246 
AMERICAN AGBICULTUEIST. 
[August, ’i 
directly into the eyes, contracting the pupil un¬ 
naturally, and tending to produce weakness and 
inflammation by the effort required to read with 
only a few rays entering the eye. The very 
best position for reading, and the only one that 
should ever be adopted, is, to sit upright, with 
the hack or side to the lamp or window , and let the 
light fall over th$ shoulder upon the paper or hook. 
If there are windows on the opposite side of the 
room, change the position so that the wall or 
some dark object shall be in front of the eyes. 
The pupil of the eye then expands, and takes 
in a complete picture of the page or letters. 
A much smaller light will be required in the 
position recommended. Dr. Youman suggests 
the following experiment: “ Sit with the face to 
the light, and turn down the flame until the 
printed letters become nearly invisible. Now 
interpose the hand or a book to cut off the rays 
coming directly to the eye, and the letters will 
become distinctly visible again.” A strict ad¬ 
herence to the simple rule we have set forth, 
would restore half of the now weak eyes. (The 
other half would be mostly restored by avoid¬ 
ing a light too weak, and by keeping the sys¬ 
tem open, that is, free from costiveness, which 
deteriorates the blood and the system generally.) 
Book-keepers, watch-makers, mechanics, and at 
least all who work upon small objects, should 
so arrange their desks or work-benches that the 
light shall come in from the side upon their 
books, or the objects they are at work upon. 
---— - - - 
For the American Agriculturist. 
“Playing in the Dirt’’—Bathing. 
“ Oh let them play in the dirt, it’s wholesome,” 
we heard a mother say, when informed that her 
children were making mud pies by the roadside. 
Play is wholesome, particularly in the open air, 
but filth is not; yet many persons have strange¬ 
ly imbibed the notion that unwashed, neglected 
children thrive best. They say “ look at the 
hardiness of the little street vagabonds that 
throng our cities, and compare their toughness 
with the pale faces and puny limbs of the moth¬ 
ers’ darlings that are never permitted to enjoy 
themselves for fear of soiling their clothing.” 
But they take no account of the thousands of 
“ nobody’s children ” that every year die of dis¬ 
eases contracted or aggravated by want of clean¬ 
liness. Those who survive, do so because of 
natural strength of constitution, which carries 
them safely through danger. As stated above, 
out door exposure is indispensable to high health, 
and it is want of this, not clean clothing, which 
injures the “ mothers’darlings.” 
A coating of dust upon the skin interferes with 
its proper function. If this covering of the body 
be examined with a magnifier of high power, 
there will be discovered myriads of little orifices 
called pores which are outlets for a large part 
of the waste matter or dead particles of the body. 
If this poisonous matter be kept in the system, it 
will overload and derange other organs, and if it 
occur to any great extent, will cause active 
disease. A person varnished over completely, 
bo as to stop all the pores, would die, after a time. 
Few things tend to the promotion of sound 
health more than frequent ablution of the whole 
person. If laborers would take a morning bath 
twice or three times a week, and thus keep the 
skin well cleansed, they would be abundantly 
repaid in the comfort and vigor which the pro¬ 
cess would impart. Salus. 
Remakes. —We have nothing to say against 
the general olea of “ Salus,” for neatness. But 
there has been not a little nonsense written and 
spoken concerning bathing, within a few years 
past. It is a question whether more lives have 
not been lost than saved by the morning bath 
in cold water. We will not deny that a person 
of vigorous constitution may break ice in the 
water, and take a brief wash or plunge in it, 
with no injurious effect, and even with benefit 
if a speedy reaction is unfailingly secured; but 
the fact is, few persons will secure the proper 
reaction unless under the immediate direction 
and oversight of a skillful physician. We have 
tried a daily, tri-weekly, semi-weekly, and then 
a weekly morning cold bath, and caught many 
a cold, notwithstanding all the skill and “ sci¬ 
ence ” we could bring to bear. This cold water 
morning bathing maybe “meat” to some, but 
it is “ death ” to us, and to many others we wot 
of. We now luxuriate on a weekly or semi¬ 
weekly bath, in a comfortable room, with the 
chill taken off the water, and but little time oc¬ 
cupied in the process, finishing off with a brisk 
rubbing, with a moderately coarse towel, not 
with a curry-comb, splint brush, or half-hatch- 
eled flax towel. 
A common mistake is, that those laboring 
out-doors, in dust and sweat, most need to bathe. 
Such persons sweat off the accumulations upon 
the skin, and though frequent bathing will con¬ 
duce to their “good looks,” to their comfort, and 
to lessening the labor of washing their gar¬ 
ments, yet they need this operation much less, 
so far as health is concerned, than your caged 
gentlemen and ladies who seldom put forth ef¬ 
fort enougli to get up a free perspiration. The 
filthiest, most unhealthy skin, belongs to the 
neat body who dwells on Brussels carpet where 
not a particle of dust is permitted to rise, but 
who never exerts herself enough to ‘raise a dust.’ 
