sensitive blood-vessels permeating it. It has, of course, its uses in the physical economy, but it is a structure no more sensitive than the toe-nails. If there were no more positive suffering involved in the amputation of an arm or leg than is felt in sawing through the marrow, we should have little need of anæsthetics in such cases." All this time the knife is doing its work -cutting deftly and delicately along, till the bottom of the necessary wound is reached. All dangerous blood-vessels are now secured-they are tied, and the threads of silk arranged so that in case of "secondary hemorrhage "—that is, if any one of them should recommence bleeding-it could at once be found, and the flow of blood be stopped either by well-known styptics, or, if necessary, by a second ligation of the bleeding vessel. But whenever another nerve is cut, even one of the infinitesimal twigs distributed through the skin, there comes a renewal of the former pain. More than once does the friendly dash of water recall me from the realms of unconsciousness, even when I am a good ways more than half way over the border. There is a curious phenomenon which I now observe for the first time-it is that a sudden twinge of pain will start perspiration through my skin instantaneously in great beads; it does not ooze through insensibly, but I can feel it burst through like the drops of water through the rose of a watering-pot. This is especially the case with my head; the perspiration comes through my scalp in huge rapid drops, as if there were a heavy shower somewhere inside of me, and the rain was falling up instead of down. To such an extent does this continue, that my hair is soon dripping, my neck-tie soaked, and my shirt-collar as limp as if starch were unknown in the land. And now all the cutting is done; the chief surgeon retires from the field and leaves the dressing of the wound to the gleeful assistant, who grins with anticipa tive joys. As the lint is stuffed into the cut, I suffer not the slightest pain from that portion which is thrust to the very bottom of the deeply-gashed hole, though the assistant takes vindictive delight in jamming it down, as if I were a twentyfour pound cannon, and he was loading me for saluting purposes. It is only when the wadding with which I am being loaded comes in direct contact with the cut edges of the skin that I feel any pain. I wouldn't have believed that lint, or any other material, jammed against the raw edges of a bleeding wound could fail to give pain; but such is the fact; I state the truth as I feel it, or rather as I don't feel it. The deep-seated nerve, that some time since gave me so much trouble, must have retracted into the soft tissues, for the rammed-down lint does not come in contact with it; if it did, I should probably hear from it. The assistant has had no chance to frizzle me with his red-hot poker, and he growls discontentedly; he recovers his spirits somewhat, however, as he informs me that I'll have to "inject tincture of iodine into that hole twice a day for a month," and that it will "burn like fire." So saying, he rubs his hands with glee, and prepares the strips of diachylon plaster with which to close the wound; he heats them at the candle till the wax on the surface boils up in little bubbles, and then he slaps them on my naked skin, where they instantaneously raise huge blisters. My right arm being disabled, I cannot hit him; having on carpet slippers, kicking is ineffective, if not impracticable; but I bide my time. Cornelius! assistant! beware the day of convalescence. And so I have been vivisected to a certain extent, and have survived; with the aid of chloroform it might have been different, but, single-handed as I was, I am free to say I have not enjoyed the experiment. And, although I like to hear lectures on surgery, I do not fancy being student and patient at the same time. COMFORT IN ITS RELATIONS TO PHYSICAL CULTURE. PALMER'S latest marble, the "Angel at the Sepulchre," is original because it is American; that is, it represents that new type and form of beauty which belongs to the present day and to the American people. There is just a suggestion of the Jupiter Antinous in the grand poise of the figure, the low, broad forehead, and the square, decided chin. But it is not "classic." It is not a derivation from the too prolific Greek root, nor does it repeat the Roman Jews of Raphael. It is an etherealized Yankee, sitting in majestic calm. He has rolled away the stone from, the door of the sepulchre, as our good angel of Liberty has rolled away the stone from the sepulchre of civil lethargy and mental death. The thought in the angel's face is self-evident, though it is an anachronism. It did not have verbal utterance until some years afterwards, when St. Paul declared that "death is swallowed up in victory." Contrast this grand type of male human beauty with, well, the hook-nosed meanness of all save two of the faces in Leonardo da Vinci's "Last Supper." There are thirteen figures in that well-known picture, but there are only three faces. There is the traditional Saviour, the feminine and feeble beauty of St. John; and the rest are all alike-Judas being rather the most attractive of the eleven who stand or sit around in impossible garments at an impossible table. And to refer to a far higher and more recognized type, in which is embodied much of womanly and matronly beauty, I venture to assert that an afternoon's walk up Broadway will meet a dozen faces of nobler and purer loveliness than that which lends so sweet a charm to the Madonna del Siglia. But I am not writing an art essay. My subject is purely practical. It is a lecture, if you please, on physical culture. And that we may have the subject-matter fairly before us, I will lay down a few propositions which I think may be accepted as facts. color, size, and shape of the lower animals. The same is true of the animal man. It is true also of vegetables. My grandfather, if he were to return to earth without having learned something during his absence, would not know a certain fruit in my garden to be a strawberry. 