Carroll free press. [volume] (Carrollton [Ohio]) 1834-1861, 1855-03-22
vel. %, NUMBER -
tflistcllaneous iasuoinu.
Decline of manhood.

We are WOhted TO the presence Of debility anC
pain. Religious men teach us to accept weak
mess and suffering as the appointed lot Of hu
imanity. Hence the conditions Of health anC
longevity are not merely disregarded but ig
nored, and men Of the profoundest learning
on other subjects are here ignorant Of elements
University professors know how to take care o
the solar system, but do not know how 10 taxi
care Of their own systems. admire the ruleI
of prOsOdy BY which Greek and Latin verS'
fow into harmonious numbers but | prefel
the tuneful pulse which never makes an elisiOr
to any music Of classical scanning.
once knew professor of Rhetoric in az
American college, who choked himself to death
at dinner party with an undivided piece Of
mutton. He knew to semitone the rhetorical
proportions in which breath should be sent out
of the lungs. but was ignorant of the physio.
logical quantities in which food should be TAX.
en- into the stomach. Clergymen are forever
exhorting us to keep our spirits clean and
pure, and then, in their outer man, they exem-
plify their teachings by all the deflemeuts of
tobacco They are BOanerges for the advance.
ment Of their own sect but disdain compan-
ionship with that sect Of the Nazarites who
drank no wine. Statesmen and learned doctors
debate and discuss the minor questions of po.
litical economy but forget that a blight on
puOlic health is more peculiarly disastrous than
mildewed crops, aud that the most adverse
balances Of trede are less impoverishing than
the expenditures for sickness. the non. .produc.
ti,enesss OF bodily imbeclity, and the costs of
vice and crime.
l hold it to be morally impossible for God to
have created, in the beginning, such men and
women as we find the human race, in their
physical condition now 10 be Examine the
book Of Genesis, which contains the earliest
annals OF the human family. AS is commonly
supposed. it comprises the first twenty three
hundred and sixty nine years Of human histo
ry. With chid-like simplicity this book de.
sclibes the infancy of mankind Unlike mod
ern histories. It details the minu'eSt circum-
stances of social and inividusl,te Indeed it
is rather series Of Biographies Than history
The false delicacy Of modern times did no, for
bid the mention of whatever was done or suf-
fered. And yet, over all THAI eEpanse of time
for more than one-third part of the duration
Of the human race mot singie instance is re-
corded Of a child born blind or deaf or dumb,
or idiOtc, or malformed in any way During
the whole period, not single case Of natural
death in infancy, or childhood, or early man
hood or even of middle manhood, is 10 be
found. Not one man or woman died Of dis
ease, The simple record is, "and be died.
or, he, died "in good old age and full Of
years." or, be was "old and full Of days
No epidemic, nor even endemic disease pre-
vailed, showing that they died the natural
death Of healthy men, and not the unnatural
death Of distempered ones. Through all this
time, Except in the sing gle case of Jacob, in
his old age, and then only day or two before
his death, it does not appear that any old lady
or young lady ever tainted. BNuily pain from
disease is now here mentioned. No cholera in-
fantum, scarlatina, measles, small pox-not
even toothache So extraordinary thing
was il for son to de before lis father, that
an instance Of it is deemed worthy Of special
notice and this first case of the reversal of
natures laws was two thousand years after the
creation Of Adam. See how this reversal of
natures law has, for US, become the law for
how rare is it now for all the Chidren OF a
family TO survive the parents. Rachel died at
the birth of Benjamin but this is the only
case Of puerperal death mentioned in the 6rst
tweDty.four hundred years Of the sacred hiss
tory and even this happened during the fa
tgues Of patrlarchal journey, when passen>
gers were not waited along in the saloons of
a rail car or steam boat Had Adam, think
you, tuberculous lungs? Was Eve fiat chest
ed, or did she cultivate the serpentine line of
grace in a curved spine ? Did Nimrod get up
in the morning with furred tongue. or was he
tormented with the dyspepsia Had Esau the
gOut or hepatitis' Imaglne:hOw the tough old
pAtriarchs would have looked at being asked to-
subscribe for a laying.in hospital. or an asylum
for lunatics, or an eye and ear in6rmaly, or a
school for idiots or deaf mutes. What would
their eagle-visiou and swiftfootedness have
said to the project Of a blind asylum, or an
orthopedic establishment Did they suffer
any of these revenges Of nature against false
civilization ? No Man came from the hand
Of God so perfect in his bodily organs, so de-
6ant Of cold and heat, Of drought and humid
ity, so surcharged with vital force. that it took
more than two thousand years ofthe sombinsd
denominations Of appetite and iguOr ance It
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