Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-12-02

| Are the rites this deity's service imposes
| solemn hyperdulia. reconcile mysteries only
| to be mastered by trained priesthood Far
| from it. Health is natures simplest faith. Its
/ liturgy can be written in the prattle of chill
| dren and the commonplace of the peasant.
Its laws are fixed, irrevocabie, eternal. This
/ do, and thou shalt live and be happy Do that,
| and thou shalt surely suffer and die
| If health is but the outcome of self-evident
/ truth; If long life, unalloyed happiness, &c
| static pleasure, are but the recompenses for
| simply walking in its broad paths, and prema-
| ture decay, pain and sorrow. and ungratified
desire the certain penalties for wandering in
| the tangled by-ways that stretch away far
from it in unknown lines, why should any need
/ be taught that wherein their interest liesg
| This is the great mystery of humanity. Why,
having ears they hear not and eyes they see
not In every age men have rushed where
| angels have not sought to tread. While the
sanitarian begins his teaching abashe1 at the
simplicity of the lessons he has to inculcate,
| knowing, on the other hand, the stubborn in
| creduty Of the world he realizes the magni-
| tude of his undertaking
| A perverted religious sentiment is response
BILE for this disregard of the bodys welfare. A
system which teaches that the physical man is
| the enemy of an independent immaterial per-
sonality, called soul or spirit-that the flesh is
| inherently rotten, vile and sinful-that the
more beautiful its contour the more sensitive
| and delicate its organization the more surely it
| leads its psychic prisoner towards the gates of
hell and eternal damnatiOn, had but one corol-
| larry, that it were good to despise, degrade and
| mortify this earthly thing, which is all we
| know as ssf-which we call father mother.
| brother sister. child. Naturally these earnest
strivers after spiritual salvation immured
| this carnal foe, of which they could
not rid themselves and live. in con
| vents, monaSterieS and hermit cells
and passed their lives in long crusade against
| the pleadings Of their senses. They welcomed
pain, the protest of outraged nerves; they en-
| dured hunger, the cry of the thin blood for
| food; they suffered cold, because it antagon-
| lied every sense OF pleasure; they wallowed in
| filth in defiance of their educated humanity
fNlapfct
| waxed in self compacent holiness as he tor
| tured, deformed and degraded his body pre-
pairing the way for hendish inquisitors who, in
| the name of God and Saviour tore Of the sin
| cased flesh of gentle maidens with red hot pin
| GERS, aud sought to appease the vengeance of
Heavenly Father by impaling unbeeving
| babes Rather the pagan'S homage to that
| Maker, IN whose image he has been fashioned,
by clarifying that masterpiece of creative
power, the human body-that marvellous me-
| chaniSm called man. What mortal handiWork
can rival this, in the mysterious intricacy of
| its parts? What other object on earth or in
| the heavens approaches in beauty that culmi-
| nation of grace and loveliness-the female
| form? Grant the soul distinct identity can
| it have graoder temple than this house
| not made Icy hands, and should not this
| be guarded from pollution with Jealous care
it's avenues closed to every unclean thing-the
| Shiny reptile of disease allowed no hiding cor
ner IN its secret charlottesville sacred fire Of
| health kept burning it's affairs, daily decked
| with fresh thsnk-offerings?*
| 1t is cAly my present purpose to ask your at
| tentioIsto the culpable neglect which has been
the natural consequence of the degradation Of
| the body, and to urge upon you, in the interest
| of every living being, in the interest of every
| organized community, in the interest of the
| whole human race, the Importance of bestow-
| ing the most earnest thought upon the subject
| OF physical culture. All that we know or feel,
| every desire and qualification find expression
| through the body. Thought, will, emotion,
| sensation depend upon the normal action of
| normally constituted organic molecules
| Hence, TO think intelligently, to feel acutely,
| the chords on which these harmonies are rung
must De In perfect tune The aggregate actions
| of the various organs and apparatus of the
| body, which we call life, il harmonious and
| without jar, are what we mean by he alth. Dim
/ the eye, deaden the ear silence the speech and
| benumb the touch and what will remain to us
| of the bright world? Widen the avenues to
| the senses let in the flood Of light and sound.
/ oeVelop the capabilities or the physical man,
| and, as he cOmmunes with new spheres he
| grows in mental stature.
