George Eliot - "Middlemarch"

John Lothrop Motley - "The Life of John of Barneveld, 1609"

Bertrand Russell - "The Problems of Philosophy"

G.A. Henty - "With Lee in Virginia; A Story Of The American Civil War"

New Philadelphia Book Publisher Highlights Local Talent
Book and Publishing News from Publishers Newswire(tm)

Looking for Child to be on Cover of a New Book, 'The Model Child'
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- The Philadelphia literary world will celebrate the launch of two new players today, April 10th: Kay Square Press, a new publishing company focused on Philadelphia-area artists, their stories, and their art; and Kay Square's first release, 'With the Rich and Mighty: Emlen Etting of Philadelphia' (ISBN: 978-0-9815129-0-7), a critical biography by Kenneth C. Kaleta.

FlatSigned Press Alleges Don Imus Remarks Damage Legacy of President Gerald R. Ford
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Nathan Yungerberg, an accomplished model scout and professional child photographer is launching a nation-wide casting call to find the cover model for his highly anticipated book release, 'The Model Child: A Parents Guide to the Child Modeling Industry' (ISBN: 978-0-9817018-0-6).

Books: The American Woman\'s Home

C >> Catherine E. Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe >> The American Woman\'s Home




On this same principle you can convert a salt-box or an old drum of
figs into a hanging-basket. Tack bark and pine-cones and moss upon the
outside of it, drill holes and pass wires through it, and you have a
woodland hanging-basket, which will hang and grow in any corner of
your house.

We have been into rooms which, by the simple disposition of articles
of this kind, have been made to have an air so poetical and attractive
that they seemed more like a nymph's cave than any thing in the real
world.

[Illustration: Fig. 44.]

Another mode of disposing of ferns is this: Take a flat piece of board
sawed out something like a shield, with a hole at the top for hanging
it up. Upon the board nail a wire pocket made of an ox-muzzle flattened
on one side; or make something of the kind with stiff wire. Line this
with a sheet of close moss, which appears green behind the wire
net-work. Then you fill it with loose, spongy moss, such as you find
in swamps, and plant therein great plumes of fern and various
swamp-grasses; they will continue to grow there, and hang gracefully
over. When watering, set a pail under for it to drip into. It needs
only to keep this moss always damp, and to sprinkle these ferns
occasionally with a whisk-broom, to have a most lovely ornament for
your room or hall.

The use of ivy in decorating a room is beginning to be generally
acknowledged. It needs to be planted in the kind of soil we have
described, in a well-drained pot or box, and to have its leaves
thoroughly washed once or twice a year in strong suds made with
soft-soap, to free it from dust and scale-bug; and an ivy will live
and thrive and wind about in a room, year in and year out, will grow
around pictures, and do almost any thing to oblige you that you can
suggest to it. For instance, in a March number of _Hearth and Home_,
[Footnote: A beautifully illustrated agricultural and family weekly
paper, edited by Donald G. Mitchell(Ik Marvel) and Mrs. H. B. Stowe,]
there is a picture of the most delightful library-window imaginable,
whose chief charm consists in the running vines that start from a
longitudinal box at the bottom of the window, and thence clamber
up and about the casing and across the rustic frame-work erected for
its convenience. On the opposite page we present another plain kind
of window, ornamented with a variety of these rural economical
adornings.

[Illustration: Fig. 45.]
In the centre is a Ward's case. On one side is a pot of _Fuchsia_.
On the other side is a Calla Lily. In the hanging-baskets and on the
brackets are the ferns and flowers that flourish in the deep woods,
and around the window is the ivy, running from two boxes; and, in case
the window has some sun, a _Nasturtium_ may spread its bright blossoms
among the leaves. Then, in the winter, when there is less sun, the
_Striped Spider-wort_, the _Smilax_ and the _Saxifraga_. _Samantosa_ (or
_Wandering Jew_) may be substituted. Pretty brackets can be made of
common pine, ornamented with odd-growing twigs or mosses or roots,
scraped and varnished, or in their native state.

A beautiful ornament for a room with pictures is German ivy. Slips of
this will start without roots in bottles of water. Slide the bottle
behind the picture, and the ivy will seem to come from fairyland, and
hang its verdure in all manner of pretty curves around the picture.
It may then be trained to travel toward other ivy, and thus aid in
forming green cornice along the ceiling. We have seen some rooms that
had an ivy cornice around the whole, giving the air of a leafy bower.

