The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-05-02
Medieval Disease and Modern Health,
 IT nndr. StandardI

London Standard.l
 Never, perhaps, was there an era a which the subject of health was so mucl discussed as at present. Sanitary ar. engagements attract universal interest, and our latest Great Exhibition was not ot "arts and sciences" but of manufactures and inventions, and appliances which bore upon the subject of "health," Good bodily health has always been justly ranked among the chiefest of blessings and sickness regarded as calamity, il not crime. The most ancient codes ol laws contained particular regulations de- signed to promote the health of the com munity; and even among savages the professional curer of diseases, under the name of doctor, medicine man, or charmer, held an honorable position. Sickness appears to have been less rife among the ancients than it was in later centuries, except, of course, in times oi pestilence. The refusal to rear sickly or deformed children may have con- tributed to this result; not to speak of the superior sanitary ideas of life prac- ticed in ancient Greece or Rome as com pared to these prevalent in medieval Europe. Descriptions of the domestic life of the middle ages make us marvel, not that so much sickness prevailed, but that disease was not more frequent. Probably the open-air existence led by the majority of the population saved many lives but the dirt and the bad diet and the utter disregard of every sanitary law must have considerably shortened many career in past ages. Et is not surprising to learn that the average span of human existence is considerably heightened of late years, when the art of preserving health is better understood. Sickness, though inconvenient, does not appear to have been regarded in the middle ages with the same ahhorrence which induced Spartan legislator to forbid the rearing of diseased child. The ascetic sentiment did not echo the ancient belief that "ssund mind" was best enshrined in sound body" One ofthe encomiums passed by bishop of the fourth century upon devout lady is that she had brought upon herself a swarm of diseases which defied all medi- cal skill to cure and medieval christen- dom seems to have cherished the belief that the sickly, the hysterical, the hypo- chendriacal, were often selected as the special repositories of the oracles of heaven. Most painful are the descrip- tions of the bodily conditions under which many cloistered enthusiast be- held visions or heard whispers from absve-revelations previous or later age would probably have laid to the score of delirious fancies of sickness.
 The eighteenth century, with its revival of so many classic turns of thought, brought back the ancient estimate of dis ease, as almost as much a crime as misfortune. That it was reprehensible, as well as unfortunate to be i'll, and that the sufferers malady was in great measuie his own fault, is a sentiment that runs through the writings of all the moral es- sayists of the period. Even the gentle Addison has the infection, and Franklin and Cobbett were quite excited in de- nouncing the "sloth and self-indul- gence" which, according to their opin- ions, appear to be the sole causes of any one's ailments. "Thank heaven 1 was born before nerves were invented" was the boast of duchess of the last century when asked if she had visited Buxton for her health and "robust constitution is described as one of the chief attributes of all the model chara cters of the "moral writer" of the day. George Sand has described the feelings of the "ancient regime" as to the extreme ill breeding of sickness s-how victims of the gout were expected to conceal their bangs and walk gracefully to smile under agonies of toothache rather than confess to SO vul- gar an aff1iction. This stoical conceal ment of suffering while in society may date back to the time of the Grand Monarque, who, according to St. Simon, could not endure to hear of any one being ill. His dislike to finding his attendants unwell amounted almost to a mania, and entailed much suffering on those about him, who ourst not confess to weaknesses unsharsd by their master, whose own constitution was of iron. According to St. Simon, the health of many an unfor- tu.ate lady was endangered by her being obliged to appear at court when nature imparatively required repose. Not the most positive orders of the court physi- clan availed to excuse the duchess of Burgundy from her customary attend ance at Marli, and when on one occasion her exertions caused her to disappoint the hopes of France for another heir, Louis took the misfortune coolly, re- marking that he had already one suc- cessor, and that he would now be able to enjoy the duchess society without being constantly tormented to consider the delicate state of her health. Illness being discreditable as well as painful, it is not surprising that persons so unlucky as to be subject to ailments, sought health by every means in their power.
 "Oh, happiness how far we flee,
 Thine own sweet paths in search of thee," sings the poetess, and it would often ap- pear that the seekers after health wan dered considerably in their quest. The warning epitaph, "I was we'll, wished to be better; took medicine and am here!" might have been inscribed on many tomb. One shudders at reading list of many anciently approved reme- dies" It is amusing to note how an old chronicler will complacently record the