shouldn't be s'prised if her blood was out o' order, and I'd hate to have her git down sick, with the busy season just comin' on. Mebbe you'd better give me a

dose of medicine for her."

We are responsible for the care of our bodies, and why should we not exercise at least as much judgment and discretion in their use as we should if using a delicate piece of mechanism. Some one has said that a man is a fool if he does not understand the care, the needs, and the capacity for labor of his mind and body by the time he is forty years of age, and with reason. able precautions and moderation, life can not only be prolonged, but pain be prevented, serious pecuniary losses averted and an immeasurable store of happiness and blessings added to our experience. The wealth of a Crœsus, or all the laurels that fame can bring, afford poor consolation to their possessor, if they have been gained at the cost of a worn-out system, or even enfeebled energies. And yet, how many, in their mad haste for these fleeting shadows, are not only wasting their capacity to enjoy life, but also cutting short their careers with a profligate's folly.

HOW TO KEEP WELL.

T has been said by one, who, doubtless, suffered from the pangs of ill-health, that" of the hundred good things in this life, ninty-nine are

health." And yet, so long as we are well we do not realize it, nor do we value sound health as one of the choicest boons that can be bestowed upon us, until it is ours no longer. It has been said that "all admit it a sin to steal, but it is no less a sin to break laws on which the very potency of bodily organization is founded, or those laws on which mind power turns." The greatest danger to health is in the small beginning of diseases. If the simple maxim, which it is said has been borne to us on the hoary centuries from old Plutarch, had been observed, what vast multitudes would have been spared from the ravages of disease. Keep your head cool, and your feet warm. feet warm. Instead of employing medicine for every indisposition, rather fast a day, and while you attend to the body, never neglect the mind."

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The celebrated Dr. Abernethy, one of the brightest ornaments that ever adorned the medical profession, thus states the causes of disease: "I tell you, honestly, what I think is the cause of the complicated maladies of the human race, it is their gourmandizing, and stuffing, and stimulating their digestive organs to an excess,

thereby producing nervous disorders and irritations. The state of their mind is another grand cause,—the fidgeting and discontenting themselves about what cannot be helped; passions of all kinds-malignant pas. sions pressing upon the mind disturb the cerebral action, and do much harm."

One of the most eminent physicians of our own country stated in a public lecture, that the art of health consists primarily in judicious diet.

There is an old English proverb which says, that the best physicians are Dr. Diet, Dr. Quiet, and Dr. Merryman.

A noted physician, whose writings have done much to set before the people the simplicity of preserving good health, says that the best medicine in the world, more efficient to cure disease than all the potencies of the materia medica, are warmth, rest, cleanliness, and pure air.

It is said that when one of the most renowned physi cians in France was on his death-bed, he was visited by the foremost medical men of Paris, who deplored the loss which the profession would sustain in the death of one whom they looked upon as occupying the first place. The dying man assured them that he left behind three physicians much greater than himself, and when asked their names, replied: "Their names are Water, Exercise and Diet. Call in the services of the first freely, of the second regularly, and the third moderately. Follow this advice and you may well

dispense with my aid. Living, I could do nothing without them; and dying, I shall not be missed, if you make friends of these my faithful coadjutors."

From the accumulated wisdom of these illustrious medical experts, we find that the preservation of health can be reduced to a few simple rules. Eat plain, wellcooked, nutricious food, which will make good blood; eat deliberately, masticate thoroughly, and partake but moderately of any liquid at meals. The ice water which is drank so freely by many at their meals, is of great injury to the stomach.

In regard to the quantity of food, be guided by your occupation and bodily condition. If of delicate constitution and sedentary life, eat lightly; but if of robust health and active life, the appetite is a safe monitor.

It is said that if one wishes to become fleshy, a pint of milk, taken before retiring every night, will soon produce that result.

Never begin a journey before breakfast is eaten, as the system is then more susceptible to disease and malarial influences.

Cleanliness is required not only for health, but demanded by decency. Carlyle is not too extravagant in his expressions, when he thus enumerates the phys ical and moral renovation of this virtue: "What worship is there not in mere washing? Perhaps one. of the most moral things a man in common cases has it in his power to do. Strip thyself, go into the bath, or were it into the limpid pool of a running brook,

and there wash, and be clean; thou wilt step out again a purer and a better man. This consciousness of perfect outward purity, that to thy skin there now adheres no foreign speck or imperfection,-how it radi ates on thee with cunning symbolic influences to thy very soul! Thou hast an increased tendency toward all good things whatsoever."

In our variable climate of many severe changes, warmth is an important requisite to health. In cold and changeable weather wear flannel next to the skin. The neglect to do this is the most frequent cause of that terrible affliction, rheumatism. Those who are easily chilled on going out of doors, should give additional protection to the lungs.

Never stand still when out of doors in cold weather, after becoming warmed by exercise. In going into a colder air, keep the mouth closed, so that the air, in passing through the nose and head, may become warmed before reaching the lungs, thus preventing those shocks and chills which often lead to pleurisy, pneumonia, and bronchial diseases. George Catlin, famous for his life among the Indians, thought that the Indian habit of breathing through the nostrils, instead of through the mouth, is one chief cause of their fine health.

After speaking or singing in a warm room in winter, do not leave the room until you have somewhat cooled off, and then take the precaution of protecting yourself well from the change of temperature.

But of all parts of the body, there is not one which