New York 
 
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 At Cornell University 
 
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Cornell University Library 
 RA 418.165 
 
 Good health; or, The physiology of dietet 
 
 3 1924 003 522 178 
 
Cornell University 
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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924003522178 
 
GOOD HEALTH 
 
GOOD HEALTH 
 
 OR THE 
 
 PHYSIOLOGY OF DIETETICS 
 
 MA SSA GE 
 
 By 
 
 F. C. IRELAND, B. Sc, 
 
 Author of "Lantech," etc. 
 
 LIVERPOOL 
 EDWARD HOWELL CHURCH STREET 
 
 LONDON 
 SIMPKIN MARSHALL & CO LID 
 
 1897 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THE original jnotive which prompted me to write this 
 book arose from, a contem,plation of the iticreasingly large 
 number of sudden deaths due to preventable diseases am,ong 
 people in the prime of life. 
 
 On two different occasions I had myself been very near 
 death's door from, diseases which could have easily been 
 prevented if I had at the tim,e understood the physiology 
 of digestion and principles of hygiene. 
 
 As I was restored to health, strength, and vigour by 
 adopting the system set forth in the following pages , and 
 for fifteen years past have witnessed its good effects upon 
 otfiers, as well as upon myself the experience is here re- 
 corded with the hope that still larger num.bers m,ay benefit 
 by the same means. 
 
 The work is written in plain, simple language, and, as 
 far as possible, void of technicalities, for the purpose of 
 reaching the class of people who most require instruction 
 upon the primary laws of health. 
 
 It is interspersed with illustrations, anecdotes, and 
 references designed to place the subject in a semi-novel 
 form, so as to render it m.ore interesting and attractive to 
 the general reader. 
 
 At the same time, there is a close observance maintained 
 to the proper principles of the most approved and up-to-date 
 views of leading physiologists, with the object of securing, 
 m,aintaining, and promoting health. 
 
vi. PREFACE. 
 
 On some points, where doctors differ and specialists 
 disagree, I have kept in the channel where safe sailing is 
 experienced and no wrecks can possibly happen. 
 
 On the subject of starch-changed cereals as a special 
 diet in cases of diabetes mellitus, combined with other food 
 and the visual precautions necessary in such cases, there 
 will certainly be some criticism by physicians who condemn 
 the use of starch in any form for diabetic patients. 
 
 In reference to this expected criticism,, I would ask a 
 thorough trial and test of starch-changed cereals in com-- 
 bination with gluten, in any case of diabetes mellitus, and 
 watch the decreased secretions of saccharine deposits, 
 before they condemn it. The fact is acknowledged that 
 remedies for different diseases that were ignored some 
 years ago are now 7-ecommended, while others that were 
 in use are now ignored. It is only reasonable, there- 
 fore, that this starch-changed food should be thoroughly 
 tested by the medical profession. 
 
 This book is intended for the people — the great mass of 
 people who are in ill-health. It is designed to afford 
 directions for the treatment of the body by natural means, 
 which are to be practised in a common-sense manner, yet 
 in accordance with scientific and physiological principles. 
 
 In its production I have laboured under difficulties in 
 writing aimiy from ho?ne and without books of reference, 
 so that many imperfections ztiill necessarily be found, 
 which, I trust, the generous reader will overlook. 
 
 The main object has been to produce (though in an 
 imperfect style, owing to the causes just referred to) a 
 short and practical guide to health. The laws of our 
 humati organism should be better understood, for they 
 cannot be broken with impunity. Their violation result 
 in soine derangement of the system, which, if continued 
 produces complications and impairment of some vital or<ran 
 of the mechanism which is so "fearfully and wonderfully 
 
PREFACE. vii. 
 
 made. " A better knowledge of these things is, therefore, 
 of the greatest importance to every individual. 
 
 If I can be of assistance to anyone who wishes further 
 directions, they m,ay address me on the subject. To secure 
 a reply, a stamped and plainly addressed envelope must 
 be enclosed, when as prompt an answer as possible will be 
 returned. 
 
 F. C. IRELAND. 
 
 21, King Street, 
 
 southport, 
 
 May, 1897. 
 
GOOD HEALTH 
 
 OR 
 
 THE PHYSIOLOGY OF DIETETICS 
 AND MASSAGE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Introduction. 
 
 There is no subject in Christendom, or in the 
 wide world over, so closely bound up with our 
 individual, family and national interests as that of 
 health : there is no other subject that can compare 
 with it in general importance to the welfare of the 
 public. 
 
 Among the various interests that have combined 
 to make the nineteenth century with all its bound- 
 less power and achievements famous, there is none 
 that has received greater attention, and that is now 
 at the closing years of the cental, more important 
 than that of the general health of the people. 
 
 Medical colleges have multiplied by the thousand, 
 and physicians by the ten thousand : hospitals, 
 infirmaries, sanatoriums, nurses, medical professors, 
 medical books and specialists have kept pace with 
 
 A 
 
2 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 railways, electricity, and other vast and innumerable 
 mechanical inventions. It has been an age of 
 patent medicines, in which huge fortunes have been 
 amassed from the sale of nostrums, professedly 
 intended to cure all the ills that flesh is heir to. 
 
 It has been an age of patent invention and manu- 
 facturing devices for turning the cereal products of 
 the earth into fancy and attractive foods for pleasing 
 the eye, the palate, the cook, and to conform to the 
 modern idea of fashion in all its unreasonable 
 demands. It has been an age of steam and hot- 
 water heating of dwellings, by the radiation of a 
 high artificial temperature in living apartments, 
 railway carriages, and even tramcars, all for the 
 purpose of making them more comfortable and 
 healthy. 
 
 It has been an age of vast dental inventions for 
 the manufacture of artificial teeth. Large establish- 
 ments have been built up for the purpose of making 
 teeth, repairing teeth, and supplying teeth, which 
 the modern mode of living has caused to decay. It 
 is not an uncommon sight in these days to see a 
 toothless man or woman, and every such sight is a 
 signal of improper alimentation. There has been 
 a deficiency in the natural bone-producing elements 
 in the food eaten. The dental profession has been 
 of immense advantage in respect of repairing 
 decayed teeth and supplying new ones, by which 
 the mastication of food can be assisted, and so help 
 in its digestion and assimilation, which are so 
 necessary to promote health. 
 
 Changes also in the system of milling and in the 
 manufacture of flour for bread have gone on with 
 
INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 astonishing strides, in which milHons have been 
 lavished. To even mention in the briefest way 
 possible the progressive steps taken to keep up 
 with the spirit of enterprise in this line of business 
 would take more space than is intended for the 
 subject now in hand. The old-fashioned mill- 
 stones, which deserve a bow of reverence from 
 every passer-by, have been mercilessly banished, 
 or relegated to the old quarry, or for the purpose of 
 making concrete to be trodden underfoot, while the 
 chilled rollers and patent purifiers are doing the 
 work, not the work of the old system of making 
 flour, which retained the germ, the natural soda, 
 sulphur, potash-salts, and other mineral elements, 
 so very essential to the production of bone, muscle, 
 brain, and tissue, but the work of eliminating, as 
 far as possible, all these essential substances, so as 
 to produce, by centrifugal and other purifying pro- 
 cesses of modern invention, a flour as fine as starch, 
 and a loaf as white as snow. 
 
 I will not say, as in other things just referred to, 
 that this has all been done in the interests of health, 
 for such would be absolutely false. It has been 
 done solely to conform to the craving demands of 
 fashion and self-protection ; for, when one started in 
 this line, others were obliged to follow, or lose their 
 trade and money. It has been one of the most 
 damaging changes, miscalled " Improvements, " of 
 the century. 
 
 It is not surprising that so many people are 
 toothless, as it has rendered bread, which is designed 
 to be the staff of life, the very cause of making life 
 miserable. The adoption of yeast was bad enough. 
 
4 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 but nothing to be compared to the modern system 
 of milling and refining which makes a loaf of bread 
 worth less than half-a-loaf was formerly, and which 
 will kill a dog if fed entirely upon it. 
 
 At first, upon the introduction of yeast for making 
 bread whiter and lighter, one of the bakers of Paris 
 found yeast in Flanders. He adopted its use, and 
 soon found his customers increase to such an extent 
 that it proved a perfect bonanza to him. His 
 business rose in prominence and profit by this new 
 rising power in bread. Other bakers, as soon as 
 they could obtain the yeast, also from Flanders, 
 abandoned the use of leaven, and the new bread 
 became established. The physicians of Paris were 
 attracted by it. They brought the exercise of their 
 professional skill to bear on the subject. It 
 came before the College of Physicians there, who 
 thoroughly investigated the whole matter in the 
 most unprejudiced manner. 
 
 This was at a time, some i6o years ago, when 
 the physicians of Paris were reputed to be among 
 the most skilful in the world. After a thorough and 
 unbiassed examination, rather leaning in favour of 
 the new bread, which was becoming so popular, yet, 
 in consideration of the public welfare and the future 
 health of the nation, the use of yeast was condemned. 
 They went still farther, and passed a resolution 
 which recommended the legislature of France to 
 enact a law for the total suppression of the use of 
 yeast in bread-baking. The legislature, having in 
 view the interests of the people, and with confidence 
 in the judgment and skill of the eminent physicians 
 who recommended this step to be taken, passed an 
 
INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 act of parliament designed to suppress entirely 
 the use of yeast, which by this time was being 
 made in Paris and also in England. 
 
 This act of the highest authority suddenly brought 
 the new custom into disrepute. It caused the people 
 to pause and think. The wiser of them submitted, 
 while others compared the dark loaf with the former 
 lighter and brighter one, and craved for the white. 
 Gradually the bakers, in a quiet way, secured yeast 
 to make a loaf for one and another until, in the 
 course of the generation following, the law was a 
 dead letter on the statute book. 
 
 Fashion triumphed over the law as it often does 
 over other things. The people, however, had lived 
 so long on the good old leavened bread, that their 
 bones, nerves, muscles, sinews and tissues were 
 strong and so hardy, that many years of diet on the 
 new bread did not at once work all their damaging 
 effects. These came on gradually. 
 
 The insidious foe was stealthily creeping along the 
 pathway towards weakness, disease, and premature 
 decay, like a predecessor whose approach is invisi- 
 ble. Fashion rose in favour of the white loaf, and 
 after the lapse of nearly a century, when two or 
 three generations had passed away — but the law 
 regarding the use of yeast had not passed away — 
 the legislature considered it prudent to cancel the 
 measure and remove the obnoxious statute from the 
 code. 
 
 It is not remarkable, therefore, when all the 
 circumstances are taken into account, that, with this 
 great change in bread-making, the dental profession 
 commenced its rise and progress ; and it is not 
 
6 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 remarkable when you come to think of it, that 
 concomitant with the new system of making whiter 
 flour, so as to have a still whiter loaf, that there 
 began to spread the different forrns of dyspepsia, 
 indigestion, diabetes, Bright's disease, with liver, 
 kidney and other ailments, for all of which there 
 arose, as a necessary evil, the various patent medi- 
 cines out of which great fortunes have been made. 
 
 The distress, pain, anguish, and general depres- 
 sion of spirits, weakness of nerves, soul and body, 
 endured by such large numbers of people, were such 
 that they became ready to lay hold of any rope 
 thrown out to them in their sinking position. It is 
 no wonder fortunes are made in patent medicines ; 
 the wonder is, that people are such fools as to live, 
 move, and have their being in such miserable health 
 as to require such stuff. Why don't they live differ- 
 ently and enjoy good health ? Aye ; it may be they 
 do not know how. The following pages will tell 
 them, and, it is to be hoped, will help them. 
 
 There is no sensation of joy so satisfactory as that 
 experienced by those who are saved from some dire 
 calamity. That joy may be experienced by every 
 person who is ill, if they will only follow the 
 directions intended to be laid down here for their 
 guidance. Have patience, and read every word. 
 Do not turn from one page to the other, as you, 
 perhaps, have changed from one remedy to another 
 in trying experiments to see which was suitable to 
 your case. No matter what complaint you have, 
 full directions in the briefest possible manner are to 
 be found here, not upon one page nor in any one 
 chapter, but in the whole combined. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 But to return to our introduction, which is nearly 
 finished. Owing to the absence of the wholesome 
 mineral salts in the modern new-fashioned loaf, 
 there has sprung up a remarkable sale of mineral 
 waters. Their name is legion. Millions of money 
 have been invested in this comparatively new 
 industry. One London firm alone is said to turn out 
 several million bottles a week. It does not all come 
 from natural mineral springs, by any means. It is 
 manufactured and charged with carbonic acid gas, 
 or otherwise aerated to produce a refreshing effer- 
 vescent drink. The people thirst for something to 
 drink, while the quantity and quality of mineral 
 salts contained in ordinary mineral waters is far 
 different to that which is found in the wheat berry, 
 as provided by nature and designed to be retained 
 in our bread. If so retained, there would be less 
 drunkenness and less illness ; for, in the absence of 
 the mineral salts in the bread, there comes a craving 
 for something to take their place. The artificial 
 waters, charged with salts and gas, have been tried 
 and found wanting. Whisky and soda have long 
 been tried, with the result that the craving for more 
 increases continually, instead of decreases ; and so 
 drunkards are made. 
 
 Intemperance spreads to an alarming extent, 
 causing poverty, wretchedness, disease, and crime. 
 While the advocates of temperance are doing what 
 they can to suppress the evil, they labour almost in 
 vain. If they would but turn their attention to the 
 cause, they might find the fountain head of this 
 poisonous stream in the habits of eating, more than 
 in the habits of drinking. Thirst is not merely 
 
8 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 caused by a deficiency of liquid in the system, but 
 by a local disturbance. The more people drink, in 
 many cases, the more thirsty they become. 
 
 To conclude this introductory chapter, just consider 
 that with all the advancement in art, science, medi- 
 cine, and surgery, together with the great discoveries 
 of Harvey and Jenner down to those of Pasteur, 
 Koch, Rontgen, and those of Sir Joseph Lister and 
 Sir James Young Simpson in antiseptics and anaes- 
 thetics, called the twin discoveries of the nineteenth 
 century, whose services have been so valuable to 
 mankind; yet there still exists as much illness as ever. 
 
 The system of bleeding, blistering, salivating, 
 and cauterizing has been superseded by what appears 
 a more humane and scientific process for effectually 
 reaching the same end, yet there is to-day more 
 general debility, more ailing, more weakness of 
 some vital organ, more dyspepsia, indigestion, 
 diabetes, Bright's disease, neuralgia, rheumatism, 
 heart failure, and other troubles, than in any period 
 of the world's history. 
 
 It has been an age remarkable for philanthropy, 
 benevolence, and magnificent bequests to institutions 
 for the care of the sick, providing food for the poor 
 and the homeless. Men, liberally endowed with 
 worldly possessions, have, under happy impulses, 
 or from some more settled principle of duty, devoted 
 themselves to works of amelioration of poverty, 
 disease, and suffering, with a cheerful zeal and as 
 much pleasure as they ever exerted in the acquisition 
 or management of their own fortunes. But, after all 
 that has been done, there is no end of real suffering. 
 The great mass of people are ailing. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 It is a deplorable comment upon all the scientific 
 research, inventions, discoveries, improvements and 
 philanthropy of the age, how few people among 
 the higher and well-to-do classes are really in good 
 health from one end of the year to another ! How 
 many are asking the questions "What must I do to 
 get well?" "How can I live now as people did 
 formerly, without constantly resorting to remedies 
 of one description or another, with a view of 
 obtaining relief?" The following pages contain very 
 important information in answer to these questions. 
 If the directions are fully carried out, the result will 
 be a revolution of the most beneficent character ever 
 recorded on the pages of history. Scores and 
 hundreds have already experienced the change, and 
 rejoiced in the golden age of their existence. New 
 cures are coming to light, and the most astonishing 
 effects are being recorded, all from the use of the 
 means herein explained. All may be healed. There 
 is no respecter of persons. Nature will do her part 
 if you will do yours. As you read these pages, do 
 not, I pi'ay you again, jump from one part to 
 another, looking for what you imagine will suit 
 your case. Read every word, from the first line to 
 the end, as no one part contains the whole directions; 
 then, after that, you can spring about all you like, 
 for you will feel like a new creature, and enjoy life 
 as you never did before, with a new lease and on 
 better terms. 
 
10 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Starch-changed Cereals. 
 
 People will experiment, adventure, and submit to 
 radical changes in almost everything except in the 
 matter of eating and drinking. In this they allow 
 the prejudices of the stomach or palate to tyrannise 
 over them. These prejudices are more unconquer- 
 able than any other. The lack of courage and 
 enterprise in this matter is astonishing. Men will 
 risk their money and venture upon speculations ; 
 spend their time in experiments and improvements 
 on almost everything, except on a reformation in 
 eating and drinking. In this they are disposed to 
 do continually the same as they have always been 
 accustomed to do, until compelled to make a change 
 in order to save their lives. In many cases the 
 habits have become so wrought in with the very 
 bone and tissues of their physical organism that a 
 change is most difficult, and, in some instances, 
 almost impossible. They sink at last as if a mill- 
 stone were hung around their neck and cast into 
 the sea. Custom is a sluggard in making reforms. 
 Sidney Smith, in a letter to Lord Murray, tells 
 him that, having ascertained the weight of food that 
 he could live upon so as to preserve health and 
 strength, and what he had lived upon, he found that 
 between ten and seventy years of age he had eaten 
 
STARCH-CHANGED CEREALS. 11 
 
 and drunk forty-four one-horse waggon-loads of 
 meat and drink more than would have preserved him 
 in life and health, and that the value of this mass of 
 nourishment was about ;^7,ooo. Moderation in 
 food is one of the greatest essentials to health. A 
 person should eat to satisfy hunger and supply 
 warmth and strength to his body ; but many love 
 the good things so much, and enjoy the pleasure of 
 eating to such a degree, that they sacrifice health, 
 money, and the welfare of posterity to the god of 
 Appetite. 
 
 There is a very useful, as well as beautiful, 
 structure of nerve work spread out on our tongues, 
 which carries upwards, like an electric wire, mes- 
 sages to the brain of the nice things taken into the 
 mouth. But we must not play with this as a toy, 
 no more than with an electric wire, alive with the 
 lightning fluid, or the result will be disastrous. It 
 is one of the pleasures of life that must be carefully 
 restricted if its enjoyment would be continued for 
 any length of time. 
 
 Now to illustrate. In maintaining health, or in 
 recovering health which has been lost, a little 
 romance is useful. The following story is no 
 fiction, nor simply a tale of adventure, but an 
 absolute fact. 
 
 Near the Dead Creek, where its waters emptied 
 into the Bay of Quinty some three-quarters of a 
 century ago, but now into the Murray Canal, 
 and upon a naturally elevated plateau, fringed by 
 stately forest trees, stood a lordly mansion, owned 
 and occupied by Col. Bullock, of the Royal 
 Grenadiers. This was away back, when the present 
 
12 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 century was in its teens. It was shortly after the 
 American War of 1812, and in Canada, that fairest 
 gem of the British Colonies. My father, some 
 years after this, married the colonel's daughter, who 
 became heiress to the estate. Owing to a rumour 
 that the house was haunted after the colonel's death, 
 the place became deserted and the numerous English 
 sportsmen, who had found it a very paradise, left 
 off visiting it entirely. 
 
 The property had become much run down when 
 my father decided to make it his home. His plans, 
 however, were upset by the strange and mysterious 
 noises that prevented occupation of the residence, 
 and the old homestead remained vacant. The 
 cause of the trouble was at last discovered. A 
 huge limb of an old elm tree spread its branches 
 over the eaves and side of the roof. When the 
 wind was in a certain direction this limb of the tree 
 rubbed against the side and roof, so as to produce 
 most dismal noises inside like the groans of some- 
 one in distress, and frightened everybody away. 
 When this limb was removed the noises ceased, 
 and the house became occupied, and soon presented 
 a different appearance. 
 
 I was born in that house in 1837. When eigh- 
 teen years of age I was settled in Victoria College, 
 Coburg. I entered upon my course of study with 
 ambition to become a scholar of some eminence, 
 and make as brilliant a career as possible in the 
 world. In the pursuit of knowledge I neglected 
 the Campos and the proper exercise so necessary 
 to health when the mental faculties are strained to 
 their utmost in study. It is not to be wondered at 
 
STARCH-CHANGED CEREALS. 13 
 
 that my health gave way under such circumstances. 
 It is not to be wondered at, either, that ever since 
 then I have held in contempt all collegiate institu- 
 tions where hygiene and the care of the students' 
 health is not looked after. In a few months I 
 became so ill that study was out of the question ; 
 I returned home. 
 
 My father kindly suggested a tour through the 
 Western States solely for the good of my health ; 
 this was effectual. After several months' absence I 
 returned in time for the beginning of the next term. 
 I continued my university course for two years and 
 part of the third, when my digestion became set 
 impaired that a cup of tea or coffee at breakfast 
 rendered me useless for study the balance of the day. 
 I tried various remedies, but to no good effect, and 
 had to leave college to return home again once 
 more. The following summer I took passage to 
 Liverpool, and spent the summer travelling in 
 England and on the Continent. In Scarborough, 
 my father's native soil, in York, Leeds, London, 
 Brighton, Paris, and other attractive centres I spent 
 many happy months, so much improved in health 
 that I returned home feeling strong, well, and 
 robust. I did not return to college, but when 
 24 years of age, I engaged in business, got in love, 
 married, and was prosperous. 
 
 In a few years, however, my indigestion returned. 
 It increased rapidly until dyspepsia settled upon 
 me with an awful grip. Relief was only obtained 
 by a few weeks' sojourn at the seaside or in the 
 White Mountains during the summer months. 
 While these trips lasted I had very good health. 
 
14 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 but in a few weeks after returning home and to 
 business there was the inevitable return of indiges- 
 tion with all its melancholy train of sad forebodings 
 and misery. 
 
 Where was the skill of physicians? I really 
 do not know. I consulted the best of them, paid 
 them their fees, but got no lasting benefit. I 
 spent years in this miserable state. There was a 
 racking distress for an hour or two after each meal, 
 followed by an unnatural hunger for an hour or so 
 before the next meal. One day I asked my physician 
 for arsenic, not that I intended to commit suicide, 
 for that is the most cowardly act and most despicable 
 in the whole category of crime, but I decided to cure 
 myself, and intended to take it as a tonic. He was 
 alarmed, and urged me to take another trip.- 
 
 It was in 1882. I had spent twenty-five years in 
 misery, except the few intervals when travelling 
 abroad or in making tours to the seaside. The 
 Canadian North West was just being opened up by 
 the great Pacific Railroad. I started in April for the 
 new country. While travelling over the prairie, 
 camping out, fording rivers, eating coarse foods and 
 enduring hardships such as I had never been accus- 
 tomed to before I was perfectly well, and could eat, 
 drink, and smoke anything that came to hand. I 
 was so much improved in health and appearance 
 that my children scarcely knew me on my return 
 home. 
 
 But before six months had passed, all was 
 changed. Dyspepsia again settled upon me. I 
 became desperate. All sorts of diet and medical 
 prescriptions were taken, but no relief. The result 
 
STARCH-CHANGED CEREALS. 15 
 
 was only a more aggravated form of indigestion 
 combined with symptoms of diabetes. 
 
 One day, while in gloomy distress such as most 
 people in ill-health experience after trying every- 
 thing, especially vegetable pills composed largely 
 of aloes, rhubarb, podophyllin, caleocynth, or other 
 drugs which give temporary relief, but are almost 
 always succeeded by still more severe trouble, I went 
 to my library and took down an old college book on 
 chemistry. Before laying it down, a new hope 
 sprang up in my mind. Hope is generally a har- 
 binger of relief. The chemical constituents of food 
 was my study. The predigestion of certain foods 
 became the object of intense interest to me. 
 
 I had proofs during my experience in travelling 
 that my stomach could digest any food without 
 difficulty while surrounded by an atmosphere loaded 
 with alkali vapours, oxygenated vegetable com- 
 pounds, ozone gases filled with phosphates, nitro- 
 gen, and other imperceptible salts. This led me to 
 study the situation more closely. Starch was the 
 most abundant article in the vegetable world next 
 to wood, and starch was the most indigestible article 
 that I could eat. The bread and porridge, which I 
 had been led to believe were a sine qua non in a 
 healthy diet, contained some 70 to 75 per cent, of 
 starch. Here, then, was the trouble in my case. 
 
 It also occurred to me that I had eaten pemican 
 while on the prairie in the North West, and it per- 
 fectly agreed with me. I at once resolved on an 
 entire change of diet. I ate beef, sausages made of 
 beef, pork, and prepared wheat, composed of one- 
 third each. I also prepared for myself wheat and 
 
16 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 flour in which the starch was changed. In masti- 
 cating the food the saHva of the mouth in a healthy- 
 person effects a change in the starch. The change is 
 very sHght, and only a small portion of the starch 
 is changed, but that slight chemical change does 
 wonders for the digestion.' I studied this question, 
 and succeeded in changing a good percentage of the 
 starch. On this food I experienced a remarkable 
 change for the better. There was no fermentation 
 which made my stomach like a yeast pot, as it was 
 formerly, when I used vegetable diet containing 
 starch and sugar in their natural state. I was 
 entirely cured of indigestion and kidney trouble. I 
 gained fifteen pounds in three months, which 
 brought my weight up to its normal standard. 
 
 I continued well, strong, and vigorous without 
 requiring any medical assistance for over ten years. 
 Before this, every few years I had an attack of some 
 severe illness. Twice I nearly died of erysipelas in 
 the face and head. These attacks caused my hair and 
 beard to become white, and I was prematurely old. 
 After this change of diet, I enjoyed excellent health. 
 The rest of this story will come in here and there 
 as we proceed, as I am not through with it yet. 
 
 Some five years ago, or in 1892, there came to 
 my house one evening a gentleman and his wife 
 with a letter of introduction from a friend. They 
 were in my drawing-room when I entered with the 
 letter in my hand which the maid had brought 
 upstairs to me. It was very evident that the man 
 was ill. He related his troubles as chiefly consist- 
 ing of great weakness. I enquired concerning his 
 diet, and learned that for breakfast he had a good- 
 
STARCH-CHANGED CEREALS. 17 
 
 sized beefsteak, with fried potatoes, tea or coffee, 
 toast and butter, and sometimes a glass of milk. 
 Now milk is a good diet for young children and 
 young lions, but an adult man or an adult lion 
 does not find it a model food. At eleven o'clock he 
 generally felt so weak that he. left his office work 
 and went out for a glass of wine, or whisky and 
 soda. For dinner, at one o'clock, he took soup, 
 roast beef, potatoes, cabbage, turnips, with bread, 
 cheese, pudding, and either milk, tea, or ale for 
 drinking. His evening meal was also a heavy one ; 
 yet his wife declared he was becoming weaker every 
 day, and would have to give up his position soon, 
 unless he could get something to do him good. 
 He felt no trouble from indigestion. 
 
 I made enquiries concerning his urine, and ascer- 
 tained the fact that it was frequent, abundant, and 
 of a high colour, while constipation of the bowels 
 was almost habitual. I made a remark to the effect 
 that he must change his diet at once, or he was in 
 danger of diabetes. I shall never forget the sudden 
 look of alarm and the outburst of painful surprise 
 from his wife when I mentioned the word "diabetes." 
 She came to the hasty conclusion, as so many have 
 done, that diabetes was an incurable disease and 
 did its work most speedily. It took me some time 
 to quell her fears ; but when I repeated over the 
 kind of diet he was to use, she demurred by saying: 
 " He will starve on such a diet." 
 
 "Then," said I, "Madam, your husband is 
 evidently starving on the full diet he is taking, and 
 you have stated that unless some help is afforded he 
 must abandon his situation ; so now it remains to 
 
 B 
 
18 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 be seen whether he will change his diet as I 
 prescribe, and get well, or go on as usual and get 
 worse." 
 
 They both agreed to follow my directions, which 
 were, — to eat no starchy foods, use no sugar, no 
 cider, no apples, no bread except that made from 
 gluten or starch-changed flour^ no porridge, except 
 made from wheat that had the starch changed in it, 
 no potatoes, no soup, no wine, beer, nor fermented 
 liquors except a little whisky and soda, and not 
 more than one glass a day, but he was to eat beef 
 and drink hot water all he could. He must not 
 drink milk unless it was boiled, and then very little 
 at a time. 
 
 They left me with a glimmering dawn of hope. In 
 three days that hope had increased to a buoyant 
 assurance that he was better. In three months he 
 was an active, vigorous, and healthy man, with- 
 out using one single grain of drugs or spending 
 one penny with a physician. How true is the old 
 Latin proverb ! " Contraria contrariis curanter," 
 "Opposites are cured by opposites," as well as the 
 other one, " Similia similibus curanter," "Likes are 
 cured by likes." 
 
 The food materials necessary to preserve health, 
 strength, and vigour to a. person who is in good 
 health, besides water and saline ingredients (and we 
 must not forget the very great importance of these 
 last mentioned), are — (i) nitrogenous substances, 
 such as meat, eggs, cheese, and the gluten of wheat 
 flour ; (2) fat of animals, butter, and olive oil ; (3) 
 sacharine substances comprised of starch, sugar, 
 molasses in all their variety, such as is contained 
 
STARCH-CHANGED CEREALS. 19 
 
 in bread, rice, potatoes, and vegetables. The office 
 of the first of these groups is to supply waste of 
 muscular strength caused by breathing, eating, 
 working, or any exercise ; the second is designed 
 to supply heat to the body by their general com- 
 bustion ; and the third contributes to the same end 
 as the other two. 
 
 To sustain health, strength, and vigour, the 
 healthy man requires four-and-a-half ounces of dry 
 nitrogenous food, three ounces of fat in some shape 
 or other, and one ounce of saline elements each 
 day. There is no absolute law or rule for each 
 person's diet, owing to the peculiarity of the vital 
 organism. A difference of climate and tempera- 
 ment modifies the question and justifies the old 
 adage: "One man's meat is another man's poison;" 
 but in most cases if he eats more or less of these 
 substances than above mentioned, the penalty is 
 imposed by a shrinkage of health and strength. 
 A healthy woman requires about one-tenth less of 
 these substances. The quantity of food eaten each 
 day is a matter of very great importance. It should 
 be distributed over the day as nearly as possible in 
 the following way : — In the morning one-third meat 
 and two-sevenths of the starchy foods ; for dinner 
 in the middle of the day, two-thirds meat and three- 
 sevenths starchy food ; in the evening the last 
 two-sevenths starchy food ; and for half-an-hour 
 after each meal there should be a resting time. 
 
 At every meal proper mastication of the food is 
 very necessary. The amount of maceration which 
 the food receives in the mouth by the combined 
 action of the teeth and saliva is very important to 
 
20 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 digestion. The starch undergoes a change by this 
 action when the saliva is in a healthy state. Exercise 
 is also of the greatest importance for all who live on 
 such a diet as the above ; and this exercise means 
 more than is generally supposed. It means bringing 
 every function of the body, and every part of every 
 function of the body, into activity. This activity 
 should be continued regularly for some time every 
 day, and a good judgment must be exercised so as 
 not to overdo it. 
 
 The labouring man or woman who enjoys good 
 health on the above diet would not and could not 
 be perfectly healthy without the continued labour 
 which causes every function of the body to be 
 brought into activity, so that the food digests and 
 assimilates to give the necessary strength. Let a 
 person of sedentary habits follow the same diet 
 without the same exercise, and he soon pays the 
 penalty. Children and animals enjoy good diges- 
 tion because they take plenty of exercise, which is 
 generally harmonious and agreeable. The perpetual 
 spring of pleasure in children's lives helps their 
 growth and health. 
 
 But what is the ordinary man to know about 
 nitrogenous food, albuminous food, carbo-hydrated 
 food, or the quantity of dry nitrogen there is in a 
 pound of roast beef, or how much starch and sugar 
 there is in the cereals, fruits, and vegetables which 
 he eats from day to day ? The brief way in which 
 I have placed the three classes of food together with 
 the succint explanation of the same is the very 
 briefest I have ever seen, and yet it cannot be fully 
 understood by the great mass of people who desire 
 
STARCH-CHANGED CEREALS. 21 
 
 health, above everything in the world. It is all 
 very vague ; it is inconceivable, except to one who 
 is educated up to the subject in some degree. 
 
 This being the case, let every person who is not 
 in good health, whose strength is waning, whose 
 food does not digest nor properly assimilate, cease 
 taking the food and turn at once to lean beef or other 
 lean meat, and to bread and cereals which have the 
 starch changed in them, so that there will be no 
 fermentation of the foods in the stomach to produce 
 flatulence, wind, and distress. Cease entirely the 
 habit of drinking tea, coffee, or anything else during 
 the time of eating, and for some three hours after. 
 If you will but adopt this system, and drink twc 
 glasses of hot water at a time, one hour or an hour 
 and-a-half before each meal, and upon getting up 
 in the morning, you will unquestionably realise a 
 remarkable change in the course of three days from 
 the commencement. If you faithfully follow it up, 
 you will soon experience a relish for the new diet 
 and find no trouble from thirst. 
 
 Thirst generally comes from an abnormal state of 
 the stomach, except in times of excessive exercise 
 and among men who labour hard, and even then 
 hot water will quench their thirst much quicker 
 and much more satisfactorily than any other drink. 
 The experience of the men who were in the Black 
 Hole at Calcutta proved, when they got water, their 
 thirst was increased by drinking. One of them who 
 ceased drinking it, and sucked the perspiration 
 from his shirt sleeve, was among the survivors. 
 If hot or tepid water were adopted as the beverage 
 for the million, instead of the myriads of artificial. 
 
22 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 fermented, or gaseous drinks that are now in use, 
 there would be a revolution in favour of health, 
 strength, vigour, prosperity, and happiness in the 
 world, such as has not been known since the days 
 when Israel fed on manna for forty years in the 
 wilderness, and escaped disease of every kind 
 because their food and drink were such as they 
 required. 
 
 In reference to starch-changed cereals as an 
 article of food, I will state here, most emphatically, 
 and without fear of successful refutation, that they 
 are far superior to gluten in all cases where that 
 article is considered necessary. Gluten will sustain 
 life in the absence of all other food, but it is a 
 miserable existence, and a life not worth living. 
 Gluten used alone does not produce permanently 
 satisfactory results. It is very unpalatable ; so 
 much so that many people troubled with diabetes 
 declare that they would rather die than diet on it, 
 because they find it so disagreeable. 
 
 I once saw a person dying, when there appeared 
 on his countenance signs of dissent at what was 
 going on in the room, but he could not speak. So in 
 cases of diabetes where gluten food is recommended, 
 the patients endure it ; they may show signs of 
 dissent, but they have to endure it because it is 
 prescribed by the physician. Nature never intended 
 gluten to be used alone as an article of food. There 
 is in the wheat grain a combination of gluten, 
 fibrine, casein, albumen, and starch. There are 
 three or four times as much gluten in wheat than 
 in rice, maize, beans, peas, or potatoes. To obtain 
 the gluten the starch is washed out, which is a 
 
STARCH-CHANGED CEREALS. 23 
 
 difficult and expensive job, as it requires about 
 looo lbs. of the best wheat flour to produce loo lbs. 
 of pure gluten. This was -never intended to be 
 done for hygienic purposes. 
 
 The gluten was intended to assist in the change 
 of the starch. The starch in wheat or any other 
 cereal, also in vegetables, must be changed before 
 it can be digested* Starch is never found in the 
 blood nor in the tissues. The first act of transforma- 
 tion in the starch is naturally effected by the saliva 
 of the mouth, as already referred to. The gluten 
 assists in this change, while the starch assists the 
 gluten in giving nourishing properties to the cereal. 
 It is the presence of gluten in wheat flour combined 
 with the starch that renders it so pre-eminently 
 nutritious. The two must not be separated, but 
 where the saliva is not sufficient from any cause, 
 or not healthy from the effects of indigestion, then 
 the starch requires to be changed in a similar man- 
 ner, and in connection with the gluten, as it is 
 done naturally by the saliva of a healthy, robust 
 person. This can be done ; it has been done ; 
 it is done; and this renders the gluten and starch 
 combined a veritable anti-starch food, so far as 
 its effects are necessary in building up tissue and 
 affording health, strength, and vigour. It digests 
 perfectly, corrects acidity, and thoroughly assimi- 
 lates so as to give the greatest possible satisfaction. 
 
 I do not claim to be the first to change starch, but 
 the first to change it to that stage where the change 
 resembles and is almost identically the same as that 
 done by the ptyalin in healthy saliva. If physicians 
 will test this fairly in connection with the usual 
 
24 GOOD HEALTH 
 
 remedies and cautions necessary in cases of indi- 
 gestion, dyspepsia, and diabetes, they will soon be 
 convinced of its value. After testing it for over ten 
 years I have never in any case found it to fail. 
 Besides, it affords pleasure in eating ; it is com- 
 paratively inexpensive, and so within the reach of 
 all. 
 
25 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Dietetic System. 
 
 There are many systems. The two great leading 
 ones in materia medica are allopathy and homoeo- 
 pathy, now well defined with their distinctive means 
 of treatment. The hydropathic system has also 
 made some headway ; so has the eclectic, electric, 
 galvanic, and other systems ; the latest requiring 
 mention here is an excellent treatment which a 
 lady specialist of London has done much to bring 
 into prominence. 
 
 Her book on the beef and hot water treatment 
 for all sorts of diseases, has done a splendid 
 work to systematise a means of cure ; but the rules 
 and regulations, as laid down, are rather vague 
 and somewhat contradictory, and much of the 
 matter is unprofessional and offensive to a number 
 of physicians and other excellent people, especially 
 to vegetarians, so that many of the excellent things 
 she says, and more excellent facts she gives, are 
 lost to some extent by the way she puts them. 
 
 As an example, she condemns the use of whole- 
 wheat meal in one edition of her book, and in a 
 later edition recommends it as a wholesome and 
 excellent diet. Her acknowledgment of the mis- 
 take is certainly very commendable, but still there is 
 suck a vagueness about this, as on other subjects, 
 
26 GOOD HEALTH 
 
 that many may perhaps be led astray. Whole-wheat 
 meal means in one shop a poor, unmerchantable 
 white flour mixed with horse-food bran, both of 
 which articles are rubbish for the human system, 
 and unfit to eat. 
 
 In another shop you may find whole-wheat meal, 
 so called, where the whole wheat as it came from 
 the farmer's waggon, whether white, red, or mixed, 
 is ground up together, and sold as a wholesome 
 food because it makes a dark-looking loaf; and 
 because it is dark it is considered by the ignorant 
 as healthy. I say ignorant, because no matter how 
 much persons may know of science, or how well 
 educated in general, they are ignorant of the 
 properties of the loaf of bread they eat if they think 
 one is wholesome because it is dark and the other 
 unwholesome because it is white. 
 
 The only whole-wheat meal that is fit for human 
 diet is that made of selected wheat, and ground 
 after being thoroughly cleaned by taking the fuzz 
 from the ends of the kernel and dirt from the crease, 
 and then removing the outside bran, which is a 
 woody fibre and of the substance of straw, called 
 the " epicarp," as well as the "pericarp" which 
 covers it. These two outer layers must be removed, 
 but in doing so the germ and edible layers which 
 are under the epicarp must not be disturbed, but 
 all left in the product which is properly understood 
 as Whole- Wheat Meal. It makes a golden brown 
 loaf, fit for a king and one of the most excellent 
 articles of diet that can possibly be used by any 
 person whether sick or well. It makes the bread that 
 may with pride be called "the staff of life, " for it 
 
THE DIETETIC SYSTEM. 27 
 
 contains all the nourishing and easily-digested 
 materials which nature put in the wheat berry for 
 the sustentation of human beings. 
 
 How very few there are, as well as the enthusi- 
 astic specialist already referred to, who understand 
 the way whole-wheat meal should be made ? They 
 consequently buy and eat bread, supposed to be 
 right, but which contains the woody fibre or too 
 much germ, which acts as an irritant or excitant, 
 giving relief for a while, but- soon followed by the 
 worst form of indigestion, similar to what follows 
 the use of pills or vaunted patent medicines. 
 
 I will refer briefly here to my own case again. I 
 was for a few months living in one of the large cities 
 of England, and did not know where to get a supply 
 of the foods that I had lived upon so long and with 
 such satisfaction. There was a certain bread adver- 
 tised in nearly all the magazines and newspapers of 
 England as a specific for indigestion and dyspepsia. 
 I enquired of a shrewd business man concerning this 
 bread before using it. 
 
