The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1856-11-27
PRESERVATION oF HEALTH.

Some one has said or written that as civil.
ration extends doctors multiply. Our civil.
zation begets on artificial life, and like all
artificial things II requires art and artists for
its preservation. The doctors are not respon.
sible for the multiplication Of their numbers.
They increase simply under the universal law
Of demand and supply. If the demand de.
creased the number Of medicine men would
decrease, and vice Versa, while the demand
increases the supply will increase Every
family nowadays must have their family
Physician 1t is fashionable to be able to
say our family physician, and If people will
be in fashion they must pay for It in money
or III health, or, more properly, in both.
II is astonishing Whit pains people are at
to avoid the natural and rational modes Of
habits Of life which would ensure general
good health. They will not observe the die.
tates Of common sense in their use Of food;
in their Dress in their out door pleasure, or
their in door life. They cypress their diges.
tive organs by their epicurean tastes and
contempt for simple, health giving fare. They
destroy their nervous systems by indulgence
in beverages or the use Of narcotics. The
physical energies are weakened by .being
stimulated. instead Of being nourished, and
the mental faculties suffer with the wear Of
the physical.
All soaealled civilized communities are fast
becoming communities of invalids, under
constant medical care. It Is the fashion to
make the doctors subjects for sarcasm and
caricature, but the fools who cannot live
without the doctor, and who die because the
doctor cannot save them from the conse.
quences of their folly, but seldom come un.
der the artists lash. The trade in pills and
medicals of innumerable names and varieties,
grows at an enormous rate. Our large cities
are like vast hospitals divided into numerous
wards, with an expensive staff of physicians,
surgeons and apothecAries The adults die
by scores; their weakly offspring by hun.
dreds. Golgothas rise on every side, and the
cities Of the dead compete in population and
attraction, with the cities of the living.
We seem to have lost all right conception
of the value of life. and the sacredness of the
duty of preserving health. We talk about
health being the greatest blessing man can
enjoy, and perhaps while the words are on
our lips we are INDUCING some bad habit
which is gradually but surely working the
destruction of that which we profess to prize
so highly. The truth is, that but few know
or study the art of living we'll. With all our
advances in knowledge, we have not made
much progress in the simple art of preserving
health. Enough is written about the laws Of
health, but the more laws and the more tina,
is written about them, the greater the mum
Der of violations.
In health matters, as in other matters o.
life, few simple rules strictly observed o,
enforced, are better than a multitude of law,
which are disregarded. II people would OBJ
serve temperance in all things; follow the
suggestions Of reason rather than the eccen
tricities and fooleries of fashion; cultivate in.
dustrious and virS dous habits; take innocent
recreation, and love no beverage go much as
the pure air of Heaven, they would enjoy
better health. live happier and more useful
lives, and need far fewer doctors.