On habits and manners

Drowning. — Place the body face downward, raise the chest by placing pillows under the body, folded garments, or a block of wood, so that the head will be low enough to permit the water which has been swallowed to flow out of the mouth. Keep up the temperature by bottles of hot water around the body, aud if possible, attempt to start respiration by artificial means. This is done by lifting the arms above the head gently, then bringing them down and pressing them against the sides, at about the rate of ordinary breathing ; but this process can hardly be understood or practiced until you have seen it done by some one who has been trained to it, and you will probably only attempt it as a last resort. In giving these directions it must always be understood that they are only for use until the doctor comes, or in cases where no doctor is at hand, for it is only practical experience which can fit you to take charge of a sick room. In cases where the danger is general, as for example when a building or a vessel is on fire, in the midst of an epidemic, in a railway accident, etc.. I can only say to you that, first of all, you must try to control your own fears ; if you can do this, your chances to help others as well as yourself are doubled, for you can think clearly, and by your own courage and coolness inspire others to do their best for their common safety. Circumstances, in such cases, differ so much that it is impossible to give special directions, and it is a good plan to consider, when you are at peace and in safety, what you would do in the face of such dangers as these, in this way preparing yourself, by a habit of thought, to act intelligently in time of need. CHAPTER XXIII. COOKERY. W^hen one has abundance of good material, and is obliged to economize neither in timo nor labor, it is not a difficult matter to become a good cook ; but the real test of a woman's ability, in this department of household labor, lies in the results she can obtain from a few inexpensive materials with comparatively small outlay of either time or labor. The first sJep in the right direction is to thoroughly understand the importance of good cookery to the health and comfort of [a family, and before we go into details, I should like to make clear to you the principles which underlie what is rightly called the u art " of cookery. You are probably sufficiently familiar with the action of your own stomachs to know that anything which irritates them produces, in a greater or less degree, general derangement and illness ; and the acute forms of such derangement are, probably, pretty well known to you. But, while you are aware that unwholesome or badly cooked food is almost always the cause of these acute troubles, you perhaps do not know that such food may, and frequently does, produce a slow and subtle irritation, which affects the whole constitution, mental and physical, and in time is capable of causing the degeneration of a whole race. " Dyspepsia" is the name which covers the thousand and one forms of this irritation, and dyspepsia means, simply, that the stomach cannot digest the food that is put into it, and this indigested food instead of supplying the nourishment which is the result of complete digestion, disturbs the order of the whole system and lays the foundati