Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-08-16
WoRCEs ER.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 10, 1879.

The people who live by rule and pay heed
TO all the advice in regard TO diet which
they find in journals OF health and SINH
lar publications, have hard time of ii. There
is hardly an article OF food or drink in common
use which has not been denounced by somebody
as more or less poisonous, and those which the
universal appetite of mankind most strongly
Graves are CONDEMNED the most theoretically.
One set of advisers declare that animal food of all
kinds is highly injurious and its use unnatural,
in face of the fact that men everywhere and in
all ages of the world have been accustomed to
make it a staple article of diet. Another class
admitting that some kinds of flesh meats
may be safely eaten, denounce Others
as utterly unfit for food. These vaga-
ries are of long standing, and have had many
adherents. They are based chiefly on preju
dice, fancied analogies, or more or less extensive
observation and experience. They have ceased
TO disturb the public mind very much, but of
late men of science have begun to investigate
diatetic and hygienic problems with results that
are extremely disquieting, if much heed is paid
TO them. They have given their attention to
drinks mostly, and their discoveries are not all
in accordance with generally received opinions
or what seem to be the teachings of long eX-
perience. Wine and beer we have been accus-
toned to regard as dangerous, if not invariably
baneful beverages; bnt the weight of scientific
opinion seems now to be in their favor, as, on
the whole, beneficial, while tea, which has
never before had any enemies except the
people who contemptuously rejected il as "slops"
or 'dishwater," because its favor was too mild
or otherwise unpleasing to their palates, is now
pronounced by a high medical authority to be a
poison of most insidous and dangerous char
acter. 1t is a slow poison, of course, so slow in
fact that some other cause of mortality inyaria-
bly, carries off the tea drinker before the fatal
tendencies of his beverage have time to develop
themselves; but it is poison all the same. 1t
is ne new thing TO hear coffee maligned in this
way, but tea is now discovered to be by far
more perncious 1t is difficult to understand
how persons who have drunk both of these ma
lignant infusions daily for many years can
have so little respect for medical sci
ence as to continue in excellent health,
with sound digestion and steady nerves. Their
lamentabe ignorance is their only excuse. But
more alarming still is the announcement that
water of such degree of purity as nature pro
vides for us is not a beverage in which we can
safely indulge. We are not referring now to the
danger of drinking ice cold water when over
heated; of that the newspapers TEEN with warn
ings every summer; but of the mischieyous
effect of drinking water in moderate quantities,
and at the ordinary temperature. Water, ac-
cording to this authority, though apparently
pure, often contains the germs of organisms,
which, when taken into the body, are extremely
noxious. Their presence cannot be de-
tccted by any means at the com
maud of unscientihc persons, and no
source from which water is ordinarily OBJ
tanned for drinking is sure TO be free from them.
The drinking Of water, therefore, instead of a
virtue, as we have been accustomed to consider
it, takes the aspect of baneful indulgence.
Water, however, can be made harmless, or
nearly So by boiling, as the vitality of the germs
is destroyed by that process, and in this respect,
therefore, coffee and tea are less injurious than
water in its natural state Alcoholic liquors.
also, are free from this objection, although they
are open TO Others more serious. In the multi
tude of counselors there is safety, but the prov
erb seems at fault in this case. We might follow
any one of these authorities without inconven-
icnce and possibly with benefit; bat to select
The one most deserving of confidence is not
easy, and TO follow the advice of all would de-
prive us of every beverage, which is quite out of
the question, although we believe that some en-
thnsiastic rider of physiological hobby is said
10 have lived in perfect health and comfort for
many years without drinking anything. Per-
haps the best way, and we are sure it will be the
popular one, is to go on pretty much as we have
done hitherto, without much practical regard
to these hygienic discoveries until the doctors
have come to a general agreement upon them,
when, if they forbid us all the beverages now
in common use, they will doubtless be able TO
provide an acceptable substitute