Dr. Edward Berdoe, M. R. C. S., in the London Globe of Aug. 3, 1892: “I have been trying for many years to find out what the blessings are which vivisection has conferred on the race, but I have not succeeded;” and in a speech at Buda-Pesth, Hungary, July 21, 1896, he said: “It is only necessary to turn over the pages of the different journals of physiology to see that the greater part of the experiments on animals have no, or only the remotest, connection with the arts of medicine or surgery.”
Dr. Morgan Davies (Houndsditch), in a letter to Miss Frances Power Cobbe, Oct. 12, 1892: “Not only could we dispense with it (vivisection), but I firmly believe we should get on much more rapidly and securely without it.”
Jas. Macauley, A. M., M. D., London, in his Prize Essay: “More useful information can be obtained observing the force of the heart as indicated on the delicate dial of a balance chair, than from all the experiments of vivisectors.”
Dr. J. M. Stewart, President of the Peoria County (Ill.) Scientific Association: “Vivisection is horribly cruel and practically useless.”
Dr. J. F. Wilkie, of Oshkosh, Wis., graduate of Rush Medical College, writes, to the Illinois Society, January, 1894: “As a physician, I consider vivisection futile and of no consequence to the medical profession.”
Prof. Lawson Tait, F. R. C. S. E., foremost abdominal surgeon of England, and once a vivisector, at a meeting in St. James Hall, London, May 26, 1891: “In the art of surgery, the practice of vivisection has done nothing but wrong.” Dr. Tait long ago wrote a pamphlet entitled “The Uselessness of Vivisection,” besides many letters, which have been published, and he has made many speeches reiterating these statements—up to the latter part of 1896.
Wm. R. D. Blackwood, M. D., Philadelphia, Pa., in a published letter, March 27, 1894: “It is physically impossible that other than misleading and false doctrines should be the result of the cruel and degrading work of vivisection.”
Edward Haughton, M. D., in The Zoophilist (London), Oct. 10, 1893: “I have yet to hear of a single case of discovery made by experiments on helpless animals which might not just as well have been ascertained by clinical investigation.”
Dr. F. S. Arnold (Manchester), in a speech at Church Congress, October, 1892: “I believe the whole method (experiments on animals) to be, scientifically speaking, absolutely unsound and untrustworthy. . . . Vivisection is most surely doomed.”
John Fletcher, M. D., of Edinburg Medical School, in Introductory Lecture (London), pages 11, 12: “During many years’ experience in lecturing (on physiology) . . . I have never yet found it necessary in a single instance to expose a suffering animal for the purpose of elucidating any point in physiology.”
James H. Payne, M. D., of Boston, in a letter to Anti-Vivisection, March 1, 1895: “I am wholly opposed to vivisection. It is useless, wicked, cruel, barbarous, and infamous. It is worse than useless. It fills the mind with false and brutal ideas. No good ever came from it, and never will. It demoralizes the sensibilities and unfits one for the demonstration of real scientific truth. I pray you may prosper in your good endeavors to obliterate the hideous practice from the whole earth.”
Reason’s Own Insufficiency
THERE are few things reason can discover with so much certainty and ease as its own insufficiency.—Jeremy Collier.
BASIC education
THY NEIGHBOR AS THYSELF.
By W. W. Prescott
ELDER W. W. PRESCOTT.
(October 20–26.)
To live is to love, and to love is to give. “God is love,” and “God so loved the world that He gave.” “Who loved me, and gave himself for me.” This gospel of giving one’s self in ministry wherever there is a need to be supplied is constantly being proclaimed throughout the whole universe of God, and thus is His character revealed in the things that are made. The greatest giver in the universe is God himself. “He giveth to all life and breath, and all things.” “Every good giving and every complete gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.” “The eyes of all wait upon thee. . . . Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.” When man was made in the image of God, the same life of love filled and ruled his being, and he stood at the head of creation, so far as this world was concerned, because of his ability and his willingness to give himself in ministering to every dependent thing. When man turned away from his allegiance to God, “selfishness took the place of love,” and man revealed the change by centering his thoughts upon himself. Then came such a new revelation of what love really is that all created intelligences have been amazed at its unfolding. “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” And so “in the light from Calvary it will be seen that the law of self-renouncing love is the law of life for earth and heaven.”
