The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-05-24

inikon the Question v tne ncao or tnls article is a valid and pertinent one. We are bound to admit that when the Creator made man. he gave him such organs and appliances as were proper and necessary to fit him for fife on this | planet, and it really seems that we would be guilty of impiety and irrev-
 erance if we argue that the God who made us placed in us organs which | were or are useless. .
 The theory upon which the professor
 relies is that man, being originally a
 strictly herbiverous animal, needed
 capacious stomach. just as many Of the
 mammals still do, but that the change in habit and diet have removed the
 necessity for such an appendage. But right along here there is hitch | in the professors reasoning. Man has
 been on earth for we do not know how
 many thousands of years. and we have found no reason to surmise that his stomach at the beginning was In any way different from what 1t now is. We do know, however, that human beings did not long confine themselves to strictly vegetable diet, for among the oldest discoveries of man in pre-his- |toric times there are found ample proofs that he devoured animal flesh. In fact. in those parts of the earth where fruits and vegetables are limited in quantity and variety, and among prim- itive peoples who were not agricultu- ralists, the food was largely animal. And yet, as we have intimated, we have no evidence that there has been any material change in the human stomach during all the ages which have elapsed since the remote period when man was a strictly and possibly exclu- sively herbiverous being. So far as any evidence to the contrary can be found. that organ is of the same form, has the same powers and peculiarities. and in it's normal condition is of the same size that 1t was when he devoured raw herbs and fed on vegetables and fruits alone.
 We are aware that the professor from whom We have quoted, and whose theories we are discussing. relies very largely in support of his contention on the fact that there are well authenti- cated cases where the stomach has been removed and the patient lived. In fact, there Is one Carl Kruger now in Chicago whose stomach was entirely removed and who is still enjoying life. according to the reports. We may even admit that the human stomach is at | times a source of no little worry and discomfort, and that the best of us are sometimes inclined to wish that we
 were well rid of 1t. It surely is worri-
 some, at times.
 But the fact that a few persons are
 getting along reasonably we'll with no
 stomachs Is not very strong argu-
 ment against their usefulness. man
 can, and many of them do, get on fair
 ly well without eyes. or hands. or feet. but in none of these cases can we claim
 that those parts of the human anatomy
 are useless, or that there was no need for their creation. Human beings have
 wonderful adaptability, and manage to exist with more or less comfort and satisfaction, even when deprived of or
 gans with which a wise Creator en-
 dowed them.
 But the microbes-ah, there's the rub. It would have been safe to predict that
 the poor and unfriended bacillus would
 be rung into any discussion where hu-
 man ailments are concerned. The fact
 that the little creatures are taken into
 our digestive apparatus and that they
 thereby cause and disseminate disease, is good cause for an attack on their
 home. By the same reasoning, we
 might argue for the removal of the lungs, for microbes also get into them, but we suspect that even this profes- sor with the hard name will not argue that the lungs are unnecessary portions , of the human frame, and that 1t is the duty of science to evolute them out of us We are equally earnest in pro- , testing against the eviction of the stomach. While ours isn't always up ' to the mark, and gives us lot of
 trouble at times, we suspect that is , only its protest against unfair treat ment, and that human beings are , primarily to blame If they have dis | turbances and uneasiness in the region of the appetite. At any rate. we pre- . fer to remain like we started out, with all the organs. useful and ornamental
 given us at the outset. If the doctors
 can't find any way to keep the microbes out of our stomachs, let them seek out f something that will enable us to digest
 the germs along with anything else
 that we swallow. That would dispose of them and leave our anatomy undis- . turbed.
 TO SETTLE RATE WAR.