 My question was : 
 
 "What's in it?" meaning. What is it made of? 
 though not taken as meant. He replied : "There is 
 ;^io,ooo a year in it." Some time after this I got 
 the bread in question, and found it very palatable, 
 and lived on it as far as the bread part of my diet 
 was concerned, and in two months I had as bad an 
 attack of indigestion as I had in former years 
 before I knew how to diet myself. 
 
 I discontinued the use of that bread, consulted a 
 physician of the highest repute, whose. skill and 
 common sense, together with his prescription, were 
 
28 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 so in harmony with my own views (being princi- 
 pally dietetic) that before leaving his room I felt 
 that I should soon be well again. This is an age in 
 which people are easily gulled. If an article of diet 
 is palatable, and presented in an attractive form 
 with extensive advertising, the people buy it without 
 thoroughly enquiring what it contains and how it is 
 made, when in reality it is an enemy in the form 
 of an angel. 
 
 In using whole-wheat meal, and every one should 
 use it, see that it not only possesses the name of 
 some responsible firm as makers, but that it is all 
 and always of the quality that will bear the strictest 
 analysis. This very article is so important to the 
 welfare of the people, that it should be inspected by 
 some competent officer in a similar manner and 
 with as great care as milk, whisky, sugar, and 
 other articles of food and drink are inspected. This 
 bread has become so extensively used as an antidote 
 to the impoverished, indigestible white loaf, that the 
 makers of it are legion, and all are anxious to make 
 ;^io,ooo a year out of it. 
 
 As to dietetics as a system of treatment which 
 heads this chapter, the difficulty is to formulate a 
 system all at once. No system has been developed 
 suddenly. The principles develop gradually, and 
 as they become tried and approved they grow into 
 a system which still improves and finally becomes 
 established. 
 
 The scie"^nce of medicine had been centuries 
 under development before Galen brought it into 
 its almost perfected state in which we have it to-day. 
 
 Hippocrates, who flourished some 2,300 years 
 
THE DIETETIC SYSTEM. 29 
 
 ago, extended surgery to greater perfection than it 
 had ever been before, and this science has been 
 improving ever since. 
 
 Dr. Jenner made the first experiments in vaccina- 
 tion in 1797, just 100 years ago, and the practice has 
 spread throughout the world. Although it still has 
 its bitter opponents, as all new theories have, and 
 as dietetics have; yet, when tried, proved, and found 
 successful, they grow into favour and become 
 established if there is merit, science, and common 
 sense on their side. 
 
 A physician of note with a large practice in the 
 city of Montreal, told me, while in conversation on 
 dietetics that the best dietetic institute he knew 
 of was the Windsor Hotel in that city, where 
 everything good to eat could be had with cooking 
 and serving in the most complete form possible. 
 This was his expressed opinion, yet in his practice 
 he recommended certain special diet. 
 
 The great physician just named, Hippocrates, 
 taught the importance of preserving health by 
 means of dietetics, and that the province of the 
 physician was to direct people how to live so that 
 they would not be sick, and to practise surgery 
 more than medicine. 
 
 Dr. Young divided the remedies of the materia 
 medica into four classes, and the first and most 
 important class consisted of air, diet, habits 
 passions, etc. Sir Richard Phillips said: "The 
 mixed and fanciful diet of man is considered the 
 cause of numerous diseases, from which animals are 
 exempt. Many diseases have abated with changes 
 of diet, and others are virulent in different countries. 
 
30 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 arising from peculiarities. The Hindoos are con- 
 sidered the freest from disease of any race." 
 
 It appears that the high, honourable, and 
 invaluable profession of medicine contains some 
 distinguished men who have time to look into the 
 abuse of dietetics as a great and mighty cause of 
 illness, and a change of diet as an equally great 
 remedy. Others again do not stoop to the simple 
 remedies. They are wrapt up in their armour of 
 scientific research, with a breastplate of new dis- 
 coveries, holding out the spear and staff of specifics, 
 their arms and legs glistening with diplomas, while 
 their whole body, head and all, is covered with a coat 
 of mail consisting of caustics, astringents, excitants, 
 and cathartics, enough to frighten an army of 
 ordinary mortals as did Goliath of old ; while there 
 steps up an unpretentious youth with the sling of 
 dietetics, and offers to accept the challenge; and 
 soon the great giant has fallen, and David is the 
 conqueror. 
 
 Dietetics in my case and in thousands of others 
 effected a cure when all the skill of physicians 
 failed. Dietetics is the youth that is now con- 
 quering disease and saving the people from illness, 
 and conferring upon humanity the greatest bless- 
 ings of the age. But dietetics is not such a youth 
 after all. Hippocrates over 2,000 years ago prac- 
 tised this system. Moses may be said to be the father 
 of it. Daniel and his three companions, all men of 
 science, skilful in wisdom, cunning in knowledge, 
 and of great learning and ability, while captives in 
 Babylon, 2,500 years ago, lived on pulse and water, 
 instead of the "varied and fanciful diet" of the day. 
 
THE DIETETIC SYSTEM. 31 
 
 The result was they became fairer and fatter in 
 fleshthan others who lived on the king-'s meat. 
 
 On the other hand, Belshazzar drank and feasted 
 with his lords, his wives, and his merry com- 
 panions, and died in the very prime of life. Our 
 first parents were turned out of paradise because 
 they took forbidden food ; and millions are losing the 
 paradise of health becaiise they eat the wrong 
 food, and too much of it. 
 
 The scale of diet in the royal navy is thus given 
 in the regulations: — "One pound of bread, one 
 pound of fresh meat, half-a-pound of vegetables, 
 one and-a-half ounces of sugar, quarter of an ounce 
 of tea, one ounce of cocoa, and a quantity of beer." 
 Besides this they have once a week half-a-pint of 
 oatmeal and half-a-pint of vinegar. The daily 
 allowance to a common soldier in Great Britain is 
 one pound of bread and three-quarters of a pound 
 of meat, making a total of 196 ounces of solid food 
 weekly. 
 
 Dives, another ancient character, who was rich 
 and clothed in purple and fine linen (which did not 
 hurt him any, but his diet did), he lived sumptu- 
 ously every day, and died about as soon as poor 
 Lazarus did, who ate the crumbs that fell from this 
 rich man's table. 
 
 A great dinner or feast is often followed by the 
 sudden illness or death of some one who over- 
 indulged at it. The wicked violaters of the law of 
 proper diet do not live out half their days. Here, 
 there, and all over, among our friends and acquaint- 
 ances, one after another die in the prime of life 
 because they eat and drink too much. They are 
 
32 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 turned out of paradise, and where they go to under 
 such circumstances is not for me to say ; but I do 
 say it is a disgrace to die under such conditions 
 when a change of diet might have saved them, and 
 so cheated the grave of its victims. 
 
 This reminds me of St. Paul's advice to Timothy : 
 "Take a little wine for thy stomach's sake, and 
 oft infirmities." A little wine is often a good thing, 
 and all good things require to be taken in moderation 
 if the pleasures of life are to continue for any length 
 of time. 
 
 And how does the Church stand in relation to 
 this great system ? There is one feature of the 
 teachings of the Church of England that appears 
 to recognise the importance of the body as well as 
 the soul of man. In the first hymn (A. & M.) there 
 is a definite reference to it : — 
 
 " O may our inmost hearts be pure, 
 From thoughts of folly kept secure, 
 And pride of sinful flesh subdued. 
 Through sparing use of daily food." 
 
 In the Communion Service also the body is first 
 recognised. In the presentation of the bread and 
 wine the priest says : ' ' Take, eat, . . . , and preserve 
 thy body and soul." At the beginning of every 
 service, morning and evening, there is this exhor- 
 tation : " Ask those things which are requisite and 
 necessary, as well for the body as the soul." 
 
 The Methodists, unfortunately, have changed 
 this old formulae by transforming the sentence so 
 as to make it read, " preserve thy soul and body," 
 placing the body as of secondary importance. 
 
 The Roman Catholics also put the soul before 
 
THE DIETETIC SYSTEM. 33 
 
 the body in their catechism, all of which has a very 
 degenerating influence on the physical and hygienic 
 attention the body requires. This is not in accord- 
 ance with the teachings and practices of the Great 
 Healer, who went about doing good in the most 
 eminent manner, and who emphatically insisted 
 upon self-denial, which is the solid pedestal upon 
 which the system of dietetics is based. 
 
 His care was for the body first, and He instituted 
 the gospel of health. If the body is preserved in 
 purity and health according to His teachings, there 
 is no danger of the more precious and priceless gem 
 which the body is the casket of. When the casket 
 is damaged, shattered, defaced, and broken to pieces 
 the soul still holds possession, but when the casket 
 is destroyed entirely the soul leaves it to return to 
 its.immortal home; 
 
 If the tens of thousands of our clergy studied, 
 taught, practised, and preached more of the gospel 
 of health there would be hopes of an early dawning 
 of the millennium glory. 
 
 If the free dispensaries in our large cities would 
 distribute more sound teachings in dietetics to the 
 poor people and less drugs, there would soon be 
 less free dispensaries needed and far greater health, 
 strength, and physical happiness experienced from 
 generation to generation. 
 
 Now, to come to the point in regard to dietetics 
 as a system, look again at the four classes of the 
 system of medicine, or the remedies of materia 
 medica : — 
 
 1. Air, diet, habits, passions, etc. 
 
 2. Caustics, astringents, etc. 
 
34 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 3. Excitants, cathartics, etc. 
 
 4. Specifics, etc. 
 
 Among these remedies first preference is given to 
 air, diet, and habits ; the very pivotal points of the 
 system of medicine are the same as in the system of 
 dietetics. 
 
 To form a complete system, as already stated, is 
 not done accurately all at once. There are com- 
 binations of parts to be classified into one grand 
 whole ; a collection of rules and principles, a 
 putting together a number of things acting together 
 in harmony, so that the entire scheme m'ay be 
 demonstrated and then explained. 
 
 The system of dietetics may therefore be classi- 
 fied by combining the four classes of materia 
 medica into the first class, viz., air, diet, habits, 
 passions, etc. The principal diet for people who 
 are ill, weak, delicate, and predisposed to any 
 disease, is minced beef and cereal foods in which the 
 starch has been changed, and their drink should be 
 hot or warm water, and not taken with their meals, 
 but night and morning, before going to bed and 
 upon getting up ; then during the day, aboat 
 eleven o'clock in the forenoon, and four o'clock in 
 the afternoon. The minimum quantity of hot 
 water for an ordinary person should be two tumblers 
 full at a time, or four pints a day ; this is half the 
 allowance of beer for each man in the royal navy, 
 and will do more good. The temperature of the 
 water should be from 80" to 100° or 120° Fahr. A 
 small glass thermometer may be used, but is not at 
 all necessary, as the palate will indicate how hot you 
 may drink it; tea is generally taken hotter than 
 
THE DIETETIC SYSTEM. 35 
 
 this. When in the act of drinking, do not gulp it 
 down, but take a little at a time, and if it becomes 
 lukewarm add more hot water from your pitcher so 
 as to keep up the temperature. 
 
 If you are very warm after drinking it, cool off 
 gradually before going into a colder temperature. 
 Avoid drinking anything else or eating anything 
 else for several days, until you thoroughly test 
 this remedy. Persons of sceptical views have used 
 this remedy, and in twenty-four hours realized so 
 much benefit that they have become the strongest 
 advocates of the system. 
 
 I do not recommend the exclusive use of minced 
 beef and hot water, although some do, and no 
 doubt a considerable amount of good has resulted 
 from it, as a complete change of diet, which is so 
 important in certain cases. I do not believe the 
 kidneys are over-worked by it in their effort to throw 
 off the nitrogen, for that is their special duty, nor 
 will the bowels have too little to do for lack of the 
 usual quantity of mineral salts and fat, neither will 
 the liver be injured by hot water, not so much in 
 fact as by hot tea. 
 
 In the chapter before this the quantities of the 
 different food elements are stated. A healthy person 
 requires four-and-a-half ounces of dry nitrogen, 
 three ounces of fat, and one ounce of mineral sub- 
 stances — nothing more, nothing less, so the beef 
 and hot water alone are excellent remedies as 
 affording a complete change in diet; but to continue 
 the exclusive use of them as a therapeutic diet for 
 a lengthy period is not advisable. 
 
 But the best and safest diet is a combination of 
 
36 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 minced beef and bread or biscuits made of flour in 
 which the starch is changed. Gluten flour is some- 
 times condemned, because there is starch found in 
 it. It is difficult to get such flour entirely free from 
 starch. But it is not difficult to get flour and 
 porridge food, too, in which the starch is changed. 
 
 Analysis does not always reveal this fact. In 
 most cases the analyst finds much starch in gluten 
 flour, and is disposed to condemn it as useful for 
 indigestion and diabetes unless he uses his micros- 
 cope. The analyst even then does not, unless he is 
 one skilled in the science of digestion, realize how 
 little of the starch it is necessary to change, or how 
 little the change is, to be like the change made by 
 the saliva on the starch in order to efl'ect the diges- 
 tion of the whole. In doing this, if he finds the 
 starch to be shrivelled up, with many of the 
 granules ruptured, the starch, though present, is 
 changed and rendered easy of digestion. 
 
 This has now become an established fact, the 
 importance of which is not yet realized by one-half 
 of the medical profession. This starch-changed 
 food effectually corrects acidity, and affords more 
 complete nutriment than even pure gluten, which 
 is very expensive and hard to get, as there is only 
 some ID per cent, of it in wheat. 
 
 With such a combination of diet the kidneys 
 draw off the nitrogen through the urine, while the 
 stomach has the hot water which evaporates, so the 
 skin becomes moist. The stomach, kidneys, and 
 arteries spread the elements of food throughout the 
 whole system. This affords assimilation, which is 
 as important as digestion. 
 
THE DIETETIC SYSTEM. 37 
 
 It must be remembered that the hot water is only- 
 taken between meals, which provides perspiration 
 if you take it hot enough, and perspiration for 
 a man in health should be at least twenty-eight 
 ounces in twenty-four hours. All the various 
 chemical changes are going on in every part of 
 the body all this time. The secreting glands or 
 membranes handle the food substances in a perfectly 
 natural manner until they are absorbed by the urine 
 and blood. The result is exhilarating and most 
 satisfactory to all the organs of the system. 
 
 It affords the organs rest after being taxed with 
 food and drink at the same time, and in such 
 abundance for years, that the stomach had become 
 like a seething pot of fermenting yeast. How much 
 more sensible is this, than to keep on drinking after 
 each meal to quench the thirst created by eating 
 and drinking at the same time, until bloated and 
 heavy, and then drink more to try and get the 
 weight removed ? 
 
 Stick to the minced meat and potted beef with 
 starched changed cereals. Begin this part of 
 the system at once, with plenty of hot water 
 between meals. Let these healing streams abound, 
 and you will soon abound with new life, health, and 
 vigour. With this diet, and moderate rubbing the 
 bare skin of your body with your own hands from 
 head to foot, so as to produce a glow of heat, you 
 will soon feel that dietetics and massage are the 
 best friends the body has ever become acquainted 
 with. 
 
38 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Diet and Tissue. 
 
 Cellular tissue or membranes extend through 
 every part of the body under various names and 
 functions. They are the prime agents of our whole 
 physical system, they constitute tone and vigour; 
 they protect and unite every organ. In their 
 cells salts are secreted for bones, and gelatine for 
 cartilages. They consist of crossing threads, inter- 
 minably mysterious and most invaluable. They 
 are agents of immense importance, whose careful 
 attention and vast usefulness should be studied. 
 
 Besides the cellular tissues there are the cutaneous 
 tissues. A fair complexion arises from the trans- 
 parency of the skin, which shows the blood in the 
 cutaneous tissues. But it is the former we have 
 chiefly to do with at present. 
 
 The vital parts of our bodies are made up of 240 
 bones, nine kinds of articulations or joinings, 100 
 cartilages and ligaments, 400 muscles and tendons ; 
 besides blood, arteries, veins, glands, stomach, 
 intestines, lungs, heart, liver, kidneys, and lacteals. 
 There is no wonder it took so many centuries to 
 formulate materia medica into a system, and still, 
 as Dr. Currie says, " So great are the difficulties of 
 tracing out the hidden causes of disorders, that the 
 most candid of the profession lament how unavoid- 
 
DIET AND TISSUE. 39 
 
 ably they are in the dark, so that the best medicines, 
 administered by the wisest heads, often do the 
 mischief they were intended to prevent." 
 
 They are not discouraged, however, by the 
 difSculties met with. They plod on and overcome 
 them as well as possible. They would not be the 
 heroes of the profession, as many of them are, if 
 they yielded to discouragement. 
 
 Professor Gubler, whose study of tissue has been 
 very extensive, has sounded the note of warning in 
 regard to this prime agent. He asserts that the 
 "degeneration of the arteries" is common among 
 vegetable-eating people in France and elsewhere. 
 His finding only confirms the old and oft-repeated 
 opinions of the greatest physiologists concerning 
 the absolute necessity of the nitrogen and carbon 
 elements of food to prevent degeneration of tissue. 
 The essential saline properties which nature put in 
 the food, but which are eliminated from the white 
 loaf, such as potash salts and alkaline phosphates, 
 may be the principal cause of the degeneration of 
 tissue among people who use chiefly a vegetable 
 diet. 
 
 Another cause, no doubt, is in the fancy mode of 
 cooking in this age of cookery, in order to keep up 
 with the excessive demands of fashion. As bread 
 is " the staff of life," when properly made from the 
 whole wheat berry, minus the outside woody fibre, 
 so many vegetables, if properly cooked, would 
 yield greater satisfaction to the tissues. But, alas, 
 the bread and the vegetables are rendered in many 
 cases unfit for tissue food. How many soak the 
 vegetables in cold water to keep them fresh, and 
 
40 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 others blanch them in hot water to please the eye, 
 or boil them and strain off the essence to keep 
 the depleted residue? Kitchen science is terribly 
 defective in its practical rendering of starchy foods 
 so as to be fit for the stomach. 
 
 In this way the soluble salines are almost entirely 
 extracted, leaving the less soluble lime and mag- 
 nesia, the very elements we possess already, in too 
 great abundance. 
 
 For example, one pound of white bread contains 
 seven grains of potash, while ten pounds of whole- 
 wheat meal contains twenty-seven grains of potash. 
 One pound of potatoes, peeled, soaked, and boiled 
 contains twenty-one grains of potash, while the 
 same quantity boiled in their skins contains thirty- 
 seven grains of potash. It is nearly the same with 
 other vegetables, which are spoiled and rendered so 
 effective in the production of "degenerated tissue." 
 
 Like a ship built of rotten timber, people who eat 
 such food go very well in good weather and with 
 a light load; but when they come to bear a little 
 extra load or undergo extra fatigue the arteries, 
 those noble agents who do their utmost to bear 
 with the whims and fancies of people, give way, 
 and there is a break down. Tissue is starved ; all, 
 however, do not suffer alike. Some soon fail, while 
 others, endowed with a first-rate vicera, feel the loss 
 much less. 
 
 Those who have a good reserve force stored up 
 can endure the strain longest. Persons of rheu- 
 matic tendencies, sooner or later, get uric acid in 
 the blood, as the faithful arteries could not keep up 
 with the demands upon them ; or, if it is not uric 
 
DIET AND TISSUE. 41 
 
 acid, it is some other poisonous form, caused by the 
 mal-assimilation of the food which was unsuitable 
 to tissue. Some suffer from indigestion, dyspepsia, 
 nervous irritability, neuralgia, sciatica, lumbago, 
 gravel, heart trouble, or diabetes. There is weak- 
 ness, pallor, distress, or inability to endure fatigue, 
 and when trying to rest they do not rest. The poor 
 tissues are starved. 
 
 Tissues are in reality the elementary portions of 
 the body. The heart, for instance, is an organ con- 
 structed out of muscular tissue, connective tissue, 
 nervous tissue. Each of these tissues manifests the 
 same properties in the heart which it manifests in 
 every other organ, just as the various substances 
 out of which a ship is constructed — wood, copper, 
 iron, etc. 
 
 Life is a misery. They exist rather than live, 
 rousing up now and then under some stimulus, only 
 to relapse into greater weakness. Their only hope 
 is in the system of dietetics. Tissue does not want 
 medicine under such circumstances, but proper food 
 and water. Not whisky, tobacco, nor opium, but 
 good beef, nicely mixed with prepared cereals, and 
 plenty of hot water four times a day, for nutritive 
 purposes, whether you are thirsty or not. 
 
 To illustrate still further the effects of different 
 foods, take one pound of white bread, which yields 
 go grains of strength and 1,900 grains of warmth, 
 compare it with one pound of whole-wheat meal, 
 which yields 120 grains of strength and 2,700 
 grains of warmth, or an average of 40 per cent, 
 more strength and warmth in the latter than the 
 former. In fresh beef, per lb., there are 172 grains 
 
42 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 of strength, and 2,300 grains of warmth, or nearly 
 double the strength, and over 25 per cent, of 
 warmth, as compared with the white loaf, and 40 
 per cent, more strength, and 12^ per cent, less 
 warmth than in the whole-wheat loaf. 
 
 But when the starch in the whole-wheat loaf is 
 changed, its nitrogenous qualities are enhanced, so 
 that as compared with beef it is the better food of 
 the two, and it is well known that gluten will sus- 
 tain life indefinitely. 
 
 The very best diet, therefore, is beef and prepared 
 cereals as recommended in this book, throughout 
 nearly every page. Liebig declares that animal 
 flesh and blood, with vegetable albumen, fibrine, 
 and casein are tissue-making foods, because they 
 are capable of making blood ; and from the blood 
 all tissues are formed. 
 
 If people would eat more of this food, their 
 strength would be greater in proportion, and tissue 
 would be satisfied. The glory of a man is his 
 strength, not his corpulence. What will a man 
 give in exchange for his health? What will it 
 profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose 
 his strength ? A proper combination of food is 
 necessary for the strength and warmth required, 
 according to climate, active or sedentary habits. 
 
 The English nation is composed of beef-eaters. 
 Beef and mutton, and mutton and beef, the people 
 will have. They have secured the name of John 
 Bull, which is proverbial all over the world. If beef 
 were 50 per cent, higher in price, they would still 
 eat it and flourish. The immense cargoes of beef 
 and mutton laid down in Liverpool, from foreign 
 
DIET AND TISSUE. 43 
 
 countries and the colonies, every week, besides 
 what is laid down in London and other large centres, 
 together with all the produce of this country ; not- 
 withstanding all this, there is not enough to bring 
 down the prices very much. It is readily consumed, 
 and English workmen are kept in comparatively 
 good health because they eat so much of it. If they 
 would eat more starch-changed cereals, and bread 
 made of whole-wheat meal with their beef, and less 
 white bread, they would be heartier still, and soon 
 there might be exploits recorded of their strength 
 similar to what was said of the butcher in Henry 
 the VIII's time, that he could fell an ox with the 
 force of his fist. 
 
 Educated, intelligent, thinking men, begin to 
 realize the necessity of a properly-selected diet for 
 themselves and their families, while the great bulk 
 of people do not consider. The raisers of fancy 
 cattle and horses, and the more intelligent farmers, 
 apply scientific laws in the management and care 
 in breeding their prize animals, so as to develop 
 their strength and beauty, their size and value. The 
 farmer has learned how to feed his land, but not 
 how to feed himself; he has learned how to feed 
 his pigs and cattle, but not how to feed his 
 children. They are expected to live, grow, and 
 develop, mentally and physically, without that 
 care and attention which are so necessary, and 
 which are actually bestowed upon the lower animals. 
 
 In all the walks of life few persons give heed or 
 take pains to study Nature's laws in regard to their 
 daily food. They may pray, "Give us this day 
 our daily bread," but do not watch or consider the 
 
44 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 quality of the bread they eat so long as it is sweet, 
 fanciful, and, above all, well advertised. They do 
 not take pains to enquire whether it contains a 
 combination of the elements found in the wheat as 
 it came from the hand of Nature, with all its phos- 
 phates and other mineral salts. If they could but 
 realise that the archfiend of indigestion is the white, 
 new-fangled flour, they would stop and enquire how 
 it is that in the whole history of human life there 
 has never been a period when there existed so 
 many unsatisfactory stomachs. 
 
 Some people declare that their digestion is 
 perfect, but the trouble is in another direction 
 altogether. My dear friend, that trouble in another 
 part arises from the starvation of tissue, or the 
 improper nourishment of tissue, which primarily 
 depends upon the food you eat. Do not be 
 deceived. 
 
 The following story of Dean Barwick is to the 
 point. He was harassed day and night with a 
 continual cough, followed by spitting blood, and 
 afterwards by consumption of the lungs and a- 
 wasting away of the whole body. He had always 
 been very abstemious in his habits, but now he 
 changed his diet entirely. He began to live on 
 oatmeal and barley gruel, made of prepared groats 
 and prepared barley. 
 
 I may explain here that these articles are made, 
 or should be made, by changing the indigestible 
 starch into dextrine, and consequently are the 
 healthiest foods in the world, and will preserve life 
 indefinitely, next to gluten, when nothing else is 
 taken, especially the prepared barley. 
 
DIET AND TISSUE. 45 
 
 Dean Barwick lived on these articles, took no 
 beer, wine, nor any manufactured liquors, but drank 
 water to quench his thirst, and he got well. 
 
 An entire change of diet is often most valuable. 
 St. Paul seemed to know this when he recommended 
 to Timothy to "take no longer water but a little 
 wine for his stomach's sake and his oft infirmities." 
 
 A person accustomed to a diet, no matter what it 
 is, may often get relief by an entire change in his 
 diet. He had far better do this than use drugs. 
 A change of air is often recommended by wise 
 physicians, and is frequently beneficial;, but a return 
 to the old home and occupation often brings back 
 the old symptoms again ; but not so in the change 
 of diet, — that is, an entire change in diet; — -a con- 
 tinued change in diet which must be as radical as 
 the change of air or locality. It is not always 
 necessary to go to the sea side nor mountain peak to 
 get the desired change of air, for often the removal 
 from one town to another, or from one part of 
 the same town to another part, will result in an 
 immediate improvement. Children especially are 
 benefited by a change of air. 
 
 But man is not a nomad, though he may inherit 
 some of the nomadic tendencies of his ancestry. It 
 costs a great deal to make such changes, and it is not 
 every person who can stand the expense, while the 
 change in diet is within the reach of all, and there 
 are abundant proofs that the result is as immediate 
 and far more lasting, because a change of diet 
 changes the blood. The purpose of digestion is to 
 make blood. It prepares the food for its entrance 
 into blood and the formation of tissue. This great 
 
46 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 river of life, when pure from proper food, undergoes 
 many changes in its route, carrying vigour, health, 
 and strength to every part of the body, no matter 
 where a person resides. 
 
 In this change of diet it is certainly understood 
 to include a change in drink. Water is the best 
 drink in the world. An abundant supply of pure 
 soft water is essential to our health; it increases 
 the power of the -gastric juices. If cold water does 
 not suit, take it hot. I venture to state that if 
 Timothy had turned from cold water to hot, his 
 stomach would have been better than from the wine 
 he was recommended to use a little of. 
 
 Water is capable — and the only fluid that is 
 capable — of circulating in all the tissues of the body, 
 so as to penetrate its finest arteries without irrita- 
 tion. It is water alone that forms the fluid portions 
 of the blood, and thus serves to convey the nutri- 
 ment to all parts of the body through the tissues, 
 for their repletion, growth, and nourishment. It is 
 water also which takes up the decaying particles 
 and conveys them by a most complicated and 
 wonderful system of drainage from the body. The 
 water should be soft and pure — and by pure is 
 meant pure, — free from organic matter, especially 
 lime ; and where this cannot be had, a small filterer 
 or cistern for rain water should be secured ; but 
 let it be distinctly understood that if rain-water is 
 used it must be fresh. Rain-water standing in a 
 cistern long is unfit for use even when boiled. 
 Pure, fresh rain-water is an excellent drink. Hard 
 lime water is very bad. 
 
 Hoffman said : " If there be any universal medi- 
 
DIET AND TISSUE. 47 
 
 cine in nature it is water ; for by its assistance all 
 distempers are alleviated or cured, and the body 
 preserved sound." Lettsome ascribed health and 
 wealth to water, and happiness to small beer, and 
 all diseases and crimes to the use of spirits. As the 
 sea is said to be without bottom, so water is without 
 doubt most essential to the tissues of the body, and 
 those noble agents are never displeased with it, 
 especially if it is warm or even hot and pure. 
 
 But some will say : Why not cold water instead of 
 hot? Cold water often bloats you up, causing 
 weight and oppression, while hot water does not ; 
 cold water is some fifty degrees lower in tempera- 
 ture than the body, and takes great energy from the 
 stomach to heat the water up to its own temperature^ 
 and because cold water does not quench the thirst 
 like hot water does, one is liable to drink too 
 much of it ; cold water is often dangerous when 
 the body is very warm. 
 
 A young man, on a hot summer's day, was 
 exercising himself to such an extent that he became 
 very warm and thirsty. He walked some distance 
 to a cool spring and drank deeply of the cold water, 
 and in a few minutes after was dead. His 
 companion warned him to be careful ; but it was 
 too late. Such a fatality could not happen with 
 hot water. Cold water and ices have their proper 
 uses ; so have spirits ; so has poison. 
 
 To make this matter of dietetics and tissue clearer, 
 if possible, so that every person who reads may 
 realize the great importance of keeping the tissues 
 of the body in a healthy state by the use of food 
 such as they require, I will illustrate by another 
 
48 GOOD HEALTH 
 
 reference to the daily needs of man. The four-and- 
 a-half ounces nitrogen, three ounces oil or fat, and 
 one ounce of mineral salts, as stated already, are 
 necessary, — no more, no less, even for a person in 
 sound health, — to keep the body in health, strength, 
 and vigour. While it is not absolutely necessary 
 to drink water at 80°, 100°, or 120°, it is very 
 necessary to avoid more or less of the substances 
 above mentioned in our food. 
 
 It is far more necessary to be particular in this 
 matter than it was for Mr. Phileas Fogg to dis- 
 charge his old and valued servant for bringing him 
 shaving water at 84 instead of at 86 degrees 
 Fahrenheit. If the organs of the human system 
 were as exacting as Mr. Fogg, there would soon 
 be a more perfectly balanced machine or the dis- 
 missal of many more lives. The tissue of the body 
 is like the main-spring of a watch, and requires at 
 least as much care. In one pound of beef without 
 bone there are two and three-fifths ounces of nitro- 
 gen, and four and four-fifths ounces of oil or fat, 
 and four-fifths ounces of mineral matter. To take 
 out the oil or fat; and use two pounds a day of lean 
 beef, you have nearly a perfect supply of all the 
 necessary elements. In a pound of pork or bacon 
 there is nearly three times too much fat, while the 
 nitrogen is deficient. In milk it takes seven pounds 
 to produce the same quantity of nitrogen as is 
 contained in beef, with the same quantity of fat and 
 mineral matter. Seven pounds of milk are there- 
 fore equal to one pound of beef, but milk contains 
 87 per cent, of water to 50 per cent, in beef, and the 
 stomach is distended so much .more by milk than by 
 
DIET AND TISSUE. 49 
 
 beef. Of potatoes it takes thirty-two pounds to 
 produce the same quantity of fat as in one pound of 
 beef, while it takes one hundred and twenty pounds 
 of potatoes to produce as much nitrogen as one 
 pound of beef, and at the same time the thirty-two 
 pounds of potatoes first mentioned would yield three 
 times more mineral salts than the system requires, 
 together with an abundance of starch that would 
 give diabetes to almost any person in these days of 
 varied and fancy diet. 
 
 The cereal products are more in harmony with 
 milk and beef, except for the starch. They 
 contain from 50 per cent, to 75 per cent, of starch, 
 and are vtrj deficient in nitrogen. The starch must 
 be changed or turned into another substance, or 
 a certain proportion of the starch must be changed 
 to render the cereal products of the earth suitable 
 for the diet of people who are in ill-health. 
 
 Especially is this the case when the present 
 system of milling takes out of the flour the 
 invaluable mineral salts. The crust of the bread is 
 wholesome, but the inside of a white loaf softly 
 baked is nearly all starch. I have often at my 
 table taken the inside portion of a piece of bread, 
 squeezed it in my hand to a ball of tough dough, 
 then put it in a glass of water and let it stand until 
 next meal, when I would shew it to my children to 
 let them see how it would act in their stomach if 
 they ate it. They soon became satisfied to eat the 
 brown loaf containing all the essential elements of 
 the wheat, or gluten biscuits in which the starch 
 was changed. In illustrating this subject I have 
 compared tissue to the main spring of a watch. 
 
50 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 which reminds me of the following, taken from a 
 tomb in a churchyard found somewhere in my 
 travels. 
 
 "Here lies, in a Horizontal position, the Outside 
 Case of Grange Roulleigh, Watchmaker, whose 
 abilities in that line were an honour to his Pro- 
 fession. Integrity was the Main-spring and Pru- 
 dence the Regulater of all the Actions of his life. 
 Humane, Generous, and Liberal, his Hands never 
 stopped till he had relieved distress, so nicely 
 Regulated were all his Movements that he never 
 went wrong, except when set agoing by People 
 who did not know his key; Even then he was easily 
 set right again. He had the art of disposing his 
 Time so well, that his Hours glided away in one 
 continual round of pleasure and Delight, till an 
 unlucky Moment put a period to his Existence, 
 Nov. 14, 1802. He was then Wound up in hope 
 of being taken in Hand by His Maker in another 
 shop and thoroughly cleaned for Keeping Good 
 Time in the next world." 
 
 The watch is a piece of skilful mechanism, and 
 requires attention at the hands of the one who 
 carries it. If it is out of repair, an experienced 
 hand must be employed to put it right. It is not 
 everyone who understands a watch, but they might 
 learn ; and so every one may learn how to maintain 
 health. 
 
 The sustentation of the body and. the repairing 
 of its wastes by an adequate supply of wholesorrie 
 and nutritious daily food is a subject of such 
 general importance that it certainly deserves a 
 greater share of attention tl\an it receives. After 
 
DIET AND TISSUE. 51 
 
 giving in these pages some dry figures and sage 
 advice, a little spice by way of a story or illustra- 
 tion may make the dish more palatable ; anything, 
 in fact, bearing on the subject, so as to secure 
 attention and get people to read, study, and under- 
 stand the mechanism of their own bodies. 
 
 Just think : Some people chew tobacco ; the 
 Hindoo finds contentment in beetle-nut and lime ; 
 the Patagonians find a bit of guano a luxury, 
 while the Styrians grow fat on arsenic ; English 
 children delight in sweetmeats, while in Africa they 
 prefer rock salt ; the Frenchman likes frogs and 
 snails, while we eat oysters, eels, and whelks. 
 
 The Esquimaux find train-oil a delicacy ; the 
 Russian luxuriates on hide or tallow ; the Chinese 
 on rats, dogs, and shark fins ; the Kaffir on 
 elephant's foot or trunk and lion steaks ; while the 
 Pacific Islanders preferred, formerly, a piece of 
 cold missionary to any other food. Others feed on 
 rattlesnakes and monkeys, and pronounce them 
 capital eating. Such is what Dr. Simmonds says 
 are the varied and fanciful diet. The piece of "cold 
 missionary" is not simply a joke; thowgh cannibal- 
 ism is now' almost a thing of the past. 
 
 As the nations of the earth become civilized, 
 according to our ideas of civilization, they -make 
 tremendous changes in their diet, and physicians 
 come into demand more and more. If this most 
 excellent profession would only turn their attention 
 to the prevention of disease rather than the cure, 
 the world would soon be the healthier. The person 
 is not yet born who can calculate the importance of 
 substituting a healthy diet, suitable to the stomach 
 
52 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 and tissue, so that people could undergo fatigue 
 as the miners in Chili do, and work like horses, 
 because they live on a simple diet, with one meal a 
 day of grain which has the starch changed in it by 
 their own simple process of preparation, as described 
 by Darwin. 
 
53 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Dietetic Facts. 
 
 The broad road leading to the destruction of healih 
 is thronged by multitudes who prefer to eat, drink, 
 and enjoy themselves on the varied and fanciful 
 diet of the age, rather than deny themselves for the 
 sake of health, strength, and vigour in future years. 
 "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but 
 the end thereof are the ways of death." 
 
 I am pointing out the narrow way that leads to 
 the enjoyment of the greatest health in this world, 
 and if the body is preserved and kept under, as 
 provided in the old directions of the oldest books, 
 then life eternal is secure also. Do you require a 
 guide from that broad pathway leading through the 
 wilderness of weakness to the narrow way of health 
 which explorers have found to their great satisfac- 
 tion ? Are you among that multitude, that no man 
 can number, who have pale countenances, sunken 
 cheeks, trembling lips, glassy eyes, emaciated 
 bodies, veins on fire with fever, limbs twisted 
 with pain, lungs gasping for air, hearts beat- 
 ing unnaturally or with indigestion, dyspepsia, 
 diabetes, or gout ? Then listen to me, for I have 
 had nearly all the above, and three times so 
 near death's door that my friends fancied they 
 could hear the hinges creak. I got well by a 
 
54 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 change of diet. I might have prevented my illness 
 by proper diet if I had been taught. There was no 
 one who cared for my body, or rather they were as 
 ignorant as myself on the subject of proper diet. 
 
 The words of Dr. James Leslie, which are here 
 quoted, should be committed to memory: — "Deteri- 
 oration in the physical stamina of the people is due 
 primarily to defects in the food they eat, and more 
 of it is chargeable to poor bread than to all other 
 causes. The manufacture of flour by the new 
 process gives us little but the starch and the lime 
 from the wheat, and excludes the bone -making 
 phosphates entirely. This is the reason why so 
 many young people have defective teeth, and these 
 will show at' ages earlier and earlier, until there is 
 a radical revolution in flour making. We must 
 recover all those lost phosphates." 
 
 The above is so true that the knowledge of it is 
 being felt, and the serious effects are spreading like 
 a prairie fire, carrying destruction before it to an 
 alarming extent. So important has the subject 
 become that the patent offices in all countries 
 where indigestion and dyspepsia are prevalent are 
 being filled with new devices to manufacture flour 
 in a different way. Some of them add mineral salts, 
 as near the proportion found in the natural wheat 
 berry as possible ; some add a percentage of the 
 coarse meal, germ, or middlings to the flour ; some 
 provide for the introduction of chemicals. The 
 addition of more germ than the natural quantity is a 
 fearful mistake. Some add one thing, some another, 
 to make a dark loaf or a brown loaf, a coarse loaf 
 or a white loaf. 
 
DIETETIC FACTS. 55 
 
 But they can never replace the same substances 
 in the same proportions as Nature did in the wheat. 
 They are all a failure, and will produce mischief; 
 the whole wheat, except the woody fibre as already 
 explained, is the only thing to make proper flour 
 from. 
 
 The same physician further says : " The combina- 
 tion of elements found in our wheat seems to be a 
 necessary condition to health and successful bone- 
 making. Not only the teeth of the people are 
 affected, but their stomachs are diseased by this 
 emasculated flour. Never before in human history 
 have the people suffered so long without seeking 
 out the true cause and applying a remedy. Every 
 competent physician understands the cause if he is 
 skilled in chemistry, and would only investigate. 
 
 " At a dental convention a few years ago the ques- 
 tion was broadly discussed, and the fact evolved that 
 ' teething ' is later with the average infant than 
 formerly, and that the teeth do not endure more 
 than two-thirds the number of years they did under 
 the old system of eating. The introduction of 
 phosphates into the food of women during gestation 
 has since been tried, but does not work satisfac- 
 torily." 
 
 Then change the diet. Why not? Do you wish 
 to tone up the stomach and impart new vigour to 
 the whole system? To bring back the roses to the 
 cheeks and the general bloom and buoyancy of 
 health? Then begin at once a new system of 
 living. Remember it takes time to produce a 
 radical change from the present weak state to 
 robust health, as it took time to produce the evil 
 
56 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 consequences now existing. But you may begin 
 to feel better in twenty-four hours; and if you per- 
 severe there will be a gradual improvement, and the 
 generation following will reap a still more per- 
 manent blessing. 
 
