The Shasta courier., 1869-03-06

| that fellow above learn humanity? Here
| have | been hard at work this afternoon
sweeping up and putting things to rights,
| when just as | was about to sit quietly down
and take rest SO as to be ready for my even
ing's work, down rushes a deluge of fiery
| fluid which has so excited my nerves and in
| famed my skin that really fear that shall
be unable to keep adding Messrs. Gangha
| here have been telling me what wise chap
that is up there in the telegraph Office above;
| how his researches extend to the remotest
corner of the wide universe. Well WE'LL
wish he would stop at home some rainy day,
and instead of visiting the stars, just tstep down
and take lesson from me. Just think !
| Many's the time I've lain down after hard
| davis work, but had no sooner settled into
| soothing slumber ere the door is rudely dashed
| open and in rushes mob of oysters and wine,
| who insist on my arising to attend to them.-
| Nor is this all my ailings. Sometlmes-as If
natural with every created thing-lam atfleted
by the visitation of some terrible disease, un-
doubtedly engendered by the blind misman-
agement of my tormentor. In periods like
this one would reasonably suppose that rest
would be allowed me in order to recuperate
my exhausted energies no. My infatuated
master pauses not in his mad career, but con-
tinues in his accustomed round, with this ex-
ception he increases his vile doses,-the
|
neither wish nor require There,-as live
he's seading down another comforter, as he
calls it. Hark how it gurgles as my brothers
I above scorched and drowned with the fiery
mass, spurn it downward out of their channels.
Here it comes Ugh Bitters, by all that's
execrable Rum, logwood and wormwood
Heavens why can't that miserable fellow send
his doses down in Straightforward manner,
without his poisoning of poisons by these
wretched adulterations !"
might continue by the hour, brothers, sis
ters and friends to give you an account of
the grievances of the much abused stomach
| True, there are those before me who will ex-
claim pshaw what does the stomach know
| about its own requirements it has no brains!"
All, my friends remember it has the experience
and you must bear in mind the conclusion we
came to in opening remarks, that mankind
takes far more readily to the lessons taught by
experience than to the by no means infallible
promptings of abstruse science.
One word more concerning the health argu-
ment. As in different circles of society there
are different fashions, so in the circle of the
medical profession there is found diversity
of creed. Every honest, conscientious phys
ician, however, will admit the common sense
contained in the assertion that where Nature
has supplied materials or organs, it is the
height of absurdity in US to set them aside for
the substitution of inventions of our own. You
| cannot but admit the truthGulness of this
| ground, and yet, in admitting it, your. health
stay vanishes in air.
For the purpose of mastication and deglu-
tition of your food Nature has provided
secretory glands which afford never-ceasing
supply of fluid. For the transition of this
pulpy mass into chyme prior to the manufac-
turc, first of chyle, and then of blood corpus
cles another agent is employed, termed gas
trio juice. This fluid is enclosed in sacs or
cells, and is so regulated that on the appear
ance of food the valves are opened and the
liquid flows out and seizes upon the intruder
in much the same way that horde of ants
would invest a grain of sugar-reducing it to
Nhe finest possible consistency. Though not
exactly relavent to the subject, | would re-
mark, in passing, that on the non-appearance
| of food for any length of time these sacs or
cells become overcharged, and by their fullness
occasion that oppressive feeling which, in
| common parance, is known as hunger.
Let me now pause and look around into the
faces of those before me. There is not a sin
gle individual of this congregation who is
prepared to deny the self-evident fact that the
same mysterious omniscient Power who Gre
ated the heavens and the earth employed His
consumma.e wisdom in the manufacture of
these silent but poten: agencies in the all-im-
portant work of sustenance and regeneration.
| Contemplating the grand perfection of the de-
| sign, how absurd, nay, how sacriligious in US
to cloak our idle tastes by asserting the neces-
sity of pressing into service that bane ofsocie-
ty whose evil influence has tended to the de-
moralization of mankind in far greater de-
gree than all other satanic agencies combined.
| cannot leave this portion of my subject
until have presented the results of a scientific
| ~, ooff
learned experimentalist is well known to sci
ence, and his reputation warrants the assertion
that no such decision would have been reach
ed, much less published to the world, unless
satisfactorily substantiated by facts. Hear
him
1. The presence of alcohol in the blood in
terferes with the normal play of vital affinites
and cell-action in such manner to dimin-
ish the rapidity of nutrition and disintegraton,
and consequently to diminish the dependent
functions of elimination, calori6cation, and
innervation thereby making positive organic
sedative instead of diffusible stimuant, as
is popularity supposed Doth In and out OF the
profession.
O. That the alcohol itself acts in the system
/ exclusively as foreign substance, incapable
of assimilation decomposition by the vital
functions, and is ultimately excreted or elimi-
mated without chemical change.
Here is an explosion of your pet position.
Behold another instance added to the volumin-
Gus records of mans vain, peurile attempts to
enter into competition with the Most High.
Far be it from me to shield my own partici-
patton in this general rebuke. More than
once have l leaned complacently back in my
chair at the completion of meal, taken in
grim defiance of physiological or hygenic
laws, approvingy slipping the contents of
wine glass. | was easily, because willingly,
persuaded that the tempting draught was an
all-important auxiliary in the matter cf diges-
ton In recalling to mind my feelings as
held aloft that sparkling liquid, ludicrous
parallel is suggested. You may haveh heard
the incident related. Two men were passing
through forest. Coming to a thick growth
of young hickories one passed little ahead,
the other bringing up the rear. While in this
position the eader-a strong, able-bodied man
encountered a stout young sapling directly
in his path. Selling it with sturdy grasp
the man bent it forward out of his way, and
thea letting it go, passed on. 1t however
happened that the person behind either lily
understood the laws of reaction, or had had
his attention drawn to some other object. Be
this as it may, the elastic sapling, returning to
its original position, struck the astounded
traveller with such force that he was borne
well nigh senseless 20 the ground. Hearing
the thump and the consequent groan, the
leader glanced quickly back, and only half
| comprehendiup the situation, very commlser-