PHYSICAL EDUCATION. i 59 



for a grapple-swing; the Boston Hygienic Institute has patented a 

 kind that can be fastened without visible damage to the ceiling. If 

 the baby won't stop crying, something ought to be done about it. 

 Yes, and as soon as possible : remove the strait-jacket apparatus, 

 swaddling-clothes, petticoat, and all, spread a couple of rugs in a com- 

 fortable corner, and give the poor little martyr a chance to move his 

 cramped limbs ; let him roll, tumble, and kick to his heart's content, 

 and complete his happiness by throwing the paregoric-bottle out of 

 the window. 



3. The Stimulant Fallacy. Eight hours of healthy sleep are 

 sufficient to restore the energy expended in an ordinary day's work. 

 Extraordinary efforts, emotional excitement, sensual excesses, or mal- 

 nutrition (either by insufficient food or dyspeptic habits), induce a 

 general lassitude a warning that the organism is being overtasked. 

 Repose and a healthier or more liberal diet will soon restore the func- 

 tional vigor of the system. But during such periods of their dimin- 

 ished activity the vital powers can be rallied by drastic drugs or tonic 

 beverages in other words, by poisons. The prostrate vitality rises 

 against a deadly foe, as a weary sleeper would start at the touch of a 

 serpent ; and, as danger will momentarily overcome the feeling of 

 fatigue, the organism labors with restless energy till the poison is ex- 

 pelled. This feverish reaction, dram-drinkers (patent dram-drinkers 

 especially) mistake for a sign of returning vigor, persistently ignor- 

 ing the circumstance that the excitement is every time followed by a 

 prostration worse than that preceding it. Feeling the approach of a 

 relapse the stimulator then resorts to his old remedy, thus inducing 

 another sham revival, followed by an increased prostration, and so on ; 

 but before long the dose of the stimulant, too, has to be increased, the 

 stimulator becomes a slave to his poison, and passes his life in a round 

 of morbid excitements and morbid exhaustions the former at last 

 nothing but a feeble flickering-up of the vital flame, the latter soon 

 aggravated by sick-headaches, " vapors," and hypochondria. 



The stimulant habit in all its forms "exhilarating beverages," 

 " tonic medicines," " prophylactic bitters," etc. is a dire delusion. A 

 healthy man needs no artificial excitants ; the vital pi-inciple in its nor- 

 mal vigor is an all-sufficient stimulus ; the inspiration bought at the 

 rum-shop is but a poor substitute for the spontaneous exaltations of a 

 healthy mind in a healthy body. Playing with poisons is a losing 

 game ; the sweetness of the excitement is not worth the bitter reac- 

 tion. In sickness stimulants can not further the actual recovery by a 

 single hour. There is a strong progressive tendency in our physical 

 constitution ; Nature needs no prompter : as soon as the remedial 

 process is finished, the normal functions of the organism will resume 

 their work as spontaneously as the current of a stream resumes its 

 course after the removal of an obstruction. A " prophylactic " brandy 

 is Old Scratch in the role of an exorcist. Fevers can be prevented by 



