Part 78 (1/2)

towards the sound of the instrument. They stopped and listened for a moment or two, and, as the music glided up and down, they would move to and fro some inches on the floor, reminding one of a Schottische. In various pa.s.sages of the music I saw one jump up two or three inches from the floor. Thus they manoeuvred till the music ceased, when they scampered away to their holes again.”

MUSIC AND HEALTH.

Let patients amuse themselves by music. It is conducive to health. I cannot select music for you; choose for yourself, only don't get the ”Hark! from the tombs a doleful sound” style. Get church music, if you like, but select a cheering cla.s.s. O, it is a very mistaken idea that all music and mirth must cease in a house because a member of the household is an invalid. Try my suggestion. Re-open the piano or organ; or, if you haven't an instrument, re-tune your voices, and let music again ”flow joyfully along,” and see if happy results do not follow.

Physicians, I pray you, if you have never investigated this matter personally, do so. It is not adopted by any particular school of physic.

It is not secured by letters patent. You will not be accounted outside of the Asclepiadae, nor sued for infringement, if you prescribe music for the despondent patient. You need not turn ”minstrels,” burnt-cork fellows, etc., nor make comic actors of yourselves by so doing.

Your judgment will suggest the kind of patient who most needs this sort of ”soul and spirit” stimulus. It is better than slop porter; better than sulphuric acid brandy, or strychnine whiskey, and you well know the basis of those liquors. Don't think me officious in these strong suggestions.

Try my advice, and you will agree with me.

”PROVE ALL THINGS; HOLD FAST TO THAT WHICH IS GOOD.”

[Ill.u.s.tration]

XXIV.

ADULTERATIONS.

BREAD, b.u.t.tER, AND THE BIBLE.--”JACK ASh.o.r.e.”--BUCKWHEAT CAKES ARE GOOD.--WHAT'S IN THE BREAD, AND HOW TO DETECT IT.--b.u.t.tER.--HOW TO TELL GOOD AND BAD.--MILK.--a.n.a.lYSIS OF GOOD AND ”SWILL MILK.”--WHAT'S IN THE MILK BESIDES MICE?--THE COW WITH ONE TEAT.--”LOUD” CHEESE.--TEA AND COFFEE.--TANNIN, SAWDUST, AND HORSES' LIVERS.--ALCOHOLIC DRINKS.--CHURCH WINE AND BREAD.--BEER AND BITTER HERBS.--SPANISH FLIES AND STRYCHNINE.--”NINE MEN STANDIN' AT THE DOOR.”--BURTON'S ALE; AN ASTONIs.h.i.+NG FACT.--FISHY.--”FISH ON A SPREE.”--TO REMEDY IMPURE WATER.--CHARCOAL AND THE BISHOP.--HOG-ISH.--PORK AND SCROFULA.--NOTICES OF THE PRESS.

BREAD.

Bread and b.u.t.ter and the Bible are synonymous with civilization and Christianity. Bread and the Bible, civilization and Christianity, have kept step together since the history of each began.

Two s.h.i.+pwrecked sailors, floating on a spar, after long privation and suffering, were thrown upon an unknown land. After looking about very shyly,--for every thing looked wild and uncivilized,--they came suddenly upon a hut. Jack was afraid to advance, but his hungry companion cautiously approached, and finally entered the hut. In a moment he came rus.h.i.+ng out, exclaiming,--

”Come on, Jack. It's all right. n.o.body at home; but it's civilized land we're grounded on. I found a loaf of bread.”

This was conclusive evidence, next to finding a Bible, that it was a civilized country; and Jack waited for no further proof, but followed Captain Duncan into the cabin, where the two soon appeased their hunger.

Wheaten bread was never an article of diet amongst savages. ”Take away wheat bread and b.u.t.ter from our families for a few generations, and who is prepared to say that civilization would not glide easily to a state of barbarism? There is sound philosophy in this suggestion, because there is no other kind of human food that is so admirably adapted to the development of the human frame, including a n.o.ble brain, as good wheat bread.” It contains phosphates in just sufficient quant.i.ties to keep up a healthful supply for brain work. Fish contains more phosphorus; but are fish-eating Esquimaux,[10] or coast-men, the more intellectual for having made fish their princ.i.p.al diet?

In five hundred pounds of wheat, there are,--

Muscle material, 78 pounds.

Bone (and teeth) material, 85 ”

Fat principle, 12 ”

Ground to a fine flour:--

Muscle material, 65 ”

Bone material, 30 ”

Fat principle, 10 ”