Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

the circulation, and ending violently is very apt to induce colds and fever, and, besides, causes a stiffness in the joints and muscles. The blood should have time gradually to resume its ordinary current, or it has a tendency to settle in the small vessels, which is a cause of great inconvenience. ing gradually will prevent this.

Cool

The next thing I have to consider is sleep, upon the quantity and quality of which health mainly depends. I believe the general custom is to take too much sleep. What quantity is really necessary must depend upon various constitutions, and various circumstances in the same constitution; but the rule is, as I think, that we should have one sound sleep, from which we should wake perfectly refreshed, without any heavy or drowsy sensation or any wish to fall asleep again. The length of this sleep will depend upon way of living, quantity of exertion, mental or bodily, state of the atmosphere, and other causes; but still the one sound sleep is the true measure. Falling short of this, or exceeding it, are both prejudicial. The first produces fever, the second languor. Our energy depends in a very great degree upon taking no more than the due quantity of sleep. In order to ensure its quality, we should lie down free from care, and have no anxiety about waking, which is destructive of perfect soundness. Our waking should he entirely voluntary, the result of the complete restoration of the powers. The quality of sleep depends upon attention to diet, exercise, and state of the mind, and in a great measure upon going to bed in a properly prepared state, neither feverish nor chilly, neither hungry nor overloaded, but in an agreeable composure and state of satisfaction of both body and mind. It is better to retire to rest from society, than from solitude, and from cheerful relaxation than from immediate labour and study. The practice, which some people have, of sitting the fire out, and going to bed starved, with their mind fatigued with study, is the reverse of what is expedient; and sleep under such circumstances is of a very

unsatisfactory nature. It is rather productive of what Milton calls unrest than rest. Sleep, to enjoy it perfectly, requires observation and attention, and all who wish for high health, will do well to keep the subject in their minds, because upon themselves chiefly depends the attainment of this, one of the greatest blessings of life. I think I shall certainly finish the subject of health in my next number.

ROASTED APPLES.

Some foreigner said rather wittily that we have no ripe fruit in England but roasted apples. As the season for ripening after this fashion is not far off, I offer a greatly improved mode, which was brought from Paris, and which, when well managed, makes rather a rich dish of rather an insipid one. Select the largest apples; scoop out the core, without cutting quite through; fill the hollow with butter and fine soft sugar; let them roast in a slow oven, and serve them up with the syrup.

As I am on the subject of receipts, I will give another, which is also applicable to the season. It is a receipt for a salad, which I have seen at a few houses, but I think it deserves to be much more common.

Boil one or two large onions, till soft and perfectly mild. When cold, mix the onion with celery, and sliced beet-root, roasted in the oven, which has more flavour than when boiled. Dress this salad with oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper. The onion and beet-root are very good without celery. Roast beef with this salad and potatoes browned in the dripping-pan, or in the oven, is a dish to delight the constitution of an Englishman in the winter months.

The best lettuce salads I know are dressed by my friend

Dr. Forbes, of Argyle Street, who is a proficient in aristology. His receipt is as follows:

Take the finest lettuces you can get; strip off the leaves with the hand, using only those which are well blanched. Put them into the bowl whole, and, if wet, wipe each with a napkin. Put a sufficient quantity of salt and pepper into the salad spoon, and mix them with a little tarragon vinegar. Throw the mixture over the lettuce, and add vinegar and oil in the proportion of rather more than two spoonfuls of oil to one of vinegar. Stir the salad very well. Stir the salad very well. It is best, when not prepared till it is wanted. But if that is not convenient, it should be kept in a cold place, or the lettuce loses its crispness. It is only by experience that the proper quantities of the ingredients for dressing can be accurately measured; but there should be great liberality of oil, and the quantity of vinegar depends in a great degree upon its sourness. This mode of dressing applies equally to my first receipt, with the exception, I think, of the tarragon.

HOT WATER.

Having said much about wine, I will not omit all praise of hot water, the efficacy of which on many occasions in life is very great, and cannot be too generally known. I will begin with a remarkable cure effected by it on myself. Many years ago, when I was labouring under what I supposed to be an attack of common sore throat, I rode some miles on horseback, with a north wind in my face. I then got into the mail, and travelled nearly two hundred miles, and at the end of my journey I could scarcely speak or swallow. In the morning I was still worse, and on attempting to force down a little coffee, I found it utterly impossible. In this extremity, a physician, now among the most eminent of his profession,

called upon me partly through accident. He told me I had got a very bad quinsy, and he immediately ordered a kettle of hot water, recommending me to gargle with it as hot as I could bear, and continually. As we were on intimate terms, and he was then only commencing practice, he remained with me two or three hours to enforce his prescription. I found so much benefit, that after he was gone I persevered till night, at which time I was enabled to take food without difficulty, and in the morning there was no trace whatever of the attack, nor have I ever experienced another, though I was told it would most probably be the case. The medicine ordered me I did not taste, and the sole glory of my rapid and complete cure is due to the hot water. I have never had even a common sore throat since, or I should certainly try the same remedy, though I never heard of its being so applied. In bruises I have found hot water most efficacious, both by means of insertion and fomentation, in removing pain, and totally preventing discoloration and stiffness. It has the same effect after a blow. It should be applied as quickly as possible, and as hot as it can be borne. Very cold water, applied immediately, will produce the same effect, though for a different reason. I was told the other day, by very high authority, that insertion in hot water will cure that troublesome and very painful thing, called a whitlow. The efficacy of hot water in preventing the ill effects of fatigue, is too well known to require notice. I should think where water cannot be procured, that in the case of a bruise or a blow, immediate and continued friction with the hand would partly answer the purpose, by keeping up the action of the vessels. I infer this particularly, because I once avoided any inconvenience from a very severe bruise, by keeping myself in vigorous action. As I was crossing Smithfield one evening at a quick pace on my way to my office, I ran against a bar, and struck myself a little above the knees with such violence as to make me stagger. The pain was very great, but as I had no time to

lose, and there was no vehicle at hand, I hurried on, at first with much difficulty, but by degrees more easily. The distance is about two miles, and, on my arrival, all sensation of pain was gone, nor was there afterwards either stiffness or discoloration. If I had not kept in action, I am sure I should have felt the effects of the blow for a very long time.

It may be useful to some people to be informed, that sealing-wax dropped upon the hand will cause no injury beyond momentary pain, if it is suffered to remain till quite cold.

MISCELLANEOUS.

In training youth, care should be taken from the first, not only to instil into their minds a desire for excelling in those things which are worthy of excellence, but they should be taught to hold in contempt what is useless and prejudicial. Strength is excellent, but the waste of strength is folly. To be equal to every occasion is glorious; but to do more than the occasion requires is vainglorious. Men are taught to pique themselves upon excess, instead of upon economy, in their resources, and the vanity of parents leads them to encourage their children in that prodigality of effort, which is sure to be followed by regret. In fasting and in feasting, in exercise and in amusement, we are not content to observe the happy medium, but strive to distinguish ourselves by overstepping the bounds of reason. In what is useful we in

exceed our inMen ride, and that they have

troduce abuse, and in what is pernicious we clinations, merely for the sake of boasting. drink, and fast unreasonably, solely to say done so, and indulge in extravagance and profligacy, and vice and frivolity, only for the name. If youth were taught

« ElőzőTovább »