 A lady, who is now the wife of a clergyman 
 living in Canada, some year or so before her 
 marriage suffered from indigestion. In her child- 
 hood and youth and during her school days she 
 enjoyed uninterrupted health with an exuberance of 
 vivacity which made her company always pleasant. 
 Her cheeks bore the bloom and her lips the rosy 
 hue of health, and she was seldom tired. After 
 quitting school, where twice as much work was 
 crowded into the time allotted for her studies than 
 should have been allowed, she began preparations 
 for the bridal outfit. Day after day and week after 
 week she sat and sewed, or planned and talked, 
 with an occasional hour at the piano and a few 
 minutes now and then receiving and entertaining at 
 an afternoon tea. There was a complete change in 
 her occupation to what she had been accustomed to. 
 
 The sports, such as croquet, riding, tennis, 
 skating, walking, etc., were all given up. Her 
 grand-parents, with whom she was living, did not 
 realize the effects of such a change, and became 
 much alarmed at the symptoms of illness which 
 kept on increasing from day to day. The diet 
 supplied was the daintiest that could be prepared. 
 The physician prescribed iron tonics and the whole 
 round of remedies, but she grew weaker every day. 
 The beautiful healthy girl became languid, pale, 
 and gloomy. 
 
DIETETIC FACTS. 57 
 
 Then, as a dernier resort, the physician advised 
 a trip of some three hundred miles away, and she 
 started with a full supply of medicines and special 
 directions to eat eggs, beef, and mutton, and to 
 drink plenty of milk. The change of air, as is often 
 the case, produced a gleam of hope and a brighter 
 prospect for a few days. In a few weeks, however, 
 she became worse, with increasing distress in her 
 stomach ; when a friend of hers and mine advised 
 her to visit me. She did so. I questioned her 
 about her diet. She had for breakfast porridge 
 and milk, poached eggs, and beef steak or lamb 
 chops ; drank no tea, but drank milk with some 
 buttered toast. For dinner, soup, roast beef usually, 
 or lamb, puddings, cheese, milk, with nuts, raisins 
 etc. For tea, cold meat and buttered toast, milk, 
 preserves, and biscuits. When I explained to her 
 that so much animal food and starchy food com- 
 bined gave her stomach two or three times the 
 quantity of the necessary elements to health, even 
 for a healthy man, she saw at a glance that the 
 physician did not understand his business. Meat, 
 milk, eggs, butter, fat, soup, and cheese are all 
 heavy foods to be taken into the stomach ; and no 
 wonder they produce indigestion, constipation, 
 diarrhoea, and dyspepsia. 
 
 She followed my instructions, changed her diet 
 to my regime, and got well, but had but little con- 
 fidence afterwards in that physician. She is to-day 
 the happy mother of children blooming with health, 
 and she takes care how to diet them. 
 
 It is most extraordinary that so many people have 
 the idea they will die from starvation, unless 
 
58 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 they eat just so much. It is not what we eat that 
 nourishes us, but what we digest, and not even what 
 we digest easily, but what assimilates. There are 
 very few in the world who starve to death, but there 
 are tens of thousands who die from over-eating. In 
 London, in the year 1895, there were seventy-one 
 deaths recorded from starvation out of the five or 
 six millions of people in that city. 
 
 Dr. W. A. Guy, a generation ago, compared the 
 rations in different prisons, and found that health 
 varied with the cost of food ; the cheapest diet was 
 the most nutritious and wholesome. Half-a-century 
 ago the boys in Christ's Hospital had just sufficient 
 food to still their hunger and no more ; five days a 
 week they had flesh meat for dinner, on one day 
 peas-pudding and another day plum pudding. No 
 boys ever enjoyed better health. 
 
 Bishop Vendeville, a man of great Christian zeal, 
 was once taken prisoner, and forced to live in a 
 Dutch gaol on a spare diet. When he was after- 
 wards released he declared that he had learned by 
 experience what he otherwise never would have 
 believed, that nature is content, nay, thrives and is 
 hearty on so little food. He was a man enured to 
 a soft and delicate life, and thought it impossible to 
 live, be hearty and well on prison fa-re. He always 
 looked upon the prison as an excellent school, and 
 of great benefit to him in after life. As to a change 
 of diet, already frequently referred to, Dr. G. Cheyne 
 said: "After thirty years practice I have advised 
 this method (changing diet) in proper cases, and 
 have had but two cases in whose total recovery I 
 have been mistaken." 
 
DIETETIC FACTS. 59 
 
 It is recorded of Voltaire that when nearly sixty 
 years of age he had to abandon his literary work 
 on account of distress in his stomach from indiges- 
 tion. In his gloomy weakness he went to visit his 
 aged mother, who told him that when she was about 
 his age she was greatly troubled in the same way, 
 and was entirely cured by leaving off every kind of 
 food but potato-farina and buttermilk. He adopted 
 the same diet and soon got well. 
 
 Now let me explain that potatoes do not contain 
 but about one-third as much starch as the cereal 
 foods do, and that in proper potato-farina a great 
 deal of the starch is changed to another and more 
 wholesome substance, while buttermilk alone in 
 some cases will cure indigestion if it has a proper 
 chance. The following is a quotation from a letter 
 I, have just received from a young clergyman in 
 Canada. He is one of many who are deeply grateful 
 for the guidance in diet which led to a complete 
 restoration of his health : — "Last Sunday I had, as 
 usual, three services and a Sunday school, besides 
 a fifteen-miles drive through a snow and rain storm. 
 I was cold and wet, but not fatigued. The next 
 morning I was up at five o'clock as fresh as a lark. 
 I still sleep with my window open each night, not 
 to excess, of course — no excess in anything is 
 admissible, ^ — but just a little to keep the air pure, 
 cool, and fresh in my room. While I observe the 
 diet, bathing, massage, and drinking hot water 
 according to your directions I am in splendid 
 condition." 
 
 A few years ago this was a young man studying 
 hard for the ministry, but so weak and delicate that 
 
60 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 he thought, and his friends considered, he was not 
 long for this world. He was obliged to leave 
 college and abandon study when I took him in 
 hand. 
 
 If I have to make an apology for the appearance 
 of this book before the public, the above with many 
 more such cases have goaded me on to write and 
 publish the good news, that others may believe and 
 also be healed by the same means. 
 
 The system of dietetics does wonders. The food 
 recommended is worth a guinea a pound compared 
 to any puffed-up patent remedy in existence. Why 
 do physicians keep so well? Because they do not 
 keep dosing themselves with drugs. 
 
 In April, 1883, I received a letter, of which the 
 following is an extract. It was from the Rev. 
 W. M. Peacock, in Canada: — "Four years ago 
 I had to give up my pastorate in the city of 
 Kingston, and have been an invalid ever since ; 
 lately my digestion has become so impaired that I 
 could get no article of diet that would agree with 
 me. I was absolutely slowly starving in the midst 
 of plenty, till a friend directed my attention to your 
 diet system, which I adopted, and now write grate- 
 fully to let you know it has been a great boon to 
 me." 
 
 Why should there not be improvements in 
 health, strength, and vigour, as in other things? 
 During the century now drawing to a close many 
 civilizing and developing influences have come to 
 the aid of man. In my introduction some of these 
 are referred to. Glance at them once again. Look 
 at the revolution wrought by steam on land and 
 
DIETETIC FACTS. 61 
 
 water ; then look at those thinner lines which not 
 only cover the land but traverse the bed of the 
 ocean and carry with lightning speed messages 
 from one end of the earth to the other. It was 
 thought for years that the Great Western, a 1,378 
 tons vessel, did wonders in crossing the Atlantic in 
 fifteen days ; but now a steamer of 12,000 tons does 
 the distance in one-third of the time. These are a 
 sample of the efforts resulting from an awakened 
 conscience among the nations of the earth in con- 
 nection with education and improvements. 
 
 But while the work of the world is being ever 
 more and more specialised, the education of our 
 times in respect to health and strength lags fear- 
 fully behind. This is an age of education ; the 
 great political fights over education, by which one 
 party falls and another succeeds to government, 
 proves its power. There are schools of all kinds, 
 and universities, museums, free libraries, art gal- 
 leries, and no end of daily, weekly, and monthly 
 publications. Everybody admits that children and 
 adults are greatly affected by their environment. 
 
 Just as sanitary dwellings, good drainage and 
 the like are necessary, yet when it comes to proper 
 diet, pure air, and pure water, being essential to 
 health, the remarkable apathy to become deeply 
 interested in these is amply proved by the small 
 patronage afforded health journals, while comic 
 society or the popular novels of the day are sold 
 by the hundred thousand. 
 
 This book, which will cost many tens of pounds to 
 publish, may not yield enough to pay the expense, 
 but what of that, compared to the satisfaction 
 
62 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 of sowing good seed which some one will reap the 
 fruits of. The work will not be lost. I am satisfied 
 that in time the system here advocated will produce 
 a bounteous harvest. All those who have been 
 restored to health by its means are already gener- 
 ating and influencing the good cause. Almost 
 daily I hear of the harvest of strength and stamina 
 one and another is reaping from this system. They 
 keep their eyes open and their powder dry in order 
 to defend this great Gibraltar of protection against 
 weakness and disease, Some scoff at the idea of 
 simple diet and regime preventing the dangers to 
 health and life that surround us every day ; but 
 what people see and feel they relate with confidence. 
 
 One man, nearly sixty years of age, was so low 
 with diabetes that he thought his hour had come, 
 and his friends told the sad news that spread over 
 two continents. He adopted a beef and prepared 
 cereal diet with hot water, as fully laid down in this 
 work. In two days his urine was as clear as a 
 baby's, and in one month he was able to endure 
 more mental work, and undergo greater physical 
 exploits than he had done for years.. 
 
 If you wish to really enjoy your food as you did 
 in the days of your youth after some exhilarating 
 sports, then adopt this diet. If you want to really 
 enjoy sound and refreshing sleep, throw away the 
 drugs and adopt this diet. If you smoke, and want 
 to enjoy a really good old-fashioned puff at the pipe, 
 secure the same by attention to this regimen ; but 
 do not smoke, chew, and snuff — one of them is 
 enough, and a smoke is the least objectionable, and 
 should be indulged in moderation. 
 
DIETETIC FACTS. 63 
 
 It is a good plan for those who smoke to use a 
 mixture of some good healthy substance combined 
 with tobacco. It is said that the manufacturers 
 of one of the most popular smoking mixtures in 
 England use up nearly as many loads of good 
 Timothy hay in their factory as they do of the real 
 tobacco. Hay is a good thjng for horses, and why 
 not for man ? If he cannot eat it, and likes to smoke 
 it, very well— it is better than all tobacco. Hay is 
 actually matured grass, and grass is now coming to 
 the front as a remedial agent for the cure of most 
 complaints. 
 
 In London there is nearly as much rage over it 
 as the motor-car. An infusion of it is said to ward 
 off colds and contagious ailments. I have not tried 
 it, but the diet on sensible human food and hot 
 water has proved successful. Grass may be good 
 as a complete change, and I do most unhesitatingly 
 recommend a ct)mplete change in diet in many 
 instances. 
 
 It proved a great moral, physical, and mental 
 blessing to Nebuchadnezzar, who lived well on it 
 for a long time. It is a great bone food, for his 
 nails were like birds' claws. He was so much 
 improved by the change, that he became more 
 excellent in majesty, and otherwise so much im- 
 proved that he outlived his son Belshazzar, "whose 
 varied and fanciful" diet led to his early death. 
 
 And do not ten thousands die annually from 
 the same cause, to one who dies of starvation ? 
 Belshazzar might better have done as his father did, 
 eat grass with the ox, than turn night into day with 
 revelry and loose carousal, which brought the hand- 
 
64 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 writing on the wall, and brought him to an early 
 and dishonoured grave. 
 
 Ah ! how many are cut off in the prime of life 
 because they will not listen to the things that make 
 for their peace, enjoyment, and health ! Every one 
 is keen for enjoyment, and yet they take the broad 
 way that leads to destruction. Turn, turn at once, 
 and make a radical change in your diet ; do it 
 with earnestness, perseverance, and an iron will to 
 follow out the directions already given, and those 
 which are to follow. 
 
65 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Dietetics and Diabetes. 
 
 The immoderate or morbid flow of urine with 
 sugar deposits is one of the prevailing diseases of 
 the age, and is called Diabefes. For some years it 
 was considered incurable, but dietetics have proved 
 the contrary. There is no need for any one to die 
 of this disease, yet thousands do. The immoderate 
 flow of urine is not always a clear proof of the 
 existence of this disease. A morbid and highly 
 coloured urine is frequently as bad or worse than 
 the other. If you have a sandy deposit in the urine, 
 take care ; it is a warning. 
 
 The starchy foods are making havoc with the 
 precious tissues. Unless the diet is changed there 
 will certainly be other warnings in a few months or 
 in a few years. If there is wind on the stomach it 
 proves that there is fermentation. In both cases 
 the wind on the stomach and sandy deposit are 
 warnings. 
 
 In financial circles in many places the bank 
 sends out notices to persons who have notes matur- 
 ing to pay up on a certain date when they are due. 
 So the faithful organs of the human system send 
 out the sandy deposit, and sometimes the wind, or 
 other notices that there has to be attention given to 
 your way of eating and drinking, for the liver and 
 
66 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 kidneys cannot handle successfully a food that does 
 not suit their capacity, such as white bread and no 
 end of other things in combination. 
 
 The liver does its part, but when overloaded 
 throws more work upon the kidneys, which in turn 
 do their part, until both are clogged in trying to 
 dispose of the food they were never made to handle 
 except in small and suitable quantities. This exces- 
 sive labour on the part of these faithful and 
 devoted servants results in some derangement, one 
 of which is diabetes. 
 
 Many people have this disease and do not know it. 
 Recently a man was examined by a physician for 
 insurance on his life, and rejected by the company 
 because he had very evident symptoms of diabetes. 
 He at once commenced a special diet and is doing 
 well. 
 
 When the warning is first given there should be 
 attention to it at once, for there is no leniency. 
 The debt must be paid. If you proceed in the usual 
 way, and ignore the warning, a summons is issued, 
 and you are called to the bar of justice. Perhaps 
 it is diabetes, rheumatism, gout, erysipelas, fever, or 
 paralysis; in any case you must pay the penalty or 
 go to the prison of death. 
 
 A certain piece of mechanism is carefully made 
 to produce a certain kind of manufactured goods. 
 It works to perfection, and proves the skill of its 
 maker ; but an ignorant or inattentive operator 
 takes charge of it, and by over-feeding or not oiling, 
 by not preparing the materials properly by which it 
 is loaded, or allowing a bolt to get loose, a belt to 
 come off, or some one part or another to become 
 
DIETETICS AND DIABETES. 67 
 
 deranged, the machine soon produces an inferior 
 product not fit for the market. 
 
 The human system is a machine most skilfully 
 and delicately constructed, yet so complete in all its 
 parts that man has been declared to be only a little 
 lower than angels. 
 
 It is amazing how ignorant and inattentive most 
 people are in regard to their bodies. The skilful 
 mechanic prides himself on the perfection of his 
 work, and all the minuticB of his machines are known 
 to him, but he is ailing and miserable from the ill 
 effects of not knowing the way to run his own body, 
 so that it will do the work nature intended it to do. 
 
 Ladies will dress to perfection, spend hours at 
 their toilet, and powder their faces to appear as 
 beautiful as possible, while they give no attention 
 to the study of anatomy, physiology, or hygiene, 
 and they, of all created human beings, should 
 know the things that make for the peace, health, 
 and vigour of themselves and their children. If 
 the ladies — God bless them, for they are indeed 
 only a little lower than angels, — would but turn 
 their attention to the study of this subject as they 
 do towards petitions to Government and many 
 humane and excellent measures for the amelioration 
 of poverty, crime, and wretchedness, they would 
 strike at the root of an evil greater than any other 
 that exists under the sun. 
 
 How is it so much attention is paid to so many 
 minor matters, and this hydra-headed giant of evil 
 is allowed to stalk through the land, destroying its 
 tens of thousands, while other evils over which so 
 much ado is made only destroy by the thousand ? 
 
G8 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 Notwithstanding the rage about technical schools 
 — where people can learn everything necessary 
 to their calling — and the amount of money spent 
 on colleges, universities, and schools of almost 
 every description, there is almost a total neglect 
 to teach the children the first elements of the 
 proper use of the organs of their own bodies. 
 While one is done the other should not be left 
 undone. 
 
 In the present school system in England hard- 
 working men are subjected to a harsh and unjust 
 treatment at times, owing to the shackles of what 
 was considered, when adopted, a very excellent 
 system of board control, so as to compel parents 
 to educate their children in the "three R's." 
 Cases have become public where the father has 
 been away at work, the mother away at the dram- 
 shop, and the children playing on the streets 
 instead of at school as the law provided. The 
 father, without any fault of his, has to pay a fine or 
 go to prison for neglecting to send his children to 
 school, while the real fault lies with the drunken 
 mother. It is said such cases of hardship could be 
 counted by hundreds. 
 
 If there had been schools for teaching dietetics 
 and the simple rudiments of hygiene to which half 
 the compulsory efforts had been used to get attend- 
 ance, and such mothers had been instructed in the 
 right way, there would be less of such hardships 
 as reported above. 
 
 Why do the clergy and the Church not work 
 more in this field ? Alas, they do what they can in 
 what they consider their proper sphere. Then 
 
DIETETICS AND DIABETES. 69 
 
 some one must do it. I do what I can, but there 
 needs an arjny of workers in this field. I have 
 never charged a penny up to the present time for 
 what I have done, while persons have paid large 
 sums of money and received far less benefit than 
 from the gratuitous directions received from me. 
 In one case reported to me, loo guineas were paid 
 for advice and medical directions by a person 
 suffering with diabetes, and not a hundredth part 
 of the permanent benefit as was received from a 
 few minutes' interview with me. A hint sometimes 
 is worth more than a guinea. 
 
 In one case a merchant in Glasgow, who had 
 been using gluten flour from New York, wrote 
 to me and then came to see me, and adopted my 
 system, and though eighty years of age at the time, 
 lived five years more on the flour I prescribed, with 
 meat and hot water. I heard from him several 
 times after the interview with great satisfaction at 
 the relief he obtained. 
 
 Another case was that of a prominent Canadian 
 senator, who was troubled with this disease, more 
 or less, for over thirty years, and got gluten flour 
 from Paris until he heard of my remedy. For many 
 years he and his lady followed my directions, and, 
 though in a good old age, enjoyed fairly good 
 health and took supplies of the diet I recommended 
 in all their travels. 
 
 It is not strange, though true, that the rise and 
 spread of diabetes was contemporaneous with the 
 introduction of the white flour and the " varied and 
 fanciful diet " so often referred to. Why repeat ? 
 Why? Because there is need of line upon line. 
 
70 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 precept upon precept, in such a matter of vital 
 importance. 
 
 Tile liuman system makes no mistakes. The 
 organs of the body do their worlc faithfully. It is 
 the human will that gives the trouble. It holds 
 the sovereign sway over the palate, which it would 
 sooner please than any other part of the body. 
 Like a favourite child in a mis-regulated family, 
 every consideration is bestowed upon that child, 
 regardless of the others. The will controls the 
 palate, and custom has made the palate as degener- 
 ate as the heart of a callous criminal. The 
 unreasonable demands of fashion have produced 
 appetites which are difficult for the will to control, 
 even when disposed to do so. 
 
 Among the demands of fashion is the white fine 
 bread, which the eye is pleased with, as Eve was 
 pleased with the sight of the forbidden fruit. As 
 Milton says : " She stretched forth her hand: she 
 plucked, she ate ; earth felt the wound, and nature 
 throughout all her works gave signs of woe that 
 all was lost." 
 
 The human will says to the palate : " This bread 
 is beautiful ; it is so white and pleasing to look at, 
 I must eat it." The palate is subservient to the 
 will, and the result, which is slow at the beginning, 
 is terrible in the end. The disordered condition of 
 the stomach, the liver, the kidneys, and starvation 
 of the tissues cause undue fermentation in the 
 stomach and^bowels. 
 
 The blood is obstructed in its passage and 
 rendered impure ; the heart pumps and throbs in 
 its effort to handle the overload, while the liver and 
 
DIETETICS AND DIABETES. 71 
 
 kidneys, in their effort to assist one another, as well 
 as the heart, find the accumulation of carbonic acid 
 gas so continuous, and other acids forming from 
 additional food and drink regularly indulged in 
 before the last meal had been disposed of by these 
 faithful agents, that some part of the great machine 
 fails. 
 
 Some people have the habit of using too much 
 salt in their food. It is a habit that grows on one. 
 For many years no perceptible injury is experienced, 
 but finally the kidneys are overstrained by the tax 
 on them to eliminate the saline properties, and 
 nephrites in one form or another sets in ; it may be 
 gravel. Cease using salt, except the portion nature 
 put in the food. It is well known that salt meat is 
 very difficult to digest. 
 
 It is no wonder, for a machine made of steel and 
 oak would fail to do its work if used in so ignorant 
 a manner. The only hope is in a complete change 
 of diet. 
 
 Take lean meat and starch-changed cereals, and 
 drink only hot water, so as to wash away and clean 
 out all the foul fermenting acids and nauseous, 
 fetid, saccharine, starchy slime that has been gather- 
 ing so long in the stomach, intestines, and arteries. 
 Wash and clean away from the liver and kidneys 
 all the obstructions that your former diet caused 
 to give trouble. Water does wonders ; it cured 
 Naaman of leprosy. 
 
 The blood is composed of seven-eighths water. 
 How is the blood made? The stomach, when in a 
 healthy condition, converts food into a pulp called 
 chyme, and passing it into the intestines, bile 
 
72 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 converts it into a milky substance called chyle, in 
 which state the lacteal absorbents convey it to the 
 blood near the heart, through which it passes to the 
 lungs and becomes real blood ; that is the simple 
 process of making pure blood. Men, by the light 
 of science and invention may make almost every- 
 thing but one drop of pure blood, except through 
 the above process. 
 
 Then how very particular we should be about 
 our food. Digestion of food into chyme means, — its 
 trituration, fermentation, putrefaction, and solution 
 by the gastric juices of the stomach. If the gastric 
 juice is insufficient to bring into solution and convert 
 the food into chyme, there is distress in the stomach, 
 headache, constipation, diarrhoea, diabetes, or some 
 other trouble which gives the warning notice to 
 beware. 
 
 This is an age of gum-chewing. Large manufac- 
 turing establishments are created for the purpose of 
 making chewing-gum, which is advertised exten- 
 sively as a remedy for dyspepsia. Later on, pepsin 
 was added to make it more effectual in relieving the 
 weight and fullness and flatulence so often felt after 
 a hearty meal on the full-fare list of every-day or 
 Sunday dinners. 
 
 Finally, people begin to learn that chewing-gum, 
 taking tonics, using effervescent drinks, taking 
 pills, salts, and every patent remedy in the whole 
 catalogue only affords temporary relief, and they 
 are soon in the old path of distress and gloom ; and 
 they will get worse, unless they make a very radical 
 change and watch what they put in their mouth and 
 take into their stomach. It requires to be of that 
 
DIETETICS AND DIABETES. 73 
 
 character that the gastric juice can dissolve and 
 convert into chyme. 
 
 The saliva of the mouth and heat of the stomach, 
 combined with the action of the gastric juice, first 
 converts the starch of food into dextrine ; but if there 
 is more starch than the saliva, the heat, and gastric 
 juice can manage, then the blame is not on the 
 stomach, but on the food; and the food is not to 
 blame either, but the will of man, whose unreason- 
 able tyranny and ignorance forced the food into the 
 stomach. 
 
 One great difficulty I have found in curing 
 diabetes, and other disorders as well, arises from 
 people not carrying out implicitly the directions 
 regarding their diet. They begin well, and appear 
 determined to follow every detail, but from the force 
 of habit the old way comes upon them like an in- 
 sidious foe, and they are set back before they know 
 it. One gentleman had found relief to such an 
 extent that no saccharine matter was found in his 
 urine for some weeks ; he had become so well that 
 he could stand an east wind — and a Lancashire east 
 wind — ^which is a trying test for an invalid in the 
 English climate. 
 
 He could also run up and down stairs and under- 
 go considerable physical exercise without fatigue. 
 But all of a sudden there was a warning notice sent 
 him — his urine was morbid, highly coloured, with 
 a deposit in it ; his lips and mouth were dry ; 
 some flatulence and wind eructations with which 
 he had been troubled before, came on again. For 
 a day or two he could not think of the cause, as he 
 had faithfully, as he considered, carried out all the 
 
74 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 instructions. He ate the lean meat, mostly minced, 
 drank hot water, with starch-changed cereal food 
 as before. 
 
 But the alarm signals were up, and continued 
 sounding in his ears like a dismal fog whistle, warns 
 the mariner of approaching danger. The human 
 system makes no mistake ; it is a perfect machine, 
 which has the power, to a great extent, of repairing 
 itself, with some slight assistance at our hands. 
 Nature will do its part perfectly if it has a chance. 
 It clings to life; it hates the sound of disorder; it 
 warns of danger. 
 
 At last this gentleman discovered the cause of the 
 new trouble. He had commenced taking a small 
 glass of Scotch whisky and water with his lunch and 
 at dinner ; that was all ; only that and nothing 
 more. He gave it up and took no liquids whatever 
 with his food, and the warning signals were taken 
 down. The urine became clear, and the parched 
 lips did not require a lick from the tongue every two 
 minutes to moisten them. After some months 
 longer on this diet he found no derangement from 
 an occasional indulgence in whisky and water. 
 
 Dear reader, if you are disposed to adopt the 
 system of diet here recommended, and should 
 happen to forget any of the directions I have 
 given, allow me to impress upon your mind with 
 an indelible stamp this one precept — if you find 
 your mouth so dry that you cannot eat without 
 •mashing down the food with some liquid, though it 
 be only water, you had better not eat at all. Wait 
 until the natural saliva is enough to moisten your 
 mouth so that even the driest food, like hard 
 
DIETETICS AND DIABETES. 
 
 75 
 
 gluten biscuits, will be enjoyed. No difficulty will 
 be experienced afterwards, because the gastric juices 
 of the stomach will be ample under such circum- 
 stances to do justice to all that comes along in 
 moderation. 
 
 Another point which should be kept in mind, 
 is the desire to be fat and increasing in weight. 
 This is an abominable desire, begotten of ignorance 
 and pride. Muscle is better than fat ; tissue is a 
 thousand times better than corpulence ; strength 
 is more glorious and beautiful than weight. There 
 are scores of people paying out guineas by the 
 hundred, to get their weight reduced and their 
 corpulence brought within the bounds of respectable 
 dimensions. An old and effectual remedy for doing 
 this is very simple, which is — "eat less, sleep less, 
 and work harder." 
 
 But an easier means, yet more effectual, is to 
 adopt the system of dietetics advocated in these 
 pages. The following is given by the best 
 authorities as the normal weight of men compared 
 with their height at the ages indicated : — ■ 
 
 Age 20, 5 ft. 6 in., weight 132 lbs. ^ The weight of 
 
 30, 5 ft. 6^ in., ,, 140 ,, man may exceed 
 
 40, 5 ft. 7 in., ., 142 ,, this by 10 per cent., 
 
 50, 5 ft. 6|in,, ,, 140 ,, beyond that his 
 
 60, 5 ft- 6 in., ,, 136 ,, respiration becomes 
 
 70, 5 ft. 5 in., ,, 131 ,, diminished. 
 
 The weight and height of females average 10 per 
 cent less, and in both cases different heights above 
 and below those given should be in proportion to 
 those given above. 
 
 I am well aware that the average weights are 
 higher in later years, since the " varied and fanciful 
 
76 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 diet" has come into vogue, but this is only in 
 consequence of the diet, and by no means indicates 
 more strength or better health, but the contrary. 
 The old pun, " Why does an alderman wear a 
 tartan vest ?" and the answer, " To keep a check on 
 his stomach," is very significant ; but it is mis- 
 leading ; he should keep a check on his will. The 
 will should control the stomach, but while men 
 exercise their wills in the control of their business 
 and everything else, they seem to be incapable of 
 doing so in regard to their diet. 
 
 The consequence is that one of the most universal 
 maladies of the present day among business men 
 and others is, they have in some one form or other, 
 to some extent more or less, diabetes, Bright's 
 disease, rheumatism, dyspepsia, gout, or some 
 kindred complaint. They catch cold easily, have 
 chills or fever when they should be able and might 
 be able to stand fatigue, stand a little draught, stand 
 an east wind, stand the worry of every-day hustle 
 and bustle of a keen competition, if they only 
 attended to the simple matter of proper dietetics, 
 hygiene, and massage. If people would only live 
 so as to keep on hand some reserve stock of strength 
 in cases of emergency, there would not be so 
 many painfully sudden deaths. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Let us Reason Together. 
 
 During the dark and middle ages men gave little 
 attention to things from a physical basis, but attri- 
 buted all phenomena to a supernatural agency, 
 either heavenly or diabolical, and the masses of the 
 people reaped the fruit of their ignorance, so that 
 plagues and pestilence raged throughout the length 
 and breadth of Europe. 
 
 At such times there was an important class of 
 people scattered among the nations who often 
 proved hostile to them, yet who escaped from the 
 epidemic and endemic diseases as though they 
 possessed a charmed life amid the afflictions of the 
 others. 
 
 These were the Jews, who, though they had for- 
 gotten many of the laws of Moses, did not forget 
 the guides to health which he gave, and of which 
 there has never been an improvement. 
 
 Moses may be considered the father of dietetics 
 andof public hygiene, for what the ten command- 
 ments' are to the moral and spiritual welfare of the 
 community, his laws pertaining to the physical 
 well-being of the public are equally important. 
 His strict regulations as to the kind and mode of 
 preparing food, the slaughtering of animals, and 
 
78 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 precepts as to the animals permitted for food and 
 their mode of death, as well as his laws forbidding 
 the marriage of kindred and the situation of ceme- 
 teries, time of burial, and the isolation of the sick, 
 are all foundation stones in the system of preventa- 
 tive medicine as understood to-day by the most 
 enlightened nations of the world. 
 
 In the menu of Adam's dining table there was 
 profuse variety. It reads something like this : 
 " Every herb bearing seed, and every tree bearing 
 fruit, to you it is given for meat," and then further 
 on it is amended by including " every tree of the 
 garden of Eden thou mayest eat freely : but," and 
 here is the restriction, "the tree of the knowledge 
 of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it, for on the 
 day thou eatest of it, thou shalt surely die." The 
 herbs and fruit at that period were sufficient as 
 perfect diet, and they might eat of them freely. 
 
 After the fall of man through eating the wrong 
 food there was no more free eating ; they had to 
 earn their bread by the sweat of their brow after 
 that, and so it has been ever since, is now, and will 
 be to the end. 
 
 In the viemi of Noah's dining table there was a 
 great change introduced. The fruits and cereals of 
 the earth are supposed to be less sustaining; and 
 the earth's surface underwent a great change, as the 
 waters of the deluge produced a chemical trans- 
 formation, which not only affected the products of 
 the soil, but man's nature as well. 
 
 It is considered by eminent authorities that 
 animal flesh was not used for human food before 
 the flood, but afterwards it was not only permitted, 
 
LET US REASON TOGETHER. 79 
 
 but commanded — implied in a manner that seemed 
 to carry the weight of command. The new menu 
 introduced was still broader than before, and 
 included "every moving thing that liveth shall be 
 meat for you; even as the green herb have I given 
 you all things, but ;" and here comes in the 
 restriction again. 
 
 In the menu of Moses' dining table there is 
 another change made : Unleavened bread and 
 leavened bread ; bread made with oil, besides 
 various kinds of flesh, with most stringent restric- 
 tions regarding other kinds ; how they were to 
 be cooked, prepared and served, with minute 
 instructions as to the vessels, the ovens, pots, pans, 
 wells of water, and clothes, as well as the purifica- 
 tion of men, women, and children. 
 
 The use of blood as food, or in the food, was an 
 offence punished severely, and in cases where the 
 blood was spilt, it had to be immediately covered 
 over with dust. There were directions also given 
 for abstinence or fasting, when no kind of bread or 
 parched corn, green ears, wine, or any other food 
 should be taken ; and this was a most salutary 
 statute. 
 
 Fasting or abstinence is generally considered only 
 as a religious observance, while it is one of the 
 very best means of promoting health, strength, and 
 vigour. John Wesley said it was as impossible for 
 a person to get to heaven without fasting as without 
 prayer. However this may be, it is impossible for 
 a person to enjoy uninterrupted health without 
 some restraint on his appetite, and fasting is of far 
 more benefit than all the sugar-coated pills and 
 
80 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 patent medicines in the world, which so many now 
 use since the fast is ignored. 
 
 The vegetarians take strong ground in favour of 
 living exclusively on the products of the vegetable 
 kingdom, with or without the addition of eggs and 
 milk, and the products of milk, such as butter and 
 cheese. They condemn the use of fish, flesh, and 
 fowl ; they advance very strong reasons, which 
 are backed up by many very stroncp authorities. 
 
 One of their reasons, which is not very strong, 
 says, "flesh contains from half to three-quarters of 
 its weight of water, and is ten to twenty times 
 more expensive than cereals, which contain only 
 about 14 per cent, of water." 
 
 In reference to the above, seven-and-a-half pounds 
 of milk cost as much as one pound of beef. In the 
 milk there is 87 per cent, of water, while in the 
 beef there is 50 per cent, of water. Of potatoes, 
 sixteen pounds cost as much as one pound of beef, 
 and contain 75 per cent, of water, while beef only 
 contains 50 per cent, of water. Eggs, milk, 
 potatoes, butter, and cheese are therefore more 
 expensive articles of diet than beef. 
 
 The vegetarians refer to the Spartans and to the 
 ancient Greeks and Romans as examples of pos- 
 sessing extraordinary muscular strength on a diet 
 of vegetables, legumens, and cereals. They also 
 refer to a host of ancient and present-day worthies 
 of great ability and distinction as examples of a 
 vegetarian diet. They refer again to the porridge- 
 eating Scotchman, and the potato -and -bread - 
 eating Irishman as superior in height, weight, and 
 strength to Englishmen who eat so much beef. 
 
LET US REASON TOGETHER. 81 
 
 As to all this, and much more, for the vegetarians 
 are enthusiastic in the advocacy of their views, and 
 are as a general rule most sincere, they overlook 
 the fact that in the menu of the dining tables of 
 both Noah and Moses flesh meat was not only 
 allowed, but necessa,ry ; and the world has proved 
 by its universal custom that a mixed diet is neces- 
 sary for human beings. Fish, flesh, and fowl, 
 cereals, vegetables, legumens, nuts, fruits, eggs, 
 milk, butter and cheese are all excellent articles of 
 diet, but the trouble is, not one in twenty knows 
 how to use them properly, and in the quantities 
 necessary to health. Most people who can afford 
 it want to have them all at once ; they want 
 the whole variety every day, and others at 
 every meal. They are not gluttons either, but 
 they are led by a blind or injudicious habit that 
 tyrannizes over them like the appetite of a gour- 
 mand. 
 
 A large quantity of animal food is by no means 
 necessary for the sustenance of the human frame ; 
 in some cases it is injurious. One or two kinds of 
 food at a time, animal and vegetable, should suffice, 
 and a mixed diet is the best ; but in any case it 
 should be simple, and not varied too much. Other 
 creatures are generally restricted to one sort of 
 provender ; they are carnivorous or granivorous, 
 piscivorous or something ivorous ; but man is the 
 universal eater. This fact places man in a position 
 that in whatever circumstances he is found his 
 appetite can be appeased. 
 
 All this proves that man is omnivorous, and that 
 he can be supported on a great variety of food. 
 
 F 
 
82 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 He alone of all animals is provided with a case of 
 instruments adapted to masticate all substances of 
 food, — teeth to cut and pierce, champ and grind ; 
 and while in good health he possesses saliva and a 
 gastric solvent capable of contending with every 
 kind of food necessary for him. His teeth are such 
 that they are suitable for tearing and grinding the 
 various kinds of food fitted for his system. The 
 eight front ones are called cutting teeth, then come 
 two dog teeth ; the next two are pointed, while the 
 three next on each side are the molars or grinders. 
 The four front ones in each jaw come first in eight 
 or ten months, or did formerly till the new and fancy 
 food was adopted. 
 
 Then, as if to prepare for more solid food, in the 
 course of twelve or fourteen months there come 
 along sixteen grinders, and finally in twenty to 
 twenty-four years appear four more grinders. Then 
 again, the muscles of the human jaw exert a force 
 of 534 pounds, which clearly show that man is 
 capable and naturally adapted to chew and masti- 
 cate flesh food and hard substances as well as 
 vegetables. 
 
 Another proof that man was intended to use flesh 
 for food is in the fact that the enamel of his teeth is 
 confined to the external surface like that of car- 
 nivorous animals. 
 
 The following eminent authorities show that 
 vegetable food alone is not sufficient. Dr. Carpenter 
 says : "A pure vegetable diet, if it contains a due 
 proportion of oleaginous matter, is capable of main- 
 taining the physical powers." That little "if" is like 
 a word to the wise, which is sufficient. Liebig says : 
 
LET US REASON TOGETHER. 83 
 
 / 
 
 " Vegetable fibrine and animal fibrine, vegetable 
 albumen and animal albumen hardly differ even in 
 form." 
 
 Then where is the danger from animal food ? 
 But Moleschott says: " Legumens are superior 
 to meat in abundance of solid constituents, except 
 albuminous substances, which in legumens are 
 double what they are in meat." 
 
 While, as Liebig says, the quality is the same, 
 the latter says the quantity is double, and evidently 
 a great deal too much for the exclusive use of food 
 for general purposes. 
 
 Dr. Lankester says : " Animal food is composed 
 of the same materials as vegetable food." 
 
 If a person wishes nutritious food at a very low cost 
 he can eat legumens, such as peas, beans, carrots, 
 cabbage, and beets, but he takes into his system 
 twice as much albuminous matter as is required. 
 If he combines with them only bread made 
 in the popular style, with potatoes and other like 
 foods, he turns the stomach into a very cauldron of 
 fermentation, in which yeast boils, bubbles, and 
 works the expansion of the whole system ; the in- 
 testines stretch out to their full extent, while the 
 arteries, membranes, tissues, and blood are supplied 
 with such an abundance of albumen, starch, sugar, 
 and other unsuitable elements, more than they 
 were ever intended to liandle, that they become 
 clogged, deranged, and soon give warning signals 
 of approaching danger. 
 
 In persons with outdoor employment or of great 
 physical labour these results do not show so much, 
 but with persons of a sedentary occupation or of 
 
84 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 little exercise they are certain to create mischief to 
 a greater or less extent. 
 
 With ilesh meat there is not so much danger, 
 especially when it is combined with bread and 
 cereals in which the starch is changed, as so often 
 noticed. 
 
 Bright's disease is known by deposits of albumen 
 in the urine. The liver and kidneys are overtaxed 
 by the use of too great a quantity of vegetable, 
 saccharine, and starchy foods, with all kinds of 
 drinks, whether fruit juice, ginger ale, barm beer, 
 effervescent or still drinks, soda water, or fermented 
 and spirituous liquors. In either diabetes or Bright's 
 disease a vegetable diet exclusively is certain death, 
 but even very bad cases can be cured by the diet 
 here recommended and the liberal use of hot water 
 as the only drink. 
 
 Let us reason together ; know what you are 
 about ; let your practice be based on rules which 
 are reasonable. Life is the great schoolmaster, and 
 experience a mighty volume of instruction. If 
 you make one stern step of self-sacrifice in regard 
 to the use of proper diet and in proper quantities, 
 you have acquired the first vantage ground. Never 
 heed what others say. In three days, or a week, if 
 you persevere, no one will laugh at your improve- 
 ment, but rather congratulate you, while you will 
 realize a new blood coursing in your veins, and 
 more than a gleam of hope and joy that cannot 
 be estimated by guineas. . 
 
 There are many inconsistencies in this world, but 
 the most inconsistent thing is for a person who is 
 ill not to adopt a system of cure which appears 
 
LET US REASON TOGETHER. 85 
 
 reasonable, because people i^^nore it, laugh at it, 
 and ridicule it. 
 
