from dangerous, if not even inconvenient, consequences.

To fortify ourselves, then, against these dangerous epidemics, it is, I conceive, absolutely necessary that the nerves and arteries of the skin should be in a constant state of energetic action sufficient to sustain with impunity all the variations of this changeable climate. To attain this condition, nothing is required but to adhere rigidly to the rules of living already laid down in these pages; to which, however, I subjoin the following:

1st. Sponge the body daily with cold water. This should be observed with scrupulous regularity; for, by neglect of daily ablution, you admit an enemy to health in every pore. Such as cannot conform to this practice should not, under any pretence, omit taking a warm bath (that is, warm enough thoroughly to cleanse the skin) very frequently, for the purpose of mere ablution.

2ndly. Every precaution should be taken to counteract the influence of transitions from warmer to colder atmospheres, or sudden introduction to any other medium that might generate a chill: this is to be effected by briskness of exercise.

3rdly. Keep as much as possible in the pure open air. Nothing renders a person more susceptible of cold than confinement within doors. But in sharp weather the extremities must be kept regularly warm.

4thly. Let not even courtesy induce yon to run the risk of checking perspiration by stopping in the street, though but a few seconds, to converse with any one, while your body is heated by fast walking. This pernicious custom, and the not avoiding exposure to currents or streams of air, when one is heated, are too frequently the causes of desperate colds:

"And safer 'tis to stand i' th' street

Than where two doors or entries meet."

In very cold weather warmth should not be sought in clothing alone, otherwise persons subject themselves to colds from the most trifling variation of temperature. Active exercise in the open air is a much safer preventive of colds, besides bracing the general health and seasoning the body against vicissitudes of weather.

It may be objected by some that to observe these rules with strictness and regularity will require much attention, and even trespass some

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what upon their time; but, surely, when it is considered how frequently consumption and other fatal diseases result from coughs and colds, no prudent man will regret the time and pains which must be bestowed in guarding against them.

CONCLUSION.

I CANNOT conclude without calling upon those of my readers whose health, from free living, may have been but recently interrupted, and who therefore may have formed resolutions to alter their mode of life in the hope of recovering their former vigour, to compare their present condition with that in which they were before they had occasion to form any such resolutions. I would ask them whether their expectations founded upon these resolutions have been realised? Whether their health has become such as to justify them in indulging in the prospect of a long life?

The general reply, I fear, would be, "We have, consistently with a due participation in the "comforts of life,"* conformed to our resolution.' The question which naturally arises then is, in what do these "comforts of life" consist? The phrase is generally used to describe those luxuries

*The will is determined to that which is false or bad, without knowing it or without intending it."-BIELFELD.

which common usage has recognised in that character, and the enjoyment of them constitutes what these persons cannot do without. The prevailing "comforts of life" are, in addition to artificial feeding, artificial hours of rest, and artificial exercise (of themselves sufficient to dilapidate the strongest constitution), blazing fires, soft beds, stuffed and cushioned couches and carriages, exclusion of pure air by double doors, listings, sand-bags, and chimney-boards in bed-chambers and sitting-rooms, sitting still for hours together in rooms of an overtemperature, engaged in novel-reading, cardplaying, and other sedentary amusements, close application to study, &c., &c. Many who have indulged in such "comforts of life" as these, and who call to mind the hopes in which they restricted themselves to such a course of life, must confess their disappointment, and own themselves to be at a still greater distance from the point of sound health, and that solely from the evil consequences which, to every one not predetermined to resist the evidence of his senses, may be proved to have resulted from indulgence in these "comforts of life." With what satisfaction then, I ask, can those who have failed in so important a design elude the memory of their ill success? The re-establishment of health is never to be accomplished by half measures, nor is it compatible with the continuation of even small indulgences. I need hardly repeat,