Miss Beecher's Housekeeper and Healthkeeper. Catharine Esther Beecher

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СКАЧАТЬ XXIII.

      MISCELLANEOUS ADVICE AND RECIPES.

      How to keep Cool in hot Weather—Indelible Ink—To keep Eggs—To prevent Earthen, Glass, and Iron ware from breaking easily—Cement for broken Ware—To keep Knives from Rust—To cleanse or renovate Furniture—To clean Silver—To cleanse Wall-paper—To purify a Well—To take care of Roses and other Plants—To keep Grapes—Snow for Eggs—Paper to keep Preserves—To cool Butter in hot Weather—To stop Cracks in Iron—To stop creaking Hinges—To stop creaking Doors and make Drawers slide easily—To renovate black Silk—To clean Kid Gloves—To remove grease Spots—To get rid of Rats and Mice—Odds and ends for Housekeepers—Additional Recipes 122

      PART SECOND.

      CHAPTER I.

      NEEDFUL SCIENCE AND TRAINING FOR THE FAMILY STATE.

      Women need both scientific and practical Training even more than Men—Woman’s Duties as important as difficult, and much greater in Variety—The business of a Housekeeper includes all connected with the Construction and Care of a House, Yard, and Garden; the Selection of Furniture; the Ornamentation of a Home; its Cleansing, Neatness, and Order; the Selection and Cooking of proper Food; the providing of family Furniture and Clothing; the Care of Health; the Charge of family Expenses; the Training of Servants, and, as Wife and Mother, the Supervision of Nursery, the Educator of Children, and the religious Minister of the family State—Evils consequent on not training Women for these Duties 127

      CHAPTER II.

      A HEALTHFUL AND ECONOMICAL HOME.

      Advantages of close Packing of Conveniences—Plan of a model Cottage to economize Time, Labor, and Expense, with Estimates of Cost—Advantages described 133

      CHAPTER III.

      ON HOME VENTILATION.

      Mode in which the Body is nourished by the Air—Construction of the Lungs and Heart—Description of Evils consequent on Neglect of a proper Supply of pure Air 150

      CHAPTER IV.

      ON WARMING A HOUSE.

      Principles of Heat, viz., Conduction, Convection, Radiation, and Reflection—Best Mode of warming a House illustrated—Importance of Moisture in the Air 164

      CHAPTER V.

      ON STOVES AND CHIMNEYS.

      The general Properties of Heat, Conduction, Convection, Radiation, Reflection—Cooking done by Radiation the simplest but most wasteful Mode: by Convection (as in Stoves and Furnaces) the cheapest—The Range—The model Cooking-stove—Interior Arrangements and Principles—Contrivances for economizing Heat, Labor, Time, Fuel, Trouble, and Expense—Its Durability, Simplicity, etc.—Chimneys: why they smoke, and how to cure them—Furnaces: the Dryness of their Heat—Necessity of Moisture in warm Air—How to obtain and regulate it 182

      CHAPTER VI.

      ECONOMIC MODES OF BEAUTIFYING A HOME.

      Educating Influence of natural and artistic Beauty—On Curtains—Sketch of a Parlor with cheap and beautiful Ornaments—On the tasteful Combination of Colors 192

      CHAPTER VII.

      ON THE CARE OF HEALTH.

      Importance of some Knowledge of the Body and its Needs—Fearful Responsibility of entering upon domestic Duties in Ignorance—The fundamental vital Principle—Cell-life—Wonders of the Microscope—Cell-multiplication—Constant interplay of Decay and Growth necessary to Life—The red and white Cells of the Blood—Secreting and converting Power—The nervous System—The Brain and the Nerves—Structural Arrangement and Functions—The ganglionic System—The nervous Fluid—Necessity of properly apportioned Exercise to Nerves of Sensation and of Motion—Evils of excessive or insufficient Exercise—Equal Development of the Whole 199

      CHAPTER VIII.

      DOMESTIC EXERCISE.

      Connection of Muscles and Nerves—Microscopic cellular muscular Fibre—Its Mode of Action—Dependence on the Nerves of voluntary and involuntary Motion—How Exercise of Muscles quickens Circulation of the Blood, which maintains all the Processes of Life—Dependence of Equilibrium upon proper muscular Activity—Importance of securing Exercise that will interest the Mind 208

      CHAPTER IX.

      HEALTHFUL FOOD AND DRINKS.

      Construction of the Body in Relation to Food—The Construction of a Kernel of Wheat as proportioned to the Body—Construction and Action of the Stomach—Advice as to Food, Drinks, and Stimulants—Opinions of Physicians 214

      CHAPTER X.

      ON CLEANLINESS.

      Construction of the Skin—The secreting Organs—Care of the Skin 235

      CHAPTER XI.

      CLOTHING.

      Construction of the Bones—Influence of Dress—Description of two Modes of Breathing, and the Effects of Weight and Tightness of Clothing—Proper Mode of sustaining the Clothing 243

      CHAPTER XII.

      EARLY RISING.

      A Virtue peculiarly American and democratic—In aristocratic Countries, Labor considered degrading—The Hours of Sunlight generally devoted to Labor by the working Classes, and to Sleep by the indolent and wealthy—Sunlight necessary to Health and Growth, whether of Vegetables or Animals—Particularly needful for the Sick—Substitution of artificial Light and Heat by Night a great Waste of Money—Eight hours’ Sleep enough—Excessive Sleep debilitating—Early Rising necessary to a well-regulated Family, to the Amount of Work to be done to the Community, to Schools, and to all Classes in American Society 254

      CHAPTER XIII.

      DOMESTIC MANNERS.

      Good Manners the Expression of Benevolence in personal Intercourse—Serious Defects in Manners of the Americans—Causes of peculiar Manners to be found in American Life—Want of clear Discrimination—Necessity for Distinctions of Superiority and Subordination—Importance that young Mothers should seriously endeavor to remedy this Defect while educating their Children—Democratic Principle of Equal Rights to be СКАЧАТЬ