Part 3

That a person may subsist, and even be strong and healthy, without the use of animal food is proven by the lives of many vegetarians in all ranks of society. It is recorded of Louis Cornaro, a Venetian nobleman, that for fifty-eight years his daily allowance was twelve ounces of vegetable food and a pint of light wine. In many countries the low wages paid for labor and the high price of meat compel the working classes to depend largely upon a vegetable diet. The Spanish peasant is happy on coarse bread, onions, olives, and grapes. The Italian fares sumptuously on macaroni, polenta, olives, and fruits. Over two millions of people in France and other parts of Southern Europe subsist chiefly on bread made from chestnuts, the annual crop being estimated at fifteen million dollars.

In England and other countries in Northern Europe, the eating of meat is largely a question of wages. With the increase of prosperity, it has been observed, there is a corresponding increase in the use of animal food. In Spain, France, Italy, and the warmer portions of Europe, the cooling acids of the fruits and the less-heating elements of the vegetable kingdom are better suited to the climatic needs of the people.

Probably in no other country is so much meat eaten as in America. The supply here is greater, and wages, as a rule, are better. Many physicians and others interested in domestic science are of the opinion that the health of the people generally, and of those leading inactive or sedentary lives in particular, would be better if less animal food were eaten.

Salted meats are not as nutritious as fresh. The brine absorbs the rich juices of the meat and hardens its fibers. Long-continued use of salt meats, without fresh vegetables, produces scurvy, formerly very prevalent on shipboard, in prisons, and in the army.

=Nutrition.=--The conversion of food into flesh, bone, brain, and nerve matter, and the other parts of the human body, is comprised in four somewhat distinct processes: Digestion, Absorption, Circulation, and Assimilation. We are apt to think of digestion as a process belonging only to the stomach, but it begins when food is put into the mouth, and continues until the waste is finally excreted from the bowels. The alimentary canal, or food passage, including the mouth, gullet, stomach, small and large intestines, is a tortuous passage, some thirty feet in length.

=Mastication.=--The first step is that of mastication, or chewing. There are sixteen teeth in each jaw. The front teeth are designed for cutting, and the rough, broad surfaces of the back teeth adapt them for grinding. The structure of the teeth would indicate that man was intended to eat both animal and vegetable food.

=The Teeth.=--The proper mastication of the food demands that the teeth be kept in good order. After eating, they should be brushed with a soft brush and tepid water in order to remove the particles of food that may be wedged between them or lodged in the crevices. By reason of the heat and moisture of the mouth, these particles soon putrefy, which not only renders the breath unpleasant, but promotes the decay of the teeth.

The enamel, or outer covering of the teeth, if destroyed, is not formed anew. Sharp acids corrode it. Gritty tooth powders, metal tooth picks, and other hard substances scratch or crack it. Sudden changes from hot to cold, in food or drink, tend to destroy it. Do not attempt to crack nuts or hard grains with the teeth.

=The Saliva.=--The food should not be swallowed until it is thoroughly ground with the teeth. While mastication is in progress, the salivary glands moisten the food and fit it for admission to the stomach. This saliva is the first chemical solvent, and is an important factor in the process of digestion. If the food is not retained in the mouth long enough to become thoroughly ground and properly mingled with the saliva, the work of the stomach will be increased. Persons who bolt their food, and wash it down with water or other liquid, thereby dilute the natural juices of the mouth and stomach, impose upon the latter organ a task for which it is not adapted, and throw the entire digestive machinery out of gear.

The sense of taste being largely dependent upon the saliva, the natural flavors of the food are not fully developed, the food seems insipid, and there is created a taste for pungent sauces and spices which over-excites the digestive organs. Poisonous substances are often swallowed in mistake, which, if retained in the mouth long enough to determine their taste, would be rejected without injury.

=The Stomach.=--The most important organ of digestion is the stomach. This is a pear-shaped pouch, having a capacity of about three pints. The walls are thin and yielding, and often become unnaturally distended by those who habitually gormandize. Its construction clearly shows that the work of grinding and mashing the food was intended to be performed before it entered the stomach.

The gastric juice, another chemical solvent, is here poured upon the food, which, as rapidly as it is prepared, is passed into the intestines. The time required for the stomach to perform its work varies from one to five hours, according to the quantity and character of the food and the digestive power of the individual. The delicate network of blood vessels which underlies the mucous membrane of the stomach takes up all those elements of the food that are ready to be absorbed.

