The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1908-05-30
HOW SHALL WE LIVE WHEN TIE
WARM DAYS GOMEZ
Lancasker lPal Eraminer.

For all we know, even if May came in raw'
cold and rainy, she may go out with the hottest
weather of the year. At any rate. the hot spell
will come before very few days and we may as
well prepare for it by few general reflections
-ssPoutno asF0nas0usa Ft OF lsyltaB.
The most important branch of human hygiene
has been most neglected. This is the study of
the nourishment of the human being, and what
are the best sorts of food for various individuals
The agricultural chemists have paid much at
tention to the study of the foods for animals,
and they have determined what combination is
best for COWS destined for dairy purposes and
what is proper for cattle intended to be fattened
for beef.
1t is also known what is the best forage for
horses which are required daily to perform regu-
lar and laborious service, and what should be
used for race animals which are expected to de-
velop high degree of activity and swiftness of
motion rather than capacity for long endur-
ance.
Although such system applied to the feed
ing of animals has proved extremely valuable,
it has received comparatively little or no con-
sideration from the physicians who deal exclu-
sively with human patients. 1t is true, there
are not wanting treatises on dietetcs, and chem
lists have examined various standard articles of
food; but, with all this, very little certain
kuOWleuB6 can D0 BdlueQ except ny Inc cy5Ic-
matte study of the effects of particular sorts of
food upon great numbers of individuals
The human body is a wonderful chemical, me-
chanical and electrical laboratory, which is
charged with the manifold duty OF providing
tissue and other material for renewing all the
parts of the body and for maintaining in opera
ton all its manifold functions.
Very nearly all the elementary substances
known to chemists enter into the composition
of the human body, and probably each has its
use there, although this is not certainly known,
as some may be accidentally present.
| A body is said to be healthful when all its
| functional operations proceed with due regu-
| larity and material for maintenance is provided
| as needed. But sometimes the laboratory which
| provides this material becomes deranged or dis
ordered. 1t supplies too much or too little of
some needed material and the result is condi-
| ton which is termed sickness.
Sometimes there is an excessive or ill-timed
| production of the yellow fluid which is COM
monty known as bile. Sometimes there is an
undue supplying of fibrine or fbrous matter
which cannot be profitably used or readily got
| rid of, and it finds Judgment somewhere and
| creates dangerous tumors.
The excessive forming of albumen, or its di-
version from other purposes of use, is one of the
attendant circumstances, if not the cause, of the
| serious disorder known as "Bright's disease"
These are few of the examples of disorder
| ed operation of the laboratory which renews and
maintains the body, and the question may well
arise, whether or not some of these disorders
are caused by the inappropriateness or ether
s'asassf - - : SEES u case OF sick
ness until Il becomes serious, ana he has no OPP
portunity to do more than speculate upon the
cause of the disease.
| ofr 0f 70 ofk
remote as to be out of his reach, and the neces-
sity for combating the disease is so urgent as to
| occupy all the time he can give to it.
These facts seem to emphasize the necessity
for thorough and systematic study of the
operation of various articles of food upon the
human body.
The wonderful laboratory of nutrition en-
braces machinery for pulverizing or crushing
the food, or the mixing with it of natural yeast
| or ferment, which rapidly assists its decomposi-
| ton into all the material into which it can be
separated.
Then are selected from the whole such arti-
Giles and such proportions of each article as
may be necessary, and the remainder is elected.
But suppose something which is necessary has
not been supplied, what then? Suppose this
article has been continuously lacking; might
not the consequences become serious Might
not nature attempt to supplement the lack with
something else less suited to the purpose. or not
suited to it at all ?
Natures chief of remedies are food and rest,
and an active effort to get rid of any poisonous
or Injurious substances that get into the body.
Some sorts of food supply bone, others muscle.
others nerve substance. Others fat and the ma
terial of heat. Not every human constitution
is alike. There are many differences requiring
different treatment in nourishing the body.
Would it not be well to know great deal
about this matter? If knowledge of medicine
is important enough to demand lifetime study
by vast numbers of able men, is not the science
of nourishment and dietetics of enormously
more importance?
But if we knew it all, would we practice it !?