The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1888-04-26
WE EAT TOO MUCH.

When men or women have hobbies
they 60 where the hobbies take them. 1t
often happens that the hobbies lead them
to fox chase over rough country,
through the bramble bushes, and in places
where they have a very doubtful footing.
They are lucky if they are not at the end
tumbled into a ditch. One of the most
popular hobbies of the day is the notion
that the universal vice of inordinate liq-
uor-drinking is the chief begetter OF hu-
man misery. AS source of evil, drunk
ness undoubtedly has leading place. 1t
is an open and above-board vice that does
not admit of concealment. But it is not
we'll to give all our attention to apparent
and undisguised foes, neglecting those
which conceal themselves in ambush. Il
will be generally admitted that under or
dinary circumstances men and women
would be better off without alcoholic
beverages than with them. At the same
time, if Neal Dow could have his way as
thoroughly as Mahomet had his in pro-
hibting strong drinks, so that no more
should be consumed in Bangor than there
is in Mecca, it might be doubtful whether
in driving one evil out we should not let
more potent devil in. The believers in
the Koran have not through their Austen
tion either raised themselves above the
level they occupied before their prophet
lived or above the level of surrounding
peoples to whom the juice of the grape is
not an abomination.
Some years ago no less an authority
than Sir Henry Thompson declared that
he had been compelled by facts constantly
coming before him to accept the conclu.
sion that more mischief i'm the form of ac-
tual disease, of impaired vigor and short
ened life, has accrued to civilized man
from erroneous habits in eating than from
the habitual use of alcoholic drink, con-
siderable as he knew the evil of that to
be. He also declared himself in doubt
whether improper and inordnate eating
were not as great a moral evil as inordi-
nate drinking
Such a declaration from the lips of a
man whose judgment has been ripened by
great experience ought, at least, to set
people thinking. 1t may be that the or
ganized raid against the saloon which is
progressing in many parts Of the coun-
try might in some measure be profitably
turned against the kitchen. Tee fabri-
Gators of our food have much, indeed, to
answer for. They make digestible raw
material into indigestible finished pro-
ducts, and we eat them and suffer. We
eat them, but the cooks are not altogether
to blame. We eat more than we should,
and we eat what is agreeable to our pal
ates, knowing that it will not be reIished
by our stomachs.
In youth the results of overfeeding and
unscienti6c feeding are usually not seri-
ous. Like colts, we use up the store of
food we put down our throats by mani
fold frisky activities. But we are not al
ways colts. The time soon comes when
our growth is attained, and when the
system no longer easily eliminates the
waste material not necessary for the or
dinary purposes of repair. We then begin
to store up fat which is of no use to us,
and fags US out in carrying it around. II
we do not fatten we lay the foundation
for dyspepsia, which is another word for
stomachic rebellion, or perhaps for fevers,
rheumatisms and other disorders which
rack the system with pains and psnancsa
A temperance organisation which
should lay down Is its fundamental Law
abstinence from excessive eating would
do away with the greater part Of the or
dinary sicknesaes amOug persons who
should live up to the law. It is almost
invariably the case that those who attain
to remarkable age are moderate, eaters
who live upon simple food.
The man who had the covering of. his
stomach shot away 20 thats aftss Escoyer-