=Why We Eat.=--During the early period of life, and until we reach
maturity, food is necessary not only to repair the daily waste, but
for the nurture and growth of the body. The intense bodily activity of
childhood is attended with a large consumption of material and a great
amount of waste. The food is converted into blood, which circulates
through the arteries of the body, carrying the nutritive particles to
the remotest parts, and returns through the veins, conveying the waste
and worn out matter to be expelled from the system.
=Quantity of Food.=--Placing the average weight of an adult man at one
hundred and forty-four pounds, the average daily amount of food and
drink needed would be six pounds, or about one-twenty-fourth the weight
of his body. Food should be taken in sufficient quantity to repair the
waste, and no more. Most persons habitually eat and drink more than
they need, while a few eat less than they should. Those who lead very
active lives, or live much in the open air, require more food than the
old, the inactive, and the sedentary. Habit, too, has much to do with
the quantity of food taken. Over-indulgence in eating is the fruitful
cause of a long train of evils. The appetite is pampered by tempting
viands, and the stomach is overtaxed with work. The sensation of hunger
is Nature’s demand for food; the lack of such sensation should suggest
abstinence.
=Mixed Diet.=--In infancy the digestive powers are weak and
undeveloped, and food must be taken in its simplest form. Milk alone,
at this period of life, seems best adapted to sustain life and growth.
After this period has been passed, no single article of food furnishes
all the principles necessary to support the growth, repair the waste,
sustain the strength, and preserve the health. A mixed diet, therefore,
becomes necessary.
=Feeding Children.=--There is no greater error in the management of
children than that of giving them animal diet too early. That portion
of the digestive apparatus intended to dispose of this kind of diet is
in an embryonic condition up to a certain age, and in the efforts of
digestion, inflammation, possibly convulsions and death, may follow as
the immediate result.
Impaired digestion acquired in childhood is apt to continue through
life. The structure of the human body being so largely dependent upon
good, wholesome food taken at proper intervals, the importance of
laying a good foundation in childhood needs no argument.
The practice of allowing children to eat at short intervals through
the day is exceedingly deleterious. Cakes, nuts, fruit and other good
things, in carefully regulated quantities, should form a part of the
regular meal, when the children are old enough to have them, and should
not be eaten between meals. When it is remembered that one-half of
all the children born into the world die before reaching the age of
sixteen, the importance of children’s diet becomes apparent.
=Selection.=--In the selection of food, reference should be had
to climate, season, occupation, and suitability. The races of the
far North subsist largely on the blubber of seals and other fatty
substances. In the winter season, persons living in the temperate
zones require more of the heat-producing foods, and in summer, fruits
and vegetables are more largely used. The man who leads an active
out-door life consumes more oxygen, and requires not only more food,
but of a kind that will rapidly build up muscle and impart strength.
And not the least consideration, in the selection of food, is that of
suitability or adaptation to the individual’s condition or peculiarity.
“What is one man’s meat is another man’s poison,” says the old proverb.
Most persons have found that certain fruits or vegetables or other
articles of diet, which are generally considered wholesome, do not
agree with them. It is important that each individual should study his
peculiarities, in this respect, and abstain from eating or drinking
those things which experience has shown will produce discomfort.
Happy is the man whose digestion is so perfect that he is never
reminded that he has a stomach. But even those who cannot boast of such
enviable powers of digestion, may yet, by a proper amount of exercise
and the regulation of their diet, build up health and strength, and
lead lives of usefulness and happiness, free from the many ills growing
out of improper eating.
=Proper Food.=--Life is conditioned upon the proper supply of food. Men
may, and do, exist upon very unsuitable food. To be able to do a good
day’s work within the hours of a reasonable working day is every man’s
birthright. Many men, like Esau of old, sell their birthright for a
mess of pottage. Unlike him, however, they are not pressed by stress of
hunger, but, merely to please the palate for five minutes, they burden
the digestive organs for five hours, and repeat the process day after
day. The comparison, therefore, is rather complimentary to Esau.
