The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1875-08-13
Prevention Better Than Cure,

Dear me! how did you catch it?"-often
makes US cross enough. AS if it could be
any consolation to u suferings to in
vestigate how we got them. But the re-
mark is not so ridiculous as it seems. 1t
would be a curious and useful register of
personal statistics if we were t OcOunt how
many of our illnesses we bring on our
selves by neglect of those common sanitary
laws which can never be broken with i'm
punity. Men of science, half of whom al
lege that nature is all benign, the other
half that she is wholly cruel, seem to be
both right and both wrong. She is
neither kind nor cruel she is only Just.
Sheer a higher Power through her-lays
down laws which, so far as we see, are
laws for the general good; they must be
obeyed, and by all, or all suffer: and
neither God nor nature can prevent this
suffering.
Thus some illnesses are not p~reventable.
They come to us apparently "by the visi-
tatlOn of Cod" from no cause at all that
is, from reconcile causes too remote for us
either to detect or guard against, but no
doubt also the result of broken laws. We
can but try to discover these laws, so as
to obey them better another time. But a
large number of our lesser ailments are
entirely u own fault. We can trace in
them cause and effect as plainly as that
two and two made four. That severe
bronchitis which attacked us because. in
the brilliant March sunshine and fierce
east wind, we put off our slightly shabby
winter jacket in favor of more spring-like
attire; that horrible sick headache, which
we know as well as possible will follow
after eating certain foods or drinking GER
tain wines, yet we can no more resist
either than our infant boy can resist clutch
ing at the lighted candle, or our drunken
cab-man at the gin bottle. We call
the child an Ignorant baby" the
the drunkard "a fOol;" yet in what
are we better than they? For the sake
of petty vanity, or still more petty table
indulgence, We have punished ourselves
and tOrmented our whole family, The
sickness which comes direct from Heaven
'''N ~ "i y hipdlhN anu itIlutTIItSS.
that brought on by a mere folly or weak
self-indulgence, though it is obliged to be
nursed and cared for, is treated with a COM
passion bordering on contempt.
Yes, even though we call our errors by
grand names, and almost boast of them,
:" never take care of myself" 81 cart be
bothered with my health" "What does it
matter TO me if | am i'll 90 are the remarks
one constantly hears, especially from the
young. just old enough to shirk authority
and resent interference, but still seeing
only in the dim distance that dark time
which must come sooner or later. when for
every i'll usage it has received the BODY
avenges itself ten-fOld.
Does it not matter, indeed. the extra
labor thrown on a whole family when one
member is i'll, the heart-ache of parents,
the p~erpleXity and distress of friends. the
serious annOyance-tO put no stronger
w0rd-that invalids always are in a house
hold? Ii, as TO u wOuld-be suicides, the
law OF the land, even when it saves them
from the river half drowned, r cuts them
down half hanged, sentences them to re-
mOrSeless punishment, should there not
be found also some fitting condemnation
for those who commit the slow suicide 0
ruined health for no cause but their own
qualification?
Few people practice that golden rule of
health| think il wa Luigi COrnarO's-
"Always rise from table feeling that you
could take little bit more" Yet if we
did practice it, with another very simple
rule, to eat always regularly, at the same
hour, and. as nearly as possible, the same
quantity of food, not doubling the guam
tity because it happens to be mice" we
should soon lessen amazingly our often
infirmitieS.
Prevention is better than cure, and in
most small ailments there cannot be a safer
phySic than Observation-Disclosures from
Overfoei OverwOrk. How persistentiy
we shut Our eyes TO the beginnings of
disease, beginnings so trifling that we hard-
" notice them. until they end in that
premature decay which seems nov only
too common among our best and greatest
men, and those whom the world can least
spare! People rush to doctors to cure
them; they never think of curing them
selves by putting a stop to the exciting
causes of ill-health. As a wise old roman
said to a very foolish young one, who
brought her a heap of feeble MSS. to look
over and try to sell. on the pitiiul plea that
she must have money, in order to pay for
her medicine and her wine, My dear, stop
the wine and stop the medicine, and then
you will be able to stop the writing also,
which will be much the better for both