New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1860-04-02

PHILOSOPHY or BATHING.
BIZ pi,. y. c. sxrrH.

from the Nswburyport (sfass5 HeraldJ
And Naaman the leper came with his horses
and with his ciarots, and stood at the door of the
house of the prophet Elisha.
And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, 20
and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh
shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be
clean.
But Naaman was wroth and went away, and
said, Behold, thought he will surely come out To
me, and stand and call the Of the Lord his
God, and strike his hand over the place, and re-
cover the leper.
SO he turned and went away in a rage.
And his servants came near, and spake unto
him, and said My father, if the prophet had bid
thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not hsve
done it how much rather, then, when he saith
INTO thee, Wash, and be clean? ed Kings v.
9I3.)
God often chooses the simple things of this world
to confound the mighty.
In slave ship from the coast Of Africa, with a
large number of negroes on board suddenly broke
out a virulent disease. 1t was the smallpox, and
ragged terribly in the middle PASSAGE It must
have been sad sight to the sufferings of these
poor creatures as the dead were dragged out
every morning and thrown overheard. Medical
aid was powerless to stay the "pestilence that
walked in darkness and wasted at monday
With frantic cries and groans and simple but
earnest prayer to the God they dimly worshiped,
one by one of their friends and fefIow-captjyes
wasted away. The officers on board were alarmed
at the fearful elimination of their numbers. The
negroes cried ont, :" Let us do as we do In our
country with the sick - and being permitted they
gently lifted their poor companions who were sick
and placing rope around their bodies, hoisted
them up and lowered them into the sea, and after
remaining few minutes, raising them again, and
placing them on deck In the sun, and when dried
were returned to the ocean and withdrawn several
times, when the disease left them and they were
cured
"A few years since several young men from the
North, house carpenters and joiners, went to
Charleston, s. e. TO work at their trade. None Of
them escaped the prevailing fever of that climate
except one. He bathed, and never slept at night
in any of the clothes he wore by day. The others
were not so particular; at night they laid aside
their outer garments, but slept in their perspira-
tons, and died. "A
Thus thousands perish. Let them heed the ad-
monitons of the prophet.
Or. Currle used water very largely in the treat
rnent OF most diseases. The singular effect of cold
water, both as tonic and sedative, could not be
e1celled by any other remedy. II is incomparably
the best febrfage in nature and cold water il now
used where only a few years ago the use Of II
would have been considered downright madness
There is even now much dread of its use. For fear
of its simplicity, patients think physician moi
worth sending for who should prescribe water, and
the physician, with air Of seriousness, will some
| times write prescription in Latin, dreadfully mys
/ FERROUS to everybody but the druggist and which
reduced to plain English, may be as simple as Abb
ernethy's advice to one Of his wealthy patients
1 who sent for him" Let your servant bring to you
three orr four pals of water, and put it into wash
tub; take off your clothes, get into it, and from
head to foot rub yourself well with it, and you'll
recover This advice Of yours seems very
much like telling me to wash myself said the pa
tent. WE'LL said Abernethy, it is open to that
i objection"
i An American gentleman was taken from i shin
at Liverpool and carried to DR.. Currie, with small
/ pox. The eruptive fever was very considerable
/ he siekened on the seventh day, with rapid pulse
1 fetid breath pain in the head, back and ioins
pulse 1l9 to the minute, heat of the body III deg
M 1oror
/ and lemonade, and threw over him three gallon!
| of cold brine. The eruptive fever abated com
| pletey, incipient dclirium abated. pulse slower
heat reduced, and tranquil sleep followed the COLI
efusion was repeated three or four times at thu
1 patients desire. The eruptions were more thar
ordinarily numerous. He was cured with little Of
/ no secondary fever.
