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LESSON XVIII.

ABUSES OF THE SKIN.

1. BUT what if those busy workers, the perspiration-tubes of which we have spoken, should stop laboring for only one day'? What if they should refuse to do the work which has been assigned to them'? Would any injury be done'? Yes, a vast amount of injury. The waste particles of matter, when they are not permitted to escape through the pores of the skin, clog up the system, and irritate and poison it, so as to produce inflammation or fever. Only think of two or three pounds of waste and poisonous matter, that ought to be thrown away, collecting in the body in so short a time, merely because these little tubes are unable to do their work! If the difficulty should continue several days, and no remedy be found, not only disease, but death itself would be the result.

2. These perspiration-tubes are sometimes closed when a person takes a severe cold; for the cold, after deadening their action, contracts them, and closes the little pores which open on the skin. And now see how nature tries to remedy the evil. As the waste matter can not escape through these openings, it remains in the veins, but it clogs the current of the blood, and makes it a dark and filthy stream. This stream, with all its impurities, soon finds its way to the heart, and the heart sends it to the lungs to be cleansed.

3. But now the lungs have more work to do than usual, and, after toiling awhile with all their might to remove the impurities of the blood, they become weary; they themselves become clogged with the waste matter which they have separated from the blood; they make a vain effort, by coughing, to remove it, and then a fever sets in. There is now a fever all over the skin, and a fever in the lungs also, and all because the little pores of the skin stopped work for a while. The lungs did all they could to remove the evil, but the additional labor imposed upon them soon made them sick also.

4. We can scarcely imagine the amount of suffering caused by the closing up of these little pores-these millions of little

breathing holes that are scattered all over the body. Clos ing them is like closing the mouth and nostrils, and shutting out the air we breathe. It is vastly important, then, that we should know what dangers we are liable to from this source, and how we may avoid them.

5. A healthy action of the skin will be found to depend upon proper attention to clothing, cleanliness, exercise,. light, and air. The importance of pure air is seen in the fact that the functions1 of the skin in purifying the blood are similar to those of the lungs. Light is as essential to an animal as to a plant. Plants that grow in the shade are never so strong and vigorous, nor have they so dark and brilliant colors, as those that grow in the sunshine; and a child that grows up in a dark cellar, or any dark room, will always have a pale and unhealthy countenance.

6. Although the skin requires a suitable degree of warmth, of which each person must be the judge in his own case, yet that kind of clothing should be used which is best adapted to protect the body from the effects of sudden changes of temperature. For this purpose woolen and cotton garments, fitting loosely, are to be preferred to linen, as the latter absorbs and retains moisture, and thereby rapidly conducts the heat from the body.

7. Any clothing of close texture3 that excludes air from the body, and thereby prevents the perspiration from passing off freely, is injurious; for if the poisonous matter be left in contact with the skin, it will be likely to be absorbed into the system by the lymphatics. Cover the body with varnish, so as to close the pores of the skin, and a feeling of suffocation will immediately be felt, a fever will set in, and the individual will soon die. India-rubber clothing that excludes the air will always produce injurious effects. The advantages of frequent ablutions of the whole body, and of frequent changes of clothing, arise from the importance not only of keeping the pores of the skin open and in healthy action, but also of preventing the absorption of the poisonous matter which has once been excluded by them.

8. But exercise in pure air is no less essential to the health of the skin than to other portions of the body. The capil

laries of the skin depend for their vigorous action upon bodily exercise; the warmth of the skin, and the resistance which it offers to sudden changes of temperature, also depend upon that rapid waste and repair of the system, of which exercise is the immediate cause. And, finally, as a summary of all that may be said upon the subject of bodily health, its fundamental rules may be embraced in three words-TEMPERANCE, CLEANLINESS, and EXERCISE.

1 FUNC'-TIONS, offices; duties; employ-4 AB-LU'-TIONS, washings.
ments.

2 TEM'-PER-A-TURE (tem'-per-a-tyure), state
of the air with regard to heat or cold.
3 TEXT-URE (tekst'-yur), the arrangement or
disposition of the threads woven together.

5 SUM'-MA-RY, a brief or abridged statement of a fuller account.

6 FUN-DA-MENT'-AL, most important; serv. ing for the foundation.

LESSON XIX.

THE YEARS OF MAN'S LIFE.

1. THE first seven years of life-man's break of day—
Gleams of short sense, a dawn of thought display;
When fourteen springs have bloomed his downy cheek
His soft and bashful meanings learn to speak.

