DOMESTIC ECONOMY, HYGIENE, DIETETICS. 



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nutritious and strengthening vegetable ; while 

 onions, garlic, leeks, chives, and shallots, all 

 of which are similar, possess medicinal virtues 

 of a marked character, stimulating the circu- 

 latory system, and the consequent increase of 

 the saliva and the gastric juice promoting 

 digestion. Red onions are an excellent diu- 

 retic, and the white ones are recommended 

 raw as a remedy for insomnia. They are 

 tonic, nutritious. A soup made from onions 

 is regarded by the French as an excellent restora- 

 tive in debility of the digestive organs. 



Eggs are considered one of the best reme- 

 dies for dysentery. Beaten up slightly, with 

 or without sugar, and swallowed, they tend 

 by their emollient qualities to lessen the in- 

 flammation of the stomach and intestines, and, 

 by forming a transient coating on those organs, 

 enable Nature to resume her healthful sway 

 over the diseased body. Two, or at most 

 three, eggs per day, would be all that is re- 

 quired in ordinary cases ; and, since the egg is 

 not merely medicine, but food as well, the 

 lighter the diet otherwise, and the quieter the 

 patient is kept, the more certain and rapid is 

 the recovery. 



LOCATION OF THE HOUSE. 



Its situation is a most important factor in 

 the choice of a dwelling. The climate, the 

 direction in which it faces, its altitude, its loca- 

 tion upon a hillside or in a valley, the neigh- 

 boring rivers, ponds, lakes, swamps, and 

 marshes, whether upon dry, sandy, or rocky 

 soil, all these features are to be considered. 

 The severity of the sun's rays, the prevailing 

 direction of the wind, temperature, and hu- 

 midity vary in different localities. Rooms 

 facing south are warmer, but subject to greater 

 changes of temperature ; those facing north are 

 cooler, but preserve a more equable tempera- 

 ture. Houses situated in deep forests or lying 

 between dense clumps of large trees are apt to 

 be unhealthy from dampness. But a wood at 

 some distance from the house is an advantage, 

 since it furnishes abundance of oxygen besides 

 protection from high winds and excessive heat. 



It is best not to live near a factory, mine, or 

 hospital, since injurious gases, vapors, and 

 dust particles may be developed there. Swamps 

 and marshes, too, are bad neighbors, for the 

 humid air is often vitiated by the emanations 

 of decomposing animal and vegetable matter. 

 These are very unhealthy, often causing marsh 

 fever, malaria, and other ailments. In trop- 

 ical and sub-tropical regions, where cold north- 

 ern winds are unfelt, such swamps may be 

 rendered harmless by plan ting eucalyptus trees 

 in their vicinity ; and sunflowers, in the tem- 

 perate zone, may be made to serve a similar 



purpose in some degree, especially when planted 

 in large numbers. 



SPRING FEVER. 



ITS ANTIDOTE. A writer gives the symp- 

 toms and several remedies for a very common 

 complaint, prevalent with almost every one to a 

 greater or less extent at this season of the year. 



The hampered body, says the writer, which 

 has been coddled, petted, stuffed with carbon- 

 bearing fats, and calorified in every possible 

 way, begins to protest. The machinery is 

 clogged ; headache, dyspepsia, and the thou- 

 sand nameless sensations of discomfort which 

 we charge to variable weather, afflict and 

 hamper poor humanity. To-day the fog 

 depresses our vital force, to-morrow the brain 

 is pierced with blinding sunshaft ; and so each 

 day's external is made responsible for internal 

 shortcoming. The litterateur, in atrabilious 

 humor, afflicts the world with morbid philos- 

 ophy. The pastor sees weak humanity more 

 than ever sinful, and his Lenten homilies are 

 unconsciously tinctured with a deeper dye for 

 the pangs of his own mortality. The house- 

 wife, in overheated rooms, with a monotone of 

 circumscribed care and too little outside diver- 

 sion, finds dirt and despair in the kitchen, 

 chaos in the nursery, a forlorn hope in her 

 mending basket. 



Among other remedies for people who say, 

 " I always have a bilious attack in the spring," 

 the following seems the most potent : 



On rising, sponge the body lightly and 

 quickly with cold water, briskly toweling after. 

 It is not necessary that this be a long or 

 laborious operation ; the more rapidly the bet- 

 ter, with sufficient friction to bring a glow to 

 the skin. If you cannot secure time to go 

 over the whole bodily surface, at least make it 

 a point to daily sponge the trunk and arms. 

 Rousing and stimulating the whole system, 

 clearing and opening the pores, it imparts an 

 indescribable freshness and exhilaration, amply 

 repaying the effort. Rehabilitated, you are 

 now ready for your morning bitters, namely, 

 the clear juice of a fresh lemon in a wineglass 

 of water, without sugar. This is a bomb 

 straight at the enemy, for a more potent sol- 

 vent of bile is not in the materia medica. 

 Searching out rheumatic tendency, attacking 

 those insidious foes which are storing up an- 

 guish agaiifst our later days calculi it 

 pervades the system like a fine moral sense, 

 rectifying incipient error. It is needful, per- 

 haps, to begin with two lemons daily, the 

 second at night just before retiring. 



A primitive but most efficacious prescrip- 

 tion, which corrected the physical reaction 

 after a pork-eating winter for our ancestors, 



