458 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



placid females of the genus homo are found among the well-fed but 

 hard-working housewives of German Pennsylvania. 



That hard work in the factory does not lead to the same result is 

 due to the contrast between fresh and foul air ; but also to the differ- 

 ence between sunshine and artificial twilight. Light is a chief source 

 of vital energy, and every deduction from the proper share of that 

 natural stimulus of the organic process is sure to tell upon the well- 

 being of every living organism. See the difference between the vege- 

 tation of the south side and the north side of the same mountain-range, 

 the gradations in the stunted appearance of hot-house plants, house- 

 plants, and cellar-plants, the achromatism and strange deformities of 

 animals inhabiting the waters of underground rivers. The direct rays 

 of the sun seem to exercise many of the effects which the manufactur- 

 ers of " electric brushes " ascribe to the use of their contrivances. In 

 ancient Rome special sun-bathing houses were used as a specific for a 

 form of asthenia, which was then more frequent than premature de- 

 bility — the infirmity of extreme old age. In winter-time white-haired 

 invalids, stripped to the waist, basked for hours under the glass-roof 

 of a solarium which excluded the chill winds, but admitted the light 

 from all sides, and the same remedy would prove even more effective 

 in the treatment of chlorosis — properly a twilight-disease, and due to 

 the same causes that rob a cellar-plant of its color and vigor. A board 

 fence may fail to remove the fear of peeping Toms, but on sequestered 

 mountain-meadows, warmed by a July sun, or better yet on the beach 

 of a lonely sea-shore, the patient may while away an hour in the cos- 

 tume of the Nereids ; or, after the manner of the sensible Brazilians, 

 children may at safe hours be permitted to turn a leafy garden into 

 paradise. Persons of highly limited means can utilize the elevation of 

 their garrets, and use a half-screened window-corner as a solarium,^ 

 for hours together. The expectation of disastrous consequences will 

 be as surely disappointed as the dread of the night air. " Colds " are 

 not taken in that way. The hairy coat which may, or may not, have 

 covered the bodies of our prehistoric forefathers, did not interfere with 

 the beneficial action of the solar rays, and it is not the least among the 

 disadvantages of our artificial modes of life, that this benefit is now 

 limited to one tenth, or, in the case of a muffled-up lady of fashion, to 

 one per cent, of the cutaneous surface. 



The diet should be sparing, but not to the degree of being astrin- 

 gent, for chronic constipation and nervousness are almost invariable 

 concomitants. There are many appetizing vegetable articles of diet 

 of which a liberal quantum can be eaten without exceeding the needs 

 of the organism ; but here, more than elsewhere, it is of paramount 

 importance to remember the chief rule of the peptic catechism : not 

 to eat till we have leisure to digest. Vertigo, myopsis (visions of 

 floating specks clouding the eye-sight), palpitation of the heart, and 

 the indescribable irritations and discomforts of the sufferers from 



