The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-09-29
Medical Notes.

AS In all things that have their mer-
its, there is a tendency to go to ex-
tremes in the matter of diet Men aspire
to attain good health longevity, and
perhaps immortality by living by rule.
Lacking scales, people are told the size
of piece Of bread or meat in inches.
equivalent to a formulated quantity by
weight, and are told that by eating the
specified number of cubic inches of bread.
meat or vegetables, they will be insur-
ed as to their health or will recover 1t
if it is in a declining condition Thus
people may be said to live by inches
Extremists in the matter of diet not
only live by rule, but almost by scale
Those who can afford it have weights
and balances in their rooms and keep
tabs on their weight as feverishly as
the Spectator in stocks and bonds
watches the quotation board or the tick
er. Neither is this new fad. The most
ultra-dietist can never hope to emulate
or initiate the zeal and abnegation of
Sanctorious, for he lived thirty years
suspended from a pair of scales
A curious man was Sanctorio Sanctoro.
of Capo d'Istria, born in 1861 the author
-ofx Static Medicine and other works. and
the founder of the school of iatromechan-
les and acknowledgements, or mechanical
and mathematical surgery, by which all
organic movement and vital phenomena
in health and disease were explained
by the application of mechanics, states,
and hydraulics, expressed by mathemat-
ical formulate. Thus according to Bor-
ELI, the stomach is simply a press hav-
ing an expressive force of 1850 pounds
Life, according to this ingenious the
Dry, is perpetual motion in each and-ev-
cry organ, the degree of life and the
perfection of the organ depending upon
the rapidity of these movements, which
are compared to a flowing river,
glowing fame or an active army. In his
theory Sanctorious was partly right, but
he mistook the effect for the cause, he
saw the motion but did not comprehend
the motive power in its entity; he was
ignorant of vital chemistry and did not
grasp the bios, the life, of man. AL
though he regulated the amount of food
ingested, he knew little or nothing of
the chemistry and physiology of nutri-
ton. He was but little better than a
grocer who adds or takes away more or
less sugar than the scale beam may os-
cillate evenly and show proper bal
ance.
The keystone Of his doctrine was that
of insensible perspiration, and to this he
devoted his time and study in personal
experiments upon the comparative rela-
ton of ingestion. election, and sensible
and insensible perspiration, uttering hy-
gienic aphorisms, some Of which are
quoted today.
Sanctorious, sitting on his balancing
chair, uttered these aphorisms as the
priestess of Delphi uttered her oracles,
from her brazen tripod, but there was
less Of delirium In them. He did not
believe, as some dietetic enthusiasts do
| today, that food is everything. He said:
The physician who relies solely upon
alimentary nourishment and sensible loss
es deceives his patients and does
not cure the disease" The best signs
of health, according to Sanctorious Of
the balances, consist of a feeling OF
buoyancy accompanied by no actual dim
mutton of bodily weight
| Sanctorious thought that men and
women were heavier during the middle
| of the month, but this was duly COM
N1ensated for. The less the weight va
Red from year TO year the better would
be the health. II person did not In