The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1889-06-13
Written for THE NATIONAL TRrBuNE.1
WEALTH HINTS
For Old and Young.
BY FELIX L. oswAED, NJ. D.,
Author of Physical Education Household
Remedies" The Bible of Nature" etc.
CHAPTER Xxx.
WEATHER AND CLIMATE.

The hospital physicians of large cities are
made the victims of manifold impostures, and
| naturally become rather cautious In accepting
a patients own diagnosis of his aff1lctlon.
Since our Sunday laws have ceased to be
enforced" said an old city doctor of my &C
quaintance, hospital candidates by scores and
dozens are seeking admission under plea of
sunstroke; but / have noticed that, somehow
| or other, nine out of ten such applicants smell
| like the south side of the Ohio River"
| The progress Of medical reform has begot a
similar tendency to attribute the disorders of
the human organism more and more to the
tendency of personal habits and less to the in
6uence of external agencies. At time when
diseases were treated with the preposterous
| nostrums of Paracelsus and Avicenna the pre-
vailing theories on the origin of disturbed
health were almost incredibly far-fetched.
| Earthquakes, the change of the moon, the con-
functions of the principal planets-nay, comets
and eclipses-were supposed to require the in
| reference of the medicine man; and plague
| that ravished Southern France at the beginning
| of the 18th century was actually ascribed to
the religious errors of the heretical Albigenses.
No sane man would nowadays propose to
| treat conjestiye chill as consequence Of
| planetary influences Goods" have been
traced to indoor rather than outdoor causes,
and the same might be said of many socalled
epidemic diseases. Cholera and yellow fever dis
| criminate in the choice of their victims. They
overtake the flying glutton; they spare the
abstemious hospital nurse who passes her days
and nights in the presence of death. Drunk
| ards die by hundreds, where their (c9mpara-
| tively) temperate fellow-citizens die only by
dozens. There is not single article of diet,
not modification of personal or domestic
habits, without an appreciable influence on
the longevity of persons exposed to the lntu-
ence even of the sickliest climates; and 1t is a
| justified question if, with a perfectly natural
mode of living, health and longevity could not
be reconcled with almost any climate of the
| lower ATTITUDES, though there is no doubt that
atmospheric conditions may constitute az pre-
| dsposing cause" of disease. But SO does IN
larger or smaller degree, every mouthful of
food we eat, every breath we draw, every par
ticle of decomposing organic matter coming in
contact with our body. But, In state OF
| health, our own organism has ways and means
to defend itself against such influences. The
foul worms of a stagnant pool have no chance
| to propagate in rapid brook. The omnlpres-
ent seeds of disease germinate only in soil
well prepared by vice and unsanitary habits.
The Italian physician Campanela was indeed,
not far wrong in his theory that epidemics,
| like the flames that destroyed the Cities of the
| Plain, have an expurgative mission-.the re-
moval of the unfit, as we would say nowadays.
| As sure as poverty is aggravated by wastetul-
ness, the virulenee of contagious diseases is
| aggravated by anything tending to exhaust the
tion to climatic diseases is greatly increased by
| intemperance but still more by our unfortu-
nate habit of adding fuel to the fire of the
| Midsummer heat.
| In warm weather greasy viands, spices, hot
| drinks become not only superfuous but posi-
lively injurious. or at least source of constant
danger and daily discomfort; sick headaches
warn US in vain; nausea and troubled dreams
are fought with sham remedies. We fail to
| take the hint of Nature. In the dog-day of
| the Gulf Coast we stick to the diet of snow
| bound Scandinavia Beer, brandy and fat ba-
con sell as readily in New Orleans as in Stock
| hoim broadcloth is worn in countries where
| the climate makes one envy that 'adermous
child mentioned by Cesar Scaliger-'a Great
/ ure born without skin aud hairs" Instead of
! sleeping on platform roofs like the West Indian
| Creoles, eur southern city jewellers pass the
/ sweitering Summer nights in alright rooms,
wear flannel undergarments and in their la
1 mentable dread of the night air make their
| youngsters go to bed at sundown, at the very
/ time when Nature awakens from her lethargy
| and invites her children to romp on the
moonlit beach.
The meaning of the word fever from feruere,
to boil or seethe) indicates the chief cause of
climatic diseases, viz heat, intensified to de-
| gree beyond the counteracting power of Nature.
| Under ordinary circumstances our organism is
able to maintain its normal temperature In
Summer as we'll as in Winter; and in southern
| Hndoostan, where the thermometer rises to
1859 in the shade, the blood of the frugal ma
| tives is considerably cooler than the surround
ing atmosphere Just as the blood of the fur-clad
| and blubberfed Esquimaux is warmer than
the air of their icy hunting grounds But if
| an Esquimaux should peel off his fur, shave his
head and pump himself full of iee-w water, the
arctic gales would CONCEAL the marrow Of his
bones; his vitality would succumb to the
combined attack of inner and outer foes.
AID h. he mt.
of many a stout beef-eater succumbs to
the Summer climate of our Southern Gulf
States. Single handed that climate would be
unable to overcome the resistance of the vital
force; but with the aid of alcohol, pork sausage
| and flannel shirts its attack becomes resistlesS;
| the bulwarks of life collapse. The blood be-
gins to ferment, j. o., the living body undergoes
| a process of dsintegration. The blood changes
of all febrile diseases are indeed, characterized
by the symptoms of Zymotie process, state
of fermentation which in yellow fever actually
dissolves the blood into its component parts,
and thus produces that discharge of cruor
| known as the black yomit.o high temper
ature has a similar influence on milk, must
and other saccharine fluids. The approach of
| Winter, as well as removal to cool highland
region, brings relief to fever patients all indi-
cations pointing out excessive heat as the chief
cause of climatic diseases
Removal of that cause is the most effective
should tend to mitigate the influence of torrid
temperature 1t is a mooted question if ami
NAL food. e. the flesh of slaughtered beasts
is anywhere or at any time an indispensable
item of diet trice, milk and vegetable oils have
proved excellent substitutes) but there is no
doubt that in Midsummer the inhabitants of
the lower ATTITUDES should become frugal, in the
ancient sense of the word, i. O., live chiefly on
fruits-tree fruits and berries, and their dietetic
equivalents: cooling vegetable compounds and
refreshing (non-stimulating) drinks. By that
simple plan 100000 Hindoos neutralize the
perils of tropical lowlaud climate and attain
longevity in temperature that rapidly wears
out five out of 10 carnivorous foreigners Rice
cakes, fruit, cold milk, fruit jellies, cooked
rice perhaps with modicum of ghee or clari-
fed butter, constitute the principal diet of a
well-to-do Bengalese. The Arabs subsist on
barley bread aud dates; the peasants of the
Syrian valleys on wheateakes, dried figs and
destar- apricots pressed fat and dried. Some
of the British residents of India survive by
dint of extreme abstemousness, i. e., by rsduc-
ing their preposteroas diet to harmless dose ;
| nfhars say fhar1c Inv 81