The true measure of God’s love is seen in the fact that He gave the best He had, reserving no choicer things to use upon himself, and this principle was manifested in the whole experience of Christ upon earth. He “took upon Him the form of a servant,” and gave himself up to a constant and self-renouncing ministry. “The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life.” And thus the commandment which He gave, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” was the law of His own life. The love of God is a living principle which reveals itself in the conduct of men. It is known by what it does. Those in whose hearts this love is shed abroad by the Holy Ghost act in their sphere on the same principles upon which God acts in His sphere. This is the inevitable result of partaking of the divine nature. “Hereby know we love, because He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” And as the love of God was revealed on His part in giving the best He had to others, in loving His neighbor as himself, so the same love will be revealed in the same way when it rules in the heart of man.
Through the corrupting influence of false principles the idea has prevailed that the worship of God consists in singing hymns, listening to eloquent sermons, and performing a more or less elaborate ritual on stated occasions, and so this has been called “divine service.” But in His teaching Christ showed that worship and the service of love are the same. “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.” And His own example indicated what He meant by such service. “I am among you as he that serveth.” And so “He went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil.”
In the work now to be done “to make ready a people prepared for the Lord,” a message of life and health is to be given to the world, and they are to learn that the gospel provides for the healing of disease as well as the forgiveness of sin; in fact, that there is the same physician and the same remedy for both. “I the Lord am thy physician.” “And no inhabitant shall say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be one whose iniquity is forgiven.” In revealing these principles to His people as the complete gospel of life the Lord has committed to them a ministry which will be welcomed by the many who are suffering from the result of their ignorance, or even from their willful transgression, and thus He has given them access to hearts which might be otherwise closed to the truth. Thus is the channel provided through which the life current may flow, and a way prepared for expressing the true significance of worship in helpful ministry. “Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?” “The greatest missionary work that can be done in our world is work in ministerial lines combined with medical missionary work.”
The principles of the heavenly kingdom have been perverted and reversed by the god of this world. The rule of the world is for each one to make himself the chief object of his thought and effort. “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “Wherewithal shall we be clothed?” are the main questions to be answered by the life-work of the many. The great ones of the earth are those who have amassed large property, or are in a position to “exercise lordship” over others. But all this is the reverse of the true principle. “He that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve.” In a life based upon these principles a revelation is made to the world of the character of Him who—
“With condescending grace
Looks down upon the human race.”
The treatment of the poor and needy is the true index of character, and the decisions of the judgment turn upon it. This is not an arbitrary basis of reward and punishment, but is simply making permanent the results of choices already made by those who are judged. The transgressors of God’s law will receive the just reward of their deeds, but “he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” Therefore one class are called to inherit the kingdom because of their ministry to the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, and those in prison; while the other class are told to depart because they had neglected to do this same work. The ground of this decision is declared to be that “inasmuch as ye have done it [or did it not] unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it [or did it not] unto me.” Thus is the truth practically set forth that Jesus, who showed himself neighbor to us, is to be recognized by us as our neighbor in the compassionate treatment of those in need of help. To love our neighbor as ourself is therefore to bring back to Jesus in kindly ministry to others the love which He has so freely bestowed upon the human family in identifying himself with them in their need.
QUESTIONS.
What is the true law of life?
Who gave us the example?
What is the evidence of the love of God in the heart?
What is the true significance of all worship?
What is one of the ways in which this will find expression?
What is the measure of true greatness?
Whose character is thus revealed?
On what ground are the blessed invited to the enjoyment of the kingdom?
On what ground are others shut out of the kingdom?
Who is served or neglected in the treatment accorded to the needy?
Of what truth is this the practical recognition?
Ask, Seek, and Knock
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”
The Water of Life
“The water that I give Him shall be in him a well of water [not an occasional shower] springing up into everlasting life.”
The Indolence Which Never Earns
“THE indolence which never earns its daily bread cannot earn the appetite to enjoy it.”
Duty Gives Strength
“THE very attempt to discharge duty will give you strength.”
THE READING CIRCLE.
By L. Flora Plummer
MRS. L. FLORA PLUMMER.
We have now begun the “Good Samaritan” lessons, which are to precede the study of health principles. It is hoped that all our people are following these studies. None should pass these lessons by as unimportant. Our relationship to those about us is worth studying. Indeed, the right understanding of this question lies at the very foundation of all Christian living. The Lord is asking each of us the same question He asked Cain. Are not many of us making answer in deeds if not in words: “I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper?”
