THE REMEDIES OF NATURE. 455 



they will regain their native vigor ! Their infirmities could not have 

 been traced to any single cause, but were due to the combined influ- 

 ence of numerous unnatural conditions. 



A similar combination of abnormal circumstances causes thousands 

 of the perplexing complaints known as nervous diseases — nervous de- 

 bility, languor, want of vital vigor. The introduction of narcotic 

 drinks is no sufficient explanation for the present increase of such dis- 

 orders. Prince PQckler-Muskau describes an ii-on-fisted Arab chieftain 

 of Southern Tunis who, in his eightieth year, could manipulate a bow 

 that would have nonplused the champions of our archery clubs, who 

 undertook an expedition that kept him in the saddle for three days 

 and two nights, and who could abstain from food for the same length 

 of time, but always traveled with a skinful of moist coffee-paste, 

 which he sucked and chewed like tobacco. West China mountaineers, 

 able to contest the prize of any weight-lifting match or wrestling-bout, 

 and of otherwise most abstemious habits, can not subsist without a daily 

 dose of the national beverage. No sensible person would maintain 

 that such people owe their vigor to their narcotic tipples ; no patholo- 

 gist would deny that it deprives them of part of their strength, but 

 that its use alone could cause the premature decrepitude of millions of 

 Indo-Germanic invalids would be an equally untenable assertion. It 

 is merely an additional factor in the multitude of unnatural habits 

 that make up the misery of our modern modes of life. 



That our primogenitors passed their days among trees is one of 

 the few points on which Moses and Darwin agree ; whether four 

 banders or frugivorous two-handers, they certainly were forest-creat- 

 ures, and breathed an air saturated with elements of which the atmos- 

 phere of our tenement barracks is more devoid than the briny breeze 

 of the ocean. Our lungs suffer for it ; but not our lungs alone. Be- 

 sides being the best pulmonary pabulum, oxygen is a nerve-tonic ; a 

 forester, a hunter, a Swiss shepherd-boy, in a state of tubercular con- 

 sumption, would be less exceptional phenomena than in a state of nerv- 

 ous fretfulness. A constitutional kind of good-humor sweetens the 

 hardships of the overtaxed peasantry of Southern Europe, as its ab- 

 sence certainly aggravates the misery of our factory-slaves. And it 

 would be a mistake to suppose that only summer air can exercise this 

 nerve-soothing influence. Let a chlorotic girl take a sleigh-ride on a 

 cold, clear winter day, or through a snow-storm ; let her skate ; give 

 her a chance to get an hour's out-door exercise even on drizzly or 

 frosty days. The north wind may white-freeze her ear-tips, but it will 

 restore the color of her cheeks, it will restore her appetite, her energy, 

 and her buoyant spirits. Those whom necessity compels to limit their 

 out-door rambles to the half-mile between home and shop, should let 

 the night make up for the shortcomings of the day, and sleep — in dry 

 weather, at least — in the draught of a wide-open window. Only a first 

 experiment of that sort will necessitate the addition of a night-cap to 



