SECTION III. SECTION III. 
Some popular American writers have lately laid hold of thissubject, to the great advantage of the society in which theylive. Dr. Combe's "Principles of Physiology" has gonethrough several editions; and I know that the demand of societyfor fresh air and soap and water has considerably increased inconsequence. But much remains to be done. In privatehouses, baths are a rarity. In steam-boats, theaccommodations for washing are limited in the extreme; and in allbut first-rate hotels, the philosophy of personal cleanliness iscertainly not understood. The Creoles of Louisiana are the mostsatisfactory hosts and hostesses in this respect, except a fewparticularly thoughtful people elsewhere. In the house of aCreole, a guest finds a large pan or tub of fresh cold water,with soap and towels, placed in a corner of his room, morning andnight. In such a clirnate as that of New Orleans, there is nosafety nor comfort in anything short of a complete ablution,twice a day. On board steam-boats which have not separatestate-rooms, there are no means of preserving sufficientcleanliness and health. How the ladies of the cabin can expect toenjoy any degree of vigour and cheerfulness during a voyage offour or five days, during which they wash merely their faces andhands, I cannot imagine. It is to be hoped that the majority willsoon demand that there should be a range of washing-closets inall steam-boats whose voyages are longer than twenty-four hours.
The common excuse for the deficient activity and lack of freshair is the climate. But this excuse will not avail while thereare ladies who do preserve their health by walking and riding,and thoroughly ventilating their houses. Any one who knowsStockbridge, and the feats which are there performed by a troopof rosy, graceful girls, and active women, will reject all pleasabout the difficulty of getting air and exercise. It is one ofthe misfortunes of a new country that its cities have environswhich are little tempting for walking. It must be acknowledgedthat it requires some resolution to go out to walk in places nomore tempting than Pennsylvania Avenue, at Washington; Broadway,New York; or the trim streets of Philadelphia; or even the prettyCommon at Boston. But the way to have good country walks providedis to wish for them. When the whole female society of Americashall be as fond of exercise, as highly-principled with regard toit, as the Stockbridge ladies, the facilities will be furnished.In the meantime, there are pretty walks within reach of the wholepopulation, except that of three or four large cities. Boston isparticularly unfortunate in occupying a promontory, from which itis usually necessary to pass very long bridges to the mainland: apassage too bleak to be attempted in wndy weather, and tooexposed to be endurable in a hot sun, without necessity. Butthose who have carriages can easily get transported beyond thisinconvenience; and for those who have not, there is the Commonand the Neck.
Those who wish for health, and know how to seek it, contriveto walk in summer very early in the morning; like residents inIndia. The mornings of the sultry months are perfectly delicious;and there is no excuse for neglect of exercise while they last.The autumn weather of the northern States is the best of theyear, when the hues and airs of paradise seem shed abroad. Thegreater number of days in the winter admit of exercise. The windsare too cutting to be encountered; but the days of calm clearfrost might be much better employed in walking than in sleighing.No enlogiums on the sleigh will ever reconcile me to it. Idislike the motion, and, after a short time, the jingle of thebells. But the danger is the prime consideration. Young ladieswho dry up their whole frames in the heat of fires of anthracitecoal, never breathing the outward air but in going to church, andin stepping in and out of the carriage in going to parties, willonce in a time go on a sleighing expedition; sitting motionlessin the open air, with hot bricks to their feet, and their facesin danger of being frost-bitten. If there be pleasure in suchfrolics, it is too dearly bought by the peril. If the troops ofgirls who would mourn over the abolition of sleighing would buttry how they like the luxury of daily active exercise in freshair, they would find the exchange well worth making, on the scoreof pleasure alone.
The ladies plead that they have much exercise within doors,about their household occupations. Except making beds, rubbingtables, and romping with children, I know of no householdoccupations which involve much exercise. The weariness which someof them occasion, is of a kind which would be relieved bywalking. And all this does not imply fresh air, of which no onecan get enough without going out into it, except in somecountry residences. It made me sorrowful to see children shut upduring the winter in houses, heated by anthracite coal up to thetemperature of 85°; and to see how pallid and dried the poorlittle things looked, long before there was a prospect of theirspeedy release from their imprisonment. Some, who were let out onfine days, were pretty sure to catch cold. Those only seemedheartily to thrive who were kept in rooms moderately heated, andvigorously exercised in the open air, on all but windy and otherunmanageable days. The burning of anthracite coal affected meunpleasantly, except where an evaporation of water was going onin the room. I suspect that some of the maladies of the countrymay be more or less owing to its use.
0ne proof of the badness of the system of npn-exercising, isfound in the fact that the distortion of the spine is even morecommon among women in America than in Europe. Physicians who haveturned their attention to this symptom, declare that thedifficulty is to find in boarding-schools a spine that isperfectly straight: and when the period of growth is completed, alarge majority of cases remains where the weakness is notentirely got over. The posture-making of the United States isrenowned. Of course there is a cause for a propensity so general.The languor induced by the climate is that assigned. The ladiesnot being able to use the same freedom as the gentlemen, get ridof their languor as they may; but not as they best may. Insteadof sitting still all through the hot weather, and allthrough the cold weather, they had better exercise their limbsduring some portion of the day, and lie down during the mostsultry hours; and in the winter, avail themselves of everyopportunity for active employment. If they would do this, it isnot to be conceived that the next generation would bedistinguished as the present is for its spare forms and pallidcomplexions.
