The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1881-02-19
THE HEALTH PROBLEM.
How to Grow Beautiful Sunlight and Good
Health-Hints for the Season.

Health-Hints for the Season.
Persons may outgrow disease and be-
come healty by proper attention to the
laws of their physical constitutions. BY
moderate and daily exercise men may be-
come active and strong in limb and mus
Gle. But to grow beautiful, how? Age
dims the luster of the eye. and pales the
roses in beauty's cheek. while crow-feet.
and burrows. and wrinkles, and lost teeth.
and gray hairs. and bald head and totter-
ing limbs, and limping feet, most sadly
mar the human form divine. But dim as
| the eye is, as pallid and sunken as may
be the face of beauty, and frail and fee
BILE that once strong, erect, and manly
body, the immortal soul, just Hedging its
wings for its home in heaven, may look
out through those faded windows as beau
tiful as the dew-drops ola summer morn
ing. as melting as the tear that giistens
in affections eye-by growing kindly. by
cultivating sympathy with all human
kind: by cherishing forbearance toward
the foibles and follies Of our race, and
feeding day by day on that love to God
and man which lifts us from the brute.
and makes us akin to the angels. This
is the secret of growing beautilul-b:au-
tiful in the sight of heaven and in the
ewes of our fellows: and this is one of tue
great secrets Of health, for an even kind
illness of nature has much to do with main
tanning a heathful condition of body.
SUNLIGHT AND HEALTH.
Many of the streets in our cities are so
narrow. and the houses, front and rear,
so high and closely crowded. that the sun
never reaches the sleeping or the sitting
rooms. Some of the modern houses of
the more wealthy are built three rooms
deep, in order to have parlors and dining
room on one floor, and on each story
above three sleeping rooms. the middle
one being necessarily dark. Parents con-
slider this nice arrangement for their
children, to be near them in case of sick
ness or accident, but it never occurs to
them that a room which is never pene-
trated by the suns rays is an unhealth-
full place in which to put children. They
certainly would not put plants there I'M
less they wanted to bleach them. Many
dwellings are situated due north and
south, and the sun never reaches their
front. In school houses, in places of
business, and in warehouses; we find
the same disregard of the simplest hygi-
enic knowledge of the value of sunlight
in the prevention of consumption and
other forms of disease. Many mercan-
tile firms transact their business in mar
row streets in the Oldest and most crowd
ed parts of the cities, where the sunlight
is never seen unless.for short time at
noon, and then only in the middle of the
street. 1t cannot get to the lower floors
or any where where active business is
going on. Even if, III some cases, the
streets are wide, the business floors are
so many feet long that the sun can only
enter few feet We have in the bust
ness portions of our cities
UNDERGROUND ROOMS
all the way down from five to fifty feet
below the surface Of the street. gloomy
and damp, in which CLERKS are at work
at their desks Or engaged the entire day
at their avocations. In these, as far as
the light of heaven is concerned, there is
perpetual darkness. A lea'y shoot of any
plant trained in dark room will twist
and turn toward the light, showing a
higher appreciation of the sunlight than
the better half of the highest in the scale
Of animals What is this sunlight thus
thoughtlcssly kept out of our houses and
off our persons? 1t is nothing more nor
less than the source of all force. and,
consequently. of all life. animal and vege-
table. 1t was so made by the Creator
when He said, "Let there be light: and
there was light" In the eloquent words
of Sir David Brewster. "Liglt is the
very life blood of nature, without which
every thing in nature would radc ard
perish utterly Let us see thatthe sun
light enters the dwelling freely. Let par
ents bear i'll mind the injurious influence
of indoor and sedentary occupations.
and as far as may lie in their power en-
deavor to counteract them. In word.
let them observe the laws of health which
Nature has given them. and hereditary
tendencies to consumption, that seourge
of humanity, will he largely overcome,
and cases Of acquired consumption will
be rare.
Sunlight is as necessary to a healthy
condition Of life as pure air. If children
are kept in dark places they will be pale.
and delicate, and feeble, and droop like
plants under similar circumstances
Children must have light to be healthy,
and school rooms, above all other PLACES.
should be bright and sunny. Many cases
of short-sightedness and curvature of tie
spine are the results of habits acquired
in badly lighted school room. Teacl-
ers cannot be too careful to see that tie
light by which their pupils write. draw
or study shall fail SO as to prevent
shadow on the paper. In short-sighted.
ness the globe of the eye is drawn out
from back to front. so that the images Of
distant objects are not brought to focus
| on the retina. but in from: of it. A book
can be read at distance of fifteen or
eighteen inches by healthy eyes, but if
| held nearer short-sightedness is the re-
suit.
SUNSHINE IN THE HEART.
| Sunshine in the house-sunshine in the
! heart. What the world wants to-day is
more sunshine i'll its disposition. in its
business, III its charities in it's theolo-
gies, and, queer as it may seem, in even
its pleasures. For ter thousand Of the
aches and pains and irritat ons of men
and women, nothing can be better than
sunshine. 1t soothes better than NOR
phine. 1t stimulates better than cham
payne. 1t is the best plaster for wound
The good Samaritan poured into the
fallen travellers wounds more of this than