Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1900-12-12

gross violation Of her laws. Suppress
ing the symptoms Of a disease with
drugs means to silence that protest in
stead Of removing the cause. We
might as we'll try to extingulsh a fire
by silencing the fire bells; the alarm
will soon be sounded from another
quarter, though the first bell may not
ring again until the belfry breaks down
in general conflagration.
We cannot bully nature or defy her
resentment by a fresh provocation.
Drugs may modify the terms Of the
protest; but the law cannot be baff1ed
by complicating the offense. Before
the drugged patient can recover he
must expiate a double sin-the med
icine along with the original cause of
the disease. However, something must
be done for the sick child. The disease
itself is a cry for help, but not for
drugs. Something ought to be done,
and oftener something habitually
done ought to be omitted. If the
babys stomach has been tormented
with twelve musings a day, stop
four Of them. Omit tea and coffee
from the young lady's menu. Stop
the dyspeptic meat rations, and the
youngsters grammar lesson after din
ner. Open the bedroom window and
the back door, and allow the children
a romp in the garden. Send them to
the country to spend the day with an
uncle who has good orchard; or send
for barrel Of apples. Send for car
penter and let him turn the nursery
or the woodshed into q gymnasium.
For the baby, spread a couple Of rugs
in a comfortable corner and give the
poor little martyr chance to move his
cramped limbs. Let him roll, tumble
and kick to his hearts content and
complete his happiness By throwing the
paregoric bottle out Of the window.
Fatigue is a warning that the physi-
cal organism is being overtaxed, and
it is a sad day for anyone who finds out
that he can rally the activity Of the vi
tai powers by means Of stimulating
beverages. He mistakes the effect as
a sign of returning vigor. persistently
ignoring the circumstance that the ex-
citement is invariably followed by a
prostration worse than that from which
relief was originally sought. Feeling
the approach of relapse, the stimula-
tor again resorts to his old remedy,
thus inducing another revival to be
followed by increased prostration and
so on. Before long the dose has to be
increased and the stimulation be-
comes slave to his poison. The stim-
ulant habit in all It's forms Is dire
delusion. Playing with these poisons
is losing game. The sweetness of the
excitement is always more than dis
counted in the inevitable reaction.
The influence Of anti-naturalism Is
most strikingly illustrated In our su-
perstitious dread of fresh air. The air
of the outdoor world, the woods and
hills, is par excellence a product Of ma
ture-of wild, free and untamable ma
ture-and therefore. the presumptive
source of innumerable evils. Cold air Is
the general scapegoat of all sinners
against nature. If an old glutton has
cramp in the stomach, he ascribes it to
an incautious exposure on coming home
from a late supper. Children are forced
to sleep in an unventilated bedroom till
their lungs purify with their own eX-
halations. and then the mother re-
proaches herself for the most sensible
thing she has ever done, Opening the
windows"
The old dyspeptic, with his closet
full Of patent nostrums. can honestly
acquit himself Of having yielded to any
natural impulse. After sweltering all
summer behind Theoretically closed
windows, wearing flannel in the dog
days, abstaining from cold water when
his stomach craved it, and swallowing
drugs until his appetite has given way
to nausea, his conscience bears witness
that he has done what he could to sup
press the original depravity Of nature.
Only once did the enemy get chance
at him and that was when the window
was left up for half minute. TO that
half minute he attributes his rheuma-
tism. The truth is, that cold air often
reveals the existence of disease. 1t
initiates the re-constructive process,
and thus, apparently, the disease itself;
but there is a wide difference between
a proximate and an original cause.
The only objection to a draught
through a defective window is that the
draught is generally not strong enough.
An influx of fresh air into musty sick
room is a ray of light into darkness
a messenger of Vishnu visiting an
abode of the damned. Cold is disin-
fectant to a great extent, and under
the pressure of high wind modicum
of oxygen willpenetrate housein spite
of closed windows. This circumstance
alone has preserved the lives of thou
sands whom no cough syrup or cod liv-
er oil could have saved.
This war against Nature is the pen
dulum's struggle against the law or
it is the school-boys at
tempt to obstruct a mighty river.
Swinging right, swinging left, the pen
d,lum must return to the middle; the
stream will find its way to the valley
athwart all dams, IN spite ol oil
distractions. We cannot suppress
the source of natural instinct. All we
can achieve by such an attempt is TO
divert the stream from it's natural
course-to turn a natural into an un-
natural passion. The deluge OF madiae-
val superstitions is fast assuaging, ana
many a submerged truth has reappear-
ed like bequest of former and better
world and now stand as a waymarK
on the road to a true science of life.
We have rediscovered the truth that
the veal and woe Of earth are not dis-
tributed by the caprices of mysteri-
Gus fate: but that they follow as sure
effects upon ascertainable causes.
Our best thinkers have ceased 10
doubt that man can work out his own