 A youth steals an apple in sport or thoughtlessly 
 and is sent to prison, while a man steeped in vice 
 may devote a fortune in the demoralization of his 
 kind; and often receives the adulation of the world. 
 I am in these pages boldly and strongly advocating 
 a system of dietetics which I have tested for several 
 years. I have given the matter over twenty years' 
 study, and should know the subject in all its 
 bearings, and be able to explain, enforce, and direct 
 persons in the way of health, more than others who 
 have not made the subject of dietetics a speciality. 
 
 I am strongly convinced that sooner or later this 
 system will find its way into the judgment and 
 practice of tens of thousands of people, whose 
 sufferings will be relieved and their lives become a 
 pleasure to them, and they will become a blessing 
 to others. 
 
 I have been interrupted in this chapter by a visit 
 from a young man who two weeks ago could not 
 sleep at night from coughing (whose brother died 
 of consumption, so called). He was weak, and 
 could eat very little, and thought he should be 
 obliged to give up his situation. He came to thank 
 me for what I had done for him. His cough was 
 all gone and his appetite restored ; in fact, he 
 declared his appetite was voracious. He had no 
 distress in his stomach ; his kidneys were cleaned 
 out so that he had no trouble in that direction, while 
 his hands which were so clammy with perspiration 
 when writing that he had frequently to lay aside 
 his pen to wipe them with a towel, and hot flushes. 
 
86 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 followed by cold chills, were all gone, and he was 
 well. 
 
 In this case I had recommended, in addition to 
 the minced meat, hot water and starch-changed 
 cereals, a regular hand-massage for his whole body 
 by himself, as his strength would permit, every 
 night and. morning, and especially the soles of his 
 feet and nape of the neck where the nerves centre. 
 This is often of very great benefit. 
 
 Some four years ago a young man who was 
 greatly troubled with a sore throat, which was 
 increasing so rapidly that he lost flesh and strength, 
 until I recommended him to rub his whole body, 
 especially his throat and the soles of his feet, and 
 nape of the neck, for ten minutes every night and 
 morning, but to begin gradually as his strength 
 would permit. In three weeks he was perfectly 
 cured without any change in his diet. He had 
 gained flesh and strength when I saw him some 
 three months after, and had forgotten about his sore 
 throat, but he did not forget to tell me of the benefit 
 he had received from my advice. 
 
 Little matters are not to be despised. In cases 
 of typhoid fever the lining membrane of the small 
 intestines becomes intensely inflamed and gorged. 
 Eventually it begins sloughing away in spots, 
 leaving well defined ulcers. A solid food, if taken 
 into the stomach at such a time, would be very 
 dangerous, resulting, as it has done, in perforation 
 of the intestines, which is sure, in almost every 
 instance, to produce death. Hence the use of milk, 
 or, it is now claimed, bananas are not dangerous, 
 but afl'ord the very best nourishment for the patient. 
 
LET US REASON TOGETHER. 87 
 
 The banana is now considered even better than 
 milk, as it contains 95 per cent, of nutrition. This 
 is a little thing, yet how important. The banana 
 is classed by some as a solid food, but it does not, 
 as is claimed, possess sufficient waste to irritate the 
 sore spots. 
 
 Another little thing that has puzzled scientists a 
 great deal is the means by which a fly can creep up 
 a pane of glass or walk on the ceiling. I refer to 
 these matters to illustrate the influence of attention 
 to little matters which most people despise. Flesh 
 meat, which is such an excellent food, especially 
 beef, may be rendered very unhealthy by the addi- 
 tion of condiments. 
 
 But suppose a person to eat meat saturated with 
 mustard, pepper, salt, and sauces, with the 
 condiments besides, he certainly will have a 
 head-ache, or ought to have, and this head-ache 
 puts a stop to his eating just long enough to allow 
 Nature to throw off the poisons through the skin, 
 kidneys, and bowels, when the head-ache ceases. 
 Not only head-ache, but all the other troubles arise 
 from improper feeding. Some eat too much, some 
 too little, while almost everybody eats the wrong 
 kind of food. 
 
 There must be consideration, reason, judgment, 
 and study ; there must also be exercise. But what 
 is exercise ? This has already been explained. 
 Many people take too much and others too little, 
 while others are as injudicious in their exercise as 
 they are in their eating. It is a disgrace to be idle; 
 it is dangerous to be spasmodic. Some people 
 take all their exercise on one day in the week, 
 
88 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 and it has about the same effect as a big Sunday 
 dinner, which leaves them some hours afterwards 
 about as inanimate as the roasts, pastry, and 
 puddings which they consumed so much of. 
 
 Perspiration is necessary. A warm bath causes 
 surface circulation and so does muscular exertion. 
 A walking excursion in mountainous districts is 
 very good, but there must be a resolution formed 
 and adhered to — that is, not to walk too much nor 
 bath too much. 
 
 It would take a volume to write out all the details ; 
 but be rational, be reasonable. Do not neglect 
 working, eating, breathing, and recreation, so as to 
 maintain health and strength. Keep the body 
 internally and externally clean ; the latter is im- 
 portant, but the former is vastly more so. 
 
 How is it that persons who have been so tender 
 for years that upon the slightest draught or change 
 in temperature or clothing they would "take cold;" 
 and then from a change of diet, by adopting minced 
 meat, prepared cereals in which the starch is 
 changed, and by drinking four pints of hot water 
 a day between meals, and nothing with their meals, 
 they have in a few weeks become so hardy that 
 none of the former troubles ever disturb them, and 
 they have no more dread of catching cold ? Why is 
 it? Because nature is assisted in asserting her rights 
 and privileges over the tiny tissues, arteries, mem- 
 branes, blood, liver, kidneys, intestines, bowels, 
 and all the wonderful mechanism of the human 
 body, which was so wonderfully made as to endure 
 everything a human creature was intended to 
 endure without breaking down. 
 
LET US REASON TOGETHER. 89 
 
 " I have married a living corpse," said a young 
 merchant to me one day, in reply to a question I 
 asked him in reference to the health of his wife, 
 who was away at a sanatorium for her health only 
 a few months after her marriage. At first sound of 
 the words there appeared an unfeeling harshness 
 about them, but when I considered that he had been 
 terribly disappointed, and was at an expense he 
 could ill afford to bear, I did not blame him for the 
 expression of his honest feelings. 
 
 I had known the young lady ; her father was 
 wealthy, and one of those proud men who had 
 risen from being a poor boy to affluence, and retired 
 from business at about fifty. He brought up his 
 daughters in comparative idleness, and at the same 
 time was too strict to allow them such recreations, 
 sports, and pastimes that would have served the 
 body well or would have helped to take the place 
 of work, but which they were excluded from, until 
 weakness undermined a naturally good constitution, 
 and temporary strength was obtained by prescrip- 
 tions of drugs from an incapable country physician. 
 
 This man thought he was getting a bonanza, but 
 he married a " living corpse." Such girls should 
 not marry, or wait until health was restored. How 
 many, ah ! how many unhappy marriages are the 
 consequence of just such living? 
 
 Liebig says : ' ' Starch is a good food for ani- 
 mals, as it serves them with heat and strength, and 
 is suitable to their coarser natures." So it answers 
 very well for hard-working people when mixed with 
 other foods ; but the feeble, the idle, the nervous 
 had better keep as clear of it as possible. 
 
90 GOOD HEALTH 
 
 In fact, eat no food that prevents a free flow of 
 good, clear urine or produces constipation. Plenty of 
 out-door exercise, not too violent nor long strained 
 so as to produce fatigue, but that which exhilarates 
 and gives zest to the next meal ; and then the next 
 meal will increase your strength and yield a lot of 
 fresh, pure blood to gently flow in life-giving 
 streams to the utmost part of the body. 
 
 The late Sir Andrew Clark's favourite prescription 
 was: "Clothe lightly, towel briskly, and live fru- 
 gally." It is better worth a hundred guineas than 
 many another prescription that costs only five. 
 
91 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Mothers and Children. 
 
 Deep breathing and breathing through the nose 
 are among the very first important things a mother 
 should understand and practise for her own good 
 and the benefit of her children. Practise full, deep 
 breathing of pure, fresh air, and throw back the 
 arms so as to fill the lungs once or twice a day, 
 and you will find in the course of a few weeks or 
 months a rich, healthy stream of purer blood will 
 flow from the heart to every part of the body, 
 making ruby lips, with roses on the cheeks, because 
 this sensible practice aids digestion ; gives a clean, 
 sweet breath ; promotes sleep ; quiets the nerves ; 
 expands the lungs ; strengthens the heart ; and 
 feeds the tissues. 
 
 Fresh air and pure water are the most essential 
 elements for the human body, next to food. This 
 is a practice the benefit of which is not realized at 
 once, but its influence and effect on the system will be 
 acknowledged and realized all through life. It often 
 prevents catarrh, bronchitis, lung disease, and heart 
 trouble, because these organs and the arteries are 
 assisted in their work by the pure air inhaled and 
 the gradual expansion produced. 
 
 It is useless, though, to recommend it to some 
 mothers. Though it may seem a strange anomaly, 
 
92 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 yet it is verily true, that many a woman is more 
 interested in new fashions, in advocating woman's 
 rights, in studying etiquette and the science of 
 entertaining, and in having superior preserves, 
 sweetmeats, and pickles, than in her attention to 
 dietetics and hygiene. It will, alas ! be an age of 
 lamentation and woe, when a mother will neglect 
 the duties of maternity for the pleasures of society. 
 
 It is most astonishing how some women wear 
 themselves out over the ceaseless care and worry 
 about their children's health and happiness, while 
 others. commit them to the charge of a nurse, and 
 are content to see them once a day for an hour or 
 less, so as to avoid the patient serving and self- 
 denial which maternal duty naturally enjoins. 
 
 During this hour's interview the children are 
 pampered with caresses, sweetmeats, and compli- 
 ments, so as to make that short hour pleasant in 
 the memory of the children, as if such a pleasure 
 would be sealed on the memory of a grown-up boy 
 or girl as much as the careful training and judicious 
 example of a constantly loving restraint, directions 
 and counsel amid the little cares, aches, pains, and 
 troubles of an every-day contact with the world sur- 
 rounding them in their circumscribed daily routine 
 of child life. 
 
 There are foolish as well as wise mothers. Some 
 do too much, others too little ; some have cross, 
 sickly children, to whom they give ceaseless atten- 
 tion, when more attention should have been given 
 to themselves and the style of eating, drinking, 
 and living before their children were born. There 
 is no necessity for cross, sickly children ; they 
 
MOTHERS AND CHILDREN. 93 
 
 should be as happy as a sporting lamb, and as 
 healthy as a young fawn. That is what nature in- 
 tended. Parents should understand this, especially 
 the mother. 
 
 How great are her responsibilities to her off- 
 spring ! Milton has pictured Eve's greatest agony 
 after the fall to her forebodings of its effects upon 
 her offspring. The wretchedness and misery en- 
 tailed upon them caused her greatest grief when she 
 arrived at that state which caused her to contem- 
 plate its consequences. When will mothers waken 
 up to realize that many of the evils of the fall may 
 be assuaged by the means a merciful Creator has 
 put within their reach, and that they should first 
 understand the subject of dietetics and hygiene. 
 
 True it is that children are to obey their parents; 
 but it is only part of the truth. Parents should 
 understand their children and themselves in relation 
 to their duty. In after life, when these children 
 become men and women, they will appreciate more 
 than wealth, honour or education, the wise counsels, 
 the loving restraints, the practical examples and 
 judicious influence of their parents more than any- 
 thing else, and this training is the very best 
 education in the world. How to live so as to be 
 strong, healthy, and vigorous, in mind and body is 
 an inheritance bequeathed to them, of greater value 
 than silver or gold. 
 
 Some years ago a judicious physician visited a 
 school for the purpose of giving some practical 
 lessons on dietetics and hygiene. He questioned 
 a class of boys on the manner of chewing the food 
 they ate. He asked them to write on a slip of paper 
 
94 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 the next day the number of bites or times each one 
 nipped a mouthful of food before swallowing it. 
 When he received their papers, at the earliest 
 opportunity he explained that some of them bolted 
 their food without proper mastication, which was 
 very injurious to health. In eating meat or bread 
 they should nip it with the teeth from thirty to 
 forty times, while some of them did not do it half 
 as often. 
 
 It is said the cause of Mr. Gladstone's remarkable 
 health and vigour at his advanced age is attributed 
 to the habit he has so long observed of nipping 
 each mouthful of food forty times before swallowing 
 it. Slowly chewing the food indicated, as some 
 considered, slowness in everything they did, but 
 not necessarily; quick eating was injurious, but a 
 quick motion of the jaws in eating could be acquired 
 the same as quick walking or quickness in any- 
 thing, so that if their time were limited they could, 
 by a little practice in quick chewing, avoid the evil 
 of swallowing the food half masticated. 
 
 That whole school, boys and girls alike, were 
 drilled on the importance of proper mastication of 
 the food before it was sent down to the digestive 
 organs. Such instruction is more valuable than any 
 technical education or any other education, yet it is 
 most neglected. Few physicians do as this one 
 did. 
 
 In a curriculum of technical education which I 
 glanced over the other day, and in the report of 
 secondary education, it was stated that i,8oo 
 students had availed themselves of the great advan- 
 tage of the classes ; but at the bottom of the list 
 
MOTHERS AND CHILDREN. 95 
 
 of subjects was hygiene, which should have been 
 at the top, with the greatest importance attached to 
 it, instead of the least. 
 
 How is it that the philanthropists, physicians, 
 clergy, teachers, and parents so entirely overlook 
 this subject? It cannot be that they are ignorant 
 of its benefits. Is it because it is not popular, and 
 demands too much self-sacrifice ? If so, it is a dis- 
 grace to them to shun the responsibility. 
 
 The brightest boy in the family or in the school 
 has a nervous temperament and weak constitution, 
 probably inherited from his parents. He is quick 
 to learn, studies hard, and succeeds in carrying off 
 first prizes in school and early matriculates for 
 college. He enters the university and wins honours, 
 but sinks in health and becomes a physical wreck 
 because he was not taught, neither by his parents 
 nor teachers, the necessity of exercise, proper 
 attention to the principles of hygiene and diet- 
 etics, nor how to preserve the body, the precious 
 casket containing the precious soul. He comes to 
 an early grave. 
 
 Who is to blame? Who? Primarily his parents, 
 who should have understood that the whole world 
 is useless to a young man if his health is gone ; 
 the teachers, professors, and college magnates, in 
 the second place, for not considering the health, 
 strength, and physical capacity of their students as 
 well as their mental abilities. 
 
 In a grammar school there was a class of some 
 fifty boys who were about to be inflicted with one 
 of those periodical " grinds " before examination. 
 The principal tested their strength by lifting upon 
 
96 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 the dynamometer, and the average number of 
 pounds for three trials was recorded as the muscular 
 " strength record." After the examination was over, 
 which lasted two-and-a-half hours, they made the 
 same endeavour to lift all they could. With two 
 exceptions, none could raise as much as before the 
 intense mental activity. 
 
 This illustrates two facts, — first, educationists know 
 their duty, whether parents do or not ; and in the 
 second place, mental activity, unless followed by 
 recreation, is very wearing on the system. Parents 
 should understand their responsibility, and instead 
 of sending the weakest boy they have to college and 
 the strongest one to the farm, they ought to reverse 
 the order. Mothers, take warning. 
 
 But why should there be weak, delicate ones in the 
 brood? Why are they not all strong and robust? 
 Alas ! why ? Perhaps before that delicate, fragile 
 child was born the mother was ignorant of the 
 effects of her course of living ; even after it was 
 born she was still ignorant of the influence her own 
 life was to exert on the health of her child. I may 
 illustrate this by copying the following letter ; it 
 was written by a lady who had had seven children, 
 the youngest sixteen and the eldest thirty-three, and 
 all robust and healthy, although their father was 
 delicate, and several times near death's door with 
 illness. The letter was addressed to her daughter- 
 in-law, as follows : 
 " My Dear Jane, 
 
 " I am anxious about you, as you approach nearer 
 the time of becoming- a mother, and would advise you 
 strongly to see to your own health, that your offspring 
 
MOTHERS AND CHILDREN. 97 
 
 may be born healthy. It is a rare thing in these days 
 to find a baby born quite sound and healthy. This lies 
 undoubtedly at the parents' door, as the outcome of 
 improper ways, of eating and living. More especially 
 should the mother realize the importance of how she 
 eats and what she eats for a few months before the 
 child is born. 
 
 ' ' You should guard against all cravings for such 
 articles of food as would in any way tend to injure 
 yourself or the child, either in body or mind. The 
 mother's desires and disposition are often seen in heir 
 child, so you will find it advantageous to deny yourself 
 for a few months and closely observe a strict diet, which 
 I am going to try and impress on your mind, which if 
 you strictly carry out, I am not afraid but what you will 
 enjoy life so much the more by enjoying health, both 
 yourself and your child. 
 
 ' ' While you are enceinte you should exercise daily in 
 the open air; walking, driving, etc., but never enough 
 to fatigue yourself. Overdoing any good thing spoils 
 it. Avoid excitement, sudden shocks, surprises, worry- 
 ing, anger, and fatigue. If you are now weak change 
 your diet to some light, nourishing articles, until the 
 tissues and arteries of your body become clear and 
 capable of doing their work properly, then your food 
 will assimilate, and nourish you, giving pure blood and 
 greater strength. 
 
 " If you live upon good substantial food, say half 
 animal and half prepared cereals and vegetables ; avoid 
 all combinations and quantities which are likely to dis- 
 turb the digestive organs, and drink hot water, and 
 plenty of it, for a few months before confinement ; it 
 will, I am sure, be a lasting benefit to you both. 
 
 " It will also ward off the dangers which you are 
 liable to meet with at such a time. Good pure blood 
 
 G 
 
98 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 from a reasonable diet, with good digestion, will cause 
 Nature to assert her right of way when the mother has 
 taken the proper precautions in this direction. The 
 labour and dangers of confinement are reduced to a 
 minimum in this way. 
 
 ' ' After your delivery you should continue to live on the 
 same substantial diet all through the nursing period, 
 which should last from twelve to fifteen months. My 
 own experience is proof of what I am writing, and when 
 you have fed in this way, as a general rule you will 
 have a plentiful supply of good substantial milk for the 
 nourishment of your babe without resorting to any sub- 
 stitute, which so often upsets and disagrees with the 
 stomach. 
 
 " By your own care and good diet you may thus secure 
 to yourself and child the foundation of a pleasant, healthy 
 life, with sound digestive powers and a good disposition. 
 This is the first duty, and one you are responsible for. 
 Alas ! how few understand this ; how few know the 
 responsibilities that rest upon a mother. 
 
 "Another matter of importance is, do not forget that 
 an infant often cries from thirst. I would recommend 
 you to give regularly to your babe, if it cries, a dessert- 
 spoonful of pure warm water between meals. Do not 
 burn it, but let the water be warm. 
 
 " Let the meals or time of nursing he no oftener at 
 first than every two hours, then gradually extend the 
 time to every three hours, until you will find that every 
 four hours will be the proper time, and if this regular 
 system is strictly observed it will save both yourself and 
 child a great deal of trouble, besides contributing largely 
 to the health, contentment, and happy disposition of the 
 child, and avoid many diseases. 
 
 "In every case it is as necessary as washing the 
 infant's body, to carefully wash out the babe's little 
 
MOTHERS AND CHILDREN. 99 
 
 mouth with warm water, every morning at least. Some 
 . mothers do it before each meal by dipping the finger 
 covered with a piece of old fine linen in warm water and 
 running it round the child's mouth. 
 
 "Young children are often troubled with indigestion, 
 which causes pain, then they will cry, of course. The 
 great trouble is often from over-feeding, the same as in 
 adults, while the mother or those in attendance fly to 
 some soothing remedies, which may give relief for the 
 time being, but are likely to increase indigestion more 
 and more when resorted to frequently. 
 
 " Be careful not to feed the child too soon after birth. 
 A few hours abstinence from food will not injure it. 
 First give a little warm water, a teaspoonful only after 
 washing its mouth, then its natural food or the best 
 substitute procurable. 
 
 "When it comes to the time of dentition, another 
 birth, as it were, takes place. If the child's stomach 
 and digestive organs are in a healthy condition, and they 
 certainly will be if proper attention has been given to its 
 diet both as to quantity and times of feeding, there will 
 be little difficulty in breeding teeth, if not, the, child will 
 suffer, and the parents too, for there will be pain, anxiety, 
 and much worry. Why does the child not cry over the 
 growth of its nails or hair as well as the natural coming 
 forth of the teeth ? 
 
 " When the first teeth appear they are for biting, cut- 
 ting, and tearing, hence they are incisors. This indicates 
 the necessity of giving more solid food. A little lean 
 beef may be minced after being carefully cooked, and 
 first give the juice; then in a few days a little of the pulp, 
 which is easily digested, but of very small quantities. 
 The small bone of a fowlj held by the mother or nurse, 
 may afford benefit by being sucked, and soon attempts 
 will be made to bite and chew it by the child, as nature 
 
100 . GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 has indicated ; these little extras, with the milk, should 
 be the only food. 
 
 ' ' An old but very good idea practised by some 
 mothers is to allow the child to bite on a silver thimble 
 just at the time the first teeth are sprouting-. The effort 
 to bite pierces the thin cuticle and gives the child relief 
 if done at the proper time. Do not feed the child on 
 vegetables, nor fruit, nor bread until the double teeth 
 are cut ; then the indication is to feed with a little bread 
 in which the starch is changed, as an adjunct to the meat 
 and milk, but by no means to give any food that will 
 ferment in the child's stomach. 
 
 " If you follow this course your child will be a happy 
 one, and will bless you throughout life as a prudent 
 mother. So much depends on the treatment of our little 
 ones at this particular juncture of their existence that 
 the future of their lives ought always to be kept in mind 
 when preparing their food. If possible, see to this your- 
 self, and not leave it to a nurse or servant. Especially 
 see to it that when more solid food is given it is properly 
 minced, or well boiled or baked, and only in very small 
 quantities. 
 
 " Avoid, as you would poison, the habit of giving a 
 child sweets, chocolate, tea, coffee, or any stimulant and 
 cake between meals, for it destroys the appetite for plain 
 wholesome food. If you begin to use these things your 
 trouble will have no end, for once tasted they will want 
 more and cry for it ; then if you give a child what it cries 
 for you pay it for crying. 
 
 " Now, my dear, in conclusion, let me just add this — 
 if you can muster up pluck and determination sufficient 
 to carry out the ideas I have given above you will never 
 regret it. Your children will bless you as numbered 
 among the saints in this life and sure of everlasting 
 glory in the next." 
 
MOTHERS AND CHILDREN. 101 
 
 The above letter was written some years ago, 
 and resulted in great satisfaction in rearing the 
 child referred to. I will state, however, that in 
 giving any detailed series of foods suitable for one 
 child, they may not suit another when prepared 
 in the same way or given in the same quantities. 
 In any case there must be the exercise of good 
 judgm"ent ; and never allow eating cake, sweets, or 
 fruit between meals. 
 
 In concluding this chapter please bear in mind 
 one more particular duty devolving upon the 
 mother, that is, to have personal supervision over 
 the kitchen with regard to having always a plenti- 
 ful supply of hot water and a hot oven. These two 
 most essential requisites are generally most neg- 
 lected ; let them have your attention. If the fire 
 cannot be kept up continually, have things so 
 arranged that by means of a spirit lamp, gas stove, 
 or some other device, water may be heated quickly 
 for use in times of emergency. 
 
 And one more point, — do not be afraid to put a 
 good big hot-water bottle in the bed, to take the 
 chill off during a season of damp, cold weather. 
 I do not recommend leaving it there all nighty but 
 it is an excellent warmer at bedtime when the room 
 is not otherwise heated. 
 
102 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The Physiology of Common Sense. 
 
 Mohammed is said to have milked his own goats, 
 mended his own sandals, lived chiefly on barley 
 bread, and his family on dates and water. The 
 simplicity of the menu among Orientals gave little 
 work or worry compared to the constant and 
 unwearied diligence necessary in these days among 
 civilized nations. 
 
 Porters, servants, cooks, and stewards have their 
 hands full in preparing an ordinary meal of "varied 
 and fanciful diet," and with three or four such meals 
 a day there is no rest scarcely day nor night, while 
 the worst features of the whole thing are the great 
 expense and unrest to the digestive organs. In 
 nine cases out of ten the porters, servants, cooks, 
 and stewards enjoy far better health because of their 
 work and less stimulating diet, than the rich and 
 comparatively idle family whom they serve. 
 
 There came under my notice last year the case of 
 a young lady, nineteen years of age, who, from 
 delicate health, had been pampered up by her 
 mother, so that she really believed it was inexpedient 
 for her to undergo any physical exercise, except 
 some very slight tasks, and in very fine weather. 
 
 The mother was asked to accompany her husband 
 on an extended business tour across the ocean and 
 
PHYSIOLOGY OF COMMON SENSE. 103 
 
 in distant lands. The difficulty was in leaving this 
 delicate girl in charge of the house and hei" two 
 brothers, who were going to school. "She will be 
 all right," said the father, "and better in health 
 when she is alone and has something to do." 
 
 Month after month as letters reached the parents 
 in far-off countries they conveyed the cheerful 
 news from their children that " Miss Delicate" was 
 strong and well. She wrote her mother some seven 
 months after leaving home : "I am perfectly well, 
 dear mother. The care of the house is just what 
 suits me ; I can attend to everything so easily and 
 without fatigue that I feel like a new creature. 
 Yesterday I rode twenty miles on my bicycle." 
 Here was proof of the benefits of work and responsi- 
 bility. When winter came on she wrote about 
 skating, tobogganing, sleigh driving and 6ther 
 exercises, besides all the household duties in which 
 she had become an adept. A year passed before 
 her parents returned ; they were proud of her indeed 
 when seeing the vast improvement in her health. 
 
 But what did her brothers say ? They said they 
 never enjoyed better health, but their sister had 
 starved them ; she would not make] the pies, pud- 
 dings, cakes, and other delicacies they had been 
 accustomed to have when mother was home. 
 There, then, was the secret of the vast improve- 
 ment. The active exercise in the open air, with 
 the work and responsibilities of the house upon a 
 limited allowance, produced a change in the diet 
 table most conducive to health. 
 
 In the case of Mary and Martha, where the 
 Great Teacher answered Martha's complaint in 
 
104 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 the words, "Thou art careful and troubled about 
 many things," indicates that Martha, who was pre- 
 paring the meal for their Guest, was getting too 
 " many things " on the table ; it took up too much 
 of her time and attention ; it gave her too much 
 care and anxiety ; it was, in short, so much 
 "trouble" that the Divine Guest was not pleased. 
 Most people when they are really hungry would 
 prefer some plain, substantial food at once, rather 
 than wait, and wait, until hot biscuits, fried bacon, 
 custards, blancmanges, or griddle cakes are pre- 
 pared in all the latest styles of cooking. The 
 preparation of so many articles of diet is not only 
 troublesome and expensive, but unhealthy. 
 
 Why are there so many suicides in these days of 
 starchy bread and fanciful diet ? Because, as one 
 of the new discoveries of hygiene proves, the 
 emotions we have within us are not regulated or 
 restrained. It is a singular fact that while the 
 habits of eating, drinking, and late hours produce 
 impaired digestion and varied forms of diabetes 
 which so many are troubled with and don't know 
 it, as the general system becomes weaker the 
 immoral bodily passions grow stronger. 
 
 Under such circumstances rest, sleep, recreation, 
 and food do not recuperate the languid physical 
 powers ; food does not properly digest nor assimi- 
 late. The evil emotions, on the other hand, are 
 stronger, and when exercised according to desire 
 there follows greater fatigue, relaxation, and ex- 
 haustion, during which time the blood undergoes 
 a change and sends poisonous atoms throughout 
 the whole system and to the brain. This sometimes 
 
PHYSIOLOGY- OF COMMON SENSE. 105 
 
 produces, when the vital forces are continually 
 drained, a sensation of melancholy forebodin^,- 
 with depression, that causes the life to be suddenfy 
 cut off by suicide. 
 
 This is the system by which many take a short 
 cut from time into eternity, while friends lament 
 and wonder at the mysteries of Providence. Still 
 others go on in the same path ; the vital tone is 
 reduced, life's forces are wasted, evil emotions are 
 exercised, while weakness increases and disease 
 lays hold of some bodily organ ; all because un- 
 bridled passions are allowed to run wild like 
 ferocious animals, who have neither reason nor 
 judgment. 
 
 To some extent the same is true in regard to 
 love, hope, and joy, which a religious mania often 
 awakens to such a degree, that when unrestrained 
 by the exercise of "a good judgment in all 
 things," or not regulated by a proper discipline 
 or ritual, the nervous enthusiast becomes so zealous 
 in the exercise of these pleasurable emotions that 
 the bodily strength is reduced, while the animal 
 nature becomes stronger and more dangerous. 
 "The wicked shall not live out half their days," 
 and although they may be ever so pious, ever so 
 anxious to do good to others, ever so devoted to 
 what they consider their duty, they are of all 
 creatures most miserable ; they are blind leaders 
 of the blind, who, instead of walking in the narrow 
 way that leads unto life, are in the broad way 
 leading to destruction. 
 
 There is, therefore, as much necessity for restraint 
 in the exercise of love, joy, hope, and peace — 
 
106 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 peace ! why there is no peace possible in such cases 
 — as there is in anger, fear, hate, and jealousy. 
 There is no peace to the wicked, and the wickedest 
 persons are those who abuse their own bodies, 
 shorten their own lives, and leave those dependent 
 upon them for a living to be provided forby others. 
 Such people deserve no tombstone to mark their 
 grave, nor any cherished memories in the hearts 
 of the lonely ones who are left without bread. 
 
 Why are so many people troubled with constipa- 
 tion, and resort to all sorts of patent medicines for 
 relief? It is unquestionably because they do not 
 live as formerly, before the present system of 
 starchy bread, superfine flour, excessive use of 
 pastry, and all the new-fangled arts of the present 
 style of cooking and fanciful diet came into vogue. 
 
 In America people are obliged to begin or finish 
 their breakfast with raw tomatoes or a slice or two 
 of melon, and end up the evening meal with a 
 baked apple or stewed prunes, in order to keep 
 their bowels open. They soon find, however, that 
 figs, raw apples, or senna tea become necessary 
 laxatives, to counteract the effects of starch, sugar, 
 fat, albumen, and all the other indigestible sub- 
 stances combined : while if they resorted to a plain, 
 simple diet, such as uncivilised nations usually live 
 upon, or if they would fast or use abstinence as 
 prescribed under the Law of Moses they would 
 soon find relief. 
 
 My advice to such persons is to use minced or 
 potted meat, with prepared cereals. If these cannot 
 be procured, whole wheat meal, such as I have 
 described, should be used with the meat. Good, 
 
PHYSIOLOGY OF COMMON SENSE. 107 
 
 pure olive oil" is an excellent laxative. Water in- 
 creases -the power of the saliva and the gastric 
 juices. 
 
 Drink nothing during the time of taking your 
 meals, but drink two tumblers of hot water between 
 meals four times a day. This practice, with 
 moderate exercise, will soon place you in a new 
 state of existence. Insufficient water, or water of 
 an abnormal quality, is often a cause of constipa- 
 tion. Those who are in the habit of cheating the 
 natural desire for water by taking wine, and many 
 people, especially women, take less water than they 
 ought to drink, because it will pass through the 
 kidneys, which the exigencies of society sometimes 
 render awkward, but nevertheless must be promptly 
 attended to. 
 
 In consequence of the modern system of eating 
 and drinking, the food ferments in the stomach, 
 producing wind, indigestion and dyspepsia, in 
 one form or another, and then a dryness of the 
 mouth, the throat, and the intestines as well, until 
 thirst is created. To quench this thirst tea, coffee, 
 soda water, ginger ale, barm beer, wine, spirits, or 
 something weaker or stronger among the legion 
 of manufactured drinks, is taken into the stomach, 
 and soon the dryness increases and more drink is 
 taken. What nonsense ! 
 
 Why not take clear, pure water ? It is too com- 
 mon ; it has no taste ; it is horses' drink L Indeed ! 
 Then you must suffer. But, remember, water is 
 wholesome, the. most wholesome drink of the lot, 
 and was provided by the Creator for quenching the 
 thirst of his creatures. It is absurd to condemn 
 
108 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 water for the above mentioned reasons. As a 
 matter of fact, it forms the larger part and really 
 the wholesome part of the beer and other drinks 
 which so many are devoted to. 
 
 How sad for a reflective mind to look on the 
 scene, so often witnessed in America, of a child, a 
 mother, and, at times, a whole family at every 
 meal, sitting round the table, refreshing (?) them- 
 selves from a huge pitcher of ice-water. Sip, sip, 
 sip — men, women, and. children, pouring the 
 noxious stuff into their stomachs, and that in the 
 heat of summer. There is, perhaps, nothing that 
 interferes with digestion so much as this habit of 
 using such drinks and not using more clear, pure 
 water. 
 
 The benefit people often realize from a sojourn 
 at mineral springs is almost entirely due to the 
 flushing out the system gets by drinking so much 
 of the waters. Waste products are dissolved and 
 washed away by the kidneys. Any pure water 
 drunk for a lengthy period would doubtless produce 
 as good effects. If people drank more water and 
 used less improper foods there would be less kidney 
 diseases, neuralgia, rheumatism, heart trouble, and 
 other ailments. 
 
 The plan is to eat seldom : three times a day 
 is often enough. The idea of a "little and often " 
 is unwise. If you wish sound sleep, and to rise 
 with a feeling of rest and lightness and a good 
 appetite for your breakfast, avoid suppers. Give 
 tinie to the stoinach for digestion. If you occasion- 
 ally miss a meal, or go a day without a meal, it 
 will do you good. In times of weakness, when the 
 
PHYSIOLOGY OF COMMON SENSE. 109 
 
 least exercise fatigues you, that is the time to ab- 
 stain from food, instead of taking iron as a tonic, 
 or some other drug equally useless. There is 
 generally plenty of iron in the blood. There is 
 iron enough in the blood of forty-two men to make 
 a plough-share weighing twenty-four pounds. To 
 avoid weakness and pain see to your diet, as there 
 are warning signals sent for your good. 
 
 Pain is a dreadful word. Its very pronunciation 
 causes a creeping sensation over the mental faculties. 
 It is unpleasant to write it even on paper. To feel 
 it is worse. Why was it ever bom? Born I yes, 
 for it has its birth, life and death similar to the 
 generations who have been afflicted by its existence. 
 But pain has its object and purpose. It is not a 
 riddle to which earth can give no answer, it is a sort 
 of speaking trumpet and appeals to the stomach for 
 relief. It draws attention and sometimes compels 
 attention to an injured structure of the body in a 
 sort of inarticulate prayer. The pain of weariness 
 enforces rest and sleep. It is the grand indicator, 
 that leads to the correction of an injured part ; it is 
 an earnest prayer from that part to the will for a 
 change in the mode of living. In this way it is an 
 educator of invaluable service. 
 
 How many ambitious people would work day and 
 night unceasingly, only for the element of painful- 
 ness, which the weary brain or body indicates as 
 being overwrought when food, sleep and rest are 
 enforced. But the interesting question is, why not 
 strangle pain in its birth-throes, so that it will never 
 see the light. Have it quelched before it assumes 
 the life of torment. 
 
110 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 ~ According to modern scientific medicine, tlie most 
 sovereign of all known panaceas is to remove the 
 cause, not the cause of pain^but the cause of disease, 
 which is the cause of pain. Then to strike a death- 
 blow at pain you kill the cause of disease. This is 
 possible, desirable, important and necessary. 
 
 I have seen such excellent effects from the use of 
 the diet and. treatment recommended in these pages, 
 that I can imagine a time coming when mankind in 
 general will reach a stage of mental capacity and 
 physical culture, so as to be able to:exercise a wide 
 and masterful victory over naturar appetites and 
 passions, to such an extent, that physical vigour and 
 material prosperity shall go hand in hand with- 
 out the disorganization that now prevails. 
 : Then pain will be reduced to the minimum. If 
 you wish to know when this wonderful period will 
 be reached, the reply is, just as soon as you and 
 everybody else continues to practice dietetics and 
 hygiene according to the Law of Moses and the 
 teachings of the Decalogue and the Cross. 
 
 These teachings, and the influence of these 
 teachings, and a close observance of the principles 
 of these teachings, can, and will enable man to 
 practice self-denial, .restrain and control his evil 
 emotions, and live as he ought to live. This is no 
 Utopian theory. It is a philosophical, medical, 
 religious, and common-sense fact ; but, it requires 
 some culture, some capacity, and a good deal of 
 experience to grasp it. It is said that one of 
 England's great statesmen, who was once thg 
 Prime Minister, was cured of insomnia by the use 
 of hot water and a proper diet. 
 
PHYSIOLOGY OF COMMON SENSE. Ill 
 
 A fair and ruddy countenance, so much desired 
 by everybody, can only be secured by attention to 
 what you eat and drink. In some of the narrow 
 streets of our large cities are to be seen among the 
 poor people, who live in an inexpensive style and 
 work hard for ten to twelve hours a day, some of 
 the most ruddy complexions to be found anywhere. 
 When their faces are clean, . and their holiday 
 clothes on, it is a fair sight to witness father, mother 
 and children going to church on a Sunday morning, 
 with bright, healthy countenances, seemingly as 
 contented and happy as angels. 
 
 And they live long, save money, escape many of 
 the ills their better-bred masters endure, and with a 
 stronger and. more vigorous progeny to leave behind 
 theni. It has been proved that among this class of 
 people, when one becomes a foreman or master, 
 which secures to his family a larger income, there 
 soon becomes the prevailing desire to live higher, 
 eat and drink more costly viands, which increases 
 their expenses more rapidly than the increase of 
 salary provides for, until a discontented spirit is 
 fostered, which begets desires for more and more 
 luxuries. 
 
 Then ill health creeps on, a physician is called 
 in, and more expense is contracted, which they are 
 unable to meet. This is the cause, in many instances, 
 of the harassing labour troubles of the age. Upon 
 reflection, they find the former days were better than 
 these, and they would willingly exchange situations 
 for the formerly humble one ; but habits are con- 
 tracted and associations formed which are difficult 
 to break loose from. There is no other animal in 
 
112 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 the world would follow such a course, and yet man 
 has a brain, heart, judgment and reason. 
 
 In the days of HarVey a young man had his 
 heart exposed by disease ; Harvey handled it with- 
 out being felt by the patient. There are multitudes 
 of people who act in a heartless, unthinking, foolish 
 manner in regard to their health. The management 
 of our bodies may be compared to that of an estate. 
 It may be done so as to produce a large increase or 
 cause bankruptcy. Every health hint, which is 
 based not only on good common sense, but on 
 scientific principles, should be well studied, prac- 
 ticed, and improved upon. The difference between 
 health and wealth is seen most clearly in the fact 
 that the poorest man would not part with health for 
 money but the rich man would gladly part with his 
 money for health. 
 
 The sunshine of pleasure has much to do with 
 the promotion of health. People do not laugh 
 enough. But how can a man laugh when he does 
 not feel in the humour? Why, cultivate it; our 
 emotions can be restrained or cultivated at will. 
 They may be exercised so as to surround ourselves 
 continually with an atmosphere of sunshine. Good 
 humour and cordiality, mirth, and a neatly turned 
 joke are matters of education. If corroding cares 
 come — and they will — it may be well to grieve for 
 a short period, but let it not last long. Shake off 
 the disturbing sensation as a matter of duty to 
 yourself and to others ; dispel the maelstrom of care 
 and grief as King David did, and rise up and drink 
 hot water, and an hour after eat some good minced 
 meat or potted beef. Allow the well-spring of a 
 
PHYSIOLOGY. OF COMMON SENSE. 113 
 
 radiant smile to creep over your face, though it may 
 be sprinkled with tears. As soon as possible get 
 on a little laugh. If you have to cry and groan, do 
 it by yourself, and let the time be short. Do not 
 retiiil to others the sad disaster which opens up the 
 wound afresh, but be heroic, reasonable, and put a 
 cheerful courage on, for your trouble is not nearly 
 so sad as it might have been. 
 
