The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1892-03-17
for THE NATIONAL tribune.
HEALTH BlNTS
For Old and Young.
BY FELIX L. OSWALD. n D.
BY FELIX L. OSWALD. N. D.
CHAPTER CXXXV.
AyERsIoNs AND aPpeTEvc1Es


The question has often been asked, "Cannot
our instincts, like those of our dumb fellow
creatures, be used as natural guides to healthP"
After proper definition of the word instinct
the reply should certainly be affirmative. In a
state of Nature salutary things are, on the
whole, attractive, injurious ones repulsive.
Poisons, for instance, with rare exceptions, be-
tray themselves by their disagreeable taste.
The pleasant flavor of fruits and berries i'm
proves as they become more ripe and whole
some, but is modified by every successive stage
of putrefaction. Disease germs developed in
decaying vegetable or animal substances warn
US by their disagreeable odor; injurious ex-
tremes of temperature by their effect on our
sense of feeling Even in sickness those moni-
tors remain true TO their duty. Abnormal
languor announces the need of rest want of
appetite apprises us Of the fact that the stomach
needs temporary shrcease of toll
But those instincts can be perverted, and
after q persistent disregard of their appeals
natural aversIons may come to yield to abnor-
NAL appetencies, which too often are mistals en-
for natural appetites. There is no poison on
earth which may not thus become the object of
hankeriDG not easy to distinguish from the
urgency of hunger and thirst. Persons who
have long been in the habit of working in
overheated rooms. machine shops, etc, fre-
fresh air and positively enjoy temperature
that would sicken people accustomed to out
door work.
The test of recognizing such abnormal prcdi-
lections can be found in the circumstance that
they have nearly always been acquired in spite
of very different original tastes. Brandy
drinkers can remember the protest of their
sanitary instincts against the taste Of the first
dram. Smokers are not apt to forget the nausea
produced by the fumes of the first cigar. In
the rare cases where perverted tastes have been
inherited they generally alternate with re-
vivals of more natural instincts and disappear
altogether il their development has not been
Intentionally encouraged.
Innate aversions are still less apt to nisguide
our hygienic instincts, and can generally be
relied upon to indicate actually peculiar con-
ditions of the organism. There are individ-
uals who shudder at the mere odor of Onions
Common salt on certain constitutions produces
the effects of yirufent drug, and have known
robust savages to turn faint On tasting slice
of cheese which delicate damsels Of western
Europe would have priced as a d-bit Pork,
too, nauseates many persons, otherwise by no
means nice in the choice CT their diet, and old
Surgeons of the French army still remember
the anecdote of the wounded Zouave who, dur
ing the Crimean war, had been sent to a hospi-
tai filled with patients OF dozen different
nationalities. "How's your arm getting on,
Jacques?" tho visiting Surgeon asked him one
morning. "Oh that's all right; don't mind
few broken bones," said Jacques but +" lin
a Whisper look here, Doctor. if poor devil
might ask you favor, couldn't you manage to
get me moved to some place where could bet
ter help seeing the Russian in that bed next to
me- He's some relation of the hospital cook,
and gets all the bacon he wants for he Is eat
ing 1T by the pound, in way to make the
grease run down his chops, and Pm afraid it
will Kill me to watch the monster any longer"
Fat mutton. too, sickens some stomachs, and
Hindoos are not the only people who loathe
animal food of any kind, fish, perhaps, ex-
cepted. On a recent visit to Monterey, Cal, /
made the acquaintance of an individual of that
sort, young school teacher, " who dated his first
1recollections from hi farm in western Penn
sylvana, and in his manifold wanderings had
often found great difficulty In trying to avoid
bfending his landlords by the peculiarities of
his taste. sTheyiwilI put me down for an
absurdly fastidious fellow" said he, 'if they
see me refuse beef broth, steaks, meat-pie,
chicken, and hash in succession; but what can
/ do about.it2 ] have tried again and again,
and found that l could bear none of those
things on my stomach for two hours together.
Sometimes they affect me like swift working
enetic, and the last time / tried O plate of
venison q sort Of rash spread over my neck
and all over my arms ! felt as if / had swal-
he added, would acquit me of all guilt in de.
stroying birds or wild beasts. / am positively
fond of hunting, but Il need no effort of gem
erosity to give away my quails aud rabbits to
the first conner. / might stuff them or disseet
them for anatomical purposes, but / cannot eat
them. might as soon try to eat an owl. With
fish have succeeded better, and it is quite
relief to my instinct of politeness to see mess
Of perch on the table, aud find that l can join
my fellow-men in some of their carnivorous
revels; but could never learn to make fish a
principal part of my daily diet. My constitu-
tion must, somehow or other, differ from that
of other bipeds of the Caucasian race, and I
have often wondered if that fact is due to the
circumstance that my parents owned splendid
orchard but were otherwise poor and at cer-
tain times of the year remained vegetarians
from Hobsen's choice"
Water-drinkeTs occasionally might record a
similar experience, and need no temperance
lecture whatever to abstain from wine beer,
or brandy, and even from coffee and tea. Gov
ern0r Hill, of New York, is said to be an in
stinctive teetotailer of that sort and there are
scores Of absolute aDstainers who have no sym
parby with the tenets Of the prohibition cru
sadcrs.
r There are poisons, which in certain forms
can hardly ever be forced upon the favor of our
physical senses, and travellers must often have
noticed the curious fact that the incidental pres
ence in an atmosphere oftobaceo smoke can be re-
peated innumerable times without lessening the
horror at the fumes of nicotine. "You have to
smoke tobacco yourself; light your own pipe;
smoking by proxy won't change your squeam-
ishness," would be the verdict of an old
habitue, but the logic of that difference is by
DO means very clear, though the phenomenon
might be considered prcsumptive proof
against the wholesomeness of the nicotine habit.
On the whole, there is no doubt that the im-
-, ii e
tary instincts is still greatly underrated. Nine
ont of ten men altogether ignore the existence
of physical conscience. perhaps nothing"
says Herbert Spencer, "wil 80 much hasten
the time when body and mind will both be
adequately cared for as diffusion of the be-
lief that the preservation of health is duty.
Few seem conscious that there is such thing
as physical morality. Mems habtual words
and acts imply the idea that they are at liberty
to treat their bodies rs they please. Disorders
entailed by dis0bedience to natures dictates
they regard simply as grievances not as the
effect of conduct more or less fagitous.
Though the evil consequences inflicted on their
dependents and on future generations are
often as great as those caused by crime, yet
they do not think themselves in any degree
criminal. 1t is true that in the case of drunken
ness the viciousness of bodily transgression
is recognized; but none seem 10 infer that, if
this bodily transgression is vicious, too is
every bodily transgrcSsion. The fact is, that
all breaches of the laws of health are physical
sins When this is generally seen the physical
training of the young will at last receive the