The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1886-09-24
hYoIENlo KNoMLEpaE.
why Everybody should study the Unalter-
able Laws or Nature

Why Everybody Should Study the UnalteE-
able Laws OF Nature.
There are about two hundred and
fifty diseases recognized by medical
science among the ills that affect hui
manity, of which about one hundred
figure as direct causes of death in the
bills of mortality. The general group
ing of diseases has been the same from
the beginning of medicine, though the
advance made in medical science adds
to the number of recognized minor
types, through a more careful analysis
of symptoms, and more thorough
knowledge of causes.
While it is true that certain groups
of symptoms are recognized as indi-
eating the presence of certain diseases,
vet is is also true that there are hardly
any two cases of the same disease that
present exactly the same phenomena.
Symptoms that are prominent in one
case may be entirely absent in the
other. Hence it is that a course of
medicine that would act promptly and
efficiently in one case may be only par
TALLY successful in another, or even,
perhaps, fail entirely to accomplish
cure.
The advances made of late years in
medical research have led to less en-
tire dependence upon dosing, and to
the paying of much more attention to
hygiene. For very large class of all
ments, the beginnings must be sought
for in a neglect of the laws of health
on the part of the sufferer Impure
water, bad ventilation, lack of personal
cleanliness, errors in diet, the drink
ing habit, and other similar health-de-
strOying habits, are responsible for a
very large share of the physical woes
of humanity. Medicine may give aid
when the system is suffering from an
attack of disease invited by improper
habits of life, but if the same causes are
still operative it is only question of
time when a second attack will super
vene.
Hence a knowledge of hygienic laws
is a necessity Ito all who would pre-
/ serve'their health and keep their bodily
and mental powers at the highest de-
gree of activity. 1t is true a person
may often defy natures laws in more
than one particular for years, without
any apparent harm; but there is no
doubt but that the duration of life is
finally shortened thereby. In point of
| fact the violation of laws of health is
universal. And while the violator
may not be conscious of the evil he is
doing to himself, the mischief is going
on; the springs of life are slowly but
steadily being Slapped, the constitution
| is gradually being undermined, and
when disease comes the patient either
! succumbs entirely, or sadly realizes the
! fact. when it is too late, that good
| health is gone forever, and life, for
| him, must be passed in a state of semi
! invalidism
There is an error widely prevalent
/ that there is something in the way of
| medicine that will cure every disease.
/ 1t is an utter fallacy. There is no spec
| ific known to medical science for any
one disease. That is, there IS no med
| icine that will cure that disease every
| time. Quinine, for example, is of the
| greatest value in malarial disease, yet
| every physician has met with cases in
| which it failed utterly. The cure itself
| depends upon the recuperative powers
| of the system. Medicine may aid this
/ in various ways; but if the constitution
| is broken down, and those recuperative
| powers exhausted, medicine can do no
| good.
Hence it follows that the wisest plan
| is to conserve the natural powers of the
! body by scrupulously observing hY-
| gienic law, and thus prevent disease
| from obtaining a hold upon the sys-
| tenn. can ounce of prevention is worth
| a pound of cure;n and it is easier to
| prevent sickness than to cure it when
! it has once attacked us.-IOted0 Blade.