Year: 1879

Upon the Digestive system.


The state of the digestive system Tor
the power to do that which desire to
do) is caused by and governed by the
quality and quantity of what it receives.
Let me follow up the fact by maintain
ing that this brain, nervous system,
mental life or desire to do-otherwise
called will : is utterly dependent upon
the digestive system, and the digestive
system is governed by the nature of that
which it receives.


Having arrived thus far, let us go on
unto the end of the question by looking
at quality and quantity in connection
with our argument. Every one will ad-
init, so far as quality and quantity of
what the brain receives is concerned,
that bad man is not always made so by
the quantity of bad books he may read,
but one page of bad reading may make
his desires bad, increasing or diminishing
their vicious tendency for years or for
his whole life, and precisely the oppo-
site with a good man. This is perfect
material and physical parallel with that
of the digestive system which we have
called and found to be the "power to
do" 1t is the quality of what we eat
which gives us this power in fullness Or
lack, natural or stimulated, long lived or
short lived.


Now if man begins to get gray at
| forty, and dies at sixty years of age, or
becomes imbecile at thirty-five or fifty
years of age, or dies suddenly, there is
only one reason for it. He is exhaust
ing or has exhausted his vitality. 1t
may be not at all by over work, but by
wrong living; that is, largely, wrong eat
| ing and drinking. When man is born
he has given him his breath of life that
is, in other words, his vitality. His
vitality is both his desire and power to
do in the latent or natural state. Very
well; his brain, the seat of his desire to
do, is educated and enlarged as the days
go on, and SO his vitality begins and
continues its use and expenditure. 1t
must be remembered, likewise, that the
digestive system has also to be attended
to, and that hygienally, or the issue
would also be made Immediately deplora-
bly, evident This vitality, of which we
are speaking, is dependent for its life
upon the proper life of the physical
man. 1t must be nourished and cared
for, and only then can longevity be ex-
pected. Thus, for single example:
The vita ity is derived from the blood
and it is nourished from the blood. The
blood, in it's turn, is dependent upon the
digestive system. Without proper nour-
ishment the blood becomes impover-
ished. Suppose, now, an individual or
ganization subjected to much strain, the
natural recuperative source from the
digestive powers Very we'll; fill the
stomach of this individual whose vital
ity has been impinged, with tea, or
worse, coffee; or worse yet, tobacco in
any form; Or far worse, alcohol in some
forms, and it can easily be proved that
either of these named common articles
are wholly deadening to the entire num-
Der of Juices which the blood has sent to
the stomach to absorb and convey to it
the nutrition it demanded. They are
poison. They first narcotize, then intox-
icate. You may call it stimulation. 20
much the worse; the name is misap-
piled. The very reason why you fall
down suddenly dead, or grow pre-
maturely gray, or rebrought down ts a
long sick bed, is because you were not


living on natural vitality, Or rather were
starving and then stimulating your vi
tality.


Nothing is more certain than that q
large proportion of the ailments which
mar human life are directly caused by
arrangement of the stomach and liver
Were the human stomach capable Of
speech the history of suffering from dis
ease would be faithfully written. Man
commits more outrage on his digestive
organs than on any other he possesses


am satisfied that at least one-third of
all the food usually eaten by persons is
not made into blood, and that fully one.
third of the diseases from which men
suffer are induced under the failure OF
the assimilative system to dispose of the
food which eaters have gluttonously
passed into the stomach.