The apatlly on the subject of health was to me no otherwise tobe accounted for than by supposing that the feeling of vigoroushealth is almost unknown. Invalids are remarkably uncomplainingand unalarmed; and their friends talk of their having "aweak breast," and "delicate lungs," with littlemore seriousness than the English use in speaking of a commoncold. The numbers of clergymen who had to leave their flocks,professors their chairs, young men and women their country, inpursuit of health, made me melancholy sometimes when thefriends and neighbours took it calmly as the commonest of events.As I am pretty confident that a remedy might be found in morejudicious management, this acquiescence strikes me as being byfar too Mahomedan in its character. The extremest case that I metwith was in a lady, who declared, with complacency, that shecould not walk a mile. She owned her belief that the inactivityof the American women shortened their lives by some years; butthought this did not matter, as they were not aware of it at thetime.
I should like to see a well-principled reform in diet tried,with a view to the improvement of the general health. I shouldlike to see hot bread and cakes banished; a diminution in thequantity of pickles and preserves, and also in the quantity ofmeat eaten. I should like to see the effect of making the diet ofchildren more simple. Almost any change would be worth trying forso great an object. What is to become of the next, and again ofthe succeeding generation, if the average of health cannot beraised, it is fearful to think of. The only prevalence ofvigorous health that I witnessed in the country, was in theelevated parts of the Alleghany range; in the State of Michigan;and perhaps I might add, among the ladies of Charleston, who passthree quarters of the year in the open air of their piazzas.*
All these means of improving health, though probablynecessary, will not avail without some others. There must be lessanxiety of mind among men, and less vacuity among women. With abrain fully but equably exercised, and composed nerves, theabove-mentioned methods would probably enable the Americans todefy the changes of their climate: but not without this justiceto the brain and nerves. It is rather remarkable that thisanxiety prevails most in the parts of the country which make themost conspicuous profession of religion. Religious faith and hopeshould naturally promote health and equanimity by teaching thespirit to repose on immovable principles, and unintermittinglaws: by disburdening the mind of worldly cares, and giving restto the weary and heavy-laden. If it does not thus calm andlighten the mind, it fails of its effect. If it disturbs themental and bodily frame, its operation is perverted. It would bewell if this were looked to. The more moderate religionists pointto the graves of the young who have fallen victims to Revivals.Let them look at home to see if no spiritual competition, noasceticism interferes with the equable workings of the frame, bywhich its powers are kept in vigorous and joyous action,without excess.
There is no doubt of this wear and tear from anxiety being thechief cause of the excessive use of tobacco in the United States.Its charm to men, who have not the elasticity of health and goodanimal spirits to oppose to toil and trouble, may be imagined. Itis to be hoped that the enjoyment of the natural and perfectstimulant will soon supersede the use of the artificial andpernicious one.
The vacuity of mind of many women is, I conclude, the cause ofa vice which it is painful to allude to; but which cannothonestly be passed over, in the consideration of the morals andthe health of American women. It is no secret on the spot, thatthe habit of intemperance is not infrequent among women ofstation and education in the most enlightened parts of thecountry. I witnessed some instances, and heard of more. It doesnot seem to me to be regarded with all the dismay which such asymptom ought to excite. To the stranger, a novelty so horrible,a spectacle so fearful, suggests wide and deep subjects ofinvestigation. If women, in a region professing religion morestrenuously than any other, living in the deepest external peace,surrounded by prosperity, and outwardly honoured moreconspicuously than in any other country, can ever so far cast offself-restraint, shame, domestic affection, and the deep prejudicesof education, as to plunge into the living hell of intemperance,there must be something fearfully wrong in their position. Anintemperate man has strong temptation to plead: he began withconviviality, and only arrives at solitary intemperance as theultimate degradation. A woman indulges in the vice in solitudeand secrecy, as long as secrecy is possible. She knows that thereis no excuse, no solace, no hope. There is nothing before her butdespair. It is impossible to suppose otherwise than that therehas been despair throughout: the despair which waits uponvacuity. I believe that the practice has, in some few cases,arisen from physicians prescribing cordials to growing girls atschool, and from the difficulty found in desisting from the useof agreeable stimulants. In other cases, the vice is hereditary.In others, no explanation remains, but that which appears to mequite sufficient,--vacuity of mind. Lest my mention of this veryremarkable fact should lead to the supposition of the practicebeing more common than it is, I think it right to state, that Ihappened to know of seven or eight cases in the higher classesof society of one city. The number of cases is a fact ofcomparatively small importance. That one exists, is a grief whichthe whole of society should take to heart, and ponder with theentire strength of its understanding.
* I was informed by an eminent physician, that within hisrecollection, goitres were very common at Pittsburg. The patientsrecovered, if early sent round to the open country on the otherside of the hill. Since the woods have been felled, and the citythereby well ventilated, the disease has wholly disappeared.
From Harriet Martineau, Society in America, VolumeIII, Part III, Chapter II, Section III - "Health."London: Saunders and Otley, 1837, pp. 151-161.
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