The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1878-08-14
hygiene ana Consumption.

Al the tdOleS OF now many Farmers
and mechanics, we wonder, is the
buckwheat breakfast gone into dis
grace? We readily recall the time
when uncounted multitudes of fami
lies broke their fast of twelve hours
and faced the work of a clustering
winter day with nothing but greasy
buckwheat cakes and molassesl They
might almost as well have eaten saw
dust; and what had they for dinner
Boiled saltpOrk and potatoes. and for
supper saltpOrk and potatoes again
cold, and made palatable with vineSaIi
All, we forget the pie-the everlast-
ing pie, with its sugary centre and its
leathery crust-the one Utilization of
the palate that made life tOlerable.
Good bread and butter or milk, abun-
dant fruit, beef and mutton, nutri-
tiOus puddings-all these things have
been within the reach Of the people Of
New England, for they have always
been tie thriftiest people in the world;
but they have cost something, and
they have not really been deemed ne
cessary. The people have not reali-
zed that what they regarded as luxu-
ries were necessaries, and that the food
upon which they have depended for
protection from the climate, and for
the repair of the wastes of labor has
been altogether inadequate. and has
left them with impoverished blood and
tuberculous lungs.
After taking into account all the in
huence of heredity, which is made
much Of in treating of the causes of
phthisis. insufficient nourishment is
responsible alike, in most instances,
for the deposit of tubercle andsthe in
AammstiOn to which it naturally gives
rise. There are many men. who, by
change Of living. render the tubereles
already deposited in their lungs harm
less. Vitality becomes so high in its
power that it dominates these evil in
Aaences, and they live out a fairly
long life with enemies in their lungs
that are rendered powerless by the
strength of the fluid that fights them
We have seen consumption cured
again and again by the simple process
of building up the forces Of vitality
through passive exercise in the open
air, aud the supply of an abundance of
nutritious food, and we have no doubt
that it can be prevented in most IN
stances by the same means. ..-
No human body can long endure
the draught made upon it by cold |
climate and by constant labor, unless
it is well fed, well clothed, and well
housed. Somewhere deterioration will !
show itself, and New England-nay.
all over the kingdom Of Great Britain |
it is the same, where the people are
worse fed than here-the poverty CT
blood shows itself in the deposit of tu-
berculOus matter in the lungs. There |
should be by this tina some improve
ment in New England, in consequence
Of the increased intelligence Of the Peo-
pie, but so long as so many Of them
are running westward, and their pla-
ces are taken by an ignorant foreign
it is not likely that the
will show much improvement
for a great many years to come. lfl
our physicians could only be paid for
preventing disease, and could be per-
mitted to prescribe for each family It's
way of living, there would be but lit
lie difficulty 10 routing from its strong,
hold that most fatal and persistent enc
my of human life, which we call con-
sumption. = DIR. Holland, in July |
Scribner. Gr .. f.t -.