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- 



