When walking in the country holiday-makers should avoid over-heating themselves. Noth- ing is so conducive to disease. We have no hesitation in saying that nine-tenths of the colds that prove fatal are caught through neg- lect of this simple rule.
Beware of walking on grass. Though it may be dry to the touch, damp is ever present, and cold caught in this way is always difficult to cure.
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Avoid high roads in the country. They are, for the most part, unsheltered, and on hot days the sun beats upon them unmercifully. The perspiration that ensues is the beginning of many a troublesome illness.
Country lanes are stuffy and unhealthy, owing to the sun not getting free ingress into them. They should, therefore, be avoided by all who value their health.
In a magazine we observe an article extolling the pleasures of walking in a wood. That walking in a wood may be pleasant we do not deny, but for our own part we avoid woods. More draughty places could not well be imagined, and many a person who has walked in a wood has had cause to repent it for the rest of his life.
It is every doctor's experience that there is a large public which breaks down in health sim- ply because it does not take sufficient exercise in the open air. Once more we would remind our readers that every man, woman, or child who does not spend at least two hours daily in the open air is slowly committing suicide.
How pitiful it is to hear a business man say, as business men so often say : " Really I can-
198 EVERY MAN HIS OWN DOCTOR.
not take a holiday this summer, my business ties me so to my desk, and, besides, I am feel- ing quite well. No, I shall send my wife and children to the seaside, and content myself with a Saturday-to-Monday now and again." We solemnly warn all such foolish persons that they are digging their own graves. Change is absolutely essential to health.
Asked the other day why coughs were so prevalent in the autumn, we replied without hesitation, "Because during the past month or two so many persons have changed their beds." City people rush to the seaside in their thou- sands, and here is the result. A change of beds is dangerous to all, but perhaps chiefly to per- sons of middle age. We have so often warned the public of this that we can only add now, "If they continue to disregard our warning, their blood be on their own heads." This we say not in anger, but in sorrow.
A case has come to our knowledge of a penny causing death. It had passed through the hands of a person suffering from infectious fever into those of a child, who got it as change from a shop. The child took fever and died in about a fortnight. We would not have mentioned
EVERY MAN HIS OWN DOCTOR. 199
this case had we not known it to be but an in- stance of what is happening daily. Infection is frequently spread by money, and we would strongly urge no one to take change (especially coppers), from another without seeing it first dipped in warm water. Who can tell where the penny he gets in change from the news- paper-boy has come from ?
If ladies, who are ever purchasing new clothes, were aware that disease often lurks in these, they would be less anxious to enter dress- makers' shops. The saleswoman who "fits" them may come daily from a home where her sister lies sick of a fever, or the dress may have been made in some East End den, where infec- tion is rampant. Cases of the kind frequently come to our knowledge, and we would warn the public against this danger that is ever present among us.
Must we again enter a protest against insuf- ficient clothing ? We never take a walk along any of our fashionable thoroughfares without seeing scores of persons, especially ladies, in- sufficiently clad. The same spectacle, alas ! may be witnessed in the East End, but for a differ- ent reason. Fashionable ladies have a horror
200 EVERY MAN II1S OWN DOCTOR.
of seeming stout, and to retain a slim appear- ance they will suffer agonies of cold. The world would be appalled if it knew how many of these women die before their fortieth year.
We dr ess far too heavily. The fact is, that we would be a much healthier people if we wore less clothing. Ladies, especially, wrap them- selves up too much, with the result that their blood does -not circulate freely. Coats, ulsters, and other wraps cause far more colds than they prevent.
Why have our ladies not the smattering of scientific knowledge that would tell them to vary the thickness of their clothing with the weather ? New garments, indeed, they do don for winter, but how many of them put on extra flannels ?
We are far too frightened of the weather, treating it as our enemy when it is ready to be our friend. With the first appearance of frost we fly to extra flannel, and thus dangerously overheat ourselves.
Though there has been a great improvement in this matter in recent years, it would be idle to pretend that we are yet a cleanly nation. To speak bluntly, we do not change our under-
EVERY MAN UIS OWN DOCTOR. 201
garments with sufficient frequency. This may be owing to various reasons, but none of them is an excuse. Frequent change of under- clothing is a necessity for the preservation of health, and woe to those who neglect this simple precaution.
Owing to the carelessness of servants and others, it is not going too far to say that four times in five, under-garments are put on in a state of semi-dampness. What a fearful danger is here. We do not hesitate to say that every time a person changes his linen he does it at his peril.
This is such an age of bustle that compara- tively few persons take time to digest their food. They swallow it, and run. Yet they complain of not being in good health. The wonder rather is that they do not fall dead in the street, as, indeed, many of them do.
How often have doctors been called in to patients whom they find crouching by the fire- side and complaining of indigestion ? Too many medical men pamper such patients, though it is their plain duty to tell the truth. And what is the truth? Why, simply this, that after dinner the patient is in the habit of spending
202 EVERY MAN IIIS OWN DOCTOR.
his evening in an arm-chair, when he ought to be out in the open air, walking off the effects of his heavy meal.