Our lives are artificial, in part, and we can not 
in all respects follow the indications of nature; 
yet if constant bathing is essential to health, it 
must have been an oversight in the order of na¬ 
ture, that we were not bom with gills and fins. 
The most unhealthy skin would seem to be 
one from which the delicate oily secretions, nat¬ 
urally provided to lubricate the seven million 
tubes of the skin, is kept constantly removed 
by ablutions of soaps, alkalies, and water.— Ed. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
Bags versus Boxes. 
Boxes are unaccommodating, obstructive arti¬ 
cles of furniture, unless one has more room 
where to bestow goods than falls to the lot 
of most American housekeepers. They require 
standing room, and as one can seldom have 
them just of the size needed to contain articles 
to be stored, much space is wasted by their use. 
Somethings, as articles of clothing, bedding, etc., 
must have boxes or drawers for their proper 
keeping: but for all which will admit it, I pre¬ 
fer to use bags. These can be hung up any¬ 
where, and they occupy no more room than is 
needed, and if necessary several can be placed 
upon the same nail. A large bag hung in the 
closet for the reception of soiled clothing, is much 
more convenient than the clothes-basket, which 
is always in the way. Some careless house¬ 
keepers I know, have neither, but appropriate a 
corner of the sleeping room for soiled linen, etc., 
until washing day—a most untidy practice. A 
bag or large pocket to hold shoes when not in 
use is a great convenience. A good way to make 
it, and others which are frequently used, is, to 
leave one side a few inches longer than the oth¬ 
er, and bind it with wide tape. Make a loop in 
the tape at each corner of the long side, for con¬ 
venience in hanging; it is then always handy to 
get at the articles it contains. The comb and 
brush may have a small bag made in the same 
manner. It will look much more tidy than to 
deposit these articles upon the toilet table or 
mantel-piece. Patches, strings, waste paper, 
buttons, etc., also seeds, and various little arti¬ 
cles used in culinary operations, can be most 
conveniently kept in the same manner. If the 
various receptacles are made of uniform style, 
they will have a neat, orderly appearance. 
Martha 
About Eggs. 
An egg of the average size weighs 1000 grains, 
or one-seventh of a pound. Three-fourths of 
its weight is water. One-seventh is albumen, a 
highly nutritious substance, resembling lean 
meat in its composition, and therefore adapted 
to produce strength of muscles when consumed 
as food. One-tenth of the weight of the egg is 
fat or oil, which is useful to supply carbon for 
respiration, and heating the body, and therefore 
especially valuable for eating in cold weather. 
The yolk contains some sulphur and phos¬ 
phorous compounds, the latter affording mate¬ 
rials for the structure of the bones. The shell 
is chiefly carbonate of lime—similar in compo¬ 
sition to marble or lime-stone. The shell is po¬ 
rous, and admits air for the chicken before it 
breaks out. Of the entire egg the shell weighs 
about one-tenth; the yolk, three-tenths; the 
white or transparent portion, six-tenths. The 
composition of an egg is quite similar to that of 
a piece of good fat beef steak with the bulk of 
the loose fat, or tallow, trimmed off; eggs are 
therefore nutritious food. Seven eggs, weigh¬ 
ing a pound, are nearly as valuable for food as 
a pound of good meat, and they generally cost 
much less. During the past few months seven 
eggs have cost only 7 cents at retail, in our mar¬ 
ket, while a pound of sirloin beef has cost 14 to. 
16 cents, and a good steak from the round, 12 to 
14 cents per pound—being two to one in favor 
of eggs. 
In cooking eggs, most families boil or fry 
them hard. This renders them bad to digest,, 
unless they are masticated very fine, and this is 
seldom done in rapid eating. They are every 
way better if soft-boiled, and after a little prac¬ 
tice in eating them thus, a hard-boiled egg is 
comparatively dry and tasteless. An egg placed 
in boiling water just three minutes, or if a large 
one 31 to 3$ minutes, is abundantly cooked. 
After removing from the water, the eggs need 
to stand a few minutes to heat through to the 
center. After becoming a little accustomed to 
them, eaten with the addition of a little salt and 
pepper, or other condiment, eggs thus cooked 
are palatable as butter, instead of requiring to 
be covered with butter. 
Preserving Eggs. —As above stated, the 
shells are porous, and the water of the egg is 
constantly evaporating, and air entering to take 
its place. After a time, decay commences. It 
will readily be seen that stopping the pores of 
the shell will tend to preserve the contents in 
their natural state. This may be done by dip¬ 
ping them quickly in melted tallow, or coating 
them with sweet oil, or a solution of gum, or 
varnish. Milk of lime, that is, fresh slaked lime 
mixed with water to a milky consistence, fills up 
the pores pretty well. Thus coated, they only 
need to be placed in a cool place, of somewhat 
uniform temperature. A packing .of chaff, bran* 
salt, ashes, charcoal, dry saw-dust, or any siinir 