i DR.. Currie used fresh water generally, and BY
/ long and careful experience he found BATHING pre-
i vented Or cured most diseases and as vaccination
frequently fails, and sometimes Injuries for life, is il
not of doubtful utility, person in every forty
/ who has been yaccinated is likely to be attacked
and as there is much Of this disease abroad, it be-
4 hooyes people to prevent an epidemic which may
be more difficult to cure. hope to prove thai
those who battle need not take this or any othel
contagion; and as many who are vaccinated eithel
with poor vaccine, Or il once good, made bad b,
being too long kept, or some popularity in the con
sttution which may originate disease of the skin
/ A man appears to be perfectly healthy, yet he ma
4 be full OF disease, and on some slight exposure die
suddenly, and on examination is found to be feal
/ fully diseased. Ii rom such person, putatiyel
healthy, the virus or vaccine is taken and incorpC
| rated with a healthy organism, or even one III
| healthy, who could, by representation divine til
! issue =
The uncleanly compel their own body, throug
its millions of mouths, to re absorb their own elm
1 nations, once digested and excluded This is tn
chief cause of all diseases. The weakest part Q
the system suffers first-the head aches and is op
pressed with sense of fnlness, the lungs trou
| bled the kidneys are complicated, the bones ache
! rheumatism, govt and other pains and parts ar
involved and experienced. The whole body i
| alive with pain; the blood becomes excited, an,
1 like strong man when assaied, struggles to es
Cape or hurls from him the assailant who has seiz
ed him. So the blood, chafed by its attack be
comes fearfuly excited, and with increased specs
rushes through the channels of the body like SOM
4 turbid and swollen stream, seeking through SOM
| weak portion of its embankment to force back tn
i intruding foe. 1t is thrown from the lungs by ex
pectoration in the form of phlegm.
4 Sometimes an = eruption acts as partial safet
valve but if the cause continues the effect ii
creases, the morbid matter accumnlates, and poi
tions of it are enveloped in coating of mucuou
to prevent its doing farther injury, and carrie
away by the alyine excavations. But if not X
lieved, it is difficult to detect these subtle poson
although masses of this matter are collected alon
, the walls of the stomach and intestines with med
cines and other pOisons, covering and renderin
useless large patches Of these organs sometime
appearing in the form of tubercles. 1t is in tn
Il
any time his body is liable to terrible revolution
and with very little warning, small quantities, Xix
I few enemies in hostile country, may be toit
rated, but when in force sufficiently large to prov
troublesome, there must be expulsion, comprt
, mise or civil war.
Colds and fevers, which come sometimes withot
apparent cause, may be thus accounted for,
they are merely the efforts of nature to dslodg
! and eject her foes; therefore this excitement il
creases until the whole body is sometimes prete
naturally heated as if dipped in burning lake
while in accents of alarm could they but be heard
the oppressed blood, to stay this con1agratio
shouts like an excited fireman for water, waite
water! and brings up all her engnery to arrest til
consuming fire. Oh, how like gift let down fro
heaven at such times has cold water been seized
the thirsty spirit! The sultry veins quickly absol
it from the stomach, while kind hands battle Il
!. skin, whose numberess pores, and ducts, al
] glands, and nerves bless God who gave, and Il
!. kind friend who applies this blessed fluid.
! If the soul can be touched with kindness, it
: when man, writing with pain, feels himself, lii
4 | Saint Paul. to be less than nothing-when he cri
\ out, = Oh wretched man that am, who shall
!. liver me ~ or like David, ooh that some OF
/ would give me water from the well OF Bethlehem
! Then it is that cold water, like whitening,
!, messenger, brings to him relief, and causes d
{ heart of the most obdurate to gush forth in than
fulness like the rock in the wilderness when touch
1 by the wand of Noses
i. Whatever through the skin the body can exp
81 it can absorb II it can exhale fluids, it may inha
Them That it does inhale solids, fluids, miner
!, and vegetable poisons, the facts cited rrefragit
!. attest. That it imbibes them will now attempt
i prove. Hold the ends of your fingers in spirits
. | furneptine III in absorheH goeS through the &,