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

or nerves strained and exhausted Dy
anxiety.
Out of a number of cases of con-
sumption, the most striking 1 can now
recall was that of lady who had suf-
fered for years such weakness that
each day was a burden; she began
with short walks, and in few weeks
had acquired the ability to walk sew
eral miles at a stretch the waxy pal
lor of her face gave place to healthy
color, far less food was taken at a
meal, yet with more sustaining strength
resulting. Before the impoverished
system craved food, yet lacked theipow-
er to assimiiate it, and strength was
wasted in the effort of the stomach
and internal economy to take the nour-
ishing qualities from the food present
ed to it; now out of a less quantity far
more real nourishment was retained
by the body. In a few months this
lady, who had been forced for years to
lie down after each effort Of mind or
body, and rest for an hour or more be-
fore having strength for any fresh tax
on her powers, was able to shoulder
the duties of the day without a thought
of rest
There are many forms of dyspepsia
which occasion the most painful suffer
ing, and which are almost sure to yield
to habit of daily walks. Yet it is
frequently the case that one may have
so naturalized the system to bad air,
that too strong draught of fresh air
will produce headache and nausea,
such as result from any other stimu
liant.
The effect of country air upon those
who are citybred, above all the pow
erfully stimulating air of the sea, will
often produce these distressing sym
toms but they are the symptoms OF
breaking away from the bondage of
diseased conditions. If then, headache
and nausea result from a walk, do not
give up the habit, but take gentler
means for acquiring it; begin with Il
less distance, and add to that gradual
Iy. To accomplish a cure of any dis
ease, requires more exercise than one
can spare the time for under ordinary
conditions, but the cure once effected,
the ground may be held by very little
exercise.
Often severe colds, sore thrOats, and
even a high state of fever have disap-
peared in Il single walk. Three cases
occur to me. One was that of a lad of
about fourteen years of age. There
had been some bad cases of diphtheria
in the neighhorhOOd, and one morning
this boy developed suddenly the most
alarming symptoms; his throat was
painful, and so sore he could hardly
swallow, and his whole appearance was
that of Il very sick boy. His parents
were forced to leave him for a short
time, and | saw him during their alb
sence shut into very hot room heated
ing, his cheeks in IL scarlet blaze,
though he shivered and chartered with
the cold. | saw there was no time to
he lost; with great eXertion | induced
the boy to get up and go out of doors.
He staggered like drunken man, 50
weak was he, but urged him on until
he was walking very briskly in the
cold air of a winters day, and in an
hour the boy came home with n healthy
glow in his cheeks, in place of the fire
of fever, his eyes bright and his whole
system i'll a vigorous condition. In
two days his sore throat had entirely
disappeared.
The other two cases were those of
young women who had been taken
When / Glanced to see them they were
crOuched up in warm rooms, enveloped
in wraps, dull, drowsy, listless crav
ing for nothing so much as to get into
bed and send for Il physician.
l induced each to go out for walk,
and that when the weather was any
patient went under protest, feeling, in
fact, too i'll to resist, so that the i'm
pOrtant elements of hope, faith and
cheerfulness, were all wanting. Yet
even so, after shivering on the way for
about Il mile, groaning out at intervals
pitiful entreaties tn be allowed to go
home, each began to brighten ma
tural warmth pervaded the body, dis
placing alike the extremes of heat and
cold, and each returned home after a
few miles in excellent spirits and with
the chills and fever left somewhere on
the way.
Often when one has quiet work to do
within doors, in those spring and fall
days when it is too cold without fire,
and uncomfortable with one, a brisk
walk of a few minutes, will put the
body in condition to secure its own
more than made up by the brain being
left undisturbed by forced attention to
the body so in very hot days, few
minutes exercise in the opeu air, will
make the shade within doors more
Whoever will take the trouble to
netice, will find that amongst those
placed in the same dangerous proximi-
ty to contagious diseases, very few of
those who habitually take exercise in
the open air, contract the disease.
Walking, by elevating the tone of the |