1882.] THE HOMES OF OUR FARBIERS. 235 



When not properly covered or curbed, wells are often fouled by 

 deca} log leaves, dead rats, toads, and the like. After the fatal 

 ravages of typhoid fever, diphtheria or dysentery, impure drinking 

 water has been plainly proved to have been the cause, both by 

 chemical tests of the water and by careful excavations which dis- 

 covered the conduits running directly from the cess-pool to the 

 well. The fact that the pursuits of the farmer are favorable to 

 health and longevity is no reason why he should not exercise 

 the utmost caution in guardiiJg against all these preventable dis- 

 eases. The art of promoting health and prolonging life should be 

 carefully learned in the school and applied in the family. 



Piilmonary affections stand first among the four most common 

 diseases of farmers and indeed of the community at large. Two 

 causes are assigned for this result. One is, needless exposure to 

 cold and wet, especially wet feet, and another is bad posture. 

 There is no harm in facing all kinds of weather, provided one is 

 suitably protected, but relying on his physical vigor and endur- 

 ance, the farmer risks the wet and cold without the wraps essen- 

 tial to security. The theory of hardening one so as to mind 

 neither wet nor cold, is fallacious. No degree of health, strength, 

 or endurance is ever gained by getting wet through or chilled 

 through and through. The attempt to harden one's-self in this 

 way is a hazardous experiment. 



The second cause of pulmonary trouble is a stooping posture. 

 Some work, like setting out plants, spading, hoeing, mowing, and 

 weeding, favors a cramped posture, but none of them necessitates 

 it. Indeed one can better bear any work if he keeps his chest 

 expanded and his lungs well inflated. He can do any kind of farm 

 work better by bending at the hip than by curving the spine and 

 contracting the chest. The French, Swiss, and German farm la- 

 borers are far more erect than American farmers. The admira- 

 ble attitude of the scholars in the schools of Europe was a mys- 

 tery to me, till I learned that the military spirit was all pervasive. 

 Every boy in Germany, expecting to spend at least two years in 

 camp, is early trained at school to be "erect as a soldier." "Sit 

 up " is the order everywhere enforced. Well would it be if our 

 farmers' boys and all our youth, so commonly enervated by stoop- 

 ing, would imitate this example in European schools. No words 

 need such iteration by American teachers as "sit up." Nothing 

 would tend more to promote national health, or guard more effect- 

 ually from pulmonary attacks. The importance of this subject is 



