Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1856-06-17
CAUSES oFTHE DECAY OF Ma
TIONAL HEALTH.

tCAUSES OFTHE DECAY OK Ma
TIONAL HEALTH.
Two things arc generally conceded, viz: that
the American women are not as healthy as the
European; and that the present generation, cs-
pecially the women, are not as healthy and ylg-
orous as former ones.
What are the causes? Not our climate, for
that is the same as it was when the women OF
this country were as healthy as the English,
Scotch and Irish, and when both sexes were as
vigorous as their ancestors OF any other PieoPle.
The change then, must be owing to changes IN
our domestic habits and modes Of educatiOn--
Some of these viii now be indicated.
Nothing so certainly deteriorates and under
mines the body as habitually breathing impure
air. The open ffre-plaees In kitchens, parlors,
bedrooms and workshops, secured to our ances-
tors pure aud cool air. But at the present day
close stoves and close sleeping rooms, with no
proper ventilation are debilitating perhaps nine
tenths Of the people, while children are crowded
into schools heated with stoves and almost never
properly ventilated.
Four.ffths of all the food and drink takeuare
thrown off through the lungs and skin. Every
pair of lungs vitiates pint of air at every ex-
piration That is cqual to one hogshead of air
each hour for every pair Of lungs
No room, then, can tc properly ventilated
hat does not receive from without at least one
Hogshead Of air for crery pair Of lungs. This
is always secured by open fire places, but by s
stove almost never. Thus it is that the greater
mart of this generation have had every bodily
tissue nourished by imperfect blood, inducing a
delicate or feeble constitution.
4 second cause of debility is the want of Wig
orous exercise, especially to the muscles of the
arms and trunk In former days the children
worked with their parents in pure and cool air
| for several hours a day, and thus exercised the
muscles most important to health, especially fe-
male health.
But in these days, school children, especially
the youngest girls have little vigorous exercise.
And where exercise is demanded, walk of a
mile or two is deemed sufficient, while the cxer-
else Of the muscles most important to health is
entirely neglected. Thus both sexes, bat cspe-
cially that on whom depends the constitution Of
the children, are every year becoming more deli
cate and sickly.
The third cause of national debility isa change
from a simple to stimulating and luxurious diet
Stimulating food proyokes an unnatural appe-
tite. a great variety temptS to excess. Both
combine to overload the organs of nutrition, and
the whole organism is overworked to throw of
the excess.
The more food VIC eat and the richer it is, TIE
more exercise is needed. But, instead of this,
the people constantly are eating more and excr-
cising less. Meat is the most stimulating food
there is, and there is no other nation on earth
where all classes devour such quantities of meat.
fat, butter, sugar, molaSscs, hot cakes and hot
tea and coffee. And no nation on earth have
such bad teeth and every other Indication Of a
debilitated constitution.
a fourth cause of national debility is e1cess in
stimulating the brain, unbalanced by exercise and
recrertioHa Fifty years since, to read, write and
cipher, were all that was expected out of Col
lego course No daily drilling in hot school-rooms
in all manner of sciences, with evening lessons
at home. No Sunday lessons, no books for chill
dren at every turn, both Sundays and week days.
There is fifty times as much intellectual stinu-
| lus Of the brain in childhood as was ever known
( in former generation.
| Then the cares, business and excitemcnts oil
| all kinds, for both men and women, have incTea-
sed at an equal ratio. Ecerythiny is going on
is thus stimulated, the greater the need for pure
air, exercise, and season of relaxation. But
contrary to this the moro the brains of children
and adults are stimulated, the less pure air and
exercise are secured And so the nervous sys-
ten is exhausted, and the whole organism be-
comes delicate or diseased. To use the words
| of medical writer "the constant exercise Of
the brain takes up the chief strength of the sys-
tenn, and consumes it in feeling and thinking.
| Another cause of general debility is the fash
] ion Of. female dress. The stdyS ofour ancestors
were trifes compared with the accumulated enor-
mites that have been praetised on the female
| form during the last twelve years. The thin
covering for the upper portion Of the spine and
the vital organs in cold weather. the accumula-
ton of clothing on the lower portion, the press
ure of tight dresses around the waist, the press
ure of whaleboncs in pointed waist, and the
! ,reighk as well as the heat of the enormous mass
of clothing resting on the hps,-all these com.
| hining with delicate constitution have produced
and are increasingly producing, terrific results
! that are but little known or understood.
IThc nextarticlc will present the Ecidence ma
ResWlts Qf the Decay Of National HoaIth.1