ALCOHOLIC LIQUORS of all kinds, whether strong beer, cider, wine, or brandy, should never be taken except as drugs; because, besides the danger of a drunkard’s grave, they are all stimulants; they impart no nourishment to the system, but force its action to an unnatural degree. The idea that these liquors promote digestion is all a delusion. They give to the stomach an unnatural and forced action, which, while in health, it does not need; and the longer it is subjected to this driving process, the more will it depend on stimulants. When the stomach is excited in this way, the brain also is excited; and whoever uses alcoholic drinks as a beverage, is so far a drunkard; for no dividing-line can be drawn—no transition boundary can be made—between him who drinks moderately, and him who drinks excessively. It is all wrong, and only wrong. It is all intoxicating, and only intoxicating. He who drinks a little is a little drunk; he who drinks largely is largely drunk. To be temperate in the use of good things in their place, is to use them with proper moderation. To be temperate in the use of bad things, or things out of place, is to let them alone. The way to be temperate in religion, is to have a zeal according to knowledge. The way to be temperate in fanaticism, is to let it alone. Temperance in eating bread is moderation;75temperance in regard to stimulants and narcotics is total abstinence.
COFFEE is objectionable for a similar reason; it is a stimulant—a kind of narcotic stimulant, bearing some resemblance to opium; and so powerful is its action, that it is considered and used as a most certain antidote to poisoning from opium. And it can readily be seen, that unless it was an article of much power itself, it could never overpower such a poison. Coffee should never be placed on any other list than that of medicines; it should never be drank as a luxury or beverage. Mothers should never be so tender and affectionate toward their children as to give them such an article for their drink. That mother is insane who will value the immediate gratification of her child more than its future enjoyment of health and soundness. Her child will desire no such indulgence, if it has never been accustomed to it. If the habit has been formed, let it be at once abolished. There are few things over which my very soul has groaned so deeply, as seeing mothers so ignorantly or carelessly undermining the constitutions of those whom they love, and for whose welfare, moral and physical, they are greatly responsible. Yet, if they are determined to gratify their tender ones at all hazards of their constitutions, they are, of course, at liberty to do so; or if any are disposed to treat themselves in the same way, there is no civil law against it; but they break another law, which must be met,—a law of nature written by Jehovah on every nerve of the human body.
TEA is another objectionable article, because of its stimulating properties. This is a direct, diffusible, and active stimulant. Its effects are very similar to those of alcoholic drinks, except that of drunkenness. Like alcohol, it gives, for a time, increased vivacity of spirits. Like alcohol, it increases, beyond its healthy and natural action, the whole animal and mental machinery; after which there comes a reaction—a corresponding languor and debility. The wash-woman becomes exhausted, and must have her bowl of tea to recruit her energies, instead of giving nature a chance to recover herself. She depends upon art rather than76nature, and each time lowers the standard of her own permanent strength. She accomplishes more in a short time, while her strength is artificial instead of natural; but is gradually, though perhaps imperceptibly, wearing herself out before her time. The nurse keeps herself awake nights by this artificial process; and each time, by imperceptible steps, lessens her natural strength. She thinks, with the wash-woman, that tea does her good—strengthens her, because, like the rum-drinker, she feels better under its immediately stimulating effects.
The time was when ministers, instead of being largely inspired with the Holy Ghost, wrote and delivered their sermons under the inspiration of ardent spirits; but now, seeing that to be morally and physically wrong, they not unfrequently labor under that artificial inspiration, which is quite as effectual, contained in tea. By this process, they gradually impair their own natural energy of body and mind; for, when we drive up and overtax the forces of nature by stimulus, they ultimately fall in the rear of their original process of action. The green teas are much more powerful stimulants than the black. The Chinese do not use the green teas. Not long since, meeting a young Chinese, the inquiry was made why they did not drink their green teas. Putting his hands up to his head, he said, “They burn all the hair off.” They were too stimulating to the brain and nerves.—Philosophy of Health.
A BAD PRACTICE.—Many persons who use kerosene lamps are in the habit, when going to bed, or when leaving a room for a short time, of turning the wick down low in order to save a trifle of the consumption of oil. The consequence is that the air of the room soon becomes vitiated by the unconsumed oil vapors, by the gas produced by combustion, and also by the minute particles of smoke and soot which are thrown off. Air thus poisoned is deadly in its effects, and the wonder is that more persons are not77immediately and fatally injured by breathing it. Irritation and inflammation of the throat and lungs, headache, dizziness and nausea are among its effects.
—World’s Crisis.
No Medicine.
The following is a sketch of the conversation said to have passed between Thomas Jefferson and D. P. Thompson, when about establishing the University of Virginia:
“Do you design a Medical Department in the University?”