2. From twenty-one proud manhood takes its date,
Yet is not strength complete till twenty-eight;
Thence to his five-and-thirtieth, life's gay fire
Sparkles and burns intense in fierce desire.

3. At forty-two his eyes grave wisdom wear,
And the dark future dims him o'er with care;
With forty-nine behold his toils increase,
And busy hopes and fears disturb his peace.

4. At fifty-six cool reason reigns entire;

Then life burns steady, and with temperate fire;
But sixty-three unbends the body's strength,
Ere the unwearied mind has run her length;
And when, at seventy, age looks her last,
Tir'd she stops short, and wishes all were past.

LESSON XX.

HEALTH.-A LETTER TO MOTHERS.

MRS. SIGOURNEY.

1. MOTHERS', is there any thing we can do to acquire for our daughters a good constitution'? Is there truth in the sentiment sometimes repeated, that our sex is becoming more and more effeminate'?1 Are we as capable of enduring hardship as our grandmothers were'? Are we as well versed in the details of housekeeping', as able to bear them without fatigue', as our mothers were'? Have our daughters as much stamina2 of constitution', as much aptitude3 for domestic duties as we ourselves possess'? These questions are not interesting to us simply as individuals. They affect the welfare of the community. For the ability or inability of woman to discharge what the Almighty has committed to her, touches the equilibrium of society, and the hidden springs of existence.

2. Outlines of the mysterious mechanism of our clay-temple we ought certainly to study, that we need not, through ignorance, interfere with those laws on which its organization3 depends. Rendered precious by being the shrine of an undying spirit, our ministrations for its welfare assume an almost fearful importance. Appointed, as the mother is, to guard the harmony of its architecture, to study the arts on which its symmetry depends, she is forced to perceive how much the mind is affected by the circumstances of its lodgment, and is incited to cherish the mortal for the sake of the immortal.

3. Does she attach value to the gems of intellect'? Let her see that the casket which contains them be not lightly endangered or carelessly broken'. Does she pray for the welfare of the soul'? Let her seek the good of its companion, who walks with it to the gate of the grave, and rushes again to its embrace on the morning of the resurrection'.

4. Fashion seems long enough to have attacked health in its strong-holds. She can not even prove that she has ren

dered the form more graceful, as some equivalent for her ravages. In ancient Greece, to which our painters and sculptors still look for the purest models, was not the form left untutored' ?8 the volume of the lungs allowed free play'? the heart permitted, without manacles, to do the great work which the Creator assigned it'?

5. Let us educate a race who shall have room to breathe. Let us promise, even in their cradle, that their hearts shall not be pinioned as in a vice, nor their spines bent like a bow, nor their ribs forced into the liver. Doubtless the husbands and fathers of the next generation will give us thanks.

6. Yet, if we would engage in so formidable a work, we must not wait until morbid habits have gathered strength. Our labor must be among the elements of character. We must teach in the nursery that "the body is the temple of the Holy Ghost." We must leave no place in the minds of our little ones for the lunatic9 sentiment, that the mind's healthful action, and the integrity10 of the organs on which it operates, are secondary to the vanities of external decoration. If they have received from their Creator a sound mind and a sound body, convince them that they are accountable for both. If they deliberately permit injury to either, how shall they answer for it before then Tudge?

7. And how shall the mother answer it, in whose hand the soul of her child was laid, as a waxen tablet, if she suffer Fashion to cover it with fantastic11 images, and Folly to puff out her feverish breath, melting the lines that Wisdom penciled there, till what Heaven would fain have polished for itself, loses the fair impression, and becomes like common earth?

1 EF-FEM'-IN-ATE, weak; tender; delicate; MIN-IS-TRA'-TIONS, our services or efforts unhealthy.

2 STAM'-I-NA, strength; solidity.

3 APT'-I-TUDE, fitness; suitableness.

4 E-QUI-LIB'-RI-UM, a just balancing; due regulation.

5 OR-GAN-I-ZA-TION, proper arrangement of all its parts.

5 SHRINE, abode; temple; case or box in which any thing sacred is kept.

as subordinate agents.

8 UN-TU-TOR-ED, to grow naturally; untaught.

LU-NA-TI¤, crazy; insane.

10 IN-TEG'-RI-TY, soundness; healthful ac tion.

11 FAN-TAS'-TI¤, foolishly odd; uncouth; unnatural.

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