In the lately published volume of the Testimonies we have this statement: “The Spirit of the good Samaritan has not been largely represented in our churches. Many in need of help have been passed by, as the priest and Levite passed by the wounded and bruised stranger who had been left to die by the wayside. The very ones who needed the power of the divine Healer to cure their wounds have been left uncared for and unnoticed. Many have acted as if it were enough to know that Satan had his trap all set for a soul, and they could go home and care not for the lost sheep. It is evident that those who manifest such a spirit have not been partakers of the divine nature, but of the attributes of the enemy of God. Some one must fulfill the commission of Christ; some one must carry on the work which He began to do on earth; and the Church has been given this privilege. For this purpose it has been organized. Why, then, have not church-members accepted the responsibility?”
No text-book is needed for these studies. The article which constitutes the lesson, together with the questions, is published each week in the REVIEW. Shall not these subjects have the study which is needed to bring in a reformation? Do not let the time pass unheeded. Study each lesson during the week appointed. The same topic is made the lesson for the young people’s meetings, and thus the Circle work and the young people’s work blend together.
MATER DOLOROSA.
By M. E. Paull
Because of one small, low-laid head, all crowned
With golden hair,
For evermore all fair young brows to me
A halo wear.
I kiss them reverently. Alas! I know
The pain I bear.
Because of dear but close-shut childish eyes
Of heaven's own blue,
All little eyes do fill my own with tears,
Whate'er their hue;
And, motherly, I gaze their innocent,
Clear depths into.
Because of little pallid lips, which once
My name did call,
No childish voice, in vain appeal, upon
My ears doth fall.
I count it all my joy their joys to share,
And sorrows small.
Because of little, dimpled, waxen hands
Which folded lie,
All little hands henceforth to me do have
A pleading cry.
I clasp them as they were small wandering birds
Lured home to fly.
Because of little death-cold feet, for earth's
Rough roads unmeet,
I'd journey leagues to save from sin or harm
Such little feet,
And count the lowliest service done for them
So sacred, sweet!
— M. E. Paull, in Altruist Interchange.
THE WOMAN'S WORK IN INDIA.
By Mrs. C. C. Lewis
MRS. C. C. LEWIS.
(Keene, Tex.)
Owing to an extra amount of other writing, a report of what was done at some of the camp-meetings toward carrying the gospel to the women of India has not before been prepared.
Because our beloved Sister Henry was laid away, shall we who are left quietly sit down and fold our arms in idleness, or shall we honor her memory by taking hold of the work for others in an energetic manner?
At the Kansas camp-meeting the foreign missionary work was talked of a great deal. It was suggested that the women of the Southwestern Union Conference take it upon themselves to support a zenāna mission worker in India. After talking with the foreign mission secretary and other leading brethren, a meeting of the women was called, and the matter was laid before them. Every one expressed her approval of the plan, not only in words, but also in a material way. Although the meeting was small, thirty-five dollars was pledged, and partly paid. Before the meeting closed, the amount was raised to about forty dollars.
At the Texas camp-meeting the same subject was presented to our sisters. Slips were passed through the audience, and when they were collected and counted, the result was very encouraging. The amount pledged was about eighty dollars.
This is to be “a freewill offering,” from loving hearts, who are themselves rejoicing in the possession of Christian homes and the light of a soon-coming Saviour.
The zenana work in India corresponds to our Bible work in America. One of the best Bible workers of Kansas has offered herself for this work, and is expecting to sail sometime this fall.
Will not our sisters in other Conferences join us in the work? It is all very simple. There is no organization or officers needed. We have hoped that there might be no red tape, but that those interested would simply take hold and do something. We do not want to blow a trumpet, but in a quiet way seek the Lord for a new consecration, and for a knowledge of His will concerning us as individuals.
Just now the Lord is calling upon us to sacrifice and deny ourselves, and so be able to put more into His suffering cause. May this not be a channel into which we may put some of our offerings?
All that we are as Christian wives and mothers, do we not owe to the light of the gospel? The gospel of Jesus Christ has always elevated the standard of womanhood. Shall not we, who enjoy that freedom which only the gospel can give, do all we can to liberate those who sit in heathen darkness?
It seems that there ought to be an earnest, godly woman in each Conference who will lead out, so to speak; who will write short articles for the State paper, and in every proper way encourage and inspire the women to sacrifice for this fund. The children, too, will be glad to have a part in this work.
We do not need any officers. The offerings may be paid to the church librarian, who will send them to the Conference Secretary, and he to the Mission Board at Battle Creek.
CARE FOR THE AGED.
By Mrs. N. M. Coon.
