Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 November 1892 — THE BODY AND ITS HEALTH. [ARTICLE]

THE BODY AND ITS HEALTH.

Effect of Tobacco.—The action of tobacco on the nervous system is weak and wholly special. It does not put to sleep, but it calmsand mollifies the sensibility of the organs. It causes an agreeable torpor, during which thought continues lucid and the capacity for work is not diminished. Such is the attraction it exercises and which causes it to be sought for by so many thinkers and students. Tobacco is to them a help in mental labor. When fatigue begins and the need of a moment’s rest is felt; when the thought fails to present itself with the usual exactness, and the mind hesitates over the shape to give to it, the student, writer or investigator stops, lights his pipe, and soon, by favor of this pleasant narcotic, the thought appears clear and limpid through the bluish cloud in which the smoker has enveloped himself I should make a wrong impression if I left it to be believed that I thought tobacco necessary to mental labor. It becomes so only f-.r those who have contracted the habit of using it, and they can divorce themselves from it without losing their capacity. As a whole tobacco is harmless to the mind, but it may have a mischievous influence on the health and may cause serious disease*. We should not advise any one to use it, and should try to keep women and children from doing so. In taking up this part of the programme, and affiliating itself with teachers of all grades, the society against the use of tobacco has performed real service; but it has tried togain its end by exaggerations that can only compromise it.—| Popular Science Monthly.

Acute and Chronic Indigestion.—A medical authority has the following to say of this evil; “Of all the ailments of misery in ordinary and daily existence, there is one which carries the honors. This is indigestion. There is, perhaps, a muss of people suffering from an improper nourishment and a faulty distribution of food which outranks the victims of cholera in all the epidemics which history has recorded. Indigestion may bo duo to the character of the food, to imperfect mastication, to impoverished or irritable condition of the stomach, to a “bad liver,” or to faulty intestinal action. It may be acute or chronic, the latter outweighing the former in the number of cases occurring. The first may be simply due to an overloaded stomach or to some slight indiscretion in the way of eating or drinking; the second is an acquired condition, a result of repeated disregard of foods or a weakened digestive tract. Acute indigestion corrects itself in a short time. It is characterized by a sense of weight in the stomach and occasionally by a “burning” in the region of the stomach. It usually manifests Itself after a hearty meal or in the morning upon arising. A cup of hot coffee, without cream or sugar, will often dispel it, or u dose of salts or effervescing magnesia before breakfast may be equally good. A mustard plaster over the stomach may not be ignored if the pain be acute. Chronic indigestion is a different affair altogether, combining the features of the acute form with mental depression, physical debility, const!pation. and many other things not in consonance with a healthy system. It is gradual in its development and protracted in its retirement. It is above all things a misery. Those who are numbered among its victims are the ones who are ever seeking advice and who walk about with furrowed foreheads and ‘long faces.’ A little prudence in eating, care in personal attire and a few simple and homely remedies may do much to make life comparatively comfortable and to pave the way for an ultimate cure. Of these the first is of greatest importance, nnd a short rule encompasses the entire field. Do not cat rich or highly seasoned foods uor anything which is known to give you discomfort, and do not drink the spirituous liquors or strong tea or coffee. Keep your digestive tract clear and go to bed when you arc tired. Many a person who has suffered the torments of indigestion for years has been cured by rest. In the matter of clothing, the stomach and the bowels should ever be warmly covered, and the head, feet and hands kept at an even temperature. Of the remedies ever at hand, the best is a draught of hot water taken about half an hour before eating. This tends to clear the stomach and to put the glands in healthy action. In addition to this, a pinch of baking soda may be of benefit if the ailment is particularly distressing. Above all things, however, the food must be thoroughly masticated. How to Make Boys and Girls Healtiiirr.—Dr. Henry Ling Taylor writes instructively about the way to make American children healthier. It has been claimed that the strongest blood cannot endure continuous city life for more than three generations; but must be kept alive by the infusion of country blood or by the return in some degree to country life. Thus, says Dr. Taylor, our large cities arc a kind of biological furnace, which in the end consumes the lives supplied to it, in order to obtain the product in trade, science and art which we so much admire. If. in the course of this fiery ordeal the individual reveals a keener temper or a finer polish, he may not become strong physically, or better balanced mentally, and thousands, unable to endure the strain, are cast off or incapacitated, while hundreds of thousands are not able to transmit to their children the physical endowment which they themselves originally jm>s~ sessed. City children get, as a rule, too littic light and air, do not tuko enough of the right kind of exercise, are often overfed and underfed, are either pushed or pampered too much in their studies, ana especially in their emotions, and frequently shorten their childhood to become little men and women before emerging from pinafores and knickerbockers. There is too much of the “hot house” clement in their lives. Their clothing is piled on until the children look like a bale of millinery; their movements are impeded, and they are kept artificially overheated at a time when they ought to be deriving a natural and wholesome warmth from exercise. Houses are kept too hot during the cold season, and the little ones grow up iu an atmosphere of steady, relaxing warmth, and the continual endeavor is to protect them from anything approaching cold There is also a lack of well-balanced occupation for the body and the mind. There is no such good fun or good training as making one’s self useful, and it is cruelty to deprive the child of this pleasure and stimulus. The brain and body should be trained through hand, foot and eye. Dump a load of sand in the back yard and let the children roll in it. Give the boys a carjienter’s bench, and encourage the girls to do housework. Where possible, let both boy and girl have a little garden patch, if only a few feet square, and the care of a few plants. Chee’fulness, sincerity, industry, perseverance and unselfishness, too, can be acquired by practice and constant repetition, as much as the art of correct speaking, or of playing the piano, and are 'ar more recessary

tohealth. If these be cultivated, child be given more air, light, exercise and occupation, the coming generation will suffer less than did the last from the injurious effects of modern city life.