196 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



tio danger that the well shall become polluted. The exercise of suitable care 

 makes it possible to have this room in the wood-shed, as I know by experience, 

 without any offense at all. At the bottom of the vault outside is an arched 

 opening, which permits easy cleaning. This is covered by a lattice-work, 

 which is hinged at the top. If plenty of the road-dust is used at proper 

 times, there is nothing disagreeable in cleaning the vault. 



There can be no better guide in all tliis matter than a good delicate nose. 

 Never tolerate within the house, or about it, any of those disgusting, putres- 

 cent odors which are heaven-sent messengers to warn us of danger and harm. 

 By a little care and attention, every home may be as sweet as a May morning 

 and as clean and healthful as the mountain air, and though such care may 

 make the physicians speak of the times as distressingly healthy, it will as 

 surely fill our homes with joy and gladness. 



The most wondrous part of our organism is the nervous system, or the great 

 coordinating apparatus. This is the system that makes the parts of the body 

 act as one, and also forms the track along which sympathy runs from one 

 organ to another. Thus bad news at meal time stops the digestive machinery; 

 an unpleasant sight at the table incites nausea, while wet feet cause headache 

 or diarrhea. In infants this nervous sympathy or reflex action as it is called, 

 is far more active. The mere cutting of a tooth the first year of the infant's 

 life, especially if in hot weather, often causes functional disturbances that 

 result in death. Thus at such times the greatest care should be exercised. 

 The utmost regularity of habits should be preserved, no change of food 

 suffered, nor any change or experience that would in any way add to the dis- 

 turbance already begun. Ignorance in these matters has caused many a death, 

 or what is often worse, serious epilepsy, which made life a burden to the victim 

 and to its friends. 



It is also because of this delicate network of nerves that all shocks or abrupt 

 changes that effect the bodily functions are apt to result seriously. Under this 

 head, as it comes as the very god of disease to the farmers as a class, I give a 

 first place to exposure. In our climate, especially in spring, the weather is as 

 capricious as a bachelor with gout or dyspfipsia. Sultry summer and severe 

 winter chase each other like shadows as they sweep over fields of grain, while 

 damp is ever near to lay her clammy hand upon the waiting victim. The care- 

 less person, confronted by sudden cold or the equally dangerous damp, is 

 robbed as by a violent shock of the natural heat of the body. The minute 

 vessels are thereby paralyzed ; reaction, fever, diarrhea or congestion of the 

 lungs succeed, and too frequently right here are sown the seeds of long wast- 

 ing disease, or what is not quite so dire, speedy death. And this all from the 

 lack of a pair of rubbers, an overcoat, or from the premature removal of 

 woolen undergarments. Farming, as already stated, has often been character- 

 ized, and justly too, as the most healthy of all vocations, yet the statistician 

 informs us that the farmer lives less years than do those of most other occu- 

 pations. How are we to reconcile these seeming contradictious? By the 

 obvious fact that of all people the farmer is the most indifferent as to expos- 

 ure. His carelessness in this respect is often terrible ; more, it is criminal. 

 Let the lawyer or the physician practice the same degree of exposure, and their 

 occupations would soon be without patrons. Wet feet from morn till night, 

 drenched with rain for hours at a time, exposed to the most sudden changes 

 of temperature with no thought of added clothing, are common experiences 

 among the farmers of our goodly Michigan. He was an exceptional farmer 

 in thrift and comfortable surroundings, no less than in the matter of conserv- 