MRS. N. M. COON.
(Battle Creek, Mich.)
In God’s word we read, “Be patient toward all men.” “We ought also to love one another.” “Be pitiful, be courteous.” In still farther reading we see that these words were addressed especially to God’s people, which implies that they may fall short in this respect. We cannot think of any condition in life in which love and patience are not needed. This is especially true of the young and of the aged. The inexperience of youth and the decrepitude of age are a direct appeal for our sympathies and love. Yet the young have a pre-eminence over the aged. The sprightliness of the opening intellect, the beauty of form and feature, the innocence of the little one, recommend it to our favor. With the aged it is not so. Time has changed the features. The once fair face is seamed with care and sorrow. The eyes have lost their luster. The ears are not so quick to hear. The step is feeble, and the hands unsteady. Even the voice is changed. Change is written on all that pertains to the aged.
The aged tell again and again the same story of events that occurred in their youth and in more mature years, in days before the duties of life were laid aside for younger hands. The present is lived as an infant lives, making an impression for the moment only, to be soon forgotten. The mind goes back to childhood. Those pictures are retained in the memory. Sometimes you will see a smile flit across the aged face as some pleasing remembrance is recalled, again the silent tear, as he reviews the past, or sees some loved one slowly borne to the last resting place.
“Be courteous,” yes, even to the aged. How often we hear people say, “Oh, it’s only old man, or old woman, So-and-so,” as if age made people dishonorable. How often we hear the laugh go round at the expense of the aged because of some grammatical error of speech or some misunderstanding caused by their deafness. One might think by the treatment they receive that they had lost their feelings. But the poet tells us that “hearts grow strangely sensitive when age has dimmed the sight.”
Frequently an aged father or mother is given a home with a child. They are well fed and clothed. They are given the cosiest corner, and it is felt that the entire duty to them has been done. But it can almost be said of them, as of the dead, “Neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun.” They cannot hear readily, and no pains is taken to tell them the news. “Why should they know? They are just as well off not to know.”
Watch the aged as an exclamation of amazement from some member of the family reaches the dull hearing, and see the anxiety shown to know what has called it forth. Perhaps all are too busy to hear the feeble request to know, and it is soon forgotten. Sometimes they will make some suggestion or venture to give advice, and are told that they are like a last-year’s almanac, “out of date.”
This is a dark picture, but there are some happy exceptions where those who have become helpless are treated with a tenderness that is almost reverential. They are not left to pass hours alone, are informed of the pleasant happenings of the day, often a scrap of interesting news from a paper, or a verse that has comfort in it, is placed in their hands. Sometimes a few flowers are brought for their admiration. The first ripe berries find their way to the afflicted one. A caressing hand smoothes back the hair from the careworn face, the collar is adjusted, a word of affection is given. How small all this looks on paper, but these little attentions are of importance to the aged, and help them to live their last days, not merely endure them.
A little girl once met an aged man on the street. Her quick eye saw in his sad, patient face that he was not happy, and she gave him a stick of candy. In speaking of it she said, “I think he is some little girl’s grandpa and is lonesome, and maybe the candy will help him to forget to be lonesome.” This little act of kindness was like a bright sunbeam in a dark day to the aged man, and he was never tired of speaking of it. He was past ninety years of age, had been a Baptist minister, and by circumstances that he had no control over had become separated from his children and placed in a charitable institution, and in his helplessness grieved for them. This little act of kindness by the child was the first of a number of trifling attentions that were as stepping-stones to at last restore him to the care of those he so much loved.
In the same institution was an old lady of eighty-three. A friend visiting her one day found her asleep in her rocker. She gently patted her on the cheek, when the sleeper, without stirring, said, “Mother, yes, mother, I’ll get up; yes, I’ll get up soon.” She was a child again. In her dream her mother was awakening her as in her childhood so long ago. She opened her eyes and saw her friend in the place of her mother, and realizing it was all a dream, she closed them again, saying, “O dear, O dear!” Then looking up, she said, “Do you know I am a baby? Yes, I am.” “How is that?” the visitor queried. “Well, I was the youngest of a large family. There were thirteen of us children, but they are all gone,—father, mother, brothers, and sisters, all gone! O dear! Yes, I am just a baby again. I cannot do anything, and there is no one left to care for me.” She soon regained her cheerfulness, and the remainder of the visit was spent in pleasant converse. “How did she671come to be here?” do you ask? Not because she was poor, but because of the avarice of a distant relative.
