Greenbrier independent. [volume] (Lewisburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1980, 1897-07-08
Absurd Popular Beliefs.
TIE REASON WHY MEDICAL FA-
KRIS PROSPER.

KRIS PROSPER.
Nine out of ten people belieVe,n
said surgeon to the writer, "that
the eye can be taken out for repairs,
just like the works of watch, and
again replaced in the socket precisely
as it was before. a moments re-
Election ought to show anyone how
impossible this would he. AS mat.
ter of fact, tho eye is held in place
by no fewer than six taut muscles,
and, in order to turn it out of the
socket, at least four of these would
have to be cut through. Besides, it
is connected with the brain by
thick norve which can't be stretched
and ii is also connected with the in
side of the skull by blood vessels,
and it these were cut they could
never be reunited. Perhaps time
will como when Il dead man can be
restored to life; but you may feel
perfectly sure that tho removal and
restoration Of the eye is surgical
feat that never will be performed.
Another extraordinary popular
belief is that respecting the nature
Of common cold. You will hear
the most intelligent men saying that
1t iS due to an excess Of cold inside
your body, and they will advise you
to use II mustard plaster ito draw
out tho cold In reality the cold is
simply an excess of heat inside, and
the mustard plaster is intended to
draw out the heat. What happens
when you get II cold is that the cool
ing of the outside of the body
squccZcS tho blood-vcsscls, and forces
lot moro blood into the lungs than
can be accommodated. They be-
come regularly flooded and gorged,
and tho result is really fever,
though we call it cold.
1t seems small thing to mako a
mistake about the value Of becf-tea
to sick man but l can assure you
that hundreds of lives have been
lost through the popular error that
beef tea is nourishing food. 1t is
| nothing more than water in which
the pleasant and stimulating salts of
the beef are dissolved, and has the
| same effect as mixture of whiskey
and China tea. But it has scarcely
q particle of nutrimcnt, and both
doctors and public have starved to
death more people than I'd like to
state, through believing that it has.
| Very similar is the belief that an
| egg is as good as Il pound of meat
If you feed yourself on eggs accord
| ing to this absurd theory, you will
simply shrivel up into skin and bone
The real value of an egg is it's weigh,
in good beef; so that it would take
eight eggs of the average size to sup.
ply the place of pound of meat.
| Then there is the universal falacy
| about the liver. / dare say that 4
million of money is spent every year
on the livers of Great Britain, and
about nine hundred of that sum does
harm instead Of good. The liver i.
subject to about one hundred diseases
and the cure for any one of these
may intensity any other of the
ninety-nine. To take one case rs m
example: The liver may be making
too much bile, or it may be making
too little. Obviously, the remedy
for one of these disorders woulC
make the other worse than ever. Sc
that when a person recommend.
something as being good for the
liver just think that it may be goo(
for his liver but not for yours.
Women are far worse than men in
their beliefs about the body and it,
ailments. am quite sure that out o
every one hundred children who di,
under one year old, fifty are actual,
killed through the mothers belle
that food Is not nourishing unless /
is solid. They don't understand tha
milk has an immense amount O
solid matter dissolved in it, as suga
Is dissolved in water; and so the,
give the unfortunate children corn
flour and bread, which they can M
more digest than they could diges
iron nails. The result is q short lif
OF misery and then death, Will
those of us who manage to surviv
} are made martyrs to dyspepsia a.
our days.
Many beliefs are merely absur
without being dangerous. Hair, fo
instance, is composed of almost tn
same material as the finger nails, an
1t is perfectly dead. Cutting tn
ends Of it cannot possibly make
grow, although it does prevent tn
hair from splitting up; nor can tn
hair become white in q night, an
, more than wig. When novelist.
F too, by the way, describe a person
hair as standing on end, they spea
OF phenomenon that is perfect
impossible. Many of the lower an
mails have little muscles attached
the hairs by which they can eret
them; but human beings have Il
such muscles, nor any other meal
OF making the hair stand on end e.
cept their hands or II comb an
I brush"