THE CULTIVATOR. 
21 
position is lit the midoJe ot the room, if not near a lustre, a bell, or 
any thing hanging from the ceiling; and if we place the chair on 
which we sit on a bed or mattress, almost every possible danger may 
be avoided. Such are a few maxims easy to be recollected and put 
in practice, by attending to which not a lew accidents from electri¬ 
cal explosions might be averted. 
In tne next place, various accidents have happened from ignorance 
of certain plain mechanical principles. For example, serious acci¬ 
dents have sometimes occured from the want of acquaintance with 
the laws of motion. Persons have heedlessly jumped out of moving 
vehicles, and got their legs and arms sprained or dislocated, and 
from one boat to another when boil were in rapid motion, and run 
the risk of being either bruised, drenched or drowned. Bu' had the 
effects of compound motion been generally known and attended to, 
in all those cases where it occurs, it would have prevented many of 
those accidents which have happened from persons rashly jumping 
out of carriages when in rapid motion, or attempting to jump from 
the top of a moving cylinder, in which cases the} 7 are always pre¬ 
cipitated with violence, in a direction different from what they ex¬ 
pected, from the obvious effects of a combination of forces. Boats 
and carriages have been sometimes overset by persons rising hastily 
when they were in danger of such accidents,—from ignorance of the 
principle, that the centre of gravity of the moving vehicle, by such a 
practice, is raised so as to endanger the line of direction, being 
thrown beyond the base, when the vehicle must, of course, be over¬ 
turned ,* whereas had they clapped down to the bottom, they would 
have brought down the line of direction, and consequently the cen¬ 
tre of gravity, farther within the base, so as to have prevented the 
accident and secured their safety. 
Many affecting and fatal accidents have happened, and are fre¬ 
quently recurring, particularly to children, and females in the higher 
ranks of life,/raw their clothes catching fire, most of which might be 
prevented were the two following simple facts universally known 
and practically applied,— that flame has a tendency to mount upwards; 
and that air is essentially requisite for supporting it. Win n the 
clothes of females take fire, as the fire generally begins at the )ow<. r 
parts of their dress, so long as they continue in an upright posture, 
the flames, naturally ascending, and meeting with additional fuel as 
they rise, become more powerful in proportion ; whereby the neck, 
the head, and other vital parts of the body are liable to be most in¬ 
jured ; and, by running from one part of the room to another, or 
from one apartment to another, as is most frequently the case, the 
air, which is the fuel of fire, gains free access to every part of their 
apparel, and feeds the increasing flame. In such cases, the suffeier 
should instantly throw her clothes over her head, and roll or lie up¬ 
on them, in order to prevent the ascent of the flames and the access 
of fresh air. When this cannot conveniently be effected, she may 
still avoid great agony, and save her life, by throwing herself at full 
length on the floor, and rolling herself thereon. Though this me¬ 
thod may not, in every case, completely extinguish the flam-, it will 
to a certainty retard its progress, and prevent fatal injury to the vi¬ 
tal parts. When assistance is at hand, the by-standers shou'd im¬ 
mediately wrap a carpet, a hearth-rug, a great-coat, or a blanket 
around the head and body of the sufferer, who should be laid in a 
recumbent position, which will prove a certain preventative from 
danger. During the year 1813, the author noted down more than 
ten instances, recorded in the public prints, of females who were 
burnt to death by their clothes catching fire, all of which might have 
been prevented, had the simple expedients now stated been resorted 
to, and promptly applied. 
Pure air is as essentially requisite to the health and vigor of the 
animal system as wholesome food and drink. When contaminated 
by stagnation, by breathing, by fires or candles, it operates as a slow 
poison, and gradually undermines the human constitution ; yet no¬ 
thing is leps attended to in the economy of health by the great ma¬ 
jority of mankind. Because air is an invisible substance, and makes 
little impression on the organs of sense, they seem to act as if it had 
no existence. Hence we find, that no nt'ention is paid by the lower 
orders of society to the proper ventilation of their apartments. In 
some cases, the windows of their houses are so fixed in the walls as 
to be incapable of being opened ; and in other cases, where the win- 
dows are moveable, they are seldom opened, except by accident, for 
weeks and months together; and were it not that a door and a 
chimney are to be found in every habitable apartment, the air would 
be rendered in many instances absolutely unfit for respiration. 