 Some people are sour and annoyed at every little 
 mistake or mishap. The better plan is to pass 
 over as unworthy of notice many of the blunders 
 of others, for we ourselves are not perfect. A 
 minister who had been out on an afternoon's 
 partridge hunting with a visiting friend, being 
 weary at night, the servant read a chapter at 
 evening worship. The servant read very slowly 
 and precisely as follows : — ' ' And Abraham begat 
 Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat the 
 twelve partridges." The blunder came on the 
 guest like a galvanic shock, and he rushed out of the 
 room with his hand on his mouth to prevent an 
 irreverent explosion. That was far better than 
 to be annoyed. 
 
 A woman told her minister that her husband was 
 suffering from ^'ulsters" in his stomach. Those 
 who retail their troubles are frequently guilty of 
 exaggeration, instead of looking on the bright side. 
 Some mistakes, however, are hard to laugh at, like 
 the following. 
 
 A mother had a couple of children sick with the 
 measles, and wrote to a friend for the best remedy. 
 By mistake she received the following recipe for 
 making, pickles. The mother, thinking only of her 
 
 H 
 
lU GOOD HEALTH 
 
 children, was horror-stricken when she read : — 
 "Scald them three or four times in very hot 
 vinegar^ then sprinkle them with salt, and in a few 
 days they will be cured." 
 
 You can soon cultivate the habit of cheerfulness, 
 especially during meal times, if you only try. 
 Exercising cheerfulness is like giving charity ; it is 
 returned many fold. The effort is healthy ; without 
 effort nothing is accomplished that is worth straw ; 
 and that is about the least nutritious food for 
 animals that exists. If you wish an acute brain, 
 eat plenty of barley. Barley is the king of cereals 
 as a brain food, as well as a muscle food. 
 
115 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Hindrances to Longevity. 
 
 It is related of Dr. . Abernethy that on one special 
 occasion a wealthy gentleman consulted him on the 
 precarious state of his health. When the doctor 
 had examined him and found no serious organic 
 derangement, but an irregularity of the system, 
 caused chiefly by high living and the lack of 
 exercise, he gave him the following prescription : 
 " Live on a shilling a day and earn it." 
 
 Over-eating, improper diet and drink, shorten 
 more lives than all the accidents, pestilences, wars, 
 and contagious diseases in the world among the 
 adult population. What shall I eat, what shall I 
 drink? These are the vital questions of the age. 
 The large majority of people want the whitest bread, 
 made of the finest flour to be had in the market. 
 They want also the crisp pastry, the sweet cakes, 
 tea, coffee, cocoa and milk, with sugar in them all. 
 
 They want pies, puddings and custards, made of 
 starchy white flour, sugar, eggs, milk, fruit, lard, 
 and seasoning to taste. Before eating a variety of 
 the above, they have partaken sufficient roast beef or 
 other flesh meat, with potatoes and other vegetables 
 to satisfy the appetite of any ordinary person, and 
 then add coffee to the superabundance with which 
 to wash it down, regardless of the capacity of 
 
116 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 the intestines, arteries, tissues, gdstric juices and 
 other organs and agents which have to handle the 
 vile conglomeration, which was never designed for 
 the human stomach. It is no wonder life is made 
 miserable and cut short. 
 
 The practice of softness and needless self- 
 indulgence is followed by sore penalties. The solid 
 parts of our bodies are continually wasting, and 
 require to be repaired by fresh substances. There- 
 fore food must be taken in due regard to the exer- 
 cise and waste. The fluid part of our bodies con- 
 tinually wastes also. Remember that there is but 
 one fluid in animals, which is water, and, therefore, 
 water only is necessary. No artifice of man can 
 produce a better drink. 
 
 The fluid of our bodies is to the solid in proportion 
 as nine to one. Therefore a like proportion should 
 prevail in the total amount of food taken. Warmth 
 is essential to all the bodily functions, so an equal 
 bodily temperature should be maintained by exer- 
 cise, by clothing, or by fire. Exercise warms, 
 invigorates, and purifies the body and is the best 
 warmer of all. 
 
 If people would dine plainly, dine regularly, and 
 not worry about their food so much, they would 
 enjoy life a thousand times better and live a great 
 deal longer. Indigestion — that great bXigbear of 
 the age, which produces more "fits of the blues," 
 more irritability of temper and grumbling than 
 anything else — ^would soon lessen its hold upon 
 us, and a more cheerful disposition, more laughter, 
 more pleasure, and a happier, joyous life would be 
 the experience. 
 
HINDRANCES TO LONGEVITY. 117 
 
 It is well to always keep in mind, if you wish 
 to be healtiiy, that disease is an entirely j^nnatiijaJ—- 
 condition for man," notwithstanding its great pre- 
 valence in the world. It is nature's warning that 
 her laws have been disregarded. 
 
 The prevailing habit is to eat three or four meals 
 a day, and each time a little, if not very much, in 
 excess of the actual needs of the body. One of the 
 first acts of digestion is to convert the starch of the 
 food into dextrine. The last act of digestion is the 
 passage of the food into the circulation, and the 
 smaller intestines are supplied with millions of hair- 
 like glands, through which the food originally taken 
 into the mouth must pass. 
 
 "From a long course of eating too often, every 
 time slightly, if not a good deal, in excess of the 
 requirements of the system, a plethoric condition 
 arises, the tissues are clogged by the surplusage 
 deposits, until after a series of meals, perhaps one 
 hundred or one thousand, the absorbent surfaces of 
 the intestines can do no more, the tissues succumb 
 to the pressure ; then perhaps an extra dinner party 
 takes place, and in a day or two after there is a 
 break down. So and so is very ill ; one meal more 
 or a little too much was the straw that broke the 
 camel's back. It is quite useless in such cases to 
 think exercise is going to give relief. The best 
 remedy is to fast ; let the stomach have a good rest. 
 Go a day without a meal. Deny yourself, for if you 
 dont you will suffer. It is better to do this than to 
 take drugs. 
 
 Exercise is a good thing always, but, if carried too 
 far, when the system is in the condition jiist referred 
 
118 GOOD HEALTH 
 
 to, it is dangerous, because the tissues are not in a 
 condition to stand a strain. It would increase the 
 blood pressure about the heart-muscles, and might 
 cause permanent trouble. 
 
 This is the difficulty often experienced by those 
 who adopt cycling as a remedy for indigestion. 
 Doctors differ, of course, on the question of 
 permanent benefit to dyspeptics by the use of the 
 bicycle. Some find it an universal panacea for all 
 dyspeptic ailments, — a regular cure-all remedy, with 
 a sort of talismanic virtue, — while some eminent 
 physicians, on the other hand, state that dangers 
 are ahead for people who start their cycling career 
 young in life with a sound heart and healthy 
 arteries, and the middle-aged man whose tissues 
 are already deteriorated, because they miscalculate 
 their own powers of endurance. 
 
 The effect upon the liver and kidneys, the 
 increase of circulation, the very exercise which is 
 so agreeable, is apt to convert them into real devotees 
 to cycling, so that all their spare time is occupied 
 on the wheel. Their dyspepsia disappears, it is 
 true ; but, at the same time, the immoderate exer- 
 cise, — for in nine cases out often cyclists become so 
 infatuated that the agreeable exercise causes them 
 to take long rides, — may, before they are aware of it, 
 develop a chronic degeneration of the heart, and 
 the bursting of an artery, or the over-strain of 
 tissue takes place. Take a word of advice from the 
 sage doctor, who says, " There are dangers ahead 
 for those who begin their cycling career young in 
 life." 
 
 It sometimes happens that a person is fagged out 
 
HINDRANCES TO LONGEVITY. 119 
 
 and utterly tireci, but several miles from home, 
 owing to enthusiasm and renewed strength occa- 
 sioned by former moderate rides, has gone too far. 
 Then, with a fool's stubborn pride and inability to 
 understand the dangers of doing too much of a 
 good thing, redoubles his or her efforts to get home 
 again, and so overstrains the system. Irreparable 
 damage is often the result of cycling. Increased 
 blood pressure and heat accompanies a long ride 
 or a quick pace, so that very grave danger, and 
 may be sudden death, is the consequence. 
 
 A friend of mine was riding her bicycle in Batter- 
 sea Park. The heat was great, and her husband 
 was sitting under the trees waiting his wife's round, 
 when within a few yards of him, she fell, and was 
 taken up dead before he even saw the disaster. 
 The death was caused by the bursting of a blood 
 vessel on the brain. In this case the bicycle and 
 heat determined the moment of death, though they 
 did not cause the death, for the post-mortem proved 
 that the blood vessel was so thin it might have 
 burst under ordinary circumstances. In this case 
 death came in. a second. 
 
 One physician, of approved ability and ex- 
 perience, says: "Although cycling in moderation 
 for moderate distances at a moderate pace cannot 
 be anything but beneficial to young and healthy 
 adults, I contend that, carried out in such a manner 
 as to keep up a material acceleration of the heart's 
 action or increased blood pressure for any length of 
 time, it must of necessity, sooner or later, produce 
 disease of the circulatory, apparatus." 
 
 Another distinguished authority says: "The 
 
1 20 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 immediate effect, it is true, is to improve the general 
 health, but in all probability it is insiduously 
 generating disease in the heart and arteries. Nor 
 are the symptoms or signs of such disease apparent 
 until after considerable damage has been done." 
 The best safeguard in everything is moderation. 
 In cycling and athletics or any other exercise the 
 safest course is moderation in eating and drinking, 
 so as to keep the digestive organs in good condition. 
 The danger is then much diminished in case of 
 an immoderate exercise in cycling or any other 
 cherished ventures. 
 
 One of the greatest hindrances to longevity is 
 centred in the prevailing ignorance concerning 
 dietetics. Starchy foods, especially the way they 
 are now prepared, and the style and manner of 
 eating, cause untold injury to multitudes every day. 
 Starch may be compared to a candle burning, the 
 bright flame of which is indigestion. An ex- 
 tinguisher must be put over that flame. This book 
 is intended to serve that purpose. It is a curious 
 fact, that if you put a candle 30 degrees from the 
 perpendicular, it needs no snuffing, and gives a 
 better light; so, if you change starch in- the manner 
 I have indicated, it makes it wholesome and of very 
 much greater value in nourishing the system. If 
 this were generally observed it would work wonders 
 with this generation, and bequeath a blessing to 
 our successors. 
 
 Alas ! how few will take heed to their diet. Dr. 
 Abernethy said : " No person could be persuaded to 
 pay due attention to his digestive organs until death 
 or the dread of death was staring him in the face." 
 
HINDRANCES TO LONGEVITY. 121 
 
 It is an unfortunate circumstance, but none the less 
 true, that the love of good cheer actually increases 
 with the enfeeblement of the digestive organs, and 
 this kills multitudes of people. 
 
 Some one will ask why starch is so indigestible ? 
 One reason is that the starch contained in bread, 
 potatoes, vegetables, rice, tapioca, corn-flour, and 
 other such foods, is insoluble in water, and any 
 substance that is insoluble in water cannot be 
 absorbed. It therefore cannot minister to the 
 nourishment of the body. But if the starch is 
 changed by the saliva of the mouth and heat of 
 the stomach into dextrine, glucose, or grape sugar, 
 it then becomes so altered that it is ready for 
 further change, and can be finally digested. 
 
 In case the food sits heavily on the stomach, or 
 flatulence is experienced shortly after a meal, these 
 are. clear proofs that the salivary glands are not 
 doing their work with sufficient vigour to change 
 the starch, and the consequence is an ill feeling, a 
 dull headache, or some other trouble will be the 
 result. When such warnings take place, stop the 
 diet at once. Change is demanded, and the demand 
 is for food in which the starch is changed, or to 
 nitrogenous foods which are as free from starch as 
 possible. 
 
 If you cannot obtain satisfactory gluten flour and 
 other cereal foods in which the starch is changed, 
 eat only minced or potted meats, and drink only hot 
 or warm water. The many hindrances to longevity 
 cannot be enumerated in the small space at my dis- 
 posal. Sir Walter Scott explained "sound health" 
 as follows : ' ' The sublime and delectable pleasure 
 
122 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 of being well." Count Tolstoi has recently ex- 
 pressed, in his own quaint style, the exceeding 
 fallacy of eating too much. " Substitute," he says, 
 "the usual tasty dinner by one not so good, and 
 notice the difference in the amount eaten." I have 
 already referred to the experience of Sydney Smith. 
 It took him seventy years to find out that he had 
 always eaten too much. Cornaro found it out when 
 he was forty, and then allowanced himself to twelve 
 ounces of dry food and fourteen ounces of liquids 
 per day the rest of his life. He lived to the age of 
 
 I CO. 
 
 But there is a kind of universal conspiracy in the 
 world to incite us to eat too much. Say that you 
 think one plate of food is sufificient to satisfy one's 
 hunger and you will be called an idiot. If you 
 refuse the tempting dishes placed before you, and 
 honestly express your opinion that it is wrong to 
 eat of them, because hunger is appeased, you will 
 meet with a look of mingled scorn and pity. 
 
 A guide will accompany the sportsman in the 
 East and eat his piece of hard bread and a few dates, 
 which satisfy his wants ; while the latter is afraid 
 of dying with hunger if he does not take with him 
 several baskets of provisions, boxes of preserved 
 meats, and a hamper of drinks, which the guide, on 
 his spare diet, has to portage. 
 
 This excess is absurd, and from the point of view 
 of health and physical strength, there should be 
 reform. This abundant eating gives rise to many 
 complaints, which cause an amount of suffering 
 that far outweighs the momentary pleasure of eating. 
 The majority of people eat three times more than is 
 
HINDRANCES TO LONGEVITY. 123 
 
 necessary. Some mistaken people and even some 
 physicians recommend cream as an article of diet, 
 without ever warning the patient not to take too 
 much other fats at the same time. In one part of 
 this work I referred to the simple diet of uncivilized 
 nations, and perhaps shocked some sensitive minds 
 by doing so. 
 
 Let us look at the question of bread making in 
 the early times and see if we have improved upon 
 it. Among the Greek aristocrats, of whom Homer 
 gives a description, bread was not, as with us, an 
 adjunct to, but an essential portion of the principal 
 meal of the day. 
 
 The Chiefs of the heroic period lived almost 
 exclusively on two dishes : roast meat and wheaten 
 bread. Barley bread had been eaten from time im- 
 memorial, but when wheaten bread was introduced, 
 barley was preferred in the form of porridge and 
 gruel. Zenophon's army was treated to " leavened 
 bread," which indicates that it was not a general 
 custom to ferment the bread that was in ordinary 
 use. The leavened bread was looked upon as a 
 luxury. Even this kind of bread was finished off 
 by being roasted or toasted on a spit. The use of 
 the oven was considered indispensable, but the 
 starch in the cereal had to be still further changed 
 by a nearer approach to the heat, whether they 
 understood the philosophical principle of it or not. 
 
 In Rome, the C^sars took a lively interest in the 
 mode of baking, and obliged each family to bake 
 its own bread in ovens which were carefully 
 inspected. In the kitchen, there was the mill which 
 ground the meal out of which the bread was care- 
 
V2i GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 fully baked. There were no centrifugal reels for 
 the removal of all the most nourishing properties of 
 the wheat. Some years ago, during the excava- 
 tions at Pompeii, an oven was discovered which 
 contained several charred loaves, on which the 
 baker's name was plainly seen, showing of what 
 flour they were made. The loaves weighed about 
 two pounds, and were round and indented to admit 
 of breaking them into eight equal parts. 
 
 In Imperial Rome, butter was not used upon bread. 
 If crisp pastry was made it was made so with the 
 use of oil ; not butter. Consequently the people 
 could not eat as much as they do now of fat, fat, 
 fat, which has to be in fevery thing to make it short, 
 crisp and tasty, in order to join in the conspiracy of 
 making people eat too much so that they will be 
 "out of sorts" most of the time. This shortening 
 shortens not only the pastry but the life as well. 
 The reason of the indentations in the two pound 
 loaves found in the ovens at Pompeii was no doubt 
 for the purpose of letting the heat into the centre of 
 the loaf. This is an all important device in baking, 
 as it helps very materially to render the bread more 
 easily digested. The small loaf with a crust all 
 round it is better than a big loaf in the centre of 
 which is the soft pulp that scarcely any stomach 
 can handle successfully. In an ordinary oven which 
 has a temperature of about 500 degrees Fahr., the 
 inside of a loaf of bread has a ■ temperature of only 
 212 degrees. If you examine such bread under the 
 microscope the starch appears as lively and the 
 starch cells as unbroken as in the natural flour. 
 
 I am well aware that this point will be questioned 
 
HINDRANCES TO LONGEVITY. 125 
 
 by some analysts, but I have repeatedly tried it, and 
 have proved the fact that the oven does not change 
 the starch, except it may be in the crust, and then not 
 in the manner which the saliva of the mouth 
 changes it. 
 
 Thin cakes were the style in which bread was baked 
 in the early days of British history, and were far 
 more healthy than the eight pound or even two 
 pound loaves in our day. The heat penetrates to 
 the very centre of thin cakes, while the moisture 
 is soon evaporated. 
 
 "Make ready, quickly, three measures of fine 
 meal ; knead it, and make cakes on the hearth," 
 said Abraham unto Sarah, his wife. In the old 
 times it appears they understood the best way to 
 make, not only flour, but bread also. 
 
 In the evening time of this nineteenth century, 
 bread is not only made by a different process to 
 what it was in the early days of Greece and Rome, 
 but it is made from flour which fashion has deterio- 
 rated from the old style made by hand in the kitchen 
 mill to the superfine white article consisting chiefly 
 of starch, with the most valuable mineral and 
 nourishing substances of the vital part of the wheat 
 grains ruthlessly rejected. 
 
 It is no wonder so many lives are cut short and 
 others are constantly " out of sorts." Starch does 
 not form any part of the blood, nor does it build up 
 tissue, unless it is changed. The every day waste 
 of tissue can only be replaced by the proper 
 assimilation of food. It cannot be done by medicine. 
 Science cannot discover any such vitalizing 
 properties as nature has provided for the digestive 
 
126 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 powers of the human system. When an attempt is 
 made to aid the digestive powers, there is no 
 unique or wonderful remedy that can possibly 
 exceed the use of proper diet, in proper quantities, 
 preceded, as in some cases is desirable, by an entire 
 fast or abstinence. 
 
 There is no beverage of such importance to the 
 deranged system as hot water taken between meals. 
 The tonic and recuperative forces experienced by 
 this treatment soon prove their value. Their 
 powers of nutriment impart stamina, the power of 
 endurance, and a staying physical power from the 
 food partaken of, that will surprise those who will 
 adopt the change of regimen, from the abundance 
 and variety of food they have been accustomed to. 
 
 Life will not only be lengthened, but it will be 
 enjoyed. The tired feeling of delicate women, .and 
 the fagged-out weariness of busy men, will depart 
 entirely when the digestive organs are in good 
 condition, so that the food will assimilate and be 
 effectually handled by the tissues. 
 
 There is no magic in this ; it is Nature's remedy. 
 Some declare that their digestion is all right. They 
 feel no oppression nor any distress from what they 
 eat or drink ; but they have a cold, a little rheuma- 
 tism, or an athletic heart, caused by too great 
 exercise ; a little neuralgia or slight sore throat. 
 Very well. But you would be free of these troubles 
 if you took proper diet. The ability to endure 
 greater physical exertion without fatigue would 
 surprise you. 
 
 The power to resist cold, wet weather, east wind, 
 drafts, and extra work, trouble and fatigue will 
 
HINDRAA CES TO LONGEVITY. 127 
 
 open your eyes to the invaluable service rendered 
 by this unparalleled test of merit over all the 
 remedies' ever discovered for the cure and prevention 
 of disease. It, by one herculean stroke, removes 
 more '^hindrances to longevity than any other one 
 system in the world. 
 
128 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Difficulties in Adopting the Dietetic 
 System. 
 
 The annual review of the progress of materia 
 medica for 1896, published by that eminent medical 
 journal, ih^ Lancet, shows conclusively how doctors 
 differ on certain new scientific remedies which have 
 been discovered, discussed, recommended, and then 
 dropped out of use after extensive investigation and ■ 
 experiments. Materia medica has always been 
 noted for experiments on dogs, cats, frogs, pigs, 
 sheep, etc., as well as on the human system, and 
 there are more records of such experiments now 
 than ever before, and yet a wide spread multitude 
 of suffering human beings is increasing every year. 
 
 One experiment is recorded as follows: — " In the 
 rabbit, the centre for facial movement and those of 
 the fore limb are better developed than others ; 
 whilst in the dog and cat the centres for the fore 
 limbs are better organized than those for the ears 
 and tail." This may enlighten some people on 
 brain histology in the different lower animals, but 
 of what benefit can it possibly be to the ordinary 
 practitioner in medicine ? 
 
 I bow with raised hat to the medical profession 
 and salute them with courteous respect, so long as 
 they keep on the tidal wave of special research, 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF DIETETIC SYSTEM. 129 
 
 calculated to improve upon former methods of 
 treatment ; but when they begin to devote their 
 energies exclusively to the technical investigation 
 of the tissues of a rabbit's ears and tail, in order to 
 obtain a true facial expression that will give no 
 relief to the multitudes of suffering humanity, or to 
 such a degree as to neglect more practical lessons 
 in therapeutics, there is to be a period put down 
 after the M. D., and before the word respect is 
 written. 
 
 When the highly cultured, scientific medical 
 profession devote so much time to experiments, 
 there can be nothing very perilous in a scientific 
 and common-sense trial of a simple remedy like 
 dietetics and hygiene, which I am here advocating, 
 and have experimented with successfully for twenty 
 years. Its simplicity is not so very simple after 
 all. Its utility is unsurpassed. Its safety is un- 
 precedented. 
 
 Its effects are as instantaneous as digestion. Its 
 permanent results are the highest recommendation 
 of all. Yet specialists are as necessary in this 
 treatment as in any other line of therapeutics. A 
 person specially trained with experience in the 
 treatment of lunacy is recommended as being fit to 
 be placed at the head of a lunatic asylum, especially 
 if he is a medical man. 
 
 Crime is now considered a medical question, and 
 medical men are being sought after for the position 
 of superintendents of prisons. So if medical men 
 could be persuaded to adopt the system of dietetics 
 and hygiene as a specialty in their practice, the 
 improvement in personal, family and national 
 
130 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 health, strength and vigour, would soon mark a 
 new era in the history of materia medica. 
 
 But the great difficulty met with in the practice 
 of this system, is that it interferes with the popular 
 desire to eat and drink such articles and in such 
 quantities as popular practice demands. It is the 
 " one thing needful," yet most despised. It is the 
 " pearl of great price," which requires a person to 
 part with all his cherished possessions in order to 
 possess it. If he will but do this, a new charm 
 will come over him with talismanic power such as 
 he never imagined could exist during his days of 
 suffering. 
 
 Another great difficulty in the adoption of this 
 system is that there is no money in it. The 50,000 
 medical men and chemists in Great Britain, if this 
 system were to come into general practice, would 
 find their occupation gone to such an extent that 
 they could not get a 100 guinea fee as easily as they 
 do now, nor could the chemists reap such immense 
 profits. I do not ignore the medical profession nor 
 the chemists. They are a necessity ; but with all 
 their knowledge, skill and valuable services, they 
 should devote more attention to the prevention 
 instead of the cure of disease, and they know better 
 than anyone else the evils of the present mode of 
 preparing foods and drinks, and the gigantic evils 
 of the every-day diet table and drink habits. 
 
 A word from a good physician or chemist has a 
 wonderful influence upon their patients. If that 
 word was an earnest warning against the use of 
 such an abundance of starchy foods, and against 
 the habit of drinking during the time of eating 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF DIETETIC SYSTEM. 131 
 
 their meals, a great revolution would soon be 
 effected — and they know it. 
 
 The fallacy of eating too much meat is very 
 widespread. It is met with everywhere, and all 
 the indigestion connected with our diet table is 
 harped upon as caused by eating so much flesh 
 meat. There never was such a fad as this before 
 in the world's history. It is not the meat. For many 
 years I thought it was, but experience, common 
 sense, and the result of experiment have proved 
 the contrary. It is starchy foods, white bread, 
 and too much of these, with drinking at meal times 
 and all other times on the least emotion of thirst, 
 that causes the deep-seated and widespread trouble. 
 
 I would prefer and strongly recommend to those 
 who indulge in suppers before bed-time to eat a 
 small quantity of minced beef and a little biscuit 
 made of starch-changed flour, than thin bread and 
 butter, a bit of crackers and cheese, with a glass 
 of ale or anything else that is considered light and 
 easy to digest. In nine cases out of ten the minced 
 beef and thin biscuit made as directed will give 
 no trouble, — no dry mouth and coated tongue in 
 the morning ; while ordinary food will, unless 
 there is a very normal condition of the salivary 
 glands and digestive organs. This has been proved. 
 But the best plan is not to eat suppers at all. 
 
 Some men smoke a great deal in the evening. 
 The pipe is seldom out of their mouths until bed-time. 
 If they get "out of sorts" and lose the desire to 
 smoke, or do not enjoy their smoke, they do not 
 consider it a warning signal, but take medicine to 
 relieve the ill-used tissues and intestines, and are 
 
132 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 in a few days "all right." It is most absurd 
 to treat the beneficent warning in that irrational 
 manner. There is no cavalier action about it. It 
 is low and selfish. 
 
 I have known many men smoke so incessantly 
 from boyhood until they were forty that they could 
 never smoke again. All the sensations of pleasure 
 from a good smoke were gone ; they had had a 
 short life and a merry one in that sphere. 
 
 The number of deaths that occur every year from 
 cancer of the tongue or mouth, caused by smoking, 
 is on the increase. A moderate smoke will not injure 
 any person above twenty-one years of age, and no 
 one should smoke till that age. As soon as a 
 person finds no relish for smoking the very best 
 thing for him to do is to change his diet, or take a 
 good, long rest from food altogether. 
 
 In the enumeration of hindrances in the way of 
 adopting the system of dietetics as a general remedy 
 against weakness, fatigue, loss of appetite, sleep- 
 lessness, irritability, sallow complexion, poor 
 nutrition, impoverished blood, neuralgia, rheu- 
 matism, heart trouble, diabetes, catching cold 
 easily, or any indisposition, there is this difficulty : 
 that nearly every person resorts to some advertised 
 remedy of drugs. The drugs may afford temporary 
 relief, then soon follows a relapse. In a short time 
 another remedy is proposed, and so on, while the 
 finale of their desires and goal of their expectations 
 is to be able to eat well. A good appetite is the 
 cherished boon of all their hopes. Alas ! that such 
 an idea has become so deep-rooted in the minds of 
 the people. This is one of the stupendous fallacies 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF DIETETIC SYSTEM. 133 
 
 of the age. A good appetite may be the harbinger 
 of some very acute and persistent disease, especially 
 when the blood is clotted with impurities, and the 
 tissues overloaded with foul matter from a fermented, 
 starchy food, taken in too great abundance from the 
 desires created by an artificial appetite. 
 
 In such cases, tumours are often formed, irregular- 
 ities are produced, chronic derangement of some of 
 the organs is liable to settle with a firm grip, or 
 something serious threatens the patient, until it is 
 decided at the eleventh hour to consult a physician. 
 I will not invent any picture that follows, but it is 
 surprising if in a few months the patient is not 
 found in an etherealized condition, undergoing an 
 operation in which surgical instruments are wielded 
 by skilful hands. 
 
 This is an age of operations. They are quite 
 fashionable in many parts. If the appetite had not 
 been stimulated by tonics, so called, which term is 
 generally understood to be drugs of some sort or 
 other, the system would correct itself of the trouble, 
 especially in niost cases, and no danger would be 
 experienced. It is the apparently healthy people 
 who are suddenly cut down by disease, while the 
 very delicate ones are more careful, and live longest. 
 So many people are sure they are in good health 
 that when some slight indisposition is felt they take 
 a tonic, not of pure water, air, nor rubbing, but of 
 drugs, and the result is an operation and perhaps 
 death. 
 
 Notwithstanding the many difficulties met with 
 in adopting a system of dietetics as a general 
 therapeutic agent, there are thousands of people 
 
134 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 beginning to understand that all other remedies are 
 but palliative, compared to it. A diet of minced 
 meat and prepared cereals, with a drink of hot water 
 between meals, keeps the system in a healthy con- 
 dition, so that to avoid " catching cold " from every 
 little draft, or blood poisoning from some little infec- 
 tion, or typhoid fever from some floating bacilli, or 
 even consumption from contagious germs of tuber- 
 culosis, the system should be strong, the circulation 
 normal, the tissues healthy, and the whole system 
 capable of resisting the effects of these dangers. 
 
 No person should be subject to "take cold" upon 
 every little change of temperature. We were not 
 made as hothouse plants, but as sturdy perennials, 
 to stand the storms to which a life that is worth 
 living must necessarily expose us. 
 
 Multitudes of people are half scared to death 
 over the germ theory of disease, in these days of 
 scientific nonsense. I say nonsense, because, it 
 diverts the attention of the public from the real 
 cause to a supposed one. It sets people hiding 
 around here and there to escape bacilli, when they 
 should be striving to live such lives as God ordained 
 they should live, and be able to maintain a standard 
 of vitality against which the onslaughts of bacilli 
 would be vain. 
 
 This theory turns some physicians from being 
 health directors into vermin slayers. They ignore 
 the necessary instructions for rearing healthy 
 children, and begin to alarm an innocent public 
 with vain imaginings concerning the invisible 
 germs floating about in the atmosphere. This 
 " going after strange gods " is another of the great 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF DIETETIC SYSTEM. 135 
 
 evils of the age. The wise doctor removes the 
 cause of indigestion. 
 
 Dyspepsia is our great national enemy, and any 
 course of treatment that will effectually lead to its 
 abolition deserves a bonus as great as that which the 
 British nation gave so liberally for the emancipation 
 of slaves. It is not an uncommon thing to see 
 strong men, prostrated by a few hours' arduous 
 muscular or mental strain, become weaker and 
 " more tired " after food and rest, instead of a speedy 
 recovery to their usual strength and vigour. Such 
 men do not enjoy good health. They are strangers 
 to the fullness of life which they ought to enjoy. 
 
 I have just read of the sudden death of a 
 prominent Methodist minister in Montreal, which 
 was reported as follows : — " He spent two hours in 
 the gymnasium, in physical exercise, just a week 
 ago, preparatory to undergoing an operation at the 
 hospital." On the same day I read an account of the 
 sudden death of an English Church clergyman in 
 England, who was " busily engaged in parochial 
 work until within the last few days, when he con- 
 tracted a cold, which developed rapidly, and caused 
 his death on Wednesday." 
 
 These two men were in the prime of life and 
 should have lived many years longer. But such 
 cases are legion, and are on the increase, and will 
 continue until there is a general reformation and 
 adoption of a regimen which common-sense science 
 and experience, recommend to their attention. 
 
 Naaman was very angry when the prophet Elisha 
 sent word to him to go and wash seven times in 
 the river Jordan for the cure of his leprosy. He 
 
36 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 aid : " Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of 
 Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel ? So 
 le turned and went away in a rage." But his 
 ervants persuaded him. They said : "If the 
 )rophet had told thee to do some great thing, 
 srould'st thou not have done it?" He finally 
 ^ielded, and simply washed and was clean. Then 
 ollowed what in every case follows the adoption of 
 lietetics as a therapeutic remedy in disease, 
 ^aaman heaped thanks upon his benefactor and 
 •ffered large gifts. 
 
 I have had my hand nearly squeezed into a jelly 
 )y persons whom I have met after they were cured. 
 Dne case in particular was that of a leading 
 )hysician, whom I had never seen, but, through 
 ;orrespondence, had recommended to adopt this 
 emedy for diabetes. When he met me a few months 
 ifter, being introduced by another physician who 
 ;ame with him to my office, he grasped my hand 
 vith such intense eagerness, and exclaimed, with 
 I beam of pleasure on his face, "you have saved 
 ny life," that I grqaned with pain in my hand, and 
 lould scarcely reply to his congratulations. 
 
 After all the cures that have come under my notice 
 jf complaints that were considered incurable by 
 physicians, I am strongly opposed to the term, 
 " Home for Incurables," which a charitable public 
 supports with such commendable generosity. From 
 m infant of six months old to a man of eighty years 
 [ have seen cured of diabetes, when most physi- 
 ;ians said the disease was incurable. They admitted 
 the existence of palliative remedies, chief among 
 ivhich was dietetics, but that was all. 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF DIETETIC SYSTEM. 137 
 
 I maintain that diabetes can be cured, and the 
 cure may be as permanent as the cure of any disease, 
 but diabetes, as well as any other disease, may recur 
 again and again unless a proper diet is adhered to. 
 
 If the charitable homes for incurables were called 
 by some other name, there would be a sense of gloom 
 raised from the minds of the inmates, the nurses, and 
 all connected with the inmates, and the effect would 
 be like the raising of a dense fog from the atmos- 
 phere of an English town and the surrounding 
 country. There would be a brighter, lighter, and 
 more cheerful feeling experienced at once by every- 
 body connected with the institution. 
 
 But among other reasons, the dietetic system is 
 being adopted by large numbers whose prejudices 
 have given way, owing to the improved appearance 
 which it works on the complexion. It produces 
 beauty without cosmetics. It does not create beauty 
 as quickly as putting on cosmetics, but if you have 
 patience and persevere, the handsome appearance, 
 ruddy countenance, and glow of health will be more 
 pleasing and durable. It is an excellent preventa- 
 tive against wrinkles — those dreadful things which 
 are more dreaded by many ladies than blotches and 
 black-heads. 
 
 It is the only means in the world for dyspeptics 
 by which a red, clear and pretty under-lip can be 
 maintained. It is a common expression to hear, 
 " keep a stiff upper lip," while it is vastly more 
 important that we should keep a clear, healthy and 
 red lower lip. The reason, or one of the reasons, 
 why the use of proper diet and the hot water con- 
 tribute so largely towards a clear and handsome 
 
138 GOOD HEALTH 
 
 complexion is because it produces good digestion, 
 sound sleep, a better disposition, with more rest 
 and contentment of mind. The face becomes more 
 plump and rosy, the skin looks soft and smooth, 
 the eyes, which are dull and heavy under a regimen 
 which causes indigestion, look like shining stars 
 when the blood circulates in pure life-giving streams 
 throughout the whole system, and to the outer 
 cuticles of the face. 
 
 It affords sound sleep, which makes one more 
 amicable towards the whole world. Starchy foods 
 cause flatulence, with emotions to sleep, and yet 
 sleep is far away, because of the fermentation going 
 on in the intestines and digestive organs, so that a 
 yawning by day and discomfort at night drive away 
 the "sweet restorer, balmy sleep." 
 
 You may have indigestion and not know it. It 
 takes various forms besides oppression and distress 
 in the stomach. It affects the heart, the liver, the 
 kidneys, the joints, the head, the limbs, the teeth, 
 and other parts, causing trouble which is attributed 
 to other sources, but actually is a result of improper 
 diet. It is indigestion and mal-assimilation that 
 bring the crow-feet about the eyes, the wrinkles on 
 the face, black-heads, pimples, or sallow complexion. 
 
 The face is an excellent index of the state of one's 
 physical being, and, from it, symptoms of disease 
 can be detected almost before a person is aware 
 that anything is the matter with him. 
 
 As a general rule the upper third of the face is 
 altered in expression by the action of the brain, 
 while the lower third of the face is acted upon by 
 the organs contained in the abdominal or digestive 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF DIETETIC SYSTEM. 139 
 
 cavities. But as the brain is affected more or less 
 by the digestive organs, these are primarily the 
 cause of all our happiness or misery. 
 
 We lose much happiness by despising calm, 
 quiet pleasures, and take an interest only in what 
 excites and delights, as in some active, sensational 
 event. How many prodigals there are in this 
 respect. They spend their substance in riotous 
 living, and are brought, by worthless trifles, to 
 realize their true situation in the rags and penury 
 of distress and wretchedness. If they come to 
 themselves in time to arise and go to their father's 
 house they may be saved, but will always be 
 haunted by the sense of memory at the folly of 
 that holiday trip which first was glittering with 
 beauty, fine scenery, jovial companions, and a real 
 good time, but ended in anxious thought, trouble, 
 humiliation, with deep repentance and tears. 
 
 To all such this dietetic system is their father's 
 house. Their reception will be most welcome. 
 Plenty of good, substantial food will be supplied 
 to them, just such as their system requires, — not 
 the indigestible, starchy stuff, that will fill them 
 with carbonic acid gas to bloat up and make a 
 yeast pot of their intestines, but the well-roasted 
 calf or animal food with parched corn. And this 
 will be followed by music and dancing, to afford 
 pleasure and indicate happiness, because the lost 
 have been found, the dead are alive again. The 
 elder brother may dissent and others laugh, but 
 they are saved, and rejoice at the restoration of 
 their birthright — good health and a happy life. 
 
140 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 On Massage or Rubbing. 
 
 There is a good deal of suspicion in the minds of 
 nany people in regard to massage, and no wonder, 
 )wing to the different systems advocated by various 
 )rofessors, or those claiming to be experts in the 
 ;cience. Its use is advocated for all sorts of diseases, 
 vithout discrimination, which is a great mistake, 
 t is certain that many practice it without knowledge, 
 vhich brings the system oftentimes into disrepute. 
 This is chiefly on account of the mystery thrown 
 iround the exercise by many of the chief pontiffs in 
 he science, who differ from each other as widely as 
 he poles. 
 
 The kind of massage which I shall advocate may 
 )e called very rude and primitive by the noted 
 ixperts : but as they differ so widely from each other, 
 t will not be a surprise if I differ somewhat from 
 hem. 
 
 I have much satisfaction in being assured, after 
 nany years of practice, that the system which is 
 lere recommended is safe and useful as an adjunct 
 o the system of dietetics, or alone for those who 
 ndulge in the "varied and fanciful diet" of the 
 ige. 
 
 The massage which I recommend is similar to 
 hat which Hippocrates, who is called the first 
 
ON MASSAGE OR RUBBING. 141 
 
 physician, probably by way of eminence, among- 
 the early disciples of the healing art. He said: "A 
 physician must be experienced in many things, but 
 assuredly also in rubbing, for things that have the 
 same name have not always the same effect. For 
 rubbing can bind a joint that is too loose and loosen 
 a joint that is too tight." 
 
 Galen, also, and others, practised this system in 
 the far back ages in which they lived. In these last 
 years of the nineteenth century, the learned experts 
 have, by means of technical knowledge and experi- 
 ments on frogs, rabbits, and other animals, served 
 to place the whole question on such a scientific 
 basis that bewilders the ordinary mind to such a 
 degree that confidence is considerably shaken in 
 the manipulation of a very useful practice. 
 
 There is the William Murrell system, the Weir 
 Mitchell system, the Mezger system, the Von Mos- 
 engeil system, and higher or lesser lights, who have 
 achieved notoriety in their practice to more or less 
 extent, while they differ widely on many points of 
 manipulation, but all agree that massage, properly 
 administered, is an excellent therapeutic agent. 
 
 Dr. Playfair's system is the one I most approve 
 of, but, strange to say, I had not heard of him nor 
 his system for ten years after I began the practice. 
 His definition of the. term massage is a common- 
 sense one, being " nothing more than a vicarious 
 way of giving exercise to patients who cannot take 
 it themselves." 
 
 This is the primary meaning of massage, and 
 very fully expresses its utility. But I go farther on 
 the same road and find by exploring the country, 
 
142 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 that, in addition to the vicarious idea, some of the 
 best results are obtained when the vicar is rector 
 and curate all combined, and does the work 
 himself. 
 
 The multitudes of people of sedentary habit, who 
 are prevented from taking proper exercise, can by 
 practising massage on themselves, by themselves 
 in their own bedrooms, be enabled to enjoy good 
 health to a degree they never thought of before. 
 
 Self-massage is the right and proper thing, 
 provided the patient has enough strength to do it. 
 This is a difficult point to settle in many cases. 
 Some people imagine they are weaker than they 
 are. If they would make an effort to rub them- 
 selves a little every day, it would soon work 
 wonders for them. If they are really too weak, 
 some one else must be delegated to do the work for 
 them, and then it becomes a vicarious exercise ; 
 because another does the work and receives double 
 reward, — first the benefit of the exercise, and 
 secondly the remuneration. 
 
