"Let the jewel of happiness poise in the setting of health."
If you are a reader of this work to find out a cure for consumption,
catarrh, bronchitis, constipation, hemorrhoids or piles, hernia or
rupture, rheumatism, fever and ague, cataracts on the eyes, warts on the
hands, corns on the feet, and how to abstain from drink and tobacco in
all injurious forms, we will try and not disappoint you. Under the head
of each disease above named, see index and second part. We offer you a
remedy. All of these troubles I have had (and a score not mentioned), of
the entire list of which _=I=_ am now _free completely_. In short, the
whole number of diseases that beset the human family can be cured by
care, cleanliness, regularity, fresh air, cold water used internally,
and by compress, proper clothing, right food, regular exercise, an even
disposition, a clear conscience, intelligent and agreeable associates,
and a reasonable amount of time.
It took me 30 years, 25 of which I spent ascertaining the way. If
someone could have informed me, as this book does you, I would have
enjoyed full health _twenty-five_ years earlier than I did. Anyone
observing the rules I have recounted can restore a broken-down
_constitution_ in less than 5 years--yes, even if one foot is already in
the grave! Soon you will begin to lift it out, and it will be a long
period before you will take that step again. I do not exaggerate when I
state that I had _both feet_ in the grave. Fortunately, however, my head
was above-ground, and I began to reason how to get the rest of myself
away. The secret was discovered, the causes set to work, and finally the
end achieved. To use another figure, my coffin had many nails already
driven in it when I secured a clincher, pulled them all out, and then
split up the old wooden hulk to make fires with which to start the
steam of my new energies.
All of my _time_ is _employed_. I do some sort of laborious work every
day to start my blood coursing vigorously, and open the pores of my
skin. By a proper adjustment of my under-clothing, I prevent a cold, and
am always ready with a good appetite when meal-time comes. I have never
studied _Anatomy_, _Medicine_, or _Surgery_, know but little about the
niceties of the English language, but I have studied the Materia Medica
of myself, and am aware of just what is beneficial and what is injurious
for me.
There is a duty each individual owes to his fellow-man, each municipal
corporation to its citizens, and each State and general government to
those over whom they preside. Every individual should strive to see how
much distress he can relieve during his short stay on this earth; how
few thorns he has to place in the pathway of others, and how many drops
of oil he can pour on the disturbed waters of the ocean of life.
_Accidents_ that are _preventable_, caused by carelessness, laziness,
and ignorance, cost more money, suffering, and life than viciousness and
incendiarism, in the ratio of 3 to 1. Every man who builds a mill,
manufactory, or a business block, makes his own rate of insurance.
A slight variation in the construction of a building, the omission of
certain details, the wrong location of hazardous machinery or materials,
or the neglect of cleanliness and order, may very seriously affect the
_fire hazard_, and consequently the _rate_ of insurance which must
necessarily attach to the property.
The _Fire Losses_ in the United States amount to $125,000,000 per annum,
and the great mass of this enormous loss is chargeable to bad
construction of buildings, the lack of necessary apparatus for
extinguishing fires, and carelessness in the management of property. The
_unavoidable_ losses are few in number; the _avoidable_, many. Insurance
companies _restore no value_, _repair no loss_; they can only
_distribute_ the loss throughout the community. Careless, ignorant,
annihilative, is the term to be applied to 75% of the fire losses. The
destruction of life by accidents, where immediate death follows, in the
United States is large; but, in comparison with those that assist in
shortening life, they are about in the ratio of 1 to 100. Only such
persons as have undoubted _integrity_, coupled with order, cleanliness,
and carefulness should be allowed to insure their property, and this
should be restricted by law. A certain sect in our population that now
have to be charged from 50 to 100% more for insurance than other people,
should be stricken from the list of the insured, until they have by
personal action abolished this difference in risk.
When the time comes that only such persons as attend to all the details
of cleanliness and prevention of the loss of property and health can be
insured, the cost will be reduced 50%. Until we are willing, or educated
up to that point, to protect our neighbors' lives and property as if
they were ours, we must expect to pay this 50% more for everything we
have, use, drink, eat, and wear. Longevity will be restricted in the
same proportion. Hundreds of accidents would be prevented by proper
care. Throwing foolishly the match, cigar, cigarette, etc., any and
everywhere, causes great loss of property, and often life; the
unthinking eat oranges and _bananas_ in the _street_ and cast underfoot
the rinds and skins to cause the next moment the _dislocation_ of a
limb, or broken skull. Over 500 accidents have occurred in this city
alone during the last 5 years, occasioned by some sort of vegetable or
fruit refuse lying upon the pavements; fatal results, though not all
immediate, happened to 15 persons, and a number were maimed for life.
Broken bottles and glass thrown into the street and on the sidewalks
bring about at times frightful accidents to both man and beast; and if a
correct report could be had from each livery-man and teamster in this
regard, it would startle the most inhuman of our race.
The _tax-payer_ has a tendency to be selfish when he is really doing
himself severe injury. It is a case of reflex action. In passing along a
thoroughfare he sees a banana skin lying on the sidewalk. He cannot
possibly stop or trouble himself to push it into the gutter. Almost
immediately another man comes along, steps on the skin, slips, breaks
his leg, and is carried to the hospital. He remains there a month,
supported by the city, that is, by money paid by the same tax-payer. In
this manner, and other ways, can every man act, both selfishly or
unselfishly. If selfish in passing this by, it is sure to come back on
him a hundred-fold to the original trouble required. His unselfishness
will consist in saving his fellow-men from danger by removing the cause.
