The Delta independent., 1888-07-17

Hygiene is the art OF preserving health, OF
obtaining the most perfect action Of body and
1 mind for as long period as is consistent witE
the laws Of life. 1t aims at rendering growth
| more perfect decay less rapid, life more Wig
orous, death more remote. lippocrates en-
bodied in his Incompatible works some of
the earliest treatises on hy yiene, based on what
may be called empirical rules,-that is Oh
scrvation of what seemed good or bad for the
health.
! The effects of diet and OF exercise were
| carefully noted and considered the basis of
| hygiene, and that disease resulted from an
| excess of either, WAS clearly pointed out
| The effects of air. water and soil on the health
were early considered, but the ignorance of
chemistry prevented any great advance il
| this direction.
1t was when chemistry was being studied
/ by the alchemists that entirely different
system of hygiene arose. The discovery of
chemical agents, and the great effect they
| produced on the body, led TO the belief that
I .hey could in some way aid the forces of life,
and insure prolonged if not an eternal
! youth, and life of ages instead Of one of
\ years.
This belief. found in the mystic times of
the Rosicrueiam, has not yet entirely died
/ out, and there are who still look TO
every fresh agent as possibly containing the
| "BaIsam of Life"
1t may be worth while to consider the idea
which underlaid the dreams of the alchem-
/ lists. Life was looked upon entity or
principle liable to constant waste, and to
, eventual expenditure. If some agent could
/ be found TO arrest the waste, to crystalline,
as it were the tissues IN their full growth and
yigor decay ii was thought would be impos-
1 zible aud youth would be eternal By some
| il was supposed that the agent would itself
| contain the principle of life, and therefore
/ would at once restore destroyed health, and
I recall departed youth. We now know this
\ to De wrong in every point. The constant
/ decay the alchemists sought TO check is life
! itself, for life is but incessant change, and
/ what we call decay is only metamOrphosis
/ Of energy. To arrest the changes in the body
] tor one single moment would be death, or
/ short OF DEATH il would lessen the energy
/ which is the expression of life. Nor is there
| any hope that the extension Of the period of
0
| by improving the nutrition of the Tissues.
\ Here it is that drugs, carefully prescribed,
I will aid hygiene either by better preparing
I food for the purpose of nutrition, or hy re-
/ moving or preventing those chemical changes
| ia the tissues which we call decay.
/ with the exception Of the attempts of the
I aIcieulists, and Of such adventures as Ponce
I he Lean. seeking 10 discover some agent or
/ -.-- "a.IiI 8uisut increase or iengrnen the
. principle OF life the art Of hygieae remained
: WiIh.n the same limits, until physiology ,tthe
knowledge Of the laws of liiej, began to be
studied. Since then hygiene ia, gradually
become al art based the science of physi-
olory.
THking the word hygiene in its fullest
sense, ii signifies rules for the perfect culture
OF mind aud body. 1, is impossible to dis
sUciate the two. The body is affected by
every mental and moral action; the mind is
profoundly influenced by .bodily conditions.
For n perfect system OF hygiene we must train
the body, the intellect and the moral facul-
ties in a perfect and balanced order.
Whether the world is ever TO see the con-
summation of this art made perfect, one
can say: but in the midst of weakness and
mauy'errcrs, We are certainly gaining knowl-
edge We cannot perhaps individually choose
between health and disease, Sor the sins of
hereditary may he visited upon US; and social
customs may affect us.
Bnt Is race man holds his own destiny
ani can choose between good aud evil, be-
tween health and disease. Aud as time un-
rolls the scheme of the world, ii is not too
sanguine to hope that as race, we shall
work ont our own salvation from these many
ills to which humanity is heir.
SUIT. OF HYGIENE.