White Cloud Kansas chief. [volume] (White Cloud, Kan.) 1857-1872, 1859-05-26
Nsefal altb Curious.
Causes of the Decay Of National Health

healthy as the European; and that the
present generation. especially the women.
are not as healthy and vigorous as for
mer ones.
What are the causes? Not our CHI
mate, for that is the same as IT was when
the women Of this country were as heal
thy as the English, Scotch and Irish.
and when both sexes were as vigorous as
their ancestors or any other people. The
change, then, must be owing to changes
in our domestic habits and modes Of ed
ucation. Some of these will now be in
dictated.
Nothing SO certainly deteriorates and
undermines the body. as habitually brea-
thing impure air. The open fire places
ia kitchens, parlors, bedrooms and
workshops, secured to our ancestors pure
and cool air. But at the present day,
close stoves and close sleeping-rooms,
with no proper ventilation, are debilitat-
ing perhaps nine tenths of the people,
while children are crowded into schools
heated with stoves, and almost never
properly ventilated. "
Four-fifths of all the food and drink
taken, are thrown of through the lungs
and skin. Every pair of lungs vitiates
one pint of air at every expiration. That
is equal to one hogshoad of air each hour
for every pair of lungs.
No room, then, can be properly venti-
lated, that does not receive from without
at least one hogshead Of air for every pair
of Lungs. This is always secured by open
fire places, but by stove almost never.
Thus it is that the greater part of this
generation have had every bodily tissue
nourished by unprotected blood, thus in-
ducing delicate or feeble constitution.
A second cause of debility is the want
of vigorous exercise, especially to the
muscles Of the arms and trunk. In for
mer days, the children worked with their
parents in pure and cool air for several
hours a day, and thus exercised the mus
cles most important to health, especially
to female health.
But in these days, school children, es-
pecially the youngest girls. have little
vigorous exercise. And where exercise
is demanded, walk of mile or two is
deemed sufficient, while the exercise of
the muscles most important to health is
entirely neglected. Thus both sexes, but
especially that on which depends the con-
stitution of the children, are every year
becoming more delicate and sickly.
A third cause of national debility, is a
change from simple to a stimulating
and luxurious diet. Stimulating food
provokes an unnatural appetite. A great
variety tempts to excess. Both combine
to overload the organs of nutrition, and
the whole organism is strained and over
worked to throw off the excess.
The more food we eat, and the richer
it is, the more exercise is needed. But,
instead Of this, the people constantly are
eating more and exercising less. Meat is
the mos. stimulating food there is, anil
there is no other nation on earth, where
all classes devour such quantities of meat,
fat, butter, sugar, molaSses, hot cakes,
and hot tea and coffee. And no nation
on earth have such bad teeth, and every
other indication of debilitated consti-
tuition.
a fourth cause of national debility, is
excess IN stimulating the brain, unbalanced
by exercise and recreation. Fifty years
since, to read, write and cipher, were all
that were expected out of College course
No daily drilling in hot school rooms in
all manner of sciences, with evening les
sons at home. No Sunday lessons; no
books for children at every turn, both
Sundays and week days. There are fifty
times as much intellectual stimulus of the
brain in childhood, as ever was known
in former generations. Then the cares,
business and excitements OF all kinds, for
both men and women, have increased at
an equal ratio. EVerythtng is going on
at high steam-pressure. Now, the more
the brain is thus stimulated, the greater
the need for pure air, exercise, and sea-
sons for relaxation. But contrary to this,
the more the brain is stimulated, the less
pure air and exercise are secured. And
so the nervous system is exhausted, and
the whole organism becomes delicate or
diseased. To use the words of a medical
writer, "the constant exercise of tho brain
takes up the chief strength of the system,
and consumes it in feeling and thinking"
Another cause of general debility, is
the fashions Of female dress. The stays
OF our ancestors were trihes compared with
the accumulated enormities that have
been practiced on the female form during
the last twenty years. The thin cover
ing for the upper portion of the spine and
vital organs in cold weather, the accu-
mutation of clothing on the lower por-
ton, the pressure of tight dresses around
the waist, the pressure Of whalebones in
pointed waists, and the ,Ceigkt as well as
the heat of the enormous mass of clothing
resting on the hips-all these combining
with delicate constitutions, have produc-
ed, and are increasingly producing. terri
ic results that are but little known or
understood.
MINUTE PUDDIEG.-Put a pint and o