If it is the teeth that are at fault, they should be put under the care of an approved dentist to extract, fill, or treat in what manner their condition demands. When the cause is in the stomach, usually some form of dyspepsia is present; water and gases rise to the mouth, the body is constipated, and a general sense of unpleasantness is felt in body and mind. This condition requires the enlightened care of the physician, whose duty it becomes to define to himself the precise character of the dyspepsia, to seek its origin, and to address to its cure those remedies which a mature experience has placed at his command. There are, we may add for the benefit of sufferers, comparatively few instances where, with a hearty and intelligent co-operation on their part, any failure will take place in treating these cases.

We cannot speak such cheering words to those who owe their offensive breath to the condition of the lungs. With them a grave malady is threatening, or is actually in progress. Their battle is no longer for good looks; it is for dear life. By timely and judicious provisions they may forestall the foe who is insidiously stealing upon them. They may escape him by a flight to the sunny shores of Florida, or the dry plains of the northwest. But their welfare is too imminently endangered to permit them to trifle or to experiment.1

See on the subject of the treatment of consumption in its early stages, and the advantages of a change of climate, DR.

MIXTURE FOR THE BREATH.

145

Those who owe their breath to chronic catarrh, to ozana, or to some growth within the nose, may make up their minds to perhaps a protracted, but an ultimately successful treatment, and should lose no time in commencing it.

These are general directions, looking toward a radical cure. Now we shall give some suitable to those cases where an unpleasant breath is not permanent, and not indicative of any serious disturbance of the system. For instance, in some ladies it only appears after a late supper, after eating some peculiar article of food, or at certain periodical times.

If it is supposed to be connected with the teeth, or the secretions of the mouth, the following mouth-wash Iwill be found most efficacious:

Rinse the mouth well every few hours.

The objection to this excellent mixture is, that it stains slightly the teeth, but the discoloration may readily be removed by a tooth-sponge or brush; but so far from injuring, it will be of great service in preserving them, and in preventing or relieving toothache. If the taste is unpleasant, a few drops of oil of peppermint or teaberry will conceal it. It is much better

D. G. BRINTON, "Guide-Book of Florida and the South," Phila., 1869.

than the washes often recommended, containing chlori

nated lime, which attacks the enamel.

wash may also be used safely:—

Chlorate of potash

Rose-water

The following

two drachms;

six ounces.

Distilled water of any other flavor may be substituted. Various substances are in vogue to sweeten the breath, and to conceal either its naturally unpleasant odor, or some acquired scent, as of onions, tobacco, spirits, etc. The most elegant are cachous, troches, and lozenges, made chiefly of catechu, charcoal, gum tragacanth, or liquorice, flavored with aromatic essential oils. Cardamom seed, cloves, and allspice, are altogether too vulgar, too commonly seen on fashionable drinking bars, for any lady to have recourse to them. One might, horrible to suggest, suspect her of having been indulging in a little gin-and-water, or some such tipple. Coffee grains, fresh-roasted, have a high reputation for masking completely the scent, either of spirits or of onions, and having little odor of their own. Our observation leads us to believe that this is not undeserved. What we place equal reliance in, is the Canada snakeroot (Asarum Canadense, U. S. P.), a small portion of which can be chewed, or the root powdered and made into a lozenge. It leaves a fresh, cool, pleasant taste, and imparts a faintly spicy aroma to the breath.

If there is a foul stomach, with a taste and odor of

stale eggs, a wineglassful of water containing three grains of chloride of lime (Calx chlorinata, U. S. P.) should be swallowed several times a day, and the diet limited to easily digestible food, of which charcoal, either in the form of "charcoal crackers," or burnt. toast, should figure conspicuously. Any irregularities of food, drink, or sleep must be corrected, the natural functions regulated, and the skin kept in activity by frequent baths, and rubbing with a flesh-glove or coarse towel. A draught containing twenty grains of the bisulphite of soda has also an excellent effect on offensive breath arising from this cause. It may be taken, masked with essence of peppermint, twice daily.

THE ARM AND HAND.

THE ARM.

HE "upper extremity," as anatomists call it, by

THE

which they mean the arm, forearm, and hand, is so constantly brought into prominence in daily life that its care and embellishment become almost a weighty matter. If we divide the distance from the top of the shoulder to the end of the middle finger into fourteen equal parts, the length of the hand ought to equal three parts, the forearm five parts, and the arm above the elbow six parts.

While moderate exercise improves the arm by enlarging symmetrically all the muscles, it is not in good taste for a woman to display a brawny, sinewy member. It must have a roundness, one gentle curve sinking into another, which is not consistent with great muscular development. Constant and regular use will most surely tend to give a correct shape.

Bracelets should not be worn tight enough to affect ( 148 )