She has a little sore throat, perhaps, and the weather is inclement, but she must wear her neck and arms bare, for who ever saw a bride in a close evening dress? She is seized with inflammation of the lungs, and dies before her bridal days are over. What a Providence !" exclaims the world, "cut off in the midst of happiness and hope!" Alas! did she not cut the thread of life herself?

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A girl in the country, exposed to our changeful climate, gets a new bonnet instead of getting a flannel garment. A rheumatism is the consequence. Should the girl sit down tranquilly with the idea that Providence has sent the rheumatism upon her, or should she charge it on her vanity, and avoid the folly in future?

Look, my young friends, at the mass of diseases that are incurred by intemperance in eating, or drinking, or in study, or business; by neglect of exercise, cleanliness, pure air; by indiscreet dressing, tight facing, &c., and all is quietly imputed to Providence! Is there not impiety as well as ignorance in this?

We repeat it. Diseases are the consequences of the violation of God's laws. Were the physical laws strictly observed, from generation to generation, there would be an end of the frightful diseases that cut short life, and of the long maladies that make life a torment or a trial. It is the opinion of those who best understand the physical system, that this wonderful machine, the body, this "goodly temple" would gradually

decay, and men would die, as a few now do die, as if falling to sleep.

I cannot close this chapter, my dear young friends, without begging you to observe how the evil effects of our own sins are tempered to us by the benevolence of the Deity. Truly, "He pitieth us as a Father pitieth his children!" Much spiritual good may be, and often is, extracted from bodily suffering. In our sicknesses we may acquire fortitude, patience, humility, and thankfulness. In the sicknesses of others, we learn self-sacrifice, compassion, and forbear

ance.

But who doubts that health is better than sickness? Study then, my young friends, the laws on which it depends, and obey them.

CHAPTER VI.

CARE OF THE SKIN.

You know, my young friends, that wholesome food, temperance and exercise, are important to health. You know, also, that pure air and cleanliness are conducive to health. To realize that they are indispensable to it, you must know something of the functions of the skin.

*The skin is an exhalant, (or carrier-off,) of waste matter from the system. Secondly, a joint regulator of the heat of the body. Thirdly, an agent of absorption. And fourthly, it is the seat of sensation and touch. You know that the skin perspires, and that a checked perspiration

* For the physiological facts and illustrations in this and the following chapters, in relation to health, I am indebted to Dr. Andrew Combe's work, called "The principles of Physiology, applied to the preservation of Health," &c.-An admirable book, which is already introduced into many of our schools, and which we earnestly wish every young person in our land would read and study. Dr. Combe is, indeed, a benefactor. He is the means of preserving to many the health and smiles of youth, and even of restoring light to the dim eye, and color to the faded cheek.

causes colds, consumptions, unnumbered diseases, and death. But, perhaps, you do not know that the body, in its ordinary state, gives out a large quantity of waste materials, by what is called insensible perspiration, and so called, because the exhalation goes off in the form of invisible to the eye. This insensible perspiration is a process of great importance to health.

vapor,

The average of waste matter exhaled from a man's body in 24 hours, is, according to the lowest estimate, 22 ounces. This does not include that which forms sweat.

You will perceive, at once, why checked perspiration is injurious to health, when you know that the 22 ounces of useless and hurtful mattter accumulates in the body, or is carried off in some way that disturbs its regularity. The weakest part of the system, which ever it is, the lungs, the bowels, or the nerves, is the first to suffer from a check of perspiration.

Burns and scalds, even when they do not cover more than one-eighth of the skin, produce death. This is because so much of the skin is rendered incapable of action, and the matter that should have psssed off by it, is thrown upon some internal organ, and causes inflammation.

The skin is a chief regulator of the body. In polar regions, and in the torrid zone, under every variety of circumstances, the human body retains nearly the same temperature, however different that of the air may be, by which the body is surrounded. By this power of adaptation, man can

enjoy life in a temperature sufficiently cold to freeze mercury, and can sustain, for a time, heat sufficient to bake meat. The chief agents in this wonderful adaptation of man to his external situation, are the skin and the lungs; and in both, the power is intimately connected with the condition of their exhalations—that is, with their healthi

ness.

Absorption is an important function of the skin; it is carried on by means of absorbent vessels, which are exceedingly small and numerous. By its instrumentality, substances placed in contact with the skin, are taken up and carried into general circulation. In vaccination, a small quantity of cowpox matter is inserted under the cuticle on the true skin, and there left. In a short time, it is taken into the system by the absorbent vessels. In the same manner mercurial preparations, rubbed on the skin, are absorbed.

A moist state of the atmosphere is favorable to absorption, that is, to taking in through the skin; and this is the reason why moist air and night air is so unwholesome, particularly in an unhealthy situation, where intermittent fever or any other disease prevails.

When the perspiration is brought to the surface of the skin, and confined there by want of cleanliness, or any other cause, there is reason to believe, that what should have been removed, is again absorbed, and acts on the system as a poison of greater or less power, producing fevers, inflammation, and even death itself. The skin is