Daily Los Angeles herald., 1884-05-09


he HERALD.
A Leading Topic Of Hygiene.
There are few better known writers
on hygiene than DIR. Dio Lewis. This
gentleman has for years made remarks
about tho everyday life OF the genus
homo a specially. lie always ELIMINATES
his views er cufhedra; and he always
thus speaks with an authority which Is
begotten of an empiric who regards him
self as infallible. Having had tho pleas
ure Of seeing this authoritative individu-
al in propria persona we claim the priv
ilege of assuming what he Is and OF de-
scribing what he is like. As to his ideas
he is q fanatic. As to his personnel he
is gross and offensive mountain Of
flesh, which Is not redeemed by clear
skin, pictorial color or by activity In
his movements. When Or. Dio Lewis
passed through Los Angeles, some five or
six years ago, after having spent months
in the mountains Of Southern California. n
process which ought to have been regen-
erative, he looked like a great slothful
Leviathan, who had collected an enorm-
ous amOuntof adipose tissue to very poor
purpose. The most charitable judgment
that could by possibility be passed upon
him was that he was monstrosity de-
void Of the red corpuscles which dignity
the Caucasian body. which, in all stages
Of Its evolution, is generally handsome.
To tell the truth, he looked AZ II all the
eructations aud unpleasant incidents
comm~a to badly compacted and I'M
reasonably swollen body were rescrvoired
in his own pretentious and protuberant
carcass.
So much by way Of introduction. In
his article on Longevity" contributed
by DR.. Dio Lewis to the first number Of
"Home Science" that gentleman really
achieves fine truthby saying that, in the
United States. ten people die from glut-
tony to one who dies from excessive drink.
We were 30 captivated by this unde-
niably true proposition that wo applied
ourselves to his corollary postulatcs in a
thoroughly indulgent mood. The first
that we encountered was that all con.
spieuous examples of longevity were
people who accepted the standard of
total abstinence from all malt or
alcoholic liquors. In this article DR..
Lewis employs purely suppostitious
person, called Col. b., with whom ha is
supposed to have had debate. AT all
stnges Of this controversy he is careful
to make Col. d. good deal of the com
plexion of Doestick's friend Damphool
and himself II logician and triumphant
disputant. We decline to permit the
advocates OF moderate drinking to
be represented by this feeble and
purely imaginary Col. b. The
great future of Los Angeles county
is dependent upon the develop
ment Of the vine. We regard this
cheerful and beneiicent industry as the
great key note to the future of this city,
Of Southern California and of genuine
temperance; ant, rs n consequence, we
propose to surrogate the HERALD to Col.
b., who is, by the grace Of God and the
favor Of Die Lewis, the lineal descend
ant Of Doestick's friend Damphool.
Dio Lewis says that all people
who live to an extreme old age
give the go.by to intoxicantsof all kinds,
whether malt or alcoholic. In reply we
say that even old Parr, who lived to be
l56 years old, drank freely the small
beers which nourished the vigorous
English of the days of Merrie Old Eng.
land. The English aristocracy, whose
longevity is recognized all over the
world, have been heavy drink
ers from time whereof the
memory of man runneth not to
the contrary. Fontenelle, who lived to
be centenaran, was temperate
drinker. all his life, of the wines of Bor-
deaux. Chief Baron Lefevre, of the
Irish Courts, who held his position TO
his ninety seventh year, was a drinker of
all kinds OF well made liquors, malt or
alcoholic. In fact, this able old gentle
man often got drunk, and was the sub.
ject Of inquiry by a Parliamentary com.
mittee, which was obliged to report him
as able as he was naughty.
peror Wilhelm, who is eighty-seven years
old, has been, while always temperate,
daily drinker of enough liquors, malt
aud alcoholic, to turn the brain of three
ordinary bran bread Yankees. The same
may be said of Bismarck, who has at.
tained venerable age, and who. in his
prime, was one of the heaviest drinkers
ever known in Europe, To depart from
Germany, the Baron dc Waldeck, who
died in Paris about eight years ago, at the
quite respectable age of III years, never
passed a day Of his life without drinking
bottle or two of clarot.
Coming down to the United States,
Thomas Jefferson, who died at 81, was
in the habit of drinking claret daily, as
was John Quincy Adams, who was edu-
Gated at foreign courts and who lived to
an extreme old age. General jackson,
who was no chicken when he died,
retained Tennesseean devotion to good
whisky. and he himself lived to
patriarchal age, although he had in his
body bullets both from the pistol OF
Dickinson and from the pistol of the
brother of Senator Benton Mr. Buch-
anan had the best cellar of all the Am.
erican Presidents, reinforced by his own
famous brand of Wheatlaud whisky,
and yet he lived to be nearly three
score and twenty.
Coming down to Los Angeles we have
had three conspicuous eXemplars
of longevity, accompanied by wine
drinking. The first was in the case of
Doha Eulalia Gomez tie Perez, who de.
parted this life aged 1876 years, full of
sanctity. The editor of the HERALD had
the pleasure, two years before her death,
of discussing bottle of champagne with
this venerable lady. After full glass Of
the sparkling wine, which she quaned
with great appreciation, we rendered her
another, which she repulsed with the
significant word Bastante." Example
number two was the late French Con.
sui, Monsieur de Moercnhout, who wor.
ried along TO his eighty fourth year, al.