Omaha daily bee., 1905-08-01
MEDICAL VALUE OF PLANTS
Spinach and Cabbage Pronounced an
Ideal NiEktcap for Victims
of Insomnia.

There is nothing I'm the poems OF Words
worth more pathetic than the following
sonnet to Sleep:
A flock OF sheep that leisurely pass by
One after one' the sound Of rain and
Murmuring; the fall of rivers, winds and
seas:
Smooth fields; white sheets OF water, and
I have thought of all by turns and yet
to lie
sleepless,. and soon the small birds
Must hear, FIRST uttered from my or
chard trees,
And the first cuckoos melancholy cry
Even thus last night and two nights
And @ could not not win thee. Sleep, by any
r So do not let me wear tonight away.
Without thee what is all the morning
Come, blessed barrier between day and
Dear mother OF fresh thoughts and joy
Gus health.
The poet has evidently adopted the the
ory that insomnia and its cure are meta
physical that sleeplessness results from a
perverted train of thought and that the
cure for 1t is to pry the mind out of it's rut
by thinking of something else.
That this is the philosophy Of most cases
of insomnia is manifest from the single
fact that as soon as a sleepless person
gives up trying to sleep he becomes over
poweringly sleepy. 1t is related as a great
Joke that victim of insomnia complained
that he had it so bad" that he could not
even sleep when It was time to get up"
This is laughable, but 1t ia nevertheless
serious matter 1t shows that in the
great majority of cases insomnia is the
result of permitting the mind to get into
certain states, the worst of which is a
purpose to fall asleep, and that the cure
for it is to get rid of that mental habit.
When a sleepless person can not even go
to sleep when II is time to get up" II
proves that the cause of his insomnia is
not metaphysical, but physical. Some spic-
ula Of bone may be pricking a nerve, or
some diseased organ may be torturing its
kadJacent nerve, or the brain or nerves
themselves may be diseased and super
| thinking about sleep or rain or bees. Help
lies in the knife. the hypnotic drug OF
perhaps in hypnotic food.
This is where boiled spinach comes in
It has been discovered that boiled spinach
| or boiled cabbage, either one, is a remark
| able temporary relief of many ordinary
cases Of insomnia, whether metaphysical
or physical
This Is not set down In the books. Mills
paugh's large and magniicently illustra ted
volume on Medical Plants" which treats
OF the medical properties of innumerable
vegetables plants and nuts that are regular
articles of food has nothing to say about
spinach and cabbage. The hypnotic reputa-
| tion OF these two popular vegetables is q
matter of tradition and Of recent expert.
| ment.
1t is absurd to say that all persons will
| be affected in a certain way by one partic
| ular food or drug. The human constitution
exhibits many startling idiosyncrancies
There are people who can eat calomel by
the handful without any effect and there
have been nonhabituated people who swal
lowed sixty grains Of morphine with per
| feet safety. In like manner what is on,
mans food may be another mans poison.
| With this ample reservation there can b,
no danger in saying that II is claimed OF
respectable authority that boiled spinach Oh
boiled cabbage, even eaten four or five
hours before bedtime, is a powerful hyp
motto, more apt to produce uncomfortabl,
results from oversleeping than to fail IL
producing sleep at all.
| How II produces this effect is not clear
It does not appear to disorder any part o.
the body and yet this Is not certain.
1t will do no victim Of insomnia any harm
TO try a diet OF spinach or cabbage for {
while and it may do him a world OF good
| Chicago Chronicle.