=Constituents of the Body.=--As already remarked, a large part of the
human body is water. The body of a man weighing one hundred and fifty
pounds contains less than fifty pounds of solid matter. The blood,
brain, and nerves are about eighty per cent water; the muscles, nearly
eighty per cent; and even the bones and the teeth contain a large
percentage of water. Man may be deprived of solid food for a day or
more without suffering, and, in some instances, persons have subsisted
for several weeks on water alone, but to be deprived of water for ten
or twelve hours causes much suffering.
The animal and vegetable kingdoms supply the organic substances which
constitute a large part of the material commonly known as food, and
which sustain the body in life and strength.
In addition, various inorganic substances enter into the human
structure, prominent among which are salt, lime and iron. Salt is so
important to animal life that herds of wild animals have been known to
travel many miles to the salt-licks, or springs, in search of it. Some
persons, from habit, use it to excess in seasoning their food. Lime and
iron are taken into the body through the food. Iron forms about one
part in a thousand of human blood.
=Classification of Foods.=--For increasing weight and producing heat,
the fatty portions of meat, butter, and lard, together with wheat,
Indian corn, and sugar, are best adapted; for muscle-making, lean meat,
peas, beans, oatmeal; for brain and nerves, shell-fish, lean meats,
peas, and beans. Those who lead an active, bustling life, especially
if they take an abundance of out-door exercise, will naturally crave
strong food in unstinted supply. The busy brain-worker, who is housed
all day, and scarcely rises from his chair, needs to be much more
careful in his diet. Coarse bread, lean meats, and fruits should
constitute his chief dependence, with very limited use of butter, oils,
and sugar.
Proper digestion depends upon the power of appropriating the food
supplied, and this, in turn, upon the needs of the system. The best
of food cannot be properly digested when it is not needed. All that
the system requires will be used, and the rest will be cast out by the
organs of excretion, which are often overtaxed, and the vital forces
wasted, in the effort. The liver especially is burdened in its effort
to carry off the excess of carbonaceous matter from the blood, and
biliousness is the result. On the approach of warm weather, when the
air has less oxygen to consume the food, this is particularly true.
=Quantity.=--We should eat to live, not live to eat. More people
suffer from over-eating than from eating too little. Many thin people
are large eaters, and stout people are often small eaters. The young
generally eat more than the old. Not only are their powers of digestion
better, due in part to the great amount of exercise they take, but
they need food for growth, as well as to repair the waste. Franklin’s
prudent rule was to leave off eating with a good appetite.
Economy of the life forces requires that each person should strive to
find out just how much food he requires to support his strength and
repair the waste. One ounce more than is required is a triple waste,--a
waste in the original cost, a waste of muscular force in digesting it,
and a waste of nerve and vital force in getting rid of it.
=Cereals and Their Food Value.=--Dr. H. W. Wiley, Chief of the
Bureau of Chemistry in the United States Department of Agriculture,
in speaking of the substitutes for meat, says: “In so far as actual
nourishment is concerned, the very cheapest and best that can be
secured is presented by the cereals, viz., Indian corn, wheat, oats,
rye, rice, etc. These contain all the nourishment necessary to supply
the waste of the body and the energy and heat necessary to all animal
functions and hard labor, in a form well suited to digestion, and
capable not only of maintaining the body in a perfect condition, but
also of furnishing the energy necessary to the hardest kind of manual
labor. The waste material in cereals is very small, and, as compared
with that in meats, practically none at all. In fact, the ordinary
wastes, such as the bran and germ, are among the most nutritive
components of the cereals, and both health and economy would be
conserved, as a rule, by their consumption, instead of rejecting them
as in the ordinary process of milling. The ordinary cereals of commerce
contain only about ten per cent of waste, and this is an exceedingly
small proportion, as compared with the percentage in meats.
“If meats should be used more for condimental purposes, as in the
making of soups, stews, etc., and not more than once a day, as one of
the staple articles of the table, it would be better, in my opinion,
for the health and strength of the consumer, and especially would it be
a saving in the matter of household expenses.
“It is well known that men who are nourished very extensively on
cereals are capable of the hardest and most enduring manual labor.
