Year: 1861

/


It was with feelings of painful disap-
pointment, with perhaps some ycxation,
that we recently read the death of a broth
er editor, whose excellent monthly ldom
failed of some extract from or kindly no
tice Of this Journal He died in the prime
of Gfe-not thirty-in the midst of useful
ness, and in the enjoyment of usual good
health, until within twenty-four hours Of
his disease. He was an able preacher,
and bellies lettre scholar. He was on a
journey on the Masters business, and died
from home He had made up the copy
for his September issue. Two of the ar
ticles were from our August Number; one
plea for woman, the other for children
So many good people loved him and looked
up to him! In less than three lines the
story is told. He Travelled all day. ate
in the evening hearty supper, walked up
in the morning with the headache, became
unconscious, and died at FIVE 0 clock in the
afternoon of an apoplectic disease!'


Eating heartily in an exhausted, or even
in greatly debilitated bodily condition is
dangerous ct any hour Many man has
fallen apoplectie at the close Of hearty
dinner; but the danger is greatly increased
by going to bed soon after; for the weight
of the meal, pound or two, rests steadily
on the great veins of the body, arrests the
flow of the blood, as a continuous pressure
of the foot on the hose-pipe Will more or
less completely stop the flow of water
along it. This arrangement causes dam
ming up of blood in the vessels of the
brain, which at length cannot bear the dis
tension, and bursts, causing efusion there,
which is instant, sometimes, and certain
death always.


There is scarcely a reader, of middle
age, who has not more than once been
nearer death than he imagined, from this
very cause. A man feels In his sleep as if
some terrible calamity was impending,
some horrible beast is after him, or some
fearful food is about to overwholm him;
but in spite of every effort, he cannot re-
move himself fast enough; the enemy be-
hind is increasing upon him; and at length
in agony of sweat, he is able after a des-
perate effort, to set the streams Of life in
motion by uttering some sound, fearful to
be heard, or only to save himself from fall
ing into some fathomless abyss by con-
vulsive and desperate effort. In cases
where there is no power to cry out. or NO
effort can be made, the person is overtaken
or falls and dies! Eating a hearty meal
at the close of the day, is ike giving la
boring man full day work to dc, jus:
as night sets in although he has been toll
ing all day The whole body IS fatigucd
when night comes, and the stomach takes
its due share, and to eat heartily at sup
per, and then 90 to bed, is giving all the
other portions and functions of the body
repose while the stomach has thrown on
itself five hours more additional labor, af-
ter having already worked four or five
hours to dispose of breakfast, and still
longer time for dinner. This ten or twelve
hours of almost incessant labor has nearly
exhausted its power; it cannot promptly
digest another meal. but labors for hours
together, like an exhausted gal'ey-slave at
newly imposed task. The result is, that
by the unnatural length of time in which
the food is kept in the stomach, and the
imperfect manner in which the exhausted
organ manages it, it becomes more or less
acid; this generates wind; this dlstends
the stomach; this presses itself up against
the more yielding lungs, confning them to
largely diminished space; hence every
breath taken is insufficient for the wants
of the system, the blood becomes foul,
black, and thick, refuses to flow, and the
man dies, or in delirum or fright leaps from
window or commits suicide, as did Hugh
Miller, and multitude of others, and to
whom the coroner's jury has returned the
non-committal verdict. "Died from causes
unknown" if not impiously stating, Died
BY the visitation of God"


Let any reader who follows an inactive.
life for the most part, try the experiment
for week, of eating absolutely nothing
after two o'clock dinner, and see if
sounder sleep and more vigorous appetite
for breakfast and a hearty dinner, are not
the pleasurable results, to say nothing Of
the happy deliverence from that disagreca-
bic fullness, weight, oppression or acidity,
which attends over-eating. g.-HaPs journal
| Of Health.