The value of sun-light, with its accompanying influence, for animal development, may be illustrated by such facts as the following: In decaying organic solutions, animal-culae do not appear if light is excluded, but are readily organized when light is admitted. The tadpole, kept in the dark, does not pass on the development as a frog, but lives and dies a tadpole, and is incapable of propagating its species. In the deep and narrow valleys among the Alps, where the direct rays of the sun are but little felt, Cretinism, or state of idiocy, more or less complete, commonly accompanied by an enormous Goitre, prevails as an epidemic, and is often hereditary. Rickets, deformities, crookedness, and swelling of the bones, are very common among children who are kept in dark alleys, cellars, factories, and mines. It has been found that, during the prevalence of certain epidemic diseases, the inhabitants who occupy the side of the street and houses upon which the sun shines directly, are less subject to the prevailing disease than those who live on the shaded side. In all cities visited by the Cholera, it was invariably found that the greatest number of deaths took place in narrow thoroughfares, and on those sides of streets having a northern exposure, from which the salutary beams of the sun were excluded. It is said that the number of patients cured in the hospitals of St. Petersburg was four times greater in rooms well lighted than in confined and dark rooms. This discovery led to a complete reform in lighting the hospitals of Russia, and with the most favourable results.
Bathing:
As in invaluable aid to health, every person should bathe or sponge the whole body with cold water, immediately following it by vigorous friction, and soon afterwards exercise in the open air, to promote reaction. This tends to health by the removal of impurities which clog the pores of the skin, preventing free perspiration and the action of the atmosphere. Merely washing the hands, face, and neck is by no means sufficient; the entire surface of the body requires the application of water, not only for the purpose of cleanliness, but as a means of invigorating the capillary circulation, and so fortifying the system as to enable it to resist atmospheric vicissitudes. The secret of attaining these ends consists in employing water in such a manner and of such a temperature, with the body in such a condition before and after the application, that the reaction or glow shall be most perfect. The best time for a cold bath is on rising from bed, before the body has become chilled or fatigued. Cold bathing should not, therefore, be practised when the body is cold or cooling, or when it is exhausted by exertion, or is naturally too weak. It is not always necessary to suspend to morning bath during the monthly period; but if cold acts injuriously, tepid water should be substituted. A bath should not be taken too soon after a meal; nor should the time spent in the bath be too long; that should vary, according to circumstances, from about one to four minutes. The addition of sea-salt to the water imparts a stimulating property which favours reaction; but the use of sea- water whenever it can be had permits of bathing to the highest perfection. Persons subject to Rheumatism, or to feeble action of the heart, should not, however, bathe in water that is quite cold. Persons with delicate dry skins should not bathe so frequently as those who perspire freely, and have abundant secretion of the sebaceous or oily matter, which lubricates the skin.
For information on various forms of bath, and the conditions under which they are admissible, the Text Book, or the Vade Mecum, before referred to, should be consulted.
Clothing:
Clothing should be arranged with a view to comfort, and according to the requirements of the season. Summer clothes should not be put on too soon, or winter ones too late. Thin- soled boots and shoes are destructive to health. So are stays. The body is strong enough to support itself: while stays often bring on diseases of the lungs and other important organs. The muscles of the body were intended to sustain it erect, but when stays are applied they soon become indispensable, by superseding the action of the muscles; and, in accordance with a well-known law of the muscular system, when the muscles cease to be used they cease to grow.
