Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1860-01-21
ASHTABULA, 0, SATURDAY MORNING. JANUARY 81 1861


necessities for cleaning in consequence, we
do not believe that there is so much run
ming over the house as formerly.
Next, we do not imagine that any such
exercise could produce, without other ulte.
rior causes, the local diseases complained
OF, for various reasons. The present wo-
men of Switzerland, who are engaged in
tending sheep and goats, who follow them
day alter day, up one mountain-side and
down another, jumping from rock to rock,
running down the decIivities and mp the
opposite steep, are not distinguished for pc
cullar ills, but rather for their robustness.
Neither are the German market-women of
Europe, who walk long distances over un.
even ground, where no roads are laid out,
with heavy burdens upon their heads or
backs, alike when pregnant as otherwise
Nor are the servants in the very houses al
luded to affected by the diseases Of their
mistresses, yet they run over the same
stairs many times to their mistress once.
That the great blessing of furnaces is
often abused we are ready to admit that
when improperly used they do burn up the
oxygen of the air to be breathed, we know.
But when properly constructed and prop
erly managed, we believe that in no man.
ner can house be so BEAUTIFULLY heated,
to say nothing of cheapness, cleanliness,
and convenience. This is not the place to
argue the question as might be desired /;
but we must be allowed to say that in gen.
| eral the furnace furnished to house is too
small for the work it has to perform, and
in consequence it is'liable to be pressed so
hard as to be over-heated, or if large
enough it may, by neglect of those who
have charge of it, become red-hot and thus
burn up the air. 1t is allowed to get out
of repair and leak out gass into the air
pipes. The house too, guided by the un-
certain feelings of the occupant, instead of
reliable thermometer, may be over-heated
generally. But it should not be forgotten
that there is no ventiator more efficient,
for it constantly brings into the house the
pure air Of the street, which must push
out the already used air in the house, to
make room for it. If the air is burnt and
thus rendered impure or inefficient, it will
undoubtedly aggravate any disease and de-
stroy the general health, but it can scarce
ly be supposed to cause the local uterine
diseases alleged to spring from it, instead
OF the diseases of the lungs and heart, and
the functions Of nutrition, which are gen.
orally most affected by the impurities of
the atmosphere neither are the servants,
as before said, affected like their enervated
mistreSseS.
The deterioration of the health of fe-
males is not general, it is local, and it is |
not only local, it is confined in great de- |
gree to classes even in that locality. Ger |
tain forms the diseases peculiar to females
are better understood and more easily rec |
ognized now than formerly but this mere
ly gives different name to the ill-health |
of the sex ; and it is not that certain dis
eases exist now which did not formerly, Or
are increased in proportion, but that now
they are recognized whenever they exist, |
whereas formerly they were often mistaken
or diSregarded.
THE CLASSES OF WOMEN WHO SUFFER MOST.
1t is the females of cities and large
towns imbued with city manners and Gus
toms, where these maladies are most rife,
and found only in exceptional cases among |
our poorer classes, who are not exposed to
fashionable folies. In cities, all of the
better classes of the population live not so
much for themselves as for other people
more Socitous as to what Mrs. Grundy
may say, than for their own comfort and
health. They are constantly going some
where at improper times and seasons and
hours. So delicate in health that they
cannot 60 out to perform any duty if the
sky be little overcast 4; in fact accnstom-
ed to spend the most of the time cooped
up in the house, dressed perhaps too warm.
ly, yet in the evening, no matter how stor
my, freezing or tempestuous, they can ride
in coach, with head and shoulders uncov
cred, or with clothes well tucked up under
their arms they can walk through slush
md mire to sit for hours in a cold theatre,
an illy-ventiIated vestry or lecture.room. or
worse still, into an over-heated over.crowd-
ed ballroom.
But this is not bad enough no matter
whether it is at the time of the periodic
or not, the young girl whose con-
'titutiOns is yet in process of formation or
The young matron engaged in the great
work for which the division into sexes was
created, spend hours in the most outrage
ous muscular exertion, in dances which
would seem to have been invented by some
arch enemy of woman, so effectually do
hey, aided by too great weight of cloth,
ng, shake up the whole frame and dislocate
Every internal organ pertaining to woman
hood. We really think that the polka
md its varieties which so jar the frame,
nave done more than any one single cause
o injure the health Of our American wo-
nen.
We must be allowed to dwell upon tbi.
,ranch Of the subject. just think of the
young woman who spends her DAYS with
,ook or with her needle in the quiet of her
louse not even going out for a walk. save |
emi-occasionally, when she takes an omni-
,us at the end of the first block from ia. i!
igue Think of the fragile creature, over !
chronic habit the languor which
Ter periodic condition imparts, with organs
xcited, turgid and enlarged, dancing these
muscular dances, ESQ different from the gil ,
ling graces of the mazy waltz, then stim-
lating and aggravating the difficulties bv !;
bations of champagne. Think, too. of !
be cream, ices, oysters aud jellies indulge :
! at this unreasonable hour and what :
uantities ! And then when every more is =
leaning, when the pulse is beating wildly