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KIDD’S OWN JOURNAL. 

probably, if the practice were reproved as 
wrong, say, that if it were not done they 
would be chilled by the coldness of the bed; 
and, not recovering their heat, would pass 
sleepless nights. That they believe what 
they say, is more than likely. 
But instead of being satisfied with this 
answer, they should ask themselves, “‘ Why 
is it that I require my bed to be warmed, 
whilst most people contrive to do without 
any such indulgence?” A heated bed is 
injurious. If heated with coals, the air of 
the room is deteriorated by their combustion, 
if not by their smoke; and, however heated, 
it enervates, it weakens, it renders the skin 
susceptible to modifications of temperature ; 
and therefore, the system liable to suffer from 
the ordinary vicissitudes of our climate. 
Why isit wanted? Is the man in a debilitated 
state? If so, we would say, indulge him 
until he has recovered his strength. Is he 
laboring under some severe disease? Does 
it soothe and tranquillise him, and can it not 
make him worse? Well then, under such 
circumstances, continue the practice. But 
is the man in moderate health? Then, 
depend upon it, the chances are, either that 
he keeps himself in a heated atmosphere, 
dreading lest the winds of Heaven should visit 
him too roughly, or his stomach is weak, or 
disordered, or some of the organs concerned 
in the digestion of his food have either too 
much to do, or are more or less disturbed in 
their functions. Let such a man try the 
effect of a regulated and moderate diet, of 
temperance, of daily exercise in the open air ; 
and, till these have exerted their influence, 
let him keep his feet warm by a bottle filled 
with hot water, or any similar contrivance, 
and till then, or even afterwards, let him 
substitute calico for linen sheets. 
We have said enough to show the folly, 
the inutility, and injurious effects of a heated 
atmosphere in the bed-room. We would, 
with some modifications, extend these re- 
marks to the sitting-room. The cooler it is, 
consistently with health, the better; and, if 
the individual takes enough exercise, if he 
uses muscles enough, and uses them sufti- 
ciently, and if he is as much out of doors as 
he ought to be, he will not, even in the depth 
of winter, require much fire, and will more- 
over be content to have the door of the room 
open, or the windows partially so at the top. 
This may seem an outrageous sort of doctrine 
—one subversive of fire-side comfort; but 
let us remind the reader that there is no 
comfort without health, and it is for, and in 
the behalf of health, that we are writing. 
But what is better known, than the stupify- 
ing effects of a hot room ona social or family 
party ? What is better known to the man 
who studies much, than the impossibility of 
applying his mind to serious business in a hot, 
or even warm room, from the lethargy which 
it always produces ? 
But further; and it is perhaps even more 
important—this undue heat increases the 
chance of suffering from exposure to cold air ; 
not only by heating the body and making 
the contrast between them greater, but by 
producing exhaustion, and in this way it ren- 
ders the risk infinitely greater. It is in this 
way that the heated ball-room or theatre does 
so much harm, laying the train for so many 
afflicting cases of premature death. It isnot 
only by the contrast between the temperature 
within and that without, but by the ex- 
hausted condition into which the heat throws 
those who have been exposed to its influence ; 
the condition in which the circulation of the 
blood in the skin, being languid, is most easily 
checked, and the blood, thrown on some 
internal, and probably, vital organ, sows the 
seeds of consumption, &c. &c. 
Enough has been said of the temperature 
of rooms; it need only be added, that fires 
certainly subserve, more or less, the purpose 
of ventilators, by heating the air and causing 
it to go up the chimney,—that air being re- 
placed by cold air, which enters at the door 
or the windows. And therefore, ifrooms are 
heated by steam-pipes, or in any similar way, 
it is necessary to adopt more active and 
unusual means to secure ventilation. 
AN ENGLISH COTTAGE. 

In A BOOK called “English Items,” 
written by an American (Mr. M. Ward), is a 
pretty sketch of an English cottage. Mr. 
Ward’s picture may be relied on for correct- 
ness. He hates our country and our coun- 
trymen most bitterly; but his spleen seems 
‘to have left him fora few minutes while 
journeying by rail from Liverpool to Lon- 
don. Tarrying on the road, he wandered 
among some rustic dwellings; and here he 
saw something that pleased him :—- 
““T do admire,” he says “that pretty little 
modest cottage, with its gable-end hung with a 
dark mantle of ivy, and its door half-curtained 
with clambering roses and honeysuckles! On its 
window-sills are ranged modest pots of heliotropes 
and mignonette, breathing out their sweet odors 
upon the happy inmates of the lowly cot. In the 
little yard of grassplots and flowers, a stately cock 
convoys his numerous hens, which are busily 
scratching and pecking for worms, regardless of 
his ‘proffered gallantries. Chanticleer glories in 
his charge, and loudly crows as he flaps his bur- 
nished wings of gold. In the stable-yard stands 
an old white horse, freckled with age, munching 
his oats beside a rough Shetland pony. Snugly 
reposing under the shed was a red milch cow, 
chewing the cud as she dozed unmindful of our mo- 
mentary presence. A large peacock, with the gor- 
geous glories of its tail spread to their utmost, 
strutted swiftly along im solitary grandeur, the 



