A Solemn Appeal

IT IMPAIRS DIGESTION AND CIRCULATION

“It thus robs the system of its required nourishment. Vertigo and heaviness about the stomach, etc., necessarily follow this excess, because it robs the digestive apparatus of the energy required to carry forward this function. It produces a gnawing, fainting, distressed, sunken, gone sensation, along the whole elementary canal, as a frightful cause of dyspepsia, heartburn, etc., and thus robs the system of its very life and soul. SOAP 212.3

“An isolated example: Many years ago, an intelligent, well-educated man was brought to the lunatic asylum in Hartford, the victim of self-abuse, and rendered nearly idiotic thereby, as well as raving perpetually for food, which he would consume voraciously most of the time, if allowed. His keepers, however, refused food unless he would stop the practice. The struggle was terrible. His rampant appetite, aided by hunger, finally compelled him to desist, and he recovered. SOAP 213.1

“Nor does the heart escape. Indeed, it suffers among the foremost; as those will recognize experimentally who are at all subject to weakness, or palpitation, or enlargement, or uneasiness, of this organ. Nor can those thus affected indulge much without essentially increasing their malady. The kidneys, in particular, are diseased thereby, and hence it causes the gravel. SOAP 213.2