Page:Love and its hidden history.djvu/114

 good possible to be accomplished by its means. All other attempts — for they are and were attempts only — that have hitherto been made to cure nervous diseases, especially those of women, have been either the hap-hazard essayals of ignorance, the results of errant quackery and empiricism, or the lamentable experiments of physicians who went on the theory that one class of agents alone would cure them, and what might be given to a man would also do for a woman ; when, in fact, the chemical difference between the two sexes ought to have taught them a far different doctrine. Give a good chemist a bloody handkerchief taken from a cut hand, and he will tell you whether it is that of a man or woman; hence the idea of treating both sexes alike for disease is absurd, but not quite so illogical as the attempts daily made to relieve women of their own peculiar ailments by flooding the stomach with all sorts of so-called " medical" agents, but which are mainly ineffective, if not poisonous. Most medicines merely excite the stomach to renewed activity in the effort to dislodge and get rid of what is poured into it. They act upon the mucous membrane and excite the glands to increased action, and the engendered slime invests or dissolves the drugs, and they are carried from the body; but, in nearly all cases, leave that body in a far worse condition than ever. Thus, by mal-treatment, five-sixths of all the women of our country are invalids in reality, and, were it not for the wonderful endurance of American women over all others, by reason of their larger and finer brain, and nervous systems, a very large percentage of them would die before they do.

"I cannot remember a night so dark as to have hindered the coming day; nor a storm so furious or dreadful as to prevent the return of warm sunshine and a cloudless sky!"

Not every one who proclaims himself your friend will stand by you when friendship is most needed.

Listen well to all advice, — and follow your own. It is bad policy to give your last coat away; and worse to believe what all men say they mean.

It is poor wisdom to sell your friend for present gain. Husbands were not made to be destroyed for a wife or mother-in-law's whims ; nor were wives made to be neglected for a wanton's smiles. An ounce of love is worth a ton of passion; and it won't do to always speak your mind or give your suspicions to