I need not, therefore, waste a line prefatory to, or apologetic of, the following illustrative definition of health, by which any one with tolerable acumen may estimate the probable “worth of a life,” or, at all events, be spared the plea of ignorance, or misplaced confidence, when taking a step of such importance as wedlock. There are numerous means of calculating upon the durability of human life, by an examination of the countenance, the gait, the attitude, the form, the skin, the temperament, the breathing, the speech, the sleep, and in fact, to a practised professional eye, there is not much difficulty in observing some diagnostic mark, if sickness be secreted in the constitution. The countenance in health varies with the age. Health is indicated by a plump, not puffy or bloated state of the face, a fresh complexion, and an absence of that depression around and particularly below the eye, so observable in persons of sick health. The nose should not be “pinched,” as it were, at its junction with the face, nor should there be deep indentations, called furrows, or wrinkles, at the angles of the mouth or eyes, which rarely are manifested in healthy individuals, except they be aged through care or time. Many people part very reluctantly with each succeeding year, and few conform to the outward symbols of age. The era was when age was honorable; now few aspire to it, and such is the deception that would be practised, that the coffin-plate is the only tell-tale. If the teeth have dropped out or decayed, the lower jaw will be observed to be more elevated, the lips drawn inward over the gums, and the chin and nose approximating each other; the cheek bones will also be very prominent, and the skin thereon shiny and tightly drawn: these are pretty fair characteristics of disease, or old age. The temperaments modify the complexion. In the sanguine, it is florid and soft; in the bilious, dark and rigid; in the phlegmatic, lax and pallid; and the nervous is modified by its general union with the two former. In health, the countenance is expressive of contentment and gayety, which indicate a happy state of mind, and healthy condition of body. In ill-health, it is pale and expressive of languor and sadness, signifying discontent and nervous debility. Where asthma exists, or other nervous affections of the chest prevail, there is pallidness or lividity, a worn-down and distressing look, and in consumption, in addition to the above, there are alternately, on the slightest exertion, gentle flushings. A bluish tint of the skin denotes some organic affection of the heart. In dropsy, the countenance is bloated, or of a waxy puffiness; and in acute indigestion, there is a lividity of the lips, nose, and cheeks. A slow and cautious step, a bending of the body, a laxity and flabby feel of the muscles of the arms, chest, and lower extremities, a tumid abdomen, or a swelling of the feet and ankles, are no indications of health. Tremulous hands mark