The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1873-07-31
The Hygisnie Teachings Of the New.
papers.
From the Chicago Times.1

IF there be any one thing calculated
to drive the newspaper reader to dis
traction, It Is the contradictory state
ments of physicians and the like, which
he finds in almost any issue of anv
journal published anywhere. When
one reflects that there are a great many
people who never read anything but
newspapers who find in the daily
periodical their confession of faith.
their shorter and longer catechisna
who look to it for their political views,
their dispensatory, their recipe and
cookbook, it is easy enough to see that
sslch readers may be daily driven-to the
very verge of distraction by the con-
tradictions which meet him In the col
umns of his favorite journal.
A case in point is that furnished In
the dietetic liRe.A One day the reader
lights upon the theories of DIR. Dio
Lewis. He finds to his horror that he
is eating himself TO death. He learns
that tea and coffee are poisops, meat a
frightful luxury, pastry a devilish in
Ventlon In the interests of undertakers.
He discovers that all nature requires is
few spoonfuls of cracked wheat, soft
ened IN hot water for piece de re-
sIstance, with a glass of milk for a
dessert. Occasionally, the main dish
may be varied by a substitution of oat-
meal, with sueh variety in the dessert
as may be afforded by glass of water
IN place of the glass of milk.
Scarcely had the reader adapted him
self to the regimen, when his news
paper gives him the views of some stall
ted Briton. Now he learns that the
only true method of preserving life is to
gorge soup, roast beef, mutton, venison,
all sorts of vegetables, no end OF des-
sert, together with tea and coffee, with
four kinds of wine at dinner and un-
limited brandy-and water after it. The
craeked-wheat theorists clamor for no
more than two meals day, the heaviest
of which shall be as many hours as pos
sible before bedtime, while the Briton
points complacently to. the magnificent
health of his people with their four
meals a day, the grandest of which
occurs after the labor of the day is done.
Then there is the tobacco and whisky
difficulty. One is convinced by his
newspaper that tobacco and whisky,
even in the most temperate form, are
serious evils; but he has no more than
broken his pipe and thrown his decanter
out of the window than there enters the
field another apostle who demonstrates
COnG1OS4fC4I bA4db bODdCLO anu tJAA1bS,
used in moderation, are conducive to
comfort, health and long life.
If there be any one thing upon which
there has been unanimous agreement
in the dictG of the newspapers, it is
that morning bath in cold water is a
prerequisite to vigorous health. We
have all ordered our baths and sponges !;
we are faithfully carrying out the hy-
| dropathic theories, when there has just
entered our authority who assures us
that daily bathing in cold water weakens
one that it is useless for purposes of
cleanliness /; that nature is impeded in
place of being assisted by too frequent
bathing, aud that a tepid bath weekly
| is the very most that health and cleanli-
ness require. -
Then there arises the cholera nostrum
whenever the cholera becomes menac-
ing, an cold physician invariably
rises to explain, and announces that
with the following prescription he has
| cured II 900 cases and never lost sim
| gle one. People have scarcely gotten
the prescription pasted IN their hat,
| when there enters another competent
authority who announces that some
thing exactly unlike the other is the
only remedy, and that everything else
| 10 a AAe@AASA anu a Ats41llAC-
How many years have people followed
| the "early to bed and early to rise"
formula, only to find, after quarter of
a century, from some one who knows,
that the late sleep in the morning is the
most restful and healthful, and that all
along they have been getting out at
| daybreak to their own irreparable in
| jury. Jump out of bed the instant
! awake !" have long said some, and "de-
vote at least an hour to waking up, be-
fore rising" says Henry Ward Beecher
and both authorities urge their plan
upon the plea of health.
Anybody will remember a thousand
| just such other cases, in which there is
a flat contradiction with reference to
the same precise thing. Indeed, if one
attempts to follow the hygienic theories
OF his newspaper, there is scarcely q
week in which he viii not find himself
at both extremes with respect to any
one particular matter.
The weak point in this contrariety oi
views is that the prescriptionists of the
newspapers regard every one man as
exactly like every other man, and that
what Is suitable for one is suitable fol-
all the rest. Nothing is more absurd
than this. Not only are there scarcely
two people who require the same diet
and the same medicine, but there il
scarcely a man who requires the same
food and same treatment for any two
periods of his life. The matutinal cold
water plunge that viii invigorate one
man Will seriously weaken and depresi
another. A cigar Will soothe one in
dIvldual and excite some other one
One person will thrive on a spars,
vegetable diet, while another viii starv,
unless he have an abundant supply o
JUICY meats and a large variety of food
The people who present these differ
ent theories of eating, drinking, AM
living would be right were they to limi
r the application of their teachings to in
dividuals or classes in place of trying t
, apply them to all. The only fool in tn
case Is the man who attempts to follo'
. all these teachings, and who is a earn
I verous and gramniyorous, a hydrop1
thlst or a non-hydropathist an allopl
e thlst or homeopathic by turns, accord
ing as he may happen to be influence
by the last theory IN his newspaper.
. SLAVERY IN PERU.-The Berlin Vol
: szeitung gives a most revolving pictu
: of the life dragged out by slaves
e Peru who are owned by Germans no
s living in Germany. One of thei
J, wretches has power over ], 100 coolie
t who, under cover Of the revolvers an
: the stripes of the whips of So overseer
Il work from early morning till late
n night, year in and year out, not eve
e having respite on Sunday. The
n food is two pounds of rice each day an
+ nothing else. Many of them are Ioads
with chains, and at night all sleep in
g stall surrounded by bulldogs and mo
, closely watched. In this manne
l, which recalls the outrageous condu
y OF Sonnenkamp in Auerbach's - Vii
" on the Rhine, their tyrant has amas
le ed fortune of SIS, 900. COO. In O
n year another German, who doubtle
: shouts with the loudest when . Freih,
II und LIGHT are the watch-word, burn
n the corpses of Sc Of these unfortunas
' merely to strike terror into the sur