240 Edward Livingston Youmans, 



August J d. — I found the inclosed passage imbedded in 

 a paragraph, and there having been no reference to the sub- 

 ject before, the first question of an ignorant pupil would be : 

 What is he talking about ? What are cysteria ? What are 

 trichinae ? What is encephaloid ? One of the things I had 

 expected was to find a complete paragraph, or several para- 

 graphs, with a full account of these parasites. Turning to 

 the last section of the chapter on Foods, I find a recurrence 

 to them, but no explanation. Everything is taken for 

 granted. The passage is a somewhat exaggerated sample 

 of your prevailing fault of writing. You must study the 

 art of puiti?ig a case. You must, in the first place, throw 

 yourself into the state of mind of one who knows nothing 

 of the subject, and make the explanation simple and com- 

 plete without his having to go to the dictionary or glossary. 

 A world of practice will be required upon this one point. 

 As practice, you cannot do better than to make a statement, 

 and then make it over and over again, striving each time 

 to get it more simple and clear. I will omit the included 

 passage from its place, and put what is said upon this sub- 

 ject in the last section of the chapter, and I wish you would 

 immediately write out a full account of the matter: the 

 origin, size, circumstances, propagation of the animals, and 

 their physiological effects, harmless or harmful. It will be 

 expected in the book. It is just what the second part of 

 the book is for. 



August 4th. — I am head and ears into your job, as I 

 wrote yesterday. The chapter on clothes is the best of all, 

 as the whole discussion is most pertinent. Yet I miss the 

 specific and most important statement to which you have 

 often referred, of the effect of insufificient clothing in in- 

 fancy. You despatch the whole question of infancy and 

 old age by a short extract from Parkes. If you can muster 

 some statements with specific evil effects, concrete facts, 

 and send them down, I will incorporate them. A note from 