 When I claim that the very best results from 
 massage are reached by this self or delegated office, 
 and for the purpose of exercise mainly, the lip of 
 scorn may be turned up against it by professionals, 
 who declare the idea a rude and primitive one. 
 That is exactly what I claim for it, and maintain 
 that there has never been any great improvement 
 on it. Neither is it necessary for the masseur or 
 massuese to spend two or three years in learning 
 the art, except as study with mental application, 
 and a course of lectures are always beneficial for 
 learning the anatomy of the system, which is 
 
ON MASSAGE OR RUBBING. 143 
 
 certainly a necessary thing for every person to 
 understand. 
 
 In expressing my views upon this subject, it is 
 after many years of successful manipulation, two 
 cases of which are recorded in former chapters of 
 this work ; and nearly every week testimonies to the 
 same effect are reaching me. It is also satisfactory 
 to me, because the same views are held and advocated 
 by several eminent medical men, professors of 
 therapeutics, and other scientific men of note, besides 
 those mentioned. 
 
 In this, it may be said — 
 
 ' ' What is true is not new, 
 And what is new is not true." 
 
 To glance at the way some of the new professionals 
 use massage is most disgusting — I might say amus- 
 ing, only, that when so much is at stake, there is 
 nothing very amusing about it. Some of them 
 besmear the body with oil, lard, or vaseline ; one 
 operator has discovered wool oil as a basis for an 
 ointment for the purpose. Any of these unguents 
 make a bad mess of things, and do less good than 
 a hard dry rub. 
 
 Another one, who believed in the dry rub, but 
 not by the hands alone, used wood or bone instru- 
 ments, which were made to fit the various parts of 
 the human frame. These tools were made to fit the 
 knees, ankles, or other parts, which were swollen 
 with rheumatism 
 
 Another one advocates the use of cannon balls. 
 They are rolled over the body for some ten minutes 
 every day, while the patient is impatiently stretched 
 on his back during the performance. 
 
144 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 Still another process is to introduce the patient 
 into a room where machines are running at a high 
 speed by means of electric or steam power. These 
 machines have some ingenious devices which clutch 
 and rub the patient on any part of the body desired. 
 The design is to imitate the motion of the human 
 hand, but save the labour, which the hands are in- 
 tended to do. 
 
 All these contrivances are far from the system 
 practised by the ancient Greeks and Romans, and by 
 the present generation among the most enlightened 
 Orientals, who are not afraid of work, as their diet 
 and simple habits of life yield them such buoyant 
 health and strength that they delight in the ad- 
 ministration of relief to those in pain and distress. 
 
 The best form of massage is unquestionably 
 that called "effleurage" which consists of slow, 
 gentle strokes made with the palm of the hands, 
 fingers, and thumb. When an eminent physician 
 or any other person begins to advise how often 
 the "slow, gentle strokes" are to be made by 
 one hand and then the other, they get beyond their 
 depth, and render themselves ridiculous. The one 
 hundred and twenty times a minute up to three 
 hundred and fifty times a minute afford a safe, and, 
 for them, a wise margin. 
 
 The fact is, the rapidity of the strokes depends 
 almost entirely upon the inclination and strength 
 of the person operating. And to say the hands 
 must move simultaneously and in opposite direc- 
 tions, is all nonsense. The main thing in rubbing 
 is to influence all the tissues of the body in as 
 uniform a manner as possible, and by friction set 
 
ON MASSAGE OR RUBBING. 145 
 
 the blood in motion, which flows more freely while 
 the whole body is warmed up by the exercise, which 
 is positively the great benefit of massage. 
 
 Every portion of the body requires to be toned 
 up or developed to a higher pitch of muscular 
 efficacy. This necessitates bringing into use 
 every muscle of the body, — to set all tingling with 
 excitement, so as to cause the tissues and cuticles 
 of the skin, and flesh next to the skin, to flush and 
 palpitate with the storm-like blizzard created by the 
 friction of rubbing. 
 
 The skin is an organized membrane, full of 
 minute pores, cells, blood vessels and nerves : it 
 imbibes moisture or throws it off according to the 
 state of the atmosphere and the temperature of the 
 body. It also breathes, as do the lungs. All the 
 internal organs sympathise with the skin. The 
 process of rubbing the skin is an excellent one. 
 
 It stimulates the lungs to quicker and deeper 
 respiration, and produces a free circulation of blood 
 throughout the whole system. If good health is to 
 be enjoyed for any length of time, this exercise is 
 necessary. The labouring classes, so called, but 
 which is a misnomer, are forced by the occupation 
 they follow to exercise all their muscular tissues.- 
 
 There is force in the way Tennyson puts the 
 matter of adopting, or illustrative of the adoption, 
 of every new device that comes along. He says : 
 " Not clinging to some ancient saw. 
 Not mastered by some modern term, 
 Not swift, nor slow to change, but firm." 
 
 The curse that came upon man at the fall necessi- 
 tates labour, and people may as well make up their 
 
 K 
 
146 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 minds at once to the fixed rule — "that there is no 
 excellency without labour" in any department of 
 life. 
 
 Among the excellencies dependent upon labour 
 there is none of greater importance than health. 
 If it is not called labour, but known by the simple 
 name of exercise, it amounts to the same thing. 
 
 The Divine edict has gone forth, "six days shalt 
 thou labour." This injunction has such a wide 
 latitude that it includes everybody. 
 
 It is just as binding on the rich as the poor, and 
 of as great significance as that other part of the 
 Decalogue which says in regard to the seventh day, 
 " In it thou shalt do no manner of work." Those 
 who expect to enjoy good health for any length of 
 time by breaking this commandment, in either one 
 part or the other, will certainly be disappointed. 
 There is no royal road to any excellence but by the 
 way of labour. The only real rest a person enjoys, 
 in the real meaning of the term rest, is after fatigue. 
 
 The sound sleep, good appetite, and general 
 exuberance of health come after exercise. One- 
 seventh of the week is for rest and six-sevenths 
 for labour. If the labour is of a sedentary character 
 then there must be some means of stimulating 
 the whole system into action, so as to produce 
 the same effects on the muscles, tissues, and all the 
 organs of the body in a similar manner to the way 
 they are exercised by the people who, through 
 manual labour, bring them into play. 
 
 There is no way that I know of that is so easy, 
 so beneficial, and so conveniently adapted to our 
 surroundings as that of massage. It may serve as 
 
ON MASSAGE OR RUBBING. U1 
 
 an adjunct to other means of exercise, or may serve 
 as the only means. The question is often asked, 
 What is the most generally advantageous form 
 of exercise ? My answer is, massage. 
 
 I do not wish, in any sense, to ignore the manly 
 outdoor exercises,-^sports, pedestrian or equestrian, 
 the cycle, golf, tennis, bowling, croquet, . or the 
 indoor billiards, gymnastics, nor other muscular 
 exercises designed to bring into use every muscle 
 and tissue of the body in a manner that affords 
 pleasure and attractive associations. These are all 
 excellent if they are not abused by overdoing, as 
 is often the case, owing to the excitement, compe- 
 tition, and general ambition to excel in them by 
 persons who do not guage their strength of en- 
 durance by rules of prudence or laws of physical 
 ability. 
 
 But there are the tens of thousands who do not 
 engage in these sports. They are domiciled at 
 home, and snatch here and there a little exercise, 
 but not half enough to produce even a moderate 
 amount of the twenty-four ounces of perspiration 
 which should exude from the body every twenty-four 
 hours by a person in good health. For them, there 
 is no exercise nor exerciser that can supersede the 
 old and excellent persuader, known in these days by 
 the name of massage. 
 
 It is suitable for winter or summer and all sorts 
 of weather. There is little danger of overdoing it. 
 It will relieve many ailments which other violent 
 exercises create. It will cure many diseases which 
 other forms of exercise have created, by over indul- 
 gence in them. 
 
148 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 Deafness, for instance, as tested by the influence 
 of bicycle riding and massage. Twenty-four cycle 
 riders, who had ridden thirty-two miles 'i% two hours 
 and a quarter were examined with reference to their 
 hearing and it was found in nearly every case to be 
 defective. After two hours' rest the hearing had 
 become normal in most of them. 
 
 In a case under my own practice, where the tele- 
 phone could not be used by the right ear, after three 
 months' practice of massage the patient unexpect- 
 edly found himself using the phone with the 
 right ear and was surprised to find his hearing per- 
 fect. For ten years previously he had not used the 
 phone with the right ear. 
 
 The following will explain, as briefly as possible, 
 the system of massage which I have found success- 
 ful in all cases, not only as affording exercise but 
 as a valuable therapeutic agent. 
 
 It must not be considered by anyone that an evil 
 which has existed for a long time can be removed 
 immediately. One of the most prevailing errors 
 among certain classes is to expect immediate change 
 will yield immediate relief. Massage is not so 
 quick in its results as dietetics, for what is taken 
 into the mouth is like material put to a machine, 
 which, the moment it enters, is changed, aijd affects 
 the machine as well as the material. 
 
 Now to the work ; begin it as soon as you arise 
 from your bed in the morning. Turn your bare 
 skin to the atmosphere of the room by removing 
 your night-dress down to the waist. If you shiver 
 a moment and find yourself getting cold by the 
 change, it is clear proof that you are very tender 
 
ON MASSAGE OR RUBBING. 149 
 
 indeed, an4 no one needs massage more than you 
 do. ' 
 
 To prevent the shivers, take a good-sized friction 
 towel and throw it over your shoulders at once, do 
 it very quickly, it is well to have it ready at hand ; 
 then rub yourself with the towel until you get up a 
 little circulation which will warm your whole body. 
 
 Then throw off the towel, and with the palm of 
 the right hand and fingers rub your left arm as 
 quickly as you can from the shoulder down to the 
 wrist ten times. In doing so pass your right hand 
 down the front of the left arm and up on the back 
 part of the left arm. Do this ten times. 
 
 Then with the left hand in the same way rub the 
 right arm ten times. At once, and as quickly as 
 your strength will admit, use your right hand palm 
 over your throat and left side of the neck up to 
 the ear ten times. Then, with your left hand, rub 
 the right side of your throat and neck up to the 
 ear ten times. 
 
 You will now begin to feel warm and perhaps 
 out of breath a little. If possible, without fatiguing 
 yourself too much, use both hands now at once 
 by rubbing under the arms and down each side of 
 your body to the hips ten times. Then throw your 
 arms back and rub your back all you can down 
 over the kidneys. In doing this, use the backs of 
 your hands. 
 
 Take the friction towel over your right shoulder, 
 one end with the right hand behind your back, the 
 other in your left, and rub between your shoulders 
 and over the spine, ten times over one shoulder 
 and ten times over the other. 
 
150 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 This will probably be enough for the first 
 exercise, unless you are strong enough to bear 
 niore exertion ; if so, rub the nape of your neck 
 thoroughly with first one hand and then the other, 
 and about the ears. It may be that you will now 
 feel so warm that the atmosphere of a cold bedroom 
 will not be felt on your bare body, and you can go on. 
 
 If so, strip your legs and run both hands at once 
 sharply and with pressure down the front of your 
 legs from thighs to feet and up on the back parts of 
 the legs ten times. This sets the whole machinery 
 of the outside membranes, tissues, and arteries in 
 motion, and opens the pores of the skin with great 
 advantage to the circulation and perspiration. 
 
 It is prudent now to put on your clothes as quickly 
 as you can, but before putting on youe stockings, 
 sit down and rub the soles of your feet, first one 
 foot and then the other with the palms of your 
 hands, first one hand and then the other. This is 
 very important, as the nerves of the whole system 
 centre in the soles of the feet. 
 
 If you cannot do all this at one operation at start- 
 ing the exercise of massage, it is advisable to have 
 someone to assist you, or do less of it at once, until 
 you are able in a few days to do it all yourself. In 
 doing only part of the exercise, which consists of 
 ten times, rubbing each part at once, do less, but 
 whatever you omit do not miss the soles of the feet 
 nor nape of the neck. 
 
 If you wish to be perpetually free from colds and 
 headache, take this exercise every night and morn- 
 ing for from five to ten minutes, until you are able 
 to keep it up longer. 
 
ON MASSAGE OR RUBBING. 151 
 
 It is not advisable to begin the exercise when 
 fatigued, nor when in a perspiration. If you oper- 
 ate on yourself at night in the way directed, and 
 find it followed by a nice, free perspiration after you 
 cover up in bed, it is an excellent sign of benefit. 
 
 A young lady of my acquaintance had no per- 
 ceptible perspiration for some years, even in the 
 hottest weather, until she began cycle riding, and 
 then she perspired so freely that she would catch 
 cold if not very careful ; but I have known plenty 
 of people who did not perspire until they began 
 massage, which, being an indoor exercise, avoids 
 the danger of catching cold, especially as the rub- 
 bing can cease when the skin becomes too moist, 
 and should cease, and the clothes put on at once, 
 when in a few minutes the body comes to its normal 
 temperature. 
 
 The exposure of the bare skin to a colder tempera- 
 ture is one preventative against taking cold. The 
 exercise, in which all the muscles of the body are 
 brought into play, causes the circulation of the blood 
 to flow more freely. It tones up the whole system 
 to a standard of vitality that enables it to ward off 
 "colds," and to endure more of the fatigues and 
 strains of life, similarly to those which are constantly 
 met with by persons whose occupation is one of 
 hard manual labour. 
 
 With proper diet, and-an inward bath of hot water 
 several times a day, together with an ablution two 
 or three times a week in the bath tub, and massage 
 according to these directions, a person can live and 
 be comparatively free from disease, and enjoy as 
 long and happy a life as is possible in this world. 
 
152 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Dietetics and Massage as Combined 
 Therapeutic Agents. 
 
 The human body has been likened to a furnace 
 which keeps in blast three score years and ten, some 
 more, but a great many less. When the fire slackens, 
 life declines : when it goes out, it is dead. 
 
 By experiments and observation a certain fact has 
 been established which shows that the amount of 
 combustion increases up to about the thirtieth year, 
 remains stationary to about forty-five, and then 
 diminishes. From the age of forty-five, then, the 
 machinery ceases to do proper work in one part or 
 another, and physicians are called in to repair or stop 
 the creaking and jerking. 
 
 But why is this? Why should a machine so "fearT 
 fully and wonderfully made," with the design of con- 
 tinuance in good, sound, effective work, break down 
 or get out of repair fifteen, twenty, or twenty-five 
 years before its time of old age ? The reason is quite 
 clear. The machine has been improperly handled; 
 it has been run at too high a speed, or too low a 
 speed, or been neglected when a bolt became loose 
 or oil was required, rest demanded, or something 
 connected with its physical condition was not under- 
 stood. 
 
COMBINED: THERAPEUTIC AGENTS. 153 
 
 Men break down between forty-five and sixty 
 because they have been imprudent. They may dis- 
 claim against follies and excesses in others all they 
 choose, but if they break down themselves they are 
 guilty, or have been guilty, of follies and excesses. 
 The back aches, joints stiffen, indigestion, diabetes, 
 neuralgia, rheumatism, or more deadly pneumonia, 
 peritonitis, appendicitis, or inflammation of other 
 parts of the body, are all brought about by a low 
 state of vitality at the very period in life when the 
 man should be of most value to society, to his family, 
 and the world. It was never intended that we. should 
 begin before seventy or eighty years of age to 
 consider ourselves belonging to the "back number," 
 and unbuckle our armour with a feeling that our 
 effective days are over. 
 
 From the age of forty-five, though the hair may 
 be frosted, and a few wrinkles are seen on the face, 
 they are no signs of finished work, but symbols of 
 trained fitness for additional and still more advan- 
 tageous service. From this age man is better able 
 to consider, to judge, and decide more deliberately 
 than in younger years, when mistakes of impulse 
 and passion were liable to wreck the less wisely 
 conducted plans. 
 
 I remember my father commencing a new industry 
 on his sixtieth birthday, which, at the time, was a 
 serious cause of offence to the whole family, in 
 consequence of the toil and responsibility which it 
 demanded at his age, In a few years after, when 
 great success attended his work, he pointed with 
 considerable satisfaction to it, and did not forget to 
 refer to the opposition he met with at its beginning. 
 
154 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 He lived twenty-two years to enjoy the satisfaction 
 of the work he began at sixty. 
 
 How strange it is, yet how true : " It is never too 
 late to mend." But how much better the world 
 would be if the youth of the land were educated in 
 the principles of dietetics and hygiene. The fol- 
 lowing simple verse, gathered somewhere in my 
 reading, is to the point, and should not be missed: 
 " I gave my boy a palace, 
 
 And a kingdom to control '. 
 The palace was his body. 
 The kingdom was his soul." 
 
 Many people live entirely in the future. They 
 are always looking forward to a bright future which 
 never comes, because they enshroud themselves by 
 the darkness of a lantern which sheds no light, 
 except on the future, which is always in the distance. 
 
 The boy requires to be taught that he is in posses- 
 sion of a palace and a kingdom, and that certain care 
 must be exercised, and laws kept sacred, if he would 
 hold possession and rule as king for any length of 
 time. He must understand that he has enemies 
 within and about his palace, and sometimes they 
 appear as angels of light and pleasure, while they 
 are serpents concealed in a bed of roses. 
 
 Take care of the poisonous influences that may be 
 exerted. They may be in riches ; if so, take this sage 
 advice: "Though you may yourself abound in 
 treasure, teach your son some handicraft -y- for a 
 heavy purse of gold or silver may run to waste, but 
 the purse of the artisan's industry can never get 
 empty." 
 
 This brings me to the fundamental principle iri 
 
COMBINED THERAPRUTIC AGENTS. 155 
 
 acquiring and maintaining health, — that is, exercise 
 or work. The old system of teaching some handi- 
 craft was excellent. Even women, — many of whom 
 are ambitious to become rulers and occupy positions 
 foT which men were designed — if they would exercise 
 themselves in some handicraft suitable to their 
 physical constitution, the world would be better, and 
 they themselves would be better. 
 
 Ten thousand of them are required to spread 
 and teach the principles of dietetics, massage and 
 hygiene. Good remuneration may be secured to 
 those who have need of it, by which to support 
 themselveSj while those of private means, canmake 
 their lives immensely useful by gratuitous service. 
 
 There are odours of delightful perfume still fresh 
 in the atmosphere of this world, caused by the 
 daughters of old and wealthy families, who have 
 taken a deeper interest in doing good to their fellow 
 creatures, than in the passing gaieties of social 
 life to which they were introduced when presented 
 at court, or in their place in society. Florence 
 Nightingale is an example. She and her sister 
 showed much greater interest in the hospitals and 
 charitable institutions of London, than in the 
 pleasures of the society of the first rank into which 
 they were introduced. 
 
 They soon caused a revolution in the manner of 
 nursing, not only in the hospitals of this country, 
 but throughout the world. A strong desire and 
 fixed purpose will greatly assist any person who 
 wishes to do good. Here is a field open and ripe 
 unto the harvest. 
 
 And they are not to do much work either, but 
 
156 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 assist their patients in the work of massage and 
 direct them in dietetics. 
 
 The great success which attended the system of 
 massage practiced by Dr. John Grosvenor, of 
 Oxford, nearly loo years ago was that he always 
 insisted that his patients should "work with him," 
 " Your own constant exertions are necessary as 
 well as mine," he would say, and impress upon, 
 their minds. He employed a large staff to assist 
 in carrying out his instructions. 
 
 They were like ministering angels, who set to 
 work on the arms, back, and legs, and soon rubbed 
 away the pain and disease from the patients they 
 were sent to assist at first, then help them to help 
 themselves, and finally instruct them in the way 
 they should live in future to enjoy good health and 
 freedom from aches and pain. The results were 
 simply wonderful, and people came from all parts 
 of the world to Dr. Grosvenor for treatment. 
 
 The ladies required to act as masseuse in even the 
 simplest cases must have instruction. These instruc- 
 tions can soon be acquired by intelligent and fairly 
 educated women. The work is not difficult nor too 
 fatiguing for anyone of ordinary health and strength. 
 The practice is of great benefit to those who are 
 weak, while the study and practice combined, reveal, 
 a new world to their astonished mental vision. 
 
 The satisfaction of being usefully employed and 
 seeing those who have been martyrs among their 
 own sex to periodical distress and pain enjoy, 
 through their instrumentality, freedom from irregu- 
 larities and consequent cramps, is of itself good 
 remuneration, 
 
COMBINED THERAPEUTIC AGENTS. 157 
 
 Massage, together with the dietetics recom- 
 mended, does marvellous things for suffering 
 females, who, if they carry out these directions, will 
 have no return of the trouble, because nature works 
 its own remedy wherever it has a chance. 
 
 It is absolutely cruel for physicians to give 
 hypodermic injections of morphine in cases of 
 severe pain which so many endure at the monthly 
 disturbances. There should be precaution taken 
 by attention to diet, and massage of the abdomen 
 and pelvis, long before the disturbance is expected. 
 If this were properly done the best results follow. 
 
 Again, what satisfaction is experienced in curing 
 the inebriate and other slaves of evil habits, who 
 are not only sufferers themselves, but a distress to 
 their friends. Massage, as accessory to dietetics, 
 will cure the drunkard in most cases by removing 
 imperceptibly from his system the poisonous germs 
 of alcohol, which have diseased him mentally and 
 physically to the very brain and marrow. 
 
 The worst form of intoxication, perhaps, in exist- 
 ance is that of morphine. It is very seductive, 
 and here too much blame cannot be heaped upon 
 medical men who are so fond of giving and teach- 
 ing their patients to take hypodermic injections 
 to allay pain. 
 
 What will be the future of society if this practice 
 becomes more common ? It is a curse of the worst 
 kind of drunkenness. It pervades and enslaves 
 people in all classes of life in country villages, 
 larger towns, and in great cities, and is extending 
 its hellish influence, like bad whiskey and rum. 
 
 When people cannot endure the pain which their 
 
158 GOOD HEALTH 
 
 own follies and excesses, or their ignorance of the 
 laws of Nature, have brought upon them, but have 
 to take hypodermic injections, it is about time they 
 came under the influence of some trained, kind- 
 hearted and benevolent person, who will be a 
 ministering angel, and lead them into "the more 
 excellent way " of relief. 
 
 There are many, many cases where the arms and 
 legs of persons are covered with the marks of the 
 needle, from these barbarous injections, so that no 
 massage can rub them out ; but the effects may, to 
 a great extent, be worked off gradually by dietetics 
 and massage. 
 
 In cases such as these, there is great satisfaction 
 at bringing about a cure, and a new regimen will 
 secure a new life. Those who consider themselves 
 wiser and better able to prescribe a remedy, or 
 follow what some "friend" directs in the way of 
 "self dosing," instead of what I am writing, may 
 obtain relief and 'be cured ; but I predict if they 
 continue long in the practice of hypodermic injec- 
 tions to allay pain, or in alcoholic liquors to relieve 
 trouble, they will soon need the undertaker and an 
 inquest. 
 
 Massage is also of great benefit in kidney 
 troubles. The directions given towards the end of 
 the last chapter were only preliminary. You will 
 have noticed, I trust, that pressure is there recom- 
 mended in only one instance — that of rubbing the 
 legs. 
 
 In cases, however, of kidney disease, constipa- 
 tion, indigestion, diabetes, or kindred troubles 
 caused by improper diet, or excesses in anything or 
 
COMBINED THERAPEUTIC AGENTS. 159 
 
 any other cause almost, besides the practice already 
 introduced, which is to be continued, there must be, 
 in addition to the prescribed diet, an increase of 
 pressure in rubbing the abdomen and pelvis, but 
 not too much at first. 
 
 The rubbing must also extend over the kidneys 
 and gall bladder by the palms of the hands ; also 
 the spine from the nape of the neck down to the 
 bottom of the spine. There must be care exercised 
 in this, in case of gall stones, which too severe a rub^ 
 bing might do mischief to, while a moderate, brisk, 
 and frequent friction of the parts will greatly assist. 
 
 To continue this operation for a few days, should 
 increase the flow of urine considerably. In the 
 start, the change of diet alone, or when combined 
 with massage, there may be some strange freaks 
 experienced with the excretions from the bowels and 
 bladder, but they only prove that the system of 
 treatment is ridding the clogged-up body, and no 
 alarm need be taken at such freaks. 
 
 The massage of the abdomen and pelvis, combined 
 with the daily exercise of the whole body as at first 
 directed, has been followed by easier and more 
 natural monthly visits in cases of female trouble. 
 The secret of all this is, that dietetics and massage 
 promote a general improvement in health by the 
 action, exercise, and improved circulation which 
 the combined treatment produces. They assist 
 nutrition, digestion, assimilatiouj and tone up the 
 whole system to a higher standard, of vitality. 
 
 Rubbing the pelvis is of great value to the mem- 
 branes, when any trouble from the urethra is 
 experienced. 
 
160 GOOD HEALTH, 
 
 In throat troubles, the same pressure, or even 
 greater pressure, is to be applied. First with one 
 hand and then the other, rub the throat and nape of 
 the neck, about the ears and over the lungs, both 
 in front and between the shoulders, with a good 
 friction towel, so as to reach the tissues at the back 
 as well as the front of the body. 
 
 Clergyman's sore throat would soon disappear if 
 this system was followed in its entirety. Under 
 its influence there would be an improvement in 
 general health, a much better appetite, with 
 increased brain power, vigour and stamina for hard 
 work, whether mental or physical. 
 
 For a cough, this remedy is better than all the 
 cough mixtures ever prescribed. If physicians 
 would but study the pathology of a cough, they 
 would soon abandon other preparations for this 
 more natural treatment. 
 
 A cough is not a disease, but a symptom. It is 
 Nature's way of indicating that there exists some- 
 where an irritation in or about the respiratory 
 organs, stomach, or intestines. It is like the bark 
 of a faithful watch dog, giving warning of approach- 
 ing danger. To silence this bark would be folly, 
 so by drugging a cough is equally foolish, yet this 
 is the very thing most people do. 
 
 The much puffed-up cough mixtures are used 
 instead of a safer, more common-sense and much 
 more effectual remedy, which is at hand every- 
 where and at all times. Even in sudden, wearing 
 and racking coughs, the most useful cough remedy 
 is hot water. It does not disorder the digestion 
 and spoil the appetite, but rather improves both. 
 
COMBINED THERAPEUTIC AGENTS. IGl 
 
 Take water, almost boiling, or as hot-as you can 
 sip, and keep on sipping when the paroxysms 
 come on. This promotes the secretions, and 
 moistens the irritated surfaces. It also promotes 
 expectoration, and so gives relief even in cases of 
 consumption. Add to this remedy the dietetics 
 and massage, and the cause of the cough — which is 
 generally from a cold, and the cause of a cold which 
 is invariably from over-feeding or a low state of 
 vitality, preceded by bad circulation and impure 
 blood — is removed ; the equilibrium is established, 
 which is so necessary ; the digestive organs, respira- 
 tory organs, and membranes do their part without 
 obstruction, until a change is effected ; the dry cough 
 becomes easier; irritation is relieved, and the whole 
 cause of the trouble gradually disappears. 
 
 Scores and hundreds of cases are recorded of 
 persons who have cured themselves of consumption 
 by changes in diet, in air, by massage and other 
 natural, common-sense and simple means. The 
 prevention, however, is wiser. This can best be 
 secured by proper care and attention to the habits 
 of diet and rubbing. 
 
 The old Highland form of chest rubbing in 
 Scotland has done good service in arresting the 
 progress of this disease. It is very similar to what 
 I have already given. 
 
 In cases of boils and pimples, this system is 
 highly recommended. Within the past week, a 
 gentleman spoke to me concerning boils on the 
 back of his neck, which had troubled him periodi- 
 cally for several years. I recommended a moderate 
 use of massage, as one of the boils was appearing at 
 
 L 
 
162 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 the time. In a week after he began the rubbing, 
 he informed me that in three days the one boil had 
 disappeared entirely, and no signs of any more. 
 He felt much better in health, and should continue 
 the practice as a means of opening the pores of the 
 skin, and distributing any malformations of lymph 
 in the vessels which carry it to all parts of the 
 body. 
 
 There can scarcely exist any such things on the 
 surface of the skin as boils and pimples where 
 this system is regularly carried out. The muscle 
 fibre is so stimulated, the tissues and cuticles are so 
 mechanically affected, and the arteries so agitated 
 by the friction and exercise, that it dissolves and 
 scatters the gathering lymph which has been re- 
 tarded by improper circulation, that it is obliged to 
 move on, and is driven into the proper channels of 
 secretion and excretion. 
 
 It is likewise useful in cases of obesity, where, 
 from sedentary habits, or other causes, people be- 
 come so corpulent that their figure is not as 
 symmetrical as the rules of delicate fashion suggest. 
 This is not the worst feature of corpulence. It may 
 be disagreeable, it may annoy the eyes of the fas- 
 tidious admirer of a fine figure, but the more 
 serious feature of obesity is that it indicates a ten- 
 dency to a plethoric and diseased condition of the 
 system. 
 
 It has been supposed that fat people are the most 
 healthy. To a certain extent this is the case ; but 
 when fat people "take cold," are fatigued, and 
 have headache and other- disturbances, which lean 
 people have as well, it is time for them to consider 
 
COMBINED THERAPEUTIC AGENTS. 163 
 
 that a little more fat is a dangerous thing, as it 
 may distend the blood vessels, enlarge the liver, 
 overwork the kidneys, shorten the breath, produce 
 some contractions of the respiratory organs, or 
 a plethoric condition, which will make life unen- 
 durable. 
 
 Then a physician is called in, for, of course, the 
 fat person is weak and exhausted. Fat is not only 
 a useless thing in the body, but a dangerous thing. 
 Those who so much desire to be fat had better study 
 the table of strength and weight given in another 
 part of this work. 
 
 Massage and dietetics are the only sure remedy. 
 Those who are spending guineas by the hundred 
 for specifics to reduce their weight and bring them- 
 selves into a more symmetrical shape, had better 
 adopt the simple mode of treatment, which will 
 make them sound in body and mind and of a 
 natural shape and size. It will in the near future, 
 it is hoped; be the work of physicians to remove the 
 causes of disease and all obstacles to the working of 
 the healing forces of Nature, and point out the road 
 leading to perpetual good health. 
 
164 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 The Physiology of Health, 
 
 Many a good watch that is wound up for twenty- 
 four hours stops in ten or fifteen, while the fault is 
 not with the maker, but the carrier. The chances 
 of life are calculated very closely by life insurance 
 companies upon estimates from family history and 
 conditions of the life previous to a certain age, as 
 well as the state of health at the time the insurance 
 is applied for. But many people whose progenitors 
 were long-lived, have had a short lease of life 
 themselves, while others have upset the actuaries' 
 calculations, and surprised the insurance companies, 
 by the extension of their lives to a good old age. 
 
 The heart, lungs, and digestive organs may be 
 strengthened and enlarged so as to overcome the 
 tendencies to disease of these vital parts of the 
 system, to such an extent that those whose heredity 
 and previous health indicated a short life, have 
 actually lived longer than those who were distin- 
 guished by much more favourable circumstances. 
 
 Shakespeare, who is an authority in all circum- 
 stances and events of life, by the apparent universal 
 knowledge he seemed to possess of eveiy thing 
 in nature, physic, art, philosophy, science and 
 mysteries, and whose general touch gave them a 
 tinge of passing beauty, says, in Coriolanus : — 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF HEALTH. 165 
 
 Menenius. — 
 
 " There was a time when all the body's members 
 Rebell'd against the belly ; thus accus'd it : — 
 That only like a gulf it did remain 
 r the midst o' the body, idle and unactive, 
 Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing 
 Like labour with the rest ; where the other instruments 
 Did see, and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel, 
 And, mutually participate, did minister 
 Unto the appetite and aifection common 
 Of the whole body." The belly answered — 
 
 Citizen. — 
 
 "Well, sir, what answer made the belly ? " 
 
 Men. — ■ 
 
 " Sir, I shall tell you. — With a kind of smile. 
 Which ne'er came from the lungs, but even thus, 
 (For, look you, I may make the belly smile. 
 As well as speak,) it tauntingly replied 
 To the discontented members, the mutinous parts 
 That envied his receipt ; even so most fitly 
 As you malign our Senators, for that 
 They are not such as you." 
 
 at. — "Your belly's answer : What! 
 
 The kingly crowned head, the vigilant eye. 
 The counsellor heart, the arm our soldier, 
 Our steed the leg, the tongue our trumpeter. 
 With other muniments and petty helps 
 In this our fabric, if that they — 
 
 Men. — ' ' What then ? — 
 
 'Fore me, this fellow speaks ! — what then? what 
 then?" 
 
 at— 
 
 " Should by the cormorant belly be restrain'd, 
 Who is the sink o' the body, — " 
 
166 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 Men. — ' ' Well , what then ? " 
 
 Cit.-^ 
 
 "The former agents, if they did complain, 
 What could the belly answer ? " 
 
 Men. — " I will tell you : 
 
 If you'll bestow a small (of what you have little) 
 Patience awhile, you'll hear the belly's answer." 
 
 Cit.~ " You're long about it." 
 
 Men. — " Note me this good friend ; 
 
 Your most grave belly was deliberate, 
 Not rash like his accusers, and thus answer'd. 
 'True is it, my incorporate friends,' quoth he, 
 'That I receive the general food at first, 
 Which you do live upon : and fit it is ; 
 Because I am the store house, and the ghop 
 Of the whole body : but if you do remfember, 
 I send it through the rivers of your blood. 
 Even to the court, the heart, to the seat o' the brain ; 
 And, through the cranks and offices of man. 
 The strongest nerves, and small inferior veins. 
 From me receive that natural competency 
 Whereby they live : and though that all at once. 
 You, my good friends," (this says the belly,) mark 
 me, — " 
 
 Cz/.— "Ay, sir; well, well." 
 
 Men. — ■ " Though all at once cannot 
 
 See what I do deliver out to each ; 
 Yet I can make my audit up, that all 
 From me do back receive the flour of all, 
 And leave me but the bran.' What say you to it?" 
 
 Shakespeare's reference to the practice of blood- 
 letting, as a remedy in cases of high temperature 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF HEALTH. 167 
 
 and certain diseases which prevailed, is mentioned 
 particularly in Henry IV. : 
 
 "We are all diseased : 
 And with our surfeiting and wanton hours 
 Have brought ourselves into a burning fever, 
 And we must bleed for it." 
 
 He makes mention frequently of rheumatism, 
 fevers, leprosy, small-pox, apoplexy, consumption, 
 colic, hysteria, jaundice, sciatica, and epilepsy, and 
 in several plays refers to rubbing as practiced, such 
 as " rub the arm " to make strength stronger. 
 
 In cases where some were injudicious in this 
 practice, he speaks of "too much rubbing." In 
 one place he refers to it by saying, ' ' You rub the 
 sore when you should bring a plaster." 
 
 In Othello, there is " rub the temples," in a case 
 of epilepsy. Again, " For your health and your 
 digestion rub the vein of him," even when "death's 
 tokens cry 'no recovery.' " 
 
 He often mentions rubbing the elbow and the 
 brows, and speaks of "strong arms, strong joints, 
 true soldiers," and says the world is "full of rubs." 
 "Ay: there's the rub." 
 
 In fact the system of dietetics and massage are 
 noticed by this great writer, whose physiological 
 and pathological views are expressed in such a 
 manner as prove his acquaintance with materia 
 medica and general therapeutics. He does not lose 
 sight of the ancient and renowned medical celebrities, 
 such as Galen, Hippocrates, -^sculapius and others. 
 In reference to dietetics, he says : 
 
 "Things sweet to taste, prove in digestion sour," 
 
 and again : 
 
168 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 "A sick man's appetite, who desires most that 
 Which would increase his evil." 
 As an index of the face, which all practical people 
 read so clearly, he says of acidity, or the fermenta- 
 tion of the food in the stomach, which produces 
 heart-burn, gas, and leads to so many diseases : 
 
 "How tartly that gentleman looks ! 
 I never can see him, but I am heart-burned an hour 
 after." 
 
 To refer to just one more of his wise sayings, 
 which indicate his knowledge of the laws of health, 
 and what man can do for himself in the way of cure, 
 he says : 
 
 "Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, 
 Which we ascribe to Heaven." 
 
 Another really important matter which I have 
 enforced with some little earnestness, but, not having 
 given it sufficient attention, bring it up again with 
 a Shakesperian leverage, in order to impress it 
 more strongly on the minds of interested readers. 
 It is the benefit of laughter and good nature on 
 health. Our emotions are the playthings of cordial 
 surroundings, and we can cultivate them as we do 
 tomatoes. The sunshine of mirth will lighten 
 many a heavy burden. 
 
 To quote only a few sentences from the King of 
 Poets, he says, referring to some of his characters : 
 
 " From the crown of his head to the sole of his foot, 
 he is all mirth. He has a heart as sound as a bell." 
 
 " A light heart lives long." 
 
 " Mirth is in his face." 
 
 There is always hopeful encouragement in the 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF HEALTH. 169 
 
 torchlight of brightness, even when shadows fall 
 around our pathway, or disease grasps us in its 
 ruthless arms. 
 
 "But know, I think, and think I know most sure. 
 My art is not past power, nor you past cure." 
 
 ' ' What is infirm from your sound parts shall fly ; 
 Health shall live free, and sickness freely die." 
 
 Much of the emaciation, haggard appearance, 
 troubled expression, pale countenance, crow-foot 
 eyes, wrinkled face, throbbing temples, loss of 
 appetite, weak limbs, careworn looks, sourness of 
 disposition, censorious spirit and similar unsweet- 
 ness of manner, which wear upon the body and 
 mind so as to set upon edge all surrounding 
 attendants, as well as social companions, arise 
 frequently from the absence of mirth, pleasure and 
 gladness of heart. 
 
 Being "careful for nothing" is a dogma of the 
 wisest teaching. Being "careful and troubled 
 about many things " in domestic, social and 
 business life, produces not only a heavy heart but 
 a troubled countenance, which wears upon the 
 health, producing a sluggish circulation in the 
 arteries, tissues, and membranes of the whole body. 
 This should be avoided — can be cured — and a 
 bright, cheerful, good natured disposition grafted 
 in, upon which better and more wholesome fruit 
 will grow. 
 
 Shakespeare, when he had made a fortune that 
 secured him an income of three hundred pounds a 
 year — a competency then equal to a thousand a 
 year now, — retired from London to his quiet home 
 
170 GOOD HEALTH, 
 
 at Stratford. He made the mistake of his life in 
 doing so. 
 
 Many business men have left their active life, by 
 which all their faculties were kept in exercise, and 
 retired in middle life to rest and enjoy the fruit of 
 their accumulations, and in a dozen years or less, 
 died ; — as did Shakespeare, just at a period when 
 they were best fitted to be of greater use in the world. 
 
 The habits of this money grabbing, money saving, 
 and money spending age are seriously censured by 
 most philanthropists ; but when the grabbing 
 exercise of it is over, the exercise of the other two 
 branches of the habit soon cease as well. There 
 are comparatively few people who have the ability 
 to amass wealth, and those who have, had better 
 stick to it, and do all the good they can in the 
 world with the money they make. 
 
 In the philosophy of health there is, to those who 
 are interested, much attention required to little 
 things. How are we to be healthy ? That is the 
 important question I am endeavouring to answer. 
 A fruitful and beautiful garden must have the 
 weeds and grass kept down carefully, or the good 
 seed as it springs up will soon be choked. Even 
 when the flowers appear, and the fruit begins to 
 ripen, the gardener is obliged to use diligence in 
 cutting away in one case, propping up in another, 
 watering, shading, preventing the havoc of insects, 
 and by general vigilance secures, in the end, the 
 fruits of his labour. So in the matter of health. The 
 emotions of the mind, day by day — as anger, grief, 
 envy, jealousy, hatred, discontent, melancholy, and 
 all uncharitableness — are promoters of discord, and 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF HEALTH. 171 
 
 have a tendency to destroy the vital energies of our 
 physical constitution. These must be kept down. 
 
 The best way to do it is to cultivate a cheerful 
 spirit with contentment of mind, and to meet the 
 every-day difficulties with an heroic, determined 
 purpose ; to overcome them by some ingenious tact, 
 which will succeed a thousand times better than 
 worry, A soft answer turns away wrath. 
 
 There is an acid which lies dormant in the dough 
 until the heat penetrates, and then it bubbles forth 
 and spreads evenly to every part of the cake and 
 oozes out of the little pores, leaving the baked 
 product looking pleasant to the eye, palatable and 
 easy of digestion. 
 
