for the Advancement of Science, recently held at Leicester, England,
and which formed a storm center for the great alcohol debate, a noted
chemist in London “Science,” said that we know how far the sun is, and
can tell the weight of the earth, predict when the next comet may be
expected, and give true answers to many other important questions, but
we do not know “anything to speak of” on the subject of alcohol. As
to the discussions that have waged at Leicester and elsewhere on the
question of the medical use of alcohol, the general impression left on
the world of laymen is that they all (the noted authorities) disagreed
with one another more or less, and that nobody can declare with any
scientific authority whether alcoholic liquor is good for us or bad for
us.
We propose here to describe the work of one scientist who has made
experiments which enable him to declare with authority that alcohol
is injurious. This investigator is Charles E. Stewart, M. D., of the
Battle Creek Sanitarium. He has closely studied the work of Sir Edward
Wright, London, the discoverer of “Opsonins”; and his experiments were
suggested by those of Wright. They led him to the discovery that
alcohol has a harmful effect on the blood by lowering its supply of
opsonins.
It has been demonstrated to the satisfaction of most students of Wright
and Metchnikoff, and their allies, that the opsonins form one of the
most valuable of the body’s defences against disease. And if Dr.
Stewart has demonstrated that alcohol poisons the opsonins, it must be
admitted that at last a positive and tangible proof has been brought
forward of alcohol’s harmful qualities. What nourishes and strengthens
the blood, helps the lifeforce within us; what weakens or poisons the
blood, is an attack upon the very citadel of vitality. Alcohol, says
Dr. Stewart, is such an enemy.
In such diseases as pneumonia and tuberculosis, the white cells,
according to Wright, cannot effectually combat the germs unless there
are plenty of opsonins present to aid them. Now, in treating pneumonia
and tuberculosis, many practitioners encourage the use of alcohol. Dr.
Stewart believed that alcohol was injurious. Having heard Sir W. Edward
Wright’s lectures, he asked himself the question:
“Can the evil effects of alcohol be due to its lowering of the opsonic
power of the blood?”
He instituted a series of experiments to determine, if possible, the
facts in the case. He first of all administered to four persons who
all their lives had been total abstainers, two ounces each of port
wine. The normal opsonic power of each of these individuals had been
determined as being 75 or above—that is to say, it was well above the
point at which the opsonic power must be maintained in order that the
white cell may do effective fighting. At the time when the subjects
took the port wine, the first subject had a normal amount of opsonic
power to resist the germ of tuberculosis which may be expressed by the
term 1.13., and a normal power of resistance to the pus germ, which
infects wounds, of 1.06. After drinking the wine, both those powers of
resistance were lowered most perceptibly; the first to .85, and the
second to .67. Similar results, in greater or less degree, followed in
all other cases. The port wine decreased the power of the blood to make
opsonic sauce for the white cells.
In a second series of experiments, two ounces of Scotch whisky
were taken an hour apart; that is, the normal index was taken, and
immediately afterwards an ounce of the Scotch whisky was taken, an
hour later another ounce, and an hour after this the index was taken
again. The results here were similar. For the germs of tuberculosis
it was discovered that the opsonic power had dropped 10% and for the
streptococci (or pus-forming) germs about 8%.
In another experiment where two ounces of sherry wine were used, the
opsonic power for the germs of tuberculosis dropped 11% and for the
streptococci 5%.
In another experiment where four ounces of champagne were taken, the
opsonic power dropped 9% for the germs of tuberculosis and 19% for the
streptococci germ. Many other experiments were performed, but they gave
practically the same results. The opsonic power decreased in proportion
to the amount of alcohol contained in the liquor.
Dr. Stewart carried on his experiments in the laboratory of the Battle
Creek Sanitarium, with the assistance of Dr. A. W. Nelson. He reported
his results to the American Society for the Study of Alcohol and Drug
Neuroses:
“I realize that there are a great number of factors which influence the
opsonic power of the blood, and that there is considerable variation in
even what may be considered normal cases, but, notwithstanding these
variations, there is a sufficient uniformity to enable us to make
some very valuable deductions. I feel justified in concluding that
alcohol has a marked influence in reducing the vital forces of the
body, thereby greatly interfering with the natural power of the body
to remedy ailments. Since Wright has shown that out of all comparison
the most valuable asset in medicine lies in raising the anti-bacterial
power of the blood, the adminstration of alcohol, which according to
these experiments, is pro-bacterial, and as such a strong liability
instead of an asset, should be eliminated from our therapeutics, at
least so far as internal administration in infectious diseases is
concerned.
