The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1889-05-02
BEALTH HINTS
For Old and Young.
BY FELIX L. OSWALD NJ. d.,
Author of Physical Education; " Household
Remedies"; ''The Bible of Nature" etc.
CHAPTER XIV.
UNsANTTARY HABITS.

of the country by assuring his readers that
wild animals had been obliged to save their
lives by climbing, till rabbits and foxes had
adopted the custom of living on trees alto
gether, where they could now often be seen
chasing each other from branch TO branch.
Considering the limitless force of habit, it
would hardly be fair to deny the possibility of
that result. Physicians, for instance, are often
tempted to doubt the existence of any poison
which perversi0n of instinct could not make
attractive and indispensable. The natives OF
Kamtschatka get drunk on detection OF n.y.
toadstools; the Yucatan Indians on hemlock-
tea; the Kaffirs and Abyssinians on durrha
beer The Tartars fiddle with EOainiSS, or fer
mented mares-milk. There are arsenlc-eaters
in every Austrian highland settlement, and
even verdigris and sugar OF lead find admirers
among the mining population OF the Southern
Andes. A few years ago the hospital physl-
clans of Bremen, Germany, were puzzled by the
mysterious complaint of u fellow whose throat
was dreadfully swollen, without any symp-
toms of catarrh, and who, in spite OF his frugal
diet and his general robust appearance, was
troubled with all sorts of bowel-complaints.
They were just about going to dismiss him us
incurable, when their patient confessed to nave
contracted an unnatural appetite for tdn-'Ddtef-
the caustic infusion of tan bark used to cure raw
bull hides In the course of his occupation tin
tan-yard) he had, somehow, become partial to
the taste of the pungent liquid, and alter
year or two could rarely finish days work
without feeling tempted to brace up " by sWal-
lowing dram of his inexpensive tipple. From a
financial pointo of view, he enjoyed, indeed, a de-
| cided advantage over other topers, and for many
months INDUCED his passion with impunltyi
| but like other stimulant-vices, his habit proved
! progressive TO quite unexpected degree, and
/ when he could not counterfeit his feeling of
/ exhaustion without slipping pint OF the
| hideous fluid his throat began to swell out of
IL. ,g1nl Ia -aif flar
| the care of hospital doctor. For a time the
admirer of that peculiar tonic, no doubt, con-
| graduated himself ON the discovery of a valu-
| able physiological secret, and perhaps ptled
| the plight of his fellow-men whose ignorance
! prevented them from enjoying the advantage
| of potent stimulant; but the fact is that any
/ other poison would have served his purpose
| just as well. By few weeks practice he might
have learned to fiddle with chloral, with
! quinine, with extract of wormwood, with jim
son weeds, with ordinary phosphorus matches.
Non-stimuating but ABSOLUTELY indigestible
| substances are equally apt to enslave the appe-
! tite Col. Frank Thompson, the SGperintend-
emf of the Geological Garden of Cincinnati, o.,
/ told me that he once found a large ball OF
/ twisted broom-corn in the stomach of monkey
| that had fallen sick of mysterious disease and
| died in spite of all remedies. The keeper of the
mOnkey-stables then remembered that the
| fourhanded patient had curious habit of pick
/ ing up little bits of straw that fell from the
broom in sweeping the cage, and now and then
| grabbed the broom itself-in wantOn playa
| the keeper thought at the time. Balloons will
swallow paper, peanut-shells, or anything
equally indigestible they can lay their hands
/ on, especially if they are kept in solitary con-
! fiDement, Just as topers and smokers are apt to
contract their habit from want of better pas
/ times. For possibly similar reasons the Oto-
mac Indians of northern Brazil swallow large
hold
informs US, often distends their bellies to FIVE
times their natural size and shortens their
! lives by many years. There are clay eaters in
Spain, in Mexico, and even in the United
States. During few weeks sojourn in Rabun
Co., Ga, | investigated the case of an Irish
American mountaineer who had lost two sons
in consequence of their partiality to that
strange diet They would go miles out of their
way TO pick up bits of peculiar bluish-gray
earth, which they carried about as other people
would carry q supply of chewing tobacco, and
| every now and then would help themselves to
a goodsized pill. A younger brother, whom
/ they had sickened by inducing him to try their
specific, betrayed their secret, and thus re-
vealed the cause of various complaints that
had puzzled their parents for many months.
Expostulations and threats were of no avail,
| and in the hope of curing their passion the two
/ clay eaters were hired out to q farmer at the
other end of the County; but their habit proved
| unconquerable. Wherever they went they dis
covered similar clay by a sort of instinct, or
/ gratifed their appetite by distant excursions
under cover of darkness, and both died of
| chronic constipation-the one in his 10Th year,
| the other in his 22d.
How did they ever happen to begin that
| curious praetice?" | asked neighbor of the
| afflicted family; did they perhaps not get
enough to eat to make out square meal with
something better?"
| hu hat IdT.ft he In enid
he; " the BIS never were hard up for bread !;
and besides, fish, game and honey can always
be had for the trouble of little hunting Old
d. isn't stingy at all. either. l reckon it's just
nothing but foolish habit. / have known
Young fellows to eat clay that were making
s. day iii the Dahlonega mines"
You know, then, of more such cases?"
inquired.
His answer surprised me: Lords sake, yes,
sir" said he, dozens of them in this County
alone, and plenty of 'em on the other side of
the ridge 1.-THE Alleghaniesl. Over in South Caro-
lima heard of such people when wasn't more
than half-grown boy"
g Do they all die, or is there any way of cur
ing that habit?"
" Most of them give it up of their own ac-
cord" said he, as soon Us they learn to brace
up on something better-eider or whisky. |
knew chap that stopped eating clay when he
learned to chew tobacco But after they've
/ hSpS ~ up loI d Boou many years. ike L00Se
BIS did, it's mighty hard to cure"
On the whole there seems no doubt that any
unnatural diet can become the object of NOR
} bid passion, and that, as in the case of stimu-
liant habits proper, the persistence of the vice
is proportioned to the degree of its injurious
ness. Thus, the natives of the Orkneys and
other northern islands are rayenously fond OF
certain fish in a state of advanced decay
habit, one might suppose, that could be ex-
planned only by the frequency of famines that
obliged the poor hyperboreans to eat anything
helping them to survive hard Winter; but it
SO happens that numerous Partisan epicures
share that monstrous prediction mot quite
. unknown even TO the chefs of metropolitan res.
taurants in England and North America and
: reject the daintieSt yiands to devote their at.
tention to haunch of venson with flavor oil
haut govt, as the French call it-in other words
with perccptible faint of putrcfaction
knew pair OF aristocratic sportsmen that kept
e =" bachelors hall /" in their hunting lodge on 8
plateau OF the southern Ardennes, and used Il
fill their cupboards with partridges that were
: never sent to the cook till the development O
: haae gOm could be perceived in every corner o
the old rookery.
s We are apt TO shudder at the mere mention
;. of such barbarism, but should not forget tina
r the fondness for strong" cheese is an exaetl,
i similar alteration, and that of certain varietie
IS deserving stronger name, some 1900 pound
e according to the estimate OF an Eastern trade
b Journal are every year imported from Limbur
e by the provision dealers of New York cit
e alone.
\ III he Cd