There are some other odd devices to ornament a room. For example, a
sponge, kept wet by daily immersion, can be filled with flax-seed and
suspended by a cord, when it will ere long be covered with verdure and
afterward with flowers.

A sweet potato, laid in a bowl of water on a bracket, or still better,
suspended by a knitting-needle, run through or laid across the bowl
half in the water, will, in due time, make a beautiful verdant ornament.
A large carrot, with the smallest half cut off, scooped out to hold
water and then suspended with cords, will send out graceful shoots in
rich profusion.

Half a cocoa-nut shell, suspended, will hold earth or water for plants
and make a pretty hanging-garden.

It may be a very proper thing to direct the ingenuity and activity of
children into the making of hanging-baskets and vases of rustic work.
The best foundations are the cheap wooden bowls, which are quite easy
to get, and the walks of children in the woods can be made interesting
by their bringing home material for this rustic work. Different colored
twigs and sprays of trees, such as the bright scarlet of the dog-wood,
the yellow of the willow, the black of the birch, and the silvery gray
of the poplar, may be combined in fanciful net-work. For this sort of
work, no other investment is needed than a hammer and an assortment
of different-sized tacks, and beautiful results will be produced.
Fig. 46 is a stand for flowers, made of roots, scraped and varnished.
But the greatest and cheapest and most delightful fountain of beauty
is a "Ward case."

[Illustration: Fig 46.]

Now, immediately all our economical friends give up in despair. Ward's
cases sell all the way along from eighteen to fifty dollars, and are,
like every thing else in this lower world, regarded as the sole
perquisites of the rich.

Let us not be too sure. Plate-glass, and hot-house plants, and rare
patterns, _are_ the especial inheritance of the rich; but any family may
command all the requisites of a Ward case for a very small sum. Such a
case is a small glass closet over a well-drained box of soil. You make a
Ward case on a small scale when you turn a tumbler over a plant. The
glass keeps the temperature moist and equable, and preserves the plants
from dust, and the soil being well drained, they live and thrive
accordingly. The requisites of these are the glass top and the bed of
well-drained soil.

Suppose you have a common cheap table, four feet long and two wide.
Take off the top boards of your table, and with them board the bottom
across tight and firm; then line it with zinc, and you will have a
sort of box or sink on legs. Now make a top of common window-glass
such as you would get for a cucumber-frame; let it be two and a half
feet high, with a ridge-pole like a house, and a slanting roof of glass
resting on this ridge-pole; on one end let there be a door two feet
square.

[Illustration: Fig. 47.]

We have seen a Ward case made in this way, in which the capabilities
for producing ornamental effect were greatly beyond many of the most
elaborate ones of the shops. It was large, and roomy, and cheap. Common
window-sash and glass are not dear, and any man with moderate ingenuity
could fashion such a glass closet for his wife; or a woman, not having
such a husband, can do it herself.

The sink or box part must have in the middle of it a hole of good size
for drainage. In preparing for the reception of plants, first turn a
plant-saucer over this hole, which may otherwise become stopped. Then,
as directed for the other basket, proceed with a layer of broken
charcoal and pot-sherds for drainage, two inches deep, and prepare the
soil as directed above, and add to it some pounded charcoal, or the
scrapings of the charcoal-bin. In short, more or less charcoal and
charcoal-dust is always in order in the treatment of these moist
subjects, as it keeps them from fermenting and growing sour.

Now for filling the case.

Our own native forest-ferns have a period in the winter months when
they cease to grow. They are very particular in asserting their right
to this yearly nap, and will not, on any consideration, grow for you
out of their appointed season.

Nevertheless, we shall tell you what we have tried ourselves, because
greenhouse ferns are expensive, and often great cheats when you have
bought them, and die on your hands in the most reckless and shameless
manner. If you make a Ward case in the spring, your ferns will grow
beautifully in it all summer; and in the autumn, though they stop
growing, and cease to throw out leaves, yet the old leaves will remain
fresh and green till the time for starting the new ones in the spring.

But, supposing you wish to start your case in the fall, out of such
things as you can find in the forest; by searching carefully the rocks
and clefts and recesses of the forest, you can find a quantity of
beautiful ferns whose leaves the frost has not yet assailed. Gather
them carefully, remembering that the time of the plant's sleep has
come, and that you must make the most of the leaves it now has, as you
will not have a leaf more from it till its waking-up time in February
or March. But we have succeeded, and you will succeed, in making a
very charming and picturesque collection. You can make in your Ward
case lovely little grottoes with any bits of shells, and minerals, and
rocks you may have; you can lay down, here and there, fragments of
broken looking-glass for the floor of your grottoes, and the effect
of them will be magical. A square of looking-glass introduced into the
back side of your case will produce charming effects.

