consider the circumstances of one mother as peculiarly favoured, and calling for the liveliest expressions of gratitude; so they certainly are: but we should be apt to look upon those of the other as peculiarly afflictive, and calling for the exercise of resignation in herself and family, and for sympathy on the part of her friends. And is this all? is there no room for the exercise of remorse for the past, and no call to determinate reformation for the future? In very many instances it would be found, upon mature consideration and careful investigation, that health had been at first wantonly sacrificed to the injudicious habits of youth, and that the evil was perpetuated and aggravated by those habits. In some rare instances, persons in such circumstances have been convinced that they were to blame for the sufferings and privations they endured; they have been led resolutely to adopt such a change of course as reason and duty suggested, and both themselves and their families have partially reaped the advantages of such a change: but it would have been far easier in the effort, and far more satisfactory in the result, to have adopted those better habits in early life, and never to have deviated from them.

Let the young reader, then, realize and cherish the conviction, that she is to a certain degree accountable for her health, and for the consequent discharge or failure of her several duties. She will not then dare to trifle with so important a trust, but will gladly avail herself of those instructions which will tend to the stability of her health, and the full developement of her

bodily and mental faculties. The laws of health are simple, but they are absolute: it is impossible that they should be. violated with impunity. Whatever is contrary to the established laws of health, must sooner or later be reckoned for. The part of wisdom, therefore, is not to calculate how far we may transgress those laws without incurring the extreme penalty, but to act in harmony with them. These remarks are certainly not designed, and it is hoped they have no tendency, to lead to a disregard of the providence of God, from whom we receive both good and evil. We know that afflictions do not spring out of the dust, and we would desire ever to recognise the hand of God in them; but we know too that many of our sufferings are the actual and direct consequences of our own folly, and in such cases it is no less our duty to remove the cause than to submit to the consequences.

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It has been remarked by a modern writer, that society groans under the load of suffering inflicted by causes susceptible of removal, but left in operation in consequence of our unacquaintance with our own structure, and of the relation of the different parts of the system to each other and to external objects. Every medical man must have felt and lamented the ignorance so generally prevalent in regard to the simplest functions of the animal system, and the subsequent absence of the judicious co-operation of friends in the care and cure of the sick." "We are constantly meeting with anomalies in practical life (that is, the practice of medicine) in the case of individuals little accustomed, when in health, to observe or to reflect on

the influences of external circumstances and modes of life in disturbing the action of the various animal functions, but at the same time easily and deeply impressed by all extraordinary circumstances affecting them. Thus, when any one is taken ill, his relatives or friends become extremely anxious to have his room properly ventilated; his body clothes frequently changed and carefully aired; his food properly regulated in quantity and quality; his skin cleaned and refreshed; his mind amused and tranquillized; his sleep sound and undisturbed; and his body duly exercised: and they state as the reason for all this care, and most justly, that pure air, cleanliness, attention to diet, cheerfulness, regular exercise, and sound sleep, are all highly conducive to health. And yet such is the inconsistency attendant on ignorance, that the patient is no sooner restored, than both he and his guardians are often found to become as careless and indifferent in regard to all the laws of health, as if these were entirely without influence, and their future breach or observance could in no way affect him! just as if it were not better, by a rational exercise of judgment, to preserve health when we have it, than first to lose it, and then pay the penalty in suffering and danger, as an indispensable preliminary to its subsequent restoration!"

It is much to be desired, that the knowledge above alluded to were more generally cultivated, and that young persons knew, at least, as much of the constitution of their own frame as they do of the various inferior substances that are continually passing through their hands. They are aware that

china and glass will break if suffered to fall; that silver and copper will tarnish in the smoke; that steel will rust if exposed to the damp; that linen and paper will scorch and burn if brought in contact with the fire. If they have to pack up a smart bonnet, they take care to provide a box of a proper size to protect its wiry frame and shining bows from being crushed by pressure; if they keep a pet canary, or rabbit, they know, or take the pains to inquire, the proper kind and quantity of food with which it should be supplied; if they possess a watch, they are well aware that its movements cannot proceed with regularity, if its delicate wheels are clogged with dust; but they do not possess the same knowledge, or do not exercise the like consideration, with respect to that far more curious, more complicated, more susceptible, and more valuable machine, the human frame. While, however, we regret that this knowledge is not more generally possessed, and would recommend young persons to take proper means for acquiring it, it is not the object of this little book to do more than to direct the attention to a few simple suggestions, which are obvious to common sense, and corroborated by daily experience.

1. Air is essential to life; and pure, free air is essential to health. For a female to be shut up in a close, confined room-to be constantly inhaling air which is spoiled by her very use of it, and which perhaps is rendered still worse by noxious effluvia, is only an experiment, how long existence may be continued under the most unfavourable circumstances. Health is quite out of the question: it is

impossible that it should exist. Let then the principle, "Pure air, and plenty of it," be deeply engraven on the mind of the youthful candidate for health, and let it be carried out in all her habits. The sense of smelling seems in a great measure to be given us in order to make us aware of the presence of that which would be injurious to our health; but this faculty, like the moral sense of conscience, may be disregarded till it almost ceases to give any warning at all. It is no uncommon thing to enter a dirty hovel, surrounded by pigstyes, stagnant pools, and offensive dunghills, and to find six or eight inmates crowded in a small apartment, rendered noisome by filth, and without the admission of a breath of fresh air. The stranger is instantly oppressed with a sense of faintness and suffocation; but the inmates are perfectly at ease, and seem not at all aware of the presence of any thing amiss, or the deficiency of any thing desirable. But while they are thus unmindful, their health is gradually wasting away, unless circumstances should hasten the catastrophe by means of infection or some other outward cause, and then these stagnant recesses invariably prove the very receptacles and nurses of disease in its most aggravated form. A portion of the same evil, though not to the same frightful extent, prevails in many houses of a much higher class than the hovels of poverty above alluded to. Indeed, few people are sufficiently aware, or at least do not act upon the knowledge, that air is essential to health. Servants are very apt to disregard it; young people are very apt to be forgetful; and the proper ventilation of a house is seldom secured