Jane G. Swisshelm, Letters to Country Girls (New York: J.C. Riker, 1853).

[Editorial Note: Jane Grey Cannon Swisshelm (1815-1884) was born in Pittsburgh into strict Covenanter branch of the Presbyterian Church. Her father died in 1823, and she helped support the family (mother, brother, and sister) by teaching lace-making; she also painted on velvet. At fourteen she became a schoolteacher. She married James Swisshelm in 1836; he was a farmer's son and a devout Methodist who insisted she give up painting. He also sought to turn her into a Methodist and insisted upon wifely obedience. In 1839 she left him to nurse her mother who died the following year. Jane then turned to journalism. In 1842 her husband returned to Pittsburgh, and they resumed living together on his family farm. In 1848 she launched the Pittsburgh Visiter [her spelling] as an anti-slavery and, later, a woman's rights weekly. Within a few years national circulation topped 6,000 making it one of the most widely read reform papers. One of the paper's most popular features was Swisshelm's weekly "letter to country girls" which she collected in book form in 1853. As with many of her "letters," the one excerpted here has an autobiographical dimension. Swisshelm's father died of consumption (i.e., tuberculosis) as did several other members of his family. As a young girl, Jane was diagnosed, mistakenly, as suffering from the disease. Various remedies urged by her doctor failed, and her mother took charge of her care. Under a regime of rest, fresh air, moderate exercise, and simple food, Jane thrived. This convinced her that the medical profession had little to offer and that so-called "natural" remedies were much to be preferred. Before dismissing this view, recall that the germ theory of disease, the basis of most modern medical progress, has not yet been developed. One may get some idea of what medical care for women was like in the first half of the nineteenth century by examining the title pages of two popular books.]

NUMBER XXVII
Bathing and a Case of Consumption (excerpted)
P.207: . . . I have not one bit of doubt but a little courage, a daily bath, free breathing, and proper diet, would cure two-thirds of all the consumptions, dyspepsia, liver complaints and all the other diseases, male and female, which [P. 208] are so fast rendering us a nation of doctors, quacks, and patients. If you are sick, no matter what ails you, loose your clothes, wash yourself, air your rooms well, wear no garment which does not rest its whole weight upon your shoulders, never tie any thing around your waist with a string, and especially never sleep with a string tied or band fastened on any part of your body. There are some few doctors who will tell you these things, but it is very few. They get their living by attending to the sick, not by keeping people well; and if people were only wise enough to give their family physician, like their family preacher, a yearly salary, his advice would be a great blessing instead of a great curse, as it too often is, under the present plan. I talk about these things, girls, to you especially, because whatever people may think about women meddling with the politics of the State, all agree that the policy of the home circle would be ruled by your influence. If you are to be responsible for the health and happiness of families when you are women, you ought to begin to think for yourselves when you are girls. You should take nothing either mentally or physically without understanding [P. 209] the reason why. Your misfortune is, that so many of you think so little; and I know this so well, and remember how stupid I used to be about such simple things, that I write to you as if you did not know any thing; but it is a melancholy fact, that those of you who do know are apt to forget, and need to be reminded very often.