, the direct
ness, the ^fflplicit" of a child, with the courage
of an athlete and the charity of a Christian.
In a classification of mankind he would go into
the same compartment with Abraham Lincoln.
He has the same homely, quaint honesty; the
same incapacity for evasion and finesse ; the same
humor; the same uncommon gift of common
sense; the same genius for what is right and
true. Thomas Hughes presents another exam
ple of a man attaining great success in life—
fame, position, abounding usefulness—by the
sheer force of moral worth. His career is no
encouragement to that sort of ambition which
aspires to be great while forgetting to be good.
I am not going very minutely into biograph-l
ical details for several notable reasons; chiefly
for the notable reason that I have not the bio
�HEEALD OFHEALTH.
graphical details to go into. But, adopting the
good old orthodox plan of beginning with a
man’s life where Nature does—with his birth—I
may state that Thomas Hughes was born near
Kewberry, Berkshire, October 23, 1823. All
the world knows that he was educated at Rugby
under Dr. Arnold, and at Oxford University.
He was called to the Bar at Lincoln’s Inn in
1848; he gave to the world “ Tom Brown’s
School-days” in 1856, “ The Scouring of the
White Horse” in 1858, “Tom Brown at Ox
ford” in 1861. These, so far as I can learn, are
the only books he has yet published; but he
seems to have been an industrious writer for re
views and newspapers, especially for “ Macmil
lan’s Magazineand he has edited “Whitemore’s Poems” and “The Biglow Papers.”
The publication of his first book, at the age of
thirty-three, made him famous throughout the
vast domain of the English-speaking race ; and
since then, beside being an author who could
write nothing which the public could refuse to
read, he has been a man of mark in sanitary
and educational reforms, in social science, in
the volunteer movement and in politics.
Last year the time seemet^^fflv^S-ived for
his noble and useful career to meet with a fit
ting political recognition. At the General
Election, 1865, he was induced to stand as can
didate for that populous and important district
of London known as Lambeth; and the result
of his candidature may be given in two lines of
an obscure poem which contained this allusion
to him :
“ What wonder Lambeth, such a MAN to see,
Gave him her heart and made him her M. P.”
Here, then, we have a famous author, a law
yer, a member of Parliament and a^^ing states
man; one of whose special claims upon our ad
miration is his. distinguished advocacy ofiffigfl
generous and wholesome creed of physiological
piety, “Muscular Christianity.” Mr. Hughes
has both preached and practiced this noble
faith. As the child is father to the man, there
can be no doubt that the boy Tom Hughes was
as fine a specimen of an intrepid, pugnacious
and magnanimous little Muscular Christian as
ever came out of Berkshire, or handled the
gloves, or cricketed on Rugby play-ground, or
sent a boat skipping along the top of the Isis.
No man could have portrayed the boy “ Tom
Brown” as he has done, without having been
such a boy as “ Tom Brown” was. Indeed, the
heartiness and muscularity of his juvenile .days
cling to him still, and often crop out in very
amusing forms in his speeches. A few weeks
Ago, in addressing his constituents on the de
147
feat of the Ministry, and charging upon the
Tories that they had not waged a fair fight, he
excited great mirth by this bit of school-boy rem
iniscence: “I know what a fair fight is. I
was taught at school to fight fair, to fall light;
if I got a licking to take it like a man, and hold
my tongue when I got my belly full.” The
celebrity of Thomas Hughes as a Muscular
Christian is certainly owing to the celebrity of
the books in which he has so magnificently ex
pounded and illustrated Muscular Christianity;
bu®|Wleed& in private, though less calculated
to swell the trump of'Eame, have been no less
earnest and useful,
connection with a fine
group of old University friends, clergymen,
barristers, authors and artists, he established
several years ago
Workingmen’s College in
Great Ormond Street, an institution on which
every year lays the garland of new triumphs
and new hopes. In this college Mr. Hughes
has been, of course, the inspirer of the gymnastic department, and with the greatest advantage
to the pupils. Once every year the members of
the college make an excursion to some pleasant
rural spot in the neighborhood of London, and
on these occasions they have an opportunity of
BMMaying their progress in muscular development. Only last week the excursion took place
for the present year. The party, which numbered two hundred, and consisted of the students, their wives, children, sisters and friends,
went to Petersham Park, near Richmond, as
sweet a spot for its rich woodland beauty as can
be found in England. They had songs and
dances and merry games, and finally sat down
to tea beneath the spreading roof of a superb
cluster of ancient lime trees. But that which
it is of immediate interest to us to know, is that
in this jubilant festival of liberated Londoners
a very important portion of the afternoon was
dSvoM^^rathlS^ sports, Mr. Hughes acting
as general director and referee. They had a
mile flat race, a two hundred yard flat race, a
mile walking race, jumping, hopping, cricket,
rounders, and a boat race on the Thames. This
list of their gymnastic contests will indicate the
nature of the muscular discipline which they
receive at the college. It will be~perceived that
it is almost entirely competitive. Mr. Hughes
seems to have little respect for any gymnastics
but those which involve that principle, and he
likes none so well as the rough old athletic
games of England. I remember a passage in
one of his books which vigorously sets forth his
views upon the subject:
“ Don’t let reformers of any sort think that
they are going really to lay hold of the work
�B8
HERALD OF HEALTH.
ing boys and young men of England by any
educational grapnel whatever which hasn’t some
bona fide equivalent for the games of the Old
Country ‘ veast’ in it; something to put in the
place of the backswording and wrestling and
racing; something to try the muscles of men’s
bodies and the endurance of their hearts, and
to make them rejoice in this strength. In all
the new-fangled, comprehensive plans which I
see this is all left out.”
Mr. Hughes is said to be an ardent admirer
of the gloves ; and that his admiration reposes
on a solid basis of knowledge will be evident
from the following amusing story that is told of
him: One evening Mr. Hughes being at the
college looked in upon the gymnastic class and
found them engaged in sparring. It appears
that a veteran was on the floor, and, instead of
treating the tyros with consideration, was knock-l
ing them about in a very ostentatious style, un
til at last they all declined to practice with
him. Mr. Hughes had been looking on in si
lence, but now stepped forward and said, in his
usual quiet way,
should like to have a 4um
with you, if you don’t mind.” “ Very happy,”
said the bully; “ have you ever had the gloves
on before ?” “ Oh, yes, two or three times,”
said Mr. Hughes. They soon stood face to face,l
and in half a second the bully lay sprawling
upon the floor. He got up angry, but Mr.
Hughes kept cool and punished him to his
heart’s content, and then told him that the
next time he had to spar with beginners he
should remember that evening and be decent,
if not generous!
When the cholera smote the metropolis a
few years ago, Mr. Hughes, declining to flee
from the breath of the pestilence, selected an
exposed district of London and personally vis
ited from house to house, to soothe the alarmed,I
to minister to the sick, and to provide sanitary
corrections to the neighborhood. If there be
in the world such a thing as chivalry, does not
this look like it ? No wonder Mr. Hughes is
the idol of the workingmen! And to show how
his character as a sanitary laborer is appreci
ated, I shall introduce a paragraph which ap
peared last year in The South London Chron
icle. I give it exactly as it stood, lest any
should suspect that my own words may be the
result of an individual enthusiasm for Mr.
Hughes:
11 The fear that cholera may come and carry
away its thousands of victims before any active
steps shall have been taken to cheok its fatal
career, gives considerable anxiety to some of the
best and most practical men in the country. In
the first rank of unselfish workers in previous
visitations was found the member for Lambeth,
Mr. Thomas Hughes, B. A., who, with Mr. J.
M. Ludlow, M. A., and Dr. Fraser, manfully
stood to his duty, as himself interpreted it, and
visited from house to house the population of
Golden Square and vicinity. We rejoice in the
possession of a Member of Parliament who,
while not a resident in the borough for which
he has been returned, accepts his position as in
volving the responsibilities of kinship with the
mass of the people; and we have good grounds
for the statement that Mr. Hughes is prepared
to do this in any thing connected with the
health as fully as in any thing affecting the pol
itics of his constituency. Very little has come
to our knowledge relative to any measures for
preventing cholera incursions contemplated in
either Lambeth or Southwark, but Mr. Hughes’
wishes are known to the leading members of
his election committees and to others beside.”
For any American it would be ungrateful,
and for me, knowing what I do of Mr. Hughes,
it would be impossible to conclude such a sketch
as this without some reference to the literary
and political sympathies of Thomas Hughes
with our own country.
In 1859 Mr. Hughes edited for English read
ers the “Biglow Papers.” I shall cull a few
choice sentences from the admirable Preface
with which he enriched that immortal book:
“ Greece had her Aristophanes; Rome her ‘Juvenal BFrance her Rabelais, her Moliere, her
Voltaire; Germany her Jean Paul, her Heine;
England her Swift, her Thackeray; and Amer
ica has her Lowell. By the side of all these
great masters of satire, the author of the 1 Big
low Papers’ holds his own place, distinct from
each and all. The man who reads the book for
the first time, and is capable of understanding
it, has received a new sensation. In Lowell, the
American mind has for the first time flowered
out into thoroughly original genius. For real
unmistakable genius, for that glorious fullness
of power which knocks a man down at a blow
for sheer admiration, and then makes him rush
into the arms of the knocker-down and swear
eternal friendship with him for sheer delight,
the ‘ Biglow Papers’ stand alone. . . It is
satisfactory, indeed, to think that Mr. Lowell’s
shafts have already, in a great measure, ceased
to be required, or would have to be aimed notf
at other bull’s eyes. The servility of the North
ern States to the South, which twelve years ago
so raised his indignation, has well nigh ceased
to be. The vital importance of the slavery
question is now thoroughly recognized by the
great Republican party, which I trust is year
by year advancing toward an assured victory.”
No American need to be told that the Eng
lishman who wrote these intelligent words
twelve months before the nomination of Abra
ham Lincoln, knew enough of our political con
dition not to take the wrong side in the mighty
strife which was eyen then rushing on to its
settlement in blood and in battle-fury. Who
is not aware that one of the first voices raised
in England to cheer us was the voice of Thomas
Hughes, and that on the platform, in the lec
�■herattd ot ”ealtk>
ture-desk, in the drawing-room, and through
the columns of the magazines, he has steadily,
bravely and powerfully sustained our cause?
And now that from the overwhelming turmoil;
now that.from the slaughter and desolation of
war, to save an empire from the death-stabs of
treason; we have been led to the task, equally
urgent, of saving a whole race from starvation
and plunder, the voice of Thomas Hughes is
still to be heard in England appealing to his
countrymen, and entreating them to seize the
“ greatest opportunity that will ever be given to
them of making stronger the bands which tie
them to the American people.”
I have already said that Mr. Hughes is no
orator, and I was about to add that he is too
honest to be one. His style is quiet, simple,
colloquial, full of market-words, not a word put
in for show. He often hesitates, stumbles, gets
into a maze and comes out backward. Yet,
speaking only because he has something to say,
or if he has nothing to say saying that, he is a
man whom the people always welcome upon
their platforms and listen to with attention.
I remember hearing him last April, at a meet
ing convened at the Westminster Palace Hotel
under the auspices of the Duke of Argyle, for
the purpose of promoting the Freedmen’s Aid
Society. John Bright was there, and Sir Thomas
Fowell Buxton, and other celebrities, and among
them I saw the bald head of Thomas Hughes,
which, like that of Thackeray’s Dr. Firman,
“glistened like a billiard-ball.” He was one
of the last speakers, and his speech was one of
the best. I shall never forget the sincere emo
tion with which he gave utterance to these no
ble words:
“ But there is another reason why we should
come forward on this occasion heartily and
warmly, and that is the extraordinary impor.tance of a cordial alliance between the two
branches of the Anglo-Saxon race to the future
of mankind. It does seem to me that two
great nations, possessing and glorying in the
same traditions and the same history, struggling
at this minute with the same trials both politi
cal and social, and animated, I trust, by the
same hopes—I say it does seem to me that two
such peoples as these, enjoying too, as they do
the freest institutions that ever have obtained in
great nations upon the face of the earth, should
go forward, not with jealousy, not with distrust
of any kind, but with a cordial and rational
wish to advance civilization and Christianity
over the whole of this earth, and, as far as
peaceful efforts can do it, to impart to all down
trodden people, and to all people who are in
need of them, the glorious ideas of freedom,
and the glorious hopes, which we who speak
the English tongue in all climates of the world
possess and enjoy—I do think that we ought to
be stirred up to great exertions in this matter.
149
I do think that when we look at the grand, the
magnificent way in which the Americans have
met their own great trial, English men’s and
women’s hearts ought to be warmed toward
them, and that we should show, as emphatically!
as we possibly can, our deep respect and rever
ence for the work which they have done, and
the way in which they have done it.”
Yes, for the sake of such glorious English
men as Thomas Hughes, let us try to forget the
words and deeds of those Englishmen who are
not like him.
May the tribe of the Muscular Christians increase^H
London, September 3, 1866.
A Natubal Appetite eob Liquob.—An
article recently appeared in the editorial columns
of The New York Times, from which we quote
the following:
“There is no doubt a universal appetite in
mankind for alcoholic excitement; against this
no wise reformer or legislator should struggle,
as aft absolute evil. His great effort should be
to lessen the inducements to an over-indulgence
of this propensity.”
What new discoveries have recently been
made in the natural history of man, by which it
has been shown that alcohol has the same relation to the humaD organism that bread, potatoes, water, and air and clothing sustain, we
are not informed. The only relation which a
true interpretation of nature shows alcohol to
have to the stomach is that of poison, and no
amount of falsification of nature can make this
relation any different. It is natural for man to
eat, to drink, to breathe, to sleep, to exercise,
and he dies if these universal instincts are not
gratified. Surely, if there was the same univer
sal appetite in mankind for alcoholic drinks, the
race could no more live without them than they
can without air. But human experience shows
coSSgisivS^I that the less it is used the better
we are off; and those who do not use it at all
not only have no craving for it—as they do for
air, food, water, sleep and exercise—but an ab
solute digust and loathing of it. ’ The unwise
editor who penned the quotation, should study
■nature from a physiological and not a perverted
pathological stand-point.—Ed. H. of H.
Boston Public Baths.—Statistics show
294,836 persons have availed themselves of the
sanitary influences of the Public Baths of the
city of Boston within the last two months.
When we record our angry feelings,
let it be on the snow, that the first beam of sun
shine may obliterate them for ever.
�150
KffEALD OF HEALTH!
[Written for The Herald of Health.]
Some of Our Faults.
It is bad enough to have faults—too bad to
have them so glaring as to attract the attention
of foreigners and give us the odor of a bad
name abroad. The other day I met an intelli
gent and observing Englishmen, who did not
scruple to speak plainly of our faults. Said he:
“ How curiously you dress in this country I
Almost every man wears black clothes, and the
thronged streets seem as though the entire pop
ulation was going to a funeral. Now and then
I see a suit of gray; some wear coats and pants
of a copper color, and I have seen a few men
dressed in white—but these are exceptions; the
funeral color is the rule; black is the fashion.
No wonder one of our authors said you looked
like a nation of undertakers.”
I said as coolly as possible, that blacVwas a
becoming color, suited to all complexions and
seasons, and that this was a free country; I also
added something about bare feet when shoes are
scarce.
He was one of those lights (gas-lights) who
would not be snuffed out with my cool extin
guisher; so he continued:
“ And now look for a moment at your fashions.
They are as odious as your taste in colors is repul
sive. Look at the short jackets which barely
reach to the hips, and are constantly tempting
a man who hates the display to lift his foot and
kick the wearer. Such coats do well enough
for boys who have just reached their teens, but
they make full grown men appear very ridicu
lous. Those who wear such garments should
never say a word about the short dresses of the
ladies. As for the American ladies, they over
dress. I have noticed red, hard hands, that
must work for a living, hooped with cheap jewelry; and servant-girls often dress as well as
their mistresses, and more gorgeously, showing
plainly that they exhaust their income to please
their vanity. Now, our English ladies dress
richly but plainly. The higher classes seldom
show much jewelry ; indeed, it is considered
vulgar for ladies in polite circles to^ make a
grand exhibition of trinkets, as though their
husbands and fathers were all in the jewelry
trade. Lady Napier, one of the highest born
of the aristocracy, never wears any gold about
her person save her wedding-ring.”
I could only reply by saying, that our
coats were not so short as we desired the
visits of fault-finding strangers to be; as for
our ladies, they had exquisite taste, and whether
their dresses were long or short, masculine or
feminine, they were lovely in our eyes; and
servant-girls, who worked hard for their money,
had a perfect right to spend it as they pleased',
so long as they did no harm to others. In this
country we acknowledged no aristocracy, save
that of moral and intellectual excellence; that
here every man was a king and every woman a
queen, whether she played on the piano or the
wash-tub, folded newspapers or “flirted” a fan
at Saratoga.
“ You have no aristocracy, that is evident,”
said he; “ but you would like to have even that
distinction. When a live lord makes his ap
pearance on your shores the people turn out en
masse to see him, and, if he be young and un
married, scores of families in which there are
marriageable young women covet his company
and invite him to accept their hospitality. He
is sure to turn the heads and hearts of all the
silly girls who dance with him. See what fools
you made of yourselves when that coffee-colored
chap from Japan came here. He received a
peck of letters a day. What did the simple
darlings care about his habits of eating rat
soup and dog cutlet ? He had a title ; he was
almost a ‘ Black Prince,’ and that was enough
for them. Then, look at the list of your titled
men. Why, you have mere men with handles
Ito their names than we have, ten times over.
Look at the armies of captains, colonels, gen
erals, squires and majors. Why, if a man
crossed the Hudson in a scow he would get the
title of captain for life, and his child would be
known as the captain’s son. I’ll wager the
price of a new hat that every tenth man you
meet on Broadway has a title to his name.”
I gave him a piece of my mind, and told him
square to his face that our officers were the true
nobility, and had won their honors with their
swords; that when we honored his master, the
Prince of Wales, it was not because the boy had
royal blood in his veins, but because he was the
son of a good mother. We are a gallant peo
ple, and never lose an opportunity to show our
respect for woman. Queen Victoria was one of
our favorites, not because she sat upon a throne,
but because she was a good, true woman.
Now, if he had been a Frenchman, the com
pliment paid to his sovereign would have soft
ened his criticism, and he would have found
some kind word to have said of us ; but he was a
plain John Bull, and proceeded in the same
strain, but with a more provoking personality.
He continued:
“ Your habits at the table are not always re
fined. I often see men and women shovel their
peas into their mouths with their knives. I
�ilerald op health.
TO
I said, with considerable emphasis, that the
have seen them pick their teeth with the prongs
of their forks. At a Wbstern hotel I saw a man United States was the birthplace of the Temper
take a quid of tobacco from his mouth and put ance Reform; that we had four or five millions of
it on the table-cloth alongside of his plate until signatures to the total abstinence pledge, and that
he had finished his dinner. By-the-by, your our Temperance literature was scattered like
g. w. b.
habits of chewing and smoking tobacco are snow-flakes over the land.
shameful. Old and young, rich and poor, the
Sugar Candy.—One of the evil results
educated and the illiterate, chew and smoke to
bacco.
Cigar-stumps and tobacco-stains are of perverted tastes is seen in the great demand
seen everywhere. The appetite for the nasty for sugar candy. We have often pointed"out
weed seems to have grown into a passion; even the evils resulting from feeding it to children,
well-dressed men, who claim to be cleanly in but it will be a hundred years or more before
their habits, will roll the quid like a sweet mor all parents will learn that candies are poisonous,
sel under their tongues, making their breath and should not be allowed to the dear little ones
fetid, discoloring their teeth and soiling their they love and wish to bring up with fine health
linen. Why, I can smell a tobacco-chewer at and perfect physical systems. To such parents
the distance of a rod, and his odor never fails as feed their children on confectionery, the folto bring a sickening sensation. How delicate I lowing, by a well posted writer, will be found
and sensitive young ladies can endure the pres instructive:
ence of a tobacco-chewer—how they can receive
“The adulteration of sugars, candies and
trade largely and regularly carried on
his caresses without utter loathing and dis
gust, is something unaccountable to me. Then injK’HESI Instead of plaster, which till lately
entered so largely into the manufacture of conmen who pretend to be gentlemen will iBBhes- fectionery, in place of sugars, a new article has
itate to smoke all about the house. Having been discovered called terra alba, or white earth.
smoked their own faces to the color of smoked It comes from Ireland, and costs by the barrel
ham, they convert every room to which they aboSTtwo and .a half cents a pound, while loaf
sugar costs seventeen cents. The body of can
have access into a smoke-house. To the credit dies, the coating of almonds and lozenges are
of railroad companion be it spoken, they have made from this earthy material. It is whiter
than plaster, and is much used in the adulterprovided special cars where these human
motives can puff out twenty miles of smoke an , ation of flour sold in this market. A glue, paint
and oil manufacturer of New York has sent
hour; now they should provide disinfectants, round his annual circular, which I have seen, to
so that the smoking and smoked passengers can the principal confectioners, calling attention to
not sicken tidy men and women who do nSSm- a fresh arrival of this white earth. I have seen
. dulge in such disgusting habits. I was looking an ounce of lozenges dissolved in water, in which
two-thirds of an ounce was of terra alba, and
out of a car window the other day, when the not a particle of sugar in the lot. The common
wind blew into my face the spray of tobacco method of flavoring candies, almonds, sugar
juice from the lips of a fellow-passenger who plums, etc., is with deleterious substances. The
sat in front of me. My first impulse was to pineSpffl flaws the banana and the peach are
made from fusil oils, which are very poisonous.
take him by the collar and pitch him out of the Bitter almond flavor is made from prussic acid
window, but he disarmed me with an apology, BfnadnglSjSed. Pineapple flavor is also obtained
while the tobacco-tears trickled down from the from rotten cheese — very rotten — and nitric
corners of his mouth and formed a liquid brooch acid. Gum arabic for pure gum drops is costly.
An article has been invented of the most beau
upon his shirt-bosom. I merely said, Never tiful appearance,is used instead of the gum.
mind, I will spit on you some time when I have THpa very cheap and very poisonous. In pure
I
dvlShineal is used to color red and saffron
something disagreeable in my mouth.”
But in the common
poison
I replied that, although I did not use tobacco for yellow. is put, the same that candies to color
ous coloring
is used
myself, I had great respect for many persons wines and liquors. One of the most common is
who did; yet the respect was not for the habit, calledBcarlot,’ into which arsenic largely en
ters. A few grains of the substance will color
but in spite of it.
wine.
for
“ Hold!” he said, before I could crowd an a cask of of poor Liquorice dropsglue the ‘trade’
are made
brown sugar,
and lampother word into the conversation; “we drink black, flavored with liquorice. And. for the
beer, so do you; but our beer is made of Western trade much of this vile stuff is packed
malt and hops, while yours is a poisonous in barrels, and sent West to be put up in boxes
compound not fit for swine to drink; besides, to suit the market, of which from seventy-five
to ninety per cent, is terra alba. This material
you drink whisky and gin and rum and also enters largely into the common chocolates
brandy, and stuff made of logwood and whisky, and spices. Much of the cream of tartar used
for bread is made of terra alba and tartaric acid.”
and other d’ye-stuffs, and call it wine.”
�152
HERALD OF HEAL TtM
[Written for The Herald of Health.]
The short skirts, although in importance to
health the least vital of these three changes, is
nevertheless very important. The skirt should
BY DIO LEWIS, M. D.
fall a little below the knee. The pants should
This subject is vitally important. Beside it, be the large Turkish pants, which, made long
diet, exercise and baths sink into insignificance. enough to fall to the ankle, and fastened at the
My pale-faced countrywomen are dying for lack bottom by being drawn close about the ankle
of room, freedom; they are being stifled.
•with a slight elastic cord, should then be drawn
Dress Reformers proclaim short skirts as the up to the place usually occupied by the garter,
remedy. This is well. The short skirt is an and pulled down to the middle, or a little below
improvement—a movement upward, but of no the middle of the calf of the leg. When going
consequence compared with the readjustment out into the cold air the exposed part of the
of the dress about the middle of the bodJa leg should be covered with a patent-leather ank
That part contains the vital organs. Is a man let, and during the cold season of the year that
strong ? it is because the middle of his body is part of the leg should be covered with two
strong. Is a woman vigorous ? it is because the thicknesses of woolen. While all this peculiar
middle of her body is developed and active.
arrangement is, in point of convenience and
The changes needed in woman’s dress are the protection, less satisfactory than the straight
following, and I believe their importance is in pants, such as gentlemen wear, I nevertheless
the order named:
advise it, because it is very easy to introduce
1. The dress about the waist is Mbe very lEB short dress with these pants, and very diffiloose, without whalebones o^jother stiffening, I cult to introduce what is known as the Bloomer
and the skirts carried with suspenders over the costume. For example : In my school at Lexshoulders.
ington, Mass., I had more than a hundred fash
2. The arms and legs are to be so warmly ionable young ladies last winter, all of whom
dressed as to maintain a healthy circulation.
wore constantly during the school year the short
3. The skirts to fall to the knee,
K|gg3, the gymnastic costume, while all the fashI have said that the importance of these sev ionable ladies of the village outside of the ineral changes is in the order named. The lungs, stitution adopted the same dress. Indeed, it is
heart, liver and stomach, which together make almost rare to see in Lexington a lady with a
up the fountain of life, must have ro’om, or the long dress. An attempt to introduce the
vital forces must halt. With the corset and Bloomer costume, I am sure, would have proved
tight-lacing, these organs are reduced one-third a failure, not in our own house, perhaps, but in
in size and two-thirds in motion.
its influence outside. All through our part of
Health and equilibrium of circulation are in the country, when we go out to ride, we see laterchangeable terms. Whoever, whatever liv dies in the short dress. Indeed, some of the
ing thing, either animal or vegetable, has a per clergymen, who observed that our young ladies
fect circulation has perfect health. Whoever, changed for the long dress on going to church,
whatever living thing has defective circulation came to me to say that they hoped E would alhas defective health. Flannels, cotton padding, lowKWm to come in their short dresses, for they
thick shawls, cloaks and furs piled upon the liked very much to see them. A single lady
chest, while the legs are covered with a single appearing in the streets of Boston in the regu
thickness of cotton cloth surrounded by a bal lar Bloomer costume attracts a crowd of boys,
loon in the shape of a hoop, steams the chest while twenty of our young ladies can go into
and freezes the legs. The legs and arms, sepa Boston without remark or notice. The fact is,
rated so far from the center of the body, sur we men and boys are very jealous of our
rounded by the cold air, need, to say thlr least, breeches, but the gymnastic costume does not
as much clothing as the body, and ought to involve that garment, and so we lords of cre
have one or, in cold weather in this climate, two ation give our consent to its adoption by our
thicknesses of knit woolen. Wbmen complain sisters.
to me of headache, tell me their blood is all in
their head and chest, while their feet are as cold
Modesty depends upon good manners;
as ice. With the fashionable dress how can it happiness on security; good society on good ed- '
be otherwise ? Let them cover the limbs with ucation; wisdom on experience; and, for the
one or two thicknesses of warm flannel, and the safety or protection of a country, a tried man is
feet with a warm dress, and the head and chest often much more valuable than a renowned
will be immediately relieved.
warrior.
Female Dress.
�herald
of healmJ
{Written for The Herald of Health.!
[■Written for The Herald of Health.]
October Woods and Flowers.
153
Patient Waiting^
BY GEORGE W. BUNGAY.
BY REV. HENRY WARD BEECHER.
DEDICATED TO MBS.
MABY TBBAT.
Beneath my feet the grass looks up
To greet the cloud. Long had it prayed
For rain, till heaven held out the cup
To every parched and fainting blade.
The thistle, with its head upraised,
Like genius bearing noble deeds,
Though coarsely clad and seldom praised,
Sends on white wings afar its seeds.
The modest daisy, in its bloom,
Here gaily wore its satin frill;
A lonely mourner at its tomb,
The gentian, bows upon the hill.
Sad thoughts flit through my restless mind,
And die unspoken and unsung,
As leaves, touched by the autumn wind,
Fall from the twigs to which they clung.
The wood-birds nest upon the bough
Is like my stricken heart, which grieves ;
’T was full of music once, but now
Deserted hangs and filled with leaves.
But why should I, alas ! he sad,
Amid the light of such a scene—
Up to the hills the clouds are clad
In gayest hues of gold and green.
Here, like the patriarch in his dream,
I see the ladder angels trod;
These mountains to my vision seem
To lift earth’s sacrifice to God.
Alas! I’m seeking for the flowers
Which sleep beneath the leaves that fell |
They’ re kindred to the friends of ours
Who rest in peace where all is well.
The tint upon the maple tree,
So soft, is like the crimson hue
Upon my darling’s cheek. I see
In her soft eyes the heavenly blue,
On her pure face Hope’s blossomings.
The sky stoops near the earth to-day,
- And we can hear the sweep of wings
Of angels on their upward way.
Voltaire related to Mr. Sherlock an
anecdote of Swift. Lady Carteret, wife of the
Lord-Lieutenant, said to Swift: “ The air of
Ireland is very excellent and healthy.” “ For
God’s sake, madam,” said Swift, “don’t say so
in England, for if you do they will certainly
tax it.”
The love of exertion is a sign bf health and
manliness. Languor, the love of ease, the va
rious forms of indolence, mark a kind of physi
cal degeneration—a want of circulation; a want
of nerve; lowness of organization; imperfection of sensibility. It is sometimes the prelim
inary stage of disintegration and precedes utter
waste.
Wo®Hindicates a preparation for working.
The love of work indicates a high state of
health. This love of work arises partly from
the pleasure inherent in the healthful exercise
of our powers ; partly it arises from the excitemeffl whic^H)ring up during the plannings and
excitements of enterprise; and it arises partly
from a natural and proper pride and satisfaction
in the results wM we secure by intelligent activity. We can scarcely conceive of happiness
in one whoKH not generously active. We can
hardly imagine unhappiness when one has congenial occupation, vigorous health and daily activity. For, appropriate work which we love
covers up sensibility, takes away temptation,
withdraws the mind from morbid cares and
fears, and gives it wholesome employment. It
is a good thing to work because you love to. If
you do not love to woj|M8| is a good thing to
work because you
to.
While people are young, or strong, or pros
perous, ^^SthinkBEHfe of that great army with
muffled banners that is silently walking amid
troubles and disappointments day by day, un
able to do or achieve.
There is peculiar grace required to' maintain
patience and Contentment where one is placed
socially in such a position that all the stronger
an||mM natural actsSties are kept useless, as
is the case not unfrequently; for men are not
always, by any means, matched to their appro
priate work nor joined to their appropriate
place in socie^S There is neither principle, nor
law, nor experience, by which we can always
sort our children and connect them with the
thing for which they are best adapted in their
outward nature. Beside all that, however well
a man may be placed, and however well adapted
his education and faculties may be to his posi
tion, there are these upheavings, these ruptures .
of society, and these sweepings of Providence,
that dislocate men, and scatter them up and
down in the community, so that there are in so
ciety at large thousands and thousands of per
�154
HERALD OF HEALTH.
sons who are admirably adapted to some things,
but unable to reach them. They are not well
adapted to other things, but they are put to do
ing them.
Thus, a man may be eloquent in the French
language; but if by stress of weather he is
thrown upon our shores, what does all his elo
quence in his mother tongue avail him here,
where he is obliged to gain his livelihood from
day to day by stammering bad English ? A
man may have potency in his mother tongue ;
but let him travel in Europe, where he passes
from the English to the French, from the French
to the Spanish, and from the Spanish to the
German, and see how his power of language is
shut up in his mouth. If a man feels proud at
home, I would advise him to go abroad a month
or two and learn how insignificant he is. A
man traveling in a land of whose language he
is ignorant, is like a man swimming in the At
lantic. He is shorn of those ten thousand com
prehensive ways which at home made him vital,
sympathetic and useful, but which, being taken
from him, leave him almost as a dead man.
These are strong Instances projected out of
the ordinary course of things; but our houses,
our streets, our villages, our cities, are filled
with persons who are dislocated and out of
place'in society. As there are multitudes of
men that are attempting poorly to discharge
functions a great deal higher than their powers
fit them for, in every branch of public service;
so in lower departments there are many persons
who are competent to discharge higher trusts,
but can not get up to them. We can not see
how one and another person got there, but so
ciety is full of persons who are below their ap
propriate level. Where this occurs in youth it
is right, because young persons can press their
way up. They are like young and vigorous
plants that draw an abundant supply of food
for growth through the roots below; but when
men pass the climax of life, and with discour
aged spirit are thrown down below their level,
it is not so easy for them to obtain nourishment,
since the root itself is impaired; and when they
are transplanted they can scarcely get hold
again to grow. And they are obliged to wait,
holding their best faculties inactive, doing work
which requires but little thought, and to which
they are not adapted, and remitting intellectual
labors for which they are conscious of being
well qualified.
This is more the case with women, I think,
than with men, for the simple reason that, for
the largest part, woman’s happiness in life is
made to depend upon her social connections and
family estate. Largely, women do not enter
into the social state; but when they are once in
it, it is built of glass, and some side-long blow
may shiver it in a moment. And such is the
uncivilized condition of society that there are
but few alternatives for a woman. Women
that are broken off from their relations to the
domestic circle, find but few channels in which
they can employ thought, and taste, and fidel
ity, and affection, and stand independently in
the community. So that you see on every
hand among women instances the most marked
of persons who are fitted for higher places than
they occupy. And there are not a few of these
instances in which patient waiting for a better
day is rendered more beautiful than in almost,
any others.
Are there not multitudes of persons whose
minds are stored with valuable information,
who have fineness of taste that indicates much
of the artist nature, and who have been trained
to nice moral distinctions—are there not multi
Hudes of such persons that ply the needle; that
teach in the lowest schools; that spend their
energies, in the meaner walks of life? Are
there not multitudes of such persons that are
conscious that the greatest part of their inward
nature is buried and has no function ? Are
there not multitudes of such persons who, al
though there are a few things on which they
can bring the power of their mind to bear in its
higher ranges, are conscious that they are carrying the great orb of their being in obscuration, veiled and darkling ?
Out of this, which in some sense is unnatural,
and which springs largely from the infelicities
of society, but somewhat, also, from peculiarities of individual history and disposition, there
may and there do break forth morbid tenden
cies. Much of vice and crime springs from
morbidity, which springs from minds not prop
erly joined to their functions. And among the
mischiefs of want of liberty to use that which
is strong in us is this : that it disorganizes many
and [many n nature. There are nurses and
teachers of little children who are capable of
rising to higher positions than they occupy.
Not that teaching little children is to be de
spised ; not that it is not itself a noble work;
but there are many doing this work under re
strictions and circumstances which keep them
far below that for which they are fitted by their
capacity. Many persons, by change of fortune,
have fallen from position in society. They are
not adorning the circles that they might. I
think some of the noblest natures walk mostly
in disguise. In a society like ours, where there"
�Wraw of health)
is so much enterprise, where there is such rapid
growth, and where the tides of speculation so
frequently rise and fall, in the course of ten
years there are hundreds and thousands that
are overtaken by such a change of fortune, and
such a change of position in consequence, that
they are quite out of their place, and are obliged
to say that they find little use for that part of
themselves which is most to them. And so we
find men strangely situated. .We find men, for
instance, in factories, that are competent to
plead at the bar.
I remember that I once found breaking stone
near Cincinnati a University man from Ger
many, who had held one of the very highest
positions under the Governments the manage
ment of schools. He came to this country by
emigration, and, finding little to do, accS&teM
whatever it was. Being able to get his bread
and beer by breaking stone, he was willing to
engage in that humble calling, though the
strongest part of him was his head, and not his
hands.
When the Hungarians came here they scorned
charity, and as a means of maintaining them
selves resorted to various physical occupations.
One that I knew learned the carpenter’s trade.
Another that I knew learned saddle-and-harness making. And another that I knew turned
to making soap and candles, as Garibaldi did in
this land.. Others went to farming. And men
of the highest culture and refinement, men of
the best intellectual education, men
leaders of the people in their own country, when
in the providence of God they were thrown on
these shores, and they found, that they could
not use that which they possessed of talent, ac
cepted lower positions than many which they
were qualified to fill. And one could not iH|
feel that the most that was in those men had to
wait. They ought to have labored as they did;
it was noble in them; but, after all, they had no
sphere for their stores of knowledge. The
power that they had in their own country was
gone from them, and they were buried alive
while they lived, in some respects.
God deliver me from being an exile—from
being a stranger in a strange land, out of the
reach of my mother tongue. Send me to prison;
give me quicker dismission by the halter; let
the bullet do its work on me ; but of all that
God could send me of misfortune and trouble,
that would be the worst which should place me
iamong a strange people, speaking a strange
tongue, to walk up and down without a position,
a function, a home, a country, or friends.
The condition of thousands who have been
155
disrupted and broken down, brings their case
within the sphere of waiting of which I have
spoken. There are multitudes to-day that see
the world going by them conscious that they
have powers equal to any that are in exercise.
There are many who are deriving their pit
tance of bread from men whom they greatly
surpass. I remember that once, on going into
my father’s kitchen, in Ohio, to speak to
Charles, our hostler and gardener, I found him
reading a book in which I thought I perceived
mathelafflftal diagrams. On examining it, I
found it to bo a scientific treatise on geography,
in which all the astronomical problems were
wrought out; and as I had seen him from night
to night with his tallow candle poring over this
book as though it were the last newDovel in the
hand of beauty (though he was not beautiful),
I asked him Mihe understood what he read.
“ Certainly,” said he, “ most certainly.” I saw
that there was some Latin in the book, and I
asked him if he could read that. Oh, yes, he could
read Latin, and he talked it. It put my col
lege‘h»ors somewhat in peril, and I feared that
he migl®|^®lking to me in Latin ! “ Do you
understand Greek ?” I said. “ Oh, no ; I can
only read it—I can not speak it.”
There was that man deriving his small
monthly wages from my hand, and he was my
master, probably, in every walk of science and
literature. I was rising and prospering. He
was faithfully and humbly occupying the- posiE|Sn of hBHer^Sd gardener. And do you not
suppose he had thoughts about me as well as I
aboT®fi|ii®| Do you not suppose there are men
that have in some strange way been thrown out
o« counting-offic^the bank, the professor’s
chair, places of honor and trust, who cannot
get back, and who are walking day by day
where they are denied the opportunity of en
gaging in affairs that they see carried on by
men that are far less competent than themselves ?
Do you not suppose there are such men that are
obliged to stand down low and see men that are
pigmies compared with them getting upward
and onward? It may be very easy, if you are
prosperous, to say that such men ought to wait;
that they ought to clothe themselves with pa
tience ; that they ought to substitute large-mind
edness for a narrow, complaining disposition;
but did you ever walk where they are called to
walk ? Will you change places with them, and
see how easy their lot is to bear ?
Nevertheless, your advice is good. I, too,
think that men who are thrown into circum-j
stances where they are obliged to derive their
very life, not from outw ard success, not from
�156
HERALD OF HEALTH.
attritions and collisions with, their fellow-men,
not from the remunerations of pride, hut from
deeper sources—from faith, and hope, and trust
in God, and the resplendent horizon of the fu
ture life, which shall never he marred by cir
cumstances—I, too, think that they should
have royalty of disposition, and should wait
patiently. But it is not easy to give them ad
vice, nor to blame them when our advice is not
readily taken by them.
There is also a sphere of waiting by reason
of sickness, weakness, age, and the remission of
labor in consequence. Where idleness is of a
transient nature, we look hopefully forward to
being restored again to vigor; but where weak
ness becomes our daily attendant, our hope dies
away. Moreover, long-continued sickness ceases
to excite sympathy, because it has not alarm in
it. For we sympathize with our friends in pro
portion as we think they are in danger. Our
sympathy for a man that has the tooth®Se is
nil. If a man has the cholera, or a fever, or
any disease that imperils his life, then we sym
pathize with him. We sympathize [with men,
not according to the measure of their sufferin^l
but according to the measure of their danger j
and yet a man may suffer more, a thousswKMJ
every day, than it takes to kill scores of other
men.
Where men have sickness in the form of
weariness; where men do not suffer from vio
lent pains, but where theyMsaL'so fragile that
they break down under almost every stress, and
find it impossible to
at any rate, to
achieve in life; where men are obliged, day by
day, to ask leave of their brain to think, and to
ask leave of their foot to walk; where men are
prisoners, and every member of their body is a
jailor, and they feel that this condition is to
continue, not for a week, or a day, or a month,
or a year, but as long as they live, and that
their life is to be shortened by it; where men
are obliged to carry th® body of death with
all its infirmities, and to walk in obscurity, and
to be for ever pensioners upon the doctor—under
such circumstances it is„not easy for them to
patiently wait. And yet here is a sphere of
waiting—that kind of moral waiting in which
a man measures his condition, and then clothes
himself with a manly grace which enables him
to accept the lot to which in the providence of
God he is appointed, and lift up his head in
wardly, if not outwardly.
There are many men that we turn rudely
from our door with censure whom God does not
blame. There are many men that we call shift
less who are like a bag that stands up when it
is full and collapses when it is empty. There
are many men that, as long as you are helping
them, get along very well, but that the momenta
you leave them to themselves do not get along
at all, and we get tired of them and say that
they are lazy. But, in many cases, the trouble
is not that they are lazy, but that they are
physically incapacitated. It is not that their
will is not good, but that they lack strength of
bone and muscle. Do you sleep well ? There
is many a man that dozes more hours than he
rests. Have you a good appetite and thorough
digestion? There is many a man that has
slender digestion, and can not eat enough to
keep his body in "repair and health. Are you
vigorous ? There is many a man that is almost
entirely wanting in vigor. Many a man inherits'a good constitution, and comes out in life
with a broad prospect [in himself; while many
others inherit such feebleness that they are liable, under almost any pressure, to break down.
And these last ought not to [be blamed. They
were made feeble; and let us hope that there is
a better chance awaiting them in the other
world.
It might, perhaps,, not do any of us harm if
we were to suffer>some from sickness. I think
we grow more humane, more compassionate,
more considerate for others, when they are
brought into a felSMition of suffering like that
which we are in, or have been in. And let us
ngjlforget to have forbearance with those who
are obliged to [walk through life in perpetual
sickness, that impairs courage and cripples every exertion. FoWt requires“rare grace to endure and piously wait on God under such oircumstanc®.
This may be applied to mothers who are rear
ing families. It ESoften the case that those
who»a«T up amiable, sweet and obliging
women, wheffiflEFare brought into family reIsWSMa^MH sickness, by necessary suffering
in child-bearing, and by their household cafes,
gr^My taxed and tasked in their nervous sys
tem, ®o that they become acutely sensitive and
mw^lR^as well as more feeble and less hope
ful® So great is the strain upon them, that they
e^ehTfose self-respect, in some cases. And fre
quently they are blamed by their parents, won
dered at by their friends, and harshly dealt with
by their husbands and their children. And
much consideration is to be accorded to mothers
whose sharpness and impatience are often in the
ratio of that which they have suffered for oth
ers.
We are to remember, too, that upon the
woman comes the greatest weight of sorrow in
�HER ALB 0 F H E A LTH.
all afflictions. It is rare that a man suffers as
much as a woman from death in the household,
g^on her comes the duty of patient waiting
with the sick. She it is that has hand-to-hand
conflicts with Death. And at last, in the charge
by which the feeble structure is overthrown,
she is found confronting the dread enemy face
to face. And after the struggle is over, in which
Death has been victorious, she is the greatest
mourner. At the Cross last, and at the Sepul
chre first, were the women; and by them more
tears were shed and more sufferings were felt
than by all the other disciples. And that is
typical of woman’s lot in the household the
world over. And women need, perhaps, more
than any others, the love of patient Christian
waiting.
At the same time, there are many men who
are obliged to fight a battle through life, /or
life, and who need this love. Indeed, it is that
which we aft need in some of our earthly rela
tions and experiences, and which we shall all do
well diligently to seek and cultivate.
What they Eat at Xenia.—The “Fat
Contributor” gives the following experience of
endeavoring to get'dinner at Xenia on the Little
Miami Railroad:
“ Twenty minutes for dinner,” shouted the
brakesman as we approached Xenia.
Arrived there, I entered the dining-room' and
inquired of a waiter,
“ What do you have for dinner ?”
“ Twenty minutes,” was the hurried reply.
I told him I would try half a dozen minutes,
raw, on the half-shell, just to see how they went.
Told him to make a minute of it on his books.
He scratched his head trying to comprehend the
order, but finally gave it up and waited upon
some one else.
I approached a man who stood near the door
with a roll of money in his hand.
“What do you have for dinner?”
“ Half a dollar,” says he.
I told him that I would take half a dollar well
done. I asked him if he couldn’t send me, in
addition, a boiled pocket-book stuffed with
greenbacks, and some seven-thirties, garnished
with postage stamps and ten cent script. Also,
a Confederate bond, done brown, with lettuce
alone (let us alone). I would like to wash my
dinner down with National Bank Notes, on
J*draft. ”
1
He said they were out of every thing but the
bank notes, and he then ordered a waiter to go
to the bank and “draw” some.—Ak.
®57
["Written for The Herald of Health.]
Overwork and Underwork.
BY A. L. WOOD, M. D.
It is a law of Nature that all living things
possess within themselves the power of mo
tion, upon the exercise of which their exist
ence, as living entities, depends. Their life com
mences with action, action constitutes their
life, and when action ceases their life has de
parted for ever. Everywhere we find that
action is life and inaction death. In thus
speaking of action I do not mean mechanical
action or chemical action, but vital action-—
that which is inherent in all organized, living
things.
Look at that blade of grass, that flower,
that tree. The elements of which they are
composed are drawn from air, earth and water,
and transformed, by a power existing within
themselves, into the substance of their own
beings. When this force ceases to act death
ensues. As it is in the vegetable world so it
is in the animal kingdom, in man—only to a
far greater extent in the latter. As we pro
gress upward in the scale of life the operation
of this power becomes more extended and di
versified. In the plant its action is limited to
formation and growth. The plant has no
power of moving itself from place to place.
In the animal it not only produces develop
ment growth and constant change, but gives
the power of external, voluntary motion,
which is indispensable to the proper perform
ance of the vital functions of animal life.
A large proportion of the solids of the body
are composed of simple tubes, as the arteries,
veins, capillaries, lymphatics, etc., which are
filled with fluids of various kinds, through
the agency of which all the vital processes are
performed. These fluids constitute, by weight,
more than four-fifths of the body, and they,
as well as the solids, require to be undergoing
constant change. This change can only be ef
fected by having them kept in constant motion.
This motion can only be fully secured by ex
ercise or voluntary action of the entire muscu
lar system. The muscles constitute more
than one-half of the bulk of the body, and
upon their healthful condition the health of the
whole system depends.
It is a law of our nature that if any organ
or faculty is kept from the exercise of its
�158
•HERALD OFHEALTHl
proper function, that organ or faculty becomes
weak, withers away and dies. Each and every part of the body requires to be used in its
proper and legitimate manner in order to main
tain its integrity. The natural action of the
muscular system is to contract. By this con
traction motion is produced. Proper muscular
contraction directly secures the health and de
velopment of the entire muscular system, and
indirectly aids in securing the normal and
healthful action of every organ of the body!
It greatly promotes the circulation of the
blood, thus facilitating the vital processes of
digestion, absorption, assimilation, secretion
and depuration, and increasing the health and
strength of the organs engaged in the perform
ance of these functions. It largely promotes
respiration, causing full and deep inspirations
of air and a vigorous action of the lungs, thus
strengthening these important organs and im
parting vigor and activity to all the others. It
gives strength, endurance, agility, elasticity
■and grace to the body, and energy and activity
to the mind. In short, it develops every or
gan, strengthens every function, and aids in
securing the healthful and harmonious devel
opment of the entire man.
While a certain amount of exercise is neces
sary to maintain the health and secure a proper
development of the different organs of the body
and faculties of the mind, an excessive amount
as surely produces weakness, disease and un
due vital exhaustion. The following remarks
of Dr. Tyler of Boston, in his Report of the
McLean Insane Asylum, presents the subSB
in its true light:
“With the opportunities of observation
which my position gives me, I shall scarcely
be faithful to duty without briefly referring to
one ‘ error of the times,’ which is shortening
many a life, and bringing many to our hospi
tals in a state of incurable bSgi disease. I
refer to the intense and unceasing activity, dis
played chiefly in business, but extending to
almost every other pursuit. Every hour of
every day is given up to an unflinching and
persistent devotion to whatever interests the
individual. Nights and Sundays can scarcely
be spared from labor, and are compressed into
such small periods as shall just suffice to ap
pease a weary frame and a very moderate con
science. No time is taken for recreation and
little for meals, and that little in a very irreg
ular way. Every moment not spent in the
keen drive of business is looked upon as lost.
Every nerve is strained to accomplish just as
much as is possible to unremitting exertion.
Every thing is done rapidly, or, in the lan
guage of the day, ‘ with a rush.’ Every man
has a given amount of vital force to live with
and work with. His capacity for any kind of
labor, whatever it may be and however it may
compare with that of another, has its limit.
It never can be over-drawn upon without se
rious damage. So much of this force as he
wastes, or so much as he turns in any one di
rection, so much less has he for any other. If
he overworks his brain, his body will suffer.
If he overworks his body, his brain will suffer.
He may overwork one set of organs, or invig
orate them, as he says, at the expense of another set. An illustration of this is evident in
those who give their chief attention to the development of muscle, as boxers and members
of boat-clubs do. Their regimen and diet tend
to keep the digestive organs in good order and
develop the muscular system. This is fre
quent carried to an excess, and when it is,
the individual for a time can show an athletic
figure, great strength, and an external appear
ance of high health; but in a little while it is
plain that he has diverted his vital force from
other organs—say the lungs—which have been
insufficiently nourished : they fail him and he
dies of con»mption. To keep one in the
best working order, this vital force, must be
properly distributed to every organ, and to the
digestive and respiratory organs in full share,
to keep them active, else its supply will be di
minished. What is lost by use and waste
must be regained by regular bodily nourishment and refreshment, that is, by food and re
po®. Its use must be regular, must never be
excessive, and mu^alternate with rest. Each
person will accomplish the greatest amount
that is possible for
by working regularly
for a given number of hours, and by taking
time at regularly returning periods sufficient
for food, rest and recreation. The consequences of overwork may not appear at once,
but they are inevitable and destructive. Over
work® deceive themselves by the belief that
they can bear more than others, or that they
can bear what they are doing because they
have so long borne it without breaking down.”
The
[stock-grower, who is accus
tomed to raising horses, knows very well that
if he puts a young colt at long-continued hard
work it will not attain the strength and size
which it would acquire were it left to gambol
in the pastures at its own free will. He
knows that if the vitality of the animal is ex
pended in bard labor it can not be used to form
nerve and bone and muscle, and that the colt
can never become the perfect horse which it
otherwise might, but will always be small,
weak and inferior.
—
The stock-grower knows all this and lets |
his colts roam the pasture free, or only re
�HERETO
OF HEALTH.
159
But a new era in education is dawning upon
quires of them the lightest labors, while his
growing sons he sends into the field at early the land, and there are a few that have learned
morn, and through all the day requires them the lesson that children have bodies as well as
to perform the hardest labor their strength minds; that the one requires care and culture
will allow. The effects are the same with the as much as the other, and that forced culture
boy as with the colt, only in a more marked of either produces weakness and injury to
degree, for the higher in the scale of life and both.
While overwork is a great evil from which
the more refined the violater of Nature’s laws
one class of society suffers, another class suf
the greater the suffering.
The stock-grower perceives the operation of fers still more from underwork or idleness.
this law upon his colts but not upon his sons, Better wear out than rust out, if it is done in
and the result is that he raises beautiful, sym a good cause ; for then some good will be acmetrical and finely-developed horses, and complished, and humanity will be “ the better
small, deformed, weak and unhealthy men. forlfflSja But the true course is to avoid both
When men learn to bestow as much care and extremes and pursue the even tenor of a happy
attention upon the raising of fine and healthy medium. By so doing a far greater amount
specimens of their own species as they do to of labor can be accomplished, at less expense
raising fine horses and cattle, humanity will of health, strength and vitality.
An idle man 1 What is he ? Of what use
have taken a long stride forward upon the
is he to himself or to the world ? He is an
road of progression.
The same law that applies to overwork of imperfect, undeveloped being, a drone, a bur
the young body applies with still greater force den to himself and a disgrace to humanity.
to overwork of the young brain, for the brain Shakspeare says:
“What is a man,
is higher and more refined than the body.
Knowing this, what can we expect from the If m®Hgigood and market of his time
Be but to Seep and feed ?—a beast, no more !”
present forced, hot-bed system of mental ed
The great poet wrongs the beast by degrad
ucation for the young and growing brain ?
The child of three or four summers is sent to ing KH^tne level of a lazy man. The animal
school, and then commences the process of was created lower than man, it is true, but it
cramming, of urging the weak and immature acSmMHies Bthe object of its existence.
brain to perform tasks beyond its strength to What more can be expected of it ? How is it
accomplish, without the expenditure of vital with the idle man ? He has higher powers and
ity which should be used in strengthening and more exalted faculties, but what do they avail
developing it, together with its servant, the him ? He makes no use of them except, it
body. This process is continued through may be, to plot mischief and practice vices
the growing period of youth, and, unless the which the most degraded animal on earth
young student rebels, fails to perform the tasks would never be guilty of. It is said, and
idle man’s brain is the Devil’s
assigned him, and obeys the instincts of his na
ture and plays and frolics with his companions workshop.” The old philosopher, Burton,
under the greenwood tree or by the running says
stream, the chances are that, if he survives the
“ Idleness is the badge of gentry; the bane
ordeal, he will graduate with due academic QMMgygnd mind ; the nurse of naughtiness ;
chief author of all mischief; one of the
honors; a small, weakly body; loose, flabby
seven deadly sins ; the cushion upon which
muscles ; a dyspeptic stomach; feeble lungs ; a the Devil chiefly reposes, and a great cause not
small stock of vitality ; and a contracted, ner only of melancholy, but of many other dis
vously active and excitable mind, which can eases.”
plod along very well for a time in the wellworn ruts of custom, but which is utterly in
“ The last, best fruit which comes to
capable of bold, vigorous and manly thought late perfection, even in the kindliest soul, is
upon any great, new and important subject. tenderness toward the hard, forbearance toward
Such are the results of the present system of the unforbearing, warmth of heart toward
education of the young, which constantly over- the cold, philanthropy toward the misan
^jv.orks the brain and neglects the body.
thropic.”
�HEEA1D op healthI
160
[“Written for The Herald of Health.]
A True Life.
BY
HORACE
GREELEY.
There is, even on this side of the grave, a
haven where the storms of life break not, or are
but in gentle undulations of the unrippled and
mirroring waters—an oasis, not in the desert,
but beyond it; a rest, profound and blissful as
that of the soldier returned for ever from the
hardships, the dangers and the turmoils of war,
to the bosom of that dear domestic circle whose
blessings he never prized at half their worth
until he lost them.
This haven, this rest, this oasis, is a serene
old age. The tired traveler has abandoned the
dusty, crowded and jostling highway of life for
one of its shadiest and least-noted by-lanes.
The din of traffic and of worldly strife has no
longer magic for his ear; the myriad foot-fall
on the city’s stony walk is but noise or nothing
to him now. He has rim his race of toil, or
trade, or ambition. His day’s work is accom
plished, and he has come "home to enjoy, tran
quil and unharassed, the splendor of the sunset,
the milder glories of late evening. Ask not
whether he has or has not been successful, ac
cording to the vulgar standard of success.
What matters it now whether the multitude has
dragged his chariot, rending the air with idol
izing acclamations, or howled like wolves upon
his track, as he fled by night from the fury of
those he had wasted his vigor to serve ? What
avails it that broad lands have rewarded his
toil, or that all has at the last moment been
stricken from his grasp ? Ask not whether he
brings into retirement the wealth of the Indies
or the poverty of the bankrupt; whether his
couch be of down or of rushes; his dwelling a
hut or a mansion. He has lived to little pur
pose, indeed, if he has not long since realized
that wealth and renown are the true ends of ex
ertion, nor their absence the conclusive proof of
ill fortune. Whoever seeks to know if his
career has been prosperous and brightening
from its outset to its close, if the evening of his
days shall be genial and blissful, should ask not
for broad acres, nor towering edifices, nor laden
coffers. Perverted old age may grasp these
with the unyielding clutch of insanity, but they
add to his cares and anxieties, not to his enjoy
ments. Ask rather : Has he mastered and har
monized his erring passions ? Has he lived a
true life ?
A true life! Of how many lives dees each
hour knell the conclusion, and how few of them
are true ones. The poor child of sin and shame
and crime, who terminates her clouded being in
the early morning of her scarce budded yet
blighted existence; the desperate felon, whose
blood is shed by the community as the dread
penalty of its violated laws; the miserable de
bauchee, who totters down to his loathsome
grave in the spring-time of his years, but the
fullness of his feasting iniquities—these the
world valiantly affirms have not lived true
lives! Fearless and righteous world, how pro
found and how .discriminating are thy judg
ments ! But the base idolater of self, who de
votes all his moments, his energies, his thoughts,
to schemes which begin and end in personal ad
vantage »the grasper of gold and lands and
tenements; the devotee of pleasure; the man of
ignoble and sinister ambition; the woman of
frivolity, extravagance and fashion; the idler;
the gambler; the voluptuary—on all these and
their myriad compeers, while borne on the crest
of the advancing billow, how gentle is the re
proof, how charitable the judgment of the
world! Nay, does it not pick its way daintily,
cautiously and inoffensively through the midst of
drunkard-making and national faith-breaking ?
A true life must be simple in all its elements.
Animated by one grand and ennobling impulse,
all lesser aspirations find their proper places in
harmonious subservience; simplicity in taste, in
appetite, in habits of life, with a corresponding
indifference to worldly honors and aggrandize
ment, is the natural result of the predominence
of a divine and unselfish idea. Under the guid
ance of such a sentiment, virtue is not an ef
fort but a law of Nature, like gravitation. It
is vice alone that seems unaccountable, mon
strous, almost miraculous. Purity is felt to be
as necessary to the mind as health to the body,
and its absence alike the inevitable source of
pain. A true life must be calm. We wear out
our energies in strife for gold or fame, and then
wonder alike at the cost and the worthlessness
of the meed. How sloth is jostled by gluttony,
and pride wrestled by avarice, and ostentation
bearded by meanness! The soul which is not
large enough for the indwelling of one virtue,
affords lodgment and scope and arena for a
hundred vices; but their warfare can not be in
dulged with impunity. Agitation and wretch
edness are the inevitable consequences, in the
midst of which the flame of life burns flaringly
and swiftly to its close.
A true life must be genial and joyous. Tell
me not, pale anchorite, of your ceaseless vigils,
your fastings, your scourgings. The man who
is not happy in the path he has chosen, has
chosen amiss.
�HERAjTd ^t)F HEALTH.
[■Written for The Herald of Health.]
161
The former receive and propel the venous
The Study of Physiology—No, III. blood to the lungs, and the latter receive and
BY RUFUS KING BROWNE, M. D.,
(FORMERLY) PROFESSOR OF EXPERIMENTAL PHYSIOLOGY
AND MICROSCOPIC ANATOMY AT THE NEW YORK MED
ICAL COLLEGE,
HEART—CIRCULATION—LUNGS—RESPIRATION.
We have already seen that the blood is the
source from which all the materials which sus
tain the tissues and replenish the waste is de
rived.
We have next to understand that upon the
regularity of the circulation of this fluid depends
all the phenomena of a systemic character in
our bodies, so that all these phenomena j?re-suppose the existence of both this fluid and an ap
paratus by means of which it is incessantly
kept in motion from the center to the periphery
of the body.
This apparatus, called the circulatory appa
ratus or the “ vascular system,” consists of three
sets of continuous muscular and fibrous tubes,
and a central organ of impulsion, the heart.
Now, although this latter does not constitute
the sole means of propelling the blood through
the vascular system or blood channels, it is by
far the most important of all; for, although the
circulation in limited points of the system may
be arrested, if the heart suspends its incessant
action for a single moment the anima.! organism
can never again be »®-animated.
The heart is nothing more than a hollow,
muscular organ, the hollows of which are con
tinuous with those of the arteries, capillaries
and veins. Its motions are the pulsations, and
it differs from the other organs of the circula
tory apparatus in being provided with valves to
regulate the flow of blood, and to giv^t the
proper direction. It has been aptly likened to
a double forcing pump, situated between the
veins, on the one hand, and the arteries on the
other, these valves being so arranged as to open
in a forward and shut in a backward direction.
The capillaries are the minute tubes which
extend from the arteries to the veins, and it is
they from which the blood issues whenever the
surface of the flesh anywhere is pierced or
broken.
In the mammalia the heart is divided into
four cavities, which are continuous on the one
side with the veins and on the other with the ar
teries.
It consists, therefore, of the two cavities con
stituting the right side—namely, the right au
ricle and ventricle, and on the left side, the left
auricle and ventricle.
transmit the arterial blood from the lungs.
The lungs are therefore the compound or
double organ, in which the blood, being trans
mitted through their capillaries, is converted,
during the passage, from venous into arterial.
They, therefore, have a distinct circulatory ap
paratus, different from that which is common to
the whole of the other parts of the circulation ;
because, while passing through by a short route
to and from the heart, the blood, which is dark
or venous on reaching them, becomes arterialized on its return to the heart.
The auricles are that part of the heart which
is uppermost, and are the receiving cavities,
while the ventricles are the lower part of the
organ and are the discharging cavities.
Now, it has been only recently understood
what the exact character of the phenomena in
volved in the passage of the blood through
these cavities is.
Both the smaller muscular chambers of the
heart, the auricles, are receptacles—the one right
and the other left.
These are, therefore, first occupied by the
blood coming from the veins. The blood then
passes on the right side from the'auricle into the.
ventricle in a downward direction, but on reach
ing the bottom of the right ventricle it changes
its course. It makes a turn upon itself, and in
stead of passing from above downward, contin
ues to pass from below upward, but from right
to left.
This is the change in the course of the venous
blood. This is the character of the passage,
through the right side of the heart, of the dark
or venous blood.
On the other hand and simultaneously, theblood as it comes from the lungs passes into the
left auricle downward into the left ventricle.
Arriving at the bottom of the ventricle this
stream changes its course, and passes from be
low upward, and from left to right.
This
course is the reverse of the change of direction
on the left side of the heart.
This, then, is the course of the arterial
blood.
There is accordingly, simultaneously and at
given moments during life, in the heart, two,
streams of blood, both of them making their
way, in the right and left sets of cavities, first
from above downward and next from below up
ward.
Between these cavities and the streams occu
pying them we must remember there is a thick,
muscular wall,
�562
HERALD OF HEALTH!
The latter force the blood in a different di
These two streams, the one red or arterial and
the other dark or venous, separated hy a thick rection, through the orifices leading to the lungs
wall of muscular tissue, which partitions the and the general system, and past the valves at
heart into right and left halves, take a crossed those orifices, which immediately contract upon
direction in the cavities, and emerge from it at the just emptied ventricles.
As the contraction of the two first valves is
different orifices and in different directions.
The valves are those fleshy curtains situated simultaneous, so that of the two last is simulta
at the line of junction of the right auricle and neous, but they are successive to each other’s con
ventricle on one side, and left auricle and ven traction.
Let us now direct our attention to the im
tricle on the other side.
They interrupt from moment to moment the portant changes which take place in the blood
continued current of the hlood from the one to during its passage through the lungs, from one
the other,' when the latter has become filled and side of the heart back to the other.
The right auricle contains the blood just ar
is about contracting to discharge.
Both these, then, alternately relax and con riving from the general system by the veins,
tract, but while the auricles of either side con which terminate in it. This is venous blood.
tract simultaneously, the ventricles contract in If the auricle be looked at it plainly shows the
stantly afterward, and it is precisely at the mo dark color of the venous blood. On the oppo
ment between the two contractions that the site side of the heart, in a corresponding situvalves previously dependent as festoons, raise ation, is the left auricle, which contains the
and form a momentary partition in the auricSE- blood arriving from the lungs.
The color of this blood, as seen through the
ventricular cavity.
Then comes the contraction of the ventricles, walls of the auricle, is of a brilliant scarlet,
which react instantly from their relaxile state strongly contrasting with that on the opposite
after the contraction of the auricle. This clo side.
We see, then, the change of color which
sure of the valve prevents the blood from re
turning into the auricle, when the ventricle con characterizes the arterial and venous bloods,
tracts upon its contents and forces it in a side and at the same time we are enabled to distin
guish the exact point in the circulatory system
direction.
Now, as the two auricles contract simultane where this change takes place.
The blood before its entrance into the lungs
ously, so the two ventricles at one contraction
i-nRt.ant.1y follow (contract simultaneously™ and is bluish. Immediately after leaving them it is
the volume of blood which occupies the latter red, and this change is incessantly continued as
is thrown out at separate orifices, each of which fresh portions of the blood arrive at the right
auricle and ventricle, pass through the pulmo
is provided with valves.
And as the blood passes the first set of valves, nary ^^Hilation, and return to the left cavities
which are relaxed and open until the ventricles of the heart.
We see, therefore, that the blood in different
are filled, so the blood from the latter passes out
through these two orifices, when the latter set parts of the system, although a continuous vol
of valves also contract and close them, to pre ume, is not preSSgm the same hlood.
Let us now consider the course of the blood
vent the blood returning into the cavities of the
as it leaves the heart and is distributed to other
heart.
"We have thus briefly but plainly described parts of the body.
It enters the arteries, whose pulsations are
the circulation of the heart, but, to repeat, the
but an extension of the pulsatile movements of
.course of the phenomena is as follows:
The blood flows from the veins into the au the heart.
It
transmitted in an unbroken stream
ricles and into the wide-open orifice between
that and the ventricles (these two, on either through these into the capillaries, and through
side, being only apartments of the heart, each those into the veins. In the first, the blood is
two chambers, having a continuous hollow); im red from the lungs and the stream is rapid. In
mediately the auricle contracts completes the the last, it is again dark and the stream slug
filling of the corresponding ventricle, and at the gish.
In the arteries it is carried forward by their
same instant the valves close and thus shut the
propulsive movements, but in the veins it moves
blood into their ventricles.
Then comes the contraction of the ventricles, slowly, and is pushed forward by the current
which instantly follows the shutting of the from behind.
Between these are the minute tubes called the
waives.
�HERALD OF HEALTH.
capillaries. These have extremely attenuate
walls, and it is through them that certain ele
ment^ of the blood transude to replenish the
constantly occurring waste of the tissues they
penetrate.
These capillaries are found in every district
of the human system, and they are the chan
nels through which all the waste of the hody is
supplied.
They contain the blood in its proper state of
distribution for nutrition.
They supply the material by which all the
products of the various organs of secretion are
elaborated.
From their contents is formed all the various
substances which take part in the phenomena of
digestion and digestive absorption.
Forming in their ramifications by far the
greater part of the substance of every organ,
and containing in their hollows by far the most
active elements taking part in the function of
every organ, they are really the nutrifying
organs, supplying the pabulum which sustains
the |body and from which its products are
evolved. From their contents are replenished
all the fluids and the solids.
If the pancreas is to produce its characteristic
secretion, it is the capillaries of the organ which
supply the needed material for the work of elab
oration.
If the bile is to be produced, it is the capilla
ries of its structure which furnish the substance
which the liver transforms into bile.
If the gastric juice is needed for the digestion
of the food in the stomach, it is the capillaries
which transude the materials composing it.
But, further than this, the capillaries not only
furnish these materials to be elaborated, but
they perform the equally important service of
reabsorbing the materials they had already sup
plied, together with those parts of the food that
have been changed by the gastric juice and are
fitted for assimilation.
Thus the capillaries furnish the materials
which have transformed the food, and again
possess themselves of the resulting combination
of the food and their own previous substances.
They are not, therefore, the mere channels of
the nutrient substances, but ai^also the seat of
the great changes which occur in the blood it
self.
The study of the capillaries) and what occurs
within and immediately without them, is in
fact the study of nutrition in its several phases.
Without these delicate,, blood-holding tubes
permeating everywhere the tissue of the lungs,
no possibility would exist of supplying the
163
blood with oxygen, nor of ridding the system
.of the products of physiological combustion in
the form of carbonic acid and animal vapor.
We have now taken a sufficiently lengthy
survey of the great field or realm of phenomena,
the study of which we remarked awhile ago was
of truly surpassing interest to the welfare of
man.
The experience of history teaches us that the
relatively most important studies which have
engaged the attention of the human mind are
always the latest in the order of development
to be pursued.
Thus the study of physiology, from being so
comparatively difficult, and because its results
did not immediately reward us with any direct
addition to our material wealth, as the various
other branches which are now so assiduously
cultivated, will eventually become the most im
portant of all these.
Nor is the time far distant when institutions
of learning will be constrained to devote to it
quite as much attention as any of the other
branches of learning.
The |g|of knowledge it confers has afar
more direct and fruitful bearing upon man’s in
terests, both present and eventual, both tempo
ral and eternal, than all the others, which but
strive at present to satisfy and stimulate our cu
pidity or our natural pride.
And at length it will be found that all these
have preceded it and reached their fullest de
velopment in order that they may furnish an
indispensable basis for this study of studies.
Welcome.—“Papa will soon be here,”
said mamma to her two-year old boy. “ What
can Gregory do to welcome him ?” And the
mother glanced at the child’s playthings, which
lay scattered in wild confusionjm^the'carpet.
“Make the room neat.B replied^the bright
little one, understanding the look and at once
beginning to gather his toys into a basket.
“ What more can we do to welcome papa ?”
asked mamma, when nothing wasj wanting to
the neatness of the room.
happy to him when he comes!” cried the
dear little fellow, jumping up and down with
eagerness, as he watched at the window for bis
father’s coming.
Now, as all the dictionary-makers will testify,
it is very hard to give good definitions; but
did not little Gregory give the substance of a
welcome ? “ Be happy to him when he comes. ”
Fashionable young lady, detaching
her hair before retiring: “What dreams may
come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil.”
�164
HERALD OF HEALTH?
[Written for The Herald, of Health.]
Botany for Invalids—No. IV.
BY MBS. MARY TREAT.
Nearly all invalids love flowers. What a
quick flush, of joy overspreads the patient’s face
at the sight of a beautiful bouquet arranged by
some loving hand! Those who scarcely ever
notice flowers while strong and well, pre-occu
pied, as they think, with, weightier matters, yet,
if stricken down with disease, show this instinct
ive love as if it were a part of their very being.
Yes, we all have love for the beautiful inter
woven in our natures, although it may seem to
lie dormant in some rude specimens of Human
ity. Young children especially show this love,
but differing greatly in degree and intensity
according to temperament and organization.
A frequent visitor of our flower-garden is a
neighbor’s delicate little son, only in his third
summer. I first noticed this child’s passionate
devotion to flowers when our Tulips were in
bloom. Looking from the window I saw him
on his knees before these bright flowers, his face
radiant, his little hands partly clasping but not
touching, the flowers—a perfect picture of love
and devotion. And what a picture it was for an
artist! Many times a day these Tulips are vis
ited, and as they began to wither and fade he
seemed to look sad; but other bright flowers
soon attracted his attention, and now the Phlox
Prummondii, with its many brilliant colors,!
seems to be his special favorite. Never touch
ing the flowers himself, he seems to think the
bees and butterflies have no business to be rob
bing them of their sweets, his hands waving
gently over the flowers to frighten these insects
away. No doubt this child was born a bota
nist, but his future training may warp these fine
sensibilities; he maybe sent to school too young,
and thus, coming in contact with minds cast in a
rougher mold, will naturally influence his after
career. “ Like begets like.” The companion-!
ship of the great and good has a direct influ
ence upon the forming mind. ’Tis true, now
and then a brilliant light emerges from darkness
and obscurity, dazzling both continents, but
these are exceptions ; it is the surroundings,
the culture while young, that gives us these
master minds. Never was I more struck with
the force of the truth of this than in reading a
sketch by Mrs. Fletcher in The Atlantic
Monthly, where she relates the following inci
dent as occurring in Geneva, Switzerland, illus
trative of my position:
“We do not remember who said that £iD
Geneva every child is born an artist,’ but the
statement would bear investigation. Talent as
well as taste for drawing and painting is almost
universal, and belongs as well to the poor as to
the rich. It may not be well known that De
Candolle, the celebrated and untiring Genevese
botanist, made use, in a course of lectures, of a
valuable collection of tropical American plants,
intrusted to his care by a Spanish botanist.
Unfortunately, the herbarium was needed by
its owner sooner than expected, and Professor
De Candolle was requested to send it back.
This he stated to his audience, with many a re
gret for so irreparable a loss. But some of the
ladies present at once offered to copy the whole
collection in one week. This was done. The
drawings, filling thirteen folio volumes, and
amounting in number to eight hundred and
sixty, were accurately executed by one hundred
and fourteen women artists in the time speci
fied. In most cases the principal parts of the
plants alone were colored, the rest was only
pencilled with great accuracy. Where is there
another city of the same size in which such a
number of lady artists could be found ? One
of these very drawings, having been accidently
dropped in the street, was picked up by a little
girl ten years old, and returned to De Candolle,
copied by the child, and it is no blemish to the
collectior^^B
It is well known that Geneva has been the
home of literature and the fine arts for centu
ries, so we do not so much wonder at the num
ber of lady artists found there.
But the civilization or culture of the human
family, or of the animal kingdom in general,
has no more marked effect than the change man
has made in plants. Our fruits, grains and veg
etables have all sprung from plants that would
hardly be recognized as the same species. The
almost innumerable varieties of the apple have
all originated from a hard, sour, unpalatable
forest fruit. The same may be said of all our
fruits, though the change is not so great as in the
apple. Some of our wild small fruits are deli
cious. The flavor of the strawberry in its natu
ral state is superior to the monsters produced in
cultivation. Horticulturists may think me
semi-barbarous in taste when I say I have eaten
wild grapes at the West that I preferred to any
cultivated variety ever tasted; and may-be my
roving life in those Westem wilds did affect my
taste, for I have eaten wild plums there that I
pronounced equal to the horticulturist s best.
They were 1 arg^ juicy and firm-meated, and if
a little bitter in taste next the skin, it could be
easily obviated by paring, which I invariably
did, when nothing could be more delicious. Of
course, these fruits could be improved as regards
size, but it is doubtful if a finer flavor could be
imparted. And this is the fruit for invalids—
the tree of life—if they will hunt and pluck for
themselves.
�HERALD OF HEALTH.
A wealthy gentleman, of New England, given
up by his physicians to die with consumption,
as a last resort started for the West. On ar
riving at the prairies—Nature’s great flowergardens—he shunned doctors and men, camping
out and living on wild fruits and simple bread.
The result was that in three years’ time he was
a healthy, robust man, and could not be induced
to give up his roving lifB ; but he hunted and
trapped, and would endure all kinds of expo
sure, never taking cold nor scarcely knowing
fatigue. ’Tis true, good health is the first and
greatest blessing we can enjoy, and second to
this is congenial society—society of man. We
have no sympathy with one who isolates him
self from his fellows out of disregard for their
fellowship. However much we may admire
Thoreau, yet we have a secret feeling of chagrin
that he should prefer the society of woodchucks
to man. The remarks of the critic in The
North American Review were to the point,
when, in reviewing Thoreau, he said: “ The
natural man, like the singing birds, comes out
of the forest as inevitably as the natural bear
and wild-cat stick there.”
Cultivation, too, has given us many varieties
of grain. Almost innumerable varieties of
maize or Indian corn have been produced since
the landing of Columbus on these shores. We
have early six weeks’/com, and later varieties
that take a long summer to perfect, originally
from the same species. These early varieties
were brought about by taking corn as far north
as it would grow, where in the course of time it
learned to ripen in the short summers, and is
sent back to us for early garden varieties. It
is a very easy matter to hybridize corn, as every
farmer knows, for the staminate or male flowers
are at the summit of the stalk, and the pollen,
at the mercy of the winds, may be carried to a
distant cornfield, where, falling upon the silk or
pistillate flowers, it produces a mixture often
differing in color from either parent.
So the change in our vegetables is no less
marked. The potato in its native wilds has
scarcely a tuber upon its roots, but cultivation
has produced untold varieties. The parsnip in
its native state has a slender, poisonous root,
but is made wholesome and nutritious by the
abundance of saccharine matter deposited after
years of care and cultivation. But this plant,
almost more than any other, has a tendency to
go back to its original or former worthlessness.
If left to itself for only two or three years,
about the garden fence or some other out-of-theway place, the root dwindles in size, becomes
hard, acrid and poisonous. Frequent cases of
T65
poisoning have occurred in families unacquainted
with this fact. The cabbage is another illustra
tion, which has no appearance of a head in its
natural state.
But perhaps there is no more marked change
in plants cultivated for use than in those for or
nament. By cultivation the internal organs
of flowers—stamens and pistils—are gradually
made to pass into petals and thus become double.
This is frequently carried to such an extent that
all traces of sexual organs disappear—they have
all become petals, and of course no seed can be
produced. If civilization and high culture can
thus affect plants, may it not affect the human
family in the same way ? May this not be the
reason why so few children, comparatively
speaking, are born among highly intellectual
and cultivated people, while in the cabins and
log huts of the poor we see swarms of children,
the same as we do seeds among uncultivated
plants ?
The great natural order or family Composites,
to whHSwe are indebted for most of our au
tumnal flowers, is by far the most extensive of
all the natural orders, embracing about nine
thousand species, and always known by its
heads of flowers and united anthers. They are
distributed over all parts of the globe, but very
unequally. According to Humboldt, in some of
the countries of Europe and Asia they consti
tute but a very small proportion, while in trop
ical America and in some of the tropical islands
they are full one-half of all the flowering plants,
and on the Island of Sicily, according to some
botanists, they are one-half. They give us but
very few useful species, unless we call the horrid
bitter herbs with which we were dosed in child
hood useful, and which we never see without a
sort of dread and nauseating sensation—as, for
instance, thoroughwort, tansey, wormwood,
camomile, and many others, whose medicinal
virtues were formerly supposed to be very great.
Latterly, most of these supposed medicinal plants
are very much out of favor, and we do not see
the great bundles of dried herbs in every wellregulated household as formerly. But some of
our most brilliant and highly ornamental plants
are found in this order. Our autumnal gardens
would look dreary enough did not this family
give us the splendid Dahlias, Crysanthemums,
Asters, Zinias, Helianthus, and many others too
numerous to mention.
The fields and waste places are no less in
debted to this order for their autumnal decora
tions than our gardens. Especially the graceful
Goldenrod, whose beauty and gracefulness has
been the theme of poets in all ages. Over thirty
�166
HERALD OF HEALTH.
species of Goldenrod decorate our roadsides and
fields. The most pleasant species is. Solidago
odora or Sweet-scented Goldenrod. The crushed
leaves of this species have a fine fragrance, sim
ilar to anise, and are frequently distilled for the
fragrant volatile oil which they yield in abun
dance, and they have been used as a substitute
for tea, and even been exported to China. As
every body is supposed to know the Goldenrod,
it is hardly necessary to speak of the flowers,
for the divisions of calyx and corolla, stamens,
pistils, fruit and seeds, are what we depend upon
to determine the family and genus, but as we
all know this belongs to the Composite family,
and genus Solidago, we have only to look carefuHy that we do not mistake the species, which
is determined by the leaves. The stem is from
two to three feet high, the leaves linear-lanceo
late, smooth and entire, with a strong, yellow
ish mid-vein, veinlets scarcely perceptible; but,
above all, the fragrance of this species is so dis
tinct from the others it can hardly be mistaken.
It takes its generic name from the Latin solido,
to make whole, in allusion to its then supposed
medicinal properties« its specific name, odora\
from its sweet-scented leaves.
But soon the frost will crisp and blacken
these flowers, and we can only turn to our books
and dried collections, of which I hope we have
all secured a good supply, to study during our
leisure in the long winter months.
tWritten for The Herald of Health.]
A Homily for Ministers and Chris
tians.
BY REV. DR. JOHN MARSH.
There is, it is believed, no portion of the
Christian world in which religion has a higher
and purer type than America. England, our
fatherland, has, we know, ever been identified
with extreme formalism, amid much true devo
tion. Scottish piety has been in another ex
treme—piety of the head more than the heart.
America has placed her religion more in the af
fections—is more decidedly spiritual, seeks an
abstraction from all that is visible and tangible.
But is there not danger of an extreme, even
here ? May not we Americans become, even in
our piety, so wholly spiritual as almost entirely
to neglect the animal constitution, and bring
injury upon ourselves and disgrace the very re
ligion in which we glory ? By what law is that
minister of the Gospel or that professing Chris
tian governed whose conversation is daily and
literally in heaven, but whose mouth is filled
with tobacco ? who indulges two or three times
a day in his cigar ? or who, without any regard
to the admonitions of those who understand
their poisonous qualities, will be seen using in
social and friendly circles alcoholic beverages ?
Paul tells us: “ The body is for the Lord,” and
therefore it is as much a part of true religion to
take care of the body as it is to take care of the
soul—a strange doctrine; however, it is believed
by not a few professing Christians. Temper
ance sermons were at one time viewed as an
outrage in Christian pulpits. And the clergy
man who should now deliver a discourse upon
the Laws of Health, severely remarking upon a
daily violation of those laws in Christian fami
lies—in their food, their dress, their labors, their
parties and pleasures—would be considered in
most congregations as forfeiting his ministerial
standing.
In caring for the body there is, even among
many good people, little or no conscience. They
do not feel that they are responsible for what
they eat or drink, or for what dress they wear
or what pleasures they engage in; if the heart
be right, if they have saving faith and make a
good profession before many witnesses and give
liberally of their substance, that is enough.
BuiAj^Egiot so. We are to be temperate in all
things and keep in subjection our appetites and
passions. The body is for the Lord, and our
bodies are to become temples of the Holy Ghost;
and until ministers and Christians understand
this better than they do, and care more for health
and less for appetite, in vain shall we look for
the suppression of intemperance and the refor
mation of inebriates; in vain shall we look for
the disuse of tobacco and narcotics among our
young men; in vain shall we expect a convert
ing and sanctifying power in the pulpit and the
Church, and in vain look for the coming of the
glorious millennium. Let all, then, remember,
“ The body is for the Lordis to be subject to
His law and trained for His glory. In neglect
of this not a few good men live out not half
their days. In our attention to it there is an
increase of days, an increase of animal and spir
itual enjoyment, a vastly increased usefulness,
and an honor put on Him who has formed us,
placed us in this beautiful world and fitted us
for His glory.
Garments of beauty may cover, but
they can never impart worth to abandoned char
acter.
Why is the assessor of taxes the best
man in the world? Because he never underrates
any body.
�HERALD OF* HEALTH.
167
those of males, while at birth they are larger,
and ought to be, for sufficient reasons. If the
Health of G-irls-No. V.
chest is thus contracted, adequate room for the
lungs, etc., is utterly impossible. If the lungs
BY DR. J. H. HANAFORD.
are in any respect compressed, the minute airThe compression of the chest is still another cells and passages—estimated by millions—be
cause of disease and debility. The chest con come closed and adhere for ever, rendering, a full
tains the heart and lungs, two organs demand inflation of the lungs, and a consequent full
ing special space for exercise. Indeed, by na supply of air, utterly impossible. To under
ture there is just room enough for all of the in stand the extent of the evils of such compres
ternal organs and none to spare. If any are sion, it should be remembered that one object of
crowded, their usefulness, so to speak, is im 'breathing is to purify the blood by a contact
paired, and none more than the lungs and with the air—or its oxygen—in the lungs, one
heart. These, in the form given to the chest, of the most important means of purifying the
are amply protected, bounded by firm bones, blood. Indeed, this method is much more effi
the ribs, breast-bone, spinal column, etc.—at cacious than the use of all of the sarsaparilla
least firm when fully matured. This chest, at “ blood-purifiers” that ignorant quacks have ever
birth, is large, ample to accommodate and pro cursed society with, since this is Nature’s own
tect its contents, the shape being adapted to its purifier, leaving no “ dregs of impurity” intro
design. But that shape is wonderfully and duced in the very process of purification.
sadly changed from its original conical form, (Young lady, if you would purify your blood,
with the larger portion down, inverting Nature’s use less salt, less “ grease,” less pork—the most
plan. Those who doubt this will please observe abominable of all grease; less diseased animal
the chest of the infant at birth, notice the am food, etc.; it is difficult to use too little of such
ple expanse of the ribs, particularly at the base, articles—and breathe as much as possible of
relatively larger in the female than in the male, pure, cool air, day and night, exercising suffi
for reasons that need not be specified. But, ciently to throw off the waste of the body, and
between the ages of ten and fifteen years, you will not only find an economical but also
though some have supposed that the days of an effectual method.
Again, this compression of the lungs is among
corsets, etc., have passed away, mark the wasp
like forms, so beautiful, and notice that this the many causes of pulmonary consumption, so
change occurs very soon after the miss begins alarmingly prevalent at the present day partic
to have some idea of “ taste,’■diminishing in ularly among females—a disease that is consign
size, particularly at the base, at a very rapid ing thousands of the fair buds of mortality,
rate just when the dawn of womanhood appears,^ frail young ladies, to a premature grave annu
when the chest naturally enlarges. Facts just ally, even in our own favored country. It is
ify the assertion that the chest is relatively the not necessary to state the physiological reasons
smallest where it should be the largest, dimin for this result; yet, it is a fact that such pressure,
ishing from birth. Now, this is not without a closing the air-cells, etc., resulting in facilitating
cause. A part of this is referable, it may be, to unhealthful deposits or preventing their escape,
the tight bandages of infancy, worn sufficiently preventing the ordinary supply of air, etc. etc.,
tight to cause discomfort, if not pain, and at a is making sad inroads into the health of the fu
time when the bones—-if such they may be ture mothers, those now in the bloom of life.
called—are very yielding. At this time a slight Indeed, this is a disease comparatively unknown
pressure is sufficient to materially diminish the in savage society—a kind of crowning glory (?)
size of the chest; still, all of the mischief is not’ of civilization? It may be remarked in this
done at this time. A system of “ tight lacing” connection that we are breathing an insufficient
is commenced in girlhood and continued system amount of pure air, even under the most fa
atically, though the pressure may be slight, so vorable circumstances. We have too little fresh
slight as to be regarded as of no importance. air at night in our sleeping-rooms, often almost
Yet such pressure, commenced when the bones hermetically sealed as a means of excluding the
are yielding and continued for a few years, supposed “poisonous night air.” Still others
is sufficient to produce the result—a sad re are breathing only about half the necessary
quantity at each inspiration, partly from habit
sult.
But the causes are of less importance than the and partly from a compression of the chest that
results. Observation teaches us that the chests admits of only a limited supply. Nature has
and waists of females are relatively smaller than provided for and demands full, deep and copious
[Written for The Herald of Health.]
�168
HERALD OF
inspirations of this grand invigorator and puri
fier—life-imparting, pure air, inviting full meas
ure, “pressed down,” enough to expand the
cells, enabling them to eject irritating and pois
onous deposits.
It has not escaped the notice of observers that
there is a close connection between a large and
well-developed chest and lungs and physical
power and endurance. If about to exert our
strength to the best advantage we instinctively
inhale a generous supply of air as one of the
necessary means of preparation. The fleet ani
mals, the most hardy, those enduring the most
fatigue, etc., are those well developed in the
chest, possessing ample lung-power. Human
beings having such lungs are seldom the victims
of diseases of this character, unless the result
of accidental causes, such as breathing poison
ous air and the fumes generated in some chemi
cal works, or causes of a similar nature.
To be safe in this matter, to be sure that the
lungs are in no danger of being too much com
pressed, it is absolutely necessary that clothing
should be so loose that no inconvenience shall
be felt by taking a free inspiration, full and
deep. But very few, if any, fashionable young
ladies can be found who are thus free to breathe
HEALTH-
Many, far too many seek, by a daily compres
sion of the chest and waist, to imitate the forms
of the “fashion plates,” which generally are
mere caricatures of the human form as it came
from the Great Architect.
Still another evil resulting from this insuffi
cient supply of air—the food of the lungs—is
connected with the heat of the body, or what is
generally termed animal heat. A process is
constantly going on in the system, an action
connected with the relations of the air and waste
parts of the body, by which warmth is evolved.
Now, if there is an insufficient supply of air—
and only large lungs can receive the necessary
supply—if the blood is only partially purified,
it is utterly impossible to develop a sufficient
amount of heat to meet the wants of the sys
tem. Hence the “ chills” of so many delicate
young ladies, the purple cheeks, the bloodless
lips, the shrivelled appearance, etc., are all indic
ative of an insufficient supply of natural heat.
Hence the necessity of artificial warmth, the ex
tra clothing, the hot soap-stones, etc., while the
extremities are cold and pale, like lifeless remains, the blood having retired to the internal
organs—almost congesting them—and the head,
but from the same cause.
The remedy for such difficulties consists prin
cipally in removing the cause, enlarging the
lungs by systematic full-breathing, throwing the
shoulders back, standing erect, allowing full
motion to the muscles of the chest, with such
gymnastic exercises as are calculated to bring
these muscles into action, enlarging the chest;
or, still better, by useful labors, such as one of
ordinary capacity may suggest, constantly bear
ing in mind that the object is to expand the
chest and lungs, strengthening the muscles con
nected with them by appropriate exercise, breath
ing as much pure air as possible. Such a course
would diminish doctor’s bills and those of a sim
ilar character, benefiting young ladies more than
those whose success depends upon the misfor
tunes and sickness of society.
Reproduction.—A single grain of barley
was planted by an agriculturist in the Isle of Man
in 1862, and the same year produced 300 grains.
These were sown, and the second year’s produce
was about half a pint. These were again sown,
and the third year’s produce was 14 pounds,
AN UNNATURAL WAIST.
which being again sown, have realized this year
the air of heaven without restraint. Most are about seven bushels, covering a space of one
so deformed, have chests so compressed, that hundred yards by five. Thus there have been
the lungs contain only about one-half of the produced in four years seven bushels of barley
air necessary to meet the wants of the system. from a single grain.
�IIE KALI) OF HEALTH!
NEWYOEK, OCTOBER^1866J
WATER.
“To the days of the aged it addeth length;
To the might of the strong it addeth strength;
It . freshens the heart, it brightens the sight;
’Tis like quaffing a goblet of morning light.”
6K^*The Publishers do not hold themselves as indors
ing every article which may appear in The Herald.
They will allow the largest liberty of expression, believing
that by so doing this magazine will prove to be more useful
and acceptable to its patrons.
Exchanges are at liberty to copy from this magazine
by giving due credit to’The Herald 'of Health and
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CULTURE.
TOPICS OF THE MONTH.
BY M. L. HOLBROOK, M. B.
DEATH OF REV, JOHN PIERPONT.
Our friend and contributor, Rev. John Pier
pont, died at his home’ in Medford, August 26,
1866, at the ripe age of 81 years. Unlike most
who live so long, he retained his health, vigor
and usefulness up to the very day of his death.
He was found dead in his bed on Monday morn
ing, August 27, although he attended church the
day before, and retired at nighf in usual health
and strength.
Mr. Pierpont was born in Litchfield, Conn.,
April 6, 1785. He graduated at Yale College
at the age of 19. Of his life, it may be said, it
was’a most useful one. He had that rare com
bination of talents which, while it made him
reformatory, precluded the possibility of his be
ing a “ man of one idea.” • His tastes led him
to occupy himself at different times with law,
trade, teaching, mechanics, poetry, medicine,
politics and divinity. His mind was “ hospitable
to new ideas hence, whatever in any branch
of human life appeared to claim a candid hear
ing was sure to find in him a reasonable and
ready listener. While pastor of the Hollis
Street Church, in Boston, he made himself quite
noted as a fearless advocate of the then unpopu
lar Temperance cause. The following account
of the feeling at the time is from the pen of one
who is familiar with the facts:
“It chanced that several of the wealthiest and
169
weightiest people in his church were distillers
and spirit-dealers. To these persons the zeal
and activity of Mr. Pierpont in the Temperance
Reform, from its very commencement, were
highly distasteful, and they led a party strong
enough to prevent, for a long series of years,
the payment of his salary, after they had vainly
tried other means of getting rid of him. A ma
jority of the pew-owners took this position, and
held it, though a decided majority of the con
gregation were in favor of the pastor and his
ideas. Since among these earnest friends were
some who were able to advance him money, so
that want of the means of subsistence should
not oblige him to quit the field, Mr. Pierpont
remained and carried on the war with vigor.
Reduced to extremity, the rumsellers of Hollis
Street made public complaint of their minister
as neglecting his pastoral duties, and brought in
evidence certain ingenious mechanical inventions
devised and patented by him and publicly sold
in connection with his name. The time and
thought bestowed upon the invention of these
articles, they averred, was so much unjustifiably
withdrawn from their service, in violation of his
contract as their minister; while the advertise
ment and sale of these articles, publicly connect
ing the name of a reverend clergyman with me
chanical and commercial transactions, was. a
grievous derogation from his professional dig
nity!
The published reply of Mr. Pierpont to the
published charge above described, was one of
the keenest specimens of sarcastic wit I ever
saw. In regard ?Qthe charge of fraudulent
withdrawal of time from the services of the
parish, he said that it came with a very ill grace
from those particular persons, who were very
slack in their attendance on his preaching, and
still more so in reducing to practice the truths
he taught. But in fact there had been no neglect on his part, either of public duties or pasto
ral attendance. He had never failed them in
either particular. But he had chosen to employ
those hours and weeks of recreation which are
admitted by all to be essential to bodily and
mental health, in employments that combined
use with recreation. He did not understand
true dignity, either that of a man or that of a
minister, to be infringed by any sort of useful
activity. And he had the pleasure to find, by
the commercial demand for those articles in use
for daily household comfort which his care and
skill had improved, that he had enlarged the
sum of human happiness, and aided the mate
rial as well as the spiritual welfare of his gen
eration. He then wittily described each of the
articles in question, enumerated the advantages
which his improvement had added to it, and
mentioned the place where the improved article
was for sale, assuring his critics that a fair trial
of these things could not fail to convince them.
His wit, and the soundness of his argument,
turned the laugh of the whole city upon his as
sailants, who could revenge themselves only by
withholding his salary for a time. The law ul
timately compelled them to pay up the whole of
it.”
Mr. Pierpont’s’patriotism will long be remem
bered by all. At the age of 75, when the war
for the destruction of the Union began, he im
�170
HERALD OF HEALTH.
mediately offered his services to Gov. Andrew
as chaplain of one of the Massachusetts regi
ments, was accepted, and marched with the
Twenty-second Regiment to the seat of war.
The exposures of camp life, however, proved too
severe a tax upon his powers, and he resigned.
He was subsequently appointed to a clerkship
in the Treasury Department at Washington,
which post he held at the time of his death.
The following anecdote illustrates Mr. Pier
pont’s honesty—it is almost unexampled:
“ The Rev. Mr. Stetson, in his address on the
death of the Rev. John Pierpont, narrated the
circumstances connected with Mr. Pierpont’s
business failure in 1861. Not daring to make
use of money to which he had not a perfect
right, he left his well-furnished and well-pro
vided house in Baltimore, and, with his wife and
children, rented a single apartment in an ob
scure portion of the city. His partner found
him with much difficulty, and reminded him
that there were funds in the possession of the
firm which the creditors would expect them to
live upon until the affairs of the firm could be
settled. Mr. Pierpont promptly replied : ‘ No,
not a dollar will I touch.’ For three days he
was almost without food, and during this time
he wrote his famous ‘ Airs of Palestine,’ which
he carried to a publisher, who purchased it for
the sum of five hundred dollars. This poem
had great popularity, two editions being soon
called for. Mr. Stetson stated that Mr. Pierpont
was induced to use his inventive powers and to
compile school-books to obtain extra funds for
the payment of his business obligations. From
these he was legally exempt; but the honorable
and high-minded man regarded himself as mor
ally bound to discharge them.”
In his will, Mr. Pierpont gives a valuable
lesson to professional men in regard to the habit
of regular exercise as a means of relaxation and
to preserve and educate the body. His turning
lathe, with all its fittings and equipments, chis
els, files, etc., together with his tool-chest, he
bequeathed to his step-son, Mr. Fowler, in con
sideration of the fact that he is skilled in the
use of mechanical tools, trusting that they will
be to him, as they have been to the testator, “ a
means of educating the physical organs and
powers, of relaxation from mental labors, of
general bodily health, and of amusement, both
innocent and salutary.”
As a poet Mr. Pierpont will ever be held in
grateful remembrance by his countrymen.
Many of his poems are familiar to every school?
boy and school-girl, as they have been largely
copied into the school-books of the age. They
were always full of pathos and imagination, and
rarely failed to convey a very important lesson
of life. Several of these have been published in
The Herald of Health, among the most re
cent of which is the one entitled “ Nothing but
Water to Drink.” There is something in his
verses that always touches the popular heart,
and they are constantly being republished in the
newspapers of the day.
The following religious poem from his pen
was written to be sung at the dedication of the
Congregational Church in Plymouth, which was
built on the ground occupied by the first Con
gregational church erected in America, and gives
a good example of his style:
“ The winds and waves were roaring,
The Pilgrims met for prayer;
And here, their God adoring,
They stood in open air.
When breaking day they greeted,
And when its close was calm,
The leafless woods repeated
The music of their psalm.
“ Not thus, 0 God, to praise thee,
Do we, their children, throng ;
The temple’s arch we raise thee
Gives back our choral song.
Yet, on the winds that bore thee
Their worship and their prayers,
May ours come up before thee
From hearts as true as theirs !
“What have we, Lord, to bind us,
To this, the Pilgrims’ shore !
Their hill of graves behind us,
Their watery way before,
The wintry surge, that dashes
Against the rocks they trod,
Their memory and their ashes—
Be thou their guard, 0 God!,
MWe would not, Holy Father,
Forsake this hallowed spot,
Till on that shore we gather
Where graves and griefs are not;
The shore where true devotion
Shall rear no pillared shrine,
And see no other ocean
Than that of love divine.”
Probably the last writing he did for the press
was the letter written for and published in The
Herald of Health for August concerning his
personal habits.
While his memory-will gladden the hearts of
thousands, who only knew him to love, his
bright spirit has gone to the summer land to be
for ever at rest.
Exhausted Coad Fields.—The Eng
lish people fear the destruction of their nation
by an exhaustion of her coal fields. They had
better fear its destruction by physical vices such
as knowledge would remedy. If coal gives out,
they will find abundance of it in America for
generations to come; but if their habits of dissi
pation should ever become so bad as to ruin the
race, there will be no remedy.
�HEEAffD OF HEALTH.
The Cholera.—The cholera has now
nearly disappeared from New York; indeed, it
has not raged here with great violence during
the past season. The number of deaths has
been considerably less than one thousand.
There is much to learn from its visitation, which,
if people were wise, they would put in practice.
There is no more necessity of these occasional
visits of cholera to our shores, than there is of
the regular visits of alligators and the fierce
serpents of the torrid climes. They only come
because we have such depraved ways of living;
so many foul basements and tenement-houses;
eat so much constipating and obstructing food;
breathe so much foul air, drink so much liquor,
and bathe so infrequently. The very habits of
life which render one liable to this disease, are
those which, when cholera-poison is not pres
ent, produce other diseases, or such debility and
weakness as render life very imperfect and un
certain, The lesson people can never learn is
that these visitations come in consequence of vi
olated organic law; and that it is infinitely bet
ter so to eat, drink, sleep and exercise, and to so
construct our houses and clean and drain our
cities, that they shall be proof against pesti
lence.
Sordid people think money is made by grinding
down the poor and giving them little chance to
live cleanly, comfortable lives; but there is no
surer way to depreciate property in any part of
a city than to debase its inhabitants by poverty
or sickness; nor any surer way to increase $®in
value than to improve the health and home sur
roundings of the population.
We owe much to the Board of Health for
their earnest efforts to put the city in a better
sanitary condition. They seem to have taken
hold of the tail end of the Hygienic system of
treatment, so far as preventive measures are
concerned. For this let them have due credit.
As regards treatment, they have little to boast
of. Under the regular treatment about sixty per
cent, have died. This is not a very creditable
record to maintain by the physicians of that
medical school which boasts of its origin and
its antiquity, its respectability, its facilities for
medical culture, and that, too, in New York,
where the talent of the profession reside. Homoeopathists, on the other hand, whom the reg
ular profession will not allow to control even
one ward of a cholera hospital, get, perhaps, their
proportion of cases to treat, and, if we may trust
the reports, they lose less than the regular pro
fession. Indeed, a leading New York weekly de
clares that nearly all patients treated Homoeo-
171
pathically recover. It can hardly be said that the
Hygienic physicians treat many cases, but they
do some, and the results have been more favor
able than by any other practice; and so it ever
will be. Cholera is a disease pre-eminently of
filth and unbalanced circulation and action.
And the Hygienic system has for its chief end
and aim cleanliness, a regulation of irregular
and unbalanced action, and good nursing. The
day has not quite come for the full realization
of the benefits of this system to the people;
but just as soon as the car of progress advances
and people become educated, and understand
the relation which drug-poisons have to the hu
man system, just so sure will they cease to take
them or employ physicians who give them.
The signs of the times plainly show that this
day is coming more rapidly than we are aware.
Let those who are interested in human growth
and progress, and particularly in medical re
form, which lies close to all other reforms,
do all they can to help on this golden day.
Grapes.—Horace Greeley, in writing
from Vermont about the destruction of the ap
ple-trees by insects, multiplied because of the
destruction of birds by cold winds, and aug
mented by the destruction of forests, says :
“ Wb must try to change this; but, for the
present, I ask attention to the multiplication
and diffusion of choice vines. The grape, under
skillful culture, is a surer crop to-day than al
most any other delicate fruit, the strawberry
only excepted. Experienced growers say that
grapes may be grown, wherever they thrive at
all, for the price of wheat, pound for pound;
yet, while wheat scarcely averages four cents
per pound to growers, grapes can almost always
be sold at double that price. _ We can start the
vine and enjoy its fruit within three years;
whereas at least thrice that time is required to
hring an orchard from infancy to maturity.
Our farmers and mechanics, their wives and
children, but especially our farm-laborers and
day-laborers generally, ought to eat far more
good fruit and far less salt meat—and they can
not until fruit becomes far cheaper and more
abundant.”
Influence of Medical Prescriptions
Plant-life.—“Competing for a prize in Ex
perimental Physiolog}’-, a French observer has
recently ascertained that plants are far more
sensitive than animals to poisons. Even citric
and tartaric acids, in very dilute solution, kill
the plants that absorb them. So do many sub
stances, as very dilute mixtures of alcohol and
ether. Quinine and anchomine will stop the
growth of a plant and often kill it.” .
Probably plants have not got so used to being
poisoned as men. Let poisoning be practiced
on plants for a few generations, and perhaps
they could endure it better.
on
�172
HERALD OF HEALTH]
Fever and Agee.—During the au
tumn, in malarious districts, this disease is al
ways prevalent in a greater or less degree.
Whether the recent discoveries hy the micro
scope have disclosed the true cause of it has not
yet been decided with certainty; suffice it to
say, its cause is in some way connected with
those changes in vegetable matter which are
produced in low, wet regions, near marshy
swamps and ponds, where vegetation is vigor
ous and its decay rapid under a hot sun. It is
not our purpose now to go into a minute history
of the disease, or the various remedies which
have been vainly tried to prevent and cure it.
Its history is written indelibly in the shattered
fraines of ten thousand pioneers and their fam
ilies, who too early emigrated to the Far West,
and placed too much dependence upon drugs for
a cure. It has never been considered a danger
ous disease, as it rarely terminates in death S
but if it does not kill outright, it is a disease
which produces very great suffering, more so
than many others of a fatal character. It has
been described as a monster seizing his victim>
chilling and shaking him with a cold no fire can
warm, burning him with heat to the other ex
treme, and finally melting and sweating him
into a temporary relief, lasting for one, two or
four days. Really, the disease is not a monster
at all, but a peculiar kind of remedial effort on
the part of the system to rid itself of the poison
that has been introduced into the body, either
through the lungs or by means of the water and
food taken into the stomach.
In speaking of this disease we shall discuss,
firstly, its prevention, and, secondly, its cure.
PREVENTION OF FEVER AND AGUE.
As it is caused by a poison which, taken into
the body, is acted on by the vital energies, the
question is, How can we avoid it ? We cannot
prepare for it as we do for visible danger, but,
if people would be more careful in selecting
their homes, and to avoid such as are known to
be malarious, they would succeed quite effect
ually in preventing the disease. We are never
so careful as we should be in choosing our
homes that they may be healthful. There is
great recklessness of life and future happiness
manifested by nearly everybody in choosing the
place where all their joys and happiness should
culminate, where their children are to be born
and reared. Many of our largest cities are located on low, wet ground, which can never be
healthful. So serious is this matter becoming,
that the eminent Dr. Bowditch of Boston says’
in an essay read before the Massachusetts Medi
cal Society, “ Now, the track of a railway, or
the wit or reckless energy of the owner of some
swamp may be the sole reason for erecting a
station-house, and thereby promoting the erec
tion of dwelling-houses near by, in localities to
tally unfit for human habitation.” He thinks
the Government should not allow the health of
its inhabitants to be tampered with in this way,
but should prevent it by suitable legislation.
There is much force in his argument. A home
should be_chosen with even more care than in
buying a horse or building a railroad. Above all
things, it should be sunny, dry, airy, away from
swamps, and furnish pure water. Another way
to prevent ague is to keep the standard of health
high. Whenever men gormandize on constipat
ing food, pork, grease and all the abominations
which are generally found on our tables, they
are, if exposed to miasma, more likely to con
tract ague than where proper care is taken to
have'only healthful,'food to eat and pure water
to drink. Many a case of ague is cured by
proper attention to diet and bathing. If the
bowels do not become torpid, the liver obstructed,
and the skin inactive and feeble, there is less
danger from exposure to ague-miasma than
where all these conditions are combined. A
system obstructed by imperfect depuration seems
to furnish a very suitable place for planting the
seeds of fever and ague, while a clean, healthy
system, on the other hand, is rarely liable to an
attack. This is certainly a very strong argu
ment in favor of cleanliness, internal as well as
external.
There is one point regarding our habits that,
in regions where miasma abounds, we ought to
guard against—it is night-exposure. Then, more
than at any other time, are the atmospheric
causes of this disease present. There should be no
needless exposure to night air in fever and ague
localities. We by no means mean by this that
persons should sleep with closed windows, but
that they should keep from places where the poi
son exists. It is much better to sleep on the
side of a house where the sun shines, and an
upper "room will be more free than a lower one
from bad air. The practice of sleeping in rooms
on the ground floor, in either city or country, is
bad; the higher up the room the better the air.
It is also a most excellent plan to have an open
fire in our sleeping-rooms in malarious districts,
not so much for heat as for dryness. With fire,
ventilation can be made more perfect. If It be
true that malaria is only microscopic fungi, as
has lately been argued by scientific men, it will
be very plainly seen that a fire in a room may
entirely or' partially destroy the germs, or pre
�jWrabId
OF WALTH.
173
vent their development so as to render them that a wise Hygienic treatment of ague will
more perfectly cure the disease than drugs, and
harmless.
THE CURE OF AGUE.
without danger to any person’s future health.
