St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1885-01-22


now finds in honest labor the surest
means of preserving the blessings still
remaining--physical health among the
chief-still the structure of the body
remains the same as when orr mother
Eve was fashioned, and the exercise
most natural to her, remains still the
one best adapted to restore health.
Regarding the body as a piece of ex-
quisitely complicated machinery, it
presents in the act of walking it's most
beautiful perfection. Whatever ma
tUre is going to do for the repair of an
injured system, she will do doubly
then. With Strengthened back, head
erect, lungs expanded, the great sys-
TEN of veins and arteries in best posi-
| ton for the unimpeded ebb and flow of
the blood, the heart pumping the
FnOurishing fluid" with greater force
and regularity into the extremities,
/ the lungs taking in fuller drafts of
! fresh air, natures agents for repairing
the losses of the body, are in full ac-
tivity, and preparations are being
made for her more remote measures.
A healthy appetite is being encourag-
ed which will demand the food needed,
while what is more to the purpose, the
body is being put into condition to
assimilate that food the muscles are
making demands upon the nerve-fiuid,
which, if pent up, liberates itself by a
nervous paroXysm, or fortunes the
| body under the various of hysteria, or
nervous diseases. Two cases of ner-
vOus disease, coming almost at the
same time under my observation and
treated differently, form IN instructive
contrast. The first was that of a young
| girl subject to sudden attacks of faint
ness, during which time her limbs re-
! fused to support her. Her extremities
became cold and numb and resisted
| the most violent efforts to become
warm, either by friction OF applied
heat. | first saw her when she was i'll
an early stage of very severe attack.
She was surrounded by her family,
and physician was III attendance,
but all means employed to restore cir
culation had failed. | suggested
measures which, although the doctor
expressed his willingness to try, seem
! ed to produce such CONSERVATION in
the family that left its members to
their own methods of treatment, and
the patient lay for several days very
i'll, and it was long before she was
fully recovered.
About the same time another lady
was taken in much the same way. A
small party of young people were
standing admiring the scenery from "a
mountain road, when this lady was
seized with such sudden weakness
| that she had to sit down in the road,
her face pale as death, while cold
perspiration broke out on her face
and stood in great drops around her
trembling lips. begged her to ''move
about" but she answered family that
her limbs would not support her. At
| last by a great effort we got her upon
| her feet, when suddenly grasped her
! hand and ran down the steep mountain
road, pulling the poor patient after
me, gasping ont broken words OF fear
"she should fall and break her neck ~
but on we fled, the rest of the party
/ or 1Jiuor lun,h tb SurDIiSa and cro1-
! ing down in Consideration on our pro-
hable destruction. Her hat flew off,
and her hair was tossed by the wind
Arrived at the foot of the hill, | asked
the fainting lady chow she felt now ~
al don't quite-know- yet - she
gaSped, but before the rest of the par
| ty could reach us, she had found that
although her limbs still trembled, it
was from the exercise, and, although
during the day the taintness returned
at times, it was never at all equal to
the first attack, aud the lady herself
afterwards voluntarily ''eXercisedn it
away.
My coup de main had convinced more
than one of that party of the value of
heroic measures. subsequently, the
other lady came to me for advice, after
having been undergoing medical treat
ment to no purpose, and while with me
an attack came on. She had three
friends with her, and as soon as she
could stand sent her walking home,
assuring her that she would find that
went on, and that if she would persist
in that treatment it would work won
ders. | learned later that before she
reached home, more than mile away,
she had felt perfectly well again.
Had the faintness in either case
sprung from heart disease, should not
have ventured on this treatment yet
even for that, would have advised
walking gently, in the open air, begin
ming when in the best condition and
gaining a habit of exercise, which
would make it possible to take it when
a paroXysm of the heart was threaten
ing. In such eases the advice of a skill
full physician should be followed, pro-
vided always that he is one who be-
lieves in the virtue of exercise and
fresh air. | have known cases of heart
disease where, after years of agony,
and when all else had failed to bring
relief, the sufferers have tried this
simple but heroic measure, and have
found new STRENGTH and ioNOusness in