Health, Happiness, and Longevity Part 8

CHAPTER I.

DISEASES AND REMEDIES; HOW TO PREVENT MOST MALADIES AND CURE ILLS POSSESSED.

Note.--If the reader is in haste to know what will cure this or that trouble, before perusing the pages of this entire pamphlet, such as cramp, colic, indigestion, constipation, headache, etc., the index found in the back part of this work will give immediate reference, and the prescriptions instant relief. If you are cured thereby of any of the many maladies that beset the human family, remember that it is only temporary; for to be cured of any disease permanently requires the removal of the cause. One of the objects of this book is to convey that information.

The great disparity between the actions and teachings of many of our princ.i.p.al writers must be apparent to every reader of books, pamphlets, and editorials, upon the subject of health and its allies, happiness and longevity. Many of the leading exponents of temperance have periodical spells of drunkenness, and some drink all the time. The prominent articles written upon the subject of sanitary matters and cleanliness, are generally by the editor whose office is the scene of disorder, the floor covered with tobacco quids, old rubbish and dust, and the corners filled with cobwebs. The writer upon the subject of poverty and the wrongs of the poor, has his headquarters fitted up in the most magnificent style;--he never knew what it was to want for a meal, nor did he ever darken the door of real poverty. The missionary advocate soliciting funds for the heathen and down-trodden poor of foreign lands, more than likely never crossed the borders of his own State, certainly has not taken a stroll through the dark lanes and alleys, or climbed the dingy stairways of the tenement houses of his own city. If he had done so, a more effective appeal would have gone up for the suffering poor and spiritually blind of the princ.i.p.al unsanitary munic.i.p.alities of his own country. The physician with a bad cough and broken-down const.i.tution is still prescribing for consumptives and patients with all manner of aches and pains, of which his own body is a perfect index.

And the minister who has not yet lost all his hatred for "that other sect," and occasionally a.s.sists in persecuting it, is still teaching the doctrine of the meek and lowly Nazarene. Having experienced a large number of diseases and their successful remedies, we have for several years been collecting the most reliable data and testimony on many--in short most--of mankind's bodily ills. In this second part we present them for your benefit.

There are about 11,000 remedies mentioned in the 15th edition of the "United States Dispensatory," by reference to which it will be seen that each affliction to which flesh is heir must be more than well drugged.

It is the fault of the community at large that the necessity of such a work exists. There is no demand for any form of disease even with the improper state of society as it is to-day. Extreme old age and a limited number of accidents are all that can be necessary to record. The following is an admirable article from the St. Louis _Globe Democrat_, which is quite pertinent.

"Sanitation and Sanity.--The general subject of sanitation now covers our architecture and our home life; our sewerage and disposition of waste; our personal cleanliness and contact in all social relations; our food and drink, both as to quality and kind; quarantine and other preventives against contagion and infection; the purification of streams, and the cleansing of the air of smoke and foul vapors; in fact, the whole subject of health or wholeness. * * * A national board of health was as unthought of as was an Atlantic cable in 1800. But the fact that great epidemics were liable to invade us, and did invade us, led to a system of quarantine and to enforced vaccination. But the regulation by law of our social manners, so far as they bore on public health, was not undertaken to any extent until within the past decade. *

* * Indeed, public sentiment is as yet so uninformed that thorough laws in the case could not be enacted or enforced. There is not a stream in the United States that can be kept entirely free from pollution. The sanitary value of this is not understood by even the intelligent populace. The drainage of swamps is neglected in the neighborhood of our larger cities." "St. Louis has tolerated inside her limits pools that have made fevers of a malarious sort, with spinal meningitis, as common as croup. Chicago has acres of rotting vegetable matter inside the corporation every autumn. The inroads of yellow fever have always been invited by the unsanitary condition of Southern towns. The reports of Surgeon-General Hamilton, last summer, showed that the pest found its first welcome in a town where sewerage was wholly neglected, and tons of rotting sawdust and refuse filled the heated air with fever conditions.

"The discovery of the germ origin of diphtheria and of the typhoid forms of fever, has led to great changes in thousands of households. Our houses are constructed with far more attention to ventilation and proper heating. We shall finally get rid of drunkenness and intemperance of other sorts, on sanitary grounds mainly. Alcohol has been considered as at least valuable in moderation. It has been looked upon as a medicine.