Of course, it is very desirable in treating this
“Look to thy Mouth.”—A friend
disease to get the patient away from its imme
diate cause to where the air is pure and the sends us the following poem, which is slightly
water v wholesome. The special treatment is altered from one written by that good and Chris
quite simple and generally very efficacious— tian philosopher, George Herbert, who was co
balance the circulation and counteract the lead temporary with Lord Bacon. It was our good
ing symptoms. The chill should be treated by fortune to be presented with Herbert’s Foems
warm applications, and the fever by cooling by the first patient we ever treated. They are
ones. Hot foot-baths, fomentations to the ab full of rich sayings, some of which we shall,
domen, bottles of hot water to the sides, arm-pits perhaps, some time give to our readers. The
and down the limbs, will be found excellent. idea inculcated in the following poem is that
When it is possible to put the patient, at the sociality at the table is a preventive, in part, of
beginning of the chill, into a hot bath—as hot over-eating; also, that men, like the planets,
as he can comfortably bear, and have active ought to live by rule, and that it is necessary to
friction applied to the entire surface until the keep a guard on our passions. The style is
skin is red and in a glow—the chill will gener quaint, but none the worse for that:
ally be very much lighter, and probably not b?' %
LOOK TO THY MOUTH.
felt at all.
Look to thy mouth, diseases enter there ;
The hot stage should be treated by tepid ab
Thou hast two sconces: if thy stomach call,
lution, the wet-sheet pack, or, if the patient is Carve or discourse; do not a famine fear.
strong, the cold effusion. Give only such cool
Who carves, is kind to two ; who talks, to all.
ing drinks as water, lemonade, the juice of fresh Look on food, think it dirt, then eat a bit;
oranges or ripe grapes.
Then say withal, “ Earth to earth I commit.”
The intermission of the paroxysm should be
Slight those who say amid their sickly healths,
treated with quiet, rest and good nursing.
“ Thou livest by rule.” Who does not so but
The diet should be rather abstemious and
man ?
principally of mild acid fruits. Fresh, ripe
grapes will themselves, if used in moderation, Houses are built by rule, and commonwealths.
Entice the trusty sun, if that you can,
often without other treatment, cure ague. It
From his elliptic line; beckon the sky;
is possible that other fruits might prove equally
beneficial. All greasy food, or that which is Who lives by rule, then, keeps good company.
hard to digest, or constipating to the bowels, or Who keeps no guard upon himself is slack,
obstructing to the liver, should be scrupulously
And rots to nothing at the next great thaw.
avoided.
Man is a shop of rules ; a well-trussed pack,
We might in this connection speak of the use
Whose every parcel underwrites a law.
of the Turkish Bath as a means of curing ague, Love not thyself nor give thy humors sway,
if it was more commonly adopted in our houses. God gave them to thee under lock and key.
It will probably be found, when tested on a
large scale, as it has already been proved in a
Goiter in America.—Dr. J. Green,
number of cases, to be the most complete and referring to our note on Goiter in the July Her
perfect bath for this disease. This bath might ald, mentions several cases that came under
be constructed in every house in the country, his observation which he thinks were caused by
at small expense, for family use; and, when bad water. He says:
rightly appreciated, we have no doubt it will be
“ I then ascribed the complaint to the use of
as necessary to every well-regulated house as a water extensively saturated with lime, as snow
water was not drank there. It was frequently
pantry or kitchen.
In regard to the drug treatment of the ague, melted for washing purposes, as the water in the
brooks was so saturated with lime that it could
we only need say it is producing thousands of not be used to advantage. Or did any other
chronic invalids'all over the West; the children cause exist that I could discover to produce that
of whom, as we have hundreds of times had oc diseased action, as in Switzerland and Savoy,
casion to observe, are feeble in constitution, where the absence of light may engender idiots,
mind being dependent on light r I then consid
dwarfed in stature, and likely to prove much ered it peculiar to that section of the country,
less perfect men and women than they other and not at all prevalent in any other part of the
wise would be. We are thoroughly satisfied country.”
�T74
HERAL5R OEl HEALTH?!
Muscular Christianity.—Nature, hav
ing furnished every human being with two
hands and one mouth, plainly teaches the lesson
that we should work twice as much as we eat—
that it is our bounden duty to earn our dinner
before we eat it. No man is so rich that he can
afford to be idle, because indolence is a violation
of the physical laws, and one which is sure to
be followed by severe punishment. The circu
lation of the blood will not be changed to suit
the convenience of the millionaire, and there is
not wealth enough in all the world to purchase
a new digestive apparatus for the diseased
stomach. Sickness indicates a transgression of
the laws of health, “and a foul stomach, as
well as a wicked heart, is an abomination to the
Lord.” We believe in the gospel of health.
We have faith in muscular Christianity. We
do not hesitate to ask our parish of readers to
row, ride, jsail, walk, run, leap, swim, climb/
shout, sing, box, and perform feats of ground
and lofty tumbling; even if by doing so they
can banish the blues, aid digestion, sharpen ap
petites, and promote health and longevity.
Pull an oar on the river; take a turn in the
gymnasium; leap into the saddle and shake up
the juices of the body; spread a sail to the
wind, and let the air fan you with its invisible
wings. When you knock down the nine-pins
they must remind you of the ills that flesh is
heir to; the ball is a mere pill, which you take
outwardly for the removal of disease. There is
not a shadow of truth in the old notion that a
pale face is the sign of piety, or that a long one
is a guarantee of a good heart. It is no sin to
be muscular, to have a broad chest, to wear a
healthy countenance, to have a good appetite
and good digestion, and to be able to sleep
soundly. The slave who prayed with his feet
found freedom, for which he returned thanks
upon his knees. There is physical salvation in
air and light and sunshine and exercise. There
is religion in labor, and the devils wiH be cast
out of the stomach and the blood of the inva
lid if he follows the example of Christ, who
went about doing good. A clear head, weH poised
over a clean stomach; a warm heart, with a vig
orous circulation; a stout arm, with a strong
fist at the end of it, are certificates of obedience
to law. Away with the idea that white lips, and
weak eyes, and narrow chests, and feeble lungs,
and aching backs, and dizzy brains and attenu
ated limbs are favorable to the growth of piety.
We are to love God with all our heart and soul
and strength, and the more heart and soul and
trength we have the more we can love God.
When a man carries in his face a certificate of
gluttony or drunkenness or lechery we read his
character without an interpreter, and know that
he tramples upon the laws of Nature. Let us
beware—there are other methods of breaking
the laws of our being. It is a sin to sleep in an
unventilated room, when you have strength
enough in your fist to break a pane of glass or
knock a hole through the wall. The atmos
phere is forty miles deep, and he who shuts it
out from his lungs need not envy the donkey
its redundancy of ear. It is a sin to cram the
stomach with indigestible food, make it a nest
for breeding sickness and disease. Instinct,
which is the reason of brutes, teaches the cattle
to do better than those human beings do who
make their systems the receptacles of whatever
can be pulverized or melted or torn to pieces,
risking digestion, as a client does a bad case, in
rhe court of chancery.
Letter from Gerrit Smith.—We re
cently asked Gerrit Smith to write us an ar
ticle on the effects of bad habits, such as smok
ing, chewing, drinking, night-sessions of Con
gress and dissipation upon legislation. We
did not get the article we desired, but we received
the following epistle, which we share with our
readers:
“ Peterboro’, August 29, 1866.
“Miller, Wood & Co.—Dear Sirs: I thank
you for the July and August numbers of your
very useful periodical, and for the honor you
have done me in inviting me to write for it.
I regret that I can not accept your invitation.
My excuse for not accepting it is, that I am an
old man (in my 70th year) and am hurried with
labor.
“ But you do not lack writers. Some of our
very ablest writers are at your service. How
sad that the pen of dear John Pierpont has
fallen from his hand! I read with great pleas
ure his article on Personal Habits 1
“ Please continue to send me your periodical.
Inclosed are two dollars to pay for a year’s sub
scription.
“ Respectfully yours,
“GERRIT SMITH.”
Scientific Nonsense.—The scientific
column of an exchange contains the following
bit of scientific nonsense:
“ Production of Quinine in the Body.—It
has recently been ascertained beyond a doubt
that there exists in the bodies of man and ani
mals a fluorescent substance nearly precisely
identical with vegetable quinine. This newly
discovered substance of the animal body is called
animal quinoidine. The discover suggests that
the injurious effects which sometimes follow the
taking of a dose of quinine may arise from its
doubling the quantity already in the system.”
�HERALD OLIIIEALW
Woman’s Dress.—The New York Tri
bune, which is not afraid to speak favorably on
any subject it thinks right, has the following on
Woman’s Dress:
“ The Quaker who wears a broad-brimmed
hat, the Sister of Charity, with her white hood,
have conscientious rights which fashionable men
and women are bound to respect. The man who
works in his shirt-sleeves on a warm day is to
be excused on account of the weather. There
is a cool plea for all the fashions of Saratoga
and the breeziest watering-places; but the woman
who intended to protect her modesty by wearing
a dress not quite in fashion, shocked the fine
nerves of a Metropolitan policeman, and would
have done a very wrong thing had not Commis
sioner Acton decided in fact that a woman has
a right to dress as modestly as she can. No one
doubts that the garb worn by Dr. Mary Walker
is more modest and comfortable than the one in
vogue, though not, perhaps, so handsome. But,
if ladies, can not go to the sea-shore, can not
fully enjoy a country ramble in vaction time, or
ride on horseback, or go up into high places
without suffering exposure and entanglement
from a dress which can be worn safely only in
the. house or on promenade, who should com
plain if women rebel against the dressmaker,
just as Nature itself protests against the dress ?
‘ Norah Creina’s gown’ might have been very
poetical; but, as we infer from the] poet’s lan
guage, it was a very bad one for mountain
breezes. It is almost idle to talk of hygiene,
and dumb-bells, and gymnasia for girls, when
woman herself has so little liberty for out-door
exercise, enjoyment and travel.
“In short, we respect the present Woman’s
Dress Reform as a protest from the modest. So
long as the prevailing fashion is condemned by
every lady physician who has worn it, what
shall men say ? We observe, too, that the
strong-minded are not the greatest sufferers by
it—it is the signal and shroud of the weakness
of the weakest. How does it suit the daily task
and slender purse of a woman who must work
like a man for less wages, and pass through
crowds of man loungers on her way home ?
Why should not these things be said and dis
cussed ? It seems to us that the future is not
far off, when, if the plea of toiling and sorrow
ing woman be heard, new opportunities must
be given her ; and, accordingly, she must dress
herself for more earnest tasks, and, for her own
sake and man’s, bear him more constant com
pany.”
175
scrape the skin off and then roast them. Tn se
lecting potatoes, remember the smaller the eye
the better the potato. By' cutting a piece' from
the thickest end, you can tell whether they are
sound. They must be either white or pink,
according to the kind. Always select beans
without spots. Mushrooms should be selected
with great care. It is better and safer never to
use them when they are old; this can be told
by the blackness of the comb underneath, before
picking; when young it is of a pink color.”
In regard to the use of vegetables he has the
following, together with a savage hit at Vegeta
rianism :
“ Although I am strongly in favor of much
vegetable food in th.6 spring and summer, I am
by no means an apostle of the Vegetarian creed
—Graham bread and like eccentricities. I pity
persons of that persuasion, but have no wish to
imitate them in spite of the proverb:
“ ‘ First learn to pity, then embrace.’
“ The mind has its diseases as well as the body,
and I think Vegetarianism is one of them.”
We presume Vegetarians will not object to
allow Prof. Blot to have his fling at them, al
though it is founded in ignorance. There are
many arguments in favor of an almost or quite
exclusive vegetable diet as the best food for man,
which it is more easy to get over by such asser
tions than by argument.
Letter erom an Old Man.—We have
in out drawer several letters from men nearly
one hundred years old waiting for publication.
We give in this number the following from Aus
tin Johnson of Rupert, Vt.:
“ Publishers of the Herald oe Health—
You, in your last, speak of my communicating
what I might have that was interesting. In
this, there perhaps was reference to my bodily
state and habits. As to that, I have only to say
I have been a good deal infirm through life ;
yet it has providentially been so ordered that I
have taken but little drug medicine to poison
the system. I never used alcoholic beverages
habitually, and have long since discontinued
their use entirely. Tobacco I have had no fel
lowship with. Hot drinks were never much of
an object, and for years have been rejected.
Flesh food is but little used—pork never. But
ter has been set aside. My bread is made of un
bolted grain—the object is to subsist by means
Cooking Vegetables.—Professor Blot of plain, wholesome food. Thus living, my
speaks, in one of his articles on the art of dining, stay on earth is proti acted (I am now in my
80th year), and I think dieting has a connec
on cooking vegetables as follows:
“Dry vegetables, like beans, peas, etc., should tion with longevity.
“ Yours truly,
AUSTIN JOHNSON.”
be put over the fire in cold, soft water, after
having been soaked in lukewarm water—beans
Skin Diseases.—Skin diseases have
for twenty-four hours. Potatoes should be
steamed but never boiled. Steam with the skin often enough been attributed to parasites. A
on. Bear in mind that a potato must never be medical authority, however, more rationally de
peeled; the part immediately under the skin clares they are caused by filth and bad habits,
contains the most nutriment. Cut out the germs
or eyes, if any; if young and tender the skin the parasites taking up their abode in the filthy
can be taken off with a scrubbing-brush; if old, person as soon as the egg has been deposited.
�176
HERALD OF HEALTH!
“The observations by means of the mi
croscope of Mr. Hogg afford proof that veg
etable parasites do not, as hitherto supposed,
produce disease of the skin, but that when cer
[Written for The Herald of Health.]
tain diseases already exist, germs of those float
The “ Mild Hunger Cure” for
ing about in the atmosphere, finding it a suitable
soil, greatly aggravate or even change the type
Cancer.
of disease. These diseases have long been be
lieved to be associated with neglect of person
BY REV. H. N. STRONG.
and bad air; but Mr. Erasmus Wilson, who has
It was in the latter part of August, 1864,
written several books upon skin diseases, states
that in an unhealthy state of the body the re when Mrs. Strong and myself were making a
newed epidermis is unhealthy. Therefore, the short excursion into Crawford County, that I
cutaneous diseases are never caused by parasites.”
noticed an uneasy sensation near my left ear
and in close proximity to the point of the jaw.
Effects of Alcohol.—If the effects of There seemed to be a slight swelling and a litalcohol could be confined solely to the person tle pimple. It increased in size as rapidly as a
who uses it, its use might be tolerated ; but as boil, but soon had an appearance reminding one
it is not, we can not wage too fierce a war against of an acorn, having a rim around it on the out
it and tobacco, its elder brother. Both, when side,KhenBa depression, and a rising again in
used, are enemies to the race, and their effects the middle. I kept on it most of the time a
are visited too often upon the children of those salve prepared by Mrs. L*****, who is known
who use them. Dr. Jolly rightly pictures it:
to be a woman of medical skill and experience.
“ In every country the statistics of the amount As far as any external application effected any
of alcohol imbibed preciselScorrespond with the thing toward a cure, let that have the credit.
number of judicial sentences recorded in law re I changed twice to other external applications,
ports of the year, as well as with the number
of poor, of beggars, of vagabonds, of divorced but can not say that I perceived any difference
husbands and wives, of idiot children, of sui in the effect, but the application first spoken of
cides, murders, and of epileptics and lunatics was most convenient, and I thought it bad a
inscribed on State registers.”
softening effect. It was also necessary to keep
JtMc.overed. as it soon had an offensive smell
Salt.—Our friend and Subscriber, S. when uncovered, and discharged matter, appa
Howe, writes that he is 70 years old, and that rently, from different points in the ulcer. It
he abandoned the use of salt thirty-five years was also necessary to keep a handkerchief or
ago; that he enjoys life now as well as in his othe^ bandage un'der my chin and over my
younger days; that there are few boys who can head, as the dischar ging matter would other
go through more vigorous gymnastic exercises wise loosen the patch that was on the cheek.
or dances than he. He concludes his letter with As the autumn months passed away it was nothe foHowing:
ticed by several persons, and was spoken of as
“ I am fully convinced that had I continued a cancer. Cancer doctors were recommended
using stimulants and condiments with my diet, by some. I was told of some that effected a
I should have been in my grave years ago.”
sure cure for fifty dollars. I once showed it to
Dr. Hyde of Lancaster, who is known to be an
A Promise we Hope will be Keptajeducated and skillful surgeon and physician.
“ Hancock School, Boston, Mass., )
He exclaimed, “That is a bad thing!” I re“ September
1866. J
“ Dear Sir—On my return from a pleasant va plied : “ I suppose so, but not the worst thing
cation among the mountains and valleys of New in the world.” He answered, “ I don’t know.”
Hampshire on Saturday, I found among my
A little after I was in Hazel Green, at the
letters yours of August 11. You allude to. my
notions on school punishment. I am a radical, house of Mr. York. Mr. York’s physician then
and conduct a large school (having nearly twelve saw it and gave the same decision. Mr. York,
hundred pupils) without the ferule or its equiv a druggist, furnished me with a vial of iodide of
alent, or the common scold or its spirit in any
form. In October or November I may find time potassa, which I was to take as an alterative
to place my views on paper. If they would be preparatory to eradicating it, either by the knife
of any service, I know of no better organ for or a caustic application. This was by Dr.
their dissemination than your valuable journal.
As Editor of The Massachusetts Teacher for Jenekes’s prescription.
On my way home I called with Mr. John
years, I have read The Hehald of Health,
and think it one of the most sensible and useful Jenkyn, who read to me in the “Hydropathic
magazines in the United States. You are doing Encyclopedia” (I think) concerning cancer.
good, and may God bless you.
What most arrested my attention was “The
“ Very sincerely,
W. E. SHELDON.”
HJisrtllanms.
�HERALD OF HEALTH.
Hunger Cure.” A work of Dr. Lamb on “ pure
jMffigand vegetable diet” in case of cancer was
referred to. I read two other medical works on
cancers. I took the alterative—I abstained from
meat and butter, and tea and coffee. I sent for
Dr. Lamb’s work and read it attentively, but
must say the additions by the American Editor
were the most satisfactory to me.
In December I took the charge of a small
school a few miles from home. In January the
appearance of the cancer was worse than ever
before. The lancinating pains were more se
vere. I was advised to make no more delay.
One says: “You had better sell your little
property, if it is necessary, to raise the money.
What,” says he, “ is fifty or sixty dollars in .the
case of such a thing as a cancer.” But it was
fixed in my mind that a cancer do^K* was, to
say the least, about as much to be dreaded as a
cancer itself. Now I thought I had a right to
be my own doctor, and I reasoned thus: This
ulcer is an enemy; Nature is a friend that is
fighting the enemy. How shall I best aid Na
ture in the contest ? The answer seemed plain:
Only cut off the supplies which the enemy
gets and notice the result. But, I am told,
Nature calls for nourishing food, and enough of
it; yet, in that case, the enemy appropriates so
much as to gain strength and give increased
trouble. I have taken the alterative; I have
been abstemious, but the enemy gains strength.
I wash it twice a day and keep on a salve, yet the
prospect is gloomy as ever. One man in this
place had died with a cancer near his ear. I
now resolved I would adopt the “ hunger cure.”
Accordingly, I had my wife bakercorn-bread for
me; at first it was about one-fifth flour and fourfifths corn-meal. This was my food and cold
water was my drink. I took rations for five
days when I left home for my school, which
was sometimes on Sunday evening and some
times on Monday morning. As to the bread, it
was once made entirely of corn-meal, but gen
erally a small amount of flour was mixed with
it. It was baked so as to make as much crust
as convenient. I warmed it on the stove at the
house where I stayed or at the school-house, as
might happen, and so it was harder and harder as
it became older. Fortunately, I have twenty
eight pretty good teeth given me by Nature.
The first week Nature seemed to say : I can ap
propriate all of this, and the enemy can not get
any. Every night and morning I washed the
sore carefully with soft water and castile soap. I
could not see it, but I had a feeling of encouragement, and when I reached home on Friday
night one of my daughters soon came to wash
177
and dress it. She made an exclamation of sur
prise and joy at its altered appearance, which
was so much for the better. In short, by thus
withholding supplies from the enemy, and taking
no more than Nature could appropriate, possibly
not near so much, and persevering about seven
weeks, the cancer was all removed and a perfect
cure effected. I used to go as often as I could
to visit a friend who always furnished me mushand-milk for supper. At first I took less than
half a pint of milk and but little mush. This
I did not more than three or four times in the
seven weeks. My wife also put up, two or three
times, a little dried beef and two or three crack
ers. This was not my choice, but I took what
was provided. But the cora crust relished bet
ter than any thing else. If I had been sup
plied with good Graham crackers I should have
been satisfied »|uMi knew that crackers or
bread made of fine flour would not answer.
My stomach and bowels appeared to be in good
order; I was hungry all the time, and evidently
became weaker. My school was not very labo
rious, and I did new lose a day. “But,” says
one, E why call it the ‘Mild Hunger Cure?’”
Because I took so much good food and drank
just as much Sold water as I wanted. Had I
not been engaged as I was, and had determined
on the “Strong Hunger Cure,” I might have
taken two or three crackers, three times a day,
and drank nothing for some hours after eating.
As it was, I suppose I averaged about as much
as four large crackers three times a day, and
drank water from the spring whenever I felt
like it, I am sure that in my case the “ Mild
Hunger Cure” proved to be effective.
It seems to me that I ought not to close
this communication without mentioning the cost
of cure, though there are those who would
prefer one that cost a hundred dollars to a cure
that required hunger and saved the money.
The man with whom I lodged and boarded till
I determined on the corn-bread rations, in con
sequence of my course, threw off ten dollars
from his bill. But, to be particular, I can not
say that ten dollars was saved, for what I took
from home cost something. It need not be es
timated at more than five cents a day. Twentyfive cents a week for seven weeks would be one
dollar and seventy-five cents.
The book (Dr. Lamb’s, above referred to)
cost me
.................... , $1 50
'Cost of the seven weeks,....................
1 75
Total amount,................................. $3 25
Which, deducted from the ten dollars thrown
off from my board-bill, leaves six dollars and
�HERALD OF HEALTH..
178
seventy-five cents actually gained by the “ Mild
Hunger Cure,” not to speak of the fifty dollars’
fee to a cancer doctor saved by being my own
physician, I was at the time in my sixtieth
year.
Lancaster, Wis., July 25, 1866.
["Written for The Herald of Health.]
A Prevailing Malady.
BY F. G.
meet pale faces and sunken eyes con
stantly. This shows an error. The error is in
the abuse of the common diet of life ; not al
ways, but generally. Too much food is the
great evil of the day, because it is so very com
mon and has its allurements—we gratify and
eat too much. This is the main cause of the
pale faces and haggard countenances we meet.
The remedy is simple: Eat less. And yet who
does it ? Few, because it requires moral cour
age, just the thing which is affected, which is
part of the pale face and sunken eye. The dys
peptic is diseased mentally, morally and physcally. Of all beings the most miserable is the
confirmed dyspeptic. His mind is disturbed,
his moral feeling is blunted and disordered, and
his body suffers. For what is he fit? He is fit
for nothing, not even for “ stratagem and spoils.’ ’
He drones his time away—years, a score some
times—and his whole life is a blank. If that
were all, it would not be so bad ; but it is a most
wretched, miserable blank, full of vapors, gloom
and forebodings. The mind is the torment of
the man, making appear real what is unreal,
and exaggerating evil. The little good that
the.man gets is also exaggerated, and this puts
him all around in a false position. His judg4
ment is not reliable, though once so correct;
his imagination plays tricks with him, deceiving
him constantly by magnifying its doings. In
a word, the man is morbid—mentally, morally
and physically. It took him long to get into
this state. He got into it by degrees, almost
ere he was aware. Ah, the insinuating habit of
alluring the system, which God had made right,
but which man is wronging constantly ! This
great evil is all brought about by littles—a lit
tle excess which breaks the back of the camel.
Here is the danger. And here is the remedy :
Avoid the littles—the little excesses ; they seem
to be always at the end of our meals. Then
cut off that end—that cup of tea or coffee, that
dessert or other dainty. This course would
generally succeed.
We must guard against the excesses; nobody
calls them such. At the time they may give
We
rise only to a little uneasiness, a little headache
or sluggishness of feeling. The brain acts less,
as it always does when oppressed, overstrained;
as it does through the sympathetic channels.
After awhile these symptoms will cease, and the
eyesight seems to be clouded momentarily; the
man will soon be prepared to re-enact the same
thing. By-and-by, in the course of his persist
ence, there will be more uneasiness after his
meal, greater headache and dullness. There
will be other symptoms gradually stealing upon
him. There will be slight pains here and there;
beginning, perhaps, in his chest; felt between
his shoulders and in his left side. He will
gradually become nervous, lose flesh—though
not always at first—his hearing is affected, there
is a ringing and other unusual sounds, which
sometimes greatly frighten him. Sometimes he
even will get dizzy and almost fall. He is apt
now to have bad sleep and worse dreams, so.
that night becomes a dreaded time to him. So
ciety begins to be distasteful to him; sometimes
he seeks it as if to get rid of the evil that fol
lows him. But he can not shake it off. It fol
lows him because it is himself. These unpleas
ant accompaniments increase; they increase
both in intensity and in number. New symp
toms are constantly evolved, new evils attack,
until the individual is a walking load of evils.
At last he becomes confirmed. And now it is
as difficult to remove these evils as it was easy
to get them, and it takes as long often to dp it.
Why does it take so long ? It seems to be in
the nature of the case, perfecting the work by
slow process. But it is the long weakening,
the constant sapping, that at last undermines,
and establishes, as it were, a second nature.
The difficulty in removing this evil is in the
moral courage of the man; he has it not.
Though he may resolve a thousand times, a
thousand times he breaks his resolve, or rather
it breaks itself. It is so difficult to resist, when
you have nothing to resist with, no courage or
a momentary thing, only seeming strong at the
time (when the resolve takes place), but impo
tent when the trial comes. So the drunkard,
he has no strength of will left, and the dyspep
tic is but a drunkard in another sense.
What, then, is to be done ? for this is a great
evil and must be met, if possible. The remedy
is, put a watch and tie upon the man; he him
self is not capable of doing it. Or you must
leave him to himself, to the risk of becoming
worse, and perhaps of dying, or, if he has self
regard left, to be forced into reformation. He
may prefer mending his ways to a worse evil—
to dissolution, for death has sometimes horrible
�HERALD OF HEALTH.
jpctures for the stomach-ridden invalid. Medicines, the world has long since decided, are of
no good in dyspepsia. They may aid in some
respects, as time aids, but always at the expense
of original power. Time and medicine will kill
any man prematurely. The poor afflicted pa
tient must, first of all, remove the cause. He
may have been doctoring for years, piling evil
upon evil, while the cause, “ like a worm i* the
bud,” remained. This is a double abuse of poor
nature. Throw aside this incubus, the whole of
it; stop aggravating the wound it has made;
lessen your food, which a false appetite urges
you on to partake, and flatters you that all is
right—it is the false “syren song” that accom
panies all dyspeptics.
Break off, then, what should never have been
indulged in—the little excesses of the table. If
you are a laboring man, more food will be re
quired ; less if a man of sedentary habits, and
especially of literary habits, which weaken the
stomach additionally through sympathy. This
is the absolute, indispensable condition of all
cures. Without it, aggravation can only make
the matter worse, and the patient continue as
he has—a wretched, suffering man, the “ iron in
his heart” wherever he goes. Resolutely, then,
stop this excess. And this is enough. If any
nature is left, any strength, it will develop; it
will grow up as a plant long kept down—never
so thrifty thereafter, but still having life and
being—and infinitely better than the smothered,
strangled thing with the weight upon it.
We have spoken of dyspepsia as it is gener
ally brought on, through the stomach and the
food. “ Strong drink” will sometimes do this,
excesses in venery, excesses of many kinds, if
not of all, all tending to affect the stomach, the
organ of tenderness. But whatever the excess
which produced the evil, it must be stopped—
the stomach must be favored. There are other
things that aid, but the great thing is to remove
the cause and keep it removed. This is the allimportant point, and it is sufficient. With it a
cure can be effected; without it, it can not.
Cheerfulness of society, it is said, is a good ad
dition ; so is traveling in strange lands; so is
exercise. But always make a clean bottom by
removing the exciting cause. To do this, self
must not be gratified, but mortified; it must be
done, however unpalatable. Yet, how little it
is done, as the million of sufferers testify. It
is so hard to do, because there is a lack of power;
not that the evil is so strong—it is we that are
weak, we dyspeptics. Had the man the usual
strength which he had in health he would easily
floor his adversary. But this he lacks, andjffiis
179
is the evil;Jh.e can hardly cure himself. He
does it, however; it is being done daily. Were
it not, what would become of us as a nation ?
of the world ? The evil frequently cures itself;
it is perhaps hard to say in how many cases.
This is fortunate, that it bears its own correc
tion. But it is also unfortunate that it must be
strained to such an extent—till the machine is
almost ruined. Better begin in time, and save
the wreck while its timbers are yet sound.
The friends of these sufferers have a respon
sibility. It becomes them to see that they are
aided, forced, if need be—and it generally needs
to be. Aid them, then; be a will to them in
place of theirs, which is impotent. It will not
do to leave a man unaided in his “ vapors he
is not himself; he must be taken care of; he
suffers more than you are aware of. Leave him
not rudderless at the mercy of the winds.[Written for The Herald of Health.]
How to Bathe.
BY E. P. MILLER, M. ».
Who does not know the great luxury of a
good, a refreshing, inspiriting bath ? How light
and joyous it makes one feel! I bless God every
day for water, for the pure, soft, sparkling wa
ter ! I love it everywhere! I love to see it fall
ing from the clouds, dripping from the eaves, or
showering from the green leaves; or, I love it
as it comes bubbling from the crystal spring or
rippling in the rivulet, dashing down the moun
tain brook or rushing in the rapid river, foaming
and gushing in the cataract, spreading out clear
and glassy in the silver lake, or raising and fall
ing in the majesty of the boundless and illimit
able sea.
It is an emblem of beauty, purity and virtue.
It is abundant everywhere; more than threequarters of our entire, being is water. Life can
be longer sustained without food than without
water. It is necessary to our life, health and
enjoyment now, and to our future and eternal
happiness. “ Except ye be born of water and of
the spirit, ye can not enter heaven.” Bathing
may mean something more than simple sprink
ling or pouring or immersion./ It may have been
but a type of the grand use of water for the fu
ture physical, mental and moral regeneration of
the race. “ I say unto you the kingdom of
heaven is within you.” Many of our sins have
a physical origin, which a right application of
water helps to wash away. “ Cleanliness is next
to godliness.” Those persons who bathe and
keep themselves cleanly in all their habits, are
apt to be moral and virtuous. Thieves, liars,
�180
HERALD OF HEALTHi
pickpockets, drunkards and gluttons, seldom
bathe. Health, cleanliness, temperance, good
ness and virtue are associates. Disease, filth,
gluttony, vice and crime seek the same haunts.
That man is not a very good Christian who never
takes a bath, and he who takes a daily bath is
not a very great sinner.
Being born of water is necessary to regenera
tion, and regeneration necessary to salvation
from sin. Bathing ought to constitute a pait of
every Church creed in Christendom. Water is
a great cleanser and purifier. It will remove
the dirt and filth when applied externally, and
carry away impurities when taken internally.
The seven millions of little pores and the
twenty-eight miles of little sewers that are con
stantly carrying off the waste and useless mate
rial of the body, will perform their tasks much
more easily if plenty of water passes through
them to wash away their accumulations.
There are a great variety of ways of taking
baths. There is a right way and a wrong way.
A certain bath may be taken so as to do good, or
it may be so taken as to do harm. The effect
produced by any bath depends very much upon
how the bath is administered. There is much
harm done by injudicious bathing. Some per
sons are soaking themselves in water all the time.
They get an idea that bathing is good, and that
the more they bathe the better.
No person should take a bath without secur
ing a comfortable reaction after it. If they feal
cold, have chilly sensations or unpleasent feel
ings, the probabilities are they have not derived
much benefit from the bath. It may be neces
sary for sick and feeble persons to be covered
warm in bed, in order to produce the desired
effect. There are very few people so feeble but
that a bath of some form will be beneficial, if
administered judiciously. All things considered,
one of the mildest and best home baths is the
SPONGE OR TOWEL BATH.
This is a universal bath, and is within the
reach of all. It can be given to those who are
too feeble to take any other form of bath. A
pint of water and a couple of towels or a sponge
and one towel, will answer to give it, although
it is better to use a gallon or more of water
when it is convenient to do so. It is an excel
lent bath for any one to take in the absence of
other more thorough baths. It will cleanse the
skin quite thoroughly and will equalize the cir
culation, relieve local congestion, subdue fever
and give a general feeling of freshness and com
fort. It can be taken in the sleeping-room, in
the parlor, library, or even in a closet, if no
larger accommodations are to be had. For per
sons who are able to stand and take their own
baths, and like to use water quite freely, it is
well to spread a rubber or oil cloth a yard square
or more upon the floor, set your bucket of cool
or cold water in the center, dip the sponge or
towel in the water, and, when in readiness,
squeeze the water from the towel or sponge, so
that it will not drip too much, and begin by
washing the face, head, neck and arms first, rub
bing vigorously till the skin looks red; then
wipe them dry with a dry towel; the chest, ab
domen and back can be washed and wiped in the
same manner; lastly, the lower extremities. If
you rub vigorously with the wet towel or sponge
and the same with the dry one, you will secure
a fine reaction and will feel warm and refreshed.
It should be given quickly and vigorously, and
the clothing should be put on at once; then go
out for a good sprightly walk or for some light
gymnastic exercise.
This bath can be given to very feeble persons
while in bed by using a soft towel or sponge just
moistened in tepid water, washing, drying, and
covering each part of the body as you progress.
In all forms of fevep, or in any disease where
there is difficulty in moving the patient or in ad
ministering more vigorous baths, this is the saf
est and fflS bath to use. In a fever where there
is much heat of skin, it may be given every hour
or two, and if properly applied will always be
beneficial.
Thoughts fob Young Men.—Costly ap-,
paratus and splendid cabinets have no magical
power to make scholars. In all circumstances,
as man is under God, the master of his own for
tune, so he is the former of his own mind. The
Creator has so constituted the human intellect,
that it can grow only by its own action, and by
its own action it roost certainly and necessarily
grows. Every man must, therefore, in an im
portant sense, educate himself. His books and
teachers are but helps; the work is his., A man
is not educated until he has the ability to sum
mon, in case of emergency, all his mental power
in vigorous exercise to effect his proposed object.
It is not the man who has seen the most, or has
read most, who can do this ; such a one is in dan
ger of being borne down, like a beast of burden,
by an over-loaded mass of other men’s thoughts.
Nor is it the man that can boast merely of
native vigor and capacity. The greatest of all
the wariors that went to the siege of Troy, had
not the pre-eminence because nature had given
him strength and he carried the largest bow, but
because self-discipline taught him how to bend it. I
�HERALD OF HEALTH;
Mute ®reahntiif uf Jisrase.
BY E. P. MILLER, M. D.
KF" Tn this department we shall give, from, month to
month, plain, practical directions for the home-treatment
of various diseases.
Bilious Colic.—This disease prevails most
in malarious districts in the summer and autumn
months. It is generally preceded by loss of ap
petite, by bad taste in the mouth, by furred
tongue, by nausea, by constipation of the bow
els, and by other evidences of derangement of
the digestive organs. There is often tenderness
in the region of the liver; and, after the dis
ease is well established, there will be a yellow
ish color of the skin and of the white of the
eye. It sometimes commences with a chill, and
is attended with more or less fever. The par
oxysms of pain are referable to the epigastric
region,- are very severe, and are usually accom
panied by vomiting—first of the contents of the
stomach, then of mucus and bile. The bow
els, though generally constipated, sometimes
discharge their contents freely, accompanied
with a liberal admixture of bilious matter.
The jaundice, associated with pain in the region
of the liver, and nausea and vomiting, are the
characteristic symptoms of this disorder. De
rangement of the digestive functions and ob
struction to the action of the liver are the causes
of this variety of bilious colic.
There is one form of bilious colic that is due
to the passage of the gall-stones through the
cystic or common duct, along which the gall
passes on its course from the gall-bladder to the
intestines. The passage of gall-stones (or bil
iary calculi, as they are sometimes called) of
large size, occasions the most aggravating cases
of bilious colic. The severity of the attack de
pends upon the size and irregularity of shape of
the gall-stones. These gall-stones are usually
formed in the gall-bladder, though sometimes,
they originate in the hepatic duct, or even in the
cells of the body of the liver They are formed
from cholestrine, a substance which enters into
the composition of the bile, and which, in a
healthy condition of that excreta, is in a state
of solution. ' In certain morbid conditions of the
bile this substance is released from its solvent
state, and readily crystalizes into masses of va
rious sizes which soon become as hard as stone.
These calculi vary in size, from a millet seed to
that of a large walnut', and are generally quite
irregular in shape. The duct through which
they pass from the gall-bladder to the intestines
181
is not larger than a goose-quill; the reader may
well imagine the pain and agony a person has
to endure when calculi of large size and of ir
regular shape are forced through so small a tube.
I think I have seen as intense suffering from the
passage of large calculi as from almost any
other cause.
They are often found in large numbers. Dr.
Watson of Edinburgh reports one case in
which thirteen hundred gall-stones were taken
from the gall-bladder of a man after death had
occurred. I have in my possession five, which I
obtained from a post-mortem examination, which
are the size of large cherries, flattened to a threesided figure, and which completely filled the
gall-bladder from which they were taken.
Persons who have once passed gall-stones are
quite liable to repeat the process. In some cases
several will pass in the same day; in other cases
weeks, months or even years will intervene be
tween the attacks. When one of large size has
passed, it is liable to so dilate the duct that, if
there are others remaining behind, they follow
in the wake of the first one till they are all out.
If the patient passes a single round, smooth
stone, it is an indication that there are no more
left behind; but if mey are flattened and irregulJBt is an evidence that they were made so
by being in contact with others. These gall
stones, when they are forced through the duct,
go into the intestines and are passed out with
the feces, where they can be found by a careful
examination.
Sometimes a calculus of large size becomes im
pacted in the duct, and remains there till in
flammation is set up, ulceration takes place, and
a fistulous, artificial passage is formed for its
exodus. This fistulous passage may be formed
through,‘into the intestines, or into the cavity of
the abdomen, or out through the abdominal
walls, discharging them externally through the
abdomen. After the false passage has formed
and the gall stones worked out through them,
either into the intestines or externally through
the walls of the abdomen, the inflammation may
subside, the parts heal and the patient get well;
but if it works through into the cavity of the
abdomen it causes a peritonitis that generally
proves fatal. Happily, such cases are seldom
seen, for in the great majority of cases they
pass through the natural course of the duct and
pass out of the intestines.
The paroxysms of pain in this disease gener
ally commence suddenly, and end as suddenly,
as it began. It may last only for a few min
utes, or it may continue for several hours.
There is usually some tenderness on pressure
�182?
HERALD OF HEALTH.
over the seat of pain, but generally firm pres resort to opiates or something that will produce
sure affords some relief, and the patient often entire insensibility to pain, and even these often
places the palm of the hand over the place, or fail to relieve till they are given in quantities
leans the body against some hard substance to that endanger life. The pain can be greatly
find ease. There is no fever; the pulse is not mitigated, however, by the full hot bath, say
quickened, but is irritable ? the skin is cold and one hundred and five or one hundred and ten
generally tinged with yellow; there will be degrees, prolonged for several minutes, or by the
nausea and vomiting,- with obstinate constipa hot hip-bath or by fomentations. These appli
tion, together with a dark-colored urine which cations not only mitigate the pain, but they re
contains bile.
lax the tissues, so that the calculi pass more
The passage of these gall-stones through the readily through the duct. In all cases of this
duct is mainly due to the pressure of bile, which kind the bowels should be relieved of their con
accumulates behind them in the gall-bladder, tents by injections, and, if there is much nausea,
forcing them along. When considerable time is an emetic of warm water given. After the pain
required for the passage the bile can not pass out, is relieved the tepid compress should be kept
and is retained in the blood and carried the applied to the part for several days, and a daily
rounds of the circulation, giving a jaundiced pack given in the forenoon, with a hip-bath at
hue to the skin and eyes.
eighty degrees for ten or fifteen minutes in the
Treatment.—In a case of bilious colic un evening.
connected with gall-stones, we should first try
After being cured the patient should try to
to move the bowels by copious enemas, and if live in such a manner as to avoid the formation
there is nausea give a warm-water emetic to of gall-stor^M I have had several patients Who
free the stomach of its contents also; then ap were subject to repeated spasms from gall-stones,
ply hot fomentations to the liver and stomach who subsequently escaped for years by adopting
for an hour or more to relieve the pain. Fol the Hygienic style of living.
low this by a full tepid bath or rubbing-sheet.
Injurious Effects of Sugar.—Mr.
A hip-bath at one hundred and five or one hun
dred and ten degrees, with a foot-bath of the Tanner, Professor of Rural Economy in Queen’s
same temperature, for twenty or thirty minutes, College, is inclined to believe that by the use of
accompanied with vigorous friction of the hips, sugar as food any animal can be rendered incom
back and abdomen, will do good, and answer in petent to propagate its species. He observes that
place of the fomentations when the bath is not stock which had been fattened upon molasses
convenient. The fomentations and hot hip mixed with dry food were rendered barren, and
baths will generally relieve the pain very soon. that heifers fed in that way escaped the periodi
In some cases, however, the cold compress or cal excitement of the breeding season; and it
cool hip-bath may be used to advantage instead was doubtful whether the power of reproduction
of hot appliances. The tepid compress should was ever regained. The effect of eating sugar,
be applied for some time after the fomentations in females, was a fatty augmentation of the
and baths have been used. After the pain is ovaries, from which recovery might be rather
relieved the vapor bath, the Turkish bath or the difficult.
wet-sheet pack should be given daily (if the pa
Cause of the Blue Colob of the Sky.
tient be not too feeble) for several days, till the
secretions become healthy and the bile is re Tyndall has shown, by a remarkable series of
moved from the blood. These applications experiments, not only that aqueous vapor ab
should be followed by either a thorough towel sorbs the obscure heat rays of solar radiation,
bath, a rubbing wet-sheet, or, what is perhaps but that the oxygen and nitrogen gases which
better, a pail-douche or full bath. The feet constitute the great mass of our atmosphere ex
must be kept warm by foot-baths or hot bottles ert but little or no action on them. Cooke, after
applied to them.
a long continued examination of the solar spec
No food should be given till the paroxysms trum, concludes that a very large number of
of pain subside, and after that only the blandest the fainter dark lines of the spectrum, hitherto
kind of food should be given for a few days. known as air-lines, are due solely to the aque-'
The treatment should be followed up assidu ous vapors of our air. The distribution of these
ously till the pain is relieved.
aqueous lines, and the variation in them, marked
During the passage of gall-stones it is gener by a remarkable increase, with the increase of
ally impossible to entirely relieve the pain till aqueous vapor in the atmosphere, point to the
the stone has passed out of the duct, unless we cause of the blue color of the sky.
�HERALlFOF HEALTH.
to (fomspmiimifs.
BY A. 1. WOOD, M. D.
MfSF" The readers of The Herald are invited to ask such
questions as will be of general interest for this depart
ment, where they will be briefly but comprehensively an
swered.
How we Escaped a Pestilence.—
“ It was generally thought, last spring, that, on
account of the filthy condition of the city, New
York would suffer from cholera during the
summer as it never had suffered before ; but
still it has escaped with a comparatively slight
visitation. By what means has it thus escaped
9, pestilence ?”
Cholera is a disease which is pre-eminently the
offspring of filth. It feeds, so to speak, upon it,
and when deprived of its aliment it disappears.
When the Metropolitan Board of Health com
menced its labors the city was ripe for pestilence.
The streets were in a most filthy condition,
the inmates of the crowded tenement houses and
underground habitations were wallowing in their
own filth, and breathing the fetid emanations
from their own excretions, and the slaughter
houses, fat-boiling establishments, and other nui
sances were sending forth streams of disease
engendering gasses to poison the surrounding
atmosphere. In the face of every obstacle that
could be thrown in its way, the Board has la
bored energetically and faithfully to cleanse and
disinfect the city, and to remove all nuisances.
It has only partially succeeded, it is true, but
its partial success has prevented the cholera
from becoming a pestilence and destroying
thousands instead of hundreds.
The success which has attended the efforts of
the Board in preventing the further spread of the
cholera shows the effects of hygienic conditions
in preventing disease. The labors of the Board
have but just commenced. Cholera is not the
only nor, indeed, the most fatal disease which the
Board of Health possesses the power to “stamp
out” by the enforcement of hygienic regulations.
During the months of July and August there
were 871 deaths from cholera, and 2303 deaths
from other diarrheal diseases alone, to say noth
ing of the large number of deaths from fevers,
and other easily preventible diseases. People
are beginning to learn that disease is not a
“merciful dispensation of Providence,” but a
penalty inflicted for the violation of the laws of
health.
Flatulence.—Flatulence is merely a symp
tom of indigestion. To effect a cure, the
digestive organs most be strengthened and the
digestive powers perfected.
183
Cold. Feet.—“What do cold feet indi
cate? what is the cause, and what the remedy ?
What is the best method of warming them upon
retiring at night ?”
Cold feet indicate an unbalanced state of the
circulation and more or less congestion of the
head or some of the internal organs. Coldness
of the extremities may be caused by any thing
that tends to depress the powers of life, or derang e
the circulation. The remedy is to remove the
cause, whatever it may be, and restore the health.
The feet should always be made warm, in some
way, before retiring to rest. If the person is able
to do so, the best way to warm them is by exercise.
I will mention a few of the best exercises for this
purpose which can be practiced singly or in
succession until the feet glow with warmth.
Walking in various ways, as with the toes turned
in as far as possible; walking with them turned
far out; walking on the tips of the toes; hopping
on one foot and then on the other, then alter
nately, and then on both together; hopping and
crossing the feet; stamping the feet; standing
on one foot and kicking forcibly downward and
forward with the other; swinging the legs for
ward and backward and in a circle; sit in a
chair or on a sofa, and slowly but forcibly bend
the ankle, drawing the toes far up and then
slowly extending them downward as far as pos
sible; twist the feet alternately outward and
inward in the same manner; rotate the feet,
making a large circle with the toes. There are
but few who will be unable to thoroughly warm
their feet in from five to fifteen minutes by prac
ticing the above exercises.
The continued
practice of such exercises will do much toward
permanently equalizing the circulation and re
storing health. For the few who are not strong
enough to warm their feet by exercise, the best
thing is to soak the feet in hot water until they
are red, then turn a little cold water over them
or dip them in cold water, after which wipe dry
and rub briskly with the hands or a dry, coarse
towel.
j
Breathing through the Mouth.—
“ In the culture of the lungs, should we n,ot
breathe through the mouth, making the aper
ture very small ? I admit that generally we
should breathe through the nose, but the nasal
chambers are so large, that we can not fill the
lungs perfectly through the nose. I think that
in a complete inflation of the lungs we should
breathe through the mouth, as we can breathe
so much slower. ”
Any person, with a little practice, can breathe
as slow through the nose as through the mouth,
but no one should occupy more than from five
to ten seconds in inhaling. They can expand
�184
heralit OF HEALTH.
£he lungs to as great an extent in that time as
they can if they are from one to two min
utes in doing it, and if a person only breathes
once in two or three minutes, as some do not
while practicing, the lungs can not receive a sufc ient quantity of air to purify the blood, and the
individual must suffer. In striving to cultivate
the lungs by breathing exercises, endeavor to
fill them to their utmost capacity, but do not try
to see how long you can be in doing it,or how long
you can hold your breath. Remember that you
must breathe while cultivating the lungs, as well
as at other times.
Dyspepsia and Cook Books.—A
subscriber, while ordering “The New Hygienic
Cook Book,” states that he is troubled with
dyspepsia, and wishes to know if there is any
other cook book wherein he can find a good rec
ipe for his case. There are plenty of cook
books in which “ subscriber” can find recipes
for dyspepsia, as, for instance, the following rec
ipe for “ Imperial Cake,” which is but a fair
sample:
“ Two pounds flour, two pounds sugar, two
pounds butter, two pounds raisins, stoned and
chopped, one pound blanched almonds, one half
pound citron, sixteen eggs, four wine-glasses
wine, mace.”
If the eating of food prepared from such rec
ipes as the above will not give a man the
dyspepsia, he might as well give up all hopes
of ever having it. A fashionable cook book is
just the place to find recipes for producing dys
pepsia but not for curing it.
Difficult Breathing arid Gaping.—
“I am troubled about breathing, and have a
strong desire to gape, but can not always make
out. What is the cause and cure ? ”
Gaping is an instinctive effort to secure the
introduction of a greater amount of air to the
lungs. It is generally caused by a want of
sufficient physical exercise.
The curative
measures consist of occupation, fresh air and ex
ercise. For information about breathing, see
article in September Herald of Health, enti
tled “ Culture of the Lungs.”
Man’s Best Drink.—“What constitutes
man’s best and most natural drink under all
circumstances and conditions, and what rules
should be observed in regard to its use ?”
Water, pure and unmixed, is beyond all ques
tion, the bsst and only natural drink of man, as
it is the only drink of every other living being.
It should be drank only when nature calls for it
by the feeling of thirst, and then, slowly and
temperately, until the thrist is quenched. Fol
low the example of the animal creation, and do
not stop eating to wash the food down with
water. If man would live entirely upon fruits,
which make the purest and best food, he would
feel no thirst, and need no drink. The juices of
the fruits would supply a sufficient quantity of
water in its purest possible form.
Morning Walks.—“Is a walk in the
morning before breakfast good for persons in
moderate health, or is some other time better ?
What distance should they walk?”
»
About the middle of the forenoon is the best
time for walking or exercise of any kind. The
system is then in its best condition. A short
walk or other moderate exercise before break
fast is beneficial, but it is not the best time for
severe exertion... The distance which persons in
moderate health should walk depends upon their
strength, endurance and other bodily con
ditions. It should never be continued so as to
produce pain, soreness of the muscles, or fatigue
from which the system can not fully recover by
an hour’s rest.
Nervous Headache.—“What is the
oim®Sjv(#fc headache, and the remedy.”
One of the principal causes, is the use of
tea, coffee, spirituous liquors and tobacco.
Undue mental exertion, loss of sleep, constipa
tion of the bowels, torpidity of the liver, skin,
etc., are also prominent among the causes of this
disease. The remedy consists in removing the
cause, whatever it may be. If habituated to the
use of tea, coffee, alcohol or tobacco, quit them
at once. Avoid much mental exertion, take an
abundance of out-door exercise, bathe frequently
but not in very cold water, eat temperately
of plain, healthful food, avoiding spices, condi
ments, rich cake, pastry, etc., and obey all the
laws of health.
Weak Dungs.—“What is the best work
on the lungs ?”
If by this question is meant the best work on
the care, culture and treatment of weak or dis
eased lungs, I should unhesitatingly recom
mend “ Weak Lungs, and How to Make them
Strong,” by Dr. Dio Lewis. Price, $2 00. It
may be ordered from the office of The Herald
of Health.
Private Queries.—A number of com- ■
munications containing questions of a private
character and of no interest except to the in
quirer have been received. Only questions of
general interest to the readers of The Herald will
be answered in this department. Prescriptions
for the home treatment of special cases of dis
ease, etc., will be sent by letter on receipt of,
$5 00.
�HERALD OF HEALTH.
anir (Mbhntitfs.
THE ONLY ADMISSIBLE HYGIENIC SEASONINGS.
The loudest wail on record—Jonah’s.
‘ Sabbath breakers—The waves at New
port.
■ What perfume is most injurious to
female beauty ? The essence of thyme (time).
. A bachelor discovering his clothes full
of holes, exclaimed, “ Mend I can’t.”
They say that coal oil cures fevers.
We think that it has been creating fevers.
Board or Health—A farmer’s cup
board.
Why is the early grass like a pen
knife ? Because the spring brings out the blades.
Eating ground glass is sure death. It
gives one a permanent pane in the stomach.
Adam and Eve, after finding the apple,,
discovered they were a pair.
A Toast.—Woman: she requires no
eulogy—she speaks for herself.
What ailments are policemen most
afflicted with ? With felons on their hands.
The gayest smilers are often the sadest weepers.
Affectionate times—When every thing
is about as dear as it can be.
When is a blow from a lady welcome ?
When she strikes you agreeably.
A bin has as much head as a great
many authors, and a great deal more point.
11 This is the last rose of summer I” ex
claimed a wag as he rose from his bed on the
31st of August.
Why is the milkman like the whale
that swallowed Jonah ? Because he took the
“ profit” out of the water.
‘‘Ugh ! Him great man I Big Brave !
Take many scalps!” said an Indian, seeing a
window full of wigs.
It has been asked, when^rain falls,
does it ever get up again ? Of course it does—
in dew time.
“We see,” said Swift in one of his
most sarcastic moods, “what God thinks of
riches by the people whom he gives them to.”
Mankind should learn temperance from
the moon—the fuller she gets the smaller her
horns become.
The age of a young lady is now expressed according to the present style of skirts,
by saying, “eighteen springs have passed over
hpr head.”
185
What is the difference between a spider
and a duck. One has its feet perpetually on a
web, and the other a web perpetually on its feet.
A young lady, whose father is improv
ing the family mansion, insists upon having a
beau window put in for her benefit.
A celebrated wit was asked why he
did not marry a young lady to whom he was
much attached. “I know not,” he replied, ex
cept the great regard we have for each other.”
What is the difference between ac
cepted and rejected lovers ? The accepted
kisses the misses, and the rejected misses the
kisses.
“How do you like Shakspeare ?” said a blue
stocking young lady to an old river captain.
“Don’t like her at all madam; she burns too
much wood and carries too little freight.
Prentice, in a wicked lunge at the
very underpinning of society, says, u tilting
hoops, enable the common people, to see a great
deal more of good society than they ever saw
before.”
An honest Hibernian, trundling along
a handcart cWaR1 all his valuables, was ac
costed-Ous : “Well Patrick, you are moving
again I see.” “Faith. I am,” he replied, “for
the times are so hK&ymfe a dale cheaper hiring
handcarts, than paying rints.”
A fellow out West being asked whe
ther the liquor he was drinking was a good
article, replied: “Waal, I don’t know; I guess
so. There EgMonly one queer thing about it:
whenever I wipe my mouth, I burn a hole in
my shirt.”
A boy down East is accustomed to go
out on a railroad track, and imitate the steam
whistle so perfectly, as to decive the officer at
the station. His last attempt proved eminently
successful; the depot master came out and
“switched him off.”
An artist invited a gentleman to criti
cise on a portrait he had painted of Mr. Smith,
who was given to drink. Putting his hand
toward it, the artist exclaimed, “Don’t touch it,
it is not dry.” “Then,” said he, “it can not be
like my friend Smith.”
Drunk vs. Medical Profession.—A
good story is in circulation of a certain doctor,
who sometimes drank a good deal at dinner.
He was summoned one evening to see a lady
patient when he was more than “half seas over,’
and conscious that he w as so. On feeling her
pulse, and finding himself unable to count its
beats, he muttered, “ Drunk, by Jove.” Next
morning, recollecting the circumstance, he was
greatly vexed, and just as he was thinking what
explanation he should offer to the lady, a letter
was put into his hand. “She too well knew,”
said the letter, “that he had discovered the un
fortunate condition in which she was when be
had visited her; and she entreated him to
keep the matter a secret, in consideration of the
inclosed”—a $100 bill.
�186
HERALD OF HEALTH.
There is an old proverb which declares
that none can tell where the shoe pinches eave
he who wears it. The maxim has a thousand
applications. A husband who appears to have
found his wife a good deal less an angel than he
had imagined in the days of his courtship, lets
out some domestic secrets, in the following
graphic manner:
“ I own that she has charming locks
That on her shoulders fall;
What would you say to see the box
In which she keeps them all ?
“ Her taper fingers, it is true,
Are difficult to match ;
I wish, my friend, you only knew,
How terribly they scratch.”
There is no sin we can be tempted to
commit but we shall find a greater satisfaction
in resisting than in committing.—Mason.
New York Medical College for Women.
—We earnestly believe in a medical education for women.
The day is soon coming when all women will be required
to have a thorough education in this direction, not so
much, perhaps, with the view of curing the sick as to keep
well themselves, keep their families well without dosing
and drugging, and that they may rear their children in
health and beauty. There is to-day no college that comes
up to the needed requirements in this respect. The one
mentioned above is one of the best, where much can be
learned. We think_it is doing good, and though we do not
* indorse its mode of practice, we commend it as worthy of
patronage.
Olivet College.—We have received a pam
phlet containing the history of Olivet College, Michigan.
It is from the pen of its President, Rev. N. J. Morrison,
and gives a graphic account of the rise and progress of the
College. Olivet is a town in which there is not a grog
shop nor a gambling-den, and the moral, intellectual and
social influences are such as parents and guardians desire
for the youth under their care. Mr. Philo Parsons of De
troit, a banker and a hearty friend of education, recently
contributed $5000 to support this excellent institution of
learning.
penetrate society and spread through all its varied phases,
as the sun fills the atmosphere with light. We ask the
countenance and aid of all who have faith in the holy
laws of life and the gospel of health. The sick and the
infirm must be cured, and their lives be prolonged ; chil
dren must be taught to observe the rules of physical
health, so that they shall not build up a tottering and
miserable existence’ on the foundation of dyspepsia and
consumption. Darkness which may be felt must be dis
placed by the light and beauty of truth. Physically
speaking, society is badly in need of reconstruction. The
constitution and the laws of health are trampled under
foot. We shun the bath and goblet brimming with water
as though we were afflicted with hydrophobia; we pour
nostrums down our throats and aggravate the ills that
flesh is heir to. Now, we have given you and yours the
opinions of the most scholarly and scientific men in the
world of-Hygiene in relation to these matters. In addi
tion to the views of eminent surgeons and physicians, we
have given the opinions of our best thinkers in the world
of letters and reform.
Henry Ward Beecher, Horace Greeley, Theodore Til
ton, Prof. Rufus King Browne, William H. Burleigh, E.
B. Perkins, Rev. O. B. Erothingham, Alfred B. Street,
Moses Coit Tyler, P. T. Barnum, G. W. Bungay, Dts.
Miller, Wood, Holbrook, Webster and others. We have
still richer treats in reserve, and most cordially invite all
who have faith in the laws of life and the gospel of good
health to enjoy with us the refreshing viands spread for
the entertainment of our friends, and to bring the hun
dreds of their friends with them for another year. A
great work is before us in the redemption of our race from
sickness and premature death. Let us work earnestly in
it while we can, and so hasten the day of perfect human
health and happiness.
Important and Liberal Oder.—
The Publishers of The Herald of Health, with a view
to extend the usefulness of their magazine, and at the
same time give their patrons the opportunity to introduce
it, at a comparatively low sum, to a large circle of read
ers, have concluded to offer it, in Clubs of 50 or more, at
One Dollar per year, provided the list is made up previous
to the first of February, 1867. We wish it distinctly un
derstood, however, that we will not for a smaller Club
deviate from our regular rates. The names and money
must be sent all at one time. Persons who request us to
send The Herald for one dollar to smaller clubs will not
be accommodated. This is a special offer, and those who
do not meet its requirements will be credited according to
regular rates. The Herald is richly worth two dollars a
year to any family, but as there are thousands of families
who are not acquainted with it, we make this offer as an
inducement to those interested in the Health Movement
to do a great deal of good at a very small expense of time
and money. Det those who wish to profit by it make a
move at once.
Our Past and Future.—During the
This Number.—This number will speak
last four months we have exerted our utmost endeavors to
increase the usefulness of The Herald of Health. We
have added to the number of its pages, and filled them
with original contributions from the pens of writers of
national reputation. There is not another magazine on
this continent that can show such a list of illustrious
writers on matters pertaining to Physical Culture and the
science of Health. We have the indorsement of many of
the best scholars and thinkers in America, and we are
grateful to them for their efforts to extend our circula
tion. A great work is before us, and we strip to the task
with faith in God and hope in man that the truth will
for itself. The article by Mr. Tyler, giving a sketch of
the life of Thomas Hughes, is in the author’s happy vein,
and will be found exceedingly interesting. “Overwork
and Underwork” discusses a subject of great interest, and
can not fail to be read 'with profit. “ The Study of Phys
iology,” by Dr. Browne; “A True Life,” by Horace
^recley; Beecher on “Patient Waiting;” Bungay on
“ Some of Our Faults ;” “ A Homily for Ministers and
Christians,” by Rev. Dr. John Marsh; Notes for the
Month ; Poetry, Miscellany, Answers to Correspondents,
Home Treatment of Disease, etc., are all very interesting!
Mr. Tilton’s poem, entitled “ My Creed,” which appears
�kWrald
of
on the first page, and Mr. Bungay’s “ October "Woods and
^Flowers,” can not fail to please. "We are giving our sub
scribers more and better matter than we promised, and
we thank them for the numerous commendations con
stantly received. We ask their special attention to the
subject of adding largely to our subscription list for the
year 1867. By the circulation of no magazine can so
much good be done in building up a nation of strong
bodied and pure-minded men and women.
Lectures and Lecturers.—The fol
lowing gentlemen are familiar with the great question of
Physical Culture, and we suggest to our friends in the
Country that they form clubs and raise funds to secure, if
possible, their lecture service: Horace Greeley, George
"W. Bungay, Dr. M. L. Holbrook, Dr. A. L. Wood, Dr. E.
P. Miller, F. B. Perkins, Dr. Snodgrass, Dr. Dio Lewis,
Moses Coit Tyler, S. R. "Wells, Nelson Sizer.
Applications for the services of these gentlemen may be
sent to us (stamp inclosed for the payment of postage) and
we will endeavor to secure an engagement from them.
Persons applying will please name two, three or more of
the gentlemen whom they would prefer, so that, if the
first person of their choice cannot be obtained, the second
or third may. Address Miller, Wood & Co., 15 LaightS
Street, New York. Any lyceum or school near New York
city, and convenient of access, which will give us a club
of fifty subscribers for The Herald of Health, shall
have a gratuitous lecture from some one of our lecturers.
health.
187
Job Printing.—We are prepared to exe
cute in neat, substantial styles, various kinds of Job
Printing : such as Pamphlets, Circulars, Envelopes, Bill
heads, Letter-heads, Cards, Labels, Small Handbills, etc.,
at the same rates as in all first-class New York printing
establishments. Stereotype work done to order.
Our friends in the country who wish neat and ac
curate printing, can rely on first-class work, by sending
plainly written and well-prepared manuscripts. For terms,
send sample or copy of work, state quality of printing
material to be used, and the number of copies wanted, in
closing a prepaid envelope for a reply.
[gtr* Advertisements of an appropriate character will
be inserted at the following rates : Short advertisements,
25 cents per line ; thirteen lines, for three or more inser
tions without change, 20 per cent, discount; one-half
column, $12 ; one column, $22 ; one page, $40. All adver
tisements must be received at this office by the 10th of
the month preceding that on which they are to appear.
Sexual Physiology.—Our new work on
Sexual Physiology is already meeting with a rapid sale.
Agents wishing to canvass for it should address us for par
ticulars. The price of a single copy by mail is $2, which,
considering the style of binding and the large number of
engravings which illustrate the work, is very cheap. We
are very sure that no person ordering a copy will ever find
reason to regret it.
Special Request.—Our
friends will
oblige us, and benefit others, by sending us the names and
post-office address of all invalids with whom they are ac
quainted ; also, all friends of Temperance, Health Reform
and Physical Culture. Any one who will send us a list of
425 bona fide, names of such persons shall receive free by
mail a copy of Prof. Wilson’s work of 75 pages on the
“Turkish Bath.”
Circulars.—Those of our subscribers who
wish to aid us in extending the circulation of The Herald,
should obtain our circular to exhibit to their friends. Ev
ery invalid who will send a stamped envelope shall receive
in it one of each of our circulars for The Herald, Books
and Baths.
Agents Wanted.—We want agents, local
and traveling, to canvass for The Herald of Health and
Sexual Physiology. Our agents are meeting with excellent
success, and there is plenty of room for more. We want
them everywhere througnout city and country. For spe
cial terms to Agents address the Publishers.
Herald for 1863, 1864 and 1865.—
We have a few bound volumes of The Herald of Health
for 1863, 1864 and 1865 on hand, which will be sent free by
mail on reoeipt of $2 25.
Epidemic Cholera.—See notice of
the book on Epidemic Cholera, just published, in our ad
vertising columns. Agents wanted in every city.
Canada Subscribers will please send
12 cents extra to prepay postage. Quite a number of new
subscribers have forgotten to do so.
A Pleasant Resort.
Persons visiting New York who desire to avoid the bus
tle of hotels will find ample accommodations, with firstclass rooms and good Hygienic table, at No. 63 Columbia
Street, Brooklyn Heights, New York, three minutes’ walk
from Fulton Ferry, being nearer to the business center of
New York than most of the best hotels in that city.
Connected with this establishment is the
TURKISH BATH,
One of the greatest physical luxuries, nor is there any
agent so powerful to renovate and restore the enfeebled
or diseased system.
For terms, etc., address
oc-lt
CHAS. H. SHEPARD, M. D.
Wanted--At the Willow Park
"WATER CURE, a good, healthy, intelligent girl to at
tend to patients, with a view of becoming a physician, and
eventually taking charge of the Female Medical Depart
ment. Address Dr. J. H. HERO, Westboro’, Mass.
Wanted-A Good Practical
HOUSEKEEPER in a small family. Must be a good
Cook and able to do general Housework. Address, with
reference, terms, etc., Box 653, Pittsville, Schuylkill Co.,
Pa.
oc-tf
Wanted-At the Willow Park
WATER CURE, A GOOD COOK, to whom a permanent
situation will be given. Address Dr. J. H. TTF.RO, West
boro’, Mass.
oc-tf
Notices
to
Lyceums.
Mr. George W. Bungay, the Author, Editor and Lec
turer, has a new lecture entitled “ WORK AND PLAY.”
His address is 15 Laight Street, New York.
sep-tf
�188
HEffiALD OF HEALTH^
A NEW, ENTERTAINING, ARTISTIC AND SPLENDIDLY ILLUSTRATED MONTHLY
MAGAZINE FOR BOYS AND GIRLS.
The Teacher’s Monitor and Parent’s Oracle, furnishing a Museum' of Instruction in Philosophy, Art, Science and
Literature, to include Stories, Poems, History, Biography, Geography, Astronomy, Chemistry, Music, Games, PuzzIps,
etc. etc., suited to the capacities of very Young America, without frivolity or exaggeration. Its contents, from the
pens of the best authors, will be found to sparkle with interest, its illustrations to charm with beauty, and the whole to
inspire with virtue and intelligence, and prove a “ well-spring of pleasure” in every household. Single copies, 15 cents;
yearly, $1 50 ; each additional copy, $1, or five copies for $5. Young America and Demorest’s Monthly together, $4..
Address W. JENNINGS DEMOREST, 473 Broadway. A large and beautiful colored Steel Engraving given free with
the first number, and both mailed free on receipt of the price. First number ready in September. Each single sub
scriber at $1 50 will be entitled to a Microscope of highly magnifying powers, with glass cylinder, sent by mail, postage
six cents. Or a package of Magic Photographs, postage two cents.
KzTEditors copying the above and sending a marked copy will be entitled to Young America for one year.
oc-tf
Demorest’s Monthly Magazine.
The Eadies’ Literary Conservator of Art, Novelty and Beauty, furnishing the Best Stories by the Best Authors, Best
Poems, Best Engravings, Best Fashions, Best Miscellany, Best Paper, Best Printing, and the best in every thing calcu
lated to make a Magazine entertaining, useful and beautiful; or as The New York Independent says, “Universally ac
knowledged the model parlor Magazine of America.” Yearly, $3, with a valuable premium to each subscriber. Lib
eral ter i s and splendid premiums for clubs. Single copies, 30 cents, post free. Address W. JENNINGS DEMOREST,
No. 473 Broadway, New York. Specimen copies sent free on receipt of 10 cents.
.
oc-tf
The Working Farmer
FOR 1866-67—VOLUME NINETEENTH.
This agricultural periodical, originally edited by Prof.
James J. Mapes, deceased, has attained, in the hands of
its present publishers, a circulation and influence second
to no similar publication in the country. Through the
liberal public patronage extended to, it, the publishers
are enabled to keep down the price to
ONE DOLLAR PER ANNUM IN ADVANCE,
And will also send to new subscribers, who send in their
names during the.months of October and November, the
remaining Nos. of 1866 without extra charge. And to
every subscriber who sends Two Dollars for two subscrip
tions one year, or one subscription two years, A CONCORD
OR ROGERS HYBRID GRAPE VINE, raised on the
grounds of the Editor, and sold at retail for seventy-five
cen's, will be sent as a premium.
We also club with the principal magazines and papers
at very low rates, and offer the best and highest premiums
to club agents. Send for circulars and specimen numbers
containing full Premium List, etc.
Terms—One Dollar a year, in advance; 80 cents in
clubs of ten or more ; single Nos., 12 cents. Specimen
copies sent on application. Clubs may come from differ
ent post-offices.
Subscribers in Canada and British North America must
remit 12 cents extra to prepay American postage.
Address
WM. L. ALLISON & CO.,
oc-tf______________ 58 Oortlandt Street, New York.
New
Hygienic
Establishment.
Having purchased a quiet corner house near Madison
Square, in the immediate vicinity of the up-town hotels,
will open it for the reception of invalids who desire to re
gain their health, and for well persons who desire to keep
well by rational measures. Believing implicitly in all the
resources of Hygiene, I intend to make this establishment,
in the fullest sense, a complete sanitarium. Applications
for board, rooms and treatment should be addressed to
oc-tf
E. c. ANGELL, M. D.,
51 Lexington Avenue, corner of 25th St., New York.
The Willow Park Water Cure
AND HYGIENIC INSTITUTE is at WESTBORO, Mass.
Address (inclosing stamp), for new circular,
OC-tf
Dr. J. H. HERO.
SEND FOR IT!
The Celebrated Craig Micro
scope combines instruction with amusement and lasts
for ever. Best, simplest, cheapest and most powerful mi
croscope in the world. Magnifies 10,000 times, or equal
to other microscopes costing $20. Made on an entire new
plan, requiring no focal adjustment, therefore it can bo
readily used by every one—even by children, A beautiful
gift to old or young. Adapted to the famfly circle as well
as scientific use. Shows the adulterations m food, thou
sands of animals in a single drop of water or vinegar,
globules in milk, blood and other fluids, tubular, structure^
of hair, claws on .a fly’s foot, also the celebrated “trichina
spiralis,” or pork worm, which is causing so many deaths
among pork eaters, and in fact the objects which may be
examined in this wonderful microscope are without num
ber. All are invited to call and see its great magnifying
power. Discount by the dozen to agents, schools and
dealers. Priee $2.50. Packed in a neat box and sent pre
paid to any address on receipt of $2.75. Money can be
sent by mail at our risk. Address
oc-tf
GEORGE MEADE, Thompsonville, Wis.
The Proprietor of Willow
PARK WATER CURE would like to sell his Furniture
to suitable parties, and arrange with them to board all his
patients and attendants. This opens a good opportunity
for a couple who would like to engage in the business of
keeping a Hygienic Boarding-House. Will pay a fair
price for board and pay monthly. We wish to be so situ
ated as to devote our whole energies to the Medical De
partment. Address
oc-tf
Dr. J. H. HERO, Westboro’, Mass. __
Binghamton Water Cure
and
HYGIENIC INSTITUTE, BINGHAMTON, BROOME
COUNTY, NEW YORK. This establishment holds out
rare inducements to patients who contemplate spending
the autumn and winter at a Water cure. Send for cir
cular, or address O. V. THAYER, M. D.
oc-tf
Granville Water Cure,
Now in its fourteenth year. For particulars, send for cir
cular to SOLOMON FREASE, M. D., Granville, Licking
County, O.
- -----tf
�HERALD OF HEALTH.
189'
Granite State Health Institute,
HILL, N. H.
The “ Granite State” has now become widely and fa
vorably known as one of the best Hygienic establishments
in the land.
Through its great success in treating disease for the last
fourteen years, the perfect homelike atmosphere that has
ever pervaded the institution, the moderate terms upon
which patients have been received, the care that has been
taken to in sure their recovery, and to return to them the
largest equivalent for the money they have expended, this
institution has been built up into a large and flourishing
establishment. It is not too much for us to say that pa
tients from all parts of the country, from our large cities
and from interior towns, have been enthusiastic in their
praise and in recommending our institution to their friends.
The following points have attracted attention :
1. Our accessibility: the cars stop within a Jew rods of
our door.
2. Our location, amid pleasant and romantic surround
ings.
3. The purity of the air and the excellence of the
water.
4. The dietary: the variety, the exceeding simplicity of
preparation, and yet the palatableness of the food.
5. The careful attention bestowed on patients and the
specific directions given to insure their recovery.
6. The fact that almost all patients, with whatever dis
ease they may be afflicted, who visit this establishment
and are advised by the Physician to remain, are either en
tirely cured or very greatly benefited.
Vast numbers have been cured here in the past, and,
the good providence of God permitting, we shall restore
thousands more in the future. We believe that we have
been especially ordained to and qualified for this work.
lQJt is a labor we earnestly love ; and now, after an expe
rience of fourteen years in the practical management of
all kinds of sick persons, we feel ourselves qualified as
never before to cheer up, encourage and comfort the in
valid, and guide him onward in the same pathway of re
covery.
The Granite State has recently been fitted up and placed
in the most perfect working order. It will be found a
pleasant home for all invalids who are earnestly seeking
restoration from dis.ease as their great primary purpose,
and who wish to place themselves in the most perfect
health conditions, and be subjected to the most health
imparting discipline.
We wish it distinctly understood that this institution is
not a fashionable resort, but a home, and cure, for the in
valid.
We have had a large and very successful experience in
treating the special diseases peculiar to the sexes, and pa
tients of this class may be assured that they will receive
the most skillful treatment.
The fall and winter months are aS favorable for treat
ment as the spring and summer, and many invalids will
make more rapid progress in cold weather than in warm;
nor is the treatment, when scientifically administered in
comfortably heated apartments, any less agreeable in cold
weather than in warm.
We take Ministers of the Gospel, dependent on their
salaries for support, at a reduced rate.
The reader is referred to the April number of this Jour
nal, where he may see what our patients say of us.
GSF- No drug poisons are ever given in this establish
ment.
#*# The Hot-Air Bath, a modification of tljp Turkish,
is used in some cases.
We shall be glad to send circulars giving particular
information concerning our establishment to all inquiring
friends who will inclose stamp for postage.
oc-tf
W. T. VAIL, M. D., Hill, N. H.
AN IMPORTANT HYGIENIC WORK!
EPIDEMIC CHOLERA.
We have just published an important work on Epidemic
Cholera, embracing Hr. Webster’s Lectures on the His
tory, Causes and Treatment of Cholera. It is the best
work that has yet appeared on the subject from a Hygienic
stand-point. PRICE, 25 CENTS. All who want to know
the way to avoid this disease, or treat it by means of Hy
gienic Treatment, should have a copy at once.
Address
MILLER, WOOD & CO.,
15 Laight Street, New York.
Dentistry.
A FULL SET OF TEETH INSERTED FOR $8, $10 TO
$15. Extracting without pain with pure Nitrous Oxide
Gas, at 138 East Thirteenth Street, between Third and
Fourth Avenues, New York.
sep-3t
DR. JEROME KIDDER’S
GENUINE SIX-CURRENT
Electro-Medical Apparatus
Is proving highly efficacious in a large variety of Dyspep
tic, Nervous and Chronic Disorders.
Caution in regard to Tricks in Electricity.
The so-called Nine-pound Magnetic Current Machine
has a wire underneath the helix stand leading to the bat
tery, and the current does not go through the helix, but
gives, of course, the same magnetic power as is given by
any simple battery-cup—that is, the cup with the metals
and solution. The so-called direct and to-and-fro current
machine is simply the trick of giving a new name to the
old-fashioned shocking machine having two coils; all the
old machines have these two coils. Some use the inner
coil, taking the poles each side of the break of the spring
and point; others do not. There has been put forward a
trick of a'torpedo, spurious six-current machine, with one
current taken over and over from the different metallic
parts. There is but one genuine six-current machine.
For further information in these matters address
DR. JEROME KIDDER,
480 Broadway, New. York.
Drs. Miller, Wood & Co., take pleasure in filling or
ders for Dr. Kidder’s Machines.
KF" These are not the crank machines.
oc-tf
Turkish Baths.
■ One of the Publishers of The Herald of Health, Dr.
A. L. WOOD, who for the past two years has built and
superintended Turkish Baths in Providence and New York,
has been traveling in Europe during the past summer, for
the purpose of examining the construction, modes of heat
ing, and management of the numerous and extensive baths
which are there becoming national institutions, and being
convinced that the general introduction of Turkish Baths,
as now modified and improved, will do more to improve the
health of the American people, and lead them away from
all forms of Intemperance and Druggery to a reliance upon
the natural hygienic agencies than any other means now
employed, we shall do all in our power to introduce them
throughout the land. In accordance with this determina
tion, Dr. Wood will respond to calls to lecture upon the
subject, or to superintend the construction of the Bath
after the most improved plans, in private houses, Hy
dropathic establishments, Hospitals and public institu
tions, or for the public in cities and towns in any part
of the country.
dec-tf
Woman’s Dress ;
Its Moral
AND PHYSICAL RELATIONS. By Mrs. Mattie M.
Jones, M. D.—This is the most interesting and instructive
essay that has yet appeared. It gives plain and definite
rules for making a physiological dress of exceed ing beauty,
a chapter on the Gymnastic costume and how to make it,
and a great variety of interesting matter. The whole is
illustrated with numerous cuts done in the finest style, of
different patterns of dress, with patterns for the instruc
tion of those who wish a guide to work out the best re
sults. It is printed in the best style, and sent by mail for
30 cents. Address MILLER, WOOD & Co., No 15 Laight
Street, New York.
RE-OPENED AND RE-FURNISHED.
The Graefenberg Hygienic In
stitute, near Utica, N. Y., is re-opened for Boarders
and Patients by its original Founder and Proprietor. For
particulars address R. HOLLAND, M. D., Graefenberg,
N. Y.
jy-tf
Highland Water Cure.
H. P. BURDICK," M. D., and
) Physicians
Mrs. MARY BRYANT BURDICK, M.D., f iHTSlcIANS.
Send for Circular. Address—Alfred, Alleghany Co., N.Y.
aug-tf
�190
HERALD OF HEALTH
The Hygeian Home.
A. SMITH, M. D., Proprietor.
R. T. Trall, M. D., Consulting Physician,
DR. JEROME KIDDER’S
GENUINE SIX-CUERENT
Electro-Medical Apparatus
Has nearly double the magnetic power of any called
magnetic. Patented in the United States, England and
Erance. The best testimonials from Professors Mott, Silliman, Vonder, Weyde, and other scientific men. D. D
Smith, M. D., Professor of Obstetrics and Diseases of Wo
men and Children, in the New York Homoeopathic Medi
cal College, speaks of my apparatus as follows :
“ I am satisfied you have reached a point and developed
combinations that far exceed in a therapeutic aspect the
discoveries and combinations of every other experi
menter.”
In regard to Bath Apparatus, Office Apparatus, Family
Apparatus, and Pocket Apparatus for using remedial Elec
tricity,
KF* Address Dr. JEROME KIDDER, 480 Broadway,
New York.______________ ;_________
sept-tf
A. J. GARDNER,
Merchant
Tailor,
4=1*7 CANAL STREET,
CORNER OF SULLIVAN
aug-8t
STREET,
NEW YORK.
Pathology of the Reproductive
ORGANS. BY R. T. TRADE, M. D.
The Introduction treats of Hygienic appliances; Bath
ing, Food, Exercise, Light, Clothing, Sleep, Beds and Bed
ding, Bodily Positions, Night Watching, Friction, Electricity, Galvanism, Magnetism, and cleanliness. Part
Pirst treats of Venereal Diseases proper, their history,
the venereal virus, modes of propagation, inoculation,
syphilization, mercurialization, gonorrhoea, its seat, symp
toms and treatment; Syphilis; location, stages, varieties,
and diagnosis of chancres, treatment of syphilis, preven
tion of venereal diseases, &c. Part Two, of Spermatorrhoe,
or Seminal Weaknesses, its causes, symptoms, treatment,
complications, and sequences ; drug-treatment, and cau
terization. Part Third, of Female Diseases; mis-mm.
struation, retained menstruations, suppressed menstrua
tion, painful menstruation, chlorosis, leucorrhcea, inflam
mations, and ulcerations, etc. etc. Part Four, of miscel
laneous affections, including displacement, anteversion,
retroversion, inversion and prolapsus ■ of the uterus;
uterine tumors, cancers, dropsy, etc. etc.
This is by far the best work that has appeared on the
Lauses and Treatment of all forms of Sexual Diseases.
Lt is printed on fine white paper with clear type, and con
tains an excellent steel engraving of the author. Sent
post paid by mail. Price, $2.00. Address,
MILLER, WOOD ■& CO.,
_
_________ ___________ No. 15 Laight Street, New York.
Hot Bottles.
■R,YE^anew1bta?lel aJery C0Ilvenient and useful form of
Rubber Bottles lor holding hot water for warming the feet
or applying a local fomentation to any part of the body.
They are small, may be carried in a satchel, knapsack, or
even tn the pocket. For feeble persons and those ravel
ing from place to place they are invaluable. Price <R2
MILLER, WOOD & CO.,
No. 15 Laight Street, New York.
The Hygeian Home is pleasantly situated on the Eastern
slope of Cushion Mountain, one and a half miles from the
Wernersville Station, on the Lebanon Valley Railroad,
and is easy of access by railroad from all parts of the
United States. The climate is mild and pleasant. The
scenery is truly grand. Dr. Weeder says it surpasses any
thing I have ever seen in Europe or America. Hon.
Judge Jones says that language can not describe its gran
deur. Hon. Judge Strong says the air and scenery are as
fine as any in America. Hon. Judge Woodward* says, I
cannot conceive of any thing more beautiful in scenery
than that from your door. The walks are dry and clean.
The mountain air is pure and bracing. The bathing facili
ties can not be surpassed. The water is not onlv soft but
absolutely pure, and the physicians, Dr. A. Smith, Mrs.
Dr. C. Smith and Miss Dr. P. Draper, have had great ex
perience and success in healing the sick. They pay especial
attention to giving the Swedish Movements and Light
Gymnastics. With all these natural advantages, the
Hygeian Home stands pre-eminently superior as a Health
Institution to any other similar establishment in America.
Thus all who place themselves under our c re, may feel
assured of all that professional skill and p'- onal kindnss
can accomplish to aid them in the recovery of health.
Terms moderate. Send for our Circular. Address all
letters to
A. SMITH, M. D.,
je-tf
Wernersville, Berks County, Pa.
Dr. S. B. SMITH’S
Electro-Magnetic Machines.
The only ones where a true unmixed, Direct Current,
with strong intensity and strong magnetic power, is de
veloped. Send for a Circular, wherein is shown that there
is but one current in electricity, and but one important
modification in that current. On the Direct Current
poles I raise a nine-pound weight; other so-called Direct
' Currents raise but a “ ten-penny nailI”
Price, with single cup battery, $18; double cup, $20.
Address
Dr. S. B. SMITH,
309 Broadway, New York.
Orders also received for said Machines by Miller, Wood
& Co., 15 Laight Street.
jy-tf
Philadelphia Hygienic Institute.
Dr. Wilson’s establishment is now located at 1109 Gi
rard Street, above Chestnut. This institution is very fa
vorably located. The situation is central, pleasant and
• healthy; the rooms spacious, elegant, and attractively
furnished. Patients receive the personal attention of the
doctor and his wife, and may rely on skillful, careful and
attentive treatment. We use no drugs. Our table is lib
erally supplied with a variety of well-cooked food. Per
sons visiting the city on business or pleasure can be accom
modated with rooms and board.
Address
R. WILSON, M. D.,
aug-tf
1109 Girard Street, Philadelphia.
Ladies’ Suspenders.
We are nowprepared to fill orders for Ladies’ Suspenders.
Their objeat is to support the skirts over the shoulders, in
stead of on the hips as heretofore, much to the detriment of
women’s health. We are sure there are thousands ot women
in America who will welcome them as an invention giving
them great relief, and doing much to secure to them a
healthy condition of the internal organs. Woman’s curse
in America is weakness in the sides, back and chest. Se
cure to her strength here, and you secure to her one of the
greatest blessings she can enjoy. We recommend these
skirt-supporters to the intelligent and cultivated women
of this country as one of the most important inventions
regarding woman’s dress of the present age. Price, $2
per pair, $18 per dozen.
MILLER, WOOD & CO.,
_________________ No. 15 Laight Street, New York.
Worcester Water and Move
ment CURE, WORCESTER, Mass. Please send for
Circular.
aug-lt__________ ________ ISAAC TABOR, M. D.
Manual
of
Light Gymnastics,
Designed for Clubs, Evening Classes and private use.
By W. L. Rathe. Price, prepaid by mail, 38 cents. Ad
dress
MILLER, W00D & Co., No. 15 Laight Street,
�
Dublin Core
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Title
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
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Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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The Herald of Health and Journal of Physical Culture. Vol. 8, no. 4. October, 1866
Description
An account of the resource
New series
Place of publication: New York
Collation: [145]-190 p. ; 24 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Pencilled inscription on front page: M.D Conway, Warren Farm, Wimbledon. Printed in double columns.
Publisher
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Miller, Wood & Co.
Date
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1866
Identifier
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G5389
Subject
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Health
Creator
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[Unknown]
Rights
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<p class="western"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /><br />This work (The Herald of Health and Journal of Physical Culture. Vol. 8, no. 4. October, 1866), identified by <a href="www.conwayhall.org.uk">Humanist Library and Archives</a>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</p>
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Conway Tracts
Health
Hygiene
Physical Education
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LAWS
OF THE
STATE OF NEW YORK,
RELATING TO TIIE
PASSED IN 1866 & 1867.
USEEW YORIA:
BERGEN & TRIPP, STEAM PRINTERS,
114 rr^ssA^-cr steeet.
1867.
��LAWS OF 1866.
CHAPTER 74.
AN ACT to Create a Metropolitan Sanitary Di^rH and Board
of Health-Therein, for the presciwation of Lifcjgnd Health, and
to Prevent the Spread of Disease. PikSgj'eb ®a|gg6, 1866,
three-fifths being preseiwM
The People of the State oflj[ew
Assembly, do enact
follows :
Section 1. So rnuclwof the territory of the State oWNcw
York, and of the cities, plages and t JlE1 gf
w com' Limits of dis
trict.
poses the Metropolitan police district of ty St|^^ of New York,
shall constitute, and is hereby declared, a district to be known
as ‘‘The Metropolitan Sanitary DMM‘ict MW) State of New
York.”
§ 2. Within fifteen days after the passage of this act the Gov
Mode of appoint
ernor shall nominate, and, by and feithfehe^SEn of the Senate, ment of tirst
commissioners.
shall appoint four suitable pcrsofl indents ggid distfflcAthree
of whom mist be physicians, and one E™!0
all^J resident
of the city of Brooklyn who, wife the HetMh OffiHer of the port
of New York for the time being, shall bcEnitaEComiffissioners Sanitary Com
in and for said district; andlh^^Kl Sanitary Commissioners, missioners.
together with the Commissioners, for any time being, of the Metro
politan Police, (not exceeding four,fend being the pi^nt four and
their successors,) shall constitute a board of health for the said
Metropolitan sanitar/district, and said btferdtfhallbe denomi Designation of
nated “ The Metropolitan Board of Health®’ anjlfivemembers of Board. .
which, at any regularly called or adjourned meeting, shall organ
ize and constitute ^quorum for the transaction of business; and Quorum.
the phrase “ said board, | or ‘"he board,J” when used herein un
less clearly referring to some other body, shall be construed to Mean-ng of
mean said “The Metropolitan Board of Health” and the phrase phrases.
“ said district, ” or “the district, ” unless the same clearly refers
�4
Official term of
first Commis
sioners.
Oath.
Term of Office
and appoint
ment of subse
quent commis
sioners .
Vacancies.
to some other district, shall be construed to refer to said “The
Metropolitan Sanitary District of the State of New York.” And
the term “ sanitary commissioners” shall refer to the members of
said board who are not also members of the Board of Police, and
whenever the words “police,” “board of police,” or “police
commissioners” are used in this act, they shall be taken and con
strued to mean the “ Board of Metropolitan Police Commissioners
of the Metropolitan police district of the State of New York.”
And whenever the words “place, matter or thing,” or cither two
of said words, are used in this act, they shall, unless the sense
plainly requires a different construction, be construed to include
whatever is embraced in the enumeration with which they are
connected in either and both clauses of the fourteenth section of
this act.
§ 3. The said four persons so appointed shall hold office as
such Sanitary Commissioners respectively for the terms following
namely: One for one year, one for two years, one for three years
and one for four years, and until their successors are appointed
and qualified. Immediately after the appointment of said four
persons as aforesaid, they shall meet in the office of the Secretary
of State, and shall proceed, under his direction, to determine by
lot which of them shall hold, for the respective terms of one, two,
three, and four years, the said office of Sanitary Commissioner.
Immediately, and before entering upon the duties of the office,
they shall take the oath prescribed for State officers by the con
stitution of the State, and shall file the same in the office of the
Secretary of State, who upon receiving the said oath of office,
shall issue to each of said commissioners a certificate of appoint
ment for his respective term of office so determined as aforesaid ;
upon receiving which they shall severally be and become San
itary Commissioners, and shall possess and exercise the powers
and perform the duties of said board as defined in this act.
§ 4. The term of office of each of the said Sanitary Commis
sioners, after the expiration of the terms aforesaid, shall be four
years, and they shall be appointed upon the nomination of the
Governor, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.
Any vacancies that may occur by reason of death, resignation,
removal from office or otherwise, shall be filled in like manner,
But if any vacancy shall occur during the recess of the Senate,
the Governor may fill such vacancy by appointment, and the per
son so appointed shall hold office until twenty days after the next
meeting of the Senate.
�§5. * Immediately after the four appointed Sanitary Commis- Organize,
sioners shall have taken the oath of office as above provided, they
shall meet with the Commissioners of the Metropolitan Police,
and the Commissioners ofMetropolitan Police with them and the
Health officer of the port of New York, and organize as a Board
of Health by electing one of saLd^fed-d tzBMMmesident. and one president,
of said Board to be Treasurer thereof, and by appointing a proper
person to be Secretary of said Board. And the successive Presi
dents of said Board of Health shall be annually e'ectcd by the
said Board from the members thereof, and the successive Treas
urers shall be members of said Board; but the Secretary shall
not be a member of the Board. The Treasurer and Secretary secretary^and
shall respectively continue in office as such until removed by the
election of a successor or otherwise. 'The said Sanitary Com- Salaries,
missioners shall each receive a salary of two
hun
dred dollars a year ; and each Police Commissioner who may be
a member of said Board of Health, and the Health officer, shall
as such receive a salary of five hundred dollars a year and the
member of said Board of Health, who acts as Treasurer, shall re
ceive an additional compensation of five hundred dollars a year
for his services as Treasurer. All salaries allowed under this law
shall be payable as the Board shall provide. But for every regu- tend meetings,
lar or special meeting of said Board, which any Sanitary Com
missioner or the Secretary shall fail to attend, there shall be de
ducted from the salary of the person so failing the sum of ten
dollars ; and for every failure of a Police Commissioner, or of said
Health officer to attend any such meeting, there shall be deducted
from his said salary the sum of two dollars; and
be the
duty of the Treasurer to see that all such deductions are made
before payments of said salaries.! The Board may appoint a Cor- sew’etai°"dinS
responding Secretrrl thou
sand dollars.
§6. The
|Mscrve president,
order at the meetings oaifeWBo1 Cygbs^nce of
or inability of the regular Secretary to attend, he shall appoint a
Secretary pro tern., who, for
gg’form any
duty of the Secretary.|| The President shall have all the power Sucpt Cleanin
and authority given to the “City Inspector,” in
hundred
and forty-sixth chaptfljof ^^a^ oBgightgi hundred and sixty* Amended,
+ Amended,
t Amended,
|| Amended.
Laws of 1S66, Chapter 6S6, Section 4.
Laws of 1S67, Chapter 956, Section 16.
Laws of 1866, Chapter 6S6, Section 4.
Laws of 1867, Chapter 956, Section 1.
�6
Old contracts.
Officers, pro.
tem.
Duties of Sec
retary.
Salary of Secre
tary.
Seal.
Treasurer.
Bond.
Treasurer’s ac
counts.
five, (passed May first, eighteen hundred and sixty-five), in res
pect to the making, awarding or executing of a contract or con
tracts for street cleaning, or any matter thereto pertaining. But
nothing herein contained shall be construed as effecting in any
manner the validity of any contract heretofore made by virtue of
said act. And the Board at any time, in the absence of the Pre
sident or Secretary, may elect a President or Secret ary pro tem.
from their number, who shall exercise the powers of such officers
*
respectively. The Secretary shall, subject to the direction of
said Board, keep and authenticate its acts, records, papers, and
proceedings, preserve its books and papers, conduct its corres
pondence and aid in accomplishing the purposes of this law, as
the Board may direct ; and said officer (as well as the other offi
cers and agents appointed by said Board) shall be subject to re
moval by the Board for cause, to be entered in its minutes, and
said Board may appoint his or their successor ; and his salary, to
be fixed from time to time'by the Board, shall not exceed three
thousand fivehundred dollars annually!] ■ Said Board may design
and adopt a seal and use j,he same in the Authentication of its
orders and proceedings, commissioning its officers and agents,
and otherwise, as the rule®. of the Board may provide.
§7. The Treasurer of said Board shall be the fiscal officer'
of the Board. He shall hold, and on check and voucher, duly
disburse, as said Board may order, and for the purposes of
and in conformity to this act, the moneys he may receive, or be
longing to the fund herein provided; and shall deposit the same
when paid to him by the Treasurer of the State of New York, or
otherwise, and pending the regular disbursement thereof, in a
bank or banks in the city of New York designated by such last
named officer. He shall execute a bond, with not less than two
sureties, conditioned in a penalty of thirty thousand dollars, to
the people of the State of New York, for the faithful discharge of
his duties as such Treasurer. The sureties, not less than two in
number, shall justify before a Justice of the Supreme Court, in
the aggregate in a sum not less than twice the last named
amount; but before the said Treasurer shall enter upon his duties
the said bond shall be approved by and filed with the Comptroller
of the State. The Treasurer shall keep, or cause to be kept,
books showing all his receipts and payments, and shall preserve
his vouchers therefor ; and should any collections ever be made
on such bond, or in suits or proceedings, or otherwise, by said
* Amended, Laws of 186T, Chapter 956, Section 1.
�7
Board, the amount thereof shall be received and accounted for
by the Treasurer, or in case of collection on his bond, by the re
cipient thereof, to the State Treasurer, and be deposited in the
bank or bariks aforesaid, applied for the legitimate uses of said
Board, or as herein elsewhere provided.
8 8. Any sanitary commissioner of s®d Board who shall ac®
n
,. • T
• I J
i
-TI ki® term ot office, no other
p Hold
cept or ,hold any polwicajl or municipal office during t- +
office, or shall b® publicly nominated for any office eljgti^e by the
people, and shall not, within ten days succeeding his knowledge
thereof, publicly decline the said nomination, shall, in either case,
be deemed thereby to have vacated his membership of said Board,
and the vacancy so cii^Wd||}aB|l befi11
to other
vacancies; but membership of this Board shall not affect member
ship in the Board of Police or the office of Health officer.
§ 9. Any member of the said Board may, at any time, be re
moved from office by the Governor, under the provisions of thelaws commissioners,
relative to the removal of sheriffs from office, which provisions are
hereby extended so as to relate to the members ofSMIBoaWl; but
before such removal, suclt^Bmber'^lill
specific
charges, stating the der^icMon of duty complained of; and shall
be afforded an adequate opportunity to publicly answer the same
and to make his defen c’flgretg, upon reasonable notice to IpKven
him; and on tha application of the Governor, or the party charg
ed, any judge df the SiAenwGoi^Mhll have as full power and
authority to compel the ^tegdam^^m examination of witnesses,
touching such charges oilfefe&ice^MMthe production of books
and papers relating the»to,ft the place and time where the afore
said proceedings or hearing may take place, as is given herein in
respect to the e^ii^myion
the production of pa
pers, on the application of said Board, in the fourteenth section of
this act. And it shall be the duty of such judge (and olany
other judge named w said section) to exercise such authority,
and to take or supervise the taking of such examination to be
used on the hearing of suM charges or defence. And if, by re
movals or other cause, the members of the Board shall be less Powers of Boarfl
than five (but not less than threa) the existing members shall flyeenless than
still constitute a Board, competent, by unanimous action to exer
cise the powers delegated by this act.
§ 10. Said Board shall have powe^jloHreate a chief executive
office, and appoint a suitable person to fill such office, who shall indent.UP
be an experienced and skillful physician, resident in said district,
whose full name of office shall be, “ The Sanitary Superintendent
�8
of the Metropolitan Sanitary district of the State of New York,”
but he may be designated as “Sanitary Superintendent.’ It
shall be the duty of said officer, as he may be directed, to exe
cute, or cause to bo executed, the orders of said Board, and gen
erally, according to its instruction, to exercise a practical super
vision in respect to the inspectors, agents and other persons
(other than the Secretary, Treasurer and members of the Board,
or the members of the police force,) who may exercise any
authority under this act; and said officer shall devote his services
to the aforesaid purposes- as the Board may from time to time
direct. He shall be entitled to receive a salary to be fixed by
Salary of Super the Board, which shall not exceed five thousand dollars annually
*
intendent.
Such Superintendent shaft make report® weekly, or oftener, if di
rected by the Board, in writtag, ‘stating generally his own action
and that of his subordinates, and the condition of the public
health in said district,.‘and any causes endangering life or health
that have come to his knowledge during said period. And said
Assistant Su
Board may appoint two f Assistant Sanitary!
S
* uperintendents,
”
perintendents.
one of whom shall be a resident of th® city of Brooklyn, and shall
principally perform his duties in that city, whose duties shall be
of the same nature as those of the last named officer; and their
Salary of Assis salaries,, not to exceed thirty-five hundred dollars a year each,
tants.
shall be fixed by the Board.f
§ 11. Sail Bdlard may appoint and commission such number
Sanitary Inspec of “ sanitary inspectors
■
as the Board may deem needful, not
tors.
exceeding fifteen, and, from time to time prescribe the duties and
*
salaries J of each of said inspectorsand the place of their perfor
mance (and of all other persons exercising any authority under
said Board, except as herein specially provided ;) but at least ten
of such inspectors shall be physicians of skill and of practical
professional experience in said district, and the residue thereof
shall be selected with reference to their practical knowledge of
scientific or sanitary matters, Wvhich may especially qualify them
for such inspectors^ Each of such inspectors shall, twice in each
Duties of In
week, make a written report to said Bwd, stating what duties
spectors.
he has performed and where he has performed them, and also
such facts as have come to his knowledge, connected with the
purposes of this act as are by him deemed worthy the atten
tion of said Board, or as its regulations may require of him; and
Deports pre
such, and the other reports herein elsewhere mentioned, shall be
served.
* Amended, Laws of 1S67, Chapter 956, Section 15.
■t Amended, Laws of 1S67, Chapter 956, Section 15.
J Amended, Laws of 1867, Chapter 956, Section 15.
�9
preserved among the records of said Board. The Board may
also employ such number of clerks and servants, and fix their Clerks.
salaries, and take such legal advice and employ such attorneys, Attorneys.
as may be necessary to the efficient, safe and economical dis
charge of the duties by this act d<Bolw4 on said Board. And Offices,.
may also rent, lease, fit up and furnish such officK^affillhe conven
ience of the Board, its officers, agents and employees, and the
prudent and proper discharge of the duties of thcapM’d may re
quire ; and may make siuMncffleffial and additional expenditures, Incidental ex
penses.
having due regard t® economy, as the purposes ai^^RvBions of
this act and the dangers to lifHand public hmlth may justify or
require; and ma^provide
anHmlwe of a|H officcMagent
Forfeiture of
or employee of the Beard to du^Kulfill his engagements or dis pay.
charge his dutyj shall cause a fiS^ture of the whole or any less
portion of the salary oiwjompenmtion of such officer, agent or
employee, as the Vul® or practice of the Board may provide.
And the Board of Police iM^mhorized to allow the Boar® of
Offices.
Health to occupf afportio] of its pren^H,
§ 12. * The authoritrndu^^^Mpowe^^^MthergivenMany
have
law; or by any ordinance ma^^fflhereunder heretofore (for the Board tohereto
powers
fore exercised
purpose of presetting or protecting life oahealtl™ oiBpr eventing by .other boards
disease) conferrecyupon or now belonging to, or being exercised and officers.
by the board of ffimth, or the board of public health of or
in the city of New York, or of or in the city of Brooklyn, or else
where in saidjgmB®, the mayor andcommon council of either
of said cities, the mayor of the city of New Yorfl by and with
the advice and consent of the board of aldermc^BtlHpresident
of the board of aidermen, the jHsident of the board of psistant
aldermen (or councilmen,) the resident ^^HcianMthe health
commissioner, the mayor ancMtlfflBommiRioiiera of health, the
commissioners of health, the city inspector,(or the city inspect
or’s department of either of said cities ; or conffired upon or
now belonging toMy tu® or more of the said bodies or officers,
or last named boards or deparmnentH or to any board of health
or health officer or agent in said distril or exR’cRed by any of
ficer or person appointed by or deriving aumority from any one
or more of the bodies, officers, departments or last named boards
(so far as said powersRnd Authority can be exerfflLfland such
duty performed bjMie board hereby^S'eated, without interfer
ence with the proper discharge of the duties, other than san
itary duties, heretofore imposed upon the board of metropolitan
* Amended, Laws of 1866, Chapter 68G, Sec. 3.
2 -
�10
police), are hereby exclusively conferred upon, and shall hereaf
ter bo exclusively exercised by the aforesaid “ The Metropolitan
Board of Health
the members and officers thereof, as herein
How to be exer provided ; and the same are to be exercised as herein set forth,
cised .
(and to such an extent and in such place and manner as said
Board may provide,) for the greater protection and security of
health and life in said district, and the appropriate parts thereof;
and after this act goes into effect no salary or compensation shall
Cities to pay no be paid to any officer, board or agent, or in respect to any ser
salaries.
vice, expenditure or employment under the authority of any
health law, ordinance, regulation, or appointment of or in said
cities; or any part of said district, unless such salary, expendi
ture or employment shall be authorized by the Board hereby cre
ated and contemplated by the provisions of this act.
*
And the
aforesaid power, duty and authority hereby transferred to and
Power conferred
by certain Ordi conferred upon said Board shall be held to include all the power,
nances of New
York, transfer duty and authority given, or conferred or purporting to be given
red to Board.
or to be conferred to or upon any person, officer or board, in or
by any ordinance contained or purporting to be contained in the
first ten chapters of ordinances, being numbered from one to ten
inclusive in a compilation of “Laws and Ordinances relative to
the Preservation of the Public Health in the city of New York,”
and purporting to be published under the authority and by the
direction of the Mayor and Commissioners of Health of said
city, in the year one thousand eight hundrefl and sixty, and by
any existing amendments and additions thereto. But no fees of
No fees.
any kind shall be charged for the performance of any duties im
posed by said ordinances. And said board shall also possess
(and may exercise by its own agents, or by order to be executed
by said board of police,) throughout said district, all the power
and authority for the protection of life or health, or the care or
preservation of health, or persons diseased or threatened there
with, conferred by any law or ordinance relating to any part of
Powers given
said district, and especially by the act of the seventeenth of April,
by Brooklyn
charter transfer
eighteen hundred and fifty-four (being the three hundred and
red to Board.
eighty-fourth chapter of the laws of eighteen hundred and fiftyfour,) upon the Mayor, Common Council-Board of Health, or
the Health Officers, (or upon any two or more of them, or other
officers) in said act mentioned. But the powers and authority in
W.iatboardsnot
this section given shall not be held to interfere with the powers
to tie affected.
and duties of the Croton Aqueduct. Board, Street Commissioner,
* Amended, Laws of 1S66, Chapter 6S6, Section 3.
�11
Superintendent of Unsafe Buildings, Comptroller of New York
city, or the board authorized to contract for street cleaning (un
der the law of eighteen hundred and sixty-five;) nor shall anytliing in the aforesaid laws or ordinances contained be construed
as a limitation of any power in this bill elsewhere given to the
said board, or to limit the penalties and expenses it may enforce
or collect; and all the power recited or given by said ordinances
shall belong whollH^^Ml board, who may exercise the same
without the advice, assent or co-operation of any municipal board
or officer, and in any manner not inconsistent with the other sec- thor/tyPnotato
tions of this law, without being limited to the means or by the lnterfereprocedure in .....
said ordiAnd no muni W al body or
x „
1
1
H
A or appoint ofhothcr authority inIMgL diMMW 1 EHeafHMm»e or employ pense.
c«-rs orincurexL j
any officer or agent, or incur any expense, under any of said (or
other) health la wo or orMnanct® or in any respect of any matter
concerning wl«i said board is by this act given control or juris
diction. All the aforesaid powers are to be possessed and exer
cised as fully as if herein repeated and separately confc^Sl upon
said board.
8 13. Said BoaMfiialMpMcEBMtheBmthorilEind be chBrffcd th-,, deaths
MBH
E
°
anct niarriages.
with all the duties conferred or imposed on the City Inspec
tor of the City of New York, by the act passed on the sec
ond day of ApHBme thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, or
by any and all acts relative to births, deaths or marriages ; and
the duty of all persons and officers in any such (or any aforesaid)
acts mentioned shall hereafter be the same, in respect to said
Board, as if said law or laws had contained
name H^aid
Board instead of that of the City Inspector of the City cBMjew
York (or other officer,) and said acts are hereby extended
throughout said district; but the powers now possessed by the
*
City Inspector with reference to the inspection of weights and
measures, are herebwcoimjrcd^En the Manor of the City of Weisrhts and
New York. And it shall be the dutH of said Inspector, and Mcasures‘
of whoever may have possession or control thereof, to transfer City Inspector
and deliver to said Board all public books, records, statistics and
papers in his or their possession, or under his or their official or
personal controlMid to give such information to said Board as
he or his department may possess relative to any matter in this
section, or in either of said last mentioned laws referred to, and
his authority and duty unH® Baid laws shall cease when this
act goes into effect, and the JusticeBof the Supreme Court shall
* Amended, Laws of 1867, Chapter 956, Section 11.
�12
No fees to be
demanded.
Duty to report
births and
deaths.
Penalty for
omission.
"What Board
may order done.
