The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1892-06-09
DIET AND HEALTH.
A Man Could Live Hardly Longer Than
. Week ON Asparagus Alone.

A Man Could live Hardly Longer Than
Week ON Asparagus Alone.
Especial interest attaches to DR.. Sails
ibury's food experiments. The half dozen
sturdy fellows whom he put on diet Of
baked beans and coffee exclusively, all
showed symptoms Of locomotor ataxia,
or progressive paralysis, on the tenth
day, and by the sixteenth day not one OF
them could walk straight without sup
port; all had chronic diarrhea, heart
lpalpitation and oppressed breathing.
Four hearty, well men were put on
oatmeal porridge-seasoned with butter,
pepper and salt-with o pint of coffee
containing sugar and milk at each meal
Constipation, fatulence, headache and
dizziness were affecting them all on the
eighth day. In two days more these con-
'ditions had become violent; exertion pro-
duced heart palpitation, and they were,
full of wandering pains, with prickling
in feet and hands.
These disorders grew more intense and
painful-with neuralgia induced in three
cases-until from the twenty-third to the
twenty fifth day, when diarrhea set in,
and the record is full Of such entries as
Eyes wild, hearing impaired, head con-
fused, memory poor, legs and feet numb,
quite deaf and listless, heart palpitates
and very irregular" up to the thirtieth
day, when it was deemed imprudent and
unsafe TO carry the experiments further,
and in four days more, by o meat diet
and hot water, the men were restored to
normal health. It may be well to OBJ
serve here that in all cases men expert
mented upon were as thoroughly and
quickly cured of their abnormal condi-
tions by those means.
I Violent chronic diarrhea, such as often
prevails in armies and is known as
camp diarrhea," was produced in three
hearty, strong men by feeding them ex-
clusively upon army biscuit in from nine
teen to twenty-one days-a spell of con-
stipation preceding-and microscopic
examination proved that they were liter
ally filled with yeast germs. Each had
marked symptoms of locomotor ataxia
and partly lost the use of his lower
limbs.
Bread, rice, wheaton grits, hominy,
sago, tapioca and potatoes were each fed
TO four or six men at o time for periods
of from forty to forty-fiye days before
serious diseases and symptoms were pro-
duced. Green peas and string beans
ranked next in point of alinentary quail
ties. Green corn, turnips, beets and
squash quickly produced unpleasant and
grave arrangements, but of all vege-
tables asparagus was found most injuri-
Gus when lived upon alone. Seven days
is about as long as it would be safe to
subsist on this plant, owing to the effect
upon the Kidneys.
Patients have lived exclusively on beef
and mutton for from three to four years.
Still, if one sticks to them too long they
are liable to become monotonous, and
may cause "meat dyspepsia, which is
dangerous. People who live exclusively
on vegetable food, as tho Eindoos, are
enabled TO do SO by inherited organic
tendencies. Their stomachs are of little
or no use to them. The pyloric valve
being permanently paralyzed remains
open, so that vegetable matter passes
directly into the proper field of its diges-
tion.-Ohio State Journal.