That its value as a stimulant hangs on the previous abuse of health is now understood, and its value purely as a very temporary bridging of weakness alone is conceded. That the drink habit is in any sense, however moderate, of sanitary value, is disproved. Few doctors prescribe any form of alcohol for habitual use. The saloon is unsanitary in all its effects. The temperance issue rests at that point. Animals to which spirits have been given in their food digest nearly one-half less than other animals of the kind. The nutrition of the human body demands the abolition of stimulants and narcotics. The saloon will go ultimately as a nuisance to health. We have not yet reached a condition when public morals can rest on any other basis than health. It is doubtful if there can be a higher basis. What is unwholesome is wrong; what is promotive of health and completeness for the individual and for the community is right.

"Sanity is dependent on sanitary living. They both are derived etymologically from _sanitus_, and that from _sa.n.u.s_, the Latin for sound or whole. Insanity has come to have the limited meaning of unsoundness of brain. * * * Insanity is on the increase in the United States, but not more so than nervous disorders in general. This indicates a tendency to a break-down of the national type of organism, and cannot be considered with indifference. The fact exists as a consequence of the overwork and high pressure of modern life, but in this country is at its maximum, because, for several generations, we have been at white heat, subjecting a continent to our domestic purposes.

"The vast unfolding of means of wealth has also acted as a stimulant, compared to which alcohol is insignificant. Our lunatic asylums multiply, but are all full. The percentage of failure is greatest in California, where speculation has been most intense. It is impossible to avoid the problem. How shall we reverse this tendency, and begin the construction of an American type of full, robust, conservative, and reserved energy? The underlying problem of all problems is to secure a const.i.tution. A nation that lives and works in such a manner as to grow weaker in brain endurance and nerve power, and yet so lives that the demands on brain and nerves are increased, is doomed. The intensity of modern life is something we cannot reverse. We must adapt ourselves to it by securing larger and more systematic means of recuperation.

Brain-workers must learn to use the first half of the day for work, and sacredly give the last half to rest and play. Night must be given back entirely to sleep. Withal it is clear that we must understand the close relation between sanity and sanitation. Our people can no longer eat and drink as grossly as our fathers did. The stomach gets not half the time it formerly did for digestion. It must, therefore, be delivered of half its toil. The introduction of stoves and modern conveniences must be accompanied by more rational ventilation. Active brains require a vast and regular supply of oxygen. It is not for the lungs alone that we need pure air, but for the brain. This is specifically an American problem, the readjustment of society, so that the mind shall be relieved of strain and consequent enfeeblement."

Individual, munic.i.p.al, and national cleanliness by enactment of law are among the first steps that should be taken. The churches and schools should teach it as a prerequisite before G.o.dliness, or education in general; then with perfect ventilation, sanitation, and regularity of all the virtues, there will be no vices, and G.o.dliness and education will be contagious, just as though they were real diseases.

The first thing to undertake if you are desirous of freeing yourself of any disease, ache, or pain, is to stop the cause. Act on the same principle you would if you had a barrel that had leaked its contents and you desired to refill it,--first stop the leak. It is absolutely necessary that you study _cause_ as well as _effect_, if you would know yourself.

The Secret of Sound Health.--"Half the secret of life," says _MacMillan's Magazine_, "we are persuaded, is to know when we are grown old; and it is the half most hardly learned. It is more hardly learned, moreover, in the matter of exercise than in the matter of diet. There is no advice so commonly given to the ailing man of middle age as the advice to take more exercise, and there is perhaps none which leads him into so many pitfalls. This is particularly the case with the brain workers. The man who labors his brain must spare his body. He cannot burn the candle at both ends, and the attempt to do so will almost inevitably result in his lighting it in the middle to boot. Most men who use their brains much soon learn for themselves that the sense of physical exaltation, the glow of exuberant health which comes from a body strung to its full powers by continuous and severe exercise, is not favorable to study. The exercise such men need is the exercise that rests, not that which tires. They need to wash their brains with the fresh air of heaven, to bring into gentle play the muscles that have been lying idle while the head worked. Nor is it only to this cla.s.s of laboring humanity that the advice to take exercise needs reservations.

