Semi-weekly south Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1883-1889, 1885-05-05
LIFE RULES.
A Great Deal of Impractical NOnsens,
Written About the Laws of Health.

A Great Deal OF Impractical Nonsens,
Written About the Laws of Health.
A thoughtful writer observes: AT
really seems sometimes as il hygieni(
science were all wrong, and as if late
hours, much hard work done under the
gaslight and the smallest amOuat o.
fresh air were the way to be healthy, i
not wealthy and wise. Who lives under
more unhealthy conditions than our leg.
islators or the leading counsel learned
in the lawP But our statesmen are in
green old age at scventy-fve and law.
yers are quite boyish at sixty; 50, too,
are actors and actresses. Our con.
temporary then goes on to say: "Sani.
tary guides should tell the meaning OF
these things"
80 far as we may presume to re-
spond to this appeal" replies physi.
clan in the same journal, 1--WE must be
allowed to point out, first, that there i:
fallacy in the inference that because
members of Congress, busy counsel,
and, perhaps, actors and actresses, live
on in spite of the adverse Influences OF
surroundings which are held to be in
furious TO health, therefore the sur
roundings of their lives can not be as
injurious rs they are supposed to be.
One of the earliest exploits in the APP
piled science of statistics as brought &c
bear upon sanitary questions was the
drawing of an inference that, because
the London night men, who slept as
they might by day, and spent the hours
Of darkness in emptying cess-poolS,
were able, as class. to claim q very
low rate of mortality, their mode of life
and the work in which they were en-
gagged could not be unhealthy. A good
deal of excit M mt, we remember, was
produced by this delivery some forty
years ago. 1t was forgotten that
another point of view VS. posi-
BILE, and that, in truth, none
but the INJURED could live
under such conditions! So it is with
III ,mbers of Congress, busy counsel,
and actors and actresses. The weakly
and sensitive retire or die. or have the
wit not TO enter into way OF life which
must obviously prove unsuitable. AT
the same time, we arc quite prepared to
meet our contemporary half way in his
argument, though the inferenc. with
which he opens the debate il obviously
faulty. We think a great deal of un-
practical nonsense is talked and written
ON the conditions of he llth, and we are
quite sensible of the fact that regimen
and dieting may be carried too far
Practitioners and those who set them
selves up rs apostles of sanitary scienct
are too prone to measure other people
corn by their own bushel. For exam
pie. physician or surgeon may himsel
have been a too free liver-it il easicr
to preach than to practice-and hu ma.
have become 4 vegetarian just in thl
nick OF time or with great advantage Il
his health; but this is certainly no rea
son why he should spend the remainde
of his days in trying to persuad other
that voyetar,anis n is good or necessar.
for them also. Again, Il medical MAJ
may have miserably welk digeIt'v
faculty, and need to avoid cortail
dishes which other folk can take. no
only with impunity, but with benefit
but that is no reason why he should g
about abusing and interdictng tn
things that disagree with him, Will
they agree perfectly well with the ma
jority OF mankind. BY pushing dietin
TO the verge of starvation, we are sin
ply pretending to cure, not cur ng; W
impose on ourselves and on those VIII
coniide in our practice. Scientit
, american.