Another dear old lady past eighty, who had evidently been a woman of ability, intelligence, and culture, her children holding responsible positions in society, was placed here by a son. She said she had a beautiful granddaughter who had tired of seeing her around. She was perfectly crushed by being separated from her children, yet tried to make it appear as well for them as she could. A few months after coming to the institution her mind became so deranged by brooding over her trouble that she disarranged everything in her room, undressed, and wrapped herself in a sheet, and walked up and down in the hall in her misery, mourning for her children.
A lady in the West who had had her mother with her nearly all her married life, the mother having been like a servant to her in her home till old age crept on, and she became helpless, turned her over to strangers to care for. She had no time for that aged mother who had been such a willing slave to her all those years. This woman is one of those who are proclaiming that the Lord is soon coming again. Have we not reached the time foretold when self-love shall predominate and natural affection be wanting?
Probably there are hundreds who read the dear old REVIEW who have parents or other relatives who need their care. Don’t shirk your duty and crush the hearts of those already afflicted, and plant thorns for your pillow.
Charitable institutions are all right, and it would be better if there were more in the land; but such places are for those who have outlived all who should take care of them; those from whom misfortune has swept all away, leaving them destitute and helpless. No institution, however well equipped, having the most thoughtful and sympathizing matrons and trained nurses to care for its inmates, can take the place of children or near relatives in the care of the helpless aged.
You may say it calls for so much self-denial. Pleasure, ease, society, must be given up. In extreme cases even religious privileges must be foregone. It requires much patience, hard work, and many sleepless nights. Excuse me for speaking of myself. The trial once came to me, and I drank the cup to the bitter dregs. How well I did my duty God alone knows, but I can say that I have no thorns in my pillow.
If we could just look into the future and see ourselves old and stricken, in the easy-chair, and others caring for us, would it not make us more thoughtful for those who need our attention?
God’s word tells us that “we all do fade as a leaf.” All, not some. How differently the leaves fade as the frost of autumn touches them. Some grow bright and delicate,—reminding us of real Christians who, although they grow old, have a charm about them that is sweet and tender,—while other leaves are dark and blotched and crisp as soon as the chilling frost touches them. These remind us of those who have been made sour and bitter in disposition by the cares and disappointments of life. Such have no hope. These need love and patience to tide them over, and perhaps win them back to the love of our Heavenly Father.
HEALTH NOTES.
By L. A. S.
Use Your Teeth.—The question of what to eat in order to have health is one that is bothering a great many people. There is one thing that nature teaches on this point; that is, eat something that requires chewing. You have teeth; that means that you are to chew your food. Your teeth must have exercise in order to keep healthy. Look at the rest of the animal world; do you find any other animal that lives on mush, soup, or other soft dishes? The cat and all the cat tribe chew bones; so does the dog. The squirrel cracks nuts. The cow and the horse grind hard kernels of grain and tough dried hay between their teeth. All wild animals have far better teeth than man has, and those tribes of men which are most nearly wild have far better teeth than the civilized peoples. This is simply because they exercise their teeth. Man is an animal; and there is no reason why he should be an exception to all the rest of the animal world in requiring the frequent services of a dentist. There is something wrong. Nature has made no mistake, but man has. It was intended that men should have good, sound teeth; therefore it was designed that men should chew their food; therefore the proper food for man is food that will exercise the teeth. If you are not eating this kind of food, begin a reform at once. Get back to nature; then maybe nature will get back to you. Discard your fashionable long-reciped concoctions with French names, and eat something that your grandfather fared on before civilization robbed life of its simplicity. People have been poking fun at President Roosevelt’s teeth; but his teeth are the kind that nature designed for all of us. Show me a man with big, strong teeth, and I will show you a man who is healthy. Maybe your teeth have too nearly lost their function to stand chewing very hard food; but if so, give them as much exercise as they will stand. If you would eat to live, chew your food.
Pneumonia.—The statistics of mortality for the year 1900, published by the Census Bureau, show that more people now die from pneumonia in the northern section of this country than from any other disease. Statistics covering an area extending from Michigan to the Atlantic, and south to the District of Columbia, including also many cities outside this territory, give a rate of 191.9 deaths per 100,000 people from pneumonia; while that for consumption is 190.5. As the cold season is approaching, precautions should begin to be taken against this fatal disease. It is entirely preventable if one will exercise proper precautions. An attack of pneumonia is almost always the result of carelessness. Proper protection of the body against chilling winds, and prompt measures taken upon the appearance of any symptom of pulmonary congestion, would no doubt almost do away with the mortality from this scourge. But so long as people will be careless and neglect to clothe themselves properly for cold and damp weather, or to act promptly when the first symptoms of the disease appear, the mortality from this source will continue.
