100 THE HOUSE I LIVE IN. 



ABUSES OF THE JOINTS. This is the best 

 place in the book for speaking of certain abuses 

 of the joints. Now that the great Creator 

 made the joints to be used, is proved from their 

 curious structure, and from the substance pre- 

 pared to mo sten them ; but that they were not 

 made to be used too violently is also proved by 

 the fact that if thus used, they become dis- 

 eased. Sometimes the liquor called synovia 

 dries away ; in these cases, we hear the grating 

 sound already mentioned ; at others, the joints 

 become painful or perhaps swell. It is rather 

 seldom, however, that they swell from mere 

 walking, if we walk ever so much ; but they 

 very often become stiff and clumsy. 



One of the worst abuses of the joints is by 

 wrestling. I have seen a great many famous 

 wrestlers, who, when they became old, had 

 stiff, or lame, or swelled knees or hips. They 

 are tortured almost to death with these com- 

 plaints. Sometimes the physician calls the 

 complaint gout, sometimes rheumatism. 



No doubt people have both the gout and the 

 rheumatism from other causes besides wrestling, 

 such as catching cold, excess in eating and 



