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[Illustration: Happy Homes are happier if the "NEW HOME"]
TERMS TO SUIT EVE
THE NEW HOME SEWING MACHINE CO
CHAS. E. NAYLOR, MANAGER.
725 MARKET ST. (History Building), SAN FRANCISCO
HEALTH,
HAPPINESS,
and LONGEVITY.
Health without Medicine, Happiness
without Money,
THE RESULT,
LONGEVITY.
BY
L. P. McCARTY,
Author of the Annual Statistician and Economist,
SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.
SAN FRANCISCO:
CARSON & CO.,
210 POST STREET.
HEALTH
HAPPINESS
AND
LONGEVITY.
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1890, by
L. P. McCARTY,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C.
Price, in Flexible Covers, $.75
Price, in Paper Covers, .50
ADDRESS,
L. P. McCARTY, 814 Cal. St., S. F., Cal.
OR THE BOOK TRADE GENERALLY.
CARSON & CO.,
Wholesale Agents, 210 Post St.,
SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.
PREFACE.
= ... "to know
That which before us lies in daily life
Is the prime wisdom. What is more is fume,
Or emptiness, or fond impertinence,
And renders us, in things that most concern,
Unpractic'd, unprepar'd, and still to seek."
--_Milton's Adam to Angel._=
Experience is honored.
This book is the result of experience.
Man is interested in what pertains to health.
We are positive that the ideas herein set forth are healthful.
Our profession is not that of a doctor of chemical medicines.
We have no hobby to ride or patent panacea to advertise, but desire to
express, in plain, forcible, truthful language, the methods by which
mankind can practically achieve health, happiness and longevity. These
go together. Why should they not? Related, dependent upon each other,
the great objects of human life, the culmination of all physical and
worldly pleasure are contained in them.
Whether you are the perfect embodiment of a business man or the ideal
disciple of a certain profession, you cannot possibly reach the highest
or even most lucrative grades of your calling without health, happiness,
and their logical consequence, longevity. They will prove trusty
lieutenants. Without them the battle of life will draw to a close in
retreat and end in defeat.
To assert that the average man can enjoy health without medicine,
happiness without even money, and longevity too, is a broad and sweeping
declaration. In fact, we expect to have opposition from those who have
not tried the formula laid down in the following pages.
To _keep_ yourself in health without medicine is what we intend to
convey; and we assert that but little or no medicine is necessary to
reach that condition. To have happiness without any money (in the
present condition of society) is not what we claim, but that more
happiness can be extracted from a competency than by more or less.
To live to good old age means with us 80 to 120 years, to increase with
future generations, when order, regularity, sobriety, cleanliness, and
love for the whole human family, shall be paramount in the political,
moral, and intellectual world.
The author is living on thirty years of made land. In other words,
according to medical diagnosis, he should have _died_ thirty years ago!
Hence he desires to put before the unhealthy, unhappy, and short-lived
human race the result of his experience of half a century. Having
battled with a score of diseases, a number of which were claimed to be
absolutely incurable--having freed himself entirely of them all--having
been completely restored to health and happiness, he honestly believes
that he has a convincing right to be heard.
You can now prove for yourself.
PART I.
CHAPTER I.
"Health is the vital principle of bliss,
And exercise of health."
_Health_, _Happiness_, and _Longevity_. What a talisman is here! In them
is the magic that can rule all men. No seal, figure, character, engraven
on a sympathetic stone, can equal their single or combined influence.
Say to your fellow-man, "If you follow my direction I will confer upon
you health, happiness, and longevity," and you will receive his lasting
gratitude. He will always be your friend. Money is potent, but these
qualities are, as it were, omnipotent. Money alone cannot bring them;
they alone can make wealth.
