Convalescence. 481 
that chance lost? Why was the Confederacy utterly 
destroyed in four years? What were the immediate 
causes of the early and sudden decease ? 
(To be continued.) 
CONVALESCENCE. 
BY THE EDITOR. 
UBLIC attention has recently been called by a chari- 
table lady, to a work eminently worthy of support— 
the permanent establishment of Convalescent Hospitals. 
From a touching appeal addressed to the 7z7mes, we ex- 
tract the following as containing ina small compass the 
gist of the matter— 
“The work ought not to be delayed. We must not wait 
for another epidemic, but take advantage of the experience 
of last year. Frequent visits to the London Hospital, to 
temporary hospitals, and to the dwellings of the poor, have 
strongly convinced me that the sick at the east of London, 
debarred, as they necessarily are, from the fresh air and 
good food so requisite in cases of weakness, have but a 
poor chance of restoration to health and. strength. The 
speedy recovery of the sick, after they are out of the hand 
of the physician, isa true economy. ‘A stitch in time’ 
in this case, as in all others, ‘saves nine. The man is 
enabled the sooner to return to his work, his family are no 
longer deprived of his wages, nor the employer of his 
services, and the community at large ceases to be burdened 
with a useless member.” 
Every word in the above extract is pregnant with philan- 
thropic common sense, and we are happy to observe that 
the powerful interest of the Z7zmes is engaged in behalf of 
Mrs. Gladstone’s project. 
There is a good deal of misconception with regard to 
the force of the word convalescent; it really signifies “re- 
covering,’ whereas persons ordinarily employ it in the 
sense of “recovered.” The idiom “Iam perfectly conva- 
lescent,” intended to convey in a kind of slang the idea “I 
am quite well,” tends to demonstrate that the precise mean- 
ing of the expression is lost sight of in common use. 
Convalescence is strictly the renewing of health, the gra- 