2d. Climate and soil permanently affect the physical being of man. Limestone countries produce heavy-boned, longlegged men. Dry atmosphere, whether hot or cold, promotes strength of muscle and quick sensibility of nerve. 3d. The man of purely German or Irish descent, but who is an American of two or three generations' standing, rarely presents the ancestral mould, form, or facial expression. He has acquired a physiognomy, shape, and carriage notably different from that of his grandfather. 4th. American women, though almost exclusively of European descent, are conceded by Europeans to be the most beautiful, as a class, in the world. The verdict of Paris, Vienna, and Rome has settled this as a fact. These propositions are not likely to be disputed by any observant person, and far less by any one who is familiar with physiological science. Without stopping to defend them, we derive from them the obvious truth that agencies capable of such changes for good are also capable of evil influences; that if man may be built up in beauty and strength by outside causes, he may also fall into decadence by their faulty application. Probably the whole philosophy of hygiene may be expressed in one word-COMFORT. If a man is kept from childhood in certain conditions,-neither too hot nor too cold, neither too wet nor too dry, neither hungry nor overfed, neither idle nor overworked, neither consumed by the heats of passion nor benumbed by lethargy,—he will attain to a high physical perfection which he will transmit to his offspring. I have named above the essential conditions of comfort, 1st. Physical culture, which means the personal ease and continuous enjoybreeding and training, modifies the form, ment that attends a well-ordered life. American life in the main, and despite numerous errors, complies with these conditions more perfectly than that of other nations. We are better fed and housed than they; and live in a climate sufficiently good to enable us to develop that physical perfection which I insist is the result of "Americanization." Nor should political, moral, and religious influences be forgotten. They also tell upon the shape of a nose and the expression of an eye. All of us have seen a new and sudden happiness irradiate and ennoble a plain face. All of us have seen a sorrow or a shame debase a beautiful countenance, and change the whole contour of a handsome form. De he n rural districts of poor soil, where a scanty subsistence is tortured from the unwilling bosom of Mother Earth by hardest to ugging, and you may see hosts of pretty babies grow into uncouth boys and girls, and misshapen men and women, with base, ignoble faces. I have known farmers to use their children far harder than their horses. To the latter they conceded ample food, warmth, and abundant rest. Of the former they required unreasonable hours of labor and enforced exposure to the elements. It is a blunder which leaves its heritage in big feet, coarse joints, homely faces, and narrow souls. In the more prosperous districts there is a notable contrast. I examined, once, some fifteen hundred recruits, who came pouring in from the hillsides of a healthful and fertile It is worth while, then, to study these influences and, so far as we may, to control them. I do not intend to propose a diet, to advocate a medical system, or to propound a new physiological theory. The sheet let down from heaven, which Peter saw in his vision, needed only Blot's lectures on cookery to constitute it an admirable code of dietetics. It had variety and freedom of choice, and adaptation to the individual appetite. There is, indeed, no rule of diet. At the beginning of the late war, thousands of delicate boys enlisted, whose stomachs revolted at the very mention of fat pork. Months later, sleeping in cold tents, they devoured their bacon with the keenest relish. They were under the necessity of burning a certain amount of carbon, outside or in. Having no stoves, nature called for a furnace inside, and pork was the most available fuel. There can be no exclusive rule of diet. Dr. Graham, for instance, was a sickly dyspeptic, and his stomach was no rule for the digestion of his neighbor. He died comparatively young, but managed in the meantime to do an infinite mischief by knowing more than St. Peter. He is really responsible for much of the consumption of New England. The climate of that region requires a full diet. farming region. Nice boys they werehardly fit food for powder. Brought up in a happy mean between toil and laziness, coming of families too industrious to allow them to be idle, and too "substantial" to exact from them any overwork, they stood before me in their splendid nudity, grand in the perfection of their nakedness, models for the sculptor, and without fault or blemish. Of one full regiment of these, over a thousand strong, there were only five deaths from natural causes during a year of camp-life, and only about the same number of discharges on account of disease. In them was exemplified the high results of physical culture; in the rushing charge they made at the explosion of the mine in front of Petersburg, they proved the hearty moral pluck which common schools had given them. Another influence which should be mentioned is that of toil as distinguished from moderate labor. There is a deal of humbug about the beneficent effects of short sleep and hard work. Go back into the Climate and soil have suggested themselves as inevitable causations in physical culture. But climate does not mean only temperature. There are very hot climates in which physical vigor and intense bodily activity are the rule. The Esquimaux are as slow and indolent as the tropical Africans. The cause I conceive to be in the relative humidity of the air. One cannot be energetic in a hot vapor-bath, or in a chilling fog. In the "Louisiana lowlands, low " we wake up in the morning unrefreshed, the skin |