Declare nui
sance.
have jurisdiction to enforce this provision by mandamus. And
said Board shall perform all the duties by this section imposed,
as a part of its regular duties, and no fees shall be demanded or
received by reason thereof or anything in said act or acts con
tained. It shall be the duty of the next of kin of any person de
ceased, and of each person being with such deceased person at
his or her death, and of the perso^ occupying or living in any
house or premises in or on which any person may die, and of the
parents ofan^chil^ born in Igaid district, (and if there be no
parent alive thatjfcas made such report, then of the next of kin
of such child born,) and oH every person present at such birth,
within five days after such birth or death, to report to said
Board in writing, so far as known, the date, ward and street
number of said birth, and the sc^ftid color of such child born,
and th#’ names of the parents, and the age, color, nativity, last
occupational d cause of death of such deceased person, and the
ward and stye^^g^ place of such person’s death and last resi
dence. AiSw every Emission of any person to make and keep
the registry required by the acts referred to in this section, and
for every omission to report a written copj^of the same to said
Board within ten days after any birth or marriage provided to be
registered, andl&r every omission by any person to make the re
port of anJKleJmBWfflrth, with the particulars as herein requir
ed, any person guilty of said omission shall be liable to pay a fine
often dollars, whiclA»^ be^uedjifflr ar$8wj#covered in the name
of said Board, for the benefit of said Board. But no person
shall be liable for such fine for not making the report herein re
quired, if he or she shall prove that suchBeport had been made
to the Boar®H some other person before suit brought for such
penalty, or that he or she was ignorant of such birth or death.
*
§ 14. First—Whenever any building, Brection, excavation,
premises, business pwsuit, matter orRUwig, or the sewerage,
drainage or ventilation thereof, in said di'sttl’ict, shall, in the opin
ion of said Board (whether as jayvhole or in liny particular,) be
in a condition or in effect dangerous to life or health, said Board
may take and file among its records what it shall regard as suffi
cient proof to authorizJfe^tefelaration that the same, to the ex
tent it may specify, is! a pffiR nuisance, or dangerous to life or
health ; and said Board may thereupon enter in its records the
same as a nuisance, and order the same to be removed, abated,
suspended, altered or otherwise improved or purified, as said or* See Laws of 1S67, Chapter 956, Section 11,
�13
<3er shall specify; and shall cause said order, before its execu Service of
tion, to be served on the owner, occupant or tenant thereof, or orders.
some of them, which to said Board, may appear most directly in
terested in its execution, provided said parties, or any of them,
are in said district and can be found, and such service can be
conveniently made, and if any party so served, (or intended to
*
be according to this law,) shall, before its execution is commenc
ed, or within three days after such service or attempted service,
apply to said Board, or the President thereof, to have said order
or its execution stayed or modified, it shall then be the dutv of
said Board f to temporarily suspend orKnodify said order or the
execution thereof, (save in cases of imminent dtHer from im
pending pestilence, when said Board may exercise extraordinary
Impending pes
powers, as herein elsewhere specified,) and to give such party or tilence.
parties together, as the case in the opinion of the Board may re
Hearing.
quire, a reasonable and fair opportunity to be heard before said
Board, and to present facts and proofs, (according to the pules
or directions olsaid Board,) against said declaration and the ex
ecution of said order, or in favor of its modification, according to
the regulations of the Board,J andlhe Board shall enter in its
minutes such facts and proofs as it may receive, and its proceed
ings on such hearing, and any other proof it may take; and
thereafter may rescind, modify or reaffirm its said declaration
and order, and require execution of said original, or of awiew or
modified order to be made, in such form and effect as it may
finally determine.||
Second.—Said Board may order or cause any excavation, erec
What Board
tion, vehicle, vessel, water-craft, room, building, place, sewer, may order done.
pipe, passage, premises, ground, matter or thing (in said district
or adjacent waters) regarded by said Board as in a condition
dangerous or detrimental to life or health, to be purified, clean
ed, disinfected, altered or improved;, and may also order any
substance, matter orE.hing, being or left in any street, alley,
water, excavation, building, erection, place or grounds (whether
such place where the same may be, be public or private,) and
which said Board may regard as dangerous or detrimental to life
or health, to be speedily removed to some proper place ; and may
designate or provide a place to which the same shall be removed,
when no such adequate or proper place, in the judgment of said
Board, is already provided. The said Board may require the
* See Laws of 1867, Chapter 956, Section 5, and Laws of 1867, Chapter 908, Section 9.
+ Amended. Laws of 1S66, Chapter 686. Section 6.
JSee Laws of 1867, Chapter 956, Section 12.
I Amended, Laws of 1866, Chapter 6S6, Section 6. Laws of 1S67, Chapter 956, Section 10.
�14.
said Board of Police to execute any of the orders referred to in'
this act. It shall be the duty of the Board of Police to execute
the orders of the said Board of Health, and the said Board of
Police may employ the necessary persons and means about such
Health Board
execution. "Or the said Board of Health, if it shall consider the
may execute its
own orders.
public health or interests so to require, may execute such orders
through its own officers or persons, and means to be engaged by
the said Board of Health ; and about the execution of the said
orders, both the said Aard of Police and the said Board of
Health shall lAe, each as well as the authority conferred by this
§53 and 54 of Act
act as all the poweiHand^®oritBconferred by the fifty-third and
of 25th April,
|fc64.
fifty-fourth sections fflthe^ffltropolitan Police act, passed on the
twenty-fifth daS of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, and
of any ameiBntsnfl|to said act or to be made enlarging
sucfoauthoritB and all powers and authori^BpoBesscd and exer
cised by said Boardof Police under saitfflact pertaining to sani
tary matters, or in conflict witliB.be obj As and'purposes of this
act, |hall hereafter be enjoyed, possessed and exercised by said
Health powers
Board of Health, and the orders of theffiid in this section sec
of police, trans
ferred to Board ondly mentioned shall, BheHopcr peiAn or persons are known
of Health.
to the Board, and can be ccffljenien tly found in said district, on
whom to make the service, be seriBd upon one or more of the
owners, occupants, lessees or tenaiBs of the subjecB matter to
which said order relates, or upon one or more of the persons
Service of
orders.
whose duty it was to have done what isBtherein lAuired to be
done, as the cast^ffly rettleiBust and proper in the opinion of
said Board; an^^^Bd orc® is not complM with, or as far
*
complied with as the Board may regard as rfflonable, within five
days after such service or MeinBtod serHc, or Bithin any short
er time which, in case of pestilence, the Aard may have desig
nated, or is not thereafter speedily and fullB exBcuted, then any
such ordcr^B be executed as herein elsewhere provided in re
gard to any of the orcflrs of said Board. And if personal ser
Service of order.
vice of any aforesaiB order cannot be made under this section by
reason of absence from said district, or inabilitIto find such per
*
sons therein, to be shown by the official certificates of the officer
having such ordeAo serffl then servicefflay be made through
the mail, or by a copy left at the re^rence or place of business
of the poison sought to be AAd, witll a peBon of suitable age
and descretion, and the expensfflattending the execution of any
and all such orders respectively shall be a several and joint
Police to execute orders.
* Amended. Laws of 1867, Chaj'ter 956, Section 5; Chapter 90S, Section 9.
�15
personal charge against each of the owners or part owners, and Expenses a
charge.
each of the lessees and occupants of the building, business, place,
property, matter or thing to which said order relates, and in icspect of which said expenses were incurred; and also against ev
*
ery person or body who was by law or coiBractboufel to do that
in regard to such business, place, street, propertM matter or Expenses a lien
on rent and
thing which said order requiH, and said expenses shall also be a compensation.
lien on all rentrand compensation due, or to groiBduB, foBtheuse
any place, roomBbuilding, premises,^Mtter or thing to which
said order relm.es. and in respect ofB'hich
wre in
curred; and also from the time of filing, as afore«d, f alien cn
all compensation due or to groMdue for the cleaning of any
street, place, ground or thing, or for theMeansing (or removal)
of any matterBthing or placeBU® failure to do which by the par
ty bound so t® do, or the dofflig of theBa^MnBdiole or in part
by order of said Board, was the cause or occasion of any such or
der or expense.■ Said Board of Health, its assignee, or the party
who has under its ordcB or that of the Board of Police, acting
Action by as
thereunder, incurred said expense, or has Hidered service for signee.
which paymeiB is due, and as the rules of said Board of
Health may provide,, may institute Bmd^^^^BnBaBuit against
any one herd™ declared liable fcBexpeiBes as aforesaid, or a®inst
any person, firm or corporation BwingBoB who im^Bo^^Kuch
rent or comftnsation, and may rBiover the expenses so incBrred
under any order aforesaid.I| And only one or more of such par
ties liable or intercsHl may be made parties to such action as the Parties to suit.
Board may elect; but the parBes made responsible as aforesaid
for such expenses shall be liable to^Bntribu® or to make pay
ment as betwaJiBthenBclves, in respect of such ^Mnses and of
any sum reco^Md for such expenses or compennBor by any
party paid on account thereof,Biccordigr to the legal or equitable
Every body’s
obligation existing^fflveen them. And it is her^B' declared to duty to eh an,
drain, Ac
be the duty of ever^Mvner andMirt ownH an® person interest
ed, and of every lessee, tenant and ocMpant of, or in any place,
water, grountB lBo^^^^MaBartment, IMWiigsa erection, vessel,
vehicle, matter and thing in said district, and of every person
conducting orBiterested in busineiB therein or thereat, and of
every person who has undertaken to clean any place, g«md or
street thereint’and of evcr^HrBm, public officer and Board hav
ing charge of any gBmnd, place, IjuildH; oBcrectiMtherein, to
* See Laws of 1867, Chapter 956, Section 13.
+ Amended, Laws of 1866, Chapter 6S6. Section 5.
J See Laws of 1S67, Chapter 956, Section IS.
[ Seo Laws of 1S67, Chapter 956, Section 13.
�16
keep, place and preserve the same, and every part, and the sew
erage, drainage and ventilation thereof, in such condition, and to
conduct the same in such manner that it shall not be dangerous
Authority of
or prejudicial to life or health. And in any suit in this action, or
bepre' elsewhere in this act, authorized to be brought, the right of said
Board or the Board of Police to make any order or cause the ex
ecution thereof, shall be presumed. Any member of the police
force. and every inspectMoM officer of said Board of Health, as
spectoiV&c11' ^1G regulations of either ofBaid boards may respectively provide
relative to its own subordinates, may arrest any person who shall
in view of such member or officer, violate, or do or be engaged
in doing, or comiiMiMO said district any act or thing forbid
den by this act, or by any law or Ordinance, the authority con
ferred by which is given
saffl Board of Health, or who shall
in such pr(gen(Sr«g|, or be engaged in resisting the enforce
ment of any of said orders of said Board, or of the Board of Po
lice pursuant thereto. And any person so arrested shall be there
after treated and disposed of as any other person duly arrested
for a misde 1 nMMMWdBoard of Health, having first enArrests orJ.ered
. .
•
by Board.
tered on its minutes, or filed in its records, what it may regard
as adequate proof of a violation or resistance by any person in
said district, of any such law, ordinance or order, may order (by
its warrant, under its seal and r®sted by the signature of its
president and secretary, and iMKating, as far as conveniently
practicable, the time, place and nature of the offence committed)
the arrest of any such person, and such order of arrest shall be
of the same effiMBaMiKBi 1 be executed as a warrant from a jus
tice or judge, duly issued ; and the party arrested shall be taken
before a magistrate, and thereupon and thereafter shall by all of
ficers, be treated as bffing and have the rights and liability of a
party under arrest by ordeflof the proper officer or tribunal, for
a misdemeanor of the nature indicated in the said order of arrest.
Proof, by whom p(-Oofs, affidaiMMmMMa mi nations as to any matter under this
taken.
■
act may bp|Moi by or before one or more members of the
officers may ad-Board, or othi^RHson. as the Board shall authorize; and the
secretary, the saWary. and assistant superintendents, and any
member of said Board shall, severally, have authority to admin
ister oaths in such matters, and any person guilty of wilfully tes
tifying falsely shall incur all the pains and penalties of perjury.
Any judge of the Supreme Court of any judicial district, wholly
der examin-cr' or partly within said sanitary district, or who is holding court or
ation'
chambers therein, upon the written application of said Board or
its president, to be made by or through its attorney or counsel,
-i
�17
may issue bis order by him subscribed, for the examination with
out unreasonable delayby or before such justice, of any person
or persons, and the production of books and papers, or the inspec
tion and taking of copifilof tha>hol<|A part^Miereof, at a time
and place within <said district, and in said order to be named ;
and it shall be the dutHif^Hh justiceto take or superintend such
examination, which shall be under oath, and shall be signed by
the party or partieSeHnined and be certified by said judge, and
with any copies of books or papers be delivered toBaid Board or
its secretary, for the use of said Board. And such examination,
and any proceeding^Hnecwd tlBiwvM or under said order,
may wholly or in part be had, con^^Bd or conMucd bj^r be How conducted.
fore any other of said judges, as will as .that one Biereofwho
made said order; and in and about the same, every such judge
shall have as full power and authority to pu®® for ccMempt,
and enforce obedience to hi^miB or other order or directions res
pecting the matter aforesaid (o^^^HfHny other judge,) as any And enforced.
such judge or the Supreme Court may now have or shall possess
to enforce obedie^Har puconin any case or matter
whatever. Such application shall name or describe the person or
persons whoseBx^Biation is sought (and so far as possible the What applica
tion to contain
books or papers desired to be inspected.) and the mattew or
points affecting life or health in said district as to HfflHifeaid
board requests the same to take place, and the judge shall, on the
proceedings, decide what questions are pertinent and allowable
in respect tlBrcto, and shall require the same to be
swered ; but no answer ofBiny person so examined shall »tised
How
in any criminal proceeding. Service of .any order of any such orderjudge's
served
judge may be made, and the same proved
manner as
the service of either an inj unHon or of a subpoena may now be
made or proved. And it shall b®g duty olHjHid jWRs to
facilitate the early determination of the aforesaid pg>ceedinjg|
§ 15. It shall be the duty of said Board to give alMfiHRation Board to give
and receive
that may be reasonablyBequ^»d concerning any threatened dan formation . in
ger to the public health, to the Health Officer of the port of New
York, and to the Commissioners of Quarantine of said poi^frwho
shall give the like information to said Board; and said Board
and said OfficerlandBaid QuHntine CommissioneiHhall^o far
as legal and practilLblS co-operaB together to prevent the
spread of disease, and for th^^sr "ection of lifiHamBfor the pro
motion of health, within the sphere of their respective duties;
3
�18
and the authority and power of said Health Officer and Quaran
tine Commissioners is not by this act affected, save as last afore
said, anything herein elsewhere to the contrary notwithstanding..
Board to ascer
§ 1G. And said Board shall use all reasonable means for ascer
tain and prevent
disease.
taining the existence and cause of disease or peril to life or
health, and for averting the same throughout said district; and
To inform and
be informed by shall promptly cause all proper information, in possession of said
such boards.
Board to be sent to the local health authorities of any city, vil
lage or town in this State which may request the same, and shall
add thereto such useful suggestions as the experience of said
Board may supply. And it is hereby made the duty of said
health authorities to supply the like information and suggestions
to said Metropolitan Board of Health. And said Board may
Vaccination and
take measures, and supply agents, and afford inducements and
medical relief.
facilities for general and gratuitous vaccination and disinfection,
and may afford medical relief to and among the poor of said dis
trict, as in its opinion the protection of the public health may re
quire, and may remove or cause to be removed to a proper place
within said district, to be by them designated, any peison sick
with small pox or other contagious disease. And in the presence
*
When pesti
of greatBind imminent peril to the public health in said district,
lence impend
ing to take ex by reason of wq^nding pestilence, it shall be the duty of said
traordinary
measures.
Board to take such measures and to do and order, and cause to
be done, such ac^Band make HiclBexpenditures (beyond those
duly estimated for or provided) for the preservation of the public
health (though not herein elsewhere or otherwise authorized) as
it may in good faith declare the public safety and health to de
mand, aHthe Governor of the State shall also in writing approve.
Six members to But the exercise of this extraordinary power shall also, so far as
concur.
it involves such excessive expenditures, require the written as
sent of at least six members of the Board. And such peril shall
not be deemed to exist except when, and for such period of time,
as the Governor of the State, together with said Board, shall de
clare by proclamation the same to exist or continue.
§ 17. It shall be the duty of said Metropolitan Police Board
Police to report
danger to
(and of its officers and men, as the last named Board shall direct)
health.
to promptly advise said Metropolitan Board of Health of all
threatened danger to human life or health, and of all matters
thought t<> demand its attention, and to regularly report to said
And violations
of ordinances. Board of Health all violations of its rules and of said ordinances
and of the health laws, and all useful sanitary information.! And
Powers of
Health Officer
and Quarantine
commissioners
reserved.
*Am ended, Laws of 1867, Chapter 956, Section 3.
+ Amended, Laws of 1S67, Chapter 956, Section 2.
�19
said last named Boards shall, so far as practicable and appropri
ate, co-operate for the promotion of the public health and the safe
tv of human life in said district. And it shall be the duty of said roiice to exeMetropolitan Police Board, by and through its proper officers,
r'
agents and men, tomdhfnlly and at the proper tj^®e®d-ce and
execute the sanitary rules and regulafflons, and the orders of said
Board of Health (made pursuant to the power of said Board of
Health,) upon the same being received inH’itingffid duW au
thenticated, as said Board of Health may direct. And said Po- Police tocmlice Board is authorized to employ and use the Appropriate per- £'cOy persons>
sons and means, and to make the necessary and appropriate expen
ditures foiyihc execution and enforcement of said rules, orders
and regulations, and such expenditures so far as the samamay
not be refunded or compensated by the means heremelsewhere
provided, shall be paid as the other expenseaof said Board of
Health are paid. And in and about the execution of any order
of the Board of Heaffih or of the Board of Police made pursuant Authority as
under special
thereto, police officers and policemen shall have as ample power warrant,
and authority as when obeying any order of or law applicable to
the PoliceJBoard, or as if acting under a special warrant of a
justice or judge, duly issued, but for their conduct they shall be
responsible to the Board of Police and not to the Board of
Health.
8 18. It shall be the duty of said Board, so far as it ma be
able without serious expense, to gather and preserve such infor- deaths, &c.
mation and facts relating to deaths, disease and health, from oth
er parts of this State, but especially in said district, as may be
useful in the discharge of its duties, and contribute to the promotion of the health or the security of life in the State of New York.
And it shall be the duty of all health-officers and boards of health
in the State to communicate to said Metropolitan Board ofHealth portstobecom.
„ , .
,
i ,
,
.,
. P
municatedto
copies of their reports, and also such sanitary information as may Board,
be useful in said district. And said Board shall keep records of
its acts and proceedings as a Board, and of the execution of its Eecords keptorders, so far as reasonably practicable.
§ 19. It shall be the duty of said Board, on or before the first
Monday of December in each year, to make a report in writing MUa rep°r
to the Governor of this State, upon the sanitary condition and
prospects of said district ; and such reports shall set forth gene
rally the statistics of births, deaths and marriages, the action of
said Board and of its officers and agents, and the names thereof what to con
fer the past year, and may contain other useful information, and tain‘
�20
May print re
port .
By-Laws, <fce.
Publish ByLaws .
Code of health.
Penalty.
shall suggest any further legislative action or precautions deemed
proper for the better protection of life and health, as well in other
parts of the State as especially in said district. Such annual re
port may contain the sanitary rules and by-laws adopted by the
Board hereby created. And the annual report of said Board
shall also contain ^detdMjstd^ment, under the oath of the
treasurer, of all money received and paid out by said Board, or
its treasurer, and a detailed statement of the manner of its expendi
ture during the year last past, and of the funds on hand. Said
Board may annually have, not exceeding one thousand copies of
said repin an economical form, at the expense of said
Board, and may distribute the same as shall be best adapted to
promote the purposes
H cop® of said report shall
be sent to each duly organized Board of H(SJh in the State of
New Torequested such copy, and shall have
f urnished^yt^^^^^wi^ copy of its own annffiK report.
§ 20. Said Board may enact such by-laws, rules and regula
*
tions as it may deem advisable, in harmony with the provisions
and purposes of this act, and not inconsistent with the constitu
tion or laws of this State, for the regulation of the action of said
Board, its officers and agents, in the discharge of its and their
duties^fiffiM the protection of life and public health; and from
time to time may alter, annul or amend the same. And said
Board shj^g^^ manner,
and ordinances take
effect,
more fully carrying into effect the intents and pur
poses of this act, annually, on or before the tenth day of May in
any year, make
week for three suc
cessive weeks next thereafter, in two daily newspapers published
in the city of New York, and in one daily newspaper published
in th^T city of Brooklyn, a “ code of health ordinances” for the
protection of the public health in said district, to take effect on
and after tBq
tSiiSm- fi™>wing, and to
remain in fullj^frtue,
and effect within said district for the
term of one year, unless annulled ;f and all courts and tribunals,
or any judfml^nitW^^BeQfKKl take cognizance of and give
effect to said ordinances and the several parts thereof, and may
enforce such
not exceeding fifty dollars
for each offeiiollteo vy
oi3 district court,
with costs; but nMhiB^in this section jOnained shall be con
strued as in any manner limiting an^powers herein elsewhere
contained. J
* Amended, Laws of 1866, Chapter 6S6, Section 1.
+ Amended, Laws of 1866, Chapter 6S7, Section 1; Laws of 1867, Chapter 956, Section 10.
J Amended, Laws of 1866, Chapter 6S6, Section 1; Laws of 1867, Chapter 956, Section 10,
�21
§ 21. Said Board shall cause to he kept a general complaint
book, or several such books, in which may be entered by any
person, in good faith, any complaints of a sanitary nature which
such person thinks may be useful, with the name and residence
of the complainant, and may give the name of tlie person or per
sons complained of, and the date of the entry of the complaint,
and such suggestions of any remedy as may in good faith be
thought appropriate, and said books shall be open to all reason
able public examination as the Board may authorize ; and the
Board shall
complaints to be in
vestigated, and the appropriate remedy to be applied.
§ 22. Said Board may, from time to time, engage a suitable
person or persons to
ito
make or supervise practical and scientific sanitary investigations
and e x a min
n^B^yrinl^S^lW»^^aill. and
to prepare pl a
v
made the duty of all boards, officers and agents having the con
trol, charge or custody of any public structure, work, ground or
erection, or of ^^^Wanis
thereof, or relating thereto, made, kept or controlled under any
public authority, to permit and facilitate the examination and in
spection, and the making of copies of the same by any officer or
person therCa^^MlMMraM-d1 authorized; and the members of
said Board,
;r
any of the aforesaid sanitary inspectors, and such other officer or
person as may at any time be by said Board authorized, may,
without fet or hindrance, enter, examine and survey all grounds,
erections, vehicles, structures, apartments, buil dings and place s
in said
1
1
waters, and all cellars, sewers, passages and excavations of every
sort, and iMj^^
ES niake
plans, drawings and descriptions thereof, according to the order
o r regulat
nay make and pub
lish a report
i
.Em 1g result of the in
spection of any place, matter or thing in said district so inspect
ed, or otherwiaEEIaiMSial^EMl^^Mnjjit£ElaM^M^^Rh< >oard,
such publication may be useful, And said Board may provide a
badge of metal, with a suitable inscription thereon, and direct
and require it to be worn, in a position to be designated, by any
person or officer under the authority of said Board, at such times
and under such circumstances as the rules or by-laws of said
Board shall direct. It shall be a misdemeanor, punishable by
Complaint
book.
Complaint to bo
investigated.
Engineering
service.
Inspection of
charts. Ac., to be
permitted.
Right to enter
and inspect.
Make sanitary
condition
public.
Badge.
�22
False represen
tation or perso
nation .
Regular and
special meet
ings.
Meetings and
orders presum
ed authorized.
Board to enforce
Health Laws.
What included.
Boards may re
quire repoi ts
from institu
tions, asylums,
&c. ‘
imprisonment in the county jail, or, in the city and county of
New York, in the penitentiary, for not less than one year nor
exceeding two years, or by a fine of not less than two hundred
and fifty dollars, for any person, not an officer under this act, to
falsely represent himself as such, with a fraudulent design upon
persons or property, or to have, use, wear or display, without
authority, any shield, or other insignia or emblem such as is worn
by such officers But no more than five thousand dollars in any
one year shall be expended for sanitary engineering service.
§ 23. Said Board shall hold regular and special meetings as
frequentlyfes tne proper and efficient discharge of its duties shall
require | the same to be held (unless it shall be impracticable so
to do, or shall be, for good reasons, otherwise ordered,) at the
regular office of said Board in the city of New York; and the
rules or by-laws shall provide for the giving of proper notice of
all such meetings to the members of the Board. And all meet
ings shall in every suit and proceeding be taken to have been
duly called and regularly held, and all orders and proceedings
to have been duly authorized, unless the contrary be proved.
§ 24. It shall be the duty of said Board of Health to aid in the
enforcement of, and so far as practicable to enforce all law’s of
this State, applicable in said district, to the preservation of hu
man life, or to the care, promotion, or protection of health; and
said Board may exercise the authority given by said laws to en
able it to discharge the duty hereby imposed; and this section is
intended to include all laws relative to cleanliness, and to the use
*
or sale of poisonous, unwholesome, deleterious or adulterated
drugs, medicine or food. And said Board is authorized to re
quire reports and information (at such times and of such facts,
and generally of such nature and extent, relating to the safety of
life and promotion of health as its by-laws or rules may pro
vide), from all public dispensaries, hospitals, asylums, infirma
ries, prisons and schools, and from the managers, principals and
officers thereof; and from all other public institutions, their offi
cers and managers, and from the proprietors, managers, lessees,
and occupants of all theatres and other places of public resort or
amusements in said district; but such reports and information
shall only be required concerning matters or particulars in re
spect of w’hich it may, in its opinion, need information, for the
better discharge of its duties in said district. And it is hereby
made the duty of the officers, institutions and persons so called
on, or referred to, to promptly give such information and make
�■
23
such reports, verbally, or in writing, as may be required by said
boards. And it is hereby further made the duty of all persons, Board to be
officers and boards to make to said Board of Health the reports
and returns, and to give the informatioiSancl afford to said Board
the aid and facilitiesRhich by law or ordinance tngU any of
them were required to make, afford or give to any person, offi
cer or board, when any powers herebHonft^red on said Board
of Health were exercised by any other officer or board.
8 25. Such Board shall not be requireMto nflHanS return or Beturns not rec
quired of Board.
report, or give any information or advice, or do any act which,
under the former admHstration of the health ^Hs in Rid dis
trict, was made neces^® or Bppropwt^M^Ron of g^mrious
officers, boards or agents by or through which said laws were
executed or administered, or the powers hereby conferred were
exercised; and said Board may establish reasonable reguHions Re gulations as
as to the publicity of its records and proceedings ; and may pub- toreCurdslish such information as may, in its opinion, be useful, concern- May publish
ing births, deaths, Hrriages, sicknH and the general sanitary inlormatloncondition of said district, on any matter, place or thing therein.
§ 26. The department knoH as the ‘gK|lREctc« Depart- City inspector’s
ment,” and every bureau thereof, and so much of the^^^Ry-sgg ffitheoffi-nd
enth section of the four hundred and forty-sixth chapter of the ces abollshedlaws of eighteen hundred and fifty-seven, as relate thereto, and
each and every office in the said d^Hict i^Bg|o public health,
or the duties of which are confemed on said Board, except the
Health Officer of the port of New York and the Board of Quar
antine Commissioners Hid its officers, are hereby abolished.
And no salary or coMen«iongHllB)e due oMpaid by any offi- galarles of
cer or board whatever, to any officer or agent or board in said ^J.^®^8
district for seSfes to be rendered after this act goes into effect,
under any law or ordinance cowerning life or public health, ex
cept under this act and as Mhorized by the board hereby creat
ed. And all other bo ards and officers now existing in said dis- ■
' trict under or by virtue of any law or ordinance relating to
public health, are hereby also abolishes; and no compens»ion
shall be paid to or in respect of the same for any service rendered
after this law shall go into effect, save as gN Board of Health
shall authorize.
§ 27. All the sums of money provided or raised for meeting Funds of Board,
the expenses, compensations and payments provided by this act,
or that may be authorized
said Board (except penalties or
other sums received and amounts collected by suit as herein pro-
�24
vided,) shall be paid into the treasury of the State, and shall
constitute a fund, to be so far as needed, used by said Board
in the performance of its duties-and discharge of its obligations ;
and may and shall be paid therefrom, on the order of the treas
urer of said Board, as |®id Board may direct, and shall be ap
plied and paid by thqjgpii^pr |Sf $aiic^ Board only as this act
payable?'hen and the reguUtfens of said Board may authorize. And unless
this Board shall otherwise specially provide, all salaries and com
pensation
.shaljp, so fir as practicable, be
paid quartering And any member or officer of ®aid Board may,
if a judge sMEo order, be summarily examined upon an order
may be’exam” (to
made on application and Avritten affidavit oa the oath of
ined.
three freeholders of said district) requiring such examination,
and signed by any justice of the supreme court of the first judi
cial district, and directing such examination to be publicly made,
at the chambers of said justice, aE day and hour to be named,
not less
personal service of said orHow examina,
.
...
x
tiun conducted, cler, and
be confined to an inquiry int0
any alleged wrongful diversion or misapplication of any of said
moneys
delinguepEEMKcl W said affida- vit, touchi^SWrEffio^fe
or neglect of duty of
which A hs
for
that such
memb" of said Board or said officer HMgmSjfcdg® or informa
tion.
I pertinent
questions
diiftf, and the ex
amination may be continued from time to time as such judge
may order^^wpictwSydE^^^H p
ch mEH shall not be
used against him on any criminal proceeding. The proceedings
may be pontB®d before any other judge in said^district, and
other witnesses, as well as the parties fSlSrBkmh application,
may, in the discretion of such judge, be compelled to attend and
be examined touching such alleged delinquency; and such judge
may punishany refusal to- Jw^^fgich exSjtfwation or to answer
any questiommfrsuafflA io his order as for and being a contempt
of court. And such examination, affidavit and orders shall be
filedin the toffiet |of the IBoh^^jCterMfa^ the county of New
York. And in regard to this last es^hinBioiJI and matters
therewith connected, any such jwage"shall have all the powers
and authority ponferiW, in M?bpecti| to th.® examination or pro
ceedings mentioned in the fogyc^entl^ section hereof, as if herein
repeated.
Board of Esti§ 28- The Mayor and Comptroller of the city of New York,
mateand the Mayor and Comptroller of the city of Brooklyn, togeth-
�26
er with the members of said Board, created by this act, shall, oh
■.•easonable notice from said Board, convene at the office of When to meet,
said Board of Health, as jauBoard of Estimate, a majority of
whom shall form a quoruinFraAjg|Ml annually, on or before the
first day of August, make up a financial estimate and statement,
including all sums and expenses in arrear, and also any sum bor
rowed, as herein elsewhere provided for, of the sums required
for the year, commencing on the first day of January ensuing,
annually (above any sums on h|BII| for the expenses and proper
support, and for the discharge of the duties of Bggig^^Bncltid
ing the proper expenses and disbursements of said Board, and of
the members or officers thereof in the discharge of their official
duties, and for such other general or incidental expenses as may
from time to time, in the judgment of such Board of Estimat e ,b e c ora ©■ we
e
Sums raised foflfeft ^SfS^^of
Limitation of
H
1
J ;
amount,
hundred thousafldolla^^^^^HnS|W|g»WM|| of such sums
as may have been expended in the presence of great and immi
nent peril to the public health in said district by reason of im
pending pestilence, and independently of the sums herein else
where provided, to be paid by or recovered back from any per
son or corporawon. Ai^lK® expenses for the remainder of the
*
current year after the passage of this act, to be reckoned at the
said rate of one hundred thousand dollars a year, independently
of said extraordinary expenses, and of said sums to be paid or
recovered back, shall be estimated and apportioned to the seve
ral cities, counties and towns in said district as hereinafter pro
vided, and collcSed in the next annual tax levies. Such estimate
shall be accompanied by a written apportionment, made by said
Board of Estimate, of the proportions of expenses applicable to
and to be paid by each county, city and towm in said
And in apportioning the salaries of the members of the Board, Mo(le of appor.
its officers, agents and employees, the following rules shall |]|e tionment.
observed:
1. The salaries and compensation of all members of the board
appointed to this board, cSBftli^MhM^5mMofficS, from any
county, and of all officers, agents and employees thereof, whose
principal sphere of duty shall be in any county, shall be appor
tioned against and p
2. The salary of the Health Offim^Hd ^[11 general, office,
* Amended Laws of 1S67, Chapter 95(, Section 15.
4
�26
Committee of
revision.
If committee of
revision object.
contingent and other expenses of the board, not included in the
first class aforesaid, shall be apportioned against and paid by the
respective counties and towns (or counties to which they belong)
in the ratio of the taxable property, real and personal, of each,
in said district, according to the assessment under which the last
preceding taxes therein were respectively levied.
3. But no apportioning^ against any county (or town therein),
other than the counti^^Bkew Yorkfend Kings, shall be made
under the two foregoing clauses, unless as follows, that is to say :
Each other ccgnty (and each of said towns) shall have appor
tioned agairBro ancBshall pay all disbursements and expenses
arising, caused or ordered therein, to or by said Board, or for
salaries, and services,Bo" portions thereof, earned or rendered
therein, as the regulations of said Board may provide ; but such
salaries and servicMwillpiot include any portion of the salaries
of the members M^O^oard or of its .general officers.
4. It is further prOKecK in respect of each of said counties,
that all the expenses caused by any act or any order of said
board, W the execution thereof in or for any particular county or
part thereof, shall ^^HiorBoned to and be paid by said county
or part thereof; and any sums collected in either shall be cred
ited to such county or
unless the same was on ac
count of expenses incurred in some other county, city or town,
and in that event it shall be credited thereto. The said estimate
and statement shall, at least ten days before the first day of
Septenib(M|^»sMefi|g su^Ktecl to the committee of revis
ion, compose<ffloSth^HEdM:s of the boards of supervisors of
the counties
Kings, Westchester and Richmond,
and of the presidents of the b|M of1 aidermen of the city of
Brooklyn, and of the supfipsors of the respective towns of
Newtown, FlBshiMaSl Jamaica, in the county of Queens, who
may meet, by a majority thereof, and consider and act upon the
said estimate and enumeration on or before the first Monday of
September in each year. If the said committee of revision, on
or before the second Monday of said September, shall object in
writing to such estimate or apportionment, or any portion there
of, and so in writing, by said date, mgjfify, or cause to be noti
fied, the said board of estimate, it shall be the duty of the latter
to immediately and carefully revise the same, and considei the
said objections. If such committee shall fail to meet, or if said
board of estimate shall adhere to their original action and esti-
�27
mate, or if they shall modify the same, but they shall not in If fail to meet
crease the same, then their final determination, apportionment or adhere to be
conclusive.
and action shall be binding and conclusive upon all concerned.
to be
And the board of supe»jsors of the counties of New York, Moneyin re
raised
spective coun
Kings, Richmond and Queens (the expenses in the last-named ties and towns.
county to be charged and collected in,Kd in ®espe®t of the
property of the towns of Newtown, Flushing and Jamaica), re
*
spectively, are empowered a»|direBedEm»:iMvMto order and
cause to be raised and collected, by tax upon the estates, real
and personal, subject to taxation according to law, within the
said respective counties and towns, their respective proportions
of the sums of money as aforesaid, annually estimated and as ap
portioned and finally determined upon, as said total expenses
and estimate aforeffiiid. The sums of money so respectively Disposition of
money.
raised, as provided for in this act, shall be, by the rar<B|r offi
cers, immediatelyrand^Hhoft deduction, paid into the Treasury
of the State,,:Bd shall corgg® the separate ft®l|Wi«n else
where mentioned and pr^HedHid be used only for the purpo
ses of said Board, and shall be paid from the State Treasury, un
der such appropria® regulations as shall bSagreed upon between
the Comptroller of the State, the State Tre^H-erKd the Treas
urer of said Board.
§ 29. The said Board magborro^^Rthe credit of this
and Board may
borrow.
of the fundsHo be raised Emeremid^Msuch amouiffl (the borrow
ing of the same respectively to be first BpMrowd^^^Sting by
the Governor of the State) as may, in the opinion of said Board,
be reasonably necessary mid proper to enable it to discharge its
duties and defray its e?®enses hereby authorized, up to the time
when the Requisite funds can be realized for said Board and pur
poses fromMhe^^Etion and soureffl herein provided for and
authorized ; ffldBuch moneys so borrowed, with legal interest,
shall be a charge upon and shall be repaid by th^Sid counties and
cities and towns in the proportion hereinbefore prowled,and the
amounts-thereof shall, in addition to the requisite annual ex
pense to secure a future annual fund, be included or allowed in
the next or fi^M annual estimate of the sums required and expen
ses as aforesaid, and shall, with interest, be included, and the
amount, with intere^Jcollected in and with the tax in this act
provided for, and the same shall go into the said fund, and shall
from thence, by the Treasuffl of the Board, be paid to or in fa Certificates for
money borrow
vor of the parties entitled. And said Board may issue its certifi ed.
cates to those of whom it borrows money, as herein authorized,
* Westchester added, Laws of 1867, Chapter 956, Section 4.
�28
under its seal, and signed by its President and Secretary, and
bearing interest at the rate of not more than seven per cent., and
payable at a time not more than eighteen months from the date
at which any sum may have been borrowed.
*
Penalty for vio
§ 3O.f Whoever^hall violate any provisions of this act, or any
lations, &c.
order of said Board, mad® finder the authority of the same, or
of any by-law or ordinance therein referred to, or shall obstruct
or interfere with any per-soa. in the execution of any order of said
Board, or any order of the Board of Police, in pursuance or ex
ecution of the order of the Board of Health, or wilfully omit to
obey any such order, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and be
liable to be indicted Mid punished. for such offence : and in cases
Misdemeanor.
where it was made a misdemeanor to do or omit any act or
thing, when any powif- orlauthority hereby conferred upon this
Board were exercised by airy othm^bpard or officer or officers,
the omission. or doing of suclmor a corresponding act or thing,
which this act requires, or contemplate® to b© done or forbids,
shall in like manner be a misdemeanor, .and the offender shall be
liable to indictment ancl^ 'punishment for the ®ne. A wilful
Wilful violation omission or refusal of any individwd, wrporation or body to con
form t© any sanitary regulation ©f said Board duly made for the
protection of life, or the care, promotion of preservation of health,
pursuant to its power or authority, shall be a misdemeanor, and
the person « officers guilty thereof shall be liable to indictment
and punishment a® for a misdemeanor. And all prosecutions
Before whom
and proceeding® against any person forTr misdemeanor under
trials had.
this act may be had or tried before any judge or tribunal having
jurisdiction of any misdemeanor within said district, or within
the town, city oijjvillage within which any such misdemeanor
under this act was committed. Hind any person, corporation or
Pecuniary lia
bility of delin body which may have- wilfully done of omitted any act or thing
quent.
which is in this act, of any law or ordinance therein referred to,
declared to be, or to subject tihe party guilty thereof to punish
ment for a misdemeanor, shall, iafeddition thereto, be subject to
a penalty of two hundred!, and fifty dollars,, to be sued for and re
covered bysaAft Board in any civil hribunal in said district, ex
cept that in the n®,rine, or justice, or county courts, no greater
amount can be ref^Vered tha^jthe extent of the jurisdiction in
*
other civil suits. And any luch -Suits may be against one or
more, or each or all of those who participate hi the act, refusals
or omissions complained of, and the recovery may be against one
* Amended, Laws of 1867, Chapter 956, Section 10.
+ Amended, Laws of 1866, Chapter 686, Section 2.
�29
or more of those joined in the action, as the justice or court shall
■direct. And the provisions of this section as to jurisdiction of
tribunals and costs shall apply to all suits by said Board or its
assignees, or the assigiWg of thd®jMp»i'$ tinder this act.
*
§ 31. Copies of the records of th^m-oc^^m^krof »id Board, Records as eviof its rules, regulations, by-laws and books and papers constitut- dence’
ing part of its arct^H, when authenticated by its secretary or
secretary pro tew.,f shall be presumptive evidence, and the au
thentication be tak««IMWesi^m>tM|mMorrMMmM any court of
justice or judicial proceeding, when they may be relevant to the
point or matter in controversy, of the facts, statements and recitals therein contain^Mand the action, proceedings, authority Action of Board
and orders of said Board shall at all times be regarded as in their dicuun^ie^ai
nature judicial, and be treated asjust and legal.
§32. It shaltafefl®Muty of all prosecuting officers of criminal prosecutions to
courts and police justices to act promptly upon all compMt,s be prompt,
and in all suits or proceedings for any violation of this act, and
in all proceedings; approved or |romold by said BotMBMfrl to
bring the same to a speedy hearing or termination, and to ren
der judgment apjflldir
§ 33. This act, so far as its relates to the appointment of the when
Sanitary Commissioners provided for therein, shall take effect effectimmediately, an®
other respects, go fully into effect on
the first day of March, eighteen hundred and sixty-six.
* See Laws of 1866, Chap^fr 6S6, Action956.^^ffljnsfo W8 17
+ Chief Clerk added, Laws of 1867, Chapter 956, Section 1.
to take
I
�30
CHAPTER 686.
By-Laws and
rules.
Code of Health
Ordinances.
Ordinances of
1866.
Penalty for vio
lation.
AN ACT to amend an Act entitled “ An Act to create a Metro
politan Sanitary District and Board of Health therein, for the
Preservation of Life and Health, and to prevent the spread of
disease therefrom,” passed February 26, 1866. Passed April
19, 1866, three-fifths being present.
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and
Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Section twenty of an act entitled “An act to create
a Metropolitan Sanitary District and Board of Health therein,
for the preservation of Life and Health, and to prevent the
spread of Disease therefrom,” passed February twenty-six, eigh
teen hundred and sixty-six, is hereby amended so as to read as
follows:
§ 20. Said Board may ei^3 such by-laws, rules, and regula
tions as it may deem advisable, in harmony with the provisions
and purposes of this act, and not inconsistent with the constitu
tion or laws of this State, for the regulation of the action of said
Board, its officersfcand agents, in the discharge of its and their
duties, and from time to time, may alter, annul or amend the
same ; and said Board shall, in like manner, for more fully car
rying into effect the intents and purposes of this act, annually, on
or before the fifth day of May in any year, make and publish
twice a week, for three successive weeks next thereafter, in two
daily newspapers published in the City of New York, and in one
daily newspaper published in the City of Brooklyn, “ a code of
health ordinances” for the protection of the public health in said
district, to take effect on and after the first day of June next
thereafter following, and to remain in full virtue, force and ef
fect within said district,, until altered, amended, or annulled
and may at any time alter, amend or annul the same, or any
part thereof, upon publishing the same as altered and amended,
or such portion as is so altered and amended, and for a like time
as said original ordinances: but during the year eighteen hun
dred and sixty-six such code of health ordinances shall take ef
fect at any time after it shall have been published as aforesaid for
two weeks; and every person, body or corporation that shall vio
late or not conform to any ordinance, rule, sanitary regulation or
* Amended, Laws of 1867, Chapter 956, Section 10.
�31
special or general order of said Board, duly made, shall he liable
to pay a penalty not exceeding fifty dollars for each offence,
which may be sued for and recovered by and in the name of said
Board, with costs, before any justice or tribunal in said district
having jurisdiction of civil actions ; and all such justices and
*
tribunals shall take jurisdiction of such actions. And upon the plaint°n com‘
complaint of any citizen of said distt^;tE,g~ains^Sv person for a
violation of any rule, sanitary regulation, ordinanMcM order,
made to any police justice or magistrate having jurisdiction in
criminal cases, such justice or magistrate shall order the arrest of
any person against whom such complaint is made, as in any
other case of a criminal offence«nd, by his HirrantBmay re
quire any policeman or constable to make such arrestland may,
after such arrest, proceed summarily to try such person for such
alleged offence; but no such trial shall be had on any arrest Notice oftrial.
made in the City of New York without sufficient notice thereof
being first gives to said Board,pSits President. And upon an ap- g ®™i^1g>
plication in behalf of said Bo^d, made before the trial is com
menced, the trial of such person, togeth^^Hh the papers, shall
be remitted to the Court ofj^>ectel Sessions, upon which Court
jurisdiction to try feu cig person^ is hereby conferred; but the
right of any person
elect to be tried before a jury as it may
now exist, is not affected! by anything herein contained. If such
person shall, upon such trial, be found guilty, he or she may be Amount of fine,
fined in any amount not exceeding twenty-five dollars ;f and the
payment thereof may be enforced in the same manner as ^Bisual
in other cases where fines are imposed. Such fines, when col
lected, shall be at once paid over to the Treasurer of said Board,
to the credit of said Board. Reports of all such trials, and of
fines imposed for violations of this
or of the code of health J"®ttices to reordinances hereby authorized, shall be made moimhly to said
Board by the justice before whonmsuch trial is had. But noth
ing in this section coiwained shall be construed as in any manner
limiting any powers, penalty and punishment in this|H else
where conferred.
& 2. Section thirty of said act is hereby amended so as to read
as follows :
§ 30. Whoever shall Biolate any provisions of this act, or any Penalty for
order of said Board, made undei the authority of the same, or latl0Ils’ &eany by-law or ordinance therein referred to, or shall obstruct or
interfere with any person in the execution, of any order of said
* See Laws of 1867, Chapter 956, Section 2.
t See Laws of 1S67, Chapter 956, Section 2.
vio-
�82
Misdemean or.
Wilful violation
Places of trial.
Penalty of $250.
Parties to ac
tion .
Board may
bring suits.
Board, or any order of the Board of Police, in pursuance or exe3
*
cution of the order of the Board of Health, or wilfully omit to
obey any such order, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and be
liable to be indicted and punished for such offence, and in cases
where it was made a misdemeanor to do or omit any act or thing,
when any power or authority hereby conferred upon this Board
were exercised bvLtoy other board or officer or officers, the omis
sion or doing of such, TOffl i corresponding act or thing, which
this act require®, Or contemplates to be done or forbids, shall in
like manner be a misdemeanor, h>nd the offender shall be liable to
indictment and punishment Jfor the same. A wilful omission or
refusal of any individual, corporation or body to conform to any
regulation of said Board duly made for the protection of life, or
the care, promotion, or preservation of health, or the carryingout the purposes of this act pursuant to its power or authority,
shall be a misdemeanor, to® the person or officers guilty thereof
shall be liable t<| indictment and punishment as for a misdemean
*
or. And all ptostoWtions and proceedings against any person
for a mfadefstfStoor under thi® act may be had or tried before any
judge or tribunal having jurisdiction of any misdemeanor within
said district,' or within thef town, city or village within which
any such misdemeanor under this act was committed. And any
person, corpCtfatiM ^Mbody which may have wilfully done or
omitted any tot or tMnj^tvhich is in this act, or any law or ordi
nance therein referred to, declared to be, or to subject the party
guilty thereofto punishment for a misdemeanor, shall, in addi
tion thereto, be [wbject to a penalty of two hundred and fifty
dollars, to fee sued for and recovered by said Board in any civil
tribunal in said district, except that in the marine, or justice, or
county »artdl^>iffireater amount can be recovered than the ex
tent of the ilMgmtiofoin other civil suits. And any such suits
may be against one or more, or each or all of those who partici
pate in the act, refusals or omissions complained of, and the re
covery may be against one or more of those joined in the action,
as the justice of the court shall direct. And the provisions of this
section as to the jurisdiction of tribunals, parties, and costs, shall
apply to all suits by said Board or its assignees or the assignees
of the Police Board under this act. And said Board of Health
may institute and maintain in its own name all such suits and
proceedings as shall be reasonable, necessary, and proper for re
covering any moneys expended, enforcing the payment of any
fine, the punishment for any offence, or in other respects carrying
* See Laws of 1867, Chapter 956, Section 17.
�33
out the objects of this act. All processes ancl papers usual or
*
•
i
.
By whom
necessary m the commencement and prosecution of actions, or process served,
for the collection of money, in suits or proceedings under this
act on execution, may be served by any policeman, and in and
K»out such matters, the policeman so engaged shall have all the
Rowers of marshals, and no fees shall be charged by any court,
magistrate, or clerk for the issue of any paper or process, or the
(performance of any duty in suits under this act. Any civil ac- uonmay bT ac'
'tion brought under or by authority of this act, shall be in the bronshtname or by the authority of said Board, and may be brought in
»ny court in said district having jurisdiction in any civil action, Costs
to an amount as large as is demanded in such action, and if judg
ment be rendered for the plaintiff in any amount, costs of the
court in which such action is brought shall also be recovered
without reference to the amount of the recovery, provided pay
inent was demanded before suit brought, and the defendant or
defendants in the action against whom the recovery is had, did
not, as the code of procedure authorizes, offer to pay an amount
equal to the recovery against him or them, except that in cases
where the recovery shall be less than fifty dollars, the amount of
posts shall be ten dollars, and in case no recovery is had, the
plaintiff shall not pay costs, unless the judge or justice at the
(conclusion of the trial shall certify in writing that there was not
reasonable cause for bringing the action, and in such case the
costs shall not exceed ten dollars, unless the amount claimed ex
ceeded fifty dollars. No action shall abate or right of action al- Aotlons not t0
ready accrued be abolished by reason of the expiration, repeal, abateor amendment of any ordinance, code of health ordinances, or
regulation of said Board; nor shall any court lose jurisdiction
iof any action by reason of a plea that title to real estate is in
volved, provided the defendant is sought by the pleadings, to be
charged in said action on any of the grounds mentioned in this
act, other than by virtue of ownership of such real estate. In
respect to all proofs and proceedings by said Board, or its agents Papersfiied
•
deemed entered
br officers, under this act, papers filed shall be deemed entered
upon or in the minutes of the Board.
§ 3. Section twelve of said act is hereby amended so as to read
as follows :
§12. The authority, duty and powers, whether given by any powers^f’iocai
law, or by any ordinance made thereunder heretofore (for the
and °f'
* See Laws of 1867, Chapter 956, Section 8.
5
♦
�34
Cities to pay
salaries.
Powers given
New York by
certain ordin::
ces. conferred,
upon board.
purpose of preserving or protecting life or health, or preventing
disease) conferred upon or now belonging to, or being exercised
by the board of health, or the board of public health of or ill
the city of New York, or of or in the city of Brooklyn, or else J
where in said district, the mayor and common council of either
of said cities, the mayor of the city of New York, by and with
the advice and consent of the board of aidermen, the president
of the board of aidermen, the president of the board of assist
ant aidermen (or councilmen), the resident physician, the
health commissioner, the mayor and the commissioners, the
commissioners of health, the city inspector, (or the city inspector’s department), of either of said cities ; or conferred upon
or now belonging to any two or more of the said bodies or offi
cers, or last named boards or departments, or to any board of
health or health officer or agent in said district, or exercised
by any officer or person appointed by or deriving authority
from any one or more of the bodies, officers, departments, last
named boards, (so far as said powers and authority can be exer
cised and such duty performed by the Board hereby created,
without interference with the proper discharge of the duties, otlj^
er than sanitary duties, heretofore imposed upon the board metro
politan police), are hereby exclusively conferred upon, and shall
hereafter be exclusively exercised by the aforesaid “ The Metro
politan Board of Health the members and officers thereof, as
herein provided ; and the same are to be exercised as herein set
forth (and to such an extent, and in such place and manner as
said Board may provide), for the greater protection and security
of health and life in said district, and the appropriate parts there
*
of; and after this act goes into effect, no salary or compensation
shall be paid to, or fees demanded by or expense ordered to be
incurred by any officer, board or agent, or in respect to any ser
vice, expenditure or employment under the authority of any
health law, ordinance, regulation or appointment of or in said
cities, or any part of said district, unless such salary, expendi
ture, employment, fees or expense shall be authorized by the
Board hereby created and contemplated by the provisions of this
act. And the aforesaid power, duty and authority hereby trans
ferred to and conferred upon said Board shall be held to include
all the power, duty and authority given, or conferred, or pur
porting to be given or to be conferred to or upon any person,
officer or board, in or by any ordinance contained or purporting
to be contained in the first ten chapters of ordinances, being
* See Laws of 1S6T, Chapter 956, Section 10.
�35
numbered from one to ten inclusive in a compilation of “ Laws
ancl Ordinances relative to the Preservation of the Public Health
in the City of New York,” and purporting to be published under
the authority and by the direction of the Mayor and CommisEBmers of Health of said city, in the year one thousand eight
hundred and sixty, and by any existing amendments and addigatms thereto. But no fees of any kind shall be charged for the Ko fees.
performance of any duties imposed by said ordinances. And said
Board shall also possess (and may exercise by its own agents, or
Jbf order to be executed by said Board of Police), throughout Local powers
extended over
said district, all the power and authority for the protection of district.
life or health, or the care or preservation of health, or persons
diseased or threatened therewith, conferred by any law or ordi
nance relating to any part of said district, and especially by the Health powers
act of the seventeenth of April, eighteen hundred and fifty-four, of Brooklyn
charter confer
(being the three hundred and eighty-fourth chapter of the Laws red on board.
eighteen hundred and fifty-four), upon the mayor, common
pouncil, board of health, or the health officers, (or upon any
two or more of them, or other officers), in said act mentioned.
But the powers and authority in this section given shall not be
Certain boards
held to interfere with the powers and duties of the Croton A.c- not interfered
with.
feueduct Board, Street Commissioner, Superintendent of Unsafe
Buildings, Comptroller of New York City, or the Board author
ized to contract for street cleaning (under the law of eighteen
hundred and sixty-five) ; nor shall anything in the aforesaid laws
or ordinances contained be construed as a limitation of any power in this bill elsewhere given to the said Board or to limit the
^penalties and expenses it may enforce or collect; and all the Municipal au
thorities
Jpower recited or given by said laws or ordinances shall belong interfere.not to
wholly to said Board, who may exercise the same without the
advice, assent, or co-operation of any municipal board or officer,
and in any manner not inconsistent with the other sections of
this law, without being limited to the means or by the procedure in said ordinances stated. And no municipal body or other
■authority in said district shall hereafter create or employ any of Nor incur ex
pense.
ficer or agent, or incur any expense, under any of said (or other)
health laws or ordinances, or in respect of any matter concerning
Vihich said Board is by this act given control or jurisdiction.
All the aforesaid powers are to be possessed and exercised as
tfully as if herein repeated and separately conferred upon said
Board. And the powers of said Board shall be construed to in- Additional pow
ers.
clude the ordering and enforcing, in the same manner as other
�36
orders are provided to be enforced, the repairs of building®
houses, and other structures; the regulation and control of all
Markets.
public markets (so far as relates to the cleanliness, ventilation and
drainage thereof, and to the prevention of the sale or offering
Instructions in for sale of improper articles therein;) the removal of any obstmcthe street.
tion? matter or thing in or upon the public streets, sidewalks or
*
places, which shall be in their opinion liable to lead to results
detrimental to the public, or dangerous to life or health : the reg
ulation and licensing of scavengers ; the prevention of accidents
Scavengers.
life Or health may be endangered; and, generally, the
^Accidents.
abating of all nuisances.
§ 4. Section five of said act is hereby amended so as to read as
follows:
§ 5. Immediately after the four appointed sanitary commis
sioners shall have taken the oath of office as above provided,
Organize.
they shall meet with the commissioners of the metropolitan po
lice, and the commissioners of metropolitan police with them,
and the health officer of the port of New York, and orga
nize as a board of health by electing one of said board to be
President, and one of said board to be Treasurer thereof, and by
President.
Treasurer.
appointing a proper person to be Secretary of said Board. And
Secretary.
the successive Presidents of said Board of Health shall be annu
ally elected by the said board from the members thereof, and
the successive Treasurers shall be members of said Board; but
the Secretary shall not be a member of the Board. The Treas
Term of office
of Treasurer and urer and Secretary shall respectively continue in office as such
Secretary.
until removed by the election of a successor or otherwise. The
Salaries.
said Sanitary Commissioners shall each receive a salary of two
thousand five hundred dollars a year ; and each Police
Commissioner who may be a member of. said Board of
Health, and the Health Officer, shall as such receive a salary
of five hundred dollars a year ;f and the member of said
Board of Health, who acts as Treasurer, shall receive an addi
Salary of Treas
tional compensation of five hundred dollars a year for his servi
urer.
ces as Treasurer. All salaries allowed under this law shall
be payable as the Board shall provide. But for every regular or
special meeting of said Board which any Sanitary Commissioner
or the Secretary shall fail to attend, there shall be deducted
failure to’attend, from the salary of the person so failing the sum of ten dollars ;
and for every failure of a Police Commissioner or of said Health
Repair of build-
* See Laws of 1867, Chapter 956, Section 6.
+ Amended, Laws of 1867, Chapter 956, Section 16.
�“Officer to- attend any such meeting, there shall be deducted from
ms said salary the sum oftwo dollars; but these provisions shall not Not to apply to
adjourned meet
apply to any adjourned meeting, and it shall be the duty of the ing.
Treasurer to see that all such deductions are made before pay- Corresponding
Secretary.
■nents of said salaries. The Board may appoint a Corresponding
Secretary at an annual salary not exceeding one thousand dol
lars.
§ 5. Section fourteen, sub-division second, is hereby amended Amendment of
§14.
by striking out the words “from the time of filing as aforesaid,”
where the same immediately follow the words “ and also” in said
sub-division.
§ 6. Said Board may, by resolution, confer upon the President Power may be
confered on
power to exercise, in the absence of the Board, the authority President.
given in the fourteenth section, to temporarily suspend oi’ modi
fy any order or its execution. And said Board may change or
Power to modi
modify any order made under the first clause of the fourteenth fy order.
section, except that in cases where no hearing is asked for by the
party affected, the order shall not be so altered as to render its ef
fect more stringent than the original order.
*
§ 7. This act shall take effect immediately.
* Amended, Laws of 18G7, Chapter 956, Section 10.
�LAWS OF 1867.
CHAPTER, 956.
AN ACT relating to the Metropolitan Board of Health, and to
the duties and powers of the commissioners of said board, and
the salaries of their subordinates. Passed May 25, 1867 •
three-fifths being present.
7be People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and
Assembly, do enact as follows:
President and
Secretary pro
tem.
Chief Clerk to
certify papers.
Courts to take
judicial notice.
Duty of Police.
Minimum of
penalty.
Section 1. The Metropolitan Board of Health shall hereafter
have the power of electing persons to perform, pro tempore, the
duties of secretary or president respectively, during any time
when either of said officers may be absent, or be unable or may
refuse to perform their respective, duties; and the board may
designate one of the clerks in the secretary’s office of said board
as “ chief clerk,” who may perform such duties of the secretary
as shall be assigned him ; and papers certified by said chief clerk
shall be of the same effect, as evidence and otherwise, as if certi
fied by the secretary; and all courts shall take judicial notice of
the seal of said board and of the signature of its secretary and
chief clerk.
§ 2. It shall be the duty of the officers and men of the Metro
politan police force to enforce all of the ordinances and regula
tions of said board of health, and to report all violations of the
same; where, in any case the minimum penalty for a refusal to
obey, or for a violation of any order, regulation or ordinance of
said board of health, or any law is not fixed, the amount recov
ered in such case shall not be less than twenty dollars; and the
judge or justice who presided at a trial where such penalty is
claimed, shall, on said trial, in writing, fix the amount (not con
trary to said provisions) of said penalty to be recovered, and
shall direct such amount so fixed to be and it shall be included in
the judgment.
�39
8 3. Saicl board shall have the same powers in respect of per- Persons sick J
0
„
. „ .
,.
.
with pestilent™
sons afflicted with pestilential or infectious diseases, as are given or infectious
by the sixteenth section of the seventy-fourth chapter of the laws
of eighteen hundred and sixty-six, or otherwise, in respect of persons afflicted with contagious disease, and shall have power to
provide and pay for the use of proper places to which to remove places to be
such persons, as well as to designate such places; and said expenses paid.
board may cause proper care and attendance for such persons so
Eick or removed, when it shall appear to said board that any
such person is so poor as to be unable to procure for himself such
mare and attendance.
| § 4. That portion of the fourth subdivision of the twenty- Supervisor8 of
eighth section of the seventy-fourth chapter of the laws of Westchester to
eighteen hundred and sixty-six, which reads as follows, viz.:
“And the board of supervisors of the counties of New York,
LKings, Richmond and Queens (the expenses of the last named
■Bounty to be charged and collected in, and in respect of the
Property of the towns of Newtown, Flushing and Jamaica), re
spectively, are empowered and directed annually,” is hereby
Emended by inserting the word “Westchester,” between the
qvords Kings and Richmond aforesaid, in said act.
§ 5. Service of any order of said board of health shall be
rleemed sufficient, if made upon a principal person interested in |®^ieeofor’
(or upon a principal officer charged with duty in respect of) the
business, property, matter or thing, or the nuisance or abuse to
[which said order relates; or upon a person, officer or board, or
[one of the board who may be most interested in or affected by
its execution. And if said order relate to any building (or the On agents of
.
.„
.
,
£. tenement and ■
drainage, sewerage, cleaning, purification or ventilation thereof, lodging houses, i
Rr of any lot or ground on or in which such building stands) in
the cities of New York or Brooklyn, used for or intended to be
rented as the residence or lodging-place of several persons, or as
a tenement house or lodging-house, service of such order on the
agent of any person or persons for the renting of such building,
lot or ground, or for the collecting of the rent thereof (or of the
[parts thereof to which said order may relate), shall be of the
same effect and validity as due service made upon the principal
of such agent, and upon the owners, lessees, tenants and occupants of such buildings, or parts thereof, or of the subject matter
feto which such order relates.
§ 6. The word nuisance, as used in this act, shall be held to Nuisance de
embrace public nuisance as known at common law, or in equity fined-
�jurisprudence; and it is further enacted that whatever is danger-]
ous to human life or detrimental to health; whatever building!
or erection, or part, or cellar thereof, is overcrowded with occu
pants, or is not provided with adequate ingress and egress to and
from the same, or the apartments thereof, or is not sufficiently
supported, ventilated, sewered, drained, cleaned or lighted, in
reference to their or its intended or actual use; and whatever ren
ders the air, or human food or drink, unwholesome, are also,
severally in contemplation of this act, nuisances; and all such
Liability for ex nuisances are hereby declared illegal; and each and all persons
pense of abating.
and corporations who created or contributed thereto, or who may
support, continue or maintain or retain them, or any of them,
shall be jointly and severally liable for or toward the expense of
the abatement and remedying of the same; but, as between
themselves, any such persons and corporations may enforce con
tribution or collect expenses, according to any legal or equitable
relations existing between them; but nothing herein contained
Common law
liability reserv shall annul or defeat any common law liability or responsibility
ed.
in respect of nuisances. Provided, however, that nothing con
tained in this act or in the act entitled “An Act to create a Me
Stalls around
tropolitan Sanitary District and Board of Health therein for the
Fulton and
Washington
preservation of life and health, and to prevent the spread of dis
markets not to
ease,” passed February twenty-sixth, eighteen hundred and
be removed.
sixty-six; nor in the act amending said last-mentioned act,
passed April nineteen, eighteen hundred and sixty-six,
shall be construed to confer or as conferring upon the said Board
or its officers or agents the power or authority to order the re
moval, tearing down, or injury of any of the stalls or stands
around Fulton or Washington Markets, in the city of New York,
which were erected or enlarged to their present size prior to the
first day of May, 1866, at any time before the first day of July,
1869; and if, at such date, the erection of a new market or mar
kets, in the place of said markets, shall have been authorized by
law, such power shall not be exercised at any time prior to the
first day of May, 1870. But it is hereby expressly declared that
Powers as to
ventilation,
the said board shall have and possess full and complete power
drainage and
cleanliness re with reference to the ventilation, drainage and cleanliness of
served.
said stands or stalls, and shall have power to order the removal
Stalls erected or
of all stands or stalls which have been erected or enlarged upon
enlarged since
May 1, 186(5,
may be remov any street or sidewalk in said city since said first day of May,
ed.
1866, or shall hereafter be so erected; and that the power given
Power over ob
to said board over obstructions in the streets or on the sidewalks j
structions in
the street af
by existing laws is hereby expressly reaffirmed, except as herein
firmed .
�41
Plans for
modified; and the said Board are hereby directed to propose market tonew
bo
and submit to the next Legislature plans and recommendations submitted.
for the building of one or two new markets, whichever they shall
deem necessary, to replace the Fulton, Washington and West
WVashington Markets in said city.
1. Said Board of Health may institute and maintain, in any
fB|Ft in the Metropolitan Sanitary District (having jurisdiction Board may in
stitute suits to
in suits where the amount claimed exceeds one thousand dollars), abate nuisances
a suit or suits for the abatement or remedying of any of the
Bights of board
aforesaid nuisances, either completely or as fully as may be without suit.
thought necessary by the court. And said board shall also have,
fin said district, all common law rights to abate any nuisance
Disposition of
without suit, which can or does in this State, belong to any per costs.
son whatever. And all costs collected in any such action or proBBeding shall be paid over to the Treasurer of the board arid ac
counted for by him.
2. To all such suits the provisions of chapters seventy-four and
Chapters 74 and
six hundred and eighty-six of the laws of eighteen hundred and 686, laws of 1866
to apply.
Lsixty-six, relative to jurisdiction, costs and parties, shall be aprpllCable ; and the courts shall allow the plaintiff, at any proper
stage of the case, to amend, by joining other parties defendant; Eight to amend
and no suit shall be dismissed or defeated by reason of there be
ing other persons interested therein or concerned in causing, Suit not defeat
ed for defect of
creating or maintaining the nuisance complained of in such suit parties.
where such person is not a necessary party to the suit.
3. Such suit shall be tried as an issue of law, and without a How issue to be
j
unless some defendant shall, in his answer, or by notice in tried.
writing to be served on the plaintiff’s attorney within five days How jury de
after service of said answer, demand a trial by jury on some manded or
waived.
question of fact, to be in said answer or notice distinctly stated,
and in respect of which a right of trial by jury exists ; and if
lany such demand be so made and served, the case shall, as to all
■the defendants, be placed on the calendar of jury trial cases; and
to be
when reached for trial, if issues of fact for the jury have not be- Issues in writJ
stated
ing.
fore been settled, the presiding judge may state in writing the
issues of fact to be submitted to the jury, or the trial shall proceed upon the material issues of fact made by the pleadings
without such written statement of issues ; and the judge who
presided at the trial (or some judge of the same court, if said
Judgment to be.
judge he unable) shall, on receiving the verdict, or as soon there- settled.
6
�42
TVliat judgment
to contain.
How expense
to be borne.
To state on
what property
it is a lien.
IIow lien may
be removed.
Judge may or
der discharge
when expenses
paid.
oa
d given.
Or on consent.
Papers to be
filed.
after, and at the same term, if possible, settle and cause to be
entered the proper judgment in said suit.
4. If the judgment be that any nuisance may be abated or reme
l
*
died, in whole or in part, said judgment shall contain sufficient]
directions for its proper execution, and the judge shall, from the |
pleadings and from the evidence given at the trial, find and state!
what proportion of the expense of such execution shall be paid
or be borne by each or all of the defendants, jointly or severally;
and if, in the opinion of the court, any part of or all the expense
of such execution should be borne by said Board of Health, or
the execution of such judgment should be made by said board,
or under its direction, said judgment shall contain the appro
priate directions in respect to such last-named payment or exe-l
cution. And the court may also adjudge the board to pay or
advance such proportion of the expenses of exccuting’such judg
*
ment, as the judgment shall not direct to be paid by some one
or all of the defendants. Said judgment, if against any defend
ant, shall, on its face, state that it will be a lien on the real prop
erty, corporeal hereditaments of such defendant or defendants
respectively, to which the said nuisance shall have related, till
his oi’ their proportion of such expenses of execution are satis
fied, or the lien thereof shall be otherwise discharged according
to law.
5. Any person prejudicially affected by the lien of any such
judgment may, on eight days’ notice to said board, make a mo
tion before any judge of the court in which said judgment was
rendered, for an order that the lien of such judgment be dis
charged as to all or any specific property set forth ; and if it
shall appear to such judge, on the hearing of such motion, that
such eight days’ notice of such motion has been given to the
Board of Health, and that such judgment has been executed and
the expenses paid, which the lien sought to be discharged was
designed to secure ; or if a proper or sufficient undertaking or
bond, with sureties, shall be given for the payment of such ex
penses ; or if said Board of Health, through its attorney or coun
sel, shall in writing consent to the discharge of the last named
lien, as to any or all property referred to, or as to one or more
defendants, then said judge may order said lien discharged of re
cord by the proper officer, to the extent and as to the person or
persons that the order shall specify; and it shall be so dis
charged ; and such order and the moving papers shall be filed
with the proper clerk, as the judge shall direct.
�43
6. No appeal.by any party defendant shall stay the execution Appeal not to
stay proceed
of miy judgment aforesaid, except to the extent, in reference to ings, except by
special order.
the persons, and on the conditions the judge who tried the case
(if he can be conveniently applied to, or, if not, some other judge
of the same court), shall, on the settling of the judgment, or on rnotion, and on four days’ notice to said Board of Health, and with due
reference to the public interests involved, specially order ; and if
no such order shall be made, the judgment shall be executed, not■withstanding any appeal, undertaking or security, and without If no stay judg
any liability on the part of any person (other than as herein else- ment to be
executed.
where provided, in respect of said board), by reason of any damages or consequences growing out of the execution of such
■ mdgment, whether the same be reverffid or not. All appeals by
the defendant from any judgment in the said abatement suits Time within
which appeals
■shall be taken within ten days after notice in writing to the de- to be taken.
fendant or his attorney, of the entry of the judgment therein, Temporary stay
and the judge who tries the case may, in his discretion, and may be allowed.
■(without security, but only for the period of the said ten days,
order a stay as to the execution of the judgment; and within
said period of ten days an undertaking or security on appeal (to
Undertaking to
stay execution of the judgment, as herein provided) must be be filed.
*
filed, the same to be otherwise of the form and obligation as is
required in ordinary appeals from judgments, but which shall alWhat to con
so be conditioned for the payment of the appellants’ adjudged tain.
share of the expenses of executing such judgment as the court
may have estimated and said judgment may have stated, or (if
not estimated in said judgment), as the judge, on application and
three days’ notice to said board, shall estimate the same, in conformity with the judgment, for the purpose of such security on
^Rppeal. But, pursuant to any order, or otherwise, the execution No stay longer
than ten days.
■of any judgment against the defendants shall not be delayed beyond said ten days, if within that period the proper undertaking
or security on appeal, approved by the judge, has not been filed,
and the appeal perfected, as herein provided ; and the judgment
■may state the estimated expense that will have to be paid by
any party towards executing said judgment. But said board Board may ap
peal without
<
■nay appeal in any such case, or any case to which it is a par security.
ty, within ten days after the entry of any judgment, and withEffect of appeal.
out giving any security ; such appeal shall be effectual, and shalloperate as a stay on the judgment, or upon the part thereof in
* respect to which said board appeals.
%
�44
■Blnini for penalty may be
joined in same
action,
Motion for new
.trial.
What judgment
at general term
to contain.
[Appeals to
court of appeals.
When change in
code of proced
ure to apply.
Statement of
expense of exe
cuting to be
verified and
filed.
Notice of filing
to be given.
7. In any such abatement suit said board may join a cause
of action for any penalty oi' penalties that may have been in
*
curred by either of the defendants, by reason of, or in connection
with, the nuisance complained of, or by reason of any omissioq
\
or refusal of any defendant to obey or comply with any order of
the Board of Health touching such alleged nuisance, and have the
proper provision in any judgment therefor against one or more
of the defendants. No motion for a new trial on a case made
shall be entertained in any such abatement suit, except as a part
of and as arising upon the. papers upon a regular appeal to a gen
eral term of the court, and to be heard therewith.
8. The judgment of the general term, if it shall to any extent
direct any change in the judgment appealed from (but shall di
rect, or allow or fail to forbid the judgment in part to be exe- J
cuted), shall also contain the requisite specific provisions, so that
the judgment as modified may be executed, and the due propor
tion of the expenses of such execution may be assessed on the
defendants respectively, or on said board, as the general term |
may adjudge. Upon any appeal from the general term to the
court of appeals, in such abatement suit, the provisions hereof as
to appeals from the judgment to the general term, and as to se« »
curity on appeal, shall, in all particulars, including the length of
time given in which to take an appeal, apply; and no change in
the code of procedure, or otherwise, hereafter to be made, though
in subject matter applicable to said abatement suits, shall be
construed to modify the aforesaid or other provisions of the J|
health laws, as to any suits thereunder, unless such act shall spe- I
cifically declare such modification to be intended.
9. Upon the execution in whole or in part of any such judg
ment (if said board shall, as it is hereby authorized to do, decide
the public interest to demand only execution in part thereof,) a
statement of the expenses of such execution shall be made, and ■
such expenses shall be therein apportioned not contrary to any
provisions of said judgment; and upon the same being verified
by the oath of some person who by due authority, took part in
or had charge of the execution of such judgment, or by some
officer of said board, such statement, entitled in the case, may be
filed or given to the proper clerk to be filed, with such judg
ment ; and notice of such filing or delivery, and a copy of such
statement, shall be given to the attorneys of the defendant in the
suit, or to the defendants themselves, or to some one of the joint
defendants; and unless within ten days aftei- any such notice,
�45
such defendants shall give due notice in writing, to said Board When statemenl|
to become final.
or to the person who, as assignee or by order, executed such
judgment or is entitled to payment of such expense (in case it
was not executed by said board), of a motion, and serve there
with copies of affidavits to correct such statement in particulars
to be mentioned, and separately and clearly stated in such affida
vit, such statement aforesaid shall be, in all suits and proceed
ings and tribunals, and at all times, deemed and taken to be
final, conclusive, and correct; and no formal defect in such state
ment shall in any wise vitiate the same. And on any hearing of Proceedings on
hearing of
such motion, any party in interest, or said board, may read affi- motion to cor
rect statement.
Idavits in support of such original statement; and the finding of
Iwiy judge on the hearing of such motion, as to the said state Judges finding
ment of such expenses and other matters in such motion involved final.
or statement contained shall be final and conclusive, and not sub Effect of modi
ject to appeal; and such finding or statement as modified by fied finding.
such finding, when filed, shall be of the same effect as such orig
inal statement would have been, had no motion in regard there
to been made ; and for the purpose of an execution for such ex- Finding to bo
fpense, and creating a lien under any judgment;, such statements part of j udgment.
and finding or modified statement shall be regarded as a part of
said judgment, and the lien thereof shall extend to any amounts
(stated in such final statement and finding.
When
10. For the proportion and amounts, as authorized by such tion toexecnbe
issued and top
(judgment, and contained in such finding or in such statement or what.
modified statement, when either of the same shall have become
filial as aforesaid, said board or any assignee of such board, or
any other person who has executed such-judgment, or has otheiwise a right to receive the expense of so doing (or the portion
thereof that may be due from any defendant), shall have execu
tion, on such execution being allowed ex parte, by a judge oi
the court in which any judgment was recovered (and such exe
cution shall, in due form, be allowed by any such judge) ; such Against whom’
execution 10 be.
Execution to be against any one or more defendants or joint defeedants for the recovery of any amount due from such de
fendant or defendants, which the party claiufeg such execution
is entitled to receive ; and such execution, except as herein especially provided, shall be of the same effect and form as any exe
cution duly issued pursuant to any judgment. But no execution No execution
for less than
shall be issued against any defendant for less than the whole amount due.
sum due from such defendant, or for less than he shall be liable
execu
to pay in such suit; but any sum adjudged against any defend Separatecosts,
tion for
penalty, &c.
ants or defendant, in any such abatement suit for penalties,'costs,
�46
or for other cause than the expense of the abatement or remedy
ing of such nuisance, may be collected by separate or other exe
cutions (than those authorized tor collecting- such expense), to be
issued in due course of law.
'When prelimi
nary injunction
may be granted.
11. In any abatement suit aforesaid, the court, or a judge
thereof, may issue and enforce an appropriate preliminary in
junction, whenever it shall be asked for pursuant to an order of
said Board of Health, by affidavit, and there shall appear to such
judge to be reasonable cause therefor; and such injunction may
also be granted whenever it shall be made to appear to the court
On what
grounds.
or a judge thereof, by affidavit, that such injunction is needed to
prevent any illegal act, conduct, or business aforesaid, or its con
tinuance, or to prevent serious danger to human life or serious
detriment to health, or great public inconvenience touching any
matter or thing to which this act or the health laws aforesaid re
late. And in any such injunction order the court may require
[What injunc[tion order to
any building, erection or grounds to be put in a condition that
contain.
will not be dangerous to the life or detrimental to the health of
any occupant, before the same shall be leased, or rented or occu
pied, or before any rent or compensation shall be collected for
the rent or use of the whole or any portion of the same. In
any such injunction order, and also in any judgment in any abate
ment suit, the judge or court may require the tenants, lessees
Court may or and occupants (or either or any of them) of any such building,
der rents to be .
paid to Board. erection or grounds, to pay the rent thereof (or compensation there
for) due or to grow due, to said board, and said board to collect and
IIow money to
receive the same, and to apply said rent to pay the expenses of
be applied.
putting any said building, erection or ground in a condition that
will not be dangerous to the life or detrimental to the health of'
any present or future tenant, .lessee or occupant, or of any other
persons; all such collections and payments to be made in such man
ner, to such extent and oil such conditions as any such order or
judgment may provide; and every such payment to said board,
Treasurer's re and the receipt of its treasurer for such rent or compensation,
ceipt to be a
discharge.
shall be as effectual to protect any person who has made the
same, and every such tenant, lessee and occupant, and all his
and their rights under any lease or occupation, as if such pay
ment had been made to and such receipt had been given by any
lessor or owner, or any proper claimant of any such rent or com
pensation, who had, but for such order or judgment, the right
and authority to receive the same. (But no undertaking or se
No undertaking
on injunction. curity shall be required or necessary, on the part of said board,
�47
as a condition of granting such injunction, or the same being
effectual; and in any final judgment in such suit there may be injunction on
enjoined whatever, if about to happen or threatened, would be flnal->lldsmeutthe proper subject matter of a preliminary injunction.) And
when the public interest seems to the court to require a speedy Trial may bo
trial or hearing of any such suit or appeal therein, it shall be the exPedltedHuty of any judge of any court aforesaid, or of the court to
(whom application by said board may be properly made, to cause
such suit or appeal to be brought to a speedy trial (and before
it would otherwise be reached for trial or argument in due course
on the calendar,) as the judge or court may by special order
Kirect.
12. In so far as any judgment may be directed to be executed Ast0 expenses
at the expense of said board of health, or by any party defend- bnoa^red by tbe
ant at his own expense, and shall by such party defendant be so
Executed, the expense of such execution shalMiot be stated or
Embraced in the aforesaid statement or finding of expenses ; but
if any part of the execution aforesaid, which any party should
have borne or paid, shall (by reason of the delay, refusal or
defective act or execution of such party or any other cause,) be
paid, borne or incurred by said board of health, in and about the
Execution of such judgment, then the said latter expenses of said
board may be embraced in said statement and finding, 'and col
lected by execution as aforesaid.
13. Whatever expenses said board of health may lawfully and Expenses m.
1
e
e
.
properly incur in the execution of any iudgment aforesaid, or in enrred by board
r 1
.J
.
.
.
.
J J
°
.
in ,s°°ci faith to
executing, or in connection with its own orders, made in good be paid from its
?
.
.
.
. °
funds.
faith, or in and about th® discharge, in good faith, of its sup
posed duties, or-in satisfying any liability or judgment it may
have in good faith incurred or suffered by reason of its acts done
in good faith as aforesaid, or in satisfying any claim against its
officers or subordinates, arising from their acts in the discharge
fin good faith of their supposed respective duties, shall, so far as
established, be paid out of its fund or other moneys, and shall be
apportioned, assessed, collected and paid as is provided in the
health laws aforesaid in respect to the expenses of said board
and such sums paid or recovered under this act, shall not be Such expenscs
included in or considered as a part of that class of the expendi- pW ta™olned
tures of the board in respect to which there is or may be a specific limitation as to amount.
§ 7. No member, officer or agent of said board of health, and Membersand
no person (but only the board itself,) shall be sued or held to noVpersonaHy'1
liability for any act done or omitted by either person aforesaid liable-
�48
Board liable to
action.
Must be brought
within six
months.
What may be
recovered where
no undertaking
given.
Name of Board.
Service of pa
pers on board.
Name of Board
of Excise.
No injunction
against board
except by Su
preme Court on
notice.
(in good faith and with ordinary discretion,) on behalf dr oH
under said board, or pursuant to its regulations, ordinances or
said health laws. And any person whose property may have]
been unjustly or illegally destroyed or injured, pursuant to any
order, regulation or ordinance, or action of said-board of health!
or its officers, for which no personal liability may exist as afore!
said, may maintain a proper action against said jboard for the
recovery of the proper compensation or damage to be paid by
and from the funds of said board of health. Every such suit]
must be brought within six months after the cause of action
arose, and the recovery shall be limited to the damages suffered
And there shall be the same right to sue and recover against said
board (the amount to be paid from its funds,) when no security’
or undertaking is given by the board on appeal, or the granting
of an injunction, that would have existed (pursuant to the fore’
going provisions,) to sue and recover of any party to such under-]
taking, had the same been duly executed by any such party and'
board, and duly approved and filed, according to the practice in
analogous cases.
§ 8. Said board of health may sue or be sued in and by its
proper name, as “ The Metropolitan Board of Health,” and not
in or by the name of the members of said board or any of
them ; and service of all process in suits and proceedings against
or affecting said board, and other papers, may be‘ made upon the
president of said board, or upon its secretary, and not otherwise;
except that, according to usual practice in other suits, papers in
suits to which said board of health is a party, may be served on
its attorney. But when a party plaintiff or defendant to a suit
(or otherwise designated in any manner, in its capacity as a
board of excise,) said board of health shall be designated in said
capacity, and said board of excise shall hereafter be known and
described as “ The Metropolitan Board of Excise,” and only by
such last name shall it or its members sue or be sued.
§ 9. No preliminary injunction shall be granted against the
Metropolitan board of health, or of police, or its or their officers,
or against the commissioners of said boards in their capacity as
a board of excise, or against the last named board, except by the
supreme court, at a special or general term thereof, after service
of at least eight days’ notice of a motion for such injunction^
together with copies of the papers on which the motion for suehj
injunction is to be made.
�49
| 10. The sixth section of the six hundred and eighty-sixth § G, Chap. 686,
Laws ot 1866
chapter of the laws of eighteen hundred and sixty-six, is hereby amended.
amended by substituting the word “ burthensome” in place of
the word “ stringent,” therein contained. The “ code of health
Code of
ordinances,” mentioned in said six hundred and eighty-sixth nances. ordi
‘chapter, shall hereafter be designated as the “ code of sanitary
ordinances,” and the same may embrace all matters and subjects
What
to which, and so far, as the power and authority of said board of brace . to em
health extends; nor shall anything in said acts be construed as
limiting their application to the subject of health only; and said
ordinances may respectively be designated as, or incircle, rules
and regulations. Hereafter said code shall be published once
only in any week, and for two weeks only in the aggregate, in
any one year, and it shall not be necessary to publish any por When to be
published.
tion of said code which has remained unaltered since its last pre
vious publication. The twenty-ninth section of the seventy
fourth chapter of the laws of eighteen hundred and sixty-six shall
be deemed applicable to any case hereafter to arise, when said To what § 29 of
Chap. 76, Laws
board may find it necessary and proper to borrow money to dis of 1866 appli
cable .
charge its duties and defray its expenses, as in said section more
particularly mentioned;. but no more than twenty-five thousand Amount which
dollars shall be borrowed by virtue hereof, or under said section, may be borrow
ed.
in any one year. The right given in the seventy-fourth and six Right to sue for
certain
hundred and eighty-sixth chapters of the laws of eighteen hun ties. penal
dred and sixty-six, to said board of health, to sue for and re
cover, in its own name, any penalties, shall embrace any and all
penalties that might, before the acts aforesaid, have been sued
for or collected by the mayor, aldermen and commonalty of the
city of New York, the city of Brooklyn, or any person (or body
in either of said acts referred to,) under or in respect of any law
or ordinance, the power or authority given or conferred, or pur
porting to be exercised by which is now possessed by said board
of health.
§ 11. If any person shall knowingly make to said board of
health or any officer thereof any false return, statement or report False return of
births, &c.
relative to any birth, death or marriage, or other matter con
cerning which a report or return may be legally required of or
should be made by such person: or if any member, inspector or False report.
officer, or .agent of said board of health shall knowingly make to
said board of health any false or deceptive report or statement,
(in connection with his duties,) or shall accept or receive, or au7
�50
Bribe.
Punishment.
thorize or encourage, or knowingly allow any other person to
accept or receive any bribe or other compensation as a condition
of or an inducement for not faithfully discovering and fully
reporting or otherwise acting according to his duty in any
respect: then any and every such person shall be deemed guilty
of a misdemeanor, and shall be liable to be for such crime in
dicted, tried and punished according to law, and shall, in addi
tion, forfeit all compensation due or to grow due from said
board.
§ 121 ^TP011 the application of any party in interest in any
pending examination before said board of health, bv affii
? J
davit stating the grounds of such application to any judge of a
court of record, and asking that any person or persons therein
named shall appear before said board of health, or any person
taking or about to take such examination, at some time or times
and place, to be stated in said affidavit, it shall be the duty of
such judge, if he discovers reasonable cause so to do, to issue his
order requiring such person or persons named to appear and sub
mit to such examination as and to the extent such order may
state, at the times and places to be in said order named; and
such order, to be signed by such judge, may be served, and shall
in all respects be obeyed as a subpoena duly issued; and a refu
sal to submit to the proper examination may be punished by
such judge, or by any judge of such court, as a contempt of
court, upon the facts as to such refusal being brought before any
such judge by affidavit.
eeimns orders'
§ 13> ^ie
board, its assignee, or any person acting under
to be a lien.
p-g authority, in executing any order of said board, shall have a
lien for the expenses necessarily incurred in the execution of
said order, and said expenses shall be a lien upon the land and
buildings upon or in respect of which, or either of which, the
Priority of ii»n wo1’^ required by said order has been done, or expenses incurred,
which lien shall have priority over all other liens and incum
brances, except taxes and assessments. But no such lien shall
where notice to be valid for any purpose till the said board or person shall have
caused to be filed in the office, or -with the officer where notices of
mechanics’ liens are now or maybe hereafter required to be filed,
a notice containing the same particulars required to be stated
what to conwith reference to mechanics’ liens, with the further statement
tall‘'
that the expense has been incurred in pursuance of an order of
said board, and giving its date. Upon such filing the said offi
cer shall make the same entry on the book or index in which
mechanics’ liens are entered as he is required to enter in cases of
Rmpei™7
to attend before matter
board.
i
�51
mechanics’ lien, together with a reference to said order by date;
and thereafterffhe same shall, except as herein elsewhere pro
vided, have the same effect in all respects as a mechanics’ lien;
land all proceedings with reference to said lien, its enforcement
/and discharge, shall be had and carried on in the same manner
Bis similar proceedings with reference to mechanics’ liens are
how or may be hereafter by law had or carried on. The filing
of such statement shall, as to all persons, have the same effect as
filing of notice of mechanics’ lien ; and unless within two months
When notice to
after actual notice of such filing, proceedings are taken by the b- come coneluparty against whom or whose said property the lien is claimed siveto discharge such lien, the filing shall, as to all persons having
such actual notice, become conclusive evidence that the amount
claimed in such statement, with interest/is due, and is a just lien
’upon said land and building. Such lien shall continue to be a Hotv long to
Alien for the space of four years from the time of filing such state continues lien.
ment, unless proceedings are in the meantime taken to enforce
or discharge the same, which may be done at any time during
its continuance. In case proceedings are so taken, it shall remain a lien until the final termination of such proceedings; and
if such proceedings shall result in a judgment for the amount
claimed in such statement, or any portion thereof, such judg
ment shall, to such extent, be a lien in the same manner, and
grom the same time, as said statement.
§ 14. The said Board of Health may from time to time fix and Powers of board
over coroners
define the time of making, and the form of returns and reports in New York
to be made to said board by the coroners of the counties of New and Kings.
York and Kings, in all cases of post mortem inquests, or view
ing of dead bodies held by them or any of them ; and the said
coroners are hereby required to conform to the directions of Coroners to
said board in the premises, and it shall be the duty of every obey directions,
loroner at once, and before holding any inquest, upon being
Duty of coro
failed upon to hold an inquest as aforesaid, or notified thereof, ner:- to notify
boa’d of call for
to immediately transmit and cause to be delivered to the secre inquest.
tary of said board of health, written notice of the fact of such
call for holding inquest, in which shall be stated every particu
lar then known to said coroner as to said call, the body, the
place where it is, and the reported cause of death. If at any Board may or
der burial ot
time said board, or the sanitary, or assistant sanitary superin body in certain
tendent, shall deem the protection of the public health to de- cases.
U|and, it may (so soon as the coroner’s jury shall have viewed
the dead body, and an autopsy thereof shall have been made,
�52
provided the coroner deems the same necessary,) order the im
mediate burial of any dead body, or if he or it deems that the
public health demands an immediate removal of said body from
the place of death to another place for inquest, may likewise at
any time order said immediate removal, and shall have, power to
cause said orders to be obeyed and executed.
Limit of expen
§ 15. The seventy-fourth chapter of the laws of 1866, is
diture.
amended, by substituting in the place of the words “ one hun
dred thousand dollars,” where the same occurs in the twenty
eighth section thereof, the following words, viz : “ one hundred
Salaries of Su and fifty thousand dollars.” The salary of the sanitary superin
perintendent,
tendent shall be five thousand dollars per annum; of the assis
asst, superin
tendent. Inspec
tant sanitary superintendent thirty-five hundred dollars, and of
tors, may be
classified.
the sanitary inspectors not less than eighteen hundred dollars,
nor more than twenty-five hundred dollars; and said board may
Asst, inspec
divide said inspectors into classes, and fix the salaries of each
tors .
class within said limits. Said board may appoint such num
Expense of ex
ber of assistant sanitary inspectors as they shall deem necessary,
ecuting orders
not covered by
and fix their salaries at an amount not exceeding twelve hun
limit.
dred dollars each. And all sums that may be expended in exe
cuting any order, resolution or regulation of said board of health,
or in executing any judgment that may be recovered by the
board, or in paying any sums that may be recovered against the
board of health, shall be deemed sums provided to be paid by
and to be recovered back from some person or corporation,
within the meaning of the said last named twenty-eighth sec
tion,.
§ 16. By reason of the additional duties to be performed by
Salary of com
missioners as a the several commissioners of said board of health, in their ca
board of excise.
pacity as commissioners of excise, the salary of each thereof,
except the health officer of the port of New York, is increased
by the sum of fifteen hundred dollars, and a reasonable compen
May increase
sation or salary in addition to what has been heretofore author
salaries of offi
cers .
ized may be paid by said board to any of its officers or employees
whose labors are for that reason increased ; the said increase of
salary to date from the first day of December, one thousand
Increase to date
from December eight hundred and sixty-six, and the same shall be paid from the
1,1866.
moneys received for licenses. The provisions of the seventy
Quorum, mode fourth chapter, of the laws of 1866, so far as the same relate to
of calling meet
ings, seal, &c., the calling and holding of meetings, or a quorum thereat, the
of board of
duties of the secretary, the dismissal and control of officers and
exciseagents, the designation and use of a seal, the authentication and
Or its removal.
�53
presumptive effect and legality of the records, papers and acts of
the board, shall be held to apply to said board and the commis
sioners named in said act and to their doings, in their capacity
as a board of excise. Said board of excise shall make a like an- lo report,
nual report as is required of said board of health. ■
§17. Any wilful omission or refusal to obey or conform to Neglect or retu.
.
.
sa1 to obey a
any part of this act, or any willful resistance of or refusal to misdemeanor.,
obey any order, regulation or ordinance made in pursuance of
this act, shall be subject to the same punishment, penalty and
liabilities, both civil and criminal, as if such omission, refusal or re
sistance was in respect of either of the acts mentioned in the tenth
Section hereof, or in respect of an order, regulation or ordinance
made in pursuance of either of the last named acts.
§ 18. When any order of said board of health has been exe- statement. <>r
°
J
.
.
expense, of excuted, or so far executed as said board may require, the expen- editing orders
ses of such execution, giving in general terms the items of such
expense and the date of execution, shall be stated in an affidavit,
and the same shall be filed among the records of said board,
with the order so executed; and said board shall take care, by
or through some proper officer, or otherwise, that the expenses
of such execution be so stated with fairness and accuracy ; and
when it shall appear that such execution, or the expenses there
of, related to several lots or buildings belonging to different per- Espcnse to bc
sons, said affidavit shall state what belongs to or arose in respect apportioned
to each lot of said several lots or buildings, as said board or its
authorized officer may direct; and the correctness of such ap
pointment or expenses, as stated in any such affidavit, shall not
statement
be called in question or reviewed elsewhere than before said corrected,
board; but said board may revise and correct the same, as said
board shall think truth and justice may require.
Claim for pen
Whenever the expenses attending the execution of any order alty and for ex
pense joined in
of said board of health (and all such expenses are to be a lien one action
and charge as said original act specifies as to certain expenses,)
may be made the subject of a suit by said board, or its assignee,
(or the person having a right to recover such expenses,) there
maybe joined in the same suit a claim or claims for any penalty
or penalties for violations of either of said chapters, or of this
act, or for the violation or omission to perform or obey said
order, (or any prior order of said board,) or for the not doing of
that or any portion of that, for the doing of which said expenses
i arose or were incurred; and said board may make an assignment ciaim for pen, .
alty may he asof the claim for any such penalty or penalties, to enable the claim sagged.
�54
Joint or several
judgment.
Expenses and
judgment a lien
upon rent.
Also upon com
pensation refer
red to in § 16,
Chap. 76, Laws
of1866.
How lien ren
dered effectual.
Copy of order
with statement
of expense or
transcript of
judgment to be
served.
Upon whom
served.
Demand of rent
may be served.
for the same and the claim for said expenses to be joined in the
same suit; and the proper joint or several judgment may be had
against one or more of the defendants in the suit, as they or
either of them may be liable in respect of both said claims, or
either or any of them.
And said expenses of executing said order, and the expenses
of executing any judgment in any abatement suit herein pro
vided for, and the several judgments that may be recovered
hereunder, or otherwise, for any such penalty or expenses, (or
both such penalty and expenses together,) until the same are
paid or discharged, shall be (a lien as other judgments, and also)
a lien and charge upon rent and compensation due or then ma
turing from any tenant or occupant of the building, lots and
premises, or the parts thereof to which any such order or judg
ment relates, or'in respect of which any such expenses were in
curred.
And such expenses and judgments shall respectively be liens
on the several compensations mentioned, and under the circum
stances stated (as to certain expenses being such lien) in the
fourteenth section of the seventy-fourth chapter of the laws of
eighteen hundred and sixty-six, as if the provisions there contained
were here repeated. For the purpose of rendering such lien and
charge more effectual to secure payment of any such expenses or
judgment, from any rent or compensation aforesaid, the follow
ing proceedings may be taken:
1. The board of health, or any person owning any such judgment,
or the claim for any such expenses, or having a right to receive
payment therefor, may serve a copy of the order under or by
reason of which such expenses were authorized or incurred (with
a copy of any affidavit, stating the expenses of the execution of
such order,) or, if the claim be a judgment, may serve a tran
script of such judgment (and any affidavit showing the expense
of its execution, if there be any) upon any person or corporation
owing, or who is about to owe, any compensation (in respect of
any matter or thing in said fourteenth section mentioned,) or
owing or about to owe any rent or compensation for the use or
occupation of any grounds, premises or building, or any part
thereof, to which said order or judgment relates, and in respect
of which such expenses or the expenses embraced in said judg
ment related or were incurred; and may, at any time of such
service, demand in writing that such rent, or any such compensa
tion (to the extent of said claims for said expenses, or of any such
�55
Efflgtnent or expense in executing the same,) shall, when such
rent or compensation becomes clue and payable, be paid to the
Uwsurer of said board of health.
2. After the service of the papers aforesaid and such demand,
do6'a
any tenant, lessee, occupant or other person owing or about to ?a’d t0 treas"
Owe, any such rent or any such compensation, shall, when such
rent or any such compensation shall mature or become payable,
pay the same, and from time to time any other amount thereof,
as the same may become due and payable, (or so much thereof
as is sufficient to satisfy any such judgment or claim for expen
ses or both, so served,) to the treasurer of said board of health ;
and such treasurer shall give his receipt as treasurer therefor, Treasurer to
stating on account of what order or judgment and expenses the an^deposiUn
'same has been paid to him and received; and the amount so re
ceived shall be deposited in some bank in the city of New York,
where other funds of the board are kept, to the special account
of such treasurer.
3. Any person or corporation refusing or omitting, as herein di- Persons refusi
i
,
r.
.
o in.?to pay liable
rected, to make such payment to said treasurer, after service of for amount,
the paper and demand aforesaid, as herein required, shall be per
sonally liable to said board of health, or to the party owning
any such claim for expenses or judgment (if not belonging to
said .board,) for the amount that should have been paid to said
treasurer, according to the provisions hereof, and may by such
barty (or board, if the owner aforesaid) be sued therefor; and thereforSUed
Buch persons shall not in such suit dispute or call in question the whatnot to be
authority of said board of health to incur or order such expense,
uted in suoh
Or the validity or correctness of such expenses or judgment in
any particular, or the right of the party making said demand, or
his assignee, to have the same paid from such rent or compensa
tion. But the receipt of such treasurer ,for any sum 1
paid him as receipt efiectTreasurer’s
1
J
aforesaid, shall, in all suits and proceedings, and for every pur- ualpose, be as effectual in favor of any person holding the same as
actual payment of the amount thereof to the proper landlord,
lessor, owner, or other person or persons who would, but for the
provisions of this statute, or said service and demand, have been
entitled to receive the sum so paid to such treasurer, could or
would have been. And it is further expressly declared, that no
tenant or occupant of any lot, building or premises, or his or dispossessed be
their assignee or lessee, shall be dispossessed or disturbed, nor u treasurerDt
shall any lease or contract, or rights, be forfeited or impaired,
nor any forfeiture or liability be incurred by reason of any omist
�o6
sion to pay to any landlord, owner, lessor, contractor, party of
other person, the sum so paid to said treasurer, or any part
thereof.
Treasurer to re
4 . The treasurer of said board of health shall retain said money
tain moneys till
twelve clays af so paid him until twelve days after it s^iall be made to appear to
ter notice.
said board of health, or some proper officer thereof, by satisfac
tory affidavit, that the party or parties, or his or their agent for
the collection of any such rent or compensation, who (but for ■
the provisions hereof would have been entitled to receive the
same,) has had written notice of such payment being made, to
said treasurer, and a copy of his receipt therefor; and if at the
If suit to recov end of said twelve days, the party or parties aforesaid, so noti
er not brought fied, have not instituted suit to recover said money, as herein
within twelve
days amount
to be applied on after provided, then the same shall, by said treasurer, be paid to
claim.
any person who may own or have the right to recover the
amount of the judgment or the claim for expenses so served as
aforesaid (or so much thereof as the party may be entitled to,)
or on account of which the money was paid to said treasurer;
and after such payment by the treasurer, the party or parties
When money
may be claimed aforesaid (who failed to sue) shall have no right to demand or
back of treas
urer after
receive any such money unless they shall, within six calendar
twelve days.
months from the expiration of said twelve days, in a suit allege
that they had no notice of such payment to said treasurer, and
What to prove shall, on the trial of such suit, prove said allegation, and also
on trial.
that they were not liable to pay the said claim for expenses or
the said penalty or judgment, and that the said board had not
jurisdiction to order the expenses aforesaid, on account of which
the money was so paid to said' treasurer, or on which any such
judgment was obtained; and in case of a recovery in such suit it
Who to be made shall be only to the extent such parties were not so liable; and
parlies.
in such suit any person or persons who may have received said
money from said treasurer or board shall, by the plaintiff, be
made a party defendant; and if the plaintiff shall recover such
Board may have
judgment
money, or any part thereof, said board of health shall be enti
against co-defendant.
tled to any equitable judgment in such suit which the court may
see lit to direct for recovering said money back, or any part
thereof, from such co-defendant, which had been paid to him by
said treasurer.
5. In case any suit shall be brought under the last subdivision ot
if suit brought
within twelve
this section, or before the expiration of the said twelve days,
days, who may
be parties.
said board of health (but not said treasurer) shall be joined as a
party defendant; and any person or persons, other than said
�57
^oardjBlwning the right to receive said money on account of
said order, expenses or judgment, or who has received the same,
shall also hy the plaintiff be made parties defendant; and no
answer need be made by said board, (except at its option, or if What answer of
it be not a claimant as having paid or incurred said expenses, or board to con
tain .
as being the owner of said judgment,) further than the allega
tion that it holds said money so paid, and is ready to pay it over,
as the result of the suit may render it proper, or to pay an equal
amount to the plaintiff, if adjudged to do so; and said money shall Money to be
be held by said board pending said suit, (if not paid over before held pending
suit.
suit brought as aforesaid,) and provided said suit be diligently
prosecuted to judgment; and on its conclusion the board of
health shall cause the money, if still with its treasurer, or the
proper amount from its funds, to be paid as the determination of
No costs
the suit may render proper; and no costs in any suit in this sec board. against
tion mentioned shall be recovered against said board of health.
But to entitle a plaintiff to recover in any such last named suit, What plaintiff
to prove.
he must make the same proof and establish the same facts as is
required to enable him to recover in any aforesaid suit in this
section mentioned, except as to his not having had notice of such
payment to such treasurer. The treasurer shall obey the direc Treasurer to
obey board.
tions of said board, and shall not be personally liable (unless for
Ilfs own fraudulent acts) for or in respect of any such money or Not personally
facts aforesaid to any one, but said board of health shall pay liable.
such sum as may be finally adjudged against it in any suit.
§ 19.. Said board of health is hereby authorized and directed Board to codify
laws.
to employ such competent person or persons to reduce to the
form of a code all the laws applicable to said board or such parts
Of them as are deemed appropriate to be enforced, and to add
thereto such provisions as said board may deem needful; and To prepare code
also to prepare a complete code of ordinances appropriate to be of ordinances,.
enacted and put in force in said district; and also such general
regulations, and blank forms, as in the opinion of said board
are requisite in the discharge of its duties ; the same to be re
ported to the legislature as early as they can be prepared and To be reported
perfected, and not later than the opening of the session in eight to legislature.
een hundred and sixty-nine ; and said board may incur the ne
cessary expense for the purposes aforesaid, and said board may
have such report printed.
, § 20. No law heretofore enacted or hereafter to be enacted This or prior >:
Shall be construed to repeal or modify any portion of this act or acts not repeal-!
ed by implica
of any law relating to said board of health, or to the members tion.
8
�58
Board of police
may build
telegraphs.
Board of health
may use
telegraph.
Board of police
to detail patrol
men as sur
geons.
Police surgeons
may be detailed
to assist board
of health.
Of said board, their duties or powers as such or as a Board of Ex
cise, unless and except in so far as said law shall expressly thereto refer, and repeal or modify the said laws.
§ 21. The Board of Metropolitan Police shall have power to
erect, operate, supply and maintain, under the general laws of
the State relating to telegraphs, all such lines of telegraph to
and between such places in the district as for the purposes and
business of the police the board shall deem necessary. Said
board may procure and shall own and control all instruments,
fixtures, property and materials procured for the pnrpose above
mentioned, but the cost thereof shall be chargeable to general
expenses of Metropolitan police. The board of police is hereby
permitted to use the said telegraph lines to aid them in facili
tating the operations of the board of health, and when so used
the expense thereof shall be charged to the said board of health,The board of Metropolitan police may detail from the force
members thereof, not exceeding five in number, to perform sur
geon’s duties in any part of the district, and may remand them
to post duty, and while they are so detailed to surgeon’s duties
their pay shall be the same as other surgeons. The pay of sur
geons shall be chargeable to the respective counties in which
they served as surgeons; and any surgeon may be dismissed by
resolution of the board, but the unanimous vote of the board, all
the commissioners being present, taken by ayes and noes, and
recorded, shall be required to adopt such resolution. The board
of police may, if requested by the board of health, employ their
surgeons to aid the sanitary inspectors in the discharge of
their duties, under such regulations and order as the board
of police may make and issue.
§ 22. This act shall take effect immediately.
�59
CHAPTER 908.
AN ACT for the regulation of tenement ancl lodging houses in
the cities of New York and Brooklyn. Passed May 14, 1867.
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and
Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. From and after the first day of July, eighteen
j
i ■ .
■.
When to take
hundred and sixcy-seven, no house, building, or portion thereof, effect,
in the cities of New York or Brooklyn, shall be used, occupied,
leased or rented for a tenement or lodging house unless the same
conforms in its construction and appurtenances to the require
ments of this act.
§ 2. Every house, building or portion thereof, in the cities of Vg t_
New York and Brooklyn, designed to be used, occupied, leased windows,
dt rented, or which is used, occupied, leased or rented for a ten
ement or lodging house, shall have in every room which is occu
pied as a sleeping room, and which does not communicate
directly with the external air, a ventilating or transom window,
having an-opening or area of three square feet, over the door
leading into and connected with the adjoining room, if such ad
joining room communicates with the external air, and also a
ventilating or transom window of the same opening or area,
communicating with the entry or hall of the house, or where
this is, from the relative situation of the rooms impracticable,
such last- mentioned ventilating or transom window shall com
municate with an adjoining room that itself communicates with
the entry or hall. Every such house or building shall have in
th© roof, at the top of the hall, an adequate and proper ventilax., x .
tor, ot a form approved m New York by the inspector of public hal1buildings, and in Brooklyn by the assistant sanitary superintendent of the metropolitan board of health.
§ 3. Every such house shall be provided with a proper fire Pire esc
escape, or means of escape in case of fire, to be approved in New
York by the inspector of public buildings, and in Brooklyn by
assistant sanitary superintendent of the Metropolitan board
of health.
1
§ 4 The roof of every such house shall be kept in good re- Eool in repair.
*
pair, and so as not to leak, and all rain water shall be so drained
�60
or conveyed therefrom as to prevent its dripping on to the ground^
or causing dampness in the walls, yard or area. All stairs shall
be provided with proper bannisters or railings, and shall be kept
in good repair.
Water closets
§ 5. Every such buildingshall be provided with good and suffi
or privies.
cient water closets or privies, of a construction approved by the
Metropolitan board of health, and shall have proper doors,
traps, soil pans, and other suitable works and arrangements, so
far as may be necessary to ensure the efficient operation thereof.
Such water closets or privies shall not be less in number than
One to every
twenty occu
one to every twenty occupants of said house; but water closets
pants.
and privies may be used in common by the occupants of any two
or more houses, provided the access is convenient and direct,
and provided the number of occupants in the houses for which
they are provided shall not exceed the proportion above required
To be connected for every privy or water closet. Every such house situated
with sewer.
upon a lot on a street in which there is a sewer, shall have the
water closets or privies furnished with a proper connection with
the sewer, which connection shall be in all its parts adequate
for the purpose, so as to permit entirely and freely to pass what
ever enters the same. Such connection with the sewer shall be
of a form approved in New York by the Croton Aqueduct
To have traps
Board, and in Brooklyn by the Board of Water Commissioners.
and water.