“While only a comparatively few experiments have been made, the results
obtained have been uniform, and justify, I believe, the preliminary
report of it given to the medical profession and the public with the
hope that it may encourage others to pursue the work further in this
direction.
“Heretofore, when any statement was made to the effect that alcohol
caused this or the other disease, or ailment, or harmful effect of any
sort on the human constitution, the reply could be and was made that
the case could not be proven; that there were always circumstances
which might be construed as showing that other factors besides alcohol
influenced the situation. Now, however, I believe that we have opened
up a line of investigation which will place the proofs against alcohol
on a solid scientific basis by demonstrating its injurious effect on
the blood, which is the life.”
TEA AND COFFEE
In the same laboratory where Dr. Stewart placed his case against
alcohol, experiments are being made which show in the same direct way
that such drinks as tea and coffee also lower the opsonic power of
the blood. Into the United States alone are imported more than one
billion pounds, or five hundred thousand tons of tea and coffee each
year. It is estimated that tea and coffee contain from three to six
per cent. of poison. Therefore, more than fifteen thousand tons of
poison, “so deadly that twenty grains might produce fatal results if
administered to a full-grown man in a single dose”—in all more than
ten billion deadly doses of poison, or, “fully six times as much as
would be required to kill every man, woman and child on the face of the
earth,” are brought into this country every year, as component parts of
substances which are commonly regarded as pleasant foodstuffs.
This is the case stated against coffee and tea in its broadest and
most emphatic form. The opponents of the use of tea drinking term both
tea and coffee “drugs.” What is commonly thought to be the pleasantest
property of both tea and coffee, namely, their ability to banish one’s
sense of fatigue, is regarded by the critics of the tea and coffee
drinking habits as perhaps the most sufficient evidence of their
poisonous character.
“No one would doubt for a moment,” says one such critic, “the poisonous
nature of a drug capable of producing irresistible drowsiness in a
person who is not weary, as morphine would, for instance. Vice versa,
the power of a drug to produce wakefulness in a person strongly
inclined to sleep as the result of fatigue is equal evidence of its
poisonous character. The sallow complexion common among women of the
higher classes who have reached middle life, the almost universal
nervousness among American women, and many common digestive disorders,
and the increasing prevalence of nervous or sick headaches, afford
to the experienced physician ample evidence of the toxic or poisonous
character of tea and coffee.”
Tea and coffee contain (in addition to caffeine) tannic acid, and
various other volatile poisons, each of which produces characteristic
harmful effects. The volatile oils give rise to nervous excitability,
and after a time provoke serious nervous disorders. Caffeine is a
narcotic, which has been shown to diminish the activity of the peptic
glands—and thus seriously to interfere with the normal operation of
the organs of digestion. The eminent physiologist, Wolfe, showed by
experiments that three grains of caffeine—an amount that might easily
be imbibed in an ordinary cup of tea or coffee—very substantially
impairs the quality of the gastric juices, lessening their total
acidity. Roberts’ experiments showed that tea and coffee interfere with
the action of the saliva upon the starch of the food, and at times may
even wholly destroy its effect.
XI
DIET REFORM IN THE FAMILY
The reader is now familiar with the new ideas upon the subject of human
nutrition. It is obvious, of course, that if these ideas should ever
come into general acceptance, there would be enormous changes in the
every-day habits of human beings. And we can well imagine that a person
might be fully convinced of the soundness of all the arguments which
have been advanced in this book, and yet shrink in dismay from the
complications incidental to applying them.
We ourselves have faced these difficulties in many forms. We have
wished to have two meals, and yet felt obliged to have three, because
all our friends had them, and we did not wish to be hermits. We have
wished to avoid meat, and yet have eaten it, because it was on the
table, and we did not like to startle our hostess—and perhaps find
ourselves involved in an argument about vegetarianism, in the course
of which we had either to permit a good cause to go down into defeat,
or else to tell facts about meat which would take away every one’s
appetite for meat, and for vegetables as well. But in the end, the
desire for health has conquered all other motives with us, and we have
broken with every trace of the old ways. It seemed to us that we would
help and interest others if we gave some account of how the new ideas
have worked out in practice, and the daily regimen of a family which
adopts them.
