Health, or, How to Live

VALUABLE SELECTIONS

Our friend and brother, B. Salisbury, Adams’ Center, Jeff. Co., N. Y., sends us the Health Journal for 1840, from which we select the following: HHTL 62.1

DIET. — By the wonderful process of digestion, food and drink are converted into thought and feeling — are manufactured into mind and soul. Is it then unreasonable to suppose that different kinds of food produce different kinds of mind? Reasonable or unreasonable it is nevertheless the fact. Oysters are proverbial for exciting a certain class of feelings proportionately more than other feelings, or the intellect. Other kinds of food are known to have a similar effect. Rollin, the celebrated historian, says, that in training the pugilists for the bloody arena, to whom a ferocious spirit, and great physical strength, were the chief requisites, they were fed exclusively on raw flesh. Will not this explain the ferocity of beasts of prey; the mildness of the lamb and the dove; the blood-thirsty, revengeful spirit of the savage Indian; the mild and pacific disposition of the Chinese and Hindoo. Intoxicating drinks excite the animal organs, located in the base of the brain, more than they do the intellectual or moral faculties. This is unquestionably the fact with every thing heating in its nature; such as condiments, flesh, tea, coffee, and high-seasoned or highly-stimulating food of any kind. And it will be found that animal food, by keeping the body in a highly excited, not to say feverish state, is calculated unduly to excite the animal organs, thereby withdrawing strength from the top and front of the brain, but imparting physical strength, and concentrating the energies of the system, thereby wearing it out the sooner; and also that vegetable food, by reducing the inflammation of the blood, and keeping the system cool, promotes clearness of thought, quietness of feeling, placidity of mind, and moral and elevated feeling, and develops the nervous temperament, thus producing a tendency to intellectual pursuits. HHTL 62.2

This subject opens up a vast field for observation, and nothing but facts can guide us to the proper results. Let observations be made, experiments instituted, and the results recorded; and a vast amount of good will flow from them. If you wish to distinguish yourself intellectually, you must regulate the quantity and quality of your food and drink in accordance with the established laws of physiology, or your wings of fame will be melted in the heat of animal indulgence. HHTL 63.1

TOO MUCH EATING. — One of the noble effects of civilization and refinement is to make gluttons of the human species. As the state of society improves, the mode of living becomes more and more artificial. What were luxuries or extravagances fifty or hundred years ago, are now matters of course, the mere necessaries of life. Our ancestors who confined themselves to a very simple diet and to a little variety of dishes, were seldom tempted to eat too much; that is rarely done when the palate is not solicited by a diversity of viands. But it is next to impossible for the people of this age to avoid injuring themselves by too much indulgence at the table. They are led into excess by an artificial appetite and all the enticements of cookery. Cookery, by the way, is too much of a science for the good of the public; and of all literary productions (with the exception of a few late novels), we think cookery books are the least profitable. Every new dish presented is so much added to the bills of mortality. The kitchen is the vestibule of the grave-yard; the cook is purveyor to the undertaker. Plutarch says that his countrymen, the Boeotians, were remarkable for their stupidity because they ate too much: they were good trencher-men, and were good for nothing else; and this is generally the case with the great eaters of every age and country. — Franklin Register. HHTL 63.2

PRUSSIC ACID has been obtained from the leaves of green tea, in so concentrated a state, that one drop killed a hog almost instantaneously. A strong infusion of souchong tea, sweetened with sugar, is as effectual in poisoning flies as the solution of arsenic, generally sold for that purpose. Let tea-drinkers examine the above facts, and ascertain how much poison they annually consume in the form of the single article of tea. HHTL 64.1

ECONOMY. — “O, eat it up, dear, eat it up,” says mamma. “I can’t ma, I’ve eat enough.” “O yes, dear, eat up what’s in your plate, so that it needn’t be lost! How common a practice that is! stuffing children beyond the wants of nature, and making them gluttons all their lives, so that the scraps need not be lost! Precious economy this! HHTL 64.2

It seems as if the grand experiment of mankind had ever been to ascertain how far they can transgress the laws of life — how near they can approach to the very point of death, and yet not die, — at least, so suddenly and violently, as to be compelled to know that they have destroyed themselves. — Graham. HHTL 64.3

THREE important secrets of health are, early rising, personal cleanliness, and leaving the table with a stomach unoppressed. There may be sorrows in spite of those, but they will be less with them, and nobody can be truly comfortable without them. HHTL 64.4

If you masticate your food thoroughly, you will find little occasion for drink with your meals. HHTL 64.5