Meats are quickly digested, furnish an abundance of energy soon after
consumption, but are not retained in the digestive organism long enough
to sustain permanent muscular exertion. On the other hand, cereal foods
are more slowly digested, furnish the energy necessary to digestion
and the vital functions in a more uniform manner, and thus are better
suited to sustain hard manual labor for a long period of time.
“The cereals contain all the elements necessary to the nutrition of the
body, having in themselves the types of food which are represented by
the fats, the nitrogenous or protein bodies, and the carbohydrates.
In addition to these, they contain those mineral elements of which the
bony structure of the body is composed, viz., lime and phosphoric acid.
If, therefore, man were confined to a single article of diet, there is
nothing which would be so suitable for his use as the cereals. Starch
and sugar are primarily the foods which furnish animal heat and energy,
and hence should be used in great abundance by those who are engaged
in manual labor. The workingmen of our country, especially, should
consider this point, and accustom themselves more and more to the use
of cereals in their foods. When properly prepared and properly served
they are palatable, as well as nutritious, and their judicious use in
this way would tend to diminish the craving for flesh, which, however,
it is not advisable to exclude entirely from the diet. By persons whose
habits of life are sedentary, requiring but little physical exertion,
starch and sugar should be eaten more sparingly.”
=Preparation of Foods.=--No country equals our own in the abundance
and quality of materials for the table, and probably no other compares
with it in the ignorance and carelessness displayed in its cooking. A
large part of the sickness, discomfort, and unhappiness of life finds
its source just here. In many well-to-do families the whole matter is
relegated to ignorant and incompetent servants whose only interest
in the household is of a financial character, and that is entirely
one-sided. The mistress is often more ignorant on this subject than the
servant, and the “queen of the kitchen” reigns supreme.
Among the middle and lower classes, where the mistress is herself the
cook, the results are no better. Being without proper early training,
or growing up with the idea that it is not genteel to work, she comes
to her task wholly unprepared, and an ill-fed, sickly family is the
result. In many cities and towns, cooking schools are found, but the
graduates do not compare with those who graduated from their mothers’
kitchens, in the days when domestic labor was respected. The mind of
the ambitious cooking-school graduate is too often concerned with the
pretty pastries and dainty desserts that please the eye and pamper the
appetite, instead of mastering the art of properly preparing the bread,
meat, and vegetables, and the other substantial things.
=Bread.=--So important a part does bread play in the physical economy
that it is often called the staff of life. In cities and towns and in
many country villages the baker supplies the general need. Yielding
to the popular demand for white bread, he uses flour that has been
robbed of its most nutritious properties, and introduces unwholesome
substances to make it light and white. The best bread is that in which
the starch cells are most completely burst. The making of wholesome,
palatable, home-made bread is becoming a “lost art” even among farmers’
wives and daughters. The corner grocery and the baker’s wagon furnish
the freshly-baked loaf, the housewife is spared some trouble, and the
household loses what should be one of the most healthful, nutritious,
and appetizing elements of the daily supply of food. In parts of
the South and West, the large use of hot bread is the cause of much
indigestion and ill health.
=Meats.=--Broadly speaking, there are two methods of treating meats.
By the first, it is the aim to keep the juices within the meat, as in
baking, broiling, and frying. By the second, the object is to extract
the juices and dissolve the fiber, as in the making of soups and stews.
In order to imprison the juices and thus develop the flavor, the meat
must be subjected to intense heat for a short time, so as to coagulate
the outer layers of albumen, and afterward a more moderate heat should
be employed to complete the cooking. To extract the juices, meat should
be cut into small pieces, put into cold water, and slowly raised to the
boiling point.
Roasting is probably the best method of cooking meats, especially
large, thick pieces. Frying is the worst method, as the heated fat
penetrates the meat, dries and hardens it, and renders it indigestible.
The American frying-pan is, beyond question, the most deadly instrument
that can be named. The sword may claim its thousands, or even its
tens of thousands, but the frying-pan numbers its victims by the
millions. And yet the skilled French cook robs even this destructive
implement of its terror, and furnishes the table not only with meats
but with whatever else has been fried, free from soaking grease,
finely flavored, and above all, thoroughly digestible. The fault must
therefore be ascribed to the cook, and not to the frying-pan.