This book is written in Bermuda, where the writers have been living in
co-operation, along the lines worked out at Helicon Hall, only upon
a much smaller scale. Their party consists of eight adults and three
children—this including two governesses, a secretary, and a servant.
They live in an isolated neighborhood, upon the waterfront. Most of the
party sleep out of doors on the broad verandas of the house, while the
wide doors and windows of the other rooms afford ample ventilation.
Daily sea-bathing is the habit of all of the group.
The married women of the party assume in turn the direction of our
dietaries; that is to say, they choose the menus, and attend to the
ordering of the food supplies. We eat but twice a day, and the menus
are made up entirely of fruits, grains, nuts and vegetables, with the
occasional use of eggs. We obtain from the Battle Creek Sanitarium a
great number of the foods we use, availing ourselves of its splendidly
managed food-department. The children eat three times a day, but
their breakfasts are very light, consisting of orange juice and a fig
or two, or perhaps a banana. The children have this light breakfast
immediately after arising. At ten o’clock comes the principal meal of
the day for the whole household. An effort is made to make this meal
“well balanced”; that is to say, to have the proportion of proteids,
carbohydrates and fats. There are usually not more than two, or at the
most, three cooked dishes. Sometimes the main dish is a soup; sometimes
it is baked or boiled macaroni with tomato dressing; sometimes it is
bean or pea croquettes; sometimes it is scrambled eggs, or the yolks of
hard boiled eggs.
We have a constant supply of fresh vegetables, the justly celebrated
Bermuda onion; beets, turnips, egg plant, raw cabbage, potatoes, white
and sweet, rice, hominy, green peas, tomatoes, and lettuce.
We have corn pones, corn bread, brown bread containing oatmeal,
ordinary white bread, and oven toast—that is to say, slices of bread
baked in the oven until it is brown all the way through. From Battle
Creek we have malt honey, malted nuts, ripe olives, olive oil, fig
and prune marmalades made without cane sugar, various crackers and
grain preparations, and several other nut products. The Sanitarium
health-chocolate, a sweet made without the use of cane sugar, and with
chocolate divested of its caffeine, also appears on our table. We
have eliminated dessert at dinner, having learned not only at Battle
Creek, but in the sore school of experience, that the heterogeneous
mixtures of cream or milk and cane sugar and various mushy stuffs,
along with butter or lard, in the shape of pies and puddings and cakes,
are extremely undesirable foods. We find the sweet, pure taste of malt
honey an adequate and highly satisfactory substitute.
[Illustration: The Daily Swim]
Fruits rarely appear on the table at dinner, since we do not wish to
mix them with vegetables. They make their appearance in great abundance
at supper, which we have at five o’clock. At this meal we have various
cooked fruits, such as prunes or apricots or baked or stewed apples;
and of uncooked fruits, oranges, apples, figs, bananas, grapes, and
whatever else the market affords. With these we have zweibach and
common bread or crackers. At both meals appears Yogurt, an acidulous
and agreeable beverage which gratefully checks thirst and in itself
nourishes, and is also the vehicle whereby millions of beneficial germs
are introduced into the body.
The work of preparing and serving these two meals is done by one
person—and that person has time left to play tennis and go in swimming
with the rest of us. The total cost of the food is less than thirty
dollars a week; cooked and served, its cost is about three dollars and
a quarter a week per person. In this connection it should be explained
that Bermuda prices, for even the commonest things, are in excess of
prices in New York. We pay five cents each for eggs and twelve cents
a quart for milk. We have oranges by the barrel, but they come from
California, or from Jamaica by way of New York. We have olive oil at
four dollars a gallon, and sterilized butter at fifty cents a pound.
And in addition the figures quoted include expressage and steamer
charges, and ten per cent. duty as well. We mention these things for
the light they throw upon the relative costs of the vegetarian and
carnivorous life.
The reader will also wish to know about the health of a family living
in this manner. When we came here all our children were half-sick from
too long contact with cities, and we were not used to the climate, and
so one of them caught a severe cold. With this exception there has not
been a day’s sickness among them, nor the remotest trace of an ailment.