“I think not. Anatomy to be sure, is a science; but I have no confidence in Materia Medica, which I have long since banished from my family, choosing rather to rely on nursing and nature for a cure. My attention was first called to this subject when I was Minister to France. During my residence in Paris, my daughter was seized with typhus fever, and I sent for a physician, who was called the most eminent and successful one in the city. He came, examined the patient, gave some directions about nursing, and departed, giving no medicine and leaving none to be given. The same course was taken the next day, and the next, when growing uneasy I said to him:
“Doctor, you don’t appear to be doing anything for my daughter. What is the reason?”
“The reason is I wish her to get well. I had supposed you knew what my system of practice was, or you would not have sent for me.”
“No; what is it?”
“To have the most careful nursing, leave the disease to wear itself out, and let nature do the rest, but give no medicine.”
“Well, sir, though still uneasy, I acquiesced in the course, and the result was, my daughter recovered with a constitution uninjured by mineral medicine.” Since then—a period of nearly thirty years—I have been my own doctor, and scrupulously following the78system of this French physician, have practiced not only in my own family, but among the colored people on my plantation, taking them all through the worst of fevers, and never losing a single patient.”—Health Journal.
Rules for Health.
1. SLEEPING rooms should be well ventilated.
2. No person should sleep on feathers.
3. Clothing worn in the day, should not be worn at night.
4. When taken off, it should be thoroughly aired.
5. Otherwise effete matters remain in it.
6. Sleep is the best restorer of the Nervous system.
7. One hour of sleep before midnight is worth two after it.
8. Never eat anything between meals.
9. Two meals a day is better than three.
10. The drink which Nature provides is cold water.
11. The use of salt may fairly be questioned.
12. It has no nutriment in it, and greatly provokes costiveness.
13. Persons of constipated bowels will find its disuse advantageous.
14. Daily exercise in the open air is an absolute pre-requisite to Health.
15. Without Health of body, vigor of mind is not to be expected.
16. With feeble body and mind, large spirituality cannot be enjoyed,
17. And without this, one cannot be a growing Christian.
18. So that Christianity enjoins obedience to Physical law,
19. And insists on its sacredness as truly as on that of THE DECALOGUE;
20. But Ministers seldom preach on the worth of the Body.
21. They preach of the worth of the soul,
22. Not thinking that in a sick body, the soul is in prison.7927. And needs to be recast, directing itself as,
28. Well to Physical habits as to Principles.
Food for Man.
What is a proper diet for man?
One which contains, in a state of purity, the right elements of nutrition, in the right quantity, and the right proportions.
Why is this food to be preferred to the flesh of animals?
Because it contains the elements of nutrition in greater quantity, on the average, in better proportions, and in greater purity; and because it is best adapted to the anatomical structure, physiological condition, and natural tastes of man.
What ultimate elements are required in human food?
Protein, in the form of gluten, fibrin, casein, albumen or gelatin, starch, sugar, or oily matter, salt, and the phosphates, sulphates, &c.
Are these proximate elements also found in vegetables?
23. And it is more likely to grow depraved than good,
24. And to become indifferent to spiritual considerations,
25. And willing to exchange them for bodily indulgences,
26. So that their preaching and labor is almost useless,
They are; the vegetable kingdom is a great laboratory, to supply food to the animal kingdom.
What objections are there to our eating these vegetable substances at second hand, in the flesh of animals?
Flesh does not contain sufficient of the carbonaceous or heat-forming principle; it is always impure, from the presence of excrementitious matter; it is often diseased.
What is the best diet?
A proper admixture of farinaceous food, such as unbolted wheat bread, corn bread, cracked wheat, hominy, oat meal, &c.; ripe fruits—melons, &c., in their season, and vegetables, with a moderate quantity of the milk and eggs of healthy animals, and a sparing use of sugar, butter, salt, and vinegar.—Catechism of Health.
Pure Air.
Throw open the window, and fasten it there,
Fling the curtain aside, and the blind,
And give a free entrance to heaven’s pure air,
’T is the life and the health of mankind.
Are you fond of coughs, colds, dyspepsia and rheums,
Of headaches, and fevers, and chills;
Of bitters, hot-drops, and medicine fumes,
And bleeding, and blisters, and pills?
Then be sure when you sleep that all air is shut out;
Place, too, a warm brick at your feet;
Put a bandage of flannel your neck quite about,
And cover your head with a sheet.
But would you avoid all forms of disease?
Then haste to the fresh open air,
Where your cheek may kindly be fanned by the breeze,
’T will make you well, happy, and fair.
Then open the window, and fasten it there,
Fling the curtain aside, and the blind,
And give free admission to heaven’s pure air,
’T is life, light, and joy to mankind.