In an address on “Home Economies Among the Poor People of New York,”
the Rev. Dr. William S. Rainsford declares that living expenses are
entirely too high. “The poor families of New York are in a tight place.
Food is not so cheap as it should be. Fish, for instance, should be
sold in New York for half its present price.
“Because of these things it is growing more and more difficult for
young persons to marry. You have no idea how dangerous this is.
“Another reason for suffering among the poor is that the girls don’t
know how to cook. One of the best ways to hold even a fairly good
man--not a blackguard, but an average man--is to know how to cook.
“This whole country is cursed by bad cooking. It is worse in the rural
districts. It makes my heart sick to see the beautiful children, up to
ten years, of the Tennessee and Carolina regions, with the shade of
frying-pans spreading over their faces, killed by grease--vicious and
expensive grease.”
In commenting upon the above, a prominent daily says: “Dr. Rainsford is
by no means the first man to hold that bad cooking is responsible for
many of the sins that men commit. It is well known that a disordered
stomach has a corresponding effect upon the brain, causing men to hold
views and commit deeds which they would think of only with horror under
normal conditions; but this class of missionary work, as it really
is, has been much neglected by reformers in the past. They are giving
it more attention now, and the cooking-schools, despite the ridicule
heaped upon them by the comic writers, are doing good work toward
raising the standard of American cooking.”
=Veal and Pork.=--These are regarded as less wholesome than beef or
mutton. Both should be well cooked, and ham, sausages, and other forms
of pork should never be eaten raw or imperfectly cooked, on account of
the danger of introducing the animal parasite which produces in the
human body a serious and painful disease known as trichiniasis.
=Superfine Flour.=--Chemists tell us that the process of bolting
removes from the flour not only the outer woody fiber, but also the
lime needed for the bones; the silica for hair, nails and teeth; the
iron for the blood; and most of the nitrogen and phosphorus required
for muscles, brain and nerves; and leaves only the starch which
supplies fat and fuel.
Experiments made upon animals show that fine flour alone, which is
chiefly carbon, will not sustain life for more than a month, while
unbolted flour supplies all that is needed for every part of the body.
Wholesomeness and nutrition are sacrificed to that which pleases the
eye, alike by the baker and the housewife, so that the fragrant,
appetizing bread of our grandmothers is almost unknown.
=Potatoes.=--Potatoes are largely composed of starch, which supplies
only fuel for the capillaries. Analysis shows that they contain only
one part in one hundred of muscle-making material, and less than that
of phosphorus for brain and nerves.
=Animal Food.=--Many vegetarians denounce the use of all animal food
as constituting an unnatural diet, oppose the slaughter of animals on
moral grounds, and declare that vegetables, fruits, and nuts furnish
all the elements necessary to the growth, strength, and health of the
body.
That a person may subsist, and even be strong and healthy, without the
use of animal food is proven by the lives of many vegetarians in all
ranks of society. It is recorded of Louis Cornaro, a Venetian nobleman,
that for fifty-eight years his daily allowance was twelve ounces of
vegetable food and a pint of light wine. In many countries the low
wages paid for labor and the high price of meat compel the working
classes to depend largely upon a vegetable diet. The Spanish peasant
is happy on coarse bread, onions, olives, and grapes. The Italian
fares sumptuously on macaroni, polenta, olives, and fruits. Over two
millions of people in France and other parts of Southern Europe subsist
chiefly on bread made from chestnuts, the annual crop being estimated
at fifteen million dollars.
In England and other countries in Northern Europe, the eating of meat
is largely a question of wages. With the increase of prosperity, it has
been observed, there is a corresponding increase in the use of animal
food. In Spain, France, Italy, and the warmer portions of Europe,
the cooling acids of the fruits and the less-heating elements of the
vegetable kingdom are better suited to the climatic needs of the people.
Probably in no other country is so much meat eaten as in America.
The supply here is greater, and wages, as a rule, are better. Many
physicians and others interested in domestic science are of the opinion
that the health of the people generally, and of those leading inactive
or sedentary lives in particular, would be better if less animal food
were eaten.
