The National tribune., 1889-04-11

since Deen maze u0COinIOrIaDiy blRuG. IJiebetiC
delusions seem almost equally persistent, and
in this age of reason and educational reform it
is indeed, amazing how many preiudices still
cling to our habits of daily life. Men seem to
exclude themselves from the deductions of
science. Traditions which no intelligent hun
ter would dream of applying to the manage
ment of his kennel, still assert themselves in
the code of popular health rules, especially in
matters of food and drink.
DIETETIC PALACES
No sportsman who values the staying
power T" of his dogs would permit hound to
swallow his food smoking hot though the
greed of the brute might overcome the protests
of nature against an outrage of that sort, yet
millions of laborers still cling to the idea that
they cannot begin their days work in salts
factory manner before having had something
warm - e., swallowing either a quart of
scalding hot coffee or convulsing their bowels
with dram of ardent spirits In Winter time
an unnatural temperature thus inflicted upon
portion of the organism exerts, at least but
a momentary calorifc effect, but in warm
weather is more eXtrayagantly absurd than
would be the idea of bracing the system
by swallowing a pound of icicles on cold
Winter morning. For the digestive organs
would promptly dispose of the frigid breakfast
by converting it into always acceptable water,
and soon overcome the effects of the momentary
chill; while beverages heated to an egg boiling
temperature cannot fail to infiict a lasting in
jury upon the sensitive tissue of the stomach.
Yet, like other physiological sins, the hot-drink
habit is very apt to become second nature"
Thomas Carlyle, the great moral philosopher,
almost exhausted the patience of his patient
wife by his incessant demands for superheated
tea, which he fancied would stimulate the &C
tivity of his torpid liver, delusion to which
he probably owed his lifelong martyrdom of
dyspepsia. In cold weather, work ITSELF. e.,
active exercises the best way of raising the
temperature of the system; and brainworkers
will derive more benefit from warm coat and
plateful of sweet cream than from alcoholic
tonies and blazing stoves, for there is great
difference between heat-producing food milk,
eggs, fat, etc. and hot tasting drinks and spices
The one warns; the others scorch and scald
Blisters will not save man from freezing to
death.
H0RsE-sTEAKs.
It is often curious to trace the origin of
dietetic prejudices. When the first Christian
missionaries established their churches in
northern Europe, their converts hankered after
the barbecues of their heather ancestors, like
the children of Israel after the flesh-pots of
Egypt. A chief attraction of these barbecues
was horse-meat. In order to cure their COM
plant by the removal of the cause the Bishops
advised their presbyters to discourage the use
of horse flesh in any form, even by ex-commu-
nicating the lovers of the obnoxious diet
Horse-fesh eating has become synonym of 8
relapse into the service of the horse-footed DEVIL
the prejudice became national, international,
and finally sort of second nature. Yet Prof
Geotfroy st. Hillaire could adduce an immense
mass of evidence to show that horse-fiesh can
be habitually eaten without the least injurious
effect, and that the prejudice was and is I'M
known to many intelligent nations of ancient
and modern times. Moreover, the London
Paf0 (fIr,hD rot
forms of preparation horse-meat cannot be dis
tinguished from our best market-meats. At
the Langham Hotel they treated their friends
to banquet of horse-steaks chops, hash, cold
tongue and pies; yet most of the guests went
away under the impression that they had been
dining on beef and mutton. If we must vary
our diet with animal food, why should coun-
try like ours waste every year some l00,000,000
pounds OF wholesome meat? Maryland and
Virginia highland horses are hardly less whole
some than Illinois distilery hogs; yet even the
Dixie darby, who consumes those hogs by the
barrel, would probably deem it an insult to in
vite friend to lunch of cold horse steaks.
Muhammed Baber Khan, a sovereign who COM
bined the study of political economy and medi-
cine with the pursuit of martial glory, recon-
mends horse-fesh and horse milk to invalds,
and mentions in his Memoirs, as an almost in
| credible fact, the existence of Caucasian ma
ti0n who lived in the company of hogs, and
actually fattened those eyesores for the purpose
of feasting upon their flesh. After study of
our educational statistics, probably nothing
| but personal investigation might have induced
| that noble barbarian to credit the accounts OF
| the Chicago Pork Exchange.
PORK AND scRoFULA.
! For the Oriental adherence of hog's-fesh is
| something more than prejudice. SWINE like
mawworms buzzards and alligators are ma
| lures scavengers, and turn their bowels into a
| sewer for all sorts of nameless denominations.
If the Lord had not wanted porkers he would
not have admitted them into Noah's ark, y
| Landgrave Philip Of Hesse replied to a COM
mi ttee of farmers protesting against the out
RACES of his wild hogs. Swine, no doubt fulfill
a mission in the household of nature, but that is
no reason why we should pet them and eat them
| Habit TO some degree. redeems its own mis-
takes but most physicians would agree that a
stew of maggots would not be much more I'M
! wholesome than certain varieties of pork
| Skeptics are now and then convinced by the
| logic of such dire arguments as trichinosis and
seuryy, but scrofula. scrofulous consumptions
and thousand miseries of general cachectiC
| habit are too often ascribed to imaginary
causes. DR.. SchTodt is probably not far wrong
in his estimate that a general abstinence from
pork would increase the average of our longevity
by seven years, and calls attention to the fact
| that in spite of their habits of indoor life and
| ~ 'F4'o " ,.iA'SA oA'tA 'SAAipiS
| oppression of their medieval ancestors, the
Jews are still a long-liyed race So are the
| Turks the Arabs and the Mohammedan Cireas
slams, who all share the dietetic antipathies Of
the Hebrews. DR.. Beaumont who had rare
opportunity to experiment upon the living
organism of man whose stomach had been
exposed by a shotwound, ascertained the com
parative digestibility of various substances
and in his table the length of time required
for digestion, yenison heads the list of meats
with one hour 30 minutes; mutton requires
three hours, and "pork, fat or lean, roasted, ,
five hours and 10 minutes. Epicurus renouncet
polytheism, because a preponderance of evi
dence indicated it to be hurtful delusion
and for similar reasons our epicureans Nigh