Indeed, he will be selfish if he casts it off for the sake of decreasing
his taxation, but such selfish unselfishness will be gladly excused.
_Garbage_ thrown out of back doors or under neighbors' steps creates
contagion, and in time the thoughtless individuals fall a prey to their
own carelessness. Three out of every five men and five out of every
hundred women are ruptured as a result of their own or somebody else's
recklessness.
On the top of nearly every house in the section where _artesian_ water
is used, there is a _tank_ to receive water for various purposes about
each dwelling; much of this is employed for drinking and culinary uses.
Without any attempt at a sensation, we pronounce this box or _tank_ a
_death trap!_ There is not a clean one in this whole great city, that
has an outside exposure, and 9 out of every 10 are reeking with filth.
Having had occasion to investigate several I am convinced that they
average alike. If so, there are at least 500 tons of concentrated filth
playing the part of filters in the tanks of this city alone at this
writing! And there is every reason to believe that this city is as clean
as the average. Provided this is so, there is enough of such refuse in
the United States to dam the Mississippi River many times and build a
levee across Lake Erie.
Health officers may keep their own tanks clean in the future, but if
individuals desire health and abolition of the need of Health Boards,
let them keep their own tanks, back yards, streets, and pavements neat.
Municipal corporations should prevent by _law_ the throwing of any kind
of rubbish into the streets, and make it a misdemeanor for the
proprietors allowing any of their mercantile houses, work-shops, or
residences to be found filthy, and there are thousands of them in this
city. To avoid accidents, every man, woman, and child should be
compelled to pass to their right on the street. Every person in every
city not having a legitimate vocation in the eyes of the law, nor an
income from property or money in the bank, should, if criminally
inclined, be sent to the House of Correction. If poor and willing to
work, they ought to be put to work in the public streets and in the
parks, to beautify them, for the benefit of the frugal classes. No
begging should be allowed, under penalty of imprisonment. That a city
may escape being overrun by country tramps, their entrance should be
quarantined.
To stop contagion, public _crematories_ should be established and
cremation of the human and animal bodies be compulsory. If the principal
church and secret organizations will now change their rituals so as to
permit of the incineration of the bodies of their deceased members, the
world will have advanced 100 years before the close of this century and
the average duration of life at that date will have increased from 34.8
to 40 years. It is needful that the false sentiment regarding the
disposition of our dead should undergo a complete revolution. There
could probably be no better aid to this end than a general investigation
of the mortuary records of the towns and cities of the globe, by proper
officials, the facts and discoveries of whom should be given all
possible publicity. An hundred or so years ago this was not so much a
matter of importance as now, with a greater and increasing density of
population, by virtue of which a great portion of the habitable earth is
fast becoming a mass of putrifying corruption, that will involve at no
distant time the world in pestilence, woe, and desolation.
The recent official return on the condition of the London cemeteries is,
or should be, sufficient to cause all reasonable persons to cry out for
the crematory. In Brompton Cemetery, with an area of twenty-eight and
three-fourths of an acre, there have been buried in less than fifty
years one hundred and fifty-five thousand bodies. In Tower Hamlets
Cemetery, with twelve acres less, in about the same time, the number is
two hundred and forty-seven thousand.
When it is remembered how perfectly unfitted the soil of these districts
is for burial purposes, together with the means so largely employed for
preventing speedy decomposition, one may readily imagine the danger that
menaces those above this still-increasing mass of sub-pollution.
Multiply the condition of the London suburbs by several hundred thousand
more, and then ponder the product! Talk about sanitary regulations, when
our public health laws are violated thus, and the air and water poisoned
as a result of the superstitious custom of body burial! When pestilence
stalks abroad, it is said to be planetary influence or divine wrath! The
following from the Springfield _Republican_ will indicate the current of
public opinion:--
"That the custom of burying the dead is bound to be superseded by more
scientific and economical methods, especially in the centers of
population, may be seen in the reanimation of the old scheme of
desiccation by New York capitalists. These men are not yet ready to
accept cremation. Their project is to build mausoleums as substitutes
for cemeteries, where the body will be subjected to the absorbent action
of currents of pure, dry air, which will prevent decomposition, and, by
thoroughly exhausting the body of moisture and gases, carry away all
germs of disease. These air currents, thus laden, will then pass through
furnaces, where all noxious elements will be destroyed. The lifeless
form will be reduced in weight about two-thirds and nearly one-half in
size. Resting in a sepulcher, it may then be preserved for an indefinite
period. As explained in detail, with particulars of the beauty of the
buildings thrown in, this scheme has advantages compared with the
undesirable method in vogue, though it is less thorough and simple than
cremation. A promoter of the enterprise in speaking of the desiccated
body says that 'although shrunken, still, with the semblance of life, it
is an object that the eye of affection can look upon without a shock,
and the sanitarian can think of without a shudder.' In essence, however,
the scheme is simply a concession to a public, not yet educated to the
idea of cremation. While appropriating enough of the latter system to
solve the question of public health, it caters to the human
sentimentalities in preserving at half size the dead form. Upon these
sentiments, summed up as the 'instinct of humanity,' the promoters of
the new system base their hopes of profit. Besides advancing in its
favor all the arguments used for cremation, its friends add that in the
desiccating process no danger can exist of suspended animation escaping
notice."
Public _fountains_ should be established in every other block of cities
or towns having over 1,000 inhabitants, with best-devised filters known,
so that both man and beast could enjoy pure water to drink, free for the
taking. During epidemics it should be not only compulsory in
municipalities to have water filtered in each house before drinking, but
it should be boiled. Every house ought to have a filter. If you cannot
afford a $40 one, you can secure one for 40 cents.