The trailing arbutus or May-flower, if cut up carefully in sods, and
put into this Ward case, will come into bloom there a month sooner
than it otherwise would, and gladden your eyes and heart.

In the fall, if you can find the tufts of eye-bright or houstonia
cerulia, and mingle them in with your mosses, you will find them
blooming before winter is well over.

But among the most beautiful things for such a case is the
partridge-berry, with its red plums. The berries swell and increase
in the moist atmosphere, and become intense in color, forming an
admirable ornament.

Then the ground pine, the princess pine, and various nameless pretty
things of the woods, all flourish in these little conservatories. In
getting your sod of trailing arbutus, remember that this plant forms
its buds in the fall. You must, therefore, examine your sod carefully,
and see if the buds are there; otherwise you will find no blossoms in
the spring.

There are one or two species of violets, also, that form their buds
in the fall, and these too, will blossom early for you.

We have never tried the wild anemones, the crowfoot, etc.; but as they
all do well in moist, shady places, we recommend hopefully the
experiment of putting some of them in.

A Ward case has this recommendation over common house-plants, that it
takes so little time and care. If well made in the outset, and
thoroughly drenched with water when the plants are first put in, it
will after that need only to be watered about once a month, and to be
ventilated by occasionally leaving open the door for a half-hour or
hour when the moisture obscures the glass and seems in excess.

To women embarrassed with the care of little children, yet longing for
the refreshment of something growing and beautiful, this indoor garden
will be an untold treasure. The glass defends the plant from the
inexpedient intermeddling of little fingers; while the little eyes,
just on a level with the panes of glass, can look through and learn
to enjoy the beautiful, silent miracles of nature.

For an invalid's chamber, such a case would be an indescribable comfort.
It is, in fact, a fragment of the green woods brought in and silently
growing; it will refresh many a weary hour to watch it.



VII.

THE CARE OF HEALTH.

There is no point where a woman is more liable to suffer from a want
of knowledge and experience than in reference to the health of a family
committed to her care. Many a young lady who never had any charge of
the sick; who never took any care of an infant; who never obtained
information on these subjects from books, or from the experience of
others; in short, with little or no preparation, has found herself the
principal attendant in dangerous sickness, the chief nurse of a feeble
infant, and the responsible guardian of the health of a whole family.

The care, the fear, the perplexity of a woman suddenly called to these
unwonted duties, none can realize till they themselves feel it, or
till they see some young and anxious novice first attempting to meet
such responsibilities. To a woman of age and experience these duties
often involve a measure of trial and difficulty at times deemed almost
insupportable; how hard, then, must they press on the heart of the
young and inexperienced!

There is no really efficacious mode of preparing a woman to take a
rational care of the health of a family, except by communicating that
knowledge in regard to the construction of the body and the laws of
health which is the basis of the medical profession. Not that a woman
should undertake the minute and extensive investigation requisite for
a physician; but she should gain a general knowledge of first
principles, as a guide to her judgment in emergencies when she can
rely on no other aid.

With this end in view, in the preceding chapters some portions of the
organs and functions of the human body have been presented, and others
will now follow in connection with the practical duties which result
from them.

On the general subject of health, one recent discovery of science may
here be introduced as having an important relation to every organ and
function of the body, and as being one to which frequent reference
will be made; and that is, the nature and operation of _cell-life_.

By the aid of the microscope, we can examine the minute construction
of plants and animals, in which we discover contrivances and operations,
if not so sublime, yet more wonderful and interesting, than the vast
systems of worlds revealed by the telescope.

By this instrument it is now seen that the first formation, as well
as future changes and actions, of all plants and animals are
accomplished by means of small cells or bags containing various kinds
of liquids. These cells are so minute that, of the smallest, some
hundreds would not cover the dot of a printed _i_ on this page.
They are of diverse shapes and contents, and perform various different
operations.

[Illustration: Fig 48.]