All such water closets and vaults shall be provided with the
proper traps, and connected with the house sew’er by a proper
tight pipe, and shall be provided with sufficient water and other
proper means of flushing the same; and every owner, lessee and
Owners and
others to pre
occupant shall take adequate measures to prevent improper sub
vent obstruc
tions, exhala
stances from entering such water closets or privies or their con
tions, &c.
nections, and to secure the prompt removal of any improper
substances that may enter them, so that no accumulation shall
take place, and so as to prevent any exhalations therefrom, offen
sive, dangerous or prejudicial to life or health, and so as to pre
Cesspools only vent the same from being or becoming obstructed. No cesspool
.when unavoida
ble.
shall be allowed in or under or connected with any such house,
except when it is unavoidable, and in such case it shall be con
structed in such situation and in such manner as the Metropoli
How construct tan Board of Health may direct. It shall in all cases be water
ed.
tight, and arched or securely covered over, and no offensive
smell or gases shall be allowed to escape therefrom, or from any
Yard or area to privy or privy vault. In all cases where a sewer exists in the.
be connected
street upon which the house or building stands, the yard or areal
with sewer.
shall be so connected with the same that all water, from the roof
Stairs.
�61
or otherwise, and all liquid filth shall pass freely into it. Where °jtterh street
no sewer exists in the street, the yard or area shall be so graded
that all water, from the roof or otherwise, and all filth shall flow
freely from it and all parts of it into the street gutter, by a pas
sage beneath the sidewalk, which shall be covered by a perma
nent cover, but so arranged as to permit access to remove ob
structions or impurities.
§ 6. From and after the first day of July, eighteen hundred ^dansotoc*
and sixty-seven, it shall not be lawful, without a permit from the
Metropolitan Board of Health, to let or occupy, or suffer to be require permits,
occupied separately as a dwelling, any vault, cellar, or under
ground room built or rebuilt after said date, or which shall not
have been so let or occupied before said date. And from and cgl]ar to he
after July first, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, it shall not be used
lawful without such permit to let or continue to be let, or to
occupy or suffer to be occupied separately as a dwelling any ments.
vault, cellar or underground room whatsoever, unless the same
be in every part thereof at least seven feet in height, measured
from the floor to the ceiling thereof, nor unless the same be for
at least one foot of its height above the surface of the street or
ground adjoining or nearest to the same, nor unless there be
outside of and adjoining the said vault, cellar or room, and ex
tending along the entire frontage thereof, and upwards from six
inches below the level of the flooi’ thereof up to the surface of
the said street or ground an open space of at least two feet and
six inches wide in every part, nor unless the same be well and
effectually drained by means of a drain, the uppermost part ot
which is one foot at least below the level of the floor of such
vault, cellar or room, nor unless there is a clear space of not less
than one foot below the level of the floor, except where the same
is cemented, nor unless there be appurtenant to such vault, cellar
or room the use of a water-closet or privy kept and provided as “have^
in this act required, nor unless the same have an external win- windows, &c.
dow opening of at least nine superficial feet clear of the sash
frame, in which window opening there shall be fitted a frame
filled in with glazed sashes, at least four and a half superficial
feet of which shall be made so as to open for the purpose of
ventilation. Provided, however, that in case of an inner or back
vault, cellar or room let or occupied along with a front vault,
cellar or room, as part of the same letting or occupation, it shall
be a sufficient compliance with the provisions of this act if the cellar may be
front room is provided with a window as herein before pro- front one.
vided, and if the said back vault, cellar or room is connected
�62
with the front vault, cellar or room by a dooi' and also by a prop
er ventilating or transom -window, and where practicable
also, connected by a proper ventilating or transom window,
or by some hall or passage, or with the external air.
Provided always that in any area adjoining a vault, cellar
May have steps
to area.
or underground room there may be steps necessary for access to
such vault, cellar or room, if the same be so placed as not to be
over, across or opposite to the said external window, and so as
to allow between every part of such steps and the external wall
of such vault, cellar or room, a clear space of six inches at least,
and if the rise of said steps is open ; and provided further that
over or across any such area there may be steps necessary for
Also over area.
access to any building above the vault, cellar or room to which
such area adjoins, if the same be so placed as not to be over,
across or opposite to any such external window.
§ 7. From and after the first day of July, eighteen hundred
After July 1,
■868, every
and sixty-eight, no vault, cellar or underground room shall be
cellar requires
permit.
occupied as a place of lodging or sleeping, except the same shall
be approved, in writing, and a permit given therefor, by the
Metropolitan Board of Health.
§ 8. Every tenement or lodging house shall have the proper
garbage boxes.
and suitable conveniences or receptacles for receiving garbage
fcombustibles or and other refuse matters.
No tenement or lodging house, nor
unhealthy
articles not to
any portion thereof, shall be used as a place of storage for any
be stored, or
animals kept.
combustible article, or any article dangerous to life or detrimen
tal to health; nor shall any horse, cow, calf, swine, pig, sheep
oi’ goat be kept in said house.
§ 9. Every tenement or lodging-house, and every part there
To be kept clean
of, shall be kept clean and free from any accumulation of dirt,
filth, garbage or other matter in or on the same or in the yard,
court, passage, area or alley connected with or belonging to the
To cleanse to
same. The owner or keeper of any lodging-house, and the
satisfaction of
Board of Health. owner or lessee of any tenement house or part thereof, shall
thoroughly cleanse all the rooms, passages, stairs, floors, win
dows, doors, walls, ceilings, privies, cesspools and drains thereof
of the house or part of the house of which he is the owner or
lessee, to the satisfaction of the Metropolitan Board of Health,
so often as shall be required by or in accordance with any regu
lation or ordinance of said board, and shall, well and sufficiently,
To whitewash
to the satisfaction of said board, whitewash the walls and ceil
twice a year.
ings thereof twice at least in every year, and in the months of
April and October, unless the said board shall otherwise direct.
�63
Owners and
Every tenement or lodging-house shall have legibly posted or agents names
painted on the wall or door in the entry, or some public accessi posted.
ble place, the name and address of the owner or owners, and of
me agent or agents, of any one, having charge of the renting
and collecting of the rents for the same ; and service of any pa
Service of pa
pers required by this act, or by any proceedings to enforce any pers .
of its provisions, or of the acts relating to the Metropolitan
Board of Health, or the Department for the Survey and Inspec
tion of buildings, shall be sufficient if made upon the person or
persons so designated as owner or owners, agent or agents.
§ 10. The keeper of any lodging-house, and the owner, agent Officers of'
Board of Health
of the owner, lessee and occupant of any tenement house, and to have access.
every other person having the care or management thereof,
shall, at all times, when required by any officer of the Metro
politan Board of Health, or by any officer upon whom any duty
or authority is conferred by this act, give him free access to such
Sick persons
house and to every part thereof. The owner or keeper of any be reported. to
lodging-house, and the owner, agent of the owner, and the lessee
of any tenement house, or part thereof, shall, whenever any per
son in such house is sick of fever, or of any infectious, pestilen
tial or contagious disease, and such sickness is known to such
owner, keeper, agent or lessee, give immediate notice thereof to
the Metropolitan Board of Health, or to some officer of the
same, and, thereupon, said board shall cause the same to be in House may be
disinfected,
spected, and may, if found necessary, cause the same to be im clothing, furni
ture, &c.
mediately cleansed or disinfected at the expense of the owner,
in such manner as they may deem necessary and effectual; and
they may also cause the blankets, bedding and bed clothes used
by any such sick person, to be thoroughly cleansed, scoured and
fumigated, or, in extreme cases, to be destroyed.
§ 11. Whenever it shall be certified to the Metropolitan Board Buildings infec
ted or out of
of Health by the Sanitary Superintendent, that any building or repair may be
ordered vacated.
part thereof is unfit for human habitation, by reason of its being
so infected with disease as to be likely to cause sickness among
the occupants, or by reason of its want of repair has become
Notice to be
dangerous to life, said board may issue an order and cause the posted and
same to be affixed conspicuously on the building or part thereof, served.
and to be personally served upon the owner, agent or lessee, if
the same can be found in this State, requiring all persons therein
to vacate such building for the reasons to be stated therein as
aforesaid. Such building or part thereof shall, within ten days
thereafter, be vacated; or within such shorter time, not less than
�64
twenty-four hours, as in said notice may be specified; but said
board, if it shall become satisfied that the danger from said
house, or part thereof, has ceased to exist, may revoke said or
der, and it shall thenceforward become inoperative.
§ 12. No house hereafter erected shall be used as a tenement
Houses here
after erected or house or lodging house, and no house heretofore erected and not
converted to
comply with
now used for such purpose, shall be converted into, used or
additional
requirements. leased for a tenement or lodging house, unless in addition to the
requirements hereinbefore contained, it conforms to the require
ments contained in the following sections:
§ 13. It shall not be lawful hereafter to erect for or convert to
Distances be
tween buildings the purposes of a tenement or lodging house a building on the
on front and
rear of lot.
front of any lot where there is another building on the rear of
the same lot, unless there is a clear open space exclusively be
longing thereto, and extending upwards from the ground of at
least ten feet between said buildings, if they are one story high
above the level of the ground ; if they are two stories high, the
distance between them shall not be less than fifteen feet; if they
are three stories high, the distance between them shall be twenty
feet; and if they are more than three stories high, the distance
Buildings on
between them shall be twenty-five feet. At the rear of every
rear of lot.
building hereafter erected for or converted to the purposes of a
tenement or lodging house on the back part of any lot, there
shall be a clear open space of ten feet between it and any other
Distances may building. But when thorough ventilation of such open spaces
be modified.
can be otherwise secured, said distances may be lessened or
modified, in special cases, by a permit from the Metropolitan
Board of Health.
§ 14. In every such house hereafter erected or converted, every
Height of rooms. habitable room, except rooms in the attic, shall be in every part
not less than eight feet in height from the floor to the ceiling ;
and every habitable room in the attic of any such building, shall
be at least eight feet in height from the floor to the ceiling,
throughout not less than one-half the area of such room. Every
Windows.
such room shall have, at least, one window, connecting with the^
external air, or over the door a ventilator oi perfect construction,
connecting it with a room or hall which has a connection with
the external air, and so arranged as to produce a cross current of
Sizo of windows. air. The total area of window or windows in every room commnnicating with the external air, shall be at least one-tenth qf
the superficial area of every such room; and the top of one, ah
least, of such windows, shall not be less than seven feet and six
Order may be
revoked.
�65
inches above the floor, and the upper half, at least, shall be made
so as to open the full width. Every habitable room of a less small rooni to
area than one hundred superficial feet, if it does not communi- ventilation,
cate directly with the external air, and is without an open fire
place, shall be provided with special means of ventilation by a
separate air shaft extending to the roof, or otherwise, as the
'Board of Health may prescribe.
§ 15. Every such house hereafter erected or converted shall have chimneys,
adequate chimneys running through every floor, with an open
fire-place or grate, or place for a stove, properly connected with
one of said chimneys, for every family and set of apartments.
It shall have proper conveniences and receptacles for ashes and ^bbTshnd
rubbish. It shall have Croton, Ridgewood, or other water fur
nished at one or more places in such house, or in the yard there- Waterof, so that the same may be adequate and reasonably convenient
for the use of the occupants thereof. It shall have the floor of Cellar floor
the cellar properly cemented, so as to be water tight. The halls
dt
on each floor shall open directly to the external air, with suita- ends,
ble windows, and shall have no room or other obstruction at the
end, unless sufficient light or ventilation is otherwise provided
for said halls, in a manner approved by the Metropolitan Board
of Health.
8 16 Everv owner or other person, violating any provision of Punishment for
O
J
a
n i
-1
• violation.
this act, after thesame shall take effect, shall be guilty of a mis
demeanor, punishable by a fine of not less than ten dollars, nor
more than one hundred dollars, or by imprisonment.for not more
than ten days for each and every day that such violation shall
continue, or by both such fine and imprisonment in the discreLtion of the court. He shall also be liable to pay a penalty of jtow recovered
ten dollars for each and every day that such offence shall con
tinue. Such penalty may be sued for and recovered by the Me
tropolitan Board of Health, and when recovered shall be paid
over to the treasurer of said board. In every proceeding for a
/‘ violation of this act, and in every such action for a penalty, it
shall be the duty of the owner of the house to prove the date
of its erection or conversion to its existing use, if tnat fact shall
become material, and the owner shall be prima facie the peison
liable to pay such penalty, and after him the person who is the
lessee of the whole house, in preference to the tenant or lessee
of a part thereof. In any such action the owner, lessee and oc- owner, lessees
t cupant, or anv two of them, may be made defendants, ancl jucig- may be deiend-
�66
ment may be given against the one or more shown to be liable,
as if he or they were sole defendant or defendants.
Definition of
§ 17. A tenement house within the meaning of this act, shall
[tenement house.
be taken to mean and include every house, building, or portion
thereof which is rented, leased, let or hired out to be occupied,
or is occupied as the house or residence of more than three fam
ilies living independently of another, and doing their cooking
upon the premises, or by more than two families upon a floor, so
living and cooking, but having a common right in the halls,
■Definition of
stairways, yards, water closets or privies, or some of them.- A
dodging house.
lodging house shall be taken to mean and include any house or
building, or portion thereof, in which persons are harbored or
received, or lodged for hire for a single night, or for less than a
week at one time, or any part of which is let for any person to
sleep in for any term less than a week. A cellar shall be taken
to mean and include every basement or lower story of any build
Definition of
[cellar. #
ing or house of which one-half or more of the height from the
floor to the ceiling is below the level of the street adjoining.
§ 18. The Metropolitan Board of Health shall have authority
Board of Health
may modify.
to make other regulations as to cellars and as to ventilation,
consistent with the foregoing, where it shall be satisfied that
such regulations will secure equally well the health of the occu
pants.
§ 19. This act, except when it is otherwise expressly pro
When to take
effect.
vided, shall take effect in May first, eighteen hundred and sixty
seven.
CIOFTEI8. 700.
Board of Health
to regulate driv
ing of cattle. &c.,
in New York
arid Brooklyn.
AN ACT with reference to the powers of the Metropolitan
Board of Health in the regulation of cattle driving and other
matters. Passed April 24, 1867.
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate
and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. From and after the passage of this act it shall not
be lawful to drive any cattle, sheep, swine, pigs, or calves,
through the streets or avenues of New York or Brooklyn, or
any of them, except at such times and in such manner as the
Metropolitan Board of Health may by ordinance or resolution
prescribe. But so long as said board shall permit the business
�67
©f "augHt-ering animals for food to be carried on, in that portion
of the city of New York south of Fortieth Street, it shall be
lawful to drive through such streets and avenues in the city of So long as
New York as may be designated by said board, and under such hous^permitrestriction as to numbers as said board may prescribe, cattle bed<wven tiif
from eight o’clock in the evening till two hours after sunrise in sunrise?andfter
the morning, and sheep until twelve o’clock at noon. But in sheep tlU B0011,
designating the streets and avenues the said board shall have
regard as well to the convenience of persons driving the same ^nate sti-ee^8"
as to the character, condition and ordinary use of the said streets Xmbers°rib6
and avenues.
§ 2. No person in charge of any cattle, sheep, pigs, swine or cattie, &c., no«
calves, shall, if able to prevent it, permit any such cattle, sheep, acrosFside-1"
pigs, swine or calves, to pass upon or across any sidewalk in walk‘
said cities, and any per.-on violating any provision of this act
shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction be Penalty forvio.
punished by a fine of not less than ten or more than fifty dol- latinslawlars, or by imprisonment in the penitentiary for not more than
thirty days, or by both such fine and imprisonment.
§ 3. In all cases to which said Board of Health is a party,
either when acting as such or as a Board of Excise, preference fn°d excisehtolth
shall be given to the same by all courts and judges on all motions, trials, and appeals, in the same manner as to cases to which
the people of the State are directly parties plaintiff, and when
ever said board shall seek any provisional remedy,1 or shall 1
pros- give undertakBoards need not
J
ecute any appeal, it shall not be necessary before obtaining or
on appea^B
prosecuting the same to give any undertaking, but such board
shall be liable in the same manner as if an undertaking had
been given in the ordinary manner.
§ 4. This act shall take effect immediately.
,
CHAPTER 6S7.
AN ACT to authorize the abatement and prevention of certain
nuisances deemed dangerous to the public health in the city
of Brooklyn. Passed April 23, 1867, three-fifths being pres
ent.
The People of the State of Yew York, represented in Senate
and Assembly, do enact as follows :
| Section 1. Whenever it shall appear to the Metropolitan ZSePpSond«M
Board of Health, that any surface water has been, or shall be of health
liable % be ponded at any place in the city of Brooklyn, and commissioners.
�68
remain stagnant, so as to be or become a nuisance dangerous
to the public health in the vicinity thereof, they shall cause a
notice in writing to be served upon the Board of Sewerage Com
missioners of said city, specifying the location of such place.
Sewerage com
§ 2. Said Board of Sewerage Commissioners, upon receiving
missioners to
ascertain cause. such notice, shall examine and ascertain whether such ponding |
of water has been or is liable to be caused by the erection of
any building, fence, wall or other obstruction, so as to prevent
the natural or usual flow or passage of surface water, and
May enter upon
lands.
for that purpose, and for the purpose of draining such water
from such pond, the said Sewerage Commissioners, their agents
and workmen, shall be and hereby are authorized to enter into
and upon any lands and premises in the vicinity of the place
May cause
Brain to be
designated in said notice, and cause a suitable drain to be madeJ
made.
or a suitable pipe to be laid across any land above or below the
surface thereof, as they may deem best, so as to drain such water
from such pond or place, and cause it to flow and be discharged
into some public street or sewer.
'Sewerage com
§ 3. Said Sewerage Commissioners shall estimate the damages
missioners to
estimate damwhich may be sustained by the owner or owners of the lands
ages.
upon which such drain shall be made, or pipes laid, after giving
Ten days’ notice to such owner or owners ten days previous notice in writing, of
to be given
[owners.
the time and place of making such estimate, which notice shall
be served upon such owner or owners personally, or leaving the
same at his or their usual place of residence, or upon the premi
ses where such drain or pipe shall be made or laid, with some
person of suitable age to receive the same.
Bi deemed prop
§ 4. If said Sewerage Commissioners shall, under all the cir
er, may pay ex
penses from
cumstances deem it proper that such damages and the cost and
general sewer
age fund.
expenses incurred in making such drain, or laying such pipe,
should be borne by the public, as being necessary to prevent or
abate a nuisance dangerous to the public health, they shall pay
the same out of the general fund raised for sewerage purposes ;
but if they shall not deem it proper that such damages, costs
Or may assess
Bpon lands ben
and expenses should be so paid, then they shall make a just and
efited.
equitable assessment thereof, upon all the lands upon which th®
buildings, fences, walls or other obstruction, which has caused
such water to pond, shall have been or shall be made, and upon
such other land adjacent thereto, if any, the owners of which,
in the opinion and judgment of said commissioners, ought in jus
Assessments to tice to bear and pay any part thereof, and the assessment so
to be liens.
made shall be liens upon the lands assessed, and shall be collect-
�69
edln the same manner as other assessments made for the costs
and ^xpenses of constructing sewers in said city are collected.
§ 5. If any person shall wilfully destroy or injure any such
drMn, pipe, or obstruct or prevent the passage of water through
the Same, he or she shall be guilty of misdemeanor.
§ 6. This act shall take effect immediately.
Misdemeanor to
impair or ob
struct drain.
CHAPTER
AN ACT to incorporate the Soldiers’ Business Messenger and
Dispatch Company. Passed April 15, 1867.
The People of the State of Phew York, represented in Senate
and Assembly, do enact as follows:
* * * Section 6. Said corporation is hereby authorized
and shall have power to erect and maintain covered stands or
fcooths on the streets of the cities apd villages in said district,
except Broadway in the city of New York. Provided, that no
booth or stand shall be placed upon the sidewalk, without pre
vious consent of the owner or lessee of the property adjoining
or against said booth or stand; and the number, size and loca
tion of said booths or stands shall be determined by the Metro
politan Board of Health, or a majority of said board, who shall
determine and locate the same upon application by the president
of this corporation.
* * Section 9. This act shall take effect immediately.
Corporation
may place
,
stands in street
if approved by
board of health
*
�70
CHAPTES
Permits to visit
vessels at quar
antine .
AN ACT to enable the Board of Supervisors of the County of
New York to raise money by tax for certain county purposes^
to extend the powers of the Metropolitan Police, and to pro
vide for the auditing and payment of unsettled claims against1
said county. .Passed April 25th, 1867, three-fifths being pres
ent.
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and
Assembly, do enact as follows:
* * * Section 26. Nothing in this act shall be deemed to
conflict in any manner with the Quarantine laws, or with the
rules and regulations of the Health Officer of the Port of New
York; nor shall any permit or licenses issued under the act
hereby amended, authorize any person to visit any ship or ves-J
sei under quarantine, without the authority of the Health Offi-’
cer of the Port of New York, or the Metropolitan Board of
Health.
CHAPTER 586.
t
AN ACT to enable the Board of Supervisors of the County or
New York to raise money by tax for the use of the corporaJ
tion of the city of New York, and in relation to the expendi
ture thereof; and. to provide for the auditing and payment of
unsettled claims against said city, and in relation to actions
at law against said corporation. Passed April 23, 1867 ; threefifths being present.
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and
Assembly, do enact as follows:
Moneys appro
priated to Board
to clean streets
not provided
for by contract.
Moneys appro
priated to clean
streets oftencr
than required
by contract.
(EXTRACT.)
“For the Metropolitan Board of Health to pay the expense of
cleaning such streets, alleys, squares and public places in the
city of New York, as are not provided to be cleaned by any ex-l
isting contract, the sum of five thousand dollars, or so much,
thereof as may be necessary for that purpose. If at any time
the said board shall be of the opinion that the public health re-
�71
quires that any street or streets, avenue or avenues, public place
o'i'i places, should be cleaned more frequently than is required by
the existing contract for cleaning the streets, they may order
the same to be cleaned as much oftener as in their opinion the
public health requires, and the comptroller shall pay to the per
bon doing the work, on the certificate of the president of said
board, the amount that may be agreed upon therefor, not ex
ceeding in the aggregate the sum of twenty thousand dollars,
which sum is hereby appropriated thereWr. But. nothing here
in contained shall be construed as exempting th[e contractor
for cleaning the streets from any existing liability.”
Existing con
tracts not affect
ed.
�CHAPTER 57S.
Board of Health
Eonstitute Board
of Excise.
Extent of disBh'ict.
Inspectoi- of ex
cise.
Salary.
License requir
ed.
Board to grant
licenses.
LAWS OF 1866.
AN ACT to regulate the sale of intoxicating liquors within the
Metropolitan Police District of the State of New York, passed
April 14,1866; three-fifths being present.
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and
Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section- 1. The persons who are and from time to time shall]
be Commissioners of the Metropolitan Board of Health, are hereJ
by constituted and created a Board of Excise, in and for the Me
tropolitan District of the State of New York, excepting and
excluding the County of Westchester, and from and after the
passage of this act, they alone shall possess the powers and per
form the duties of Commissioners of Excise within said Metro-!
politan Police District, excepting said County of WestchesterJ
They shall receive no compensation for their services as such
Board of Excise.
*
§ 2. There shall, in the said Metropolitan Police District, be an
officer called and known by the title of “Inspector of Excise,”
who, under the Board of Excise, shall be charged with the per-a
formance of such of the duties herein imposed upon them as they
can and shall delegate to him. The Board of Excise shall havepower to appoint and remove such officer, and to pay him out of
the moneys to be received by them, as hereinafter provided, such
salary as they shall deem proper, not exceeding two thousand
dollars a year.
§ 3. From and after the first day of May, 1866, no person or per
sons shall, within the said Metropolitan Police District, exclusive
of the County of Westchester, publicly keep, or sell, give away
or dispose of any strong or spirituous liquors, wines, ale or beef]
in quantities less than five gallons at a time, unless as he or they
may be licensed, pursuant to the provisions of this act, and may
be permitted by it.
§ 4. The said Board of Excise shall, subject to the further
provisions hereof, have power to grant licenses to any person or
persons of good moral character, and who shall be approved by
them, permitting him and them for one year from the tune the
same shall be granted to sell and dispose of, at any one named
place within said Metropolitan Police District, exclusive of the
* Amended, Laws ofl86T, Chapter 956, Section 16.
�County raWestOKfester, strong and spirituous liquors, wine, ale Rate of license
and beM in quantities less than five gallons at a time upon re- fee.
ceiving a license fee, to be fixed in their discretion, and which
khall feiot be less than thirty nor more than two hundred and
fifty dollars.
§ 5. Such licenses shall be in the form of a written or print- Form of licensed
Mfcertificate, stating the name of the person or persons, and the
place licensed; shall be signed as the said Board of Excise shall
provide and direct; shall be kept posted by the person or
*
persons licensed, in a conspicuous position in the room or License to b
posted and ex
place where his or their sales are made, and shall be exhibited hibited.
at all times by the person or persons so licensed, and by all persons acting under such licenses, on demand to every sheriff, con
stable or officer or member of police: any omission so to display
Result of
and exhibit such certificate shall be presumptive evidence that omission.
any person or persons so omitting to display and exhibit the
same has and have no licenses.
§ 6. Such licenses shall only be granted on written applica- Form of ap
plication .
tion to the said Board, signed by the applicant or applicants,
Hecifying the place for which license is asked, and the name
*
or names of the applicant or applicants, and of every person inter
Bld or to be interested in the business to authorize which the
license shall be used.
§7. Personsnot licensed may, within the said Metropolitan Unlicensed perd
sons may sell
Police District, exclusive of the County of Westchester, keep, more than five
gallons.
and in quantities not less than five gallons at a time, sell and dispose of strong and spirituous liquors, wines, ale and beer, provided that no part thereof shall be drunk or used in the building, But not to bo
On any building, yard, garden or inclosure communicating drank on prem
ises.
with, or in any public street or place contiguous to the building
in which the same shall be kept, sold or disposed of.
§ 8. Licenses granted as above shall not authorize any person Not sell on SUBday
or persons to, nor shall any person or persons publicly keep, sell, day. or election
give away or dispose of any strong or spirituous liquors, wines,
ale or beer on Sunday, or on any day upon which a general or
special election or town meeting shall be held within one-quarter
mile from the place where the same shall be held.
§ 9. The said Board of Excise shall keep a complete record Record of licenk>f die names of all persons licensed as herein above provided, ses to be kept.
‘with a statement of the place licensed and license fee imposed
and paid in each case, which record they shall at all times per
�74
mit to be seen in a convenient place at their principal headquar
ters in the City of New York.
Licensed per
§ 10. Persons licensed as herein provided shall prevent, so
sons to preserve
order.
far as is in their power, and shall at all events give immediate!
notice to the nearest sheriff, constable, officer or member of po
lice, of all and every disturbance, disorder, or breach of the
peace in any place which shall be so licensed, and shall forthwith
Shall close if
cause all persons to be removed therefrom, and the place to be
necessary.
closed, and kept closed until quiet is restored.
§ 11. No person shall sell, give or dispose of any strong or spiritu
No sales to mi
nors or appren ous liquors, wines, ale or beer to any apprentice or person under
tices without
consent.
eighteen years of age, knowing or having reason to believe him
to be such, without the consent, in the case of an apprentice, of
his master or mistress, and in the case of a person under eighteen
years of age, of his father, mother or guardian.
§ 12. No person shall sell, give, or dispose of, and no person
No sales to
drunkards or
licensed as herein provided, shall suffer any person for, under, or
intoxicated per
sons.
employed by him, to sell, give or dispose of any strong or spiri
tuous liquors, wines, ale or beer to an habitual drunkard, or to
any intoxicated person or persons then being under the influence
of liquor.
§ 13. No person licensed as herein provided shall, against the
request of any wife, husband, parent or child, sell, give or dis-l
Sales to wives,
&c.
pose of any strong or spirituous liquors, wines, ale or beer to
the husband of any such wife, wife of any such husband, parent
of any such child, or child of any such parent.
§ 14. All persons licensed as herein provided shall keep the
Places closed
Sundays and
places at which they are so licensed to keep, sell, give and dis
from midnight
till sunrise.
pose of strong and spirituous liquors, wines, ale and beer, ordei’l
ly and quiet, and between the hours of twelve o’clock at night
and sunrise, and on Sundays, completely and effectually closed.
Nothing herein contained shall be construed to prevent hotels,
Hotels on Sun
days.
from receiving and otherwise entertaining the travelling public]
upon Sundays, subject to the restrictions contained in this sec
tion.
§ 15. No person or persons except those licensed as herein
Unlicensed per
sons not to pro provided, and those permitted to sell in quantities more than five
fess to sell.
gallons at a time, shall give out or profess to sell, or to have for
sale, strong or spirituous liquors, wines, ale or beer, or shall have,
permit, or continue in or about his or their premises any sign,
notice or token that such liquors, wines, ale or beer are there
Signs,
�kept for sale, or give notice or advertise thart he or they have Advertisements
such liqllors, wines, ale or beer for sale.
Punishment
§ 16. Every person who shall violate any of the foregoing violation. for
provisions of this act, shall for each offence be guilty of a misde
meanor, and on conviction thereof, shall be punished with a fine
of not less than thirty dollars, nor more than one hundred dollars,
or with imprisonment for not less than ten days, nor more Fine and im
prisonment.
than thirty days, or by both such fine and imprisonment. In ad
dition thereto, every person who shall violate any of the forego
ing provisions hereof shall be liable to a penalty of fifty dollars Penalty.
jfor each offence, recoverable in a civil action in the name of said
Board of Excise, provided that any person or persons may com
plain to the President of such Board of Excise of any such of
fence; and, on the recovery by said Board of the penalty
therefor, the said Board shall pay to the person or persons so
first complaining, if not members of the Police Department, the
one-half of the penalty so recovered ; and said Board shall have Attorney.
authority to employ and pay attorney or attorneys to prosecute
actions for the recovery of such penalties.
§ 17. No person who shall trust any person for any strong or No payment for
'spirituous liquors, wines, ale or beer, on a sale thereof in quanti sales on credit.
fies less than five gallons, to be, or which shall be drunk, or used
in the building, or in any building, yard, garden or enclosure
communicating with, or in any public street, or place contigu
ous to the building in which the same shall be sold, can recover
or compel payment therefor.
§18. Any conviction for violation of any of the foregoing Conviction
provisions hereof, by any person or persons licensed, or at any forfeits license.
place licensed, as herein provided, shall forfeit and annul such
license.
^ § 19. It shall be the duty of every sheriff, constable, police Police to en
man and officer of police to compel the observance, and to pre force law.
vent the violation of the foregoing provisions hereof; if necessa May close
ry, by summarily closing and keeping closed any places in which places.
shall be violated any of such provisions.
I § SO. Every sheriff, constable, officer or member of police shall Arrest without
forthwith arrest all persons who shall violate any of the provis warrant.
ions of this act, and carry such persons before any magistrate of
the city or town in which the offence shall be committed, to be
dealt with according to the provisions of this act. And it shall Duty of magis
be the duty of every magistrate to entertain complaints for a trates .
�76
violation of any of the provisions of this act made by any person
under oath.
Intoxicated perg 21. It shalla be the duty of every sheriff, constable, officer IH
sons to be ar°
J
d
.
.
tested.
member of police to arrest any person who shall be intoxicated
in the street, any public place or places where strong and spin®
tuous liquors, wines, ale or beer are sold, publicly kept or dis
posed of, and to take him before any magistrate of the same city
or town; and if such magistrate shall, after due examination,
deem him too much intoxicated to be examined, or to answer onf
Magistrates to
oath correctly, the magistrate shall cause him to be confined unoat™ine Undei til he shall become sober, and then to be brought before the]
magistrate, who shall examine him on oath or affirmation as to
the cause of such intoxication, and ascertain from him from
whom he obtained the liquor he shall have drunk; but such ex
*
amination shall not be used as evidence against such intoxi
cated person in any prosecution, civil or criminal, such intoxicain'toxlcation1/01" tion being hereby declared to be an offence, punishable upon j
conviction by a fine of ten dollars and costs, and imprisonment
until the same shall be paid, not exceeding ten days.
§ 22. The said Board of Excise may at any time, and, upon
i vokeliTeTs™" the complaint of any resident of the said Metropolitan Police!
District, except in the County of Westchester, shall summon be
fore them any person or persons licensed as aforesaid; and if
they shall become satisfied that any such person or persons has
or have violated any of the provisions of this act, they shall re
voke, cancel and annul the licenses of such person or persons]
which they are hereby empowered to do. Upon any inquiry
tendan^Lfwu- the saicI Board, or the party complained of, may summon, and
nesscs.
said Board may compel, the attendance of witnesses before them
and examine them under oath.
Disposition of
§ 23. All license fees and penalties herein provided for shall
andVenaities^ be received by, and all fines herein provided for shall be paid,
over to the said Board, and shall be by them, after deducting
therefrom the necessary Expenses of collection, appropriated to,
and to diminish the expenses of the Police Department of the said
Metropolitan Police District, exclusive of the County ofWestchesJ
ter; provided that nothing herein contained shall divert from
state inebriate Bie State Inebriate Asylum such proportion of license fees as is
now set apart for said institution by existing laws. The said
i Board to report. Board shall annually report all sums so received by them,, and
�77
Magistrates
all magistrates and courts shall monthly report and pay over to and courts to
pay over.
said Board all fines imposed and received hy them.
*
Grand jurors
I § 24. All courts having jurisdiction to try offences against the to be charged.
visions of this act shall instruct and charge grand jurors to
inquire into all such offences and to indict all offenders.
§ 25. Any person who shall sell any strong or spirituous Persons selling
liquors or wines to any of the individuals to whom it is declared in violation of
the law liable
by this act to be unlawful to make such sale, shall be liable for for damages.
all damages which may be sustained in consequence of such sale,
and the parties so offending may be sued in any court in this
State by any individual sustaining such injuries, or by said Board
of Health, and the sums recovered shall be for the benefit of the
party injured.
§ 26. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with the provis Repealing
ions hereof are hereby repealed, so far as the same Aall apply to clause.
the said Metropolitan Police District, except the County of
Westchester.
§ 27. This act shall take effect immediately.
* Amended, Laws of 1867, Chaptei- 470, Chapter 80G, Section 6, Chapter 843, Section 4,
jlphapter 8S9, Chapter 926, Chapter 956, Section 16. Bee post.
�78
CHAPTER, 77.
Quorum.
’Ma’ority of
board to concur
AN ACT to fix the number necessary to form a quorum of the
board of excise, in and for the Metropolitan police district of
the State of New York, excepting and excluding the county
of Westchester. Passed March 11, 1867.
The People of the Slate of New York, represented in Senate and
Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. A majority of the board of excise in and for the
Metropolitan Police District of the State of New York, except
ing and excluding Westchester county, is hereby declared to be
a quorum thereof,with power to do any and all business entrust
ed to said board. But no action or order shall be had or taken
by the said board, unless at a meeting thereof, regularly called,
there shall have been a vote thereon had and taken in which
vote a majority of said board shall have concurred.
§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
CHAPTER 470.
Commissioners
of charities and
correction to re
ceive twelve per
cent, of excise
moneys.
AN ACT to amend an Act entitled “An Act to establish an
Asylum for Inebriates in the City of New York, and provide
for the government thereof,” passed April 8th, eighteen hun
dred and sixty-four. Passed April 20, 1867, three-fifths being
present.
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and
Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section i. * * * Said Commissioners [of Charities and
Correction] are hereby authorized to receive from the Board of
Excise, from time to time, twelve per cent, of the aggregate
amount of moneys received in each and every year by said
Board of Excise, from and after April first, eighteen hundred
and sixty-seven, for license fees received for licenses granted in
the city and county of New York, and said board on application
of the said commissioners, are hereby authorized and directed to
pay over from time to time to said commissioners such per centage, which moneys shall be strictly applied by said commission.
�79
HRIx> the building, maintenance and support of said asylum,
and duly accounted for in their annual report. But nothing in
this act contained shall be construed to divert from the State
lhebriate Asylum, or interfere with the proportion of said license
'fees set apart for said institution by existing laws. The said Also fines for
commissioners are authorized to demand and receive all fines ^0XK‘atl0n»
imposed for intoxication or disorderly conduct in the city of
New York, which fines, without any deduction, shall be paid
over monthly by the magistrate, clerk, or other person who re
ceives the same, to the said commissioners, and shall be by them
applied and accounted for as other moneys received by virtue of
this act.
CHAPTER. §06.
IAN ACT to enable the Board of Supervisors of the County of
New York to raise money by tax for certain county purpo
ses ; to extend the powers of the Metropolitan Police, and to
provide for the auditing and payment of unsettled claims
against said county. Passed April 25th, 1867, three-fifths
being present.
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and
Assembly, do enact as follows:
* * * Section 6. The Metropolitan Board of Health, ere- Excise money
ated by the act chapter seventy-four of the laws of eighteen "e paid wmimishundred and sixty-six, acting as the Board of Excise, as author- fn°g™'ndofsin,s1
ized by the act chapter five hundred and seventy-eight of the
laws of eighteen hundred and sixty-six, is hereby authorized and
directed, from and after the passage of this act, through the per
son acting as treasurer of the said Board of Excise, to pay over
monthly to the Chamberlain of the City of New York, for the
use of the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund of said city, and How applied,
to be applied by said commissioners, as provided by law, for the
redemption of the city debt, all license fees and fines which may
be collected by the said Board of Excise in the county of New
York, in pursuance of the act chapter five hundred and seventy
eight, before mentioned, after deducting therefrom twelve per
cent. of all such moneys received since the first day of April,
^eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, which are now provided by
law to be paid annually to the Commissioners of Charities and
�80
State Inebriate
Asylum t<> be
state"yt< °
Enectbm de-
feucted.
gaiary oftreas-
Correction, and also deducting ten per cent, of all such moiieyl
received prior to April first, eighteen hundred and sixty-ei^M,
which ten per cent, shall be paid to the New York State Inebrl
ate Asylum, at Binghamton, which said ten per cent, shall be
. ,
,
...
?
T , .
1
paid to the said, Hie agw lore State Inebriate Asylum, as now
required by law; provided that the trustees of the said asylum
shall, within sixty days after the passage of this act, make and
execute a conveyance to the State of New York, by deed, dulyl
acknowledged and recorded, of all the real estate, with the
buildings and improvements thereon, and appurtenances thereto,
owned by said asylum in the County of Broome, in said State]
which conveyance the said trustees are hereby empowered to
ma^e; and also deducting the necessary expenses and salaries
incurred in collecting said fees, as authorized by law; and no
portion of license fees and fines, except as above provided, shall
be paid over to any commission or corporation. The treasurer
of the Board of Excise shall receive for his compensation in col
lecting such license fees and fines the sum of one thousand five
hundred dollars per year.
CHAPTER §43.
AN ACT to incorporate the Inebriates’ Home for Kings
County. Passed May 9th, 1867.
The People of the State of Phew York, represented in Senate and
Assembly, do enact as follows:
lent.1 of excise
Kin^fcounty
inebriates’10
Home.
aiso fines.
* * * § 4- The Treasurer of the Board of Excise in and
^or ^ie Metropolitan Police District of the State of New York,
shall pay to the Treasurer of the said Inebriates’ Home of Kings
County, or his order, twelve per cent, of all the moneys hereaf|
ter received by said Board of Excise for licenses granted under
said excise law to persons residing in the county of Kings, after
all legal deductions therefrom, and deducting therefrom the
proper proportion of the expenses of said board, and such sums
as now or may hereafter be appropriated by law to other purposes. And all fines hereafter received by said board for viola!
tions of said excise law committed in said county of Kings,
shall in like manner be paid to the treasurer of said Inebriates’
Home of Kings county. The money herein directed to be paici
to the treasurer of said Inebriates’ Home, shall be so paid ha
�81
the treasurer of said Excise Board within thirty days after the
receipt thereof by such board; which money shall be applied to
the founding and maintenance of such Inebriates’ Home, and
for no other purpose.
CHAPTER 889.
AN ACT providing for the application of moneys hereafter
collected in the Metropolitan Excise District for certain fines
and from licenses for the sale of liquors. Passed May 10th,
1867, three-fifths being present.
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and
Aseembly, do enact as follows:
Section- 1. From and after the first day of May, one thousand
eight hundred and sixty-seven, the Treasurer of the Metropoli
tan Board of Excise shall pay over all sums received by him for ^’“nen
licenses and fines, as follows :
ln BrooklynAll such sums as are received for licenses granted in the city
of Brooklyn, and for fines imposed for offences in said city, to
the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund of the city of Brooklyn, In Plichmond
to be applied by them without deduction to the extinction of countythe debt of said city; all such sums as may be received from
the towns in the county of Richmond to the Commissioner of
Common Schools in said county, to be by him apportioned
among the several school districts in said county, rateably in Jn country
proportion to the number of scholars attending school in each, towns of
and applied for the maintenance of the schools, and the erection
and improvement of school buildings therein respectively; in
the towns of Kings county, except the city of Brooklyn, to the
Commissioner of Schools, the money received from each town
to be apportioned by him among the several school districts in in Queens
such town, in proportion to the number of scholars attending countyschool in each district, and applied for school purposes ; and in
th© towns of Queens county to the highest officer having the
general charge of schools in said county, to be by him distrib- Dedustions,
uted in like proportion among the towns from which it is re
ll
�82
ceived, and to be applied for like purposes. But before payingover such sums the said treasurer shall deduct the proper pro
portion of the expenses of said board, and the ten per cent, now
provided by law to be paid to the State Inebriate Asylum. He
shall also deduct from the sums received from Brooklyn any
sum now provided by law to be paid to the Inebriates’ Home.
§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
CHAPTER 926.
License fees
and tines in
New Utrecht to
go to schools.
AN ACT appropriating the excise fees and fines collected in
the town of New Utrecht, to the use of Common Schools in
that town. Passed May 16, 1867.
The People of the State of New York, represented in- Senate and
Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. All license fees provided for by the act to regu
late the sale of intoxicating liquors within the Metropolitan Po
lice Department, of the State of New York, passed April sixteen,
eighteen hundred and sixty-six, and all fines therein provided
for which shall hereafter be received by the board of excise of
the said Metropolitan police district, from the town of New
Utrecht, in the County of Kings, shall, after deducting the ne
cessary expenses of collection and the amounts otherwise provid
ed by law, be paid over to the supervisor of the town, and shall
be applied by him to the payment of the wages of the teachers
of the different districts in proportion to the amount of scholars
in each district in the said town.
§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
�index
Page.
Abatement suits may be instituted
41
Abatement suits how tried...........
41
Abatement suits, claim for penalty
may be joined with.... .......
44
Abatement suits, motion for new
trial in,....................................
44
Abating nuisances, liability for ex
penses of.................................
40
Absence, deductions lrom sala
ries for......................................
5, 37
Access to be permitted.................
63
Accidents, prevention of..............
36
Act, when to take effect.............. 29, 37, 5S,
59, 66, 69
77
Action for damages, Board liable to
48
Action for damages, when to be
brought....................................
4S
Action for damages, what recov
ered in......................................
4S
Actions not to abate......................
33
Adjourned meetings, no deduc
tions for absence from............
37
Advertising by unlicensed persons
75
Affidavit of expense of executing
orders...............
53
Agents, name of, to be posted....
63
Agents, service on........................
39, 63
Agents of Board not personally
liable........................................
47
Air-shafts in small rooms............
65
Aidermen, powers of President oi,
conferred on new Board.........
9, 34
Alley, removal of articles from,
may be ordered.......................
13
Amendment to be allowed..........
41
Amount to be expended annually
25, 52
Amount to be borrowed................
49
Amusements, places of, may be re
quired to report... . ................
22
Animals not to be kept in tene
ment houses............................
62
Answer in suit for rent...............
57
Appeal, action for liability on....
48
Appeal, when to stay e.vecution..
43
Appeal, when to be taken............
43
Appeal without security..............
43
Appeal, undertaking not needed on
67
Appeal to court ot appeals..........
44
Application for license, contents
ot...............................................
73
Appointment. Secretary ol State to
give certificates of...................
4
Apportionment of expenses of
Board....................................
25
Apportionment of expenses of ex
ecuting orders........................
53
Apprentices, sales to...................
74
Arrests. Board may order ..........
16
Arrests, effect of order of..............
16
Arrests, justices and magistrates
th Order....................................
31
Arrests, policemen and constables
k to make....................................
31
Arrests,undertaking not needed on
Arrests without warrant..............
Arrested, who may be...................
Arrested persons, how treated....
Ashes, receptacles for...................
Assignee may institute suits.......
Assistant aldermen,powers of pres
ident of, conferred on new
Board.....................................
Assistant Sanitary Superinten
dents, two may be appointed.
Assislant Sanitary Superintend
ents, one in Brooklyn............
Assistant Sanitary Superintend
ents, duties of.........................
Assistant Sanitary Superintend
ent, salary of.’..........................
Assistant Sanitary Superintend
ents, may administer oatfhs.. .
Asylums may be required to report
Attendance of witnesses compelled
Attorneys, Board to employ.........
Authenticate papers, Ac., Secre1 ary to......................................
Authority of Board presumed....
Page.
67
75
16
16
65
15, 55
9,34
8
8
8
8, 52
16
22
50, 76
9, 75
6
16
Badge may be provided...............
21
Badge, wrongfully wearing, a mis
demeanor .................................
21
Bedding may be cleaned or des
troyed ......................................
63
Births, powers as to.......................
11
Births, acts as to, extended
throughout district.
11
Births, false returns of.
49
Births, publish information as to
23
Births, penalty for omission to
keep registry of, and to repoit
12
Births, statistics of, to be reported
19
Births, whom to be reported by..
12
Births, what report of to contain.
12
“Board” or “said Board,” mean
ing of........................................
3
Board, authority of, presumed...
16
Board, first meeting of.................
5
Board, funds of......................................
23
Board, health officers and quaran
tine commissioners to co-op
erate..........................................
17
Board, how constituted.................
3
Board, how papers served on.......
48
Board, how sued............................
48
Board, injunction against............
48
Board liable to action....................
48
Board may borrow........................
27, 49
Board may order what done.........
12
Board may procure offices............
9
Board may make proper expendi
tures.........................................
9
Board may modify order..............
13, 37
Board may modify tenement act..
66
Board may confer power on presi
dent to suspend or modify
order .......................................
37
�84
Page.
Boai d may execute orders............
14
Board may order arrest................
16
Board, members of may adminis
ter oaths. ................................
16
Board, members of, not personally
liable........................................
47
Board not to make returns...........
23
Board, powers ot............................ 7. 8, 9,10,
11, 12, 13
30, 33, 36
37, 41, 51
Board, powers of existing officers
conferred on............................
9
Board, powers of City In.pector
given to...................................
11
Board, powers of. to borrow.........
27, 49
Board, authority of, presumed ..
16
Board, removal of members of....
7
Board, rent ordered paid to..........
46
Board, right of members of, to en
terbuildings............................
21
Board, salaries of............................
5
Board to employ clerks and ser
vants ........................................
9
Board to employ attorneys...........
9, 75
Board to gi\ e information............
17, 18
Board to keep record of acts.........
19
Board to keep record of execution
of orders...................................
19
Board to pay (torn funds expenses
incurred in good faith............
47
Board to report to Governor an
nually ......................................
19
Board to regulate booths on walks
40, 69
‘•Board of police,” meaning of...
4
Board of police to execute orders
14,19
Board of police may employ per
sons and incur expenses.........
14, 19
Board of police, authority of, in ex
ecuting orders........................
14,19
Board of police may let rooms to
Board of health........................
9
Board of police, powers of, as to
sanitary matters given to new
Board................. 7....................
14
Board of health, existing powers
of, conferred on new Board....
9, 34
Board, croton aqueduct, not interferredwith................
10,35
Board of estimate, how constituted
24
Board of excise, authentication of
records of..................
53
Board of excise, compensation of.
52
Board of excise, dismissal of offi
cers of.. . ..................................
52
Board of excise, duties of Secre
tary of......................................
52
Board of excise, meetings of.......
52
Board of excise, powers of............
72, 76
Board of excise, quorum of.........
52, 78
Board of excise, report of..............
53
Board of excise, seal of.................
52
Board of excise, suits against.......
48
Boards of supervisors to raise and
collect money..........................
26
Body, burial or removal of, may be
ordered......................................
52
Bond to discharge lien..................
42
Books, Secretary to keep..............
6
Books, Treasurer to keep..............
6
Books, production of, compelled..
7, 17
Books, &c., City Inspector to sur
render......................................
11
Booths on walks.............................
40, 69
Borrow, power of board to............
27, 49
Bribe, penalty for receiving.........
50
Brook.yn, excise moneys tn.........
80, SI
Brooklyn, one assistant sanitary
superintendent in...................
8
Brooklyn, one of sanitary com
missioners must reside in...,
3
PafM
Brooklyn, penalties given to au
thorities of, enforced by board
Brooklyn Sewerage Commission
ers, power of, over sunken lots
Buildings, infected or out of re
pair, ordered vacated..............
Buildings, when a nuisance..........
Buildings on same lot, distances
between....................................
Buildings, expense of executing
orders a lien on......................
Buildings, public, may be inspect
ed /. ..........................................
Buildings, public, plans of to be
exhibited.................................
Buildings, removal of articles from
may be ordered.....................
Buildings, repair of, may be or
dered ........................................
Buildings, when may be declared
nuisance...................................
Buildings, when may be declared
dangerous or detrimental.......
“Burthensome” substituted for
stringent...................................
By Laws to be enacted.................
By-Laws may be altered..............
49
67.68
63
39
64
50
21
21
13
36
]2
13
49
20, 30
20, 80
Cattle not to pass over sidewalk..
67
Cattle drivin.. regulation of.........
66, 67
Cellar, definition of.......................
66
Cellar, drainage of ........................
61
Cellar, floor of, to be kept tight....
65
Cellar, how constructed...............
61
Cellar, rules as to, may be modi
fied ...........................................
66
Cellar, ventilation of.....................
61
Cellar, when permit required ror..
61, 62
Cellar, when a nuisance................
40
Certificates may be issued for
27
loans. ..•.................................
27
Cesspools, how constructed..........
60
Cesspools, when allowed...............
60
Charities and Corrections, Com
missioners of............................
78
Chief Clerk.....................................
38
Chimneys to every floor................
65
City Inspector’s department abol
ished.........................................
23
City Inspector, powers of, given to
Board........................................
9,11
City Inspector, powers of, in street
cleaning commission given to
president..................................
5
City Inspector to surrender books,
&c ...........................................
11
Clean, every one’s duty to...........
15
Cleaned, what may be ordered....
13
Cleaning streets, appropriation for
70
Cleaning streets, expense a lien
on compensation for..............
15
Cleanliness of markets, powers
over...........................................
36, 40
Clerks, Board to employ................
9
Clerk, Chief...................................
38
Clerks of courts, fees not to he
charged by...............................
33
Code of health ordinances to be
published................................. 30, 30, 4$
Code of health ordinances, when
to take effect...........................
20, 30
Code of health ordinances, penal
ties for not complying with..
31
Code of health ordinances, how
designated.............................
49
Code of health ordinances, what to
embrace....................................
49
Code of ordinances to be prepared.
57
Code of procedure, change in, not
to affect abatement suits.......
44
Collections, how credited..............
26
�85
Page 1
Commissioners may administer
' oaths.............................................
Commissioners, removal of...........
Commissioners, right to enter buil
dings ............................................
Commissioners, where less than
flve..........?...................................
Commissioners, sanitary, who are.
Commissioners, sanitary, how ap
pointed ........................................
Commissioners, sanitary, one must
reside in Brooklyn.................
Commissioners, sanitary, succes
sors of. how appointed.............
Commissioners, sanitary, three
must be physiciins.................
Commission's, sanitary, salaries
of...................................................
Commissioners, sanitary, terms of
office .. ........................................
Commissioners, sanitary, draw
lots for term..............................
Commissioners, sanitary, take and
file oath........................................
Commissioners, sanitary, hold no
other office.................................
Commissioners, sai.itary, not de
clining nomination, vacate of
fice ................................................
Commissioners, health, powers of,
conferred on new board............
Commissioners of excise, salaries
of...................................................
Commissioners of police, members
of Board......................................
Commissioners of police, salaries
as members of Board...............
Commissioners of quarantine, in
formation to be given to..........
Commissioners of quarantine to
give information........................
Commissioner, street, not inter
fered with....................................
Common Council, powers of, con
ferred on new Board.................
Common law liability reserved..
Compensation, how forfeited.. ...
Compensation not to be paid to
health officers............................
Compensation, expense a lien on„
Compensation, suit to recover back
Complaint, arrests to be made on.
Compla!nts to be investigated ...
Complaint book to be kept............
Comptroller not to be interfered
with..............................................
Comptroller of State to approve
Treasurer's bonds.....................
Constables to make arrests..........
Contagious disease, persons sick
with, may be removed..........
Contract for street cleaning not
affected........................................
Contribution, liability to..............
Conviction forfeits license...........
Coroners, powers over.................... Corresponding Secretary may be
appointed....................................
Corresponding Secretary, salary of
Costs, when recovered.....................
Costs, amount of................................
Costs against Board in suits for
rent...............................................
Costs in abatement suits account
ed for............................................
Costs, separate executions for ...
Costs, when to be paid... . ..............
Court in which suits may be bro't.
Court may grant injunction.........
Court may order rent paid to Board
Court may order speedy trial.......
Court, preference in.......................
Courts to act promptly...................
16 Court, fees not to be charged by..
7 Couits not to lose jurisdiction by
plea of real estate......................
21 County to bear expenses incurred
I
for.................................................
Croton aqueduct board notinter3, *
fered with...................................
3 I Damages. Board liable to action for
Damages, limit of recovery —.....
3 Dangerous or detrimental to life or
j
health, what may be.................
4 j Date of erections, owner to prove..
Deaths, duty to gather and preserve
3|
factsasto......................................
i Dead body ordered removed or
5|
buried............................................
Death, false report of.........................
4 Deaths, next of kin to report...........
i Deaths, penalty for omission to
4
keep registry of.........................
Deaths, publish information as to
4 Deaths, powers as to.........................
j Deaths, acts as to, extended
7j
throughout district..................
s Deaths, statistics of. to be reported
! Deaths, whom to be reported by..
7 Defect of parties, suits not dis5
missed for...................................
9.34 Defendants, who to be, in actions
under the tenement acts_____
52 . Demand of rent gives lien..............
i Disease, duty to gather and pre3I
serve facts as to.........................
| Disease, persons sick with, be re5]
moved....................... ..... .............
’ Disinfected, what may be ordered..
17 > Disinfection, gratuitous, may be
i
provided.......................................
17 Dispensaries may be required to re1
port.................................................
10, 35 ' Dispossession forbidden when rent
|
jiaid to treasurer.........................
9, 34 I “ District” or ‘"said District,” mean’ 40 '
ing of............................................
50 District, sanitary superintendent
must reside in_
______ _______
23 District, sanitary, what it embraces
15, 54 Drainage, duly to provide for..........
56 ' Drainage of marke ts, powers ov« r..
31 | Drugs, deleterious, adulterated or
211
poisonous, powers as lo .........
21 i Duties of officers of institutions, ic.
Page.
29
33
33
26
0,35
48
48
13
65
19
51.52
49
12
12
23
11
11
19
12
41
65
54
19
18,39
13
IS •
09
55
3
3
16.40
36.40
22
22
11,35 I Elect’on day, no sales on.................
73
21
I Engineer, sanitary.................... —
6 i Engineering, amounts to be expend31 [
cd for ?.......................................
22
I Erection or conversion, owner to
65
IS I
prove date of...............................
24
I Estimate, Board of, how corstitute.1
24.26
6 [ Estimate, Board of, duties of...........
25
151 Estimate, what to contain.... ...........
29
75 I Evidence, records as.........................
51I Examination, what application for
17
I
to contain..................................
17,18
Examination, how enforced.............
16
Examination, judge may order........
17
Examinations, how taken.................
24
Examinations, power of judge as to
17
Examination, service of order for..
48
Excise Board. designation of..........
Excise Board, expenses of............... 6, SO, SI
72
41 Excise Board, how constituted____
48
45 Excise Board, injunction against,...
52
33 Excise Board, meetings of..............
52
Excise Board, officers of.................
41
74,76
46 Excise Board, powers o£........ ..........
52,78
46 Excise Board, quorum of____ . -__
53
47 Excise Board, records of..................
53
67 Excise Board, report by........... ........
�86
Excise Board, salary of Treasurer..
Excise Board, seal of.....................
Excise Board, Secretary of.............
Excise, Inspector of...................
Excise moneys appropriation of....
Excise moneys in New York..........
Excise moneys in Brooklyn,..........
Excise moneys in Kings county ...
Excise moneys in New Utrecht......
Excise moneys in Queens county...
Excise moneys in Richmond county
Excise moneys, salaries to be paid
from..........................................
Execution, againstwhom..............
Execution, by whomissued..........
Execution, when and for what is
sued ..........................................
Execution of orders, statement of
expense of...............................
Execution ot judgment, when
statement of expense of.......
Execution of judgment., when
statement of, final...................
Executive officer, chief, must be
physician...............................
Executive officer, must reside in
district .......
Expenditures, proper, Board may
make.........................................
Expenditures,extraordinary, when
Expense of abating nuisance, lia
bility for..........................................
Expense of abating nuisance ap
portioned in judgment...........
Expense of abating nuisance,state
ment of to bo tiled...................
Expense of abating nuisance re
covered when advanced.........
Expense of abating nuisance, what
not stated in finding.......... ....
Expense of executing orders, ag’st
whom a charge........ ................ _
Expense of executing orders, alien 15,
Expense of executing orders to be
apportioned..............................
Expense of execut ing orders, state
ment to be filed.......................
Expenses for 1866..........................
Expenses to be reported................
Expenses, how apportioned.........
Expenses incurred in good faith to
be paid lrom funds of Board..
Expenses, what not included in
limitation of............................
Expenses, amount of, which may
be incurred.............................
Expenses of Board of Excise....... 76,
Page.
80
52
52
72
76
7S,79
81
80,81
82
81
81
52
45
45
45
53
44
44
7
7
?
18
42
44
47
47
_ 15
50, 54
53
53
25
20
25
47
47
25, 52
80, 81
Facts and proofs may be presented
13
False report, penalty for................
49
Fees for licenses, disposition of.... 76, 78, 79
80, 81, 82
Fees not to be taken........................ 10, 12, 35
Fees not to be charged by courts,
magistrates or clerks ...........
33
Filed, papers to be. on discharging
lien......................................................... 42
Filed, statement of expense of ex
ecuting judgment to be........ .
*14
Fines may be imposed for neglect
of duty.....................................
Fines on conviction......................
Fines, payment of, howenforced.
Fines paid over to treasurer.........
Fines, reports of, to be made........
Fire escape............................... ...
Floors of cellars to be tight..........
Food, powers as to........................
Front and rear buildings, distance
between...................................
80, 81, S3
9
31
31
31
31
59
65
22
64
Funds paid into State Treasury....
Funds, bow drawn and paid............
Falcon market stalls not removed..
Garbage, receptacle for, to be pro
vided.................................
Goats in tenement houses..............
Governor, approval of, necessary to
borrowing.................................
Governor has power to remove ...
Governor to approve exercise of ex
traordinary powers..................
Governor to appoint Sanitary Com
mission ....................................
Grounds, removal of articles from,
may be ordered.......................
Ground, duty of those who have un
dertaken to clean.....................
Ground, when maybe declared dan
gerous or detrimental...............
Page,
23
23
40
62
63
27
7
18
3,4
13
15
13
Halls, ventilation in.......................
59
Halls, open at ends........ .................
65
Health Board, designation of..........
48
Health Board, injunction against...
48
Health, Board of, how constituted..
3
Health, Board of, may institute
suits.................................. 15. 31, 32,41, 65
Health, duty to enforce laws relat
ing to.......................................
Health,duty to gather and preserve
19
40 facts as to..................................
57
Health laws to be codified..............
Health, what is dangerous to, to be
12
declared a nuisance...................
Health, what may be declared dan
13
gerous or detrimental to.........
Health ordinances, code of, to be
20, 30
published.................................
Health ordinances, code of, when
to take effect............................ 20, 30,47
Health ordinances, code of, i-en31
alty for not complying with. .
Health, powers of existing Boards
9, 34
conferred on new Board..........
Health Commissioner, powers of,
9,34
conferred on new Board..........
Health Officer of Port of New Yoik,
3
a member of Board................. .
Health Officer, authority of not af
18
fected ......................................
49
Health ordinances, code, of............
Health ordinances, code of, what to
49
embrace....................................
Health Officer, salary of, as member
5
of Board...................................
Health Officer, information to be
IT
gi ven to.............................. ■ ■ •
17
Health Officer to give information.
17
Health Officer to co-operate............
Health Officer, power of, conferred
9, 34
on new- Board...........................
Health Officers to communicate re
19
ports ........................................
Health Officers to communicate in
19
formation....................... ..........
Health Officers not to be created or
employed by municipal authori
11
ties ...........................................
Hearing, parties applying for, to
13
have...,......................• -•••••
Hearing, speedy, to be given in
47
courts.......................................
61
Height of rooms............................
62
Horse in tenement bouse.................
22
Hospitals may be required to report
74
Hotels on Sundays..........................
36
Houses, repair of, may be ordered..
impending pestilence............... .
13, IS
Inebriate Asylum,State, license fees
to............................................... 76,79, SO,82
�87
Page.
18
Inebriate Asylum in New York....
50
Inebriates’ Home, in King s County
89
Infectious diseases, poweis as to...
Infirmaries may be required to re
22
port...........................................
75
Informer under excise law.............
40, 47
injunction in abatement suits.........
injunction in abatement suits with
46
out undertaking ......................
Injunction in abatement suits, action
48
for damages on..........................
48
Injunction ag’stBoard.lioW granted
51
Inquests, duties of coroners as to...
Inspections, result of, may be pub
21
lished ........................................
8
Inspectors, Sanitary, bow many...
8
Inspectors, Sanitary, duties of......
8, 52
Inspectors, Sanitary, salaries oi....
• 49
Inspectors, Sanitary, false report by
S
Inspectors, ten to be physicians....
Inspectors; those not physicians to
8
be selected for qualifications....
21
Inspectors, right to enter...............
52
Snspectois, Assistant Sanitary.......
inspector, City, powers of, given
Board........................................ 9,11, 34
Inspector, C,ty, to surrender books,
11
etc........................................... •
institutions, reports may be requir
22
ed irom ....................................
76
Intoxicated persons, when arrested
72
Intoxicating liquors, act to regulate
76
Intoxication, punishment for.......
Intoxication, disposition of fines for 77, 79, 80
81, 82
Issues, how settled, and tried in
41
abatement suits.......................
Page.
Lessees, expense of executing or
ders, a charge against................
15
Lessee, duty of. to place and keep in
safe condition............................
15
Lessees may be ordered to pay rent
to Board....................................
46
Lessees to pay rent to treasurer....
55
Lessees, duty of. under tenement act 60, 62, 63
Lessees, when liable to penally.......
65
Lessees to be made defendants........
65
Liability incurred in good faith to
be paid......................................
47
License to scavengers......................
36
License io sell liquors.....................
72
License, to whom granted.. ..........
72
License, what allowed by................
72
License, how long to run.................
72
License, rate of................................
73
License, form of...............................
73
License, to be posted......................
73
License, application for.................
73
License fees, disposition of............. 76, 78, 79
80, 81,82
Licenses, record of, to be kept........
73
Licenses, forfeited by conviction...
75
Licenses, when revoked..................
76
Licensed persons to preserve order.
74
Lien, expense of e^eijuting orders..
50
Lien, effect of filing notice of..........
51
Lien, how enforced...........................
51
Lien, how long to continue............
5L
Lien, notice of, to be filed................
50
Lien, priority of..............................
50
Lien, when valid............
50
Lien in abatement suits.................
42
Lien on rent....................................
54
Lien on compensation for cleaning.
54
Lien on rent, how made effectual....
54
Life, what is dangerous to, is a
nuisance...................................
12, 39
Life, what may be declared danger
ous or detrimental to................
13
Light, want of, is a nuisance...........
_ 40
Limit of expenses..........................
25,52
Limit of expenses, what not to be
included in................................
47
Limit of time to sue for rent...........
56
Liquors, intoxicating, act to regu
late.............................................
72
Loans, ceitificates.may be issued for
27
“ Lodging-house,” definition of.......
66
Lodging-house, orders may be
served on agent of................
39,63
Judge may order production of
17
books........................................
18
Judge may order examination........
46
■Judge, may grant injunction..........
46
Judge may order rent paid to Board
42
Judge, when may discharge lien....
43
•Judge, when may order stay..........
judge, ruling of, as to statement
45
final............................... ...........
Judgment, in abatement suit, how
41
settled.....................................
Judgment in abatement suits, what
to contain................... _.............. 42, 44, 46
Judgment in abatement suits,execu
tion of................... •••■•;..........
Judgment, in abatement, suits, to
42 Magistrates, duty of, under excise
state on what it is a lien.........
law...........................................
■Judgment, when statement of ex
44 Magistrates to order arrest..............
pense to be final.....................
Magistrates, fees not to be charged
Judgment, statement of expenses of
44
"by...................................... .......
executing to be filed.... ...........
47 Mail, service of orders through.......
Judgment, injunction in................
47 Maps may be copied........................
■Judgment against Board to be paid
51 Markets, regulation and control of,
■Judgment in lien cases...................
given to Board...................
54
^Judgment in actions for penalty...
31 Markets, new, plans for to be pre
Jurisdiction of actions to be taken .
pared.........................................
31
■Justice to order arrest....................
Markets, Fulton and Washington..
Justices to take jurisdictions of ac
31 Marriage, false return of................
tions..........................................
Marriages, power as to...................
Keeper of lodging-house, duty of.. 62, 63, 65 Marriages, acts as to, extended
throughout district...................
80, 81
King's County, excise money in....
Marriages^statistics of, to be reported
Marshals, police have power of.....
Land expense of executing orders,
50 " Matter,” meaning of......................
* lien on ..................................
57 Mayor of New York, powers of, con
Laws to be codified..........................
ferred on new Board.................
Kjtaws and Ordinances relative to
Mayor of New York, powers as to
Preservation of Public Health,”
weights and measures, given to
authority conferred by, given to
9,35 Mayor and Common Council, pow
Board........................................
ers of, conferred on new Board.,
Laws relating to health, duty to en
22 Mayor and Commission’rs of Health,
force .........................................
powers of, conferred on new
20
Legislation to be suggested...........
Board........................................
14
Lessees, orders may be served on..
75, 76
81
33
14
21
36,40
41
40
49
11
11
19
83
4
9, 34
11
9, 34
9, 84
�88
Meaning of terms...........................
Measures and weights, powers as
to, given to Mayor ofNew York
Medical relief to poor may be pro
vided.........................................
Medicines, power as to..................
Meetings, regular and special, when
held .. .. ....................................
Meetings, notice of........................
Meetings, taken to be regular in all
proceedings...............................
Members of Boa'd, salaries of........
Membeis of Board, removal of. ....
Members of Board, right to enter..
Membeis of Board may administer
oaths.........................................
Members not personally liable. ...
Members summarily examined......
“ Metropolitan Board of Health,” the
name of the health board.........
“Metropolitan Board of Excise,” the
name of the excise board.........
Midnight, liquor shops closed at....
Minors, sales of liquor to............
Minutes, papers filed deemed enter
ed in...........................................
Misapplicationolfundsinquired into
Misdemeanor, parties arrested to be
treated as for.............................
Misdemeanor under health act, what
is.......................... '.................... 2S,
Misdemeanor under excise law
Misdemeanor under tenement act...
Money borrowed a charge..............
Motion for new trial in abatement
suits..........................................
Municipal authorities not to inter
fere ..........................................
Municipal authoiiiies not create or
employ health officers or incur
expenses...........................
Page.
3,4
11
18,39
22
22
22, 52
22
5,52
7
21
16
47
24
48
48
74
74
33
24
16
32, 50
75
65
27
44
11
11
Pagel
Occupants, duty of, under tenement
act.............................................
fit), 65
Officers, not personally liable.........
47
Officers, false reports by.................
49
Officers, dismissal of......................
6, 52
Officers, names of, to be reported...
19
Officers, pretending to be, a misde
meanor ......................................
21
Officers, Board may procure...........
9
Omission, ■willful, to obey order, a
misdemeanor............................. 28. 82, 53
Order may be reaffirmed, modified,
or rescinded.............................
13, 37
Order, special or general, penalty for
not complying with.................
82, 53
Order, power may be conferred on
President to suspend or modify
37
Order not to be modified so as to be
more stringent..........................
37
Orders, mode of serving.................
13, 14
39, 68
Orders, against whom expense of,
is a charge.................................
1§
Orders, obstructing execution of, a
misdemeanor............................ 28 82, 53
Ordets, violating, a misdemeanor.. 28. 32, 53
Orders, suspension or modification
of, on application......................
18,37
Orders presumed to be authorized...
22
Orders, expense of executing, a lien
50, 54
Orders, apportionment of expense of
executing..................................
53
Orders, statement of expensed exe
cuting ......................................
53
Orders, authority of Board in execu
ting...........................................
19
Ordinances, amended, to be publish
ed ..............................................
30, 49
Ordinance s, duty of police to en
force .........................................
19. 88
Ordinances, code of, to be published 20, 30, 49
Ordinances, code of, when to take
effect......................................... 20,30,49
Ordinances, penalty lor not comply
ing with... ................................ 20, 2S, 31
32, 53
Ordinances, sanitary......................
49
Ordinances a codification to be sub
mitted to the Legislature.......
57
Owner, duty of, to place and keep in
safe condition................. .......
15
Owners, orders served on............... 13,14, 63
Owners.expense of executing orders,
a charge against........................
15
Owners, duty' of, under tenement
act............................................. 60, 62, 63
Owners, names of to be posted.......
68
Owners to prove date of erection..
65
Owner, prim a facie liable.............
65
65
Owners to be made defendants........
Name of Board...............................
4S
Name of owner or agent of tene
ment house to be post 'd..........
63
Name of officers and agents to be re
ported .......................................
19
New York, trial not to be had in,
without notice..........................
31
New York, excise moneys in........
78, 79
New York, penalties given to local
authorities in.,..........................
49
New Utrecht, excise moneys in...
82
New trial, when motion for enter
tained........................................
44
Nextofkin toreportbirihs and deaths
12
Notice of lien, where filed..............
50
Notice of lien, effect of........ .......... 50, 51,54
Notice of payment of rent to treas
urer ..........................................
56
Nuisance defined.............................
39
Papers filed deemed entered on
Nuisance, liability for expense of
83
minutes....................................
abating......................................
40
33
Nuisance, suits to abate..................
41 Papers, how served........................
12
Parents to report births.................
Nuisance, common law right as to
Parties to suits .............................. 15. 2S, 32
reserved..........................................
41
56
Nuisances, abating..........................
36 Parties to suits for recovery of rent
65
Nuisances, Board may declare.......
13 Parties to suits under tenement act
Part owner, duty of, to place and
keep in safe condition..............
15
Oath, Sanitary Commissioners to
take and file.............................
4 Penalty for violations...................... 20, 28, 31
32
Oaths, who may administer...........
16
Penalty for not complying with reg
Obstructing execution of orders a
ulations, Ac.............................
20, 32
misdemeanor............................
28, 32
Penalty, minimum, under health
Obstructions on streets and walks,
law............................................
38
removal of.................................
36, 40
Penalty, judge to fix.......................
Occupant,duty of, to place, and keep
38
in safe condition.......................
15 Penalty, claim for, joined in abate
44
ment suit ................................
Occupants, orders may be served on
14
45
Penalty, separate execution for ...
Occupants, expense of executing or
ders a charge against................
15 Penalty, claim for, joined in suit for
53
expenses...................................
Occupants to pay rent to Board....
46, 55
�89
Page
Penalty, claim for, may be assigned
53
Penally, judgment in action for....
54
Penalty, when recovered back by
landlord....................................
56
Penalty under tenement act...........
65
Penalty under excise act..................
75
Penalties, certain, to be sued for...
49
Peril, in case of, no limit as to ex
pense.........................................
25
Peril of pestilence, powers given in
13, 18
Perjury, wiiatis. .............................
16
Persons interested, duty of. to place
and keep in safe condition.......
15
Persons interested, orders served on
39
Personating an officer, a misde
meanor......................................
21
Pestilence, impending....................
18
Pestilence, when peril of, exists,ad
ditional power given.................
13.18
Pestilential diseases, powers as to..
39
Physician, chief executive officer,
must be....................................
7
Physicians, ten of inspectors, must
be...............................................
S
Physicians, three of Sanita’y Com
missioners, must be.......... ...
3
Physician, resident, powers of, con
ferred on new Board................
9, 34
Pigs in tenement houses.............
62
Pigs, driving....................................
66
Pipe,when may be declared danger
ous or detrimental...................
13
*• Place,” meaning of......................
4
Place of business, service of orders,
by copy left at..........................
14
Places of resort may be required to
report........................................
22
Plans may be copied.......................
21
“Police Commissioners,” meaning
<>f............................................. 4
| Police.” meaning of......................
Police Commissioners, members of
4
Board......................
3
Police Commissioners, salariesof.
5,52
Police Board to report danger to
health........................................
IS
Police Board may let rooms to
Board of Health........................
9
Police Board and Board of Health
to co operate.............................
IS
Police Board to execute orders.......
19
Police Board may employ persons
and incur expenses...................
19
Police Board, injunction against....
48
Police Board to build telegraphs...
58
Police Board to detail surgeons....
58
Police Board to dismiss surgeons..
58
Police to report violations..............
IS, 3S
Police to enforce excise law............
75
B’olice to arrest without warrant...
75
Police may close liquor shops.........
75
Policemen may serve process and
papers.......................................
33
Policemen to make arrests............
31
Police justice to order arrest .........
31
Poor, medical relief for, may be
provided...................................
IS, 39
Port of New York, health officer of,
a member of Board...................
3
Power of Board, what included in.. 7, 8, 9, 10
11, 12, 13
36, 39, 40
11, Ml
Powers of Board, how exercised...
Mower given by any law relative to
health to be exercised...............
Powers of City Inspector given to
Board........................................
Preference in courts........................
Resident to be elected annually.. .
President faAe a member of Board.
President, duties of.........................
9
10.34
11
67
5
5
5
Page.
President may’ appoint Secretary’
pro tern.....................................
President pro tein. may be elected.
President, power may be conferred
on, to suspend or modify' ■ rder
President has powers of City In
spector on street cleaning com
mission .....................................
President, process may be served on
President of the Bo .rd of Alccrmen, powers of, conferred on
new Board...............................
Premises, when may be declared a
nuisance....................................
Premises, when may be declared
dangerous or detrimental.........
Prevention of accidents...................
Privies required............
Privies, how fitted................... ...
Privies,number of..........................
Privies connected with sewer........
Persons may be required to report
Proceedings presumed to be au
thorized....................................
Proceedings to be regarded as ju
dicial and legal........................
Process, how served,.....................
Proclamation of peril.....................
Production of books, judge may’ or
der.............................................
Proofs, how taken..........................
Prosecuting officers to act promptly
Prosecutions, before whom....... 28. . 31,
Purified, what may be ordered....
Pursuits, when may be declared a
nuisance, &c............................
Quarantine, Commissioners of,
to give and receive informa
tion ...........................................
Quarantine, Commissioners of, to
co-operate.................................
Quarantine, permits to visit ves
sels at.......................................
Queens county, excise moneys in.
Quorum of Board of Excise..........
Quorum of Board of Health..........
6
6, 38
37
5
4S
9, 34
12
13
36
61)
60
60
60
22
22
29
33,48
18
17
16
29
32. 76
14
12
17
17 ■
70
81
52,78
3
Rain water to be conducted from
roof,..........................................
59
Receipts and expenses to be repor?
ted..............................
.........
20
Records, Secretary to keep..........
6
Records, regulations as to............
23
Record of acts and execution of or
ders to be kept........................
19, 53
Record of licenses.........................
73
Records as evidence.......................
29,53
Records, facts stated in, presumed
true.. . . . . . . . . ...........................
29
Registry’ of births and deaths, pen
alty' for omission to keep.'....
12
Regulations to be enacted............ 20,22,30,49
Regulations may be altered.......... 20,22,30,49
Regulations as to records and proceedings...................................
23
Regulations, penalty for not com
20, 28
plying with................. .
31, 32, 53
Regulations, duty of police to en
19.38
force ................ 1........................
Regulations may be included in
49
code................... . ....................
59
Regulations to be prepared...........
Removal < f Commissioners, pro
7
ceedings for.............................
6. 52
Removal of officers, how effected..
18.39
Removal of sick authorized..........
Removal of obstructions on streets
36.40
and walks.................................
Removed, what may be. ordered... 14,36,40
46
Rent ordered paid to Board..........
�90
Page.
Kent paid to Board, how applied..
46
Kent, expenses a lien on..............
54
Kent, judgment a lien on..............
15, 54
Kent, how lien on. made effectual.
54
Kent, 1 ability fir, after demand..
55
Kent, suit for.................................
55
Kent, suit to recover back............
56
Kent, notice of payment of,to treas
urer........ . .................................
56
Repair of buildings may be orderi d
36
Repair, roof to be kept in..............
59
Repar, buildings out of, vacated.
63
Repeal, none by implication.........
57
Report to be made annually.........
19
Report may I e printed..................
20
Report of Board of Excise..............
53,76
Report, lalse, by inspector...............
49
Reports, to whom, to he sent..........
20
Report of birth and death, penalty
for omission to make...............
12
Reports from all persons.................
22
Reports may be required from insti
tutions, Ac.................................
22
Reports of trials to bo made to
Board........................................
31
Resisting order subjects to arrest..
16
Residence, service of orders by copy
left at....................................'.
14
Return, false, punishment for.........
49
Resident | liysician. powers of, con
ferred on new Board................
9,34
Revision, committee of, when to
meet................................
26
Revision, committee of, what to do
26
Revocation of licenses...........
76
Richmond County, excise money in
SI
Roof not to leak....................
59
Room, when declared dangerous or
detiimental....................
13
Rooms, height of...................
64
Rooms, ventilation of............
59,65
Rubbish, receptacles for........
62
Rule, penalty for nut complying
with..........................................
20 30
Rule may be altered........................ 20. 80, 49
Rules to be enacted........................ 20,30,49
Salary of Assistant Sanitary Super
intendents.................................
Salary of Assistant Sanitary In
spectors.....................................
Salary of Inspectors........................
Salary of Sanitary superintendent..
Salaiy of Secretary..........................
Salary of Treasurer........................
Salary not to be paid to health offi
cers............................................
Salaries, how paid............................
Salaries of members of Board;. __
Salaries, deductions from, for ab
sence....................... .................
Salaries not to be paid certain offi
cers...........................................
Sale of improper articles in markets
Sales of'iquor on credit..................
Sales to apprentices........................
Sales to drunkards..........................
Sales to wives. Ac............................
Sales without license......................
Sanitary Commissioners, who are..
Sanitary Commission! rs, how ap
pointed......................................
Sanitarv Commissioners, three must
be physicians............................
Sanitary Commissioners, one must
ie.-ide in Brooklyn...................
Sanitary Commis-ioners, term of
office..........................................
Sanitary Commissioners to draw
lots for term..............................
Sanitary Commissioners, take and
file oath....................................
S, 52
52
52
8,52
6
5, SO
10.84
5, 24
5,52
5,37
10,34
36
75
74
74
74
72
3,4
3,4
3
3
3,4
4
4
Sanitary Commissioners to be con
firmed by Senate......................
Sanitary Commissioners, salaries of
Sanitary Commissioners to hold no
other office...............................
Sanitary Commissioners not declin
ing nomination to office vacate
place..........................................
Sanitary condition, publish informa
tion as to...................................
Sanitary Jtistiict, what it embraces
Saniiaiy Engineer...........................
Sanitary engineering, amount to'bo
expended fo-............................
Sanitary Inspectors, 11jw many ...
Sanitary Inspectors, duties of...
.
*
Sanitary Inspectois, salaries of.......
Sanitary Inspectors, ten to be phy
sicians.......................................
Sanitary Inspectors, those not phy
sicians to be Selected for quali
fications....................................
Sanitary lnsp< clots to report.........
Sanitary Inspectors Assistant........
Sanitary Inspectors may be classi-
3,4
5152
7
7
21,23
3
21
S
52
Sanitary Ordinances, what code of,
49
to contain.................................
Sanitary regulations, penalty for not
complying with . .29, 28. 80. 31, 32, 38^53
7.8
Sanitaiy Superint udent, duties of.
8,52
Sanitary Superintendent, salary of.
8
Sanitary Superintendent, reports by
Sanitary Supiru teiident may ad
16
minister oaths..........................
Sanitary Superintendent, right to
21
ent r.........................................
Sanitary Superintendents, Assistant,
S
two may be appointed..........
Sanitary Superintendents, Assistant,
8
one in Brooklyn......................
Sanitary Superintendent, Assistant,
8
duli< s of....................................
Sanitaiy Superintendent, Assistant,
8
salary of....................................
36
Scavengers, licensing of.................
36
Scavengers, regulation of...............
22
Schools may be require d to report.
81,82
Schools, excise moneys to support ut’
6,52
Seal..................................................
’88
Seal, courts to take I oliee of..........
5
'Secretary to beappointed................ _
Secretary not to be a member of
5
Board..................... ................
5
Secretary hold office till removed..
6, 52
Secretary, duties of........................
Secretary to keep records, books,
6
and papers.... ........................
Secretary to conduct coirespond6
ence..........................................
Secretary to authenticate papers,
6
etc.............................................
. 6
Secretary, salary of..........................
6
Secretary, how removed................
16
Secretary may administer oaths....
5,6,38
Secretary
tern...........................
481
Secretary precess may be served on
5
Secretary. Corresponding, salary ot.
Secretary of State to give certificate
4
of appointment.........................
Security on appeal, Ac., board not
43,67
to give................................... •
Senate to confirm sanitary commis
sioners......................................
Servants, Board to employ.........
Servants. Board to fix salaries of...
Service of oiders...................... ...13,
Service of orders for examil atiotis.
Sirviceof process on Board............
Sewers, water closets to be connect
60
ed with..................................
60
Sewers, yards to be connected with
�91
Page.
Sew'i-rS, ■whffl may be declared dan
gerous or deliimentlll...............
31
getvi-rag--, when may be declared a
‘ nuisance.......................................
12
Sewerage, duly to provide for.........
la
Sewerage Commissioners, poweisas
to ponded walers........................
67,68
Sheep in t« neim-nt house.................
62
She-p. when driven...........................
67
Sheep not to pass on sidewalk........
67
Sick, removal of authorized............
18,39
Sick persons to be r< ported.............
63
Sickness, infoi mation as to, may be
publi bed.....................................
23
Sidewalks, removal of obstructions
on „................... ........................
36, 40
Sidewalks, cattle. &c.. on.................
67
Signs foi bidden to unlicensed per
sons...............................................
74
Sleeping moms, how ventilated....
59, 64
Small pox.persons s ck with remov
ed ..................................................
18
Soldiers’ Messenger Corps, stalls of.
69
Special Sessions, trial may be icmoved Io......................................
31
Stat sties of births, deaths and mar
riage . lobe report! d.................
19
Stairs to have bannisters.................
60
Stalls, market, not removed.............
40
Sta Is on sidewalks.............................
40.69
State luebriite Asylum..................76,79,80,82
Statement of expense to be filed ....
44
Statement of expense, not ce of fil
ling ..........................................
Stateim nt of exp-use. when final.
Stateim lit of exp. use. modifi- <1....
Statement of expense, part oi judg
ment..............................................
Statement of expei seof executing
orders............................................
Storage in ten- incut houses.............
Streets, appropriation for cleaning.
St:eels through which cattie driven
Streets,duty <>t those who have und< rtaken to clean.......................
Streets, removal of articles from,
may be ordered...........................
Street , r. moval of obstructions on
Street clean.ng, contract for, nut af
fected ............................................
Strei t cleaning, expt use a lien on
compensation for........................
Strei t cleaning, commission f.r, not
44
45
45
45
53
'62
70
67
15
15. 36
36, 40
6, 71
intern red with..............................
15
11
Street cleaning c •mmis-ion. p overs
cf City Inspector in given to
President......................................
5
Stre-1 coinmissim er. m t inlerlered
with..............................................
10,35
Structures, repair <■!, may be order
ed .................................................
36
Suits, Bo-rd may institute 31, 32. 33,41, 65,75
Sui’stoab te nuisances...................
41
Suits lor damages, when brought...
48
Suits fi r rent when may be brnu-ht
Suit to recover back rent.................
Suits, parties to............. 15, 16, 28, 32 44, 56,
Sums raised to be paid to Treasuier
of State.........................................
Snnken lots in Brooklyn.................
Sunday, no saiesof liquor on............
Suin'ay, liquor stores clos- d on....
Sunrise, liquor stores open at.........
Sup rintendeiit. sa- itary, is chief
executive i.fficer..........................
Superi nt- ndent, sanitary, must be
physician................ .'...................
Superintendent, sanitary, duties of
Superintendi-nt. sanitary, salary of.
Superintendent, assistant, may ad
minister oaths............................
55
56
65
27
67
73
74
74
7
7
8
8
16
Superintendent, right to enter........
Superintendent, assistant, right to
enter ............................................
Superintendent., two assistants may
be ap] ointed................................
Superintend nt, assistant sanitary,
one in Brooklyn.........................
Superintendent of unsafe buildings
not interfered with.....................
Snpervis -rs. B .-arils of, to raise and
col lpet money..............................
Supreme C- art, power of judge of,
on proc- edings to remove com
missioners.......................
Supreme Court, injunction by, only
Surface water ponded tn Brooklyn
Surgeons! police to detail.................
Surgeons, police may disini.~s..........
Surgeons of police to assist Board..
Surveys, right to make.....................
Telegraph, police may build............
Tenant to pay rent to Board............
Teiiat t, when made defendant........
Tenant, duty of to place and keep on
safe condition..............................
Tenants, oiaters may be served on..
Tenants, expense of executing orders, a charge against..................
Tenants liable under tenement act.
Tenement house, orders may be
set ved on agents of...................
Tenement house to be kept clean..
Tenement house may be cleansed or
Gismiected ..................................
Tenement bouse hereafter elected
requirements for.........................
‘■Tenement house,” definition of...
The .ti cs may be ja quired to report
‘•Thing,” m aningof... .................
Time within which orders are to bo
complied with......... ..................
Treasurer to be elected.....................
Treasurer to be a member of Board
Tr. asttrer. hold office till removed..
Treasurer, fines to be paid over to..
Treasurer,costs to be paid to...........
Treasurer, receipt of, a discharge..
Treasurer, rent to be paid to..........
Treasurer to deposit rent.................
Treasurer when liable to repay
rent................................................
Treasurer to obey board..................
Treasurer not personally liable....
Treasurer, salary of...........................
Tiea-urer, duties of...........................
Treasurer to deposit funds in bank
Treasurer to give bonds...................
Treasurer's bonds, moneys collected
on...................................................
Treasuier of State, sums raised to
be paid to....................................
Treasurer of State, regulations as to
payments by................................
Trial not to be had in New York
without notice...........................
Trials, reports of, to be made to
Boar J ...........................................
Trial may lie removed to Special
Sessions........................................
Trial, speedy, to be given..............
Tr.bunals to take j urisdiction of ac
tions..............................................
Undertaking in abatement suits...
Undertaking by board not required
Unlicensed persons, what may sell
Unlicensed person not to adv-rtise
Unsafe buildings, superintendent
not interfered with....................
Page.
21
21
8
8
11,35
26,39
7
47
67
58
58
58
21
58
46, 55
65
15
14
15
65
39,63
62
63
64
66
22
4
14
5
5
5
31
41
46,55
55
55
•
56
57
57
5,80
6
6
6
6
27
27
31
31
31
47
81,32
43
46,67
73
74
11,35
�Page.
Vacancies, bow filled.......................
4
Vacancies, appointees to, how long
to bool .....................................
4
Vacated, building may be ordered..
G3
Vaccination, gratuitous,may be pro
vided................................................
Ventilation of markets, powers
over .........................................
36, 40
Ventilation, duty to provide tor.. 15, 59, 64, 65
Ventilation, wanrto', a nuisance....
40
Ventilation < f sleeping rooms.......
59, 64
Ventilation in small rooms...........
65
Ventilation <>t cellar........................
61
Ventilation in hall..........................
59
VentilatOn, rules as to, may be
modified...................................
66
Vessels at quarantine, permits to
board.........................................
70
Vessels, when may be declared dan
gerous or detrimental..............
13
Violations, penalty for............ 20, 28, 31, 82
38, 53, 65, 75
Page,
Walks, removal of obstructions on.
36, 40
Walks, cattle, <te.. on.....................
67
Wa rant, a’rest without.................
75
Washington market, stalls around..
40
Water, ponded in Brooklyn ..........
67 I
18
Water in every teneiii'-iit house....
65
W at r closets required.................. ■.
60
Water closets, how fitted...............
60
Water closers connected with sewer
60
Water closets, numb r of................
60
Weights aid measures, poweis as to
given Mayor of New York....
11
Westchester county, money to be
raisedin..................................... #
39
Whitewashed, tenement houses
twire a year.............................
62
Windows, number and size of.......
64
W itnesses, attendance of, compelled 7, 50, 76
Yard to be connected with sewer..
Yar i to be graded...........................
Yard to be kept clean.....................
60
61
62
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Laws of the state of New York, relating to the Metropolitan Board of Health and to the Metropolitan Board of Excise, passed in 1866 & 1867
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Conway, Moncure Daniel [1832-1907.]
New York (State)
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An account of the resource
Place of publication: New York, N.Y.
Collation: 92 p. ; 24 cm.
Notes: Includes index. From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
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Bergen & Tripp, printers
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1867
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G5380
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Health
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<img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /><br />This work (Laws of the state of New York, relating to the Metropolitan Board of Health and to the Metropolitan Board of Excise, passed in 1866 & 1867), identified by <a href="www.conwayhall.org.uk">Humanist Library and Archives</a>, is free of known copyright restrictions.
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English
Conway Tracts
Health
Legislation
New York
Taxation
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Title
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The extinction of war, poverty, and infectious diseases: containing essays on Home rule and federation; Can war be suppressed?; State remedies for poverty; and The extinction of infectious diseases by a Doctor of Medicine [George R. Drysdale].
Creator
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Drysdale, George
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 157 p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: Printed by A. Bonner, Chancery Lane, E.C. Sold by R. Forder, Stonecutter St. E.C.
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Geo. Standring
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1904
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G4999
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Social problems
Health
Poverty
Rights
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (The extinction of war, poverty, and infectious diseases: containing essays on Home rule and federation; Can war be suppressed?; State remedies for poverty; and The extinction of infectious diseases by a Doctor of Medicine [George R. Drysdale].), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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English
Home Rule
Home Rule-Ireland
Infectious Diseases
Malthusianism
Poverty
War
War;Poverty
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9691fe7666a6dad215b4a70b3a611e86
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, ‘'A'(s'
DEADLY LIFE-BUOYS.
(From the Daily Telegraph.')
N those amphibious regions which skirt the quays and docks of seaports,
amid sextants and hammocks, ship-bags and brass cannon, canvas,
cordage, and all the maritime paraphernalia of the slop-shops in such
neighbourhoods, the eye is constantly caught by large yellow belts or
rings suspended over the doorways, and stamped with the words
“warranted corkwood.”
Everybody knows what is the use of
these odd-looking girdles : they are “life-buoys,” bought and sold to
save drowning men at sea. We look at them with a certain affection
and interest, imagining them to be articles which, at a pinch, would
preserve that most precious thing—a human life. The fancy wanders away
from the slop-shop to the vessel tossed and leaking in the fierce ocean,
where one of these yellow circles might be worth—not merely the few
shillings which it cost, but all the wealth that a man possessed. In a
collision at sea, when one ship goes suddenly down, and the only chance for
life lies in floating long enough to be picked up by the boats of the uninjured
vessel, the price of a “life-belt” might prove the best investment ever
made; or when the gale is blowing, and the craft drives furiously along, and
some hapless sailor falls from the yard-arm into the billows, one of
these awkward-looking commodities flung overboard might keep him up till
the ship could be brought-to, and the boat lowered. Or, at the awful hour
when a bark strikes upon the lee-shore, and begins to break in pieces, to
have a life-buoy at hand, and to slip it under the arms, might be the means
of bringing a shipwrecked mariner or passenger out of the very jaws of death
to the safe and firm shore. When we think on all these contingencies, the
yellow belt of safety has a charm for landsmen as well as for seamen. It is
an honest and a Christian trade, we say, to manufacture such goods; the
money is good money which is taken over the counter for them; and the
emigrant or seafaring man is surely wise, who, before “ going down to the
sea,” provides himself with one of these useful and trustworthy safeguards.
“Useful and trustworthy !” Let the ingenuous public dismiss these pleasing
thoughts from the mind, and henceforth regard the yellow canvas-bound
life-buoys with looks of shame and suspicion. There is no sham so wicked,
no cheat so infamous, as that perpetrated upon poor landsmen and emigrants
�2
DEADLY LIFE-BUOYS.
by the makers and sellers of these benevolent-seeming objects. Those who
go much among maritime folk, know that the buyers of life-belts are seldom
or never captains or mariners. The passengers, the travellers, the emigrant^
keep a few shillings aside to add one of these belts to their sea stock : but if
one ask a sailor’s opinion about them, he shakes his head, and says that he
“would rather go down and have done with it,” than trust to one of those
lying pretences, which he knows by experience are “made to sell,” and in
eleven cases out of twelve are merely worthless—sinking as soon as theyJ
become sodden in the water.
We owe to the correspondent of a contemporary revelations on the subject
which will fill the mind with indignation and horror. This gentleman had
reason to believe that the so-called “life-buoys” were villanous hypocrisies,
in far too many instances constructed to deceive the purchaser, and cheat him
possibly out of his life, for the sake of the few shillings of difference in value
between the real article and the spurious. A Sunderland buoy maker dis
closed the fact that he had found more than one belt bought at London slop
shops to be stuffed with worthless material, such as common rushes. He
added that, within his own knowledge, seafaring persons had consequently
given up all faith in the deceitful belts, and preferred to “take their chance,”
rather than trust the rascally slop-shops. Shortly afterwards, the writer met
a Shadwell operative, whose business it was to make the yellow “life-buoys.”
The man frankly confessed that “ not one in a dozen” was so constructed as
to keep a human creature afloat. “You could’nt do it at the price,” this
person said; “the shopkeepers won’t give more than three-and-six or four
shillings for ’em, and I’d like to know how much cork you can stuff in at
that figure.” Interrogated farther, this naïve purveyor of deadly life
preservers volunteered the information that “almost anything does to stuff
them. Cocoa fibre mostly, sometimes straw, sometimes rushes, same as what
the caulkers use ; anything will fill ’em well enough for sale—shavings, if
you havn’t got anything better.”
All this various rubbish, coated with
canvas, bound and painted, would float for a little time ; and by-and-bye, as
it became soaked in the salt water, it would sink through its own weight ;
but, of course, with the weight of a man clinging to it, much sooner. Aimed
with this intelligence, the correspondent of our contemporary went life-buoybuying in the slop-shops of maritime London. He visited Shadwell, Ratcliff,
and Poplar, and in each of these quarters he purchased a “good life-belt.”
One was “warranted corkwood;” another was branded “all cork;” ths
third simply bore the word “warranted.” They ranged in price from six
shillings to seven and sixpence. Having brought them home, the experi
mentalist first proceeded to test them by dissection. When the yellow
integument was laid open, the belt “warranted corkwood” was found to
�STRAWS FOR DROWNING IEN.
(Reprinted from the Morning Star, by special permission of Mr. Jas. Greenwood.)
WTseason
gale an<i wreck—when “the stormy winds do blow”
in the dreary night-time, and hearing them as we hug our pillows, we
exclaim “ God help poor souls at sea!”—permit me to disclose to
Xour readers a monstrously cruel and heartless cheat systematically
imposed on mariners, and those who make long journeys at sea. It
concerns what in devilish mockery are “in the trade” known as
“life-buoys.” I may mention that my attention was directed to this subject
BO long ago as last November twelvemonth, when that memorable hurricane
swept the island of St. Thomas, and the sea in its neighbourhood, causing
such appalling devastation amongst the shipping thereabouts. It was my
duty to describe in your columns the marvellous escape of a lad named
Bailey, who was attached to H.M.S. “ Rhone,” of whose crew, numbering
nearly 100, about a dozen were saved. Battling for his life in the raging
W®ck-waters, Bailey was so lucky as to secure a floating life-buoy suddenly
vacated by a hapless fellow, who, with his body within the ring, was nipped
off at the middle by a shark, causing the poor wretch to fling up his arms
and slip through “ like a bolt out of its socket,” as Master Bailey graphically
described it. Clinging to the precious buoy, Bailey was carried out to sea,
and far out of sight and sound of land. Night came on, and quite done over
with fatigue, he fell asleep, and so remained until his buoy drifted ashore,
carrying’ him with it; and he was awoke by the rasping of his legs against
the shingle. I examined that life-buoy, and saw the clear imprint of Master
Bailey s stubbly hair on the soddened, yellow-painted canvas, showing
where his sleepy head had rested.
As may easily be understood, I at once conceived a high respect for life
buoys , and resolved, if ever I went to sea, to provide myself with one,
though I had no more money left than would secure me a berth in the
steerage. I shouldn t have had much trouble over the purchase. In all
seaport towns, and in the vicinity of the principal docks, there are dozens of
maritime outfitting warehouses, and all of them sell life-buoys, most of them
keeping such an extensive stock of the article as to prove unmistakeably
the popular faith in, and extensive demand for, it. TIke any other
unsuspicious person, I should have asked for a life-buoy, and seeing that it
was properly branded “warranted cork,” I should have paid for it, and
ffi®med it away never doubting it.
How woefully I might have miscalculated, will presently appear.
The opening of my eyes to the true state of the case is mainly due to a
well known life-belt and buoy maker of Sunderland, Mr. T. Dixon Writing
to me concerning loss of life at sea, he informed me that he had grave
suspicions of the quality of the life-buoys manufactured in London, and
supplied to the Jew slop-shops. He informed me that he himself had met
With life-buoys composed of the basest materials; and sent me bits of
common rush as a sample of the interior of one he had dissected
He
further apprised me of the fact that to such an extent had this fraud been
P®fPe^te,d’ that a ver7 large number of seamen would have nothing to do
"uk
declaring that they would rather go down and have done
with it, than hang in the jaws of death for a few hours, with the certainty of
drowning after all becoming more apparent as the treacherous support
gradually soddened, and sank under their weight.
�2
STRAWS FOR DROWNING MEN.
It was scarcely to be credited that so murderous a business as my
Sunderland friend hinted at, could be commonly pursued; but I resolved to
watch my opportunity for testing it; and just lately, by chance, I met a
man in the poor neighbourhood of Shadwell, who informed me that he was
a belt and buoy maker.
We had some conversation on the subject of his trade, and then it came
out, not only that Mr. Dixon’s suspicions were well founded, but that he
had not suspected the worst. With a candour that contrasted queerly with
the villany his statements betrayed, the Shadwell operative informed me
that the buoys which are all stamped “ warranted corkwood,” are -nothing
of the kind—“not one in a dozen.” “You couldn’t do it for the money,”
said my informant; “the Jews that such as we work for won’t give more
than 3/6 or 4/- for ’em; and how much cork can you afford to stuff into ’em
for that, I’d like to know ?” I asked him what he could afford to stuff into
his buoys at the price, and he replied—“Cocoa fibre mostly; sometimes
straw; sometimes rushes, same as what the caulkers use ; anything almost
does; shavings, if you havn’t got anything better.” He appeared to think
that it did not matter what the canvass covers were stuffed with, so long
as they were well sewn and painted. I further inquired as to where the
precious goods of his manufacture might be bought, and he replied shortly—
“ Anywhere.” And it seemed that this was perfectly true.
The neighbourhoods of Shadwell, Ratcliffe, and Poplar were visited;
and at each place at a seaman’s slop-shop, a “good life-buoy” was inquired
for, and bought. One was branded “warranted corkwood;” one “all
cork;” and the third simply bore the word “warranted.” They ranged in
price from 6/- to 7/6. They were all three carried home, and dissected, with
the folio-wing results:—
No. 1 (“ warranted corkwood”), when its flimsy yellow skin was slit,
was discovered to consist bodily of straw, sparely covered with cork shavings
for the satisfaction, it is presumed, of any cautious mariner who might feel
disposed to risk a little slit in his purchase, so as to make sure of its quality
before he paid for it.
No. 2 (“ warranted”) was stuffed with rushes.
No. 3 (“all cork”) cork chips and rushes; about 20 per cent, of the
former, and 80 of the latter.
To test the buoyant capability of the three detected impostors, they were
placed in water, a weight of ten pounds being attached to each. This was
the result:—
“Warranted corkwood” sank in an hour.
“Warranted” stood the test for nearly two hours, and then succumbed.
“ALL cork” floated for four hours, and then sank from view.
Here is a pretty revelation! In our inbred love for the sea, and all that
pertains to it, in this, more than in any other direction, do our sympathy
and charity extend. An appeal for funds to float a life-boat on any
dangerous coast, is seldom or never made in vain. We have hearty despising
for all “crimps” and “long-shore” sharks, who prey on the seaman and
fleece him of his hard earnings, more than all. Of all men, none is so
utterly abhorred as the “ wrecker,” the cold-blooded villain who by means
of false lights and signals betrays a vessel to certain destruction, for the
sake of such plunder as the shattered hulk and the bodies of drowned men
may yield. What, then, must be our opinion of the man who, for the sake
of an extra profit of half-a-crown, consigns a fellow-creature to the lingering
�SCOUNDRELISM BY THE SEA.
torture of death hy gradual drowning ? To be sure, it may often happen
lihat, cast on the face of the wilderness of water, the possessor of a life-buoy
deserving the name may in the end be worse off than the man who has
no such hope left him out of the wreck of his ship, and “ goes down and has
done with it;” but who, since this wretched imposture began, can reckon
up the instances of desperate hope all unexpectedly mocked to death, of life
lost that would have been saved, had the promise that the treacherous buoy
held out but proved true ? Nay, how many men, and women too—emigrant
mothers bearing up their little children in the fathomless waters—have
been cheated out of their lives, by abandoning the spar or plank, for the
more hopeful-looking ring of stuffed canvas, “ warranted solid corkwood,”
but which is no more than straw and rags, and which soddens and sinks,
dragging the clingers with it ?
SCOUNDEELISM BY THE SEA.
(From Punch.)
^rERHAPS no plummet that shall be cast will ever find the bottom
of human baseness and wickedness.
We have sometimes thought
that we had nearly sounded them—as in the case of the first Napoleon,
SA or the last hag sent to prison for stripping children of their clothes.
But up crops a new case, which seems to demand a heavier lead and
a longer line than do either of the criminals we have mentioned. At
first, we knew not whether to thank Mr. James Greenwood, or not, for
making the revelation—so disgusting is the cold, sickening brutality he
records; but, on reflection, we thank him for having added another to his
good deeds. What think you, brothers and sisters, who lie safely listening
to the furious tempests, and who find some comfort, when you are pitying
the sailors, in the thought that they are furnished with life-buoys, that
may hold them up in the fight with the black waves,—what think you, we
gay, of this ?—
Writing to me (says Mr. Greenwood, in last Friday’s Star) concerning
loss of life at sea, Mr. Dixon—a well-known life-belt and buoy maker, of
Sunderland informed me that he had grave suspicions of the quality of the
life-buoys manufactured in London, and supplied to the Jew slop-shops. He
himself had .met with life-buoys composed of the basest materials, and sent
me some bits of common rush as a sample of the interior of one he had
dissected. He further apprised me of the fact, that to such an extent had
this fraud been perpetrated, that a very large number of seamen would have
nothing to do. with life-buoys, declaring that they would rather go down, and
have done with it, than hang in the jaws of death for a few hours—with
the certainty of drowning, after all, becoming more apparent as the treacherous
support gradually soddened, and sank under their weight.
There, just read that quietly. It is no case for tall language. The simple
words are pretty nearly enough, don’t you think ? You have taken in the
fact. The men struggling in the waters—thinking of firesides and children—
and feeling the article from a Jew’s slop-shop giving way under their cold
hands ! Let us go on, then.
Mr. Greenwood, naturally, did not care to receive this story without
inquiry. He is no Gusher, eager to gush before a tale can be contradicted;
i
�4
SCOUNDRELISM BY THE SEA,
on the contrary, a hard-headed, practical gentleman. He went to Shadwell,
and found a belt and buoy maker. The man was frank enough :—
He informed me that the buoys which are all stamped “ warranted cork
wood,” are nothing of the kind—“not one in a dozen.” “You could’nt do
it for the money,” said my informant; “ the Jews that such as we work for,
won’t give more than 3/6 and 4/- each for ’em, and how much cork can you
afford to stuff in ’em for that, I’d like to know
He appeared
to think that it did not matter what the canvas covers were stuffed with, so
long as they were well sewn and painted. I further inquired as to where the
precious goods of his manufacture might be bought, and he replied shortly—
“Anywhere.” And it seemed that this was perfectly true.
He told Mr. Greenwood what was put into the articles—rushes, shavings.
But this will be shown better in Mr. Greenwood’s own account:—
The neighbourhoods of Shadwell, Ratcliffe, and Poplar were visited; and
at each place, at a seaman’s slop-shop, a “ good life-buoyj” was inquired for,
and bought. One was branded “warranted corkwood,” one “all cork,” and
the third simply bore the word “warranted.” They ranged in price from 6/to 7/6. They were all three carried home, and dissected, with the following
results :—
No. 1 (“warranted corkwood”), when its flimsy yellow skin was slit, was
discovered to consist bodily ef straw, sparely covered with cork shavings for
the satisfaction, it is presumed, of any cautious mariner who might feel dis
posed to risk a little slit in his purchase, so as to make sure of its quality
before he paid for it.
No. 2 (“warranted”) was stuffed with rushes.
No. 3 (“all cork”) cork chips and rushes, about 20 per cent, of the
former, and 80 of the latter.
To test the buoyant capability of the three detected impostors, they were
placed in water, a weight of ten pounds being attached to each. This was
the result :—
“Warranted corkwood” sank in an hour.
“Warranted” stood the test for nearly two hours, and then succumbed.
“All cork” floated for four hours, and their sank from view.
We really do not see that we can do better than leave the case as thus
succintly stated. We thought that no form of rascality could surprise us
much ; but this revelation has more nearly produced astonishment than any
atrocity of which we have read for years. Yet, why be astonished ? For
“ bithnetli is bithneth,” as the Jew slop-keeper would say ; and “business is
business,” as his Christian rival would remark. But—would it not be
pleasant to fling a gang of the vendors of these accursed things into the sea
olf Brighton on a blowy day, and pitch them a choice assortment of their
own buoys and belts to save them ? We doubt whether a purer pleasure
could be suggested to us, unless we could hand them to the unfriendly Maories
about dinner-time. We may not have either happiness; but we may call
upon all our contemporaries to do their best to spread the knowledge that
such are among the devilish tricks of trade ; and we may among us save a
good many poor fellows from the deep. Can’t the Sailors’ Home, among
other channels, publish the facts ? And if Jack inquires into the matter,
and, breaking open a buoy at a slop-shop, finds straw or shavings, we hope
that he will not be so hard as to pull the Jew’s nose off—that is, not quite off.
