A Maiden Lady's View of Husbands. of the things that have been done or said before. This is the way Nature treats men and women, and whether for good or ill I have fallen into the same habit. Through a friend I have been reading The Columbus Medical Journal and I I 667 am delighted with it. It is really a heart to heart talk to the people, for the people, and with the people. Truly the Golden Rule exemplified. Please find enclosed ten cents for a copy and next month I will send a year's subscription.-MRS. SARAH S. ALLEN, 515 Margaret St., Flint, Mich. TRAINING HUSBANDS. By FLORINDA TWICHELL, East McDonough, New York. T IS a trite saying that, "The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world." It would be a comfort to some of the cradle rockers whose ambitions have been crushed and whose horizon has almost narrowed down to the four walls of her home, to believe this. There has doubtless been an idea entertained by many, that some way the patient mothers who know nothing of the current events of the day, the great moral struggles and the all-absorbing economic interests of our country, are going, if they rock the cradle. faithfully and often, to send out boys whose intellects will surprise the world, and who shall guide the affairs of the nation in such a way as shall open the way for the achievement of all that is great and good. There may have been a few accidents of this kind, but I believe to-day the woman who has the best knowledge of the affairs of our nation, its economic, moral and spiritual needs, is best fitted to train her boys from the proverbial cradle up, and the day will come in the great social adjustment, that we look forward to, that she will still do her share of cradle-rocking. There is a province, however, where the mother's influence and training will tell in such a practical way, and where it is so sadly needed, that I wish to speak of it. It is the training of husbands. Women who succeed in other things fail in this. There are, of course, a great many homes where it is an impossibility to train a boy to preside over a home to which better educational advantages, better wages may A home of entitle him in the future. poverty and ignorance may send out a man who will be a financial success. The main things of importance, however, do not need wealth for the mother to be able to teach habits of order and cleanliness, the cultivation of unselfishness, of generosity, yet of economyall this must be drilled into the boy's nature till they become his natural habits of mind and action. Good, tender, loving mothers often train very poor husbands. They wait on their boys, foster their pride and selfishness. It is their greatest joy to do little things for the boy, and their greatest sorrow to think of his outgrowing the need of these little attentions. They cried when the boys went into kilts, again when they put on a boy's suit, and again when they donned long pants. I have the most tender sympathy with this sentiment. A mother has purchased a right, by suffering, to the largest possible proprietorship of her boy, yet she has no right to forget his future. Things that are a delight to the mother will not be so to the busy wife, who naturally expects a share of waiting on herself. She does not find special delight in turning from her work. or children to tie her husband's necktie every time he goes out, to brush his clothes or to even wash his neck and ears, as his mother always did. The wheels of domestic machinery in many homes stand still until the husband has left the house for his work. His books or papers are always left on the floor for some one to pick shoes and sewed on his own buttons, will go out looking neat, and when he has a home of his own he will wait on himself from force of habit. From a physical standpoint the early training of boys is sadly neglected. The good mother bathed her little ones daily, but when they grew older she did not make provision for this, and as the boys went out into the dust and dirt she seemed to have forgotten. that their need of bathing was much greater. A boy who has slept in a room with plenty of fresh air all his early life will religiously insist on it wherever he goes. His wife will not have to ventilate the family sleeping room privately by leaving the window open under the curtain. Ah, mother, great is your opportunity! I might well envy you the scope of your possibilities. Rock not blindly the cradle on which some of us may not lay proprietory hands. As you rock remember some sweet girl will thank you for training a husband for her. V WHAT IS CHICKENPOX. ERY little is actually known of In the first place, it is known to be an infectious disease. That is, one child catches it from another. In the next place, it is known to be a child's disease, although it occasionally happens that grown people have it. It is also known that it is not a very severe disease. The fever, if any, is very slight. An eruption occurs, not like scarlet fever and measles, but more like smallpox. There are distinct pustules, containing a clear fluid, and if let alone they will dry up in about three days, leaving a sort of a scab. When the scab comes off it sometimes leaves a pit. The majority of people have one or more of these scars, produced by chickenpox. No one dies of chickenpox, at least so few that such an event would be considered a remarkable occurrence. To be sure, a child may die while it is having chickenpox, but die of some complication