To guard against pneumonia, begin by fortifying the system against the disease, by toning up the circulation. Do this by taking a cold, or cool, bath, followed by vigorous rubbing of the skin, every day. Then take pains to guard against any chilling of the surface of the chest, or of the back. Moderately cold damp weather is more dangerous than very cold dry weather. Have the lower extremities warmly clad. For the relief of congestion of the lungs apply cold wet cloths to the chest and hot fomentations to the back. Apply heat also to the feet.
A severe attack of pneumonia, if not itself fatal, amounts generally to the individual’s death warrant; for it so injures the lungs that ere long the germs of tuberculosis make their presence felt, and the victim goes rapidly down to the grave. Very many deaths from consumption are really due, primarily, to pneumonia.
Apples, says a writer in the American Mother, “should form a part of at least one meal every day, so long as they can be found in market, and should constitute one third of the quantity of canned fruit usually put up for winter use. . . . Our German analysts say that the apple contains a larger percentage of phosphorous than any other fruit or vegetable,” and this phosphorous “is admirably adapted for renewing the essential nerve matter — lecithin — for the brain and spinal cord.”
L. A. S.
Rolled Oats
Rolled oats, browned and eaten with hot milk, or made into porridge, is an excellent food.
VALUE OF GRAPES AS A FOOD.
By Daniel H. Kress
D. H. KRESS, M. D.
THE peach season is now about ended. During the excessively hot weather the human system especially needs and craves the pure liquid and the mild acids found in this fruit. As the weather becomes cooler, more sugar—the heat- and force-producing element—is needed. God, who supplies all our needs, has made provision for this need in giving us grapes, pears, apples, figs, dates, etc. During the months of October, November, and December, grapes can be obtained at a nominal price, so even the poor need not be deprived of this luxury.
In some parts of the world there are established what are known as grape-cure institutions. Patients afflicted with various chronic diseases go to these places to receive treatment. This consists mostly of the free use of grapes—grapes for breakfast, grapes for dinner, grapes for supper—nothing but grapes. It has been found that many so-called incurable diseases readily yield to this simple remedy, and these institutions have received a world-wide reputation.
It is not necessary, however, to make a trip to the Old World in order to obtain the benefit of the grape-cure. Like all other blessings, it is not far from every one of us. Every home may become a grape-cure sanitarium. But even a good thing, if wrongly used, becomes a curse. A few hints on how to use grapes may therefore be of help:—
1. Before being placed on the table, grapes should always be well washed, to remove, as far as possible, dust, germs, etc.
2. Do not eat grapes freely after eating a hearty meal of solid foods, or after eating freely of liquids. There is danger of overloading the stomach, thus delaying digestion and favoring fermentation. This finally results in chronic dilatation of the stomach, and makes it unable to do its part in converting the food into good blood. As a rule it is best to eat grapes, if eaten freely, at the close of the meal, or better still, in many cases, fifteen or thirty minutes afterward.
3. The best time to eat grapes, for those who are accustomed to three meals a day, is in the evening. At the evening meal dispense with all other foods, and eat grapes as freely as you please. This will be found an excellent remedy for chronic constipation, from which many suffer.
The third meal is frequently the cause of much mischief and suffering. After a hard day's work, either mental or physical, we feel exhausted. This is because the nerve energy which was stored up in the nerve cells during the sleeping hours of the previous night has been exhausted. The great electric battery needs recharging. Nature holds out her signal, suggesting rest and sleep. Instead of heeding the signal, frequently a heavy meal is taken. The nerve energy required to digest the food has been used up, and the food remains undigested, and decays. Poisons are generated. These flood the system, and are responsible for the bad taste in the mouth, the coated tongue, the foul breath, the dull feeling in the head, the horrible dreams, the impatience, and other innumerable ills. What would otherwise have been a blessing has been converted into a curse.
By eating grapes, which furnish nutriment in a predigested form ready to be absorbed, and liquids to cleanse out the waste products which were formed during the day, instead of awakening in the morning with all these horrible and disagreeable symptoms, the sleep will be refreshing, the mind clear. Everything will take on a different aspect. Things which before irritated and annoyed will become sweet music. Even the trees of the field will clap their hands.