 So a word fitly spoken, an act wisely performed 
 at the right time, will often do wonders in making 
 a change that sends the sunshine of happiness and 
 health beaming and radiating throughout the 
 whole environment that before was cold, dark, 
 damp, and distressing. What a change ! 
 
 A little deliberation and forethought will often 
 remove difficulties, while a hasty, angry, and 
 injudicious word or act will create a storm that may 
 rage into a very hurricane of disaster. 
 
 Health is the outcome of moderation. Excess or 
 extremes are dangerous. We may go to excess in 
 the matter of rest as well as in labour ; in fasting or 
 abstinence as well as in over-eating ; in cautious 
 watchfulness as well as in exposure ; in running to 
 a physician as well as in not consulting him at all ; 
 in taking every kind of prescribed remedy as well 
 as not taking any. 
 
 Invalids are apt to bring on serious complications 
 
172 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 in their existing troubles by too much indulgence 
 in food, exercise, or some radical change, under the 
 impression that they are doing something useful 
 because a "friend" recommended it, or someone else 
 did it, who was benefitted by the innovation. 
 
 One of the serious causes of an unhealthy body, 
 is constipation, and the cause of constipation is 
 wrong diet. Enough has surely been said on this 
 point. But it is such a prevailing habit, and so 
 insidious in its progress, that its pernicious effects 
 are liable to escape that attention to the importance 
 of a "daily call" which nature demands, to evacuate 
 the bowels, that too much cannot be said about it. 
 
 If the fecal matter, in its state of decomposition, 
 is not removed from the system, numerous complica- 
 tions may be soon looked for. They may take the 
 form of congestion, abscesses, inflammations, or 
 some form of organic trouble, which may become 
 chronic and serious. People who resort to purga- 
 tives for constipation generally find teinporary relief, 
 but it is soon followed by a re-action which only 
 tends to confirm the disease, or rather the habits 
 which result in the disease. 
 
 The use of enemas are no better in their per- 
 manent results. It is a vile practice to inject hot 
 water or other liquids, but one that prevails to a 
 large extent ; and in America, it is said, a person has 
 reaped a fortune by a small, secret pamphlet sold at 
 a price approaching a guinea, which simply gives 
 directions in the manner of using a hot water 
 enema. 
 
 Tell it not in Gath ! Publish it not in the streets 
 of Askelon I No ; but agents, secretly bound, sell 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF HEALTH. 173 
 
 the recipe, and hundreds of the agents are men 
 styled "Ministers," whose education and training, 
 if they have any, should lead them to the law of 
 Moses and the teachings of the Cross for the 
 practice of dietetics, hygiene, and massage, without 
 resorting to an unnatural, dangerous, and vile mode 
 of giving temporary relief. 
 
 I have already referred to the use of water, and 
 hot water, too, as a remedy in connection with 
 proper diet for the cure of constipation. When we 
 consider, that solid and dry as our bodies appear, 
 water constitutes more than three-fourths of their 
 bulk, and all the functions of life are carried on, as 
 it were, by hydrological power or influence, we find 
 that our bodies must have water, and a methodical 
 use of it as a beverage, even in the absence of thirst, 
 will certainly augment the chances of health and 
 longevity. 
 
 When water is taken into the stomach, its natural 
 receptacle, it soon begins to pass out through the 
 tissues into the circulation, and liquifies the effete 
 solids, so that they may gradually float away to 
 the excretory organs to be cast out. 
 
 Water between meals, and hot water, or water at 
 the temperature of the body, is harmless, yet a 
 most efficient means to accelerate the speed of 
 normal action without causing a purge ; it co- 
 operates with and assists digestion, stimulates, 
 strengthens and tones up the system to the normal 
 standard of vitality, and conduces to a resistance 
 by all the human machinery with such a force that 
 *' colds" and other ailments which are so prevalent 
 and troublesome are warded off. 
 
174 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 Health — good health — strength and long life 
 depend on air, exercise, diet, temperature, purity, 
 moderation, and cheerfulness. If these means are 
 not understood and practiced, there will be a constant 
 deterioration among the people. A consumptive, 
 scrofulous, cancerous, gouty, and dyspeptic parent- 
 age must yield a constantly increasing measure of 
 ill-health among the offspring. The law is an 
 irrevocable one. 
 
 The parents entail upon their children debility or 
 strength, as well as poverty or riches. Will you 
 bestow the curse or the blessing ? Or will you eat, 
 drink, and be merry with wine and gluttony for the 
 time being, regardless of your own after condition 
 and that of your children ? The responsibility is 
 great. 
 
 To resort to drugs is simply a slow process of 
 suicide. In the case of constipation, eminent 
 medical men have for years endeavoured to produce 
 a tonic or remedy for certain forms of indigestion 
 which would not cause constipation. Tens of 
 thousands of nostrums have been launched forth as 
 tonics to give relief, all of which tend, sooner or 
 later, to constipa;te the bowels, while proper diet and 
 drink — the natural remedy — is ignored, although 
 they are the great sovereign remedies of all. This 
 natural remedy is the miracle working one, while it 
 stands as a stumbling block in the way of numerous 
 professors of therapeutics. 
 
 The fearful scourge of dyspepsia, which carries 
 off more victims than the ravages of war, famine, 
 and pestilence among the adult population, can 
 only be cured by dietetics and massage, no matter 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF HEALTH. 175 
 
 what form the dyspepsia takes, whether it affects 
 the salivary glands, the stomach, intestines, pan- 
 crea, liver, kidneys, or other parts — for it does affect 
 at\ of them, more or less, and is the result of the 
 high pressure style of living, or of eating improper 
 food, such as white bread and starchy vegetables, 
 the only permanent cure for which is in a change 
 of diet. 
 
 There is no other remedy on earth which will so 
 effectually assist nature to produce a pure, healthy 
 circulation, and give a stimulus to the organs of 
 digestion. To absorb the nutriment, to assimilate 
 it and furnish a rich, healthy blood to flow through- 
 out the entire body, even to the ends of the fingers 
 and tips of the ears, there is nothing in comparison 
 to this natural remedy. 
 
 A change of air, a rest from business, a change 
 of associations, or simply a change of mind from 
 depression to cheerfulness, combined with a change 
 of diet, will greatly assist the healthy flow of nutri- 
 tive fluid throughout the system. But the main 
 thing is the pabulum that re-vitalizes the blood, 
 and sends it through the tissues in clear, healthy 
 streams, which convey tone and strength to every 
 part. 
 
 Rheumatism and gout, two prevalent diseases, 
 are due to the retention of uric acid and lactic acid 
 in the blood. Why are these poisonous acids 
 retained in the blood ? Because of defective 
 excretion. You may take all the tonics in the 
 world, baths, massage, and other remedies, but 
 unless the blood is purified first by attention to the 
 digestion and assimilation of the food, so as to 
 
176 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 furnish the tissues with proper nutriment, you can 
 never drive away these dreadful maladies. 
 
 Prick the finger and draw a drop of blood from 
 the rheumatic and place it under the microscope. 
 Then change your diet to what is recommended in 
 these pages, and drink hot water as directed, 
 strictly following this up for a week. After this, 
 examine the blood by drawing a drop from the 
 finger again, and see the larger number of red 
 blood-cells upon which health depends, and as you 
 keep up the treatment and make the examinations 
 from day to day, the increase of pure red blood- 
 cells will be so apparent that, whether you feel 
 better or not, all at once you will be convinced 
 that a change has set in which, if followed up, 
 will result in a complete renovation, and you will 
 get well. 
 
 But if you are told, or imagine that you must 
 take so much of this or that kind of food, drinks 
 and stimulants, to keep up your strength and tone 
 up your system, then you feed the disease and 
 remain a sufferer. Which will you do? If you 
 have tried the one, why not try the other ? Because, 
 you say, your physician does not recommend it. 
 
 Doctors differ, and so do ordinary people ; so do 
 diseases. You cannot suffer on the menu which I 
 prescribe, and shall detail more fully before the last 
 chapter closes. You need not go hungry, but have 
 all the nutriment that is necessary to supply the 
 wastes of the system ; and, better yet, a food that 
 will from the first please and satisfy the digestion, 
 assimilation, the tissues and all the organs of the 
 body, and finally will satisfy the palate better than 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF HEALTH. 177 
 
 all the so-called dainties and rich dishes in the 
 whole category of the most refined arts of cookery. 
 
 Pabulum : Let this be your motto, if a martyr to 
 disease, and drink hot water between meals, but 
 nothing with your meals — not even a sip, — for if 
 you cannot eat without sipping, then you had better 
 not eat at all. Wait ; the salivary glands will soon 
 provide a supply of proper moisture by which the 
 food can be eaten without the addition of sips of any 
 kind. You will soon be rewarded by an appetite, 
 digestion, and assimilation that will convince you of 
 its sovereign benefits. 
 
 M 
 
178 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 General Analysis of the Subject. 
 
 The most advanced physiologists of the present 
 day cannot reasonably complain of the system 
 explained and enforced in the preceeding chapters. 
 I have consulted hundreds of physicians, many of 
 them leading practitioners ; some of them renowned 
 for their skill. 
 
 I have visited many of the famous sanitariums, 
 mineral water establishments, health resorts, and 
 hydros, both in England and on the Continent of 
 Europe, in Canada, and the United States. I have 
 witnessed thousands of sufferers, whose exertions 
 to get well caused them to spend large sums of 
 money and much valuable time in various sorts of 
 treatment, in which strange experiences have been 
 recorded. 
 
 Here and there a remarkable cure has been wit- 
 nessed, but the failure to cure completely and 
 permanently is the exc/ption, unless the system of 
 dietetics has been a leading feature in the treatment 
 at the time and in after life. The reasons are very 
 obvious. 
 
 In showing them still more clearly, and to impress 
 them more indelibly on the mind, I shall now 
 direct special attention to what I shall call, in order 
 to make it plain, the machinery of digestion. Before 
 
GENERAL ANALYSIS OF SUBJECT. 179 
 
 we take a physiological view of the machine itself, 
 let us glance at the preparation of the material to 
 feed into this wonderful piece of mechanism. 
 
 The first performance is cooking. Man is called 
 a cooking animal, and in this respect, is different to 
 all others. The next act of preparation is done in 
 the mouth by means of the teeth, which is called 
 mastication. The biting or grinding is done by 
 the lower jaw, which, as already shown, has a 
 pressure of several hundred pounds, so as to break 
 up hard food in a similar manner to a pair of mill 
 stones, one of which is stationary while the other 
 revolves. 
 
 This breaks up the food so that the digestive 
 juices can penetrate every particle. The importance 
 of thorough chewing has already been noticed. 
 There is considerable exercise or labour in doing 
 this. When it is improperly done, by persons bolting 
 their food in a great hurry and sending it on to the 
 digestive machine, the salivary juices cannot mix 
 with it as they should, and the result is some 
 damage to the finer parts of the intricate machinery. 
 
 This may be likened to feeding a machine for 
 grinding corn. If the corn is not properly prepared, 
 the machine cannot do its work satisfactorily, but is 
 in danger of breaking down. Mastication is design- 
 ed to produce the first act of digestion by changing 
 the starch into dextrine, glucose or grape sugar 
 This is done by the powerful constituents possessed 
 by the saliva, such as alkaline salts and ptyalin. 
 
 If a person is not in good health, the saliva may 
 not be sufficient or strong enough to make the 
 necessary commencement in the changeof the starch 
 
180 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 and in this case the food is sent on in a condition 
 that causes some derangement in the machinery. 
 In the case either of improper mastication or defect- 
 ive salivary juice, the extra work thrown upon some 
 parts of the digestive apparatus will cause trouble 
 in a short time, if the evil is continued. 
 
 The next act of preparation is in swallowing. 
 There is considerable exercise in this act also, as 
 the tongue is thrown back, or rather throws the food 
 back, and forces it into the pharynx. In this act 
 there is an effort necessary, which closes a little flap- 
 door to prevent the air-tubes leading to the lungs 
 from sucking in the food on its way to the machine 
 for further digestion. 
 
 I have often noticed the exercise in swallowing 
 when an infant is nursing at the mother's breast. 
 The act of sucking and swallowing in a healthy 
 child produces warmth and increased respiration, 
 to such an extent that large drops of perspiration 
 are seen on the child's forehead,^and its little body 
 is at a much higher temperature than when not 
 nursing. This illustrates the amount of exercise 
 there is demanded in the act of preparing the food 
 for further digestion. 
 
 It is received into the stomach, and even its en- 
 trance there is not done without labour, for the 
 orifice has to be opened to permit entrance within 
 the walls of the stomach. No sooner is it lodged 
 within, than the doors are again closed. This per- 
 formance is repeated with every swallow, or every 
 mouthful. 
 
 Having now glanced at the preparation of the 
 food, let us pass on to examine the machinery which 
 
GENERAL ANALYSIS OF SUBJECT. 181 
 
 turns it into, so many channels, and in so many 
 mysterious by-ways, in order to produce the proper 
 nourishment for the system. 
 
 It is in the "cupboard," "shop," or "store-house," 
 as Shakespeare says. This is a place singularly 
 lined with fibres, membranes, and tissues. The 
 blood vessels pour their fluid in and pump it out 
 through the great artery and its branches, while the 
 whole operation is controlled by great nerves and 
 small tissues, which centre in their respective places 
 to keep guard and control of what enters and leaves 
 the department over which they are placed. 
 
 Within this sacred castle, there is a commotion 
 started as soon as the food enters, like the agitation 
 produced by a centrifugal reel in the process of 
 refining flour, only that the motions are more 
 churn-like. During this commotion, the gastriQ 
 juice impregnates the mass of food, and this is 
 designed to complete the further change of the 
 starch, so as to render it soluble, and capable of 
 assimilation. 
 
 This it will do, provided the saliva of the mouth, 
 during mastication, has been of sufficient strength 
 and quantity to do its part. If the starch has not 
 been changed sufficiently to suit the stomach, the 
 stomach passes it on to the smaller intestines, to be 
 handled there by the pancreatic and other strong 
 juices. In such cases the starchy foods do no 
 good in the way of nourishing the system. 
 
 On the contrary, they cause fermentation, and an 
 accumulation of carbonic acid-gas while being 
 agitated ; so the gastric juice, in its efforts to change 
 the starch, causes the wind to belch upwards in 
 
182 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 eructations for vent from the mouth. Again, when 
 the stomach has laboured in vain to handle the 
 unchanged starch, it sends it on to the smaller 
 intestines, where the same difficulty is met with, 
 which sends the wind downwards to escape through 
 the rectum. If the wind does not escape from the 
 stomach upward, nor from the smaller vessels 
 downward, there is worse trouble than wind in 
 store, which may soon be realized, for there can be 
 no proper assimilation under such circumstances. 
 
 The food that was eaten was worse than wasted. 
 The mucous membranes, glands, tissues, and all 
 the circulatory ducts are more or less deranged. 
 There is a bloated sensation, with such fullness that 
 at times the clothing has to be loosened. The 
 only remedy is to void the wind, or get rid of the 
 accumulation of undigested food from the bowels. 
 
 To do this, the usual practice is a purgative. 
 The right and proper course is to fast, drink hot 
 water, and then be careful of your diet in future. 
 
 As it takes the whole digestive machinery, in- 
 cluding the preparation of the food, to change the 
 starch from an insoluble, indigestible article into 
 a soluble, easily digested one, the question arises, 
 why should people of weak digestion use starchy 
 foods at all, unless in their changed form ? 
 
 The stomach can digest nitrogenous foods, such 
 as are referred to in other chapters, and these foods 
 are really the muscle builders, life sustainers, and 
 waste repairers. The stomach cannot act suffi- 
 ciently on the starch, sugar, fat and oily substances, 
 and these form the principle diet of most people in 
 our day. 
 
GENERAL ANALYSIS OF SUBJECT. 183 
 
 If the starch is partly changed by the saliva, it is 
 then rendered capable of further change as it passes 
 on. If the starch is partly changed before eating 
 it, or before the saliva touches it, then it is capable 
 of being handled by the other parts of the machine 
 when it passes on to them. The very commence- 
 ment of digesting starchy foods is by the saliva, 
 or by a scientific process resembling the change 
 effected by the saliva. 
 
 Just look at the menu on any dining table, 
 and notice fat in the soup, in the meat, in the bis- 
 cuits, in the pastry, as well as the butter on the 
 bread, and fat in the gravy. Look at the starch in 
 the bread, potatoes, vegetables, rice, tapioca, corn- 
 flour and biscuits. Look at the starch, sugar, and 
 fat, all combined, in the fruit, puddings, pastry, 
 biscuits and dessert. 
 
 These starchy, fatty, sugary substances, together 
 with various drinks, make the stomach a " store 
 house " that is filled with substances more fit for 
 the cess-pool than the dining room. 
 
 It is clearly seen from the analysis given on the 
 last few pages that the stomach cannot digest starch, 
 except by persons who prepare the food in a certain 
 way, by proper mastication, and then only in cases 
 where the salivary glands yield a healthy flow of 
 strong juices. 
 
 Notwithstanding the great solvent power of 
 the gastric juices, so that in certain cases even 
 iron nails are dissolved by it, yet starch often 
 passes on in an imperfect state to the intestines, 
 and there creates carbonic acid gas, without being 
 digested. 
 
184 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 In a hospital in London may be seen a case 
 containing knives taken from the stomach of a cele- 
 brated knife swallower, who, for a wager, made an 
 exhibition of swallowing so many pocket knives 
 that they killed him. When these were removed 
 from his stomach, they were all more or less affected 
 by the gastric juices and action of the stomach, 
 especially the rivets, as the knives are nearly all in 
 pieces, while the handles, made of ivory and bone, 
 are not so much changed. 
 
 When Dr. Beaumont made his celebrated experi- 
 ment on the young French Canadian, about half a 
 century ago, he gave to the world some most in- 
 teresting and valuable information in regard to the 
 action of the stomach on foods of various kinds. 
 This young Canadian, while in a skirmish in which 
 the doctor's regiment was engaged, received a gun 
 shot wound directly over the stomach. 
 
 He was treated by Dr. Beaumont, who seized the 
 opportunity of making observations and experi- 
 ments which have ever since been of vast importance 
 to the medical profession. He used a powerful 
 light, which reflected into the stomach through the 
 opening, and by means of a small cord, with pieces 
 of meat and other foods attached, passed them into 
 the stomach, and after watching the effect as well 
 as he could, withdrew them at stated periods for 
 closer examination. 
 
 He found that when food in too large quantities 
 was given, it caused a distention of the stomach, 
 and a longer period elapsed before the food was 
 acted upon by the gastric juice. In some instances 
 half-an-hour or more elapsed before the food was 
 
GENERAL ANALYSIS OF SUBJECT. 185 
 
 reduced from its solid proportions, by the churning 
 process, to a pulpy mass, so as to be digested. 
 
 From the observations already noted, and from 
 the vast experience of men who have devoted many 
 years to the study and practice of dietetics, we 
 learn what supreme folly it is to over-indulge in 
 eating more than the system requires. Three meals 
 a day are sufficient for any person, and one of them 
 is to be a very light one. 
 
 The feeling of hunger indicates a most favourable 
 condition of the system, when what is eaten is easily 
 digested. The machinery of digestion requires 
 rest at times, the same as any mechanical contrivance 
 made by human hands. Abandon the habit, if it 
 has been formed in ignorance of the baneful results, 
 of eating and drinking whenever the slightest 
 emotions of hunger or thirst arise. 
 
 Do not chew gum. No morsel of food should be 
 eaten, nor anything taken into the mouth, between 
 meals. 
 
 Do not chew tobacco. Reserve all the chewing 
 capacity of your jaws, and all the saliva of the 
 mouth, for the food at proper meal times. Then 
 practice chewing with all the expertness of an 
 athlete. Try and see how many times you can 
 bring the lower jaw up to the grinding point of the 
 teeth above : move the food about in the mouth as 
 much as possible in the operation, so that the saliva 
 may penetrate every particle of it. 
 
 This is very important, especially with persons 
 of weak digestion. Drink no liquids whatever 
 during your meals, but do not neglect to drink 
 plenty of hot or warm water at stated times between 
 
186 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 meals, — not a sip or two every time you feel a little 
 thirsty, nor a glass of ice-water whenever you feel 
 too warm, nor a horn of whiskey whenever you are 
 fatigued or in the " dumps." 
 
 The great benefit people derive from a short 
 sojourn at Buxton, the famous mineral water resort 
 in England, is largely owing to the temperature of 
 the water they drink. It is always, in winter and 
 summer, at a temperature of 82° as it comes from 
 the well. The physicians recommend people to 
 drink it pure, and at that temperature, and not too 
 often. 
 
 So with any water ; it should not be taken cold, 
 but as near the temperature of the body as possible. 
 It then acts with great benefit by removing, through 
 the kidneys, the uric acid and other poisons which 
 concentrate in the system, and produce headache, 
 neuralgia, rheumatism, gout and a host of troubles. 
 
 In further considering the analysis of the diges- 
 tive apparatus, with a view to understanding the 
 whole subject, there must be a special reference 
 made to the liver. This is the largest organ in the 
 body, and the great filterer of the blood. It rests 
 partly upon the stomach and intestines. It is 
 divided by deep fissures into lobes, so situated in 
 the abdominal cavity as to act an important part in 
 the preparation of pure blood, into which the food 
 we eat is intended to be converted. 
 
 There are certain vessels which convey the blood 
 to the liver. They are connected by a network of 
 small veins and capillaries. Then there are others 
 which convey the blood from the liver, after its 
 functions have prepared the bile, transformed the 
 
GENERAL ANALYSIS OF SUBJECT. 1»7 
 
 saccharine substances, and elaborated the albu- 
 minoids. 
 
 This organ does a wonderful amount of work in 
 separating the nutrient materials contained in our 
 food before they are assimilated and capable of 
 affording nourishment to the body. 
 
 The bile, which is a preparation produced in the 
 great laboratory of the liver cells, is like soap, and 
 acts as such in producing natural excretions. It 
 checks fermentation, and acts on fats and oils, 
 altering them all it can. 
 
 It is impossible to alter the large quantities which 
 some people consume, and in such cases the bile is 
 not to blame, but the foolish gourmand. The bile 
 is stored up in the -gall-bladder, which is situated 
 near the liver. When the food has been digested, 
 there is no work for the bile, so it is stored in its 
 receptacle, and sometimes amounts to three or four 
 pounds. 
 
 When too much food is eaten, or food of an im- 
 proper quality, or when heavy meals are indulged 
 in, without proper exercise, it is impossible for the 
 liver to perform all its functions so as to serve 
 digestion and assimilation in a manner that will 
 vitalize the system with health, strength and vigour. 
 
 There is then indigestion, torpidity of the liver, 
 sluggishness, which mean that the bile is incapable of 
 handling the accumulated conglomeration which is 
 formed in the system. Then follows a depressed 
 feeling, nervousness, irritable temper, anxiety and 
 groundless fear ; want of vigour, want of strength 
 and want of assimilation, cheerfulness and buoyancy 
 of spirit ; because the circulation is defective, the 
 
188 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 blood is being poisoned, and the whole physical 
 force is going at a low speed, with symptoms that 
 indicate a stoppage of the engine entirely, or break- 
 ing down of some of its parts. 
 
 When the liver is affected, the kidneys are more 
 or less deranged also. They are properly and 
 simply two glands that secrete the urine and pass it 
 on to the bladder. Any cause which produces 
 disease ofthe kidneys can be traced back to the liver 
 and bile, as the kidneys act for the others in a 
 vicarious sense, and do all they can to purify the 
 blood, so as to prevent the poisonous saccharine 
 and albuminarian deposits from forming diabetes 
 and Bright's disease which afflict so many. 
 
 The kidneys always give faithful warning. They 
 send forth a urine that has a sediment or gravel, or 
 it is scanty, profuse, high coloured or of strong 
 odour. They afford the best warning when a head- 
 ache, or depression, slight cold, or a fit of the blues 
 are attributed to the weather or some slight dis- 
 turbance. They send forth a fluid to tell the patient 
 that immediate attention is demanded to what is 
 eaten and drank. 
 
 Many eminent physicians attribute diabetes to 
 worry, mental over-work or insufficient exercise in 
 the open air ; but there are thousands of cases of 
 . this disease where none of these causes are traceable. 
 The main cause is error in diet, which produces a 
 diseased condition of the digestive organs, followed, 
 it may be, and generally is, by worry, owing to the 
 depressed state of mind and body caused by the 
 abuse of the digestive functions. 
 
 The proprietors of some patent medicines who 
 
GENERAL ANALYSIS OF SUBJECT. 189 
 
 claim that their remedies act likemiracles in restoring 
 health, are careful in directing attention to the diet, 
 exercise, sleep and baths, and how people should 
 live generally. 
 
 Then they go on and say something like the 
 following : " The last thing at night take a tumbler- 
 ful of milk. A cup of soup and some bread 
 between breakfast and luncheon. A cup of chocolate 
 and a bun between luncheon and dinner. Some 
 good candy always carried in the pocket and eaten 
 whenever opportunity offers." 
 
 Directions such as the above will guarantee 
 persons of weak digestion to require some sort 
 of medicine every day they live ; and they cannot 
 live long, for even the most robust would soon die 
 of indigestion if they followed the above abominable 
 advice. 
 
 The following from some one under a nom de 
 plume, which he has done well to use, and so avoid 
 ridicule, writing on diet in health and sickness, 
 says: — "The ordinary daily diet should be some- 
 thing like the following : beef, eight ounces ; bread, 
 one pound ; potatoes, one pound ; eggs, two ; 
 cheese, two ounces ; milk, half-a-pint ; butter, four 
 ounces. This is what is known as the physiological 
 diet table, and it would be a very liberal diet if it all 
 found its way into the body, but no allowance is 
 made for what is not absorbed." 
 
 The above is recommended to be eaten every day, 
 and yet, this remarkable writer says or implies, that 
 it is not all taken into the body ! Where does it go 
 to ? It is eaten ; yes ! Then it must go into the 
 "store-house," "the shop," or "the cupboard," as 
 
190 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 Shakespeare calls the stomach. It is no wonder it 
 is " not absorbed." 
 
 The same writer gives the following directions for 
 dieting fat people: — "Breakfast: white bread, two 
 ounces, well-toasted and buttered, tea without milk 
 or sugar, eight ounces. Dinner : soup, made with 
 beef marrow, fat meat, with fat sauce, four ounces, 
 asparagus, spinach, peas, beans, or cabbage, tea, 
 without milk or sugar. Supper : an ^gg, a little 
 roast beef, with plenty of fat, an ounce of toasted 
 bread, covered with butter, a cup of tea, without 
 milk or sugar." Why any man in his senses, or 
 any journal of respectability, could publish such 
 abominable stuff as the above is a mystery. 
 
 There is fat enough there for a four days' regular 
 diet ; and this is recommended for reducing obesity ! 
 It would seem necessary also for this fat man to 
 carry with him continually a pair of scales and 
 stamped weights, in order to have the exact amount 
 prescribed. If he uses such a diet long, he will 
 require an extra furnace for burning up the fat, as 
 the one supplied by nature is incapable of doing it. 
 This new writer must have been a stoker instead of 
 a doctor. 
 
191 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 General and Specific Directions. 
 
 And now I come to the point of general directions 
 in the diet necessary to health, strength and vigour 
 for persons in delicate health, and for those who 
 would ward off disease. 
 
 Wherever any serious disease has set in, and 
 especially where complications exist, I would, at the 
 very outset of these directions say,- employ a good 
 physician. I do not, and it would be a mis- 
 take for any one else, to ignore the medical pro- 
 fession because some of the members of the healing 
 art are stupid, and most provoking in their modes of 
 treatment. That is no reason why the noble profes- 
 sion should be blamed. 
 
 It is the case in all professions that some are 
 incompetent, impracticable and almost useless. In 
 all departments of life are to be found men who have 
 mistaken their calling ; but there are others who 
 are useful. 
 
 Their long years of study and preparation should 
 fit them specially for treating the various diseases 
 of the human system, the various causes of ailrnent, 
 the various remedies to apply, and all about dietetics. 
 But few of them, however, have the tact and ability 
 to apply their knowledge in a successful manner. 
 Here and there is found one who is singular enough 
 
192 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 and independent enough at times to " throw physic 
 to the dogs," and apply natural means of promoting 
 health. 
 
 One, whom I knew, took a case in hand of a man 
 who had been treated by different physicians, but 
 continued to grow worse under their treatment. 
 The first thing this doctor did was to put the 
 patient on a diet of butter milk — only butter milk, — 
 which was continued for one week with satisfactory 
 results. Then he varied his diet under the direction 
 of a nurse, who watched the case and reported, in 
 writing, to the doctor every day. 
 
 Besides these reports, she had written memo- 
 randa, according to directions, and these she studied 
 every day. The patient, who had been very cor- 
 pulent, in three months was reduced some fifty 
 pounds in weight, but so much improved in health 
 and strength, as to be able to ride out once a day, 
 and then take short walks. 
 
 It was about a year from the time of commencing 
 the treatment, when the doctor told me that his 
 patient had completely recovered, and had been 
 engaged in his business for some months, to the 
 great surprise and satisfaction of his friends, and, 
 said the doctor, "I cured him without one particle 
 of drugs." 
 
 This was some ten years ago. Since then, other 
 physicians have joined in establishing a college at 
 St. Louis, U.S., for the education and training of 
 physicians in dietetics and massage. 
 
 Another remarkable case came under my notice 
 of a country merchant, whom I knew very well. 
 He had been busily engaged for some years in 
 
GENERAL AND SPECIFIC DIRECTIONS. 193 
 
 acquiring a fortune. While money grubbing, he 
 had neglected the care of his health, but endeavoured 
 to keep up his appetite, which was considered all 
 important. How many make the same mistake ! 
 He ate and drank everything he could to nourish 
 and strengthen, except alcoholic liquors. When 
 the appetite failed, tonics were taken to spur it on. 
 
 At the age of fifty, as he was beginning to think 
 of retiring from business, he found himself fat, round 
 and plump, with commendable pride in his own 
 estimation and Jn the eyes of his friends. But he 
 was strangely weak. He could stand no draft nor 
 exercise. He took cold easily, and his food did not 
 nourish him ; sleep did not refresh him, while he 
 continually grew worse. 
 
 To try and save his life he went to a sanitarium 
 where he was treated by dietetics and massage. He 
 remained there nearly two months, and though the 
 expense troubled him, as it took a lot of his savings, 
 he was so much improved in health and had obtained 
 so much knowledge of how to live, that he was full of 
 bright hope for the future. I saw him on his return 
 journey. He was a mere shadow of his former size, 
 as he had got rid of ninety pounds of accumulations, 
 which he had proudly stored up, but now learned 
 the folly of carrying about for the sole purpose of 
 clogging up the arteries, the circulatory, and 
 digestive organs of the body. This was ten years 
 ago and the man has improved in health and 
 enjoyed life ever since. He took no drugs. 
 
 In directing people in the practice of dietetics 
 and massage, and the manner of carrying out 
 this system successfully, there is something more 
 
 N 
 
194 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 needed than reading a book like this. No matter 
 how determined a person may be to follow the 
 directions, there is not one in a hundred will do it 
 without a properly trained nurse, who will from 
 principle and practice attend to the patient. 
 
 To employ such a nurse is the most efficient 
 means of getting cured, and of obtaining the 
 necessary instruction of how to live in future. It 
 costs nothing but the nurse's wages and expenses ; 
 while to travel to a sanitarium, and pay the expenses 
 of such an institution, costs many guineas, compared 
 to the expense of a nurse in your own home, who 
 will direct in the preparation of the necessary food 
 and drink, to teach massage, and keep a daily 
 written record of the effects of the treatment. 
 
 The society of the home circle and friends, 
 together with the company of a refined, educated 
 lady — as the nurses generally are who adopt this pro- 
 fession^ — are all of great benefit at the start, and for a 
 month or two, or three, as the case may demand ; and 
 when the new mode of living is established, and a 
 new life is revived, then a change of air and place 
 for a short time will do wonders in the way of a per- 
 manent restoration to health, strength and vigour. 
 
 To those who prefer taking their own chances to 
 employing a competent nurse, the following specific 
 directions are given. But it is almost impossible 
 to write out what is suitable in all cases. 1 have 
 already referred to the most important principles 
 and practices of this system. 
 
 First of all, in the matter of drinks, there should 
 be from two to three quarts of water a day, for nutri- 
 tive purposes ; but in drinking this quantity, there 
 
GENERAL AND SPECIFIC DIRECTIONS. 195 
 
 should be no feeling of fullness nor oppression after 
 it is dranfe. Then, drinic it hot or warm. 
 
 Milk is a food, and should be taken as such, and 
 not as a beverage. In cases of diabetes, buttermilk 
 and skim milk may be taken with advantage in 
 suitable quantities, which only the person using 
 them, or a competent nurse, can fully determine. 
 
 The effect of tea was tested by Dr. Beaumont, and 
 was found to act as an astringent on flesh meat, 
 hardening it, similar to theprocess of tanning leather. 
 Persons troubled with headache, neuralgia, nervous- 
 ness, and such like ailments, had better give tea a 
 wide berth. Many people use saccharine tabloids 
 for sweetening their tea arid coffee instead of sugar, 
 especially in cases of diabetes. They had better be 
 careful, for instances are recorded in which great 
 harm has resulted from that innocent looking little 
 tabloid, and when given up relief was experienced. 
 The profound ignorance which prevails, even among 
 some who claim to be experts in making it, is the 
 cause of a good deal of the trouble arising from tea 
 drinking. Its preparation is often very imperfect, 
 and the quality bad. 
 
 Coffee is very good for people in sound health, 
 but cannot be recommended for dyspeptics or 
 persons of weak digestion. Cocoa, if the Starch 
 is eliminated, and the article not adulterated, is a 
 more useful drink, but cannot compare with pure 
 water for all general purposes. Wine and spirits 
 are out of the question. They are very good 
 articles in their place, and useful for mechanical 
 and medicinal purposes, and wine is the only grape- 
 juice suitable for sacramental purposes. 
 
196 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 Beer, ale and porter, with all the hosts of arti- 
 ficial drinks — fermented or unfermented, aerated, 
 carbonated or still — are not to be compared to pure 
 water for quenching the thirst and keeping the 
 system in a good, sound state of health, strength 
 and vigour. 
 
 If any of the popular beverages have to be used, 
 I would say use a little good Scotch or other 
 similar makes of whiskey, diluted with carbonated 
 soda water. Even this should be, in most cases, 
 limited to very small quantities during each twenty- 
 four hours, not more than two half glasses when 
 diluted, during the day. 
 
 As to food, I will once more refer to the import- 
 ance of flesh meat, with prepared cereals in which 
 the starch is changed, as the most beneficial diet 
 for indigestion and most of the prevailing distress 
 with which people are troubled in this age. 
 
 Dr. Beaumont's experience with the French 
 Canadian, whose digestive organs he had the privi- 
 lege of looking into and testing, found that animal 
 food was much more completely digested than 
 vegetables and other starchy substances. It satis- 
 fied his hunger for a longer period, and was more 
 stimulating. This fact alone is valuable as an 
 incentive to the adoption of the system here advo- 
 cated, about which I shall now proceed to give 
 more specific directions as a guide to numerous 
 battalions of our race who are slaughtered by the 
 destructive enemy of indigestion. The first thing 
 to consider is the menu. It is varied and abundant 
 as already intimated. No one need complain nor go 
 hungry who adopts it. 
 
GENERAL AND SPECIFIC DIRECTIONS. 197 
 
 And the adoption of it, together with all the 
 directions given, will put the body in such a con- 
 dition that when from some cause or accident the 
 services of a physician are required, he will find his 
 medicines more effectual in their design than they 
 possibly could be if the system was all clogged up 
 and every organ more or less deranged. 
 
 Meat. Use good beef, roasted, broiled, boiled, 
 minced, potted or shredded. An excellent form of 
 cooking beefsteak is to simmer or stew it after fry- 
 ing, and then add brown gravy of the juices with 
 parched flour, nicely browned, poured over it. This 
 is tender and delicious when properly done. 
 
 Use mutton, lamb, venison, grouse, partridge, 
 chicken, turkey, pheasant, and prepare them in a 
 similar manner. 
 
 Sausages. What ! Sausages ? Yes ; if you 
 make them as follows :^Take one pound of good 
 lean beef, one pound of pork, and one pound 
 of parched bread crusts or thin slices of bread 
 baked in the oven until quite browned through, 
 and grind or mince them all up together in 
 a good mincer. A good sized mincer is a 
 necessary article in every kitchen. It is a good 
 plan to put this mass through the mincer twice, 
 and then use the sausage filler, with suitable intes- 
 tines to form the sausages for cooking in the usual 
 way. Use no spices or savoury except a very little 
 pepper and the usual quantity of salt. If the thin 
 skins are not obtainable, make the mixture into 
 thin patties and fry, before eating, like sausages. 
 
 Fish. Sole, plaice, whiting, white-fish, herrings, 
 mackerel, trout, codfish, haddock, bass, turbot, 
 
198 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 smelts, and many other sorts may be used fresh, 
 if properly cooked. If any of the above are found 
 to disagree with the digestion, change at once to the 
 kind that is agreeable, Salmon, lobsters, oysters, 
 and some other kinds will surely not agree with the 
 stomach of a dyspeptic. Oysters are the scavengers 
 of the sea, and vile stuff in any form. If eaten at 
 all, have them colloped with baked bread crumbs, 
 and then baked in a hot oven like a pudding. 
 
 Eggs in moderation, when fresh laid, as farmers 
 g'enerally use them, are very good. Poached eggs 
 on toast, made of gluten flour, are very good, but 
 as a general rule by the delicate and infirm, twice 
 as many eggs are used than should be. 
 
 Milk must be cautiously used. The best mode of 
 using it as a nourishing food, is to boil and thicken 
 it with parched flour which has been browned in 
 the oven for an hour or two, so as to thoroughly 
 toast it. In this way it can be used either thick 
 or thin, to suit, for sauces, gruel, pap, or drinking. 
 
 Bread. This is the great stumbling block by 
 which tens of thousands of the human family are 
 sent headlong over the precipice into the fathom- 
 less pit of premature decay. 
 
 I have dwelt upon this subject so fully in former 
 chapters that I need not add more, except to warn 
 people against the use of white, starchy bread, no 
 matter how pleasing to the eye or palatable to the 
 taste. It is the mighty scythe that mows down 
 human beings by the thousand, filling up the sani- 
 tariums, hydros, hospitals, infirmaries, and church- 
 yards, 
 
 Use whole wheat flour for all purposes, instead 
 
GENERAL AND SPECIFIC DIRECTIONS. 199 
 
 of white flour. But do see to it, that it contains 
 only the natural wheat grain in its entirety except 
 the outer woody fibre, without the addition of more 
 germ or anything else. More germ than nature 
 put in is very damaging to health in the end. 
 
 In cases of indigestion or diabetes, use gluten 
 flour chiefly, or flour in which the starch is changed 
 into a soluble and easily digested article. If you 
 cannot get this, and cannot get prepared oats, 
 wheat and barley for porridge, then eat as little as 
 possible of farinaceous foods and more meat, until 
 your digestive . organs recuperate their natural 
 strength and the saliva can change the starch. 
 Chew your food twice as much as before. Always 
 have a hot oven and hot water at your service, and 
 use them more than ever in the preparation of food 
 and drinks. 
 
 Biscuits are next to confection in disturbing the 
 digestive organs of men, women, and children. 
 Do people know that to every two pounds of flour 
 there is one pound of fat and one pound of sugar 
 added in making the fine, fancy biscuits ? The 
 manufacture of these enemies of health is very 
 extensive, and thousands of people eat them at all 
 hours, forgetting that with each swallow the whole 
 machinery of the digestive organs is taxed to 
 handle the small morsel, as well as the full meal. 
 Avoid eating too often. Think of something else, 
 and do something else. 
 
 Vegetables. Celery, lettuce, tomatoes, cauliflowers, 
 mushrooms, young onions, spinach, watercress and 
 horseradish may be used in moderation by many 
 people. 
 
200 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 Fruits. Cranberries, sour cherries, limes, lemons 
 and red currants, but sweet fruits had better be 
 avoided, and must be avoided in cases of diabetes. 
 Avoid also potatoes, pastry, beets, carrots, peas, 
 turnips, parsnips, rice, tapioca, corn-starch, corn- 
 flour, preserves and ordinary chocolate. 
 
