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exclude the pure air, thus introducing into our laboratory air which had already lost a good part of its Oxygen, and which was wholly unfit for our purposes. The emanations of the skin also, being confined by superfluous swathings, gave new force to our first and worst enemy, Carbonic Acid, and contributed to weaken and perplex us in our operations.

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2. Many infants in our neighborhood died under a similar course of mal-treatment, having been almost smothered under the coverlid, in a room' 38 the atmosphere of which had been vitiated by the presence of a number of visitors. It is a wonder that our young lady survived as she did. We made the mōst, however, of the little Oxygen we managed to get, and kept up a vigilant warfare against Carbonic Acid until the summer came, and open windows and out-of-door exercise fed us with invigorating draughts, and enabled us to overcome the tendencies to disease which an impure atmosphere had generated..

3. No sooner had we escaped the perils of infancy, however, than our little mistress was placed at a school where we had to undergo a new series of trials. Some twenty pupils were kept five hours a day in an apartment, about sixteen feet long by fourteen wide, the windows and doors of which were carefully closed. By an accurate arithmetical calculation, we convinced ourselves that, supposing the room to be filled with fresh air when the pupils entered, it would be all used up in just three minutes afterwards, at the end of which time we poor Lungs had to inhale the waste animal matter and Carbonic Acid with which the atmosphere was loaded. Languor, irritability, and dulness of the intellect, were the sure result; and then the children were rapped over the knuckles for faults which a little fresh air would have prevented.

4. Persons entering, and inhaling the air thus exhausted and corrupted, would often complain of the oppressive and offensive smell. But the schoolmistress could never be made to believe

that any thing was wrong. She had been accustomed to it so long that she did not perceive it. The sensibility of her lungs and nostrils had become blunted. Then she had false notions about taking cold. A current of air upon the heated body is to be avoided, as every body knows; but taking cold is often the result of the depression of the vital powers by the absence of pure air, so that when the individual goes forth into the cold, there is not sufficient reäctive energy to fortify him against the effect of a change of temperature. Depressed and weakened by a want of its natural stimulus, Oxygen, the system is unprepared to meet the emergency to which it is exposed.

5. Well: no sooner 88 had we weathered one danger than we

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had to combat another. Our young lady was sent to a boardingschool; and here we not only had to inhale a foul atmosphere during school hours, but at night we were shut up in a sleeping room, where five or six other pairs of Lungs were at work oxygenizing blood. O, the state of that room in the morning! If our old enemy, Carbonic Acid, did not have it all to himself, he was in a fair way to arrive at the supreme dominion, and to murder us in our beds. Our friend and ally', Oxygen, would be. almost entirely driven from the field. Faint and panting, it would be sometimes with an effort that he could strike a last blow in our defence. O! when will people learn that ventilation, or the means of supplying fresh air to the Lungs, is as necessary as the supply of food to the Stomach ?

6. At length our young lady, who, to do her justice, was studious and capable, left school. She had become very accomplished in instrumental music, drawing, and several of the sciences; could speak French and Italian; but, alas! knew little of the commonest laws of health- not enough to take care that we had fair play in our efforts to serve her. In reading aloud and singing, she was not half as successful as she might have been—owing simply to the delicate state into which we had been thrown by impure air, and the lack of plentiful outof-door exercise. An awful trial now awaited us. She entered society, and her dress-maker persuaded her that an hour-glass waist "would set off her figure to advantage. How odiously false was the advice! Every person of taste looks with pity or disgust upon the unnatural constraints employed to disfigure the body, and destroy its symmetry.

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7. However, we were obliged to submit. The chest, in which we are enclosed, now being restricted to unnatural limits, the volume of air inhaled was necessarily diminished, and thus there was an insufficient quantity of Oxygen to vitalize the blood, even though we might be in a well-ventilated apartment, or in the open air! But the evil was aggravated when our mistress began to pass her evenings in hot and badly-ventilated ball-rooms or concert-rooms. Then what torments, what discouragements, did we poor Lungs have to undergo! How often would we sigh, "O, for a long, deep draught of Oxygen!" When will people consider that to produce ventilation there must be two constant currents; one outward, carrying off the foul air, and one inward, bringing in pure air? It is absurd to provide means for the admission of fresh air by a furnace or otherwise, unless there be some ǎvenue for the foul air to escape.

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8. By the end of our eighteenth winter, we were in such a diseased state that the doctor was called in. He sounded us

with his stethoscope. Do you know what a stethoscope is? We will tell you. When the ear is applied to the chest of a healthy person, the sound of the air passing through the branches of the windpipe and our air-cells may be distinctly heard. This has given rise to the invention of the stethoscope, a small wooden, trumpet-shaped instrument, which transmits the sounds of respiration with great distinctness, when one end is placed against the chest, and the other against the ear of the listener. The variations of sound, produced by the modifications of disease, enable the listener to detect, though not always with infallible accuracy, the existence and extent of pulmonary affections.

