The Portland daily press., 1879-05-06
The German Doctor.

[From the New York Times.]
There is concealed somewhere in the obscu-
rity of one OF the numerous university towns of
Germany doctor or professor, for he is des-
ignated by the two titles indifferently, to whom
the world owes debt of gratitude. He is con-
tinually contradicting the unpleasant things
which other doctors wont to maintain for
the purpose OF keeping the common folk in
humble subjection. As Is well known, pbysi-
clans have from time immemorlal contended,
with vast show of authority and superior wis
dom, that whatever is particularly agreeable to
mankind is altogether unwholesOme, calculated
to destroy health and shorten life besides en-
failing countless miseries both here and hereaf-
ter. If any article Of food is specially grateful
to the palate, il is tabooed as destructive of d-
gestiop, subversive of the genial processes of
nourshment. and sure to cast blight over the
existence OF ourselves and our offspring If the
appetite of man hits upon any liquid that
proves delectable to its taste and satisfying to
inward cravings, it is set down by medical au-
thority as a slow ard iDsidious but unfailirg
poison. If nature furnishes narcotic or stimu-
liant from which the ill.adjusted economy of
imperfect constitutions finds soothing correc.
"louch not" "beware the lurking poison"
"avoid the bane of health and happiness" and
other adiurations of equally terrible import
We find soft beds and pillows of moderate alt-
tude wonderfully contributive to comfort, and
the deaths head is raised at the foot of the
couch by some exasperating medical wiseacre,
and We are told that II we would live long and
prosper we must "lie hard" and keep the head
on level with the spinal colamn. In short
our appetites and cravings are given us only TO
mislead ard keep rs 10 continual struggle,
nature affords no hint except to deceive, and
the only reliance of man, if he would retain
yigor and escape an early grave, is TO be found
10 the medical profession.
This doctrine has prevailed for ages. and CIV
en- the doctors their enormous ascendency over
the race, and large share of their revenue. IL
has long been known that they did not follow
in practice what they preached to others. Why,
indeed, should they? Is it not their vocation to
be we'll apd happy while others are sick and
miserable? If any one would see the most dar-
ing defiance of conventional rules of health in
eatirg, drinking, smoking, keeping OF hours,
and sleeping, let him cultivate a wide and inti-
mate personal acquaintance among the medical
profession. Jf he is not not startled from his
illusions and driven to the other extreme of fa-
tai self-indulgence, 1t VIII be because be has
self.command altogether epviable. Now our
friend, and the friend of mankind, the German
doct II aforesaid, is the possessor of that voice
in the wilderness whose tones are heard every
now and then contradicting the conventional
declarations of the profession. He not only
maintains the contrary on almost all points, but
he is always ready to prove the soundness Of
his position by an array of facts drawn from
long and varied experience and observation,
and Of statistics taken from official sources,
which is simply impregnable. Let 1t be said
that soft beds and raised pillows are provoca-
tive of physical deraDgement, and be is pre-.
pared to show that the longest lived and health
lest persons have fairly. pampered themselves
with down and propped their craniums with
feathers. Those who affect level couch of un-
comfortable hardness, albeit the more villainous
of mankind, usually die young. To those who
contend that plain and meagre fare is produce
tive Of strength, robust health and longevity, he
is ready to- prove the contrary by 1odubitable
figures. A generous and varied diet enrches
the springs of vitality and prevents the waste
whose ipvitable result is debility and dissolu-
tion. And so one by one the arch-heietic of
the faculty demolishes the preteItious "rules
of llfe'' which doctors have promulgated from
Galen anG Hippocrates to the last batch of
roystering graduates, with view to keeping
society in a valetudinarian condition and con-
stantly dependent on medical advice; and he |
was given vast comfort to rebelious genera
ton of free livers.
But the latest of all the announcements of |
this friend Of humanity is perhaps the most |
satisfying. He declares in positive and une- |
uuiyocal terms that the idea, so long and per- |
sistently ropagated, that early rising is con-
speak 10 vulgar and unscientifc terms, simply |
.Dosh," By dligent and devout study, and |
the collection of vast amount of statistical and |
other inform alton, he has reached exactly the |
opposite conclusion. Men who have lived long, |
had vigorous health, and have accomplished |
much IN life have, as rule, been keepers of
late hours, and seepers by daylight. Like
johnson, they have never, or hardly ever,
witnessed that much-vaunted spectacle, the
rising of the sun. They have regarded it as
the business of the sun to be up betimes to dis
perse the dsmpness and chill of the morning,
and make the day comfortable before sensible
mortals bestir themselves. Not oEly does the
German DOCTOR prove, by potent arguments
from facts and figures, that late sleepers are
more healthy and long lived than early risers,
but be demonstrates as q matter of science that
the morn ng air s the very opposite of iuvigorat-
ing. 1t Is loaded with masna OF the long and
mnrky night, it is damp and chill, and apt to
beget all manner of maladies, and is, in short,
TO be avoided by sensible people, who will re-
main in their comfortable beds, and leave the
early hours of the dawn to the reckless lark
and the deluded worm who is deservedly his
prey. Thus one more pestilent delusion with
which the common order of physicians have
made men wretched, is dispelled by very learned
authority. That German doctor deserves q
monument more perennial than bronze.