This work is _not_ a _philosophical_ treatise, difficult to read and
more so to comprehend. Its ideas are simple, the result of long
_experience_ and _observation_. Its propositions are easily
demonstrated. Then, my reader, do not think you are perusing the hobbies
of a crank, the fantasies of a dreamer, and the preachings of him who
does not practice. The world has been so flooded with worthless
productions of such characters that we fear we must combat severe
_prejudice_. Will you lay that aside? If so we will not only interest
but instruct you. Agreeing with our premises and conclusions, you will
certainly reap some benefit; not agreeing, you will be tempted to
further investigation, which will inevitably prove the strength of our
position.
This book was not written at one sitting or many, but it is the
culmination of several _years' preparation_. While the first part is the
result of thorough reasoning and experience, the second is a collection
of the best modern data on prominent diseases and their remedies, with
our own annotations. Both sections represent thoughtful and painstaking
labor. Even if you are so bold as to maintain that you possess health,
happiness, and are sure of longevity, we believe you cannot fail to find
practical, valuable truths in these pages. Whether you are an editor,
merchant, lawyer, doctor, minister, or day-laborer, we hope at least to
entertain you. Are we right? Read and judge.
From the mythological times of _AEsculapius_ down to the present day,
votaries of medical science have been compounding, diagnosing, and
prescribing for helpless, suffering humanity. For many ages this
condition may have been a necessity, but in the light of our present
civilization, sound common sense is the best physician. That _doctors_
cannot be trusted to be right in every instance or even in a majority of
them is shown by practical experiments. They certainly are well proved
to be an inharmonious crowd by the experience of a _Boston Globe_
reporter, who recently called upon ten regular physicians on the same
day, and described his symptoms in exactly the same language to each. He
received ten prescriptions, of which no two were alike, and a majority
were utterly inconsistent each with the other. _Nellie Bly_, the famous
lady writer of the New York _World_, had a cold and went to over fifty
of the city's leading physicians, in October, 1889, asking them to
prescribe for her. They did, and among the collection there were no two
alike, and many diametrically opposite in nature and effect!
In a lecture recently delivered before the Cooper Medical College, San
Francisco, Cal., on the subject of "Quacks and Quackery," by Prof. L. C.
Lane, the speaker said: "Every good thing in the world has been
counterfeited, and in these advanced times the work is so well done that
it takes an expert to detect the true from the false. Everything is now
more or less adulterated, especially the food we consume. The three
great professions also of theology, law, and medicine, have been and are
grossly counterfeited, especially the latter, which opens up the widest
field for imposture."
As the above quotations, without an explanation, might convey the idea
to the reader that the author considers that doctors, dentists, and
specialists are no longer a necessity, I will say, Under the present
state of society, they are not only indispensable, but absolutely a
necessity. When you are ill, and do not know what is the matter with
you, or if you know the nature of your ailments, and do not know a
remedy, seek a first-class physician; take his advice in every
particular until he either cures you or you are convinced he cannot. I
am not a prophet, nor the son of one, but I will venture an opinion that
before the close of the next century, the position of the minister,
teacher, and physician will be filled by one and the same person. The
teacher _then_ will fill the most exalted position on the earth. He will
not only instruct how to navigate the air without collision, but how not
to catch cold at 30,000 feet elevation in your shirt sleeves, and _who_
and _what_ is _God_. His school-house will sit upon the most elevated
spot in his district, with light reflected from all four sides; it will
be at least fifty feet from the floor of his school-room to the ceiling;
and in place of a steeple, there will be a dome, containing a 100-inch
refractor telescope, and with the extra timber not used for a _steeple_,
the seats will be made more comfortable, and pure filtered water will be
supplied for the pupils to drink.
It is granted that the majority of mankind appreciate health, desire
happiness, and expect longevity. With this as an incentive, why not
strive to win the prize? Do not depend on the doctor, do not think some
drug must be applied or imbibed for every ill; there are other methods.