Salted meats are not as nutritious as fresh. The brine absorbs the
rich juices of the meat and hardens its fibers. Long-continued use of
salt meats, without fresh vegetables, produces scurvy, formerly very
prevalent on shipboard, in prisons, and in the army.
=Nutrition.=--The conversion of food into flesh, bone, brain, and nerve
matter, and the other parts of the human body, is comprised in four
somewhat distinct processes: Digestion, Absorption, Circulation, and
Assimilation. We are apt to think of digestion as a process belonging
only to the stomach, but it begins when food is put into the mouth,
and continues until the waste is finally excreted from the bowels.
The alimentary canal, or food passage, including the mouth, gullet,
stomach, small and large intestines, is a tortuous passage, some thirty
feet in length.
=Mastication.=--The first step is that of mastication, or chewing.
There are sixteen teeth in each jaw. The front teeth are designed for
cutting, and the rough, broad surfaces of the back teeth adapt them
for grinding. The structure of the teeth would indicate that man was
intended to eat both animal and vegetable food.
=The Teeth.=--The proper mastication of the food demands that the teeth
be kept in good order. After eating, they should be brushed with a soft
brush and tepid water in order to remove the particles of food that may
be wedged between them or lodged in the crevices. By reason of the heat
and moisture of the mouth, these particles soon putrefy, which not
only renders the breath unpleasant, but promotes the decay of the teeth.
The enamel, or outer covering of the teeth, if destroyed, is not formed
anew. Sharp acids corrode it. Gritty tooth powders, metal tooth picks,
and other hard substances scratch or crack it. Sudden changes from hot
to cold, in food or drink, tend to destroy it. Do not attempt to crack
nuts or hard grains with the teeth.
=The Saliva.=--The food should not be swallowed until it is thoroughly
ground with the teeth. While mastication is in progress, the salivary
glands moisten the food and fit it for admission to the stomach. This
saliva is the first chemical solvent, and is an important factor in
the process of digestion. If the food is not retained in the mouth
long enough to become thoroughly ground and properly mingled with
the saliva, the work of the stomach will be increased. Persons who
bolt their food, and wash it down with water or other liquid, thereby
dilute the natural juices of the mouth and stomach, impose upon the
latter organ a task for which it is not adapted, and throw the entire
digestive machinery out of gear.
The sense of taste being largely dependent upon the saliva, the natural
flavors of the food are not fully developed, the food seems insipid,
and there is created a taste for pungent sauces and spices which
over-excites the digestive organs. Poisonous substances are often
swallowed in mistake, which, if retained in the mouth long enough to
determine their taste, would be rejected without injury.
=The Stomach.=--The most important organ of digestion is the stomach.
This is a pear-shaped pouch, having a capacity of about three pints.
The walls are thin and yielding, and often become unnaturally distended
by those who habitually gormandize. Its construction clearly shows that
the work of grinding and mashing the food was intended to be performed
before it entered the stomach.
The gastric juice, another chemical solvent, is here poured upon
the food, which, as rapidly as it is prepared, is passed into the
intestines. The time required for the stomach to perform its work
varies from one to five hours, according to the quantity and character
of the food and the digestive power of the individual. The delicate
network of blood vessels which underlies the mucous membrane of the
stomach takes up all those elements of the food that are ready to be
absorbed.
=The Intestines.=--The small intestines are continuous with the
stomach, and, though very different in shape, are like it in general
structure. The bile, which is secreted by the liver, unites with the
pancreatic juice, and enters the intestines through a duct about three
inches below the stomach. By the joint action of these two fluids, the
fatty elements of the food are prepared for absorption. From the mucous
membrane, or inner lining of the small intestines, still another juice
or fluid flows, whose office is to supplement the work, first, of the
saliva in converting starch into sugar; next, of the gastric juice in
digesting the albuminoids; and, lastly, of the pancreatic juice and
bile in emulsifying the fats. The work of digestion is completed in the
small intestines. The indigestible parts of the food are passed into
the large intestines, and expelled from the body.
=Absorption.=--The liquefied food, in its passage through the stomach
and small intestines, has been prepared by the various juices for its
absorption by the blood vessels and the lacteals, whose minute mouths
throng this part of the alimentary canal. The food elements thus
absorbed are conveyed to the right auricle, or first chamber of the
heart.
