XXVII. THE WORKING-MAN'S HEALTH. "Know, then, whatever cheerful and serene ARMSTRONG. In a late visit I had the pleasure of meeting my two good friends, uncle Benjamin and the schoolmaster, quietly seated under the shade of a spreading buttonwood tree. Upon my making some little complaints about my ill health, uncle Benjamin interrupted me with "Pshaw! man! beware of becoming a grumbler. I have known a man whose everlasting reply was Dying, while he ate well, slept well, and looked as if he could have knocked down a beef." "Some men," said the schoolmaster, quoting Cowper, "Some men employ their health, an ugly trick, A doctor's trouble, but without the fees; Nothing is slightly touch'd, much less forgot, "Just so," rejoined uncle Benjamin: "ailing folks should live in hospitals; at any rate they should remember that other people are not so deeply interested in their disorders. In a long life I have always observed, that there is no greater difference between an ill-bred and a well-bred man, than that the latter keeps his little troubles to himself. It is a shame for active mechanics to become complainers; even if they are amiss, brooding only makes matters worse. What says the proverb? the three best doctors are Dr. Diet, Dr. Quiet, and Dr. Merryman. What says the Bible? A merry heart doeth good like a medicine."* "That reminds me," said Appletree, "of what is said of the famous Dr. Nichols, that whatever a man's distemper might be, he would not attend him, as a physician, if his mind was not at ease; for he believed that no medicines would have any influence. And I dare say you have read the twenty-fifth number of the Spectator, where Addison says, 'the fear of death often proves mortal,' and that many more thousands are killed in a flight than in a battle, and that it is impossible that we should take delight in any thing that we are every moment afraid of losing." "There is too much talk," said uncle Benjamin, "about health as a separate concern. If men are temperate, regular, active, cheerful, and cleanly, they will generally be well. If not, let them bewail their mishaps, not before their friends, but * Prov. xvii. 22. their doctor. But what with bran-bread and vegetable diet, and what with lectures and tracts upon health, hundreds are put in the way of becoming symptom-hunters, then hypochondriacs, and then real invalids. None but a fool will go to fingering the nice works of a watch; yet any one feels free to tinker with his constitution. First whims, then experiments, ruin the strength." "Even learned men," said the schoolmaster, "have fallen victims to this folly. Dr. Stark, an eminent physician of the last century, experimented on diet until his life ended in February, 1770. On the 24th of the preceding June he began with bread and water. On the 26th of July he changed this for bread, water, and sugar. Then came bread, water, and olive oil. On the 8th of September he was so weak that he almost fainted in walking across the room. The last mess but one was a diet of bread or flour with honey, and an infusion of tea or of rosemary. He died on the 23d of February. Bathing, which is one of the best things in the carried to excess. Men of one recommending their own notions to every one: but Dr. Currie closes the account of one of his experiments in cold bathing with the remark, that the chief thing he learned from it was, that it was not rashly to be repeated." 66 world, may be idea are fond of Right, right," exclaimed uncle Benjamin; "God never made his work for man to mend.' The really robust and long-lived men in all nations have always been those who have had no whimsies. They have been temperate, and cleanly, and goodnatured, and brisk, but they have kept no lenten days, nor proscribed any of the ordinary articles of diet. Good roast beef, with tea, coffee, and garden stuffs, has not shortened their days.* And I believe after all it is quantity rather than quality which hurts us. Let a man be forever asking himself, Will this hurt? or, Will that hurt? and he will soon arrive at the point at which every thing will hurt." 66 Exactly so," said the schoolmaster. "When Dr. Johnson's friend Taylor happened to say that he was afraid of emetics, for fear of breaking some small vessels, Poh!' said Johnson, if you have so many things that will break, you had better break your neck at once, and there's an end on't. You will break no small vessels !' And then, says Boswell, he puffed and blowed with high derision." The real diseases of working-men deserve to be considered with all possible aid from science. Let their causes and frequency be noted and re * "Mr. Wesley," says Dr. Southey, "believed that the use of tea made his hand shake so before he was twenty years old, that he could hardly write. He published an essay against tea-drinking, and left off during twelve years: then, ' at the close of a consumption,' by Dr. Fothergill's directions, he used it again, and probably learned how much he had been mistaken in attributing ill effects to so refreshing and innocent a beverage." ported. Where prevention is possible, let them be prevented; where cure is possible, let them be cured; but let them not weigh like a nightmare on those who are well. The statistics of disease in England go to show that "one hundred of the efficient male population of the country are not liable to more than twenty-five severe attacks of disease in the year. Each man is liable to a protracted disease, disabling him from work, every four years this forms one great section of the sickness of the country, but it does not include accidents from fighting and drunkenness, or the many ailments which make men apply for medical advice while they carry on their occupation, comprising, perhaps, as many more cases of a slighter character, which raise to fifty per cent. the proportion of the population attacked annually."* Some of our working-men of the active trades lose their health by over-eating and over-working: of course I leave out the drinking men, who can seldom have sound insides. Extreme exertion wears out multitudes in all trades where great bodily power is required. The coal-heavers of London, healthy as they look, are but a shortlived people. The heavy loads which they carry and the liquor which they drink carry them off rapidly. Before the introduction of the powerpress, a large proportion of the pressmen who * Statistical Account of the British Empire; Article by Dr. Farr. |