Polynesian., 1854-03-11
N5fsaNYao -

tire IN time, OF ITS want of power, change
sides, or disappear. The patient who troub-
les himself least about his disease, Tor leaves
it entirely to his doctor,) but who persever-
ingly oatrotes. 1t by the high condition of the
0her parts OF his system, is the likeliest to
Irecoyer-and it is of this high condition alone
that have anything to say. Oftwenty who
may be sleepless with cough and weaken
ed with the raising of blood, no two, perhaps
are subjects for precisely the same medical
treatment, or diseased in precisely the same
ocality-though all are called consump-
tives." Our friends the physicians are bet
ter geographers than we, as TO where the
healing is wanted-though they strangely
confine themselves to the specific ailment,
taking it for granted that the patient keeps the
rest of bis body in proper training for recov-
cry. 1t is medical etiquette, / believe, to re-
frain from any very particular enquiry into
this But few sick men are wise or firm
minded enough to be safely trusted with their
own general condition; and |, for one, came
very near dying-not of my disease, but of
what my doctors took for granted
To leave generalities, however, and come
to the personal experience which you asked
for
| "Cht " tue 1TOpiCS, dS last nope 10
cure chronic cough and blood-raising which
had brought me to the borders of the grave.
l found a climate in which it is hard to be
unhappy about anything-charming to live
at all-easy to die. (At least those who
were sure of dying, and did die-and in whose
inseparable company thought was-were
social and joyous to the last The atmos-
phere of that Eden-latitude. however, is but
a pain-stilling opiate, while the Equator
might be called a kitchen-range for a Sar-
danapalus, and the Antilles are but tables
loaded with luxuries. The caribbean Sea is
the Kingdom of the Present Moment. The
Past and the Future are its Arctic and Ant
arctic-unthought of, except by desperate
explorers. Hither are sent iEvaids with
weakened resolution, to make pilgrimage
with prescription and prudence You may
see by the book that have just published,
Health Trip to the Tropics, with what COM
Iplete forgetfulness of care or caution made
one of an invalid company for months. Was
anybody going TO be shut up in bedroom
with such nights out of doors Was any,
body going to be dull and abstinent with such
merry people and a French breakfast or
tempting dinner on the table?
l reached home in July, thoroughly pros
trated, and, in the opinion of one or two ply
sicians, hopeless case. Coughing almost
the whole of every night, and raising blood
as fast as my system could make it, had no
rest and no strength l fingered through the
summer and, as the autumn came on, and
the winter was to be faced, sat down and
took fair look at the probabilities. With
| the details of this troubled council of war,
will not detain you; but, after an unflinching
self-examination, | came to the conclusion
that | was, myself, the careless and indolent
neutralizer of the medicines which had failed
to cure me-that one wrong morsel "f food,
or one days partially neglected exercise,
might put back a week. healing-and that,
by slight omissions of attention, occasional
breaking of reg linen, and much too effemin-
ate habits, | was untrue to the trust which
Gray, my friend and physician, had made
the ground of his prescriptions. And, to a
minutely persevering change in these COM
parative trihes, | owe, believe, my restor-
alton to health. There was not day ofthe
succeeding winter, however cold or wet, in
which did not ride 0ght or ten miles, on
horseback With five or six men, was, for
most of the remaining hours ofthe day, out
of doors, laboring at the roads and clearings
of my present home. The cottage of Idle
wild was then unbuilt, and the neishboring
m-house where we boarded, was of course |
;adifferently warmed; but, by suffering no
state of the thermometer to interrupt the !
morning cold bath, and the previous friction |
with fiesh-brushes, which makes the water
as agreeable as in summer, | soon became
comparatively independent of the tempera- |
ture in doors, as my horse and axe made me |
independent of it, when out of doors. With
proper clothing to resist cold or wet, found
Ito my surprise) that there was no such thing |
as disagreeable weather to be felt in the
saddle; and when drive in wagon or car
riage would have intolerably irritated my
cough could be all day in the woods with
an axe, my lungs as quiet as child's.
With all this-and looking like the rud-
diest specimen of health in the country round
about am still (you will be comforted to
hear) troubled occasionally with my sleep |
robber of cough; and, In Boston, the 9TH
er day, on breathing that essence OF pepper
and icicles which they call their . East
Wind" / was seized with the old hemor-
rhace of the lungs and bled myself weak
again. But rallied Immediately on return
ing to this Highland air, and am well once
more-as well, that is to say, as is consistent
with desirable nervous susceptibility. The
kiss of the delicious South Wind Of to day |
November 3Oth.) would be half lost on the
cheek of perfect health.
| fear cannot sufficiently convey to you
my sense of the importa nee of horse, to an
invalid. In my well-weighed opinion, ten
miles day in the saddle would cure more
desperate cases particularly of consumP-
ton } than all the changes of climate and all
the medicines in the world. II Is vigorous
exercise without fatigue.
The peculiar motion effectually prevents all ir-
ytaton of cold air to the lungs, on the wlntr1est