=Conditions Affecting Digestion.=--The quality, quantity, and
temperature of the food, and the condition of mind and body, all have
an influence upon digestion. In the selection of food, only such
articles should be allowed as are fresh, pure, and wholesome. Bread
should not be eaten warm. It is more easily digested after being
baked a day or two. Flesh of animals recently slaughtered should be
thoroughly cooled, and never cooked while yet warm and quivering with
life.
Cooking renders many articles of food not only more wholesome and
palatable, but also more digestible by reason of the increased
temperature. The natural heat of the stomach is about ninety-nine and
one-half degrees, at which temperature the operations of digestion are
best promoted. Hot soups are therefore a good introduction to the meal.
A small glass of ice-water will retard digestion for half an hour.
Sudden joy, anger, grief, or other strong emotion or excitement checks
digestion. If the tongue is parched and the mouth dry, the flow of
saliva is restrained and the first step in the process of digestion
is hindered. The coating of the tongue reflects the condition of the
stomach, hence the frequent request of the physician to see the tongue
of the patient.
Bodily fatigue destroys appetite and hinders digestion. The expression
“I am too tired to eat” is not uncommon.
=Intervals for Meals.=--Frequent eating is as bad as rapid eating or
over-eating. The organs of digestion require periods of rest, in order
to renew their strength and restore the juices essential to their
perfect operation. No person, except infants and the sick, should
require food oftener than once in four hours. If the stomach is in good
working order, it will usually complete its task in two hours, unless
the food is too great in quantity or too indigestible.
No one should take more than three meals a day, and, to insure sound
refreshing sleep and allow the stomach to recover its tone, the last
meal should be the lightest and easiest to digest. Dyspeptics and
others affected with stomach troubles will find benefit in restricting
themselves to two moderate meals a day. Numerous cases are cited of
notable cures effected by adopting a regimen of only one meal each day.
=Regularity.=--Whatever the interval between meals, be it four, five,
or six hours, there should be regularity. The stomach, like the mind,
forms habits, and the habit of regularity in eating will beget the
habit of regularity in digesting and recuperating. The practice of
parents in giving children cakes, fruits, and sweetmeats between meals
is reprehensible. As a result of habit, many persons grow to feel that
a dinner is not complete without a substantial dessert. The mistake
consists, not always in the dessert, for that may be as wholesome and
nourishing as any part of the meal, but in first fully satisfying the
demands of hunger, and afterwards imposing upon the stomach the extra
burden of digesting the dessert.
=Rest.=--For every disease of every organ the first condition is rest.
Broken bones and lacerated muscles must have release from active duty
or there can be no cure. The vital organs, when diseased, must have all
the repose consistent with the operations of life. For affections of
the heart, the circulation should be reduced, and all excitement and
stimulation to over-action be removed.
Excessive physical or mental exertion, whether immediately before or
after meals, interferes with digestion. If before, the energies of the
blood will be directed to the part of the body in most active exercise,
and cannot suddenly be withdrawn. If after, they will be diverted
before having performed their legitimate part in the process of
digestion. A short period of relaxation before, and of absolute repose
after meals, is most favorable to the proper action of the stomach. The
repose should not be carried to the extent of sleeping, for in sleep
the stomach, as well as the rest of the body, seeks release from duty.
=Drink.=--Thirst warns us that the blood is too thick, or that
it contains some acrid matter which should be eliminated. Free
perspiration makes large demands upon the fluids of the body, and
copious draughts of water are required to supply the lack. In this way
the system is flushed, the clogged pipes and pores are opened, the
waste matter removed, and the system made healthy. In cities the water
is usually introduced into houses through lead pipes. Herein lies a
danger, and the purer the water and the newer the pipe, the greater
the danger. The water gradually corrodes the metal and holds a small
quantity of it in solution. After a few months of service, an insoluble
coating forms upon the inner surface of the pipe, and protects it from
further corrosion. It is a wise precaution to run off the water that
has lain in the pipes over night, or during the temporary absence of
the family, before using.
