The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1902-11-20
SCIENTIFIC BOARDING.
A British opinion Of a Proposed
American Undertaking..

From the London Times.
| We publish this morning brief de-
scription of an American undertaking Of
an entirely novel character. It's humor-
Gus side is at once apparent. but it may
possibly have decidedly results. It is
nothing less than the establishment Of
boarding house, to be solemnly author
lied by the legislature in which men. and
we suppose women also, are to be collect
ed to gether, In order that their bodies
vile in the scientific sense as we'll as In
the theological may be subjected to re-
gulated feeding with meats and drinks
of the kinds provided by various enter
prising tradesmen for their customers,
and so doetored with what are known as
| ''preservatives' as to be apparently ex-
empt from the tendency to putrefaetion
and decay, which is entailed by the pres
ence and the activity of various microbes
upon all unadulterated organic products.
We have lately had In this country sol
emn inquiry into the action upon the
human system of salicylic acid, boric ACID
and other agents, and very different opin-
| ions have been expressed not only as TO
the percentage of representatives" usually
present in milk or In butter, but also as
| to the actual quantity of any "preserya-
tive" which would be required in order
to prove fatal to an average baby.
| Our American friends are about to show
US a more excellent way of dealing with
| the question, and propose to submit
| twelve 'boarders' to a complete course Of
medicated dietary, during the admins
tration of which a careful watch will be
maintained over the results, The subjects
being weighed, measured and In other
ways medically examined with the most
scfupulous care. The patients, If SO they
/ rwf.ak to 70
| port all their symptoms and sensations
during the course; apparently In the same
manner as was done by homeopathists
when they first set themselves to prove
the effects of inf1nitesimal doses Of various
| substances The worst of this sort OF
| thing is that 1t cultivates the habit OF at
tending to trivial sensations, and that
these are greatly fostered by the mere
fact Of the attention; so that there will be
| liability to the occurrence Of many So
called symptoms bearing no real rela-
| ton to the cause to which they may be
assigned Partly on this account we pre-
sumo, the patients are not to know whep
they are receiving doctored and undoc-
| tored food. AT each meal, we are told,
some will be partaking of prepared and
| others OF unprepared food, and only the
| doctors in charge will be able to distn-
gulsh one from the other.
Our correspondent tells us that a good
deal of ridicule has already been vast
ed" upon the proposal. This, indeed, may
easily be the case, for good ridicule would
indeed be wasted IL continuously applied
to proposal which must inevitably per-
ish from its own absurdity, and without
assistance from the scoffer. We all know
| that the so-called preservatives enter free
ly into the composition Of many forms OF
food and drink and we know, also, from
the large experimentation daily conducted
Nv bIir n
sion any immediate symptoms which can
be fixed upon and Identified like those
produced by any definite and recognized
poison. There are, for example, many
people who are liable to occasional at
tacks Of dyspepsia, and 1t is possible that
these may in some cases be due to adul-
teration of their food. But it Is certain
that other circumstances would be likely
to occur with the adulterated food In pro-
ducing them, such circumstances as mem
tai emotion, fatigue, cold, mere excess
of quantity brought about by eating too
rapidly when hungry, and host OF
others which 1t would be difficult, If not
impossible to exclude. 1t would require
lifetime and an almost indefinite num-
Der of observed coincidence before any,
thing like scientific certainty could be ar
rived at on such question, the essential
conditions of all successful or skillful
authorizations, whether with preservatives
the article demanded. being that 1t shall
not be revealed to the purchaser by any
immediate consequences.
An illustration of the extreme difficulty
and completely of the proposed inquiry
may be furnished by the fact, recently
much in evidence in certain English local.
tiles that form of superficial inflamma-
ton OF the nerves has for many years
been unhestatingly attributed to the ac-
ton of alcohol. The discovery that ar
senical poisoning through the medium OF
beer was extensively prevalent in parts
of the North Of England, and that this
poisoning was attended by Inflammation
of the nerves, apparently of the precise
kind formerly attributed to alcohol, has
led many to doubt whether the inflama-
tion was ever due to alcohol at all, and
whether 1t may not have been produced
by the unsupported presence of arsenic
in other articles of consumption. More
over, human nature being what 1t is, 1t
would be necessary to select the inmates |
of the proposed establishment with ex-
traordinary care. 1t would not, we should
fancy, be to easy to find even twelve peo- |
pie, healthy in body and mind who would
be willing to submit themselves to such |
an ordeal; and 1t would, perhaps, be still
more difficult to exclude the members of
two especially dangerous classes, the peo-
pie who are always thinking about them
selves and their own real or fancied all
ments, and the people who are possessed
of a previously undeveloped talent for
practical joking. The report Of the es-
adjustment will undoubtedly be read with
interest in both hemispheres, but We 40
not think 1t likely either to restrain the
practice of adulteration and of ''preserva-
tion," or to induce any reasonable people
to abstain from eating and drinking what
ever they like so long as it does not man.
ifestly and clearly disagree with them.
The sufferings of the inmates OF the SCI
entific boarding house will be regarded
with complacency and every one outside
it's walls will trust to his own good luck
as q protection against similar affections.