=The Intestines.=--The small intestines are continuous with the stomach, and, though very different in shape, are like it in general structure. The bile, which is secreted by the liver, unites with the pancreatic juice, and enters the intestines through a duct about three inches below the stomach. By the joint action of these two fluids, the fatty elements of the food are prepared for absorption. From the mucous membrane, or inner lining of the small intestines, still another juice or fluid flows, whose office is to supplement the work, first, of the saliva in converting starch into sugar; next, of the gastric juice in digesting the albuminoids; and, lastly, of the pancreatic juice and bile in emulsifying the fats. The work of digestion is completed in the small intestines. The indigestible parts of the food are passed into the large intestines, and expelled from the body.

=Absorption.=--The liquefied food, in its passage through the stomach and small intestines, has been prepared by the various juices for its absorption by the blood vessels and the lacteals, whose minute mouths throng this part of the alimentary canal. The food elements thus absorbed are conveyed to the right auricle, or first chamber of the heart.

=Conditions Affecting Digestion.=--The quality, quantity, and temperature of the food, and the condition of mind and body, all have an influence upon digestion. In the selection of food, only such articles should be allowed as are fresh, pure, and wholesome. Bread should not be eaten warm. It is more easily digested after being baked a day or two. Flesh of animals recently slaughtered should be thoroughly cooled, and never cooked while yet warm and quivering with life.

Cooking renders many articles of food not only more wholesome and palatable, but also more digestible by reason of the increased temperature. The natural heat of the stomach is about ninety-nine and one-half degrees, at which temperature the operations of digestion are best promoted. Hot soups are therefore a good introduction to the meal. A small glass of ice-water will retard digestion for half an hour.

Sudden joy, anger, grief, or other strong emotion or excitement checks digestion. If the tongue is parched and the mouth dry, the flow of saliva is restrained and the first step in the process of digestion is hindered. The coating of the tongue reflects the condition of the stomach, hence the frequent request of the physician to see the tongue of the patient.

Bodily fatigue destroys appetite and hinders digestion. The expression “I am too tired to eat” is not uncommon.

=Intervals for Meals.=--Frequent eating is as bad as rapid eating or over-eating. The organs of digestion require periods of rest, in order to renew their strength and restore the juices essential to their perfect operation. No person, except infants and the sick, should require food oftener than once in four hours. If the stomach is in good working order, it will usually complete its task in two hours, unless the food is too great in quantity or too indigestible.

No one should take more than three meals a day, and, to insure sound refreshing sleep and allow the stomach to recover its tone, the last meal should be the lightest and easiest to digest. Dyspeptics and others affected with stomach troubles will find benefit in restricting themselves to two moderate meals a day. Numerous cases are cited of notable cures effected by adopting a regimen of only one meal each day.

=Regularity.=--Whatever the interval between meals, be it four, five, or six hours, there should be regularity. The stomach, like the mind, forms habits, and the habit of regularity in eating will beget the habit of regularity in digesting and recuperating. The practice of parents in giving children cakes, fruits, and sweetmeats between meals is reprehensible. As a result of habit, many persons grow to feel that a dinner is not complete without a substantial dessert. The mistake consists, not always in the dessert, for that may be as wholesome and nourishing as any part of the meal, but in first fully satisfying the demands of hunger, and afterwards imposing upon the stomach the extra burden of digesting the dessert.

=Rest.=--For every disease of every organ the first condition is rest. Broken bones and lacerated muscles must have release from active duty or there can be no cure. The vital organs, when diseased, must have all the repose consistent with the operations of life. For affections of the heart, the circulation should be reduced, and all excitement and stimulation to over-action be removed.

Excessive physical or mental exertion, whether immediately before or after meals, interferes with digestion. If before, the energies of the blood will be directed to the part of the body in most active exercise, and cannot suddenly be withdrawn. If after, they will be diverted before having performed their legitimate part in the process of digestion. A short period of relaxation before, and of absolute repose after meals, is most favorable to the proper action of the stomach. The repose should not be carried to the extent of sleeping, for in sleep the stomach, as well as the rest of the body, seeks release from duty.

=Drink.=--Thirst warns us that the blood is too thick, or that it contains some acrid matter which should be eliminated. Free perspiration makes large demands upon the fluids of the body, and copious draughts of water are required to supply the lack. In this way the system is flushed, the clogged pipes and pores are opened, the waste matter removed, and the system made healthy. In cities the water is usually introduced into houses through lead pipes. Herein lies a danger, and the purer the water and the newer the pipe, the greater the danger. The water gradually corrodes the metal and holds a small quantity of it in solution. After a few months of service, an insoluble coating forms upon the inner surface of the pipe, and protects it from further corrosion. It is a wise precaution to run off the water that has lain in the pipes over night, or during the temporary absence of the family, before using.