�DEADLY LIFE-BUOYS.
consist almost entirely of straw, overlaid with just a sufficient quantity of
cork-cuttings to deceive a purchaser so cautious as to examine into its
quality. The “warranted” belt was stuffed wholly with rushes. The third
sample of these scoundrelly commodities, marked “all cork,” contained
about 20 per cent, of cork chips ; the rest was rushes. The belts were then
re-closed, and their floating capacity tried by placing them in water, with a
weight of ten pounds attached to each. Let the public note that ten pounds
Was an exceedingly moderate test for articles sold as capable of supporting
a man’s body in the sea ! But what was the result? The best, “warranted
corkwood,” sank to the bottom in the space of an hour; the “warranted”
life-preserver floated two hours; and the “all cork” villany kept itself up for
four hours, and then disappeared. It is needless to observe that, if these
three false and vile specimens had been in actual use, not one of them would
have sustained a shipwrecked seaman or passenger for a moment longer than
the time necessary to saturate with sea-water the belt and the clothes of the
poor betrayed wretches.
And these were three “life-belts” bought at hazard from the shops in
the chief streets of London—bought and sold as “good life-buoys,” and
branded, in plain letters, with the audacious lie that they were, good ! The
heart sickens as we learn what man will plot against his fellow-man for the
mke of a wretched and dishonest profit ! It is bad enough to sand sugar, to
mix horse-beans with coffee, to put alum in bread, quassia in beer, and grains
of Paradise in gin. It is shamefully wicked to defraud the poor, day by day,
and ounce after ounce, with cheating scales and weights. Yet we understand
how the coarse conscience may become indurated by the constant practice of
petty baseness; for the evil is indirect, the mischief is not forcibly present to
the guilty thought. That a human being, however, well aware what a vile
and cruel sham he is constructing, should sit down to fill a “life-buoy” with
deceitful rubbish, that he should go with his painted murder to the slop-shop,
that it should be then and there taken of him at a price which denounces it for
a manufactured lie, and should in turn be sold to the unwary customer as a
means of saving life in time of need, when the shopman knows that in time
of need it will miserably sink the buyer—all this appears to be well nigh the
most cold, awful, and horrible demonstration of unpunished homicide which
we ever encountered. Yes—homicide ! since hundreds of wretched creatures
must have perished by reason of these mendacious goods. Many and many a
poor soul, cajoled into purchasing one of the yellow shams, has trusted his
life, to it; and at that moment only, when no human justice could help him, he
has found that his life had been bought and sold for the paltry shilling or two
which would have made the belt genuine and serviceable. Merciful and just
Heaven ! who can realise the bitter agony of a human being so betrayed ?
�4
DEADLY LIFE-BUOYS.
At the moment, perhaps, when he is on the very point of rescue—-when ,1
little longer buffeting in the waves will give the boat’s crew time to reach
him, or will let him wash on shore alive and safe, though bruised—he feels the
accursed thing to which he trusted become a trap of death. The wicked,
lying fraud sags and sinks under his arms, and he goes to his fate a murdered
man. And there are artizans and traders here among tis who know that such
scenes have been, may be, and will be, and who yet go on fabricating these
painted villanies, or hanging their “warranted” life-destroyers at their
doors, ready to sell them with a smirk and a flourish to the first poor
emigrant—simple soul, taking it for granted that, in such a matter, no man
with a man’s heart would hold the life of his neighbour as nought for the sake
of half-a-crown or three shillings. In some countries, a cross is hung over
the lintel to keep evil things away : with us, people are not afraid to swing a
mock “life-belt” over their thresholds—a token that only the triumph of
evil designs is desired by the heartless shopkeeper. We can almost fancy
those treacherous doors haunted by the ghosts of poor creatures betrayed in
their last hope—angry and awful spectres, banning the wicked places where
death was sold to them under the name of rescue. Let those who inspect
and punish the villanies of trade look into this matter quickly; for it is a
civil curse—a national malediction—that the lives of men should be brutally
endangered, and contingent murder practised, for a gain of thirty pence.
(From the Newcastle Chronicle.')
JAMES GREENWOOD has done a most valuable service to the
maritime community, by exposing the iniquitous conduct of certain
east-end-of-London manufacturers, in the production of an article
they call a life-buoy. Many of these buoys, instead of being filled with cork,
are stuffed with rushes, hay, and such like rubbish, which, of course, will
only hasten the end of the poor drowning man who may lay hold of one of
them. We believe Mr. Greenwood is indebted to Mr. Dixon, of Sunderland,
for having called his attention to the iniquity. This species of manufacture
is free-trade with a vengeance ; but the pirate and freebooter are gentlemen
beside the rascals who make a living by this diabolical fraud. We hope that
the attention of Parliament will be called to it immediately, and that some
stringent test will be applied to the manufacture of life-buoys. Lynch law
is quite good enough for the people who engage in such an infamous trade ;
and it could not be much regretted if a party of indignant sailors were to
lay hands upon those east-end tradesmen and “manufacturers,” and throw
them into the Thames, -with their fraudulent life-buoys fastened about them,
so that they might become the victims of their own villany.
�
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Victorian Blogging
Description
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Title
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Deadly life-buoys; Straws for drowning men; Scoundrelism by the sea
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Greenwood, James
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [s.l.]
Collation: [8 p.] ; 18 cm.
Notes: 3 articles. Deadly Life-Buoys reprinted from the Daily Telegraph; Straws for Drowning Men, reprinted from the Morning Star; Scoundrelism by the Sea reprinted from Punch. Response to Greenwood's articles from the Newcastle Chronicle. Concerning James Greenwood's investigations into deceptively manufactured life buoys. Pagination of Deadly Life-Buoys and Scoundrelism by the Sea bound in wrong order. Tentative date of publication from KVK. From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
Publisher
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[s.n.]
Date
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[1869?]
Identifier
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G5382
Subject
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Health
Rights
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Deadly life-buoys; Straws for drowning men; Scoundrelism by the sea), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Conway Tracts
Health and Safety
Lifebuoys
-
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Text
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SCIENCE*^
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NINEPENCE.
JOHN HEYWOOD. MANCHESTER
&
�JOHN HEYWOOD'S EDUCATIONAL WORKS.
ATLASES AND MAPS.
John Heywood’s Two Shilling National Atlas. 32 Maps. Crown 4to, Full Coloured,
cloth lettered.
Western Hemisphere
Eastern Hemisphere
Europe
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(Physical)
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’
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and the Tyrol
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Outlines of the above, with Lines of Latitude and Longitude, Is.
“ We have seen many remarkably cheap publications, but nothing that can bo compared
in any way with these maps. * * * It may be useful to know that any map can be had
separate for a halfpenny; and, as there is a map of every important country in the world, an
opportunity is afforded to all of acquiring geographical knowledge by an infinitely small
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'
A very nice, cheap work, containing thirty-two maps, in thick cover paper. How it
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lhe paper is good and fine, and the engraving excellent.”—Preston Herald.
. Lord Shaftesbury is much obliged to Mr. Heywood for a copy of his volume of maps.
It is marvellous that Mr. Heywood should have been able to have produced so elaborate a
work at so low a price.”—October 5, 1867.
“ The maps are clear, the printing distinct, and altogether the Atlas is worthy of most
extensive patronage.”— Warrington Guardian, October 5, 1867.
* * * "It ig, without exception, the cheapest Atlas in this or any other country ”—
Bookseller, October 1, 1867.
“Itisagem.”—Weekly Budget, October 1,1867.
"The collection is a marvel of cheapness, and the execution is highly creditable.”— The
Freeman, October 18, 1867.
Pupils’ Blank Mapping Book. Post 4to, 16 leaves, Nonpariel covers, 6d. each.
These books have a neat map border printed on each leaf, leaving the entire construction
of the map to the Pupil’s skill
John Hfno+nwi ’s New School Atlas. T—Royal 4to,—full coloured; 12 Maps. Sewed, 6d.
Heywood
1—— BL —-2
1
A-fpiCft
Western Hemisphere
Eastern Hemisphere
Europe
England and Wales
British Isles, Physical
Scotland
North America
Ireland
South America
Asia
Australia
" Mr. John Heywood, of Manchester, has published a new School Atlas, which is a marvel
of cheapness and excellence.”—Manchester Ei 'ning News, Oct. 8, 1872.
“ The. e are. very cheap and excellent vorks, up to the present state of modern
geographic, 1 science, and well coloured.’’ — Even, ig Standard, Oct 16, 1872.
* * * " For these maps, which are corrected up to the present time, we predict there
will be a great demand, owing to their marvellous cheapness and general excellence.”—Salford
Weekly News, Oct. 5, 1872.
John Heywood’s School Atlas. 11 Maps. Royal 4to. Plain, Is.
Western Hemisphere
Scotland
North America
Eastern Hemisphere
Ireland
South America
Europe
Asia
Australia
England and Wales
Africa
John Heywood’s School Atlas. Il Maps. Royal 4to, in cloth, Coloured, 2s.
Western Hemisphere
Scotland
North America
Ireland
Eastern Hemisphere
South America
Europe
Asia
Australia
Africa
England and Wales
�NATIONAL SECULAR SOCIETY
JOHN HEYWOOD'S EDUCATIONAL WORKS.
ATLASES AND MAPS.
John Heywood’s Physical Atlas. 12 Maps. Crown 4to, Plain, sewed, 6d.
World :
World :
World:
World:
World:
World:
World:
<
!
World : Races of Man
Europe : Mountains and Rivers and
Varieties of Mankind
•
England and Wales: Mountains and
Rivers
Ireland : Mountains and Rivers
Scotland : Mountains and Rivers
John Heywood’s Physical Atlas. 12 Maps. Crown 4to, Coloured, Is.
World : Races of Man
World : Mountains
World : Hydrography
Europe : Mountains and Rivers and
Varieties of Mankind
World : Meteorology
World : Wind
England and Wales: Mountains and
Rivers
World : Rain
Ireland : Mountains and Rivers
World : Botany
Scotland : Mountains and Rivers
World : Zoology
Mountains
Hydrography
Meteorology
Wind
Rain
Botany
Zoology
Travellers, tourists, and all persons whose business requires a minute acquaintance
with various parts of our country, will find in a handy form just what they want in John
Heywood’s County Atlas of England and Wales, in the numerous maps of which are
marked, not only the cities and towns, with the various routes by rail and coach, but even the
parks and country seats of the opulent. The New Maps of the Counties of England and
Wales, prepared from the Ordnance Survey, comprise a great variety of useful detail, and,
if hung on the walls of a schoolroom, will materially assist pupils, who hy the New Code
are required to show special knowledge of their own county, and off-hand to draw a map
of it. Small maps, taken from the County Atlas, may also be had separately to suit the
locality of the school, for the same purpose.
John Heywood’s County Atlas of England and Wales; with all the Railways and
Coach Roads, Cities, Towns, Parks, and Gentlemen’s Seats. Crown 4to, Is.
Oxfordshire
Gloucestershire
England (4 sheets)
Rutlandshire
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North Wales
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South Wales
Somersetshire
Hertfordshire
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Surrey
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Sussex
Leicestershire
Cheshire
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Lincolnshire
Cornwall
Westmorland
Middlesex
Cumberland
Wiltshire
Monmouthshire
Derbyshire
Worcestershire
Norfolk
Devonshire
N orthamptonshire
Yorkshire—East Riding
Dorsetshire
„
West Riding
Northumberland
Durham
„
North Riding
Nottinghamshire
Essex
“Heywood’s Shilling County Atlas of England and Wales is the cheapest work of the
kind out. It is admirably aj ipted for educational purposes, '-nd must prove useful totravellers, correspondents, and t, irists.”—Leicester Journal.
John Heywood’s New Maps if the Counties of England and Wales, from the
Ordnance Survey. Fully Coloured. Showing all the Mountains, Hills, Rivers, Roads,
Railways, Cities, Towns, Parishes, &c. Specially prepared for Standard V. of Geography
under the New Code, which requires “some special knowledge of the County in which
the School is situated, and a map drawing of it.” Mounted on cloth, rollers, and varnished.
LANCASHIRE: Size, 53in. by 36in. 10s.
“ Here is a map (Lancashire) we strongly recommend the Lancashire teachers to induce
their managers to place in their schools. It is exceedingly clear and well engraved: and, as
far as we can see, every important village is marked upon it.”—National Schoolmaster.
YORKSHIRE: Size, 36in. by 53in. 10s.
“We have rarely seen a more beautiful map, and we can also recommend it for its
accuracy. No Yorkshireman should be without it. The Hundreds are shown, the heights
of the most noteworthy hills are given, and the route by rail or road from town to town can
be traced. The villages are fully marked, and yet the map, from its size and the care
bestowed upon it, does not appear to be crowded with names, and the physical characteristics
of mountains and rivers are clearly distinct to the eye.”—Educational Reporter.
�JOHN HEYWOOD’S EDUCATIONAL WOEK&
ATLASES AND MAPS.
John Heywood s New Chart of the World, on Gall’s Projection. This projection i*i39C
the only one which embraces the whole world from pole to pole in one map The politiafkcq *
divisions and principal features of land and sea are clearly exhibited and brou-h? out X
Shown
°Ui pn^tln&- P1? ocean currents, chief steam-boat routes, &c° are aMt’J«
shown. Full coloured, mounted, varnished, and on rollers. Size 36 x 28. Price 7s. 6d. M0-8'
Heywoods Map Of Lancashire, &C. Containing a portion of the SouthernwWl
fromSfi°fteeLLtontwente’ W-Ith a pa7 xr DeFbyshire and Cheshire, and including the towrJ
'
1 n to awenty miles round Manchester Scale If to the mile. In Four Separat Cc
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r
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No. 3—Warrington, Newton, Leigh, Lymm, Flixton.
’ JnlaaleronNo. 4.—Bolton, Wigan, Tyldesley, Adlington.
The County Of Lancaster Bewitched. Being Three Comic Mans of the Conntv Palo+ina
j»ol<
No. 1.—OLD MOTHER HUBBARD
No. 2.—LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD.
_____________________ No. 3,—THE LANCASHIRE LASS,
BOOK-KEEPING.
c,bClhi vrOn 7^ have neither the prospect ncr tbe dcsire of spending their days among
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“ay, in various ways, be benefited by some knowledge of the Art of
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£StoS.w«D?dn“' Entn’ ma<” EaS?: "• HeIt« *«
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�SCIENCE LECTURES FOR THE PEOPLE.
THIRD
SERIES.—1871.
SCIENCE LECTURES,
DELIVERED IN THE
HULME TOWN
HALL,
MANCHESTER.
IN THE YEAR 1871.
By
Lecture I.
YEAST.
Professor HUXLEY, LL.D., F.R.S.
Lecture II.
COAL COLOURS.
By Professor ROSCOE, F.R.S.
Lecture III.
THE ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE.
By Professor WILKINS, M.A.
Lecture IV.
THE FOOD OF PLANTS.
By Professor ODLING, F.R.S.
Lecture V.
THE UNCONSCIOUS ACTION OF THE BRAIN.
By Dr. CARPENTER, F.R.S.
Lecture VI.
EPIDEMIC DELUSIONS.
By Dr. CARPENTER, F.R.S.
Lecture VII.
THE PROGRESS OF SANITARY SCIENCE.
By Professor ROSCOE, F.R.S.
MANCHESTER :
JOHN HEYWOOD, 141 and 143', DEANSGATE.
LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & CO., Stationers’ Hall Court.
F. PITMAN. Paternoster Row.
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�INDEX
Page.
Yeast.......................................................
x
Coal Colours................................................ ...............................................
Origin
of the
English People.............................................................
Food of Plants..........................
...............................
Unconscious Action
of the
Epidemic Delusions..................
.......................... *.............................................
Progress
of
49
.Brain....................................................
95
Sanitary Science...................................................... J20
��ON
YEAST
A LECTURE
BY
PROFESSOR
HUXLEY,
LL.D.,
F.R.S.
Delivered in the Free Trade Hah,, Manchester, 3rd November, 1871.
I have selected to-night the particular subject of Yeast for two
reasons—or, rather, I should say for three. In the first place,
because it is one of the simplest and the most familiar objects with
which we are acquainted. In the second place, because the facts
and phenomena which I have to describe are so simple that it is
possible to put them before you without the help of any of those
pictures or diagrams which are needed when matters are more
complicated, and which, if I had to refer to them here, would
involve the necessity of my turning away from you now and then,
and thereby increasing very largely my difficulty (already sufficiently
great) in making myself heard. And thirdly, I have chosen this
subject because I know of no familiar substance forming part of
our every day knowledge and experience, the examination of
which, with a little care, tends to open up such very considerable
issues as does this substance—yeast.
In the first place, I should like to call your attention to a
fact with which the whole of you are, to begin with, perfectly
acquainted, I mean the fact that any liquid containing sugar, any
liquid which is formed by pressing out the succulent parts of the
fruits of plants, or a mixture of honey and water, if left of itself foj
a short time, begins to undergo a peculiar change. No matter how
clear it might be at starting, yet after a few hours, or at most a few
days, if the temperature is high, this liquid begins to be turbid,
�and by-and-by bubbles make their appearance in it, and a sort of
dirty-looking yellowish foam or scum collects at the surface ; while
at the same time, by degrees, a similar kind of matter, which we
call the “ lees,” sinks to the bottom.
The quantity of this dirty-looking stuff, that we call the scum
and the lees, goes on increasing until it reaches a certain amount,
and then it stops; and by the time it stops, you find the liquid in
which this matter has been formed has become altered in its quality.
To begin with it was a mere sweetish substance, having the flavour
of whatever might be the plant from which it was expressed, or
having merely the taste and the absence of smell of a solution of
sugar; but by the time that this change that I have been briefly
describing to you is accomplished the liquid has become com
pletely altered, it has acquired a peculiar smell, and, what is still
more remarkable, it has gained the property of intoxicating the
person who drinks it Nothing can be more innocent than a
solution of sugar; nothing can be less innocent, if taken in excess,
as you all know, than those fermented matters which are produced
from sugar. Well, again, if you notice that bubbling, or, as it
were, seething of the liquid, which has accompanied the whole of
this process, you will find that it is produced by the evolution of
little bubbles of air-like substance out of the liquid; and I dare
say you all know this air-like substance is not like common air; it
is not a substance which a man can breathe with impunity. You
often hear of accidents which take place in brewers’ vats when
men go in carelessly, and get suffocated there without knowing
that there was anything evil awaiting them. And if you tried the
experiment with this liquid I am telling of while it was fermenting,
you would find that any small animal let down into the vessel
would be similarly stifled; and you would discover that a light
lowered down into it would go out. Well, then, lastly, if after this
liquid has been thus altered you expose it to that process which
is called distillation; that is to say, if you put it into a still, and
collect the matters which are sent over, you obtain, when you
first heat it, a clear transparent liquid, which, however, is some
thing totally different from water; it is much lighter; it has a
strong smell, and it has an acrid taste ; and it possesses the same
intoxicating power as the original liquid, but in a much more
intense degree. If you put a light to it, it burns with a bright
flame, and it is that substance which we know as spirits of wine.
Now these facts which I have just put before you—all but the
last—have been known from extremely remote antiquity. It is, I
hope, one of the best evidences of the antiquity of the human
�race, that among the earliest records of all kinds of men, you find
a time recorded when they got drunk. We may hope that that
must have been a very late period in their history. Not only
have we the record of what happened to Noah, but if we turn to
the traditions of a different people, those forefathers of ours who
lived in the high lands of Northern India, we find that they were
not less addicted to intoxicating liquids ; and I have no doubt
that the knowledge of this process extends far beyond the limits
of historically recorded time. And it is a very curious thing to
observe that al) the names we have of this process, and all that
belongs to it, are names that have their roots not in our present
language, but in those older languages which go back to the times
at which this country was peopled. That word “fermentation” for
example, which is the title we apply to the whole process, is a
Latin term ; and a term which is evidently based upon the fact of
the effervescence of the liquid. Then the French, who are very
fond of calling themselves a Latin race, have a particular word for
ferment, which is leviire.' And, in the same way, we have the word
“ leaven,” those two words having reference to the heaving up, or
to the raising of the substance which is fermented. Now those are
words which we get from what I may call the Latin side of our
parentage ; but if we turn to the Saxon side, there are a number
of names connected with this process of fermentation. For
example, the Germans call fermentation—and the old Germans
did so—“giihren;" and they call anything which is used as a
ferment by such names, such as “gheist” and “geest” and finally
in low German, “yest ■” and that word you know is the word
our Saxon forefathers used, and is almost the same as the word
which is commonly employed in this country to denote the common
ferment of which I have been speaking. So theyhave another name,
the word “hefe" which is derived from their verb “heben” which
signifies to raise up ; and they have yet a third name, which is also
one common in this country (I do not know whether it is common
in Lancashire, but it is certainly very common in the Midland
counties), the word “barm” which is derived from a root which
signifies to raise or to bear up. Barm is a something borne up; and
thus there is much more real relation than is commonly supposed
by those who make puns, between the beer which a man takes
down his throat and the bier upon which that process, if carried
to excess, generally lands him, for they are both derived from the
root signifying bearing up; the one thing is borne upon men’s
shoulders, and the other is the fermented liquid which was borne
up bv the fermentation taking place in itself.
�4
Again, I spoke of the produce of fermentation as “spirit
of wine.” Now what a very curious phrase that is, if you
come to think of it. The old alchemists talked of the finest
essence of anything as if it had the same sort of relation to the
thing itself as a man’s spirit is supposed to have to his body; and
so they spoke of this fine essence of the fermented liquid as being
the spirit of the liquid.
Thus came about that extraordinary
ambiguity of language, in virtue of which you apply precisely the
same substantive name to the soul of man and to a glass of gin!
And then there is still yet one other most curious piece of nomen
clature connected with this matter, and that is the word “ alcohol ”
itself, which is now so familiar to everybody. Alcohol originally
meant a very fine powder. The women of the Arabs and other
Eastern people are in the habit of tinging their eyelashes
with a very fine black powder which is made of antimony,
and they call that “kohol;” and the “al” is simply the article put
in front of it, so as to say “ the kohol.”. And up to the 17th
century in this country the word alcohol was employed to signify
any very fine powder; you find in Robert Boyle’s works that he
uses “alcohol” for a very fine subtle powder. But then this
name of anything very fine and very subtle came to be specially
connected with the fine and subtle spirit obtained from the
fermentation of sugar; and I believe that the first person who
fairly fixed it as the proper name of what we now commonly call
spirits of wine, was the great French chemist Lavoisier, so com
paratively recent is the use of the word alcohol in this specialised
sense.
So much by way of general introduction to the subject on which
I have to speak to-night. What I have hitherto stated is simply
what we may call common knowledge, which everybody may
acquaint himself with. And you know that what we call scientific
knowledge is not any kind of conjuration, as people sometimes
suppose, but it is simply the application of the same principles of
common sense that we apply to common knowledge, carried out,
if I may so speak, to knowledge which is uncommon. And all
that we know now of this substance, yeast, and all the very strange
issues to which that knowledge has led us, have simply come out of
the inveterate habit, and a very fortunate habit for the human race
it is, which scientific men have of not being content until they
have routed out all the different chains and connections of
apparently simple phenomena, until they have taken them to
pieces and understood the conditions upon which they depend.
I will try to point out to you now what has happened in conse
�5
quence of endeavouring to apply this process of “analysis,” as we
call it, this teazing out of an apparently simple fact into all the
little facts of which it is made up, to the ascertained facts relating to
the barm or the yeast; secondly, what has come of the attempt to
ascertain distinctly what is the nature of the products which are
produced by fermentation; then what has come of the attempt
to understand the relation between the yeast and the products ;
and lastly, what very curious side issues—if I may so call them—
have branched out in the course of this inquiry, which has now
occupied somewhere about two centuries.
The first thing was to make out precisely and clearly what was
the nature of this substance, this apparently mere scum and mud
that we call yeast. And that was first commenced seriously l?y a
wonderful old Dutchman of the name of Leeuwenhoek, who lived
some two hundred years ago, and who was the first person to
invent thoroughly trustworthy microscopes of high powers. Now,
Leeuwenhoek went to work upon this yeast mud, and by applying
to it high powers of the microscope, he discovered that it was no
mere mud such as you might at first suppose, but that it was a
substance made up of an enormous multitude of minute grains,
each of which had just as definite a form as if it were a grain ol
corn, although it was vastly smaller, the largest of these not
being more than the two-thousandth of an inch in diameter ; while,
as you know, a grain of corn is a large thing, and the very smallest
of these particles were not more than the seven-thousandth of an
inch in diameter. Leeuwenhoek saw that this muddy stuff was in
reality a liquid, in which there were floating this immense numbei
of definitely shaped particles, all aggregated in heaps and lumps
and some of them separate. That discovery remained, so to speak,
dormant for fully a century, and then the question was taken up
by a French discoverer, who, paying great attention and having the
advantage of better instruments than Leeuwenhoek had, watched
these things and made the astounding discovery that they were
bodies which were constantly being reproduced and growing; that
when one of these rounded bodies was once formed and had grown
to its full size, it immediately began to give off a little bud from one
side, and then that bud grew out until it had attained the full size of
the first, and that, in this way, the yeast particle was undergoing a
processof multiplication by budding, justas effectual and just as com
plete as the process of multiplication of a plant by budding; and
thus this Frenchman, Cagniard de la Tour, arrived at the conclusion—
very creditable to his sagacity, and which has been confirmed by
every observation and reasoning since—that this apparently muddy
�6
refuse was neither more nor less than a mass of plants, of minute^
living plants, growing and multiplying in the sugary fluid in which
the yeast is formed. And from that time forth we have known this,
substance which forms the scum and the lees as the yeast plant;
and it has received a scientific name—which I may use without
thinking of it, and which I will therefore give you—namely,
“ Torula.” Well, this was a capital discovery. The next thing
to do was to make out how this torula was related to other
plants. I won’t weary you with the whole course of investi
gation, but I may sum up its results, and they are these—that
the torula is a particular kind of a fungus, a particular state
rather, of a fungus or mould. There are many moulds which
undqr certain conditions give rise to this torula condition, to a
substance which is not distinguishable from yeast, and which has
the same properties as yeast—that is to say, which is able to
decompose sugar in the curious way that we shall consider by-andby. So that the yeast plant is a plant belonging to a group of the
Fungi, multiplying and growing and living in this very remarkable
manner in the sugary fluid which is, so to speak, the nidus or home
of the yeast.
That, in a few words, is, as far as investigation—by the help of
one’s eye and by the help of the microscope—has taken us. But
now there is an observer whose methods of observation are more
refined than those of men who use their eye, even though it be
aided by the microscope; a man who sees indirectly further than
we can see directly—that is, the chemist; and the chemist took up
this question, and his discovery was not less remarkable than that
of the microscopist. The chemist discovered that the yeast plant
being composed of a sort of bag, like a bladder, inside which is a
peculiar soft, semifluid material—the chemist found that this outer
bladder has the same composition as the substance of wood, that
material which is called “cellulose,” and which consists of the
elements carbon and hydrogen and oxygen, without any nitrogen.
But then he also found (the first person to discover it was an
Italian chemist, named Fabroni, in the end of the last century)
that this inner matter which was contained in the bag, which
constitutes the yeast plant, was a substance containing the elements
carbon and hydrogen and oxygen and nitrogen ; that it was what
Fabroni called a vegeto-animal substance, and that it had the
peculiarities of what are commonly called “ animal products.”
This again was an exceedingly remarkable discovery. It lay
neglected for a time, until it was subsequently taken up by the
creat chemists of modem times, and they, with their delicate
�7
methods of analysis, have finally decided that, in all essential
respects, the substance which forms the chief part of the contents
of the yeast plant is identical with the material which forms the
chief part of our own muscles, which forms the chief part of our
own blood, which forms the chief part of the white ox the egg;
that, in fact, although this little organism is a plant, and nothing
but a plant, yet that its active living contents contain a substance
which is called “ protein,” which is of the same nature as the
substance which forms the foundation of every animal organism
whatever.
Now we come next to the question of the analysis of the
products, of that which is produced during the process of fermen
tation. So far back as the beginning of the 16th century, in the
times of transition between the old alchemy and the modern
chemistry, there was a remarkable man, Von Helmont, a Dutchman,
who saw the difference between the air which comes out of a vat
where something is fermenting and common air. He was the
man who invented the term -‘gas,” and he called this kind
of gas “gas silvestre”—so to speak gas that is wild, and lives
in out of the way places—having in his mind the identity of this
particular kind of air with that which is found in some caves and
cellars. Then, the gradual process of investigation going on, it
was discovered that this substance, then called “ fixed air,” was
a poisonous gas, and it was finally identified with that’ kind of
gas which is obtained by burning charcoal in the air, which is
called “ carbonic acid.” Then the substance alcohol was subjected
to examination, and it was found to be a combination of carbon,
and hydrogen, and oxygen. Then the sugar which was contained
in the fermenting liquid was examined, and that was found to contain
the three elements carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. So that it was
clear there were in sugar the fundamental elements which are con
tained in the carbonic acid, and in the alcohol. And then came that
great chemist Lavoisier, and he examined into the subject carefully,
and possessed with that brilliant thought of his which happens to
be propounded exactly apropos to this matter of fermentation—•
that no matter is ever lost, but that matter only changes its
form and changes its combinations—he endeavoured to make
out what became of the sugar which was subjected to fermen
tation. He thought he discovered that the whole weight of
the sugar was represented by the weight of the alcohol pro
duced, added to the weight of the carbonic acid produced; that
in other words, supposing this tumbler to represent the sugar,
that the action of fermentation was as it were the splitting of it,
�8
the one half going away in the shape of carbonic acid, and the other
half going away in the shape of alcohol. Subsequent inquiry,
careful research with the refinements of modern chemistry, have
been applied to this problem, and they have shown that Lavoisier
was not quite correct; that what he says is quite true for about 95
per cent of the sugar, but that the other 5 per cent, or nearly so, is
converted into two other things; one of them, matter which is
called succinic acid, and the other matter which is called glycerine,
which you all know now as one of the commonest of household
matters. It may be that we have not got to the end of this refined
analysis yet, but 'at any rate, I suppose I may say—and I speak
with some little hesitation for fear my friend Professor Roscoe
here may pick me up for trespassing upon his province—but I
believe I may say that now we can account for 99 per cent at least
of the sugar, and that that 99 per cent is split up into these four
things, carbonic acid, alcohol, succinic acid, and glycerine. So
that it may be that none of the sugar whatever disappears, and
that only its parts, so to speak, are re-arranged, and if any of it
disappears, certainly it is a very small portion.
Now these are the facts of the case. There is the fact of the
growth of the yeast plant; and there is the fact of the splitting up
of the sugar. What relation have these two facts to one another ?
For a very long time that was a great matter of dispute. The
early French observers, to do them justice, discerned the real state
of the case, namely, that there was a very close connection
between the actual life of the yeast plant and this operation of the
splitting up of the sugar; and that one was in some way or other
connected with the other. All investigation subsequently has con
firmed this original idea. It has been shown that if you take any
measures by which other plants of like kind to the torula
would be killed, and by which the yeast plant is killed, then
the yeast loses its efficiency. But a capital experiment upon
this subject was made by a very distinguished man, Helmholz,
who performed an experiment of this kind. He had two
vessels—one of them we will suppose full of yeast, but over
the bottom of it, as this might be, was tied a thin film of bladder;
consequently, through that thin film of bladder all the liquid
parts of the yeast would go, but the solid parts would be
stopped behind ; the torula would be stopped, the liquid parts of
the yeast would go. And then he took another vessel containing
a fermentable solution of sugar, and he put one inside the other;
and in this way you see the fluid parts of the yeast were able to
pass through with the utmost ease into the sugar, but the solid
�1
9
parts could not get through at all. And he judged thus : if the
fluid parts are those which excite fermentation, then, inasmuch as
these are stopped, the sugar will not ferment; and the sugar did
not ferment, showing quite clearly that an immediate contact with
the solid, living torula was absolutely necessary to excite this
process of splitting up of the sugar. This experiment was quite
conclusive as to this particular point, and has had very great
fruits in other directions.
Well, then, the yea.st plant being essential to the production of
fermentation, where does the yeast plant come from ? Here,
again, was another great problem opened up, for, as I said at
starting, you have, under ordinary circumstances in warm weather,
merely to expose some fluid containing a solution of sugar, or
any form of syrup or vegetable juice to the air, in order, after a
comparatively short time, to see all these phenomena of fermen
tation. Of course the first obvious suggestion is, that the torula
has been generated within the fluid. In fact, it seems at first
quite absurd to entertain any other conviction; but that belief
would most assuredly be an erroneous one.
Towards the beginning of this century, in the vigorous times of
the old French wars, there was a Monsieur Appert, who had his
attention directed to the preservation of things that ordinarily
perish, such as meats and vegetables, and in fact he laid the
foundation of our modern method of preserving meats; and he
found that if he boiled any of these substances and then tied them so
as to exclude the air, that they would be preserved for any time.
He tried these experiments, particularly with the must of wine and
with the wort of beer; and he found that if the wort of beer had
been carefully boiled and was stopped in such a way that the air
could not get at it, it would never ferment. What was the
reason of this? That, again, became the subject of a long
string of experiments, with this ultimate result, that if you take
precautions to prevent any solid matters from getting into the
must of wine or the wort of beer, under these circumstances—that
is to say, if the fluid has been boiled and placed in a bottle, and
if you stuff the neck of the bottle full of cotton wool, which
allows the air to go through, and stops anything of a solid
character however fine, then you may let it be for ten years and it
will not ferment. But if you take that plug out and give the
air free access, then, sooner or later, fermentation will set up.
And there is no doubt whatever that fermentation is excited
only by the presence of some torula or other, and that
that torula proceeds, in our present experience, from pre-existing
�IO
torulae. These little bodies are excessively light. You can easily
imagine what must be the weight of little particles, but slightly
heavier than water, and not more than the two thousandth or
perhaps seven thousandth of an inch in diameter. They
are capable of floating about and dancing like motes in the
sunbeam ; they are carried about by all sorts of currents of air;
the great majority of them perish ; but one or two, which may
chance to enter into a sugary solution, immediately enter into
active life, find there the conditions of their nourishment, increase
and multiply, and may give rise to any quantity whatever of
this substance yeast. And, whatever may be true or not be true
about this “ spontaneous generation,” as it is called, in regard to
all other kinds of living things, it is perfectly certain, as regards
yeast, that it always owes its origin to this process of transporta
tion or inoculation, if you like so to call it, from some other , living
yeast organism ; and so far as yeast is concerned, the doctrine of
spontaneous generation is absolutely out of court. And not only
so, but the yeast must be alive in order to exert these peculiar
properties. If it be crushed, if it be heated so far that its life is
destroyed, that peculiar power of fermentation is not excited. Thus
we have come to this conclusion, as the result of our inquiry, that
the fermentation of sugar, the splitting of the sugar into alcohol and
carbonic acid, glycerine, and succinic acid, is the result of nothing
but the vital activity of this little fungus, the torula.
And now comes the further exceedingly difficult inquiry—how
is it that this plant, the torula, produces this singular operation ol
the splitting up of the sugar? Fabroni, to whom I referred some
time ago, imagined that the effervescence of fermentation was
produced in just the same way as the effervescence of a seidlitz
powder, that the yeast was a kind of acid, and that the sugar was
a combination of carbonic acid and some base to form the alcohol,
and that the yeast combined with this substance, and set free the
carbonic acid; just as when you add carbonate of soda to acid you
turn out the carbonic acid. But of course the discovery of
Lavoisier that the carbonic acid and the alcohol taken together
are very nearly equal in weight to the sugar, completely upset this
hypothesis. Another view was therefore taken by the French
chemist, Thenard, and it is still held by a very eminent chemist, .
M. Pasteur, and their view is this, that the yeast, so to speak, eats a
little of the sugar, turns a little cf it to its own purposes, and by
so doing gives such a shape to the sugar that the rest of it breaks
up into carbonic acid and alcohol.
Well, then, there is a third hypothesis, which is maintained by
�II
another very distinguished chemist, Liebig, which denies either
of the other two, and which declares that the .particles of
the sugar are, as it were, shaken asunder by the forces at work
in the yeast plant. Now I am not going to take you into these
refinements of chemical theory, I cannot for a moment pre
tend to do so, but I may put the case before you by an
analogy. Suppose you compare the sugar to a card house, and
suppose you compare the yeast to a child coming near the card
house, then Fabroni’s hypothesis was that the child took half the
cards away; TWnard’s and Pasteur’s hypothesis is that the
child pulls out the bottom card and thus makes it tumble to
pieces; and Liebig’s hypothesis is that the child comes by and
shakes the table and tumbles the house down. I appeal to my
friend here (Professor Roscoe) whether that is not a fair statement
of the case.
Having thus, as far as I can, discussed the general state of the
question, it remains only that I should speak of some of those
collateral results which have come in a very remarkable way out
of the investigation of yeast. I told you that it was very early
observed that the yeast plant consisted of a bag made up of the
same material as that which composes wood, and of an interior
semifluid mass which contains a substance, identical in its com
position, in a broad sense, with that which constitutes the flesh
of animals. Subsequently, after the structure of the yeast plant
had been carefully observed, it was discovered that all plants, high
and low, are made up of separate bags or “ cells,” as they are
called; these bags or cells having the composition of the pure
matter of wood; having the same composition, broadly speaking,
as the sac of the yeast plant, and having in their interior a
more or less fluid substance containing a matter of the same
nature as the protein substance of the yeast plant. And
therefore this remarkable result came out—that however much
a plant may differ from an animal, yet that the essential con
stituent of the contents of these various cells or sacs of which the
plant is made up, the nitrogenous protein matter, is the same
in the animal as in the plant. And not only was this gradually
discovered, but it was found that these semifluid contents of the
plant cell had, in many cases, a remarkable power of contractility
quite like that of the substance of animals. And about 24 or 25
years ago, namely, about the year 1846, to the best of my recol
lection, a very eminent German botanist, Hugo Von Mohl, con
ferred upon this substance which is found in the interior of the
plant cell, and which is identical with the matter round in the
�12
inside of the yeast cell, and whicn again contains an animal
substance similar to that of which we ourselves are made up—he
conferred upon this that title of “protoplasm,” which has brought
other people a great deal of trouble since 1 I beg particularly to
say that, because I find many people suppose that I was the
inventor of that term, whereas it has been in existence for at least
twenty-five years. And then other observers, taking the question
up, came to this astonishing conclusion (working from this basis of
the yeasty that the differences between animals and plants are not
so much in the fundamental substances which compose them, not
in the protoplasm, but in the manner in which the cells of which
their bodies are built up have become modified. There is a sense in
which it is true—and the analogy was pointed out very many years
ago by some French botanists and chemists—there is a sense in
which it is true that every plant is substantially an enormous
aggregation of bodies similar to yeast cells, each having to a
certain extent its own independent life. And there is a sense in
which it is also perfectly true—although it would be impossible for
me to give the statement to you with proper qualifications and
limitations on an occasion like this—but there is also a sense in
which it is true that every animal body is made up of an aggrega
tion of minute particles of protoplasm, comparable each of them
to the individual separate yeast plant. And those who are
acquainted with the history of the wonderful revolution which has
been worked in our whole conception of these matters in the last
thirty years, will bear me out in saying that the first germ of them,
to a very great extent, was made to grow and fructify by the study
of the yeast plant, which presents us with living matter in almost
its simplest condition.
Then there is yet one last and most important bearing of this
yeast question. There is one direction probably in which the
effects of the careful study of the nature of fermentation will
yield results more practically valuable to mankind than any other.
Let me recall to your minds the fact which I stated at the begin
ning of this lecture. Suppose that I had here a solution of pure
sugar with a little mineral matter in it; and suppose it were
possible for me to take upon the point of a needle one single,
solitary yeast cell, measuring no more perhaps than th£ three
thousandth of an inch in diameter—not bigger than one of those
little coloured specks of matter in my own blood at this moment,
the weight of which it would be difficult to express in the fraction
of a grain — and put it into this solution. From that single
one, if the solution were kept at a fair temperature in a
�13
warm summer’s day, there would be generated, in the course of a
week, enough torulae to form a scum at the top and to form lees
at the bottom, and to change the perfectly tasteless and entirely
harmless fluid, syrup, into a solution impregnated with the poi
sonous gas carbonic acid, impregnated with the poisonous substance
alcohol; and that, in virtue of the changes worked upon the sugar
by the vital activity of these infinitesimally small plants. Now
you see that this is a case of infection. And from the time that
the phenomenon of fermentation were first carefully studied, it has
constantly been suggested to the minds of thoughtful physicians
that there was a something astoundingly similar between this
phenomena of the propagation of fermentation by infection and
contagion, and the phenomena of the propagation of diseases by
infection and contagion. Out of this suggestion has grown that
remarkable theory of many diseases which has been called the
“ germ theory of disease,” the idea, in fact, that we owe a great
many diseases to particles having a certain life of their own,
and which are capable of being transmitted from one living
being to another, exactly as the yeast plant is capable of
being transmitted from one tumbler of saccharine substance to
another. And that is a perfectly tenable hypothesis, one which
in the present state of medicine ought to be absolutely exhausted
and shown not to be true, until we take to others which have less
analogy in their favour. And there are some diseases most
assuredly in which it turns out to be perfectly correct. There are
some forms of what are called malignant carbuncle which have
been shown to be actually effected by a sort of fermentation, if
I may use the phrase, by a sort of disturbance and destruction of
the fluids of the animal body, set up by minute organisms which
are the cause of this destruction and of this disturbance; and only
recently the study of the phenomena which accompany vaccination
has thrown an immense light in this direction, tending to show by
experiments of the same general character as that to which I
referred as performed by Helmholz, that there is a most astonishing
analogy between the contagion of that healing disease and the
contagion of destructive diseases. For it has been made out quite
clearly, by investigations carried on in France and in this country,
that the only part of the vaccine matter which is contagious, which
is capable of carrying on its influence in the organism of the child
wh,o is vaccinated, is the solid particles and not the fluid. By
experiments of the most ingenious kind, the solid parts have
been separated from the fluid parts, and it has then been
discovered that you may vaccinate a child as much as you
�14
like with the fluid parts, but no effect takes place, though an
excessively small portion of the solid particles, the most minute
that can be separated, is amply sufficient to give rise to all the
phenomena of the cow pock, by a process which we can compare
to nothing but the transmission of fermentation from one vessel
into another, by the transport to the one of the torula particles
which exist in the other. And it has been shown to be true of
some of the most destructive diseases which infect animals,
such diseases as the sheep pox, such diseases as that most terrible
and destructive disorder of horses, glanders, that in these, also,
the active power is the living solid particle, and that the inert part
is the fluid. However, do not suppose that I am pushing the
analogy too far. I do not mean to say that the active, solid parts
in these diseased matters are of the same nature as living yeast
plants; but, so far as it goes, there is a most surprising analogy
between the two; and the value of the analogy is this, that by
following it out we may some time or other come to understand
how these diseases are propagated, just as we understand, now,
about fermentation; and that, in this way, some of the greatest
scourges which afflict the human race may be, if not prevented, at
least largely alleviated.
This is the conclusion of the statements which I wished to
put before you. You see we have not been able to have any
accessories. If you will come in such numbers to hear a lecture
of this kind, all I can say is, that diagrams cannot be made big
enough for you, and that it is not possible to show any experi
ments illustrative of a lecture on such a subject as I have to deal
with. Of course my friends the chemists and physicists are very
much better off, because they can not only show you experiments,
but you can smell them and hear them ! But in my case such aids
are not attainable, and therefore I have taken a simple subject
and have dealt with it in such a way that I hope you all under
stand it, at least so far as I have been able to put it before you in
words; and having once apprehended such of the ideas and
simple facts of the case as it was possible to put before you,
you can see for yourselves the great and wonderful issues of such
an apparently homely subject.
�SCIENCE LECTURES
FOR
THE
PEOPLE.
THIRD SERIES-1871.
ON COAL COLOURS.
A
LECTURE,
By Professor
Roscoe,
F.R.S.,
Delivered in the Hulme Town Hall. November 10th, 1871.
The subject of coal has naturally attracted much of our attention
in these Science Lectures. In the first series, Professor Jevons,
than whom no one in the country is more able to speak upon the
economic aspects of the question, discoursed of the importance of
coal in manufactures and trades ; whilst in the last series Mr.
Boyd Dawkins and Mr. Green unfqjded some of the secrets which
lie hidden in a piece of coal. I propose to take up the subject
this evening from another point of view, and to endeavour to open
out to you still more wonderful, and, if possible, still more interest
ing fields than they did, inasmuch as I shall attempt to give you
an account of the composition of coal, and of one or two of the
very large number of derivatives which we can obtain from coal.
You are all aware that from coal we get the magnificent colours
which are so much admired, and which are used so much in silk,
woollen, and cotton dyeing. You know also, perhaps, that even
certain essences and sweet savours can be obtained from this
dirty-looking substance—a piece of coal.
To tell you all about the bodies which have been got from coal
would take me a very long time, I therefore only propose to give
you a short history of the mode in which these bodies are obtained,
choosing out one or two for our more special study.
In order to commence the study of our subject, I will, in the first
place, take here two tobacco pipes, in each of which I have placed
a. small quantity of coal. In the one I have placed a small quan
tity of the kind of coal which is found in South Wales, and which
is called anthracite coal; whilst in the other pipe we have placed
�i6
some coal which is found at Wigan, and is called cannel coat
The difference between the effect of heat upon these two kinds of
coal will very soon be visible to you. We shall be able to get
from the pipe in which we have placed the cannel coal a quantity
of brown vapour, which on bringing a light to it will take fire;
■whilst from the other pipe we shall not get any such brown vapour
at all. Now this shows us at once that coals differ very widely
in their properties.
Coal, as you have been told in the previous lectures, is a body
made up of several elementary constituents. It contains carbon,
hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen; and the quantities of these
elements which the coals contain varies very much. In this
cannel coal there is a much larger quantity or proportion of
hydrogen and oxygen than there is in the anthracite coal. There
is much more of what we call volatile or bituminous matter; and
therefore this cannel coal will yield us a much larger quantity of
gas than can be got by the use of anthracite coal. Anthracite
coal is almost pure carbon.
[The experiment with the coal in the pipes and all the subse
quent experiments were very successful, and were much ap
plauded.]
The quantity of gas or volatile products which can be obtained
from different kinds of coal depends in the first place, then, upon
the composition of the coal. I have here a small model of a
gas making apparatus; in which the same process is going on
which occurs in an enormously larger scale in the gas works of the
Corporation of Manchester. And for this purpose I have used
cannel coal, because the anthracite coal does not yield us any
supply of gas. Let us now examine what takes place in the gas
works—what is going on when we make this coal gas. We may
divide the products of the gas works into four classes: —first, the
coke, which is left behind in the retort; secondly, the gas which
comes off; thirdly, the watery liquid which is formed; and
fourthly, the tarry matter which comes with the gas, but which,
together with the watery liquid, is not sent through the mains,
but is condensed before it leaves the gas works.
Let us now notice what is. the chemical composition, first of the
coal gas itself; secondly, of the watery portions, called the
ammonia water; and thirdly, of the gas tar. On the side of the
room I have suspended a large diagram of the various products
of coal, some of them having rather curious names (see Table on
page 5). I am afraid that it may frighten some of you if you think
that I am going to talk about all these substances. I do not intend
�i7
to do so; but I wish you to see what a very large number of chemi
cal substances exist as the products of the destructive distillation of
coal. Mark the words “ destructive distillation,” because I shall
have to speak of this again. In the destruction of the coal by
distillation, all these products can be got, and are found either in
the gas or in the coke, or in the ammonia liquor, or in the tar.
Here I have two pounds of cannel coal. I have here a large
white cube, each of whose sides is 26 inches in length, which
represents the quantity of gas which can be got from these two
pounds of cannel coal. I have in this bottle the exact quantity of
coke, namely, 19 ounces, which would be left behind in the retort
when this quantity of coal is heated. Here is three ounces of
watery ammonia liquor which would come away; and this is the
21 ounces of tar which would.be formed by the destructive distil
lation of two pounds of coal. You will see from the diagram
below that 100 tons of cannel coal distilled to yield 10,000
cubic feet of gas, having a specific gravity of o-6, gives the following
products : about 60 tons of coke, 9^ tons of ammonia water, 8^
of tar, and 22^ of gas, by weight. This expresses in numbers
what you there see illustrated by the model.
Destructive Distillation of Coal.
zoo tons of cannel and coal distilled to yield 10,000 cubic feet of gas of specific
gravity, o'6 gives the following products:—
GAS.
I
2
3
4
5
22’25
20’01
20’40
2r7O
I6-5O
TAR.
8-5
7-85
640
7’5°
10-70
AMMONIA
WATER.
9'5
714
5’4°
580
800
COKE.
SOURCE.
59’75
65-00
Average (Muspratt)
Manchester
67’84
6500
6500
Dukinfield
Macclesfield
First, then, with regard to the gas. Coal gas—that with which
we are supplied and lighted at the present time—is not one
definite chemical compound, but is a mixture of several component
chemical substances, and the composition of coal gas varies very
much. Here in the north of England we get a better gas than those
who live in the south, because here we have the command of a better
sort of cannel coal. In London the ordinary illuminating power of
the gas is about 12 J candles; whilst in Manchester the gas has an
illuminating power of about 20 candles ; that is, a jet of gas
burning at the rate of 5 cubic feet per hour gives a light equal to
�i8
that given by 20 standard candles. I mention this to show that gas
is not the same all the world over, but that it depends both upon
the quality of the coal employed, and upon the mode of its
manufacture.
Now the substances which coal gas contains may be divided
into three classes; first, those parts of the gas which give off light,
or the illuminating constituents; secondly, those parts of the gas
which burn, but which do not give off light, and which may be
termed heating constituents ; and thirdly, those portions of the
gas which neither give off light nor heat, that is to say, which do
not burn at all, and these may be termed the impurities contained
in the gas, which require to be removed, or ought to be removed
completely in the process of gas making, and before the gas is
distributed to the town. Here we have one of the luminous con
stituents of coal gas. This is termed ethylene or olefiant gas.
You see it burns with a very bright and brilliant light. This is the
chief illuminating constituent of coal gas. Here we have another
constituent of coal gas, termed carbonic oxide gas, which burns with
a very pale blue flame, as you will observe, but which scarcely gives
off any light. This is one of the heating constituents of the coal
gas or diluents, as they have been termed, because they dilute the
illuminating constituents. Here we have another constituent
which requires removal from the coal gas, namely, carbonic
acid gas; and this you see extinguishes the taper the moment
I place it in the gas. This, together with sulphuretted hydrogen
and the vapour of bisulphide of carbon, ought to be removed in
the process of gas making, and this is more or less completely
done by the scrubbers and the lime—or oxide of iron—purifiers.
In the following table you will see first the names of the
three illuminating constituents; the next four are the heating
constituents; and the next three are the impurities which have to
be removed.
We have here an arrangement for making gas : the fire is burn
ing and heating the cannel coal contained in this iron retort; here
is uhat is termed the tar well, for the first thing that is deposited
from the heated gas when it cools is the tar. These tubes are
termed atmospheric condensers, where the gas is cooled and
more of the tar deposited; and here we have the purifiers for
the purpose of ridding the gas of the three impurities to which I
have referred; and here we have the gas holder, into which the
gas is now passing, and from which we can now pass it through
our system of mains and light it, as you see here. [Gas made in
the room was then ignited.]
�Now, passing down the list, the next material we reach is
the ammonia water.
PRODUCTS FOUND IN THE DESTRUCTIVE DISTILLATION
OF COAL.
Coal Gas.
Terpenes.
Ethylene,
Tritylene,
Tetralene,
Illuminating
constituents.
Marsh gas,
Acetylene,
Carbonic oxide,
Hydrogen,
Diluents
or
heating
constituents.
Benzene Series.
Benzene.
Toluene.
Xylene.
Isoxylene.
Pseudo-cumene.
Mesitylene.
Carbonic acid,
I
Sulphuretted hydrogen, I Impurities.
Carbon dishulphide, )
Napthaline.
Ammonia Water.
Pyrene.
Tar-Pitch.
Anthracene.
Chrysene.
Phenols.
Coal-Tar.
Paraffines.
Amyl hydride.
Hexyl hydride.
Heptyl hydride.
Octyl hydride.
Nonyl hydride.
Decatyl hydride.
Olefines.
Amylene.
Hexylene.
Heptylene.
Octylene.
Nonylene.
Decatylene
Acetylene Series.
Phenol, or Carbolic Acid.
Cresol.
^Xylenol.
Bases.
Aniline.
Tolindine, &c.
Pyridin.
Picolin.
Lutidin.
Collidin.
Parvolin.
Coridin.
Rubidin.
Viridin.
Leucolin.
Iridolin.
Cryptidin.
This ammonia water is a very important part of the gas
products, because from this a number of very interesting sub
stances are obtained. Now what is the ammonia water?
The ammonia water is a liquid coming from the coal, for a
good deal of moisture, which the coal contains, comes over with
�20
the products, and this moisture condenses or absorbs the gas
called ammonia, forming what I dare say most of you know as
spirits of hartshorn. Now this gas-ammonia is a compound
body, and contains nitrogen and hydrogen. The nitrogenous
portion of the coal is converted in the process of distillation into
this ammoniacal gas, which is taken hold of by the water, and the
solution flows down as a brownish coloured, strongly smelling
liquid, known as “ gas water,” which is pumped off and sold for
purposes of manufacturing the ammoniacal salts and alum. We
have here specimens of sal-ammoniac and of carbonate of ammoniac
and also a large lump of alum, which I have to thank Mr. Spence
for sending. All these substances are made from the ammonia
liquor. N ow I wish to show you that this ammonia gas which is
given off will dissolve in water, and that is the reason why it does
not come off with the rest of the gas, but is kept back as a liquid ;
in order to show that I will make a simple experiment: we have
got here a large globe, filled with this gas ammonia, which as you
see is a colourless, invisible gas, but possesses a very pungent
smell, aud has the power of dissolving very rapidly in water.
Now in the lower vessel I have got some water, and I am going
to blow a little of this reddened water up into this upper globe,
filled with the ammoniacal gas, and you will see that the whole of
this water will rush up into the upper globe, because the ammonia
dissolves in the water, and the water therefore takes the place of
the gas, and we shall have a very beautiful fountain produced.
[Experiment very interesting and successful.] There now you see
that the ammonia has been absorbed by the water, and the effect
of the alkaline nature of this substance is seen, inasmuch as the
red liquid has turned blue.
Now we get to the next part of our subject—the coal-tar,
and the greater part of what I have to say will be with regard to
the tar contained in the products of the distillation of coal. In
the first place, with regard to the tar, let me say this, that we can
obtain from tar a great variety of very beautiful white colourless
substances. For instance, this white crystalline body here is
carbolic acid, so largely used for disinfecting purposes; this
beautiful white crystalline substance napthaline; this beautiful
clear, colourless liquid benzole, all come from that dirty sub
stance—coal tar—which you see, and which you rather avoid
when you do see it, going along the streets in those very black,
dirty-looking barrels. Nay, even from similar products of coal
tar this beautiful white body—paraffin—can be got. It was the
great chemist Liebig who some years ago said that the man who
�21
should be able to liquify coal gas, so that it could be carried about
readily from place to place, would be a great benefactor to his
species. This has now been done, mainly through the labours of
one man, Mr. James Young, who first began this conversion of
coal into oil. These products of the distillation of coal are not
obtained in gas making, it is true, but they are obtained by quite
a similar process—the destructive distillation of a coal-like sub
stance, at a lower temperature than that used for making coal-gas.
It seems, I dare say, hard for you to understand how such
a beautiful white body as this paraffin can be got from black
coal. But I will show you a few experiments which I think will
render this subject clearer to you. We have here a very wellknown substance—sugar. This white sugar I will now dissolve
in a little hot water, and I think in a few moments I can show
you that this white sugar contains carbon. I am now going
through the opposite process to that which is done by Mr. Young
in distilling his shale. I am going to convert a white substance
into carbon. The point I wish to illustrate is, that it is possible
to get a white substance like paraffin from a black one as
coal, inasmuch as the white substance contains carbon, only
in a different state of combination. I have only got now to
pour into this some strong sulphuric acid, when you will see that
this sugar will be converted into charcoal. (The conversion into
a seething, black, frothy substance was instantaneous.] Here you
see that the whole of this white substance has been converted
into charcoal. So much, then, for the fact that a white solid body
contains carbon. I have in this bottle another colourless sub
stance, liquid turpentine, and I wish to show you that turpentine
also contains carbon. I will pour a little of this turpentine on to
a bit of paper, and then plunge it into this cylinder of chlorine
gas, when I think you will see that the carbon of the turpentine
will become visible. (A cloud of black vapour is instantly pro
duced.] In the same way I have got here a colourless olefiant gas,
which also contains carbon, and when I mix this gas together with
chlorine gas, and bring a light to the mixture, I get a large quantity
of carbon set free, and thus we learn that white solids, colourless
liquids, and colourless gases all may contain black carbon; and it
must, therefore, not surprise you to find that from black coal we
can get these beautiful white bodies.
What I have as yet said has reference to the destructive
distillation of coal. I have had to destroy the coal in order to
get these various new and interesting products. Let us now
turn to another question, and let us ask ourselves, can we by
�22
any other process than this destructive action get4iold of new*
bodies ? The first era in chemical science has been what we term
the analytical era. By analysis we mean destruction, breaking up,
pulling asunder. The first object that the chemist had to achieve
was to find what he could get by destroying bodies. We have
destroyed the coal, and we have got this variety of substances
whose names you find on the list. The second era in chemical
science is what we term the synthetic or constructive era, the era
in which we begin to build up. We all know it is very much
more easy to destroy than it is to construct. And as it is in
every-day life, so it is with chemical compounds, as proved by the
history of chemical science. It is very much more easy to find out
what we can get by destroying the coal than it is to find out what
we can make by building up the various substances which are
obtained from coal. Hence it is, as you will easily understand,
that analytical chemistry or destructive chemistry came first in the
history of science, and then came synthetic chemistry.
Within the last forty years very great progress has been made in
this constructive chemistry. Before the year 1828, it was generally
supposed that any chemical substance which was found in animal
or vegetable bodies (which substances you will understand are very
numerous) was constructed in the body of the animal or.plant,
according to laws altogether different from the laws by which the
chemist was able to build up what are termed his inorganic com
pounds. He could bring together oxygen and hydrogen, and form
water; he could bring together sulphur and copper, and get a black
sulphide; but could he obtain such a substance as urea, which was
only found in the products of animal life ? This was the great
question. And this has, by dint of laborious experimental investi
gations, been answered most completely in the affirmative. He can
construct the substances which are found in the bodies of animals and
plants. He has not succeeded in constructing all these substances,
but he has succeeded in constructing a great number. I might
give you instances of hundreds of substances which were first
known as products solely found in animal or vegetable bodies,
but which have since been built up from their constituent
elements. Thus, for instance, that curious acid has been produced
which is found in the bodies of ants, and which we term formic
acid, and which is also found in the sting of the nettle, the sting
being due to the peculiar effect of this acrid liquid. This formic
acid was originally found only in these two sources, hut formic acid
can now be procured from its organic constituents, from carbon,
hydrogen, and oxygen. So too with alcohol, about which Professor
�23
Huxley discoursed in his lecture on yeast, last week. He showed
you that the process by which alcohol is ordinarily formed is a very
complicated one, and one which it is altogether beyond the power
of the chemist to follow. The chemist cannot tell you the exact
process by which theyeast particles decompose the sugar and liberate
the alcohol, carbonic acid, glycerine, succinic acid, and other pro
ducts. That is a process not perhaps so completely dark to us as the
processes which go on in the animal and vegetable bodies, but it is a
process about which chemists know very little, and is doubtless a
process analogous to those which go on in the living body. But this
alcohol can now be built up from its elements, or from mineral
constituents, from charcoal, hydrogen, and oxygen. And so I
might go on with illustrations of substances which were supposed
originally to be only the sole products of that action which-is
termed vital action, but which now we find can be formed in the
ordinary way of chemical synthesis. For instance, only the other
day the beautiful and singular substance known as essential essence
of the Tonka bean was prepared artificially! Those persons who
take snuff are very fond of carrying this bean in their snuff boxes,
because it imparts to the snuff a still more pungent and agreeable
odour. It is a white crystalline body, termed coumarine, and this
has been quite recently prepared artificially, and found to possess
all the properties of that contained in this peculiar bean. In
short, as far as regards the artificial construction of liquid or
crystalline products produced in vital processes, the chemist’s
power seems boundless, though, when we come to organised
bodies—such as the yeast globule or the starch grain, our domain
seems to end, for the chemist knows nothing about the artificial
formation of the simplest organised structure.
Well, then, let us see what we can learn with regard to con
structive chemistry as applied to the coal products. We shall
find that the substances which can be artificially built up from
the bodies contained in coal-tar possess most interesting properties ;
thus, for instance, they exhibit the most remarkable colouring
powers.
In the year 1825, our great English philosopher Faraday dis
covered benzole. This benzole was then a chemical rarity ; now
it is prepared by thousands of tons for the production of the
beautiful aniline colours which you know so well. From the
crude benzole contained in the tar we can build up, by a process of
addition, the details of which I have not time to describe to-night,
this heavy liquid aniline; and this has the power, after it has been
subjected to another additive process, of producing the most
�24
beautiful colours. I have in this jar a small quantity of aniline ;
I will add a drop or two to the water in this large glass globe; and
now I will add some of this colourless liquid, hypochlorite of sodium,
and after a while you will see that the colour of this water will be
changed, and that we shall have a splendidly violet-coloured liquid,
containing the well-known colour, mauve, which was discovered
by Mr. Perkin, in 1856, and this will give you an idea of the beauty
of the colours which are got from coal. By a modification of the
constructive processes to which the crude aniline is subjected a
great variety of differently-coloured substances can be got thus.
There we have the beautiful aniline blue colour. Here we have
got the celebrated aniline red, known as magenta, and a bloody
red it is. Here we have another coloured derivative—the aniline
violet. In these compounds which we can thus build up we have
not. only a mine of interest, but also a mine of wealth, for the
money value of these aniline colours is enormous. And how
interesting it is to think that this body, aniline, which a few years
ago was a curiosity, and only found in the laboratories of the
chemists, is now a substance which is manufactured by tons, and
thousands of tons, and which can be thus made to minister to our
gratification, and appeal to our sense of beauty !
Another interesting point I must not forget to mention, and
that is, that these beautiful colours are compounds of bodies
which are perfectly colourless! Through the kindness of my
friends, Messrs. Roberts, Dale, and Co., who are one of the
largest manufacturers of these beautiful colours in England, I
have here some of these bodies in their colourless state. Let me
show you how these colourless bodies can be made to become
brightly coloured. It is on combining these colourless bodies
with acids that their colouring power first becomes evident.
Here is a colourless liquid. I pour a little of it on to this piece
of white blotting paper, and on warming the paper over a lamp a
bright green colour becomes at once apparent. This is because
the base of the green-coloured compound does not possess any
colour whatever, and it is only when this base is by drying con
verted into a salt that the colour appears. Again, I take a colour
less solution—rosaniline, and I have only to heat it to convert it
into salt, and the beautiful bright red colour at once is seen. A
very small quantity of this, placed on a piece of white paper, will,
in a moment or two, when dried, turn the colourless paper into a
bright crimson. This, then, is a very interesting and singular
property of these colours. I may show it to you in another way.
I will write on this large sheet of white calico, stretched on a
»
�25
L
frame, the three words f<blue,” and “red,” and “green,” in large
letters, with the colourless solutions of the bases, and then if I
rub a little acid on the back of the paper you see that it instantly
brings out these three colours. This illustrates the fact that the
colour of a chemical substance, is not, as it were, an essential
or necessary characteristic of it, the colour in this case depends
upon an acid being present, for the pure bases of these colours
are colourless.
Now, I might, if I had time, tell you much more respecting these
splendid blue, red, and violet colours which are derived from the
aniline. I will, however, now describe to you another and perhaps
a still more interesting colouring matter, which has been more
recently obtained from coal tar. I suppose you all know what
madder roots are. Madder is the root of a plant termed the rubia
tinctorum. . It grows in Turkey, France, Russia, and various other
countries, and is imported into England in large quantities for the
sake of the beautiful and valuable dye which can be got from it.
Everybody in Manchester, I suppose, knows what madder pinks
and madder purples are. Now, what is it in the madder which
gives these peculiar and beautiful colours ? It is a red crystalline
substance which has been prepared from madder, and to which
the name of alizarine has been given ; but we knew nothing of the
mode of action of this colour until the year 1848, when Dr.
Schunck, of Manchester, showed that all the finest madder colours
contain this alizarine as their colouring principle. Dr. Schunck
and Mr. Higgin next showed that this alizarine was not contained
in the fresh madder root, but that the colour was only got when the
substance of the madder root had undergone a peculiar kind of
change—a sort of fermentation, in which a kind of maddersugar or glucoside yielded, amongst other products, alizarine.
And Dr. Schunck showed that it is to this alizarine that is to be
ascribed the power which madder possesses of producing these
distinct and beautiful tints which we know either as madder pinks
or madder purples, as well as the brighter colour which we all
know as Turkey red. Now the mode in which the colouring
matter of madder, this alizarine, is brought on to cotton goods, is
the point to which I wish to draw your attention. The colouring
matter itself will not fasten on the cotton ; it is not “ fastthat is
to say, it will wash out; and therefore it is necessary, in order that
we should get the colour fixed in the cloth, that it should be held
down by something in the cloth, in a similar way to that in which the
ammonia was held by the water. And this is done by what the
dyers and calicq printers term mordants. A mordant is a body
�26
which enables the colouring matter to be fixed upon the cloth, to
be laid hold of, as it were. And this is because the colouring
matter forms with the mordant a solid substance, which is thereby
fixed in the little pores and tubes of the cotton fibre. Thus the
colour does not escape when the goods are washed, because it is
held fast in the tubes as a coloured solid body, which is generally
termed a “lake.” These mordants are “printed” on the
cloth in various patterns; where a red or pink colour is required,
there the alumina mordant is impressed on the cloth ; where a
purple colour is needed there the iron mordant is printed, and this
explains the fact that by dyeing the cloth thus prepared, in one
dye beck with one colouring substance, madder, such different
tints are obtained.
But now to get to our point with regard to the other example
from the coal tar series of constructive chemistry. You will easily
understand how desirable it would be to get these madder colours
from the coal tar, for although not so beautiful and bright as the
aniline colours, yet they possess properties which render them still
more valuable; for we in this country prefer, as a rule, colours
which are not so bright or glaring as the aniline colours; and,
therefore, the reds and purples of madder will always be in
large demand in this country as well as elsewhere. If now we
could obtain from the coal oil this beautiful and valuable colour
which is found in madder, the advantage would be of course very
great. The truth of this will at once be evident when we learn
that the total growth of madder in the world is estimated at
47,500 tons per annum, worth about ^45 per ton, and having
therefore a value of ^2,150,000. Of this nearly one half is used
in this country, so that no less than ^1,000,000 is now paid each
year by us for madder grown in foreign countries. Now two young
German chemists, Messrs. Graebe & Liebermann, set to work to
endeavour to perform this chemical synthesis; they began in a very
workmanlike and a very scientific way; for instead of trying all
the various bodies which are found in the coal tar to see which of
them would yield this colouring matter, they began the other way
about, and first took some of the natural colouring matter itself and
tried to decompose it or split it up, in order that they might
see what sort of a body this colouring matter would yield
them ; and they found that in reality this body when it was
decomposed gave rise to a white substance, which, on analysis,
they found to be identical in composition with one of these
bodies which had been formerly found in coal tar, which
had been named anthracene, a specimen of which you see
�in that bottle. Here, then, was the first step; for they had
proved that anthracene could be got from the colouring matter of
the madder plant. Next, these two German chemists set them
selves the opposite problem, which now had become much easier,
inasmuch as they now knew the kind of skeleton, as it were, from
which they had got to work to build up their wished-for structure ;
they set to work, I say, to endeavour by bringing together other
compounds with this anthracene, to build up the colouring matter,
of which, remember, they knew the composition, from the coaltar product. And this they succeeded in doing. They actually
obtained this beautiful red crystalline body from coal tar; which
body possesses every property of that got from the madder
plant, that essential which gives to madder its peculiar and its
valuable qualities. Here, then, we have indeed a triumph of
synthesis, and another proof, if one were needed, of the value
of the results of constructive chemistry. This is the first
case of a colouring matter contained in a plant having been
artificially made. The beautiful colours derived from crude
aniline do not exist in nature; they are altogether new, and are
not found in any plant. But many other colours, besides
alizarine, which are used largely in dyeing, occur only in plants.
Thus indigo is another well-known colour, but indigo has not
yet been artificially prepared, though there is very little doubt that
before long we shall be able to do so. Indigo is as yet only
produced as the result of the life of a plant, and the artificial
production of this valuable dye is a problem which yet remains to
be solved.
Now this anthracene, although it is contained in compara
tively small quantities in coal tar (ioo tons of tar yielding
only about half a ton of anthracene, or one ton of anthracene
being got from the distillation of 2,000 tons of coal), yet still it
can be got in absolutely large quantities, because such an enormous
quantity of coal is distilled for gas making all the world over;
and therefore if the processes of building up the alizarine from
this anthracene be not too costly, there is little doubt that the
artificial colour will be made in quantity, and a part at least of the
money which we now send out of the country to buy madder roots
will go to benefit our own population, as we can now transform
our coal into this invaluable colouring matter.
Well, now, let me try to show you that the artificial alizarine
which is got from coal tar possesses similar, or rather identical,
colouring properties with the alizarine got from madder. It is
impossible for me to enter into the minutiae of the mode in which
�28
anthracene can be converted into alizarine, for I should have to
use formulae, which I am afraid many of you would not under
stand, and I must be content with referring those who wish for
information on this subject to the annexed diagram, or to treatises
on organic chemistry.
In the following Table we have a statement of the synthetic
production of alizarine from its constituent elements.
Synthesis
of
Alizarine.
1. Acetylene by direct union of Carbon and Hydrogen in Electric ArcC2 + H2 = Ca Ha
(Berthelot, 1862.)
2. Benzol (Tri-acetylene) from Acetylene by Heat.
3 C2 Ha = C6 He
(Berthelot, 1866.)
3. Anthracene from Benzol and Ethylene.
2C{H6 + Ca H< — C14 H10 + 3 II2
(Berthelot, 1866.)
4. Alizarine from Anthracene. (Process No. 1.)
(Graebe and Liebermann, 1869.)
(A) Oxyanthracene or Anthraquinone by Nitric Acid.
C14 H6 (O H)a
(Anderson, 1861.)
(B) Bibromanthraquinone by action of Bromine.
C14 Hg O2 + 2 Bra = C14 Hg Bra O2 + 2 Br H
(C) Alizarine by action of Caustic Potash.
Cu II6 Bra O2 + 4 K H O = Cu Hg (O K)a O2 + 2 K Br + 2 Ha O
Potassium alizarate.
5. Alizarine from Anthracene. (Process No. 2.)
(Graebe and Caro, Perkin, Schorlemmer and Dale.)
(A) Disulphoanthraquinonic Acid from Anthraquinone.
C14 He (O H)a + 2 Ha S O4 = C14 H6 O2 j s O3 H j + 2 Ha °
(B) Alizarine from the above by the action of Potash.
Ci* He Oa | § Os LI I +4&H O = C14 H6 O2
j +2K0S03 + 2HaO
Alizarine.
Contributions
1825.
1831.
1832.
1848.
1850.
1862.
1865.
1866.
1868.
1868.
i860.
to the
History
of
Alizarine.
Cu He O<
Faraday discovered Benzol in Coal-gas Oil. Ce Hg
Robiquet and Colin discovered Alizarine in Madder Root
Dumas and Laurent discovered Anthracene in Coal Oils
Schunck gave the Composition of Alizarine. Cu H10 O4
Sirecker
„
„
„
Ci0 Hg O8;
Anderson examined AnthraceneCompounds. Cu H10
Kekule explained the constitution of the Aromatic Compounds
Baeyer obtained Benzol from Phenol
Graebe investigated.the Quinones.
Graebe and Liebermann obtained Anthracene from Alizarine.
,,
,,
tf
Alizarine from Anthracene
�29
The point, however, which all of you can understand is that we
are now using this method of constructive chemistry for the purpose
' of building up substances which up to this time have only been
found in the bodies of plants or animals.
One of the most remarkable properties of the alizarine got from
madder is its power of forming an insoluble compound with a
mordant. I have here the alumina mordant, or red liquor, which
forms, with alizarine, a pink insoluble lake; and here I have th'e
iron liquor, or iron mordant, a solution of a salt of iron, which
forms, with alizarine a purple insoluble lake. I pour some of these
mordants into both these bottles of water; next I bring into one
some extract of madder root, some of the natural alizarine got from
the plant. You will observe we get here a bright red precipitate.
Next I take the artificial alizarine made from coal tar, and I pour
this into the other globe of water to which I added some alumina
mordant. You will see that I get exactly the same sort of red
. coloured precipitate. One is the natural, the other the artificial,
and both give exactly the same kind of colour. In the same way,
if I take and compare the effect of the iron mordant, I shall find
that both the natural and the artificial colour give exactly the same
purple precipitate.
Now in order to show you in another way the identity of these
two things, we have written here on this screen the words “natural
alizarine ” and “ artificial alizarine,” and when these are sponged
at the back with alkali you will see that we get the same colour
exactly produced by the two kinds of alizarine. By burning a
bit of magnesium wire the purple colour of the alkaline alizarine
will be better seen, and you will observe that we have got exactly
the same tint in both cases. I will show you the same thing by
dyeing some cloth with the artificial and with the natural alizarine.
Here we throw a very small quantity of the madder alizarine into
a basin-full of boiling water, and here do the same with the
artificial colouring matter, then I bring into each basin a little bit
of mordanted cloth. I won’t say that we can get a very fine
colour, but you will see that the colour we get is equal in the two
cases, that the artificial alizarine produces the same colour as the
natural. We will allow these cloths to remain a little while in the
boiling liquor, and now on taking them out you see that the
alumina pinks are in both cases equally bright and the iron
purples also exactly of the same shade and tint. Thus, then, we
see that the artificial alizarine is exactly identical in its dyeing and
colouring power with the colouring matter contained in and
derived from the madder root. How far the artificial alizarine
�3°
will in time displace the madder it is not for me to say; this is a
question which I will leave to the calico printers and dyers of this
great district; but certain it is, that the two are chemically the
same substance, and that this production of alizarine from coal tar
is one of the greatest triumphs of modern synthetical chemistry.
This new dyeing substance is now being largely used on all
hands, especially for what is called topical printing and for
Turkey red dyeing, and I am told that the colours which can be
obtained from the artificial alizarine are quite equal, if not
superior, to those which can be obtained from the natural madder.
And now if we are to draw a moral from all this, I think that
we shall have little difficulty in doing so. These facts show us the
truth of the old saying that great results come from small begin
nings ; they teach us that nothing in science is unimportant; that
no one can foresee the benefits which to-morrow may spring from
our apparently abstruse discoveries of to-day. Science is advancing,
and its progress, unlike that of so many human institutions, is
without the possibility of retrogression. Boldly, then, may the
least of its votaries step forward, in the firm conviction that the
degree, however insignificant, by which he may be able to advance
the boundaries of science is a certain progress, and one which
must add its share towards the enlightenment and benefit of
mankind.
�THE ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE.
A LECTURE
BY
PROFESSOR A. S. WILKINS, M.A.
Delivered in the Hulme Town Hall, Manchester, November ibth,
I have undertaken to speak to you this evening on a branch of
science which I think has not before been brought under your
notice. This course of lectures has hitherto been confined to
those branches of science which deal especially with the things
which we see around us. To-night I am going to confine your
attention almost entirely to things which you hear round about
you. And I want to discuss these things that you hear—the
words that we are using in daily life—somewhat after the manner
in which other scientific men deal with things which we see, the
objects of sight. You know that chemists such as Dr. Roscoe,
and the distinguished chemist whom we are to have next Friday
evening, Dr. Odling, make it their business to examine into
everything which they can find in the heavens above, in the earth
beneath, and in the waters under the earth. They will tell you
what these things are composed of; they will split them up,
analyse them, as they call it, into their remotest and most ultimate
constituents. Now, the geologists, on the other hand, may be
said not to trouble themselves quite so much with the composition
of the substances they deal with; but they are concerned perhaps
more with the manner in which they got into their present
position.
I want to try this evening to show you, as far as I may be able
in the short time during which I can hope to have your attention—
�32
for the lecture is necessarily not illustrated by any experiments—
both how those words which we are using are made up ; and also
how they came to be in their present position. I have said that
I am not able to show you anything to see. I had hoped that I
should have had a map which would have enabled me to explain
at least some of the facts which I wish to bring before you a little
more clearly than I shall now be able to do; but in this I have
been disappointed, so I must, I suppose, ask for your special
indulgence, on the ground that you will have to listen and not to
see during almost the whole of the time allotted to us.
Now if we begin to split up, or to analyse, or to examine closely,
the words which we are using in daily life, we shall find that a fair
proportion of them, quite a considerable proportion, are very closely
akin to the words which Welshmen would use. I do not mean
to say that we use them in exactly the same form in which
Welshmen would use them; but at all events the words are very
strikingly like Welsh words. This is the case with the English that
is spoken all over this country of ours. For instance, when you
want to speak of an article of dress, you may talk about a coat;
you may talk about a gown; you may talk about frieze, from which
you would make the coat; and to come to smaller points, you
may talk about a button, a tassel, of the gussets in shirts, of welts
on shoes, and of clouts and dishclouts. In all these cases we are
using words which are almost exactly like words which Welshmen
would use in such cases. If we come to our household things, if
we talk about a basket, a barrow, a funnel, a pitcher, or if we talk
about crockery—in all these cases we are still using the same class
of words. And here in Lancashire we use a good many of these
Welsh-like words, which scientific scholars call Keltic words, which
are not known or understood in the rest of England. If I were
talking to people in the south, I dare say they would not under
stand what I mean by bamming You may know, perhaps. So
in the same way they do not know what boggarts are. They
would not understand what I meant if I talked about a man being
a farrant or a gradely man; if we talked about setting craddies;
if we talked about cobbing, or wapping, or punsing—all these
vords would be unknown in the south; and I think I may
suppose they are pretty well known here. If we hear that a man
is a cunningyfZ?, it has nothing whatever to do with the file that a
blacksmith would use. That again is only another form of a
Welsh word, meaning a twisty fellow. In the same way, if you
talk about going out for a spree, and of playing fine pranks, in all
these instances you are talking Welsh or Keltic words. The same
�33
thing would be true, if in your business you talked about a cotton
gin, or a weaver spoke about his picking stick. Here again we
still keep to the Keltic element of our language.
Now, one of the first questions that men ask who wish to go
into a subject of this kind scientifically is—How did these words
get into our language ? Of course there are several ways in which
words not belonging to a language originally may come into it.
We may borrow them. For instance, we use the word gntta
percha to describe a substance well known to all of us. That
is not an old English word, we get the name from the country
where we get the thing from. Just in the same way with
coffee; where we get the coffee berry we also get its name.
There is another way in which words may be borrowed, that is,
from fashion. For instance, we have borrowed a great many
French words, and many people now-a-days very foolishly, I think
we may say, prefer to use French words where good English
words would do as well. Nobody, I suppose, imagines that coats
were never known in England until Welshmen came here and
brought them, or gowns or buttons; that cobbing or wapping was
unknown until Welshmen taught it us. We must try to find some
other method of explaining the presence of these words in our
language. That is one of the questions that we shall have to try
to answer to-night.
But now, when we go on and try to analyse or to account for
other words in the language that we are talking about, we find a
good many of them come from the Latin. Some of them come
straight away, very little changed in their passage, so that the man
who knows Latin, whatever country he belongs to, would be able
to understand this sort of English words. A good number of
them are words that everybody knows now, words like science, or
student, or origin, or admit, or adopt—plenty of words of that kind
which have become part and parcel of our everyday English talk.
And there are a great number of other Latin words which are
used perhaps solely in sermons or solely in scientific treatises,
which are not known to us usually in everyday talk, but which we
have to learn specially, and which have come directly from the
Latin to us. But besides this kind of Latin words, we have
another set of words which scholars are able to derive from the
Latin, but not directly; they have got so much changed on their
■way, that they seem to have gone through a different kind of
process, have been sifted or moulded in some way, generally cut
.shorter at the head or the tail, or at both. Such words, for
instance, as cover, or obtain, complain, hour, flower—words of that
�34
kind are abundant, and certainly they are not old-fashioned
English words; they are the children, perhaps in this case I ought
rather to say the grandchildren, of Latin words; but they have
taken such a changed form in their passage from Latin into
English, that we cannot suppose they were borrowed straight from
the one language for the use of the other. When we examine
these words further we find that they are not exactly like Latin
words, but they are almost exactly like French words. I can give
you some instances of words which we have got straight from the
Latin, and words which originally come from Latin have come
to us through French. For instance, we may talk about food
being nutritious, or we may talk about food being nourishing.
These words have precisely the same origin, and have precisely
the same meaning; but one of them has come to us through the
French, and so it has got a little bit changed on its way. In the
same way, to give you a more striking instance of the same kind,
we have the word preach. We have another word which has come
directly from the Latin, not through the French, and therefore is
longer and fuller,—a word which is not commonly used, but may
be found sometimes in the leading articles in newspapers, and
other writings of that kind—the word predicate. These words are
the same in origin, but have got a good deal changed one from the
other. So, again, the poor man is not always a pauper, but the
word poor is only a shortened form of the word pauper, that has
come to us through the French. Story is not quite the same
thing now-a-days as history, and the shortening is to be explained
in the same way. So a mayor, the chief magistrate of a borough,
is a different person from a major now-a-days, but originally they
were the same. So, to give a more striking instance—one which
might not have struck you at first when you saw it—the word
spice, which we now apply to fragrant things like nutmeg and
pepper, &c., is exactly the same word as the word species—of
which we have heard a great deal lately—modified both in form
and in meaning on its way to us.
Well, now, you see we have two more questions to solve, if we
can. Not only are there these Keltic or Welsh-like words in our
language, but there are Latin words very little changed, and Latin
words a great deal changed—so that they are very much more like
French words than Latin words.
You may naturally ask here what proportion of words in our
language can thus be traced back to the Latin. That depends to
a certain extent upon the way in which you count words. Suppose
you put all the different words you find in any writer into a
�35
dictionary or an index, not repeating the same word more than
once, you will find perhaps one word in four Latin. The pro
portion varies very much, the simpler and plainer and the more
straightforward the style of the writer, the fewer of these Latinised
words he will use; the more involved and pompous and formal
and generally unintelligible his writing is, the more of these Latin
words he will use : so that in our old English Bible—which is
among other things just the very finest specimen of the English
language that we have—sometimes out of a hundred words you
will only find four that are not good plain English; and in the
hardest places, where Latin words seem almost necessary, you will
not find more than ten in a hundred. Shakspere, too, who
usually says what he means in a way which most of us can under
stand easily, will only use perhaps from nine to a dozen out of a
hundred words. Milton, who was more stately and formal in his
style than Shakspere, will use generally about twenty. Dr. John
son twenty-five, and the great historian who wrote about a
hundred years ago, Gibbon, will use sometimes thirty. But this
is when you arrange the words in a sort of index, counting
each word only once. But suppose, on the other hand, you take
a piece of English just as it is written, then plain, simple English
words will come over a good deal oftener than that. To get a
fair specimen of the English that is talked now-a-days, when a
man wishes to make his meaning as plain as he can, I took a
speech which was delivered a little while ago by the Bishop of
this diocese. You know that he always tries to make himself
understood as plainly as he can; and out of some three hundred
words that he used, I find there are about fifty belonging to this
class which we are now discussing. What are we to say of the
rest ? Well, of course, we have here and there a word got from
almost every language under heaven; because, generally, wherever
we have got anything new, there we get the name for it; but
almost the whole of the rest of our language, that is to say, perhaps
two words out of every three, belong to what is called the
German class of languages—not quite the German that is spoken
now-a-days by the educated people in Germany, for our language is
based upon what is called the Low German. No disrespect is in
tended to it by that phrase; it simply means the sort of German that
is talked in the low region near the sea, and not in the more hilly
region inland. The High German, as it is called, differs from the
LowGermanin several ways, some of which it would take me perhaps
too long to explain now ; but I think I can give you with very little
trouble an idea of one of the main differences between the Low Ger
�36
man on which our language is based, and which our English really is,
and the High German which Germans now-a-days speak. Suppose
you pronounce any vowel sound, say a; as long as you pronounce
that vowel sound you are letting one uninterrupted stream of
breath come out of your lungs, play on a little instrument at the
top of your throat which determines the sound you produce, and
then pass into the air unchecked. So if you simply content
yourself with pronouncing a vowel, you can go on as long as you
please with it—a-d-a—as long as you have breath. But you can
check that stream of air, producing sound, in three different ways.
You may check it in your throat, and then let it go on again, and
then you will pronounce a consonant like k. Or you may check
it at the top of your tongue, and then you will pronounce the
consonant t. Or you may check it with your lips and then you
will pronounce the consonant/. You can say kay, tay, pay. But
then checking it in just the same place you can produce sounds
that are a little different from those. I can say in my throat not
only kay but also gay; not only pay but also bay. Well, those
who are concerned with the scientific examination of sounds have
given names to these different letters. Those which I gave at
first they call properly surds; those which I gave in the second
instance they call sonants ; for this reason, when you pronounce
b or g or d you make a vocal sound in your throat at the actual
time you are pronouncing that letter; but when you say
/, /, or k, you do not. Now it is a little more trouble to
pronounce those which make a sound in your throat, which
we call sonants, than those which do not produce a sound in
your throat, which we call surds. You can easily test that
for yourselves. It is a little more trouble to say bad than it
is to say pat, and the people who talk the High German language
have got into this lazier or more slovenly way of pronouncing, using
the surd instead of the sonant letters. And you will find that that is
really the main difference between the High German the Germans
talk and the Low German that we English still talk. For instance,
when we talk about a dale they will talk about a tai; if we say
door they will say tor; if we talk about daughter they will say
tochter; if we say drink they will say trink, and so on. Then
further, when we get the t sounds they will soften them down still
more into th or z, not completely cutting off the stream. Foi
instance, our ten is their zehn ; our tongue is their zunge; our tear
is their zerren. When the t, instead of beginning a word, comes
in the middle or at the end, they make a further change. You
know now-a-days instead of saying he hath, or he loveth, we
�31
generally say he has, or he loves. The Germans have adopted
just the same change, changing our t's into s's; so that when
we say white they will say weiss; for water they will say wasser,
and so on. But with these exceptions, we are talking in the
basis of our language, that is to say, in simple, every-day
words, mainly the same sort of language as our German
cousins.
Now we have to consider how to explain these facts. We have
got a fourth one now in addition to our three problems before.
How is it we use Welsh words? How is it we use Latin words?
How is it we use Latin words that seem to have come to us
through the French ? And how is it, finally, that the basis of our
language is just the same as the German which is spoken on the
coast of Germany? History has to help us to explain these facts.
If we go back as far as ever we can in the history of man—I do not
mean as far as Mr. Darwin would take us back, but as far as we
can go back with the men with whom we have any sort of concern
as our fellow men—we find that there must have been some great
hive somewhere about the middle of Western Asia, which was
constantly sending forth swarms of people, for the most part
always westward. Then when one swarm—if I may use the
language they would use of bees—had come out, they would
settle down in some territory which they liked, until another
swarm came from behind, and finding this territory suited them
also, they would drive those who had gone before them a little
further to the west; and so on, until we are able to trace at least
five distinct waves of people coming one after the other from this
part of Asia that I speak of—very much that same part where the
Bible tells us Noah landed out of his ark—and always pushing
before them those who had gone first. Now you know that those
who live furthest to the west of all the people of Europe are the
people of Ireland; therefore we think we are justified in assuming
that the Irish were probably the first to leave, and then they got
pushed further and further on towards the west always, till jthey
got pushed so far that they could not go any farther without
being pushed into the sea. Then, of course, they had not dis
covered the way to America; now they are pushed right beyond
the sea into America. We know this principally because we find
them at the extreme west. We know they could not have come
over the water from America ; we know that they did not grow
as a nation where they are now ; therefore they must have come
the other way. We have additional proof of this in the fact that all
about the continent of Europe there are names which we can showto
�38
be properly Irish names. I shall come back to this question if I
have time this evening—this question of the meaning of local
names. The Irish have left very few traces of their passage
through England; but I think we may find one or two traces of
the time when England was peopled principally by those who are
now living in Ireland, but they are not at all certain, and I should not
like to give them to you as facts. But we do know that there are
plenty of traces of the next great wave, and those are the people
who are now the Welsh. They live the next towards the west.
The people at the top of Scotland were probably originally the
same as the people of Wales. We judge of that also by the
evidence of local names, the names of places. About 1,400 or
1,500 years ago, some tribes of Irishmen who called themselves
Scots—because you must remember that the Scotch came first
from Ireland—came back into Scotland, and practically absorbed
or exterminated the Welsh folk who lived in Scotland then, and
took the country for themselves; so that now-a-days the people in
the north of Scotland, the Highlands, and the people in Ireland
speak languages which are very closely akin to each other, but
not so closely akin to the Welsh as the language of the High
lands used to be. Then, just about 1,800 years ago, the Romans
came—they had been here a hundred years before that, but their
expedition failed—and theyconquered all those Welshmen, or Kelts,
as we call them sometimes, who dwelt in England and Wales—it
was not England then, it was Britain—and subdued them entirely
under their dominion. They remained about 400 years, and then
they withdrew. And before they had gone long, swarms of these
Low Germans came over. I use the word Low, you must re
member, always in its technical sense, meaning the Germans living
by the sea coast, not in the way of disparagement. They lived in
that part of Germany which is just at the bottom of Denmark,
where Denmark joins on to the main land, just about Schleswig
Holstein, of which we heard so much six or eight years ago.
They came over in their families and tribes, as I shall be able to
show you by this same evidence of names of places, and conquered
England by degrees. There were two tribes; one called them
selves Saxons, and the other called themselves Angles, from which
we get our name of England. They did not come over all
together; they kept coming over for nearly a hundred years, one
swarm after another, moving with their wives and their children,
and perhaps their cattle also, and settling here, driving the old
Welsh people, who lived all about the country then, before them,
till they cooped them up into the western parts, i.e., Cornwall,
�39
Wales, Cumberland, and Westmorland. They left a good many
of them in Lancashire. To speak very roughly, if you draw a line
from Chester to London, you will find that the Saxons lived to the
south-west of this line, and the Angles, or the English, lived in the
north-eastern part, right away up as far as Edinburgh. I will show
you one means by which you can tell that at once. Look at those
places which end in sex; Sussex, South Saxons lived there; Essex,
East Saxons lived there; Middlesex, the Middle Saxons lived
there. And in the old days, before these counties were so split
up, all this part was called Wessex, that is to say, where the West
Saxons lived. On the other hand, as you may know still from
the name of one of our railways, all this part was called East
Anglia, and by degrees the name Anglia in Latin, or in English
Angle Land, spread over the country.
There is a subject which has been much discussed by scholars
as to how it was that we came to be called English and not
Saxons. If you are going about in Wales and you meet one of
the rough peasantry and you ask him the way to any place, the
answer you will probably get will be Dim Sassenach—I know no
English; in other fashion, I know no Saxon—another proof, as I
have shown you, that the people with whom the Welsh came into
contact were the Saxon people.
Two theories have been started to explain this; there may be
something in both of them. In the first place there were a good
many more Angles than there were Saxons. In the second place
those people who first came into contact with the missionaries
who came over from Rome to convert the German invaders to
Christianity (for when they came over they were pagans) were
the Angles, and so the missionaries called the whole people
Angles, and the name came to be gradually accepted ; it got used
in books, and then by degrees it was used generally. The Angles
and Saxons founded several small kingdoms : one of them, the
kingdom of Northumberland, stretched to the south and west
beyond Manchester; and in an old book I have read of Man
chester in Northumberland, not because they thought it was up
there, but because in that time Northumberland stretched froip
here right away to Edinburgh. And just about the time when
these various kingdoms were first brought under one king, other
swarms, very much resembling those Saxons and Angles which had
first come over, came from Denmark and Norway; and they pil
laged the coasts when they came in small numbers, and when
they came in large numbers they formed armies which conquered
large portions of the country for themselves ; so that after nearly
�40
a hundred years’ hard fighting between them and the English
people they succeeded in getting a firm footing on the ground.
And almost the same part of the country which I said was held
by the Angles was given up to the Danes, under the name of the
Danelagh. At the same time the Norwegians came sailing round
Scotland and conquered the Isle of Man, and settled in large
numbers in Cumberland and Westmorland and North Lancashire,
and all along this part of the coast, in fact: and I shall be able
in a minute or two, I hope, to show you what tokens we have
still of their presence.
Our English kings—the old English race of kings—reigned for
nearly 300 years after England had been made a united monarchy,
and then the last of them, Edward the Confessor, died without
leaving any children. The English people in those days had the
right of choosing their kings freely. They always exercised it by
choosing one of the royal family, but they chose not always the
eldest son, but the man whom they thought fittest to rule, the
bravest, the wisest, and strongest. But now all the old English
royal family was extinct, except one distant relation, who was a
mere boy, and whom the English people did not think worthy to
rule over them. So they chose a great earl of the time, Earl
Harold, whose father had been the son of a swineherd, and had
raised himself by his valour and ability to the rank of the first
man in the kingdom. But there was some sort of claim upon the
crown—not a very good one—on the part of the Duke of Nor
mandy, and he put forth his claim. He said that as there was
no nearer heir to the crown, it fell by right to him. The English
people held firmly to the king they had chosen ; but William, the
Duke of Normandy, gathered a large body of French troops, and
came over, and, as most of you know, defeated the English king,
Harold, at the great battle of Hastings, and killed him, and
succeeded in compelling the English to choose him as their king.
This is what is meant by the Norman Conquest. The word has
often been misunderstood; it is not very happily chosen perhaps,
because it was not that the English people were conquered by a
foreign people, but rather that the foreign king was strong enough
to make the English people choose him as their king. However,
the result was at first sight very injurious to the English language
and laws, because the foreign king was surrounded by a large
body of French nobles and captains, to whom were given large
estates, and French and not English was made the prevailing
language for something like two centuries. This Duke of Nor
mandy had also large possessions in France, and the first six of
�4i
these Norman kings were much more Frenchmen than English
men. We read in our history books about Richard the Lion
Hearted, and think him a fine specimen of an English king, but
it is extremely doubtful whether he could ever speak a word of
English in his life ; and it is very certain that he only spent two
or three months in England, and that was when he came over
here to get money out of the people. However, his brother, the
bad John, lost all his dominions in France, and was driven out of
them by the French king, and so England became again an inde
pendent kingdom, without any possessions other than those within
her own boundaries. The result of this was that there was no
longer any occasion for French to be the language of the court
and of the nobles. It continued to be so for a short time, because
they were accustomed to speak it; but it was not very long before
the English language raised its head again. It had never been
disused; it had always held its own among the common
people. Their songs were written in English—we have many
of them remaining to us—and they had always talked it among
themselves, but it had been looked down upon. Now that the
English noblemen were shut out from their foreign possessions
they began to be proud of the name of Englishmen, and they
began to learn by degrees to talk the English language. But they
mixed it up with a great many of the French words which they had
been accustomed to use. And now I think you will be able to
see how it is that we have got these four elements in our language
which I was speaking about. I do not know whether you noticed
when I was talking about the Keltic words, that they were either
words relating to home affairs, or else familiar and somewhat
vulgar phrases. A large number of the coarse and bad words
that we use now-a-days are Keltic words. That points to the fact,
which you would naturally expect, that when the Saxons and
English people who came over (after the Romans had left this
country) and conquered the Welsh people, those whom they left
in the land they made their slaves ; and so they would naturally
get from them just those words which were necessary to explain
to their slaves what they wanted. The words which I named
before, like coat, or gown, or basket, or barrow, are the words
which would be common among the household slaves, and they
would be used by the Keltic or Welsh slaves who were made so
by the Anglo-Saxons. You see also how it is we have so many
German words, because these people, when they came from
North Germany and crossed over to conquer England (Britain as
it then was), would naturally bring their own language with them.
�42
The French words came in from the Norman Conquest; and
though it is not true to speak of English as a mixture of this
Low German and French, yet it has borrowed a good many
French words which are incorporated with its own, and are made
one with its own substance. And then the Latin words are to be
explained from this fact, that for many hundred years Latin was
the only language that was written and used by learned men in all
the countries of Europe; and whenever they wanted a word for
something which they did not know how to express in the plain
English of the common folk, they would borrow it from the Latin
with which they were familiar. That is the way in which we
explain the four elements which we get in our language.
Now I want to show you another side of this question, and
that is, the light which the names of places throw upon the origin
of the English people. The first population of this country, you
will remember (supposing we put aside for a moment the possi
bility, or I should rather say the probability, that the Irish people
lived here before they were driven across to their own country),
was the Welsh division of the Keltic stock. Now the first places
which would require names, of course, would be the rivers and
mountains. When the Welsh came to the country they would
want a name of course for a river, and a name for a mountain,
for there were no towns as yet; and so we find that almost all the
names of rivers and mountains in England are nearly Keltic.
Take for instance a few of the Keltic words that we find in pro
per names. One of the Welsh words now-a-days for a river is
avon. Well, however little you know about the rivers of our
English country, you must remember several of them that are
called Avon. There is the Avon on which is Stratford, Shakspere’s
birthplace; there is the Avon in Somersetshire, where Bristol is;
and there are several others. This word avon simply means river,
and we call the river by Bristol Avon simply because the Welsh
men who lived in our country 2,000 or 2,500 years ago called the
river by a name which in their language meant river. There is
another word, dwr, which means water. We get that in plenty of
our words. In the Lake country we have the Derwent and Derwentwater. Derwent simply means clear water. In the same way
that other beautiful lake is named Windermere, which is simply
beautiful water. Wyn is beautiful, dwr is water in the language
of old Welsh, and mere,—you know that from Rostherne Mere, and
so on. We get the same in the names of many rivers. You know
the Calder here, it flows along by Todmorden; that is again a
crooked or winding water. And wherever we have a word with a
�43
meaning of this kind in Welsh, we may be quite sure that it was
Welsh people who gave it that name. Therefore, if we find a
river called the Calder, we may be quite sure that the first people
who came to that river were Welshmen. There is another name
which has got a good deal changed, but perhaps it is the most
widely-spread of all, and that is Wysg—which also means “water.”
If I should have any Irish people here to-night, they will pretty
well understand, I think, what is meant by usquebagh; that has
the same root—water. Well, this occurs in many of the names
of rivers in England, only a little modified. There are two
or three rivers called Ouse; other rivers called Exe, Axe, Esk,
or Usk. All these names of rivers simply show that Welsh or
Keltic people came there, and when they found a stream
of water they: called it in their language river, or water. The
Ribble, which flows by Preston, is again another Welsh word,
which means simply “fast river.” Then the same word Avon,
which I spoke to you about before, comes in in a good many
compound names. Take, for instance, this county in which we
are in now. It is called Lancashire because it is the shire of
Lancaster. I will talk about the second part of it afterwards.
Lancaster is called so because it is on the Lune, which, in old
days, used to be called Alauna. Words always have a tendency to
grow shorter the longer they live. A distinguished English scholar
said once that letters were like soldiers, they had a great tendency
to drop off on a long march. And I could find dozens, hundreds,
thousands, literally, of instances in our English language in which
words have got shorter. To give you just one example. Our
word “ ma’am,” which some persons would use in addressing a lady,
is cut short from a phrase which originally had five syllables at
least. So the name of the Lune was Alauna, and that in the
language of the Welsh people simply means “ white water.” So
we call the county town Lancaster—that is, the camp or castle
that is on the white water river. Then there is the opposite word
in Welsh, dhu, which means black. Thus we get Douglas, or in
the shorter form, Diggles, meaning “ black water.” There is a
word which you have still in Lancashire, cam, which means crooked.
It is a word that Shakespere uses. We get that in several forms,
Camden, for instance. Another instance which most of you
remember is Morecambe Bay, that is, the crooked sea. You
remember how the sea goes in and out there, and Morecambe
must have been called the crooked sea at the time when Welsh
people lived there, to whom this word Morecambe would mean
crooked sea. If time would allow me, I could show you in the
�44
■same way that Irwell (the quick, winding stream), Irk (the leaper),
Med-lock (the full pool), all preserve in their names signs that the
Welsh were here before us. But to pass on from rivers to hills, we
have pen the Welsh word for hill; which of course we get in
Pendleton, which is simply hill town; Pendlebury, another form
of the same name; and the hill which is above Clitheroe, Pendle
Hill. In Wales and Cornwall it is a very common name—
Penrhyn, Penmaenmaur, Pendennis : in all cases pen meaning hill.
And wherever we find this word pen it means simply that the
Welshman was there before us and talked about the “hill.”
Coniston Old Man is called so simply from the Welsh Alt Maen
(high mountain), and has nothing to do with any old gentleman.
Of town names we have very few that are Keltic, for the natural
reason that the Welsh folk who lived here in Lancashire once had
very few towns to give any names to. Ip Doomsday Book, which
gives us a very complete account of the country a few years after
the Normans came here, I find that only 16 villages are mentioned
as existing then in the whole of Lancashire. So that it need not
surprise us if we find that Wigan is about the only instance of a
Keltic name for a town: this means “ battles,” and the place is
so called because of some battles that were fought there in very
early times.
Now, let us pass on. We have seen that the Kelts were here ;
the Romans came after them. They have left us very few names.
One or two will be of interest here. Their word for camp was
castra, which we get in Lancaster. We know that Lancaster must
have been at least as old as the Roman times, because no other
people but Romans would have talked about “castra” for camp,
therefore it must have been Romans who gave the name of
Lancaster to the city or town which was built on the river which
before then the Welsh people had called the Lune or the Alauna—
the “ white water.” So with the name of this city, Manchester.
“ Chester” is only the softened form of this same “castra.” In
all languages that I know anything about there are instances of
this changing of sounds. The k sound gets softened by degrees
either into j or ts or ch. So Manchester means a camp or fortified
place. But what does the “ man ” mean ? If you believe
that the Welsh word man means a plain, and if you will just
ride from Cheetham Hill down to here, you will, I think, easily
see why Manchester was called “the camp at the edge of the
plain.” If you go to the north of Manchester, you get into the
hill country at <: nee ; if you go south—as those know who live on
this side, you get very little hill, but just a broad, flat plain.
�45
Manchester means a camp, or a fortified place which was built by
these Romans, just at the place where the great flat plain of
South Lancashire and Cheshire begins.
We have only one other instance perhaps worth troubling you
about, and that because of its local interest. We have another
Roman word remaining to us, in street. “Street” is an old Roman
word for road. Some of you may know High Street, in Westmor
land, the high mountain over which the Roman road runs at the
top; and an old Roman road runs down to Stretford, that is,
where the “street” went over the river. Camp Field is a later
name; it has nothing to do with the Romans; here we get the
English again. Now we have plenty of local names which are
English. And here is one thing to be noticed at once—we do
not talk now-a-days about Avon, but rather the River Avon, the
River Usk, and so on. That points us to this fact, that when the
English people came here, if they saw a river they asked what it
was called. The Welsh people would say “avon,” that is “river,”
Now the English did not know that avon meant river; they
thought that was the proper name of it, just as we say Irwell, or
Irk; and they would put their word “river” on to this word,
whatever it might be—Ouse, or Avon, or so on. So we get
River Ouse, River Avon. In just the same way we get Pendle
Hill. The English people on coming would ask what that hill
was called. The people there would say it was pen. Then the
English coming would call it Pen Hill, and that would soon get
changed into Pendle, and the hill which is near Clitheroe is still
often called Pendle, and when hill gets mixed up with pen, the
people forget that there is the word hill in the name; and so they
put another hill, and talk of Pendle Hill, which simply means
Hill, Hill, Hill! Just the same with Pendleton ; that is Hill, Hill
Town; Pendlebury, Hill, Hill Borough. We have a curious
instance of this, which may have escaped many of you, here in
Combrook. Brook is intelligible enough, but what is the “ corn ?”
Of course, we suppose at first sight that it is a brook that ran
through cornfields; it must have been a long time ago if it did !
But we should be going quite wrong if we judged so hastily.
Com is simply our old word avon cut short, with the Welsh prefix
cor, which means narrow. Now there is the Irwell, a compara
tively broad stream, and the cor-an, narrow stream flowing into it
The old Welsh people called it the Corn, that is, the narrow
stream. The people coming afterwards asked what stream that
was, and were told the Corn, or narrow stream. The English put
on “brook,” and so we get Cornbrook, narrow stream brook
�46
We can tell very well wherever the English people proper have
been by the terminations. There is an old rhyme that runs—
In Ford, in Ham, in Ley, in Ton,
The most of English surnames run.
And whenever we find any words with these endings, you may be
sure that there the English people settled, not Welsh people, not
Danish people, not French people, but simply the English, either
Angles or Saxons. Wherever we have a word ending in ton, as
we have abundantly here, Pendleton, Bolton, Middleton ; when
ever we have them ending in ley, as in Alderley and Timperley,
and so many places in Cheshire; wherever we have ham, and in
most cases where we have ford*—in these instances you may be
sure that the words are of English origin. I am not sure whether
I shall have time to explain all these terminations. Ton simply
means a sort of enclosure, more like a farmyard than a town. We
have Barton-on-Irwell. Bar, the first part of it, is simply bear, and
ton is the enclosure; and so Barton means the enclosure for what
was borne by the ground, that is to say, for the harvest or the
crop. Barton means a sort of farm yard or rick yard. That
accounts for the fact that we have so many Bartons all over
England, because there are so many enclosures where people put
up their harvest produce. In “ Broughton,” near here, we have
the same ending; and if any of you had the misfortune to live in
Lower Broughton during the floods, you will understand why it
was called Broughton, when I tell you that the first part of it
means marshy ground.
In one name that we have near here, we get an instance of whatis
extremely important and interesting in its way—that is, Withington.
Now here we have not so many of them, but in some parts of
England there are a great many names ending in this ington. We
have a fair number of them about here. You know we have
Bollington, Carrington, Doddington, Rivington, Warrington. And
then we have some in ham—Altringham, Aldingham, and Bir
mingham. And besides these, we have some words which end
simply in ing—Melling, Pilling, and Billing, all just about this
part of Lancashire. But as I have said, there are nothing like so
many in Lancashire as in some other parts of England. In all
Lancashire we have only 19 names with this ing in them, but
in the little county of Bedfordshire we have 63; in HuntingdonFords by the sea are of Danish origin, and contain their word fiord, oxafrith.
�47
shire we have 57; and in Kent 51 names having this ing in them.
Well, of course, just as the chemist as soon as he gets hold of
any substance whatever, no matter whether animal, vegetable, or
mineral, wants to find out what its composition is, so we want
to find out what this ing means. And we go back as far as
we can, and we find that our old English forefathers used
this termination ing to denote the son of a person. Suppose
a man was named Eoppa, his son would be named Eopping,
and all his sons would be named Eoppings. Suppose it was
Boll, his family would be named Bollings. For instance, in
our. oldest version of the list of fathers and sons at the
beginning of our New Testament, we have just the same form
used; they would put ing on to the name of the father to denote
the son. Wherever we have this ing we have an intimation and a
proof, we may say, that the people who founded the town were all
of one family, one little tribe, the children of a man called Boll,
or something of the kind. Warrington is the ton, the enclosure,
the village, we may say, of the children of Wara ; and that is a
proof of the fact which I told you on other authorities, that when
our English forefathers came over from Germany, they did not
come separately, like the Danes, but they came in families, alto
gether, “ clans/’ as the Scotchmen call them, /ng means just the
same thing as the Scotch “ Mac,” or the Irish “ O’. ”
The Danes, I told you, lived in this part (north and east), and
the Saxons in this (south and west). I will just mention the fact,
though I cannot bring out the full meaning of it now, that here
(north) you will find lots of bys, and in this part (south) lots of
tons. Wherever you find places ending in by, as Whitby, Derby,
Rugby, there you find Danes have been. By is the old Danish
form for town or borough ; and when you talk about “ by laws”
you simply mean the borough laws as distinguished from the laws
of the country. Of course now we use the phrase for the laws of
a railway or a club ; but originally by-law meant borough law, as
distinguishing it from the national law of the great Parliament.
