St. Helena Health Retreat.
By Editor
It was our privilege to visit the Retreat a few days since at the election of a Board of Directors. The By-laws were remodeled throughout, and made better to suit the working of the institution. Again we congratulate the managers of the Retreat in having secured the services of Dr. Chase. We know him to be a gentleman of culture, careful and discreet in all his movements. Those who have been acquainted with the history of "Health Reform," will appreciate these qualities in the physician. The cause of hygiene has received more injury from its professed friends—from ultraists and fanatics—than it ever received from its open opponents. In the early days of Oberlin College, the old-fashioned "Perfectionists" there adopted the most rigid system of living, and, in defiance of every principle of "free agency," compelled everybody, without regard to their physical condition or previous habits, to conform to it. As was to be expected, there came a reaction, and, instead of settling down to a rational system, the people discarded the whole matter, and in process of years hygienics were scarcely heard of in Oberlin. Some of the most prominent health teachers in the United States have proved the most impractical theorists, and left their impress upon a few, while, if they had exercised a due degree of common sense, and studied human nature more, they might have influenced the masses. We believe there is a bright future before our Health Retreat, and invite the attention of men of means to its prospects and its wants.