=Coffee and Tea.=--The Americans drink more coffee and the English more tea, _per capita_, than any other nation. As to the wholesomeness of these beverages opinions are greatly at variance. Used in moderate quantities, and especially by persons who lead an active out-door life, no harm is likely to ensue. Many persons drink them for the taste, which is often heightened by the use of cream and sugar, and never stop to question whether they are injurious or otherwise. Such persons usually drink too much. If either produces wakefulness, it should not be used before retiring at night, and if the nerves are unduly stimulated, at any time, its use should be discontinued. Tea should be steeped, not boiled. It contains a certain proportion of tannic acid which is dissolved by boiling, and when drunk, produces a deleterious effect upon the mucous membrane of the stomach, causing dyspepsia with its attendant evils. Children should not be permitted to drink either tea or coffee.

=Intoxicants.=--While alcoholic preparations may, in rare cases, be prescribed by the physician, their use as a beverage finds no support in science or in experience. There are many who use liquors and tobacco and who yet live to an old age. It is also true that many reach old age without their use. Comparing the lives of a thousand persons who drink and smoke, with a thousand others under the same conditions who do not use liquors or tobacco, it will be found that the latter are not only longer-lived, but are also more healthy. Probably no better test of the question of health and longevity can be found than the experience of the life insurance companies. By them, all intoxicants and tobacco are looked upon with disfavor.

=Circulation.=--The blood is the most important and the most abundant fluid of the body. It constitutes about one-twelfth of the entire weight of the person. To the eye it appears as a simple fluid, varying in color from a bright scarlet to a dark purple. Under the microscope, it is seen to consist of a clear, colorless fluid in which float a multitude of corpuscles, or solid discs. These corpuscles are so minute that thirty-five hundred, arranged side by side, will extend only one inch, and fourteen thousand, placed one upon the other, would not exceed one inch in height. There are also white corpuscles which are fewer in number, larger, and globular in form.

The size and shape of the blood corpuscles in man differ from those in animals. So important and well-defined is this difference in point of law that the guilt or innocence of criminals has often hung upon the results of a scientific examination of the blood found upon the garments of the suspected person.

=Coagulation.=--The coagulation, or thickening of the blood, when it leaves the living tissues, is a principle of the greatest importance to life. Without it, the slightest injury might prove fatal. In minor injuries, the blood coagulates, thus closing the mouths of the injured blood vessels, and bleeding ceases spontaneously.

=The Heart.=--The great center of the circulatory system is the heart. With ceaseless energy it drives the blood through the arteries to every part of the body, laden with the life-giving elements absorbed from the food and vitalized by the oxygen in the lungs. In the outward flow of the blood each part of the body appropriates the particular elements which it requires. The return of the blood through the veins brings with it the waste and cast-off particles of the bones, muscles, and tissues, to be expelled through the lungs, except such elements as exude through the pores of the skin. By this unceasing round of waste and repair, the entire body, it is believed, is renewed every seven years, and some parts are replaced several times within that period. From the moment a human being begins to live, he begins to die.

=Action of the Heart.=--The alternate contraction and dilation of the muscles of the heart constitute the heart-beats or throbs of the pulse. These vary with the individual. In the average adult, the number of beats is seventy-two per minute. In the cases of Bonaparte and Wellington the number was less than fifty. Heat, food, and exercise increase its action, as cold, fasting, and sleep diminish it. Emotion of joy, grief, and fear also exert a modifying influence.

It is a matter of wonder how the silent forces within a tree can lift from the soil, through its minute pipes, and extract from the air, through the small pores of the leaves, the many tons of material that go to make up the giant of the forest. The tons of physical energy bound up in that small organ, the human heart, is a matter no less marvelous. Estimating the amount of blood expelled by each contraction of the ventricles of the heart at four ounces, we have a total of twelve tons a day, or over four thousand tons in a year.

=Assimilation.=--The crowning act in the conversion of lifeless food into living tissue takes place in the meshes of the capillary network, and is called assimilation. This process is alike mysterious and wonderful. By a peculiar power of selection, each bone and muscle and tissue appropriates that portion of the blood which it needs for its own development or for the repair of the waste, and applies it in such a manner as to preserve the form and size and strength of the part, ever maintaining a proper balance of the two sides of the body, unless thwarted in its operation by some act of the individual.

=Adulteration of Food Products.=--National, State, and Municipal Boards of Health, and food inspectors may do much to preserve health, but when they have done all that it is possible for them to do, much will still remain for the individual. With the products of the world exposed for sale in our markets, with the advertising pages of our magazines and newspapers filled with irresistible arguments in favor of some newly-discovered breakfast food or new preparation of canned goods, the need of individual knowledge and caution daily increases.