Here you find lots of bys, and here lived the Danes j here you
will find tons, and English folk settled there. In Lancashire you
will find bys, as Crosby, Formby, in the West Derby Hundred,
and so on; that means that the Danes, sailing round the country
with their ships, came and settled just on the sea coast, but could
not get any further inland, because the English people drove
them away. Hence you find them chiefly on the coast.
I meant to tell you much more about these Danish settlements,
and also about the manner in which local names bear witness to
�48
the presence of Norwegians rather than Danes in Cumberland
and Westmorland. I should like also to show you how we know
from names where the Angles settled and where the Saxons, but
I cannot allow myself to try your very great patience any longer.
I will simply assure you I have only given you this evening a very
slight sample of the interest you may find in the scientific
study of language.
�THE FOOD OF PLANTS,
A LECTURE
BY
PROFESSOR
ODLING,
F.R.S.,
Delivered, in the Hulme Town Hall, Manchester, 24th November, i$7r.
You all know that a piece of wood, or any quantity of wood, when
set fire to, is capable of being burned entirely away, with the
exception of a small—almost insignificant—residue of white ash
which is left. [Holding up a piece of burning wood.] This
white ash is spoken of as the mineral matter of the wood, from
the circumstance of its being of the same nature as the matter of
which our most common rocks and minerals are composed; whereas
that portion of the wood which burns away is called the organic
matter of the wood, from its being the matter of which the living,
growing plant, with its different parts or organs, is mainly con
stituted. Now, when a piece of wood is exposed to the action of
heat—by being thrust into the fire, for example—it gives off gases,
and these gases, taking fire, bum with flame. A short time back
Professor Roscoe showed you that when coal was heated in the
bowl of a tobacco pipe, it gave off inflammable gases which might
be burnt at the other end of the pipe; and, in the same manner
that the coal when heated gave off inflammable gases, so also this
wood, when heated, gives off inflammable gases ; and when we
say, in ordinary language, that a piece of wood is burning with
flame, our language is not strictly correct; we should rather say
that the heated wood gives off gases, and that those gases burn with
flame,—and they burn with flame you perceive on the surface of the
wood where they are discharged into the air, much in the same
manner that the gas of the coal heated in the tobacco pipe burnt at
�5°
the other end of the pipe where it was discharged into the
air. Now you will observe that where the piece of wood is
subjected to heat, and more particularly where it is subjected to
the hot flame of tfie burning gases surrounding it, it becomes
blackened, or charred, or converted into charcoal. And the
point of interest in connection with this charring process is
that it does not take place where the wood itself, or the
partly burnt wood, comes into contact freely with the air;
but that it takes place where the wood is separated from
the air by these burning gases. Where the wood is subjected to
the heat of the burning gases, or to heat of any kind, and is kept
out of contact with the air by the burning gases, or by some other
means, there it becomes charred or converted into charcoal. But
where the gases are burnt out, the charred residue, now left in
contact with the air, quickly disappears, leaving only the white
ash of which we spoke a moment ago. The same principle is
made use of in the production of charcoal for manufacturing
purposes. When manufacturers want to produce charcoal, they
resort to one or other of two principal methods. One of these
methods is to heat the wood to redness in an iron box or oven,
entirely excluded from the air, with the exception of a pipe allow
ing the gases to escape; and after these gases have been driven
off through the pipe, nothing is found left in the iron box or oven
but a quantity of charcoal. Another way of making charcoal
consists in piling the wood up into a large heap, and setting fire to
it. By this means the outside wood, in contact with the air, gets
burnt away to a greater or less extent; but the inside wood, being
simply heated by the burning which is taking place upon the out
side of the heap, does not get burnt away, but gives off its
gases which bum on the outside; and what is left in the inside is
this substance—charcoal, produced by the action of heat upon
wood out of the access of air. Now if you examine a piece oi
charcoal obtained in one or other of these ways, and compare it
with the wood out of which it was produced, you will observe
that in the conversion of a particular piece of wood into a cor
responding piece of charcoal, there has been an appreciable
shrinking or loss of bulk; so that the resulting charcoal is consider
ably less in size than the original wood. It is also very much less
in weight than the original wood ; or, in the course of the process
of its manufacture, there has been a certain shrinking in bulk, and
a very much greater diminution oi weight. But you will observe that
the resulting charcoal presents exactly the form Oi the original piece
of wood ; so that yuo can recognise in it the stem and
�51
branches and knots of the wood, the bark, and the pith, and even
the longitudinal fibres and concentric laminae of which the wood
was constituted. From the circumstance, then, of charcoal, having
these characters, being produced from wood by the driving
away of certain of its component parts, so as to leave the charcoal
behind, we come to the conclusion that wood is a substance
partly composed of charcoal; or in other words, that charcoal is
one of the constituents of wood.
But the charcoal obtained from wood is not itself a pure
substance; it is contaminated, for instance, with the ashes of the
wood; and, accordingly, when we burn the charcoal away these
ashes are left as a white residue. In its pure state the black com
bustible matter of the charcoal is known by the name of “ carbon,”
and we say accordingly that charcoal is an impure form of carbon.
Now this substance, “carbon,” in its pure state, is what chemists
call a “ simple substance,” that is to say, a substance which they
have not yet succeeded in breaking up, or resolving into two or
more different kinds of substance. Wood, on the contrary, is a
compound substance; and, when subjected to the action of heat,
breaks up into charcoal, which remains behind, and certain
gaseous products which are driven off. We take away something
from the wood which is not wood, and thereby leave charcoal.
But with regard to this substance—charcoal, or rather with
regard to carbon in its pure state,—we cannot take anything away
from it but carbon, and we cannot alter it in any way by the
taking away of something from it, so as to leave anything but
carbon. It is a substance which we may alter by adding some
thing else to it—by combining something else with it—but which we
cannot alter by taking anything else away from it. Therefore, in
practical effect, if not in actual fact, carbon is a simple substance.
It is a substance which has not yet been decomposed, and is not,
so far as our present knowledge goes, decomposable into two or
more different kinds of substance.
Now charcoal is not only a constituent of wood, but also
of hay and corn, and indeed of vegetable produce generally.
[A bundle of hay and a glass jar of corn were exhibited
on the platform.] You know that hay has the property of under
going by itself, under certain conditions, a process of heating,
which sometimes results in its actually taking fire; and on cutting
into a haystack, it is not an uncommon occurrence to find the
interior portion of the stack completely charred by the heating
which has taken place. Much in the same manner, then, that
wood charcoal is produced by the heating of wood in heaps, pur
�52
posely set fire to—so is hay charcoal produced by the spontaneous
heating of hay in haystacks; access oi air to the interior being,
in both cases, more or less completely prevented. And in the
same way, if we take wheat grain and expose it to the action of
heat, out o; access of air, we get the grains completely charred or
converted into charcoal. Here we have some wheat charcoal,
presenting the lorm of the original grains of wheat—just as wood
charcoal and hay charcoal present the forms of the original wood
and hay respectively.
But it is important, in reference to the rest of the story I have
to tell you this evening, that we should know, not only that
vegetable produce—wood, and hay and corn—contain charcoal, but
that we should be able also to form some notion of the amount of
charcoal or carbon which they contain.
Now it is round that pure dry woody matter contains very
nearly half its weight of carbon. It contains in reality 45 parts in.
100, or, as we say, 45 per cent. If it contained 50 parts in 100,
that would be exactly half its weight; but it does not contain
quite this, but only 45 instead of 50 parts in 100. Now, if we
pass from the consideration of pure woody matter to the con
sideration of other forms of vegetable produce, such for instance,
as starch, of which here is a specimen, we find that starch
contains exactly the same proportion of charcoal as woody matter;
and that sugar, of which here is a specimen, contains very nearly
the same proportion. Only a few lectures back, Professor Roscoe
showed you that when sugar was acted upon by a certain
chemical agent, it underwent a great swelling up, and became
changed into a black spongy mass of charcoal, one of the
constituent parts of the original sugar. And the proportion
of charcoal, I repeat, in starch and sugar, is the same or very
nearly the same as the proportion in pure woody matter.
But we are acquainted with other vegetable substances which
contain a much larger proportion of charcoal; such substances,
for instance, as rosin and turpentine, and the oils expressed
uom seeds and fruits, as linseed oil, cabbage seed oil, and olive
oil, &c. All these substances contain a much larger propor
tion of carbon than is contained in wood; and when they
are set on fire, the smoke or soot they evolve in burning is some
evidence to you of the large proportion of carbon which they
originally contained. Now, just as certain vegetable products con
tain more carbon than wood, so there are other products which
contain less; and among these I may reier to the different acids,, or
sour substances, which are iound more particularly in the juices of
�53
unripe fruit There, for example, is a fine specimen of tartaric
ac’d—an acid which exists in the juice of the grape, and is pro
duced on a large scale, in wine-growing countries, in the process of
converting the juice of the grape into wine. In the same way
we meet with citric acid in the juice of lemons, and other
vegetable acids in other vegetable juices. Now all these vegetable
acids contain a smaller proportion of carbon than is contained in
wood. But having regard to the fact that the great mass of vege
table produce is composed of woody matter, or of substances such
as starch and sugar, having substantially the same composition as
wood ; and having regard further to the circumstance that, of other
vegetable products, some of them contain a larger and some of
them a smaller proportion of carbon than is contained in wood, it
results that the amount of carbon contained in woody matter may
be taken as a fair representative of the amount of carbon con
tained in vegetable produce generally, viewed as a whole. We
may say, then, that the dry organic substance of a growing plant
contains on an average about 45 parts in 100, or rather less
than half of its weight of charcoal
Now it is found that on an acre of meadow land, or arable land,
or wood land, there are produced in the course of a single season
several thousand pounds weight of vegetable produce, con
taining not unfrequently as much as two thousand pounds weight
of charcoal; while the charcoal of an average crop may be taken
at over 1,600 pounds, or nearly three-quarters of a ton per acre. In
illustration of the large quantities of vegetable matter, and of its
constituent carbon, produced annually on an acre of land,l et me
call your attention to the table before you, which shows the
numbers deduced by Messrs. Lawes & Gilbert, from their many
determinations of the quantities and compositions of actual crops
of wheat, barley, and oats, as representing the average weights of
produce obtained under the ordinary system of rotation of crops
and moderately good farming.
Wheat.
Gross produce...............
Dry organic matter.......
Carbon...........................
Barley.
4,800
3,869
1,734
4,5 80
3,7U
1,663
1o 1 Pouhds
3,328 r per acre.
L495 )
From results obtained then, on Mr. Lawes’ experimental farm at
Rothamstead—a farm conducted for the purpose of knowledge
and not for the purpose of profit—Mr. Lawes and Dr. Gilbert
have arrived at the conclusion that, taking one year with another,
the average weight of wheat, including grain and straw, produced
�54
from an acre of land in a single season, amounts to 4,800 pounds.
But the gross produce, as it is removed from the land, still contains,
although seemingly dry, a considerable proportion of water; and
if from the weight of gross produce there be deducted the weight of
water which it contains, and if from the resulting weight of perfectly
dry substance there be further deducted the weight of mineral
matter or ash which it yields when burnt, there will be left 3,869
pounds as the weight of dry organic matter, and 1,734 pounds as
weight of carbon contained in this organic matter. Similarly
with regard to barley, the average weight of dry organic matter is
3,714 pounds per acre, including 1,663 pounds of carbon; while
with regard to oats, the average weight of dry organic matter
is 3,328 pounds per acre, including 1,495 °f carbon. From
results of this kind then, obtained in the cultivation of ordinary
crops grown in a single season, you may form some notion
of the large amounts of charcoal or carbon accumulated somehow in vegetable produce. And when we pass to the consideration of
vegetation, not as we see it here, but as it manifests itself in the
luxurious growth of tropical climates, the amounts of produce, and
consequently of carbon contained in the produce, become yet more
astounding. The celebrated naturalist and traveller, Humboldt,
among his experiences in South America, records the existence there
of forests so huge and so thick that monkeys might run on the tops
of the trees for a hundred miles in a straight line, without a single
break. And the millions of tons of dry wood, capable of
being furnished by these forests, are composed, we know, to the
extent of nearly half their weight, of charcoal I You perceive,
then, that the growing plant, whether large or small, tree of the ,
forest or grass of the field, may be regarded by us simply as a
contrivance for producing carbon.
Reverting once more to the case of crops that are grown in a
single season, it is evident that we remove from the land at the
end of the season, several thousand pounds weight of vegetable
produce which did not exist in the form of vegetable produce a
few short months previously. Nevertheless the actual substance, or
weight of matter, constituting this produce must have existed
before the growth of the crop, although in a very different form.
The several thousand pounds weight of wheat and barley and
oats, grown on an acre of land in a single season, were not pro
duced out of nothing; but were produced out of many thousand
pounds weight of somethingpre-existing at the beginning of the season
in the form of certain very different kinds of matter, out of which
this matter of wheat and barley and oats was somehow constituted.
�55
In the same manner, when, in course of time, the acorn grows
into a tall oak tree, the several tons of matter, which go to compose
the woody tissue of the full-grown oak, were not produced out of
nothing, but out of many tons of matter which existed, though in
a different form, before the acorn was even planted; and which have
been accumulated, and transformed into woody matter, by the plant
or tree, during the period of its many years growth.' For the matter
or substance of which the grown oak is finally composed, was
not furnished by the acorn, but was furnished to the acorn, or
young plant springing from the acorn, by external and very
different forms of pre-existing matter. The problem then which I
wish to put to you is this—what is the external matter or substance
out of which the matter of wheat and barley and oats and hay
and wood is ultimately produced ? And more particularly, what
is the sufficiently abundant substance containing carbon, out of
which the carbon of all this vegetable produce is accumulated ? for
I need scarcely tell you that this carbon can only be got from some
substance already containing carbon. Iron, you know, can only be
produced from iron stone, or matter containing iron ; copper can
only be produced from copper ore, or matter containing copper; and
in the same way, it is evident that the carbon of vegetable produce
can only be obtained from matter containing carbon. What, then,
is the primitive matter, containing carbon, out of which, in the
course of the growth of the plant, this carbon of vegetable matter
is ultimately produced ?
It is well known that in forest lands, there exists a large
amount of rich vegetable mould, the produce mainly of the
decay of leaves; and this vegetable mould, which has received
the name of humus, is found to be exceedingly rich in carbon.
Further, richly carbonaceous vegetable matter of much the same
kind is found in a sod of grass turf; and again matter of a not
dissimilar kind is commonly added to arable land in the form of
farmyard manure. Now, until about thirty years ago, the prevalent
notion was that the carbon of vegetable produce was furnished to
the plant by the carbonaceous matter of the soil called humus, or
by matter of a similar nature. The vegetable matter of the grow
ing plant was conceived to be formed out of pre-existing vegetable
matter; and plants, like animals, were thus supposed to live upon
food more or less resembling in composition the tissues or parts
of the plants and animals respectively nourished. Now, notwith
standing the inadequacy of this notion, and notwithstanding its
discordance with well-known facts, and with facts that had been
for a long time well-known, it prevailed for very many years almost
�56
•without question. About thirty or more years ago, however, the
consideration of eminent agricultural chemists both in England
and in France was directed to this view of the subject, and very
serious doubts of its truthfulness began to be entertained. But
the notion was not ultimately exploded until the year 1840, by the
celebrated German chemist, Liebig. Now I do not propose to
take you over all the arguments which may be employed to show
inadequacy of this humus theory to account for the accumula
tion of carbon in plants; but I will direct your attention for a
short time to some of the most prominent reasons only. First
of all it is probable that in certain rich soils there does exist
an amount of humus, or such like vegetable matter containing
a quantity of carbon sufficient to furnish the crop grown
upon the soil, with the carbon j which it ultimately contains.
But this vegetable humus is exceedingly insoluble in water; and
Liebig made the curious calculation that if all the rain,, that falls
upon the land during the period of the growth of the crop, were
to remain upon the land and to dissolve as much of this humus
matter as it is capable of dissolving, so as to become thoroughly
saturated with humus ; and then, if all this water, so saturated with
humus, instead of draining away, as we know that most of it does,
and evaporating from the surface, as we know that much of it does,—
it all of this so saturated water were absorbed into the tissues
of the plants, nevertheless there could not be dissolved in
this water, and so supplied to the plant, a sufficient quantity of
humus to furnish the quantity of carbon ultimately found in the
crop. This of course does not amount to a demonstration that
the plant cannot get its carbon froip the humus of the soil; it
is only a demonstration that the plant cannot get its carbon
from this humus by the only process of absorption of which we
have any knowledge; and accordingly it comes to this, that if
plants do acquire their carbon from humus, they must get it there
from in a manner with which we are totally unacquainted.
But another argument, and a much more striking one, has reference
to the fact, that the carbon of the crop may be increased two-fold,
and even three-fold, by adding to the soil matters which contain
no carbon whatever. And this is very well shown in the table
before you, which records some more of the results of Messrs.
Lawes and Gilbert’s work at Rothamstead. This table gives an
account of experiments made on a tolerably large scale of experi
mental farming during the year 1868 and the 16 years preceding, in
the case of wheat, making 17 years altogether; for 1868 and the
16 years preceding, in the case of barley; and for 1868 and the
12 years preceding, in the case of hay:—
�1
57
Rothamstead Field Experiments, 1868.
Results in Pounds per Acre.
Gross Produce.
Wheat.
Barley.
Hay.
17 years. 17 years. IS years.
Unmanured .............. • 2,434
2,532
2,55s
Mineral Salts........
. 2,912
3,260
3,9X4
Do. + Ammonia...... • 6,394
5,821
5,92i
Farmyard Manure..... • 6,059
4,804
5,903
Dry Organic Matter.
Unmanured .......... .... 1,963
2,054
i,995
Mineral Salts.......... .... 2,347
2,645
3,053
Do. + Ammonia .. .... 5U49
4,618
4,720
—
Farmyard Manure.. .... 4,883
4,788
Carbon.
Unmanured ..........
880
920
902
Mineral Salts.......... .... 1,052
1,186
1,380
Do. + Ammonia .. .... 2,308
2,088
2,115
—
Farmyard Manure.. .... 2,183
2,341
For the purpose of these experiments, considerable strips of land
have been treated every year, each strip in exactly the same way,
for 17 years continuously, up to and including the year 1868 ; and
indeed the experiments have been similarly carried on, and with
similar results, up to the present year, 1871; and are likely to be
similarly carried, on with similar results, for a good many years yet
to come. And I would call your attention simply, as time is
getting on so rapidly, to the case of wheat. You will then be
able to make out for yourselves what were the results of the similar
experiments made with the crops of barley and hay. Messrs.
Lawes and Gilbert have found that, taking the average of these
17 years, the gross amount of produce removed from an acre
of continuously unmanured land, in the case of wheat, was
2,434 lbs., and that when from this gross produce they sub
tracted the amounts of water it contained, and of ash which
it yielded, there remained 1,963 pounds of dry organic matter;
and when they came to analyse these 1,963 pounds of dry
organic matter, they found them to contain 880 pounds of
carbon. And this, mind, is the average produce of 17 years con
tinuous growth of wheat, on land to which nothing whatever was
added. Now to a similar strip of land Messrs. Lawes & Gilbert
added every year a certain quantity of mineral matter, correspond
�58
ing to the ashes yielded by each successive crop removed ; and on
the strip so treated, the amount of gross produce was found to be
increased from 2,434 pounds to 2,912 pounds, the amount of dry
organic matter to be increased from 1,963 pounds to 2,347 pounds;
and the amount of carbon to be increased from 880 pounds to 1,052
pounds. Now to another slip of land they added year by year
exactly the same quantity of mineral matter, and in addition, a
considerable quantity of ammonia salts,—the ammonia salts and
mineral matter being alike absolutely free from carbonaceous
organic matter. And in the case of this strip, they found that the
amount of gross produce was increased to the surprising extent of
6,394 pounds, while the amount of dry organic matter was increased
to 5,149 pounds, and the amount of carbon to 2,308 pounds.
These results, you will observe, are fully as high—in most cases
indeed somewhat higher—than are results obtained on a fourth
strip of land, supplied year by year with an abundance of farm-yard
manure, containing not only the mineral matter and ammonia
added to the third strip, but rich also, as you know, in carbonaceous
organic matter. It is inconceivable then that the plant should
acquire its carbon from these organic matters of the soil,
seeing that the amount of carbon in. the crop may be increased
twofold and in some cases nearly threefold, by adding to the
soil substances such as mineral salts and ammonia which
are entirely free from organic matter.
And this table further illustrates another point. We have
admitted that the amount of humus or carbonaceous vegetable
matter existing in the soil, might in some cases be sufficient to
furnish the organic matter and the carbon for a single year’s crop;
but you observe that these 880 lbs. represent the average amount
of carbon which has been produced for 17 years, and up to the
present time, 21 years in succession; and which now seems to
undergo from year to year no appreciable decrease. So that,
although it is conceivable that the amount of humus in the soil might
furnish the amount of carbon contained in a single crop, it is
quite inconceivable that the original humus in the soil could
furnish the carbon contained in a succession of crops for 17 years
consecutively, and for the several years beyond that to which the
experiment has now been carried, and for the indefinite number
of years to which it will continue to be carried.
A still more cogent argument against this notion of the origin
of the carbon of vegetation directly from organic matter in the soil,
is afforded by the fact, established both by experiments specially
made, and by the observation of nature, that plants and crops
�59
have been, and in many cases habitually are, grown upon soils
which are either absolutely free, or which are practically, and to all
intents and purposes, free from organic vegetable matter. Very
many such experiments have been made by the French chemist,
Boussingault, who has grown plants from seeds in artificially
prepared soils, which had been subjected to a red heat, and from
which the whole of the organic carbonaceous vegetable matter
had been so removed and burned away; and yet the plants have
not only grown in these soils, but have thriven and arrived
at maturity. It is found, moreover, that many plants flourish
best, in a state of nature, upon soils which, if not like the experi
mental soils of Boussingault, absolutely free from organic matter,
are yet to all intents and purposes free. Thus, according to
Darwin, rich harvests of maize are yielded in the interior of Chili
and Peru by soils consisting of the merest quicksand, never
enriched by manure. According to Colonel Campbell, the soil of
the cinnamon gardens at Colombo, and where else the tree is
cultivated, is pure quartz sand, as white as snow. Dr. Schleiden,
again, observes that the oil palms of the western coast of Africa
are grown in moist sea-sand; and that from the year 1821 to the
year 1830, there were exported, as produce of these palm-trees,
into England alone, 107,118,000 lbs. of palm oil, containing 76
million lbs. or 32 thousand tons of carbon; these thousands of
tons of carbon being furnished by trees grown in a soil that was
practically free from organic or carbonaceous matter of any
kind whatever.
The only further argument with which I will trouble you is
based on the observation that when plants are grown upon soils
actually containing organic vegetable matter, so far from this
vegetable matter in the soil being used up or decreased by any
feeding of plants upon it, it is very much increased; so that the
more vegetation we get from the surface the more humus we get
accumulated in the soil; and we say, therefore, that so far from
humus being the cause of vegetation, vegetation, on the contrary,
is the cause of humus—the humus being produced chiefly by the
decay of matter formed by vegetation.
I think, then, I have now brought before you, not all the
arguments which might be adduced, but a sufficient number of
them to satisfy you that the quantities of carbon accumulated
in the crop or tree are not derived from carbonaceous matter
existing in the soil; and seeing, in this way, that the solid substance
of the earth does not suffice to furnish the carbon required, our atten
tion is next directed to the liquid water which falls upon the earth,
�6o
as a possible source of all this carbon. Nowwater—pure water, that
is to say—is a substance which itself contains no carbon,and there
fore cannot furnish any carbon to the plant. But certain natural
waters are found to contain carbon in small quantity. For
instance, the drainage water of peat bogs, and land-drainage water
in general, contains a certain amount of carbonaceous organic
matter derived from the land; but we have already seen that the
land does not contain enough of this organic matter to furnish the
carbon of vegetation directly, and cannot therefore furnish it
indirectly through the intervention of water, taking up organic
matter from the land.
But we find that rain water does contain carbon derived
from another source. The rain, in falling through the air,
acquires different impurities or additions from the air; and
more especially it takes up a certain carbonaceous constituent of
the air, on which I shall have to dwell more particularly in a
minute or two’s time. And I am not merely speaking of the rain
which has fallen in great cities like this, and has so become con
taminated with the carbonaceous soot and smoke of imperfectly
burnt coal; but I am speaking of rain wherever it falls, whetheron
land or ocean, in town or country, at the end of a period of
drought when the air is foul, as at the end of a period of wet, when
it has been washed clean by continuous showers. Pure water I
have said, is quite free from carbon in any form whatever. But
all water that has been left in contact with the air, and especially
water that has been condensed from and fallen through the air,
contains, in small proportion, a particular definite compound of
carbon, namely, carbonic acid, very different indeed in its nature
from the indefinite compounds of carbon we have hitherto spoken
of under the name of humus and vegetable organic matter. .
In this way our attention is necessarily directed to the air as a
possible source of all the millions of tons of carbon that are
accumulated in forest trees and annual crops, growing on
extensive areas of land. And although at first sight it must
strike us all as being improbable — scarcely, we should think,
possible — that any such quantity of solid earbon could be got
from the fresh, transparent, intangible, fleeting air, yet, when we
consider that upon setting fire to a heap of wood, or of the char
coal produced from wood, and letting it go on burning, it is
mainly resolved into matters which are dispersed into the air, and
are themselves aerial, we begin to perceive that the improbability
is not in reality so great as at first it appears. When we burn,
however large a quantity of wood, or of the charcoal produced
�6i
from wood, there is nothing, you know, left behind but an insig
nificant quantity of ashes; there is no solid body formed; there
is no liquid body formed; there is nothing but an aerial body
formed, which is discharged into the air.
Now this aerial
body used actually to be called air—fixed air, to distinguish it
from ordinary atmospheric air — but is now-a-days called car
bonic acid gas. This carbonic acid gas is possessed of many very
curious properties, and is more especially characterised by two
properties, to which I am desirous of calling your attention. The
first of these is the property which it has of extinguishing
the flame of any burning body. On introducing a lighted gas
jet into this bottle of carbonic acid gas, the flame, you observe, is
at once extinguished. [An experiment illustrated this fact.]
Another property of carbonic acid gas is the property it has of
combining with lime, to produce carbonate of lime, or chalk. Now
lime is a substance which dissolves in water to form a clear trans
parent liquid; but chalk is a substance that will not dissolve in
water. You may observe, when you go to the sea-side, that the
sea-salt remains dissolved in the water, while the sea-sand remains
undissolved upon the shore. Now lime, like salt, dissolves in
water, though, indeed, to a much less extent than salt, to furnish
a perfectly bright solution known as lime-water. Chalk, on the
other hand, like sand, is a substance which does not dissolve in
water, but remains simply mixed up with it for a time, in
the form of a white milky opaque liquid. The property,
then, which carbonic acid has of combining with lime to produce
chalk, is manifested to you in this way—that upon adding our
clear lime water to the carbonic acid in the bottle, carbonate
of lime or chalk is formed, and this chalk, not being soluble
in water, is deposited so as to form the milky liquid which
you see we have now produced. [Experiment made.] This other
bottle also contains carbonic acid, but mixed with a considerable
excess of air; so that in this case, there is not a sufficient amount
of carbonic acid present to cause the extinction of flame. When
I put in the gas-flame you see that it continues burning. But that
the bottle really does contain some carbonic acid, I can show you
by adding in this case also our lime water ; and now, on shaking
up the bottle, the lime water is at once rendered milky. You see
in this way, we have two tests for carbonic acid. When the
carbonic acid exists in a large proportion, it has the property of
rendering lime water milky and also of extinguishing the flame;
but when the proportion of carbonic acid is not sufficient to
extinguish flame, we are able, nevertheless, to recognise its presence
�62
by the property it has of converting our clear lime water into an
opaque white mixture of chalk and water.
Now I told you a few moments ago that the aerial substance
into which solid charcoal was converted, when it underwent the
process of being burnt in air, was carbonic acid gas. And,
accordingly, when I put some pieces of red hot charcoal into this
upright glass tube, through which a gentle current of air is being
blown, so as to keep the charcoal burning, and when I cause this
same air, now charged with the aerial matter furnished by the
burning charcoal, to bubble up through lime water, you perceive
the lime water is quickly rendered milky, showing you the forma
tion of carbonate of lime or chalk, a substance producible only
from lime by the addition of carbonic acid to it. [Experiment
made.]
I want next to call your attention for a moment to what takes
place in the act of burning. Ordinary atmospheric air consists
substantially of two distinct kinds of air or gas—one is called
nitrogen and the other oxygen. Now when our charcoal or carbon
burns in the open air, or in the tube through which we are blowing
a current of air, that carbon enters into combination with the
oxygen of the air, and forms a compound of oxygen and carbon,
which is, indeed, sometimes called oxide of carbon, but more
commonly, as I have said, carbonic acid. If, instead of burning
our carbon in the air, which contains only one-fifth of its bulk of
oxygen, we burn it in pure oxygen, it burns with greatly increased
brilliancy, but furnishes exactly the same product, namely, car
bonic acid. Here we have the chalk, which we produced a
moment ago, by taking lime water and adding to it the carbonic
acid we made by combining our carbon or charcoal with the
oxygen of the air; and here we have some charcoal that is
already ignited; and on passing the pure oxygen gas over it, you
observe the very greatly increased brilliancy with which, under
these circumstances, it bums. We next cause the air which is
left by this burning of the charcoal in oxygen, to bubble up through
lime water; and the abundant presence in it of oxide of carbon, or
carbonic acid gas, is at once manifested to you by the immediate
deposition of carbonate of lime or chalk. [Experiment made.] I
venture to impress upon your attention the fact that carbonic acid
gas is a compound of the solid substance carbon with the aerial
or gaseous substance oxygen; and that when carbon or charcoal
burns in ordinary air, it unites with the oxygen of the air to form
the aerial substance, carbonic acid gas, which is discharged into
the air.
�Now, if we reflect for a minute or two, we shall see that inasmuch
as wood and charcoal, and I may add coal (although we are not
talking about coal on the present occasion), when they are burned,
produce the aerial substance, oxide of carbon, or carbonic acid;
and inasmuch as they discharge this carbonic acid into the air; it
is a matter of necessity that the air itself should contain some
carbon in this particular form. And not only is it a matter of
necessity that it must contain, but it is also a matter of easy ex
perimental demonstration that it actually does contain this aerial
compound of carbon, namely, carbonic acid. One rough way of
establishing the fact is this :—If we take some clear, transparent,
colourless lime water, and pour it into a dish, and expose it to the
air for several hours, the top layer of the lime water in contact
with the air, gradually becomes converted into an opaque white
scum of chalk; and chalk, we know, is producible only from
lime, by the acquisition of carbonic acid, which can in this case
have been acquired from no other source than from the air with
which the surface of lime water was in contact. That the air,
then, must contain some carbonic acid is a matter of argument:
and that it does contain some is a matter of experimental fact.
But although the air does, beyond question, contain carbon in
the form of carbonic acid, the proportion that it contains is exceed
ingly small; as you may infer from the length of time we
require to keep lime water exposed to the air, in order for it to
acquire a thick scum; and from the circumstances that we
may even blow a current of air through lime water for a con
siderable time, without producing any sensible effect. [Further
experiments.] We are now blowing ordinary air through this
lime water; and I might go on blowing for a great length of
time, before I should get any appreciable turbidity. This shows
you that although the air does contain carbonic acid, it must
contain it in an exceedingly small proportion. We require, then, to>
know what this proportion is. Now it is found that the amount of
carbonic acid gas in the open air varies within a certain range, but
that it amounts on the average to somewhat less than one-half
part in a thousand parts by volume: or we may say more ac
curately that it constitutes four parts in ten thousand. Here the
composition of the air is written up :—
COMPOSITION OF AIR.
| Oxygen..
4 Nitrogen
Carbonic acid
790
nearly
> Parts per 1000,
�64
Nitrogen gas 790 parts, or about four-fifths; oxygen 210 parts, or
about one-fifth; and carbonic acid gas not quite one-half part.
If it contained exactly one-half part, that would of course be five
parts, instead of only four parts, in 10,000. Now the expression of
four parts in 10,000 does not convey a very definite idea to the
mind, but I may perhaps render it more definite to you in this way.
Imagine four farthings among ten thousand farthings, or, what comes
to the same thing, imagine one penny piece among two thousand five
hundred penny pieces. If you were to take 2,500 penny pieces
and pile them on the top of each other you would produce a
column of pence some 15 or 16 feet high—about as high as this
rod, and considerably more than twice the height of the tallest
man in the room—and if from such a pile of 2,500 pence
you were to remove one penny, that would represent to you
the bulk of carbonic acid gas contained in a similar column of
air : that is, the one part of carbonic acid in 2,500 parts of air,
or, of course, four parts of carbonic acid in 10,000 of air.
But although the proportion is exceedingly small, a little con
sideration will suffice to show us that the absolute quantity is
exceedingly great. I have said that the proportion is four parts
of carbonic acid in 10,000. Now, consider for a moment what
is the quantity existing in the air of a moderately sized room.
A room 25 feet long, 25 feet broad, and 16 feet high, would hold
io,oco cubic feet of air, containing, of course, four cubic feet of
carbonic acid gas. And these four cubic feet of carbonic acid gas
would weigh 2,465 grains, and contain 607 grains of charcoal—
that is to say, the quantity of charcoal I now hold in my
hand (about the size of an egg). This Town Hall holds, in
round numbers, about 150,000 cubic feet of air, and, con
sequently, the amount of carbonic acid contained in it will
be fifteen times four, or 60 cubic feet; and the amount of charcoal
contained in this carbonic acid will be fifteen times 607 grains,
or the weight of the bundle of charcoal, considerably more than a
pound and a quarter, I now hold in my hand. And when we pass
from the consideration of the air in rooms, small or large, to the
consideration of the air pressing everywhere upon the surface
of the earth, we shall get to results great almost beyond concep
tion. You know that the weight of air overlying every square
inch of the earth’s surface is 15 lbs., and that this is what we mean
by saying, as we commonly do, that the atmospheric pressure is
15 lbs. on the square inch. Now, 15 lbs. on the square inch is
2,160 lbs. on the square foot; so that every square foot of the
earth’s surface has overlying it 2,160 lbs. of air, and these
�65
2,160 lbs. of air contain about 1| lbs. of carbonic acid gas,
equivalent to very nearly halt a pound of carbon. I showed
you a few minutes ago that there are produced, in many
cases, from an acre of land, some 2,000 lbs. of carbon in a
single season. Now, reckoning from feet to acres, we find that
not merely at the first instant of the growth of the crop, but that
during every instant of the period of its growth—at the end no less
than at the beginning—there is overlying the acre of land furnishing
those 2,000 lbs. of carbon some 20,000 lbs. of carbon in the form of
carbonic acid, existing, though in such small proportion, in the air.
Calculating in this way, we find that the amount of carbon existing
in the atmosphere, in the form of carbonic acid gas, is not only
enormous in its absolute quantity, but that it is far in excess of
the wants of vegetation, and far in excess, moreover, of the quan
tities of carbon contained in all living beings, both plants and
animals, existing on the surface of the earth, and in inflammable
carbonaceous minerals, such as coal, which exist buried beneath
the surface.
In this way, then, we come to the conclusion that by their
contact with the air, plants are at any rate afforded the
opportunity of getting that carbon, which constitutes so large a
proportion of their structure. The question now is, do they avail
themselves of the opportunity afforded them—do they actually
absorb carbonic acid gas from the atmosphere, and extract the
carbon of the gas which they absorb. Now, the evidence on this
point dates from the latter end of the last century; when it was
ascertained by the older chemical philosophers, and more particu
larly Dr. Priestley, and by Saussure and Sennebier, that when
growing plants are exposed, under the influence of sunlight, to air
containing carbonic acid, they do as a matter of fact absorb some
of this carbonic acid; and, that having absorbed it, they do not
discharge it again into the air, but instead discharge only its one
constituent oxygen; the necessary inference being that its other
constituent, carbon, is retained in their tissues. 'Here you
have an imitation of one of these early experiments, showing
the removal of carbonic acid from, and the restoration of oxygen
to, a confined amount of air, by means of a fresh sprig of mint or
parsley. [Experiment.] Of late years, the subject has been
investigated with great care and elaboration by the French
chemist Boussingault, who has shown not merely that plants
have this property of absorbing carbonic acid from the air,
and of discharging the constituent oxygen of the gas into
the air and retaining the constituent carbon of the gas in
�66
their tissues, but that they do this with extreme rapidity. The
mode of experimenting which he adopted is illustrated to you
here. Taking a growing plant, such as this, he enclosed one
or more branches of the plant in a glass vessel, and through
that glass vessel passed a current of air, which was subjected
to analysis both before and after its passage through the vessel.
[Experiment to show the process of sucking air through a globe
holding the branch of a growing plant.]
I cannot trouble you at this late hour with the details of his
experiments, but will call your attention only to one or two of the
results. In the case of some oleander leaves, enclosed in a glass
globe of this kind, he found, by measuring the leaves and analyzing
the air passing over them, that under exposure to sunlight, there
was an absorption of carbonic acid from the air at the rate of 56^
cubic inches, or a fixation of carbon at the rate of 11| grains per
hour, per square yard of leaf surface exposed, showing the extreme
rapidity with which the absorption of carbonic acid from the air
and the retention of its carbon actually took place. Moreoyer, he
made a great number of other experiments, that I cannot refer to
in detail, which established not merely the general fact that plants
can absorb carbonic acid gas from the air, and can discharge
the oxygen and retain the carbon of the gas so absorbed; but,
operating with seeds, and more particularly with peas and vetches,
and growing them in artificial soils quite free from carbon, he
found that the entire weight of the carbon ultimately accumulated
in the grown plant was identical with the weight of carbon con
tained in the carbonic acid gas which the growing plant had
absorbed from, and the oxygen of which alone it had discharged
back into the atmosphere. In this way, then, Boussingault
established the important fact that plants acquire their carbon
from the carbonic acid of the abundant ever-changing air, in which
they are grown.
We have thus considered the source from which the carbon of
vegetation is obtained. But we have yet another point to consider,
and that is—what becomes of it ? Now, a little consideration, I
think, will show you, that just as the carbon of vegetation is
produced from the aerial substance, carbonic acid gas, so the
destiny, if I may so say, of the carbon of vegetation is to be recon
verted into this same aerial substance. First of all, let us see
what becomes of the most abundant of vegetable products, namely,
wood. You know that a great deal of fresh wood is put to no
intermediate use, but is at once chopped up for the fire ; and when
this wood is burned, its carbon combines with the oxygen of the
�67
from the lungs in the act of respiration. Another portion gets
accumulated in his body, whereby it is fattened and rendered fit
to become the food of the flesh feeder. And when the flesh-feeding
animal eats up the bodies of the vegetable feeders, their vegetablederived fat and lean that becomes assimilated in his body is
found to suffer there a speedy oxidation. Store animals, intended
for food, increase gradually in weight; but hard-working animals,
whether vegetable feeders like the horse, or mixed feeders like
ourselves, or animal feeders like the hound, go on eating day
after day, year after year, without any sensible increase of bodily
weight—the carbonaceous matter of the food continually eaten,
sufficing only to replace that continually destroyed in the
process of gradual oxidation or burning away to which the
substance bf our blood and tissues is ever subjected, in order
that the temperature and activity of our bodies may be main
tained. Accordingly, we find the air expired from the lungs
of both vegetable and animal feeders, to be charged with
carbonic acid, produced by the oxidation of carbonaceous
organic matter—furnished directly or indirectly by the vege
table kingdom, out of aerial carbonic acid, and restored by
the animal back into the same carbonic acid. On breathing into
this lime water for a little time [Experiment made] we have shortly
a dense milky deposit of carbonate of lime, or chalk, produced—the carbonic acid, thus serving to convert the lime into chalk, being
supplied by the' oxidation within our bodies of carbonaceous
organic matter, accumulated in the first instance by the growing
vegetable. So that in the case of food consumed in our bodies,
as in the case of wood consumed on our fires, the carbon ot
vegetable produce is directly or indirectly converted back intc
the aerial carbonic acid from which it was originally formed.
I
need only detain you a few minutes longer. When we burn char
coal in the fire, it evolves in the act of burning a considerable
amount of heat The temperature produced in this way varies
considerably, accordingly to circumstances. We may have a fire
in which the charcoal is just glowing, and the temperature com
paratively low—hardly sufficient to raise a piece of metal to a
visible red heat; and with another quantity of charcoal on the fire,
urged by the blast of powerful bellows, we may obtain an intense
degree of temperature, capable Oi melting that most difficultly
fusible metal—wrought iron. Now, whether we obtain a high
or a low degree of temperature depends mainly upon the
rapidity with which we burn the charcoal. If we take a quan
tity of charcoal and burn it away slowly, it gives out its
�68
air, and is so re-converted into carbonic acid. Again, a considerable
quantity of wood is manufactured into charcoal, and this charcoal
is then burned and so converted into carbonic acid. And with regard
to the diverse applications of wood, we know that much of it is made
into furniture, and that this furniture does not last for ever, but finds
its way from the best rooms to the attics, and at last to the fireplace.
Wood is also used for the building of ships, and in the construc
tion of houses ; but in course of time, the ships get broken up, and
the houses get pulled down, and the wood of both ships and houses
becomes ultimately sold for firewood, and then the carbon of
this wood gets burnt into the very carbonic acid from which
it was long years before produced. In other cases, the wood
or woody matter, although it never undergoes a process of actual
burning, nevertheless undergoes an equivalent process of oxidation.
At the present season, or but very recently, we had large falls oi
autumn leaves, and those leaves are still accumulated in many
places, and undergoing not burning but decay. Now the process
of decay consists really in a slow combination of the carbon of
the leaves with the oxygen of the air, whereby carbonic acid is
produced. Here we have some fallen leaves in a flask; the air
of which you will find is now sufficiently charged with carbonic
acid gas, produced by the union of the carbon of the decaying
leaves with the oxygen of the original air, as to be no longer
capable of maintaining the flame of a taper or gas jet. [Experi
ment.] The moment I introduce the taper you see that its flame
is at once extinguished. Here again we have some sawdust
which is undergoing the same process. ’The moist sawdust
gradually undergoes decay; whereby the oxygen of the air is
gradually absorbed and the carbon of the sawdust gradually
converted into carbonic acid, so that the flame of the taper is in
this case also at once extinguished. [Experiment.] And, indeed,
woody matter of all kinds exposed to the weather, to the action,
that is, of air and water, gradually undergoes decay or oxidation,
and, if left to itself, crumbles away, and in course of time,
disappears altogether, being converted into the invisible aerial
matter carbonic acid.
When we pass from the consideration of wood to that of the
hay and grain eaten by different classes of animals, and mark what
becomes of all this food, we shall find that so much of it as is both
eaten and made part of the blood and substance of the vegetable
feeding animal, undergoes one or other of two principal changes.
A large portion of it gets oxidised in the body of the vegetable
feeder, with production of carbonic acid, discharged principally
�69
heat over a length of time, and at no one instant is there a
very high degree of temperature; but if we take that same
quantity of charcoal and, setting it on fire, burn it rapidly
away, we get a very high degree of temperature; soothat the
degree of temperature produced by the burning of charcoal
depends upon the quantity of charcoal that is burned within a
limited space and time. But if we take any quantity of charcoal,
say an ounce, and burn it in one case very slowly, and in another
case very quickly, and do this in a vessel surrounded on all sides
by water, so that all the heat produced in the hour say, or in the
few minutes, shall be taken up and retained in the water, we shall
find that the quantity of heat imparted to the water is exactly the
same in both cases. So that whether we burn the charcoal
quickly, so as to get a high temperature, or bum it slowly, so as to
get a low temperature, the quantity of heat which that charcoal
produces in burning, as measured by the quantity of water it is
capable of heating through a given rise of temperature is exacty
the same in both cases. And this is true, not only when we actually
burn charcoal upon a fire, but in all cases of the conversion of carbon
or charcoal into carbonic acid, by the act of oxidation. And
indeed the temperature of our own bodies is maintained in a great
measure by the slow oxidation, or quasi-combustion of carbon
aceous matter going on within us. Whether, then, we burn our
charcoal in an open fire rapidly, so as to produce a high tempera
ture, or whether we burn it in our bodies slowly, so as
to produce a low temperature, we find that for so much
carbon converted into carbonic acid, there is exactly the
same quantity of heat produced. For example—In burning one
ounce of charcoal into about 3I ounces of carbonic acid, a
quantity of heat is evolved, sufficient to raise the temperature of
100 pounds, or 10 gallons of water ten degrees; and this, whether
the act of burning takes place quickly or slowly, with production of
a high or of a low degree of temperature. N ow it is a well-established
law in chemistry, established, I mean, by the careful examination
of a great number of instances, that whenever heat is given out by
the act of combination, as of charcoal and oxygen to produce
carbonic acid, exactly the same quantity of heat is absorbed in
the corresponding act of separation, as of charcoal and oxygen,
out of carbonic acid. The conversion of carbon into carbonic
acid, on the fire, is a burning process, attended with the evolution
of heat. The conversion of carbonic acid into carbon and
oxygen, in the tissues of a growing plant under the influence of
the sun’s rays, is an unburning nrocess attended, not with an
�7°
evolution of heat, but with an absorption of heat from the solar
rays : and it follows that there is just as much disappearance of
solar heat in the production of the charcoal, as there is evolution
of heat in the ultimate combustion of the charcoal produced. So
that, you see, the quantity of heat which the charcoal eventually
gives out in burning on the fire, is the exact equivalent of the
quantity of solar heat which disappeared in the act of growth of
the wood, from which the charcoal furnishing our fire was
obtained.
�SCIENCE
LECTURES FOR
THE
PEOPLE.
THIRD SERIES—1871.
THE UNCONSCIOUS ACTION OF THE BRAIN.
A LECTURE
BY
DR.
CARPENTER,
Registrar of the University
of
F.R.S.,
London.
Delivered in the Httlnie Town Hall, Manchester, December 1st, 187r.
Many of you, I doubt not, will remember that I had the pleasure
of addressing you in this hall some months ago, with reference to
researches which I had a share in carrying on into the Depths off
the Ocean; when I endeavoured to give you some insight into the
conditions of the sea bottom as regards temperature, pressure,
animal life, and the deposits now in process of formation upon it.
Now I am going this evening to carry you into quite a different
field of inquiry, an inquiry which I venture to think I have had
some share in myself promoting, into what goes on in the Depths;
of our own Minds. And I think I shall be able to show you that
some practical results of great value in our own mental culture, as
training and as discipline, may be deduced from this inquiry. I
shall begin with an anecdote that was related to me after a lecture
which I gave upon this subject about five years ago, at the Royal
Institution, in London. As I was coming out from the lecture
room, a gentleman stopped me and said, “A circumstance occured
recently in the North of England, which I think will interest you,
from its affording an exact illustration of the doctrine which you
have been setting forth to-night.” The illustration was so apposite,
and leads us so directly into the very heart of the inquiry,
that I shall make it, as it were, the text for the commence
ment of this evening’s lecture. The Manager of a bank in a
certain large town in Yorkshire could not find a key which gave.
access to all the safes and desks in the bank. This key was a
duplicate key, and ought to have been found in a place accessible
�only to himself and to the assistant-manager.
The assistant
manager was absent on a holiday in Wales, and the manager’s
first impression was that the key had probably been taken away
by his assistant in mistake. He wrote to him, and learned to his own
great surprise and distress that he had not got the key, and knew
nothing of it. Of course, the idea that the key, which gave access
to every valuable in the bank, was in the hands of any wrong
person, having been taken with a felonious intention, was to him
most distressing. He made search everywhere, thought of
every place in which the key might possibly be, and
could not find it.
The assistant-manager was recalled,
both he and every person in the bank were questioned,
but no one could give any idea of where the key could be.
Of course, although no robbery had taken place up to this point,
there was the apprehension that a robbery might be committed
after the storm, so to speak, had blown over, when a better oppor
tunity would be afforded by the absence of the same degree of
watchfulness. A first-class detective was then brought down from
London, and this man had every opportunity given him of making
inquiries; every person in the bank was brought up before him;
he applied all those means of investigation which a very able man
of this class know how to employ; and at last he came to the
manager and said, “ I am perfectly satisfied that no one in thebank knows anything about this lost key. You may rest assured
that you have put it somewhere yourself, and you have been
worrying yourself so much about it that you have forgotten where
you put it away. As long as you worry yourself in this manner,
you will not remember it; but go to bed to-night with the
assurance that it will be all right; get a good night’s sleep ; and
in the morning I think it is very likely you will remember where
you have put the key.” This turned out exactly as it was pre
dicted. The key was found the next morning in some extra
ordinarily secure place which the Manager had not previously
thought of, but in which he then felt sure he must have put it
himself.
Now, then, ladies and gentlemen, this you may say is merely
a remarkable case of that which we all of us are continually
experiencing; and so I say it is. Who is there among you who
has not had occasion some time or other to try to recall some
thing to his (or her) mind which he has not been able to bring
to it? He has seen some one in the street, for instance, whose
face he recognises and says, “ I ought to know that person
and
thinks who it can be, going over (it may be) his whole list of friends
�□
and acquaintances in his mind, without being able to recall who it
Is; and yet, some hours afterwards, or it may be the next day, it
flashes into his mind who this unknown person is. Or you may
want to remember some particular and recent event; or it may
be, as I have heard classical scholars say, to recall the source of
a classical quotation. They “ cudgel their brains,” to use a
common expression, and are unsuccessful; they give their minds
to something entirely different; and some hours afterwards, when
their thoughts are far away from the subject on which they had
been concentrating them with the idea of recovering this lost
clue, the thing flashes into the mind. Now this is so common
an occurrence, that we pass it by without taking particular note of
it; and yet I believe that the inquiry into the real nature of this
occurrence may lead us to understand something of the inner
mechanism of our own minds which we shall find to be very useful
to us.
There is another point, however, arising out of the story
which I have just told you, upon which again I would fix your
attention :—Why and how did the detective arrive at this assurance
from the result of his inquiries ? It was a matter of judgment based
upon long practice and experience, which had given him that kind
of insight into the characters, dispositions, and nature of the persons
who were brought before him, -which only those who have got
that faculty as an original gift, or have acquired it by very long
experience, can possess with anything like that degree of assurance
which he was able to entertain. I believe that this particular power
of the detective is, so to speak, an exaltation in a particular direc
tion of what we call “common sense.” We are continually
bringing to the test of this common sense a great number
of matters which we cannot decide by reason; a number of
matters as to which, if we were to begin to argue, there may be
so much to be said on both sides, that we may be unable to
come to a conclusion. And yet, with regard to a great many of
these subjects—some of which I shall have to discuss in my next
lecture—we consider that common sense gives us a much better
result than any elaborate discussion. Now I will give you an
illustration of this which you will all readily comprehend. Why
do we believe in an external world ? Why do I believe that I
have at present before me many hundreds of intelligent auditors,
looking up and listening to every word that I say? Why
do you believe that you are hearing me lecture ? You will say at
once that your common sense tells you. I see you ; you see and
hear me ; and I know that I am addressing you. But if once this
�4
subject is logically discussed, if once we go into it on the basis of
a pure reasoning process, it is found really impossible to construct
such a proof as shall satisfy every logician. As far as my
knowledge extends, every logician is able to pick a hole in every
other logician’s proof. Now here we have then a case obvious to
you all, in which common sense decides for us without any doubt
or hesitation at all. And I venture to use an expression upon
this point which has been quoted with approval by one of the
best logicians and metaphysicians of our time, Archbishop
Manning; who cited the words that I have used, and entirely con
curred in them, namely, that “in regard to the existence of
the external world the common-sense decision of mankind is
practically worth more than all the arguments of all the logicians
who have discussed the basis of our belief in it.” And so, again,
with regard to another point which more nearly touches our
subject to-night—the fact that we have a Will which dominates
over our actions; that we are not merely the slaves of automatic
impulse which some philosophers would make us—“ the decision
of mankind (as Archbishop Manning, applying my words, has
most truly said) derived from consciousness of the existence of
our living self or personality, whereby we think, will, or act, is
practically worth more than all the arguments of all the logicians
who- have discussed the basis of our belief in it.”
Now, then, my two points are these—What is the nature of
this process which evolves, as it were, this result unconsciously
to ourselves, when we have been either asleep, as in the case
of the banker, or, as in the other familiar case I have cited,
when we have been giving our minds to some other train of
thought in the interval? What is it that brings up spontaneously
to our consciousness a fact which we endeavoured to recall with all
the force of our will, and yet could not succeed ?
And then again:—What is the nature of this Common Sense, to
which we defer so implicitly and immediately in all the ordinary
judgments of our lives ?
Now, in order that we may have a really scientific conception
of the doctrine I would present to you, I must take you into
an inquiry with regard to some of the simpler functions of our
bodies, from which we shall rise to the simpler actions of our
minds. You all know that the Brain, using the term in its general
sense, is the organ of our Mind. That every one will admit. We
shall not go into any of the disputed questions as to the relations
of Mind and Matter; for the fact is that these are now coming to
take quite a new aspect, from Physical philosophers dwelling so much
�5
more upon Force than they do upon Matter, and on the relations
of Mind and Force, which every one is coming to recognise. Thus
when we speak of nerve-force and mind as having a most intimate
relation, no one is found to dispute it; whereas when we talk
about Brain and Mind having this intimate relation, and Mind
being the function of the brain, there are a great many who will
rise up against us and charge us with materialism, and atheism,
and all the other deadly sins of that kind. I merely speak of the
relation of the brain to the mind, as the instrument through which
the mind operates and expresses itself. We all know that it is in
virtue of the impressions carried to the brain through the nerves
proceeding from the different sensory organs in various parts of
the body, that we become conscious of what is taking place around
us. And, again, that it is through the nerves proceeding from the
brain that we are able to execute those movements which the Will
prompts and dictates, or which arise from the play of the Emotions.
But I have first to speak of a set of lower centres, those which
the Will can to a certain extent control, but which are not in
such immediate relation to it as is the brain. You all know
that there passes down our backbone a cord which is com
monly called the “Spinal Marrow.” Now this spinal marrow gives
off a pair of nerves at every division of the backbone ; and these
nerves are double in function—one set of fibres conveying impres
sions from the surface to the spinal cord, the other motor impulses
from the spinal cord to the muscles. Now it used to be considered
that this Spinal Cord (I use the term spinal cord, which is the same
as spinal marrow, because it is just as intelligible and more correct)
was a mere bundle of nerves proceeding from the brain ; but we have
long known that that is not the case, that the spinal cord is really a
nervous centre in itself, and that if there were no brain at all the
spinal cord would still do a great deal. For example, there havebeen infants born without a brain, yet these infants have breathed,
have cried, have sucked, and this in virtue of the separate
existence and the independent action of this spinal cord. Let
us analyse one or two of these actions. We will take the act of
Sucking as the best example, because experiments have been
made upon young puppies, by taking out the brain, and then
trying whether they would suck ; and it was found that putting
between the lips the finger moistened with milk or with sugar
and water, produced a distinct act of suction, just as when
an infant is nursed. Now how is this ? It is what we calL
a “reflex action.' I shall have a good deal to say of reflex
action higher up in the nervous system, and therefore I must
�6
explain precisely what we mean by that term. It is just this.
There is a certain part of the spinal cord, at the top of the neck,
which is what we call a ganglion, that is, a centre of nervous power :
in fact the whole of the spinal cord is a series of such ganglia;
but this ganglion at the top of the neck is the one which is the
centre of the actions which are concerned in the act of sucking.
Now this act of sucking is rather a complicated one, it involves
the action of a great many muscles put into conjoint and harmo
nious contraction. We will say then that here is a nervous centre.
[Dr. Carpenter made a sketch upon the black board.] These are
nerves coming to it, branches from the lips; and these another set
going to the muscles concerned in the movement of sucking from
it. Thus, by the conveyance to the ganglionic centre of the
impression made on the lips, a complicated action is excited,
requiring the combination of a number of separate muscular
movements. We will take another example—the act of Coughing.
You feel a tickling in your throat, and you feel an impulse
to cough which you cannot resist; and this may take place
not only when you are awake and feel the impulse, but when
you are asleep and do not feel it. You will often find persons
coughing violently in sleep, without waking or showing any
sign of consciousness. Here, again, the stimulus, as we call it,
produced by some irritation in the throat, gives rise to a change in
the nerves going towards the ganglionic centre, which produces
the excitement of an action in that centre that issues the
mandate, so to speak, through the motor nerves to the muscles
concerned in coughing, which actions have to be united in a very
remarkable manner, which I cannot stop to analyse; but the
whole action of coughing has for its effect the driving out a violent
blast of air, which tends to expel the offending substance. Thus
when anything “ goes the wrong way,” as we term it,—a crumb
of bread, or a drop of water finding its way into the windpipe,
then this sudden and violent blast of air tends to expel it.
Now these are examples of what we call “reflex action”; and
this is the character of most of the movements that are immediately
concerned with the maintenance of the vital functions. I might
analyse other cases. The act of breathing is a purely reflex action,
and goes on when we are perfectly unconscious of exerting any effort,
and when our attention is entirely given up to some act or thought;
and even when asleep the act of breathing goes on with perfect
regularity, and if it were to stop, of course the stoppage would
have a fatal effect upon our lives. But most of these reflex actions
are to a certain degree placed under the control of our Will. If it
�7
were not for this controlling power of will, I could not be address
ing you at this moment. I am able so to regulate my breath as
to make it subservient to the act of speech; but that is the case
only to a certain point. I could not go on through a long sentence
without taking my breath. I am obliged to renew the breath
frequently, in order to be able to sustain the circulation and other
functions of life. But still I have that degree of control over the
act of respiration, that I can regulate this drawing in and expulsion
of the breath for the purposes of speech. This may give you
an idea of the way in which Mental operations may be indepen
dent of the Will, and yet be under its direction. To this we
shall presently come.
Now those reflex actions of the spinal cord, which are
immediately and essentially necessary to the maintenance of
our lives, take place from the commencement without any
training, without any education ; they are what we call “ instinc
tive actionsthe tendency to them is part of our nature ; it is
born with us. But, on the other hand, there are a great many
actions which we learn, to which we are trained in the process of
bodily education, so to speak, and which, when we have learned
them, come to be performed as frequently, regularly, methodically,
and unconsciously as those of which I have spoken. This is the case
particularly with the act of walking. You all know with how
much difficulty a child is trained to that action. It has to be
learned by a long and painful experience, for the child usually
gets a good many tumbles in the course of that part of its educa
tion ; but when once acquired it is as natural as the act of breath
ing, only it is more directly under the control of the will; yet so
completely automatic does it become, that we frequently execute
a long series of these movements without any consciousness
whatever. You start in the morning, for instance, to go from
your home to your place of employment; your mind is occupied
by a train of thought, something has happened which has interested
you, or you are walking with a friend and in earnest conversation
with him; and your legs carry you on without any consciousness
on -your part that you are moving them. You stop at a.certain
point, the point at which you are accustomed to stop, and very
often you will be surprised to find that you are there. While your
mind has been intent upon something else, either the train of
thought which you were following out in your own mind,
or upon what your friend has been saying, your legs move
on of themselves, just as your heart beats, or as your muscles
of breathing continue to act. But this is an acquired habit;
�8
this is what we call a “secondarily automatic” action. Now
that phrase is not very difficult when you understand it. By
automatic we mean an action taking place of itself. I daresay
most of you have seen automata of one 'kind or another, such
as children’s toys and more elaborate pieces of mechanism,
which, being wound up with a spring, and containing a com
plicated series of wheels and levers, execute a variety of move
ments. In each of the Great Exhibitions there have been
very curious automata of this kind. We speak then of the
actions being “automatic,” when we mean that they take place
of themselves, without any direction on our own parts; such as the
act of sucking in the infant, the acts of respiration and swallow
ing, and others which are entirely involuntary, and are of this
purely reflex character. Now those are “primarily automatic,”
that is originally automatic; we are born with a tendency to
execute them ; but the actions of the class I am now speaking of
are executed by the same portion of the nervous system—the
spinalcord—and are “secondarily automatic,” that is to say, we have
to learn them, but when once learned, they come very much into
the condition of the others, only we have some power of will over
them. We start ourselves in the morning by an act of the'will;
we are determined to go to a particular place; and it may be that
we are conscious of these movements over the whole of our walk ;
but, on the other hand, we may be utterly unconscious of them, and
continue to be so until either we have arrived at our journey’s end
or begin to feel fatigued. Now when we begin to feel fatigued, we
are obliged to maintain the action by an effort of the will; we are
no longer unconscious, and we are obliged to struggle against the
feeling of fatigue, to exert our muscles in order to continue the
action.
Now, having set before you this reflex action of the Spinal
Cord, you will ask me perhaps what is the exciting cause of this
succession of actions in walking. I believe it is the contact of the
ground with the foot at each movement. We put down the foot,
that suggests as it were to the spinal cord the next movement of
the leg in advance, and that foot comes down in its turn, and 'so
we follow with this regular rhythmical succession of movements.
We next pass to a set of centres somewhat higher, those which
form the summit, as it were, of this spinal cord, which are really
imbedded in the brain, but which do not form a part of that
higher organ, which is in fact the organ of the higher part of our
mental nature, yet which are commonly included in that which we
designate the brain. In fact, the anatomist who only studies the
�9
human brain is very liable to be misled in regard to the character
of these different parts, by the fact that the higher part—that which
we call the Cerebrum—is so immensely developed in Man, in pro
portion to the rest of the animal creation, that it envelopes, as it
were, the portion of which I am about to speak, concealing it
and reducing it apparently to the condition of a very subordinate
part; and yet that subordinate part is, as I shall show you, the
foundation or basis of the higher portion—the Cerebrum itself.
The brain of a Fish consists of very little else than a series of these
ganglia, these little knots—the word “ganglion” means “knot,”
and the ganglia in many instances, when separated, are little
knots, as it were, upon the nerves. The brain of a fish con
sists of a series of these ganglia, one pair belonging to each principal
organ of sense. Thus we have in front the ganglia of smell, then
the ganglia of sight, the ganglia of hearing, and the ganglia of general
sensation. These constitute almost entirely the brain of the fish.
There is scarcely anything in the brain of the fish which answers
to the Cerebrum or higher part of the brain of man. I will
give you an idea of the relative development of these parts. [Dr.
Carpenter made other sketches on the black board to represent
these ganglia of sense in man and the lower animals.] Now, the
Cerebrum in most fishes is a mere little film, overlaying the sensory
tract, but in the higher fish we have it larger; in the reptiles we have
it larger still; and in birds we have it still larger; in the lower
mammalia it is larger still; and then as we ascend to man this
part becomes so large in proportion that my board will not take
it in. This Cerebrum, this great mass of the brain, at the bottom
of which these Ganglia of Sense are buried, as it were, so overlies
and conceals them that their essential functions for a long time
remained unknown. Now, in the Cerebrum, the position of the
active portion, what we call the ganglionic matter, that which
gives activity and power to these nervous centres, is peculiar. In
all ganglia this “grey” matter, as it is called, is distinct!
from the white matter. In ordinary ganglia, this grey matter lies
in the interior as a sort of little kernel; but in the Cerebrum
it is spread out over the suiface, and forms a film or layer. If any
of you have the curiosity to see what it is like, you have only
to get a sheep’s brain and examine it, and you will see this
film of a reddish substance covering the surface of the Cere
brum. In the higher animals and in man this film is deeply folded
upon itself, with the effect of giving it a very much more
extended surface, and in this manner the blood vessels come into
relation with it; and it is by the changes which take place between
c
�IO
this nervous matter and the blood that all our nervous power is
produced. You might liken it roughly to the galvanic battery by
which the electric telegraph acts, the white or fibrous portion of
the brain and nerves being like the conducting wires of the telegraph.
Just as the fibres of the nerves establish a communication between
the organs of sensation and the ganglionic centres, and again
between the ganglionic centres and the muscles, so do the white
fibres which form a great part of the brain, establish a communi
cation between the grey matter of the convoluted or folded surface
of the Cerebrum and the Sensory Ganglia at its base. Now I
believe that this sensory tract which lies at the base of the
skull is the real Sensorium, that is, the centre of sensation;
that the brain at large, the cerebrum, the great mass of which I
have been speaking, is not in itself the centre of sensation ; that,
in fact, the changes which take place in this grey matter only
rise to our consciousness—only call forth our conscious mental
activity—when the effect of those changes is transmitted down
wards to this Sensorium. Now this Sensorium receives the nerves
from the organs of sense. Here, for instance, is the nerve from
the organ of smell, here from the eye, and here from the body
generally (the nerves of touch), and here the nerves of hearing—
every one of these has its own particular function. Now these
Sensory ganglia have in like matter reflex actions. I will give
you a very curious illustration of one of these reflex actions. You
all know the start we make at a loud sound or a flash of light; the
stimulus conveyed through our eyes from the optic nerve to the
central ganglion, causing it to send through the motor nerves a
mandate that calls our muscles into action. Now this may act some
times in a very important manner for our protection, or for the pro
tection of some of our delicate organs. A very eminent chemist
a few years ago was making an experiment upon some extremely
explosive compound which he had discovered. He had a small
quantity of this compound in a bottle, and was holding it up to
the light, looking at it intently; and whether it was a shake of the
bottle or the warmth of his hand, I do not know, but it exploded
in his hand, the bottle was shivered into a million of minute
fragments, and those fragments were driven in every direction.
His first impression was that they had penetrated his eyes, but to
his intense relief he found presently that they had only penetrated
the outside of his eyelids. You may conceive how infinitesimally
short the interval was between the explosion of the bottle and the
particles reaching his eyes; and yet in that interval the impression
had been made upon his sight, the mandate of the reflex action,
�II
so to speak, had gone forth, the muscles of his eyelids had
been called into action, and he had closed his eyelids before the
particles reached them, and in this manner his eyes were saved.
You see what a wonderful proof this is of the way in which the
automatic action of our nervous apparatus enters into the
sustenance of our lives, and the protection of our most important
organs from injury.
Now I have to speak of the way in which this Automatic action
of the Sensory nerves and of the motor nerves which answer to
them, grows up as it were in ourselves. We will take this illustra
tion. Certain things are originally instinctive, the tendency to
them is born with us; but in a very large number of things we
educate ourselves, or we are educated. Take, for instance, the
guidance of the class of movements I was speaking of just now—
our movements of locomotion. We find that when we set off in the
morning with the intention of going to our place of employ
ment, not only do our legs move without our consciousness, if
we are attending to something entirely different, but we
guide ourselves in our walk through the streets ; we do
not run up against anybody we meet; we do not strike
ourselves against the lamp posts; and we take the appropiate turns
which are habitual to us. It has often happened to myself, and I
dare say it has happened to every one of you, that you have
intended to go somewhere else—that when you started you
intended instead of going in the direct line to which you were
daily accustomed, to go a little out of your way to perform
some little commission; but you have got into a train ot
thought and forgotten yourself, and you find that you are half way
along your accustomed track before you become aware of it. Now
there you see is the same automatic action of these sensory gan
glia—we see, we hear—for instance, we hear the rumbling of the
carriages, and we avoid them without thinking of it—our muscles
act in respondence to these sights and sounds—and yet all
this is done without our intentional direction—they do it
for us. Here again, then, we have the “ secondarily automatic ”
action of this power, that of a higher nervous apparatus which
has grown, so to speak, to the mode in which it is habitually
exercised. Now that is a most important consideration. It has
grown to the mode in which it is habitually exercised; and that
principle, as we shall see, we shall carry into the higher class of
Mental operations.
But there is one particular kind of this action of the Sensory
nerves to which I would direct your attention, because it leads us
�12
to another very important principle. You are all of you, I suppose,
acquainted with the action of the Stereoscope; though you may
not all know that its peculiar action, the perception of
solidity it conveys to us, depends upon the combination
of two dissimilar pictures—the two dissimilar pictures which we
should receive by our two eyes of an object if it were actually
placed before us. If I hold up this jug for instance before my
eyes, straight before the centre of my face, my two eyes receive
pictures which are really dissimilar. If I made two drawings of
the jug, first as I see it with one eye and, then with the other, I
should represent this object differently. For instance, as seen with
the right eye I see no space between the handle and the body of the
jug; as I see it with the left eye I see a space there. If I were
to make two drawings of that jug as I now see it with my two eyes,
and put them into a stereoscope, they would bring out, even, if
only in outline, the conception of the solid figure of that jug in a
way that no single drawing could do. Now that conception is the
result of our early acquired habit of combining with that which
we sec that which we feci. That habit is acquired during the first
twelve or eighteen months of infancy. When your little children
are lying in their cradles and are handling a solid object, a block
of wood, or a simple toy, and are holding it at a distance from
their eyes, bringing it to their mouth and then carrying it to arm’s
length, they are going through a most important part of their educa
tion; that part of their education which consists in the harmonization
of the mental impressions derived from sight and those derived
from the touch ; and it is by that harmonization that we get that
conception of solidity or projection, which, when we have once
acquired it we receive from the combination of these two dissimilar
pictures alone, or even, in the case of objects familiar to us, without
two dissimilar pictures at all—the sight of the object suggesting to
us the conception of its solidity and of its projection.
Now this is a thing so familiar to you, that few of you have
probably ever thought of reasoning it out; and in fact it has only
been by the occurrence of cases in which persons have grown to
adult age without having acquired this power, from having been
born blind and having only received sight by a surgical
operation at a comparatively late period, when they could describe
things as they saw them—I say it is only by such cases that we
have come to know how completely dissimilar and separate
these two classes of impressions really are, and how important is
this process of early infantile education of which I have spoken.
A case occurred a few years ago in London where a friend of my
�own performed an opeiation upon a young woman who had been
born blind, and though an attempt had been made in early years
to cure her, that attempt had failed. She was able just to dis
tinguish large objects, the general shadow as it were of large
objects without any distinct perception of form, and to distinguish
light from darkness. She could work well with her needle by the
touch, and could use her scissors and bodkin and other implements
by the training of her hand, so to speak, alone. Well, my friend
happened to see her, and he examined her eyes, and told her that
he thought he could get her sight restored ; at any rate, it was
worth a trial. The operation succeeded; and being a man of
intelligence and. quite aware of the interest of such a case, he
carefully studied and observed it; and he completely confirmed
all that had been previously laid down by the experience of similar
cases. There was one little incident which will give you an
idea of the education which is required for what you would
suppose is a thing perfectly simple and obvious. She could
not distinguish by sight the things that she was perfectly
familiar with by the touch, at least, when they were first
presented to her eyes. She could not recognise even a pair of
scissors. Now you would have supposed that a pair of scissors, of
all things in the world, having been continually used by her, and
their form having become perfectly familiar to her hands, would
have been most readily recognised by her sight; and yet she did not
know what they were; she had not an idea until she was told, and
then she laughed, as she said, at her own stupidity. No stupidity at
all; she had never learned it, and it was one of those things which
she could not know without learning. One of the earliest cases of
this kind was related by the celebrated Cheselden, a surgeon of the
early part of last century. Cheselden relates how a youth just in this
condition had been accustomed to play with a cat and a dog; but
for some time after he attained his sight he never could tell which
was which, and used to be continually making mistakes.
One day being rather ashamed of himself for having called the cat
the dog, he took up the cat in his arms and looked at her very
attentively for some time, stroking her all the while; and in this way
he associated the impression derived from the sight of the cat with
the impression derived from the touch, and made himself master
(so to speak) of the whole idea of the animal. He then put the
cat down, saying, “ Now puss, I shall know you another time.”
Now, the reason why I have specially directed your attention
to this is because it leads to one of the most important principles
�that I desire to expound to you this evening—what I call in
Mental Physiology the doctrine of resultants. All of you who
have studied merchanics know very well what a c resultant” means.
You know that when a body is acted on by two forces at the same
time, one force carrying it in this direction, and another force in
that direction, we want to know in what direction it will go, and
how far it will go. To arrive at this we simply complete what is
called the parallelogram of forces. In fact it is just as if a body
was acted on at two different times, by a force driving it in one
direction, and then by a force driving it in the other direction [Dr.
Carpenter illustrated this point by the aid of the blackboard.] We
draw two lines parallel to this, and we draw a diagonal—that
diagonal is what is called the resultant; that is, it expresses the
direction, and it expresses the distance—the length of the motion
which that body will go when acted upon by these two forces.
Now I use this term as a very convenient one to express this—
that when we have once got the conception that is derived from
the harmonisation of these two distinct sets of impressions on our
nerves of sense, we do not fall back on the original impressions,
but we fall back on the resultant, so to speak. The thing has
been done for us ; it is settled for us; we have got the resultant;
and the combination giving that resultant is that which governs
the impression made upon our minds by all similar and
future operations of the same kind. We do not need to go
over the processes of judgment by which the two sets of
impressions are combined in every individual case; but we fall
back, as it were, upon the resultant. Now what is the case in
the harmonisation of the two classes of impressions of sight
and touch, I believe to be true of the far more complicated
operations of the mind of which the higher portion of the brain,
the Cerebrum, is the instrument. Now this Cerebrum we regard
as furnishing, so to speak, the mechanism of our thoughts. I do
not say that the Cerebrum is that which does the whole work of
thinking, but it furnishes the mechanism of our thought. It is
not the steam engine that does the work; the steam engine is the
mere mechanism; the work is done, as my friend Professor
Roscoe would tell you, by the heat supplied ; and if we go back
to the source of that heat, we find it originally in the heat and
light of the sun that made the trees grow by which the coal was
produced, in which the heat of the sun is stored up, as it were,
and which we are now using, I am afraid, in rather wasteful
profusion. The steam engine furnishes the mechanism; the work
�i5
is done by the force. Now in the same manner the brain serves as
the mechanism of our thought; and it is only in that sense that I
speak of the work of the brain. But there can be no question at
all that it works of itself, as it were,—that it has an automatic
power, just in the same manner as the sensory centres and the
spinal cord have automatic power of their own. And that a very
large part of our mental activity consists of this automatic action
of the brain, according to the mode in which we have trained it
to action, I think there can be no doubt whatever. And the
illustration with which I started in this lecture gives you, I believe,
a very good example of it. However, there are other examples
which are in some respects still better illustrations of the
automatic work that is done by the brain, in the state which is
sometimes called Second Consciousness, or Somnambulism—
to which some persons are peculiarly subject. I heard only a few
weeks ago of an extremely remarkable example of a young man
who had overworked himself in studying for an examination, and
who had two distinct lives, as it were, in each of which his mind
worked quite separately and distinct from the other. One of
these states, however,—the ordinary one—is under the control
of the will to a much greater extent than the other; while
the secondary state is purely, I suppose, automatic. There
are a great many instances on record of very curious mental
work, so to speak, done in this automatic condition—a state of
active dreaming in fact. For instance, Dr. Abercrombie mentions,
in his very useful work on the Intellectual Powers, an example of a
lawyer who had been excessively perplexed about a very com
plicated question. An opinion was required from him, but the
question was one of such difficulty that he felt very uncertain how
his opinion should be given. The opinion had to be given on a
certain day, and he awoke in the morning of that day with a feel
ing of great distress. He said to his wife, “ I had a dream, and
the whole thing in that dream has been clear before my mind, and
I would give anything to recover that train of thought.” His wife
said to him, “ Go and look on your table.” She had seen him
get up in the night and go to his table and sit down and write.
He went to his table, and found there the very opinion which he
had been most earnestly endeavouring to recover, lying in his own
handwriting. There was no doubt about it whatever, and this
opinion he at once saw was the very thing which he had been
anxious to be able to give. A case was put on record of a very
similar kind only a few years ago by a gentleman well known in
�i6
London, the Rev. John De Liefde, a Dutch clergyman. This
gentleman mentioned it on the authority of a fellow student who
had been at the college at which he studied in early life. He had
been attending a class in mathematics, and the professor said to
his class one day—“A question of great difficulty has been
referred to me by a banker, a very complicated question of
accounts—which they have not themselves been able to bring to
a satisfactory issue, and they have asked my assistance. I have
been trying, and I cannot resolve it. I have covered whole sheets
of paper with calculations, and have not been able to make it out.
Will you try ?” He gave it as a sort of problem to his class, and
said he should be extremely obliged to any one who would bring
him the solution by a certain day. This gentleman tried it over
and over again ; he covered many slates with figures, but could not
succeed in resolving it. He was a little put on his mettle, and
very much desired to attain the solution ; but he went to bed on
the night before the solution, if attained, was to be given in,
without having succeeded. In the morning, when he went to his
desk, he found the whole problem worked out in his own hand.
He was perfectly satisfied that it was his own hand ; and this was
a very curious part of it—that the result was correctly obtained by
a process very much shorter than any he had tried. He had
covered three or four sheets of paper in his attempts, and this was
all worked out upon one page, and correctly worked, as the result
proved.
He inquired of his “ hospita,” as she was called—-I
believe our English equivalent is bedmaker, the woman who
attended to his rooms—and she said she was certain that no one
had entered his room during the night. It was perfectly clear
that this had been worked out by himself.
Now there are many cases of this kind, in which the mind has
obviously worked more clearly and more successfully in this auto
matic condition, when left entirely to itself, than when we have
been cudgelling our brains, so to speak, to get the solution. I
have paid a good deal of attention to this subject, in this way:—I
have taken every opportunity that occurred to me of asking
inventors and artists—creators in various departments of art—
musicians, poets, and painters, what their experience has been in
regard to difficulties which they have felt, and which they have
after a time overcome. And the experience has been almost
always the same, that they have set the result which they have
wished to obtain strongly before their minds, just as we do when
we try to recollect something we have forgotten: they think of
�i7
everything that can lead to it; but if they do not succeed, they put
it by for a time, and give their minds to something else, and en
deavour to obtain as complete a repose or refreshment of the mind
upon some other occupation as they can; and they find that
either after sleep, or after some period of recreation by a variety of
employment, just what they want comes into their heads. A
very curious example of this was mentioned to me a few years
ago by Mr. Wenham, a gentleman who has devoted a great deal
of time and attention to the improvement of the microscope, and
who is the inventor of that form of binocular microscope (by which
we look with two eyes and obtain a stereoscopic picture), which is
in general use in this country. The original binocular microscope
was made upon a plan which would suggest itself to any optician. I
shall not attempt to describe it to you, but it involved the use of
three prisms, giving a number of reflections; and every one of these
reflections was attended with a certain loss of light and a certain
liability to error. And beside that, the instrument could only be
used as a binocular microscope. Now Mr. Wenham thought it
might be possible to construct an instrument which would work
■with only one prism, and that this prism could be withdrawn, and
then we could use the microscope for purposes to which the
binocular microscope could not be applied. He thought of this a
great deal, but he could not think of the form of prism which
would do what was required. He was going into business as an
engineer, and he put his microscopic studies aside for more than
a fortnight, attending only to his other work, and thinking nothing
of his microscope. One evening after his day’s work was done,
and while he was reading a stupid novel, as he assured me, and was
thinking nothing whatever of his microscope, the form of the prism
that should do this work flashed into his mind. He fetched his
mathematical instruments, drew a diagram of it, worked out the
angles which would be required, and the next morning he made
his prism, and found it answered perfectly well; and upon that
invention nearly all the binocular microscopes made in this country
have since been constructed.
I could tell you a mumber of anecdotes of this kind which
would show you how very important is this automatic working of
our minds—this work which goes on without any more control or
direction of the Will, than when we are walking and engaged in a
train of thought which makes us unconscious of the movements of
our legs. And I believe that in all these instances—such as those
I have named, and a long series of others—the result is owing to
�i8
the mind being left to itself without the disturbance of any emotion.
It was the worry which the ba nk manager had been going through,
that really prevented the mind Irom working with the steadiness and
evenness that produced the result. So in the case of the lawyer;
so in the case of the mathematician ; they were all worrying
themselves, and did not let their minds have fair play. You have
heard, I dare say, and those of you who are horsemen mry have
had experience, that it is a very good thing sometimes, if you lose
your way on horseback, to drop the reins on the horse’s back and
let him find his way home. You have been guiding the horse
into one path and into another, and following this and that path,
and you find that it does not lead you in the right direction ; just
let the horse go by himself, and he will find his way better than
you can. In the same manner, I believe, that our minds, under
the circumstances I have mentioned, really do the work better than
our wills can direct. The will gives the impulse in the first
instance, just as when you start on your walk; and not only this, but
the will keeps before the mind all the thoughts which it can imme
diately lay hold of, or which association suggests, that bear upon
the subject. But then these thoughts do not conduct immediately
to an issue, they require to work themselves out; and I believe
that they work themselves out very often a great deal better by
being left to themselves. But then we must recollect that such
results as these are only produced in the mind which has been
trained and disciplined; and that training and discipline are the
result of the control of the Will over the mental processes,
just as in the early part of the lecture I spoke to you
of the act of speech as made possible by the control which
the will has over the muscles of breathing.
We cannot
stop these movements—we must breathe—but we can regulate
them, and modify them, and intensify them, or we can check
them for a moment, in accordance with the necessities of
speech. Well, so it is, I think, with regard to the action of our
will upon our mental processes. I believe that this control, this
discipline of the will, should be learned very early; and I will
give to the mothers amongst you, especially, one hint in regard to
a most valuable mode of training it even in early childhood. I
learned this, I may say, from a nurse whom I was fortunate
enough to have, and whose training of my own sons in early
childhood I regard as one of the most valuable parts of their
education. She was a sensible country girl, who could not have
told her reasons, but whose instincts guided her in the right direc-
�*9
tion. I studied her mode of dealing with the children, and learned
from that the principle. Now the principle is this A child falls
down and hurts itself. (I take the most common of nursery
incidents. You know that Sir Robert Peel used to say that there
were three ways of looking at this question; and there are
three modes of dealing with this commonest of nursery inci
dents.) One nurse will scold the child for crying. The child feels
the injustice of this; it feels the hurt, and it feels the injustice of
being scolded. I believe that is the most pernicious of all the
modes of dealing with it. Another coddles the child, takes it up
and rubs its head, and says, “ O naughty chair, for hurting my
dear child ! ” I remember learning that one of the royal children
fell against a table in the Queen’s presence, and the nurse said,
“ O naughty table,” when the Queen very sensibly said, “ I will
not have that expression used; it was not the table that was
naughty ; it was the child’s fault that he fell against the table.” I
believe that this method is extremely injurious ; the result of
it being that it fixes the child’s attention upon its hurt, and causes
it to attain that habit of self-consciousnesswhich is in after life found
to have most pernicious effects. Now,whatdoesthesensibleand judi
cious nurse do? She distracts the child’s attention, holding it up
to the window to look at the pretty horses, or gets it a toy to look at.
This excites the child’s attention, and the child forgets its hurt,
and in a few moments is itself again, unless the hurt has been
severe. When I speak of coddling, I mean about a trifling hurt
such as is forgotten in a few moments; a severe injury is a
different matter. But I believe that the coddling is only next in
its evil resulcs (when followed out as a system) to the evil effects
of the system of scolding; the distraction of the attention is the
object to be aimed at. Well, after a time the child comes to be
able to distract its own attention. It feels that it can withdraw
its own mind from the sense of its pain, and can give its mind to
some other object, to a picture-book or to some toy, or whatever
the child feels an interest in; and that is the great secret of selfgovernment in later life. We should not say, “ I wont think of
of this”—some temptation, for instance ; that simply fixes the atten
tion upon the very thought that we wish to escape from ; but the
true method is—“ I will think of something else ;” that, I believe,
is the great secret of self-government, the knowledge of which is
laid in the earliest periods of nursery life.
Now just direct your attention to this diagram, as a sort of
summary of the whole :—
�20
[Diagram.]
-THE WILLIntellectual Operations-^
'Emotions
Ideas
Sensations
Sensory Ganglia------------------------------ V
centre of sensori-motor reflection.
Impressions—
You see I put at the top the Will. The will dominates everything
else. I do not pretend to explain it, but I simply say, as Arch
bishop Manning said, in applying my own language to this case,
that our common sense teaches us that we have a will, that we
have the power of self-government and self-direction, and that we
have the power of regulating and dominating all these lower ten
dencies to a certain extent, not to an unlimited extent. We cannot
prevent those thoughts and feelings rising in our minds that we
know to be undesirable; but we can escape from them, we can
repress them ; but as I said the effort to escape from them is
much more effectual than the effort to repress them, excepting
when they arise with great power, and then we have immediately,
as it were, to crush them out; but when they tend to return over
and over again, the real mode of subduing them is to determine
to give our attention to something else. It is by this exercise
of the will, therefore, in training and disciplining the mind, that it
acquires that method by which it will work of itself. The mathe
matician could never have worked out that difficult problem, nor
the lawyer have given his opinion, nor the artist have developed
those conceptions of beauty which he endeavours to shape either
in music, or poetry, or painting, but for the training and dis
ciplining which his mind has undergone. The most wonderfully
creative of all musicians, Mozart, whose music flowed from him
with a spontaneousness that no musician, I think, has ever equalled
—Mozart went through, in early life, a most elaborate course of
�21
study, imposed upon him, in the first instance, by his father, and
afterwards maintained by himself.
When his cotemporaries
remarked how easily his compositions flowed from him, he replied,
“ I gained the power by nothing but hard work.” Mozart had a
most extraordinary combination of this intuitive musical power,
with the knowledge derived from patient and careful study, that
probably any man ever attained. Now in the same manner we
have persons of extraordinary natural gifts, and see these gilts
frequently running to waste, as it were, because they have not
received this culture and discipline. And it is this discipline
which gives us the power of performing, unconsciously to our
selves, these elaborate mental operations; because I hold that a
very large part of our mental life thus goes on, not only auto
matically, but even below the sphere of our consciousness. And
you may easily understand this if you refer to the diagram
which I drew just now on the blackboard. You saw that the
Cerebrum, the part that does the work, what is called the convo
luted surface of the brain, lies just immediately under the skull
cap; that it is connected with the sensorium at the base of the
brain by a series of fibres which are merely, I believe, conducting
fibres. Now I think that it is just as possible that the Cerebrum
should work by itself when the sensorium is otherwise engaged or
in a state of unconsciousness, as that impressions should be made
on the eye of which we are unconscious. A person may be
sleeping profoundly, and you may go and raise the lid and
bring a candle near, and you will see the pupil contract; and yet
that individual shall see nothing, for he is in a state of perfect
unconsciousness. His eye sees it, so to speak, but his mind
does not; and you know that his eye sees it by the
contraction of the pupil, which is a reflex action; but his
mind does not see it, because the sensorium is in a state of
inaction. In the same manner during sleep the Cerebrum
may be awake and working, and yet the Sensorium shall be asleep,
and we may know nothing of what the cerebrum is doing except
by the results. And it is in this manner, I believe, that, having
been once set going, and the cerebrum having been shaped, so to
speak, in accordance with our ordinary processes of mental
activity, having grown to the kind of work we are accustomed to
set it to execute, the cerebrum can go on and do its work for
itself. The work of invention, I am certain, is so mainly produced,
from concurrent testimony I have received from a great number of
inventors, or what the old English called “makers”—what the
Greeks called poets, because the word poet means a maker.
�22
Every inventor must have a certain amount of imagination, which
may be exercised in mechanical contrivance or in the creations of
art; these are inventions—they are made, they are produced, we
don’t know how; the conception comes into the mind we cannot
tell whence , but these inventions are the result of the original
capacity for that particular kind of work, trained and disciplined
by the culture we have gone through. It is not given to every
one of us to be an inventor. We may love art thoroughly, and
yet we may never be able to evolve it for ourselves. So in regard
to humour. For instance, there are some men who throw out
flashes of wit and humour in their conversation, who cannot help
it—it flows from them spontaneously. There are other men who
enjoy this amazingly, whose nature it is to relish such expressions
keenly, but who eannot make them themselves. The power of
invention is something quite distinct from the intellectual capacity
or the emotional capacity for enjoying and appreciating; but
although we may not have these powers of invention, we can
all train and discipline our minds to utilise that which we
do possess to its utmost extent. And here is the conclusion
to which I would lead you in regard to Common Sense. We fall
back upon this, that common sense is, so to speak, the general
resultant of the whole previous action of our minds.
We submit to common sense any questions—such questions as I
shall have to bring before you in my next lecture ; and the judg
ment of that common sense is the judgment elaborated as it were
by the whole of our mental life. It is just according as our mental
life has been good and true and pure, that the value of this acquired
and this higher common sense is reached. We may in proportion
I believe to our honesty in the search for truth—in proportion
as we discard all selfish considerations and look merely at this
grand image of truth, so to speak, set before us, with the purpose
of steadily pursuing our way toward it—in proportion as we
discard all low and sensual feelings in our love of beauty,
and especially in proportion to the earnestness of the desire
by which our minds are pervaded always to keep the right
before us in all our judgments—so I believe will our minds
be cleared in their perception of what are merely prudential
considerations. It has on several occasions occurred to me to
form a decision as to some important change either in my own
life, or in the life of members of my family, which involved a
great many of what we are accustomed to call pros and cons—
that is, there was a great deal to be said on both sides. I
heard the expression once used by a naturalist, with regard to
�23
difficulties in classification,—“ It is very easy to deal with
the white and the black; but the difficulty is to deal with
the grey.” And so it is in life. It is perfectly easy to deal
with the white and the black,—there are things which are clearly
right, and things which are clearly wrong; there are things which
are clearly prudent, and things which are clearly imprudent; but
a great many cases arise in which even right and wrong may seem
balanced, or the motives may be so balanced that it is difficult to
say what is right; and again there are cases in which it is difficult
to say what is prudent; and I believe in these cases where we
are not hurried and pressed for a decision, the best plan is to do
exactly that which I spoke of in the earlier part of the lecture—to
set before us as much as possible everything that is to be said on
both sides. Let us consider this well; let us go to our friends;
let us ask what they think about it. They will suggest considera
tions which may not occur to ourselves. It has happened to me
within the last three or four months to have to make a very im
portant decision of this kind for myself; and I took this method—
I heard everything that was to be said on both sides, I considered
it well, and then I determined to put it aside as completely as
possible for a month, or longer, if time should be given, and then
to take it up again, and simply just to see how my mind gravitated—
how the balance then turned. And I assure you that I believe
that in those who have disciplined their minds in the manner
I have mentioned, that act of “ Unconscious Cerebration,” for so
I call it, this unconscious operation of the brain in balanc
ing for itself all these considerations, in putting all in order,
so to speak, in working out the result—I believe that that
process is far more likely to lead us to good and true results
than any continual discussion and argumentation, in which one
thing is pressed with undue force and then that leads us to bring
up something on the other side, so that we are just driven into
antagonism, so to speak, by the undue pressure of the force which
we think is being exerted. I believe that to hear everything that
is to be said, and then not to ruminate upon it too long, not to be
continually thinking about it, but to put it aside entirely from our
minds as far as we possibly can, is the very best mode of arriving
at a correct conclusion. And this conclusion will be the resultant
of the whole previous training and discipline of our minds. If
that training and discipline has all been in the direction of the
true and the good, I believe that we are more likely to obtain a
valuable result from such a process than from any conscious
discussion of it in our minds, anything like continually bringing it
>
�24
up and thinking of it, and going over the whole subject again in
our thoughts. The unconscious settling down, as it were, of all
these respective motives, will I think incline the mind ultimately
to that which is the just and true decision.
There is just one other point I could mention in connection
with this subject: the manner in which the conscious direction
and discipline of the mind will tend to remove those unconscious
prejudices that we all have more or less from education, from the
circumstances in which we were brought up; and from which it is
excessively difficult for us to free ourselves entirely. I have
known a great many instances in public and in private life, in
which the most right-minded men have every now and then shown
the trammelling, as it were, of their early education and early
associations, and were not able to think clearly upon the subject
in consequence of this. These early prejudices and associations
cling around us and influence the thoughts and feelings of the
honestest men in the world unconsciously; and it is sometimes
surprising to those who do not know the force of these early asso
ciations, to. see how differently matters which are to them perfectly
plain and obvious are viewed by men whom we feel we must respect
and esteem. Now I believe that it is the earnest habit of looking
at a subject from first principles, and, as I have said over and
over again, looking honestly and steadily at the true and the right,
which gives the mind that direction that ultimately overcomes the
force of these early prejudices and these early associations, and
brings us into that condition which approaches the nearest of
anything that I think we have the opportunity of witnessing in
our earthly life, to that direct insight, which many of us believe
will be' the condition of our minds in that future state in
which they are released from all the trammels of our corporeal
existence.
�EPIDEMIC
A
By
Dr.
DELUSIONS
LECTURE
CARPENTER,
F.R.S.,
Delivered in the Hulme Town Hall, Manchester, December 8th, 1871.
Our subject to-night links itself in such a very decided manner to
the subject in which we were engaged last week, and the illustra
tions which I shall give you are so satisfactorily explained on the
scientific principle which I endeavoured then to expound to you,
that I would spend a very few minutes in just going over some of
the points to which I then particularly directed your attention.
My object was to show you that between our Mental operations
and our Will there is something of that kind of relation which
exists between a well-trained horse and his rider; that the will,—
if rightly exercised in early infancy in directing and controlling
the mental operations; in directing the attention to the objects to
which the intellect should be applied; in controlling and repress
ing emotional disturbance; restraining the feelings when unduly
excited, and putting a check upon the passions—that the will in
that respect has the same kind of influence over the mind, or
ought to have, as the rider has upon his horse; that the powers
and activities of the mind are to a very great degree independent
of the will; that the mind will go on of itself without any more
than just the starting of the will, in the same manner as a horse
will go on in the direction that it has been accustomed to go with
merely the smallest impulse given by the voice, or the hand, or the
heel of the rider, and every now and then a very slight check (if
it is a well-trained horse) or guidance from the bridle or from a
touch of the spur, and will follow exactly the course that the
rider desires, but by its own independent power. And, again, I
�96
showed you that as there are occasions on which a horse is best
left to itself, so there are occasions when the mind is best left to
itself, without the direction and control of the will; in fact in
which the operations of the mind are really disturbed by being
continually checked and guided and pulled up by the action of
the will, the result being really less satisfactory than when the
mind, previously trained and disciplined in that particular course
of activity, is left to itself. I gave you some curious illustrations
of this from occurrences which have taken place in Dreaming,
or in that form of dreaming which we call Somnambulism: where
a legal opinion had been given, or a mathematical problem had
been resolved, in the state of sleep waking; that is to say the mind
being very much in the condition of that of the dreamer, its action
being altogether automatic, going on of itself without any direc
tion or control from the will —but the bodily activity obeying the
direction of the mind. And then I went on to show you that
this activity very often takes place, and works out most im
portant results, even without our being conscious of any operations
going on; and that some of these results are the best and most
valuable to us in bringing at last to our consciousness ideas which
we have been vainly searching for,—as in the case where we have
endeavoured to remember something that we have not at first been
able to retrace, and which has flashed into our minds in a few
hours, or it may be a day or two afterwards ; or, again, when we
have been directing our minds to the solution of some problem
which we have put aside in a sort of despair, and yet in the course
of a little time that solution has presented itself while our minds
have either been entirely inactive, as in sleep, or have been directed
into some entirely different channel of action.
Now, like the well-trained horse which will go on of itself with the
smallest possible guidance, yet still under the complete domina
tion of the rider, and will even find its way home when the rider
cannot direct it thither, we find that the human mind some
times does that which even a well-trained horse will do—that it
runs away from the guidance of its directing will. Something
startles the horse, something gives it alarm; and it makes a sudden
bound, and then, perhaps, sets off at a gallop, and the rider
cannot pull it up. This alarm often spreads contagiously, as it
were, from one horse to another; as we lately saw in the
“ stampede ” at Aidershot. Or, again, a horse, even if well
trained, when he gets a new rider, sometimes, as we say, “ tries
it on,” to see whether the horse or the rider is really the
master. I have heard many horsemen say that that is a very
�97
familiar experience. When you first go out with a new horse, it
may be to a certain degree restive; but if the horse finds that you
keep a tight hand upon him, and that his master knows well how
to keep him under control, a little struggling may have to be gone
through, and the horse from that time becomes perfectly docile
and obedient. But if, on the other hand, the horse finds that he
is the master, even for a short time, no end of trouble is given
afterwards to the rider in acquiring that power which he desires
to possess. Now that is just the case with our minds; we may
follow out the parallel very closely indeed. We find that if our
minds once acquire habits—habits of thought, habits of feeling—which are independent of the will, which the will has not kept
under adequate regulation, these habits get the better of us; and then'
we find that it is very difficult indeed to recover that power of self
direction which we have been aiming at, and which the well-trained
and well-disciplined mind will make its highest object. So, again,
we find that there are states in which, from some defect in the
physical condition of the body, or it may be from some great
shock which has affected the mind and weakened for a time the
power of the will, very slight impulses—just like the slight
things that will make a horse shy—will disturb us unduly; and
we feel that our emotions are excited in a way that we cannot
account for, and we wonder why such a little thing should
worry and vex us in the way that it does. Even the best
of us know, within our own personal experience, that, when
we are excessively fatigued in body, or overstrained in mind,
our power of self-control is very much weakened; so that
particular ideas will take possession of us, and for a time will
guide our whole course of thought, in a manner which our
sober judgment makes us feel to be very undesirable. What,
for instance, is more common than for a person to take offence
at something that has been said or done by his most intimate
friend, or by some member of his family ; merely because he has
been jaded or overtasked, and has not the power of bringing t«
the fair judgment of his common sense the question whether that
offence was really intended, or whether it was a thing he ought
not to take any notice of? He broods over this notion, and
allows it to influence his judgment; and if he does not in a day
or two rouse himself and master his feelings by throwing it off, it
may give rise to a permanent estrangement. We are all of us
conscious of states of mind of that kind.
But there are states of mind which lead to very much more
serious disorder, arising from the neglect of that primary dis
�98
cipiine and culture on which I have laid so much stress. We
find that ignorance, and that want of the habit of self-control
which very commonly accompanies it, predispose very greatly
indeed to the violent excitement of the feelings, and to the
possession of the mind by ideas which we regard as essen
tially absurd; and under these states of excitement of feeling, and
the tendency of these dominant ideas to acquire possession of
the intellect, the strangest aberrations take place, not only in
individuals but in communities; and it is of such that I have
especially to speak to-night. We know perfectly well, in our
individual experience, that these states tend to produce Insanity
if they are indulged in, and if the individual does not make
an earnest effort to free himself from their influence. But, looking
back at the history of the earlier ages, and carrying that survey
down to the present time, we have experience in all ages of great
masses of people being seized upon by these dominant ideas, ac
companied with the excitement of some passion or strong impulse
which leads to the most absurd results; and it is of these Epidemic
Delusions I have to now speak. The word “epidemic” simply
means something that falls upon, as it were, the great mass of the
people—a delusion which affects the popular mind. And I
believe that I can best introduce the subject to you by showing
you how, in certain merely physical conditions, mere bodily
states, there is a tendency to the propagation, by what is com
monly called imitation, of very strange actions of the nervous
system. I suppose there is no one of you who does not know
what an hysteric fit means; a kind of fit to which young women are
especially subject, but which affects the male sex also. One
reason why young women are particularly subject to it is that in
the female the feelings are more easily excited, while the male
generally has a less mobile nervous system, his feelings being less
easily moved, while he is more influenced by the intellect. These
hysteric fits are generally brought on by something that strongly
affects the feelings. Now, it often happens that a case of this sort
presents itself in a school or nunnery, sometimes in a factory
where a number of young women are collected together; one
being seized with a fit, others will go off in a fit of a very similar
kind. There was an instance a good many years ago in a factory in
a country town in Lancashire, in which a young girl was attacked
with a violent convulsive fit, brought on by alarm, consequent
upon one of her companions, a factory operative, putting a mouse
down inside her dress. The girl had a particular antipathy to
mice, and the sudden shock threw her into a violent fit. Some of
�99
the other girls who were near very soon passed off into a similar
fit; and then there got to be a notion that these fits were pro
duced by some emanations from a bale of cotton; and the conse
quence was that they spread, till scores of the young women were
attacked day after day with these violent fits. The medical man
who was called in saw at once what the state of things was;
he assured them in the first place that this was all nonsense about
the cotton; and he brought a remedy, in the second place, which
was a very appropriate one under the circumstances—namely, an
electrical machine; and he gave them some good violent shocks,
which would do them no harm, assuring them that this would
cure them. And cure them it did. There was not another
attack afterwards.—I remember very well that when I was a
student at Bristol, there was a ward in the hospital to which it was
usual to send young servant girls; for it was thought undesirable
that these girls should be placed in the ward with women of a
much lower class, especially the lower class of Irish women
who inhabited one quarter of Bristol, as I believe there is
an Irish quarter in Manchester. These girls were mostly
respectable, well-conducted girls, and it was thought better
that they should be kept together. Now the result of this
was that if an hysteric fit took any one of them, the others would
follow suit; and I remember perfectly well, when I happened to
be a resident pupil, having to go and scold these girls well,
threatening them with some very severe infliction. I forget what
was threatened; perhaps it would be a shower bath, for
anyone who went off into one of these fits.
Now here the
cure is effected by a stronger emotion, the emotion of the dread of—
we will not call it punishment—but of a curative measure ; and this
emotion overcame the tendency to what we commonly call imitation.
It is the suggestion produced by the sight of one, that brings on
the fit in another, where there is the pre-disposition to it.—Now
I believe that in all these cases there is something wrong in the
general health or in the nervous system; or the suggestion would
not produce such results. Take the common teething fits of children.
We there see an exciting cause in the cutting of the teeth ;
the pressure of the tooth against the gum being the immediate •
cause of the production of convulsive action. But it will not do
so in the healthy child. I feel sure that in every case where
there is a teething fit, of whatever kind, there is always some un
healthy condition of the nervous system—sometimes from bad
food; more commonly from bad air. I have known many instances
in which children had fits with every tooth that they cut, yet
�TOO
when sent into the country they had no recurrence of the fit.
There must have been some predisposition, some unhealthy
condition of the nervous system, to favour the exciting cause,
which, acting upon this predisposition, brings out such very un
pleasant results.
There are plenty of stories of this kind that I might relate to
you. For instance, in nunneries it is not at all uncommon, from
the secluded life, and the attention being fixed upon one subject,
one particular set of ideas and feelings—the want of a healthv
vent, so to speak, for the mental activity—that some particular
odd propensity has developed itself.
For instance, in one
nunnery abroad, many years ago, one of the youngest nuns
began to mew like a cat; and all the others, after a time, did
the same.
In another nunnery one began to bite, and the
others were all affected with the propensity to bite.
In
one of these instances the mania was spreading like wild
fire through Germany, extending from one nunnery to
another; and they were obliged to resort to some such severe
measures as I have mentioned to drive it out. It was set
down in some instances to demoniacal possession, but the devil
was very easily exorcised by some pretty strong threat on
the part of the medical man. The celebrated physician, Boerhaave,
was called in to a case of that kind in an orphan asylum in
Holland, and I think his remedy was a red-hot iron. He heated
the poker in the fire, and said that the next girl who fell into one
of these fits should be burnt in the arm; this was quite sufficient
to stop it. In Scotland at one time there was a great tendency to
breaking out into fits of this kind in the churches. This was
particularly the case in Shetland; and a very wise minister there
told them that the thing could not be permitted, and that the next
person who gave way in this manner—as he was quite sure they
could control themselves if they pleased— should be taken out and
ducked in a pond near. There was no necessity at all to put his
i threat into execution. Here, you see, the stronger motive is
substituted for the weaker one, and the stronger motive is suffi
cient to induce the individual to put a check upon herself. I have
said that it usually happens with the female sex, though sometimes
it occurs with young men who have more or less of the same
constitutional tendency.
What is necessary is to induce a
stronger motive, which will call forth the power of self-control
which has been previously abandoned.
Now this tendency which here shows itself in convulsive
movements of the body, will also show itself in what we may call
�IOI
convulsive action of the Mind; that is, in the excitement of violent
feelings and even passions, leading to the most extraordinary mani
festations of different kinds. The early Christians, you know,
practised self-mortification to a very great degree; and con
sidered that these penances were so much scored up to the credit
side of their account in heaven,—that, in fact, they were earning
a title to future salvation by self-mortification. Among other
means of self-mortification, they scourged themselves. That was
practised by individuals. But in the middle ages this disposition
to self-mortification would attack whole communities, especially
under the dominant idea that the world was coming to an end.
In the middle of the 13th century, about 1250, there was this
prevalent idea that the world was coming to an end; and whole
communities gave themselves up to this self-mortification by whip
ping themselves. These Flagellants went about in bands with
banners, and even music, carrying scourges ; and then, at a given
signal, every one would strip off the upper garment (men, women,
and children joined these bands), and proceed to flog themselves
very severely indeed, or to flog each other. This subsided for a time,
but it broke out again during and immediately after that terrible
plague which is known as the “ black death,” which devastated
Europe in the reign of Edward III., about the year 1340. This black
death seems to have been the Eastern Plague in a very severe
form, which we have not known in this country since the great
plague of London in Charles II.’s time, and one or two smaller
outbreaks since, but which has now entirely left us. The severity
of this plague in Europe was so great that upon a very moderate
calculation one in four of the entire population were carried off by
it; and in some instances it is said that nine-tenths of the people
died of it. You may imagine, therefore, what a terrible inflic
tion it was. And you would have supposed that it would
have called forth the better feelings of men and women generally;
but it did not. One of the worst features, morally, of that terrible
affliction, was the lamentable suspension of all natural feelings
which it seemed to induce. When any member of a family was
attacked by this plague, every one seemed to desert him, or desert
her; the sick were left to die alone, or merely under the charge
of any persons who thought that they would be paid for rendering
this service; and the funerals were carried on merely by these paid
hirelings in a manner most repulsive to the feelings : and yet the
very people who so deserted their relatives would join the bands
of flagellants, who paraded about from place to place, and even
from country to country,—mortifying their flesh in this manner for
�t02
'the purpose of saving their own souls, and, as they said, also
making expiation for the great sins which had brought down this
terrible visitation. This system of flagellation never gained the
same head in this country that it did on the Continent. A band
of about ioo came to London about the middle of the reign of
Edward III., in the year 1350. They came in the usual style,
with banners and even instruments of music, and they paraded
the streets of London. At a given signal every one lay down and
uncovered the shoulders, excepting the last person, who then
flogged every one till he got to the front, where he lay down ; and
the person last in the rear stood up, and in his turn flogged every
one in front of him. Then he went to the front and lay down;
and so it went on until the whole number had thus been flogged,
each by every one of his fellows. This discipline, however,
did not approve itself to the good citizens of Londofl,
and it is recorded that the band of flagellants returned without
having made any converts. Whether the skins of the London
citizens were too tender, or whether their good sense prevailed
over this religious enthusiasm, we are not informed; but at any
rate the flagellants went back very much as they came, and the
system never‘took root in this country; yet for many years it was
carried on elsewhere. One very curious instance is given of the
manner in which it fastened on the mind—that mothers actually
scourged their new-born infants before they were baptised, believing
that in so doing they were making an offering acceptable to God.
