A Treatise on Domestic Economy | Page 4

Bones. MUSCLES; their
Constitution, Use, and Connection with the Bones. Engraving and
Description. Operation of Muscles. NERVES; their Use. Spinal
Column. Engravings and Descriptions. Distortions of the Spine.
Engravings and Descriptions. BLOOD-VESSELS; their Object.
Engravings and Descriptions. The Heart, and its Connection with the
System. Engravings and Descriptions. ORGANS OF DIGESTION
AND RESPIRATION. Engraving and Description. Process of
Digestion. Circulation of the Blood. Process of Respiration. Necessity
of Pure Air. THE SKIN. Process of Perspiration. Insensible
Perspiration. Heat of the Body. Absorbents. Importance of frequent
Ablutions and Change of Garments. Follicles of Oily Matter in the Skin.
Nerves of Feeling, 68
CHAPTER VI.
ON HEALTHFUL FOOD.
Responsibility of a Housekeeper in Regard to Health and Food. The
most fruitful Cause of Disease. Gastric Juice; how proportioned.

Hunger the Natural Guide as to Quantity of Food. A Benevolent
Provision; how perverted, and its Effects. A Morbid Appetite, how
caused. Effects of too much Food in the Stomach. Duty of a
Housekeeper in Reference to this. Proper Time for taking Food.
Peristaltic Motion. Need of Rest to the Muscles of the Stomach. Time
necessary between each Meal. Exceptions of hard Laborers and active
Children. Exercise; its Effect on all parts of the Body. How it produces
Hunger. What is to be done by those who have lost the Guidance of
Hunger in regulating the Amount of Food. On Quality of Food.
Difference as to Risk from bad Food, between Healthy Persons who
exercise, and those of Delicate and Sedentary Habits. Stimulating Food;
its Effects. Condiments needed only for Medicine, and to be avoided as
Food. Difference between Animal and Vegetable Food. Opinion of
some Medical Men. Medical Men agree as to the Excess of Animal
Food in American Diet. Extracts from Medical Writers on this Point.
Articles most easily digested. The most Unhealthful Articles result
from bad cooking. Caution as to Mode of Eating. Reason why Mental
and Bodily Exertions are injurious after a full Meal. Changes in Diet
should be gradual; and why. Drink most needed at Breakfast; and why.
Dinner should be the heartiest Meal; and why. Little Drink to be taken
while eating; and why. Extremes of Heat or Cold; why injurious in
Food. Fluids immediately absorbed from the Stomach. Why Soups are
hard of Digestion. Case of Alexis St. Martin. Why highly-concentrated
Nourishment is not good for Health. Beneficial Effects of using
Unbolted Flour. Scarcity of Wheat under William Pitt's Administration,
and its Effects. Causes of a Debilitated Constitution from the Misuse of
Food, 94
CHAPTER VII.
ON HEALTHFUL DRINKS.
Responsibility of a Housekeeper in this Respect. Stimulating Drinks
not required for the Perfection of the Human System. Therefore they
are needless. First Evil in using them. Second Evil. Five Kinds of
Stimulating Articles in Use in this Country. First Argument in Favor of
Stimulants, and how answered. Second Argument; how answered. The

Writer's View of the Effects of Tea and Coffee on American Females.
Duty in Reference to Children. Black Tea the most harmless Stimulant.
Warm Drinks not needful. Hot Drinks injurious. Effect of Hot Drinks
on Teeth. Mexican Customs and their Effects illustrating this. Opinion
of Dr. Combe on this subject. Difference between the Stimulus of
Animal Food and the Stimulating Drinks used. Common Habit of
Drinking freely of Cold Water debilitating. Persons taking but little
Exercise require but little Drink, 106
CHAPTER VIII.
ON CLOTHING.
Calculations made from Bills of Mortality; and Inference from them.
Causes of Infant Mortality. Of the Circulation in Infancy. Warm Dress
for Infants; and why. Investigations in France, and Results. Dangers
from the opposite Extreme. Effects of too much Clothing. Rule of
Safety. Featherbeds; why unhealthy in Warm Weather. Best
Nightgowns for Young Children. Clothing; how to be proportioned.
Irrational Dress of Women. Use of Flannel next the Skin. Evils of Tight
Dresses to Women. False Taste in our Prints of Fashions. Modes in
which Tight Dresses operate to weaken the Constitution. Rule of Safety
as to Looseness of Dress. Example of English Ladies in
Appropriateness of Dress, 112
CHAPTER IX.
ON CLEANLINESS.
Importance of Cleanliness not realized, without a Knowledge of the
Nature of the Skin. Foundation of the Maxim respecting the
Healthfulness of Dirt. Office of the Skin. Other Organs which perform
similar Duties. Amount of Matter daily exhaled by the Skin. Effect of a
Chill upon the Skin, when perspiring. Illustration of this. Effect of
closing the Pores of the Skin, with Dirt or other Matter. The Skin
absorbs Matter into the Blood. Reasons for a Daily Ablution of the
whole Body. Effects of Fresh Air on Clothing worn next the Skin.

Americans compared with other Nations as to Care of the Skin.
Cautions in Regard to a Use of the Bath. How to decide when Cold
Bathing is useful. Warm Bath tends to prevent Colds; and why. When a