Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-03-10

I/L/I1MENS<NS tlnuance, SbF1cb
LLUIAN\N themselves both in
NG1lNN the quality and guam
tity Of food they are
taking into their system. They appear to
be imbued with the idea that the greater
the extent to which they carry starvation
the more they are living in accordance with
the doctrines of Christianity, and the more
they are rendering themselves acceptable to
the Deity. Into this question, important
though it may be, it is not my province to
inquire, however much may question the
correctness of their views, but 1 am moved
to say a few words in regard to the sanitary
and physiological aspects of the question:
A year never passes that do not have
under my care several persons, generally
young women, who have starved themselves
into disease, and have laid the foundation
for still more serious disorders in the years
to come.
Deficiency of food is even more than ex-
cess productive of disorder. In starvation
the tissues OF the body are consumed for
the production of heat, and, their place not
being supplied, rapid loss Of weight is the
consequence. The various other vital pro-
cesses all involve decomposition of the sub
stance of organs and add to the loss which
the body undergoes. Chossat ascertained
that the depreciation of weight in starya-
tion is greatest during the two or three days
which Immediately precede death.
DEVOTIONAL DANGERS.
Human beings subjected to starvation
generally become delirious from the great
debility induced by the want of food. They
| Il H. L. r
food longer than eight or ten days, though
instances are on record of life continuing
during an abstinence of several weeks.
Such cases are always open to suspicion Of
deceit
From insufficient food, if the condition
continues for a few weeks, disease is almost
invariably induced. Typhus and typhoid
fever, scurvy and anemIa are the legitimate
results. In early childhood the whole de-
velopment of the individual may be arrested
or particular organs may fail to attain to a
full growth.
1t is not often the case that devotional
fasting is followed by immediate death, for
the authority OF parents or guardians or the
physician is brought to bear before such q
result can be reached, but extreme debility,
arrangement of the digestive organs, feeble
ness of the hearts action, neuralgia in
various parts of the body and nervous
prOSLraLlOn, are common CONSEQUENCES OF Qe-
privation of food during Lent.
1 call to mind the instance of a young
lady, who had by no means attained her
full growth, who, after 40 days of restriction
to an exceedingly meager diet, came out Of
her religious exercise with loss of 25
pounds in weight and an irritable spine
from which she has not yet entirely recov-
cred, although two years have elapsed. Be
fore she began her fasting she was healthy
young woman, weighing about $50 pounds,
and accustomed to take good deal of exer-
else in the open air by walking and horse
back riding. From being in the habit Of =
eating three hearty meals day she re-
stricted herself to q little tea and toast
taken at about IL o'clock, repeated as to
quantity and quality just before going to
bed.
AN EXTREME CASE.
On Sundays, which according to the
rules of her Church are feast days, even
though occurring in Lent, she ate a small
piece of some sort of meat and little
potato for her dinner. During the whole
period her sleep was more or less disturbed
and she had almost constant headache. She
was unable to walk more tnan a few steps
without being seized with palpitation of the
heart. Her teeth which were without flaw,
began to ache, and her spine became pain
full throughout nearly its whole extent.
Although her friends could not fail to perceive
that she was becoming pale, weak and
emaciated, she had sufficient strength of mind,
born of her religious fervor, to conceal her
more painful symptoms Of disorder until her
period of abstinence had ended, when sudden
faintlng spell rendered eoncealment no longer
possible.
70 be sure this is an extreme case. but there
are many others doubtless occurring in the
practice of other physicians which, though not
so bad as this, are serious enough to require
medical treatment.
Ihave known several persons who. thinking
to serve God and themselves at the same time,
have eaten during the 40 days of Lent no other
animal food than fish, their idea being that fish
was particularly nutritious to the brain, while
in abstaining from flesh food they obeyed the
rules of their church. Now it is altogether
mistake to suppose that fsh any more con-
duces to building up the brain than does any
other animal food To be sure, fish contains
larger proportion of phosphorus than does
beef, for instance, but 1t is by no means proven
that the brain or other parts of the nervous
can get out of any other animal material or
even out of oatmeal. Besides even if fish, on
account of its phosphorus, were particularly
nutritious to the brain, it would only be neces-
sary for person to eat a little more beef when
he thought his brain was especially weak in
order to obtain the required pabulum.
THE MEAT IN SEASON.
I believe that the prohibition against. meat
during Lent does not extend to the flesh of any
animal that comes out Of the water; thus
oysters, craOS. loOSterS, Shr1mpS. rerrap1n,
frogs, may be indulged in according to the bent
of the abstainer or faster, and yet the obliga-
tions of religion be complied with. 1 knew
one orthodox member of the church who, being
something of gourmand as well a devops
believer, insisted upon it that canvass-back
ducks were sea food. and who therefore did not
hesitate to make two or three dinners of them
every week during Lent. Perhaps this was
really carrying the matter little too far but the
other edibleS mentioned are fully capable of
nourishing the body as perfectly as would beef,
mutton any other beast of the field or the
air. II the young ladies who think it proper to
abstain from the flesh food that is usually found
upon their tables and eat freely of the food that
comes out OF the sea, am quite sure that at the
end Of the 40 days'o of Lent they would weigh
fully as much as when the season began. be-
heve that eggs and milk, though animal foods,
are allowable during Lent 1t would scarcely
be possible to devise more nutritious break
fast than one composed OF glass of milk two
eggs and slice of bread and butter and yet I
have known people who took such breakfast
every morning during Lent supposing that
they were mortifying the flesh. It does not
make much matter what people eat in these
days of markets filed to repletion with the
good things of this life, provided they eat
enough and that the things are good of their
kind 1t is when they restrict themselves in
qaantity that they suffer from slow starvation
dition of the young lady whose case have.
cited. WILLIAM A. HAMMOND.