Now all this appears to us perfectlyabsurd. We can scarcely imagine
the state of mind that should make any sober, rational persons
suppose that this could be an offering acceptable to Almighty
God; but it was in accordance with the religious ideas of the
time; and for a good while even the Church sanctioned and
encouraged it, until at last various moral irregularities grew up, of
a kind that made the Pope think it a very undesirable thing, and
it was then put down by ecclesiastical authority; yet it was still
practised in secret for some time longer, so that it is said that
even until the beginning of the last century there were small
bands of flagellants in Italy, who used to meet for this self
mortification.
That was one form in which a dominant idea took
possession of the mind and led to actions which might be
called voluntary, for they were done under this impression, that
such self-mortification was an acceptable offering. But there were
other cases in which the action of the body seemed to be in a very
great degree involuntary, just about as involuntary as an hysteric
�i°3
fit, and yet in which it was performed under a very distinct idea;
such was what was called the “ Dancing Mania,” which followed
upon this great plague. This dancing mania seemed in the first
instance to seize upon persons who had a tendency to that complaint
which we now know as St. Vitus’s dance—St. Vitus was in fact the
patron saint of these dancers. St. Vitus’s dance, or chorea, in the
moderate form in which we now know it, is simply this, that there
is a tendency to jerking movements of the body, these movements
sometimes going on independently of all voluntary action, and
sometimes accompanying any attempt at voluntary movement; so
that the body of a person may be entirely at rest until he
desires to execute some ordinary movement, such as lifting his
hand to his head to feed himself, or getting up to walk;
then, when the impulse is given to execute a voluntary movement,
instead of the muscles obeying the will, the movement is compli
cated as (it were) with violent jerking actions, which show that there
is quite an independent activity. The fact is that stammering
is a sort of chorea. We give the name of chorea to this kind of
disturbance of the nervous system, and the action of stammering
is a limited chorea—chorea limited to the muscles concerned in
speech, when the person cannot regulate the muscles so as to
bring out the words desired; the very strongest effort of his will can
not make the muscles obey him, but there is a jerking irregular
action every time he attempts to pronounce particular syllables.
And' the discipline that the stammerer has to undergo in order to
cure or alleviate his complaint is just the kind of discipline I have
spoken of so frequently—the fixing the attention on the object to
be gained, and regularly exercising the nerves and muscles in pro
ceeding from that which they can do to that which they find a
difficulty in doing. That is an illustration of the simpler form of
this want of definite control over the muscular apparatus, connected
with a certain mental excitement; because everyone knows that
a stammerer is very much affected by the condition of his feelings
at the time. If, for example, he is at all excited, or if he appre
hends that he shall stammer, that is enough to produce it. I have
known persons who never stammered in ordinary conversation,
yet when in company with stammerers they could scarcely
avoid giving way to it; and even when the subject of
stammering was talked about, when the idea was conveyed to
their minds, they would begin to hesitate and stutter, unless
they put a very strong control upon themselves. It is just
in this way, then, only in the most exaggerated form, that these
persons were afflicted with what was called the dancing mania.
�104
They would allow themselves to be possessed with the idea that
they must dance; and this dancing went on, bands going from
town to town, and taking in any who would join them.
Instances are recorded in which they would go on for twenty-four
or thirty-six hours, continually jumping and dancing and exerting
themselves in the most violent manner, taking no food all this
time, until at last they dropped on the ground almost lifeless;
and in fact several persons, it is said, did die from pure
exhaustion, and this just because they were possessed with the
idea that they must dance. They were drawn in, as it were, by the
contagion of example; and when once they had given way to it,
they did not seem to know when to stop. This was kept up by
music and by the encouragement and excitement of the crowd
around; and it spread amongst classes of persons who (it might
be supposed) would have had more power of self-restraint, and
would not have joined such unseemly exhibitions. The extraor
dinary capacity, as it were, for enduring physical pain, was one of
the most curious parts of this condition. They would frequently
ask to be struck violently; would sometimes lie down and beg
persons to come and thump and beat them with great force.
They seemed to enjoy this.—In another case that I might mention
this was shown still more. The case was of a similar type, but
was connected more distinctly with the religious idea, and it
occurred much more recently. The case was that knovvn in
medical history as the Convulsionnaires of St. Medard. There was a
cemetery in Paris in which a great saint had been interred, and some
young women visiting his tomb had been thrown into a convulsive
attack which propagated itself extensively; and these convulsiunnaires spreading the contagion, as it were, into different classes
of French society, one being seized after another till the number
became very great in all grades. Here, again, one of the
most curious things was the delight they seemed to take in
what would induce in other persons the most violent physical
suffering. There was an organised band of attendants, who went
about with clubs, and violently beat them. This was called the
grand secours, which was administered to those who were subject
to these convulsive attacks. You would suppose that these violent
blows with the clubs would do great mischief to the bodies of
these people; but they only seemed to allay their suffering.
This, then, is another instance of the mode in which this
tendency to strange actions under the dominance of a particular
idea will spread through a community. Here you have the direct
operation of the perverted mind upon the body. But there are a
�Io5
great many cases in which the perversion shows itself more in the
mental state alone, leading to strange aberrations of M ind, and
ultimately to very sad results in the condition of society
where these things have spread, but not leading to anything
like these convulsive paroxysms. I particularly allude now to
the epidemic belief in Witchcraft, which, more or less, formerly
prevailed constantly amongst the mass of the population, but
every now and then broke out with great vehemence. This
belief in witchcraft comes down to us from very ancient
periods; and at the present time it is entertained by the lowest
and most ignorant of the population in all parts of the world.
We have abundant instances of it still, I am sorry to say, in our
own community. We have poor ignorant servant girls allowing
themselves to be—if I may use such a word—“ humbugged ” by
some designing old woman, who persuades them that she can
oredict the husbands they are to have, or tell where some article
that they have lost is to be found, and who extracts money from
them merely as a means of obtaining a living in this irregular
way, and I believe at the bottom rather enjoying the cheat.
Every now and then we hear of some brutal young farmer who
has pretty nearly beaten to death a poor old woman, whom he
suspected of causing a murrain amongst his cattle. This is what
we know to exist amongst the least cultivated of the savage
nations at the present time, and always to have existed. But we
hope that the progress of rationalism in our own community, will,
in time, put an end to this, as it has in the middle and upper
ranks of society during the last century or century and a half.
It is not very long since almost everyone believed in the
possession of these occult powers by men and women, but
especially by old women. This belief has prevailed generally in
countries which have been overridden by a gloomy fanaticism in
religious matters. I speak simply as a matter of history. There
•s no question at all that this prevailed where the Romish
Church was most intolerant, especially in countries where the
Inquisition was dominant, and its powers were exerted in
snch a manner as to repress free thought and the free exercise
of feeling; and, again, where strong Calvinism has exercised an
influence of exactly the same kind—as in Scotland, a century and
a half ago, and in New England, where there was the same kind of
religious fanaticism. It is in these communities that belief in
witchcraft has been most rife, has extended itself most generally,
and has taken possession of the public mind most strongly;
and the most terrible results have happened. Now I will
�io6
only cite one particular instance, that of New England, in
the early part of the last century and the end of the century before.
Not very long after the settlement of New England, there was a
terrible outbreak of this belief in witchcraft. It began in a family,
the children of which were out of health; and certain persons whom
they disliked were accused of having bewitched them. Against these
persons a great deal of evidence that we should now consider most
absurd was brought forward, and they were actually executed: and
some of them under torture, or under moral torture,—for it was not
merely physical torture that was applied ; in many cases it was the
distress and moral torture of being so accused, the dread, even if
found not guilty, of being considered outcasts all their lives, or of
being a burden to their friends,—made confessions which any
sober person would have considered perfectly ridiculous; but
under the dominant idea of the reality of this witchcraft,
no one interfered to point out how utterly repugnant to
common sense these confessions were, as well as the testimony
that was brought forward. And this spread to such a degree
in New England, one person being accused after another,
that at last, even those who considered themselves God’s
chosen people began to feel, “ our turn may come next;”
they then began to think better of it, and so put an end
to these accusations, even some who were under sentence being
allowed to go free; and to the great surprise of those who were
entirely convinced of the truth of these accusations, this epidemic
subsided, and witchcraft was not heard of for a long time after
wards; so that the belief has never prevailed in New England from
that time to the present, excepting amongst the lowest and most
ignorant class. In Scotland, these witch persecutions attained to
a most fearful extent during the seventeenth century. They were
introduced into England very much by James I., who came to
England possessed by these ideas, and he communicated them to
others, and there were a good many witch persecutions during his
reign. After the execution of Charles I., and during the time of
the Commonwealth and the Puiitans, there were a good many
witch persecutions; but I think after that, very little more was
heard of them. And yet the belief in witchcraft lingered for a
considerable time longer. It is said that even Dr. Johnson was
accustomed to remark, that he did not see that there was any
proof of the non-existence of witches ; that though their existence
could not be proved, he was not at all satisfied that they did not
exist. John Wesley was a most devout believer in witchcraft, and
said on one occasion that if witchcraft was not to be believed, we
�107
could not believe in the Bible. So you see that this belief had a
very extraordinary hold over the public mind. It was only the
most intelligent class, whose minds had been freed from prejudice by
general culture, who were really free from it; and that cultivation
happily permeated downwards, as it were; so that now I should
hope there are very few amongst our intelligent working class in
our great towns—where the general culture is much higher than it is
in the agricultural districts—who retain anything more than the
lingering superstition which is to be found even in the very highest
circles—as, for instance, not liking to be married on a Friday, or
not liking to sit down thirteen at the dinner table. These are
things which even those who consider themselves the very
aristocracy of intellect will sometimes confess to, laughing at it all
the time, but saying, “ It goes against the grain, and I would
rather not do it.” These, I believe, are only lingering super
stitions that will probably pass away in another half century, and
we shall hear nothing more of them; the fact being that the
tendency to these delusions is being gradually grown out of.
Now this is the point I would especially dwell upon. To the
child-mind nothing is too strange to be believed. The young child
knows nothing about the Laws of Nature; it knows no difference
between what is conformable to principles, and what, on the other
hand, is so strange that an educated man cannot believe it. To
the child every new thing that it sees is equally strange; there
is none of that power of discrimination that we acquire in the
course of our education—the education given to us, and the edu
cation that we give ourselves. We gradually, in rising to adult
years, grow out of this incapacity to distinguish what is strange
from what is normal or ordinary. We gradually come to feel—■
“ Well, I can readily believe that, because it fits in with my general
habit of thought; I do not see anything strange in this, although
it is a little unusual.” But, on the other hand, there are certain
things we feel to be too strange and absurd to be believed; and
that feeling we come to especially, when we have endeavoured to
cultivate our Common Sense in the manner which I described to
you in my last lecture. The higher our common sense—that is,
the general resultant of the whole character and discipline of our
minds—the more valuable is the direct judgment that we form by
the use of it. And it is the growth of that common sense, which
is the most remarkable feature in the progress of thought during
the last century. The discoveries of science; the greater ten
dency to take rational and sober views of religion; the general
habit of referring things to principles ; and a number of influences
�ic8
which I cannot stop particularly to describe, have so operated on
the public mind, that every generation is raised, I believe, not
merely by its own culture, but bytheacquired result of the experience
of past ages ; for I believe that every generation is born, I will
not say wiser, but with a greater tendency to wisdom. I feel per
fectly satisfied of this, that the child of an educated stock has a
much greater power of acquiring knowledge than the child of an
uneducated stock; that the child that is the descendant of a
race in which high moral ideas have been always kept before the
mind, has a much greater tendency to act uprightly than the child
that has grown up from a breed that has been living in the gutter
for generations past. I do not say that these activities are born
with us; but the tendency to them,—that is the aptitude of mind
for the acquirement of knowledge, the facility of learning, the
disposition to act upon right principles,—I believe is, to avery great
degree, hereditary. Of course we have lamentable examples to
the contrary, but I am speaking of the general average. I am
old enough now to look back with some capacity of observation
for 40 years; and I can see in the progress of society a most
marked evidence of the higher general intelligence, the greater
aptitude for looking at things as they are, and for not allowing
strange absurd notions to take possession of the mind; while,
again, I can trace, even within the last ten years, in a most
remarkable manner, the prevalence of a desire to do right things for
the right’s sake, and not merely because they are politic. And I am
quite sure that there is a gradual progress in this respect, which
has a most important influence in checking aberrations of the
class of which I have spoken.
Still we see these aberrations; and there is one just now
which is exciting a good deal of attention,—that which you
have heard of under the name of “ Spiritualism.” Now I look
upon the root of this spiritualism to lie in that which is a very
natural, and in some respects, a wholesome disposition of the
kind—a desire to connect ourselves in thought with those whom
we have loved and who are gone from us. Nothing is more
admirable^ more beautiful, in our nature than this longing for the
continuance of intercourse with those whom we have loved on
earth. It has been felt in all nations and at all times, and we all
of us experience it in regard to those to whom we have been most
especially attached. But this manifestation of it is one which
those who experience this feeling in its greatest purity and its
greatest intensity feel to be absurd and contrary to common sense—
that the spirits of their departed friends should come and rap upon
�109
tables and make chairs dance in the air, and indicate their presence
in grotesque methods of this kind. The most curious part of it is
that the spirits should obey the directions of the persons with
whom they profess to be in communication,—that when they say
“ rap once if you mean yes, and rap twice if you mean no/’ and so
on, they should just follow any orders they receive as to the
mode in which they will telegraph replies to their questions. It
seems to me repugnant to one’s common sense; but the higher
manifestations of these spiritual agencies seem to me far more
repugnant to common sense; and that is when persons profess
to be able to set all the laws of nature at defiance; when
it is said, for instance, that a human being is lifted bodily up into
the air and carried, it may be, two or three miles, and descends
through the ceiling of a room. One of the recent statements of
this kind, you know, is that a certain very stout and heavy lady
was carried a distance of about two miles from her own house, and
dropped plump down upon the table round which eleven persons
were sitting; she came down through the ceiling, they could not
state how, because they were sitting in the dark; and that dark
ness has a good deal to do with most of these manifestations.
Now let us analyse them a little. I am speaking now of what I
will call the genuine phenomena—those which happen to persons
who really are honest in their belief. I exclude altogether, and
put aside the cases, of which 1 have seen numbers, in which there
is the most transparent trickery, and in which the only wonder is
that any rational persons should allow themselves to be deceived
by it.
I have paid a great deal of attention during the last twenty
years to this subject, and I can assure you that I have, in many
instances, known things most absurd in themselves, and most
inconsistent with the facts of the case as seen by myself and other
sober-minded witnesses, believed in by persons of very great
ability, and, upon all ordinary subjects, of great discrimination.
But I account for it by the previous possession of their minds
by this dominant idea—the expectation they have been led to
form, either by their own earnest desire for this kind of com
munication, or by the sort of contagious influence to which
some minds are especially subject. I say “the earnest desire,”
for it is a very curious thing that many of those who are the
most devout spiritualists are persons who have been themselves
previously rather sceptical upon religious matters; and many have
said to me that this communication is really the only basis of
their belief in the unseen world. Such being the case, I cannof
H
�no
wonder that they cling to it with very strong and earnest feeling.
A lady, not undistinguished in the literary world, assured me
several years ago that she had been converted by this spiritualism
from a state of absolute unbelief in religion; and she assured me,
also, that she regarded medical men and scientific men, who
endeavoured to explain these phenomena upon rational principles,
and to expose deception, where deception did occur, as the
emissaries of Satan, who so feared that the spread of spiritualism
would destroy his power upon earth, that he put it into the minds
of medical and scientific men to do all that they could to prevent
it. Now that, I assure you, is a fact. That was said to me by a
lady of considerable literary ability, and I believe it represents,
though rather extravagantly, a state of mind which is very preva
lent; the great spread of the intense materialism of our age
tending to weaken, and in some instances to destroy, that
healthful longing which we all have, I believe, in our innermost
nature, for a higher future existence, and which is to my mind one
of the most important foundations of our belief in it. We live
too much in the present; we think too much of the things of the
world as regards our material comfort and enjoyment, instead of
thinking of them as they bear upon our own higher nature.
I believe that this tendency, which I think is especially noticeable
in America—or at least it was a few years ago—from all that I
was able to learn, had a great deal to do with the spread of this
belief in what is called Spiritualism. The spiritualists assert that
in America they are numbered by millions, that there are very
tew people of any kind of intellectual culture who have not
either openly or secretly given in their adhesion to it. I believe
that is a gross exaggeration; still there can be no doubt from the
number of periodicals they maintain, and the advertisements in
them of all kinds of strange things that are done—spirit drawings
made, drawings of deceased friends, and spiritual instruction given
of various kinds—that there must be a very extended belief in
this notion of communication with the unseen world through
these “ media.”
I can only assure you for myself that having, as I have said,
devoted considerable attention to this subject, I have come to
the conclusion most decidedly, with, I believe I may say, as little
prepossession as most persons, and with every disposition to seek
for truth simply—to allow for our knowledge, or I would rather
say for our ignorance, a very large margin of many things that
are beyond our philosophy—with every disposition to accept facts
when I could once clearly satisfy myself that they were facts—I
�Ill
have had to come to the conclusion that whenever I have been
permitted to employ such tests as I should employ in any scientific
investigation, there was either intentional deception on the part
of interested persons, or else self-deception on the part of persons
who were very sober-minded and rational upon all ordinary affairs
of life. Of that self-deception I could give you many very curious
illustrations, but the limits of our time will prevent my giving you
more than one or two. On one occasion I was assured that on
the evening before, a long dining table had risen up and stood a
foot high in the air, in the house in which I was, and to which I
was then admitted for the purpose of seeing some of these mani
festations by persons about whose good faith there could be no
doubt whatever. I was assured by them—“ It was a great pity
you were not here last night, for unfortunately our principal
medium is so exhausted by the efforts she put forth last night
that she cannot repeat it.” But I was assured upon the word of
three or four who were present, that this table had stood a foot
high in the air, and remained suspended for some time, without any
hands being near it, or at any rate with nothing supporting it;
the hands might be over it. But I came to find from experiments
performed in my presence, that they considered it evidence of the
table rising into the air, that it pressed upward against their hands;
—that they did not rest upon their sense of sight; for I was
looking in this instance at the feet of the table, and I saw that
the table upon which the hands of the performers were placed,
and which was rocking about upon its spreading feet, really never
rose into the air at all. It would tilt to one side or to the other side,
but one foot was always resting on the ground. And when they
declared to me that this table had risen in the air, I said, “ I am
very sorry to have to contradict you, but I was looking at the feet
of the table all the time, and you were not; and I can assert most
positively that one of the feet never left the ground. Will you
allow me to ask what is your evidence that the table rose into the
air?” “Because we felt it pressing upwards against our hands.”
I assure you that was the answer I received; their conclusion that
the table rose in the air being grounded on this, that their hands being
placed upon the table, they felt, or they believed, that the table was
pressing upwards against their hands, though I saw all the time that
one foot of the table had never left the ground. Now that is what we
call a “subjective sensation;” one of those sensations which arise
in our own minds under the influence of an idea. Take for
instance the very common case—when we sleep in a strange bed,
it may be in an inn that is not very clean, and we begin to be a
�112
little suspicious of what other inhabitants there may be in that
bed; and then we begin to feel a “ creepy, crawly” sensation about
us, which that idea will at once suggest. Now those are subjective
sensations; those sensations are produced by the mental idea.
And so in this case I am perfectly satisfied that a very large
number of these spiritual phenomena are simply subjective
sensations; that is, that they are the result of expectation on
the part of the individual. The sensations are real to them.
You know that when a man has suffered amputation of his leg,
he will tell you at first that he feels his toes, that he feels his limb;
and, perhaps to the end of his life, every now and then he
will have this feeling of the limb moving, or of a pain in it;
and yet we know perfectly well that that is simply the result
of certain changes in the nerve, to which, of course, there
is nothing answering in the limb that was removed. These subjec
tive sensations, then, will be felt by the individuals as realities, and
will be presented to others as realities, when, really, they are
simply the creation of their own minds, that creation arising out
of the expectation which they have themselves formed. These
parties believed that the table would rise ; and when they felt the
pressure against their hands, they fully believed that the table was
rising.
Take the case of Table-turning, which occurred earlier. I
dare say many of you remember that epidemic which preceded
the spiritualism; in fact, the spiritualism, in some degree, arose
out of table-turning. My friend, the chairman (Dr. Noble), and
I hunted in couples, a good many years ago, with a third friend,
the late Sir John Forbes, and we went a great deal into these
inquiries; and I very well remember sitting at a table with him,
I suppose 25 years ago, waiting in solemn expectation for the
turning of the table; and the table went round. This was simply
the result of one of the party, who was not influenced by
the philosophical scepticism that we had on the subject, having
a strong belief that the phenomenon would occur; and when he
had sat for some time with his hands pressed down upon the
table, an involuntary muscular motion, of the kind I mentioned
in my last lecture, took place, which sent the table turning.
There was nothing to the Physiologist at all difficult in the under
standing of this. Professor Faraday was called upon to explain
the table-turning, which many persons set down to electricity; but
he was perfectly satisfied that this was a most untrue account of
it, and that the explanation was (as, in fact, I had previously
myself stated in a lecture at the Royal Institution) that the move-
�T13
merits took place in obedience to ideas. Movements of this class
are what I call “ideo-motcr,” or reflex actions of the brain; and the
occurrence of these movements in obedience to the idea entertained
is the explanation of all the phenomena of table-turning. Pro
fessor Faraday constructed a very simple testing apparatus, merely
two boards, one over the other, and confined by elastic bands, but
the upper board rolling readily upon a couple of pencils or small
rollers; and resting on the lower board was an index, so arranged
that a very small motion of this upper board would manifest
itself in the movement of the index through a large arc. He
went about this investigation in a thoroughly scientific spirit.
He first tied together the boards so that th°y could not move one
upon the other, the object being to test whether the mere inter
position of the instrument would prevent the action. He had
three or four of these indicators prepared, and he put them down on
the table so fixed that they would not move. He then put the hands
of the table turners on these; and it was found, as he fully expected,
that the interposition of this indicator under their hands did not
at all prevent the movement of the table. The hands were resting
on the indicator; and when their involuntary pressure was exerted,
the friction of the hands upon the indicators, and of the indicators
upon the table, carried round the table just as it had done before.
Now if there had been anything in the construction of the instrument
to prevent it, that would not have happened. Then he loosened the
upper board and put the index on, so that the smallest motion of
the hands upon the board would manifest itself, before it would
act on the table, in the movement of the index; and it was found
that when the parties looked at the index and watched its indica
tions, they were pulled up as it were, at the very first involuntary
action of their hands, by the knowledge that they were exerting this
power, and the table then never went round. One of the strangest
parts of this popular delusion was, that even after this complete
exposure of it by Faraday, there were a great many persons, includ
ing many who were eminently sensible and rational in all the
ordinary affairs of life, who said—“O, but this has nothing at all to
do with it It is all very well for Professor Faraday to talk in this
manner, but it has nothing at all to do with it. We know that we
are not exerting anypressure. His explanation does not at all apply
to our case.”
But then Professor Faraday’s table-turners
were equally satisfied that they did not move the table, until
the infallible index proved that they did. And if any one of
these persons who know that they did not move the table,
were to sit down in the same manner with those indicators, it
�H4
would have been at once shown that they did move the table.
Nothing was more curious than the possession of the minds of
sensible men and women by this idea that the tables went round
by an action quite independent of their own hands ; and not only
that, but that really, like the people in the dancing mania, they
must follow the table. I have seen sober and sensible people
running round with a table, and with their hands placed on it, and
asserting that they could not help themselves—that they were
obliged to go with the table. Now this is just simply the same
kind of possession by a dominant idea, that possessed the dancing
maniacs of the middle ages.
Then the Table-talking came up. It was found that the table
would tilt in obedience to the directions of some spirit, who was
in the first instance (I speak now of about 20 years ago) always
believed to be an evil spirit. The table talking first developed
itself in Bath, under the guidance of some clergymen there, who
were quite satisfied that the tiltings of the table were due to the
presence of evil spirits. And one of these clergymen went further,
and said that it was Satan himself. But it was very curious that
the answers obtained by the rappings and tiltings of the tables
always followed the notions of the persons who put the questions.
These clergymen always got these answers as from evil spirits, or
satisfied themselves that they were evil spirits by the answers they
got. But, on the other hand, other persons got answers of a
very different kind; an innocent girl for instance, asked the
table if it loved her, and the table jumped up and kissed her.
A gentleman who put a question to one of these tables got
an extremely curious answer, which affords a very remarkable
illustration of the principle I was developing to you in the
last lecture—the unconscious action of the brain. He had
been studying the life of Edward Young the poet, or at least had
been thinking of writing it; and the spirit of Edward Young
announced himself one evening, as he was sitting with his sisterin-law,—the young lady who asked the table if it loved her. Edward
Young announced himself by the raps, spelling out the words in
accordance with the directions that the table received. He asked,
“Are you Young the poet?” “Yes.” “The author of the
‘ Night Thoughts ?’ ” “ Yes.” “ If you are, repeat a line of his
■poetry.” And the table spelt out, according to the system of
telegraphy which had been agreed upon, this line :—
“ Man is not formed to question but adore.”
He said, “ Is this in the ‘ Night Thoughts ?’ ” “ No.”
“ Where
�XI5
is it?” “J O B.” He could not tell what this meant He
went home, bought a copy of Young’s works, and found that in the
volume containing Young’s poems there was a poetical commen
tary on Job which ended with that line. He was extremely
puzzled at this; but two or three weeks afterwards he
found he had a copy of Young’s works in his own library,
and was satisfied from marks in it that he had read that
poem before.
I have no doubt whatever that that line
had remained in his mind, that is in the lower stratum of it;
that it had been entirely forgotten by him, as even the possession of
Young’s poems had been forgotten ; but that it had been treasured
ap as it were in some dark corner of his memory, and had
come up in this manner, expressing itself in the action of the table,
just as it might have come up in a dream.
These are curious illustrations, then, of the mode in which
the minds of individuals act when there is no cheating at all,—
this action of what we call the subjective state of the individual
dominating these movements; and I believe that that is really
the clue to the interpretation of the genuine phenomena. On
the other hand, there are a great many which we are assured
of—for instance, this descent of a lady through the ceiling,—
which are self-delusions, pure mental delusions, resulting from
the preconceived idea and the state of expectant attention
in which these individuals are. Here are a dozen persons sitting
round a table in the dark, with the anticipation of some extraordi
nary event happening. In another dark seance one young lady
thought she would like to have a live lobster brought in, and
presently she began to feel some uncomfortable sensations, which
she attributed to the presence of this live lobster; and the fact is
recorded that two live lobsters were brought in ; that is, they
appeared in this dark seance—making their presence known, I sup
pose, by crawling over the persons of the sitters. But that is all
we know about it—that they felt something—they say they
were two live lobsters, but what evidence is there of that ?—the
seance was a dark one. We are merely told that the young lady
thought of a live lobster; she said they had received so many
flowers and fruits that she was tired of them, and she thought of
two live lobsters; and forthwith it was declared that the live
lobsters were present. I certainly should be much more satisfied
with the narration, if we were told that they had made a supper off
these lobsters after the stance was ended.
Now it has been my business lately to go rather care
fully into the analysis of several of these cases, and to inquire
�Ii6
into the mental condition of some of the individuals who have re
ported the most remarkable occurrences. I cannot—it would not
be fair—say all I could say with regard to that mental condition ;
but I can only say this, that it all fits in perfectly well with the result
of my previous studies upon the subject, viz., that there is nothing too
strange to be believed by those who have once surrendered their
judgment to the extent of accepting as credible things which com
mon sense tells us are entirely incredible. One gentleman says he
glories in not having that scientific incredulity which should lead
him to reject anything incredible merely because it seems incredible.
I can only say this, that we might as well go back to the state of
childhood at once, the state in which we are utterly incapable of
distinguishing the strange from the true. That is a low and
imperfect condition of mental development; and all that we call
education tends to produce the habit of mind that shall enable us
to distinguish the true from the false—actual facts from the
creations of our imagination. I do not say that we ought to reject
everything that to us, in the first instance, may seem strange. I
could tell you of a number of such things in science within your
own experience. How many things there are in the present day
that we are perfectly familiar with—the electric telegraph, for
instance—which fifty years ago would have been considered per
fectly monstrous and incredible.
But there we have the
rationale. Any person who chooses to study the facts may
at once obtain the definite scientific rationale; and these things
can all be openly produced and experimented upon, expounded
and explained. There is not a single thing we are asked
to believe of this kind, that cannot be publicly exhibited.
For instance, in this town, last week, I saw a stream of molten
iron coming out from a foundry; I did not see on this occasion,—
but the thing has been done over and over again,—that a man
has gone and held his naked hand in such a stream of molten iron,
and has done it without the least injury; all that is required being
to have his hand moist, and if his hand is dry he has merely to
dip it in water, and he may hold his hand for a certain
time in that stream of molten iron without receiving any
injury whatever. This was exhibited publicly at a meeting
of the British Association at Ipswich many years ago, at
the foundry of Messrs. Ransome, the well known agricultural
implement makers. It is one of the miracles of science, so to
speak; they are perfectly credible to scientific men, because
they know the principle upon which it happens, and that principle
is familiar to you all—that if you throw a drop of water upon hot
�”7
iron, the water retains its spherical form, and does not spread upon
it and wet it. Vapour is brought to that condition by intense heat,
that it forms a sort of film, or atmosphere, between the hand and
the hot iron, and for a time that atmosphere is not too hot to be
perfectly bearable. There are a number of these miracles of
science, then, which we believe, however incredible at first sight
they may appear, because they can all be brought to the test of
experience, and can be at any time reproduced under the neces
sary conditions. Houdin, the conjurer, in his very interesting
autobiography—a little book I would really recommend to any of
you who are interested in the study of the workings of the mind,
and it may be had for 2s.—Houdin tells you that he himself
tried this experiment, after a good deal of persuasion; and he says
that the sensation of immersing his hand in this molten metal was
like handling liquid velvet. These things, I say, can be exhibited
openly—above board ; but these Spiritual phenomena will only
come just when certain favourable conditions are present—con
ditions of this kind, that there is to be no scrutiny—no careful
examination by sceptics; that there is to be every disposition
to believe, and no manifestation of any incredulity, but the most
ready reception of what we are told. I was asked some years ago
to go into an investigation of the Davenport Brothers ; but then I
was told that the whole thing was to be done in the dark, and that I
was to join hands and form part of a circle; and I responded
to the invitation by saying that in all scientific inquiries I
considered the hands and the eyes essential instruments of
investigation, and that I could not enter into any inquiry, and
give whatever name I possess in science to the result of it, in
which I was not allowed freely to use my hands and my eyes. And
wherever I have gone to any of these Spiritual manifestations, and
have been bound over not to interfere, I have seen things which,
I feel perfectly certain, I could have explained, if I had only been
allowed to look under the table, for instance, or to place my leg in
contact with the leg of the medium. And it has been publicly stated
within the last month, that the very medium whom I suspected
strongly of cheating on an occasion of this kind, was detected in
the very acts which I suspected, but which I was not allowed to
examine. I cannot then go further into this inquiry at the
present time; but I can only ask you to receive my assurance
as that of a scientific man, who has for a long course of years been
accustomed to investigate the curious class of actions to which I
have alluded, and which disguise themselves under different names.
A great number of the very things now done by persons professing
�n8
to call themselves Spiritualists, were done 30 years ago, or pro
fessed to be done, by those who call themselves “Mesmerists;”
thus the lifting of the whole body in the air was a thing that was
asserted as possible by mesmerists, as is now done by Mr. Home
and his followers. These things I say, crop up now and then,
sometimes in one form, sometimes in another; and it is the same
general tendency to credulity, to the abnegation of one’s Common
Sense, that marks itself in every one of these epidemics.
Thus, then, we come back to the principle from which we
started—that the great object of all education should be to give
to the mind that rational direction which shall enable it to form an
intelligent and definite judgment upon subjects of this kind,
without having to go into any question of formal reasoning upon
them. Thus, for example, is it more probable that Mr. Home
floated out of one window and in at another, or that Lord
Lindsay should have allowed himself to be deceived as to a matter
which he admits only occurred by moonlight I That is the question
for common sense. I believe, as I stated just now, that the
tendency to the higher culture of the present age will manifest
itself in the improvement of the next generation, as well as of our
own ; and it is in that hope that I have been encouraged on this
and other occasions to do what I could for the promotion of that
desire for self-culture, of which I see so many hopeful manifes
tations at the present day. When once a good basis is laid by
primary education, I do not see what limit there need be to—I
will not say the learning of future generations—but to their wisdom,
for wisdom and learning are two very different things. I have
known some people of the greatest learning, who had the least
amount of wisdom of any persons who have come in my way.
Learning, and the use that is made of it, are two very different things.
It is the effort to acquire a distinct and definite knowledge
of any subject that is worth learning, which has its ultimate effect,
as I have said, upon the race, as well as upon the individual.
But there are great differences, as to their effects upon the mind,
among different subjects of study; and I have long been of opinion
that those studies afford the best discipline, in which the mind is
brought into contact with outward realities,— a view which has
lately been put forth with new force by my friend Canon Kingsley.
You know that Canon Kingsley has acquired great reputation as an
historian. He held the Professorship of History at the University
of Cambridge for many years, and, in fact, has only recently with
drawn from it. Canon Kingsley also early acquired a considerable
amount of scientific culture, and he has always been particularly
�ng
fond of Natural History. Now he lately said to the working men
of Bristol that he strongly recommended them to cultivate Science,
rather than study History; having himself almost withdrawn from
the study of history, for this reason, that he found it more and more
difficult to satisfy himself about the truth of any past event; whilst,
on the other hand, in the study of science, he felt that we were
always approaching nearer to the truth. A few days ago I was
looking through a magazine article on the old and disputed
question of Mary Queen of Scots, which crops up every now and
then. She is once more put upon her trial. Was Mary Queen
of Scots a vicious or a virtuous woman ? The question will be
variously answered by her enemies and by her advocates; and I
believe it will crop up to the day of doom, without ever being
settled. Now, on the other hand, as we study scientific truth, we
gain a certain point, and may feel satisfied we are right up to that
point, though there may be something beyond; while the elevation
we have gained enables us to look higher still. It is like
ascending a mountain; the nearer we get to the top, the clearer
and more extensive is the view. I think this is a far better
discipline to the mind than that of digging down into the dark
depths of the past, in the search for that which we cannot hope ever
thoroughly to bring to light. It so happened that only a fortnight
ago I had the opportunity of asking another of our great historians,
Mr. Froude, what he thought of Canon Kingsley’s remark. He
said, “ I entirely agree with itand in some further conversation
I had with him on the subject, I was very much struck with
finding how thoroughly his own mind had been led, by the very
important and profound researches he has made into our history,
to the same conclusion—the difficulty of arriving at absolute
truth upon any Historical subject. Now we do hope and believe
that there is absolute truth in Science, which, if not at present
in our possession, is within our reach; and that the nearer we
are able to approach to it, the clearer will be our habitual per
ception of the difference between the real and the unreal, the
firmer will be our grasp of all the questions that rise in the ordinary
course of our lives, and the sounder will be the judgment we form
as to great political events and great social changes. Especially
will this gain be apparent in our power of resisting the contagious
influence of “ Mental Epidemics.”
��THE PROGRESS OF SANITARY SCIENCE.
A LECTURE,
By Professor
Roscoe,
F.R.S.,
Delivered in the Town Hall, Salford, December igth, 1871.
Under, the Auspices of
Manchester and Salford Sanitary
Association.
the
The recent illness of the Prince of Wales may be said for
several reasons to have been a good thing for the country;
and, especially, because it has called attention, and that in a
most marked manner, to sanitary matters. We cannot take
up a newspaper now but we see it filled with letters on sewers and
sewer gases. One suggests that every bad smell may bring to us
typhoid fever, or some other disorder; whilst in another we read
that these fears are mere illusions, and that in towns where there
is a great deal of dirt, and -where the ordinary rules of health are
universally disobeyed, none of those dreadful ills occur which are
painted so gloomily. Now, it is important that we should get to
know as much as we can respecting the truth of these two assertions,
so that on the one hand we may not be frightened with the idea
that whenever we smell a bad odour we are sure to take typhoid
fever; nor yet, on the other hand, be lulled into a false repose
with regard to these matters, and think that sanitary laws
can be broken with impunity. Equally false are both these points
of view; and it is with the intention of pointing out some few
of the distinct facts which science has been able to accumulate
respecting the laws of health that I now address you.
In the first place, of the importance of the science of health
there can be no doubt, Everybody wishes to be healthy, and
�t2I
everybody, when he thinks of it at any rate, wishes to avoid such
things as might bring him disease and suffering. How to preserve
the health is not, however, so clear. For the most part men live
in ignorance of those laws of health by which their action should
be guided ; and if we are asked how we should act under certain
conditions, or whether such and such a state of things is an
unhealthy one, many of us are unable to answer the question.
One reason of this is the complicated and changing nature
of the requirements. For instance, a man who lives under
one set of physical circumstances will have to obey one
set of laws of health; whilst men living under different
circumstances will have to observe quite other laws in order to be
healthy. The red Indian, roaming over the prairies, has to look
out for altogether different dangers from those which surround us
who live in crowded cities, where, perhaps, one thousand persons
in some districts live on an acre. That the science of health is
really less developed and less known than many other sciences
lies, then, in the fact that it is more complicated than these other
sciences, and a little reflection will show you why this is so. Thus,
we find that enormous effects are produced by very minute causes;
and this is the case not only when we catch a fever or a particular
disease, without really being able to tell how we have caught it, or
being able to assign to it any origin whatever; but we also find
that this often holds good when we know that we are introducing
a disease, as, for example, by the vaccine lymph, which, when
introduced into the blood, though it be but the smallest particle on
the point of a needle, produces a very extraordinary and valuable
change on the human body. This, I say, shows us that the effect
which is produced is enormously larger than the cause—larger not
only than the apparent cause, but larger than the real cause. Hence,
then, one great difficulty of determining these questions; and
hence it is that men have lived for so many generations, and for
so many hundreds and thousands of years, without having
obtained even an imperfect knowledge of these subjects ; for
it is evident that we are only just at the threshold of know
ledge as regards these matters; we are merely groping in the
dark, and gradually getting hold of facts here and facts there and
putting them together, in order to lay the foundation of this science
of health of which we all stand so much in need.
If we look back we find that in the olden time, we see that when
ever disease and epidemics broke out and spread over the country
without apparent cause, the people attributed these afflictions to the
visitation of God, or in heathen countries to the work of some
�12 2
offended deity; and even now, in our times and in civilised countries,
we find people who ought to know better wearing charms against
certain evils, fancying that they will keep away disease. The first
idea, then,we must get rid ofin our investigationastomattersofhealth
is this notion that disease is brought about by something indefinite
and intangible, something which we must call upon the spirits of
darkness or the spirits of light to deliver us from. We must first
admit that there is a tangible cause for disease, a cause which we
shall probably be able to find if we seek for it properly; but, at any
rate, whether we find it or not, that a cause exists. It would be
useless to attempt investigation unless we believed that there is a
cause for every disease, and for every changing condition of the
body which may occur. Very well, then, the first question is : can
we arrive at such cause ; can we put our fingers upon any cause or
causes which do affect the general health of the community ?
There is no doubt that if we look back at the history of disease,
of epidemic disease especially, we shall find that the older epidemics,
such as the plague, the sweating-sickness, and a number of these
diseases, have, with the progress of time, gradually disappeared.
We no longer hear of the plague in our cities. You have all read
of the great plague of London in 1665, which was followed by the
great fire of London; and it is said that London never would have
been purified had it not been almost burnt down to the ground
after this visitation. But now a-days we do not hear of these out
breaks of plague, at least in this country, and this is, doubtless,
mainly to be attributed to general improvement in the style of
living, and to care and cleanliness in getting rid of the impuri
ties which the body throws off. I mention this to show that these
epidemic diseases are in some way or other connected with causes
which are removable, or, at any rate, which may be mitigated.
Now, another fact that we have learned with regard to these 1
epidemics of olden time is that they were most felt, and the
mortality was always the greatest, amongst the poor, the dirty and
the degraded portion of the population; as a rule these people
suffered more than did those whose circumstances enabled them
to live in a better way. The general conclusion is therefore that
these epidemics are in some way assisted and abetted by dirt and
degradation, and that improvement in the condition and habits of
life of the people does either avert or lessen the virulence of these
outbreaks of epidemic disease. This is shown by a vast number
of facts; and the first that occurs to me is the case of the city of
Buenos Ayres. You are aware that the year before last a most
severe outbreak of yellow fever occurred in the large city of Buenos
�I23
Ayres, in the Brazils; and on investigation it was found that the
sanitary arrangements of that city were of the very lowest and
crudest character, that they had no drains, but only enormous
cesspools which were never emptied, and under their tropical sun
became festering masses of pollution and impurity. So strong
was the conviction that this outbreak was due to the unhealthy
arrangements of their city, that the authorities resolved to spend
an enormous sum, I believe something like four millions
sterling, on a complete system of drainage and water supply
for the city. They are going to remodel their whole arrange
ments, and do away with these festering nuisances, in the
belief, which I have no doubt will be justified by the result, that
they will thereby prevent such an outbreak in the future.
The question as to the mode in which an individual or a
community becomes infected divides itself into two distinct
branches of epidemic diseases. First we have to consider why the
epidemic comes at certain intervals; why, for instance, the cholera
never visited us before 1831, why it then disappeared and
after a lapse of years again breaks out? Next we have to ask how
is the disease propagated when it has once broken out. As
regards the first question I think we have as yet very little safe
ground from which to draw conclusions. That the march of the
cholera in a westerly direction can generally be traced and its
probable occurrence foretold is quite true, and that plausible
theories have been proposed to account for the possibility of the
existence oi cholera in certain countries at certain times is also true.
Still on the whole our knowledge on this quest on is of the
most incomplete character. Not so with regard to the second
part of our inquiry as to how this particular epidemic disease is
propagated. In an inquiry as to the cause of production
of any diseise, we may take it for granted that the material
causing the disease must be brought to the individual
either in the water we drink, or in the air we breathe, or in
the food we eat. I am not speaking now of what are termed
“ hereditary diseases,” whjch are of a totally different character,
and do not come into the class of those which can be removed by
sanitary improvements. Applying this principle to the case of
cholera, as being one of the best investigated of epidemics, we find
that the poisonous matter which is the cause of this disease is
very frequently, at any rate, taken with the water that is drank.
In order to make this matter clear to you I will only call your
attention to two or three cases of evidence as to the truth of the
statement. The first is from that given before the Royal
�124
Commission on the water supply of the metropolis, by Mr. Simon,
the medical officer of the Privy Council. Mr. Simon says :—
“ It is, I believe, a matter of absolute demonstration that in the
old epidemics, when the south side of London suffered so dread
fully from cholera, the great cause of the immense mortality there
was the badness of the water then distributed in those districts of
London. In the interval between the 1849 epidemic and the
1854 epidemic one of the two companies which supply the south
side of London had amended its source of supply; it had gone
higher up the river, and we at once lost a great part of the
mortality on that side of the river. But it was found that this
great difference did not prevail uniformly through the south side
of London, but was confined to those houses which were supplied
from the amended source. There was still a great mortality on
the south side of the river, but this belonged exclusively to the
houses which were still supplied with impure water.”
From a table given in the report from which I quote it is seen
that the number of deaths per thousand from cholera in the visita
tion of 1848, in the houses supplied by the Lambeth Company, was
12’5; at the next visitation the same houses lost only 37 ; that is
to say, that the rate had diminished by three-fourths; whilst in
the houses supplied by the Vauxhall Company the death rate at
the first visitation was n'8, and in the second visitation 13; so
that the death-rate had actually increased in the houses which
were supplied with water from the company which had not
mended its ways.
Another epidemic, that of 1866, only confirmed the conclu
sions drawn from previous experience, for Mr. Simon clearly
shows that the heavy mortality in this year fell in the east of
London, and was distinctly confined to a district supplied by
water drawn from a foul part of the river Lea and containing
sewage impurity.
A third instance is that singular case known as the Golden
Square case. In the course of five or six days, from the 30th
August, 1854, not less than about 500 persons died of cholera in a
district in London, round Golden Square, containing about 5,000
inhabitants. Upon investigation it was found that nearly all the
people who died had been drinking water from a pump in Broad
Street, which was thought to yield very excellent water, but was
afterwards found to communicate with a cesspool in an adjoining
house. These cases clearly prove that contaminated water may
produce cholera.
We will next take the disease from which the Prince of Wales
�I25
has suffered, and which is known as typhoid or enteric fever.
This disease is generally supposed to be caused either by drinking
impure water, or by breathing the foul gases generated in sewers ;
and it is said that 20,000 persons die annually from this
preventable disease. The preventable nature of this disease is so
generally acknowledged, that when an outbreak of typhoid fever
occurs in a district, the medical department of the Privy Council—
a most important department, and one which will become of greater
influence still, from the act of Parliament passed last session—
sends down a duly qualified medical man to inquire into the causes
of the origin and spread of such an epidemic outbreak. Dr.
Buchanan was sent down in September, 1867, to investigate the
cause of the outbreak of typhoid fever at Guildford. He reported
that a new well had been sunk to supply the higher part of
the town, and that water from this well was supplied to about
330 houses for one day only, the 17th August. On the 28th
of August there were several cases of typhoid fever in these
houses, although they are all situated in the highest and
healthiest district in the town. The number daily increased,
and there were in all about 500 cases and 21 deaths. With
three exceptions, all the persons attacked in August and Sep
tember had drank the water exceptionally supplied for one
day only—as just stated. It was subsequently found that a
sewer ran within ten feet of the well, and that the sewage leaked
through the joints of the brickwork and saturated the soil just
above the spring which supplied the well.
I might give you a great number of other instances of a
similar character. I will content myself by stating that Dr. Parkes,
the well known Professor of Sanitary Science in the medical
school at Netley, has collected a good deal of evidence as to
diseases which may be communicated by water, not only to
the troops, but among the civil population ; and he has made a
list of diseases, all of which may be communicated by means of
water, and amongst these he has collected many instances of
local outbreaks of typhoid fever arising from water impregnated
with typhoid sewage or possibly simple sewage. One case quoted
by Dr. Parkes is that of a young ladies’ school, where infiltration
of sewage into the well supplying the house with water was shown
to be the cause of a severe outbreak of typhoid fever.
These cases prove to us that epidemic diseases may be
produced and have been produced by drinking impure water.
Having assured ourselves of this, let us next see what chemistry
can tell us respecting our means of detecting whether the water
�126
used for drinking is pure or impure. You will understand that
the danger lies in the water being impregnated with animal
decomposing matter, and with sewage matters generally. Now, »
although, chemists, like other men, cannot do all that they would
like to do in these investigations, still they can do something;
and I wish to point out to you what chemistry can tell us respect
ing the purity or the impurity of such water. In the first place
let us clearly understand that neither the chemist, nor the
physician, nor the microscopist, nor the physiologist, can tell us
whether the water contains typhoid poison, or whether the water
contains cholera poison or whether the water contains the poison
of any other particular disease. There are no means of ascertain
ing this, even with the most poisonous exhalations from the
cholera patient, except it be the actual test of the action of the
poison on a human subject. The microscopist cannot detect, for
instance, in the rice water from a cholera patient, that there are any
particular germs of cholera poison in that offensive liquid; and
yet if the smallest quantity of it got into the digestive organs of a
man it would produce cholera. But although the chemist is
unable to do this, he is able to tell the difference between a pure
water and a water which contains animal impurity; and if the
water contains cholera poison, or the germs of typhoid, or of
some other disease, or simply animal excrementitious matter, it
is, I need scarcely tell you, unfit to drink; and the chemist can
help us to detect such matters.
Now what is it that the chemist can do in this respect?
You know that all animal matter makes a disagreeable smell
when it is burnt The difference between burning a feather
and burning a piece of wood is evident to your senses. Now,
this burnt feather smell is caused by the presence of a body
which the chemists call Nitrogen, which exists in the air, but
which also enters as a characteristic ingredient into all animal
matter. In this respect animal bodies differ irom the bodies
of vegetables. Now, when the decomposition of an animal
body occurs, the nitrogenous portions which are thrown off,
that is the liquid and the solid products, get into the sewers; ,
and if we can find in water a large quantity of this nitrogenous 4
animal matter, we may be certain that that water is not fit to
drink. I cannot explain to you to-night how the amount of
nitrogenous matter contained in water is ascertained; but if you
will look at these analyses taken from Professor Frankland’s
report on the Chemical Composition of the Lancashire rivers,
you will see what I mean.
�127
Composition of Lancashire Rivers.
Parts in 100,000.
Invell.
♦1
Total solid soluble...................
Organic carbon .......................
Organic nitrogen ...................
Ammonia ................................
Nitrogen as nitrates and nitrites
Total combined nitrogen .......
Chlorine....................................
Hardness temporary...............
Total hardness ........................
7-8
0*187
0*025
0*004
0*021
0*049
VI5
3'72
3‘72
Mersey.
2
3
7*62
55’8o
i’i73 0*222
0*332
O
o’74o 0*002
0*707 0*021
1*648 0*023
0’94
9’63
15’°4 4*61
15’°4 4*6i
4
39’5°
1231
o*6oi
0*622
0
1*113
—
10*18
10*18
Suspended Matter.
Organic ....................................
Mineral ....................................
Total ........................................
*1.
2.
3.
4.
The
The
The
The
0
0
0
2*71
2*71
5’42
0
0
0
__
—
—
Irwell near its source.
Irwell below Manchester.
Mersey, one of its sources.
Mersey below Stockport.
We have here the composition of Lancashire rivers taken from the
admirable report of the Rivers Pollution Commission. In the
first column you have the analysis of the river Irwell, that is of
the water taken at its source, where it is as pure as we could wish
water to be, being, in fact, very much like the pure water which
the Manchester corporation supply to us from the Derbyshire
hills. In the second column you have the composition of the
Irwell below Manchester. In the same way you will see the
composition of the Mersey at its source, and its composition
below Stockport. Let us confine ourselves to the Irwell. Now,
in the first place, you will notice that the total soluble matter, ot
that which is dissolved in the water, is very much more, as you
may imagine, when the Irwell gets below Manchester than it is at
its source. But this total soluble matter might be perfectly
innocuous; it might, for instance, be common salt, or carbonate
of lime, or gypsum, or any other substance which might not be
hurtful. But the next constituents which we find on this list are
most hurtful; these are the organic carbon and the organic
�12 8
nitrogen, and these are hurtful because they serve as a measure
of the vegetable or animal matter which the water contains.
Observe the difference in the two kinds of water. You see
that in the Irwell below Manchester there is nearly ten times
as much organic carbon as there is in the water when taken
at its source; and that there is more than ten times as much
organic nitrogen (derived solely from animal sources) below
Manchester as there is at its source. The next two substances
we have to notice are the ammonia and the nitrogen, as
nitrates and nitrites, both of which, although harmless in them
selves, are products of the oxidation of animal matter, and
therefore signs of previous pollution. The quantities of ammonia
and nitric acid in the pure Irwell water are almost nothing,
whilst below Manchester they are increased, you see, 300 or
400 times. If we next look at the total combined nitrogen
contained in the water, we find for 49 parts in the pure Irwell
water we have 1,648 parts in the impure water below Manchester !
Thus we see that by a chemical analysis of water, we can at once
detect by the organic, or albumenous nitrogen, whether it still con
tains animal impurity, and by the ammonia and nitric acid whether
the water has been polluted by animal matter which has since been
destroyed, or, by the absence of excessive quantities of these nitro
genous bodies, whether the water has never been in contact with
animal matter. It is thus possible to calculate by a very simple
process how much sewage has come into such a water. Let us,
for instance, take this one case. It is found that in 100,000 parts
of average London sewage there are 10 parts of nitrogen existing,
as ammonia and nitrates, derived from the oxidation of animal
matter. Now, supposing 100,000 parts of Irwell water was found to
contain 10 parts of nitrogen, we should say that the Irwell water is
just as strong as London sewage, that is, equal to the average com
position of the water taken out of London sewers. If it contained
five parts in 100,000, we should say that it was just half as strong ;
or we might then say there are just equal parts of pure water and
London sewage in the river Irwell. Now what is the amount we
find in the Irwell? We find that the nitrogen, as ammonia and
nitrates, as you see in that table, is 1'447 (°'74° + O7O7)«
Very well; now there is also a small quantity of nitrogen, as
ammonia and nitric acid, contained in rain water, but the quantity
is exceedingly small. If we therefore subtract the quantity which
is found in rain (viz., 0'032 part in 100,oco) from the quantity
which is found in the Irwell (viz., 1'447), we shall have the
quantity (1'415) which is due to the sewage impurity in the
�Irwell, and we can then easily calculate how much London sewage
this corresponds to. It evidently corresponds to 14,150 parts oi
London sewage. Thus you see that 100,000 parts of the Irwell
water below Manchester contain the quantity of nitrogenous
animal impurity which is contained in 14,150 parts of London
sewage ; in other words—so far as regards the animal impurity—
if you were to take 86 gallons of pure water and mix with them
14 gallons of London sewage, you would have the composition—
so far as animal impurity goes—of 100 gallons of Irwell water.
What I want to prove is that we have in this way a measure of
the impurity of water, so that when we have made our analysis we
can calculate how much previous sewage contamination the water
has undergone.
In diagram No. 2 you see the composition of the Manchester
Corporation water:—
Manchester Corporation Water, 1868,
Contains in 100,000 parts—
Total solid impurity .................................
Organic carbon ............................................
Organic nitrogen............................................
Ammonia.........................................................
Nitrogen, as nitrates and nitrites ...............
Total combined nitrogen ............................
Previous sewage contamination...................
Chlorine ........................................................
Temporary hardness ....................................
Permanent hardness ....................................
Total hardness................................................
6’20
0183
0'009
0'006
0-025
0'039
o'ooo
1'120
0'14
3'59
373
You see that there is no previous sewage contamination; but
in all river water we find from the drainage of houses or towns
previous sewage contamination ; and it is therefore possible for us
to make the prediction that in the visitation of cholera which this
country is almost sure to undergo next summer, Manchester will
pass nearly unscathed, while London, being still supplied by
river water, will suffer from the epidemic. The point I want you
to understand is that the chemist—thanks chiefly to the labours of
Professor Frankland—is now able to estimate this previous sewage
contamination.
Now, although I cannot show you how the amount of the
nitrogen is ascertained, I can show you in another way the dif-
�i3o
ference between Irwell water and our drinking water. In this glass
jar we have some pure water, as supplied to us by the Corporation
of Manchester. Here we have another clear-looking water, not
quite so nice and clear as the drinking water, but still a very
respectable water, which you might wish to drink and fancy that it
would not be so bad, though the taste might not be so nice as the
pure water. This is filtered water taken from the black stream
which flows past our doors—the river Irwell. I have here a red
liquid which will oxidise animal impurities and destroy them, and
thereby lose its own colour. You will find that one drop of this
coloured solution—permanganate of potash—will be sufficient to
colour this pure water, because there is no impurity in it which
requires oxidation. I will put in three drops, which will render
the water pink. Now I will take the Irwell water and add many
drops of the permanganate. Let us see what happens here.
This Irwell water, you see, soon becomes colourless, showing that
it contains organic matter capable of undergoing oxidation, and
therefore in a condition of decomposition or putrefaction, and
you see I have to add a considerable quantity yet until I get
a permanent pink colour. And, therefore, although this method
of testing water is not so accurate a one, or to be relied on
so implicitly as the determination of the nitrogenous impurity, yet
it is one which is of value, and which I have no difficulty in
making visible to you, thus demonstrating to the sight that the
clear Irwell water is impure.
There is still another means which chemists have of telling
whether water is pure, and that is by the presence of common
salt. Pure spring water ought to contain very little common
salt; but water which contains the infiltrations of sewage brings
in with it a large quantity of common salt derived from the urine.
Any water which contains more than one part of common salt in
100,000 is almost sure to have that salt brought in by sewage,
and will therefore be impure. This does not apply, of course, to
water flowing through salt districts. The springs and rivers
of Cheshire in some places contain large quantities of salt which
does not come from sewage; but I am speaking of places in
which there is no occurrence of rock salt. Thus you see that
we have three means of detecting and determining the amount
of organic impurity in water—first, the nitrogen; second, this
test with the red permanganate; and, thirdly, the presence ot
common salt; and it is clear that the chemist is able to detect
organic impurity in water, and to tell positively that such and such
a water is a pure one, and that such and such a water is an impure
�i31
one and unfit and dangerous or even fatal to drink; so that
although he is not able to say that a certain water contains
cholera poison, he is able to say that the water is poisonous.
Next about the air we breathe. You know that the air contains
oxygen, nitrogen, and carbonic acid. Oxygen is the vital air. I
can show you very easily that air consists of two different things.
I take this glass cylinder, which is filled with air. This cylinder
contains five volumes of air. I will burn a bit of phosphorus
in it, and you will very soon see that the phosphorus will go
out. After a little while these white fumes will disappear, and
we shall see that we have not got as much air as we had before—
about four volumes will be left; we shall also see that the gas
which is left, called nitrogen, has different properties from
common air, inasmuch as a light will go out in the gas which
is left. The oxygen gas, which we use in breathing, is a
colourless invisible gas, in which bodies burn with far greater
brilliancy than they do in the air. If we take a little bit of
charcoal, for instance, and burn it in this oxygen, you will see
that it will burn much more brilliantly than it does in ordinary
air. Now besides these two gases—oxygen and nitrogen—we
have a third gas in the air, called carbonic acid gas. This gas is
given off whenever bodies such as charcoal, coal, or candles bum
in the air; it is also given off by our breathing, as you know. This
will be made evident if I blow into this lime water, which will
become turbid from the presence of this carbonic acid coming
from the lungs. Well, then, we have in the air the oxygen, or the
vital air ; the nitrogen, or the non-vital air; and the carbonic acid,
which we may call the choke damp. The carbonic acid plays a
very important part as regards plants, because it serves as their
food ; but it renders the air impure for the use of animals, and it
is produced by the combustion of bodies. That this is the case I
can show you by a very simple experiment. We have here
a lamp burning under a jar, and the products of the combustion
come out through this chimney. If I hold a clean plate of glass
above this aperture, you will see that a large quantity of
vapour of water comes out, the result of this burning of the
gas. There you see the glass is bedewed with moisture. Now let
us stop the door of our glass house with a piece of putty, and
observe what takes place. The flame, you see, becomes longer
and more smoky, and in a very short time it will go out, because
there is not a sufficient supply of oxygen to keep up the combus
tion ; and if we hold this glass plate over it now the plate does
not become bedewed with moisture, because there is no draught
�132
through the pipe, and no mode by which the vitiated air can
escape. This illustrates to you the principle of ventilation.
Wherever a candle can burn, there an animal can live; but
where the candle goes out, there as a rule the animal also goes out
and cannot live. Here you see the gas flame is very nearly gone
out I will now open the door again and let some fresh air in,
and I think in a short time that the flame will revive, and the
combustion go on much as before. Now the air that we give off
from our lungs is impure, because it contains carbonic air; a
candle cannot bum in it. You have all heard the story of the
Black Hole of Calcutta, and you know that when men are shut up in
a close room in which they cannot get any supply of fresh vital
air or oxygen, they cannot live, they are suffocated. I have
shown you that if we vitiate the air in this bell jar by contamina
ting it with carbonic acid gas, through the withdrawal of the
oxygen from it, the candle will not burn. The candle burns in
this jar which contains air, but if we now breathe this air once or
twice, you will observe the effect upon the combustion of the
candle. There, it has been breathed once ; now we will breathe
it once again. The candle now burns very dimly. With one
further breathing of the air we shall so diminish the quantity of
oxygen, and increase that of the carbonic acid, that the candle
will go out. Here, then, you see at once the necessity for the
ventilation of your rooms. All this has been long well known, and
1 only introduce these facts because they help to give you a general
notion of what chemistry tells us about the composition of the
air.
There is, however, still another constituent of the air of
still greater importance, as regards our health, even than this
carbonic acid, about which our knowledge is newer and less
perfect, and that is Organic Matter. You all know what we
mean by a “close room;” you all know that if you do not
sleep with your windows open, as you ought to do—if you sleep
with your windows shut, and especially if you have no fire-place
in your room, when you come back to the room from the fresh air,
before opening the window, you notice a disagreeable close
smell. That smell ought never to exist in the room; for it shows
that you have something there which is neither oxygen, nor nitrogen,
nor carbonic acid, inasmuch as all these gases have no smell ;
but it is organic matter—emanations from the bodies of
those who have slept in that room. These organic emanations
or substances existing in the air are most dangerous, and
do much towards spreading epidemic diseases, as far as
�13 3
the air is concerned. What does science teach us with
regard to this organic matter in the air? This, again, like
the organic matter in water, is not an easy matter to inves
tigate, and in many cases we are as yet quite in the dark
concerning its mode of action or constitution. Still it is not
difficult to show that organic matter is contained in the air,
and that some of these organic substances are gases and
some of them solid bodies. Thus if we look at the air of
our rooms when the sun is shining in upon it, what do we see ?
We see what we call “motes” dancing in the sunbeam. What
are those motes? They are finely divided bits of all sorts of
things—bits of skin, of the epidermis; bits of clothing ; dust
from the street; bits of stones and bits of iron—a thousand
different things, and all so small that they do not settle down in
the air—at any rate not for a long time—but continually dance up
and down as we see them in the sunbeam, and are as continually
being breathed in to our lungs. We do not see these motes when
the sun is not shining, not because they are not there, but because
they are too small to be seen except when the sunlight strikes
upon them and reflects the light back into our eye. That a
number of these little things are germs, seeds, or spores of various
kinds, has been proved by a great number of experiments. If we
wish to prove the organic nature of these particles, we may
collect this fine aerial dust by drawing air through something
upon which the dust can be filtered out, as upon a piece of
cotton wool; and if we then put this cotton wool with the dust
upon it into a solution of sugar, we find that that dusty cotton
wool can produce all sorts of changes in the sugar—changes which
do not occur if we keep out this dust, as we can do—and thus
we can show the production from the dust not only of living vege
tables but also of living animals. This experiment has been made by
our townsman, Dr. Angus Smith, than whom nobody has done more
to advance our knowledge concerning the organic matter in the air.
Dr. Angus Smith, as long ago as 1848, made the following experi
ment : he placed a little pure water in a glass bottle and took
it into a room where a number of people were present, and very
often shook this water up with the air in the bottle, pumping in a
fresh supply of air and shaking it up again many hundred times.
He then, with his friend Mr. Dancer, examined the nature of the
water which was in the bottle, and they found that this -water,
after a little time, contained living animal organisms — little
vibrios, as they are termed—very minute, but still distinct animal
forms, which are well known to those who occupy themselves,
�r34
as Mr. Dancer has done, with the study of the very smallest and
lowest creatures, both animal and vegetable, which can only be
seen under the microscope. So that of the existence floating in
the air of these germs or eggs—if you like to call them so—of the
animals there can be no doubt. Now, then, comes the other
Question how far these little germs which exist in the air, can
produce disease ? About this, satisfactory evidence is, of course,
more difficult to obtain. It has not, so far as I know, been
positively proved that these little germs are always the cause of
disease, for in many cases the general dissemination of these
geims has proved compatible with a healthy condition of the
people; but that they may, and sometimes do, produce disease
we have abundant evidence to prove. Now the question to which
I wish again to direct your attention is, can the chemist determine
whether the air is pure or whether it is impure as regards these
organic matters? You will say, “we do not want the chemist
to do this, because we can smell when the air is impure.”
But the answer to this is, you cannot always smell when air is
impure any more than you can taste when water is impure; thus
the fever and ague-producing air of the marshes is quite free from
smell, and yet capable of giving rise to most serious diseases.
You therefore require something more than your unaided senses,
and the chemist can help in this matter; for although he cannot
tell whether there are germs present which will produce certain
diseases, he can tell whether there is or is not organic matter in
the air, and whether it exists in such quantity as to make the air
not fit to be breathed for any length of time. In this diagram
you see the amount of organic matter contained in the air, ac
cording to the experiments of Dr. Angus Smith :—
Relative Amount
of
Organic and Oxidizable Matter
Air.
in the
(Angus Smith.)
St. Bernard’s Hospice........................................
Hill in Lancashire ............................................
Lake in Lucerne................................................
At sea, 6o miles from land................................
Kew Gardens ....................................................
Finchley .............................................................
London, Waterloo steps....................................
London, Southwark Bridge ............................
2'8
2-8
1 ‘4
3’5
Io‘°
i5'c
42-0
55*o
�Dr. Angus Smith found in pure air—obtained from St. Bernard’s
Hospice, on one of the passes over the Alps—a very small
quantity (2-8 parts) of this organic matter; but in Manchester,
in the air of his own laboratory, he found 48 parts ; in the air
over the Lake of Lucerne 1’4; in the air of a pigstye 70; he goes
away to sea, and at 60 miles distance, finds 3^ parts; in the
Greenheys fields, with the wind blowing from Manchester, 40
parts
In the neighbourhood of towns he finds less impurity
than in towns themselves. Kew and Finchley air shows much
less than that taken from near London, Waterloo or Southwark
bridges, or from Lambeth. In Manchester, near one of the
sweet streams I have referred to, with its strong smell ot
putrefaction, be got as much as 73 parts of organic matter.
These numbers, you will understand, do not give absolute
quantities, but they show the difference of pure and impure air
as regards this organic matter.
We have heard a great deal lately about sewer gases, and there
is no doubt that not only is a general lowering of the tone of the
body produced by breathing air vitiated by the entry of sewer
gases into houses, but that actual danger to life ensues from the
bringing these impure gases, which may contain the germs of
specific disease, into our dwelling-houses. But I think we ought
to be careful, especially at the present moment, from letting the
impression get abroad, that wherever there is a bad smell we are
in danger of our lives. The public are very apt to run into extremes.
At one time they don’t think at all about the matter, but when
attention is called to the subject by such an event as the illness
of the Prince of Wales, they are apt to fancy that whenever they
perceive a bad smell they are sure to be dreadfully ill. Still,
as I have shown you, there is no doubt that organic germs
exist in the air, and that air coming into houses from sewers, by
bringing in these floating germs, must be a constant source of
danger, and may become a source of fatal disease. But that
effluvia and evil smells from decomposing animal matter are not
invariably, or even generally, accompanied by epidemic outbreaks
is a fact which common experience proves, though in localities
where such effluvia exists the epidemic poison, when it comes,
appears to find favourable ground for its growth, and the place at
once becomes a hotbed of disease. This view is confirmed by
the recent report issued by two very distinguished physicians, Drs.
Burdon Saunderson and Parkes, on the sanitary condition of
Liverpool.. They distinctly say, considering the high death rate in
the lowest parts of that town and finding that there has been no
�outbreak of typhoid fever, that they see no reason to attribute
that high death rate chiefly, if at all, to the escape of these sewer
gases into the houses : so that as far as Liverpool is concerned,
the blame of the high death rate does not seem to lie at the door
of the sewer gases.
I should wish next to bring before you a very remarkable
example of what exact scientific investigation can do to help us
to a knowledge of these most complicated and difficult questions
as to the causes of the propagation of epidemic disease. You
know that France is one of the great silk-producing countries;
and you know that the silk is spun by a small caterpillar or worm
that lives on mulberry leaves, and that it is reared largely in the
south of France. You are all, I dare say, also aware of the
changes which this silkworm undergoes—that the worm changes
its skin several times, and that, having attained a certain growth,
a peculiar secretion, which forms the silk, is produced inside the
animal, which then spins its cocoon and retires into the inside—
forming what we know as the chrysalis. After some time this
chrysalis appears as a moth, which lays its eggs and dies, and
a fresh generation of worms make their appearance from the eggs.
Now the value of the productions of the silk trade in France
is something enormous. In 1853 the silk produced in France
was worth 130 millions of francs. Unfortunately, soon after that
year a fatal epidemic, called pebrine, broke out amongst the silk
worms. Everything was done and every nostrum and contrivance
tried to stop this epidemic, but nothing succeeded, and the silk
worms continued to die. The peculiar symptoms of the disease
were that black spots came out all over the caterpillars, and their
silk secreting power was altogether lost. This went on until, in
1864, the value of the silk made in France amounted to only four
millions of francs; so that the disease caused a loss of about 100
millions of francs per annum. The worms—both the healthy and
stricken ones—had been carefully examined, and it was found
that when they died of this disease they were almost filled
with masses of little globular corpuscles, so that the place where
the silk ought to have been contained nothing but these disease
bringing globules. Nobody, however, could tell how to stop the
epidemic. It was found that sometimes, when the disease could
not be detected either in the egg or in the caterpillar (which spun
silk), the next generation of apparently healthy caterpillars which
came from apparently healthy moths became diseased, and pro
duced no silk. In short, the disease baffled all investigation.
But some time after this dreadful state ot things, the celebrated
�J37
French chemist, Pasteur, was asked to try what he could make
of it. Now Pasteur had previously paid great attention to this
particular subject of organic germinal matter in the air, and he
succeeded in fathoming the whole difficulty. He proved what the
disease was occasioned by, and showed how it might be prevented.
I will give you an idea how Pasteur found this out. In the first
place, I told you that the healthy caterpillar might produce
unhealthy moths, or moths that laid bad eggs; but Pasteur found
that this was because the particles of diseased matter existing in
the caterpillar supposed to be healthy were so small that they
could not be seen by the best microscopes. He investigated the
matter step by step with scientific precision, and he found that by
examining the moth instead of the caterpillar he could invariably
tell whether the moth was a sound moth and would lay sound
eggs, or whether it was an unsound moth and would lay unhealthy
eggs, which afterwards would give birth to a stricken or diseased
caterpillar. He proved this completely; and moreover he showed
that not only could he tell by examining the moth that these little
globules existed in the moth, although not apparent in the cater
pillar, but that the caterpillar could become infected, although it
did not receive the disease by transmission, by contact with
another unhealthy caterpillar. And in this way, by most care
fully guarding against a caterpillar becoming infected by a neigh
bouring one, and by most jealously taking care that all the moths
which laid eggs, or whose eggs were kept, were healthy moths, he
entirely got the disease under his control, and the result is that
the disease is now almost passing away. I will not take up youi
time now by reading, as I intended, a passage from his paper, but
I will simply say that in this way he was able to point out the
cause of the disease, and thus to prevent the great pecuniary loss
which France had been suffering. Here, then, you have a clear
case in which careful scientific examination was successful in
explaining a complicated and apparently insoluble difficulty; and
there can be little doubt that the application of similar methods
of exact investigation to the cases of other epidemic diseases will
in the end show that every such disease is capable of being, if not
altogether prevented, at any rate greatly lessened.
In conclusion I wish you to understand that, whatever progress
men of*science may make in the discovery of the cause of epidemic
disease, and however completely our imperial or municipal authori
ties may carry out preventive and curative measures founded upon
such discoveries, it rests in the end with the people to say whether
such measures shall be productive of good or whether they shall
�138
remain a dead letter without influence on the mass of the popula
tion. All the discoveries of science, all the care of our authorities
can avail nothing, when the people themselves are dirty, dissolute,
drunken, and degraded. This debased condition of the popula
tion is the most powerful cause of the high death rate of our
towns, and this at present far outweighs the evil effects produced
by drinking water contaminated with sewage, or by breathing air
rendered impure by sewer gases.
�II
�JOHN HEYWOOD'S EDUCATIONAL WORKS.
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writing, with rapidity of execution, the pupil should be furnished with really good models,
carefully graduated from simple strokes to the most finished specimens of the art, and so
presented at every stage as to allure to constant effort to reproduce the model. To supply
these requisites John Hoywood has issued a large variety ef Copy Books, in forms and at
p ices suited to every class of school in the country.
John Heywood’s Copy Books comprise 15 books, which are beautifully graduated,
the earlier numbers having faint copies over which the child may write: thus guided, he by
degrees is encouraged to try his hand alone. The F’cap 4to series are well adapted in price and
quality to meet the requirements of the Public Elementary Schools. The Post 4to will be
found admirably fitted for the Private and High Class School.
John Heywood’s Copy-Books—the best and cheapest. F’cap 4to, 2 4 pp
National or 3rd Quality Foolscap.......................................................... 2d.
Second Quality Foolscap
.................................................................. 2Jd.
Best Quality Foolscap.............................................................................. 3d.
Second Quality Post ..
..
..
..
.-.
..
..
.. 4d.
Best Quality Post
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
.. 5d.
Best Quality Large Post
.................................................................... 6d.
1.
*la.
2.
*2a.
3.
’3a.
4.
5.
Strokes and Turns
Strokes and Turns
Letters
I etters
1 hort Words
Short Words
Large Hand
Text Hand
Text and Round
Round Hand
Round and Small
Small Hand
H- Initiatory Small Hand
8. Angular Small Hand
9. Text, Round, and Small
5J.
6.
6|.
7.
10. Large, Text, Round,
and Small
Ladies’ Angular Hand
Commercial Hand
Commercial Forms
Ornamental Alphabets
Figure Book
Capitals
11.
12.
12|.
13.
14.
15.
* These are printed with faint ink for the pupil to write over.
John. Heywood’S New Code Copy Books, a new and carefully-graduated series, arc so
dosigned as at once to encourage and help a child in his efforts to use his pen with facility
and skill. Throughout the series the spaces are marked out in each page within which
each portion of the line should be written. I 'c slovenly habit into which cliil hen are apt to
fall of oopying their own imperfect writing, t, im line to line, instead of co. stantly com
paring what they have done with the model at the top of the page, may be prevented by the
use of John Heywood’s Fly-leaf Model Writing Books.
John Heywood’s New Code Copy-Books. A new and carefully graduated series of Copy-
Books, so designed as to encourage and help a child in his efforts to use his pen with
facility and skill. Helps are given by faint horizontal lines being drawn so as
to guide the pupils in the heights and lengths of the long letters. The letters and words
also in this series are nicely separated bv short lines, which secure great neatness.
n cap oblong, 24 pp., fine paper, in beautitun^-printed wrappers. Sewed, ’2d. each.
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
1.—Letters of the Alphabet.
2.—Short Words without Looped Letters.
3.—Short Words with Looped Letters.
4.— Text and Round Short Words.
5.—Capital Lotters and Figures.
<5.—Text and Round Hand.
,
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
7.—Round <t Initiatory Small Hand.
8.—Text, Round, Small, and Figures.
9.—Ladies’ Angular.
10.—Commercial Small Hand.
11.—Commercial Forms.
12.—Ornamental Printing.
�JOHN HEYWOOD’S EDUCATIONAL WORKS.
COPY-BOOKS AND WRITING.
John Heywood’s Fly-Leaf Model Wnting-Books.
By E. J. Harding. Preventing
Children Copying their own Writing, and containing a Comparison Sheet, by means of
which the Progress of the Pupil may be easily estimated. F’cap 4to, 2d. each.
4. Words and Figures
8. _ Text. Round, Small,
1. Initiatory Exercises,
5. Capitals and Words
and Figures
Easiest Letters, and
6. Sentences and Figures,
9. Figures, Multiplication,
Combinations
Round and Double
and Division Tables
2. More Difficult Letters
Small
10. Forms of Letters, &c.
and Short Words
7. Sentences and Figures,
11. Angular
3. Most Difficult Letters
Small
12. Commercial
and Short Words
“ Mr. John Heywood, of Manchester, has really produced a novelty in Copy Books. The
difficulty that has always been experienced by the teacher is to prevent the pupil from copy
ing his own writing. By the old method, he would probably imitate the writing model in
the first and second line, but soon he would become too indolent to lift his eyes to the top of
the page, and content himself with reproducing the letters or words immediately preceding
those upon which he is engaged in writing. The old ‘ slips ’ of our young days partly accom
plished this, as they could be removed down the page so as to cover the line just executed by
the writer himself. But Mr. Heywood’s scheme is much more desirable—it meets the
difficulty with great success. It is an ingenious process. By means of the fly-leaves, one of
which covers the left-hand page, and the other the right, the pupil has always his model in
a line parallel with that which he himself has to write, and so finds it much easier to imitate
the copper-plate model than simply to follow his own writing.”—Bookseller May, 1869.
“ We have no doubt many of our readers are familiar with these copy-books. Their aim
is to enable schoolmasters to enforce Mulhailser’s dictum. We think the idea a good one.”—
Papers for the Schoolmaster.
To keep up interest, and to stimulate effort in so mechanical an exercise as writing, a
change of model is desirable when a pupil has attained a fair style of writing. Such'a change
may be made with advantage by the use of John Heywood’s Geographical Copy Books, his
Grammatical Copy Books, and his Historical Copy Books, a change which, besides pre
venting the weariness bred of monotony, may be made a means of imparting useful informa
tion in those branches of education, and familiarising pupils with the correct orthography of
a number of words which otherwise they might have few opportunities of learning.
John Heywood’S Geographical Copy Books.
A Series of Copy-Books containing
Exercises in Geography. F’cap oblong, 24 pp. Sewed, 2d. each.
5. Scotland.
1. Geographical Definitions.
6. Ireland.
2. Artificial Divisions.
7. Geographical Derivations.
8. Natural Divisions.
4. England and Wales.
John Heywood’s Grammatical Copy-Books.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
A Series of Copy-Books containing
Exercises on English Grammar, designed for the Use of the Upper Classes of Schools.
By J. B. Millard, M.C.P. F’cap oblong, 24 pp., 2d. each.
6. Adjectives, with their degrees of com
The Definitions of the Subject, Words,
parison
the Alphabet, Vowels, Consonants,
7. Adverbs of Time, Place, Number, Man
Orthography, and the Nine Parts of
ner, Degree, Affirmation, and Negation
Speech
8. Parts of a Sentence, Subject, Predicate,
Nouns—Common and Proper, their Num
Object, &c.
ber, Person, Gender, Case, <fcc.
9. Syntactical Rules relating to Nouns,
Verbs—Regular and Irregular, Weak and
Pronouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs,
Strong, Transitive and Intransitive,
&c.
Active, Passive, and Neuter
10. Cautions and Rules of Syntax
Mood, Tense, Number, and Person
11. Syntactical Rules
Pronouns
12. Specimen of Parsing
John Heywood’S Historical Copy Books,
a Series of Copy Books containing Exercises
on the History of England. F’cap oblong 4to, 24 pp. Price 2d. each.
5. Houses of Lancaster and York
1. Britain under the Romans
6. House of Tudor
2. Britain under the Saxons
7. Houses of Stuart and Orange
3. The Norman Period
8. House of Hanover
4. The Line of Plantr-renet
�John Heywood’s Educational Works.
Science Lectures for the People, first and second series.
Twenty-two Lectures Delivered in Manchester. Crown 8vo. cloth.
852 pages, 2s, 6d.
The First and Second Series may be had separately, in Stiff Paper
Cover, Is. each. The Second Series may also be had in Two
Sections, 6d. each; or in separate Lectures, One Penny each.
First Series.
ELEMENTARY CHEMISTRY (Four Lectures). By Professor
Roscoe, F.R.S.
ZOOLOGY; or, FOUR PLANS OF ANIMAL CREATION (Four
Lectures). By Thomas Alcock, M.D.
ON COAL: Its Importance in Manufacture and Trade. By Professor
W. Stanley Jevons, M.A.
ELEMENTARY PHYSIOLOGY (Four Lectures). By John Edward
Morgan, M.D. (Oxon.) .
Second Series.
CORAL AND CORAL REEFS. By Professor Huxley, LL.D., F.R.S.
SPECTRUM ANALYSIS. By Professor Roscoe, F.R.S.
SPECTRUM ANALYSIS IN ITS APPLICATION TO THE
HEAVENLY BODIES. By W. Huggins, LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.S.
OUR COAL FIELDS. By W. Boyd Dawkins, Esq., F.R.S.
CHARLES DICKENS. By A. W. Ward, Esq., M.A
THE NATURAL HISTORY OF PAVING STONES. By Professor
Williamson, F.R.S.
THE TEMPERATURE AND ANTMAT, LIFE OF THE DEEP
SEA By Dr. Carpenter. F.R.S.
MORE ABOUT COAL. HOW COAL AND THE STRATA IN
WHICH IT IS FOUND WE^E FORMED. With Illustrated
Diagrams. By A. H. Green, M.A., F.G.S.
ON THE SUN. By J. Norman Lockyer, Esq., F.R.S.
Third Series.
In Stiff Paper Cover, price 9d. ; or separate, One Penny each.
YEAST. By Professor Huxley, LL. D., F. R. S.
COAL COLOUR8. By Professor Roscoe,F.R.S.
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE. By Professor
Wilkins, M.A.
FOOD FOR PLANTS.. By Professor Odling, F.R.S.
THE UNCONSCIOUS ACTION OF THE BRAIN. By Dr. Car
penter, F.R.S.
ON EPIDEMIC DELUSIONS. By Dr. Carpenter, F.R.S.
ON THE PROGRESS OF SANITARY SCIENCE. By Professor
Roscoe, F.R.S.
Fourth Series.
In Stiff Paper Cover, price Is. ; or separate, One Penny eaoh.
THE RAINBOW. By Professor Roscoe, F.R.S.
THE ICE AGE IN BRITAIN. By Professor Geikie, F.R.S.
THE SUN AND THE EARTH. By Professor Balfour Stewart,
F.R.S.
ATOMS. By Professor Clifford, M.A., of Cambridge.
FLAME. By Professor Core.
THE LIFE OF FARADAY. By Dr. J. H. Gladstone, F.R.S.
THE STAR DEPTHS. By R. A. Proctor, F.R.A.S.
KENT’S CAVERN. By William Pengelly, Esq., F.R.S.
ANCIENT AND MODERN EGYPT ; or, PYRAMIDS VERSUS
THE SUEZ CANAL. By Dr. Carpenter, F.R.S.
ELECTRICAL DISCOVERIES OF FARADAY. By — Barrett,
Esq,
Manchester: JOHN HEYWOOD, 141 and 143, Deansgate,
Educational Department, 141, Deansgate,
London : Simpkin, Marshall, & Co.; J. C. Tacey.
��
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
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Pamphlet
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Title
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Science lectures delivered in the Hulme Town Hall, Manchester, in the year 1871
Creator
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Huxley, Thomas Henry [1825-1895]
Roscoe, Henry Enfield, Sir [1833-1915]
Wilkins, Augustus Samuel [1843-1905]
Odling, William [1829-1921]
Carpenter, William Benjamin [1813-1885]
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: Manchester; London
Collation: [2, 1],138, [2] p. ; 19 cm.
Series title: Science lectures for the people : third series
Notes: Contents: 1. Yeast / Professor Huxley.--2. Coal colours / Professor Roscoe.--3. The origin of the English people / Professor Wilkins.--4. The food of plants / Professor Odling.--5. The unconscious action of the brain / Dr Carpenter.--6. Epidemic delusions / Dr Carpenter.--7. The progress of sanitary science / Professor Roscoe. Publisher's advertisements ("John Heywood's educational works") on end papers, and on unnumbered pages at front and end. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
Publisher
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John Heywood; Simpkin Marshall & Co.; F. Pitman
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1871
Identifier
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N606
Subject
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Science
Health
Rights
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Science lectures delivered in the Hulme Town Hall, Manchester, in the year 1871), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Brain
Coal
Epidemics
NSS
Plants-Nutrition
Sanitation
Science
-
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PDF Text
Text
G-E1TEKAL
AND
SPECIAL RULES
BOR THE
Conduct and Guidance of the Persons acting in the Management
OF THE
SEATON DELAVAL COAL MINE
OR
COLLIERY*'
i
1
BELONGING TO
MESSRS. LAMB,
BURDON & CO.,
AND OF ALL PERSONS EMPLOYED IN OR ABOUT THE SAME.
/
PRINTED BY M. & M. W. LAMBERT, GREY STRSET.
1861.
��GENERAL RULES.
To be observed in every Colliery or Coal Mine and Iron
stone Mine, by the Owners and Agents thereof, as
required by the 23rd & 24th Vic-, cap-151, sec-10-
1. —An adequate amount of ventilation shall be
constantly produced in all coal mines or collieries and
iron stone mines to dilute and render harmless noxious
gases to such an extent that the working places of the
pits, levels, and workings of every such colliery and
mine, and the travelling roads to and from such work
ing-places, shall, under ordinary circumstances, be in a
fit state for working and passing therein.
2. __ All entrances to any place not in actual course
of working and extension, and suspected to contain
dangerous gas of any kind, shall be properly fenced off
so as to prevent access thereto.
3. —Whenever safety lamps are required to be used,
they shall be first examined and securely locked by a
person or persons duly authorized for this purpose.
4. —Every shaft or pit which is out of use, or used
only as an air-pit, shall be securely fenced.
5. __ Every working and pumping pit or shaft shall
be properly fenced, when operations shall have ceased
or been suspended.
6. __ Every working and pumping pit or shaft where
the natural strata, under ordinary circumstances, are
not safe, shall be securely cased or fined, or otherwise
made secure.
�4
7. —Every working pit or shaft shall be provided
with some proper means of communicating distinct and
definite signals from the bottom of the shaft to the
surface, and from the surface to the bottom of the
shaft.
8.—AU underground self-acting and engine planes on
Which persons travel are to be provided with some
proper means of signalling between the stopping-places
and the ends of the planes, and with sufficient places
of refuge at the sides of such planes at intervals of not
more than twenty yards.
9. —A sufficient cover overhead shall be used when
lowering or raising persons in every working pit or shaft
where required by the inspectors.
10. —No single-linked chain shall be used for lower
ing or raising persons in any working pit or shaft,
except the short coupling chain attached to the cage
or load.
11. —Flanges or horns of sufficient length or diame
ter shall be attached to the drum of every machine
used for lowering or raising persons.
12. — A proper indicator to show the position of
the load in the pit or shaft, and also an adequate break,
shall be attached to every machine, worked by steam
or water power, used for lowering or raising persons.
13. —Every steam boiler shall be provided with a
proper steam guage, water guage, and safety valve.
14. —The fly wheel of every engine shall be securely
fenced.
15. —Sufficient bore holes shall be kept in advance
and, if necessary, on both sides to prevent inundation,
in every working approaching a place likely to contain
a dangerous accumulation of water.
�SPECIAL
RULES.
1, In every part of the said Colliery, where the
pillar working or broken is in operation, Stations will
be fixed upon by the Viewer, where each Workman’s
Safety Lamp will be examined and securely locked.
From those stations no Workman is to take a Safety
Lamp for use in the pillar working or broken, without
its having been examined and securely locked by the
Overman, Inspector, or Deputy.
The Overman and Inspectors to have full power to
direct the Workmen how to use their Safety Lamps
during the time of working; and it is particularly en
joined that every Workman strictly attend to such
directions. No lamp to be used on which there is not
a tin shield. None but the Overman, or similar Officer
in authority, to be allowed to carry a lamp key.
2. Should any accident happen to a Lamp whilst in
use, by which the oil is spilt upon the gauze, or it be
in any other way rendered unsafe, the light to be im
mediately extinguished by drawing the wick down
within the tube with the pricker; such Lamp to be
directly taken out to the station where the Lamps are
examined, and not to be again used until after having
been properly examined by the Overman, or other re
sponsible person, on the in-bye side of which station
towards the broken workings, no candles are to be
taken.
�6
3. Should any Workman using a Safety Lamp,
detect, by the usual indications, the appearance or
presence of fire-damp, he is first to pull down the wick
with the pricker, as before-mentioned, and then to re
treat to the Lamp Station and give information of the
same to the nearest responsible person, it being strictly
forbidden for any Workman to continue to work in a
place where such indication has been observed by him;
and should the flame continue in the interior of the
Lamp after the wick has been drawn down, the Lamp
then to be cautiously removed, and no attempt what
ever to extinguish the flame by any other means to be
adopted by the Workman.
4. Every Hewer, Putter, or other person, to whom
a Safety Lamp is intrusted, is hereby strictly prohibited
from interfering in any way whatever with the Lamp,
beyond the necessary trimming of the wick with the
pricker. The Lamp in no case to be hung upon the
row of props next the goaf or old work, and not to be
nearer the swing of the gear, on any occasion, than two
feet.
5. Should any Hewer, Putter, or any other person
whatever, in charge of a Safety Lamp, in any case lose
his light, he is to take it himself to the station where
the Lamps are examined, to be relighted, examined,
and locked by the Overman, or some other responsible
person, before being again used.
6. It is expressly directed that any person witnessing
any improper treatment of the Safety Lamps by any
one, shall give immediate information to the Overman
in charge of the Pit, so that a recurrence of such con
duct may be prevented, by the offending party being
brought to justice.
7. Any person found smoking tobacco in any part
of the said colliery where the Safety Lamp is used, or
a tobacco pipe found in their possession, will be liable
to be taken before a Magistrate. No matches, under
any pretence whatever, to be taken down the pit.
�8. No Putter, Pony-driver, Helper-up, or other per
son, is, under any pretext, to carry a Lamp during his
work, except in special cases, where the parties have
leave to do so from the Viewer. Lamps will be hung
along the going-roads, to afford sufficient light for the
performance of the work.
9. Every person using a Safety Lamp to receive the
bottom part of the same himself from the hands of the
Lamp Keeper then in the pit. The gauze to be taken
home at the end of each shift, by the person using it,
for the puspose of having it properly cleaned before
being again used,/>[
10. Any person acting contrary to the above in
structions will be liable to be taken before a Magis
trate, in order that the lives of the Workmen employed
therein may be duly protected. And any person in
forming against any offending party or parties will, in
every case, be handsomly rewarded. . No riding on
loaded Cages except under special arrangement. Sig
nals, see Act of Parliament.
11. The Hewer that keeps his Safety Lamp in the
best order for a quarter of a year, will be entitled to a
premium of 5s.; and for the second best 2s. 6d. The
Putter to be entitled to 2s. 6d. for the same length of
time.
�OFFICERS’ DUTIES.
OVERMEN.
The Fore Overman to give all necessary instructions
to the Men and Boys in the pit respecting their work,
and to see daily that due respect is paid by the same to
the Rules and Regulations in force upon the colliery.
To visit every working place at least once a day, com
mencing at the starting of the pit. To examine daily
all the various air currents of the colliery, also all stop
pings and air brattices connected with the same; and
should any deficiency in the main or separate air cur
rents at any time be observed, notice of such deficiency
to be immediately given to the Resident Viewer. Also,
in the event of any sudden discharge, accumulation, or
indication of inflammable gas in any part of the work
ings, the same to be immediately reported to him, such
workings to cease working until the said gas be removed.
The Overman in the meantime, to the best of his
judgment, to adopt such means as will effect the same.
To examine carefiilly each day, with the Safety Lamp,
the edge of all the goaves in the broken workings, and
to see that due attention is paid to the Lamps by the
Men whilst at work, giving them at all times suitable
directions respecting them, according to the situation in
which they are placed.
To see that a sufficient quantity of timber, of all re
quisite sizes, is daily supplied to the workings, such being
the earnest wish of the Owners, so that every possible
�9
protection may be afforded to the lives of their Work
men, it being at the same time their particular desire
that a proper care of all materials should be taken, and
none whatever, on any occasion, wilfully wasted.
To see that all tramways and rolleyways are kept in
a safe and working state throughout the colliery.
The Safety Lamp to be used whilst examining all
workings; also any old or suspended workings.
To examine first thing every morning the state of the
barometer, it being provided for the purpose of shewing
when the presence of inflammable gas may, more or
less, be expected, and particularly at the edge of the
goaves in the broken workings.
To see the Resident Viewer every night after the pit
has ceased work, and report to him the general state of
the workings of the colliery and to receive directions
respecting the same.
BACK OVERMAN.
The Back Overman to have full charge of the pit in
the absence of the Fore Overman, exercising in every
thing the same authority and attention as the Fore
Overman whilst in the pit.
To report to the Fore Overman every night the state
of the pit, and what may have transpired through the
day, whether of a usual or unusual nature. Not to leave
the pit at night till all the day-shift men and Lads have
ridden, and to examine the main air currents and the
barometer last thing every night before leaving th e pit.
DEPUTIES.
The Deputies to go down the pit every morning two
hours before the Men, for the purpose of examining the
state of the workings previous to the Men going in.
To examine the state of the barometer, first thing, at
the bottom of the shaft. The face of every working
�10
place to be carefully examined, and on every occasion
with the Safety Lamp.
To have full charge of the workings; also control
over the Men and Lads in their respective districts, in
the absence of the Overman. At all times to report to
the Overman in the pit any deficiency that may be de
tected in the ventilation, also all appearances of danger
from any other cause. To examine frequently through
the day the condition of the edge of the goaves in the
working juds, and should inflammable gas at any time
be observed, the working of the jud to be immediately
stopped until the gas has been cleared away—giving
notice of such immediately to the Overman in the pit.
To put in, on all occasions, a sufficient quantity of tim
ber in every working place, putting in the same in the
best possible manner, for affording the greatest Safety
to the Workmen therein employed. The Safety Lamps
always to be used whilst drawing props, both in the
whole and in the broken workings. The Fore-shift
Deputies to see the Fore Overman the last thing every
night, and the Back-shift Deputies to see him every
morning in the pit, both for the purpose of receiving
instructions relative to the workings of their various
districts.
MASTER WASTEMEN.
The Master Wasteman to go down the pit every
morning two hours before the Hewers. To examine
first thing the state of the barometer, and next the prin
cipal intake air currents. To examine in the course of
the day all the various return air currents.
To see that all the working returns are kept properly
open and of a sufficient size, none of which is to be
under 60 feet area where the whole pit’s air is in a
single current, 70 feet area for two, and 80 feet where
the current has three distinct air courses. The Safety
Lamps, on all occasions, to be used in the waste, all of
which must be examined by the Master Wasteman
before being used.
�11
All doors separating the fresh and return air current,
to be fit up with proper locks, which must be kept con
stantly locked, and only opened by persons authorised
by the “Resident Viewer. To see that proper attention
is paid to the furnaces or steam jets. To report daily
to the Resident Viewer the general state of the waste,
also to give to the Overmen any information they may
at any time require respecting the same. The Over
men and the Deputies to travel with the Master Wasteman the whole of the air courses, at least once every
three months, in order to make themselves thoroughly
acquainted with the same.
LAMP KEEPERS.
The Lamp Keepers to keep in a clean and orderly
manner the bottom part of each man’s Safety Lamp,
and to supply the same daily with a sufficient quantity
of oil and wick. To keep a correct account of who
receives the Lamps, and to report to the Overman every
man who in any way injures his Lamp; also, those
who return their Lamps by any other person to the
Lamp Cabin after being done with the same. To see
that no oil, wick, or anything connected with the Lamp
is wasted. To allow no Lamp bottom to go out for use
that is the least out of repair. Any man persisting to
take it, to report him immediately to the Overman in
the pit.
ONSETTERS.
The Onsetters to allow no person to ride, during
work hours, without having sent to bank the token, as
a signal for such, on the previous cage. Not to allow
more than 8 men, or 6 men and 4 lads, to ride at one
time, and on every occasion the tubs to be taken out of
the cage. To allow every person sufficient time for
getting safely into the cage, before rapping away. To
have a stated number of raps, which must be three
when Men are going to ride. Two Onsetters to remain
at the bottom of the pit after the pit has done work, to
�12
see that all the Men and Lads are safely sent away. To
woik the rapper themselves, and on no account to allow
any other person to touch it. To assist in repaiiing the
shaft, taking charge of the rapper on every occasion—
to pay the same every possible care and attention.
Having a clear and distinct understanding with the
Men employed in the shaft and the Banksman, in order
that accidents may be avoided.
BANKSMEN.
A Banksman to attend at the top of the pit, every
morning, to see that the men and lads are sent safely
down the pit and that not more than the specified num
ber descend at one time in a cage. To give the
directions to the brakesman when all is right, and to
tell him that men are in the cage, and to tell him also
when men are going to ride.
To request the men,
when going down the pit, in the absence of the on
setters, to rap one after having got safely out of the
cage. To examine the pit ropes frequently through the
day, and last thing every night. To examine also the
cage chains, and cages, and on every occasion when
any apparent deficiency in the ropes, chains, or cages,
is observed by them, to report the same immediately
to the colliery engineer. Never to allow during work
hours, when men are going to ride, any man to take
his picks, drills or any other gear, down the pit in the
cage with him, but to see that such are sent down in
the tubs.
BRAKESMEN.
A brakesman to be constantly in attendance at the
machine, the good and safe working order of which he
must at all times attend to. Not to leave the handles
when men are riding in the shaft, or working in the
shaft.
Not to lift the cage from the bottom when men are
going to ride, without being told to do so by the banks
�13
man, being, at the same time, certain himself that the
regular number of raps for such have been given by
the onsetters.
To report any deficiency of the machine immediately
to The engineer, which, if considered of a serious nature
by him, to stand until repaired.
On all occasions to
let down and draw the workmen with the greatest
possible care.
ENGINEER.
The engineer to inspect first every morning and ocqasionally through the day, with a view to its proper
working state, all the machinery and its appendages in
use.upon the colliery. To examine also, at least twice
a day, the pit ropes and cages; also the chains belong
ing to the same, the renewing and repairs of which at
all times to be according to his directions, and in every
respect to his entire satisfaction, both in the joiners and
smiths’ department. To inspect and direct also, at all
times, the repairs both of the engine and coal shafts;
for which repairs, on all occasions, the best of materials
to be used. The repairs of the coal waggons and coal
tubs to be inspected by him, and done also to his entire
satisfaction. A book to be kept by him. in which
must be noted all particulars relative to the repairs or
improvements suggested by him in the aforesaid machin
ery, its appendages, ropes, cages, chains, &c.; and in
the event of any deficiency in any parts of the said
machinery, ropes, &c., occurring at any time, the same
to be by him immediately reported to the colliery officer,
adopting at the earliest opportunity such means as will,
to the best of his judgment, remedy the said, deficiency.
To see that all chains connected with the pit ropes and
cages are annealed, or put through the fire at least once
a month; and no riding permitted till all is in repair.
MINES INSPECTION ACT.
That the wages of each and every person shall be
paid to him or his authorised representative, in money,
�14
at the Colliery Office at Seaton Delaval, such Office,
not being contiguous to any house where spirits, wine,
beer, or other spirituous liquors are sold.
GENERAL REMARKS.
Any person observing any door standing open that
ought to be shut, or stoppings injured, or brattice
knocked down or broken, or any other thing, whereby
the ventilation of the mine may be deranged or ob
structed, is immediately to inform the Overman or De
puty, or other officer then in charge of the pit, so that
it may, with as little delay as possible, be remedied.
No Hewer to commence working in any place until
it has first been inspected by the Overman or Deputy,
or some other authorised person.
No Workman to commence or continue to w^rk in
any place where he may consider the timber insufficient
to support the roof of the mine, or any other cause that
may render the place unsafe, until it is put right by the
Deputy or other person in charge.
Any person wilfully or negligently injuring any Safety
Lamp, or in any way obstructing or deranging the ven
tilation of the pit, or breaking any of the Regulations
or Rules, shall be immediately discharged from his em
ployment, or, at the option of the owners of the colfiery, be prosecuted according to law.
LASTLY.
It is the particular desire of the owners and principal
agents of the colliery, that the various officers, whose
duties have been enumerated, will, at all times, report
to the proper authorities every individual case of neglect
or wilful disobeying of the rules and cautions herein set
forth, in order that the safe and proper working of the
colliery may be duly maintained.
�PENALTIES UNDER THE ACT.
Any Owner, or principal Agent, or Viewer, neglect
ing, or wilfully violating any of the General or Special
Rules, which ought to be observed by him, such person
shall be liable to a Penalty of not exceeding Twenty
Pounds; and to further Penalties, in case the default or
neglect be not remedied with all reasonable dispatch
after notice in writing thereof given to him by an In
spector of Coal Mines. Penalties are also attached if
the Special and General Rules be not painted on a
board, or printed upoD paper to be pasted thereon, and
hung up or affixed in some conspicuous part of the
principal office or place of business of the Coal Mine,
or Company, and maintained there in a legible state,
and a copy supplied to all persons employed in or about
the colliery who shall apply for such copy.
Penalties are also attached if proper Plans be not
kept up every six months; and if loss of life to any
person employed in or about the colliery, or any seri
ous personal injury. from explosion, be not within
twenty-four hours after loss of life, reported to the Secre
tary of State, and to the Inspector of Coal Mines for
the district in which the colliery is situate, every person
(other than the Owner or principal Manager) em
ployed in or about a coal mine or colliery who neglects
or ■wilfully violates any of the Special Rules, established
for such coal mine or colliery, shaft, for every offence,
be liable to a penalty not exceeding Two Pounds, or to
�16
be imprisoned with or without hard labour in the com
mon Gaol or House of Correction, not exceeding Three
Calendar Months; and every person who pulls down,
injures, or defaces any Notice hung or affixed as re
quired by the Act for the Inspection of Coal Mines (23
and 24 Victoria, Chap. 151) shall, for every such
offence, be liable to a Penalty of not exceeding Forty
Shillings.
Any person wilfully obstructing an Inspector in
carrying out the Act, shall, for every such offence, be
liable to a Penalty not exceeding Ten Pounds.
�
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Pamphlet
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Title
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General and special rules for the conduct and guidance of the persons acting in the management of the Seaton Delaval coal mine or colliery belonging to Messrs. Lamb, Burdon & Co., and of all persons employed in or about the same
Creator
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Lamb, Burdon & Co. (Firm)
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Collation: 16 p. ; 21 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
Publisher
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M. & M.W. Lambert, printers
Date
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1861
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G5398
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<p class="western"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /><br />This work (General and special rules for the conduct and guidance of the persons acting in the management of the Seaton Delaval coal mine or colliery belonging to Messrs. Lamb, Burdon & Co., and of all persons employed in or about the same), identified by <a href="www.conwayhall.org.uk">Humanist Library and Archives</a>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</p>
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application/pdf
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Text
Language
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English
Subject
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Industry
Health
Coal Mines
Conway Tracts
Health and Safety
-
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Text
NATIONAL SECULAR SOCIETY
Health, Wealth, & Happiness.
BY/ ARTHUR
B.
MOSS.
CIENCE, at? the - present time, is merely in its infancy.
imagine they know, the wise
S Much astosome jDersons the accumulated knowledge are
ever ready
admit that
of
to-day is but a speck compared with the infinite mass of
knowledge that yet remains ta be acquired, and that future
study and labour will yield to man. Fifty years ago very
little was known by the people of this country of sanitary
science ; the masses lived in total ignorance of the true
cause of the undue amount of disease and death among
the poor; and it was not till the year 1840, when a Parlia
mentary Committee of inquiry into the health of towns was
appointed, that it was discovered to what^® large extent
bad ventilation, bad drainage, and impure air were the
causes of sickness, disease, and premature death. 4f we go
back some centuries, we shall find that our ancestors were,
on the whole, a healthy and hardy people. This may fairly
be explained by the fact that they lived a more simple and a
more natural life than it is possible for us to do in these
of large towns, small houses, immense populations,
excessive competition, railways, tramways, telegraph, and
electricity, and when, indeed, it needs hard^ghtingtp obtain
the bare means of subsistence. To have muscular force,
and the skill to use it, meant that you were well equipped
for life’s battle ; and in the great struggle for existence tKe
elimination of the unfit, which was continuously going on,
left the robust and hardy warriors in full possession of the
field. In civilised times, however, we have to look at
man existing in the cities, towns, and villages, and to ask
how it is that he is so often smitten down with diseases the
cause of which he is too often entirely ignorant of.
Now, there are few, I presume, who will doubt the fact
that many of the employments in which a considerable
number of the citizens of this country are daily engaged
�2
HEALTH, WEALTH, AND HAPPINESS.
are of a very unhealthy character, and that very slight pre
cautions, if any, are taken by employers against the possi
bility of disease arising through the warehouses, factories,
or shops, in which a number of hands are employed, not
being properly ventilated. It may be safely said that the
lives of thousands are annually sacrificed through this
means. And how is this ? Is it because employers are
utterly reckless concerning the health of those they employ ?
Is it that masters deliberately seek to ruin the constitution
of their servants and to wreck the prospects of thousands
of families ? Or is it that employers and employes are alike
ignorant of the rudiments of sanitary science, and from lack
of knowledge allow this frightful evil to continue ? The
latter, it seems to me, is the most reasonable conclusion to
which we can come on this point, for to accept any other
explanation would be to tacitly imply that many employers
of labour were reckless and inhuman monsters, altogether
unfit to live. Let the truth be spoken. We have all of us
grown up without a knowledge of the laws of health ; and
past Governments and individual efforts combined have
done very little towards showing the means by which we
may avoid disease and- become healthy, active citizens.
Sanitary science should be taught in our schools, to girls as
well as boys ; for we should never forget that our daughters
become the mothers of subsequent generations, and that
upon them devolves the duty of bringing up children so
that they may become healthy and intelligent men and
women. At present more lectures, similar to those deli
vered under the auspices of the Manchester and Salford
Sanitary Society, are required in every town in England ;
lectures by ladies specially suited to the requirements of
women; and health lectures dealing with the physiological
aspect of the subject, as well as others, to men, by gentlemen
qualified to speak with authority upon such matters.
Eminent scientists have declared that without a healthy
body it is almost impossible to have a healthy mind; the
one is dependent upon the other. Healthy bodies are the
only trustworthy organs for healthy minds. To repair the
waste that is continually taking place in our bodies—to
replace the brain waste that occurs from intellectual activity,
it is necessary that each individual should have proper food,
and sufficient exercise to cause the food to have the most
useful effect in our bodies. But it is quite possible to
�HEALTH, WEALTH, AND HAPPINESS.
3
develop, in almost equal proportions, the mind and the
body : allow each faculty to be usefully employed; enlarge
the mind by vigorous thinking; strengthen the memory by
systematic study ; increase the perceptive ability ; develop
the muscles by physical effort, by hard labour, or healthful
sports; and so become, as near as possible, physical and
mental giants.
One of the chief reasons why so many of our countrymen
neglect their health, and fail to cultivate their strength, is
because they imagine that a thick, hard hand—a strong,
well-developed frame, looks vulgar; they will not engage in
employments in which they are compelled to use physical
force: these they consider below their dignity; and the
present constitution of society lends countenance to this
mischievous fallacy. As a rule, men and women who
employ their strength in daily labour are rendered thereby
healthier and stronger individuals, while those who are
engaged in merely sedentary occupations decrease in
vigour and vital force. Everybody, no matter what his or
her employment may be, should apportion a certain time
of each day for physical exercise. Men and women alike
should practise swimming and rowing, and any other
healthful exercises to which their tastes may incline them.
Leaving the large question of healthy or unhealthy em
ployments, the next step is to glance at our habitations,
and see whether our surroundings are conducive or not to
the happiness of the masses. Four things are imperatively
necessary in every home—personal cleanliness, pure air,
pure water, and unadulterated food.
Personal Cleanliness.—Cleanliness of the body is one of
the surest preventives of disease; dirt is often the mask
behind which disease hides itself when assailing human
beings. Against personal cleanliness disease hurls its
deadly weapons in vain; and with a clean home and a
clean person one is ensured, to a certain extent, against
some of the most insidious foes of human flesh and
blood.
