Novel Diseases
When there are fewer prescriptions, and less thought is
given to sanitary subjects, there will be better
175:6 constitutions and less disease. In old times
who ever heard of dyspepsia, cerebro-spinal meningitis,
hay-fever, and rose-cold?
175:9 What an abuse of natural beauty to say that a rose,
the smile of God, can produce suffering! The joy of its
presence, its beauty and fragrance, should uplift the
175:12 thought, and dissuade any sense of fear or fever. It is
profane to fancy that the perfume of clover and the breath
of new-mown hay can cause glandular inflammation,
175:15 sneezing, and nasal pangs.
No ancestral dyspepsia
If a random thought, calling itself dyspepsia, had
tried to tyrannize over our forefathers, it would have
175:18 been routed by their independence and in-
dustry. Then people had less time for self-
ishness, coddling, and sickly after-dinner talk. The ex-
175:21 act amount of food the stomach could digest was not
discussed according to Cutter nor referred to sanitary
laws. A man's belief in those days was not so severe
175:24 upon the gastric juices. Beaumont's "Medical Experi-
ments" did not govern the digestion.
Pulmonary misbeliefs
Damp atmosphere and freezing snow empurpled the
175:27 plump cheeks of our ancestors, but they never indulged
in the refinement of inflamed bronchial tubes.
They were as innocent as Adam, before he ate
175:30 the fruit of false knowledge, of the existence of tubercles
and troches, lungs and lozenges.
Our modern Eves
"Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise," says
176:1 the English poet, and there is truth in his sentiment. The
action of mortal mind on the body was not so injurious
176:3 before inquisitive modern Eves took up the
study of medical works and unmanly Adams
attributed their own downfall and the fate of their off-
176:6 spring to the weakness of their wives.
The primitive custom of taking no thought about
food left the stomach and bowels free to act in obedi-
176:9 ence to nature, and gave the gospel a chance to be seen
in its glorious effects upon the body. A ghastly array of
diseases was not paraded before the imagination. There
176:12 were fewer books on digestion and more "sermons in
stones, and good in everything." When the mechanism
of the human mind gives place to the divine Mind, self-
176:15 ishness and sin, disease and death, will lose their
foothold.