The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1890-02-20
Written for THE NATIONAL TRIBUNR.1
YEALTH HINTS
For Old and Young.
BY FELIX L. OSWALD, NJ. n,
Author OF physical Education"; Household
Remedes": The Bible of Nature" etc.
CHAPTER LV.
DISEASES OF INFAEcY-(continued).


DISEASES OF INFANoY-(continued).
In French hotel of New Orleans once met
an officer who had survived the expedition to
Cochin China, and described the climate as the
most murderous on earth "What do you think
of the native soldiers2" l asked him. "There
are no native soldiers in Cochin China" said
he; their so-Called army is mob of wretches
who rely on malaria to kill foreigners for them.
The only difference in their degree OF personal
cowardice is their various rate of speed in run
ming away"
1t is much the same with the disease called
"rckets," or infantile marasmus. From an old
| Spartan point of view there are very few nor
| NAL children in our modern cities and the only
difference in their degree of rcketiness is the
different rate of speed in the development of
| the disorder. Some 40 per cent. OF all babies
born manage to outgrow their infirmity in after
years. The rest die, or remain rckety" for
life. flaccid muscles, nearsightedness, weak
stomachs, NAL. formed joints and faint OF
scrofula are symptoms from which few modern
schoolchildren are wholly free, though the
trouble does not always reach the pronounced
| stage OF development characterized by help
| lessness and incurable deformities.
One chief cause of ricketts, is the general
neglect of physical education. In respect
| to the problem of bodily development our
| system of education is almost wholly negative.
| We think it sufficient to protect our children
| against hunger. cold and direct injuries; in
| other words, we secure their bare survival, but
| think it less important that they should sur
| vive as physically tho ittest of their species.
| and defy disease by an inherent vigor of con-
| stituton rather than by lifelong reliance on
the artificial aid of drugs. Another cause is
| bad or insufficient food. Dietetic mistakes on
| the mothers part may affect the health of her
child even before its birth, and nurses addicted
| to unwholesome articles of food may transmit
cachectc faint to their nursings. 1t would,
| indeed, seem rs IT the young of many species of
| mammals had thus To suffer vicariOus penalty
| Of ancestral sins. Tho cattle of our southern
| Aleganics often contract disorder known as
"mik-sickness," and variOusly ascribed 10
| poisonous food plants, or to the influence of
mineral polsons in springs and water-courses.
| But Whatever its origin, the disease chiefly
| victimiZcs the second generation, and cows thus
| afflicted may escape with triling symptoms of
| indispositiun. while their calves die Of paraly-
sis or commissions. milk sick ness" in that
sense of the word, Is not confined to the high
land glens of the Alleganies aud thousands Of
city children are sickened by milk evolved
from the food of cows fed on the vile swill Of
breweries and distileries. In the suburbs Of
nearly every larger city from Portland to Gal
weston scores of four footed martyrs may be
seen chained up in sheds adjoining the g. mash
| house OF an alcohol factory-staHding up to
their fetocks IN liquid filth aud feeding on the
steaming refuse Of the poison mill Somehow
or other that alcohol swil stimulates the yield
of milk. as if Nature thus tried TO provide an
additional outlet for the impurities of the
blood. Twice day the secretions of those al
coholiZed cattle are trotted through town in
cans mounted on hghly-ornamental vehicles,
bearing such legends rs Elmwood Dairy" or
Spring Grove Creamery" with results seen in
the siekly looks and unwholesOme complexion
| of numberless tenement children.
lad air and want of proper exercise aggrR-
vate the misery of such infant dyspetics, whose
ailments are ascribed to the usual bugbear of
| sanitary superstition, cold drafts or the
raw March wind" The child looks wan
| prematurely old complains of fatigue and drow-
| siaess, often also Of headache and "humming
| IN the ears" its appetite is capricious its di-
| gestion at best feeble, but often deranged 10
the degree of positive dyspepsia the whole
| surface of the body often becomes so tender
that the patient breads to be touched, and seems
| almost afraid TO move General asthe1lia want
Of constitutional vigor." says the oid-school
| drug doctors, and prescribes "tonic"; but
medication is in vain as long as the disease is
/ not eradicated by the removal of its canse
/ The patient should be restored TO health by "A
liberal, nutritious diet and, if possible removed
to the country. Ricketts, are often due TO ex-
| ccssively "mcager ~. O., starchy aud innu-
| tritve fOod-the potato and coffee diet Of the
| Silesian weaycrs. or the coHee-a and alum. bread
| laeHh of our tenement paupers, and yet il is
| common experience that u sudden change to
| an abundance of flesh food completely de-
ranges the digestive organism of weakly chill
| dren. The secret of that result is the circum-
| stance that meat-the flesh of slaughtered
aniinals-is not in q strict sense the proper
| food of our species, and Is specially apt TO disa-
| gree with feeble stomachs. Fat in some form
| or other however, is urgently needed by the ill
! n0urished inhabitants of the frosty attitudes
| and it is a suggestive fact that cts are COM
/ V.s.R fsHfatx
where olive. oil isa general article of food. The
| best available substitute is rich, sweet milk
/ and pure butter-a luxury still attainable in
many highland districts Of our oeomargarine-
| Hooded north States, and in every country viii
| Iage Of the uusOphistcatod South. Butter,
| light farinaceons preparations fresh vegeta-
| bles, honey, aud plenty of fruit, will soon re-
store tho vigor of the siekiiest child especially
| il the change of diet DO accompanied by a
| change OF air and by IA liberal allowance of
| outdoor exercise.
The champions of the Swedish movement
| cure have obtained surprising results by the
| application OF their system 10 the cure of
| special bodily defoTmities, such as curvatures
| of the spine. round shoulders" etc, and even
| in cases where tho maformatOn has not been
entirely removed its evidences may be reduced
TO minimum by increasing the suppleness and
vigor of the misshapen part, and recruiting Sur
geons are often astOnshed to detect enlarged
AHcoJuiHls OF CDhSlucTauie OeNccttonS OF thS
| backbone in men who nevertheless walk up
| right and with light. easy gait.
| The trouble about "hygenc gymnastics is
| the difficulty of inducing feeble children to
| undergo system of training which to them is
| both unattractive and laborious But the same
| youngster who would exercise all his inventive
| ingenuity TO devise excuses for Sinking a
| course of crank work athletics will enthusi-
..stically avail himself of II chance for sam
mer sports in woods and mountains, and will
| thus regain his physical vigor with rapidity
| which must be to be credited. Children
| who cannot walk 20 steps on a common country
road without falling and crying, and dread the
very sight of horizontal bar may i'm single
| year, DO brought to climb mOuntain-t trails with
| the agility OF young Sierra Indian, aud pursue
squirrels through all the vertical and horizontal
branches of big oak tree curious Incl.
| dental result of that gain in general vigor is
| the improvement of the voice. and often of the
| eyesght. Weak eyes and general bodily in
| trinity come and go together, and "nearsight.
| edness y is SO decidedly a result of tenament