Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1895-01-02
picTz1lc cRANK,sa.
Why There Can De No General Rule fo.
Eating and Drinking.

why There Can he No General Rule fus
Eating and Drinking.
Chicago physician has recently taken
the position that there are moro people
killed every year by insuficieucy of nours
ishment than bS overlooking their stomachs
The fact Is, he says, that most people do not
eat enough, and. above all things, they donot
eat meat enough. In direct opposition to
this physicians opinion, SAYS the San Fran
cisco Chronicle, is the dictum of the cele
brated Abernethy that one hundred peopla
die OF repletion to one Of starvation Won.
derful as its advances have been, ths
science of healing is still far from being
exact Given the same subject, the sane
conditions, and two examining physicians.
and the chances are that the diagnoses VIII
be widely different.
One doctor will tell a patient tina.
, the paipitation of the heart from which he
Is suffering is due to permanent cardiac
weakness; while the second will assure him
that 1t is ascribable to indigestion, and il is
only temporary trouble. Post-mortem
examinations play havoc with the concrete
wisdom OF an ante-mortem consultation; and
q change OF doctors without any change Of
disease invariably means a caange of
treatment But the object OF this article is
not to arraign the medical profession, bat
to enter q protest against the harmful!
utterances of the hundred and one pro
fessors of dietetics who persist in con-
founding their own stomachs with every
body elses stomach. a popularity Of the
authority on diet is that he is not content
! with any thing less than cure-&u.
Some time ago the announcement was
made that the demon of dyspepsia must be
drowned in hot water, taken as drink.
Forthwith the dyspeptics began to scald
i,,af III a
which was tender before grew to be ten
derer still. Nor was the evil confined to
this tenderness. The new order Of Galore.
| hydropaths insisted that IL .+1s n,.cesb-rY
to distend the stomach, and the stomach
having once got into the habit of being dis
! tended, was constantly demanding disten.
| sion. The desire so created was an urgent
one, and a craving was set up which was
| quite as absolute in its way as that which
| arises from the use of ardent spirits OF
choral.
Directly opposed to the hot-water drink
| ers were those who pinned their faith upos
the sovereign efficacy of cold water as az
article Of diet 1t is Gods own brewing
adams ale" they said, and the flowing
streams, purling brooks and limpid lakes
were pointed out as Il pellucid proof that
cold water was intended to be the universal
/ A-4hh VI HAL nc SlOludCL SuOuLIi DC treated
to glassful of this natural liquor before
STeakfsst and there would be no more dys.
pepsIa, provided cold water was used am
| plenty of it. Then arose another sect whs
| declared that much cold water was Just a.
harmful as much hot water, and very little
| cold water should be drunk, and none 1T az
unless 1t had been boiled. IL was just as
| absurd, said this sect, for q man to drink
water in it's natural state as it We3 for Kim
to eat carrots or sleeps 'rotters in their
natural state. Every ts--<g was full of low
and dangerous forms of existence which
had to be killed by heat before il was a Fl,
article of food. Just as there were trlchinas
| in pork so there were microbes in water,
and the man was fool VINO ran the risk Of
taking in scarlet germs as he quenched his
thirst at the purhng brook or endangered
his children's health by giving them horrid
| and un boiled bacteria out of the limpid
take.
Against the gentlemen of the kettle and
oook-pot were arrayed the believers in an
| Edenic diet, who held that, SO far as food
was concerned, whatever is, is right, and
that raw turnip was very fit turnip
Nothing must be cooked, not even rice, and
all that was necessary to achieve lusty
| and well-preserved old Age was to feed on
uncooked vegetables and MUNICH on u boils !
| cereals 4ueSe are DuI. lew examples a the
stupid way in which some one particular
food or fashion of feeding has been made 70
do duty as a general nostrum. The school
of common sense is good one to consuis
sometimes, and if it's practitioners have
only succeeded in mastering the truth that
what is one mans meat is anothe mans
poison, they have, at any rate, reached d
safe seat There can be no general rule fcI
eating, and the sooner we come TO that con
clusion the better. Age, climate, occupa-
ton, consultation have all to be considered
before attempting any experiments in nv,
triton.