or concomitant disease. One curious circumstance about chickenpox is, that it was not distinguished from smallpox until after 1873. A smallpox epidemic in Germany at that time brought out some investigation, which led the German specialists to the conclusion that chickenpox is a distinct disease, and not a mild case of smallpox, as was formerly supposed. That the mildest and least dreaded of all eruptive diseases, chickenpox, should have been confused so long Dietetics as a Part of Moral Education. with the severe and most dreaded of all diseases, smallpox, is probably due to the fact that the eruption has a superficial resemblance. In chickenpox, however, the eruption begins upon the face and back, and afterwards extends to the front of the body. In chickenpox the body is more affected by the eruption than the face, hands and feet, while in smallpox the face, hands and feet are the principal sites of eruption. Chickenpox, unlike smallpox, cannot be inoculated. That is to say, should some of the fluid be taken out of a vesicle and inoculated into another person, or into the same person, it will not produce the disease. And yet chickenpox appears to be a very contagious disease among the children. The means of infection is absolutely unknown. The children catch it of each other. That is what the old lady knows, and that is what the doctors know. Whether there is a specific contagion or disease germ or not the doctors do not know. Certain it is that either through the air, personal contact, or by things conveyed from person to person, the disease spreads and an epidemic is likely to become quite general. Sometimes the eruption comes on very suddenly. Other times the vesicles come on one by one, covering several days, and disappear as gradually. Little The fever is so slight that the patient is generally around as usual. or no attention is given to it, ordinarily. Every one gets well, unless something is done to suppress the eruption. Perhaps if a cold was caught at the time of the eruption, or anything happened to especially disturb the function of the skin, the disease might become quite severe. There are cases in which gangrene of the skin has occurred. Erysipelas, perhaps, once in a while. This undoubtedly in a very bad treatment, or some great imprudence on the part of the patient. Chickenpox does not seem to leave any traces of its existence. The kidneys suffer no damage, although occasionally a case of kidney disease fol 669 Moral Education Congress. By SOPHIE LEPPEL, London, W. C., England. W HEN receiving the August circulars about the First International Moral Education Congress, I observed that no reference was made to food in the list of school problems. I wrote to Mr. Gustav Spiller, general secretary of the Congress, pointing out the serious. omission of the effects of food on the physical, mental and moral nature of the young, enclosing some literature on the subject. I have received no reply. It is evident that all these famous pedagogues have neglected to study one of the most important subjects which will help to keep the young virtuous. It is well known that adults have committed the grossest acts of immorality in spite of knowing that they were doing wrong; the will power in such cases being too weak to carry out the dictates of their conscience. The most valuable information is useless, when the individual lacks the will power required to carry out the rules of moral restraint. The theoretical knowledge of how to control the emotional nature will keep very few, if any, in the path of virtue. Some practical information must be given also in the form of dietary advice, so that peo ple may be strong enough to resist temptation at critical moments. I-To prevent deteriorating personal habits, parents should be acquainted with the special foods which act on the emotional nature. 2-Youths should be aware that certain symptoms incidental to the male sex, are unnatural. They are caused by wrong foods, and a correct diet will stop the drain upon the nervous system. Children, even at an early age, can be easily taught how to apply the rules of a rightly combined diet, in order to keep themselves in good physical, mental and moral condition, by taking those foods in daily use which are suited to them. Vegetarians claim that a non-flesh diet is the best for controlling the emotional nature. It is difficult to beIt is difficult to believe this statement, when we consider the morals of the Turks, Chinese, Japanese, etc., whom they. quote as examples of physical strength. The Government should found experimental institutions where the various ef fects of different foods on the young could be tested. With regard to extended information for adults, Mr. W. H. Webb, 41 East Bank St., Southport, England, deserves the highest praise for introducing Dr. Melville C. Keith's works to the English public. All who wish for valuable information on moral lines should read his publications. It is more satisfactory to observe that the Rev. Mrs. Mabel MacCoy deals so effectively with this question in her magazine, entitled "The Cradle" (Edgemoor, Del., U. S. A.). Mr. Chas. A. Mitchell, editor of "The Stella Purity Record" (Cherokee, Oklahoma, U. S. A.), is also an earnest worker on the same lines. Let us hope that there may be in England soon similar publications and public workers, for the need is great, to prevent many tragedies for which parents and teachers are now largely responsible, on account of withholding