The first formation of every animal is accomplished by the agency of
cells, and may be illustrated by the egg of any bird or fowl. The
exterior consists of a hard shell for protection, and this is lined
with a tough skin, to which is fastened the yelk, (which means the
_yellow_,) by fibrous strings, as seen at _a_, _a_, in the diagram. In
the yelk floats the germ-cell, _b_, which is the point where the
formation of the future animal commences. The yelk, being lighter than
the white, rises upward, and the germ being still lighter, rises in the
yelk. This is to bring both nearer to the vitalizing warmth of the
brooding mother.

New cells are gradually formed from the nourishing yelk around the
germ, each being at first roundish in shape, and having a spot near
the centre, called the nucleus. The reason why cells increase must
remain a mystery, until we can penetrate the secrets of vital
force--probably forever. But the mode in which they multiply is as
follows: The first change noticed in a cell, when warmed into vital
activity, is the appearance of a second nucleus within it, while the
cell gradually becomes oval in form, and then is drawn inward at the
middle, like an hour-glass, till the two sides meet. The two portions
then divide, and two cells appear, each containing its own germinal
nucleus. These both divide again in the same manner, proceeding in the
ratio of 2, 4, 8, 16, and so on, until most of the yelk becomes a mass
of cells.

The central point of this mass, where the animal itself commences to
appear, shows, first, a round-shaped figure, which soon assumes form
like a pear, and then like a violin. Gradually the busy little cells
arrange themselves to build up heart, lungs, brain, stomach, and limbs,
for which the yelk and white furnish nutriment. There is a small bag
of air fastened to one end inside of the shell; and when the animal
is complete, this air is taken into its lungs, life begins, and out
walks little chick, all its powers prepared, and ready to run, eat,
and enjoy existence. Then, as soon as the animal uses its brain to
think and feel, and its muscles to move, the cells which have been
made up into these parts begin to decay, while new cells are formed
from the blood to take their place. Time with life commences the
constant process of decay and renewal all over the body.

[Illustration: Fig. 49.]

The liquid portion of the blood consists of material formed from food,
air, and water. From this material the cells of the blood are formed:
first, the white cells, which are incomplete in formation; and then
the red cells, which are completed by the addition of the oxygen
received from air in the lungs. Fig. 49 represents part of a magnified
blood-vessel, _a_, _a_, in which the round cells are the white, and the
oblong the red cells, floating in the blood. Surrounding the blood-
vessels are the cells forming the adjacent membrane, _bb_, each having a
nucleus in its centre.

Cells have different powers of selecting and secreting diverse materials
from the blood. Thus, some secrete bile to carry to the liver, others
secrete saliva for the mouth, others take up the tears, and still
others take material for the brain, muscles, and all other organs.
Cells also have a converting power, of taking one kind of matter from
the blood, and changing it to another kind. They are minute chemical
laboratories all over the body, changing materials of one kind to
another form in which they can be made useful.

Both animal and vegetable substances are formed of cells. But the
vegetable cells take up and use unorganized or simple, natural matter;
whereas the animal cell only takes substances already organized into
vegetable or animal life, and then changes one compound into another
of different proportions and nature.

These curious facts in regard to cell-life have important relations
to the general subject of the care of health, and also to the cure of
disease, as will be noticed in following chapters.


THE NERVOUS SYSTEM.

There is another portion of the body, which is so intimately connected
with every other that it is placed in this chapter as also having
reference to every department in the general subject of the care of
health.

The body has no power to move itself, but is a collection of instruments
to be used by the mind in securing various kinds of knowledge and
enjoyment. The organs through which the mind thus operates are the
_brain_ and _nerves_. The drawing (Fig. 50) represents them.

[Illustration: Fig. 50.]

The brain lies in the skull, and is divided into the large or upper
brain, marked 1, and the small or lower brain, marked 2. From the brain
runs the spinal marrow through the spine or backbone. From each side
of the spine the large nerves run out into innumerable smaller branches
to every portion of the body. The drawing shows only some of the larger
branches. Those marked 3 run to the neck and organs of the chest; those
marked 4 go to the arms; those below the arms, marked 3, go to the
trunk; and those marked 5 go to the legs.

The brain and nerves consist of two kinds of nervous matter--the _gray_,
which is supposed to be the portion that originates and controls a
nervous fluid which imparts power of action; and the _white_, which
seems to conduct this fluid to every part of the body.

The brain and nervous system are divided into distinct portions, each
having different offices to perform, and each acting independently of
the others; as, for example, one portion is employed by the mind in
thinking, and in feeling pleasurable or painful mental emotions; another
in moving the muscles; while the nerves that run to the nose, ears,
eyes, tongue, hands, and surface generally, are employed in seeing,
hearing, smelling, tasting, and feeling all physical sensations.

