Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1874-03-13
our Ea,ing and Drinking.

"It is certain that over-feeding as
we'll as oyer.drinking is great evil and
produces its yearly hecatombs oil. vic
Tins, who are looked upon as innocent
sufferers, while their colleagues, the
over-drinkers, are severely dealt with in
respectable society" Thus writes re-
cent medical authority. He goes on to
say that the tendency to fatty degenera-
ton of muscular and other tissue is
much on the increase. The disease
quietly gains grounds, though the vic
tim seems the picture Of health to the
uninitiated. 1t is one of the causes of
the increase of sudden deaths. Rich
living and fatty meats, with little exer-
else, do their work unsu spected, and
produce as much disease as any of the
recognized causes of typhoid and other
malades.
These considerations are certainly
worth needing, when one sits down to
dinner. But our stern medical monitor
attends US to market also. All men
should learn that good eater should
also be good worker if he intends to
remain healthy, and that the rule applies
to oxen as well as men. 1t may be seri-
ously asked whether the consumption Of
the meat of overted animals is also an
evil2 The answer must be yes. Such
food must tell upon the constitution of
those living upon it. 1t lays the founda-
tion of many evils in mans frame, prob
ably producing many of those gastric
disturbances which aGeet many abstemi-
GUS and regular livers, who wonder why
such mutton and such beef could have
disagreed with them.
Who shall decide when doctors disa
greer. Sound practitioners tell US that
fat and tender meats are most nutritious,
as they are most palatable. Of course,
if one "overfeeds he suffers IN conse-
quence, though his overpacking of the
stomach be done with potatoes and salt.
Moderation is the safe guide-not, how
ever, to the ascetic regulation OF rising
from the table hungry. Whoever does
that without necessity, thinks more of
his meat than even the over-feeder. The
man may be presumed to be in best con-
dition, who goes to dinner when the hour
comes, without having longed impa-
tiently for the dinner bell; and who goes
from dinner without any speeia. recol-
lection half an hour afterwards
what he has eaten, or whether be
has eaten at all or not. Whenever
the matter of food becomes one of
thought and concern, whether that
thought be the longing of the epicure or
the fussiness of the dietarian, eating and
drinking have assumed an undue i'm
portance. Whether men gormandize,
looking chiefly for quantity, or pick here
little and there a little, piling up an
over.sufficiency of delicate mouthfuls,
or eat by ounce measure and under pro-
test, in either case the mere act OF feed
ing takes too much thought. Common
sense is the best guide, and common
caution should prescribe what one
should eat, and how much, and that, too,
without making every meal the subject
of hygienic thesis The great degree
to which eating and drinking form the
subject of conversation, and of the
exchanges Of opinions in civilized cir
cles, is both amazing and ridiculous.
Two things may be taken for granted,
that most people who can command the
things they like are overfed, and few
people, male or female, of their own free
will, take exercise sufficient for their
comfort. Excess in eating prompts or
demands excess in drinking Even
water may be over-indulged in, and as
to tea and coffee, they are with many
people too freely poured down, to the
detrimentof digestion. The main thing
to be remembered is that disease origi-
mates as much from over-feeding as over
drinking, and that the close atmosphere
Of house is not the place to recuperate
the overfed.