Those who work hard ought to eat plenti- fully, or they will find that they are burning the candle at both ends. Surely no science is required to prove this. Work is, so to speak, a furnace, and the brighter the fire the more coals it ought to be fed with, or it will go out. Yet we are a people who let our systems go down by disregarding this most elementary and obvious rule of health.
If doctors could afford to be outspoken they would, twenty times a day, tell patients that they are simply suffering from over-eating them- selves. Every foreigner who visits this country is struck by this propensity of ours to eat too much.
Very heart-breaking are the statistics now to hand from America about the increase in smok- ing. That this fatal habit is also growing in favor in this country, every man who uses his eyes must see. What will be the end of it we shudder to think, but we warn those in high places that if tobacco smoking is not checked, it will sap the very vitals of this country.
EVERY MAN HIS OWN DOCTOR. 203
Why is it that nearly every young man one meets in the streets is haggard and pale ? No one will deny that it is due to tobacco. As for the miserable wretch himself, his troubles will soon be over.
We have felt it our duty from time to time to protest against what is known as the anti- tobacco campaign. We are, we believe, under the mark in saying that nine doctors in every ten smoke, which is sufficient disproof of the absurd theory that the medical profession, as a whole, are against smoking. As a disinfectant, we are aware that tobacco has saved many lives. In these days of wear and tear, it is especially useful as a sedative ; indeed, many times a day, as we pass pale young men in the streets, whose pallor is obviously due to over-excitement about their businesses, we have thought of stopping them, and ordering a pipe as the medicine they chiefly require.
Even were it not a destroyer of health, smok- ing could be condemned for the good and sufficient reason that it makes man selfish. It takes away from his inte
rest in conversation, gives him a liking for solitude, and deprives the family circle of his presence.
204 EVERY MAN HIS OWN DOCTOR.
Not only is smoking excellent for the health, but it makes the smoker a better man. It ties him down more to the domestic circle, and loosens his tongue. In short, it makes him less selfish.
No one will deny that smoking and drinking go together. The one provokes a taste for the other, and many a man who has died a drunkard had tobacco to thank for giving him the taste for drink.
Every one is aware that heavy smokers are seldom heavy drinkers. When asked, as we often are, for a cure for the drink madness, we have never any hesitation in advising the appli- cation of tobacco in larger quantities
Finally, smoking stupefies the intellect.
In conclusion, we would remind our readers that our deepest thinkers have almost invari- ably been heavy smokers. Some of them have gone so far as to say that they owe their intel- lects to their pipes.
The clerical profession is so poorly paid that we would not advise any parent to send his son into it. Poverty means insufficiency in many ways, and that means physical disease.
Not only is the medical profession over-
EVERY MAN HIS OWN DOCTOR. 205
stocked (like all the others), but medical work is terribly trying to the constitution. Doctors are a short-lived race.
The law is such a sedentary calling, that parents who care for their sons' health should advise them against it.
Most literary people die of starvation.
Trades are very trying to the young ; indeed, every one of them has its dangers. Painters die from blood poisoning, for instance, and masons from the inclemency of the weather. The commercial life on 'Change is so exciting that for a man without a specially strong heart to venture into it is to court death.
There is, perhaps, no such enemy to health as want of occupation. We would entreat all young men, therefore, whether of private means or not, to attach themselves to some healthy calling.
SHUTTING A MAP.
A NOTE OF WARNING.
PROMINENT among the curses of civilization is the map that folds up " convenient for the pocket." There are men who can do almost everything except shut a map. It is calculated that the energy wasted yearly in denouncing these maps to their face would build the Eiffel Tower in thirteen weeks.
Almost every house has a map warranted to shut easily, which the whole family, working together, is unable to fold. It is generally concealed at the back of a press, with a heavy book on it to keep it down. If you remove the book, the map springs up like a concertina. Sometimes after the press is shut you observe something hanging out. This is sure to be part of the map. If you push this part in, another part takes its place. No press is large enough to hold a map that shuts. This is be-
208 SHUTTING A MAP.
cause maps that shut are maps that won't shut. They have about as much intention of shutting when you buy them as the lady lias of obeying her husband when she gives a promise to that effect in the marriage service.
Maps that shut may also be compared to the toys that whistle, spin, or jump when the shop- man is showing you how to work them, or to the machinery that makes mangling a pleasure, or to the instrument that sharpens a pencil in no time. These are completely under the control of the shopman, but after you have bought them and taken them home they become as uncertain in temper as a nervous dog.
The impossibility of shutting maps except by accident having been long notorious, it is perhaps remarkable that the public should go on buying them. There are hundreds of per- sons engaged at this moment upon making maps that shut (as the advertisement puts it), and there must, therefore, be a demand to meet such a supply. It is vanity that brings so many people to folly.
