PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANTS: LOSS OF HEALTH. 311 



longing to the camp furniture of the military marquee. 

 This grand tent was expanded in full in the garret at Ar 

 lington ; it was in perfect preservation, fit for field-service 

 again ; and it was no small satisfaction to me to stand be 

 neath its ample folds, associated as they had been with so 

 many stirring events, and anxious as well as joyous mus 

 ings. Those who rendered Arlington so attractive are 

 there no longer. Mr. Custis died October 10, 1857, some 

 years after he had returned from a journey to Boston, when 

 I received a call from him at my house, where he passed an 

 hour. His age, when he died, was seventy-seven. Mrs. 



Custis died before him At dinner, at Gadsby's, 



I found myself next to General Bernard, the distinguished 

 engineer of Napoleon I. He exhibited the suavity of his 

 country ; and, as he was about to visit the West as an en 

 gineer of our government, I, by a passing remark, invited 

 him to speak of our great system of Western waters, 

 our Mediterranean - like lakes, and our rivers great and 

 full ; and I ventured to add that the regions of the West 

 were admirably adapted to a system of internal navigation. 



These journeys were doubtless salutary ; but the 

 principal cause of his renewed vigor was a change 

 of diet, of the nature and effect of which he gives 

 the following description : 



When my health began to fail in 1821 and 1822, I was 

 under the common delusion that debility and functional 

 derangement must be overcome by a moderate use of stimu 

 lants. I had used the oxide of bismuth as an anti-dyspeptic 

 remedy, but with no serious benefit. The muscular sys 

 tem was enfeebled along with the digestive, the nervous 

 power was thrown out of healthy action, an indescribable 

 discomfort deprived me in a great degree of physical en 

 joyment, and the mind became unequal to much intellect- 



