Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1863-10-22
Great Eaters.

Great eaters never NE long A voraci-
Gus appetite, so tar from being good sign
OF health, is n certain indication OF disease.
Some dyspeptics are always hungry; feel
best when they are eating, but as soon as
they have eaten they enter torments, so
distressing in their nature, as to make the
uOhappy victim wish for DEATH The appe-
tite Of health is that which inclines to eat
moderately, when eating time comes and
which, when satisfied, leaves no unpleasant
reminders. Multitudes measure their health
by the amount they can eat; and of any ten
persons, nine are gratified at an Increase of
weight, as II mere bulk were an index of
health; whenj in reality, any excess Of fat
ness is, in proportion, decisive proof Of ex-
lsting disease; showing that the absorbents
OF the system are too weak to discharge their
duty; and the tendency to fatness, to obesity,
increases until existence is burden, and
sudden death closes the history. Particu.
lar inquiry will almost invariably elicit the
fact, that a fat person, however rubicund
and jolly, is never well, and yet they are en-
We'd.
While great eaters never live to an old
age, and are never, for a single day. with
out some symptoms" some feeling suffi-
ciently disagreeable to attract the minds at
tention unpleasantly, small eaters, those who
eat regularly of plain food, usually have no
spare flesh" are wiry and enduring, and
live to an old age. Remarkable exenpl.f-
cations Of these statements are found in the
lives OF centenarians of a past age. Galcn,
one OF the most distinguished physicians
among the ancients, lived very sparingly
after the age of %, and died in his l4Oth
year. kentigern, who never tasted spirits
or wine, and worked hard all his life, reach
ed 1856 years. Jenkins, poor Yorkshire
fisherman, who lived on the coarsest diet,
was l6g years old when he died. Old Parr
lived to 1853; his diet being milk, cheese,
whey, small beer, and coarse bread. The
favOrite diet of Henry Francisco, who lived
to l40, was tea, bread and butter, and baked
apples. Ephrain Pratt, of Shutesbury,
Mass, who died aged III lived chiefly on
milk, and even that in small quantity; his
son Michael, by similar means lived to be
lO3 years old. Father Gull, Methodist
clergyman, died last year at the age OF los,
the main diet Of his life having been salted
swine's flesh lbacon) and bread made Of ln
dian meal.
From these statements, nine general read
ers out of ten will jump to the conclusion
that milk is ''healthy, as are baked dpp1es
and bacon. These conclusions do not legit-
imately follow. The only inference that
Can be safely drawn, is from tho ouiy fact
running through all these cases-that plain
food and life Of steady labor tend to a
great age. As to the belllhfulness aud
liie-protracting qualities OF any article Of
diet named, nothing can be inferred, for no
two Of the men lived on the same kind of
food; all that can be nationally aud safely
said is, either that they lived so long in
spite Of the q,alityof the foodthey ate, or
that their instinct called for peculiar kind
OF food; and the qualification OF that iii
stinct, instead of its perversiun, with life
of steady labor, directly caused healthful-
ness and great length of days. We must
thing which an old man did, and omit 9TH
ers, but by doing all he did, that is, work
steadily, as well as eat mainly a particular
DISH Halls Journal of Health.