The following passage on clothing suggests points of great practical importance:-
“The clothing may be either insufficient or improper; and this insufficiency or impropriety may be either constant, as in leaving uncovered the abdomen, thighs, and legs of young children, and the neck, chest, and arms of children and young girls, and in the neglect to put on flannels in winter; or it may be only occasioned, as in the adoption of muslin and low-bodied dresses by ladies, and thinner neckties, vests, and boots by gentlemen, for evening parties; and in the neglecting to add more clothing during sleep. The frequency with which disease results in children from the inhuman practice of leaving their digestive, respiratory and other organs, and their extremities, exposed to the chilling blasts and varying temperature of our atmosphere, is unfortunately too well known to need that I should enter into any proof; nor need I more than protest against the cruelty of leaving those parts naked in children, that we find it absolutely necessary to clothe the most warmly in adult life; and more especially when we reflect that in childhood the body is small and the stock of animal heat insufficient, and the bodily growth in progress, and that growth is retarded and checked by cold and favoured by warmth; that there is absence of reason and experience to teach how to keep up the warmth of the parts exposed; while in adult life the body is large and the stock of animal heat more adequate, the growth complete, and reason and experience possessed. I am convinced that many of the cases of infantile Diarrhoea, Cholera, Constipation, Remittent Fever, Dropsy after Scarlatina, Marasmus, Phthisis, Bronchitis, Pneumonia, Quinsy, Hoarseness, and Ophthalmia, result from this experience.” 1 “Taking Cold,” by J. W. Hayward, M.D.
Exercise:
This is essential to health and long life. No one in health should neglect to walk a moderate distance every day in the open air, if possible in the country, where pure air can be freely inhaled. Other things being equal, this will ensure the proper action of every important function. The walk for health should be diversified, including ascents and descents, and varying scenery; and be alternated, when circumstances will admit of it, with riding on horseback, cycling, rowing, swimming, gardening, or similar pursuits. Such modes of exercise, practised moderately and regularly, and varied from day to day, are much more advantageous than the exciting, immoderate, and irregular exertions of the ball-room, the hunting-field, the cricket- ground, or the rowing-match. For feeble and infirm persons, carriage exercise, if it may be so called, and frictions over the surface of the body and extremities, by means of towels and bath- gloves, may be substituted for active exertion. The proper periods for exercise are when the system is not depressed by fasting or fatigue, or oppressed by the process of digestion. The robust may take exercise before breakfast, but delicate persons, who often become faint from exercise at this time, and languid during the early part of the day, had better defer it till from one to three hours after breakfast. An evening walk, in fine weather, is also advantageous. Exercise prevents disease by giving vigour and energy to the body and its various organs and members, and thus enables them to ward off or overcome influences which tend to impair their integrity. It cures many diseases by equalising the circulation of the blood and the distribution of nervous energy, thus invigorating and strengthening weak organs, and removing local torpor and congestion.
Tobacco:
Tobacco and snuff, in every form, are highly prejudicial. Tobacco-smoking often induces thirst and vital depression, and, as it is generally accompanied by spitting, wastes the saliva, and leads to the worst and most obstinate forms of indigestion. The secretions of the mouth should never be expectorated, unless they are the products of disease, as in Catarrh. Tobacco-smoking, especially when the habit is acquired in early life, gives an unhealthy character to the blood, produces a sallow hue of the skin, general physical weakness, and stunted growth. And these injurious consequences do not end with the smoker, but are transmitted from parent to child, resulting often in a puny, weak, and unhealthy offspring. Smoking tends to destroy the nervous forces, depriving the individual of that vigorous energy which should distinguish both his physical and moral character. Lastly, under no circumstances should any one become a smoker till after the full development and maturity of the body, that is, from twenty-five to thirty years of age. The habitual use of tobacco at an earlier petiod retards, if it does not stunt, the growth of the body. Boys, and young man too, have not the excuse for smoking, which may be pleaded by older men, that it soothes the excitement of the nervous system, or gives a stimulus to thought, for they are exempt from the hard wear-and-tear of adult life. 1 See “A Smoking Doctor on Smoking”-Homoeopathic World, vol. vi. p. 226; “Notes on Nicotism,” by Dr. J.H. Clarke, Transactions of International Homoeopathic Convention, Basle, 1826; and Homoeopathic World, September, 1886, and January, 1887. Also observations by Dr. Walker and others in subsequent numbers.
LICENTIATE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS; MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS; LICENTIATE IN MIDWIFERY, LONDON AND EDINBURGH, ETC. PHYSICIAN TO THE READING AND BERKSHIRE HOMOEOPATHIC DISPENSARY.
Author of "The Stepping Stone to Homeopathy and Health,"
"Manual of Homoeopathic Treatment". Editor of "The Homoeopathic World."