The record-union., 1897-11-07
HEALTH AND BEAUTY"

DR.. Cyrus Edison, one of the most
progressive and interesting writer's OF
the New York faculty, has an article IN
a recent issue of the North American
Review" on health and beauty that is
worthy more than passing notice since
it addresses so sensbly the intelligence
of hosts of sufferers whose experience
will fortify the declarations of the en-
inent physician Good health and the
cultivation of beauty, he declares. are
dependent upon small. not great things
Dr. Edison begins at the right place,
the stomach, the seat and fount, ne
81 per cent. of all bodily dis
order, and the cause Of more than
20 per cent. of all human suffering. The
stomach is at once our best friend and
our most relentless enemy. We need
to guard against this enemy and to cul-
tivate and hold fast to this friend.
Boiling the food and rushing off to
work the doctor merely refers to, be-
cause, We presume, he assumes that
everybody knows that to be about as
bad as bad can be- Nevertheless IL
that knowledge is so general, it is a
sad reflection upon the men and women
of this day that it is so i'll able to serve
as a lesson and a warning.
1t is related of a distinguished busi-
ness man who has maintained his
vigor to advanced age that he attrib-
utes it in large part to the fact that
he arises from his meals unsatisfied-
that is to say, not stated. In addition,
this well-preserved man invariably re-
mains perfectly quiet for thirty min
utes after each meal. It must be a
very momentous matter. indeed, one
involving perhaps something as serious
as life or death, that will rob him of
this time during which the stomach ad-
justs itself to its duty.
DR.. Edison insists anew-for it is an
old, old story-upon much and slow
mastication of our food. He says that
Gladstone, according to a story he
heard OF him, attributes his good health
and long life to thorough and slow mas
tication Of his food-that he chews
every nrouthful thirty nine times be-
fore swallowing"
Digestion takes considerable energy
Work after a hearty meal draws from
the stomach the nervous force to en-
able 1t to perform it's function, and y
cannot do this rapidly. Really, it did
not need Dr. Edison to tell the world
that truth. Everyone does. or ought to
know it, Nor is ii necessary-or il
should not be-for the learned New
Yorker to recite for us the Ills which
follow in the train of indigestion and
which so crowd upon each other, that
nature, out of sheer disgust, often gives
over her orderly task and by fermenta-
ton attempts to get rid of her tor
mentor instead Of by processes Of dis
posal natural and beneficial.
So it comes that gases generate and
are given off which distend the stom-
ach, causing IL 20 encroach upon luns
and heart space Then follow troubles
exceedingly numerous. and one will bt
apt to fancy that he has all the mis-
er-tes' TO which flesh can possibly be.
come heir.
But DR.. Edison points out that indi
g,estion goes to greater lengths thar
even the sufferers are aware. Wher
they think they have heart disease il
is very frequently only an ernbarrasset
stomach, but the sufferer, unaware q
the fact, takes on care concerning hi:
heart and neglects the stomach. So
too. with regard to rheumatic ache:
and pains-apparently difficult breath
ing. nervous headaches-apparentl
and other troubles due to stomach fer
mentation. The food Lies in lump
and distresses the man. and this dis
tress exhausts and dispirits him, anS
thus the doctor goes on:
THE stomach walls are excited, ir
ritated and infiamed. After tim'
nature, unable to get rid OF the mas
improperly loaded upon the organ, set
up the process of fermentation as
means of dissolution, and the gases ar
given off which distend the stomach
Fermentation goes on to pu