Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1894-11-14
DIgTEr1o cRANklsa.
why There Can Ne No General Rule r.,
EAalng end Drinking.

Eating and Drinking.
A Chicago physician has recently taken
the position that there are more people
killed every year by insunacieucy of nour>
ishment than By overlooking their stomachs
The fact Is, he says, that most people do NOT
eatenough, and. above all things, they do not
eat meat enough. In direct opposition TO
this physician's opinion, says the San Fran
cisco Chronicle, is tho dictum Of the cele
brated Abernethy that one hundred people
die Of ref,letion 70 one Of starvation. Won.
derful as its advances have been, the
science Of healing is still far from being
exact Given the same subject, the same
conditions, and two examining physicians,
and the chances are that the diagnoses win
be widely different.
One doctor will tell Q patient that
the palpitation Of the heart from which he
b suffering Is due to permanent cardiac
weakness; while the second will assure him
that 1t Is sscribable to indigestion, and 1t 10
only q temporary trouble. Post-mortem
examinations play havoc with the concrete
wisdom Of an ante-mortem consultation; and
change OF doctors without any change OF
disease invariably means q Change Of
treatment. But the object Of this article 10
not to arraign the medical profession, but
to enter q protest against the harmful
utterances Of tho hundred and one pro
fessors OF dietetics who persist in con-
founding their own stomachs with every
body else's stomach. A popularity Of the
authority on diet Is that he is not content
with any thing less than cure-alL
Some time ago the announcement was
made that the demon Of dyspepsia must bs
drowned in hot water, taken as . drink.
Forthwith the dyspeptics began to scald
their insideS and then wondered why tha
which was tender before grew to be ten.
derer still Nor was the evil confined to
this tenderness. Tho new order Of Galore
hydropaths insisted that H. WA ncces..rv
to distend the stomach, and the stomach
having once got into the habit of being dis,
tended, was constantly demanding disten
sion. The desire 30 created was an urgent
one, and craving was set up which was
quite as absolute in its way as that which
arises from tho use OF ardent spirits o.
choral.
Directly opposed to the hot-water drinh
ers were those who pinned their faith upo0
the sovereign efficacy Of cold water - an
article If diet 1t is Gods own brewing
adams ale, }" they said, and the flowing
streams, purling brooks and hmpid LAKES
were pointed out as q pellucid proof that
| cold water was intended to be tho universal
| drink Of man. The stomach should be treated
70 glassful of this natural liquor before
EOakfAst and there would be no more dys-
pepsia, provided cold water was used Am.
plenty Of it. Then arose another sect wha
| declared that much cold water was Just e
harmful as much hot water, and very little
cold water should be drunk, and none At ~
unless 1t had been boiled. II was just a.
absurd, said this sect, for q man to drink
water in its natural state Is it weS for hin
to eat carrots or sheep's rioters IN then
natural state. Every ts-~g was full Of low
and dangerous forms of existence which
had to be killed by heat before it was q hA
article Of food. Just as there were trichin0
| in pork SO there were microbes in water,
and the man was fool who ran the risk o.
taking in scarlet germs as he quenched hi.
thirst at the purling brook or endangered
his children's health by giving them horrid
and un boiled bacteria out OF the hmpid
lake
| Against the gentlemen Of the kettle and
cook-pot were arrayed the believers In an
Edenic diet, who held that, 80 far a. food
| was concerned, whatever is, is right, and
that raw turnip was q very At turnip
Nothing must be cooked, not even rice, and
| all that was necessary to achieve q lustJ
| 0nd well-preserved old age was to feed on
uncooked vegetables and MUNICH on U. hoihl
cereals. These are but few examples Of the
stupid way In which some ono particular
food or fashion of feeding has been made Il
do duty as a general nostrum. The schoo
| of common sense is q good one to consul.
sometimes, and If its practitioners have
only succeeded in mastering the truth thai
what is one mans meat is another man'i
poison, they have, st any rate, reached {
cafe seat There can be no general rule fol
eating, and tho Dooner we come 70 that con
clusion the better. Age, climate, occupa
ton, constitution have all to be conside%si
before attempting any experiments in NJ
triton.