There is cause for congratulation in the fact that those articles which constitute the larger portion of our food are but little adulterated. In the States that impose legal penalties the proportion of adulterated products is quite low. The value of a stringent law is seen in the decrease of the adulteration of cream of tartar, which, in Massachusetts, fell from forty-two per cent in samples examined in 1879, to five per cent in 1898. Spices, flavoring extracts, and canned goods afford the most promising field for adulteration.

The substitution of ingredients is prompted wholly by a desire for gain, and consists in the substitution of a cheaper for a more expensive article. It is, therefore, a question of ethics rather than of health. If the horse-radish is largely turnip, and the apple-butter chiefly pumpkin, if the currant or raspberry jelly is made of the rich juices of the parings and cores of apples, strained, colored and delicately flavored, who will say that the cheaper fraud is not as wholesome as the more expensive genuine article? In some instances there is an actual advantage to health in the substitution, but this does not justify the deception. Pure, fresh oleomargarine, however wholesome, should not be sold for butter, any more than shoddy cloth should be sold for pure wool.

=Dangers to Health.=--The contents of tin cans are sometimes affected by the action of the acids upon the tin or the solder. Food should not be allowed to stand in a tin can after being opened. Milk, cream, and butter are quick to take up germs of disease. Scarlet fever and typhoid fever have, in many instances, been traced to this source. The utmost cleanliness and care should be exercised in their handling.

=The Diet Cure.=--Over-indulgence in eating is the source of many disorders of the system. It is well, at all times, to keep within the limit of the powers of digestion. The way to give the stomach rest is to eat less food and at longer intervals.

Obesity is the result of the accumulation of the fatty properties of the blood in excess of what is needed to repair the waste of the system. The fattening process will be stopped by cutting off the supplies. A restricted diet, the avoidance of fat-producing foods, vigorous perspiration as the result of exercise, and frequent bathing, followed by friction, will be attended by a decided reduction of the superfluous fat. A merchant in England who had reached the enormous weight of four hundred and fifty-seven pounds put himself upon a diet of four ounces of animal food, six ounces of bread, and two pounds of liquid in twenty-four hours. In one week he had reduced his weight thirty pounds, and in six months he had lost one hundred and thirty-four pounds.

In France, there is a method of treatment known as “The Grape Cure.” Persons in Paris, broken down by the excitements and dissipations of the city, go off among the vineyards, breathe the pure country air, and live on grapes. From eight to twelve ounces of bread, with grapes at discretion, constitute their daily allowance of food and drink. By this treatment the impurities of the system soon pass off through the kidneys, the bowels, the lungs, and the pores of the skin, and pure, wholesome blood takes the place of that which was diseased.

=The Water Cure.=--The importance of water can hardly be overrated. No life, whether animal or vegetable, is possible without it. By water all food is dissolved, and so penetrates the system and nourishes the tissues. By water the waste particles of matter are carried off through the skin, the lungs, and the other secreting or excreting organs.

While the waters of many of the spas contain medicinal properties, a large part of the virtue claimed for the springs is due to the free flushing of the system. It is the fad, while sojourning there, to drink frequently and copiously. Any other pure, wholesome water would be nearly, if not quite, as beneficial, if used in the same quantities and under the same conditions.

CLOTHING

=Influence of Dress on Health.=--While this aspect of the subject of dress receives far less consideration than it deserves, its importance is to be measured only by the importance of human life and by the value that attaches to a state of perfect health. Like fresh air, pure water, and bright sunshine, health is only appreciated when it is gone. The behests of fashion often make sad inroads upon it, but the seductive siren lures us on until we can no longer follow. With scanty strength we then worship at the shrine of Hygeia, but this queenly goddess governs with stern rule, and is often unresponsive to our petitions.

=Temperature.=--There is a constant interchange between bodies or substances of different temperatures when they are in touch one with the other. The warmer give off heat which is absorbed by the colder, and in this way they tend toward equalization. The normal heat of the average human body is 98.4 degrees, Fahrenheit. When it is exposed to a temperature lower than this, it must be protected by clothing to retard radiation of the body-heat, and thus prevent not only the chilling of the surface but also more serious disorders of the internal organs. In very hot countries, clothing is worn as a protection against heat. The head, especially, needs protection from the sun’s rays.

=Warmth.=--From the standpoint of health, no other property of dress is so important as that of warmth. While certain garments are described as being warm and others as being cool, it is a well-known fact that articles of clothing possess neither warmth nor coolness in themselves. By reason of certain chemical processes constantly going on within the body, there is produced a degree of natural heat, commonly called animal heat.

The body in health seldom varies more than one or two degrees from the normal standard. Conditions of climate, season, exercise, age, or sex have but slight influence upon the average temperature of the body. By conduction, radiation, and evaporation, any excess of heat is quickly reduced. More than seventy per cent of the whole amount of animal heat lost passes through the skin.