The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1890-07-10
CHAPTER LXXIV.

CHAPTER LAAlF.
POPULAR FALLACIEs-(Co utinued).
A popular American novelist describes an old
lady who stuck to the theory that " the dis
charge of fireworks had tendency to affect
the climate of our country because she had
noticed that warm weather hardly ever failed
to set in soon after the Fourth of July"
The author Of that anecdOte can hardly be
said to have abused the license of fiction, for
tho strange inference exactly represents kind
of fallacy that has originated innumerable
popular delusions: the error of mistaking an
accidental coincidence for the effect Of causal
connection. Certain phenomena are apt to
occur after such and such an event. therefore
they must have been caused by that event."
reasons the dupe of the fallacy. In Midsum-
mer small frogs often hide under stones and
clods of earth to avoid the dust of an arid
field and do not stir till that dust has been laid
by "a good shower, when they frequently come
out i'll large numbers. That phenomenon agrees
exactly with the habits of other reptiles; but
its coincidence with heavy rain has given
rise to the widespread belief in the possibility
of q frog shOWer. A reddish moss, or lichen
appearing in moist weather upon the rocks Of
the Arctic regions, has, for similar reasons,
been mistaken for n shower of blood. In dark
nights screcch- owls are apt to boot under the
windows of n siek-room, lighted by the night
lamp of the watching nurse hence, the super
stitiou very prevalent in France aud southern
Germany that the sereechiug of an owl fore
bodies death in the house.
But far more mschievOus fora of the same
fallacy is tho international belief in the eausal
connection Of fresh vegetables or fruits and
climatic fevers. Yellow foyer and ague rarely
become epidemic before the middle of August,
when the Midsummer heat reaches its maxi
mum of sultriness and opprcssivcness; the first
ripe watermclons, peaches and pears appear ON
the market about the same time and the phi
losophy Of home made logic jumps at the con-
clusIon that the abundance of vegetable diet
has caHaed the disease; though, in truth. the
old lady association Of fireworks with the cause
of Summer heat is, on the whole much less
prepOsterous.
If the discharge Of fire-craekers and sky
rockets does not explain the aggravation Of
the dog days temperature IL undoubtedly has
some effect in momeutariy contributing To the
sutriuess Of the Summer atmosphere and in
large cities, where tons Of decorating material
blazcd off in honor Of our gunpowder- won
independence, the effect might actually expand
the mercury OF II thermometer suspended IN u
boy-ridden alley.
Fruit and vegetables, on the other hand,
should not only be acquitted from the sus-
pIcion of causing Summer epidemics, but. on
the authority OF our ablest Psychologists should
bo prescribed for the special purpose of pre-
venting febrile disorders. In the West Indies
in eastern Mexico, in the cities of our southern
Gulfcoast, as well as in the inland towns OF the
lower Mississippi Valley. natives aud foreign
erS saecumb TO climatic diseases in exact pro-
portion TO their Partially for the animal or
heat-producing clements OF our mixed diet.
The SpaUiards are by no means consistent
vegeiarians but they eat meat rs our gour-
mands eat venson-on holidays and special
festivals. The ordinary weekday dinner of
Spanish peasant consists OF brown beans oni-
ons. maize cakes. and a dessert of fruit or
raisins, with n glass of milk. perhaps, or a
dram of bad cider, aud u similar bill of fare
has been adopted in all tho agricultural dis
tricts of Spanish America, especially in the
cities Of the malarious cOast-Ands.
The Anglo Saxon visitors of those cities, on
the other hand. stick to the beer and beef diet
of their Northland ancestors. and pay the pen.
ally as soon rs the summer SUM raises the mer-
curry to fever-heat, as the constructors OF our
thermometers have apty called it, Their
constitution might hold its own against the
combined influence of sun heat and calorifc
clothes, perhaps even against sun-warmth,
warm clothes and the artificial heat of fur
nacrs and kitchen fires, but tho addition of
caloriic food turns the scales. The blood be-
gins to ferment, not in the iguratve but in the
literal, chemical sense of the word, aud under
goes process of disintegrati0n into its eompo-
ncnt paris-the yellow, waterish serum aud
the red blood cOrpuscles. the former causing
tent, while the latter is generally discharged
in that eruption Of cTuor known as the black
yomit.' The conventional remedies are exactly
those which would arrest a PROCESS of fer
incubation: antiseptic poisous, quinine and tho
application Of refrlgeTants, externally or inter-
naliy. The first good frost generally termi
mates tho epdemics OF our Mississippi bottom
lands, and the northers," that sweep from
Hudsous Bay almost 10 the isthmus, bring re.
lief even TO the swetering seaport towns of
southern Mexico.
That fact alone should suffice TO open the
eyes of the victims who know no other remedy
butfuinine for the consequences of their dietetic
mistakes; but true to their sanitary traditions,
they ascribe the effect TO vegetable fuod-in
Mexico, for instance To the bananas chirimo-
vas, mangoes, and other temptations of the
fruit market, On the Mississippi berries and
peaches are the popular scape- goats, aud water
melons are facetiOusly described us cholera
pills" During tho cholera epidemic OF 1871
the municipal councils of several Southern
cities Decatur, Ala. jackson. Tenn, etc, }
actually passed stringent ordinance against
the sale of tomatoes. fruit, berries and Rsh--in
other words against the best natural refriger-
ants and the most digcstible of all articles of
animal food. Beef pork aud brandy could
probably have been sold with the cordial an.
prevail of those sanitary Solons, though they
might Just we'll have forbidden the use of
ice and recommended hot grog to lessen the
risk Of sunstFokes.
Fruit is the principal diet of millions of our
fellow meu, whom the experience of countless
generations has taught the wisdom of selecting
their food with special view TO the prevention
of febrlle disorders, All through Siam, Burmah,
southern Hindostan, Papua, Brazil, Guiana,
southern Mexico, Peru. Algeria, Egypt and
Senegambia tree-fruit and vegetables form the
staple diet of races who resist the malarious
cilluvia of their native swamps almost as sue
cessfully rs their neighbors. the frugverous
monkeys of the tropical forests
"AcclimatiZed man aud animals lOsa tI,o;.