The _back_ portion of the spinal marrow and the nerves that run from it
are employed in _sensation_, or the _sense of feeling_. These nerves
extend over the whole body, but are largely developed in the network of
nerves in the skin. The _front_ portion of the spinal marrow and its
branches are employed in moving those muscles in all parts of the body
which are controlled by the _will_ or _choice_ of the mind. These are
called the _nerves of motion_.

The nerves of sensation and nerves of motion, although they start from
different portions of the spine, are united in the same _sheath_ or
_cover_, till they terminate in the muscles. Thus, every muscle is moved
by nerves of motion; while alongside of this nerve, in the same sheath,
is a nerve of sensation. All the nerves of motion and sensation are
connected with those portions of the brain used when we think, feel, and
choose. By this arrangement the mind _knows_ what is wanted in all parts
of the body by means of the nerves of sensation, and then it _acts_ by
means of the nerves of motion.

For example, when we feel the cold air on the skin, the nerves of
sensation report to the brain, and thus to the mind, that the body is
growing cold. The mind thus knows that more clothing is needed, and
_wills_ to have the eyes look for it, and the hands and feet move
to get it. This is done by the nerves of sight and of motion.

Next are the nerves of _involuntary motion_, which move all those
parts of the head, face, and body that are used in breathing, and in
other operations connected with it. By these we continue to breathe
when asleep, and whether we will to do so or not. There are also some
of the nerves of voluntary motion that are mixed with these, which
enable the mind to stop respiration, or to regulate it to a certain
extent. But the mind has no power to stop it for any great length of
time.

There is another large and important system of nerves called the
_sympathetic_ or _ganglionic_ system. It consists of small masses of
gray and white nervous matter, that seem to be small brains with nerves
running from them. These are called _ganglia_, and are arranged on each
side of the spine, while small nerves from the spinal marrow run into
them, thus uniting the sympathetic system with the nerves of the spine.
These ganglia are also distributed around in various parts of the
interior of the body, especially in the intestines, and all the
different ganglia are connected with each other by nerves, thus making
one system. It is the ganglionic system that carries on the circulation
of the blood, the action of the capillaries, lymphatics, arteries, and
veins, together with the work of secretion, absorption, and most of the
internal working of the body, which goes forward without any knowledge
or control of the mind.

Every portion of the body has nerves of sensation coming from the
spine, and also branches of the sympathetic or ganglionic system. The
object of this is to form a sympathetic communication between the
several parts of the body, and also to enable the mind to receive,
through the brain, some general knowledge of the state of the whole
system. It is owing to this that, when one portion of the body is
affected, other portions sympathize. For example, if one part of the
body is diseased, the stomach may so sympathize as to lose all appetite
until the disease is removed.

All the operations of the nervous system are performed by the influence
of the nervous fluid, which is generated in the gray portions of the
brain and ganglia. Whenever a nerve is cut off from its connection
with these nervous centres, its power is gone, and the part to which
it ministered becomes lifeless and incapable of motion.

The brain and nerves can be overworked, and can also suffer for want
of exercise, just as the muscles do. It is necessary for the perfect
health of the brain and nerves that the several portions he exercised
sufficiently, and that no part be exhausted by over-action. For
example, the nerves of sensation may be very much exercised, and the
nerves of motion have but little exercise. In this ease, one will be
weakened by excess of work, and the other by the want of it.

It is found by experience that the proper exercise of the nerves of
motion tends to reduce any extreme susceptibility of the nerves of
sensation. On the contrary, the neglect of such exercise tends to
produce an excessive sensibility in the nerves of sensation.

Whenever that part of the brain which is employed in thinking, feeling,
and willing, is greatly exercised by hard study, or by excessive care
or emotion, the blood tends to the brain to supply it with increased
nourishment, just as it flows to the muscles when they are exercised.
Over-exercise of this portion of the brain causes engorgement of the
blood-vessels. This is sometimes indicated by pain, or by a sense of
fullness in the head; but oftener the result is a debilitating drain
on the nervous system, which depends for its supply on the healthful
state of the brain.

The brain has, as it were, a fountain of supply for the nervous fluid,
which flows to all the nerves, and stimulates them to action. Some
brains have a larger, and some a smaller fountain; so that a degree
of mental activity that would entirely exhaust one, would make only
a small and healthful drain upon another.