If we were to describe their looks the reader might attribute it to
parental blindness, and so the proper plan seems to us to insert a
picture of them, and let the reader come to his own conclusions.
For the guidance of any housewife who may wish to try our regimen, we
give a few typical menus, and also recipes for some of the favorite
dishes of our family. We are all hungry when mealtime comes in our
household, and we enjoy the surprises of the menu with all the zest
that we ever welcomed roast turkey and pumpkin pies in the old days.
And this seems in some magical way to be true, not only of ourselves,
but also of such guests as happen along. It is worth noting that three
different persons, who have never before known or thought anything
about vegetarianism, have stayed with us for periods of several months;
and all of them have fallen into the ways of our household, have been
well and strong, and untroubled by craving for meat—and in two cases
have found, to their great dismay, that they were gaining in weight
upon two “low proteid” meals a day!
The first of the tables which follow contains a typical menu for a
week; and the second gives an extra list of dinners. The third shows
what we do upon some special occasion; it was the banquet which we
prepared for Mark Twain—only, alas, his physician had ordered him to be
home by sundown, and he couldn’t stay to partake of it.
Inasmuch as all people cannot change their meal hours in accordance
with those we have suggested, we give these menus upon the basis of
three meals a day, with the various food elements properly balanced.
We have also included simple desserts, for the benefit of those who
do not care to dispense with this feature. The menus in our own home
are similar to these, with the exclusion of the breakfasts and the
dessert.[1]
[1] Very good vegetarian cook books are those entitled “Science in the
Kitchen,” and “Healthful Cookery,” both of them by Mrs. E. E. Kellogg,
the wife of the superintendent of the Battle Creek Sanitarium. Some
of the books which are listed in another place as being those which
a student of the new art of health may read will also furnish many
good recipes. The “Art of Living in Good Health,” by Dr. Daniel S.
Sager, will be found especially helpful in this regard. We give in
the Appendix three simple menus of the Battle Creek Sanitarium. These
menus have the food values indicated, and will be found very useful in
giving a rough idea of the number of calories contained in ordinary
foods.
MONDAY
_Breakfast_
Oranges
Poached eggs
Graham gems
_Dinner_
Lima beans, dried or fresh
Baked potatoes
Mixed nuts
Whole wheat bread
Lettuce salad
Tapioca pudding
_Supper_
Oven toast brown bread
Cottage cheese
Apple sauce
Almond cream
Figs
Bananas
TUESDAY
_Breakfast_
Grape fruit
Corn meal mush with cream
Buttered toast
_Dinner_
Baked macaroni
Mixed nuts
Brown bread
Tomato salad with mayonnaise dressing
Indian meal pudding
_Supper_
Zweibach
Brown bread
Ripe olives
Stewed prunes
Dates
Bananas
Hot malted nuts
WEDNESDAY
_Breakfast_
Baked apples and cream
Omelet
Pop overs
_Dinner_
Peas patties with tomato sauce
Baked sweet potatoes
White bread
Boiled onions
Baked custard
_Supper_
Oven toast
Whole wheat bread
Nut butter
Stewed fruit
Cottage cheese
Apples
Bananas
THURSDAY
_Breakfast_
Oranges
Hominy with cream
Currant puffs
_Dinner_
Bean and nut croquettes with cream sauce
Baked egg plant
Graham bread
Boiled rice
Dates with whipped cream
_Supper_
Oven toast
Graham bread
Honey
Ripe olives
Apple sauce
Grapes
Bananas
FRIDAY
_Breakfast_
Grapes
Scrambled eggs
Whole wheat gems
_Dinner_
Vegetable soup
Assorted nuts
Beet and lettuce salad with mayonnaise dressing
Corn pones
Cottage pudding
_Supper_
Golden maize crackers
Graham bread
Nut butter
Canned fruit
Bananas and apples
SATURDAY
_Breakfast_
Grape fruit
Toasted corn flakes with cream
Buttered toast
Marmalade
_Dinner_
Baked beans
Cabbage slaw
Baked potatoes
Mashed turnips
Brown bread
Baked apples with cream
_Supper_
Oven toast
Brown bread
Cottage cheese
Sliced pineapple
Bananas
Figs
SUNDAY
_Breakfast_
Grapes
Soft boiled eggs
Corn meal gems
Orange marmalade
_Dinner_
Pea and tomato soup
Succotash
Corn bread
Potato salad
Baked bananas