 Puddings, pies, cakes, custards, sweets, jams, 
 raisins, apples, pears, and plums, when summertime 
 comes, had better be used in sparing quantities by 
 anyone, even in health, if predisposed to catch cold 
 easily, or other derangements. Persons enjoying 
 perfect health may eat fruits, but to eat them in 
 addition to full meals three times a day will certainly 
 work mischief sooner or later. Eat three meals a 
 day only, and allow four or five hours between each. 
 
 Do not drink anything while eating. Do not 
 eat anything between meals. Eat slowly and mas- 
 ticate the food thoroughly. Nip each mouthful 
 from thirty to forty times. Never eat until you 
 cannot eat any more. Rise with an appetite and 
 you will always sit down with one. Eat no food, 
 even of the best, as given above, if you find it dis- 
 agrees with you. See that the bowels are moved 
 once every day at least. Do not be alarmed at 
 some strange freaks that may come from the bowels 
 or kidneys, provided they do not continue. It is 
 very important that the urine be clear, especially in 
 the mornings. Make a free use of good olive oil 
 once or twice a week. 
 
 Rub yourself every morning and evening for at 
 least five minutes, and bathe two or three times a 
 week. 
 
 Drink hot or warm water as your principal bever- 
 
GENERAL AND SPECIFIC DIRECTIONS 201 
 
 age, and lots of it, for nutritive purposes, every- 
 day. Cultivate a cheerful spirit and sweet disposi- 
 tion, and don't neglect laughter and merriment, 
 pleasant games, and plenty of good air and sun- 
 shine. The meal time should be a pleasant, joyous 
 season, lasting half an hour or more. 
 
 If each one would but study the analyses of 
 foods, the' anatomy of the human system, and the 
 wonderful mechanism of the digestive organs, there 
 would soon be a pleasure experienced much greater 
 than that arising from reading novels or the study 
 of any other subject. These matters, however, 
 need not form the conversation at the dining table. 
 
 Better have some good, spicyjokes, pleasant repar- 
 tee, and seasonable references, which will add spice 
 to the conversation, and set all in a roar of laughter 
 whether they feel in the humour or not. I once 
 breakfasted with a family in London. When the 
 fish was served, the husband complained of its 
 burnt edges ; when the coffee came on he com- 
 plained of the flavour, and he looked sour, and the 
 tones of his voice indicated ill-feeling. His wife 
 looked at him a moment and then said, in a very 
 mild and winsome tone of voice, " My dear, you 
 have a charming disposition this morning." I burst 
 out into a laugh immediately, and the husband 
 laughed to see me laugh, then all at the table 
 laughed heartily, when the husband made some 
 sort of an explanation that he did feel out of sorts, 
 as he had had a poor night's rest, he believed from 
 mating a Welsh rarebit for supper the night before. 
 
 At an hotel table one morning there was seated a 
 young man, green from the country, together with 
 
202 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 several guests of the house. When the waiter 
 came round with tea and filled up the cups, she 
 said, "Will you have your tea seasoned, sir?" 
 meaning sugar and cream, or, most likely, milk. 
 The young man made no reply, as he did not 
 want salt and pepper in his tea, and his idea of 
 seasoning was naturally with such condiments. 
 She, thinking he was deaf, spoke louder in the 
 same language. Then he replied, "A little pepper, 
 but no salt, by jingo ! " This set the whole com- 
 pany in roars of laughter and merriment. People 
 can afford to be laughed at sometimes, and with 
 pleasant grace turn it to good account by the good 
 it does others at the dining table. 
 
 Allow me to urge you, dear reader, in the pursuit 
 of health, to cultivate a cheerful spirit. Read 
 Shakespeare. Study his characters. Quote him 
 often, and do not brood upon wrongs, real or 
 imaginary. Neither allow yourself to be fretful, 
 fractious, nor irritable. Look on the bright side 
 of everything, and turn the dark, unpleasant 
 things of life into sunshine — at least, let the bright 
 sunshine of a radiant smile drive away the gloom 
 as soon as possible. Despise small worries. All 
 this you can do by perseverance and study, and at 
 the same time be cultivating the habit of a cheerful 
 temperament more quickly than you imagine. 
 
 When meal time comes, if worried or the temper 
 ruffled, you had better not eat, for the nerves and 
 brain exercise an influence over the whole system. 
 Wait. In any kind of brain work, also, it is better 
 to rest for half an hour before meal time. The old, 
 old adage, "After dinner sit awhile, after supper 
 
GENERAL AND SPECIFIC DIRECTIONS. 203 
 
 walk a mile," is one that should be followed by 
 everybody. The meal time is, therefore, a very 
 important epoch in every-day life. There is to be 
 a preparation for it, and a rest after it, and pleasure 
 during its continuance. 
 
 All business worry and difficulties of every 
 description must not come to the dining table. It 
 is of the utmost importance that these little things 
 should receive attention ; they are liable to be over- 
 looked. It is in consequence of this that I dwell 
 upon the little details of every-day life. 
 
 There is one thing more that should not be lost 
 sight of. Every person, whether sick or well, will 
 be the better by doing something for another. 
 
 If you go to church it should not be the object to 
 get, but to give. If you give worship you are sure 
 to get grace. So in every-day life ; by doing some- 
 thing for another, you are certain that it will be a 
 benefit, not only to the other, but to yourself. This 
 is the way to be happy under all circumstances. 
 
 Those who imagine themselves made of finer clay 
 than others, and should be waited upon, served, 
 and do nothing themselves for themselves nor any- 
 one else, make a great mistake. In how many ways 
 these people could be useful to their fellow creatures. 
 Such people are required to spread a knowledge of 
 dietetics, hygiene and massage, such as this book 
 teaches. There is room for scores of them, and if 
 they will apply to me by letter, at my address, 
 stated in the preface of this book, they may be 
 directed into fields of great usefulness, and find that 
 in serving others they will be pleased, and profited 
 themselves. 
 
204 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 In correspondence always send an addressed and 
 stamped envelope to secure a reply. 
 
 There is one other important direction in the 
 pursuit of health — that is sleep ; secure plenty of it. 
 You cannot sleep well unless you have good diges- 
 tion. If troubled with sleeplessness it is a warning 
 that your diet is not correct. Night is one of the 
 wise and necessary interruptions in the economy of 
 Nature. It is designed for rest, eight hours of it 
 for sleep. Most people, especially delicate and 
 invalid ones, require that amount of sleep. They 
 should retire early and regularly, for an hour's sleep 
 before midnight is worth two after. 
 
 One of the effects of our civilization is to turn 
 night into day in this age of gas and electricity. 
 Do not heed the allurements of temptation to break 
 the laws of Nature by late hours at night, nor the 
 slothful folding of the arms in the morning for a 
 little more sleep and slumber, but arise for massage 
 and other devotions to body and soul. One third 
 of our time is intended for sleep. Twenty-five 
 years in a lifetime of seventy-five should be en- 
 compassed in the arms of "tired Nature's sweet 
 restorer, balmy sleep." Think of that. It is not a 
 waste of time, but re-invigorating, re-vitalizing, re- 
 juvenating, and a great restorer of waste, of health, 
 strength and vigour. If men and women work 
 ten hours — as they should do — sleep eight and take 
 six for recreation, and besides this take one-seventh 
 of the week for rest from labour, they will be 
 following the laws of Nature, and live as long and 
 as happy as they were intended to live. 
 
205 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Consumption. 
 
 I PURPOSE giving a few facts relating to the treat- 
 ment and cure of consumption. It was formerly 
 considered a very dreadful disease and incurable : 
 so was diabetes : but they have both been mastered 
 and cured. There is no necessity for anyone to die 
 of these diseases. 
 
 Statistics show that fifty years ago the death rate 
 in Great Britain from consumption was 29'84 per 
 thousand of the population. 
 
 In 1892, the number had fallen to iO"82 per 
 thousand, or about one third ; still, this disease is far 
 more prevalent than it should be. 
 
 There is no doubt that many deaths were formerly 
 set down to consumption which were caused by 
 some other troubles. Any wasting disease, such as 
 resulted from weakriess produced by mal-assimila- 
 tion, was often attributed to consumption, when no 
 tuberculosis existed. 
 
 Latterly, there has been greater care exercised in 
 the diagnosis of diseases, and the true cause of death 
 has been more closely accounted for in making up 
 statistics. 
 
 This may explain to some extent the reason of the 
 decrease in the death rate of this fell destroyer of 
 so many people in this part of the world. 
 
206 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 But it must be admitted that the consumption 
 hospitals, and specialists who have made a study of 
 this disease and the means of relief, have done 
 excellent work in the way of reducing the mortality. 
 
 Still there is more to be done, especially in the 
 way of prevention. 
 
 Markthebeginningof this disease. Ah! you can- 
 not very well do this, for the beginning is so deceitful. 
 The slight cough is regarded simply as a cold, and 
 excites but little attention. The breathing is not 
 seriously affected nor is the appetite impaired. After 
 a time the cough increases, then appears somewhat 
 better from a little attention which has been given 
 to it. Soon, or it may be a few weeks or months, the 
 cough increases in frequency, and is accompanied 
 by expectoration of a clear, frothy saliva. Some 
 parts of the day there is experienced a slight degree 
 of chilliness, followed by heat, and, may be, perspir- 
 ation at night. The person becomes paler, but 
 so gradually that it is scarcely noticed, until a 
 languid feelingcomes on, with fatigue and weariness. 
 These are among the first symptoms. The second 
 stage developes so gradually that the person is on 
 the road, and travelling at quite a speed, before he 
 knows it. The cough increases, the expectoration 
 increases : the fatigue increases : the breathing and 
 pulse are more hurried : the fever increases, with 
 greater languor and emaciation. A few months 
 pass in this way until the person has, perhaps, been 
 six months or more on the phthisis journey without 
 being actually aware of it. One physician will make 
 an examination and pronounce the case as a little 
 derangement of the liver, but he will soon be all 
 
CONSUMPTION. 207 
 
 right. Another one will diagnose the case, and find 
 an increased density in the structure of one of the 
 lungs, but the stethoscope does not reveal any very 
 serious trouble. The voice does not indicate any- 
 thing wrong nor is the percussion duller. A tonic of 
 some drugs is generally prescribed, with directions to 
 eat plenty of good, wholesome food so as to regain 
 strength. All this time, in many cases, yea, in most 
 cases, the person is on the same road and travelling 
 at an increased speed. It takes from nine to eighteen 
 months, in most cases, when a person gets fully 
 started on the phthisis road, to reach the end of the 
 journey. It is a disease that affects people in nearly 
 all countries. The period of life at which the greatest 
 mortality from consumption occurs is between twenty 
 and forty, and more females than males die of it. 
 
 There are two great causes which produce this 
 wasting disease. The first cause is remote : the 
 second is exciting. The first cause is remote, because 
 it has to do chiefly with the pre-disposition to the 
 disease from constitutional hereditary transmission. 
 .This cause may be overcome entirely, because it is 
 remote. No person need contract the disease owing 
 to being born of consumptive parents. He need not 
 necessarily fall a prey to the disease on account of 
 the accident of birth unless the exciting causes are 
 tampered with, and then he is more likely to become 
 affected than one born of healthy parents. 
 
 The exciting causes are impure air, bad quality 
 or insufficiency of food of the right quality. 
 
 Insufficient clothing and exercise, excessive mental 
 or bodily labour, mental depression and abuse of 
 liquors. 
 k 
 
208 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 In fact all those agents which operate in depress- 
 ing or lowering the tone of the system, generally act 
 as exciting causes in the production of consumption. 
 
 But of all the exciting causes of this disease, the 
 most common one is the bad quality, or insufficient 
 quantity of suitable food. 
 
 For persons exposed to it from remote causes, 
 the prophylactic, or preventative means should be 
 carefully studied by everyone concerned, while those 
 who have started on the road and do not know where 
 they are going, can be side-tracked and escape the 
 danger that certainly awaits the through train. 
 
 The curative properties of the system of dietetics 
 and massage have saved many precious lives from 
 disease and death owing to its power to tone up and 
 strengthen the physical and mental powers to such 
 an extent that the dread tubercles have no chance to 
 work upon the lungs. 
 
 It is now clearly proved that of all the medicines 
 given in this disease, none have had the effect of 
 curing it. In the early stages of the disease, tonics 
 are useful ; but that is about all that can be said of 
 them. There must be a thorough change in the 
 blood and tissues, and that can only be effected by 
 a change in diet, air, and water. All the emetics, 
 naptha, prussic acid, inhalation of iodine, Iceland 
 moss, henbane, hemlock, and other remedies cannot 
 be relied upon. Cough medicines are a delusion, 
 and often affect the stomach. Opium-gum pre- 
 parations may allay the cough, and mineral acids 
 restrain the perspiration, but only for a short time. 
 Cod liver oil is good, but this comes under the 
 food regulations. Even cod liver oil will only serve 
 
CONSUMPTION. 209 
 
 as a palliative, unless other foods of the right sort 
 are used in connection with the full treatment pre- 
 scribed. 
 
 As to cures of consumption, the first fact I will 
 record is that of a young man, of about 22 years of 
 age, whose mother and sister died of consumption, 
 and he was far on the journey to the graveyard. 
 His cough, expectoration, and "night sweats,'' 
 brought him very low. For nearly twelve months, 
 he was considered a sure victim to that dread 
 malady. He disposed of his property and inheri- 
 tance by will, but one day he happened to take up 
 a newspaper, and there read an account of a person 
 who had cured himself of consumption. This 
 person's parents, brothers and sisters, had all died 
 of the disease, which had attacked him at the age 
 of 28 years. 
 
 He began to take full inhalations of pure, fresh air ; 
 threw his arms back, and expanded his chest. 
 Then he would thump his chest with the palms of 
 his hands, and inhale more fresh air. He continued 
 this practice for a few days, when he found an 
 improvement, which encouraged him to give more 
 time to this exercise. He ate beef and mutton 
 chiefly, with bread made of wheat, which had cockle 
 and a percentage of wild peas mixed with it. The 
 bread was very coarse, but the exercise increased 
 the relish for it and the meat. He gradually grew 
 stronger, until every trace of the disease had 
 departed. 
 
 The account of the cure was so simple, and with- 
 out a trace of any mercenary design in its record, 
 that the young man began to practice the same 
 
210 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 course of. treatment. The inhalation of pure fresh 
 air into the lungs, in a few months, enabled him to 
 expand his chest five inches from a complete exhala- 
 tion to a full inhalation. He thumped his chest 
 with both hands, which so affected the tissues about 
 theheart and lungs, that the thickened lobules, and 
 partially clogged-up arteries, became clearer, and 
 the fresh air gradually penetrated every part of the 
 breathing and respiratory organs, so that a change 
 was effected, and repair began to be realized. 
 
 His changed diet also assisted nature in removing 
 the disease from the blood : for is not consumption 
 as well as other diseases produced by disease or 
 impurities of the blood ? 
 
 These two cases prove that hereditary predis- 
 position to this disease does not necessarily mean its 
 fatal development. 
 
 No one need despair. There are no hopeless 
 cases where dietetics and massage are used with 
 discretion, and a determined stand taken, and a 
 gallant fight continued. It requires effort and 
 perseverance, the same as success in any undertak- 
 ing requires them. 
 
 The process in all Nature's healing is slow. The 
 disease comes on gradually, and so does the cure. 
 When some vantage ground is gained, and the 
 seeds of repair are sprouting, the diseased lungs 
 and improved blood are causing the microbe to let 
 go its hold. Then is the time to keep up courage, 
 and not to get weary in well doing. 
 
 Always remember, this is the only way to cure 
 consumption. Avoid every kind of food which 
 ferments and causes acidity, oppression and over 
 
CONSUMPTION. 211 
 
 production of bile. Do not hurry up the cure ; 
 some people are anxious for a good appetite all the 
 time, so as to be able to eat plenty 6i food, which 
 often puts them back instead of forward. 
 
 Another case was that of a beautiful young lady 
 who was so low, that when I saw her lying on the 
 sofa, almost bloodless in appearance, and with 
 features that bore an expression of a heavenly 
 lustre, I considered she would soon be with the 
 angels. Several weeks had passed in this con- 
 dition ; she evidently had no consumption of the 
 lungs, but of the bowels. I advised, as the only 
 means of cure, the adoption of a special diet. 
 Several physicians had been consulted, but she 
 gradually grew weaker, until she was unable to 
 leave the house. 
 
 I did not see her again for a month, when one 
 evening I returned to my house, and upon entering 
 the drawing-room, \vas startled by the appearance 
 of a beautiful young lady, who sprang to her feet 
 to greet me with out-stretched hands and beatific 
 smiles, that I exclaimed: — "What! Is this Miss 
 H — — , or her sister ? " She replied : " Yes, truly ; 
 
 I am Miss H ." "What a remarkable change." 
 
 ' ' You may well say so, for I have walked all the 
 way here, and am not fatigued," she replied. 
 
 This was another proof of the effects starch- 
 changed cereals, minced beef and hot water treat- 
 ment had upon disease. This was seven years 
 ago, and ever since she has' enjoyed better health 
 than she had for ten years previously. 
 
 Another case of pulmonary consumption was 
 that of a woman, sixty-five years of age. She and 
 
212 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 her husband were very poor, and lived in a little 
 house in the country. Her diet was chiefly milk, 
 from a cow which they had possessed for several 
 years, and was, in fact, their chief support. One 
 summer the woman became ill ; there was a gradual 
 decline of energy, some cough — "a cold," as she 
 thought. In a few weeks she could scarcely milk 
 her cow or do her other work. In another few 
 weeks a physician was summoned, and upon exam- 
 ination found out the trouble. 
 
 Then he set to work to find out the cause. For 
 experimental purposes he had the cow killed, and 
 found its lungs riddled with tubercles so that they 
 would scarcely hold together. 
 
 The woman was sent away to another house, 
 her diet changed entirely, and she soon got well. 
 Diet evidently produces disease, and diet just as 
 evidently cures disease. 
 
 But there are butchers who for years have 
 slaughtered cattle whose lungs have been decayed 
 with tubercles. They have eaten, and sold the 
 meat for others to eat. They have fed their own 
 families and other families upon it as upon other 
 meat and realized no harm. This has been done 
 for centuries past to a more or less extent, for 
 many cattle, especially cows, have tuberculosis. 
 
 The act of cooking the meat must either kill the 
 microbes, or the sustenance from the meat so tones 
 up the system that the microbes have no effect in 
 producing a like disease. 
 
 It is different with the milk, butter, and cheese, 
 which are not, as a general thing, cooked at all. 
 Milk can be boiled, and many people are now 
 
CONSUMPTION. 213 
 
 using sterilized milk altogether. But the products 
 of milk, especially -butter, is used in the raw con- 
 dition, and hence the danger. Olive oil is prefer- 
 able to butter, while the margarine, which is so 
 much under the ban, is, if pure and properly made, 
 safer than pure butter made in the best dairies. 
 
 Another case, and the last to refer to here, was that 
 of a young farmer who at the age of 23 was attacked 
 by consumption, though none of his family ever 
 had it. He was rapidly sinking, and the doctor 
 said his left lung was gone owing to the disease. 
 A young woman to whom he was engaged volun- 
 teered to go and nurse him. She was an intelligent 
 and very well educated girl. After being in the 
 house a few days with her eyes about her, she 
 noticed that an open drain from the kitchen sink 
 emptied into a cesspool near the window of the 
 young man's bedroom, and a foul smell entered 
 his room when the window was open for ventilation. 
 
 She proposed a change of rooms ; there was one 
 upstairs at the other side of the house, to which the 
 young man was removed. The open drain was 
 arched over and covered with dry earth and then 
 sodded. The diet was changed, and fresh air 
 inhalations were practiced, cod liver oil and beef 
 and other nourishing food were so prepared as to 
 be pleasant and palatable, while an air of cheerful- 
 ness permeated the young man's apartments when 
 the sun beamed in at the window together with the 
 bright smile and hopeful countenance of the nurse. 
 
 In a few months there was a marked change for 
 the better. 
 
 With, only one lung this young man rose from 
 
2U GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 his bed, and in a few months more left his room for 
 short walks. Then pleasant carriage drives were 
 arranged along the country roads. 
 
 With every day, as the sun rose to drive away 
 the darkness and shed light around upon the earth, 
 so the hope of health and happiness rose higher 
 and higher in the young man's heart. The winter 
 passed, and the summer came again, and he and 
 his faithful, bright-souled nurse were married and 
 took a short trip to the seaside and then among 
 the mountains. He is to-day well on in life, with 
 a bright, healthy family of children, some of whom 
 are married, while his faithful wife looks as rosy 
 and cheerful as when she was the nurse, some 30 
 years ago. 
 
 This would be a brighter world if girls would 
 study more the things that pertain to the health and 
 happiness of those about them. What subject is 
 there anyway so interesting as the study and care of 
 the human body ? The beginning of life and its 
 continuance should be understood. What is it to 
 breathe? Respiration — (re and spiro, I breathe 
 again)— is the act of continual breathing. The 
 object of breathing is to introduce a fresh supply of 
 oxygen into the system, so that the products result- 
 ing from the breaking up of the various tissues of 
 the body may be removed by the agency of the 
 excreting organs — the skin, lungs, kidneys, and 
 bowels. 
 
 The elimination of the most noxious of these 
 products, which is carbonic acid, must be through 
 the lungs by the act of breathing. 
 
 The act of deep breathing fills the lungs and 
 
CONSUMPTION. 215 
 
 purifies the blood by exposing it to constant supplies 
 of fresh air. If the importance of this study could 
 be impressed upon the minds of parents, so that they 
 would understand it, and make Others talk about 
 it, this world would be brighter, and it cannot be so 
 unless healthier. 
 
 To ward off consumption as well as other diseases 
 of the blood, there is required of every human 
 being a certain amount of regular exercise in order 
 that a fresh supply of oxygen is brought into the 
 system by the respiratory organs. 
 
 Just look at this again, or rather in another way. 
 A person walking a mile an hour takes into his 
 lungs 52 cubic inches of air at each respiration, 60 
 inches if he walks two miles, 75 inches if he walks 
 three miles, and 91 cubic inches if he walks four 
 miles an hour. But the person who is idle or at 
 rest only takes about 33 cubic inches at each 
 inspiration. 
 
 The total amount of air which passes through 
 the lungs in twenty-four hours, in order to assist 
 nature in throwing off the noxious carbonic acid 
 and to purify the blood, is therefore regulated by 
 the number and extent of the respiratory move- 
 ments. 
 
 The idle, lazy, indolent and sickly people get 
 very little air into the lungs compared to the amount 
 inhaled by the active, energetic, ambitious, healthy 
 person. 
 
 The average quantity inhaled during the night is 
 about 400 inches per minute, which in six hours 
 would amount to 144,000 cubic inches, during the 
 day at 502 cubic inches per minute, which in 18 
 
216 GOOD HEALTH. ■ 
 
 hours would amount to 542,160 cubic inches, or a 
 total amount for the 24 hours of 686, 160 cubic inches. 
 But this enormous sum is greatly increased by 
 active exertion, and in the case of a labouring man 
 the total amount required will not be less than 
 1,500,000 cubic inches. 
 
 If people would eat less deleterious food and use 
 less fermented drinks, there would not be the need 
 of inhaling so much oxygen in order to drive away 
 the noxious carbonic acid and to purify the blood. 
 
 But it is one of the grossest inconsistencies of the 
 age that people expect to enjoy health, do nothing, 
 and eat and drink everything that comes along. 
 They might as reasonably jump into the raging sea 
 and not expect to be drowned, or throw themselves 
 into the fire and not be burned. 
 
 And this all comes from ignorance. A person 
 who is aware of danger usually takes precaution. 
 If we were not animals, but composed of some 
 higher or more celestial fabric, then there might be 
 some excuse for aping to be something better than 
 we are. As it is, we are animals, and likely to 
 remain so as long as we live, and must therefore 
 continue under the rules and regulations of animal 
 life, but guided by intelligence, reason and 
 judgment. If this is so, then, in the name of com- 
 mon sense, why is there so much' ignorance on the 
 most important subject in the world — health ? 
 
 As already shown, physical labour serves the 
 purpose of contributing air to the lungs, and this 
 purifies the blood. When labour is not practicable 
 some active exercise must be regularly taken. 
 Massage is the most sensible, convenient and 
 
CONSUMPTION. 217 
 
 valuable exercise for the great mass of people of 
 any other within reach. - This exercise, with plenty 
 of good, wholesome food, pure air and water, and the 
 absence of drinking during meal time, will contri-r 
 bute greatly to the strength and development of all 
 the organs of the body, so that there need be no 
 dread of consumption, even by those who are pre- 
 disposed, to it from hereditary taint. 
 
 This development of strength and hardiness 
 which is necessary to tone up the system and bring 
 it into a higher standard of vigour, should be com- 
 menced in childhood. In fact, in the very beginnings 
 of life, the aim should be to produce a strong, 
 healthy, robust human being, who will be able to 
 cope with the rough as well as the smooth ways of 
 the life that is before it. Plants that are started in 
 the hot-house are in danger of withering when 
 exposed to the severe temperature outside, while 
 the hardy perennial grows and thrives with but 
 little attention. 
 
 Now, one of the little necessary things that should 
 be attended to, besides the food, is the clothing in 
 childhood. It is a mistaken idea so many mothers 
 have, that the child's clothing should be thick and 
 heavy, and from the throat to the toes of the feet 
 and ends of the fingers. There should certainly be 
 light, warm flannels put on at first, but as the child 
 grows older, it is advisable to let the air in upon parts 
 of its body at a time until the whole body will get 
 accustomed to the air, not only at time of bathing 
 but every night and morning. 
 
 Then again, when walking begins, it is an 
 excellent plan to allow the child to. run about the 
 
218 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 room in bare feet, bare shoulders, and bare legs. 
 The more this is practiced the better. If they steal 
 away out of the room and into a colder temperature, 
 it will harden them for the world into which they 
 are intended to act their part. If children were 
 allowed to go bare-footed arid bare-legged indoors 
 and out until they were ten years old, there would be 
 a more hardy race in a few generations. 
 
 I have heard some mothers exclaim against seeing 
 children in the parks, or in the streets, with bare 
 legs, upon a cold, windy day, while I have admired 
 the little ones, and watched to see if they felt the 
 cold. I -could see no signs of discomfort, and have 
 remarked that they would be all the better if their 
 boots and stockings were off too. 
 
 In the United States, there is a physician who is 
 a specialist in children's diseases. His own children 
 never wear anything on their feet or legs. They 
 may be seen in the parks neatly dressed, while 
 attended by their nurse, but their bare legs and feet 
 are always exposed. This practice is kept up 
 until they are ten years old. In his practice, he 
 refersto his own children, and their good health. 
 He decries against the custom of long stockings, 
 with gaiters over them, coming down oti to the boots, 
 which some foolish mothers think are necessary to 
 strengthen the ankles. It may strengthen them, 
 the same as a plaster strengthens the weak back, and 
 a dose of pills relieves indigestion, but the child 
 will always have weak ankles, as the others always 
 have weak backs and indigestion. 
 
 I have noticed in some of the northern towns of 
 England, during the winter months, as well as in 
 
CONSUMPTION. 219 
 
 other seasons, women, some of them above sixty 
 years of age, besides children and girls of different 
 ages, going bare-footed in the streets every day. 
 The cold, stone pavement, and the wet, icy walks, 
 did not chill them, nor did they ever appear to have 
 a cold, or be otherwise disordered. The same prac- 
 tice, I understand, prevails in Scotland. 
 
 It may be considered a rude and primitive style. 
 So it is : but if the modern system of living is going 
 to increase a weakly, sickly race, who are con- 
 stantly "out of sorts," the (juicker we return to the 
 rude and primitive system the better. 
 
 I once saw a tribe of Indians in the North West 
 part of America, who had been out all thewinter hunt- 
 ing. It was in the month of May, when there was 
 snow still on the prairie, yet all the children up to 
 ten years or so of age were stark naked. The old 
 chief was about ninety, with bare body and legs, 
 and only a girdle about his loins ; while the squaws 
 had short petticoats and a shawl over their shoulders. 
 These people required no physicians ; only the idle 
 and dissolute ones came to an early death. 
 
 But we need not return to all these rude and 
 primitive ways in order to escape consumption and 
 other diseases. The exposure of the bare skin to 
 the pure open air, can be practised with massage 
 and dietetics, by the most refined and accomplished 
 among us. Our high state of civilisation may 
 become still higher and more noble by acquiring a 
 knowledge of how the body is made, and its capabil- 
 ities and enjoyments. 
 
 With all our high culture and refinements, there is 
 required a radical change in diet, cookery, clothing, 
 
220 GOOD HEALTH. 
 
 exercises and sources of pleasure. Greater atten- 
 tion must be given to tlie laws of health, which 
 cannot be broken without serious consequences, 
 such as early weakness, decay and death. Nature 
 will do its part if we will do ours. Will you enroll 
 yourself, among the number who are trying to 
 bring about this great reformation ? 
 
 THE END. 
 
221 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Abernethy, Dr., 115, .120 
 
 Acidity, 23, 36 
 
 Adam, 78 
 
 Adventure, 10, li 
 
 Africa, 51 
 
 Albumen, 20, 22, 42 
 
 Alimentation, 2 
 
 Alkaline, 15, 39 
 
 Allopathy, 25 
 
 America, 12 
 
 Analyses, 28, 36 
 
 Anatomy, 67 
 
 Antidote, 28 
 
 Antiseptics, 8 
 
 Anti-starch, 8 
 
 Appetite, 11 
 
 Apples, 18 
 
 Assimilation, 2, 20, 23, 30, 58 
 
 Astringents, 30 
 
 Babylon, 30 
 Barwick, Dean, 44, 45 
 Beaumont, Dr., 184, 196 
 Beef, 49, 57, 62, 197 
 Belshazzar, 3, 31 
 Bile, 71, 187 
 Biscuits, 199 
 Bishop Vendeville, 58 
 Blackheads, 138 
 Bleeding, 8, 166 
 Blistering, 8 
 Bone, 2, 38, 54, 55 
 Bread-making, 123, 198 
 Breathing, 91, 214 
 Bright's Disease, 8, 84 
 Bull, John, 42 
 Butter, 124 
 Buttermilk, 59 
 Buxton, 186 
 
 Caesars, 123 
 
 Carbonic Acid, 7, 181, 214 
 
 Carnaro, 112 
 
 Carnivorous, 31 
 
 Carpenter. Dr., 82 
 
 Cathartics, 30, 34 
 
 Chemistry, 15, 55 
 
 Chemists, 130 
 
 Cheyne, Dr , 58 
 
 Chili, 52 
 
 Chinese, 51 
 
 Christ's Hospital, 58 
 
 Church, 32, 68 
 
 Chyle, 72 
 
 Chyme, 71, 72 
 
 Clark, Dr. Andrew, 90 
 
 Clergyman's sore throat, 1 60 
 
 Clergymen, 33, 56, 59 
 
 Cocoa, 31, 194 
 
 Coffee, 13, 17, 194 
 
 Consumption, 17, 44, 161, 172, 205 
 
 Cough, 85, 160, 161 
 
 Crowfeet, 138, 169 
 
 Currie, Dr., 38 
 
 Cycling, 118, 119 
 
 D 
 
 Daniel, 30 
 
 Darwin, 52 
 
 David, 30 
 
 Deafness, 148 
 
 Dental, 2, 5, 55 
 
 Dextrine, 44 
 
 Diabetes, 6, 8, 53, 62, 65 
 
 Discoveries, 8, 30 
 
 Dives, 31 
 
 Doctors differ, n8 
 
 Dyspepsia, 53, 54 
 
•222 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Eclectic, 25 
 
 Eden, 78 
 
 liggs, 18, 57, 198 
 
 Electricity, 2, 25 
 
 Elisha, 135 
 
 Enemas, 172 
 
 England, 5, 63, 68 
 
 Epicarp, 26 
 
 Erysipelas, 16, 65, 167 
 
 Esquimaux, 5 1 
 
 Eve, 92 
 
 Excitants, 30 
 
 Exercise, 12, 20, 21, 102, 117, 14(1 
 
 Experiments, 6 
 
 Fanciful Diet, 29, 3 r 
 •Fashion, 2, 5, 39 
 Fasting, 79 
 Fat, 183 
 
 Fermentation, 18, 22, 37, 65, 181- 
 Fibrine, 22 
 Fish, 197 
 Flanders, 4 
 
 Florence Nightingale, 1 52 
 Foolish Mothers, 92 
 Free Libraries, 61 
 Frenchmen, 51 
 Fruits, 200 
 
 Q 
 
 Galen, 28, 141, 167 
 
 Gall Stones, 159 
 
 Galvanic, 25 
 
 Gastric Juice, 46, 107, 181 
 
 Gelatine, 38 
 
 Germ, 26, 27, 54 
 
 Gibraltar, 62 
 
 Gladstone, 93 
 
 Gluten, 18, 22, 23, 36, 49 
 
 Gluttons, 81 
 
 Goliath, 30 
 
 Gospel of Health, 33 
 
 Granivorous, 81 
 
 Grass, 63 
 
 Great change, 5, 53 
 
 Greeks, 80 
 
 Guano, 51 
 
 Gubler, Dr. , 39 
 Guy, Dr., 58 
 Gravel, 41 
 
 Greece and Rome, 125 
 Grosvenor, Dr., 153 
 Gum chewing, 185 
 
 H 
 
 Harvey, 8, 112 
 
 Health and Wealth, 112 
 
 Heart, 38 
 
 Hindoos, 51 
 
 Hippocrates, 29, 30, 140, 167 
 
 Hoffman, 46 
 
 Home for Incurables, 136 
 
 Homoeopathy, 25 
 
 Homer, 123 
 
 Hospitals, I 
 
 Hothouse plants, 134 
 
 Hydropathy, 25 
 
 Hygiene, 23, 33 
 
 I, J 
 
 Ice Water, 108 
 Illness, 8, 53 
 Important letter, 96 
 Improvements, 60, 61 
 Indigestion, 3, 9, 53, S9 
 Infirmaries, I 
 Insomnia cured, 1 10 
 Intemperance, 7 
 Irishmen, 80 
 Iron, 64 
 Irritability, 41 
 Israel, 22 
 Jenner, Dr., 8, 29 
 Jews, 77 
 fohn Wesley, 79 
 Jordan. 135 
 Judicious, 218 
 
 K 
 
 Kaffir, SI 
 Kidneys, 6, 36 
 Kingston, 60 
 Kitchen, 40 
 Koch, Dr., 8 
 
INDEX. 
 
 223 
 
 Lacteals, 38 
 Law of Moses, io5 
 Lazarus, 31 
 Leslie, Dr., 54 
 Lettsome, Dr., 47 
 Liebig, 42, 83 
 Lime, 40 
 
 Lister, Sir Joseph, 8 
 Liver, 6, 34, 38, 187 
 Living Corpse, 89 
 Louis, St., 193 
 Lumbago, 41 
 Lungs, 38, S3 
 
 M 
 
 Magnesia, 40 
 Maize, 22 
 
 Mal-assimilation, 41 
 Manna, 22 
 
 Mary and Martha, 103 
 Massage, 37, 59, 140 
 Mastication, 2, 19, 179 
 Materia Medica, 29, 33, 34, 38, 
 [189 
 Meal, Whole Wheat, 26, 27, 42 
 Medical Books, 2 
 Medical Profession, I 
 Medical Times, 203 
 Medicines, Patent, 26 
 Membranes, 37, 38 
 Methodists, 32, 134, 135 
 Mezger, 141 
 Microscope, 36 
 Milk, 48, 57 
 Millennium, 33 
 Milling, 2, 4, 49 
 Milton, 92 
 
 Mineral Salts, 7, 49, 54 
 Mineral Waters, 7 
 Mistakes, 113 
 Mitchell, Weir, 141 
 Moderate Eating, 122 
 Moderation, 11, 32, 62 
 Mohammed, 102 
 Moleschott, Dr., 83 
 Moses, 30, 77 
 Murray, Lord, 10 
 Murrell, Dr., 141 
 Muscles, 5, 38 
 Museums, 61 
 Mutton, 42, 57 
 
 N 
 Naaman, 71, 135, 136 
 National Enemy, 135 
 Nature, 55, 126 
 Nature's Laws, 43 
 Nebuchadnezzar, 63 
 Nephrites, ,71 
 Nerves, 6 
 Neuralgia, 8, 41 
 Nitrogen, 18, 19, 20, 34, 49 
 Noah, 78 
 Nomad, 45 
 Nurses, I 
 
 o 
 
 Obesity, 162 
 Oil, 18, 48 
 Omnivorous, 81, 144 
 Operations, 133 
 Opium, 41, 208 
 Orientals, 102 
 Othello, 167 
 Overeating, 115 
 Oxygen, 215 
 Oysters, 51 
 
 P 
 
 Pain, 109 
 
 Palace, 151 
 
 I'alatable, 26, 27 
 
 Paradise, 31, 32 
 
 Paralysis, 65 
 
 Parents, 92 
 
 Paris, 4 
 
 Partridges, 113 
 
 Passions, 34 
 
 Pasteur, 8 
 
 Patagonians, 51 
 
 Paul, St., 32, 45 
 
 Peacock, Rev. W., 60 
 
 Perspiration, 21, 37, 88 
 
 Philanthropy, 8, 9 
 
 Phillips, Sir Richard, 29 
 
 Phosphates, 39, 44, 54, 55 
 
 Physicians, i, 4, 51, 56, 60, 130 
 
 Playfair, Dr., 141 
 
 Pompeii, 124 
 
 Potash, 40 
 
 Potash Salts, 3, 39 
 
 Potato Farina, 59 
 
 Prodigals, 139 
 
 Ptyaline, 23 
 
 Purifiers, 3 
 
224 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Rabbits, 129 
 Rain Water, 46 
 Respiration, 214 
 Rheumatism, 8, 40, 65 
 Rontgen, 8 
 Royal Navy, 31 
 Rubbing, 149, 159 
 Ruddy Countenance, 1 1 1 
 
 Saccharine, 18, 195 
 Saline, 19 
 Saliva, 16, 20, 36 
 Salivating, 8 
 Sallow Complexion, 138 
 Sanitariums, i, 193 
 Sausages, 197 
 Sciatica, 41 
 Scott, Sir Walter, 121 
 Seaside, 13, 45 
 Secret Cures, 172 
 Self-denial, 33, 116 
 Self-Massage, 142 
 Shakespeare, 164, 170 
 Simmonds, Dr., 51 
 Simple Diet, in 
 Simpson, Sir J. Y., 8 
 Skating, 56 
 Sleep, 204 
 
 Smith, Sydney, lo, 122 
 Smoking, 62, 131 
 Snuff, 62 
 Spartans, 80 
 Specialists, i, 25, 26 
 Specific Directions, 194 
 Starch, 22, 36, 49, 52 
 Styrians, 51 
 Suicide, 14 
 Sunshine, U2, 168 
 
 Taking Cold, 162 
 Tea, 13, 17, 31, 34 
 Teeth, 2, 54 
 
 Tennyson, 145 
 Therapeutics, 34, 150 
 Thirst, 8, 21, 107 
 Timothy, 32, 45, 46 
 Tissue, 5, 23, 38, 39, 47 
 Tohacco, 41, 51, 63, 185 
 Tolstoi, Count, 122 
 Tonics, 193 
 
 u 
 
 United States, 218 
 Unleavened Bread, 79 
 Uric Acid, 40 
 Urine, 36, 37, 67 
 
 Vegetables, 19, 20, 39, 42, 199 
 
 Vegetarians, 26, 80 
 
 Veins, 38, 53 
 
 Viscera, 40 
 
 Voltaire, 59 
 
 Von Mosengeil, 141 
 
 w 
 
 Waste, 50 
 Watch, 49, 50 
 Water, 62 
 Weight of Man, 75 
 Welsh Rarebit, 20 1 
 Wesley, John, 79 
 Wheat, 7, IS, 23, 54, 55 
 Whiskey, 17, 41, 196 
 White Loaf, 49, 54 
 Wine, 17, 32, 45, 195 
 Wrinkles, 138 
 
 Yeast, 3, 4, 5, 16, 37 
 York, 13 
 Young, Dr., 29 
 
 Zenophon, 123 
 
 KDWARD UOWKLIj LIVRRPOOL 
 
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 LARGER DOSES. — To prcluce a quicker action on the bowels 
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