The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1890-08-21
CHAPTER xxx.

SUMMER COMPLAINTS (cOntinuedl
The author Of Bricks without Straw " tells
good stery about inveterate scamp who
informed his neighbors that he never touched
mutton, till they caught him one day skinning
iarge-sized sheep and were astonished TO
learn that he had killed tho animal in self
defense. "Drat the BRUTE if it didn't Jump
the fence and make rush for me-" he added
mt amt going TO DO bullied by any blamed
thing with wool on"
The peryersity of sanitary prejudice seems
often equally incorrigibio. No observer gifted
with anything like common intelligence can
doubt that the symptoms of d dyspepsia vary with
every change of diet; yet at least half the VIC
TINS of the retributive disorder persist in as
crlbing indigestions TO the state Of the weather
outdoor exercise at this time of the year?
do you want mo TO catch my death of coldP ?"
objects the same patient who "A few hours later
viii not hesitate to sit down to table loaded
with peppered and steaming hot made dishes
never troubling himself with a misgiying that
his stomach might catch a damaging dose of
aTtiheial hot. "C0ngestiyG ckiits, and similar
misleading terms, encourage tue delusoh that
the arrangement of the digestive organs is due
To the influence of low temperature Even
the irritable temper of beef gorged John Bull
Is often ascribed TO the climatic conditions of
his mist shrouded island I'm perusng the
works of certain French authors" says a Brit
ish humoTlst. we have often been puzzled to
understand the precise nature of that mystic
rious malady, ie spleen, with which according
to them, the majority of Engishmen were
afflicted. 1t Is not, If we may believe their
testimony, mere meta hysical complaint but
an actual disease, which fastened, harpy.like
upon some portion cf the internal organization
aud through functional arrangement rendered
the existence OF the unhappy victim intolera-
bic When laboring under bad attack of the
spleen, the Englishman felt his life to be a
burden to him. Nothing but family consider
atoms, including perhaps the somewhat mali
cous desire to disappoint the expectations of his
heirs, prevented him from blowing out his
brains or plunging into the muddy torrents OF
the Thames. In fact, if their account is TO be
credited, only fraction of the Islanders so
afflicted have the courage to abstain froIa DEATH
for during the gloomy months OF November
ana December more cOrpses were swept through
the arches Of London Bridge than cucumbered
tho bed of the Aauthus when Achilles in his
wrath smoto down whole hecatombs of the
lTgjans; aud rs you strulIgd along the strand
frequent explosions in the coffee houses warned
you that some bold Britons, insensible to the
claims OF phrenOlogy. had fragmentarily de-
moiished their skulls"
Fog and ill-ventilated tenements no doubt
contribute their share 10 the development of
chronic melancholy; but the climate was as
damp, aud the city Sums quite as crowded and
InalodorOus at time when the island of fogs
was known as Merry Old England" And.
moreover, statistics have concusiyely proved
that not December or November, nor stormy
March, but August IS par excellence the suicide
month; in other words, that Indigestion agra
waited by sultry heat, begets more WEAKNESS of
life than tho cawing OF rocks aud the falling of
the leaves.
Warm weather so VIGOROUSLY aggravates the
malignty OF contagious bowel complaints that
prejudice itself had to modify its theory as 10
leIF lint ,,,v oil
chronic indigestion and govt $50 often attrb-
uted, ike rheumatism, To drafts and foul
woather) are especially apt to assume "A yiru-
lent form in Midsummer. The doctrine of he
reditary transmission fails to account for that
fact, and the only logical explanation is the
admission that warm, impure air is The most
potent ally of disease in all its forms.
I'VE do not implicitly believe in any such
thing as tho hereditary origin of govt aud dys-
pepsia, says radical sGuitarian. I'VE hold
that To be, If not universally, ut least in the
| vast majority of cases. fiction invented By
| eonrtly physicians AS "a kind of palliative TO
their patients; for an evil which "A man ia
taught To consider inevitable shocks him far
loss than one which he is obliged TO recognize
as the direct product of his own indiscretion
They might just as well talk of hereditary
giuttony. Will any doctor have the hardihoOd
TO assert that natural son of the contest Earl
In Christend0m, who has been bred up "a a
and rustic fare, is liable 10 twinges of the toe?p
1t is even possible that an occasional sin of
rustic stmulants would not forfeit the immu-
mites of that gamekeeper. Our Tennessee
highanders manage to reconcile their Illicit
potations with an abundance of robust health.
but the preparation of their wildcat alcohol .
involves the hardy habits of q wildcat, and
there is little doubt that lowlgnders given 10
similar excuses would risk o5her penalties
than those of tho revenue code. Cold air is the
most powerful of all digestive stimulants, and
IN planning the program of their Summer VA
cations. dyspeptics might often do well to con-
slider the possibility of enjoying their leisure at
home, If a soc called recreation trip should i'm
ply the necessity of sweltering in the stuffy
bedroom of an Overcrowded hotel
Rest, rational diet and refrigeration will
rarely fail to counterfeit the influence of the
most grievous d0g-day weather, but the combi-
nation of those specifics is not always eompati-
BILE with the restraints of boarding house life.
There arc so-called Summer hotels whore not
boisterous joy only, but the hope of modest
comfort ID hopeless delusOn. Gnats, kitchen
odors tobacco fumes, iles baby -howls and the
chatter of an idle multitude penetrate the
alleged pleasure resort from basement to garrett.
and for one-third the rent of his narrow bed.
room the boarder could have filled his private
lodgings with all the requirements of comfort.
Twenty cents worth of ice iudiciously diatrih