Perhaps we can aid you to the true enjoyment of life if you will
_impartially_ weigh our _argument_. Here is an _editor_ suffering from
nervousness. He consults a physician, who hands him an opiate so that he
can sleep. Better if he had given up all thought of his paper and
battles of words, on leaving his office, and allowed his throbbing,
weary brain a deserving rest. Then the cells of this brainy tissue would
cease to be gorged with blood, and sleep would positively follow. Again,
there is a _clergyman_ every Sunday beseeching his flock to obey the
commandments of the _Bible_; while every day, through carelessness, he
is breaking the laws of health. If an _all-wise Being_ gave us our
bodies as homes of our souls, did he not mean that we should promote the
happiness of the soul by providing for it a healthy residence? What
logic and strength exist in a religion that does not countenance such
philosophy? The majority of mankind admire a well-developed _physique_.
The minister wishes and prays to influence the masses of men. Can he
reach them effectively, can he point to himself as an example, can he
sway them by any reasoning or eloquence, when he himself has a husky
voice, a pallid face, and a weakened figure? Indeed, the cowled,
decrepit monk could lead the world in the darkness of the middle ages;
but in the brightness of the nineteenth century his scepter is
powerless.
_Health_, _Happiness_ and _Longevity_ seem to be all that is required
for mortal man. They are the foundation, the superstructure, and the
apex respectively of the great _Pyramid_ of life. Who would desire more
than the possession of perfect health, the realization of happiness, the
achievement of ripe old age, retaining all the pleasurable attributes of
Perfected Manhood, experiencing all these until called upon to surrender
this present house of clay for a more advanced state, whatever that may
be? Such degrees of soundness, felicity, and age, which we have
mentioned, are within the reach of all who desire them, if they will
observe the rules implied in the following terms, arranged in the order
of their importance: Regularity, Cleanliness, Temperance (or
moderation), Morality, and Self-control. It is safe to state the
proposition that there is not one in a thousand of those induced to
peruse this humble effort, who will not claim to possess one or more of
the foregoing virtues, while a fair minority will urge that they are
characterized by all of them.
That your _egoism_ may not get the better of you in the start and bias
you before reading my talk, I will frankly say that there is hardly a
person living to-day who is either regular, cleanly, temperate, moral,
or self-controlled. It is a fact that some have made fair efforts in
those lines of action, but we shall attempt to prove that not any have
perfected themselves in a single attribute above mentioned. With us,
regularity, cleanliness, temperance, morality, and self-control are so
interlaced as to become synonymous terms, the perfection of any one of
which means the consummation of all, while their master could laugh at
sorrow, pain, and even death, for through long years they would pass his
door and forget to knock. Just in proportion as we approximate these
virtues, correspondingly will our _lives_ be prolonged and our
_happiness_ intensified. _Fear_ will not prostrate us because
"Death rides on every passing breeze,
He lurks in every flower."
As modifying the foregoing partially, let us understand, however, that
it is possible to have health and longevity to a wonderful degree
without cleanliness, temperance, morality, and self-control, on one
vital consideration. That is, the _continual_ exercise of _regularity_.
Here we have the corner-stone of the whole structure of health, the
cardinal first law. But can we be happy without the generous employment
of _all_ these virtues? Obviously and fortunately, we cannot. _Health_
is also the chief _desideratum_ to happiness. As disease creeps through
the physical frame, as aches and pains increase and torment our bodies,
our _doubts_ supplant _faith_ in the _Source_ of all goodness.
After a quarter of a century's constant devotion, in sackcloth and
ashes, as it were, attempting to free the body from the shackles of
pulmonary consumption, and growing gradually worse during the whole
period, the majority of devotees, we think, would begin to inquire, "Are
our prayers lacking sincerity? or is the Source of goodness at this time
otherwise occupied? or may it not be that this for which I ask, I must
seek by personal action?" We will try this self-helping method; if
success comes, we will return to the same altar with a more exalted idea
of a higher Source. Cleansed of our maladies, we will have a clearer
perception of who and what is God.