St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1896-07-25

In.Hsalth Never % Popular . To1se
II In Now.

AGE OF INvAllolSM.
Ill-Hsalsh Never 3 Popular . rsSse .
IL 10 Now.
In an nge when new triumphs OF medi
cal and sanitary science are being pro-
claimed almost daily we fret and worry
about our health in q way that would
have excited the contempt OF our un-
scientific ancestors. Go where one will.
people are found discussing ailments,
comparing symptoms. recommending
remedies and exchanging the addresses
Of specialists. We seem to 60 about feel
ing each others pulses, looking Mt each
others tongues and reveling in the mu-
tual diagnosis of functional "troubles."
The old-fashioned notion that 1t was
undesirable to refer in public to ones
internal economy has long since been
exploded. Indeed. the liver has become
not merely a standing topic of conver-
sation, but dominant factor OF mod
ern social life, fetish to which all ages
and all conditions pay exaggerated wor-
ship.
A complaint once supposed to be the
specialty of sun-dried Anglo-Indians Is
now claimed by apparently robust and
healthy young persons Of both sexes.
and is made the excuse for every kind
of weird dietary eccentricity. 1t has
recognized brigade" of valetudinarian
cavaliers named in its honor, who treat
their morning canter as solemn act OF
homage to their dreadful idol, and .
still larger phalanx who now seek to
avert its terrors by the aid OF the pro-
pitiatory "cycle." There il something
positively grotesque in the intensity OF
self-coddling which prevails in these
times. The eagerness with which peo-
pie fly at a new specific and hail new
mineral water is only surpassed by the
meek complaisance with which they
troop across the channel to be annually
steeped in hot mud, suffocated with
mephitic vapors and '.cured" with the
indescribably nasty products of regular
tion quelle.
No health scare, even Of the most t.
fetched description. is too extravaeone
to secure ready and alarmed attentSco.
Even with the protection Of their r~aks
and milk puddings, their minced chicken
and plain outlets. their all-wool vesture
and their 25-mile "spins," our modern
sanitarians are never thoroughly at rest.
They are forever forswearing this. warn
ing their friends against that. discov-
ering outrages to the liver god and In
vitations to chronic dyspepsia in the
other. until one begins to doubt whether
fatal illness would not be. all things
considered. welcome alternative to q
life conducted on the latest sanitary
principles.
Avast proportion of this health-fanat.
icism is. of course, nothing but the ex.
preston of a particularly unlovely form
Of modern egotism. 1t is akin to that
other variety of self-pity which prompts
30 many moderately busy people to
pose as martys to overwork. AS mat.
ter of fact. there is not the least reason
why, with all it's enormous advantages,
the existing generation should not be
sounder in health and digestion than
the men and women of time when
sanitary science was unknown, when
medicine was in it's infancy and when
cooking had not yet taken its place
among the fine arts.
| Our ''rude forefathers," who could eat
anything and knew nothing OF diet
tables, did not waste time in fus' M
about their livers, and were probably
unaware. for the most part, that they
possessed such membranes. Itwoult
be by no means bad thing If simf
lar wholesome ignorance prevailed in
our day. when a smattering of medt
cine and anatomical knowledge com
hines with good deal Of morbid self
consciousness in procuring recruits TO
the ''liver brigade" As it is, we might d.
worse than revive the abrogated law o
the social code which held Il breacl
Of good taste and good manners to draw
attention to ones personal ailments AMI
Affections. Those who are unlucky
enough to be relegated. or to relegat'
themselves, to an invalid diet are ou
of place at the tables of their friends
Until their recovery, it would be IA
better for the doors to be locked upol
them. that they might play the valetu
dinarian nowhere but in their owl
houses.-London World.