ecovery; while disagreeable and melancholy associations beget
sadness and despondency, discourage the patient, depress the vital
powers, enfeeble the body, and retard recovery.

Unless persons who visit the sick can carry with them joy, hope, mirth,
and animation, they had better stay away. This applies equally in acute
and chronic diseases. It does not matter what a visitor may _think_ with
regard to the patient's recovery, _an unfavorable opinion should never
find expression in the sick-room_. Life hangs upon a brittle thread, and
often that frail support is _hope_. Cheer the sick by words of
encouragement, and the hold on life will be strengthened; discourage, by
uttering such expressions as, "How bad you look!" "Why, how you have
failed since I saw you last!" "I would have another doctor; one who
knows something!" "You can't live long if you don't get help!" etc., and
the tie which binds them to earth is snapped asunder. The visitor
becomes a _murderer!_ Let all persons be guided by this rule: _Never go
into the sick-room without carrying with you a few rays of sunshine!_

If the patient is very weak the visitor may injure him by staying too
long. The length of the visit should be graduated according to the
strength of the invalid. Never let the sufferer be wearied by too
frequent or too lengthy visits, nor by having too many visitors at once.
Above all things, do not confine your visitations to Sunday. Many do
this and give themselves credit for an extra amount of piety on account
of it, when, if they would scrutinize their motives more carefully, they
would see that it was but a contemptible resort to save time. The sick
are often grossly neglected during the week only to be visited to death
upon Sunday.

THE USE OF TOBACCO AND OPIUM. The recovery of the sick is often delayed,
sometimes entirely prevented, by the habitual use of tobacco or opium.
In acute diseases, the appetite for tobacco is usually destroyed by the
force of the disease, and its use is, of necessity, discontinued; but in
chronic ailments, the appetite remains unchanged, and the patient
continues his indulgence greatly to the aggravation of the malady.

The use of tobacco is a pernicious habit in whatever form it is
introduced into the system. Its active principle, Nicotin, which is an
energetic poison, exerts its specific effect on the nervous system,
tending to stimulate it to an unnatural degree of activity, the final
result of which is weak