1t behooves u.s. therefore, to cultivate this
garden of the soul, in which it lives and thriveS
| to develop this mortal frame to its utmost,
| that all these attributes of manhood. which
| are alone possible through its instrumentality,
| may be exercised in their highest intensity
| not only for the well being and happiness of
| the individual, but for the welfare and higher
| development of the whole race Rich estates
| and noble titles valueless requests beside
| the heritage of health. The youth who can
| boast an ancestry free from the stain of trans
| mitted disease has prouder blazon on his
| banners than the lOrdling whose feeble frame
| bears the indeible mark of constitutional con-
| tamination. Invalid parents beget invalid Off
| spring, and these other weaklngs, like them
| Selves whose puny descendants ramtfy over
| an entire country. How great then should be
| the concern of the community in the physi-
| cal condition of its individual members. The
| contaminated man, scared through folly, 1gno-
| rance or sin, does not bear his living burthen
| alone to the grave, but shares it with his wife
| and child. 1t leaps the threshold Of his home.
| The blight spreads from household to family,
| to vicinage, to race. The muddy stream pour
| ed into the ocean meets others from like pol
| luted sourceS-each aiding the other in mar
| ring the purity of the broad waters The physi-
cal deterioration evidenced in certain localities
| notably in America-by the paucity of chill
dren; the aostention from out door life; the in
| capacity for athletic sports; and the high NOR
tally rate, is only temporarily retarded by
| foreign importation. While the breeding of
cattle is carefully fostered and splendid re-
| suits obtained by 'iudicious crossing the hui
man animal is allowed to intermingle without
regard to possible funest consequences. The
| mother c3nfides her spotess daughter to a
| contaminated husband-the father sees his
| son deliberately taking to wife the heiress of
| some other fathers infrmity The warning
! family records OF premature decay are I'M
| needed. Hereditary taints are blindly encount-
| cred and physical vices intensified and |
perpetuated ia malformed and weakly |
offspring. Nor is the evil wrought |
| limited to the impairment of the |
body. Crime is the outcome of physical de- |
| fects The brutal outrages, which have dis
| graced humanity, have been the fruit of i'm |
pulses ingTained in ill-developed brains, exag- |
1
| marriage of criminal classes is beyond the /
control of society and the vipers must breed for
| slaughter, the enlightened sentiment of the /
educated should, without the need of arbitrary Il
| enactmentS, restrain the chance, promiscuous |
| sexual alliance Of the doomed victims of dis |
ease Why should the future of family or a /
| race be imperilled to crafty the impulsive /
| within, the momentary fancy, or even the |
| ardent affection of these, who bear the stigma |
of an ineradicable physical faint !? Men toll and |
hoard In the eager greed or wealth, they sac
| health
survey the pile of gold, which is to purchase |
pleasures they no longer have the capacity to /
enjoy. The very effort to taste the unaccus-
| toned draught kills them before they should /
have reached their prime, and dying, they /
! leave their riches to children framed in the /
| likeness of their own decrepit bodies.
What if the sanitarian succeeds in inducing
mankind to heed his warnings. win not life |
| be made up of self denialS! Will we not have /
| to live and move, eat, sleep and dress by rigid
| rules, so i-ksome that one would welcome the /
| pangs of pain as penalty for untrammeled /
| pleasure? By no means. 1t is not question /
| of short life and merry one, without re-
| straint, in contrast with the tedious drawing
| of years of cherries asceticiSm The song
| and dance-the music and the howers-the
| Joyous laugh and sounds of iovial frolicking
| are heard and seen among Hygeia's followers
| The cry of PAIN the waing of the sorrow
| stricken-tears, agony, despair, the gloom of |
| death among those who have denied her. Let /
| the lid learn the simple laws OF health and
| the man will live responsive to them as auto
maticaly as the musician obeyS the laws of |
harmony. Inculcate in the youth that his am
btion should he the possession of a healthy
pbysique-on the maiden that no art can rival
| the charms with which nature will deck her
unbemished form-that however lowly the
station or humble the home. he and she may
proudly vie with the scions of the
richest aristocracy in that vigor of body
that strength of mind, that exquisite |
refinement of the emotional nature which con-
stitute the perfect thinking, feeling, loving
living man and woman-that the blue blood
which is derived from titled progenitorS, how
ever many their quarterings, is cold and slug
gish in the veins beside the red blood, which |
has been transmitted from ancestors who have
known no stain of disease.
What are these simple laws of health The
first and greatest and that which comprehends |
all others is Hygeia's mandate to be clean It
is not an idle saying that cleanliness is next to
goodness. 1t is its nearest kin-as filth is the
parent of disease and Sinfulness. Let us see
what it means to be clean and first realize that
one half ID the mortality of the very centers
of civilization-the great cities of the world
wherein are gathered the wise and learned, is
due to preventable diseaVe. One half the
deaths that are at this moment being mourned
throughout the land need not, ought not
would not have happened had this law
of cleanliness been obeyed-for preventa-
BILE diseases are expressively, if coarsely, named
filth diseases, and filth is all that which
deflles, not merely the outward surface, the
person and attire, the dwelling place and
sleeping apartment, but penetrates Within en-
tering the body as food and drink, and befoul- |
ing the air, which fills the lungs, poisons the
blood, permeates the tissues, and carries its
ID.