9. The result of the test applied to us was, that a sea voyage was recommended to the patient. She was sent to a relative in England, and here, under the care of a most intelligent lady, we were in the course of six months restored to a state of comparative health. Why will not our American ladies adopt some of the good habits of their English sisters in respect to exercise and pure air. "In the United States," says the late A. J. Downing, "a gentleman or lady who is seen regularly devoting a certain portion of the day to exercise, is looked upon as a văletudinarian, an invalid, who is obliged to take care of himself, poor soul! and his friends daily meet him with sympathizing looks, hoping he 'feels better.' As for the ladies, unless there is some object in taking a walk, they look upon it as the most stupid and unmeaning thing in the world. On the other side of the water, a person who should neglect the pleasure of breathing the free air for a couple of hours daily, or should shun the duty of exercise, is suspected of slight lu'nacy; and ladies who should prefer continually to devote their leisure to the solace of luxurious cushions, rather than an exhilarating ride or walk, are thought a little out of their head."

10. The consequence of this difference of habits is à marked difference in the health of the intelligent females of England and those of this country. An English woman dresses according to the climate and the state of the roads, and takes a healthful amount of exercise, let the weather be what it may. Great attention is also paid by her to the ventilation of her rooms. We had hopes that our young mistress, after her English experience, would, on her return home, devote herself to a more serious fulfilment of her duties towards us. ΕΙ But it is hard to overcome early habits of inattention and neglect. She is gradually relapsing into the most culpable indifference in regard to our comfort and health. Absorbed in her social and fashionable pursuits, she often allows our abominable persecutor, Carbonic Acid, to get the upper hand; and then she will stay within doors

SELECT PASSAGES.

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day after day, depriving us of the exhilarating company of our two best friends, Oxygen and Exercise.

11. We feel that another crisis in our condition is approaching; and that the doctor with his stethoscope will soon be called in again. Let others, who have a pair of Lungs to be responsible for, be warned by this recital. We wish we were strong enough to send forth (with the aid of some of our neighboring organs) a voice that should reach from Maine to Oregon, penetrating every school-room, every church, every parlor, every work-shop, every railroad car, every steamboat cabin, every sleeping-room, and every hall in the land. Were it our last breath, we would say: Give us pure air! Ventilate, VENTILATE, VENTILATE!

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1. INDEBTEDNESS TO SOCIEty and GoveRNMENT. What an illusion is that in which often a man exists, and in which often he boasts himself, as though there were over him no authority and no constraining influence! "I am my own. I am of no party. I own no authority. Authority has done nothing for me, and I owe it nothing any where. I have made my own fortune, my own mind. I am a self-made man. I am my own, altogether my own." And to such a person the answer is ever so simple : "The very words you speak, are they of your own inventing? or rather are they not words of long ago,—words of your learning,

language derived to you from the forests of Saxony, from within side the walls of ancient Rome, from the market-place of Athens, and indeed from the manner in which Adam and Eve talked together, even before the birth of their eldest-born? The truths of astronomy, are they of your own discovery? The arts by which your life is made pleasant, are they of your own inventing? Your own, altogether your own? Ah, if there were taken from you every thing but that, you would be no better than a dumb savage hiding yourself in a cave!" We belong to society by every word of our tongues, every thought of our minds, and every thread of our garments. So largely do we belong to society, and perhaps almost without our ever having known it.

And we belong to the government, perhaps almost without our being conscious of its existence. "The government! I have nothing to do with it; and it has nothing to do with me." And, with no government to care for you, how long would you be safe in person or property? With a bad government, would not you

are safe

certainly feel yourself belonging to it, even against your wishes, by the oppressions you would suffer? And do you, then, the less, belong to a government, because of its being good, and not oppressive? Not belong to a government! Ah! you walk the streets, protected by a shield which you do not see: you in your home at night, not so much by the bolt on the door, as by the invisible presence of law, which is round the house to guard it. In your manner of thinking, in your free conversation with your friends, in your innermost feelings and in your outward life, and even in the tone of your voice, there is the proof and the influence of the government you belong to. — Wm. Mountford.

2. THE LOVE OF HOME. It is only shallow-minded pretenders who either make distinguished origin a matter of personal merit, or obscure origin a matter of personal reproach. Taunt and scoffing at the humble condition of early life affect nobody in America but those who are foolish enough to indulge in them, and they are generally sufficiently punished by public rebuke. A man who is not ashamed of himself need not be ashamed of his early condition. It did not happen to me to be born in a log-cabin; but my elder brothers and sisters were born in a log-cabin, raised among the snow-drifts of New Hampshire, at a period so early, that when the smoke first rose from its rude chimney, and curled over the frozen hills, there was no similar evidence of a white man's habitation between it and the settlements on the rivers of Canada.

Its remains still exist; I make to it an annual visit. I carry my children to it, to teach them the hardships endured by the generations which have gone before them. I love to dwell on the tender recollections, the kindred ties, the early affections, and the touching narratives and incidents which mingle with all I know of this primitive family abode. I weep to think that none of those who inhabited it are now among the living; and if ever I am ashamed of it, or if ever I fail in affectionate veneration for him who reared it, and defended it against savage violence and destruction, cherished all the domestic virtues beneath its roof, and, through the fire and blood of a seven years' revolutionary war, shrunk from no danger, no toil, no sacrifice, to serve his country, and to raise his children to a condition better than his own, may my name, and the name of my posterity, be blotted forever from the memory of mankind! ·Daniel Webster.

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3. RESISTANCE TO RIDICULE. -Learn from the earliest days to insure your principles against the perils of ridicule; you can no more exercise your reason, if you live in the constant dread of laughter, than you can enjoy your life, if you are in the constant

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