=Coffee and Tea.=--The Americans drink more coffee and the English
more tea, _per capita_, than any other nation. As to the wholesomeness
of these beverages opinions are greatly at variance. Used in moderate
quantities, and especially by persons who lead an active out-door life,
no harm is likely to ensue. Many persons drink them for the taste,
which is often heightened by the use of cream and sugar, and never
stop to question whether they are injurious or otherwise. Such persons
usually drink too much. If either produces wakefulness, it should
not be used before retiring at night, and if the nerves are unduly
stimulated, at any time, its use should be discontinued. Tea should be
steeped, not boiled. It contains a certain proportion of tannic acid
which is dissolved by boiling, and when drunk, produces a deleterious
effect upon the mucous membrane of the stomach, causing dyspepsia with
its attendant evils. Children should not be permitted to drink either
tea or coffee.
=Intoxicants.=--While alcoholic preparations may, in rare cases, be
prescribed by the physician, their use as a beverage finds no support
in science or in experience. There are many who use liquors and tobacco
and who yet live to an old age. It is also true that many reach old age
without their use. Comparing the lives of a thousand persons who drink
and smoke, with a thousand others under the same conditions who do not
use liquors or tobacco, it will be found that the latter are not only
longer-lived, but are also more healthy. Probably no better test of the
question of health and longevity can be found than the experience of
the life insurance companies. By them, all intoxicants and tobacco are
looked upon with disfavor.
=Circulation.=--The blood is the most important and the most abundant
fluid of the body. It constitutes about one-twelfth of the entire
weight of the person. To the eye it appears as a simple fluid, varying
in color from a bright scarlet to a dark purple. Under the microscope,
it is seen to consist of a clear, colorless fluid in which float a
multitude of corpuscles, or solid discs. These corpuscles are so minute
that thirty-five hundred, arranged side by side, will extend only one
inch, and fourteen thousand, placed one upon the other, would not
exceed one inch in height. There are also white corpuscles which are
fewer in number, larger, and globular in form.
The size and shape of the blood corpuscles in man differ from those
in animals. So important and well-defined is this difference in point
of law that the guilt or innocence of criminals has often hung upon
the results of a scientific examination of the blood found upon the
garments of the suspected person.
=Coagulation.=--The coagulation, or thickening of the blood, when it
leaves the living tissues, is a principle of the greatest importance
to life. Without it, the slightest injury might prove fatal. In minor
injuries, the blood coagulates, thus closing the mouths of the injured
blood vessels, and bleeding ceases spontaneously.
=The Heart.=--The great center of the circulatory system is the heart.
With ceaseless energy it drives the blood through the arteries to every
part of the body, laden with the life-giving elements absorbed from the
food and vitalized by the oxygen in the lungs. In the outward flow of
the blood each part of the body appropriates the particular elements
which it requires. The return of the blood through the veins brings
with it the waste and cast-off particles of the bones, muscles, and
tissues, to be expelled through the lungs, except such elements as
exude through the pores of the skin. By this unceasing round of waste
and repair, the entire body, it is believed, is renewed every seven
years, and some parts are replaced several times within that period.
From the moment a human being begins to live, he begins to die.
=Action of the Heart.=--The alternate contraction and dilation of
the muscles of the heart constitute the heart-beats or throbs of the
pulse. These vary with the individual. In the average adult, the number
of beats is seventy-two per minute. In the cases of Bonaparte and
Wellington the number was less than fifty. Heat, food, and exercise
increase its action, as cold, fasting, and sleep diminish it. Emotion
of joy, grief, and fear also exert a modifying influence.
It is a matter of wonder how the silent forces within a tree can lift
from the soil, through its minute pipes, and extract from the air,
through the small pores of the leaves, the many tons of material that
go to make up the giant of the forest. The tons of physical energy
bound up in that small organ, the human heart, is a matter no less
marvelous. Estimating the amount of blood expelled by each contraction
of the ventricles of the heart at four ounces, we have a total of
twelve tons a day, or over four thousand tons in a year.