Mixed nuts and raisins
_Supper_
Zweibach
Oatmeal bread
Malted nuts
Ripe olives
Canned fruits
Bananas
Dates
EXTRA DINNERS
Yolks hard boiled eggs
Baked potatoes
Beets
Prune pudding
Vegetable soup
Cabbage salad
Corn bread
Baked custard
Scrambled eggs
Baked lyonnaise potatoes
Beet and lettuce salad
Dates with whipped cream
Macaroni with tomato sauce
Whole wheat gems
Egg salad
Apple tapioca pudding
Baked beans
Tomato, chili sauce
Mashed turnips
Lettuce with French dressing
Lemon jelly
Pea soup
Corn pones
Potato and onion salad
Cabinet pudding
Peas patties with tomato sauce
Mashed potatoes
Carrots with butter sauce
Baked nuttolene with cream sauce
Baked sweet potatoes
Stewed tomatoes
Baked apples and cream
Lima beans (fresh or dried)
Baked sweet potatoes
Lettuce
Corn pones
Stuffed dates
Baked beans
Lettuce
Corn (canned or sweet)
Nuts and raisins
RECIPES
Vegetable soup: Cut in dice three turnips, three carrots, three
onions, three potatoes. Cover with water and simmer for thirty
minutes. Cook one can of tomatoes, or one quart of fresh tomatoes,
strain and thicken a little with flour. Add to vegetables and cook
thirty minutes. Add butter and sprinkle with parsley.
Corn pones: Three cups corn meal, 1 heaping teaspoon salt, 1
tablespoon sugar, 1 heaping tablespoon butter. Add boiling water until
meal is scalded, pat it into flat, thin cakes and bake three-quarters
of an hour.
Mayonnaise dressing: Yolk of egg; add 1½ cups olive oil, drop by drop,
stirring in one direction. Juice of two small lemons, 1 teaspoon salt.
Macaroni with tomatoes: Half package macaroni; drop into a kettle of
boiling water. Boil vigorously for thirty minutes. To one can tomatoes
add two onions chopped fine. Simmer until onions are done, then
strain and thicken with flour. Put macaroni into colander and rinse
with cold water. Add the tomato sauce and simmer gently for fifteen
minutes. It is well to do this in double boiler to prevent burning.
Bean or pea soup without meat or pork: Soak two cups of split peas
over night. In the morning slice and add two large onions and simmer
for several hours. Strain.
Beans baked without pork: Use butter or nut butter instead.
Bean and nut croquettes: Cook dried beans until soft. Strain through
colander to remove all skins. Add equal parts of walnut meat ground
in chopper; season with salt and a little sage. Mix with beaten egg.
Form into croquettes and bake until dry and nicely browned. Serve with
tomato or cream sauce.
Baked egg plant: Boil egg plant until tender; pare and mash; mix with
bread crumbs and eggs, and bake until nicely browned. A little finely
chopped onions may be added if desired.
Peas cutlets: One cup pea pulp, one cup steamed rice, one grated
onion, one-half teaspoon sage, one-half cup tomato juice, one-third
cup browned flour. Mix together and mold in cakes two-thirds of an
inch thick. Bake half an hour. Serve with tomato or cream sauce.
XII
BREATHING AND EXERCISE
We have devoted most of our space to the problems of nutrition, since
nutrition is the most important factor in the question of how to keep
in health. We wish now to speak of other matters, of great importance
in the art of keeping well; these are breathing, bathing, and exercise.
Many people have lived for more than a month without food. You can go
for days without water. But if you are deprived of air for but a few
minutes, your death is certain. Sixteen to eighteen times a minute the
normal person respires, one breath being taken for every four beats
of the heart, the central engine of life. Each time you breathe, the
amount of air which passes into the lungs is about twenty-five cubic
inches; which represent, however, but a small part of the actual
capacity of the lungs. The average man can take into the lungs with
an ordinary inspiration one hundred or more cubic inches, and is able
to force out an equal amount with an ordinary expiration. If you have
striven your utmost to expel all the air possible from your lungs,
there will still remain about one hundred cubic inches of air within
them. The total lung capacity of the average man is about three hundred
and twenty-five cubic inches, or nearly one and a half gallons of air.
THE INDISPENSABILITY OF OXYGEN