Crowds of tailors, weavers, shoe-makers and other mechanics, em¬ 
ployed in sedentary occupations, are frequently pent up in close, and 
sometimes damp apartments, from morning till evening, without ever 
thinking of opening their windows for a single half-hour for the ad¬ 
mission of fresh air ; and consequently, are continually breathing an 
atmosphere highly impregnated with the noxious gas emitted Irom 
the lungs, and the effluvia perspired irom their bodies, which is most 
sensibly felt by its hot, suffocating smell, when a person from the 
open air enters into such apartments. The sallow complexion of 
such persons plainly indicates the enervating effects produced by the 
air they breathe ; and although its pernicious effects may not be sen¬ 
sibly felt, it gradually preys upon their constitutions, and often pro¬ 
duces incurable asthmas, fevers, consumptions, and othei dangerous 
disorders, which are frequently imputed to other causes. Nothing 
is more easy than to open the windows of an apartment, and other 
apertures that communicate with the external air, at meal hours, 
when the room is empty, in order to expel the contaminated air, and 
admit the pure vital fluid. No medicine or restorative is cheaper or 
of more importance to health and vigor than pure atmospherical air; 
yet, because it costs nothing, it is little regarded. Hints and admo¬ 
nitions in reference to this point are seldom attended to ; for ignorance 
is always proud and obstinate, and the inconveniences supposed in 
certain cases to flow from the practice of ventilating particular apart¬ 
ments are seldom attempted to be remedied. It is therefore, pre¬ 
sumed, that were a knowledge of the nature of the atmosphere, of 
the ingredients that enter into its composition, of its indispensable 
necessity for the support and invigoration of animal life, of the cir¬ 
cumstances by which it is deteriorated, and of the baneful effects 
which are produced by its contamination, more widely diffused, its 
use and importance would be more duly appreciated, and the disor¬ 
ders which flow from the circumstances now stated, effectually pre- 
vented. 
Much benefit might also be produced, were a knowledge of the 
means of restoring suspended animation, in cases of drowning, stran¬ 
gulation, &.c. generally disseminated. As prompt measures in such 
cases are absolutely necessary, many fatal effects have happened 
from the delay occasioned by medical assistance having been at a 
distance, which might have been prevented, had the proper means 
of resuscitation been known, and immediately resorted to by the 
persons present at such a juncture. Were 'he nature and import¬ 
ance of the function of perspiration generally known and attended 
to, it might likewise be the means of preventing those diseases and 
disasters which flow from making sudden transitions from heat to 
cold which are (he origin of many fatal disorders among the labor¬ 
ing classes. If a man is thoroughly convinced that more than the 
one-half of what he eats and drinks is thrown off'by insensible per¬ 
spiration, he will at once see the importance of avoiding every prac¬ 
tice and every circumstance which has a tendency to obstruct the 
operations of this important function. 
The last example I shall mention, though not of the least impor¬ 
tance, is the faral effects produced by ignorance of the proper mode 
of treating children during the first stages of infancy. It is a fact 
deduced from the annual registers of the dead, that one half the 
number of children born, die under seven years of age. This ex¬ 
traordinary mortality is universally imputed, by medical writers, to 
wrong management during the first and second years of their infan¬ 
cy, and the practice of giving anodyne aromatic medicines. In 
stead of clothing infants in such a manner as to give free scope for 
the exercise of all the vital functions as soon as they are ushered 
into the world, the midwives and officious matrons frequently vie 
with each other to improve upon nature by attempting to model the 
head and to strengthen the limbs by the application ot fillets, rollers, 
and swaddling bands of several yards in length ; thus loading and 
binding them with clothes equal to their own weight to the mani¬ 
fest injury of the motions of their bowels, lungs, limbs, and other 
animal functions. Instead of covering the head with a thin single 
cap, and keeping the extremities in a moderate degree of warmth, 
an opposite course is most frequently pursued, which is supposed to 
be one among the many existing causes of hydrocephalus, or water 
in the brain. Instead of allowing the first milk that is secreted, 
which nature has endowed with a purgative quality, to stimulate the 
bowels, it is a common practice, immediately on the birth of a child, 
to administer a variety of purgative medicines in close succession, 
“ as if,” says a modern writer, “ to prove that it has arrived in a 
world of physic and of evils.” Instead of being exposed to the in¬ 
vigorating effects of pure air, and kept in a moderate degree of tem¬ 
perature, they are too frequently confined to a hot contaminated at- 
