'BEDIBUS NINE-O'CLOCKIBUS.'
REGULAR habits of life will do much toward establishing good health and good looks. Plenty of rest and sleep, and at regular hours, are among the prime essentials, and often do more than medicine in disease. The following anecdote by Dr. Dio Lewis admirably illustrates this:— A young lady came into his office one day looking rather grave and troubled. "Doctor," said she, "do you not think I am looking very old for twenty, and so thin, too—nothing but skin and bones?" The doctor admitted that she was right, that she did look rather old for twenty. "But, doctor, what can I do?" she asked. "Can you not give me some prescription?" "Would you be willing to take something very bitter?" asked the doctor. "I don't care how bad it is; what is it?" "The technical name of it is Bedibus nine-o'clockibus." "Bedibus nine o'clockibus! O doctor, what an awful name!" "Yes; it means you must go to bed every night before nine o'clock." "Oh, I can't do that! I thought it was something to take." "What time do you generally go to bed?" "Generally about twelve o'clock." "I thought so. Now, if you will go to bed every night for six months at nine o'clock, without making any change in your habits, you will gain ten pounds in weight and look five years younger. Your skin will become fresh and your spirits improve wonderfully." "I'll do it, though of course when I have company—" "It is regularity that is vital in the case. To sit up till twelve o'clock three nights in a week, and then go to bed four nights at nine, one might think would do very well. I don't think this every other night early and every other night late is much better than every night late. Even sitting up one night in the week deranges the nervous system. Regularity in sleep is every bit as important as regularity in food." The doctor's argument prevailed. The lean patient suddenly exclaimed: "Doctor, I will go to bed every night for six months before nine o'clock if it kills me, or, rather, if it breaks the hearts of all my friends." She did it, gained twenty-one pounds in five months, and found herself in the very best possible health and spirits, fresh and young looking, and quite delighted with the new and simple remedy, which she recommended enthusiastically to her friends.—Selected.