Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-09-13
NEW CURE FOR TUBERCULOSIS
Question Of Feeding-Full, Wholesome
Diet is What Nature Needs.
From the New York Herald


The readers Of the Herald have certainly
no reason to complain of the scarcity of
newly suggested remedies for tuberculosis.
An old medical professor once said to his
students: when l was young in practice
l had forty sure cures for every diseas Sc,
but now know of forty diseases for which
there Is remedy" Although the latter
remark does not include pulmonary con-
sumption In the category of therapeutic
failures we have a right to assume that
in the multiplicity of new medicines con-
stantly advocated there is suspicion that
none of them is absolutely curative in it
self.
Following Dr. Russell's recommendation
of raw vegetable juice an important ele-
ment of improved diet, DIR. Oldfield of Lon
don, who is quoted In a special cable dis
patch to yesterdays Herald argues on the
same lines and takes even more extreme
views the question at issue by adding
English beer to the dietary
BY a strange coincidence also in the same
issue of the Herald was a Communlca ton
from correspondent asserting that cert ain
salts of lime must be supplied to the pa
tent so that not only a supposed waste
of such material In the victims system can
be counteracted, but that nature can there
by be helped to calcify cavities and cure
by that means.
Such theories have the merit Of being IN
genious applying to the necessity of
sight present a plausible working basis for
such an end Nothing would appear more
reasonable than to balance waste by a
| corresponding increase of supply. But, I'M
fortunately for the practical application of
| such theories, the n" rtion of the body is
| too complex a phenomenon to admit of any
absolute or set rules of adjustment of spe-
| cial food values.
1t Is not enough to say that because one
| element of nutrition is deficient such an in
! gredient can be supplied In kind and by
any special process. AS well might we eX-
pect to improve a fruit In flavor or sweet
ness by merely sprinking appropriately
| prepared fertilizer on the branches rather
| than by applying the regular manure at
| the root and allowing the sap to deliver its
| varied ingredients In its own way.
In the present state of physiological
| science 1t is impossible to prove that any
| particular substance used as a diet will sc
| straight to it's mark and effect its intended
| object. We can theorize as much as we
| please. but nature has laws of her own
entirely different from those OF the chem
| ical laboratory.
| She makes her selections in her own way
and governs her actions by a purely vital
process In so doing she changes the mu!-
| tipe ingredients of food in all sorts OF
ways. splitting compounds at will and
| forming new combinations to suit her
wh!ms.
Fortunately for the preservation of the
race, this secret is her own and entirely
| beyond the ken Of the enthusiastic expert
menter. In one case she may use vege-
| tables to make bone or in another use meat
| to make fat, and vice versa. She virtually
! says to man, "Give me a generous full diet
and leave the rest to me-" That we can
safely do so she enables us to consult her
| needs through the instinct of appetite. The
surest and safest of all arguments against
| so-called scientific feeding in any form.
1t is not SO much a question what you
may need as how much you can digest and
properly appropriate. From such a point
| of view there is as much danger In over
i feeding patients as In undertaking them
OF course we must nonrish the consump-
i tive but let us be little reasonable about
lit We must not expect the poor man to
| take quart. even OF English beer. when
he can only hold 4 pint. .