=Assimilation.=--The crowning act in the conversion of lifeless food
into living tissue takes place in the meshes of the capillary network,
and is called assimilation. This process is alike mysterious and
wonderful. By a peculiar power of selection, each bone and muscle and
tissue appropriates that portion of the blood which it needs for its
own development or for the repair of the waste, and applies it in such
a manner as to preserve the form and size and strength of the part,
ever maintaining a proper balance of the two sides of the body, unless
thwarted in its operation by some act of the individual.
=Adulteration of Food Products.=--National, State, and Municipal Boards
of Health, and food inspectors may do much to preserve health, but
when they have done all that it is possible for them to do, much will
still remain for the individual. With the products of the world exposed
for sale in our markets, with the advertising pages of our magazines
and newspapers filled with irresistible arguments in favor of some
newly-discovered breakfast food or new preparation of canned goods, the
need of individual knowledge and caution daily increases.
There is cause for congratulation in the fact that those articles
which constitute the larger portion of our food are but little
adulterated. In the States that impose legal penalties the proportion
of adulterated products is quite low. The value of a stringent law is
seen in the decrease of the adulteration of cream of tartar, which,
in Massachusetts, fell from forty-two per cent in samples examined in
1879, to five per cent in 1898. Spices, flavoring extracts, and canned
goods afford the most promising field for adulteration.
The substitution of ingredients is prompted wholly by a desire for
gain, and consists in the substitution of a cheaper for a more
expensive article. It is, therefore, a question of ethics rather than
of health. If the horse-radish is largely turnip, and the apple-butter
chiefly pumpkin, if the currant or raspberry jelly is made of the
rich juices of the parings and cores of apples, strained, colored and
delicately flavored, who will say that the cheaper fraud is not as
wholesome as the more expensive genuine article? In some instances
there is an actual advantage to health in the substitution, but this
does not justify the deception. Pure, fresh oleomargarine, however
wholesome, should not be sold for butter, any more than shoddy cloth
should be sold for pure wool.
=Dangers to Health.=--The contents of tin cans are sometimes affected
by the action of the acids upon the tin or the solder. Food should not
be allowed to stand in a tin can after being opened. Milk, cream, and
butter are quick to take up germs of disease. Scarlet fever and typhoid
fever have, in many instances, been traced to this source. The utmost
cleanliness and care should be exercised in their handling.
=The Diet Cure.=--Over-indulgence in eating is the source of many
disorders of the system. It is well, at all times, to keep within the
limit of the powers of digestion. The way to give the stomach rest is
to eat less food and at longer intervals.
Obesity is the result of the accumulation of the fatty properties
of the blood in excess of what is needed to repair the waste of the
system. The fattening process will be stopped by cutting off the
supplies. A restricted diet, the avoidance of fat-producing foods,
vigorous perspiration as the result of exercise, and frequent bathing,
followed by friction, will be attended by a decided reduction of the
superfluous fat. A merchant in England who had reached the enormous
weight of four hundred and fifty-seven pounds put himself upon a
diet of four ounces of animal food, six ounces of bread, and two
pounds of liquid in twenty-four hours. In one week he had reduced his
weight thirty pounds, and in six months he had lost one hundred and
thirty-four pounds.
In France, there is a method of treatment known as “The Grape Cure.”
Persons in Paris, broken down by the excitements and dissipations of
the city, go off among the vineyards, breathe the pure country air,
and live on grapes. From eight to twelve ounces of bread, with grapes
at discretion, constitute their daily allowance of food and drink. By
this treatment the impurities of the system soon pass off through the
kidneys, the bowels, the lungs, and the pores of the skin, and pure,
wholesome blood takes the place of that which was diseased.
=The Water Cure.=--The importance of water can hardly be overrated. No
life, whether animal or vegetable, is possible without it. By water
all food is dissolved, and so penetrates the system and nourishes
the tissues. By water the waste particles of matter are carried off
through the skin, the lungs, and the other secreting or excreting
organs.
While the waters of many of the spas contain medicinal properties, a
large part of the virtue claimed for the springs is due to the free
flushing of the system. It is the fad, while sojourning there, to drink
frequently and copiously. Any other pure, wholesome water would be
nearly, if not quite, as beneficial, if used in the same quantities and
under the same conditions.