from the young the most necessary information for leading a happy and successful life. E CLAM BAKES AND VERY now and then we read of a lot of men and women getting together and having a clam clam bake or an ox roast. These occasions are supposed to be places where feasting and festivity run riot.. Bushels and bushels of clams are gathered and put into a heap, covered with proper material, a fire built upon them, and roasted there. Generally an expert is hired for the occasion, in order that the clams may be properly roasted. A great big ox is slaughtered, skinned, dressed and roasted whole before a huge fire. Then the meat is cut up and placed in reach of the men and women, who eat it hot from the roast. Who are these men and women who do these things? They are not tramps, or beggars, or paupers, who have been deprived of meat and clams and are OX ROASTS. obliged by circumstances when they do get such things to cook them imperfectly in the open air. They are not a hungry horde of hunters, or soldiers on a military campaign. Nothing of the sort. They are citizens. Our best citizens. Indeed, no one but the bon ton is supposed to be present. People who own mansions and have at their command skilled cooks. People who sit down every day to elegant dinners. Who have clams to eat whenever they want them, roast meat served as often as they wish. It is no special hunger, then, or necessity that compels these crowds of our bestdressed and least-worked men and women to come together for the sole purpose of rioting in a carnivorous debauch. The baked clams are not half as well cooked as the clams they eat at home, Another Letter to Dr. Wiley. at frequent intervals. The roast beef is either overdone or underdone, and such cooking would not be tolerated by any one of the men and women who profess to enjoy this outdoor gourmandizing. Neither is it a social necessity for these feasts to occur. People who are brought together at clam, bakes and ox roasts are frequently brought together on other occasions. They have all sorts of banquets, picnics, excursions and outings, afternoons and parties, luncheons, dances and card contests. It is no social necessity that calls together this expensively perfumed congregation. How, then, does it happen that clam bakes and ox roasts are perpetuated? What explanation is there that such grossly sensuous attraction should bring together so many women already over-burdened with social obligations, so many men staggering under business responsibilities and engagements? The explanation is easy. Some other company like themselves have done the same thing. They feel that they must copy the doings of their elite brethren in other cities. The pace was set for them a long time ago, way off somewhere, no one knows where. The fashion has come into authoritative recognition, and the rest must follow. whether they like it or not. Not one of them likes the meat cooked in that way. Nor the clams. But their loyalty to the occasion is quite touching. They struggle to swallow a bit of clam, against which their stomach rebels. They disguise a piece of raw meat between bits of bread, and make an effort to swallow it, much as they would take quinine, because to not take actual part in these festivities is to lose standing among those they call their set. They must appear to enjoy these feasts. Must laugh and exuberate. Get hilarious. Appear to eat much. And as a reward they will have the privilege of saying, for weeks afterwards, how wonderfully they enjoyed the clam bake and ox roast. Such pretense is the essential of politeness, and the very beginning of 671 good etiquette. Such lies fall lightly from the tongue, and do not seem to touch their moral sensibilities. When the season of clam bakes again comes on, with great effort the shout of welcome is raised, a fury of expectation and preparation is begun, and the same old fracas happens over again. If the money spent and time wasted and energy squandered could be devoted to some sincere recreation or honest association, the world would be richer for it, the participants would be the happier for it, and the esthetic sensibilities of the masses would be spared that periodical outrage which the newspaper accounts of such occasions are sure to furnish. Vaccination Wrong. By HARRY B. BRADFORD, Kensington, Md. N AN open letter to Dr. W. H. Wiley, chief of the Bureau of Chemistry, Washington, D. C., Mr. Bradford says: I hope you will read very carefully these enclosures herewith, as they were writknows as much about vaccination as ten by a physician who probably any man in this country, excluding Dr. M. R. Leverson, of New York. They will greatly aid you in undertaking to have the many kinds of vac cine matter now on the market correctly labeled. If what goes into the stomach should be labeled, certainly if any man is fool enough to put anyshould be labeled! thing directly into the blood, that Think of the wisdom Nature uses in her elaborate choosing and refining of substances from the food mass of the alimentary canal, for the life current! Then think of man's foolishness in ignoring all her wisdoms and barriers, and putting not a food, but a poison directly into the blood by puncture; at a bound, into the very center, otherwise guarded in the providence of God!!! And you a "scientific" man, and can countenance such a stupid absurdity as that? The eminent English physician, J. J. Garth Wilkinson, says: "The history of medicine, rife in delusions |