The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1892-06-02
WEALTH HINTS
IY FELIX T.. OSWALD. II. D.
CHAPTER CXLU.
NERVOUS DISORDERS.

NERVOUS DIsORDER5.
Natural hygiene, or the LET Alone Plan"
as an adversary of that reform calls the protest
against the abuse Of drugs. is really founded on
the fact that there is self-reguiating tendency
in the constitution of the human organism, a
healthward influence, which does net fail to
assert itself As soon as the predisposing cause
of the disease has been removed
Health, in fact, is the normal condition Of
all living things, and nature never ceases to
improve chance for reverting to that original
state Of existence. After many centuries Of
cultivation On sun-parched hillsides the vine
is still, by preference, tree-shade plant, like
its relatives, the woodbine and ivy. After
countless generations OF domestic cats have
been fed and petted in daytime, and neglected
after dark, pussy is still q night-prowler. In
the bog of Connaught the descendants Of the
mountain-goat climb woodpiles and shanty-
roofs.
With the Same persistence the diseased or
gans of the human body make the best OF every
opportunity to revert to state OF health
Asthma, catarrb, and consumption disappear
on the removal of the patient from stuffy, city
sick-rooms to the fresh air of the wilderness
that formed the favorte haunt of our sport.
loving ancestors. Dyspepsia yields to change
from indigestible made dishes to palmer food,
and the obstinacy of the ever-multiplying
disorders of the nervous system seem 10 imply
an altogether exceptional combination of ab-
normal circumstances.
Indoor life and want Of physical exercise
may have good deal to do with the aggrava-
ton of those troubles, but the principal pre-
disposing cause is, no doubt, the constant
increase of intemperance, not in the quantity
Of stimulants only, but in their once unheard-
of variety.
The penalties of the stimulant vice are thus
visited upon thousands of our fellow citizens
who would Indignantly repudiate the charge
of intemperance in the old-time sense OF the
word. The author OF a chronicle Of travels in
Central Arabia describes a eamp-meeting
where Wahabee dervish proposed TO deliver
a sermon on the Wickedness OF Swearing"
but to the amazement Of the foreigners opened
his harRBgue with a. shower of blasphemies-
This continued profanity seemed, indeed, a
perfect burlesque on the purport of his text,
till the sequel of the lecture developed she fact
that his definition Of impious language was
limited to the national oath Of his country
men-a phrase implying sinners wish 70 re-
nouuce the aid of his guardian spirits.
Yet that same dervish might have been in
turn surprised to witness the dietetic trans
gressions of our Western temperance orators.
Oar sins against our digestive organs are not
wholly limited to the vice of intoxicatiop. but
medical chemistry has indisputably established
the fact that poison" and "stimulant" are
interchangeable terms. The most virulent
herbs, the deadliest mineral substances, can
become the object of an abnormal appetency,
and the choice Of any special poison seems
merely TO depend On local opportunities. Tho
natives of the soath fuddle with fermented
fruits, DorthlandeT5 with fermented grain, and
the miners OF the barren Andes with mineral
oxides There are national poisens as well as
national songs and national dances.
Bu. it would be serious mistake to suppose
that such incidental preferences could DO relied
upon to prevent the introduction of other
poison habits. The north has added brandy
and tobacco to barley beer, the south coffee and
absinthe to wine, and the intermediate nations
are suffering from the moral and physical
effects Of cumulative poison plague. In every
large city of France, England, Germany,
Belgium, and the United States the progress of
international traffic has developed opium
eaters and chloral fends, as well as tobacco
smokers and 10 or II varieties of alcohol
drinkers. Witness the following list of
"stimulants" which the sanitary reforuer
Stshl found for sale in the city of Frankfort
on the Main, and which he could as easily have
procured in every commercial emporium from
Portland, Me-, to Portland, Ore: Fourteen
kinds of smoking tobacco varying as to per-
centage Of nicotine); chewing tobacco, five;
snuff eight; opiated tobacco, two; opium,
three; besides morphine, pares0ric, and lauda-
mum. Other drugs used for stimulating pur-
poses: Aconite, arsenious acid, belladOEna,
cocaine ergot, koumiss, and ether; wine, %
kinds; beer, II; other fermented liquors
(eider, etc., five; medicated bitters, six;
French highwines, six; other distilled liquor,
90. Including tea and coffee (which undoabt-
eddy contain virulent ingredient, though in
smaller percentage of admixture than opium
and tobacco), we have thus an aggregate of ITO
different pOisons, all of them more or less adj
mittedly used for stimulating purposes. That
list comprises some OF the deadlies5 drugs
known to modern pharmacy, others (happIly
Including the more popular tipples) less violent
in their toxic effects; but the great trouble is
to 4 single ssirnulant.
The large plurality use three, and not few
four OR Eve, different poisons, thus obliging
their organisms to fight the battle for survival
against ruinous complication Of hostile at
tacks.
Hence the rapid progress of degeneration
and the bewildering multiplication of nervous
and digestive disorders, in spite OF the fact
that the providence OF gross incompetence (at
least among the well-to.do classes) has I'M
doubtedIy decreased. There was a time
when priests and princes We'd in the reckless
indulgence of the stimulant vice; bus they
had at least the good sense, or good luck, to
contine themselves to a single poison. Tea,
coffee and tobacco were Us yet unknown ; the
use of opium was limited to medical eInergen-
cies; distilled liquor could be found only
among the curiosities of chemical workshops.
The ark of life had to weather deluge of fer
mented fluids, but could keep afioat by enjoy
ing permanent immunity from other dangers.
The vital organs of O modern topper, on the
other hand, resemble q crew of sailors that
have to fight storms and cliffs, whales and
wkirlpoois, and rush on deck to repulse an ice-
berg only to be recalled by an alarm of fire.
The fact is that we need . total abstinence
reform in a much more comprehensive sense of
the word. We try to evade the consequences
of the poison habit by dropping alcohol from
long list of besetting stimulants, but the re-
wards of temperance can be only partly claimed
Oh such terms, and, in spite of rum crusades, Ma
ture continues to enforce the penalties OF the
stimulant vice-sleeplessncss, sick headache.
loss of appetite, loss of buayancy
and spon famous vigor.
Morally, too, the consequences of the poison |
plague begin to reveal themselves in many |
ways. The discords of our drug tortured souls |
are go numerous that they have made mental |
peace tradition of the past, and defy the old |
time remedies for the fever of pessimism. The |
moral disorders of former ages were more SIM |
Pile, though rude and osten.atious; those of /
the present age multifcrm, capsicious. less cal |
culable. and certainly less carable. The cure |
Of nervous debility, the most characteristic |
ailment Of modern times, should begin with q |