The time of violent delights soon pa.s.ses, and the effort to protract it beyond its natural span is as dangerous as it is ridiculous. Some men, through nature or the accident of fortune, will, of course, be able to keep touch of it longer than others; but when once the touch has been lost, the struggle to regain it can add but sorrow to the labor. Of this our doctor makes a cardinal point; but, pertinent as his warning may be to the old, for whom, indeed, he has primarily compounded his _elixir vitae_, it is yet more pertinent to men of middle age, and probably it is more necessary. It is in the latter period that most of the mischief is done. The old are commonly resigned to their lot; but few men will consent without a struggle to own that they are no longer young. All things are not good to all men, and all things are not always good to the same man. The man who confines his studies within one unchanging groove will hardly find his intellectual condition so light and nimble, so free of play, so capable of giving and receiving, as he who varies them according to his mood, for the mind needs rest and recreation no less than the body; it is not well to keep either always at high pressure. One fixed, unswerving system of diet, without regard to needs and seasons, or even to fancy, is not wise. The great secret of existence after all is to be the master and not the slave of both mind and body, and that is best done by giving both free rein within certain limits, which, as the old sages were universally agreed, each man must discover for himself. Happy are the words of Addison, and happily quoted: "A continual anxiety for life vitiates all the relishes of it, and casts a gloom over the whole face of nature, as it is impossible that we should take delight in anything that we are every moment afraid of losing. "One of the best methods of avoiding that pitiful anxiety is to learn within what limits we may safely indulge our desire for change, and then freely indulge it within them."

CHAPTER II.

We shall now take up a practical list of subjects, arranged in alphabetical order. Without any attempt at egotism, we claim that there are few nontechnical books extant that contain a superior selection of preventatives and remedies. Read carefully and judge for yourself. There are very few common or occasional afflictions which are not considered to some extent. Why always seek a doctor when you seem to be somewhat off your physical equilibrium? You will generally at each visit spend more money than this book will cost. Learn to provide against constant medical attention.

=Accidents.=--In sudden emergencies, either of accident or sickness, the first great requisite is presence of mind. Be calm. Endeavor, if possible, to grasp the situation, and do what is to be done promptly and quietly, until the arrival of the physician. All hurried and distracted motions, and all exciting noises, confuse the attendants and needlessly alarm the sufferer. In many cases, the course of immediate action is suggested by the circ.u.mstances; but where you do not know what aid to render, it is best to do nothing, except to make the patient as comfortable, for the time being, as possible. For all ordinary emergencies, ample directions are:--

"1. Always look in the direction in which you are moving.

"2. Never leave a car, or other public vehicle, when it is in motion.

"3. Never put your head or arms out of a vehicle when it is in motion.

"4. If a horse runs away with you, remain in the vehicle rather than risk the danger of jumping from it.

"5. In thunder-storms keep away from trees, metallic substances, doors, and windows. The lower part of a house is the safer.

"6. Never play with fire-arms. Always keep them beyond the reach of children.

"7. Avoid charcoal fumes; they are deadly when confined in a close room.

"8. Illuminating gas; be sure to turn it off. _Never blow it out._

"9. When gas can be smelt in an apartment always air the room well before striking a match or bringing a light.

"10. When very cold, move quickly. If any part of the body is frozen, rub it with snow, and keep from the fire.

"11. Change wet clothing as soon as possible.

"12. Carefully avoid exposure to night air, in malarial districts.

"13. If necessary to go into an old vault or well, first introduce a burning candle. If the light burns low and finally goes out, carbonic acid gas is present and the place is unsafe to enter. Unslaked lime will absorb the gas and purify the air.

"14. Avoid walking on railroad tracks and icy sidewalks.

"15. When awake, very young children should never be left alone.

"16. Do not go, with loose hair or flowing garments, near dangerous machinery.

"17. Never touch gunpowder after dark.

"18. Never fondle a strange dog.

"19. Never light a fire with kerosene.

"20. Fill and trim your lamps in the day-time. Never trim or fill a lighted lamp.

"21. Keep matches in a closed metallic box.

"22. Have your horses rough-shod as soon as the ground freezes.

"23. When feeling dizzy or seasick, lie down.

"24. Do not close the damper of your stove too early. Better waste coal than run the risk of suffocation by gas.

"25. When climbing a ladder, look up and not down.

"26. In railroad traveling take the center of the car, and the middle car of the train, for safety.

"27. Eat only pure food, drink only pure liquids, think only pure thoughts, and keep your blood pure.

"28. In going through dry woods or over prairies do not smoke or cast matches about carelessly. There should be laws against this often wanton destruction of property.