To do the nineteenth century justice, no one nowadays enters a shop with the object of
SHUTTING A MAP. 209
buying a map that shuts. Wives, especially young ones, have asked their husbands to buy curious things for them ; and husbands, espe- cially old ones, have done it without being asked. But no wife who ever valued her domestic happiness has ever requested her husband to run into a shop in passing and buy a map that shuts. Even if she did, the husband would refuse. He might buy " Pigs in clover " if she wanted it ; but the map puzzle, never.
Yet it has to be sorrowfully admitted that the street could be paved with the maps we do buy. Vanity is the true cause of our fall, but a shopman is the instrument. That even shop- men can shut maps which do not shut except in the shop, no thoughtful person believes ; but over a counter they do it as easily and prettily as a conjurer plays with cards.
" Have you seen this new map ? " they ask with affected carelessness, while they tie up your books.
" Anything special about it ? " you reply, guardedly.
" Well, yes ; it is very convenient for the pocket."
At the words " convenient for the pocket " 14
210 SHUTTING A MAP.
you ought to up with your books and run, for they are a danger signal ; but you hesitate and are lost.
" You see/' he goes on, " it folds into un- usually small s pace."
This is merely another way of saying, " You see this is the worst kind of map that has been yet invented."
" These maps that shut are so difficult to shut," you venture to say. He laughs.
" My dear sir," he says, " a child could shut this one."
Then he opens and shuts it like a lady ma- nipulating her fan, and a fierce desire grows within you to do likewise. When you leave the shop you take away with you a map con- venient for the pocket.
What makes you buy it ? In your heart you know that you are only taking home a pocket- ful of unhappiness, but you have the pride of life. In an age when we have made slaves of electricity and steam, it seems humiliating that we cannot shut a map. We have ceased, as a people, to look for the secret of perpetual mo- tion, but we still hanker after the secret of how to shut a map.
SHUTTING A MAP. 211
No doubt the most maddening thing about maps that shut is that they do shut occasionally. They never shut, however, when you are par- ticularly anxious that they should do so be- fore company, for instance. Very probably you take the map with you from the shop to your office, and there open it up. To your delight it shuts quite easily. This gives you a false feeling of security. If you would really know whether this map shuts more easily than the various other ones over which you have lost your temper, ask your office-boy to come in and see you shut it. You will find that it no longer shuts. This is a sure test.
Instead of experimenting in this way, and ordering the boy out of the room when you see him trying to get his face behind his hand, you are so foolish as to take the map home with you, to let your wife see how easily it shuts. If you are a keen observer you will notice her turn white when she sees you produce the map from your pocket. She knows there will be no harmony this evening, and her first determina- tion is to keep the map from you until after dinner.
What follows when you produce the map and
212 SHUTTING A MAP.
begin, is too well known to require description. What you ought to do in the circumstances no one out of a pulpit could tell you, but there are certain negative rules which it would be well if you would observe. For instance
Do not be too sanguine. Your tendency is to open the map with a flourish, as one some- times unfurls a handkerchief. Accompanied by the remark that nothing is easier than to shut a map once you have the knack of it, this raises hopes which are not likely to be realized. The smile of anticipatory triumph on your face loses you the sympathy which is your right at such a moment. If you are over-confident, the feeling is that your failure will do you good. On the other hand,
Keep your misgivings to yourself. Most men, however confident they have been when thinking of the ease with which they can close maps, lose hope at the last moment, and admit that perhaps they have forgotten the way. This is a mistake, for there is always jus
t a possibility of the map's shutting as easily as an ordinary book. Should you have prefaced your attempt with misgivings, you will not get the credit of this, and it will be ascribed to chance. There-
SHUTTING A MAP. 213
fore, be neither too sanguine nor too openly doubtful.
Don't repeat the experiment. This, of course, is in the improbable event of your suc- ceeding the first time. At once hand over the map to your wife, as if you had solved the puzzle forever. Encouraged by your success she will probably attempt it also and fail, when the chances are that she will ask you to do it again. As you value her good opinion of you, decline to do so. Make any excuse you think best. To carry out the description more com- pletely, lie back in your chair, and smile good- naturedly at her futile efforts. Put on the ex- pression of being amused at seeing her unable to do so simple a thing. As a result she will think more of you than ever if possible.
Doiit boast. The chances, of course, are that you will have no occasion to boast ; but in the event of your succeeding by accident, don't wave your arms in the air, or go shouting all over the house, "I've done it, I've done it ! " If you behave in this way your elation will undo you, and no one will believe that you can do it again. Control yourself until you are alone.
214 SHUTTING A MAP.
Don't speak to the map. Now we come to the rules which should be observed if you fail. As the chances are forty-nine to one that you will fail, these rules are more important than the others. When you have got the map half folded, you will see that there is something wrong. Do not frown at this point, and say, " Confound you, what is the matter with you now?" The map will not answer. It will give you no assistance. You ought at once to realize that you and it have entered upon a desperate struggle.
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