Pure Air.—Nothing is more important to man than to
see that wherever he goes he breathes pure air—whether at
home, or at his club, or travelling in train, bus, or tram
And what is pure air ? Most intelligent people know now
that man breathes “ two breaths.” The air he gives out
and the air he takes in are different; and they each have a
�4
HEALTH, WEALTH, AND HAPPINESS.
different effect. Pure air is generally admitted to be com
posed of four leading constituents—namely, a mixture of
three gases (oxygen, nitrogen, and carbonic acid), and of
the vapour of water. Air once breathed should not be
breathed over again, for the air you give out contains a
large proportion of carbonic acid gas, which is the same
deadly vapour that is given off after charcoal has been
consumed in a room, where all the cracks and crevices
have been stopped up to prevent any of the fumes escaping.
No person should breathe air heavily charged with carbonic
acid gas, else he may expect that his health will seriously
suffer. Most probably he will grow up a weak, nervous,
pale-faced creature, unfit for the great struggle of life, his
depressed condition leading him to resort to drink, in
order to give him an artificial vitality, which Nature herself
sternly refuses to supply. Many of the poor cause their
children to breathe foul air, keeping them all closely
huddled together in one small room, where disease is often
generated, and where young children are permitted gradually
to pine away, without one word of protest from the British
public, and with absolute silence from sanitary inspectors.
Oxygen and nitrogen give life and health to the human
body; they feed the fire of life, which carbonic-acid gas
of itself would extinguish. What is wanted, then, is plenty
of ventilation in houses, to let in the pure air and let out
the foul. The air we breathe, being warm, rises ; the cold
air descends. Thus, while we breathe out the carbonic
acid it ascends towards the ceiling, while the oxygen and
nitrogen descend into our mouths.
It is very unhealthy to sleep upon the floor of a room
that has been made at all warm during the day, because at
night the carbonic-acid gas, which has risen to the ceiling
on account of its warmth, has time to cool; it then
descends to the ground; and so those who sleep upon the
floor absorb into their system this foul air, which has a
most baneful effect upon the health.
Considering the large number of deaths annually caused
among the poor through neglect and carelessness in regard
to proper ventilation, it is well that something should be
done to acquaint the working classes in every town in
England how much this excessive mortality is due to their
own ignorance and folly. Dr. Lyon Playfair once observed
that a great part of sanitary science can be comprised in
�HEALTH, WEALTH, AND HAPPINESS.
5
-one word—Cleanliness. If everybody would exercise care
in seeing that everything in the home was kept perfectly
■clean, and that they themselves were cleanly in their habits,
the world would be much freer from disease than it is, the
atmosphere would be healthier, and zymotic diseases of
-every kind would certainly decrease.
Pure Water.—This is another essential to good health.
In many provincial towns the water supply is in the hands
■of the Municipal body, and the people can depend upon
having a constant supply of pure water; in London, how
ever, the case is different. There the inhabitants have to
put up with a very impure article, teeming with sewage
matter and animalculae, which is supplied by water com
panies at an excessive price.
Unadulterated Food.—Doubtless the Adulteration of
Foods Act has done a good deal towards preventing the
wholesale consumption of bad food; nevertheless, still
more requires to be done, for, as our sanitary inspectors do
not prove themselves to be ubiquitous, poor persons are
sometimes duped into purchasing diseased for wholesome
meat, butterine for butter, and sausages composed of minute
morsels of fat, well mixed with numerous particles of
mouldy bread, instead of the genuine article. Better far
■to have a little good meat, even if you have to pay dearly
for it, than a large quantity of indifferent stuff. Some
■eminent men just now are persuading the people to become
vegetarians, urging them to live solely on a vegetarian diet.
For my part, I hope that the people will hesitate a long
while before they adopt the advice of these eminent ones.
Looking at the internal physiological structure of man,
some have contended that he is more a herbivorous or a
frugiferous than a carnivorous animal. Perhaps this is so.
Experience, however, is worth a great deal more than
theory. Recent chemical science has made clear the fact
that more albumenous matter is digestible in animal than in
vegetable food; and, generally speaking, vegetarianism
does not prosper in cold climates, or in climates of a very
variable character. Moreover, if vegetarianism were to
become general, it would have the effect of increasing the
price of vegetables, and of lowering the standard of the
diet of the people of this country. This cannot surely be a
desirable result to achieve. Upon the authority of Dr.
Charles Drysdale, whom I know from personal experience
�6
HEALTH, WEALTH, AND HAPPINESS.
to have given the subject deep study for many years, I
allege that a mixed diet is preferable for man. The learned
Doctor says : “ Hofmann found that, on feeding men with
potatoes, lentils, and bread, only 38.7 of the nitrogenous
matter has been digested; 44.4 escaped from the body
undigested. Meineret, again, found that the whole of
the nitrogen in meat was digested with the excep
tion of 2.6 per cent. ; that the same occurred with milk,
eggs, and cheese.” Vegetarianism pure and simple is im
practicable; most so-called vegetarians eat eggs and milk,
neither of which can be rightly described as vegetables.
Having done all that is possible to acquire good health,
it becomes necessary for every adult person to make an
effort towards securing additional wealth, and to increase
the prosperity of the country in which he lives. “ Money
is the root of all evil,” some insane moralist has declared;
there are a good many, however, who would be the better
if they could get a firm clutch at this root. A man may
cut his throat with a razor : is the razor or the man to
blame ? It is the wrong use of money that is an evil.
Many persons still suppose that wealth consists in the
possession of so much hard cash, notwithstanding the fre
quency with which Political Economists have exposed the
fallacy of this idea. Money is not wealth; it is merely a
means of exchange ; it is the medium by which one article
is bartered for another. And it should be understood that
it is quite possible for a nation to be at the height of its
prosperity with the majority of the workers in the country
on the verge of starvation. The rich may possess all the
real wealth. They may have in their hands the land, which
should be in all countries a great source of wealth; they
may have trade, and, while reaping rich harvests for them
selves, may grind down those who assist them to amass
fortunes ; and they may add to this the advantage which
uniform and combined power gives in the Legislative
Chamber. But, for a nation to be truly great, each indi
vidual should at least have the chance of acquiring the
means of subsistence. In many old countries at the
present time this is not the case. So many people are
born that many of them perish for the want of the mere
necessaries of life.
Now, the only source of wealth accruing to the working
classes is the surplus from wages after all necessary expenses
�HEALTH, WEALTH, AND HAPPINESS.
7
in support of the family and home are made. At the present
rate of wages very little can be put by each week by the
poor to be used at times of emergency. The demand for
labour is not large ; the supply is enormous ; and the law
of supply and demand, and the consequent increase or
decrease of price, applies just as much to human labour as
to any commodity brought into the market. Let working
men remember this ; let them remember that it is no use
grumbling, and forming Unions to protect themselves
against employers, when their wages go down ; they have
-only one remedy, and that is the limitation of their offspring,
by wise prudence preventing the labour market from being
•overstocked. Wages are low in England because there are
too many labourers in the field, and in the struggle for
existence the very poor are compelled to accept the lowest
possible wage. In New Zealand labour is well paid because
there are fewer labourers, and these, therefore, command
their own price. Among many erroneous statements, Canon
Kingsley said that science disproved that population has a
tendency to increase beyond the means of subsistence.
Saying this does not prove it. If science disproves the
truth of the rather unpleasant discovery of the Rev. Mr.
Malthus, it is somewhat singular that scientific men appear
to be totally ignorant of it. Dr. Darwin bases the whole of
his inferences in “ The Origin of Species ” on what the late
Lord Chief-Justice Cockburn declared was an “irrefragable
truth ”—viz., “ that all animated matter has the tendency
to increase beyond the means of subsistence.” From
ignorance in respect to this law, the poor get poorer and
poorer, until many of them have to seek refuge in our
workhouses, to be kept at the expense of the ratepayers.
Is not this a great iniquity? Are the thoughtful and frugal
ever to be pulled down by the thoughtless and the dissolute ?
Poverty and crime are twin brothers ; throughout life they
are invariably associated. Civilisation means increased
comfort, additional knowledge, and more leisure for the
masses; poverty, being opposed to these, is in reality
opposed to higher civilisation.
Whether drunkenness is increasing or diminishing is a
question that cannot be decisively answered. We all know,
however, that the drinking customs of society still entail an
enormous amount of misery among all classes, and that
poverty is augmented by this means. Drunkenness, indeed,
�•Health, wealth, and
8
happiness.
is a great cause of poverty ; but it is not the chief cause..
Poverty may also be truly said to be a great cause of drunk
enness, or, if it is not a cause, it is certainly an aggrava
tion of the offence. Surrounded by evil influences and a
dirty home, and without the means of getting sufficient food
to sustain life, persons stupidly fly to drink: the artificial
excitement caused by the alcoholic liquors soon dies away,
and the drunkard is left to sorrow and despair.
Men want wealth: how are they to get it
By an
assiduous devotion to their daily work; by enterprise ; by
thrifty and temperate habits; and by -a wise limitation of
their offspring. It is possible for all persons to live in
jcomfort and happiness; but, then, they must look upon
poverty, not as a blessing, but as a positive evil. Remove
the chief cause of poverty—a redundant population—
educate the masses, and with increased knowledge the way
will soon be found by which the other evils may be removed.
Health first, then comfort, arising from a possession of a
sufficiency of the good things of this life; and as pain isobliterated, and pleasure takes its place, the increased
happiness of the masses is ensured. What is happiness ? says
one. Does it not differ in each individual ? Does not one
seem happy' at results which give others pain? To each
of these questions a reply must be given in the affirmative.
But we aim at the highest happiness for all, and this can.
only be achieved by removing all obstacles like poverty and.
misery to the progress of the people.
rj:
'
ALSO BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
Is Religion Useful ?...
...
...
The Secular Faith ...
God’s Favourites
...
...
’ .•'XD/O;.. ...
-X'.
Christianity Unworthy of God
'..'Ip""...'
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The Old Faith and the New ...
. ...
London : Watts & Co., 84,.Fleet Street, E.C.
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1
Printed and Published by Watts & Co., 84, Fleet Street)
London, E.C.—Price One Penny.
'
�
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Health, wealth, & happiness
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Moss, Arthur B.
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Health
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Vegetarianism
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Text
LECTURE
ON
VEGETARIANISM.
BY EMERITUS PROFESSOR F. W. NEWMAN.
[Delivered at Gloucester, December 2, 1870; J/r. Price, M.P., in the Chair,
and reprinted from the Dietetic Reformer, January, 1871.]
LONDON:
F. PITMAN, PATERNOSTER ROW.
1871.
Price One Penny, or Five Shillings per Hundred.
�THE VEGETARIAN SOCIETY.
ESTABLISHED A.D. 1847.
$rmtant.
J. Haughton, Esq., J.P., Dublin.
i
Vice^wsi&ents.
i
W. G. Ward, Esq., Ross.
Professor Newman.
i
SrrasuiTf.
John Davie, Esq., Dunfermline.
P^onoratg Sewtsm.
Mr. T. H. Barker, Manchester; Rev. James Clark, 126, Cross Lane, Salford.
g>ecrctarg.
Mr. R. Bailey Walker, 13, Cathedral Close, Manchester.
SLocal specretanes,
i
I
i
London.................
Leeds....................
Glasgow................
Colchester ..........
Dunfermline ......
Hull .............. .
Perth....................
Bury.......................
Plymouth.............
Dublin...................
Bradford.............
Cardiff.................
Mr. G. Dornbusch, 11, Grove-street Road, South Hackney, N.E.
Mr. John Andrew, 14, Bishopgate-street.
Mr. J. Smith.
Mr. John Beach, Military Road.
Mr. J. Clark.
Mr. T. D. Hardgrove, 1, Rutland Place.
Mr. Henry MTntosh, 36, South Methven-street.
Mr. William Hoyle, Tottington.
Mr. E. H. Poster, Homoeopathic Chemist.
Mr. J. A. Mowatt.
Miss M. A. Kellett, Paradise Green, Great Horton.
Mr. J. K. Collett.
^Foreign CTonrsponlRng SwretariYs.
I
Mr. Emil Weilshaeuser, Neustadt, Silesia.
Baboo Keshub Chunder Sen, Calcutta.
Mr. Alfred von Seefeld, Hanover.
Rev. Dr. Taylor, 349, North Ninth-street, Philadelphia.
'
ipHE OBJECTS of the Society are, to induce habits of abstinence from the Flesh |
i
means of tracts, essays, and lectures, proving the many advantages of a physical,
intellectual, and moral character, resulting from Vegetarian habits of Diet; and thus,
to secure, through the association, example, and efforts of its members, the adoption
of a principle which will tend essentially to true civilisation, to universal brotherhood,
and to the increase of human happiness generally.
Constitution. — The Society is constituted of a President, a Treasurer, an
Executive Committee, a Secretary, Local Secretaries, Foreign Corresponding Secre
taries, and an unlimited number of Members in the United Kingdom, and HonoraryMembers abroad, above the age of fourteen years, who have subscribed to the
Declaration of the Society.
Declaration. —“I hereby declare that I have Abstained from the Flesh of
Animals as Food, for One Month, and upwards ; and that I desire to become a
Member of the Vegetarian Society; and to co-operate with that Body in promul
gating the knowledge of the advantages of a Vegetarian Diet.”
The Subscription is Two Shillings and Sixpence per year, which entitles a mem
ber to a copy of the Dietetic Reformer, quarterly, post free.
All inquiries, and applications for information, should be addressed to the
Secretary of the Vegetarian Society, 13, Cathedral Close, Manchester.
i L of Animals as Food, by the dissemination of information upon the subject, by i
.
�LECTURE ON VEGETARIANISM,
BY EMERITUS PROFESSOR F. W. NEWMAN.
[Delivered at Gloucester, December 2, 1870; Afr. Price, M.P., in the chair.]
“ What shall we eat
is really a question of first importance: but it .is seldom so
treated. In general, the rich eat what they like, and the poor what they can;
neither the one nor the other studies what is best. Besides, there is a perverse
influence at work of which few seem to be aware. Rich men are ashamed to give
cheap food to their friends, even when the cheap is better than the^dear. London
sprats are, in the opinion of many, superior to Greenwich whitebait: yet those who
eat sprats in private, and prefer them, dare not offer them to their friends, because
they are cheap. This does but illustrate a pervading principle. It is a baneful
folly to think, that what is rare, what is difficult, and what is out of season, is
best. And when the richer, who can well afford it, aim at expensive food because
it is expensive, the poorer, who ill afford it, imitate them, and get worse food at
greater cost. I cannot treat the subject of food, unless you will, at least for a little
while, consent to look at things with fresh eyes, and refuse to be blinded by fashion
and routine.
I have called my lecture Vegetarianism; but, as the word does not wholly
explain itself, you may justly ask me for its meaning. Many suppose it to mean,
a diet consisting of table vegetables. It is true, that these are an essential part of
Vegetarian diet, yet they are by no means the most important. Vegetarian food
consists mainly of four heads—farinacea, pulse, fruit, and table vegetables.
1. The foremost is farinacea; they are the “staff of life.” They are chiefly
wheat, barley, oats, maize, perhaps rye; also potatoes, yams, rice and sago,
tapioca, and such like. Vegetarians seldom endure baker’s bread; they always
become fastidious about bread, as teetotalers about water; and very often prefer
unleavened cakes, as Scotch scones, or biscuits not too hard; else, macaroni, also
oatmeal porridge. The makers of aerated bread find that four per cent of the
material is wasted in fermentation. Besides, we have delicious Oswego or rice
blancmange, or it may be hominy and frumenty. I guarantee to you all, that no one
loses a taste for nice things, by vegetarian food, however cheap.
2. Under pulse we practically understand peas, beans, and lentils. They have
excellent feeding qualities, but also a particular defect, which is chiefly remedied
by onions adequately mixed,
3. The word fruit speaks for itself; only it may be well to add that the dearer
fruits are j ust of the least importance for food. Apples might be much cheaper
than they are; and no fruit is more universally serviceable. The cheaper figs,
French, Italian, and Spanish, are less cloying and more feeding than the luscious
Smyrna fig of the shops. Raisins and dates are now supplied in cheerful abundance.
But peculiarly, as I believe, nuts are undervalued as substantial food. We do them
great injustice. We put them on the table as dessert, to be eaten when the stomach
�2
VEGETARIANISM.
is full, and then slander them as indigestible, because the stomach groans under
an excess of nutriment. We call them heavy, because they are nutritious. In
Syria, walnuts and coarse dry figs make an admirable meal. Filberts I count better
than walnuts, and Brazil nuts better still. Chestnuts have the disadvantage of
needing to be cooked, and being hard to cook uniformly well; but when rightly
dressed, perhaps of all nuts accessible in England they are the most valuable.
Cocoanuts, when we are wiser, will be better applied, than to tempt a jaded appetite
to hurtful indulgence. Almonds are too dear to be available as food; yet concerning
almonds, a physician who is no Vegetarian gave me interesting information the
other day. “No man,” said he, “need starve on a journey, who can fill his
waistcoat pocket with almonds. If you crush almonds thoroughly and duly mix
them with water, no chemist in Europe can distinguish the substanee from milk,
and milk we regard as the most perfect food.” This suggests moreover, that nuts,
to become wholesome, must be very thoroughly crushed and bitten. As to other
fruits, I barely add; that the delicious grape, noblest of the fruits in our latitude,
will be hereafter redeemed by teetotalers from corruption, and will become a general
food. But no fruit must be eaten for amusement, and taken on a full stomach ; or
it will not be food at all.
4. A few words on table vegetables. Potatoes and pulse I have noticed, and
now pass them by. Mushrooms are by far the most delicious, and abound with
nitrogen ; a rare advantage : but we have them too seldom in the market. On the
whole I regard those vegetables to be most important which supply flavour
or correct defects in other food; pre-eminently the tribe of onions, also celery,
parsley, sage, savory, mint, with the foreign articles ginger and pepper. Onions
and celery we do not cook half enough ; indeed cabbage and cauliflower are eateih
half raw by the English ; on which account we do not know their value. Much
the same may be said of what the farmer calls roots, i,e., turnips, carrots, parsnips,
beet. Do not think that I despise any of these, when I insist that this class of food
stands only fourth. One who confines himself to these four heads of diet is indis
putably a Vegetarian.
Yet in fact few Vegetarians do confine themselves to this diet, and herein
consists my difficulty in definition. We are open to the scoff of being, not Vegeta
rians, but Brahmins, who do not object to animal food, but only to the taking of
animal life. Few of us refuse eggs, or milk and its products. This is highly
illogical, if we seek consistency with an abstract theory. I do not shut my eyes
to it. The truth is, that in cookery we need some grease, and it is hard to eat dry
bread without butter or cheese. Our climate does not hitherto produce oils. It is _
not easy to buy oil delicate enough for food, and oil (to most Englishmen) is
offensive, from tasting like degenerate butter. Cheese, like nuts, is maligned as
indigestible, barely because it is heaped on a full stomach. However, since most
Vegetarians admit eggs and milk, I define the diet as consisting of food which is
substantially the growth of the earth, without animal slaughter. If you prefer to
call this Brahminism, I will not object. It is a respectable name.
We shall all admit that the food which is natural to man is best for man ; but
we are not agreed how to find out what is natural. I cannot wholly accede to the
students of comparative anatomy, that the line of argument which they adopt is
decisive; yet it is well to know what it is, and How far it carries us. They assume
that as in wild animals we see instinct unperverted, and as such instinct is a test
of what is natural, we have to compare the structure of the human teeth and
�VEGETARIANISM.
3
digestive apparatus with those of brutes, and thereby learn what is natural to man.
Since unluckily certain sharp teeth of ours are called canine, superficial inquirers
jumped to the conclusion that our teeth were made to rend flesh; and on discovering
that the alimentary canal, of the sheep is much longer than of the lion, longer also
than of the man, they inferred that we are not naturally herbivorous, but carnivor
ous. Vegetarians easily refute these arguments. They reply, that our sharp teeth
are ill-called canine, for they do not lap over one another. Such teeth are larger
and stronger in the ape than in the man. I believe they are chiefly useful to crack
nuts, of which monkeys are very fond. Be this as it may, no monkey naturally
eats flesh; if even, when tame, some may be coaxed into eating it. And it is
undeniable that the digestive apparatus of the monkey comes very near to that of
the man: hence Vegetarians generally infer that flesh meat is unnatural to us.
The same thing follows from the doctrine of the old naturalists, who thought the
pig and the man to have marked similarities ; but wild swine certainly will not eat
flesh, therefore man ought not. As to the length of the alimentary canal, there
also the Vegetarians are easily triumphant. The length of it in the man, as in the
monkey, is between two extremes, the lion and the sheep; therefore the human
constitution for food is intermediate. Man is neither herbivorous, as the sheep and
horse, nor carnivorous, as the lion ; but is frugivorous, as the monkey.
There is another argument of Vegetarians which I must not omit, though I do
not undertake to say how much it proves. They allege that carnivorous animals
never sweat, but man certainly does sweat; therefore he is not carnivorous. Here
I feel myself uncertain as to fact. Carnivorous animals, made to prowl by night,
have thick loose skins for defence against cold and wet, even in hot climates. In
consequence sweat would not easily relieve them from internal heat. How is it
with the sheep ? can they sweat ? I find I do not know. But in truth this whole
side of argument from the comparison of animals seems to me but of secondary
value. We cannot find by it what is natural to us ; for, universally, you cannot
find out the characteristics of the higher being by studying the lower being. The
assumption that you can is the main cUuse why external philosophy gravitates into
materialism and atheism. The specific difference of man and brute lies in the
human mind; and this, at once and manifestly, has an essential bearing on the
question of human food. No known animal lights a fire, or fosters a fire when
lighted. However tender their affections, however warm their gratitude or their
resentment, however wonderful their self-devotion, however they may deserve our
fond protection and our reciprocal gratitude, there is not one that understands the
relation of fuel to fire ; therefore there is not one that can cook. On this account
the old logicians called man “the cooking animal;” and though, happily, this
description does not exhaust the capacity of our nature, it affords (on the lower side
of nature) a sufficient criterion, distinguishing us from all known brutes. Without
our power of cookery, we could not make half the use that we do of Vegetarian food.
What would a potato be to us uncooked ? I fear it might turn out to be a narcotic
poison, like the potato-apple. Of how little avail would onions and cauliflower,
turnips and beans, or even corn itself, be without fire ? We can no more conceive
of man without power of cooking than of man without power of sowing, reaping,
and grinding. It may fairly be maintained by the advocate of flesh eating that if it
pleased the Creator to develop the gorilla’s brain, and give him a little more good
sense, without altering his digestive organs or his teeth, the creature would begin
by roasting chestnuts and broiling mushrooms, and go on to discover that roast
�4
VEGETARIANISM.
flesh has many of the qualities of those princely fungi, in whose praises enthusiastic
votaries rave to us. Now, if I have to admit that a gorilla might perhaps become
a flesh-eater, if he had only the wit to cook, you may think that I abandon the
cause of Vegetarianism. Nay ; but my cause is so strong that I can afford not to
overstrain a single argument.
If man had not the power of cooking, and had a natural incapacity for eating
raw flesh, his command of food would be so limited, that he could not have over
spread the earth as he has done. He certainly never could’have found food in
arctic regions ; scarcely would he have found it adequate for his sustenance in the
temperate zone, when he alighted on a country covered with forest and swamp.
The operations of agriculture require long time and much co-operation before a
wild land can be tamed ; and meanwhile, on what is the first cultivator to live ?
We know what has been the course of history in nearly all countries. Only in
a few, as China, India, Assyria, Egypt, the banks of the great ^navigable
rivers, with alluvial or inundated land, gave such facility to the sower, that
there is not even tradition of the time when tillage began. But in general,
wild men in a wild country ate whatevei’ they could get,—or get most
easily. In the woods wild game abounded—everywhere something, though
varying from continent to continent. Besides birds innumerable, endless tribes
of antelope and deer in one place, of kine in another,—whether the cow or
the buffalo or the bison—of sheep in a third, allured the hunter; and cookery
made the flesh of all eatable. We certainly can eat uncooked oysters. It
is dangerous to deny that savage stomachs, when half-starved, could live on raw
flesh and raw fish. But whether it be cause or effect, the tribes which have come
nearest to this state have been either very degenerate or very primitive specimens
of humanity. If very primitive, they do but display undeveloped man, and they are
the smallest fraction of the human race. The second stage in human civilization, is,
to rear tame cattle; if there are wild animals capable of being tamed. In the old
world the sheep, the cow, the reindeer, or the buffalo became domesticated, time out
of mind; also the camel; and in South America the llama ; but the bison of North
America, it seems, is untameable, so that the pastoral state did not there develop
itself. The transition from pasture to agriculture is a serious difficulty. To defend
crops is most arduous; in fact, is impossible to the private cultivator, unless he is
armed with formidable weapons of war which the savage cannot get. Agriculture
must ordinarily be, in the first instance, the act of the tribe collectively, and the
crops be their common property, protected by their joint force. Until there is a
powerful public executive, armed to defend private property, agriculture is too
dangerous foran individual. On this account certain tribes have abhorred cultivation
and fixed dwellings, as exposing the industrious man to slavery under marauders.
Thus the Nabatheans of old, thus Jonadab the son of Rechab, forbade their children
to build houses, or sow seed, or plant vines, because it interfered with wild liberty.
Tribes who live by hunting only, need a vast space of land in which their game
may live quietly; from a small area it would quickly be frightened away: hence
such tribes have always been a very sparse population, and insignificant in the
world’s history. Those who live by pasturage, driving their flocks and herds from
place to place, and building no houses, have generally been marauders: indeed the
Tartars and Scythians, who used the waggon as their home, in all earlier ages were
the great military nations, the conquerors of the more civilised. Though they
might begin by living on the flesh and milk of their cattle, they soon learned to
�VEGETARIANISM.
5
obtain grain, either by cultivating it themselves (for they were strong enough to
protect it) or by purchasing it from neighbours by giving cattle in exchange or by
extorting it as tribute from peaceful but weaker cultivators. And in proportion as
they lived on grain, they were capable of becoming more populous ; thus population
became denser, step by step, as flesh meat was superseded by wheat and barley, by
maize and rice. In the far north, where Finns and Lapps dwell almost side by side,
the Lapps feed as of old, on the products of the sea, or on the milk and flesh of the
reindeer; but the Finns have introduced corn culture, and live upon grain. The
Finns are the stronger, larger, and handsomer men. At any rate their diet has
agreed with them, even in that latitude; but I do not mean to say that men may
not retain perfect health and strength on either food, so far as health can be tested
by the surgeon. The ancient Germans practised but little agriculture, says Caesar.
By intercourse with Rome, especially on the Roman frontier, they became cul
tivators. In our own island, as we well know, agriculture has existed before Saxon
times; but at the Norman conquest, and long after, the land devoted to cattle or
left in a state of nature vastly predominated. In those days the poorest ate much
more flesh meat than now. There has been a continual diminution of flesh meat,
and far larger supplies of Vegetarian food. This is neither from unjust institutions
nor from unfair taxation ; but it is a normal result of increased population. It is
inevitable on an island, sensibly limited in size: for to produce as much human
food as one acre of cultivated land will yield, three, or even /owr acres of grazing land
are needed. That era had its own disadvantages. The cattle had then little winter
food ; they were killed and salted down in the close of autumn. Much salt meat
and salt fish was eaten, and fresh vegetables were few in species and scarce.
Parsnips are said to have been long the only root, before there were turnips or
carrots : potatoes, we know, came in from America. Native fruit was very limited,
and our climate was thought hardly capable of bearing more sorts ; foreign fruit
was not in the market. Now, what I want to point out, is this : that the diet of
flesh meat belongs to the time of barbarism—the time of loiv cultivation and thin popu
lation; and that it naturally, normally, decreases with higher cultivation. We see the
same thing in ancient civilisation and modern. The Brahmins in India, who stood
at the head in intellect and in beauty, were wholly or prevalently Vegetarians. I
believe, much the same was true of ancient Egypt. Men of lower caste ate flesh,
and the lowest most: and among these principally foul diseases of the skin prevailed ;
no doubt, because, where population is dense, the poorer classes, if they eat flesh
meatat all, are sure to get a sensible portion of their supply diseased and unwholesome.
And now let me say. what is the true test of anything being natural to man.
He is a progressive being; you must test it by his more mature, not by his
immature era; by his civilisation, not by his barbarism. Flesh meat helped him
through his less developed state; it then existed around him in superfluity, while
vegetarian food was scarce ; moreover, the beasts slain for food were then generally
in a natural and healthy condition. But to attempt to keep up in the later and
more developed stage the habits of the earlier and ruder is in many ways perni
cious. At first each man kills his own game, or slaughters a beast of his own
flock; and long after that time is passed, the animals wander in the field or
mountain, or under the forest. The pig eats beech-nuts and oakmast and horse
chestnuts. The steer browses on soft leaves and on grass. There is no stuffing
with oilcake, no stall-feeding nor indoors life. The beast of the field abides in the
field. When the herds abound, and the supply is easily adequate to the human
�6
VEGETARIANISM.
population, the market is not likely to be tampered with. Neither roguery, nor
artificial management of the animal is to be feared. Great Oriental communities put
the slaughter of cattle for food under religious regulation. With the Jews, and
indeed with the earliest Romans, the butcher was a priest; and anxious distinctions
were made of clean and unclean beasts, to exclude the eating of such flesh as either
was supposed to be unwholesome or was forbidden for some economic reason. Now
ij in fact,—owing, as I believe, to the great pressure for milk in a populous nation,—
i the cow is of a peculiarly feeble constitution with us. This is manifest in her
liability to suffer severely in calving, which is certainly a striking phenomenon.
But surely it is only what might be expected from the very artificial and unnatural
demand that we make on her, to give us milk in quantity far beyond anything
needed for her calf, and for a length of time so prolonged. So intimate is the
relation of calving to milk-giving that to overstrain one side of the female system
must naturally derange the other. But to this is added stall-feeding and cramming,
instead of the open field and natural herbage. Though these practices may save
money to the grazier and produce more pounds of meat and of unhealthy fat, they
cannot conduce to the robustness of the animal, nor of the man who eats it. A
worse thing is now revealed. I lately read in a newspaper that many farmers
believe they have found out the cause of what is called the foot and mouth disease;
namely, they ascribe it to the fact that the animals are bred from parents too
young. Now I lay no stress on their opinion that they have here discovered the
cause of that disease. Their opinion may be erroneous, but they cannot be mistaken
in what they state as a fact; namely, that in eagerness to supply the meat market,
and gain the utmost return to their capital, they artificially bring about a premature
breeding of the cattle. The moment it is mentioned, one sees what the temptation
must be to a breeder; one sees also that the offspring is sure to be feeble, and
therefore liable to any or every disease. It is well known that in Bengal, for
religious reasons, the Brahmin girls are prevalently married at a very tender age,
so that great numbers of mothers are hardly more than children themselves ; and
to this is ascribed the peculiar delicacy and frequent small stature in such classes.
I do not assume that such offspring need be unhealthy; but unless protected as
only men can be protected, if exposed as cattle must be exposed, one must expect
them to catch any epidemic that may be abroad, and more and more to propagate
feebleness. Municipal law struggles in vain against such tricks of the market.
They go on for many years without the persons who practise them being aware of
their harm. Prohibitions are hard to execute ; they are sure to come too late ; and
after they are enacted, some new artifice equally bad grows up. While the pressure
for flesh-meat is great, unless the Government will take into its own hands both
the slaughtering and the sales, it seems impossible to keep the sausage trade under
control. In last Monday’s Daily News I see there is a man to be brought to trial
for boiling up old horses for sausage meat. There is nothing intrinsically wrong
in that, if it were avowed to be horse-flesh; but since all is done by stealth,
evidently far more horrid substances are likely to enter the market.
The United States have a vast abundance of soil, a very thin population : hence
they might, like our ancestors, have flesh meat and milk of a natural kind. But
they have large towns, to be fed on a great scale by enterprising capitalists ; so that
many of the same evils grow up among them as with us. In New York a distiller
of spirits added to his trade the trade of cowkeeping, having learned that co»vs, fed
upon the refuse grains of a distillery, give more milk. It is true that they do ; but
I
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.
i
�VEGETARIANISM.
7
the milk is inferior in quality ; and the cows gradually become diseased—whether
by the food, or by the unwholesome confinement in the cellars beneath the distillery,
I cannot say. But the complaints of the milk are bitter : moreover, the cowkeepers
in the country around have followed the evil example ; and it is positively stated
that the mortality of children in New York is enormous; which is a suspicious
coincidence. These are but single instances and illustrations of the evils to which
we are exposed, from the tampering of the grazier with the animals in whose flesh
or milk he deals.
But I return to my point. With the progress of population Vegetarianism
naturally increases. I do not say, which is cause, and which is effect: they react
on one another. When more food is wanted, and the price of corn rises, there is a
motive to break up new land. Pasture is diminished. Perhaps by artificial grasses
and by cultivation of roots the quantity of cattle is nevertheless sustained; yet if
the process goes on, as in China (for an extreme case), the larger cattle will not at all
increase in proportion to the population. Nor indeed among ourselves has it increased
proportionally. The English roast beef that foreigners talk of is rarely indeed the
diet of our villagers. Thirty years ago even our town artizans ate little flesh meat.
Bacon, principally fat, was nearly the sole animal food consumed by our peasants,
whose state has but little altered. They may almost be called Vegetarians ; for fat,
like oil, supplies only animal heat, not the substance of muscle. Nevertheless, it
is now taught, that on animal heat vital force depends, which muscle will not give.
Now lest you should pity our peasants too much, I must state that we have the
decisive testimony of the most eminent scientific men to the sufficiency of a purely
Vegetarian diet; men, not themselves Vegetarians, nor intending to urge the
practice. Our society has printed a handbill, with extracts from Haller, Liebig,
Linnaeus, Gassendi, Professor Lawrence, Professor Owen, Baron Cuvier, and many
others. Hear a few illustrations how those speak, who mean to be our opponents.*
Dr. 8. Brown writes: “We are ready to admit that Vegetarian writers have
triumphantly proved, that physical horse-like strength is not only compatible with,
but also favoured by, a well-chosen diet from the vegetable kingdom, and likewise,
that such a table is conducive to length of days.” Dr. W, B. Carpenter writes :
“ We freely concede to the advocates of Vegetarianism, that as regards the endurance
of physical labour there is ample proof of the capacity of [their diet"| to afford the
requisite sustenance.” He adds that if it is sufficiently oily, “ it will maintain the
powers of the body at their highest natural elevation, even under exposure to the
extreme of cold.” Thus the labourer, according to these high authorities, is not at
all dependent on flesh meat. And of this we have abundant proof in foreign nations.
We have no stronger men among our flesh-dieted “navvies” than the African
negroes of the U.S. who were fed, while slaves, on yams, maize, and other vegetable
food. We perhaps cannot anywhere produce a class of men to equal the porters of
Constantinople. The London Spectator., not long back (though it is anything but
Vegetarian in purpose) wondered at the ignorance of men who doubted whether
Vegetarian food was compatible with the greatest strength; for a Constantinople
porter (said the writer) would not only easily carry the load of any English porter,
but would carry off the man besides. Mr. Winwood Reade, a surgeon who has
travelled much in Africa; Mr. A. F. Kennedy, once Governor of Sierra Leone, and
Captain P. Eardley Wilmot, attest that the Kroomen of Western Africa are eminent
in endurance. Mr. Kennedy says “ their power and endurance exceeds that of any
race with which I am acquainted.” Mr. Winwood Reade expresses himself even
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VEGETARIANISM.
more pointedly : “ The Kroomen are, I believe, the strongest men in the world.’’
Yet the Krooman, he adds, lives on a few handfuls of rice per day ; and rice has not
been supposed by our chemists to be at all favourable to human strength. They
depreciated it, as giving too great a proportion of animal heat; but they did not
know that animal heat gives vital force also. It may be said, that these cases
bejong to hot climates ; but indeed Constantinople can be anything but hot. And
we can further appeal to Northern Persia, where the winter is intensely cold. The
English officers at Tabriz, the northern capital,—who for a long series of years had
the drilling of Persian troops,—were enthusiastic in their praises, and testified that
they make the longest marches, on nothing but bread, cheese, and water, carrying
three or four days’ provisions in their sash. These, however, are not strictly
Persians, but of Turkoman race. I did not need to go to Persia for illustration.
The Italians of the north, or anywhere on the Apennines, would have served my
argument. Bread, with figs or raisins, are their sufficient food ; and they were old
Napoleon’s hardiest soldiers round Moscow. Indeed, in every civilised country the
strongest class of men are the peasants, who are everywhere all but Vegetarians.
Dr. E. Smith, who reported to the Privy Council on the food of the three kingdoms,
comes to the conclusion that the Irish are the strongest, next to them the Scotch,
next the northern English; after the southern peasants ; lowest of all, the
towns-man; and that their Vegetarianism is graduated in the same way, the
strongest being the most Vegetarian, and the townsfolk, who are the weakest, being
the greatest eaters of flesh. I do not mean to assert that the diet is the only cause
of strength or weakness : it is sufficient to insist that Vegetarianism is compatible
with the highest strength. The old Greek athlete was a Vegetarian : Hercules,
according to their comic poets, lived chiefly on pease pudding.
But what of health? The testimony of scientific men is here still more
remarkable. Haller, the great physiologist, writes thus: “ This food then, in
which flesh has no part, is salutary, inasmuch as it fully nourishes a man, protracts
life to an advanced period, and prevents or cures such disorders as are attributable
to the acrimony or grossness of the blood.” That eminent physician, Dr. Cheyne
of Dublin, who some forty years ago was at the head of his profession, declared:
“ For those who are extremely broken down with chronic disease I have found no
other relief than a total abstinence from all animal food, and from all sorts of strong
and fermented liquors. In about thirty years’ practice, in which I have (in some
degree or other) advised this method in proper cases, I have had but two cases in
whose total recovery I have been mistaken.” A remarkable instance is attested,—
that of Professor Fergusson, the historian,—who at the age of sixty-one had a
dangerous attack of paralysis. He called in his friend Dr. Black, the celebrated
discoverer of latent heat. Dr. Black, though not a Vegetarian, prescribed total
abstinence from flesh-meat. Professor Fergusson obeyed, and not only recovered
entirely and never had a second attack, but was a remarkably vigorous old man at
ninety, and died at ninety-three.* In such cases I think we have an explanation of
the success of some things called quack remedies,—as, the grape-cure of the
Germans. I am ready to believe that it is not so much the grapes that cure, as the
abstinence from a gross and evil diet. Dr. A. P. Buchan teaches that a diet of
farinacea, with milk and fruits, is the most hopeful way of curing pulmonary
consumption : many examples of such cure in an early stage of the disease, says
he, are recorded. He adds: “ If vegetables and milk were more used in diet, we
A gentleman present corrected 93 into 95.
�VEGETARIANISM.
9
should have less scurvy, and likewise fewer putrid and inflammatory fevers.”
Drs. Craigie and Cullen are very strong as to the power of Vegetarianism to preserve
one from gout. Drs. Marcet, Oliver, and other physiologists, declare that human
chyle, elaborated from flesh meat, putrifies in three or four days at longest; while
chvle from vegetable food, from its greater purity and more perfect vitality, may
be kept for many days without becoming putrid. We need not therefore wonder
that Vegetarians are so little liable to fever, or to any form of putrid disease. It is
asserted, indeed, that such a thing is not known, as that a Vegetarian should suffer
cholera. On the other hand, it is also asserted that none but Vegetarians have
attained the age of 100: undoubtedly a majority of centenarians have held to
this diet.
Now I know some persons will answer quick : “I do not want to live to a 100
but remember, I pray you, what such longevity implies. The man who lives to a
100 is generally as strong at eighty, and as perfect in all his faculties, as are the
majority of men at sixty-five ; and he is not as much worn out at ninety as the man
who lives to eighty-two or eighty-three is at eighty. It is not the last seven years,,
of the centenarian which give him advantage, but the twenty years which precede
these seven. However, wish what you please about long life; it remains, that
long life, if it exist in a class of men, implies that that class excels in vital force; is
superior therefore in health, probably in strength ; and health is more valuable than
strength. Once more ; reflect what is contained in the avowal that pulmonary
consumption is best treated, and is sometimes cured, by abstinence from flesh-meat
and wine. Consumption is notoriously a disease of weakness. Hence we must
infer that more strength is given by Vegetarian diet than by that which is called
stimulating. All the arguments converge to the same point. Vital force is
measured by length of life, and by power of recovering from dangerous wounds.
Vegetarianism conduces at once to length of life, and to success in such recovery,
I have mentioned that Dr. Cheyne and Dr. Black trusted in it as a recipe when the
constitution was broken down ; how much more must it be a preservative of
strength to the healthy? Dr. S. Nicolls, of the Longford Fever Hospital, wrote in
1864, after sixteen years’ experience in the hospital, that the success of treatment
by a total withdrawal of flesh-meat and of alcoholic liquors gave him the greatest
satisfaction. The long and short is, that whatever is inflammatory is weakening ;
the highest vigour is got out of that food and drink which gives the maximum pf
nutrition and the minimum of inflammation. We allow ourselves to be cheated by
calling inflammation stimulus. Further, I will ask, of the English race, what
portion is most unhealthy ? Beyond question, the English of the United States.
And they are also the greatest flesh-eaters.
Now let me add a word concerning the North American Indian. It is long
since a few of the tribes introduced the cultivation of maize, ascribed to Hiawatha
in Longfellow’s poem. The Cherokees adopted an agricultural life while yet in
Georgia; but the distant and the roaming tribes continue to dhpend on hunting,
and even their boys and girls must live chiefly on flesh. How solid is the national
constitution is strikingly shown in the strength of the women, who, in the journeyings of a tribe, if visited by child-birth, need but half-a-day’s rest, and then start
on the march, carrying the infant on their back. I lately read a letter from the
well-kno5yn Mrs. Lydia Maria Child, in which she details how an Indian woman
trudged to Mrs. Child’s house through many miles of deep snow, and next day
came the same journey, carrying an infant which she had brought to light in the
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VEGETARIANISM.
interval. The vigour and activity of the Indian continues unimpaired till within a
short time (perhaps till within a fortnight) of natural death, when he is made
aware of weakness and death approaching. Now some one might quote these facts as
a clear testimony to the value of a flesh diet; but against it there are two draw
backs. If disease arise in an Indian, it is apt to be exceedingly violent; smallpox
may carry off a whole tribe; they seem to be very inflammatory; but I speak under
correction. Further, no one attributes to them peculiarly long life. They are said
to die worn out at eighty. Again, I do not speak confidently; for it is hard to
be sure of facts. Yet I believe they are less longlived, and recover worse from
disease than the Vegetarian Africans dwelling on the same land; less longlived
also than the Arabs, who live more on milk and less on meat. On the whole, I
think that life in the open air, a cautious choice of healthy places for encamping,
and consequent purity of blood, gives to those men and women their great robustness.
All food comes alike to such stomachs, as regards its power of nourishing ; but if
the flesh meat produces a more inflammable habit, it shortens natural life, as well
as intensifies disease.
I have tried your patience long, in the attempt to develop facts. It remains to
draw my conclusion. I first have to insist, that ever since 1847, we have been
striving to reverse the natural current of affairs—an enterprize which will necessarily
entail disease and a vast train of calamity. In the first 45 years of this century, the
population of the three kingdoms more than doubled itself in spite of emigration.
Great areas of land were broken up for cultivation, partly under the allurements of
a high price for corn, partly to take advantage of the Tithe Commutation Act. But
after the abolition of the Corn Laws in 1847, the increased prosperity of the manu
facturing towns led, not only to an importation of corn, but also to a remarkable
demand of the artizan population for flesh-meat. Cattle were brought from abroad
in great numbers. Prices still went up. A great stimulus was given to cattlebreeding. The markets of England were supplied from Scotland (and Ireland as
well as from foreign ports, until in Ireland land was thrown out of culture, and taken
up for grazing. The clamour for flesh continuing, we bring it from Australia and
from South America, artificially preserved. From importing instead of raising food,
our worst evils are increased. Rustic industry is not developed. The new births
of the country can find no employment there, and flock into towns. Masses of
population become liable to starvation from a displacement of foreign markets, or
from the imprudence of their employers ; and when personal prudence has less
reward, improvidence prevails. Town-life is less robust; sanitary conditions are
harder to fulfil. A nation fed from foreign markets suffers convulsion through
other people’s wars. And when more and more the land is occupied by large
estates, by parks, by wildernesses kept for sheep or deer, while huge towns prevail,
we have the type of national decay. Our statesmen look on helplessly, while a
robust peasantry is supplanted by a feeble and unhealthy town-population. Our
sage sanitarians want to bring water to our cities from Welsh, Scotch, or Cum
berland lakes, for fear we should remember that it is as possible for the country to be
occupied and cultivated by men, as to be grazed by cattle. England will not long
hold up her head in Europe, if she allow the system of empty country and everincreasing towns to prevail. There are other causes of the evil, I am aware, besides
this zeal for flesh meat. We have to open our eyes to more things than one; and
a hard battle perhaps has to be fought. But in regard to flesh-meat, each family has
the remedy in its own hands. The waste of its resources is caused by an attempt to
�VEGETARIANISM.
11
bring back the condition of things belonging to comparative barbarism, and make us
a flesh-eating nation again, when the era of flesh-eating is naturally past. And
what is the consequence ? I repeat a sentence which I have already uttered,
Where the population is dense, the poorer classes, if they eat flesh meat at all, are sure
to get a sensible portion of their supply in an unwholesome state. What said Dr.
Letheby, inspector of the London markets, to the Social Science Association lately?
“The use of unsound meat,” he said, “was more injurious than that of any other
unsound food. In the three city markets there are 400 tons of meat received and
sold daily. With a staff of but two inspectors it was hardly possible to make a
sufficient and satisfactory supervision; but nevertheles they seized from one to two
tons of diseased meat every week. The seizures last year (1867) amounted to no
less than 288,0001bs., or 129 tons.” But he says, in the country at large the case
is vastly worse. Taking all the markets in the country, it had been calculated
“that only one part in every Jive sent to market was sound.” Now, I think the last
statement must be exaggerated. I cannot say that I believe it; yet how very bad
the case must be, to allow of such a statement being made ! If instead of one-fifth
of the meat being unwholesome, it were every day one fiftieth, the case would be
awful enough. For remember, that where one ton is condemned, there is sure to
be a margin of three tons which is suspected, but cannot be condemned; and
importers or graziers, to save themselves from great loss, are driven to disguise
disease as well as they can. This suspected meat is sold at half-price,
and by its cheapness attracts the poor. Hence disease is certain to arise.
Smallpox has surprized us by virulent outbursts; yet what reason is there for
surprize? Do not Pariahs in India, and a like class in Egypt, by eating flesh or fish in
an unwholesome state bring on leprosy and smallpox and other foul con
tagious diseases? How do our doctors suppose that the smallpox arose for
the first time ? They say it came from China, and that it cannot, come to us unless
we catch it from a human being. Was ever anything so imbecile? The first
patient did not catch it from an earlier patient, but brought it on himself by foul
diet or some uncleanness ; and of course, if any of us use the same foulness, he is
liable to bring it on himself without anyone to transmit it to him. Paris is the
city that cooks up and disguises offal; Paris can generate smallpox as well as
China. Our doctors divert us from the true scent. For fear that we should discover
what is our uncleanness of living, they tell us that smallpox comes because we are
not vaccinated—and that also is not at all true. Indeed none are oftener vaccinated
than French soldiers, and no part of the French population suffers worse from
smallpox than the soldiers. Bad diet and unclean herding together must be the
cause. Diet? why, if we are to believe our newspapers, for a fortnight past
gentlemen have been eating in Paris the rats from the sewers, not from any real
deficiency of wholesome food, but from an infatuated determination to get flesh
meat. And at the same time, in the same letter, the correspondent who praises
the flavour of the rat, tells us that the smallpox has broken out again during
the siege; and now, says he, in the week ending November 5th the deaths from
smallpox were 380; in this last week [ending November 12th] they were 419.
Perhaps it is needless to say, why the animals brought to market must be diseased.
It is not natural to an ox to get into a steamer, or into a railway car, nor
to walk through the streets, nor to take his place quietly as in a pew at the
market. A great deal of beating and terrifying him is needed. His
fatigue in a long journey—manage it as you will—is necessarily great; he suffers
�12
VEGETARIANISM.
also from thirst. The cars and steamers cannot be cleanly. In short, it would be
wonderful if forty-nine in fifty arrived in tolerable health. Ho long as there is a
forced market, the cattle brought from a distance will be like the miserable Africans
carried in slave ships ; and all our cattle will be of a feeble constitution, liable to
diseases from slight cause, because bred artificially and reared artificially. The
poorer classes suffer, first and inevitably, in the squandering of their resources;
secondly, a fraction of them by disease, and many more by infection from the sick.
And those who evade disease do not get more strength, and do get a somewhat
more inflammatory habit from the flesh meat. At the same time, by eating more
expensive food they cannot afford so healthy habitations. Such are the evils on the
side of health and economy.
But besides, the evils of inhumanity in the slaughter of larger cattle are very
terrible. No one has yet found a remedy for the clumsiness of butchers’ boys. 1
cannot now dwell on this acutely painful part of my subject: I will only say, it
quite reconciles me to be called a Brahmin. At the same time, recurring to the
inconsistency of milk and eggs with strict Vegetarianism, I will observe, that by
the avowal of medical science, milk has none of the inflammatory properties of
flesh meat; in so far, it is akin to Vegetarian food. But undoubtedly the pressure
of dense population for milk is an evil, and tends to the adulteration of the milk, to
a deterioration of it by giving to the cow whatever will increase its quantity, and
to an enfeebling of cows generally, by asking too much milk of them, and by breeding
them too quickly. Therefore I take pains to make no increased use of milk since I
am a Vegetarian, nor yet of eggs. We have not yet learned to get substitutes
from oleaginous nuts. We are in a state of transition. A future age will look back
on this as barbarism ; yet we are moving towards the higher and nobler development,
in becoming even thus partial Vegetarians.
Finally, I must not omit one topic, the evils of over-feeding, which flesh-eating
induces. A Vegetarian may eat too much, yet it is more difficult to him, from the
bulk of his food; nearly all over-feeding is practically caused by flesh, fish, and
fowl. The late witty Sydney Smith, wishing to reprove this vice, jocosely said:
“ As accurately as I can calculate, between the ages of ten and seventy I have
eaten forty-four waggon loads of food more than was good for me.” Every ounce
that a man eats more than he needs, positively weakens him, for his vegetable forces
use up his energy in getting rid of the needless food. The gormandizing in great
towns is despicable, from one side, but from another is afflicting ; when one thinks
of countless disease engendered in the classes who eat too much, while there are so
many who get too little. Yet to the poorer a far worse evil than the deprivation
of flesh is, that they are incited to long for it when they see that all who can afford
it will pay any price rather than go without it. Our working classes will not attain
the elevation which is possible to them, until they put on the sentiment of Brahmins
and look down upon flesh-eating as a lower state.
[Reprinted fromfthe Dietetic Reformer, Jan., 1871.]
A. IRELAND AND CO., PRINTERS, MANCHESTER.
�VEGETARIAN
PUBLICATIONS.
May all be had from the Secretary, 13, Cathedral Close, Manchester.
Published on the 1st of January, 1871, Price 3d., No. XLI. of The
Dietetic
reformer and vegetarian messenger.
Contents:—Twenty-second Annual Meeting: Business Proceedings —
Annual Soiree. Only in Heaven (Poetry). Lecture by Professor Newman.
The Return to Nature. Dr. Bellows on the Philosophy of Eating. Follow
Thou Me (Poetry). Correspondence ; Obituary; Intelligence; Reports, &c.
Just Published, Price Id.
i
□THOUGHTS, FACTS, AND HINTS ON HUMAN DIETETICS.
_L Mr. Thomas H. Barker. Reprinted from “ The Dietetic Reformer,” July,
1865. Friends desirous of aiding the circulation of the above tract will be supplied
with them at half price.
REPRINT OF DR. TRALL’S ADDRESS.
Now ready, Price Threepence; or Six Copies sent post free for One Shilling.
SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF .VEGETARIANISM: An Address
O delivered at the Eleventh Annual Meeting of the American Vegetarian Society,
by Dr. TRALL, of New York.
Reprinted from the Dietetic Heformer.
Royal 32mo, price Id. per packet, or 13 for Is.; also in Sixpenny packets,
Three Series of
VEGETARIAN MESSENGER TRACTS. These Tracts are adapted
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be specified, “Assorted” Packets will be sent.
A Fifth and Improved Edition of
ipHE PENNY VEGETARIAN COOKERY : Or Vegetarianism
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economical and beneficial tendency of Vegetarian habits; an Invalid’s Dietary
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and recipes for upwards of fifty different articles of food.
296 pp., Foolscap 8vo., Reduced price 2s. 6d. (by post 3s.), cloth boards, the Fifth
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Introduction, explanatory of Vegetarian Principles; an Exposition of Vegetarian
Practice, describing three Styles of Cookery, which are illustrated by plans of Tables
and Bills of Fare, with numerous references to the Recipes ; upwards of seven
hundred and fifty Recipes, and a copious Index.
PRIZE ESSAYS.
rpHE PRIMITIVE DIET OF MAN. By Dr. F. R. Lees. !
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Price Fourpence.
OW TO PROMOTE STABILITY AND ZEAL AMONG THE !
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MEMBERS of the VEGETARIAN SOCIETY. By R. Gammage.
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Lecture on vegetarianism
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Newman, Francis William
Description
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Place of publications: London
Collation: 12, [1] p. 22 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Signature on front cover: Moncure D. Conway. Delivered at Gloucester, December 2, 1870; Mr. Price, M.P., in the Chair. Reprinted from the Dietetic Reformer, January, 1871. List of publications on vegetarianism on final page. Printed by A. Ireland and Co., Manchester. Objectives and constitution of the Vegetarian Society (established 1847) outlined inside front cover.
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F. Pitman
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1904
Identifier
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G5299
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Vegetarianism
Health
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Lecture on vegetarianism), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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Text
Language
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English
Diet
Health
Nutrition
Vegetarianism
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MICHAEL SERVETUS
?■’A;
WILLIAM OSLER,
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REGIUS PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
LONDON
HENRY FROWDE
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
AMEN CORNER, E.C.
1909
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�Front.
�MICHAEL SERVETUS
BY
WILLIAM OSLER, M.D., F.R.S.
REGIUS PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
LONDON
HENRY FROWDE
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
AMEN CORNER, E.C.
�OXFORD : HORACE HART
PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY
�MICHAEL SERVETUS1
The year 1553 saw Europe full of tragedies, and to
the earnest student of the Bible it must have seemed
as if the days had come for the opening the second seal
spoken of in the Book of Revelation, when peace
should be taken from the earth and men should kill one
another. One of these tragedies has a mournful interest
this year, the four hundredth anniversary of the birth of
its chief actor; yet it was but one of thousands of similar
cases with which the history of the sixteenth century is
stained. On October 27, shortly after twelve o’clock,
a procession started from the town-hall of Geneva—the
chief magistrates of the city, the clergy in their robes,
the Lieutenant Criminel and other officers on horseback,
a guard of mounted archers, the citizens, with a motley
crowd of followers, and in their midst, with arms bound,
in shabby, dirty clothes, walked a man of middle age,
whose intellectual face bore the marks of long suffering.
Passing along the rue St. Antoine through the gate of
the same name, the cortege took its way towards the
Golgotha of the city. Once outside the walls, a superb
sight broke on their view : in the distance the blue
waters and enchanting shores of the Lake of Geneva,
to the west and north the immense amphitheatre of the
Jura, with its snow-capped mountains, and to the south
and west the lovely valley of the Rhone ; but we may
1 This address did double duty—at the Johns Hopkins Medical
School Historical Club, and as an Extension lecture in the
Summer School, Oxford.
�4
MICHAEL SERVETUS
well think that few eyes were turned away from the
central figure of that sad procession. By his side, in
earnest entreaty, walked the aged pastor, Farel, who
had devoted a long and useful life to the service of his
fellow citizens. Mounting the hill, the field of Champel
was reached, and here on a slight eminence was the
fateful stake, with the dangling chains and heaping
bundles of faggots. At this sight the poor victim
prostrated himself on the ground in prayer. In reply
to the exhortation of the clergyman for a specific con
fession of faith, there was the cry, ‘ Misericordia, misericordia! Jesu, thou Son of the eternal God, have com
passion upon me! ’ Bound to the stake by the iron chain,
with a chaplet of straw and green twigs covered with
sulphur on his head, with his long dark face, it is said
that he looked like the Christ in whose name he was
bound. Around his waist were tied a large bundle of
manuscript and a thick octavo printed book. The torch
was applied, and as the flames spread to the straw and
sulphur and flashed in his eyes, there was a piercing
cry that struck terror into the hearts of the bystanders.
The faggots were green, the burning was slow, and it
was long before in a last agony he cried again, 1 Jesu,
thou Son of the eternal God, have mercy upon me!’
Thus died, in his forty-fourth year, Michael Servetus
Villanovanus, physician, physiologist, and heretic.
Strange, is it not, that could he have cried, 1 Jesu, thou
Eternal Son of God!’ even at this last moment, the
chains would have been unwound, the chaplet removed,
and the faggots scattered ; but he remained faithful unto
death to what he believed was the Truth as revealed in
the Bible.
The story of his life is the subject of my address.
Michael Servetus, known also as Michel Villeneuve,
or Michael Servetus Villanovanus, or, as he puts in one
�Fig. 2 : Altar Screen at Barcelona
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��MICHAEL SERVETUS
5
of his books, alias Reves, was a Spaniard born at
Villanueva de Sigena, in the present province of Huesca.
When on trial at Vienna, he gave Tudela, Navarre, as
his birthplace, at Geneva, Villanueva of Aragon; and
at one place he gave as the date of his birth 1509, and
at the other 1511. The former is usually thought to be
the more correct. As at Villanueva de Sigena there
are records of his family, and as the family altar, made
by the father of Servetus, still exists, we may take it
that at any rate the place of his birth is settled. The
altar-screen is a fine piece of work, with ten paintings.
I am indebted to Signor Antonio Virgili, of Barcelona,
for the photograph of it here reproduced (fig. 2).
Servetus seems to have belonged to a good family in
easy circumstances, and at his trial he said he came of
an ancient race, living nobly.
From the convent school he probably went to the
neighbouring University of Saragossa. Possibly he
may have studied for the priesthood, but however that
may be, there is evidence that he was a precocious
youth, and well read in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, the
last two very unusual accomplishments at that period.
We next hear of him at Toulouse, studying canon
and civil law. He could not have been twenty when
he entered the service of the Friar Quintana, confessor
to the Emperor Charles V, apparently as his private
secretary. In the suite of the Emperor he went to
Italy, and was present when Pope and Emperor entered
Bologna, and ‘ he saw the most powerful prince of the
age at the head of 20,000 veterans kneeling and kissing
the feet of the Pope.’ Here he had his first impression
of the worldliness and mercenary character of the
Papacy, hatred of which, very soon after, we find to
have become an obsession.
In the summer of 1530 the Emperor attended the
�6
MICHAEL SERVETUS
Diet of Augsburg, where the Princes succeeded in
getting Protestantism recognized politically. Such a
gathering must have had a profound influence on the
young student, already, we may suppose, infected with
the new doctrines. Possibly at Saragossa, or at
Toulouse, he may have become acquainted with the
writings of Luther. Such an expression of opinion as
the following, written before his twenty-first year, could
scarcely have been of a few months’ growth : ‘ For my
own part, I neither agree nor disagree in every particular
with either Catholic or Reformer. Both of them seem
to me to have something of truth and something of
error in their views; and whilst each sees the other’s
shortcomings, neither sees his own. God in his good
ness give us all to understand our errors, and incline
us to put them away. It would be easy enough, indeed,
to judge dispassionately of everything, were we but
suffered without molestation by the churches freely to
speak our minds.’ (Willis.)
How far he held any personal communication with the
German reformers is doubtful. It is quite possible, and
Tollin, his chief biographer, makes him visit Luther. We
do not know how long he held service with Quintana,
Tollin thinks a year and a half. It is not unlikely that
the good friar was glad to get rid of a young secretary
infected with heresy so shocking as that contained in
his first book, published in 1531; indeed, there is
a statement to the effect that a monk in the suite of
Quintana found the book in a shop at Ratisbon and
hastened to tell the confessor of its terrible contents.
Servetus had plunged headlong into studies of the most
dangerous character, and had even embooked them in
a small octavo volume, entitled De Trinitatis Erroribus,
which appeared without the printer’s name, but on the
title-page the author, Michael Serveto, alias Reves
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��MICHAEL SERVETUS
7
ab Aragonia, Hispanum, and with the date mdxxxi.
In the innocency of his heart he thought the work would
be a good introduction to the more liberal of the Swiss
reformers, but they would have none of it, and were
inexpressibly shocked at its supposed blasphemies.
Nor did he fare better at Strassburg; and even the
kind-hearted Bucer said that the author of such a work
should be disembowelled and torn in pieces.
In thorny theological questions a layman naturally
seeks shelter, and I am glad to quote the recent opinion
of a distinguished student of the period, Professor
Emerton,1 on this youthful phase of the life of Servetus.
4 He would not admit that the eternal Son of God was
to appear as man, but only that a man was to come
who should be the Son of God. This is the earliest
intimation we have as to the speculations which were
occupying the mind of the young scholar. It is
highly significant that from the start he was impressed
with what we should now call the historical view of
theology. As he read the Old Testament, its writers
seemed to him to be referring to things that their
hearers would understand. Their gaze into the future
was limited by the fortunes of the people at the moment.
■To imagine them possessed of all the divine mysteries,
and to have in mind the person of the man Jesus as the
ultimate object of all their prophetic vision, was to
reflect back the knowledge of history into a past to
which such knowledge was impossible. So far as I can
understand him, this is the key to all Servetus’ later
thought. His manner of expressing himself is confusing
and intricate to the last degree, so much so that neither
in his own time nor since has any one dared to say that
he understood it. To his contemporaries he was a half
1 Harvard Theological Review, April, 1909.
�8
MICHAEL SERVETUS
mad fanatic; to those who have studied him, even
sympathetically, his thought remains to a great extent
enigmatical; but this one point is fairly clear: that he
grasped, as no one up to his time had grasped, this one
central notion, that, whatever the divine plan may have
been, it must be revealed by the long, slow movement
of history—that, to understand the record of the past, it
must be read, so far as that is possible, with the mind
of those to whom it was immediately addressed, and
must not be twisted into the meanings that may suit the
fancy of later generations.’
‘To have seized upon such an idea as this—an idea
which has begun to come to its rights only within our
memories—was an achievement which marks this youth
of twenty as at all events an extraordinary individual,
a disturbing element in his world, a man who was not
likely to let the authorities rest calmly in possession of
all the truth there was.’
In the following year, 1532, two dialogues appeared,
explanatory and conciliatory, a little book which only
aggravated the offence, and feeling the Protestant atmo
sphere too hot, Servetus went to Paris. Dropping this
name by which he has been known, and closing this
brief but stormy period, for the next twenty-one years we
now follow Michel Villeneuve, or Michael Villanovanus,
in a varied career as student, lecturer, practitioner,
author and editor, still nursing the unconquerable hope
that the world might be reformed could he but restore
the primitive doctrine of the Church.
II
We know very little of this his first stay in Paris.
Possibly he found employment as teacher, or as reader
to the press. At this period his path first crossed that of
Calvin, then a young student. Of about the same age,
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��MICHAEL SERVETUS
9
both ardent students, both on the high road of emanci
pation from the faith of their birth, they must have had
many discussions on theological questions. One may
conclude from the reproachful sentence of Calvin many
years later, ‘ Vous avez fuy le luite ’, that arrangements
had been made for a public debate.
After a short stay at Avignon and Orleans, we next
find Servetus at Lyons, in the employ of the Trechsels
brothers, the famous printers. Those were the days of
fine editions of the classics and other books, which
required the assistance of scholarly men to edit and
correct. He brought out a splendid folio of Ptolemy’s
Geography, 1535 (Fig. 4), with commentaries on the
different countries, which show a wide range of know
ledge in so young a man. It is marked also by many
examples of independent criticism, as, when speaking of
Palestine, he says that the ‘ Promised Land ’ was any
thing but a ‘ promising land ’, and instead of flowing
with milk and honey, and a land of corn, olives and
vineyards, it was inhospitable and barren, and the
stories about its fertility nothing but boasting and
untruth. He seems to have been brought to task for
this, as in the second edition, 1541, this section does not
exist. For this work he was paid by the Trechsels
500 crowns.
It is possible that Servetus and Rabelais may have
met at Lyons, as at this time the ‘ great Dissimulator ’
was physician to the Hotel-Dieu, but there is nothing in
the writings of either to indicate that their paths crossed.
The man who had the greatest influence upon him at
Lyons was Symphorien Champier, one of the most
interesting and distinguished of the medical humanists
of the early part of the sixteenth century. Servetus
helped him with his French Pharmacopoeia, and Pastor
Tollin will have it that Champier even made a home
B
�IO
MICHAEL SERVETUS
for the poor scholar. An ardent Galenist, an historian,
the founder of the hospital and of the medical school,
Champier had the usual predilection of the student of
those days for astrology. Probably from him Servetus
received his instructions in the subject. At any rate,
when the distinguished Professor of Medicine of
Tubingen, Fuchsius, attacked Champier on the ground
of his astrological vagaries, Servetus took up his pen
and replied in defence with a pamphlet entitled ‘ In
Leonhardum Fuchsium defensio apologetica pro Symphoriano Campeggio ’, an exceedingly rare item, the
only one indeed of the writings of Servetus that I have
not seen in the original.
Stimulated doubtless by the example and precept of
Champier, Servetus returned to Paris to study medicine.
Fairly rich in pocket with the proceeds of his literary
work, he attached himself first to the College of Calvi,
and afterwards to that of the Lombards, and it is said
that he took the degrees of M.A. and M.D., but of this
I am told that there is no documentary evidence.
Of his life in Paris we have very little direct evidence,
except in connexion with a single incident. We know
that he came into intimate contact with three men—
Guinther of Andernach, Jacobus Sylvius, and Vesalius.
Guinther and Sylvius must have been men after his
own heart, ripe scholars, ardent Galenists, and keen
anatomists. In the Institutiones Anatomicae (Basel, 1539),
Guinther speaks of Servetus in connexion with Vesalius,
who was at this time his fellow pro-sector. ‘ And after
him by Michael Villanovanus, distinguished by his
literary acquirements of every kind, and scarcely second
to any in his knowledge of Galenical doctrine.’ With
their help he states that he has examined the whole
body, and demonstrated to the students all of the
muscles, veins, arteries, and nerves. There was at this
�MICHAEL SERVETUS
ii
time a very keen revival in the study of anatomy in
Paris, and to have been associated with such a young
genius as Vesalius, already a brilliant dissector, must
have been in itself a liberal education in the subject.
It is easy to understand whence was derived the
anatomical knowledge upon which was based the farreaching generalization with which the name of Servetus
is associated in physiology.
But the Paris incident of which we know most is
connected with certain lectures on judicial astrology.
We have seen that at Lyons, Servetus had defended
his friend and patron Symphorien Champier, through
whom he had doubtless become familiar with its prac
tice. Though forbidden by the Church, judicial astrology
was still in favour in some universities, and was practised
largely by physicians occupying the most distinguished
positions. In those days few were strong minded
enough to defy augury, and in popular belief all were
‘servile to skiey influences’. It was contrary to the
regulations of the Paris Faculty to lecture on the
subject, though at this time the king had in his employ
a professional astrologist, Thibault.
Shortly after
reaching Paris Servetus began a course of lectures on
the subject, which very soon brought him into conflict
with the authorities.
The admirable practice for the Dean to write out
each year his report, has preserved for us the full
details of the procedure against Servetus. Duboulay,
in his History of the University of Paris, vol. vi, has
extracted the whole affair from the Dean’s Commentary,
as it is called, of the year. He says that a certain
student of medicine, a Spaniard, or as he says, from
Navarre, but with a Spanish father, had taught for
some days in Paris in 1537 judicial astrology or divina
tion. After having found out that this was condemned
�12
MICHAEL SERVETUS
by the Doctors of the Faculty, he caused to be printed
a certain apology in which he attacked the doctors, and
moreover declared that wars and pests and all the
affairs of men depended on the heavens and on the
stars, and he imposed on the public by confounding
true and judicial astrology. The Dean goes on to
state that, accompanied by two of his colleagues, he
tried to prevent Villanovanus from publishing the
apology, and met him leaving the school where he had
been making a dissection of the body with a surgeon,
and in the presence of several of the scholars, and of
two or three doctors, he not only refused to stop the
publication, but he threatened the Dean with bitter
words.
The Faculty appears to have had some difficulty in
getting the authorities to move in the matter. Possibly
we may see here the influence of the court astrologer,
Thibault. After many attempts, and after appealing to
the Theological Faculty and the Congregation of the
University, the question was taken up by Parliament.
The speeches of counsel for the Faculty, for the Uni
versity, for Villanovanus, and for the Parliament are
given in full. The Parliament decided that the printed
apology should be recalled, the booksellers were for
bidden to keep them, the lectures on astrology were
forbidden, and Villanovanus was urged to treat the
Faculty with respect. But on their part they were
asked to deal with the offender gently, and in a parental
fashion. It is a very interesting trial, and the Dean
evidently enjoyed his triumph. He says that he took
with him three theologians, two doctors in medicine,
the Dean of the Faculty of Canonical Law, and the
Procurator-General of the University. The affair was
discussed by Parliament with closed doors.
The Apologetica disceptatio pro astrologia, the rarest of
�MICHAEL SERVETUS
13
the Servetus items, the only copy known being in the
Bibliotheque Nationale, is an eight leaf pamphlet,
without title-page, pagination, or printer’s name. The
friends of the Faculty must have been very successful
in their confiscation of the work. Tollin, who dis
covered the original, has reprinted it (Berlin, 1880). It
was not hard for Servetus to cite powerful authorities
on his side, and he summons in his defence the great
quartette, Plato, Aristotle, Hippocrates, and Galen. A
practical star-gazer, he took his own observations, and
the pamphlet records an eclipse of Mars by the moon.
He must, too, have been a student of the weather, as
he speaks of giving in his lectures public predictions
which caused great astonishment. The influence of the
moon in determining the critical days of diseases, a
favourite doctrine of Galen, is fully discussed, and he
says that Galen’s opinion should be written in letters
of gold. He rests content with these great authorities,
referring very briefly to one or two minor lights. He
scoffs at the well-known bitter attack on divination by
Picus.
It took several generations to eradicate completely
from the profession a belief in astrology, which lingered
well into the seventeenth century. In his Vulgar
Errors, discussing the ‘Canicular’ or ‘Dog Days’, Sir
Thomas Browne expresses his opinion of astrology in
the most characteristic language. ‘Nor do we hereby
reject or condemn a sober and regulated Astrology; we
hold there is more truth therein than in Astrologers;
in some more than many allow, yet in none so much
as some pretend. We deny not the influence of the
Starres, but often suspect the due application thereof;
for though we should affirm that all things were in all
things; that heaven were but earth celestified, and
earth but heaven terrestrified, or that each part above
�i4
MICHAEL SERVETUS
had an influence upon its divided affinity below; yet
how to single out these relations, and duly to apply
their actions, is a work oft times to be effected by some
revelation, and Cabala from above, rather then any
Philosophy, or speculation here below.’
Among the auditors of Servetus was a young man,
Pierre Paumier, the Archbishop of Vienne, who appears
to have befriended him in Paris, and who a few years
later asked him to be his body physician. The astrology
trial was settled in March, 1537.
Servetus cannot have been very long a student of
medicine, but never lacking in assurance, he came
before the world as a medical author in the little treatise
on Syrups and their use (Fig. 5). Association with
Champier, whom he had helped in an edition of his
French Pharmacopoeia, had made him familiar with the
subject. The first three chapters are taken up with the
views on ‘ Concoctions ’ or ‘ Digestions ’, of which at that
time a series, from the first to the fourth, was recognized.
He pleads for a unity of the process, and, as Willis
remarks, he makes the very shrewd remark at that day,
‘ that diseases are only perversions of natural functions
and not new entities introduced into the body.’ The
greater part of the treatise is taken up with theoretical
discussions on the opinions of Galen, Hippocrates, and
Avicenna. The ‘Composition and use of the Syrups’
is deferred to the fifth and a concluding (sixth) chapter.
The little book appears to have been popular, and
was reprinted twice at Venice, 1545 and 1548, and
twice at Lyons, 1546 and 1547.
Ill
Whether the adverse decision of Parliament disgusted
him with Paris, or whether through some friend the
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15
opportunity to settle in practice had offered, we next
hear of Villeneuve at Charlieu, a small town about
twelve miles from Lyons, where he spent a year, or
part of the year 1538-9. Here his old Paris friend
Paumier sought him and induced him to settle at
Vienne, offering him apartments in the palace, and an
appointment as his body physician. After nearly ten
years of wandering, at last, in a peaceful home in the
fine old Roman city, with its good society, and under
the protection of the Primate of all France, Servetus
spent the next fourteen years as a practising physician.
Few details of his life are known. He retained his
association with the Trechsels, the printers, who had
set up a branch establishment in Vienne. In 1541 he
brought out a new edition of Ptolemy, with a dedication
to the Archbishop. From the preface we have a
glimpse of a genial group of companions, all interested
in the new studies. Several critical items in the
edition of 1535 disappear in the new one of 1541, e.g.
the scoffing remarks about Palestine; and in mentioning
the royal touch, instead of, ‘ I have myself seen the
King touching many with this disease (i.e. Scrofula),
but I have not seen that they were cured,’ he says,
‘ I have heard that many were cured.’ Perhaps he felt
it unbecoming in a member of an ecclesiastical circle,
and living under the patronage of the Archbishop, to
say anything likely to give offence.
In the following year he issued an edition of Pagnini’s
Bible in a fine folio (Fig. 6). Its chief interest to us is
the testimony that Servetus was still deep in theological
studies, for the commentaries in the work place him
among the earliest and boldest of the higher critics.
The prophetic psalms, and the numerous prophecies
in Isaiah and Daniel are interpreted in the light of
contemporary events, but as Willis remarks, ‘ These
�i6
MICHAEL SERVETUS
numerous excessively free and highly heterodox in
terpretations appear to have lost Villeneuve neither
countenance nor favour at Vienne.
For another Lyons publisher, Frelon, he edited a
number of educational works, and through him the
Vienne physician was put in correspondence with the
Geneva reformer.
A dreamer, an enthusiast, a mystic, Servetus was
possessed with the idea that could but the doctrines of
the Church be reformed the world could be won to
a primitive, simple Christianity. We have already seen
his attempt to bring the Swiss Reformers into what
he thought correct views upon the Trinity. He now
began a correspondence with Calvin on this subject,
and on the question of the Sacraments. The letters,
which are extant, in tone and contents shocked and
disgusted Calvin to such a degree that in a communica
tion to Farel, dated February, 1546, after stating that
Servetus had offered to come to Geneva, he adds,
‘ I will not pledge my faith to him; for did he come if
I have any authority here I should never suffer him to
go away alive.’
For years Servetus had in preparation the work
which he fondly hoped would restore primitive Christi
anity. Part of a MS. of this he had sent to Calvin.
Having tried in vain to get it published, he decided to
print it privately at Vienne. Arrangements were made
with a local printer, who set up a separate press in a
small house, and in a few months 1,000 copies were
printed. The title-page here reproduced (Fig. 7) has
the date 1553, and on the last page the initials of his
name, ‘M.S.V.’
He must have known that the work was likely to
cause great commotion in the Church, but he hoped
that the identity of the author would be as little sus-
�• '
‘
1^ 1. ^1
1,
V A
tio./
\ *
Totius ecclefx dp ofoliox eft ddfud hmind \>oratio, in integrum reftitutd cognitions Det, ftdei
Cbrifli, luftificdtion'u noftrx, regcnerdtionis bdpti
fni, &cicnx domint manducdtioms. Reftituto de'^d
Reftttuto de^dh
nic>ue nobis regno cxleftidBdbylonisimpix cdpt nu
tate foluta ,& ^Anticbrifto cum fuis penitus
ftruflo.
ft.** '*
bKzr'a *rw kw nva
M* p.
Jte.Kb
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-471 /1-K1
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Fig. 7
.
��MICHAEL SERVETUS
17
pected as that the Vienne physician, Michael Villeneuve,
was Michael Servetus of the heretical de Trinitatis
Erroribus.
Intended for distribution in Germany,
Switzerland, and Italy, the work was made up into
bales of 100 copies for distribution to the trade.
Probably from their mutual friend Frelon Calvin
received a couple of copies. The usual story is that
through one William Trie as a medium, Calvin de
nounced Villeneuve to the inquisition at Vienne. This
was the view of Servetus himself, and is supported
by Willis, Tollin, and others; but advocates of Calvin
continue to deny that there is sufficient evidence of his
active participation at this stage.
There was at this time at Lyons the well-known
inquisitor Orry, who ten years before had brought
Etienne Dolet to the stake. No sooner had he got
scent of the affair than he undertook the prosecution
with his customary zeal, and Servetus was arrested.
The preliminary trial at Vienne is chiefly of interest on
account of the autobiographical details which Servetus
gives. The evidence against him was so overwhelming
that he was committed to prison. Surrounded by his
friends, who must have been greatly shocked and dis
tressed to find their favourite physician in so terrible
a plight, abundantly supplied with money, with the
prison discipline very lax as the jailer was his friend,
it is not surprising that the day after his commitment
Servetus escaped, greatly no doubt to the relief of the
Archbishop and the authorities. The inquisitor had to
be content with burning an effigy of the heretic with
some 500 copies of his work.
From April 7 until the middle of July Servetus
disappears from view, and we next meet with him, of
all places in the world, at Geneva. Why he should
have run this risk has been much discussed, but the
�i8
MICHAEL SERVETUS
explanation given by Guizot is probably the correct
one. At that time the Liberals, or 1 Libertines as they
were called because of their hostility to Calvin, fully
expected to triumph. ‘ One of their leaders, Ami Perrin,
was first Syndic: a man of their party, Gueroult, who
had been banished from Geneva, had been corrector of
the press at the time when the Restoration of Christianity
was published, and thanks to the influence of his patrons,
the Libertines, he had returned to Geneva, and would
naturally be the medium between them and Servetus.
Taking a comprehensive view of the whole case and
the antecedents of all those concerned in it, I am con
vinced that Servetus, defeated at Vienne, went to
Geneva, relying on the support of the Libertines, whilst
they on their side expected to obtain efficacious help
from him against Calvin.’ He seems to have been
nearly a month in Geneva before his arrest on the
morning of August 14.
The full account of this famous heresy trial has lost
much of its interest so far as the doctrinal details are
concerned. At this distance, with our modern ideas,
the procedure seems very barbarous. Servetus was
cruelly treated in prison, and there is a letter from him
which speaks of his shocking condition, without proper
clothing, and a prey to vermin. Mademoiselle Roch
has well depicted this phase of the martyr’s career in
her fine statue which has been erected at Anamnese,
and which is here reproduced (Fig. 8). The full report
of the trial may be followed in the account given by
Willis, and the ' Proces-Verbal ’ was in existence at
Geneva in manuscript.
One thing seems clear, that while at first the accusa
tions were largely concerned with the heretical views
of Servetus, later the public prosecutor laid more stress
upon the political side of the case, accusing him of
�TOMB
��MICHAEL SERVETUS
J9
conspiracy with the Libertines. The trial divided
Geneva into hostile camps, and it sometimes looked as
though Calvin, quite as much as Servetus, was on trial.
To strengthen their hands the clerical party appealed
to the Swiss churches. The answer, strong enough in
condemning the heresy and blasphemy, refrained from
specifying the kind of punishment.
Accustomed in France to hear the Swiss Reformers
branded as the worst type of heretics, Servetus appears
never to have understood why he should not have been
received with open arms by the Protestants, whose
one desire was the same as his own, the restoration of
primitive faith and practice. He made a brave fight,
and brought strong countercharges against Calvin,
whom he accused specifically of causing his arrest at
Vienne. He offered to discuss the questions at issue
publicly, an offer which Calvin would have accepted
had the syndics allowed. The whole city was in a
ferment, and Sunday after Sunday Calvin and the other
pastors thundered from their pulpits against the
blasphemies of the Spaniard. After dragging its weary
length for nearly two months, the public feeling veered
strongly to the side of Calvin, and on October 27 the
Council, by a majority vote, resolved that in considera
tion of his great errors and blasphemies, the prisoner
should be burnt alive.
Servetus appears to have been a curious compound
of audacity and guilelessness. The announcement of
the condemnation appears to have completely stunned
him, as he seems never to have considered its possi
bility. He sent for Calvin and asked his pardon, but
there was bitterness in the heart of the great reformer
whose account of the interview is not very pleasant
reading.
On the morning of the 27th, the Tribunal assembled
�20
MICHAEL SERVETUS
before the porch of the Hotel de Ville to read to the
prisoner his formal condemnation, under ten separate
heads, the two most important of which relate to the
doctrine of the Trinity, and Infant Baptism. It is
curious that under one of the headings he should be
denounced as an arrogant innovator, and an inventor
of heresies against Popery! The entreaty of Servetus
for a more merciful ’mode of death (for which, to his
credit, be it said, Calvin also pleaded) was in vain. The
procession at once formed to the place of execution.
Nothing in his life, it may be said, became him like
the leaving of it. As Guizot remarks, ‘ The dignity of
the philosopher triumphed over the weakness of the
man, and Servetus died heroically and calmly at that
stake the very thought of which had at first filled him
with terror.’
There will be dedicated next year at Vienne a
monument commemorating the services of Servetus as
an independent spirit in theology, and as a pioneer in
physiology.
It has been said that Sappho survives because
we rsing her songs, and Aeschylus because we read
his plays, but it would be difficult to explain the
widespread interest in Servetus from any knowledge
men have of his writings. The pathos of his fate, which
scandalized Gibbon more profoundly than all the human
hecatombs of Spain or Portugal, accounts for it in part.
Then there is the limited circle of those who regard
him as a martyr to the Unitarian confession; while
scientific men have a very definite interest in him as
one of the first to make a substantial contribution to
our knowledge of the circulation of the blood. His
theological and physiological views call for brief
comments.
�MICHAEL SERVETUS
21
IV
Next to theology itself the study of medicine has
been a great heresy breeder. From the days of Arnold
of Villanova and Pierre of Abano, there have been
noted heretics in our ranks. Bossuet defines a heretic
as ‘One who has opinions’. Servetus seems to have
been charged with opinions like a Leyden jar. His
most notable ones concerned the Trinity and Infant
Baptism. Wracked almost to destruction in the third
and fourth centuries on the subject of the Trinity, the
final conquest of Arianism found its expression in that
magnificent human document the Athanasian Creed,
with which the Catholic Church has for ever settled the
question, in language which sends a cold shudder down
the backs of heretics. But there have always been
turbulent souls who could not rest satisfied, and who
would bring up unpleasant points from the Bible—men
who were not able to accept Dante’s wise advice :—
‘ Mad is he who hopes that our reason can traverse the
infinite way which one Substance as Three Persons
holds. Be content oh human race with the Quia’.
The doctrine has been a great breeding ground of
heretics, the smoke of whose burning has been a sweet
savour in the nostrils alike of Catholics and Protestants.
Even to-day, so deeply ingrained is the catholic creed,
that nearly everything in the way of doctrinal vagary is
forgiven save denial of the Trinity, which is thought to
put a man outside the pale of normal Christianity. If
this is the feeling to-day, imagine what it must have
been in the middle of the sixteenth century!
Servetus wrote two theological works—de Trinitatis
Erroribusy published in 1531, followed by a supplement
in 1532. To these I have already referred. Living a
double life at Vienne, to the inhabitants he was the
�22
MICHAEL SERVETUS
careful and kind practitioner of medicine, to whom they
had become devoted, but all the while, nourishing the
dream of his youth, he had in preparation a work which
he believed would win the world to Christ by purifying
the Church from grave errors in doctrine.
I have already spoken of the printing of the Christianismi Restitutio. Mainly concerned with most abstruse
questions concerning the Trinity and Infant Baptism,
it is a most difficult work to read, and, as theologians
confess, a still more difficult one to understand. Pro
fessor Emerton, in his article from which I have already
quoted, gives in a few paragraphs the essence of his
views. ‘ He finds the central fact of Christian specula
tion, not in the doctrine of the Trinity as formulated by
the schools, but in the fact of the divine incarnation in
the person of Jesus. He admits the divine birth, ex
plaining it as in harmony with a general law of divine
manifestation whereby the spiritual is revealed in the
material. He would not accept the idea of an eternal
sonship, except in this sense, that the divine Word, the
Logos, had always been active as the expression in
outward form of the divine activity. So, in the fullness
of time, this same Logos produced a being from a
human mother upon whom at the moment of his birth
the divine Spirit was breathed. Obviously this is not
the “eternal Son” of the creeds, and herein lay the
special theological crime of Servetus. In his criticism
of the church order, of the papal government, of the
sacramental system, he does not differ essentially from
the more radical of the reformers. On the essential
matters of baptism and the Eucharist he goes quite
beyond the established reforming churches. In both
cases he invokes the principle of plain reason. He
rejects Infant Baptism on the ground that the infant
can have no faith, and that the practice is therefore
�sssss
MICHAEL SERVETUS
23
mere incantation. He denies transubstantiation on
the rational basis that substances and accidents may not
be separated, and does not spare the reforming leaders
for what seemed to him their half-hearted attitude on
this point. His language throughout is harsh and
violent, except where, as at the close of his chapters, he
passes over into the forms of devotion and closes his
diatribes with prayers of great beauty and spirituality.’
The Christian Church early found out that there was
only one safe way of dealing with heresy. From the
end of the fourth century, when the habit began, to its
climax on St. Bartholomew’s Day, it was universally
recognized that only dead heretics ceased to be trouble
some. History affords ample evidence of the efficacy
of repressive measures, often carried out on a scale of
noble proportions. France is Catholic because of a
root and branch policy; England’s Protestantism is an
enduring testimony to the thoroughness with which
Henry VIII carried out his measures. As De Foe says
in his famous pamphlet, Shortest way with Dissenters,
if a man is obstinate and persists in having an opinion
of his own, contrary to that held by a majority of his
fellows, and if the opinion is pernicious and jeopardizes
his eternal salvation, it is much safer to burn him than
to allow his doctrines to spread! For 1,200 years this
policy kept heresy within narrow limits until the great
outbreak. The very best men of the day were con
senting to the death of heretics. The spirit of Pro
testantism was against it; Luther nobly so. Judged
by his age Servetus was a rank heretic, and as deserving
of death as any ever tied to a stake. We can scarcely
call him a martyr of the Church.—What Church would
own him? All the same, we honour his memory as
a martyr to the truth as he saw it.
Servetus was a student of medicine in Paris with
�24
MICHAEL SERVETUS
Sylvius and Guinther, two of the most ardent of the
revivers of the Galenic anatomy. More important still,
he was a fellow student and pro-sector with Vesalius.
He wrote one little medical book of no special merit.
The works which he edited, which brought him more
money than fame, indicate an independent and critical
spirit. Vienne was a small town, in which we cannot
think there was any scientific stimulus, though it was
in a region noted for its intellectual activity.
In possession of a fact in physiology of the very first
moment, Servetus described it with extraordinary clear
ness and accuracy. But so little did he think of the
discovery, of so trifling importance did it appear in
comparison with the great task in hand of restoring
Christianity, that he used it simply as an illustration
when discussing the nature of the Holy Spirit in his
work Christianismi Restitutio. The discovery was
nothing less than that of the passage of the blood from
the right side of the heart to the left through the lungs,
what is known as pulmonary, or lesser circulation.
In the year 1553 the views of Galen everywhere
prevailed. The great master had indeed effected a
revolution in the knowledge of the circulation almost
as great as that made by Harvey in the seventeenth
century. Briefly stated there were two bloods, the
natural and the vital, in two practically closed systems,
the veins and the arteries. The liver was the central
organ of the venous system, the 4 shop ’ as Burton calls
it, in which the chylus was converted into blood and
from which it was distributed by the veins to all parts
of the body for nourishment. The veins were rather
vessels containing the blood than tubes for its trans
mission—irrigating canals Galen called them. Galen
knew the structure of the heart, the arrangement of its
valves, and the direction in which the blood passed, but
�MICHAEL SERVETUS
25
its chief function was not, as we suppose, mechanical,
but in the left ventricle, the seat of life, the vital spirits
were generated, being a mixture of inspired air and
blood. By an alternate movement of dilatation and
collapse of the arteries the blood with the vital spirits
were kept in constant motion.1 Galen had demonstrated
that the arteries and the veins communicated with each
other at the periphery. A small quantity of the blood
went, he believed, from the right side of the heart to the
lungs, for their nourishment, and in this way passed to
the left side of the heart; but the chief communication
between the two systems was through pores in the
ventricular septum, the thick muscular wall separating
the two chief chambers of the heart.
The literature may be searched in vain for any other
than the Galenic view up to 1553- Even Vesalius, who
could not understand from its structure how even the
smallest quantity of blood could pass through the
septum dividing the ventricles, offered no other expla
nation. The more one knows of the Galenic physiology,
the less one is surprised that it had so captivated the
minds of men. The description of the new way which
Servetus describes is found in the fifth book of the
Christianismi Restitutio, in which he is discussing
the nature of the Holy Spirit. After mentioning the
threefold spirit of the body of man, natural, vital, and
animal, he goes on to discuss the vital spirit, and in
1 So firmly entrenched was the Galenic physiology that the new
views of Harvey made at first very slow progress. In Burton’s
Anatomy of Melancholy, which is a sort of epitome of medical
knowledge of the seventeenth century, is the following description:
‘ The left creek (i. e. ventricle) has the form of a cone, and is the
seat of life, which, as a torch doth oil, draws blood unto it be
getting of it spirits and fire, and as a fire in a torch so are spirits
in the blood; and by that great artery called aorta, it sends vital
spirits over the body, and takes air from the lungs.’
�26
MICHAEL SERVETUS
a few paragraphs describes the pulmonary circulation.
‘ Rightly to understand the question here, the first thing
to be considered is the substantial generation of the
vital spirit—a compound of the inspired air with the
most subtle portion of the blood. The vital spirit has,
therefore, its source in the left ventricle of the heart,
the lungs aiding most essentially in its production. It
is a fine attenuated spirit, elaborated by the power of
heat, of a crimson colour and fiery potency—the lucid
vapour as it were of the blood, substantially composed of
water, air, and fire; for it is engendered, as said, by the
mingling of the inspired air with the more subtle portion
of the blood which the right ventricle of the heart
communicates to the left. This communication, how
ever, does not take place through the septum, partition,
or midwall of the heart, as commonly believed, but by
another admirable contrivance, the blood being trans
mitted from the pulmonary artery to the pulmonary
vein, by a lengthened passage through the lungs, in the
course of which it is elaborated and becomes of a
crimson colour. Mingled with the inspired air in this
passage, and freed from fuliginous vapours by the act
of expiration, the mixture being now complete in every
respect, and the blood become fit dwelling-place of the
vital spirit, it is finally attracted by the diastole, and
reaches the left ventricle of the heart.
‘ Now that the communication and elaboration take
place in the lungs in the manner described, we are
assured by the conjunctions and communications of the
pulmonary artery with the pulmonary vein. The great
size of the pulmonary artery seems of itself to declare
how the matter stands; for this vessel would neither
have been of such a size as it is, nor would such a force
of the purest blood have been sent through it to the
lungs for their nutrition only; neither would the heart
�MICHAEL SERVETUS
27
have supplied the lungs in such fashion, seeing as we
do that the lungs in the foetus are nourished from
another source—those membranes or valves of the
heart not coming into play until the hour of birth, as
Galen teaches. The blood must consequently be
poured in such large measure at the moment of birth
from the heart to the lungs for another purpose than the
nourishment of those organs. Moreover, it is not
simply air, but air mingled with blood that is returned
from the lungs to the heart by the pulmonary veins.
1 It is in the lungs, consequently, that the mixture (of
the inspired air with the blood) takes place, and it is in
the lungs also, not in the heart, that the crimson colour
of the blood is acquired. There is not indeed capacity
of room enough in the left ventricle of the heart for so
great and important an elaboration, neither does it seem
competent to produce the crimson colour. To conclude,
the septum or middle portion of the heart, seeing that it
is without vessels and special properties, is not fitted to
permit and accomplish the communication and elabora
tion in question, although it may be that some
transudation takes place through it. It is by a mechanism
similar to that by which the transfusion from the vena
portae to the vena cava takes place in the liver, in
respect of the blood, that the transfusion from the
pulmonary artery to the pulmonary vein takes place in
the lungs, in respect of the spirit ’ (Willis’s translation).
I here reproduce from the Vienna example the two
pages from which the greater part of this description
is taken (Figs. 9 and 10).
The important elements here are: First, the clear
statement of the function of the pulmonary artery;
secondly, the transmission of the impure or venous
blood through the lungs from the right side of the
heart to the left; thirdly, the recognition of an
�28
*7o
MICHAEL SERVETUS
DE T RIN IT ATE
ie,qua^nuncaudies. Hine dicituranima-effe in fanguirtCpd^
animaipfaeffefanguis,fiuefanguineus fpiricus-Non di>.
cicur anima principal)ter efle inparienbus cordis,aut inb
corpore ipfo cerebri,aucliepacis, fed in fanguine > vcdo'
tec ipfe Deusgenef.9.Leuit.t7.cc Dcuc. u. .
Adquam rem eft priusinrelligendafubftanciatis gene
ratioiplius vicahsfpinrus, quiexacre infpiraco <&-lubci
lifsimofanguinecdponicur,& nuentur. Vitalis fpiricusi
finiftro cordis vecriculofuaorigine habet,iuuacibus ma*
xime pulmonibusadipfiusgcneracioncm.Eftfpiricus ce
nuis, caloris vi elaboratus, flauo colore , ignea poten*
tia>vtfitquafiex puriori fanguine lucidus vapor, fubLand am in fe conunens aquae acus & ignis. Generatur
ex fafla in pulmonibus mixtioneinfpirati aeriscu elabo
rato fubtili fanguine,que dextervctriculus cordis finiftro
communicac.l’ic aurcmc6municatioha?c,non per parie
rem cordis mediu,vc vulgo credicur.Sed magno artificio
a dextro cordisventriculo,longo per pulmones du£u,a*
gicatur fanguis fubtilis:a pulmonibus praeparatur,flauus
€fficitur:&a vena arteriofa in arteria venofam transfun*
ditur • Deinde in ipfa arceria venofa infpiraco acri mifeetur, &T expiratione a fuhgine repurgatur, Atqueita tandem a finiftro cordis ventriculo corum mixeum
perdiaftolem attrahitur, apta fuppellex, vcfiatfpiricus
Vitalis.
Quod ica per pulmones Rat coicatio,& praeparatio,do
ceccoiundio varia,& c ciicatio, venae arccnofae cu arteria
venofa i pulmonibus.Cofirmat hoc magnitude infignis
venx arccrioiar,qua? nec calis,nec taca faefta efiec, nec tata
acordeipfo vim purifsimi fanguinis in pulmones emitte
ret,oblolu eoru nutrimcntum, nec cor pulmonibus hac
ratione feruirct:cu pradertim anteain embryone folerenc
pulmoncs ipfi aliunde nucrin,ob membranuias Ulas, feu.
value*
Fig. 9
�MICHAEL SERVETUS
V.
LIBER
29
<7«
valuulas cordis,vfcg ad horanatiuicaris noduaperras,vr
docetGalenus.Ergpadaliumvfum effunditurfanguis a
cordein pulmones hora ipfa natiuiratis,& tacopiofus.L*
t?,a pulmonibus ad cor non fimplex aer,(ed mixtus fanguine mittitur,per arteriam venofam:ergo inpulmonibus fit mixtio.Flauus illecolor a pulmonibusdatur fan
guini fpirituofo,non a’ corde.In finiltrocordis ventriculo
non eft loeus capax tantae & cam copiofae mixtionis, nec
ad Rauum elaborauo ilia fuftictes.Demum,paries ilk medius,cum fie vaforum & facultarum expers,non eft aptus
ad communicatione & elaborationcillam, licet aliquid re
fudare pofsic.Eodem artificio.quo in hepate fit transit!fio
2 vena porta ad venamcauam propter fanguinem , fit etiam in pulmone transfufio a vena arceriofa ad arteriam venofam propter fpsneum . Sii quishaecconferac
cum iqs quaefcribic Gaknuslib.6.& 7.de vfu partium,ve
ritatem penitusihcelhgec, abipfo Galeno non animaduerfam.
v
Ilk itaqjfpiricus vicalis a finiftro cordis ventriculo in
arterias tonus Corporis deinde transfunditur,ira vt qui ce
nuior eft, Tuperioraperat, vbi magisadhuc elaboratur,
praecipue in plexu retiformi,fub bafi cerebri fito,inquo
ex vitali fieri incipir animalis , ad propriam rationalis
animae fedem accedens . I re rum ille fortius mentis ignea
vi tenuatur,elaborarur,& perficiturjn tenuifsimis vafis,
feu capillaribus arterrjs , quae in plexibus choroidibus
fitaefunt,&' ipfifsimam mentem continent. Hi plexus
intima omnia cerebri penetrant ,
ipfos cerebri ventriculos interne fuccingunc , vafa ilia fecum compli cata,& contexca feruantes > vfque ad neruorum origines, Vciheos fenriendi A mouendi facultas inducatur.
Vafa ilia miraculo magno tenuifsimc contexts > ta
me t fl arttriae dicantur , funt tamen fines arteriarum ,
cendcn
Fig.
io
�3°
MICHAEL SERVETUS
elaboration or transformation in the lungs, so that with
the freeing the blood of ‘ fuliginous vapours there was
at the same time a change to the crimson colour of the
arterial blood; fourthly, the direct denial of a com
munication of the two bloods, by means of orifices in
the septum between the ventricles.
He had no idea of the general or systematic circula
tion, and so far as the left heart and the arteries were
concerned he believed them to be the seat of the vital
blood and spirits.
It is not hard to imagine how Servetus had become
emancipated from the old views. A student at Paris at
a most opportune period, when dissection had become
popular, he had had as pro-sector to Guinther excep
tional opportunities. But more important still, he had
as fellow worker the anatomical arch-heretic, Andreas
Vesalius, already imbued with the conviction that his
teachers were wrong in regarding Galen as inspired
and infallible. It was at this very period that Vesalius
had pointed out to his teacher Sylvius the error of
Galen about the aortic valves ; and when one considers
the extraordinary rapidity with which Vesalius reformed
human anatomy, before he had completed his twenty
eighth year, it is not surprising that his colleague and
co-worker should have discovered one of the great
truths of physiology.
The Christianismi Restitutio was never published,
and the discovery of Servetus remained unrecognized
until the attention of Wotton was called to it by Charles
Bernard, a St. Bartholomew’s Hospital surgeon.1 Mean
while it had been rediscovered, and among the many
vagaries with which the history of the circulation of the
blood is marked, not the least striking is the attempt to
1 William Wotton, Reflections upon ancient and modern learning,
1697, Page 229.
�MICHAEL SERVETUS
3i
rob Servetus of his credit. In 1559 there was published
a work by Realdus Colombo/ a student of Vesalius and
his successor at Padua, in which the circulation of the
blood from the right side of the heart to the left is
clearly described. It is impossible to say that he had
added anything to the account just given, and the far
fetched view has been maintained that Italian students
at Paris had acquainted Servetus with the views of
Colombo. It is claimed for Colombo also that he had a
better idea of the function of respiration in the purifi
cation of the blood, by its mingling with the air, but
Servetus distinctly states that the mixture takes place
in the lungs, not, as was usually understood at the time,
in the heart itself.
Caesalpinus (1569), for whom elaborate claims are
made, also knew of the pulmonary circulation, but he
thought part of the blood went through the median
septum. A more important claim is made for him of
the discovery of the general circulation, but it is
remarkable that any one knowing the history of the
subject could read into his physiology anything more
than the old Galenic views.
The history of the circulation bristles with controversy
and widely divergent opinions are held as to the merits
of the different observers. That Servetus first advanced
a step beyond Galen, that Colombo and Caesalpinus
reached the same conclusion independently—all three
recognizing the lesser circulation, is quite as certain as
that it remained for Harvey to open an entirely new
chapter in physiology, and to introduce modern experi
mental methods by which the complete circulation of
the blood was first clearly demonstrated.2
1 De re Anatomica: Venetiis.
2 John C. Dalton’s History of the Circulation, 1884, gives by far
the best and fullest account of the whole subject in English.
�32
MICHAEL SERVETUS
A word about the book Christianismi Restitutio, liber
inter rariores longe rarissimus. Only two complete
copies are known, one in the Bibliotheque Nationale,
Paris, and the other in the Imperial Library, Vienna,
from which I was very kindly permitted to have the
photographs of the title-page and the pages describing
the circulation of the blood which are here reproduced.
A third copy, imperfect, with the first sixteen pages
in MS., is in the University Library, Edinburgh. The
Paris copy is of special interest, as it belonged to
Dr. Richard Mead, the distinguished physician and book
collector, by whom it was exchanged with M. de Boze
for a series of medals. In 1784 it was secured for the
Royal Library. It may now be seen in one of the
show cases of the Bibliotheque Nationale, of which it is
one of the rare treasures. An added interest is in the
fact that on the title-page occurs the name ‘ Germain
Colladon
the Geneva barrister, who prosecuted
Servetus ; and it is in the highest degree probable that
this was the identical copy used at the trial. In one
place the book is stained, some suppose by moisture;
others think it possible this was the very copy
bound upon the victim himself, and snatched from the
flames by some one who wished to preserve so interest
ing a record of the great heretic. The question has
been examined carefully by the late Professor Laboubene and M. Hahn, the distinguished librarian of the
Paris Faculty of Medicine, both of whom are in favour
of fire, not moisture, as the cause of the staining.
In 1791 the Vienna copy was reprinted at Nuremberg
in facsimile, page for page, but Dr. de Murr, who was
responsible for the reprint, very wisely put the date 1791
at the bottom of the last page. Copies of this edition
are not uncommon in the larger libraries. In 1723
Mead attempted to have a reprint made from his copy,
�MICHAEL SERVETUS
33
but when nearly completed the Bishop of London had
it suppressed, and (it is stated) the copies were burnt.
A few, however, escaped, and Willis says that he saw
one in the library of the London Medical Society.
I regret to say that the librarian informs me that this
no longer is to be found. A copy of the Mead partial
reprint is in the Bibliotheque Nationale, and two copies
are in the British Museum.
A last word on the attitude of John Calvin towards
Servetus. Much scorn has been heaped upon the
great reformer, and one cannot but regret that a man
of such magnificent achievements should have been
dragged into a miserable heresy hunt like a common
inquisitor. Let us not estimate him by his century, as
his friends plead, but frankly by his life, and as a man
of like passions with ourselves. He had bitter provo
cation. Flouted for years by the persistent assaults of
Servetus, and shocked out of all compassion by his
blasphemies, is it to be wondered that the old Adam
got the better of his Christian charity? Not only is it
impossible to acquit Calvin of active complicity in this
unhappy affair, but there was mixed up with it a personal
hate, a vindictiveness unbecoming in so great a
character, and we may say foreign to it. But let the
long record of a self-denying life, devoted in an evil
generation to the highest and the best, wipe for all
reasonable men this one blot. Let us, if we may judge
him at all, do so as a man, not as a demi-god. We
cannot defend him, let us not condemn him ; let his one
grievous fault, even though we may fear he never
repented of it, be the shadow which throws into stronger
relief the splendid outlines of a noble life. In his
defence,1 the original edition of which I have here, and
1 Defensio Orthodoxae, &c.t 1554.
E
�34
MICHAEL SERVETUS
which is concerned largely with doctrinal questions,
not only are there no expressions of regret for the part
he played in the tragedy, but the work is filled with
insults to his dead enemy, couched in the most vindictive
language. On the spot where Servetus was burnt
there stands to-day an expiatory monument (Fig. n),
which expresses the spirit of modern Protestantism.
On one side is the record of his birth and death, on
the other an inscription, of which the following is
a translation : ‘ Duteous and grateful followers of Calvin
our great Reformer, yet condemning an error which was
that of his age, and strongly attached to liberty of
conscience according to the true principles of the
Reformation and the Gospel, we have erected this
expiatory monument. Oct. 27, 1903.’
The erection next year at Vienne of a quatercentenary monument will complete the recognition by
the modem world of the merits of one of the strangest
figures on the rich canvas of the sixteenth century.
The wandering Spanish scholar, the stormy disputant,
the anatomical pro-sector, the mystic dreamer of a
restored Christianity, the discoverer of one of the
fundamental facts of physiology, has come at last to his
own. There are those, I know, who feel that perhaps
more than justice has been done; but in a tragic age
Servetus played an unusually tragic part, and the pathos
of his fate appeals strongly to us.
These, too, are days of retribution, of the restoration
of all things, the days of the opening of the fifth seal,
when the souls under the altar see their blood avenged,
when we clothe in the white robes of charity those who
were slain for the testimony which they held, little
noting whether the martyr was Catholic or Protestant,
caring only to honour one of that great company which
no man can number, ‘whose heroic sufferings,’ as
�c
Fig.
ii
£
��MICHAEL SERVETUS
35
Carlyle says, ‘rise up melodiously together to heaven
out of all lands and out of all time, as a sacred Miserere,
their heroic actions also as a boundless everlasting
Psalm of Triumph.’
Note.—The Servetus bibliography is fully given to 1890 in
Professor A. V. D. Linde’s Michael Servetus, Groningen, 1891.
My personal interest dates many years back when Pastor Tollin’s
delightful sketches enlivened the numbers of Virchow’s Archives.
No one has ever had a more enthusiastic biographer, and to the
writings of the Madgeburg clergyman we owe the greater part of
our modern knowledge of Servetus. The best account in English
is by Willis—Servetus and Calvin, 1877. A German translation of
the Christianismi Restitutio by Dr. Bernhard Spiess appeared in
1895 (2nd edition, Wiesbaden, Chr. Limbarth). I am indebted to
Professor Harper of Princeton for an .historical drama, The
Reformer of Geneva, by Professor Shields (privately printed,
Princeton University Press, 1897), which gives an admirable
picture of Geneva at the time of the trial. From Chereau’s
Histoire dun Livre, 1879, I have ‘cribbed’ the idea of the intro
duction. The name of Mosheim must be mentioned, as his
writings were for years the common tap from which all Servetus
knowledge was derived. The Servetus portrait, of which Mosheim
speaks, has disappeared; I have reproduced the engraving from
AUworden’s Historia (1727), also the Roch statue at Anamnese.
����
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Victorian Blogging
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Title
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Michael Servetus
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Osler, William [Sir, 1849-1919]
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 35 p. : ill. (ports.) ; 23 cm.
Notes: "This address did double duty--at the Johns Hopkins Medical School Historical Club, and as an extension lecture in the Summer School, Oxford."--Footnote, p.3. Includes bibliographical references. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
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Henry Frowde, Oxford University Press
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1909
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N516
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Theology
Health
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English
Michael Servetus
NSS